|
on Labour Economics |
| By: | Brücker, Herbert (IAB, Nürnberg); Jahn, Elke J. (Aarhus School of Business) |
| Abstract: | Based on a wage curve approach we examine the labor market effects of migration in Germany. The wage curve relies on the assumption that wages respond to a change in the unemployment rate, albeit imperfectly. This allows one to derive the wage and employment effects of migration simultaneously in a general equilibrium framework. For the empirical analysis we employ the IABS, a two percent sample of the German labor force. We find that the elasticity of the wage curve is particularly high for young workers and workers with a university degree, while it is low for older workers and workers with a vocational degree. The wage and employment effects of migration are moderate: a 1 percent increase in the German labor force through immigration increases the aggregate unemployment rate by less than 0.1 percentage points and reduces average wages by less 0.1 percent. While native workers benefit from increased wages and lower unemployment, foreign workers are adversely affected. |
| Keywords: | migration, wage curve, labor demand, panel data |
| JEL: | F22 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3423&r=lab |
| By: | Ari Hyytinen; Petri Rouvinen |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT : We examine how those re-entering paid-employment after a brief self-employment spell fare upon return using data from the European Community Household Panel. Unconditionally, those re-entering paid-employment appear to have considerably lower wages than those staying in the wage sector. This difference appears to be larger in Europe than in the US. Conditional analysis suggests, however, that the difference is more apparent than real : It seems that Europeans select negatively into (and possibly out-of) self-employment, i.e., the likelihood of entering (and exiting) entrepreneurship correlates negatively with unobserved ability and/or in-paid-employment productivity. Our analysis of non-wage outcomes indicates that the selection is mostly involuntary and that for highly educated men, the brief self-employment spells are unemployment in disguise. |
| Keywords: | self-employment, job mobility, earnings, wage differentials, selection |
| JEL: | J23 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2008–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1129&r=lab |
| By: | Ozturk, Orgul |
| Abstract: | This paper structurally models and estimates the employment effects of minimum wages in inflexible labor markets with fixed employment costs. When there are fixed costs associated with employment, minimum wage regulation not only results in a reduction in employment among low productivity workers but also shifts the distribution of hours for the available jobs in the market, resulting in scarcity of part-time jobs. Thus, for sufficiently high employment costs, a minimum wage makes it less likely for "marginal" workers to enter and stay in the labor market and has important employment effects. I estimate the model using survey data from Turkey. I find significant reduction in employment due to the loss of part time jobs caused by the national minimum wage policy in this highly inflexible labor market. |
| JEL: | E2 J3 J2 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:8016&r=lab |
| By: | Hipolito , Simon |
| Abstract: | Using unique international harmonized matched employer-employee microdata from the European Structure of Earnings Survey for nine representative European countries, this comparative study examines the origin of international differences in wage inequality. Our novel evidence uncovers that global wage inequality is highly correlated with the magnitude of inter-firm wage differentials and that workplace- and job-related factors generally have a more significant impact on within-country wage inequality than individual characteristics. On the whole, European countries exhibit considerably different wage structures: they differ significantly not only in the extent of wage inequality but also in the relative influence of factors shaping wage inequality. Comparative analyses reveal that although cross-country differences in labour force composition play a part in the explanation, differences in distribution and, very specially, in labour market prices of workplace and job characteristics are primary reasons contributing to international differences in wage inequality. |
| Keywords: | Wage inequality; matched employer-employee data. |
| JEL: | J31 J30 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7932&r=lab |
| By: | Dohmen, Thomas (ROA, Maastricht University); Lehmann, Hartmut (University of Bologna); Zaiceva, Anzelika (IZA) |
| Abstract: | Using unique personnel data from one Russian firm for the years 1997 to 2002 we study the size, development and determinants of the gender earnings gap in an internal labor market during late transition. The gap is sizable but declines strongly over the entire period. Gender earnings differentials are largest for production workers who constitute the largest employee group in the firm. Various decompositions show that these differentials and their dynamics remain largely unexplained by observable characteristics at the mean and across the wage distribution. Our analysis also reveals that the earnings differentials for production workers largely stem from job assignment, as women are predominately assigned to lower paid jobs. Earnings gaps within job levels are small and almost fully explained by observed characteristics. |
| Keywords: | gender earnings gap, personnel data, internal labor market, Russia |
| JEL: | J16 M52 P23 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3428&r=lab |
| By: | Dekker, Ronald |
| Abstract: | Unemployment durations are determined by a number of factors. According to mainstream economics theory, unemployment durations are shorter in a more flexible labour market. In this paper, we hypothesize that workers who had a temporary contract before the spell of unemployment will experience shorter spells of unemployment than workers who had a permanent contract before. We adopt a flexible hazard rate model with a nonparametric baseline to analyse data on unemployment spells in Germany and Great Britain for the period 1991-2001. The two datasets allow for an international comparison of the institutional differences between the two countries. We find no evidence of shorter unemployment spells for previous temporary workers neither in Great-Britain nor in Germany. Results suggest that a labour market policy of promoting temporary work will not necessarily lead to lower unemployment since these policies increase the probability of becoming unemployed without being able to fulfil the promise of shorter unemployment spells. |
| Keywords: | unemployment duration; temporary employment; job search model; nonparametric hazard model; Great-Britain; Germany |
| JEL: | C41 J41 C14 J64 |
| Date: | 2008–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7646&r=lab |
| By: | Özlem Onaran (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics & B.A.) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the effects of outward Foreign Direct Investment (employment in the affiliates abroad) on employment, wages, and the wage share in Austria using panel data for the period of 1996-2005. There is evidence of significant negative effects of FDI on both employment and wages, and consequently on the wage share. The results are not limited to workers in low skilled sectors or blue collar workers. The negative employment effect is primarily due to the rise in the employment in the foreign affiliates in Eastern Euope. The negative wage effects are originating from affiliate employment in both the East and the developed countries in industry, but no effect is found in the total economy. |
| JEL: | F16 J23 J30 O52 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp118&r=lab |
| By: | Bargain, Olivier (University College Dublin); Melly, Blaise (University of St. Gallen) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the public wage gap in France for the period 1990-2002, both at the mean and at different quantiles of the wage distribution, for men and women separately. We account for unobserved heterogeneity by using fixed effects estimations on panel data and, departing from usual practice, allow the public wage markup to vary over time. We also provide one of the very first applications of fixed effects quantile regressions. Contrary to common belief, results convey that monetary returns are not fundamentally different in the public sector. Firstly, public wage ‘premia’ (for women) or ‘penalties’ (for men) are essentially the result of selection. After controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, only small pay differences between sectors remain over time, reflecting fluctuations due to specific public policies and to the pro-cyclicality of private sector wages. The long-term difference is essentially zero. Secondly, the relative compression of the wage distribution by the public sector is also partly due to unobserved characteristics. The most natural explanation for these results is that the civil sector manages to attract better workers in the lower part of the distribution, in part because of non-monetary gains (including job protection), but fails to retain the most productive ones at the top. |
| Keywords: | wage gap, public sector, selection, fixed effects, quantile regression |
| JEL: | C13 C14 C21 J31 J45 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3427&r=lab |
| By: | Dileni Gunewardena; Darshi Abeyrathna; Amalie Ellagala; Kamani Rajakaruna; Shobana Rajendran |
| Abstract: | Recently developed counterfactual techniques that combine quantile regression with a bootstrap approach allow for the interpretation of lower quantiles of the "simulated unconditional wage distribution" as if they related to poor people. We use this approach to analyse gender wage gaps across the wage distribution in Sri Lanka using quarterly labour force data from 1996 to 2004. Male and female wages are equal at the overall mean, but differ greatly between public and private sectors and across the wage distribution. We find that differences in the way identical men and women are rewarded in the labour market more than account for the difference in wages throughout the distribution. We find evidence of wider wage gaps at the bottom of the distribution in both sectors (indicative of "sticky floors"), but little evidence of larger gaps at the top of the distribution ("glass ceiligs"). Conditional wage gaps increase when controls for occupation, industry and part-time employment status are included, consistent with females selecting into occupations that better reward their characteristics. Policies that address gender bias in wage setting - especially in the low and unskilled occupations - are indicated, while policies that address gender bias in hiring and in workplace practices are likely to be more appropriate than policies that seek to improve womens' productivity-enhancing characteristics in reducing the gender wage gap. |
| Keywords: | Gender gap, glass ceilings, sticky floors, quantile regression, public sector |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J71 J40 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:pmmacr:2008-04&r=lab |
| By: | Ecobici, N; Paliu-Popa, L |
