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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Robert Baumann; Raphael Solomon |
| Abstract: | In a search model of production, where agents accumulate heterogeneous amounts of human capital, an individual worker’s wage depends on average human capital in the searching population. Following this model, the authors use a large American panel data set to estimate a Mincerian wage equation augmented with terms for average human capital. They find that there is a positive and significant spillover effect, but that the effect differs by gender and population group (whites, blacks, and Hispanics), as well as educational status. The differing spillover effects can only partially be explained by occupational choice. |
| Keywords: | Labour markets |
| JEL: | I29 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bca:bocawp:05-10&r=lab |
| By: | Fæhn, Taran (Research Department, Statistics Norway,); Gómez-Plana, Antonio G. (Dept. of Economics, University of Oslo); Kverndokk, Snorre (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses whether recycling revenues from carbon emission permit auctions can reduce unemployment in the Spanish economy. Spain's deviation from EU's intermediate emission goals is more serious than for most other EU countries, and the unemployment is also well above the EU average. We use a CGE model that includes a matching model with two types of labour, and which allows for different pricing rules and returns-to-scale assumptions. We find that abatement reduces unemployment due to beneficial impacts of recycling the revenue from permit sales. Unemployment is more effectively abated when revenues are used to reduce labour taxes rather than indirect taxes. Contrary to other studies of Europe, we find that the best option is to reduce payroll taxes on skilled labour. This reform is the most successful both in increasing demand and in dampening the supply response to rising wages. All the recycling schemes also generate dividends in terms of welfare, but none offset the abatement costs entirely. |
| Keywords: | Spanish unemployment; Tax reform; Emission Permit Auctions; Employment dividend; Matching functions; Increasing returns to scale; Computable general equilibrium models |
| JEL: | D58 J68 Q38 |
| Date: | 2005–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:osloec:2004_026&r=lab |
| By: | Bojer, Hilde (Dept. of Economics, University of Oslo) |
| Abstract: | In the period from 1970 to 2002, Norwegian women moved out of the home and into the paid labour market. The paper investigates the e®ect of this social change on women's economic position and on individual income in-equality. It argues that the distribution of individual incomes is of equal interest to household incomes as targets of public policy. Inequality is measured by the generalised entropy measure. The data are taken from the triennial, later annual, surveys of income carried out by Statistics Norway in the period, giving reliable data on income for samples varying from 6000 to 30 000 women and men. Women's average income relative to that of men increased from 27 percent to 60 per cent. Total individual income inequality decreased strongly from 1970 to 1990, and decreased very slightly from 1990 to 2002. But this total covers very di®erent developments for women and men. Women's internal inequality decreased up to about 1990; the later trend is unclear. Men's internal inequality increased during the 1990s. However, the increase in men's inequality is shown to be mostly due to °uctuations in capital income. Inequality of employees remained unchanged during the whole period, both for women and men, when capital income is disregarded. |
| Keywords: | Income distribution; Women |
| JEL: | D31 |
| Date: | 2005–04–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:osloec:2005_007&r=lab |
| By: | O'Leary, Nigel C. (WELMERC, University of Wales Swansea); Sloane, Peter J. (WELMERC, University of Wales Swansea and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Between 1990/91 and 2000/01 the number of male undergraduates in Britain increased by over one-third while the number of female undergraduates has increased nearly twofold. Given this substantial increase in supply we would expect some impact on the wage premium for recent graduates unless demand has shifted in parallel. Following Katz and Murphy (1992), we adopt a simple supply and demand framework to analyse changes in earnings mark-ups across degree disciplines over time. Using a propensity score approach to match those graduates entering the labor market with an age balanced sample of individuals with two or more A-Levels from the Labour Force Survey, we find a significant decline in the markup for females, whilst no such change is apparent for males. These aggregate figures, however, mask a great deal of variation across degree subjects, with declines in those subjects in which women predominate and in the lowest quartile of the earnings distribution being identified. The results point to both supply and demand factors impacting on the graduate mark-up as theory would suggest. |
| Keywords: | education, wages |
| JEL: | I2 J0 J3 |
| Date: | 2005–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1549&r=lab |
| By: | Buddelmeyer, Hielke (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research and IZA Bonn); Mourre, Gilles (ECFIN, European Commission); Ward, Melanie (European Central Bank, CEPR and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at the role of part-time work in labour mobility for 11 European countries. We find some evidence of part-time work being used as a stepping stone into full-time employment, but for a small proportion of individuals (less than 5%). Part-time jobs are also found to be more frequently taken up as a means to enter the labour market than to leave it. Multinomial logit regression of the determinants of part-time work reveals household composition, past labour market history and country of residence as very important for both men and women in their decision to work part time. Random effects regression controlling for individual heterogeneity, and the comparison of results for Europe and the US, reveals that a significantly higher proportion of female workers in Europe prefer inactivity and a significantly lower percentage prefer full-time, over part-time employment, than in the US, with considerable variation across EU countries. |
