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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Luc Godbout; Matthieu Arseneau |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the effect of a tax mix modification. More precisely, the authors assess the relevance of increasing consumption taxes and at the same time decreasing income taxes. Several arguments in favour of modifying the tax mix are analysed such as its impacts on savings, on labour supply and on tax compliance. While the Quebec government has recently modified its tax mix, the authors observe that it still relies more on income taxes, compared to the OECD countries average. However, comparative analysis data does not show any tendencies concerning the modification of the tax mix in developed countries. In fact, the reduction of income taxes observed in the analyzed countries is much more the consequence of a desire to decrease the tax burden rather than a desire for a modification of the tax mix. In this context, if the Quebec government is going to go forward with a tax mix reform, the authors suggest a moderate reform since the consumption tax rate is already one the highest in the region. Thus, they recommend the abolition of the tax exemptions concerning particular goods and services adopted coupled with an increase of the tax credit so as to compensate for the negative impact on the personal finances of2 poorer taxpayers. <P>Les auteurs analysent les incidences d’une réduction de l’utilisation d’un impôt au profit d’un autre, qu’ils nomment la révision du dosage des impôts. Ils évaluent la pertinence d’un usage accru de la taxe à la consommation au détriment de l’impôt sur le revenu. Les arguments souvent invoqués en faveur d’une révision du dosage des impôts sont analysés, à savoir les incitatifs au travail, à l’épargne et à la conformité fiscale. Même s’il s’avère que le Québec a légèrement revu le dosage de ses impôts au cours des dernières années, les auteurs observent qu’il utilise encore beaucoup plus l’impôt sur le revenu comparativement à la moyenne des pays de l’OCDE. Toutefois, l’analyse comparative ne permet de dégager aucune tendance quant à une telle révision du dosage des impôts dans les pays industrialisés. En fait, la réduction du poids des impôts sur le revenu au sein des pays analysés paraît davantage corrélée à une réduction de la pression fiscale qu’à une révision du dosage des impôts. Dans ce contexte, si le gouvernement du Québec entend revoir le dosage des impôts, les auteurs suggèrent qu’il le fasse modérément puisque le taux de la taxe à la consommation figure déjà parmi les plus élevés de la région. À cet égard, ils préconisent plutôt un élargissement des biens et services visés par la taxe à la consommation jumelé à une hausse du crédit de la taxe de vente pour compenser son impact sur les finances personnelles des moins nantis. |
| Keywords: | Quebec, international comparison, income tax, consumption tax, household taxation, tax reform, tax policy, tax mix, Québec, comparaison internationale, impôt sur le revenu, taxe à la consommation, impôt des particuliers, politique fiscale, réforme fiscale, dosage des impôts |
| JEL: | H24 H31 |
| Date: | 2005–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2005s-11&r=lab |
| By: | Zon,Adriaan ,van; Antonietti,Roberto (MERIT) |
| Abstract: | By formulating an endogenous growth model that combines elements from Romer (1990), Aghion and Howitt (1992), and van Zon and Yetkiner (2003), the present paper studies the contribution of education and training on economic growth through their impact on the rate of innovation. The article addresses two main issues. The first is the optimum provision of on-the-job training necessary to be able to adopt, and adapt to new technologies. The second is the impact of both formal education and on-the-job training on the innovative capacity of an economic system that is the ultimate cause of output growth. In our set-up, education enhances R&D activities and lowers adjustment costs to new technologies, thus facilitating their adoption, while on the other hand on-the-job training ensures the possibility to implement the new coming technologies and reap all the related future profits. We assume that the adoption of a new technology consists of two periods, i.e. the training phase during which newly hired workers acquire the right amount of know how in order to become familiar with the specific new technology, and the implementation or production phase in which profit flows arise for firms and in which the cost savings that can be realized arise from productivity increases in the previous phase. By extending the training phase, entrepreneurs run a greater risk of shortening the production phase for a given arrival rate of new technologies that progressively erode the profit flows obtained from existing technologies. The paper shows first that it is possible to find a profit-maximizing, endogenously determined, amount of training that depends on the workers’ educational attainment. Thus, a situation in which better educated workers may be disproportionately selected for training issues is possible, especially in times of rapid technological change. However, the paper also shows that a non-linear relationship between education and technological change (and growth) exists, so that an increase in the formal level of education can even result in a reduction in the rate of growth. The reason for this is the increase in creative destruction that raises ‘technology adoption costs’ in terms of output foregone during re-training spells that arrive at a faster rate. The results offer some insights that are interesting from an education policy perspective. |
| Keywords: | labour economics ; |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umamer:2005010&r=lab |
| By: | Borghans,Lex; Weel,Bas,ter; Weinberg,Bruce (ROA rm) |
