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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Alan B. Krueger (Princeton University); Andreas Mueller (Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents findings from a survey of 6,025 unemployed workers who were interviewed every week for up to 24 weeks in the fall of 2009 and spring of 2010. Our main findings are: (1) the amount of time devoted to job search declines sharply over the spell of unemployment; (2) the self-reported reservation wage predicts whether a job offer is accepted or rejected; (3) the reservation wage is remarkably stable over the course of unemployment for most workers, with the notable exception of workers who are over age 50 and those who had nontrivial savings at the start of the study; (4) many workers who seek full-time work will accept a part-time job that offers a wage below their reservation wage; and (5) the amount of time devoted to job search and the reservation wage help predict early exits from Unemployment Insurance (UI). |
| Keywords: | unemployment, job search, reservation wage |
| JEL: | D19 D60 H31 J21 J29 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cepsud:1295&r=lab |
| By: | Ek, Susanne (Uppsala University); Holmlund, Bertil (Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | A significant fraction of the labor force consists of employed workers who are part-time unemployed (underemployed) in the sense that they are unable to work as much as they prefer. This paper develops a search and matching model to study the design of optimal unemployment insurance in an economy with unemployment as well as part-time unemployment. Part-time unemployment provides income insurance and serves as a stepping stone to full-time jobs. Unemployment benefits for part-timers increase the outflow from unemployment to part-time work but reduce the outflow from part-time work to full-time employment. We examine the optimal structure of benefits for unemployed and underemployed workers. The results indicate non-negligible welfare gains associated with time limits for unemployment benefits as well as for part-time benefits. The welfare gains from optimal UI are larger when wages are fixed than when they are flexible. |
| Keywords: | job search, part-time unemployment, unemployment insurance |
| JEL: | J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5540&r=lab |
| By: | Maria S. Floro; Hitomi Komatsu |
| Abstract: | The utilization of time use data for exploring employment issues has received little attention in economic analysis. Using data from the 2000 South African national time use survey we argue that a gender-aware understanding of how men and women organize their daily life can help identify labor market and subsistence work that are missed in labor force surveys, thus complementing the information they provide. Further, information on the time spent in jobrelated search and household work provide insights on the interconnectedness of gender inequalities in the labor market and within the household. Our analysis of the time use patterns of 10,465 working age women and men, shows that a non-trivial proportion of men and women classified as either "not in the labor force" or "unemployed" actually engaged in subsistence, temporary and casual forms of employment. Secondly, we find that regardless of their labor force status, women's and men's hours of unpaid work donot vary greatly. These affect not only employment options of women but also their ability to look for work. Thirdly, time use data helps identify the salient characteristics of these individuals and the type of occupations they are engaged in. |
| Keywords: | time allocation, gender, labor force participation, South Africa JEL Codes: E24, J22 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amu:wpaper:2011-02&r=lab |
| By: | Alex Bryson; Petri Böckerman; Pekka Ilmakunnas |
| Abstract: | Using nationally representative survey data for Finnish employees linked to register data on their wages and work histories we find wage effects of high involvement management (HIM) practices are generally positive and significant. However, employees with better wage and work histories are more likely to enter HIM jobs. The wage premium falls substantially having accounted for employees' work histories suggesting that existing studies' estimates are upwardly biased due to positive selection into HIM. Results do not differ significantly when using propensity score matching as opposed to standard regression techniques. The premium rises with the number of HIM practices and differs markedly across different types of HIM practice. |
| Keywords: | wages, high involvement management, high performance work system, incentivepay, training, team working, information sharing, propensity score matching |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J33 M12 M50 M52 M53 M54 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1046&r=lab |
| By: | Friedhelm Pfeiffer; Nico Johannes Schulz |
| Abstract: | Gregariousness is an important aspect of human life with implications for labour market outcomes. The paper examines, to the best of our knowledge for the first time for Germany, gregariousness and social interaction at the workplace and associated wage differentials. Our empirical findings with samples from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) demonstrate that gregarious people more often work in jobs with social interaction. Furthermore, females tend to work more often in interactive jobs compared to males. There is evidence that working in an interactive job is associated with a compensating negative wage differential of 7 percent for women and non for men. Implications for wage policy are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Gregariousness, social interactions, labour markets, sorting, wage differentials |
| JEL: | J01 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp363&r=lab |
| By: | Hámori, Szilvia (Hungarian Academy of Sciences); Kollo, Janos (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) |
| Abstract: | We look at the effect of school starting age on standardized test scores using data covering all grade four and grade eight students in Hungary. Instrumental variables estimates of the local average treatment effect suggest that children generally gain from starting school one year later and the effects are much stronger in the case of students coming from low-educated families. We test the robustness of the results by allowing for heterogeneity in the age effect, distinguishing between fields of testing, using discontinuity samples and relying on alternative data. The hypothesis that delayed entry has a stronger impact on low-status children is supported by the robustness checks. The observed patterns are most probably explained by the better performance of kindergartens, as opposed to schools, in developing the skills of low-status children. |
| Keywords: | education, student test scores, enrolment age, identification |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5539&r=lab |
