|
on Labour Economics |
| By: | Ferreira P (Institute for Social and Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the returns to promotions and separations from firms using Portuguese linked employer-employee data. More than 90% of the total variation in wages can be ex- plained by observed and unobserved characteristics of workers and firms. Taken together, worker and firm unobserved effects explain more than half of the variation of wages for all types of job mobility. Our results suggest that promoted workers are high wage workers in high wage firms. Movers are inherently lower wage workers, in lower wage firms. However, on average, workers that find a new job within one year enter firms that pay higher wages. This is not true for workers that take more than a year to find a new job. |
| Date: | 2009–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2009-12&r=lab |
| By: | Paula Armstrong (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch) |
| Abstract: | Educational quality is a challenged facing the South African schooling system. It is widely acknowledged that teachers play a central role in the quality of education received by students, and that the quality of teachers is largely dependent on the wage they are offered in the teaching profession. This paper investigates the state of teacher pay in the South African labour market by comparing the remuneration received by teachers with that received by their non-teaching counterparts. Remuneration is compared across educational attainment levels, years of experience and across age groups. A Lemieux Decomposition is used to determine what the distribution of teacher wages would look like if teachers were remunerated according to the same structure as non-teachers. It is found that the teaching profession is relatively unattractive to individuals at the top end of the skills distribution in the South African labour market. |
| Keywords: | Education, Wage differentials by occupations, Wage level and structure |
| JEL: | I2 J31 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers76&r=lab |
| By: | B. COCKX; C. GOEBEL; S. ROBIN |
| Abstract: | We verify whether income support for low-paid part-time workers in Belgium increases the transition from unemployment to non-subsidised, “regular” employment. Using a sample of long-term unemployed young women, whose labour market histories are observed from 1998 to 2001, we implement the “timing of events” method to control for selection effects. Our results suggest that the policy has a significantly positive effect on the transition to regular employment. |
| Keywords: | Active labour market policies, Evaluation, Mixed Proportional Hazard Models Codes |
| JEL: | J64 J68 C41 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:09/561&r=lab |
| By: | Ferreira P (Institute for Social and Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | We analyse the nature of interindustry wage differentials using Portuguese data. Estimates from models controlling for observed worker and firm characteristics reveal significant and persistent raw interindustry differentials, which questions the competitive model of the labour market. However, estimates controlling for unobserved worker heterogeneity suggest that the raw differentials are due to the concentration of high wage workers in certain industries and not to genuine differences in compensation across industries. However, a complete decomposition shows that (i) firm effects on average explain 70% of the industry wage premia, and (ii) genuine and sizeable interindustry wage differentials exist. These differentials are shown to increase the time to separation from firms, and are therefore compatible with the competitive model. |
| Date: | 2009–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2009-13&r=lab |
| By: | Neacsu, Madalina; Baldan, Cristina |
| Abstract: | Flexicurity is a new way of looking at flexibility and security on the labor market. It sets out from the awareness that globalization and technological progress are rapidly changing the needs of workers and enterprises. Companies are under increasing pressure to adapt and develop their products and services more quickly. If they want to stay in the market, they have to continuously adapt their production methods and their workforce. This is placing greater demands on business to help their workers acquire new skills. It is also placing greater demands on workers with regards to their ability and readiness for change. At the same time, workers are aware that company restructurings no longer occur incidentally, but are becoming a fact of everyday life. Protection of the specific job they have may no longer be sufficient, and might indeed be counterproductive. In order to plan their lives and careers, workers need new kinds of security that help them remain in employment, and make it through all these changes. New securities must go beyond the specific job and ensure safe transitions into new employment. Flexicurity is an attempt to unite these two fundamental needs. Flexicurity promotes a combination of flexible labor markets and a high level of employment and income security and it is thus seen to be the answer to the EU's dilemma of how to maintain and improve competitiveness whilst preserving the European social model. Flexicurity can be defined, more precisely, as a policy strategy to enhance, at the same time and in a deliberate way, the flexibility of labor markets, work organizations and labor relations on the one hand, and security –employment security and income security – on the other. |
| Keywords: | flexicurity; flexibility; security; benefits; labour force |
| JEL: | J41 |
| Date: | 2008–05–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14241&r=lab |
| By: | Pouliakas, Konstantinos; Theodossiou, Ioannis |
| Abstract: | The increasing use of incentive pay schemes in recent years has raised concerns about their potential detrimental effect on intrinsic job satisfaction (JS), job security and employee morale. This study explores the impact of pay incentives on the overall job satisfaction of workers in the UK and their satisfaction with various facets of jobs. Using data from eight waves (1998-2005) of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and a uniquely-designed well-being dataset (EPICURUS), a significant positive impact on job satisfaction is only found for those receiving fixed-period bonuses. These conclusions are robust to unobserved heterogeneity, and are shown to depend on a number of job-quality characteristics that have not been controlled for in previous studies. |
| Keywords: | performance-related-pay; job satisfaction; job security; intrinsic satisfaction; sorting; |
| JEL: | J33 J28 |
| Date: | 2009–03–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14244&r=lab |
| By: | Go, Delfin S.; Kearney, Marna; Korman, Vijdan; Robinson, Sherman; Thierfelder, Karen |
| Abstract: | In this paper, the authors use a highly disaggregate general equilibrium model to analyze the feasibility of a wage subsidy to unskilled workers in South Africa, isolating and estimating its potential employment effects and fiscal cost. They capture the structural characteristics of the labor market with several labor categories and substitution possibilities, linking the economy-wide results on relative prices, wages, and employment to a micro-simulation model with occupational choice probabilities in order to investigate the poverty and distributional consequences of the policy. The impact of a wage subsidy on employment, poverty, and inequality in South Africa depends greatly on the elasticities of substitution of factors of production, being very minimal if unskilled and skilled labor are complements in production. The desired results are attainable only if there is sufficient flexibility in the labor market. Although the impact in a low case scenario can be improved by supporting policies that relax the skill constraint and increase the production capacity of the economy especially towards labor-intensive sectors, the gains from a wage subsidy are still modest if the labor market remains very rigid. |
| Keywords: | Labor Markets,Labor Policies,,Economic Theory&Research,Access to Finance |
| Date: | 2009–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4871&r=lab |
| By: | Mario Izquierdo (Banco de España); Aitor Lacuesta (Banco de España); Raquel Vegas (FEDEA) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we use the Continuous Sample of Working Histories 2005 (MCVL2005) to analyze the earnings assimilation of migrants from outside the EU-15 in Spain. Using our panel dataset we show that immigrants reduce around the half of the initial wage gap respect to natives the first 5 to 6 years after arrival. However, no further reductions of the remaining wage gap are estimated. We also show that results based on cross-section data are downward biased since an important increase in the quality of migrants has taken place over the recent years. This skill upgrading of new immigrant cohorts is evident in the Spanish case as well as the depreciation of the value of most of the experience that is brought from abroad. We can associate the improvement in the skill of immigrants to a change in the composition of new entrants. An important mechanism underlying the assimilation is the higher likelihood of recent immigrants in changing jobs among different sectors and firms, but also improving their situation within the same firm. Finally, some caveats should be taken into account when interpreting our results given that immigration phenomenon is quite recent in the Spanish labour market and it has taken place in an especially positive economic environment. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, assimilation, longitudinal data, selection, human capital |
| JEL: | J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:0904&r=lab |
| By: | Jerome Adda (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London); Christian Dustmann (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London); Costas Meghir (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London); Jean-Marc Robin (Institute for Fiscal Studies and EUREQua, University of Paris 1) |
| Abstract: | <p><p>We model the choice of individuals to follow or not apprenticeship training and their subsequent career. We use German administrative data, which records education, labour market transitions and wages to estimate a dynamic discrete choice </p><p></p><p>model of training choice, employment and wage growth. The model allows for returns to experience and tenure, match specific effects, job mobility and search frictions. We show how apprenticeship training affects labour market careers and we quantify its benefits, relative to the overall costs. We then use our model to show how two welfare reforms change life-cycle decisions and human capital accumulation: One is the introduction of an Earned Income Tax Credit in Germany, and the other is a reform to Unemployment Insurance. In both reforms we find very significant impacts of the policy on training choices and on the value of realized matches, demonstrating the importance of considering such longer term implications.</p></p> |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:09/06&r=lab |
| By: | Kai Christoffel; James Costain; Gregory de Walque; Keith Kuester; Tobias Linzert; Stephen Millard; Olivier Pierrard |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews recent approaches to modeling the labour market and assesses their implications for inflation dynamics through both their effect on marginal cost and on price-setting behavior. In a search and matching environment, we consider the following modeling setups: right-to-manage bargaining vs. efficient bargaining, wage stickiness in new and existing matches, interactions at the firm level between price and wage-setting, alternative forms of hiring frictions, search on-the-job and endogenous job separation. We find that most specifications imply too little real rigidity and, so, too volatile inflation. Models with wage stickiness and right-to-manage bargaining or with firm-specific labour emerge as the most promising candidates. |
| Keywords: | Labor market ; Business cycles; Inflation Dynamics, Labour Market, Business Cycle, Real Rigidities. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:09-6&r=lab |