| Keywords: | labour market mobility and flexibility, labour supply, full-time and part-time employment, unemployment, non-employment, gender, stepping stones, labour market entry and exit |
| JEL: | J21 J22 J16 J60 |
| Date: | 2005–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1550&r=lab |
| By: | Barrett, Alan (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin and IZA Bonn); Bergin, Adele (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin); Duffy, David (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is two-fold. We firstly produce a labour market profile of non-Irish immigrants who arrived in Ireland in the ten years to 2003. We then go on to use the labour market profile in estimating the impact of immigration (non-Irish) on the Irish labour market. Immigrants are shown to be a highly educated group. However, they are not all employed in occupations that fully reflect their education levels. The model of the labour market that we use to simulate the impact of immigration differentiates between low-skilled and high-skilled labour. This allows us to estimate the impact of immigrants (a) if they were employed at a level fitting their education and (b) if they were employed in occupations below their educational level. Our results show that under scenario (a) immigrants who arrived between 1993 and 2003 increased GNP by between 3.5 and 3.7%, largely by lowering skilled wages by around 6% and increasing Ireland’s competitiveness. Under scenario (b), the increase in GNP is reduced to 3% because the impact on skilled wages is lower. If we assume the immigration is primarily unskilled, the impact on earnings inequality is reversed. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, immigrant characteristics, immigrant impacts, Ireland |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2005–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1553&r=lab |
| By: | Böheim, René (University of Linz and IZA Bonn); Hofer, Helmut (Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna); Zulehner, Christine (University of Vienna) |
| Abstract: | In most OECD countries the wage gap between men and women has declined during the past two decades. Developments of the last 20 years, e.g. increased labour market attachment of women, changes in the bargaining structure, and the introduction of equal pay laws, may have reduced the gender wage gap. We investigate the extent, persistence, and socio-economic determinants of the gender wage gap in Austria, for the years 1983 and 1997. Using wage decomposition techniques, we find that the average gender wage gap was almost as high in 1997 as it was in 1983. Not accounting for differences, the gender wage gap dropped from 25.5 to 23.3 per cent. Taking observable differences between men and women into account, we estimate that the mean gender wage gap which cannot be explained, i.e. discrimination against women, dropped from 18 to 15.5 per cent of men’s wages. The drop in discrimination is the main reason for the narrowing of the gender wage gap. |
| Keywords: | wage differentials, wage inequality, decomposition |
| JEL: | J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2005–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1554&r=lab |
| By: | Yves Abessolo (CEREG, Université de Yaoundé II) |
| Abstract: | Dans la littérature actuelle une controverse persiste quant à la validation sur données de panel de l'hypothèse selon laquelle le capital humain contribue à la croissance. Nous confirmons ce résultat à l'aide d'un échantillon comprenant 23 pays d'Afrique subsaharienne entre 1980 et 1997. Cependant, l'estimation sur ces mêmes données de panel de modèles à termes interactifs puis à coefficients variables suggère que la contribution du capital humain à la croissance dépend du taux d'ouverture commerciale. Ce résultat peut s'expliquer par la variation de la rémunération des facteurs, liée d'une part aux changements de la demande de capital humain induits par les échanges et d'autre part aux changements de l'offre relative des facteurs, qui sont amplifiés dans les économies fermées. Les distorsions qui en résultent dans l'affectation du capital humain aux diverses activités économiques sont susceptibles d'influer sur le taux de croissance. The innovation of this paper is the proof of the relationship between human capital and growth, using a sample of 23 subsaharian African countries and six time periods between 1980 and 1997. Nonetheless, calculations from both interactive and variable-coefficient models based on these same panel data suggest that the contribution of human capital to growth depends on the level of commercial opening. The result could be explained by the variation in factor returns linked, on one hand, to trade induced changes in labour demand and, on the other, to changes in relative factor supply which are amplified in closed economies. Distorsions of human-capital allocation are therefore likely to influence the rate of growth. (Full text in french) |
| JEL: | J24 F41 F43 O47 |
| Date: | 2004–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mon:ceddtr:109&r=lab |
| By: | Yves Abessolo (CEREG, Université de Yaoundé II) |
