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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Ebru Kongar |
| Keywords: | Gender Wage, Employment, Manufacturing |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uta:papers:2005_13&r=lab |
| By: | Holger Bonin (IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | The paper analyzes the labor market impact of migration by exploiting variation in the labor supply of foreigners across groups of workers with the same level of education but different work experience. Estimates on the basis of German register data for the period 1975-97 do not confirm the hypothesis that penetration of migrants into skill cells has a significant negative effect on the earnings and employment opportunities of native men. The results indicate that a 10 percent rise of the share of immigrants in the workforce would in general reduce wages by less than one percent and not increase unemployment. Though the adverse effects appear stronger for less-qualified and older workers, the evidence altogether sharply contrasts that from a parallel study for the United States indicating a consistent and substantial negative impact of an immigrant labor supply shock on native competitors. |
| Keywords: | labor market effects of immigration, skill groups, wage elasticity, Germany |
| JEL: | J15 J31 J42 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1875&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Grund (University of Bonn and IZA Bonn); Dirk Sliwka (University of Cologne and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | The impact of wage increases on job satisfaction is explored theoretically and empirically. To do this, we apply a utility function that rises with the absolute wage level as well as with wage increases. It is shown that when employees can influence their wages by exerting effort, myopic utility maximization directly implies increasing and concave shaped wage profiles. Furthermore, employees get unhappier over time staying on a certain job although wages increase. Using data from 19 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel we find empirical support for both the form of the utility function and the decreasing job satisfaction patterns. |
| Keywords: | job satisfaction, wage increases, wage profiles, reference dependent utility, habit formation, loss aversion |
| JEL: | M54 J28 J30 M12 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1879&r=lab |
| By: | Erling Barth (Institute for Social Research, Oslo, University of Oslo and IZA Bonn); Harald Dale-Olsen (Institute for Social Research, Oslo) |
| Abstract: | It turns out that the employer-size effect on individual wages dwindles away once one control for the number of workers of the same skill-group (educational type) as the observed individual within the establishment. The skill-group size effect on wages is substantial. The main results, a dwindling employer size effect and a significant group size effect, remain after controlling for both individual and establishment specific heterogeneity. This observation rejects most of the proposed explanations for the employer-size effect, while it lends considerable support for the notion that there are frictions in the labor market and that each establishment faces an upward sloping supply curve for each type of labor. |
| Keywords: | wage differentials, size wage effect |
| JEL: | J31 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1888&r=lab |
| By: | Bennmarker, Helge (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation); Carling, Kenneth (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation); Holmlund, Bertil (Department of Economics, Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | In 2001 and 2002, Sweden introduced several unemployment insurance reforms. A major innovation in the first reform was the introduction of a two-tiered benefit structure for some unemployed individuals. This system involved supplementary compensation during the first 20 weeks of unemployment. The 2002 reform retained the two-tiered benefit structure but involved also substantial benefit hikes for spells exceeding 20 weeks. This paper examines how these reforms affected transitions from unemployment to employment. We take advantage of the fact that the reforms had quasi-experimental features where the “treatments” differed considerably among unemployed individuals. We find that the reforms had strikingly different effects on job finding among men and women. The two reforms in conjunction are estimated to have increased the expected duration of unemployment among men but to have decreased the duration of unemployment among women. The overall effect on the duration of unemployment is not statistically different from zero. However, the reforms reduced job finding among males who remained unemployed for more than 20 weeks. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment duration; unemployment benefits |
| JEL: | J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2005–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2005_022&r=lab |
| By: | Lutz Kaiser (IZA Bonn, DIW Berlin and EPAG) |
