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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Flabbi, Luca (Georgetown University); Leonardi, Marco (University of Milan) |
| Abstract: | Many contributions suggest that earnings instability has increased during the 1980s and 1990s. This paper develops and estimates an on-the-job search model of the labor market to study the contribution of wage inequality and job mobility in explaining earnings instability. To study the evolution over time of these different components we extract two estimation samples (late 1980s and late1990s) from the Calendar Section of the PSID. We find that the main differences in the structure of the labor market between the two periods are in the job-to-job mobility and in the variance of the wage offer distributions: they both increase in the late 1990s. By generating counterfactual experiments, we also show that they both significantly contribute to the increase in earnings instability even if it is only their joint effect that generates what we observe in the data. Finally, we show that significant composition effects are at work since the behavior of skilled workers and unskilled workers are very different with respect to the above-mentioned labor market dynamics. |
| Keywords: | earnings instability, on-the-job search, structural estimation |
| JEL: | J21 J31 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3387&r=lab |
| By: | Andalon, Mabel (Cornell University); Pagés, Carmen (Inter-American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the performance of minimum wage legislation in Kenya, both in terms of its coverage and enforcement as well as in terms of their implications for wages and employment. Our findings based on the 1998/99 labor force data – the last labor force survey available – indicate that minimum wages, which, in principle, apply to all salaried employees, were better enforced and had stronger effects in the non-agricultural industry than in the agricultural one. More specifically, our results suggest that (i) compliance rates were higher in occupations other than agriculture, (ii) minimum wages were positively associated with wages of low-educated workers and women in non-agricultural activities, while no such relationship is found for workers in agriculture, and (iii) higher minimum wages were associated with a lower share of workers in formal activities in a given occupation and location. Our estimates indicate that a 10 percent point increase in the minimum to median wage ratio could be associated with a decline in the share of formal employment of between 1.2-5.6 percentage points and an increase of between 2.7-5.9 points in the share of self-employment. |
| Keywords: | Kenya, employment, minimum wages, wage |
| JEL: | J23 J31 J38 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3390&r=lab |
| By: | Maarten Goos; Anna Salomons |
| Abstract: | We combine stylized facts from social network literature with findings from the literature on the gender wage gap in a formal model. This model is based on employers’ use of social networks in the hiring process in order to assess employee productivity. As a result, there is a persistent gender wage gap, with women being underpaid relative to men after controlling for productivity characteristics. Networks exhibit inbreeding biases by productivity and by gender, which in combination with women’s lower network density cause women to be hired less often through referral, as well as receive a lower average referral wage premium. Finally, we use 2001-2006 UK Labour Force Survey data to test the hypotheses implied by our model. We find that networks do indeed account for a significant part of the gender wage gap for newly hired workers. |
| Keywords: | social networks, gender wage gap, imperfect information |
| JEL: | J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:ceswps:ces0722&r=lab |
| By: | Francesco D'Amuri; Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano; Giovanni Peri |
| Abstract: | We adopt a general equilibrium approach in order to measure the effects of recent immigration on the Western German labor market, looking at both wage and employment effects. Using the Regional File of the IAB Employment Subsample for the period 1987-2001, we find that the substantial immigration of the 1990's had no adverse effects on native wages and employment levels. It had instead adverse employment and wage effects on previous waves of immigrants. This stems from the fact that, after controlling for education and experience levels, native and migrant workers appear to be imperfect substitutes whereas new and old immigrants exhibit perfect substitutability. Our analysis suggests that if the German labor market were as 'flexible' as the UK labor market, it would be more efficient in dealing with the effects of immigration. |
| JEL: | E24 F22 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13851&r=lab |
| By: | Sîle O'Dorchai (DULBEA, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses disparity in women’s pay across 25 European countries using EU-SILC 2005. First, the gender pay gap is examined. Next, the impact of working hours and parenthood is analysed. We show that women suffer a wage disadvantage compared with men all over Europe, except for Poland. Motherhood usually reinforces the gender gap but most discrimination is sex-related so that it concerns all women as potential mothers. There is no uniform relationship between the parenthood and the gender wage gap. Finally, female part-timers face either a bonus or penalty (between 2% and 30% roughly). |
| Keywords: | wage gap estimation/decomposition, gender, parenthood, working time. |
| JEL: | C21 J24 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dul:wpaper:08-06rs&r=lab |
| By: | Margarita Sapozhnikov; Robert K. Triest (Center for Retirement Research, Boston College) |
| Abstract: | One consequence of demographic change is substantial shifts in the age distribution of the working age population. As the baby boom generation ages, the usual historical pat tern of there being a high ratio of younger workers relative to older workers is increasingly being replaced by a pattern of there being roughly equal percentages of workers of different ages. One might expect that the increasing relative supply of older workers would lower the wage premium paid for older, more experienced workers. |
| Date: | 2007–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2007-14&r=lab |
| By: | Appelqvist; Jukka |
| Abstract: | Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the cost of job displacement for private sector workers displaced in Finland during the years 1992 and 1997. Our main goal is to measure the ways in which involuntary job loss affects the subsequent labor income of displaced workers when compared to similar workers who were not displaced. Our main finding is that displaced workers suffer substantial and persistent losses in both monthly wages and annual earnings. The severity of these losses is related to the time during which the displacement happened: the workers who were displaced in 1992 (during the recession) suffered considerably larger losses than the workers who were displaced in 1997. The final section of the study discusses possible explanations for the estimated losses. |
| Keywords: | Displacement, earnings losses, unemployment |
| Date: | 2007–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fer:dpaper:422&r=lab |
| By: | Athanasios Vamvakidis |
| Abstract: | The theoretical literature has argued that a centralized wage bargaining system may result in low regional wage differentiation and high regional unemployment differentials. The empirical literature has found that centralized wage bargaining leads to lower wage inequality for different skills, industries and population groups, but has not investigated its impact on regional wage differentiation. Empirical evidence in this paper for EU regions for the period 1980-2000 suggests that countries with more coordinated wage bargaining systems have lower regional wage differentials, after controlling for regional productivity and unemployment differentials. |
| Keywords: | Wage bargaining , European Union , Unemployment , Productivity , |
| Date: | 2008–02–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:08/43&r=lab |
| By: | Robert Hutchens; (ILR School, Cornell University); ; |
| Abstract: | As baby boomers near traditional retirement ages, many express an intent to work longer. But older workers often look for greater flexibility that would allow them more time for non-work activities. Not surprisingly then, the notion of phased retirement — where an older full-time worker remains with the same employer and gradually reduces work hours — has considerable appeal for employees. Phased retirement may help employers as well by allowing them to keep experienced and productive workers. This brief begins by exploring the potential benefits of phased retirement. The next section documents the extent of phased retirement in today’s workplace and describes the types of people who take it. The following section discusses the problems that employers face when arranging phased retirements. The brief concludes that, while rare today, phased retirement may become more popular in the future. |
| Keywords: | baby boomers, traditional retirement ages, older workers, phased retirement, potential benefits |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwob:wob_8&r=lab |
| By: | John A. Turner (Center for Retirement Research, Boston College) |
| Abstract: | This report examines how changes in worker capabilities and job requirements over the past few decades affect the ability of older workers to work past the Social Security Early Retirement Age of 62. This issue arises because a possible reform of Social Security could raise the early retirement age. This change might be made in conjunction with raising the Normal Retirement Age in order to offset the reduction in annual benefits that workers would receive when retiring at the Early Retirement Age. Fairness is one aspect of the issue of raising Social Security’s Early Retirement Age. Would such a change be fair to demographic groups with relatively short life expectancy, to people with physically demanding jobs, or to people at older ages unable to work or to find work? The issue of fairness can be addressed in terms of cross-sectional equity or intergenerational equity. Because workers worked to older ages early in the history of Social Security, the past becomes a natural comparison. This paper focuses on intergenerational equity, comparing different demographic groups over time. The intergenerational question has two parts. First, have older workers’ capabilities changed over the past few decades in ways that would affect continued employment? Second, have job requirements changed in ways that would affect continued employment for older workers? |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2007-13&r=lab |
| By: | Adriana Kugler; Maurice Kugler |
