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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Gicheva, Dora (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This study establishes empirically a nonlinear relationship between hours worked per week and hourly wage growth: for workers who put in 48 hours per week or more, working 5 extra hours per week increases annual wage growth by about 1 percent. The average effect is zero when hours are below 48. This relationship is especially strong for young professional workers. I provide evidence in support of a model of promotions that combines higher skill-sensitivity of output in upper levels of the job ladder with worker heterogeneity. The results can be used to account for part of the gender wage gap. |
| Keywords: | wage growth; working hours; promotions; gender wage gap; disutility of labor |
| JEL: | J22 J24 J31 M51 |
| Date: | 2010–08–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2010_003&r=lab |
| By: | René Böheim; Gerard Thomas Horvath (Johannes Kepler University of Linz / Department of Economics); Rudolf Winter-Ebmer |
| Abstract: | Decomposing wages into worker and firm wage components, we find that firm-fixed components (firm rents) are sizeable parts of workers' wages. If workers can only imperfectly observe the extent of firm rents in their wages, they might be mislead about the overall wage distribution. Such misperceptions may lead to unjustified high reservation wages, resulting in overly long unemployment durations. We examine the infuence of previous wages on unemployment durations for workers after exogenous lay-offs and, using Austrian administrative data, we find that younger workers are, in fact, unemployed longer if they profited from high firm rents in the past. We interpret our findings as evidence for overconfidence generated by imperfectly observed productivity. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, Job Search, Overconfidence |
| JEL: | J3 J6 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2010_09&r=lab |
| By: | Gicheva, Dora (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper links a worker's propensity to change jobs to her schooling choices. A model of the choice of graduate management program type based on job search theory predicts that more mobile workers are more likely to enroll in a full-time Master of Business Administration program. The study also adds to the literature on employer-sponsored general training; the model predicts that employers are more likely to provide tuition assistance to workers who find quits costly. I use a four-wave panel survey of GMAT registrants to show that these predictions hold true empirically. Observable characteristics that are correlated with stronger job attachment are also positively correlated with the probability of attending a part-time program and, conditional on part-time attendance, with the likelihood of receiving employer-provided tuition reimbursement. |
| Keywords: | job mobility; employer-provided general training; MBA education |
| JEL: | J24 J32 J62 M53 |
| Date: | 2010–08–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2010_004&r=lab |
| By: | Paco Martorell (RAND); Damon Clark (University of Florida, NBER, IZA) |
| Abstract: | Although economists acknowledge that various indicators of educational attainment (e.g., highest grade completed, credentials earned) might serve as signals of a worker’s productivity, the practical importance of education-based signaling is not clear. In this paper we estimate the signaling value of a high school diploma, the most commonly held credential in the U.S. To do so, we compare the earnings of workers that barely passed and barely failed high school exit exams, standardized tests that, in some states, students must pass to earn a high school diploma. Since these groups should, on average, look the same to firms (the only difference being that "barely passers" have a diploma while "barely failers" do not), this earnings comparison should identify the signaling value of the diploma. Using linked administrative data on earnings and education from two states that use high school exit exams (Florida and Texas), we estimate that a diploma has little effect on earnings. For both states, we can reject that individuals with a diploma earn eight percent more than otherwise-identical individuals without one; combining the state-specific estimates, we can reject signaling values larger than five or six percent. While these confidence intervals include economically important signaling values, they exclude both the raw earnings difference between workers with and without a diploma and the regression-adjusted estimates reported in the previous literature. |
| Keywords: | education, productivity, earnings, income, |
| JEL: | J00 J24 E24 D19 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:indrel:1248&r=lab |
| By: | Ljubica Nedelkoska (Research Training Group "Economics of Innovative Change" at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena); Frank Neffke (Erasmus School of Economics, Rotterdam) |
| Abstract: | Human capital is transferable across occupations, but only to a limited extent because of differences in occupational skill-profiles. Higher skill overlap between occupations renders less of individuals' human capital useless in occupational switches. Current occupational distance measures neglect that differences in skill complexities between occupations yield skill mismatch asymmetric in nature. We propose characterizing occupational switches in terms of human capital shortages and redundancies. This results in superior predictions of individual wages and occupational switches. It also allows identifying career movements up and down an occupational complexity ladder, and assessing the usefulness of accumulated skill-profiles at an individual's current job. |
