|
on Labour Economics |
| By: | Gong, Xiaodong (Australian National University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates both the added worker effect (the labour supply responses of women to their partners' job losses) and the discouraged worker effect (workers withdrawing from the labour market because of failed searches) for married women in Australia, with the emphasis on the former. We focus on the partners’ involuntary job loss experiences, and analyse women's labour market activities in the periods before and after their partners’ job loss. By estimating fixed effects labour supply equations using the first seven waves of data from the HILDA Survey, we find a significant added worker effect in terms of increased full time employment and working hours. The findings also suggest that it is harder for the female partners of males who have recently lost jobs to enter the labour market than for those already working to increase their working hours to compensate for lost income incurred by their partners’ job loss. We also find the effect to be persistent in that, one year after the partners’ job loss, more of those women would still like to work longer hours than they actually were. By investigating the relationship between self-assessed job-finding probability on job-seekers’ subsequent labour force participation, and by studying the relationship between labour force participation of all married women and the regional unemployment rate, we also find a substantial discouraged worker effect. |
| Keywords: | added worker effect, discouraged worker effect, panel data |
| JEL: | C23 J20 J60 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4816&r=lab |
| By: | Flabbi, Luca (Georgetown University); Moro, Andrea (Vanderbilt University) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops and estimates a search model of the labor market where jobs are characterized by wages and work-hours flexibility. Flexibility is valued by workers, and is costly to provide for employers. The model generates observed wage distributions directly related to the preference for flexibility parameters: the higher the preference for flexibility, the wider is the support of the wage distribution at flexible jobs and the larger is the discontinuity between the wage distribution at flexible and non-flexible jobs. Estimation results show that more than one third of women place positive value to flexibility, with women with a college degree valuing flexibility more than women with a high school degree. Counterfactual experiments show that flexibility has a substantial impact on the wage distribution but not on the unemployment rate. We comment on the implications of our approach for gender differentials in wages and schooling. |
| Keywords: | search model, work-hours flexibility, structural estimation |
| JEL: | J30 C5 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4829&r=lab |
| By: | Vona, Francesco; Zamparelli, Luca |
| Abstract: | It is often argued that rigid labour market and centralized bargaining are harmful employment and growth. This paper looks at the case of Nordic countries as a counter-example pointing to some weaknesses of this view. Rigid labour markets, while reducing the offer of low quality jobs, increase average labor productivity by favoring job relocation in high quality jobs. Moene and Wallerstein (1997) adopted a vintage-capital model to compare centralized and decentralized bargaining: they show that centralized bargaining systems yield higher labor productivity and higher structural unemployment. By introducing a frictional labor market in the vintage-capital framework , we show that the negative effects on employment characterizing centralized bargaining can be reduced by adopting active labor market policy. |
| Keywords: | Centralized wage setting; structural change; labor market policy; frictional unemployment; Centralized wage setting, structural change, labor market policy, frictional unemployment |
| JEL: | L16 J60 J31 |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:21502&r=lab |
| By: | Hansen, Jörgen (Concordia University); Wahlberg, Roger (Göteborg University); Faisal, Sharif (Concordia University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between immigrant occupational composition and wages in Sweden. Effects of changes in proportion of immigrant workers in different occupations on the wage levels of both natives and immigrants are estimated. Our results suggest that increases in immigrant density have only small effects on wages and that the negative relationship between wages and the proportion of immigrant workers in an occupation, observed in data, is almost entirely accounted for by measured and unmeasured worker skills. These results suggest that wage differences across occupations with different densities of immigrants are mainly due to quality sorting and to a lesser extent due to the existence of discrimination. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, refugees, occupational composition, quality sorting, wages |
| JEL: | J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4823&r=lab |
| By: | Donatella Gatti; Christophe Rault; Anne-Gael Vaubourg |
| Abstract: | sing annual data for 18 OECD countries over the period 1980-2004, we investigate how labour and financial factors interact to determine unemployment by estimating a dynamic panel model using the system generalized method of moments (GMM). We show that the impact of financial variables depends strongly on the labour market context. Increased market capitalization as well as decreased banking concentration reduce unemployment if the level of labour market regulation, union density and coordination in wage bargaining is low. The above financial variables have no effect otherwise. Increasing intermediated credit and banking concentration is beneficial for employment when the degree of labour market regulation, union density and coordination in wage bargaining is high. These results suggest that the respective virtues of ed and market-based finance are crucially tied to the labour market context. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, institutional complementarities and substituabilities, labour market, financial system. |