| By: | Cohn, Alain (University of Zurich); Fehr, Ernst (University of Zurich); Herrmann, Benedikt (University of Nottingham); Schneider, Frédéric (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | We conducted a randomized field experiment to examine how workers respond to wage cuts, and whether their response depends on the wages paid to coworkers. Workers were assigned to teams of two, performed identical individual tasks, and received the same performance – independent hourly wage. Cutting both team members' wages caused a substantial decrease in performance. When only one team member's wage was cut, the performance decrease for the workers who received the cut was more than twice as large as the individual performance decrease when both workers' wages were cut. This finding indicates that social comparison processes among workers affect effort provision because the only difference between the two wage cut conditions is the other team member's wage level. In contrast, workers whose wage was not cut but who witnessed their team member's pay being cut displayed no change in performance relative to the baseline treatment in which both workers' wages remained unchanged, indicating that social comparison exerts asymmetric effects on effort. |
| Keywords: | compensation, fairness, field experiment, social comparison |
| JEL: | C93 J33 M53 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5550&r=lab |
| By: | Picot, Garnett; Hou, Feng |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews recent research on the determinants of the labour market outcomes of the children of immigrants in Canada and in the U.S. New research on outcomes in Canada is also presented. In the aggregate, and with no controls, the labour market outcomes of the second generation-the children of immigrants-are equal to, or better than, those of the third-and-higher generations-the children of domestic-born parents. However, the story is somewhat different after one has accounted for the superior educational levels and the residential locations of the second generation. In the U.S, the second generation's advantage in labour market outcomes disappears; in Canada, among second-generation members of a visible-minority group, the advantage turns marginally negative. Ethnic group/source region differences in outcomes loom large in both countries. The important determinants of the earnings gap between the second generation and the third-and-higher generations include educational attainment, which accounts for about half of the wage gap, residential location, ethnic background, the degree of "ethnic capital," and the educational and earnings mobility between immigrants and their children. |
| Keywords: | Education, training and learning, Children and youth, Ethnic diversity and immigration, Educational attainment, Immigrant children and youth, Ethnic groups and generations in Canada, Labour market and income |
| Date: | 2011–03–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2011331e&r=lab |
| By: | Behaghel, Luc (CREST-INSEE); Caroli, Eve (University Paris Ouest-Nanterre); Roger, Muriel (INRA-CORELA) |
| Abstract: | We analyse the role of training in mitigating the negative impact of technical and organizational changes on the employment prospects of older workers. Using a panel of French firms in the late 1990s, we first estimate wage bill share equations for different age groups. Consistently with what is found in the literature, we find that adopting new technologies and innovative work practices negatively affects the wage bill share of older workers. In contrast, training older workers more than average increases their share in the wage bill in the next period. So, training contributes to offset the negative impact of ICT and innovative work practices. However, it does not reduce the age bias associated with these innovative devices: the interaction terms between training and ICT/innovative work practices are either insignificant or negative. As a second step, we estimate the impact of ICT, innovative work practices and training on employment flows by age group in the next period. We get similar results to those obtained with wage bill shares. Overall, training appears to have a positive impact on the employability of older workers, but it offers limited prospects to dampen the age bias associated with new technologies and innovative work practices. |
| Keywords: | technical change, organizational change, training, older workers |
| JEL: | J14 J24 J26 O30 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5544&r=lab |
| By: | Jan Babecky; Philip Du Caju; Theodora Kosma; Martina Lawless; Julian Messina; Tairi Room |
| Abstract: | Firms have multiple options at the time of adjusting their wage bills. However, previous literature has mainly focused on base wages. We broaden the analysis beyond downward rigidity in base wages by investigating the use of other margins of labour cost adjustment at the firm level. Using data from a unique survey, we find that European firms make frequent use of other, more flexible, components of compensation to adjust the cost of labour. Changes in bonuses and non-pay benefits are some of the potential margins firms use to reduce costs. We also show how the margins of adjustment chosen are affected by firm and worker characteristics. |
| Keywords: | European Union, firm survey, labour costs, wage rigidity. |
| JEL: | J30 C81 P5 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cnb:wpaper:2010/07&r=lab |
| By: | Rocco, Lorenzo; Tanabe, Kimie; Suhrcke, Marc; Fumagalli, Elena |
| Abstract: | By causing a sizeable reduction in employment 6 percent and labor supply 19 percent, chronic diseases are responsible for a major efficiency loss in the Egyptian economy. Furthermore the impact of chronic diseases on the labor market is not uniformly distributed. The older and the less educated suffer a larger drop in the probability of being employed and in their supply of working hours. The authors estimate the reduced form equations of individual employment status, labor supply and the usual wage equation. They control for unobserved ability and individual preferences by means of a within-siblings estimator. Measurement errors in our self-reported health variable have been accounted for. |
| Keywords: | Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Labor Markets,Disease Control&Prevention,Labor Policies,Population Policies |
| Date: | 2011–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5575&r=lab |
| By: | Taryn Dinkelman (Princeton University); Claudia Martínez A. (Universidad de Chile) |
