|
on Labour Economics |
| By: | Nicole Maestas (RAND); Xiaoyan Li (RAND) |
| Abstract: | Many have suggested we adopt policies that explicitly encourage the elderly to work. Behind this suggestion is the assumption that if an older person desires a job, one will be found; however, little is known about the extent to which this is true, and in the Health and Retirement Study, many more respondents say they expect to work after retirement than actually undertake work. This raises an important question: To what extent can the elderly readily find suitable jobs? In the context of a theoretical job search model, we examine the decision to search for a job and the probability of transitioning to employment using a large sample of non-workers from the Health and Retirement Study. The effects of both supply-side factors (individual characteristics) and demand-side factors (local labor market conditions) are estimated. We find employment transition rates are relatively low for older searchers: only half of older searchers successfully attain jobs. We examine various explanations for this result, including variation in search intensity, reservation wages, and the possibility of intervening health shocks. We conclude that about 13% of older job searchers becomes a discouraged worker in the sense of being willing to work at the prevailing wage, but unable to find a job. |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp133&r=lab |
| By: | Elena Giarda |
| Abstract: | This paper builds on existing studies on the relationship between individual wages, age and experience, and provides new evidence on the determinants of wages in Italy. Using a large panel of individual administrative data, it shows that wage to age profiles for different cohorts of workers are not stable over time: although younger generations of Italian workers are benefiting from higher starting wages than older generations, they face the prospect of lower growth of future earnings. It also confirms the existence of a significant supply effect: the bigger the cohort relative to the active population, the smaller the cohort’s gain in terms of wage levels. Finally, it captures the dependence of individual wages on aggregate labour market conditions: individual wages are shown to be negatively related to the rate of unemployment and positively related to the union wage index. |
| JEL: | J31 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wplabo:57&r=lab |
| By: | Marco Manacorda (Department of Economics, QMUL - CEP, LSE and CEPR); Alan Manning (Department of Economics, LSE - CEP, LSE); Jonathan Wadsworth (Department of Economics, RHUL - CEP, LSE and IZA) |
| Abstract: | Immigration to the UK has risen over time. Existing studies of the impact of immigration on the wages of native-born workers in the UK have failed to find any significant effect. This is something of a puzzle since Card and Lemieux, (2001) have shown that changes in the relative supply of educated natives do seem to have measurable effects on the wage structure. This paper offers a resolution of this puzzle – natives and immigrants are imperfect substitutes, so that an increase in immigration reduces the wages of immigrants relative to natives. We show this using a pooled time series of British cross-sectional micro data of observations on male wages and employment from the mid-1970s to the mid-2000s. This lack of substitution also means that there is little discernable effect of increased immigration on the wages of native-born workers, but that the only sizeable effect of increased immigration is on the wages of those immigrants who are already here. |
| Keywords: | Wages, Wage Inequality, Immigration |
| JEL: | J6 |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:0608&r=lab |
| By: | Albrecht Glitz (Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration, Department of Economics, University College London) |
| Abstract: | After the fall of the Berlin Wall, ethnic Germans living in the former Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries had the possibility to migrate to Germany. Within 15 years, 2.8 million individuals moved. Upon arrival these immigrants were exogenously allocated to different regions by the administration in order to ensure an even distribution across the country. Their inflows can therefore be seen as a natural experiment of immigration, avoiding the typical endogeneity problem of immigrant inflows with regard to local labour market conditions. We analyse the effect of these exogenous inflows on relative skill-specific employment and wage rates of the resident population in different geographical areas between 1996 and 2001. The variation we exploit in the empirical estimations arises primarily from differences in the initial skill composition across regions. Skill groups are defined either based on occupations or educational attainment. For both skill definitions, our results indicate a displacement effect of around 4 unemployed resident workers for every 10 immigrants that find a job. We do not find evidence for any detrimental effect on average wages. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Labour Market Impact, Skill Groups, Germany |
| JEL: | J21 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:0612&r=lab |
