|
on Labour Economics |
| By: | Francisco M. Gonzalez; Shouyong Shi |
| Abstract: | We examine the labor market effects of incomplete information about the workers' own job-finding process. Search outcomes convey valuable information, and learning from search generates endogenous heterogeneity in workers' beliefs about their job-finding probability. We characterize this process and analyze its interactions with job creation and wage determination. Our theory sheds new light on how unemployment can affect workers' labor market outcomes and wage determination, providing a rational explanation for discouragement as the consequence of negative search outcomes. In particular, longer unemployment durations are likely to be followed by lower re-employment wages because a worker's beliefs about his job-finding process deteriorate with unemployment duration. Moreover, our analysis provides a set of useful results on dynamic programming with optimal learning. |
| Keywords: | Learning; Wages; Unemployment; Directed search; Monotone comparative statics |
| JEL: | E24 D83 J64 |
| Date: | 2009–12–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-384&r=lab |
| By: | Beatrice Brunner; Andreas Kuhn |
| Abstract: | We study the long-run effects of initial labor market conditions on wages for a large sample of male individuals entering the Austrian labor market between 1978 and 2000. We find a robust negative effect of unfavorable entry conditions on starting wages. This initial effect turns out to be quite persistent and even though wages do catch up later on, large effects on lifetime earnings result. We also show that initial labor market conditions have smaller and less persistent effects for blue-collar workers than for white-collar workers. We further show that some of the long-run adjustment takes place through changes in job-mobility and employment patterns as well as in job tenure. Finally, we find that adjustments at the aggregate level are key to explain wages' adjustment process in the longer run. |
| Keywords: | Labor market cohorts, initial labor market conditions, long-run wage profiles, persistence of labor market shocks, unemployment, business cycle |
| JEL: | E3 J2 J3 J6 M5 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:iewwpx:457&r=lab |
| By: | Beartice Brunner (Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich, Switzerland); Andreas Kuhn (Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | We study the long-run effects of initial labor market conditions on wages for a large sample of male individuals entering the Austrian labor market between 1978 and 2000. We find a robust negative effect of unfavorable entry conditions on starting wages. This initial effect turns out to be quite persistent and even though wages do catch up later on, large effects on lifetime earnings result. We also show that initial labor market conditions have smaller and less persistent effects for blue-collar workers than for white-collar workers. We further show that some of the long-run adjustment takes place through changes in job-mobility and employment patterns as well as in job tenure. Finally, we find that adjustments at the aggregate level are key to explain wages' adjustment process in the longer run. |
| Keywords: | labor market cohorts, initial labor market conditions, long-run wage profiles, persistence of labor market shocks, unemployment, business cycle |
| JEL: | E3 J2 J3 J6 M5 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:nrnwps:2009_29&r=lab |
| By: | Julia Bredtmann; Jochen Kluve; Sandra Schaffner |
| Abstract: | Over the last decades fertility rates have decreased in most developed countries, while female labour force participation has increased strongly over the same time period. To shed light on the relationship between women's fertility and employment decisions, we analyse their transitions to the first, second, and third child as well as their employment discontinuities following childbirth. Using new longitudinal datasets that cover the work and family life of women in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) allows for taking into account two political regimes and drawing conclusions about the relevance of institutional factors for fertility and employment decisions. Our results suggest that in both parts of Germany women's probability of having a first child is negatively correlated with both employment and educational achievement. Regarding second and third birth risks, this negative correlation weakens. Analysing women's time spent out of the labour market following childbirth we find that in the East almost all mothers return to work within 18 months after birth. In the West, however, this proportion is much smaller and at the age when the child starts nursery school or school, women re-enter the labour market at higher rates. These results point to a strong influence of institutional circumstances, specifically the extent of public daycare provision. A multivariate analysis reveals a strong correlation between a woman's employment status prior to birth and her probability of re-entering the labour market afterwards. |
| Keywords: | Female labour force participation, fertility |
| JEL: | J13 J18 J21 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0149&r=lab |
| By: | Marco Guerrazzi; Nicola Meccheri |
| Abstract: | This paper offers a critical discussion of the concept of labour market rigidity relevant to explaining unemployment. Starting from Keynes’s own view, we discuss how the concept of labour market flexibility has changed over time, involving nominal or real wage flexibility, contract flexibility or labour market institution flexibility. We also provide a critical assessment of the factors that lead the search framework highlighting labour market rigidities (frictions) to challenge the more widespread explanation of equilibrium unemployment grounded on wage rigidity. |
| Keywords: | Labour Market Rigidities, Nominal and Real Wages, Unemployment, Search Theory. |
| JEL: | E12 E24 |
| Date: | 2009–11–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pie:dsedps:2009/94&r=lab |
| By: | Masood, Tariq; Ahmad, Mohd. Izhar |
| Abstract: | Abstract The study attempts to investigate the factors responsible for the inter-state variations in women’s labour force participation in India by using the NSSO 61st round (2004-05) data. Two separate regression models for rural and urban women between women’s labor force participation as dependent variable and its various possible determinants have been estimated to identify the factors determining the rural and urban women’s labour force participation by using cross sectional data of all states and union territories of India. Our findings suggest that Personal variables education and wages are significant determinants of urban women’s labour force participation but not of rural women’s labour force participation. Other important determinants of women’s labour force participation are sex ratio, Muslim population, SC and ST population and Unemployment rate. |
| Keywords: | Women’s Labour Force Participation, Interstate Variations, India |
| JEL: | J21 J71 C21 |
| Date: | 2009–10–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:19297&r=lab |
| By: | Torben Sørensen (School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus, Denmark); Rune Vejlin (School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus, Denmark) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates a Mincerian wage equation with worker, firm, and match specific fixed effects and thereby complements the growing empirical literature started by the seminal paper of Abowd, Kramarz and Margolis (1999). The analysis takes advantage of the extensive Danish IDA data, which provides wage information on the whole working population for a 24-year period. We find that the major part of wage dispersion in the Danish labor market can be explained by differences in worker characteristics. However, the relative contribution of the three components varies across subgroups of workers. The match effect contributes a non-neglible part to the overall wage dispersion and, fur- thermore, corrects the estimated returns to experience. An analysis of inter-industry wage differentials shows that firm characteristics are more important at the industry level than at the worker level. Like- wise, we find evidence of high wage workers sorting into high wage industries but not into high wage firms within industries. The mobility pattern of workers is related to the quality of the firm and the match, and we find that the wage gain from job mobility depends on worker characteristics. |