| Abstract: | We use a panel of manufacturing plants from Colombia to analyze how the rise in payroll tax rates over the 1980s and 1990s affected the labor market. Our estimates indicate that formal wages fall by between 1.4% and 2.3% as a result of a 10% rise in payroll taxes. This "less-than-full-shifting" is likely to be the result of weak linkages between benefits and taxes and the presence of downward wage rigidities in Colombia. Because the costs of taxation are only partly shifted from employers to employees, employment also falls. Our results indicate that a 10% increase in payroll taxes lowered formal employment by between 4% and 5%. In addition, we find some evidence of less shifting and larger disemployment effects for production than for non-production workers. These results suggest that policies aimed at boosting the relative demand of less-skill workers by reducing social security taxes may be effective in Latin American countries, where minimum wages bind and benefits are often not directly linked to contributions. |
| JEL: | H2 J3 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13855&r=lab |
| By: | George J. Borjas; Jeffrey Grogger; Gordon H. Hanson |
| Abstract: | In a recent paper, Ottaviano and Peri (2007a) report evidence that immigrant and native workers are not perfect substitutes within narrowly defined skill groups. The resulting complementarities have important policy implications because immigration may then raise the wage of many native-born workers. We examine the Ottaviano-Peri empirical exercise and show that their finding of imperfect substitution is fragile and depends on the way the sample of working persons is constructed. There is a great deal of heterogeneity in labor market attachment among workers and the finding of imperfect substitution disappears once the analysis adjusts for such heterogeneity. As an example, the finding of immigrant-native complementarity evaporates simply by removing high school students from the data (under the Ottaviano and Peri classification, currently enrolled high school juniors and seniors are included among high school dropouts, which substantially increases the counts of young low-skilled workers ). More generally, we cannot reject the hypothesis that comparably skilled immigrant and native workers are perfect substitutes once the empirical exercise uses standard methods to carefully construct the variables representing factor prices and factor supplies. |
| JEL: | J01 J61 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13887&r=lab |
| By: | Heski Bar-Isaac; Ian Jewitt; Clare Leaver |
| Abstract: | An increasingly important organisational design problem for many firms is to recoup general human capital rents while maintaining the attractive career prospects for workers. We explore the role of information management in this context. In our model, an information management policy determines the statistic of worker performance that will be available to outside recruiters. Choosing different statistics affects the extent of regression to the mean which, we show, in turn affects the incidence of adverse selection among retained and released workers. Using this observation, we detail how optimal information management policies vary across firms with different human capital management priorities. This view of human capital management via information management has strong implications for labour market outcomes. We discuss the impact on average wages, wage inequality, wage skewness and labour turnover rates. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital, Information Disclosure, Regression to the Mean, Adverse Selection, Turnover, Wage Distribution, Human Resource Management |
| JEL: | D82 J24 L21 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:367&r=lab |
| By: | Wane, Waly; Dabalen, Andrew |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the relationship between gender and corruption in the health sector. It uses data collected directly from health workers, during a recent public expenditure tracking survey in Tajikistan ' s health sector. Using informal payments as an indicator of corruption, women seem at first significantly less corrupt than men as consistently suggested by the literature. However, once power conferred by position is controlled for, women appear in fact equally likely to take advantage of corruption opportunities as men. Female-headed facilities also are not less likely to experience informal charging than facilities managed by men. However, women are significantly less aggressive in the amount they extract from patients. The paper provides evidence that workers are more likely to engage in informal charging the farther they fall short of their perceived fair-wage, adding weight to the fair wage-corruption hypothesis. Finally, there is some evidence that health workers who feel that health care should be provided for a fee are more likely to informally charge patients. Contrary to informal charging, moonlighting behavior displays strong gender differences. Women are significantly less likely to work outside the facility on average and across types of health workers. |
| Keywords: | Health Monitoring & Evaluation,Gender and Health,Access to Finance,Health Law,Health Economics & Finance |
| Date: | 2008–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4555&r=lab |
| By: | Stéphane Auray (Department of Economic, Université Charles-de-Gaulle lille 3); Samuel Danthine (Department of Economic Theory, Universidad de Málaga; Department of Economics, Université du Québec à Montréal) |
| Abstract: | A matching model with labor/leisure choice and bargaining frictions is used to explain (i ) differences in GDP per hour and GDP per capita, (ii) differences in employment, (iii ) differences in the proportion of part{time work across countries. The model predicts that the higher the level of rigidity in wages and hours the lower are GDP per capita, employment, part-time work and hours worked, but the higher is GDP per hour worked. In addition, it predicts that a country with a high level of rigidity in wages and hours and a high level of income taxation has higher GDP per hour and lower GDP per capita than a country with less rigidity and a lower level of taxation. This is due mostly to a lower level of employment. In contrast, a country with low levels of rigidity in hours and in wage setting but with a higher level of income taxation has a lower GDP per capita and a higher GDP per hour than the economy with low rigidity and low taxation. In this con¯guration,the level of employment is similar in both economies but the share of part-time work is larger. |
| Keywords: | models of search and matching, bargaining frictions, economic performance, labor market institutions, part-time jobs, labor market rigidities |
| JEL: | E24 J22 J30 J41 J50 J64 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mal:wpaper:2008-1&r=lab |
| By: | Chéron, Arnaud (University of Le Mans); Hairault, Jean-Olivier (University of Paris 1); Langot, François (University of Le Mans) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a life-cycle approach to equilibrium unemployment. Workers only differ respectively to their distance from deterministic retirement. A non age-directed search equilibrium is then typically featured by increasing (decreasing) firing (hiring) rates with age and a hump-shaped age profile for employment. Because of intergenerational inefficiencies, the Hosios condition no longer achieves efficiency. We then explore the optimal age-pattern of some policy tools to restore this efficiency. The optimal profile for employment subsidies should increase with age, whereas firing taxes and hirings subsidies would have to be hump-shaped. Lastly, we examine the robustness of our results. We show that age-directed recruitment policies cannot exist in equilibrium even if it would have been ex-ante possible, and that introducing endogenous search effort of unemployed workers reinforces our main results. |
| Keywords: | job search, matching, life cycle |
| JEL: | J22 J26 H55 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3396&r=lab |
| By: | Joseph G. Altonji; Prashant Bharadwaj; Fabian Lange |
| Abstract: | We examine changes in the characteristics of American youth between the late 1970s and the late 1990s, with a focus on characteristics that matter for labor market success. We reweight the NLSY79 to look like the NLSY97 along a number of dimensions that are related to labor market success, including race, gender, parental background, education, test scores, and variables that capture whether individuals transition smoothly from school to work. We then use the re-weighted sample to examine how changes in the distribution of observable skills affect employment and wages. We also use more standard regression methods to assess the labor market consequences of differences between the two cohorts. Overall, we find that the current generation is more skilled than the previous one. Blacks and Hispanics have gained relative to whites and women have gained relative to men. However, skill differences within groups have increased considerably and in aggregate the skill distribution has widened. Changes in parental education seem to generate many of the observed changes |
| JEL: | J01 J11 J15 J16 J31 J82 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13883&r=lab |
| By: | Getinet Astatike Haile (Policy Studies Institute, London, UK); Beliyou Astatike Haile (Department of economics, Columbia University, NY) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines determinants of work participation and school attendance for children aged 7-15 using survey data from rural Ethiopia. To this effect, a bivariate probit model that addresses the interrelatedness of the two decisions is employed. Given the agrarian nature of the economy, especial focus is given to child labour on family farms and within the household. The trade-off between child labour and educational attainment is also analysed by estimating an equation for age-adjusted educational attainment of children. Male children are found to be more likely to attend school than female children implying gender bias. There is also some 'specialization' in child labour with females having a higher likelihood and intensity of participation in domestic chores while males having a higher likelihood as well as intensity of participation in market work. Besides, while male children are more likely to combine schooling with market work, their female counterparts are more likely to combine domestic work and schooling. With regard to household characteristics, large family size and the number of dependents increase the probability of combining schooling with both work activities. While education of the head increases the likelihood of school attendance, large livestock population increases the likelihood of combining schooling and market work. More importantly, long hour of work is found to reduce educational attainment of working children. |
| Keywords: | Child labour, Child education, Rural Ethiopia |
| JEL: | I21 J22 O15 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpc:wpaper:0608&r=lab |
