|
on Labour Economics |
| By: | Wayne Vroman (The Urban Institute); Vera Brusentsev (Department of Economics,University of Delaware) |
| Abstract: | Short-time compensation (STC or work sharing) is a labor adjustment measure designed to reduce or eliminate reliance on layoffs when firms need to reduce hours worked. It spreads the reduction in hours among a wide pool of workers and provides partial unemployment compensation for the reduced hours. This paper examines STC with attention to experiences in Canada and Germany as well as the United States. It also suggests ways to increase STC use in the United States. |
| Keywords: | employment retention, short-time compensation, Work-sharing, Wage compensation, unemployment insurance, workplace relations, social sector reform. |
| JEL: | J33 J38 J39 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dlw:wpaper:09-10.&r=lab |
| By: | Dean Baker; John Schmitt |
| Abstract: | The strong rise in the U.S. stock market since the spring and the return to positive economic growth in the third quarter of this year have created a consensus among economists that the Great Recession is very likely over. Unfortunately, the end of the official recession will have little visible impact on U.S. labor markets until almost 2012. Within that time, this paper estimates that U.S. workers will have lost over $1 trillion in wages and salaries, $150 billion more than the 10-year costs of proposed health care reform legislation. |
| Keywords: | recession, wages, labor, unemployment |
| JEL: | E E3 E32 E6 E61 E62 E63 E64 E65 E66 H J J3 J38 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epo:papers:2009-46&r=lab |
| By: | Patrinos, Harry Anthony |
| Abstract: | One of the key features of the Dutch education system is freedom of education -- freedom to establish schools and organize teaching. Almost 70 percent of schools in the Netherlands are administered by private school boards, and all schools are government funded equally. This allows school choice. Using an instrument to identify school choice, it is shown that the Dutch system promotes academic performance. The instrumental variables results show that private school attendance is associated with higher test scores. Private school size effects in math, reading, and science achievement are 0.17, 0.28, and 0.18. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary Education,Education For All,Secondary Education,Primary Education,Teaching and Learning |
| Date: | 2010–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5185&r=lab |
| By: | Dlugosz, Stephan; Stephan, Gesine; Wilke, Ralf A. |
| Abstract: | From 2002-2004, the German government passed several laws that curtailed the generosity of the unemployment compensation system. One of the most ambitious changes was a considerable reduction in unemployment benefit entitlement lengths for older unemployed, which was effective during 2006 and 2007. We apply a difference-in-differences approach to show that the highly disputed reform induced a considerable decline in unemployment incidence among older workers. It thus sealed an important leak in the unemployment insurance system. Furthermore, we find a strong anticipation effect; unemployment entries of elderly workers peaked during the months preceding the reform. -- |
| Keywords: | unemployment incidence,policy evaluation,administrative data |
| JEL: | J63 J65 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:09079&r=lab |
| By: | Hilary Ingham; Mike Ingham |
| Abstract: | In recent years, Poland witnessed a dramatic decline in its unemployment rate and, from having had one of the worst jobless records in the EU-27, the country now posts a figure below the Union average. However, this remarkable turnaround has apparently been driven by amendments to the country's Labour Code, which have generated an enormous increase in temporary working. On the basis of gross flow data from five consecutive annual panels from the Labour Force Survey, the paper identifies a strong link between this growth and the fall in unemployment. A multinomial logit model then reveals the flows were most heavily concentrated among males and the less well educated. There was also some evidence that fixed-term work lured previously discouraged, inactive individuals back into the labour market. However, the requirement that Poland aligns its temporary employment legislation with that of the EU could conceivable lead to at least a partial reversal of these developments. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, Temporary Work, Labour Market Dynamics |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:006319&r=lab |
| By: | Beckstead, Desmond; Brown, W. Mark; Guo, Yusu; Newbold, Bruce |
