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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Lofstrom, Magnus (Public Policy Institute of California) |
| Abstract: | More than half of the foreign born workforce in the U.S. have no schooling beyond high school and about 20 percent of the low-skilled workforce are immigrants. More than 10 percent of these low-skilled immigrants are self-employed. Utilizing longitudinal data from the 1996, 2001 and 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation panels, this paper analyzes the returns to self-employment among low-skilled immigrants. We compare annual earnings and earnings growth of immigrant entrepreneurs to immigrants in wage/salary employment as well as native born business owners. We find that the returns to low-skilled self-employment among immigrants is higher than it is among natives but also that wage/salary employment is a more financially rewarding option for most low-skilled immigrants. An exception is immigrant men, who are found to have higher earnings growth than immigrants in wage/salary employment and are predicted to reach earnings parity after approximately 10 years in business. We also find that most of the 20 percent male native-immigrant earnings gap among low-skilled business owners can be explained primarily by differences in the ethnic composition. Low-skilled female foreign born entrepreneurs are found to have earnings roughly equal to those of self-employed native born women. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, low-skill, earnings, self-employment, entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | J15 J16 J31 L26 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4560&r=lab |
| By: | Saint-Paul, Gilles |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the specificities of the labor market for older workers. It discusses the implications of those specificities for the effect of labor market institutions on the employability of those workers. It shows that while unemployment benefits indexed backwards and hiring costs are likely to harm these workers more than the average worker, the converse is true for employment protection, provided it is uniform across workers and not specifically higher for older workers. It provides some evidence on the impact of labor market institutions on older workers by comparing their outcome in the United States and France. It discusses how the welfare state can be reformed in order to improve outcomes for older workers. |
| Keywords: | employment; employment protection; labor market institutions; older workers; pensions; retirement; welfare state |
| JEL: | J23 J24 J26 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7490&r=lab |
| By: | Arni, Patrick; Lalive, Rafael; van Ours, Jan C. |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a comprehensive evaluation of benefit sanctions, i.e. temporary reductions in unemployment benefits as punishment for noncompliance with eligibility requirements. In addition to the effects on unemployment durations, we evaluate the effects on post-unemployment employment stability, on exits from the labor market and on earnings. In our analysis we use a rich set of Swiss register data which allow us to distinguish between ex ante effects, the effects of warnings and the effects of enforcement of benefit sanctions. Adopting a multivariate mixed proportional hazard approach to address selectivity, we find that both warnings and enforcement increase the job finding rate and the exit rate out of the labor force. Warnings do not affect subsequent employment stability but do reduce post-unemployment earnings. Actual benefit reductions lower the quality of post-unemployment jobs both in terms of job duration as well as in terms of earnings. The net effect of a benefit sanction on post-unemployment income is negative. Over a period of two years after leaving unemployment workers who got a benefit sanction imposed face a net income loss equivalent to 30 days of full pay due to the ex post effect. In addition to that, stricter monitoring may reduce net earnings by up to 4 days of pay for every unemployed worker due to the ex ante effect. |
| Keywords: | Benefit sanctions; competing-risk duration models; earnings effects; unemployment duration |
| JEL: | J64 J65 J68 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7541&r=lab |
| By: | van den Berg, Gerard J; Vikström, Johan |
| Abstract: | Unemployment insurance systems include monitoring of unemployed workers and punitive sanctions if job search requirements are violated. We analyze the effect of sanctions on the ensuing job quality, notably on wage rates and hours worked, and we examine how often a sanction leads to a lower occupational level. The data cover the Swedish population over 1999-2004. We estimate duration models dealing with selection on unobservables. We use weighted exogenous sampling maximum likelihood to deal with the fact the data register is large whereas observed punishments are rare. We also develop a theoretical job search model with monitoring of job offer rejection vis-a-vis monitoring of job search effort. The observation window includes a policy change in which the punishment severity was reduced. We find that the hourly wage and the number of hours are on average lower after a sanction, and that individuals move more often to a lower occupational level, incurring human capital losses. Monitoring offer rejections is less effective than monitoring search effort. |
| Keywords: | case worker; duration; hours worked; job offer; offer rejection; sanction; search effort; unemployment; wage; weighted exogenous sampling maximum likelihood |
| JEL: | D83 E65 H75 J30 J62 J64 J68 K42 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7460&r=lab |
| By: | Gilles Mourre (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels and European Commission, DG Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN).) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at examining wage compression in Europe, defined as a relatively small wage differentials compared with productivity differences. Using the publicly available data on wages drawn from the Structure of Earnings Survey 2002, it considers the existence of wage compression both across occupations and levels of education by means of cross-sectional econometric analysis. Looking at wage compression across occupations, robust evidence gives some support to the conventional view that there is a compressed wage distribution in Europe. While the estimated wage compression is even higher across the levels of education, the evidence appears much less robust. Wage compression seems to be higher in the euro area and the EU15 than in the twelve New Member States, which is in line with their more flexible wage bargaining setting. Likewise, wage compression with the EU15 mainly occurs in continental and southern countries. Moreover, the compression of wages is not uniform across wage levels and more pronounced at the lower end of the earning distribution. |
| Keywords: | Wage structure, wage differentials by skills, demand for labour, European Union. |
| JEL: | J23 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:09-051&r=lab |
| By: | Boone, Jan; van Ours, Jan C. |
| Abstract: | Putting a limit on the duration of unemployment benefits tends to introduce a "spike" in the job finding rate shortly before benefits are exhausted. Current theories explain this spike from workers' behavior. We present a theoretical model in which also the nature of the job matters. End-of-benefit spikes in job finding rates are related to optimizing behavior of unemployed workers who rationally assume that employers will accept delays in the starting date of a new job, especially if these jobs are permanent. We use a dataset on Slovenian unemployment spells to test this prediction and find supporting evidence. We conclude that the spike in the job finding rate suggests that workers exploit unemployment insurance benefits for subsidized leisure. |
| Keywords: | Spikes; Unemployment |
| JEL: | I31 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7525&r=lab |
| By: | Keisuke Kawata (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | This paper considers an on-the-job search model that includes wage bargaining and employer-employee mismatch. There are two states of workers in relationship to their fit for a particular job, good match versus bad match (mismatch). These states change in accordance with a stochastic process. There are two main results; the first is that the turnover level that workers find optimal is lower than the socially optimal level. The second is that the level of the firmfs entry is not optimal even though the Hosios condition is hold. The first result is clearly distinct from previous studies. |
