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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Alessandra Righi; Dario Sciulli |
| Abstract: | The school-to-work transition is a turbulent period of youth, with possible consequences on the social and working conditions of individuals. The alternative status of employment during the transition possibly affect the transition probabilities. On the one side, the larger use of temporary contracts has made entry in the labour market easier, but has also made longer and, sometimes, harder the path toward a stable job. On the other side, periods of no work possibly deteriorate skills, while vocational experiences possibly avoid the obsolescence of skills. This paper applies discrete time duration models to ECHP micro information to investigate both the role of individual characteristics and, overall, of alternative origin labour market status in favoring the school-to-permanent work transition, focusing on ten European countries. The timing of the transition and the allocation of time to alternative labour market status differ among countries. Vocational training experience increases the hazard rate. Temporary contracts positively operate in Southern countries, where unemployment and inactivity prevail among school-leavers. On the contrary, where temporary jobs are widely used they reduce the hazard rate, favoring the establishment of a strong separating equilibrium, at least in the short-term. However, individuals with at least one temporary job or vocational training period show a greater duration dependence parameter, indicating their role in reducing the stigma effect of no permanent employment positions. |
| Keywords: | school-to-work transition, duration model, unobserved heterogeneity |
| JEL: | J24 J64 C41 |
| Date: | 2009–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pia:wpaper:65/2009&r=lab |
| By: | Frank T. Denton; Ross Finnie; Byron G. Spencer |
| Abstract: | If retirement means a substantial and sustained reduction in the time spent working for pay or profit, measurement requires a definition of substantial and sufficient observations of the same individuals to determine whether a transition from “working” to “retired” status has occurred. Using the Statistics Canada Longitudinal Administrative Databank, a 20 percent sample of the individual income tax returns of all tax filers since 1980, we identify those with significant labour force attachment at ages 50-52, and follow them year by year. If retired means having no income from employment, the median age of retirement is about 63 for men, 62 for women. That is true for all cohorts. If earning up to half of one’s previous employment income is deemed consistent with being retired, the median age is about 60 for both men and women. Results obtained in this way are consistent with calculations based on Labour Force Survey data. |
| Keywords: | retirement, older workers |
| JEL: | J26 J22 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:qseprr:434&r=lab |
| By: | Jellal , Mohamed; Nordman, Christophe |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we introduce uncertainty of the labour productivity of women in a competitive model of wage determination. We demonstrate that more qualified women are then offered much lower wages than men at the equilibrium. This result is consistent with the glass ceiling hypothesis according to which there exist larger gender wage gaps at the upper tail of the wage distribution. |
| Keywords: | Gender Wage Gap; Glass ceiling; Productivity; Uncertainty |
| JEL: | D81 J31 J71 J24 J16 |
| Date: | 2009–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:17409&r=lab |
| By: | Mita Bhattacharya; Paresh K. Narayan; Stephen Popp; Badri N. Rath |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the long-run relationship between labour productivity and employment, and between labour productivity and real wages in the case of the Indian manufacturing sector. The panel data set consists of 17 two-digit manufacturing industries for the period 1973-74 to 1999-2001. We find that productivity-wages and productivity-employment are panel cointegrated for all industries. We find that both employment and real wages exert a positive effect on labour productivity. We argue that flexible labor market has a significant influence on manufacturing productivity, employment and real wages in case of Indian manufacturing. |
| Keywords: | Labour Productivity; Real Wages; Panel Unit Root Tests; Panel Cointegartion Tests; Manufacturing. |
| JEL: | O47 O30 O53 |
| Date: | 2009–04–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:druwps:2009-07&r=lab |
| By: | Clemens, Michael (Center for Global Development); Montenegro, Claudio (World Bank and Universidad de Chile); Pritchett, Lant (Harvard University and Center for Global Development) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the "place premium"--the wage gain that accrues to foreign workers who arrive to work in the United States. First, we estimate the predicted, purchasing-power adjusted wages of people inside and outside the United States who are otherwise observably identical--with the same country of birth, country of education, years of education, work experience, sex, and rural or urban residence. We use new and uniquely rich micro-data on the wages and characteristics of over two million individual formal-sector wage-earners in 43 countries (including the US). Second, we examine the extent to which these wage ratios for observably equivalent workers may overstate the gains to a marginal mover because movers may be positively selected on unobservable productivity in their home country. New evidence for nine of the countries, combined with a range of existing evidence, suggests that this overstatement can be significant, but is typically modest in magnitude. Third, we estimate the degree to which policy barriers to labor movement in and of themselves sustain the place premium, by bounding the premia observed under self-selected migration alone. Finally, we show that the policy-induced portion of the place premium in wages represents one of the largest remaining price distortions in any global market; is much larger than wage discrimination in spatially integrated markets; and makes labor mobility capable of reducing households' poverty at the margin by much more than any known in situ intervention. |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp09-004&r=lab |
