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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Namkee Ahn |
| Abstract: | Using the data from the Spanish survey on life quality at work, we examine the importance of intangible job characteristics in workers’ job and life satisfaction. Our analysis shows that on both job and life satisfaction, the combined monetary value of intangible job characteristics such as flexibility, independence, social usefulness, pleasant work environment, pride, stress and the perception of receiving an adequate wage, is several times more worthy than that of objective job characteristics such as wage, sector and hours of work. Furthermore, we find that some intangible job characteristics such as flexibility, work environment and stress affect directly workers’ life satisfaction rather than indirectly through their effects on job satisfaction. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2007-10&r=lab |
| By: | Chi, Wei; Li, Bo |
| Abstract: | Using 1987, 1996, and 2004 data, we show that the gender pay gap in the Chinese urban labor market has increased across the wage distribution, and the increase was greater at the lower quantiles. We interpret this as evidence of the “sticky floor” effect.We use the reweighting and recentered influence function projection method proposed by Firpo, Fortin, Lemieux (2005) to decompose gender pay differentials across the wage distribution. We find that the gender differences in the return to labor market characteristics, also known as the “discrimination effect” or “unexplained gender pay gap”, contribute most to the increase in the overall gender pay gap. The Firpo, Fortin, and Lemieux method allows us to further decompose the gender pay gap into the contribution of each individual variable. We find that the “sticky floor” effect may be associated with a particularly low paid group of female production workers with relatively less education working in non-state owned enterprises. |
| Keywords: | glass ceiling; sticky floor; gender pay gap; wage distribution; Influence Function |
| JEL: | J3 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:3544&r=lab |
| By: | Fernando Muñoz-Bullón; J. Ignacio García-Pérez |
| Abstract: | We analyze the Spanish temporary workers’ transitions into permanent employment and to what extent those who become unemployed are able to achieve a permanent job. Our focus is placed on the role of the individual’s sequence of temporary contracts on the probability of moving from temporary into permanent employment. We apply multiple-spell duration techniques to a longitudinal dataset of temporary workers obtained from Social Security records for the period 1996-2003. We basically find that even though transitions into permanent employment increase with tenure, temporary jobs do not constitute stepping stones towards permanent employment, since the probability of obtaining a permanent job decreases with repeated temporary jobs. Results also show that individuals with high duration of unemployment flow into permanent work less frequently. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2007-09&r=lab |
| By: | Johansson, Mats (Institute for Futures Studies); Katz, Katarina (Department of Economics and Business, Karlstad University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate skill mismatch and its impact on gender differences in wage gap and in returns to education in Sweden 1993 to 2002.Women are more likely to have more formal education than what is normally required for their occupation (overeducation), while men are more likely to have less (undereducation).Over- and undereducation contribute far more to the gender wage gap than years of schooling and work experience. In decompositions, adjusting for skill mismatch decreases the gender wage gap by between one tenth and one sixth. This is roughly a third to a half as much as is accounted for by segregation by industry. Thus, taking skill mismatch into account is essential for the analysis of gender wage differentiation, even though it does not alter the result that the estimated returns to education are smaller for women than for men in Sweden. |
| Keywords: | Gender differentials; discrimination; over- and undereducation |
| JEL: | J16 J24 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2007–06–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2007_013&r=lab |
| By: | Melissa Mahoney; Ajit Zacharias |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the relationships between aggregate profitability and women's labor market participation in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s. We investigate, using decomposition analysis, whether the contribution of the stagnant or declining share of wages in national income to the upswing in profitability was aided by the growing incorporation of women into employment. Comparisons are made between counterfactual and actual wage shares to assess the relative contributions of gender wage disparity and female share of employment to the changes in the wage share. Additionally, we decompose the change in wage share into distributional changes within sectors and changes in the sectoral composition of aggregate value added to examine whether the effects of gender wage disparity and female share of employment on the aggregate wage share were dominated by the effects of compositional changes. |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_496&r=lab |
