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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Johannes Gernandt; Friedhelm Pfeiffer |
| Abstract: | Based on samples from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) 1984 to 2004, this paper investigates the evolution of wages and wage inequality in Germany. Between 1984 and 1994 wages for prime age dependent male workers increased on average by 23 percent and the wage distribution in West Germany was fairly stable. Between 1994 and 2004 average wages rose by about 8 percent in West Germany and 28 percent in East Germany. In this period wage inequality for prime age dependent males, measured by the ratio of the ninetieth to tenth percentile of the wage distribution, increased from 2.1 to 2.5 in West Germany and from 2.3 to 2.9 in East Germany. In West Germany rising wage inequality has occurred mainly in the lower part of the wage distribution, whereas in East Germany wage inequality predominantly rose in the upper part of the wage distribution. In West Germany the group of workers with low tenure experienced higher increases in wage inequality. |
| Keywords: | Tenure, skill composition, wage inequality, wage rigidity |
| JEL: | J21 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp14&r=lab |
| By: | Silke Anger |
| Abstract: | Using individual based micro-data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), I analyze the cyclicality of real wages for male workers within employer-employee matches over the period 1984–2004, and compare different wage measures: the standard hourly wage rate, hourly wage earnings including overtime and bonus payments, and the effective wage, which takes into account not only paid overtime, but also unpaid working hours. None of the hourly wage measures is shown to exhibit cyclicality except for the group of salaried workers with unpaid overtime. Their effective wages react strongly to changes in unemployment in a procyclical way. Despite acyclical wage rates, salaried workers without unpaid hours but with income from extra payments, such as bonuses, experienced procyclical earnings movements. Monthly earnings were also procyclical for hourly paid workers who received overtime payments. The procyclicality of earnings revealed for Germany is of comparable size with the one in the U.S. |
| Keywords: | Wage cyclicality, effective wages, unpaid overtime, bonus payments, firm stayers |
| JEL: | E32 J31 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp34&r=lab |
| By: | Andreas Hornstein; Per Krusell; Giovanni L. Violante |
| Abstract: | Standard search and matching models of equilibrium unemployment, once properly calibrated, can generate only a small amount of frictional wage dispersion, i.e., wage differentials among ex-ante similar workers induced purely by search frictions. We derive this result for a specific measure of wage dispersion -- the ratio between the average wage and the lowest (reservation) wage paid. We show that in a large class of search and matching models this statistic (the "mean-min ratio") can be obtained in closed form as a function of observable variables (i.e., the interest rate, the value of leisure, and statistics of labor market turnover). Various independent data sources suggest that actual residual wage dispersion (i.e., inequality among observationally similar workers) exceeds the model's prediction by a factor of 20. We discuss three extensions of the model (risk aversion, volatile wages during employment, and on-the-job search) and find that, in their simplest versions, they can improve its performance, but only modestly. We conclude that either frictions account for a tiny fraction of residual wage dispersion, or the standard model needs to be augmented to confront the data. In particular, the last generation of models with on-the-job search appears promising. |
| JEL: | E24 J24 J31 J6 J64 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13674&r=lab |
| By: | Philip Du Caju (Research Department, National Bank of Belgium, Boulevard de Berlaimont 14, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium.); Catherine Fuss (Research Department, National Bank of Belgium, Boulevard de Berlaimont 14, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium.); Ladislav Wintr (Research Department, National Bank of Belgium, Boulevard de Berlaimont 14, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium.) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the extent of downward nominal and real wage rigidity for different categories of workers and firms using the methodology recently developed by the International Wage Flexibility Project (Dickens and Goette, 2006). The analysis is based on an administrative data set on individual earnings, covering one-third of employees of the private sector in Belgium over the period 1990-2002. Our results show that Belgium is characterised by strong real wage rigidity and very low nominal wage rigidity, consistent with the Belgian wage formation system of full indexation. Real rigidity is stronger for white-collar workers than for blue-collar workers. Real rigidity decreases with age and wage level. Wage rigidity appears to be lower in firms experiencing downturns. Finally, smaller firms and firms with lower job quit rates appear to have more rigid wages. Our results are robust to alternative measures of rigidity. JEL Classification: J31. |
| Keywords: | Wage rigidity, matched employer-employee data. |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20070840&r=lab |
| By: | Michael Gebel; Friedhelm Pfeiffer |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the evolution of returns to education in the West German labour market over the last two decades. During this period, graduates from the period of educational expansion in the sixties and seventies entered the labour market and an upgrading of the skill structure took place. In order to tackle the issues of endogeneity of schooling and its heterogeneous returns we apply two estimation methods: Wooldridge’s (2004) approach that relies on conditional mean independence and Garen’s (1984) control function approach that requires an exclusion restriction. For the population of workers from the GSOEP, we find that both approaches produce estimates of average returns to education that decrease until the late 1990s and increase significantly afterwards. In the observation period, the gender gap in returns to education seems to vanish. Furthermore, we find that the so called “baby boomer” cohort has the lowest average return to education in young ages. However, this effect disappears when they become older. |
| Keywords: | Educational expansion, correlated random coefficient model, heterogenous returns to education, conditional mean independence |
| JEL: | J21 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp13&r=lab |
| By: | Elisabetta Croci Angelini; Francesco Farina |
| Abstract: | Also due to the competitive pressure of imports from the developing countries, a switch to labour-saving techniques has happened in most sectors of OECD countries in the last decades. The distribution of earnings levels has been significantly affected. Wage dispersion is strictly interwoven with employment rates across skill levels, as they are jointly determined by the trajectories followed by firms in choosing their productive techniques, as well as by labour market institutions providing insurance to risk averse workers against unemployment and low wages. We conduct empirical estimates on the technological patterns determined by restrictions placed by labour market regulation on the employers’ production decisions, which narrow the capacity of the firm to decide on the employment level and on the productive techniques combining high-skill and low-skill workers. Our investigation relies on: (i) an index of earning dispersion (for each country under scrutiny and for each sector the skill premium and the high-skill ratio), to disentangle the combined effect of earnings and employment percentages of high, intermediate, and low skill workers; (ii) a Theil decomposition, to analyse the trends in earnings and wage dispersion between-sectors and within-sectors and account for the evolution of wages and employment at the sectoral level. We show that European firms, differently from the hypothesis put forward by Krugman (1994), do not stay passive in front of institutional constraints, but their technological choices are meant to combine productive strategies with labour market conditions. |
| Keywords: | technology, institutions, earnings dispersion. |
| JEL: | E24 J31 O33 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:depfid:006&r=lab |
| By: | Jan Rutkowski (World Bank and IZA) |
| Abstract: | Labor markets in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe underwent a dramatic transformation. Notably, this transformation took place within just a few years. Until the mid-2000s job opportunities were scarce and unemployment was high. But since then labor demand has picked up and unemployment has dropped substantially. In contrast to the earlier period of weak labor demand, it is now the supply side of the labor market that constrains job creation. These spectacular improvements can hardly be attributed to the greater labor market flexibility or to the more efficient matching of workers with jobs because no major reforms to labor market institutions were recently implemented in the region. Instead, the main cause was a strong increase in labor demand, as evidenced by the increase in the job vacancy rates and real wages. The surge in labor demand is likely to reflect successful enterprise restructuring supported by the improvements in the investment climate and access to global markets associated with the EU accession. For a long time enterprises in transition economies were improving competitiveness by shedding of redundant labor. Now they use productivity gains to invest, expand output and hire more workers. However, the emerging skills shortages may constrain firm growth. Thus the transition economies face a challenge of mobilizing effective labor supply. This requires improving labor supply incentives and investing in education. This paper documents the recent changes in labor market conditions in the transition economies, suggests tentative explanations, and finally suggests policies to address the emerging challenges. |
| Keywords: | transition economies, labor market, unemployment, skill shortages |
| JEL: | J21 J23 J63 J64 P23 O52 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3202&r=lab |
| By: | Pham, T. Hung; Reilly, Barry |
| Abstract: | This paper complements earlier studies on ethnic minority underdevelopment in Vietnam by empirically examining the ethnic wage gap in the Vietnamese labour market, using data from a large-scale household survey conducted in 2002. The paper uses the ‘index number’ decomposition method suggested by Oaxaca (1973) to decompose the ethnic wage gap into treatment and endowment effects at both the mean and at selected quantiles of the conditional wage distribution. The results confirm the existence of an ethnic wage gap in the labour market, through this gap is found to be substantially narrower than the ethnic gap observed using household living standard measures for Vietnam. Decomposition results reveal that the ethnic wage gap is largely attributable to differentials in the returns to endowments, a finding invariant to whether the mean or selected quantiles of the conditional wage distribution is examined. |
| Keywords: | Wage inequality; ethnic minority; quantile regression; Vietnam |
| JEL: | J3 J7 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6477&r=lab |
| By: | Natalie Chen; Paola Conconi; Carlo Perroni |
| Abstract: | Bargaining theory suggests that married women who experience a relative improvement in their labour market position should experience a comparative gain within their marriage. However, if renegotiation possibilities are limited by institutional mechanisms that achieve long-term commitment, the opposite may be true, particularly if women are specialized in household activities and the labour market allows comparatively more flexibility in their labour supply responses. Evidence from the German Socio-Economic Panel indeed shows that, as long as renegotiation opportunities are limited, comparatively better wages for women exacerbate their 'double burden' of market and household work. |