| Abstract: | Recent economic research shows that imperfect information about Mincer returns to education (in developing countries) or about financial aid (in the US) may undermine investments in schooling and exacerbate inequalities in access to education. We extend this literature by presenting the results of an experiment that provided children and a subset of their parents with specific information about financial aid for higher education, and measured the impact on effort in primary school. We developed a DVD information program and randomly assigned a sample of Chilean 8th graders in poor urban schools to information treatment and control groups. Half of the treatment group watched the DVD at school (Student group) and the other half received a copy of the program to watch at home (Family group). Using survey and matched administrative data to measure outcomes three to six months post-intervention, we show that knowledge of financial aid sources improves in treated schools and school-reported absenteeism falls by 14%. These responses appear to be driven by students with higher baseline grades; yet we find no significant effects on 8th Grade scores or 9th Grade enrolment for any students. While parents in the Family treatment group score significantly higher on tests of information related to DVD content, watching the DVD at home is no more effective at changing effort than watching at school, at least for high ability students likely to select in to watching the DVD. Our results suggest that Chile falls somewhere between developing and developed countries: exposure to information about financial aid for post-secondary schooling significantly affects student knowledge and absenteeism, but is insufficient for improving other educational outcomes. |
| Keywords: | finaicial aid, education, Chile, imperfect information, behavior, education investment |
| JEL: | D80 I20 O12 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cepsud:1296&r=lab |
| By: | Berger, Johannes (University of Cologne); Herbertz, Claus (University of Cologne); Sliwka, Dirk (University of Cologne) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effects of managerial incentives on favoritism in promotion decisions. First, we theoretically show that favoritism leads to a lower quality of promotion decisions and in turn lower efforts. But the effect can be mitigated by pay-for-performance incentives for managers who decide upon promotion. Second, we analyze matched employer-employee survey data with detailed firm level information on managerial incentive schemes and find that perceived promotion quality is indeed substantially higher when managers receive performance-related pay or participate in gain sharing plans. |
| Keywords: | incentives, favoritism, nepotism, tournaments |
| JEL: | J33 M51 M52 M54 J71 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5543&r=lab |
| By: | Clément Imbert (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris - ENS Paris - INRA) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the labor market in Vietnam during the transition towards market economy (1993-2006): we show that the public-private sector wage gap markedly increased, but that wage inequality decreased overall. Our aim is to assess how much of this evolution can be explained by workers' productive skills and their allocation between sectors. We use a simple, yet innovative, method that allows us to take into account workers' unobservable characteristics and their remuneration in each sector. Throughout the period we consider, public sector workers are more skilled than private sector workers. However, rising returns to workers' skills in the public sector play a major role in the increase of the public-private sector gap. Against all expectations, the public sector grew richer as Vietnam moved towards market economy. Finally, a greater homogeneity among labor market participants seems to explain the overall decline in wage inequality. |
| Keywords: | transition ; inequality decomposition ; public sector |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-00564653&r=lab |
| By: | Carneiro, Pedro (University College London); Løken, Katrine Vellesen (University of Bergen); Salvanes, Kjell Gunnar (Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact on children of increasing the time that the mother spends with her child in the first year by exploiting a reform that increased paid and unpaid maternity leave in Norway. The reform increased maternal leave on average by 4 months and family income was unaffected. The increased time with the child led to a 2.7 percentage points decline in high school dropout. For mothers with low education we find a 5.2 percentage points decline. The effect is especially large for children of mothers who prior to the reform, would take very low levels of unpaid leave. |
| Keywords: | employment; income; family; education |
| JEL: | J21 J22 |
| Date: | 2010–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bergec:2010_006&r=lab |
| By: | Stark, Oded; Hyll, Walter |
| Abstract: | We analyze the impact on a firm’s profits and optimal wage rates, and on the distribution of workers’ earnings, when workers compare their earnings with those of co-workers. We consider a low-productivity worker who receives lower wage earnings than a high-productivity worker. When the low-productivity worker derives (dis)utility not only from his own effort but also from comparing his earnings with those of the high-productivity worker, his response to the sensing of relative deprivation is to increase the optimal level of effort. Consequently, the firm’s profits are higher, its wage rates remain unchanged, and the distribution of earnings is compressed. |
| Keywords: | Social comparisons; Heterogeneous workforce; Relative deprivation; Effort exertion; Earnings gap; Earnings compression |
| JEL: | D21 J31 J22 J24 M54 D01 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:28910&r=lab |
| By: | Lommerud, Kjell Erik (http://www.uib.no/persons/Kjell-Erik.Lommerud); Meland, Frode (http://www.uib.no/persons/Frode.Meland); Straume, Odd Rune (University of Minho) |
| Abstract: | We study how incentives for North-South technology transfers in multinational enterprises are a¤ected by labour market institutions. If workers are collectively organised, incentives for technology transfers are partly governed by ?rms? desire to curb trade union power. This will a¤ect not only the extent but also the type of technology transfer. While skill upgrading of southern workers bene?ts these workers at the expense of northern worker welfare, quality upgrading of products produced in the South may harm not only northern but also southern workers. A minimum wage policy to raise the wage levels of southern workers may spur technology transfer, possibly to the extent that the utility of northern workers decline. These conclusions are reached in a setting where a unionised multinational multiproduct ?rm produces two vertically di¤erentiated products in northern and southern subsidiaries, respectively. |
| Keywords: | North-South technology transfer; Multinationals; Trade unions; Minimum wages |
| JEL: | F23 J51 O33 |
| Date: | 2010–09–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bergec:2010_009&r=lab |
