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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Bergemann, Annette; van den Berg, Gerard J |
| Abstract: | We survey the recent literature on the effects of active labour market policies on individual labour market outcomes like employment and income, for adult female individuals without work in European countries. We consider skill-training programs, monitoring and sanctions, job search assistance, and employment subsidies. The results are remarkably uniform across studies. We relate the results to the relevant level of female labour force participation. |
| Keywords: | female labor supply; job search; monitoring; participation; schooling; training; unemployment; wages |
| JEL: | J16 J21 J22 J64 J68 J82 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6034&r=lab |
| By: | Heisz, Andrew; Larochelle-Côté, Sébastien |
| Abstract: | In recent years, differences in working hours between Canada and other countries have been the focus of a substantial body of research. Much less attention has been paid to regional differences in work hours, although differences in average annual work hours between some regions are of an order of magnitude that is similar to that of the Canada-U.S. difference. Using data from the 2004 Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, this study examines how much of differences in working time between Ontario and five other regions of Canada can be explained by 'observable' differences, including differences in union status, industrial structure, job conditions and demographic characteristics. 'Observables' were relatively efficient in explaining differences in the shares of individuals working a short year and working a full-year, full-time schedule. However, they were not very helpful in explaining differences in long work hours, did not entirely explain the larger share of short-year workers in the Atlantic and in British Columbia, and did not explain the huge popularity of the 'low' full-year, full-time schedule in Quebec. These differences that remain unexplained suggest that 'unobservable' factors (those that are difficult to observe in household surveys) also contribute to regional differences in work hours. These include incentives related to wage inequality, possible tax incentives (or disincentives) built upon progressive taxation policies, differences in job conditions, in preferences and tastes, and in the shape of institutions. |
| Keywords: | Labour, Employment and unemployment, Employment insurance, social assistance and other transfers, Hours of work and work arrangements |
| Date: | 2007–01–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2007293e&r=lab |
| By: | Matthias S. Hertweck |
| Abstract: | This paper modifies the standard Mortensen-Pissarides job matching model in order to explain the cyclical behavior of vacancies and unemployment. The modifications include strategic wage bargaining (Hall and Milgrom, 2006) and convex labor adjustment costs. The results reveal that our model replicates the cyclical behavior of both variables remarkably well. First, we show that strategic wage bargaining increases the volatility of vacancies and unemployment enormously. Second, the introduction of convex labor adjustment costs makes both variables much more persistent. Third, our analysis indicates that both modifications are complementary in generating volatile and persistent labor market variables. |
| Keywords: | Business Cycles, Matching, Strategic Bargaining |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J41 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2006/42&r=lab |
| By: | Manning, Alan; Petrongolo, Barbara |
| Abstract: | Women in Britain who work part-time have, on average, hourly earnings about 25% less than that of women working full-time. This gap has widened greatly over the past 30 years. This paper tries to explain this part-time pay penalty. It shows that a sizeable part of the penalty can be explained by the differing characteristics of FT and PT women. Inclusion of standard demographics halves the estimate of the pay penalty. But inclusion of occupation makes the pay penalty very small, suggesting that almost the entire unexplained gap is due to occupational segregation. The rise in the pay penalty over time is partly a result of a rise in occupational segregation and partly the general rise in wage inequality. Policies to reduce the pay penalty have had little effect and it is likely that it will not change much unless better jobs can be made available on a part-time basis. |
| Keywords: | occupational segregation; part-time work; wage differentials |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J62 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6058&r=lab |
