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on Labour Economics |
| By: | David Neumark |
| Abstract: | I review evidence on alternative labor market policies that could potentially improve economic self-sufficiency via mandating higher wages, subsidizing employment, or increasing productivity. The evidence indicates that the minimum wage is an ineffective policy to promote economic self-sufficiency, entailing employment losses without any corresponding distributional benefits via higher wages. In contrast, living wage laws appear to present a more favorable tradeoff. Labor supply incentives, in particular the EITC, appear effective, as a more generous EITC boosts employment of single mothers and in so doing raises incomes and earnings of low-income families. There is some evidence that wage subsidies increase employment and earnings, but problems of stigmatization resulting from eligibility for wage subsidy programs can dissipate the gains, and wage subsidies entail substantial administrative difficulties. Finally, a newer but growing literature on school-to-work provides some evidence that school-to-work programs boost labor market attachment, skill formation, wages, and earnings. |
| JEL: | J08 J18 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14807&r=lab |
| By: | Magali Beffy (INSEE (D3E)); Elise Coudin (INSEE (D3E)); Roland Rathelot (INSEE (D3E)) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents some empirical evidence on the French labor market focusing on transitions between stable jobs, temporary work, unemployment and non-participation.The model used is based on a Markov chain mixture which allows to distinguish labor market histories that are confined to contingent work and non-employment from the non-confined ones. This enables us to identify, quantify and characterize (conditional on observable characteristics) the workers who never accede to stable jobs and remain stuck to temporary jobs and non-employment spells. We consider quarterly labor market transitions, observed from 2003 to 2006 in the Labor Force survey (LFS). We find that on the whole, about 5% of the working age population experience confined transition dynamics: they cannot access to stable jobs. Confined workers are less educated and are more likely to live in distressed areas. |
| Keywords: | labor market mobility, labor market transitions, mover-stayer models, Markov chains |
| JEL: | C19 R12 L70 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crs:wpdeee:2008-10&r=lab |
| By: | Banerjee, Rupa; Verma, Anil |
| Abstract: | This study investigates post-migration educational investment among newly arrived immigrants and examines the effect of post-migration education on new immigrants’ labour market integration, as measured by earnings and occupational status. The results indicate that younger immigrants who are already well educated, fluent in English or French and worked in a professional or managerial occupation prior to migration are most likely to enroll in Canadian education. But, acceptance of previous work experience by Canadian employers lowers the likelihood of enrolling in further education. Financial capital was not found to affect participation in post-migration education. Those immigrants who did enroll in post-migration education enjoyed an earnings advantage and were more likely to work in a professional or managerial job. The effect of post-migration education was greater for immigrants whose previous work experience was not accepted in Canada. |
| Keywords: | Immigrant Workers, Education, Wages |
| JEL: | J61 J31 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-20&r=lab |
| By: | Campolieti, Michele; Fang, Tony; Gunderson, Morley |
| Abstract: | We utilize an instrumental variable approach to analyse the effect that dropping out of high school has on 17 outcomes pertaining to wages, employment and subsequent skill acquisition for youths. Our analysis is based on the older cohort of the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) for 2003, an ideal data set because it contains a rich array of outcome measures and their observable determinants as well as variables for instrumenting the dropout indicator (based on a link to the 1999 data). Our analysis indicates that dropouts have poorer wage and employment outcomes, and they do not make up for their lack of education through additional skill acquisition and training. The analysis thereby suggests that policies to curb dropping out could have both desirable efficiency effects (high returns) as well as distributional effects (high returns to otherwise more disadvantaged groups) and potential social spillover affects. |
| Keywords: | Education, Training, Youth, Labour Market Outcomes |
| JEL: | J18 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-25&r=lab |
| By: | Joseph Altonji; Anthony Smith; Ivan Vidangos |
| Abstract: | In this paper we use indirect inference to estimate a joint model of earnings, employment, job changes, wage rates, and work hours over a career. Our model incorporates duration dependence in several variables, multiple sources of unobserved heterogeneity, job-specific error components in both wages and hours, and measurement error. We use the model to address a number of important questions in labor economics, including the source of the experience profile of wages, the response of job changes to outside wage offers, and the effects of seniority on job changes. We provide estimates of the dynamic response of wage rates, hours, and earnings to various shocks and measure the relative contributions of the shocks to the variance of earnings in a given year and over a lifetime. We find that human capital accounts for most of the growth of earnings over a career although job seniority and job mobility also play significant roles. Unemployment shocks have a large impact on earnings in the short run as well a substantial long long-term effect that operates through the wage rate. Shocks associated with job changes and unemployment make a large contribution to the variance of career earnings and operate mostly through the job-specific error components in wages and hours. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2009-08&r=lab |
| By: | Eduardo Zepeda (International Poverty Centre); Diana Alarcón (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs); Fabio Veras Soares (International Poverty Centre); Rafael Guerreiro Osorio (International Poverty Centre) |
| Abstract: | Despite the recovery of economic growth in Latin America during the 1990s, rising unemployment, high informality rates and sluggish wages lie at the root of high inequality and poverty. This paper looks at changes in hourly earnings from the early 1990s to the early 2000s in three relatively stable countries: Brazil, Chile and Mexico. Using econometric techniques, the paper decomposes the change in earnings per worker into changes in the demographic and socio-occupational characteristics of workers, changes in the returns to such characteristics, and changes in unobservable factors. The paper attempts to address the link between labour markets and the dynamics of inequality and poverty by comparing the average performance of the entire working labour force with the performance of the 20 per cent of workers with the lowest earnings. The paper finds that earnings per worker are the result of slow-moving changes in the structure of employment and the characteristics of workers, as well as rapid changes in the prices of labour for specific workers. Demographic changes, better education and the decline of agricultural labour are among the most significant changes in the structure of employment, and they contribute to observed changes in earnings. Among the most important changes in prices contributing to the change in earnings are changes in the returns to formal and informal employees relative to the self-employed; changes to full-time employment relative to part-time workers; changes in the returns to urban workers relative to rural workers; and change in the earnings of workers in services relative to workers in agriculture. In general, changes in earnings frequently favoured low-earning workers, mostly because of the change in the returns for their labour. This is in contrast to the changes in the structure of employment, which tended to favour high-earning workers. |
| Keywords: | Changes in Earnings in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico: Disentangling the Forces Behind Pro-Poor Change in Labour Markets |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:wpaper:51&r=lab |
| By: | Pia M. Orrenius; Madeline Zavodny |
| Abstract: | Recent media and government reports suggest that immigrants are more likely to hold jobs with worse working conditions than U.S.-born workers, perhaps because immigrants work in jobs that "natives don?t want." Despite this widespread view, earlier studies have not found immigrants to be in riskier jobs than natives. This study combines individual-level data from the 2003?2005 American Community Survey with Bureau of Labor Statistics data on work-related injuries and fatalities to take a fresh look at whether foreign-born workers are employed in more dangerous jobs. The results indicate that immigrants are in fact more likely to work in risky jobs than U.S.-born workers, partly due to differences in average characteristics, such as immigrants' lower English language ability and educational attainment. |
| Keywords: | Immigrants ; Human capital ; Labor economics |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:feddwp:0901&r=lab |
| By: | Kudoh, Noritaka; Sasaki, Masaru |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a dynamic model of the labor market in which the degree of substitution between employment and hours of work is determined as part of a search equilibrium. Each firm chooses its demand for working hours and number of vacancies, and the earnings profile is determined by Nash bargaining. The earnings profile is generally nonlinear in hours of work, and defines the trade-off between employment and hours of work. Concave production technology induces firms to overemploy and, as a result, hours of work are below their optimal level. The Hosios condition is not sufficient for efficiency. When there are two industries, workers employed by firms with higher recruitment costs work longer and earn more. That is, "good jobs" require longer hours of work. Interestingly, technology differentials cannot account for working hours differentials. |
| Keywords: | employment, hours of work, search frictions, |
| JEL: | J21 J23 J31 J64 |
| Date: | 2009–02–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hok:dpaper:204&r=lab |
| By: | Livanos, Ilias; Pouliakas, Konstantinos |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the wage returns to different academic disciplines in the Greek labour market. Exploring wage responsiveness across the various degree subjects in the case of Greece is interesting, as it is characterised by high levels of graduate unemployment, which vary considerably by field of study, and relatively low levels of wage flexibility. Using micro-data from the most recently available waves (2000-2004) of the Greek Labour Force Survey (LFS), the returns to academic disciplines are estimated for the whole sample of graduates as well as by gender and public/private sector. Quantile regressions indicate that the OLS estimates are relatively robust to potential selectivity biases. The empirical results show considerable variation in wage premiums across the fields of study, with low returns for those that have a marginal role to play in an economy with a rising services/shrinking public sector. It is concluded that the Greek higher education system requires educational reforms that consider the future prospects of the different academic disciplines. |
| Keywords: | Wages; returns; academic disciplines; Greece; quantile regressions; educational reforms |
| JEL: | J31 J38 J24 |
| Date: | 2008–10–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14159&r=lab |
| By: | Abbott, Michael; Beach, Charles M. |
| Abstract: | This paper provides preliminary results from the IMDB panel database on the earnings distribution and earnings mobility of Canadian immigrants over their first post-landing decade in Canada. In this study we examine only the 1982 landing cohort of immigrants and follow them through to 1992. We examine earnings outcomes by four immigrant admission categories (independent economic immigrants, family class immigrants, and refugees) and separately for men and women. We find that there was indeed a substantial increase in the real earnings of 1982 immigrants over their first ten post-landing years in Canada. Annual earnings were initially highest for independent economic immigrants (all of whom are principal applicants) and lowest for refugees. But the growth rate of earnings was highest among refugees, so that by the tenth post-landing year refugees had the second-highest annual earnings levels after independent economic immigrants. Earnings inequality among immigrants in the 1982 landing cohort changed over the ensuing decade in a manner consistent with onward migration beyond Canada from the top end of the immigrant earnings distribution. In fact, sample attrition in the IMDB database was greatest among independent economic immigrants, followed by refugees. Earnings mobility was substantially greater for immigrants than for earners as a whole in the Canadian labour market, and declined with years since landing for both male and female immigrants. Earnings mobility was also greater among immigrant women than among immigrant men. The results indicate that the point system is effective in admitting higher-earning immigrants who succeed in moving ahead in the Canadian labour market, but suggest that onward (or through) migration among the most skilled immigrant workers may be a policy concern. |
