|
on Labour Economics |
| By: | Juan J. Dolado (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); Marcel Jansen (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); Juan F. Jimeno (Banco de España) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of transitory skill mismatch in a matching model with heterogeneous jobs and workers. In our model, some high-educated workers may accept unskilled jobs for which they are over-qualified but are allowed to engage in on-the-job search in pursuit of a better job. We show that this feature has relevant implications for the set of potential equilibria, the unemployment rates of the different types of workers, the degree of wage inequality, and the response of the labour market to shifts in the demand and supply of skills. |
| Keywords: | on-the-job search, skills, unemployment, wage inequality |
| JEL: | J1 J24 J41 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:0813&r=lab |
| By: | Elhanan Helpman; Oleg Itskhoki; Stephen Redding |
| Abstract: | In this paper we develop a multi-sector general equilibrium model of firm heterogeneity, worker heterogeneity and labor market frictions. We characterize the distributions of employment, unemployment, wages and income within and between sectors as a function of structural parameters. We find that greater firm heterogeneity increases unemployment, wage inequality and income inequality, whereas greater worker heterogeneity has ambiguous effects. We also find that labor market frictions have non-monotonic effects on aggregate unemployment and inequality through within- and between-sector components. Finally, high-ability workers have the lowest unemployment rates but the greatest wage inequality, and income inequality is lowest for intermediate ability. Although these results are interesting in their own right, the main contribution of the paper is in providing a framework for analyzing these types of issues. |
| JEL: | D21 D24 D31 D43 J31 J64 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14122&r=lab |
| By: | Fernando Munoz-Bullon; Begona Cueto Iglesias |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyse the survival of start-up firms among formerly wage workers in Spain. In particular, we address the question of how long do these workers remain self-employed before entering into unemployment or returning to a new paid-employment, using well-known duration model techniques. Results show that a higher survival rate in self-employment is associated to men, prime-age workers and individuals with higher previous labour turnover. Moreover, longer unemployment spells are found to speed up the rate of transition to non-employment and to reduce that to paid employment. Finally, the probability of exiting decreases with duration in self-employment. |
| Keywords: | Self-employment, Duration analysis |
| JEL: | J23 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:wbrepe:wb083108&r=lab |
| By: | Chaudhuri, Sarbajit |
| Abstract: | The paper develops a four-sector general equilibrium model where the fair wage hypothesis is valid and there is agricultural dualism for analyzing the consequence of an inflow of foreign capital on the skilled-unskilled wage inequality and the unemployment of skilled labour in a developing economy. The unskilled workers are fully employed but there is imperfection in the market for unskilled labour. On the contrary, the skilled wage is set by the firms by minimizing the unit cost of skilled labour and their efficiency depends on the relative income distribution and the unemployment rate. The analysis finds that an inflow of foreign capital worsens the relative wage inequality but lowers the unemployment of skilled labour. It provides an alternative theoretical foundation to the empirical finding that inflows of foreign capital might have produced unfavourable effect on the wage inequality in the developing countries during the liberalized regime by increasing the relative demand for skilled labour. |
| Keywords: | Fair wage hypothesis; agricultural dualism; skilled labour; unskilled labour; relative wage inequality; foreign capital; unemployment |
| JEL: | F13 J41 O15 |
| Date: | 2008–06–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:9394&r=lab |
| By: | Zenou, Yves (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | We propose a spatial search-matching model where both job creation and job destruction are endogenous. Workers are ex ante identical but not ex post since their job can be hit by a technological shock, which decreases their productivity. They reside in a city and commuting to the job center involves both pecuniary and time costs. Thus, workers with high wages are willing to live closer to jobs to save on time commuting costs. We show that, in equilibrium, there is a one-to-one correspondence between the productivity space and the urban location space. Workers with high productivities and wages reside close to jobs, have low commuting costs and pay high land rents. We also show that higher commuting costs and higher unemployment benefits lead to more job destruction. |
| Keywords: | Job Search; Commuting Costs; Wage Distribution; Urban Land Use |
| JEL: | D83 J41 J64 R14 |
| Date: | 2008–06–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0752&r=lab |
| By: | Zenou, Yves (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | We develop a model where information about jobs is essentially obtained through friends and relatives, i.e. strong and weak ties. Workers commute to a business center to work and to interact with other people. We find that housing prices increase with the level of social interactions in the city because information about jobs is transmitted more rapidly and, as a result, individuals are more likely to be employed and to be able to pay higher land rents. We also show that, under some conditions, workers using more their weak ties than strong ties to find a job receive a higher wage. We finally demonstrate that workers living far away from jobs pay lower housing prices but experience higher unemployment rates than those living close to jobs because they mainly rely on their strong ties to obtain information about jobs. |
| Keywords: | Weak Ties; Labor Market; Social Networks; Land Rent |
| JEL: | A14 J60 R14 |
| Date: | 2008–06–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0755&r=lab |
| By: | Heiko Peters |
