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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Winters, John V |
| Abstract: | It has been well documented that employment outcomes often differ considerably across areas. This paper examines the extent to which the local human capital level, measured as the share of adults with a college degree, has positive external effects on labor force participation and employment for U.S. metropolitan area residents. We find that the local human capital level has positive externalities on participation for women, but an inconsistent effect on participation for men. However, the local human capital level reduces unemployment for both men and women. We also find that less educated workers generally receive the largest external benefits. |
| Keywords: | employment; unemployment; human capital externalities; agglomeration |
| JEL: | J21 J24 R23 |
| Date: | 2010–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:22434&r=lab |
| By: | Kerry Papps (Nuffield College) |
| Abstract: | sing worker-level panel data for Turkey, this paper analyses the separate employment effects of increases in the social security taxes paid by employers and increases in the minimum wage between 2002 and 2005. Variation over time and among low-wage workers in the ratio of total labour costs to the gross wage gives rise to a natural experiment. Regression estimates indicate that a given increase in social security taxes has a larger negative effect on the probability of a worker remaining employed in the next quarter than an equal-sized increase in the minimum wage. Those who retain their jobs in the next quarter also experience a larger reduction in working hours when social security taxes increase than when the minimum wage rises. This is consistent with a situation in which workers increase effort in response to an increase in wages. Men, rural-dwellers and those under 30 are found to have the strongest overall disemployment effects in response to increases in labour costs. |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koc:wpaper:1017&r=lab |
| By: | Arpaia, Alfonso; Curci, Nicola |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an analysis of the labour market adjustment to the 2008-2009 recession in terms of employment, unemployment, hours worked and wages. It highlights differences in the response of employment and unemployment across countries and different socioeconomic groups. For all EU Member States, it provides evidence of the developments during the crisis of the monthly job finding and separation rates. This helps to assess whether the increase in unemployment is due to an increase of job separation or to a decline in the job finding rate. The paper discusses the risks of jobless growth and compares the dynamics of unemployment and employment across different periods. It provides evidence of an asymmetric response over the cycle, with recessions being characterised by more job destruction than by job creation in the following recoveries. The analysis of the wage dynamics during the recession suggests that there has been an adjustment in the compensation per employee led by the variable component; yet, this has not been sufficient to avoid the increase in the nominal unit labour costs due to labour hoarding. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment; Workers' flows; job separation; job finding rate; Okun's law; |
| JEL: | E32 J60 E24 |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:22393&r=lab |
| By: | Yamamura, Eiji; Mano, Yukichi |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we explore the relationship between the influence of wives’ human capital on their husbands’ earnings and their labor participation using individual level data for Japan in the period 2000–2003. We found that a wife’s human capital has a positive effect on her husband’s earnings regardless of her work status when the entire sample is used. Furthermore, we focused on couples with an age difference exceeding five years to remove the assortative mating effect. By using this subsample, the positive effect of a wife’s education is observed when a wife is a non-worker, that is she does not work outside the home, but disappears in those who are workers, that is they work outside the home. This suggests that a wife’s labor participation drastically reduces the positive effect of her human capital on her husband’s earnings after controlling for the assortative mating effect. It follows from this that an educated housewife improves her husband’s productivity, consequently increasing his earnings, whereas a working wife appears to not have enough time to do so. These findings are consistent with implications drawn from the situation in the United States (Jepsen 2005). |
| Keywords: | Wife’s education; husband’s earnings; human capital |
| JEL: | D13 J22 J16 |
| Date: | 2010–05–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:22439&r=lab |
| By: | Antonczyk, Dirk (University of Freiburg); Fitzenberger, Bernd (University of Freiburg); Sommerfeld, Katrin (University of Freiburg) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the increase in wage inequality, the decline in collective bargaining, and the development of the gender wage gap in West Germany between 2001 and 2006. Based on detailed linked employer-employee data, we show that wage inequality is rising strongly – driven not only by real wage increases at the top of the wage distribution, but also by real wage losses below the median. Coverage by collective wage bargaining plummets by 16.5 (19.1) percentage points for male (female) employees. Despite these changes, the gender wage gap remains almost constant, with some small gains for women at the bottom and at the top of the wage distribution. A sequential decomposition analysis using quantile regression shows that all workplace related effects (firm effects and bargaining effects) and coefficients for personal characteristics contribute strongly to the rise in wage inequality. Among these, the firm coefficients effect dominates, which is almost exclusively driven by wage differences within and between different industries. Labor demand or firm wage policy related effects contribute to an increase in the gender wage gap. Personal characteristics tend to reduce wage inequality for both, males and females, as well as the gender wage gap. |