| Keywords: | on-the-job search, wage bargaining, mismatch, turnover |
| JEL: | J63 J81 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:0937&r=lab |
| By: | Helpman, Elhanan; Itskhoki, Oleg |
| Abstract: | We study a two-country two-sector model of international trade in which one sector produces homogeneous products while the other produces differentiated products. The differentiated-product industry has firm heterogeneity, monopolistic competition, search and matching in its labor market, and wage bargaining. Some of the workers searching for jobs end up being unemployed. Countries are similar except for frictions in their labor markets, which include efficiency of matching, cost of vacancies, firing costs, and unemployment benefits. We study the interaction of labor market rigidities and trade impediments in shaping welfare, trade flows, productivity, and unemployment. We show that both countries gain from trade but that the flexible country - which has lower labor market frictions - gains proportionately more. A flexible labor market confers comparative advantage; the flexible country exports differentiated products on net. A country benefits from lowering frictions in its labor market, but this harms the country’s trade partner. And the simultaneous proportional lowering of labor market frictions in both countries benefits both of them. The model generates rich patterns of unemployment. In particular, better labor market institutions do not ensure lower unemployment, and unemployment and welfare can both rise in response to a policy change or falling trade costs. |
| Keywords: | labor market frictions; productivity; trade; unemployment |
| JEL: | F12 F16 J64 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7502&r=lab |
| By: | Bauer, Thomas K.; Bender, Stefan (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Paloyo, Alfredo R.; Schmidt, Christoph M. |
| Abstract: | "We identify the causal effect of compulsory military service on conscripts' subsequent labour-market outcomes by exploiting the regression-discontinuity design of the military draft in Germany during the 1950s. Unbiased estimates of military service on lifetime earnings, wages, and employment are obtained by comparing men born before July 1, 1937 (the 'White Cohort') who were exempted from compulsory military service to men who were born on or shortly after this threshold date and hence faced a positive probability of being drafted. We find that the putative earnings advantage and wage premium of those who served in the armed forces vanish when selection effects are taken into account." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku) |
| Keywords: | Wehrdienst - Auswirkungen, Wehrpflichtige, Beschäftigungseffekte, berufliche Reintegration, Einkommenseffekte, Bundeswehr, IAB-Beschäftigtenstichprobe, Berufsverlauf, Lebenseinkommen |
| JEL: | J31 |
| Date: | 2009–11–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:200923&r=lab |
| By: | Salvatori, Andrea (ISER, University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | In the EU, one in seven employees work on temporary contracts associated with lower pay and less training. Using workplace-level data from 21 countries, I show that, in contrast with previous evidence for the US, unionized workplaces are more likely to use temporary employment across Europe. To address the endogeneity of unions, I then use a British dataset and exploit variation over time and across occupations to control for workplace unobserved heterogeneity. This confirms that unions contribute to creating contract duality in the labour market and thus do not limit the ability of firms to adjust employment through flexible contracts. |
| Keywords: | temporary employment, unions, panel data |
| JEL: | J41 J51 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4554&r=lab |
| By: | Krusell, Per; Mukoyama, Toshihiko; Rogerson, Richard; Sahin, Aysegul |
| Abstract: | Commonly used frictional models of the labor market imply that changes in frictions have large effects on steady state employment and unemployment. We use a model that features both frictions and an operative labor supply margin to examine the robustness of this feature to the inclusion of a empirically reasonable labor supply channel. The response of unemployment to changes in frictions is similar in both models. But the labor supply response present in our model greatly attenuates the effects of frictions on steady state employment relative to the simplest matching model, and two common extensions. We also find that the presence of empirically plausible frictions has virtually no impact on the response of aggregate employment to taxes. |
| Keywords: | labour market frictions; labour Supply; taxes |
| JEL: | E24 J22 J64 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7435&r=lab |
| By: | Fatih Guvenen; Burhanettin Kuruscu; Serdar Ozkan |
| Abstract: | Wage inequality has been significantly higher in the United States than in continental European countries (CEU) since the 1970s. Moreover, this inequality gap has further widened during this period as the US has experienced a large increase in wage inequality, whereas the CEU has seen only modest changes. This paper studies the role of labor income tax policies for understanding these facts. We begin by documenting two new empirical facts that link these inequality differences to tax policies. First, we show that countries with more progressive labor income tax schedules have significantly lower before-tax wage inequality at different points in time. Second, progressivity is also negatively correlated with the rise in wage inequality during this period. We then construct a life cycle model in which individuals decide each period whether to go to school, work, or be unemployed. Individuals can accumulate skills either in school or while working. Wage inequality arises from differences across individuals in their ability to learn new skills as well as from idiosyncratic shocks. Progressive taxation compresses the (after-tax) wage structure, thereby distorting the incentives to accumulate human capital, in turn reducing the cross-sectional dispersion of (before-tax) wages. We find that these policies can account for half of the difference between the US and the CEU in overall wage inequality and 76% of the difference in inequality at the upper end (log 90-50 differential). When this economy experiences skill-biased technological change, progressivity also dampens the rise in wage dispersion over time. The model explains 41% of the difference in the total rise in inequality and 58% of the difference at the upper end. |
| JEL: | E62 H2 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15526&r=lab |
| By: | Giavazzi, Francesco (Bocconi University); Schiantarelli, Fabio (Boston College); Serafinelli, Michel (University of California, Berkeley) |
| Abstract: | We study whether cultural attitudes towards gender, the young, and leisure are significant determinants of the evolution over time of the employment rates of women and of the young, and of hours worked in OECD countries. Beyond controlling for a larger menu of policies, institutions and structural characteristics of the economy than has been done so far, our analysis improves upon existing studies of the role of "culture" for labor market outcomes by dealing explicitly with the endogeneity of attitudes, policies and institutions, and by allowing for the persistent nature of labor market outcomes. When we do all this we find that culture still matters for women employment rates and for hours worked. However, policies and other institutional or structural characteristics are also important. Attitudes towards youth independence, however, do not appear to be important in explaining the employment rate of the young. In the case of women employment rates, the policy variable that is significant along with attitudes, is the OECD index of employment protection legislation. For hours worked the policy variables that play a role, along with attitudes, are the tax wedge and unemployment benefits. The quantitative impact of these policy variables is such that changes in policies have at least the potential to undo the effect of variations in cultural traits on labor market outcomes. |
| Keywords: | culture, policies, institutions, employment, hours |
| JEL: | J16 J22 J23 Z1 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4558&r=lab |
| By: | Egger, Hartmut; Egger, Peter; Markusen, James R. |