| By: | J. Ignacio García-Pérez; Yolanda Rebollo |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the effect of regional wage subsidies to foster permanent employment for a sample of temporary and unemployed Spanish workers. We study the transition into permanent employment using a new dataset based on administrative Social Security registers named “La Muestra Continua de Vidas Laborales”, which is used for the first time to carry out policy evaluation exercises in the Spanish labor market. This dataset offers important advantages with respect to the Labour Force Survey, given it offers the complete labor history of the worker. Moreover, since we have individual, regional and time variation in our policy measure, we can apply a difference-in-differences estimator to identify the average treatment effect of this policy. Though, these regional policies have been implemented for almost ten years, as far as we know, this is the first attempt to evaluate them. Our main results are that, in average terms, this policy has positive but small effects on the transition rate into permanent employment either from a temporary contract or from unemployment. The incidence of these subsidies, however, is larger when the worker is in a temporary contract. It is also larger for young females while for old male workers do not have any effect. Measured at the average wage subsidy (5100 Euros) the total change in the entrance probability from a temporary to a permanent contract is around 26% for young women, 24% for middle age ones and 22% for middle age men, the most benefited workers. Nevertheless, since the transition rates to permanent contracts at the same firm are pretty low these relative changes hardly generate a change in the transition probability from a temporary to a permanent contract at the same firm. For instance, in the case of young women the estimated transition probability growths from 0.064% to 0.075% while for middle age men it changes from 0.039% to 0.041%. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2007-08&r=lab |
| By: | Maite Blázquez, José Ignacio García Pérez; José Ignacio García Pérez |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyse how the decentralization process of the Spanish educational system has affected the school-to-work transition of youths over the last years. Using individual data from the Spanish Labor Force Survey for the period 1993-2002, we estimate a simultaneous equation model for the unemployment and employment hazard rates of these workers. We include public expenditure on education, at the regional level, as an explanatory factor in both hazards. Furthermore we account for cross-regional differences regarding the decision-making authority over education. Our results reveal that for both, university and non-university levels, public expenditure on education significantly improves the chances of Spanish youths in finding the first job after completing the educational system. However, it seems that the decentralization of university education has negative effects on youths’ labor market prospects in terms of exiting from unemployment, while no effects are observed for the case of non-university education. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2007-13&r=lab |
| By: | Marcelo Medeiros; Rafael Guerreiro Osório; Joana Costa |
| Abstract: | This working paper analyzes paid and unpaid work-time inequalities among Bolivian urban adults using time use data from a 2001 household survey. We identified a gender-based division of labor characterized not so much by who does what type of work but by how much work of each type they do. There is a trade-off between paid and unpaid work, but this trade-off is only partial: women's entry into the labor market tends to result in a double shift of paid and unpaid work. We also find very high levels of within-group inequality in the distributions of paid and unpaid work-time for men and women, a sign that, beyond the sexual division of labor, subgroup differentiation is also important. Using decompositions of the inequality in the distribution of total time spent at work, we show that gender plays an important role in determining the proportion of paid to unpaid work done by individuals, but it plays a lesser role in determining the higher total workload of some individuals relative to others. |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_495&r=lab |
| By: | Jean-François Angers; Denise Desjardins; Georges Dionne (HEC Montréal); Benoit Dostie (IEA, HEC Montréal); François Guertin |
| Abstract: | We propose a parametric model based on the Poisson distribution that permits to take into account both unobserved worker and workplace heterogeneity as long as both effects are nested. By assuming that workplace and worker unobserved heterogeneity components follow a gamma and a Dirichlet distribution respectively, we obtain a closed form for the unconditional density function. We estimate the model to obtain the determinants of absenteeism using linked employer-employee Canadian data from the Workplace and Employee Survey (2003). Coefficient estimates are interpreted in the framework of the typical labor-leisure model. We show that omitting unobserved heterogeneity on either side of the employement relationship leads to notable biases in the estimated coefficients. In particular, the impact of wages on absences is underestimated in simpler models. |
