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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Chiswick, Barry R. (University of Illinois at Chicago); Miller, Paul W. (University of Western Australia) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the incidence of the mismatch of the educational attainment and the occupation of employment, and the impact of this mismatch on the earnings, of high-skilled adult male immigrants in the US labor market. Analyses for high-skilled adult male native-born workers are also presented for comparison purposes. The results show that over-education is widespread in the high-skilled US labor market, both for immigrants and the native born. The extent of over-education declines with duration in the US as high-skilled immigrants obtain jobs commensurate with their educational level. Years of schooling that are above that which is usual for a worker's occupation are associated with very low increases in earnings. Indeed, in the first 10 to 20 years in the US years of over-education among high-skilled workers have a negative effect on earnings. This ineffective use of surplus education appears across all occupations and high-skilled education levels. Although schooling serves as a pathway to occupational attainment, earnings appear to be more closely linked to a worker's occupation than to the individual's level of schooling. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, skill, schooling, occupations, earnings, rates of return |
| JEL: | I21 J24 J31 J61 F22 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4280&r=lab |
| By: | Hynninen S (University of Jyvaskyla); Longhi S (Institute for Social and Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the impact that local labour market conditions have on entry wages of highly educated workers in Great Britain and Finland. In both countries, workers entering the labour market in regions with (or periods of) tighter job competition obtain lower wages. Competition from employed job seekers has a negative impact on entry wages in both countries, while competition from unemployed job seekers has a negative impact only in Finland. Overall, the wage elasticity is larger in Great Britain than in Finland, suggesting that centralised collective bargaining might mitigate the impact that local labour market conditions have on entry wages. |
| Date: | 2009–07–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2009-20&r=lab |
| By: | Cobb-Clark, Deborah A (Australian National University); Tan, Michelle (Australian National University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether men's and women's noncognitive skills influence their occupational attainment and, if so, whether this contributes to the disparity in their relative wages. We find that noncognitive skills have a substantial effect on the probability of employment in many, though not all, occupations in ways that differ by gender. Consequently, men and women with similar noncognitive skills enter occupations at very different rates. Women, however, have lower wages on average not because they work in different occupations than men do, but rather because they earn less than their male colleagues employed in the same occupation. On balance, women's noncognitive skills give them a slight wage advantage. Finally, we find that accounting for the endogeneity of occupational attainment more than halves the proportion of the overall gender wage gap that is unexplained. |
| Keywords: | noncognitve skills, personality, occupation, gender wage gap, decomposition |
| JEL: | J16 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4289&r=lab |
| By: | Autor, David (MIT); Dorn, David (CEMFI, Madrid) |
| Abstract: | After a decade in which wages and employment fell precipitously in low-skill occupations and expanded in high-skill occupations, the shape of U.S. earnings and job growth sharply polarized in the 1990s. Employment shares and relative earnings rose in both low and high-skill jobs, leading to a distinct U-shaped relationship between skill levels and employment and wage growth. This paper analyzes the sources of the changing shape of the lower-tail of the U.S. wage and employment distributions. A first contribution is to document a hitherto unknown fact: the twisting of the lower tail is substantially accounted for by a single proximate cause − rising employment and wages in low-education, in-person service occupations. We study the determinants of this rise at the level of local labor markets over the period of 1950 through 2005. Our approach is rooted in a model of changing task specialization in which "routine" clerical and production tasks are displaced by automation. We find that in labor markets that were initially specialized in routine-intensive occupations, employment and wages polarized after 1980, with growing employment and earnings in both high-skill occupations and low-skill service jobs. |
| Keywords: | skill demand, job tasks, inequality, polarization, technological change, occupational choice |
| JEL: | E24 J24 J31 J62 O33 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4290&r=lab |
| By: | Anne Busch; Elke Holst |
| Abstract: | Although there are a variety of studies on the gender pay gap, only a few relate to managerial positions. The present study attempts to fill this gap. Managers in private companies in Germany are a highly selective group of women and men, who differ only marginally in their human capital endowments. The Oaxaca/Blinder decomposition shows that the gender pay gap in the gross monthly salary can hardly be explained using the human capital approach. Adding variables on gender-specific labor market segregation and dimensions of the household and family to the model allows more than two-thirds of the gender pay gap to be explained. However, taking selection effects in a managerial position into account (Heckman correction), the proportion explained decreases to only one-third. This reveals the real extent to which women are disadvantaged on the labor market. In addition, we observe not only that the wages in typical women's jobs are lower than in typical men's jobs but also that women are paid less than men in typical women's jobs. The two-thirds of the gender pay gap that remain unexplained represent the unobserved heterogeneity. This includes, for example, general societal and cultural conditions as well as structures and practices on the labor market and in companies that subject women to pay discrimination and pose an obstacle to them breaking the glass ceiling. |
| Keywords: | Gender pay gap, managerial positions, segregation, Oaxaca/Blinder decomposition, Heckman correction |
| JEL: | J31 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp905&r=lab |
| By: | Helpman, Elhanan; Itskhoki, Oleg; Redding, Stephen J |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a new framework for examining the distributional consequences of international trade that incorporates firm and worker heterogeneity, search and matching frictions in the labor market, and screening of workers by firms. Larger firms pay higher wages and exporters pay higher wages than non-exporters. The opening of trade enhances wage inequality and raises unemployment, but expected welfare gains are ensured if workers are risk neutral. And while wage inequality is larger in a trade equilibrium than in autarky, reductions of trade impediments can either raise or reduce wage inequality. |
| Keywords: | International Trade; Risk; Unemployment; Wage Inequality |
| JEL: | E24 F12 F16 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7353&r=lab |
| By: | Constant, Amelie F. (DIW DC, George Washington University); Zimmermann, Klaus F. (IZA, DIW Berlin and Bonn University) |
| Abstract: | Upon arrival in the host country, immigrants undergo a fundamental identity crisis. Their ethnic identity being questioned, they can be classified into four states – assimilation, integration, separation and marginalization. This is suggested by the ethnosizer, a newly established measure to parameterize a person's ethnic identity, using individual information on language, culture, societal interaction, history of migration, and ethnic self-identification. In what state individuals end up varies among immigrants even from the same country. Moreover, the quest for ethnic identity affects women and men differentially. This paper contends that ethnic identity can significantly affect the attachment to and performance of immigrants in the host country labor market, beyond human capital and ethnic origin characteristics. Empirical estimates for immigrants in Germany show that ethnic identity is important for the decision to work and significantly and differentially affects the labor force participation of men and women. Women who exhibit the integrated identity are more likely to work than women who are German assimilated; this does not hold for men. However, once we control for selection in the labor market and a slew of individual and labor market characteristics, ethnic identity does not significantly affect the earnings of men or women immigrant workers. |