| Abstract: | Cet article analyse les interactions entre l’emploi public et les performances du marché du travail dans les pays en développement. Si dans les pays développés il est montré que l’emploi public évince l’emploi privé et accroît le chômage, notre contribution théorique suggère que l’emploi public a une influence importante sur les performances du marché du travail des pays étudiés à travers trois canaux. D’abord, à travers des externalités positives, l’emploi public accroît la productivité du secteur privé. Ensuite, compte tenu du degré de substitution entre les productions des secteurs public et privé d’une part, et du niveau des rentes d’autre part, l’emploi public n’évince pas l’emploi privé. Enfin, aucun élément théorique ne justifie l’idée selon laquelle l’emploi public accroît le chômage, nos résultats suggèrent même que l’emploi public diminue durablement le chômage. This paper explores the consequences of public employment on labour market performances in developing countries. If in developed countries evidence shows that public employment may not only crowd out private employment, but also increase overall unemployment, our theoretical considerations suggest that public employment significantly affects labour market performances through three channels. First, positive externalities of public employment increase private sector productivity. Secondly, with the level of substitutability of public and private outputs, and the size of the rents, there is no crowding out effects of public jobs on the private sector. In the latter case, our theoretical analysis suggests that public employment may reduce unemployment in developing countries. (Full text in french) |
| JEL: | J21 J23 J24 J33 |
| Date: | 2004–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mon:ceddtr:110&r=lab |
| By: | Robert Sparrow (Vrije University Amsterdam, Tinbergen Institute) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the impact of an Indonesian scholarship program, which was implemented to preserve access to education for the poor during the Southeast Asian economic crisis. Allocation followed a decentralized design that involved both geographic and individual tarteging. The identification strategy exploits this decentralised structure, relying on instrumental variables constructed from regional miss-targeting at the initial phase of allocation. The results show that allocation of scholarships was pro-poor, but with substantial leakage to the non-poor. The program has been successful in increasing enrolment, especially for primary school aged children from poor rural households. Morevoer, the scholarships seem to have assisted households in smoothing consumption during the crisis, relieving pressure on households' investments in education and utilization of child labour. |
| Keywords: | social safety net, program evaluation, education, child labour, child labor, Asian economic crisis |
| Date: | 2004–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eab:develo:96&r=lab |
| By: | John Bryant |
| Abstract: | This paper considers three groups of children affected by international migration: (i) children left behind by international labour migrants from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand; (ii) children of Thai nationals in Japan; and (iii) children brought along by irregular migrants in Malaysia and Thailand. Based on the limited data available from published sources, the paper constructs preliminary estimates of numbers of children involved. It then synthesizes available evidence on problems and opportunities faced by the children, and on policies towards them. [...more] |
| Keywords: | Child Poverty; Migration; Social Policies;; Cambodia; Indonesia; Malaysia; Myanmar; Philippines; Thailand; |
| JEL: | F22 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucf:inwopa:inwopa05/31&r=lab |
| By: | Ana Llena-Nozal (Free University Amsterdam); Maarten Lindeboom (Free University Amsterdam); France Portrait (Free University Amsterdam) |
| Keywords: | mental health panel data model labour market status occupation |
| JEL: | J |
| Date: | 2005–01–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpla:0501011&r=lab |
| By: | Boubaker HLAIMI (laboratory of economics & labour sociology) |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to analyse the intergenerational transmission mechanisms within a theoretical framework which supposes a heterogeneous family structure. For that, we propose a modified version of the model of Becker and Tomes (1986) by supposing that they exist two groups of children: the elder ones and juniors. We try to see how according to the results of elder, the parents modify their educational choices or of training of the juniors being given the returns and the endowments |
| Keywords: | human capital, intergenerational transmission, abilities, market luck |
| JEL: | J |
| Date: | 2005–02–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpla:0502004&r=lab |
| By: | Patrick Laplange (Productivity Commission); Maurice Glover (Productivity Commission); Tim Fry |
| Abstract: | This Productivity Commission staff working paper, The Growth of Labour Hire Employment in Australia, was released in February 2005. This staff working paper is part of an ongoing labour market research program at the Productivity Commission to examine developments in employment relationships and the implications of these developments for the labour force and the Australian economy. The series seeks to produce analysis to inform the policy debate by characterising how different forms of employment contribute to the Australian economy. This paper examines how the rapid growth of labour hire employment can be attributed to how firms manage their workforce, rather than to changes in the economy’s structure. For example changes in operating environments contributed to firms’ altering of their employment strategy in favour of labour hire workers through the changing industrial relations context and rising competitive pressures. The views expressed in this paper are those of the staff involved and do not necessarily reflect the those of the Productivity Commission. |
| Keywords: | labour; labour hire; employment; industrial relations; labour hire growth; |
| JEL: | L |
| Date: | 2005–03–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpla:0503001&r=lab |
| By: | Maurizio Bovi (Institute for Studies & Economic Analyses ISAE) |
