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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Säve-Söderbergh, Jenny (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | Men and women’s labor market outcomes differ along pay, promotion and competitiveness. This paper contributes by uncovering results in a related unexplored field using unique data on individual wage bargaining. We find striking gender differences. Women, like men, also bargain, but they submit lower wage bids and are offered lower wages than men. The adjusted gender wage gap is lower with posted-wage jobs than with individual bargaining, although less is ascribable to the term associated with discrimination. Both women and men use self-promoting, or competitive bargaining strategies, but women self-promote at lower levels. Employers reward self-promotion but the larger the self-promotion, the larger is the gender gap in bargaining success. Women therefore lack the incentives to self-promote, which helps to explain the gender disparities. |
| Keywords: | Individual Wage Bargaining; Competitiveness; Bargaining strategies; Self-promoting Bargaining Strategies; Gender Wage Gap; and Discrimination. |
| JEL: | J16 J31 M51 M52 |
| Date: | 2007–05–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2007_007&r=lab |
| By: | Decreuse, Bruno; Zylberberg, André |
| Abstract: | We propose a search equilibrium model in which homogeneous firms post wages along with a vacancy to attract job-seekers, while homogeneous unemployed workers invest in costly job-seeking. The key innovation relies on the organization of the search market and the search behavior of the job-seekers. The search market is segmented by wage level, and individuals are ubiquitous in the sense they can choose the amount of search effort spent on each (sub-)market. We show that there exists a non-degenerate equilibrium wage distribution. Remarkably, the density of this wage distribution is hump-shaped, and it can be right-tailed. Our results are illustrated by an example originating a Beta wage distribution. |
| Keywords: | Search effort; Segmented markets; Equilibrium wage dispersion |
| JEL: | J31 J64 J41 D83 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:3630&r=lab |
| By: | Shintaro Yamaguchi |
| Abstract: | What are the sources of rapid wage growth during a worker’s early career? To address this question, I construct and estimate a model of strategic wage bargaining with on-the-job search to explore three different components of wages: general human capital, match-specific capital, and outside option. Workers search for alternative job opportunities on the job and accumulate human capital through learning-by-doing. As the workers find better job opportunities, the current employer has to compete with outside firms to retain them. This between-firm competition improves the outside option value of the worker, which results in wage growth on the job even when productivity remains the same. The model is estimated by a simulated minimum distance estimator and data from the NLSY 79. The parameter estimates are used to simulate counterfactuals. The results indicate that the improved value of outside option raises wages of ten-year-experienced workers by 16%, which accounts for about 30% of the wage growth during the first ten years of career. I also find that human capital accumulation affects wage profile not only because it directly changes labor productivity, but also because it alters job search behavior due to low future productivity. |
| Keywords: | Search, Matching, Age-earnings profile, Structural Estimation |
| JEL: | J31 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:deptwp:2007-03&r=lab |
| By: | Mark L. Bryan; Almudena Sevilla Sanz |
| Abstract: | Women working full-time in the UK earn on average about 18% per hour less than men (EOC, 2005). Traditional labour economics has focussed on gender differences in human capital to explain the gender wage gap. Although differences in male and female human capital are recognized to derive from different household responsibilities over the life cycle, there is also a lesser-studied and more direct effect of household activities on wages. In a broad economic sense, household activities require effort, which decreases labour market productivity and thus wages. This paper first documents the relationship between housework and wages in Britain and applies a variety of econometric techniques to pin down the effect of housework on wages. It further explores what dimensions of housework are at the root of the relationship between housework and wages. After controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, we find a negative effect of housework on wages for married female workers, but not for single workers or married male workers. This differential effect across marital status suggests that the factors behind the relationship between housework and wages are the type and timing of housework activities as much as the actual time devoted to housework. |
| Keywords: | Housework, Wages, Marriage, Gender Wage Gap |
| JEL: | J12 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:331&r=lab |
| By: | Silvio Rendon (Centro de Investigacion Economica (CIE), Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM)); Giovanna Aguilar (Universidad Catolica del Peru) |
| Abstract: | To assess the employment effects of labor costs it is crucial to have reliable estimates of the labor cost elasticity of labor demand. Using a matched firm-worker dataset, we estimate a long run unconditional labor demand function, exploiting information on workers to correct for endogeneity in the determination of wages. We evaluate the employment and deadweight loss effects of observed employers' contributions imposed by labor laws (health insurance, training, and taxes) as well as of observed workers' deductions (social security, and income tax). We find that non-wage labor costs reduce employment by 17% for white-collars and by 53% for blue-collars, with associated deadweight losses of 10% and 35% of total contributions, respectively. Since most firms undercomply with mandated employers' and workers contributions, we find that full compliance would imply employment losses of 4% for white-collars and 12% for blue-collars, with respective associated deadweight losses of 2% and 6%. |
| Keywords: | Employment, Deadweight Loss, Job Creation, Labor Costs, Labor Law |
| JEL: | J23 J32 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cie:wpaper:0704&r=lab |
| By: | Di Tommaso Maria Laura (University of Turin); Strom Steinar (University of Turin); Saether Erik Magnus |
