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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Hoi Quoc Le (Department of Economics, National Economics University, 207 Giai Phong Road, Hanoi, Vietnam) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of FDI on wages paid by domestic firms in Vietnam. The existing literature has examined the impact of foreign firms on domestic firms' wage levels within an industry. We expand on the literature by examining interindustry linkages as an additional conduit for wage spillovers. There is strong evidence of horizontal wage spillovers from foreign firms to domestic firms in Vietnam, despite different labour market conditions and firms' characteristics. Vertical wage spillovers exist, but depend on the specific characteristics of firms and industries. A further finding is that training activities facilitate wage spillovers. |
| Keywords: | Foreign Investment, Wages, Spillovers, Vietnam |
| JEL: | C23 F23 J31 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpc:wpaper:1008&r=lab |
| By: | Adrian de la Garza (Yale University); Atsushi Sannabe (Kyoto University); Katsunori Yamada (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | This paper utilizes survey data of Japanese union workers to pro- vide new insights to the \happiness and economics" literature. A cru- cial item that distinguishes our empirical analyses from previous stud- ies is the use of data on workers' expectations of their peers' wages. With our data, we conrm that individuals report higher levels of subjective well-being (SWB) when they perceive that their wages are higher relative to their peers'. On the other hand, the traditional ap- proach in the literature constructs relative wages from Mincer equa- tions, thus presuming that individuals infer their peers' wages the way econometricians do. We argue that this method may be inappropriate. Moreover, we address the issue of endogeneity of our subjective refer- ence income measure employing an instrumental variables approach, and corroborate the causality from relative income to SWB. Addition- ally, we study the relationship between SWB measures and workers' individual characteristics, and compare our results with standard nd- ings in the literature for U.S. and European workers. In agreement with these studies, women and married individuals seem to be happier than their counterparts, men and single workers. However, we observe a U-shaped relationship between education and happiness, which con- trasts with ndings for U.S. and British workers. Finally, we attempt to explain these relationships in the context of the Japanese social background. |
| Keywords: | subjective well-being; relative utility; sub- jective reference income |
| JEL: | C25 D00 J28 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:0810&r=lab |
| By: | Bayo-Moriones, Alberto (University of Navarra); Galdón-Sánchez, José Enrique (Universidad Pública de Navarra); Martinez-de Moretin, Sara (University of Navarra) |
| Abstract: | This article presents a study of the determinants of pay settlements in a sample of Spanish and British establishments. We find that variables such as establishment size and age, foreign ownership, labour costs, the existence of internal labour markets, a strategic approach to human resource management and pay setting institutions are related to the factors that shape pay adjustments. Moreover, our findings show that there are significant differences in the determinants of pay settlements between Spain and Great Britain. We suggest that the labour market institutions developed in each country influence pay setting decisions. |
| Keywords: | compensation systems, labor market institutions, wage settlements, establishment level data |
| JEL: | J30 J40 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3401&r=lab |
| By: | Carolyn Pitchik |
| Abstract: | When human capital skills differ in their ability to attract offers from alternative employers, a potential inefficiency in human capital investment arises. If a worker's output is observed by the labour market only when the worker invests in self-promoting activities, then high-ability workers overinvest in self-promotion. No bond is posted in the contract that both attains efficient investment and minimizes the bond subject to individual rationality constraints and the zero profit condition. The contract is one in which the firm (i) offers to match outside offers strategically and (ii) guarantees a minimum wage. The model predicts that, under both the spot market contract and the efficient contract, wage declines with seniority even when conditioning on high ability. This prediction is consistent with the stylized fact regarding the decline of wages with seniority in academia. The model can also explain how the seniority wage premium may vary across disciplines, time, and schools. |
| Keywords: | negative seniority wage premium, spot market contract, efficient contract, general human capital |
| JEL: | C7 C72 L1 |
| Date: | 2008–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-312&r=lab |
| By: | Belasen, Ariel R. (Saint Louis University); Polachek, Solomon (Binghamton University, New York) |
| Abstract: | This paper adopts a generalized-difference-in-difference (GDD) technique outlined in Ariel R. Belasen and Solomon W. Polachek (IZA Discussion Paper #2976) to examine the impact of hurricanes on the labor market. We find that earnings of the average worker in a Florida county rises over 4% within the first quarter of being hit by a major Category 4 or 5 hurricane relative to counties not hit, and rises about 1¼% for workers in Florida counties hit by less major Category 1-3 hurricanes. Concomitantly, employment falls between 1½ and 5% depending on hurricane strength. On the other hand, the effects of hurricanes on neighboring counties have the opposite effects, moving earnings down between 3 and 4% in the quarter the hurricane struck. To better examine the specific shocks, we also observe sectoral employment shifts. Finally, we conduct a time-series analysis and find that over time, there is somewhat of a cobweb with earnings and employment rising and falling each quarter over a two-year time period. |
