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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Pastore, Francesco (University of Naples II) |
| Abstract: | Relatively little is known about the youth labour market in general and about gender differences in Mongolia, one of the fifty poorest countries in the world. This paper addresses the issue by taking advantage of a School to Work Survey (SWTS) on young people aged 15-29 years carried out in 2006. On average, female wages are not lower than those of males. However, women have a much higher average educational level than men: in fact, although not statistically significant among teenagers (15-19), the conditional gender gap becomes significant and sizeable for the over-20. The Juhn, Murphy and Pierce (1993) decomposition confirms that, if wages were paid equally, women should have 11.7% more considering only their educational advantage and overall 22% more, a substantial gap for the low earnings of Mongolians. |
| Keywords: | school-to-work transitions, earnings equations, decomposition analysis, gender wage gap, Asia, Mongolia |
| JEL: | I21 J13 J24 J31 J62 P30 R23 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4480&r=lab |
| By: | Henry Hyatt |
| Abstract: | Studies of moral hazard in wage insurance programs such as Unemployment Insurance (UI) or Workers Compensation (WC) have demonstrated that higher benefits discourage work, emphasizing the price distortion inherent in benefit provision. Utilizing administrative data linking WC claim records to wage records from a UI payroll tax database, I find that the effect of WC benefits on the duration of benefit receipt cannot fully account for the effect of these benefits on post-injury unemployment. This indicates that a significant fraction of the effect of WC benefits on employment is due to an income effect rather than a price distortion. |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:09-37&r=lab |
| By: | Mustafa Kemal, Bicerli; Naci, Gundogan |
| Abstract: | Urbanization -as a worldwide pheonemenon- has increased its pace especially in the twentieth century in all over the World. Turkey is no exception of this process. In Turkey, urbanization has been accelerated since 1950 and it still carries on by increasing its speed. While only 25% of the population had lived in cities in 1927, nowadays this portion of the population has reached to aproximately 70.0 %. Like in many developing countries, women in rural labor markets of Turkey mostly work as unpaid family workers in agriculture and in some non-market activities such as home production and voluntary jobs. It is observed that from 1950’s to today women’s labor force participation rates (LFPRs) in urban areas have been diminished dramatically. Besides other factors that reduces women’s LFP in urban areas, ongoing migration from rural to urban areas seems to play the dominant role in this result. It appears that as a result of migration rural female workers are left without any jobs in the cities. Several factors can be taken into account to explain this transformation such as; cultural values against women’s participation in market work, women’s lack of education and marketable skills, unfavorable labor market conditions and increases in enrollment rates in all levels of schooling. In this paper, we have explained the characteristics, causes and dimensions of female labor force participation in urbanization process of Turkey. |
| Keywords: | Urbanization; female labor force participation in Turkey; unemployment; gender discrimination |
| JEL: | J21 J82 J16 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18249&r=lab |
| By: | Friesen, Jane; Krauth, Brian |
| Abstract: | We use administrative data on students in grades 4 and 7 in British Columbia to examine the extent to which differences in school environment contribute to the achievement gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students as measured by standardized test scores. We find that segregation of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students is substantial, and that differences in the distribution of these two groups across schools account for roughly half the overall achievement gap on the Foundation Skills Assessment tests in grade 7. The substantial school-level segregation of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal student across schools means that Aboriginal students on average have a higher proportion of peers who are themselves Aboriginal, as well as a higher proportion of peers in special education. We estimate the effect of peer composition on value-added exam outcomes, using longitudinal data on multiple cohorts of students together with school-by-grade fixed effects to account for endogenous selection into schools. We find that having a greater proportion of Aboriginal peers, if anything, improves the achievement of Aboriginal students. |
| Keywords: | Aboriginal education, peer effects |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2009–10–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-52&r=lab |
| By: | Böheim, René (University of Linz); Zweimüller, Martina (University of Linz) |
| Abstract: | A firm's decision to employ agency workers may be perceived as a replacement of directly employed workers or as way to curb union power, which trade unions would oppose. Alternatively, trade unions may encourage the (temporary) employment of agency workers in a firm, if they manage to bargain higher wages for their members. We estimate the relationship between hiring agency workers and trade union activity at the workplace, in particular, the type of collective bargaining agreements. We use British data from the Workplace Employment Relations Surveys (WERS) of 1998 and 2004. The empirical association between the employment of agency workers and union strength is weak, but positive. Furthermore, workplaces with collective bargaining have lower wages in the presence of agency workers, suggesting that agency workers are hired against the unions. |
| Keywords: | work agency, trade union, collective bargaining, flexibility, Workplace Employment Relations Survey |
| JEL: | D21 J31 J40 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4492&r=lab |