| Abstract: | Despite indications that interpersonal interactions are important for understanding individual labor-market outcomes and have become more important over the last decades, there is little analysis by economists. This paper shows that interpersonal interactions are important determinants of labor-market outcomes, including occupations and wages. We show that technological and organizational changes have increased the importance of interpersonal interactions in the workplace. We particularly focus on how the increased importance of interpersonal interactions has affected the labor-market outcomes of underrepresented groups. We show that the acceleration in the rate of increase in the importance of interpersonal interactions between the late 1970s and early 1990s can help explain why women’s wages increased more rapidly, while the wages of blacks grew more slowly over these years relative to earlier years. |
| Keywords: | education, training and the labour market; |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2005002&r=lab |
| By: | Dorothea Alewell; Wiebke Kuklys; Colette Friedrich; Werner Güth |
| Abstract: | A firm with stochastic demand can rely on hired hands when demand is low and rent additional labour when demand is higher. For high demand this implies the co-employment of hired hands, paid directly by the firm, and of rented hands who are paid by a rental agency. This may cause severe problems if wages differ systematically between hired and rented hands. Will rented hands accept lower wages than hired hands? Or will rented hands demand higher wages as a compensation for flexibility? Fairness norms might play an important role in wage-setting decisions. We will explore theoretically and experimentally possible fairness considerations of the involved parties. |
| Keywords: | Principal-agent problem, rented labour, fairness, wage discrimination, outsourcing |
| JEL: | C7 C91 D23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:discus:2005-08&r=lab |
| By: | Lundqvist, Torbjörn (Institute for Futures Studies) |
| Abstract: | The way the labour market functions is a crucial factor in any analysis of the Swedish model. Full employment contributed to the growth of what were probably the two most important institutions in this model: centralised negotiations between the social partners and, secondly, the Rehn-Meidner model, involving pay policies based on solidarity with the low-paid. Here, we have examined the role of the employers in the rise, application and fall of the centralised bargaining model. In this respect, the Swedish Metal Trades Employers' Association (VF), the largest and most important employer organisation in the peak association SAF, was the actor whose interests eventually led to the model's demise. The principal cause was discontent over the way this bargaining model worked in practice. The engineering industries felt their interests were being neglected in the giant employer collective. <p> This empirical investigation into an employer organisations's internal actions, combining economic history with organisation theory, shows the importance of the market mechanism for employer policy during full employment. They sought a solution to the problem of wage drift. Significantly, it began by helping to push through centralised bargaining in the 1950s. When wage drift subsequently showed a tendency to decline towards the end of the 1970s, this was seen as a result of more extensive local and regional organisation. Competition and wage drift, it was felt, could be handled better through local collaboration than through large-scale collective action. One of the institutions of the Swedish model had thereby met its end. |
| Keywords: | Employers Swedish Model; Labour Market Competition and Organisation |
| JEL: | J51 |
| Date: | 2005–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifswps:2005_002&r=lab |
| By: | Gignoux Jérémie |
| Abstract: | Cette étude examine dans quelle mesure les estimations rétrospectives (ex-ante) des effets du revenu familial sur la scolarisation et le travail des enfants permettent de faire des prévisions des impacts des programmes d’allocations scolaires conditionnées dans les pays en développement. Nous utilisons les données d’une expérience sociale d’évaluation du programme mexicain Progresa. Nous comparons les impacts estimés par l’évaluation prospective (ex-post) aux prévisions basées sur l’estimation ex-ante des effets d’un programme de transferts de revenus sur la scolarisation et la participation au travail des enfants. L’estimation des effets du revenu familial est basée sur une méthode instrumentale utilisant les biens possédés et les caractéristiques du logement comme indicateurs du revenu permanent du ménage. Nos résultats indiquent que l’évaluation ex-ante mesure des impacts du même ordre de grandeur que ceux mesurés avec les données expérimentales. Ceci tend à valider les méthodes de prévision ex-ante basées sur des estimateurs à variables instrumentales. |
| Date: | 2004–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lea:leawpi:0501&r=lab |
| By: | Laurent Gobillon; Harris Selod |
| Abstract: | Cet article regroupe une synthèse théorique de la littérature économique, des faits stylisés, et une étude empirique portant sur les déterminants locaux du chômage urbain en Ile-de-France. La synthèse montre que la déconnexion physique aux opportunités d’emploi et la ségrégation résidentielle peuvent conduire à une augmentation du chômage. La déconnexion aux emplois peut être à l’origine d’une prospection d’emploi coûteuse et inefficace. La ségrégation résidentielle peut quant à elle diminuer l’employabilité des individus, détériorer la qualité des réseaux sociaux intervenant dans l’obtention d’un emploi, et permettre la discrimination territoriale par les employeurs. Les faits stylisés montrent l’ampleur des phénomènes de ségrégation et de déconnexion domicile-emploi en l’ Ile-de-France. L’étude micro-économétrique suggère que la ségrégation a un effet négatif sur le retour à l'emploi des chômeurs. |
| Keywords: | spatial mismatch, ségrégation résidentielle, réseaux sociaux, chômage urbain |
| JEL: | J64 R14 |
| Date: | 2005–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lea:leawpi:0502&r=lab |
| By: | Sara Lemos |
