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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Orlowski, Robert (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg); Riphahn, Regina T. (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | We extend the literature on transition economies' wage structures by investigating the returns to tenure and experience. This study applies recent panel data and estimation approaches that control for hitherto neglected biases. We compare the life cycle structure in East and West German wages for fulltime employed men in the private sector. The patterns in the returns to seniority are similar for the two regional labor markets. The returns to experience lag behind in the East German labor market, even almost 20 years after unification. The results are robust when only individuals are considered who started their labor market career in the market economy and they hold across skill groups. |
| Keywords: | wage structure, life cycle earnings, returns to tenure, returns to experience |
| JEL: | J31 J24 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3861&r=lab |
| By: | Andrew E. Clark; Andreas Knabe; Steffen Rätzel |
| Abstract: | The social norm of unemployment suggests that aggregate unemployment reduces the well-being of the employed, but has a far smaller effect on the unemployed. We use German panel data to reproduce this standard result, but then suggest that the appropriate distinction may not be between employment and unemployment, but rather between higher and lower levels of labour-market security. Those with good job prospects, both employed and unemployed, are strongly negatively affected by regional unemployment. However, the insecure employed and the poor-prospect unemployed are less negatively, or even positively, affected. We use our results to analyse labour-market inequality and unemployment hysteresis. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pse:psecon:2008-67&r=lab |
| By: | Randall Jones |
| Abstract: | The proportion of non-regular workers has risen to one-third of total employment. While non-regular employment provides flexibility and cost reductions for firms, it also creates equity and efficiency concerns. A comprehensive approach that includes relaxing the high degree of employment protection for regular workers and expanding the coverage of non-regular workers by the social security system would help to reverse dualism. Given that non-regular workers receive less firm-based training, it is also necessary to expand training outside of firms to support Japan’s growth potential, while enhancing the employment prospects of non-regular workers. Reversing the upward trend in non-regular employment may also encourage greater female labour force participation, which is essential given rapid population ageing that is already reducing Japan’s working-age population by almost 1% each year. Expanding childcare facilities and paying more attention to work-life balance would also boost female employment, while also raising Japan’s exceptionally low birth rate. <P>Réformer le marché du travail au Japon pour faire face à un dualisme grandissant et au vieillissement démographique <BR>Les travailleurs non réguliers représentent désormais un tiers de l'ensemble des salariés. Or, s'il réduit les coûts de la flexibilité pour les entreprises, l'emploi non régulier suscite aussi des préoccupations sur le plan de l'efficience et de l'équité. Une approche globale, avec un assouplissement de la forte protection de l'emploi dont bénéficient les travailleurs réguliers et une extension de la couverture sociale des travailleurs non réguliers, aiderait à mettre fin au dualisme du marché du travail. Les travailleurs non réguliers ayant un accès plus limité que les autres à la formation en entreprise, il faudrait aussi développer la formation hors poste pour améliorer leurs perspectives d'emploi et renforcer ainsi le potentiel de croissance du Japon. Inverser la tendance à la hausse de l'emploi non régulier pourrait encourager une plus une plus forte participation des femmes à la vie active, ce qui est essentiel dans un pays où le vieillissement démographique a déjà pour effet de réduire la population d'âge actif de près de 1 % chaque année. De même, le développement des services de garde d'enfants et un plus grand souci de l'équilibre entre travail et vie familiale contribueraient à stimuler l'activité féminine, tout en relevant le taux de natalité exceptionnellement bas du Japon. |
| Keywords: | Japan, Japon, marché du travail, old workers, travailleurs âgés, dualism, dualisme, employment protection, protection de l'emploi, travailleurs non réguliers, labour force participation rates, taux d'activité, female employment, vocational training, formation professionnelle, fertility, Labour market adjustments |
| JEL: | J11 J3 J5 J7 |
| Date: | 2008–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:652-en&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Schmitt |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of unemployment on the propensity to start a family. Unemployment is accompanied by bad occupational prospects and impending economic deprivation, placing the well-being of a future family at risk. I analyze unemployment at the intersection of state-dependence and the reduced opportunity costs of parenthood, distinguishing between men and women across a set of welfare states. Using micro-data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), I apply event history methods to analyze longitudinal samples of first-birth transitions in France, Finland, Germany, and the UK (1994-2001). The results highlight spurious negative effects of unemployment on family formation among men, which can be attributed to the lack of breadwinner capabilities in the inability to financially support a family. Women, in contrast, show positive effects of unemployment on the propensity to have a first child in all countries except France. These effects prevail even after ontrolling for labour market and income-related factors. The findings are pronounced in Germany and the UK where work-family conflicts are the cause of high opportunity costs of motherhood, and the gender-specific division of labour is still highly traditional. Particularly among women with a moderate and low level of education, unemployment clearly increases the likelihood to have a first child. |