| Keywords: | MEE data, fixed effects, wage dispersion |
| JEL: | J21 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2009-11&r=lab |
| By: | Hou, Feng; Picot, Garnett |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the recent research on labour market outcomes of the children of immigrants in Canada and the United States (i.e., the 2nd generation), and its determinants. The paper focuses on outcome gaps between the 2nd and third-and-higher generations, as well as the intergenerational transmission of earnings between immigrants (the first generation) and their children. Overall, in both Canada and the United States the labour market outcomes of the children of immigrants are positive. On average they have higher levels of education, and similar labour force participation rates and unemployment rates (no controls) as the third and higher generations (i.e. the children with native born parents). Furthermore, the children of immigrants tend to have higher earnings (unadjusted data). The 2nd generation is also more likely to be employed in professional occupations than the 3rd-and-higher generation, reflecting their higher average levels of education, particularly in Canada. However, after accounting for background characteristics, among racial minority groups in Canada the positive earnings gap turns negative. Regarding the determinants of aggregate outcomes, educational attainment may account for up to half of the (positive) earnings gap between the 2nd and third-and-higher generations. Other important determinants of the wage gap include location of residence and community size, ethnic group/source region background, the “degree of stickiness†in educational and earnings transmission between the 1st and 2nd generation, and “ethnic capitalâ€. In both Canada and the United States there are large differences in outcomes by source region/ethnic group background. The U.S the sociological literature in particular focuses on possible “downward assimilation†among children of immigrants with Mexican and other Hispanic backgrounds. In Canada, after controls, the 2nd generation racial minority groups outperform the 3rd plus generation educationally, but the 2nd generation with European and American backgrounds do better in the labour market. Based on the trends in the composition of immigrants since the 1980s, and their correlation with 2nd generation outcomes, the educational and labour market gaps may move in different direction in the two countries in the future; becoming increasingly positive in Canada, and more negative in the U.S. |
| Keywords: | Immigrants, Second Generation, Labour Market Outcomes, Canada and the United States |
| JEL: | J61 J15 J11 |
| Date: | 2009–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-63&r=lab |
| By: | Amy Peng (Department of Economics, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada); Ling Yang (Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, Toronto, Canada) |
| Abstract: | The paper studies factors that contribute to student's work study decision while attending postsecondary institutions using SLID and YITS data. It further tests that how the work decision can affect their future employment outcomes. |
| Keywords: | postsecondary eduction;labour supply decisions;return to schooling |
| JEL: | I20 I28 J22 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rye:wpaper:wp014&r=lab |
| By: | John Micklewright (Depatment of Quantitative Social Science - Institute of Education, University of London.); Gyula Nagy (Department of Human Resources, Corvinus University of Budapest) |
| Abstract: | Programme administration is a relatively neglected issue in the analysis of disincentive effects of unemployment benefit systems. We investigate this issue with a field experiment in Hungary involving random assignment of benefit claimants to treatment and control groups. Treatment increases the monitoring of claims - claimants make more frequent visits to the employment office and face questioning about their search behaviour. Treatment has quite a large effect on durations on benefit of women aged 30 and over, while we find no effect for younger women or men. |
| Keywords: | field experiment, monitoring, job search, unemployment insurance, Hungary |
| JEL: | J64 J65 P23 |
| Date: | 2009–11–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qss:dqsswp:0902&r=lab |
| By: | Musgrave, Ralph Stephen |
| Abstract: | The claim that the unemployed should be allocated to ‘government as employer of last resort’ schemes (like the WPA in the US in the 1930s) has major flaws. One flaw is the assumption that public sector work of this sort is less inflationary than private sector employment. A second flaw is the idea that WPA type schemes should be separate from existing employers. Once these two flaws are removed, WPA turns into a temporary employment subsidy that creates jobs with existing employers public and private. A second argument leads to the same ‘temporary employment subsidy’ conclusion: as unemployment falls, the marginal product of labour falls, till NAIRU is reached. The above subsidy compensates for this fall, and thus reduces NAIRU. Yet a third argument leads to the same conclusion: this temporary subsidy imitates a perfect labour market, a zero unemployment scenario. Thus this subsidy should facilitate a move towards zero unemployment. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment; employment subsidy; employer of last resort; work progress administration. |
| JEL: | J60 J63 J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2009–12–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:19094&r=lab |
| By: | Fraisse, H.; Kramarz, F.; Prost, C. |
| Abstract: | Using a data set of individual labor disputes brought to court over the years 1990 to 2003 in France, we examine the impact of the enforcement of Employment Protection Legislation on labor market outcomes. First, we present a simple theoretical model showing that judicial case outcomes cannot be directly interpreted in terms of EPL. A large fraction of cases that go to trials may well be a sign of low firing costs when firms face low litigation costs and are therefore willing to go to court or a sign of high firing costs when workers face low litigation costs and are therefore willing to sue the firm. Second, we exploit our model as well as the French institutional setting to generate instruments for these endogenous outcomes. Using these instruments, we show that labor courts decisions have a causal effect on labor flows. More dropped cases and more trials cause more job destructions: more trials indeed are a sign of lower separation costs. More settlements, higher filing rates, a larger fraction of workers represented at trial, large lawyer density dampen job destruction. A larger judge density causes less job creation, in particular on the extensive margin. |
| Keywords: | Employment protection legislation, Labor flows, Labor judges, Unfair dismissal, France |
| JEL: | J32 J53 J63 K31 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfr:banfra:256&r=lab |
| By: | Jochen Kluve; Markus Tamm |
