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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Blázquez, Maite (Departmento de Análisis Económico (Teoría e Historia Económica). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.) |
| Abstract: | The issue of low-wage workers has received increased interest during last decades in many European countries. In this paper I analyse the patterns of low-wage employment in the Spanish labour market. Using a sample of Spanish workers extracted from the European Community Household Panel for the period 1995-2001, I first analyse the earnings distribution as a whole, looking at the characteristics of low, medium and high paid jobs. I also look at the evolution of these jobs over the period 1995-2001. Furthermore, I examine the determinants of being in a low-paid job using an analytical framework that is characterised by the ability to account for the endogeneity of initial conditions. Finally, I explore the effects of low pay on job mobility. For this purpose I adopt an approach based on competing risks in order to allow for different risks of failure. |
| Keywords: | Low-wage employment; job mobility; competing risks |
| JEL: | J31 J50 J60 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uam:wpaper:200503&r=lab |
| By: | Woodcock, Simon |
| Abstract: | We consider the problem of estimating and decomposing wage differentials in the presence of unobserved worker, firm, and match heterogeneity. Controlling for these unobservables corrects omitted variable bias in previous studies. It also allows us to measure the contribution of unmeasured characteristics of workers, firms, and worker-firm matches to observed wage differentials. An application to linked employer-employee data shows that decompositions of inter-industry earnings differentials and the male-female differential are misleading when unobserved heterogeneity is ignored. |
| Keywords: | wage differentials; unobserved heterogeneity; employer-employee data |
| JEL: | C23 J31 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1341&r=lab |
| By: | Wolff, Joachim (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "This paper studies individual log real wage change of east and west Germans over the period 1990/91 to 1995/96 using data from the German Socio-economic Panel. Parameters are estimated by median regression. Human capital theory and job mobility theories have implications for wage changes that differ between a transition and a non-transition economy. Wage changes decrease in experience according to human capital theory. But during a transition shock the introduction of new production techniques implies that experienced and inexperienced workers invest similarly in on-the-job training. Hence, annual wage changes do not vary much with experience. The estimation results reflect this difference. Matching and on-the-job search theory imply the following: A higher a worker's experience the higher his/her match quality and in turn the less (more) he/she can gain (lose) from an additional voluntary (involuntary) job change. But a transition shock destroys the high match quality of many experienced workers' jobs, so that wage changes due to voluntary and involuntary job change vary less with experience in a transition country than in a non-transition country. For involuntary job change, I find evidence for this hypothesis. Causal effects of job mobility on wages are estimated by comparing wage changes of this period movers with wage changes of next period movers. The results show that voluntary job changes raise real wages of both east and west Germans; involuntary changes tend to lower real hourly wages." (author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Lohnentwicklung, Lohnerhöhung, Berufserfahrung - Auswirkungen, berufliche Mobilität - Auswirkungen, regionaler Vergleich, Reallohn, Sozioökonomisches Panel, Humankapitalansatz, on-the-job training, Bildungsinvestitionen, Bildungsertrag, Einkommenseffekte, Arbeitsplatzwechsel, Freiwilligkeit, Transformationstheorie, Volkswirtschaftstheorie, osteuropäischer Transformationsprozess, matching - Qualität, Ostdeutschland, Westdeutschland, Bundesrepublik Deutschland |
| Date: | 2006–12–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:200627&r=lab |
| By: | Suman Ghosh (Department of Economics, College of Business, Florida Atlantic University) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a theoretical model that combines employers learning about worker productivity, human capital acquisition, job-assignment and resolution of worker uncertainty regarding disutility of work from a job, to show how widely documented findings on both wage and promotion dynamics and turnover can be captured in a single set-up. Specifically we show how our model can capture results such as; probability of turnover decreases with labor market experience, wage changes during job changes is more in earlier periods, serial correlation in wages and probability of promotion increases in wages, amongst others. |
| Keywords: | Turnover, Internal labor markets, Human capital |
| JEL: | J41 J63 L22 |
| Date: | 2004–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fal:wpaper:04025&r=lab |
| By: | Budria, Santiago; Nunes, Celso |
