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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Ozturk, orgul |
| Abstract: | Using international and intertemporal variations in minimum wages, employment protection laws, minimum wage regulations and female work behavior within the OECD, empirical analysis provide evidence that higher minimum wages are associated with lower female labor force participation and employment. This association is more significant in countries with more stringent employment protection laws, lower female tertiary educational enrollment and higher fertility. In addition to the extensive margin analysis, it is shown that minimum wage levels are positively correlated with the ratio of part-time workers. That is, minimum wages are associated with not only lower participation and employment rates among women but also with higher marginalization of female work. This association is stronger in countries with more inflexible labor markets and less active labor market policies. Moreover, existence of a subminimum wage for youths implies further reduction of employment while increasing part-time job incidence for females, when the minimum wage increases. |
| Keywords: | Labor market regulations; female work; minimum wage; OECD; time series data |
| JEL: | J58 J88 J68 J20 |
| Date: | 2006–12–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:10222&r=lab |
| By: | Lixin Cai; C. Jeffrey Waddoups |
| Abstract: | Using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, our research indicates that unobserved heterogeneity substantially biases cross-sectional estimates of union wage effects upward for both males and females. Estimates of the union wage premium for male workers between the ages of 25 and 64 fall from 8.7 percent to 5.2 percent after controlling for unobserved heterogeneity. For females aged 25 to 63 the estimated 4.0 percent cross-sectional union wage premium falls to 1.9 once unobserved heterogeneity is controlled for. Our results also indicate positive sorting by unobserved skills into union membership, especially among low skilled male and female workers. There is also evidence of negative sorting into unions among the most highly skilled. |
| Keywords: | union wage effects; fixed effects models; panel data |
| JEL: | J31 J51 |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:585&r=lab |
| By: | Steven Poelhekke |
| Abstract: | Standard models of temporary contracts are either inconclusive, or fail to account for the positive correlation between temporary contracts and the employment rate, and for the high transition rates into permanent employment measured in Europe. This paper shows that a matching model in which .rms use temporary contracts to screen workers for permanent positions can successfully fulfill this task. When the model is calibrated to the Italian economy, it accounts for salient statistics including the worker turnover rate, the transition rates into permanent employment, and the drop in the unemployment rate following the reforms implemented in the late 1990s. When temporary contracts are used as a screening device, they can increase both productivity and welfare. Their quantitative impact crucially hinges on dismissal costs and minimum wages. |
| Keywords: | job-search, temporary contracts, labor market institutions, screening, hiring procedures, turnover rates, wage di¤erentials. |
| JEL: | J31 J41 J63 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2008/27&r=lab |
| By: | Otrok, Christopher; Pourpourides, Panayiotis M. (Cardiff Business School) |
| Abstract: | Using longitudinal microdata on real wages we estimate a Bayesian dynamic latent factor model to measure the cyclical properties of real wages. We find that the comovement of real wages can be related to a common factor that exhibits a strong correlation with the national unemployment rate. However, our findings indicate that the common factor explains, on average, no more than 9% of wage variation. Furthermore, roughly half of the wages move procyclically while half move countercyclically. These facts are inconsistent with claims of a strong systematic relationship between real wages and the business cycle. We show that these wage dynamics are consistent with models of labor contracting, and inconsistent with a Walrasian labor market. We also confirm findings of previous studies in which skilled and unskilled wages exhibit roughly the same degree of cyclical variation. |
| Keywords: | Wages; Wage Differentials; Business Cycles; Bayesian Analysis |
| JEL: | C11 C13 C22 C23 C81 C82 J31 |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdf:wpaper:2008/19&r=lab |
| By: | Kristin Kleinjans (School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus, Denmark) |
| Abstract: | Occupational segregation by gender is prevalent and can explain some of the gender wage gap. I empirically investigate a possible explanation for this segregation: the gender difference in preferences for competition, which in recent experimental studies has been found to affect economic outcomes. I find that women’s greater distaste for competition decreases educational achievement. It can also explain part of the gender segregation in occupational fields. Specifically, accounting for distaste for competition reduces gender segregation in the fields of Law, Business & Management, Health, and Education. |