| By: | Manon Domingues Dos Santos (CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - INSEE - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique); François-Charles Wolff (LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - Université de Nantes : EA4272) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study the impact of the human capital background on ethnic educational gaps between second-generation immigrants in France. First, we show that the skill of immigrants explains the main part of the ethnic educational gap between their children. More precisely, if the education of immigrants has a predominant impact on the educational attainment of their children, their assimilation degree, essentially captured by their French fluency or their length of stay in France, also contributes to explain ethnic educational gaps. Secondly, we show that the impact of the immigrants' education on the educational attainment of their children depends on their country of origin, their place of schooling as well as their French proficiency. |
| Date: | 2009–09–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00417879_v1&r=lab |
| By: | Michael C. Burda; Daniel S. Hamermesh |
| Abstract: | Time-diary data from four countries suggest that differences in market time between the unemployed and employed represent additional leisure and personal maintenance rather than increased household production. U.S. data for 2003-2006 show that almost none of the reduction in market work in areas of long-term high unemployment is offset by additional work at home. In contrast, in those areas where unemployment has risen cyclically, reduced market work is largely substituted by additional time in household production. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, time use, household production, paid work |
| JEL: | E24 J22 D13 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2009-043&r=lab |
| By: | Dan Black; Natalia Kolesnikova; Seth G. Sanders; Lowell J. Taylor |
| Abstract: | A standard object of empirical analysis in labor economics is a modified Mincer wage function in which an individual's log wage is specified to be a function of education, experience, and an indicator variable identifying race. Researchers hope that estimates from this exercise can be informative about the impact of minority status on labor market success. Here we set out a theoretical justification for this regression in a context in which individuals live and work in different locations. Our model leads to the traditional approach, but with the important caveat that the regression should include location-specific fixed effects. Given this insight, we reevaluate evidence about the black-white wage disparity in the United States. |
| Keywords: | Income distribution ; Wages ; Discrimination in employment |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2009-043&r=lab |
| By: | Biagetti, Marco; Scicchitano, Sergio |
| Abstract: | The primary purpose of this paper is to explore the potential for EU-SILC data to deepen our understanding of the determinants of inequality in workers’ formal life-long learning (LLL) in Europe. In particular we investigate the incidence of personal, job-specific and firm-specific characteristics on the workers’ probability to undertake adult learning. To do so, we first estimate LLL incidence in the whole sample for men and women. Then we estimate separate 21 country-specific equations, for both sexes. This method allows to investigate cross-country gender differences and avoid unobserved heteroscedasticity due to sex, which we clearly find in the data. For the whole sample the results show that, for both men and women, formal LLL incidence is significantly higher among young, better educated, part-time and temporary workers, and lower among those who changed current job in the last year, employed in small firms and having low-skilled occupations. Furthermore, some gender differences for the whole sample emerge. When estimating separate equations for each country and for both sexes, a significant cross-country heterogeneity and a weaker significance of the coefficients come to light. In particular, a couple of relevant results emerge for Scandinavian countries with regard to the complementarity between past level of education and current adult learning. Finland is the only country in the sample in which, for both men and women, less educated workers are more likely to undertake formal LLL, thus making adult learning system able to avoid, for both men and women, existing inequality in human capital, as it results from education levels. Denmark is the only country where, for women, being less educated turns out to be the predictor with the greatest significant magnitude of the effect in the variation of the probability. |
| Keywords: | education; training; lifelong learning; human capital; inequality; Europe |
| JEL: | J40 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–09–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:17356&r=lab |
| By: | Wenshu Gao; Russell Smyth |
| Abstract: | While most studies find evidence of a wage-firm size premium, we find that larger firms in China actually pay lower wages. We also find that the most plausible explanation for this result is that larger firms in China employ a higher ratio of blue-collar workers. |
| Keywords: | wages, firm size, China. |
| JEL: | J21 J30 L25 |
| Date: | 2009–03–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:druwps:2009-05&r=lab |
| By: | Lundborg, Per (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | This paper represents the first analysis of the consequences of a formal wage leadership, the Swedish Industry Agreement. We show that leadership in general has implied a lowered wage level for occupational groups having signed the agreement compared to groups that have not signed it. This is as expected as wage leadership should stabilize wage increases. However, the effects differ widely across occupations and skilled groups that signed the agreement have raised their wage level compared to otherwise similar workers outside the agreement. The agreement seems to have had a less binding effect on skilled workers. A possible explanation is that local wage formation is more common among the skilled groups. The agreement has increased the wage level among high educated compared to low educated and thus raised the education premium. Difference-in-differences models are applied using register data 1990-2005. |
| Keywords: | Wage leadership; Differences-in-differences. |
| JEL: | J31 J41 J51 |
| Date: | 2009–09–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2009_006&r=lab |
| By: | Vassiliki Koutsogeorgopoulou |