| Keywords: | Immigrant Earnings, Earnings Mobility of Immigrants, Canadian Immigrant Earnings |
| JEL: | J61 J68 J18 |
| Date: | 2009–03–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-22&r=lab |
| By: | Kenneth Beauchemin; Murat Tasci |
| Abstract: | We construct a multiple-shock version of the Mortensen-Pissarides labor market search model to investigate the basic model’s well-known tendency to underpredict the volatility of key labor market variables. Data on U.S. job-finding and job separation probabilities are used to help estimate the parameters of a three-dimensional shock process comprising labor productivity, job separation, and matching or “allocative” effciency. Although our multiple-shock model generates some more volatility, it has counterfactual implications for the cyclicality of unemployment and vacancies. Our second exercise forces the model to be the data-generating process to uncover the necessary realizations of all three shocks. We show that the Mortensen-Pissarides labor market search model requires significantly procyclical and volatile matching efficiency and job separations to simultaneously account for high procyclical variations in job-finding probabilities as well as relatively small net employment changes in the data. Hence, the model is more fundamentally flawed than its inability to amplify shocks would suggest. We also show that variation in job separations accounts for most of the employment fluctuations, suggesting that endogenous separations could be the key feature of an improved model. This leads us to conclude that the model lacks mechanisms to generate procyclical matching efficiency and labor force reallocation. As for the latter, we conjecture that nontrivial labor force participation and job-to-job transitions are promising avenues of research. Note: This paper is a revised version of an earlier working paper of the same title, WP 07-20. |
| Keywords: | Labor market ; Business cycles |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedcwp:0813&r=lab |
| By: | Finnie, Ross; Gray, David |
| Abstract: | The central objective of this study is to investigate the income sources and patterns of prime-age and older workers who suffer a layoff from steady employment. We focus on a set of cohorts who are deemed to have a high degree of attachment to the labour force preceding the event of an involuntary separation. Using a unique data base that merges administrative data marking the job separation, we track all of their sources of income over an interval that spans four years prior to the separation to five years after the separation. Our empirical analysis includes an investigation of the frequency that a laid-off individual will receive income ex post from a given source, a typology analysis of the various configurations of income received, and an econometric analysis of the incidence of certain post-layoff income configurations. We find that in any given year, approximately 2 % of our sample of workers with stable employment histories experience a ‘visible’ layoff. During the first three post-layoff years, 77 % of the group of laid-off workers (aged 45-64 years old) have non-trivial labour market earnings, and 56-65 % of them depend on the labour market for their primary source of income. This group of workers does experience substantial income losses. During the post-layoff period, approximately 14-19 % of them file a subsequent claim for EI benefits, but few of them depend on the EI regime as the primary source of their income. Very few of these individuals draw on other types of social insurance benefits, such as CPP disability, social assistance, and workers’ compensation. The most common destination state for prime-age and older workers who have not yet reached retirement age are early retirement and continued labour market activity, albeit at much lower earnings. It is rare for them to draw on social insurance benefits, and we find little evidence that disability benefits and workers compensation are functioning as disguised unemployment benefits. |
| Keywords: | Post-layoff transitions, incidence of program usage, retirement behaviour, disability benefits, re-employment transitions |
| JEL: | J63 J65 J68 J26 |
| Date: | 2009–03–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-24&r=lab |
| By: | Victor Aguirregabiria; Cesar Alonso-Borrego |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the effects of a labor market reform in Spain that removed restrictions on fixed-term or temporary contracts. Our empirical results are based on longitudinal firm-level data that covers observations before and after the reform. We posit and estimate a dynamic labor demand model with indefinite and fixed-term labor contracts, and a general structure of labor adjustment costs. Experiments using the estimated model show important positive effects of the reform on total employment (i.e., a 3.5% increase) and job turnover. There is a strong substitution of permanent by temporary workers (i.e., a 10% decline in permanent employment). The effects on labor productivity and the value of firms are very small. In contrast, a counterfactual reform that halved all firing costs would produce the same employment increase as the actual reform, but much larger improvements in productivity and in the value of firms. |
| Keywords: | Labor demand, Firing costs, Temporary contracts, Estimation of dynamic structural models, |
| JEL: | J23 J32 J38 J41 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:we091811&r=lab |
| By: | Hirvonen, Lalaina (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | This paper takes advantage of an exogeneous variation in the sex composition of previous children, to study the effect of an additional child on women’s earnings. I use OLS and IV as well as quantile regression to analyze the impact of an increase in family size on labour force participation and level of earnings from 1980-2005 Swedish register data. The IV technique produces estimates that are not systematically different from those from OLS, at the expense of a low precision. Including men in the analysis shows that fathers’ labour force outcomes are less likely to be affected by an increase in family size compared to mothers. My findings indicate that having an additional child has a stronger negative impact on earnings than on labour force participation. However, there is evidence of catching-up effect over time, as women tend to recover gradually from the negative earnings effect. Using different time perspective, the results remain stable with respect to the rapid expansion of the Swedish family policies. The quantile regression approach suggests that other mechanisms than childbearing lie behind the large wage gap at the top of the wage distribution, often referred to, in Sweden, as the glass ceiling pattern. |
| Keywords: | - |
| Date: | 2009–03–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2009_002&r=lab |
| By: | Antonczyk, Dirk (University of Freiburg); Fitzenberger, Bernd (University of Freiburg); Leuschner, Ute (University of Freiburg) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the changes in the German wage structure for full-time working males from 1999 to 2006. Our analysis builds on the task-based approach introduced by Autor et al. (2003), as implemented by Spitz-Oener (2006) for Germany, and also accounts for job complexity. We perform a Blinder-Oaxaca type decomposition of the changes in the entire wage distribution between 1999 and 2006 into the separate effects of personal characteristics and task assignments. In line with the literature, we find a noticeable increase of wage inequality between 1999 and 2006. The decomposition results show that the changes in personal characteristics explain some of the increase in wage inequality whereas the changes in task assignments strongly work towards reducing wage inequality. The coefficient effect for personal characteristics works towards an increase in wage inequality at the top of the wage distribution. The coefficient effect for the task assignments on the contrary shows an inverted U-shaped pattern. We conclude that altogether the task-based approach can not explain the recent increase of wage inequality in Germany. |
| Keywords: | wage inequality, occupations, tasks, skill biased technical change, polarization |
| JEL: | J24 J31 D31 C43 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4050&r=lab |
| By: | Mohamed Ali Marouani (Université Paris1-Sorbonne/IEDES, DIAL et ERF) |
| Abstract: | (english) The combination of demographic factors and an increase in education has caused a significant rise of university graduates’ unemployment in the MENA region. The article provides a prospective costeffectiveness analysis of the impact of alternative labor market policies using a dynamic general equilibrium model. The model allows for an endogenous determination of unemployment through a multisectoral efficiency wage setting mechanism. The main finding is that a wage subsidy targeted at highly skilled intensive sectors is more effective than tax reductions or investment subsidies. However, wage subsidies are not enough to reduce significantly unemployment. Other policy options need to be considered. _________________________________ (français) La combinaison de facteurs démographiques et de progrès dans l’éducation a entraîné une hausse significative du chômage des diplômés dans la région MENA. L’article fournit une analyse de type coût-efficacité de politiques alternatives d’mploi à l’aide d’un modèle d’équilibre général dynamique. Le modèle permet une détermination endogène du niveau de chômage à l’aide d’un modèle multisectoriel de salaires d’efficience. Le principal résultat est qu’une subvention salariale ciblée sur les secteurs intensifs en main-d’oeuvre qualifiée est plus efficace que des réductions d’impôts ou des subventions à l’investissement. Cependant ces subventions salariales ne sont pas suffisantes pour réduire significativement le niveau du chômage. D’autres options doivent être considérées. |
| Keywords: | Employment policies, skilled workers, unemployment, dynamic general equilibrium models, Middle East and North Africa, Tunisia,politiques de l’emploi, main-d’oeuvre qualifiée, chômage, modèle d’équilibre general dynamiques, Afrique du Nord et Moyen Orient, Tunisie. |
| JEL: | C68 J24 J68 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt200901&r=lab |
| By: | Ivan Vidangos |
| Abstract: | This paper studies variation in individual labor income over time using a panel vector autoregression (PVAR) in income, the wage rate, hours of work, and hours of unemployment. The framework is used to investigate how much of the residual variation in labor income is due to residual variation in the wage rate, work hours, and unemployment hours. I also explore the dynamic effects of unanticipated changes in each of the variables in the system, investigate their interactions, and assess their contribution to short-run and long-run income movements. The model is estimated on a sample of male household heads from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). I find that innovations in the wage rate and work hours (conditional on unemployment) are about equally important in the short run. Wage innovations are very persistent, while the effect of changes in hours is mostly transitory. As a result, the wage rate is much more important in the determination of income movements in the long run. Innovations in unemployment have a relatively small, but very persistent effect on income which operates through the wage rate. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2009-09&r=lab |
| By: | Bergemann, Annette (VU University Amsterdam, Department of Economics); Riphahn, Regina T. (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | We study the labor supply effects of a major change in child-subsidy policy in Germany in 2007 designed to both increase fertility and shorten birth-related employment interruptions. The reform involved a move from a means-tested maternity leave benefit system that paid a maximum of 300 Euro for up to two years to an income dependent benefit system that replaced two third of the pre-birth income for at most one year. As the reform took place very recently, we estimate the labor supply effect by using data drawn from the German Socio-Economic Panel on the intention of women to return to the labor market; notably whether women are likely to return and whether they intend to return quickly. Our results show that the reform yields most of the intended effects: The fraction of mothers who responded that they were going to return to the labor market within a year since the interview increased by 14 percentage points. |