| Abstract: | To study the development of wage inequality is important for the economic performance as well as for the development of employment. First, I estimate the remuneration to personal characteristics for Germans and immigrants across the wage distribution using quantile regression. My database is the German socio-economic panel for the period 1984-2006. I find a higher inequality between skill groups for Germans relative to immigrants. The returns to skill for the highest educational attainment are higher for Germans across the wage distribution compared to immigrants. But within-group inequality for the group with the highest educational attainment is higher for immigrants. Both groups have concave experience-earnings profiles. One more year of work experience increases the wage more for Germans. Secondly I use the decomposition method of Melly (2006). Decomposition methods are suitable to get further insights into the question as to whether or not the observable differences in the distribution are caused by the difference in the composition or differences in the estimated coefficients. Immigrants have a negative wage gap relative to Germans. The wage gap rises across the distribution and is due to a rising discrimination of immigrants across the wage distribution for the years 1992 and 2006. For the year 1984 the characteristic effect is responsible for the wage gap. Inequality rises for both groups between the year 1992 and 2006. The increase is much stronger for Immigrants. The coefficient effect is mainly responsible for the wage increase across time for both groups. |
| Keywords: | Wage inequality, immigrants, Germany, decomposition, quantile regression |
| JEL: | C2 D30 J31 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp113&r=lab |
| By: | Heike Hennig-Schmidt (Laboratory of Experimental Economics, University of Bonn, Adenauerallee 24-42, 53113 Bonn, Germany, Tel. +49 228 7391-95 (Fax -93), http://www.bonneconlab.uni-bonn.de, hschmidt@uni-bonn.de); Bettina Rockenbach (Lehrstuhl für Mikrooekonomie, Universitaet Erfurt, Postfach 900 221, 99105 Erfurt, Germany, Tel. +49 361 73745-21 (Fax: -29), http://www.uni-erfurt.de/mikrooekonomie, bettina.rockenbach@uni-erfurt.de); Abdolkarim Sadrieh (Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Magdeburg, Postbox 4120, 39016 Magdeburg, Germany, Tel. +49 391 67-18492 (Fax. 11355), http://www.ww.unimagdeburg.de/ebusiness/, sadrieh@ww.uni-magdeburg.de) |
| Abstract: | We present a field experiment to assess the effect of own and peer wage variations on actual work effort of employees with hourly wages. Work effort neither reacts to an increase of the own wage, nor to a positive or negative peer comparison. This result seems at odds with numerous laboratory experiments that show a clear own wage sensitivity on effort. In an additional real-effort laboratory experiment we show that explicit cost and surplus information that enables to exactly calculate employer’s surplus from the work contract is a crucial pre-requisite for a positive wage-effort relation. This demonstrates that employee’s reciprocity requires a clear assessment of the surplus at stake. |
| Keywords: | efficiency wage, reciprocity, fairness, field experiment, real effort |
| JEL: | C91 C92 J41 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trf:wpaper:238&r=lab |
| By: | António Brandão Moniz (IET - Research Centre on Enterprise and Work Innovation - WORKS project); Tobias Woll (IET - Research Centre on Enterprise and Work Innovation - WORKS project) |
| Abstract: | In this working paper is presented information on the Portuguese labour market developed with the support of the European project WORKS-“Work organisation and restructuring in the knowledge society”. Is still a on the process article and thus commentaries are welcome. The structure is based on the following topics: a) The employment policy (Time regimes - time use, flexibility, part-time work, work-life balance -, and the work contracts regimes – wages, contract types, diversity); b) Education and training (skilling outcomes, rules on retraining and further training, employability schemes, transferability of skills); c) Equal opportunities (relevance of equal opportunity regulation for restructuring outcomes, the role of gender and age regulation); d) Restructuring effects (policy on transfer of personnel, policy on redundancies, and participation or voice in restructuring). |
| Keywords: | labour market; work organisation; knowledge society; employment policy; Education; gender |
| Date: | 2007–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00287900_v1&r=lab |
| By: | Ross, Stephen L. (University of Connecticut); Zenou, Yves (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | Recent theoretical work has examined the spatial distribution of unemployment using the efficiency wage model as the mechanism by which unemployment arises in the urban economy. This paper extends the standard efficiency wage model in order to allow for behavioral substitution between leisure time at home and effort at work. In equilibrium, residing at a location with a long commute affects the time available for leisure at home and therefore affects the trade-off between effort at work and risk of unemployment. This model implies an empirical relationship between expected commutes and labor market outcomes, which is tested using the Public Use Microdata sample of the 2000 U.S. Decennial Census. The empirical results suggest that efficiency wages operate primarily for blue collar workers, i.e. workers who tend to be in occupations that face higher levels of supervision. For this subset of workers, longer commutes imply higher levels of unemployment and higher wages, which are both consistent with shirking and leisure being substitutable. |
| Keywords: | Efficiency Wage; Leisure; Urban Unemployment |
| JEL: | J41 R14 |
| Date: | 2008–06–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0753&r=lab |
| By: | Chaudhuri, Sarbajit; Banerjee, Dibyendu |
| Abstract: | Agell and Lundborg (1995, Economica) have accommodated the fair wage hypothesis (FWH) in an otherwise 2×2 Hechscher-Ohlin-Samuelson model for examining the robustness of certain standard trade theorems. The present paper proposes to introduce the FWH in a three sector general equilibrium model with two types of labour: skilled and unskilled. Skilled labour is specific to the high-skill sector and receives the efficiency wage while unskilled labour in the other two sectors receives either the competitive wage or the high unionized wage. Using such a framework the consequences of international mobility of factors of production on the skilled-unskilled wage inequality and unemployment of skilled labour in a developing economy have been analyzed. Both foreign capital inflows and emigration of skilled labour improve the skilled-unskilled wage inequality under reasonable condition. Particularly, the result relating to emigration of skilled labour is counterintuitive. |
| Keywords: | Fair wage hypothesis; skilled labour; unskilled labour; wage inequality; Foreign capital; unemployment |
| JEL: | F13 J41 O15 |
| Date: | 2008–06–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:9303&r=lab |