| Keywords: | quantile regression, collective bargaining, gender wage gap, wage distribution, sequential decomposition |
| JEL: | J31 J51 J52 C21 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4911&r=lab |
| By: | Maren Lurweg; Nicole Uhde |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of international trade on individual labour market outcomes in the German manufacturing sector for the period 1995-2006. Combining micro-level data from the German Socioeconomic Panel and industry-level trade data from input-output tables, we examine the impacts on (1) job-to-unemployment transitions and (2) annual earnings. The probability of becoming unemployed rises when workers are employed in Trade Sensitive industries and decreases for workers in Trade Gaining industries. Wage effects are statistically significant for three of four trade-exposed groups of industries, but they are relatively small. The personal characteristics of workers seem to exert a substantial effect on employment status and earnings level. |
| Keywords: | International trade, employment status, individual wages |
| JEL: | F16 C23 J31 J63 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp297&r=lab |
| By: | Alfonso Arpaia; Nicola Curci |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an analysis of the labour market adjustment to the 2008-2009 recession. It highlights differences in the response of employment and unemployment across countries and different socioeconomic groups. For all EU Member States, it provides evidence of the developments during the crisis of the monthly job finding and separation rates. This helps to assess whether the increase in unemployment is due to an increase of job separation or to a decline in the job finding rate. The paper discusses the risks of jobless growth and compares the dynamics of unemployment and employment across different periods. It provides evidence of an asymmetric response over the cycle, with recessions being characterised by more job destruction than by job creation in the following recoveries. The analysis of the wage dynamics suggests that there has been an adjustment in the compensation per employee led by the variable component; yet, this has not been sufficient to avoid the increase in the nominal unit labour costs due to labour hoarding. |
| Keywords: | european union eu recession labour markets unemeployment Workers' flows job separation job finding rate Okun's law arpaia curci |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J6 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:euf:ecopap:0405&r=lab |
| By: | Ofer Malamud |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the tradeoff between early and late specialization in the context of higher education. While some educational systems require students to specialize early by choosing a major field of study prior to entering university, others allow students to postpone this choice. I develop a model in which individuals, by taking courses in different fields of study, accumulate field-specific skills and receive noisy signals of match quality in these fields. With later specialization, students have more time to learn about match quality in each field but less time to acquire specific skills once a field is chosen. I derive comparative static predictions between educational regimes with early and late specialization, and examine these predictions across British systems of higher education. Using survey data on 1980 university graduates, I find strong evidence in support of the prediction that individuals who switch to unrelated occupations initially earn lower wages but less evidence that the cost of switching differs between England and Scotland. Although more switching occurs in England where students specialize early, higher wage growth among those who switch eliminates the wage difference after several years. |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15943&r=lab |
| By: | Philip Du Caju (National Bank of Belgium, Research Department); Gábor Kátay (Magyar Nemzeti Bank); Ana Lamo (European Central Bank); Daphne Nicolitsas (Bank of Greece); Steven Poelhekke (De Nederlandsche Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper documents the existence of inter-industry wage differentials across a large number of industries for eight EU countries (Belgium, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain) at two different points in time (in general, 1995 and 2002). It then looks into possible explanations for the main patterns observed. The analysis uses the European Structure of Earnings Survey (SES), an internationally-harmonised matched employer-employee dataset, to estimate inter-industry wage differentials conditional on a rich set of employee, employer and job characteristics. After investigating the possibility that unobservable employee characteristics lie behind the conditional wage differentials, a hypothesis which cannot be accepted, the paper considers the role of institutional features, as well as industry structure and performance in explaining inter-industry wage differentials. The results suggest that inter-industry wage differentials are consistent with rent-sharing mechanisms and that rent-sharing is more likely in industries with firm-level collective agreements and with higher collective agreement coverage |
| Keywords: | inter-industry wage differentials, rent sharing, unobserved ability |
| JEL: | J31 J41 J51 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbb:reswpp:201004-04&r=lab |
| By: | Mannberg, Andréa (Department of Economics, Umeå University); Sjögren, Tomas (Department of Economics, Umeå University) |