| Keywords: | exogenous shock, difference-in-difference estimation, local labor market, earnings, employment, sectoral shifts |
| JEL: | J23 J49 Q54 R11 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3407&r=lab |
| By: | Koskela, Erkki (University of Helsinki); König, Jan (Free University of Berlin) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the following questions associated with outsourcing and profit sharing under imperfect labour markets. How does strategic outsourcing influence wage formation, profit sharing and employee effort when firms commit to optimal profit sharing before wage formation or decide for profit sharing after wage formation? What is the relationship between outsourcing, profit sharing, and equilibrium unemployment when profit sharing is also a part of a compensation scheme in all industries? We find that if firms will decide on profit sharing before the wage formation, higher outsourcing decreases wage whereas profit sharing has an ambiguous effect. Under flexible profit sharing wage is smaller than in the case of committed profit sharing. For equilibrium unemployment, we find that if there is also profit sharing in other industries, the effects of outsourcing and profit sharing on the unemployment rate is ambiguous both in the committed and flexible case. |
| Keywords: | outsourcing, profit sharing, labour market imperfection, employee effort, equilibrium unemployment |
| JEL: | E23 E24 J23 J33 J82 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3413&r=lab |
| By: | Rusinek, Michael (ECARES, Free University of Brussels); Rycx, Francois (Free University of Brussels) |
| Abstract: | In many European countries, the majority of workers have their wages directly defined by industry-level agreements. In addition, for some workers, industry agreements are complemented by firm-specific agreements. Yet, the relative importance of firm and industry agreements (in other words, the degree of centralization) differs drastically across industries. The authors of this paper use unique linked employer-employee data from a 2003 survey in Belgium to examine how these 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:iza:izadps:dp3406&r=lab |
| By: | Sa, Filipa (Bank of England) |
| Abstract: | High levels of employment protection reduce hiring and firing and have a theoretically ambiguous effect on the employment level. Immigrants, being new to the labor market, may be less aware of employment protection regulations and less likely to claim their rights, which may create a gap between the costs for employers of hiring a native relative to hiring an immigrant. This paper tests that hypothesis drawing on evidence for the EU and on two natural experiments for Spain and Italy. The results suggest that strict employment protection legislation (EPL) gives immigrants a comparative advantage relative to natives. Stricter EPL is found to reduce employment and reduce hiring and firing rates for natives. By contrast, stricter EPL has no effect on most immigrants and may even increase employment rates for those who have been in the country for a longer time. |
| Keywords: | employment protection, immigration |
| JEL: | J6 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3414&r=lab |
| By: | Weber, Andrea (University of California, Berkeley) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate two stages in the process that leads to participation in ALMP programs. We use unique administrative data from the Austrian unemployment registers which allow us to distinguish between caseworker assignment and actual program enrollment. Although 25% of newly unemployed workers are assigned to a program, only half of them enroll and participate in the program longer than 5 days. This difference between assignment and enrollment rates cannot be explained by job entries, program cancelations, or rejected program applications alone. Therefore we analyze the influence of observable characteristics on each stage of the participation process. We find that beside policy regulations individual worker incentives play an important role in determining program participation. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, active labor market policy, evaluation |
| JEL: | J24 J68 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3404&r=lab |
| By: | Yosuke Oda (Graduate school of Economics, Osaka university) |
| Abstract: | This article constructs a job-search model in which workerfs ability varies over time; a highability unemployed might lose her skills due to prolonged unemployment whereas a low-ability employed might acquire her skills due to (an implicit) on-the-job training. We numerically show that both pecuniary reward for short-term unemployed and reduction in unemployment benefits leads to lower unemployment rate, however, the former policy does stimulate careerenhancing of long-term unemployed whereas the latter does not. In addition, numerical analysis suggests that mixture of the two policy can lead to higher aggregate welfare than under a sole policy. |
| Keywords: | job-search model; cyclical change in skills; career-enhancing separation |
| JEL: | J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:0809&r=lab |