| JEL: | E24 J23 P17 |
| Date: | 2010–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wdi:papers:2010-973&r=lab |
| By: | Williams, Donald R. (Kent State University and CEPS/INSTEAD, Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect that gender-based earnings discrimination has on self-employment dynamics among females, with a focus on four countries in Western Europe. Using data from the European Community Household Panel in the 1999-2001 time period, we test the hypothesis that the probability of moving into self-employment is positively related to prior earnings discrimination, as measured by unexplained deviations from expected (male) earnings. Our findings suggest that women who have lower than expected wage sector earnings relative to other women are more likely to leave wage employment in the following year. The results with respect to discrimination, however, are mixed. |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:iriswp:2009-20&r=lab |
| By: | Almeida-Santos, Filipe (Universidade Catolica Portuguesa, Lisbon); Chzhen, Yekaterina (University of York); Mumford, Karen A. (University of York) |
| Abstract: | We use household panel data to explore the wage returns associated with training incidence and intensity (duration) for British employees. We find these returns differ depending on the nature of the training; who funds the training; the skill levels of the recipient (white or blue collar); the age of the employee; and if the training is with the current employer or not. Using decomposition analysis, training is found to be positively associated with wage dispersion: a virtuous circle of wage gains and training exists in Britain but only for white-collar employees. |
| Keywords: | training, wage compression, performance |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J41 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4821&r=lab |
| By: | John Schmitt |
| Abstract: | This report reviews the characteristics of the immigrant workforce and analyzes the impact of unionization on the pay and benefits of immigrant workers. According to the most recent available data, immigrant workers are now over 15 percent of the workforce and almost 13 percent of unionized workers. Even after controlling for systematic differences between union and non-union workers, union representation substantially improves the pay and benefits received by immigrants. |
| Keywords: | unions, wages, benefits, pension, health insurance, immigrants |
| JEL: | J J1 J3 J31 J32 J41 J5 J58 J6 J68 J88 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epo:papers:2010-07&r=lab |
| By: | Karsten Hank (Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA)) |
| Abstract: | Using data from the 2004 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, this paper investigates older workers’ perceptions of job security in eleven countries. We describe cross-national patterns and estimate multilevel models to analyse individual and societal determinants of self-perceived job security in the older labour force. While there are considerable cross-country variations around a median value of 23% of workers aged 50 or older ranking their job security as poor, none of our suggested macro-level variables – labour force participation rate, employment protection legislation, mean level of general social trust, and proportion disapproving of working beyond age 70 – bears statistically significant associations with individuals’ job security. Future research should aim at identifying statistically more powerful indicators of the supposed multilevel relationship between social context and older workers’ perceptions of job security. Moreover, supplementary findings indicate that further attention should be paid to the gender dimension of job insecurity. |
| Date: | 2009–04–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mea:meawpa:09176&r=lab |
| By: | Peter A. Groothuis; James Richard Hill |
| Abstract: | Cross sectional employment data is not random. Workers who survive to a longer level of tenure tend to have a higher level of productivity than those who exit earlier. Wage equations that use cross sectional data could be biased from the over sampling of high productive workers at long levels of tenure. The survival bias that arises in cross sectional data could possibly bias the coefficients in wage equations. This could lead to false positive conclusions concerning the presence of pay discrimination. Using 1989-2008 NBA data we explore the extent of survival bias in wage regressions in a setting in which worker productivity is extremely well documented through a variety of statistical measures. We then examined whether the survival bias affects the conclusions concerning racial pay discrimination. Key Words: NBA, survival bias, pay discrimination |
| JEL: | J4 J7 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apl:wpaper:10-04&r=lab |
