|
on Labour Economics |
| By: | Rajadel , Tania; Pontara, Nicola; Sanchez Puerta, Maria Laura |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a snapshot of Mauritania’s labor market using data from the 2004 national household survey. The results show that the labor market is characterized by lower participation rates, lower employment-to-population rates, and relatively higher unemployment rates than in neighboring countries. The non poor fare better in the labor market than the poor. Although the labor force participation of the poor is higher than that of the non poor, the poor display a higher unemployment rate and a lower employment rate than the non poor. The data also suggest a negative correlation between wage employment and poverty. Substantial differences in labor market indicators emerge when disaggregating the analysis by gender and age-group. Female non-participation is extremely high. Women systematically earn less than men independently of their sector and type of employment and controlling for other factors, such as education. Young adults face considerable difficulties in entering the labor market: more than half of the population aged 15-24 is neither studying nor participating in the labor force. As gender disparities remain important for similar levels of education, more work is needed to understand whether cultural factors may prevent women from entering the labor market. Concerning young adults, future poverty reduction strategies need to pay more explicit attention to the promotion of employment through informed labor market policies. |
| Keywords: | Labor Markets,Population Policies,Rural Poverty Reduction,Labor Policies, |
| Date: | 2009–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4954&r=lab |
| By: | Mark Bils (University of Rochester); Yongsung Chang (University of Rochester); Sun-Bin Kim (Department of Economics, Korea University) |
| Abstract: | We model unemployment allowing workers to differ by comparative advantage in market work. Workers with comparative advantage are identified by who works more hours when employed. This enables us to test the model by grouping workers based on their long-term wages and hours from panel data. The model captures the greater cyclicality of employment for workers with low comparative advantage. But the model fails to explain the magnitude of countercyclical separations for high-wage workers or the magnitude of procyclical findings for high-hours workers. As a result, it only captures the cyclicality of the extensive, employment margin for low-wage, low-hours workers. |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:roc:rocher:547&r=lab |
| By: | Neetha N |
| Abstract: | An important aspect that is often highlighted in the context of economic reforms, is the translation of labour market changes into defining or redefining gender relations and empowerment of women. In India, the aura created by liberalization, reflected that new opportunities for women are opening up. The paper analyses women’s employment through a disaggregate analysis of the last three rounds of quinqueinial NSSO Employment and Unemployment surveys, 1993-94, 1999-00 and 2004-05. The analysis provided in the paper suggests that the growing social and economic crisis is sending vast sections of women workers into a downward spiral resulting in a gender based inequality in employment. The sectoral distribution shows women mainly concentrating in primary sector as against other liberalized economies |
| Keywords: | Women; labour market; female employment; post reform period; women work force; female employment patterns; urban female employment; distribution of women workers; National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2012&r=lab |
| By: | Leena Rudanko (Boston University) |
| Abstract: | Recent research seeking to explain the strong cyclicality of US unemployment emphasizes the role of wage rigidity. This paper proposes a micro-founded model of wage rigidity – an equilibrium business cycle model of job search, where risk neutral firms post optimal long-term contracts to attract risk averse workers. Equilibrium contracts feature wage smoothing, limited by the inability of parties to commit to contracts. The model is consistent with aggregate wage data if neither worker nor firm can commit, producing too rigid wages otherwise. Wage rigidity does not lead to a substantial increase in the cyclical volatility of unemployment. |
| Keywords: | wage rigidity, unemployment fluctuations, long-term wage contracts, limited commitment, directed search |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J41 J64 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:wpaper:wp2008-003&r=lab |
| By: | Moser, Christoph; Stähler, Nikolai |
| Abstract: | Labor market studies on the effects of minimum wages are typically confined to the sector or worker group directly affected. We present a two-sector search model in which one sector is more productive than the other one and thus, pays higher wages. In such a framework, setting a minimum wage in the unproductive sector to reduce the wage gap causes a negative spillover effect on the productive sector. While the effect on job creation in the (targeted) unproductive sector is ambiguous, job creation in the (non-targeted) productive sector unambiguously decreases. This is driven by the fact that a minimum wage increases the outside option of unemployed workers - contributing to wage determination in the productive sector. Welfare effects are ambiguous. In principle, we cannot exclude that a minimum wage in a two-sector search model is welfare enhancing due to the possibility of an above optimal level of productive employment since firms do not take into account the effects of their individual job creation on aggregated search costs. |