| By: | Holmlund, Helena (CEP, London School of Economics); Silva, Olmo (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | A growing body of research highlights the importance of non-cognitive skills as determinants of young people's cognitive outcomes at school. However, little evidence exists about the effects of policies that specifically target students' non-cognitive skills as a way to improve educational achievements. In this paper, we shed light on this issue by studying a remedial education programme aimed at English secondary school pupils at risk of school exclusion and with worsening educational trajectories. The main peculiarity of this intervention is that it solely targets students' non-cognitive skills – such as self-confidence, locus of control, self-esteem and motivation – with the aim of improving pupils' records of attendance and end-of-compulsory-education (age 16) cognitive outcomes. We evaluate the effect of the policy on test scores in standardized national exams at age-16 using both least squares and propensity-score matching methods. Additionally, we exploit repeated observations on pupils’ test scores to control for unobservables that might affect students’ outcomes and selection into the programme. We find little evidence that the programme significantly helped treated youths to improve their age-16 test outcomes. We also find little evidence of heterogeneous policy effects along a variety of dimensions. |
| Keywords: | cognitive and non-cognitive skills; policy evaluation; secondary schooling |
| JEL: | C20 I20 H75 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4476&r=lab |
| By: | Pager, Devah (Princeton University); Western, Bruce (Harvard University); Bonikowski, Bart (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | Decades of racial progress have led some researchers and policymakers to doubt that discrimination remains an important cause of economic inequality. To study contemporary discrimination we conducted a field experiment in the low-wage labor market of New York City. The experiment recruited white, black, and Latino job applicants, called testers, who were matched on demographic characteristics and interpersonal skills. The testers were given equivalent resumes and sent to apply in tandem for hundreds of entry-level jobs. Our results show that black applicants were half as likely to receive a callback or job offer relative to equally qualified whites. In fact, black and Latino applicants with clean backgrounds fared no better than a white applicant just released from prison. Additional qualitative evidence from our testers' experiences further illustrates the multiple points at which employment trajectories can be deflected by various forms of racial bias. Together these results point to the subtle but systematic forms of discrimination that continue to shape employment opportunities for low-wage workers. |
| Keywords: | discrimination, field experiment, race, labor markets |
| JEL: | J7 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4469&r=lab |
| By: | Philip Du Caju (National Bank of Belgium, Research Department); François Ryckx (Free University of Brussels, DULBEA; NBB; IZA-Bonn); Ilan Tojerow (Free University of Brussels, DULBEA; NBB; IZA-Bonn) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates inter-industry wage differentials in Belgium, taking advantage of access to a unique matched employer-employee data set covering all the years from 1999 to 2005. Findings show the existence of large wage differentials among workers with the same observed characteristics and working conditions, employed in different sectors. These differentials are persistent and no particular downward or upward trend is observed. Further results indicate that ceteris paribus, workers earn significantly higher wages when employed in more profitable firms. The time dimension of our matched employer-employee data allows us to instrument firms' profitability by its lagged value. The instrumented elasticity between wages and profits is found to be quite stable over time and varies between 0.034 and 0.043. It follows that Lester’s range of pay due to rent sharing fluctuates between about 24 and 37 percent of the mean wage. This rentsharing phenomenon accounts for a large fraction of the industry wage differentials. We find indeed that the magnitude, dispersion and significance of industry wage differentials decreases sharply when controlling for profits |
| Keywords: | Industry wage differentials, Rent-sharing, Matched employer-employee data |
| JEL: | D31 J31 J41 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbb:reswpp:200910-27&r=lab |
| By: | René Böheim; Martina Zweimüller |
| Abstract: | A firm's decision to employ agency workers may be perceived as a replace- ment of directly employed workers or as way to curb union power, which trade unions would oppose. Alternatively, trade unions may encourage the (tem- porary) employment of agency workers in a firm, if they manage to bargain higher wages for their members. We estimate the relationship between hir- ing agency workers and trade union activity at the workplace, in particular, the type of collective bargaining agreements. We use British data from the Workplace Employment Relations Surveys (WERS) of 1998 and 2004. The empirical association between the employment of agency workers and union strength is weak, but positive. Furthermore, workplaces with collective bar- gaining have lower wages in the presence of agency workers, suggesting that agency workers are hired against the unions. |
| Keywords: | temporary work agency, collective bargaining, flexibility, Workplace Employment Relations Survey |
| JEL: | D21 J31 J40 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:nrnwps:2009_21&r=lab |
| By: | Gundogan , Naci; Bicerli, Mustafa Kemal |
| Abstract: | Rapid and uncontrolled migration created by the population moving from rural to urban areas causes serious problems from the viewpoint of labor markets. Increases in rural-urban migration flows is contributing to a larger urban labor supply. This increasing labor supply has produced an increasing urban unemployment rate and a deterioration in the quality of employment, as it is evident from the increased informal employment rates. One of the most distinctive features of the economies in developing countries is the fact that more than half of workers are employed in the urban informal sector. Urbanization and informal sector are joint and rising trends in these countries. The informal sector represents a significant part of the economy, and certainly of the labor market in developing economies, and plays a major role in employment creation, production and income generation. |
| Keywords: | urbanization; informal labor market; urban labor market; rural- urban migration; developing countries |
| JEL: | J01 E26 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18247&r=lab |
| By: | Pendakur, Krishna; Woodcock, Simon |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether immigrant and minority workers’ poor access to high-wage jobs— that is, glass ceilings— is attributable to poor access to jobs in high-wage …rms, a phenomenon we call glass doors. Our analysis uses linked employer-employee data to measure mean- and quantile-wage di¤erentials of immigrants and ethnic minorities, both within and across …rms. We …nd that glass ceilings exist for some immigrant groups, and that they are driven in large measure by glass doors. For some immigrant groups, the sorting of these workers across …rms accounts for as much as half of the economy-wide wage disparity they face. |