| By: | Bruno L. S. Falcao; Rodrigo R. Soares |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a theory where increases in female labor force participation and reductions in the gender wage-gap are generated as part of a single process of demographic transition, characterized by reductions in mortality and fertility. The paper suggests a link between changes in mortality and transformations in the role of women in society that has not been identified before in the literature. Mortality reductions affect the incentives of individuals to invest in human capital and to have children. Particularly, gains in adult longevity reduce fertility, increase investments in market human capital, increase female labor force participation, and reduce the wage differential between men and women. Child mortality reductions, though reducing fertility, do not generate this same pattern of changes. The model reconciles the increase in female labor market participation with the timing of age-specific mortality reductions observed during the demographic transition. It generates changes in fertility, labor market attachment, and the gender wage-gap as part of a single process of social transformation, triggered by reductions in mortality. |
| JEL: | J11 J13 J24 J31 J82 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12838&r=lab |
| By: | Herwig Immervoll |
| Abstract: | International comparisons of minimum-wage levels have largely focused on the gross value of minimum wages, ignoring the effects of taxation on both labour costs and the net income of employees. This paper presents estimates of the tax burdens facing minimum-wage workers. These are used as a basis for cross-country comparisons of the net earnings of these workers as well as the cost of employing them. In addition, results show the evolution of net incomes and labour costs during the 2000-2005 period and the relative importance of minimum-wage adjustments and... <BR>Des comparaisons internationales en matière de salaire minimum ont examiné de près surtout la valeur brute du salaire minimum, sans tenir compte de l’incidence des impositions sur les coûts du travail et sur le revenu net des employés. Ce document présente des estimations de la pression fiscale qui s’exerce sur les travailleurs percevant le salaire minimum. Elles sont utilisées comme base pour effectuer des comparaisons entre pays des gains nets de ces travailleurs ainsi que du coût de leur embauche. De plus, les résultats montrent l’évolution des revenus nets et... |
| JEL: | D3 H2 J2 J3 |
| Date: | 2007–01–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:46-en&r=lab |
| By: | Krogh Graversen, Brian; van Ours, Jan C |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how a mandatory activation program in Denmark affects the job finding rate of unemployed workers. The activation program was introduced in an experimental setting where about half of the workers who became unemployed in the period from November 2005 to March 2006 were randomly assigned to the program while the other half was not. It appears that the activation program is very effective. The median unemployment duration of the control group is 14 weeks, while it is 11.5 weeks for the treatment group. The analysis shows that the job finding rate in the treatment group is 30% higher than in the control group. This result is mainly driven by the more intensive contacts between the unemployed and the public employment service. |
| Keywords: | Experiment; Unemployment duration; Unemployment insurance |
| JEL: | C41 H55 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6057&r=lab |
| By: | Canegrati, Emanuele |
| Abstract: | This very brief paper aims to provide some little microeconomic hints in order to explain the early retirement of workers. In particular, the hipothesis of quasi-concavity of the utility function, differences in wage rates and in pension benefits are all factors which may contribute to force a worker to retire before he reached the retirement age. |
| Keywords: | early retirement; microeconomic foundation; pension benefits |
| JEL: | J22 D11 J26 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1553&r=lab |
| By: | Morissette, Rene; Zhang, Xuelin; Frenette, Marc |
| Abstract: | Using Statistics Canada's Longitudinal Worker File, we document short-term and long-term earnings losses for a large (10%) sample of Canadian workers who lost their job through firm closures or mass layoffs during the late 1980s and the 1990s. Our use of a nationally representative sample allows us to examine how earnings losses vary across age groups, gender, industries and firms of different sizes. Furthermore, we conduct separate analyses for workers displaced only through firm closures and for a broader sample displaced either through firm closures or mass layoffs. Our main finding is that while the long-term earnings losses experienced on average by workers who are displaced through firm closures or mass layoffs are important, those experienced by displaced workers with considerable seniority appear to be even more substantial. Consistent with findings from the United States by Jacobson, Lalonde and Sullivan (1993), high-seniority displaced men experience long-term earnings losses that represent between 18% and 35% of their pre-displacement earnings. For their female counterparts, the corresponding estimates vary between 24% and 35%. |
| Keywords: | Labour, Wages, salaries and other earnings |
| Date: | 2007–01–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2007291e&r=lab |
| By: | Kevin J. Murphy (USC); Jan Zabojnik (Queen's University) |