| By: | C. GÖBEL; E. VERHOFSTADT |
| Abstract: | Many school-leavers enter the labour market via temporary employment. In this paper we investigate the impact of a temporary employment spell at the start of the career on the transition rate into permanent employment. We compare the case of temporary employment to the hypothetical case of a direct transition from unemployment to permanent employment. In order to control for selective participation in temporary employment we include a large set of explanatory variables which have been especially collected to study school-leavers. We apply the AIC-information criterion to select the appropriate specification for unobserved heterogeneity. Based on the information criteria we conclude that given our data, there is no support for a model with selection in unobserved characteristics. Simulation exercises provide insights into the development of the effect of temporary employment over time. For a sample of unemployed Flemish school-leavers we find that in the short run temporary employment delays the school leaver’s transition to permanent employment. However, in the long run temporary employment acts as a stepping stone and decreases the duration until permanent employment. |
| Keywords: | temporary employment, school leavers, labour market policy |
| JEL: | J41 J64 J08 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:08/542&r=lab |
| By: | Hugo Nopo; Natalia Winder |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes social mobility and human capital accumulation among ethnic minorities in Mexican urban areas, exploring changes in educational attainment and labor market status and using panel data from the Mexican Family Life Survey (MFxLS). The results indicate important ethnic differences in human capital accumulation patterns, especially in education, where non-indigenous individuals seem to accumulate human capital more rapidly than individuals of indigenous descent. Also, key socio-demographic characteristics linked to those patterns of human capital accumulation seem to differ between indigenous and non-indigenous individuals. In particular, for indigenous peoples in urban areas, human capital accumulation and wealth accumulation seem to work as substitutes rather than complements in the short run. |
| Keywords: | Social mobility, human capital accumulation, education, ethnic minorities, urban areas, Mexico |
| JEL: | D13 J15 O18 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:wpaper:4619&r=lab |
| By: | Hugo Nopo |
| Abstract: | Applying the methodology developed in Ñopo (2004), this paper analyzes the evolution of the gender wage gap in Peru from 1986 to 2000. This methodology has two advantages. First, it recognizes that the supports of observable characteristics distributions differ substantially. Second, it provides deeper insights regarding the distribution of the unexplained gender differences in earnings. For the period under analysis, males earn on average 45 percent more than females. This wage gap is composed of three additive elements: 11 percent differences in supports, 6 percent differences in distributions of individual characteristics and 28 percent unexplainable differences. About half of these unexplainable differences occur in the highest quintile of the wage distribution. |
| Keywords: | Matching, Non-parametric, Gender Wage Gap, Latin America |
| JEL: | C14 D31 J16 O54 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:wpaper:4618&r=lab |
| By: | Samuel Berlinski (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College, London); Sebastian Galiani; Patrick J. McEwan |
| Abstract: | <p>Expanding preschool education has the dual goals of improving child outcomes and work incentives for mothers. This paper provides evidence on the second, identifying the impact of preschool attendance on maternal labor market outcomes in Argentina. A major challenge in identifying the causal effect of preschool attendance on parental outcomes is non-random selection into early education. We address this by relying on plausibly exogenous variation in preschool attendance that is induced when children are born on either side of Argentina's enrollment cutoff date of July 1. Because of enrollment cutoff dates, 4 year-olds born just before July 1 are 0.3 more likely to attend preschool. Our regression-discontinuity estimates compare maternal employment outcomes of 4 year-old children on either side of this cutoff, identifying effects among the subset of complying households (who are perhaps more likely to face constraints on their level 2 preschool attendance). </p><p> </p><p>Our findings suggest that, on average, 13 mothers start to work for every 100 youngest children in the household that start preschool (though, in our preferred specification, this estimate is not statistically significant at conventional levels). Furthermore, mothers are 19.1 percentage points more likely to work for more than 20 hours a week (i.e., more time than their children spend in school) and they work, on average, 7.8 more hours per week as consequence of their youngest offspring attending preschool. We find no effect on maternal labor outcomes when a child that is not the youngest in the household attends preschool. Finally, we find that at the point of transition from kindergarten to primary school some employment effects persist. </p><p> </p><p>Our preferred estimates condition on mother's schooling and other exogenous covariates, given evidence that mothers' schooling is unbalanced in the vicinity of the July 1 cutoff in the sample of 4 year-olds. Using a large set of natality records, we found no evidence that this is due to precise birth date manipulation by parents. Other explanations, like sample selection, are also not fully consistent with the data, and we must remain agnostic on this point. Despite this shortcoming, the credibility of the estimates is partly enhanced by the consistency of point estimates with Argentine research using a different EPH sample and sources of variation in preschool attendance (Berlinski and Galiani 2007). </p><p> </p><p>A growing body of research suggests that pre-primary school can improve educational outcomes for children in the short and long run (Blau and Currie 2006; Schady 2006). This paper provides further evidence that, <i>ceteris paribus</i>, an expansion in preschool education may enhance the employment prospects of mothers of children in preschool age.</p> |
| Keywords: | Female labor supply, Argentina, regression-discontinuity, kindergarten. |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J22 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:09/05&r=lab |
| By: | Jonathan Chaloff; Georges Lemaître |
| Abstract: | Most OECD countries expect growing shortages of highly-skilled labour in the coming two decades, and immigration is viewed as one way of addressing these. Most OECD countries have introduced policies aimed at facilitating the recruitment of such workers in recent years and efforts along these lines can be expected to continue. The document provides an overview of the issues related to the management of highly skilled labour migration. In general, migrants are perceived as highly skilled when they have at least tertiary education, but other definitions are possible, notably on the basis of the nature of the occupation in which they are employed. One practical way of defining highly skilled migrants that has been used in some countries is by means of wages paid, with the highly skilled consisting of persons earning above a threshold value. There are two principal ways of recruiting highly skilled workers from abroad. One is demanddriven, through employer requests. The other is supply-driven and involves inviting candidates to apply and selecting them on the basis of certain characteristics, among them age, educational attainment, language proficiency and occupation, for which points are assigned. Candidates having more than a threshold level of points are then granted the right to establish residence. Supply-driven systems have been showing their limits in recent decades, with settlement countries finding it more difficult to select for success in the labour market. Employers appear to attribute less value to qualifications and work experience earned in a non-OECD country, so that immigrants arriving without jobs are having a harder time finding employment commensurate with their qualifications and experience. One consequence has been a general trend towards transferring more of the responsibility for selecting migrants to employers. In this way, any qualifications and experience issues are dealt in the hiring negotiations between employers and workers prior to immigration. A second option is to favour candidates for migration with qualifications earned in an OECD country and indeed, in the host country itself. Most OECD countries have in fact introduced measures to allow international students to stay on after they complete their studies, provided they can find work of an appropriate level in their field of study. Some countries, however, do not have significant basins of native-speakers outside their borders, so that hiring directly into jobs seems problematical, except in workplaces using an international language such as English. For such countries, some direct recruitment may still be possible, if an international language is widely spoken in the workplace. Otherwise supply-driven migration may have to be envisaged, with significant investments made in language teaching for new arrivals. Active recruitment means more than just facilitating work permits for employers or for aspirant immigrants based on credentials. While high-skilled migrants may be attracted to countries with widely spoken languages and high wages regardless of the obstacles, a country with moderate wages and its own unique language will need to do more than just lower administrative barriers. The effects of demographic change are only beginning to be felt in most countries. By 2010, more than half of OECD countries will show incoming labour force cohorts which are smaller than outgoing ones. The objective over the medium-term for OECD countries is to ensure the right scale and nature of movements to satisfy labour market needs. It would be premature to claim that all of the required policies are already in place.<P>Gérer les migrations de travailleurs hautement qualifiés : Une analyse comparative des politiques migratoires et des enjeux des migrations dans les pays de l’OCDE<BR>La plupart des pays de l’OCDE s’attendent à des pénuries croissantes de travailleurs qualifiés dans les prochaines deux décennies, et l’immigration pourrait bien être une des réponses à ce phénomène. Ces dernières années, ils ont mis en place des politiques pour faciliter le recrutement de ces travailleurs et l’on peut s’attendre à ce qu’ils poursuivent leurs efforts dans ce sens. Ce document donne un aperçu des questions portant sur la gestion des travailleurs immigrés hautement qualifiés. Généralement, un migrant hautement qualifié est sensé avoir au moins une éducation de niveau supérieur, mais d’autres définitions sont possibles, notamment sur la base de la profession exercée. Le niveau de salaire est aussi une référence pratique utilisée par certains pays pour considérer que les migrants hautement qualifiés sont les personnes qui reçoivent une rémunération au-dessus d’un certain seuil. Il y a deux principaux moyens pour recruter des travailleurs hautement qualifiés résidant à l’étranger. Le premier est à l’initiative de la demande des employeurs. L’autre est fondé sur l’offre et consiste à inviter les candidats à postuler, et leur admission dépend de certains critères sélectifs comme l’âge, le niveau d’instruction, la maîtrise de la langue et la profession exercée. Il s’agit d’un système à points au-delà d’un certain niveau de points obtenus, les candidats ont le droit de s’installer dans le pays d’accueil. Les systèmes fondés sur l’offre ont montré leurs limites au cours des décennies récentes, les pays d’accueil éprouvant des difficultés de recruter de manière à garantir une insertion réussie sur le marché du travail. Les employeurs semblent attribuer moins de valeur aux