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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Hirsch, Boris (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg); Schnabel, Claus (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | Using a large German linked employer-employee data set and methods of competing risks analysis, this paper investigates gender differences in job separation rates to employment and nonemployment. In line with descriptive evidence, we find lower job-to-job and higher job-to-nonemployment transition probabilities for women than men when controlling for individual and workplace characteristics and unobserved plant heterogeneity. These differences vanish once we allow these characteristics to affect separations differently by gender. When additionally controlling for wages, we find that both separation rates are considerably lower and also significantly less wage-elastic for women than for men. |
| Keywords: | job separations, gender, gender pay gap, Germany |
| JEL: | J62 J63 J16 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5154&r=lab |
| By: | Rupert, Peter; Stancanelli, Elena G F; Wasmer, Etienne |
| Abstract: | A search model of the labor market is augmented to include commuting time to work. The theory posits that wages are positively related to commute distance, by a factor itself depending negatively on the bargaining power of workers. Since not all combinations of distance and wages are accepted, there is non-random selection of accepted job offers. We build on these ingredients to explore in the data the relationship between wages and commute time. We find that neglecting to account for this selection will bias downward the wage impact of commuting, and marginally affect the coefficients on education, age and gender. The correlation between the residuals of the selectivity equation and the distance equation is -0.70, showing the large impact of commute time on job acceptance decisions. We also use the theory to calculate the bargaining power of workers which largely varies depending on demographic groups: it appears to be much larger for men than that for women and that the bargaining power of women with young children is essentially zero. |
| Keywords: | commuting, search model, simultaneous equations |
| Date: | 2009–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucsbec:1080855&r=lab |
| By: | Addison, John T. (University of South Carolina); Ozturk, Orgul Demet (University of South Carolina) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the effect of minimum wage regulation in 16 OECD countries, 1970-2008. Our treatment is motivated by Neumark and Wascher's (2004) seminal cross-country study using panel methods to estimate minimum wage effects among teenagers and young adults. Apart from the longer time interval examined here, a major departure of the present study is the focus on prime-age females, a group typically neglected in the component minimum wage literature. Another is our deployment of time-varying policy and institutional regressors. Yet another is our examination of unemployment and participation outcomes in addition to employment effects. We report strong evidence of adverse employment effects among adult females and lower participation, even if the unemployment effects are muted. Although we report some similar findings to Neumark and Wascher as to the role of labor market institutions and policies, we do not observe the same patterns in the institutional data; in particular, we can reject for our target group their finding of stronger disemployment effects in countries with the least regulated markets. |
| Keywords: | minimum wages, wage fixing machinery, prime-age females, employment, unemployment, participation, cross-section time-series data, OECD countries, labor market flexibility, labor market institutions and policies |
| JEL: | J20 J38 J48 J58 J88 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5162&r=lab |
| By: | Shutao Cao; Enchuan Shao; Pedro Silos |
| Abstract: | This paper constructs a theory of the coexistence of fixed-term and permanent employment contracts in an environment with ex ante identical workers and employers. Workers under fixed-term contracts can be dismissed at no cost while permanent employees enjoy labor protection. In a labor market characterized by search and matching frictions, firms find it optimal to discriminate by offering some workers a fixed-term contract while offering other workers a permanent contract. Match-specific quality between a worker and a firm determines the type of contract offered. We analytically characterize the firms' hiring and firing rules. Using matched employer-employee data from Canada, we estimate the wage equations from the model. The effects of firing costs on wage inequality vary dramatically depending on whether search externalities are taken into account. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedawp:2010-13&r=lab |
| By: | Julie L. Hotchkiss; Menbere Shiferaw |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to a large literature concerned with identifying the source of the widening wage gap between high school and college graduates by providing a comprehensive, multidimensional decomposition of wages across both time and educational status. Data from a multitude of sources are brought to bear on the question of the relative importance of labor market supply and demand factors in the determination of those wage differences. The results confirm the importance of investments in and use of technology, which has been the focus of most of the previous literature, but are also able to show that demand and supply factors played very different roles in the growing wage gaps of the 1980s and 1990s. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedawp:2010-12&r=lab |
| By: | Ikenaga, Toshie; Kawaguchi, Daiji |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how expected attachment to the labor market and expected tenure at a specific firm affect training participation. The results, based on cross-sectional data from Japan, indicate that expected attachment to the labor market affects participation in both employer- and worker-initiated training, while expected tenure at a specific firm mainly explains participation in employer-initiated training. These two attachment indices explain almost half of the gender gap in training participation. Employers in a less competitive labor market are more likely to offer employer-initiated training to their workers. |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:piecis:479&r=lab |
| By: | Esther Duflo |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the medium run consequences of an increase in the rate of accumulation of human capital in a developing country. From 1974 to 1978, the Indonesian government built over 61,000 primary schools. The school construction program led to an increase in education among individuals who were young enough to attend primary school after 1974, but not among the older cohorts. 2SLS estimates suggest that an increase of 10 percentage points in the proportion of primary school graduates in the labor force reduced the wages of the older cohorts by 3.8% to 10% and increased their formal labor force participation by 4% to 7%. I propose a two-sector model as a framework to interpret these findings. The results suggest that physical capital did not adjust to the faster increase in human capital. [Working Paper No. 002] |
| Keywords: | returns to education, medium run, transitional dynamics |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2787&r=lab |
| By: | Giovanni Russo (VU University Amsterdam); Jos van Ommeren (VU University Amsterdam); Piet Rietveld (VU University Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Using a dynamic approach, employing data on job mobility, we demonstrate that university workers' marginal willingness to pay for reducing commuting distance is about euro 0.25 per kilometre travelled. This corresponds to a marginal willingness to pay for reducing commuting time of about 75% of the net average hourly wage. For females, the willingness to pay is substantially higher than for males. It is also substantially higher for workers that work few hours per day, as predicted by theory. |
| Keywords: | University workers; commuting |
| JEL: | R21 |
| Date: | 2010–08–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20100086&r=lab |