| By: | Alan L. Gustman (Dartmouth College and NBER); Thomas L. Steinmeier (Texas Tech University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines retirement and related behavioral responses to policies that on average are actuarially neutral. Many conventional models predict that actuarially neutral policies will not affect retirement behavior. In contrast, our model allows those with high time preference rates to find that the promise of an actuarially fair increase in future rewards does not balance the loss from foregone current benefits. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, we find that from age 62 through full retirement age, the earnings test reduces full-time work by married men by about four percentage points, or by about ten percent of married men at full-time work. Abolishing the requirements on many jobs that an individual work full-time or not at all, what we term a minimum hours constraint on employment, would induce more than twice as many people to enter partial retirement as would leave full-time work, so that total full-time equivalent (FTE) employment would increase, although by a modest amount. If all benefits from personal accounts could be taken as a lump sum, the fraction not retired at age 62 would fall by about 5 percentage points compared to a system where there is mandatory annuitization of benefits. |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp153&r=lab |
| By: | Lucie Schmidt (Williams College); Purvi Sevak (Hunter College) |
| Abstract: | The aging of the U.S. population, combined with an increasing probability that any given older individual will work, means that the importance of older workers to the labor force is rising. One possible solution to the solvency problems facing the Social Security System is increasing the labor supply of older workers. Understanding how policy levers can affect the labor supply of the elderly therefore has become increasingly important. In this paper we use data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), linked to state identifiers, to estimate the responsiveness of the labor supply of older workers to features of the tax code, on both the extensive margin of participation and the intensive margin of hours of work. This unique data set allows us to avoid some of the traditional pitfalls associated with the labor supply literature. We find evidence that the labor supply of older workers is responsive to the tax structure. Our results suggest that government policies could play a role in increasing the labor supply of individuals over the age of 65 by changing the returns to work through the tax code. |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp139&r=lab |
| By: | Steinar Holden (Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway) University of Oslo and CESifo Department of Economics, University of Oslo); Fredrik Wulfsberg (Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway) and Federal Reserve Bank of Boston) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the existence of downward real wage rigidity (drwr) in 19 OECD countries, over the period 1973–1999, using data for hourly nominal earnings at industry level. Based on a nonparametric statistical method, which allows for country and year specific variation in both the median and the dispersion of industry wage changes, we find evidence of some downward rigidity of real wages in oecd countries overall, as well as for regions and time periods. There is some evidence that real wage cuts are less prevalent under strict employment protection legislation and high union density. Generally, we find stronger evidence for downward nominal than for downward real wage rigidity. |
| Keywords: | Downward real wage rigidity, OECD, Employment protection legislation, Wage setting |
| JEL: | J3 J5 C14 C15 E31 |
| Date: | 2007–04–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bno:worpap:2007_01&r=lab |
| By: | Yashiv, Eran |
| Abstract: | The Beveridge curve depicts a negative relationship between unemployed workers and job vacancies, a robust finding across countries. The position of the economy on the curve gives an idea as to the state of the labour market. The modern underlying theory is the search and matching model, with workers and firms engaging in costly search leading to random matching. The Beveridge curve depicts the steady state of the model, whereby inflows into unemployment are equal to the outflows from it, generated by matching. |
| Keywords: | Beveridge curve; matching; search; unemployment; vacancies |
| JEL: | E24 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6236&r=lab |
| By: | Heather Antecol (Department of Economics, Claremont McKenna College); Peter Kuhn (Department of Economics, University of California); Stephen J. Trejo (Department of Economics, University of Texas) |
| Abstract: | Using 1980/81 and 1990/91 census data from Australia, Canada, and the United States, we estimate the effects of time in the destination country on male immigrants’ wages, employment, and earnings. We find that total earnings assimilation is greatest in the United States and least in Australia. Employment assimilation explains all of the earnings progress experienced by Australian immigrants, whereas wage assimilation plays the dominant role in the United States, and Canada falls in-between. We argue that relatively inflexible wages and generous unemployment insurance in countries like Australia may cause assimilation to occur along the “quantity” rather than the price dimension. |
| Date: | 2006–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:0603&r=lab |
| By: | Alfredo Ariza (Universidad Pablo de Olavide); Arantza Ugidos (Universidad del País Vasco) |