| Abstract: | Using 2001 Census data, this paper investigates the extent to which the urban-rural gap in the earnings of employed workers is associated with human capital composition and agglomeration economies. Both factors have been theoretically and empirically linked to urban-rural earnings differences. Agglomeration economies-the productivity enhancing effects of the geographic concentration of workers and firms-may underlie these differences as they may be stronger in larger urban centres. But human capital composition may also drive the urban-rural earnings gap if workers with higher levels of education and/or experience are more prevalent in cities. The analysis finds that up to one-half of urban-rural earnings differences are related to human capital composition. It also demonstrates that agglomeration economies related to city size are associated with earnings levels, but their influence is significantly reduced by the inclusion of controls for human capital. |
| Keywords: | Education, training and learning, Business performance and ownership, Labour, Educational attainment, Regional and urban profiles, Wages, salaries and other earnings |
| Date: | 2010–01–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp1e:2010020e&r=lab |
| By: | Bo MacInnis |
| Abstract: | Using data from the Current Population Surveys, we find an increase in the fraction of older American men who worked without receiving Social Security retirement benefits and a decline in the fraction of men who claimed benefits without working during the period 1980-2006. Using bivariate probit regressions, we find that an increase in Social Security’s normal retirement age decreased labor force participation rate regardless of benefits receipt status; that an increase in the delayed retirement credit increased benefit receipt regardless of labor force status; and that labor force participation and claiming Social Security benefits are strongly and negatively correlated. |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2009-22&r=lab |
| By: | John Schmitt; Hye-Jin Rho; Nicole Woo |
| Abstract: | Asian Pacific American (APA) workers are, with Latinos, the fastest growing group in the U.S. workforce and in organized labor. Since the late 1980s, APA workers have seen their representation in the ranks of U.S. unions almost double, from about 2.5 percent of all union workers in 1989 to about 4.6 percent in 2008. This report uses national data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) to show that unionization raises the wages of the typical APA worker by 9 percent compared to their non-union peers. The study goes on to show that unionization also increases the likelihood that an APA worker will have health insurance and a pension. |
| Keywords: | unions, Asian, wages, benefits, pension |
| JEL: | J J1 J3 J31 J32 J41 J5 J58 J6 J68 J88 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epo:papers:2009-44&r=lab |
| By: | Mosthaf, Alexander; Schank, Thorsten; Schnabel, Claus |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes state dependence in low-wage employment of western German women using GSOEP data, 2000-2006. We estimate dynamic multinomial logit models with random effects and find that having a low-wage job increases the probability of being low-paid and decreases the chances of being high-paid in the future, in particular for low-paid women working part-time. However, concerning future wage prospects low-paid women are clearly better off than unemployed or inactive women. We argue that for women low-wage jobs can serve as stepping stones out of unemployment and are to be preferred to staying unemployed and waiting for a better job. ; Mit Daten des Sozio-ökonomischen Panels für 2000-2006 untersucht diese Studie die Wahrscheinlichkeit westdeutscher Frauen, in Niedriglohnbeschäftigungen zu verbleiben (state dependence). Wir schätzen dynamische multinomiale Logit-Modelle mit zufälligen Effekten und finden, dass ein Niedriglohnjob die Wahrscheinlichkeit einer Niedriglohntätigkeit in der Zukunft erhöht und die Chancen auf einen Hochlohnjob verringert. Dies gilt insbesondere für geringverdienende Frauen, die Teilzeit arbeiten. Allerdings sind die Aussichten bezüglich künftiger Löhne für Frauen in Niedriglohntätigkeiten deutlich besser als für solche, die arbeitslos oder inaktiv sind. Wir folgern daraus, dass für Frauen Niedriglohnjobs als Sprungbrett aus der Arbeitslosigkeit dienen können und dass sie eine bessere Alternative darstellen als arbeitslos zu bleiben und auf bessere Arbeitsplatzangebote zu warten. -- |
| Keywords: | low-pay dynamics,state dependence,dynamic multinomial logit model |
| JEL: | J30 J60 C33 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:faulre:65&r=lab |
| By: | Mosthaf, Alexander; Schank, Thorsten; Stephani, Jens |
| Abstract: | Using representative linked employer-employee data of the German Federal Employment Agency, this paper shows that just one out of seven full-time employees who earned low wages (i.e. less than two-thirds of the median wage) in 1998/99 was able to earn wages above the low-wage threshold in 2003. Bivariate probit estimations with endogenous selection indicate that upward wage mobility is higher for younger and better qualified low-wage earners, whereas women are substantially less successful. We show that the characteristics of the employing firm also matter for low-wage earners' probability of escaping low-paid work. In particular small plants and plants with a high share of low-wage earners often seem to be dead ends for low-wage earners. The likelihood of leaving the low-wage sector is also low when staying in unskilled and skilled service occupations and in