| Abstract: | Over the last half-century female employment rates have increased significantly in many countries. This change has partly been attributed to a change in gender norms. The purpose of this paper is to present a dynamic model within which the evolution of female labor supply can be analyzed. Drawing on psychological literature, we let individuals define themselves in terms of different social identities, each of which prescribes a certain type of behavior. These prescriptions may imply conflicting incentives which provide agents with a motive to continuously revise the importance they attach to a given identity. Applying this approach within the context of a dynamic model of labor supply, we are able to make some novel predictions about what may cause labor supply to change over time. Our results suggest that the fear of becoming an outsider in society may have prevented a complete transition of women from housewives to breadwinners. In addition, we show that the discrepancy between personal and social norms may have interesting implications for labor supply: an increase in the hours of work prescribed by a working norm need not necessarily lead to more hours of work. Finally, our analysis shows that not recognizing that the weights attached to different social identities are endogenous may imply that the long-run effects on labor supply of a higher wage may be underestimated. |
| Keywords: | Female Labor Supply; Social Norms |
| JEL: | J21 J22 |
| Date: | 2010–04–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:umnees:0805&r=lab |
| By: | Moretti, Enrico (University of California, Berkeley) |
| Abstract: | I examine the causes and the consequences of differences in labor market outcomes across local labor markets within a country. The focus is on a long-run general equilibrium setting, where workers and firms are free to move across localities and local prices adjust to maintain the spatial equilibrium. In particular, I develop a tractable general equilibrium framework of local labor markets with heterogenous labor. This framework is useful in thinking about differences in labor market outcomes of different skill groups across locations. It clarifies how, in spatial equilibrium, localized shocks to a part of the labor market propagate to the rest of the economy through changes in employment, wages and local prices and how this diffusion affects workers' welfare. Using this framework, I address three related questions. First, I analyze the welfare consequences of productivity differences across local labor markets. I seek to understand what happens to the wage, employment and utility of workers with different skill levels when a local economy experiences a shift in the productivity of a group of workers. Second, I analyze the causes of productivity differences across local labor markets. To a large extent, productivity differences within a country are unlikely to be exogenous. I review the theoretical and empirical literature on agglomeration economies, with a particular focus on studies that are relevant for labor economists. Finally, I discuss the implications for policy. |
| Keywords: | wages, general equilibrium |
| JEL: | J00 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4905&r=lab |
| By: | Barón, Juan D. (Banco de la República de Colombia); Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. (University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the link between young people's sense (locus) of control over their lives and their investments in education. We find that young people with a more internal locus of control have a higher probability of finishing secondary school and, conditional on completion, meeting the requirements to obtain a university entrance rank. Moreover, those with an internal locus of control who obtain a university entrance rank achieve somewhat higher rankings than do their peers who have a more external locus of control. Not surprisingly, there is a negative relationship between growing up in disadvantage and educational outcomes. However, this effect does not appear to operate indirectly by increasing the likelihood of having a more external locus of control. In particular, we find no significant relationship between family welfare history and young people's locus of control. |
| Keywords: | locus of control, parental socio-economic background, education |
| JEL: | I38 J24 H31 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4907&r=lab |
| By: | Ashenfelter, Orley (Princeton University); Farber, Henry (Princeton University); Ransom, Michael R. (Brigham Young University) |
| Abstract: | This brief survey contains a review of several new empirical papers that attempt to measure the extent of monopsony in labor markets. As noted originally by Joan Robinson, monopsonistic exploitation represents the gap between the value of a worker's marginal product and the worker's wage, and it represents both a distortion in the allocation of resources and an income transfer away from workers. The evidence surveyed from a fairly broad range of labor markets suggests that monopsony may be far more pervasive than is sometimes suggested. |
| Keywords: | monopsony, imperfect labor markets |
| JEL: | J31 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4915&r=lab |
| By: | Foley, Kelly; Gallipoli, Giovanni; Green, David A. |
