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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Ek, Susanne (Uppsala Center for Labor Studies); Holmlund, Bertil (Uppsala Center for Labor Studies) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we develop an equilibrium search and matching model where two-person families as well as singles participate in the labor market. We show that equilibrium entails wage dispersion among equally productive risk-averse workers. Marital status as well as spousal labor market status matters for wage outcomes. In general, employed members of two-person families receive higher wages than employed singles. The model is applied to a welfare analysis of alternative unemployment insurance systems, while recognizing the role of spousal employment as a partial substitute for public insurance. The optimal system involves benefit differentiation based on marital status as well as spousal labor market status |
| Keywords: | Job search; wage bargaining; wage differentials; unemployment; unemployment insurance |
| JEL: | J31 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2010–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uulswp:2010_001&r=lab |
| By: | Istvan Gabor R. (Department of Human Resources, Faculty of Economics, Budapest Corvinus University) |
| Abstract: | To the extent minimum-wage regulation is effective in fighting against excessive earnings handicaps of those at the bottom of earnings distribution, it may have the side-effect of worsening their employment prospects. A demand-and-supply interpretation of data on the relative employment rate and earnings position of the least educated in the EU27 suggests that the resulting dilemma might be particularly relevant for minimum-wage policies in post-socialist countries. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage, employment, earnings dispersion, demand and supply of labour, wage and employment discrimination |
| JEL: | J21 J23 J31 J38 J71 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:bworkp:1006&r=lab |
| By: | Rickne, Johanna (Uppsala Center for Labor Studies) |
| Abstract: | This study compares average earnings and productivities for men and women employed in roughly 200,000 Chinese industrial enterprises. Women’s average wages lag behind men’s wages by 11%, and this result is robust to the inclusion of non-wage income in the form of social insurance payments. The gender-wage gap is wider among workers with more than 12 years of education (28%), mainly because of the higher relative wages received by skilled men in foreign-invested firms. Women’s average productivity falls behind men’s productivity by a larger margin than the gap in earnings, and the null-hypothesis of earnings discrimination is thereby rejected. Equal average wages between men and women are found among firms located in China’s Special Economic Zones, and also among some light industrial sectors with high shares of female employees. Market reform hence appears to have improved women’s relative incomes. |
| Keywords: | China; gender wage gap; non-wage compensation |
| JEL: | I30 J16 J71 O10 |
| Date: | 2010–05–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uulswp:2010_006&r=lab |
| By: | Francesco D’Amuri (Bank of Italy and ISER, University of Essex); Giovanni Peri (University of California, Davis, NBER and Centro Studi Luca d’Agliano) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyze the effect of immigrants on natives’ job specialization in Western Europe. We test whether the inflow of immigrants changes employment rates or the chosen occupation of natives with similar education and age. We find no evidence of the first and strong evidence of the second: immigrants take more manual-routine type of occupations and push natives towards more abstract complex jobs, for a given set of observable skills. We also find some evidence that this oc-cupation reallocation is larger in countries with more flexible labor laws. As abstract-complex tasks pay a premium over manual-routine ones, we can evaluate the positive effect of such reallocation on the wages of native workers. Accounting for the total change in Complex/Non Complex task supply from natives and immigrants we find that immigration does not change much the relative compen-sation of the two types of tasks but it promotes the specialization of natives into the first type. |
| Keywords: | immigration, task specialization, European labor markets |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2010–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:302&r=lab |
| By: | Hensvik, Lena (Uppsala Center for Labor Studies) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how local school competition affects teacher wages at markets where wages are set via individual wage bargaining. Using regional variation in private school entry generated by a Swedish reform which allowed private schools to enter freely and a comprehensive matched employer employee data covering all high school teachers in Sweden over 16 years, I analyze the effects of competition on wages as well as labor flows. The results suggest that competition translates into higher wages, also for teachers in public schools. While the average increases are modest new teachers gain 2 percent and high ability teachers in math and science receive 4 percent higher wages in the most competitive areas compared to areas without any competition from private schools. Several robustness checks support a causal interpretation of the results which together highlight the potential gains from school competition through a more differentiated wage setting of teachers. |
| Keywords: | private school competition; teacher wages; monopsony power |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J42 |
| Date: | 2010–06–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uulswp:2010_012&r=lab |