| By: | Matteo PICCHIO (Department of Economics, Tilburg University and IZA); Jan C. VAN OURS (Department of Economics and CentER, Tilburg University, Department of Economics, University of Melbourne; IZA and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | Recent human capital theories predict that labor market frictions and product market competition influence firm-sponsored training. Using matched worker-firm data from Dutch manufacturing, our paper empirically assesses the validity of these predictions. We find that a decrease in labor market frictions significantly reduces firms’ training expenditures. Instead, product market competition does not have an effect on firm-sponsored training. We conclude that increasing competition through international integration and globalization does not pose a threat to investments in on-the-job training. An increase in labor market flexibility may reduce incentives of firms to invest in training, but the magnitude of this effect is small. |
| Keywords: | firm-sponsored training, labor market frictions, product market competition, matched worker-firm data |
| JEL: | D43 J24 J42 L22 M53 |
| Date: | 2010–08–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2010026&r=lab |
| By: | Kuhn, Andreas (University of Zurich); Wuellrich, Jean-Philippe (University of Zurich); Zweimüller, Josef (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the causal effect of early retirement on mortality for blue-collar workers. To overcome the problem of endogenous selection, we exploit an exogenous change in unemployment insurance rules in Austria that allowed workers in eligible regions to withdraw from the workforce up to 3.5 years earlier than those in non-eligible regions. For males, instrumental-variable estimates show a significant 2.4 percentage points (about 13%) increase in the probability of dying before age 67. We do not find any adverse effect of early retirement on mortality for females. Death causes indicate a significantly higher incidence of cardiovascular disorders among eligible workers, suggesting that changes in health-related behavior explain increased mortality among male early retirees. |
| Keywords: | early retirement, mortality, premature death, health behavior, endogeneity, instrumental variable |
| JEL: | I1 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5160&r=lab |
| By: | Fabio Aricò; Laurence Lasselle |
| Abstract: | Second Change School programmes are active in a number of European countries. These schools offer vulnerable young adults an alternative opportunity to enhance their employability skills by alternating education with work experience. People enrolling in these programmes disengaged from schools at an early age. They already experienced or are at-risk to enter into unemployment. This paper examines the impact of the Second Chance Schools on their participants’ aspirations towards the labour market through skill-acquisition. We are able to identify the perception of Second Chance Schools’ interns regarding entry to the professional life. A third of them, for example, consider their attitude or their surroundings as a barrier preventing them from getting a job. However, our results emphasise the role of the interns’ coach in improving their aspirations towards the labour market. We also show that when compared to male interns, female interns have a stronger (positive) perception of the school as a place where they can gain skills. |
| Keywords: | Employability, Training, Alternative Education, Aspirations. |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:san:crieff:1006&r=lab |
| By: | Deepti Goel; Kevin Lang |
| Abstract: | We show that increasing the probability of obtaining a job offer through the network should raise the observed mean wage in jobs found through formal (non-network) channels relative to that in jobs found through the network. This prediction also holds at all percentiles of the observed wage distribution, except the highest and lowest. The largest changes are likely to occur below the median. We test and conrm these implications using a survey of recent immigrants to Canada. We also develop a simple structural model, consistent with the theoretical model, and show that it can replicate the broad patterns in the data. For recent immigrants, our results are consistent with the primary effect of strong networks being to increase the arrival rate of offers rather than to alter the distribution from which offers are drawn. |
| Keywords: | social networks; search; close ties; wage determination; employment; unemployment |
| JEL: | J30 J61 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:148&r=lab |
| By: | Ning, Guangjie (Nankai University) |
| Abstract: | Rapid education expansion and rising income inequality are two striking phenomena occurring in China during the transitional period. Using the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data collected in 1997 and 2006, this paper studies how education affects individual earnings during the transitional process. We find that education accounts for only a small fraction of personal earnings and income gap between different groups. We analyze the underlying mechanism of the impact of education on earnings. More educated people tend to enter state-owned sectors, have a low probability of changing jobs in the labor market and work less time; all of these will have a pronounced impact on earning and income inequality. Quantile regression analysis shows that the low-income group's education return rate is lower, which helps little in narrowing income gap. We decompose the earning gap into four factors: population effect, price effect, labor choice effect and unobservable effect. In explaining the earning gap in China, the price effect is more important than the population effect. The labor choice effect is also significant. We conclude that increasing educational expenditure with no complementary measures such as reforming the education system and establishing a competitive labor market helps less in reducing income inequality. |
| Keywords: | education expansion, income gap, rate of return to education, labor market |
| JEL: | I20 J31 O15 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5148&r=lab |
| By: | Andreas Kuhn; Jean-Philippe Wuellrich; Josef Zweimüller |
| Abstract: | We estimate the causal effect of early retirement on mortality for blue-collar workers. To overcome the problem of endogenous selection, we exploit an exogenous change in unemployment insurance rules in Austria that allowed workers in eligible regions to withdraw from the workforce up to 3.5 years earlier than those in non-eligible regions. For males, instrumental-variable estimates show a significant 2.4 percentage points (about 13%) increase in the probability of dying before age 67. We do not find any adverse effect of early retirement on mortality for females. Death causes indicate a significantly higher incidence of cardiovascular disorders among eligible workers, suggesting that changes in health-related behavior explain increased mortality among male early retirees. |
| Keywords: | Early retirement, mortality, premature death, health behavior, endogeneity, instrumental variable |
| JEL: | I1 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:iewwpx:499&r=lab |
| By: | Melissa A. Boyle; Joanna N. Lahey |
| Abstract: | The move toward universal health coverage in the United States is likely to impact the labor force decisions of older workers, but the size and direction of the effect is unclear. On the one hand, access to affordable insurance that is not tied to an employer may reduce work by encouraging workers to leave a current job, perhaps shifting to self-employment or retiring earlier than previously planned. On the other hand, such access could increase work among vulnerable groups, such as those with low incomes, by improving either their health or the work incentives that they face. This brief provides some insights on how workers might respond by assessing the impact of a health care expansion by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The first section describes the VA expansion and the possible impact of public health care insurance on labor force decisions. The second section explains the study’s methodology, while the third summarizes the results. The final section offers a conclusion. The main finding is that, for the average recipient, the VA reform decreases full-time work both by reducing the “job lock” associated with employer-based insurance and by boosting income through offering free coverage. More-educated workers take advantage of this health care to move to self-employment, while less-educated workers are more likely to leave the labor force completely. However, those in groups who typically have worse health than average actually increase their work upon provision of coverage. With respect to implications for the new federal health care reform act, the income boost in the VA example does not apply for most individuals because health insurance under the new act will not be free. Thus, for the average worker, the finding on job lock is most relevant. However, for some workers, the new act may also have an income effect by subsidizing coverage or reducing the price of non-group market insurance.1 Finally, our finding of increased employment rates for groups likely to be in worse health may also apply as states design programs to improve their access to health care. |