| By: | J. Ignacio García Pérez (Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide); Alfonso R Sánchez Martín (Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the links between unemployment, retirement and their associated public insurance programs. It is a contribution to a growing body of literature focused on a better understanding of the labor behavior of advanced-age workers, which has gained importance as the pension crisis looms. It also contributes to the literature of optimal unemployment insurance by exploring the interaction of unemployment benefits and retirement pensions. The analysis combines the development of a new theoretical model and a detailed exploration of the empirical regularities using the Spanish Muestra Continua de Vidas Laborales (MCVL) dataset. The model is an extension of the standard search model, designed to reproduce the non-stationary environment faced by workers of advanced ages (in the age range 50/65). Via calibrated simulations we show that the basic empirical re-employment and retirement patterns can be considered as rational responses to both the labor market conditions and the institutional incentives. Generous Unemployment Benefits (for durations of up to two years) together with very significant early retirement penalties, make optimal to stay unemployed without searching for large groups of unemployed workers. This moral hazard problem can be substantially alleviated through institutional reform. We explore several potential reforms and find that changing the details of early retirement pensions seems more promising than changing the Unemployment Benefit system. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, Retirement, Search models |
| JEL: | J64 J68 J26 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pab:wpaper:08.03&r=lab |
| By: | Danièle Meulders (DULBEA, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels); Sîle O'Dorchai (DULBEA, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels) |
| Abstract: | Motherhood affects mothers’ professional career in different ways: it can cause them to quit their job, it can encourage them to scale down their working time, it can lead them to change occupations or industries and it can hold them back in terms of career and wage progression. These effects are observed to different degrees across European countries. Public childcare provision appears to be the most effective means to guarantee women’s access to employment; public supply in quantitative and qualitative terms is thus of crucial importance. This paper discusses the supply of childcare in Belgium. |
| Keywords: | Childcare, parenthood, women’s employment, public policies |
| JEL: | J13 J21 J22 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dul:wpaper:08-08rr&r=lab |
| By: | Orsetta Causa |
| Abstract: | This working paper investigates the policy determinants of hours worked among employed individuals in OECD countries, focussing on the impact of taxation, working-time regulations, and other labour and product market policies. It explores the factors underlying cross-country differences in hours worked — in line with previous aggregate approaches — while at the same time it looks more closely at labour force heterogeneity — in the vein of microeconomic labour supply models. The paper shows that policies and institutions have a different impact on working hours of men and women. Firstly, while high marginal taxes create a disincentive to work longer hours for women, their impact on hours worked by men is almost insignificant. Secondly, working-time regulations have a significant impact on hours worked by men, and this impact differs across education categories. Thirdly, other labour and product market policies, in particular stringent employment protection of workers on regular contracts and competition-restraining product market policies, have a negative impact on hours worked by men, over and beyond their impact on employment levels. <P>Expliquer les différences d’heures travaillées dans les pays de l’OCDE : une analyse empirique <BR>Résumé: Cet article analyse les déterminants politiques des heures travaillées par la population employée dans les pays de l‘OCDE. Ce travail porte sur l‘impact des taxes, des réglementations du temps de travail, et des politiques du marché du travail et du marché des produits sur la marge intensive de l‘utilisation du travail. Il s‘interroge sur les facteurs sous-jacents les différences d‘heures travaillées — en ligne avec les approches agrégées — mais analyse également l‘hétérogénéité de la force de travail-dans la veine des analyses microéconomiques de l‘offre de travail. Cet article montre que les politiques et les institutions ont un impact sur les heures travaillées par différentes sous-populations composant la force de travail. Pour résumer, tandis que les heures travaillées par les femmes sont sensibles à la fiscalité du travail, les heures travaillées par les hommes répondent davantage aux réglementations sur la durée du temps de travail ainsi qu‘aux politiques du marché du travail et du marché des produits. Premièrement, alors qu‘un niveau élevé de taxation marginale implique une désincitation à augmenter le nombre d‘heures travaillées chez les femmes, l‘impact de la fiscalité sur les heures travaillées par les hommes est nul. Deuxièmement, la réglementation sur la durée du temps de travail a un impact significatif sur les heures travaillées par les hommes, et cet impact varie en fonction du niveau d‘éducation. Troisièmement, d‘autres politiques structurelles, et en particulier la rigueur de la protection de l‘emploi sur les contrats permanents, ainsi qu‘une réglementation anti compétitive du marché des produits, ont un impact négatif sur les heures travaillées par les hommes, par-delà leur impact sur leur niveau d‘emploi. |
| Keywords: | taxation, labour market policies, politique du marché du travail, offre de travail, labour supply |
| JEL: | H31 J22 J58 |
| Date: | 2008–03–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:596-en&r=lab |
| By: | Bloemen, Hans (Free University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Private wealth holdings are likely to become an increasingly important determinant in the job exit decision of elderly workers. Net wealth may correlate with worker’s characteristics that also determine the exit out of a job. It is therefore important to include a rich set of observed characteristics in an empirical model for retirement in order to measure the (marginal) effect of wealth on the job exit rate. But even with a rich set of regressors the question remains whether there are unobservable worker’s characteristics that affect both net wealth and the job exit rate. We specify a simultaneous equations model for job exit transitions with multiple destinations, net wealth, and the initial labour market state. The job exit rates and the net wealth equation contain random effects. We allow for correlation between the random effects of job exit and net wealth, and the initial labour market state. |
| Keywords: | retirement, life cycle models, saving |
| JEL: | J26 D91 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3386&r=lab |
| By: | Isabelle Méjean (CEPII, 9 rue G. Pitard, 75015 Paris, France); Lise Patureau (THEMA, University of Cergy-Pontoise, 33, boulevard du Port, 95011 Cergy-Pontoise Cedex, France) |
| Abstract: | The paper contributes to the living debate on the controversial effects of minimum wage policy on economic performances, focusing on its impact on firms’ location choice. The question is investigated through a theoretical model, that incorporates features from the new trade literature (Krugman (1991)) and the labor-market literature. In a two-country framework, we model endogenous entry of firms under wage rigidity. In this setting, the impact of an unilateral increase in the home country’s minimum wage is analyzed. The policy shock is shown to have a twofold influence on the relative attractiveness of the home country, simultaneously affecting its relative cost competitiveness and the aggregate demand addressed to firms. Both effects do not necessarily go in the same direction, hence the final effect on firms’ location decisions is ambiguous. We show that it notably depends on the adjustments that occur on the skilled and unskilled labor markets. Our overall results suggest that the design of labor-market policies should take into account their impact on firms’ location decisions, if willing to evaluate their whole consequences in the national economy. |
| Keywords: | Minimum wage, Home Market Effect, Firms location decisions |
| JEL: | F12 F16 F21 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2008-06&r=lab |
| By: | Kari Hämäläinen; Roope Uusitalo; Vuori; Jukka |
| Abstract: | We compare various matching estimators to the results of two randomized field experiments that evaluate employment effects of job search training programs. We find that commonly used non-experimental matching estimators tend to over-estimate the program effects and that the bias differs between programs owing to different procedures used in selecting the program participants. The bias is larger when participation is voluntary than when caseworkers assign the applicants to training. JEL codes: C93 |
| Keywords: | Job search training, field experiments, matching, unemployment |
| Date: | 2008–02–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fer:dpaper:438&r=lab |
| By: | Ahsan, Ahmad (World Bank); Pagés, Carmen (Inter-American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | Using manufacturing data for India, this paper studies the economic effects of legal amendments on two types of labor laws: employment protection and labor dispute resolution legislation. We find that laws that increase employment protection or the cost of labor disputes substantially reduce registered sector employment and output. These laws do no seem to benefit workers either, as they do not increase the share of value added that goes to labor. Labor-intensive industries, such as textiles, are the hardest hit by amendments that increase employment protection while capital-intensive industries are the most affected by laws that increase the cost of labor dispute resolution. These adverse effects are not alleviated by the widespread and increasing use of contract labor, particularly in regards to employment. Results are robust to an alternative codification of legal amendments suggested by Bhattacharjea (2006). |
| Keywords: | employment protection, labor dispute resolution, contract labor, employment, India |
| JEL: | J23 J52 K31 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3394&r=lab |
| By: | Betsey Stevenson |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how the Internet has impacted job search behavior. Examining those who use the Internet for job seeking purposes, I show that the vast majority are currently employed. These employed job seekers are more likely to leave their current employer and are more likely to make an employment-to-employment transition. Examining the unemployed, I find that over the past ten years the variety of job search methods used by the unemployed has increased and job search behavior has become more extensive. Furthermore, the Internet has led to reallocation of effort among various job search activities. |
| JEL: | J01 J6 J62 J63 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13886&r=lab |
| By: | Peter Blair Henry; Diego Sasson |