| Keywords: | skill mismatch, skill transferability, occupational change, human capital, wages |
| JEL: | J24 J30 J63 |
| Date: | 2010–08–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2010-051&r=lab |
| By: | Saul D. Hoffman (Department of Economics,University of Delaware); Chenglong Ke (University of Delaware) |
| Abstract: | In July, 2009, the U.S. Federal minimum wage was increased from $6.55 to $7.25. Individuals in some states were unaffected by this increase, since the state minimum wage already exceeded $7.25 and the state minimum was not increased further. We use this variation, as well as variation in the actual amount of the increase, to make comparisons of the employment of “at-risk” workers across states with their peers and within states with workers arguably unaffected by the increase. Our data come from the 2009 CPS, four and five months before and after the increase. We find some evidence that the employment of some at-risk demographic groups declined as a result of the minimum wage increase, but the impacts are not statistically significant. We also find that the employment changes were not responsive to the actual amount of the increase. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage |
| JEL: | J08 J21 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dlw:wpaper:10-07.&r=lab |
| By: | Makoto Nakajima |
| Abstract: | The author introduces risk-averse preferences, labor-leisure choice, capital, individual productivity shocks, and market incompleteness to the standard Mortensen-Pissarides model of search and matching and explore the model's cyclical properties. There are four main findings. First and foremost, the baseline model can generate the observed large volatility of unemployment and vacancies with a realistic replacement ratio of the unemployment insurance benefits of 64 percent. Second, labor-leisure choice plays a crucial role in generating the large volatilities; additional utility from leisure when unemployed makes the value of unemployment close to the value of employment, which is crucial in generating a strong amplification, even with the moderate replacement ratio. Besides, it contributes to the amplification through an adjustment in the intensive margin of labor supply. Third, the borrowing constraint or uninsured individual productivity shocks do not significantly affect the cyclical properties of unemployment and vacancies: Most workers are well insured only with self-insurance. Fourth, the model better replicates the business cycle properties of the U.S. economy, thanks to the co-existence of adjustments in the intensive and extensive margins of labor supply and the stronger amplification. |
| Keywords: | Employment (Economic theory) ; Business cycles |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:10-24&r=lab |
| By: | Seth R. Gitter (Department of Economics, Towson University); Jeremy G. Weber (University of Wisconsin-Madison); Bradford L. Barham (University of Wisconsin-Madison); Mercedez Callenes (Grupo de Analisis para el Desarrollo (GRADE), Peru); Jessa M. Lewis (University of Wisconsin-Madison) |
| Abstract: | From 1995 to 2005 educational attainment of youth in rural Southern Mexico rose dramatically. Three distinct trends emerged in the region that could explain the rise in education. First, thousands of coffee-producing households joined cooperatives that have entered Fair Trade relationships and/or began adopting organic practices. Then, beginning in approximately 2000, US migration took off, while intra-Mexico migration steadily increased, providing remittance income and more lucrative alternatives in labor markets outside of coffee production. Third, Progresa/Oportunidades, a conditional cash transfer program aimed at promoting education, became available to families in the region in 1998 and 1999. Using survey data from 845 coffee farming households in Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico, this paper explores how participation in Fair Trade-organic cooperatives coffee price premiums, migration, and Progresa/Oportunidades shape education attainment for young adults (16-25). Results from a household fixed-effects model show that participating in a Fair Trade-organic cooperative contributed to a one-half year increase in schooling for girls over the study period. The impacts of US migration opportunities appear to have even stronger positive impacts on years of schooling for females, while for males increased migration opportunities tend to diminish the positive effects of being in a Fair Trade- organic cooperative on educational attainment. |
| Keywords: | Latin America, Mexico, Fair Trade, Organic, Migration, Education. |
| JEL: | N56 I20 F22 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tow:wpaper:2010-14&r=lab |
| By: | Shephard, A.J. |