| Keywords: | family formation, fertility, unemployment, cross-national comparison |
| JEL: | J13 J24 J64 C41 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp841&r=lab |
| By: | Nick Drydakis (Department of Economics - University of Crete, Greece) |
| Abstract: | This research examines the possible discrimination faced by gay men compared to heterosexuals when applying for jobs in the Greek private sector. This issue was addressed through the observation of employer hiring decisions. Mailing pairs of curriculum vitae, distinguished only by the sexual orientation of the applicants, led to the observation that gay men faced a significantly lower chance of receiving an invitation for an interview. However, in cases where employers called applicants back, the wages offered did not differ significantly between gay and heterosexual applicants. Nevertheless, there is substantial evidence to suggest that discrimination based on sexual orientation does exist in the Greek labour market, and at alarmingly high levels. |
| Keywords: | Field Experiment, Sexual Preference, Hiring Discrimination, Wage Discrimination |
| JEL: | C93 J7 J16 J31 J |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crt:wpaper:0832&r=lab |
| By: | Plasman, Robert (Free University of Brussels); Rusinek, Michael (ECARES, Free University of Brussels); Tojerow, Ilan (Free University of Brussels) |
| Abstract: | The potential failure of national industry agreements to take into account productivity levels of least productive regions has been considered as one of the causes of regional unemployment in European countries. Two solutions are generally proposed: the first, encouraged by the European commission and the OECD, consists in decentralising wage bargaining to the firm. The second solution, the regionalisation of wage bargaining, is frequently mentioned in Belgium or in Italy where regional unemployment differentials are high. The objective of this paper is to verify if the Belgian wage setting system, where industry bargaining has a national scope, indeed prevents regional productivity levels to be taken into account in wage formation. Using a very rich linked employer-employee dataset which provides detailed information on wages, productivity, and worker's and firm's characteristics, we find that regional wage differentials and regional productivity differentials within joint committees are positively correlated. Moreover, this relation is stronger (i) for joint committees where firm-level bargaining is relatively frequent and (ii) for joint committees already sub-divided along a local line. We conclude that the current Belgian wage setting system (which combines interprofessional, industry and firm level bargaining) already includes mechanisms that allow regional productivity to be taken into account. |
| Keywords: | wages, collective bargaining, federalism, regions, Belgium |
| JEL: | D31 J31 J41 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3864&r=lab |
| By: | Jeffrey B. Liebman; Erzo F.P. Luttmer; David G. Seif |
| Abstract: | A key question for Social Security reform is whether workers currently perceive the link on the margin between the Social Security taxes they pay and the Social Security benefits they will receive. We estimate the effects of the marginal Social Security benefits that accrue with additional earnings on three measures of labor supply: retirement, hours, and labor earnings. We develop a new approach to identifying these incentive effects by exploiting five provisions in the Social Security benefit rules that generate discontinuities in marginal benefits or non-linearities in marginal benefits that converge to discontinuities as uncertainty about the future is resolved. We find clear evidence that individuals approaching retirement (age 52 and older) respond to the Social Security tax-benefit link on the extensive margin of their labor supply decisions: we estimate that a 10 percent increase in the net-of-tax share reduces the two-year retirement hazard by a statistically significant 2.1 percentage points from a base rate of 15 percent. The evidence with regards to labor supply responses on the intensive margin is more mixed: we estimate that the elasticity of hours with respect to the net-of-tax share is 0.41 and statistically significant, but we do not find a statistically significant earnings elasticity. |
| JEL: | H55 J22 J26 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14540&r=lab |
| By: | Michael Rusinek (Université Libre de Bruxelles, DULBEA); François Rycx (National Bank of Belgium, Research Department; Université Libre de Bruxelles, DULBEA; IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | In many European countries, the majority of workers have their wage rates determined directly by industry-level agreements. For some workers, industry agreements are supplemented by firm-specific agreements. Yet, the relative importance of individual company and industry agreements (in other words, the degree of centralisation) differs drastically across industries. The authors of this paper use unique linked employer-employee data from a 2003 survey in Belgium to examine how these bargaining features affect the extent of rent-sharing. Their results show that there is substantially more rent-sharing in decentralised than in centralised industries, even when controlling for the endogeneity of profits, for heterogeneity among workers and firms and for differences in characteristics between bargaining regimes. Moreover, in centralised industries, rent-sharing is found only for workers that are covered by a company agreement. The findings of this paper finally suggest that, within decentralised industries, both firm-specific and industry-wide bargaining generate rent-sharing to the same extent. |
| Keywords: | Rent-sharing, collective bargaining, propensity score matching. |
| JEL: | J31 J51 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbb:reswpp:200812-1&r=lab |
