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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Johannes Gernandt; Friedhelm Pfeiffer |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the wage convergence between East German workers and their West German counterparts after reunification. Our research is based on a comparison of three groups of workers defined as stayers, migrants and commuters to West Germany, who lived in East Germany in 1989, with groups of West German statistical twin workers, all taken from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). According to our findings, wage convergence for stayers is roughly 75 percent and for commuters 85 percent. Wages of migrants to West Germany equal the ones of their West German statistical twins. We conclude that labor markets in East and West Germany are still characterized by wage differences but that the degree of inequality in both regions converged. |
| Keywords: | Wage convergence, wage inequality, German unification, migration, commuting |
| JEL: | J31 J30 J61 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp107&r=lab |
| By: | Debra Shepherd (Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University) |
| Abstract: | Using appropriate econometric methods and 11 representative household surveys, this paper empirically assesses the extent and evolution of gender discrimination in the South African labour market over the post-apartheid period. Attention is also paid to the role that anti-discriminatory legislation has had to play in effecting change in the South African labour market. Much of the paper’s focus is placed on African women who would have benefited most from the new legislative environment. African and, to a lesser extent, Coloured women received on average higher real wages than their male counterparts following changes in labour legislation. Oaxaca (1973) and Blinder (1973) decompositions reveal this to be due to both greater endowments of productive characteristics for African and Coloured women and declining gender discrimination that reached relative stability after 2000. Detailed Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions of the African gender wage gap reveal that the driving factor behind an increasing and negative explained component is improved distribution and returns to productive characteristics for women in certain occupations, as well as higher returns to education and employment in the public sector. However, African women are prevented from realising this in the form of higher earnings as a result of increasing levels of “pure discrimination” and returns to employment in certain industries for males. Decomposition results using the methodology of Juhn, Murphy and Pierce (1991, 1993) are suggestive of a sticky floor for African women in the South African labour market. The gender wage gap is therefore found to be wider at the bottom of the wage distribution than at the top. |
| Keywords: | Discrimination, Gender, South Africa |
| JEL: | J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers54&r=lab |
| By: | Francesco D'Amuri (Institute for Social and Economic Research); Gianmarco Ottaviano (Università di Bologna); Giovanni Peri (University of California) |
| Abstract: | We adopt a general equilibrium approach in order to measure the effects of recent immigration on the Western German labour market, looking at both wage and employment effects. Using the Regional File of the IAB Employment Subsample for the period 1987-2001, we find that the substantial immigration of the 1990’s had no adverse effects on native wages and employment levels. It had instead adverse employment and wage effects on previous waves of immigrants. This stems from the fact that, after controlling for education and experience levels, native and migrant workers appear to be imperfect substitutes whereas new and old immigrants exhibit perfect substitutability. Our analysis suggests that if the German labour market were as ‘flexible’ as the UK labour market, it would be more efficient in dealing with the effects of immigration. |
| Keywords: | employment, immigration, wages |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2008-17&r=lab |
| By: | Pedro S. Martins; Luiz A. Esteves |
| Abstract: | How much do developing countries benefit from foreign investment? We contribute to this question by comparing the employment and wage practices of foreign and domestic firms in Brazil, using detailed matched firm-worker panel data. In order to control for unobserved worker differences, we examine both foreign acquisitions and divestments and worker mobility, including the joint estimation of firm and worker fixed effects. We find that changes in ownership do not tend to affect wages significantly, a result that holds both at the worker- and firm-levels. However, divestments are related to large job cuts, unlike acquisitions. On the other hand, movers from foreign to domestic firms take larger wage cuts than movers from domestic to foreign firms. Moreover, on average, the fixed effects of foreign firms are considerably larger than those of domestic firms, while worker selection effects are relatively small. |
| Keywords: | Foreign Direct Investment, Ownership Changes, Worker Mobility |
| JEL: | J31 J63 F23 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgs:wpaper:15&r=lab |
| By: | Benoît Mahy (Université de Mons-Hainaut et chercheur associé au DULBEA); François Rycx (DULBEA, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, and IZA, Bonn); Mélanie Volral (Université de Mons-Hainaut) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of wage dispersion on firm performance, measured by value-added per worker, in large Belgian firms. Using matched employer-employee data for 2003, we find the existence of a positive and hump-shaped relationship between (conditional) wage dispersion and firm performance, even when controlling for worker and firm characteristics and addressing potential simultaneity problems. The comparison between estimated turning points and descriptive statistics of our sample suggest that increasing wage dispersion might increase value-added per worker in Belgium, particularly among white-collar workers. This might be due to both greater monitoring costs and production-effort elasticity considerations. |
| Keywords: | Wage dispersion, Personnel economics, Matched employer-employee data,Belgium. |
| JEL: | J31 J32 M5 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dul:wpaper:08-13rs&r=lab |
| By: | Georgios Marios Chrysanthou |
| Abstract: | Using a dynamic model of unionism and wage determination we find that the unobserved factors that influence union membership also affect wages. The estimates suggest that UK trade unions still play a non-negligible, albeit diminishing, role in wage formation. It appears that the greater impact of un observables in determining individual union propensity concerning the second period under analysis, versus past unionisation experience, implies that those remaining in unions during (1997-2002) gain most from their sorting decision. The significant contribution of unobserved heterogeneity renders the total union wage differential highly variable across individuals. The endogeneity correction procedure employed yields a discernible pattern of the estimated union wage effect relative to OLS and Fixed effects. This is in line with Robinson (1989a) and Vella and Verbeek (1998) and refutes the pessimistic conclusions reached by Freeman and Medoff (1982) and Lewis (1986) that endogeneity correction methodologies do not contribute to our understanding of the union wage effect puzzle. |
| Keywords: | Union status, Union wage effects, Unobserved heterogeneity, Dynamic model of unionism and wage determination |
| JEL: | C33 J31 J51 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:we082214&r=lab |
| By: | Pedro S. Martins; Luiz A. Esteves |
| Abstract: | We provide evidence about the determinants of the wage structures of developing countries by examining the case of Brazil. Our specific question is whether Brazil's dramatic income and wage differentials can be explained by the division of rents between firms and their employees, unlike in competitive labour markets. Using detailed individual-level matched panel data, covering a large share of manufacturing firms and more than 30 million workers between 1997 and 2002, we consider the endogeneity of profits, by adopting different measures of rents and different instruments and by controlling for spell fxed effects. Our results, robust to different specifications and tests, indicate no evidence of rent sharing. This conclusion contrasts with findings for most developed countries, even those with flexible labour markets. Possible explanations for the lack of rent sharing include the weakness of labour-market institutions, the high levels of worker turnover and the macroeconomic instability faced by the country. |
| Keywords: | Wage Bargaining, Instrumental Variables, Matched Employer-Employee Data, Developing Countries |
| JEL: | J31 J41 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgs:wpaper:14&r=lab |
| By: | Brown, Martin (Swiss National Bank); Falk, Armin (University of Bonn); Fehr, Ernst (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | When unemployment prevails, relations with a particular firm are valuable for workers. As a consequence, a worker may adhere to an implicit agreement to provide high effort, even when performance is no third-party enforceable. But can implicit agreements - or relational contracts - also motivate high worker performance when the labor market is tight? We examine this question by implementing an experimental market in which there is an excess demand for labor and the performance of workers is not third-party enforceable. We show that relational contracts emerge in which firms reward performing workers with wages that exceed the going market rate. This motivates workers to provide high effort, even though they could shirk and switch firms. Our results thus suggest that unemployment is not a necessary device to motivate workers. We also discuss how market conditions affect relational contracting by comparing identical labor markets with excess supply and excess demand for labor. Long-term relationships turn out to be less frequent when there is excess demand for labor compared to a market characterized by unemployment. Surprisingly though, this does not compromise market performance. |
