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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Sagiri Kitao; Aysegül Sahin; Joseph Song |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effects of various labor market policies on job creation, job destruction, and employment. The framework of Mortensen and Pissarides (2003) is used to model the dynamic interaction between firms and workers and to simulate their responses to alternative policies. The equilibrium model is calibrated to capture labor market conditions at the end of 2009, including the unemployment, inflow, and outflow rates by workers of different educational attainment. We consider the equilibrium effects of a hiring subsidy, a payroll tax reduction, and an employment subsidy. While calibrating parameters that characterize these policies, we try to mimic the policies in the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act of 2010. We find that a hiring subsidy and a payroll tax deduction, as in the HIRE Act, can stimulate job creation in the short term, but can cause a higher equilibrium unemployment rate in the long term. Employment subsidies succeed in lowering the unemployment rate permanently, but the policy entails high fiscal costs. |
| Keywords: | Employment ; Unemployment ; Unemployment insurance ; Labor market ; Subsidies ; Equilibrium (Economics) |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednsr:451&r=lab |
| By: | Jahn, Elke J. (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Rosholm, Michael |
| Abstract: | "We perform a comprehensive analysis of the stepping-stone effect of temporary agency employment on unemployed workers. Using the timing-of-events approach, we not only investigate whether agency employment is a bridge into regular em-ployment but also analyze its effect on post-unemployment wages and job stability for unemployed Danish workers. We find evidence of large positive treatment effects, particularly for immigrants. There is also some indication that higher treatment intensity increases the likelihood of leaving unemployment for regular jobs. Our results show that agency employment is even more effective in tight labor markets, where firms use agency employment primarily to screen potential candidates for permanent posts. Finally, our results suggest that agency employment may improve subsequent match quality in terms of wages and job duration." (author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Leiharbeit - Auswirkungen, Arbeitslose, berufliche Reintegration, beruflicher Verbleib, Arbeitsmarktchancen, Beschäftigungseffekte, Arbeitslosigkeitsdauer, Lohnhöhe, Dänemark, Bundesrepublik Deutschland |
| JEL: | C41 J64 J30 J40 |
| Date: | 2010–06–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201009&r=lab |
| By: | Jeff Borland (Department of Economics and Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne); David Johnston (School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | This study explores the relation between a worker's job duration and prior labour market experience. Hazard models are estimated using data on employment spells for the population aged 25 to 64 years in Australia from the HILDA survey (waves 1 to 7). A worker's labour force state immediately preceding an employment spell is found to have a significant effect on the likelihood of exit from employment, as well as the exit destination and whether the exit is involuntary. In particular, previously being unemployed or having experienced involuntary separation from a job is associated with worse subsequent employment outcomes. To develop further insights into the role of labour market history a hazard model for exit from unemployment is also estimated, and the results contrasted with those from the employment model. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, job tenure, hazard rate |
| JEL: | J20 J60 J64 |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2010n06&r=lab |
| By: | Jean-Marc Robin (Institute for Fiscal Studies and EUREQua, University of Paris 1) |
| Abstract: | <p>Postel-Vinay and Robin's (2002) sequential auction model is extended to allow for aggregate productivity shocks. Workers exhibit permanent differences in ability while firms are identical. Negative aggregate productivity shocks induce job destruction by driving the surplus of matches with low ability workers to negative values. Endogenous job destruction coupled with worker heterogeneity thus provides a mechanism for amplifying productivity shocks that offers an original solution to the unemployment volatility puzzle (Shimer, 2005). Moreover, positive or negative shocks may lead employers and employees to renegotiate low wages up and high wages down when agents' individual surpluses become negative. The model delivers rich business cycle dynamics of wage distributions and explains why both low wages and high wages are more procyclical than wages in the middle of the distribution and why wage inequality may be countercyclical, as the data seem to suggest is true.</p> |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:cemmap:04/10&r=lab |
| By: | Gartell, Marie (Institute for Futures Studies) |
| Abstract: | <p> This paper analyzes the time it takes for Swedish college graduates to start a full-time job that lasts for six month or more. The focus is on the transition from college-to-work during the period 1991–1999. This period covers both upturns and downturns of the business cycle, providing a unique opportunity to consider the importance of the timing of graduation. The results show that the risk of unemployment and the unemployment duration have varied considerably with the business cycle, both within and between cohorts. For example, field of education is more important for the studied outcomes during recessions. Further, the relative risk of unemployment has decreased across time for individuals with the highest degree of education whereas the unemployment duration has increased, indicating that the selection into unemployment for this group may have changed over time. This is interesting, not least in the light of the rapid expansion of the higher educational system during the studied period.<p> |
