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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Hallberg, Daniel (Institute for Futures Studies) |
| Abstract: | <p> In Sweden, employers pay non-wage costs for their workforce in the form of legislated employment tax and collective fees. For parts of the workforce, the collective fees are progressive with respect to the employee’s age and wage. The objective of this paper is to examine how non-wage costs affect voluntary early retirement. To this end we use a large longitudinal employer–employee matched data set with administrative records of the private sector in Sweden. We exploit the variation in collective fee costs across companies to identify employer incentives to encourage early retirement. The results from the instrumental variable estimator suggest that a 1 percentage point increase in non-wage costs in relation to wage costs increases retirement by 6 percent. Further, given the wage sum and workforce structure, large firms spend more on non-wage compensation than small firms. The share of non-wage costs in relation to the wage sum is also positively linked to net employment growth.<p> |
| Keywords: | Early retirement; Non-wage labor costs; Pensions; Labor demand; Collective fees |
| JEL: | J21 J23 J26 J32 |
| Date: | 2011–04–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifswps:2011_006&r=lab |
| By: | Frenette, Marc; Upward, Richard; Wright, Peter W. |
| Abstract: | In this study, the long-term impact on earnings of attending post-secondary education institutions following job loss is estimated using a large longitudinal administrative database of Canadian workers. A difference-in-difference model is used for this purpose. The results suggest that, over the period spanning five years preceding and nine years following job loss, workers who attended post-secondary education shortly after displacement saw their earnings increase by almost $7,000 more than displaced workers who did not. Significant benefits are found by sex, age, marital status, and union coverage, with the exception of men aged 35 to 44 years. Despite the benefits of education, job displacement is found to be associated with only a modest increase in post-secondary education attendance for all groups examined. |
| Keywords: | Education, training and learning, Outcomes of education, Adult education and training |
| Date: | 2011–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2011334e&r=lab |
| By: | Golo Henseke (University of Rostock) |
| Abstract: | This study focuses on the influence of heavy job demands on retirement, using the available SHARE waves. Heavy job demands may have a direct and health mediated effect on individual retirement. An econometric challenge is the dynamic self-selection of workers into jobs. The main findings indicate: the frequency of heavy job demands is higher among workers with low levels of socioeconomic status. Heavy job demands are associated with on average higher retirement probabilities, once workers become eligible to pension benefits. The effect is driven by long-term exposure to heavy job demands during the career. There are overall no retirement effects in the age bracket 50–58 and thus no indication for strong adverse health effects. A change in the level of current job demands does not influence the subsequent probability of retirement. |
| Keywords: | Health, job demands, selection bias |
| JEL: | J26 J28 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ros:wpaper:118&r=lab |
| By: | Stampini, Marco (African Development Bank); Verdier-Chouchane, Audrey (African Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the dynamics of the youth labor market in Tunisia using unique labor force survey data from 2005 to 2007 that include a longitudinal component. It first shows that sustained economic growth will reduce youth unemployment over the next few years. Second, forecasts indicate that the growth of private sector services has the highest potential to reduce youth unemployment. Third, the analysis of labor market characteristics reveals that young graduates experience long unemployment as they cue for high-skill jobs. Moreover, the public sector remains the main provider of employment opportunities for many graduates, in particular for women. |
| Keywords: | labor market, unemployment, youth, Tunisia |
| JEL: | J21 J64 J68 J71 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5611&r=lab |
| By: | Sessions, John G. (University of Bath); Skåtun, John D. (University of Aberdeen) |
| Abstract: | Whilst existing efficiency wage literature assumes detection probabilities of shirkers are exogenous, this paper finds them positively and endogenously dependent on non-shirkers' effort. It shares the result with the endogenous monitoring models where, in some regions, workers reduce effort in response to higher wages, but differs in that firms never operate in those regions. The paper further provides theoretical reasons for the empirical regularity that increased usage of performance related pay (PRP) flattens the pay-tenure profile. Wages and effort increase over the lifecycle, both with and without PRP, but with late payments in PRP falling short of pure wage arrangements. |
