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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Catherine Fuss (National Bank of Belgium, Research Department; Université Libre de Bruxelles) |
| Abstract: | This paper decomposes wage bill changes at the firm level into components due to wage changes, and components due to net flows of employment. The analysis relies on an administrative employer-employee dataset of individual annual earnings matched with firms' annual accounts for Belgium over the period 1997-2001. Results point to asymmetric behaviour depending on economic conditions. On average, wage bill contractions result essentially from employment cuts in spite of wage increases. Wage growth of job stayers is moderated but still positive; and wages of entrants compared with those of incumbents are no lower. The labour force cuts are achieved through both reduced entries and increased exits. Higher exits may be due to more layoffs, especially in smaller firms, and wider use of early retirement, especially in manufacturing. In addition, the paper points up the role of overtime hours, temporary unemployment and interim workers in adapting to short-run fluctuations. |
| Keywords: | wages, employment flows, matched employer-employee data |
| JEL: | J30 J60 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbb:reswpp:200801-31&r=lab |
| By: | Heyman, Fredrik (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | I use Swedish establishment-level panel data to test Bertola and Rogerson’s (1997) hypothesis of a positive relation between the degree of wage compression and job reallocation. Results indicate that the effect of wage compression on job turnover is positive and significant in the manufacturing sector. The wage compression effect is stronger on job destruction than on job creation, consistent with downward wage rigidity. Further results include a strong positive relationship between the fraction of temporary employees and job turnover and a negative relationship between the amount of working-time flexibility and job reallocation. |
| Keywords: | Job Creation and Job Destruction; Wage Dispersion; Temporary Employment Contracts; Panel Data |
| JEL: | J21 J31 J63 |
| Date: | 2008–01–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0729&r=lab |
| By: | Addison, John T. (University of South Carolina); Blackburn, McKinley L. (University of South Carolina); Cotti, Chad D. (University of South Carolina) |
| Abstract: | We use county-level data on employment and earnings in the restaurant-and-bar sector to evaluate the impact of minimum wage changes on low-wage labor markets. Our empirical approach is similar to the literature that has used state-level panel data to estimate minimum-wage impacts, with the difference that we focus on a particular sector rather than demographic group. Our estimated models are consistent with a simple competitive model of the restaurant-and-bar labor market in which supply-and-demand factors affect both the equilibrium outcome and the probability that a minimum wage will be binding in any given time period. Our evidence does not suggest that minimum wages reduce employment in the overall restaurant-and-bar sector, after controls for trends in sector employment at the county level are incorporated in the model. Employment in this sector appears to exhibit a downward long-term trend in states that have increased their minimum wages relative to states that have not, thereby predisposing fixed-effects estimates towards finding negative employment effects. |
| Keywords: | county-level data, wages and employment, minimum wages, spatial trends |
| JEL: | J23 J38 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3300&r=lab |
| By: | Emma Hall; Carol Propper; John Van Reenen |
| Abstract: | Labor market regulation can have harmful unintended consequences. In many markets, especially for public sector workers, pay is regulated to be the same for individuals across heterogeneous geographical labor markets. We would predict that this will mean labor supply problems and potential falls in the quality of service provision in areas with stronger labor markets. In this paper we exploit panel data from the population of English acute hospitals where pay for medical staff is almost flat across the country. We predict that areas with higher outside wages should suffer from problems of recruiting, retaining and motivating high quality workers and this should harm hospital performance. We construct hospital-level panel data on both quality - as measured by death rates (within hospital deaths within thirty days of emergency admission for acute myocardial infarction, AMI) - and productivity. We present evidence that stronger local labor markets significantly worsen hospital outcomes in terms of quality and productivity. A 10% increase in the outside wage is associated with a 4% to 8% increase in AMI death rates. We find that an important part of this effect operates through hospitals in high outside wage areas having to rely more on temporary "agency staff" as they are unable to increase (regulated) wages in order to attract permanent employees. By contrast, we find no systematic role for an effect of outside wages of performance when we run placebo experiments in 42 other service sectors (including nursing homes) where pay is unregulated. |
| JEL: | I18 J31 J45 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13776&r=lab |
| By: | Decreuse, Bruno; Granier, Pierre |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of labor market frictions and institutions on the divide of schooling investment between general and specific skills. We offer a simple matching model of unemployment in which individuals determine the scope and intensity of their skills. In partial equilibrium, we show that the severity of market frictions distorts the schooling allocation towards more general skills. Then, we endogenize job creation and argue that changes in labor market institutions may well originate a non-monotonous relationship between unemployment and the divide of skills between specific and general human capital. We also investigate more carefully the impacts of unemployment compensation, minimum wage and firing costs. We suggest that unemployment compensation has an ambiguous impact on the skill divide, while minimum wage and firing costs are detrimental to general skill acquisition. |
| Keywords: | Matching frictions; education; general and specific skills; labour market institutions |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6948&r=lab |
| By: | Alan Barrett (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)); Yvonne McCarthy (Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland) |
| Abstract: | This paper has three objectives. First, a review of the developing body of work on the economics of immigration in Ireland is provided. Second, the analysis undertaken by Barrett and McCarthy (forthcoming) of earnings of immigrants in Ireland is updated. Third, the earnings of immigrant women are assessed to see if they experience a “double disadvantage”. Among other findings, the review of the emerging literature points to immigrants faring less well in the Irish labour market relative to native employees. As regards the analysis conducted in this paper, we find that immigrants were earning 15 percent less than comparable natives employees in 2005. For immigrants from non-English speaking countries, the wage disadvantage was 20 percent. The corresponding figure for immigrants from the EU’s New Member States was 31 percent. A double disadvantage is found for immigrant women, with the earnings of female immigrants found to be 14 percent less than those of comparable native female employees. This double disadvantage is concentrated among female immigrants with third level degrees. |