qualifications et à l’expérience professionnelle acquises dans un pays hors de la zone OCDE. Ainsi, les immigrés arrivant sans emploi préalable, éprouvent de sérieuses difficultés à trouver l’emploi correspondant à leur qualification et leur expérience. En conséquence, on note une tendance générale à transférer à l’employeur tout ou partie de la responsabilité du processus de sélection des candidats à l’immigration. De cette façon, toutes les questions de qualification et d’expérience sont abordées dans le cadre des négociations d’embauche entre les employeurs et les personnes à recruter avant l’immigration. Une deuxième option est de favoriser les candidats à la migration ayant obtenu leurs qualifications dans un pays de l’OCDE et encore plus s’il s’agit du pays d’accueil lui-même. La plupart des pays de l’OCDE ont en fait adopté des mesures pour permettre aux étudiants étrangers ayant achevé leurs études, de rester dans le pays pour rechercher un emploi en relation avec leur niveau et leur domaine d’étude. Dans certains pays, dont la langue nationale est peu parlée au-delà de leurs frontières, le recrutement direct reste problématique, sauf si la langue de travail est internationale, comme l’anglais. Pour de tels pays, le recrutement direct peut encore être possible, si une langue internationale est largement parlée dans les lieux de travail. Autrement, la migration impulsée par devrait être envisagée avec des investissements linguistiques importants demandés aux nouveaux arrivés. Une politique active de recrutement signifie bien davantage que la simple possibilité d’accorder des permis à des employeurs ou à des candidats à l’immigration, sur la base de la reconnaissance de leur niveau de connaissance. Si les migrants hautement qualifiés peuvent être attirés, quels que soient les obstacles à surmonter, par des pays où les salaires sont élevés et dont les langues nationales sont largement parlées, les pays ayant une langue peu parlée en dehors du territoire national et offrant des salaires moins élevés ne pourront se contenter uniquement de la levée des barrières administratives. Dans la plupart des pays, les effets de l’évolution démographique commencent tout juste à se faire sentir. Mais, à l’horizon 2010, plus de la moitié des pays de l’OCDE auront des cohortes entrantes de main d’œuvre moins nombreuses que les cohortes sortantes. L’objectif à moyen terme pour les pays de l’OCDE est d’avoir des mouvements dont l’ampleur et la nature permettront de répondre aux besoins du marché du travail. Il serait prématuré de prétendre que toutes les politiques requises sont d’ores et déjà en place. |
| Keywords: | integration, intégration, gestion de la migration, highly skilled migration, migration de travailleurs hautement qualifiés, demographic change, effets de l’évolution démographique, management of migration |
| JEL: | F22 J24 J44 J61 |
| Date: | 2009–03–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:79-en&r=lab |
| By: | Longhi S (Institute for Social and Economic Research); Brynin M (Institute for Social and Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | We use British and German panel data to analyse job changes involving a change in occupation. We assess the extent of occupational change, taking into account the possibility of measurement error in occupational codes; whether job changes within the occupation differ from occupation changes in terms of the characteristics of those making such switches; and the effects of the two kinds of moves in terms of wages and job satisfaction. We find that occupation changes differ from other job changes, generally reflecting a less satisfactory employment situation, but also that the move in both cases is positive in respect of change in wages and job satisfaction. |
| Date: | 2009–03–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2009-10&r=lab |
| By: | Baldan, Cristina; Neacsu, Madalina |
| Abstract: | The employment, but also the efficient use of the available work resources is directly connected to the work market. It is an element that can not be separated from the other elements of the work market, especially from unemployment, because if one deals with them separately, one can not cover all the aspects, particularities and effects on the work factor. There are many causes for unemployment, causes that are to be found both at the macroeconomic level and at the microeconomic level. In most of the cases, in an analysis that aims at finding the causes that have generated the unemployment, many characteristics of unemployment are taken into account and they are analysed as “types” of unemployment. |
| Keywords: | Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution |
| JEL: | R23 |
| Date: | 2008–05–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14242&r=lab |
| By: | Karin Mayr (Johannes Kepler University, Linz); Giovanni Peri (University of California, Davis, CESifo and NBER) |
| Abstract: | Recent empirical evidence seems to show that temporary migration is a widespread phenomenon, especially among highly skilled workers who return to their countries of origin when these begin to grow. This paper develops a simple, tractable overlapping generations model that provides a rationale for return migration and predicts who will migrate and who returns among agents with heterogeneous abilities. The model also incorporates the interaction between the migration decision and schooling: the possibility of migrating, albeit temporarily, to a country with high returns to skills produces positive schooling incentive effects. We use parameter values from the literature and data on return migration to simulate the model for the Eastern-Western European case. We then quantify the effects that increased openness (to migrants) would have on human capital and wages in Eastern Europe. We find that, for plausible values of the parameters, the possibility of return migration combined with the education incentive channel reverses the brain drain into a significant brain gain for Eastern Europe. |
| Date: | 2009–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:200911&r=lab |
| By: | Jan Babecky; Kamil Dybczak; Kamil Galuscak |
| Abstract: | Using an ad-hoc survey at the firm level, we investigate the determinants of wage and price-setting practices in Czech firms, the presence and sources of wage rigidity, and reactions of firms to hypothetical shocks. Although the evidence of downward wage rigidity is not widespread, we find particular relevance of efficiency wage models for wage rigidity, while implicit contract theory is relevant in firms employing mainly highskilled labour. The survey further suggests that prices are less rigid than wages, while the link between wage and price changes is weak. As a response to unanticipated shocks such as a demand drop, an increase in the cost of an intermediate input or a wage increase, firms mainly reduce costs by reducing non-labour costs and temporary employment. |
| Keywords: | Downward wage rigidity, price setting, survey data, wage setting. |
| JEL: | J31 J41 L11 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cnb:wpaper:2008/12&r=lab |
| By: | Bart, COCKX; Matteo, PICCHIO (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)) |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses whether short-lived jobs (lasting one quarter or less and involuntarily ending in unemployment) are stepping stones to long-lasting jobs (enduring one year or more) for Belgian long-term unemployed school-leavers. We proceed in two steps. First, we estimate labour market trajectories in a multi-spell duration model that incorporates lagged duration and occurence depedence. Second, we simulate them to find that (fe)male school-leavers accepting a short-lived job are, withing two years, 13,4 (9.5) percentage points more likely to find a long-lasting job than in the counterfactual in which they reject short-lived jobs to search longer for more stable positions. |
| Keywords: | event history model; transition data; state dependence; short-lived jobs; stepping stone effect; long-lasting jobs |
| JEL: | C15 C41 J62 J64 |
| Date: | 2009–02–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2009004&r=lab |
| By: | Herwig Immervoll; Mark Pearson |
| Abstract: | The twin problem of in-work poverty and persistent labour market difficulties of low-skilled individuals has been one of the most important drivers of tax-benefit policy reforms in OECD countries in recent years. Employment-conditional cash transfers to individuals facing particular labour-market challenges have been a core element of “make-work-pay” policies for some time and are now in use in more than half of the OECD countries. They are attractive because they redistribute to low-income groups while also creating additional work incentives. But like all social benefits, they have to be financed, which creates additional economic costs for some. This paper discusses the rationale for in-work benefits (IWB), summarises the main design features of programmes operated in OECD countries, and provides an update of what is known about their effectiveness in terms of reducing inequalities and creating employment. As policies aiming to promote self-sufficiency, wage subsidies and minimum wages share a number of the objectives associated with IWB measures. We review evidence on the effectiveness of minimum wages and wage subsidies and discuss links between these policies and IWBs. Finally, we outline some potential consequences of weakening labour markets for the effectiveness of make-work-pay policies.<BR>Le double problème de la pauvreté touchant même les personnes pourvues d’un emploi et de la persistance des difficultés rencontrées par les travailleurs peu qualifiés sur le marché du travail a été l’un des moteurs les plus importants de la réforme des politiques en matière de fiscalité et de prestations menée ces dernières années dans les pays de l’OCDE. Depuis un certain temps, les prestations en espèces subordonnées à l’exercice d’un emploi (accordées aux personnes confrontées à des difficultés particulières sur le marché du travail) sont devenues une composante essentielle des politiques de valorisation du travail. Aujourd’hui, plus de la moitié des pays de l’Organisation les ont mises en place. Ces prestations sont attrayantes car elles ont un effet de redistribution sur les groupes à faible revenu tout en créant de nouvelles incitations à travailler. Mais, à l’instar de toutes les prestations sociales, elles doivent être financées, ce qui alourdit les coûts économiques pour certains. Ce document examine le bien-fondé des prestations soumises à l’exercice d’un emploi, résume les principales caractéristiques de la conception des programmes mis en place dans les pays de l’OCDE, et fait le point de ce que l’on sait de leur efficacité sur le plan de la réduction des inégalités et de la création d’emploi. En tant que mesures destinées à promouvoir l’autonomie économique, les subventions salariales et les salaires minimums ont un certain nombre d’objectifs en commun avec les prestations soumises à l’exercice d’un emploi. Nous passons en revue des données d’observation sur l’efficacité des subventions salariales et des salaires minimums et examinons les liens entre ces mesures et les prestations en question. Enfin, nous mettons en évidence certaines conséquences possibles du fléchissement du marché du travail sur l’efficacité des politiques de valorisation du travail. |
| JEL: | H24 H31 J20 J30 |
| Date: | 2009–03–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:81-en&r=lab |
| By: | Lei Fang; Richard Rogerson |
| Abstract: | Recent empirical work finds a negative correlation between product market regulation and aggregate employment. We examine the effect of product market regulations on hours worked in a benchmark aggregate model of time allocation as well as in a standard dynamic model of entry and exit. We find that product market regulations affect time devoted to market work in effectively the same fashion that taxes on labor income or consumption do. In particular, if product market regulations are to affect aggregate market work in this model, the key driving force is the size of income transfers associated with the regulation relative to labor income, and the key propagation mechanism is the labor supply elasticity. We show in a two-sector model that industry-level analysis is of little help in assessing the aggregate effects of product market regulation. incompl s |
