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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Nabanita Datta Gupta (Danish National Institute of Social Research, Aarhus School of Business and IZA Bonn); Tor Eriksson (Aarhus School of Business) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effect of introducing new workplace practices on the gender gap in wages in the manufacturing sector. We use a unique 1999 survey on work and compensation practices of Danish private sector firms merged to a large matched employer-employee database. Selfmanaged teams, project organisation and job rotation schemes are the most widely implemented work practices. Our estimates from a difference-in-differences model of wages and work practices show that the wage gains from adopting new workplace practices accrue mainly to males so that the gender gap in pay increases at the level of the firm, in particular among hourly-paid workers. Considering practices individually, however, a few exceptions are seen: the gender wage gap among salaried workers is significantly reduced in firms which offer project organisation, while the gap in pay among workers paid by the hour is significantly reduced with the use of quality control circles. All in all, however, the new economy is not the great equalizer. |
| Keywords: | new workplace practices, employer-employee data, wage differentials, gender |
| JEL: | J16 J31 M54 |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2038&r=lab |
| By: | Gunseli Berik |
| Abstract: | This brief gendered history of Taiwan’s and Korea’s labor markets indicates a recent reversal in the persistent gender wage gaps that were long sustained by state policies that created and reproduced surplus labor conditions. The relative decline of manufacturing employment since the mid/late 1980s was accompanied by a generalized improvement in women’s relative wages. However, gender wage inequality and women’s low wages continue to be important policy variables, given the concentration of women in lower-paying and less secure occupations and sectors, Korea’s more limited and stalled progress toward gender wage equality, recent signs of downward harmonization of wages in Taiwan’s largest sectors, and ongoing employment discrimination against women. Policies must tackle employment discrimination, improve women’s labor market skills, support women’s caring work in the home to ensure their equitable pursuit of employment, and create gender equitable old-age security systems. |
| Keywords: | gender wage inequality, discrimination, economic development, Korea, Taiwan |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uta:papers:2006_03&r=lab |
| By: | Olivier Bargain (IZA Bonn); Marco Caliendo (DIW Berlin and IZA Bonn); Peter Haan (DIW Berlin); Kristian Orsini (K.U. Leuven) |
| Abstract: | We assess the labour supply effects of two ‘making work pay' reforms in Germany. We provide evidence in favour of policies that distinguish between low effort and low productivity by targeting individuals with low wages rather than individuals with low earnings. In assessing the policies we account for demand-side constraints by using a double-hurdle model. We identify and decompose the potential bias of labour supply elasticities derived in standard unconstrained models. Although this bias is not significant when assessing policies which mainly target voluntarily unemployed workers (typically secondary earners), it is substantial for policies which affect groups with high shares of involuntary unemployment. |
| Keywords: | tax-benefit systems, microsimulation, household labour supply, multinomial logit, involuntary unemployment, double-hurdle |
| JEL: | C25 C52 H31 J22 |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2033&r=lab |
| By: | Fabien Postel-Vinay; Hélène Turon |
| Abstract: | Individual labor earnings observed in worker panel data have complex, highly persistent dynamics. We investigate the capacity of a structural job search model with i.i.d. productivity shocks to replicate salient properties of these dynamics, such as the covariance structure of earnings, the evolution of individual earnings mean and variance with the duration of uninterrupted employment, or the distribution of year-to-year earnings changes. Specifically, we show within an otherwise standard job search model how the combined assumptions of on-the-job search and wage renegotiation by mutual consent act as a quantitatively plausible “internal propagation mechanism” of i.i.d. productivity shocks into persistent wage shocks. The model suggests that wage dynamics should be thought of as the outcome of a specific acceptance/rejection scheme of i.i.d. productivity shocks. This offers an alternative to the conventional linear ARMA-type approach to modelling earnings dynamics. Structural estimation of our model on a 12-year panel of highly educated British workers shows that our simple framework produces a dynamic earnings structure which is remarkably consistent with the data. |
| Keywords: | Job Search, Individual Shocks, Structural Estimation, Covariance Structure of Earnings |
| JEL: | J41 J31 |
| Date: | 2006–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:cmpowp:06/141&r=lab |
| By: | Adriana Cassoni (Departmento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República) |