| By: | Askenazy, Philippe (PSE) |
| Abstract: | France has experienced massive changes in its regulation of working time during the last decade. These changes generate natural experiments that may help to study a variety of issues in labor economics, including work sharing effect on job creation or productivity, labor relations or adaptation of firms to regulation. This paper provides a primer for researchers interested by working on these issues. It includes detailed information about the 35-hour laws and their progressive removal, and discusses the first wave of research evaluating these policies, that draws a contrasted picture. It also highlights some unexplored lines of research. |
| Keywords: | France, 35-hour week, working time, bargaining |
| JEL: | J20 J30 J51 L23 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3402&r=lab |
| By: | Meghir, Costas (University College London); Phillips, David (Institute for Fiscal Studies, London) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we provide an overview of the literature relating labour supply to taxes and welfare benefits with a focus on presenting the empirical consensus. We begin with a basic continuous hours model, where individuals have completely free choice over their hours of work. We then consider fixed costs of work, the complications introduced by the benefits system, dynamic aspects of labour supply and we place the analysis in the context of the family. The key conclusion of this work is that in order to estimate the impact of tax reform and be able to generalise results, a structural approach that takes account of many of these issues is desirable. We then discuss the “new Tax Responsiveness” literature which uses the response of taxable income to the marginal tax rate as a summary statistic of the behavioural response to taxation. Underlying this approach is the unsatisfactory nature of using hours as a proxy for labour effort for those with high levels of autonomy on the job and who already work long hours, such as the self employed or senior executives. After discussing relevant theory we then provide a summary of empirical estimates and the methodology underlying the studies. Our conclusion is that hours of work are relatively inelastic for men, but are a little more responsive for married women and lone mothers. On the other hand, participation is quite sensitive to taxation and benefits for women. Within this paper we present new estimates form a discrete participation model for both married and single men based on the numerous reforms over the past two decades in the UK. We find that the participation of low education men is somewhat more responsive to incentives than previously thought. For men with high levels of education, participation is virtually unresponsive; here the literature on taxable income suggests that there may be significant welfare costs of taxation, although much of this seems to be a result of shifting income and consumption to non-taxable forms as opposed to actual reductions in work effort. |
| Keywords: | labour supply, income taxation, welfare benefits, tax credits, incentive effects |
| JEL: | J22 H24 H31 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3405&r=lab |
| By: | Dittmann, Ingolf (Erasmus School of Economics Rotterdam); Maug, Ernst (Chair for Corporate Finance, University of Mannheim and Sonderforschungsbereich 504); Spalt, Oliver (Chair for Corporate Finance, University of Mannheim and Sonderforschungsbereich 504) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes optimal executive compensation contracts when managers are loss averse. We establish the general optimal contract analytically and parameterize the model using data on compensation contracts for 595 CEOs. Parameters for preferences are based on the experimental literature. Overall, the Loss Aversion-model dominates an equivalent Risk Aversion-model, especially with respect to its ability to predict options as part of the optimal contract. The Loss Aversion-model performs well in terms of predicting observed compensation contracts if the reference wage is assumed to lie not too far above previous year’s fixed wage. Our results suggest that loss aversion is a better paradigm for analyzing design features of stock options and for developing preference-based valuation models than the conventional model used in the literature. |
| Date: | 2007–06–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xrs:sfbmaa:07-36&r=lab |
| By: | Easterlin, Richard A. (University of Southern California) |
| Abstract: | In the transition from socialism to capitalism in Eastern Europe life satisfaction has followed the V-shaped pattern of GDP but failed to recover commensurately. In general, increased satisfaction with material living levels has occurred at the expense of decreased satisfaction with work, health, and family life. Disparities in life satisfaction have increased markedly with those hardest hit being the less educated and persons over age 30; women and men have suffered about equally. The asymmetric response of life satisfaction to decreases in GDP in transition countries and increases in GDP in non-transition countries is arguably due to loss aversion. |
| Keywords: | happiness, transition, capitalism, socialism, loss aversion |
| JEL: | I31 P5 P27 D60 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3409&r=lab |
| By: | Stampini, Marco (African Development Bank); Davis, Benjamin (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) |