| By: | Leilanie Basilio; Thomas K. Bauer |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the transferability of human capital across countries and the contribution of imperfect human capital portability to the explanation of the immigrant-native wage gap. Using data for West Germany, our results reveal that, overall, education and labor market experience accumulated in the home countries of the immigrants receive signicantly lower returns than human capital obtained in Germany. We further fi nd evidence for heterogeneity in the returns to human capital of immigrants across origin countries. Finally, imperfect human capital transferability appears to be a major factor in explaining the wage diff erential between natives and immigrants. |
| Keywords: | Human capital; rate of return; immigration; assimilation |
| JEL: | J61 J31 J24 |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0164&r=lab |
| By: | Annika Meng |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the relationship between long-term care provision and the average individual wage rate. In addition, the eff ects of the number of hours spent on caregiving on the probability of employment as well as on the number of hours worked are examined. Data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement (SHARE) of 2004 and 2006 is used to analyze caregiving eff ects on the European labor market. Descriptive statistics show a positive correlation between hours of care and the wage rate for those working. In the regression analysis, sample-selection models combined with instrumental-variable estimation are used to estimate the causal eff ects of hours of care on wages. The results illustrate that care for parents has a large negative impact on the individual’s wage rate. Test results show that controlling for sample selection is reasonable. Finally, the probability of employment is only decreased in the female sample. Although the hours worked are not signicantly affected. |
| Keywords: | Informal care; labor-market outcomes; sample selection |
| JEL: | J11 J22 C01 |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0168&r=lab |
| By: | Fabio Canova; David Lopez-Salido; Claudio Michelacci |
| Abstract: | We analyze how unemployment, job finding and job separation rates react to neutral and investment-specific technology shocks. Neutral shocks increase unemployment and explain a substantial portion of unemployment volatility; investment-specific shocks expand employment and hours worked and mostly contribute to hours worked volatility. Movements in the job separation rates are responsible for the impact response of unemployment while job finding rates for movements along its adjustment path. Our evidence qualifies the conclusions by Hall (2005) and Shimer (2007) and warns against using search models with exogenous separation rates to analyze the effects of technology shocks. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, technological progress, labor market flows, business cycle models. |
| JEL: | E00 J60 O33 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1213&r=lab |
| By: | Randi Kjeldstad and Erik H. Nymoen (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | This article analyses factors behind underemployment in Norway and has a focus on gender. The analysis, based on Labour Force Survey data, shows that economic fluctuations during the latest one and a half decade bring about changing underemployment levels of both women and men. The Norwegian labour market is strongly gender segregated and the processes and characteristics of underemployment differ between male and female dominated labour market sectors. The former sectors are generally more exposed or sensitive to economic fluctuations than the latter. It is indicated that underemployed men are predominantly temporarily expelled on part-time basis from their jobs, while women are to a larger extent permanently excluded from longer working-hour contracts in their jobs. |
| Keywords: | Underemployment; gender; gender segregated labour market; economic cycles |
| JEL: | J21 J22 J23 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:613&r=lab |
| By: | Hungerbühler, Mathias (University of Namur); Lehmann, Etienne (CREST-INSEE); Parmentier, Alexis (University of Evry); Van der Linden, Bruno (Université Catholique de Louvain) |
| Abstract: | We propose a canonical model of optimal nonlinear redistributive taxation with matching unemployment. In our model, agents are endowed with different skill levels and labor markets are perfectly segmented by skill. The government only observes negotiated wages. More progressive taxation leads to wage moderation that boosts labor demand. We design the optimal nonlinear redistributive tax schedule in the absence of welfare benefits and extensive labor supply margin. Compared to their efficient values, at the optimum gross wages and unemployment are lower. Average tax rates are moreover increasing in wages. The robustness of these properties is also discussed. |
| Keywords: | optimal income taxation, unemployment, matching |
| JEL: | H21 H23 J64 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4832&r=lab |
| By: | Faisal Rabby; William M. Rodgers |
| Abstract: | Using a difference-in-differences framework, this paper estimates the impact that Britain's July 2005 bombings had on the labor market outcomes of UK residents who are either Muslim by religious affiliation or whose nativity profiles are similar to the terrorists. We find a 10 percentage point decrease in the employment of very young Muslim men relative to non-Muslim immigrants after the London bombings. The drop in employment is accompanied by consistent declines in real earnings and hours worked. A weak association between the 9-11 terrorist attacks and a drop in the employment of very young male immigrants from Muslim-majority countries is also found. The terrorist events had little impact on the employment of older men. |
| JEL: | J15 J23 J61 J71 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diweos:diweos24&r=lab |