| Abstract: | This paper reconciles two pronounced trends in U.S. corporate governance: the increase in pay levels for top executives, and the increasing prevalence of appointing CEOs through external hiring rather than internal promotions. We propose that these trends reflect a shift in the relative importance of "managerial ability" (transferable across companies) and "firm-specific human capital" (valuable only within the organization). We show that if the supply of workers in the corporate sector is relatively elastic, an increase in the relative importance of managerial ability leads to fewer promotions, more external hires, and an increase in equilibrium average wages for CEOs. We test our model using CEO pay and turnover data from 1970 to 2000. We show that CEO compensation is higher for CEOs hired from outside their firm, and for CEOs in industries where outside hiring is prevalent. |
| Keywords: | CEO pay, CEO turnover, General skills, Firms specific skills |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J63 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qed:wpaper:1110&r=lab |
| By: | Katharina Frosch (Rostock Centre for the Study of Demographic Change, Germany) |
| Abstract: | The labor market situation for elderly job searchers is more difficult than for their younger counterparts. To identify patterns in the reemployment of the elderly, we analyze the employment histories of about 113.000 male job searchers in West-Germany. The analysis is based on a hazard rate model with piecewise constant intensities. We focus on age-specific reemployment rates. Individual characteristics, labor market indicators as well as the influence of the previous employment history on reemployment are accounted for. As expected, reemployment rates decline with age. Between 1975 and 1995, the negative impact of age on reemployment chances increases significantly. The obsolescence of human capital seems to play a decisive role for reemployment, especially for engineering occupations: From age 50 on, the negative age effect is significantly stronger than for other occupations. |
| Keywords: | late career job loss, reemployment, hazard rate models, elderly engineers |
| JEL: | J64 J24 J14 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ros:wpaper:64&r=lab |
| By: | David Neumark (Department of Economics, University of California-Irvine); Junfu Zhang (Department of Economics, Clark University); Stephen Ciccarella (Department of Economics, Cornell University) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effects of Wal-Mart stores on county-level retail employment and earnings, accounting for endogeneity of the location and timing of Wal-Mart openings that most likely biases the evidence against finding adverse effects of Wal-Mart stores. We address the endogeneity problem using a natural instrumental variables approach that arises from the geographic and time pattern of the opening of Wal-Mart stores, which slowly spread out from the first stores in Arkansas. The employment results indicate that a Wal-Mart store opening reduces county-level retail employment by about 150 workers, implying that each Wal-Mart worker replaces approximately 1.4 retail workers. This represents a 2.7 percent reduction in average retail employment. The payroll results indicate that Wal-Mart store openings lead to declines in county-level retail earnings of about $1.2 million, or 1.3 percent. Of course, these effects occurred against a backdrop of rising retail employment, and only imply lower retail employment growth than would have occurred absent the effects of Wal-Mart. |
| Keywords: | Wal-Mart; Employment |
| JEL: | R12 J21 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irv:wpaper:060711&r=lab |
| By: | Hvide, Hans Krogh; Kristiansen, Eirik Gaard |
| Abstract: | We study how complementarities and intellectual property rights affect the management of knowledge workers. The main results relay when a firm will wish to sue workers that leave with innovative ideas, and the effects of complementary assets on wages and on worker initiative. We argue that firms strongly protected by property rights may not sue leaving workers in order to motivate effort, while firms weakly protected by complementary assets must sue in order to obtain positive profits. Firms with more complementary assets pay higher wages (and have lower turnover), but such higher pay has a detrimental effect on worker initiative. Our analysis suggests that strengthened property rights protection reduces turnover costs but weakens worker initiative. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; Innovation; IPR; Litigation; Personnel economics; R&D; Start-ups |
| JEL: | E00 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6039&r=lab |