| Abstract: | We examine the relationship between participation in non-agricultural labor activities and farming production decisions, focusing on the use of inputs. In particular, we are interested in the hypothesis that income from non-agricultural labor relaxes credit constraints. Using longitudinal data for Vietnam from 1993-98, we find that households participating in non-agricultural labor activities, consistently with our hypothesis, spend significantly more on seeds, services, hired labor and livestock inputs. |
| Keywords: | rural labor markets, linkages, credit constraints, Vietnam |
| JEL: | J43 Q12 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3403&r=lab |
| By: | Carlo Vercellone (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I) |
| Abstract: | In the transition toward a cognitive capitalism, the transformations of the social organisation of production are strictly connected to those of income distribution. This evolution is deeply characterised by the re-emerging of the rent under different forms. The aim of this article is to provide a marxist interpretation of these mutations and their social and economic implications. The analysis is organised in two sections. In the first section we are going to examine the definitions of the categories of wages, rent and profit, and claim that the lines separating rent from profit are flexible and mobile both theoretically and historically. To illustrate this point we rely on suggestions found in Marx's Capital volume III, where he drafts a theory of the becoming-rent of capital that provides new insights into the related theory of the general intellect. In the second section, we will provide a synthetic framework for the interpretation of transformations of the labour-capital relation that led simultaneously to an increase in the power of rent and the collapse of a distinction between rent and profit in the transition from industrial to cognitive capitalism. |
| Keywords: | Income distribution, Wage, Rent, Profit, General intellect, Cognitive capitalism |
| Date: | 2008–02–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00265584_v1&r=lab |
| By: | Gauri Khanna (IUHEI, The Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine the impacts on child health, using diarrhoe as the health outcome (amongst children living in households), with access to different types of water and sanitation facilities, and from other socio-economic and child specific factors. Using cross-sectional health survey data for India, we employ the propensity score method to match children belonging to different treatment groups, defined by water types and sanitation facilities, with children in a control group. We also employ non-matching techniques to compare our results and to check for their robustness. Our results indicate that disease-specific awareness has strong marginal effects on reducing the predicted probabilities of diarrhoeal outcomes in young children, which are consistent across the models utilised. We also find disease-specific awareness to have the largest impact on reducing the burden of disease from diarrhoea across a select group of predictors. |
| Keywords: | Diarrhoea, Water, Sanitation, Propensity Score, Matching Techniques |
| JEL: | I1 D1 C35 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gii:giihei:heiwp02-2008&r=lab |
| By: | Aleksander Berentsen (Department of Economics, University of Basel); Guido Menzio (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania); Randall Wright (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania) |
| Abstract: | We study the long-run relation between money, measured by inflation or interest rates, and unemployment. We first discuss data, documenting a strong positive relation between the variables at low frequencies. We then develop a framework where both money and unemployment are modeled using explicit micro-foundations, integrating and extending recent work in macro and monetary economics, and providing a unified theory to analyze labor and goods markets. We calibrate the model, to ask how monetary factors account quantitatively for low-frequency labor market behavior. The answer depends on two key parameters: the elasticity of money demand, which translates monetary policy to real balances and profits; and the value of leisure, which affects the transmission from profits to entry and employment. For conservative parameterizations, money accounts for some but not that much of trend unemployment — by one measure, about 1/5 of the increase during the stagflation episode of the 70s can be explained by monetary policy alone. For less conservative but still reasonable parameters, money accounts for almost all low-frequency movement in unemployment over the last half century. |
| Keywords: | inflation, unemployment, search |
| JEL: | E24 E52 |
| Date: | 2008–03–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pen:papers:08-012&r=lab |
| By: | Stocké, Volker (Sonderforschungsbereich 504) |
| Abstract: | Several theoretical approaches assume that the motive for status maintenance, that is the desire to avoid intergenerational status downward mobility, explains educational decisions and effects of the families’ social status hereon. Not much is known about whether this assumption is empirically valid, and it is completely an open question which of the parents’ social status provides the reference point when evaluating educational options with respect to their suitability for status maintenance. We utilize data from the Mannheim Educational Panel Study to test whether the beliefs about how likely secondary school degrees ensure the maintenance of the mothers’ and fathers’ status explain the decision between school tracks leading to these degrees in Germany. We compare the explanatory power of altogether nine measures, assuming the reference status to be determined by different models about how the families’ status is mentally represented. Results have shown that the motive for status maintenance exerts in all versions significant effects on educational decisions. However, it proved to be strongest when the fathers’ status was assumed to define success in avoiding intergenerational status demotion. After controlling for the effect of this measure, direct effects of the families’ educational and occupational status were substantially reduced, but not completely explained. |