| Keywords: | college graduates; work; college-to-work-transition; unemployment; education |
| JEL: | J21 J62 |
| Date: | 2010–06–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifswps:2010_003&r=lab |
| By: | Özcan, Gülay (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores sector differences in how the gender wage gap varies across the wage distribution and the role of occupational segregation in explaining this variation for Sweden. Results indicate that the phenomenon known as the glass ceiling, i.e. larger gender wage differentials at the high end of the wage distribution is stronger in the public sector than the private. This difference is found to be due to occupational segregation and, to a large extent, pre-market educational choices. Most of the top/bottom differences within the public sector stem from the county level and is due to gender segregation between few occupations. These results indicate that the mechanisms behind the glass ceiling, and observed sector differences are attributable to occupational segregation by gender. |
| Keywords: | Glass Ceiling; Gender Wage Gap; Sector Differentials |
| JEL: | J16 J24 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2010–05–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2010_0009&r=lab |
| By: | Stucchi, Rodolfo; Giuliodori, David |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of product and process innovations on the creation of jobs in the Spanish manufacturing sector over the period 1991-2005. We also use a change in the Employment Protection Legislation (EPL) in 1997 to study the effect of innovations on permanent and temporary workers before and after that change. We find that both product and process innovation created jobs in the Spanish manufacturing sector. Additionally, we find that before the change in the EPL in 1997 innovations did not affect the number of permanent workers and all the increase in employment was explained by the increase in the number of temporary workers. After the change in the labor regulations, innovations increased both the number of temporary and permanent employees. Interestingly, while the increase in temporary workers takes place after one year of the innovations, the increase in permanent workers occurs mainly two year after the innovations. |
| Keywords: | Product Innovation; Process Innovation; Employment; Temporary Workers. |
| JEL: | J21 J38 O31 L60 |
| Date: | 2010–05–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:23006&r=lab |
| By: | Miquel Faig; Min Zhang |
| Abstract: | If entitlement to Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits must be earned with employment, generous UI is an additional benefit to an employment relationship, so it promotes job creation. If individuals are risk neutral, UI is fairly priced, and the UI system prevents moral-hazard, the generosity of UI has no effect on unemployment. As with Ricardian Equivalence, this result should be useful to pinpoint the effects of UI to violation of its premises. In itself, the endogenous entitlement of UI benefits does not resolve if the Mortensen-Pissarides model is able to generate realistic cycles. However, it brings some insights into this debate: The widespread concern in the design of UI systems to minimize moral-hazard unemployment only makes sense if workers have sufficiently high values of leisure (80 percent of labor productivity in our baseline calculation for the United States). Also, the fact that the generosity of UI has potentially a small effect on unemployment reconciles a high response of unemployment to changes in labor productivity with a small response to changes in UI benefits. |
| Keywords: | Search, Matching, UI Eligibility, Business Cycles, Labor Markets |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J64 |
| Date: | 2010–05–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-404&r=lab |
| By: | Sjögren, Anna (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation) |
| Abstract: | Swedish elementary school children stopped receiving written end of year report cards following a grading reform in 1982. Gradual implementation of the reform creates an opportunity to investigate the effects of being graded on adult educational attainments and earnings for children in the cohorts born 1954–1974, using a differ-ence-in-differences strategy. Accounting for municipal time trends and tracing out reform dynamics, there is some evidence that being graded increases girls’ years of schooling, but has no significant average effect on boys. Analysis of effects by fam-ily background suggests that getting grades increases the probability of high school graduation for boys and girls with compulsory school educated parents. Sons of uni-versity graduates, however, earn less and are less likely to get a university degree if they were graded in elementary school. |
| Keywords: | school policy; grades; educational attainment; adult earnings; family background; difference-in-differences |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2010–05–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2010_007&r=lab |