| Keywords: | Immigrants’ earnings, Ireland |
| JEL: | J61 |
| Date: | 2007–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:206&r=lab |
| By: | Del Boca, Daniela (University of Turin); Pasqua, Silvia (University of Turin); Pronzato, Chiara (University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we explore the impact of social policies and labour market characteristics on women’s decisions regarding work and childbearing, using data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP). We estimate the two decisions jointly and, in addition to personal characteristics, include variables related to the childcare system, parental leave arrangements, family allowances, and labour market flexibility. Our empirical results show that a non-negligible portion of the differences in participation and fertility rates for women from different European countries can be attributed to the characteristics of these institutions, and that the environmental effects vary by educational level. While labour market arrangements, such as part-time opportunities (when well-paid and protected), have a larger impact on the outcomes of women with higher educational levels, childcare and optional parental leaves have a larger impact on the fertility and participation decisions of women at lower educational levels. |
| Keywords: | employment, fertility, childcare, parental leave |
| JEL: | J11 C3 D1 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3303&r=lab |
| By: | Decreuse, Bruno |
| Abstract: | We propose a static search model with two types of workers, output sharing (Nash bargaining), and free entry of firms. The matching function is specified so as the unskilled do not create congestion effects for the skilled. An increase in the share of skilled workers has two effects on the welfare of the unskilled: a negative crowding-out effect, and a positive labour demand effect. The former (latter) effect dominates whenever the skill differential is small (large). |
| Keywords: | Matching frictions; Heterogeneity; Congestion effects |
| JEL: | J21 J23 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6949&r=lab |
| By: | Giuseppe Tattara (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari); Marco Valentini (Tolomeo srl) |
| Abstract: | On-the-Job Search is one of the most common and efficient ways to look for a new job, most of the time workers move directly from one employment position to another (E-to-E) without an intervening spell of unemployment. E-to-E transitions are a relevant component of total labour flows and have a definite cyclical pattern. This paper computes E-to-E worker flows through the development of a vacancy chain model. An iterative procedure is used to compute the successive reallocation runs, beginning from an autonomous vacancy and then to reconstruct the complete E-to-E transition process. The procedure is implemented and applied to a large micro-panel based on a highly industrialized Italian region from 1982 to 1996. E-to-E transitions are an increasingly large portion of worker flows in the labour market. They are clearly cyclic and the number of transitions increases over time as the labour market becomes tighter. These are the flows that explain labour market dynamics in upswings and recessions. Search models that look only at flows between employment, unemployment and outside of the labour force underestimate labour mobility and its cyclical pattern. |
| Keywords: | Job Flows, Search and Matching, Job to Job Mobility, Worker Flows, Business Cycle, Propagation |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J63 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2007_15&r=lab |
| By: | Eric Verhoogen (Columbia University - Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a new mechanism linking trade and wage inequality in developing countries ¿ the quality-upgrading mechanism ¿ and investigates its empirical implications in panel data on Mexican manufacturing plants. In a model with heterogeneous plants and quality-differentiated goods, only the most productive plants in a country like Mexico enter the export market, they produce higher-quality goods to appeal to richer Northern consumers, and they pay high wages to attract and motivate a high-quality workforce. An exchange-rate devaluation leads initially more-productive, higher-wage plants to increase exports, upgrade quality, and raise wages relative to initially less-productive, lower-wage plants within each industry. Using the late-1994 peso crisis as a source of variation and a variety of proxies for plant productivity, I find that initially more-productive plants increased the export share of sales, white-collar wages, blue-collar wages, the relative wage of whitecollar workers, and ISO 9000 certification more than initially less-productive plants during the peso crisis period, and that these differential changes were greater than in periods without devaluations before and after the crisis period. A factor-analytic strategy that relies more heavily on the theoretical structure and avoids the need to construct proxies finds similar results. These findings support the hypothesis that differential quality upgrading induced by the exchange rate shock tended to increase within-industry wage inequality. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clu:wpaper:0607-08&r=lab |
| By: | Michael Kosfeld; Ferdinand von Siemens |
| Abstract: | Teamwork and cooperation between workers can be of substantial value to a firm, yet the level of worker cooperation often varies between individual firms. We show that these differences can be the result of labor market competition if workers have heterogeneous preferences and preferences are private information. In our model there are two types of workers: selfish workers who only respond to monetary incentives, and conditionally cooperative workers who might voluntarily provide team work if their co-workers do the same. We show that there is no pooling in equilibrium, and that workers self-select into firms that differ in their incentives as well as their resulting level of team work. Our model can explain why firms develop different corporate cultures in an ex-ante symmetric environment. Moreover, the results show that, contrary to first intuition, labor market competition does not destroy but may indeed foster within-firm cooperation. |
| Keywords: | Competition, conditional cooperation, asymmetric information, self-selection, corporate culture |
| JEL: | D23 D82 L23 M54 |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:iewwpx:328&r=lab |
| By: | Elisabetta Trevisan (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of the introduction of new restrictive permanent contracts on the perceived job security of the workers in Spain. The perceived job security is strongly influenced by the characteristics of individuals and their distribution within groups. Comparing heterogeneous groups could make the traditional DID estimator biased. To address this issue I combine the propensity score matching DID with a fixed effect estimator. The analysis is conducted using data from the ECHP Survey for Spain from 1995 to 2000. The result is that this reform has a positive impact only for one targeted group, i.e. the young workers and no effect for the others. Several robustness checks are performed. |
| Keywords: | Job security, Firing Costs, Evaluation Policy, Fixed effect estimator. |
| JEL: | C14 C33 J28 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2007_02&r=lab |