| Keywords: | labor supply, product market regulation, entry barriers CL HG2567 A4A5 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedawp:2009-07&r=lab |
| By: | Panos, Sousounis |
| Abstract: | Using data from the British Household Panel Survey for the years 1998-2005, this study estimates the impact of work-related training on earnings levels. Different measures for general and specific training are constructed from available information. The analysis diverges from the standard fixed effects framework for earnings determination modelling and presents evidence in support of the predictions of the standard human capital theory with regards to training sponsoring using a random effects formulation for the earnings equation suggested by Nijman and Verbeek (1992) for controlling for attrition bias in unbalanced panels. |
| Keywords: | work-related training; human capital; earnings |
| JEL: | J31 C23 J24 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14262&r=lab |
| By: | Eduardo de Carvalho Andrade; Luciano I. de Castro |
| Abstract: | This paper shows a somehow counterintuitive result: an increase in the exam diculty may reduce the average quality (productivity) of selected individuals. Since the exam does not verify all skills, when its standard rises, candidates with relatively low skills emphasized in the test and high skills demanded in the job may no longer qualify. Hence, an increase in the testing standard may be counterproductive. One implication is that policies should emphasize alignment between the skills tested and those required in the actual jobs. |
| Keywords: | school standard, signaling model, cognitive skill, noncog- nitive skill |
| JEL: | I2 J24 |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nwu:cmsems:1469&r=lab |
| By: | Narcy, Mathieu; Lanfranchi, Joseph; Meurs, Dominique |
| Abstract: | Women are over-represented in public and nonprofit sector jobs. This article aims to bring to light the reasons behind that phenomenon. In particular, do women choose these sectors because they offer female employees specific advantages that are absent from the private sector? The feminization of the public sector can be explained by the fact that women obtain a higher wage gain from choosing this sector than men do. However, this is not true for the nonprofit sector. Working hours - in the form of part-time work in the nonprofit sector and total hours worked in the public sector - appear to play an important role in the over-representation of women in these two sectors. On the other hand, the idea that women are more attracted to the social objectives pursued by public and nonprofit organizations does not appear to play any part. “Family-friendly” measures - aiming to reconcile the demands of family life and professional life - appear to attract women to the public sector, but it is difficult to interpret their influence, because it is impossible to distinguish between the attractiveness of these measures and the result of professional segregation in the public sector. |
| Keywords: | women’ employment choices; nonprofit sector; public sector; firms family-friendly policies |
| JEL: | J45 J16 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14372&r=lab |
| By: | B. COCKX; M. PICCHIO |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses whether short-lived jobs (lasting one quarter or less and involuntarily ending in unemployment) are stepping stones to long-lasting jobs(enduring one year or more) for Belgian long-term unemployed school-leavers. We proceed in two steps. First, we estimate labour market trajectories in a multi-spell duration model that incorporates lagged duration and lagged occurrence dependence. Second, in a simulation we find that (fe)male school-leavers accepting a short-lived job are, within two years, 13.4 (9.5) percentage points more likely to find a long-lasting job than in the counterfactual in which they reject short-lived jobs. |
| Keywords: | event history model, transition data, state dependence, short-lived jobs, stepping stone effect, long-lasting jobs |
| JEL: | C15 C41 J62 J64 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:09/560&r=lab |
| By: | McCarthy, Nancy; Sun, Yan |
| Abstract: | "Using survey data from the Upper East region of Ghana collected in 2005, the paper evaluates the household- and community-level factors influencing women's and men's decisions to participate in off-farm activities, either in the off-farm labor market or in local community groups, and the relationship with on-farm crop returns. Results indicate that crop returns are not affected by increased labor availability over a certain labor-land ratio. Female participation in off-farm labor markets increases at higher levels of labor availability, but participation in women's groups' only increases as labor scarcity is relaxed at lower levels. Alternatively, male participation in off-farm work increases over all levels of labor availability. Results also indicate that male labor is relatively more productive on-farm versus off-farm than female labor, and, though education increases the likelihood that both women and men will work off-farm (with no impact on crop revenues), the impact is greater for women. Finally, participation in off-farm work does not appear to be driven by the need to reduce exposure to risk or to manage risk ex post; wealthier households located in wealthier communities are more likely to participate in off-farm work. Evidence for participation in groups and risk is more complicated; wealthier households in wealthier communities are also more likely to participate, but so too are female-headed households with higher dependency ratios." from authors' abstract |
| Keywords: | Off-farm labor supply, Participation, Community groups, Gender, Land management, Poverty reduction, |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:852&r=lab |
| By: | Thomas J. Holmes; Julia Thornton Snider |
| Abstract: | We develop a theory of outsourcing in which there is market power in one factor market (labor) and no market power in a second factor market (capital). There are two intermediate goods: one labor-intensive and the other capital-intensive. We show there is always outsourcing in the market allocation when a friction limiting outsourcing is not too big. The key factor underlying the result is that labor demand is more elastic, the greater the labor share. Integrated plants pay higher wages than the specialist producers of labor-intensive intermediates. We derive conditions under which there are multiple equilibria that vary in the degree of outsourcing. Across these equilibria, wages are lower the greater the degree of outsourcing. Wages fall when outsourcing increases in response to a decline in the outsourcing friction. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedmwp:669&r=lab |
| By: | Ferreira P (Institute for Social and Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper identifies and compares the determinants of within- and between-firm job mobility in Portugal. Estimates are based on models that distinguish promotions by whether or not they involve a change in the tasks performed, and separations by the time workers take to enter a new firm. Both worker and firm observed characteristics emerge as important factors in the analysis. Firm unobserved heterogeneity is relevant, evidence suggests that firms vary more in their unobserved propensity to promote than in the case of separations. Overall, this study highlights two main issues; the role of firms in the process of job mobility, and the importance of distinguishing not only between types of separations from firms, but also between types of promotions within firms. |
| Date: | 2009–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2009-11&r=lab |
| By: | Mechtel, Mario; Potrafke, Niklas |
| Abstract: | This paper examines a framework in which politicians can decrease unemployment via active labor market policies (ALMP). We combine theoretical models on partisan and opportunistic cycles and assume that voters are ignorant of the necessary facts to make informed voting decisions. The model predicts that politicians have incentives for a strategic use of active labor market policies that leads to a political cycle in unemployment and budget deficit. We test the hypotheses predicted by the theoretical model using data from German states from 1985:1 to 2004:11. The results illustrate that opportunistic behavior of politicians can explain the development of ALMP approximated by job-creation schemes. |
| Keywords: | active labor market policies; political cycles; labor market expenditures; opportunistic politicians; partisan politicians |
| JEL: | J08 E62 H72 H61 P16 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14270&r=lab |
| By: | Andrew E. Clark |
| Abstract: | This paper uses repeated cross-section data ISSP data from 1989, 1997 and 2005 to consider movements in job quality. It is first underlined that not having a job when you want one is a major source of low well-being. Second, job values have remained fairly stable over time, although workers seem to give increasing importance to the more “social” aspects of jobs: useful and helpful jobs. The central finding of the paper is that, following a substantial fall between 1989 and 1997, subjective measures of job quality have mostly bounced back between 1997 and 2005. Overall job satisfaction is higher in 2005 than it was in 1989. Last, the rate of self-employment has been falling gently in ISSP data; even so three to four times as many people say they would prefer to be self-employed than are actually self-employed. As the self-employed are more satisfied than are employees, one consistent interpretation of the above is that the barriers to self-employment have grown in recent years.<BR>Ce document exploite des données transversales de l’International Social Science Programme (ISSP) portant sur différentes périodes (1989, 1997 et 2005) pour examiner l’évolution de la qualité des emplois. Dans un premier temps, il est souligné que le fait de ne pas avoir d’emploi quand on le voudrait amoindrit considérablement le sentiment de bien-être. Vient ensuite un constat selon lequel la valeur des emplois est demeurée relativement stable au fil du temps. Pour autant, les travailleurs semblent accorder une importance croissante à la dimension « sociale » de leur emploi, privilégiant des notions d’utilité et de services rendus. La principale conclusion du document est que, après une dégradation significative entre 1989 et 1997, les indicateurs subjectifs de la qualité des emplois se sont pour la plupart redressés entre 1997 et 2005. Le degré de satisfaction global à l’égard du travail est plus élevé en 2005 qu’il ne l’était en 1989. Enfin, dans les données de l’ISSP, le taux d’emploi indépendant a diminué tout doucement. Malgré tout, les individus qui disent préférer cette forme d’activité sont trois à quatre fois plus nombreux que ceux qui exercent réellement à titre indépendant. Comme les travailleurs indépendants sont plus satisfaits de leur emploi que les salariés, on peut logiquement en déduire que les obstacles au travail indépendant ont augmenté ces dernières années. |
| JEL: | J21 J28 J3 J6 J81 L26 |
| Date: | 2009–03–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:83-en&r=lab |
| By: | Daniela Kalužná |
| Abstract: | This report describes the organisation of employment services, labour market programmes, unemployment insurance (UI) benefits and social assistance in Poland according to the legislation that was in force until January 2009, when the Act on employment promotion and labour market institutions was amended. The decentralisation of employment service began in 1998 and was completed in 2002. Since decentralisation, local-level poviat labour offices (PUP) report to local mayors (starosta or prezydent miasta na prawach powiatu). However, state structures at a regional level supervise the performance of both the PUP and, at the regional level, the voivodeship labour offices (WUP). These offices must follow some centrally-defined rules and legal standards: for example, a Ministerial guideline in 2007 defined minimum numbers of staff they should employ by main function. However, their operational costs are in principle borne by the respective territorial levels of government. Under-financing is common, and there are concerns that decentralisation has led to more uneven service provision and performance. Local budgets may be used to finance the outsourcing of some PUP labour market services, but local authorities usually find that in-house provision is cheaper. |
