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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Jorge Enrique Restrepo; Andrea Tokman |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the issues and papers presented at the VII Annual Conference of the Central Bank of Chile on Labor Market and Institutions, that will soon be compiled in a book by the same name. It discusses the origins of labor regulations, which are many times not associated to specific market failures. It measures its effects on labor markets, growth and inequality. Effects that vary by type of regulation, the context in which they are applied and the degree of enforcement. Finally, the paper presents work how regulations should be designed in order to generate the appropriate incentives for both firms and workers. The papers reviewed are potentially very useful in the understanding the type of regulation that should be implemented, when and how. |
| Date: | 2004–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chb:bcchwp:304&r=lab |
| By: | Ericson, Thomas (Gothenburg School of Economics and Commercial Law) |
| Abstract: | This report provides an introduction to personnel training (on-the-job training) literature in the economics field. Theoretical models dealing with the initiation of training programmes and their effects on pay at the individual level are discussed, and empirical research on wage effects is reported. In addition, there is an overview of sources of data and the extent of personnel training in the EU and the United States. |
| Keywords: | Training; human capital; investment; wage effect |
| JEL: | J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2004–05–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2005_001&r=lab |
| By: | John W. Budd; Alexander J. S. Colvin |
| Abstract: | Systems for resolving workplace disputes are very important to workers and firms, and have been the subject of much debate. In the United States, traditional unionized grievance procedures, emerging nonunion dispute resolution systems, and the court-based system for resolving employment law disputes have all been criticized. Much of the existing debate on workplace dispute resolution, however, has been atheoretical, with a focus on techniques of dispute resolution rather than the goals of the system. What is missing from the debate are fundamental standards for comparing and evaluating dispute resolutions systems. In this paper, we develop efficiency, equity, and voice as these standards. Unionized, nonunion, and employment law procedures are then evaluated against these three standards. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrr:papers:0105&r=lab |
| By: | Brian P. McCall; John J. McCall |
| Abstract: | This paper is a selected overview of econometric methods for duration models and will appear in the forthcoming book The Economics of Search by the authors. The focus of the paper is on martingale methods for continuous time data and general methods for the analysis of discretetime data including multi-spell models and general life-history models. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrr:papers:0205&r=lab |
| By: | J. Ignacio Conde-Ruiz; Vincenzo Galasso; Paola Profeta |
| Abstract: | We provide a long term perspective on the individual retirement behavior and on the future of early retirement. In a cross-country sample, we find that total pension spending depends positively on the degree of early retirement and on the share of elderly in the population, which increase the proportion of retirees, but has hardly any effect on the per-capita pension benefits. We show that in a Markovian political economic theoretical framework, in which incentives to retire early are embedded, a political equilibrium is characterized by an increasing sequence of social security contribution rates converging to a steady state and early retirement. Comparative statics suggest that aging and productivity slow-downs lead to higher taxes and more early retirement. However, when income effects are factored in, the model suggests that periods of stagnation — characterized by decreasing labor income — may lead middle aged individuals to postpone retirement. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:igi:igierp:278&r=lab |
| By: | DeVoretz, Don J. (RIIM, Simon Fraser University and IZA Bonn); Pivnenko, Sergiy (RIIM, Simon Fraser University) |
| Abstract: | This paper consists of two parts focusing on the immigrant’s decision to acquire Canadian citizenship, and her subsequent performance as a taxpayer and recipient of public finance transfers. Our results support the view that selectivity bias appears in Canadian immigrant citizenship decisions and varies by immigrant gender and source country groups. Our Oaxaca decomposition results demonstrated the importance of the human capital endowment in explaining selectivity corrected citizenship -non-citizenship earnings differences. Next, we confirmed the standard results that the naturalization decision is conditioned by the expected wage gain , level of education, marital status, age and presence of children. At the macro level, our study focused on the implications of Canadian citizenship for the lifetime public finance contributions by naturalized immigrants. All immigrants, regardless of their source country group and citizenship status, made a positive contribution to Canada’s treasury circa 1996 over their life cycle. Naturalized citizens from OECD countries contributed the largest public finance transfers exceeding the corresponding value for the Canadian -born by more than $14,000. In addition, naturalized citizens made higher net contributions than their non-citizen counterparts regardless of source country. The relatively poor public finance performance of non -citizens was explained by their lifetime low income and low tax payments. |
| Keywords: | citizenship, immigration, public finance, Canada |
| JEL: | J61 J68 F22 |
| Date: | 2005–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1463&r=lab |
| By: | Schnabel, Claus (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg); Wagner, Joachim (University of Lueneburg and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Using representative individual-level data from the first round of the European Social Survey fielded in 2002/03, this paper provides an empirical analysis of unionization in 18 countries of the European Union. We show that union density varies considerably in Europe, ranging from 84 per cent in Denmark to 11 per cent in Portugal. Estimating identical models for each country, we find that individuals’ probability of union membership is significantly affected by their personal characteristics, their attitudes and the characteristics of their workplace, whereas social factors seem to play a minor role. The presence of a union at the workplace and employees’ attitudes concerning strong unions are the two variables with the most widespread effects on unionization. |