| By: | Nils Braakmann (Institute of Economics, Leuphana University of Lüneburg) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether the labor market prospects of Arab men in England are influenced by recent Islamistic terrorist attacks and the war on Iraq. We use data from the British Labour Force Survey from Spring 2001 to Winter 2006 and treat the terrorist attacks on the USA on September 11th, 2001, the Madrid train bombings on March 11th, 2004 and the London bombings on July 7th, 2005, as well as the beginning of the war on Iraq on March 20th, 2003, as natural experiments that may have lead to a change in attitudes toward Arab or Muslim men. Using treatment group definitions based on ethnicity, country of birth, current nationality, and religion, evidence from regression-adjusted dierence-in-dierences-estimators indicates that the real wages, hours worked and employment probabilities of Arab men were unchanged by the attacks. This finding is in line with prior evidence from Europe. |
| Keywords: | Discrimination, September 11th, Islamistic terror, employment, wages |
| JEL: | J71 J79 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lue:wpaper:70&r=lab |
| By: | Donald R. Davis (Department of Economics, Columbia University); James Harrigan (Federal Reserve Bank of New York) |
| Abstract: | Globalization threatens "good jobs at good wages", according to overwhelming public sentiment. Yet professional discussion often rules out such concerns a priori. We instead offer a framework to interpret and address these concerns. We develop a model in which monopolistically competitive firms pay efficiency wages, and these firms differ in both their technical capability and their monitoring ability. Heterogeneity in the ability of firms to monitor effort leads to different wages for identical workers - good jobs and bad jobs - as well as equilibrium unemployment. Wage heterogeneity combines with differences in technical capability to generate an equilibrium size distribution of firms. As in Melitz (2003), trade liberalization increases aggregate efficiency through a firm selection effect. This efficiency-enhancing selection effect, however, puts pressure on many "good jobs", in the sense that the high-wage jobs at any level of technical capability are the least likely to survive trade liberalization. In a central case, trade raises the average real wage but leads to a loss of many "good jobs" and to a steady-state increase in unemployment. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clu:wpaper:0607-07&r=lab |
| By: | Matthias Doepke; Moshe Hazan; Yishay D. 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. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, Baby Boom, World War II |
| JEL: | D58 E24 J13 J20 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:iewwpx:355&r=lab |
| By: | Moniz, António; Woll, Tobias |
| Abstract: | In this working paper is presented information on the Portuguese labour market developed with the support of the European project WORKS-“Work organisation and restructuring in the knowledge society”. Is still a on the process article and thus commentaries are welcome. The structure is based on the following topics: a) The employment policy (Time regimes - time use, flexibility, part-time work, work-life balance -, and the work contracts regimes – wages, contract types, diversity); b) Education and training (skilling outcomes, rules on retraining and further training, employability schemes, transferability of skills); c) Equal opportunities (relevance of equal opportunity regulation for restructuring outcomes, the role of gender and age regulation); d) Restructuring effects (policy on transfer of personnel, policy on redundancies, and participation or voice in restructuring). |
| Keywords: | labour market; work organisation; knowledge society; employment; policy; Education; gender |
| JEL: | M12 E24 J31 J21 M54 J48 J82 J68 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6967&r=lab |
| By: | Fernando Alvarez; Robert Shimer |
| Abstract: | This paper extends Lucas and Prescott's (1974) search model to develop a notion of rest unemployment. The economy consists of a continuum of labor markets, each of which produces a heterogeneous good. There is a constant returns to scale production technology in each labor market, but labor productivity is continually hit by idiosyncratic shocks, inducing the costly reallocation of workers across labor markets. Under some conditions, some workers may be rest-unemployed, waiting for local labor market conditions to improve, rather than engaged in time consuming search. The model has distinct notions of unemployment (moving to a new labor market or waiting for labor market conditions to improve) and inactivity (enjoying leisure while disconnected from the labor market). We obtain closed-form expressions for key aggregate variables and use them to evaluate the model. Quantitatively, we find that in the U.S. economy many more people may be in rest unemployment than in search unemployment. |
| JEL: | E24 J2 J6 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13772&r=lab |
| By: | Lozano, Fernando A. (Pomona College); Sorensen, Todd (University of California, Riverside) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we compare estimates of immigrants’ labor supply assimilation profiles using the Current Population Survey Annual Demographic Files (March ADS) and the Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Groups (ORGs). We use a measure that is seemingly consistent across both surveys: usual weekly hours of work in the main job. Our results indicate that the two surveys produce dramatically different estimates of the change in average hours of work as immigrants’ years in the United States increase: estimates from the March ADS predict much steeper hour’s assimilation profiles than do estimates obtained from the ORGs. We argue that these differences stem from two separate factors that differentiate the data. First, the ADS and ORG frame the usual hours worked question differently. Also, differences in the timing of the surveys may produce seasonality effects that differentially affect the composition of recent and earlier migrants, thereby changing assimilation profiles. |
| Keywords: | immigration, March CPS, CPS outgoing rotations, hours of work |
| JEL: | J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3301&r=lab |
| By: | Giuseppe Tattara (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari); Marco Valentini (Tolomeo srl) |
| Abstract: | This research exploits a large employer-level panel dataset in order to analyse employment and worker flows. Excess reallocation, the difference between worker and job flows at the firm level, is substantial and has a definite cyclical pattern. Both accessions and separations are cyclical in contrast to the conventional wisdom that assumes separation to be countercyclical. Separations increase in upswing, following the accession increase, and decline in recession. Unemployment during recession is not, to a large extent, due to an increase in the rate at which workers separate from their employers, as traditionally assumed among macroeconomists, but to the decline in job creations. |
| Keywords: | Job Flows, Worker Flows, Reallocation, Cyclical behaviour |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J21 J44 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2007_16&r=lab |
| By: | Mirko Abbritti; Andreas Mueller |