| Keywords: | Relational Contracts; Involuntary Unemployment |
| JEL: | C90 D82 E24 J30 J41 |
| Date: | 2008–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:snbwpa:2008_007&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre-Guillaume Méon (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels and DULBEA, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels.); Ariane Szafarz (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels and DULBEA, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels.) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies labour market discriminations as an agency problem. It sets up a principal-agent model of a firm, where the manager is a taste discriminator and has to make unobservable hiring decisions that determine the shareholder’s profits because workers differ in skills. The paper shows that performance-based contracts may moderate the manager’s propensity to discriminate, but that it is unlikely to fully eliminate discrimination. |
| Keywords: | discrimination, agency theory, hiring. |
| JEL: | J71 D21 M12 M51 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:08-019&r=lab |
| By: | Roy Thurik; Ingrid Verheul; Isabel Grilo |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates why self-employment rates of women are consistently lower than those of men. It has three focal points: it discriminates between the preference for self-employment and actual involvement in self-employment for women and men. It uses a huge data set from about 8,000 individuals across 26 countries while probit equations are estimated explaining (the preference for) self-employment. And a systematic distinction is made between different ways in which gender can influence the preference for and actual involvement in self-employment, including moderation, mediation and direct effects. Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour we investigate effects of risk attitude,social norms, locus of control, perceptions of the entrepreneurial environment as well as that of an individual’s age and educational attainment. Findings show that the lower preference of women to become self-employed largely explains their relatively low involvement in self-employment and that – other things equal – women and men who express a preference for it, have equal chances of becoming self-employed. This paper is a new version of H200622, "Determinants of self-employment preference and realization of women and men in Europe and the United States" |
| Date: | 2008–06–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eim:papers:h200803&r=lab |
| By: | Simon Luechinger; Stephan Meier; Alois Stutzer |
| Abstract: | High rates of unemployment entail substantial costs to the working population in terms of reduced subjective well-being. This paper studies the importance of individual economic security, in particular, job security, in workers' well-being by exploiting sector-specific institutional differences in the exposure to economic shocks. Public servants have stricter dismissal protection and face a lower risk of their organization's bankruptcy than do private sector employees. The empirical results for individual panel data for Germany and repeated cross-sectional data for the United States and the European Union show that the sensitivity of subjective well-being to fluctuations in unemployment rates is much lower in the public sector than in the private. This suggests that increased economic insecurity constitutes an important welfare loss associated with high general unemployment. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, life satisfaction, job security, public sector |
| JEL: | E24 I31 J30 J45 J64 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp106&r=lab |
| By: | Jonathan Heathcote; Kjetil Storesletten; Giovanni L. Violante |
| Abstract: | In recent decades, the US wage structure has been transformed by a rising college premium, a narrowing gender gap, and increasing persistent and transitory residual wage dispersion. This paper explores the implications of these changes for cross-sectional inequality in hours worked, earnings and consumption, and for welfare. The framework for the analysis is an incomplete-markets overlapping-generations model in which individuals choose education and form households, and households choose consumption and intra-family time allocation. An explicit production technology underlies equilibrium prices for labor inputs differentiated by gender and education. The model is parameterized using micro data from the PSID, the CPS and the CEX. With the changing wage structure as the only primitive force, the model can account for the key trends in cross-sectional US data. We also assess the role played by education, labor supply, and saving in providing insurance against shocks, and in exploiting opportunities presented by changes in the relative prices of different types of labor. |
| JEL: | E21 I21 I31 J2 J31 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14052&r=lab |
| By: | Karin Mayr (Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria) |
| Abstract: | Sectoral labor supply shortage is a cause of concern in many OECD countries and has raised support for immigration as a potential remedy. In this paper, we derive a general equilibrium model with overlapping generations, where natives require a compensating wage differential for working in one sector rather than in another. We identify price and wage effects of immigration on three different groups of natives: the young working in one of two sectors and the old. We determine the outcome of a majority vote on immigration into a given sector as well as the social optimum. The main findings are that i) the old determine the majority voting outcome of positive immigration into both sectors, if natives are not mobile across sectors, ii) the young determine the majority voting outcome of zero immigration into both sectors, if natives are mobile across sectors, iii) the social optimum is smaller than or equal to the majority voting outcome, and iv) sector-specific immigration is not always a substitute for native mobility across sectors. |
| Keywords: | immigration, political economy, welfare, sectoral mobility |
| JEL: | F22 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2008_07&r=lab |
| By: | Kamil Galuscak; Jan Pavel |
| Abstract: | We investigate to what extent high net replacement rates between non-work and work household income may distort work incentives. Using a microsimulation model, we find that net replacement rates are particularly high for households with a working partner and children. While net replacement rates decreased moderately between 1996 and 2006 as wages rose faster than social benefits, the incidence of unemployment traps remains high. In particular, about a third of all employed individuals have a low incentive to avoid short spells of unemployment with the unemployment benefits provided, while unemployment traps are also widespread among the unemployed. The incidence of unemployment traps increased further in 2007 despite a reform of benefits. In particular, housing benefit, which was overhauled to reflect housing costs, increases net replacement rates, distorting work incentives particularly among households with children. In addition, the rise in parental allowance may lock eligible individuals in non-employment, increasing the loss of human capital among non-working parents. This is particularly important for single parents, who face the highest specific unemployment rate, and also long unemployment spells among all household types. While the link between net replacement rates and labour market stocks and flows is not straightforward across household types, further research should focus on the labour market behaviour of particular household types. |
| Keywords: | Labour supply, microsimulation models, net replacement rate, survey data, tax-benefit reform, unemployment trap. |
| JEL: | C15 H31 H53 J22 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cnb:wpaper:2007/9&r=lab |
| By: | Gudrun Biffl (WIFO) |
| Abstract: | The integration of migrant women and youth into the labour market depends upon institutional ramifications (in particular the immigration regime, the welfare model and the education system), on supply factors (in particular the educational attainment level and occupational skills, language competence, ethnic origin and the proximity to the ethnic cultural identity of the host country), and demand factors (in particular the composition by economic sectors, the division of work between the household, the informal and the market sector and the economic and technological development level). |
| Keywords: | Migrants, immigration policy, Gender gaps, welfare models, foreign born, citizenship, third country origin, second generation, education system, labour market integration |
| Date: | 2008–05–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2008:i:320&r=lab |
| By: | Chul Chung; Jeremy Clark (University of Canterbury); Bonggeun Kim |
| Abstract: | This paper documents that virtually all of the growth in the skilled wage premium over the 1980’s in the United States was confined to metropolitan areas. Explanations for the growth in the skilled wage premium will therefore need to take location into account. |