| By: | Sousounis, Panos; Bladen-Hovell, Robin |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate the role of workers’ training history in determining current training incidence. The analysis is conducted on an unbalanced sample comprising information on approximately 5000 employees from the first seven waves of the BHPS. Our methodology utilizes a two-step dynamic probit model developed by Orme (2001) which allows for unobserved heterogeneity and formal modelling of initial conditions. The results suggest that prior training experience is a significant determinant of a worker’s participation in a current training episode comparable with other formal educational qualifications. State dependence in the model accounts for 53% of the probability of training the current period, conditional on having experienced some form of work-related training in the previous period. For women, however, the corresponding figure is lower at approximately 38% suggesting substantially greater state dependence among male workers. |
| Keywords: | Training; State dependence; Dynamic probit |
| JEL: | C23 J24 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:9424&r=lab |
| By: | Nivorozhkina, Ludmilla; Nivorozhkin, Anton (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "In this paper we analyze how motherhood affects women's wages. Using a dataset from Russia we adopt a matching technique to account for possible selection effects. Our findings indicate that mothers tend to suffer a moderate wage penalty. We also confine our analysis to sector-specific effects and find that the negative effect may primarily be attributed to mothers working in the public sector. The differences across sectors may be explained by considerable job flexibility and a system of promotion based on work experience which has been adopted in the public sector." (author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Lohnhöhe, Lohndiskriminierung, Elternschaft, Mütter, erwerbstätige Frauen, staatlicher Sektor, Einkommenseffekte, Russland |
| JEL: | J13 J18 P35 C14 |
| Date: | 2008–06–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:200826&r=lab |
| By: | Luiz A. Esteves; Pedro S. Martins |
| Abstract: | Theory and evidence are ambiguous about the effect of within-firm wage inequality on firm performance. This paper tests empirically this relationship drawing on detailed Brazilian matched employer-employee panel data, considering alternative measures of inequality and performance and different estimation methods. We find overwhelming evidence of a positive relationship between wage dispersion and firm performance when using cross-section analysis, especially in manufacturing. However, this relationship is weakened when controlling for firm time-invariant heterogeneity. |
| Keywords: | Tournaments, Incentives, Equity, Wage Dispersion |
| JEL: | D31 J31 J33 J41 J53 |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgs:wpaper:16&r=lab |
| By: | Steven F. Koch (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria); S. Ssekabira Ntege (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the degree to which imperfect information in the labour market regarding worker quality is likely to impact employment opportunities, as well as the wages associated with those opportunities. The primary purpose of this paper is to provide preliminary empirical evidence that market imperfections exist in South Africa's labour market, that those imperfections could be based on asymmetric private information, and that market participants pursue information gathering and revelation strategies to help mitigate the negative effects of the information asymmetries. |
| JEL: | D81 D82 I21 J23 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:200812&r=lab |
| By: | Rannenberg, Ansgar |
| Abstract: | Unemployment in the big continental European economies like France and Germany has been substantially increasing since the mid 1970s. So far it has been difficult to empirically explain the increase in unemployment in these countries via changes in supposedly employment unfriendly institutions like the generosity and duration of unemployment benefits. At the same time, there is some evidence produced by Ball (1996, 1999) saying that tight monetary policy during the disinflations of the 1980s caused a subsequent increase in the NAIRU, and that there is a relationship between the increase in the NAIRU and the size of the disinflation during that period across advanced OECD economies. There is also mounting evidence suggesting a role of the slowdown in productivity growth, e.g. Nickell et al. (2005), IMF (2003), Blanchard and Wolfers (2000). This paper introduces endogenous growth into an otherwise standard New Keynesian model with capital accumulation and unemployment. We subject the model to a cost push shock lasting for 1 quarter, in order to mimic a scenario akin to the one faced by central banks at the end of the 1970s. Monetary policy implements a disinflation by following a standard interest feedback rule calibrated to an estimate of a Bundesbank reaction function. About 40 quarters after the shock has vanished, unemployment is still about 1.7 percentage points above its steady state, while annual productivity growth has decreased. Over a similar horizon, a higher weight on the output gap increases employment (i.e. reduces the fall in employment below its steady state). Thus the model generates an increase in unemployment following a disinflation without relying on a change to labour market structure. We are also able to coarsely reproduce cross country differences in unemployment. A higher disinflation generated by a larger cost push shock causes a stronger persistent increase in unemployment, the correlation noted by Ball. For a given cost push shock, a policy rule estimated for the Bundesbank produces stronger persistent increase in unemployment than a policy rule estimated for the Federal Reserve. Testable differences in real wage rigidity between continental Europe and the United States, namely the presence of the labour share in the wage setting function for Europe with a negative coefficient but it's absence in the U.S. also imply different unemployment outcomes following a cost push shock: If the real wage does not depend on the labour share, the persistent increase in unemployment is about one percentage point smaller than in it's presence. To the extent that the wage setting structure is due to labour market rigidities, "Shocks and Institutions" jointly determine the unemployment outcome, as suggested by Blanchard and Wolfers (2000). We also perform a comparison of the second moments of key variables of the model with German data for a period ranging from 1970 to 1990. We find that it matches the data better than a model without endogenous growth but with otherwise identical features. This is particularly true for the persistence in employment as measured by first and higher order autocorrelation coefficients. |