| By: | Stacy Dale (Mathematica Policy Research); Alan B. Krueger (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the monetary return to attending a highly selective college using the College and Beyond (C&B) Survey linked to Detailed Earnings Records from the Social Security Administration (SSA). This paper extends earlier work by Dale and Krueger (2002) that examined the relationship between the college that students attended in 1976 and the earnings they self-reported reported in 1995 on the C&B follow-up survey. In this analysis, we use administrative earnings data to estimate the return to various measures of college selectivity for a more recent cohort of students: those who entered college in 1989. We also estimate the return to college selectivity for the 1976 cohort of students, but over a longer time horizon (from 1983 through 2007) using administrative data. We find that the return to college selectivity is sizeable for both cohorts in regression models that control for variables commonly observed by researchers, such as student high school GPA and SAT scores. However, when we adjust for unobserved student ability by controlling for the average SAT score of the colleges that students applied to, our estimates of the return to college selectivity fall substantially and are generally indistinguishable from zero. There were notable exceptions for certain subgroups. For black and Hispanic students and for students who come from less-educated families (in terms of their parents’ education), the estimates of the return to college selectivity remain large, even in models that adjust for unobserved student characteristics. |
| Keywords: | college admissions, future income, SAT, GPA |
| JEL: | D19 I21 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:indrel:1297&r=lab |
| By: | Samara Potter Gunter (Colby College) |
| Abstract: | I use variation in state EITCs between 1997-2005 to identify changes in informal and regular labor supply by unmarried men and women with children. Men’s participation in the informal sector declines by 6 percentage points if a state EITC increases by 10% of the federal credit. Usual regular-sector hours worked per week increase by 4.1 and informal-sector hours per week fall by 2.7 with no effect on total hours. Single men with children appear to respond to state EITCs on the intensive rather than extensive margin and shift away from informal work toward regular work without changing total labor supplied. I find no effects on women’s participation in either regular or informal work. |
| Keywords: | Informal economy, earned income tax credit |
| JEL: | D19 D60 H31 J21 J29 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:crcwel:1298&r=lab |
| By: | Firpo, Sergio (São Paulo School of Economics); Fortin, Nicole M. (University of British Columbia, Vancouver); Lemieux, Thomas (University of British Columbia, Vancouver) |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that changes in the returns to occupational tasks have contributed to changes in the wage distribution over the last three decades. Using Current Population Survey (CPS) data, we first show that the 1990s polarization of wages is explained by changes in wage setting between and within occupations, which are well captured by tasks measures linked to technological change and offshorability. Using a decomposition based on Firpo, Fortin, and Lemieux (2009), we find that technological change and deunionization played a central role in the 1980s and 1990s, while offshorability became an important factor from the 1990s onwards. |
| Keywords: | wage inequality, polarization, occupational tasks, offshoring, RIF-regressions |
| JEL: | J3 J5 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5542&r=lab |
| By: | Tindara Addabbo; Antonella Caiumi; Anna Maccagnan |
| Abstract: | Italy is characterized by a very uneven distribution of paid and unpaid work in gender terms. Italy has the lowest female employment rate apart from Malta in the European region, with a tangibly wide gender gap in employment and participation rates to the disadvantage of women. Furthermore, the female labour supply is very unevenly distributed across the Italian regions, and both institutional and labour market factors may be considered as lying at the basis of the high regional heterogeneity. This paper aims at understanding more in depth the uneven allocation of time by gender in Italian households. For this purpose we propose a model on the partners' allocation of time, that takes into account the simultaneity of partners' allocation of time decisions, as well as the issue of censored observations in some partenrs' uses of time. In order to estimate this model, we use IT SILC 2007 data that provides us with information on income and hours of work as well as on other relevant sociodemographic variables, maintaining the significance at regional level. This also allows us to analyze the contribution of institutional factors (like the heterogeneous distribution of childcare services in Italy and labour market differences) and interaction with various dimensions of wellbeing. Our findings suggest that an increase in women's wages affects women's working time, both by directly increasing womens paid hours of work, and decreasing the time devoted to household activities and indirectly via a more equal distribution of unpaid work within the couple. The presence of children in the household tends to reduce women's paid work, while having a positive effect on the time spent by the husband in paid work and on both partners supply of unpaid work. We also note that the availability of childcare services represents the most relevant factor affecting women's participatory decisions as well as their hours of paid work. |
| JEL: | J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:cappmo:0085&r=lab |
| By: | Lechner, Michael (University of St. Gallen); Wunsch, Conny (University of St. Gallen) |
| Abstract: | Based on new, exceptionally informative and large German linked employer-employee administrative data, we investigate the question whether the omission of important control variables in matching estimation leads to biased impact estimates of typical active labour market programs for the unemployed. Such biases would lead to false policy conclusions about the cost-effectiveness of these expensive policies. Using newly developed Empirical Monte Carlo Study methods, we find that besides standard personal characteristics, information on individual health and firm characteristics of the last employer are particularly important for selection correction. Moreover, it is important to account for past performance on the labour market in a very detailed and flexible way. Information on job search behaviour, timing of unemployment and program start, as well as detailed regional characteristics are also relevant. |
| Keywords: | training, job search assistance, matching estimation, active labour market policies |
| JEL: | J68 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5553&r=lab |
| By: | Eren, Ozkan (University of Nevada, Las Vegas); Henderson, Daniel J. (Binghamton University, New York) |