| Abstract: | We formulate a two-country model with monopolistic competition and heterogeneous firms to reconsider labor market linkages in open economies. Labor-market imperfections arise by virtue of country-specific real minimum wages. Two principal experiments are considered. First, we show that trade liberalization under minimum wages differs significantly from trade liberalization under standard assumptions. In the former case, there is effectively a perfectly elastic supply of labor to production whereas in the conventional case it is assumed that aggregate labor supply is perfectly inelastic. Standard effects on marginal and average firm productivity are reversed in our model, yet there are significant gains from trade arising from employment expansion, an effect quite different from the source of gains from trade in the conventional approach. Second, we show that with firm heterogeneity an increase in one country's minimum wage triggers firm exit in both countries and thus harms workers at home and abroad. In an extension to our baseline model, we illustrate that offshoring production from the high-wage to the low-wage country within multinational firms lowers the scope for exporting the costs of a higher minimum wage to the trading partner. |
| Keywords: | Heterogeneous Firms; International Trade; Labour Market Linkages; Minimum Wages; Offshoring; Unemployment |
| JEL: | F12 F15 F16 F23 J30 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7387&r=lab |
| By: | Giavazzi, Francesco; Schiantarelli, Fabio; Serafinelli, Michel |
| Abstract: | We study whether cultural attitudes towards gender, the young, and leisure are significant determinants of the evolution over time of the employment rates of women and of the young, and of hours worked in OECD countries. Beyond controlling for a larger menu of policies, institutions and structural characteristics of the economy than has been done so far, our analysis improves upon existing studies of the role of "culture" for labor market outcomes by dealing explicitly with the endogeneity of attitudes, policies and institutions, and by allowing for the persistent nature of labor market outcomes. When we do all this we find that culture still matters for women employment rates and for hours worked. However, policies and other institutional or structural characteristics are also important. Attitudes towards youth independence, however, do not appear to be important in explaining the employment rate of the young. In the case of women employment rates, the policy variable that is significant along with attitudes, is the OECD index of employment protection legislation. For hours worked the policy variables that play a role, along with attitudes, are the tax wedge and unemployment benefits. The quantitative impact of these policy variables is such that changes in policies have at least the potential to undo the effect of variations in cultural traits on labor market outcomes. |
| Keywords: | culture; gender; labor supply |
| JEL: | J16 J22 J23 Z1 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7536&r=lab |
| By: | Gobillon, Laurent; Meurs, Dominique; Roux, Sébastien |
| 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 quantified. 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%. |
| Keywords: | discrimination; gender; glass ceiling; job assignment model; quantiles; wages |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7475&r=lab |
| By: | Huffman, Wallace |
| Abstract: | The paper draws upon the work of T.W. Schultz to show that human capital theory and labor market adjustments have important implications for investing in people for the 21st Century. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital, education, twenty-first century, global labor markets |
| JEL: | A0 |
| Date: | 2009–11–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:13127&r=lab |
| By: | Sauré, Philip (Swiss National Bank); Zoabi, Hosny (The Eitan Berglas School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Male and female labor are imperfect substitutes and some sectors are more suitable for female employment than others. Clearly, expansions of those sectors that use female labor intensively must affect aggregate female labor force participation (FLFP). We suggest that FLFP actually drops when trade and international specialization expand sectors that use female labor intensively. This effect arises because expansions of the former sectors come along with contractions of others. The latter contractions, in turn, induce male workers to move to the expanding sectors, driving female workers out of formal employment. Thus, a country that is exporting female labor content is actually substituting male labor for female. Finally, building on U.S.-Mexican trade data, we provide empirical evidence that support our argument. |
| Keywords: | Trade; Female Labor Force Participation; Fertility; Technological Change |
| JEL: | F10 F16 J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2009–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:snbwpa:2009_012&r=lab |
| By: | Booth, Alison L.; Tamura, Yuji |
| Abstract: | Using the first two waves of the Vietnam Living Standards Survey, we investigate how a father’s temporary absence affects children left behind in terms of their school attendance, household expenditures on education, and nonhousework labor supply in the 1990s. The estimating subsample is children aged 7-18 in households in which both parents usually coreside and the mother has not been absent. Our results indicate that paternal temporary absence increases nonhousework labor supply by his son. The longer the absence of the father, the larger the impact. One additional month of paternal temporary absence increases a son’s nonhousework labor supply by approximately one week. However, a daughter’s nonhousework labor supply is not affected. We find no evidence that paternal temporary absence influences his children in terms of school attendance or education-related household expenditures. |
| Keywords: | child labor; human capital investment; parental absence; schooling; temporary migration; Vietnam; VLSS |
| JEL: | I22 O15 P36 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7440&r=lab |
| By: | Lalive, Rafael; Wuellrich, Jean-Philippe; Zweimüller, Josef |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of employment quota on firms' demand for disabled workers. The Austrian Disabled Persons Employment Act (DPEA) requires firms to provide at least one job to a disabled worker per 25 non-disabled workers, a rule which is strictly enforced by non-compliance taxation. We find that, as a result of the discontinuous nature of the non-compliance tax, firms exactly at the quota threshold employ 0.05 (20 % in relative terms) more disabled workers than firms just below the threshold - an effect that is unlikely driven by purposeful selection below the threshold. The flat rate nature of the non-compliance tax generates strong employment effects for low-wage firms and weak effects for high-wage firms. We also find that growing firms passing the quota threshold react with a substantial time-lag but the magnitude of the long-run effect is similar to the one found in cross-section contrasts. |
| Keywords: | disability; discrimination; employment; employment quota; regression discontinuity |
| JEL: | J15 J20 J71 J78 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7373&r=lab |
| By: | Eckstein, Zvi; Lifshitz, Osnat |
| Abstract: | The increase in female employment and participation rates is one of the most dramatic economic changes to have taken place during the last century. However, while the employment rate of married women more than doubled during the last fifty years, that of unmarried women remained almost constant. In order to empirically analyze these trends we divide the paper into two parts: In the first, we empirically estimate a traditional female dynamic labor supply model using an extended version of Eckstein and Wolpin (1989) in order to compare the various explanations in the literature for the observed trends. The main finding is that the rise in education levels accounts for about one-third of the increase in female employment while about 40 percent remains unexplained by observed household characteristics. We show that this unexplained portion can be empirically attributed to changes in preferences or the costs of childrearing and household maintenance. In the second part, we formulate and estimate a new framework for the couple intra-family game that is then used to analyze the household dynamic labor supply. We find that female labor supply may have increased significantly due to a change in the form of the household game. |
| Keywords: | Accounting; Dynamic Discrete Choice; Female Employment; Household Game |
| JEL: | E24 J2 J3 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7548&r=lab |
| By: | Francesco Giavazzi; Fabio Schiantarelli; Michel Serafinelli |