| By: | Rosetta Lombardo; Giuliana De Luca; Giovanni Passarelli (Dipartimento di Economia e Statistica, Università della Calabria) |
| Abstract: | Differing characteristics in the labour market and educational system may lead to different outcomes both in terms of the speed of finding a job and of the job’s stability. We investigate whether having occupational specific human capital, as measured by the field of study, is associated with a higher probability of finding a stable job in a labour market which is flexible as regards atypical jobs but highly protective regarding stable jobs. We apply a discrete-time hazard model, taking into account unobservable heterogeneity, to analyse the transition to a stable job of students who graduated from the University of Calabria in 2004, at one, three and five years distance. Main findings indicate that, after controlling for a wide range of characteristics, Economics and Business graduates have a lower probability of finding a stable job than graduates in Engineering, followed by those with a degree in Sciences, Political Science, and Humanities. These results confirm that, even in a deprived area, investing in occupational specific human capital can be seen as an “insurance” against the risk of unemployment or unstable jobs. |
| Keywords: | Discrete time hazard model; Graduate labour market; Stable job; Human capital |
| JEL: | C41 I20 J24 J64 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clb:wpaper:201021&r=lab |
| By: | Peter Muehlau (Department of Sociology, Trinity College Dublin and Institute for International Integration Studies, Trinity College Dublin); |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I examine whether and to which degree quality of work and employment differ between men and women and how these gender differences are shaped by societal beliefs about ‘gender equality.’ Using data from the 2004 wave of the European Social Survey, I compare the jobs of men and women across a variety of measures of perceived job quality in 26 countries. Key findings are that job quality is gendered: Jobs of men are typically characterized by high training requirements, good promotion opportunities and high levels of job complexity, autonomy and participation. Jobs for women, in contrast, are less likely to pose a health or safety risk or to involve work during antisocial hours. However, contrary to expectation, the job profiles of men and women are not more similar in societies with gender egalitarian norms. While women are relatively more likely to be exposed to health and safety risks, work pressure and demands to work outside regular working time, in more gender-egalitarian societies their work is not, relative to men’s, more skilled, complex or autonomous. Neither do more egalitarian societies provide more opportunities for participation and advancement for women than less egalitarian societies. |
| JEL: | N A |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp345&r=lab |
| By: | Cockx, Bart (Ghent University); Dejemeppe, Muriel (Université catholique de Louvain) |
| Abstract: | Since July 2004 the job search effort of long-term unemployed benefit claimants is monitored in Belgium. We exploit the discontinuity in the treatment assignment at the age of 30 to evaluate the effect of a notification sent at least 8 months before job search is verified. The threat of monitoring increases transitions to employment, but of lower quality. In the less prosperous region, Wallonia, the impact is smaller, despite of the presence of specific counseling for the notified workers, and more heterogeneous. Moreover, in this region, the threat induces women to substitute sickness for unemployment benefits. |
| Keywords: | evaluation, monitoring job-search, threat effect, regression-discontinuity, grouped data |
| JEL: | J64 J65 J68 H43 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5337&r=lab |
| By: | Alejandro Badel; Ximena Peña |
| Abstract: | Despite the remarkable improvement of female labor market characteristics, a sizeable gender wage gap exists in Colombia. We employ quantile regression techniques to examine the degree to which current small differences in the distribution of observablecharacteristics can explain the gender gap. We find that the gap is largely explained by gender differences in the rewards to labor market characteristics and not by differences in the distribution of characteristics. We claim that Colombian women experience both a “glass ceiling effect’’ and also (what we call) a “quicksand floor effect” because gender differences in returns to characteristics primarily affect women at the top and the bottom of the distribution. Also, self selection into the labor force is crucial for gender gaps: if all women participated in the labor force, the observed gap would be roughly 50% larger at all quantiles. |
| Date: | 2010–11–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:007725&r=lab |
| By: | Leonardi, Marco (University of Milan); Pica, Giovanni (University of Salerno) |
| Abstract: | Theory predicts that the wage effects of government-mandated severance payments depend on workers' and firms' relative bargaining power. This paper estimates the effect of employment protection legislation (EPL) on workers' individual wages in a quasi-experimental setting, exploiting a reform that introduced unjust-dismissal costs in Italy for firms below 15 employees and left firing costs unchanged for bigger firms. Accounting for the endogeneity of the treatment status, we find that high-bargaining power workers (stayers, white collar and workers above 45) are almost left unaffected by the increase in EPL, while low-bargaining power workers (movers, blue collar and young workers) suffer a drop both in the wage level and its growth rate. |
| Keywords: | costs of unjust dismissals, severance payments, policy evaluation, endogeneity of treatment status |
| JEL: | E24 J3 J65 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5335&r=lab |