| Abstract: | This dissertation is concerned with the estimation of structural models of the labour market and the application of these models in both evaluating policy reforms, and exploring their implications for taxation design. The programme that is at the centre of much of the empirical exploration in this thesis is the British Working Families’ Tax Credit (WFTC), which during its lifetime, provided the main form of in-work support for lower income families with children. The first chapter of this thesis estimates a discrete choice hours of work model using data from before and after the introduction of WFTC. To the extent that behavioural responses to tax reforms are informative about preferences, it uses the estimated model directly to explore problems related to the optimal design of the tax and transfer system. It derives new theoretical results and empirically explores the extent to which the tax authorities may wish to condition the tax schedule on age of children. Given the use of hours contingent payments in the UK tax credit system, it also investigates the desirability of including a measure of hours of work in the tax base. The second and third chapters of this thesis firstly develop the methodology, and then consider how our view of programmes such as WFTC is affected once the presence of labour market frictions and the importance of job search activity is acknowledged. In doing so, it greatly extends the empirical equilibrium job search literature. By introducing the monopsonistic behaviour of firms, it considers how these firms may optimally adjust their wages following the introduction of programmes which encourage work, such as WFTC. The equilibrium impact of the reform on a range of outcomes for both WFTC-eligible and non-eligible workers is assessed. |
| Date: | 2010–07–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:ucllon:http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/20308/&r=lab |
| By: | Bezabih, Mintewab; Gebreegziabher, Zenebe; GebreMedhin, Liyousew; Köhlin, Gunnar |
| Abstract: | Devoting time to off-farm activities, while complementing agricultural incomes, may be constrained by labor availability and financial capacity. This paper assesses the importance of rainfall patterns, which condition the availability of agricultural labor, and financial constraints on off-farm employment decisions. Using panel data from Ethiopia, which include experimental rate-of-time preference measures, we found that these and rainfall are significant determinants off-farm employment. Rural development policies should take into account the financial capacity of households and the role of off-farm opportunities as safety nets in the face of weather uncertainty. |
| Keywords: | off-farm employment, rainfall variability, reduced availability of water, rate-of time-preferences, multinomial logit, Ethiopia |
| JEL: | Q13 D81 C35 C93 |
| Date: | 2010–08–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-10-21-efd&r=lab |
| By: | Vermaark, Claire |
| Abstract: | South African household surveys typically contain coarsened earnings data, which consist of a mixture of missing earnings values, point responses and interval-censored responses. This paper uses sequential regression multivariate imputation to impute missing and interval-censored values in the 2000 and 2006 Labour Force Surveys, and compares poverty estimates obtained under several different methods of reconciling coarsened earnings data. Estimates of poverty amongst the employed are found not to be sensitive to the use of the multiple imputation approach, but are sensitive to the treatment of workers reporting zero earnings. Multiple imputing earnings for all workers with missing, interval-censored or reported zero earnings, the proportion of workers earning less than R500 per month falls by almost a third between 2000 and 2006. |
| Keywords: | coarsened data, multiple imputation, poverty, wage distribution, working poor |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2010-86&r=lab |
| By: | Jason Fletcher; David Frisvold |
| Abstract: | Large literatures have shown important links between the quantity of completed education and health outcomes on one hand and the quality of schooling on a host of adult outcomes, such as wages, on the other hand. However, little research has been targeted to producing evidence of the link between school quality and health. The paper presents the first evidence in the literature on the potential short and intermediate term effects of attending a selective college on health behaviors during and following college attendance. Using a variety of empirical methods, this paper shows strong evidence that college quality reduces tobacco and marijuana use but has small and possibly positive effects on binge drinking. The effects on weight behaviors are suggestive of reduced weight, potentially through diet but not exercise change. |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emo:wp2003:1007&r=lab |
| By: | Ljubica Nedelkoska (Research Training Group "Economics of Innovative Change" at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena) |
| Abstract: | While earlier literature proposed a monotonic relationship between the skill level (as measured by educational attainment) and employment prospects, recent literature suggests that this relationship has changed and that it is now necessary to distinguish between different kinds of skills and tasks in order to understand the recent occupational structure changes in developed economies. We study the occupational dynamics in the western part of Germany over the last three decades and confirm that occupations characterized by high intensity of interactive and problemsolving tasks have been increasing their employment share at the expense of occupations with a high level of codifiable tasks (tasks that can be described by step-by-step procedures or rules). We provide evidence at the individual level that jobs which involve a high instance of codifiable tasks are associated with lower job security. The pattern is present at different educational levels and in various broadly defined industries. It is also present in both the pre-reunification period and the period after the German reunification. The results are in line with a theory of technological change where computer-based technologies substitute for codifiable tasks (Autor, Levy, and Murnane, 2003). |