| Abstract: | We study whether cultural attitudes towards gender, the young, and leisure are significant determinants of the evolution over time of the employment rates of women and of the young, and of hours worked in OECD countries. Beyond controlling for a larger menu of policies, institutions and structural characteristics of the economy than has been done so far, our analysis improves upon existing studies of the role of "culture" for labor market outcomes by dealing explicitly with the endogeneity of attitudes, policies and institutions, and by allowing for the persistent nature of labor market outcomes. When we do all this we ?nd that culture still matters for women employment rates and for hours worked. However, policies and other institutional or structural characteristics are also important. Attitudes towards youth independence, however, do not appear to be important in explaining the employment rate of the young. In the case of women employment rates, the policy variable that is significant along with atitudes, is the OECD index of employment protection legislation. For hours worked the policy variables that play a role, along with attitudes, are the tax wedge and unemployment bene?ts. The quantitative impact of these policy variables is such that changes in policies have at least the potential to undo the e¤ect of variations in cultural traits on labor market outcomes. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:igi:igierp:353&r=lab |
| By: | Paul J. Devereux (School of Economics and Geary Institute UCD, CEPR and IZA); Robert A. Hart (Department of Economics, University of Stirling and IZA) |
| Abstract: | Do students benefit from compulsory schooling? In an important article, Oreopoulos (2006) studied the 1947 British compulsory schooling law change and found large returns to schooling of about 15% using the General Household Survey (GHS). Reanalysing this dataset, we find much smaller returns of about 3% on average with no evidence of any positive return for women and a return for men of 4-7%. Additionally, we utilize the New Earnings Survey Panel Data-set (NESPD) that has earnings information superior to that in the GHS and find similar estimates: zero returns for women and returns of 3 to 4% for men. |
| Date: | 2009–11–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:200940&r=lab |
| By: | Okamura, Kazuaki (Department of Economics and social Sciences, Kochi University, Japan); Islam, Nizamul (CEPS/INSTEAD, Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates state dependence in labour participation by married women in Japan. We statistically investigate whether ’true’ state dependence, in which preferences, abilities, or constraints on future decisions are altered by experiencing certain events, exists in the choice between regular and non-regular work (part-time, contract, or other non-regular work). The empirical results suggest significant true state dependence for the choice of regular and non-regular work. This significant effect of true state dependence on regular work justifies ’stepping stone’ policies from nonparticipation or non-regular work to regular work or ’maintenance’ policies to support participation in temporary non-regular work. On the other hand, the significant effect of true state dependence on non-regular work indicates that non-regular work constrains the ability or preference of married women to participate in regular work. In this sense, non-regular work is exclusionary. This result suggests that policies are needed to support the movement of non-regular workers into regular work. |
| Keywords: | Multinomial; Labour ; Participation ; State dependence ; Stepping stone |
| JEL: | J22 C23 C25 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:iriswp:2009-17&r=lab |
| By: | Pijoan-Mas, Josep; Sánchez-Marcos, Virginia |
| Abstract: | In this article we characterize the evolution of inequality in hourly wages, hours of work, labor earnings, household disposable income and household consumption for Spain between 1985 and 2000. We look at both the Encuesta Continua de Presupuestos Familiares and the European Household Community Panel. Our analysis shows that inequality in individual net labor earnings and household net disposable income has decreased substantially. The decreases in the tertiary education premium and in the unemployment rate have been key ingredients to understand this falling trend. However, the inequality reduction has not been monotonic over the period: while it fell in years of economic expansion, there was an inequality surge in the recession of the early nineties. Public transfers have played a crucial role in smoothing out the inequality arising in the labor market, but instead the Spanish family does not seem to have been an important insurance mechanism. Regarding household consumption, inequality has fallen much less than inequality in household net disposable income, with the decrease mostly concentrated in the second half of the eighties. This suggests that the reduction in income inequality has affected the sources of permanent differences between households only during the second half of the eighties. Our estimates of the earnings process for the period are consistent with this view. |
| Keywords: | consumption inequality; income inequality; wage inequality |
| JEL: | D12 D31 E24 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7489&r=lab |
| By: | Werner, Arndt; Moog, Petra |
| Abstract: | Based on the finding that entrepreneurs who found new firms tend to work as employees of small rather than large firms prior to start-up, we test how different working conditions, which enhance entrepreneurial learning, affect their decision to become entrepreneurs when moderated by firm size. Based on data of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we find a significant relationship between entrepreneurial learning (extracted in an orthogonal factor analysis based on twelve working conditions as proxy for entrepreneurial human capital and work experience) and firm size when predicting the probability of leaving paid employment for self-employment. We think, that this is a special kind of knowledge spillover. We also control for other aspects such as gender, age, wage, etc. – factors that may potentially influence the decision to become self-employed. Thus, our analysis sheds new light onto the black box of SMEs as a hotbed of new start-ups. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; Occupational Choice; Working Conditions; Human Capital |
| JEL: | J28 M54 J24 M13 C33 |
| Date: | 2009–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18826&r=lab |
| By: | Thomas Dee; Brian Jacob |
| Abstract: | The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act compelled states to design school-accountability systems based on annual student assessments. The effect of this Federal legislation on the distribution of student achievement is a highly controversial but centrally important question. This study presents evidence on whether NCLB has influenced student achievement based on an analysis of state-level panel data on student test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The impact of NCLB is identified using a comparative interrupted time series analysis that relies on comparisons of the test-score changes across states that already had school-accountability policies in place prior to NCLB and those that did not. Our results indicate that NCLB generated statistically significant increases in the average math performance of 4th graders (effect size = 0.22 by 2007) as well as improvements at the lower and top percentiles. There is also evidence of improvements in 8th grade math achievement, particularly among traditionally low-achieving groups and at the lower percentiles. However, we find no evidence that NCLB increased reading achievement in either 4th or 8th grade. |
| JEL: | H52 I20 I21 I28 J01 J08 J18 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15531&r=lab |
| By: | Siegfried Berninghaus (Institut für Wirtschaftstheorie und Operations Research, University of Karlsruhe); Sabrina Bleich (Institut für Wirtschaftstheorie und Operations Research, University of Karlsruhe); Werner Güth (Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena) |
| Abstract: | If the future market wage is uncertain, engaging in long-term employment is risky, with the risk depending on how regulated the labor market is. In our experiment long-term employment can result either from offering long-term contracts or from repeatedly and mutually opting for rematching. Treatments differ in how regulations restrict the employer's flexibility in adapting the employment contract to changes of the market (wage). All treatments allow for longer contract duration as well as for mutually opting to be rematched. Effort is chosen by employees after a contract is concluded. Treatments vary from no flexibility to no restriction at all. Will more (downward) flexibility be used in ongoing employment but reduce efficiency? If so, deregulation may weaken rather than promote labor market efficiency. And will regulation crowd out long-term employment, either in the form of long-term contracts or voluntary rematching? |