| Abstract: | This article summarises the recent literature on the relationship between inequality in wages and education for Portugal. The main conclusions are the following. First, Portu-gal is one of the OECD countries with lowest educational level. At the same time, re-turns to education are large, and suggest that skills are particularly valuable in the Por-tuguese labour market. Second, over the last two decades returns to education increased steadily, which suggests that skill-biased technological change is partly responsible for the observed pattern. Analysis of the returns across educational levels and the dispersion of returns over the wage distribution reveals that education may have helped to increase both between-group and within-group inequality. Third, the recent evolution of average years of education has lead to a considerable increase in the standard measures of over-education, particularly among younger cohorts. Since schooling mis-matches are associated with lower wages, recent changes in the educational composition of the workforce may have conse-quences for the wage distribution. Fourth, some conclusions can also be established on the interaction between formal education and acquired skills. Most forms of training are associ-ated with higher wages and appear to act as remedial education. Less educated individuals are less likely to get trained. However, once trained, they obtain larger returns. Finally, analysis of employment opportunities and school-to-work transitions suggests that more edu-cated individuals benefit from better job opportunities and receive more job offers. |
| Keywords: | Wage inequality; Returns to education; signalling; training |
| JEL: | J31 D31 |
| Date: | 2005–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1099&r=lab |
| By: | Alcala, Francisco; Hernandez, Pedro J. |
| Abstract: | We analyze in a simple model the consequences of efficiency heterogeneity at the firm level for the sorting of workers with different skills into firms with different characteristics. We show that more efficient firms tend to produce higher quality output in equilibrium, which then translates into higher relative demand of education and unmeasured skills. The model provides an integrated explanation within a competitive framework for the observed correlations between several establishment characteristics (size, employees’ average education, capital/labor ratio, and remoteness of selling markets) and average wages. We test the implications of the model using Spanish employer-employee matched data that allow to simultaneously control for establishment and worker characteristics. We find that average education in the establishment is increasing in the remoteness of its main market. Establishment’s size, remoteness of main market, and co-workers’ average education have significant, robust and quantitatively important positive joint effects on wages. The national-market orientation effects (with respect to local-market orientation) on labor composition and wages are at least as important as the international-market effects (with respect to national-market orientation). All wage premia are non-decreasing on worker education and most of them are strictly increasing, suggesting that unmeasured skills are relatively more important for high-education workers. |
| Keywords: | Quality Competition; Exporting Firms; Unobservable Skills; Wages. |
| JEL: | J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2005–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1226&r=lab |
| By: | Gray, Matthew; Renda, Jenny |
| Abstract: | This paper presents evidence on the extent to which non-employed mothers who would like to work are able to provide an estimate of their reservation income. There is virtually no existing Australian research on the extent to which jobseekers are able to estimate their reservation income. The paper also tests the hypothesis that unrealistic wage expectations are an important factor in explaining relatively low employment rates among mothers by comparing reservation hourly wages with the estimated earning capacity of mothers. If reservation wages are greater than what we estimate the mother would earn in the labour market, then this is likely to make it difficult to find employment. |
| Keywords: | Employment; reservation wages; working hours |
| JEL: | J38 J3 J22 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1067&r=lab |
| By: | Sumon Majumdar (Queen's University) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the impact of labor market conditions on a firm's incentive to train its workers. In an equilibrium model of the labor market in which firms use both untrained and in-house trained workers, we show that the incidence of training increases with the tightness of the labor market. In a multi-sector framework, the usual threat of hold-up by a trained worker is more severe for workers who change their sector of work; during downturns, this serves to bias firms' incentives in imparting training away from such workers and towards workers already in the firm and those new workers coming from the same sector. Evidence from the NLSY confirms both predictions --- the incidence and duration of company-sponsored training is adversely affected by higher unemployment rates; furthermore, this negative effect is much stronger for workers who change industries as compared to those who do not. |
| Keywords: | firm-sponsored training, labor market tightness, hold up, unemployment rate |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J41 |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qed:wpaper:1100&r=lab |
| By: | Chaudhuri, Sarbajit |
| Abstract: | The paper develops a three-sector specific factor model with Harris-Todaro type unemployment to examine the consequences of international factor mobility on the skilled-unskilled wage inequality and urban unemployment of unskilled labour in a small open dual economy. The theoretical analysis shows that the consequences of international factor mobility on wage inequality may not necessarily depend on the difference in the factor intensity condition. Only when the unskilled wage in the low-skill urban sector is positively related to the rural wage, factor intensity conditions do matter. An emigration of skilled labour or an inflow of foreign capital may move the wages in favour of the unskilled labour and lower the magnitude of urban unemployment only if the low-skill urban sector is capital-intensive (in a special sense). But, an immigration of unskilled labour produces exactly the opposite effects. The paper argues that provided the government undertakes supplementary measures to curb trade union power and prevent illegal immigration of unskilled labour, abundant inflows of foreign capital might be a solution to both deteriorating wage inequality and increasing unemployment of unskilled labour in the liberalized regime. |