| Keywords: | savings and consumption, health |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:issbrf:ib2010-15&r=lab |
| By: | Babcock, Phillip; Marks, Mindy |
| 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. |
| Keywords: | time use, human capital, education |
| Date: | 2010–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucsbec:1427665&r=lab |
| By: | Tushar K. Nandi (University of Siena) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of Palestine-Israel conflict on child labour in Palestine. The conflict has resulted in massive job loss of Palestinian workers in Israel. We estimate the probability that a Palestinian child starts working when the household suffer economic shock due to the intensity of conflict. The paper uses longitudinal employment survey from the Palestinian Labour Force Survey (LFS) for the period 1999 to 2006 to analyse the impact of household economic shocks on the employment transition of children (10-16 years) in Palestine. The particular economic shock we consider in this paper is the job loss of Palestinian workers in Israel. Taking advantage of the rotating panel structure of the LFS, we compare households in which the head looses his job in Israel during 2 consecutive quarters with households in which the head is continuously employed in Israel. Probit regressions indicate that household head’s job loss in Israel significantly increases the probability of child labour. The effect can be as large as 64% on the probability of working for 16 years old boys. In contrast, household head’s job loss after a year does not have a significant effect, suggesting that the result is not due to unobservable characteristics of households that suffer the economic shock. The results suggest that economic shock for even relatively well-off households can have adverse consequence for children and highlight the importance of the Palestine-Israel conflict as an explanation of child labour dynamics in Palestine. |
| Keywords: | Child labour, Palestine-Israel conflict, Economic shock, Job Loss, Labour Force Survey |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:74&r=lab |
| By: | Inês Fernandez Orellano, Verônica; Picchetti, Paulo |
| Abstract: | Excessive labor turnover may be considered, to a great extent, an undesirable feature ofa given economy. This follows from considerations such as underinvestment in humancapital by firms. Understanding the determinants and the evolution of turnover in aparticular labor market is therefore of paramount importance, including policy considerations.The present paper proposes an econometric analysis of turnover in the Brazilianlabor market, based on a partial observability bivariate probit model. This model considersthe interdependence of decisions taken by workers and firms, helping to elucidate thecauses that lead each of them to end an employment relationship. The Employment andUnemployment Survey (PED) conducted by the State System of Data Analysis (SEADE)and by the Inter-Union Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies (DIEESE)provides data at the individual worker level, allowing for the estimation of the joint probabilitiesof decisions to quit or stay on the job on the worker’s side, and to maintain orfire the employee on the firm’s side, during a given time period. The estimated parametersrelate these estimated probabilities to the characteristics of workers, job contracts,and to the potential macroeconomic determinants in different time periods. The resultsconfirm the theoretical prediction that the probability of termination of an employmentrelationship tends to be smaller as the worker acquires specific skills. The results alsoshow that the establishment of a formal employment relationship reduces the probabilityof a quit decision by the worker, and also the firm’s firing decision in non-industrialsectors. With regard to the evolution of quit probability over time, the results show thatan increase in the unemployment rate inhibits quitting, although this tends to wane asthe unemployment rate rises. |
| Date: | 2010–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fgv:eesptd:271&r=lab |
| By: | Gustavsson, Magnus (Department of Economics); Österholm, Pär (National Institute of Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | The informational value of the aggregate US unemployment rate has recently been questioned because of a unit root in the labor-force participation rate; the lack of mean reversion implies that long-run changes in unemployment rates are highly unlikely to reflect long-run changes in joblessness. This paper shows that this critique also extends to unemployment rates for sub-populations, such as prime-aged males. |
| Keywords: | Mean reversion; Unit-root test |
| JEL: | C22 E24 J21 |
| Date: | 2010–08–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2010_014&r=lab |
| By: | Babcock, Phillip; Marks, Mindy |
| Abstract: | In 1961, the average full-time student at a 4-year college in the U.S. studied about 24 hours per week, while his modern counterpart puts in only 14 hours a week. Students now study less than half as much as universities claim to require. This dramatic decline in study times occurred for students from all demographic subgroups, overall and within every major, for students who worked and those who did not, and at 4-year colleges of every type, degree structure and level of selectivity. Most of the decline predates the innovations in technology that would be most relevant to education production, and thus was not driven by such changes. The most plausible explanation for these findings, we conclude, is that standards have fallen at post-secondary institutions in the United States. |
| Keywords: | time use, human capital, education, college |
| Date: | 2010–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucsbec:1427650&r=lab |
| By: | Dillon, Andrew (International Food Policy Research Institute); Bardasi, Elena (World Bank); Beegle, Kathleen (World Bank); Serneels, Pieter (University of East Anglia) |
| Abstract: | Child labor statistics are critical for assessing the extent and nature of child labor activities in developing countries. In practice, widespread variation exists in how child labor is measured. Questionnaire modules vary across countries and within countries over time along several dimensions, including respondent type and the structure of the questionnaire. Little is known about the effect of these differences on child labor statistics. This paper presents the results from a randomized survey experiment in Tanzania focusing on two survey aspects: different questionnaire design to classify children work and proxy response versus self-reporting. Use of a short module compared with a more detailed questionnaire has a statistically significant effect, especially on child labor force participation rates, and, to a lesser extent, on working hours. Proxy reports do not differ significantly from a child’s self-report. Further analysis demonstrates that survey design choices affect the coefficient estimates of some determinants of child labor in a child labor supply equation. The results suggest that low-cost changes to questionnaire design to clarify the concept of work for respondents can improve the data collected. |
| Keywords: | child labor, survey design, Tanzania |
| JEL: | J21 C81 C93 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5156&r=lab |
| By: | Del Boca, Daniela (University of Turin); Flinn, Christopher (New York University); Wiswall, Matthew (New York University) |