| JEL: | H53 H83 I38 J08 J63 J65 |
| Date: | 2009–03–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:80-en&r=lab |
| By: | Oscar Mitnik (Department of Economics, University of Miami) |
| Abstract: | A great deal of attention has been paid in the literature to estimating the impacts of training programs. Much less attention has been devoted to how training agencies assign participants to training programs, and to how these allocation decisions vary with agency resources, the initial skill levels of participants and the prevailing labor market conditions. This paper models the training assignment problem faced by welfare agencies, deriving empirical implications regarding aggregate training policies and testing these implications using data from Welfare-to-Work training programs run by California counties during the 1990s. I find that county welfare agencies do not seem to follow a simple returns-maximization model in their training assignment decisions. The results show that, as suggested by political economy models, the local political environment has a strong effect on training policies. In particular, I find that going from a Republican to a Democratic majority in a county's Board of Supervisors has a strong effect on training policies, significantly increasing the proportion of welfare recipients receiving human capital development training. |
| Keywords: | Assignment to Training Rules, Welfare to Work Programs, Local Political Environment |
| JEL: | C44 D73 I38 J24 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mia:wpaper:0907&r=lab |
| By: | Graversen, B.K.; Ours, J.C. van (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | In an experimental setting some Danish unemployed workers were assigned to an activation program while others were not. Unemployed who were assigned to the activation program found a job more quickly. We show that the activation effect increases with the distance between the place of residence of the unemployed worker and the place where the activation took place. We also find that the quality of the post-unemployment jobs was not affected by the activation program. Both findings confirm that activation programs mainly work because they are compulsory and unemployed don’t like them. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment insurance;unemployment duration;experiment;activation programs |
| JEL: | C41 H55 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:200918&r=lab |
| By: | Todd R. Stinebrickner; Ralph Stinebrickner |
| Abstract: | We use unique data to examine how college students from low income families form expectations about academic ability and to examine the role that learning about ability and a variety of other factors play in the college drop-out decision. From the standpoint of satisfying a central implication from the theory of drop-out, we find that self-reported expectations data perform well relative to standard assumptions employed in empirical work when it is necessary to explicitly characterize beliefs. At the time of entrance, students tend to substantially discount the possibility of bad grade performance, with this finding having implications for understanding the importance of the option value of schooling. After entrance, students update their beliefs in a manner which takes into account both initial beliefs and new information, with heterogeneity in weighting being broadly consistent with the spirit of Bayesian updating. Learning about ability plays a very prominent role in the drop-out decision. Among other possible factors of importance, while students who find school to be unenjoyable are unconditionally much more likely to leave school, this effect arises to a large extent because these students also tend to receive poor grades. We end by examining whether students whose grades are lower than expected understand the underlying reasons for their poor grade performance. |
| JEL: | I2 I21 I23 I3 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14810&r=lab |
| By: | Dalen, H.P. van; Henkens, K. (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Why is labour mobility in the European Union so low? To shed light on this issue we focus and examine international labour migration intentions of the Dutch potential labour force. A key characteristic of intended labour migration of the Dutch is that its low level and the fact that it is strongly age related. The low expected rate of migration can be traced to expectations about finding work abroad and the perception that foreign experience is not perceived to be valued by Dutch employers. In addition to this it appears that partners within a household carry a large weight in deciding to move. If one of the partners is against moving, emigration will not take place. |
| Keywords: | labour mobility;migration;identity |
| JEL: | J61 F22 D84 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:200916&r=lab |
| By: | Backman, Mikaela (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology); Bjerke, Lina (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | The returns to education have been thoroughly investigated and Sweden has shown to have a relatively low return compared to other countries in Europe. Nevertheless, few studies have combined the regional perspective with returns to education. Hence, the purpose of the paper is to analyze regional differences in their returns to higher education within natural science, engineering and medicine. We assume that individuals maximize expected utility; they will try to attain the highest expected return to education as possible. The regional sum of employment possibilities as well as unemployment shares may differ between regions. Therefore, it is plausible to believe that the regional return to education varies between locations which accounted for in the empirical part of the paper. The result shows that there are clear differences between regional classifications concerning returns to higher education. Central urban regions, except the three largest cities and ten largest universities have the highest return to education. These regions may need to compensate the individuals with a higher return. The three largest cities in Sweden have a relatively low return but have other amenities that attract individuals. |
| Keywords: | returns to higher education; regional attractiveness; Sweden; Mincer equation |
| JEL: | H52 I21 I22 J61 R11 |
| Date: | 2009–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0171&r=lab |
| By: | Andersson Joona , Pernilla (Stockholm University); Nekby, Lena (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm University) |
| 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; Experiment |
| JEL: | C41 J15 J61 J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2009–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2009_0010&r=lab |
| By: | Hamish Low (Institute for Fiscal Studies and Trinity College, Cambridge); Costas Meghir (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London); Luigi Pistaferri (Institute for Fiscal Studies and Stanford University) |
| Abstract: | <p><p>We specify a structural life-cycle model of consumption, labour supply and job mobility in an economy with search frictions that allows us to distinguish between different sources of risk and to estimate their effects. The sources of risk are shocks to productivity, job destruction, the process of job arrival when employed and unemployed and match level heterogeneity. Our model allows for four main social insurance programmes. In contrast to simpler models that attribute all income fluctuations to shocks, our framework allows us to disentangle the effects of the shocks from the responses to these shocks. Estimates of productivity risk, once we control for employment risk and for individual labour supply choices, are substantially lower than estimates that attribute all wage variation to productivity risk. Increases in productivity risk impose a considerable welfare loss on individuals and induce substantial precautionary saving. Increases in employment risk have large effects on output and, primarily through this channel, affect welfare. The welfare value of government programs such as food stamps which partially insure productivity risk is greater than the value of unemployment insurance which provides (partial) insurance against employment risk and no insurance against persistent shocks. </p></p> |
| Keywords: | Uncertainty, life-cycle models, unemployment, precautionary savings |
| JEL: | D91 H31 J64 |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:08/06&r=lab |
| By: | Claire Crawford (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Lorraine Dearden (Institute for Fiscal Studies and Bedford Group, Institute of Education, University of London); Alice Mesnard (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Jonathan Shaw (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Barbara Sianesi (Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Abstract: | <p>We use UK administrative data to estimate the differential in labour market outcomes between Ethnic Minority benefit claimants and otherwise identical Whites. In many cases, Minorities and Whites are simply too different for satisfactory estimates to be calculated and results are sensitive to the methodology used. This calls into question previous results based on simple regression techniques, which may hide the fact that observationally different ethnic groups are being compared by parametric extrapolation. For some groups, however, we could calculate satisfactory results. In these cases, large and significant raw penalties almost always disappear once we appropriately control for pre-inflow characteristics.</p> |
| Keywords: | Ethnic, employment, benefit, discrimination, matching |
| JEL: | J08 J15 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:09/04&r=lab |
| By: | Emla Fitzsimons (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Alice Mesnard (Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Abstract: | <p><p>This paper investigates how the permanent departure of the head from the household, mainly due to death or divorce, affects children's school enrolment and work participation in rural Colombia. In our empirical specification we use household-level fixed effects to deal with the fact that households that experience the departure of the head are likely to differ in unobserved ways from those that do not, and we also address the issue of non-random attrition from the panel. We find remarkably different effects for boys and girls. For boys, the adverse event reduces school participation and increases participation in paid work, whereas for girls we find evidence of the adverse event having a beneficial impact on schooling. To explain these differences, we provide evidence for boys consistent with the head's departure having an important effect through the income reduction associated with it, whereas for girls, changes in the household decision-maker appear to play an important role.</p></p> |
| Keywords: | Child labour; schooling; adverse event; income loss; credit and insurance market failures; bargaining |
| JEL: | I20 J12 J22 O16 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:08/11&r=lab |
| By: | MEON, Pierre-Guillaum; SZAFARZ, Ariane |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ecoulb:info:hdl:2013/13566&r=lab |
| By: | Kitov, Ivan; Kitov, Oleg |