| Abstract: | Over the last decades many OECD countries introduced parental leave regulations in order to counteract low and decreasing birth rates. In general, these regulations aim at making parenthood more attractive and more compatible with a working career, especially for women. The recent German Elterngeld reform is one example: By replacing 67 per cent of prepartum parental labor earnings for up to 14 months after birth of the child - if both father and mother take up the transfer - it intends to i) smooth or prevent households' earnings decline postpartum, ii) make childbearing attractive for working women while iii) keeping them close to the labor market, and iv) incentivize fathers to participate in childcare. We evaluate the reform by using a natural experiment created by the quick legislative process of the Elterngeld reform: Comparing outcomes of parents with children born shortly after and before the coming into effect of the law on 1 January 2007 yields unbiased estimates of the reform effects, because at the time when these children were conceived none of the parents knew that the regulation would be in force by the time their child is born. Our results are based on unique data from the official evaluation of the reform, which we conducted for the German government, and they show that the reform has been generally successful in attaining its objectives. In particular, we find a significant decrease in mothers' employment probability during the 12 months after giving birth, and a significant increase in mothers' employment probability after the Elterngeld transfer expires. |
| Keywords: | Parental leave, natural experiment, female labor market participation |
| JEL: | H31 J13 J18 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0145&r=lab |
| By: | Boeters, Stefan |
| Abstract: | In labour markets with collective wage bargaining higher progressivity of the labour income tax creates a trade-off. On the one hand, wages are lowered and unemployment decreases, on the other hand, the individual labour supply decision is distorted at the hours-of-work margin. The optimal level of tax progressivity within this trade-off is determined using a numerical general equilibrium model with imperfect competition on the goods market, collective wage bargaining and a labour-supply module calibrated to empirically plausible elasticity values. The model is calibrated to macroeconomic and institutional parameters of both the OECD average and a number of individual OECD-countries. In most cases the optimal degree of tax progressivity is below the actual level. A decomposition approach shows that the optimal level is increased by high unemployment and by the general tax level. -- |
| Keywords: | labour taxation,tax progressivity,optimal taxation,collective wage bargaining,unemployment |
| JEL: | H21 J22 J51 J64 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:09065&r=lab |
| By: | Andrabi, Tahir; Das, Jishnu; Khwaja, Asim Ijaz |
| Abstract: | Female education levels are very low in many developing countries. Does maternal education have a causal impact on children's educational outcomes even at these very low levels of education? By combining a nationwide census of schools in Pakistan with household data, the authors use the availability of girls'schools in the mother's birth village as an instrument for maternal schooling to address this issue. Since public schools in Pakistan are segregated by gender, the instrument affects only maternal education rather than the education levels of both mothers and fathers. The analysis finds that children of mothers with some education spend 75 minutes more on educational activities at home compared with children whose mothers report no education at all. Mothers with some education also spend more time helping their children with school work; the effect is stronger (an extra 40 minutes per day) in families where the mother is likely the primary care-giver. Finally, test scores for children whose mothers have some education are higher in English, Urdu (the vernacular), and mathematics by 0.24-0.35 standard deviations. There is no relationship between maternal education and mother’s time spent on paid work or housework - a posited channel through which education affects bargaining power within the household. And there is no relationship between maternal education and the mother's role in educational decisions or in the provision of other child-specific goods, such as expenditures on pocket money, uniforms, and tuition. The data therefore suggest that at these very low levels of education, maternal education does not substantially affect a mother's bargaining power within the household. Instead, maternal education could directly increase the mother's productivity or affect her preferences toward children’s education in a context where her bargaining power is low. |
| Keywords: | Education For All,Primary Education,Access&Equity in Basic Education,Early Childhood Development,Youth and Governance |
| Date: | 2009–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5143&r=lab |
| By: | Rosario Crinò |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effects of service offshoring on the level and skill composition of domestic employment, using a rich data set of Italian firms and propensity score matching techniques. The results show that service offshoring has no effect on the level of employment but changes its composition in favor of high skilled workers. |
| Keywords: | Service Offshoring; Employment; Skills; Propensity Score Matching; Sensitivity Analysis. |
| JEL: | F1 |
| Date: | 2009–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aub:autbar:800.09&r=lab |
| By: | Muriel Roger; Malgorzata Wasmer |
| Abstract: | This study aims at evaluating the actual profile of marginal productivity across the age groups within the workforce. As age-productivity profile might differ between occupations, we differentiate the workforce simultaneously by skills (low-skilled, high-skilled) and by age (young, middle-aged, old). Estimating a production function with a nested constant-elasticity-of-substitution (CES) specification in labour allows the imperfect substitution between different categories of workers. We use French dataset for manufacturing, services and trade sectors. Labour productivity is found to be the lowest for the low-skilled older workers while high-skilled senior employees in manufacturing and trade are the most productive group. Throughout the sectors, wage rates vary considerably less than productivity and wage profiles are steeper for high-skilled workers. The relative productivity over wage ratio is found to be sector-specific. It is the highest for young workers in manufacturing while in services and trade it is the highest for the mid-age employees. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pse:psecon:2009-51&r=lab |
| By: | Peter R. Mueser (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia); Marios Michaelides |
| Abstract: | We examine how gender, racial, and ethnic variation in unemployment and Unemployment Insurance (UI) receipt changed over time in the U.S. economy and how these changes are influenced by shifts in the occupational and industrial composition of employment. Using Current Population Survey (CPS) data, we find that, in the past 50 years, the unemployment rates for women, nonwhites, and Hispanics have been converging to those of the rest of the population. Between 1992 and 2007, women had the same unemployment rates as men; nonwhites still had higher unemployment rates than whites; and the rate for Hispanics was approaching that of non-Hispanics. Once we control for industry-occupation differences, women have higher unemployment and UI receipt rates than men, while Hispanics have similar unemployment rates but lower UI receipt rates than non-Hispanics. Nonwhites still have appreciably higher unemployment rates but the same UI receipt rates as whites. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, Unemployment Insurance, Gender, Race, Ethnicity |
| JEL: | J11 J15 J16 J65 |
| Date: | 2009–10–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:0912&r=lab |
| By: | Feng-Fuh Jiang (Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan) |
| Abstract: | Using the data from Taiwan’s 2007 manpower utilization survey, we explore the effects of personal characteristics on one’s employment probability and wage rate. The results from Heckman’s (1979) two-step estimation approach show that if one is less educated or at the age of youth, did not complete school, invests less in the post-school OJT, works at smaller-sized firms, has ever retired or changed jobs, plans to change jobs or to look for extra jobs, works in the south or north area of Taiwan, or enters the industries of agriculture, forestry, fishing, animal husbandry, other services, accommodation services, and eating-drinking places, then his unemployment probability would tend to be higher but the wage rate that he receives would tend to be lower than it would otherwise be. |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sin:wpaper:09-a002&r=lab |