| Keywords: | Absenteeism; Linked Employer-Employee Data; Employer- Employee Unobserved Heterogeneity; Count Data Models; Dirichlet Distribution |
| JEL: | J22 J29 C23 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iea:carech:0702&r=lab |
| By: | Jean Stockard (University of Oregon Department of Planning, Public Policy, and Management); Jo Anna Gray (University of Oregon Economics Department); Robert O'Brien (University of Oregon Sociology Department); Joe Stone (University of Oregon Economics Department) |
| Abstract: | The authors employ a newly developed method to disentangle age, period and cohort effects on nonmarital fertility ratios (NFR) from 1972 to 2002 for U.S. women aged 20-44 – with a focus on three specific cohort factors: family structure, school enrollment, and the ratio of men to women. All play significant roles in determining NFR and vary substantially for whites and blacks. Indeed, if black women and white women had cohort characteristics typical of the other group, age-specific NFRs for black women would decline markedly, while those for whites would increase markedly. Hence, cohort related variables contribute substantially to black-white differences in NFR in adulthood. Early family structure and education are particularly crucial in the racial differences. Most distinctively, while the impact of school enrollment on NFR is significantly negative for whites, the impact is significantly positive for blacks, perhaps due to the dominance of the “independence” effect. |
| Keywords: | fertility, cohort, unmarried births, education, family structure, sex ratio |
| JEL: | J10 I38 |
| Date: | 2007–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ore:uoecwp:2007-10&r=lab |
| By: | Nikutowski, Oliver |
| Abstract: | Due to scarcity considerations an increase in the supply of college graduates should reduce the premium for this kind of qualification. Therefore it seems quite contradictory that a tremendous educational expansion in the USA is accompanied by rising wage dispersion (overall and between educational groups). A second seemingly paradox development, which occured simultaneously, is the reduction of the total factor productivity during the emergence of the computerage - the so called productivity paradox. This contribution offers a simple unified solution to both of these puzzles and explains the educational expansion by assuming accelerated technological progress: An increase in the speed of technological progress raises the economic value of prospective periods and therefore works in favor of timeconsuming higher qualifications. The resulting educational expansion firstly goes along with a composition effect which leads to wage dispersion. Secondly the additional absence from the labor market of some more able individuals, due to the longer qualification, as well as an increasing share of individuals who choose a less productive qualification may lead to a transitory slowdown of the productivity growth rate. |
| Keywords: | Wage Dispersion; Productivity Paradox; Inequality; Distribution; Technological Progress; Technological Change; SBTC; Educational Expansion; Total Factor Productivity; Educational Signaling; Real Wage Losses |
| JEL: | J21 J22 J23 J24 J31 J82 O15 O33 O47 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:muenec:1925&r=lab |
| By: | Norberg-Schönfeldt , Magdalena (Department of Economics, Umeå University) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the role of unemployment in the dissolution of relationships by applying a two-step estimation method to an extensive data set, which contains information about young Swedish males and females. Unemployment is recognized as endogenous in the separation decision, and the results show that the effect of unemployment on separation is biased when unemployment is assumed to be exogenous in the separation equation. The probability of separation is found to be increasing with male unemployment, whereas female unemployment decreases the probability of dissolution. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment; divorce; family structure |
| JEL: | J12 |
| Date: | 2007–06–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:umnees:0707&r=lab |
| By: | Norberg-Schönfeldt , Magdalena (Department of Economics, Umeå University) |
| Abstract: | The role of financial surprises and match quality in the dissolution of relationships is explored. The analysis is carried out both for surprises in the short term earnings and surprises in the long-run earnings capacity. It is found that positive surprises in short term earnings have a destabilizing effect for a relationship. Generally, a negative surprise in long-run earnings capacity for males has a destabilizing effect. However, if it is combined with a female positive surprise, the effect is stabilizing. Commitments become more stable the older the spouses are at the start of the relationship, and if young children are present. |
| Keywords: | Match quality; financial surprises; divorce; family structure |
| JEL: | J12 |
| Date: | 2007–06–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:umnees:0706&r=lab |
| By: | Florian Hoffman; Philip Oreopoulos |