| Abstract: | How do labor market institutions affect the volatility and persistence of inflation and unemployment in a monetary union? What are the implications for monetary policy? This paper sets up a DSGE currency union model with unemployment, hiring frictions and real wage rigidities. The model provides a rigorous but tractable framework for the analysis of the functioning of a currency union characterized by asymmetric labor market institutions. Positively, we find that inflation and unemployment differentials depend strongly on the underlying labor market structure: the hiring friction lowers the persistence and increases the volatility of the inflation differential whereas real wage rigidities imply more persistence and variability in output and unemployment differentials. Normatively, we find that macroeconomic stabilization is easier when labor market frictions are high and real wage rigidities are low. This has important implications for optimal monetary policy: The optimal inflation target should give a higher weight to regions with more sclerotic labor markets and more flexible real wages. |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ice:wpaper:wp37&r=lab |
| By: | Sheila Marnie; Leonardo Menchini |
| Abstract: | Young people go through several transitions in their path from childhood to adulthood: in education, work, family formation, health and citizenship. This paper focuses on the transition from school to labour market for the generation of young people in CEE/CIS who experienced the most turbulent years of the transition in their formative years. |
| Keywords: | transition from school to work; transitional economies; youth;; Baltic States; Eastern Europe; Russia; |
| JEL: | I31 P36 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucf:indipa:indipa07/1&r=lab |
| By: | Peter Auer (International Labour Office, Economic and Labour Market Analysis Department) |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:empelm:2007-12&r=lab |
| By: | Michael W. L. Elsby; Ryan Michaels |
| Abstract: | Much recent research has sought to explain the cyclical amplitude of unemployment fluctuations in the US. This paper shows that amplification of the cyclical variation of unemployment can be obtained from adding two very simple features to an otherwise standard model of the aggregate labor market, namely downward sloped short run labor demand and endogenous job destruction. This generalized model is able to match more closely the cyclicality of both job finding and employment to unemployment flows observed in US data. Contrary to standard models, the model can generate amplification while maintaining realistic surplus to employment relationships. In addition, we uncover a novel source of amplification of cyclical shocks that is generated by the interaction of countercyclical unemployment inflows and job creation. |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13777&r=lab |
| By: | Marcus Hagedorn; Iourii Manovskii |
| Abstract: | Recently, a number of authors have argued that the standard search model cannot generate the observed business-cycle-frequency fluctuations in unemployment and job vacancies, given shocks of a plausible magnitude. We use data on the cost of vacancy creation and cyclicality of wages to identify the two key parameters of the model - the value of non-market activity and the bargaining weights. Our calibration implies that the model is, in fact, consistent with the data. |
| Keywords: | Search, Matching, Business Cycles, Labor Markets |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J41 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:iewwpx:351&r=lab |
| By: | Maxim Poletaev (University of Western Ontario); Chris Robinson (University of Western Ontario) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses information from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) and Displaced Worker Surveys (DWS) to provide evidence on the source of human capital specificity. Measures of four basic skills are constructed from the detailed DOT information. These measures are used to characterize the skill portfolio of each job and to construct distance measures between jobs. The pattern of wage losses from the DWS shows that large losses are more closely associated with switching skill portfolios than switching industry or occupation code per se and that these switches represent large decreases in the underlying skill portfolio in the post-displacement job. The recent evidence for industry specific capital is re-examined. An analysis using the same methods as Neal (1995) that incorporates the skill portfolio measures provides further evidence in favor of broad skill based specificity. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwo:hcuwoc:20083&r=lab |
| By: | Marcus Hagedorn (European Central Bank, Kaiserstrasse 29, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.); Iourii Manovskii (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 160 McNeil Building, 3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-6297, USA.) |
| Abstract: | Recently, a number of authors have argued that the standard search model cannot generate the observed business-cycle-frequency fluctuations in unemployment and job vacancies, given shocks of a plausible magnitude. We use data on the cost of vacancy creation and cyclicality of wages to identify the two key parameters of the model - the value of non-market activity and the bargaining weights. Our calibration implies that the model is, in fact, consistent with the data. JEL Classification: E24, E32, J41, J63, J64. |
| Keywords: | Search, matching, business cycles, labor markets. |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20080853&r=lab |
| By: | Rob Euwals; Marike Knoef; Daniel van Vuuren |
| Abstract: | During the 1980s and 1990s, the Netherlands experienced a strong increase in the labour force participation of women. This study investigates the increase of participation over the successive generations of women, and produces an educated guess for future participation. For this purpose, we estimate a binary age-period-cohort model for the generations born between 1925 and 1986, using data from the Dutch Labour Force Survey 1992-2004. The results indicate that the increasing level of education, the diminishing negative effect of children, and unobserved cohort effects have played an important role. According to our estimates, the increase in unobserved cohort effects has stopped since the generation born in 1955. This result is in line with results of studies on social norms and attitudes towards the combination of female employment and family responsibilities, which show a similar pattern over the successive generations. We conclude that the growth of female participation is likely to slow down in the near future. |
| Keywords: | female labour force participation; age-period-cohort-analysis; future development |
| JEL: | J11 J21 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:93&r=lab |
| By: | Ahmed, Ali M. (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Hammarstedt, Mats (School of Management and Economics, Växjö University) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a study of earnings differentials between homosexual individuals who are living in civil unions and married heterosexual individuals based on register data from Sweden. The results show that gay men are at an earnings disadvantage as compared to male heterosexuals. This earnings differential amounts to between 10 and 15 per cent. The earnings differential is smaller in metropolitan areas compared to nonmetropolitan areas. Regarding females, the results show that the earnings differential between lesbians and heterosexual women is very small. The existence of different kinds of discrimination as well as the fact that families specialize in market and household labour within households are put forward as plausible explanations for the results.<p> |
| Keywords: | Sexual orientation; Labour market; Earnings; Discrimination |
| JEL: | J15 J71 |
| Date: | 2008–02–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0285&r=lab |
