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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Climent Quintana-Domeque (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | I attempt to explain why compensating differentials for job disamenities are difficult to observe. I focus on the match between workers’ preferences for routine jobs and the variability in tasks associated with the job. Using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, I find that mismatched workers report lower job satisfaction and earn lower wages. Both male and female workers in routinized jobs earn, on average, 12% less than their counterparts in non-routinized jobs. Once preferences and mismatch are accounted for, this difference decreases to 8% for men and 5% for women. Accounting for mismatch is important when analyzing compensating differentials. |
| Keywords: | wage differentials, preferences, job attributes, routine tasks, mismatch |
| JEL: | J30 J31 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:indrel:1063&r=lab |
| By: | Hirsch, Barry (Georgia State University); Schumacher, Edward J. (Trinity University) |
| Abstract: | The nursing labor market presents an apparent puzzle. Hospitals report chronic shortages, yet standard wage analysis shows that nursing wages have increased over time and greatly exceed those received by other college-educated women. This paper addresses this puzzle. Data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) are matched with detailed job content descriptors from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET). Nursing jobs require higher levels of skills and more difficult working conditions than do jobs for other college educated workers. A standard CPS-only wage regression shows a registered nurse (RN) wage advantage of .22 log points compared to a pooled male/female group of college-educated workers. Control for O*NET job attributes reduces the RN gap to .08, while an arguably preferable nonparametric estimator produces a wage gap estimate close to zero. We conclude that nurses receive compensation close to long-run opportunity costs, narrowing if not resolving the RN wage-shortage puzzle. |
| Keywords: | nursing, wage differentials, job attributes |
| JEL: | I12 J31 J44 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3833&r=lab |
| By: | Alan B. Krueger (Princeton University and NBER); Andreas Mueller (Stockholm University and Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides new evidence on job search intensity of the unemployed in the U.S., modeling job search intensity as time allocated to job search activities. The main findings are: 1) the average unemployed worker in the U.S. devotes about 41 minutes to job search on weekdays, which is substantially more than his or her European counterpart; 2) workers who expect to be recalled by their previous employer search substantially less than the average unemployed worker; 3) across the 50 states and D.C., job search is inversely related to the generosity of unemployment benefits, with an elasticity between -1.6 and -2.2; 4) the predicted wage is a strong predictor of time devoted to job search, with an elasticity in excess of 2.5; 5) job search intensity for those eligible for Unemployment Insurance (UI) increases prior to benefit exhaustion; 6) time devoted to job search is fairly constant regardless of unemployment duration for those who are ineligible for UI. A nonparametric Monte Carlo technique suggests that the relationship between job search effort and the duration of unemployment for a cross-section of job seekers is only slightly biased by length-based sampling. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, unemployment insurance, job search, time use, unemployment benefits, inequality |
| JEL: | J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:indrel:1070&r=lab |
| By: | Eriksson, Stefan (Department of Economics); Lagerström, Jonas (Department of Economics, Åbo Akademi) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies gender differences in labor market outcomes using data from an Internetbased CV database. The women in the database get fewer firm contacts than men, and we show that this is partly explained by differences in education, experience and other skills, is not explained by differences in occupation and place of residence, and to a large extent is explained by differences in geographical search area. When we take into account differences in search area, the negative gender effect disappears. However, the results differ somewhat across subgroups: For highly skilled women a negative gender effect remains. |
| Keywords: | Job Search; Gender Differences; Discrimination |
| JEL: | J61 J71 |
| Date: | 2008–10–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2008_010&r=lab |
| By: | Morris M. Kleiner (University of Minnesota and NBER); Alan B. Krueger (Princeton University and NBER) |
| Abstract: | This study provides the first nation-wide analysis of the labor market implications of occupational licensing for the U.S. labor market, using data from a specially designed Gallup survey. We find that in 2006, 29 percent of the workforce was required to hold an occupational license from a government agency, which is a higher percentage than that found in studies that rely on state-level occupational licensing data. Workers who have higher levels of education are more likely to work in jobs that require a license. Union workers and government employees are more likely to have a license requirement than are nonunion or private sector employees. Our multivariate estimates suggest that licensing has about the same quantitative impact on wages as do unions -- that is about 15 percent, but unlike unions which reduce variance in wages, licensing does not significantly reduce wage dispersion for individuals in licensed jobs. |
| Keywords: | occupational licensing; regulation; wages |
| JEL: | J8 |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:indrel:1069&r=lab |
| By: | Alan B. Krueger (Princeton University and NBER); Andreas Mueller (Stockholm University and Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides new evidence on time use and subjective well-being of employed and unemployed individuals in 14 countries. We devote particular attention to characterizing and modeling job search intensity, measured by the amount of time devoted to searching for a new job. Job search intensity varies considerably across countries, and is higher in countries that have higher wage dispersion. We also examine the relationship between unemployment benefits and job search. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, job search, time use, unemployment benefits, inequality |
| JEL: | J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:indrel:1062&r=lab |
| By: | Philip Du Caju (National Bank of Belgium, Brussels.); François Rycx (DULBEA, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels and NBB and IZA-Bonn.); Ilan Tojerow (DULBEA, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels and NBB and IZA-Bonn.) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates inter-industry wage differentials in Belgium, taking advantage of access to a unique matched employer-employee data set covering all the years from 1999 to 2005. Findings show the existence of large wage differentials among workers with the same observed characteristics and working conditions, employed in different sectors. These differentials are persistent and no particular downward or upward trend is observed. However, the dispersion of inter-industry wage differentials appears to show a cyclical pattern over time. Further results indicate that ceteris paribus, workers earn significantly higher wages when employed in more profitable firms. The time dimension of our matched employer-employee data allows us to instrument firms' profitability by its lagged value. The instrumented elasticity between wages and profits is found to be quite stable over time and varies between 0.034 and 0.043. It follows that Lester’s range of pay due to rent sharing fluctuates between about 24 and 37 percent of the mean wage. This rent-sharing phenomenon accounts for a large fraction of the industry wage differentials. We find indeed that the magnitude, dispersion and significance of industry wage differentials decreases sharply when controlling for profits. |
| Keywords: | Industry wage differentials, Rent-sharing, Matched employer-employee data |
| JEL: | D31 J31 J41 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:08-035&r=lab |
| By: | Rikke Ibsen (CCP (Center for Corporate Performance), Aarhus Business School); Elisabetta Trevisan (CCP (Center for Corporate Performance), Aarhus Business Schoo and V Ca’ Foscari University of Venice); Niels Westergaard-Nielsen (CCP (Center for Corporate Performance), Aarhus Business School) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of job mobility and tenure on wage dynamics. In this respect, theory assesses that high job mobility and low tenure are associated to lower wage drop when workers experience a job change. We test this theory first comparing two labour market (i.e. Denmark and a large Italian region, Veneto) characterized by different job mobility and tenure, as a consequence of different level of EPL. Secondly, we perform a within Veneto analysis, comparing the different effects when workers are employed in small rather than big firms. Data drawn from the VWH (Veneto Workers History) and IDA (for Denmark) registered data, from 1987 to 2001, are used. In Denmark job mobility has a positive effect on wage increases, while built up on firm-specific human capital has a negative effect. In Veneto, instead, it appears that long tenure are more rewarding. Some evidences of positive impact of moving from job to job when the barriers are lower come from the analysis of the differences between small and big firms in Veneto. |
| Keywords: | Information sale, Cheap talk, Conflicts of interest, Information Acquisition, Firewalls, Market efficiency |
| JEL: | C14 C23 J24 J31 J63 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2008_40&r=lab |
| By: | van den Berg, Gerard J. (Free University of Amsterdam); Bergemann, Annette (Free University of Amsterdam); Caliendo, Marco (IZA) |
| Abstract: | Labor market programs may affect unemployed individuals' behavior before they enroll. Such ex ante effects are hard to identify without model assumptions. We develop a novel method that relates self-reported perceived treatment rates and job-search behavioral outcomes, like the reservation wage, to each other, among newly unemployed workers. Job search theory is used to derive theoretical predictions. To deal with effect heterogeneity and selectivity, the effects of interest are estimated by propensity score matching. We apply the method to the German ALMP system, using a novel data set including self-reported assessments of the variables of interest as well as an unusually detailed amount of information on behavior, attitudes, and past outcomes. We find that the system generates a negative ex ante effect on the reservation wage and a positive effect on search effort. |