| Keywords: | Skilled wage premium; Metropolitan areas |
| JEL: | J31 R23 F16 |
| Date: | 2008–01–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbt:econwp:08/10&r=lab |
| By: | Carsten Ochsen (University of Rostock) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of the distribution of unemployment by age on the level of unemployment. We provide an extension of the standard equilibrium unemployment model that allows for age dependent job finding probabilities and quit rates. In the empirical part of the paper we apply a panel estimator on data for a set of OECD countries to test the implications of the theoretical model. The results provide the somewhat surprising evidence that the distribution of unemployment by age has a hump-shape effect on the unemployment rate. |
| Keywords: | Distribution of Unemployment by Age, Duration of Unemployment |
| JEL: | J11 J64 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ros:wpaper:89&r=lab |
| By: | Gupta, Abhay |
| Abstract: | This paper considers an economy with skilled agents exchanging their services. Using Cobb-Douglas preferences, the paper shows that there exists an optimal (average welfare maximizing) skills' distribution. This optimal distribution is independent of productivity and is welfare equalizing. If the skill-distribution is not optimal, then some agents are better-off than others. In such a scenario, migration in some sectors is average-welfare improving while inviting skilled-agents in others reduces average welfare. "Productivity increase of worse-o sector" without changing the overall skills' composition of economy increases the wage gap. |
| JEL: | F22 L84 J31 J24 D51 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:9000&r=lab |
| By: | Stephen Coelen; Sevin� Rende; Doug Fulton |
| Abstract: | Weaknesses of the continuum from high school education into the Connecticut workforce include the following: (1) Too many highly qualified high school students do not go on to college at all; (2) Too many high school students neglect to apply to in-State colleges or are not accepted in the in- State college of their choice; leaving the State, they often remain in their out-of-state community to work (3) Too many additional students transfer from in-State to Out-of-State colleges during college and these, in great numbers, do not return to Connecticut in their post college years; (4) Too many students, wherever trained, may start in the Connecticut labor market but fail to stay in Connecticut employment for very long; and (5) Too many, starting college, fail to complete college, making college an expensive and uncertain proposition, while improving students' completion rates would promote greater efficiency in the use of student and State resources. |
| Keywords: | high school education; college education; workplace success; CAPT testing; SAT testing |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:cceast:2007-apr-01&r=lab |
| By: | Anna Matas Prats (GEAP, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (SPAIN).); José Luís Raymond Bara (GEAP, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (SPAIN).); José Luís Raymond Bara (GEAP, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (SPAIN).) |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to estimate the impact of residential job accessibility on female employment probability in the metropolitan areas of Barcelona and Madrid. Following a “spatial mismatch” framework, we estimate a female employment probability equation where variables controlling for personal characteristics, residential segregation and employment potential on public transport network are included. Data used come from Microcensus 2001 of INE (National Institute of Statistics). The research focuses on the treatment of endogeneity problems and the measurement of accessibility variables. Our results show that low job accessibility in public transport negatively affects employment probability. The intensity of this effect tends to decrease with individual’s educational attainment. A higher degree of residential segregation also reduces job probability in a significant way.. |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xrp:wpaper:xreap2008-05&r=lab |
| By: | Oliver Gürtler; Matthias Kräkel (Department of Economics, BWL II, University of Bonn, Adenauerallee 24-42, 53113 Bonn, Germany; Department of Economics, BWL II, University of Bonn, Adenauerallee 24-42, 53113 Bonn, Germany) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the optimal design of rank-order tournaments with heterogeneous workers. If tournament prizes do not differ between the workers(uniform prizes), as in the previous tournament literature, the outcome will be ineffcient. In the case of limited liability, the employer may benefit from implementing more than first-best effort. We show that the employer can use individual prizes that satisfy a self-commitment condition and induce effcient incentives at the same time, thus solving a fundamental dilemma in tournament theory. Individual prizes exhibit two major advantages - they allow the extraction of worker rents and the adjustment of individual incentives, which will be important for the employer if he cannot rely on handicaps. |
| Keywords: | heterogenous workers. limited liability, rank-order tournaments, self commitment |
| JEL: | J33 M12 M52 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trf:wpaper:234&r=lab |
| By: | Runjuan Liu; Daniel Trefler |
| Abstract: | We examine the impact on U.S. labor markets of offshore outsourcing in services to China and India. We also consider the reverse flow or 'inshoring' which is the sale of services produced in the United States to unaffiliated buyers in China and India. Using March-to-March matched CPS data for 1996-2006 we examine the impacts on (1) occupation and industry switching, (2) weeks spent unemployed as a share of weeks in the labor force, and (3) earnings. We precisely estimate small positive effects of inshoring and smaller negative effects of offshore outsourcing. The net effect is positive. To illustrate how small the effects are, suppose that over the next nine years all of inshoring and offshore outsourcing grew at rates experienced during 1996-2005 in business, professional and technical services i.e., in segments where China and India have been particularly strong. Then workers in occupations that are exposed to inshoring and offshore outsourcing (1) would switch 4-digit occupations 2 percent less often, (2) would spend 0.1 percent less time unemployed, and (3) would earn 1.5 percent more. These are not annual changes – they are changes over nine years – and are thus best described as small positive effects. |
| JEL: | F16 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14061&r=lab |
| By: | Andrew Epstein; Jonathan D. Ketcham; Sean Nicholson |
| Abstract: | Professional partnerships might facilitate matching between specialized professionals and heterogeneous consumers, particularly where matching across firms is limited by information, incentives or regulation. We examine the extent to which internally-differentiated medical groups promote matching between expecting mothers and obstetricians based on the physician's clinical specialization, treatment style, and skill. Using data on hospital deliveries in Florida and New York from 1999 through 2004, we find that patients with high-risk health conditions and specialized physicians match relatively frequently in differentiated groups. This finding is strongest for conditions that are not detected until later in the pregnancy, when disincentives to refer between firms are greatest. We rely on the random assignment of weekend patients to physicians due to on-call schedules to estimate the effect of specialization and matching on mothers' health outcomes and to generate unbiased measures of physicians' treatment styles and skills. When specialization does affect maternal health, the magnitude of the estimated effect is large and is due primarily to matching patients without a particular health condition to physicians who tend to avoid that condition, not matching high-risk patients to specialists. We find some evidence that patients with preferences for cesarean sections are able to match with physicians who have corresponding treatment styles and with those most skilled at performing cesarean sections. We also find that group practices direct patients for whom cesarean sections are most appropriate to these more highly-skilled physicians. Differentiated groups enhance welfare by facilitating matching that results in both improved maternal health outcomes and greater incorporation of patient preferences, but at the cost of greater mismatching due to physicians' call schedules. |
| JEL: | D83 I12 J44 L15 L25 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14070&r=lab |
| By: | Søren Leth-Petersen (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen); Gabriel Pons Rotger (AKF, Danish Institute of Governmental Research) |