| By: | Victoria Chorny,; Dinand Webbink |
| Abstract: | In 1995, the municipality of Amsterdam introduced accountability policies for schools in primary education. Population statistics show a large increase of test scores in the decade after the introduction of the new urban policies. This paper assesses this increase in test scores by analyzing data of a large sample of schools including scores on the published test and scores on similar independently taken tests that are not published. Difference-in-differences estimates show that after the introduction of the accountability policies, test scores for both tests taken in grade 8 increased substantially more in Amsterdam than in the rest of the country and more than in a sample of Low SES students. Approximately 60 percent of the increase of the published test scores can be attributed to an increase in general skills and 40 percent to an increase in testspecific skills. Test scores of pupils in lower grades also improved in Amsterdam. We do not find evidence for strategic behavior of schools. Although part of the gains in test scores might be test-specific, the accountability policies in Amsterdam seem to have succeeded in raising educational achievements in primary schools. |
| Keywords: | accountability policy; educational performance; primary education |
| JEL: | I20 I21 R00 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:144&r=lab |
| By: | Johannes Geyer; Viktor Steiner |
| Abstract: | We analyze the impact of changing employment patterns and pension reforms on the future level of public pensions across birth cohorts in Germany. The analysis is based on a rich dataset that combines household survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) and process-produced microdata from the German pension insurance. A microsimulation model is developed which accounts for cohort effects in individual employment and unemployment and earnings over the lifecycle as well as the differential impact of recent pension reforms. Cohort effects for individuals born between 1937 and 1971 vary greatly by region, gender and education and strongly affect lifecycle wage profiles. The largest effects can be observed for younger cohorts in East Germany and for the low educated. Using simulated life cycle employment and income profiles, we project gross future pensions across cohorts taking into account changing demographics and recent pension reforms. Simulations show that pension levels for East German men and women will fall dramatically among younger birth cohorts, not only because of policy reforms but due to higher cumulated unemployment. For West German men, the small reduction of average pension levels among younger birth cohorts is mainly driven by the impact of pension reforms, while future pension levels of West German women are increasing or stable due to rising labor market participation of younger birth cohorts. |
| Keywords: | Public pensions, cohort effects, microsimulation |
| JEL: | H55 J26 J11 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp984&r=lab |
| By: | Miikka Rokkanen; Roope Uusitalo |
| Abstract: | We use lifetime job histories from the pension records to evaluate changes in job stability in Finland between 1963 and 2004. We specify a duration model and estimate the effects of elapsed duration, age, and calendar time on the hazard of job ending using individual-level panel data spanning over four decades. We find that this hazard increased during the recession years in the early 1990s but has now returned to the level that prevailed in the 1970s. We also demonstrate that the fluctuations in the hazard rate together with the changes in labor market entry rates have complicated dynamic effects on the tenure distribution, and that analysing the changes in job stability based on the elapsed duration of ongoing jobs may be quite misleading. |
| Keywords: | Job stability, duration models |
| JEL: | J63 J62 |
| Date: | 2010–02–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fer:wpaper:14&r=lab |
| By: | Sabastian Braun (Kiel Institute for the World Economy); Christian Spielmann (Department of Economics, Mathematics & Statistics, Birkbeck) |
| Abstract: | National labour market institutions interact across national boundaries when product markets are global. Labour market policies can thus entail spill-overs, a fact widely ignored in the academic literature. This paper studies the effects of wage subsidies in an international duopoly model with unionised labour markets. We document both positive and negative spill-over effects and discuss the benefits and costs from international policy coordination both for the case of symmetric and asymmetric labour market institutions. Our results suggest that institutional differences could sign responsible for the slow speed at which labour market policy coordination has progressed so far. |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bbk:bbkefp:1007&r=lab |
| By: | Strulik, Holger |
| Abstract: | This paper theoretically investigates how community approval or disapproval affects school attendance and child labor and how aggregate behavior of the community feeds back towards the formation and persistence of an anti- (or pro-) schooling norm. The proposed community-model continues to take aggregate and idiosyncratic poverty into account as an important driver of low school attendance and child labor. But it provides also an explanation for why equally poor villages or regions can display different attitudes towards schooling. Distinguishing between three different modes of child time allocation, school attendance, work, and leisure, the paper shows how the time costs of schooling and child labor productivity contribute to the existence of a locally stable anti-schooling norm. It proposes policies that effectively exploit the social dynamics and initiate a permanent escape from the anti-schooling equilibrium. An extension of the model explores how an education contingent subsidy paid to the poorest families of a community manages to initiate a bandwagon effect towards "education for all". The optimal mechanism design of such a targeted transfer program is investigated. |