| By: | Vikman, Ulrika (Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines if the probability of leaving unemployment changes for unemployed parents with young children when childcare is available. To investigate this, I use the heterogeneity among Swedish municipalities before the implementation of a 2001 Swedish childcare reform making it mandatory for municipalities to offer childcare to unemployed parents for at least 15 hours per week. In the study difference-in-differences and difference-in-difference-indifferences methods are used. The results indicate a positive effect on the probability of leaving unemployment for mothers when childcare is available, but no effect is found for fathers. For mothers, some heterogeneous effects are also found, with a greater effect on the probability of leaving unemployment for work when childcare is available for mothers with only compulsory schooling or university education and mothers with two children. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment duration; Childcare |
| JEL: | J13 J64 |
| Date: | 2010–05–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2010_009&r=lab |
| By: | di Pace, Federico (Department of Economics, Mathematics and Statistics, Birkbeck, University of London); Faccini, Renato (Bank of England) |
| Abstract: | We extend the standard textbook search and matching model by introducing deep habits in consumption. The cyclical fluctuations of vacancies and unemployment in our model can replicate those observed in the US data, with labour market tightness being 20 times more volatile than consumption. Vacancies display a hump-shaped response to technology shocks as well as autocorrelation coefficients that are in line with the empirical evidence. Our model preserves the assumption of fully flexible wages for the new hires and the calibration is consistent with the estimated elasticity of unemployment to unemployment benefits. The numerical simulations generate an artificial Beveridge curve which is in line with the data. |
| Keywords: | Consumption; business cycles; labour market fluctuations; search and matching; wage bargaining |
| JEL: | E21 E24 E32 J41 J64 |
| Date: | 2010–06–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boe:boeewp:0391&r=lab |
| By: | T.R. Dilip |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the trends and differentials in school educational attainment in Kerala, the State that ranks right on top in terms of human development in India. The trend analysis is based on a cohort-level comparison of educational attainment while the differential analysis is done using life table techniques. The analysis is based on data on educational attainment of the household population in the National Family Health Survey (2005-06). The unique features of this paper are that it provides comparable time-series data on entry to different stages of the schooling system, right from the time the State was formed in 1956, and that it analyses the probabilities of continuing from the first standard to the higher secondary level across different sub-groups of the population.[Working Paper 429] |
| Keywords: | schooling, continuity, inequality, social divide, educational attainment, Kerala |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2516&r=lab |
| By: | Thierry Baudassé (LEO - Laboratoire d'économie d'Orleans - CNRS : UMR6221 - Université d'Orléans); Rémi Bazillier (LEO - Laboratoire d'économie d'Orleans - CNRS : UMR6221 - Université d'Orléans) |
| Abstract: | We study in this paper both theoretically and empirically the influence of trade union rights in origin countries on bilateral migration flows. Theoretically, we propose two complementary models. In the first model, trade union rights are supposed to increase the bargaining power of workers. We model these rights as a transfer from high-skilled workers to low-skilled workers, assuming that this latter category of workers will benefit more from freedom of association and collective bargaining. However, we do have to take into account the large extent of informal economy in lots of developing countries. If trade union rights are only enforced in the formal sector, workers from this sector will benefit from a wage premium. The most qualified will then be the first winners of an improvement of such rights if they are more employed in the formal sector. We then propose different alternative indexes measuring trade union rights. We find that, all things being equal, more trade union rights tend to be associated with less migration of low-skill and high-skilled workers. Effects are not significant for intermediate skill level. Lastly, we show that social tensions may have the opposite effect. If trade union rights are associated with more social instability, it may increase the level of migration. It emphasizes the importance of social dialogue. |
| Keywords: | Migration ; Core Labor Standards ; Freedom of Association and collective bargaining |
| Date: | 2010–04–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00488349_v1&r=lab |
| By: | Deborah Cobb-Clark (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne; and Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)); Trong-Ha Nguyen (Research School of Economics, Australian National University) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the degree of intergenerational education mobility among immigrant and native-born youth in Australia. We find that young Australians from non-English-speaking background (NESB) immigrant families have an educational advantage over their English speaking background (ESB) immigrant and Australian-born peers. Moreover, while highlyeducated Australian-born mothers and fathers transfer separate and roughly equal educational advantages to their children, outcomes for ESB (NESB) youth are most closely linked to the educational attainment of their fathers (mothers). On balance, intergenerational mobility in families with two highly-educated parents appears to be much the same for Australian-born and ESB families and is somewhat greater for NESB families. Finally, the greater importance that NESB mothers attribute to education appears to mitigate the educational penalty associated with socio-economic disadvantage. |