| By: | Matias Busso (University of Michigan); Patrick Kline (Cowles Foundation, Yale University) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the impact of Round I of the federal urban Empowerment Zone (EZ) program on neighborhood level labor and housing market outcomes over the period 1994-2000. Using four decades of Census data in conjunction with information on the proposed boundaries of rejected EZs, we find that neighborhoods receiving EZ designation experienced substantial improvements in labor market conditions and moderate increases in rents relative to rejected and future zones. These effects were accompanied by small changes in the demographic composition of the neighborhoods, though evidence from disaggregate Census tabulations suggests that these changes account for little of the observed improvements. |
| Keywords: | Program evaluation, Local economic development, Empowerment zones |
| JEL: | H2 O1 R58 C21 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:1638&r=lab |
| By: | Maria Saez-Marti; Yves Zenou |
| Abstract: | Black and white workers can have good or bad work habits. These traits are transmitted from one generation to the next through a learning and imitation process which depends on parents’ purposeful investment on the trait and the social environment where children live. We show that, if a high enough proportion of employers have tastebased prejudices against minority workers, their prejudices are always self-fulfilled in steady state. Affirmative Action improves the welfare of minorities whereas integration is beneficial to minority workers but detrimental to workers from the majority group. If Affirmative Action quotas are high enough or integration is strong enough, employers’ negative stereotypes cannot be sustained in steady-state. |
| Keywords: | Ghetto culture, overlapping generations, rational expectations, multiple equilibria, peer effects. |
| JEL: | J15 J71 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:iewwpx:348&r=lab |
| By: | Devereux, Paul (University College Dublin); Hart, Robert A. (University of Stirling) |
| Abstract: | Do students benefit from compulsory schooling? Researchers using changes in compulsory schooling laws as instruments have typically estimated very high returns to additional schooling that are greater than the corresponding OLS estimates and concluded that the group of individuals who are influenced by the law change have particularly high returns to education. That is, the Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) is larger than the average treatment effect (ATE). However, studies of a 1947 British compulsory schooling law change that impacted about half the relevant population have also found very high instrumental variables returns to schooling (about 15%), suggesting that the ATE of schooling is also very high and higher than OLS estimates suggest. We utilize the New Earnings Survey Panel Data-set (NESPD), that has superior earnings information compared to the datasets previously used and find instrumental variable estimates that are small and much lower than OLS. In fact, there is no evidence of any positive return for women and the return for men is in the 4-7% range. These estimates provide no evidence that the ATE of schooling is very high. |
| Keywords: | compulsory schooling, return to education |
| JEL: | J01 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3305&r=lab |
| By: | Arntz, Melanie; Lo, Simon M. S.; Wilke, Ralf A. |
| Abstract: | "In this paper we derive nonparametric bounds for the cumulative incidence curve within a competing risks model with partly identified interval data. As an advantage over earlier attempts our approach also gives valid results in case of dependent competing risks. We apply our framework to empirically evaluate the effect of unemployment benefits on observed migration of unemployed workers in Germany. Our findings weakly indicate that reducing the entitlement length for unemployment benefits increases migration among high-skilled individuals." (author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Arbeitslosenunterstützung, Leistungsanspruch - Dauer, Binnenwanderung, regionale Mobilität, Wanderungsmotivation, Mobilitätsbereitschaft, Arbeitslose, Hochqualifizierte, IAB-Beschäftigtenstichprobe |
| JEL: | C41 C14 J61 |
| Date: | 2007–08–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabfme:200704&r=lab |
| By: | Georg Duernecker |
| Abstract: | The divergence of unemployment rates between the U.S. and Europe coincided with a substantial acceleration in capital-embodied technical change in the late 70’s. Furthermore, evidence suggests that European economies have been lagging behind the U.S. in the adoption and usage of new technologies. This paper argues that the pace of technology adoption plays a fundamental role for how an economy’s labor market reacts to an acceleration in capital-embodied growth. The framework proposed offers an appealing and novel explanation for the divergence of unemployment rates across economies that are hit by the very same shock (i.e. the acceleration in embodied technical change) but differ in their technology adoption behavior. Moreover, we challenge the conventional wisdom that high European unemployment is the result of institutional rigidities by claiming that institutions are not the principal cause per se but they rather amplify certain forces that promote the emergence of high unemployment. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, Labor Market Search and Matching, Turbulence, Skill Loss, Technology Adoption, Training |
| JEL: | J24 J64 O33 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2008/10&r=lab |
| By: | ; Singh Manjari |
| Abstract: | Child labour in India is a critical socio-economic problem that needs special attention of policy makers. In order to make effective policies to reduce child labour it is important to understand the specific factors that affect it in different situations. The paper empirically examines these factors across 35 Indian states and union territories at three levels of aggregation: total population, rural/urban, and male/female. The results showed that education, fertility, and workforce participation are the major influencing factors in our models. Interestingly, impact of economic indicators of poverty and income differed among total, rural, urban, male, and female population. The explanatory powers of models showed large variations across different levels of aggregation and were stronger for total, rural and female population. |
| Keywords: | Child labour, education, fertility, workforce participation |
| Date: | 2008–01–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:2008-01-01&r=lab |
| By: | A. Iturriza; A.S. Bedi; R. Sparrow |
| Abstract: | In 2001-02, Argentina experienced a wrenching economic crisis. Plan Jefes, implemented in May 2002, was Argentina�s institutional response to the increases in unemployment and poverty triggered by the crisis. The program provided a social safety net and appears to have successfully protected families against indigence. Despite this success, the continued existence of the program, which provides benefits to eligible unemployed individuals for an unlimited duration, may have unappealing long-term consequences. Reliance on the plan may reduce the incentive to search for work and in the long-run may damage individual employability and perpetuate poverty. Motivated by these concerns, this paper examines the effect of participating in Plan Jefes on the probability of exiting from unemployment. Regardless of the data set, the specification, the empirical approach and the control group, the evidence assembled in this paper shows that for the period under analysis individuals enrolled in the Plan are at least 20 percentage points less likely to transit to employment as compared to individuals who are not on the Plan. The negative effect of the program tends to be larger for females and as a consequence, over time, the program becomes increasingly feminized. Prima facie, the estimates suggest that programs such as Plan Jefes need to re-consider the balance between providing a social safety net and dulling work incentives. |