| Keywords: | Monetary Policy; Monetary Econmics; Unemployment; NAIRU; Natural Rate of Unemployment; |
| JEL: | O42 E0 E30 J01 |
| Date: | 2008–06–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:9346&r=lab |
| By: | Fitzenberger, Bernd; Orlyanskaya, Olga; Osikominu, Aderonke; Waller, Marie |
| Abstract: | "Short-term training has recently become the largest active labor market program in Germany regarding the number of participants. Little is known on the effectiveness of different types of short-term training and on their long-run effects. This paper estimates the effects of short-term training programs in West Germany starting in the time period 1980 to 1992 and 2000 to 2003 regarding the two outcomes employment and participation in longer training programs. We find that short-term training shows mostly persistently positive and often significant employment effects. Short-term training focusing on testing and monitoring search effort shows slightly smaller effects compared to the pure training variant. The lock-in periods lasted longer in the 1980s and 1990s compared to the early 2000s. Short-term training results in higher future participation in longer training programs and this effect was much stronger for the earlier time period." (author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Trainingsmaßnahme - Auswirkungen, Beschäftigungseffekte, Qualifizierungsmaßnahme, Bildungsbeteiligung, Teilnehmer, Arbeitslose, berufliche Reintegration, Integrierte Erwerbsbiografien, Westdeutschland, Bundesrepublik Deutschland |
| JEL: | C14 J68 H43 |
| Date: | 2008–06–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:200827&r=lab |
| By: | Dhas, Albert Christopher; Helen, Mary Jacqueline |
| Abstract: | The unorganised workers account for about 93 per cent of the total workforce and there is a steady growth in it over years in India. It is argued that India had a long tradition of informal social security and social assistance system directed particularly towards the more vulnerable sections of the society but underwent steady and inevitable erosion. The social security initiatives of the Centre, State and NGO’s implemented during the past indicated that the needs are much more than the supports provided and the efforts must be targeted and vast enough to cover the growing unorganised workers. It is argued that the major security needs of the unorganised workers are food security, nutritional security, health security, housing security, employment security, income security, life and accident security, and old age security. In sum, the study calls for a Comprehensive, Universal and Integrated Social Security System for the unorganised workers in India. |
| Keywords: | Social Security; unorganised Workers;unorganised labour; Security; Food Security; Income Security; nutritional security; health security; housing security; employment security; life and accident security; old age security; India |
| JEL: | H55 E24 E26 |
| Date: | 2008–05–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:9335&r=lab |
| By: | Fredriksson, Peter (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation); Söderström, Martin (Ministry of Finance, Government of Sweden) |
| Abstract: | We examine the relationship between unemployment benefits and unemployment using Swedish regional data. To estimate the effect of an increase in unemployment insurance (UI) on unemployment we exploit the ceiling on UI benefits. The benefit ceiling, coupled with the fact that there are regional wage differentials, implies that the generosity of UI varies regionally. More importantly, the actual generosity of UI varies within region over time due to variations in the benefit ceiling. We find fairly robust evidence suggesting that the actual generosity of UI does matter for regional unemployment. Increases in the actual replacement rate contribute to higher unemployment as suggested by theory. We also show that removing the wage cap in UI benefit receipt would reduce the dispersion of regional unemployment. This result is due to the fact that low unemployment regions tend to be high wage regions where the benefit ceiling has a greater bite. Removing the benefit ceiling thus implies that the actual generosity of UI increases more in low unemployment regions. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment; Unemployment insurance; Unemployment dispersion |
| JEL: | J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2008–05–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2008_015&r=lab |
| By: | Khanam, Rasheda; Ross, Russell |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the linkages between child work and both school attendance and school attainment of children aged 5–17 years using data from a survey based in rural Bangladesh. This paper first looks at school attendance as an indicator of a child’s time input in schooling; then it measures the “schooling-for-age” as a learning achievement or schooling outcome. The results from the logistic regressions show that school attendance and grade attainment are lower for children who are working. The gender-disaggregated estimates show that probability of grade attainment is lower for girls than that of boys. Household permanent income, parental education and supply side correlates of schooling (presence of a primary (grade 1-6) school and secondary (grade 6-10) school in the village) are appeared to be significant determinants of schooling in rural Bangladesh. The results of this study further show that the effect of household permanent income, parental education and presence of secondary school is higher for grade attainment than school attendance. |
| Keywords: | Schooling; Child Labour; Logit; Bangladesh |
| JEL: | J13 I21 C25 O12 |
| Date: | 2005–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:9397&r=lab |