| Keywords: | Female labor supply; fertility; child subsidy; parents money |
| JEL: | J13 J21 |
| Date: | 2009–02–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2009_005&r=lab |
| By: | Donatella Gatti; Anne-Gael Vaubourg |
| Abstract: | Using data for 18 OECD countries over the period 1980-2004, we investigate how labour and financial factors interact to determine unemployment. We show that the impact of financial variables depends strongly on the labour market context. Increased market capitalization as well as decreased banking concentration reduce unemployment if the level of labour market regulation, union density and coordination in wage bargaining is low. The above financial variables have no effect otherwise. Increasing intermediated credit worsens unemployment when the labour market is weakly regulated and coordinated, whereas it reduces unemployment otherwise. These results suggest that the respective virtues of bank-based and market-based finance are crucially tied to the strength of labour regulation. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pse:psecon:2009-10&r=lab |
| By: | Pouliakas, Konstantinos; Roberts, Deborah; Balamou, Eudokia; Psaltopoulos, Dimitris |
| Abstract: | The paper uses a regional Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model to analyse the effects of immigration on three small remote EU regions located within Scotland, Greece and Latvia. Two migration scenarios are assessed. In the first, total labour supply is affected. In the second, the importance of migratory flows by differential labour skill types is investigated. The results indicate significant differences in the extent to which regional economies are affected by immigration. They also suggest that remote regions are highly vulnerable to the out-migration of skilled workers (‘brain-drain’) while the in-migration of unskilled workers leads to widening wage inequality. |
| Keywords: | Immigration; CGE; Skills; Wage Inequality; Brain-drain; Regional economies |
| JEL: | R13 D33 D58 R23 |
| Date: | 2008–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14157&r=lab |
| By: | Matloob Piracha; Florin Vadean |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the impact of return migration on the Albanian economy by analysing the occupational choice of return migrants while explicitly differentiating between self-employment as either own account work or entrepreneurship. After taking into account the possible sample selection into return migration, we find that the own account workers have characteristics closer to non-participants in the labour market (i.e. lower education levels), while entrepreneurship is positively related to schooling, foreign language proficiency and savings accumulated abroad. Furthermore, compared to having not migrated, return migrants are significantly more likely not to participate in the labour market or to be entrepreneurs. However, after a one year re-integration period, the effect on non participation vanishes and that on entrepreneurship becomes stronger. As for non-migrants, the migration experience would have increased their probability to be entrepreneurs showing the positive impact of migration on job creating activities in Albania. |
| Keywords: | Occupational Choice; Return Migration; Sample Selection |
| JEL: | C35 F22 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:0905&r=lab |
| By: | Cécile Détang-Dessendre; Carl Gaigné |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to determine whether residential location affects unemployment duration. Our analysis is based on a spatial job search framework that shows the importance of dissociating the role of travel time from physical distance in unemployment duration. The contribution of our study also stems from the development of skill-specific accessibility measures that take into account the spatial distribution of labor supply and demand. Our results show that physical distance and competition among searchers must be controlled for in order to understand the significant role of job access (measured in terms of travel time) in unemployment duration. Second, improvements in access raise the probability that persons living in urban fringes and rural areas will become employed. Third, for workers living in large urban centers, the relationship between location and unemployment duration is insignificant. |
| Keywords: | unemployment duration, job accessibility, commuting time |
| JEL: | J64 R23 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rae:wpaper:200904&r=lab |
| By: | Narazani E; Shima I |
| Abstract: | In view of the political debate on the future sustainability of pensions system in Austria and given the low participation of older worker in the labour market, in this paper we try to shed light on employment and retirement behaviour while a combination of reduction in pension benefits along with income support is provided. We find out that reforms characterized by moderately generous income support while working along with lower pension entitlement in early retirement yield higher social welfare compared to the current system. The labour supply response signals increase under the proposed reforms among middle-income males, in the age category 55-60, whereas these reforms seem to be ineffective for women. These findings emphasize the importance of introducing pension reforms complemented with tax-benefits policies such that the former remove the disincentives to retire earlier and the later enhance the employment of workers in pre-retirement age. |
| Keywords: | supply, discrete choice models, guaranteed minimum income, retirement, older worker |
| Date: | 2009–03–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:emodwp:em1/09&r=lab |
| By: | Mahy, Benoît (University of Mons-Hainaut); Rycx, Francois (Free University of Brussels); Volral, Mélanie (University of Mons-Hainaut) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of wage dispersion on firm productivity in different working environments. More precisely, it examines the interaction with: i) the skills of the workforce, using a more appropriate indicator than the standard distinction between white- and blue collar workers, and ii) the uncertainty of the firm economic environment, which has, to our knowledge, never been explored on an empirical basis. Using detailed LEED for Belgium, we find a hump-shaped relationship between (conditional) wage dispersion and firm productivity. This result suggests that up to (beyond) a certain level of wage dispersion, the incentive effects of “tournaments” dominate (are dominated by) “fairness” considerations. Findings also show that the intensity of the relationship is stronger for highly skilled workers and in more stable environments. This might be explained by the fact that monitoring costs and production-effort elasticity are greater for highly skilled workers and that in the presence of high uncertainty workers have less control over their effort-output relation and associate higher uncertainty with more unfair environments. |
| Keywords: | linked employer-employee data, personnel economics, working environments, labour productivity, wage dispersion |
| JEL: | J31 J24 M52 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4044&r=lab |
| By: | Katharine G. Abraham; John C. Haltiwanger; Kristin Sandusky; James Spletzer |
| Abstract: | Using a large data set that links individual Current Population Survey (CPS) records to employer-reported administrative data, we document substantial discrepancies in basic measures of employment status that persist even after controlling for known definitional differences between the two data sources. We hypothesize that reporting discrepancies should be most prevalent for marginal workers and marginal jobs, and find systematic associations between the incidence of reporting discrepancies and observable person and job characteristics that are consistent with this hypothesis. The paper discusses the implications of the reported findings for both micro and macro labor market analysis. |
| JEL: | C80 J21 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14805&r=lab |
| By: | Mariotti, Martine |
| Abstract: | Conventional wisdom holds that international political pressure and domestic civil unrest in the mid-1970s and 1980s brought an end to apartheid in South Africa. I show that, prior to these events, labor market pressure in the late 1960s/early 1970s caused a dramatic unraveling of apartheid in the workplace. Increased educational attainment among whites reduced resistance to opening semi-skilled jobs to Africans. This institutional change reflected white economic preferences rather than a relaxation of attitudes toward apartheid. I show that whites benefited from the relaxation of job reservation rules and that this is the primary cause of black occupational advancement. |
| Keywords: | Discrimination; Job Reservation; Education; Labor markets |
| JEL: | N0 N37 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14127&r=lab |
| By: | Ferrer, Ana M.; Menendez, Alicia |
| Abstract: | We investigate the returns to postsecondary education relaxing the standard assumption that it proceeds in a continuous manner. Using a unique survey that collects information on a representative cohort of graduates, we are able to estimate the effects of delaying school among successful graduates abstracting from specific macroeconomic conditions at the time of graduation. Our results show that graduates that delayed their education receive a premium relative to graduates that did not, even after considering other factors such as experience or labour market connections. These estimates are robust to the possibility of selection in the decision to return to school. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital, Postsecondary Education, Flexible School Choice, School Delay |
| JEL: | J24 I2 |
| Date: | 2009–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-26&r=lab |
| By: | Kucera, Miroslav |
| Abstract: | Using data from the 2001 General Social Survey, this study focused on differences in educational attainment between the children of immigrants to Canada, referred to as second-generation immigrants, and similarly-aged children of Canadian-born parents. Two definitions of second-generation immigrants were introduced. The first considered a Canadian resident with at least one immigrant parent to be a second-generation immigrant, while the second definition required that both parents were foreign-born. All first-generation immigrants were excluded from the sample, except those who had arrived in Canada at the age of 9 or younger; these young immigrants were then included among the second-generation immigrants. The results show that second-generation immigrants did better in terms of schooling attainment than their peers born to Canadian parents. Although a part of the observed difference was explained by differences in individual characteristics, a significant disparity remained even after controlling for them. Moreover, the main result of the children of immigrants being, on average, more educated than the children of the Canadianborn was robust towards different definitions of second-generation immigrants, and held for both men and women. |
| Keywords: | educational attainment; second-generation immigrants |
| JEL: | J62 I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14036&r=lab |
| By: | Béjaoui, Ali; Montmarquette, Claude |