| Abstract: | Despite progress over the past decades, Greece?s educational indicators lag behind those of other OECD countries. PISA scores are low, a large number of tertiary students study abroad, and attainment rates are low at all levels of education. Resources devoted to education are also modest. Participation in early childhood education and care is particularly low, influencing education outcomes in later years, the child care sector is poorly regulated and under–developed, and the separate administration of pre–school and childcare has led to inefficiencies. Education quality in primary and secondary levels reflects lack of performance incentives for teachers, deficient curriculum, weak school autonomy and accountability. This has driven children to complementary private courses to prepare for university exams. The university system is rigid and lacks a well performing evaluation mechanism. Recent reforms have addressed some of these issues but more needs to be done. Educational outcomes could be improved by giving more autonomy to schools and universities, and increasing accountability by, for example, performance evaluations of teachers and introducing standard nationwide exams at more levels of school education. A more flexible framework for tertiary education would promote responsiveness to changing demand conditions and enhance the quality of the sector. Educational outcomes could also be improved by more initiatives to counteract the effects of disadvantaged backgrounds on performance. The schools should also ensure that the curriculum prepares students with competences needed to succeed in their post–school life. This includes making vocational and technical education more attractive.<P>Améliorer les performances du système éducatif en Grèce<BR>En dépit des progrès réalisés dans les dernières décennies, les indicateurs de l’éducation de la Grèce sont en retrait par rapport à ceux des autres pays de l’OCDE. Les résultats de l’exercice PISA sont médiocres, un pourcentage élevé d’étudiants effectuent leurs études supérieures à l’étranger et les taux de réussite sont faibles à tous les niveaux. Pareillement, les ressources consacrées à l’éducation sont modestes. L’accueil et l’éducation de la petite enfance sont très peu développés, ce qui se répercute sur les performances éducatives ultérieures, le système de prise en charge des tout jeunes enfants est sous-développé et peu régulé, et la séparation administrative opérée entre l’éducation préscolaire et la garde des tout jeunes enfants est source d’inefficacités. La qualité de l’enseignement primaire et secondaire reflète le manque d’incitation à la performance pour le corps enseignant, les carences des programmes scolaires, le manque d’autonomie et de responsabilité des établissements scolaires. Ce tableau conduit les parents à faire donner des cours privés complémentaires à leurs enfants pour les préparer aux examens universitaires. Le système universitaire est rigide et il ne dispose pas d’un mécanisme d’évaluation performant. Les réformes récentes se sont attaquées à certains de ces problèmes, mais cela ne suffit pas. Les performances du système éducatif pourraient être améliorées en donnant plus d’autonomie aux écoles et aux universités et en augmentant le niveau de responsabilité, par exemple en évaluant les performances des enseignants et en introduisant des examens nationaux standard à un plus grand nombre de niveaux d’études. Dans l’enseignement supérieur, un cadre plus flexible autoriserait une meilleure réactivité à l’évolution de la demande et se traduirait par un gain qualitatif. Les performances du système éducatif pourraient également être améliorées en prenant davantage d’initiatives pour compenser les effets d’antécédents défavorables sur les performances. Les établissements scolaires devraient en outre s’assurer que leurs programmes permettent aux élèves d’acquérir les compétences requises pour réussir dans leur vie post-scolaire, ce qui passe notamment par une plus grande attractivité de l’enseignement technique et professionnel. |
| Keywords: | education, éducation, child care, tertiary education, éducation tertiaire, early childhood education, university, université, PISA, PISA, éducation préscolaire, accountability, Education supérieure, autonomy, qualité de l’enseignement, autonomie, crèche, school curricula, curricula scolaire, responsabilisation, tuition fees, répétiteurs, vocational and technica, éducation technique et professionnelle, crammers, teaching quality, upper secondary |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I22 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–09–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:723-en&r=lab |
| By: | Laurent Gobillon; Dominique Meurs; Sébastien Roux |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we propose a job assignment model allowing for a gender difference in access to jobs. Males and females compete for the same job positions. They are primarily interested in the best-paid jobs. A structural relationship of the model can be used to empirically recover the probability ratio of females and males getting a given job position. As this ratio is allowed to vary with the rank of jobs in the wage distribution of positions, barriers in females' access to high-paid jobs can be detected and quantiffed. We estimate the gender relative probability of getting any given job position for full-time executives aged 40-45 in the private sector. This is done using an exhaustive French administrative dataset on wage bills. Our results show that the access to any job position is lower for females than for males. Also, females' access decreases with the rank of job positions in the wage distribution, which is consistent with females being faced with more barriers to high-paid jobs than to low-paid jobs. At the bottom of the wage distribution, the probability of females getting a job is 12% lower than the probability of males. The difference in probability is far larger at the top of the wage distribution and climbs to 50%. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pse:psecon:2009-36&r=lab |
| By: | Regis Barnichon |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the relative importance of the two main determinants of cyclical unemployment fluctuations: vacancy posting and job separation. Using a matching function to model the flow of new jobs, I draw on Shimer's (2007) unemployment flow rates decomposition and find that job separation and vacancy posting respectively account for about 40 and 60 percent of unemployment's variance. When considering higher-order moments, I find that job separation contributes to about 60 percent of unemployment steepness asymmetry, a stylized fact of the jobless rate. Finally, while vacancy posting is, on average, the most important contributor of unemployment fluctuations, the opposite is true around business cycle turning points, when job separation is responsible for most of unemployment movements. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2009-35&r=lab |
| By: | Yoshinori Kurokawa |
| Abstract: | The Stolper-Samuelson theorem predicts that the relative wage of high-skilled to low-skilled labor will increase in the high-skill abundant U.S. but decrease in low-skill abundant Mexico after trade liberalization, while it actually began to rise in both countries in the late 1980s. We present a simple resolution of this "trade-wage inequality anomaly" in a variety-trade model. Intra-industry trade increases the variety of intermediate goods used by the final good. If the varieties and high-skilled labor are complements, the skill premium rises in both countries. Our simulations show that small amounts of intra-industry trade can produce a significant increase in relative wage. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tsu:tewpjp:2009-007&r=lab |