| Abstract: | The growth in labor market participation among women with young children has raised concerns about the potential negative impact of the mother's absence from home on child outcomes. Recent data show that mother's time spent with children has declined in the last decade, while the indicators of children's cognitive and noncognitive outcomes have worsened. The objective of our research is to estimate a model of the cognitive development process of children nested within an otherwise standard model of household life cycle behavior. The model generates endogenous dynamic interrelationships between the child quality and employment processes in the household, which are found to be consistent with patterns observed in the data. The estimated model is used to explore the effects of schooling subsidies and employment restrictions on household welfare and child development. |
| Keywords: | time allocation, child development, household labor supply |
| JEL: | J13 D1 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5155&r=lab |
| By: | Frijters, Paul (University of Queensland); Johnston, David W. (Queensland University of Technology); Shah, Manisha (University of California, Irvine); Shields, Michael A. (University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | Do parents invest more or less in their high ability children? We provide new evidence on this question by comparing observed ability differences and observed investment differences between siblings in the NLSY. To overcome endogeneity issues we use sibling differences in handedness as an instrument for cognitive ability differences, since handedness is a strong determinant of cognitive ability. We find that parents invest more in high ability children, with a one standard deviation increase in child cognitive ability increasing parental investments by approximately one-third of a standard deviation. Consequently, differences in child cognitive ability are enhanced by differential parental investments. This finding has important implications for education policy. |
| Keywords: | children, cognitive ability, parental investment, handedness |
| JEL: | D13 J1 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5153&r=lab |
| By: | Ryo Arawatari (Faculty of Economics, Shinshu University); Tetsuo Ono (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | Countries with higher implicit taxes on continued work are associated with lower labor force participation rates of the elderly. This paper constructs a politicoeconomic model that accounts for this feature based on multiple, self-fulfilling expectations of agents. In this model, agents are identical at birth and can become skilled (or remain unskilled) through educational investment. When agents hold expectations of larger social security benefits, it provides a disincentive to engage in educational investment, thereby resulting in an unskilled majority. In turn, this unskilled majority supports larger social security benefits, which induces the retirement of the elderly and thus results in a lower labor force participation rate. The opposite applies when agents have expectations of smaller social security benefits in their old age. |
| Keywords: | Political equilibrium; Retirement; Self-fulfilling expectations; Social security |
| JEL: | H55 D72 J26 |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:1004r&r=lab |
| By: | Hnatkovska, Viktoria; Lahiri, Amartya; Paul, Sourabh Bikash |
| Abstract: | How have the poorest sections of society in India responded to the rapid changes in the Indian economy over the past 30 years? We examine this question by contrasting the fortunes of the historically disadvantaged scheduled castes and tribes (SC/ST) in India with the rest of the workforce in terms of their education attainment, occupation choices and wages. We study the period 1983-2005 using household survey data from successive rounds of the National Sample Survey. The key message is that education attainment rates and wages have been converging across the two groups while SC/STs have also been switching occupations at increasing rates during this period. Moreover, inter-generational education and income mobility rates of SC/STs have converged to non-SC/ST levels. Clearly, the last twenty years of major structural changes in India have seen a sharp improvement in the relative economic fortunes of these historically disadvantaged social groups. In fact, the median wages of SC/STs relative to non-SC/STs in India have surpassed the median wages of blacks relative to whites in the US. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational mobility, wage gaps, castes |
| JEL: | J6 R2 |
| Date: | 2010–09–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:bricol:viktoria_hnatkovska-2010-25&r=lab |
| By: | Mamatzakis, E; Christodoulakis, G |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on Greek labour market dynamics at a regional base, which comprises of 16 provinces, as defined by NUTS levels 1 and 2 (Eurostat, 2008), using Markov Chains for proportions data for the first time in the literature. We apply a Bayesian approach, which employs a Monte Carlo Integration procedure that uncovers the entire empirical posterior distribution of transition probabilities from full employment to part employment, unemployment and economically unregistered unemployment and vice a versa. Our results show that there are disparities in the transition probabilities across regions, implying that the convergence of the Greek labour market at a regional base is far from being considered as completed. However, some common patterns are observed as regions in the south of the country exhibit similar transition probabilities between different states of the labour market. |
| Keywords: | Greek Regions; Employment; Unemployment; Markov Chains. |
| JEL: | C53 E24 E27 |
| Date: | 2010–08–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:24637&r=lab |
| By: | Daniela Del Boca; Christopher Flinn; Matthew Wiswall |
| Abstract: | The growth in labor market participation among women with young children has raised concerns about the potential negative impact of the mother's absence from home on child outcomes. Recent data show that mother's time spent with children has declined in the last decade, while the indicators of children’s cognitive and noncognitive outcomes have worsened. The objective of our research is to estimate a model of the cognitive development process of children nested within an otherwise standard model of household life cycle behavior. The model generates endogenous dynamic interrelationships between the child quality and employment processes in the household, which are found to be consistent with patterns observed in the data. The estimated model is used to explore the effects of schooling subsidies and employment restrictions on household welfare and child development. |
| Keywords: | Time Allocation; Child Development; Household Labor Supply |
| JEL: | J13 D1 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:149&r=lab |
| By: | Gamage, David; Hayashi, Andrew; Nakamura, Brent K |
| Abstract: | The choice between a set of alternatives often depends on how those alternatives are described, as well as their actual economic costs and benefits. We report results from an experiment designed to evaluate the impact of different descriptions of the after-tax wage on both (1) subjects’ willingness to perform a work task rather than an alternative leisure option, and (2) the amount of work performed by those subjects selecting the work task. Utilizing an experimental design that facilitates both within and between-subject comparisons, we find that that subjects’ willingness to work varies with the framing of the after-tax wage and that, in particular, subjects are much less willing to work when the returns to work are framed as a low wage plus a bonus than when the returns are described as a high wage minus a tax. Along the intensive margin we find suggestive evidence that subjects stop working just before their wage becomes subject to a significantly higher marginal tax rate, but we do not observe similar clustering when gross wages become subject to an equivalent wage decrease that is not described as a tax increase. |
| Keywords: | Experiment, Framing, Labor Supply, Taxation |
| Date: | 2010–06–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:oplwec:1530647&r=lab |