| By: | Gemus, Jonathan (Uppsala Center for Labor Studies) |
| Abstract: | I study the size and sources of the monetary return to college achievement as measured by cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA). I rst present evidence that the return to achievement is large and statistically signi cant. I nd, however, that this masks variation in the return across dierent groups of people. In particular, there is no relationship between GPA and earnings for graduate degree holders but a large and positive relationship for people without a graduate degree. To reconcile these results, I develop a model where students of diering and initially uncertain ability levels choose eort level in college and whether to earn a graduate degree. College achievement and graduate attainment are allowed to increase human capital and be used by employers to screen workers. In the separating equilibrium studied, workers who earn a graduate degree can eectively signal high productivity to employers. As a result, employers use undergraduate GPA-a noisy signal of productivity-to screen only the workers who do not hold a graduate degree. Viewing the empirical results through the lens of this equilibrium, the zero GPA-earnings relationship for graduate degree holders and the positive and large relationship for people without a graduate degree suggests that most of the return to achievement net of graduate educational attainment is driven by sorting. |
| Keywords: | keywords are Schooling Costs; Educational Attainment; Financial Aid Policies |
| JEL: | I20 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2010–01–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uulswp:2010_009&r=lab |
| By: | Elizabeth Ty Wilde; Lily Batchelder; David T. Ellwood |
| Abstract: | This paper explores how the wage and career consequences of motherhood differ by skill and timing. Past work has often found smaller or even negligible effects from childbearing for high-skill women, but we find the opposite. Wage trajectories diverge sharply for high scoring women after, but not before, they have children, while there is little change for low-skill women. It appears that the lifetime costs of childbearing, especially early childbearing, are particularly high for skilled women. These differential costs of childbearing may account for the far greater tendency of high-skill women to delay or avoid childbearing altogether. |
| JEL: | J01 J11 J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16582&r=lab |
| By: | Mireille Bruyère (LIRHE - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de recherche sur les Ressources Humaines et l'Emploi - CNRS : UMR5066 - Université des Sciences Sociales - Toulouse I); Laurence Lizé (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I) |
| Abstract: | The analysis of employees' labour-market paths cannot be confined to the characterization of their individual profiles. The characteristics of the jobs they have held in the past are also important determinants of their later occupational mobility. We seek to determine the variables (of an individual kind, or relating to earlier jobs) that influence the security of occupational paths, with “security” assessed on three criteria: employment stability (keeping the same job), employment security (rapid return to work after a mobility spell outside the firm), and income security (maintaining or increasing one's income after mobility). Our analysis covers the period 1998-2003 using the 2003 “Training and Occupational Skills” (Formation et Qualification Professionnelle: FQP) survey. We can thus discern a range of highly distinct mobility spaces: from in-house careers combining job and income security to upward external paths offering income growth. In between, we find forms of mobility that are risky because they are expose workers to long-term unemployment or income losses. The influence of past-job characteristics on the security of these paths turns out to be crucial. |
| Keywords: | Mobility; Security of the careers; Employment |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-00541065_v1&r=lab |
| By: | Rocher S. |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the extent to which graduates of higher education direct their own occupational choices. I begin by developing an empirical indicator to identify the relation between occupations based on their task content. To this end, I combine individual education and employment data of UK graduates with ratings on 42 task content areas from the UK Skill Survey. Based on these data, I show that UK graduates who majored in similar ?fields choose occupations with similar task packages. This is followed by a discussion of the wage implications of entering an atypical occupation relative to the modal graduate from the same fi?eld. As such, the indicator can be interpreted within a mismatch context. I fi?nd that task mismatch increases the probability of over-quali?cation, which is subsequently associated with lower wages. |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ant:wpaper:2010027&r=lab |
| By: | Vikman, Ulrika (Uppsala Center for Labor Studies) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines if the probability of leaving unemployment changes for unemployed parents with young children when childcare is available. To investigate this, I use the heterogeneity among Swedish municipalities before the implementation of a 2001 Swedish childcare reform making it mandatory for municipalities to oer childcare to unemployed parents for at least 15 hours per week. In the study dierence-in-dierences and dierence-in-dierence-indi erences methods are used. The results indicate a positive eect on the probability of leaving unemployment for mothers when childcare is available, but no eect is found for fathers. For mothers, some heterogeneous eects are also found, with a greater eect on the probability of leaving unemployment for work when childcare is available for mothers with only compulsory schooling or university education and mothers with two children. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment duration; Childcare |