| Keywords: | skills, tasks, occupations, job stability |
| JEL: | J21 J24 J63 |
| Date: | 2010–08–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2010-050&r=lab |
| By: | Michael C. Burda (Humboldt University Berlin); Mark Weder (School of Economics, University of Adelaide) |
| Abstract: | Payroll taxes represent a major distortionary in uence of governments on labor markets. This paper examines the role of payroll taxation and the social safety net for cyclical uctuations in a nonmonetary economy with labor market frictions and unemployment insurance, when the latter is only imperfectly related to search effort. A balanced social insurance budget renders gross wages more rigid over the cycle and, as a result, strengthens the modelÂ’s endogenous propagation mechanism. For conventional calibrations, the model generates a negatively sloped Beveridge curve as well as substantial volatility and persistence of vacancies and unemployment. |
| Keywords: | business cycles, labor markets, payroll taxes, unemployment, consumption-tightness puzzle |
| JEL: | E24 J64 E32 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adl:wpaper:2010-17&r=lab |
| By: | Richard Chisik (Department of Economics, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada); |
| Abstract: | We consider a labor market signaling model with an endogenous quality choice and we start by deriving intuitive conditions on when self-fulfilling statistical discrimination can occur. It is more likely if the variance of the distribution of types is low or if the signal has more value to the firm. This self-fulfilling statistical discrimination is different than that proposed by Spence in his original work on market signaling, which requires employers to believe that some women play a strictly dominated strategy. We next show that a very low potential pooling stereotype forces the high-quality agent with that bad stereotype to separate and engage in counter-stereotypical behavior. |
| JEL: | J70 D82 O15 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rye:wpaper:wp024&r=lab |
| By: | Wagura Ndiritu, Simon; Nyangena, Wilfred |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an empirical study of schooling attendance and collection of environmental resources using cross-sectional data from the Kiambu District of Kenya. Because the decision to collect environmental resources and attend school is jointly determined, we used a bivariate probit method to model the decisions. In addition, we corrected for the possible endogeneity of resource collection work in the school attendance equation by using instrumental variable probit estimation. One of the key findings is that being involved in resource collection reduces the likelihood of a child attending school. The result supports the hypothesis of a negative relationship between children working to collect resources and the likelihood that they will attend school. The results further show that a child’s mother’s involvement in resource collection increases school attendance. In addition, there is no school attendance discrimination against girls, but they are overburdened by resource collection work. The study recommends immediate policy interventions focusing on the provision of public amenities, such as water and fuelwood. |
| Keywords: | environmental goods collection, firewood, water, children, schooling, Kenya |
| JEL: | O13 O15 |
| Date: | 2010–08–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-10-18-efd&r=lab |
| By: | Rutherford, Alasdair |
| Abstract: | Since 1997 the UK Government has sought to expand the provision of public services by the independent nonprofit sector. With policies to build the capacity of the sector, public spending on voluntary organisations has grown from £2 billion in 1996/97 to £6.88 billion in 2005/06. Theory suggests that the comparative advantage of nonprofits lies in the mission-motivation of those who work in them, and predicts that motivated workers will accept lower wages. We examine sector wage differentials in time-series to show that growth in voluntary sector wages has outpaced the private and public sectors. This state intervention in the market has had big consequences for the make-up of the voluntary sector workforce. |
| Keywords: | Voluntary Sector; Nonprofit; Warm Glow; Compensating Wage |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stl:stledp:2010-06&r=lab |
| By: | Quintanilla, X. |