| By: | Constantine Manasakis (Department of Economics, University of Crete, Greece); Emmanuel Petrakis (Department of Economics, University of Crete, Greece) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of alternative unionization structures on firms' incentives to spend on cost-reducing R&D activities as well as to form a Research Joint Venture, in the presence of R&D spillovers. We show that, in contrast to the "hold up" argument, if firms invest non-cooperatively and spillovers are low, R&D investments are higher when an industry-wide union sets a uniform wage rate than under firm-level unions. In contrast, investments are always higher under firm-level unions in the case of RJVs. Firms' incentives to form an RJV are non-monotonic in the degree of centralization of the wage-setting, with the incentives being stronger under an industry-wide union if and only if spillovers are low enough. Finally, centralized wage-setting as well as high unemployment benefits may hinder the formation of costly RJVs and their potential welfare benefits. |
| Keywords: | Unions, Oligopoly, Cost-reducing Innovations, Research Joint Ventures, Spillovers |
| JEL: | J51 L13 O31 |
| Date: | 2007–01–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crt:wpaper:0705&r=lab |
| By: | Hans G. Bloemen (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Keywords: | Retirement; Life Cycle Models and Saving |
| JEL: | J26 D91 |
| Date: | 2007–01–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20070002&r=lab |
| By: | Fernando Alexandre (Universidade do Minho - NIPE); Carla Sá (Universidade do Minho - NIPE) |
| Abstract: | The Bologna process aims at creating a European Higher Education Area where intercountry mobility of students and sta?, as well as workers holding a degree, is facilitated. While several aspects of the process deserve wide public support, the reduction of the length of the first cycle of studies to three years, in several continental European countries where it used to last for four or five years, is less consensual. The paper checks the extent of public confidence in the restructuring of higher education currently underway, by looking at its implications on the demand for academic programs. It exploits the fact that some programs have restructured under the Bologna process and others have not, in Portugal. Precise quantification of the demand for each academic program is facilitated by the rules of access to higher education, in a nation-wide competition, where candidates must list up to six preferences of institution and program. We use regression analysis applied to count data, estimating negative binomial models. Results indicate that the programs that restructured to follow the Bologna principles were subject to higher demand than comparable programs that did not restructure, as if Bologna were understood as a quality stamp. This positive impact was reinforced if the institution was a leader, i.e. the single one in the country that restructured the program. Still an additional increase in demand was experienced by large programs that restructured to o?er an integrated master degree, thus conforming to Bologna principles while not reducing the program duration. |
| Keywords: | education policy; European Higher Education Area; economic, social and cultural integration; count data. |
| JEL: | I28 I21 F15 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nip:nipewp:1/2007&r=lab |
| By: | Harald Uhlig |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I investigate the scope of a model with exogenous habit formation - or `catching up with the Joneses`, see Abel (1990) - to generate the observed equity premium as well as other key macroeconomic facts. Along the way, I derive restrictions for four out of eight parameters for a rather general preference specification of habit formation by imposing consistency with long-run growth, the leisure share, the aggregate Frisch elasticity of labor supply, the observed risk-free rate, and the observed Sharpe ratio. I show that a DSGE model with (exogenous and lagged) habits in both leisure and consumption, but not necessarily with additional persistence, is well capable of matching the observed asset market facts as well as macro facts, provided one allows for moderate real wage stickiness and provided one allows for sufficient curvature on preferences, as dictated by the asset market observations. Without wage stickiness, delivery on both the asset pricing implications as well as the macroeconomic implications seems to be much harder. |
| Keywords: | asset pricing, wage rigidity, habit formation, Frisch elasticity, Sharpe ratio, log-linear approximation |
| JEL: | E24 E30 G12 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2007-003&r=lab |
| By: | Daniela Glocker; Viktor Steiner |
| Abstract: | Abstract: This paper contributes to the policy-relevant question whether self-employment is a way out of (long-term) unemployment. We estimate the relationship between the entry rate into self-employment and previous (long-term) unemployment on the basis of pseudo-panel data for Germany in the period 1996-2002. The estimation method accounts for cohort fixed effects and measurement errors induced by the pseudo panel structure. We find that previous (long-term) unemployment significantly increases entry rates into self-employment for both men and women. These effects are quantitatively important, both in absolute terms and compared to other potential determinants of self-employment transitions, such as age, the level of vocational qualification and certain household characteristics. |
| Keywords: | self-employment, entrepreneurship, entry rate, start-ups, unemployment, pseudo-panel, age and cohort effects |