| By: | Sami H. Miaari (European University Institute); Asaf Zussman (Hebrew University of Jerusalem); Noam Zussman (Bank of Israel) |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of the second Intifada, a violent conflict between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors which erupted in September 2000, and the ensuing riots of Arab citizens of Israel, on labor market outcomes of Arabs relative to those of Jewish Israelis. The analysis relies on a large matched employer-employee dataset, focusing on firms that in the pre-Intifada period hired both Arabs and Jews. Our analysis demonstrates that until September 2000 Arab workers had a lower rate of job separation than their Jewish peers and that this differential was significantly reduced after the outbreak of the Intifada. We argue that the most likely explanation for this pattern is increased anti-Arab discrimination among Jews. |
| Keywords: | Ethnic Conflict, Job Separation, Israel, Arabs, Intifada |
| JEL: | H56 J15 J63 J71 |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:76&r=lab |
| By: | Stefanie Brilon (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the job assignment problem faced by a firm when workers’ skills are distributed along several dimensions and jobs require different skills to varying extent. I derive optimal assignment rules with and without slot constraints, and show that under certain circumstances workers may get promoted although in their new job they are expected to be less productive than in their old job. This can be interpreted as a version of the Peter Principle which states that workers get promoted up to their level of incompetence. |
| Keywords: | job assignment, worker selection, internal hiring, Peter Principle, slot constraints, multi-dimensional skills |
| JEL: | M12 J0 J62 M51 |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2010_25&r=lab |
| By: | Fabio Aricò; Laurence Lasselle; Kannika Thampanishvong |
| Abstract: | Non-formal education programmes are active in a number of developing countries. These programmes offer vulnerable students an opportunity to pursue their education although they were excluded for various reasons from the formal education systems. This paper examines the impact of two programmes (one in Mauritius, and one in Thailand) on their participants’ aspirations towards learning. We develop a methodology to measure the perception of students regarding their learning experience. More than a third of them, for example, believe that there is no barrier to their education. Most acknowledge the role of their teachers in raising their aspirations towards their educational achievement. When compared to male students, female students seem to value more the role of their education. |
| Keywords: | Non-formal Education, Aspirations, Mauritius, Thailand. |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:san:wpecon:1005&r=lab |
| By: | Bharadwaj, Prashant; Eberhard, Juan; Neilson, Christopher |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the causal relationship between birth weight and school achievement among children in grades 1 through 8. We find that birth weight significantly affects performance on both math and language test scores in school. Children with higher birth weight do better - a 10% increase in birth weight improves performance in math by nearly 0.05 standard deviations in 1st grade. Children who are born at a weight less than 1500 grams (very low birth weight) have scores in math that are 0.15 standard deviations less in 1st grade. We exploit repeated observations on children to show that birth weight has a persistent effect that does not deteriorate as children advance through grades (upto 8th grade). Children with greater birth weight are also less likely to have ever repeated a grade. The causal link is identified by using a twins estimator - we collected birth weight and basic demographic data on all twins born in Chile between 1992-2000 and match these twin pairs to administrative school records between 2002-2008. There are no differences in school attendance by birth weight, suggesting that missing school perhaps due to health problems is likely not a channel via which test score differentials arise. |
| Keywords: | causal effect, school achievement |
| Date: | 2010–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucsdec:1528728&r=lab |
| By: | Mario Lackner |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the labor market for collegiate football players and argues that professional football teams have discriminating preferences when making their hiring decisions. An empirical analysis of panel data of 32 NFL teams in recent seasons is carried out to test the effects of such preferences on the performance of teams. The results provide strong evidence that certain criteria, which do have a high influence on a player’s chances to start a career in Professional Football, have actually little influence on team-efficiency whatsoever. Consequently, this implies that discrimination in the form of hiring preferences create a sub-optimal result in terms of building a team, as well as for the overall labor market in Professional Football. |
| Keywords: | Labor market in sports, discrimination in hiring, production efficiency, stochastic production frontier |
| JEL: | J7 J2 L83 C23 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2010_10&r=lab |
| By: | Jones, A;; Rice, N;; Rosa Dias, P; |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the role of quality of schooling as a source of inequality of opportunity in health. Substantiating earlier literature that links differences in education to health disparities, the paper uses variation in quality of schooling to test for inequality of opportunity in health. Analysis of the 1958 NCDS cohort exploits the variation in type and quality of schools generated by the comprehensive schooling reforms in England and Wales. The analysis provides evidence of a statistically significant and economically sizable association between some dimensions of quality of education and a range of health and health-related outcomes. For some outcomes the association persists, over and above the effects of measured ability, social development, academic qualifications and adult socioeconomic status and lifestyle. |
| Keywords: | Health; Quality of Education; Inequality of opportunity; NCDS |
| JEL: | I12 I28 C21 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:10/22&r=lab |
| By: | Burda, Michael C. (Humboldt University, Berlin); Weder, Mark (University of Adelaide) |
| Abstract: | Payroll taxes represent a major distortionary influence of governments on labor markets. This paper examines the role of payroll taxation and the social safety net for cyclical fluctuations 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 model'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:iza:izadps:dp5150&r=lab |
| By: | Caliendo, Marco (IZA); Schmidl, Ricarda (IZA); Uhlendorff, Arne (University of Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyze the relationship between social networks and the job search behavior of unemployed individuals. It is believed that networks convey useful information in the job search process such that individuals with larger networks should experience a higher productivity of informal search. Hence, job search theory suggests that individuals with larger networks use informal search channels more often and substitute from formal to informal search. Due to the increase in search productivity, it is also likely that individuals set higher reservation wages. We analyze these relations using a novel data set of unemployed individuals in Germany containing extensive information on job search behavior and direct measures for the social network of individuals. Our findings confirm theoretical expectations. Individuals with larger networks use informal search channels more often and shift from formal to informal search. We find that informal search is mainly considered a substitute for passive, less cost intensive search channels. In addition to that, we find evidence for a positive relationship between the network size and reservation wages. |
| Keywords: | job search behavior, unemployment, social networks |
| JEL: | J64 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5165&r=lab |
| By: | Francis Teal |