| Keywords: | unemployment assistance programs, unemployment transitions, Argentina |
| JEL: | J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iss:wpaper:447&r=lab |
| By: | Arjen de Vetten |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a game theoretical model that addresses the trade off between regional coordination and incentives in the mediation of unemployed in the Netherlands. Due to yardstick competition, municipalities have financial incentives to reduce unemployment, but are not likely to cooperate with each other to have the scale advantages of a regional labour market. On the other hand, a regional public employment service, like the CWI in the Netherlands, has a higher probability and value of matching, but it lacks the incentives to exert the optimal mediation effort. The model is calibrated with information on vacancies and CWI clients for the Netherlands, in order to get an impression whether it is optimal to have a public employment service in the context of this model. Finally, various institutional settings, like a privatised employment service and a performance contract for the employment office, are considered. |
| Keywords: | public employment service; unemployment |
| JEL: | C72 H11 H72 J6 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:memodm:190&r=lab |
| By: | Jakub Kastl (Stanford University); David Martimort (Toulouse School of Economics); Salvatore Piccolo (Toulouse School of Economics, University of Naples and CSEF) |
| Abstract: | We use data from the Italian manufacturing industry to document the positive relationship between delegation of decisions within organizations and innovation incentives. In order to obtain the causal effect, we build a contract theory model with asymmetric information and moral hazard which predicts that awarding autonomy to the manager spurs innovation incentives relative to arrangements based on vertical control. We use the model to guide our search for suitable instruments. Using several alternative instrumental variables and different specifications we find a strong positive effect of delegation on R&D spending. |
| Keywords: | Asymmetric Information, Delegation, Hold-up, R&D and Vertical Control |
| Date: | 2008–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:192&r=lab |
| By: | Dundler, Agnes (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Stamm, Melanie (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Adler, Silke |
| Abstract: | "The Establishment History Panel was formed on the basis of the Employee and Benefit Recipient History (BLH), version 4.00, for the years 1993 to 2003. The BLH is made up of the social security agencies' processed notifications to the Federal Employment Agency (BA), combined with information on individuals who have received earnings-replacement benefits from the BA. In the standardised notifications on social security, employers state the establishment number of the employing establishment, along with information on when an employment relationship begins and ends, how much wage the employees receive, which occupation they carry out and which nationality they hold, for example. Each employees social security number also provides information on their gender and date of birth. Chapter 2 of this data report provides a brief description of the dataset. Subsequently, Chapter 3 goes into the details of the compulsory social security notification System. Chapter 4 contains an explanation of the BA's definition of an establishment, which is strongly dependent on the process of allocating establishment numbers. In Chapter 5. the variables of the Establishment History Panel are described in detail, and the corresponding frequency counts are contained in Chapter 6." (author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))<br><br><b>Additional Information</b><ul><li><a href="http://www.iab.de/de/389/section.aspx/Publikation/k061106f27">German version</a></li></ul> |
| Keywords: | IAB-Betriebs-Historik-Panel, IAB-Beschäftigtenhistorik, IAB-Leistungsempfängerhistorik, Datenaufbereitung, Forschungsdatenzentrum, Arbeitsmarktforschung, Datenorganisation, Betrieb, Wirtschaftszweige, regionale Verteilung, Beschäftigtenstruktur, Beschäftigtenstatistik |
| Date: | 2007–02–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabfda:200603_en&r=lab |
| By: | Christian N. Brinch, Bernt Bratsberg and Oddbjørn Raaum (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | The national Norwegian school reform of 1994, which gave statutory right to at least three years of upper secondary education, had a significant impact on educational attainment among immigrant youth. In particular, we find that the immigrant transition rate from compulsory schooling to completion of the first year of upper secondary education improved from the pre- to the post-reform period. Using a sequential binomial logit framework, we present evidence that the improvement can be attributed to reductions in capacity constraints, rather than cohort heterogeneity. An important implication is that non-targeted educational reforms may have large impacts on the educational attainment of disadvantaged groups in general and ethnic minority youth in particular. |
| Keywords: | schooling transitions; immigrant youth; reform effects |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:528&r=lab |
| By: | Sandra Martina Leitner (Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is twofold: one, it analyzes the dynamic factor adjustment patterns and performance changes of firms in response to periods of rapid adjustment of capital, labor, production and non-production labor; and, two, it sheds light on the role of firm characteristics on the probability of any input spike occurring. Firm-group information incorporated in the Austrian Industry Statistics Survey provides the empirical platform for the analysis. The analysis shows that all input factors considered represent strategic complements and, in the light of skill-technology complements, it proves the absence of any skill bias to the adoption of leadingedge technologies embodied in new machinery and equipment. Furthermore, there is evidence of significant temporary disruptive effects of input spikes on labor productivity and profitability. Non-negligible firm heterogeneity also prevails in Austrian Manufacturing with larger firm-groups and firm-groups facing lower average personnel costs being more likely to experience any input spike. And the strongly regulated labor market in Austria appears to favor non-production workers. |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2008_03&r=lab |
| By: | Derek C. Jones; Panu Kalmi; Takao Kato; Mikko Mäkinen |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT : This paper presents the first empirical evidence on the nature and effects of human resource practices (HRM) in the Finnish manufacturing sector. In the analysis, we use the novel survey on HRM practices, based on a representative random sample from the population of the Finnish manufacturing firms who had 50 or more employees in 2005. In the sample, we have firm-level information on several HRM and employee participation practices of 398 firms, which is 38% of the firms in the population and almost 50% of the survey respondents. To study how HRM practices affect the level of firm productivity, we first combined the HRM survey data with financial statement data and then estimated cross-sectional and panel data estimators for the Cobb-Douglas production functions. We find that both the incidence of employee participation practices and the incidence of HRM tools have increased in the manufacturing sector from 2002 to 2005. The empirical findings support the view of a positive association with the HRM practices and the level of firm productivity. Perhaps more importantly, however, we find that not all forms of employee financial and decision-making participation practices have favorable productivity effects : consultative committee and profit sharing scheme has a positive effect, but other practices do not have statistically significant effects. |