| Keywords: | Skilled labour; unskilled labour; foreign capital; wage inequality; Harris-Todaro type unemployment; Emigration (immigration) of labour; unionized wage |
| JEL: | F21 F22 |
| Date: | 2006–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1356&r=lab |
| By: | Silke Anger; Michael Kvasnicka |
| Abstract: | Empirical studies on the earnings effects of tobacco use have found significant wage penalties attached to smoking. We produce evidence that suggests that these estimates are significantly upward biased. The bias arises from a general failure in the literature to control for the past smoking behavior of individuals. 2SLS earnings estimates show that the smoking wage penalty is reduced by as much as a third, if past smoking of individuals is controlled for. Our results also point to significant wage gains for individuals that quit smoking, a finding that is of substantial interest, given the lack of evidence on the earnings effects of smoking cessation. |
| Keywords: | Smoking, Wages, Earnings Regressions |
| JEL: | J31 I19 C51 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2006-089&r=lab |
| By: | van Damme, Maike; Kalmijn, Matthijs; Uunk, Wilfred |
| Abstract: | Studies on the economic consequences of divorce for women have paid little attention to changes in labour supply. In this article we quantify separated women’s changes in labour supply and study the impact of individual and institutional factors on these changes using data on 13 countries from the European Community Household Panel (1994-2001). Our dynamic, multilevel analyses demonstrate that European women only modestly increase their labour supply after separation, but in some countries this change is larger than in others. Important individual-level determinants of labour supply changes are education and labour market experience (positive effect), health (positive effect), and presence of young children (negative effect). Institutional factors have a contradictory effect: more generous allowances for single parents discourage the employment of separated women, whereas more generous public child care provisions encourage employment. The results underline the importance of distinguishing between income- and employment-related institutions in studying outcomes of union dissolution. |
| Keywords: | child care ; divorce ; female labour supply ; institutions ; welfare benefits |
| JEL: | J20 J12 J18 I38 |
| Date: | 2006–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1132&r=lab |
| By: | Engelbert Stockhammer (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics & B.A.); Özlem Onaran (Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, and Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics & B.A., Austria) |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates the formation of wages in the New Member States in Central and Eastern Europe, in particular the question what the relative role of national and sectoral factors is. While the labor relations in these countries are still in the process of change, some pattern and national differences have emerged. The question is thus to what extent these differences in labor relations are reflected in wage formation. The literature on Western OECD economies is unanimous that coordination of wage bargaining does reduce the wage spread, but disagrees on its effects on unemployment and inflation. The paper analyses wage formation in Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Lithuania by means of a panel analysis for manufacturing sectors. The average wage (in the total economy) serves as a national factor and sectoral productivity serves as a sectoral factor. In variations of the basic estimation equation the role of FDI and openness and of capital intensity and skill are also discussed. The results between countries are compared with the recent index of the coordination of collective bargaining by Visser (2005) and with cross country data on union density. |
| JEL: | P23 J50 J30 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp100&r=lab |
| By: | Casey Warman (Queen's University, Department of Economics, Statistics Canada); Frances Woolley (Carleton University, Department of Economics); Christopher Worswick (Carleton University, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we use a unique data set containing detailed information on all full-time teachers at Canadian universities over the period 1970 through 2001. The individual level data are collected by Statistics Canada from all universities in Canada and are used to analyze the evolution of male-female wage differentials of professors in Canadian universities. The long time series aspect of this data source along with the detailed administrative information allow us to provide a more complete and more accurate portrait of the wage gap than is available in most other studies. The results of a cohort-based analysis indicate that the male salary advantage among university faculty has declined for more recent birth cohorts. This has been driven not so much by an increase in the real salaries of female professors but from a cross cohort decline in the earnings of male professors and the fact that female professors have not experienced a similar cross cohort decline. Also important to note is the fact that the differences across cohorts appear to be permanent. There is no clear pattern of changes in these cohort differences with age. |