| Abstract: | Many wonder whether teacher gender plays an important role in higher education by influencing student achievement and subject interest. The data used in this paper helps identify average effects from male and female college students assigned to male or female teachers. In contrast to previous work at the primary and secondary school level, our focus on large first-year undergraduate classes isolates gender interaction effects due to students reacting to instructors rather than instructors reacting to students. In addition, by focusing on college, we examine the extent to which gender interactions may exist at later ages. We find that assignment to a same-sex instructor boosts relative grade performance and the likelihood of completing a course, but the magnitudes of these effects are small. A same-sex instructor increases average grade performance by at most 5 percent of its standard deviation and decreases the likelihood of dropping a course by 1.2 percentage points. The effects are similar when conditioning on initial ability (high school achievement), and ethnic background (mother tongue not English), but smaller when conditioning on mathematics and science courses. The effects of same-sex instructors on upper-year course selection are insignificant. |
| JEL: | I2 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13182&r=lab |
| By: | Florian Hagn; Wolfgang Maennig (University of Hamburg) |
| Abstract: | Olympic Games may have impacts on income and employment in the host city, but no ex post study has been carried out for European Olympic host cities to date. The present study closes this gap using the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. The data period examined in this study allows for analysis of long-term effects. In addition, the methodology avoids overestimating the significance of the effects. Finally, we report results for all possible combinations of pre- and post-Olympic periods. The results: income in Olympic regions grew significantly faster than in other German regions. In contrast, no employment effects were identified. |
| Keywords: | Labour market, regional economics, sports economics, World Cup, Stadium Impact |
| JEL: | L83 R53 R58 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spe:wpaper:0716&r=lab |
| By: | Stefania Albanesi; Claudia Olivetti |
| Abstract: | Until the early decades of the 20th century, women spent more than 60% of their prime-age years either pregnant or nursing. Since then, the introduction of infant formula reduced women's comparative advantage in infant care, by providing an effective breast milk substitute. In addition, improved medical knowledge and obstetric practices reduced the time cost associated with women's reproductive role. We explore the hypothesis that these developments enabled married women to increase their participation in the labor force, thus providing the incentive to invest in market skills, which in turn reduced their earnings differential with respect to men. We document these changes and develop a quantitative model that aims to capture their impact. Our results suggest that progress in medical technologies related to motherhood was essential to generate a significant rise in the participation of married women between 1920 and 1950, in particular those with young children. |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J2 J22 N3 O3 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13179&r=lab |
| By: | Randall Jones |
| Abstract: | Income inequality and relative poverty among the working-age population in Japan have risen to levels above the OECD average. This trend is partially explained by labour market dualism, with an increasing proportion of non-regular workers who are paid significantly less than regular workers, as well as by other factors, including the ageing of the workforce. Social spending as a share of GDP has been expanding in the context of population ageing, although it remains below the OECD average and the proportion received by low-income households is small. Consequently, the impact of social spending on inequality and poverty is weak compared to other OECD countries and inadequate to offset the deterioration in market income. The scope for increasing social spending is constrained by the fiscal situation. Instead, reversing the upward trend in inequality and poverty requires reforms to reduce labour market dualism and better target social spending on low-income households, particularly single parents. This Working Paper relates to the 2006 OECD Economic Survey of Japan (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/japan). <P>Inégalité des revenus, pauvreté et dépenses sociales au Japon <BR>L’inégalité des revenus et la pauvreté relative parmi la population active ont progressé au Japon jusqu’à des niveaux supérieurs à la moyenne de l’OCDE. Cette évolution s’explique en partie par le dualisme du marché du travail - la proportion croissante de travailleurs non réguliers, qui sont rémunérés sensiblement moins que les travailleurs réguliers - ainsi que par d’autres facteurs comme le vieillissement de la population active. Les dépenses sociales en pourcentage du PIB se sont accrues du fait du vieillissement de la population, mais restent inférieures à la moyenne de l’OCDE, alors que le pourcentage de ces dépenses allant aux ménages à bas revenu est faible. L’incidence des dépenses sociales sur l’inégalité et la pauvreté est donc peu marquée, par rapport à ce qui est le cas dans les autres pays de l’OCDE, et insuffisante pour compenser la dégradation du revenu marchand. Les possibilités d’augmentation des dépenses sociales sont limitées par la situation budgétaire. Pour inverser la tendance à l’aggravation de l’inégalité et de la pauvreté, il faudrait plutôt mettre en oeuvre des réformes visant à réduire le dualisme du marché du travail et à mieux cibler les dépenses sociales sur les ménages à faible revenu, en particulier les pères ou mères célibataires. Ce Document de travail se rapporte à l’Étude économique de l’OCDE du Japon, 2006 (www.oecd.org/eco/etudes/japon). |