| Keywords: | minimum wages, matching models, two sectors, unemployment, welfare |
| JEL: | E24 J31 J60 J64 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:bubdp1:7570&r=lab |
| By: | Heinze, Anja |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes the relationship between the segregation of women across establishments and the salaries paid to men and women. My aim is to separate the impact the proportion of women working within an establishment has upon individual wages. For this purpose hypotheses are formulated as to what drives this impact: sex-specific preferences, lower qualifications among women or discrimination against women. To investigate this issue empirically, I use matched employer-employee data from Germany. My results indicate that an increasing proportion of women in an establishment reduces wages for males and females in both western and eastern Germany. Furthermore the empirical analysis shows that by successively including worker and establishment characteristics, the number of females in an establishment has a severely detrimental effect upon the salaries paid to both sexes. |
| Keywords: | gender wage differentials, female segregation across establishments, matched employer-employee data |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:7537&r=lab |
| By: | Naylor, Robin A. (Department of Economics, University of Warwick); Smith, Jeremy (Department of Economics, University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | Changes in educational participation rates across cohorts are likely to imply changes in the ability-education relationship and thereby to impact on estimated returns to education. We show that skewness in the underlying ability distribution is a key determinant of the impact of graduate expansion on the college wage premium. Calibrating the model against the increased proportion of university students in Britain, we find that changes in the average ability gap between university students and others are likely to have mitigated demand-side forces. |
| Keywords: | Ability Bias ; College Wage Premium ; Graduate Returns ; Cohort Effects |
| JEL: | J31 J24 I21 D82 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:907&r=lab |
| By: | Planning Commission Labour, Employment & Manpower Division |
| Abstract: | This 'Technical Note on Employment for the Eleventh Five Year Plan' presents the quantitative basis for determining the targets and projections on employment, and the related variables given in the Eleventh Five Year Plan document. While, in principle, each Chapter of the Plan document has an 'employment dimension', three Chapters of the Plan document that relate directly to this subject are: Employment Perspective and Labour Policy (Volume I, Chapter 4); Skill Development and Training (Volume I, Chapter 5); Social Security of Workers (Volume II, Chapter 4.2) [PLANNING COMMISSION] |
| Keywords: | Labour Force; Employment Targets; Unemployment Projections; Unemployment Projections; Employment Strategy; Eleventh Five Year Plan; Recommendations; Wages; Price Index |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2037&r=lab |
| By: | Zwick, Thomas |
| Abstract: | This paper characterises establishments that pay higher seniority wages than their competitors. It tests whether seniority wages are paid on the basis of agency, human capital or efficiency wage considerations. A representative linked employeremployee panel and an innovative two-step estimation strategy are used to first calculate individual seniority wages taking into account that match quality biases tenure effects on wages. Then individual seniority wages are aggregated to the establishment level. Finally, the seniority wage indicator is explained by establishment characteristics. This contribution shows that large, profitable and establishments with a highly qualified workforce pay high seniority wages. Also collective bargaining coverage and works councils have a positive impact and the share of foreigners, training intensity and initial wage levels have a negative correlation with seniority wages. The results support an agency based motivation for seniority wages. |
| Keywords: | Seniority Wages, Establishment Characteristics, Linked Employer-Employee Data |
| JEL: | J14 J21 J31 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:7531&r=lab |