unskilled commercial and administrational occupations. Consequently, leaving these dead-end plants and occupations appears to be an important instrument for achieving wages above the low-wage threshold. ; Mit repräsentativen verbundenen Arbeitgeber-Arbeitnehmer-Daten der Bundesagentur für Arbeit verdeutlicht diese Studie, dass nur jeder siebte Vollzeitbeschäftigte, der 1998/99 einen Niedriglohn (von weniger als zwei Dritteln des Medianlohns) bezog, bis 2003 den Niedriglohnsektor verlassen konnte. Bivariate Probit-Schätzungen mit endogener Selektion deuten darauf hin, dass die Aufwärtsmobilität für jüngere und besser qualifizierte Geringverdiener höher ausfällt, wohingegen Frauen deutlich weniger erfolgreich sind. Wir zeigen, dass auch die Merkmale des Beschäftigungsbetriebes die Aufstiegswahrscheinlichkeit beeinflussen. Insbesondere kleinere Betriebe und solche mit einem hohen Anteil von Niedriglohnbeschäftigten scheinen häufig Sackgassen für Geringverdiener darzustellen. Die Wahrscheinlichkeit, den Niedriglohnsektor zu verlassen, ist ferner relativ gering, wenn man in bestimmten (meist weniger qualifizierten) Jobs verharrt. Die Abwanderung aus solchen Betrieben und Beschäftigungen, die Sackgassen darstellen, dürfte deshalb ein wichtiges Mittel sein, um höhere Löhne zu erzielen. -- |
| Keywords: | low-wage employment,wage mobility,Germany |
| JEL: | J30 J60 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:faulre:66&r=lab |
| By: | John Schmitt; Kris Warner |
| Abstract: | Over the last quarter century, the unionized workforce has changed dramatically, according to this new CEPR report. In 2008, union workers reflected trends in the workforce as a whole toward a greater share of women, Latinos, Asian Pacific Americans, older, more-educated workers, and a shift out of manufacturing toward services. |
| Keywords: | labor, unions |
| JEL: | J J1 J10 J11 J15 J16 J18 J5 J50 J51 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epo:papers:2009-43&r=lab |
| By: | Sánchez, Rafael (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | This study exploits the reduction of weekly working hours from 48 to 45 occured in Chile in January 2005. We use this pure and exogenous policy change to identify the employment effects of such a policy. Our main contribution is that we overcome the problems of previous studies such as : selection between hours and employment, lack of identification strategy due to the joint implementation of policies and lack of crucial variables (like hourly wages and usual hours). Our results suggest no significant effects of a reduction of standard hours on employment transitions and a significant effect on hourly wages (i.e. wage compensation). These results are robust to several specifiations. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:925&r=lab |
| By: | Macdonald, Kevin; Barrera, Felipe; Guaqueta, Juliana; Patrinos, Harry Anthony; Porta, Emilio |
| Abstract: | Wealth and gender inequity in the accumulation of cognitive skills is measured as the association between subject competency and wealth and gender using the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment. Wealth inequity is found to occur not through disparate household characteristics but rather through disparate school characteristics; little evidence is found of an association between wealth and competency within schools. Weak evidence is found of wealth mitigating gender differences through school characteristics. These findings suggest that wealth inequity in the accumulation of cognitive skills is almost exclusively associated with disparate school characteristics and that disparate school characteristics may play a role in accentuating gender inequity. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary Education,Education For All,Disability,Primary Education,Secondary Education |
| Date: | 2010–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5189&r=lab |
| By: | S. PESSOA e COSTA (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)); S. ROBIN (BETA, University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg 1) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the labour market outcomes of a French training programme for youth, using a non-experimental sample of individuals who completed their studies (or dropped out) in 1998 and were observed until 2003. We use propensity score matching to estimate the impact of participation on three outcome variables: the net monthly wage, the monthly income and the probability of employment. We find a positive impact of participation on all three outcome variables. Non parametric robustness checks confirmed our results. We explain these results, which contrast with those of previous French studies, by the very strong training content of the programme. |
| Keywords: | active labour market programmes, training programmes for youth, propensity score matching |
| JEL: | J68 I28 C14 C21 |
| Date: | 2009–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2009038&r=lab |