| Keywords: | program evaluation, unemployment duration, expectations, search effort, reservation wage, policy evaluation, active labor market policy, identification |
| JEL: | J64 C21 D83 D84 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3825&r=lab |
| By: | Jesse Rothstein (Princeton University and NBER) |
| Abstract: | The EITC is designed to encourage work. But EITC-induced increases in labor supply may drive wages down, shifting the intended transfer toward employers and hurting non- EITC low-skill workers. I exploit variation across family types and skill levels to identify the eect of a large EITC expansion in the mid 1990s. Ceteris paribus, low-skill single mothers keep only $0.70 of every dollar they receive. Employers of low-skill labor capture $0.72, $0.30 from single mothers plus $0.43 from ineligible workers whose after-tax incomes fall when the EITC is expanded. The net transfer to low-skill workers is less than $0.28 per dollar spent. |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cepsud:1049&r=lab |
| By: | Glans, Erik (Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Knowledge about how elderly workers react to changes in pension benefits is important in guiding the design of social security systems. This paper contributes to this knowledge by examining the effect of changed replacement rates on part-time retirement behaviour in Sweden. During the 1980s, older workers had the option of partial retirement with an income replacement of 65 percent. The replacement rate was lowered to 50 percent in 1981 and subsequently increased back to 65 percent in 1987. Estimates using a linear probability model with register data from the LINDA database suggest that fewer men and women chose part-time retirement after the reduction in benefit levels in 1981. There was an approximate 4 percentage point drop in the partial retirement propensity among eligible 60-year old men, and a 5.7 percent drop among women. This corresponds to proportional reductions in the retirement propensity by about 29 and 36 percent respectively. The probability of part-time retirement increased among men by about 3.5 percentage points once benefit levels were increased again, whereas the partial retirement probability of women remained largely unchanged. |
| Keywords: | Retirement; Labour supply; Pensions |
| JEL: | H55 J26 |
| Date: | 2008–11–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2008_008&r=lab |
| By: | Henry S. Farber (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | Long-term employment relationships have long been an important feature of the labor market in the United States. However, increased international competition and the wave of corporate downsizing in the 1990s raised concerns that long-term employment relationships in the United States were disappearing. I present evidence in this study, based on data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) from 1973-2006, that long-term employment relationships have, in fact, become much less common for men in the private sector. Mirroring this decline in tenure and long-term employment relationships, there has been an increase in “churning” (defined as the proportion of workers in jobs with less than one year of tenure) for males in the private sector as they enter their thirties and later. In contrast, women have seen no systematic change in job durations or the incidence of long-term employment relationships in the private sector. There has been an increase in job durations and the incidence of long-term employment relationships in the public sector, with the increase more pronounced for women. I conclude that 1) the structure of jobs in the private sector has moved away from long-term relationships, 2) this decline has been offset for females by their increased attachment to the labor force, and 3) the public sector has been less susceptible to the competitive forces that are likely causing the changes in the private sector. It seems clear that more recent cohorts of workers are less likely than their parents to have a career characterized by a “life-time” job with a single employer. |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:indrel:1068&r=lab |
| By: | Gábor Kátay (Department of Economics, Magyar Nemzeti Bank, 1850 Budapest, Szabadság tér 8-9, Hungary.) |
| Abstract: | In this paper I address the question to what extent wages are affected by product market uncertainty. Implicit contract models imply that it is Pareto optimal for risk neutral firms to provide insurance to risk averse workers against shocks. Using matched employer-employee dataset, I adopted the estimation strategy proposed by Guiso et al. (2005) to evaluate wage responses to both permanent and transitory shocks in Hungary and compared my results to similar studies on Italian and Portuguese datasets. I found that firms do insure workers against product market uncertainties, but the magnitude of the wage response differs depending on the nature of the shock. Broadly speaking, the wage response to permanent shocks is twice as high as the response to transitory shocks. Comparing my results to the two other studies, the main difference lies in the elasticity of wages to transitory shocks. Unlike these previous findings, my results show that full insurance to transitory shocks is rejected. JEL Classification: C33, D21, J33, J41. |
| Keywords: | product market uncertainty, risk sharing, wage insurance, optimal wage contract, matched employer-employee data. |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20080964&r=lab |
| By: | Bloemen, Hans (Free University of Amsterdam); Pasqua, Silvia (University of Turin); Stancanelli, Elena (CNRS, Nice) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the time allocation of Italian spouses to paid work, childcare and household work. The literature suggests that Italian husbands contribute the least to unpaid household work, relative to other European countries, while Italian women have the lowest market employment rates. We model the three different time uses simultaneously for the two spouses within each household, allowing for corner solutions and correlations in the unobservables across the system of six equations. To estimate the model we use data drawn from the 2002-03 Italian Time Use Survey, combined with earnings information taken from the 2002 Bank of Italy Survey. We conclude that Italian husbands' time allocation responds to their wife's attributes: in particular, husbands' housework time increases with the wage of their wife. On the contrary, the own wage effect is significantly negative for housework of women. Childcare time of fathers increases with own wage and with the presence of small children and this is true both for weekdays and weekends. |
| Keywords: | time allocation, work behaviour, household economics |
| JEL: | D1 D13 J21 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3823&r=lab |
| By: | Andini, Corrado (University of Madeira) |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that, if observed earnings are the result of employer-employee wage bargaining, under a set of specific assumptions, the standard static Mincer equation can be thought as a particular case of a dynamic wage equation. Particularly, we argue that the standard static Mincer equation is implicitly based on the hypothesis that the employee has full bargaining power, and provide (further) empirical evidence against this hypothesis. |
| Keywords: | Mincer equation, return to schooling, wage bargaining |
| JEL: | I21 J31 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3822&r=lab |
| By: | Henry S. Farber (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | Job tenure and the incidence of long-term employment have declined sharply in the United States. However, rates of job loss as measured by the Displaced Workers Survey (DWS), while cyclical, have not increased. This presents a puzzle that has several potential solutions. One is that, while overall rates of job loss have not increased, rates of job loss for high-tenure workers have increased relative to those for lower-tenure workers. Another is that there has been an increase in rates of job change that is not captured in the limited questions asked in the DWS. Some of this seemingly voluntary job change (e.g., the taking of an offered buy-out) may reflect the kind of worker displacement that the DWS was meant to capture but is not reported as such by workers. In this study, I address these issues by 1) documenting the decline in job tenure and longterm employment using data from various supplements to the Current Population Survey (CPS) from 1973-2006, 2) documenting the lack of secular change in rates of job loss using data from the DWS from 1984-2006, and 3) exploring the extent to which the observed patterns result from a relative increase in rates of job loss among high-tenure workers. I find that the decline in job tenure and long-term employment is restricted to the private sector and that there has been some increase in job tenure and long-term employment in the public sector. I find no secular changes in relative rates of job loss in either sector that could account for these trends. Reconciliation of the trends in the tenure and displacement data must lie with a failure to identify all relevant displacement in the DWS. |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cepsud:1055&r=lab |
| By: | Daniele Checchi (Department of Economics - University of Milan); Cecilia Garcìa-Peñalosa (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille II - Université Paul Cézanne - Aix-Marseille III - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales - CNRS : UMR6579) |
| Abstract: | A large literature has studied the impact of labour market institutions on wage inequality, but their effect on income inequality has received little attention. In this paper we argue that personal income inequality is a function of the wage differential, the labour share, and the unemployment rate. Labour market institutions then affect income inequality through these three channels and their overall effect is theoretically ambiguous. We use a panel of OECD countries for the period 1960-2000 to examine these effects. We find that greater unionization and a higher degree of wage bargaining coordination have opposite effects on inequality, implying conflicting effects of greater union presence on the distribution of income. |
| Keywords: | income inequality, labour share, trade unions |
| Date: | 2008–11–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00341005_v1&r=lab |