| Abstract: | We use a large, rich Canadian micro-level dataset to examine the channels through which family socio-economic status and unobservable characteristics affect children's decisions to drop out of high school. First, we document the strength of observable socio-economic factors: our data suggest that teenage boys with two parents who are themselves high school dropouts have a 16% chance of dropping out, compared to a dropout rate of less than 1% for boys whose parents both have a university degree. We examine the channels through which this socio-economic gradient arises using an extended version of the factor model set out in Carneiro, Hansen, and Heckman (2003). Specifically, we consider the impact of cognitive and non-cognitive ability and the value that parents place on education. Our results support three main conclusions. First, cognitive ability at age 15 has a substantial impact on dropping out. Second, parental valuation of education has an impact of approximately the same size as cognitive ability effects for medium and low ability teenagers. A low ability teenager has a probability of dropping out of approximately .03 if his parents place a high value on education but .36 if their education valuation is low. Third, parental education has no direct effect on dropping out once we control for ability and parental valuation of education. Our results point to the importance of whatever determines ability at age 15 (including, potentially, early childhood interventions) and of parental valuation of education during the teenage years. We also make a small methodological contribution by extending the standard factor based estimator to allow a non-linear relationship between the factors and a covariate of interest. We show that allowing for non-linearities has a substantial impact on estimated effects. |
| Keywords: | Idiosyncratic Shocks, Disability, Insurance, Marriage |
| JEL: | I21 J08 J24 C3 C63 |
| Date: | 2010–04–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2010-14&r=lab |
| By: | Michael Lechner; Blaise Melly |
| Abstract: | In an evaluation of a job-training program, the influence of the program on the in-dividual wages is important, because it reflects the program effect on human capital. Esti-mating these effects is complicated because we observe wages only for employed individuals, and employment is itself an outcome of the program. Only usually implausible assumptions allow identifying these treatment effects. Therefore, we suggest weaker and more credible assumptions that bound various average and quantile effects. For these bounds, consistent, nonparametric estimators are proposed. In a reevaluation of a German training program, we find that a considerable improvement of the long-run potential wages of its participants. |
| Keywords: | Bounds; treatment effects; causal effects; program evaluation |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bro:econwp:2010-8&r=lab |
| By: | Thomas Barré (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I) |
| Abstract: | Focusing on individual labor market positions, this article proposes a new approach to elicit and measure constraints faced by rural households. Under market imperfections, individuals fail to equalize their hourly income to their shadow wage and become over- or underemployed. We estimate and explain this gap in a stochastic frontier framework for rural Vietnam. Both employees and farmers are found to fail in equalizing their hourly income to their shadow wage. Constraints faced by farmers are found to be stronger than that of employees: farmers' marginal revenue of labor is 3 times higher than their shadow wage while market wages earned by employees are 1.5 times higher than their shadow wages. Price risk is found to be the most important constraint faced by Vietnamese rural farmers while employees would benefit from the development of the road network. |
| Keywords: | Market imperfections ; Shadow wages ; Allocative efficiency ; Vietnam |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00452809_v1&r=lab |
| By: | Rakesh Basant; Partha Mukhopadhyay |
| Abstract: | We provide a brief but comprehensive overview of linkages between higher education and the high tech sector and study the major linkages in India. We find that the links outside of the labor market are weak. This is attributed to a regulatory structure that separates research from the university and discourages good faculty from joining, which erodes the quality of the intellectual capital necessary to generate new knowledge. In the labor market, we find a robust link between higher education and high-tech industry, but despite a strong private sector supply response to the growth of the high-tech industry, the quality leaves much to be desired. Poor university governance may be limiting both labor market and non-labor market linkages. Industry efforts to improve the quality of graduates are promising but over reliance on industry risks compromising workforce flexibility. Addressing the governance failures in higher education is necessary to strengthen the links between higher education and high tech industry. |
| Date: | 2009–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:wp2009-05-01&r=lab |
| By: | Philip S. Babcock; Mindy Marks |
| Abstract: | Using multiple datasets from different time periods, we document declines in academic time investment by full-time college students in the United States between 1961 and 2003. Full-time students allocated 40 hours per week toward class and studying in 1961, whereas by 2003 they were investing about 27 hours per week. Declines were extremely broad-based, and are not easily accounted for by framing effects, work or major choices, or compositional changes in students or schools. We conclude that there have been substantial changes over time in the quantity or manner of human capital production on college campuses. |
| JEL: | J22 J24 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15954&r=lab |
| By: | Dreger, Christian (DIW Berlin); Reimers, Hans-Eggert (Wismar University of Technology, Business and Design) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an empirical analysis on the determination of wages at the sectoral level in main industrial economies. Nominal wages are bargained between labour unions and employers in imperfect competitive markets, where spillovers across sectors might occur. Using a principal component approach, sectoral wage growth rates are separated into common and idiosyncratic components. This defines the relative role of national and sector specific conditions in the wage determination process. The common component is highly relevant especially in continental Europe, and is more visible for manufacturing than for services sectors. It reflects national inflation and productivity growth, while labour market tightness is negligible. The weight of the macroeconomic environment has declined in recent years. Wage growth tends to be more in line with idiosyncratic conditions like sectoral productivity and prices, probably due to the ongoing globalization of markets. |