| Abstract: | When entering the job market, nurses choose among different kínd of jobs. Each of these jobs is characterized by wage, sector (primary care or hospital) and shift (daytime work or shift). This paper estimates a multisector-job-type random utílity model of labor supply on data for Norwegian registered nurses in 2000. The empirical model implies that labor supply is rather inelastic; 10 percent increase in the wage rates for all nurses is estímaled to vield 3.3 percent íncrease in overall labor supply. This modest response shadows for much stronger inter job-type responses. Our approach differs from previous studíes in two ways: First, to our knowledge,it ís thefirst tíme that a model of labour supply for nurses ís estímated takíng explícíty ínto account the choices that RN's have regarding work place and type of job. Second, it differs from previous studies with respect to the measurement of the compensations for different types of work. So far, it has been focused on wage differentíals. But there are more attributes of a job than the wage. Based on the estimated random utílíty model we therefore calculate the expected value of compensatíon that makes a utílíty maxìmìzìng agent indifferent between types of jobs, here behween shift work and daytìme work. It turns out that Nondegian nurses working shifis may be willing to work shift relative to daytime work for lower wage than the current one. |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:200704&r=lab |
| By: | Michael Fuchs; Mattia Makovec; Asghar Zaidi |
| Abstract: | The policy agenda of extending working lives requires a holistic understanding of factors underlying the decision of older workers to withdraw from work and to retire. This brief paper presents employment patterns and trends of older people across EU Member States and identifies policy initiatives that would encourage more flexible and later retirement. The descriptive empirical evidence (from the EU Labour Force Survey) indicates that there are a broad range of experiences in EU countries with respect to the employment of older workers (those aged 50 and over). Strikingly, in the majority of EU15 countries, close to one-half of those of 50 and over are either unemployed or inactive, with reliance either on early retirement pensions or on social assistance benefits. The recent pension reforms in a number of these countries have increased the retirement age and this is likely to induce older workers to work longer. There is already some evidence that the effective retirement age is on the increase. Results suggest that the increase in older workers' employment is stronger for women than for men, and also for more highly educated. In most instances older workers either tend to be in full-time employment or inactive with very few occupying intermediate positions. Although there is some evidence of a gradual transition towards retirement, there is still a relatively minor proportion of the work force taking advantage of this, as well over 70% of men and around 55% of women in employment in their early 60s worked 35 hours a week or more. The policy aim should therefore be to encourage 'flexible and later retirement'. Additional incentives need to be provided so that people are not only able to move between jobs in later working life but also able to work part-time, without losing their entitlement to benefits (such as early retirement pensions). Such policy incentives will enable workers to avoid the phenomenon of a 'cliff-edge' fall into retirement that many of them often face. |
| Keywords: | Retirement, Retirement Policies, Labour Force and Employment, Size, and Structure |
| JEL: | J26 J21 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sticas:/112&r=lab |
| By: | Johannes Van Biesebroeck |
| Abstract: | Using a matched employer-employee data set of manufacturing plants in three sub-Saharan countries, I compare the marginal productivity of different categories of workers with the wages they earn. A methodological contribution is to estimate the firm level production function jointly with the individual level wage equation using a feasible GLS estimator. The additional information of individual workers leads to more precise estimates, especially of the wage premiums, and to a more accurate test. The results indicate that equality holds strongly for the most developed country in the sample (Zimbabwe), but not at all for the least developed country (Tanzania). Moreover, the breakdown in correct remuneration in the two least developed countries follows a distinct pattern. On the one hand, wage premiums exceed productivity premiums for general human capital characteristics (experience and schooling). On the other hand, salaries hardly increase for more firm-specific human capital characteristics (tenure and training), even though these have a clear productivity effect. |
| Keywords: | Labor market efficiency; wage gap; human capital |
| JEL: | J31 O12 |
| Date: | 2007–06–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-291&r=lab |
| By: | Gartell, Marie (Institute for futures studies); Jans, Ann-Christin (Swedish Social Insurance Agency); Persson, Helena (Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations (SACO)) |
| Abstract: | Using employer-employee data covering the whole Swedish economy over a uniquely long time period from 1986 to 2002, we examine how job flows and worker flows have been distributed both on an aggregate level and across educational levels. We find that job and worker flows vary by educational level, not only with respect to magnitude and variation, but with respect to direction as well. Our results show that analyses that do not account for the educational level of workers can be very misleading. |
| Keywords: | Linked employer-employee data; job and worker flows; education |
| JEL: | I20 J21 J23 |
| Date: | 2007–05–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2007_014&r=lab |
| By: | Peter Auer (International Labour Office, Economic and Labour Market Analysis Department) |
| Keywords: | employment security, labour flexibility, unemployment benefit, labour policy, social dialogue, OECD countries |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:empelm:2007-03&r=lab |
| By: | Máximo Rossi (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Cecilia González (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we contrast the Concentration Hypothesis developed by Bergmann (1971 and 1974) for the 1986-1997 period. This “hypothesis” maintain that women concentration in a few occupations caused by discrimination, produce a decrease in wages of all individuals in these occupations. Also, we make the Macpherson and Hirsch (1995) decomposition of wages differences to obtain the share of discrimination and no-discrimination components in the wage difference obtained. The results show that female concentration affects all individuals in one occupation, but women are the most affected since female wages decreased more than male wages in the “female” occupations. The wage differential decomposition shows that gender difference was decreased in the period. However, is the non discriminatory component which contributes to a less difference, whereas the discriminatory component increases during the period. In special, the feminization is the part of the wage differential that rises. |
| Keywords: | wage differentials, labor discrimination |
| JEL: | J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:0407&r=lab |