| Keywords: | bargaining, marriage and renegotiation |
| JEL: | D1 J2 J3 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp20&r=lab |
| By: | Lixin Cai (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne); Amy Y.C. Liu (Crawford School of Economics and Government, Australian National University) |
| Abstract: | Previous research on union wage effects in Australia has focused on the central parts of the conditional wage distribution. This study uses quantile regression models to examine whether the union wage effect varies across the (conditional) wage distribution. The data draw upon the first four waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. Union wage premiums are found across almost the entire wage distribution for both males and females. While for males it is evident that the union wage effect decreases when moving up the wage distribution, the effect for females is relatively stable except at the extremities of the distribution. Overall, unions are found to have a larger effect on male than on female wages. The decomposition results show that for males, the union wage effect explains a substantial proportion of the observed wage gap between union and non-union workers; this is not the case for females. |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n017&r=lab |
| By: | George J. Borjas |
| Abstract: | Although a sizable fraction of the Puerto Rican-born population moved to the United States, the island also received large inflows of persons born outside Puerto Rico. Hence Puerto Rico provides a unique setting for examining how labor inflows and outflows coexist, and measuring the mirror-image wage impact of these flows. The study yields two findings. First, the skills of the out-migrants differ from those of the in-migrants. Puerto Rico attracts high-skill in-migrants and exports low-skill workers. Second, the two flows have opposing effects on wages: in-migrants lower the wage of competing workers and out-migrants increase the wage. |
| JEL: | J60 J61 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13669&r=lab |
| By: | Pham, Hung T; Reilly, Barry |
| Abstract: | This paper uses mean and quantile regression analysis to investigate the gender pay gap for the wage employed in Vietnam over the period 1993 to 2002. It finds that the Doi moi reforms appear to have been associated with a sharp reduction in gender pay gap disparities for the wage employed. The average gender pay gap in this sector halved between 1993 and 2002 with most of the contraction evident by 1998. There has also been a narrowing in the gender pay gap at most selected points of the conditional wage distribution, an effect most pronounced at the top end of the conditional wage distribution. However, the decomposition analysis suggests that the treatment effect is relatively stable across the conditional wage distribution and little evidence of a ‘glass-ceiling’ effect is detected for Vietnamese women in the wage employment sector in any of the years examined. |
| Keywords: | Gender pay gap; Quantile regression; Vietnam |
| JEL: | J3 J7 C1 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6475&r=lab |
| By: | Daniel Horgos |
| Abstract: | As regards labor market effects of International Outsourcing, empirical studies have difficulties in confirming theoretical results. The use of different indices adds to the puzzle. The paper examines whether measurement differences are one reason for the mismatch between empirical and theoretical findings. In fact, considering the properties of various outsourcing indices and applying a panel data estimation of the effects on the within industries' wage gap in Germany, theory and empirics can be reconciled: while the wage gap increases in the aggregate, the service sector and the high skill intensive industries, it decreases in the low skill intensive industries - which is in line with theoretical findings by Arndt (1997, 1998). |
| Keywords: | International outsourcing, wage differential |
| JEL: | F16 J31 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp58&r=lab |
| By: | Simon Luechinger; Alois Stutzer; Rainer Winkelmann |
| Abstract: | Sorting of people on the labor market not only assures the most productive use of valuable skills but also generates individual utility gains if people experience an optimal match between job characteristics and their preferences. Based on individual data on subjective well-being it is possible to assess these latter gains from matching. We introduce a two-equation ordered probit model with endogenous switching and study self-selection into government and private sector jobs. In an analysis with data from the European Social Survey, we find considerable gains from matching amounting to an increase in the fraction of very satisfied workers from 53.8 to 58.8 percent relative to a hypothetical random allocation of workers to the two sectors. A companion analysis of data from the German Socio-Economic Panel shows that selection on unobservables is reduced once we include additional controls for preference heterogeneity. |
| Keywords: | Household Taxation, Income Distribution, Work Incentives, Microsimulation |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp45&r=lab |
| By: | Seamus McGuinness (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne); Mark Wooden (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses longitudinal data from Australia to examine the extent to which overskilling is a transitory phenomenon that declines with increased labour market mobility. The results suggest that while overskilled workers are more likely to want to quit, they are relatively unconfident of finding an improved labour market match. Furthermore, some of the greater mobility observed among overskilled workers is due to involuntary job separations and even in instances where job separations are voluntary, the majority of moves do not result in improved skills matches. |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n09&r=lab |
| By: | Markus Pannenberg |
| Abstract: | This study examines the relationship between individual risk aversion and reservation wages using a novel set of direct measures of individual risk attitudes from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). We find that risk aversion has a significantly negative impact on the level of reservation wages. Moreover, we show that the elasticity of the reservation wage with respect to unemployment benefits is remarkably lower for risk-averse job seekers than for risk-loving job seekers. The results are consistent with an interpretation that risk-averse job seekers set their reservation wage levels sufficiently low, so that they accept almost every job offer. |
| Keywords: | Risk Aversion, Reservation Wages, Survey Data |
| JEL: | J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp23&r=lab |
| By: | Ana Rute Cardoso (IZA); Rudolf Winter-Ebmer (University of Linz, IHS Vienna, CEPR and IZA) |
| Abstract: | We explore the impact of mentoring of females and gender segregation on wages using a large longitudinal data set for Portugal. Female managers can protect and mentor female employees by paying them higher wages than male-led firms would do. We find that females can enjoy higher wages in female-led firms, the opposite being true for males. In both cases is a higher share of females reducing the wage level. These results are compatible with a theory where job promotion is an important factor of wage increases: if more females are to be mentored, less promotion slots are available for males, but also the expected chance of a female to be promoted is lower. |
| Keywords: | female entrepreneurs, wages, gender gap, matched employer-employee data |
| JEL: | M52 D21 J31 J16 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3210&r=lab |
| By: | Amelie Constant; Klaus F. Zimmermann |
| Abstract: | The economic literature has largely overlooked the importance of repeat and circular migration. The paper studies this behavior by analyzing the number of exits and the total number of years away from the host country using count data models and panel data from Germany. More than 60% of migrants from the guestworker countries are indeed repeat or circular migrants. Migrants from European Union member countries, those not owning a dwelling in Germany, the younger and the older (excluding the middle ages), are significantly more likely to engage in repeat migration and to stay out for longer. Males and those migrants with German passports exit more frequently, while those with higher education exit less; there are no differences with time spent out. Migrants with family in the home country remain out longer, and those closely attached to the labor market remain less; they are not leaving the country more frequently. |
| Keywords: | Repeat migration, circular migration, guestworkers, minorities, count data |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J61 C25 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp40&r=lab |
| By: | Hendrik Schmitz; Viktor Steiner |
| Abstract: | We analyse benefit-entitlement effects and the likely impact of the recent reform of the unemployment compensation system on the duration of unemployment in Germany on the basis of a flexible discrete-time hazard rate model estimated on pre-reform data from the German Socioeconomic Panel. We find (i) relatively strong benefit-entitlement effects for the unemployed who are eligible to means-tested unemployment assistance after the exhaustion of unemployment benefit, but not for those without such entitlement; (ii) that benefit-entitlement effects on hazard rates are not monotonic in time to benefit-exhaustion but rather occur around the month of benefit-exhaustion, and (iii) relatively small marginal effects of the amount of unemployment compensation on the duration of unemployment. Simulation results show that the recent labour market reform is unlikely to have a major impact on the average duration of unemployment in the population as a whole, but will significantly reduce the level of long-term unemployment among older workers. |
| Keywords: | unemployment duration, unemployment insurance, benefit-entitlement effects, German labour market reforms, ex-ante evaluation, hazard rate model |
| JEL: | J64 J65 H31 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp46&r=lab |
| By: | Aleksey Oshchepkov |
| Abstract: | Interregional differentials in nominal wages in the Russian Federation are huge compared to other countries. Using the NOBUS micro-data and a methodology based on the estimation of the wage equation augmented by aggregate regional characteristics, we show that these differentials have a compensative nature. Russian workers receive wage compensations for living in regions with a higher price level and worse non-pecuniary characteristics, such as a relatively low life expectancy, a high level of air pollution, poor medical services and a colder climate. After adjusting for these regional characteristics, the relative ranking of regions in terms of average wages changes considerably. Moreover, regional nominal wages become positively correlated with interregional migration flows. According to our estimates, half of the interregional wage variation between workers with similar productive characteristics should be considered to be compensative. These results support the view that the best policy reaction to the current high interregional wage differentials should be the removal of migration barriers and a reduction in migration costs. In general, our results show that wage compensations for regional disamenities along with differences in employment composition are able to account for about three fourths of the observed interregional variation in wages. |
| Keywords: | compensating differentials, regional wages, wage equation, interregional migration, transition, Russia |
