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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Giovanni Russo; Wolter Hassink |
| 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:use:tkiwps:0501&r=lab |
| By: | Michael Kvasnicka |
| Abstract: | Based on administrative data from the federal employment office in Germany, we apply matching techniques to estimate the stepping-stone function of temporary agency work for the unemployed, i.e. its short-run and long-run effects on their future employment prospects. Our results show that unemployed workers who take up a job in the temporary work agency (TWA) industry are on average more likely than unemployed workers not joining TWA work to be in agency employment in the four year period these workers are tracked after entering TWA work. However, we find no discernable effects on the probabilities of being either in regular employment or registered unemployment. Our findings therefore do not lend support to the stepping-stone function of temporary agency work. |
| Keywords: | Temporary work agencies, stepping stone, evaluation, matching |
| JEL: | C14 C41 J41 J64 |
| Date: | 2005–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2005-031&r=lab |
| By: | Wim P.M. Vijverberg (University of Texas at Dallas and IZA Bonn); Joop Hartog (University of Amsterdam and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | We analyse the information in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles to characterize the structure of labour demand. Two dimensions, an intellectual factor and a dexterity factor capture most variation in job requirements. Job complexity in relation to Things correlates highly with the dexterity factor. Complexity in relation to Data is intricately interwoven with most other dimensions of jobs. Remarkably, while complexity in relation to Data and to Things associates with extensive training, this does not hold for complexity in relation to People. There is no dichotomy between mathematical and verbal required skills. Poor working conditions are not the exclusive prerogative for workers in low level jobs. This independence provides a good setting for testing the theory of compensating wage differentials and indeed we find a good deal of support. |
| Keywords: | labor demand structure, job requirements, compensating differentials |
| JEL: | J21 J23 J31 |
| Date: | 2005–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1809&r=lab |
| By: | Giorgio Brunello; Lorenzo Cappellari |
| Abstract: | We use data from a nationally representative survey of Italian graduates to study whether Alma Mater matters for employment and earnings three years after graduation. We find that the attended college does matter, and that college related differences are substantial both among and within regions of the country. However, these differences are not large enough to trigger substantial mobility flows from poorly performing to better performing institutions. There is also evidence that going to a private university pays off at least in the early part of a career: the employment weighted college wage gains from going to a private college are close to 18 percent. Only part of this gain can be explained by the fact that private universities have lower pupil - teacher ratios than public institutions. household behavior. |
| Keywords: | college education, Italy |
| JEL: | J24 J1 |
| Date: | 2005–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpc:wplist:wp05_05&r=lab |
| By: | Silke Anger |
| Abstract: | Whereas the number of paid overtime hours declined over the last decade, a different trend can be observed for unpaid overtime work in Germany. We look at the future consequences for overtime workers, and therefore investigate the investment character of working time. We examine whether unpaid extra hours induce a higher likelihood of promotion and pay rise, and whether they reduce the risk of losing the job. Using longitudinal micro data from the GSOEP for the years 1991 to 2002 we find significant positive effects of unpaid overtime work on future payoffs, but also a positive impact on the probability of job loss. Therefore, we find only partial evidence for the investment character of unpaid overtime. |
| Keywords: | overtime, unpaid work, promotion, wage growth, layoff |
| JEL: | J2 J3 J4 |
| Date: | 2005–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2005-032&r=lab |
| By: | C. Simon Fan (Lingnan University, Hong Kong); Xiangdong Wei (Lingnan University, Hong Kong); Junsen Zhang (Chinese University of Hong Kong and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides both a theoretical and an empirical investigation into the impact of job skill types on the black/white pay differentials. The theoretical analysis derives that the more intensively "soft"/"hard" skills are used in an occupation, the greater/smaller the black/white pay differential is there in that occupation. Moreover, in response to the differential pay gaps across jobs requiring different levels of "soft"/"hard" skills, blacks are more likely to self-select themselves into the jobs that use "hard" skills more intensively, ceteris paribus. Using NLSY data, we find consistent empirical evidence to our theoretical predictions. Hence, the paper bridges the existing literature on racial pay gaps and cognitive vs. non-cognitive skills by explicitly testing the impact of job skill types on racial pay gaps. |