| Abstract: | The existence and magnitude of the effects of labour taxes cuts on the employment level is here analised using data for 7 Uruguayan industies along 1993-2001. A multivariate model for labour demand is especified, considering wages and product demand as endogenous variables. The main conclusion drawn refers to the heterogeneity of the effects across economic activities, thus pointing at the inconvenience of the use of sectorally homogeneous fiscal policies. The results are robust to the use of different models, while differentiating between contributions paid by employers and employees is found to be a key element for correctly identifying and measuring the effects under analysis. The especification of a bargaining model is strongly suggested. Further, the inclusion of the mechanisms determining the degree of fiscal evasion and the existence of assymmetric responses of the employment levels to tax increases and reductions are also recommended. |
| Keywords: | non wage costs, tax reductions, employment |
| JEL: | J32 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:1605&r=lab |
| By: | Adriana Cassoni (Departmento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República) |
| Abstract: | The diverse wage setting mechanisms prevailing in the different Uruguayan economic activities by 2004 are here summarised. The precise knowledge of these mechanisms is relevant in itself, but it is also a key element when chosing the adequate theoretical framework to perform applied research regarding the Uruguayan labour market. |
| Keywords: | wage determination, collective bargaining, unions |
| JEL: | J3 J5 K31 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:2005&r=lab |
| By: | Libertad González (Universitat Pompeu Fabra and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data from the eight waves of the European Community Household Panel (1994-2001) to estimate the impact of welfare benefits on the incidence of single motherhood and headship among young women across European countries. The regressions include country fixed effects as well as time trends that are allowed to vary by country, to account for fixed and trending unmeasured factors that could influence both benefit levels and family formation. The analysis also accounts for individual characteristics and labor market conditions. The results suggest that benefit levels have a small but significant positive effect on the prevalence of single mothers. An increase in yearly benefits of 1,000 euros is estimated to increase the incidence of single mother families by about 2 percent. |
| Keywords: | single mothers, welfare benefits |
| JEL: | J12 J13 I38 |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2026&r=lab |
| By: | Birgitta Rabe (Institute for Social and Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | In this paper I examine the effects of occupational pension coverage and measures of pension portability loss on voluntary job changes using a sample selection model with endogenous switching. The model estimates, derived from German panel data for 1995-1998, indicate that occupational pension coverage reduces worker mobility by imposing a capital loss on those leaving their job before retirement age. Moreover, pension-covered workers receive a higher compensation which discourages mobility. Making pensions portable significantly increases mobility, but from a low initial level. |
| Keywords: | endogenous switching, job mobility, occupational pensions, wages |
| Date: | 2006–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2006-04&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Haefke (Instituto de Análisis Económico, CSIC and IZA Bonn); Michael Reiter (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) |
| Abstract: | Existing models of equilibrium unemployment with endogenous labor market participation are complex, generate procyclical unemployment rates and cannot match unemployment variability relative to GDP. We embed endogenous participation in a simple, tractable job market matching model, show analytically how variations in the participation rate are driven by the cross-sectional density of home productivity near the participation threshold, and how this density translates into an extensive-margin labor supply elasticity. A calibration of the model to macro data not only matches employment and participation variabilities but also generates strongly countercyclical unemployment rates. With some wage rigidity the model also matches unemployment variations well. Furthermore, the labor supply elasticity implied by our calibration is consistent with microeconometric evidence for the US. |
| Keywords: | matching models, labor market participation, labor supply elasticity, time aggregation |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J21 J64 |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2029&r=lab |
| By: | Olivier Bargain (IZA Bonn); Kristian Orsini (K.U. Leuven) |
| Abstract: | Social assistance and inactivity traps have long been considered amongst the main causes of the poor employment performance of EU countries. The success of New Labour has triggered a growing interest in instruments capable of combining the promotion of responsibility and self-sufficiency with solidarity with less skilled workers. Making-work-pay (MWP) policies, consisting of transfers to households with low earning capacity, have quickly emerged as the most politically acceptable instruments in tax-benefit reforms of many Anglo Saxon countries. This chapter explores the impact of introducing the British Working Families' Tax Credit in three EU countries with rather different labor market and welfare institutions: Finland, France and Germany. Simulating the reform reveals that, while first round effects on income distribution is considerable, the interaction of the new instrument with the structural characteristics of the economy and the population may lead to counterproductive second round effects (i.e. changes in economic behavior). The implementation of the reform, in this case, could only be justified if the social inclusion (i.e. transition into activity) of some specific household types (singles and single mothers) is valued more than a rise in the employment per se. |