| By: | Esteban Sanromà (Universitat de Barcelona); Raúl Ramos (Universitat de Barcelona); Hipólito Simón (Universitat de Alicante) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to analyse the role played by the different components of human capital in the wage determination of recent immigrants within the Spanish labour market. Using microdata from the Encuesta Nacional de Inmigrantes 2007, the paper examines returns to human capital of immigrants, distinguishing between human capital accumulated in their home countries and in Spain. It also examines the impact on wages of the legal status. The evidence shows that returns to host country sources of human capital are higher than returns to foreign human capital, reflecting the limited international transferability of the latter. The only exception occurs in the case of immigrants from developed countries and immigrants who have studied in Spain. Whatever their home country, they obtain relatively high wage returns to education, including the part not acquired in the host country. Having legal status in Spain is associated with a substantial wage premium of around 15%. Lastly, the overall evidence confirms the presence of a strong heterogeneity in wage returns to different kinds of human capital and in the wage premium associated to the legal status as a function of the immigrants’ area of origin. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, wages, human capital. |
| JEL: | J15 J24 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:2009/6/doc2009-8&r=lab |
| By: | Gartell, Marie (Institute for Futures Studies) |
| Abstract: | Unemployment immediately upon graduation is associated with substantial and permanent future earnings losses. Even for very short unemployment spells the estimated earnings losses are statistically significant. These results are stable for the inclusion of a rich set of observable control variables, including grade point average from high school and parental educational level, and for choice of method i.e. OLS and propensity score matching. This lends some support for the interpretation that unemployment upon graduation has the causal effect of reducing future earnings prospects. |
| Keywords: | Scarring; State dependence; Higher education; College-to-work |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J64 |
| Date: | 2009–04–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2009_010&r=lab |
| By: | Ireland, Norman (Department of Economics, University of Warwick); Naylor, Robin A. (Department of Economics, University of Warwick); Smith, Jeremy (Department of Economics, University of Warwick); Telhaj, Shqiponja (CEP, London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | An increase over time in the proportion of young people obtaining a degree is likely to impact on the relative ability compositions (i) of graduates and non-graduates and (ii) across graduates with different classes of degree award. In a signalling framework, we examine the implications of this on biases across cohorts in estimates of educational returns. In an empirical analysis, we exploit administrative data on whole populations of UK university students for ten graduate cohorts to investigate the extent to which early labour market outcomes vary with class of degree awarded. Consistent with our theoretical model, we find that returns by degree class increased across cohorts during a period of substantial graduate expansion. We also corroborate the empirical findings with evidence from complementary data on graduate sample surveys. |
| Keywords: | Educational Returns ; College Wage Premium ; Degree Class ; Ability Bias ; Statistical Discrimination |
| JEL: | J31 J24 I21 D82 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:906&r=lab |
| By: | Douhan, Robin (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | Can educational institutions explain occupational choice between wage employment and entrepreneurship? This paper follows Lazear's (2005) Jack-of-all-trades hypothesis according to which an individual with a more balanced set of abilities is more likely to enter into entrepreneurship. In the theoretical model proposed, abilities are an outcome of talent and educational institutions. Institutions, in turn, differ with respect to mandatory time in school and the scope of the curriculum. Implications of the theory are tested using Swedish data for a school reform. Empirical results support the main theoretical predictions. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital; Occupational Choice; Entrepreneurship; Education Institutions |
| JEL: | I21 J24 L26 |
| Date: | 2009–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0797&r=lab |
| By: | Leena Rudanko (Boston University, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Economists face difficulties explaining the strong cyclicality of US unemployment. This paper contributes both by developing modeling tools and evaluating a potentially important explanation. The paper develops a parsimonious equilibrium model of job search with aggregate productivity shocks, where i) workers face incomplete markets, and ii) wages are determined via optimal long-term contracts. Despite the large state space associated with long-term contracting, the equilibrium has a simple representation as a small system of differential equations. Incomplete markets amplify fluctuations in unemployment, and the results suggest an upper bound on how far they can go in explaining unemployment cyclicality. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, Wages, Business Cycles, Search, Dynamic Contracts, Incomplete Markets |
| JEL: | D52 E24 E32 J41 J64 |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:wpaper:wp2008-009&r=lab |