| Keywords: | sectoral wages, wage spillovers, common factors |
| JEL: | C22 C23 E24 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4908&r=lab |
| By: | Hou, Feng; Picot, Garnett |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the recent research on the determinants of the educational attainment among the children of immigrants (the 2nd generation) in Canada and the United States. The focus is on the gap in educational attainment between the 2nd and 3rd-and-higher generations (the children of domestic born parents), as well as the intergenerational transmission of education between immigrants and their children. On average, the children of immigrants have educational levels significantly above their counterparts with domestic born parents in Canada. In the U.S., educational levels are roughly the same between these two groups. In both countries, conditional on the educational attainment of the parents and location of residence, the children of immigrants outperform the 3rd-and-higher generation in educational attainment. Parental education and urban location are major determinants of the gap in educational attainment between the children of immigrants and those of Canadian or American born parents. However, even after accounting for these and other demographic background variables, much of the positive gap between the 2nd and 3rd-and-higher generations remains in Canada. In Canada, parental education is less important as a determinant of educational attainment for the children in immigrant families than among those with Canadian-born parents. Less educated immigrant parents are more likely to see their children attain higher levels of education than are their Canadian-born counterparts. Outcomes vary significantly by ethnic/source region group in both countries. In the U.S., some 2nd generation ethnic/source region groups, such as those with Mexican, Puerto Rican, Central American backgrounds, have relatively low levels of education, even though conditional on background characteristics they outperform their 3rd-and-higher generation counterparts. In contrast, in Canada, children of the larger and increasingly numerically important immigrant groups (the Chinese, South Asians, Africans, etc) register superior educational attainment levels to those of the 3rd-and-higher generation. This result is partly related to the high levels of parental education and group-level “ethnic capital†among these immigrant groups. |
| Keywords: | Second Generation, Children of Immigrants, Education, Canada, United States |
| JEL: | J15 J24 |
| Date: | 2010–04–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2010-13&r=lab |
| By: | Eric A. Hanushek; Ludger Woessmann |
| Abstract: | An emerging economic literature over the past decade has made use of international tests of educational achievement to analyze the determinants and impacts of cognitive skills. The cross-country comparative approach provides a number of unique advantages over national studies: It can exploit institutional variation that does not exist within countries; draw on much larger variation than usually available within any country; reveal whether any result is country-specific or more general; test whether effects are systematically heterogeneous in different settings; circumvent selection issues that plague within-country identification by using system-level aggregated measures; and uncover general-equilibrium effects that often elude studies in a single country. The advantages come at the price of concerns about the limited number of country observations, the mostly cross-sectional character of available achievement data, and possible bias from unobserved country factors such as culture. This chapter reviews the economic literature on international differences in educational achievement, restricting itself to comparative analyses that are not possible within single countries and placing particular emphasis on studies trying to address key issues of empirical identification. While quantitative input measures show little impact, several measures of institutional structures and of the quality of the teaching force can account for significant portions of the immense international differences in the level and equity of student achievement. Variations in skills measured by the international achievement tests are in turn strongly related to individual labor-market outcomes and, perhaps more importantly, to cross-country variations in economic growth. |
| JEL: | H4 H5 I20 J24 J31 O15 O4 P5 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15949&r=lab |
| By: | Monteiro, Natália Pimenta (University of Minho); Portela, Miguel (University of Minho); Straume, Odd Rune (University of Minho) |
| Abstract: | We analyse – theoretically and empirically – how private versus public ownership of firms affects the degree of rent sharing between firms and their workers. Using a particularly rich linked employer-employee dataset from Portugal, covering a large number of corporate ownership changes across a wide spectrum of economic sectors over more than 20 years, we find a positive relationship between private ownership and rent sharing. Based on our theoretical analysis, this result cannot be explained by private firms being more profit oriented than public ones. However, the result is consistent with privatisation leading to less job security, implying stronger efficiency wage effects. |