| Keywords: | Japan, Japon, protection, employment protection, protection de l'emploi, non-regular workers, travailleurs non réguliers, income distribution, distribution des revenus, income inequality, inégalité des revenus, absolute poverty, pauvreté absolue, relative poverty, pauvreté relative, social spending, dépenses sociales, Gini coefficient, coefficient de Gini, labour market dualism, dualisme du marché du travail |
| JEL: | I32 I38 |
| Date: | 2007–06–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:556-en&r=lab |
| By: | Edith Ginglinger (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - [CNRS : UMR7088] - [Université Paris Dauphine - Paris IX]); Jacques Hamon (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - [CNRS : UMR7088] - [Université Paris Dauphine - Paris IX]) |
| Abstract: | Open market share repurchases are strictly regulated to prevent companies from profiting from insider information. We examine compliance with these rules in France, where the mandatory disclosure of share repurchases provides detailed information on repurchases actually undertaken. Using a database containing 36,848 repurchases made by 352 French firms over the period 2000-2002, we show that very few firms fully comply with the regulations for all their buybacks. Non-compliance has an adverse effect on liquidity only for the smallest and least liquid firms. |
| Keywords: | open market share repurchases, insider trading, regulations, liquidity |
| Date: | 2007–06–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00143974_v1&r=lab |
| By: | Mario Izquierdo (Banco de España); Juan F. Jimeno (Banco de España; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)); Juan A. Rojas (Banco de España) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a dynamic general equilibrium model designed to compute the aggregate impact of immigration, accounting for relevant supply and demand effects. We calibrate the model to the Spanish economy, allowing for enough heterogeneity in the demographic characteristics of immigrant and native workers. We consider an initial steady state characterized by the age structure of the Spanish population in 1995 and study the effects of several immigration scenarios on several macroeconomic variables (GDP, employment, productivity, etc.). |
| Keywords: | immigration, general equilbrium models |
| JEL: | E10 F22 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:0714&r=lab |
| By: | Ryuhei Wakasugi (Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University); Banri Ito (Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry) |
| Abstract: | It is noteworthy that intra-firm technology transfer has grown rapidly in recent years as a major part of international technology transfer. This paper presents empirical analysis of the effect of stronger Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) on technology transfer from parent firm to its subsidiaries in foreign country. The results of empirical test, based on the firm-level panel data of Japanese MNCsf foreign subsidiaries, present that the stronger protection of IPRs has a positive effect on the promotion of intra-firm technology transfer after controlling market specific factors in the host countries as well as parent-subsidiary firm specific factors. They are consistent with our theoretical prediction and also the results of the previous studies based on US firm-level data. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual Property Rights, Technology Transfer, Multinational Firms, FDI |
| JEL: | C23 F20 F23 O30 O3 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kyo:wpaper:632&r=lab |
| By: | Albert Yung-Hsu Liu; Ronald G. Ehrenberg; Jesenka Mrdjenovic |
| Abstract: | We study the adoption of Common Application membership by private four-year postsecondary institutions and its role in explaining the growth in undergraduate applications. Using data from the College Board's Annual Survey of Colleges, our estimation of proportional hazard models suggest that institutions respond to the net benefit of adoption. We estimate that membership increases applications by 5.7 to 7.0 percent and decreases yield rates by 2.8 to 3.9 percent. Acceptance rates decrease for members when their local networks are large. Membership is also associated with a decline in SAT scores and an increase in the percentage of students of color. Finally, falsification tests indicate that membership effects occur as a one-time adoption shock that persists thereafter. |
| JEL: | I21 L11 L14 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13175&r=lab |
| By: | Sinan Aral; Erik Brynjolfsson; Marshall Van Alstyne |