| Keywords: | School Attendance, Child Labor, Social Norms, Targeted Transfers |
| JEL: | I20 I29 J13 O12 |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:han:dpaper:dp-441&r=lab |
| By: | Corak, Miles (University of Ottawa); Lauzon, Darren (Statistics Canada) |
| Abstract: | This paper adopts the technique of DiNardo, Fortin and Lemieux (1996) to decompose differences in the distribution of PISA test scores in Canada, and assesses the relative contribution of differences in the distribution of “class size” and time-in-term, other school factors and student background factors. Class size and time-in-term are both important school choice variables and we examine how provincial achievement differences would change if the Alberta distribution of class size and time-in-term prevailed in the other provinces. Results differ by province, and for provinces where mean achievement gaps would be lower, not all students would benefit. |
| Keywords: | educational economics, human capital, input-output analysis |
| JEL: | I22 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4824&r=lab |
| By: | Yiquan Gu |
| Abstract: | Government agencies and other national and international institutions are asked to perform foThis paper introduces a two-stage union-oligopoly-council model of wage and employment determination wherein at the fi rst stage wage is negotiated through collective bargaining and at the second stage employment in each fi rm is co-determined by the employer and its works council. We provide a full characterization of the model outcome for all parameter values of bargaining power and co-determination power. In particular, works councils always increase employment while their impact on wage can be non-monotonic. Overall, individual works councils’ pursuit of own workers’ interests may well harm the workers as a union. |
| Keywords: | Workplace representation; union-oligopoly bargaining; fi rm-council codetermination |
| JEL: | J50 J54 L13 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0178&r=lab |
| By: | Jordi Galí |
| Abstract: | Much recent research has focused on the development and analysis of extensions of the New Keynesian framework that model labor market frictions and unemployment explicitly. The present paper describes some of the essential ingredients and properties of those models, and their implications for monetary policy. |
| Keywords: | Nominal rigidities, labor market frictions, wage rigidities. |
| JEL: | E32 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1198&r=lab |
| By: | Tomoki Sekiguchi (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the potential benefit of college students' part-time work on their career development by focusing on leader-member exchange (LMX) and taking charge behavior in the workplace. Using a sample of Japanese college students, results from this study indicate that taking charge behavior in part-time work mediates the relationship between LMX quality with supervisors and career development (focus of career exploration, self-efficacy toward postcollege employment and proactive career behavior). The results also indicate that proactive personality and conscientiousness moderate the relationship between LMX quality and taking charge behavior, and that job autonomy and skill variety moderate the relationship between taking charge behaviors and career development. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. |
| Keywords: | part-time work, leader-member exchange, taking charge behavior, career development, college student |
| JEL: | J24 J40 M12 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:1010&r=lab |
| By: | Francesco D’Amuri (Economic Research Department); Juri Marcucci (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | We suggest the use of an Internet job-search indicator (the Google Index, GI) as the best leading indicator to predict the US unemployment rate. We perform a deep out-of-sample forecasting comparison analyzing many models that adopt both our preferred leading indicator (GI), the more standard initial claims or combinations of both. We find that models augmented with the GI outperform the traditional ones in predicting the monthly unemployment rate, even in most state-level forecasts and in comparison with the Survey of Professional Forecasters. |
| Keywords: | Google Econometrics, Forecast Comparison, Keyword search, US Unemployment, Time Series Models |
| JEL: | C22 C53 E27 E37 J60 J64 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2010.31&r=lab |
| By: | Thomas Otter; Varlos Villalobos Barría (University of Goettingen / Germany) |