| Keywords: | rent sharing, private vs public ownership, panel data |
| JEL: | J45 D21 C23 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4909&r=lab |
| By: | Blau, David M. (Ohio State University); van der Klaauw, Wilbert (Federal Reserve Bank of New York) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effects of policy and labor market variables on the fertility, union formation and dissolution, type of union (cohabiting versus married), and partner choices of the NLSY79 cohort of women. These demographic behaviors interact to determine the family structure experienced by the children of these women: living with the biological mother and the married or cohabiting biological father, a married or cohabiting step father, or no man. We find that the average wage rates available to men and women have substantial effects on family structure for children of black and Hispanic mothers, but not for whites. The tax treatment of children also affects family structure. Implementation of welfare reform and passage of unilateral divorce laws had much smaller effects on family structure for the children of this cohort of women, as did changes in welfare benefits. The estimates imply that observed changes from the 1970s to the 2000s in the policy and labor market variables considered here contributed to a reduction in the proportion of time spent living without a father by children of the NLSY79 cohort of women. This suggests that the observed increase in this non-traditional family structure in the U.S. in the last three decades was caused by other factors. |
| Keywords: | family structure |
| JEL: | J12 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4912&r=lab |
| By: | Zaiceva, Anzelika (IZA and University of Bologna); Zimmermann, Klaus F. (IZA, DIW Berlin and Bonn University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of ethnicity on time spent on overlapped household production, work and leisure activities employing the 2000-2001 UK Time Use Survey. We find that, unconditionally, white females manage to "stretch" their time the most by an additional 233 minutes per day and non-white men "stretch" their time the least. The three secondary activities that are most often combined with other (primary) activities in terms of time spent on them are social activities including resting, passive leisure and childcare. Regression results indicate that non-white ethnic minorities engage less in multitasking than whites, with Pakistani and Bangladeshi males spending the least time. The gap is present for both ethnic minority males and females, although females in general engage more in multitasking. The effect is also heterogeneous across different sub-groups. We then discuss several potential interpretations and investigate whether these differences in behavior may also relate to opportunity costs of non-market time, different preferences and tastes of ethnic minorities, integration experience, family composition, household productivity and other. |
| Keywords: | time use, multitasking, ethnic minorities, UK |
| JEL: | J22 J15 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4910&r=lab |
| By: | Duha Altindag (Louisiana State University); Naci Mocan (Louisiana State University) |
| Abstract: | Using micro data on more than 130,000 individuals from 69 countries, we analyze the extent to which joblessness of the individuals and the prevailing unemployment rate in the country impact perceptions of the effectiveness of democracy. We find that personal joblessness experience translates into negative opinions about the effectiveness of democracy, and it increases the desire for a rouge leader. Evidence from people who live in European countries suggests that being jobless for more than a year is the main source of the impact. Joblessness-related negative attitude towards the effectiveness of democracy is not because of a general displeasure towards the government, but rather, it is targeted towards democracy. We also find that well-educated and wealthier individuals are less likely to indicate that democracies are ineffective. The beliefs about the effectiveness of democracy as system of governance are also shaped by the unemployment rate in countries with low levels of democracy. The results suggest that periods of high unemployment and joblessness would hinder the development of democracy. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment duration, Democracy, Education, Development, World Values Survey |
| JEL: | J2 O1 P1 |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koc:wpaper:1016&r=lab |
| By: | Breuer, Kathrin (University of Cologne); Nieken, Petra (University of Cologne); Sliwka, Dirk (University of Cologne) |
| Abstract: | We empirically investigate possible distortions in subjective performance evaluations. A key hypothesis is that evaluations are more upward biased the closer the social ties between supervisor and appraised employee. We test this hypothesis with a company data set from a call center organization which contains not only subjective assessments but also several more objective measures of performance. Controlling for these performance measures, we find strong evidence that evaluations are upwards biased in smaller teams and some evidence that supervisors give better ratings to employees they themselves have evaluated before. |
| Keywords: | subjective performance evaluation, bias, social ties, team size, favoritism |
| JEL: | M52 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4913&r=lab |