| Keywords: | tax-benefit systems, in-work benefits, microsimulation, household labor supply |
| JEL: | C25 C52 H31 J22 |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2025&r=lab |
| By: | Andrew E. Burke; Michael A. Nolan; Felix R. FitzRoy |
| Abstract: | Using decomposition analysis, the paper investigates the reasons why Northern England has less but higher performing self-employed businesses than the South. It finds the causes are mainly structural differences rather than due to regional variation in people's characteristics. The paper also unearths a regional dimension behind the impact of education on entrepreneurial job creation. It finds that, in the less developed North, education boosts self-employment job creation by enhancing performance per venture (quality). In the South, it reduces it by having no effect on quality alongside a negative effect on the number of people who become self-employed (quantity). |
| Keywords: | Self-employment, job creation, North-South divide, decomposition |
| JEL: | J23 R11 R23 |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:egpdis:2006-07&r=lab |
| By: | MONIKA HAMORI (Instituto de Empresa) |
| Abstract: | An employee´s attachment to their employer is one of the central topics across the social sciences. We examine an important aspect of attachment, job search, in the context of executive jobs using a unique data set from a prominent executive search firm that identifies whether executives have declined or pursued offers of employment at other companies. This measure offers an improvement over previous studies on attachment, which rely on actual turnover and, as such, are confounded by opportunities in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | Job search, Voluntary turnover, Executives |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp06-10&r=lab |
| By: | Daniel S. Hamermesh (University of Texas at Austin, NBER and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Retirement ages among older Americans have only recently begun to increase after a precipitous fifty-year decline. Early retirement may result from incentives provided by retirement systems; but it may also result from the rigidities imposed by market work schedules. Using the American Time Use Survey of 2003 and 2004, I first examine whether additional market work is neutral with respect to the mix of non-market activities. The estimates indicate that there are fixed time costs of remaining in the labor market that alter the pattern of non-market activities, reducing leisure time and mostly increasing time devoted to household production. Market work also alters the timing of a fixed amount of non-market activities during the day, away from the schedule chosen when timing constraints imposed by market work do not exist. All of these effects are mitigated by higher family income, presumably because higher-income people can purchase market substitutes that enable them to overcome the fixed time costs of market work. |
| Keywords: | household production, non-market activity, labor-force behavior |
| JEL: | J22 D13 J26 |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2030&r=lab |
| By: | Ingrid Linsley |
| Abstract: | Overeducation is a form of labour underutilisation which occurs when the formal education level of a worker exceeds that which is required for the job. It is a form of underemployment that imposes significant costs on individuals and economies. Using data from the Negotiating the Life Course survey this study determines the incidence and effects of overeducation in the Australian labour market. This study found that 27.1 per cent of individuals are overeducated, and the incidence is higher among those who are young, have preschool-aged children, work in large firms and have fewer years of tenure. A positive relationship was also found between timerelated and skill-related underemployment. Overeducation is found to impose costs on individuals, reducing earnings by between 10 and 20 per cent and lowering job satisfaction. |
| Keywords: | I21 J23 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mlb:wpaper:939&r=lab |
| By: | Jana Vyrastekova; Sander Onderstal; Pierre Koning |
| Abstract: | Using a simple production game, we investigate whether public firms perform better when they increase the power of their workers’ incentive schemes. In a laboratory experiment, subjects choose between a ‘public firm’ and a ‘private firm’ with team and individual incentives, respectively. When exposed to individual incentives, workers in the public firm increase effort in one parametrisation, but show a decrease in another. One reason for the latter observation is that reciprocators self-select in the public firm, rendering cooperation profitable. |
| Keywords: | Personnel Economics; Game theory; Experiments; Nonprofit organizations and public enterprise |
| JEL: | M5 C7 C9 L3 |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:60&r=lab |
| By: | Richard Berthoud (Institute for Social and Economic Research); Morten Blekesaune (Institute for Social and Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | The research compares the employment prospects of disadvantaged social groups in Britain over the past 30 years. It uses data from the General Household Survey, conducted almost every year between 1974 and 2003, with a total sample of 368,000 adults aged 20 to 59. A logistic regression equation estimates the probability of having a job for each member of the sample, taking account of gender and family structure, disability, ethnicity and age (and controlling also for educational qualifications and regional unemployment rates). Net differences in employment probabilities are interpreted as ‘employment penalties’ experienced by the social group in question. Some of these penalties have increased, and others have decreased, over the period. |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2006-09&r=lab |