| By: | Sáez Fernández, Felipe (Departamento de Análisis Económico (Teoría e Historia Económica). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.); Sánchez-Romero, Miguel (Departamento de Análisis Económico (Teoría e Historia Económica). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.); Vera Grijalba, Joaquín (Departamento de Análisis Económico (Teoría e Historia Económica). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we have studied the employment and nonemployment transitions in Spain from 1996 to 2005. To do so, we have used a multi-state multiepisode duration model and a censured continuous-time Markovian matrix. By using the censured Markovian matrix, we have been able to balance the negative effect that censure has on the estimated parameters. The results obtained suggest that women have a probability of employment six percent lower than men. In addition, we have been able to show that Spanish employees experience three different stages of employment during their first decade in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | Employment and Nonemployment Transitions; Multi-state Multi-episode Duration Model; Hazard Rate; Censured Continuous-time Markovian Matrix |
| JEL: | C41 J64 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uam:wpaper:200709&r=lab |
| By: | Decreuse, Bruno |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a multi-sector matching model where workers have (symmetric) sector-specific skills and the search market is segmented by sector. Workers choose the range of markets they are willing to participate in. I identify a composition externality: workers do not take into account the impact of their choice on sector-specific mean productivity among the pools of job-seekers. Consequently, workers prospect too many market segments, and there is room for public policy even when the so-called Hosios condition holds. |
| Keywords: | Composition effects; Heterogeneity; Segmented markets; Efficiency |
| JEL: | J64 D83 D62 |
| Date: | 2003 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:3636&r=lab |
| By: | Daudey, Emilie; Decreuse, Bruno |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of higher education on the labour share. It is based on the following idea: as education offers adaptability skills, it should reduce employers’ monopsony power and, therefore, increase the labour share. This idea is developed in a two-sector model with search unemployment and wage competition between employers to attract/keep workers. Using panel data for eleven OECD countries, we show that the proportion of higher educated in the population has a significant positive effect on the labour share: typically, an increase of one standard deviation in higher education induces a three point increase in the labour share. The other determinants of the labour share are compatible with the theoretical model. They include the capital-output ratio (-), minimum to median wage ratio (+), union density (+). We also find that the unemployment rate has a negative and significant impact on the labour share, which, together with the positive impact of higher education, is incompatible with a three-factor model where factors are paid their marginal products. |
| Keywords: | Search frictions; Adaptability; Labour share; Macroeconomic panel data |
| JEL: | J60 E25 I20 |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:3631&r=lab |
| By: | Anton Hallam; Ernst Juerg Weber (UWA Business School, The University of Western Australia) |
| Abstract: | In the 1970s, work hours in Europe were similar to work hours in America, but today Europeans work less than Americans. Prescott (2004) attributes the decline in European work hours to an increase in the effective marginal tax rate on labour income. The Australian labour market experience confirms that the taxation of labour income is an important determinant of the decision to work. In Australia taxes and work hours did not change much in the long-run, but Australian work hours rebounded after a temporary increase in taxes in the 1980s. The resilience of Australian work hours suggests that a return to the tax rates of the 1970s would restore the European labour supply. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwa:wpaper:07-09&r=lab |
| By: | Frenette, Marc; Coulombe, Simon |
| Abstract: | Young women have gained considerable ground on young men in terms of educational attainment in the 1990s. The objective of this study is to assess the role of rapidly rising educational attainment among young women in raising their relative position in the labour market. The findings suggest that the educational trends have not contributed towards a decline in the full-time employment gap. Nevertheless, they have contributed towards a decline in the gender earnings gap, especially in the 1990s. However, university-educated women have lost ground to university-educated men. This is likely due to the fact that men and women continued to choose traditional disciplines during the 1990s, but only male-dominated disciplines saw improvements in average earnings. |
| Keywords: | Education, training and learning, Society and community, Educational attainment, Outcomes of education, Women and gender |
| Date: | 2007–06–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2007301e&r=lab |
| By: | Servaas Storm (Department of Economics, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.); C.W.M. Nastepaad |
| Abstract: | The impact of labour market regulation on labour productivity growth is ambiguous: on the one hand, regulation raises labour adjustment costs, which negatively affects productivity; but on the other hand, regulation may (for various reasons) raise worker motivation and commitment and (by means of wage bargaining co-ordination) stimulate labour-saving technological progress, thus raising productivity. We present empirical evidence for a cross-section of 20 OECD countries (1984-1997) that relatively rigid (i.e. regulated and co-ordinated) labour markets promote long-run labour productivity growth. This conclusion is reinforced when we differentiate between (three) categories of labour markets in the OECD countries and test for differences in productivity performance. |
| Keywords: | labour productivity, employment security, labour flexibility, measurement, OECD countries |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:empelm:2007-04&r=lab |
| By: | Bingqin Li; Huamin Peng |
| Abstract: | The construction industry is important for Chinese rural to urban migrants. Over 90% of urban construction workers are rural migrants, and over a third of all rural migrants work in construction. The construction industry is not only particularly important, but is also different from other industries in its pay and labour recruitment practices. In common with other rural workers, construction workers have long suffered from various problems, including delayed payment of salaries and exclusion from urban social security schemes. State policies designed to deal with these problems have in general had mixed success. Partly as a result of the peculiarities of the construction industry, state policy has been particularly unsuccessful in dealing with the problems faced by construction workers. This paper considers both the risks rural workers in the construction industry face because of the work they do and the risks they face and because of their being rural workers. It shows that social protection needs to take into account both the work related risks and status related risks. The authors first review the literature concerning work related risks, and then build up a framework to analyse the risks embedded in their work and status, and the relationship between these risks and the existing formal social protection. Thirty one in depth interviews with construction workers, carried out in Tianjin, PRC, are used to demonstrate both the risks and the inability of the state-led social policy to tackle these risks. The results suggest that rural construction workers in cities were exposed to all sorts of problems from not being paid for their work in time to miserable living conditions, from having to pay for their own healthcare to no savings for old age. This paper highlights the problems of policy prescriptions that failed to recognise the complexity of the problems faced by these workers and criticises the tendency to seek quick fixes rather than long-term and careful institutional design. |