| By: | James Albrecht (Georgetown University and IZA); Lucas Navarro (ILADES-Georgetown University, Universidad Alberto Hurtado); Susan Vroman (Georgetown University and IZA) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we build an equilibrium search and matching model of an economy with an informal sector. Our model extends Mortensen and Pissarides (1994) by allowing for ex ante worker heterogeneity with respect to formal-sector productivity. We use the model to analyze the effects of labour market policy on informal-sector and formal sector output, on the division of the workforce into unemployment, informal-sector employment and formal-sector employment, and on wages. Finally, we examine the distributional implications of labour market policy; specifically, we analyse how labour market policy affects the distributions of wages and productivities across formal-sector matches. Keywords: Informality and Labour Market Policy |
| JEL: | E26 J64 O17 |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ila:ilades:inv208&r=lab |
| By: | Philip Ducaju (National Bank of Belgium, Research Department); Erwan Gautier (Banque de France); Daphné Momferatou (European Central Bank); Mélanie Ward-Warmedinge (European Central Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents information on wage-bargaining institutions, collected for 23 European countries, plus the US and Japan using a standardised questionnaire. Our data provide information from the years 1995 and 2006, for four sectors of activity and the aggregate economy. The main findings include a high degree of regulation in wage-setting in most countries. Although union membership is limited in many of them, union coverage is high and almost all countries also have some form of national minimum wage. Most countries negotiate wages on several levels, the sectoral level still being the most dominant, with an increasingly important role for bargaining at the individual firm level. The average length of collective bargaining agreements is found to lie between one and three years. Most agreements are strongly driven by developments in prices and eleven of the countries surveyed have some form of indexation mechanism which affects wages. Cluster analysis identifies three country groupings of wage-setting institutions |
| Keywords: | wage bargaining, institutions, indexation, coverage, trade union membership, contract length |
| JEL: | J31 J38 J51 J58 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbb:reswpp:200812-3&r=lab |
| By: | Richard Brecher (Department of Economics, Carleton University); Zhiqi Chen (Department of Economics, Carleton University) |
| Abstract: | We show how international trade, migration and outsourcing affect unemployment of skilled and unskilled labor, in a framework that integrates the Heckscher-Ohlin model of trade with the Shapiro-Stiglitz model of unemployment. Our approach allows us to analyze changes in not only aggregate unemployment, but also the distribution of unemployment between skilled and unskilled labor. As the analysis demonstrates, the unemployment rates of these two types of labor often move in opposite directions, thereby dampening the change in aggregate unemployment. Results depend on the source of comparative advantage, based on international differences in (for example) unemployment insurance or production technology. |
| Date: | 2008–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:car:carecp:08-07&r=lab |
| By: | Ostrovsky, Yuri; Hou, Feng; Picot, Garnett |
| Abstract: | The recent economic boom in the Canadian province of Alberta provides an ideal "natural experiment" to examine immigrants' responses to a strong labour demand outside major metropolitan centres. The key finding of our study, which is based on a unique dataset that combines administrative and immigrant records, is that not only did immigrants respond to the recent economic boom in Alberta, but they responded generally more strongly than non-immigrants. We find, however, a great deal of heterogeneity in the magnitude of the response across different regions and for different categories of immigrants. |
| Keywords: | Ethnic diversity and immigration, Population and demography, Mobility and migration |
| Date: | 2008–12–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2008318e&r=lab |
| By: | Kim, Se-Um |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that the emergence of knowledge hierarchies in the modern U.S. firms since the late 19th century, expedited by huge progress in communication technology, played a significant role in the expansion of mass secondary education called the high school movement in the U.S. in the early 20th century. To analyze the causal connections among these historical events, the paper presents a dynamic model in which the complementarity between individual skills is crucial to production. Middle-skilled individuals could help increase the payoff to the high-skilled by supervising low-skilled production workers as middle managers in firms, and so some of potential top managers with high skill actively supported the expansion of mass education to the secondary level some time after a sophisticated form of production organizations had started to emerge. This theoretical explanation is consistent with the existing historical evidence in the literature. |
| Keywords: | High School Movement; Communication Technology; Skill Complementarity; Knowledge Hierarchies; Middle Managers; Public Secondary Education |
| JEL: | O10 O40 |
| Date: | 2008–10–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:12087&r=lab |
| By: | Michael Hurd; Pierre-Carl Michaud; Susann Rohwedder |
| Abstract: | In this paper the authors examine the scope of cross-country variation in institutions related to social insurance. Building on the variation they find they assess the value of new micro data that is comparable across countries to help identify key parameters of individual behavior. They present multiple aspects of labor force participation, including disability benefit receipt, as well as wealth accumulation and relate the resulting patterns to variation in institutions across countries. Finally, they study the relationship between wealth accumulation and the generosity of public pensions in more detail. The estimates imply that Social Security benefits displace private saving. |
| Keywords: | aging, social insurance, international comparisons |