| By: | Brian A. Jacob |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of employment protection on worker productivity and firm output in the context of a public school system. In 2004, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) signed a new collective bargaining agreement that gave principals the flexibility to dismiss probationary teachers (defined as those with less than five years of experience) for any reason, and without the elaborate documentation and hearing process typical in many large, urban school districts. Results suggest that the policy reduced annual teacher absences by roughly 10 percent and reduced the prevalence of teachers with 15 or more annual absences by 20 percent. The effects were strongest among teachers in elementary schools and in low-achieving, predominantly African-American high schools, and among teachers with highpredicted absences. There is also evidence that the impact of the policy increased substantially after its first year. |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I28 J3 J45 J5 J63 |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15655&r=lab |
| By: | Dean Baker |
| Abstract: | The unemployment rate is expected to average 10.2 percent for 2010, 9.1 percent for 2011, and 7.3 percent for 2012. With this in mind, this Issue Brief describes a job sharing tax credit, designed to provide a quick and substantial boost to the economy. It would use tax dollars to pay firms to shorten the typical workweek, while keeping pay constant. This should cause employers to want to hire additional workers. A rough estimate of the impact of this tax credit is between 1.3 and 2.7 million jobs created. |
| Keywords: | economic stimulus, fiscal stimulus, ARRA, recession, paid time off, work-sharing, work sharing, work share |
| JEL: | H H2 H25 H3 I I1 I18 E E2 E24 E6 E62 E64 J J2 J22 J23 J3 J38 J6 J68 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epo:papers:2009-39&r=lab |
| By: | Mark R. Rosenzweig (Economic Growth Center, Yale University) |
| Abstract: | A framework for understanding the determinants in the variation in the pricing of skills across countries and the model underlying the Mincer specification of wages that is used widely to estimate the relationship between schooling and wages are described. A method for identifying skill prices and for testing the Mincer model, using wages and the human capital attributes of workers located around the world, is discussed. A global wage equation that nests the Mincer specification is estimated that provides skill price estimates for 140 countries. The estimates reject the Mincer model. The skill price estimates indicate that variation in skill prices dominates the cross-country variation in schooling levels or rates of return to schooling in accounting for the global inequality in the earnings of workers worldwide. Variation in skill prices and GDP across countries has opposite and significant effects on the number and quality of migrants to the United States. |
| Keywords: | wage, skill price, international migration, inequality |
| JEL: | J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egc:wpaper:983&r=lab |
| By: | Giovanni Mastrobuoni |
| Abstract: | In 1995, the Social Security Administration started sending out the annual Social Security Statement. It contains information about the worker’s estimated benefits at the ages 62, 65, and 70. I use this unique natural experiment to analyze the retirement and claiming decision-making. First, I find that, despite the previous availability of information, the Statement has a significant impact on workers’ knowledge about their benefits. These findings are consistent with a model where workers need to gather costly information in order to improve their retirement decision. Second, I use this exogenous variation in knowledge to analyze the optimality of workers’ decisions. Several findings suggest that workers do not change their retirement behavior: i) Workers do not change their expected age of retirement after receiving the Statement; ii) monthly claiming patterns do not show any change after the introduction of the Social Security Statement; iii) workers do not become more sensitive to Social Security incentives after receiving the Statement. Either, workers are already behaving optimally, or the information contained in the Statement is not sufficient to improve their retirement behavior. |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2009-23&r=lab |
| By: | Albert Bollard (Stanford University); David McKenzie (World Bank, BREAD, IZA and CReAM); Melanie Morten (Yale University); Hillel Rapoport (Bar-Ilan University, EQUIPPE and CID, Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | Two of the most salient trends surrounding the issue of migration and development over the last two decades are the large rise in remittances, and an increased flow of skilled migration. However, recent literature based on cross-country regressions has claimed that more educated migrants remit less, leading to concerns that further increases in skilled migration will hamper remittance growth. We revisit the relationship between education and remitting behavior using microdata from surveys of immigrants in eleven major destination countries. The data show a mixed pattern between education and the likelihood of remitting, and a strong positive relationship between education and the amount remitted conditional on remitting. Combining these intensive and extensive margins gives an overall positive effect of education on the amount remitted. The microdata then allow investigation as to why the more educated remit more. We find the higher income earned by migrants, rather than characteristics of their family situations explains much of the higher remittances. |