| By: | Anne Case (Princeton University); Christina Paxson (Princeton University); Mahnaz Islam (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | We use nine waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) to investigate the large labor market height premium observed in the BHPS, where each inch of height is associated with a 1.5 percent increase in wages, for both men and women. We find that half of the premium can be explained by the association between height and educational attainment among BHPS participants. Of the remaining premium, half can be explained by taller individuals selecting into higher status occupations and industries. These effects are consistent with our earlier findings that taller individuals on average have greater cognitive function, which manifests in greater educational attainment, and better labor market opportunities. |
| JEL: | I1 J3 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cheawb:1076&r=lab |
| By: | Puhani, Patrick A. (University of Hannover); Sonderhof, Katja (University of Hannover) |
| Abstract: | Using three representative individual-level datasets for West Germany, we estimate the effect of the extension of maternity leave from 18 to 36 months on young women's participation in job-related training. Specifically, we employ difference-indifferences identification strategies using control groups of older women and older women together with young and older men. We find that maternity leave extension negatively affects job-related training for young women, even if they do not have children, especially when the focus is on employer-arranged training. There is tentative evidence that young women partly compensated for this reduction in employer-arranged training by increasing training on their own initiative. |
| Keywords: | policy, evaluation, education |
| JEL: | J16 J24 J58 J83 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3820&r=lab |
| By: | Michele Boldrin; Pilar García Gómez; Sergi Jiménez Martín |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyze the relationship between the employment of the young, exit of older people and retirement incentives using data from both the Spanish labor force survey and the Muestra Contínua de Vidas Laborales. Against a priori expectations, we do find some (weak) evidence of positive (negative) relationship between the employment (unemployment) of young and the labor force participation of the older population. However, we are unable to find a clear relationship between the employment of the young and the incentives to retirement created by the Spanish pension system. We believe this is so because retirement incentives have changed very little during the last two decades. |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2008-42&r=lab |
| By: | Mario Schnalzenberger; Rudolf Winter-Ebmer |
| Abstract: | In 1996 Austria introduced a tax for the layoff of older workers, which was tightened in 2000. The regulation requires employers to pay a tax of up to 170 percent of the gross monthly income when they give notice to employees aged 50 or more. We use data from Austrian social security records to investigate if such layoff taxes lead to less firing of older workers. We compare a control group of workers aged nearly 50 with the treatment group above 50. We apply a difference-in-difference approach to analyze the difference in the displacement probability of all prime aged workers. Results show substantial reductions in layoff behavior for workers aged 50 and above after the tightening of the tax. |
| Keywords: | Layoff tax, labor demand, employment, elderly workers |
| JEL: | J14 J45 J63 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2008_19&r=lab |
| By: | Manuel A. Hidalgo Pérez (Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide); Jesús Rodríguez López (Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide); José María O´Kean Alonso (Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide) |
| Abstract: | Using the EU KLEMS dataset we test the capital-skill complementarity hypothesis in a cross-section of sectors in Spain between 1980 and 2005. We analyze three groups of workers, who are classed according to skill level: high, medium and low. Capital assets have been broken down into ICT (information and communication technologies) assets and non-ICT assets. Acquisition and usage costs of ICT assets declined throughout the period studied, both in absolute terms and relative to the other capital assets and workers. Our principal finding is that the substitutibility between workers and ICT assets falls as worker skill level rises. In fact, the ICT assets were strongly complement with highly skilled workers and were not substitutive with them. Throughout the period analyzed, the fraction of employed medium- and high-skill workers rose by 21% and 12%, respectively, to the disadvantage of low-skill workers. After decomposing these changes, we found that the latter were dominated by an ajustment within sectors more than by a composition effect or adjustment between sectors. These adjustments may be explained by reference to the estimated elasticities of substitution. |
| Keywords: | capital-skill complementarity, ICT, translog cost function, elasticity of substitution. |
| JEL: | E22 J24 J31 O33 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pab:wpaper:08.12&r=lab |
| By: | Magda, Iga (Polish Ministry of Labour and Social Policy); Rycx, Francois (Free University of Brussels); Tojerow, Ilan (Free University of Brussels); Valsamis, Daphné (Free University of Brussels) |
| Abstract: | This study compares the structure and determinants of inter-industry wage differentials in Eastern and Western European countries (namely Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Spain compared with Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia). To do so, we use a unique harmonised, linked employer-employee data set, the 2002 European Structure of Earnings Survey. Findings show substantial differences in earnings across sectors in all countries, even when controlling for a wide range of employee, job and employer characteristics. The hierarchy of sectors in terms of wages appears to be quite similar in Eastern and Western European countries. Among high-wage sectors, we find the energy (coke, petroleum, gas, electricity and nuclear power), chemical, financial and computer industries. In contrast, it is in the traditional sectors (wood and cork industry, textile, clothing and leather industry, hotels and restaurants, and retailing) that wages are lowest. Further results suggest that the dispersion of inter-industry wage differentials fluctuates considerably across countries. It is relatively small in Norway and Belgium, large in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Poland and the Czech Republic, and very large in Portugal, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia. Our findings support the hypothesis of a negative relationship between the dispersion of inter-industry wage differentials and a country's degree of corporatism. |
| Keywords: | inter-industry wage differentials, collective bargaining, Europe, matched employer-employee data |
| JEL: | J31 J51 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3830&r=lab |
| By: | Hairault, Jean-Olivier (University of Paris 1); Langot, François (University of Le Mans); Osotimehin, Sophie (CREST & Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate whether business cycles can imply sizable effects on average unemployment. First, using a reduced-form model of the labor market, we show that job finding rate fluctuations generate intrinsically a non-linear effect on unemployment: positive shocks reduce unemployment less than negative shocks increase it. For the observed process of the job finding rate in the US economy, this intrinsic asymmetry is enough to generate substantial welfare implications. This result also holds when we allow the job finding rate to be endogenous, provided the structural model is able to reproduce the volatility of the job finding rate. Moreover, the matching model embeds other non-linearities which alter the average job finding rate and so the business cycle cost. |
| Keywords: | business cycle costs, unemployment dynamics |
| JEL: | E32 J64 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3840&r=lab |
| By: | Ponzo, Michela; Scoppa, Vincenzo |
| Abstract: | A number of papers considers the use of informal networks (the help of relatives, friends and acquaintances) to find an employment as an efficient mechanism to match workers to jobs. However, evidence in Italy shows that informal networks tend to be used more in less productive jobs and less developed regions. We aim to show that informal networks – rather than being an efficient channel of information transmission – may interfere with a genuine process of selection of workers, favoring socially connected people in place of more talented workers. Using the Bank of Italy Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) we estimate with a Probit model the determinants of the probability of using informal networks. We find that informal networks tend to be used by low educated individuals, in low productivity jobs, in high unemployment areas, where opportunistic behavior are widespread and in jobs paying a wage rent. We offer a stripped-down model of nepotism to explain theoretically these findings. |
| Keywords: | Keywords: Informal Networks; Favoritism; Nepotism; Italian Labour Markets. |
| JEL: | D73 J31 J71 M51 J24 |
| Date: | 2008–10–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:11764&r=lab |
| By: | Jason M. Fletcher; Jody L. Sindelar; Shintaro Yamaguchi |
| Abstract: | We present what we believe are the best estimates of how job characteristics of physical demands and environmental conditions affect individual’s health. Five-year cumulative measures of these job characteristics are used to reflect findings in the physiologic literature that cumulative exposure is most relevant for the impact of hazards and stresses on health. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics we find that individuals who work in jobs with the ‘worst’ conditions experience declines in their health, although this effect varies by demographic group. For example, for non-white men, a one standard deviation increase in cumulative physical demands decreases health by an amount that offsets an increase of two years of schooling or four years of aging. Job characteristics are found more detrimental to the health of females and older workers. These results are robust to inclusion of occupation fixed effects, health early in life and lagged health. |
| Keywords: | Health, occupational characteristic |
| JEL: | I10 J28 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:deptwp:2008-05&r=lab |
| By: | Dur, Robert (Erasmus University Rotterdam) |