| Abstract: | In many countries the shadow employment has a very high priority among policymakers. A new time series for this component of the labour market has been recently released by the Italian institute of statistics. Taken together they give the motivation and the occasion for a fresh analysis of the Italian labour market over the last two decades. The aim and the contribution of this paper is to highlight some stylised facts about the links between the two sides of the labour market, the dark and the regular. Results from “exhaustive” VAR/VEC models suggest that there are no connections (causal relationships, feedbacks, contemporaneous correlation) between these two time series. In this sense, we could correctly refer to the undeclared work as an “independent” side of the Italian labour market. I interpret these results as providing empirical support for the ineffectiveness of labour policies in converting black employment into regular one. |
| Keywords: | Underground economy; VAR models; Dual labour market. |
| JEL: | C53 H26 J30 |
| Date: | 2005–04–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpla:0504003&r=lab |
| By: | Bénédicte Gendron (MATISSE) |
| Abstract: | From the perspective of the Chicago school, there is no behaviour that is not interpretable as economic. In this paper, we discuss the assertion in the perspective of an optimal constitution and exploitation of Human Capital, through our conceptual framework named Emotional Capital (EC). Referring to emotional intelligence, we show that emotional capital, more than an additional capital, is a booster capital potentializing or energyzing the human, social and cultural capitals, EC is critical to enable human capital formation, accumulation and, its optimal exploitation for individuals and crucial in knowledge management in the today's increasingly complex and competitive global workplace for companies and organisations. Our conceptual model enables to understand student academic success or failure on the one hand, the different occupational and jobs choices and career prospect between men and women, and organizations or companies successes as well, on the other hand. |
| Keywords: | Human capital, emotional capital, skills, occupational choice, economics of gender, economics education, education, labour, knowledge management, organizational behavior, personnel management, labor management |
| JEL: | A2 D23 D83 I21 J2 J21 J24 J16 M12 M54 |
| Date: | 2004–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:wpsorb:r04113&r=lab |
| By: | Laurence Lizé (MATISSE) |
| Abstract: | This research takes an interest to the gap between employment and education of young people in the survey Generation 98 of Cereq. This research compares the positions of young people who are recruited on jobs with classic status and subsidised jobs. A lot of people are downgrading because their level of education are superior to the level of job's qualification. A statistical method (match between qualifications and socio-economic group) is confronted with a subjective approach (the person interviewed feels downgraded or not). These different approaches suggest that downgrading is an important phenomenon; it is stronger in classic labour market than in the subsidised jobs. This fact testifies to the strong selection of the employers. The hypothesis is that relegate position is a queueing problem in the labour market and the subsidised jobs influence the competition for job. |
| Keywords: | Labour market, employment policies, subsidised jobs, young people, downgrading. |
| JEL: | J18 J21 J24 |
| Date: | 2005–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:wpsorb:r05017&r=lab |
| By: | Rana Hasan (Asian Development Bank); Devashish Mitra (Department of Economics, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University); K.V. Ramaswamy (IGIDR) |
| Abstract: | This paper finds a positive impact of trade liberalization on labor-demand elasticities in the Indian manufacturing sector using industry-level data disaggregated by states. These elasticities turn out to be negatively related to protection levels that vary across industries and over time. Furthermore, we find that these elasticities are higher for Indian states with flexible labor regulations where they are also impacted more by trade reforms. Finally, we find that after the reforms, volatility in productivity and output gets translated into larger wage and employment volatility, theoretically a possible consequence of larger labor-demand elasticities. |
| Date: | 2003–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ewc:wpaper:wp59&r=lab |
| By: | Rana Hasan (Asian Development Bank); Lan Chen (Graduate student, University of Hawaii-Manoa) |
| Abstract: | We combine labor force survey data with trade and production data to examine the impact of trade on wages and employment in the Philippines' manufacturing section. Our main finding are as follows. First, in contrast to findings typically reported for Latin American countries, our data indicate that wage inequality in the Philippines' manufacturing sector has declined over the period in which trade liberalization has been undertaken. This is despite the fact that reductions in tariff rates were largest in less skill intensive manufacturing industries. There has also been an absence of any secular rise in returns to higher education. Second, tariff reductions have been associated with declines in industry wage premiums in capital-intensive industries. Moreover, these declines appear to have been largest for skilled workers. Finally, tariff reductions have had an insignificant effect on both employment as well as the average hours of work of full-time employees across industries. These findings are consistent with a scenario where workers in capital-intensive industries, especially the more skilled ones, earned rents prior to trade liberalization; liberalization may have worked to erode these. |
| Date: | 2003–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ewc:wpaper:wp61&r=lab |