| Keywords: | glass ceilings, wage di¤erentials, immigration, visible minorities, quantile regression, linked employer-employee data |
| JEL: | J15 J71 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–10–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-55&r=lab |
| By: | Kim , Insu |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates wage dynamics assuming the potential presence of dual wage stickiness: with respect to both the frequency as well as the size of wage adjustments. In particular, this paper proposes a structural model of wage inflation dynamics assuming that although workers adjust wage contracts at discrete time intervals, they are limited in their abilities to adjust wages as much as they might desire. The dual wage stickiness model nests the baseline model, based on Calvo-type wage stickiness, as a particular case. Empirical results favor the dual sticky wage model over the baseline model that assumes only one type of wage stickiness in several dimensions. In particular, it outperforms the baseline model in terms of goodness of fitness as well as in the ability to explain the observed dynamic correlation between wage inflation and the output gap - which the baseline model fails to capture. |
| Keywords: | Wage inflation; sticky wages; sticky prices; new Keynesian; hybrid. |
| JEL: | E32 E31 J30 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18345&r=lab |
| By: | Ali, Amjad |
| Abstract: | Teacher profile and characteristics are not weightless because student achievements are heavily teacher dependent. In this detailed and in-depth research, the impact of teacher wages on students’ achievement was assessed in different ways by using different measuring sticks; starting salary, salary after 15 year of experience, salary per hour of net teaching time and salary ratio to GDP per capita and by using country scores, of 15 year old pupil enrolled in lower secondary school, in OECD member countries. For this propose PISA 2000, 2003 and 2006 survey data of students’ scores were used. The independent variables “wages” was regressed on the dependent variable “students total mean country score”. The results of these analyses gave an indication that there is a positive impact of teacher wages on students’ performance. |
| Keywords: | characteristics; profile; qualities; impact; teacher; learning; achievements; performance; student; salary; wages; gender; PISA; OECD |
| JEL: | D24 |
| Date: | 2009–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18252&r=lab |
| By: | Gimpelson, Vladimir (CLMS, Moscow Higher School of Economics); Kapeliushnikov, Rostislav (CLMS, Moscow Higher School of Economics); Lukiyanova, Anna (CLMS, Moscow Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Since formal laws can be observed or ignored to varying degrees, the actual enforcement regime shapes incentives and constraints. Most of the studies exploring EPL effects on labour market performance implicitly assume that EPL compliance is near to complete and therefore all firms bear full adjustment costs incurred by the regulations. This seems to be a very strong assumption for any country but it sounds especially strong and hardly plausible for developing and transition economies. But if compliance and enforcement varies widely across regions/cities or segments of firms, then this variation is likely to cause variation in performance. This paper looks at Russia in particular. The main idea of this paper is to analize cross-regional and inter-temporal variation in EPL enforcement and to explore empirically whether it is translated into regional labour market outcomes. The paper employs unique data set based on the State Labour Inspectorate data and the Supreme Court statistics on labour disputes. |
| Keywords: | employment protection regulations, enforcement, employment, unemployment, regional labor markets, Russia |
| JEL: | J21 J23 J52 K31 R23 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4484&r=lab |
| By: | Blien, Uwe (IAB, Nürnberg); Dauth, Wolfgang (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg); Schank, Thorsten (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg); Schnabel, Claus (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | The wage curve identified by Blanchflower and Oswald (1994) postulates that the wage level is a decreasing function of the regional unemployment rate. In testing this hypothesis, most empirical studies have not taken into account that differences in the institutional framework may have an impact on the existence (or the slope) of a wage curve. Using a large-scale linked employer-employee data set for western Germany, this paper provides a first test of the relevance of different bargaining regimes and of works councils for the existence of a wage curve. In pooled regressions for the period 1998 to 2006 as well as in worker-level or plant-level fixed-effects estimations we obtain evidence for a wage curve for plants with a collective bargaining agreement at firm level. The point estimates for this group of plants are close to the -0.1 elasticity of wages with respect to unemployment postulated by Blanchflower and Oswald. In this regime, we also find that works councils dampen the adjustment of wages to the regional unemployment situation. In the other regimes of plants that either do not make use of collective contracts or apply sectoral agreements, we do not find a wage curve. |
| Keywords: | wages, wage curve, collective bargaining, Germany |
| JEL: | J50 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4488&r=lab |
| By: | Yabuuchi, Shigemi; Chaudhuri, Sarbajit |
| Abstract: | The paper employs a three-sector general equilibrium model for examining the consequences of an infrastructure development scheme to the education sector and an inflow of foreign capital on the skilled-unskilled wage inequality in a developing economy. The education sector faces a capital adjustment cost for which the effective unit cost of capital depends positively on the amount of capital employed. Although both infrastructure development scheme and inflows of foreign capital lead to higher skill formation, the policies produce incongruent effects on the wages of skilled and unskilled labour. Furthermore, the effects of the policies on the skilled-unskilled wage inequality depend crucially on the relative factor intensities of the low-skill and high-skill sectors. Finally, which of the two policies should the country adopt depends on the technological, institutional and trade related factors. |
| Keywords: | Skill formation; skilled labour; unskilled labour; wage inequality; foreign capital; capital adjustment cost |