| JEL: | J13 J64 |
| Date: | 2010–05–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uulswp:2010_007&r=lab |
| By: | Marika Karanassou (School of Economics and Finance, Queen Mary, University of London); Hector Sala Lorda (Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | This paper challenges the prevailing view of the neutrality of the labour income share to labour demand, and investigates its impact on the evolution of employment. Whilst maintaining the assumption of a unitary long-run elasticity of wages with respect to productivity, we demonstrate that productivity growth affects the labour share in the long run due to frictional growth (that is, the interplay of wage dynamics and productivity growth). In the light of this result, we consider a stylised labour demand equation and show that the labour share is a driving force of employment. We substantiate our analytical exposition by providing empirical models of wage setting and employment equations for France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the UK, and the US over the 1960-2008 period. Our findings show that the timevarying labour share of these countries has significantly influenced their employment trajectories across decades. This indicates that the evolution of the labour income share (or, equivalently, the wage-productivity gap) deserves the attention of policy makers. |
| Keywords: | Wages, productivity, labour income share, employment. |
| JEL: | E24 E25 O47 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uab:wprdea:wpdea1006&r=lab |
| By: | Bentolila, Samuel (CEMFI, Madrid); Cahuc, Pierre (Ecole Polytechnique, Paris); Dolado, Juan José (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); Le Barbanchon, Thomas (Ecole Polytechnique, Paris) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the strikingly different response of unemployment to the Great Recession in France and Spain. Their labor market institutions are similar and their unemployment rates just before the crisis were both around 8%. Yet, in France, unemployment rate has increased by 2 percentage points, whereas in Spain it has shot up to 19% by the end of 2009. We assess what part of this differential is due to the larger gap between the dismissal costs of permanent and temporary contracts and the less restrictive rules regarding the use of the latter contracts in Spain. Using a calibrated search and matching model, we estimate that about 45% of the surge in Spanish unemployment could have been avoided had Spain adopted French employment protection legislation before the crisis started. |
| Keywords: | temporary contracts, unemployment, Great Recession |
| JEL: | H29 J23 J38 J41 J64 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5340&r=lab |
| By: | Gustavsson, Magnus (Uppsala Center for Labor Studies); 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: | 2010–12–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uulswp:2010_013&r=lab |
| By: | Heiwai Tang (Tufts University and Centro Studi Luca d’Agliano) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how cross-country differences in labor market institutions shape the pattern of international trade, focusing on workers’ skill acquisition. I develop a model in which workers un-dertake non-contractible activities to acquire firm-specific skills on the job. In the model, workers have more incentive to acquire firm-specific skills relative to general skills in a more protective labor market. When sectors are different in the dependence on these two types of skills, workers’ skill acquisition turns labor laws into a source of comparative advantage. By embedding the model in an open-economy framework with heterogeneous firms, sectors with different levels of dependence on firm-specific skills, and countries with varying degrees of labor protection, I show that countries with more protective labor laws export relatively more in firm-specific skill-intensive sectors through both the intensive and extensive margins of trade. I then estimate returns to firm tenure for different U.S. manufacturing sectors over the period of 1974-1993, and use the estimates as sector proxies for firm-specific skill intensity to test the theoretical predictions. By implementing the Helpman-Melitz-Rubinstein (2008) framework to estimate sector-level gravity equations for 84 countries in 1995, I find supporting evidence for the predicted effects of labor market institutions on both margins of trade. |
| Keywords: | Labor market institutions, heterogeneous rms, margins of trade, trade patterns, firm-specific skills |
| JEL: | F10 F12 F14 F16 L22 J24 |
| Date: | 2010–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:301&r=lab |
| By: | Patrick Lünnemann (Banque centrale du Luxembourg, 2, boulevard Royal, L-2983 Luxembourg.); Ladislav Wintr (Banque centrale du Luxembourg, 2, boulevard Royal, L-2983 Luxembourg.) |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the degree of downward wage rigidity in Luxembourg using an administrative monthly data set on individual wages covering the entire economy over the period from January 2001 to January 2007. After limiting for measurement error, which would otherwise bias downwards the estimates of wage rigidity, we conclude that nearly all workers in Luxembourg are potentially subject to downward real wage rigidity. Our results are robust to different procedures to adjust for measurement error and methods for estimation of downward wage rigidity. We report relatively small differences in the frequency of nominal wage cuts across occupational groups and sectors. In addition, the observed rigidity does not seem to be driven predominantly by the absence of negative shocks. We show that the real wage rigidity is related to the automatic wage indexation, while additional factors might be necessary to explain the high degree of downward wage rigidity. JEL Classification: J31. |