| Keywords: | social security, rural-urban migrants, construction workers, industrial organisation, social exclusion, People’s Republic of China, work related risks |
| JEL: | H75 H87 I38 J18 J28 J8 O15 O53 P25 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sticas:/113&r=lab |
| By: | David M. Arseneau; Sanjay K. Chugh |
| Abstract: | Costly nominal wage adjustment has received renewed attention in the design of optimal policy. In this paper, we embed costly nominal wage adjustment into the modern theory of frictional labor markets to study optimal fiscal and monetary policy. Our main result is that the optimal rate of price inflation is highly volatile over time despite the presence of sticky nominal wages. This finding contrasts with results obtained using standard sticky-wage models, which employ Walrasian labor markets at their core. The presence of shared rents associated with the formation of long-term employment relationships sets our model apart from previous work on this topic. The existence of rents implies that the optimal policy is willing to tolerate large fluctuations in real wages that would otherwise not be tolerated in a standard model with Walrasian labor markets; as a result, any concern for stabilizing nominal wages does not translate into a concern for stabilizing nominal prices. Our model also predicts that smoothing of labor tax rates over time is a much less quantitatively-important goal of policy than standard models predict. Our results demonstrate that the level at which nominal wage rigidity is modeled -- whether simply lain on top of a Walrasian market or articulated in the context of an explicit relationship between workers and firms -- can matter a great deal for policy recommendations. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgif:893&r=lab |
| By: | Rocco Macchiavello |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a theoretical analysis of the relationship between public sector motivation and development. In the model the public sector produces a public good and workers are heterogeneous in terms of public sector motivation (PSM). Wages in the private sector increase with the quality of the public good. In this context, public sector wage premia (PSWP) have two opposite effects: low PSWP helps screen workers with PSM into the public sector, while high PSWP helps motivate workers to be honest. Raising PSWP may not improve the quality of governance and multiple equilibria might arise. The model highlights that the relative importance of workers selection and provision of "on the job" incentives in the public sector varies in systematic ways with wages in the private sector. We provide anecdotal and original empirical evidence consistent with the theoretical predictions and discuss some policy implications for public sector reforms in developing countries. |
| Keywords: | Public Sector Motivation, Developing Countries, Corruption, Multiple Equilibria |
| JEL: | D73 H10 O11 P49 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:332&r=lab |
| By: | Alice Coulter; Hartley Dean |
| Abstract: | 'Work-life balance' generally refers to how people may combine paid employment with family responsibilities. The UK government's attempts to promote work-life balance are connected to wider concerns to maximise labour-force participation and include policies on tax credits, child care and employment rights. Employers favour work-life balance if it promotes the flexibility of labour supply and enables them to retain valued staff. There are concerns about the extent to which work-life balance policies benefit lower-income groups. This paper reports findings from a study, based on in-depth interviews with 42 economically active parents from a low-income neighbourhood. Participants supported the idea of work-life balance, but many found it difficult to achieve. Stress and long hours are unavoidable in some jobs, or else income and prospects must be forgone in order to obtain 'family-friendly' working conditions. Employment rights are poorly understood. Standards of management at work are inconsistent. Pay levels are insufficient and, though benefits/tax credits help, they are complex and badly administered. Childcare provision is available, but quality and access is uneven. Participants had mixed views as to the efficacy of support and services available in the neighbourhood. Participants offered different accounts of their experiences depending upon whether they were having to put their work first or family life first, and whether they felt ambivalent or content about this. The clearest finding was that participants tended to be fundamentally disempowered - by the unpredictability of the labour market, the dominance of a 'business case' rationale, their lack of confidence in childcare provision and a lack of belief in their employment and benefit rights. |
| Keywords: | work-life balance, low-income, employment rights, tax credits, childcare |
| JEL: | I38 J22 J40 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sticas:/114&r=lab |
| By: | Azmat, Ghazala; Manning, Alan; Van Reenen, John |
| Abstract: | Labour's share of GDP in most OECD countries has declined over the last two decades. Some authors have suggested that these changes are linked to deregulation of product and labour markets. To examine this we focus on a large quasi-experiment in the OECD: the privatization of many network industries (e.g. telecommunications and utilities). We present a model with agency problems, imperfect product market competition and worker bargaining which makes clear predictions on how the labour share, employment and wages respond to privatization and other regulatory changes. We exploit cross-country panel data on several network industries and find that privatization can account for a significant proportion of the fall of labour's share (a fifth overall, but over half in Britain and France). The impact of privatization has been offset by falling barriers to entry, which consistent with theory, dampens profit margins. |
| Keywords: | Entry Regulation; Labour share; Privatization; Wages |
| JEL: | E22 E24 E25 J30 L32 L33 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6348&r=lab |