| Keywords: | deregulation, employment contracts, wage flexibility, principal-agent theory, experimental economics, repeated interaction |
| JEL: | C72 C90 F16 J21 J24 L10 |
| Date: | 2009–11–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2009-094&r=lab |
| By: | Konings, Jozef; Vanormelingen, Stijn |
| Abstract: | This paper uses firm level panel data of firm provided training to estimate its impact on productivity and wages. To this end the strategy proposed by Ackerberg, Caves and Frazer (2006) for estimating production functions to control for the endogeneity of input factors and training is applied. The productivity premium for a trained worker is estimated at 23%, while the wage premium of training is estimated at 12%. Our results give support to recent theories that explain work related training by imperfect competition in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital; Production Functions; Training |
| JEL: | J24 J31 L22 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7473&r=lab |
| By: | Krusell, Per; Mukoyama, Toshihiko; Rogerson, Richard; Sahin, Aysegul |
| Abstract: | We develop a simple model featuring search frictions and a nondegenerate labor supply decision along the extensive margin. The model is a standard version of the neoclassical growth model with indivisible labor with idiosyncratic shocks and frictions characterized by employment loss and employment opportunity arrival shocks. We argue that it is able to account for the key features of observed labor market flows for reasonable parameter values. Persistent idiosyncratic productivity shocks play a key role in allowing the model to match the persistence of the employment and out of the labor force states found in individual labor market histories. |
| Keywords: | Labor Market Frictions; Labor Supply; Taxes |
| JEL: | E24 J22 J64 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7425&r=lab |
| By: | Ofer Malamud |
| Abstract: | In addition to providing useful skills, education may also yield valuable information about one's tastes and talents. This paper exploits an exogenous difference in the timing of academic specialization within the British system of higher education to test whether education provides such information. I develop a model in which individuals, by taking courses in different fields of study, accumulate field-specific skills and receive noisy signals of match quality to these fields. Distinguishing between educational regimes with early and late specialization, I derive comparative static predictions about the likelihood of switching to an occupation that is unrelated to one's field of study. If higher education serves mainly to provide specific skills, the model predicts more switching in a regime with late specialization because the cost of switching is lower in terms of foregone skills. Using survey and administrative data on university graduates, I find that individuals from Scotland, where specialization occurs relatively late, are less likely to switch to an unrelated occupation compared to their English counterparts who specialize early. This implies that the benefits to increased match quality are sufficiently large to outweigh the greater loss in skills from specializing early, and thus confirms the important role of higher education in helping students discover their own tastes and talents. |
| JEL: | J24 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15522&r=lab |
| By: | Becker, Sascha O.; Ekholm, Karolina; Muendler, Marc-Andreas |
| Abstract: | We analyze the relationship between offshoring and the onshore workforce composition in German multinational enterprises (MNEs), using plant data that allow us to discern tasks, occupations, and workforce skills. Offshoring is associated with a statistically significant shift towards more non-routine and more interactive tasks, and with a shift towards highly educated workers. Moreover, the shift towards highly educated workers is in excess of what is implied by changes in either the task or the occupational composition. Whether offshored activities are located in low-income or high-income countries does not alter the direction of the relationship. We find offshoring to predict between 10 and 15 percent of observed changes in wage-bill shares of highly educated workers and measures of non-routine and interactive tasks. |
| Keywords: | demand for labor; linked employer-employee data; multinational enterprises; trade in tasks |
| JEL: | F14 F16 F23 J23 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7391&r=lab |
| By: | Booth, Alison L. |
| Abstract: | In almost all European Union countries, the gender wage gap is increasing across the wages distribution. In this lecture I briefly survey some recent studies aiming to explain why apparently identical women and men receive such different returns and focus especially on those incorporating pyschological factors as an explanation of the gender gap. Research areas with high potential returns to further analysis are identified. Several examples from my own recent experimental work with Patrick Nolen are also presented. These try to distinguish between the role of nature and nurture in affecting behavioural differences between men and women that might lead to gender wage gaps. |
| Keywords: | experimental economics; glass ceiling; personality differences |
| JEL: | C9 J16 J71 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7437&r=lab |
| By: | Krusell, Per; Mukoyama, Toshihiko; Sahin, Aysegul |
| Abstract: | We analyze a Bewley-Huggett-Aiyagari incomplete-markets model with labor-market frictions. Consumers are subject to idiosyncratic employment shocks against which they cannot insure directly. The labor market has a Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides structure: firms enter by posting vacancies and match with workers bilaterally, with match probabilities given by an aggregate matching function. Wages are determined through Nash bargaining. We also consider aggregate productivity shocks, and a complete set of contingent claims conditional on this risk. We use the model to evaluate a tax-financed unemployment insurance scheme. Higher insurance is beneficial for consumption smoothing, but because it raises workers’ outside option value, it discourages firm entry. We find that the latter effect is more potent for welfare outcomes; we tabulate the effects quantitatively for different kinds of consumers. We also demonstrate that productivity changes in the model - in steady state as well as stochastic ones - generate rather limited unemployment effects, unless workers are close to indifferent between working and not working; thus, recent findings are corroborated in our more general setting. |
| Keywords: | heterogenous agents; incomplete markets; matching |
| JEL: | D52 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7429&r=lab |
| By: | Thierry Debrand (IRDES institut for research and information in health economics); Nicolas Sirven |
| Abstract: | The aim of this research is to identify the determinants of pathways to retirement in Europe and, by measuring the influence or combined influence of individual, contextual and institutional domains on labor force participation, to better understand inter-country variations in the employment rates of older citizens. The dataset consists of both the first two longitudinal waves of SHARE (2004-2006) and some macroeconomic series from the OECD describing three complementary social protection systems (pensions, disability, employment). The analysis is simultaneously carried out in terms of "stocks" (labor force participation in 2004) and "flows" (pathways from employment in 2004 to retirement in 2006). Indicators are developed to measure the contribution of each domain (individual, contextual, institutional), and their various combinations to the employment rate of older citizens, and their role in explaining inter-country differences. As expected, results demonstrate that labor force participation and the decision to retire are determined by the various individual and contextual domains with social protection systems, each playing a significant role. Institutional determinants explain most of the inter-country differences. There appears to be a complementary effect between the different categories of social protection, and the global effect of the three systems combined is greater than the sum of the idiosyncratic effect of each system. Future public policies aiming at increasing the workforce participation of older citizens should therefore take into account that retirement decisions are determined by complex, interactive and individual determinants, and that within the European Union, the main convergence factors are to be found in the differences in social protection systems. |