| Keywords: | Remittances, Migration, Brain Drain, Education |
| JEL: | O15 F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:biu:wpaper:2009-26&r=lab |
| By: | Patricia Medrano Vera |
| Abstract: | Public day care centers in Chile have increased in 240% between 2005 and 2007. This paper uses this huge increase in public day care supply for infants of poor families to analyze its impact on Female Labor Force Participation. The magnitude of the expansion is used as a quasi-natural experiment, where different geographic areas and income groups were affected differently. Using mean differences I find a positive effect on Labor Force Participation of 2.6-10 percentage points which coincides with previous findings for Chile and the local policy common sense. After control- ling for observable individual and family characteristics I don’t find any significant effect for the eligible mothers. As a robustness check I also use alternative outcome measures like employment and hours of work and I am not able to find a positive statistically significant effect. Therefore, I conclude that it is not possible yet to infer that this policy has had this desired effect. |
| Keywords: | Female Labor Force, Child Care, Fertility and Labor Supply. |
| JEL: | J13 J22 O12 Y H42 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udc:wpaper:wp306&r=lab |
| By: | Esteban Puentes; Dante Contreras |
| Abstract: | We estimate a double selection model to study informality in the Chilean labor market. We use three different measures of informality: lack of a signed contract, contribution to social security and both at the same time. The double selection states that, in a first stage, individuals chose between the formal and informal sector, the one that gives them the highest utility, and in a second stage, employers will select some workers from the ones that chose the formal sector, but some workers will not be chosen and then will be excluded from the formal sector. We find that this double selection model fits the data better than a simple selection model, confirming that there is some exclusion. We also find that education is that variable that is most highly correlated with informality. Finally, the results suggest that the head of the household is less likely to be informal, which could imply that informality affects mostly the secondary labor force in the household. Also, the number of children are negatively correlated with being formal. |
| JEL: | J40 J42 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udc:wpaper:wp307&r=lab |
| By: | Mauricio Soto; Barbara A. Butrica |
| Abstract: | Many employers match employee contributions to 401(k) plans. However, the employer cost of continuing this practice may increase rapidly as trends towards automatic enrollment boost employee participation. This paper examines the relationship between employer matching behavior and automatic enrollment. Using a sample of large 401(k) plans, we find that match rates are about 7 percentage points lower among firms with automatic enrollment than among those without automatic enrollment, even controlling for firm characteristics. So while autoenrollment increases the number of workers participating in private pensions, our findings suggest it might also reduce the level of pension contributions. |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2009-33&r=lab |
| By: | Robert Stehrer (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Wolfgang Koller |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study the employment effects of changes in the levels and patterns of trade integration and outsourcing in the Austrian economy over the periods 1995-2000 and 2000-2005. Based on an input-output framework, we apply a hierarchical decomposition analysis to disentangle the employment effects of changes in labour productivity, technical input coefficients and final demand components. Outsourcing is modelled as changes in the shares of domestically produced intermediates. For this some further details can be derived by distinguishing between intermediate imports according to educational intensities of the imported intermediate products. A similar decomposition of the final demand vector allows then to draw conclusions on the employment effects of overall trade integration over this period. We further calculate the employment effects, distinguishing three employment groups by educational attainment levels. The results suggest that the overall employment effect of trade integration has been positive in general. On top of that we do not find that the unskilled workers are hurt more than the other two skill groups. Further we find a distinct pattern of employment effects in the two periods considered: In the period 1995-2000 we observe relatively strong positive employment effects in the production of high skill intensive products and negligible effects in the production of low skill intensive products. However, this pattern changed in the period 2000-2005 where strong positive employment effects are found in the latter but even negative employment effects in the production of high skill intensive commodities. |