| By: | Chung, Heejung |
| Abstract: | Labour market flexibility continues to be one of the key issues in the reform of labour markets in welfare states. The way in which various countries adapt to this need differs according to their institutions and prevailing strategies. Despite the vast numbers of studies addressing this issue, labour market flexibility has been examined predominantly by concentrating on the arrangements that firms adopt to adjust to market fluctuations. Thus flexibility arrangements are perceived to exist only to facilitate employers’ or companies’ needs. However, flexibility in the labour market also enables individuals to accommodate various needs that occur throughout their life course and to facilitate one’s work-life balance. As companies adapt to business cycles with labour market flexibility, workers adapt to life cycles with it. Based on this definition, flexibility practices of companies can be measured two dimensionally, on one side its overall level and another to whom it is (more) geared towards, workers or the company. In addition, this study examines flexibility at the establishment level, in contrast to previous studies of flexibility which focus on the institutional/regulatory level or the individual behavioural level. The aims of this project are three-fold: firstly to examine the various practices of flexibility in companies to see if flexibility can indeed be partitioned as described above; secondly through aggregating company data to the country level, see whether there are cross-national variances in the degree and focus of flexibility practices; and lastly to investigate the relationship between the use of flexibility options for employers and those for employees. The data used to answer these questions is the European Survey of Working-Time and Work-life Balance, a survey based on the establishment level covering 21 EU member states for the year 2004/2005. The outcomes show that based on the practices of companies, flexibility can indeed be distinguished depending on whose flexibility it accommodates. Moreover, they show that countries where the average company has more flexibility arrangements for employers it provides more arrangements for employees as well, and there seems to be more variation in the provision of the latter than the former. |
| Keywords: | labour market flexibility; flexibility arrangements; company level; European Survey of Working-Time and Work-life Balance; ESWT; worker's flexibility; company's flexibility; working time; work-life balance; cross-national comparative study |
| JEL: | P00 J01 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:2397&r=lab |
| By: | Charlot, Olivier; Decreuse, Bruno |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the efficiency of educational choices in a two sector/two schooling level matching model of the labour market where a continuum of heterogenous workers allocates itself between sectors depending on their decision to invest in education. Individuals differ in ability and schooling cost, the search market is segmented by education, and there is free entry of new firms in each sector. Self-selection in education originates composition effects in the distribution of skills across sectors. This in turn modifies the intensity of job creation, implying the private and social returns to schooling always differ. Provided that ability and schooling cost are not too positively correlated, agents with large schooling costs — the ‘poor’ — select themselves too much, while there is too little self-selection among the low schooling cost individuals — the ‘rich’. We also show that education should be more taxed than subsidized when the Hosios condition holds. |
| Keywords: | Ability; Schooling cost; Heterogeneity; Matching frictions; Efficiency |
| JEL: | J24 J60 I20 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:3624&r=lab |
| By: | Karsten Hank; Isabella Buber (Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA)) |
| Abstract: | Introducing findings from the 2004 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), this research complements the large number of recent U.S. studies on the role of grandparents in caring for their grandchildren. For 10 continental European countries, we investigate cross-national variations in grandparent provided child care as well as differences in characteristics of the providers and recipients of care. While we find a strong involvement of grandparents in their grandchildren’s care across all countries, we also identify significant variations in the prevalence and intensity of care along the geographic lines of different child care and (maternal/female) employment regimes in Europe. Rooted in long-standing family cultures, the observed patterns suggest a complex interaction between welfare-state provided services and intergenerational family support in shaping the work-family nexus for younger parents. We conclude with a brief discussion of possible consequences of grandmothers’ increasing labor force participation for child care arrangements. |
| Date: | 2007–06–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mea:meawpa:07127&r=lab |
| By: | Tom Sefton |
| Abstract: | Very little information exists about households' longer-term movements between tenures. Some cross-section datasets include information on length of stay in any residence but we have no systematic study of movement over time. This study uses the British Household Panel Study to examine movements by households over a ten-year period - 1994/5 and 2004/5. Changes in tenure are related to key life events - leaving home, marriage, having children, widowhood and retirement. The great majority of owner-occupiers remained in that tenure. This was somewhat less for those experiencing divorce or unemployment. Most public housing tenants remained in that tenure over the ten-year period especially the elderly and the unemployed or those outside the labour market. About a quarter moved into owner-occupation and half of those through the right to buy their dwelling. The analysis looks at the associations between moving into work and residential mobility, in particular the slower rate at which social tenants move back into employment. |
| Keywords: | housing tenure, residential mobility, social housing |
| JEL: | R31 |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sticas:/117&r=lab |
| By: | Haas, Anette (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Damelang, Andreas (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "This paper provides an analysis of the labour market entry of migrant youth in Germany after completion of an apprenticeship. We are particularly interested in the impact of local cultural diversity on a successful career start. Focusing on the cohort of people completing apprenticeships in 2000, we distinguish between Turks, citizens of former Yugoslavia, EU15 migrants and other migrants compared with Germans as the reference group. A multinomial probit model reveals that Turkish apprentices and those from the other migrant groups have a significantly lower probability of transition into the primary labour market, whereas EU15 migrants do not differ from Germans in this respect. In addition to controlling for individual and firm characteristics as well as occupation, we explicitly include regional characteristics. Our results show that if there is a high level of cultural diversity, young migrants will find employment more easily. In contrast to other studies which emphasize the impact of friends and family ties, we conclude that networks and information flows which are not restricted to an individual's own ethnic group increase the likelihood of finding a job." (author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | ausländische Jugendliche, betriebliche Berufsausbildung, Ausbildungsabsolventen, Berufseinmündung, kulturelle Identität, zweite Schwelle, Migranten, regionaler Arbeitsmarkt, Arbeitsmarktchancen, Westdeutschland, Bundesrepublik Deutschland |