| Abstract: | (English Abstract Follows) La manière dont le marché du travail s’ajuste au choc démographique est au centre des préoccupations des politiques du marché du travail. En effet, le vieillissement de la population pourrait affecter la capacité de l’économie à s’ajuster, non seulement au choc de vieillissement lui-même, mais aussi aux chocs engendrés par les cycles économiques, le commerce international et les changements technologiques (Kuhn, 2003). La présente étude contribue au débat portant sur la manière dont les entreprises s’ajustent à un environnement devenu de plus en plus turbulent. Entre autres, le salaire à l’ancienneté a été identifié comme l’un des facteurs qui pourraient freiner la capacité des entreprises à s’ajuster au marché, dans un contexte de vieillissement de la main-d’oeuvre. Cette étude se penche sur le recours aux emplois non standards (ou la flexibilité numérique) et l’adoption de la rémunération variable comme stratégies d’évitement du salaire à l’ancienneté. En utilisant des données uniques qui apparient les employeurs et les employés au niveau des établissements, nous avons estimé l’impact de la composition démographique des établissements sur le recours à l’une ou l’autre des stratégies de flexibilisation. Nous concluons que la composition démographique des établissements n’est pas associée à la probabilité de recours à la rémunération variable. Par contre, la proportion des travailleurs âgés (45 ans et plus) dans un établissement est associée positivement à la probabilité de recourir à la flexibilité numérique. De même, une complémentarité entre les deux stratégies de flexibilisation a été mise en évidence. Les implications politiques de ces résultats sont multiples. Si les entreprises continuent à avoir des difficultés à instaurer des systèmes de rémunération flexible, elles continueront de s’ajuster en recourant à la flexibilité numérique. Bien que cette flexibilité ait permis aux travailleurs âgés de combiner le travail avec une retraite progressive, aux femmes de combiner le travail avec les soins des enfants et des parents, et aux jeunes de combiner le travail et les études, elle peut avoir des effets néfastes à long terme. Cette stratégie de flexibilisation peut entraîner, à long terme, un sous investissement dans la formation, un manque d’épargne-retraite ainsi qu’une accentuation des inégalités salariales. Le défi de la nouvelle génération des politiques publiques consiste à identifier le compromis entre les incitatifs et les programmes d’activation qui permettrait d’atteindre un équilibre entre les impératifs économiques (la flexibilité) et les aspirations sociales (la sécurité). *** The labour market’s ability to adjust to the current demographic shock is a central concern for labour market policies. An aging population could affect the economy’s ability to adjust, not only to the aging population shock itself, but also to those associated with the business cycle, international trade and technological changes (Kuhn, 2003). This study contributes to discussions about the ways in which organizations adjust to such an increasingly turbulent environment. Among others, seniority-based pay has been identified as a factor that could potentially hinder an organization’s ability to adjust to the market, within the context of an aging workforce. This study focuses on the use of non-standard jobs (or numerical flexibility) and variable compensation as strategies to avoid seniority-based pay. Using unique data that match employers and employees at the mico level, we investigated the link between the demographic composition of workplaces and the adoption of either or both « flexibilization » strategies. Consequently, we conclude that there is no link between workplace demographics and the adoption of variable compensation. However, a high proportion of older workers (45 years and older) in the workplace is positively related to the use of numerical flexibility. Moreover, a complementarity in the use of both strategies emerged from our study. The implications of these results on policies are numerous. If organizations continue experiencing difficulties in resorting to flexible compensation, they will likely continue to adjust by relying on numerical flexibility. While this type of flexibility allows older workers to ease into retirement gradually, women to cope with both working and caring for children or aging parents, and youths to combine work and studies, it can also have detrimental effects. Over time, this flexibilzation strategy can lead to an underinvestment in training, a lack of savings for retirement and an increase in wage inequalities. The main challenge of the new generation of public policies lies in the identification of an effective compromise between incentives and activation programs that would allow a balance between economic imperatives (flexibility) and social aspirations (security). |
| Keywords: | marché du travail, rémunération, flexibilité et sécurité, vieillissement |
| JEL: | J26 J33 J81 |
| Date: | 2009–03–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-23&r=lab |
| By: | Catherine Fuss (National Bank of Belgium, Research Department); Ladislav Wintr (Central Bank of Luxembourg, Economics and Research Department) |
| Abstract: | Using firm-level data for Belgium over the period 1997-2005, we evaluate the elasticity of firms' labour and real average labour compensation to microeconomic total factor productivity (TFP). Our results may be summarised as follows. First, we find that the elasticity of average labour compensation to firm-level TFP is very low contrary to that of labour, consistent with real wage rigidity. Second, while the elasticity of average labour compensation to idiosyncratic firm-level TFP is close to zero, the elasticity with respect to aggregate sector-level TFP is high. We argue that average labour compensation adjustment mainly occur at the sector level through sectoral collective bargaining, which leaves little room for firm-level adjustment to firm-specific shocks. Third, we report evidence of a positive relationship between hours and idiosyncratic TFP, as well as aggregate TFP within the year |
| Keywords: | labour compensation, employment, hours, Total Factor Productivity |
| JEL: | J30 J60 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbb:reswpp:200903-11&r=lab |
| By: | Hussain, Iftikhar (London School of Economics); McNally, Sandra (London School of Economics); Telhaj, Shqiponja (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We examine the links between various measures of university quality and graduate earnings in the United Kingdom. We explore the implications of using different measures of quality and combining them into an aggregate measure. Our findings suggest a positive return to university quality with an average earnings differential of about 6 percent for a one standard deviation rise in university quality. However, the relationship between university quality and wages is highly non-linear, with a much higher return at the top of the distribution. There is some indication that returns may be increasing over time. |
| Keywords: | returns to education, university quality |
| JEL: | I23 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4043&r=lab |
| By: | Ozkan Eren (Department of Economics, University of Nevada, Las Vegas) |
| Abstract: | Utilizing the National Educational Longitudinal Study data, this paper examines the role of pre-market cognitive and noncognitive abilities, as well as schooling inputs, on young men’s earnings. In addition to the conditional mean, we estimate the impacts over the earnings distribution using recently developed (instrumental) quantile regression techniques. Our results show that noncognitive ability is an important determinant of earnings, but the effects are not uniform across the distribution. We find noncognitive ability to be most effective for low earners. Cognitive ability, on the other hand, does not yield any impact either at the mean or at the distributional level once we control for educational attainment. We also find that, on average, pupil-teacher ratio is a significant determinant of earnings. However, similar to noncognitive ability, the effects are not homogeneous. |
| Keywords: | Cognitive Ability, Instrumental Quantile Regression, Measurement Error, Noncognitive Ability, Pupil-Teacher Ratio |
| JEL: | C20 C21 J24 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nlv:wpaper:0906&r=lab |
| By: | Marie-Pierre Dargnies (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of the possibility to enter a tournament as a team on the gender gap in tournament entry. While a large and significant gender gap in entry in the individual tournament is found in line with the literature, no gender gap is found in entry in the team tournament. While women do not choose to enter the tournament significantly more often when it is team-based, men enter significantly less as part of a team than alone. Changes in overconfidence as well as in risk, ambiguity and feedback aversion, the difference in men and women's taste for the uncertainty on their teammate's ability all account for a part of the disappearance of the gender gap in tournament entry. A remaining explanation is that being part of a team changes men and women's taste for performing in a competitive environment. |
| Keywords: | Gender gap, tournament, teams. |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00367702_v1&r=lab |
| By: | Lars Kunze; Christiane Schuppert |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the growth effects of an increase of capital income taxes with additional revenue being devoted to cut wage-related social security contributions to reduce unemployment. The analysis is carried out in an overlapping generations model with endogenous growth, unemployment and a social security system comprising pensions and unemployment benefits. It is shown that the reform not only promotes employment but may additionally stimulate economic growth. Calibrating the model to match data for the EU15 reveals that European countries can indeed gain in form of higher employment and growth if the initial capital income tax is not too high. |
| Keywords: | Capital income taxation, social security, imperfect labor market, overlapping generations, growth |
| JEL: | H24 H55 O40 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0090&r=lab |
| By: | Basit Zafar |
| Abstract: | Males and females are markedly different in their choice of college major. Two main reasons have been suggested for the gender gap: differences in innate abilities and differences in preferences. This paper addresses the question of how college majors are chosen, focusing on the underlying gender gap. Since observed choices may be consistent with many combinations of expectations and preferences, I use a unique data set of Northwestern University sophomores that contains the students' subjective expectations about choice-specific outcomes. I estimate a choice model where selection of college major is made under uncertainty (about personal tastes, individual abilities, and realizations of outcomes associated with the choice of major). Enjoying coursework, finding fulfillment in potential jobs, and gaining the approval of parents are the most important determinants in the choice of college major. Males and females have similar preferences while in college, but their preferences diverge in terms of the workplace: Nonpecuniary outcomes at college are most important in the decisions of females, while pecuniary outcomes realized at the workplace explain a substantial part of the choice for males. I decompose the gender gap into differences in beliefs and preferences. Gender differences in beliefs about academic ability explain a small and insignificant part of the gap, a finding that allows me to rule out low self-confidence as a possible explanation for females' underrepresentation in the sciences. Conversely, most of the gender gap is the result of differences in beliefs about enjoying coursework and differences in preferences. |
| Keywords: | Demography ; College graduates ; Education |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednsr:364&r=lab |
| By: | Chulhee Lee |
| Abstract: | This study estimates the labor force participation rate (LFPR) of older males in Korea from 1955 to 2005, and analyzes the effects of several determining factors on labor force participation decisions at older ages. The LFPR of older men increased substantially from the mid-1960s to the late-1990s. This pattern is in sharp contrast to the historical experiences of most OECD countries, where the LFPR of older males declined rapidly over the last century. The rise in the LFPR of older males in Korea between 1965 and 1995 is largely explained by the dramatic increase in the labor-market activity of the rural elderly population. The results of regression analyses suggest that the acceleration of population aging in rural areas due to the selective out-migration of younger persons was the major cause of the sharp increase in the LFPR of older males. It is likely that the relative decline of the rural economy in the course of industrialization made it increasingly difficult for the rural elderly population to save for retirement. |
| JEL: | J26 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14800&r=lab |
| By: | Kula, Ferit; Aslan, Alper |
| Abstract: | This paper re-examines the empirical validity of the hysteresis hypothesis in unemployment rates in terms of education level in 17 OECD countries. To this end for unbalanced panel, we employ Pesaran’s Cross Sectional Dependence (CD) and Cross-Sectionally Augmented ADF (CADF) tests. Our empirical findings provide that the evidence is favorable to the non-stationary of the unemployment rates by primary and secondary education attainment in total unemployment, and therefore the existence of hysteresis while there is no evidence of hysteresis for unemployment rates by tertiary education. |
| Keywords: | Hysteresis; unemployment; the natural rate hypothesis |
| JEL: | J21 J01 |
| Date: | 2008–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14054&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Bredemeier; Falko Jüßen |