| Keywords: | monitoring, tenure, efficiency wages |
| JEL: | J33 J41 J54 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5619&r=lab |
| By: | Moreno-Galbis, Eva |
| Abstract: | This paper seeks to gain insights on the relationship between growth and unemployment when considering heterogeneous agents in terms of skills. We allow for the possibility of training for unskilled employed workers and for the possibility of human capital depreciation for skilled unemployed workers. These features are introduced in an endogenous job destruction framework µa la Mortensen and Pissarides (1998). We show that, when growth accelerates, a larger share of unskilled workers gets trained, increasing the incentives of ¯rms to update the job-speci¯c technology, rather than destroying it. The positive impact of growth on the employment rate is then magni¯ed and the predicting ability of the model to reproduce the sensibility of employment with respect to growth too. When calibrated, the model manages to reproduce the aggregate capitalization e®ect estimated on the basis of OECD data. Fur- thermore, whereas for skilled and unskilled workers getting trained growth yields a reduction in the unemployment rates, for unskilled workers not getting trained growth fosters a rise in the unemployment rates. |
| Keywords: | TFP growth; Unemployment; Training, Human Capital Depreciation; Capitalization; Creative Destruction Effect |
| JEL: | J23 J24 O33 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpm:docweb:1022&r=lab |
| By: | Matloob Piracha; Massimiliano Tani; Florin Vadean |
| Abstract: | Literature on the immigrant labour market mismatch has not explored the signal provided by the quality of home country work experience, particularly that of education-occupation mismatch prior to migration. We show that type of work experience in the home country plays a significant role in explaining immigrant mismatch in the destination country’s labour market. We use the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia and find that having been over-educated in the last job held in the home country increases the likelihood of being over-educated in Australia by about 45 percent. Whereas having been under-educated in the home country has an even stronger impact, as it increases the probability to be similarly mismatched in Australia by 61 percent. |
| Keywords: | immigration; education-occupation mismatch; sample selection |
| JEL: | C34 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:1105&r=lab |
| By: | Torberg Falch and Linn Renée Naper (Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether gender gaps in student achievement are related to evaluation schemes. We exploit different evaluations at the end of compulsory education in Norway in a difference-in-difference framework. Compared to scores at anonymously evaluated central exit exams, girls get significantly higher grades than boys when assessed by their teacher. We find no evidence that the competitiveness of the environment can explain why boys do relatively better at the exam. The gender grading gap is related to teacher characteristics. The results indicate that the teacher-student interaction during coursework favor girls in the teacher grading. |
| Date: | 2011–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nst:samfok:11311&r=lab |
| By: | Shomos, Anthony (Productivity Commission) |
| Abstract: | This Productivity Commission staff working paper (by Anthony Shomos) was released in October 2010. Literacy and numeracy skills are key components of human capital, which is an important driver of economic growth. This paper utilises data from a 2006 survey on the literacy and numeracy skills of the Australian adult population. <p>Models were used to estimate the effect of improved literacy and numeracy skills on the probability of labour force participation and on wages. Results confirm previous research in the human capital literature –– that improving literacy and numeracy skills has a positive, statistically significant effect on labour market outcomes. <p>Improving educational attainment was also estimated to have a positive, statistically significant effect on labour force participation and on wages. However, once literacy and numeracy skills were controlled for, the effect of increasing educational attainment on labour force participation and on wages was reduced. Some of the benefit occurs because more highly educated people tend to have higher literacy and numeracy skills. <p>Literacy and numeracy skills are developed through education, but they can also be enhanced in other ways. Understanding the factors that influence literacy and numeracy skills is important and could be further explored with the data used in this paper. <p>The views expressed in this paper are those of the staff involved and do not necessarily reflect those of the Productivity Commission. |
| Keywords: | literacy; numeracy; labour markets; human capital; labour force participation |