| JEL: | F22 J61 J62 R23 |
| Date: | 2007–06–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:200718&r=lab |
| By: | Mumcu, Ayse; Saglam, Ismail |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study the long-played, yet until now unmodeled, college admissions game over early admissions plans using a many-to-one matching framework. We characterize the equilibrium strategies of each college involving its early quota out of its total capacity, and the set of admissible and deferred students within its applicant pool independently from the early admissions plans of the colleges in the market. Given these strategies, we show that for each college early action is a weakly dominant choice between early admissions plans. |
| Keywords: | Many-to-one matching; early action; early decision; college admissions |
| JEL: | C71 D71 C78 |
| Date: | 2007–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:3592&r=lab |
| By: | Åslund, Olof (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation); Grönqvist, Hans (Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | Recent empirical work questions the negative relationship between family size and children’s attainments proposed by theoretical work and supported by a large empirical literature. We use twin births as an exogenous source of variation in family size in an unusually rich dataset where it is possible to separately look at intermediate and long run outcomes. We find little evidence of a causal effect on long term outcomes such as years of schooling and earnings, and studies that do not take selection effects into account are likely to overstate the effects. We do, however, find a small but significant negative impact of family size on grades in compulsory and secondary school. |
| Keywords: | Family size; twin births; education; earnings |
| JEL: | I20 J13 |
| Date: | 2007–06–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2007_015&r=lab |
| By: | Mishra, SK |
| Abstract: | Subjugation of women in certain spheres of life is very common in the patriarchal societies and it has a long history. In India, women have little social or economic independence. They are treated inequitably at home as much as at the workplace outside. Perhaps, it is so for the Indian society is predominantly patriarchal. However, Meghlaya, a state in North East India, presents a case different than the rest of the country at large (except Kerala and some other pockets). A very large majority of population in the state belongs to three tribes, Garo, Jaintia and Khasi, well known for their being matrilineal (and matrifocal). In this paper we investigate how women in Meghalaya perform, vis-Ã -vis men, in the socio-economic sphere. The investigation is based on Census of India-2001 data. Two sets of nine variables that measure socio-economic inclusion of people in development have been obtained, first for men and the second for women, and from these variables a composite index has finally been constructed. Many methods of constructing a composite index are discussed and applied on the data for obtaining loadings on the variables. Analytic methods (e.g. principal component/factor analysis) and synthetic methods (MSAR, MEFAR and MMAR) have been compared empirically. We find that the synthetic methods perform better than the analytic methods in representing the constituent variables judiciously and meaningfully. Do matrifocal societies favour women in socio-economic sphere and help achieve gender equality? We conclude that indeed they do so. The tribes of Meghalaya whose societies are organized on matrifocal principles have obtained much greater gender equality than the societies (e.g. Hindu and Muslim) that are organized on the patriarchal principles. |
| Keywords: | Gender equality; Patriarchy; Matriarchy; Matrifocal; Matrilineal; Meghalaya; India; Tribes; Khasi; Garo; Jaintia; composite index; principal component; factor analysis; extraction; rotation; inclusive; synthetic; analytic; indices; absolute correlation; entropy-like function; maximin; Differential Evolution; North East; Hindu; Christian; Muslim; religion |
| JEL: | O53 J71 Z12 C43 |
| Date: | 2007–06–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:3612&r=lab |
| By: | Mario Catalán; Jaime Guajardo; Alexander W. Hoffmaister |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the macroeconomic and welfare effects of extending the averaging period used to calculate pension benefits in a pay-as-you-go system. It also examines the complementarities between reforms extending the averaging period and those increasing the retirement age under alternative tax policies. The analysis is based on a model in the Auerbach-Kotlikoff tradition applied to the Spanish economy. Without reforms, the simulations suggest that aging-related spending as a share of output will increase 16 percentage points by 2050, which are twice as much as in European Commission (2006) projections due to general equilibrium effects. Also, reforms extending the averaging period to the entire work life limit expenditure pressures at the peak of the demographic shock as much as increasing the retirement age in line with life expectancy (4 percentage points of GDP). These reforms and prefunding the demographic shock mitigate the adverse macroeconomic effects of aging and improve welfare. |
| Date: | 2007–05–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:07/122&r=lab |
| By: | Jung Hur (Department of Economics, National University of Singapore); Kang Changhui (Department of Economics, National University of Singapore) |
| Abstract: | How students should be allocated to schools to achieve educational goals is one of important debates on the construction of school systems. Promoters of comprehensive and selective school systems fail to reach a consensus on implications of each system for efficiency and equity of education. This paper examines impacts of different systems of student allocation on educational goals, using a simple economic model. It argues that how a selective system is designed matters a great deal in a comparison between comprehensive and selective systems: different designs of a selective system can yield widely different educational implications compared with those from a comprehensive system. A judicious use of a selective system can at times achieve educational goals better than a comprehensive system. Given our finding that different households prefer different school systems, we suggest that by offering multiple subsystems, the educational planner can enhance educational attainments of households beyond those achieved by a single national system. |