| Abstract: | While the numbers with completed tertiary level education are low in Africa, both relative to other countries and in absolute terms, they have been growing very rapidly. Three questions are addressed in this paper. The first is how higher education links to other forms of capital accumulation in a process that leads to economic growth. The second is how higher education links to job outcomes in particular the role of the public sector and self-employment as outcomes for graduates. The third is whether and how an expansion of skilled jobs can create its own demand. The paper draws on both macro and micro evidence to answer those questions which are placed in a long run historical context. It is argued that growth has been more closely linked to investment in physical capital than in education and this may well reflect the fact that education is most valuable when it is linked to technology which requires higher skills. Data from thirty two African countries are used to show that the returns to education, measured both by macro production functions and by micro earning functions, are highest for those with higher levels of education. A contrast is drawn between the role of higher education in providing access to public sector employment and the increasing importance of self-employment in Africa. The paper concludes by asking whether Africa can use its investment in higher skilled labour to effect a service based growth revolution. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2010-25&r=lab |
| By: | Bousquet, Marc; Newfield, Christopher |
| Abstract: | Marc Bousquet argues that public education has become less and less democratic. Primary and secondary public educational institutions are now run as if they were corporations. The metrics used to determine performance and productivity are vapid and intended on supporting administrations at the expense of students and faculty. Teachers and faculty are working harder to meet business-inspired goals, for example “testing to the testâ€, rather than producing graduates who have powerful analytical/critical skills. He demonstrates that so far the Obama Administration has consistently backed this ongoing process especially given the appointment of Arne Duncan as the Secretary of Education. Moreover, he focuses on why these changes are undermining students’ freedom of expression and democratic rights. He concludes with some suggestions on how faculty, students and the public might respond to these challenges. Christopher Newfield notes that part of the loss of US competitiveness is due to the decline of its educational system especially in California which had been the model for public education for the US from the early 1960s onward. Moreover, education funding has declined as fees have increased. He outlines how the general funding model for education has changed significantly at the expense of the middle class: larger gaps in educational attainments; plummeting access to elite institutions by lower classes; and status reproduction through selectivity of the most gifted students (weighted in favor of private institutions). He suggests that this process can be turned around if new goals are established that assess success rooted in the accumulation of social capital and new more sophisticated accounting procedures that separate out different types of funding including the number of students taught and the true cost of corporate-sponsored short-term oriented research. He finishes with an agenda to push for these reforms and others. |
| Keywords: | public education, public higher education, california |
| Date: | 2010–05–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:issres:1338313&r=lab |
| By: | Wolfgang Maennig (Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg); Michael Stobernack (Brandenburg University of Applied Sciences, Fachhochschule Brandenburg, Department of Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | This paper is the first test of differences between age-related reductions in the performance of men and women. The assumption that men age faster is obvious, because men's life expectancy is generally lower. In addition to other studies on age-related reduction in human performance, this paper examines the data taken from competitions on rowing machines, which have been standardized worldwide and which are hardly affected by weather or temperature. A third innovation is that this study looks for any potential ageing processes specific to gender and physique. Fourth, fractional polynomials have been added to the testing methodology. Contrary to intuition, we find evidence that women are affected by faster age-related reductions in performance |
| Keywords: | Labor productivity, ageing economics, economics of gender |
| JEL: | J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2010–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hce:wpaper:038&r=lab |
| By: | Lundqvist, Heléne (Uppsala Center for Fiscal Studies); Dahlberg, Matz (Uppsala Center for Fiscal Studies); Mörk, Eva (Uppsala Center for Fiscal Studies) |
| Abstract: | The effectiveness of public funds in increasing public employment has long been a question on public and labor economists’ minds. In most federal countries local governments employ large fractions of the working population, meaning that a tool for stimulating local public employment can substantially affect the overall unemployment level. This paper asks whether general grants to lower-level governments have the potential of doing so. Applying the regression kink design to the Swedish grant system, we are able to estimate causal effects of intergovernmental grants on personnel in different local government sectors. Our robust conclusion is that personnel in the central administration increased substantially after a marginal increase in grants, but that such an effect was lacking both for total personnel and personnel in child care, schools, elderly care, social welfare and in technical services. We suggest several potential reasons for these results, such as heterogeneous treatment effects and bureaucratic influence in the local decision-making process. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal federalism; intergovernmental grants; public employment; regression kink design; instrumental variables |
| JEL: | C33 H11 H70 J45 |
| Date: | 2010–09–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uufswp:2010_009&r=lab |
| By: | Ryan, Martin (University College Dublin); Delaney, Liam (University College Dublin); Harmon, Colm P. (University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses novel measures of individual differences that produce new insights about student inputs into the (higher) education production function. The inputs examined are lecture attendance and additional study-hours. The data were collected through a web-survey that the authors designed. The analysis includes novel measures of individual differences including willingness to take risks, consideration of future consequences and non-cognitive ability traits. Besides age, gender and year of study, the main determinants of lecture attendance and additional study-hours are attitude to risk, future-orientation and conscientiousness. In addition, future-orientation, and in particular conscientiousness, determine lecture attendance to a greater extent than they determine additional study. Finally, we show that family income and financial transfers (from both parents and the state) do not determine any educational input. This study suggests that non-cognitive abilities may be more important than financial constraints in the determination of inputs related to educational production functions. |
| Keywords: | higher education, education inputs, lecture attendance, hours of study, future-orientation, attitude to risk, non-cognitive ability, conscientiousness |
| JEL: | I21 J2 D90 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5144&r=lab |
| By: | Peter A. Diamond; Alicia H. Munnell; Gregory Leiserson; Jean-Pierre Aubry |