| Abstract: | A whiplash is a sudden acceleration-deceleration of the neck and head, typically associated with a rear-end car collision that may produce injuries in the soft tissue. Often there are no objective signs or symptoms of injury, and diagnosing lasting whiplash associated disorders (WAD) is difficult, in particular for individuals with mild or moderate injuries. This leaves a scope for compensation-seeking behaviour. The medical literature disagrees on the importance of this explanation. In this paper we trace the long-term earnings of a group of Danish individuals with mild to moderate injuries claiming compensation for having permanently lost earnings capacity and investigate if they return to their full pre-whiplash earnings when the insurance claim has been assessed. We find that about half of the claimants, those not granted compensation, return to an earnings level comparable with their pre-whiplash earnings suggesting that these individuals do not have chronic WAD in the sense that their earnings capacity is reduced. The other half, those granted compensation, experience persistent reductions in earnings relative to the case where they had not been exposed to a whiplash, even when they have a strong financial incentive to not reduce earnings. This suggests that moderate injuries tend to be chronic, and that compensation-seeking behaviour is not the main explanation for this group. We find that claimants with chronic WADs used more health care in the year prior to the whiplash than claimants with non-chronic cases. This suggests that lower initial health capital increases the risk that a whiplash causes persistent WAD. |
| Keywords: | dissolution; whiplash; register data; labour market |
| JEL: | I12 J29 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kuieca:2008_01&r=lab |
| By: | Donggyun Shin; Gary Solon |
| Abstract: | Using Panel Study of Income Dynamics data for 1969 through 2004, we examine movements in men's earnings volatility. Like many previous studies, we find that earnings volatility is substantially countercyclical. As for secular trends, we find that men's earnings volatility increased during the 1970s, but did not show a clear trend afterwards until a new upward trend appeared in the last few years. These patterns are broadly consistent with the findings of recent studies based on other data sets. |
| JEL: | D31 J31 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14075&r=lab |
| By: | Jay Stewart (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics); Mary Dorinda Allard (Program Director, ATUS) |
| Abstract: | A large body of literature has examined the effect of parental employment--primarily maternal employment--on the amount of time spent with children and in childcare activities, and it is well documented that employed parents spend less time with their children than nonemployed parents. But not all time is equal. Research on circadian rhythms suggests that children’s ability to benefit from parents’ enriching childcare activities, such as reading to and playing with their children, varies by time of day. Thus, we would expect parents to engage in these enriching activities at times of day when it is the most valuable to their children. If employment causes parents to shift their childcare activities away from times when it is the most valuable, then differences in the amount of time that employed and nonemployed parents spend in childcare underestimate the effect of employment on parents’ quality-adjusted time with their children. In this study, we examine whether employment results in parents shifting the time spent engaging in childcare activities to times that may be less productive. We develop a simple model of timing that predicts that parents will spend more time with their children when it is most productive. We then use data from the American Time Use Survey to compare workdays to nonwork days, and find that employment significantly affects the timing of enriching childcare activities for both mothers and fathers who are employed full time. In particular, these parents shift enriching childcare activities into the evening hours. In contrast, part-time employment has a much smaller effect on when mothers spent time with their children. Thus, part-time employment not only allows mothers to spend more time with their children compared to fulltime employment, it also allows them to spend that time when it may be the most beneficial and enjoyable. |
| Keywords: | Timing of Activities, Childcare, Time use |
| JEL: | J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bls:wpaper:ec080050&r=lab |
| By: | Temple, L.; Marie, P.; Bakry, F.; Joubert, N. |
| Abstract: | The growth of the international market of the horticultural products is made possible by the globalization of an intensive mode of production in synthetic products which mobilizes salaried workers. In the Antilles changes in technological trajectories enables the consideration of other modes of production. This article brings to light how the technical innovation allowing a decrease in the necessity to use pesticides is dependent on an adaptation of the coordination in the mobilization of the salaried work. For this purpose we compare two systems of the use of manual labour between Martinique and Guadeloupe by widening on certain aspects in the transnational. The comparison is based on the characterization of these systems in which manual labour is used and the indicators of performance of the sectors of banana as well as on the adaptation of the technical changes. ...French Abstract : La croissance du marché international des produits horticoles se réalise par la globalisation d'un mode de production intensif en produits de synthèses qui mobilise une main d'oeuvre salariée. Dans les Antilles des changements de trajectoires technologiques permettent d'envisager d'autres modes de production. Cet article met en évidence comment l'innovation technique permettant de diminuer le recours aux pesticides est tributaire d'une adaptation des coordinations dans la mobilisation du travail salarié. Pour cela nous caractérisons les systèmes d'emploi de la main d'oeuvre salarié entre différentes origines et leurs impact sur des indicateurs de performance des filières de banane et d'adaptation des changements techniques. |
| Keywords: | BANANA; WORK; INNOVATION; PESTICIDE; ANTILLES |
| JEL: | A12 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umr:wpaper:200802&r=lab |
| By: | Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati |
| Abstract: | The basic objective of this paper is to examine the effect of military spending on income inequality in four major South Asian economies. In the process, we also control for other possible key determinants of income inequality subject to data availability. Using panel regression fixed effects analysis for the study period 1975 to 2005, we find from our estimates that there is a positive effect of military expenditure on income inequality. |
| Keywords: | Defense Spending; Income Inequality & South Asia |
| JEL: | H I O |
| Date: | 2008–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wdi:papers:2008-918&r=lab |
| By: | Berna Demiralp (Old Dominion University, Department of Economics); Johanna Francis (Fordham University, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Although the debate about the effect of wealth on entrepreneurship is now almost two decades old, there is little consensus among researchers about the significance of wealth as a determinant for self-employment. We re-visit the relationship between wealth and entrepreneurship using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Like Hurst and Lusardi (2004), our results suggest the relationship between wealth and the probability of entering entrepreneurship is nonlinear. However, unlike Hurst and Lusardi, we find the probability of entrepreneurship increases at an increasing rate with wealth, starting at lower quantiles of the wealth distribution. We also observe that the aggregate relationship masks differences among entrepreneurs with respect to their industry. While high capital requirement industries and professional services display a convex relationship between wealth and the probability of self-employment, low capital requirement industries display a concave relationship. Since we find a positive relationship between wealth and the probability of entering entrepreneurship at lower quantiles of the wealth distribution, it is critical to check whether this relationship is caused by wealth endogeneity. In order to account for the possible endogeneity of wealth we instrument for wealth using changes in housing equity and the value of unexpected inheritances. The results of instrumental variable estimation reveal that there is no significant relationship between wealth and entering entrepreneurship for the full sample as well as for each of the three industries. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneur, wealth, industry, liquidity constraints |
| JEL: | E21 G11 J24 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frd:wpaper:dp2008-09&r=lab |
| By: | Jamasb, T.; Pollitt, M.G.; Triebs, T. |
| Abstract: | On both sides of the Atlantic the regulation of gas transmission networks has undergone major changes since the early 1990’s. Whereas in the US the long-standing regime of cost-plus regulation was complemented by increasing pipe-to-pipe competition, most European countries moved towards incentive regulation complemented by market integration. We study the impact of US regulatory reform using a Malmquist-based productivity analysis for a panel of US interstate companies. Results are presented for changes in productivity, as well as for several convergence tests. The results indicate that taking productivity and convergence as performance indicators, regulation has been rather successful, in particular during a period where overall demand was flat. Lessons for European regulators are twofold. First, the US analysis shows that benchmarking of European transmission operators would be possible if data were available. Second, our results suggest that, in the long-run, market integration and competition are alternatives to the current European model. |
| Keywords: | Natural gas transmission; utility regulation; data envelopment analysis; total factor productivity; convergence |
| JEL: | L51 L95 O57 D24 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:0812&r=lab |
| By: | MJB Moral, Farid Ahammad Sobhani and Ruslan Rainis (University Sains Malaysia; University Sains Malaysia; University Sains Malaysia) |