| Abstract: | Using the ECHP, we explored the determinants of having the first child in Spain. Our main goal was to study the relation between female wages and the decision to enter motherhood. Since the offered wage of non-working women is not observed, we estimate it and impute a potential wage to each woman (working and non-working). This potential wage enable us to investigate the effect of wages (the opportunity cost of time non-worked and dedicated to children) on the decision to have the first child, for both workers and non-workers. Contrary to previous results, we found that female wages are positively related to the likelihood of having the first child. This result suggests that the income effect overcomes the substitution effect when non-participants opportunity cost is also taken into account. |
| Keywords: | Motherhood, wage, opportunity cost, income effect, substitution effect |
| JEL: | A10 C13 C35 D12 J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2007–04–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehu:dfaeii:200703&r=lab |
| By: | Fabio Berton; Pietro Garibladi |
| Abstract: | The liberalization of fixed term contracts in Europe has led to a two tier regime, with a growing share of jobs covered by temporary contracts. The paper proposes a matching model with direct search in which temporary and permanent jobs coexist in a long run equilibrium. When temporary contracts are allowed, firms are willing to open permanent jobs in as much as their job filling rate is faster than that of temporary jobs. From the labour demand standpoint, a simple trade-off emerges between an ex-ante job filling rate and ex-post flexible dismissal rate. From the labor supply standpoint, a trade-off emerges between an ex-ante lower job finding rate and ex-post larger retention rate. The model features a natural sorting of firms and workers into permanent and temporary jobs. It is also consistent with the observation that workers hired on a permanent contract receive more training. The paper shows that the transition from a rigid to a two a tier regime system is always associated with a transitory fall in unemployment. |
| Keywords: | Matching Models, Temporary Jobs. |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wplabo:51&r=lab |
| By: | Alan L. Gustman (Dartmouth College and NBER); Thomas L. Steinmeier (Texas Tech University) |
| Abstract: | For married men, we find the conventional view of retirement trends -- that the long term trend to early retirement has been reversed -- is partially contradicted by recent data. Specifically, descriptive data collected from both the Census and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) suggest that for those in their fifties, over the periods 1992 to 1998 and 1998 to 2004, the trend to early retirement reasserted itself and labor force participation fell. In contrast, for those in their sixties, there was an increase in work. Similarly, for those 65 and over, the amount of work increased. Simulations with a structural retirement model suggest that the recent acceleration of the trend to early retirement for those in their fifties is not the result of the change in Social Security rules. According to our model, changes in Social Security rules are expected to reduce the number of those in their early sixties who are working. This suggests that forces other than changing Social Security rules account for the observed increase in work by those in their early sixties, and that the effects of these forces are stronger than those suggested by the trends in descriptive data. Lastly, the analysis suggests that changing Social Security rules do help to explain the increase in work by those age 65 and older. The effects of these rule changes encourage workers to remain in their long term jobs for a longer time, encourage some to return from retirement to full time work, and encourage more partial retirement. Nevertheless, the changes in retirement induced by Social Security changes have been modest. Due to Social Security changes, the number of 65 year old married men at work increases by about two percentage points at ages 65 and 66, with slightly smaller changes at 67 to 69. Given the low basic labor force participation at 65 and 66, with 20 to 25 percent at full time work, and another 17 percent at part time work, the percentage increases in work due to Social Security changes are three or four times higher. |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp127&r=lab |
| By: | Francesco Devicienti; Agata Maida; Lia Pacelli |
| Abstract: | We show that the Italian wage curve, inexistent in the eighties and early nineties, has re-emerged after the 1993 Income Policy Agreements, owing to the greater role granted to flexible and locally bargained top-up wage components. |
| Keywords: | wage curve, top-up components, panel data, institutional reforms, Italy. |