| Abstract: | In Romania the government tried to stimulate the employment trough active measures since 2002. Therefore, there are two types of measures: one that attempts to increase the chances of employment of the persons that are looking to work. These measures include the following: job-matching services, information and counselling services, organizing vocational training courses, benefits granting to the unemployed who take up employment before the end of the period of entitlement to the unemployment benefit, the stimulation of the labour force mobility. The other one is destined to stimulate employment of the unemployed (unemployed over 45 years or single providers for the monoparental family, unemployed who are three years away from pension, graduates, disabled persons) and create new jobs through granting loans to SME’s for new jobs creation. In fact, the paper is a guide of the active measures used to employment in Romania. In the end, we present the impact of those measures calculated for Gorj County till December 2006. |
| Keywords: | employment; active measures; job-matching services; information and counselling services; organizing vocational training courses; benefits granting to the unemployed; force mobility |
| JEL: | E2 O17 J21 P48 E26 J23 |
| Date: | 2007–04–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:8043&r=lab |
| By: | Erling Barth, Bernt Bratsberg, Torbjørn Hægeland and Oddbjørn Raaum (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of performance-related pay on wage differentials within firms. Our theoretical framework predicts that, compared to a fixed pay system, pay schemes based on individual effort increase within-firm wage inequality, while group-based bonuses have minor effects on wage dispersion. Theory also predicts an interaction between performance-related pay and union bargaining, where union power reduces the impact of performance pay on wage dispersion. The empirical contribution utilizes two recent Norwegian employer surveys, linked to a full set of employee records. A longitudinal sub-sample allows for identification based on fixed establishment effects. Introduction of performance-related pay is shown to raise residual wage inequality in nonunion firms, but not in firms with high union density. Our findings suggest that even though performance-related pay appears to be on the rise, the overall impact on wage dispersion is likely to be small, particularly in European countries with strong unions. |
| Keywords: | Performance related pay; wage inequality; union bargaining |
| JEL: | J31 J33 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:535&r=lab |
| By: | Heyman, Fredrik (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Svaleryd, Helena (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Vlachos, Jonas (Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | Theories of taste-based discrimination predict that competitive pressures will drive discriminatory behavior out of the market. Using detailed matched employer-employee data, we analyze how firm takeovers and product market competition are related to the gender composition of the firm’s workforce and the gender wage gap. Using a difference-in-difference framework and dealing with several endogeneity concerns, we find that the share of female employees increases as a result of an ownership change, in particular when product market competition is weak. Further, increased competition reduces the gender wage gap, especially among highly educated employees. While the estimated wage effect is quite small, the results support the main theoretical predictions. |
| Keywords: | Discrimination; Competition; Takeovers; Wages |
| JEL: | J20 J31 J70 |
| Date: | 2008–02–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0734&r=lab |
| By: | Jonasson, Erik (Department of Economics, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | Several paths out of rural poverty have been discussed in the literature on rural development. One of these is rural non-agricultural employment (RNAE), which is receiving growing attention due to its increasing share of rural household income and its seemingly better earnings potential than agriculture. A household model with a dualistic rural labour market is proposed in this paper to account for potential earnings differentials between agricultural and non-agricultural employment and assessed empirically for the case of Peru. Based on the Peruvian Living Standard Measurement Survey of 1994, the empirical findings suggest that there is an earnings premium ranging between 30 and 50 per cent of rural non-agricultural employment compared to agricultural employment. Lack of education does not seem to constitute an entry barrier to the RNA labour market. For positive returns to education, however, non-agricultural employment appears to be a prerequisite in rural Peru. Labour market segmentation combined with unobserved characteristics is likely to explain the earnings differential. |
| Keywords: | non-agricultural employment; income diversification; wage differentials; Peru; Latin America |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J43 O12 R23 |
| Date: | 2008–02–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2008_007&r=lab |
| By: | Dekker, Ronald |
| Abstract: | This paper uses 11 years of data from household panel data sets for the Netherlands, Germany and Great-Britain to investigate part-time employment and the role of institutions and preferences on transitions from part-time into full-time employment or into other employment statuses. The behavioural choice model distinguishes four labour market states: short hours part-time employment, long hours part-time employment, full-time employment and nonparticipation. This dynamic model is estimated with a multinomial logit model. Results from the estimates are interpreted against the background of the institutional differences between the three countries. In particular we look at the role of stated preferences on the number of working hours on the transition patterns of individual workers. Results indicate that both the Netherlands and Great-Britain as welfare states are more capable of facilitating workers to end up in their preferred hours bracket than Germany is. |
| Keywords: | part-time employment; labour supply; stated preferences |
| JEL: | J62 C23 J22 C25 |
| Date: | 2008–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:8029&r=lab |
| By: | Sylvie Démurger; Marc Gurgand; Li Shi; Yue Ximing |
| Abstract: | In urban China, urban resident annual earnings are 1.3 times larger than long term rural migrant earnings as observed in a nationally representative sample in 2002. Using microsimulation, we decompose this difference into four sources, with particular attention to path dependence and statistical distribution of the estimated effects: (1) different allocation to sectors that pay different wages (sectoral effect); (2) hourly wage disparities across the two populations within sectors (wage effect); (3) different working times within sectors (hours effect); (4) different population structures (population effect). Although sector allocation is extremely contrasted, with very few migrants in the public sector and very few urban residents working as self-employed, this has no clear impact on differential earnings. Indeed, the sectoral effect is not robust to the path followed for the decomposition. We show that the migrant population has a comparative advantage in the private sector: increasing its participation into the public sector would not necessarily improve its average earnings. The second main finding is that the population effect is robust and significantly more important than wage or hours effects. This implies that the main source of disparity between the two populations is pre-market (education opportunities) rather than on-market. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pse:psecon:2008-20&r=lab |
| By: | Mosca, Michele (University of Naples, Federico II); Pastore, Francesco (University of Naples II) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a unique data set containing detailed micro-information on organisations, managers, workers and volunteers belonging to public, private forprofit and private nonprofit institutions delivering social services in Italy. The analysis aims to estimate the determinants of wages across organisations at a sector level focusing on the role of hiring and job search methods, including informal networks. We find that, independent of the organisation type, being hired through public competitions brings with it a substantial wage premium (ranging from 7 to 32%). Informal networks bring with them a wage penalty (-6.5%) in the state sector, where formal hiring methods are common, and a wage premium (6.3%) in social cooperatives and religious institutions, where formal hiring methods are not common. Interestingly, the differences in hiring and in job search methods between state and private organisations explain from 50% to 100% of the conditional wage differentials across organisation types. Our interpretation of these findings is that nonprofit organisations prefer informal recruitment methods not for nepotistic reasons, but to better select the most motivated workers, those who share the nonprofit mission. This paper adds to the previous literature by suggesting that in addition to lower than average monetary compensations, informal recruitment methods are part of the process of self-selection of motivated workers in nonprofit organisations. |
| Keywords: | informal networks, social services, earnings functions, nonprofit organisations, Italy |
| JEL: | I11 J31 J41 L31 L33 L84 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3422&r=lab |
| By: | Longhi, Simonetta (ISER, University of Essex); Nijkamp, Peter (Free University of Amsterdam); Poot, Jacques (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | The increasing proportion of immigrants in the population of many countries has raised concerns about the ‘absorption capacity’ of the labour market, and fuelled extensive empirical research in countries that attract migrants. In previous papers we synthesized the conclusions of this empirical literature by means of meta-analyses of the impact of immigration on wages and employment of native-born workers. While we have shown that the labour market impacts in terms of wages and employment are rather small, the sample of studies available to generate comparable effect sizes was severely limited by the heterogeneity in study approaches. In the present paper, we take an encompassing approach and consider a broad range of labour market outcomes: wages, employment, unemployment and labour force participation. We compare 45 primary studies published between 1982 and 2007 for a total of 1,572 effect sizes. We trichotomise the various labour market outcomes as benefiting, harming or not affecting the native born, and use an ordered probit model to assess the relationship between this observed impact and key study characteristics such as type of country, methodology, period of investigation and type of migrant. |
| Keywords: | immigration, labour market, factor substitution, comparative research, meta-analysis |
| JEL: | C51 F22 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3418&r=lab |
| By: | García-Gómeza, P; Jones, A.M; Rice, N |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the role of health on exits out of and entries into employment using data from the first twelve waves of the British Household Panel Survey (1991-2002). We use discretetime duration models to estimate the effect of health on the hazard of becoming non-employed and on the hazard of becoming employed. The results show that general health, measured by a variable that captures health limitations and by a constructed latent health index, affects entries into and exits out of employment; the effects being higher for men than for women. Moreover, results suggest that changes in mental health status influences only the hazard of nonemployment for the stock sample of workers. The results are robust to different definitions of employment, and to the exclusion of older workers from the analysis. |
| Keywords: | health, health shocks, discrete-time hazard models, employment, BHPS |
| JEL: | I1 C41 J60 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:08/03&r=lab |