| Keywords: | Social Protection, Social Security, Retirement, Ageing, Health, Europe |
| JEL: | I10 I18 J21 J28 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irh:wpaper:dt28&r=lab |
| By: | Alonso Ortiz, Jorge |
| Abstract: | There are large differences in the employment to population ratio relative to the US across OECD countries, and these differences are even larger for the old age (55-69 years). There are also large differences in various features of social security, such as the replacement rate, the entitlement age or whether it is allowed to collect social security while working. These observations suggest that they might be an important contributing factor in accounting for differences in retirement. I assess quantitatively the importance of these features using a life cycle general equilibrium model of retirement. I find that the differences in social security account for 90% of the differences in employment to population ratio at ages 60-64 in the OECD. The differences in the replacement rates and whether the system allows for collecting social security while working are the most important contributing factors to account for the differences in retirement. |
| Keywords: | Social security; retirement; idiosyncratic labor income risk |
| JEL: | J14 E24 H20 J26 |
| Date: | 2009–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18752&r=lab |
| By: | Carlos A. Flores (Department of Economics, University of Miami); Alfonso Flores-Lagunes (Food and Resource Economics Department, University of Florida and IZA, Bonn, Germany); Arturo Gonzalez (Ernst & Young and IZA, Bonn, Germany); Todd C. Neumann (School of Social Sciences, Humanities & Arts, University of California, Merced) |
| Abstract: | Length of exposure to a training program is important in determining the labor market outcomes of participants. Employing methods to estimate the causal effects from continuous treatments, we provide insights regarding the effects of different lengths of enrollment to Job Corps (JC)— America’s largest and most comprehensive job training program for disadvantaged youth. We semiparametrically estimate average causal effects (on the treated) of different lengths of exposure to JC, using the “generalized propensity score” under the assumption that selection into different lengths is based on a rich set of observed covariates. “Placebo tests” are performed to gauge the plausibility of this assumption. We find that the estimated effects are increasing in the length of training, and that the marginal effects of additional training are decreasing with length of enrollment. We also document differences in the estimated effects of length of exposure across different demographic groups, which are particularly large between males and females. Finally, our results suggest an important “lock-in” effect in JC training. |
| Keywords: | Training Programs, Continuous Treatments, Generalized Propensity Score, Dose-Response Function |
| JEL: | I38 C21 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mia:wpaper:2010-3&r=lab |
| By: | Bodvarsson, Örn B. (St. Cloud State University); Humphreys, Brad R. (University of Alberta) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the possibility that labor market discrimination affects economic outcomes in the complementary capital market. Previous research contains ample theoretical justification, and empirical evidence, that discrimination affects wages and employment in labor markets. However, the effects of discrimination against minority labor on transactions in markets for other inputs used in production are not known. We develop a model of the optimal capital stock put in place in the presence of customer discrimination and test this model using data on sports facility construction over the period 1950-2004. The empirical evidence suggests that teams in cities with more racial segregation spend less on sports facilities, confirming the predictions of the model about the effect of customer discrimination on capital investment. |
| Keywords: | racial discrimination, capital stock, complementarity, stadium financing |
| JEL: | J15 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4551&r=lab |
| By: | Brügger, Beatrix; Lalive, Rafael; Zweimüller, Josef |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the role of culture in shaping unemployment outcomes. The empirical analysis is based on local comparisons across a language barrier in Switzerland. This Röstigraben seperates cultural groups, but neither labor markets nor political jurisdictions. Local contrasts across the language border identify the role of culture for unemployment. Our findings indicate that differences in culture explain differences in unemployment duration on the order of 20 %. Moreover, we find that horizontal transmission of culture is more important than vertical transmission of culture and that culture is about as important as strong changes to the benefit duration. |
| Keywords: | cultural transmission; culture; regional unemployment; unemployment duration |
| JEL: | J21 J64 Z10 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7405&r=lab |
| By: | Fafchamps, Marcel; Moradi, Alexander |
| Abstract: | As formalized by Montgomery (1991), referral by employees improves efficiency if the unobserved quality of a new worker is higher than that of unrefereed workers. Using data compiled from army archives, we test whether the referral system in use in the British colonial army in Ghana served to improve the unobserved quality of new recruits. We find that it did not: referred recruits were more likely than unreferred recruits to desert or be dismissed as 'inefficient' or 'unfit'. We find instead evidence of referee opportunism. The fact that referred recruits have better observed characteristics at the time of recruitment suggests that army recruiters may have been aware of this problem. |
| Keywords: | employee referral; hidden attributes; worker productivity |
| JEL: | J63 N47 O15 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7408&r=lab |
| By: | Kuhn, Andreas; Lalive, Rafael; Zweimüller, Josef |
| Abstract: | We study the short-run effect of involuntary job loss on comprehensive measures of public health costs. We focus on job loss induced by plant closure, thereby addressing the reverse causality problem of deteriorating health leading to job loss as job displacements due to plant closure are unlikely caused by workers' health status, but potentially have important effects on individual workers' health and associated public health costs. Our empirical analysis is based on a rich data set from Austria providing comprehensive information on various types of health care costs and day-by-day work history at the individual level. Our central findings are: (i) overall expenditures on medical treatments (hospitalizations, drug prescriptions, doctor visits) are not strongly affected by job displacement; (ii) job loss increases expenditures for antidepressants and related drugs, as well as for hospitalizations due to mental health problems for men (but not for women); and (iii) sickness benefits strongly increase due to job loss. |
| Keywords: | Health; Job loss; Plant closure; Social cost of unemployment |
| JEL: | I12 I19 J28 J65 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7420&r=lab |
| By: | Kruger, Diana (Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Chile); Berthelon, Matias (Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Chile); Navia, Rodrigo (Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Chile) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the determinants of adolescent motherhood and its subsequent effect on high school attendance and completion in Chile. Using eight rounds of household surveys, we find that adolescents who were born to teen mothers, those that live in poor households and in single-mother families, are more likely to have children, while access to full-time high schools reduces the likelihood of motherhood. We then estimate the effect of adolescent motherhood on the probability of high school attendance and completion. Using an instrumental variables approach to control for possible endogeneity between teen pregnancy and schooling, we find that being a mother reduces the probability of high school attendance and completion by 24 to 37 percent, making it the most important determinant of high school desertion, which implies that policies aimed at reducing early childbearing will have immediate, important effects on their school attainments. |
| Keywords: | adolescent motherhood, high school completion, high school desertion, Chile |