| Keywords: | education, immigration, intergenerational |
| JEL: | I20 J11 J13 |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2010n09&r=lab |
| By: | Ishita Chakravarty (Centre for Economic and Social Studies) |
| Abstract: | Research on women's work has attempted to analyse how the interplay of market and patriarchy leads women and men to perform different economic roles in society. This segregation on the basis of gender or the sex-typing of work plays an important role both from the demand and supply sides in determining the work profiles of women and girl children. The present study attempts to see how a particular labour market, i.e. domestic service, a traditionally male domain, became segregated both by gender and age in post partition West Bengal (WB) and mainly in its capital city Calcutta. We have argued that the downward trend in industrial job opportunities in post independence WB accompanied by large scale immigration of women, men and children from the bordering East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, led to an unprecedented increase in labour force under conditions of stagnant investment. This in turn led to a decline in the wage rate. In such a situation poor refugee women in their frantic search for means of survival gradually drove out the males of the host population engaged in domestic service in urban WB by offering to work in return for a very low and often for no wage at all. Again, poor males from the neighboring states of Bihar, Orissa and UP constituted historically a substantial section of the Calcutta labour market and many of them were employed as domestics in a state known for its prevalence of domestic service in colonial India. The replacement of male domestics by females was further facilitated by the gradual decline in inter-state migration due to lack of employment opportunities in independent WB. The second stage in the changing profile of domestic service in urban WB was arguably set by the migrating girl children from the rural areas of the state to Calcutta city in search for employment between 1971 and 1981. |
| Keywords: | gender roles, labour supply, labour demand, India |
| JEL: | J00 J16 J20 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eab:laborw:2200&r=lab |
| By: | Emanuela Ghignoni; Gabriella Pappadà |
| Abstract: | The paper presents some significant results of the YOUTH project (Young in Occupations and Unemployment: THinking of their better integration in the labour market), promoted by the European Commission – DG Employment. The paper assumes that flexicurity is very important for young workers, because they are (as new entrants in the labour market and as workers with peculiar qualitative structural characteristics) particularly exposed to risks of unemployment, “atypical” employment and precariousness trap. In this framework, we perform a principal component and a cluster analyses to classify the EU Member States in accordance with the degree of achievement of flexicurity for young people. The analysis use a set of indicators wider than that identified in the four flexicurity pillars proposed by the EC and includes flexibility and security components more targeted to young people needs. In particular, we use further human capital indicators and some measures of combination security and young people autonomy, that we propose as indicators of individuals’ “real opportunities”, strictly tied to the concept of “capabilities”. |
| Keywords: | youth employment, labour economic policies, flexicurity, |
| JEL: | J08 J21 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sap:wpaper:125&r=lab |
| By: | Mandelman, Federico S (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta); Zanetti, Francesco (Bank of England) |
| Abstract: | Recent empirical evidence suggests that a positive technology shock leads to a decline in labour inputs. However, the standard real business model fails to account for this empirical regularity. Can the presence of labour market frictions address this problem, without otherwise altering the functioning of the model? We develop and estimate a real business cycle model using Bayesian techniques that allows, but does not require, labour market frictions to generate a negative response of employment to a technology shock. The results of the estimation support the hypothesis that labour market frictions are the factor responsible for the negative response of employment. |
| Keywords: | Technology shocks; employment; labour market frictions |
| JEL: | E32 |
| Date: | 2010–06–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boe:boeewp:0390&r=lab |
| By: | Lawrence J. Christiano (Northwestern University, Department of Economics, 2001 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.); Mathias Trabandt (European Central Bank, Fiscal Policies Division, Kaiserstrasse 29, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.); Karl Walentin (Sveriges Riksbank, Research Division, 103 37 Stockholm, Sweden.) |