| Abstract: | This study aims at investigating scholars thinking intended for poverty alleviation. Two-round Delphi techniques were applied to attain experts’ opinion in support of probable resolution of poverty. Government officials, Non-government executives, University academics, and social & political personalities are considered as scholars. The scholars think that limitation of job is the fundamental cause of poverty that is why the poor are bound to live in vulnerable unhygienic places where inadequate services are prevailing. They also argued that by providing home-based work and especial training that will help them to get job for income generation, the poverty problems could be reduced. As well community-based management similar to labor intensive low-cost housing factory and sanitation plant will also been lead to decrease poverty. To avoid hypothetical discover, the study analyzed poverty alleviation activities of UNDP/GOB project. The UNDP/GOB project entitled ‘Local Partnerships for Urban Poverty Alleviation’ is one of the biggest urban poverty alleviating projects in Bangladesh. There are many successful activities of this project such as community-based micro-credit, sanitation as well as drinking water has been highlighted. The study was undertaken by acquiring primary data from the field survey that employed a structure questionnaire and gathered information emphasis on poverty. Heads of poor households or a member behalf of HH, were used as respondents. |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aiu:abewps:70&r=lab |
| By: | Brian A. Jacob; Lars Lefgren; David Sims |
| Abstract: | Educational interventions are often narrowly targeted and temporary, and evaluations often focus on the short-run impacts of the intervention. Insofar as the positive effects of educational interventions fadeout over time, however, such assessments may be misleading. In this paper, we develop a simple statistical framework to empirically assess the persistence of treatment effects in education. To begin, we present a simple model of student learning that incorporates permanent as well as transitory learning gains. Using this model, we demonstrate how the parameter of interest – the persistence of a particular measurable education input – can be recovered via instrumental variables as a particular local average treatment effect. We initially motivate this strategy in the context of teacher quality, but then generalize the model to consider educational interventions more generally. Using administrative data that links students and teachers, we construct measures of teacher effectiveness and then estimate the persistence of these teacher value-added measures on student test scores. We find that teacher-induced gains in math and reading achievement quickly erode. In most cases, our point estimates suggest a one-year persistence of about one-fifth and rule out a one-year persistence rate higher than one-third. |
| JEL: | I2 I21 J20 J24 J38 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14065&r=lab |
| By: | Georgios Marios Chrysanthou |
| Abstract: | We analyse the determinants of union membership in the UK using data from the BHPS (1991-2003). Employing three alternative methodologies to control for the problem of initial conditions we find that union membership remains persistent even after controlling for the unobserved effect. There is evidence of a considerable correlation between the unobserved individual heterogeneity and the initial membership status. Ignoring this overstates the degree of state dependence of union membership greatly. The extent of state dependence in union membership status is notably higher in the (1991-1996) period estimates and appears to be more pronounced in the case of male employees for the entire period under analysis. The second period estimates reveal that unobserved heterogeneity has a more prominent impact in determining future unionisation probability versus past union membership. Finally, the estimates suggest that an individual´s propensity to unionise is determined by a mixture of industrial and personal characteristics. This is at odds with earlier studies, such as Booth (1986) and Wright (1995), failing to control for unobservable effects and concluding that personal attributes do not have a significant impact on unionisation propensity. |
| Keywords: | Union membership, Initial conditions, Unobserved individual heterogeneity, State dependence, Dynamic random effects probit models |
| JEL: | C23 J51 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:we082315&r=lab |
| By: | Graziella Bertocchi (-) |
| Abstract: | We offer a rationale for the decision to extend the franchise to women within a politico-economic model where men are richer than women, women display a higher preference for public goods, and women’s disenfranchisement carries a societal cost. We first derive the tax rate chosen by the male median voter when women are disenfranchised. Next we show that, as industrialization raises the reward to mental labor relative to physical labor, women’s relative wage increases. When the cost of disenfranchisement becomes higher than the cost of the higher tax rate which applies under universal enfranchisement, the male median voter is better off extending the franchise to women. A consequent expansion of the size of government is only to be expected in societies with a relatively high cost of disenfranchisement. We empirically test the implications of the model over the 1870-1930 period. We proxy the gender wage gap with the level of per capita income and the cost of disenfranchisement with the presence of Catholicism, which is associated with a more traditional view of women’s role and thus a lower cost. The gender gap in the preferences for public goods is proxied by the availability of divorce, which implies marital instability and a more vulnerable economic position for women. Consistently with the model’s predictions, women suffrage is affected positively by per capita income and negatively by the presence of Catholicism and the availability of divorce, while women suffrage increases the size of government only in non-Catholic countries. |
| Keywords: | women suffrage, inequality, public goods, welfare state, culture, family, divorce |
| JEL: | P16 J16 N40 H50 |
| Date: | 2008–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:prt:dpaper:4_2008&r=lab |
| By: | Michael D. Grubb; Paul Oyer |
| Abstract: | We use university parking permits to study how firms and employees split the value of employee benefit tax subsidies. Starting in 1998, the IRS allowed employees to pay for parking passes with pre-tax income. This subsidized the parking pass purchases of faculty and staff, but did not affect students. We show that the typical university raised its parking rates by 8-10% extra when it implemented a pre-tax payment system, but that this increase was the same for those affected by the tax change and those that were not affected. We conclude that university employees captured much of the new tax benefit, that faculty and staff that purchase permits benefited relative to those that do not purchase permits, and that students that purchase permits were made worse off relative to those that do not buy permits. We discuss what these results suggest about universities' objectives in setting their parking prices and about the demand for university parking. |
| JEL: | H25 H32 J32 K35 K49 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14062&r=lab |
| By: | Elizabeth Cascio; Damon Clark; Nora Gordon |
| Abstract: | It is widely documented that U.S. students score below their OECD counterparts on international achievement tests, but it is less commonly known that ultimately, U.S. native adults catch up. In this paper, we explore institutional explanations for differences in the evolution of literacy over young adulthood across wealthy OECD countries. We use an international cross-section of micro data from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS); these data show that cross-country differences in the age profile of literacy skills are not due to differences in individual family background, and that relatively high rates of university graduation appears to explain a good part of the U.S. "catch up." The cross-sectional design of the IALS prevents us from controlling for cohort effects, but we use a variety of other data sources to show that cohort effects are likely small in comparison to the differences by age revealed in the IALS. We go on to discuss how particular institutional features of secondary and postsecondary education correlate, at the country level, with higher rates of university completion. |
| JEL: | F0 I2 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14073&r=lab |
| By: | Mohammad A. Ashraf, M. H. R. Joarder and R. Al-Masum (University Utara Malaysia; United International University, Bangladesh; North South University, Bangladesh) |
| Abstract: | Optimizing employee satisfaction is a key to the success of any business that relies on a variety of organizational and psycho-economic factors. This study was conducted to identify that sort of key factors, which are responsible to influence on the overall job satisfaction in the growing mobile phone corporate in Bangladesh. The phone corporates, which are included here in the study, are Grameen Phone (GP), Bangla Link and Aktel. The factors included in the investigation as independent variables are Compensation Package, Supervision, Career Growth, Training and Development, Working atmosphere, Company Loyalty and Performance Appraisal. The result indicates that training and performance appraisal, work atmosphere, compensation package, supervision, and company loyalty are the key factors that impact on employees’ job satisfaction in these corporations. The study also finds that the employees of these three corporations possessed above of the moderate level and positive attitude towards job satisfaction, which could be nudged up to excellent status of employee satisfaction if the management takes those identified factors with a little more rigorous weight into their considerations and acts further accordingly. |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aiu:abewps:68&r=lab |