| JEL: | J30 J60 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wplabo:52&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre-Carl Michaud (RAND); Arthur van Soest (RAND & Tilburg University) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the effect of the 2000 repeal of the earnings test above the normal retirement age on retirement expectations of workers aged 51 to 61 - their probabilities to work past age 62 and 65 as well as the age at which they expect to start claiming old age social security benefits. We use administrative records linked to the HRS to create variables that accurately reflect the change in financial incentives. For men, we find results in line with theoretical predictions on the probability to work after age 65. For example, men whose marginal wage rate increased when the earnings test was repealed, showed the largest increase in the probability to work full-time past normal retirement age. For women, we do not find significant results, possibly due to omitting spouse benefits and their interaction with the earnings test. We also do not find significant evidence of effects of the repeal of the earnings test on the probability to work past age 62 or the expected claiming age. On the other hand, for those reaching the normal retirement age, deviations between the age at which Social Security benefits are actually claimed and the previously reported expected age are more negative in 2000 than in 1998, suggesting that the repeal has increased claiming immediately after reaching normal retirement age. Since our calculations show that the tax introduced by the earnings test was small when accounting for actuarial benefit adjustments and differential mortality, our results suggest that although workers form expectations in a way consistent with forward-looking behavior, they misperceive the complicated rules of the earnings test. |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp135&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Belzil (GATE - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - [CNRS : UMR5824] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines]) |
| Abstract: | Using panel data taken from the NLSY, I perform the joint estimation of i) a reduced-form dynamic model of the transition from one grade level to the next with observed and unobserved heterogeneity, and ii) a flexible version of the celebrated Mincerian wage equation with skill heterogeneity, non linearity in schooling, non-separability between the effects of schooling and experience and heteroskedasticity (after conditionning on unobserved skills). The model rejects all symplifying assumptions common in the empirical literature. In particular, the log wage regression is highly convex, even after conditionning on unobserved and observed skills. Skill heterogeneity is also found to be over-estimated when non-linearity is ignored. After conditioning on skill heterogeneity, schooling has a positive effect on wage growth. |
| Keywords: | heterogeneity ; Mincer regression ; random coefficient models ; return to experience ; returns to education |
| Date: | 2007–04–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00142542_v1&r=lab |
| By: | Booth, Alison L; Coles, Melvyn G; Gong, Xiaodong |
| Abstract: | We model educational investment and labour supply in a competitive economy with home and market production. Heterogeneous workers are assumed to have different productivities both at home and in the workplace. Following Rosen (1983), we show that there are private increasing returns to education at the labour market participation margin. We show that these depend directly on the elasticity of labour supply with respect to wages. Thus the increasing returns to education problem will be most relevant for women or other types with large enough home productivity. We estimate a three equation recursive model of working hours, wages and years of schooling, and find empirical support for the main predictions of the model. |
| Keywords: | home production; labour supply; returns to education |
| JEL: | J22 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6266&r=lab |
| By: | K. Bolin (Lund University Centre for Health Economics, Lund, Sweden); B. Lindgren (Lund University Centre for Health Economics, Lund, Sweden); P. Lundborg (Lund University Centre for Health Economics, Lund, Sweden, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and NETSPAR) |
| Abstract: | An increasing demand for both formal and informal care is likely to result from the ongoing demographic transition at the same time as there is a further move away from the traditional domestic division of labour. Public policy-making that aims at increasing the supply of informal care necessitates knowledge about the relative importance of various incentives for individual care providers. This paper takes as a point of departure that the willingness to supply informal care is partly explained by the extent to which it adversely affects labour market outcomes and analyses the effect on labour market outcomes of providing informal care to one’s elderly parent(-s) among the 50+ of Europe. Data from SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe) was used to examine the association between, on the one hand, hours of informal care provided and, on the other, (1) the probability of employment, (2) hours worked, and (3) wages, respectively. The results suggest that giving informal care to one’s elderly parents is associated with significant costs in terms of foregone labour market opportunities and that these adverse effects vary between countries. The negative effect on the employment probability and the number of hours worked, respectively, of informal-care provision was found to be stronger in central Europe than in southern Europe, while the wage rate was found to be less negatively affected in the central European countries. |
| Keywords: | Informal care; Labour-market outcomes; Endogeneity; Europe; SHARE |
| Date: | 2007–03–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20070032&r=lab |
| By: | Francesco Devicienti; Agata Maida; Lia Pacelli |
| Abstract: | revised version available as working paper n. 52 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wplabo:50&r=lab |