| Abstract: | In 14 member states of the European Union, women’s relative to men’s levels of job satisfaction are compared by using data of the European Household Community Panel. The countries under consideration can be assigned to three different groups. Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands do not show significant gender-job satisfaction differences. In contrast, in Portugal men are more satisfied with their jobs than women. However, in the vast majority of the investigated countries female workers show a significantly higher level of job satisfaction. As the majority of women are disadvantaged compared to men in the labor market, the findings clearly demonstrate a gender-job satisfaction paradox in these countries. From this point of view, only Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands display gender-job satisfaction equality. The results suggest that objective (socio-economic and institutional) determinants of labor market statuses and subjective (assessed and evaluated) perspectives are mutually complementary. The more restrictive the labor market access and process is for women, the more likely a gender-job satisfaction paradox is to emerge in any country. With regard to the process of labor market modernization, the results support the hypotheses that equal opportunities for women and men like in Scandinavian countries and also partially in the Netherlands implicate that the gender-job satisfaction paradox does not appear anymore due to a fading-out over past decades. |
| Keywords: | cross-national comparison, gender-job satisfaction paradox, labor supply, labor market modernization |
| JEL: | J28 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1876&r=lab |
| By: | Peter J. Sloane (University of Wales at Swansea and IZA Bonn); Suzanne Grazier (University of Wales at Swansea); Richard J. Jones (University of Wales at Swansea) |
| Abstract: | In the UK concern has been expressed over the degree of gender occupational segregation. Though there are no general provisions for affirmative action, it does apply in limited areas and pro-active measures have been suggested. In this paper we focus on gender differences in work preferences in relation to job satisfaction, risk aversion and self employment, and question the rationale for affirmative action. |
| Keywords: | occupational segregation, job satisfaction, risk aversion, gender, affirmative action |
| JEL: | J0 J2 K2 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1881&r=lab |
| By: | Daniele Checchi; Cecilia Garcia-Peñalosa |
| Abstract: | We examine the determinants of differences across countries and over time in the distribution of personal incomes in the OECD. The Gini coefficient of personal incomes can be expressed as a function of the wage differential, the labour share, and the unemployment rate, hence labour market institutions are an essential determinant of the distribution of income, although the sign of their impact is ambiguous. We use a panel of OECD countries for the period 1970-96 to examine these effects. We find, first, that the labour share remains an important determinant of overall inequality patterns, and, second, that stronger unions and a more generous unemployment benefit tend to reduce income inequality. High capital-labour ratios also emerge as a strong equalising factor, which has in part offset the impact of increasing wage inequality on the US distribution of personal incomes. |
| Keywords: | income inequality, labour share, trade unions |
| JEL: | D31 D33 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1608&r=lab |
| By: | Daniel J. Henderson (State University of New York at Binghamton); Alexandre Olbrecht (Ramapo College of New Jersey at Mahwah); Solomon Polachek (State University of New York at Binghamton and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how students’ collegiate athletic participation affects their subsequent labor market success. It uses newly developed distributional tests to establish that the wage distribution of former college athletes is significantly different from non-athletes and that athletic participation is a significant determinant of wages. Additionally, by using newly developed techniques in nonparametric regression, it shows that on average former college athletes earn a wage premium. However, the premium is not uniform, but skewed so that more than half the athletes actually earn less than non-athletes. Further, the premium is not uniform across occupations. Athletes earn more in the fields of business, military, and manual labor, but surprisingly, athletes are more likely to become high school teachers, which pays a relatively lower wage to athletes. We conclude that nonpecuniary factors play an important role in occupational choice, at least for many former collegiate athletes. |
| Keywords: | nonparametric, generalized Kernel estimation, wage determination, earnings, sports economics, athletics |
| JEL: | C14 J10 J30 J40 L83 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1882&r=lab |
| By: | Miguel Portela (Universidade do Minho - NIPE, Tinbergen Institute and IZA Bonn); Ana Rute Cardoso (IZA Bonn, Universidade do Minho, and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the impact of product market uncertainty on workers wages, addressing the questions: To what extent do firms provide insurance to their workforce, insulating their wages from shocks in product markets? How does the amount of insurance provided vary with firm and worker attributes? We use a longitudinal matched employer-employee dataset of remarkable quality. The empirical strategy is based on Guiso et al. (2005). We first estimate dynamic models of sales and wages to retrieve consistent estimates of shocks to firms’ sales and to workers’ earnings. We are then able to estimate the sensitivity of wages to permanent and transitory shocks to firm performance. Results point to the rejection of the full insurance hypothesis. Workers’ wages respond to permanent shocks to firm performance, whereas they are not sensitive to transitory shocks. Managers are not fully insured against transitory shocks, while they receive the same protection against permanent shocks as workers in other occupations. Firms with higher variability in their sales, and those operating in di?erent industries, o?er more insurance against permanent shocks. Comparison with Guiso et al. (2005) indicates that Portuguese firms provide less insurance than Italian firms, corroborating evidence on the high degree of wage flexibility in Portugal. |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nip:nipewp:17/2005&r=lab |