| By: | Liam Delaney (Geary Institute, University College Dublin); Caroline Rawdon (Geary Institute, University College Dublin + Department of Psychology, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Co. Kildare); Kevin Denny (Geary Institute, University College Dublin); Wen Zhang (Geary Institute, University College Dublin); Richard A.P. Roche (Geary Institute, University College Dublin + Department of Psychology, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Co. Kildare) |
| Abstract: | The way people make decisions about future benefits termed discounting - has important implications for both financial planning and health behaviour. Several theories assume that, when delaying gratification, the lower weight given to future benefits (the discount rate) declines exponentially. However there is considerable evidence that it declines hyperbolically with the rate of discount being proportionate to the delay distance. There is relatively little evidence as to whether neural areas mediating timedependent discounting processes differ according to the nature of the task. The present study investigates the potential neurological mechanisms underpinning domain-specific discounting processes. We present high-density event-related potentials (ERPs) data from a task in which participants were asked to make decisions about financial rewards or their health over short and long time-horizons. Participants (n=17) made a button-press response to their preference for an immediate or delayed gain (in the case of finance) or loss (in the case of health), with the discrepancy in the size of benefits/losses varying between alternatives. Waveform components elicited during the task were similar for both domains and included posterior N1, frontal P2 and posterior P3 components. We provide source dipole evidence that differential brain activation does occur across domains with results suggesting the possible involvement of the right cingulate gyrus and left claustrum for the health domain and the left medial and right superior frontal gyri for the finance domain. However, little evidence for differential activation across time horizons is found. |
| Date: | 2008–04–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:200811&r=lab |
| By: | Sanwal, Anand |
| Abstract: | Although people and organizations know that world-class followership is not a means to achieving glory, surprisingly, many organizations and managers seem content to follow the lead of others when it comes to making key organizational decisions. One of the most pervasive and damaging follower afflictions which has increasingly infested corporate psychology and behavior is a disease known as Best Practicism. |
| Keywords: | best practices; corporate performance |
| JEL: | D23 A1 |
| Date: | 2008–03–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:8973&r=lab |
| By: | Miguel Rodríguez; Xavier Labandeira |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with the effects of emissions trading, a standard economic instrument to control greenhouse gas emissions, in a particular country. After distributing the Kyoto-mandated allocation among member states, the European Commission introduced a rather conventional emissions trading scheme in 2005. The extent of application of the market is limited, with only certain sectors being subject to it (mostly industries), and tradable permits are freely allocated. Both facts have important consequences in efficiency and distributional terms, also raising (normative) concerns on the actual and desirable regulatory approximation. The paper mainly focuses on the (positive) efficiency and distributional effects of the EU emissions trading system, with the use of a static general equilibrium model for the Spanish economy, also incorporating some hypothetical simulations (broader scope of the market, carbon taxation). The results indicate that the narrow scope of the EU emission trading market generates efficiency costs and relevant distributional effects. |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2007-39&r=lab |
| By: | Jan Eeckhout (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania); Philipp Kircher (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania) |
| Abstract: | We investigate under which conditions price competition in a market with matching frictions leads to sorting of buyers and sellers. Positive assortative matching obtains only if there is a high enough degree of complementarity between buyer and seller types. The relevant condition is root-supermodularity; i.e., the square root of the match value function is supermodular. It is a necessary and sufficient condition for positive assortative matching under any distribution of buyer and seller types, and does not depend on the details of the underlying matching function that describes the search process. The condition is weaker than log-supermodularity, a condition required for positive assortative matching in markets with random search. This highlights the role competition plays in matching heterogeneous agents. Negative assortative matching obtains whenever the match value function is weakly submodular. |
| Keywords: | Competitive Search Equilibrium. Directed Search. Two-Sided Matching. Decentralized Price Competition. Root-Supermodularity. |
| JEL: | J64 C78 D83 |
| Date: | 2008–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pen:papers:08-020&r=lab |
| By: | Gudrun Biffl (WIFO) |
| Abstract: | The European Union has developed a complex strategy and policy coordination process to promote gender equality in all community policies through "gender mainstreaming". While every member country has to promote the policy objective of gender equality, the instruments implemented to that end may differ. Different institutional structures and gender roles in the society may result in different outcomes of the same policy measure. Therefore every country has to choose those instruments best fitted to achieve gender equality. This paper outlines the various positions of the individual member countries relative to gender relations, with a special emphasis on Austria. Overall, it is the state and public sector institutions which tend to take a lead in implementing affirmative action programmes, in the main positive discrimination of women (quota regulations, targets) and enforcement of antidiscrimination legislation. Affirmative action programmes in private industry are not a universal feature in all EU countries. While gender equality is pursued as a moral issue in its own right, it is also an instrument to combat the negative impact of ageing of the European populations on welfare budgets and economic growth. |
| Keywords: | Gender Mainstreaming, equal opportunity, gender gap, models of social organisation, outsourcing of household production, gender segregation. |
| Date: | 2008–05–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2008:i:319&r=lab |
| By: | Otto H. Swank; Bauke Visser |
| Abstract: | Transparent decision-making processes are widely regarded as a prerequisite for the working of a representative democracy. It facilitates accountability, and citizens may suspect that decisions, if taken behind closed doors, do not promote their interests. Why else the secrecy? We provide a model of committee decision-making that explains the public.s demand for transparency, and committee members. aversion to it. In line with case study evidence, we show how pressures to become transparent induce committee members to organize pre-meetings away from the public eye. Outcomes of pre-meetings, deals, are less determined, more anarchic, than those of formal meetings, but within bounds. We characterize deals that are self-enforcing in the formal meeting. |
| Keywords: | Committee decision-making, reputational concerns, transparency, pre-meetings, deliberation, self-enforcing deals, coalitions |
| JEL: | D71 D72 D82 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2008/18&r=lab |
| By: | Eva M. Berger |
| Abstract: | Using life satisfaction as a direct measure of individual utility has become popular in the empirical economic literature. In this context, it is crucial to know what circumstances or changes the measure is sensitive to. Is life satisfaction a volatile concept that is affected by minor changes in life circumstances? Or is it a reliable measure of personal happiness? This paper will analyze the impact of a catastrophe, namely the nuclear catastrophe of Chernobyl, on life satisfaction. I use longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study and especially information collected on a monthly basis which allows the researcher to study calendar effects. The following clear-cut results are found. While concern about the environment rose immediately after the nuclear incident, life satisfaction changed little. This suggests that although people were aware of the severity of the catastrophe, they did not feel that their individual well-being had been affected. This finding is highly relevant to the life satisfaction literature as it shows that the life satisfaction measure is very stable and robust against societal and global events. It is shown to predominantly reflect personal life circumstances like health, employment, income, and the family situation and this relationship is apparently not disturbed by global events. Thus, my results reinforce previous findings on the relationship between life satisfaction and individual life characteristics as the stability of their outcome measure is approved. |
| Keywords: | Subjective Well-Being, Happiness, Environmental Protection, Household Panel, SOEP |