| JEL: | J13 O12 O15 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4552&r=lab |
| By: | Bandiera, Oriana; Larcinese, Valentino; Rasul, Imran |
| Abstract: | Over the last decade, many countries have experienced dramatic increases in university enrolment, which, when not matched by compensating increases in other inputs, have resulted in larger class sizes. Using administrative records from a leading UK university, we present evidence on the effects of class size on students' test scores. We observe the same student and faculty members being exposed to a wide range of class sizes from less than 10 to over 200. We therefore estimate non-linear class size effects controlling for unobserved heterogeneity of both individual students and faculty. We find that -- (i) at the average class size, the effect size is -.108; (ii) the effect size is however negative and significant only for the smallest and largest ranges of class sizes and zero over a wide range of intermediate class sizes; (iii) students at the top of the test score distribution are more affected by changes in class size, especially when class sizes are very large. We present evidence to rule out class size effects being due solely to the non-random assignment of faculty to class size, sorting by students onto courses on the basis of class size, omitted inputs, the difficulty of courses, or grading policies. The evidence also shows the class size effects are not mitigated for students with greater knowledge of the UK university system, this university in particular, or with greater family wealth. |
| Keywords: | class size; heterogeneity; university education |
| JEL: | A20 D23 I23 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7512&r=lab |
| By: | Bas van Groezen; Lex Meijdam |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate the effects of subsidizing low-skilled, labour-intensive services hired by high-skilled individuals in the presence of labour income taxation. Whether such a subsidy can be Pareto-improving depends crucially on the degree of substitutability of both types of labour in the non-service sector. In case of some substitutability, a service subsidy can benefit all and decrease inequality, but in case of complementarity, low-skilled individuals benefit and high-skilled individuals are worse off. |
| Keywords: | household production, services, skill premium, subsidy, wage tax |
| JEL: | D13 H24 H53 J13 J22 J24 O17 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:0930&r=lab |
| By: | Diego Martinez (Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide); Tomas Sjögren (Department of Economics, Umeå University) |
| Abstract: | In a model where trade unions dominate the labor market, a relationship is derived between the rate of unemployment and the provision of a public input in the production. This relationship implies that for conventional rates of unemployment, the public input will be overprovided compared to the first-best level. |
| Keywords: | Public Inputs, Trade Unions. |
| JEL: | H41 J51 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pab:wpaper:09.13&r=lab |
| By: | Havnes, Tarjei (University of Oslo); Mogstad, Magne (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | There is a heated debate in the US, Canada and many European countries about introducing universally accessible child care. However, studies on universal child care and child development are scarce and only consider short-run outcomes. We analyze the introduction of universal child care in Norway, addressing the impact on children's long-run outcomes. Our precise and robust difference-in-difference estimates show that child care had strong positive effects on children's educational attainment and labor market participation, and also reduced welfare dependency. Subsample analysis indicates that children with low educated mothers and girls benefit the most from child care. |
| Keywords: | universal child care, child development, long-run outcomes |
| JEL: | J13 H40 I28 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4561&r=lab |
| By: | Silvio Rendon (Dept. of Economics, Stony Brook University); Nuria Quella (Dept. of Economics, Stony Brook University) |
| Abstract: | In multilingual labor markets agents with high proficiency in more than one language may be selected into occupations that require high levels of skill in communicating with customers or writing reports in more than one language. In this paper we measure this effect in Catalonia, where two languages, Catalan and Spanish, coexist. Using census data for 1991 and 1996, and controlling for endogeneity of Catalan knowledge, we find that proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing Catalan reinforces selection into being employed, being an entrepreneur, and into white-collar occupations and communication-intensive jobs. In particular, being able to read and speak Catalan increases the probability of selection into white collar occupations by betwen 9 and 14 percentage points, while writing Catalan increases by 6 to 13 percentage points the probability of engaging in services, and government and educational activities. |
| Keywords: | Language, Occupational Selection, Industry, Immigration, Skill Premium. |
| JEL: | J61 J70 J31 I20 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nys:sunysb:09-02&r=lab |
| By: | Kruger, Diana (Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Chile); Berthelon, Matias (Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Chile) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effect of a Chilean school reform that lengthened the school day from half to full-day shifts on the likelihood that adolescent girls become mothers. By increasing the number of hours spent in school, the reform curtails opportunities to engage in risky sexual behaviors. Using Chile's socio-economic household surveys and administrative data from the Ministry of Education from 1990–2006, we exploit the exogenous time and regional variation in the implementation of the reform to identify the effects of increased education and adult supervision on the likelihood that adolescent girls become mothers. We find that access to full-day schools reduces the probability of becoming an adolescent mother among poor families and in urban areas: an increase in full-day municipal enrollment of 20% reduces the likelihood of teen motherhood by 5%. |
| Keywords: | adolescent motherhood, adolescent pregnancy, school day reform, Chile |
| JEL: | H51 I18 I28 J13 O15 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4553&r=lab |
| By: | Simon Burgess (CMPO, University of Bristol); Ellen Greaves (CMPO, University of Bristol); Anna Vignoles (DoQSS, Institute of Education, University of London); Deborah Wilson (CMPO, University of Bristol) |
| 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: | 2009–11–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qss:dqsswp:0901&r=lab |
| By: | Alfonso Arpaia (European Commission, DG Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN) and IZA.); Gilles Mourre (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels and European Commission, DG Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN).) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a selective survey of the recent literature on labour market institutions and offers new empirical EU-based evidence on the impact of labour market reforms on employment and labour market adjustment. While the literature traditionally treats labour market institutions as exogenous, attention shifted recently towards understanding the underlying causes of specific institutional arrangements. As a consequence, the literature highlights the great importance of an efficient policy design exploiting these interactions wisely and identifies general principles for achieving an efficient policy design at both macro and micro levels. While empirical evidence does no show a major change in terms of intensity of labour market reform after the setting of the Economic and Monetary Union and the creation of the euro, the reforms aiming at strengthening the labour market attachment of vulnerable groups tend to have been successful both in raising their employment and increasing labour market adjustment. |
| Keywords: | labour market functioning; political economy; endogeneity; institutions; policy design |
| JEL: | J20 J50 J64 K31 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:09-049&r=lab |
| By: | Francesco Giavazzi; Pietro Garibaldi; Andrea Ichino; Enrico Rettore |