| JEL: | J24 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:prodsw:2010_004&r=lab |
| By: | Remco H. Oostendorp (VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands); Doan Hong Quang (World Bank Country Office, and Centre for Analysis and Forecasting (CAF), Vietnam) |
| Abstract: | Several studies have identified the impact of trade liberalization in developing countries on the return to education within a Mincerian framework through a difference-in-difference estimator or with industry-level measures of trade openness. These studies have typically estimated the return to education in terms of changes in wages rather than employment, effectively ignoring the fact that trade liberalization affects not only wages but also employment opportunities. In this paper we use four large-scale representative household surveys from Vietnam for the period 1998-2006 to estimate the impact of trade liberalization on the return to education taking into account both changes in wages and employment. The results show that the impact was large in Vietnam but is severely underestimated if changes in employment opportunities are ignored. |
| Keywords: | trade liberalization; return to education; employment; Vietnam |
| JEL: | F16 J21 J31 O1 |
| Date: | 2011–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20110060&r=lab |
| By: | Stefan Boes; Dominik Hangartner; Lukas Schmid |
| Abstract: | We use a credible regression discontinuity design to estimate causal education effects. Pupils in the Swiss education system had to pass a centrally organized exam that classified them into different levels of secondary school, and that ultimately determined their educational degree. A major feature of this exam was the local randomization around the classification threshold due to the impossibility of strategic sorting. Our preliminary results suggest large and significant effects on earnings, political interest, and attitudes toward immigrants. The extension to a wider set of data is part of ongoing research. |
| Keywords: | Returns to education; causality; endogeneity; regression discontinuity |
| JEL: | D72 I21 J15 J31 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ube:dpvwib:dp1103&r=lab |
| By: | John Schmitt; David Rosnick |
| Abstract: | This report analyzes the wage and employment effects of the first three city-specific minimum wages in the United States –San Francisco (2004), Santa Fe (2004), and Washington, DC (1993). We use data from a virtual census of employment in each of the three cities, surrounding suburbs, and nearby metropolitan areas, to estimate the impact of minimum-wage laws on wages and employment in fast food restaurants, food services, retail trade, and other low-wage and small establishments. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage, employment |
| JEL: | E E2 E24 E6 E64 E65 J J2 J21 J3 J31 J33 J38 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epo:papers:2011-07&r=lab |
| By: | Marcello Sartarelli (Department of Quantitative Social Science, Institute of Education, University of London. 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL, UK.) |
| Abstract: | Performance targets are ubiquitous in all areas of an individual's life such as education, jobs, sport competitions and charity donations. In this paper I assess whether meeting performance targets in tests at school has an effect on students' subsequent behaviour. This is helpful to test whether motivation and effort by students, parents and schools that the targets may induce, contribute to explain observed behaviour. I address potentially spurious correlations between test scores and behaviour by exploiting a regression discontinuity design in tests and a linked dataset of test scores and subsequent behaviour by students in compulsory education in England. I find that meeting a target that the government sets for students at age 11 has an insignificant effect on outcomes such as the probability of absence from school or of a police warning. I also find that meeting other targets for high and low ability students decreases the probability of being bullied by up to 34% with respect to the mean probability of such outcomes. The effects are heterogeneous as they vary by gender, parents' education level and type of behaviour. Overall, the research design offers a valuable test to assess unintended consequences that meeting the target or failing to meet it may lead to. The lack of a significant effect of targets on suspension and expulsion from school, as well as police warnings, suggests no adverse behavioural effect of performance targets, which is reassuring evidence on the design of tests in compulsory education. By using Probit estimates, one would conclude that meeting a target has an impact on behaviour. Regression discontinuity estimates show instead an insignificant effect at the expected target and a significant one at other targets for certain outcomes, although smaller than Probit estimates. |
| Keywords: | Absence, ullying, education, performance targets, police warning, regression discontinuity, suspension, test scores |