| Abstract: | As widely publicized, the financial crisis dramatically worsened the funded status of state and local pension plans. In response, public sector sponsors are making a number of changes. Most of these changes involve increasing employer and employee contributions and cutting benefits for new employees primarily by increasing the age for full benefits. A couple of states have cut cost-of-living adjustments for current retirees, but they are in the process of being sued. One item not on anyone’s agenda is reconsidering the basic design of public-sector defined benefit plans. Defined benefit pension plans for public employees – both here and abroad – almost universally compute benefits based on final pay. That is, employees’ initial pension benefits are based on their age at retirement, their years of service, and their average earnings in a small number of years. It is unclear whether the motivation for relying on short periods of earnings was record-keeping constraints before the age of computers, an interest in relating pre-retirement to post-retirement income in a seemingly transparent way, a desire to reward long-service employees, or some other factor. Whatever the initial motivation, final pay plans suffer from serious shortcomings: they (1) severely “backload” benefits; (2) treat very differently workers on different career trajectories; and (3) invite mischief in terms of sudden late-career promotions. They are also riskier for workers than they appear. This brief proceeds as follows. The first section describes commonly used pension designs. The second section illustrates the consequences of the final pay formula for retirement incentives, different earnings profiles, and late-career salary increases. The third section presents an option for reform based on use of average compensation over the full career and indexation of the earnings history. The final section offers some concluding thoughts. |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:issbrf:ib2010-10-16&r=lab |
| By: | Luca Sala; Ulf Soderstrom; Antonella Trigari |
| Abstract: | We use a standard quantitative business cycle model with nominal price and wage rigidities to estimate two measures of economic inefficiency in recent U.S. data: the output gap - the gap between the actual and effcient levels of output - and the labor wedge|the wedge between households' marginal rate of substitution and firms' marginal product of labor. We establish three results. (i ) The output gap and the labor wedge are closely related, suggesting that most inefficiencies in output are due to the inecient allocation of labor. (ii ) The estimates are sensitive to the structural interpretation of shocks to the labor market, which is ambiguous in the model. (iii ) Movements in hours worked are essentially exogenous, directly driven by labor market shocks, whereas wage rigidities generate a markup of the real wage over the marginal rate of substitution that is acyclical. We conclude that the model fails in two important respects: it does not give clear guidance concerning the eciency of business cycle fluctations, and it provides an unsatisfactory explanation of labor market and business cycle dynamics. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:igi:igierp:365&r=lab |
| By: | Carson, Richard T; Koundouri, Phoebe; Nauges, Céline |
| Abstract: | A major environmental tragedy of modern times is the widespread arsenic contamination of shallow drinking water wells in Bangladesh. High levels of arsenic present in many wells went unrecognized for years. Now large numbers of people show a range of symptoms associated with chronic arsenic exposure. Most of the economics literature follows an epidemiological approach effectively monetizing a dose response relation. We take a different approach, given widespread exposure, and examine impacts on household labor supply. We find significant effects broadly consistent with available epidemiological information in terms of the percent of the population impacted and which demographic groups are most impacted. The nature of the arsenic contamination provides a high quality statistical instrument that identifies a labor supply reduction of over 8%. Particular attention is paid to large substitution effects involving within household labor supply as this is the primary means of insurance among poor households in developing countries. |
| Keywords: | household labor |
| Date: | 2009–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucsdec:1071796&r=lab |
| By: | Samson, A-L; |
| Abstract: | In France, each year between 1993 and 2004, 5 to 7% of general practitioners (GPs) earn less than 1.5 times the level of the French minimum wage. This article examines who are those low-income GPs using a representative panel of French self-employed GPs over the years 1993 to 2004. We .nd that experiencing low incomes, even during a short period of time, has a lasting impact on GPs. incomes over their whole career. Low-income GPs are mainly female or physicians practicing in areas where medical density is high but where the quality of life is also better. To test if low incomes result from a preference for leisure (ie if low-income GPs choose to work less than all other GPs or if they are constrained to), the econometric analysis consists of measuring GPs.reaction to a shock of demand. We show that low-income GPs never react to an increase in demand, while it would give them the opportunity to increase their activity and their incomes. They only react to negative shocks of demand, i.e. they decrease their activity when they are constrained to. Conversely, all other GPs always react to positive and negative shocks of demand : their activity is strongly constrained by the demand they are facing. We conclude that low-income GPs are physicians who choose to work less : to respond to the increasing demand by increasing their activity would reduce their utility. Their low incomes do not re.ect a downgrading of the GPs.profession, but rather one of its advantages: as self-employed, GPs can freely choose their number of hours of work. They may choose to work less. |
| Keywords: | labour supply; labour-leisure trade-off; GPs; self-employed; target income; longitudinal data |
| JEL: | I12 J22 C23 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:10/12&r=lab |
| By: | Santavirta, Torsten (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | During WWII some 70,000 Finnish children were evacuated to Sweden and placed in foster families. The evacuation scheme limited sharply the scope for selection into foster care based on background characteristics. A first-come first-served policy was applied where the children were assigned a running number and processed anonymously. Using register and survey data I examine the extent to which the foster environment affected later life outcomes of the Finnish child evacuees. The results show that nurture - the socioeconomic environment at early stages of life - has an important effect on schooling, labor attachment and risky behavior. |
| Keywords: | child evacuation; nurture effect; intergenerational transmission |
| JEL: | F22 J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2010–08–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2010_008&r=lab |
| By: | Cole, Rebel; Mehran, Hamid |
| Abstract: | This study examines executive compensation using data from two nationally representative samples of privately held U.S. corporations conducted ten years apart—in 1993 and 2003—and uses these data to test a number of hypotheses. We find that: (i) the level of executive pay at privately held firms is higher at larger firms and varies widely by industry, consistent with stylized facts about executive pay at public companies; (ii) inflation-adjusted executive pay has fallen at privately held companies, in contrast with the widely documented run-up in executive pay at large public companies; (iii) the pay-size elasticity is much larger for privately held firms than for the publicly traded firms on which previous research has almost exclusively focused; (iv) executive pay is higher at more complex organizations; (v) organizational form affects taxation, which, in turn, affects executive pay, with executives at C-corporations being paid significantly more than executives at S-corporations; (vi) executive pay is inversely related to CEO ownership; (vii) executive pay is inversely related to financial risk; and (viii) executive pay is related to a number of CEO characteristics, including age, education and gender: executive pay has a quadratic relation with CEO age, a positive relation with educational, and is significantly lower for female executives. |
| Keywords: | CEO; compensation; education; executive; executive pay; gender; organizational form; ownership; SSBF; taxes |
| JEL: | H25 H24 G32 L26 M13 J33 |
| Date: | 2010–02–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:24668&r=lab |