| Keywords: | downward wage rigidity, wage indexation. |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20101269&r=lab |
| By: | Fredrik Andersson; Monica Garcia-Perez; John Haltiwanger; Kristin McCue; Seth Sanders |
| Abstract: | To what extent do immigrants and the native-born work in separate workplaces? Do worker and firm characteristics explain the degree of workplace concentration? We explore these questions using a matched employer-employee database that extensively covers employers in selected MSAs. We find that immigrants are much more likely to have immigrant coworkers than are natives, and are particularly likely to work with their compatriots. We find much higher levels of concentration for small businesses than for large ones, that concentration varies substantially across industries, and that concentration is particularly high among immigrants with limited English skills. We also find evidence that neighborhood job networks are strongly positively associated with concentration. The effects of networks and language remain strong when type is defined by country of origin rather than simply immigrant status. The importance of these factors varies by immigrant country of origin—for example, not speaking English well has a particularly strong association with concentration for immigrants from Asian countries. Controlling for differences across MSAs, we find that observable employer and employee characteristics account for almost half of the difference between immigrants and natives in the likelihood of having immigrant coworkers, with differences in industry, residential segregation and English speaking skills being the most important factors. |
| Keywords: | concentration, segregation, immigrant workers, social networks |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:10-39&r=lab |
| By: | Barbara Pertold-Gebicka |
| Abstract: | In absence of a model-based measure of occupational skill-intensity, the litera- ture on wage inequality cannot consistently track technological progress on occu- pational level - a key ingredient of recent theories of labor market polarization. In this paper, I use the March CPS data from 1983 to 2002 to estimate such a measure corresponding to occupation-specific relative productivities of college and high-school educated. With imperfect substitution across skill types, the measure- ment of relative productivities requires estimation of substitution elasticities, and I propose a simple strategy to obtain these. The resulting measure is used to shed light on the modified skill-biased technological change hypothesis proposed by Autor et al. (2006). |
| Keywords: | occupations; skill-intensity; skill content; elasticity of labor substitu- tion; technological progress; polarization |
| JEL: | J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cer:papers:wp421&r=lab |
| By: | Lundqvist, Heléne (Uppsala Center for Labor Studies); Dahlberg, Matz (Uppsala Center for Labor Studies); Mörk, Eva (Uppsala Center for Labor 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: | H11 H70 J45 |
| Date: | 2010–09–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uulswp:2010_014&r=lab |
| By: | Joseph G. Altonji; Ching-I Huang; Christopher R. Taber |
| Abstract: | We develop a framework that may be used to determine the degree to which a school choice program may harm public school stayers by luring the best students to other schools. This framework results in a simple formula showing that the “cream-skimming” effect is increasing in the degree of heterogeneity within schools, the school choice takeup rate of strong students relative to weak students, and the importance of peers. We use the formula to investigate the effects of a voucher program on the high school graduation rate of the students who would remain in public school. We employ NELS:88 data to measure the characteristics of public school students, to estimate a model of the private school entrance decision, and to estimate peer group effects on graduation. We supplement the econometric estimates with a wide range of alternative assumptions about school choice and peer effects. We find that the cream skimming effect is negative but small and that this result is robust across our specifications. |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16579&r=lab |
| By: | Sofia Andreou; Panos Pashardes |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how the newly introduced Contextual Value Added (CVA) indicator of school quality affects house prices in the catchment area of primary and secondary schools in England. The empirical analysis, based on the data drawn from three independent and previously unexplored UK data sources, shows that the score component of CVA has a strong positive effect on house prices at both primary and secondary levels of education; while the non-score component of this school quality indicator has a significant (negative) effect only in the analysis of secondary school data. Nevertheless, the effect of CVA and its score and non-score components on house prices also varies with the level of spatial aggregation at which empirical investigation is pursued, assuming a more positive role between rather than within Local Authorities (Las). This reflects the emphasis placed by CVA on public good aspects of school quality and suggests that LA policies aimed at raising the average non-score quality characteristics of school conform to household preferences. |
| Keywords: | School quality, hedonic regression, house prices |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucy:cypeua:05-2010&r=lab |
| By: | Hojo, Masakazu; Oshio, Takashi |