| By: | Biagetti, Marco; Scicchitano, Sergio |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate whether inequality in the inter-industry wage premia may be explained by unobserved differences in workers’ educational skills. We use the 2007 EU-SILC data set for Portugal, a nation which can be considered a case-study, due to its high inter-industry wage dispersion. Applying both OLS and quantile regression techniques, our results suggest that this unobserved heterogeneity is not a relevant matter in the wage premia determination. We thus corroborate the previous empirical contribution to Economic Letters performed by Martins (2004). |
| Keywords: | Returns to education; inter-industry wage inequality; Quantile regression; Portugal |
| JEL: | C14 J31 I21 |
| Date: | 2009–12–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:19076&r=lab |
| By: | Mark Sanders; Riccardo Welters |
| Abstract: | Burgess (1993) finds that job finding rates for the unemployed do not move proportionately to changes in the overall hiring rate. Burgess hints at employed job seekers that start looking in tight conditions and crowd out the unemployed. But he leaves the search behaviour of firms unaddressed. Russo et al. (2000) and Russo et al. (2001), however, shows that firms switch their preferred recruitment channel in changing labour market conditions. We introduce recruitment channels in a search model and find an additional mechanism through which the unemployed obtain less than their `fair share' of the job offers. We then test our model's predictions using panel data from the Netherlands and find support for this hypothesis. |
| Keywords: | employer search, job search, recruitment channels, tightness |
| JEL: | J23 J64 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:0935&r=lab |
| By: | Miguel, Edward; Hamory, Joan |
| Abstract: | This study exploits a new longitudinal dataset to examine selective migration among 1,500 Kenyan youth originally living in rural areas. We examine whether migration rates are related to individual “ability”, broadly defined to include cognitive aptitude as well as health, and then use these estimates to determine how much of the urban-rural wage gap in Kenya is due to selection versus actual productivity differences. Whereas previous empirical work has focused on schooling attainment as a proxy for cognitive ability, we employ an arguably preferable measure, a pre-migration primary school academic test score. Pre-migration randomized assignment to a deworming treatment program provides variation in health status. We find a positive relationship between both measures of human capital (cognitive ability and deworming) and subsequent migration, though only the former is robust at standard statistical significance levels. Specifically, an increase of two standard deviations in academic test score increases the likelihood of rural-urban migration by 17%. Accounting for migration selection due to both cognitive ability and schooling attainment does not explain more than a small fraction of the sizeable urban-rural wage gap in Kenya, suggesting that productivity differences across sectors remain large. |
| Keywords: | Migration; selection; human capital; ability; urban-rural wage gap; productivity |
| JEL: | O15 C33 |
| Date: | 2009–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:19228&r=lab |
| By: | Marjit, Sugata |
| Abstract: | We provide an analysis of enforcement policies in a framework with heterogeneous firms, endogenous determination of informal wage and politically dictated strategies. We argue that firms which operate both in the formal and informal sectors do very little to increase TOTAL employment when faced with the opportunity of hiring workers in the informal labor market. Thus enforcing labor laws and other regulations in this case should not have aggregate employment effects. For firms operating exclusively in the informal sector, the outcome is different. Such features determine the stringency of enforcement in the context of markets characterized by firms with varying levels of productivity. For example if the formal sector has firms with relatively high levels of productivity enforcement has to be stricter than in the case with relatively large number of low productive firms. This seems to be consistent with observed behavior of the authorities in the developed and the developing world. We also talk about the implications of labor market reforms on informal wage. |
| Keywords: | Heterogeneous firms; informal sector; labor market; governance; reform. |
| JEL: | D23 O17 K4 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:19168&r=lab |
| By: | Stefan Staubli |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the labor supply effects of a large-scale policy change in the Austrian disability insurance program, which tightened eligibility criteria for men above a certain age. Using administrative data on the universe of Austrian private-sector employees, the results of difference-in-difference type regressions suggest a substantial and statistically significant decline in disability enrollment of 5-5.7 percentage points and a modest increase in employment of 1.4 to 2.7 percentage points. On the other hand, the policy change had important spillover effects into the unemployment and sickness insurance program. Specifically, the share of individuals receiving unemployment benefits increased by roughly 3 and the share receiving sickness insurance benefits by 0.6 percentage points. |
| Keywords: | Disability Insurance, Eligibility Criteria, Labor Supply, Policy Reform |
| JEL: | H53 H55 J21 J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:dp2009:2009-31&r=lab |
| By: | Maria Serena Borgia (Unibo. Dip. Statistica); Lucia Pasquini (Unibo. Dip. Statistica) |
| Abstract: | In recent years the analysis of educational outcomes has become increasingly important due mainly to the importance of success at school and the role of the modern school, where students are trained on how to make inroads and work towards planning their lives. In keeping with law no 144/1999, the Province of Bologna local authority collects data on student individuals of compulsory schooling age. This survey represents a complete coverage of the territory. The aim of this study is to use the data on individuals to explain the educational outcomes of these students. We have analysed the data on 5,944 students who were born in 1988 and who attended secondary schools in the province of Bologna in one or more of the five school years from 2002/03 to 2006/07. At first we calculated the success probabilities by gender and institute; later, in order to determine and quantify the influence of students' individual characteristics on final outcomes we estimated five logistic regressions, one for each school year and class attended. Our models confirm the exploratory analysis: variables such as gender, citizenship and the type of school attended do affect educational outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Esiti scolastici, Probabilità di successo, Regressione logistica Educational Outcomes, Success Probabilities, Logistic Regression |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bot:quadip:94&r=lab |
| By: | Nisar Ahmad (School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus, Denmark); Rayhaneh Esmaeilzadeh (Department of Economics Concordia University) |
| Abstract: | This study compares the earnings mobility between immigrants and natives within and between Denmark and Canada. Both countries have different labour market conditions and immigration history which leads to an interesting comparison of earning mobility processes. The paper employs a dynamic multinomial logit model with discrete factor approximation for the specification of unobserved individual heterogeneity. The model takes into account the effect of the endogenous initial conditions problem and unobserved heterogeneity to separate structural and spurious state dependence. The results show that immigrants-native differences in earnings mobility, structural state dependence, and segmentation of earnings distribution are relatively more prominent in Denmark compared to Canada. |