| Abstract: | In 1981 Chile was the fi rst country in the world to privitise its pension system moving from a pay-as-you-go scheme (PAYG) to a De fined Contributions (DC) scheme. Individuals in the labour market at the time of the reform were given the choice to either stay in the PAYG system or to opt-out to the DC scheme. New entrants must join the DC system. Exploiting the wide differences in pension formulas across schemes, I firstly fi nd that the reform signi ficantly increased expected pension wealth for most of those who opted-out. I then investigate the extent to which households substitute this increase by decreasing accumulation of other wealth. As the decision to either stay or to opt-out was not random, I gain identi fication through an instrumental variable approach. I find a pension offset of around 30%. Among the possible reasons for the incomplete offset are imperfect information, the desire to compensate for new risks faced and habit formation. Lastly, through a non-linear random effects dynamic model that allows for state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity, I estimate the effect of pension system design on individuals' formal/informal labour market decisions. Results indicate that individuals in the DC scheme are 23% more likely to be formal than those in the PAYG scheme at any one period. Further, simulations show that the boost in formality caused by the reform lasts throughout the life cycle. State dependence is even more important indicating that labour market past decisions do affect future ones. The unobserved heterogeneity is also high and signifi cant but it is only a fifth of the state dependence. The results on state dependence and initial condition suggest that there is scope for public policy to affect formality decisions. |
| Date: | 2010–07–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:ucllon:http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/20277/&r=lab |
| By: | Patricia Beeson (University of Pittsburgh); Tara Watson (Williams College); Lara Shore-Sheppard (Williams College) |
| Abstract: | It has long been recognized that average wages vary strikingly across regions and urban areas, in part due to differences in local amenities and fiscal policies. However, analogous differences in wage dispersion remain relatively unexplored. We develop a model suggesting that, after accounting for individual characteristics, wage dispersion across income groups should reflect differences in the relative valuation of local amenities and fiscal policies. We empirically investigate whether there is a link between local taxes and expenditures and the degree of dispersion in the wage structure, and find evidence that such a relationship exists. |
| Keywords: | inequality, wage distributions, local expenditures, local taxes |
| JEL: | H7 J31 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wil:wileco:2010-06&r=lab |
| By: | Ljubica Nedelkoska (Research Training Group "Economics of Innovative Change" at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena); Simon Wiederhold (Research Training Group "Economics of Innovative Change" at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena) |
| Abstract: | It has become common within the literature of skill-biased technological change to look at technologies, as well as their impact on the demand for labor as homogeneous across industries. This paper challenges this view. Using a linked employer-employee panel of Germany differentiated by industries for the period 2001-2005, we investigate substitution effects between labor of different skills (tasks) on the one hand, and technology as well as outsourcing on the other. Our findings are at odds with the idea of economy-wide homogeneity of substitution patterns. We find that in some industries IT capital substitutes for labor, while it complements it in others. However, substitution patterns are symmetric across labor types. Outsourcing often correlates negatively with the demand for labor performing explicit and problem-solving tasks. It is mainly uncorrelated or positively correlated with the demand for labor performing interactive tasks. The outsourcing-related results support the offshoring theory proposed by Blinder (2006). |
| Keywords: | demand for skills, technology, outsourcing |
| JEL: | J23 J24 O33 |
| Date: | 2010–08–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2010-052&r=lab |
| By: | Lisa M. Dickson (UMBC); Matea Pender (Optimal Solutions Group) |
| Abstract: | In 2001, the Texas state legislature passed House Bill 1403 and became the first state to offer in-state tuition rates at public universities for non-citizens who attended high school in the state for three years. As a result of the policy change, the cost of attending college at public universities in Texas fell dramatically for non-citizens. Using administrative data from six universities in Texas, we employ a quasi-experimental design to identify the effects of the policy change on the probability of enrollment. The results demonstrate a large and significant positive effect of lowering tuition on the enrollment of non-citizens at the University of Texas at Pan American and a positive and marginally significant effect on the probability of enrollment at the University of Texas at San Antonio. The results also suggest that the policy had a negative effect on enrollment at Southern Methodist University, a private university whose tuition was unchanged by the policy.</p> |
| Keywords: | financial aid; non-citizens; in-state tuition benefits. |
| JEL: | I22 I28 |
| Date: | 2010–08–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umb:econwp:10125&r=lab |
| By: | Lennart Hoogerheide (Econometric Institute, Erasmus University Rotterdam); Joern H. Block (CASBEC, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany); Roy Thurik (CASBEC, Erasmus University Rotterdam, EIM Business and Policy Research, Zoetermeer, and Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena, Germany) |