| Date: | 2007–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xrs:sfbmaa:07-20&r=lab |
| By: | Maug, Ernst (Chair for Corporate Finance, University of Mannheim and Sonderforschungsbereich 504); Dittmann, Ingolf (Erasmus School of Economics Rotterdam) |
| Abstract: | We estimate a standard principal agent model with constant relative risk aversion and lognormal stock prices for a sample of 598 US CEOs. The model is widely used in the compensation literature, but it predicts that almost all of the CEOs in our sample should hold no stock options. Instead, CEOs should have lower base salaries and receive additional shares in their companies. For a typical value of relative risk aversion, almost half of the CEOs in our sample would be required to purchase additional stock in their companies from their private savings. The model predicts contracts that would reduce average compensation costs by 20% while providing the same incentives and the same utility to CEOs. We investigate a number of extensions and modi.cations of the standard model, but .nd none of them to be satisfactory. We conclude that the standard principal agent model typically used in the literature cannot rationalize observed contracts. One reason may be that executive pay contracts are suboptimal. |
| Date: | 2007–06–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xrs:sfbmaa:07-41&r=lab |
| By: | Rode, Julian (Sonderforschungsbereich 504); Le Menestrel, Marc (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) |
| Abstract: | We employ an experimental labour setting to study fairness in the division of gains from productive activity. The focus is on the impact of power structures on allocation decisions and on fairness perceptions. Two types of actors are involved in generating a gain, but only one contributes actively by completing a real-effort task. In three treatments, decision power to divide the gain is assigned (1) to the inactive, (2) jointly to the inactive and the active, and (3) to the active. Results show that the impact of power goes beyond changing final allocations: it also significantly alters fairness perceptions. Decision power - in particular absolute power – mediates and significantly enhances self-serving biases. Results complement studies on the psychology of fairness perceptions. Moreover, the paper discusses implications for organizational design. |
| Date: | 2007–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xrs:sfbmaa:07-71&r=lab |
| By: | Coneus, Katja; Pfeiffer, Friedhelm |
| Abstract: | Self-productivity is a crucial feature in the process of skill formation. It means that skills and health acquired at one stage in the life cycle enhance skills and health formation at later stages. This paper presents an empirical investigation of self-productivity in early childhood in Germany. The data are drawn from the mother-child questionnaire of the German Socio-Economic Panel for the birth cohorts 2002-2005. The magnitude of self-productivity varies between skills and over time. A one percent increase in birth weight increase child’s noncognitive skills by 0.34 percent and child’s health by 0.64 percent at the age of 3-18 months. Until the age of 42 months a one percent increases in child’s noncognitive skills enhances child’s verbal skills by 0.57 percent and child’s everyday skills by 1.04 percent. Furthermore, our estimates suggest synergies between child’s health and child’s noncognitive skills. |
| Keywords: | self-productivity, early childhood, skill formation, birth weight, health |
| JEL: | I20 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:6356&r=lab |
| By: | Börsch-Supan, Axel (Sonderforschungsbereich 504) |
| Abstract: | Disability insurance – the insurance against the loss of the ability to work – is a substantial part of social security expenditures in many countries. The enrolment rates in disability insurance vary strik-ingly across European countries and the US. This paper investigates the extent of, and the causes for, this variation, using data from SHARE, ELSA and HRS. We show that even after controlling for differences in the demographic structure and health status these differences remain. In turn, indicators of disability insurance generosity explain 75% of the cross-national variation. We conclude that country-specific disability insurance rules are a prime can-didate to explain the observed cross-country variation in disability insurance enrolment. |
| Date: | 2007–05–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xrs:sfbmaa:07-23&r=lab |
| By: | Julio Rosa; Pierre Mohnen |