| Keywords: | ethnosizer, ethnicity, ethnic identity, immigrant assimilation, integration, ethnic earnings |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J16 Z10 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4275&r=lab |
| By: | Lachowska, Marta (SOFI, Stockholm University); Sundén, Annika (SOFI, Stockholm University); Wadensjö, Eskil (Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | Phased retirement has been discussed as a means for increasing labour supply for people of older active age. The idea is that instead of leaving a full-time job early for full-time retirement, an employee should reduce the working time either in the same job or by changing jobs, and stay on in the labour market. In this paper we analyze the factors that influence the decision to take up a part-time pension and continue working at the same work place at reduced hours. We do this by using a unique data set from one employer in the governmental sector in Sweden, Stockholm University. The pension scheme is a special part-time pension scheme introduced for state employees in 2003. Employees 61 years and older can apply for a part-time pension up to the age of 65. The employers decide if they will accept or reject the application. They may also encourage employees to apply or discourage them from doing so. We have a data set covering all employees of the age groups who are eligible and a rich data set with information on the employees and also on the units (departments) who in practice decide if an application should be accepted or not. We find that both the effects on pension wealth of taking a part-time pension, and the economic situation of the department are important for the propensity for becoming a part-time pensioner. Also individual characteristics such as gender, age, earnings and occupation are important. |
| Keywords: | part-time work, part-time pension, older workers, labour supply |
| JEL: | H55 J22 J26 J14 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4284&r=lab |
| By: | Kenmei Tsubota (Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University) |
| Abstract: | TThis paper examines the role of trade union and the type of wage bargainings in economic geography model. In our setting, wage bargaining is held between immobile workers and mobile entrepreneurs who decide the location of their firm. It is shown that stronger trade unions in both regions would put a stronger pressure toward agglomeration of firms. This is due to the fact that the stronger bargaining power of trade union makes home market effect larger. Under core-periphery distribution of firms, this effect can act the role as anchorage of firms. Stronger trade unions in home region can keep the firms remain in their region. Moreover, we extend to several employment environments, which are the outside option of workers. We show that differences in bargaining structures and employment environments could affect the stability of symmetrically distributed firms, namely symmetry break point. We show that while unemployment rate acts as a centripetal force, not only the degree of bargaining power of trade union but also unemployment benefit can play as a centrifugal force. A key message of the paper is that generous unemployment benefit and higher trade union make the distribution of firms more uneven and sustainable. |
| Keywords: | Labour market rigidity, Regional Unemployment, Location of firms, Anchorage effect of trade union |
| JEL: | F15 F16 J50 R12 R38 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kyo:wpaper:675&r=lab |
| By: | KAWAGUCHI Daiji; MORI Yuko |
| Abstract: | This paper considers whether minimum wage is a well-targeted anti-poverty policy by examining the backgrounds of minimum-wage workers, and whether raising the minimum wage reduces employment for unskilled workers. An examination of micro data from a large-scale government household survey, the Employment Structure Survey (Shugyo Kozo Kihon Chosa), reveals that about half of minimum-wage workers belong to households with annual incomes of more than 5 million yen as a non-head of household. A regression analysis indicates that an increase in the minimum wage moderately reduces the employment of male teenagers and middle-aged, married females, while it encourages the employment of high school age youth. |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:09029&r=lab |
| By: | Raquel Tsukada (International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth); Elydia Silva (International Poverty Centre) |
| Abstract: | This One Pager discusses how age and gender affect workloads during the lifecycle of women and men in rural Ghana. We argue that the division of labour seems to sustain gender-income differences and intergenerational poverty. The workload is disproportionately carried by women, while children enter the labour force prematurely and the elderly work beyond retirement. |
| Keywords: | Age and Gender Bias in Workloads During the Lifecycle: Evidence from Rural Ghana |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:opager:88&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:2009/7/doc2009-8&r=lab |
| By: | Hugo Benitez-Silva (SUNY-Stony Brook); Frank Heiland (Florida State University) |
| Abstract: | The labor supply and benefit claiming incentives provided by the early retirement rules of the Social Security Old Age benefits program are of growing importance as the Normal Retirement Age (NRA) increases to 67, the labor force participation of Older Americans rises, and a variety of reforms to the Social Security system are considered. Any reform needs to take into account the effects and rationale of the Social Security Earnings Test and the Actuarial Adjustment Factor. We describe these incentives, and analyze benefit withholding patterns using data from the Master Beneficiary Files of the Social Security Administration, and present descriptive and exploratory evidence on the determinants of benefit withholding using data from the Health and Retirement Survey. We then investigate the importance of the Earnings Test limits for work and claiming behavior using a dynamic life-cycle model of labor supply, benefit claiming, and withholding. We use the latter framework to compare the consequences of a number of changes to the Earnings Test provision for the labor supply behavior and earnings of older Americans. |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp183&r=lab |
| By: | Nicole Maestas (RAND); Na Yin (Baruch College-CUNY) |
| Abstract: | The Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program imposes strong work restrictions on beneficiaries; however, the causal effect of the work disincentives on labor supply has been difficult to estimate. We take a new look at this question by exploiting the fact that DI benefits are payable only until full retirement age (FRA), at which point they are converted to retired worker benefits, and the program’s implicit high marginal tax rate on earnings is abruptly relaxed. Using a quasiexperimental research design, we examine whether the DI work disincentives are binding by comparing changes in labor force participation rates before and after the FRA for DI beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. We find a relative increase in labor force participation at FRA for DI beneficiaries of 10.4 percentage points, and argue that this is likely a lower bound estimate on the labor supply disincentive effects of the DI program. |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp194&r=lab |
| By: | Roman Rabb (ICSG - Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, Department of Economics, National University of Ireland Galway) |
| Abstract: | The scope of this paper is to investigate the impact of financial incentives on the retirement decision of private sector workers in Austria. How do financial incentives embedded in the Austrian pension system impact individual retirement behavior? We are using a unique data set of individual social insurance spells. Micro-estimating the impact of financial incentives on the probability of retirement shows that the behavioral response to financial incentives in Austria is relatively large in international comparison. Also, there are striking behavioral differences between men and women. Using the estimates to simulate the response to reform shows that actual retirement ages could be most successfully brought up by a 6 percentage point deduction in pension benefits per year of early retirement. |