| JEL: | J3 J6 P2 R1 R2 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp750&r=lab |
| By: | Chinhui Juhn; Simon Potter |
| Abstract: | Using matched March Current Population Surveys, we examine labor market transitions of husbands and wives. We find that the “added-worker effect”—the greater propensity of nonparticipating wives to enter the labor force when their husbands exit employment—is still important among a subset of couples, but that the overall value of marriage as a risk-sharing arrangement has diminished because of the greater positive co-movement of employment within couples. While positive assortative matching on education did increase over time, this shift in the composition of couple types alone cannot account for the increased positive correlation.> |
| Keywords: | Marriage ; Labor market ; Women - Employment ; Employment |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednsr:310&r=lab |
| By: | Lixin Cai (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | As a form of human capital health like education determines individuals’ productivity and thus wage rates. While there are numerous overseas studies that examine the effect of health on wages, research on this issue using Australian data is scarce. This paper uses the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey to investigate the effect of health on the wages of working-age Australian men. A simultaneous equation model of health and wages is estimated to account for endogeneity of health. The results confirm the finding in the literature that health has a significant and positive effect on wages, but the significant effect is found only when measurement error and endogeneity of health are accounted for. The reverse effect of wages on health is found insignificant, but there is evidence on the endogeneity of health arising from unobserved factors. |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n02&r=lab |
| By: | Joachim R. Frick; Markus M. Grabka |
| Abstract: | Using data on annual individual labor income from three representative panel datasets (German SOEP, British BHPS, Australian HILDA) we investigate a) the selectivity of item non-response (INR) and b) the impact of imputation as a prominent post-survey means to cope with this type of measurement error on prototypical analyses (earnings inequality, mobility and wage regressions) in a cross-national setting. Given the considerable variation of INR across surveys as well as the varying degree of selectivity build into the missing process, there is substantive and methodological interest in an improved harmonization of (income) data production as well as of imputation strategies across surveys. All three panels make use of longitudinal information in their respective imputation procedures, however, there are marked differences in the implementation. Firstly, although the probability of INR is quantitatively similar across countries, our empirical investigation identifies cross-country differences with respect to the factors driving INR: survey-related aspects as well as indicators accounting for variability and complexity of labor income composition appear to be relevant. Secondly, longitudinal analyses yield a positive correlation of INR on labor income data over time and provide evidence of INR being a predictor of subsequent unit-non-response, thus supporting the "cooperation contin-uum" hypothesis in all three panels. Thirdly, applying various mobility indicators there is a robust picture about earnings mobility being significantly understated using information from completely observed cases only. Finally, regression results for wage equations based on observed ("complete case analysis") vs. all cases and controlling for imputation status, indicate that individuals with imputed incomes, ceteris paribus, earn significantly above average in SOEP and HILDA, while this relationship is negative using BHPS data [...]. |
| Keywords: | Item non-response, imputation, income inequality, income mobility, panel data, SOEP, BHPS, HILDA |
| JEL: | J31 C81 D33 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp49&r=lab |
| By: | Diana Warren (Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne); Umut Oguzoglu (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | In Australia, labour force participation among older people, particularly men over the age of 55, has been declining over the last 30 years. Previous research has found that in many OECD countries, the retirement income system actually provides incentives for older workers to retire early rather than remain in the work force. We use data from the first five waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey to identify any financial incentives present in the Australian retirement income system. Following Gruber & Wise (2004), we model retirement behaviour where individuals retire in the period that the present value of their lifetime retirement income is maximised. We also utilise an option value model that considers the trade-off between utility drawn from leisure and utility drawn from labour income. Our findings suggest that for men the Australian retirement system provides incentives to retire early, while for women financial incentives are less significant, as the factors that influence women’s retirement behaviour are more commonly found to be family related, rather than financial incentives. |
| Date: | 2007–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n24&r=lab |
| By: | Francesco Pastore (Seconda Università di Napoli and IZA) |
| Abstract: | The EU experience with youth unemployment has changed over recent years with the launch and re-launch of the Lisbon Strategy and the Bologna process. A dramatic shift has taken place from the 1990s emphasis on labour market flexibility as a tool to abate youth long term unemployment to the more recent stress on the importance of increasing the human capital endowment via a deep reform of education and training systems. This shift is also taking place worldwide, since, as recent studies show, labour market flexibility can increase employability when the human capital level of young people is sufficiently high. To reduce the "experience gap" between young and adult people, the education systems should become of a higher quality, more inclusive to reduce the dropout rate, homogeneous to other EU countries to favour labour mobility, flexible to allow young people to better find the best match, and contemplate the duality principle, by providing training together with education, to favour smoother school-to-work transitions. Apprenticeships schemes, fiscal incentives to hire the youth unemployed as well as on-the-job training schemes should help reach objectives that cannot be guaranteed simply via an increase in labour market flexibility. |
| Keywords: | Lisbon strategy, employment policy, young people, economic transition |
| JEL: | I2 J24 J68 P3 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3209&r=lab |
| By: | Burkert, Carola (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Seibert, Holger (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "German in-firm vocational training combines training on the job and learning in vocational schools. The so called 'dual system' absorbs roughly two thirds of German school leavers every year. After between two and four years of standardized training, it provides them with a generally accepted qualification in a wide range of occupations. Using Spence's Signaling Theory, hypotheses are derived concerning different labour market outcomes of foreigners who successfully completed an in-firm vocational training course and their German counterparts. The integration potential of the dual system is tested empirically according to its risk factors unemployment, occupational mismatch and skill mismatch using longitudinal registration data (1977-2004). Different nationalities are compared with Germans with respect to their first employment after leaving the dual system. Today, most of the young migrants who go through the dual system are as successful on the labour market as Germans. In-firm vocational training apparently provides migrant youth with the skills and techniques necessary for a successful transition to the labour market. However, they have restricted transition chances due to having higher unemployment rates, occupational mismatch and skill mismatch. But even if we control for relevant variables that determine transition chances, restrictions at labour market entry still remain for individual nationalities: compared to Germans, migrant men and especially migrant women have a higher risk of unemployment and occupational mismatch." (author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Jugendliche, ausländische Jugendliche, berufliche Integration, betriebliche Berufsausbildung, Arbeitsmarktchancen |
| JEL: | J62 J64 J71 |
| Date: | 2007–12–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:200731&r=lab |
| By: | Abdel-Rahmen El Lahga; Nicolas Moreau |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the effects of the transition from cohabitation to marriage on household domestic and market work hours using a sample of working couples. For this purpose we use the 21 first waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSEOP). We adapt the estimator introduced by Semykina and Wooldridge (2005) to system GMM estimation to account for selection bias in the presence of endogenous regressors. Our results indicate that marriage increases women’s specialization in home-based activities and that marriage decreases women’s leisure. These effects are robust across specifications. |
| Keywords: | Labour, family and networks, econometrics |
| JEL: | J12 J22 C33 D13 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp12&r=lab |
| By: | Alesina, Alberto F; Ichino, Andrea; Karabarbounis, Loukas |
| Abstract: | Gender Based Taxation (GBT) satisfies Ramsey’s optimal criterion by taxing less the more elastic labour supply of (married) women. This holds when different elasticities between men and women are taken as exogenous and primitive. But in this paper we also explore differences in gender elasticities which emerge endogenously in a model in which spouses bargain over the allocation of home duties. GBT changes spouses’ implicit bargaining power and induces a more balanced allocation of house work and working opportunities between males and females. Because of decreasing returns to specialization in home and market work, social welfare improves by taxing conditional on gender. When income sharing within the family is substantial, both spouses may gain from GBT. |
| Keywords: | economics of gender; elasticity of labour supply; family economics; optimal taxation |
| JEL: | D13 H21 J16 J20 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6591&r=lab |
| By: | Seamus McGuinness (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne); John Freebairn (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides pictures of low pay adult employees in Australia in 2004 drawing on data from the HILDA survey. The low waged are disaggregated into full-time and part-time employees. It is conservatively estimated that approximately 13 per cent of employees can be classified as low waged with just under 5 per cent assessed to have earned below the federal minimum wage in 2004. Estimates from multivariate probit models reveal that low wage employees are more likely to have casual status, single marital status, a low educational attainment, aged 21 to 30 or 60 plus, be employed in small firms, non-unionised and have lower occupational tenure. The magnitude of effect of these distinguishing characteristics is much larger for part-time versus full-time employees. Low waged employees, and more so in the case of full-time employees, are spread fairly evenly across households with different incomes, however, some differences are apparent when the data are disaggregated by employment status. For about a half of low waged employees, a low waged job, especially if it is full-time, is a stepping stone to higher paying jobs in the future. However for a sizeable proportion of low waged part-time employees, low pay is either a continuing state or a precursor for movement into labour market inactivity. |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n08&r=lab |