| By: | Alejandra A. Traferri (Department of Economics, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the differences on the proportion of temporary employees in the Spanish manufacturing sector according to firm ownership nationality. Standard censored Tobit and Heckman sample selection models are estimated using data from the Survey on Managerial Strategies (ESSE) in the period 1991 to 2005. The results show there is a clear relation between the nationality of the owners of the firm and the type of labor offered, even after controlling for a large number of observable firm characteristics and unobservable fixed effects. In particular, the share of temporary employees is significantly lower for foreign firms and this effect decreases with firm size. |
| Keywords: | Firm nationality, fixed-term contracts, temporary employment |
| JEL: | J23 C20 C24 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:iedwpr:dp-186&r=lab |
| By: | J Krishnamurty |
| Abstract: | The choice of the best measures of labour force, work force and unemployment has been the subject of intense debate in the formulation of employment strategies and preparation of plan documents. A new set of measures based on a concept of Modified Current Weekly Status (MCWS) are suggested in this paper which we believe would be better suited for many purposes than those currently in use. In addition new measures are also suggested for labour time utilisation and underemployment. These measures have been computed by using the data sets of the last three quinquennial rounds of surveys on employment-unemployment undertaken by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) and a comparison with the existing measures has been included in the paper. The principal aim of the paper is to suggest new ways of analyzing labour force data by retaining the identity of the individuals so as to relate the labour force behavior with other socioeconomic characteristics.[NCEUS WP NO 1] |
| Keywords: | Labour Force; Participation; Utilisation; Labour Force Participation Rate; usual principal activity status; Subsidiary Status; Current Weekly Status; Dantwala Committee; Current Daily Status; Modified Current Weekly Status; underemployment; underemployment |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:1991&r=lab |
| By: | Liang, Che-Yuan (Uppsala Center for Fiscal Studies) |
| Abstract: | This paper extends the nonparametric method to estimate labor supply developed by Blomquist and Newey (2002) to handle cases in which there are individuals who do not work. The method is then applied to married women in Sweden from 1973 to 1999. For 1999, I find an aggregate uncompensated wage elasticity around 1 and an aggregate income elasticity around -0.05. Furthermore, marginal tax rates are beyond the net government revenue maximizing rates. Despite large labor supply effects, the dramatic evolution of the tax system can only explain a small share of the 58 percent rise in female labor supply during this period. |
| Keywords: | female labor supply; nonparametric estimation; nonlinear budget sets; tax revenues |
| JEL: | C14 D31 H31 J22 |
| Date: | 2009–05–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uufswp:2009_006&r=lab |
| By: | Lindvall, Lars (Department of Economics, Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | There are large differences in income and education levels, unemployment and ethnic composition between neighbourhoods. An interesting question is whether a neighbourhood’s characteristics affect the behaviour of its residents. This paper investigates neighbourhood effects on youths’ post primary education choice. Besides including usual variables the paper also includes neighbourhood specific economic incentives. Estimating linear probability models as well as multinomial logit models using Swedish register data, covering the county of Stockholm and the years 1988–1992, I find that both neighbourhood characteristics and economic incentives affect the choice. For the latter the results are quite clear although the size of the effect is small: an increase in the expected income of an alternative increases the probability that this alternative is chosen. For the neighbourhood variables the results differ to some extent depending on the model. The proportion of individuals with at most compulsory education in a neighbourhood does however seem to have a negative effect on applying for a university preparatory programme. The proportion of immigrants in a neighbourhood tend to have a positive effect on immigrants’ probability to apply for a university preparatory programme. |
| Keywords: | Neighbourhoods; economic incentives; educational choice |
| JEL: | I20 I22 R19 |
| Date: | 2009–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2009_011&r=lab |
| By: | Gregory A. Lilly (Department of Economics, Elon University); Samuel K. Allen (Department of Economics, Virginia Military Institute) |
| Abstract: | We assess the likelihood that earnings premiums influence college students' behavior as human capital theory suggests. We highlight several key observable patterns of earnings by age, sex, and for numerous college majors in recent decades, and propose a model of heterogeneous human capital to explain the data. Next, we formulate and test the hypothesis that greater expected average annual earnings by college major will induce greater proportions of college students to select higher-paying majors. The evidence implies that - at least for the observed range of earnings premiums - monetary incentives are insufficient to fully explain behavior. |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:elo:wpaper:2009-01&r=lab |