| Abstract: | We propose a monetary model in which the unemployed satisfy the official US definition of unemployment: they are people without jobs who are (i) currently making concrete efforts to find work and (ii) willing and able to work. In addition, our model has the property that people searching for jobs are better off if they find a job than if they do not (i.e., unemployment is ‘involuntary’). We integrate our model of involuntary unemployment into the simple New Keynesian framework with no capital and use the resulting model to discuss the concept of the ‘non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment’. We then integrate the model into a medium sized DSGE model with capital and show that the resulting model does as well as existing models at accounting for the response of standard macroeconomic variables to monetary policy shocks and two technology shocks. In addition, the model does well at accounting for the response of the labor force and unemployment rate to the three shocks. JEL Classification: E2, E3, E5, J2, J6. |
| Keywords: | DSGE, unemployment, business cycles, monetary policy, Bayesian estimation. |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20101202&r=lab |
| By: | Baroni, Elisa (Institute for Futures Studies) |
| Abstract: | <p> The poverty outcome in old age is affected by labour market reforms. Using our in house agent based simulation model IFSIM we show that sharing equally the parental leave can increase or reduce poverty among the elderly depending on the macro and behavioural responses that the Reform off-sets. In general, it can be good for (elderly) women provided that (i) it spurs them to work more, particularly in older ages (ii) it does not slow down economic growth (hence pension income growth) below a level when working more does not pay. Our simulations show that the effect of this Reform on poverty and gender inequality is time dependent: different outcomes might be expected for different generations depending on whether the balancing mechanism (in the state income pension) is present or not. In general, the Reform might not lead to positive outcomes if it occurs in conjunction with the striking of the automatic balancing, unless a behavioural response to work more among older workers (in response to the balancing) is also unleashed.<p> |
| Keywords: | Poverty; Pensioners; Parental leave; Simulation model; IFSIM; Gender inequality |
| JEL: | C15 J13 J14 J16 |
| Date: | 2010–06–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifswps:2010_005&r=lab |
| By: | Ninghua Zhong (China Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Based on a survey of 1,268 firms in 12 Chinese cities, this paper empirically studies the effects of unions on three aspects of workers’ welfare, namely, hourly wages, monthly working hours, and pension coverage. Our baseline results show that unionization increases hourly wage rates by 5.6%, reduces monthly working hours by 1.4%, and raises pension coverage by 12.3%. Taking the endogeneity of unionization into consideration, our 3SLS estimation finds larger effects. These results are robust in the subsample of domestic private enterprises where unions are less common than in other types of firms. Further econometric analysis has established two channels for unions to improve workers’ welfare, one by encouraging collective wage contracts, and the other by encouraging written contracts. |
| Keywords: | Unionization, workers’ welfare, Chinese firms |
| JEL: | J3 J51 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eab:laborw:2197&r=lab |
| By: | Rémi Bazillier (LEO - Laboratoire d'économie d'Orleans - CNRS : UMR6221 - Université d'Orléans); Yasser Moullan (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I) |
| Abstract: | Interactions between social policies and migration are numerous. This paper proposes to analyze the influence of employment protection on bilateral migration. We show theoretically how employment protection may affect the probability to migrate, depending on (i) the effect of employment protection on wages, (2) the effect on the probability to be employed, and (3) relative preferences over wages or employment. Empirically, we show that employment protection differential between source and destination countries is an important determinant of bilateral migration. Bilateral migration of workers is negatively affected by this differential of employment protection. This effect is stronger for high-skilled workers. We also find that the effect of the differential is largely explained by the level of employment protection in destination countries. This factor does not have a significant impact in origin countries. These results are obtained controling econometrically for the high proportion of zero using Heckman two steps procedure. Overall, we find that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, migrants are not attracted by protective legislation. On the contrary, they tend to move where this protection is closer to the one of their origin country. |
| Keywords: | Migration, employment protection, labour markets |
| Date: | 2010–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-00488345_v1&r=lab |
| By: | Mette Gerster and Trude Lappegård (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | This paper concerns the effect of employment status on second- and third-birth intensities for Norwegian mothers in the period 1994-2002. Due to unobserved heterogeneity possibly affecting both the birth and the employment processes we employ a simultaneous equations approach for hazard models, originally suggested by Lillard (1993). Our results show that there is a slightly positive effect of currently being in employment on the second-birth intensity, whereas the third-birth intensity is larger for women who are currently non-employed, even when unobserved heterogeneity is taken into account. This suggests that even in a society such as the Norwegian in which there is a high compatibility between motherhood and labour market attachment there are still certain costs associated with childbearing and that this is taken into account by Norwegian women, in particular when it comes to the progression to third child. |