| By: | Joyce P. Jacobsen (Economics Department, Wesleyan University); James Wishart Pearce III (Stanford University); Joshua L. Rosenbloom (University of Kansas and NBER) |
| Abstract: | Decisions about childbearing and market work are significantly interrelated. Although there are many estimates of the effects of fertility on labor supply, few of them have adequately addressed the problems of simultaneity inherent in these choices. In our research we use exogenous variations in fertility due to twin births to measure the impact of an unplanned child on labor supply and earnings. We contrast these results to those for closely-spaced births (one year or less). We consider effects for married and unmarried mothers separately, and for married fathers. We discuss the implications of these measurements for estimating the magnitude of the rise in female labor supply and earnings as birthrates decline. |
| Keywords: | fertility, labor supply, earnings |
| JEL: | J13 J22 J30 |
| Date: | 2005–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wes:weswpa:2005-002&r=lab |
| By: | Carneiro, Francisco G.; Arabsheibani, G. Reza; Henley, Andrew |
| Abstract: | A range of alternative empirical definitions of informal activity have been employed in the literature. Choice of defini tion is often dictated by data availability. Different definitions may imply very different conceptual understandings of informality. In this paper the authors investigate the degree of congruence between three definitions of informality based on employment contract registration, social security protection, and the characteristics of the employer and employment using Brazilian household survey data for the period 1992 to 2001. The authors present evidence showing that 64 percent of the economically active population are informal according to at least one definition, but only 40 percent are informal according to all three. Steady compositional changes have been taking place among informal workers, conditional on definition. The econometric analysis reveals that the conditional impact of particular factors (demographic, educational attainment, and family circumstances) on the likelihood of informality varies considerably from one definition to another. The results suggest growing heterogeneity within the informal sector. Therefore, the authors argue that informal activity may be as much associated with entrepreneurial dynamism as with any desire to avoid costly contract registration and social protection. However, the authors confirm there is no a priori reason for entrepreneurial activity to be unprotected. Consequently definitions of informality based on occupation and employer size seem the most arbitrary in practice even if conceptually well-founded. |
| Keywords: | Labor Markets,Labor Standards,Work & Working Conditions,Labor Management and Relations,Tertiary Education |
| Date: | 2006–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3866&r=lab |
| By: | Jérôme de Henau (DULBEA, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels); Danièle Meulders (DULBEA, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels); Sile O'Dorchai (DULBEA, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we aim to study and compare the countries of the former EU-15 in terms of the difference in labour market conditions between mothers and non-mothers and we look at how public policies can be designed in order to minimise the employment penalties associated with the presence of young children and thus promote parenthood by working women. As women choose to take part in paid employment, fertility rates will depend on their possibilities to combine employment and motherhood. As a result, the motherhood-induced employment penalties discussed in this paper as well as the role of public policies should be given priority attention by politicians and policy-makers. Firstly, in this paper we start out from a multinomial logit model to analyse motherhood-induced employment gaps in the EU-15. Then, various decomposition techniques (the method of recycled prediction and the Oaxaca (1973) and Blinder (1973) technique adapted to the non-linear case) are applied to the computed gross FTE employment gaps between mothers and non-mothers to isolate the net employment effect associated with the presence of children from that of differences in characteristics between mothers and non-mothers. Special attention is also given to the specific role of education to contain the negative labour market consequences that derive from the presence of young children. It seems that differences in characteristics such as age, education and non labour personal income do not influence a lot the difference in employment status. Secondly, we use an OLS regression to confront motherhood-induced employment penalties with selfconstructed country-specific indicators of child policies, used as explanatory variables, in order to test the impact and effectiveness of policies of different design and generosity on these employment gaps that separate mothers of young children from non-mothers and mothers with grown up children. We round off our analysis by presenting a new typology and country-specific overview of the adjustment mechanisms applied by career-pursuing mothers on the labour market as well as of the supportiveness of different child policies. In the conclusion, we carefully review the main results of this research, advance a number of policy recommendations and suggest interesting avenues for future research. |