| Keywords: | gender, earnings, Canada, professors, faculty |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qed:wpaper:1099&r=lab |
| By: | Signe Jauhiainen |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on overeducation from the regional perspective. The supply of highly educated workers has increased since late 20th century but the demand has not necessarily increased equivalently. This mismatch might create problems at the labour market, for example unemployment and overeducation. Individuals are not totally mobile and prefer to search for a job near their residential location. If accessible jobs do not correspond to the educational level of the job seeker, one may have to accept a job below his or her educational level. Spatial mobility of workers, migration and commuting, can reduce the spatial mismatch. Spatial mismatch between jobs and workers has been noticed in several studies (see e.g. Büchel & van Ham 2003). The aim of this paper is to find out whether there are regional differences in the proportion of overeducated labour force. Finnish micro level data are used in the analysis. The sample consists of 149 908 individuals who were employed in 2000. Overeducated workers are identified with a statistical measure. |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa06p180&r=lab |
| By: | Yolanda Pena-Boquete |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to analyze the degree of female wage discrimination in the Spanish region of Galicia relative to the rest of Spain. The analysis starts from an established fact: women’s average earnings are lower than men’s. First, we try to show the causes behind this wage differential. Next, we discuss the evolution of the wage gap between 1995 and 2002, in order to bring some light on the factors potentially accounting for wage discrimination persistence in Galicia and Spain. We will analyze the distribution of the degree of discrimination using Discrimination Curve and Discrimination Indexes proposed by Del RÃo et al. These indicators have the advantage of being decomposable, allowing a more exhaustive rendering of the factors characterizing wage discrimination, as well as the quantification of the incidence of discrimination for different social groups. Thus we can determine, not only if the degree of discrimination has had a similar evolution in both regions, but also if discrimination is more strongly exerted against the same social groups both in Galicia and Spain. |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa06p340&r=lab |
| By: | Anna Matysiak (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Daniele Vignoli (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Our research objective was to systematise the existing literature on the relation between fertility and women’s employment on the micro level. Instead of carrying out a traditional literature review, we conducted a meta-analysis. This allowed us to compare estimates from different studies standardised for the country analysed, the method applied, the control variables used, or the sample selected. We focused on two effects: the impact of employment on fertility and the impact of children on employment entry. The first finding of our study is a high variation in the studied effects among the institutional settings, reflecting the existence of a north-south gradient. Second, our results confirm a significant reduction in the conflict between family and work over time. Finally, they demonstrate that a failure to account for unobserved heterogeneity, the respondent’s social background as well as partner, job, and macro-contextual characteristics leads to a serious bias to the estimated effects. |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2006-048&r=lab |
| By: | Suman Ghosh (Department of Economics, College of Business, Florida Atlantic University); Michael Waldman (Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University) |
| Abstract: | In most firms a worker in any period is either promoted, left in the same job, or fired (demotions are typically rare), and there is no specific date by which a promotion needs to occur. In other employment situations, however, up-or-out contracts are common, i.e., if a worker is not promoted by a certain date the worker must leave the firm. This paper develops a theory that explains why and when each of these practices is employed. Our theory is based on asymmetric learning in labor markets and incentives associated with the prospect of future promotion. Our main result is that firms employ up-orout contracts when firm-specific human capital is low while they employ standard promotion practices when it is high. We also find that, if firms can commit to a wage floor for promoted workers and effort provision is important, then up-or-out contracts are employed when low-level and high-level jobs are similar. We believe these results are of interest because they are consistent with many of the settings in which up-or-out is typically observed such as law firms and academic institutions. |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fal:wpaper:06007&r=lab |
| By: | Budria, Santiago |
| Abstract: | How do the family and personal characteristics of an individual influence his/her edu-cational attainment? How do the labour market prospects change when he/she receives further education? This article intends to answer these two questions. To that purpose, it reviews the most recent literature for the Spanish case. The goal is to obtain fresh in-sights into the connection between education and economic inequality. |
| Keywords: | Inequality; demand for education; overeducation |
| JEL: | J31 D31 |
| Date: | 2006–06–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1098&r=lab |
| By: | Jens Suedekum |