| By: | Bruno Contini; Ambra Poggi |
| Abstract: | In Italy, about 28% of young males starting their first job in the private sector during 1989-1993 left their jobs in the first two years; some of them experienced job to job transitions but the majority of them experienced long jobless periods. A number of empirical studies suggest that the employability of jobless people deteriorates as their joblessness persists as consequence of human capital depreciation, demotivation and/or stigma effects. The aim of this paper is to investigate mechanisms that may produce employer stigmatization, discouragement, and human capital depreciation over the course of joblessness. Therefore, we analyze the existence and the causes of negative jobless duration dependence and the impact of a period of joblessness on wages as an indicator of the depreciation of human capital during joblessness or (to some degree) the wage effect of stigmatization. Sample selection and unobserved endogeneity issues are considered and a measure of jobless loss is suggested. Our results show the presence of a negative jobless duration dependence and a strong negative wage elasticity conted to the length of joblessness. Average jobless loss seems to be large. |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wplabo:48&r=lab |
| By: | Sachiko Kuroda (Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan (currently Hitotsubashi University, E-mail: kuroda@ier.hit-u.ac.jp)); Isamu Yamamoto (Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan (currently Keio University, E-mail: yamamoto@fbc.keio.ac.jp)) |
| Abstract: | Using Japanese data from the 1990s aggregated by prefecture, age group, and sex, we estimate Frisch labor supply elasticity, which has been seldom estimated in Japan. The change in labor supply can be decomposed into two labor-supply behaviors: extensive margin, indicating workersf entry and exit from the labor market; and intensive margin, indicating changes in hours of work in response to a wage change. Our estimates of the Frisch elasticity on the extensive and intensive margins combined are in the range of 0.2 to 0.7 for males, 1.3 to 1.5 for females, and 0.7 to 1.0 for both sexes. Our estimates of the Frisch elasticity on only the intensive margin are in the range of 0.1 to 0.2 for all three categories. These results suggest that extensive margin explains the bulk of labor-supply changes in Japan. As for the changes in the estimates of the Frisch elasticity in Japan from the 1990s, it has been either unchanged or in a declining trend on the extensive and intensive margins combined, either unchanged or in a slight rising trend on only the intensive margin, and in a declining trend on only the extensive margin. |
| Keywords: | Labor supply, Frisch elasticity, Extensive margin, Intensive margin |
| JEL: | E24 J22 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ime:imedps:07-e-05&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Dustmann (Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration, Department of Economics, University College London); Albrecht Glitz (Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration, Department of Economics, University College London); Thorsten Vogel (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration.) |
| Abstract: | Differences in the cyclical pattern of employment and wages of immigrants relative to natives have largely gone unnoticed in the migration literature. In this paper we show that immigrants and natives react differently to the economic cycle. Based on over two decades of micro data, our investigation is for two of the largest immigrant receiving countries in Europe which at the same time are characterised by different immigrant populations as well as different economic cycles, Germany and the UK. Understanding the magnitude, nature and possible causes of differences in responses is relevant for assessing the economic performance of immigrant communities over time. We show that there are substantial differences in cyclical responses between immigrants and natives. Our analysis illustrates the magnitude of these differences, while distinguishing between different groups of immigrants. Differences in responses may be due to differences in the skill distribution between immigrant groups and natives, or differences in demand for immigrants and natives of the same skills due to differential allocation of immigrants and natives across industries and regions. We demonstrate that substantial differences in cyclical patterns remain, even within narrowly defined groups. Finally, we estimate a more structural factor type model that, using regional variation in economic conditions, separates responses to economic shocks from a secular trend and allows us to obtain a summary measure for these differences within education groups. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Wage Structure, Business Cycle |
| JEL: | E32 F22 J31 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:0609&r=lab |
| By: | Arie Kapteyn (RAND); James P. Smith (RAND); Arthur van Soest (RAND); James Banks (University College London) |