| Keywords: | Models with Panel Data, Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models, Social Security and Public Pensions, Time Allocation and Labor Supply, Retirement; Retirement Policies. |
| Date: | 2009–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper0902&r=lab |
| By: | Bargain, Olivier (University College Dublin); Kwenda, Prudence (University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides new evidence on the wage gap between informal and formal salary workers in South Africa, Brazil and Mexico. We use rich datasets that allow us to define informality in a relatively comparable fashion across countries. We compute precise wage differentials by accounting for taxes paid in the formal sector. For each country, we analyze how the sector wage gap varies within groups, between groups and over time. To account for unobserved heterogeneity, we use large (unbalanced) panels to estimate fixed effects models at the mean and at different quantiles of the wage distribution. We find that unobserved heterogeneity explains a large part of the (conditional) wage gap. The remaining informal sector wage penalty is large in the lower part of the distribution but almost disappears at the top. The penalty primarily concerns young workers and is found to be procyclical. We carefully investigate the robustness of these results and discuss their policy implications as well as regularities across countries. |
| Keywords: | wage gap, informal sector, quantile regression, fixed effects model, selection |
| JEL: | J21 J23 J24 J31 C14 O17 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4286&r=lab |
| By: | Rosario Crinò |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically studies the effects of service offshoring on white-collar employment, using data for more than one hundred U.S. occupations. A model of firm behavior based on separability allows to derive the labor demand elasticity with respect to service offshoring for each occupation. Estimation is performed with Quasi-Maximum Likelihood, to account for high degrees of censoring in the employment variable. The estimated elasticities are then related to proxies for the skill level and the degree of tradability of the occupations. Results show that service offshoring increases high skilled employment and decreases medium and low skilled employment. Within each skill group, however, service offshoring penalizes tradable occupations and benefits non-tradable occupations. |
| Keywords: | Occupations; Skills; Tradability; Separability; Quasi-Maximum Likelihood |
| JEL: | F1 |
| Date: | 2009–06–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aub:autbar:775.09&r=lab |
| By: | KURODA Sachiko; YAMAMOTO Isamu |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether overtime regulations have a significant impact on the hours worked and hourly wages, by focusing on so-called name-only managers in Japan. The term name-only manager refers to an employee who has essentially the same job description as other employees, but who is designated by the company as a manager to exempt them from overtime regulations. As the name implies, the only difference between those managers and other employees is in the applicable regulations on working time. Using longitudinal data, our main results from matching estimation indicate no significant difference in hourly wage or hours worked between the two groups. This implies that name-only managers' base salaries are sufficiently higher to compensate for the loss of overtime pay, which supports the fixed-job model. |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:09028&r=lab |
| By: | Kai-Uwe Müller |
| Abstract: | Several empirical minimum wage studies have recently been published that simulate em-ployment effects of a federal minimum wage in Germany. We disentangle various factors that explain the variation in previous simulation results. Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the newly available ¿Verdienststrukturerhebung 2006¿ we conduct robustness analyses that systematically test the range in the outcomes of different labor demand simulations. We find that labor demand effects are sensitive to measurement errors in wages, the representativeness of the sample with respect to several types of labor inputs as well as estimated and assumed labor demand and output price elasticities. Interactions of those determinants may lead to substantial differences in simulation outcomes. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage, wage distribution, employment effects, labor demand |
| JEL: | J23 J31 J38 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp900&r=lab |
| By: | Teresa Martín-García |
| Abstract: | This article investigates the relationship between educational attainment, in terms of both level and field of education, and the probability of being childless in Spain. Findings demonstrate that there is a significant difference in childlessness by education level among women aged 34-50, while this significance disappears when the analysis is not confined to older women but includes all women (aged 18-50) and is controlled for heterogeneity. In this latter case, childlessness has more to do with later childbearing among young women than with the accumulation of human capital. However, women educated in those studies concerned with the care of individuals and/or emphasizing interpersonal skills have a lower probability of being childless than women in other fields of study, irrespective of their education level, in both samples. In addition, the results show that childlessness, departure from education and union formation are jointly determined. Young women who want to be childfree or end up being childless stay in school for a longer period of time and postpone their union formation, whilst those with strong family/fertility intentions accelerate the three processes. I use data from the Spanish Family and Fertility Survey (1995) and apply event history models that take into account unobserved heterogeneity. |
| Keywords: | childlessness, education, field of study, Spain |
| JEL: | J12 J13 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:114&r=lab |
| By: | Randall Reback (Barnard College, Columbia University) |
| Abstract: | Children’s non-cognitive skills, mental health, and behavior are important predictors of future earnings and educational attainment. Their behavior in the classroom also affects their peers’ behavior and achievement. There is limited prior evidence, however, concerning the impact of school resources on student behavior. Some elementary schools employ counselors whose primary purpose is to help improve students’ behavior, mental health, and non-cognitive skill acquisition. This paper estimates regression discontinuity models exploiting Alabama’s unique financing system for school counselors. Alabama fully subsidizes counselor appointments for all elementary schools, with the number of appointments based on schools’ prior year enrollments using discrete enrollment cutoffs. The results suggest that greater counselor subsidies reduce the frequency of disciplinary incidents but do not strongly influence mean student achievement test scores. Increases in counselors moderate relatively severe behavioral problems without necessarily improving systemic behavior affecting classroom learning. |
| Keywords: | education, counselors, mental health, discipline, regression discontinuity |
| JEL: | I22 I10 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:brn:wpaper:0903&r=lab |
| By: | Jung, Sven (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg); Schnabel, Claus (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | Using a representative establishment data set for Germany, we show that more than 40 percent of plants covered by collective agreements pay wages above the level stipulated in the agreement, which gives rise to a wage cushion between the levels of actual and contractual wages. Cross-sectional and fixed-effects estimations for the period 2001-2006 indicate that the wage cushion mainly varies with the profit situation of the plant and with indicators of labour shortage and the business cycle. While plants bound by multi-employer sectoral agreements seem to pay wage premiums in order to overcome the restrictions imposed by the rather centralized system of collective bargaining in Germany, plants which make use of single-employer agreements are significantly less likely to have wage cushions. |