| JEL: | I31 A12 A19 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp109&r=lab |
| By: | Luis Fernando Gamboa; Nohora Forero Ramírez |
| Abstract: | We test the existence of changes in the relationship between fertility and schooling in Colombia for women from 30 to 40 years old between 1995 and 2005. For our purpose, we use Poisson Regression Models. Our database is the Demographic and Health Survey from 1995 and 2005. We found a reduction in the fertility during this period and an increase in the educative level of the population. According to our results the total number of children a woman has, keeps an inverse relationship with her educative level, which may be explained by the effects of education on the knowledge of the fertility. We also find that the effect of an additional year of education in 1995 is higher than 2005. Besides, we also find that there are significant rural-urban differences in the determinants on fertility for Colombia’s women in the last decade. *** En este trabajo se pretende evaluar la existencia de cambios en la relación entre fecundidad y escolaridad en Colombia para mujeres de 30 a 40 años de edad entre 1995 y 2005. Para tal efecto se utilizan modelos de Poisson sobre la Encuesta Nacional de Demografía y Salud 1995 y 2005. Se encuentra una reducción en la fecundidad durante el periodo y su relación inversa con la escolaridad, que puede ser explicada por el efecto de la educación sobre otras variables como el incremento en el conocimiento sobre los programas de control natal. Se encuentra además que el efecto de un año adicional de educación sobre la fecundidad es mayor en 1995 que en 2005. De otro lado, se encuentra que las diferencias entre zonas urbanas y rurales son significativas en la explicación de la fecundidad en Colombia durante la última década. |
| Date: | 2008–06–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:004711&r=lab |
| By: | Ram C. Acharya; Wolfgang Keller |
| Abstract: | In the wake of falling trade costs, two central consequences in the importing economy are, first, that stronger competition through increased imports can lead to market share reallocations among domestic firms with different productivity levels (selection). Second, the increase in imports might improve domestic technologies through learning externalities (spillovers). Each of these channels may have a major impact on aggregate productivity. This paper presents comparative evidence from a sample of OECD countries. We find that the average long run effect of an increase in imports on domestic productivity is close to zero. If the scope for technological learning is limited, the selection effect dominates and imports lead to lower productivity. If, however, imports are relatively technology-intensive, imports also generate learning that can on net raise domestic productivity. Moreover, there is somewhat less selection when the typical domestic firm is large. The results support models in which trade triggers both substantial selection and technological learning. |
| JEL: | F1 F2 O3 O33 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14079&r=lab |
| By: | Jeroen de Jong; Sander Wennekers |
| Abstract: | Intrapreneurship refers to employee initiatives in organizations to undertake something new, without being asked to do so. As the detailed behavioural content of intrapreneurship is still uncharted, this paper surveys three relevant strands of literature. These are early-stage entrepreneurial activity (business founding) and two literatures on employee behaviour inside existing organizations, i.e. proactiveness and innovative work behaviour. By combining insights from these domains with those from the emerging intrapreneurship literature, we derive a detailed list of relevant activities and behavioural aspects of intrapreneurship. Major activities related to intrapreneurship include opportunity perception, idea generation, designing a new product or another recombination of resources, internal coalition building, persuading the management, resource acquisition, planning and organizing. Key behavioural aspects of intrapreneurship are personal initiative, active information search, out of the box thinking, voicing, championing, taking charge, finding a way, and some degree of risk taking. The paper next discusses the similarities and differences between intrapreneurship and independent entrepreneurship. Most but not all of the activities and behavioural aspects of the latter are also typical of the former phenomenon. Key differential elements of independent entrepreneurship are the investment of personal financial means and the related financial risk taking, a higher degree of autonomy, and legal and fiscal aspects of establishing a new independent business. Based on this discussion an integral conceptual model of intrapreneurial behaviour is presented. The paper closes with conclusions. |
| Date: | 2008–06–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eim:papers:h200802&r=lab |
| By: | Markus Jantti; Eva Sierminska; Tim Smeeding |
| Abstract: | This report looks at the extent to which household net worth and disposable income are correlated across individuals. After having briefly discussed the importance of better information on household wealth for social policies, the paper describes the main features of the Luxembourg Wealth Study – a collaborative project to assemble existing micro-data on household wealth into a coherent database that aims to do for wealth what the Luxembourg Income Study has achieved for income– and some of the basic patterns highlighted by these data, while noting the important methodological features that affect comparability. The main bulk of the report focuses on the joint distribution of income and wealth. While the comprehensive definition of wealth used (i.e. including business equity) allows covering only five OECD countries, the analysis uncovers a number of patterns. In particular, household net worth and disposable income are highly, but not perfectly correlated across people within each country. Many of the people classified as income poor do have some assets, although both the prevalence of holding and the amounts are clearly lower than among the general population. While part of the positive association between disposable income and net worth reflects observable characteristics of households, such as age and education of the household head, a sizeable correlation remains even after controlling for these characteristics. <BR>Ce rapport examine la corrélation entre le patrimoine des ménages et leur revenu disponible. Après avoir brièvement évoqué l’importance d’une meilleure information sur les patrimoines pour les politiques sociales, le document décrit les principales caractéristiques du Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWS) – un projet mené pour réunir les micro-données existantes sur le patrimoine des ménages dans une base de données cohérente, visant à accomplir pour les patrimoines ce que le Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) a réussi pour les revenus. Le rapport décrit quelques aspects fondamentaux mis en relief par ces données, tout en notant les caractéristiques méthodologiques qui ont un effet sur la comparabilité internationale. La partie centrale du rapport se concentre sur la distribution conjointe du patrimoine et du revenu. Alors que la définition du patrimoine utilisée (incluant les actifs professionnels) permet de couvrir seulement cinq pays de l’OCDE, l’analyse révèle un nombre d’éléments. La corrélation entre patrimoine et revenu disponible des individus dans chaque pays est élevée mais pas pour autant parfaite. Beaucoup de personnes ayant un revenu inférieur au seuil de pauvreté ont un patrimoine positif, bien que les personnes dans cette situation et les montants détenus soient clairement plus faibles que pour la population dans son ensemble. Si une partie de la corrélation positive entre revenu et patrimoine révèle des caractéristiques observables des ménages, telles que l’âge et l’éducation des chefs de famille, il n’en demeure pas moins qu’une corrélation non négligeable subsiste même après avoir contrôlé l’effet de ces caractéristiques. |
| JEL: | D3 I3 |
| Date: | 2008–05–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:65-en&r=lab |
| By: | Olivier Debande (European Investment Bank, Luxembourg); Jean-Luc De Meulemeester (Université Libre de Bruxelles and SKOPE, University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyze a bidimensional quality competition between two higher education sectors characterised by different preferences (academic vs. vocational) as well as cost structures, and its impact on curriculum’s provision (type and quality), both in decentralised and social welfare maximisation settings. The students are heterogenous in terms of their valuation of quality and their intellectual type. We try to illustrate in this abstract setting some stylized facts as academic drift of vocational institutions as well as addressing more normative issue as the relative merits of binary or unitary models of higher education |
| Keywords: | Higher education, competition, vertical and horizontal differentiation |
| JEL: | I21 L13 N30 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dul:wpaper:08-12rs&r=lab |
| By: | Nejat Anbarci (Department of Economics, Florida International University); Jungmin Lee (Department of Economics, Florida International University) |