| Abstract: | We propose a new explanation for differences and changes in labor supply by gender and marital status, and in particular for the increase in married women’s labor supply over time.We argue that this increase as well as the relative constancy of other groups’ hours are optimal reactions to outsourcing labor in home production becoming more attractive to households over time.To investigate this hypothesis,we incorporate heterogeneous agents into a household model of labor supply and allow agents to trade home labor. This model can generate the observed patterns in US labor supply by gender and marital status as a reaction to declining frictions on the market for home services.We provide an accounting exercise to highlight the role of alternative explanations for the rise in hours in a model where home labor is tradable. |
| Keywords: | Labor supply, gender, home production, heterogeneity |
| JEL: | J22 J16 E13 D13 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0091&r=lab |
| By: | Pacifico, Daniele |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to introduce labour supply behaviour in an arithmetic microsimulation model so as to take into account changes in labour supply when a new policy is evaluated. I explore the performance of a labour supply estimation method based on a discrete choice set. The idea behind this approach is to work directly with preferences instead of labour supply functions. The main advantage of the discrete approach is the possibility of dealing easily with non-convex budget sets and joint labour supply. This let the discrete approach relatively suitable for policy evaluation purposes. I use the papers from Blundell, Dancan, McCrae and Meghir (1999) and Brewer, Duncan Shepard and Suarez (2006) as main references for the structural microeconometric model. Several innovative elements are taken into account with respect previous Italian studies. In particular, I allow for errors in the predicted wage for non-workers, unobserved heterogeneity in preferences, unobserved monetary fixed costs of working and child-care demand. The model is fully parametric and the Simulated Maximum Likelihood approach is used to approximate multidimensional integrals. An overview of the STATA routine for the maximum likelihood estimation is also presented. The elasticities of labour supply for married men and women are computed and discussed. |
| Keywords: | Microsimulation; Household labour supply; discrete choice |
| JEL: | H31 J22 H24 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14065&r=lab |
| By: | David Card; Jochen Kluve; Andrea Weber |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a meta-analysis of recent microeconometric evaluations of active labor market policies. Our sample consists of 199 program estimates drawn from 97 studies conducted between 1995 and 2007. In about one-half of these cases we have both a short-term impact estimate (for a one-year postprogram horizon) and a medium-term estimate (two-year horizon).We characterize the program estimates according to the type and duration of the program, the characteristics of the participants, and the evaluation methodology. Heterogeneity in all three dimensions affects the likelihood that an impact estimate is significantly positive, significantly negative, or statistically insignificant. Comparing program types, subsidized public sector employment programs have the least favorable impact estimates. Job search assistance programs have relatively favorable short-run impacts, whereas classroom and on-the-job training programs tend to show better outcomes in the mediumrun than the short-run. Programs for youths are less likely to yield positive impacts than untargeted programs, but there are no large or systematic differences by gender. Methodologically, we find that the outcome variable used to measure program effectiveness matters. Evaluations based on registered unemployment durations are more likely to show favorable short-term impacts. Controlling for the outcome measure, and the type of program and participants, we find that experimental and non-experimental studies have similar fractions of significant negative and significant positive impact estimates, suggesting that the research designs used in recent non-experimental evaluations are unbiased. |
| Keywords: | Meta-analysis, active labor market policy, program evaluation |
| JEL: | H53 J08 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0086&r=lab |
| By: | Hervé Boulhol |
| Abstract: | The composition of the working-age population can influence aggregate employment and average productivity because both employment rates and productivity levels vary across population groups. This paper assesses the quantitative importance of the working-age population broken down by age, gender and education in explaining differences in employment and productivity levels across countries. Differences in population structure are found to contribute importantly to variations in both labour utilisation and productivity performances. Combining these effects in a mechanical way, differences in the composition of the working-age population account for around a third of the gap in GDP per capita for Europe (EU15) vis-à-vis the United States, mainly due to differences in educational attainment.<P>Les effets de la structure de la population sur l’emploi et la productivité<BR>La composition de la population d’âge actif peut influer sur le niveau global de l’emploi et sur la productivité moyenne car aussi bien les taux d’emploi que les niveaux de la productivité varient selon les groupes de population. Cette étude a pour objectif d’évaluer dans quelle mesure la structure de la population d’âge actif, en fonction de l’âge, du sexe et du niveau d’éducation, peut expliquer les différences de niveau d’emploi et de productivité entre pays. Les différences dans la structure de la population contribuent pour beaucoup aux écarts entre pays tant des niveaux d’utilisation de la main d’oeuvre que de la productivité. En combinant ces effets mécaniques, on observe que les différences dans la composition de la population d’âge actif expliquent pour environ un tiers l’écart de PIB par habitant de l’Europe (UE15) par rapport aux États-Unis, principalement du fait des différences de niveau d’éducation. |
| Keywords: | démographie, aggregate employment, emploi agrégé, qualité de l'emploi, quality of labour, labour productivity, productivité du travail, demographics |
| JEL: | E24 J10 J21 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–03–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:684-en&r=lab |
| By: | P Bingley; Ian Walker |
| Abstract: | We estimate a model of labor supply and participation in multiple programs for UK lone mothers which exploits a reform of in-work transfers. Cash entitlements increased but eligibility to in-kind child nutrition programs was lost. We find that in-work cash and in-work in-kind transfers both have large positive labor supply effects. There is, however, a utility loss from program participation which is estimated to be larger for cash than for child nutrition. This implies that the partial cash out of the in-kind benefits reduced labor supply. |
| Keywords: | labor supply, program participation, in-kind transfers |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:005933&r=lab |
| By: | Martins, Pedro S. (Queen Mary, University of London) |
| Abstract: | How do teacher incentives affect student achievement? We contribute to this question by examining the effects of the recent introduction of teacher performance-related pay and tournaments in Portugal's public schools. Specifically, we draw on matched student-school panel data covering the population of secondary school national exams over seven years. We then conduct a difference-in-differences analysis based on two complementary control groups: public schools in two autonomous regions that were exposed to lighter versions of the reform than in the rest of the country; and private schools, which are also subject to the same national exams but whose teachers were not affected by the reform. Our results consistently indicate that the increased focus on individual teacher performance caused a significant decline in student achievement, particularly in terms of national exams. The triple-difference results also document a significant increase in grade inflation. |
| Keywords: | performance-related pay, public sector, matched school-student data |
| JEL: | I21 M52 I28 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4051&r=lab |
| By: | Kevin Hollenbeck (W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research); Bridget Timmeney (W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research) |
| Abstract: | Findings from an evaluation of a workplace literacy program funded by the State of Indiana are presented. Working with employers, providers were given considerable latitude to design their own training regimens. The state awarded certificates to workers who achieved certain levels of proficiency in reading, math, critical thinking, problem solving (assessed by CASAS), and computer literacy (certified by IC3). The evaluation relied on qualitative and quantitative data. Multiple site visits were undertaken and a survey of participants (n = 1800), learning gains, and earnings histories were quantitatively analyzed. Key findings include a significant interest in college attendance by incumbent workers, higher-than-expected levels of literacy in pre-assessments, little reliance on contextualization, and the importance of a program champion and supervisory support at workplaces. Business return was not formally measured, but employers and workers reported significant morale gains and frequent productivity gains. |
| Keywords: | workplace, literacy, training, ojt, on-the-job training, hollenbeck |
| JEL: | J24 I21 I38 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:09-146&r=lab |
| By: | Lawrence M. Kahn (Cornell University) |
| Abstract: | This Chapter reviews evidence on discrimination in basketball, primarily examining studies on race but with some discussion of gender as well. I focus on discrimination in pay, hiring, and retention against black NBA players and coaches and pay disparities by gender among college coaches. There was much evidence for each of these forms of discrimination against black NBA players in the 1980s. However, there appears to be less evidence of racial compensation, hiring and retention discrimination against black players in the 1990s and early 2000s than the 1980s. This apparent decline is consistent with research on customer discrimination in the NBA: in the 1980s, there was abundant evidence of fan preference for white players; however, since the 1980s, these preferences seem much weaker. There appears to be little evidence of pay, hiring or retention discrimination against black NBA coaches, and while male college basketball coaches outearn females, this gap is accounted for by differences in revenues and coaches’ work histories. There is some dispute over whether these revenue differences are themselves the result of employer discrimination. |
| Keywords: | discrimination, race, gender, basketball |
| JEL: | J71 L83 |
| Date: | 2009–02–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qut:auncer:2009_44&r=lab |
| By: | George J. Borjas |
| Abstract: | The theory of factor demand has important implications for the study of the impact of immigration on wages in both sending and receiving countries. This paper examines the implications of the theory in the context of a model of a competitive labor market where the wage impact of immigration is influenced by such factors as the elasticity of product demand, the rate at which the consumer base expands as immigrants enter the country, the elasticity of supply of capital, and the elasticity of substitution across inputs of production. The analysis reveals that the short-run wage effect of immigration is negative in a wide array of possible scenarios, and that even the long run effect of immigration may be negative if the impact of immigration on the potential size of the consumer base is smaller than its impact on the size of the workforce. The closed-form solutions permit numerical back-of-the-envelope calculations of the wage elasticity. The constraints imposed by the theory can be used to check the plausibility of the many contradictory claims that appear throughout the immigration literature. |
| JEL: | J23 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14796&r=lab |
| By: | Atal, Vidya (Cornell University); Basu, Kaushik (Cornell University); Gray, John (Cornell University); Lee, Travis (Cornell University) |
| Abstract: | Using a model of O-ring production function, the paper demonstrates how certain communities can get caught in a low-literacy trap in which each individual finds it not worthwhile investing in higher skills because others are not high-skilled. The model sheds light on educational policy. It is shown that policy for promoting human capital has to take the form of a mechanism for solving the coordination failure in people’s choice of educational strategy. |
| Keywords: | education, literacy, O-ring, skill formation, traps |
| JEL: | D20 I28 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4047&r=lab |