| JEL: | C21 I20 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2011–03–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qss:dqsswp:1102&r=lab |
| By: | Rault, Christophe (University of Orléans); Vaubourg, Anne-Gaël (University of Orléans) |
| Abstract: | We explore whether finance influences the impact of labour market institutions on unemployment. Using a data set of 18 OECD countries over 1980-2004, we estimate a panel VectorAutoRegressive model. We check whether causalities from labour market variables to unemployment are affected by financial factors. In Belgium, Italy, Australia, Japan and Spain, accounting for financial indicators mitigates the benefits of labour market flexibilization or makes it harmful to employment. In Austria, Canada, Finland and Portugal, it reduces its detrimental impact or makes it beneficial. In Ireland and Netherlands, both effects prevail, depending on the labour market indicator used. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, labour market, financial factors, institutional interactions, panel VAR |
| JEL: | E24 J23 P17 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5606&r=lab |
| By: | Islas-Camargo, Alejandro; Cortez, Willy W. |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyze the effects of a monetary policy shock on Mexican unemployment rates. Unlike previous studies we re-estimate unemployment rates so that these alternative rates are comparable to those of the OECD member countries. We find that in response to tightening monetary policy, unemployment increases with a characteristic hump-shaped pattern found in other studies. Our empirical results indicate that unemployment elasticity is low and yet the velocity of adjustment to return to the initial point is rather high. We interpret these findings as being the result of two characteristics of Mexico’s labor market: (i) high labor regulation (which includes labor intervention in hiring-firing decisions), and (ii) the existence of a large informal sector and low enforcement of labor regulation. |
| Keywords: | unemployment rates; structural VAR; monetary policy; Mexico |
| JEL: | C32 E24 E52 |
| Date: | 2011–01–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:30027&r=lab |
| By: | Ana Paula Martins |
| Abstract: | The paper contrasts the pattern of returns to human capital in different economic sectors. As job mobility, especially across sectors, is limited, it is argued that coefficients of experience in earnings regressions may capture or be interpreted as the growth rate – net of depreciation – of earnings ability propitiated by schooling when years of education are also included in the right hand-side of the equation. As a consequence, under long-term contracts, labor market equilibrium is compatible with different “gross” rates of return to schooling, provided initial earnings levels allow for the same accumulated present value. That implies a special relation between the intercept and experience coefficient of earnings regressions performed for different sectors. Additionally, implications of (log-stable) nonstationary environments for rate of return inference from log-earnings regressions – appropriate for pooled (or panel) estimation and nominal earnings information - are also investigated. Then, the trend coefficient measures the (steady-state) nominal productivity growth; the experience coefficients approximate individuals’ earnings profiles growth rates net of the human capital depreciation rate; schooling’s, the nominal rate of return in the economy net of the nominal productivity growth rate. Tests of the hypothesises are provided, along with the inspection of the determinants – including financial ratios and productive organization indicators, calculated from aggregate balance sheet information - of the observed differences across industries. A study of the estimated variances of rate of return estimates was also conducted, as an attempt to capture features of financial risk in human capital investment. |
| Keywords: | Returns to Schooling; Earnings/Wage Growth; Wage Determinants; Segmented Labor Markets. Industry-Specific Human Capital. Human Capital Risk. Financial Structure and Performance. Weighted Principal Components. |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J42 I2 G30 C13 C39 |
| Date: | 2011–04–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eei:rpaper:eeri_rp_2011_05&r=lab |
| By: | Javier Andrés (University of Valencia, Spain); José Emilio Boscá (University of Valencia, Spain); Javier Ferri (University of Valencia, Spain) |