| Abstract: | Many western industrialized countries face strong budgetary pressures due to the aging of the baby boom generations and the general trends toward earlier ages of retirement. The commonality of these problems has the advantage of offering an empirical laboratory for the testing of programmatic incentives on labor force participation and retirement decisions that would not be possible in a single country where programs typically only change very slowly. One can gauge the effect of policies by analyzing the differences in the prevalence of unemployment, early retirement or work disability across countries. We use the American PSID and the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) to explain differences in prevalence and dynamics of self-reported work disability and labor force status. To that end we specify a two-equations dynamic panel data model describing the dynamics of labor force status and self-reported work disability. We find that transitions between work and non-work are more frequent in the US than in the 13 European countries we analyze. For self-reported work disability we don’t observe similar differences in transition rates between disability states, although overall Americans are less likely to report work disabilities. The difference in outflow out of work between the US and Europe appears to be smaller than the difference in inflow into work. When we apply the US parameters of the flow from non-work to work , the net result is that Europeans tend to work more. |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp149&r=lab |
| By: | Rosa Dias; Dorrit Posel (Division of Economics,University of KwaZulu-Natal) |
| Abstract: | Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship between education and unemployment in Post-Apartheid South Africa, and probes the argument that employment growth has been inhibited particularly by skills constraints. We use probit regression analysis to show that higher education protected against unemployment in both 1995 and 2003, and that overall, the relative benefits to tertiary education rose over the period. We show also that these aggregate trends mask substantial variation among race groups and within race groups, among men and women. However, after taking into account changes in the survey instruments used to measure employment, we find only modest evidence of skills-intensive employment growth. Rather, the increase in formally qualified labour was considerably larger than the increase in demand for skilled and semi-skilled labour over the period, and so unemployment rates even among graduates increased over the period. |
| Keywords: | South Africa: education, unemployment, skills constraints |
| JEL: | A1 |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctw:wpaper:9626&r=lab |
| By: | Boockmann, Bernhard; Steffes, Susanne |
| Abstract: | Job mobility and employment durations can be explained by different theoretical approaches, such as job matching or human capital theory or dual labor market approaches. These models may, however, apply to different degrees at different durations in the employment spell. Standard empirical techniques, such as hazard rate analysis, cannot deal with this problem. In this paper, we apply censored quantile regression techniques to estimate employment durations of male workers in Germany. Our results give some support to the job matching model: individuals with a high risk of being bad matches exhibit higher exit rates initially, but the effect fades out over time. By contrast, the influence of human capital variables such as education and further training decreases with employment duration, which is inconsistent with the notion of increasing match-specific rents due to human capital accumulation. The results also suggest that the effects of certain labor market institutions, such as works councils, differ markedly between short-term and long-term employment, supporting the view that institutions give rise to dual labor markets. |
| Keywords: | Job Durations, Mobility, Matching, Human Capital, Quantile Regression |
| JEL: | C41 J62 J63 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:5502&r=lab |
| By: | Fida Karam (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne); Bernard Decaluwé (Université de Laval - Département d'Economie) |
| Abstract: | Recent economic literature on the impact of migration on the country of origin has not successfully analyzed the effect of migration on unemployment and wage rate especially in urban area. Using a detailed CGE model applied to the moroccan economy, we are able to show that if we take into account simultaneously moroccan emigration to European Union, immigration from Sub-Saharan Africa into Morocco and rural-urban migration, the impact on wage rate and unemployment is ambiguous. |
| Keywords: | Imperfect labor market, migration, computable general equilibrium model. |
| JEL: | C68 F22 J44 J61 J64 |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:bla07016&r=lab |
| By: | James M. Malcomson; Sophocles Mavroeidis |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bro:econwp:2007-02&r=lab |
| By: | Jody Schimmel (Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.) |