| By: | Brewer, Mike (Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a tour of welfare reforms in the UK since the last change of government, summarising the most important changes in active labour market policies (ALMPS), and in measures intended to strengthen financial incentives to work. It argues that developments in the UK’s active labour market policies occurred in two broad phases: first, the Government sought to strengthen ALMPs for those individuals deemed to be unemployed, through the New Deal programme. Second, the Government has reformed benefits for individuals traditionally viewed as inactive and thus excused job search activity, such as lone parents, and the sick and disabled. Accompanying these have been changes to direct taxes, tax credits and welfare benefits aiming to strengthen financial work incentives. However, financial work incentives have been strengthened by less than might be expected given the early rhetoric: the expansion in family-based tax credits have weakened the financial work incentives of (potential) second earners in families with children, many more workers now face combined marginal tax and tax credit withdrawal rates in excess of 60 per cent than a decade ago, and a desire to achieve broad reductions in relative child poverty has led the Government to increase substantially income available to non-working families with children. We also summarise evaluations of three important UK welfare-to-work reforms (WFTC, NDYP and Pathways to Work), but without comparing their efficacy. |
| Keywords: | Welfare reform; Tax credits |
| JEL: | H53 I38 |
| Date: | 2008–06–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2008_012&r=lab |
| By: | Lechner, Michael |
| Abstract: | This microeconometric study analyzes the effects of individual leisure sports participation on long-term labour market variables, on socio-demographic as well as on health and subjective well-being indicators for West Germany based on individual data from the German Socio-Economic Panel study (GSOEP) 1984 to 2006. Econometric problems due to individuals choosing their own level of sports activities are tackled by combining informative data and flexible semiparametric estimation methods with a specific way to use the panel dimension of the data. The paper shows that sports activities have sizeable positive long-term labour market effects in terms of earnings and wages, as well as positive effects on health and subjective well-being. |
| Keywords: | health; labour market; Leisure sports; matching estimation; panel data |
| JEL: | C21 I12 I18 J24 L83 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6886&r=lab |
| By: | Örs, Evren; Palomino, Frédéric; Peyrache, Eloïc |
| Abstract: | Using data from a natural experiment with high payoffs in education, we examine whether the competitive nature of tournament structure explains the performance gender-gap. We find that performance is statistically lower for women, the variance of performance is higher for men, and the tails of the performance distribution are significantly fatter for men. For the same participants in non-competitive settings with similar academic content, the performance of women first-order-stochastically dominates that of men. We reject differences in risk aversion and ability as reasons for performance gender-gap. |
| Keywords: | gender-gap; relative-performance evaluation; tournament |
| JEL: | I29 J16 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6891&r=lab |
| By: | Olivier L'Haridon (GREG-HEC and University Paris Sorbonne); Franck Malherbet (THEMA - CNRS - Université de Cergy-Pontoise, IZA and fRDB) |
| Abstract: | The design of employment protection legislation (EPL) is of particular importance in the European debate on the contours of labor market reform. In this article we appeal to an equilibrium unemployment model to investigate the virtues of EPL reform which reduces the red tape and legal costs associated with layoffs and introduces a U.S.-style experience- rating system, which we model as a combination of a layoff tax and a payroll subsidy. The reform considered shows that it is possible to improve the efficiency of employment protection policies without affecting the extent of worker protection on the labor market. These results are consistent with the conventional wisdom that experience rating is desirable, not only as an integral component of unemployment-compensation finance, as most studies acknowledge, but also as part and parcel of a virtuous EPL system. |
| Keywords: | Search and Matching Models, Employment Protection, State-Contingent Layoff Tax, Experience-Rating |
| JEL: | J41 J48 J60 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2008-26&r=lab |
| By: | Benjamin F. Jones |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a model where human capital differences - rather than technology differences - can explain several central phenomena in the world economy. The results follow from the educational choices of workers, who decide not just how long to train, but also how broadly. A "knowledge trap" occurs in economies where skilled workers favor broad but shallow knowledge. This simple idea can inform cross-country income differences, international trade patterns, poverty traps, and price and wage differences across countries in a manner broadly consistent with existing empirical evidence. The model also provides insights about the brain drain, migration, and the role for multinationals in development. More generally, this paper shows that standard human capital accounting methods can severely underestimate the role of education in development. It shows how endogenous educational decisions can replace exogenous technology differences in a range of economic reasoning. |
| JEL: | F22 F23 I20 J24 J31 O11 O15 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14138&r=lab |
| By: | Ellen Meara; Meredith Rosenthal; Anna Sinaiko; Katherine Baicker |
| Abstract: | We compare and contrast the labor market and distributional impact of three common approaches to state and federal health insurance expansion: public insurance expansions, refundable tax credits for low income people, and employer and individual mandates. We draw on existing estimates from the literature and individual-level data on the non-institutionalized population aged 64 and younger from the 2005 Current Population Survey to estimate how each approach affects (1) the number of people insured; (2) private and public health spending; (3) employment and wages; and (4) the distribution of subsidies across families based on income in relation to the federal poverty level and work status of adult family members. Employer mandates expand coverage to the largest number of previously insured relative to public insurance expansions and individual tax credits, but with potentially negative labor market consequences. Medicaid expansions could achieve moderate reductions in the share of the uninsured with neutral labor market consequences, and by definition, they expand coverage to the poorest groups regardless of work status. Tax credits extend coverage to relatively few uninsured, but with neutral effects on the labor market. Both Medicaid expansions and tax credits offer moderate redistribution to previously insured individuals who are poor or near-poor. None of the three policies significantly expand insurance coverage among poor working families. Our findings suggest that no single approach helps the working poor in exactly the ways policy makers might hope. To the extent that states are motivated to help the uninsured in poor working families, health reforms must find ways to include those unlikely to take up optional policies, and states must address the challenge of the many uninsured likely to be excluded from policies based on part-time work status, firm size, or immigration status. |