| By: | Erkki Koskela; Rune Stenbacka |
| Abstract: | We investigate the implications of product market imperfections on profit sharing, wage negotiation and equilibrium unemployment. The optimal profit share, which the firms use as a wage-moderating commitment device, is below the bargaining power of the trade union. Intensified product market competition decreases profit sharing, but increases the negotiated base wage, because the wage-increasing effect of reduced profit sharing dominates the wage-reducing effect associated with a higher wage elasticity of labor demand. Finally, we show that intensified product market competition does not necessarily reduce equilibrium unemployment, because it induces both higher wage mark-ups and lower optimal profit shares. |
| Keywords: | product market competition, profit sharing, wage bargaining, equilibrium unemployment |
| JEL: | J33 J51 L11 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1603&r=lab |
| By: | Per Engström; Bertil Holmlund |
| Abstract: | The paper presents a tractable general equilibrium model of search unemployment that incorporates absence from work as a distinct labor force state. Absenteeism is driven by random shocks to the value of leisure that are private information to the workers. Firms offer wages, and possibly sick pay, so as to maximize expected profits, recognizing that the compensation package affects the queue of job applicants and possibly the absence rate as well. Shocks to the value of leisure among nonemployed individuals interact with their search decisions and trigger movements into and out of the labor force. The analysis provides a number of results concerning the impact of social insurance benefits and other determinants of workers’ and firms’ behavior. For example, higher nonemployment benefits are shown to increase absenteeism among employed workers. The normative anlysis identifies externalities associated with firm-provided sick pay and examines the welfare implications of alternative policies. Conditions are given under which welfare equivalence holds between publicly provided and firm-provided sick pay. Benefit differentiation across states of non-work are found to be associated with non-trivial welfare gains. |
| Keywords: | absenteeism, search, unemployment, social insurance |
| JEL: | J21 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1607&r=lab |
| By: | Chulhee Lee |
| Abstract: | This study estimates what fraction of the rise in family income inequality in the United States between 1968 and 2000 is accounted for by change in each of the family income components such as wages, employment, and hours worked of family heads and spouses, family structure, and other incomes. The increased disparities in other incomes and labor supply account for, respectively, 29 percent and 28 percent of the rise in the difference in income between the top 10th and bottom 10th families. Structural changes in wages, largely regarded as the major culprit of the increase in income inequality, explain less than a quarter of the rise in the measure of family income inequality. Changing fraction of families with both husband and wife and changes in the composition of the income sources account for 11 percent and 16 percent, respectively, of the widening of the income gap. The relative importance of the effect of changing labor supply declined over time, while that of wage changes increased. For the upper half of the income distribution, wage changes were the dominant cause of the increase in the gap between the richest 10th and middle-income families. For the lower half of the income distribution, in sharp contrast, changes in labor supply and other incomes were the principal causes of the growing distance between the poor and middle-income families. |
| JEL: | J2 E2 N3 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11836&r=lab |
| By: | Malmberg, Bo (Institute for Futures Studies); Lindh, Thomas (Institute for Futures Studies); Halvarsson, Max (Institute for Futures Studies) |
| Abstract: | Data linking the production of value-added at the plant level to the individual employees provide an opportunity to deepen the understanding of how the labor force composition relates to productivity performance. In view of the anticipated aging of the workforce in industrialised economies a body of research has emerged that indicate that individual productivity has a more pronounced hump-shape than the wage profile. This paper studies these issues by examining the composition of the workforce at the plant level in relation to the productivity performance of the plants. Our data cover the Swedish mining and manufacturing industries 1985-1996. The fact that older workers selectively work with older capital may have biased results found in the literature. Endogeneity of workforce composition poses serious estimation problems, but our attempts to cope with these problems tend to indicate that biases in general go in the direction that productivity of the young is overestimated and the productivity of the old is underestimated. |