| Abstract: | Using an analog of the boundary element method in engineering and science, we analyze and model unemployment rate in Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States as a function of inflation and the change in labor force. Originally, the model linking unemployment to inflation and labor force was developed and successfully tested for Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States. Autoregressive properties of neither of these variables are used to predict their evolution. In this sense, the model is a self-consistent and completely deterministic one without any stochastic component (external shocks) except that associated with measurement errors and changes in measurement units. Nevertheless, the model explains between ~65% and ~95% of the variability in unemployment and inflation. For Italy, the rate of unemployment is predicted at a time horizon of nine (!) years with pseudo out-of-sample root-mean-square forecasting error of 0.55% for the period between 1973 and 2006. One can expect that the unemployment will be growing since 2008 and will reach ~11.4% [±0.6 %] near 2012. After 2012, unemployment in Italy will start to descend. |
| Keywords: | unemployment; inflation; labor force; boundary integral method; prediction; Western Europe |
| JEL: | E31 E24 J21 J64 J11 |
| Date: | 2009–03–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14341&r=lab |
| By: | Allcott, Hunt; Ortega, Daniel E. |
| Abstract: | This program evaluation estimates the effects on standardized test scores of graduating from the Fe y Alegría private school system in Venezuela. The authors find an Average Treatment Effect on the order of 0.1 standard deviations (approximately 16 percent of the average score), using a control group of public school students. These effects are significantly larger for households at the bottom of the distribution, and smaller for those at the top. The authors posit that the better performance of the Fe y Alegría system stems from their labor contract flexibility and decentralized administrative structure. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary Education,Education For All,Secondary Education,Primary Education,Teaching and Learning |
| Date: | 2009–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4879&r=lab |
| By: | Dujardin, Claire (UniversitŽ catholique de Louvain (UCL). Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE)); Goffette-Nagot, Florence (---) |
| Abstract: | In order to test for the effect of public housing occupancy on unemployment, we estimate a simultaneous probit model of unemployment and public housing. On a Þrst sample, we instrument public housing with the gender composition of children. On a second sample, the instrument is the share of public housing at the city level. We also perform a robustness check that consists in measuring the correlation between unobservables that could explain the effect of public housing on unemployment. As the corresponding level of correlation is low, this check reinforces our result of no effect of public housing on unemployment. |
| Keywords: | public housing, unemployment, simultaneous probit models, instrumental variables. |
| JEL: | R2 J64 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cor:louvco:2008078&r=lab |
| By: | Francesconi M (Department of Economics, University of Essex); Sutherland H (Institute for Social and Economic Research); Zantomio F (Institute for Social and Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper compares earnings data from the British Household Panel Survey with those collected in the Family Resources Survey, using several measures, which account for various key aspects of the two surveys, and contrasting two different points in time (1995/96 and 2003/04), allowing us to assess the possible extent of differential attrition in the BHPS data. We first perform non-parametric tests of equality at the centre of the distributions and over the whole earnings distributions. We then apply multivariate regression methods to establish whether the FRS and BHPS earnings data yield different results in relation to three typical uses of earnings data: the probability of being at the bottom or at the top of the earnings distribution, the estimation of earnings functions and, using earnings as an explanatory variable, the probability of belonging to an occupational pension plan. Most of our analyses reveal that the two surveys have fairly similar earnings data in the first comparison year, while sizable differences emerge in the later comparison. This finding is generally robust to the use of alternative earnings definitions and to the type of analysis performed, and thus suggests the important role played by attrition and ‘vintage’ effects. |
| Date: | 2009–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2009-14&r=lab |
| By: | Julie L. Hotchkiss |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a simple methodology for decomposing changes in the aggregate labor force participation rate (LFPR) over time into demographic group changes in labor force participation behavior and in population share. The purpose is to identify the relative importance of behavioral changes and population changes as driving forces behind changes in the aggregate LFPR. incompl s |
| Keywords: | labor force participation, decomposition, forecasting CL HG2567 A4A5 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedawp:2009-06&r=lab |
| By: | MEON, Pierre-Guillaum; SZAFARZ, Ariane |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ecoulb:info:hdl:2013/14637&r=lab |
| By: | Panos, Sousounis |
| Abstract: | This paper compares three different estimation approaches for the random effects dynamic panel data model, under the probit assumption on the distribution of the errors. These three approaches are attributed to Heckman (1981), Wooldridge (2005) and Orme (2001). The results are then compared with those obtained from generalised method of moments (GMM) estimators of a dynamic linear probability model, namely the Arellano and Bond (1991) and Blundell and Bond (1998) estimators. A model of work-related training participation for British employees is estimated using individual level data covering the period 1991-1997 from the British Household Panel Survey. This evaluation adds to the existing body of empirical evidence on the performance of these estimators using real data, which supplements the conclusions from simulation studies. The results suggest that for the dynamic random effects probit model the performance of no one estimator is superior to the others. GMM estimation of a dynamic LPM of training participation suggests that the random effects estimators are not sensitive to the distributional assumptions of the unobserved effect. |
| Keywords: | state dependence; training; dynamic panel data models |
| JEL: | C23 C25 |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14261&r=lab |
| By: | Raj Chetty; Emmanuel Saez |
| Abstract: | This paper tests whether providing information about the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) affects EITC recipients' labor supply and earnings decisions. We conducted a randomized experiment with 43,000 EITC recipients at H&R Block in which tax preparers gave simple, personalized information about the EITC schedule to half of their clients. Tracking subsequent earnings, we find substantial heterogeneity in treatment effects across the 1,461 tax professionals who assisted the clients involved in the experiment. Half of the tax professionals, whom we term "compliers", induce treated clients to increase their EITC refunds by choosing an earnings level closer to the peak of the EITC schedule. Clients treated by complying tax professionals are 10% less likely to have very low incomes than control group clients. The remaining tax preparers generate insignificant changes in EITC amounts but increase the probability that their clients have incomes high enough to reach the phase-out region. Treatment effects are larger for the self-employed, but are also substantial among wage earners, suggesting that information provision induced real labor supply responses. When compared with other policy instruments, information has large effects: complying tax preparers generate the same labor supply response along the intensive margin as a 33% expansion of the EITC program, while non-complying tax preparers induce the same response as a 5% tax rate cut. |
| JEL: | H31 J22 |
| Date: | 2009–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14836&r=lab |
| By: | Atanas Hristov |
| Abstract: | We outline the case for credit frictions and a demand side aspect to labor market fluctuations. To illustrate the above proposition, we present a simple framework to analyze the joint dependence between a labor search problem in the labor market and a costly state verification problem in the credit market in the presence of price rigidities. Credit market imperfections amplify volatility of labor market variables to both supply and demand shocks, but to a much higher extent to demand shocks under rigid prices. The reason is that demand disturbances provide for a strong incentive to demand-constrained firms to adjust production and thereby labor factor. |
| Keywords: | Credit and search frictions, unemployment, monetary policy |
| JEL: | J64 G24 E51 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwfin:diwfin7030&r=lab |
| By: | Steffen Reinhold; Hendrik Jürges |
| Abstract: | We use newly available data from Germany to study the relationship between parental income and child health. We find a strong gradient between parental income and subjective child health as has been documented earlier in the US, Canada and the UK. The relationship in Germany is about as strong in the US and stronger than in the UK. However, in contrast to US results, we do not find that the disadvantages associated with low parental income accumulate as the child ages, nor that children from low socioeconomic background are more likely to suffer from `objectively measured¿ health problems ¿ except for obesity. There is some evidence, however, that high income children are better able to cope with the adverse consequences of chronic conditions. Finally, we do not find that child health (except for low birth weight) plays a major role in the explanation of educational attainment once parental income and education are controlled for. |
| Keywords: | Parental Income, Child Health |
| JEL: | I12 J13 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp871&r=lab |
| By: | Francisco J. Buera; Joseph P. Kaboski |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the role of specialized high-skilled labor in the growth of the service sector as a share of the total economy. Empirically, we emphasize that the growth has been driven by the consumption of services. Rather than being driven by low-skill jobs, the importance of skill-intensive services has risen, and this has coincided with a period of rising relative wages and quantities of high-skilled labor. We develop a theory where demand shifts toward ever more skill-intensive output as income rises, and because skills are highly specialized this lowers the importance of home production relative to market services. The theory is also consistent with a rising level of skill and skill premium, a rising relative price of services that is linked to this skill premium, and rich product cycles between home and market, all of which are observed in the data. |
| JEL: | D13 J22 J24 O14 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14822&r=lab |
| By: | Rie Fujisawa; Francesca Colombo |