| JEL: | J23 J64 C35 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp661&r=lab |
| By: | Michaels, Guy |
| Abstract: | Since changes in trade openness are typically confounded with other factors, it has been difficult to identify the labour market consequences of increased international trade. The advent of the United States Interstate Highway System provides a unique policy experiment, which I use to identify the effect of reducing trade barriers on the relative demand for skilled labour. The Interstate Highway System was designed to connect major metropolitan areas, to serve national defence and to connect the United States to Canada and Mexico. As a consequence - though not an objective - many rural counties were also connected to the highway system. I find that these counties experienced an increase in trade-related activities, such as trucking and retail sales, by 7-10 percentage points per capita. Most significantly, by increasing trade the highways raised the relative demand for skilled manufacturing workers in counties with a high endowment of human capital and reduced it elsewhere, consistent with the predictions of the Heckscher-Ohlin model. |
| Keywords: | highways; skill premium; trade |
| JEL: | F16 J23 J31 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6056&r=lab |
| By: | Eric A. Hanushek; Ludger Woessmann |
| Abstract: | The role of improved schooling, a central part of most development strategies, has become controversial because expansion of school attainment has not guaranteed improved economic conditions. This paper reviews the role of education in promoting economic well-being, with a particular focus on the role of educational quality. It concludes that there is strong evidence that the cognitive skills of the population - rather than mere school attainment - are powerfully related to individual earnings, to the distribution of income, and to economic growth. New empirical results show the importance of both minimal and high level skills, the complementarity of skills and the quality of economic institutions, and the robustness of the relationship between skills and growth. International comparisons incorporating expanded data on cognitive skills reveal much larger skill deficits in developing countries than generally derived from just school enrollment and attainment. The magnitude of change needed makes clear that closing the economic gap with developed countries will require major structural changes in schooling institutions. |
| JEL: | H4 I2 J0 O1 O4 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12832&r=lab |
| By: | Margaret Denton; Linda Boos |
| Abstract: | Beyond income, wealth is an important measure of economic well-being, because while income captures the current state of inequality, wealth has the potential for examining accumulated and historically structured inequality. This paper documents the extent of gender inequality in wealth for Canadian women and men aged 45 and older. The analysis uses data from the 1999 Canadian Survey of Financial Security, a large nationally representative survey of household wealth in Canada. Wealth is measured by total net worth as measured by total assets minus debt. We test two general hypotheses to account for gender differences in wealth. The differential exposure hypothesis suggest that women report less wealth accumulation because of their reduced access to the material and social conditions of life that foster economic security. The differential vulnerability hypothesis suggests that women report lower levels of wealth because they receive differential returns to material and social conditions of their lives. Support is found for both hypotheses. Much of the gender differences in wealth can be explained by the gendering of work and family roles that restricts women’s ability to build up assets over the life course. But beyond this, there are significant gender interaction effects that indicate that women are further penalized by their returns to participation in family life, their health and where they live. When women do work, net of other factors, they are better able to accumulate wealth than their male counterparts. |
| Keywords: | wealth, retirement, net assets, gender differences |
| JEL: | J14 J16 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:sedapp:169&r=lab |
| By: | Jacob, Marita (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Kleinert, Corinna (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "There are two broad trends in industrialised countries motivating this paper: On the one hand, the life phase between youth and adulthood has prolonged and diversified; on the other hand, entering the labour market has become more complex and insecure. In this paper we combine two aspects of these trends by analysing the effect of unemployment on leaving home. Extending previous research, we use a resource-oriented theoretical framework that allows us to elaborate the impact of employment related resources of different actors. Our main hypothesis is that availability of employment related resources matters for leaving home. Further we assume that several actors are involved in the decision for leaving home: individual, welfare state, parents and partner. Resources of each can be pooled, and resources of other actors can compensate for own shortages. In the analyses we use life history data of two birth cohorts in West Germany. We find that for young adults with partners own unemployment accelerates leaving home, while for singles leaving home is delayed. Parental unemployment or unemployment compensation benefits also have only an effect if young adults have no partners. Thus, partnership status plays a crucial role in shaping the transitions of youth to residential independence." (author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| JEL: | J12 J64 Z0 |