| By: | Hitoshi Saito (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | Under the current fiscal conditions in many local, regional as well as the national government, the public schools face the substantial budget short falls . In order to alleviate the substantial budget shortage, it is important to raise efficiency, particularly in primary education as the costs of primary education are dominant part of the budget spending. Improving the productivity of human capital is also essential for providing bet ter quality service, and this can be also achieved by raising efficiency in primary education. This paper reports the empirical study on inefficient education spending in public schools, particularly for primary education by using Stochastic Front i e r Analysis (SFA). By applying Tobit Model in our analysis of ineff iciency of public school spending in primary education, we were able to locate the source of the problem was triggered by the decrease in the number of schools as a result of declining birth rates and the number of school children. Based upon our study using the estimated cost funct ions related t o ineff iciency of spending, we conclude that the larger schools with greater number of students perform better at cost efficiency than the smaller schools with smaller number of students. |
| Keywords: | Primary Education, Educational finance, Cost Inefficiency, Local government |
| JEL: | I22 I28 H75 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:1015&r=lab |
| By: | Halliday, Timothy (University of Hawaii at Manoa) |
| Abstract: | We use panel data from El Salvador to investigate migration and the intra-household allocation of labor as a strategy for coping with uninsured risk. Consistent with a model of a farm household with a binding subsistence constraint, we show that adverse agricultural productivity shocks increased both male migration to the US and the supply of male agricultural labor within the household in El Salvador. In contrast, after damage sustained from the 2001 earthquakes, female migration from El Salvador declined. This is consistent with the earthquakes increasing the demand for home production. Overall, household responses to uninsured risk appear to be consistent with a simple framework in which household members are allocated to sectors according to their comparative advantage. Finally, we show no evidence that the labor market in El Salvador is capable of helping rural Salvadoran households to buffer the effects of adverse shocks. |
| Keywords: | migration, labor supply, insurance, intra-household allocation, subsistence constraints |
| JEL: | J22 J61 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4903&r=lab |
| By: | Matthias Busse; Peter Nunnenkamp; Mariana Spatareanu |
| Abstract: | The paper analyses the impact of fundamental labor rights on bilateral FDI flows to 82 developing countries. The results indicate that investments by multinationals are significantly higher in countries that adhere to labor rights, thereby refuting the hypothesis that repression of these rights fosters FDI. |
| Keywords: | FDI, Labor Rights, Developing Countries |
| JEL: | F21 F23 J50 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:run:wpaper:2010-002&r=lab |
| By: | Onur Kesten (Carnegie Mellon University); M. Utku Ünver (Boston College) |
| Abstract: | A new centralized mechanism was introduced in New York City and Boston to assign students to public schools in district school-choice programs. This mechanism was advocated for its superior fairness property, besides others, over the mechanisms it replaced. In this paper, we introduce a new framework for investigating school-choice matching problems and two ex-ante notions of fairness in lottery design, strong ex-ante stability and ex-ante stability. This frame- work generalizes known one-to-many two-sided and one-sided matching models. We first show that the new NYC/Boston mechanism fails to satisfy these fairness properties. We then propose two new mechanisms, the fractional deferred-acceptance mechanism, which is ordinally Pareto dominant within the class of strongly ex-ante stable mechanisms, and the fractional deferred- acceptance and trading mechanism, which satisfies equal treatment of equals and constrained ordinal Pareto efficiency within the class of ex-ante stable mechanisms. |
| Keywords: | Matching, School Choice, Deferred Acceptance, Stability, Ordinal Efficiency, Market Design |
| JEL: | C71 C78 D71 D78 |
| Date: | 2010–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:bocoec:737&r=lab |
| By: | Tai-Yu Ma (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - CNRS : UMR5593 - Université Lumière - Lyon II - Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat); Iragaël Joly (Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquée de Grenoble - Université Pierre Mendès France); Charles Raux (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - CNRS : UMR5593 - Université Lumière - Lyon II - Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the influence of observed explanatory factors and unobserved random effect (heterogeneity) on episode durations of travel-activity chain. A shared frailty semiparametric proportional hazard model is proposed to estimate the transition hazard of travel/activity states. The proposed model is applied on the travel and activity episode duration analysis during evening work-to-home commute using the household travel survey data collected in the city of Lyon in France in 2005-2006. The empirical results provide useful insights for the determinants of travel and activity episode durations for evening work-to-home commute. |
| Keywords: | time-use; activity duration; Markov renewal model; shared frailty; heterogeneity |
| Date: | 2010–04–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00477695_v1&r=lab |
| By: | Howard Bodenhorn; Carolyn Moehling; Gregory N. Price |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the extent to which crime in early America was conditioned on height. With data on inmates incarcerated in Pennsylvania state penitentiaries between 1826 and 1876, we estimate the parameters of Wiebull proportional hazard specifications of the individual crime hazard. Our results reveal that, consistent with a theory in which height can be a source of labor market disadvantage, criminals in early America were shorter than the average American, and individual crime hazards decreased in height. |