| JEL: | D10 D31 D91 J14 J22 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ran:wpaper:626&r=lab |
| By: | Simona Rasciute (Dept of Economics, Loughborough University); Eric J Pentecost (Dept of Economics, Loughborough University) |
| Abstract: | This paper applies a meta-regression analysis to systematically summarise, integrate and synthesise the results of empirical studies that include market size and labour costs as determinants of FDI. Random effects panel estimation is employed separately for the sample of primary studies that use OLS estimation to analyse the effect of market size and labour costs on FDI and for the sample of primary studies that employ discrete choice models to estimate the effect of market size and labour costs on FDI. A number of factors related to model specifications, dataset characteristics and methodologies in the primary studies explain the variation in the estimated t-statistics of the effect of market size and labour costs on FDI across the studies. Most tests for publication bias indicate that the empirical literature on the effect of market size on FDI favours positive estimates while empirical literature on the effect of labour costs on FDI favours negative estimates. None of the literature, however, favours statistical significance. |
| Keywords: | meta-regression analysis, foreign direct investment, market size and labour costs, publication bias |
| JEL: | F21 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lbo:lbowps:2008_15&r=lab |
| By: | Mika Maliranta; Tuomo Nikulainen |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT : We make several findings related to the dynamics of labour markets and industry life cycles in our analysis, which makes use of longitudinal employer-employee data that cover the whole working age population in Finland. Firstly, we find that across industry transitions of the employed are common. Secondly, employment transitions portray a network of industry linkages where specific industry clusters can be identified, as well as labour flow paths with long backward and forward linkages. Thirdly, most of the upstream labour mobility linkages are end up in the education industry, which thus seems to be an “ancestor” of the most of the industries. On the other hand, we find eight totally isolated industries that had no distinct backward or forward linkages in the labour markets. Finally, we show that the labour flows are a significant indicator for industry life cycles. |
| Keywords: | employment transitions, industry clusters, industry life cycle |
| JEL: | J23 J63 L16 |
| Date: | 2008–12–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1168&r=lab |
| By: | Freeman, Richard B.; Gelber, Alexander M. |
| Abstract: | This paper examines behavior in a tournament in which we vary the tournament prize structure and the information available about participants' skill at the task of solving mazes. The number of solved mazes is lowest when payments are independent of performance; higher when a single, large prize is given; and highest when multiple, differentiated prizes are given. This result is strongest when we inform participants about the number of mazes they and others solved in a pre-tournament round. Some participants reported that they solved more mazes than they actually solved, and this misreporting also peaked with multiple differentiated prizes. |
| Keywords: | Tournaments; Wage Structure |
| JEL: | J22 D01 J33 |
| Date: | 2008–12–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:12156&r=lab |
| By: | Henderson, Daniel J. (Binghamton University, New York) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses nonparametric kernel methods to construct observation-specific elasticities of substitution for a balanced panel of 73 developed and developing countries to examine the capital-skill complementarity hypothesis. The exercise shows some support for capital-skill complementarity, but the strength of the evidence depends upon the definition of skilled labor and the elasticity of substitution measure being used. The added flexibility of the nonparametric procedure is also able to uncover that the elasticities of substitution vary across countries, groups of countries and time periods. |
| Keywords: | capital-skill complementarity, elasticity of substitution, nonparametric kernel, stochastic dominance |
| JEL: | C14 C23 D2 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3865&r=lab |
| By: | Pietie Horn (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch); Ada Jansen (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch); Derek Yu (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch) |
| Abstract: | The factors influencing academic success of first-year Economics students have received much attention from researchers. Very little attention, however, has been given to the determinants of success of senior Economics students. In the USA, Graunke and Woosley (2005: 367) indicate that college sophomores (second years) face academic difficulties, but this receives little attention in the literature. Economics is an elective subject for second-year students at Stellenbosch University. The academic performance of the second-year students has shown a decline, as compared to the first-year Economics performance and the faculty’s average performance. An observed phenomenon at Stellenbosch University is the poor attendance of lecture and tutorials by second year students, some of the factors than can perhaps explain why students perform poorly. This phenomenon may be explained in part by second year students losing interest in academic activities, focusing on other social commitments. This study investigates the academic success of second-year Economics students. It adds to the existing literature on the factors affecting the academic success of Economics students by focusing on the second-year students (a much neglected group in empirical studies, particularly in South Africa). The empirical analyses confirm some of the existing findings in the literature, namely that lecture and tutorial attendance are important contributors to academic success. We also find that as students progress to Economics at the second-year level, their performance in individual matriculation subjects is less relevant, except for those students who had taken Additional Mathematics. However, the matriculation aggregate mark is significant in explaining the academic performance, in a non-linear way. An important finding is that non-White students tend to perform more poorly in essay writing (one of the components of the course mark in the second year) than White students. |