| Keywords: | competition, gender differences, occupational choice, expectations |
| JEL: | D84 J24 J16 I21 |
| Date: | 2008–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2008-09&r=lab |
| By: | Guido Heineck; Silke Anger |
| Abstract: | We provide the first joint evidence on the relationship between individuals' cognitive abilities, their personality and earnings for Germany. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study, we employ scores from an ultra-short IQ-test and a set of measures of personality traits, namely locus of control, reciprocity and all basic items from the Five Factor Personality Inventory. Our estimates suggest a positive effect of so-called fluid intelligence or speed of cognition on males¿ wages only. Findings for personality traits are more heterogeneous. There however is a robust wage penalty for an external locus of control for both men and women. |
| Keywords: | Cognitive abilities, personality traits, Five Factor Model, Locus of control, reciprocity, wages |
| JEL: | J24 J31 I21 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp124&r=lab |
| By: | Alison Booth; Pamela Katic |
| Abstract: | We use new training data from waves 3-6 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey to investigate the training and wages of full-time men. We explore the extent to which the data are consistent with the predictions of human capital theory or with recent alternative theories based on imperfectly competitive labour markets. According to the raw data, most work-related training received by full-time private sector men is general but it is also paid for by employers. Our fixed effects estimates reveal that this training is associated with higher wages in current and in future firms, and that the effect in future firms is larger and more precisely determined. These results are more consistent with the predictions of human capital theory based on imperfectly competitive labour markets than with the alternative of perfect competition. |
| Keywords: | work-related training, full-time men, training costs, general human capital, turnover |
| JEL: | J24 J30 J31 J63 |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:586&r=lab |
| By: | Nelen Annemarie; Grip Andries de (ROA rm) |
| Abstract: | We analyze whether lower investments in human capital of part-time workers are due to workers’ characteristics or human resource practices of the firm. We focus on investments in both formal training and informal learning. Using the Dutch Life-Long-Learning Survey 2007, we find that part-time workers have different determinants for formal training and informal learning than full-time workers. The latter benefit from firms’ human resource practices such as performance interviews, personal development plans and feedback. Part-time workers can only partly compensate the lack of firm support when they have a high learning motivation and imagination of their future development. |
| Keywords: | education, training and the labour market; |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2008004&r=lab |
| By: | Benoit Dostie |
| Abstract: | In this article, we estimate the determinants of hours of work for Ontario and Quebec using Statistics Canada Labour Force Surveys. We first illustrate that intensity – hours worked per employed person - has decreased in Quebec relative to Ontario between 1997 and 2005. We then proceed to show that differences in average observed characteristics between the two provinces explain at most 10 % of the difference. We next analyze in more details the impact of industry, occupation, public sector status and union status on the distribution of hours of work. We find that if the size and distribution of unions in Quebec were the same as in Ontario, the proportion of workers in Quebec working reduced hours would decrease significantly while the proportions working long or very long hours would increase. <P>Nous étudions dans cet article les déterminants des heures travaillées par travailleur au Québec et en Ontario à l'aide des Enquêtes sur la population active (EPA) de Statistique Canada. Nous montrons tout d'abord que le différentiel dans l'intensité de la main d'oeuvre a augmenté en défaveur du Québec sur la période 1997-2005. Nous estimons ensuite que les différences dans les caractéristiques moyennes des deux provinces expliquent à peine 10 % du différentiel. Nous analysons finalement de façon plus détaillée l'impact de la structure industrielle, de la structure occupationnelle, de l'appartenance au secteur public et de l'appartenance à un syndicat sur la distribution de heures travaillées. Nous trouvons que ce dernier facteur est le plus important : l'imposition de la structure de syndicalisation ontarienne au Québec diminue de façon significative la proportion de travailleurs à temps réduit et augmente la proportion faisant de longues ou très longues heures. |
| Keywords: | Ontario, Québec, hours of work, unions, Ontario, Québec, heures travaillées, syndicalisation |
| Date: | 2008–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2008s-21&r=lab |
| By: | McInness, Melayne; Ozturk , Orgul; McDermott, Suzanne; Mann, Joshua |