| Keywords: | wages, wage cushion, wage determination, bargaining, Germany |
| JEL: | J30 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4278&r=lab |
| By: | Salma Ahmed; Pushkar Maitra |
| Abstract: | Female wages in Bangladesh are significantly lower compared to male wages. This paper seeks to quantify the extent of discrimination in explaining this gender wage gap. We decompose the gender wage differential into a component that can be explained by differences in productive characteristics and a component unexplained by observable productive differences, which are attributed to discrimination. We examine this issue both for rural and urban areas in Bangladesh, using individual level unit record data. Methodologically, we use a number of different approaches to decompose the wage gap between the “explained†and the “unexplained†components. Our results show that gender wage differentials are considerably larger in urban areas compared to rural areas. The decomposition analysis suggests that a significant portion of this gender wage gap results from discrimination. We also find that failure to correct for sample selection bias leads to a significant under estimation of the gender wage gap in both rural and urban areas. Our results have significant policy implications. |
| Keywords: | Gender, Wage Discrimination, Bangladesh. |
| JEL: | J16 J21 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2008-23&r=lab |
| By: | Katy Cornwell; Brett Inder; Pushkar Maitra; Anu Rammohan |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine the demand for education among rural Black households in South Africa using nationally representative data from the 1990s. In particular our study focuses on factors affecting schooling decisions at the household level. Our estimation results reveal strong evidence of a sibling synergy effect, in that the presence of other school-age children in a household makes it more likely that a child will attend school. We also find that having working-age migrant adults improves educational participation and attainment of children. Our results point to strong gender effects, with the presence of female migrants increasing the likelihood of girls getting more education. Finally, our results show that pensions in the hands of the grandmother increases the probability of girls attending school, but has little effect on the schooling of boys. |
| Keywords: | Household composition, Schooling, Education Attainment, Sibling Synergy, Migrant Effects, South Africa |
| JEL: | O12 I21 C25 |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2005-22&r=lab |
| By: | José Emilio Boscá (University of Valencia, Spain); Javier Ferri (University of Valencia, Spain); Rafa Doménech (BBVA Economic Research Department, Spain) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the effects of introducing typical Keynesian features, namely rule-of-thumb consumers and consumption habits, into a standard labour market search model. It is a well-known fact that labour market matching with Nash-wage bargaining improves the ability of the standard real business cycle model to replicate some of the cyclical properties featuring the labour market. However, when habits and rule-of-thumb consumers are taken into account, the labour market search model gains extra power to reproduce some of the stylised facts characterising the US labour market, as well as other business cycle facts concerning aggregate consumption and investment behaviour. |
| Keywords: | general equilibrium, labour market search, habits, rule-of-tumb consumers |
| JEL: | E24 E32 E62 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iei:wpaper:0901&r=lab |
| By: | Simonetta Longhi; Malcolm Brynin |
| Abstract: | We use British and German panel data to analyse job changes involving a change in occupation. We assess: (1) the extent of occupational change, taking into account the possibility of measurement error in occupational codes; (2) whether job changes within the occupation differ from occupation changes in terms of the characteristics of those making such switches; and (3) 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. |
| Keywords: | Job change, occupation change, Britain, Germany |
| JEL: | J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp204&r=lab |
| By: | Corseuil, Carlos H. L. |
| Abstract: | In this paper we build an integrated framework of the labor market in which worker replacement, job creation and job destruction are decided simultaneously at the firm level, providing a rigorous instrument for the analysis of worker flows. The main features of the model are uncertainty related to worker X firm match quality and search frictions. Worker flow components are decided as firms learn about the quality of their matches. A negative cor- relation between replacement and job creation arises from this mechanism. The model also provides several implications for firm dynamics, which are all confirmed by related empirical papers. |
| Keywords: | worker flows; firm dynamics |
| JEL: | J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:16157&r=lab |
| By: | Regis Barnichon |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a search model of unemployment with a new mechanism of job separation based on firms' demand constraints. The model is consistent with the cyclical behavior of labor market variables and can account for three stylized facts about unemployment that the Mortensen-Pissarides (1994) model has difficulties explaining jointly: (i) the unemployment-vacancy correlation is negative, (ii) the contribution of the job separation rate to unemployment fluctuations is small but non-trivial, (iii) movements in the job separation rate are sharp and short-lived while movements in the job finding rate are persistent. In addition, the model can rationalize two hitherto unexplained findings: why unemployment inflows were less important in the last two decades, and why the asymmetric behavior of unemployment weakened after 1985. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2009-24&r=lab |
| By: | Brügger, Beatrix (University of Lausanne); Lalive, Rafael (University of Lausanne); Zweimüller, Josef (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the role of culture in shaping unemployment outcomes. The empirical analysis is based on local comparisons across a language barrier in Switzerland. This Röstigraben separates cultural groups, but neither labor markets nor political jurisdictions. Local contrasts across the language border identify the role of culture for unemployment. Our findings indicate that differences in culture explain differences in unemployment duration on the order of 20%. Moreover, we find that horizontal transmission of culture is more important than vertical transmission of culture and that culture is about as important as strong changes to the benefit duration. |
| Keywords: | culture, cultural transmission, unemployment duration, regional unemployment |
| JEL: | J21 J64 Z10 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4283&r=lab |
| By: | Russell Smyth; Qingguo Zhai; Xiaoxu Li |
| Abstract: | This study examines the determinants of turnover intentions of off farm migrant workers, using data collected from China’s Jiangsu Province. Turnover intention is posited to be a function of demographic/human capital characteristics, job characteristics and job satisfaction. We find that higher levels of education have a positive effect on reported turnover intentions, while higher income and job satisfaction have a negative effect on turnover intentions. As turnover intentions represent a good proxy for actual turnover, the results can be viewed as providing reliable predictors of job mobility among off farm migrant workers at a time when there is a growing shortage of such workers in China’s coastal provinces. |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2008-03&r=lab |
| By: | Wenli Cheng; Dingsheng Zhang |
| Abstract: | This paper develops two models to study the impact of outsourcing on wage inequality between skilled and unskilled labor in the developed country and the developing country. The first model assumes symmetric production technologies in both countries, and predicts that outsourcing will increase wage inequality in the developed country, but decrease wage inequality in the developing country. The second model assumes asymmetric technologies in the production of the intermediate good and predicts that outsourcing can lead to an increase in wage inequality in both the developed country and the developing country. |
| Keywords: | wage inequality, endogenous outsourcing |