| JEL: | J24 K14 N31 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15945&r=lab |
| By: | Basant Rakesh; Sen Gitanjali |
| Abstract: | This paper explores how socio-economic, especially socio-religious affiliations, and demographic characteristics of individuals influence participation in higher education (HE). It argues that appropriate measures of ‘deficits’ in participation should inform the nature and scope of affirmative action. The analytical and policy relevance of distinguishing between stock and flow measures, the differences in eligibility for HE across groups are emphasized. After controlling for relevant factors, the ‘hierarchy of participation in higher education’ that emerges from detailed analysis suggests that deficits for some marginalized groups are not high enough to justify reservation for these groups on the basis of low participation. |
| Date: | 2009–11–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:wp2009-11-01&r=lab |
| By: | Jeffrey S. DeSimone |
| Abstract: | This study examines the relationship between binge drinking and sexual behavior in nationally representative data on age 18–24 four-year college students. For having sex, overall or without condoms, large and significant positive associations are eliminated upon holding constant proxies for time-invariant sexual activity and drinking preferences. However, strong relationships persist for sex with multiple recent partners, overall and without condoms, even controlling for substance use, risk aversion, mental health, sports participation, and sexual activity frequency. Promiscuity is unrelated with non-binge drinking but even more strongly related with binge drinking on multiple occasions. Results from a rudimentary instrumental variables strategy and accounting for whether sex is immediately preceded by alcohol use suggest that binge drinking directly leads to risky sex. Some binge drinking-induced promiscuity seems to occur among students, especially males, involved in long-term relationships. Effects are concentrated among non-Hispanic whites and are not apparent for students in two-year schools. |
| JEL: | I1 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15953&r=lab |
| By: | Sergei Guriev (New Economic School (Moscow)); Anton Suvorov (New Economic School (Moscow)) |
| Abstract: | Unlike the textbook model of a top manager being an omniscient planner, coordinator and monitor, the real life managers suffer from discontinuity, lack of systematic information collection and limited time for analysis and re?ection. Why do not business leaders set up their organizations in the way that would allow themselves to make informed choices based on thorough analysis? We argue that in some situations top managers may benefit from being less informed. In our model, additional information raises ex post flexibility of the decision-makers which may undermine the ex ante incentives of their subordinates to make specific investments. The subordinates expect less informed leaders to be more committed to the original strategy which increases the returns to the strategy-specific investments. We show that this effect is more likely to take place in more predictable environments; we also discuss how this effect depends on the hierarchical structure of the organization. |
| Keywords: | leadership, commitment, organizational structure |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfr:cefirw:w0142&r=lab |
| By: | Bruno, Randolph Luca (University College London) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyse the labor market and its relationship with globalization in two groups of countries similar in their GDP per capita levels at the beginning of the 1980s but otherwise significantly different in their economic and social structures. On the one hand we look at Argentina, Brazil and Chile, on the other hand we analyse South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. It is argued that the Latin American group adopted pro-globalization policies too quickly and without an adequate social safety net, and that the East Asian group was particularly vulnerable to the 1997 crisis in connection with an ill-designed financial markets liberalisation and poor labor market policies. We suggest that the high social costs of labor market imbalances generated throughout the 1980s and 1990s in these two groups of countries should have been tackled within an encompassing development strategy, with an eye at social safety nets and labor supply policies – such as active and passive labor market institutions – designed for each country specifically. |
| Keywords: | globalization, labor market, Latin America, East Asia |
| JEL: | F16 J21 O15 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izapps:pp16&r=lab |
| By: | Robin, Stéphane; Schubert, Torben |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the impact of cooperation with public research institutions on firms' inno-vative activities in France and Germany, using data from the fourth Community Innova-tion Survey (CIS4). We propose an original econometric methodology, which explicitly takes into account potential estimation biases arising from self-selection and endoge-neity, and apply it to both process and product innovation. We find a positive effect of cooperation on both types of innovation. This effect is significant in both countries, but much higher in Germany than in France. Drawing on a comparison of the institutional context of cooperation across both countries, we interpret this difference as a conse-quence of the more diffusion-oriented German science policy. Finally, our robustness checks confirm the importance of controlling for selection and endogeneity. We show that these problems can be serious, and may lead to inconsistent estimates if ne-glected. -- |
| Keywords: | Public/private research partnerships,University/industry linkages,Innova-tiveness,Heckit procedure with endogenous regressors |
| JEL: | O31 O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fisidp:24&r=lab |