| Abstract: | Providing employment-related services, including supported employment through job coaches, to individuals with developmental disabilities has been a priority in federal policy for the past twenty years starting with the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act in 1984. We take advantage of a unique panel data set of all clients served by the SC Department of Disabilities and Special Needs between 1999 and 2005 to investigate whether job coaching leads to stable employment in community settings. The data contain information on individual characteristics, such as IQ and the presence of emotional and behavioral problems, that are likely to affect both employment propensity and likelihood of receiving job coaching. We control for unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity using fixed effects and instrumental variable models. Our results show that unobserved individual characteristics and endogeneity strongly bias naive estimates of the effects of job coaching. However, even after controlling for these, an economically and statistically significant effect remains. J |
| Keywords: | Supported employment; job coaching; employment of the disabled |
| JEL: | J14 J29 I38 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:10255&r=lab |
| By: | Matthew Neidell; Jane Waldfogel |
| Abstract: | We examine peer effects in early education by estimating value added models with school fixed effects that control extensively for individual, family, peer, and teacher characteristics to account for the endogeneity of peer group formation. We find statistically significant and robust spillover effects from preschool on math and reading outcomes, but statistically insignificant effects on various behavioral and social outcomes. Of the behavioral and social effects explored, we find that peer externalizing problems, which most likely capture classroom disturbance, hinder cognitive outcomes. Our estimates imply that ignoring spillover effects significantly understates the social returns to preschool. |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J13 |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14277&r=lab |
| By: | Hau Chyi (WISE, Xiamen University, China); Orgul Ozturk (Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina) |
| Abstract: | This research examines the effects of mothers' welfare and work decisions on their children's attainments using two types of estimation methods in Stata: (1) an instrumental variables (IV) and (2) a nonlinear simultaneous equation estimation. The estimator employs sibling comparisons in a random effect framework and an instrumental variables approach to address the unobserved heterogeneity that may influence mothers' work and welfare decisions. We use the popular Stata command -ivreg2- to estimate the coefficients. Since production function of a child's ability can be written as a nonlinear function in a mother's decisions, we can also use the -nlsur- command to simulatneously estimate the production function as well as the (first-stage) IV projections. We focus on children who were born to single mothers with twelve or fewer years of schooling. IVs in this study are a mother's expected years of work and welfare use during childhood. The identification comes from the variation in mothers' different economic incentives that arises from the AFDC benefit structures across U.S. states. The estimates imply that, relative to no welfare participation, participating in welfare for one to three years provides up to a 5 percentage point gain in a child's Picture Individual Achievement Test (PIAT) scores. The negative effect of childhood welfare participation on adult earnings found by others is not significant if one accounts for mothers' work decisions. At the estimated values of the model parameters, a mother's number of years of work contributes between $3,000 and $7,000 1996 dollars to her child's labor income, but has no significant effect on the child's PIAT test scores. Finally, children's number of years of schooling is relatively unresponsive to mothers' work and welfare participation choices. |
| Date: | 2008–07–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:nsug08:9&r=lab |
| By: | Chyi, Hau; Ozturk, Orgul |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we develop a dynamic structural model of single mothers' work and welfare participation decisions while their children are young. This model is used to measure the effects of mothers' decisions on short run attainments of the children of NLSY 79. Using PIAT Math test score as a measure of attainment, we find that both single mothers' work and welfare use in the first five years of their children's lives have a positive effect on children's outcomes, but this effect declines with initial ability. The higher the initial ability of a child, the lower the positive impact work and welfare have. In fact, in the case of welfare the effect is negative if a child has more than median initial ability. Furthermore, we find that the work requirement reduces a single mother's use of welfare. However, the net effect of the work requirement on a child's test score depends on whether the mother's work brings in enough labor income to compensate for the loss of welfare benefits. We also look at the implications of the welfare eligibility time limit and maternal leave policies on children's outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Welfare reform; childhood cognitive ability; female work; dynamic choice model; maximum likelihood |
| JEL: | J22 I38 J18 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:10228&r=lab |