| By: | Tamar Khitarishvili |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates gender wage differentials in Georgia between 2000 and 2004. Using ordinary least squares, we find that the gender wage gap in Georgia is substantially higher than in other transition countries. Correcting for sample selection bias using the Heckman approach further increases the gender wage gap. The Blinder Oaxaca decomposition results suggest that most of the wage gap remains unexplained. The explained portion of the gap is almost entirely attributed to industrial variables. We find that the gender wage gap in Georgia diminished between 2000 and 2004. |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_577&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre Lefebvre; Philip Merrigan |
| Abstract: | Selection into private schools is the principal cause of bias when estimating the effect of private schooling on academic achievement. By exploiting the generous public subsidizing of private high schools in the province of Québec, the second most populous province in Canada, we identify the causal impact of attendance in a private high school on achievement in mathematics. Because the supply of highly subsidized spaces is much higher at the high school level than at the grade school level, 60% of transitions from the public to private sector occur at the end of grade school, we assume that these transitions are exogenous with respect to changes in transitory unobserved variables affecting math scores conditional on variables such as changes in income and child fixed effects. Using data from Statistics Canada’s National Longitudinal Survey on Children and Youth (NLSCY), we estimate the effect of attending a private high school on the percentile rank and a standardized math test score with different models (child fixed-effect, random-effect and a pooled OLS) and restricted samples to control for the degree of selection. The results, interpreted as a treatment on the treated effect show that the effect of changing schools, from a public grade school to a private high school, increases the percentile rank of the math score between 5 and 10 points and by between .13 to .35 of a standard deviation depending on the specifications and samples. |
| Keywords: | Test scores, private high schools, subsidies, longitudinal data |
| JEL: | I28 I21 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:lacicr:0935&r=lab |
| By: | Chiang-Ming Chen (Department of Economics, National Chi Nan University, Nantou, Taiwan); Kuo-Liang Chang (Department of Economics, South Dakota State University) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to study labor supply and saving decisions as a result of health uncertainty. O’Donnell (1995) suggested a theoretical positive relationship between working hours (or saving rate) and the perceived health uncertainty. That is, for risk-averse individuals, there exists a precaution motion to work harder and save more when facing the uncertainty for the health condition. We test this hypothetical relationship by applying the 2003-2005 data from the Panel Study of Family Dynamics (PSFD) in Taiwan. Following Hughes and Maguire’s approach (2003), our estimation result indicates that a stochastic sickness has positive effects on the decisions of working time and saving rate. |
| Keywords: | Health, Uncertainty, Labor Supply, Saving |
| JEL: | D14 I12 J22 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sda:workpa:32009&r=lab |
| By: | Åslund, Olof (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation); Edin, Per-Anders (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation); Fredriksson, Peter (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation); Grönqvist, Hans (SOFI, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | Immigrants typically perform worse than other students in the OECD countries. We examine to what extent this is due to the population characteristics of the neighborhoods that immigrants grow up in. We address this issue using a governmental refugee placement policy which provides exogenous variation in the initial place of residence in Sweden. The main result is that, for a given share of immigrants in a neighborhood, immigrant school performance is increasing in the number of highly educated adults sharing the subject’s ethnicity. A standard deviation increase in the fraction of highly educated adults in the assigned neighborhood increases compulsory school GPA by 0.9 percentile ranks. This magnitude corresponds to a tenth of the gap in student performance between refugee immigrant and native-born children. We also provide tentative evidence that the overall share of immigrants in the neighborhood has a negative effect on GPA. |
| Keywords: | Peer effects; Ethnic enclaves; Immigration; School performance |
| JEL: | I20 J15 Z13 |
| Date: | 2009–08–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2009_020&r=lab |
| By: | Robert Bifulco (Syracuse University); Delia Furtado (University of Connecticut); Stephen L. Ross (University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | Relative to whites, blacks that reside in highly segregated metropolitan areas have worse educational and labor market outcomes than those that reside in less segregated areas. Using data from the 1990 U.S. Census combined with measures of metropolitan educational environment created from the Common Core of Data (CCD), we test whether the strong empirical relationship between residential segregation and black outcomes can be attributed to the educational environment in those metropolitan areas. We find that our measures of metropolitan educational environment can explain a substantial fraction of the effect of segregation on educational outcomes and idleness. |
| Keywords: | Racial Segregation, School Segregation, Neighborhood Effects, Peer Effects |
| JEL: | I1 R2 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2009-30&r=lab |
| By: | Miguel Casares (Departamento de Economía-UPNA); Antonio Moreno (Departamento de Economía-Universidad de Navarra); Jesús Vázquez (Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico II-Universidad del País Vasco) |
| Abstract: | Erceg, Henderson and Levin (2000, Journal of Monetary Economics) introduce sticky wages in a New-Keynesian general-equilibrium model. Alternatively, it is shown here how wage stickiness may bring unemployment fluctuations into a New-Keynesian model. Using Bayesian econometric techniques, both models are estimated with U.S. quarterly data of the Great Moderation. Estimation results are similar and provide a good empirical fit, with the crucial difference that our proposal delivers unemployment fluctuations. Thus, second-moment statistics of U.S. unemployment are replicated reasonably well in our proposed New-Keynesian model with sticky wages. In the welfare analysis, the cost of cyclical fluctuations during the Great Moderation is estimated at 0.60% of steady-state consumption. |