| Keywords: | Fertility; employment; family policy |
| JEL: | J01 J13 |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:624&r=lab |
| By: | Cain Polidano (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne); Kostas Mavromaras (National Institute of Labour Studies, Flinders University) |
| Abstract: | Improving the educational outcomes of people with a disability is seen as key in helping improve their employment and life prospects. Vocational Education and Training (VET) is an important avenue for further education for people with disability because it is a highly flexible and accessible form of education. This paper uses the HILDA survey and multivariate estimation to examine whether people with disability face barriers in participating in and completing a VET qualification, with particular focus on the role of social support. Overall, we find that people with disability are not disadvantaged in terms of participation, but are in terms of completion, especially those with more limiting conditions and those with mental health problems who have low levels of social support. These findings add to the growing literature on the role of social support in the functioning of people with mental illness and underline the importance of ensuring access to adequate support services. |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2010n08&r=lab |
| By: | Lindqvist, Erik (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the relationship between height and leadership. Using data from a representative sample of Swedish men, I document that tall men are significantly more likely to attain managerial positions. An increase in height by 10 centimeters (3.94 inches) is associated with a 2.2 percentage point increase in the probability of holding a managerial position. Selection into managerial positions explains about 15 percent of the unconditional height wage premium. However, at least half of the height-leadership correlation is due to a positive correlation between height and cognitive and noncognitive ability. |
| Keywords: | Height; Beauty; Leadership; Discrimination |
| JEL: | J24 J71 |
| Date: | 2010–05–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0835&r=lab |
| By: | Dr. Vidya Nath Koirala; Dr. Susan Acharya |
| Abstract: | This paper is a study on Access, Participation, and Performance of Girls in Science and Technology in Nepal. This study was undertaken essentially to achieve four objectives, viz. to review curricular and research materials from gender lens, identify stakeholders’ perspective towards girls’ access to and participation in Science and Technology Education (STE) related subjects, find out the forces that are both conducive as well as obstructive to STE for girls, and work out measures to address the problems. In view of these objectives, documents were reviewed, 55 schools in 11 districts of the country surveyed and data of 80,838 students analyzed quantitatively. This apart, qualitative information obtained from 22 different schools of the districts was processed, classroom dynamics was observed, and case studies were carried out. The data thus obtained from the fields were shared through debriefing sessions in the headquarters of the districts covered by the study. Altogether 16 people were directly involved in the study, 11 of them in gathering field data and the rest in reviewing curricular materials, analyzing data and writing report. All eight members of the study advisory team and the researcher from UNESCO Paris reviewed the report. And, a national workshop provided necessary input to finalize the STE work plan.[UNESCO Kathmandu Series of Monographs and Working Papers: No 4] |
| Keywords: | work, curicular, classromms, paris, researcher, participation, performance, qualitative, information, districts, report, UNESCO, study, Access, Participation, Performance, Girls, Science and Technology, Education, classroom dynamics, gender, access, |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2517&r=lab |
| By: | Thomsen, Stephan L. |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the effects of the most frequently used German welfare-to-work program on the employment chances of immigrant welfare recipients. In particular, we investigate whether program effects differ between immigrants and natives and what might cause these potential differences. Our results reveal that the program fails to achieve its objectives. The effects are more adverse for natives, but the program does not help otherwise identical immigrants to leave the welfare system either. Therefore, the program is a dead-end road rather than a merging lane to regular employment both for natives and for immigrants. -- |
| Keywords: | Immigrants,employment programs,evaluation,decomposition of effects,Germany |
| JEL: | I38 C14 J61 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:10027&r=lab |
| By: | Pillai, Rajasekharan |
| Abstract: | One of the spill-over effects of globalization is the essential transformation of labour market structure. In the wake of service sector revolution, being backed by knowledge revolution, faster mobility and the growth of IT enabled services, the potential of tourism cannot be over looked. This paper attempts to disclose the changing notion of work in the current international scenario. The study focuses on tourism sector, both due to its growth potential and due to its employment significance. The paper explores the new development in labour relations in tourism industry in the Indian perspective. |
| Keywords: | Globalization; Tourism; Labour market; Tourism labour market; labour relations; Service sector; Informalisation; flexible work force; numerical flexibility. |
| JEL: | J50 J53 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:22994&r=lab |