| By: | Brown , W.; Bryson , A.; Forth , J. |
| Abstract: | For most of the twentieth century, collective bargaining provided the terms on which labour was commonly employed in Britain. However, the quarter century since 1980 has seen the collapse of collectivism as the main way of regulating employment. Our argument is that the tacit settlement between organized labour and employers was undermined by increasing product market competition. The paper first provides an overview of the changing map of collective bargaining, focusing on the private sector. It then moves on to ask why the retreat took place, and to explore the part played by product market competition and, in particular, by the profitability of different industries. The paper concludes with an analysis of the consequences of privatisation. |
| Keywords: | collective bargaining, trade unions, competition, privatisation. |
| JEL: | D40 J30 J50 L33 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:0831&r=lab |
| By: | Enchuan Shao; Pedro Silos |
| Abstract: | We present a model of aggregate fluctuations in which monopolistic firms face sunk costs to enter the production process and labor markets are characterized by search and matching frictions. Entrants post vacancies and are matched to idle workers. Our specification of sunk costs gives rise to a countercyclical net present value of a vacancy; it is always zero in models where entry is free. The model displays a strong degree of amplification and propagation. The time-varying value of a vacancy has implications for the surplus division between firms and workers over business cycle. In the data, we proxy this division using the ratio of corporate profits to output and workers' compensation to output. We document the cyclical behavior of profit's and labor's shares: Profit's share leads the cycle and is procyclical and more volatile than output. Labor's share inversely leads the cycle and is weakly countercyclical and smoother than output. Our model is consistent with the cross-correlations of both shares and the higher volatility of the share of profits. Regarding propagation and amplification, the model matches the persistence of vacancy creation and two-thirds of the observed volatility of market tightness relative to output. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedawp:2008-17&r=lab |
| By: | Paul Grout (University of Bristol, Department of Economics); Wendelin Schnedler (University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | How does the environment of an organization influence whether workers voluntarily provide effort? We study the power relationship between a non-profit unit (e.g. university department, NGO, health trust), where workers care about the result of their work, and a bu- reaucrat, who supplies some input to the non-profit unit, but has opportunity costs in doing so (e.g. Dean of faculty, corrupt representative, government agency). We find that marginal changes in the balance of power eventually have dramatic effects on donated labor. We also identify when strengthening the non-profit unit decreases and when it increases donated labor. |
| Keywords: | donated labor, intrinsic motivation, non-profit organizations, power within organizations |
| JEL: | J32 H11 H42 M52 |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:awi:wpaper:0474&r=lab |
| By: | Ernst Fehr; Martin Brown; Christian Zehnder |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of reputational incentives in markets characterized by moral hazard problems. Social preferences have been shown to enhance contract enforcement in these markets, while at the same time generating considerable wage and price rigidity. Reputation powerfully amplifies the positive effects of social preferences on contract enforcement by increasing contract efficiency substantially. This effect is, however, associated with a considerable bilateralisation of market interactions, suggesting that it may aggravate price rigidities. Surprisingly, reputation in fact weakens the wage and price rigidities arising from social preferences. Thus, in markets characterized by moral hazard, reputational incentives unambiguously increase mutually beneficial exchanges, reduce rents, and render markets more responsive to supply and demand shocks. |
| Keywords: | Reputation, Reciprocity, Relational Contracts, Price Rigidity, Wage Rigidity |
| JEL: | D82 J3 J41 E24 C9 |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:iewwpx:384&r=lab |
| By: | Jesse Rothstein; Albert Yoon |
| Abstract: | An important criticism of race-based higher education admission preferences is that they may hurt minority students who attend more selective schools than they would in the absence of such preferences. We categorize the non-experimental research designs available for the study of so-called "mismatch" effects and evaluate the likely biases in each. We select two comparisons and use them to examine mismatch effects in law school. We find no evidence of mismatch effects on any students' employment outcomes or on the graduation or bar passage rates of black students with moderate or strong entering credentials. What evidence there is for mismatch comes from less-qualified black students who typically attend second- or third-tier schools. Many of these students would not have been admitted to any law school without preferences, however, and the resulting sample selection prevents strong conclusions. |