| JEL: | F16 F13 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–03–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18381&r=lab |
| By: | Alice Guyot (Center for small- and medium-sized business research, University of Mannheim, Germany); Stefan Berwing (Center for small- and medium-sized business research, University of Mannheim, Germany); Maria Lauxen-Ulbrich (Center for small- and medium-sized business research, University of Mannheim, Germany) |
| Abstract: | The aim of our paper is to identify explanatory variables for income disparities between women and men across different regional types. Using data from the BA Employment Panel (BEP) descriptive statistics show that the gender pay gap grows wider from core regions to periphery. The main explanatory variables for the income differentials are vocational education in the men’s case and size of enterprise in the women’s case. Whereas in the case of women the importance of vocational status increases and the importance of size of enterprise decreases from rural areas to urban areas. |
| Keywords: | Regional economics, Regional data, Wage differentials, Wage gap |
| JEL: | J16 J24 J31 R21 R23 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:voj:wpaper:200935&r=lab |
| By: | Barrett, Alan (ESRI, Dublin); Bergin, Adele (ESRI, Dublin); Kelly, Elish (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the impact of immigration on the wages of natives in Ireland applying the technique proposed by Borjas (2003). Under this method, the labour market is divided into a number of skill cells, where the cells are defined by groups with similar levels of experience and education (or experience and occupation). Regression analysis is then employed to assess whether the average wages of natives across skill cells is affected by the share of immigrants across cells. When the cells are based on education/experience, our results suggest a negative relationship between native wages and immigrant shares. However, the opposite appears to hold when the cells are based on occupation/experience. These contradictory findings suggest that care should be exercised when applying this method as inaccurate impressions of the impact of immigration on wages may arise. |
| Keywords: | wages, immigration, Ireland |
| JEL: | J11 J21 J61 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4472&r=lab |
| By: | Neamtu Adina; Neamtu Liviu (Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, Romania) |
| Abstract: | The success of the education system in Romania will be possible only through a network of long-term educational viable universities on an increasingly demanding and more aware market. Consequently, higher education studies institutions will have to meet as soon as possible the requirements of this market and to provide solutions to the needs of education and research through strategic approach capable of providing academic development of medium and long term. |
| Keywords: | education system, university, progress, educational offer, employment offer |
| JEL: | A22 M30 I20 I21 I22 |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbu:wpaper:2&r=lab |
| By: | Filippin, Antonio (University of Milan) |
| Abstract: | The paper explains how workers' expectations of being discriminated against can be self-confirming, accounting for the persistence of unequal outcomes in the labour market even beyond the causes that originally generated them. The theoretical framework used is a two-stage game of incomplete information in which one employer promotes only one among two workers after having observed their productivity, which is used as a signal of their ability. Workers who expect to be discriminated against exert a lower effort on average, because of a lower expected return, thereby being promoted less frequently even by unbiased employers. This implies that achievements of minority groups may not improve when the fraction of discriminatory employers actually decreases, and such a mechanism is robust both to trial work periods and to affirmative actions like quotas. |
| Keywords: | discrimination, workers’ expectations, self-confirming beliefs |
| JEL: | J71 J15 J24 D82 C79 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4490&r=lab |
| By: | Mogstad, Magne (Statistics Norway); Pronzato, Chiara (University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | There is a heated debate in many European countries about a move towards a welfare system that increases the incentives for lone mothers to move off welfare and into work. We analyze the consequences of a major Norwegian workfare reform of the generous welfare system for lone mothers. Our difference-in-differences estimates show that the policy changes were successful in improving labor market attachment and increasing disposable income of new lone mothers. By contrast, the reform led to a substantial decrease in disposable income and a significant increase in poverty among persistent lone mothers, because a sizeable group was unable to offset the loss of out-of-work welfare benefits with gains in earnings. This suggests that the desired effects of the workfare reform were associated with the side-effects of income loss and increased poverty among a substantial number of lone mothers with insurmountable employment barriers. This finding stands in stark contrast to evidence from similar policy changes in Canada, the UK, and the US, and underscores that policymakers from other developed countries should be cautious when drawing lessons from the successful welfare reforms implemented in Anglo-Saxon countries. |
| Keywords: | lone mothers, workfare reform, difference-in-differences, heterogeneity, earnings, labor force participation, poverty, disposable income |
| JEL: | C23 I32 I38 J00 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4489&r=lab |
| By: | Matt Dickson |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the return to education using two alternative instrumental variable estimators: one exploits variation in schooling associated with early smoking behaviour, the other uses the raising of the minimum school leaving age. Each instrument estimates a ‘local average treatment effect’ and my motivation is to analyse the extent to which these differ and which is more appropriate for drawing conclusions about the return to education in Britain. I implement each instrument on the same data from the British Household Panel Survey, and use the over-identification to test the validity of my instruments. I find that the instrument constructed using early smoking behaviour is valid as well as being strong, and argue that it provides a better estimate of the average effect of additional education, akin to ordinary least squares but corrected for endogeneity. I also exploit the dual sources of exogenous variation in schooling to derive a further IV estimate of the return to schooling. I find the OLS estimate to be considerably downward biased (around 4.6%) compared with the IV estimates of 12.9% (early smoking), 10.2% (RoSLA) and 12.5% (both instruments). |