| Abstract: | This study examines whether the transfer of knowledge flows from universities to enterprises in Canada is hampered by the geographical distance that separates them. The transfer of knowledge flows are measured by the amount of R&D payments from business enterprises to universities that are directly reported in Statistics Canada’s survey on Research and Development in Canadian Industry. We use data from the 1997 to 2001 surveys. After controlling for unobserved individual heterogeneity, selection bias as well as for other covariates that could affect the extent of industry-university R&D transactions such as absorptive capacity, foreign control, belonging to the same province, past experience with a given university and other firm and university characteristics, it is found that a 10% increase in distance decreases the proportion of total R&D paid to a university by 1.4 percent for enterprises that do not report any codified transfer of knowledge flow, and by half as much for enterprises that report codified knowledge flows. <P>Cette étude vise à tester si le transfert de connaissance d’une université à une enterprise au Canada est affecté par la distance géographique qui les sépare. Les flux de transfert de connaissance sont mesurés par les montants de R-D payés par les entreprises aux universités, qui sont rapportés dans les enquêtes “Recherche et développement dans l’industrie canadienne” menées par Statistique Canada. Nous utilisons les enquêtes se rapportant aux années 1997 à 2001. Après avoir contrôlé pour l’hétérogénéité individuelle inobservable, le biais de sélection, et des facteurs observables qui peuvent influencer le montant de transactions de recherche entre universités et entreprises, tels que la capacité d’absorption des entreprises, l’appartenance à une même province, l’existence de transactions passées entre les partenaires, et d’autres caratéristiques propres aux entreprises et aux universités, nous trouvons que pour toute augmentation de 10 % de la distance qui sépare une université et une entreprise, le flux de transfert de connaissance se réduit de 1,4 % pour les entreprises qui ont des flux de transfert codifiés de connaissance et de 0,07 % pour celles qui n’ont que des flux de transfert tacites. |
| Keywords: | knowledge transfer, university/enterprise, codified/tacit, spatial proximity., transfert de connaissance, entreprise/université, proximité spatiale, connaissance tacite/codifiée. |
| JEL: | O3 |
| Date: | 2008–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2008s-09&r=lab |
| By: | Bönke, Timm; Schröder, Carsten; Schulte, Katharina |
| Abstract: | We employ German Sample Survey Income data to examine income inequality and the financial situation of elderly citizens for the period from 1978 to 2003, focussing on differences between retired and non-retired elderly and between elderly with residence in the Old and the New German Laender. Inter-temporal changes in income inequality are also decomposed by income sources. To our knowledge, this is the first study that provides comparable and detailed longitudinal income statistics for the German elderly. We find some remarkable inter-temporal patterns. First, the financial situation of the elderly has improved substantially over time. This is true especially for the New Laender, although elderly with residence in the Old Laender remain financially privileged. Within the same age cohort, we also find that non-retired, on average, are financially better-off compared to retired elderly. For reunified Germany, inequality is astonishingly stable over time, but rises significantly since 1993 in the New German Laender. |
| Keywords: | Pensioner, Inequality, Inequality Decomposition, German Sample Survey Income data |
| JEL: | D31 H31 H55 J14 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cauewp:7113&r=lab |
| By: | Jimenez, Emmanuel; Patrinos, Harry Anthony |
| Abstract: | Cost-benefit analysis in education is an important tool in the economists ' arsenal. However, it is essential that research, especially on the social benefits of education, make further progress to make cost-benefit more analysis. There is a need for more research on the effects of policy interventions on outcomes beyond access to a year in school and what they earn as a result, such as on what children actually learn. Such research should focus on en suring that the interventions are attributable to outcomes. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to go through the discipline of noting the benefits and costs, even if social rates of return cannot be calculated robustly. |
| Keywords: | Education For All,Primary Education,,Teaching and Learning,Access & Equity in Basic Education |
| Date: | 2008–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4568&r=lab |
| By: | Lewis, Maureen; Lockheed, Marlaine |
| Abstract: | Despite a sharp increase in the share of girls who enroll in, attend, and complete various levels of schooling, an educational gender gap remains in some countries. This paper argues that one explanation for this gender gap is the degree of social exclusion within these countries, as indicated by ethno-linguistic heterogeneity, which triggers both economic and psycho-social mechanisms to limit girls ' schooling. Ethno-linguistic heterogeneity initially was applied to explaining lagging economic growth, but has emerged in the literature more recently to explain both civil conflict and public goods. This paper is a first application of the concept to explain gender gaps in education. The paper discusses the importance of female education for economic and social development, reviews the evidence regarding gender and ethnic differences in schooling, reviews the theoretical perspectives of various social science disciplines that seek to explain such differences, and tests the relevance of ethnic and linguistic heterogeneity in explaining cross-country differences in school attainment and learning. The study indicates that within-country ethnic and linguistic heterogeneity partly explains both national female primary school completion rates and gender differences in these rates, but only explains average national learning outcomes when national income measures are excluded. |
| Keywords: | Primary Education,Education For All,Gender and Education,Population Policies,Disability |
| Date: | 2008–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4562&r=lab |