| Abstract: | This study investigates what factors determine students’ academic performance in five major economies in East Asia, using the dataset from the 2007 survey of Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). We explicitly consider initial maturity differences, endogeneity of class size, and peer effects in regression analysis. We find that a student’s individual and family background is a key determinant of educational performance, while institutional and resource variables have a more limited effect. Peer effects are significant in general, but ability sorting at the school and/or class levels makes it difficult to interpret them in Hong Kong and Singapore. |
| Keywords: | Educational production function, Initial maturity differences, Peer effects, Class size, Asia |
| JEL: | I21 I22 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:piecis:494&r=lab |
| By: | Zhao, Y. (Tilburg University) |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:tilbur:urn:nbn:nl:ui:12-4378359&r=lab |
| By: | Deepita Chakravarty; Ishita Chakravarty (Centre for Economic and Social Studies) |
| Abstract: | Research on women's work has attempted to analyse how the interplay of market and patriarchy leads women and men to perform different economic roles in society. This segregation on the basis of gender or the sex-typing of work plays an important role both from the demand and supply sides in determining the work profiles of women and girl children. The present study attempts to see how a particular labour market, i.e. domestic service, a traditionally male domain, became segregated both by gender and age in post partition West Bengal (WB) and mainly in its capital city Calcutta. We have argued that the downward trend in industrial job opportunities in post independence WB accompanied by large scale immigration of women, men and children from the bordering East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, led to an unprecedented increase in labourforce under conditions of stagnant investment. This in turn led to a decline in the wage rate. In such a situation poor refugee women in their frantic search for means of survival gradually drove out the males of the host population engaged in domestic service in urban WB by offering to work in return for a very low and often for no wage at all. Again, poor males from the neighboring states of Bihar, Orissa and UP constituted historically a substantial section of the Calcutta labour market and many of them were employed as domestics in a state known for its prevalence of domestic service in colonial India. The replacement of male domestics by females was further facilitated by the gradual decline in inter-state migration due to lack of employment opportunities in independent WB. The second stage in the changing profile of domestic service in urban WB was arguably set by the migrating girl children from the rural areas of the state to Calcutta city in search for employment between 1971 and 1981. |
| Keywords: | gender roles, employment, domestic service, India |
| JEL: | J00 J60 J70 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eab:microe:2351&r=lab |
| By: | Paul Castillo (Banco Central de Reserva del Perú); Carlos Montoro (Banco Central de Reserva del Perú and Bank for International Settlements) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyse the effects of informal labour markets on the dynamics of inflation and on the transmission of aggregate demand and supply shocks. In doing so, we incorporate the informal sector in a modified New Keynesian model with labour market frictions as in the Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides model. Our main results show that the informal economy generates a "buffer" effect that diminishes the pressure of demand shocks on aggregate wages and inflation. Finding that is consistent with the empirical literature on the e¤ects of informal labour markets in business cycle fluctuations. This result implies that in economies with large informal labour markets the interest rate channel of monetary policy is relatively weaker. Furthermore, the model produces cyclical flows from informal to formal employment consistent with the data. |
| Keywords: | Monetary Policy, New Keynesian Model, Informal Economy, Labour Market Frictions. |
| JEL: | E32 E50 J64 O17 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rbp:wpaper:2010-009&r=lab |
| By: | van Ooijen, Raun (De Nederlandsche Bank); Mastrogiacomo, Mauro (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis); Euwals, Rob (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis) |
| Abstract: | We study the causal relation between private wealth and retirement age. We propose two estimation strategies based on expected retirement age. The outcome variable is observed repeatedly over time. We correct first for the unobserved heterogeneity in the disutility of work by using panel data techniques. Next, we exploit information on expected wealth accumulation in order to identify the unexpected component in wealth accumulation. In line with the literature we find a small but significant effect of private wealth on planned early retirement. |
| Keywords: | early retirement, private wealth, subjective retirement expectations |
| JEL: | C23 J26 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5339&r=lab |
| By: | D. Jayaraj; Subramanian S |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the hypothesis that the phenomenon of child labour is explicable in terms of poverty that compels a household to keep its children out of school and put them to work in the cause of the household’s survival. In exploring the link between child labour and poverty in the Indian context, the paper advances the view that the nature of the connection is more readily apprehended if both the variables under study are defined more expansively and inclusively than is customarily the case. [Research Paper No. 2005/55] |
| Keywords: | child labour, generalized deprivation, poverty, ‘school-less-ness’, survival axiom |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:3261&r=lab |