| Abstract: | In an effort to reveal the fine-grained relationships between IT use, patterns of information flows, and individual information-worker productivity, we study task level practices at a midsize executive recruiting firm. We analyze both project-level and individual-level performance using: (1) detailed accounting data on revenues, compensation, project completion rates, and team membership for over 1300 projects spanning 5 years, (2) direct observation of over 125,000 email messages over a period of 10 months by individual workers, and (3) data on a matched set of the same workers' self-reported IT skills, IT use and information sharing. These detailed data permit us to econometrically evaluate a multistage model of production and interaction activities at the firm, and to analyze the relationships among key technologies, work practices, and output. We find that (a) IT use is positively correlated with non-linear drivers of productivity; (b) the structure and size of workers' communication networks are highly correlated with performance; (c) an inverted-U shaped relationship exists between multitasking and productivity such that, beyond an optimum, more multitasking is associated with declining project completion rates and revenue generation; and (d) asynchronous information seeking such as email and database use promotes multitasking while synchronous information seeking over the phone shows a negative correlation. Overall, these data show statistically significant relationships among technology use, social networks, completed projects, and revenues for project-based information workers. Results are consistent with simple models of queuing and multitasking and these methods can be replicated in other settings, suggesting new frontiers for IT value and social network research. |
| JEL: | D2 D8 J44 L8 M0 O30 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13172&r=lab |
| By: | Christopher Kent (Reserve Bank of Australia); John Simon (Reserve Bank of Australia) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the effects of product and labour market regulation on growth in total factor productivity (TFP) using panel data from 1974–2003 for 18 OECD countries. Our regressions are specified so that labour and product market regulations can affect productivity both individually and in combination. While noting that the results are sensitive to the measure of labour market regulation used, we find some support for the hypothesis that lower initial levels of regulation are associated with higher TFP growth over subsequent years, and that labour and product market deregulation have more of an effect in combination. It also appears that product market deregulation has a larger positive effect on productivity growth the further a country is from the technological frontier. |
| Keywords: | structural reform; TFP growth; OECD; panel regression |
| JEL: | C33 J01 L50 O43 O57 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rba:rbardp:rdp2007-04&r=lab |
| By: | Stephanie Jasmand; Wolfgang Maennig (University of Hamburg) |
| Abstract: | Olympic Games may have impacts on income and employment in the host city, but no ex post study has been carried out for European Olympic host cities to date. The present study closes this gap using the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. The data period examined in this study allows for analysis of long-term effects. In addition, the methodology avoids overestimating the significance of the effects. Finally, we report results for all possible combinations of pre- and post-Olympic periods. The results: income in Olympic regions grew significantly faster than in other German regions. In contrast, no employment effects were identified. |
| Keywords: | Olympic Games, mega events, income, employment |
| JEL: | L83 O18 R11 R53 R58 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spe:wpaper:0712&r=lab |
| By: | Elena Bontempi (University of Ferrara); Roberto Golinelli (University of Bologna); Giuseppe Parigi (Bank of Italy Research Dept.) |
| Abstract: | From a theoretical point of view, uncertainty over the demand for a firm’s product may not have clear effects on investments, because of the influence of a number of factors, such as the production technology and the amount of competition in the product market.Until now, a deeper investigation of the interplay of different factors in the temporal dimension has not been possible because the empirical research has been based on cross-section analysis. This omission makes biased estimates of the investment-uncertainty relationship likely.The aim of this paper is to extend the findings of the empirical literature by using a panel of Italian firms over the period 1996-2004, covering a complete business cycle. The availability of a panel of survey data on companies’ investment plans, expected future sales and demand uncertainty allows us to account for unobservable individual firm differences, macroeconomic shocks and the temporal evolution of the investment-uncertainty relationship. A key finding of our paper concerns the role of the competition faced by Italian firms in 1996-2004. The gradual loss of market power experienced by Italian manufacturing firms along with the increasing flexibility of labour input may have weakened the negative effect of uncertainty on investment decisions. We show that, in repeated cross-section estimates, the omission of firm-specific effects together with the dynamic interplay described above, would have lead to misleading conclusions about the relevance of demand uncertainty in explaining investment decisions. |
| Keywords: | planned investments, demand uncertainty, survey data, panel estimation. |
| JEL: | E22 C33 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_621_07&r=lab |
| By: | Cenesiz, Alper |