| Keywords: | labour market conditions, social policies, fertility, postponement of maternity, dual-earner couples, welfare states, synthetic indicators. |
| JEL: | C43 J13 J21 |
| Date: | 2006–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dul:wpaper:06-02rs&r=lab |
| By: | Kristjan-Olari Leping (University of Tartu Pärnu College) |
| Abstract: | In this article a skill-based measure for human capital specificity will be constructed. This measure is based on the possibilities of making use of skills on labour market and it depends on the number of jobs where the particular skill is required. It is assumed that the specificity of human capital depends on the specificity of skills. In order to calculate the levels of specificity of different skills empirically, the data from the skill requirements of vacant jobs are used. The validity of this measure is tested by using it as an estimator of the probability that on-the-job training is offered to employees. The differences in the specificity of required human capital between different industries and occupations are also investigated in this paper. The proposed job specificity measure can be used for planning the public sector support to on-the-job training as the companies’ decisions to pay for training depend on the specificity of required human capital. |
| Keywords: | human capital, skills, on-the-job training |
| JEL: | J24 M53 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ttu:wpaper:134&r=lab |
| By: | Wendy A. Stock (Department of Economics and Agricultural Economics, Montana State University); John J. Siegfried (Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University and AEA) |
| Abstract: | We report early career outcomes of economics Ph.D.s by tracking the U.S. class of 1996-97. We examine employment outcomes, work activities, salaries, and graduates' attitudes toward their jobs. By 2003, all of the respondents were employed, although almost half changed employers during the six years. Salaries of the cohort increased at an average annual rate of 8.2 percent from 1997 through 2003. Academic-year salaries rose about 5.7 percent per year, while private sector salaries skyrocketed at 15 percent per year. Finally, the median salaries of first-year full-time permanent 9-10 month academic economists hired in 2002-03 actually exceed the 2003 salaries of their counterparts initially hired in 1997-98. Some of this apparent salary inversion reflects a different mix of employers and departments between the two cohorts, with the younger group securing relatively more jobs at higher paying institutions. |
| Keywords: | Economists, employment, salaries |
| JEL: | A11 J44 J40 J30 |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:van:wpaper:0605&r=lab |
| By: | Ingrid Linsley |
| Abstract: | Overeducation is a form of labour underutilisation which occurs when the formal education level of a worker exceeds that which is required for the job. In Australia close to 30 per cent of workers are overeducated and are underutilising their skills. Using data from the Negotiating the Life Course survey, this study determines the causes of overeducation in Australia. Four of the key theories that have been used to explain overeducation are tested: human capital, job competition, assignment and the career mobility theories. Tests show that the job competition model best explains the existence of overeducation in the Australian labour market. |
| Keywords: | Overeducation, labour market, human capital theory, career mobility |
| JEL: | I21 J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mlb:wpaper:940&r=lab |
| By: | Evelyn L. Lehrer (University of Illinois at Chicago - Economics Department) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how two dimensions of childhood religion—affiliation and participation—are related to the probability of graduating from high school. Hypotheses derived from a human capital model are tested with data on non-Hispanic white and black women from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth. The empirical findings are generally consistent with the hypotheses, revealing sizeable differentials in the likelihood of obtaining a high-school diploma by affiliation and participation. The results suggest that the convergence of Catholics to the mainline Protestant pattern for non-Hispanic whites found here, and supported by many previous studies, has not taken place in the black population. In other respects, the relationships between religion and high school graduation are similar for the two racial groups. |
| Keywords: | religion; education; high-school graduation. |
| JEL: | J24 J15 J22 |
| Date: | 2006–03–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gra:paoner:06/04&r=lab |
| By: | Rossana Patrón (Departmento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República) |
| Abstract: | The paper provides a flexible framework to deal with educational provision and public policies in developing countries, linking the impact of quality-quantity-equity of educational policies on labour markets and the external sector. The model includes typical aspects of developing countries that require some further deviations from the structure of a 'standard' single country model as the inclusion of informal activities, which are usually dominated by the poorest qualified workers. Simulation exercises allows us to argue that more sophisticated educational policies ("multiple targets") may increase the efficiency of the government expenditure in education in terms of the quantity-quality of the output (skills) delivered to the labour market. The potential of education and educational policies to produce allocative, growth and distributive effects is also shown in the simulation exercises. |