| Keywords: | soft skills, hard skills, discrimination, pay differentials |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2005–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1804&r=lab |
| By: | Mal'tseva Inna |
| Abstract: | This research analyses the influence of the differences in occupational mobility of men and women on gender segregation at the Russian labor market during 1985–2002. At the basis of the occupational mobility model which takes into account the gender differences in social roles, we estimate the input that individual characteristics and parameters of current occupation, characteristics of the local labor market make into probability of occupational mobility of employees of the different genders and probability of choice between different "gender-dominated" occupations, as well. The results prove that segregation decrease through occupational mobility is possible depending on increasing competitiveness of women at the labor market and eliminating factors preventing their access to employment in the private sector. Positive returns to occupational mobility in terms of wage growth were discovered for both gender groups. |
| Keywords: | Russia, occupational mobility, gender segregation, occupational choice, return to mobility |
| JEL: | J16 J62 J71 P23 |
| Date: | 2005–10–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eer:wpalle:05-11e&r=lab |
| By: | Jaume Garcia Villar; Climent Quintana |
| Abstract: | In this article we present the first empirical analysis on the associations between body size, activity, employment and wages for several European countries. The main advantage of the present work with respect to the previous literature is offered by the comparability of the data and its large geographical coverage. According to our results, for Spanish women, being obese is associated with both a 9% lower wage and probability of being employed, while for Swedish and Danish, obesity is associated with a 12% lower probability of being employed, and a 10% lower wage respectively. In Belgium, obesity is associated with a 19% lower probability of being employed for men. These robust estimates are strongly informative and may be used as a simple statistical rule of thumb to decide the countries in which lab and field experiments should be run. |
| Keywords: | Obesity, wages, activity, employment |
| JEL: | J3 I1 |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:897&r=lab |
| By: | Thierry Lallemand (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Department of Applied Economics (DULBEA, Brussels) and Centre de Comptabilité, Planning et Contrôle, Brussels); François Rycx (DULBEA, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Department of Applied Economics (DULBEA, Brussels), and Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA, Bonn).) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how the distribution of wages differs between small and large establishments in four European countries. Findings show that within-establishment wage dispersion rises with size because large employers have a more diverse workforce. They also suggest that screening and monitoring costs imply a lower sensitivity of wages to ability in larger establishments. Smaller establishments are found to rely more on incentive-based pay mechanisms, particularly in countries with a low trade union coverage rate. Further results indicate that between-establishment wage dispersion decreases with employer size because smaller establishments are technologically more diversified and therefore exhibit greater diversity in average workforce skills. |
| Keywords: | Wage structure, establishment size, decomposition of wages, Europe. |
| JEL: | J21 J31 |
| Date: | 2005–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dul:wpaper:05-18rs&r=lab |
| By: | Sergi Jiménez-Martín; José M. Labeaga; Cristina Vilaplana Prieto |
| Abstract: | In this work we study older workers’ (50—64) labor force transitions after a health/disability shock. We find that the probability of keeping working decreases with both age and severity of the shock. Moreover, we find strong interactions between age and severity in the 50—64 age range and none in the 30–49 age range. Regarding demographics we find that being female and married reduce the probability of keeping work. On the contrary, being main breadwinner, education and skill levels increase it. Interestingly, the effect of some demographics changes its sign when we look at transitions from inactivity to work. This is the case of being married or having a working spouse. Undoubtedly, leisure complementarities should play a role in the latter case. Since the data we use contains a very detailed information on disabilities, we are able to evaluate the marginal effect of each type of disability either in the probability of keeping working or in returning back to work. Some of these results may have strong policy implications. |