| Abstract: | We develop a model of manager-employee relationships where employees care more for their manager when they are more convinced that their manager cares for them. Managers can signal their altruistic feelings towards their employees in two ways: by offering a generous wage and by giving attention. Contrary to the traditional gift-exchange hypothesis, we show that altruistic managers may offer lower wages and nevertheless build up better social-exchange relationships with their employees than egoistic managers do. In such equilibria, a low wage signals to employees that the manager has something else to offer − namely, a lot of attention − which will induce the employee to stay at the firm and work hard. Our predictions are well in line with some recent empirical findings about gift exchange in the field. |
| Keywords: | gift exchange, sabotage, extra-role behavior, wages, manager-employee relationships, social exchange, conditional altruism, reciprocity, signaling game |
| JEL: | D86 J41 M50 M54 M55 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3839&r=lab |
| By: | Glans, Erik (Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The Swedish pension reform of 1999-2003 provides an opportunity to study whether and how important economic incentives are for the timing of retirement. The new pension system provides a much closer link between contributions and benefits than the former system. I study whether the reform has led to delayed retirement by examining the retirement patterns of elderly Swedish workers that were differentially affected by the reform. I use duration analysis with annual data from the LINDA database. Discrete time proportional hazard models are estimated. The results show a remarkable decline in the retirement hazard among latter born cohorts, who were more affected by the reform. This implies that retirement is delayed. Most of the decline occurs among public sector employees. |
| Keywords: | Retirement; Labour supply; Pension Reform |
| JEL: | H55 J26 |
| Date: | 2008–11–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2008_009&r=lab |
| By: | Bruno Lamotte (LEPII - Laboratoire d'Économie de la Production et de l'Intégration Internationale - CNRS : UMR5252 - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II); Jon Bernat Zubiri-Rey (LEPII - Laboratoire d'Économie de la Production et de l'Intégration Internationale - CNRS : UMR5252 - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II) |
| Abstract: | In the institutionalist analysis of labour markets, the segmentationist approaches are an interesting tool for understanding the employment models. In this paper we will try to show how these approaches must be adapted to the new labour market phenomena in France and what their impact on the French professional relations is. In the first part of this paper, we will show that the evolution of the internal labour markets question the traditional professional promotion and stabilisation in primary market models. In the new flexible economy and the atypical employment age, the external and the transitional markets (G. SCHMID) are imposed and they are transforming the labour market structures. In the second part we relate this transformation with the professional industrial relations between employer's organisations, trade unions and State in France. For trade unions there are many different approaches to study precarious employment. Although the longitudinal approach is more adequate for studying precarious employment, the static or partial analysies are usually more operational for unions. Our objective is to understand the new approaches of trade unions in the actual context where precarious employment is developed outside of internal labour markets. |
| Keywords: | labour market segmentation ; precarious employment ; professional relation ; labour market ; France ; Rhône-Alpes |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00340590_v1&r=lab |
| By: | Cally Ardington (University of Cape Town); Anne Case (Princeton University); Victoria Hosegood (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies) |
| Abstract: | In many parts of the developing world, rural areas exhibit high rates of unemployment and underemployment. Understanding what prevents people from migrating to find better jobs is central to the development process. In this paper, we examine whether binding credit constraints and childcare constraints limit the ability of households to send labor migrants, and whether the arrival of a large, stable source of income – here, the South African old-age pension – helps households to overcome these constraints. Specifically, we quantify the labor supply responses of prime-aged individuals to changes in the presence of pensioners, using longitudinal data collected in KwaZulu-Natal. Our ability to compare households and individuals before and after pension receipt, and pension loss, allows us to control for a host of unobservable household and individual characteristics that may determine labor market behavior. We find that large cash transfers to elderly South Africans lead to increased employment among prime-aged members of their households, a result that is masked in cross-sectional analysis by differences between pension and non-pension households. Pension receipt also influences where this employment takes place. We find large, significant effects on labor migration upon pension arrival. The pension’s impact is attributable both to the increase in household resources it represents, which can be used to stake migrants until they become self-sufficient, and to the presence of pensioners who can care for small children, which allows prime-aged adults to look for work elsewhere. |
| JEL: | O12 H31 J20 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:rpdevs:1010&r=lab |
| By: | Boeri, Tito (Bocconi University); Brugiavini, Agar (Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia) |
| Abstract: | We analyse the effects of pension reforms on the planned retirement age of women by exploiting within country variation in pension wealth across cohorts of workers in Italy after the Amato and Dini reforms of the early 1990s, which introduced a "Notionally Defined Contribution" (NDC) method for calculating pension benefits. The effect of the change in the pension regime on retirement decisions is affected by the presence of gaps in careers of women. Binding constraints related to eligibility to pensions indeed reduce the responsiveness of women to changes in pension rules. This explains why, contrary to a priori expectations, men are often found to be more reactive than women to changes in pension rules. |
| Keywords: | pensions, social security wealth and accrual, gaps in careers |
| JEL: | J14 J16 J26 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3821&r=lab |
| By: | Jaanika Meriküll; Karsten Staehr |
| Abstract: | This paper compares the prevalence and determinants of unreported employment in the three Baltic States in 1998 and 2002 using a hitherto little used dataset. The prevalence of unreported employment varies substantially across the three countries and across the two sampling years. Microeconometric estimations show that firm-related characteristics, such as sectoral activity, firm size and employment trends, are important determinants of unreported employment in all three countries, whereas the impact of individual factors varies across countries and time. It is shown that only 10–30 percent of the changes in unreported employment between 1998 and 2002 can be accounted for by changes in individual characteristics and firm-related factors. Provisional calculations suggest that the net gain for individuals undertaking unreported employment is modest, in particular among individuals who regularly engage in such activities |
| Keywords: | Unreported employment, informal employment, envelope wages, tax evasion |
| JEL: | H26 H24 D19 |
| Date: | 2008–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2008-06&r=lab |
| By: | Anders Forslund (Uppsala University); Alan B. Krueger (Princeton University and NBER) |
| Abstract: | In the early 1990s the Swedish labour market was hit by the worst shock it experienced since the 1930s, with the unemployment rate rising to 10 percent. This development stands out in light of Sweden’s performance in the post-war period. Between the mid 1940s and the crisis of the 1990s, the Swedish unemployment rate oscillated between one percent and just under four percent (Figure 1). Unemployment even remained low in the 1970s despite oil price shocks that led to persistently high unemployment elsewhere in Europe. A natural question is what, if anything, in Swedish institutions and policies explains why Sweden’s unemployment rate did not follow the same pattern as in most western European countries? A factor often mentioned for this envious performance is Sweden’s active labour market policies (cf e.g. Layard, Nickell and Jackman, 1991). |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cepsud:1035&r=lab |
| By: | Elizabeth Wilde (Columbia University) |
| Abstract: | Most existing research on the effects of girls’ participation in high school sports focuses on short term outcomes without accounting for selection effects. In this research, I examine the effect of athletic participation in high school on longer term outcomes, using Title IX as a source of exogenous variation in athletic participation. I use the change in girls’ sports participation between cohorts within high schools surveyed by the High School and Beyond Survey to measure the effect of participation in high school sports on women's later alcohol behavior. I find that several years after high school, women in cohorts within high schools exposed to more athletics, drink substantially more alcohol than women within the same high school exposed to less athletics. Relative to the mean alcohol behavior of the sample, these differences are both statistically significant and sizable. |
| Keywords: | determinants of health, high school athletics, alcohol, Title IX |
| JEL: | I10 I20 I28 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:indrel:1066&r=lab |
| By: | Matthias Deschryvere; Annu Kotiranta |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT : This study empirically explores whether the propensity to offshore affects the total domestic employment at the firm level. The analysis is based on a Finnish weighted sample of 652 firms and screens the effect of offshoring different kinds of tasks. Two main channels of offshoring tasks are taken into account : offshore outsourcing and in-house offshoring. The main conclusion is that offshoring can significantly affect the total domestic employment but that the significance and the direction of the effect depend on which kind of offshoring is involved. Our results offer evidence that in both the manufacturing and service sectors offshore outsourcing of services has a positive effect on employment. In addition it was found that the effect of R&D offshoring on the probability to anticipate an increase of total domestic employment depends on the offshoring channel. Offshore outsourcing of R&D has a positive effect on the anticipated domestic employment, whereas in-house offshoring of R&D has a negative effect. Specific for the manufacturing sector is that offshore outsourcing of production also has a negative significant effect. A final conclusion is that only in the service sector does in-house offshoring of services have a negative effect on the probability to anticipate an increase of domestic employment. By dissecting offshoring by tasks and channels the above empirical findings contribute to a better understanding of the aggregate effects of offshoring on domestic employment. |