| Abstract: | Following an identification strategy that allows us to largely eliminate unobserved student and teacher traits, we examine the effect of homework on math, science, English and history test scores for eighth grade students in the United States. Noting that failure to control for these effects yields selection biases on the estimated effect of homework, we find that math homework has a large and statistically meaningful effect on math test scores throughout our sample. However, additional homework in science, English and history are shown to have little to no impact on their respective test scores. |
| Keywords: | first differencing, homework, instrumental variable, selection bias, unobserved traits |
| JEL: | C23 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5547&r=lab |
| By: | Mavromaras, Kostas G. (NILS, Flinders University); Polidano, Cain (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research) |
| Abstract: | During the 2001-8 period, the employment rate of people with a disability remained remarkably low in most western economies, hardly responding to better macroeconomic conditions and favourable anti-discrimination legislation and interventions. Continuing health and productivity improvements in the general population are leaving people with disabilities behind, unable to play their role and have their share in the increasing productive capacity of the economy. This paper combines dynamic panel econometric estimation with longitudinal data from Australia to show that vocational education has a considerable and long lasting positive effect on the employment participation and productivity of people with disabilities. |
| Keywords: | employment, disabilities, productivity, vocational training, dynamic panel regression |
| JEL: | J14 I19 I29 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5548&r=lab |
| By: | Faqin Lin (School of Economics, University of Adelaide) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a large sample of Chinese cross-section firm-level data with comprehensive information about labour quality to investigate the relationship between labour quality and FDI distribution in China. Using parametric, IV-GMM and non-parametric techniques, the author finds that labour quality measured by education level plays an important role on deciding the distribution of FDI but labour quality measured by working certificates lose their significance. The author also finds that labour quality has a more significant impact on other foreign investments than HMT invested firms and the impacts of labour quality on FDI is strongly uneven across industries and provinces. |
| Keywords: | education, foreign direct investment, labour quality |
| JEL: | F21 O18 O53 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adl:wpaper:2011-12&r=lab |
| By: | SOLOGON Denisa; O’DONOGHUE Cathal |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the role of labour market policy and institutional factors in explaining cross-national differences in persistent earnings inequality in Europe. Using non-linear least squares we reveal a complex framework, where institutions and their systemic interactions play a decisive role in shaping persistent inequality. "Piece-meal" reforms appear more effective in reducing persistent inequality than comprehensive policy packages: a substitution effect in reducing persistent inequality emerges between labour market deregulation, deunionization, the transition from a decentralized to a corporatist economy, increasing tax wedge, product market deregulation, increasing active labour market policies, and decreasing generosity of the unemployment benefit. Under special conditions, however, some complementarity effects do emerge. Moreover, the effect of each reform depends on the institutional mix. High corporatism emerges as the most effective tool in reducing the adverse effects of macroeconomic shocks on persistent inequality. |
| Keywords: | inequality; permanent earnings inequality; labour market institutions; labour market policies |
| JEL: | D31 J00 J31 J50 J60 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2011-22&r=lab |
| By: | Jonathan D. Fisher; Joseph Marchand |
| Abstract: | Previous research has repeatedly found a puzzling one-time drop in consumption at retirement at the mean or median. This study expands upon the previous work by examining these same retirement changes across the entire consumption distribution through the application of quantile regression techniques on data from the 1990-2007 Consumer Expenditure Survey. The evidence indicates gradually larger decreases in consumption across the distribution using several measures of consumption, with insignificant changes shown at lower deciles and the greatest drops occurring at the higher deciles. |
| Keywords: | retirement, life-cycle model, household consumption |
| JEL: | J26 D91 D12 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:11-09&r=lab |
| By: | Bratberg, Espen (University of Bergen); Holmås, Tor Helge (UniRokkansenteret); Islam, M. Kamrul (UniRokkansenteret); Vaage, Kjell (University of Bergen) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses longitudinal employer–employee data and multilevel models to examine both observed and unobserved variation of the probability and length of certified and self-certified sickness absence for Norwegian primary school teachers. We argue that self-certified absences are particularly prone to moral hazard. We find that most of the observed teacher, school and municipality characteristics are significantly associated with the probability and the length of sickness absence. However, most of the unexplained variation is attributed to teacher factors rather than influenced by variation at the school or municipality levels. Teacher characteristics that may be associated with less attachment to the workplace increase the probability of self-certified absences. Moreover, the unexplained variation in schools and at municipality level is higher for self-certified than for certified sickness absence. There may be some scope for reducing self-certified absence by improving work conditions or changing administrative practices, but our main policy conclusion is that to reduce sickness absence, the main focus must be on individual health and the incentives to report sick. |
| Keywords: | sickness absence; employer-employee data; multilevel analysis |
| JEL: | J21 J22 J28 |
| Date: | 2010–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bergec:2010_001&r=lab |