| Keywords: | human capital, endogeneity, local average treatment effect |
| JEL: | I20 J30 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:cmpowp:09/220&r=lab |
| By: | Fabio R. Aricó |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a stylised framework to examine how skill-biased tech¬nological change and labour market frictions affect the relationship between economic expansion and unskilled unemployment. The first part of the analysis focuses on the investment decisions in skill-acquisition and technology adoption activities faced by workers and firms in response to the introduction of an inno¬vative technology. The second part examines how endogenous two-sided hetero¬geneity in the labour market affects the macroeconomic outcomes in terms of unemployment, technological diffusion, and economic expansion. To conclude, the framework is used to discuss the effects of alternative forms of policy inter¬vention on agents' investment decisions and on the macroeconomic outcomes. |
| Keywords: | skill-biased technological change, market frictions, two-sided het¬erogeneity. |
| JEL: | C78 J24 J64 O33 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:san:cdmawp:0908&r=lab |
| By: | Amélie Lafrance (Statistics Canada); Casey Warman (Queen's University, Department of Economics); Frances Woolley (Carleton University, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We use the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) to explore the effects of marriage and cohabitation on gay, lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual individuals’ hours worked and full-time earnings. The CCHS is one of the largest national-level data sets containing both income and sexual orientation information (Carpenter, 2008). Partnered gay and bisexual men spend more hours in paid employment than their unattached counterparts. However, for those working more than 30 hours per week, the earnings advantage of partnered gay and bisexual men relative to the unattached is insignificant. The hours worked of partnered and unattached lesbians are indistinguishable, however partnered lesbians earn about ten percent more than the unattached. Bisexual men and women experience some of the worst labor market outcomes of any group. These findings suggest that caution should be employed when generalizing results based on studies of cohabiting gay and lesbian couples to the entire non-heterosexual population. |
| Keywords: | Marriage Premium, Earnings, Hours worked |
| JEL: | J12 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qed:wpaper:1219&r=lab |
| By: | Blien, Uwe; Dauth, Wolfgang; Schank, Thorsten; Schnabel, Claus |
| Abstract: | The wage curve identified by Blanchflower and Oswald (1994) postulates that the wage level is a decreasing function of the regional unemployment rate. In testing this hypothesis, most empirical studies have not taken into account that differences in the institutional framework may have an impact on the existence (or the slope) of a wage curve. Using a large-scale linked employer-employee data set for western Germany, this paper provides a first test of the relevance of different bargaining regimes and of works councils for the existence of a wage curve. In pooled regressions for the period 1998 to 2006 as well as in worker-level or plant-level fixed-effects estimations we obtain evidence for a wage curve for plants with a collective bargaining agreement at firm level. The point estimates for this group of plants are close to the -0.1 elasticity of wages with respect to unemployment postulated by Blanchflower and Oswald. In this regime, we also find that works councils dampen the adjustment of wages to the regional unemployment situation. In the other regimes of plants that either do not make use of collective contracts or apply sectoral agreements, we do not find a wage curve. // Mit verbundenen Arbeitgeber-Arbeitnehmer-Daten für Westdeutschland wird in dieser Arbeit die Bedeutung von Tarifvertragsregimes und Betriebsräten für die Existenz einer Lohnkurve überprüft. Sowohl gepoolte Regressionen für 1998-2006 als auch Schätzungen mit fixen Effekten auf Ebene der Arbeitnehmer oder Betriebe deuten auf die Existenz einer Lohnkurve in der Gruppe der Betriebe mit Firmentarifvertrag hin (wobei hier überdies Betriebsräte die Lohnanpassung dämpfen). Die ermittelte Lohnelastizität bezüglich der regionalen Arbeitslosenquote liegt dabei in der Nähe des von Blanchflower und Oswald (1994) postulierten Wertes von -0,1. In anderen Regimes ohne Tarifvertrag oder mit Branchentarifvertrag finden wir dagegen keine Anzeichen für eine Lohnkurve. |
| Keywords: | wages,wage curve,collective bargaining,Germany |
| JEL: | J50 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:faulre:64&r=lab |
| By: | Panos Sousounis (Department of Economics, University of the West of England); Robin Bladen-Hovell (Keele University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate the role of workers‘ training history in determining current training incidence. The analysis is conducted on an unbalanced sample comprising information on approximately 5000 employees from the first seven waves of the BHPS. Training participation is modelled as a dynamic random effects probit model where the effects of unobserved heterogeneity and initial conditions are accounted for in a fashion consistent with methods proposed by Chamberlain (1984) and Wooldridge (2002) respectively. The results suggest that prior training experience is a significant determinant of a worker‘s participation in a current training episode comparable with other formal educational qualifications. |
| Keywords: | Training; state dependence; dynamic probit |
| JEL: | J24 C23 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwe:wpaper:0918&r=lab |
| By: | Caponi, Vincenzo; Kayahan, Cevat Burc; Plesca, Miana |
| Abstract: | The literature has not yet resolved whether the effect of macroeconomic fluctuations on training decisions is positive or negative. On the one hand, the opportunity cost to train is lower during downturns, and thus training should be counter-cyclical. On the other hand, a positive shock may be related to the adoption of new technologies and increased returns to skill, making training incidence pro-cyclical. Using the Canadian panel of Workplace and Employee Survey (WES), we document another important channel at work: the relative position of a sector also matters. We find not only that training moves counter-cyclically with the aggregate business cycle (more training during downturns), but also that the idiosyncratic sectoral shocks have a positive impact on training incidence (more training in sectors doing relatively better). These findings help us better understand training decisions by firms. |