| Keywords: | Health shocks, disability, labor force transitions, older workers, Spain |
| JEL: | J23 J26 I12 |
| Date: | 2005–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:898&r=lab |
| By: | Federico Biagi (Università di Padova and SDA Bocconi); Claudio Lucifora (Università Cattolica, FEEM, CEPR and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | We analyse the effects of demographic and education changes on unemployment rates in Europe. Using a panel of European countries for the 1980-2000 period - disaggregated by cohort, gender and education -, we empirically test the economic effects of two stylised facts that have occurred in recent decades: the "baby bust" and the "education boom". We find that structural shifts in the population age structure play an important role and that a lot of variation is also attributable to educational changes, the latter usually neglected in aggregate studies. Results show that demographic and education shocks are qualitatively different for young (adult) workers as well as for more (less) educated people. While adult workers and more educated individuals, in general, experience lower unemployment rates, changes in the population age structure appear to be positively related to young workers’ unemployment rates while they have no effect on adults. Conversely changes in the skill structure ("education boom"), even when controlling for skill-biased technological change, reduce the unemployment of the more educated. Labour market institutions also influence unemployment rates in different ways. Unemployment benefits are found to have a positive impact on unemployment, while bargaining coordination and employment protection reduce it. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, demographic, education, labour market institutions |
| JEL: | E24 J31 J51 J65 |
| Date: | 2005–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1806&r=lab |
| By: | JELENA ZIKIC (Instituto de Empresa) |
| Abstract: | The present study examines the role of trait affect in job search. One hundred and twenty-three university students completed measures of positive and negative affectivity, conscientiousness, job search self-efficacy, job search clarity, and job search intensity during their last year of school while on the job market. At the end of the school year, participants completed the measure of job search intensity again, and indicated the number of interviews and offers they had received and whether they had accepted a full-time job. As hypothesized, positive affectivity predicted job search clarity over and above conscientiousness and job search self-efficacy. |
| Keywords: | Affect, Employment , Job search |
| Date: | 2005–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-26&r=lab |
| By: | Ronald Bachmann |
| Abstract: | We analyse the effect of skill mismatch in a search model of equilibrium unemployment with risk-neutral agents, endogenous job destruction, and two-sided ex-ante heterogeneity. First, we examine the interaction of labour market institutions and skill mismatch. We find that skill mismatch changes the results obtained in a model with ex-ante homogeneity. Second, we analyse the interaction of skill mismatch and labour market institutions for the difference in the labour market experience of continental Europe on the one hand and the US on the other hand. We find that within-group skill mismatch cannot explain the rise in unemployment in Europe relative to the US. This result is due to the endogeneity of job destruction and stands at odds with previous findings in the literature. We can, however, confirm the fact that unemployment benefits potentially play a beneficial role by providing a subsidy to search. Generally, we argue that in search models with fixed match characteristics, job destruction should be endogenised in order to take account of heterogeneous decision rules. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, mismatch, ex-ante heterogeneity, search, endogenous job destruction, Nash bargaining |
| JEL: | J64 J65 D33 |
| Date: | 2005–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2005-034&r=lab |
| By: | Michael C. Burda; Michael Kvasnicka |