| By: | Giordano Mion; Luca David Opromolla |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether the arrival of managers with export experience, i.e. experience acquired through participation in the export activity of previous employers, is related to firms' international trade status and to what extent this relationship is of a causal nature. We construct a worker-firm matched panel dataset which enables us to track managers across different firms over time and observe firms' trading stance as well as a large set of workers' and firms' characteristics. Contrary to blue and white collars, we find that managers are paid a sizeable premium for export experience which has both a level and a trend component. Conditioning for the firm past trade status, we find that a one standard deviation increase in the firm's share of managers' with export experience corresponds to about 35% more chances of starting to export. The impact is stronger for larger firms and is roughly of the same order of magnitude of the firm productivity effect. On the contrary, export experience acquired by managers from previous employers positively affects the capacity to keep exporting in small firms only. To give a causality flavor to our findings, we use in a final step an IV strategy that mimics a random matching between managers with export experience and firms. IV estimations indicate that export experience matters even more for entry while it has no effect on exit. |
| Keywords: | Managers, worker mobility, trade status, wage premia, displacement, export experience |
| JEL: | F10 L25 J31 J60 M50 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1044&r=lab |
| By: | Paul Minoletti (Mansfield College, University of Oxford.) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data from the 1833 Factory Inquiry to assess male and female occupations and earnings in factory textile production. This is contrasted with evidence drawn from various sources on male and female employment in domestic industry. 1780-1850 was a period of dramatic change in the nature and location of textile production, with important consequences for women's work. Whilst economic factors explain some of the changes we see, gender ideology had a powerful effect on how the labour market operated, and this was increasingly the case over this period as the organisation of work became more formalised and hierarchical. |
| Date: | 2011–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nuf:esohwp:_087&r=lab |
| By: | Guy Lacroix; Marie-Ève Brouard |
| Abstract: | Research on health-related work absenteeism focuses primarily on moral hazard issues but seldom discriminates between the types of illnesses that prompt workers to stay home or seek care. This paper focuses on chronic migraine, a common and acute illness that can prove to be relatively debilitating. Our analysis is based upon the absenteeism of workers employed in a large Fortune-100 manufacturing firm in the United States. We model their daily transitions between work and absence spells between January 1996 up until December 1998. Only absence due to migraine and depression, its main comorbidity, are taken into account. Our results show that there is considerable correlation between the different states we consider. In addition, workers who are covered by the Blue Preferred Provided Organization tend to have shorter employment spells but also shorter migraine spells. |
| Keywords: | Migraine, absenteeism, insurance policies, transition models, unobserved heterogeneity |
| JEL: | I10 J32 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:lacicr:1108&r=lab |
| By: | Seda Ertac (Koc University); Balazs Szentes (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | An important line of recent literature has found gender differences in attitudes toward competition, with men being more likely to choose competitive incentive schemes, even when factors such as ability and risk aversion are controlled for. This paper examines the effect of information on the gender gap in tournament entry. We present experimental evidence that the competitiveness difference between men and women declines significantly when individuals are given performance feedback before making their incentive scheme choice. The result suggests that policies that reduce uncertainty can reduce the gender gap in tournament entry. |
| Keywords: | Experiments, gender, competition, information, incentive schemes. |
| JEL: | C91 D83 J16 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koc:wpaper:1104&r=lab |
| By: | Aterido, Reyes; Beck, Thorsten; Iacovone, Leonardo |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses whether there is a gender gap in the use of financial services by businesses and individuals in Sub-Saharan Africa. The authors do not find evidence of gender discrimination or lower inherent demand for financial services by enterprises with female ownership participation or by female individuals when key characteristics of the enterprises or individuals are taken into account. In the case of enterprises, they explain this finding with selection bias -- females are less likely to run sole proprietorships than men, and firms with female ownership participation are smaller, but more likely to innovate. In the case of individuals, the lower use of formal financial services by women can be explained by gender gaps in other dimensions related to the use of financial services, such as their lower level of income and education, and by their household and employment status. |
| Keywords: | Access to Finance,Banks&Banking Reform,Emerging Markets,Housing&Human Habitats,Gender and Law |
| Date: | 2011–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5571&r=lab |
| By: | Kaz Miyagiwa; Paul Rubin |
| Abstract: | One impetus for reform of the health care system in the United States is that in the U.S. more is spent on medical care than in other countries, with no noticeable difference in results. It is commonly thought that this is a result of a defect in the organization of medicine in the U.S. which can be repaired by “reform.” However, medicine is a labor intensive good and labor is more expensive in the U.S. We show that in a simple general equilibrium model these conditions will invariably lead to a higher price and a higher percentage of GDP spent on the labor intensive good. While reforms may improve the functioning of the health care sector, they are unlikely to have a major effect on spending levels (unless they artificially reduce usage of medical care.) |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emo:wp2003:1102&r=lab |
| By: | Michele Bruni; Claudio Tabacchi |
| Abstract: | The paper aims to provide a representation, as rich and complete as possible, of the Chinese labour market, both in terms of stock and flow, despite the fact that the statistical information is still rather poor and often inconsistent. It does then document the increasing differences in the level and trends of the main labour market variables at the provincial level. In order to reach a deeper comprehension of the dynamic of the Chinese labour market, the paper analyses two other extremely relevant phenomena: the so called “floating population” and the labour shortages that are more and more frequently affecting the coastal regions. After having provided a demographic background to the Lewis model of development with unlimited supply of labour, the paper shows in which periods China has been obliged to accumulate a large labour surplus, mainly in the agricultural sector, and in which periods and through which mechanisms, including ageing and internal migration, the process of deaccumulation has taken place. More specifically, the paper shows how up to now internal migrations have provided urban areas and coastal