| Keywords: | Wage Rigidity, Price Rigidity, Unemployment |
| JEL: | C32 E30 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nav:ecupna:0902&r=lab |
| By: | Paul Contoyannis; Martin Dooley |
| Abstract: | The Ontario Child Health Study provides the first opportunity in Canada to assess directly the relationship between socio-economic and health status in childhood and levels of completed schooling, health status and labour market success in young adulthood. We find that childhood health problems are negatively associated with educational attainment, especially the probability of a university degree, and the health status of young adults. Our results also imply that childhood health problems influence adult labour force outcomes, especially for males, mainly through adult levels of schooling and health. |
| Keywords: | Child Health; Adult Outcomes |
| JEL: | I10 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:deptwp:2009-10&r=lab |
| By: | Andrabi, Tahir (Pomona College); Das, Jishnu (World Bank and Center for Policy Research, New Delhi); Khwaja, Asim Ijaz (Harvard University and BREAD); Zajonc, Tristan (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | Learning persistence plays a central role in models of skill formation, estimates of education production functions, and evaluations of educational programs. In non-experimental settings, estimated impacts of educational inputs can be highly sensitive to correctly specifying persistence when inputs are correlated with baseline achievement. While less of a concern in experimental settings, persistence still links short-run treatment effects to long-run impacts. We study learning persistence using dynamic panel methods that account for two key empirical challenges: unobserved student-level heterogeneity in learning and measurement error in test scores. Our estimates, based on detailed primary panel data from Pakistan, suggest that only a fifth to a half of achievement persists between grades. Using private schools as an example, we show that incorrectly assuming high persistence significantly understates and occasionally yields the wrong sign for private schools' impact on achievement. Towards an economic interpretation of low persistence, we use question-level exam responses as well as household expenditure and time-use data to explore whether psychometric testing issues, behavioral responses, or forgetting contribute to low persistence--causes that have different welfare implications. |
| JEL: | C23 H40 I21 J24 O12 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp09-001&r=lab |
| By: | Charles Bellemare; Bruce Shearer |
| Abstract: | We investigate the economic relevance and the composition of gifts within a firm where output is contractible. We develop a structural econometric model that identifies workers’ optimal reaction to monetary gifts received from their employer. We estimate the model using data from two separate field experiments, both conducted within a tree-planting firm. We use the estimated structural parameters to generalize beyond the experiment, simulating how workers would react to different gifts on the part of the firm, within different labour-market settings. We find that gifts have a role to play within this firm, increasing in importance when the workers’ outside alternatives deteriorate. Profit-maximizing gifts would increase profits within slack labour markets by up to 10% on average and by up to 17% for certain types of workers. These gifts represent significant increases in worker earnings; the average gift paid to workers attains 22% of average expected earnings in the absence of gifts. We find that gifts should be given by setting piece-rates above the market-clearing level rather than through fixed wages. |
| Keywords: | Gift giving, structural models, field experiments |
| JEL: | J33 M52 C93 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:lacicr:0932&r=lab |
| By: | Nadir Altinok (IREDU - Institut de recherche sur l'éducation : Sociologie et Economie de l'Education - CNRS : UMR5225 - Université de Bourgogne, BETA - Bureau d'économie théorique et appliquée - CNRS : UMR7522 - Université Louis Pasteur - Strasbourg I); Geeta Kingdon (Institute of education - University of London) |
| Abstract: | The impact of class size on student achievement remains a thorny question for educational decision makers. Meta-analyses of empirical studies emphasise the absence of class-size effects but detractors have argued against such pessimistic conclusions because many of the underlying studies have not paid attention to the endogeneity of class-size. This paper uses a stringent method to address the endogeneity problem using TIMSS data on 45 countries. We measure the class size effect by relating the difference in a student's achievement across subjects to the difference in his/her class-size across subjects. This (subject-differenced) within-pupil achievement production function avoids the problem of the non-random matching of children to specific schools, and to classes within schools. The results show a statistically significant effect of class size for 16 countries but in only 10 of them is the effect negative, and the effect size is very small in most cases. Several robustness tests are carried out, including control for students' subject-specific ability and subject-specific teacher characteristics, and correction for possible measurement error. Thus, our stringent approach to addressing the problem endogeneity confirms the findings of meta-analyses that find little support for class size effects. We find that class-size effects are smaller in resource-rich countries than in developing countries, supporting the idea that the adverse effect of larger classes increases with class-size. We also find that class size effects are smaller in regions with higher teacher quality. |
| Keywords: | Class size effects ; Student achievement ; Government Expenditures and Education ; Analysis of Education |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00417229_v1&r=lab |
| By: | Stefan Liebig; Carsten Sauer; Jürgen Schupp |