| Keywords: | Education, Undergraduate, Second-year economics, Academic performance |
| JEL: | A2 A22 A29 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers70&r=lab |
| By: | Le Thuc Duc; Tran Quoc Trung (Ministry of Planning and Investment, 2 Hoang Van Thu, Ba Dinh, Vietnam); Nguyen Thi Thanh Ha |
| Abstract: | The social and political impacts of ICT on gender gap have been powerful. In fact, social opinion has changed much in direction in favor female members. It is easier now to elect women to public offices, and to accept women in managerial positions than ever before. However, if one leaves out the urban part of the country, ICT has had insignificant impact on women in the rest of the country. There were very limited number of examples of ICT being used to help the poor and the real effect of ICT on poverty reduction has not been statistically observed. The implication from this research does not support to the claim that the gender gap within the ICT sector had widened in Viet Nam over time. In fact, these surveys show that gender gap is narrower now than it was a few years ago. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpc:wpaper:3308&r=lab |
| By: | Edward Whitehouse; Asghar Zaidi |
| Abstract: | The analyses included in the report show that there are big socio-economic differences in mortality, especially for men, and they appear to have become bigger over time. The report discusses implications of mortality differentials for five major areas of pension policy: the progressivity of the pension system, the pension eligibility age, the retirement incentives, future pension expenditures and private pensions. The empirical work shows that the mortality differentials reduce progressivity in pension systems. Moreover, there is empirical evidence that raising retirement age is not more unfair to socio-economic groups with lower life expectancy. <BR>Les analyses présentées ici montrent qu’il existe de fortes différences socioéconomiques en termes de mortalité, surtout chez les hommes, et qu’elles se sont apparemment accentuées au fil du temps. Ce document examine les conséquences des écarts de mortalité pour cinq grands aspects de la politique de retraite : la progressivité du système de retraite, l’âge d’ouverture des droits à pension, les incitations à la retraite, les dépenses de retraite futures et les pensions privées. Les travaux empiriques font apparaître que les écarts de mortalité réduisent la progressivité des régimes de retraite. De plus, des données d’observation montrent que le relèvement de l’âge de la retraite n’est pas plus pénalisant pour les catégories socioéconomiques ayant une espérance de vie plus courte. |
| JEL: | H55 I1 J14 |
| Date: | 2008–12–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:71-en&r=lab |
| By: | Alberto Di Minin (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa); Andrea Piccaluga (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa); Marco Rizzone (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa) |
| Abstract: | An intense debate is going on about more “open” strategies that are supposedly diffusing in industrial R&D. We here discuss the relationship between such practices and Human Resources Management (HRM) in industrial R&D Labs. The paper in fact aims at representing an original attempt of looking at the linkage between R&D strategy and HRM in some Italian high-tech firms. In particular, we identify, select and discuss a set of variables related to the management of HR in R&D that fit with the reconceptualization of innovation proposed by Chesbrough in the “Open Innovation” (OI) paradigm and inspired by the example of P&G’s model of Connect and Develop (C&D). More precisely, our objective is that of investigating the role of HRM in the shift towards “Open Innovation” through the bottom-up lenses of industrial researchers’ characteristics, feelings and behaviours. What we here suggest is that by observing behaviour and expectations of R&D workers, we can investigate the acceptance and implementation of new R&D management practices. Our empirical base is represented by 330 questionnaires completed by R&D personnel and collected through an online survey. The results have been discussed with the HR managers of each company, in order to also gain a “top-down” perspective on the observed dynamics. The research is carried out around three main groups of issues: HR characteristics (e.g., demographic parameters, productivity, time horizons, satisfaction, expectations, mobility, education), job organization aspects (e.g., teamwork vs. individual research, flexibility, decisional centres, work time allocation, type of relationships, communication flows), and HRM tools (e.g., talent attraction, training, evaluation methods, goal definition, roles, leadership, responsibility, incentives, career systems, problem sources). According to Chesbrough, firms fitting the OI model present characteristics related to the R&D structure itself. Nonetheless, even if this model has been widely enthusiastically discussed and sometimes criticized by both practitioners and researchers, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of how such changes effect dynamics and daily operations of an R&D lab. Our empirical analysis ultimately aims at understanding to what extent the shift towards an extended definition of R&D, which includes the new concept of C&D, can be considered as one of the main potential factors of change in HR organization. Beyond the relevance of our findings for the debate among scholars, we argue that managerial implications may derive from a better knowledge of individual perceptions and behaviours of R&D personnel. In fact, the changing pattern of innovation processes implies parallel changes in the organization of R&D labs, where the role of the most important component, i. e. researchers themselves, is not always adequately considered. This paper is a first attempt to explore these relationships. Through a convenience sample we first attempted to test various strategies to best collect data, provide timely valuable feedbacks to our industrial partners and better define our framework, matching early results with existing theories. Further research will aim at making the sample representative of the Italian industrial R&D system. |