| Keywords: | workforce ageing; productivity growth |
| JEL: | J10 J21 J24 |
| Date: | 2005–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifswps:2005_017&r=lab |
| By: | Forslund, Anders (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation); Gottfries, Nils (Department of Economics, Uppsala University); Westermark, Andreas (Department of Economics, Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | How are wages set in an open economy? What role is played by demand pressure, international competition, and structural factors in the labour market? How important is nominal wage rigidity and exchange rate policy for the medium term evolution of real wages and competitiveness? To answer these questions, we formulate a theoretical model of wage bargaining in an open economy and use it to derive a simple wage equation where all parameters have clear economic interpretations. We estimate the wage equation on data for aggregate manufacturing wages in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden from the mid 1960s to the mid 1990s. |
| Keywords: | Wage formation; efficiency wage; turnover; bargaining; rent sharing; nominal wage rigidity; exchange rate policy; competitiveness |
| JEL: | E52 F33 F41 J31 J51 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2005–12–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2005_023&r=lab |
| By: | Alison L. Booth (Australian National University, CEPR and IZA Bonn); Jan C. van Ours (Tilburg University, CentER, CEPR and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Taking into account inter-dependence within the family, we investigate the relationship between part-time work and happiness. We use panel data from the new Household, Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia Survey. Our analysis indicates that part-time women are more satisfied with working hours than full-time women. Partnered women’s life satisfaction is increased if their partners work full-time. Male partners’ life satisfaction is unaffected by their partners' market hours but is increased if they themselves are working full-time. This finding is consistent with the gender identity hypothesis of Akerlof and Kranton (2000). |
| Keywords: | part-time work, happiness, gender identity |
| JEL: | J22 I31 J16 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1884&r=lab |
| By: | Hong, Ying (Institute for Futures Studies); Corman, Diana (Civilekonomerna) |
| Abstract: | The goal of this study is to investigate whether and how fast Swedish women returned to work after their first birth and what were the incentives and constraints for their decisions during the latest decades when Sweden was experiencing significant fluctuations both in its economy and in its level of fertility. The analysis is conducted at individual level based on a longitudinal data set from the latest two waves (1991 and 2000) of a long-time running panel survey of "The Swedish Level-of-Living survey" (LNU). We employ the methods of event-history analysis. The findings suggest Swedish women delayed their return to paid work after the first birth in the 1990s due mainly to the gradual extensions in the parental leave benefits in the 1990s, although the economic crisis in the 1990s might result in a faster return for young mothers. In addition to the strong influences of personal and family characteristics such as age at first birth, eligibility for parental leave and father's share of parental leave, whether a woman worked or not prior to the first birth strongly influences the outcomes of her after-birth labour force participation. The study seems to suggest convergences in the timing of return to work in terms of women’s education, the sector (public or private) of employment and the size of the company, but an enlarged gap between women with high job positions and the others. |
| Keywords: | Return to work; first birth |
| JEL: | J20 |
| Date: | 2005–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifswps:2005_019&r=lab |
| By: | Pedro Carneiro (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College, London); Simon Lee (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine the importance of heterogeneity and self-selection into schooling for the study of inequality. Changes in inequality over time are a combination of price changes, selection bias and composition effects. To distinguish them, we estimate a semiparametric selection model for a sample of white males surveyed (during the 1990s) by the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, but our results are applicable to broader analyses of inequality. In our data, as college enrollment increases in the economy, average college wages decrease and average high school wages increase, and therefore inequality between college and high school groups decreases. Moreover, selection bias causes us to understate the growth of different measures of the average return to schooling in our sample. It also leads us to understate the increase in wage dispersion at the top of the college wage distribution, and to overstate it at the bottom of the college wage distribution. |
| Keywords: | Comparative advantage, composition effects, local instrumental variables, selection bias, semiparametric estimation, wage distribution. |
| Date: | 2005–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:cemmap:16/05&r=lab |