| Abstract: | For three years after the typical developing country opens its stock market to inflows of foreign capital, the average annual growth rate of the real wage in the manufacturing sector increases by a factor of seven. No such increase occurs in a control group of developing countries. The temporary increase in the growth rate of the real wage permanently drives up the level of average annual compensation for each worker in the sample by 752 US dollars -- an increase equal to more than a quarter of their annual pre-liberalization salary. The increase in the growth rate of labor productivity in the aftermath of liberalization exceeds the increase in the growth rate of the real wage so that the increase in workers' incomes actually coincides with a rise in manufacturing sector profitability. |
| JEL: | E2 F3 F4 F41 J3 O4 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13880&r=lab |
| By: | Alicia H. Munnell (Center for Retirement Research, Boston College); Geoffrey Sanzenbacher; Mauricio Soto |
| Abstract: | The general perception is that the Social Security program expanded significantly in the 1970s and today benefits are much higher relative to pre-retirement earnings than they were prior to that expansion. Indeed, the Social Security Trustees Report shows that the replacement rate — benefits as a percent of pre-retirement earnings — for the average worker rose from about 30 percent in 1970 to about 40 percent in 1980, where it remains today... |
| Date: | 2007–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:issbrf:ib2007-7-15&r=lab |
| By: | Esteban Calvo; Kelly Haverstick; Steven A. Sass (Center for Retirement Research, Boston College) |
| Abstract: | This study explores the factors that affect an individual’s happiness while transitioning into retirement. Recent studies highlight gradual retirement as an attractive option to older workers as they approach full retirement. However, it is not clear whether phasing or cold turkey makes for a happier retirement. Using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study, this study explores what shapes the change in happiness between the last wave of full employment and the first wave of full retirement. Results suggest that what really matters is not the type of transition (gradual retirement or cold turkey), but whether people perceive the transition as chosen or forced. |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2007-18&r=lab |
| By: | Olivier Blanchard; Jordi Galí |
| Abstract: | We construct a utility-based model of fluctuations, with nominal rigidities and unemployment, and draw its implications for the unemployment-inflation trade- off and for the conduct of monetary policy. We proceed in two steps. We first leave nominal rigidities aside. We show that, under a standard utility specification, productivity shocks have no effect on unemployment in the constrained efficient allocation. We then focus on the implications of alternative real wage setting mechanisms for fluctuations in un- employment. We show the role of labor market frictions and real wage rigidities in determining the effects of productivity shocks on unemployment. We then introduce nominal rigidities in the form of staggered price setting by firms. We derive the relation between inflation and unemployment and discuss how it is influenced by the presence of labor market frictions and real wage rigidities. We show the nature of the tradeoff between inflation and unemployment stabilization, and its dependence on labor market characteristics. We draw the implications for optimal monetary policy. |
| Keywords: | New-Keynesian model, labor market frictions, search model, unemployment, sticky prices, real wage rigidities |
| JEL: | E32 E50 |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1076&r=lab |
| By: | Michael Rusinek (DULBEA, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels); François Rycx (DULBEA, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, and IZA, Bonn) |
| Abstract: | The authors of this paper use detailed linked employer-employee data from a 2003 survey in Belgium to examine how collective bargaining features affect the extent of rent-sharing. Their results show that there is substantially more rent-sharing in decentralized than in centralized industries, even when controlling for the endogeneity of profits, for heterogeneity among workers and firms and for differences in characteristics between bargaining regimes. Moreover, in centralized industries, rent-sharing is found only for workers that are covered by a firm agreement. Finally, results indicate that within decentralized industries, both firm and industry bargaining generate rent-sharing to the same extent. |
| Keywords: | Rent-sharing, collective bargaining, propensity score matching. |
| JEL: | J31 J51 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dul:wpaper:08-09rs&r=lab |
| By: | Kari Hämäläinen; Juha Tuomala |
| Abstract: | This study evaluates the employment effects of vocational labour market training in Finnish youth labour markets. We are especially interested in whether the timing of an intervention matters. We explore this issue by analyzing the monthly time paths of employment effects over an observation period of four years. The study adopts two different identifying assumptions in trying to identify the causal impact of training programmes, viz. conditional independence and the discontinuity in the probability of participation caused by the allocation of training to individuals over 20 years of age. JEL codes: C21, J13, J18 |
| Keywords: | Vocational labour market training, matching, regression discontinuity design |
| Date: | 2007–12–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fer:dpaper:432&r=lab |
| By: | Alicia H. Munnell; Steven A. Sass (Center for Retirement Research, Boston College) |
| Abstract: | This paper summarizes what is known about the labor supply of older men, defined as those 55 and over. The topic is of great interest because older individuals will comprise a much greater portion of the population, so their labor supply will have a significant impact on national output, tax revenues, and the cost of means-tested programs. Most importantly, a greater proportion of older individuals will need to work than do at present, because retirement income systems are contracting and working longer is the only way for most to ensure financial security in their old age. The focus is on men, because women’s work patterns reflect the increasing participation of cohorts over time as well as the factors that affect retirement behavior. |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2007-12&r=lab |
| By: | Raquel Fonseca (RAND 1776 Main Street P.O. Box 2138 Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138, USA); Lise Patureau (THEMA, Université de Cergy-Pontoise Site des Chênes 1 UFR d’Économie et Gestion 33, boulevard du Port 95011 Cergy-Pontoise Cedex, France); Thepthida Sopraseuth (EPEE, CEPREMAP and PSE Jourdan, Departement d’Economie, Univ. d’Evry, 4 Bd F. Mitterand, 91025 Evry Cedex, France) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of labor market institutions (LMI) on business cycle (BC) synchronization. We first develop a two-country right-to-manage model of wage bargaining. We find that, following a symmetric demand change, cross-country differences in LMI generate divergent responses in employment and output. We then investigate the empirical relevance of this result using panel data of 20 OECD countries observed over 40 years. Our estimation strategy controls for a large set of possible factors influencing GDP correlations, which allows to confront our results with those found in previous studies. Consistently with our theoretical results, we find that similar labor markets across countries tend to favor more their synchronized cycles. In particular, disparities in tax wedges yields lower GDP co movement. Besides, interactions between labor market institutions do matter, enhancing or dampening the effect of tax wedge divergence on BC synchronization. Our overall results suggest that the impact of distortions in demand-supply labor mechanism should be investigated in international business cycle models. |
| Keywords: | International business cycle, Business cycle synchronization, Labor market institutions, Panel Data Estimation |
| JEL: | F42 C23 J32 J52 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2008-05&r=lab |
| By: | Melissa Bjelland; Bruce Fallick; John Haltiwanger; Erika McEntarfer |
| Abstract: | We use administrative data linking workers and firms to study employer-to-employer flows. After discussing how to identify such flows in quarterly data, we investigate their basic empirical patterns. We find that the pace of employer-to-employer flows is high, representing about 4 percent of employment and 30 percent of separations each quarter. The pace of employer-to-employer flows is highly procyclical, and varies systematically across worker, job and employer characteristics. Our findings regarding job tenure and earnings dynamics suggest that for those workers moving directly to new jobs, the new jobs are generally better jobs; however, this pattern is highly procyclical. There are rich patterns in terms of origin and destination of industries. We find somewhat surprisingly that more than half of the workers making employer-to-employer transitions switch even broadly-defined industries (NAICS super-sectors). |
| JEL: | E24 J62 J63 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13867&r=lab |
| By: | Jesse Bricker; Gary V. Engelhardt (Center for Retirement Research, Boston College) |
| Abstract: | We provide new evidence on the extent of measurement error in respondent-reported earnings data by exploiting detailed W-2 records matched to older workers in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Our empirical findings are qualitatively consistent with the findings of previous studies. Mean measurement error in the 1991 HRS earnings data for men is somewhat larger than what has been found in other validation studies, but is still modest, averaging about 0.059 log points, approximately 5.9 percent, or $1,500. For women in 1991, it is 0.067 log points, approximately 6.7 percent, or $916. We find a negative correlation between the measurement error and the true value of earnings as measured by the W-2 records, which indicates the presence of non-classical measurement error. For men and women, this error shows little correlation with a standard set of cross-sectional earnings determinants. The one exception is that the measurement error rises with reported education. The bias on the OLS parameter estimate of the impact of having a college degree or higher (relative to a high school drop-out) from using the respondent-reported rather than the W-2 earnings is positive and estimated to be 0.071 log points, or roughly a bias of 7 percent. |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2007-16&r=lab |