| Keywords: | globalization, internationalization, outsourcing, offshoring, job loss, domestic effects, home country effects |
| JEL: | F16 F23 L20 |
| Date: | 2008–11–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1166&r=lab |
| By: | Ana Lamo (European Central Bank, Kaiserstrasse 29, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.); Javier J. Pérez (Banco de España, Alcalá 50, E-28014 Madrid, Spain.); Ludger Schuknecht (European Central Bank, Kaiserstrasse 29, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.) |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at public and private sector wages interactions since the 1960s in the euro area, euro area countries and a number of other OECD countries. The paper reports, first, a strong positive annual contemporaneous correlation of public and private sector wages over the business cycle; this finding is robust across methods and measures of wages and quite general across countries. Second, we show evidence of long-run relationships between public and private sector wages in all countries. Finally, causality analysis suggests that feedback effects between private and public wages occur in a direct manner and, importantly also via prices. While influences from the private sector appear on the whole to be stronger, there are direct and indirect feedback effects from public wage setting in a number of countries as well. We show how country-specific institutional features of labour and product markets contain helpful information to explain the heterogeneity across countries of our results on public/private wage leadership. JEL Classification: C32, J30, J51, J52, E62, E63, H50. |
| Keywords: | government wages, private sector wages, causality, co-movement. |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20080963&r=lab |
| By: | Dolado, Juan José (Universidad Carlos III, Madrid); Stucchi, Rodolfo (Inter-American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the impact of the widespread use of fixed-term contracts in Spain on firms' TFP, via its effect on workers' effort. We propose a simple analytical framework showing that, under plausible conditions, workers' effort depends positively on their perception (for given level of effort) about firms' willingness to convert fixed-term contracts into permanent ones. We test this implication using manufacturing firm level data from 1991 to 2005 by means of nonparametric tests of stochastic dominance and parametric multivariate regression approaches. Our main findings are that high conversion rates increase firm's productivity while high shares of temporary contracts decrease it. Both effects are quantitatively relevant. |
| Keywords: | temporary workers, workers' effort, firms' TFP |
| JEL: | C14 C52 D24 J24 J41 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3832&r=lab |
| By: | Alfonso Flores-Lagunes (University of Arizona and Princeton University); Arturo Gonzalez (Public Policy Institute of California and IZA); Todd C. Neumann (University of California, Merced) |
| Abstract: | Most of the literature on the evaluation of training programs focuses on the effect of participation on a particular outcome (e.g. earnings). The “treatment” is generally represented by a binary variable equal to one if participation in the program occurs, and equal to zero if no participation occurs. While the use of a binary treatment indicator is attractive for ease of interpretation and estimation, it treats all exposure the same. The extent of exposure to the treatment, however, is potentially important in determining the outcome; particularly in training programs where a main feature is the varying length of the training spells of participating individuals. In this paper, we illustrate how recently developed methods for the estimation of causal effects from continuous treatments can be used to learn about the consequences of heterogeneous lengths of enrollment in the evaluation of training programs. We apply these methods to data on Job Corps (JC), America’s largest and most comprehensive job training program for disadvantaged youth. The length of exposure is a significant source of heterogeneity in these data: while the average participation spell in JC is 28 weeks, its standard deviation and interdecile range are 27 and 62 weeks, respectively. We estimate average causal effects of different lengths of exposure to JC using the “generalized propensity score” under the assumption that the length of the individual’s JC spell is randomly assigned, conditional on a rich set of covariates. Finally, using this approach, we document important differences across different spell lengths and across three racial and ethnic groups of participants (blacks, whites and Hispanics) that help understand why the benefits these groups receive from JC are so disparate from estimates derived using traditional methods. |
| Keywords: | Training Programs, Continuous Treatments, Generalized Propensity Score, Dose- Response Function |
| JEL: | C21 J24 I38 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:indrel:1042&r=lab |
| By: | Alan S. Blinder (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | At the risk of sounding like a crass economist, I want to assert at the outset that one major purpose of the K-12 educational system is “vocational” in the broad sense. Specifically, the K-12 system is a mechanism for preparing cadres of 18-year-olds (many of whom will get some higher education first) to perform the tasks needed and remunerated by the U.S. job market (or of being easily trained to do so). To be sure, this narrowly economic purpose of mass public education is not the only reason to educate America’s youth; an educated citizenry presumably has other social benefits as well. But I believe it is an important purpose and, in any case, it is the perspective that guides this essay. Any reader who does not accept this initial premise can stop reading right now. My second, and much more controversial, premise is that the needs of the U.S. economy are changing (that’s not the controversial part) in ways that are at least somewhat predictable (that is the controversial part). To be sure, I am not foolish enough to believe that we can predict in detail the mix of jobs that will be available in the United States in, say, 2028 or 2038 and then fine-tune the educational system to meet those demands. But I think at least two broad trends are clearly foreseeable. |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cepsud:1047&r=lab |
| By: | Annu Kotiranta; Sarianna Lundan; Pekka Ylä-Anttila |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT : This report reviews some of the most recent literature examining the home country employment effects of internationalisation. A brief overview of the history of the internationalisation of Finnish firms is also presented. The general conclusion from the literature is that the absolute employment effects are modest, although there are likely to be notable effects on the structure of labour demand. However, the form of internationalisation, the level of aggregation of the data, and differences in labour market institutions all have an influence on the results. Most of the studies looking at the employment effects of outward foreign direct investment on the home country seem to indicate positive rather than substitution effects. On the other hand, when looking at the effects of offshore outsourcing, the results are ambiguous. |
| Keywords: | internationalisation, FDI, outsourcing offshore, employment, labour market |
| JEL: | F16 F14 F23 J23 J63 |
| Date: | 2008–09–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1154&r=lab |
| By: | Jose Luis Velasco (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico) |
| Abstract: | The problems of Mexican workers are obviously related to an international environment that is highly detrimental to traditional forms of labor organization and working conditions. Thus, the factors mentioned here should be understood as arising from the interaction between such an environment and the internal conditions of Mexico. The ideas summarized here may give a rather negative image of Mexican labor. In fact, it is not that workers have been uncourageous or indolent. But their bravery and energy have been largely confined to issues that are perhaps more fundamental and pressing: searching for jobs or creating their own jobs, keeping them, working hard, surviving. Similarly, the fact that labor has not played an active role in Mexico’s democratization does not mean that it has played no important role at all. But this role has been mostly passive. Without labor’s political restrain, the transition to a competitive regime perhaps would have never taken place. It is important to remember that a tacit but omnipresent condition put forward by the economic and social elite of the country is that political change must not alter the country’s socioeconomic structure. |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cmgdev:1090&r=lab |
| By: | Becker, Sascha O. (University of Stirling); Woessmann, Ludger (Ifo Institute for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Martin Luther urged each town to have a girls' school so that girls would learn to read the Gospel, evoking a surge of building girls' schools in Protestant areas. Using county- and town-level data from the first Prussian census of 1816, we show that a larger share of Protestants decreased the gender gap in basic education. This result holds when using only the exogenous variation in Protestantism due to a county's or town's distance to Wittenberg, the birthplace of the Reformation. Similar results are found for the gender gap in literacy among the adult population in 1871. |
| Keywords: | gender gap, education, Protestantism |
| JEL: | I21 J16 N33 Z12 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3837&r=lab |
| By: | Jose Itzigsohn (Brown University) |
| Abstract: | In this talk I want to examine the organization of work in two recuperated enterprises in Argentina. The latter refers to a group of enterprises that have been appropriated by their workers and are run as self-managed cooperatives. There are about 200 of them, employing around 10,000. Some of these enterprises are doing very well and some are just generating barely the necessary to cover costs. Some have acquired the property of the business, in general through a process of expropriation that operates on a logic parallel to that of eminent domain, and most operate on a legal limbo where workers have the de facto control of the place but not the de jure ownership. |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cmgdev:1088&r=lab |