| By: | barua, rashmi |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I propose a new framework to study the intertemporal labor supply hypothesis. I use an exogenous source of variation in maternal net earning opportunities, generated through school entrance age of children, to study intertemporal labor supply behavior. Employing data from the 1980 US Census and the NLSY, I estimate the effect of a one year delay in school attendance on long run maternal labor supply. To deal with the endogeneity of school attendance age, I exploit the variation in child month of birth and state kindergarten entrance age laws. IV estimates imply that having a 5 year old enrolled in school increases labor supply measures for married women, with no younger children, by between 7 to 34 percent. In contrast to the results for married mothers, I do not find any statistically significant effect on labor market outcomes for single mothers or mothers of 5 year olds with additional younger children. Further, using a sample of 7 to 10 year olds from the NLSY, I investigate persistence in employment outcomes for a married mother whose child delayed school entry. The estimates suggest that delayed school enrollment has long run implications for maternal labor supply. Results point towards significant intertemporal substitution in labor supply. Rough calculations yield an uncompensated wage elasticity of 0.76 and an intertemporal elasticity of substitution equal to 1.1. |
| Keywords: | Maternal labor supply; Kindergarten entry age; intertemporal substitution |
| JEL: | I20 J22 J20 |
| Date: | 2008–05–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7923&r=lab |
| By: | Badi H. Baltagi (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244-1020); Uwe Blien; Katja Wolf |
| Abstract: | Blanchflower and Oswald (1994) reported that they have found an 'empirical law of economics'--the Wage Curve. Our paper reconsiders the western German Wage Curve using disaggregated regional data and is based on almost one million employees drawn from the Federal Employment Services of Germany over the eriod 1980-2004. We find that the wage equation is highly autoregressive but far from unit root. The unemployment elasticity is significant but relatively small: only between -0.02 and -0.04. We also check the sensitivity of this elasticity for different population groups (young versus old, men versus women, less educated versus highly educated, German native versus foreigner), confirming that it is stronger the weaker the bargaining power of the particular group. |
| Keywords: | Wage curve, regional labor markets, Phillips curve, panel data |
| JEL: | J30 C23 R10 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:max:cprwps:103&r=lab |
| By: | S. Longhi (University of Essex); P. Nijkamp (VU University Amsterdam); J. Poot (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | The increasing proportion of immigrants in the population of many countries has raised concerns about the ‘absorption capacity’ of the labour market, and fuelled extensive empirical research in countries that attract migrants. In previous papers we synthesized the conclusions of this empirical literature by means of meta-analyses of the impact of immigration on wages and employment of native-born workers. While we have shown that the labour market impacts in terms of wages and employment are rather small, the sample of studies available to generate comparable effect sizes was severely limited by the heterogeneity in study approaches. In the present paper, we take an encompassing approach and consider a broad range of labour market outcomes: wages, employment, unemployment and labour force participation. We compare 45 primary studies published between 1982 and 2007 for a total of 1,572 effect sizes. We trichotomise the various labour market outcomes as benefiting, harming or not affecting the native born, and use an ordered probit model to assess the relationship between this observed impact and key study characteristics such as type of country, methodology, period of investigation and type of migrant. |
| Keywords: | immigration, labour market, factor substitution, comparative research, meta-analysis |
| JEL: | C51 F22 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2008–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:pscdps:dp-67&r=lab |
| By: | Andrew E. Clark; Nathalie Colombier; David Masclet |
| Abstract: | Previous empirical work has shown that the self-employed are generally more satisfied than salaried workers. This paper contributes to the existing literature in two ways. First, using French data from the ECHP and British data from the BHPS, we investigate the domains over which this differential operates. We show that, after controlling for occupation, self-employed workers are generally more satisfied with working conditions and pay, but less satisfied than employees with respect to job security. We then consider the differences between the first- and second-generation self-employed. The first-generation self-employed (those whose parents were not self-employed) are more satisfied overall than are the second-generation self-employed. We argue that this finding is consistent with the self-employed partly comparing their labor market outcomes with those of their parents, as well as parental transfers which loosen the self-employment participation constraint. This result is found in both pooled and panel analysis. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pse:psecon:2008-14&r=lab |
| By: | Colin Green; Gareth Leeves; P Kler |
| Abstract: | There has been concern that the increase in non-standard or flexible employment contracts witnessed in many OECD economies is evidence of a growth in low-pay, low-quality jobs. In practice, however, it is difficult to evaluate the `quality' of flexible jobs. Previous research has either investigated objective measures of job quality such as wages and training or subjective measures such as job satisfaction. In this paper, we seek to jointly evaluate objective and subjective elements of flexible employment contracts. Specifically we develop and use an index of job quality that incorporates both subjective and objective elements. Analysis of this index demonstrates that flexible jobs are of a lower quality. However, this approach suggests that analysis of, for instance, job satisfaction alone overstates the negative impact of flexible contracts on workers. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:005350&r=lab |
| By: | Danilo Cavapozzi (University of Padova) |
| Abstract: | This empirical analysis investigates how the labor supply dynamics of married workers aged 46-65 is influenced by their own health conditions and by those of their cohabiting partners. Exploiting the information conveyed by the European Community Household Panel (1995-2001), our econometric specifications focus on the transition towards not employment within the next year and use alternative health indicators to describe the overall physical and mental conditions of couple members. We also control for partners labor supply because of its close relationship with their own health and the well-documented coordination with the labor market position of the other couple member. Our results show that while healthier individuals present higher chances of remaining at work in the future, living with healthier spouses affects positively the likelihood of ceasing from work. Finally, when the spouse is employed, the probability of keeping on working is estimated to rise. This last result upholds the hypothesis, suggested by the literature, that couple members prefer to spend their time in the same employment status. |
| Keywords: | Labor supply, health, married workers |
| JEL: | J26 J14 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pad:wpaper:0073&r=lab |
| By: | Francesco Serti; Chiara Tomasi Author-Name : Antonello Zanfei |
| Abstract: | How do trade activities affect firms' employment and wages structures? Using firm level data on Italian manufacturing firms, this paper adds to the existing literature, by assessing how the degree of involvement in international trade impacts on workforce composition, earning levels and wage inequality. We differentiate firms involved in both trading activities - namely two-way traders - from firms that only export, and from those that only import. We show that two-way traders have a higher propensity to employ non-production workers, exhibit significant wage gaps, but also pay higher wages for both production and non production workers, relative to non international- ized firms and to firms which are involved only in either export or import. The paper also looks at how the wages and the skill structure of the trading firms change with the country of destination and origin and with the firms' sectoral and geographical diversification. |
| Keywords: | heterogeneous firms; exports; imports; wage inequality; skills |
| Date: | 2008–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2008/05&r=lab |
| By: | Kahanec, Martin (IZA); Zaiceva, Anzelika (IZA) |
| Abstract: | The starkly different histories and institutions in the eastern and western member states of the European Union (EU) suggest different roles of being non-native in these two regions. In this paper we study the roles of foreign origin and citizenship in the comparative East-West perspective. Our results indicate that while it is immigrant status that is of key importance in the western EU member states, both immigrant status and citizenship matter in the eastern EU member states, their roles depending on gender. We find some evidence that it is the Russian ethnic minority in Estonia and Latvia that drives the relationships between being non-citizen and labor market outcomes that we find in the eastern EU member states. |
| Keywords: | immigrant, citizenship, earnings, employment, labor market, Eastern Europe |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J61 J71 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3420&r=lab |
| By: | Emilia Del Bono; Andrea Weber; Rudolf Winter-Ebmer |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate how fertility decisions respond to unexpected career interruptions which occur as a consequence of job displacement. Using an event study approach we compare the birth rates of displaced women with those of women unaffected by job loss after establishing the pre-displacement comparability of these groups. Our results reveal that job displacement reduces average fertility by 5 to 10% in both the short and medium term (3 and 6 years) and that these effects are largely explained by the response of white collar women.Using an instrumental variable approach we provide evidence that the reduction in fertility is not due to the income loss generated by unemployment but arises because displaced workers undergo a career interruption. These results are interpreted in the light of a model in which the rate of human capital accumulation slows down after the birth of a child and all specific human capital is destroyed upon job loss. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, unemployment, plant closings, human capital |
| JEL: | J13 J64 J65 J24 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0039&r=lab |
| By: | Buhai, Sebastian (Department of Economics, Aarhus School of Business); Portela, Miguel (University of Minho); Teulings, Coen (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Analysis); van Vuuren, Aico (Free University) |