| By: | Quintero-Rojas, Coralia; Adjemian, Stéphane; Langot, François |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes how the frictions in the labor market simultaneously affect the economic growth and the long run unemployment. To this goal, we develop a Schumpeterian model of endogenous growth: agents have the choice of being employed or being doing R&D activities. Unemployment is caused by the wage-setting behavior of unions. We show that: (i) High labor costs or powerful trade unions lead to higher unemployment and lower economic growth. (ii) Efficient bargain allows to increase employment, at the price of a lower growth rate. These theoretical predictions are consistent with our empirical analysis based on 183 European Regions, between 1980-2003. Finally, in a welfare exercise, we show that the optimal growth rate can be reached by compensating the distortions on the goods-sector due to the growth process with the distortions induced by the labor market rigidities. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous growth; unemployment; labor market institutions; welfare. |
| JEL: | J51 E24 O33 |
| Date: | 2008–03–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7909&r=lab |
| By: | Akita, Takahiro; Miyata, Sachiko |
| Abstract: | "This paper considers urban-rural location and education as the main causes of expenditure inequality and attempts to examine inequality changes associated with urbanization and educational expansion in Indonesia from 1996 to 2002, using Indonesian monthly household consumption expenditure data. It introduces a hierarchical framework of inequality decomposition by population subgroups, which enables researchers to analyze inequality resulting from differences in educational attainment as well as inequality within each educational group, after the effects on inequality of urban–rural differences in the composition of educational attainments are removed. It finds that the urban sector's higher educational group contributes significantly to overall inequality. Inequality within the group increased significantly once Indonesia recovered from the financial crisis of 1998. This, together with educational expansion in urban areas, led to a conspicuous rise in urban inequality. Overall expenditure inequality has increased markedly, due not only to the rise in urban inequality but also a widening urban-rural disparity, accompanied by a population shift from the rural to the urban sector. Since more people will obtain higher education as the economy continues to develop, and more jobs requiring specialized skills become available in urban areas, urban inequality is likely to remain high. In order to mitigate urban inequality and thus overall inequality, the government needs to introduce policies that could reduce inequality among households whose heads have a tertiary education." from Authors' Abstract |
| Keywords: | Expenditure inequality, Urbanization, Educational expansion, Theil index, Two-stage nested inequality decomposition analysis, Public investment, |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:728&r=lab |
| By: | Richard B. Freeman; M. Marit Rehavi |
| Abstract: | This study examines two innovative efforts to provide union services to workers with the aid of low cost Internet communication: the AFL-CIO's Working America, a "community affiliate" that enrolled 2 million workers from 2004 to 2007 by canvassing them at their homes and over the Internet (www.workingamerica.org); and the UK'S Trade Union Congress's www.unionreps.org.uk, a discussion board for worker representatives to communicate about workplace issues. Working America demonstrates that workers without collective bargaining will join a union organization that communicates on-line and off-line and campaigns for worker interests in society. Unionreps.org shows that local worker representatives can form an on-line community that shares information to improve the services they give workers. Combining the two innovations could be a step toward a new "open source" union form that provides union services at low cost outside of collective bargaining. |
| JEL: | J0 J3 J40 J5 J51 J52 J81 J83 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13850&r=lab |
| By: | Richard W. Johnson; (Urban Institute); ; |
| Abstract: | Because most workers receive health benefits from their employers, retirement often disrupts health insurance coverage. Some employers offer health insurance to retirees, but many firms are cutting retiree health benefits by passing more costs to retirees or eliminating benefits altogether. Few alternatives exist. Private nongroup coverage is generally quite expensive, and few people in their 50s and early 60s qualify for publicly financed benefits. Many workers who cannot obtain retiree benefits from their own employers or their spouses’ employers delay retirement to age 65, when Medicare coverage begins. This brief examines the availability and cost of health insurance coverage at ages 55 to 64 and changes in coverage after retirement. Today most workers with employer health benefits retain their coverage when they retire early, although their required premium contributions have increased sharply over the past ten years. In the future, however, steady declines in the share of younger workers with access to retiree health benefits may jeopardize income security for the next generations of retirees. |
| Keywords: | retirement, health benefits, disrupt, cutting benefits, health insurance coverage |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwob:wob_7&r=lab |
| By: | Felipe Barrera-Osorio; Marianne Bertrand; Leigh L. Linden; Francisco Perez-Calle |
| Abstract: | We evaluate multiple variants of a commonly used intervention to boost education in developing countries -- the conditional cash transfer (CCT) -- with a student level randomization that allows us to generate intra-family and peer-network variation. We test three treatments: a basic CCT treatment based on school attendance, a savings treatment that postpones a bulk of the cash transfer due to good attendance to just before children have to reenroll, and a tertiary treatment where some of the transfers are conditional on students' graduation and tertiary enrollment rather than attendance. On average, the combined incentives increase attendance, pass rates, enrollment, graduation rates, and matriculation to tertiary institutions. Changing the timing of the payments does not change attendance rates relative to the basic treatment but does significantly increase enrollment rates at both the secondary and tertiary levels. Incentives for graduation and matriculation are particularly effective, increasing attendance and enrollment at secondary and tertiary levels more than the basic treatment. We find some evidence that the subsidies can cause a reallocation of responsibilities within the household. Siblings (particularly sisters) of treated students work more and attend school less than students in families that received no treatment. We also find that indirect peer influences are relatively strong in attendance decisions with the average magnitude similar to that of the direct effect. |
| JEL: | I2 I38 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13890&r=lab |
| By: | Larochelle-Côté, Sébastien; Myles, John F.; Picot, Garnett |
| Abstract: | Past research has shown that the Canadian pension system is relatively effective in helping seniors to stay out of poverty. However, the extent to which the pension system enables individuals and families to maintain living standards achieved during their working years after retirement (income security) is less well understood. To help fill this knowledge gap, we employ 20-year longitudinal data to track individuals as they move from age 55 through their retirement years. We use various measures of an individual's family income to study four main issues: change in income levels through retirement; the role that various income sources play in this change; variation in replacement rates through time and between poorer and richer individuals; and, finally, the degree of long-term stability in individual incomes. For workers with average incomes, family income falls after age 60, declines until age 68, and then stabilizes at approximately 80% of the income level they had at age 55. In contrast, low income individuals (those in the bottom income quintile) experience little change in income as they move from age 55 through the retirement years, largely because of the income maintenance effects of the public pension system. They experience high levels of individual income instability in their late 50s and early 60s, but income instability falls dramatically after retirement. Individuals in the top quintile experience substantially larger income declines in retirement so that income inequality within a cohort declines as the cohort ages. More recent groups of retirees are experiencing higher income levels than earlier cohorts, largely because of higher private pensions. Replacement rates have changed little among cohorts, however. Whether recent gains in income levels will persist in future cohorts is unknown since pension coverage has been falling among younger workers. |
| Keywords: | Labour, Income, pensions, spending and wealth, Wages, salaries and other earnings, Household, family and personal income, Pension plans and funds and other retirement income programs |
| Date: | 2008–03–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2008306e&r=lab |
| By: | Abdeslam Marfouk (DULBEA-CERT, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels) |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically examines the determinants of highly-skilled emigration from Africa with recent original data set on international migration. The analysis shows that 10 out of the 53 African countries have lost more than 35 per cent of the their tertiary educated labor force and countries such as Cape Verde (68 percent), Gambia (63 percent), Seychelles (56 percent), Maurice (56 percent) and Sierra Leone (53 percent) suffered from a massive brain drain. Regression models reveal that economic and noneconomic considerations have a strong impact on the African brain drain. This study finds that the degree of fractionalization (ethnic, linguistic and religious) at origin countries, jobs opportunities at destination countries, selective immigration policies, wage gap, geographical distance, former colonial links, and linguistic proximity between countries of origin and destination are the main forces driving highly-skilled emigration from Africa. |
| Keywords: | International Migration, Human Capital, African Brain Drain, Labor Mobility |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dul:wpaper:08-07rs&r=lab |
| By: | Richard Rogerson; Lodewijk P. Visschers; Randall Wright |
| Abstract: | Shimer's calibrated version of the Mortensen-Pissarides model generates unemployment fluctuates much smaller than the data. Hagedorn and Manovskii present an alternative calibration that yields fluctuations consistent with the data, but this has been challenged by Costain and Reiter, who say it generates unrealistically big differences in unemployment from the differences in policy we sees across countries. We argue this concern may be unwarranted, because one cannot assume elasticities relevant for small changes work for large changes. Models with fixed factors in market or household production can generate large effects from small changes and reasonable effects from large changes. This is reminiscent of attempts to improve the labor market in the Kydland-Prescott model, especially ones incorporating household production, like Benhabib, Rogerson and Wright. |