| By: | Jonathan Meer (Stanford University); Harvey S. Rosen (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | An ongoing controversy in the literature on the economics of higher education centers on whether the success of a school’s athletic program affects alumni donations. This paper uses a unique data set to investigate this issue. The data contain detailed information about donations made by alumni of a selective research university as well as a variety of their economic and de-mographic characteristics. One important question is how to characterize the success of an athlet-ic program. We focus not only on the performance of the most visible teams, football and bas-ketball, but also on the success of the team on which he or she played as an undergraduate. One of our key findings is that the impact of athletic success on donations differs for men and women. When a male graduate’s former team wins its conference championship, his dona-tions for general purposes increase by about 7 percent and his donations to the athletic program increase by about the same percentage. Football and basketball records generally have small and statistically insignificant effects; in some specifications, a winning basketball season reduces do-nations. For women there is no statistically discernible effect of a former team’s success on cur-rent giving; as is the case for men, the impacts of football and basketball, while statistically sig-nificant in some specifications, are not important in magnitude. Another novel result is that for males, varsity athletes whose teams were successful when they were undergraduates subsequent-ly make larger donations to the athletic program. For example, if a male alumnus’s team won its conference championship during his senior year, his subsequent giving to the athletic program is about 8 percent a year higher, ceteris paribus. |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cepsud:1046&r=lab |
| By: | Herbst, Chris M. (Arizona State University); Tekin, Erdal (Georgia State University) |
| Abstract: | Child care subsidies are an important part of federal and state efforts to move welfare recipients into employment. One of the criticisms of the current subsidy system, however, is that it overemphasizes work and does little to encourage parents to purchase high-quality child care. Consequently, there are reasons to be concerned about the implications of child care subsidies for child development. In this paper, we provide a systematic assessment of the impact of subsidy receipt on a wide range of child outcomes. Drawing on rich data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, we document a negative relationship between child care subsidies and child development. In particular, our results suggest that subsidy receipt in the year before kindergarten lowers reading and math test scores and increases a variety of behavior problems at kindergarten entry. Some of these negative effects persist to the end of kindergarten. A tentative explanation for the poorer outcomes is that subsidized children are more likely to receive intense exposure to low-quality child care. |
| Keywords: | child care, subsidy, child development |
| JEL: | I18 I2 J13 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3836&r=lab |
| By: | David E. Bloom (Harvard School of Public Health); David Canning (Harvard School of Public Health); Günther Fink (Harvard School of Public Health); Jocelyn E. Finlay (Harvard School of Public Health) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes cross-country panel data to examine the effect of key institutional features of social security systems on male labor supply. Our findings indicate that the labor supply of older males covaries negatively with replacement rates and system coverage, with the replacement rate effects being stronger for pay-as-you-go systems than for fully funded systems. The results also reveal a surprisingly small and often negative response of the labor supply of older males to improvements in life expectancy. |
| Keywords: | Global health, labor, Aging, Economics, Demography. |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gdm:wpaper:4208&r=lab |
| By: | Yong Yik Wei; Aekapol Chongvilaivan; Chew Jing Yang |
| Abstract: | A knowledge-intensive, innovation-driven economy needs innovative and creative individuals in business, government, and the various professions. Singapore’s education system has an important role to play in equipping the young with the right qualities. This could be better achieved by moving away from an overly rigid education system that places undue emphasis on rote learning and examination scores, to an education system that develops students’ creativity and critical thinking abilities, and encourages their innate curiosity and willingness to experiment. We examine, as a backdrop, various economic theories of entrepreneurship and, believing that it is important to begin with a good educational foundation, the features of some alternative approaches to pre-school education. We also examine Singapore’s attempts to promote independent thinking and creativity among Singaporean students, and other countries’ experiences, in particular those of Finland and the Netherlands. Among other issues, emphasis is placed on play and the fostering of students’ love of learning, in less structured settings, as the media of learning during early childhood education. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; Pre-school Education; Play-based Learning; Reggio Emilia approach; Montessori Method; Teach Less, Learn More (TLLM) initiative |
| JEL: | I21 I28 I29 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sca:scaewp:0808&r=lab |
| By: | Dahlberg, Matz (Department of Economics, Uppsala University); Johansson, Kajsa (Department of Economics, Uppsala University); Mörk, Eva (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether mandatory activation programs for welfare receivers have effects on welfare participation, employment and disposable income. In contrast to earlier studies we are able to capture both entry and exit effects. The empirical analysis makes use of a Swedish welfare reform in which the city districts in Stockholm gradually implemented mandatory activation programs for individuals on welfare. The reform is well suited for investigating effects of such programs for several reasons. First, the reform was not combined with any other policy instruments, like time limits or tax credits, making sure that we will capture effects of mandatory activation policies and nothing else. Second, the reform was initiated at different points of time in different city districts, which ease identification. Third, using data from city districts within a single local labor market we can control for confounding macro economic shocks. Overall, we find that mandatory activation of welfare receivers reduce overall welfare participation and increases employment. We also find that mandatory activation programs appear to work best for young people and for people born in non-Western countries. For disposable income, we do not find a statistically significant effect. |
| Keywords: | Welfare reform; mandatory activation programs; welfare participation; employment; difference-in-differences |
| JEL: | H31 I38 |
| Date: | 2008–11–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2008_024&r=lab |
| By: | Lisa M. Bates (Columbia University); Julien O. Teitler (Columbia University) |
| Abstract: | The literature exploring the health consequences of immigration is largely dominated by efforts to replicate, across outcomes and populations, and explain two widely observed findings: that foreign nativity is protective (yielding the “healthy migrant effect” or “immigrant paradox”) and that the health advantage of immigrants diminishes over time in the host country. In this study, we focus on the second of these patterns and provide evidence that a lifecourse perspective can help to explain the apparent deterioration in health by incorporating attention to immigrants’ timing of arrival. We examine the role of immigrants’ exposure to the US, in terms of both age at immigration and length of residence, in shaping birthweight, a well measured and consequential marker of health, and maternal smoking, an important risk factor for low birthweight. |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:crcwel:1085&r=lab |
| By: | Oliver, Jason; Valentin, Luc; Erickson, Bruce; Boehlje, Michael |
| Keywords: | Skill sets, profitability, management skills, ordered probit, Agribusiness, |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:waeabi:42476&r=lab |
| By: | Altmann, Steffen (IZA); Falk, Armin (University of Bonn); Wibral, Matthias (University of Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Promotion tournaments play an important role for the provision of incentives in firms. In this paper, we extend research on single-stage rank-order tournaments and analyze behavior in multi-stage elimination tournaments. The main treatment of our laboratory experiment is a two-stage tournament in which equilibrium efforts are the same in both stages. We compare this treatment to a strategically equivalent one-stage tournament and to another two-stage tournament with a more convex wage structure. Confirming previous findings average effort in our one-stage treatment is close to Nash equilibrium. In contrast, subjects in our main treatment provide excess effort in the first stage both with respect to Nash predictions and compared to the equivalent one-stage tournament. The results for the more convex two-stage tournament show that excess effort in the first stage is a robust finding and that subjects react only weakly to differences in the wage structure. |
| Keywords: | personnel economics, tournament, incentives, laboratory experiment |
| JEL: | M51 M52 J33 C92 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3835&r=lab |
| By: | Hemelt, Steven W. (University of Maryland, Baltimore County); Marcotte, Dave E. (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we review recent trends in tuition at public universities and estimate impacts on enrollment. We use data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System on all public four-year colleges and universities from 1991 to 2007 and illustrate that tuition increased dramatically beginning in the early part of this decade, increasing at rates unprecedented in the past half century. We examine impacts of these tuition increases on total enrollment and credit hours, and estimate differences by type of institution. We estimate that the average tuition and fee elasticity of total headcount is -0.1072. So, at the mean a $100 increase in tuition and fees (in 2006 dollars) would lead to a decline in enrollment of a little more than 0.25 percent, with larger effects at Research I universities. We find no evidence that especially large increases from one year to the next have a disproportionately large negative effect on enrollment. |