| Abstract: | Recently, police departments, legislators, media, and the public at large in the U.S. have increasingly been concerned about racial disparities in officers' issuing traffic tickets. Ascertaining the extent to which an observed disparity reflects racial bias is the crucial issue. First, we use a theoretical model which borrows features from the recent literature regarding racial bias in vehicle searches. In our model, motorists, picking the speed to travel at, take into account the probability of getting ticketed and the speed that the officer will cite, while officers maximize a benefit function generically increasing in the speed of ticketed drivers; this benefit function, however, is general enough to allow officers to give certain drivers a break by citing them at a lower speed than they were traveling. Empirically, we exploit the existence of a massive accumulation of speeding tickets at 10 m.p.h. over the speed limit to elicit officers' discretionary behavior and leniency. Surprisingly,about 30% of all ticketed drivers were cited for driving exactly at this particular speed. Using our novel measure of officers' leniency, we find that especially white and male officers are heavily engaged in discretionary behavior. We also find officers' discretion is racially biased; minority officers are less lenient to minority drivers. This is interesting in comparison with Antonovics and Knight (forthcoming) who, using the same data set, found evidence on own-race preferences in vehicle searches. |
| Keywords: | Discretionary behavior, strict behavior, leniency, racial bias, drivers' speeding decision, officers' ticketing and citation decision. |
| JEL: | J70 K42 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fiu:wpaper:0804&r=lab |
| By: | Congleton, R.D. |
| Abstract: | Constitutional democracy in the United States emerged very gradually through a long series of constitutional bargains in the course of three centuries. No revolutions or revolutionary threats were necessary or evident during most of the three century–long transition to constitutional democracy in America. As in Europe, legislative authority gradually increased, wealth-based suffrage laws were gradually eliminated, the secret ballot was introduced, and the power of elected officials increased. For the most part, this occurred peacefully and lawfully, with few instances of open warfare or revolutionary threats. A theory of constitutional exchange grounded in rational choice models provides a good explanation for the distinctive features of American constitutional history, as it does for much of the West, although it does less well at explaining the timing of some changes. |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:0764&r=lab |
| By: | Wolfgang Pollan (WIFO) |
| Abstract: | Since the 19960s, several countries have adopted incomes policies in various forms to control inflation that had been interpreted as the result of a distributional struggle between business and labour unions. Recent writings on the NAIRU, however, ignore past policy interventions in the wage and price setting system, in the formation and propagation of inflation expectations, in particular. Some of the problems inherent in such an approach are illustrated in this paper by applying the standard tools of NAIRU analysis to the Austrian economy, an economy that has been subject to a variety of policy measures. |
| Keywords: | NAIRU, incomes policies, expectations, Lucas critique |
| Date: | 2008–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2008:i:314&r=lab |
| By: | Beckstead, Desmond; Brown, W. Mark; Newbold, Bruce |
| Abstract: | Les diplômés universitaires sont plus nombreux et leur nombre croît plus rapidement dans les grandes villes que dans les petites villes et les régions rurales. Ce taux de croissance relativement élevé tient aux flux migratoires nets et(ou) aux taux plus élevés d'obtention d'un diplôme. En s'appuyant sur les données tirées des Recensements de 1996 et de 2001, les auteurs du présent document testent l'importance relative de ces deux sources de croissance du capital humain en décomposant la croissance du nombre de titulaires de diplômes dans les diverses villes en flux migratoires nets (intérieurs et étrangers) et en croissance in situ, autrement dit, croissance attribuable aux taux plus élevés d'obtention d'un diplôme dans les populations des résidents des villes. Nous constatons que les deux sources sont importantes, la croissance in situ étant toutefois le facteur dominant. Ainsi, les taux élevés d'obtention d'un diplôme dans les populations des villes s'expliquent moins par la capacité des villes d'attirer du capital humain que par leur capacité de le générer. |
| Keywords: | Éducation, formation et apprentissage, Rendement des entreprises et appartenance, Population et démographie, Niveau de scolarité, Profils régionaux et urbains, Mobilité et migration |
| Date: | 2008–06–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp1f:2008019f&r=lab |
| By: | Cheti Nicoletti (Institute for Social and Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | The estimation of occupational mobility across generations can be biased because of different sample selection issues as, for example, selection into employment. Most empirical papers have either neglected sample selection issues or adopted Heckman-type correction methods. These methods are generally not adequate to estimate intergenerational mobility models. In this paper, we show how to use new methods to estimate linear and quantile intergenerational mobility equations taking account of multiple sample selection. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational links, sample selection |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2008-20&r=lab |
| By: | Katharine G. Abraham; Sara E. Helms; Stanley Presser |
| Abstract: | Estimates of volunteering in the United States vary greatly from survey to survey and do not show the decline over time common to other measures of social capital. We argue that these anomalies are caused by the social processes that determine survey participation, in particular the propensity of people who do volunteer work to respond to surveys at higher rates than those who do not do volunteer work. Thus surveys with lower responses rates will usually have higher proportions of volunteers, and the decline in response rates over time likely has led to increasing overrepresentation of volunteers. We analyze data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) -- the sample for which is drawn from Current Population Survey (CPS) respondents -- together with data from the CPS Volunteering Supplement to demonstrate the effects of survey nonresponse on estimates of volunteering activity and its correlates. CPS respondents who become ATUS respondents report much more volunteering in the CPS than those who become ATUS nonrespondents. This difference is replicated within demographic and other subgroups. Consequently, conventional statistical adjustments for nonresponse cannot correct the resulting bias. Although nonresponse leads to estimates of volunteer activity that are too high, it generally does not affect inferences about the characteristics associated with volunteer activity. We discuss the implications of these findings for the study of other phenomena. |
| JEL: | J01 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14076&r=lab |
| By: | Florian S. PETERS (University of Zurich and University of California at Berkeley); Alexander F. WAGNER (University of Zurich, Swiss Finance Institute and Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | Executive compensation has increased dramatically over the past 15 years, but so has forced CEO turnover. We argue that part of the development of CEO pay can be explained by the adverse consequences that forced turnover implies for a CEO. We ¯nd that for the CEOs of the largest US corporations, a one percentage point increase in exogenous turnover risk is associated with $40,000 to $90,000 more in terms of total compensation. The size of this risk premium is in line with estimates of the importance of career concerns and forfeiture risk. This relation survives a test of reverse causation and controlling for unobserved ¯rm heterogeneity. We argue that the robustly positive correlation between turnover and compensation is not consistent with a view of entrenched CEOs setting their own compensation and turnover risk. |
| Keywords: | Executive compensation, entrenchment, turnover, corporate governance |
| JEL: | D8 G34 M52 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp0811&r=lab |
| By: | Olivier L’Haridon (GREG - HEC et Université Paris IV); Franck Malherbet (franck.malherbet@u-cergy.fr) |
| Abstract: | Dans la plupart des pays européens, la redéfinition du contrat de travail et de ses modalités de rupture est au coeur des débats contemporains de politique économique du marché du travail. Ces débats s’appuient sur l’imposante littérature consacrée aux liens entre protection de l’emploi et performance du marché du travail développée au cours des dix dernières années. Toutefois, une source de divergence importante entre les marchés du travail européens, le degré de centralisation des négociations salariales, a été curieusement éludée dans la plupart de ces études. L’objet de cet article est précisément d’envisager d’un point de vue théorique la nature des interactions entre politiques du marché du travail et niveaux de négociation. Dans cette perspective, nous développons un modèle dynamique du marché du travail dans la lignée des travaux de Pissarides (2000) intégrant différentes branches d’activité. Notre analyse montre que dans ce cadre de référence, les négociations de branche conduisent systématiquement à une allocation inefficace des ressources. Il existe alors une justification explicite à l’introduction des politiques de l’emploi. Nous montrons alors qu’un ensemble de politiques, notamment fiscales et de protection de l’emploi, est susceptible d’assurer l’´equivalence entre équilibre de branches et optimum. |
| Keywords: | Modèle d’appariement, Niveau des négociations salariales, Politiques de l’emploi |
| JEL: | J41 J48 J60 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2008-22&r=lab |