| Abstract: | The co-movements of labor productivity with output, total hours, vacancies and unemployment have changed since the mid 1980s. This paper offers an explanation for the sharp break in the fluctuations of labor market variables based on endogenous labor supply decisions following the mortgage market deregulation. We set up a search model with efficient bargaining and financial frictions, in which impatient borrowers can take an amount of credit that cannot exceed a proportion of the expected value of their real estate holdings. When borrowers’ equity requirements are low, the impact of a positive technology shock on the marginal utility of consumption is strengthened, which in turn results in lower hours per worker and higher wages in the bargaining process. This shift in labor supply discourages firms from opening vacancies, reducing the impact of the shock on employment. We simulate the effects of a continuous increase in both the loan-to-value ratio and the share of borrowers in total population. Our exercise shows that the response of labor market variables might have been substantially affected by the increase in household leverage in the US in the last twenty years. |
| Keywords: | business cycle, labor market, borrowing restrictions |
| JEL: | E24 E32 E44 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iei:wpaper:1102&r=lab |
| By: | Ana Paula Martins |
| Abstract: | This research extends simple two-sector models in order to inquire the impact of the extent of coverage or enforcement of minimum wage legislation in one of the sectors on the equilibrium outcome. Two versions of institutional wage avoidance are presented. They may be seen as representing different institutional detection rules: one working through worker complaint, the other through firm sampling inspection (and enforcement) by the legal system. Both cases are modelled as enlargements of two dualistic models: Harris-Todaro (the wage in the other sector is market determined) and Bhagwati-Hamada (the wage in the other sector is institutionally fixed and coverage is complete). Impact on population flows of changes in degree of coverage (compliance) is also confronted with the effect of a change in the institutional wage for each scenario. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Mobility, Minimum Wages, Segmented Labor Markets, Informal Sector, Regional Labor Markets, Dualistic Models, Coverage. |
| JEL: | O15 O17 O18 R23 J38 J42 J61 J62 F22 K42 |
| Date: | 2011–04–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eei:rpaper:eeri_rp_2011_04&r=lab |
| By: | Vincent VANDENBERGHE (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)) |
| Abstract: | European countries need to expand employment among older individuals. Many papers have examined this issue from different angles. However, very few seem to have considered its gender dimension properly, despite evidence that lifting the overall senior employment rate requires significantly raising that of women older than 50. The key issue examined by this paper is whether employers are willing to employ more older workers, in particular older women. The answer depends to a large extent on the ratio of older individuals’ productivity to their cost to employers. To address this question we tap into a unique firm-level panel of Belgian data to produce robust evidence on the causal effect of age/gender on productivity and labour costs. We take advantage of the panel structure to identify age/gender-related differences from within-firm variation. Moreover, inspired by recent developments in the production function estimation literature, we address the problem of endogeneity of the age/gender mix, using a structural production function estimator (Olley & Pakes, 1996; Levinsohn & Petrin, 2003) alongside IV-GMM methods where lagged value of labour inputs are used as instruments. Our results indicate a small negative impact of larger shares of older men on the productivity-labour cost ratio. An increment of 10%-points of in their share causes a 0.17 to 0.69%-point contraction. However, the main result is that the equivalent handicap with older women is larger, ranging from 1.3 to 2.0%-points. This is not good news for older women’s employability. And the vast services industry does not seem to offer working conditions that mitigate older women’s disadvantage, on the contrary. |
| Keywords: | Ageing, Labour Productivity, Panel Data Analysis |
| JEL: | J24 C33 D24 |
| Date: | 2011–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2011010&r=lab |
| By: | Berger, Johannes (University of Cologne); Herbertz, Claus (University of Cologne); Sliwka, Dirk (University of Cologne) |
| Abstract: | We empirically investigate the impact of incentive scheme structure on the degree of cooperation in firms using a unique and representative data set. Combining employee survey data with detailed firm level information on the relative importance of individual, team, and company performance for compensation, we find a significant positive relation between the intensity of team incentives and several survey measures of cooperation. Moreover, higher powered team incentives are associated with lower degrees of absenteeism while this is not the case for individual incentives. |
| Keywords: | incentives, cooperation, teams, helping effort |
| JEL: | D23 J33 M52 M54 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5618&r=lab |
| By: | Das, Jishnu; Dercon, Stefan; Habyarimana, James; Krishnan, Pramila; Muralidharan, Karthik; Sundararaman, Venkatesh |