| JEL: | I1 I11 J3 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14125&r=lab |
| By: | Spyros Arvanitis (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich) |
| Abstract: | In this study we investigated the determinants (a) of the propensity of Swiss firms to train apprentices and (b) of the intensity of apprentice training as measured by the employment share of apprentices. Innovation, firm age and competition conditions on the product market are possible determining factors that are especially emphasized in this investigation. In a further step, we analyzed the impact of apprentice training on labour productivity when apprentice training is considered as an additional production factor in the framework of a production function. We found that the skill composition of the employment, innovation activities, firm age, labour costs, capital intensity, and competitive pressures all play a positive or negative role, even if not at the same extent, in determining the propensity and/or intensity of apprentice training. A further finding was that training propensity and/o training intensity correlate negatively with labour productivity. |
| Keywords: | start-ups, training, innovation, firm age |
| JEL: | J24 O30 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:08-198&r=lab |
| By: | Thibault Fally (PSE – Paris School of Economics); Rodrigo Paillacar (CES – Université de Paris 1); Cristina Terra (THEMA – Université de Cergy-Pontoise, EPGE – Fundação Getulio Vargas) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the impact of market and supplier access on wage disparities across Brazilian states, incorporating the control of individual characteristics to the new economic geography methodology. We estimate market and supplier access disaggregated by industry, and we compute separately access to international and internal markets. We find a strong correlation between market access and wages differentials, even after controlling for individual characteristics, firm productivity, the source of market access (international, national or local), and using instrumental variables. Furthermore, market access turns out to be more important than supplier access. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2008-23&r=lab |
| By: | Demosthenes Ioannou (European Central Bank, Kaiserstrasse 29, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.); Marien Ferdinandusse (European Central Bank, Kaiserstrasse 29, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.); Marco Lo Duca (European Central Bank, Kaiserstrasse 29, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.); Wouter Coussens (European Central Bank, Kaiserstrasse 29, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.) |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the governance framework of the Lisbon Strategy and discusses the specific option of increasing the role of benchmarking as a means of improving the implementation record of structural reforms in the European Union. Against this background, the paper puts forward a possible avenue for developing a strong form of quantitative benchmarking, namely ranking. The ranking methodology relies on the construction of a synthetic indicator using the “benefit of the doubt” approach, which acknowledges differences in emphasis among Member States with regard to structural reform priorities. The methodology is applied by using the structural indicators that have been commonly agreed by the governments of the Member States, but could also be used for ranking exercises on the basis of other indicators. JEL Classification: E5, J1, J2, J6. |
| Keywords: | Labour supply, employment, participation, hours worked, immigration, skill and education, structural policies, labour demand, unemployment, euro area countries, labour markets, taxes and benefi ts, childcare, pensions, training, human capital, labour quality, working time and contracts, discrimination, mismatch, returns to education. |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbops:20080087&r=lab |
| By: | Fernando Munoz-Bullon; Maria Jose Sanchez-Bueno |
| Abstract: | The objective of this study is to examine the effect of downsizing on corporate performance, considering a sample of manufacturing firms drawn from the Spanish Survey of Business Strategies during the 1993- 2005 period. No significant differences in post-downsizing performance arise between companies which downsize and those that do not. Likewise, we find that substantial workforce reductions through collective dismissals do not either lead to improved performance levels. Downsizing, therefore, may not be a way for managers to increase performance, particularly in a context like the Spanish one, where the labour market is characterized by a high protection of employees’ rights and substantial contract termination costs. |
| Keywords: | Downsizing, Corporate performance, Spanish labour market |
| JEL: | J21 J65 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:wbrepe:wb083007&r=lab |
| By: | Andersen, Torben M. (School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus); Haagen Pedersen, Lars (Danish Economic Councils) |
| Abstract: | In recent years, Denmark has been successful in ensuring and maintaining a low unemployment rate. However, almost one third of the working-age population remains dependent on public transfers, a fact which poses questions on both social inclusion and financial pressures on the welfare state. In this paper, we consider more closely the interaction between the social safety net and the need and scope for maintaining a high employment rate in a welfare state of the Scandinavian type. The focus is on the basic dilemma between ambitious distributional goals on the one hand and work incentives on the other. The paper discusses policy issues related to minimizing welfare dependence that improve the transition from welfare to work. We consider these issues in a life cycle perspective considering entry into the labour market, maintenance of labour market contact, and exit from the labour market. Finally, we consider some recent reform proposals and initiatives in Denmark. |
| Keywords: | Incentives to work; Social safety net; Distribution |
| JEL: | I30 J10 |
| Date: | 2008–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2008_010&r=lab |
| By: | Giorgio Ponti |