| Abstract: | In this paper I analyze the impact of initial human capital on subsequent city employment growth for the case of West Germany (1977-2002). I find robust evidence that skilled local areas have grown stronger than unskilled ones. But this observed positive relation need not indicate a localized human capital externality. A large initial share of highly skilled workers significantly reduces subsequent growth of high-skilled jobs. The observed positive impact on total employment growth is, thus, due to the fact that the positive effect on low- and medium-skilled jobs outweighs the negative effect on high-skilled employment. This evidence is in line with complementarities among skill groups as the major causal link between human capital and regional employment growth. It challenges theories of self-reinforcing spatial concentration of highly skilled workers in cities due to strong localized external effects. |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa06p69&r=lab |
| By: | Jose Antonio Cabral Vieira; Joao Pedro Couto; Maria Teresa Tiago |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses differences in the return to education in Portugal across regions. For this purpose, we use an extended Mincer-type wage equation. OLS regression results indicate that differences in the rewards to education are substantially different across regions. In particular, they are much higher in Lisbon than in other regions. Since the average level of education in Lisbon is much higher in Lisbon than elsewhere such a differential is attributed to the fact that the demand for educated labour is much higher in Lisbon, likely due to differences in technology. A quantile regression analysis reveals that the return to education is not constant across the whole conditional wage distribution. This is valid for the 18 regions examined, although once again the impact of education on wages is higher in Lisbon regardless the quantile we examine. |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa06p44&r=lab |
| By: | Fernanda Sartori Camargo; Joaquim Jose Martins Guilhoto |
| Abstract: | The reorganization of the Brazilian economy, in the globalization process, has brought out changes in its productive structure, and, consequently, changes in the job market. These changes had impact on the employment at the sectoral level, with great concerns related to the labor relations and to the growing unemployment rates. In the 1990s, the change in the focus of the development strategy, from a closed protected economy to an open economy with monetary control, has originated deep changes in the labor market. The number of employed persons in the primary and secondary sector was reduced, while in the tertiary sector there was an increase in the number of jobs, but not enough to absorb all the employees released from the previous two sectors. Besides the reduction in the capability of the economy to create new jobs, the last decade of the previous century has also showed an increase in the number of informal jobs. The share of informal jobs in the Brazilian economy was around 52% in 2003. In this way, the question of employment generated by the economic sectors, in number and quality, has become a crucial issue. The goal of this work is to study the characteristics and the evolution of the occupied persons, and to relate it with the formal and informal job market, as well as the economy productive structure, using for that input-output matrices constructed for the Brazilian economy. The main results show that there was a reduction in the capacity of the economy to generate employment for every million of Reais produced in a given sector. The data also shows that despite the ratio of informal workers in the economy being superior to the workers in the formality, the formal sector was responsible for about 60% of the jobs generated in the period of analysis. |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa06p716&r=lab |
| By: | Chaudhuri, Sarbajit; Banerjee, Dibyendu |
| Abstract: | Empirical evidence suggests that the size of the informal sector in the developing countries has increased considerably during the liberalized economic regime. The present paper purports to analyze the consequences of economic reforms on the wellbeing of the informal sector workforce using a three-sector general equilibrium model with two informal sectors. The theoretical analysis finds that different liberalized policies produce diverse effects on the informal wage and that these results are independent of the nature of capital mobility between the informal and the formal sectors. It also shows that labour market reforms, contrary to the common wisdom, are likely to produce favourable effects on the informal wage. |
| Keywords: | Informal sector; formal sector; informal wage; economic reforms; capital mobility; general equilibrium model |
| JEL: | F16 |
| Date: | 2006–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1353&r=lab |
| By: | Christina Kritikou; Michalis Agorastakis |
| Abstract: | The participation of women in the labour market is being effected by their biological circle and by social standards and stereotypes that delineate domestic work as woman’s primary activity. Particularly in Greece, the sovereignty of Mediterranean family model undermines the effectiveness of policies aiming to promote feminine employment and thus, constitutes a brake for labour equality between the sexes. Consequently, female employment rate continues to remain in the lowest levels among E.U. countries, despite the fact that several issues have been raised during the past years, such as: the evolution of the legislative system towards equality, higher educational level of women, increased consuming needs, the decrease of fertility, the struggle of women for economic independence etc. Nevertheless, the participation of Greek women in the labour market continues to be 8-10 percent below the average of E.U. countries. In this paper, we try to identify and represent the participation of women in the