| By: | Miet Maertens |
| Abstract: | The rapid spread of modern supply chains in developing countries is profoundly changing the way food is produced and traded. In this paper we examine the gender implications in modern supply chains. We conceptualize the various mechanisms through which women are directly affected, we review existing empirical evidence and add new survey-based evidence. Empirical findings from our own survey suggest that modern supply chains may be associated with reduced gender inequalities in rural areas. We find that women benefit more and more directly from large-scale estate production and agro-industrial processing, and the creation of employment in these modern agro-industries than from smallholder contract-farming.[LICOS DP 231/2008] |
| Keywords: | modern supply chains; developing countries; Supply chain governance; Intra-household and gender issues; Case-studies; Horticulture supply chains; Female participation; Agro-industrial employment; Feminization of the rural labor force; Gender discrimination |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:1996&r=lab |
| By: | Thomas Gall (Boston University and University of Bonn); Patrick Legros (ECARES, Universit´e Libre de Bruxelles and CEPR); Andrew F. Newman (Boston University and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | Mobility depends essentially on investment, which often occurs in environments in which individuals match (school) or will match after investing (the labor market). Where partners can transfer surplus to each other only imperfectly (NTU), the pattern of matching will typically be inefficient, involving too much segregation, and providing a possible rationale for ”associational redistribution” such as affirmative action: a social planner who could enforce a matching outcome that differs from the market outcome may raise aggregate social surplus. We show that this static inefficiency due to NTU can be exacerbated in a dynamic environment in which individuals’ productive types are determined by investments made before they match. In contrast to TU models there will typically be investment distortions, with high types over-investing and low types under-investing. We study several forms of associational redistribution, assessing the differential effects of achievement-based and background-based polices; early-stage and later-stage policies; and interactions between them. |
| Keywords: | Matching, nontransferable utility, affirmative action, segregation, education |
| JEL: | C78 I28 H52 J78 |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:iedwpr:dp-189&r=lab |
| By: | Leah Platt Boustan (UCLA and NBER); Robert A. Margo (Boston University and NBER) |
| Abstract: | How does the spatial distribution of employment opportunities influence residential location? We revisit this classic question in urban economics by exploiting a natural experiment generated by the history of state capitals. Many state employees in capital cities work in centrally located government buildings that were constructed in the nineteenth century, while state workers elsewhere mirror the decentralization of the private sector. We compare the work and residential locations of state workers in capital and non-capital cities relative to other workers in their metropolitan areas. Our results suggest that assigning 1,000 jobs to the central city would attract approximately 250 working residents to the city. Evidence from other industries with historically-determined locations, including the postal service and defense contractors, corroborates our basic finding. |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:iedwpr:dp-177&r=lab |
| By: | Susanne Neckermann; Reto Cueni; Bruno S. Frey |
| Abstract: | Behavioral economics documents the importance of status and self-image concerns in the workplace, but is largely silent about how to instrumentalize them to induce effort. Awards|widespread in the corporate sector and elsewhere are motivators that derive their value from such social concerns. Panel data from the call center of a large international bank allow us to estimate the impact of receiving an award on e ort. The performance of winners proves to be signi cantly higher than that of comparable nonrecipients after the award has been presented. This increase in work e ort is sizeable, robust, and not driven by reverse causation. |
| Keywords: | Awards; Motivation; Non-monetary Compensation; Event-Study; Incentives |
| JEL: | C23 J33 M52 |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cra:wpaper:2009-09&r=lab |
| By: | Fernanda Estevan (PhD candidate, Department of Economics, CORE, Catholic University of Louvain) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we test the hypothesis that private school enrollment is the households' response to the low quality of public schools. In order to deal with the simultaneity issue, we explore variations in public school funding caused by the FUNDEF reform that occurred in Brazil in 1998. Using data from the Brazilian School Census, we show that a positive impact of the reform is associated with an immediate reduction in the share of private enrollment for the first grade of primary school at the municipality level. The same effect is not observed for the subsequent primary school years. This con¯rms the intuition that the parents may be reluctant to switch schools after the beginning of their child's schooling track. Our estimation results are robust to variations in the school participation and changes in the income distribution. Thus, the improvement in the quality of public schools originated by the FUNDEF reform has attracted households that would otherwise enroll in private institutions. The same mechanism seems to explain the increase in the net attendance rate during the same period. |