| Abstract: | The design of this flexible school for early childhood education in Milan, Italy, takes into account children’s development and the different ways they experience space according to their age. The facilities will include not only a nursery school and kindergarten, but also a drop-in day-care centre, a play centre and outdoor areas to develop the senses. |
| Keywords: | Italy, flexibility, learning environment, educational buildings, early childhood education, educational architecture |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2008/8-en&r=lab |
| By: | Steven J. Davis; R. Jason Faberman; John C. Haltiwanger; Ian Rucker |
| Abstract: | We develop and implement a method to improve estimates of worker flows and job openings based on the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). Our method involves reweighting the cross-sectional density of employment growth rates in JOLTS to match the corresponding density in the comprehensive Business Employment Dynamics (BED) data. To motivate our work, we compare JOLTS to other data sources and document large discrepancies with respect to aggregate employment growth, the magnitude of worker flows, and the cross-sectional density of establishment growth rates. We also discuss issues related to JOLTS sample design and nonresponse corrections. Our adjusted statistics for hires and separations exceed the published statistics by about one-third. The adjusted layoff rate is more than 60 percent greater than the published layoff rate. Time-series properties are also affected. For example, hires exhibit more volatility than separations in the published statistics, but the reverse holds in the adjusted statistics. The impact of our adjustment methodology on estimated job openings is more modest, raising the vacancy rate by about 8 percent. |
| JEL: | C82 J63 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14137&r=lab |
| By: | Spyros Arvanitis (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich); Tobias Stucki (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich) |
| Abstract: | This study is based on data a cohort of Swiss firms that were founded in 1996/97. In the year 2000 data were collected by means of a postal survey among those firms, which still existed by that time. In 2003 and 2006 two further surveys were conducted among the participants of the respective last study. In this study we analyzed, firstly, the determinants of the propensity to train apprentices of new firms and how they change with increasing firm age. Secondly, we investigated how a firm’s training propensity correlated with its labour productivity. To this end, we specified an equation for training propensity and an equation for labour productivity, which included as an additional production factor the endogenized propensity to train apprentices. |
| Keywords: | start-ups, training, innovation, firm age |
| JEL: | J24 O30 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:08-199&r=lab |
| By: | Meyer, Bruce D. (Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I first summarize how the US Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) operates and describe the characteristics of recipients. I then discuss empirical work on the effects of the EITC on poverty and income distribution, and its effects on labor supply. Next, I discuss a few policy concerns about the EITC: possible negative effects on hours of work and marriage, and problems of compliance with the tax system. I then briefly discuss some possible reforms to the structure of the current EITC. |
| Keywords: | Welfare reform; Earned income tax credit; EITC; Earnings subsidies; Tax credits; Poverty |
| JEL: | D31 H24 I38 J38 |
| Date: | 2008–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2008_014&r=lab |
| By: | Henry G. Overman; Diego Puga |
| Abstract: | We provide empirical evidence on the role of labour market pooling in determining the spatial concentration of UK manufacturing establishments. This role arises because large concentrations of employment iron out idiosyncratic shocks and improve establishments\' ability to adapt their employment to good and bad times. We measure the likely importance of labour pooling by calculating the fluctuations in employment of individual establishments relative to their sector and averaging by sector. Our results show that sectors whose establishments experience more idiosyncratic volatility are more spatially concentrated, even after controlling for a range of other industry characteristics that include a novel measure of the importance of localized intermediate suppliers. |
| Keywords: | labour market pooling; spatial concentration |
| JEL: | R30 |
| Date: | 2008–06–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imd:wpaper:wp2008-05&r=lab |
| By: | Shchetinin, Oleg |
| Abstract: | The paper studies the impact of altruism on Agent's motivation in the career concerns model. The main result is that higher altruism can decrease effort though conventional wisdom suggests the opposite should always the case. The key for the result is the distinction between current and anticipated altruism. The current altruism stimulates the Agent because it makes him partially internalize the Principal's benefit from output. More subtle, the anticipated altruism weakens effort because it lessens career concerns. The paper contributes to the literature on interaction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. It gives an example when intrinsic motivator (altruism) lessens extrinsic motivation (career concerns). The model has a number of other interesting features. It gives an example of winner's blessing. It shows that if the worker pushes himself too hard trying to pretend more skilled, it can hinder altruistic relationship. Whereas if the worker shirks, his laziness is safe for establishing altruistic relation in the future. The natural interpretation of the model is labor contract between friends, other applications are also discussed. |
| Keywords: | career concern; altruism; labor contract; intrinsic motivation |
| JEL: | D86 D64 M50 |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:9414&r=lab |
| By: | Samuel Bentolila (CEMFI); Juan J. Dolado (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); Juan F. Jimeno (Banco de España) |
| Abstract: | The Phillips curve has flattened in Spain over 1995-2006: unemployment has fallen by 15 percentage points, with roughly constant inflation. This change has been more pronounced than elsewhere. We argue that this stems from the immigration boom in Spain over this period. We show that the New Keynesian Phillips curve is shifted by immigration if natives' and immigrants' labor supply or bargaining power differ. Estimation of the curve for Spain indicates that the fall in unemployment since 1995 would have led to an annual increase in inflation of 2.5 percentage points if it had not been largely offset by immigration. |