| Abstract: | The idea that schooling scores depend on a combination of family background characteristics, ability and school (institutional) variables is quite clear. Regarding the issue of intergenerational transmission of inequality in the educational system, the most important question would be if and to what extent could a better institutional performance of the school service compensate for problems related to family background. By means of the estimation of a reduced form equation for selected scores, we investigate the impact of institutional performance on scores after controlling for family background and individual characteristics. We do this by using a novel data set and an OLS and quantile regression approach to analyze how heterogeneous the process of score generation can be. By providing integral health solutions, minimizing under-nutrition and providing ideal conditions in the classroom, training teachers can impact positively on low and mean learning outcomes, thus contributing to an improved educational quality and breaking cycles of intergenerational transmission of inequality. Increasing learning outcomes for levels above the median, only strengthens the transmission of inequality. Consequently, the equality approach should focus on trying to improve the worst scores and our results show that this can be reached at a significant level closing teacher training gaps, improving classroom conditions and improving health and nutrition. |
| JEL: | A21 H52 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2010–02–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:iaidps:198&r=lab |
| By: | Khattri, Nidhi; Ling, Cristina; Jha, Shreyasi |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the effect of school-based management on student performance in the Philippines using the administrative dataset of all public schools in 23 school districts over a 3-year period, 2003-2005. The authors test whether schools that received early school-based management interventions (training in school-based management and direct funding for school-based reforms) attained higher average test scores than those that did not receive such inputs. The analysis uses school-level overall composite test scores (comprising all subject areas tested) and test scores in three separate subject areas: English, math, and science. Their preferred estimator, difference-in-difference with propensity score matching, shows that the average treatment effect of participation in school-based management was higher by 1.5 percentage points for overall composite scores, 1.2 percentage points for math scores, 1.4 percentage points for English scores, and 1.8 percentage points for science scores. These results suggest that the introduction of school-based management had a statistically significant, albeit small, overall positive effect on average school-level test scores in 23 school districts in the Philippines. The paper provides a first glimpse of the potential for school-based management in an East Asian context based on available administrative data. The authors suggest that the next order of research is to answer policy-related questions regarding the reforms: what aspects of the reform lead to desired results; are there differential effects across subpopulations; and what are the potential downsides to the reforms? The Philippines is embarking on a nation-wide implementation of school-based management and the authors recommend that mechanisms for rigorous evaluations be advanced simultaneously. Such evaluations should not only provide more accurate estimates of the effectiveness of the reforms, but also help answer policy-related questions regarding design and implementation of those reforms in different socio-cultural contexts. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary Education,Education For All,Teaching and Learning,Secondary Education,Primary Education |
| Date: | 2010–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5248&r=lab |
| By: | Kim , Insu |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates wage dynamics assuming the potential presence of dual wage stickiness: with respect to both the frequency as well as the size of wage adjustments. In particular, this paper proposes a structural model of wage inflation dynamics assuming that although workers adjust wage contracts at discrete time intervals, they are limited in their abilities to adjust wages as much as they might desire. The dual wage stickiness model nests the baseline model, based on Calvo-type wage stickiness, as a particular case. Empirical results favor the dual sticky wage model over the baseline model that assumes only one type of wage stickiness in several dimensions. In particular, it outperforms the baseline model in terms of goodness of fitness as well as in the ability to explain the observed reverse dynamic cross-correlation between wage inflation and real output - which the baseline model fails to capture. |
| Keywords: | Wage inflation, sticky wages, sticky prices, new Keynesian, hybrid. |
| JEL: | E32 E31 J30 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:21494&r=lab |
| By: | Boris Augurzky; Arndt Reichert; Harald Tauchmann |
| Abstract: | The interdependence of labor market conditions and the demand for health care has been addressed by several theoretical and empirical analyses. We contribute to the debate by empirically examining the eff ect of a decrease in self-perceived job security on health care utilization. That is, employees at risk of losing their job might postpone or even try not to use non-acute rehab measures in order to reduce their individual risk of being laid off by avoiding absenteeism and signaling good health. We use individual-level data from the German Socioeconomic Panel for the years 2003, 2004, and 2006. The identifi cation strategy rests on an instrumental variable approach where the county unemployment rate and its relative change compared to the previous year serve as instruments for the employees’ self-assessed risk of losing their jobs. Contrary to the hypothesis, we have evidence for job insecurity increasing the demand for medical rehab. This finding is robust to various model variants. |
| Keywords: | Rehab; unemployment; health care utilization; job worries; absenteeism; sick leave |
| JEL: | I11 |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0162&r=lab |