| Date: | 2009–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:iedwpr:dp-185&r=lab |
| By: | Reza Oladi (Department of Applied Economics, Utah State University); John Gilbert (Department of Economics and Finance, Utah State University); Hamid Beladi (Department of Economics, University of Texas - San Antonio) |
| Abstract: | Using a three-sector general equilibrium model with non-traded goods, we investigate the impact of foreign direct investment on the real wages of skilled and unskilled workers. We show that foreign direct investment increases the real wages of skilled and unskilled workers, but widens the gap between the two under plausible conditions. |
| Keywords: | Real wages, foreign direct investment, non-traded goods |
| JEL: | F10 F11 F21 |
| Date: | 2008–12–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usu:wpaper:2008-04&r=lab |
| By: | Borghans Lex; Golsteyn Bart; Heckman James; Meijers Huub (ROA rm) |
| Abstract: | This paper demonstrates gender differences in risk aversion and ambiguityaversion. It also contributes to a growing literature relating economic preferenceparameters to psychological measures by asking whether variations in preferenceparameters among persons, and in particular across genders, can be accounted forby differences in personality traits and traits of cognition. Women are more riskaverse than men. Over an initial range, women require no further compensationfor the introduction of ambiguity but men do. At greater levels of ambiguity,women have the same marginal distaste for increased ambiguity as men.Psychological variables account for some of the interpersonal variation in riskaversion. They explain none of the differences in ambiguity. |
| Keywords: | education, training and the labour market; |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2009006&r=lab |
| By: | Skoufias, Emmanuel; Lunde, Trine; Patrinos, Harry Anthony |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the extent to which social networks among indigenous peoples have a significant effect on a variety of human capital investment and economic activities, such as school attendance and work among teenage boys and girls, and migration, welfare participation, employment status, occupation and sector of employment among adult males and females. The analysis uses data from the 10 percent population sample of the 2000 Population and Housing Census of Mexico and an empirical strategy that allows taking into account the role of municipality and language group fixed effects. The authors confirm empirically that social network effects play an important role in the economic decisions of indigenous people, especially in rural areas. The analysis also provides evidence that better access to basic services, such as water and electricity, increases the size and strength of network effects in rural areas. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Access to Finance,Anthropology,Labor Policies,Housing&Human Habitats |
| Date: | 2009–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4949&r=lab |
| By: | Heinemann, Friedrich; Bischoff, Ivo; Hennighausen, Tanja |
| Abstract: | This contribution empirically explores the drivers of labour market reform acceptance for the individual level in Germany. For that purpose we make use of the representative German General Social Survey (ALLBUS). This survey offers data to which extent individuals support benefit cuts, longer working years, cutting subsidies to declining industries, phasing out of employment programmes or a liberalisation of employment protection. Our theoretical considerations suggest that self-interest, information, fairness judgements, economic beliefs and other individual factors such as socialisation under the communist regime in the former German Democratic Republic drive individual reform preferences. Our empirical results support this notion: While we find self-interest to be an important driving force, our results show that a number of factors well beyond the narrow scope of self-interest strongly shape individual reform preferences. |
| Keywords: | labour market reform, economic beliefs, fairness preferences, ALLBUS |
| JEL: | A13 C42 D63 J48 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:7530&r=lab |
| By: | Franziska Humbert |