| JEL: | F19 |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2005-20&r=lab |
| By: | Richard V. Burkhauser (Cornell University); Mary C. Daly (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco); Jeff Larrimore (Cornell University); Joyce Kwok (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco) |
| Abstract: | In the 1990s, social expectations of single mothers shifted towards the notion that most should, could, and would work, if given the proper incentives. This shift in expectations culminated in the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in 1996, commonly known as welfare reform. As a result, ADFC/TANF caseloads fell along with cash transfers to single mothers who did not work. A decade later the earnings and household income of single mothers are significantly higher and moving more in synch with the U.S. economy. In stark contrast and despite espoused goals to the contrary, public policies toward working age men and women with disabilities have remained imbued with the notion that most cannot and thus, would not work, no matter what incentives they faced. As a result, SSDI/SSI expenditures and caseloads have increased and the earnings and household income of working age men and women with disabilities have fallen, leaving them even further behind the average working age American than they were a decade ago. Using data from the Current Population Survey we follow the economic well-being and employment of single mothers and working age men and women with disabilities over the past two major United States business cycles (1982-1993 and 1993-2004) and show that despite the dramatic decline in AFDC/TANF funding, single mothers’ economic well-being, labor earnings and employment all have risen substantially. In contrast, despite the dramatic increase in SSDI/SSI funding, the economic wellbeing of working age men and women with disabilities remained stagnant, as their labor earnings and employment plummeted. |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp187&r=lab |
| By: | Rania Antonopoulos |
| Abstract: | Beyond loss of income, joblessness is associated with greater poverty, marginalization, and social exclusion; the current global crisis is clearly not helping. In this new Public Policy Brief, Research Scholar Rania Antonopoulos explores the impact of both joblessness and employment expansion on poverty, paying particular attention to the gender aspects of poverty and poverty-reducing public employment schemes targeting poor women. The author presents the results of a Levy Institute study that examines the macroeconomic consequences of scaling up South Africa's Expanded Public Works Programme by adding to it a new sector for social service delivery in health and education. She notes that gaps in such services for households that cannot afford to pay for them are mostly filled by long hours of invisible, unpaid work performed by women and children. Her proposed employment creation program addresses several policy objectives: income and job generation, provisioning of communities' unmet needs, skill enhancement for a new cadre of workers, and promotion of gender equality by addressing the overtaxed time of women. |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:levppb:ppb_101&r=lab |
| By: | Vinod Mishra; Ingrid Nielsen; Russell Smyth |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between the female labour force participation rate and total fertility rate for the G7 countries over the period 1960 to 2004 using panel unit root, panel cointegration, Granger causality and long-run structural estimation. The paper’s main findings are that the female labour force participation rate and total fertility rate are cointegrated for the panel of G7 countries; that long-run Granger causality runs from the total fertility rate to the female labour force participation rate and that a 1-per cent increase in the total fertility rate results in a 0.4 per cent decrease in the female labour force participation rate for the G7 countries. |
| Keywords: | fertility, female labour force participation, panel unit roots, panel cointegration, G7 countries. |
| JEL: | C22 C52 J13 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2006-13&r=lab |
| By: | Emma Aguila (RAND); Julie Zissimopoulos (RAND) |
| Abstract: | In this study we analyzed the retirement behavior of Mexicans with migration spells to the United States that returned to Mexico and non-migrants. Our analysis is based on rich panel data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS). Approximately 9 percent of MHAS respondents aged 50 and older reported having lived or worked in the United States. These return migrants were more likely to be working at older ages than non-migrants. Consistent with much of the prior research on retirement in the United States and other developed countries, Mexican non-migrants and return migrants were responsive to institutional incentives. Both groups were more likely to retire if they had publicly provided health insurance and pensions. In addition, receipt of U.S. Social Security benefits increased retirement rates among return migrants. Return migrants were more likely to report being in poor health and this also increased the likelihood of retiring. The 2004 draft of an Agreement on Social Security would coordinate benefits across United States and Mexico boundaries to protect the benefits of persons who have worked in foreign countries. The agreement would likely increase the number of authorized and unauthorized Mexican workers and family member eligible for Social Security benefits. The responsiveness of current, older Mexican return migrants to pension benefits, suggests that an Agreement would affect the retirement behavior of Mexican migrants. |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp192&r=lab |
| By: | John T. Addison; Ralph W. Bailey; W. Stanley Siebert |
| Abstract: | Taking as our point of departure a model proposed by David Card (2001), we suggest new methods for analyzing wage dispersion in a partially unionized labor market. Card's method disaggregates the la- bor population into skill categories, which procedure entails some loss of information. Accordingly, we develop a model in which each worker individually is assigned a union-membership probability and predicted union and nonunion wages. The model yields a natural three-way de- composition of variance. The decomposition permits counterfactual analysis, using concepts and techniques from the theory of factorial experimental design. We examine causes of the increase in U.K. wage dispersion between 1983 and 1995. Of the factors initially considered, the most influential was a change in the structure of remuneration inside both the union and nonunion sectors. Next in importance was the decrease in union membership. Finally, exogenous changes in la- bor force characteristics had, for most groups considered, only a small negative effect. We supplement this preliminary three-factorial analy- sis with a ?ve-factorial analysis that allows us to examine effects from the wage-equation parameters in greater detail. |
| Keywords: | wage dispersion, three-way variance decomposition, bivariate kernal density smoothing, union membership, deunionization, factorial experimental design |
| JEL: | D3 J31 J51 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bir:birmec:09-04&r=lab |
| By: | Deb Kusum Das |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to identify and examine labor intensive industries in the organized manufacturing sector in India in order to understand their employment generation potential. Using the data from the Annual Survey of Industries (Government of India, various issues), the labor intensity for 97 industries at the 4-digit disaggregate level was computed for the period 1990-91 to 2003-04. The study identifies 31 industries as ‘labor intensive industries’ within India’s organized manufacturing sector. The paper briefly highlights the plausible factors that could have had an impact on labor intensity as well as on the performance of the organized manufacturing sector over the study period. [WP No. 236]. |
| Keywords: | labor internsive industries, labour, employment, India, manufacturing, sector, elasticity, growth, productivity, capital, organized |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2129&r=lab |
| By: | Ann Huff Stevens (University of California, Davis) |