| By: | Flavio Cunha; James Heckman (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University of Chicago); Susanne Schennach (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | <p><p>This paper formulates and estimates multistage production functions for children's cognitive and noncognitive skills. Skills are determined by parental environments and investments at different stages of childhood. We estimate the elasticity of substitution between investments in one period and stocks of skills in that period to assess the benefits of early investment in children compared to later remediation. We establish nonparametric identification of a general class of production technologies based on nonlinear factor models with endogenous inputs. A by-product of our approach is a framework for evaluating childhood and schooling interventions that does not rely on arbitrarily scaled test scores as outputs and recognizes the differential effects of the same bundle of skills in different tasks. Using the estimated technology, we determine optimal targeting of interventions to children with different parental and personal birth endowments. Substitutability decreases in later stages of the life cycle in the production of cognitive skills. It is roughly constant across stages of the life cycle in the production of noncognitive skills. This finding has important implications for the design of policies that target the disadvantaged. For most configurations of disadvantage, it is optimal to invest relatively more in the early stages of childhood than in later stages.</p></p> |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:cemmap:09/10&r=lab |
| By: | Giulio Piccirilli (DISCE, Università Cattolica) |
| Abstract: | In a setting that focuses on efficient dynamic hours-workers substitution we show that contingent worksharing contributes to workers retention during bad business spells and to sustained hiring during good spells. As a consequence, average employment increases on both accounts. We also show that worksharing interacts with firing costs in affecting workforce decisions and determines the sign of the employment impact from an increase in firing restrictions. |
| Keywords: | Temporary worksharing, Firing Costs, Stochastic methods. |
| JEL: | J23 J63 C61 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie4:ieil52&r=lab |
| By: | Nabanita Datta Gupta (ASB, Aarhus University, Denmark); Marianne Simonsen (School of Economics and Management, Aarhus University, Denmark) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a Danish panel data child survey merged with administrative records along with a pseudo-experiment that generates variation in the take-up of preschool across municipalities to investigate pre-teenage effects of child care participation at age three (either parental care, preschool, or more informal family day care) in a regime with large scale publicly provided universal care. As outcomes, we consider measures of overall and risky behavior in addition to objective and self-evaluated abilities. We find that eleven-year-old children who have been in non-parental care at age three perform just as well as children who have been in parental care. Furthermore, there is no evidence that one type of non-parental care outperforms the other. |
| Keywords: | universal child care, skills, risky behaviors, evaluation |
| JEL: | J13 |
| Date: | 2010–06–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2010-07&r=lab |
| By: | Brian Bell (London School of Economics); Stephen Machin (University College London, London School of Economics); Francesco Fasani (University College London) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between immigration and crime in a setting where large migration flows offer an opportunity to carefully appraise whether the populist view that immigrants cause crime is borne out by rigorous evidence. We consider possible crime effects from two large waves of immigration that recently occurred in the UK. The first of these was the late 1990s/early 2000s wave of asylum seekers, and the second the large inflow of workers from EU accession countries that took place from 2004. A simple economics of crime model, when dovetailed with facts about the relative labour market position of these migrant groups, suggests net returns to criminal activity are likely to be very different for the two waves. In fact, we show that the first wave led to a small rise in property crime, whilst the second wave had no such impact. There was no observable effect on violent crime for either wave. Nor were immigrant arrest rates different to natives. Evidence from victimization data also suggests that the changes in crime rates during the immigrant waves cannot be ascribed to crimes against immigrants. Overall, our findings suggest that focusing on the limited labour market opportunities of asylum seekers could have beneficial effects on crime rates. |
| Keywords: | crime, immigration. |
| JEL: | F22 K42 |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:201012&r=lab |
| By: | David Levinson (Nexus (Networks, Economics, and Urban Systems) Research Group, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota); Bernadette Marion |