| Abstract: | University tuition typically remains constant throughout years of enrollment while delayed degree completion is an increasing problem for many academic institutions around the world. Theory suggests that if continuation tuition were raised the probability of late graduation would be reduced. Using a Regression Discontinuity Design on data from Bocconi University in Italy, we show that an increase of 1,000 euro in continuation tuition reduces the probability of late graduation by 9.9 percentage points with respect to a benchmark average probability of 80%. We conclude suggesting that an upward sloping tuition profile would be desirable when effort is sub-optimally supplied, for instance in the presence of public subsidies to education, congestion externalities and/or peer effects. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:igi:igierp:354&r=lab |
| By: | Christopher Cotton (Department of Economics, University of Miami); Frank McIntyre (Department of Economics, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602); Joseph Price (Department of Economics, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602) |
| Abstract: | Past research nds that males outperform females in competitive situations. Using data from multiple-round math tournaments, we verify this nding during the initial round of competition. The performance gap between males and females, however, disappears after the rst round. In later rounds, only math ability (not gender) serves as a signicant predictor of performance. Several possible explanations are discussed. The results suggest that we should be cautious about using data from one-round experiments to generalize about behavior. |
| Keywords: | Competitiveness,Gender Differences, Field Experiment |
| JEL: | J16 C93 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mia:wpaper:2010-11&r=lab |
| By: | Becker, Sascha O. (University of Stirling); Cinnirella, Francesco (CESifo); Woessmann, Ludger (Ifo Institute for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | The trade-off between child quantity and education is a crucial ingredient of unified growth models that explain the transition from Malthusian stagnation to modern growth. We present first evidence that such a trade-off indeed existed before the demographic transition, exploiting a unique census-based dataset of 334 Prussian counties in 1849. Estimating two separate instrumental-variable models that instrument education by landownership inequality and distance to Wittenberg and fertility by previous-generation fertility and sex-imbalance ratio, we find that causation between fertility and education runs both ways. Furthermore, education in 1849 predicts the fertility transition in 1880-1905. |
| Keywords: | schooling, fertility transition, unified growth theory, 19th-century Prussia |
| JEL: | I20 J13 N33 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4557&r=lab |
| By: | Becker, Sascha O. (University of Stirling); Hornung, Erik (Ifo Institute for Economic Research); Woessmann, Ludger (Ifo Institute for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Existing evidence, mostly from British textile industries, rejects the importance of formal education for the Industrial Revolution. We provide new evidence from Prussia, a technological follower, where early-19th-century institutional reforms created the conditions to adopt the exogenously emerging new technologies. Our unique school-enrollment and factory-employment database links 334 counties from pre-industrial 1816 to two industrial phases in 1849 and 1882. Controlling extensively for pre-industrial development, we use pre-industrial education as an instrument to identify variation in later education that is exogenous to industrialization itself. We find that basic education significantly accelerated non-textile industrialization in both phases of the Industrial Revolution. |
| Keywords: | human capital, industrialization, Prussian economic history |
| JEL: | N13 N33 I20 O14 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4556&r=lab |
| By: | Chatterjee, Swarn; Zahirovic-Herbert, Velma |
| Abstract: | This study examines retirement plan participation and savings behavior for American public and private sector employees using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data set. This paper also examines the determinants of preference for a diversified portfolio within the retirement plans. The findings of this study indicate that the population’s plan participation increases with age, income, and education level. The public sector employees are more likely than others to participate in defined benefits plans. Conversely, they are less likely to participate in the defined contribution plans. Also, the public sector employees who participate in defined contribution plans hold lower amounts within their retirement accounts. The public sector employees are more likely to diversify their retirement portfolios or allocate them in bonds or annuities and are less likely to hold all or most of their wealth in stocks. Preference for diversification also increases with age, income and educational attainment. |
| Keywords: | Retirement saving; IRA; Plan Participation; Asset Allocation |
| JEL: | J32 D91 J26 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:13546&r=lab |
| By: | Gilles Mourre (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels and European Commission, DG Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN).) |
| Abstract: | The paper decomposes GDP both in terms of level per capita and growth rate, so as to identify the extent of labour utilisation in Europe and its effect on income differences and economic growth in all EU27 countries. While some caveats are associated with this approach, GDP is broken down into 5 items (per capita GDP level) and 12 (GDP growth), decomposing labour inputs thoroughly and including a partial but comparable indicator of labour quality, based on the employment composition by educational attainment. The level of labour utilisation in the EU, defined as hours worked per capita, is clearly lower than that seen in the US and the 5 richest EU countries. The labour underutilisation accounts for two thirds of the per capita GDP gap in the EU15 vis-à-vis the US (17 p.p. out of 26%). The underutilisation of labour is much lower in the New Member States, being only 9% below the US level and is even above that in the five richest EU Member States. While the combination of lower labour utilisation and lower per-hour productivity is the cause of relatively low per capita GDP in euro area and EU15 countries, weak hourly productivity is the main concern in the New Member States. Over the last ten years (1995-2006), the growth in labour input (i.e. total hours worked) was the driving force behind one third of GDP growth in the EU15, while labour input growth only explained a very modest part of the buoyant GDP growth in the New Member States. |
| Keywords: | GDP accounting; European Union; Aggregate employment; Average hours worked; Quality of Labour. |
| JEL: | J21 J24 O47 O52 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:09-050&r=lab |
| By: | Frank T. Denton; Ross Finnie; Byron G. Spencer |
| Abstract: | We analyse a large longitudinal data file to determine who has retired and to assess how successful they are in maintaining their incomes after retirement. Our main conclusions are as follows. First, in the two years immediately after retirement the after-tax income replacement ratios average about two-thirds when calculated across all ages of retirement. Second, the ratios tend to increase with the age of retirement. Third, the ratios increase with years in retirement, at least in the first few years. Finally, income replacement ratios are highest in the lowest income quartile and generally decline as income increases; within each quartile the replacement ratios are higher for those who retired later than for those retired earlier. |
| Keywords: | income replacement, retirement |
| JEL: | J26 D31 J14 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:qseprr:436&r=lab |
| By: | Tinh T. Doan (University of Waikato); John Gibson (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | A key stylized fact about transition economies is that the returns to schooling rise as economic reform progresses. Existing research suggests that Vietnam is an exception to this pattern, with a decrease in males’ return from 1992 to 1998, and little increase in the return to females’ education (Liu, 2006). This exception may be because of the gradual economic reform applied in Vietnam, whilst in Eastern European countries the “Big Bang” transformation was conducted. Therefore to see whether Vietnam is still a counter example, we re-examine the trend in the rate of return to schooling in Vietnam over the 1998-2004 period, where the reforms have had a longer time to have an effect. |
| Keywords: | economic transition; returns to schooling; Vietnam |
| JEL: | J31 O15 |
| Date: | 2009–10–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:09/08&r=lab |