| Abstract: | Changes in labor markets over the past 30 years suggest upcoming changes in the distribution of wealth at retirement. Baby boom cohorts have spent the majority of their prime earnings years in a labor market with increased earnings inequality. This paper investigates how changes in lifetime earnings distributions affect the distribution of retirement wealth among cohorts retiring over the next decade. I use data from the Health and Retirement Study from 1992 to 2004 to estimate the relationship between lifetime earnings, pre-retirement private wealth and Social Security wealth. I show that changes in the lower half of the male earnings distribution explain a substantial portion of changes in the distribution of pre-retirement wealth. Growth in women’s earnings across the cohorts do not offset these declines in wealth associated with male earnings. When pensions are added to the measure of wealth, the role of earnings is even larger, reflecting a strong correlation between changes in earnings across these cohorts and changes in the values of their employer-provided pensions. These pension changes do not appear to operate via changes in pension structures (defined benefit versus defined contribution). The present value of wealth from future Social Security benefits, in contrast, grows in real terms throughout most of the distribution. At the bottom of the male distribution of Social Security wealth, reductions in lifetime earnings limit this growth in real benefits, while at the top of the distribution earnings growth amplifies expected growth in Social Security wealth. |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp186&r=lab |
| By: | Randall Reback (Barnard College, Columbia University) |
| Abstract: | Recent empirical research has found that children’s non-cognitive skills play a critical role in their own success, that young children’s behavioral and psychological disorders can severely harm their future outcomes, and that disruptive students harm the behavior and learning of their classmates. Yet relatively little is known about wide-scale interventions designed to improve children’s behavior and mental health. This is the first nationally representative study of the provision, financing, and impact of school-site mental health services for young children. Elementary school counselors are school employees who provide mental health services to all types of students, typically meeting with students one-on-one or in small groups. It is particularly challenging to estimate the impact of these counselors on student outcomes, given counselors’ non-random assignment to schools. First, cross-state differences in policies provide descriptive evidence that students in states with more aggressive elementary counseling policies make greater test score gains and are less likely to report internalizing or externalizing problem behaviors compared to students with similar observed characteristics in similar schools in other states. Next, difference-in-differences estimates exploiting both the timing and the targeted-grade-levels of states’ counseling policy changes provide evidence that elementary counselors substantially influence teachers’ perceptions of school climate. The adoption of state-funded counselor subsidies or minimum counselorstudent ratios reduces the fraction of teachers reporting that their instruction suffers due to student misbehavior and reduces the fractions reporting problems with students physically fighting each other, cutting class, stealing, or using drugs. These findings imply that there may be substantial public and private benefits derived from providing additional elementary school counselors. |
| Keywords: | education, counselors, student behavior, mental health |
| JEL: | I22 I10 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:brn:wpaper:0904&r=lab |
| By: | Corseuil, Carlos H. L. |
| Abstract: | The present paper provides empirical evidence compatible with a proposed theoretical framework to explain the joint determination of two components of worker flows: worker replacement and job creation. We show that a negative correlation between job creation and replacement across firms emerges from such a framework. An empirical model is specified and its parameters are estimated taking into account two serious problems: measurement error and endogenous regressor. We take advantage of a matched employer-employee longitudinal database with detailed information on job and worker characteristics to tackle both issues. Our estimates confirm the negative correlation predicted by the theory. |
| Keywords: | job flows; replacement; employment dynamics |
| JEL: | J63 J23 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:16158&r=lab |
| By: | Getinet Haile |
| Keywords: | job separations, job turnover, economics of minorities |
| JEL: | J6 J15 C35 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp208&r=lab |
| By: | Albert Solé-Ollé (Universitat de Barcelona); Paula Salinas (Universitat de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | Several arguments derived from fiscal federalism theory suggest that decentralization may lead to improved levels of efficiency in the provision of public goods and services. The aim of this study is to examine this hypothesis by evaluating the effects of decentralization on educational outcomes in Spain. These are measured using a survival rate, defined as the ratio between the number of students who enrolled in upper-secondary (non-compulsory) education and the number of students enrolled in the final year of lower-secondary (compulsory) education during the previous academic year. We use a panel data set comprising the 50 provinces of Spain for the years 1978 to 2005, a period that covers the entire process of decentralization. Since education competences were devolved to the regions at different points in time, we can estimate the effects of these reforms by applying the differences-in-differences method and by using the non-decentralized autonomous regions as the comparison group. We find that decentralization in Spain had a positive impact on educational outcomes when pupils on vocational training programmes are not taken into account, and that the richer the region is the more marked the effect becomes. However, this improvement in educational outcomes is achieved at the expense of enrolment in vocational training programmes. These effects might reflect a better match between population preferences and educational policies consequent upon decentralization. |
| Keywords: | Decentralization, Policy Evaluation, Education |
| JEL: | H11 H43 H52 I28 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:2009/7/doc2009-10&r=lab |
| By: | Xiaoyan Li (RAND); Nicole Maestas (RAND) |
| Abstract: | As the Social Security full retirement age rises, the relative generosity of Social Security retirement benefits compared to disability benefits is declining, raising the incentive for insured people to apply for disability benefits. After controlling for other differences in observable characteristics, such as life-time earnings, we find that an average four month increase in the FRA slightly increases the two-year DI application rate by 0.04-0.30 percentage points. The effect is greater among those with a work limiting health problem (0.22-0.89 percentage points). |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp198&r=lab |
| By: | Chongwoo Choe; Gloria Tian; Xiangkang Yin |
| Abstract: | This paper studies theoretically and empirically the relation among CEO power, CEO compensation and firm performance. Our theoretical model follows the rent extraction view of CEO compensation put forward by the managerial power theory, and proxies CEO power by the bargaining power the CEO exercises in the determination of his compensation contract. We show (i) when there is no constraint on the CEO’s salary, the CEO’s stock-based compensation and the pay-performance sensitivity of CEO compensation are both independent of CEO power, although firm performance net of CEO compensation worsens as CEO power increases, and (ii) when the CEO’s salary has a binding cap, the CEO’s stock-based compensation and the pay-performance sensitivity of CEO compensation are both increasing in CEO power, resulting in better firm performance gross of CEO compensation, but worse firm performance net of CEO compensation. We test our theoretical findings using the sample of S&P1500 firms over the period of 2001-2005. The predicted relation between power and pay is largely supported. However, the relation between power and firm performance as predicted by theory has mixed support. This suggests that, while the managerial power theory has clear relevance in explaining the relation between power and pay, the scope of power needs to be broadened to have better understanding of how managerial power affects firm performance. |
| Keywords: | Managerial power, agency theory, stock-based incentives, firm performance, pay-performance sensitivity. |