| Keywords: | higher education, tuition, enrollment |
| JEL: | I2 I21 I23 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3827&r=lab |
| By: | Audrey N. Beck (Princeton University); Carey E. Cooper (Princeton University); Sara S. McLanahan (Princeton University); Jeanne Brooks-Gunn (Columbia University) |
| Abstract: | Recent scholarship has begun to investigate the consequences of instability in the family over a period of time, as compared to examining family status at a particular point in time (Fomby & Cherlin, 2007; Osborne & McLanahan, 2007; Wu & Martinson, 1993; Wu & Thomson, 2001). This body of research has primarily focused on the implications of instability for children’s wellbeing, and has largely neglected how instability may shape children’s home environments, especially early parenting behaviors. The lack of research in this area is problematic because parenting has been found to be a key predictor of children’s ability to successfully transition into school (Brooks-Gunn & Markman, 2005; Hill, 2001). Additionally, while extensive attention has been given to divorce as a source of instability, we know much less about the consequences and nature of instability in nonmarital relationships. In fact, much of the existing literature does not consider cohabiting or noncoresidential relationships as a source of instability. These relationships are especially important not only because they have increased dramatically during recent decades but also because they are more common among disadvantaged families that are already at risk for poor child outcomes. In this paper we address three questions: 1) Are family structure transitions during a child’s first five years associated with parenting at age 5? 2) Does the type and timing of transitions matter? And 3) do the associations between transitions and parenting quality vary by family structure, or maternal education? |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:crcwel:1082&r=lab |
| By: | Terry-Ann Craigie (Michigan State University) |
| Abstract: | This study uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to examine the effects of a father?s presence on the cognitive performance of his pre-school aged child. Cognitive performance is measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), a well-known indicator of cognitive ability and academic readiness for young children. Like previous studies, the richness of the data is exploited by including numerous covariates in the OLS regression model. In addition, the study also employs a Proxy Variable-OLS Solution to dealing with the problem of omitted variable bias. Subsequently, causal inferences can be made from the empirical findings. The study finds two distinct effects of paternal presence based on whether the child belongs to a stable versus disruptive family structure. The empirical results indicate that cognitive outcomes are statistically similar for children in stable single-parent and stable two-parent family households. However, disruptive family structures, characterized by a father?s partial presence in the home, are shown to have deleterious effects on cognitive performance compared to a stable single-parent family structure where the father has never even been present. One profound implication of these findings is the importance of family stability above family structure in producing positive child outcomes. Moreover, there is suggestive evidence that the effect of disruptive paternal presence is significantly larger for girls than for boys. |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:crcwel:1015&r=lab |
| By: | Jackie Araneo |
| Abstract: | Childhood obesity is a growing problem in the United States. The Center for Disease Control (CDC), based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), reports that from 1971 to 2004, obesity rates have increased from 5% to 13.9% among two- to five-year-olds, from 4% to 18.8% among six- to eleven-year-olds, and from 6.1% to 17.4% among twelve- to nineteen-year-olds (CDC, 2007). Increases in childhood obesity have been especially pronounced among low-income children from racial and ethnic minority groups. This vast increase in the number of obese children is a major cause for alarm because of the many health problems associated with being overweight. |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:crcwel:1083&r=lab |
| By: | Alan B. Krueger (Princeton University and NBER) |
| Abstract: | This paper compares the characteristics of 63 alleged homegrown Islamic terrorists in the U.S.A. to a representative sample of 1,000+ Muslim Americans. The alleged terrorists have about average level of education. Those with higher education were judged closer to succeeding. |
| Keywords: | terrorism; homegrown terrorism; human capital |
| JEL: | H56 J24 |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:indrel:1094&r=lab |
| By: | Jesse Rothstein (Princeton University and NBER) |
| Abstract: | Non-random assignment of students to teachers can bias value added estimates of teachers’ causal effects. Rothstein (2008) shows that typical value added models indicate large counter-factual effects of 5th grade teachers on students’ 4th grade learning, implying that assignments do not satisfy the imposed assumptions. This paper quantifies the resulting biases in estimates of 5th grade teachers’ causal effects from several value added models, under varying assumptions about the assignment process. Under selection on observables, models for gain scores without controls or with only a single lagged score control are subject to important bias, but models with controls for the full test score history are nearly free of bias. I consider several scenarios for selection on unobservables, using the across-classroom variance of observed variables to calibrate each. Results indicate that even well-controlled models may be substantially biased, with the magnitude of the bias depending on the amount of information available for use in classroom assignments. |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cepsud:1054&r=lab |
| By: | Paula Fomby (University of Colorado Denver); Cynthia Osborne (University of Texas, Austin) |
| Abstract: | A growing body of research has found support for the idea that children’s behavioral development and school performance may be influenced as much by multiple changes in family composition during childhood as by the quality and character of the families in which children reside at any given point (Cavanagh and Huston 2006; Cavanagh, Schiller, and Riegle-Crumb 2006; Fomby and Cherlin 2007; Heard 2007a; Heard 2007b; Heaton and Forste 2007; Osborne and McLanahan 2007; Wu 1996; Wu and Martinson 1993; Wu and Thomson 2001). Much of the research on instability has focused specifically on the effects for children of experiencing the repeated formation and dissolution of cohabiting and marital unions. Underlying the research on the effects of union instability is the concept that children and their parents or parent-figures form a functioning family system, and repeated disruptions to that system, caused by either the addition or departure of a parent’s partner or spouse, may lead to behaviors with potentially deleterious long-term consequences. |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:crcwel:1077&r=lab |
| By: | Hagendorf, Klaus |
| Abstract: | Ronald Meek has (deliberately) ignored a very important discovery of Jevons. When labour is measured in terms of marginal labour values prices are proportional to these values and commodities exchange accordingly. This has been rediscovered by Soviet economists and that has been published in the JEL in the 70ies. Furthermore it is shown that under neoclassical assumptions the vector of marginal labour values is equal to the Sraffian vector of quantities of dated labour. |
| Keywords: | labour theory of value; Marxism; value theory; Ronald Meek; Jevons; Soviet economics; marginalism |
| JEL: | B10 B51 D46 B14 D24 B24 |
| Date: | 2006–09–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:11759&r=lab |
| By: | Luis A. Gil-Alana (Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad de Navarra); Guglielmo M. Caporale (Brunel University, London, England) |
| Abstract: | A general procedure for fractional integration and structural breaks at unknown points in time is used, which allows for different orders of integration and deterministic components in each subsample. First, the procedure is extended to the non-linear case, and is showed by means of Monte Carlo experiments that it performs well in a non-linear environment. Second, it is applied to test for a single break in the unemployment rate in the US, the UK and Japan. The results shed some light on the empirical relevance of alternative unemployment theories for these countries. Specifically, a structuralist interpretation appears more appropriate for the US and Japan, whilst a hysteresis model accounts better for the UK experience (and also for the Japanese one in the second subsanple). These findings are interpreted in terms of structural instability in labour markets with different features. |
| Date: | 2008–11–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:una:unccee:wp1108&r=lab |
| By: | Luis A. Gil-Alana (Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad de Navarra); Rolando Pelaez (University of Houston-Downtown, Houston, USA) |
| Abstract: | This paper employs various empirical tests in order to measure the persistence of shocks to EPS for the S&P 500 index. Within the I(0)/I(1) paradigm the empirical evidence rejects the I(1) specification, supporting instead a trend-stationary representation. When fractional orders of integration are considered, the results indicate that the series is long memory (d > 0) and mean reverting (d < 1). The responses decay slowly to zero, albeit 50 quarters after an initial shock the responses remain significantly different from zero. Likewise, the variance ratio evidence suggests that the effect of a shock persists over time spans characteristic of the business cycle. |
| Date: | 2008–11–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:una:unccee:wp0808&r=lab |
| By: | RACHIDA JUSTO (Instituto de Empresa) |
| Abstract: | Previous research into entrepreneurial exit has examined exit from a firm perspective focusing upon performance as the primary determinant of exit; however, new research is emerging which suggests that other variables (e.g. entrepreneurial human capital) may impact the exit decision over and above that accounted for by firm performance. Our research adopts a gender and family embeddedness perspective to examine the impact that gender and family situation (marital status, number of children, running a family business) have on voluntary exit decisions over and above that attributed to firm performance. |