| By: | Vincenzo Atella; Noemi Pace; Daniela Vuri |
| Abstract: | The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between obesity and wages, using data for nine countries from the European Com- munity Household Panel (ECHP) over the period 1998-2001. We improve upon the existing literature by adopting a Quantile Regression approach to characterize the heterogenous impact of obesity at different points of the wage distribution. Our results show that i) the evidence obtained from mean regression and pooled analysis hides a significant amount of heterogeneity as the relationship between obesity and wages differs across countries and wages quantiles and ii) cultural, environmental or insti- tutional settings do not seem to be able to explain differences among countries, leaving room for a pure discriminatory effect hypothesis. |
| Keywords: | quantile treatment effect, obesity, wages, endogeneity |
| JEL: | C12 C21 C23 I10 I18 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpc:wplist:wp23_07&r=lab |
| By: | Hubert Strauss; Christine de la Maisonneuve |
| Abstract: | This paper presents cross-section estimates of gross hourly wage premia on tertiary education. They are based on a unified framework for 21 OECD countries from the 1990s to the early 2000s and use international household surveys to maximise international comparability. The results of the “augmented” Mincerian wage equations point to an average hourly gross wage premium on completed tertiary education of 55% in 2001 (country-gender average), translating into a premium of close to 11% per annum of tertiary education. Wage premia display little variation over time but huge cross-country variation: at 6% they are lowest in Greece and Spain (men and women) as well as in Austria and Italy (women) while reaching 14%-18% in Hungary, Portugal, and in most Anglo-Saxon countries. Given that the wage premium is the single most important driver of private returns to education, the results presented here have potentially important implications for policies that aim at increasing investment in human capital. <P>La prime salariale pour l’éducation supérieure : nouvelles estimations pour 21 pays de l’OCDE <BR>Cette étude présente des estimations transversales de la prime salariale horaire brute pour l’éducation supérieure qui reposent sur un cadre harmonisé pour 21 pays de l’OCDE entre les années 90 et le début des années 2000. L’étude est basée sur des enquêtes internationales auprès des ménages afin de maximiser la comparaison entre pays. L’ « extension » des équations salariales de Mincer donne comme résultat une prime salariale horaire moyenne brute à l’achèvement d’un diplôme d’éducation supérieure de 55% en 2001 (en moyenne pour les hommes et les femmes pour tous les pays), ce qui est équivalent à près de 11% par année d’éducation supérieure. Les primes salariales varient peu au cours du temps mais de manière significative à travers les pays : les plus faibles sont en Grèce et en Espagne à 6% (hommes et femmes) ainsi qu’en Autriche et en Italie (femmes) alors qu’elles atteignent 14%-18% en Hongrie, au Portugal et dans la plupart des pays anglo-saxons. Étant donné que la prime salariale est le déterminant le plus important du rendement privé de l’éducation supérieure, les résultats peuvent avoir des implications importantes pour les politiques visant l’augmentation du stock de capital humain. |
| Keywords: | primes salariales, Returns to education, Rendements de l’éducation |
| JEL: | I21 I22 J31 |
| Date: | 2007–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:589-en&r=lab |
| By: | Eriksson, Stefan (Department of Economics); Lagerström, Jonas (Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation (IFAU)) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data from an Internet-based CV database to investigate how factors which may be used as a basis for discrimination, such as the searchers’ ethnicity, gender, age and employment status, affect the number of contacts they receive from firms. Since we have access to essentially the same information as the firms, we can handle the problems associated with nobserved heterogeneity better than most existing studies of discrimination. We find that, even when we control for other differences, searchers who have non-Nordic names, are old or unemployed receive significantly fewer contacts. Moreover, we find that this matters for the hiring outcome: Searchers who receive more contacts have a higher probability of actually getting hired. |
| Keywords: | Job Search; Unobserved Heterogeneity; Discrimination |
| JEL: | J64 J71 |
| Date: | 2007–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2007_029&r=lab |
| By: | Sebastian Gundel; Heiko Peters |
| Abstract: | Demographic change and the rising demand for highly qualified labor in Germany attracts notice to the analysis of immigration. In addition, the pattern of immigration changed markedly during the past decades. Therefore we use the latest data of the German Socioeconomic Panel up to the year 2006 in order to investigate the economic performance of immigrants. We perform regressions of three pooled cross sections (1986, 1996, 2006) to estimate assimilation and quality of immigrants as reflected by their earnings. Further we take the heterogeneity of immigrants into account by separating them by country of origin. The rising wage inequality in Germany since the mid nineties will also be considered. We find a negative wage gap and a yearly assimilation rate of 2.3 percent. Due to a changing immigration pattern the cohort quality is declining. |
| Keywords: | Assimilation, immigrants, cohort quality, Germany |
| JEL: | J31 J61 C21 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp64&r=lab |
| By: | John Bound; Todd Stinebrickner; Timothy Waidmann |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we specify a dynamic programming model that addresses the interplay among health, financial resources, and the labor market behavior of men in the later part of their working lives. Unlike previous work which has typically used self reported health of disability status as a proxy for health status, we model health as a latent variable, using self reported disability status as an indicator of this latent construct. Our model is explicitly designed to account for the possibility that the reporting of disability may be endogenous to the labor market behavior we are studying. The model is estimated using data from the Health and Retirement Study. We compare results based on our model to results based on models that treat health in the typical way, and find large differences in the estimated effect of health on behavior. While estimates based on our model suggest that health has a large impact on behavior, the estimates suggest a substantially smaller role for health than we find when using standard techniques. We use our model to simulate the impact on behavior of raising the normal retirement age, eliminating early retirement altogether and eliminating the Social Security Disability Insurance program. |
| JEL: | J14 J22 J26 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13657&r=lab |
| By: | Guido Heineck (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Department of Statistics and Empirical Economics) |
| Abstract: | Religion as a determinant of individuals’ behavior has only recently found its way in the economic literature. In this analysis, four waves of ISSP-data covering the time between 1991 and 2002 are used to examine the relationship between religion and attitudes towards working mothers across (West and East) Germany, Ireland, and the UK. Further, using sub-samples of married individuals, the study addresses whether these attitudes along with religious involvement are related to wives’ labor market participation. Results suggest that religious affiliation and participation correlate positively with traditional attitudes and that those attitudes are negatively associated with female labor participation. Beyond that, religion has only modest additional explaining power. |
| Keywords: | Attitudes, religion, female labor participation |
| JEL: | J16 J22 Z12 |
| Date: | 2007–12–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gra:paoner:07/03&r=lab |
| By: | Martin, Ludivine (CREM-UMR CNRS 6211-Université de Rennes 1) |
| Abstract: | The diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) associated with the diffusion of new work practices since fifteen years has raised concerns about the impact of these changes on productivity. Some recent studies underline a positive impact of ICT and of new work practices on firms' productivity. But as well known in the principal-agent literature agents are predisposed to shirking, so, in order to obtain productivity gains firms need to provide workers with sufficient incentives and to encourage motivations. Our main results, obtained with data collected in Luxembourg in 2004-2005, indicate that ICT permit to create a team spirit and an enriching work environment that influences positively pure intrinsic motivations of workers. These motivations, associated with positive incentives, can be substitutes for the direct monitoring introduced usually to obtain the effort of employees, but hard to be used in a context of increasing autonomy. |
| Keywords: | Technologies; Incentives ; Motivations |
| JEL: | O33 J81 L22 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:iriswp:2007-15&r=lab |
| By: | Hohmeyer, Katrin (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Wolff, Joachim (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "In 2005 a major reform of the German means-tested unemployment benefit system came into force. The reform aimed at activating benefit recipients, e.g., by a workfare programme, the so-called One-Euro-Job. This programme was implemented at a large scale. Participants receive their means-tested benefit and a small compensation of usually one to 1.5 EURO per hour worked. Participation typically lasts six months or less. We investigate the impact of One-Euro-Jobs for participants who entered the programme at the start of the year 2005. We apply propensity score matching to estimate the treatment effects on the outcomes regular employment, neither being registered as unemployed nor as job-seeker and no unemployment benefit II receipt. We observe these outcomes for about two years after programme start. The locking-in effects are small. Moreover, 20 months after programme there is a significant but small positive impact on the employment rate of female but not male participants. During the first two years after programme start, participation does not contribute to avoiding unemployment benefit II receipt. Our results imply that there is some effect heterogeneity: Participation reduces the employment rate of participants younger than 25 years, but raises it for some older participant groups. It is ineffective for participants who were recently employed, while it is effective for participants who lost their last contributory job between 1992 and 2000." (author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Arbeitsgelegenheit - Erfolgskontrolle, Teilnehmerstruktur, berufliche Reintegration, Wirkungsforschung, Altersstruktur, Geschlechterverteilung, Qualifikationsstruktur, Arbeitslosengeld II-Empfänger, Nationalität, Arbeitsförderung, Arbeitsmarktchancen, Ostdeutschland, Westdeutschland, Bundesrepublik Deutschland |
| JEL: | C13 H43 J68 |
| Date: | 2007–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:200732&r=lab |
| By: | Matthias Doepke; Moshe Hazan; Yishay Maoz |