| Keywords: | union membership, union density, Europe |
| JEL: | J51 |
| Date: | 2005–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1464&r=lab |
| By: | Wasmer, Etienne (Université du Quebec à Montreal, CIRPEE, CEPR and IZA Bonn); Zenou, Yves (IUI, GAINS, CEPR and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Assuming that job search efficiency decreases with distance to jobs, workers’ location in a city depends on spatial elements such as commuting costs and land prices and on labour elements such as wages and the matching technology. In the absence of moving costs, we show that there exists a unique equilibrium in which employed and unemployed workers are perfectly segregated but move at each employment transition. We investigate the interactions between the land and the labour market equilibrium and show under which condition they are interdependent. When relocation costs become positive, a new zone appears in which both the employed and the unemployed co-exist and are not mobile. We demonstrate that the size of this area goes continuously to zero when moving costs vanish. Finally, we endogeneize search effort, show that it negatively depends on distance to jobs and that long and shortterm unemployed workers coexist and locate in different areas of the city. |
| Keywords: | local labour markets, relocation costs, search effort, job matching |
| JEL: | E24 J41 R14 |
| Date: | 2005–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1465&r=lab |
| By: | Gurgand, Marc (Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques, CREST and IRES); Margolis, David N. (TEAM, University of Paris 1, CNRS, CREST and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Most welfare programs generate high marginal tax rates on labor income. This paper uses a representative sample of individua ls on France's main welfare program (the Revenu Minimum d'Insertion, or RMI) to estimate monetary gains to employment for welfare recipients. This is based on the distribution of potential monthly earnings faced by each individual, as in ferred from the distribution of observed wages and working time. Taking account of the welfare earnings top-up program (intéressement), we find that gains are almost always positive, but that their amount is very low, especially for single mothers. Intéressement is found to have a small impact, because of its provisional nature. Gains are positively related to the probability that a welfare recipient in 1996 will be observed in employment in 1998. Using a simple structural model, we interpret this as a labor supply effect. |
| Keywords: | welfare, labor earnings, transfers, tax-system |
| JEL: | I38 J31 C34 |
| Date: | 2005–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1467&r=lab |
| By: | Russo, Giovanni (Utrecht University); Hassink, Wolter (Utrecht University and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Part-time employment has become an extremely popular work arrangement in the Netherlands because it renders employment compatible with non-work activities. We posit that there may be a downside to part-time employment, which is related to its negative effects on workers’ career. This may be the case when firms use promotions to stimulate skill acquisition and human capital accumulation or when they base their work incentive schemes on performance measures that are affected by the number of hours worked or when they screen workers on the basis of the number of hours worked. Because promotions are an important source of wage growth, the low incidence of promotion among part-time workers may contribute to the emergence of the part-time wage penalty (i.e., the wage difference between a part-time worker and an otherwise equal full-time worker) in due time. Consistent with this view, we find that (male and female) workers in part-time jobs are characterized by a lower incidence of promotion relative to workers in full-time jobs and that promotions account for a wage growth of eight log points. Moreover, we find that the part-time wage penalty does not arise at the onset of a career as young workers join the labor market but that it tends to develop over time as labor market experience and the effect of missed promotions cumulate. |
| Keywords: | wages, wage gap, part-time employment, promotions |
| JEL: | J31 J24 J22 |
| Date: | 2005–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1468&r=lab |
| By: | Claudio Michelacci; Vincenzo Quadrini |
| Abstract: | We study a labor market equilibrium model in which firms sign optimal long-term contracts with workers. Firms that are financially constrained offer an increasing wage profile: They pay lower wages today in exchange of higher wages once they become unconstrained and operate at a larger scale. In equilibrium, constrained firms are on average smaller and pay lower wages. In this way the model generates a positive relation between firm size and wages. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) we show that the key dynamic properties of the model are supported by the data. |
| JEL: | G31 J31 E24 |
| Date: | 2005–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11050&r=lab |
| By: | Marianna Belloc |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to explore the different determinants of international comparative advantage. Starting from a theoretically well founded neoclassical framework, where specialization depends on relative factor endowments and technological differences, we study the role of the institutional diversity in the labor market. We use an international trade model where endogenous effort is included in an otherwise standard production function. Since the effort level can be affected by country-specific labor institutions, the institutional context may in turn be able to influence the international comparative advantage. After illustrating the theoretical motivations for such an effect, we implement a rigorous econometric analysis on a group of OECD countries to test its empirical validity. We obtain that institutions have an important role in explaining the relative economic performance of a number of manufacturing sectors. In particular, stronger labor market institutions are found to advantage capital-intensive sectors and disadvantage labor-intensive ones. Policy implications are derived and discussed |
| Keywords: | Comparative Advantage, Labor Market Institutions, International Specialization |
| JEL: | F11 F10 J22 J52 |
| Date: | 2004–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:444&r=lab |