| Keywords: | Gender |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp08-26&r=lab |
| By: | Diana Warren (Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | Over the past decade, changes to Australia’s retirement income policy have been announced in almost every Federal Budget, with no signs yet that reform is coming to an end. Indeed, the Simpler Super reforms announced in the 2006 Federal Budget have been described as the largest overhaul of Australia’s superannuation system since the introduction of compulsory superannuation. This paper describes the current retirement system in Australia and provides a summary of the historical development of the Australian retirement system, with special emphasis placed on the recent reform initiatives designed to increase labour force participation of mature age Australians, provide higher levels of savings for retirement, and reduce reliance on the Age Pension as the main source of retirement income. The final section of the paper contains a review of the existing research addressing the issue of whether recent changes to retirement income policy will in fact have their intended effects. At this point it is still unclear whether these reforms will increase mature age labour force participation or reduce reliance on the Age Pension. Indeed, some have argued that these policy changes create perverse incentives, and will encourage early retiremen. |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2008n23&r=lab |
| By: | Cécile Abattu (LEPII - Laboratoire d'Économie de la Production et de l'Intégration Internationale - CNRS : UMR5252 - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II); Marie De Besses (LEPII - Laboratoire d'Économie de la Production et de l'Intégration Internationale - CNRS : UMR5252 - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II); Yves Jalmain (ADEES Rhône Alpes - Association pour le Développement des Etudes Economiques et Sociales en Rhône-Alpes - CGT); Laurent Labrot (C2R Rhône-Alpes - Centre Ressources Recherches Rhône-Alpes - CFDT); Bruno Lamotte (LEPII - Laboratoire d'Économie de la Production et de l'Intégration Internationale - CNRS : UMR5252 - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II); Jon Bernat Zubiri-Rey (LEPII - Laboratoire d'Économie de la Production et de l'Intégration Internationale - CNRS : UMR5252 - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II) |
| Abstract: | Ce rapport est un bilan d'étape de la recherche européenne sur la "précarité dans l'emploi" conduite au LEPII en partenariat avec la CFDT Rhône-Alpes et la CGT Rhône-Alpes. Une première section donne un aperçu du déroulement du programme. Une deuxième section précise un certain nombre de points généraux relatifs à l'analyse de la précarité dans les territoires rhônalpins : comment la définir, la mesurer et l'appréhender. Les troisième et quatrième sections précisent les analyses et les approches de la CFDT et de la CGT. Elles annoncent les problématiques des études approfondies sur quatre secteurs d'activité : le tourisme, les pôles de compétitivité, les services à la personne, la logistique. |
| Keywords: | précarité ; emploi ; condition de travail ; travail précaire ; pauvreté ; analyse sectorielle ; France ; Rhône-Alpes |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00329895_v1&r=lab |
| By: | Siminski, Peter (University of Wollongong) |
| Abstract: | The Australian Commonwealth government provides a set of benefits to high income older people, which are intended to promote saving for retirement. It has not been established whether this unusual policy is effective. Using illustrative models, it is shown that these benefits may induce some people to save and work more, but they may have the opposite effect on other, more affluent, people. It is unclear which effect dominates. These benefits are likely to have increased Commonwealth government expenditure on affluent older people, accompanied by a reduction in state government expenditure on people with slightly lower incomes. |
| Keywords: | retirement, saving, incentives, Australia |
| JEL: | D91 H31 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uow:depec1:wp08-15&r=lab |
| By: | Alejandro Portes (Princeton University); Patricia Fernandez-Kelly (Princeton University); William Haller (Clemson University) |
| Abstract: | This paper summarizes a research program on the new immigrant second generation initiated in the early 1990s and completed in 2006. The four field waves of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS) are described and the main theoretical models emerging from it are presented and graphically summarized. After considering critical views of this theory, we present the most recent results from this longitudinal research program in the forum of quantitative models predicting downward assimilation in early adulthood and qualitative interviews identifying ways to escape it by disadvantaged children of immigrants. Quantitative results strongly support the predicted effects of exogenous variables identified by segmented assimilation theory and identify the intervening factors during adolescence that mediate their influence on adult outcomes. Qualitative evidence gathered during the last stage of the study points to three factors that can lead to exceptional educational achievement among disadvantaged youths. All three indicate the positive influence of selective acculturation. Implications of these findings for theory and policy are discussed. |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cmgdev:1086&r=lab |
| By: | Kate S. Adkins (Ohio State University); Claire M. Kamp Dush (Ohio State University) |
| Abstract: | We used two waves of the Fragile Families Study (N = 2639) to examine links between control and violence with maternal mental health and relationship dissolution. Mothers in controlling-only or controlling and violent unions had more symptoms of depression and anxiety and greater odds of dissolution than mothers not experiencing violence or control. Over time, all mothers increased in depressive symptoms, but the magnitude of the increase in depressive symptoms was greatest for mothers in violent and controlling stable unions followed by those in controlling-only stable unions. Mothers dissolving violent and/or controlling unions also experienced increases depressive symptoms over time. Results indicate negative consequences for both mothers who remain in and leave violent and controlling unions. |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:crcwel:1084&r=lab |
| By: | Albu, Lucian Liviu |
| Abstract: | Standard economic theory tells that a command system, like the former eastern economies, allocates resources poorly due to the impossibility of accurate calculation. Therefore, once prices are freed and start to operate at quasi-equilibrium (market-clearing) levels, the hidden inefficiencies come into the open and a possible massive resource reallocation would have to take place. More precisely, the issue refers to the possible and probable intensity of resource reallocation in view of constraints like the balance between exit and entry in the labour market, the size of the budget deficit and the means for its non-inflationary financing, social and political stability, etc. This paper tries to conceptualise the fact that the dynamics of unemployment and inflation are correlated not in a classical sense but in a very complicated mode that suggests the occurrence of some attractors when certain slow parameters are evolving in the neighbourhood of special threshold-values. The start is made with simple models that are based on empirical data and can show to us the traces to discover the steps of transition in eastern economies on the inflation-unemployment relationship space. Then, using economic theory combined with non-linear modelling more refined information is extracted from the statistical standardised data for to evaluate other faces of the eastern transition. |
| Keywords: | natural rate of unemployment, potential function, Hurst exponent, pitchfork bifurcation, modified Phillips curve, Rössler attractor |
| JEL: | C61 C65 E24 E27 E32 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rjr:wpiecf:081103&r=lab |
| By: | Max Iván Aladave Ruiz (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille II - Université Paul Cézanne - Aix-Marseille III - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales - CNRS : UMR6579, Central Bank of Peru - Central Bank of Peru); Cecilia Garcìa-Peñalosa (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille II - Université Paul Cézanne - Aix-Marseille III - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales - CNRS : UMR6579) |
| Abstract: | The empirical evidence on the determinants of growth across countries has found that growth is lower when natural resources are abundant, corruption widespread and educational attainment low. An extensive literature has examined the way in which these three variables can impact growth, but has tended to address them separately. In this paper we argue that corruption and education are interrelated and that both crucially depend on a country’s endowment of natural resources. The key element is the fact that resources affect the relative returns to investing in human and in political capital, and, through these investments, output levels and growth. In this context, inequality plays a key role both as a determinant of the possible equilibria of the economy and as an outcome of the growth process. |
| Keywords: | natural resources, corruption, human capital, growth, inequality |
| Date: | 2008–11–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00340997_v1&r=lab |
| By: | Manfredo, Mark; Sanders, Dwight; Scott, Winifred |
| Abstract: | Decisions made by publicly traded agribusinesses impact suppliers, processors, farmers, and even rural communities. Professional analysts€٠estimates of earnings per share (EPS) provide a unique source of information regarding firm-level financial performance. Incorporating a battery of tests, this research examines the forecast properties of consensus analysts€٠EPS estimates reported in the Institutional Brokers Estimate System for a sample of publicly traded food companies. While the results are mixed among firms, they suggest 1) analysts forecasts are largely unbiased but inefficient, and may not encompass information in simple time series models, and 2) EPS may be becoming more difficult to estimate. |
| Keywords: | Earnings per share, forecasting, forecast evaluation, Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance, Financial Economics, |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:waeabi:42436&r=lab |
| By: | Gary Gereffi (Duke University) |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cmgdev:1087&r=lab |