| By: | Caponi, Vincenzo (Ryerson University); Kayahan, Cevat Burc (affiliation not available); Plesca, Miana (University of Guelph) |
| Abstract: | So far the literature has found that the effect of macroeconomic fluctuations on training decisions is ambiguous. On the one hand, the opportunity cost to train is lower during downturns, and thus training should be counter-cyclical. On the other hand, a positive shock may be related to the adoption of new technologies and increased returns to skill, making training incidence pro-cyclical. Using the Canadian panel of Workplace and Employee Survey (WES) we find that (i) training moves counter-cyclical with the aggregate business cycle (more training during downturns), while at the same time (ii) the idiosyncratic sectoral shocks have a positive impact on training incidence (more training in sectors doing relatively better). This finding helps us understand training decisions by firms and has important theoretical and policy implications. |
| Keywords: | business cycles, training |
| JEL: | E32 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4042&r=lab |
| By: | Carsten Hefeker (University of Siegen, Department of Economics, Hoelderlinstrasse 3, 57068 Siegen, Germany); Michael Neugart (Free University of Bozen/Bolzano, School of Economics and Management, Sernesistrasse 1, I-39100 Bozen, Italy) |
| Abstract: | When enacting labor market regulation governments face courts that interpret and implement the legal code. We show that the incentives for governments for labor market reform increase with the uncertainty that is involved in the implementation of legal codes through courts. Given that judges have more discretion in common as opposed to civil law systems more reform activity as a response to crises should be observed in the former system. This finding is backed by evidence from a panel of OECD countries. |
| Keywords: | labor market regulation, labor courts, uncertainty, unemployment |
| JEL: | D78 K31 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:200915&r=lab |
| By: | Nir Jaimovich; Seth Pruitt; Henry E. Siu |
| Abstract: | The employment and hours worked of young individuals fluctuate much more over the business cycle than those of prime-aged individuals. Understanding the mechanism underlying this observation is key to explaining the volatility of aggregate hours over the cycle. We argue that the joint behavior of age-specific hours and wages in the U.S. data point to differences in the cyclical characteristics of labor demand. To articulate this view, we consider a production technology displaying capital-experience complementarity. We estimate the key parameters governing the degree of complementarity and show that the model can account for the behavior of age-specific hours and wages while generating a series of aggregate hours that is nearly as volatile as output. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgif:964&r=lab |
| By: | Martin Huber; Michael Lechner; Conny Wunsch; Thomas Walter |
| Abstract: | Many Western economies have reformed their welfare systems with the aim of activating welfare recipients by increasing welfare-to-work programmes and job search enforcement. We evaluate the three most important German welfare-to-work programmes implemented after a major reform in January 2005 ("Hartz IV"). Our analysis is based on a unique combination of large scale survey and administrative data that is unusually rich with respect to individual, household, agency level, and regional information. We use this richness to allow for a selection-on-observables approach when doing the econometric evaluation. We find that short-term training programmes on average increase their participants' employment perspectives and that all programmes induce further programme participation. We also show that there is considerable effect heterogeneity across different subgroups of participants that could be exploited to improve the allocation of welfare recipients to the specific programmes and thus increase overall programme effectiveness |
| Keywords: | Welfare-to-work policies, propensity score matching, programme evaluation, panel data, targeting |
| JEL: | J68 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:dp2009:2009-03&r=lab |
| By: | James Albrecht (Department of Economics, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA, and IZA, Bonn, Germany); Lucas Navarro (ILADES-Georgetown University, Universidad Alberto Hurtado); Susan Vroman (Department of Economics, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA, and IZA, Bonn, Germany) |
| Abstract: | We show that in a search/matching model with endogenous participation in which workers are heterogeneous with respect to market productivity, satisfying the Hosios rule leads to excessive vacancy creation. The reason is that the marginal worker does not internalize the effect of his or her participation on average productivity. |
| Keywords: | search, matching, participation, Hosios rule, efficiency |
| JEL: | D3 J6 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ila:ilades:inv218&r=lab |
| By: | Milligan, Kevin; Stabile, Mark |
| Abstract: | A vast literature has examined the impact of family income on the health and development outcomes of children. One channel through which increased income may operate is an improvement in a family’s ability to provide food, shelter, clothing, books, and other expenditure-related inputs to a child’s development. In addition to this channel, many scholars have investigated the relationship between income and the psychological wellbeing of the family. By reducing stress and conflict, more income helps to foster an environment more conducive to healthy child development. In this paper, we exploit changes in child benefits in Canada to study these questions. Importantly, our approach allows us to make stronger causal inferences than has been possible with the existing, mostly correlational, evidence. Using variation in child benefits across province, time, and family type, we study outcomes spanning test scores, mental health, physical health, and deprivation measures. The findings suggest that child benefit programs in Canada had significant positive effects on test scores, as has been featured in the existing literature. However, we also find that several measures of both child and maternal mental health and well-being show marked improvement with higher child benefits. We find strong and interesting differences in the effects of benefits by sex of the child: benefits have stronger effects on educational outcomes and physical health for boys, and on mental health outcomes for girls. Our findings also provide some support for the hypothesis that income transfers operate through measures of family emotional well-being. |
| Keywords: | Child Tax Benefits, Income Transfers, Child Development, Standardized Tests, Mental Health |
| JEL: | I32 J13 J38 |
| Date: | 2009–03–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-21&r=lab |
| By: | Erikson, Robert (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University); Goldthorpe, John H. |
| Abstract: | Analyses based on the data-sets of British birth cohort studies have produced differing findings on trends in intergenerational income and intergenerational class mobility. As between a cohort born in 1958 and one born in 1970, income mobility appears to show a sharp decline, while class mobility remains essentially constant. We investigate how this divergence might be explained. We find no evidence that it results from the differing subsets of data that have been used. However, we show that for both birth cohorts a stronger association exists between father’s class and child’s class than between family income and child’s earnings (and likewise between father’s class and child’s educational qualifications than between family income and child’s qualifications) - and that these differences are especially marked in the case of the 1958 cohort. We therefore argue that it is the surprisingly weak influence exerted by the family income variable for this cohort in these - and other - respects that must be seen as crucial in accounting for the inter-cohort decrease in income mobility that shows up. We point to evidence that as between 1974 and 1986, the years when the family incomes of children in the two cohorts were determined, the transitory component of earnings fell, so that the one-shot measure of such income made at the earlier date will be a less good measure of permanent income than that made at the later date. We therefore suggest that, at least to some extent, the apparent decrease in income mobility may come about in this way. But even if the finding is taken at face value, it would still appear the case that the class mobility regime, as well as having greater temporal stability than the income mobility regime, tends also to be stricter in the sense of entailing a stronger intergenerational association between origins and destinations and one that thus more fully captures continuities in economic advantage and disadvantage. |
| Keywords: | - |
| Date: | 2009–03–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2009_004&r=lab |
| By: | Kaci, Mustapha; Maynard, Jean-Pierre |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of the revisions to labour productivity estimates and related variables covering the revision cycle of the National Accounts from 2004 to 2007 for Canada and from 2005 to 2007 for the United States. |
| Keywords: | Labour, Economic accounts, Hours of work and work arrangements, Productivity accounts |
| Date: | 2009–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp6e:2009023e&r=lab |
| By: | Markus Knell (Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Economic Studies Division, P.O. Box 61, A-1010 Vienna,); Alfred Stiglbauer (Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Economic Analysis Division, P.O. Box 61, A-1010 Vienna,) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we present an extension of the Taylor model with staggered wages in which wage-setting is also influenced by reference norms (i.e. by benchmark wages). We show that reference norms can considerably increase the persistence of inflation and the extent of real wage rigidity but that these effects depend on the definition of reference norms (e.g. how backward-looking they are) and on whether the importance of norms differs between sectors. Using data on collectively bargained wages in Austria from 1980 to 2006 we show that wage-setting is strongly influenced by reference norms, that the wages of other sectors seem to matter more than own past wages and that there is a clear indication for the existence of wage leadership (i.e. asymmetries in reference norms). |
| Keywords: | Inflation Persistence, Real Wage Rigidity, Staggered Contracts, Wage Leadership. |
| JEL: | E31 E32 E24 J51 |
| Date: | 2009–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:onb:oenbwp:153&r=lab |
| By: | Andersson Joona, Pernilla (Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS); Nekby, Lena (Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS) |
| Abstract: | A Trial Introduction Program (TIP) for newly-arrived immigrants to Sweden was implemented from October 2006 to June 2008 in order to meet the main criticisms directed at existing introduction programs. Two primary innovations were introduced, flexible language instruction parallel with other labor market activities at the Public Employment Service (PES) and intensive counseling and coaching by PES caseworkers with considerably reduced caseloads. Within participating municipalities, newly-arrived immigrants were randomly assigned into TIP (treatment) or regular introduction programs (control). Results indicate significant treatment effects on the probability of attaining regular employment as well as the probability of entering intermediate PES training programs. Hazard rates into PES training programs were also significantly higher for participants in TIP in comparison to participants in regular introduction programs. |
| Keywords: | Labor Market Policy Evaluation; Integration; Introduction Programs; Experiments |
| JEL: | C41 J15 J61 J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2009–03–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sulcis:2009_005&r=lab |
| By: | Ester Faia; Lorenza Rossi |
| Abstract: | We study the design of optimal monetary policy (Ramsey policies) in a model with sticky prices and unionized labour markets. Collective wage bargaining and unions monopoly power tend to dampen wage fluctuations and to amplify employment fluctuations relatively to a DNK model with walrasian labour markets. The optimal monetary policy must trade-off counteracting forces. On the one side deviations from zero inflation allow the policy maker to smooth inefficient employment fluctuations. On other side, the presence of wage mark-ups and wage stickiness produce inflationary pressures that require aggressive inflation targeting. Overall we find that the Ramsey planner deviates from full price stability and that an optimal rule targets inflation the real economic activity alongside inflation |