| JEL: | D82 G32 J33 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2008-21&r=lab |
| By: | Pascal Courty; Mario Pagliero |
| Abstract: | We measure friction in the matching of students and law schools as the number of unnecessary student applications and school admissions that have to be undertaken per actual matriculation. We show that friction increases with student and school attractiveness, but decreases for top schools and students. We discuss connections with the literature on frictional matching. |
| Keywords: | college admission, frictional matching, assortative matching, student portfolio, school standard |
| JEL: | D02 C78 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:113&r=lab |
| By: | Paula Salinas Pena; Albert Sole-Olle (Universitat de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | Several arguments derived from fiscal federalism theory suggest that decentralization may lead to improved levels of efficiency in the provision of public goods and services. The aim of this study is to examine this hypothesis by evaluating the effects of decentralization on educational outcomes in Spain. These are measured using a survival rate, defined as the ratio between the number of students who enrolled in upper-secondary (noncompulsory) education and the number of students enrolled in the final year of lower-secondary (compulsory) education during the previous academic year. We use a panel data set comprising the 50 provinces of Spain for the years 1978 to 2005, a period that covers the entire process of decentralization. Since education competences were devolved to the regions at different points in time, we can estimate the effects of these reforms by applying the differencesin- differences method and by using the non-decentralized autonomous regions as the comparison group. We find that decentralization in Spain had a positive impact on educational outcomes when pupils on vocational training programmes are not taken into account, and that the richer the region is the more marked the effect becomes. However, this improvement in educational outcomes is achieved at the expense of enrolment in vocational training programmes. These effects might reflect a better match between population preferences and educational policies consequent upon decentralization. |
| Keywords: | decentralization, policy evaluation;, policy evaluation |
| JEL: | I28 H11 H43 H52 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bar:bedcje:2009228&r=lab |
| By: | Simone Tuor (Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, University of Zurich); Uschi Backes-Gellner (Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | We empirically investigate the joint training decisions of workers and firms. The aim of our study is to learn how various cost components affect workers’ (non-)participation in training. In particular, we separately consider monetary and non-monetary training costs, which is possible thanks to an especially rich dataset that includes both participants and non-participants. Our estimation results show that workers whose firms cover some of their training costs would generally be more likely to have assumed the full training costs themselves had they not received employer support. Moreover, the share of self-financed training, as compared to employer-supported training, is generally low. Thus, firms moderate virtually all training decisions and, as a result, considerably influence (non-)participation patterns. Interestingly, although training non-participation can be attributed to both monetary and non-monetary costs, the latter seem to comprise the more binding restriction. That is, time is more costly than money. |
| Keywords: | Training costs, employer-supported training, time vs. money |
| JEL: | J24 M53 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0046&r=lab |
| By: | Jose Ricrado Goncalves |
| Abstract: | The configuration of the liquid wealth involved a reorganization of society and the financial system with on labour and trade union organization in Brazil. The changes involved the redefinition of the profile of the bank and regulation standards with implications for the collective bargaining. These changes involved the reorganization of work in the financial sector according to the new investment trends organized through financial holding companies that turned out to exceed their operations in the traditional banks branches. Thus, the organization of the workers in the financial system no longer fits within the bank workers category. In this framework, the trade unions developed strategies of adaptation and resistance in order to maintain and expand the ability to represent the workers effectively. As a result, we must rethink the boundaries of the concept of category of workers and the possibilities of the new forms of workers representation in the financial system that could now be articulated in organizations based on their branch of activity. |
| Keywords: | Labour; trade unions; financial sector; Brazil; banking industry; financial holdings; financialisation; bank employees;collective bargainig; |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2113&r=lab |
| By: | Shinichi Nishiyama (Georgia State University); Kent Smetters (The Wharton School) |
| Abstract: | The United States Social Security system is fairly unique in that it explicitly allows for a progressive formulation of retirement benefits by assigning a larger replacement rate to workers with small pre-retirement wages. In contrast, the public pension systems in other countries often replace a constant fraction of pre-retirement wages, although the length of the “averaging period" is typically shorter relative to the U.S. This paper examines the ex-ante optimal U.S. Social Security benefit structure using the model developed in Nishiyama and Smetters (2007). On one hand, progressivity in the benefit structure provides risk sharing against shocks that are difficult to insure privately. On the other hand, progressivity introduces various marginal tax rates that distort labor supply. Rather surprisingly, we find that the ex-ante best U.S. Social Security replacement rate structure is fairly “flat.” Intuitively, the relatively long averaging period used in the U.S. system formulation already provides some insurance against negative idiosyncratic shocks, but in a manner that is more efficient than explicit redistribution. |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp197&r=lab |
| By: | Pervi Sevak (Hunter College); Lucie Schmidt (Williams College) |
| Abstract: | Immigrants have been discussed as a means of alleviating fiscal pressures on Social Security. Their long-term impact on the Social Security system depends critically on their fertility and mortality patterns. In this paper, we examine the fertility and mortality patterns of immigrants to the United States and compare these patterns with those of non-immigrants. We find that both the recent and cumulative fertility of immigrant women is higher than that of native-born women, but that a large share of these differentials can be “explained” by differences in age structures, race and ethnicity, years in the United States, and country of origin. Using a synthetic cohort approach, we examine the role of years in the United States in more detail, and find no evidence of assimilation towards native-born fertility patterns. Consistent with previous research, we find evidence of a disruption effect on fertility – the fertility of immigrant women in the most recent arrival cohorts is low, but increases at a faster rate relative to both the fertility of immigrants from earlier cohorts and relative to the fertility of natives. We find that immigrants experience lower mortality than native-born individuals in the United States, and these differences remain even after controlling for underlying differences in observable characteristics. However we find that they do not exhibit differences in their subjective expectations of their mortality. |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp181&r=lab |
| By: | Xiujian Peng; Dietrich Fausten |
| Abstract: | Increasing life expectancy and rapid fertility decline in China since the 1970s have accelerated the rate of population ageing, fuelling the prospects of an ageing workforce and a significant slowdown in the growth of the working age population. The present paper examines the trend of labour supply in China over the next 45 years under alternative fertility scenarios by taking account of the demographic composition effect and potential trends of the age-and sex-specific labour force participation rates. The main finding is that the labour supply contraction will accelerate from 2020 onwards in response to population ageing and the probable attrition of the LFPR of the young population. Relaxing the current one-child policy may moderate the adverse labour market consequences by increasing the base of the working age population and decelerate the rate of population ageing. |