| Abstract: | Empirical research on inflation and output dynamics has revealed that inflation lags output following a shock to monetary policy. To account for this fact, researchers rely on price and wage setting assumptions that are not in line with the stylized facts of wage and price setting behavior. Fair wages and fair prices, however, can explain the observed wage and price setting behavior. Hence, I develop and analyze a general-equilibrium model with fair wages and fair prices. The model can explain the observed lag-lead relation between inflation and output. Furthermore, results with respect to other key macroeconomic aggregates are also in line with their empirical counterparts. |
| Keywords: | Inflation dynamics; Price adjustment; Efficiency wages; Monetary policy. |
| JEL: | E32 E52 E31 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:3539&r=lab |
| By: | Martin Davies; Joe Hirschberg; Jenny Lye; Carol Johnston |
| Abstract: | This paper is the first attempt to perform an analysis of the internal Quality of Teaching Surveys (QTS) used in all Australian Universities by investigating how they compare across Universities. We categorize the questions on each university’s QTS into one of 18 types and then define a proximity measure between the surveys. We then use an agglomerative cluster analysis to establish groupings of these institutions on the basis of the similarity of their QTSs as well as groupings of question types by their frequency of use. In addition, we also determine if the form of the survey is related to the responses recorded by the Course Evaluation Questionnaire (CEQ) that is administered to all graduates of Australian Universities. This was done by the use of regression analysis to establish if the form of the questionnaire is related to the overall good teaching scores earned by the universities from the CEQ. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary Education; University Rankings; CEQ |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mlb:wpaper:994&r=lab |
| By: | Miguel A. Malo; Luis Toharia |
| Abstract: | In this article, we explain that, in Spain, a relatively minor reform in unemployment benefits regulation has introduced a system to dismiss at will. Therefore, the fairness of the dismissal is not important in practice, although the whole legal system requiring a fair cause for dismissals remains. We present different empirical evidence supporting such statement. |
| Keywords: | Dismissal, Labour Law, Severance Pay |
| JEL: | K31 J53 J32 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:0705&r=lab |
| By: | Stephen P. Jenkins; Thomas Siedler |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews research about the intergenerational transmission of poverty in industrialized countries. In order to make our survey manageable, we restrict attention to studies that consider the relationship between parental poverty (or 'income') during childhood and later-life outcomes; we do not explicitly consider the impact of other family background variables such as parental education. The general message is that growing up poor has a deleterious impact on later-life chances, and that this impact is not wholly explained by other factors that are themselves correlated with childhood poverty. At the same time, the studies also show that one should be cautious about drawing more specific conclusions. For example, the degree of intergenerational persistence appears to vary depending on the definition of the outcome variable, and different estimation methods provide a range of estimates. In addition, most of re-search about intergenerational links has been undertaken using US data, and it is not clear that any specific conclusions should carry over to another country with very different social norms and institutions including e.g. differences in labour market regulation, and in systems of edu-cation and social security benefits. However we conclude that, broadly speaking, the analyti-cal framework that has been used for high-income countries can also be applied to low-income countries. |
| Keywords: | Poverty, intergenerational transmission, mobility, family background, income, industrialized countries |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp693&r=lab |
| By: | Pinto, Luis Santos |
| Abstract: | The prediction of asymmetric equilibria with Stackelberg outcomes is clearly the most frequent result in the endogenous timing literature. Several experiments have tried to validate this prediction empirically, but failed to find support for it. By contrast, the experiments find that simultaneous-move outcomes are modal and that behavior in endogenous timing games is quite heterogeneous. This paper generalizes Saloner’s (1987) and Hamilton and Slutsky’s (1990) endogenous timing games by assuming that players are averse to inequality in payoffs. We explore the theoretical implications of inequity aversion and compare them to the empirical evidence. We find that this explanation is able to organize most of the experimental evidence on endogenous timing games. However, inequity aversion is not able to explain delay in Hamilton and Slutsky’s endogenous timing games. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unl:unlfep:wp505&r=lab |
| By: | Lena Edlund; Wojciech Kopczuk |