| Keywords: | optimal monetary policy, labour market unionization, threat points |
| JEL: | E0 E4 E5 E6 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1490&r=lab |
| By: | Ozkan Eren (Department of Economics, University of Nevada, Las Vegas); Daniel J. Henderson (Department of Economics, State University of New York at Binghamton and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Following an identification strategy that allows us to largely eliminate unobserved student and teacher traits, we examine the effect of homework on math, science, English and history test scores for eighth grade students in the United States. Noting that failure to control for these effects yields selection biases on the estimated effect of homework, we find that math homework has a large and statistically meaningful effect on math test scores throughout our sample. However, additional homework in science, English and history are shown to have little to no impact on their respective test scores. |
| Keywords: | First Differencing, Homework, Selection Bias, Unobserved Traits |
| JEL: | C23 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nlv:wpaper:0907&r=lab |
| By: | Keane, Michael P. (University of Technology, Sydney); Sauer, Robert M. (University of Bristol) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a simulation estimation algorithm that is particularly useful for estimating dynamic panel data models with unobserved endogenous state variables. The new approach can easily deal with the commonly encountered and widely discussed "initial conditions problem," as well as the more general problem of missing state variables during the sample period. Repeated sampling experiments on dynamic probit models with serially correlated errors indicate that the estimator has good small sample properties. We apply the estimator to a model of married women's labor force participation decisions. The results show that the rarely used Polya model, which is very difficult to estimate given missing data problems, fits the data substantially better than the popular Markov model. The Polya model implies far less state dependence in employment status than the Markov model. It also implies that observed heterogeneity in education, young children and husband income are much more important determinants of participation, while race is much less important. |
| Keywords: | initial conditions, missing data, simulation, female labor force participation |
| JEL: | C15 C23 C25 J13 J21 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4054&r=lab |
| By: | Lanjouw, Peter; Murgai, Rinku |
| Abstract: | The authors analyze five rounds of National Sample Survey data covering 1983, 1987/8, 1993/4, 1999/0, and 2004/5 to explore the relationship between rural diversification and poverty. Poverty in rural India declined at a modest rate during this period. The authors provide region-level estimates that illustrate considerable geographic heterogeneity in this progress. Poverty estimates correlate well with region-level data on changes in agricultural wage rates. Agricultural labor remains the preserve of the uneducated and also to a large extent of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Although agricultural labor grew as a share of total economic activity over the first four rounds, it had fallen back to the levels observed at the beginning of the survey period by 2004. This all-India trajectory masks widely varying trends across states. During this period, the rural non-farm sector grew modestly, mainly between the last two survey rounds. Regular non-farm employment remains largely associated with education levels and social status that are rare among the poor. However, casual labor and self-employment in the non-farm sector reveal greater involvement by disadvantaged groups in 2004 than in the preceding rounds. The implication for poverty is not immediately clear - the poor may be pushed into low-return casual non-farm activities due to lack of opportunities in the agricultural sector rather than being pulled by high returns offered by the non-farm sector. Econometric estimates reveal that expansion of the non-farm sector is associated with falling poverty via two routes: a direct impact on poverty that is likely due to a pro-poor marginal incidence of non-farm employment expansion; and an indirect impact attributable to the positive effect of non-farm employment growth on agricultural wages. The analysis also confirms the important contribution to rural poverty reduction from agricultural productivity, availability of land, and consumption levels in proximate urban areas. |
| Keywords: | Rural Poverty Reduction,Labor Markets,Labor Policies,Crops&Crop Management Systems |
| Date: | 2009–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4858&r=lab |
| By: | Brienna Perelli-Harris (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Theodore P. Gerber |
| Abstract: | Using retrospective union, birth, and education histories that span 1980-2003, this study investigates nonmarital childbearing in post-Soviet Russia. We employ a combination of methods to decompose fertility rates by union status and analyze the processes that lead to a nonmarital birth. We find that the primary cause of the increase in the proportion of nonmarital births is not due to the changing fertility behavior of cohabitors, nor to changes in union behavior after conception, but due to the increasing proportion of women who cohabit before conception. We also find that the relationship between education and nonmarital childbearing has not changed over time; the least educated women have the highest birth rates within cohabitation and as single mothers, primarily due to a lower probability of legitimating a nonmarital conception. Based on these findings, we argue that Russia has more in common with the pattern of disadvantage in the United States, as opposed to the trends described by the second demographic transition. We also find several aspects of non-marital childbearing that neither of these perspectives anticipates. |
| Keywords: | Russia, cohabitation, family, fertility |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2009-007&r=lab |
| By: | P R Agénor; M Agénor |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a gender-based OLG model of endogenous growth to analyze the impact of infrastructure on women’s time allocation between market work, raising children, own health care, home production, and leisure. Gender bias occurs as a result of firms discriminating between men and women, and of mothers devoting relatively more time to rearing their sons. Women’s health status in adulthood, which affects productivity and wages, depends on their health status in childhood. A stagnation equilibrium and multiple development regimes are derived. An increase in productive government spending may shift the economy to a high-growth equilibrium, in a process involving changes in life expectancy, fertility, and a reallocation of women’s time. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:cgbcrp:116&r=lab |
| By: | Alcina Nunes (Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, GEE); Paulino Teixeira (Faculdade de Economia, Universidade de Coimbra) |
| Abstract: | In most studies in the literature only the participation in a single programme versus non-participation is evaluated. This approach, however, does not address the needs of a comprehensive evaluation of an active public intervention in the labour market. Active labour market programmes, like the Portuguese, are not restricted to a particular measure. Rather, in most cases, the public employment service offers a wide variety of programmes to the universe of potential participants. In this context, the issue is participation in one programme versus participation in an alternative programme. In particular, it is appropriate to investigate which programme presents a higher causal effect. Imbens (2000) and Lechner (2001) extended the traditional matching methodology to a context of multiple programme participation. The approach followed in this paper intends to go even further. Indeed, since the traditional matching methodology, which considers the conditional independence assumption, is not appropriate in the context of the Portuguese labour market analysis, we will adopt the assumption of the bias stability. Taking into consideration the selection on unobservables, the matching methodology, combined with the difference-in-differences methodology, will be then our selected evaluation approach. The paper presents the estimation of the average treatment effects on the treated in six distinct states (the non-participation state, plus five “active” programmes). The results, in terms of employability, are not identical across the different states in the short-run (i.e. in the first six to twelve months after participation), but they do seem to converge in the long-run (i.e. after two and a half years). |
| Keywords: | Active Labour Market Policies, Multiple Treatments, Social Programme Evaluation, Propensity Score Matching, Difference-in-Differences |
| JEL: | C10 C50 J68 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mde:wpaper:0011&r=lab |
| By: | Ljungvall , Åsa (Department of Economics, Lund University); Gerdtham , Ulf-G (Department of Economics, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | Using longitudinal data over a 17 year period for a Swedish cohort aged 20-68 in 1980/81, this study analyses income-related inequalities in obesity. By use of the concentration index and decomposition techniques we answer the following questions: 1) Does obesity inequality favour or disfavour the poor? 2) What factors explain this inequality at different points in time? 3) How can the pattern of inequality over time be explained? We find that among females, inequalities in obesity favour the rich, but the estimated inequality declines over time. Income and marital status are the main driving forces behind obesity inequality, and income explains the majority of the declined obesity inequality over time. The results indicate that the main reason for the reduced obesity inequality is increased obesity prevalence, because in absolute terms obesity has increased uniformly across income groups. Thus we conclude that the reduced inequality is not due to any health policy success. Since the income elasticity of obesity is the individual most important contributor to the observed inequality, policies directed towards this factor might be the most effective. Similar trends are found for males, although less pronounced. This should be taken into account when evaluating obesity reducing policies. |
| Keywords: | obesity; income; inequality; ageing; women; concentration index; decomposition; Oaxaca; panel data |
| JEL: | I12 I18 |
| Date: | 2009–03–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2009_003&r=lab |
| By: | John Bound; Sarah Turner; Patrick Walsh |
| Abstract: | The representation of a large number of students born outside the United States among the ranks of doctorate recipients from U.S. universities is one of the most significant transformations in U.S. graduate education and the international market for highly-trained workers in science and engineering in the last quarter century. Students from outside the U.S. accounted for 51% of PhD recipients in science and engineering fields in 2003, up from 27% in 1973. In the physical sciences, engineering and economics the representation of foreign students among PhD recipients is yet more striking; among doctorate recipients in 2003, those from outside the U.S. accounted for 50% of degrees in the physical sciences, 67% in engineering and 68% in economics. Our analysis highlights the important role of changes in demand among foreign born in explaining the growth and distribution of doctorates awarded in science and engineering. Expansion in undergraduate degree receipt in many countries has a direct effect on the demand for advanced training in the U.S. Changes in the supply side of the U.S. graduate education market may also differentially affect the representation of foreign students in U.S. universities. Supply shocks such as increases in federal support for the sciences will have relatively large effects on the representation in the U.S. of doctorate students from countries where demand is relatively elastic. Understanding the determinants – and consequences – of changes over time in the representation of foreign born students among doctorate recipients from U.S. universities informs the design of policies affecting the science and engineering workforce. |
| JEL: | I2 I23 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14792&r=lab |
| By: | Grip Andries de; Smits Wendy (ROA rm) |