| Abstract: | We argue that one major cause of the U.S. postwar baby boom was the increased demand for female labor during World War II. We develop a quantitative dynamic general equilibrium model with endogenous fertility and female labor-force participation decisions. We use the model to assess the long-term implications of a one-time demand shock for female labor, such as the one experienced by American women during wartime mobilization. For the war generation, the shock leads to a persistent increase in female labor supply due to the accumulation of work experience. In contrast, younger women who turn adult after the war face increased labor-market competition, which impels them to exit the labor market and start having children earlier. In our calibrated model, this general-equilibrium effect generates a substantial baby boom followed by a baby bust, as well as patterns for age-specific labor-force participation and fertility rates that are consistent with U.S data. |
| JEL: | D58 E24 J13 J20 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13707&r=lab |
| By: | Woong Lee |
| Abstract: | At the turn of the 20th century, state and local governments in the United States began to establish public employment offices. These non-profit governmental organizations match job seekers and businesses, one of their main objectives being to protect job seekers from fraudulent activities by private employment agencies. In this paper, I propose a theory that describes the malpractices of private employment agencies as a situation of asymmetric information between job seekers and the private employment agencies, which could cause adverse selection in the labor exchange market. The establishment of public employment offices can be viewed as a policy device to eliminate low-quality private employment agencies committing malpractices. I show that public employment offices helped lower the degree of asymmetric information. The majority of job seekers who used public employment offices were unskilled workers, immigrants, or migrants who were vulnerable to exploitation by private employment agencies. I also find that the role of public employment offices was especially important for interstate migrants who were most lacking in information and networks in their new environment. |
| JEL: | J4 N3 N4 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13695&r=lab |
| By: | Mark Wooden (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne); Diana Warren (Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | Using data from wave 5 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, this study examines: (i) the extent to which Australian employees use their annual leave entitlements; and (ii) the association between annual leave taking and weekly hours of work. After restricting attention to employees likely to have entitlement to at least four weeks of paid annual leave, it is found that the mean number of days of leave taken per year is around 16 and that the majority (63%) take less than 20. The incidence of annual leave taking is found to vary positively correlated with the number of usual weekly hours of work, but the size of this effect is small and weak. It is concluded that persons who regularly report long hours of work each week are mostly not compensating by taking extended periods of leave each year, but neither is there evidence to support the hypothesis that the pressures at work that might lead many people to regularly work very long hours each week also cause them to forego their annual leave entitlements. |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n20&r=lab |
| By: | Thomas Cornelißen; Christian Pfeifer |
| Abstract: | We analyze the impact of exercising sports during childhood and adolescence on educational attainment. The theoretical framework is based on models of allocation of time and educational productivity. Using the rich information from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), we apply generalized ordered probit models to estimate the effect of participation in sport activities on secondary school degrees and professional degrees. Even after controlling for important variables and selection into sport, we find strong evidence that the effect of sport on educational attainment is statistically significant and positive. |
| Keywords: | allocation of time, education, human capital, sport |
| JEL: | I21 J13 J22 J24 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp68&r=lab |
| By: | Singh, Lakhwinder; Singh, Inderjeet; Ghuman, Ranjit Singh |
| Abstract: | Rural economy of Punjab has been undergoing structural transformation. But the dependence of rural population in general and rural labour in particular for earning livelihood from the rural economy continues. This process of rural transformation has perpetuated the distress among the rural workforce. It is strange phenomenon that migrant labour continues to pour into the rural areas. The rural economy of Punjab, due to wage gap, continues to attract huge amount of inflow of people from other poorer states of India. Rural-rural migration, which is largely seasonal and stay of workers in most cases, is less than six months. Therefore, the official statistics on migration grossly under record the rural-rural migration. Attempt has been made in this paper to fill this gap. Despite the fact that rural real wage rate has declined between the period 1990 and 2000, however, rural-rural migration has increased during the same period. The majority of the migrants (more than 90 per cent) are able to find work in agriculture up to 50 days in a year. It has wide ranging implications for the rural-rural migration and level of living of the families of the migrants. |
| Keywords: | Rural-rural migration; Punjab; Rural economy; migrant labour |
| JEL: | O1 O15 |
| Date: | 2007–12–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6420&r=lab |
| By: | Randall Kekoa Quinones Akee (IZA); David A. Jaeger (Department of Economics, College of William and Mary); Konstantinos Tatsiramos (IZA) |
| Abstract: | Using recently-available data from the New Immigrant Survey, we find that previous self-employment experience in an immigrant’s country of origin is an important determinant of their self-employment status in the U.S., increasing the probability of being self-employed by about 7 percent. Our results improve on the previous literature by measuring home-country selfemployment directly rather than relying on proxy measures. We find little evidence to suggest that home-country self-employment has a significant effect on U.S. wages in either paid employment or self employment. |
| Keywords: | Self-employment, entrepreneurship, New Immigrant Survey |
| JEL: | J61 J21 |
| Date: | 2007–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwm:wpaper:69&r=lab |
| By: | Åslund, Olof (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation); Nordström Skans, Oskar (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation) |
| Abstract: | Anonymous application procedures (AAP) are increasingly promoted as a way to combat employment discrimination. The idea gets support from theory and experimental evidence, but virtually nothing is known about its real-life effects. We present empirical evidence building on micro data collected in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, where AAP was used in parts of the local administration. Difference-in-differences estimates, with extensive controls for qualifications, suggest that AAP increased the chances of advancing to interviews for both women and individuals of non-Western origin. Women also experienced a higher probability of being offered a job, but no such effect is found for immigrants. |
| Keywords: | Anonymous applications; discrimination; employment |
| JEL: | J71 J78 |
| Date: | 2007–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2007_031&r=lab |
| By: | Lixin Cai (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | A concern when estimating the effect of health on labour supply is that health might be endogenous, and in particular that people might use poor health to justify non-participation. This would result in the effect of health being overestimated if health were treated as exogenous. The paper employs a simultaneous equation model to explore the relationship between health and labour force status, allowing for the endogeneity of health. In addition, the paper takes advantage of panel data to control for unobserved heterogeneity so that more efficient estimation results can be obtained than using cross-sectional data. The results confirm the finding in the literature that health has a positive and significant effect on labour force participation for both males and females. As for the reverse effect, it is found that labour force participation has a negative effect on male health but a positive effect on female health, implying that the justification hypothesis is rejected for males but not for females. The exogeneity hypothesis on the health variable is rejected for both samples based on a joint test. |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n01&r=lab |
| By: | Eve Caroli; Jérôme Gautié; Caroline Lloyd; Annie Lamanthe; Susan James |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate to what extent labour market institutions influence the way firms respond to flexibility requirements in terms of human resource management. In order to do so, we consider two contrasting economies: France and the UK. France is highly regulated, whereas the UK is more clearly a ‘liberal market economy’. We focus on the food processing sector which is subject to very similar competitive pressure in both countries. Our methodology is based upon plant-level case studies. We explore numerical and functional labour flexibility in terms of outcomes at the firm level. How and to what extent are firms able to deliver flexibility in different institutional contexts? Does this matter in terms of outcomes for workers? We find evidence that firms use a combination of different forms of numerical flexibility although there appears to be a slight move away from internal flexibility (overtime) to external flexibility (agency workers) in the UK and possibly in the opposite direction in France. The research also seems to suggest that there is not a simple trade-off between numerical and functional flexibility. In France, the organisation of work indicates a more functionally flexible core, with a less skilled, numerically flexible periphery. However, in the UK there is little evidence that firms are utilising the core workforce in a similar way. Part of this may be due to the more stable workforce found in most of the French plants. But perhaps more importantly, this is likely to be due to the high cost of labour in France which creates an incentive for firms to replace many of the lowest skilled jobs by machines. |
| Keywords: | labour flexibility, food processing, labour market institutions |
| JEL: | J53 J81 O17 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2007-27&r=lab |
| By: | Francesco Figari (ISER, University of Essex); Herwig Immervoll (OECD, ISER, University of Essex, European Centre Vienna and IZA); Horacio Levy (ISER, University of Essex); Holly Sutherland (ISER, University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | In spite of there being few elements of tax or cash benefit systems in developed countries that are any longer explicitly gender-biased in a discriminatory sense, it is well recognised that they have significant gender effects. To the extent that women earn less than men on average under tax-benefit systems that are progressive, there is some redistribution from men to women overall. However, an aggregate perspective is insufficient for understanding how earning opportunities and public policies affect living arrangements at the family level in general and the circumstances of men and women in particular. Arguably, it is within the household that a gendered division of labour is most relevant. It is difficult to observe how income and other resources get allocated within households. We can, however, observe the incomes brought into the household and to what extent taxes and benefits mitigate (or indeed exacerbate) any inequality of income between men and women. We explore the effects of tax and benefit systems on differences in income and in incentives to earn income between men and women within couples in a selection of the member countries of the European Union (EU) using EUROMOD, the EU tax-benefit microsimulation model. This comparative perspective allows us to establish the relative effects of different policy regimes, given the underlying characteristics of each national population, using a consistent approach and set of incidence assumptions across countries. |