| Keywords: | Earnings Mobility Process, Immigrants and Natives, Spurious and Structural State Dependence, Quartile Mobility Rates, Discrete Factor Approximation |
| JEL: | C33 C35 J15 J38 J61 |
| Date: | 2009–12–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2009-13&r=lab |
| By: | Biagetti, Marco; Scicchitano, Sergio |
| Abstract: | In this paper we apply a semi-parametric approach (quantile regression - QR) to the last 2007 wave of the EU-SILC data set, in order to explore the connection between education and wage inequality in 8 European countries. We find that wages increase with education and this holds true across the whole distribution. Furthermore, this effect is generally more important at the highest quantiles of the distribution than at the lowest, implying that schooling increases wage dispersion. This evidence is found to be rather robust as showed through tests of linear hypothesis. We also corroborate the idea that, although OLS coefficients estimates are substantially in line with the QR’s, the former technique really misleads relevant information about cross-countries heterogeneity in the impact of education on within group inequality at different points of the wage distribution. Hence this paper confirms that a semi-parametric QR approach is more interesting, as well as more appropriate, because it measures the wage effect of education at different quantiles, thus describing relevant cross-countries changes or bounces not only in the location, but also in the shape of the distribution. |
| Keywords: | Returns to education; Wage inequality; Quantile regression; Europe |
| JEL: | C14 J31 I21 |
| Date: | 2009–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:19060&r=lab |
| By: | Andrea Weber; Christine Zulehner |
| Abstract: | According to Becker's (1957) famous theory on discrimination, entrepreneurs with a strong prejudice against female workers forgo profits by submitting to their tastes. In a competitive market their firms lack efficiency and are therefore forced to leave. We present new empirical evidence for this prediction by studying the survival of startup firms in a large longitudinal matched employer-employee data set from Austria. Our results show that firms with strong preferences for discrimination, i.e. a low share of female employees relatively to the industry average, have significantly shorter survival rates. This is especially relevant for firms starting out with female shares in the lower tail of the distribution. They exit about 18 months earlier than firms with a median share of females. We see no differences in survival between firms at the top of the female share distribution and at the median, though. We further document that highly discriminatory firms that manage to survive submit to market powers and increase their female workforce over time. |
| Keywords: | Firm survival, profitability, female employment, discrimination, market test, matched employer-employee data |
| JEL: | J16 J71 L25 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0146&r=lab |
| By: | Luc Behaghel; Eve Caroli; Muriel Roger |
| Abstract: | Nous analysons dans quelle mesure la formation peut atténuer les effets défavorables pour l'emploi des seniors du changement technologique et organisationnel. A partir d'un panel d'entreprises françaises suivies sur seconde moitié des années 1990, nous confirmons le caractère biaisé des nouvelles technologies et de certaines pratiques de travail innovantes à l'encontre des salariés âgés. Internet et l'adoption d'ordinateurs connectés en réseau ainsi que l'élargissement des responsabilités confiées aux opérateurs tendent à accroître la part des trentenaires et à réduire celle des seniors dans la masse salariale. En revanche, le raccourcissement de la chaîne de commandement sous la forme d'une réduction du nombre de niveaux hiérarchiques est favorable aux seniors. La formation continue contribue à protéger les seniors en termes d'emploi et/ou de rémunérations.###[English abstract: We analyze the role of training in mitigating the negative impact of technical and organizational changes on the employment of older workers. Using a panel of French firms in the late 1990s, our empirical analysis confirms that new technologies and some innovative workplace practices are biased against older workers. The use of the Internet and the adoption of computer networks tend to increase the wage share of middle-aged workers and to reduce the share of workers older than 50. By contrast, the reduction of the number of hierarchical layers is favourable to older workers. Training contributes to protect older workers in terms of employment and/or of wages.]### |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pse:psecon:2009-50&r=lab |
| By: | Christina Felfe; Amy Hsin |
| Abstract: | This study goes beyond the much-studied impact of mothers' labor force participation on children's development and investigates how mothers' working environment affects children's cognitive and non-cognitive performance. Using data from the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the Occupational Information Network and applying a value added plus specification we find a negative impact of the hazards involved in mothers' jobs on their children’s non-cognitive achievement, but not on their cognitive performance. Nevertheless, stratification according to mothers' verbal skills reveals that only the personality development of children of mothers with high verbal skills is affected. Upon further investigation,we find that a possible mechanism through which maternal work conditions affect child outcomes is through reduced mother-child interactions |
| Keywords: | Child Development, Maternal Labor Supply, Occupational Disamenities |
| JEL: | J13 J22 J81 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:dp2009:2009-32&r=lab |
| By: | Clemens, Michael A. |
| Abstract: | Large numbers of doctors, engineers, and other skilled workers from developing counties choose to move to other countries. Do their choices threaten development? The answer appears so obvious that their movement is most commonly known by the pejorative term “brain drain”. This paper reconsiders the question starting from the most mainstream, explicit definitions of “development”. Under these definitions, it is only possible to advance development by regulating skilled workers’ choices if that regulation greatly expands the substantive freedoms of others to meet their basic needs and live the lives they wish. Much existing evidence and some new evidence suggests that regulating skilled-worker mobility itself does nothing to address the underlying causes of skilled migrants’ choices, generally brings few benefits to others, and instead brings diverse unintended harm. The paper concludes with examples of effective ways that developing countries can build a skill base for development without regulating human movement. The mental shift required to take these policies seriously would be aided by dropping the sententious term “brain drain” in favor of the neutral, accurate, and concise term “skill flow”. |
| Keywords: | skill; talent; professional; educated; graduate; degree; labor; global |
| JEL: | O15 J0 |
| Date: | 2009–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:19186&r=lab |
| By: | Cheng-Te Lee (Department of International Trade, Chinese Culture University, Taiwan); Deng-Shing Huang (Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the impact of labor market integration between an advanced country (North) and backward country (South) on income distribution and pattern oftrade by making use of a two-sector, competitive trade model with heterogeneous labor. We prove that, for the North, after the labor market integration, none of the workers is worse off; instead some people earn higher wages than before. And, for the South, some workers are worse off. In addition, we find that the pattern of trade for the integrated economy might reverse. |