| Abstract: | The rise in female labor market participation and the growth of ¿atypical¿ employment arrangements has, over the last few decades, brought about a steadily decreasing percentage of households in which the man is the sole breadwinner, and a rising percentage of dual-earner households. Against this backdrop, the present paper investigates the impact of household contexts in which the traditional male breadwinner model has been called into question on individuals¿ subjective evaluations of the equity or inequity of their personal earnings. In the first step, based on social production function theory, we derive three criteria used by individuals to evaluate the fairness or justice of their personal earnings: compensation for services rendered, coverage of basic needs, and the opportunity to earn social approval. In the second step, we apply considerations from household economics and new approaches from gender research to explain why men¿s and women¿s evaluations of justice are determined to a considerable degree by the specific situation within their household¿for example, by the status and income relation between the two partners. The assumptions derived regarding gender-specific patterns in justice attitudes are then tested on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) from the year 2007. We find that, among women, the perceived justice of personal earnings depends much more strongly on the particular household context. At the same time, opportunities for social comparison within the household and the relation between the woman¿s personal income and that of her husband play central roles. Men¿s justice evaluations, in contrast, are determined to a much greater extent by whether their income allows them to conform to traditional gender norms and concepts of ¿masculinity,¿ and by so doing, to gain social approval outside the household as well. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp216&r=lab |
| By: | Martin Dooley; Cesar Furtado |
| Abstract: | ESL instruction is an important issue in Canada due to the large number of immigrants and has potentially impacts on both student academic progress and educational expenditures. In 1999, the province of British Columbia limited funding for ESL to five years per student but increased the annual ESL supplement. We explore the educational impact of these reforms using the results of standardized tests of numeracy, reading and writing proficiency for Grade 7 students. We compare differences in test scores, both before and after the policy change, among the following groups of Grade 7 students in the GVA: students with 5 or more years of ESL (those constrained by the new policy); students with one to four years of ESL; non-ESL students with a non-official home language; and non-ESL students with an official home language. No group of students experiences large changes in test scores due to the reform. The changes we do observe are usually increases for ESL students, and the few decreases are very small. Moreover, both before and after the reform, score differences between groups of students with different experiences of ESL, different neighbourhood socio-economic characteristics, and different home languages are modest in size. |
| Keywords: | English Second Language; Educational Funding |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:deptwp:2009-11&r=lab |
| By: | Ivan Kitov; Oleg Kitov |
| Abstract: | Using an analog of the boundary element method in engineering and science, we analyze and model unemployment rate in Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States as a function of inflation and the change in labor force. Originally, the model linking unemployment to inflation and labor force was developed and successfully tested for Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States. Autoregressive properties of neither of these variables are used to predict their evolution. In this sense, the model is a self-consistent and completely deterministic one without any stochastic component (external shocks) except that associated with measurement errors and changes in measurement units. Nevertheless, the model explains between 65% and 95% of the variability in unemployment and inflation. For Italy, the rate of unemployment is predicted at a time horizon of nine years with pseudo out-of-sample root-mean-square forecasting error of 0.55% for the period between 1973 and 2006. One can expect that the u nemployment will be growing since 2008 and will reach 11.4% near 2012. After 2012, unemployment in Italy will start to descend. |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:0903.5064&r=lab |
| By: | Melinda Podor (Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa); Timothy J. Halliday (Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we quantify the effects of health on time allocation. We estimate that improvements in health status have large and positive effects on time allocated to home and market production and large negative effects on time spent watching TV, sleeping, and consuming other types of leisure. We find that poor health status results in about 300 additional hours allocated to unproductive activities per year. Plausible estimates of the cost of this lost time exceed $10,000. We also find that, for men, better health induces a substitution of market-produced goods for home-produced goods. Particularly, each additional minute spent in home production saves $0.37. |
| Keywords: | Labor Supply, Time Allocation, Health |
| JEL: | I1 J2 |
| Date: | 2009–08–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hai:wpaper:200907&r=lab |
| By: | Andrea Bassanini; Pascal Marianna |
| Abstract: | In the economic literature there is an increasing interest in the process of job creation and destruction as well of hirings and separations. Many studies suggest that idiosyncratic firm-level characteristics shape both job and worker flows in a similar way in all countries. Others argue that cross-country differences in terms of gross job flows are minor. However, these statements are usually based on the comparison of national estimates, typically collected on the basis of different definitions and collection protocols. By contrast, in this paper, we use crosscountry comparable data on both job and worker flows to examine key determinants of these flows and of their cross-country differences. We find that idiosyncratic firm (industry, firm age and size) and worker (age, gender, education) characteristics play an important role for both gross job and worker flows in all countries. Nevertheless, in contrast with part of the literature, we find that, even controlling for these idiosyncratic factors, cross-country differences concerning both gross job and worker flows appear large and of a similar magnitude. Both job and worker flows in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom exceed those in certain continental European countries by a factor of two. Moreover, the variation of worker flows across different dimensions is well explained by the variation of job flows, suggesting that, to a certain extent, the two flows can be used as substitutes in cross-country analysis. Consistently, churning flows, that is flows originating by firms churning workers and employees quitting and being replaced, display much less variation across countries.