| JEL: | E2 E3 J2 J6 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13872&r=lab |
| By: | Almut Balleer; Thijs van Rens |
| Abstract: | Over the past two decades, technological progress has been biased towards making skilled labor more productive. The evidence for this finding is based on the persistent parallel increase in the skill premium and the supply of skilled workers. What are the implications of skill-biased technological change for the business cycle? To answer this question, we use the CPS outgoing rotation groups to construct quarterly series for the price and quantity of skill. The unconditional correlation of the skill premium with the cycle is zero. However, using a structural VAR with long run restrictions, we find that technology shocks substantially increase the premium. Investment-specific technology shocks are not skill-biased and our findings suggest that capital and skill are (mildly) substitutable in aggregate production. |
| Keywords: | Skill-biased technology, skill premium, VAR, long-run restrictions, capital-skill complementarity, business cycle |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1079&r=lab |
| By: | Kelly Haverstick; Margarita Sapozhnikov; Robert Triest; Natalia Zhivan (Center for Retirement Research, Boston College) |
| Abstract: | While Social Security’s Normal Retirement Age (NRA) is increasing to 67, the Earliest Eligibility Age (EEA) remains at 62. Similar plans to increase the EEA raise concerns that they would create excessive hardship on workers that are worn-out or in bad health. One simple rule to increase the EEA is to tie an increase to the number of quarters of covered earnings. Such a provision would allow those with long worklives — presumably the less educated and lower paid — to quit earlier. We provide evidence that this simple rule would not satisfy the goal of preventing undue hardship on certain workers. Thus, this paper considers an alternative policy that ties an increase in the EEA to individuals’ Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME). We show that allowing workers with low AIME to continue to be eligible to receive benefits at age 62 has promise as a policy to protect workers who have low earnings and are in poor health from hardship associated with an increase in the EEA. |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2007-19&r=lab |
| By: | Sherry Glied; Matthew Neidell |
| Abstract: | Healthy teeth are a vital and visible component of general well-being, but there is little systematic evidence to demonstrate their economic value. In this paper, we examine one element of that value, the effect of oral health on labor market outcomes, by exploiting variation in access to fluoridated water during childhood. The politics surrounding the adoption of water fluoridation by local water districts suggests exposure to fluoride during childhood is exogenous to other factors affecting earnings. We find that women who resided in communities with fluoridated water during childhood earn approximately 4% more than women who did not, but we find no effect of fluoridation for men. Furthermore, the effect is almost exclusively concentrated amongst women from families of low socioeconomic status. We find little evidence to support occupational sorting, statistical discrimination, and productivity as potential channels of these effects, suggesting consumer and employer discrimination are the likely driving factors whereby oral health affects earnings |
| JEL: | I12 I18 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13879&r=lab |
| By: | Babucea, Ana-Gabriela; Danacica, Daniela-Emanuela |
| Abstract: | In this study we present the results of basic data analysis of the duration of unemployment spells in Gorj County using Kaplan – Meier curves The database includes individual information about all the subjects registered at the county agency of Gorj county during January 1st, 2002- August 31st, 2006. The database has individual information about all the subjects registered at NAE during January 1, 2002 - August 31, 2006. Statistical data analysis as part of the ASO project “The role of education for duration of unemployment”, is based on data offered by the National Agency for Employment of Romania (NAE) and was made with SPSS for Windows V. 10. 0.5. |
| JEL: | J45 J40 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7854&r=lab |
| By: | Kevin Hollenbeck (W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research) |
| Abstract: | States have begun to use training subsidies as a policy tool for employment retention and business competitiveness. This paper summarizes a survey of states concerning their investments in incumbent worker training. Altogether, states are investing about $550 to $800 million, which is perhaps one percent or less of total private sector training costs. The paper further discusses a study conducted for one state in which we found significant fiscal returns implying that underinvestment of public funds for incumbent worker training may be occurring. In this state, primary sector jobs were created or retained at a public cost of less than $9,000 per job; a cost that rivals or bests most economic development initiatives. |
| Keywords: | incumbant, worker, on-the-job training, ojt, hollenbeck |
| JEL: | J24 J28 I28 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:08-138&r=lab |
| By: | Esteban Calvo; Kelly Haverstick; Steven A. Sass |
| Abstract: | Workers often say they want to retire gradually. As retirement is a sharp break with life as they know it, it’s not surprising that many prefer to negotiate the transition a step at a time. Many policymakers also view gradual retirement favorably. They see it as a way to extend careers, shorten retirements, and thereby improve retirement income security. Expanding opportunities for gradual or “phased” retirement has thus gained a prominent place on the policy agenda... |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:issbrf:ib2007-7-16&r=lab |
| By: | Per Krusell; Toshihiko Mukoyama; Richard Rogerson; Aysegul Sahin |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes a model that features frictions, an operative labor supply margin, and incomplete markets. We first provide analytic solutions to a benchmark model that includes indivisible labor and incomplete markets in the absence of trading frictions. We show that the steady state levels of aggregate hours and aggregate capital stock are identical to those obtained in the economy with employment lotteries, while individual employment and asset dynamics can be different. Second, we introduce labor market frictions to the benchmark model. We find that the effect of the frictions on the response of aggregate hours to a permanent tax change is highly non-linear. We also find that there is considerable scope for substitution between "voluntary" and "frictional" nonemployment in some situations. |
| JEL: | E2 J2 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13871&r=lab |
| By: | Mauro Pisu (National Bank of Belgium, Research Department) |
| Abstract: | One of the most important predictions made in recent international trade literature based on heterogeneous firms concerns the within-industry job reallocation from firms not involved in international markets to those that are. This paper quantifies the extent of this reallocation using a dataset of Belgian manufacturing firms from 1998 to 2004 providing information on their international trading activities. The results suggest that, at three-digit industry levels, the shifts in employment between firms having different trading status account for 6 to 30 percent of total job reallocation. This effect is stronger for large than for small firms. |
| Keywords: | Heterogeneous firms, Job reallocation, Imports, Exports, FDI |
| JEL: | F16 J63 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbb:reswpp:200803-17&r=lab |
| By: | Robert W. Fairlie; Christopher Woodruff |
| Abstract: | Although business ownership has implications for income inequality, wealth accumulation and job creation, surprisingly little research explores why Mexican-Americans are less likely to start businesses and why the businesses that they start are less successful on average than non-Latino whites. We conduct a comprehensive analysis of Mexican-American entrepreneurship using microdata from the 2000 U.S. Census, the matched and unmatched March and Outgoing Rotation Group Files of the Current Population Survey from 1994 to 2004, and the Legalized Population Survey (LPS). We find that low levels of education and wealth explain the entire gap between Mexican immigrants and non-Latino whites in business formation rates. Nearly the entire gap in business income for Mexican immigrants is explained by low levels of education and limited English language ability. Using the natural experiment created by the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), we find that legal status represents an additional barrier for Mexican immigrants. A conservative estimate suggests that the lack of legal status reduces business ownership rates by roughly seven-tenths of a percentage point for both men and women. Human and financial capital deficiencies are found to limit business ownership and business success among second and third-generation Mexican-Americans, but to a lesser extent. These findings have implications for the debates over the selection of immigrants and the assimilation of Mexican-Americans in the U.S. economy. |
| Keywords: | Mexican-Americans, entrepreneurship, self-employment |
| JEL: | J15 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:575&r=lab |
| By: | Morley, Samuel; Nakasone, Eduardo; Pineiro, Valeria |
| Abstract: | "In this paper we develop a dynamic CGE model to examine the impact of CAFTA on production, employment and poverty in El Salvador. We model four aspects of the agreement: tariff reductions, quotas, changes in the rules of origin for maquila and more generous treatment of foreign investment. The model shows that CAFTA has a small positive effect on growth, employment and poverty. Tariff reduction under CAFTA adds about .2% to the growth rate of output up to 2020. Liberalizing the rules of origin for maquila has a bigger positive effect on growth and poverty mainly because it raises the demand for exportables produced by unskilled labor. We model the foreign investment effect by assuming that capital inflows go directly to capital formation. This raises the growth rate of output by over 1% per year and lowers poverty incidence in 2020 by over 25% relative to what it would be in the baseline scenario. These simulations say something important about the growth process in a country like El Salvador in which it seems reasonable to assume that there is idle unskilled labor willing and able to work at a fixed real wage. In such an economy, growth can be increased in one of three ways. First, already employed resources can be moved to sectors where they are more productive. That is what the tariff reductions under CAFTA do, and the result is positive but small. Second, the structure of demand can be changed in such a way as to increase the demand for previously unemployed unskilled labor. That is what the maquila simulation does, because maquila uses a lot of unskilled labor relative to skilled labor and capital. Finally the supply of capital can be increased by increasing the rate of capital formation. That is what happens in the FDI simulation." from Authors' Abstract |