| Keywords: | Phillips curve, immigration |
| JEL: | E31 J64 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:0814&r=lab |
| By: | Richard Buddin; Gena Zamarro |
| Abstract: | Teacher quality is a key element of student academic success, but little is known about how specific teacher characteristics influence classroom outcomes. This research examines whether teacher licensure test scores and other teacher attributes affect elementary student achievement. The results are based on longitudinal student-level data from Los Angeles. California requires three types of teacher licensure tests as part of the teacher certification process; a general knowledge test, a subject area test (single subject for secondary teachers and multiple subject for elementary teachers), and a reading pedagogy test for elementary school teachers. The student achievement analysis is based on a value-added approach that adjusts for both student and teacher fixed effects. The results show large differences in teacher quality across the school district, but measured teacher characteristics explain little of the difference. Teacher licensure test scores are unrelated to teacher success in the classroom. Similarly, student achievement is unaffected by whether classroom teachers have advanced degrees. Teacher experience is positively related with student achievement, but the linkage is weak and largely reflects poor outcomes for teachers during their first year or two in the classroom. |
| Keywords: | teacher quality, teacher licensure, student achievement, two-level fixed effects, education production function |
| JEL: | J44 J45 H0 H75 I21 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ran:wpaper:555&r=lab |
| By: | José M. R. Freire da Silva |
| Abstract: | Describing primary schools in a small city in Portugal is an opportunity for an overall look at the evolution of schools in general as special public buildings. A look at four of the six primary schools in the city of Caldas da Rainha shows how these public buildings have evolved, what they represent to the community, and how their architecture has corresponded to changing concepts in education and demands for flexibility over the years. |
| Keywords: | Portugal, school building design, learning environment, educational buildings, school infrastructure, primary school |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2008/9-en&r=lab |
| By: | Moffitt, Robert (John Hopkins University) |
| Abstract: | The reform of the cash-based welfare program for single mothers in the US which occurred in the 1990s was the most important since its inception in 1935. The reforms imposed credible and enforceable work requirements into the program for the first time, as well as establishing time limits on lifetime receipt. Research on the effects of the reform have shown it to have reduced the program caseload and governmental expenditures on the program. In addition, the reform has had generally positive average effects on employment, earnings, and income, and generally negative effects on poverty rates, although the gains are not evenly distributed across groups. A fraction of the affected group appears to have been made worse off by the reform. |
| Keywords: | Welfare reform; Poverty; Single mothers |
| JEL: | I30 |
| Date: | 2008–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2008_013&r=lab |
| By: | Ard den Reijer |
| Abstract: | This study analyses the dynamic characteristics of staffing employment across di¤erent business sectors and across different geographical regions in the Netherlands. We analyse a micro data set of the market leader of the Dutch staffing employment market, Randstad. We apply the dynamic factor model to extract common information out of a large data set and to isolate business cycle frequencies with the aim of forecasting economic activity. We identify regions and sectors whose cyclical developments lead the staffing labour cycle at the country level. The second question is then which model specification can best exploit the identified leading indicators at the disaggregate level to forecast the country aggregate? The dynamic factor model turns out to outperform univariate benchmark forecasting models by exploiting the substantial temporal variation of the staffing labour market at the disaggregate level. |
| Keywords: | staffing labour; dynamic factor model; disaggregate forecasting |
| JEL: | C31 C53 J44 J63 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dnb:dnbwpp:153&r=lab |
| By: | Karine Marazyan (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at explaining differences in education among foster-children and between foster and biological children in developing countries. Foster-children whose biological parents are alive may provide old-age support for both their host and biological parents. Therefore foster-children have lower returns to education than biological children and should receive less human capital investment in household where both types of children live together. However, in households where foster-children are alone, host parents will over-invest in their education to ensure that the expected old-age support will equal a minimum amount to survive. Using data from Indonesia, we provide some evidence supporting our hypothesis. |
| Keywords: | Household Structure, Child Fostering, Sibling Rivalry |
| Date: | 2008–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00290644_v1&r=lab |
| By: | Jennifer Imazeki (Department of Economics, San Diego State University) |
| Abstract: | This study synthesizes what we know and do not know about policies to attract and retain teachers in high-need schools and assesses the relative cost-effectiveness of two types of policies. Research consistently shows that teacher quality is likely to be lower in schools with higher proportions of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This pattern is likely a result of several factors but the most well-documented is teachers’ mobility choices within and across districts. Although there are numerous programs across the country intended to attract and retain highly-skilled teachers in high-need schools, there is very little assessment of their effectiveness. Given the lack of evidence on specific interventions, I use the results from existing studies of teacher mobility and attrition to compare the effect of salary incentives and induction or mentoring programs. Although financial incentives are arguably the most straightforward policies for states and districts to adopt, high-need schools may be better served if policymakers and researchers devoted more attention to more cost-effective alternatives. |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sds:wpaper:0030&r=lab |