| By: | Ingo Geishecker |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the impact of job insecurity perceptions on individual well-being. In contrast to previous studies, we explicitly take into account perceptions about both the likelihood and the potential costs of job loss and demonstrate that most contributions to the literature suffer from simultaneity bias. When accounting for simultaneity, we find the true unbiased effect of perceived job insecurity to be more than twice the size of naive estimates. Accordingly, perceived job insecurity ranks as one of the most important factors in employees' well-being and can be even more harmful than actual job loss with subsequent unemployment. |
| Keywords: | job security, life satisfaction, unemployment |
| JEL: | D84 J63 Z13 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp282&r=lab |
| By: | Hendrik Jürges (Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA)) |
| Abstract: | Using data from the Health Survey for England and the English Longitudinal Study on Ageing, we estimate the causal effect of schooling on health. Identification comes from two nation wide increases in British compulsory school leaving age in 1947 and 1973, respectively. Our study complements earlier studies exploiting compulsory schooling laws as source of exogenous variation in schooling by using biomarkers as measures of health outcomes in addition to self-reported measures. We find a strong positive correlation between education and health, both self-rated and measured by blood fibrinogen and C-reactive protein levels. However, we find ambiguous causal effects of schooling on women's self-rated health and insignificant causal effects of schooling on men's self-rated health and biomarker levels in both sexes. |
| Keywords: | Health, Compulsory schooling, Biomarkers, Regression discontinuity |
| JEL: | I12 I20 |
| Date: | 2009–07–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mea:meawpa:09183&r=lab |
| By: | Francis Green |
| Abstract: | Using new job requirements data for Britain I show that there has been a rise in various forms of communication tasks: influencing and literacy tasks have grown especially fast, as have self-planning tasks. External communication tasks, and numerical tasks have also become more important, but physical tasks have largely remained unchanged. Although the classification of tasks as programmable or otherwise is found to be problematic, computer use accounts for much of the changed use of generic skills. Going beyond the technology, I investigate whether organisational changes requiring greater employee involvement explain some of the new skill requirements. Using either industry or occupation panel analyses, I find that employee involvement raises the sorts of generic skills that human resource management models predict, in particular three categories of communication skills and self-planning skills. These effects are found to be independent of the effect of computers on generic skills. |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:326&r=lab |
| By: | Thomas Cornelißen; Uwe Jirjahn |
| Abstract: | While available evidence suggests that the events of September 11th negatively influenced the relative earnings of employees with Arab background in the US, it is not clear that they had similar effects in other countries. Our study for Germany provides evidence that the events also affected the relative earnings of Muslims outside the US. However, the results show that there was no uniform effect on all types of Muslims across all types of firms. Accounting for moderating factors, a significantly negative effect can only be found for low-skilled Muslims employed in small- and medium-sized firms. This conforms to theoretical expectations. Moreover, we demonstrate that defining appropriate treatment and control groups is crucial for identifying the effects. |
| Keywords: | Muslims, September 11th, Wage Discrimination, Education, Firm Size |
| JEL: | J71 J31 J23 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp278&r=lab |
| By: | Bayo-Moriones, Alberto (University of Navarra); Galdón-Sánchez, José Enrique (Universidad Pública de Navarra); Martinez-de-Morentin, Sara (Universidad Pública de Navarra) |
| Abstract: | In this paper the differences in the incidence of pay for performance plans between occupations in a sample of Spanish manufacturing establishments are analyzed. Our results show that there are significant differences between occupations in the incidence of individual, group and firm or plant pay for performance plans. The roles of establishment size, multinational ownership and the human resources management department in the incidence of pay for performance plans and their variability of use across occupations within the same firm are also studied. These factors are found to correlate to a greater use of pay for performance and, in most cases, this effect is homogenous across occupations. |
| Keywords: | incentives |
| JEL: | M52 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4839&r=lab |
| By: | Dupuy, Arnaud (ROA, Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that the gender world record ratio in four disciplines, i.e. marathon, triple jump, pole vault and 800 meters, follows an S-shape over time. It is argued that this pattern is initiated by a sudden drop in the social barrier for women to participate in these disciplines. This drop in social barrier materializes – later – by the authorization for women to participate at major events, such as the Olympic Games, in these disciplines. The paper builds a simple economic model of sector self-selection and human capital accumulation with intrinsic disutility (social barriers) to participate in some sectors. As social barriers are removed in a sector, the Gender Performance Ratio is shown to follow an S-shape over time under very basic assumptions and calibrations. Ability self-selection, measured as the difference between mean ability of women in that sector and population mean, becomes more positive after removal of the social barrier. |