| Abstract: | Health insurance coverage in the years prior to retirement is particularly important because it protects the household from the financial risks of uninsurance as well as the health consequences of delaying care while uninsured. While results from the retirement "job lock" literature show that those who would lack coverage after retirement continue to work to maintain benefits, little work has explored the types of health insurance choices made by couples after retirement. It may be difficult for a married man to coordinate continuous coverage for a younger wife whose primary source of coverage has been from the husband, and thus households may pay more for non-group coverage or be exposed to the risks of uninsurance. This paper studies a panel of married couples from the 1992-2004 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to study the types of health insurance decisions households make around the time of retirement. Results indicate that households seem to do well at avoiding uninsurance at the time of retirement, but may make high cost choices in order to insure the wife. Men switch into Medicare or coverage from their wife at retirement if they lose their own coverage, but a large fraction of women take-up privately purchased coverage. In fact, the transition from husband’s coverage to privately purchased coverage is twice as large in periods when the husband retires than otherwise. Transitions to uninsurance are lower in periods of retirement than at other times, suggesting that men continue to work if either spouse would lose coverage. Though less risky, insurance purchased in the non-group market is expensive relative to employer-sponsored coverage. Thus, married households may need to increase savings to pay for health insurance that bridges the gap until the wife can claim Medicare at age 65. |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp131&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Dustmann (Department of Economics and Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), University College London); Francesca Fabbri (Munich Graduate School of Economics and Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM)) |
| Abstract: | The main objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive description of the economic outcomes and performance of Britain’s immigrant communities today and over the last two decades. We distinguish between males and females and, where possible and meaningful, between immigrants of different origin. Our comparison group are white British born individuals. Our data source is the British Labour Force Survey (LFS). We first provide descriptive information on the composition of immigrants in Britain, and how this has changed over time, their socio-economic characteristics, their industry allocation, and their labour market outcomes. We then investigate various labour market performance indicators (labour force participation, employment, wages, and self-employment) for immigrants of different origin, and compare them to British-born whites of same age, origin, and other background characteristics. We find that over the last 20 years, Britain’s immigrant population has changed in origin composition, and has dramatically improved in skill composition - not dissimilar from the trend in the British born population. We find substantial differences in economic outcomes between white and ethnic minority immigrants. Within these groups, immigrants of different origin differ considerably with respect to their education and age structure, their regional distribution, and sector choice. In general, white immigrants are more successful in Britain, although there are differences between groups of different origin. The investigation shows that immigrants from some ethnic minority groups, and in particular females, are particularly disadvantaged, with Pakistanis and Bangladeshis at the lower end of this scale. |
| Keywords: | International Migration, Economic Performance |
| JEL: | J15 |
| Date: | 2005–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:0507&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Dustmann (Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration, Department of Economics, University College London); Nikolaos Theodoropoulos (Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration(CReAM), University College London.) |
| Abstract: | According to the 2001 UK Census ethnic minority groups account for 4.6 million or 7.9 percent of the total UK population. The 2001 British Labour Force Survey indicates that the descendants of Britain’s ethnic minority immigrants form an important part of the British population (2.8 percent) and of the labour force (2.1 percent). In this paper, we use data from the British Labour Force Survey over the period 1979-2005 to investigate educational attainment and economic behaviour of ethnic minority immigrants and their children in Britain. We compare different ethnic minority groups born in Britain to their parent’s generation and to equivalent groups of white native born individuals. Intergenerational comparisons suggest that British born ethnic minorities are on average more educated than their parents as well more educated than their white native born peers. Despite their strong educational achievements, we find that ethnic minority immigrants and their British born children exhibit lower employment probabilities than their white native born peers. However, significant differences exist across immigrant/ethnic groups and genders. British born ethnic minorities appear to have slightly higher wages than their white native born peers. But if British born ethnic minorities were to face the white native regional distribution and were attributed white native characteristics, their wages would be considerably lower. The substantial employment gap between British born ethnic minorities and white natives cannot be explained by observable differences. We suggest some possible explanations for these gaps. |
| Keywords: | Ethnic Minorities/Immigrants, Education, Intergenerational comparisons, Employment, Wages |
| JEL: | J15 I20 J62 J21 J30 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:0610&r=lab |