| Keywords: | Training; Human capital; Business cycles; Sectoral shocks |
| JEL: | J24 E32 |
| Date: | 2009–10–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-54&r=lab |
| By: | Mu, Ren; van de Walle, Dominique |
| Abstract: | The transformation of work during China’s rapid economic development is associated with a substantial but little noticed re-allocation of traditional farm labor among women, with some doing much less and some much more. This paper studies how the work, time allocation, and health of non-migrant women are affected by the out-migration of others in their household. The analysis finds that the women left behind are doing more farm work than would have otherwise been the case. There is also evidence that this is a persistent effect, and not just temporary re-allocation. For some types of women (notably older women), the labor re-allocation response comes out of their leisure. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Gender and Development,Anthropology,Population&Development |
| Date: | 2009–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5107&r=lab |
| By: | Simon Burgess; Ellen Greaves; Anna Vignoles; Deborah Wilson |
| Abstract: | Parental demand for academic performance is a key element in the view that strengthening school choice will drive up school performance. In this paper we analyse what parents look for in choosing schools. We assemble a unique dataset combining survey information on parents’ choices plus a rich set of socio-economic characteristics; administrative data on school characteristics, admissions criteria and allocation rules; and spatial data attached to a pupil census to define the de facto set of schools available to each family in the survey. To achieve identification, we focus on cities where the school place allocation system is truth-revealing (“equal preferences”). We take great care in trying to capture the set of schools that each family could realistically choose from. We also look at a large subset of parents who continued living in the same house as before the child was born, to avoid endogenous house/school moves. We then model the choices made in terms of the characteristics of schools and families and the distances involved. School characteristics include measures of academic performance, school socio-economic and ethnic composition, and its faith school status. Initial results showed strong differences in the set of choices available to parents in different socio-economic positions. Our central analysis uses multinomial logistic regression to show that families do indeed value academic performance in schools. They also value school composition – preferring schools with low fractions of children from poor families. We compute trade-offs between these characteristics as well as between these and distance travelled. We are able to compare these trade-offs for different families. Our results suggest that preferences do not vary greatly between different socio-economic groups once constraints are fully accounted for. |
| Keywords: | school preferences, school choice, parental choice |
| JEL: | I20 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:cmpowp:09/222&r=lab |
| By: | Martin Gachter; David A. Savage; Benno Torgler |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of police officers‘ willingness to quit their current department. For this purpose, we work with US survey data that covers a large set of police officers for the Baltimore Police Department in Maryland. Our results indicate that more effective cooperation between units, a higher trust in the work partner, a higher level of interactional justice and a higher level of work-life-balance reduces police officers‘ willingness to quit the department substantially. On the other hand, higher physical and psychological stress and the expereicene of traumatic events are not, ceteris paribus, correlated with the willingness to leave the department. It might be that police officers accept stress as an acceptable factor in their job description. |
| Keywords: | Willingness to Quit the Job; Turnover Rates: Job Satisfaction; Stress; Police Officers; Work-Life Balance; Fairness; Acceptance. |
| JEL: | I10 I12 I31 J24 J81 Z13 |
| Date: | 2009–10–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qut:dpaper:253&r=lab |
| By: | Girard, Magali; Smith, Michael |
| Abstract: | The number of immigrants working in regulated and unregulated occupations is unknown. A major contribution of this study is that we use Statistics Canada data to classify occupations, across provinces, into regulated and unregulated categories and then to examine the covariates of membership in a regulated occupation. In aggregate, immigrants are not less likely to work in a regulated occupation. Immigrants educated in Asia prove to be much less likely to secure access to a regulated occupation than either the native-born or other immigrants. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, regulated occupations, place of education, foreign credentials, Canada |
| JEL: | J24 J61 L50 |
| Date: | 2009–10–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-53&r=lab |
| By: | Kraft, Kornelius (University of Dortmund); Neimann, Stefanie (University of Dortmund) |
| Abstract: | Using a rich panel data set from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we test whether spouses who are similar to each other in certain respects have a lower probability of divorce than dissimilar spouses. We focus on the effect of homogamy with respect to education and church attendance. Gary Becker's theory of marriage predicts that usually, positive assortative mating is optimal. Our results, however, suggest that homogamy per se does not increase marital stability but higher education and religiousness. |
| Keywords: | divorce, homogamy, education |
| JEL: | I20 J12 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4491&r=lab |
| By: | Torbjørn Skardhamar and Kjetil Telle (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | We explore the relationship between formal employment and recidivism using a dataset that follows every Norwegian resident released from prison in 2003 for several years. By the end of 2006, 27 percent are re-incarcerated. Using a Cox proportional hazard model that controls for a host of individual characteristics, we find that the hazard of re-incarceration is 63 percent lower for those getting employed compared to those not getting employed. While some of the moderating association between employment and re-incarceration is accounted for by observable individual characteristics, the substantially lower hazard for those getting employed indicates a possibility of a considerable benign effect of employment on recidivism. Our analysis thus provides further indication that provision of employment opportunities can facilitate the return to society after release from prison. |