| Keywords: | within-household inequality, tax-benefit systems, Europe, gender |
| JEL: | D31 H31 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3201&r=lab |
| By: | Chiuri Maria Concetta (University of Bari); Del Boca Daniela (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | While several social, economic and financial indicators point to a growing convergence among European countries, striking differences still emerge in the timing of leaving home for adult children. In Southern countries (as Spain, Italy or Portugal) in 2001 more than 70 percent of young adults between 18 and 34 years of age live with their parents, whereas the corresponding number for Northern countries (like Denmark or the UK) is well below 40 percent. Existing literature highlights several factors explaining the different patterns in Europe: preferences and culture, labor market conditions, housing market as well as differences across the welfare states. In our work, we consider living arrangements of people 18-34 years old from 14 European countries (ECHP). We augment the informational content with indicators of labor, housing and marriage markets characteristics as well as proxy for the welfare states and culture. We investigate how they are intertwined with gender differences. |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:200709&r=lab |
| By: | Romina Boarini; Hubert Strauss |
| Abstract: | This study provides estimates of the private Internal Rates of Return (IRR) to tertiary education for women and men in 21 OECD countries, for the years between 1991 and 2005. IRR are computed by estimating labour market premia on cross-country comparable individual-level data. Labour market premia are then adjusted for fiscal factors and education cost. Returns to an additional year of tertiary education are, on average, above 8% and vary in a range from 4 to 15% in the countries and in the period under study. IRR are relatively homogenous across gender. Overall, a slightly increasing trend is observed over time. The study discusses various policy levers for shaping individual incentives to invest in tertiary education and provides some illustrative quantification of the impact of policy changes on those incentives. <P>Les taux de rendement privés de l’éducation supérieure : nouvelles estimations pour 21 pays de l’OCDE <BR>Cette étude fournit des estimations des taux de rendement privés de l'éducation supérieure, pour les hommes ainsi que pour les femmes, dans 21 pays de l'OCDE et pour les années comprises entre 1991 et 2005. Les rendements sont calculés en estimant les primes sur le marché du travail à partir de données individuelles comparables entre les pays. Ces primes sont ensuite corrigées par des facteurs fiscaux et par les coûts de l'éducation. Les rendements d'une année supplémentaire d'enseignement supérieur sont en moyenne supérieurs à 8%, et varient dans un intervalle de 4% à 15% entre pays et pour la période considérée. Les rendements sont à peu près les mêmes pour les hommes et pour les femmes. Dans l'ensemble, une légère tendance à la hausse apparaît dans la période d'observation. L'étude examine l’influence des différentes politiques sur les incitations individuelles à investir dans l'éducation supérieure et propose des estimations de l'impact des réformes sur ces incitations. |
| Keywords: | Investment in tertiary education, Returns to education, Rendements de l’éducation |
| JEL: | I21 I22 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2007–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:591-en&r=lab |
| By: | Jan Eeckhout; Boyan Jovanovic |
| Abstract: | The rise in world trade since 1970 has raised international mobility of labor services. We study the effect of such a globalization of the world's labor markets. We find that when people can choose between wage work and managerial work, the output gains are U-shaped: A worldwide labor market raises output by more in the rich and the poor countries, and by less in the middle-income countries. This is because the middle-income countries experience the smallest change in the factor-price ratio, and where the option to choose between wage work and managerial work has the least value in the integrated economy. Our theory also establishes that after economic integration, the high skill countries see a disproportionate increase in managerial occupations. Using aggregate data on GDP, openness and occupations from 115 countries, we find evidence for these patterns of occupational choice. |
| JEL: | L0 O1 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13686&r=lab |
| By: | Francesco Figari; Herwig Immervoll; Horacio Levy; Holly Sutherland |
| Abstract: | In spite of there being few elements of tax or cash benefit systems in developed countries that are any longer explicitly gender-biased in a discriminatory sense, it is well recognised that they have significant gender effects. To the extent that women earn less than men on average under tax-benefit systems that are progressive, there is some redistribution from men to women overall. However, an aggregate perspective is insufficient for understanding how earning opportunities and public policies affect living arrangements at the family level in general and the circumstances of men and women in particular. Arguably, it is within the household that a gendered division of labour is most relevant. It is difficult to observe how income and other resources get allocated within households. We can, however, observe the incomes brought into the household and to what extent taxes and benefits mitigate (or indeed exacerbate) any inequality of income between men and women. We explore the effects of tax and benefit systems on differences in income and in incentives to earn income between men and women within couples in a selection of the member countries of the European Union (EU) using EUROMOD, the EU tax-benefit microsimulation model. This comparative perspective allows us to establish the relative effects of different policy regimes, given the underlying characteristics of each national population, using a consistent approach and set of incidence assumptions across countries. |
| Keywords: | within-household inequality, tax-benefit systems, Europe, gender |
| JEL: | D31 H31 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp74&r=lab |
| By: | Miller, Marcus; Smith, Jennifer C |
| Abstract: | An ‘efficiency wage’ model developed for Western economies is reinterpreted for Soviet Russia assuming that it was the Gulag not unemployment that acted as a ‘worker-discipline device’. Archival data now available allows for a basic account of the dynamics of the Gulag to be estimated. When this is combined with a dictatorship wishing to maximise the ‘investible surplus’ subject to an efficiency wage incentive constraint, what does it imply? That to secure resources for investment or war, consumption must be compressed; and making the Gulag harsher helps reduce incentive problems in the workplace. This is the cruel logic of coercion. But this economic rationale for the Gulag does not, we find, encompass randomised mass terror. Why did Stalin’s system of coercion ultimately fail? The paper concludes with comparisons of Western and Soviet systems from an efficiency wage perspective. |
| Keywords: | asymmetric information; efficiency wage; Labour-discipline; Soviet Gulag |
| JEL: | D82 P23 P26 P27 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6621&r=lab |
| By: | Mika Maliranta; Satu Nurmi; Hanna Virtanen |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT : We examine the determinants of labour market status after the initial vocational basic education (ISCED 3) by use of unique linked register data on students, their parents, teachers, educational organisations and business companies in Finland. We distinguish between four outcomes : 1) employment 2) further studies 3) non-employment and 4) drop-out. The explanatory factors are classified into three main groups : the characteristics of 1) the educational organisation and their institutions, 2) the students and 3) the local business conditions. Teaching expenditures do not matter but teachers’ skills do. Parental background plays a central role. Local business development matters for boys. |
| Keywords: | education production, vocational education, employability, further studies, regional development, drop-out |
| JEL: | H52 I21 J23 J24 |
| Date: | 2007–12–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1111&r=lab |
| By: | Morris M. Kleiner; Richard M. Todd |
| Abstract: | As the role of mortgage brokers in mortgage origination grew from insignificant in the 1980s to dominant in recent years, questions have arisen about whether its services help or harm consumers. In response, states have increasingly regulated the business, largely by creating and tightening occupational licensing requirements for mortgage brokers. The question of whether increased occupational licensing of mortgage brokers improves consumer outcomes is theoretically ambiguous and has been little studied empirically. This study introduces a new database of mortgage broker licensing requirements and assesses the relationships between these requirements and outcomes in both the labor market for brokers and the consumer market for mortgages. We find that most aspects of mortgage broker licensing systems, such as mandatory professional education, do not have a significant and consistent statistical association with market outcomes. However, one component -- the requirement in many states that mortgage brokers maintain a surety bond or minimum net worth -- does have a significant and fairly consistent statistical relationship with both labor and consumer market outcomes. In particular, we find that tighter bonding/net worth requirements are associated with fewer brokers, fewer subprime mortgages, higher foreclosure rates, and a greater percentage of high-interest-rate mortgages. Although we do not provide a full causal interpretation of these results, we take seriously the possibility that restrictive bonding requirements for mortgage brokers have unintended negative consequences for many consumers. On balance, our results also seem to support theories of occupational licensing that stress the importance of pure entry and exit barriers over those that focus more on the human capital effects of licensing. |
| JEL: | H77 J18 J4 J44 J8 K2 K31 L22 L38 L51 L84 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13684&r=lab |
| By: | David Glowsky |
| Abstract: | This paper examines why German men marry women from countries which are less economically developed. Two hypotheses deduced from exchange theory and the economic theory of the family are tested: 1. Low physical and social attractiveness as well as reduced opportunities to meet German partners lead to marriage with a woman from a poorer country. 2. Because of the economic gap between their countries of origin, German men can marry comparatively more attractive women on the international marriage market than they could hope to attract within Germany. The analysis uses data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP, 1984-2005). The results show that men with wives from poorer countries do not differ from men with German wives with regard to their attractiveness and social contacts. A better explanation for these marriages lies in the age-related "marriage squeeze" encountered by German men older than 30 years. Only on account of their age do these men struggle to find a spouse on the German marriage market, which in turn increases the likelihood of them seeking marriage with women from poorer countries. Furthermore, the results do offer strong evidence that the economic gap between their countries of origin does allow German men to marry more attractive women when they opt for partners from poorer countries. |
| Keywords: | Marriage market, marriage migration, marriage squeeze, age difference, social status, attractiveness |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp61&r=lab |