| By: | Martin Ryan (UCD Geary Institute, University College Dublin); Liam Delaney (UCD Geary Institute, University College Dublin; School of Economics, University College Dublin; School of Public Health and Population Science, University College Dublin); Colm Harmon (UCD Geary Institute, University College Dublin; School of Economics, University College Dublin; IZA, Bonn) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses novel measures of individual differences that produce new insights about student inputs into the (higher) education production function. The inputs examined are lecture attendance and additional study-hours. The data were collected through a websurvey that the authors designed. The analysis includes novel measures of individual di_erences including willingness to take risks, consideration of future consequences and non-cognitive ability traits. Besides age, gender and year of study, the main determinants of lecture attendance and additional study-hours are attitude to risk, future-orientation and conscientiousness. In addition, future-orientation, and in particular conscientiousness, determine lecture attendance to a greater extent than they determine additional study. Finally, we show that family income and _financial transfers (from both parents and the state) do not determine any educational input. This study suggests that non-cognitive abilities may be more important than financial constraints in the determination of inputs related to educational production functions. |
| Keywords: | Socio-Economic Status, Education, Inequality, Discrimination |
| JEL: | I21 J2 D90 |
| Date: | 2010–08–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:201036&r=lab |
| By: | Antonio Di Paolo (Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB); Campus de Bellaterra, Edifici B 08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola), Spain. Institut d’Economia de Barcelona, Universitat de Barcelona.) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the earnings return to Catalan knowledge for public and private workers in Catalonia. In doing so, we allow for a double simultaneous selection process. We consider, on the one hand, the non-random allocation of workers into one sector or another, and on the other, the potential self-selection into Catalan proficiency. In addition, when correcting the earnings equations, we take into account the correlation between the two selectivity rules. Our findings suggest that the apparent higher language return for public sector workers is entirely accounted for by selection effects, whereas knowledge of Catalan has a significant positive return in the private sector, which is somewhat higher when the selection processes are taken into account. |
| Keywords: | Language, Sector Choice, Earnings, Simultaneous Selection, Catalonia |
| JEL: | J24 J45 J70 C31 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xrp:wpaper:xreap2010-9&r=lab |
| By: | Frederiksen, Anders (Aarhus School of Business); Halliday, Timothy (University of Hawaii at Manoa); Koch, Alexander K. (University of Aarhus) |
| Abstract: | While it is well established that both promotions within firms and mobility across firms lead to significant earnings progression, little is known about the interaction between these types of mobility. Exploiting a large Danish panel data set and controlling for unobserved individual heterogeneity, we show that cross-firm moves at the non-executive level provide sizeable short-run gains (similar to the effect of a promotion), consistent with the existing literature. These gains, however, appear modest when compared with the persistent impact on earnings growth of promotions (either within or across firms) and subsequent mobility at a higher hierarchy level. |
| Keywords: | earnings growth, promotions, dynamic panel data models, matched employer-employee data |
| JEL: | C33 J6 M51 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5163&r=lab |
| By: | Dube, Arindrajit; Freeman, Eric; Reich, Michael |
| Abstract: | We investigate properties of employee replacement costs, using a panel survey of California businesses in 2003 and 2008. We establish that replacement costs are substantial relative to annual wages and that they are associated negatively with the use of seniority in promotion. We also find some evidence, albeit not under all specifications, that replacement costs are positively associated with establishment size, which is consistent with monopsony. Bivariate scatterplots, pooled regressions and panel-based estimates suggest a positive relationship between replacement costs and the wage. While this result is not robust, it constitutes a puzzle for hiring and separation models, such as Manning (2003). In these models, the negative wage elasticity of replacement costs is a key assumption. These results thus call for further research on employment costs models. |
| Date: | 2010–03–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:indrel:1193228&r=lab |
| By: | Hethey, Tanja (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Schmieder, Johannes F. |
| Abstract: | "Economists have long been interested in the determinants and components of job creation and destruction. In many countries administrative datasets provide an excellent source for detailed analysis on a fine and disaggregate level. However, administrative datasets are not without problems: restructuring and relabeling of firms is often poorly measured and can potentially create large biases. We provide evidence of the extent of this bias and provide a new solution to deal with it using the German Establishment History Panel (BHP). While previous research has relied on the first and last appearance of the establishment identifier (EID) to identify openings and closings, we improve on this approach using a new dataset containing all worker flows between establishments in Germany. This allows us to credibly identify establishment births and deaths from 1975 to 2004. We show that the misclassification bias of using only the EID is very severe: Only about 35 to 40 percent of new and disappearing EIDs with more than 3 employees correspond unambiguously to real establishment entries and exits. Among larger establishments misclassification is even more common. We show that many new establishment IDs appear to be 'Spin-Offs' and these have become increasingly more common over time. We then demonstrate that using only EID entries and exits may dramatically overstate, by as much as 100 percent, the role of establishment turnover for job creation and destruction. Furthermore correcting job creation and destruction measures for spurious EID entries and exits reduces these measures and aligns them closer with the business cycle." (author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Date: | 2010–08–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabfme:201006_en&r=lab |
| By: | Alejandro DONADO (University of Wurzburg, Department of Economics); Klaus WALDE (University of Mainz, School of Management and Economics, Universite catholique de Louvain and CESifo) |
| Abstract: | Historically, worker movements have played a crucial role in making workplaces safer. Firms traditionally oppose better health standards. According to our interpretation, workplace safety is costly for .firms but increases average health of workers and thereby aggregate labour supply. A laissez-faire approach in which firms set safety standards is suboptimal as workers are not fully informed of health risks associated with jobs. Safety standards set by better-informed trade unions are output and welfare increasing. |
| Keywords: | occupational health and safety, trade unions, welfare |
| JEL: | J J |
| Date: | 2010–08–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2010027&r=lab |
| By: | Oguro, Kazumasa; Oshio, Takashi; Takahata, Junichiro |
| Abstract: | In this study, we attempt to investigate how educational subsidy, childcare allowance, and family allowance affect economic growth and income distribution, on the basis of simulation models which incorporate intergenerational ability transmission and endogenous fertility. The simulation results show that financial support for higher education can both increase economic growth and reduce income inequality, especially if the abilities of parent and child are closely correlated. In contrast with educational subsidy, raising childcare allowance or family allowance has limited impacts on growth and income inequality. |
| Keywords: | Ability transmission, endogenous fertility, educational subsidy |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:piecis:482&r=lab |