| Keywords: | outsourcing, offshoring, employment effects, hierarchical decomposition, input-output modelling |
| JEL: | C67 D57 F16 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:wpaper:56&r=lab |
| By: | Choi, Kangsik |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the timing of endogenous wage setting under Bertrand competition in a unionized mixed duopoly. The results are that when the public firm chooses the timing of wage setting: (1) sequential wage setting is the outcome and (2) simultaneous wage setting is the outcome. The first result coincides with the choices of the private firm, its union, and the union of the public firm if imperfect substitutability is sufficiently large. This result is in contrast to the findings of prior literature. However, but the second result does not coincide between firms and their unions if imperfect substitutability is sufficiently small. However, simultaneous wage setting is more likely to improve the welfare if imperfect substitutability is sufficiently small. Furthermore, we find that the impact of sequential wage setting on the equilibrium path is lower in terms of improving welfare than the other outcome of sequential wage setting. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous Wage Setting; Bertrand Competition; Mixed Duopoly; Social Welfare. |
| JEL: | D21 J51 L13 H44 |
| Date: | 2010–01–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:20205&r=lab |
| By: | Javier J. Pérez (Bank of Spain, c/Alcalá 48, 28014 Madrid, Spain.); A. Jesús Sánchez (Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Ctra. Utrera, km. 1, E-41013 Seville, Spain.) |
| Abstract: | Do public sector wages exert pressures on private sector wages, or has the private sector a leadership role in wage setting? This paper tries to isolate the pure signalling effect that one sector might exert on the other by controlling for other determinants of wages (prices, productivity, institutions) for the main euro area economies (Germany, France, Italy and Spain) and the periods 1980-2007 and 1991-2007. It exploits available quarterly information not yet used in the literature, and combines different data sources in the framework of mixed-frequencies time series models. The quarterly frequency of our data allows us to check the existence of purely intra-annual links between public and private sector wages (signalling effect). There is strong evidence of public wages’ leadership, either in conjunction with bi-directional links from the private sector (Germany and Spain) or pure public wage leadership (France in the sample 1991-2007, Italy for within-the-year linkages). JEL Classification: C32, C53, J30, J51, J52, E62, E63, H50, H6. |
| Keywords: | government wages; private sector wages; signalling; causality; mixed frequency data; causal graph. |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20101148&r=lab |
| By: | Richard W. Johnson; Melissa M. Favreault; Corina Mommaerts |
| Abstract: | A patchwork of public programs—primarily Social Security Disability Insurance (DI), workers’ compensation, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and veterans’ benefits—provides income supports to people unable to work. Yet, questions persist about the effectiveness of these programs. This report examines the economic consequences of disability for a sample of Americans observed from age 51 to 64. The results underscore the precarious financial state for most people approaching traditional retirement age with disabilities. Disability rates roughly double from age 55 to 64. Fewer than half who meet our disability criteria ever receive disability benefits in their fifties or early sixties. Benefit receipt rates are much higher among those with the most severe disabilities, suggesting that benefits are targeted to those least able to work. However, even when models control for disability severity, women are less likely than men to receive benefits. Those with cancer and heart problem diagnoses are more likely to receive DI, suggesting that DI favors workers with certain medical diagnoses. Poverty rates for people who collect disability benefits in their fifties and early sixties more than triple following benefit receipt. |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2009-28&r=lab |
| By: | Perry Singleton |
| Abstract: | This study examines the effect of work-limiting disabilities on the likelihood of divorce. Theoretically, the effect depends on the disability hazard at the time of onset and the impact of disability on marital value. The theory therefore implies, based on a set of empirically supported premises, that the effect of disability on divorce should decrease with age, increase with education, and increase with disability severity. Data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation support these predictions. The effect of a work-preventing disability is greatest among young, educated males, increasing the divorce hazard by 13.3 percentage points. |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2009-25&r=lab |