| Date: | 2007–01–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:200705&r=lab |
| By: | Manuel Artis (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona.); Raul Ramos (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona.); Jordi Suriñach (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona.) |
| Abstract: | Using microdata, we analyse the determinants of firm relocation and conventional outsourcing decisions as a way to reduce employment. The results for a sample of 32 countries show the relevance of factors not considered previously in the literature. Firms that are below average in quality or innovation have a higher propensity to externalise part of their production through outsourcing, while lower relative profitability and longer time to market for new products each imply a higher probability of relocation. |
| Keywords: | Job losses, outsourcing and relocation |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:200601&r=lab |
| By: | Gisela Hostenkamp; Michael Stolpe |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the role of the health gradient – the positive correlation between household income and health – in individual retirement behavior, using data from the German Socio-economic Panel (GSOEP). We first estimate agegroup-specific health gradients and find their slope increases with age, but declines among retired workers. We then estimate a variety of parametric and semi-parametric duration models and find that workers’ position relative to the agegroup-specific health gradient has about the same explanatory power as self-assessed health and income together. We argue our method promises better predictions of the long-term impact of policies affecting the health gradient on workers' timing of retirement amid population aging. Our findings also underline the importance of imperfect medical technology in reconciling the human capital theory of health demand with the observation of more rapid declines in health among less educated workers. |
| Keywords: | Health gradient; Retirement behaviour; Duration analysis; Germany |
| JEL: | H51 H55 I12 J26 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1305&r=lab |
| By: | Judith Hellerstein (Department of Economics, University of Maryland); David Neumark (Department of Economics, University of California-Irvine) |
| Abstract: | We study workplace segregation in the United States using a unique matched employer-employee data set that we have created. We present measures of workplace segregation by education and language, and by race and ethnicity, and since skill is often correlated with race and ethnicity we assess the role of education- and language-related skill differentials in generating workplace segregation by race and ethnicity. We define segregation based on the extent to which workers are more or less likely to be in workplaces with members of the same group, and we measure segregation as the observed percentage relative to maximum segregation. Our results indicate that there is considerable segregation by education and language in the workplace. Among whites, for example, observed segregation by education is 17% (of the maximum), and for Hispanics, observed segregation by language ability is 29 percent. Racial (black-white) segregation in the workplace is of a similar magnitude to education segregation (14%), and ethnic (Hispanic-white) segregation is somewhat higher (20%). Only a tiny portion (3%) of racial segregation in the workplace is driven by education differences between blacks and whites, but a substantial fraction of ethnic segregation in the workplace (32 percent) can be attributed to differences in language proficiency. Finally, additional evidence suggests that segregation by language likely reflects complementarity among workers speaking the same language |
| Keywords: | Segregation; Language; Skill; Race; Ethnicity |
| JEL: | J15 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irv:wpaper:060710&r=lab |