| Keywords: | CAFTA, Trade agreements, Growth, Poverty, CGE model, |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:743&r=lab |
| By: | Jose Ignacio Gimenez Nadal; Almudena Sevilla Sanz |
| Abstract: | Despite the well-documented increase in the relative wages and expenditures of highly-educated individuals in the U.S. in recent decades, leisure inequality mirrors inequality of wages, i.e. we observe that highly-educated individuals have now relatively less leisure time than lower-educated individuals. What are the implications for evaluating individual welfare? This paper moves beyond the current published research, which has mostly concentrated on total time spent in leisure, and exploits the nature of diary data in the American Heritage Time Use Study (AHTUS), to provide a complementary angle to this question. We look not just at the quantity of leisure (measured as total leisure time) but also at the quality of leisure for different education groups. We provide several indicators to measure the quality of leisure, such as the number of leisure episodes, whether leisure is undertaken with the spouse and/or other adults and whether leisure is combined with other non-leisure activities. We find that, although leisure time is greater now for less-educated individuals relative to highly-educated individuals, the quality of leisure is higher for highly-educated individuals. This finding is consistent with a model of quality-quantity of leisure, where individuals substitute quality for quantity as their income rises. |
| Keywords: | Leisure, Inequality, Income, Wages, Consumption, Time-Use, Time Budgets |
| JEL: | C13 C23 D13 J12 J16 Z13 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:374&r=lab |
| By: | Okumu, Ibrahim M.; Nakajjo, Alex; Isoke, Doreen |
| Abstract: | Abstract This paper describes the socioeconomic determinants of primary school dropout in Uganda with the aid of a logistic model analysis using the 2004 National Service Delivery Survey data. The Objectives were to establish the; household socioeconomic factors that influence dropout of pupils given free education and any possible policy alternatives to curb dropout of pupils. Various logistic regressions of primary school dropout were estimated and these took the following dimensions; rural-urban, gender, and age-cohort. After model estimation, marginal effects for each of the models were obtained. The analysis of the various coefficients was done across all models. The results showed the insignificance of distance to school, gender of pupil, gender of household head and total average amount of school dues paid by students in influencing dropout of pupils thus showing the profound impact Universal Primary Education has had on both access to primary education and pupil dropout. Also the results vindicated the importance of parental education, household size and proportion of economically active household members in influencing the chances of pupil dropout. The study finally calls for government to; keep a keen eye on non-school fees payments by parents to schools as these have the potential to increase to unsustainable levels by most households especially in rural areas; roll-out adult education across the entire country; and expand free universal education to secondary and vocational levels as it would allow some of those who can not afford secondary education to continue with schooling. This has the effect of reducing the number of unproductive members in the household. |
| Keywords: | socioeconomic determinants; primary education; and dropout |
| JEL: | O1 I2 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7851&r=lab |
| By: | Torberg Falch (Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology); Sofia Sandgren (Royal Institute ofTechnology, Stockholm, Sweden, and Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway) |
| Abstract: | This paper utilizes information on cognitive ability at age ten and earnings information from age 20 to 65 to estimate the return to ability over the life-cycle. Ability measured at an early age is not influenced by the individual’s choices of schooling and other circumstances. We find that most of the unconditional return to early cognitive ability goes through educational choice. The conditional return is increasing for low levels of experience and non-increasing for experience above about 15-25 years. The return is similar for men and women, and highest for individuals with academic education. Only a small part of the return can be explained by higher probability to have a supervisory position. |
| Keywords: | Cognitive ability; life-cycle; earnings; IQ |
| Date: | 2008–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nst:samfok:9208&r=lab |
| By: | Nilsson, J Peter (Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation) |
| Abstract: | This paper utilizes a Swedish alcohol policy experiment conducted in the late 1960s to identify the impact of prenatal alcohol exposure on educational attainments and labor market outcomes. The experiment started in November 1967 and was prematurely discontinued in July 1968 due to a sharp increase in alcohol consumption in the experimental regions, particularly among youths. Using a difference-in-difference-in-differences strategy we find that around age 30 the cohort in utero during the experiment have substantially reduced educational attainments, lower earnings and higher welfare dependency rates compared to the surrounding cohorts. The results indicate that investments in early-life health may have far reaching effects on economic outcomes later in life. |
| Keywords: | Alcohol policy; infant health; education; earnings |
| JEL: | I12 I18 J24 |
| Date: | 2008–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2008_004&r=lab |
| By: | Lundborg, Petter (Free University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the health returns to education, using data on identical twins. I adopt a twin-differences strategy in order to obtain estimates that are not biased by unobserved family background and genetic traits that may affect both education and health. I further investigate to what extent within-twin-pair differences in schooling correlates with within-twin-pair differences in early life health and parent-child relations. The results suggest a causal effect of education on health. Higher educational levels are found to be positively related to self-reported health but negatively related to the number of chronic conditions. Lifestyle factors, such as smoking and overweight, are found to contribute little to the education/health gradient. I am also able to rule out occupational hazards and health insurance coverage as explanations for the gradient. In addition, I find no evidence of heterogenous effects of education by parental education. Finally, the results suggest that factors that may vary within twin pairs, such as birth weight, early life health, parental treatment and relation with parents, do not predict within-twin pair differences in schooling, lending additional credibility to my estimates and to the general validity of using a twin-differences design to study the returns to education. |
| Keywords: | health production, education, schooling, twins, siblings, returns to education, ability bias |
| JEL: | I12 I11 J14 J12 C41 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3399&r=lab |
| By: | Daniel O. Beltran; Kuntal K. Das; Robert W. Fairlie |
| Abstract: | Although computers are universal in the classroom, nearly twenty million children in the United States do not have computers in their homes. Surprisingly, only a few previous studies explore the role of home computers in the educational process. Home computers might be very useful for completing school assignments, but they might also represent a distraction for teenagers. We use several identification strategies and panel data from the two main U.S. datasets that include recent information on computer ownership among children -- the 2000-2003 CPS Computer and Internet Use Supplements (CIUS) matched to the CPS Basic Monthly Files and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 -- to explore the causal relationship between computer ownership and high school graduation and other educational outcomes. Teenagers who have access to home computers are 6 to 8 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school than teenagers who do not have home computers after controlling for individual, parental, and family characteristics. We generally find evidence of positive relationships between home computers and educational outcomes using several identification strategies, including controlling for typically unobservable home environment and extracurricular activities in the NLSY97, fixed effects models, instrumental variables, and including future computer ownership and falsification tests. Home computers may increase high school graduation by reducing non-productive activities, such as truancy and crime, among children in addition to making it easier to complete school assignments. |
| Keywords: | technology, computers, education |
| JEL: | I2 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:576&r=lab |
| By: | Amaia Iza (The University of the Basque Country); Cruz A. Echevarría (The University of the Basque Country) |
| Abstract: | n this paper we analyze the effects of social security policies in an unfunded, earnings-related social security system on the incentives to education investment and voluntary retirement, on growth and on income inequality. Growth is endogenously driven by human capital investment, individuals differ in their innate (learning) ability at birth, and the pension scheme includes a minimum pension. More skilled individuals spend more on education, minimum pensions reduce low skill individuals' incentives to invest in human capital, there is no monotonic relationship between per capita growth and income inequality. |
| Keywords: | Social Security; Pay-as-you-go; Voluntary Retirement; Human Capital; Minimum Pension |
| JEL: | O40 H55 J10 |
| Date: | 2008–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehu:dfaeii:200801&r=lab |
| By: | Maria Bas |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a trade model with heterogeneous firms introducing a fixed technology cost and different types of skilled labor. The main contribution is to explain the effects of trade integration on the extensive margin of technology adoption and its impact on wage inequalities. The originality of this paper is to combine skilled-biased technological change with international trade theory based on heterogeneous firms in a general equilibrium model. Moreover, it provides empirical evidence supporting the main assumption and predictions of the model using plant level panel data of Chilean's manufacturing sector for the period 1990-1999. The theoretical framework offers a possible explanation of the puzzle concerning the increase in the skill premium in developing countries. The H-O-S model predicts a reduction of inequalities after trade reforms in developing countries, while there is widespread empirical evidence of an increase in the skill premium in these countries. In our model the key mechanism is related to the effects of trade policy on the number of new firms upgrading technology and on the skill intensity. Trade liberalization increases export revenues raising the probability that the most productive exporters will upgrade technology. These firms will increase their relative demand of skilled labor, thereby enhancing the inequalities |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pse:psecon:2008-06&r=lab |