| Abstract: | The extent of and changes in inter-generational mobility of wealth are central to understanding dynamics of wealth inequality but hard to measure. Using estate tax returns data, we observe that the share of women among the very wealthy (top 0.01%) in the United States peaked in the late 1960s, reaching almost 50%. Three decades on, women's share had declined to one third, a return to pre-war levels. We argue that this pattern mirrors the relative importance of inherited vs. self-made wealth in the economy and thus the gender-composition of the wealthiest may serve as a proxy for inter-generational wealth mobility. This proxy for "dynastic wealth'' suggests that wealth mobility in the past century decreased until the 1970s and rose thereafter, a pattern consistent with technological change driving long term trends in income inequality and mobility. Greater wealth mobility in recent decades is also consistent with the simultaneous rise in top income shares and relatively stable wealth concentration. |
| JEL: | D31 J62 N32 O3 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13162&r=lab |
| By: | Abhijit Banerjee; Sebastian Galiani; Jim Levinsohn; Zoë McLaren; Ingrid Woolard |
| Abstract: | We document the rise in unemployment in South Africa since the transition in 1994. We describe the likely causes of this increase and analyze whether the increase in unemployment is due to structural changes in the economy (resulting in a new equilibrium unemployment rate) or to negative shocks (that temporarily have increased unemployment). We conclude the former are more important. Our analysis includes a multinomial logit approach to understanding transitions in individual-level changes in labor market status using the first nationally representative panel in South Africa. Our analysis highlights several key constraints to addressing unemployment in South Africa. |
| JEL: | J18 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13167&r=lab |
| By: | Lopez, Humberto; Fajnzylber, Pablo; Calderon, Cesar; Acosta, Pablo |
| Abstract: | Workers ' remittances have become a major source of income for developing countries. However, little is still known about their impact on poverty and inequality. Using a large cross-country panel dataset, the authors find that remittances in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries have increased growth and reduced inequality and poverty. These results are robust to the use of different instruments that attempt to correct for the potential endogeneity of remittances. Household survey-based estimates for 10 LAC countries confirm that remittances have negative albeit relatively small inequality and poverty-reducing effects, even after imputations for the potential home earnings of migrants. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Remittances,Inequality,Pro-Poor Growth and Inequality,Poverty Impact Evaluation |
| Date: | 2007–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4249&r=lab |
| By: | Sonya K. Huffman; Marian Rizov |
| Abstract: | This study integrates theoretical and empirical models to facilitate understanding of human obesity and the factors contributing to rising obesity in Russia during the transition from a planned to a market economy. Recent individual level data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey for 1994 and 2004 show that diet/caloric intake, smoking, gender and education are important determinants of obesity in Russia. Empirical results strongly support our model for production of health and demand for inputs in the health production function. The analysis provides information on dietary patterns and other determinants of obesity which is essential for formulation and implementation of effective policies designed to improve overall nutritional wellbeing and reduce obesity and mortality of the population. Interventions, which enhance education toward healthy lifestyles and healthy diet, could play a vital role in preventing obesity in Russia. |
| Keywords: | health, obesity, transition economies, Russia |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lic:licosd:18507&r=lab |
| By: | Aguayo, Ernesto; Chapa, Joana; Rangel, Erick; Treviño, Lourdes; Valero-Gil, Jorge |
| Abstract: | There is considerable evidence that resources are not allocated randomly within households, and that resources are unequally distributed within the family in many developing countries. Such an unequal distribution of goods usually takes the form of a bias against females. For example, girls lag markedly behind boys in schooling in many developing countries even though this gender gap has been declining in recent years. Using an OLS-Robust model and a ML-Random Effects model for the years 1992, 1998 and 2004 of ENIGH, we did not find enough statistical evidence to support the idea that poor families, nether in rural nor in urban areas, provide more education to their 12 to 18 years old sons or daughters. In fact, contrary to the common belief, we found that non-poor families, invest more in the education of their daughters, especially in the urban areas. However, this education discrimination against male children has been decreasing over the years. It is also found that female head of households are more likely to have children with higher levels of schooling and that children having both parents at home or having older brothers or sisters present higher levels of educational attainment. |
| Keywords: | Gender-bias; discrimination; Poverty; Mexican studies; intra-household allocation; |
| JEL: | I39 I29 O54 |
| Date: | 2007–05–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:3561&r=lab |