work force, in terms of employment and unemployment, while emphasizing to the spatial and age-structured patterns in national level. The data used in this analysis, emanate from the latter Population Census of 2001, conducted by the National Statistical Service of Greece (ESYE). The spatial level of reference is the Municipality administrative level, which allows us to identify the "unfavorable" regions of Greece, with increased unemployment and low participation in the economically active population, forming clusters with similar characteristics in the employment sector. Using statistical methods of multivariate analysis, we examine employment indices of economically active and inactive women, employed and unemployed women, as well as the distribution of employment according to the three sectors, focusing on age-related groups, responsible for the intensity of the phenomenon. In-depth spatial and age-related analysis of feminine employment reveals the intense problem of mountainous and rural regions, while the age distribution concerning unemployment is identified. Finally, we are able to draw coherent conclusions for the degree of convergence/divergence between administrative units in Greece and also with the E.U. average. |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa06p257&r=lab |
| By: | Leonardo Monasterio; Mauro Salvo |
| Abstract: | The paper estimates the effects of agglomeration economies on wages of industrial workers in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The techniques of Exploratory Analysis of Spatial Data are used to locate the clusters of the states’ industry in 2000. Then, this information was combined to census microdata in order to run wage regressions inspired by the empirical tests of New Economic Geography models (HANSON, 1998, specially). The results were statistically and economically significant: even when controlled by demographic variables, the individual wages of industrial workers were higher on the cities with larger population, more urbanized, higher market potential and closer to the economic centre of the Rio Grande do Sul. These findings indicate how intense the economic forces that shape the spatial structure of the state are, and suggest changes in current regional policies. |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa06p930&r=lab |
| By: | Anton Tchipev (Istituto di Ricerche Economiche (IRE), Facoltà di Scienze Economiche, Università della Svizzera Italiana) |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to reconcile the slowdown in wage inequality in the 1990s with the view that international trade was a major factor contributing to the sharp increases in inequality during the 1980s. I present a model that highlights the importance of intermediate products and attributes the trend reversal of inequality to the restructuring of the economy. The model is supported by evidence on the evolution of the imports of intermediate products. |
| Keywords: | wage inequality, intermediate products, outsourcing |
| JEL: | F16 J31 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lug:wpaper:0608&r=lab |
| By: | Kameshwari Shankar (Charles River Associates, Boston, MA); Suman Ghosh (Department of Economics, College of Business, Florida Atlantic University) |
| Abstract: | This paper builds a theoretical model to address evidence on labor mobility patterns in technology-intensive firms engaged in R&D. Labor turnover in these firms is characteristically different from turnover in traditional industries both in size and composition. Specifically, the pool of workers switching employers comprises of relatively productive workers. Our model focuses on distinguishing features of R&D-intensive firms, in particular, the stochastic nature of returns to R&D investment and the transmission of knowledge spillovers through worker movement, to explain patterns of labor mobility in these firms. The analysis also serves as a tool to analyze the role of Non Disclosure Agreements in wage contracts. |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fal:wpaper:05006&r=lab |
| By: | Sanna-Mari Hynninen; Aki Kangasharju; Jaakko Pehkonen |
| Abstract: | The study shows that a stochastic frontier approach applied to regional level data offers a convenient and interesting method to examine how regional differences in matching efficiency and structural factors contribute to aggregate unemployment. The study finds notable and time-wise stable differences in the matching efficiency across travel-to-work areas in Finland. If all areas were as efficient as the most efficient one, the number of hires would increase about 40 per cent. This would decrease the aggregate unemployment rate from the current 8.5 percent level to 6.0 per cent. If all the areas shared the same structural characteristics as the most favourable area, the aggregate unemployment rate would drop to 7.1 per cent. |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa06p416&r=lab |
| By: | Annette Zeilstra; Paul Elhorst |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the causes of variation in regional unemployment rates in a cross-country perspective. The explanatory variables consist of both regional-level and macro-level variables. An appropriate econometric model of random coefficients for the former and fixed coefficients for the latter variables is developed, further taking into account that observations may be correlated over time and over space and that some of the explanatory variables are not strictly exogenous. On the basis of this model a regional unemployment rate equation is estimated, using data of 143 regions across 11 EU countries derived from Eurostat, 1983-1997, and national data on labour market institutions predominantly derived from the OECD. |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa06p73&r=lab |
| By: | canegrati, emanuele |