| Abstract: | While in the era of globalization, millions of women got paid employment in labour-intensive industries in developing countries, they still face precarious working conditions. Women rights violations persist. In recent years, there has been an increasing number of social clauses in trade regimes to address poor working conditions in developing countries. Generalized Systems of Preferences (GSPs) are the prominent among unilateral mechanisms. This paper analyzes the social clauses contained in the EU and US GSPs with a view to the question whether they are adequate means of tackling poor working conditions and advancing the cause of women. The analysis of the EU GSP social clause is complemented by a case study highlighting the impact of the EU GSP social clause on labour and women rights in Sri Lanka. The evaluation of the GSP social clauses is followed by an analysis of their WTO compatibility. The study concludes by suggesting a multilateral framework de lege ferenda for GSP social clauses.[NCCR WP No 2008/04] |
| Keywords: | Generalized Systems of Preferences; Human Rights; Women Rights; WTO; Trade; Sri Lanka; Tariff Preferences |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2002&r=lab |
| By: | Ansgar Rannenberg |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the rise in European unemployment since the 1970s by introducing endogenous growth into an otherwise standard New Keynesian model with capital accumulation and unemployment. We subject the model to an uncorrelated cost push shock, in order to mimic a scenario akin to the one faced by central banks at the end of the 1970s. Monetary policy implements a disin?ation by following an interest feedback rule calibrated to an estimate of a Bundesbank reaction function. 40 quarters after the shock has vanished, unemployment is still about 1.8 percentage points above its steady state. Our model also broadly reproduces cross country differences in unemployment by drawing on cross country di¤erences in the size of cost push shock and the associated disinflation, the monetary policy reaction function and the wage setting structure. |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:san:cdmawp:0903&r=lab |
| By: | Maurizio Pugno; Sara Depedri |
| Abstract: | The empirical evidence from the econometrics of self-reported job satisfaction and from organisational psychology on job performance confronts economic theory with some puzzling results. Job performance is found to be positively correlated with job satisfaction, whereas effort is assumed to be a disutility in the theory. Economic incentives are not found to be the main motivations of job performance; in some cases, indeed, they are even counterproductive. Interest in the job is found to account better for job satisfaction. This paper proposes an integrated approach to these issues by (i) conducting an interdisciplinary critical survey, (ii) proposing a simple economic framework within which to explain the puzzles. The key idea behind this framework is that intrinsic motivations and self-esteem help explain both job satisfaction and job performance. The employer can thus adopt other, more friendly actions, besides using incentives and controls to enhance performance by employees. |
| Keywords: | job performance, job satisfaction, intrinsic motivations |
| JEL: | A12 D23 J28 L31 O31 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwpde:0904&r=lab |
| By: | Barnita Bagchi |
| Abstract: | This paper is about hopscotching, and in turn jumps over many disciplinary categories, from literature to gender studies to development studies. At one level this is the voice of the interdisciplinary academic who brings a literary training to bear on the field of development studies, where with increasing urgency experts try to record voices and to read subjectivities for their narratives and perceptions of development. [IGIDR WP 2003 05] |
| Keywords: | open-minded pedagogy; children’s books; fiction; women studies; Calcutta Social Project; Sandesh; Enid Blyton; Majumdar |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:1993&r=lab |
| By: | Amanda L. Coxbill; Lee W. Sanning; Sherrill Shaffer |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the market reaction to a firm switching from a male CEO to a female CEO. We compare these firms against a four dimensional matched sample of male to male CEO appointments. Our results indicate that female CEO appointments are followed by small insignificant negative reactions, whereas male CEO announcements are followed by economically and statistically significant negative reactions. Analysis of compensation data indicates that female CEOs receive more equity compensation than males, though this difference is statistically insignificant. |
| JEL: | G14 G30 J16 |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:acb:camaaa:2009-13&r=lab |
| By: | Dilip Mookherjee (Boston University); Stefan Napel (University of Bayreuth); Debraj Ray (New York University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines steady states of an overlapping generations economy with a given distribution of household locations over a one-dimensional interval. Parents decide whether or not to educate their children. Such decisions are aected by location: parental aspirations depend on the earnings of their neighbors. At the same time, economy-wide wages endogenously adjust to bring factor supplies into line with demand. The model therefore combines local social interaction with global market interaction. The paper studies steadystate configurations of skill acquisition, both with and without segregation, and studies the macroeconomic and welfare effects of segregation on aggregate economic outcomes. |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:iedwpr:dp-182&r=lab |