| By: | Alfonso Miranda (Keele University and IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether family and community migration experience affect the probability of high school graduation in Mexico once unobserved heterogeneity is accounted for. Bivariate random effects dynamic probit models for cluster data are estimated to control for the endogeneity of education and migrant network variables. Correlation of unobservables across migration and education decisions as well as within groups of individuals such as the family are explicitly controlled for. Results show that migrant networks reduce the likelihood of high school graduation. Negative migrant selection is detected at the individual level while positive migrant selection is found at the family level. |
| Keywords: | migration, education, migrant selection, dynamic bivariate probit |
| JEL: | F22 I21 J61 C35 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3204&r=lab |
| By: | Camilla Lenzi |
| Abstract: | In recent years, increasing attention and resources have been devoted to the analysis of workers’ mobility and the collection of new and extensive datasets in order to monitor and appraise this phenomenon. Most of the studies make use of information about inventors extracted from patent data. In fact, patent data collects detailed information on inventors, their geographical location and the applicants of their patents. This paper instead makes use of unique data on inventors’ curriculum vitae collected through a survey addressed to a group of Italian inventors in the pharmaceutical field and compares this information to those extracted from patent data. Results seem to challenge the traditional interpretation of mobility phenomena based on patent data and suggest that patent and survey data might capture different aspects of inventors’ career path. In particular, results indicate that survey data describes the whole set of inventors’ employers and the knowledge flows across them. Conversely, patent data portrays a different set that is the one composed of those actors directly involved in inventive processes and participating to the production of patented knowledge. More interestingly, they overlap only partially and do not necessarily coincide. |
| Keywords: | Patent; Mobility; Inventor |
| JEL: | J60 O30 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:07-22&r=lab |
| By: | Umut Oguzoglu (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of self-reported work-limitation on the employment of the Australian working age population. Five consecutive waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey are used to investigate this relationship. A two-equation dynamic panel data model demonstrates that persistence and unobserved heterogeneity play an important role in the work-limitation reporting and its effect on work. Unobserved factors that jointly drive work-limitation and work are also shown to be crucial, especially for women. |
| Keywords: | Work-limitations, dynamic panel probit, Maximum Simulated Likelihood |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n10&r=lab |
| By: | Chew Lian Chua (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne); Robert Dixon (Department of Economics, The University Melbourne); G. C. Lim (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | This paper applies a multi-state latent factor intensity model to worker flows to obtain insights about the determinants of entry and exit rates pertaining to various labour market states. The analysis shows that one activity factor underpins the decision to move from employment and from unemployment and this result may be of special interest to policy makers concerned with understanding the rate of departures from the pool of both the employed and (especially) the unemployed. The paper also shows how to estimate a non-linear state space model using a Gibbs sampler that encompasses a Metropolis-Hastings algorithm as well as the auxiliary particle filter to estimate the latent process. The advantage of the approach is that it provides a parsimonious and efficient way to obtain key information about behaviour in labour markets. |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n34&r=lab |
| By: | Todd C. Neumann; Price V. Fishback; Shawn Kantor |
| Abstract: | During the New Deal the Roosevelt Administration dramatically expanded relief spending to combat extraordinarily high rates of unemployment. We examine the dynamic relationships between relief spending and local private labor markets using a new panel data set of monthly relief, private employment and private earnings for major U.S. cities in the 1930s. Impulse response functions derived from a panel VAR model that controls for time and city fixed effects show that a work relief shock in period t-1 led to a decline in private employment and a rise in private monthly earnings. The finding offers evidence consistent with contemporary employers' complaints that work relief made it more difficult to hire, even though work relief officials followed their stated policies to avoid affecting private labor markets directly. Meanwhile, negative shocks to private employment led to increases in work relief, consistent with Roosevelt's stated goal of using relief to promote relief and recovery. |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13692&r=lab |
| By: | Carlos Garriga; Mark P. Keightley |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the effectiveness of three different types of education policies: tuition subsidies (broad based, merit based, and flat tuition), grant subsidies (broad based and merit based), and loan limit restrictions. We develop a quantitative theory of college within the context of general equilibrium overlapping generations economy. College is modeled as a multi-period risky investment with endogenous enrollment, time-to-degree, and dropout behavior. Tuition costs can be financed using federal grants, student loans, and working while at college. We show that our model accounts for the main statistics regarding education (enrollment rate, dropout rate, and time to degree) while matching the observed aggregate wage premiums. Our model predicts that broad based tuition subsidies and grants increase college enrollment. However, due to the correlation between ability and financial resources most of these new students are from the lower end of the ability distribution and eventually dropout or take longer than average to complete college. Merit based education policies counteract this adverse selection problem but at the cost of a muted enrollment response. Our last policy experiment highlights an important interaction between the labor-supply margin and borrowing. A significant decrease in enrollment is found to occur only when borrowing constraints are severely tightened and the option to work while in school is removed. This result suggests that previous models that have ignored the student's labor supply when analyzing borrowing constraints may be insufficient. |
| Keywords: | Education - Economic aspects ; College costs |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2007-051&r=lab |
| By: | Umut Oguzoglu (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | At any given time, individuals may be subject to health shocks whose impact on work capacity can vary in magnitude. Therefore the variation in severity levels can explain changes in labour force decisions that can not be picked up by the general disability status alone. This paper analyses the effect of severity of disability on labour force participation by using two measures of severity: the self-reported work limitation scales and the SF-36 physical component summary scores. Using five waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, several static and dynamic panel data models are estimated to account for state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity in participation. The results suggest that differences in severity levels explain a significant portion of the variance in the participation rates among disabled individuals. It is also found that severe work limitations have a more immediate impact on individuals’ labour force outcomes. Moreover, the disabilities are shown to have longer lasting adverse effects on female participation. |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n30&r=lab |
| By: | Stéphane Carcillo; Victoria Gunnarsson; Marijn Verhoeven |
| Abstract: | Enhancing the efficiency of education and health spending is a key policy challenge in G7 countries. The paper assesses this efficiency and seeks to establish a link between differences in efficiency across countries and policy and institutional factors. The findings suggest that reforms aimed at increasing efficiency need to take into account the nature and causes of inefficiencies. Inefficiencies in G7 countries mostly reflect lack of cost effectiveness in acquiring real resources, such as teachers and pharmaceuticals. We also find that high wage spending is associated with lower efficiency. In addition, lowering student-teacher ratios is associated with reduced efficiency in the education sector, while immunizations and doctors' consultations coincide with higher efficiency in the health sector. Greater autonomy for schools seems to raise efficiency in secondary education. |
| Keywords: | Education , Health care , Wages , Public sector , Government expenditures , |
| Date: | 2007–11–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:07/263&r=lab |
| By: | J. Kluwe; H. Lehmann; C. M. Schmidt |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:620&r=lab |
| By: | Mark Wooden (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne); Robert Drago (Pennsylvania State University, USA) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents statistical evidence on the nature of working time arrangements in Australia, and especially their distribution. More specifically, the paper analyses: (i) the distribution of weekly working hours in Australia and how that has changed over time; (ii) the extent of mismatch between usual and preferred hours of work, and the degree of persistence in such mismatch; (iii) annual leave usage and its correlation with weekly hours of work; and (iv) how working time arrangements in Australia compare with that in other industrial nations. |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n19&r=lab |
| By: | Per Krusell; Toshihiko Mukoyama; Ayseg ul Sahin |
| Date: | 2007–12–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cla:levrem:122247000000001783&r=lab |
| By: | Wang-Sheng Lee (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | This paper shows how some simple modifications to the classical Heckscher-Ohlin model in international trade can be made so that it can be used to analyse the impact of immigration on wages. In particular, this is accomplished by constructing a model in which countries have very different endowments of factors, reside in different diversification cones and specialise in production. In such a model, it is not necessary that factor prices are equalised across countries. Based on simulation results of this modified Heckscher-Ohlin model, it is found that the actual immigrant flow in the U.S. from 1979 to 1995 is unlikely to be a major contributor to the observed high-skill/low-skill wage gap increase over the period. This paper shows how some simple modifications to the classical Heckscher-Ohlin model in international trade can be made so that it can be used to analyse the impact of immigration on wages. In particular, this is accomplished by constructing a model in which countries have very different endowments of factors, reside in different diversification cones and specialise in production. In such a model, it is not necessary that factor prices are equalised across countries. Based on simulation results of this modified Heckscher-Ohlin model, it is found that the actual immigrant flow in the U.S. from 1979 to 1995 is unlikely to be a major contributor to the observed high-skill/low-skill wage gap increase over the period. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Heckscher-Ohlin, multi-cone, general equilibrium. |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n07&r=lab |