| Keywords: | diversity, labor market integration, pattern of trade, income distribution |
| JEL: | F15 F22 |
| Date: | 2009–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sin:wpaper:09-a004&r=lab |
| By: | Peter Kuhn; Kailing Shen |
| Abstract: | We study firms’ advertised preferences for gender, age, height and beauty in a sample of ads from a Chinese internet job board, and interpret these patterns using a simple employer search model. We find that these characteristics are widely and highly valued by Chinese employers, though employers’ valuations are highly specific to detailed jobs and occupations. Consistent with our model, advertised preferences for gender, age, height and beauty all become less prevalent as job skill requirements rise. Cross-sectional patterns suggest some role for customer discrimination, product market competition, and corporate culture. Using the recent collapse of China’s labor market as a natural experiment, we find that firms’ advertised education and experience requirements respond to changing labor market conditions in the direction predicted by our model, while firms’ advertised preferences for age, gender, height and beauty do not. |
| JEL: | J6 J7 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15564&r=lab |
| By: | Andrea Weber; Christine Zulehner |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate the relationship between females among the first hires of start-up companies and business success. Our results show that firms with female first hires have a higher share of female workers at the end of the first year after entry. Further, we find that firms with female first hires are more successful and stay longer in the market. We conclude that our results support the hypothesis that gender-diversity in leading positions is an advantage for start-up firms. |
| Keywords: | Firm survival, profitability, female employment, discrimination, market test, matched employer-employee data |
| JEL: | J16 J71 L25 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:nrnwps:2009_28&r=lab |
| By: | Nisar Ahmad (School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus, Denmark); Michael Svarer (School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus, Denmark) |
| Abstract: | This paper simultaneously investigates the effectiveness of benefit sanctions and active labour market programmes on the exit rate from unemployment using Danish data. In the data about one third of the individuals who are sanctioned also participate in some active labour market programmes (ALMPs). Hence, modeling only one of them as treatment might over or underestimate the true effect. Therefore, by using a multivariate mixed proportional hazard model (MMPH), we model the hazard rate out of unemployment along with the sanction rate and hazard rate into active labour market programmes. We optimally select the number of supports point for the distribution of unobserved heterogeneity. Results show that pre-specifying two support points underestimates the effect of sanctions and active labour market programmes. Failing to control for selectivity for sanctions not only underestimates the treatment effect of sanctions but also biases the treatment effect of ALMPs. |
| Keywords: | competing risks, unemployment insurance, timing of events , NPMLE, MMPH |
| JEL: | C14 C15 C41 J64 J65 J68 |
| Date: | 2009–12–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2009-14&r=lab |
| By: | Rebecca Allen (Depatment of Quantitative Social Science - Institute of Education, University of London.); Anna Vignoles (Depatment of Quantitative Social Science - Institute of Education, University of London.) |
| Abstract: | This paper measures the extent to which the presence of religious state-funded secondary schools in England impacts on the educational experiences of pupils who attend neighbouring schools, whether through school effort induced by competition or changes in peer groups induced by sorting. National administrative data is used to estimate pupil test score growth models between the ages of 11 and 16, with instrumental variable methods employed to avoid confounding the direct causal effect of religious schools. It finds significant evidence that religious schools are associated with higher levels of pupil sorting across schools, but no evidence that competition from faith schools raises area-wide pupil attainment. |
| Keywords: | school choice, school competition, educational outcomes |
| JEL: | H11 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2009–12–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qss:dqsswp:0904&r=lab |
| By: | Filip Pertold |
| Abstract: | The start of daily smoking is often shortly after the resorting of students between elementary and secondary education. This paper employs a novel identification strategy based on this resorting, in order to estimate peer effects in youth smoking. We address the reflection problem by peers’ pre-secondary-school smoking, which is not influenced by the current social interaction of classmates. The self-selection of students into secondary schools, based on their unobserved preferences toward smoking, is controlled for using own pre-secondary school behavior and the existing prevalence of smoking among older schoolmates. The empirical findings based on data from the Czech Republic, where the prevalence of youth smoking prevalence reached high levels, suggest that male youth smoking is significantly affected by classmates, while female smoking is not. |
| Keywords: | Peer effects, smoking, sorting. |
| JEL: | I12 D1 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cer:papers:wp399&r=lab |
| By: | Olivier N. Godart; Holger Görg; David Greenaway |
| Abstract: | Using information on a panel of multinational firms operating in the United Kingdom from 1996 to 2005, we find that labour demand in domestic multinationals is less sensitive to own labour costs changes than in foreign multinationals. This difference in wage elasticity of labour demand persists even if we allow for a distinct labour elasticity in multinational firms according to their level of skill intensity or their intangible assets. This suggests that the provision of headquarter services in domestic multinational firms shields against strong fluctuations in labour demand. In terms of labour demand elasticity reduction, the estimated shielding role of headquarter services is about 40 percent |
| Keywords: | labour demand elasticity, headquarter services, multinational firms, skill intensity |
| JEL: | F23 J23 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1575&r=lab |
| By: | Gelber, Alexander M.; Mitchell, Joshua W. |
| Abstract: | Hundreds of papers have investigated how incentives and policies affect hours worked in the market. This paper examines how income taxes affect time allocation in the other two-thirds of the day. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics from 1975 to 2004, we analyze the response of single women's housework, labor supply, and other time to variation in tax and transfer schedules across income levels, number of children, states, and time. We find that when the economic reward to participating in the labor force increases, market work increases and housework decreases, with the decrease in housework accounting for approximately two-thirds of the increase in market work. Analysis of repeated cross-sections of time diary data from 1975 to 2004 shows that changes in "home production" account for at least half of the increase in market hours of work in response to policy changes. Data on expenditures from the Consumer Expenditure Survey from 1980 to 2003 show some evidence that expenditures on market goods likely to substitute for housework increase in response to a greater incentive to join the labor force. The baseline estimates imply that the elasticity of substitution between consumption of home and market goods is 2.43. The results are consistent with the classic time allocation model of Becker (1965). |
| Keywords: | taxation; time allocation; labor supply; housework; home production; leisure |