<BR>La littérature économique consacre un intérêt de plus en plus grand pour le processus de création et de destruction d’emplois ainsi que pour les flux d’embauches et de séparations. Plusieurs études soulignent que les caractéristiques propres aux entreprises façonnent les flux d’emplois et de main-d’œuvre de manière similaire dans tous les pays. D’autres soutiennent que les différences inter-pays des flux bruts d’emplois ne sont pas très grandes. Cependant, ces constats s’appuient généralement sur des comparaisons d’estimations nationales reposant sur différentes définitions et protocoles de collecte de données. En revanche, dans ce document, nous utilisons des données comparables entre les pays sur les flux d’emplois et de main-d’œuvre afin d’examiner les déterminants principaux de ces flux et des différences inter-pays. Nous trouvons que les caractéristiques propres aux entreprises (le secteur d’activité, l’âge et la taille des entreprises) et aux salariés (l’âge, le sexe et le niveau d’éducation) jouent un rôle important pour les flux d’emplois et de main-d’œuvre dans tous les pays. Néanmoins, contrairement à une partie de la littérature, nous trouvons que, même à structure constante pour ces caractéristiques, les différences inter-pays des flux d’emplois et de main-d’œuvre demeurent importantes et de même ampleur. Les flux d’emplois et de main-d’œuvre aux États-Unis et au Royaume-Uni sont deux fois plus importants que ceux observés dans certains pays d’Europe continentale. En outre, la variation des flux de main-d’œuvre selon différentes dimensions est bien expliquée par la variation des flux d’emplois, ce qui permet de suggérer, dans une certaine mesure, que les deux variables peuvent être utilisées comme des substituts dans les analyses inter-pays. En revanche, les flux de déplacement de la main d’oeuvre, résultant de la substitution des salariés sur les mêmes emplois opérée par les entreprises ou par les départs et remplacement de salariés, sont marqués par nettement moins de variation entre les pays. |
| JEL: | J23 J24 J63 |
| Date: | 2009–09–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:95-en&r=lab |
| By: | Thomas Liebig |
| Abstract: | Evidence from many OECD countries shows that immigrants, in particular recent arrivals, tend to be especially affected by an economic downturn. The available tentative evidence on unemployment suggests that this is also the case in Norway in the current downturn, particularly with respect to the many recent labour migrants from the new EU member countries. Since this can have a lasting effect on their labour market outcomes, it is important that the integration of immigrants remains a priority for policy.<BR>D’après les observations faites dans de nombreux pays de l’OCDE, les immigrés, en particulier les nouveaux arrivants, sont en général particulièrement touchés en cas de détérioration de la conjoncture économique. Les premières informations disponibles sur le chômage permettent de penser que c’est aussi le cas en Norvège au cours de la récession actuelle, en particulier pour les nombreux migrants de travail arrivés récemment. Cela pouvant affecter durablement leurs résultats sur le marché du travail, il est important que l’intégration des immigrés reste une priorité pour les pouvoirs publics. Au cours des années précédentes, le ralentissement de l’économie, les résultats au regard de l’emploi se sont clairement améliorés à la faveur d’une situation économique favorable, et à l’heure actuelle ils sont globalement plutôt positifs par rapport au passé. Même si la forte migration de travail venue d’Europe de l’Est a contribué à la hausse du taux d’emploi de la population immigrée dans son ensemble, les résultats de groupes de migrants de plus longue date se sont également améliorés. |
| Keywords: | Norway, integration, labour market, immigrants |
| JEL: | J12 J21 J61 J62 J68 J7 J8 |
| Date: | 2009–09–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:94-en&r=lab |
| By: | Atal, Vidya (Cornell University); Basu, Kaushik (Cornell University); Gray, John (Cornell University); Lee, Travis (Cornell University) |
| Abstract: | Using a model of O-ring production function, the paper demonstrates how certain communities can get caught in a low-literacy trap in which each individual finds it not worthwhile investing in higher skills because others are not high-skilled. The model sheds light on educational policy. It is shown that policy for promoting human capital has to take the form of a mechanism for solving the coordination failure in people's choice of educational strategy. |
| JEL: | D20 I28 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:corcae:09-05&r=lab |
| By: | Smyth, Emer (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)); McCoy, Selina (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)) |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:rb20090303&r=lab |
| By: | Francisco Alvarez-Cuadrado; Markus Poschke |
| Abstract: | The process of economic development is characterized by substantial rural-urban migrations and a decreasing share of agriculture in output and employment. The literature highlights two main engines behind this process of structural change: (i) improvements in agricultural technology combined with the effect of Engel's law of demand push resources out of the agricultural sector (the "labor push" hypothesis), and (ii) improvements in industrial technology attract labor into this sector (the "labor pull" hypothesis). We present a simple model that features both channels and use it to explore their relative importance. We evaluate the U.S. time series since 1800 and a sample of 13 industrialized countries starting in the 19th century. Our results suggest that, on average, the "labor pull" channel dominates. This contrasts to popular modeling choices in the recent literature. |
| JEL: | O11 O41 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcl:mclwop:2009-08&r=lab |
| By: | Merve Cebi (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth); Stephen A. Woodbury (W.E. Upjohn Institute and Michigan State University) |
| Abstract: | The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 introduced a refundable tax credit for low-income working families who purchased health insurance coverage for their children. This health insurance tax credit (HITC) existed during tax years 1991, 1992, and 1993, and was then rescinded. We use Current Population Survey data and a difference-in-differences approach to estimate the HITC’s effect on private health insurance coverage of low-earning single mothers. The findings suggest that during 1991–1993, the health insurance coverage of single mothers was about 6 percentage points higher than it would have been in the absence of the HITC. |
| Keywords: | Retirement; Health insurance; Low-wage workers; Tax credits and subsidies |