| By: | Schlitte, Friso (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "Labour markets in most highly developed countries are marked by rising levels of skill segregation in the production process and increasing inequalities in skill-specific employment prospects. Local human capital has a likely effect on skill specific productivity levels and employment growth. Furthermore, theoretical studies suggest that skill segregation might matter for the polarisation of wages and employment. There are several studies investigating the influence of the local human capital endowment on qualification-specific wages levels. However, analyses on regional employment growth by different skill levels are still scarce and empirical evidence on the effects of skill segregation on qualification-specific employment is completely lacking. This paper investigates the effects of the local skill composition and skill segregation in the production process on qualification-specific employment growth in West German regions. This study provides first evidence for negative effects of skill segregation on low-skilled employment growth. Furthermore, the results show that a large share of local high-skilled employment does not foster further regional concentration of human capital but positively affects the employment prospects of less skilled workers." (author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Humankapital, lokale Ökonomie, Beschäftigungsentwicklung, Lohnhöhe, Qualifikationsniveau, Niedrigqualifizierte, Hochqualifizierte, Kompetenz, Segregation, regionaler Arbeitsmarkt, Westdeutschland, Bundesrepublik Deutschland |
| JEL: | R11 J21 J24 |
| Date: | 2010–11–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201022&r=lab |
| By: | Daniel Horgos (Helmut Schmidt University and Centro Studi Luca d’Agliano); Lucia Tajoli (Politecnico di Milano and KITeS – Bocconi University) |
| Abstract: | While most offshoring literature focus on the effects on relative wages, other implications do not receive the necessary attention. This paper investigates effects on the industries’ skill ratio. It sum-marizes the empirical literature, discusses theoretical findings, and provides first empirical evidence for Germany. As results show, effects are mainly driven by the industry where offshoring takes place. In high skill intensive industries, the high skill labor ratio increases (vice versa for low skill intensive industries). Since this result is in line with other empirical findings but seems to contradict with theory, the paper additionally discusses possible explanations. |
| Keywords: | oshoring; labor market implications; skill ratio; skill composition |
| JEL: | F16 J21 |
| Date: | 2010–07–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:296&r=lab |
| By: | Gemus, Jonathan (Uppsala Center for Labor Studies) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the distributional impacts of direct college costs { that is, whether the response of educational decisions to college costs varies by student characteristics. The primary obstacle in estimating these eects is the endogeneity of schooling costs. To overcome this issue, I use two measures of direct costs that are plausibly exogenous: living within commuting distance to a university and the elimination of the Social Security Student Bene t Program in the United States. Both sources of variation indicate that lower ability students are the most responsive to changes in college costs. In contrast, I nd that the eect of both cost measures on college attendance and graduation does not substantially vary by family income, parent education, race or gender. |
| Keywords: | Schooling Costs; Educational Attainment; Financial Aid Policy |
| JEL: | I20 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2010–10–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uulswp:2010_016&r=lab |
| By: | Gobillon, Laurent (Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques, PSE and CREST); Magnac, Thierry (Toulouse School of Economics, Université de Toulouse (Gremaq & Idei)); Selod, Harris (The World Bank, Paris School of Economics and CREST) |
| Abstract: | This paper is a statistical evaluation of the 1997 enterprise zone program in France. We investigate whether the program increased the pace at which unemployed workers residing in targeted municipalities and surrounding areas find employment. The work relies on a two- stage analysis of unemployment spells drawn from an exhaustive dataset over the 1993-2003 period in the Paris region. We first estimate a duration model stratified by municipalities in order to recover semester-specific municipality effects net of individual observed heterogeneity. These effects are estimated both before and after the implementation of the program, allowing us to construct variants of difference-in-difference estimators of the impact of the program at the municipality level. Following extensive robustness checks, we conclude that enterprise zones have a very small but significant e¤ect on the rate at which unemployed workers find a job. The effect remains localized and is shown to be significant only in the short run. |
| Keywords: | Enterprise zones, policy evaluation, unemployment, economic geography, duration models |
| JEL: | C21 C41 H25 J64 R23 |
| Date: | 2010–10–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ide:wpaper:23476&r=lab |