| Abstract: | Empirical studies of the relationship between school inputs and test scores typically do not account for the fact that households will respond to changes in school inputs. This paper presents a dynamic household optimization model relating test scores to school and household inputs, and tests its predictions in two very different low-income country settings -- Zambia and India. The authors measure household spending changes and student test score gains in response to unanticipated as well as anticipated changes in school funding. Consistent with the optimization model, they find in both settings that households offset anticipated grants more than unanticipated grants. They also find that unanticipated school grants lead to significant improvements in student test scores but anticipated grants have no impact on test scores. The results suggest that naïve estimates of public education spending on learning outcomes that do not account for optimal household responses are likely to be considerably biased if used to estimate parameters of an education production function. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary Education,Education For All,Access to Finance,Teaching and Learning,Disability |
| Date: | 2011–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5629&r=lab |
| By: | Gardner, Justin G. |
| Abstract: | Due to recent legislative changes, universities in Tennessee will receive funding based on student retention and graduation rates rather than enrollment. In light of these changes it is important that academics in all disciplines study retention rates in order to identify areas for improvement. I investigate the impact of âkiller coursesâ on student retention both in the school of agriculture and in the general student population. In addition I explore alternative frameworks for addressing retention issues. |
| Keywords: | Analysis of Education, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, I21, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea11:98798&r=lab |
| By: | kainth, Dr .Gursharan Singh; Kaur, Mrs. Gurinder |
| Abstract: | Indian Education Commission (1966) describes teacher as one of the most important factors contributing to the national development. He is the pivot around which all the educational programs, such as curriculum, syllabus, textbooks, evaluation, etc., rotate. The best system of education may fail to achieve the desire ends in the absence of sincere, competent and professionally aware teachers. National Policy on Education (1986) rightly states “No people can rise above the level of its teachers”. As a person imbibes, interprets and disseminates the relevant items of culture and traditions of the past, he creates new knowledge, promotes innovations, critically appraises the past and its traditions and cultures, sifts the grain from the chaffe, strengthens social and economic fabrics of the nation. Education is basically the influence which the teacher exerts on the students entrusted to his care. Effective teachers are required in the classroom because even the best curriculum and most perfect syllabus remain ineffective in the absence of a good teacher. The teaching profession, according to Daniels (1973) inherently entails certain well-known self obvious and implicit obligations, commitments and expectations from its members. The society bestows its trust on all the professionals to rise to the demands of the profession. In order to perform his role of paramount and vital significance effectively, a teacher should be professionally aware of professional demands and obligations placed on him by the profession. Further the role of teachers in influencing the future of our advancing national development is becoming increasingly important. Development of the country requires a high rate of production and fullest possible utilization of both human as well as material resources. Nowadays, there is, however, a general feeling that the teachers do not have satisfaction in their job. There seems to be growing discontentment towards their job as a result of which standard of education are falling. Teachers are dissatisfied in spite of different plans and programs, which have been implemented to improve their job. Job satisfaction consists of total body of feeling about the nature of job promotion, nature of supervision etc. that an individual has about his job. If the sum total of influence of these factors gives arises to feelings of satisfaction, the individual has job satisfaction. Under such circumstances it is essential that the proper understanding concerning satisfaction emanating from the job life be obtained. |
| Keywords: | MPS- Motivating Potential Score; QWL- Quality of Work-Life; GNDU- Guru Nanak Dev University; GOC- Government Owned Colleges; GAC-Government Aided Colleges; SFC- Self- Financed Colleges |
| JEL: | I20 I21 D80 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:29667&r=lab |
| By: | Risti Permani (School of Economics, University of Adelaide) |