| JEL: | I21 J15 K30 |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14275&r=lab |
| By: | Wolfgang R. Köhler |
| Abstract: | We analyze task allocation and randomization in Principal Agent models. We identify a new rationale that determines the allocation of tasks and show that it can be optimal to assign tasks that are very different to one agent. Similar to randomization, the reason to assign several tasks to one agent is to mitigate the effect of the participation constraint. We show that the allocation of tasks can be used as a substitute if randomization is not feasible. |
| Keywords: | Job design, multi-task agency, ex-ante randomization, moral hazard |
| JEL: | D |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:iewwpx:381&r=lab |
| By: | Pamela Kea (Poverty Research Unit at Sussex, Department of Economics, University of Sussex) |
| Abstract: | This article examines the intensification of Gambian girls’ domestic and farm labour contributions as a result of the introduction of double-shift schooling. Drawing on fieldwork among female farmers and their daughters in Brikama the article puts forth the following arguments: double shift schooling facilitates the intensification and increased appropriation of surplus value from girls’ household and farm labour because girls are more readily able to meet gendered labour obligations that are central to the moral economy of the household and to the demands of agrarian production; secondly, double shift schooling highlights the paradoxical nature of development intervention where, on the one hand, legislation and policy call for a reduction in child labour by increasing access to school and, on the other, neo-liberal educational policy serves to facilitate the intensification of girls’ domestic and farm labour. It maintains that the intensification of girls’ work must be placed within a wider context where children’s, particularly girls’ cheap, flexible and/or unremunerated labour is central to the functioning of local and global processes of accumulation. |
| Keywords: | Inequality, Poverty, Labour, Schooling |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pru:wpaper:39&r=lab |
| By: | yamamura, eiji |
| Abstract: | This paper uses panel data from Japan to decompose productivity growth measured by the growth of output per labor unit into three components of efficiency improvement, capital accumulation and technological progress. It then examines their determinants through a dynamic panel model. In particular, this paper focuses on the question of how inequality, trust and humans affect the above components. The main findings derived from empirical estimations are: (1) Inequality impedes not only improvements in efficiency but also capital accumulation. (2) A degree of trust promotes efficiency improvements and capital accumulation at the same time. However, human capital merely enhances improvements in efficiency. |
| Keywords: | Heterogeneity; Inequality; Trust; DEA analysis |
| JEL: | E25 O15 O4 |
| Date: | 2007–10–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:10248&r=lab |
| By: | Mary A. Burke; Tim R. Sass |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyze the impact of classroom peers on individual student performance with a unique longitudinal data set covering all Florida public school students in grades 3-10 over a five-year period. Unlike many previous data sets used to study peer effects in education, our data set allow us to identify each member of a given student’s classroom peer group in elementary, middle, and high school as well as the classroom teacher responsible for instruction. As a result, we can control for individual student fixed effects simultaneously with individual teacher fixed effects, thereby alleviating biases due to endogenous assignment of both peers and teachers, including some dynamic aspects of such assignments. Our estimation strategy, which focuses on the influence of peers' fixed characteristics—both observed and unobserved—on individual test score gains, also alleviates potential biases due to error in measuring peer quality, simultaneity of peer outcomes, and mean reversion. Under linear-inmeans specifications, estimated peer effects are small to non-existent, but we find some sizable and significant peer effects within non-linear models. For example, we find that peer effects depend on an individual student’s own ability and on the ability level of the peers under consideration, results that suggest Pareto-improving redistributions of students across classrooms and/or schools. Estimated peer effects tend to be smaller when teacher fixed effects are included than when they are omitted, a result that suggests co-movement of peer and teacher quality effects within a student over time. We also find that peer effects tend to be stronger at the classroom level than at the grade level. |
| Keywords: | Education |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedbwp:08-5&r=lab |
| By: | Torben M. Andersen; Allan Sørensen (School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus, Denmark) |
| Abstract: | It is widely perceived that globalization squeezes public sector activities by making taxation more costly. This is attributed to increased factor mobility and to a more elastic labour demand due to improved scope for relocation of production and thus employment across countries. We argue that this consensus view overlooks that gains from trade unambiguously work to lower the marginal costs of public funds, and moreover that globalization via increased trade in intermediaries may actually lower the labour demand elasticity. |
