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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Emilia Del Bono (Institute for Social and Economic Research); Andrea Weber (Institute of Advanced Studies, Vienna) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate the existence of compensating wage differentials across seasonal and non seasonal jobs, which arise due to anticipated working time restrictions. We build on a theoretical model by Abowd and Ashenfelter (1981), which links the compensating wage differential to variation in individual unemployment through the effect of the unemployment insurance and the compensated labor supply elasticity. Since the Austrian labor market is characterized by an unusually high share of seasonal employment, our data provides the ideal setting in which to empirically test this model. We use the very rich information contained in the Austrian administrative records to derive a flexible definition of seasonal employment based on observed regularities in employment patterns. We find that employers pay on average a positive wage differential of about 11% for seasonal jobs and that the unemployment insurance system contributes a similar amount. |
| Keywords: | employer-employee data, non-standard employment |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2006-37&r=lab |
| By: | Becker, Sascha O.; Mündler, Marc-Andreas |
| Abstract: | Multinational labor demand responds to wage differentials at the extensive margin, when a multinational enterprise (MNE) expands into foreign locations, and at the intensive margin, when an MNE operates existing affiliates across locations. We derive conditions for parametric and nonparametric identification of an MNE model to infer elasticities of labor substitution at both margins, controlling for location selectivity. Prior studies rarely found foreign wages or operations to affect employment. Our strategy detects salient adjustments for German MNEs. With a one-percent increase in German wages, German MNEs add 2,000 manufacturing jobs in Eastern Europe at the extensive margin and 4,000 jobs overall; a converse one-percent drop in Eastern European wages is associated with an overall withdrawal of 730 MNE jobs from Germany. |
| Keywords: | Multinational enterprise, location choice, multiple sample selectivity, labor demand, translog cost function, no ametric estimation |
| JEL: | C14 C24 F21 F23 J23 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:bubdp1:4722&r=lab |
| By: | Silvio Rendon (Centro de Investigacion Economica (CIE), Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM)) |
| Abstract: | In this paper I inquire about the effects initial wealth has on black-white differences in early employment careers. I set up a dynamic model in which individuals simultaneously search for a job and accumulate wealth, and fit it to data from the National Longitudinal Survey (1979-cohort). The estimates show that borrowing constraints are tight for both race groups. Regime changes reveal that differences in initial wealth account almost fully for the racial gap in wealth and wages at the beginning of employment careers, but their effect tapers off and completely dissapears several years after graduation. In contrast, differences in the labor market environment and in preferences are shown to account fully for both racial gaps, in wealth and in wages, persisting several years after High School graduation. |
| Keywords: | Job search, wealth, racial differences, borrowing constraints, consumption, unemployment, estimation of dynamic structural models |
| JEL: | C33 E21 E24 J64 |
| Date: | 2006–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cie:wpaper:0603&r=lab |
| By: | Marigee Bacolod |
| Abstract: | This paper documents the widely perceived but little investigated notion that teachers today are less qualified than they once were. Using standardized test scores, undergraduate institution selectivity, and positive assortative mating characteristics as measures of quality, evidence of a marked decline in the quality of young women going into teaching between 1960 and 1990 is presented. In contrast, the quality of young women becoming professionals increased. The Roy model of selfselection is used to highlight how occupation differences in the returns to skill determine average teacher quality. Estimates suggest the significance of increasing professional opportunities for women in affecting the decline in teacher quality. |
| JEL: | I20 J16 J31 J48 |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:06-22&r=lab |
| By: | Adam S. Posen (Institute for International Economics); Daniel Popov Gould (Institute for International Economics) |
| Abstract: | This working paper investigates the European Monetary Unification’s (EMU) effect on wage restraint—the degree to which wage increases do or do not exceed productivity growth. We find in cross-sectional investigations that wage restraint either is unchanged or has increased following EMU in the vast majority of countries. This finding contradicts the predictions of a widely cited family of models of coordination of labor market bargaining. In particular, one would have expected Germany to display the greatest decline in wage restraint post-EMU under these models, but in our time-series analysis we find no indication of such a decline. The overall shift toward greater wage restraint is consistent with the models that emphasize the gains from monetary credibility. The time-series evidence on Italy, which shows a significant increase in wage restraint after eurozone entry, also supports this view. That said, the increase in wage restraint in the eurozone is matched by that associated with the increase in credibility seen in the United Kingdom and Sweden after their adoption of inflation targeting post-1992. |
| Keywords: | EMU, wage bargaining, monetary credibility, productivity |
| JEL: | E58 E25 J58 |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iie:wpaper:wp06-6&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre Koning; Daniël van Vuuren |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we construct and estimate a (semi-) structural model, so as to uncover the fraction of hidden unemployment in the Disability Insurance (DI) enrolment rate. For this purpose, we use longitudinal administrative data of Dutch employers for 1994-2003. We find the (average) fraction of hidden unemployment in DI enrolment to amount to about 11%. This corresponds to 2.6% of the ‘true’ unemployment insurance (UI) enrolment rate of employers. Over the years, we observe a strong decrease in this fraction, from 5.4% in 1995, to 0.7% in 2003. In addition, our estimates suggest that most of correlation that is observed between the UI and DI enrolment rates can be explained by substitution effects, and not by ‘true’ correlation between the schemes that is exogenous to the firm. In the model, the fraction of hidden unemployment in the DI scheme is (over-)identified from various restrictions imposed by the data. First, identification follows from exclusion restrictions obtained from the coefficient estimates of variables that are assumed to influence the UI enrolment rate only. For this purpose, we use information on the wage distribution of workers employed at the firms in our sample, and sectoral growth rates. Second, identification of substitution effects follows from the observed correlation between both enrolment rates. |