| Keywords: | new workplace practices, HRM, employee participation, productivity |
| JEL: | M54 J53 L23 |
| Date: | 2008–01–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1121&r=lab |
| By: | Servaas Van der Berg |
| Abstract: | Massive differentials on achievement tests and examinations reflect South Africa’s divided past. Improving the distribution of educational outcomes is imperative to overcome labour market inequalities. Historically white and Indian schools still outperform black and coloured schools in examinations, and intraclass correlation coefficients (rho) reflect far greater between-school variance compared to overall variance than for other countries. SACMEQ’s rich data sets provide new possibilities for investigating relationships between educational outcomes, socio-economic status (SES), pupil and teacher characteristics, school resources and school processes. As a different data generating process applied in affluent historically white schools (test scores showed bimodal distributions), part of the analysis excluded such schools, sharply reducing rho. Test scores were regressed on various SES measures and school inputs for the full and reduced sample, using survey regression and hierarchical (multilevel) (HLM) models to deal with sample design and nested data. This shows that the school system was not yet systematically able to overcome inherited socio-economic disadvantage, and poor schools least so. Schools diverged in their ability to convert inputs into outcomes, with large standard deviations for random effects in the HLM models. The models explained three quarters of the large between-school variance but little of the smaller within-school variance. Outside of the richest schools, SES had only a mild impact on test scores, which were quite low in SACMEQ context. |
| Keywords: | Analysis of Education |
| JEL: | J21 |
| Date: | 2008–01–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:cegedp:69&r=lab |
| By: | Sampaio, José; Moniz, António |
| Abstract: | Cognitive task automation may lead to over trust, complacency and loss of the necessary work environment situation awareness. This is a major constraint in complex work organizations teamwork, ending up into an operational gap, between system developments and its understanding and usability, by operators. This document presents a summary of the main results of author’s research on operational decision processes and occupational competences, applied to the air traffic control operational reality. Introducing a human/technological complementary approach to virtual team’s conceptualisation, the results show there is a dimension to be followed in human/machine integration, which stands beyond interface design, and calls for a deeper human comprehension of technological agent’s structure and functionalities, which will, ultimately, require the development of an operational cognitive framework, where work processes and technological behaviour are integrated in professional competences, as he two faces of the same coin. |
| Keywords: | automation; situation awareness; work organization; teamwork; decision process; occupational competences; human/machine interface |
| JEL: | D81 C92 L86 J20 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6942&r=lab |
| By: | Mette Christensen |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:sespap:0714&r=lab |
| By: | Marcus Hagedorn; Ashok Kaul; Tim Mennel |
| Abstract: | We ask whether offering a menu of unemployment insurance contracts is welfare-improving in a heterogeneous population. We adopt a repeated moral hazard framework as in Shavell/Weiss (1979), supplemented by unobserved heterogeneity about agents’ job opportunities. Our main theoretical contribution is an analytical characterization of the sets of jointly feasible entitlements that renders an efficient computation of these sets feasible. Our main economic result is that optimal contracts for “bad” searchers tend to be upward-sloping due to an adverse selection effect. This is in contrast to the well-known optimal decreasing time profile of benefits in pure moral hazard environments that continue to be optimal for “good” searchers in our model. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment Insurance, Recursive Contracts, Adverse Selection, Repeated Moral Hazard |
| JEL: | J65 J64 D82 C61 E61 |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:iewwpx:315&r=lab |
| By: | Joana Pais; Agnes Pinter; Robert F. Veszteg |
| Abstract: | We analyze two well-known matching mechanisms—the Gale-Shapley, and the Top Trading Cycles (TTC) mechanisms—in the experimental lab in three different informational settings, and study the role of information in individual decision making. Our results suggest that—in line with the theory—in the college admissions model the Gale-Shapley mechanism outperforms the TTC mechanisms in terms of efficiency and stability, and it is as successful as the TTC mechanism regarding the proportion of truthful preference revelation. In addition, we find that information has an important effect on truthful behavior and stability. Nevertheless, regarding efficiency, the Gale-Shapley mechanism is less sensitive to the amount of information participants hold. |
| Keywords: | Experiments, Information, Matching |
| JEL: | C78 C91 D82 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:we080302&r=lab |
| By: | Mattesini Fabrizio; Rossi Lorenza |
| Abstract: | We analyze, in this paper, a DSGE New Keynesian model with indivisible labor where firms may belong to two different final goods producing sectors: one where wages and employment are determined in competitive labor markets and the other where wages and employment are the result of a contractual process between unions and ?rms. Bargaining between firms and monopoly unions implies real wage rigidity in the model and, in turn, an endogenous trade-o¤ between output stabilization and inflation stabilization. We show that the negative effect of a productivity shock on inflation and the positive effect of a cost-push shock is crucially determined by the proportion of firms that belong to the competitive sector. The larger is this number, the smaller are these effects. We derive a welfare based objective function as a second order Taylor approximation of the expected utility of the economy’s representative agent and we analyze optimal monetary policy. We show that the larger is the number of firms that belong to the competitive sector, the smaller should be the response of the nominal interest rate to exogenous productivity and cost-push shocks. If we consider, however, an instrument rule where the interest rate must react to inflationary expectations, the rule is not affected by the structure of the labor market. The results of the model are consistent with a well known empirical regularity in macroeconomics, i.e. that employment volatility is larger than real wage volatility. |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ter:wpaper:0037&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre Koning |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the relative performance and selection behaviour of not-for-profit (NFP) job training service providers, using contract data from the Dutch social benefit administration. Our analysis takes full account of selection effects, both ex ante (before the contracting process) as well as ex post (at the start of the program). First, for each cohort type of unemployed clients, cohorts that are contracted are ex ante equivalent for providers that are procured. Thus, within cohort type variation in performance outcomes suffices to obtain consistent estimates of performance differentials. Second, ex post selection of clients by providers, at the start of programs, is measured explicitly in our data. Our estimation results show that FPs are more active in selecting clients, both by sending back more of them, and indirectly, by encouraging clients to start a program, so as to receive additional (fixed) payments by the social benefit administration (per client at the start of a program). Regarding the estimation results for the job placement rates, we find NFP job training service providers only to outperform FPs slightly in the durability of job contracts. This effect is however too small to lead to overall better placement rates. |