| Abstract: | This study analyses the link between maternal employment and the health status of the child. Using data from Indonesia, it uses mothers' risk averse measures, households' recent flood and drought experience, and the interactions between risk measures and experience of recent natural disasters to explain endogenous maternal employment as proxied by mothers' working hours. Critical values based on Stock and Yogo (2002) suggest that these are strong instruments. Moreover, the Hausman test suggests that the Instrumental Variable method is preferred to the Ordinary Least Squares method. However, estimates across differing specifications consistently suggest insignificant effects of maternal employment on children's health status. However, a mother's education and her health knowledge are important for child's well-being. In contrast, school's lunch programs, sanitation, sports and health facilities are not significantly associated with child's well-being. The results emphasise the roles of family compared to schools, in particular the roles of mothers in improving their children's well-being. In addition, there still seems to be inequality in the well-being of children between in urban and rural areas. Finally, this study finds no significant evidence of the link between hiring a domestic assistant, outside food consumption and a child's well-being. |
| Keywords: | maternal employment, school-aged children, children health status, instrumental variable, height z-score, Indonesian households, risk aversion, outside food consumption, domestic assistant |
| JEL: | I12 J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adl:wpaper:2011-21&r=lab |
| By: | Stefan Boes |
| Abstract: | The paper explores weak monotonicity and convexity assumptions in a model for the decision to smoke with endogenous schooling. Theories of productive and allocative efficiency as well as the influence of time preferences are accounted for in order to derive testable constraints that bound the effect of schooling on smoking. Data from the Swiss Health Survey indicate that the degree of endogeneity depends on the level of schooling, and that schooling effects are likely heterogeneous with a reduction of the propensity to smoke by at most 5.9 percentage points. |
| Keywords: | Smoking; education; health behavior; nonparametric bounds |
| JEL: | I12 C14 C30 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ube:dpvwib:dp1102&r=lab |
| By: | Tabea Bucher-Koenen (MEA, University of Mannheim); Annamaria Lusardi (Dartmouth College) |
| Abstract: | We examine financial literacy in Germany using data from the SAVE survey. We find that knowledge of basic financial concepts is lacking among women, the less educated, and those living in East Germany. In particular, those with low education and low income in East Germany have little financial literacy compared to their West German counterparts. Interestingly, there is no gender disparity in financial knowledge in the East. In order to investigate the nexus of causality between financial literacy and retirement planning we develop an IV strategy by making use of regional variation in the financial knowledge of peers. We find a positive impact of financial knowledge on retirement planning. |
| Keywords: | Financial sophistication, retirement planning, life-cycle savings, financial education, East Germany |
| JEL: | D91 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crp:wpaper:109&r=lab |
| By: | Rob Alessie (University of Groningen); Maarten van Rooij (Netherlands Central Bank); Annamaria Lusardi (Dartmouth College) |
| Abstract: | We present new evidence on financial literacy and retirement preparation in the Netherlands based on two surveys conducted before and after the onset of the financial crisis. We document that while financial knowledge did not increase from 2005 to 2010, significantly more individuals planned for their retirement in 2010. At the same time, employees’ expectations about the level of their pension income are high compared to what retirement plans may realistically provide. However, financially knowledgeable employees report lower expected replacement rates and acknowledge higher levels of uncertainty. Moreover using instrumental variation for financial conditions and financial knowledge of relatives, we find a positive effect of financial literacy on retirement preparation. Employing the panel feature of our dataset, we show that financial knowledge has a causal impact on retirement planning. Our findings suggest that the formation of pension expectations might be an important mechanism contributing to the impact of financial literacy on planning. |
| Keywords: | Financial Sophistication, Retirement Planning, Retirement Expectations |
| JEL: | D91 G11 D80 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crp:wpaper:110&r=lab |
| By: | Halkos, George; Tzeremes, Nickolaos |
| Abstract: | In this paper using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) we evaluate the influence of national culture on education policy efficiency for 20 OECD countries. For that reason bootstrap techniques have been employed in order to produce biased corrected efficiency scores and confidence intervals are been calculated. By using probabilistic approaches it conditions the effect of national cultural values on the obtained countries’ educational efficiencies. The empirical results indicate that the efficiency of education policy is mainly influenced from differences of individualistic and masculinity values among the countries. However the results clearly indicate that education policy reforms must be based outside those national cultural bounds in order to support national economies on their foreseen challenges. |