| Keywords: | prison; recidivism; employment |
| JEL: | J19 K49 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:597&r=lab |
| By: | Pouliakas, Konstantinos; Theodoropoulos, Nikolaos |
| Abstract: | Using two cross-sections of a representative dataset of British establishments, the effect of various forms of incentive pay (e.g. performance-related pay (PRP), profit-sharing, share ownership, cash bonuses) on the absence rates of firms is investigated. Incentives that are tightly linked to individual or group merit are found to be significantly related to lower absenteeism. Important disparities in the effect of PRP on absenteeism are detected, which depend on the extent of monitoring, private-public status, teamwork, and other organizational changes. The findings are robust to the potential endogenous relation between monitoring, PRP and absenteeism, and have important implications for the design of optimal compensation policies by firms. |
| Keywords: | performance-related pay; incentives; absenteeism |
| JEL: | J22 C21 J33 |
| Date: | 2009–10–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18238&r=lab |
| By: | D'Amuri, Francesco/FD; Marcucci, Juri/JM |
| Abstract: | In this paper we suggest the use of an internet job-search indicator (Google Index, GI) as the best leading indicator to predict the US unemployment rate. We perform a deep out-of-sample comparison of many forecasting models. With respect to the previous literature we concentrate on the monthly series extending the out-of-sample forecast comparison with models that adopt both our preferred leading indicator (GI), the more standard initial claims or combinations of both. Our results show that the GI indeed helps in predicting the US unemployment rate even after controlling for the effects of data snooping. Robustness checks show that models augmented with the GI perform better than traditional ones even in most state-level forecasts and in comparison with the Survey of Professional Forecasters' federal level predictions. |
| Keywords: | Google econometrics; Forecast comparison; Keyword search; US unemployment; Time series models. |
| JEL: | C53 J60 E27 J64 C22 E37 |
| Date: | 2009–10–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18248&r=lab |
| By: | Björn van Roye; Dennis Wesselbaum |
| Abstract: | We implement capital in an endogenous separations New Keynesian matching model. In contrast to the vintage capital theory, we suggest a more general approach, such that workers have unrestricted access to a proportional share of the capital stock. We find that the introduction of capital generates an important channel for the transmission of aggregate productivity shocks, using capital-labor trade-off. The model generates higher volatilities of key variables and therefore enhances the performance of the matching model to generate stylized facts in response to an aggregate productivity shock. However, there is almost no difference for monetary policy shocks |
| Keywords: | Capital, Endogenous Separations, Search and Matching |
| JEL: | E22 E32 J64 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1561&r=lab |
| By: | Edvard Johansson; Petri Böckerman; Tuija Martelin; Sami Pirkola; Karí Poikolainen |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT : The paper examines the causal effect of education on common individual mental disorders in adulthood. We use a representative population health survey and instrumental variable methods. The estimates point to mostly insignificant effects of education on common mental disorders. We find that the length of education reduces the BDI (Beck Depression Inventory) measure at the 10% significance level, but has no effect when using the GHQ-12 (12-item General Health Questionnaire) or the probability of severe depression as a measure of mental health. These results cast doubt on the view that the length of formal education would be a particularly important determinant of common mental disorders later in life. |
| JEL: | I12 I21 |
| Date: | 2009–10–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1202&r=lab |
| By: | Bevelander, Pieter (Malmö University); Pendakur, Ravi (University of Ottawa) |
| Abstract: | Over the last decades, Sweden has liberalized its citizenship policy by reducing the required number of years of residency to five for foreign citizens and only two for Nordic citizens. Dual citizenship has been allowed since 2001. During the same period, immigration patterns by country of birth changed substantially, with an increasing number of immigrants arriving from non-western countries. Furthermore, immigrants were settling in larger cities as opposed to smaller towns as was the case before. Interestingly, the employment integration of immigrants has declined gradually, and in 2006 the employment rate for foreign-born individuals is substantially lower compared to the native-born. The aim of this paper is to explore the link between citizenship and employment probabilities for immigrants in Sweden, controlling for a range of demographic, human capital, and municipal characteristics such as city and co-ethnic population size. The information we employ for this analysis consists of register data on the whole population of Sweden held by Statistics Sweden for the year 2006. The basic register, STATIV, includes demographic, socio-economic and immigrant specific information. In this paper we used instrumental variable regression to examine the "clean" impact of citizenship acquisition and the size of the co-immigrant population on the probability of being employed. In contrast to Scott (2008), we find that citizenship acquisition has a positive impact for a number of immigrant groups. This is particularly the case for non- EU/non-North American immigrants. In terms of intake class, refugees appear to experience substantial gains from citizenship acquisition (this is not, however, the case for immigrants entering as family class). We find that the impact of the co-immigrant population is particularly important for immigrants from Asia and Africa. These are also the countries that have the lowest employment rate. |
| Keywords: | citizenship, naturalization, immigration, ethnicity |
| JEL: | F22 J61 J68 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4495&r=lab |
| By: | Sebastian Braun |