| JEL: | H2 H51 I18 J32 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:09-158&r=lab |
| By: | Renée Adams; Patricia Funk |
| Abstract: | The representation of women in top corporate officer positions is steadily increasing. However, little is known about the impact this will have. A large literature documents that women are different from men in their choices and in their preferences, but most of this literature relies on samples of college students or workers at lower levels in the corporate hierarchy. If women must be like men to break the glass ceiling, we might expect gender differences to disappear among top executives. In contrast, using a large survey of all directors of publicly-traded corporations in Sweden, we show that female and male directors differ systematically in their core values and risk attitudes. While certain population gender differences disappear at the director level, others do not. Consistent with the findings for the Swedish population, female directors are more benevolent and universally concerned, but less power-oriented than men. However, they are less traditional and security-oriented than their male counterparts. Furthermore, female directors are slightly more risk-loving than male directors. This suggests that having a women on the board need not lead to more risk-averse decision-making. |
| Keywords: | Female directors, directors, gender, boards, values, risk |
| JEL: | J16 G30 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1172&r=lab |
| By: | Ryo Nakajima; Ryuichi Tamura; Nobuyuki Hanaki |
| Abstract: | It has been argued in the economic literature that job search through informal job networks improves the employer-employee match quality. This paper argues that inventors' research collaboration networks reduce the uncertainty of firms about the match qualities of inventors prior to hiring. We estimate the effect of inventors' collaboration networks on their productivity and mobility using the U.S. patent application database. It is found that network- recruited inventors are more productive and have longer tenure than publicly recruited inventors. The evidence from fixed-effect regressions shows that the higher productivity and longer tenure of network-recruited inventors are not solely attributable to their unobserved ability. These results are consistent with the job match hypothesis between inventors and firms through their collaboration networks. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tsu:tewpjp:2009-001&r=lab |
| By: | David A. Weiner; Byron F. Lutz; Jens Ludwig |
| Abstract: | One of the most striking features of crime in America is its disproportionate concentration in disadvantaged, racially segregated communities. In this paper we estimate the effects of court-ordered school desegregation on crime by exploiting plausibly random variation in the timing of when these orders go into effect across the set of large urban school districts ever subject to such orders. For black youth, we find that homicide victimization declines by around 25 percent when court orders are implemented and homicide arrests also decline significantly, which seem to be due at least in part to increased schooling attainment. We also find positive spillover effects to other groups, with beneficial changes in homicide involvement for black adults and perhaps whites as well. Our estimates imply that imposition of these court orders in the nation’s largest school districts lowered the homicide rate to black teens and young adults nationwide by around 13 percent, and might account for around one-quarter of the convergence in black-white homicide rates over the period from 1970 to 1980. |
| JEL: | I2 J15 J18 K42 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15380&r=lab |
| By: | Cory Koedel (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia); Julian R. Betts; Lorien A. Rice; Andrew C. Zau |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the integrating and segregating effects of school choice in a large, urban school district. Our findings, based on applications for fall 2001, suggest that open enrollment, a school-choice program that does not have explicit integrative objectives and does not provide busing, segregates students along three socioeconomic dimensions – race/ethnicity, student achievement and parental-education status. Using information on expenditures to promote integration at the district, we back out estimates of the social cost of open enrollment realized in terms of student segregation. Our social-cost estimates range widely depending on the weights that we place on the different dimensions of integration. However, even using conservative valuations of the different integrative measures suggests a social cost at this single district of over 3.4 million dollars (in year-2000 dollars). When considered in the context of the nation as a whole, where open-enrollment programs are commonplace, this estimate from a single district is substantial. However, we also note that there may be benefits not related to integration that counterbalance some or all of these costs. |
| Keywords: | school choice, open enrollment, integration, segregation, segregation costs |
| JEL: | I20 J15 R23 |
| Date: | 2009–09–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:0910&r=lab |
| By: | Ivan Pastine (University College Dublin); Tuvana Pastine (National University of Ireland, Maynooth) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines student incentives when faced with a college admissions policy which pursues student body diversity. The effect of a diversify-conscious admissions policy critically depends on the design of the policy. If the admissions policy fails to incentivize students from a disadvantaged socioeconomic background it may lead to a deterioration in the intergroup score gap while failing to improve student body diversity in equilibrium. |
| Keywords: | Affirmative Action, College Admissions, All-Pay Auction, Contest, Tournament |
| Date: | 2009–08–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:200911&r=lab |
| By: | Martin D. Dooley; A. Abigail Payne; A. Leslie Robb |
| Abstract: | Tuition levels at Ontario universities have risen along with the value of merit-based entry scholarships provided by the nineteen institutions in this relatively closed system. We use data on entering students from 1994 through 2005 and find that merit awards have at most a small effect on a universityÕs share of academically strong registrants. Such aid, however, is strongly associated with an increase in the ratio of students from low-income neighborhoods to students from high-income neighborhoods. Finally, although more advantaged students are more likely to attend university, merit aid is not strongly skewed towards the more advantaged conditional upon registration. |
| Keywords: | University; Merit Scholarships |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:deptwp:2009-12&r=lab |