| Abstract: | This study describes the measurement of accessibility by automobile for the Minneapolis - Saint Paul (Twin Cities) region over the period from 1995 to 2005. In contrast to previous analyses of accessibility, this study uses travel time estimates derived, to the extent possible, from actual observations of network performance by time of day. A set of cumulative opportunity measures are computed with transportation analysis zones (TAZs) as the unit of analysis for 1995 and 2005. Analysis of the changes in accessibility by location over the period of study reveals that, for the majority of locations in the region, accessibility increased over this period, though the increases were not uniform. A "flattening" or convergence of levels of accessibility across locations was observed over time, with faster-growing suburban locations gaining the most in terms of employment accessibility. An effort to decompose the causes of changes in accessibility into components related to transportation network structure and land use (opportunity location) reveal that both causes make a contribution to increasing accessibility, though the effects of changes to the transportation network tend to be more location-specific. Overall, the results of the study demonstrate the feasibility and relevance of using accessibility as a key performance measure to describe the regional transportation system. |
| Keywords: | Accessibility; Land Use; Travel Time; Travel Behavior; Twin Cities (Minnesota) |
| JEL: | R41 R48 Q41 R51 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nex:wpaper:thecityisflat&r=lab |
| By: | Katsushi S. Imai (Economics, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, UK and Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration (RIEB), Kobe University); Takahiro Sato (Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University) |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically investigates the determinants of fertility drawing upon large household data sets in India, namely NSS and NFHS over the period 1992-2006. Broadly similar and consistent results are found for the two surveys for different years. We have found a negative and significant association between the number of children and mother' s education. Both direct and indirect effects are observed for mother' s education which not just directly reduces fertility but also increases mother' s potential wages or opportunity costs which would deter her from having a baby. Father' s education became increasingly important in reducing fertility in the last two rounds. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, Parental Education, NSS (National Sample Survey), NFHS (National Family Health Survey), India, Asia |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2010-17&r=lab |
| By: | Coneus, Katja; Laucht, Manfred; Reuß, Karsten |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of parental investments on the development of cognitive, mental and emotional skills during childhood using data from a longitudinal study, the Mannheim Study of Children at Risk, starting at birth. Our work offers three important innovations. First, we use reliable measures of the child's cognitive, mental and emotional skills as well as accurate measures of parental investment. Second, we estimate latent factor models to account for unobserved characteristics of children. Third, we examine the skill development for girls and boys separately, as well as for children who were born with either organic or psychosocial risk. We find a decreasing impact of parental investments on cognitive and mental skills, while emotional skills seem to be unaffected by parental investment throughout childhood. Thus, initial inequality persists during childhood. Since families are the main sources of education during the first years of life, our results have important implications for the quality of the parent-child relationship. -- |
| Keywords: | cognitive skills,noncognitive skills,critical and sensitive periods,self-productivity,inequality,organic risk,psychosocial risk |
| JEL: | I12 I21 J13 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:10028&r=lab |
| By: | Thomas Brenner (Department of Geography, Philipps University Marburg); Charlotte Schlump (Department of Geography, Philipps University Marburg) |
| Abstract: | Universities and research institutes are seen as important drivers of the regional economy. Their impact on regional entrepreneurial and innovation activity is well documented. On the other hand, their influence on regional employment growth is less researched. This paper provides an extensive empirical analysis of the relationship between the education of university graduates and employees in research institutes and the growth of employment in a region. The analysis is done for nine industries separately. We find that university graduates have a significant influence on employment growth in several industries, while an influence of public research institutes is found only for a few industries. For most control variables the findings differ between manufacturing and service industries. Such a clear difference between the two types of industries is not found for university graduates and public research institutes. |
| Keywords: | Universities, Research Institutes, Regional Employment Growth |
| JEL: | H52 I2 J20 |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pum:wpaper:2010-02&r=lab |
| By: | Calzolari, Giorgio; Di Pino, Antonino |
| Abstract: | We consider a simultaneous equation model with two endogenous limited dependent variables (individual wage and reservation wage) characterized by a selection mechanism determining a two-regimes endogenous-switching. We extend the FIML procedure proposed by Poirier-Ruud (1981) for a single equation switching model providing a stochastic specification for both equations and for the selection criterion. An accurate Monte Carlo experiment shows that the relative efficiency of the FIML estimator over to the Two-Stage procedure is remarkably high in presence of a high degree of endogeneity in the selection equation. |
| Keywords: | Selection bias; endogenous switching |
| JEL: | C34 C31 |
| Date: | 2009–09–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:22984&r=lab |