| Abstract: | This study documents two empirical regularities, using data for Denmark and Portugal. First, workers who are hired last, are the first to leave the firm (Last In, First Out; LIFO). Second, workers' wages rise with seniority (= a worker's tenure relative to the tenure of her colleagues). We seek to explain these regularities by developing a dynamic model of the firm with stochastic product demand and hiring cost (= irreversible specific investments). There is wage bargaining between a worker and its firm. Separations (quits or layoffs) obey the LIFO rule and bargaining is efficient (a zero surplus at the moment of separation). The LIFO rule provides a stronger bargaining position for senior workers, leading to a return to seniority in wages. Efficiency in hiring requires the workers’bargaining power to be in line with their share in the cost of specific investment. Then, the LIFO rule is a way to protect their property right on the specific investment. We consider the e¤ects of Employment Protection Legislation and risk aversion. |
| Keywords: | irreversible investment; efficient bargaining; seniority; LIFO |
| JEL: | J31 J41 J63 |
| Date: | 2008–01–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:aareco:2008_001&r=lab |
| By: | Stephan, Gesine (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Zickert, Kathi (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "Between 2005 and 2007 the German government raised a per-capita amount of around 10.000 Euros for each transition out of unemployment benefit receipt into basic social care, to be paid by the unemployment insurance. The so called 'Aussteuerungsbetrag' set strong incentives that investments in active labor market programs for unemployment benefit recipients should pay off - in terms of an exit from registered unemployment - before a transition into basic social care for needy jobseekers occurred. This raised considerable public concerns that less programs would be granted, in particular for hard-to-place workers. Our paper analyzes if these concerns were justified. We compare four cohorts, eligible for unemployment benefits at the beginning of their unemployment spell during March of the years 2003 to 2006. We conduct some descriptive analyses and estimate piecewise constant exponential hazard models to investigate the correlation between individual characteristics and transition rates into programs. The results show that transition rates into programs were in fact low across the 2005 cohort, but rather high for the 2006 cohort. The expectation that particular disadvantaged groups of unemployed would participate less in active labor market programs in the postreform period is not confirmed; their transition rates into programs were significantly higher across the 2006 cohort than in pre-reform cohorts." (author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | arbeitsmarktpolitische Maßnahme - Zu- und Abgänge, Hartz-Reform - Erfolgskontrolle, Aussteuerungsbetrag - Auswirkungen, Teilnehmerstruktur, Arbeitslose, schwervermittelbare Arbeitslose |
| JEL: | J64 J68 J65 |
| Date: | 2008–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:200815&r=lab |
| By: | Kam Leong Szeto; Simon McLoughlin (The Treasury) |
| Abstract: | The composition of the New Zealand workforce has changed considerably over the past two decades. Qualification levels have risen, labour force participation has trended upwards for women, immigrants have increasingly been sourced from Asia, and the large baby-boom cohort has contributed to an ageing of the workforce. The question is whether such compositional changes have affected the quality of labour. Our estimates show a large rise in labour quality since 1988 as a result of increasing qualification levels, particularly at university degree level. With age as a proxy for work experience, an ageing of the workforce also contributed to rising labour quality. The annual rise in labour quality averaged 0.6% from 1988 to 2005, which was comparable to the experience of Australia, the United States and the euro area. Although labour quality rose in every year of our sample period, the rise was not constant over time. The increase was much stronger in the first half of the period (1988 to 1997) than in the second half (1997 to 2005). By drawing a large number of lower-skilled people into work, the strength of recent employment growth may have dampened growth in labour quality. Accounting for changes in labour quality has implications for labour productivity. Almost half of labour productivity growth of 1.4% per annum since 1988 can be attributed to the rise in labour quality. Labour productivity measured as output per quality-adjusted working hour rose by 0.8% per annum on average from 1988 to 2005, with annual growth of 0.5% in the first half of the period and 1.1% in the second half. |
| Keywords: | Labour Quality; Human Capital; Wage Differentials; Labour Productivity |
| JEL: | J21 J24 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nzt:nztwps:08/01&r=lab |
| By: | Orazio Attanasio; Adriana Kugler; Costas Meghir |
| Abstract: | Youth unemployment in Latin America is exceptionally high, as much as 50% among the poor. Vocational training may be the best chance to help unemployed young people at the bottom of the income distribution. This paper evaluates the impact of a randomized training program for disadvantaged youth introduced in Colombia in 2005 on the employment and earnings of trainees. This is one of a couple of randomized training trials conducted in developing countries and, thus, offers a unique opportunity to examine the causal impact of training in a developing country context. We use originally collected data on individuals randomly offered and not offered training. We find that the program raises earnings and employment for both men and women, with larger effects on women. Women offered training earn about 18% more than those not offered training, while men offered training earn about 8% more than men not offered training. Much of the earnings increases for both men and women are related to increased employment in formal sector jobs following training. The benefits of training are greater when individuals spend more time doing on-the-job training, while hours of training in the classroom have no impact on the returns to training. Cost-benefit analysis of these results suggests that the program generates a large net gain, especially for women. |
| JEL: | C21 I38 J24 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13931&r=lab |
| By: | Daniel F. Heuermann (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the EC, University of Trier) |
| Abstract: | The paper sheds light on the impact of spatial agglomeration of human capital on individual wages in Western Germany. Using panel data it shows that regional wage differentials are to a large extent attributable to localized human capital externalities arising from the regional share of highly qualified workers. Employing the regional number of public schools and of students as instrumental variables the paper shows that human capital externalities are underestimated in ordinary panel regressions for wages of highly qualified and non-highly qualified workers alike due to supply shifts of highly qualified workers. An analysis by sector reveals that human capital externalities are more pronounced in manufacturing than in the service sector. We find indication that highly qualified workers benefit from intra-industry knowledge spillovers, while non-highly qualified workers profit from pecuniary externalities between industries. Our findings are stable among a variety of indicators of regional human capital and robust to the inclusion of other sources of increasing returns, as well as wage curve, price level, and amenity effects. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital Externalities, Agglomeration, Urban Wage Premium |
| JEL: | D62 D83 J24 J31 O15 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iaa:wpaper:200801&r=lab |
| By: | Mendez, Ildefonso |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the first joint evaluation of the two major labour market reforms implemented in Spain to foster permanent employment in 1994 and 1997. The 1994 reform restored the principle of causality in the application of temporary contracts and the 1997 reform introduced a new permanent contract figure with lower payroll taxes and dismissal costs than the ordinary one. To evaluate these non-targeted treatments I present a family of semiparametric estimators that predict the outcome that would have been observed in the absence of a treatment by exploiting the time series variation of the outcome in the pre-treatment period. Alternative counterfactuals are also explored by means of conventional between-groups estimators. Estimates using the Spanish Labour Force Survey indicate that employers did not change their contract conversion practices in response to either the 1994 nor the 1997 reforms. The 1997 reform succeed in increasing unemployment to permanent employment transition probabilities for most groups of unemployed workers, including the middle-aged. This result rejects the natural experiment research design implemented in existing papers analyzing the effects of the 1997 reform. |
| Keywords: | Temporary employment; permanent employment; dismissal costs; payroll taxes |
| JEL: | J63 J32 J38 J65 J23 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7933&r=lab |
| By: | David Black (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne and Brotherhood of St Laurence); Yi-Ping Tseng; Roger Wilkins (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the nature and sources of the decline in the level of employment of working age males in Australia in recent decades, drawing on both Australian Bureau of Statistics labour force survey data and census data. Alternative measures of the male employment rate are considered before settling on two complementary measures: the full-time employment rate and the full-time equivalent employment rate. The latter measure weights part-time jobs according to the fraction of a full-time job they represent. We then go on to estimate models of the determinants of these two employment rates using data from the population censuses conducted between 1971 and 2001. We construct a pseudo panel by ‘stacking’ the seven census data sets (Deaton 1997, Kapteyn et al 2005). This facilitates the tracing of birth cohorts over time, in turn making it possible to control for cohort unobserved heterogeneity that may bias cross-sectional estimates of effects of other characteristics, in particular age and year/time period. We produce evidence that a number of factors have contributed to the decline in male employment, including growth in educational enrolment and attainment, the decline in couple households with dependent children, growth in income taxes and welfare replacement rates, growth in labour productivity and changes in the structure of labour demand away from traditionally male-dominated industries. Significantly, we find that, all else (observable) constant, more recent birth cohorts have higher employment rates than earlier birth cohorts. |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2008n01&r=lab |
| By: | Eriksson, Tor (Department of Economics, Aarhus School of Business); Villeval, Marie-Claire (Department of Economics, Aarhus School of Business) |
| Abstract: | Variable pay creates a link between pay and performance but may also help firms in attracting more productive employees. Our experiment investigates the impact of performance pay on both incentives and sorting and analyzes the influence of repeated interactions between firms and employees on these effects. We show that (i) the opportunity to switch from a fixed wage to variable pay scheme increases the average effort level and its variance; (ii) high skill employees concentrate under the variable pay scheme; (iii) however, in repeated interactions, efficiency wages reduce the attraction of performance pay. Social motivation and reputation influence both the provision of incentives and their sorting effect. |
| Keywords: | Performance pay; incentives; sorting; social motivation; experiment |