| JEL: | E32 H24 J22 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:19148&r=lab |
| By: | Gunderson, Morley; Krashinsky, Harry |
| Abstract: | We utilize the 2000 cohort of university graduates from the National Graduate Survey (NGS) to estimate the extent to which the choice of field of study is influenced by expected returns to those fields of study. The expected returns are based on earnings equations estimated from the earlier 1990 NGS cohort for the years 1992 and 1995 -- years that are around the time when the 2000 cohort would be applying to university and forming expectations of their expected returns by field of study. We estimate those expected returns using conventional OLS earnings equations as well as IV estimates to account for the potential endogeneity of the returns by field of study since selection effects may bias the expected returns. Our IV estimates utilize measures of skill-biased technological change as instruments. Overall, our results suggest that prospective students do choose fields of study in part at least on the basis of earnings they can expect to receive in those fields. Furthermore, earnings expectations formed around the time they are applying are more influential than earnings expectations based on years further away from that time, although both generally have an impact on the choice of field of study. |
| Keywords: | Education decisions; field of study; returns to education; multi-nomial logits; National Graduate Survey (NGS) |
| JEL: | J21 J24 J28 |
| Date: | 2009–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-62&r=lab |
| By: | Kamhon Kan (Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan); Yen-Ling Lin (Department of Economics, Tamkang University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effects of employment protection legislation on the rates of hiring, separation, worker flows, job reallocation, and churning flows for the case of Taiwan. Our empirical identification takes advantage of a reform created by Taiwan’s enactment of Labor Standards Law, which has substantially increased the costs of firing, and the implementation of the law’s enforcement measures. Moreover, our identification also exploits the fact that the stringency of the law’s provisions and the intensity of the law’s enforcement vary with establishment size. Based on monthly data at the establishment level for the period 1983–1995, we find that Taiwan’s Labor Standards Law and its enforcement measures have dampened labor turnover for mediumsized and large establishments, while that of small establishments was not affected. |
| Keywords: | Employment protection, Hiring, Separation, Worker flows, Job reallocation, Churning flows, Labor Standards Law |
| JEL: | J65 J63 J88 |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sin:wpaper:09-a005&r=lab |
| By: | Cory Koedel (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia); Rachana Bhatt |
| Abstract: | This paper uses non-experimental data to evaluate curricular effectiveness. We show that non-experimental methods can be used to obtain causal estimates of curricular effects at just a fraction of what it would cost to produce analogous experimental estimates. Furthermore, external validity concerns that are particularly cogent in the context of curricular evaluations suggest that a non-experimental approach may be preferred. Our results provide important insights for educational administrators and policymakers. In the short term, we find large differences in effectiveness across some math curricula. However, like many educational inputs, the effects of math curricula do not persist over time, a result that would be quite costly to attain using experimental data. Across curricula adoption cycles, publishers that produce less effective curricula in one cycle do not lose market share in the next cycle. One explanation for this result is the dearth of information available to administrators about curricular effectiveness. |
| Keywords: | curricular effectiveness, math curricula, non-experimental methods, matching methods, education policy |
| JEL: | I21 I28 H75 |
| Date: | 2009–10–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:0913&r=lab |
| By: | Martine Mariotti; Juergen Meinecke |
| Abstract: | Our objective is to estimate the average treatment effect (ATE) of education on earnings for African men in South Africa. Estimation of the ATE in our data is difficult because of omitted ability bias and a high degree of sample selection due to low labor force participation. Manski and Pepper (2000) suggest is a promising nonparametric identification strategy but it only helps with the problem of omitted ability bias. We propose an extension of their identification strategy to deal with the sample selection problem. Accounting for ability and selection bias, we compute upper bounds on the ATE for the years 1995 and 2000. We estimate an upper bound of 12.64 percent in 1995 and 10.68 percent in 2000. Compared to parametric estimation our bounds are informative: The OLS returns to schooling equal 15.59 percent in 1995 and 15.31 percent in 2000. Our results suggest that many parametric estimates are severely upwards biased, which results from unobserved heterogeneity. |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:acb:cbeeco:2009-510&r=lab |
| By: | Pfau, Wade Donald |
| Abstract: | An understanding of the financial and distributional consequences of Social Security reform requires knowledge about the actual life circumstances of participants, including the level and pattern of their lifetime earnings and when they retire. Some analyses of Social Security reform make simplifying assumptions about these characteristics by using “hypothetical workers” with set career paths. We seek to develop greater understanding about actual lifetime earnings patterns to compare with hypothetical workers and find discrepancies which lead typical hypothetical workers to produce a more favorable impression for defined-contribution pension reforms. We suggest modifications to make a more suitable hypothetical worker. |
| Keywords: | Social Security; Hypothetical Workers; Defined-Contribution Pensions |
| JEL: | H55 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:19036&r=lab |
| By: | Mazzolari, Francesca; Numark, David |
| Abstract: | We study potential economic benefits of immigration stemming from two factors: first, that immigrants bring not only their labor supply with them, but also their consumption demands; and second, that immigrants may have a comparative advantage in the production of ethnic goods. Using data on the universe of business establishments located in California between 1992 and 2002 matched with Census of Population data, we find some evidence that immigrant inflows boost employment in the retail sector, which is non-traded and a non-intensive user of immigrant labor. We find that immigration is associated with fewer stand-alone retail stores, and a greater number of large and in particular big-box retailers – evidence that likely contradicts a diversityenhancing effect of immigration. On the other hand, focusing more sharply on the restaurant sector, for which we can better identify the types of products consumed by customers, the evidence indicates that immigration is associated with increased ethnic diversity of restaurants. |
| Keywords: | Effects of immigration; ethnic goods; consumption diversity |
| JEL: | E2 O15 J0 |
| Date: | 2009–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:19217&r=lab |
| By: | Amy Peng (Department of Economics, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada); Louis N. Christofides (Department of Economics, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus) |
| Abstract: | We process information in a large number of Canadian wage contracts, signed over a period of several decades, to generate the long-run history of the real wage for each bargaining pair. We term these hitherto unexamined histories ‘chronologies’. We are able to generate 1574 continuous real wage chronologies and we examine the evolution of the real wage in each case. We explore the influence of productivity growth, the labour relations record of the pair, the influence of industry and region as well as the initial wage on the growth of the real wage rate over the decades in the sample. We also consider the relation between the mean and variance of the real wage contained in these chronologies. |