| Abstract: | Temporary help services (THS) offer firms an additional option for flexible adjustment of employment levels. In addition, THS can facilitate new employment for both labor market entrants and job losers. This survey examines the economic significance, the changing regulatory framework, and the recent development of the THS sector in Germany. Declining wages and rising employment shares in THS are suggestive of a safety valve for the primary labor market, especially for unskilled workers. High markups charged by THS firms despite declining relative compensation of THS workers suggest a high shadow price for this form of labor input. Nevertheless, the coincidence of low and falling wages, small sector size, combined with low inflow rates and high overall fluctuation point to supply rather than demand bottlenecks as an explanation for the sector’s overall modest size. |
| Keywords: | Zeitarbeit, temporary agency work, temporary help employment, flexible employment forms |
| JEL: | J30 J40 J60 |
| Date: | 2005–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2005-048&r=lab |
| By: | Han, Seungjin |
| Abstract: | The rational expectations equilibrium in this paper endogenizes the worker's characteristic decision, the firm's decisions on wage and job amenity in a large matching econonomy where the worker's matching benefits may depend in an arbitrary fashion on the worker's characteristic, wage, and job amenity. This paper provides the sufficient condition for the unique rational expectations equilibrium. This paper shows step by step how to derive job amenities, workers' characteristics, and wages in equilibrium. The results suggest that the estimates of compensating wage differentials from the hedonic model would be biased even if the worker's characteristic and job amenity were fully observable. |
| JEL: | C78 D51 |
| Date: | 2005–10–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:pmicro:han-05-10-25-08-06-11&r=lab |
| By: | Sascha O. Becker (CES, CESifo and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Transition patterns from school to work differ considerably across OECD countries. Some countries exhibit high youth unemployment rates, which can be considered an indicator of the difficulty facing young people trying to integrate into the labor market. At the same time, education is a time-consuming process, and enrolment and dropout decisions depend on expected duration of studies, as well as on job prospects with and without completed degrees. One way to model entry into the labor market is by means of job search models, where the job arrival hazard is a key parameter in capturing the ease or difficulty in finding a job. Standard models of job search and education assume that skills can be upgraded instantaneously (and mostly in the form of on-the-job training) at a fixed cost. This paper models education as a time-consuming process, a concept which we call time-to-educate, during which an individual faces the trade-off between continuing education and taking up a job. |
| Keywords: | job search, education, enrollment, dropouts |
| JEL: | E24 J31 J41 J64 |
| Date: | 2005–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1801&r=lab |
| By: | Ronald Bachmann |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of labour market dynamics in Western Germany by looking at gross worker flows. To do so, we use a subsample of the registry data collected by the German social security system, the IAB employment sample, for the time period 1975-2001. The latter provides daily information on 2% of the German workforce covered by social security legislation. Using these data, we are able to exactly calculate the number of transitions between the different labour market states, and between different employers over time. We first provide an overview of the cross-section and time series properties of these flows. We then study the cyclical features of gross worker flows, accessions, and separations. We find that separations are relatively flat over the cycle, while accessions are markedly procyclical, and that the increased flow into unemployment in a recession is mainly due to reduced hirings, and hence lower job-to-job transitions, rather than increased match separations. Our findings have important implications both for the way we view recessions and for the role of the labour market as a propagation mechanism for productivity shocks. |
| Keywords: | worker flows, accessions, separations, business cycle, job-to-job, employer-to-employer |
| JEL: | J63 J64 J21 E24 |
| Date: | 2005–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2005-045&r=lab |
| By: | Kugler, Adriana; Pica, Giovanni |
| Abstract: | Labor market regulations have often been blamed for high and persistent unemployment in Europe, but evidence on their impact remains mixed. This paper analyzes how labor and product market regulations interact to affect turnover and unemployment. We present a matching model which illustrates how barriers to entry in the product market mitigate the impact of labor market deregulation. We, then, use the Italian Social Security employer-employee panel to study the interaction between barriers to entry and dismissal costs. We exploit the fact that costs for unjust dismissals in Italy increased for firms below 15 employees relative to bigger firms after 1990. We find that the increase in dismissal costs after 1990 decreased accessions and separations in small relative to big firms, especially for women. Moreover, consistent with our model, we find evidence that the reduction in dismissal costs had smaller effects on turnover for women in sectors faced with strict product market regulations. |