| Keywords: | public education, educational policies, developing countries |
| JEL: | I F |
| Date: | 2005–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:1405&r=lab |
| By: | PABLO MARTIN (Instituto de Empresa) |
| Abstract: | Most companies in the world are owned by families, and a majority of them are registered in countries where the legal protection of minority shareholders is weak. Is family control the consequence of the lack of investor protection? It is known that agency problems among owners actually increase in family-ownership situations, so family control by itself may not be an efficient substitute for the legal protection of minority investors. In this article we analyze successful strategies used by Canadian and Latin American business groups and firms to increase the satisfaction of their minority shareholders and to limit the incentives of the controlling shareholders to abuse them. |
| Keywords: | Corporate governance, Family firms, Investor protection |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wpe06-02&r=lab |
| By: | Sherrilyn M. Billger (Illinois State University and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | A change to Title IX has spurred new single-sex public schooling in the US. Until recently, nearly all gender-segregated schools were private, and I therefore address potential selection bias in the effects on educational and labor market outcomes using within private sector comparisons, an index comparing expectations to outcomes, quantile regressions, and other techniques. Descriptive statistics suggest significant benefits, but more consideration of selection bias reveals less consistency. Girls' school alumnae are more likely than their coed peers to receive scholarships, but they are not more likely to pursue college degrees, and both genders are less likely to meet their own educational expectations. Moreover, single-sex schooling is not universally superior in supporting gender equity, as coeducational public schools yield the least segregated college major choices. On the other hand, I find 15-20% higher starting salaries among single-sex school graduates, but only persistently for men of median ability. Much of the benefit from single-sex schooling accrues to students already likely to succeed, but favorable selection is an insufficient explanation for all gains. Most notably, there are clear returns for both African-Americans and low income students. |
| Keywords: | single-sex education, labor outcomes, secondary schooling, gender |
| JEL: | I21 J24 J3 I28 |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2037&r=lab |
| By: | Jonathan Gershuny (Institute for Social and Economic Research); Man Yee Kan (Institute for Social and Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a continuously scaled indicator of social position (the Essex Score), which is estimated as individuals’ potential wage in the labour market. The Essex Score is designed as a tool to investigate patterns of differentiation in life chances. It is constructed based on individuals’ educational qualifications, recent experience in employment and non-employment, and occupational attainment using data from all the currently available 13 waves of the British Household Panel Survey. The Essex Score represents those embodied economic resources salient to individuals’ participation in the labour market, equivalent to “human capital” in economic literature, and sometimes indicated by social class categories in sociological research. It has advantages over other social class measures. Being based on educational levels and on degrees of present and past attachment to the labour market as well as on present or previous occupational membership, it covers the entire adult population irrespective of their employment status and employment history. Its continuous level measurement also allows aggregation of scores from an individual to a household level, as well as the sensitive investigation of the determinants and consequences of changes in social position during the life course. |
| Keywords: | bhps, human capital, social class |
| Date: | 2006–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2006-03&r=lab |
| By: | Thorsten Koeppl (Department of Economics, Queen's University) |
| Abstract: | Societies provide institutions that are costly to set up, but able to enforce long-run relationships. We study the optimal decision problem of using self-governance for risk sharing or governance through enforcement provided by these institutions. Third-party enforcement is modelled as a costly technology that consumes resources, but permits the punishment of agents who deviate from ex-ante specified allocations. We show that it is optimal to employ the technology whenever commitment problems prevent first-best risk sharing, but never optimal to provide incentives exclusively via this technology. Commitment problems then persist and the optimal incentive structure changes dynamically over time with third-party enforcement monotonically increasing in the relative inequality between agents. |
| Keywords: | Limited Commitment, Risk Sharing, Third-party Enforcement |
| JEL: | C73 D60 D91 K49 |
| Date: | 2005–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qed:wpaper:1050&r=lab |