| Keywords: | Globalization, marginal costs of public funds, labour taxation |
| JEL: | F15 F4 H20 H40 |
| Date: | 2008–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2008-08&r=lab |
| By: | Kai Christoffel; Keith Kuester |
| Abstract: | If the Mortensen and Pissarides model with efficient bargaining is calibrated to replicate the fluctuations of unemployment over the business cycle, it implies a far too strong rise of the unemployment rate when unemployment benefits rise. This paper explores an alternative, right-to-manage bargaining scheme. This also generates the right degree of fluctuations of unemployment but at the same time implies a reasonable elasticity of unemployment with respect to benefits. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:08-15&r=lab |
| By: | Lucia Wegner |
| Abstract: | African countries face high youth unemployment and a skills shortage. Technical and vocational systems in Africa are poorly funded and managed. Skill-development strategies need to be integrated into poverty-reduction strategies and focused on sectors with promising employment prospects. |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:devaac:62-en&r=lab |
| By: | Paul Allanson; Ulf-G Gerdtham; Dennis Petrie |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the characterisation and measurement of income-related health inequality using longitudinal data. The paper elucidates the nature of the Jones and Lopez Nicholas (2004) index of “health-related income mobility” and explains the negative values of the index that have been reported in all the empirical applications to date. The paper further questions the value of their index to health policymakers and proposes an alternative index of “income-related health mobility” that measures whether the pattern of health changes is biased in favour of those with initially high or low incomes. We illustrate our work by investigating mobility in the General Health Questionnaire measure of psychological well-being over the first nine waves of the British Household Panel Survey from 1991 to 1999. |
| Keywords: | income-related health inequality, mobility analysis, longitudinal data |
| JEL: | D39 D63 I18 |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dun:dpaper:214&r=lab |
| By: | Yamamura, Eiji |
| Abstract: | Using Japanese prefecture-level data for the years 1979 and 1996, I explore the extent to which inequality, age heterogeneity, and human capital have an effect upon neighborhood trust, which is ordinarily considered as a kind of particularized trust. The major findings are as follows: (1) Income inequality is associated with low trust for both young and the old generations. (2) Age homogeneity and education have a detrimental effect on trust. However, this tendency is not observed when the sample includes older-generation respondents only. These results are not changed when I instrument for inequality and per capita income using the relative size of the mature-aged cohort and the occurrence of natural disasters. It follows that neighborhood trust contains mixed features of generalized and particularized trust. |
| Keywords: | Trust; Inequality; Age Heterogeneity; Social Capital |
| JEL: | D30 Z13 |
| Date: | 2008–07–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:10218&r=lab |
| By: | Jesse Rothstein; Albert H. Yoon |
| Abstract: | The Supreme Court has held repeatedly that race-based preferences in public university admissions are constitutional. But debates over the wisdom of affirmative action continue. Opponents of these policies argue that preferences are detrimental to minority students -- that by placing these students in environments that are too competitive, affirmative action hurts their academic and career outcomes. This article examines the so-called "mismatch" hypothesis in the context of law school admissions. We discuss the existing scholarship on mismatch, identifying methodological limitations of earlier attempts to measure the effects of affirmative action. Using a simpler, more robust analytical strategy, we find that the data are inconsistent with large mismatch effects, particularly with respect to employment outcomes. While moderate mismatch effects are possible, they are concentrated among the students with the weakest entering academic credentials. To put our estimates in context, we simulate admissions under race-blind rules. Eliminating affirmative action would dramatically reduce the number of black law students, particularly at the most selective schools. Many potentially successful black law students would be excluded, far more than the number who would be induced to pass the bar exam by the elimination of mismatch effects. Accordingly, we find that eliminating affirmative action would dramatically reduce the production of black lawyers. |
| JEL: | I2 J15 K30 |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14276&r=lab |
| By: | Benoit Dostie; Rajshri Jayaraman |