| JEL: | C91 J31 J33 M52 |
| Date: | 2008–04–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:aareco:2007_012&r=lab |
| By: | Aoki, Shuhei |
| Abstract: | Using a simple framework, I reexamine the Hayashi and Prescott hypothesis (2006) that a barrier to labor mobility that maintained high agricultural employment was a cause of the stagnation in the prewar Japanese economy. I find that the labor misallocation between the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors had larger negative effects on the prewar Japanese aggregate productivity than on the postwar aggregate productivity. However, this is not because the wage differential between the sectors was larger but because the agricultural nominal share was larger in prewar Japan. Finally, I show that a model that does not assume a barrier to labor mobility can explain the change in the prewar and postwar agricultural employment rate and nominal share. These results suggest that factors other than labor misallocation are responsible for the stagnation in the prewar Japanese economy. |
| Keywords: | agriculture; barrier to labor mobility; prewar Japan; resource misallocation; two-sector model |
| JEL: | O1 N3 N5 E1 O4 |
| Date: | 2008–04–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:8178&r=lab |
| By: | Waldkirch, Andreas |
| Abstract: | Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Mexico has increased dramatically since the inception of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), raising questions about its effect on the Mexican economy. This paper studies the impact of FDI on industry productivity and wages over the first ten years of NAFTA, paying particular attention to the source country and destination industry of investments. It also offers a detailed description of the evolution of FDI, its components, sectoral composition, and sources from 1994-2005. There is evidence of a positive effect of FDI on productivity, particularly total factor productivity (TFP). The effect on wages is negative or zero at best, suggesting a divergence from productivity over this time period. The positive productivity effect stems largely from U.S. FDI into non-maquiladora industries, which receive over two thirds of manufacturing FDI. There is no evidence that more distant source countries have a differential effect. Consistent with theoretical expectations, FDI into maquiladoras benefits unskilled workers at the expense of skilled workers. This effect may be strong enough to dampen income inequality. |
| Keywords: | Foreign Direct Investment; Mexico; NAFTA; Productivity; Wages; Income Inequality |
| JEL: | F15 F23 O15 F21 |
| Date: | 2008–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7975&r=lab |
| By: | Zuzana Janko |
| Date: | 2008–01–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clg:wpaper:2008-16&r=lab |
| By: | Giulio Piccirilli (DISCE, Università Cattolica) |
| Abstract: | In a dynamic stochastic monopoly union model we show that firing costs have a small and ambiguous impact on the level of employment if the union precommits to future wages. Further, in comparison with the commitment equilibrium and for very general union preferences, the no-commitment equilibrium exhibits higher wages and a lower employment level. Since commitment-like equilibria are more likely in cooperative bargain environments, these results suggest that, coeteris paribus, the interaction between employment protection and the quality of industrial relations reduces unemployment. We provide evidence on OECD countries which is consistent with this predictions. |
| Keywords: | Firing costs, unemployment, industrial relations. |
| JEL: | J23 J51 J63 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie4:ieil0050&r=lab |
| By: | Chun- Yu Ho (Department of Economics, Boston University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of investment-specific technological change on labor composition in U.S. manufacturing industries from 1974 to 1994. I show that investmentspecific technological change increases the relative demand of non-production workers to production workers, while TFP growth does not change labor composition. Moreover, I find that the demand of skilled labor is stronger in the durable goods sector whereas the deskilling effect is stronger in the non-durable goods sector. |
| Keywords: | Employment Structure, Equipment Investment, Technological Change |
| JEL: | J21 O33 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:wpaper:wp2007-039&r=lab |
| By: | Rui Leite (Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto, Portugal); Óscar Afonso (CEMPRE and Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto, Portugal) |
| Abstract: | In the dominant literature, the technological-knowledge bias that drives wage inequality is determined by the market-size channel. We develop an endogenous growth model with two technologies in which: a specific quality of labour, low or high-skilled, is combined with a specific set of quality-adjusted intermediate goods; the market-size channel is practically removed; adoption costs and learning-by-doing are linked with labour endowments. By solving transitional dynamics numerically, we show that changes in the supply of labour affect learning-by-doing and technology-adoption costs, which, in turn, influence the technological-knowledge bias and thus wage inequality. The proposed mechanisms can accommodate facts not explained by the previous literature. |
| Keywords: | Learning-by-doing; Adoption costs; Technological-knowledge bias; Wage inequality; Numerical simulations |
| JEL: | C61 J31 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:272&r=lab |
| By: | Zuzana Janko |
| Date: | 2008–01–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clg:wpaper:2008-14&r=lab |
| By: | Peter Huber (WIFO) |
| Abstract: | We characterise regional labour market problems in the EU 27 using disaggregate data on regional employment, unemployment and participation rates, by gender and 10-year age groups at the NUTS-2 level. We ask whether accession changed disparities in regional labour market conditions and to what degree the structure of employment, unemployment and participation rates in the 12 new member countries differs from the EU 15. We find that aggregate labour market disparities are comparable between the two country groups but that there are important structural differences. Performing a principle components analysis we find that five principal components (four of which are associated with the structure of employment and participations rates) explain around 90 percent of the variance in the data. Cluster analysis suggests that new member countries regions are most similar in structural labour market characteristics to many German and French NUTS-2 regions. Regression analysis suggests that the correlates of aggregate regional employment and unemployment rates between the two groups do not differ dramatically but that there may be some differences with respect to employment rates of individual demographic groups. |
| Keywords: | Regional labour market disparities |
| Date: | 2008–02–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2008:i:309&r=lab |
| By: | James Giesecke; G.A. Meagher |
| Abstract: | In March 2005, the Productivity Commission released a report on the Economic Implications of an Ageing Australia. The report describes projections for a number of economic variables including population, labour force participation rates, labour supply, employment and hours worked per week. The present paper describes a number of simulations with the MONASH model designed to extend the range of the Commission's earlier analysis. The first is a base case forecast for the Australian economy for the twenty-year period 2004-05 to 2024-25. As far as possible, it is specified so as to maintain consistency with the Commission's projections. The others are alternative forecasts for the same period in which various effects of population ageing have been removed. The alternative forecasts separately identify: (a) a taste effect due to the removal of age-related shifts in the commodity composition of household consumption; (b) a public effect due to the removal of age-related shifts in public consumption; (c) a skill effect due to the removal of age-related shifts in hours of employment distinguished by skill (with total hours of employment unchanged); (d) a scale effect due to the removal of age-related shifts in total hours of employment (with the skill composition of employment unchanged); and (e) a total effect due to the simultaneous removal of all the above age-related shifts. To accommodate the simulations, the MONASH model itself is reconfigured such that labour by qualification group can be converted into labour by occupation according to Constant Elasticity Transformation (CET) functions. Labour by occupation in its turn can be converted into effective units of industry-specific labour according to Constant Elasticity Substitution (CES) functions. Labour of a partcular skill is then distributed between occupations and industries according to relative wage rates. The scheme incorporates 67 qualification groups, 81 occupations (the ASCO minor groups) and 107 industries (the input-output classification). |
| Keywords: | computable general equilibrium modelling, population ageing, labour market forecasting |
| JEL: | C53 C68 J11 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cop:wpaper:g-172&r=lab |
| By: | Katja Görlitz; Joel Stiebale |
| Abstract: | Using a large panel data set of German manufacturing establishments, this paper investigates the impact of competition on training incidence as well as on the number of trained workers. According to theory, one would expect a negative relationship between product market competition and firms’ incentives to invest in employees’ general skills (Gersbach and Schmutzler 2006). In our empirical analysis, product market competition is approximated by various measures of competition such as the Herfindahl Index, the number of firms at the 3-digit industry level and the price cost margin. After controlling for unobserved heterogeneity across industries and establishments, there is no significant effect of competition on training. This result is robust towards different samples, model specifications and estimation techniques. |
| Keywords: | Training, human capital, product market competition |
| JEL: | J24 L22 D43 C23 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0041&r=lab |
| By: | Frank T. Denton; Byron G. Spencer |
| Abstract: | Since the concept of retirement is prominent in both popular thinking and academic studies it would be helpful if the notion were analytically sound, could be measured with precision, and would make possible comparisons of patterns of retirement over time and among different populations. This paper reviews and assesses the many concepts and measures that have been proposed, summarizing them in groupings that reflect non-participation or reduced participation in the labour force, receipt of pension income, end-of-career employment, selfassessed retirement, or combinations of those characteristics. It concludes that there is no agreed measure and that no one measure dominates. Instead, new measures continue to be proposed to take account of additional refinements as new data sets become available, thereby further restricting possible comparisons. The confusing array of definitions reflects the practical problem that underlies the concept of retirement: it is an essentially negative notion, a notion of what people are not doing – namely, that they are not working. A more positive approach would be to focus instead on what people are doing, including especially their involvement in non-market activities that are socially productive, even if those activities do not contribute to national income as conventionally measured. |