| By: | J. David Brown; John Earle; Almos Telegdy |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effects of privatization on firm-level wages and employment in four transition economies. Contrary to workers' fears, our fixed effect and random trend estimates imply little effect of domestic privatization, except for a slight negative effect in Russia, and they provide some evidence of positive foreign effects on both wages and employment in all four countries. The negligible employment impact of domestic privatization results from effects on efficiency and scale that are large, positive, but offsetting in Hungary and Romania, and from small effects of both types in Russia and Ukraine. The positive employment and wage bill consequences of foreign ownership result from a substantial scale-expansion effect that dominates the efficiency effect. |
| Keywords: | privatization, employment, wages, foreign ownership, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Ukraine |
| JEL: | D21 G34 J23 J31 L33 P3 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hwe:certdp:0509&r=lab |
| By: | Daniela Del Boca; Silvia Pasqua |
| Abstract: | The analysis of the temporal and cross-country patterns of women’s labour market participation and fertility shows how several factors affect the compatibility between childrearing and work (labour market characteristics, social services, and family wealth). The most significant factors which facilitate reconciliation of childrearing and work are the opportunities for part-time arrangements, the availability of childcare and parental leave options. The combination of these options seems to allow different solutions for combining work with having children. Empirical evidence and comparative results show that it is more difficult to combine work and having children in Southern Europe than in the rest of Europe. |
| Keywords: | labor, market, participation, fertility |
| JEL: | J2 C3 D1 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpc:wplist:wp19_05&r=lab |
| By: | Federico Perali; Furio Rosati; Martina Menon |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the contribution of child labour to the formation of household income in rural enterprises. The contribution to household income from the employment of children comes either from the employment on-farm at a shadow wage or off-farm in the agricultural or other sectors. The paper uses a cost function with household labour as a quasi-fixed factor in order to estimate the shadow wage for each component of the household labour force. The study also provides an estimate of contribution of child labour to household income in the rural sector, both at the household and national level. A set of simulation also highlight the role that child labour plays in insuring household subsistence and how it does affects income distribution. |
| Keywords: | Child, Labour, Formation, Rural Incomes |
| JEL: | D30 I2 J10 |
| Date: | 2004–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpc:wplist:wp10_05&r=lab |
| By: | M. Magnani |
| Abstract: | Pension system and labor market reforms are widely debated issues in all industrialized countries and especially in Europe; any change over these two aspects of the Social Security System indeed, can affect heavily the functioning of the whole economy.A preminent role in this sense is played by employment protection regulation and by the mandatory retirement age; in this paper I focus on the political economy of such social policies jointly and consider the interaction between the choice over the protection of the employees in the labour market and that over retirement age. In particular, I look at the effects of the turnover generated either by temporary, selective exits due to the dynamic of the labour market or by permanent, non-selective exits due to retirements. The degree of employment protection and the mandatory retirement age emerge as a result of the political bargaining between three social groups: young, high and low prductivity old. Workforce composition in this setting defines the efficiency of the economy and determine the rise of a social consensus towards different assets of the Social Security System |
| Keywords: | social security, turnover on the labor market, political equilibria, employment protection, retirement age |
| JEL: | D72 H55 J63 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:par:dipeco:2005-ep02&r=lab |
| By: | Donald Boyd; Pamela Grossman; Hamilton Lankford; Susanna Loeb; James Wyckoff |
| Abstract: | We are in the midst of what amounts to a national experiment in how best to attract, prepare, and retain teachers, particularly for high poverty urban schools. Using data on students and teachers in grades three through eight, this study assesses the effects of pathways into teaching in New York City on the teacher workforce and on student achievement. We ask whether teachers who enter through new routes, with reduced coursework prior to teaching, are more or less effective at improving student achievement than other teachers and whether the presence of these alternative pathways affects the composition of the teaching workforce. Results indicate that in some instances the new routes provide teachers with higher student achievement gains than temporary license teachers, though more typically there is no difference. When compared to teachers who completed a university-based teacher education program, teachers with reduced course work prior to entry often provide smaller initial gains in both mathematics and English language arts. Most differences disappear as the cohort matures and many of the differences are not large in magnitude, typically 2 to 5 percent of a standard deviation. The variation in effectiveness within pathways is far greater than the average differences between pathways. |