| By: | Nguyen, Khac Minh; Giang, Thanh Long |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to analyze the efficiency performance of the hospitals and medical centers in Vietnam by using a non-parametric approach, namely the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model. The data from the Economic Census for Enterprises by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO) consists of 44 observations, which include 17 hospitals and 27 medical centers in different provinces and cities in 2002. The results indicate that the average scale efficiency of the hospitals was 77.4 percent, while that of the medical centers was 58.7 percent. Further, hospitals were clearly more efficient than medical centers due to some possible factors. Locations in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city had no influence on either overall technical efficiency or scale efficiency. Despite differences in the results of testing the impact of net capital-labor ratio on efficiency for hospitals and medical centers, these organizations appear to operate in labor-intensive ways. |
| Keywords: | data envelopment analysis (DEA); hospital efficiency; Tobit regression; Vietnam |
| JEL: | C14 I19 |
| Date: | 2004–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1533&r=lab |
| By: | Kai-Joseph Fleischhauer |
| Abstract: | With the beginning of the new millennium it has become more and more apparent that education and human capital constitute a key element of modern economies. Despite the important role of human capital in modern societies, there are still many unknowns about the process of educational production as well as individual and collective decisions concerning how much and what kind of education to obtain. This literature review aims at providing a better understanding of the process of human capital formation and educational attainment. Although human capital plays an important role in both microeconomics and macroeconomics, we focus on the former branch of literature in order to analyze the individual incentives to acquire skills. This review is divided into six parts each of them representing an important stream of human capital literature. First, we introduce the basic concept of human capital that models individuals as investing in skills in response to the expected returns to education. After this, we investigate the different implications of investments in general and specific human capital and then provide an overview of various empirical studies measuring the rate of return to education. Because educational attainment may also be affected by other factors such as school characteristics or family background, we review the literature on educational production functions and discuss the significance of potential inputs into the process of educational production. Subsequently, we refer to models of human capital accumulation over the life-cycle that manage to replicate the empirical life-cycle patterns with respect to the age-earnings profile of individuals. Finally, we analyze the effects of taxation and education subsidies on the formation of human capital. Length: 50 pages |
| Keywords: | Human Capital, Return to Education, Education Production Function, Life-Cycle of Earnings, Education Subsidies |
| JEL: | H24 H52 I20 I21 I28 J24 J31 J41 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:dp2007:2007-01&r=lab |
| By: | Ingmar Nyman (Hunter College); Jason G. Cummins (Brevan Howard Asset Management) |
| Abstract: | We study a rank-order tournament in which employees acquire and use private information for an investment decision. In this environment, competition for promotion can turn employees into "yes men" who make investment decisions that excessively agree with their supervisor's preconceived notions. Employees become "yes men" when their supervisor's prior opinion is strong and the parties receive little subsequent information. In response to this inefficiency, the firm may intensify the tournament's incentives (e.g., increase the wage raise from promotion), increase the correlation of employees' information (e.g., use tournaments for employees handling similar tasks), reduce the importance of any individual supervisor's prior opinion (e.g., evaluate employees using a committee), or use a different incentive mechanism altogether (e.g., individual contracts). |
| Keywords: | Tournaments; Information Aggregation; Conformity |
| JEL: | D82 J33 M51 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:htr:hcecon:417&r=lab |
| By: | Andersson, Christian (Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes how student achievement is affected by resource increases in the Swedish compulsory school due to a special government grant that was enforced in the academic year of 2001/02. The analysis is based on register data that contains all students that completed compulsory schooling (ninth grade) between 1998 and 2005. The results show that socio-economic variables explain a great deal of the variation in student achievement. The study also shows that the increased resources have not had a statistical significant positive effect on the average student’s achievement. This conclusion holds true when different measures of student achievement are used. Increased resources have however improved student achievement for students with low educated parents. If teacher density is increased with 10 percent students with low educated parents are expected to increase their grade point average ranking with about 0.4 percentile units. |
| Keywords: | teacher density; student achievement; government grant |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2007–01–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2007_005&r=lab |