| Keywords: | Open Innovation Human Resources Management |
| Date: | 2008–08–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sse:wpaper:200803&r=lab |
| By: | Michael Grimm |
| Abstract: | I analyze the impact of food price inflation on parental decisions to send their children to school. Moreover, I use the fact that food crop farmers and cotton farmers were exposed differently to that shock to estimate the income elasticity of school enrolment. The results suggest that the shock-induced loss in purchasing power had an immediate effect on enrolment rates. Instrumental variable estimates show that the effect of household income on children's school enrolment is much larger than a simple OLS regression would suggest. Hence, policies to expand education in Sub-Saharan Africa, should not neglect the demand side. |
| Keywords: | Education, Household Income, Inflation, Aggregate Shocks, Africa |
| JEL: | I21 O12 Q12 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp844&r=lab |
| By: | Carvalho, Luísa; Costa, Teresa; Dominguinhos, Pedro; Pereira, Raquel |
| Abstract: | Today entrepreneurship education is an important issue to improve the process of creating new firm assuming new risks and rewards. The theoretical discussion about around the question: “Entrepreneurs are born or made?” assume that is possible educate to be entrepreneurs. Schools have an important role in this process. Believing in this possibility our Business School developed a set of pedagogical methodologies supported in apprenticeship based on “learning by doing”. This pedagogical methodology was created through a study of best practices. This study aims to propose a set of innovative methodologies and students perceptions about their apprenticeship experience/process. The study concludes with a set of recommendations and a best practices manual useful to appliance in higher education. |
| Keywords: | Innovative methodologies; entrepreneurship education; learning by doing |
| JEL: | L26 A2 M13 |
| Date: | 2008–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:12123&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre de Villiers (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch); Gert Steyn (Institutional Research and Planning Division, University of Stellenbosch) |
| Abstract: | During the last two decades state funding of higher education in South Africa has decreased substantially (especially if public expenditure of HE as a percentage of GDP is used as a yardstick). HE institutions were forced to increase tuition fees and rely more on the third income stream to balance their books. In the process increases in instruction/research staff did not keep up with the increase in student numbers. During the period 1986-2003 qualifications awarded to students per full-time equivalent instruction/research staff member increased over time – indicating greater efficiency of the HE sector in delivering more teaching output. High-level research in the form of publication units in accredited journals, however, stagnated during this period. In recent years until 2007, however, publications in accredited journals increased substantially. This was mainly the result of broadening the number of accredited journals by the Department of Education. In this paper two indicators, linked to the current funding formula for higher education, to measure academic output of HEIs are defined and applied to the output of institutions for the period since 2002. It is concluded that there is large variability between HEIs as far as teaching and research output are concerned. A cause for concern is that the majority of the research is conducted by just a few HE institutions. |
| Keywords: | Higher education, Financing, Subsidy formula, Education output |
| JEL: | H40 I22 I23 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers72&r=lab |
| By: | Kasey Buckles; Daniel M. Hungerman |
| Abstract: | Research has found that season of birth is associated with later health and professional outcomes; what drives this association remains unclear. In this paper we consider a new explanation: that children born at different times in the year are conceived by women with different socioeconomic characteristics. We document large seasonal changes in the characteristics of women giving birth throughout the year in the United States. Children born in the winter are disproportionally born to women who are more likely to be teenagers and less likely to be married or have a high school degree. We show that controls for family background characteristics can explain up to half of the relationship between season of birth and adult outcomes. We then discuss the implications of this result for using season of birth as an instrumental variable; our findings suggest that, though popular, season-of-birth instruments may produce inconsistent estimates. Finally, we find that some of the seasonality in maternal characteristics is due to summer weather differentially affecting fertility patterns across socioeconomic groups. |
| JEL: | C10 J11 J13 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14573&r=lab |
| By: | Werner Güth (Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena, Germany); Hartmut Kliemt (Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, Frankfurt am Main, Germany); M. Vittoria Levatia (Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Metodi Matematici, University of Bari, Italy) |
| Abstract: | Human decision making is a process guided by different and partly competing motivations that can each dominate behavior and lead to different effects depending on strength and circumstances. "Over-stylizing" neglects such competing concerns and context-dependence, although it facilitates the emergence of elaborate general theories. We illustrate by examples from social dilemma experiments and inequality aversion theories that sweeping empirical claims should be avoided. |