| Abstract: | This working paper offers an overview of the LTC workforce and reviews country responses to a growing demand for LTC workers. In the context of ageing societies, the importance of long-term care is growing in all OECD countries. In 2005, long-term care expenditure accounted for slightly over 1% of GDP across OECD countries (OECD Health Data 2008), but this is projected to reach between 2% and 4% of GDP by 2050 (Oliveira Martins et al., 2006). Spending on long-term care as a share of GDP rises with the share of the population that is over 80 years old, which is expected to triple from 4 per cent to 11-12 per cent between 2005 and 2050. In addition to ageing, there are other factors likely to affect future spending. Trends in severe disability among elderly populations across 12 OECD countries for which data are available do not show a consistent sign of decline (Lafortune and Balestat, 2007), while the number of elderly that need assistance in carrying out activities of daily living is also growing. Meanwhile, societal changes – notably possible reductions in the importance of informal care due to rising labour market participation by women and declining family size, as well as growing expectations for more responsive, quality health and social-care systems – are creating pressures to improve value for money in long-term care systems. These factors add pressures on the workforce of this highly labour-intensive sector. Adding to this are the difficulties in attracting and retaining caregivers to a physically and mentally gruelling profession.<P>Soins de longue durée: l'accroissement de la demande de travailleurs du secteur<BR>Ce document de travail présente une vue d’ensemble sur les travailleurs du secteur des soins de longue durée (SLD) et passe en revue les réponses des pays à l'accroissement de la demande de travailleurs des SLD. Dans le contexte du vieillissement des sociétés, l’importance des soins de longue durée va se développer dans tous les pays de l’OCDE. En 2005, les dépenses de SLD ne représentaient guère plus de 1 % du PIB dans ces différents pays (Éco-Santé OCDE 2008), mais d’après les projections, cette proportion pourrait atteindre entre 2 et 4 % du PIB à l’horizon 2050 (Oliveira Martins et al., 2006). La part des dépenses de SLD exprimées en pourcentage du PIB augmente en même temps que s’accroît la part de la population âgée de plus de 80 ans. Or, cette part devrait tripler entre 2005 et 2050 et passer de 4 % à 11 ou 12 % sur cette période. Outre le vieillissement, d’autres facteurs pouvant affecter les dépenses futures sont impliqués. Dans 12 pays de l’OCDE pour lesquels on dispose de données, la tendance à l’incapacité sévère chez les personnes âgées ne diminue pas de manière régulière (Lafortune et Balestat, 2007), tandis que le nombre de personnes âgées ayant besoin d’aide pour accomplir les activités élémentaires de la vie quotidienne est en augmentation. En même temps, l’évolution de la société (notamment, la possible diminution d’importance qui devrait être accordée aux soins informels du fait de l’accroissement du taux d’activité des femmes et de la diminution de la taille des familles, mais aussi les attentes croissantes face à des systèmes de soins de santé et de protection sociale que l’on voudrait plus réactifs et de meilleure qualité) accroît la nécessité d’une utilisation plus efficiente des ressources des systèmes de SLD. Ces facteurs renforcent la pression qui s’exerce sur les travailleurs de ce secteur à très forte intensité de main-d’oeuvre. S’y ajoutent les difficultés rencontrées pour attirer des soignants vers un métier pénible à la fois physiquement et psychologiquement et pour les retenir. |
| JEL: | I1 I10 I12 J1 J10 J14 J20 J61 |
| Date: | 2009–03–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaad:44-en&r=lab |
| By: | Matthias Göcke (University of Giessen, Licher Str. 62, D - 39394 Gießen, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Efficiency wage effects of profit sharing are combined with option values related to stochastic future profit variations. These option effects occur if the workers’ profit share is fixed by long-term contracts. The Pareto-improving optimal level of the sharing ratio is calculated for two different scenarios. First, if the firm can unilaterally decide, the expected present value of net profits is maximised. Second, if the sharing ratio is based on bilateral Nash bargaining. Since a larger variation of revenues implies a higher redistribution of future profits, the inclusion of expected variations results in a lower worker’s profit ratio in both scenarios. |
| JEL: | D81 J33 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:200919&r=lab |
| By: | Seckin, Aylin; Pollard, Richard |
| Abstract: | Home advantage is known to play an important role in the outcome of professional soccer games, and to vary considerably worldwide. In the Turkish Super League over the last 12 years, 61.5% of the total points gained have been won by the home team, a figure similar to the worldwide average and to the Premier League in England. It is lower (57.7%) for games played between teams from Istanbul and especially high for games involving teams from cities in the more remote and ethically distinct parts of Turkey (Van and Diyarbakir). Match performance data show that although home teams in Turkey take 26% more shots at goal than away teams, the success rates for shots do not differ. For fouls and disciplinary cards, home and away teams do not differ significantly in Turkey, a finding that that differs from games in England, perhaps due to less referee bias. |
| Keywords: | Home advantage;professional soccer |
| JEL: | L8 L83 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14323&r=lab |
| By: | David M. Arseneau; Sanjay K. Chugh |
| Abstract: | We re-examine the optimality of tax smoothing from the point of view of frictional labor markets. Our central result is that whether or not this cornerstone optimal fiscal policy prescription carries over to an environment with labor market frictions depends crucially on the cyclical nature of labor force participation. If the participation rate is exogenous at business-cycle frequencies -- as is typically assumed in the literature -- we show it is not optimal to smooth tax rates on labor income in the face of business-cycle shocks. However, if households do optimize at the participation margin, then tax-smoothing is optimal despite the presence of matching frictions. To understand these results, we develop a concept of general-equilibrium efficiency in search-based environments, which builds on existing (partial-equilibrium) search-efficiency conditions. Using this concept, we develop a notion of search-based labor-market wedges that allows us to trace the source of the sharply-contrasting fiscal policy prescriptions to the value of adjusting participation rates. Our results demonstrate that policy prescriptions can be very sensitive to the cyclical nature of labor-force participation in search-based environments. |
| Keywords: | Labor market ; Taxation; Labor market frictions, optimal taxation CL HG136 A54 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgif:965&r=lab |
| By: | Oscar Mitnik (Department of Economics, University of Miami); Qiang Kang (Department of Finance, University of Miami) |
| Abstract: | There is a debate on whether executive pay reflects rent extraction due to “managerial power†or is the result of arms-length bargaining in a principal-agent framework. In this paper we offer a test of the managerial power hypothesis by empirically examining the CEO compensation of U.S. public companies that were ever in financial distress between 1992 and 2005. Using a bias-corrected matching estimator that estimates the causal effects of financial distress, we find that, for the distressed firms, CEO turnover rates increase markedly and their CEOs, both incumbents and successors, experience significant reductions in total compensation. The bulk of the reduction in total compensation derives from the decline in value of stock option grants, which we argue is due to a change in the opportunistic timing of option grants. We define “lucky†grants as those with grant prices below or at the lowest stock price of the grant month, and we find that the proportion of lucky grants for financially distressed firms is higher before insolvency and lower upon and after insolvency, while the proportion for similar but solvent firms remains stable throughout the period. We interpret this evidence as consistent with a decrease in managerial power induced by a tightening in the “outrage†constraint due to the episode of financial distress. |
| Keywords: | CEO compensation, CEO turnover, financial distress, lucky grants, bias-corrected matching estimators |
| JEL: | G30 J33 M52 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mia:wpaper:0906&r=lab |
| By: | Daron Acemoglu |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the conditions under which the scarcity of a factor (in particular, labor) encourages technological progress and technology adoption. In standard endogenous growth models, which feature a strong scale effect, an increase in the supply of labor encourages technological progress. In contrast, the famous Habakkuk hypothesis in economic history claims that technological progress was more rapid in 19th-century United States than in Britain because of labor scarcity in the former country. Similar ideas are often suggested as possible reasons for why high wages might have encouraged rapid adoption of certain technologies in continental Europe over the past several decades, and as a potential reason for why environmental regulations can spur more rapid innovation. I present a general framework for the analysis of these questions. I define technology as strongly labor saving if the aggregate production function of the economy exhibits decreasing differences in the appropriate index of technology, theta, and labor. Conversely, technology is strongly labor complementary if the production function exhibits increasing differences in theta and labor. The main result of the paper shows that labor scarcity will encourage technological advances if technology is strongly labor saving. In contrast, labor scarcity will discourage technological advances if technology is strongly labor complementary. I provide examples of environments in which technology can be strongly labor saving and also show that such a result is not possible in certain canonical macroeconomic models. These results clarify the conditions under which labor scarcity and high wages encourage technological advances and the reason why such results were obtained or conjectured in certain settings, but do not always apply in many models used in the growth literature. |
| JEL: | C65 O30 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14809&r=lab |
| By: | Marco Cucculelli (Universit… Politecnica delle Marche, Department of Management and Insutrial Organization); Giacinto Micucci (Banf of Italy) |
| 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, changing environment, entrepreneurship, founder-run firms |
| JEL: | G34 J24 L25 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wmofir:21&r=lab |
| By: | Elisenda Rentería (Cedeplar-UFMG); Cassio M. Turra (Cedeplar-UFMG) |
| Abstract: | Social and economic inequalities in health and mortality are widely observed around the world. Individuals with lower socioeconomic status – usually defined by education, income and occupational status – have lower chances of survival and higher morbidity rates than individuals with higher socioeconomic status (Goldman, 2001). This association extends across all the distribution of socioeconomic variables, also within the highest social groups, defining what researchers call social “gradient” in health (Adler et al., 1994). This association has been studied for both sexes, but the relationship among women remains unclear. Also, it is a question rarely studied in developing countries, mostly due to a lack of reliable information. That is the case of Brazil, were although social and income inequality has been very high and persistent over time, with a long tradition of studies in this field (Barros, Foguel e Ulyssea 2007), we know very little about health and mortality disparities. Some previous works suggest a great gap in mortality by income in Brazil (Wood & Carvalho, 1988). However, all the efforts to investigate mortality inequality in Brazil run into the lack of information, especially in adult ages. This article combines information about the mother’s survival and education of respondents from a nationally representative household survey collected in Brazil in 1996 (Pesquisa de Padrões de Vida - PPV), to examine how mortality among adult women varied by level of education during the last decades. This study contributes to the discussion on the adult’s mortality differentials in developing countries with defective data. |
| Keywords: | Mortality Rates, Socioeconomic Status, Brazil |
| JEL: | I12 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td348&r=lab |