| By: | Solé, Meritxell (CREB, Barcelona); Diaz-Serrano, Luis (Universitat Rovira i Virgili); Rodriguez Martinez, Marisol (University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the impact of working and contractual conditions, particularly exposure to job risks, on the probability of acquiring a disability. We postulate a model in which this impact is mediated by the choice of occupation, with a level of risk associated to it. We assume this choice is endogenous, and that it depends on preferences and opportunities in the labour market, both of which may differ between immigrants and natives. To test this hypothesis we use data from the Continuous Sample of Working Lives of the Spanish SS system. It contains individual, job and firm information of over a million workers, including a representative sample of immigrants. We find that risk exposure increases the probability of permanent disability by 5.3%; temporary employment also influences health. Migrant status – with differences among regions of origin – significantly affects both disability and the probability of being employed in a risky occupation. Most groups of immigrants work in riskier jobs, but have lower probability of becoming disabled. Nevertheless, our theoretical hypothesis that disability and risk are jointly determined is not valid for immigrants: i.e. for them working conditions is not a matter of choice in terms of health. |
| Keywords: | disability, working conditions, immigration, Spain, MCVL |
| JEL: | J28 J61 J81 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5338&r=lab |
| By: | Ferdinand Mittermaier (University of Munich); Johannes Rincke (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | We address the role of labor cost differentials for national tax policies. Using a simple theoretical framework with two countries competing for a mobile firm, we show that in a bidding race for FDI, it is optimal for governments to compensate firms for international labor cost differentials. Using panel data for western Europe, we then put the model prediction to an empirical test. Exploiting exogenous variation in labor cost differentials induced by the breakdown of communism in eastern Europe, we find strong support for the model prediction that countries with relatively high labor costs tend to set lower tax rates in order to attract mobile capital. Our key result is that an increase in the unit labor cost differential by one standard deviation decreases the statutory tax rate by 7.3 to 7.5 percentage points. |
| Keywords: | Foreign direct investment, corporate taxation, labor costs |
| JEL: | H25 H73 F23 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:2010/12/doc2010-54&r=lab |
| By: | David Frisvold; Ezra Golberstein |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the effect of black-white differences in school quality on black-white differences in health in later life due to the racial convergence in school quality for cohorts born between 1910 and 1950 in southern states with segregated schools. Using data from the 1984 through 2007 National Health Interview Surveys linked to race-specific data on school quality, we find that reductions in the black-white gap in the pupil-teacher ratio and term length led to reductions in the black-white gap in self-rated health, disability, and body mass index. |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emo:wp2003:1013&r=lab |
| By: | Rémi Piatek; Pia Pinger |
| Abstract: | This paper establishes that individuals with an internal locus of control, i.e., who believe that reinforcement in life comes from their own actions instead of being determined by luck or destiny, earn higher wages. However, this positive effect only translates into labor income via the channel of education. Factor structure models are implemented on an augmented data set coming from two different samples. By so doing, we are able to correct for potential biases that arise due to reverse causality and spurious correlation, and to investigate the impact of premarket locus of control on later outcomes. |
| Keywords: | locus of control, wages, latent factor model, data set combination |
| JEL: | C31 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp338&r=lab |
| By: | Jahn, Elke J. (IAB, Nürnberg); Bentzen, Jan (Aarhus School of Business) |
| Abstract: | Temporary agency employment has grown steadily in most European countries over the past three decades as part of the general trend towards increased employment flexibility. Yet to this day, it remains an open question what drives the demand for temporary agency workers. The paper examines, first, whether the deregulation of temporary agency employment is responsible for the growth of the flexible staffing industry. Second, we investigate the cyclical behavior of temporary agency employment. Using monthly data for Germany covering the period 1973-2008, we show that the continuous liberalization of this sector is not responsible for the surge in temporary agency employment. Our analysis reveals, moreover, that temporary agency employment exhibits strong cyclical behavior and correlates with main economic indicators in real time. Since most European countries promoted the use of temporary agency employment in a similar way, we believe that our results may be interesting from an international perspective as well. |
| Keywords: | business cycle, labor law, temporary agency employment, regulation |
| JEL: | C41 J23 J40 J48 K31 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5333&r=lab |
| By: | Carola Frydman; Dirk Jenter |
| Abstract: | This paper surveys the recent literature on CEO compensation. The rapid rise in CEO pay over the past 30 years has sparked an intense debate about the nature of the pay-setting process. Many view the high level of CEO compensation as the result of powerful managers setting their own pay. Others interpret high pay as the result of optimal contracting in a competitive market for managerial talent. We describe and discuss the empirical evidence on the evolution of CEO pay and on the relationship between pay and firm performance since the 1930s. Our review suggests that both managerial power and competitive market forces are important determinants of CEO pay, but that neither approach is fully consistent with the available evidence. We briefly discuss promising directions for future research. |
| JEL: | G30 J31 J33 M52 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16585&r=lab |