| Abstract: | The validity of family background variables instrumenting education in income regressions has been much criticized. In this paper, we use data of the 2004 German Socio-Economic Panel and Bayesian analysis in order to analyze to what degree violations of the strong validity assumption affect the estimation results. We show that, in case of moderate direct effects of the instrument on the dependent variable, the results do not deviate much from the benchmark case of no such effect (perfect validity of the instrument). The size of the bias is in many cases smaller than the standard error of education’s estimated coefficient. Thus, the violation of the strict validity assumption does not necessarily lead to strongly different results when compared to the strict validity case. This provides confidence in the use of family background variables as instruments in income regressions. |
| Keywords: | education; family background variables; earnings; income; instrumental variables; Bayesian analysis |
| JEL: | C11 C13 C15 J24 J30 |
| Date: | 2010–08–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20100075&r=lab |
| By: | Huynh, Phu (Asian Development Bank Institute); Kapsos, Steven (Asian Development Bank Institute); Kim, Kee Beom (Asian Development Bank Institute); Sziraczki, Gyorgy (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates the labor market and social impacts of the global financial and economic crisis in Asia and the Pacific as well as national policy responses to the crisis. It draws on recent macroeconomic, trade, production, investment, and remittances data to assess the employment and social consequences of the crisis, including falling demand for labor, rising vulnerable and informal employment, and falling incomes and their related pressures on the working poor. The paper provides some projections of the impact on unemployment, vulnerable employment, working poverty, and labor productivity in the region in 2009. It demonstrates that labor market recovery is likely to lag behind output growth, based on the experience of Asian labor markets following the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The paper underscores some policy options that are likely to have positive outcomes toward generating employment and boosting aggregate demand, improving social protection and welfare on the basis of decent work principles, and promoting a sound and sustainable economic and labor market recovery. |
| Keywords: | asian labor market; labor policies; global financial crisis |
| JEL: | E24 I30 J08 J20 |
| Date: | 2010–08–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0243&r=lab |
| By: | Yaw Nyarko |
| Abstract: | Brain Circulation between the European Union (EU) and Sub-Saharan Africa is a crucial ingredient in Human Capital formation in the latter. A major constraint to African development is the very low base of skilled and highly educated workers and professionals. The production of skilled workers has been low, and only recently has seen a dramatic increase. Recent papers by many authors have indicated that a channel for human capital growth has been, paradoxically, the possibility of the brain drain which serves as both an incentive mechanism and which results in higher human capital when the drainers return. After a review of some of the literature, these insights are applied to the debates raging today on European Union migration policy: the Blue Card, Migration Con-tracts, anti-Brain Drain legislation, etc. This paper argues that a careful calibration of the EU policies may enable faster Human Capital growth in Africa, while, at the same time, being beneficial to the EU by supplying critically needed skills into the EU economy. By carefully planning the production of human capital and the consequent flow of skilled migrants into Europe, the EU can assist in the development of vitally needed numbers of trained or skilled workers in Africa. |
| Keywords: | Brain Drain, Immigration, Migration, Human Capital, Economic Development |
| Date: | 2010–04–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rsc:rsceui:2010/30&r=lab |
| By: | Claus C Pörtner (University of Washington) |
| Abstract: | Previous research on sex selective abortions has ignored the interactions between fertility, birth spacing and sex selection. This paper presents a novel approach that jointly estimates the determinants of sex selective abortions, fertility and birth spacing, using data from India's National Family and Health Surveys. For well educated Indian women the predicted number of abortions during childbearing is six percent higher after sex selection became illegal than before while their predicted fertility is eleven percent lower and around replacement level. Women with less education have substantially higher fertility and do not appear to use sex selection. |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udb:wpaper:uwec-2010-04-r&r=lab |
| By: | Mauricio Armellini; Parantap Basu |
| Abstract: | An optimal education subsidy formula is derived using an overlapping generations model with parental altruism. The model predicts that public education subsidy is greater in economies with lesser parental altruism because a benevolent government has to compensate for the shortfall in private education spending of less altruistic parents with a finite life. On the other hand, growth is higher in economies with greater parental altruism. Cross-country regressions using the World Values Survey for altruism lend support to our model predictions. The model provides insights about the reasons for higher education subsidy in richer countries. |
| Keywords: | Altrusim, Education Subsidy, Human Capital, Growth. |
| JEL: | D9 |
| Date: | 2010–08–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eei:rpaper:eeri_rp_2010_21&r=lab |