| Keywords: | Education, Comprehensive and Selective School Systems |
| JEL: | D11 I20 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nus:nusewp:wp0702&r=lab |
| By: | Pamela Kaval (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | Over 90 percent of people living in the United States participate in some type of outdoor recreation, from walking the dog to rock climbing. These activities increase a person’s well-being and are examples of recreation benefits. These benefits can be measured by using a variety of available techniques to calculate consumer surplus values. Consumer surplus values for recreation in U.S. parks were collated from an extensive literature review. Studies conducted between 1967 and 2003 yielded over 1,200 observations of non-market benefits. From this meta-analysis, it was determined that an average day of recreation in U.S. parks provide people with a non-market benefit of $60.50/day (2006 US$). With an estimated 924 million visitor days, the benefit of outdoor recreation on federal park lands during 2006 was estimated at $54.7 billion dollars. This analysis did not include state, county, and city parks, and hence the total benefit of outdoor recreation in all U.S. parks would be significantly higher. |
| Keywords: | outdoor recreation; consumer surplus; non-market benefits; United States Parks |
| JEL: | Q26 |
| Date: | 2007–07–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:07/12&r=lab |
| By: | Michael Baker; Kevin S. Milligan |
| Abstract: | Public health agencies around the world have renewed efforts to increase the incidence and duration of breastfeeding. Maternity leave mandates present an economic policy that could help achieve these goals. We study their efficacy focusing on a significant increase in maternity leave mandates in Canada. We find very large increases in mothers' time away from work post-birth and in the attainment of critical breastfeeding duration thresholds. However, we find little impact on the self-reported indicators of maternal and child health captured in our data. |
| JEL: | I18 J13 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13188&r=lab |
| By: | Verme Paolo (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | The paper develops a concept, a measure and an index of relative labour deprivation based on theories of social justice, a, labour participation model and an index of relative dleprivation. The use of these tools is tillustrated with kousehold data onn urban migration in Turkey. It is shown how they can be effective in providing policy recommendations in areas characterized by heterogeneous communities |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:200701&r=lab |
| By: | Helge Braun; Reinout De Bock; Riccardo DiCecio |
| Abstract: | We use structural vector autoregressions to analyze the responses of worker flows, job flows, vacancies, and hours to shocks. We identify demand and supply shocks by restricting the short-run responses of output and the price level. On the demand side we disentangle a monetary and non-monetary shock by restricting the response of the interest rate. The responses of labor market variables are similar across shocks: expansionary shocks increase job creation, the hiring rate, vacancies, and hours. They decrease job destruction and the separation rate. Supply shocks have more persistent effects than demand shocks. Demand and supply shocks are equally important in driving business cycle fluctuations of labor market variables. Our findings for demand shocks are robust to alternative identification schemes involving the response of labor productivity at different horizons and an alternative specification of the VAR. However, supply shocks identified by restricting productivity generate a higher fraction of responses inconsistent with standard search and matching models. |
| Keywords: | Labor market ; Business cycles |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2007-015&r=lab |
| By: | Michael Fuchs; Aaron George Grech; Asghar Zaidi |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews changes in pension policies in EU countries between 1995 and 2005 and describes how they might affect risk of poverty for future pensioner populations. The pension landscape in Europe has changed considerably in the past decade and the paper highlights commonalities as well as differences in pension reforms across these countries. A common trend is that the retirement incomes drawn from the public pension systems are on the decline, the changes are likely to shift more risks towards individuals, and there are fewer possibilities of redistribution in favour of the lower income individuals. The paper includes exploratory projections of how the risk of elderly poverty might evolve in the future. The countries where the benefit ratio is set to decline significantly, as expected, would see at-risk-poverty rates increase quite substantially, especially during the period 2025-2050, when the bulk of the decline is expected. This analysis points towards the importance of a more comprehensive assessment of the reforms, in particular in their impact on vulnerable groups (such as women and disabled people with disruptive work history) and in the clarity of the signals they give to individuals in extending their working career if they want to avoid greater risks of poverty during retirement. |
| Keywords: | Social Security and Public Pensions, Retirement, Retirement Policies, Private Pensions |
| JEL: | H55 J26 J32 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sticas:/116&r=lab |
| By: | David McKenzie (Development Research Group, World Bank); John Gibson (University of Waikato); Steven Stillman (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research) |
| Abstract: | Millions of people emigrate every year in search of better economic and social opportunities. Anecdotal evidence suggests that emigrants may have over-optimistic expectations about the incomes they can earn abroad, resulting in excessive migration pressure, and in disappointment amongst those who do migrate. Yet there is almost no statistical evidence on how accurately these emigrants predict the incomes that they will earn working abroad. In this paper we combine a natural emigration experiment with unique survey data on would-be emigrants’ probabilistic expectations about employment and incomes in the migration destination. Our procedure enables us to obtain moments and quantiles of the subjective distribution of expected earnings in the destination country. We find a significant underestimation of both unconditional and conditional labor earnings at all points in the distribution. This under-estimation appears driven in part by potential migrants placing too much weight on the negative employment experiences of some migrants, and by inaccurate information flows from extended family, who may be trying to moderate remittance demands by understating incomes. |
| Keywords: | Expectations; Migration; Natural Experiment |