| JEL: | I0 I2 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11844&r=lab |
| By: | Geir Haakon Bjertnæs |
| Abstract: | The desirability for production efficiency is re-examined in this study, where agents choose occupation based on lifetime income net of tuition costs. Efficient revenue raising implies that the government should trade off efficiency in production for efficiency in intertemporal consumption, as capital income is taxed in optimum. The subsequent wage difference between high- and low-skilled occupations is increased compared to a production efficient outcome, which is in contrast to previous results in the literature. |
| Keywords: | optimal income taxation, subsidies for tuition, skill formation, production efficiency |
| JEL: | H21 H24 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1627&r=lab |
| By: | Floro Ernesto Caroleo – Gianluigi Coppola (CELPE-DISES, Università degli Studi di Salerno) |
| Abstract: | The main aim of this paper is to study European regional disparities in unemployment, considering regional productive structures and some regional institutional variables. It is widely known that one most important stylized facts concerning the EU consists in regional disparities among regions. Such differences relate to both income per capita and the labour market, the latter generally measured in terms of unemployment rates. In a recent paper (Amendola, Caroleo Coppola, 2004) we have analyzed the economic structure of the EU’s regions using proxies for the productive structure and the labour market. In this paper we estimate a panel data model where the dependent variable is the regional unemployment rate and the independent variables relate to the productive structure and some regional institutional aspects. The results confirm that institutional variables, such as the centralization of wage bargaining, the decentralization of public expenditure and the level of bureaucracy, have important impactson unemployment rates. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, Regional Disparities, Institutions, Multivariate Analysis, Panel data |
| JEL: | R23 C23 H70 |
| Date: | 2005–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sal:celpdp:98&r=lab |
| By: | Carlo Altavilla, Antonio Garofalo, Concetto Paolo Vinci (University of Naples Parthenope) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the relationship between the female labour force participation and the female employment rate in Italy by adopting non-linear econometric modelling. In our specification we are unable to reject a nonlinear relationship. This implies that the discouraged worker effect is timevarying. |
| Keywords: | Discouraged Workers, Non-linearity |
| JEL: | J23 C32 |
| Date: | 2005–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sal:celpdp:97&r=lab |
| By: | Laszlo Goerke; Markus Pannenberg |
| Abstract: | Due to the complexity of employment protection legislation (EPL) in Germany, there is notable uncertainty about the outcomes of dismissal conflicts. In this study we focus on severance pay and inquire whether its incidence and level varies in a systematic manner with the legal rules as defined by labour as well as tax law. We start with a theoretical model that generates the main observable outcomes of dismissal conflicts as potential equilibrium situations. Using German panel data (GSOEP), we put our theoretical model to an empirical test. Our main result is that the shadow of the law matters. Criteria regarding the validity of dismissals either found in respective legislation or defined by labour courts significantly affect the incidence and magnitude of severance pay. Moreover, restrictive changes in the taxation of severance pay have a negative causal impact on its incidence. |
| Keywords: | severance pay, labour law, taxation, sample selection, survey data |
| JEL: | C23 C24 H24 J65 K31 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1619&r=lab |
| By: | Adriaan Kalwij (Utrecht University and IZA Bonn); Frederic Vermeulen (Tilburg University, Netspar, CentER and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study labour force participation behaviour of individuals aged 50-64 in 11 European countries. The data are drawn from the new Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). The empirical analysis shows that health is multidimensional, in the sense that different health indicators have their own significant impact on individuals’ participation decisions. Health effects differ markedly between countries. A counterfactual exercise shows that improved health conditions may yield over 10 percentage points higher participation rates for men in countries like Austria, Germany and Spain, and for females in the Netherlands and Sweden. Moreover, we show that the declining health condition with age accounts considerably for the decline in participation rates with age. |
| Keywords: | SHARE, labour force participation, health, retirement |
| JEL: | I10 J22 J26 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1887&r=lab |
| By: | Elena Bardasi; Chiara Monfardini |