regions with an unlimited supply of labour, a factor that has played a major role in boosting the Chinese economic development and determining its typology. In order to reach this result, simple demographic tools have been utilized to estimate the net migration balance of each province and in each province of rural and urban areas, and therefore to define areas of departures and areas of arrival, information not provided by the literature on the floating population. Finally the paper provides a rough estimate of the disguised unemployment in agriculture and of its geographical distribution. After assessing which percentage can represent a possible supply of labour for the modern sector, it will be maintained that China not only is very close to the Lewis turning point (a situation that has already been reached in many coastal areas), but is going to become the world biggest importer of labour. In order to provide its population with living standards comparable to that of the western world, in a reasonable time interval, China needs to continue to grow at an extremely high rate. This will require the capacity to deal with a series of structural problems. Limiting our concerns to the labour market, that is characterized by increasing complexity and regional differentiation, high priority should be given to improve the collection, analysis and dissemination of labour market data; to abolish the one child policy that is totally obsolete in a situation that will be soon characterized by a structural lack of labour supply; to give to the Chinese citizens the right to freely move and change residence, while rapidly regularizing the existing floating population; to raise the legal age of retirement; to plan and implement a structure of t entries in vocational courses and higher educational paths coherent with the expected structure of the labour demand in terms of flows by occupation; to strengthen the Employment service system in order to improve skills matching at the local level, and facilitate the correct allocation of human resources over the national territory, in order to minimize the human and economic costs of future unavoidable internal migrations. |
| Keywords: | China; labour market; stock and flow; demography; internal migration; Lewis turning point |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:cappmo:0083&r=lab |
| By: | Michele Bruni |
| Abstract: | The paper focuses on the demographic and labour market consequences of the dramatic decline in fertility that has characterized China starting at the beginning of the ‘50s. It is shared opinion that a sustained decline in fertility below replacement level will provoke a decline in Total population, an even more pronounced decline in Working age population and very relevant ageing phenomena. I have recently shown that, on the contrary and coherently with empirical evidence, a decline in fertility provokes a structural lack of labour supply that determines positive migration balances and, finally, positive demographic trends. The paper applies the same approach to China with similar results. The decline in fertility, determined by the process of economic development and its impact on education and urbanization, but promoted also trough the one-child policy, will provoke a relevant and growing structural lack of labour supply, even in the hypothesis that Chinese employment growth should sharply decline. The implication is that in order to continue its road to economic growth and social development, China will have to rely on large and growing migration flows that will determine a demographic expansion. In conclusion, the decline in fertility, actively pursued to set a ceiling to population growth, will end up provoking the opposite result. The uncertainty about the age structure of the Chinese population makes it impossible to determine in which year China will start to be affected by serious labour shortages. Our scenarios do however clearly show that China will reach the Lewis turning point in the next few years and before the middle of the century will become the world largest importer of labour. Our analysis does therefore clearly suggest that any legal restriction to fertility and territorial mobility is totally unwarranted, and that China should start to consider educational and labour policies aimed to mitigate labour shortages. It also indicates the necessity to start an in depth discussion of which immigration and social integration policies could better serve the interests of China, on the light both of the experiences of other countries, and of the role that China wants to play in the international arena. |
| Keywords: | Demography; Labour market; Demographic and labour market scenarios; Migrations; Lewis turning point; China |
| JEL: | J11 F22 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:cappmo:0082&r=lab |
| By: | Nicolas Jacquemet (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne - Paris School of Economics); Constantine Yannelis (Department of Economics - Stanford University) |
| Abstract: | The extent of racial discrimination in the labor market is now clearly identified, but its nature largely remains an open question. This paper reports results from an experiment in which fabricated resumes are sent to help-wanted advertisements in Chicago newpapers. We use three groups of identical resumes : one with Anglo-Saxon names, one with African-American names and one with fictitious foreign names whose ethnic origin is unidentifiable to most Americans. We find that resumes with Anglo-Saxon names generate nearly one half more call-backs than identical resumes with African-American or Foreign names. Resumes with non-Anglo-Saxon names, whether African-American or Foreign, show no statistically significant difference in the number of callbacks they elicit. We also find that discrimination is significantly higher in the Chicago suburbs - where ethnic homogenity is high - as opposed to the city proper. We take this as evidence that discriminatory behavior is part of a larger pattern of unequal treatment of any member of non-majority groups - ethnic homophily. |
| Keywords: | Correspondence testing, racial discrimination. |
| JEL: | J71 J64 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:11013&r=lab |
| By: | Kolstad, Julie Riise (University of Bergen); Lindkvist, Ida (CMI (Chr. Michelsen Institute) |