| By: | Annalena Dunkelberg; C. Katharina Spieß |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the influence of children's health and mothers' physical and mental wellbeing on female labor force participation after childbirth in Germany. Our analysis uses data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study, which enables us to measure children's health based on the occurrence of severe health problems including mental and physical disabilities, hospitalizations, and preterm births. Since child health is measured at a very young age, we can rule out any of the reverse effects of maternal employment on child health identified in US studies. Within a two-year time period, we investigate the influence of these indicators on various aspects of female labor force participation after childbirth, including continuous labor force participation in the year of childbirth and the transition to employment in the year following childbirth. Since the majority of women in Germany do not go back to work within a year after childbirth, we also investigate their intention to return to work, and the preferred number of working hours. We find that the child's severe health problems have a significant negative effect on the mothers' labor force participation and a significant positive effect on her preferred number of working hours, but that hospitalizations or preterm births have no significant effect. For the mothers' own health, we find a significant negative effect of poor mental and physical wellbeing on female labor force participation within a year of childbirth. To our knowledge, this is the first empirical study of this kind on data outside the US. |
| Keywords: | Female labour supply, Childhealth, Well-being |
| JEL: | J22 J23 I19 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp7&r=lab |
| By: | Lindbeck, Assar (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Palme, Mårten (Stockholm University); Persson, Mats (Institute for International Economic Studies) |
| Abstract: | Does the average level of sickness absence in a neighborhood affect individual sickness absence through social interaction on the neighborhood level? To answer this question, we consider evidence of local benefit-dependency cultures. Well-known methodological problems in this type of analysis include avoiding the so-called reflection problem and disentangling the causal effects of group behavior on individual behavior from the effects of individual sorting on neighborhoods. Based on data from Sweden, we adopt several different approaches to deal with these problems. The results are robust in the sense that regardless of approach and identifying assumptions, we obtain statistically significant estimates indicating group effects. |
| Keywords: | Sick-pay Insurance; Work Absence; Moral Hazard; Social Norms |
| JEL: | H56 I38 J22 Z13 |
| Date: | 2007–12–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0725&r=lab |
| By: | Oliver Busch |
| Abstract: | The present paper analyzes the out-migration of graduates to other German states or abroad based on the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). Applying duration analysis, it can be shown that, ten years after graduation, slightly more than seventy percent of the graduates still live in the state where they completed their studies. The parametric estimation model identifies personal characteristics that are highly correlated with out-migration and permanent residence respectively. The analysis confirms previous results that nonresident students exhibit a significantly higher emigration propensity than resident fellows. |
| Keywords: | Brain drain, nonresident students, fiscal externalities, duration analysis, GSOEP |
| JEL: | H52 I2 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp26&r=lab |
| By: | Guyonne Kalb (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne); Wang-Sheng Lee (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | Based on data which are representative of the Australian population in 2002, this paper first analyses the demand for and cost of formal and informal childcare for couple and sole parent families, shedding light on factors which affect the demand for childcare. The predicted demand of formal childcare and the predicted costs of informal childcare arising from these models are then used to impute total childcare costs at different levels of labour supply. Finally, the predicted total costs are incorporated in the estimation procedure of structural labour supply models for couple and sole parent families. By making several extensions to the methodology adopted in Doiron and Kalb (2005a), who estimated similar models based on 1996 Australian data and which this paper largely replicates in terms of methodology, it is found that the average elasticities of labour supply with regard to the cost of childcare are quite similar to the earlier estimates. The elasticities remain at the lower end of the range found in the international literature with the exception of the elasticities for sole parents with preschool children and/or on relatively low wages |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n13&r=lab |
| By: | Brück, Tilman; Danzer, Alexander M.; Muravyev, Alexander; Weißhaar, Natalia |
| Abstract: | The paper analyzes the incidence, the severity and the determinants of household poverty in Ukraine during transition using two comparable surveys from 1996 and 2004. We measure poverty using income and consumption and contrast the effects of various poverty lines. Poverty in both periods follows some of the determinants commonly identified in the literature, including greater poverty among households with children and with less education. We also identify specific features of poverty in transition, including the relatively low importance of unemployment and the existence of poverty even among households with employment. Poverty determinants change over time in line with the experience of transition and restructuring. |
| Keywords: | poverty, transition, survey, Ukraine |
| JEL: | I32 J20 O15 P20 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec07:6805&r=lab |
| By: | David Maddison; Katrin Rehdanz |
| Abstract: | Hedonic theory assumes that changes in land prices and wage rates eliminate the utility advantages of differing locations. Using happiness data from the German socio-economic panel this paper empirically tests whether regional utility differences exist and if so whether utility levels show any tendency to converge over time. Empirical analysis reveals substantial differences in utility over different regions of Germany. Analysing a panel of data indicates that even if individual utility levels are at any one moment in disequilibrium they are rapidly converging over Germany for all types of individuals. |
| Keywords: | Educational expansion, correlated random coefficient model, heterogenous returns to education, conditional mean independence |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp16&r=lab |
| By: | Edward L. Glaeser |
| Abstract: | The economic approach to cities relies on a spatial equilibrium for workers, employers and builders. The worker's equilibrium implies that positive attributes in one location, like access to downtown or high wages, are offset by negative attributes, like high housing prices. The employer's equilibrium requires that high wages be offset by a high level of productivity, perhaps due to easy access to customers or suppliers. The search for the sources of productivity differences that can justify high wages is the basis for the study of agglomeration economies which has been a significant branch of urban economics in the past 20 years. The builder's equilibrium condition pushes us to understand the causes of supply differences across space that can explain why some places have abundant construction and low prices while others have little construction and high prices. Since the economic theory of cities emphasizes a search for exogenous causes of endogenous outcomes like local wages, housing prices and city growth, it is unsurprising that the economic empirics on cities have increasingly focused on the quest for exogenous sources of variation. The economic approach to urban policy emphasizes the need to focus on people, rather than places, as the ultimate objects of policy concern and the need for policy to anticipate the mobility of people and firms. |
| JEL: | R0 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13696&r=lab |
| By: | Libertad González Luna; Francesc Ortega |
| Abstract: | In recent years, Spain has received unprecedented immigration flows. Between 2001 and 2006 the fraction of the population born abroad more than doubled, increasing from 4.8% to 10.8%. For Spanish provinces with above-median inflows (relative to population), immigration increased by 24% the number of high school dropouts while only increasing college graduates by 11%. We study different channels by which regional labor markets have absorbed the large increase in relative supply of low educated workers. We identify the exogenous supply shock using historical immigrant settlement patterns by country of origin. Using data from the Labor Force Survey and the decennial Census, we find a large expansion of employment in high immigration regions. Disaggregating by industry, the absorption operated through large increases in the share of low-educated workers, compared to the same industry in low-immigration regions. We do not find changes in sectoral specialization. Overall, and perhaps surprisingly, the pattern of absorption is very similar to the one found in the US. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Open Economies, Rybcszynski, Instrumental Variables |
| JEL: | J2 F1 O3 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1059&r=lab |
| By: | Katja Coneus; Kathrin Göggel; Grit Muehler |
| Abstract: | When estimating the determinants of child care participation, the simultaneity in mothers' decision to work and in the decision to use child care is a major challenge. In this study, we provide evidence on the determinants of institutional child care use accounting for the endogeneity of mothers' labor supply by applying an instrumental variables approach. This endogeneity has been neglected in studies on this issue so far, even though the decision to use child care outside the home is strongly connected to mothers' decision to work after childbirth and vice versa. Based on the German Socio-economic Panel (GSOEP) from 1989-2006 we show that children living in Western Germany have a higher probability to attend institutional care if their mothers increase their actual weekly working time. Estimating the determining factors of child care participation without correcting for simultaneity underestimates the influence of maternal working time by more than a half. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp72&r=lab |
| By: | Simone Bertoli; Francesco Farina |
| Abstract: | The interest around the functional distribution has gained a new momentum since the late 1980s with new theoretical advances of Neo Classical economics and with the contemporary large swing in favour of capital incomes that characterized most European countries. This paper revises the theoretical literature on the interplay between factor shares and economic growth, and it describes the competing evidence around the determinants of the large and enduring fall in the labour share experienced in Europe. The literature has produced a shared consensus on the determinants of the wage push in the 1970s and on the decline of the labour share in the 1980s, but there is still a unsettled debate on the reasons for the enduring decline over the 1990s. The paper also focuses on the possible impact of this significant change in the functional distribution of income on the interpersonal income inequality, evidencing the role in this respect of labour market and welfare institutions. |
| Keywords: | factor shares, income inequality, welfare system. |
| JEL: | D33 E01 E25 J30 O33 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:depfid:005&r=lab |