| By: | Müller, Bettina |
| Abstract: | Does heterogeneity in the educational backgrounds of the founders matter for firm success? Are team foundations more successful than single entrepreneurs? These questions are analysed using data on academic spinoffs in Germany. Firm success is measured by employment growth. I find that team foundations have higher employment growth than single entrepreneurs. Team foundations of engineers perform better when they have a business scientist in the team. However, different subjects per se and heterogeneity in the academic origins of the founders do not play a significant role for the employment growth of academic spinoffs. -- |
| Keywords: | human capital,entrepreneurship,academic spinoffs,employment growth |
| JEL: | C12 L25 M13 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:09087&r=lab |
| By: | Johannes Pöschl (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Neil Foster (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw) |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the link between productivity and labour mobility. The hypothesis tested in the paper is that technology is transmitted across industries through the movement of skilled workers embodying human capital. The embodied knowledge is then diffused within the new environment creating spillovers and leading to productivity improvements. A theoretical framework is presented wherein productivity growth is modelled through knowledge acquisition with respect to labour mobility. The empirical estimates confirm the existence of positive cross-sectoral knowledge spillovers and indicate that labour mobility has beneficial effects on industry productivity. Due to the fact that labour mobility is closely linked to input-output relations this finding provides evidence suggesting that part of the estimated productivity effects of domestic rent spillovers are in fact due to knowledge spillovers resulting from labour mobility. |
| Keywords: | knowledge spillovers, labour mobility, productivity, manufacturing, industry, human capital, growth |
| JEL: | J24 J60 O47 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:wpaper:58&r=lab |
| By: | Shutao Cao; Danny Leung |
| Abstract: | This paper documents the rate at which labour flows between industries and between firms within industries using the most recent data available. It examines the determinants of these flows and their relationship with the productivity growth. It is found that the dispersion of industry employment growth rates has been elevated since 2005, and that this increase is not likely to be related to the business cycle. It is also found that changes in real exchange rates and commodity prices can account for a significant part of the employment dispersion across industries, especially since 2005. However, shifts of employment labour between industries have generally not contributed positively to aggregate labour productivity growth. With respect to movements of labour between firms within industries, it is found that the job reallocation rates have fallen steadily over the past decade and a half. Finally, unlike labour flows between industries, excess job reallocation rates within industries are found to be strongly related to multifactor productivity and labour productivity growth at the industry level. |
| Keywords: | Productivity; Inflation and prices; Labour markets |
| JEL: | D23 J6 E32 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bca:bocawp:10-2&r=lab |
| By: | Matt Sherman |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at the problem of state budget shortfalls during the recession and calculates the number of jobs that would be lost (nationally and by state) if states utilize pro-cyclical spending cuts in an attempt to balance their budgets. This is an update to an earlier paper from December 2008, "Will Workers Survive State Budget Belt-Tightening?" |
| Keywords: | economic stimulus, fiscal stimulus, recession, ARRA, unemployment |
| JEL: | H H2 H25 H3 I I1 I18 E E2 E24 E6 E62 E64 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epo:papers:2009-34&r=lab |
| By: | Shawn Fremstad |
| Abstract: | Leading health care reform proposals all require individuals to obtain health care coverage, but differ in how they would require employers to share in the costs of coverage for their employees. This report reviews the employer responsibility requirements in the leading proposals—often referred to as “play-or-pay” provisions—and makes recommendations on how to best structure such a requirement to ensure that relatively low paid workers are not negatively impacted by them. |
| Keywords: | health care |
| JEL: | I I1 I18 I3 I38 H H2 H5 D D6 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epo:papers:2009-33&r=lab |
| By: | Thomas BAUDIN (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE) and Institut de Recherches Economiques et sociales (IRES)) |