| By: | Laurence M. Ball |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that hysteresis helps explain the long-run behavior of unemployment. The natural rate of unemployment is influenced by the path of actual unemployment, and hence by shifts in aggregate demand. I review past evidence for hysteresis effects and present new evidence for 20 developed countries. A central finding is that large increases in the natural rate are associated with disinflations, and large decreases with run-ups in inflation. These facts are consistent with hysteresis theories and inconsistent with theories in which the natural rate is independent of aggregate demand. |
| JEL: | E24 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14818&r=lab |
| By: | Emily Oster; Rebecca Thornton |
| Abstract: | We estimate the role of benefits and peer effects in technology adoption using data from randomized distribution of menstrual cups in Nepal. Using individual randomization, we estimate causal effects of peer exposure on adoption; using differences in potential returns we estimate effects of benefits. We find both peers and value influence adoption. Using the fact that we observe both trial and usage of the product, we examine the mechanisms driving peer effects. We find that peers matters because individuals learn how to use the technology from their friends, but that they do not affect individual desire to use the cup. |
| JEL: | I12 J16 O33 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14828&r=lab |
| By: | Phillippe Choné; Guy Laroque (Institute for Fiscal Studies and INSEE - CREST) |
| Abstract: | <p>We study optimal taxation in the general extensive model: the only decision of the participants in the economy is to choose between working (full time) or staying inactive. People differ in their productivities and in other features which determine their work opportunity costs. The qualitative properties of optimal tax schemes are presented, with an emphasis on the role of heterogeneity in the equity-efficiency tradeoff. When the government has a redistributive stance, there are a number of cases where the low skilled workers face larger financial incentives to work than in the laissez-faire (negative average tax rates). In particular, this occurs whenever the social weights vary continuously with income and the social weight assigned to the less skilled workers is larger than average.</p> |
| JEL: | H21 H31 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:08/08&r=lab |
| By: | Trappmann, Mark (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Christoph, Bernhard (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Achatz, Juliane (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Wenzig, Claudia (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Müller, Gerrit (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Gebhardt, Daniel (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "The paper introduces the general design features and particularities of a new largescale panel study for research on recipients of benefits for the long-term unemployed (the so called Unemployment Benefit II) in Germany that combines a sample of 6000 recipient households with an equally large sample of the general population. Particular focus is on the sampling procedure for the general population, where a commercial database was used to draw a sample stratified by status." (author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | IAB-Haushaltspanel - Konzeption, empirische Sozialforschung, Erhebungsmethode, Stichprobe, Langzeitarbeitslosigkeit |
| JEL: | C42 J64 |
| Date: | 2009–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:200905&r=lab |
| By: | Jonathan Chaloff; Georges Lemaître |
| Abstract: | La plupart des pays de l’OCDE s’attendent à des pénuries croissantes de travailleurs qualifiés dans les prochaines deux décennies, et l’immigration pourrait bien être une des réponses à ce phénomène. Ces dernières années, ils ont mis en place des politiques pour faciliter le recrutement de ces travailleurs et l’on peut s’attendre à ce qu’ils poursuivent leurs efforts dans ce sens. Ce document donne un aperçu des questions portant sur la gestion des travailleurs immigrés hautement qualifiés. Généralement, un migrant hautement qualifié est sensé avoir au moins une éducation de niveau supérieur, mais d’autres définitions sont possibles, notamment sur la base de la profession exercée. Le niveau de salaire est aussi une référence pratique utilisée par certains pays pour considérer que les migrants hautement qualifiés sont les personnes qui reçoivent une rémunération au-dessus d’un certain seuil. Il y a deux principaux moyens pour recruter des travailleurs hautement qualifiés résidant à l’étranger. Le premier est à l’initiative de la demande des employeurs. L’autre est fondé sur l’offre et consiste à inviter les candidats à postuler, et leur admission dépend de certains critères sélectifs comme l’âge, le niveau d’instruction, la maîtrise de la langue et la profession exercée. Il s’agit d’un système à points au-delà d’un certain niveau de points obtenus, les candidats ont le droit de s’installer dans le pays d’accueil. Les systèmes fondés sur l’offre ont montré leurs limites au cours des décennies récentes, les pays d’accueil éprouvant des difficultés de recruter de manière à garantir une insertion réussie sur le marché du travail. Les employeurs semblent attribuer moins de valeur aux qualifications et à l’expérience professionnelle acquises dans un pays hors de la zone OCDE. Ainsi, les immigrés arrivant sans emploi préalable, éprouvent de sérieuses difficultés à trouver l’emploi correspondant à leur qualification et leur expérience. En conséquence, on note une tendance générale à transférer à l’employeur tout ou partie de la responsabilité du processus de sélection des candidats à l’immigration. De cette façon, toutes les questions de qualification et d’expérience sont abordées dans le cadre des négociations d’embauche entre les employeurs et les personnes à recruter avant l’immigration. Une deuxième option est de favoriser les candidats à la migration ayant obtenu leurs qualifications dans un pays de l’OCDE et encore plus s’il s’agit du pays d’accueil lui-même. La plupart des pays de l’OCDE ont en fait adopté des mesures pour permettre aux étudiants étrangers ayant achevé leurs études, de rester dans le pays pour rechercher un emploi en relation avec leur niveau et leur domaine d’étude. Dans certains pays, dont la langue nationale est peu parlée au-delà de leurs frontières, le recrutement direct reste problématique, sauf si la langue de travail est internationale, comme l’anglais. Pour de tels pays, le recrutement direct peut encore être possible, si une langue internationale est largement parlée dans les lieux de travail. Autrement, la migration impulsée par devrait être envisagée avec des investissements linguistiques importants demandés aux nouveaux arrivés. Une politique active de recrutement signifie bien davantage que la simple possibilité d’accorder des permis à des employeurs ou à des candidats à l’immigration, sur la base de la reconnaissance de leur niveau de connaissance. Si les migrants hautement qualifiés peuvent être attirés, quels que soient les obstacles à surmonter, par des pays où les salaires sont élevés et dont les langues nationales sont largement parlées, les pays ayant une langue peu parlée en dehors du territoire national et offrant des salaires moins élevés ne pourront se contenter uniquement de la levée des barrières administratives. Dans la plupart des pays, les effets de l’évolution démographique commencent tout juste à se faire sentir. Mais, à l’horizon 2010, plus de la moitié des pays de l’OCDE auront des cohortes entrantes de main d’œuvre moins nombreuses que les cohortes sortantes. L’objectif à moyen terme pour les pays de l’OCDE est d’avoir des mouvements dont l’ampleur et la nature permettront de répondre aux besoins du marché du travail. Il serait prématuré de prétendre que toutes les politiques requises sont d’ores et déjà en place. |
| Keywords: | intégration, gestion de la migration, migration de travailleurs hautement qualifiés, effets de l’évolution démographique |
| JEL: | F F22 J24 J44 J61 |
| Date: | 2009–03–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:79-fr&r=lab |
| By: | Xiaoji Lin; Santiago Bazdrech; Frederico Belo |
| Abstract: | We document that the firm level hiring rate predicts stock returns in the cross-section of US publicly traded firms even after controlling for investment, size, book-to-market and momentum as well as other known predictors of stock returns. The predictability shows up in both Fama-MacBeth cross sectional regressions and in portfolio sorts and it is robust to the exclusion of micro cap firms from the sample. We propose a production-based asset pricing model with adjustment costs in labor and capital that replicates the main empirical findings well. Labor adjustment costs makes hiring decisions forward looking in nature and thus informative about the firms’ expectations about future cash-flows and risk-adjusted discount rates. The model implies that the investment rate and the hiring rate predicts stock returns because these variables proxy for the firm’s time-varying conditional beta. |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fmg:fmgdps:dp628&r=lab |
| By: | Claar, Victor V; Diestl, Christine M; Poll, Ross D |
| Abstract: | Our paper empirically considers two general hypotheses related to the literature of behavioral economics. First, we test the null hypothesis that individuals behave, on average, in a manner more consistent with the rational expectations hypothesis than with the idea of self-control in the face of hyperbolic discounting in their saving decisions. Second, along a variety of dimensions, we examine whether individuals exhibit Herbert Simon’s notion that the goal formation of individuals will differ depending upon their relative levels of experience and knowledge. Perhaps there are significant differences among groups in their saving decisions that depend upon their apparent levels of intelligence, education, and knowledge. Finally, using a variety of individual-specific control variables, we test for robustness of the results. |
| Keywords: | Consumer Economics; Empirical Analysis; Life Cycle Models and Saving |
| JEL: | D11 D12 D91 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14273&r=lab |
| By: | Matthias Göcke (University of Giessen, Licher Str. 62, D - 39394 Gießen, Germany) |
| Abstract: | A simple model evaluating a firm’s optimal employment reaction to an imminent recession is presented. Firing costs shelter employment – and this effect is typically amplified by uncertainty due to an option value of waiting. However, this job protection effect is reduced if the expected probability of a setback increases, and if the expected duration and size of a recession grows. If a severe recession is expected with a high probability the option to wait with firing looses its value, thus, immediate layoffs and market exits become the optimal strategy even before the recession turns out to be actual. |
| Keywords: | Firing costs and uncertainty; probability, duration and size of recession |
| JEL: | D81 J63 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:200918&r=lab |
| By: | Sharon Kukla-Acevedo (Deparment of Political Science, Central Michigan University); Megan Streams (College of Public Service and Urban Affairs, Tennessee State University); Eugenia F. Toma (Martin School of Public Policy and Administration, University of Kentucky) |
| Abstract: | Title II of the Higher Education Act requires states to evaluate their teacher preparation programs (TPPs). In response, many states have introduced measures to evaluate TPPs similar to the ways in which they are evaluating K-12 schools. Some states, including Kentucky, have initiated pilot projects to assess the feasibility of statewide TPP evaluations. This paper stems from the Kentucky initiative and addresses methodological and data issues raised by the efforts to evaluate teacher preparation programs. This paper identifies some of the conceptual and empirical challenges of TPP evaluations. The purpose of this exercise is to serve as a model of learning for scholars interested in TPP evaluation and for policymakers and practitioners who are considering similar types of evaluations for their states. |
| Keywords: | Teacher preparation, evaluation, student achievement |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifr:wpaper:2009-09&r=lab |