| Abstract: | The effects of unions on productivity and firm performance have been the topic of extensive research. Existing studies have, however, primarily focused on firm-level bargaining and on markets that are characterised by a small and fixed number of identical firms. This paper studies how different unionisation structures affect firm productivity and firm performance in a monopolistic competition model with heterogeneous firms and free entry. While centralised bargaining induces tougher selection among heterogeneous producers and thus increases average productivity, firm-level bargaining allows less productive entrants to remain in the market. Centralised bargaining also results in higher average output and profit levels than either decentralised bargaining or a competitive labour market. From the perspective of consumers, the choice between centralised and decentralised bargaining involves a potential trade-off between product variety and product prices |
| Keywords: | Trade unions, heterogeneous firms, productivity, firm performance |
| JEL: | J24 J50 D43 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1566&r=lab |
| By: | Michael Hübler |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to Hübler (2008) who analyses a partial equilibrium model of outsourcing with Cournot competition in intermediate good production. Final production is located in Western Europe, whereas the intermediate good can be manufactured by a Western (outsourcing) or Eastern European supplier (offshore outsourcing). The paper asks the question how changes in production costs, in particular wages, affect output and thus labor input in the two regions. The paper proves analytically that under certain conditions higher production costs in one region reduce intermediate good production in both regions |
| Keywords: | Offshoring, outsourcing, Cournot competition, intermediate goods, high-skilled, low-skilled |
| JEL: | D24 D43 F20 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1564&r=lab |
| By: | Dixon, Keith |
| Abstract: | Accounting has been shown to figure variously in New Higher Education. However, despite their infant precursors having been labelled curricular accounting (Theodossin, 1986), accounting researchers have overlooked a collection of calculative practices that has grown and spread internationally over the past two decades. The collection in question comprises credit points, levels of learning, level descriptors, learning outcomes, and related characteristics of student transcripts and diploma supplements, qualification frameworks and credit transfer systems. This paper extends coverage of the accounting literature to this particular variant of accounting. The subject is addressed both in a technical way and in the broader context of accounting in organisations and society. The former University of New Zealand and its affiliate in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the University of Canterbury, also of that city, are used as a case study. The credit point system in place at the University of Canterbury in 2009 and its antecedents back to 1873 are analysed genealogically. Participant-observation and related means are used to collect data. These data are analysed using ideas of representational schemes, path-dependent changes and negotiated orders among parties who have been associated with the case institutions. The analysis illuminates how and why learning (and teaching) at the University of Canterbury has come to be specified, recorded and controlled using curricular accounting; and why the accounting in use accords conceptually and, to an increasing degree, in practice to that in use across tertiary education in many countries. Among the social, economic and political issues that have spurred on this spread are international standards, quality and equivalence of tertiary education qualifications, study and learning; diversification of participation in tertiary education; changes to the levels and sources of funding tertiary education; and the many and varied ideas, etc. associated with New Higher Education. The spread has multifarious consequences for students, academics, alumni, universities and similar institutions, higher education, governments and others. There is much scope for further research. |
| Keywords: | Higher education; Credit accumulation and transfer; Social and institutional accounting; Genealogical methods |
| JEL: | I21 H83 I28 |
| Date: | 2009–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18295&r=lab |
| By: | Berdugo, Binyamin; Meir, Uri |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the role of education as a way of reducing private rent seeking activities and increasing output. In many underdeveloped economies, for most individuals, there is no private return to education. Nonetheless, according to this paper, governments are better off by investing in public education. We view education as a means to build personal character, thereby affecting macroeconomic long run equilibrium by reducing the number of individuals who are engaged in private rentseeking activities. We show that education is more efficient than ordinary law enforcement because it has a long-run effect. The policy implication of this result is that even when education does not increase human capital, compulsory schooling will be beneficial in pulling underdeveloped economies out of poverty. |
| Keywords: | Rent Seeking; Decency; Education; Growth |
| JEL: | O10 A20 O43 I21 |
| Date: | 2009–10–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18369&r=lab |
| By: | Baird, Sarah; Chirwa, Ephraim; McIntosh, Craig; Ozler, Berk |
| Abstract: | Recent evidence suggests that conditional cash transfer programs for schooling are effective in raising school enrollment and attendance. However, there is also reason to believe that such programs can affect other outcomes, such as the sexual behavior of their young beneficiaries. Zomba Cash Transfer Program is a randomized, ongoing conditional cash transfer intervention targeting young women in Malawi that provides incentives (in the form of school fees and cash transfers) to current schoolgirls and recent dropouts to stay in or return to school. An average offer of US$10/month conditional on satisfactory school attendance – plus direct payment of secondary school fees – led to significant declines in early marriage, teenage pregnancy, and self-reported sexual activity among program beneficiaries after just one year of program implementation. For program beneficiaries who were out of school at baseline, the probability of getting married and becoming pregnant declined by more than 40 percent and 30 percent, respectively. In addition, the incidence of the onset of sexual activity was 38 percent lower among all program beneficiaries than the control group. Overall, these results suggest that conditional cash transfer programs not only serve as useful tools for improving school attendance, but may also reduce sexual activity, teen pregnancy, and early marriage. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Adolescent Health,Education For All,Primary Education,Disease Control&Prevention |
| Date: | 2009–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5089&r=lab |