| Keywords: | concepts of retirement, measures of retirement |
| JEL: | J26 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:sedapp:231&r=lab |
| By: | MARGARITA MAYO (Instituto de Empresa); JUAN CARLOS PASTOR (Instituto de Empresa) |
| Abstract: | The interplay between work and family has received a great deal of attention in the last two decades. We know very little, however, about the organizational factors that enable managers achieve a good balance between their work and family lives. Following Karasek (1979) demands-control model, we hypothesized that managerial workload will interact with time flexibility and task autonomy to predict the division of household labor, which in turn will influence family satisfaction. A sample of 103 managers reported their workload and their spouses reported the division of housework activities and their level of satisfaction with family life. |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp08-20&r=lab |
| By: | Marcela Ibanez; Simon Czermak; Matthias Sutter |
| Abstract: | We study behavior in a search experiment where sellers receive randomized bids from a computer. At any time, sellers can accept the highest standing bid or ask for another bid at positive costs. We find that sellers stop searching earlier than theoretically optimal. Inducing a mild form of time pressure strengthens this finding in the early periods. There are marked gender differences. Men search significantly shorter than women. If subjects search in groups of two subjects, there is no difference to individual search, but teams of two women search much longer than men and recall more frequently. |
| Keywords: | Search experiment, Time, Group decision, Gender differences |
| JEL: | C91 C92 D83 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2008-05&r=lab |
| By: | Bäckman, Olof (Institute for Futures Studies); Nilsson, Anders (Institute for Futures Studies) |
| Abstract: | Research has consistently shown that poverty and economic hardship have negative consequences for children. Few studies, however, have examined whether these consequences persists into adulthood. In the present paper we broaden the focus and analyse how living conditions during childhood and adolescence structure socio-economic circumstances also in midlife. How does exposure to poverty during childhood and adolescence affect future probabilities for labour market exclusion and inclusion in early adulthood and in midlife? The data are drawn from a new longitudinal Swedish data set – the Stockholm Birth Cohort Study (SBC) – in which we can follow a cohort of Swedes from birth (1953) to the age of 48 (2001). Our results show that childhood poverty clearly has a negative impact on attainment in adulthood. Persistent poverty in the family of origin and entering poverty in adolescence are particularly detrimental for life chances. This is most salient in the analysis of exclusion in midlife. Educational achievement and deviant behaviour (criminality and drug abuse) are identified as important intervening variables. The results are interpreted as a process of cumulative disadvantage. In our final analyses we focus on those excluded from the labour market in early adulthood and their likelihood to be included in midlife. We find that resource attainment in terms of education and family has positive effects for the chance for inclusion and may in that respect be regarded as turning points. |
| Keywords: | childhood poverty; socio-economic circumstances; labour market exclusion |
| JEL: | I10 J13 J17 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifswps:2007_013&r=lab |
| By: | Berliant, Marcus; Kung, Fan-chin |
| Abstract: | The modern literature on city formation and development, for example the New Economic Geography literature, has studied the agglomeration of agents in size or mass. We investigate agglomeration in sorting or by type of worker, that implies agglomeration in size when worker populations differ by type. This kind of agglomeration can be driven by asymmetric information in the labor market, specifically when firms do not know if a particular worker is of high or low skill. In a model with two types and two regions, workers of different skill levels are offered separating contracts in equilibrium. When mobile low skill worker population rises or there is technological change that favors high skilled workers, integration of both types of workers in the same region at equilibrium becomes unstable, whereas sorting of worker types into different regions in equilibrium remains stable. The instability of integrated equilibria results from firms, in the region to which workers are perturbed, offering attractive contracts to low skill workers when there is a mixture of workers in the region of origin. |
| Keywords: | Adverse Selection; Agglomeration |
| JEL: | R13 D82 R12 |
| Date: | 2008–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:8033&r=lab |
| By: | Varkkey Biju |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the attitude of white collar unionized employees’ towards their union and management under three key themes – work related dimensions, union related dimensions and staff members’ loyalty towards union and management. The investigation is based on survey and informal interviews of white collar employees of Tata Centre, the corporate head-office of Tata Steel, India. The analysis suggests the existence of dual loyalty amongst those surveyed. For work related dimensions (e.g. job assignments, recruitment, salary determination, training, career) this aspiring segment believe that management has more influential role to play than the union. Management increasingly is curbing the power distance between unionized members and the officers to reinforce the loyalty of this white collar segment. However, staff members are still loyal towards the union, since union performs an important role of job security provider, which members’ value. The paper also captures changing role of union over its sixty-one years of existence and the areas of improvement, based on its members’ perception. |
| Date: | 2008–03–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:2008-03-07&r=lab |
| By: | Hervé Boulhol (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne et Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | There is ample evidence that a country's labour market institutions are important determinants of unemployment. This study generalises Davis' (1998) idea according to which the institutions of the trade partners matter also for a country's equilibrium unemployment rate as they generate comparative advantages. Moreover, the empirical investigation provides some evidence that the interactions between bilateral trade and relative labour market regulations affect the equilibrium unemployment rate. Given data limitations in this area, the ambition of this paper is merely to draw the attention to the general relevance of these interactions as complementing factors to other explanations of unemployment. Another interesting finding is that a fairly low regulated country like Canada can be negatively affected because its main trading partner is even less regulated, while a high regulated country like Germany appears rather sheltered because its trading partners are also highly regulated. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, trade, labour market institutions. |
| JEL: | F16 J50 F10 F41 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:bla08016&r=lab |
| By: | Sackey |
| Abstract: | This study examines the determinants of school attendance and attainment in Ghana with a view to deriving implications for policy direction. Using micro-level data from the Ghana living standards surveys, our gender disaggregated probit models on current schoolattendance and attainment show that parental education and household resources are significant determinants of schooling. The effect of household resources on current schoolattendance is higher for daughters than it is for sons. It appears that for male and female children the impact of household resources on school attendance has reduced, statistically speaking. Father’s schooling effects on the education of female children decreased between 1992 and 1999. Mother’s schooling effects on school attendance of daughtersin 1992 were not significantly different from those realized in 1999. However, the effects of mother’s schooling levels on school attendance of male children appear to have reduced. Other significant determinants of children’s schooling are the age of children, school infrastructure, religion and urban residency. The paper concludes that education matters and has an intergenerational impact. Arguably, sustainable poverty reduction approaches cannot ignore the role of education and implications for employment, earnings and social development. Hence, gender sensitive policies to ensure educational equity are vital. |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aer:rpaper:rp_174&r=lab |
| By: | Matthias Doepke; Michèle Tertilt |
| Abstract: | The nineteenth century witnessed dramatic improvements in the legal rights of married women. Given that these changes took place long before women gained the right to vote, they amounted to a voluntary renouncement of power by men. In this paper, we investigate men's incentives for sharing power with women. In our model, women's legal rights set the marital bargaining power of husbands and wives. We show that men face a tradeoff between the rights they want for their own wives (namely none) and the rights of other women in the economy. Men prefer other men's wives to have rights because men care about their own daughters and because an expansion of women's rights increases educational investments in children. We show that men may agree to relinquish some of their power once technological change increases the importance of human capital. We corroborate our argument with historical evidence on the expansion of women's rights in England and the United States. |
| JEL: | D13 E13 J16 N30 O43 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13919&r=lab |
| By: | John Haltiwanger; Stefano Scarpetta; Helena Schweiger |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes job flows in a sample of 16 industrial and emerging economies over the past decade, exploiting a harmonized firm-level dataset. It shows that industry and firm size effects (and especially firm size) account for a large fraction in the overall variability in job flows. However, large residual differences remain in the job flow patterns across countries. To account for the latter, the paper explores the role of differences in employment protection legislation across countries. Using a difference-in-difference approach that minimizes possible endogeneity and omitted variable problems, our findings show that hiring and firing costs tend to curb job flows, particularly in those industries and firm size classes that require more frequent labor adjustment. |
| JEL: | J23 J53 K31 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13920&r=lab |
| By: | Alka obadić (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb); Sanja Porić |
| Abstract: | At the end of the 20th century, knowledge production has been radically transformed. As knew knowledge economies and US were becoming an increasing threat for EU, the Lisbon Strategy was set to treat the economic problems that EU is facing. This article discusses and evaluates the potential of the Lisbon Agenda and presents the ways how growth in GDP per capita and employability could be increased by synchronized education and employment policies. It is widely believed that jobs are becoming more and more demanding of skills and as a result workers need to upgrade their skills or risk loosing out in the competition for jobs in the new economy. The research confirms that the reason why many of these unemployed workers might be considered "unemployable in a modern economy" is their comparatively low level of education. Employment rates rise with educational attainment and higher educated individuals also face a more stable labour market than lower educated individuals. The research concludes that in situation of stable higher unemployment rates and higher demand for specific labour skills it is obvious that the coordination between employment and education policies is needed. To ensure employability, policies for promoting education and lifelong learning have to be adjusted to changes in the economy and society. |