| Abstract: | Using a large longitudinal, nationally representative workplace-level dataset, we explore the productivity gains associated with computer use and organizational redesign. The empirical strategy involves the estimation of a production function, augmented to account for technology use and organizational design, correcting for unobserved heterogeneity. We find large returns associated with computer use. We also find that computer use and organizational redesign may be complements or substitutes in production, and that the productivity gains associated with organizational redesign are industry-specific. <P>Dans cet article, nous estimons les rendements en termes de productivité au niveau de l'établissement associés aux nouvelles technologies et aux nouvelles pratiques organisationnelles. Notre stratégie d'estimation repose sur la spécification d'une fonction de production Cobb-Douglas où nous tenons compte de l'utilisation des nouvelles technologies et du design organisationnel de l'établissement, tout en corrigeant pour l'hétérogénéité non-observée. Nous trouvons que les nouvelles technologies sont complémentaires à certaines pratiques organisationnelles et substituts pour d'autres. Nous trouvons aussi que les mécanismes menant à des gains de productivité sont souvent spécifiques à l'industrie. |
| Keywords: | productivity, workplace practices, linked employer-employee data, information technologies, données employeur-employé liées, pratiques organisationnelles, productivité, nouvelles technologies |
| Date: | 2008–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2008s-22&r=lab |
| By: | Lucia Wegner |
| Abstract: | Les pays africains souffrent d’un fort taux de chômage des jeunes et d’une pénurie de main-d’oeuvre qualifiée. Les systèmes de formations techniques et professionnelles sont mal financés et mal gérés. Les stratégies de développement des compétences professionnelles doivent être intégrées dans les stratégies de réduction de la pauvreté Les ressources doivent se concentrer sur les secteurs dont les perspectives en termes d’emploi sont prometteuses. |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:devaac:62-fr&r=lab |
| By: | Yamamura, Eiji; Shin, Inyong |
| Abstract: | In the present paper, the inverted-U shape relationship between growth and inequality found in Chen(2003), is reexamined. We decompose productivity growth into efficiency improvement, capital accumulation and technological progress and then ascertain their determinants by employing a fixed effects and dynamic panel models. In particular, this paper focuses on the question of how economic inequality affects capital accumulation and efficiency improvement. Key findings are that inequality enhances efficiency improvement as well as capital accumulation and then undermines them as inequality widens. However, other factors such as human capital, openness, and government consumption have different effects on them. |
| Keywords: | Inequality; Growth; Fixed effects |
| JEL: | E25 O15 |
| Date: | 2008–04–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:10220&r=lab |
| By: | Penta, Antonio |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the research agenda on non-cooperative foundations ofWalrasian Equilibrium. A class of barganing games in which agents bargain over prices and maximum trading con- straints is considered: It is proved that all the Stationary Sub- game Perfect Equilibria of these games implement Walrasian al- locations as the bargaining frictions vanish. The main novelty of the result is twofold: (1) it holds for any number of agents; (2) it is robust to di¤erent speci cations of the bargaining process. |
| Keywords: | strategic bargaining; Walrasian Equilibrium |
| JEL: | C78 D51 C72 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:10260&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Manuel Posso Suárez |
| Abstract: | En el periodo 1984-2005 se registró un incremento substancial en la desigualdad salarial en especial a partir de 1995, momento en el cual también se dio un crecimiento significativo de la población asalariada con educación post-secundaria. A su vez esta desigualdad fue más importante dentro del grupo de los más educados. Este documento expone nuevas alternativas para el análisis de la desigualdad salarial en Colombia. Primero, se utiliza un método de descomposición para la desigualdad basado en una estimación condicional de la distribución de ingresos utilizando la regresión por percentiles; este método descompone los cambios en la distribución en tres factores: características, coeficientes y residuales. Los resultados muestran que el crecimiento de la desigualdad depende principalmente de los cambios en la distribución de las características de los asalariados para el periodo 1984– 2005, resultado contrario a lo planteado por algunos trabajos previos donde se muestra que el crecimiento de la desigualdad depende fundamentalmente de los residuales. La técnica aquí presentada corrige algunas de las deficiencias del método original de descomposición de Juhn, Murphy y Pierce (JMP, 1993). Segundo, utilizando la regresión por percentiles se intenta mostrar que los premios a la educación post-secundaria tienen un rol principal en la explicación del crecimiento de la desigualdad dentro del grupo de los más educados, particularmente por una caída en el premio en la parte baja de la distribución (50/10) para el periodo 1995-2005, el cual puede estar asociado a un problema de calidad de la educación. |
| Date: | 2008–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000094:005003&r=lab |