| Date: | 2003–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stn:sotoec:0310&r=lab |
| By: | Radosveta Ivanova-Stenzel; Dorothea Kübler |
| Abstract: | Does gender play a role in the context of team work? Our results based on a real-effort experiment suggest that performance depends on the composition of the team. We find that female and male performance differ most in mixed teams with revenue sharing between the team members, as men put in significantly more effort than women. The data also indicate that women perform best when competing in pure female teams against male teams whereas men perform best when women are present or in a competitive environment. |
| Keywords: | team incentives, gender, tournaments |
| JEL: | C72 C73 C91 D82 |
| Date: | 2005–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2005-049&r=lab |
| By: | Michiel van Leuvensteijn; Pierre Koning |
| Abstract: | In various macro-studies, home-ownership is found to hamper job mobility and to increase unemployment. This paper addresses similar issues, but uses a microeconometric framework where both individual job mobility, as well as the probability of being homeowner are modeled simultaneously. Using a panel of individual labor and housing market histories for the period 1989-1998, we estimate a nonparametric model of both job durations and home-ownership. We do not find homeowners to change less from jobs than tenants. Instead, our results suggest that the housing decision is driven by job commitment, and not the reverse. We do however find homeowners to be less vulnerable for unemployment. |
| Keywords: | Duration Models, Labor Mobility, Housing Market Analysis |
| JEL: | J6 R2 |
| Date: | 2004–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:0401&r=lab |
| By: | Sarbajit Chaudhuri (Dept. of Economics, Calcutta University, India) |
| Abstract: | The paper shows that in a reasonable production structure for a developing economy a brain drain of skilled labour may raise the welfare of the economy while an emigration of unskilled labour is welfare reducing. Also an emigration of skilled / unskilled labour lowers the urban unemployment of unskilled labour and widens the skilled-unskilled wage-gap. The paper provides an alternative explanation for the increasing wage inequality in many less developed countries in the regime of liberalized trade and investment in terms of higher international mobility of skilled and unskilled labour during this period using a Harris-Todaro (1970) framework where the central principle of the Stolper-Samuelson theorem holds. |
| Keywords: | Skilled labour, Unskilled labour, Emigration of labour, Welfare, Urban unemployment, Skilled-unskilled wage gap |
| JEL: | F2 F20 F22 |
| Date: | 2005–10–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpit:0510011&r=lab |
| By: | Heike Hennig-Schmidt (Laboratory of Experimental Economics, University of Bonn, Adenauerallee 24-42, 53113 Bonn, Germany, Tel. +49 228 7391-95 (Fax -93), http://www.bonneconlab.uni-bonn.de, hschmidt@uni-bonn.de); Bettina Rockenbach (Lehrstuhl für Mikrooekonomie, Universitaet Erfurt, Postfach 900 221, 99105 Erfurt, Germany, Tel. +49 361 73745-21 (Fax: -29), http://www.uni-erfurt.de/mikrooekonomie, bettina.rockenbach@uni-erfurt.de); Abdolkarim Sadrieh (Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Magdeburg, Postbox 4120, 39016 Magdeburg, Germany, Tel. +49 391 67-18492 (Fax. 11355), http://www.ww.unimagdeburg.de/ebusiness/, sadrieh@ww.uni-magdeburg.de) |
| Abstract: | We present a field experiment to assess the effect of own and peer wage variations on actual work effort of employees with hourly wages. Work effort neither reacts to an increase of the own wage, nor to a positive or negative peer comparison. This result seems at odds with numerous laboratory experiments that show a clear own wage sensitivity on effort. In an additional real-effort laboratory experiment we show that explicit cost and surplus information that enables to exactly calculate employer’s surplus from the work contract is a crucial pre-requisite for a positive wage-effort relation. This demonstrates that employee’s reciprocity requires a clear assessment of the surplus at stake. |
| Keywords: | efficiency wage, reciprocity, fairness, field experiment, real effort |
| JEL: | C91 C92 J41 |
| Date: | 2005–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trf:wpaper:55&r=lab |