| Keywords: | gender performance ratio, sector self-selection, human capital investments |
| JEL: | J16 J7 N32 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4838&r=lab |
| By: | Belzil, Christian (Ecole Polytechnique, Paris); Hansen, Jörgen (Concordia University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate if, and under which conditions, the distinction between dictatorial and incentive-based policy interventions affects the capacity of Instrument Variable (IV) methods to estimate the relevant treatment effect parameter of an outcome equation. The analysis is set in a non-trivial framework, in which the right-hand side variable of interest is affected by selectivity, and the error term is driven by a sequence of unobserved life-cycle endogenous choices. We show that, for a wide class of outcome equations, incentive-based policies may be designed so to generate a sufficient degree of post-intervention randomization (a lesser degree of selection on individual endowments among the sub-population affected). This helps the instrument to fulfill the orthogonality condition. However, for a same class of outcome equation, dictatorial policies that enforce minimum consumption cannot meet this condition. We illustrate these concepts within a calibrated dynamic life cycle model of human capital accumulation, and focus on the estimation of the returns to schooling using instruments generated from mandatory schooling reforms and education subsidies. We show how the nature of the skill accumulation process (substitutability vs complementarity) may play a fundamental role in interpreting IV estimates of the returns to schooling. |
| Keywords: | returns to schooling, instrumental variable methods, dynamic discrete choice, dynamic programming, local average treatment effects |
| JEL: | B4 C1 C3 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4835&r=lab |
| By: | Lindsey Macmillan |
| Abstract: | This research analyses the magnitude of the intergenerational correlation in worklessness in the UK using the two British birth cohorts. By using the British Cohort Study of those born in 1970, the magnitude of the intergenerational correlation of worklessness can be assessed for a new cohort for the first time in the UK and the trend in intergenerational worklessness can be considered across time. Two empirical identification strategies commonly used in the literature are applied to UK data and a third empirical strategy, utilising the recession of 1981 is introduced to attempt to identify causality. The intergenerational correlation in worklessness in the UK is large and has increased across time, although the differences in the coefficients are not statistically significant. When a more restrictive measure of sons’ worklessness is introduced, this difference becomes statistically significant. This suggests supportive evidence of the intergenerational mobility literature for the UK. There are no statistically significant findings on causality in intergenerational worklessness, driven by either measurement issues or a lack of causality. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational mobility, unemployment |
| JEL: | J62 J64 |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:cmpowp:10/231&r=lab |
| By: | Camacho, Carmen (Université Catholique de Louvain); Shen, I-Ling (Université Catholique de Louvain) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the role of public education in the context of parental migration, and it studies the effects of an expansive income tax policy that is adopted to increase public education expenditure per pupil. It is shown that such a policy may exacerbate income inequality in the long run if for the less skilled dynasties, the benefits of more public spending on education does not make up for the negative effects of increased parental absences. However, if the migration-induced tax base erosion is not severe, an expansive income tax policy indeed enhances future human capital for all dynasties, and moreover, it may help the less skilled households escape from the poverty trap, thus reducing long-run income inequality. |
| Keywords: | human capital, income inequality, parental migration, public education expenditure, tax base erosion |
| JEL: | H20 H52 O15 O40 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4833&r=lab |
| By: | David A. Dodge (Bennett Jones LLP); Alexandre Laurin (C.D. Howe Institute); Colin Busby (C.D. Howe Institute) |
| Abstract: | As Canada’s babyboom generation approaches retirement age, public concern about the adequacy of retirement income is mounting, note the authors. Most of the public debate has been about potential reform of the tax and fiduciary rules governing corporate pension plans, the possibility of expanding contributory public pension plans such as the CPP/QPP, about how much tax-deferred saving the Income Tax Act should allow, and for how long. To date, say the authors, there has been little focus on the fraction of annual earnings that must be saved by Canadians – either through employer plans, private saving, or expanded contributions to a public plan – to provide adequate and reasonably assured retirement incomes. |
| Keywords: | Pension Papers, retirement income, Registered Retirement Savings (RRSPs), Canada Pension Plan (CPP/QPP), Income Tax Act |
| JEL: | E21 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdh:ebrief:95&r=lab |