| Abstract: | This paper greatly enriches the discussion on the determinants of lifelong learning of scientists and engineers (S&Es). In our analysis, which is based on a survey among S&Es in the Netherlands, we take account of both formal training and different modes of informal learning. We find that S&Es employed in firms which apply innovative production processes more often participate in formal training and also benefit from the informal learning potential of their jobs. Therefore, public policies that stimulate process innovation also prevent skills obsolescence among S&Es. However, lifelong learning is not triggered in firms with many product innovations. S&Es who are employed in firms which operate on highly competitive markets also participate in formal training less often. The same holds for S&Es employed in small firms, although the latter compensate their lower participation in formal training by more hours of self-teaching. S&Es employed in jobs which require a high level of technical knowledge have more formal training, whereas those employed in jobs which require more general skills are significantly more involved in informal learning. Furthermore, older S&Es with long firm tenures participate in formal training less often and have fewer opportunities for learning in their jobs. Therefore, their competence level is at risk. |
| Keywords: | education, training and the labour market; |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2009003&r=lab |
| By: | Nistha Sinha; Joanne Yoong |
| Abstract: | Since the early 1990s, several states in India have introduced financial incentive programs to discourage son preference among parents and to encourage investments in daughters' education and health. This study evaluates one such program in the state of Haryana, Apni Beti Apna Dhan (Our Daughter, Our Wealth). Since 1994, eligible parents in Haryana are offered a financial incentive if they give birth to a daughter. The incentive consists of an immediate cash grant and a long-term savings bond redeemable upon the daughter's 18th birthday provided she is unmarried, with additional bonuses for education. While no specific program participation data is available, the authors estimate early intent-to-treat program effects on mothers (sex ratio among live children, fertility preferences) and children (mother's use of antenatal care, survival, nutritional status, immunization, schooling) using statewide household survey data on fertility and child health and constructing proxies for household and individual program eligibility. Their results based on this limited data imply that Apni Beti Apna Dhan had a positive effect on the sex ratio of living children, but inconclusive effects on mothers' preferences for having female children as well as total desired fertility. They also find that parents increased their investment in daughters' human capital as a result of the program. Families made greater post-natal health investments in eligible girls, with some mixed evidence of improving health status in the short and medium term. Further evidence also suggests that the early cohort of eligible school-age girls are not significantly more likely to attend school; however, conditional on first attending any school, they may be more likely to continue their education. |
| JEL: | J13 J16 O12 O15 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ran:wpaper:667&r=lab |
| By: | Rod Garratt (University of California, Santa Barbara); Catherine Weinberger (Institute for Social, Behavioral & Economics, UCSB); Nicholas Johnson |
| Abstract: | Gender differences in "competitiveness," previously documented in laboratory experiments, are hypothesized to play a role in a wide array of economic outcomes. The current paper provides evidence of competition-aversion in a natural setting somewhere between the simplicity of a laboratory experiment and the full complexity and ambiguity of a labor market. The "State Street Mile" race offers both male and female participants a choice between two different levels of competition. Large, systematic age and gender differences are observed in the relationship between true ability and the decision to enter the more competitive race. Overall, qualified women and older runners are far less likely than qualified young men to enter a competitive race with cash prizes. However, the fastest young women unanimously enter the competitive race. Therefore, while we confirm age and gender differences in competitiveness in our field setting, the economic consequences to capable young women are rather small. |
| Keywords: | competition-aversion, age, gender, |
| Date: | 2009–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucsbec:02-09&r=lab |
| By: | Katja Goerlitz |
| Abstract: | Using establishment data covering the time period 1997 to 2007, this paper investigates trends of employer-sponsored further training in Germany, with a focus on the share of establishments that undertake training investments. I find an increasing trend for West and East German establishments alike. Applying Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition techniques shows that this increase is unrelated to compositional changes of average establishment characteristics. As the characteristics considered in the analysis represent the most commonly used variables in the literature on the determinants of training, this raises some questions for future research. |
| Keywords: | Continuous training, employers, time trends, decomposition analysis |
| JEL: | J24 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0087&r=lab |
| By: | Caroline, Bennett-AbuAyyash; Dietz, Joerg; Esses, Victoria M.; Joshi, Chetan |
| Abstract: | Theories of subtle prejudice imply that personnel decision makers might inadvertently discriminate against immigrant employees, in particular immigrant employees form racial minority groups. The argument is that the ambiguities that are associated with immigrant status (e.g., quality of foreign credentials) release latent biases against minorities. Hence, upon removal of these ambiguities (e.g., recognition of foreign credentials as equivalent to local credentials), discrimination against immigrant employees from minority groups should no longer occur. Experimental research largely confirmed these arguments, showing that participants evaluated the credentials of black immigrant employees less favorably only when the participants harbored latent racial biases and the foreign credentials of the applicants had not been accredited. The results suggest the importance of the official recognition of foreign credentials for the fair treatment of immigrant employees. |
| Keywords: | Labour Discrimination, Immigrants, Racial Minorities, Prejudice, Credential Recognition, Experiment |
| JEL: | J71 |
| Date: | 2009–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-27&r=lab |
| By: | Rob Simmons; Leo Kahane; Neil Longley |
| Abstract: | We use a publicly available data set drawn from the professional sport industry to test for the impacts of coworker heterogeneity on firm performance. We focus particularly on the National Hockey League (NHL). NHL teams are truly global firms - they employ workers (players) from a variety of non-English-speaking countries, all of whom are integrated into a single work group (i.e. team). Players from different countries not only bring different languages and cultures, but also bring different playing styles - styles which must be effectively integrated into a cohesive playing unit. We use a panel data set that spans the seasons 2001-02 to 2007-08, and we control for a wide variety of variables that may affect a team's output. The question we pose is: all else equal, does the specific nationality mix on a team matter? In other words, for a given number of foreign players on a team, is it better to have all foreign players from a single country, or should teams attempt to employ foreign players from a variety of countries? Our results indicate that teams that are made up of mostly homogeneous European players appear to gain an advantage in team performance. Also, it appears that NHL teams perform better when their European players tend to come from the same country, rather than being spread across many European countries. We suggest that firms need to be cognizant of the way in which they diversify since the gains from diversity may be greatest when the foreign component of the workforce has, within itself, a higher degree of homogeneity. |
| Keywords: | Coworker; Heterogeneity; Diversity; National Hockey League; Europeans |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:005934&r=lab |
| By: | Marco Cucculelli; Giacinto Micucci |
| Abstract: | This paper tests the effect of founder’s tenure on firm performance by taking into account the impact of the changes occurring in the economic environment. We use a large dataset of founder-run firms that includes, in addition to financial data, company data directly collected through a survey of about 2,000 Italian firms. Unlike the negative relationship reported in most empirical papers, we found an inverted U-shaped relationship between founder-CEO tenure and firm performance. This relationship is strongly influenced by the characteristics of the environment in which the company competes: while experience plays a key role in fostering performance in less innovative- and less competitive sectors, a dynamic environment makes the performance of the firm less responsive to the benefits of founder tenure. From the viewpoint of policy, growing environment dynamism calls for greater efficiency of the market for corporate control, in order to assure a continued match between skills of CEOs and the external environment |
| Keywords: | ageing, entrepreneurship, founder-run firms, changing environment |
| JEL: | L25 J24 G34 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:san:crieff:0903&r=lab |
| By: | Altavilla, Carlo (University of Naples, Parthenope); Caroleo, Floro Ernesto (University of Naples, Parthenope) |
| Abstract: | Labour market policies settled at national level imply a “one-size-fits-all” labour market strategy. This strategy might not sufficiently take into account region-specific economic structures. In this paper we employ a panel factor-augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) to evaluate whether active labour market programs (ALMPs) might asymmetrically affect labour markets at regional level. Given the significant difference between Italian regional economies we separately analyse two areas: the Centre-North and the South. Our results suggest that the timing and magnitude of the reaction of employment rate to ALMP shocks in the two areas is substantially different. Moreover, forecast error variance decomposition highlight that different variables seem to drive employment dynamics. In the South employment is mainly driven by its own shocks and by social and economic context variables. By contrast, in the northern regions, the employment dynamics is significantly explained by the dynamics of nominal and policy variables such as remunerations and ALMP. |
| Keywords: | Active Labour Market Policies, FAVAR |
| JEL: | C33 J64 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4045&r=lab |
| By: | Hyun H. Son (International Poverty Centre); Nanak Kakwani (International Poverty Centre) |
| Keywords: | Pauvreté des personnes âgées et pensions sociales de retraite au Kenya |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:opfran:25&r=lab |
| By: | Kaci, Mustapha; Maynard, Jean-Pierre |
| Abstract: | Le présent document porte sur l'impact des révisions apportées aux estimations de la productivité du travail et aux variables associées incluses dans le cycle de révision des Comptes nationaux de 2004 à 2007 pour le Canada et de 2005 à 2007 pour les États-Unis. |
| Keywords: | Travail, Comptes économiques, Heures de travail et conditions de travail, Comptes de la productivité |
| Date: | 2009–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp6f:2009023f&r=lab |
| By: | Sixten Korkman |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT : The economic profession has widely examined the effects of the pension system on economic efficiency, intergenerational fairness and the sustainability of public finances, while less attention has been paid to the political decision making process. Yet, the essence of the problem is arguably a political bias in decision making in favour of the interests of the present generations. The young and unborn generations may receive little weight by politicians eager to please voters in the next election. The focus in this paper is on decisions on pension entitlements and commitments within the framework of a very simple ´overlapping generations model´. The analysis is first applied to democratic decision making, based on majority voting. In Finland, however, the parliament has devolved much of its power over (earnings-related) pensions to the corporatist system. The democratic and corporatist decision making processes are compared and their relative pros and cons evaluated. The paper also considers the case for refining current decision making structures. |
| Date: | 2009–03–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1180&r=lab |
| By: | Eduardo Zepeda (International Poverty Centre) |
| Keywords: | Comparaison de l?impact des programmes de création d?emplois et d?aide financière au Kenya |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:opfran:41&r=lab |