| Keywords: | population ageing, labour supply and China |
| JEL: | J11 J14 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2006-16&r=lab |
| By: | Wojciech Kopczuk (Columbia University); Jae Song (Social Security Administration) |
| Abstract: | We rely on the Master Beneficiary File to document a number of facts regarding claiming of Social Security benefits and quality of date of birth data in administrative files. We then assess the impact of changes in retirement incentives that have taken place since 2000 on claiming. We find evidence of non-trivial misreporting or clerical errors in the dates of births that give rise to systematic patterns but nevertheless appear to be fairly random. We also confirm significant tendency to claim in January or on birthdays, but we find that these patterns are still sensitive to incentive effects. Relying on the discontinuity in the Early Entitlement Age that occurs for people born on the second day of any month, we find evidence that people do not have singlepeaked preferences over claiming age: relaxing the early retirement constraint leads to acceleration of retirement by some people for whom the constraint would not be otherwise binding. One possible explanation for this pattern is a preference for retiring at one's birthday. We take advantage of a change in the full retirement age and find that there remains unusually large (relative to other birthdays) number of people who claim around their 65th birthday, supporting the idea that Medicare eligibility has an impact on claiming retirement benefits. Finally, we confirm that elimination of the earnings test in 2000 for those above full retirement age accelerated retirements and find that it also led to a significant weakening of the January effect in that group, bolstering the idea that the January effect is sensitive to economic incentives. |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp200&r=lab |
| By: | Shiyuan Chen; Sally Wallace (Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we have applied discrete time survival analysis techniques to analyze education duration in Jamaica. Based on the Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions 2002, we are able to estimate the effects of household, individual, and other related covariates on the risks of students dropping out. We compare the discrete time Cox model and discrete time logit model and determined that the two estimations are consistent. The estimation results measure the effects of the covariates and can be used to predict the dropout risks of particular students in each grade, which could provide useful implications for the formation of policy to improve education in Jamaica. |
| Keywords: | education; dropout; time; survival analysis; poverty |
| Date: | 2008–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper0803&r=lab |
| By: | K Sundaram (Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi, India) |
| Abstract: | This paper offers a review of the concepts and definitions used in the NSS Employment-Unemployment Surveys (EUS, for short) which have remained virtually unchanged since they were introduced in the NSS 27th Round (1972-73) based on the analysis and recommendations in the Report of the Expert Group on Unemployment Estimate – better known as the Dantwala Committee Report (GOI, 1970). It also examines critically the employment-unemployment estimates derived/derivable from EUS and the use of such estimates for planning and policy. |
| Date: | 2009–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cde:cdewps:174&r=lab |
| By: | Lehrer, Evelyn L. (University of Illinois at Chicago) |
| Abstract: | This paper critically reviews what is known, based on analyses of micro-level U.S. data, about the role of religion in various interrelated decisions that people make over the life cycle, including investments in secular human capital, cohabitation, marriage, divorce, family size and employment. It also identifies gaps in our knowledge, and suggests agenda items for future research in the field. These include use of statistical models that allow for non-linearities in the effects associated with religious participation; consideration of contextual effects; and analyses that address anomalies found in earlier work regarding patterns of non-marital sex and divorce among conservative Protestants. Further work is also needed to increase our understanding of the role that religious factors are playing as various dimensions of the second demographic transition, along with elements of "American exceptionalism," continue to unfold in the U.S. |
| Keywords: | religiosity, religion |
| JEL: | J1 J2 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4279&r=lab |
| By: | David Lagakos |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we construct a parsimonious overlapping-generations model of human capital accumulation and study its quantitative implications for the evolution of the U.S. wage distribution from 1970 to 2000. A key feature of the model is that individuals differ in their ability to accumulate human capital, which is the main source of wage inequality in this model. We examine the response of this model to skill-biased technical change (SBTC), which is modeled as an increase in the trend growth rate of the price of human capital starting in the early 1970s. The model displays behavior that is consistent with several important trends observed in the US data, including the rise in overall wage inequality; the fall and subsequent rise in the college premium, as well as the fact that this behavior was most pronounced for younger workers; the rise in within-group inequality; the stagnation in median wage growth; and the small rise in consumption inequality despite the large rise in wage inequality. We consider different scenarios regarding how individuals? expectations evolve during SBTC. Specifically, we study the case where individuals immediately realize the advent of SBTC (perfect foresight), and the case where they initially underestimate the future growth of the price of human capital (pessimistic priors), but learn the truth in a Bayesian fashion over time. Lack of perfect foresight appears to have little effect on the main results of the paper. Overall, the model shows promise for explaining a diverse set of wage distribution trends observed since the 1970s in a unifying human capital framework. |
| Keywords: | Retail trade ; Technology ; Productivity |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedmsr:428&r=lab |
| By: | Bargain, Olivier (University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | Discrete-choice models of labor supply have become very popular for ex ante evaluations of policy reforms as they easily account for non-convex budget sets. We test the constraints imposed in practice on these models and suggest a fully flexible model that significantly improves fit. |
| Keywords: | multinomial logit, labor supply, taxation |
| JEL: | H31 J22 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4281&r=lab |
| By: | Ken Clark ; Nikolaos C. Kanellopoulos |
| Keywords: | Low pay, low pay persistence, state dependence, initial conditions, dynamic random effects probit models |
| JEL: | C23 C25 J31 J69 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp207&r=lab |
| By: | Akram, Naeem; Pada, Itsham ul Haq |
| Abstract: | Human Capital plays pivotal role for economic growth process. The aim of this paper is to present a brief overview of the studies conducted on the relationship between education and economic growth. Most of the studies are cross-sectional, including developing and developed countries and single country studies are very few in numbers. A general consensus emerges from the review of literature is that there exists a positive relationship between education and economic growth. However in cross section of countries it is assumed that data for each country is same but this assumption become void when studies uses data from opposing conditions of countries. So there is a need for a study on Pakistan that will account fall the impacts of traditional and nontraditional educational systems on economic growth. |
| Keywords: | Education; Growth; Human capital |
| JEL: | H5 J24 O4 |
| Date: | 2009–07–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:16200&r=lab |