| Keywords: | Context-dependent preferences, Experimental economics, Equity theories. |
| JEL: | A11 D63 D70 |
| Date: | 2008–12–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2008-092&r=lab |
| By: | Sarah Baird (UC San Diego); Joan Hamory (UC Berkeley); Edward Miguel (UC Berkeley and NBER) |
| Abstract: | Understanding the possible pitfalls of survey data is critical for empirical research. Among other things, poor data quality can lead to biased regression estimates, potentially resulting in incorrect interpretations that mislead researchers and policymakers alike. Common data problems include difficulties in tracking respondents and high survey attrition, enumerator error and bias, and respondent reporting error. This paper describes and analyzes these issues in Round 1 of the Kenyan Life Panel Survey (KLPS-1), collected in 2003-2005. The KLPS-1 is an innovative longitudinal dataset documenting a wide range of outcomes for Kenyan youths who had originally attended schools participating in a deworming treatment program starting in 1998. The careful design of this survey allows for examination of an array of data quality issues. First, we explore the existence and implications of sample attrition bias. Basic residential, educational, and mortality information was obtained for 88% of target respondents, and personal contact was made with 84%, an exceptionally high follow-up rate for a young adult population in a less developed country. Moreover, rates of sample attrition are nearly identical for respondents who were randomly assigned deworming treatment and for those who were not, a key factor in the validity of subsequent statistical analysis. One vital component of this success is the tracking of respondents both nationally and across international borders (in our case, into Uganda), thus we discuss in detail the costs and benefits of tracking movers. Finally, we study KLPS-1 data quality more broadly by examining enumerator error and bias, as well as survey response consistency. We conclude that the extent of enumerator error is low, with an average of less than one recording error per survey. Errors decrease over time as enumerator experience with the survey instrument increases, but increase over the course of multiple interviews within a single day, presumably due to fatigue. We do find some evidence that the enumerator-respondent match in terms of gender, ethnicity, and religion correlates with responses regarding trust of others and religious activities, suggesting some field officer bias on sensitive questions. Reporting reliability is analyzed using respondent re-surveys. These checks show high levels of consistency across survey/re-survey rounds for the respondent's own characteristics and personal history,with lower reliability rates on questions asked about others' characteristics. The steps taken in the design of KLPS-1 to avoid common errors in survey data collection greatly improved the quality of this panel dataset, and provide some valuable lessons for future field data collection projects. |
| Keywords: | survey data, enumerator error, longitudinal dataset, Kenya, deworming, |
| Date: | 2008–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ciders:1069&r=lab |
| By: | A-L. BALDUCK; A. PRINZIE; M. BUELENS |
| Abstract: | The effectiveness of coach turnover on team performance is widely discussed in the literature due to the indirect impact of a team’s performance on a club’s revenues. This study examines the effect of coach turnover within a competition season by focusing on the change in team quality and the change in home team advantage under the new coach. The change in team quality or home team advantage can vary according to the team (team specific) or might be an independent quantity (non-team specific). We estimated nine possible regression models, given no change, team specific change and non-team specific change in quality or home team advantage. The data are match results of Belgian male soccer teams playing in the highest national division during seven seasons. Results point to a team specific effect of a new coach on a team’s quality. This paper further contributes by evaluating the new coach’s success with regard to whether his ability to improve team quality also results in a better position of the team in the final ranking. A new coach will be able to improve the ranking of the team if the improved team quality under the new coach renders a positive team quality. |
| Keywords: | Managerial change; home team advantage; team performance; team quality; regression model, individual match data, team ranking |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:08/535&r=lab |
| By: | Ostrovsky, Yuri; Hou, Feng; Picot, Garnett |
| Abstract: | L'essor économique que connaît récemment la province canadienne de l'Alberta offre une occasion idéale de réaliser une expérience dans des conditions naturelles par l'examen des réactions des immigrants à une forte demande de main-d'oeuvre à l'extérieur des grands centres métropolitains. Le résultat principal de notre étude fondée sur un ensemble unique de données tirées à la fois de dossiers administratifs et de dossiers d'immigrants est que non seulement les immigrants ont réagi au récent boom économique en Alberta, mais que leur réaction a aussi été généralement plus forte que celle des non immigrants. Nous observons, toutefois, une assez grande hétérogénéité dans l'ampleur de la réaction d'une région à l'autre et pour différentes catégories d'immigrants. |
| Keywords: | Diversité ethnique et immigration, Population et démographie, Mobilité et migration |
| Date: | 2008–12–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3f:2008318f&r=lab |