| Abstract: | Several minimum wage variables have been suggested in the literature. Such a variety of variables makes it difficult to compare the associated estimates across studies. One problem is that these estimates are not always calibrated to represent the effect of a 10% increase in the minimum wage. Another problem is that these estimates measure the effect of the minimum wage on the employment of different groups of workers. In this paper we critically compare employment effect estimates using five minimum wage variables common in the literature: real minimum wage, "Kaitz index", "fraction affected", "fraction at" and " fraction below" the minimum wage. Our principal finding is that the sign of this effect is robust across minimum wage variables, but its magnitude and significance are sensitive to the minimum wage variable used. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage; labour cost; employment; hours; Brazil |
| JEL: | J38 |
| Date: | 2005–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lec:leecon:05/6&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre Lefebvre; Philip Merrigan |
| Abstract: | On September 1st, 1997, a new childcare policy was initiated by the provincial government of Quebec, the second most populous province in Canada. Childcare services licensed by the Ministry of the Family (not-for-profit centres, family-based childcare, and for-profit centres under the agreement) began offering day care spaces at the reduced parental contribution of $5 per day child for children aged 4 years. In successive years, the government reduced the age requirement and engaged in a plan to create new childcare facilities and pay for the cost of additional $5 per day childcare spaces. By September 2000, the low-fee policy applied to all children aged 0 to 59 months (not in kindergarten) and the number of partly subsidized spaces increased from 77,000 in 1998 to 163,000 spaces, totally subsidized by the end of year 2002, while the number of eligible children, zero to four years old, declined from 428,000 to 369,000 over the same period. Using annual data (1993 to 2002), drawn from Statistics Canada's Suvey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID), this study attempts to estimate the effect of the policy on the labor supply behavior of Quebec mothers with pre-school children, aged from 0 to 5 years old. The analysis examines the impact of the policy on the following outcomes: labor force participation, annual number of weeks and hours at work, annual earned income and whether the job was full-time for mothers who declared having a job during the reference year. A non-experimental evaluation framework based on multiple pre- and post- treatment periods is used to estimate the effect of the childcare regime. The econometrics results support the hypothesis that the childcare policy, together with the transformation of public kindergarten from a part-time to a full-time basis, had a large and statistically significant impact on the labor supply of Quebec's mothers with pre-school children. The estimates also suggest, though less convincingly, that the size of the impact increased concurrently with the positive growth in the number of low-fee spaces. |
| Keywords: | Mother's labor supply, preschool children, childcare subsidy, natural experiment |
| JEL: | H42 J21 J22 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:lacicr:0508&r=lab |
| By: | Vladislav Flek; Kamil Galuščák; Jaromír Gottvald; Jaromír Hurník; Štěpán Jurajda; David Navrátil; Petr Mareš; Daniel Münich; Tomáš Sirovátka; Jiří Večerník |
| Abstract: | In this volume we investigate the macroeconomic aspects of labour market behaviour and its microfoundations. In the first part we deal with aggregate labour market trends and issues relevant to macroeconomic policy. The second part analyses in more detail labour flexibility, namely labour market flows, long-term unemployment and labour force deprivation. The third part addresses wage flexibility and relative wages, with special attention paid to regional unemployment elasticity of wages and returns to education. Worsening labour market performance can be seen especially in a rising NAIRU, declining labour mobility, labour deprivation due to long-term unemployment, skill mismatch and emerging signs of inflexibility in wage structures. Our conclusions are of use for both macroeconomic and labour market policies, signalling, among other messages, limitations on potential output growth stemming from deteriorated labour market performance and a need for institutional and structural changes rather than counter-cyclical policies to solve the unemployment problem in the Czech Republic. |
| Keywords: | Employment, labour flows, labour force marginalisation, NAIRU, returns to education, unemployment, wage curve, wage differentials, wage inflation. |
| JEL: | E24 J21 J30 J31 J44 J61 J62 J63 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2004–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cnb:wpaper:7/2004&r=lab |
| By: | John C. Ham; Xianghong Li; Patricia B. Reagan |
| Abstract: | Our analysis of migration differs from previous research in three important aspects. First, we exploit the confidential geocoding in the NLSY79 to obtain a distance-based measure. Second, we let the effect of migration on wage growth differ by schooling level. Third, we use propensity score matching to measure the effect of migration on the wages of those who move. We develop an economic model and use it to (i) assess the appropriateness of matching as an econometric method for studying migration and (ii) choose the conditioning variables used in the matching procedure. Our data set provides a rich array of variables on which to match. We find a significant effect of migration on the wage growth of college graduates of 10 percent, and a marginally significant effect for high school dropouts of –12 percent. If we use either a measure of migration based on moving across county lines or state lines, the significant effects of migration for college graduates and dropouts disappear. |
| Keywords: | Propensity score matching, distance-based migration, wage growth |
| JEL: | J6 J3 C4 |
| Date: | 2004–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:scp:wpaper:05-13&r=lab |