| Keywords: | Lisbon Agenda, employment policy, education policy, lifelong learning, EU |
| JEL: | I2 J21 J64 |
| Date: | 2008–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zag:wpaper:0802&r=lab |
| By: | Ohinata, Asako (Dept. of Economics, University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | The introduction of the 1999 Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC) in the UK encouraged low income families with children to enter the labor market. The tax credit, however, may have had the unintended side effect of increasing the childbearing of these households. While many studies have looked at the importance of WFTC on the female labor supply, only few have estimated the impact it had on fertility decisions of British families. This paper employs the 1995 to 2003 British Household Panel Survey and identifies the policy impact of WFTC by observing the change in the probability of birth as well as the timing of birth using the difference in differences estimator. The main findings of this paper suggest that single women responded to the policy introduction by reducing the probability of birth and prolonging the birth intervals across all birth parity. For women with partners, on the other hand, the estimates indicate that financial incentives did not encourage them to enter motherhood but it rather induced women to have their second birth quicker. |
| Keywords: | Fertility ; Welfare policy ; Working Families Tax Credit ; Difference-in-Differences |
| JEL: | J13 J18 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:851&r=lab |
| By: | Facundo Alvaredo |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes income and earnings concentration in Portugal from a long-run perspective using personal income and wage tax statistics. Our results suggest that income concentration was much higher during the 1930s and early 1940s than it is today. Top income shares estimated from reported incomes deteriorated during the Second World War, even if Portugal did not take active participation in the conflict. However, the magnitude of the drop was less important than in other European countries. The level of concentration between 1950 and 1970 remained relatively high compared to countries such as Spain, France, UK or the United States. The decrease in income concentration, started very moderately at the end of the 1960s and which accelerated after the revolution of 1974, began to be reversed during the first half of the 1980s. During the last fifteen years top income shares have increased steadily. The rise in wage concentration contributed to this process in a significant way. The evidence since 1989 suggests that the level of marginal tax rate at the top has not been the primary determinant of the level of top reported incomes. Marginal rates have stayed constant in a context of growing top shares. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pse:psecon:2008-17&r=lab |
| By: | Louis N. Christofides; Michael Hoy; Ling Yang |
| Abstract: | More females than males have been attending Canadian universities over the past decade and this gender imbalance in university participation has been increasing. We use the Linear Probability and Logit models to investigate the determinants of attending university and explore the reasons for the increasing gender imbalance. We find that, in gender-specific equations, the values of the coefficients attached to variables and the values of the variables themselves are both important in explaining the rising level of the university participation rate for women and men. The important variables include a time trend to capture the evolving societal norms, the dynamic influence of parental education, the earnings premium for a university degree, tuition fees and real income. The increasing gap between the female and male participation rates (15 percentage points by 2005) can be accounted for equally by differences in the coefficients in female and male participation equations and the widening gap in the university premium for women and men. |
| Keywords: | University participation, individuals, gender, Canada |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucy:cypeua:5-2008&r=lab |
| By: | Jose Galdo; Miguel Jaramillo; Veronica Montalva |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the relationship between households' wealth and heterogeneous treatment impacts for a market-based training program that has benefited more than 40,000 disadvantaged individuals in Peru since 1996. We proxy long-run wealth by a linear index based on 21 households assets, and three main findings emerge. First, we find that voluntary choices among eligibles, rather than administrative choices, play a bigger role in explaining demographic disparities in program participation. Second, quantile treatment effects on the treated suggest important differences in program impacts at different quantiles of earnings, and strong differences in distributional impacts for men and women. Third, both parametric-based and semiparametric regression-matching estimates reveal that the poorest among the poor benefit the same from the program. It is the type of institution that provides the training services that largely accounts for the heterogeneity of the impacts. |
| Keywords: | Training, program evaluation, factor analysis, poverty, quantiles, matching methods |
| JEL: | I38 H43 C13 C14 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:pmmacr:2008-02&r=lab |
| By: | Herbert Emery |
| Abstract: | Between 1915 and 1920, 18 U.S. states considered the introduction of compulsory health insurance. Given the alleged deficiencies of voluntary arrangements for insuring sickness, reformers expected social insurance to be welfare enhancing for American wage-workers since it would result in lower cost insurance and an extension of coverage to more of the population. Scholars commonly ascribe the inability of states to introduce government health insurance to American ideology and institutions that prevented the political mobilization of wage-workers. They view the lack of government insurance as a policy failure and significant for explaining why the U.S. does not have national health insurance today. The evidence presented in this paper casts doubt on this interpretation. Compulsory insurance would not have provided gains for wage-workers, and this explains the absence of broad political support for health insurance legislation in this early period. |
| JEL: | H51 H53 I11 I18 I38 N3 N4 |
| Date: | 2008–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clg:wpaper:2008-23&r=lab |
| By: | Judith Banister (The Conference Board) |
| Abstract: | China is now the global manufacturing workshop. There is strong interest throughout the world in understanding what makes China so competitive in manufacturing. Clearly one component of that competitiveness is the low cost of labor in China’s manufacturing sector. This report analyzes and evaluates the most complete recent data on China manufacturing employment and labor compensation, which come from China’s First National Economic Census. |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cnf:wpaper:0701&r=lab |
| By: | Wolfgang Lechthaler; Christian Merkl; Dennis Snower |
| Abstract: | It is common knowledge that the standard New Keynesian model is not able to generate a persistent response in output to temporary monetary shocks. We show that this shortcoming can be remedied in a simple and intuitively appealing way through the introduction of labor turnover costs (such as hiring and firing costs). Assuming that it is costly to hire and fire workers implies that the employment rate is slow to converge to its steady state value after a monetary shock. Under reasonable calibrations, the after-effects of a shock continue to exert an effect on the labor market even long after the shock is over. The sluggishness of the labor market translates to the product market and thus the output effects of the monetary shock become more persistent. Our model is able to generate a hump-shaped response in output, if the monetary shock includes a moderate autoregressive component. This is another empirically well known feature, which the standard model is not able to replicate. |
| Keywords: | Monetary Persistence, Labor Market, Hiring and Firing Costs |
| JEL: | O4 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1409&r=lab |
| By: | Jean-Pierre Lachaud (GED, Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV) |
| Abstract: | Fondée sur l’enquête prioritaire de Madagascar de 2005, la présente recherche examine l’hypothèse de non-linéarité de l’impact des revenus des adultes sur le travail des enfants, et l’opportunité d’estimations économétriques prenant en compte la dépendance spatiale des données. Plusieurs conclusions sont mises en évidence. Premièrement, l’étude vérifie l’existence d’une dépendance spatiale des observations. D’une part, les estimations micro-économétriques multiniveau, fondées sur les moindres carrés généralisés itératifs et la procédure de Monte Carlo par chaînes de Markov, suggèrent l’existence de différences significatives de participation des enfants au marché du travail selon les régions. Par ailleurs, ces approches montrent que l’impact du milieu sur le travail des enfants varie selon les régions – probabilité du travail des enfants plus élevée dans les zones rurales, comparativement au milieu urbain. D’autre part, l’estimation macro-économétrique spatiale vérifie également la dépendance spatiale des observations selon les régions, le coefficient auto-régressif du terme aléatoire spatialement retardé étant significatif. Deuxièmement, l’étude met également en relief la non-linéarité de l’effet des gains des adultes par tête sur le travail des enfants, et vérifie l’« axiome de luxe ». A cet égard, on note une similitude des résultats entre les approches non-bayésienne – IGLS – et bayésienne – MCMC –, les coefficients des revenus et du carré des revenus des adultes étant statistiquement significatifs, et, respectivement, négatifs et positifs. Un résultat quasi-équivalent prévaut lorsque la modélisation des revenus des adultes est effectuée en « splines », mais le critère d’information de déviance (DIC) montre que les estimations en termes de MCMC produisent un meilleur ajustement des données. Ainsi, selon cette dernière approche, lorsque les gains des adultes situés en dessous du seuil du premier quintile de la distribution s’accroissent de 10 000 ariary, le taux de variation de l’incidence du travail des enfants diminue par un facteur multiplicatif de 0,293. Or, on observe un changement positif et significatif du taux de variation de la participation des enfants au marché du travail en présence des ressources des adultes par tête excluant l’équivalent du seuil du premier quintile de la distribution des revenus, le risque relatif étant de 2,649. L’estimation macro-économétrique spatiale confirme que l’accroissement du revenu régional des adultes des ménages réduit la propension des enfants à participer au marché du travail, mais la non-linéarité de l’impact des gains des adultes sur le travail des enfants n’est pas vérifiée. Troisièmement, les estimations économétriques suggèrent l’influence d’autres facteurs sur le travail des enfants : attributs des