| By: | Martin Andersson (Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies (CESIS), Royal Institute of Technology and Jönköping International Business School (JIBS)); Florian Noseleit (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | We use longitudinal data over a decade on start-ups and employment in Swedish regions and analyze the effect of start-ups on subsequent employment growth. We extend previous analyses by examining the influence of regional start-ups in a sector on regional employment growth in the same sector and on other sectors. We find differences between different types of start-ups. Knowledge-intensive start-ups seem to have larger effects on the regional economy. In particular, start-ups in high-end services have significant negative impacts on employment in other sectors but a positive long-run impact. This is consistent with the idea that start-ups are a vehicle for changes in the composition of regional industry. Moreover, our results illustrate that the known S-shaped pattern can be attributed to different effects that start-ups in a sector have on employment change in the same sector and in others. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, Employment Growth, Regional Development, Start-ups |
| JEL: | J23 M13 O52 |
| Date: | 2008–12–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2008-091&r=lab |
| By: | Yiagadeesen Samy (Department of Economics, Carleton University); Vivek H. Dehejia (Department of Economics, Carleton University & CESifo) |
| Abstract: | Using a gravity model, we examine whether labor standards are important determinants of bilateral export performance for EU-15 countries over the period 1988-2001. We assess the conventional wisdom that countries with low labor standards and less stringent regulations have performed better in terms of trade performance and use a panel data set in a triple-indexed gravity model to conduct our empirical investigation. Our empirical results indicate that labor standards matter, but that the conventional wisdom does not always hold. The standard variables used in gravity equations conform to theoretical expectations and are highly significant. |
| Keywords: | international trade, labor standards, gravity equation |
| JEL: | F13 F14 F15 |
| Date: | 2008–10–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:car:carecp:08-08&r=lab |
| By: | Naude, Wim |
| Abstract: | Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has the highest growth rate in net international migration in the world. The reasons for this migration are investigated in this paper. First, a survey of the literature on the profile and determinants of international migration in SSA is given. Second, panel data on 45 countries spanning the period 1965 to 2005 are used to determine that the main reasons for international migration from SSA are armed conflict and lack of job opportunities. An additional year of conflict will raise net out-migration by 1.35 per 1,000 inhabitants and an additional 1 per cent growth will reduce net out-migration by 1.31 per 1,000. Demographic and environmental pressures have a less important direct impact, but a more pronounced indirect impact on migration through conflict and job opportunities. In particular, the frequency of natural disasters has a positive and significant effect on the probability that a country will experience an outbreak of armed conflict. Furthermore, there is no evidence of a ?migration hump? or of persistence in net migration rates in SSA, and no evidence that immigration is causing conflict in host countries. |
| Keywords: | international migration, conflict, natural disasters, environmental degradation, environmentally forced migration, Africa |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:rp2008-85&r=lab |
| By: | Paliu-Popa, Lucia |
| Abstract: | Considering that both financial units and their employees contribute to establishing some funds of national importance for the social security, the purpose of this paper is to make a presentation of the contributions paid by employees and employers in 2007 and 2008, specifying the corresponding quotas and their evolution, as well as how they are pointed out in accounting. |
| Keywords: | social liabilities; fiscal and accounting aspects |
| JEL: | O23 H3 |
| Date: | 2008–03–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:12191&r=lab |
| By: | Camilo Mondragón-Vélez; Ximena Peña-Parga |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to evidence how relatively marginal changes in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics survey, particularly on the measurement of returns to entrepreneurship – both financial and human capital – can yield sizeable benefits for research and policy on entrepreneurship. Accurate measurement of returns to all the resources invested in entrepreneurial endeavors is not only essential to understand the motivations and barriers to start a business, but can ultimately provide the basis to improve the effectiveness of programs and policies to foster entrepreneurial activity in the economy. In fact, recent studies question the importance of pecuniary benefits in the decision to become an entrepreneur. However, these are based on measures of total earnings and sample aggregate returns. Thus, adequate individual data on business income and its components has an enormous value for both research and policy design altogether. |
| Date: | 2008–11–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:005195&r=lab |
| By: | Courty, Pascal (European University Institute); Marschke, Gerald (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | We model the sorting of medical students across medical occupations and identify a mechanism that explains the possibility of differential productivity across occupations. The model combines moral hazard and matching of physicians and occupations with pre-matching investments. In equilibrium assortative matching takes place; more able physicians join occupations less exposed to moral hazard risk, face more powerful performance incentives, and are more productive. Under-consumption of health services relative to the first best allocation increases with occupational (moral hazard) risk. Occupations with risk above a given threshold are not viable. The model offers an explanation for the persistence of distortions in the mix of health care services offered, the differential impact of malpractice risk across occupations, and the recent growth in medical specialization. |
| Keywords: | performance measurement, moral hazard, incentives, matching, pre-matching investment, career choice, medical specialization |
| JEL: | D82 I10 J31 J33 L23 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3862&r=lab |