| JEL: | D84 F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:0709&r=lab |
| By: | Javier Rivas |
| Abstract: | We model the formation of friendships as repeated cooperation within a set of heterogeneous players. The model builds around three of the most important facts about friendship: friends help each other, there is reciprocity in the relationship and people usually have few friends. In our results we explain how similarity between people affects the friendship selection. We also characterize when the friendship network won’t depend on the random process by which people meet each other. Finally, we explore how players’ patience influences the length of their friendship relations. Our results match and explain empirical evidence reported in social studies on friendship. For instance, our model explains why troublesome subjects have few friends. |
| Keywords: | Friendship, cooperative game, grim trigger strategy, social networks |
| JEL: | C72 C73 Z13 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2007/08&r=lab |
| By: | Strom Steinar (University of Turin); Shima Isilda (University of Turin); Bettio Francesca; Di Tommaso Maria Laura (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | The International Organization for Migration has collected data on traffìcked ìndividuals. The aim of this paper is to use the sub-sample of sexually exploited women in order to explore the relationship between their well being deprivation, their personal characteristics, and their working locations. We use the theoretical framework of the capability approach to conceptualize well being deprivation and we estimate a MIMIC (Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes) model. The utilized indìcators measure abuse, freedom of movement, and access to medical care. This model also allows us to estimate the effects of some covariates on this measure of well being. |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:200703&r=lab |
| By: | Todd D. Mattina; Victoria Gunnarsson |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the relative efficiency and flexibility of public spending in Slovenia compared to the advanced and new EU member states. Spending on health care, education, and social protection is relatively high in Slovenia without achieving correspondingly better outcomes. Inefficiencies appear to stem from the financing mechanisms for social services, institutional arrangements, and the weak targeting of social benefits. In addition, the composition of spending appears to be strongly tilted towards nondiscretionary items that reduce the fiscal room for maneuver. Greater flexibility is needed to facilitate the reallocation of relatively inefficient expenditure into higher priorities. In this manner, medium-term expenditure rationalization can focus on reducing inefficient outlays rather than restraining traditionally flexible components of the budget, such as public investment. |
| Date: | 2007–06–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:07/131&r=lab |
| By: | Holger Bonin (IZA); Ulf Rinne (IZA) |
| Abstract: | Final report on behalf of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Serbia and Montenegro |
| Date: | 2006–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izarrs:8&r=lab |
| By: | POGOREL, Gérard |
| Abstract: | In the spectrum sections of its "Proposed Changes" to the Review of the European Union Regulatory Framework for Electronic Communications Networks and Services, the European Commission establishes a coherent, comprehensive and original set of forward-looking spectrum policy principles. By emphasising the role of trading and market flexibility, technology and service neutrality, it departs from traditional,administrative spectrum management principles. But by stressing the need for a clear justification of exclusive usage rights, it differentiates itself from market-fits all propositions. Three issues should be examined to understand what kind of evolutions could occur: the prevention of interferences, harmonisation and standardisation, and lastly the weight of institutions. Technical progress in wireless, culminating in extended dynamic access, will mostly complement market mechanisms in fostering the efficient use of spectrum, as long as institutional factors do not interfere (barriers to entry) or are removed. |
| Keywords: | Spectrum usage; Spectrum management; Spectrum policy; radio interferences; audiovisual policy. |
| JEL: | L51 D82 K23 L96 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:3569&r=lab |
| By: | Subhayu Bandyopadhyay; Sudeshna C. Bandyopadhyay |
| Abstract: | This paper augments the existing literature on trade and child labor by exploring the effects of terms of trade changes in the context of a three good general equilibrium model, where one of the goods is a non-traded good. We find that under quasi-linear preferences the effect of the terms of trade on child labor depends critically on the pattern of substitutability (or complimentarity) in the excess demand functions between the export good and the non-traded good. We extend the analysis to the case where factors move freely between the three goods as in a Heckscher-Ohlin type framework. Finally, we show that a balanced budget policy of taxing the education of skilled families and subsidizing the education of unskilled families must reduce child labor without any impact on aggregate welfare. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2007-024&r=lab |
| By: | Fabrice Murtin (LSE, London; PSE and CREST, GREDI); Damien Echevin (GREDI, Département d'économique, Université de Sherbrooke) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents evidence concerning the determinants of productivity in Senegal. Using an original data set that combines data on both employers and their employees, we bring to light significant gaps between the formal and informal sectors. These differences are analyzed both at the aggregate and at the individual level. As a result, we find that differences in human and physical capital account for about two thirds (30% for physical capital and 40% for human capital) of the gap in output per worker between the two sectors. Our results also document considerable heterogeneity between branches of activity: in the formal sector, some activities such as the textile or the paper industries boast increasing returns due to large elasticity; in the informal sector, trade and services firms have the same patterns as in formal ones. Two other important findings concern the informal sector. First, older firms have high capital elasticity. Second, overall capital elasticity increases. Those results thus support the idea that a real potential for growth exists in the informal sector. Finally, adopting a development policy perspective, we emphasize that public policies should focus on infrastructures that impact significantly on both sectors, as well as on schooling that triggers considerable externality, especially in the informal sector. |
| Keywords: | : formal and informal sectors; productivity; externalities |
| JEL: | O17 O47 J24 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shr:wpaper:07-15&r=lab |