enfants, instruction du père et de la mère, caractéristiques du chef de ménage, taille et la structure démographique des familles, et incidence de l’emploi dans le ménage. Ainsi, la réduction significative du travail des enfants dépend, prioritairement, de l’accroissement des gains des adultes des ménages les plus pauvres. Par ailleurs, les effets étant susceptibles de varier selon les régions et le milieu, le ciblage des actions en fonction de la distribution spatiale des activités et des opportunités économiques est de première importance. Based on the Madagascar priority survey of 2005, this research examines the nonlinearity hypothesis of the impact of adults’ income on child labour, and the opportunity of econometric approaches taking into account the spatial dependence of the data. Several conclusions are highlighted. First, the study verifies the existence of a spatial dependence of the data. On the one hand, micro-econometric multilevel models, using iterative generalized least squares and a Monte Carlo Markov Chain procedure, suggest the existence of significant differences of child participation in the labour market according to the regions. Moreover, theses last models show that the impact of areas on child labour varies according to the regions – higher probability of child labour in rural areas compared to urban areas. On the other hand, the macro-econometric spatial models also checks the spatial dependence of the data according to the regions, the spatial autoregressive coefficient of a spatial lag for the errors being significant. Second, the study also highlights the nonlinearity of the effect of the adults’ earnings per capita on child labour, and verifies the « luxury axiom ». In this respect, there is a similarity of results between the non-Bayesian– IGLS – and Bayesian approaches – MCMC –, the coefficients of income and the square of the adults’ income being statistically significant, and, respectively, positive and negative. A result almost equivalent prevails when modelling adults’ income in splines, but the Deviance Information Criterion shows that the estimates in terms of MCMC produce a better fit of data. Thus, according to this last, when the adults’ earnings that are below the threshold of the top quintile of the distribution increase by 10,000 ariary, the rate of change in the incidence of child labour decreases by a multiplicative factor of 0.293. But there is a significant and positive change of the rate of variation of the child participation in the labour market in the presence of adults’ resources per head excluding the equivalent threshold of the top quintile of the income distribution, the relative risk being 2.649. The spatial macro-econometric estimation confirms that the increase in regional income of households’ adults reduces the probability of children to participate in the labour market, but the nonlinearity of the impact of the adults’ earnings on child labour is not verified. Thirdly, the econometric estimates suggest the influence of other factors on child labour: attributes of children, education of the father and mother, characteristics of the household head, size and demographic structure of families, and rate of employment in the household. Thus, the significant reduction of child labour depends, firstly, of the increase of the adults’ incomes of the poorest households. In addition, the effects being likely to vary according to regions and areas, the targeting of the actions according to the spatial distribution of the activities and economic opportunities is of first importance.(Full text in french) |
| JEL: | J0 J21 J82 D60 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mon:ceddtr:143&r=lab |
| By: | Louis N. Christofides; Michael Hoy; Ling Yang |
| Abstract: | The decision to attend university is influenced by the balance of the expected returns and costs of attending university, by liquidity constraints and capital market imperfections that may modify these calculations and, hence, by the family income of prospective students. Family circumstances also play a role. We examine the secular increase in the propensity of children from Canadian families, evident in annual surveys spanning two and a half decades, to attend university. We quantify the importance of these factors taking account of the greater propensity by young women than men to attend university and controlling for secular trends in socioeconomic norms that impinge on these decisions. |
| Keywords: | University participation, families, Canada |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucy:cypeua:4-2009&r=lab |
| By: | Dolado, Juan José (Universidad Carlos III, Madrid); Felgueroso, Florentino (Universidad de Oviedo) |
| Abstract: | There are relevant gender differences in the labour-market status of health sciences graduates in Spain: (i) female physicians have lower participation rates than male physicians plus they are subject to higher occupational mismatch, and (ii) moonlighting is more frequent among male physicians. In this paper we investigate whether such differences are related to the monopsonistic features of the labour market of health-care professionals. This provides an interesting case study since, among all university graduates, Spanish physicians are the ones most often coupled to partners with the same educational level and/or same type of studies. |
| Keywords: | monopsony, physicians, mismatch, moonlighting, gender |
| JEL: | J24 J42 J44 J61 J70 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3419&r=lab |
| By: | Marianne Bertrand; Rema Hanna; Sendhil Mullainathan |
| Abstract: | Many countries mandate affirmative action in university admissions for traditionally disadvantaged groups. Little is known about either the efficacy or costs of these programs. This paper examines affirmative action in engineering colleges in India for "lower-caste" groups. We find that it successfully targets the financially disadvantaged: the marginal upper-caste applicant comes from a more advantaged background than the marginal lower-caste applicant who displaces him. Despite much lower entrance exam scores, the marginal lower-caste entrant does benefit: we find a strong, positive economic return to admission. These findings contradict common arguments against affirmative action: that it is only relevant for richer lower-caste members, or that those who are admitted are too unprepared to benefit from the education. However, these benefits come at a cost. Our point estimates suggest that the marginal upper-caste entrant enjoys nearly twice the earnings level gain as the marginal lower-caste entrant. This finding illustrates the program's redistributive nature: it benefits the poor, but costs resources in absolute terms. One reason for this lower level gain is that a smaller fraction of lower-caste admits end up employed in engineering or advanced technical jobs. Finally, we find no evidence that the marginal upper-caste applicant who is rejected due to the policy ends up with more negative attitudes towards lower castes or towards affirmative action programs. On the other hand, there is some weak evidence that the marginal lower-caste admits become stronger supporters of affirmative action programs. |
| JEL: | I21 I38 J7 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13926&r=lab |
| By: | Robert Oxoby; Colette Friedrich |
| Abstract: | We explore the extent to which the structure of incentives affects trust. We hypothesize that the degree to which different incentive mechanisms emphasize competition (via the perceived intentions of others) and entitlements (via the perceived property rights) will affect individuals' subsequent behavior. In our experiment, bargaining pairs earned endowments through either tournaments or team-based incentives. Participants engaged in a subsequent trust game in which the sender had access to the total endowment generated by the pair. We find that the structure of the incentive mechanisms has asymmetric effects on observed trust in which participants' relative performance framed trusting behavior. |
| JEL: | J31 J33 C92 D63 |
| Date: | 2008–01–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clg:wpaper:2008-22&r=lab |
| By: | Granlund, David (Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Physicians' decisions whether or not to veto generic substitution were analyzed using a sample of 350,000 pharmaceutical prescriptions. Point estimates show that - compared to county-empoyed physicians on salary - physicians working at private practices were 50-80% more likely to veto substitution. The results indicate that this difference is explained by the difference in direct cost associated with substitution, rather than by private physicians' possibly stronger incentives to please their patients. Also, the probability of a veto was found to increase as patients' copayments decreased. This might indicate moral hazard in insurance, though other exaplanations are plausible. |
| Keywords: | doctors; salary; fee for service; moral hazard; prescriptions; drugs |
| JEL: | D86 I11 L33 |
| Date: | 2008–04–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:huiwps:0014&r=lab |
| By: | Muriel Niederle; Alexandra H. Yestrumskas |
| Abstract: | We examine whether women and men of the same ability differ in their decisions to seek challenges. In the laboratory, we create an environment in which we can measure a participants performance level (high or low), where a high performance level participant has on average higher earnings from solving a hard rather than an easy task, and vice versa. After we identify each participant's performance level, they choose the difficulty level (easy or hard) for the next two tasks (only one of which will be chosen for payment). Although there are no gender differences in performance, or beliefs about relative performance, men choose the hard task about 50 percent more frequently than women, independent of performance level. Gender differences in preferences for characteristics of the tasks cannot account for this gender gap. When we allow for a flexible choice high performing women choose the hard task significantly more often, at a rate now similar to the decision of men. Such a flexible choice makes challenging choices easier when participants are either risk averse, or uncertain about their ability. Our results highlight the role of institution design in affecting choices of women and men, and the resulting gender differences in representation in challenging tasks. |
| JEL: | C91 J0 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13922&r=lab |
| By: | Zuzana Janko |
| Date: | 2008–01–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clg:wpaper:2008-17&r=lab |
| By: | Stefan Ederer |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at empirically assessing the demand effects of changes in functional income distribution for the Netherlands. Based on a Neo-Kaleckian theoretical macroeconomic model, equations for the main demand aggregates (consumption, investment, exports and imports) are estimated. The effect of an increase in the wage share on these aggregates is calculated from comparative static. Alternatively, a simulation of this effect is run by means of a small macroeconomic model. An increase in the wage share would have positive effects on consumption and affects investment and net exports negatively. The overall effect is still positive; the demand regime is wage-led. A shift in income distribution in from profits to wages would therefore stimulate aggregate demand. The Dutch wage policy since 1982 which aimed at restraining real wages seems to have increased international competitiveness but not aggregate demand. |
| Keywords: | consumption, distribution, demand, foreign trade, investment, Keynesian economics, macroeconomics |
| Date: | 2008–03–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2008:i:312&r=lab |