| Abstract: | The effect of transition from centrally planned to market economies on female employment is unclear a-priori. Many studies have pointed out that the emergence of labour markets created obstacles to but also new opportunities for women’s employment. A frequently mentioned explanation of the lower female participation during the transition period is the reduction of childcare facilities, which created a major constraint on the participation of women with dependent children. However, the effect of forces of opposite sign should not be overlooked, first of all the household necessity of having two earners during the turbulent transition period. The aim of this paper is to give an empirical assessment on how the transition to a market economy affected the relationship between motherhood and labour force outcomes in Poland. We estimate random effects probit models on two PACO panel datasets covering a four year period before the reform (1987-1990) and a three year period afterwards (1994- 1996). Our findings indicate that during transition young children were much less of a deterrent to the employment probability of their mother than it was before transition. |
| Keywords: | female employment, fertility, transitional economies, Poland, panel data, PACO database |
| JEL: | J13 J22 P23 C23 |
| Date: | 2005–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpc:wplist:wp07_05&r=lab |
| By: | Annette Alstadsæter; Ann-Sofie Kolm; Birthe Larsen |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of taxes on the individuals’ choices of educational direction, and thus on the economy’s skill composition. A proportional labour income tax induces too many workers with high innate ability to choose an educational type with high consumption value and low effort costs. This increases the skill mismatch and aggregate unemployment in the economy. The government can correct for this distortion by use of differentiated tuition fees or tax rates. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, matching, education, optimal taxation, tuition fees |
| JEL: | H21 H24 J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1622&r=lab |
| By: | Andzelika Lorentowicz; Dalia Marin; Alexander Raubold |
| Abstract: | Feenstra and Hanson (1997) have argued in the context of the North American Free Trade Agreement that US outsourcing to Mexico leads to an increase in the skill premium in both the US and Mexico. In this paper we show on the example of Austria and Poland that with the new international division of labour emerging in Europe Austria, the high income country, is specializing in the low skill intensive part of the value chain and Poland, the low income country, is specializing in the high skill part. As a result, skilled workers in Austria are losing from outsourcing, while gaining in Poland. In Austria, relative wages for human capital declined by 2 percent during 1995-2002 and increased by 41 percent during 1994-2002 in Poland. In both countries outsourcing contributes roughly 35 percent to these changes in the relative wages for skilled workers. Furthermore, we show that Austria's R&D policy has contributed to an increase in the skill premium there. |
| JEL: | F21 F23 J31 P45 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1616&r=lab |
| By: | Joshua D. Angrist; Victor Lavy; Analia Schlosser |
| Abstract: | A longstanding question in the economics of the family is the relationship between sibship size and subsequent human capital formation and economic welfare. If there is a “quantity-quality trade-off,” then policies that discourage large families should lead to increased human capital, higher earnings, and, at the macro level, promote economic development. Ordinary least squares regression estimates and a large theoretical literature suggest that this is indeed the case. This paper provides new evidence on the child-quantity/child-quality trade-off. Our empirical strategy exploits exogenous variation in family size due to twin births and preferences for a mixed sibling-sex composition, as well as ethnic differences in the effects of these variables, and preferences for boys in some ethnic groups. We use these sources of variation to look at the causal effect of family size on completed educational attainment, fertility, and earnings. For the purposes of this analysis, we constructed a unique matched data set linking Israeli Census data with information on the demographic structure of families drawn from a population registry. Our results show no evidence of a quantity-quality trade-off, though some estimates suggest that first-born girls from large families marry sooner. |
| JEL: | J13 I31 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11835&r=lab |
| By: | Monika Bütler; Federica Teppa |
| Abstract: | We use a unique dataset on individual retirement decisions in Swiss pension funds to analyze the choice between an annuity and a lump sum at retirement. Our analysis suggests the existence of an “acquiescence bias”, meaning that a majority of retirees chooses the standard option offered by the pensions fund or suggested by common practice. Small levels of accumulated pension capital are much more likely to be withdrawn as a lump sum, suggesting a potential moral hazard behavior or a magnitude effect. We hardly find evidence for adverse selection effects in the data. Single men, for example, whose money’s worth of an annuity is considerably below the corresponding value of married men, are not more likely to choose the capital option. |
| Keywords: | occupational pension, lump sum, annuity, choice anomalies |
| JEL: | D91 H55 J26 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1610&r=lab |