| Keywords: | Wages, productivity, labour relations, compensating differentials,convergence. |
| JEL: | E31 J41 J50 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rye:wpaper:wp011&r=lab |
| By: | Veruska Oppedisano (The Geary Institute, UCD) |
| Abstract: | The paper develops a model of educational choices with uncertainty to account for the high drop out rate in countries with open admission policies at university entry. As long as university entry reveals useful information, students have incentives to enroll, update their beliefs and choose whether to continue university or drop out. |
| Keywords: | uncertainty, admission policy, higher education |
| JEL: | I20 |
| Date: | 2009–12–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:200944&r=lab |
| By: | Marjit, Sugata; Kar, Saibal |
| Abstract: | Emigration leads to finite changes in structure of production and sectors vanish because they cannot pay higher wages. Does emigration of one type of labor hurt the other non-emigrating type in this set up? We demonstrate various scenarios when real income of the emigrating and the non-emigrating type do not move together and in the process generalize some of the existing results in the literature. In particular emigration can lead to a drastic change in the degree of inequality depending on which sectors survive in the post-emigration scenario. |
| Keywords: | Skill; emigration; wages; inequality; reallocation. |
| JEL: | D50 F2 J61 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:19354&r=lab |
| By: | Facchini, Giovanni; Mayda, Anna Maria |
| Abstract: | It is commonly argued that skilled immigration benefits the destination country through several channels. Yet, only a small group of countries reports to have policies in place aimed at increasing the intake of skilled immigrants. Why? In this paper we analyze the factors that affect a direct measure of individual attitudes towards skilled migration, focusing on two main channels: the labor market and the welfare state. We find that more educated natives are less likely to favor skilled immigration - consistent with the labor-market channel - while richer people are more likely to do so - in accordance with the welfare state channel under the tax adjustment model. Our findings thus suggest that the labor market competition threat perceived by skilled natives in the host countries might be driving the observed cautious policies. |
| Keywords: | attitudes; immigration policy; political economy; skilled immigration |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7592&r=lab |
| By: | Paul Makdissi (Department of Economics, University of Ottawa); Myra Yaxbeck (Département d’économique, Pavillon de Sève, Université Laval, Québec) |
| Abstract: | In this article, we analyze the redistributive impact of a recent reform of tuition fees in Quebec. We adapt Duclos, Makdissi and Wodon's (2005) methodology to a Generalized Lorenz framework. Many policy analysts argued that maintaining low higher education tuition fees is regressive. We take a look at the empirical validity of this argument using data from Statistics Canada's Survey of Labor and Income Dynamics. We show the importance of using data to validate this argument. The results obtained allow for the conclusion that this redistributive argument is empirically not verified for the Province of Québec. |
| Keywords: | Higher Education, Tuition fees, Inequality |
| JEL: | I22 I28 I38 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ott:wpaper:902e&r=lab |
| By: | Acácio Lourete (International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth); Christian Lehmann (International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth); Raquel Tsukada (International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth) |
| Abstract: | In many countries, efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of universal primary education have led to a rise in the number of schools built. The fact that more children may have the opportunity to attend school is a necessary but not sufficient condition to guarantee proper primary education. Complementary inputs such as the number and quality of teachers are also important. Here we focus on the adequate provision of water as one of the key determinants for pupils to acquire a proper education that meets international standards. |
| Keywords: | Raindrops for Education: How To Improve Water Access in Schools? |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:opager:99&r=lab |
| By: | Moyen, Stéphane; Stähler, Nikolai |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to study the optimal duration of unemployment benefit entitlement duration across the business cycle. We wonder if the entitlement duration should be prolonged in bad and shortened in good times. Because of consumption smoothing, such a countercyclical policy can be welfare-enhancing as long as it does not affect labor market adjustment too severely or even helps to reduce inefficiencies there. If, however, the labor market is quite inflexible already, procyclical behavior may be preferable. In a calibrated dynamic business cycle framework, we find that countercyclical benefit entitlement duration may be preferable in the US but not in Europe. -- |
| Keywords: | Unemployment insurance,entitlement duration,business cycle |
| JEL: | E32 E62 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:bubdp1:200930&r=lab |
| By: | Fabrizio Mazzonna (Faculty of Economics, University of Rome "Tor Vergata"); Franco Peracchi (Faculty of Economics, University of Rome "Tor Vergata") |
| Abstract: | We investigate the relationship between aging, cognitive abilities and retirement using the Survey on Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), a longitudinal survey that offers the possibility of comparing several European countries using nationally representative samples of the population aged 50+. We use a version of the model proposed by Grossman (1972) as a guide for our empirical specification of the age-profile of cognitive abilities. According to the model, retirement plays a fundamental role in explaining the process of cognitive deterioration. Our empirical results confirm this key prediction. They also indicate that education plays a fundamental role in explaining heterogeneity in the level of cognitive abilities. |
| Keywords: | Aging; cognitive abilities; retirement; education; SHARE |
| JEL: | J14 J24 C23 |
| Date: | 2009–12–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:152&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre Brochu (Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, OntarioCatherine Deri Armstrong); Catherine Deri Armstrong (Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario); Louis-Philippe Morin (Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario) |
| Abstract: | Using Canadian time use data, we exploit exogenous variation in local unemployment rates to investigate the cyclical nature of sleep time and show that for both men and women, sleep time decreases when the economy is doing relatively better. Our results suggest that in a recession Canadians sleep an average of 2 hours and 34 minutes more per week, or 22 minutes more per day. Given the importance of even small changes in sleep time on measures of cognitive functioning such as reaction time and concentration, our findings may help explain the countercyclical nature of mortality. Further, as we find that sleep is affected by the same economic variables (notably the unemployment rate) that affect market work time, our results also contribute to the limited literature that shows that sleep time should not be treated as exogenously determined, but, like any other resource, determined by its relative cost. |
| Keywords: | Business Cycles, Sleep. |
| JEL: | I12 J22 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ott:wpaper:0909e&r=lab |