| Keywords: | Firm behaviour; social security; disability; employment determination |
| JEL: | D21 H55 I12 J2 |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:69&r=lab |
| By: | Morten O. Ravn |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces a labor force participation choice into a labor market matching model embedded in a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium set-up with production and savings. The participation choice is modelled as a tradeoff between forgoing the expected benefits of being search active and engaging in costly labor market search. The model induces a symmetry in firms’ and workers’ search decision since both sides of the labor market vary search effort at the extensive margins. We show that this set-up is of considerable analytical convenience and that it gives rise to a linear relationship between labor market tightness and the marginal utility of consumption. We refer to the latter as the “consumption - tightness puzzle” because (a) it gives rise to a number of counterfactual implications, and (b) it is a robust implication of theory. Amongst the counterfactual implications are very low volatility of tightness, procyclical unemployment, and a positively sloped Beveridge curve. These implications all derive from procyclical variations in participation rates that follow from allowing for the extensive search margin. |
| Keywords: | Labor market participation, matching models, intensive search margin, labor market tightness, unemployment, homework. |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J20 J41 J64 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2006/13&r=lab |
| By: | Robert Drago (Pennsylvania State University, USA); David Black (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne and Brotherhood of St Laurence); Mark Wooden (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | We consider desires for flexibility in weekly hours by analyzing changes in work hours preferences using four years of data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. We control for work hours preferences in previous years and test for effects on desired labor force participation and, for those wishing to participate, on current hours preferences. Our findings reveal that, in general, women are more sensitive to life events than men. Women’s preferred hours and labor force participation decline sharply with pregnancy and the arrival of children; their preferred hours approach usual levels as children enter school and ultimately decline as they become empty-nesters. We also find women’s preferred hours increasing following separation but falling after divorce, with an opposing pattern for men. Finally, a sizeable minority of retirees have preferences for phased instead of full retirement. |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2006n19&r=lab |
| By: | Daniela del Boca; Robert M. Sauer |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we formulate a dynamic utility maximization model of female labor force participation and fertility choices and estimate approximate decision rules using data on married women in Italy, Spain and France. The pattern of estimated state dependence e?ects across countries is consistent with aggregate patterns in part-time employment and child care availability, suggesting that labor market rigidities and lack of child care options are important sources of state dependence. Simulations of the model reveal that Italian and Spanish women would substantially increase their participation rates were they to face the French institutional environment. |
| Keywords: | Female Employment, Fertility, Child Care, Institutions, Decision Rules |
| JEL: | J2 C3 D1 |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpc:wplist:wp14_06&r=lab |
| By: | Silvio Rendon (Centro de Investigacion Economica (CIE), Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM)) |
| Abstract: | In this paper I measure the contribution of knowing Catalan to finding a job in Catalonia. In the early eighties a drastic language policy change (normalització) promoted the learning and use of Catalan in Catalonia and managed to reverse the falling trend of its relative use versus Castilian (Spanish). Using census data for 1991 and 1996, I estimate a significant positive Catalan premium: the probability of being employed increases between 3 and 5 percentage points if individuals know how to read and speak Catalan; it increases between 2 and 6 percentage points for writing Catalan. |
| Keywords: | Language, Immigration, Skill Premium |
| JEL: | J61 J70 J31 I20 |
| Date: | 2006–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cie:wpaper:0604&r=lab |
| By: | Peccei, R. (Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), RSM Erasmus University) |
| Abstract: | The analysis of the impact of human resource (HR) practices on employee well-being at work is an important yet relatively neglected area of inquiry within the field of human resource management (HRM). In this inaugural address, the main findings from ongoing research based on data from the 1998 British Workplace Employee Relations Survey (WERS98) are presented. These suggest that the HR practices that are adopted by organisations have a significant impact on the well-being of their workforces and that this impact tends, on the whole, to be more positive than negative. The effects, however, are more complex than is normally assumed in the literature. In particular, preliminary results indicate that the constellation of HR practices that help to maximise employee well-being (i.e. that make for happy workplaces), are not necessarily the same as those that make up the type of ‘High Performance Work Systems’ commonly identified in the literature. This has important theoretical, policy and ethical implications for the field of HRM. These are discussed along with important directions for future research. |
| Keywords: | human resource management;HRM;human resource ractices;employee well-being;job satisfaction;job stress;happy workplaces;HR; |
| Date: | 2004–01–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:euriar:30001238&r=lab |