| By: | Hector Sala Lorda (Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | We present a Search and Matching model with heterogeneous workers (entrants and incumbents) that replicates the stylized facts characterizing the US and the Spanish labor markets. Under this benchmark, we find the Post-Match Labor Turnover Costs (PMLTC) to be the centerpiece to explain why the Spanish labor market is as volatile as the US one. The two driving forces governing this volatility are the gaps between entrants and incumbents in terms of separation costs and productivity. We use the model to analyze the cyclical implications of changes in labor market institutions affecting these two gaps. The scenario with a low degree of workers’ heterogeneity illustrates its suitability to understand why the Spanish labor market has become as volatile as the US one. |
| Keywords: | Search, Matching, Training, Firing costs, Productivity Differentials. |
| JEL: | J23 J24 J31 J41 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2005–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uab:wprdea:wpdea0515&r=lab |
| By: | Kenjiro Hori (School of Economics, Mathematics & Statistics, Birkbeck College) |
| Abstract: | The traditional search models that consider coordination failure of firms consisting of single jobs, are inadequate when applied to large firms. In this paper a firm-level matching function is derived for firms with multiple vacancies, by introducing heterogeneity in jobs and workers. Firms face diminishing returns to hiring success, which allows us to determine firm-size endogenously. The derived aggregate matching function exhibits constant returns to scale. The main macroeconomic results of the traditional search models are also shown to survive in this model of large firms. The paper thus provides a microfoundation to the macroeconomic job-matching literature. |
| Keywords: | frictional labour market, matching function, heterogeneity |
| JEL: | J41 J64 |
| Date: | 2005–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bbk:bbkefp:0514&r=lab |
| By: | John Forth; Geoff Mason |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data from the 1998 Technical Graduates Employers Survey, combined with post-survey financial data, to examine the effects of high-level skill shortages on firm-level performance in the UK. We focus specifically on enterprise difficulties in recruiting engineers and scientists with skills related to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). In contrast to most other surveys of skill shortages, these data distinguish clearly between external recruitment difficulties which are largely attributable to low numbers of job applicants and recruitment problems which are primarily due to shortcomings in the quality of job applicants.Cross-sectional and panel regression analysis of the determinants of sales per employee at firm level suggests that quality-related difficulties in recruiting ICTskilled engineers and scientists do not have any statistically significant effects on performance. However, quantity-based difficulties in recruiting technical graduates with ICT skills are significantly negatively related to average sales per employee. The mechanisms by which unfilled positions for ICT-skilled engineers and scientists may contribute to relatively weak performance include slower development of new products and services, failure to meet delivery dates, higher costs of employing temporary and contract staff, loss of new customer orders and lack of forward planning. |
| Date: | 2004–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:235&r=lab |
| By: | Philip Stevens |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the effects of skill shortages on the dynamics of employment at the firm level for UK manufacturing between 1984-94. We find that shortages of skilled labour have a statistically significant effect on firms’ employment behaviour. It has a positive effect on firms’ adjustment costs leading to employment being more sluggish to respond when the labour market is tight, implying that employment adjustment will be more responsive in the downward direction. |
| Date: | 2004–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:240&r=lab |
| By: | Andreas Pollak (University of Freiburg) |
| Abstract: | I estimate a life cycle model of consumption choice with unemployment risk. Employed individuals face the risk of losing their job. Unemployed agents receive job random offers of different quality, which they can accept or reject. Following the loss of a job and during unemployment, an agent’s productivity declines. Using micro data, I estimate the structural model for Germany, the UK, and the US following the method of simulated moments approach of Duffie and Singleton. The estimated model is used to perform policy simulations that highlight the relationship between the unemployment insurance scheme and the unemployment rates of different age groups. |
| Keywords: | Method of Simulated Moments, Unemployment Insurance, Life- Cycle Models, Human Capital |
| JEL: | C51 D1 E2 J24 J31 J38 J64 |
| Date: | 2005–10–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpem:0510004&r=lab |