| Abstract: | There is growing interest in the role of pro-social motivation in public service delivery. In general, economists no longer question whether people have social preferences, but ask how and when such preferences will influence their economic and social decisions. Apart from revealing that individuals on average share and cooperate even when such actions lower their own material pay-off, economic experiments have documented substantial individual heterogeneity in the strength and structure of social preferences. In this paper we study the extent to which these differences are related to career choices, by testing whether preferences vary systematically between Tanzanian health worker students who prefer to work in the private health sector and those who prefer to work in the public health sector. Despite its important policy implications, this issue has received hardly any attention to date. By combining data from a questionnaire and two economic experiments, we find that students who prefer to work in the public health sector have stronger pro-social preferences than those who prefer to work in the private sector. We also show that the extent to which these students care about others can be conditional and linked to inequality aversion. A systematic selfselection of pro-socially motivated health workers into the public sector suggests that it is a good idea to have two sectors providing health services: this can ensure efficient matching of individuals and sectors by allowing employers in the two sectors to use different payment mechanisms tailored to attract and promote good performance from different types of health workers. |
| Keywords: | pro-social preferences; career choice; economic experiments; health workers |
| JEL: | H40 I18 J33 J45 |
| Date: | 2010–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bergec:2010_004&r=lab |
| By: | Gunnar Bardsen (Norwegian University of Science and Technology); Stan Hurn (QUT); Zoe McHugh (Aberdeen Asset Managers Limited) |
| Abstract: | The unemployment rate in Australia is modelled as an asymmetric and nonlinear function of aggregate demand, productivity, real interest rates, the replacement ratio and the real exchange rate. If changes in unemployment are big, the management of of demand, real interest rates and the replacement ratio will be good instruments to start bringing it down. The model is developed by exploiting recent developments in automated model-selection procedures. |
| Keywords: | unemployement, non-linearity, dynamic modelling, aggregate demand, real wages |
| JEL: | C12 C52 C87 E24 E32 |
| Date: | 2011–02–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qut:auncer:2011_2&r=lab |
| By: | Helliwell, John (University of British Columbia); Huang, Haifang (University of Alberta, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | By exploiting two very large samples of US subjective well-being data we are able to obtain comparable estimates of the monetary and other costs of unemployment on the unemployed themselves, while simultaneously estimating the effects of local employment on the subjective well-being of the rest of the population. For those who are unemployed, the subjective well-being consequences can be divided into income and non-income effects, with the latter being five times larger than the former. This is similar to what has been found in many countries, as is our finding that the non-income effects are lower for individuals living in areas of high unemployment. Most importantly, we are able to use the large sample size and variety of questions in the BRFSS and Gallup daily polls to reconcile, and extend to the United States, what had previously seemed to be contradictory results on the size and nature of the spillover effects of unemployment on subjective well-being. At the population level the spillover effects are twice as large as the direct effects, making the total well-being costs of unemployment fifteen times larger than those directly due to the lower incomes of the unemployed. |
| Keywords: | unemployment; well-being |
| JEL: | E24 H23 J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2011–02–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:albaec:2011_003&r=lab |
| By: | Uschi Backes-Gellner (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich); Martin R. Schneider (Economic Department, University of Paderborn); Stephan Veen (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | Field studies linking workforce age to performance tend to treat performance as one-dimensional and often focus on individual, not organizational performance. To analyze the effects of workforce age on organizational performance, we suggest treating performance as multi-dimensional with at least two output dimensions: quantity and quality. We provide a novel conceptual framework that borrows insights from multiple disciplines to better understand ageing phenomena in organizations. In particular, we build on psychological and medical studies showing that individual age has different effects on different cognitive capabilities. As a result we argue that workforce ageing may affect various performance dimensions, such as quantity and quality, in different, often opposite ways. In our empirical part we examine a unique dataset containing detailed court data over a time span of 19 years. We find that average workforce age is linked negatively to quantitative organizational performance but positively to qualitative organizational performance. Our findings suggest that future organizational studies should decompose performance at least along the quantity-quality dimension. Our theoretical framework helps to understand the different types of ageing effects and to derive itemized implications for changes in organizational performance. It also helps to reconcile contradictory findings of previous studies and to derive important managerial implications for task assignments, career policies, and company strategies in view of upcoming demographic changes in many developed countries. |
| Keywords: | ageing workforce, demographic change, organizational performance, age productivity effects |
| JEL: | J1 M51 J7 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:wpaper:0143&r=lab |
| By: | Haupert, Michael; Murray, James |
| Abstract: | Over the course of the 20th century American wages increased by a factor of about 100, while the wages of professional baseball players increased by a factor of 450, but that increase was neither smooth nor consistent. We use a unique and expansive dataset of salaries and performance variables of Major League Baseball pitchers that spans over 400 players and 60 years during the reserve clause era to identify factors that determine salaries and examine how the importance of various factors have changed over time. We employ a Markov regime-switching regression model borrowed from the macroeconomics literature which allows regression coefficients to switch exogenously between two or more values as time progresses. This method lets us identify changes in wage determination that may have occurred because of a change in the league's competitiveness, a change in the relative bargaining power between players and teams, or other factors that may be unknown or unobservable. We find that even though Major League Baseball was a tightly controlled monopsony with the reserve clause, there was a significant shift in salary determination that lasted from the Great Depression until after World War II where players' salaries were more highly linked to their recent performance. |
| Keywords: | Major League Baseball; Salary determination; Markov-Regime switching |
| JEL: | J31 C23 C22 |
| Date: | 2011–02–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:29094&r=lab |