| Abstract: | Very few studies have explored the optimality properties of the "standard model" of fertility where parents must determine their optimal trade-off between quality and quantity. The present paper works to fill that gap and find three main results. First, when there exist positive externalities in the accumulation of human capital, it is optimal to subsidize education and to tax births. Second, when the Social Welfare Function does not consist of the average utility, the social returns on educational investments can be weaker than the private returns when the optimal population growth rate is negative. In this case, the optimal economic policy consists in subsidizing births and taxing education. Finally, when the health expenditure is introduced as another source of positive externalities, it can be optimal to tax the parental health expenditure to decentralize the first-best path even if this expenditure is always too low at the laissez-faire equilibrium. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, Education, Family Policy, Mortality, Quality Quantity Trade-off |
| JEL: | H21 I0 J13 J18 |
| Date: | 2009–12–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2009041&r=lab |
| By: | Pudney S (Institute for Social and Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | We analyse FRS survey data on the relationship between disability and receipt of the Attendance Allowance (AA) disability benefit by older people. Despite being non-means-tested, we find that AA is implicitly income-targeted and strongly targeted on those with care needs. We focus particularly on the receipt of higher-rate benefit, intended for those in need of day-and-night care, finding that, in practice, higher-rate payments are negatively related to age and income, in addition to care needs. The allocation of higher-rate AA awards strongly favours people with physical rather than cognitive disabilities. |
| Date: | 2010–01–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2010-02&r=lab |
| By: | Michael Clemens |
| Abstract: | Rich countries have made efforts for half a century to help people in poor countries catch up to rich-country standards of living. Those efforts have included giving foreign aid, encouraging overseas investment, dismantling trade barriers, and spreading ideas and institutions. That is, their international development policy has been to encourage the globalization of almost all factors of production—except labor. So far, this policy has failed to cause the living standards of most people in most developing countries to converge with living standards in rich countries. But the globalization of labor—greater mobility for workers across borders—quickly and massively raises migrants’ living standards toward those of rich countries. This paper argues that every rich country should consider its immigration policy to be part of its international development policy, and vice versa. A development policy that includes migration will be more effective; an immigration policy that includes development will better serve rich countries’ ideals and interests. The paper also gives a non-technical review of new research on several common objections to unifying development policy and migration policy. One concrete way forward is for rich countries to greatly open up legal pathways for temporary labor movement. |
| Keywords: | international development; immigration policy; labor; migration |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:201&r=lab |
| By: | Frukh, Nousjheen; Herani, Gobind M.; Mohammad, Mahmud; Mohammad, Tariq |
| Abstract: | Research has been conducted in order to critically evaluate and examine the level of employees’ satisfaction as well as the factors of dissatisfaction among the employees of Karachi Electric supply Corporation (KESC). The purpose of this study is also to observe and analyze the factors which create job dissatisfaction especially among the hardworking managers, and to find out the reasons which make them realize that they don not have a clear career path along working with KESC. The primary data for this study was compiled through questionnaire filled in on a one-to-one basis by 60 respondents from a representative sample of employees of (KESC) in Karachi district in the last quarter of 2008. The results have shown that Working Environment, Total Compensation, Growth Opportunities and Training & Development are significant factor and these four are affecting Job Satisfaction and correlated with each others. The study was faced by certain limitations and those limitations included time constraints and resources constraints, which limited this research to only the Karachi Head office of the KESC organization. According to a number of literatures studied, lack of job satisfaction is a serious issue in various organizations and job dissatisfaction has become a major obstacle in employees’ productivity and company’s growth. There are numbers of factors which can create job dissatisfaction among employees but in this study the very critical factors are discussed upon which KESC management should really work on. |
| Keywords: | KESC; Factors; Employees’ Job Satisfaction; Productivity; Growth; Compensation |
| JEL: | J45 J44 J28 J88 J83 J33 J30 |
| Date: | 2009–12–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:20218&r=lab |