| Keywords: | welfare programs; non-profits; procurement; selection; effectiveness |
| JEL: | I38 L31 H57 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:94&r=lab |
| By: | P. Goulart; A.S. Bedi |
| Abstract: | This paper uses historical and current data covering the period 1850 to 2001 to provide a history of child labour in Portugal. The Portuguese experience is set against the backdrop of the country�s changing economic structure, changes in education and minimum working age policies and the changing norms espoused by its people. The paper highlights the rapid post-1986 decline in child labour which is interpreted in terms of the cascading effect of policies that operated synchronously. Our assessment of the Portuguese experience suggests that while legal measures such as minimum working age requirements and compulsory schooling laws do help reduce child labour, no single legislation or policy is likely to be effective unless the various pieces come together. The use of children in the labour market appears to be driven mainly by the needs of the economic structure of the country, which in turn may be reflected in the norms and values espoused by its political leaders and their willingness to pass and implement legal measures. |
| Keywords: | child labour, history, Portugal |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iss:wpaper:448&r=lab |
| By: | Raghav Gaiha; Ganesh Thapa; Katsushi Imai; Vani S. Kulkarni |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:sespap:0723&r=lab |
| By: | Angela Cipollone (Department of Economic and Business Sciences, LUISS Guido Carli); Carlo D'Ippoliti (Department of Economic and Business Sciences, LUISS Guido Carli) |
| Abstract: | We employ the dramatic heterogeneity across ItalyÕs Regions to assess the impact of selected context factors on menÕs and womenÕs employment by means of multilevel analysis. Observing that individual factors strongly interact with local policies and institutions in determining womenÕs employment, we claim that any attempt to explore solely its supply-side determinants might lead to biased estimates. Aggregate growth and tertiarisation of the economy are surprisingly found beneficial only to menÕs employment, while culture and discrimination are relevant for womenÕs. Social Assistance is found highly significant, with the provision of services being more beneficial to womenÕs employment than monetary transfers. |
| Keywords: | gender differentials, employment policy, regional development policy |
| JEL: | J16 C81 J21 R58 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lui:wpaper:145&r=lab |
| By: | Marzinotto Benedicta |
| Abstract: | Using theoretical models about the interaction between monetary policy-making and wage bargaining institutions, some researchers had been predicting an acceleration in wage growth under EMU (Iversen and Soskice 1998; Iversen et al 2000; Cukierman and Lippi 2001). However, the empirical evidence shows that, after the formation of the monetary union, wage growth has remained under control or even decelerated. Of the numerous explanations advanced to account for this trend, the most promising seems the one proposed by Posen and Gould (2006), who argue that behind the generalised shift towards wage restraint is enhanced monetary credibility in EMU. Whilst building on a similar argument, this paper adds to it in important respects. First, I show that the effects of a monetary union depend on labour market institutions. Second, and most originally, I argue that a strategic interaction between the ECB and non-atomistic labour unions is possible only in the case of large countries, whose price behaviour can potentially affect EU-13 inflation. This leads to the main finding behind this paper, namely that the relationship between wage growth and economy size is hump-shaped, with wage restraint more present in large and small countries, and less so in countries of intermediate size. Differently from a large country like Germany, small economies are free riders with respect to the monetary regime, but they care nonetheless for cost competitiveness, even if to different degrees. On the other hand, intermediate countries are trapped “inbetween” because neither do they believe capable of affecting euro-zone inflation, nor do they look at cost competitiveness as key to their economic survival. |
| Keywords: | Wage restraint, collective wage bargaining, EMU, openness, international trade |
| JEL: | J31 J51 E50 F15 F41 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ter:wpaper:0035&r=lab |
| By: | Uschi Backes-Gellner (Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, University of Zurich); Johannes Mure |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces the research concept of the Swiss Leading House on Economics of Education, Firm Behaviour and Training Policies. |
| Keywords: | Vocational training, Switzerland |
| JEL: | I20 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0014&r=lab |
| By: | Raghav Gaiha; Katsushi Imai |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:sespap:0705&r=lab |
| By: | Matthias Doepke; Fabrizio Zilibotti |
| Abstract: | The British Industrial Revolution triggered a reversal in the social order of society whereby the landed elite was replaced by industrial capitalists rising from the middle classes as the economically dominant group. Many observers have linked this transformation to the contrast in values between a hard-working and frugal middle class and an upper class imbued with disdain for work. We propose an economic theory of preference formation where both the divergence of attitudes across social classes and the ensuing reversal of economic fortunes are equilibrium outcomes. In our theory, parents shape their children's preferences in response to economic incentives. If financial markets are imperfect, this results in the stratification of society along occupational lines. Middle-class families in occupations that require effort, skill, and experience develop patience and work ethic, whereas upper-class families relying on rental income cultivate a refined taste for leisure. These class-specific attitudes, which are rooted in the nature of pre-industrial professions, become key determinants of success once industrialization transforms the economic landscape. |
| Keywords: | Aristocracy, endogenous preferences, entrepreneurship, finance, growth and income distribution, financial development, financial market imperfections, industrial revolution, middle class, patience, portfolio choice, savings, spirit of capitalism, work ethic |
| JEL: | D31 D91 G00 G11 N23 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:iewwpx:326&r=lab |