| Abstract: | In this paper I analyse a labor market where the wage is endogenously determined according to a Right-to-Manage bargaining process between a firm and a labor union whose members are partitioned into two social groups: the old and the young. Furthermore, I exploit the Single Mindedness theory, which considers the existence of a density function which endogenously depends on leisure. I demonstrate that, when preferences of the old for leisure are higher than those of the young and when the level of productivity of the young is higher than that of the old, the young suer from higher tax rates and gain higher level of wage rates and lower levels of leisure. Finally, since the old are more single minded than the young, they exploit their greater political power to get positive transfers from the young in a PAYG system. |
| Keywords: | bargaining models; labor unions; political economy; single mindedness |
| JEL: | J24 D71 J58 J22 J51 D78 D72 J52 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1224&r=lab |
| By: | Bratti, Massimiliano (Università degli Studi di Milano); Naylor, Robin (University of Warwick); Smith, Jeremy (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | As in many other countries, government policy in the UK has the objective of raising the participation rate of young people in higher education, while also increasing the share of the costs of higher education borne by students themselves. A rationale for the latter element comes from evidence of a high private return to university undergraduate degrees. However, much of this evidence pre-dates the rapid expansion in the graduate population. In the current paper, we use evidence from a cohort of people born in 1970 to estimate hourly wage returns to a university degree. Among other results, we ?nd (i) that compared to an earlier 1958 birth cohort the average returns to a ?rst degree for men changed very little, while the return for women declined substantially and (ii) substantial evidence of differences in returns to a first degree according to subject area of study and class of degree awarded |
| Keywords: | degree ; return ; subject ; UK ; university |
| JEL: | J3 J4 I2 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:783&r=lab |
| By: | Lasse Sigbjorn Stambol |
| Abstract: | Well-functioning local labour markets are expected to become net receivers of labour from other regions. In addition these regions are also expected to attract the most qualified labour and thus be the winners in the competition for the best human capital. For an examination of the two concepts "brain-gain" (a relative gain of qualified persons) and "brain-drain" (a relative loss of qualified persons), we do introduce a concept of average education based on the number of years each person have been in education altogether. There are thus reasons to expect that the regions with the highest net in-migration to job also benefit from a "brain-gain" through the migration process and vice-versa that regions experiencing a strong net loss through the migration process also suffer from a "brain-drain" in this respect. Some regions may, however, compensate a negative net-migration with a "brain-gain" through the migration process, whilst some regions may experience a "brain-drain" through migration in spite of positive net in-migration. The "brain-gain", "brain-drain" approach poses also important questions in terms of intra- and interregional competitiveness of human capital across the different industrial sectors, which is also taken into consideration in the analysis. We have as well put forward hypotheses expecting that employed persons that add to their highest formal education another year of formal education will also raise their income above the average increase of income. On the other hand the most qualified labour expects to achieve as much return on their human capital investment as possible, pushing their careers in direction of those regions and those sectors of the economy that actually give the best return. The final section of the paper is thus stressing two main aspects of these topics, first analysing the relative rise of income among employed persons changing their educational level, and second analysing the return to human capital by help of changes in personal income in different person groups by industrial sectors and regional typologies. |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa06p787&r=lab |
| By: | Van Klaveren, Chris; Maassen van den Brink, Henriette; Van Praag, Bernard |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine if partners in households coordinate their working times. Also we examine how this coordination influences the (in)formal demand for child care and the time spent on joint activities. The activities that we distinguish are the time that partners spent together, spent jointly on household tasks and spent jointly on child care. We find that partners de-synchronize their work times when there are children present in the household while they synchronize their work times when there are no children present in the household. Households where women are higher educated tend to synchronize there work times. Partners who synchronize their work times spent more joint hours on household tasks. Partners who de-synchronize their work times less spent more time together. We do not find a relation between work timing and the time that parents spent together caring for their children. The demand for (in)formal child care is affected by the coordination of work schedules by partners. Partners who de-synchronize their work times more, demand less (in)formal child care. Moreover, active work time desynchronization and the demand for child care appear to be substitutes. |
| Keywords: | Time Allocation; Work Timing; Work Hours; Leisure Time |
| JEL: | D13 J22 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1213&r=lab |