| By: | Tanja Kirjavainen |
| Abstract: | In this study the efficiency of Finnish upper secondary schools is evaluated with stochastic frontier analysis. Different stochastic frontier models for panel data are used to estimate education production functions. The results in matriculation examination are explained with comprehensive school grade point average, parents? socioeconomic background, resources, length of studies and decentralization of test taking on matriculation examination. Controls for schools with specialized curriculum are also included. The heterogeneity across schools is allowed by estimating both true random and true fixed effects models. The results show that the effect of teaching resources on examination results is even negative when the heterogeneity across schools is taken into account. Length of studies and decentralization of test taking affected negatively on student achievement. The inefficiency and the rankings of schools based on inefficiency score varied quite considerably depending on the type of stochastic frontier model. The lowest estimates for inefficiency were obtained with true random and true fixed effects models that separate time constant random or fixed effects from inefficiency. |
| Keywords: | Efficiency, stochastic frontier analysis, secondary schools |
| Date: | 2007–11–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fer:dpaper:428&r=lab |
| By: | Jonah E. Rockoff |
| Abstract: | Mentoring has become an extremely popular policy for improving the retention and performance of new teachers, but we know little about its effects on teacher and student outcomes. I study the impact of mentoring in New York City, which adopted a nationally recognized mentoring program in 2004. I use detailed program data to examine the relationship between teacher and student outcomes and measures of mentoring quality, such as hours of mentoring received and the characteristics of mentors. Although assignment of teachers to mentors was non-random, I use instrumental variables and school fixed effects to address potential sources of bias. I find strong relationships between measures of mentoring quality and teachers' claims regarding the impact of mentors on their success in the classroom, but weaker evidence of effects on teacher absences, retention, and student achievement. The most consistent finding is that retention within a particular school is higher when a mentor has previous experience working in that school, suggesting that an important part of mentoring may be the provision of school specific knowledge. I also find evidence that student achievement in both reading and math were higher among teachers that received more hours of mentoring, supporting the notion that time spent working with a mentor does improve teaching skills. |
| JEL: | I2 J24 J63 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13868&r=lab |
| By: | Yamauchi, Futoshi |
| Abstract: | "The institution of marriage plays some role in determining one's risk of exposure to HIV. Since the transmission of HIV in the population is mainly through sexual activity, avoiding infection depends on risk-avoiding behavior. Consistently, empirical results show that excess mortality is concentrated in not-yet married adults aged 20-39 among both men and women. Therefore, the choice of when and who to marry appears to be related to risk of exposure. The objective of this paper is to determine the effect that schooling has on HIV/AIDS excess mortality, using panel data from South Africa. This paper tests the hypothesis that schooling affects when and who one marries and thus impacts the risk of mortality from HIV/AIDS. The effect could be negative or positive. On the one hand, since educated agents have incentives to secure returns to their human capital in the future, more education implies earlier marriage, given that the marriage institution effectively decreases the HIV-related mortality risk. On the other hand, education increases the opportunity costs of marriage especially for women, who need to increase their time spent in the household. Thus, schooling may increase mortality risks due to the increased risk of HIV infection... Results show that schooling increases excess mortality among women, but not among men... In sum, schooling increases the opportunity cost of marriage for women, which delays marriage and increases their mortality risks in high HIV-prevalence societies, but has the opposite effect on men. Our analysis demonstrated the need to integrate our understandings of the marriage market, the labor market, schooling investments, and youth behavior to identify the determinants of AIDS-related excess mortality." from Authors' Abstract |
| Keywords: | Marriage, Schooling, Excess mortality, HIV/AIDS, Gender, |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:691&r=lab |
| By: | Deborah Nusche |
| Abstract: | Higher education institutions (HEIs) have experienced increasing pressures to provide accountability data and consumer information on the quality of teaching and learning. But existing ratings and rankings of HEIs tend to neglect information on student learning outcomes. Instead, they focus on inputs, activities and research outputs, such as resources used, classes taught, and articles published. Such indicators provide no indication of the degree to which HEIs actually develop the knowledge and skills of their students. In most countries, hardly any comparable information is available on the educational quality of different programmes and institutions. In some countries, approaches to assess higher education learning outcomes have been developed, but little cross-country information is available on the characteristics of the instruments used. This paper provides an overview of experience gained in this domain across OECD and partner countries. Based on illustrative evidence collected for 18 assessment instruments, it examines conceptual, organizational and methodological aspects of existing assessments. It proposes a typology of higher education learning outcomes and reviews the ways in which these have been assessed across countries. Examples are drawn from Australia, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States. <BR>Les institutions d'enseignement supérieur sont de plus en plus amenées à rendre des comptes sur la qualité de leurs enseignements et les résultats de leurs étudiants. Mais les méthodologies de notation et de classement des universités considèrent rarement dans leurs critères l'information sur les « résultats de l’enseignement », à savoir ce que les étudiants ont vraiment appris au sein de ces institutions. Elles se concentrent plutôt sur les inputs, activités, et outputs, tels que les ressources mobilisées, les cours enseignés et le nombre d'articles publiés. Cependant, ces indicateurs ne permettent pas de déterminer dans quelle mesure les universités contribuent au développement des connaissances et des compétences de leurs étudiants. Dans la plupart des pays, il y a peu d'information disponible pour comparer la qualité éducative des différents programmes et institutions. Dans certains pays, des approches ont été développées pour mesurer la qualité de l'enseignement dans les universités, mais peu d'études offrent une comparaison internationale des différents instruments utilisés. Ce papier présente un aperçu des expériences dans ce domaine au sein de l'OCDE et des pays partenaires. A partir de données illustratives concernant 18 tests, il examine des aspects conceptuels, organisationnels et méthodologiques des instruments d'évaluation existants. Le papier identifie différents types de résultats de l’enseignement et étudie la façon dont ceux-ci sont évalués dans les différents pays. Cette étude s'appuie sur des exemples provenant de l’Australie, du Brésil, du Mexique, du Royaume-Uni et des États-Unis. |
| Date: | 2008–02–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaab:15-en&r=lab |
| By: | Kirdar, Murat G. |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I examine the impact of immigrants on the social security system in Germany when return migration is an endogenous choice. For this purpose, I develop a dynamic stochastic model of joint return migration and saving decisions that accounts for uncertainty in future employment and income and estimate this model using a longitudinal dataset on immigrants from five different source countries. I find that immigrants make positive net contributions to both the pension and unemployment insurance systems in Germany regardless of their country of origin and age-at-entry. Moreover, the magnitudes of the net contributions are remarkable for certain groups. Return migration plays a critical role in generating these positive net contributions. In a counterfactual, I examine how much exogenous modeling of the return decision, which has been the practice of the literature so far, changes immigrants’ net contributions. Such a restriction causes a serious misestimation of net contributions. I also examine the impact of a counterfactual policy experiment in which financial bonuses are provided conditional on return to certain unemployed immigrants. Such a policy turns out to be ineffective in a number of dimensions. |
| Keywords: | Immigrant Workers; Life Cycle Models and Saving; Social Security and Public Pensions; Unemployment Insurance; Public Policy |
| JEL: | H55 J65 J61 D91 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7803&r=lab |
| By: | Alfonso R Sánchez-Martín (Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide) |
| Abstract: | All around the world, population aging has spurred developed countries to reform their PAYG pension systems. In particular, delaying legal retirement ages and reducing the generosity of pension benefits have been widely implemented changes. In this paper we assess how successful those policies can be in the case of the Spanish economy, and compare with the results obtained by the already implemented reforms (1997 and 2001). This evaluation is accomplished in a heterogeneous-agents, applied general equilibrium model where individuals can adjust their retirement ages in response to changes in pension rules. We check the ability of the model to reproduce the basic stylized facts of retirement behavior (specially the pattern of early retirement induced by minimum pensions). We then use to model to explore the impact of pension reforms. We find that already implemented changes actually increase the implicit liabilities of the system, while delaying the legal retirement age to 68 may roughly halve the size of the current pension debt. |
| Keywords: | Pension System Reform, Applied General Equilibrium, Retirement. |
| JEL: | D58 H55 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pab:wpaper:08.06&r=lab |