| Keywords: | Data Envelopment Analysis; Education; Linear programming; Statistics |
| JEL: | C14 I21 C60 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:30098&r=lab |
| By: | Ximena Cadena; Antoinette Schoar; Alexandra Cristea; Héber M. Delgado-Medrano |
| Abstract: | In this paper we test whether procrastination and planning problems affect the performance, compensation and work satisfaction among employees. We conducted a randomized controlled experiment with a bank in Colombia to change the frequency and intensity with which employees received reminders about goal achievements. We also provided small in-kind prizes every week to remind employees of their goal achievement. Loan officers in the treatment group showed strong improvements in their goal achievements, better work load distribution, and higher monthly compensation (not including the value of the small prizes). The intervention also improved worker satisfaction and reduced stress levels, without affecting the quality of the loan officers’ portfolios. We show that including branch managers (the supervisors of the loan officers) in the intervention was central in achieving these results, since they played a key role in reinforcing the reminders and helping employees with planning problems. |
| JEL: | G21 J22 J33 L2 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16944&r=lab |
| By: | Edward L. Glaeser; Giacomo A.M. Ponzetto; Kristina Tobio |
| Abstract: | One approach to urban areas emphasizes the existence of certain immutable relationships, such as Zipf’s or Gibrat’s Law. An alternative view is that urban change reflects individual responses to changing tastes or technologies. This paper examines almost 200 years of regional change in the U.S. and finds that few, if any, growth relationships remain constant, including Gibrat’s Law. Education does a reasonable job of explaining urban resilience in recent decades, but does not seem to predict county growth a century ago. After reviewing this evidence, we present and estimate a simple model of regional change, where education increases the level of entrepreneurship. Human capital spillovers occur at the city level because skilled workers produce more product varieties and thereby increase labor demand. We find that skills are associated with growth in productivity or entrepreneurship, not with growth in quality of life, at least outside of the West. We also find that skills seem to have depressed housing supply growth in the West, but not in other regions, which supports the view that educated residents in that region have fought for tougher land-use controls. We also present evidence that skills have had a disproportionately large impact on unemployment during the current recession. |
| JEL: | D00 R00 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16934&r=lab |
| By: | Johan Almenberg (Ministry of Finance, Sweden); Jenny Säve-Söderbergh (The Swedish Social Institute for Social Research) |
| Abstract: | We examine the relationship between financial literacy and retirement planning in a representative sample of Swedish adults. We find significant differences in financial literacy between planners and non-planners. Financial literacy levels are also lower among older people, women and those with low education or earnings. When we control for demographic variables we do not find an association between a narrow measure of financial literacy and planning, but with a broader measure the association is positive and statistically significant. We relate these findings to features of the Swedish pension system. |
| Keywords: | Financial literacy,pensions planning |
| JEL: | D10 H55 H75 I22 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crp:wpaper:112&r=lab |
| By: | Shizuka Sekita (Istitute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | Using micro data on Japanese households, I provide an overview of the level of financial literacy in Japan, analyze the determinants of financial literacy and link financial literacy to retirement planning. Overall, the level of financial literacy is low in Japan. Surprisingly, many Japanese responded that they did not know the answer in at least one question. In addition, I found that females, the young, and individuals with lower incomes and lower education levels are financially illiterate. Moreover, as expected, I found that financial literacy increases the probability of having a savings plan for retirement. |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crp:wpaper:108&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: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:depeco:0649&r=lab |
| By: | Andrén, Daniela (Department of Business, Economics, Statistics and Informatics) |
| Abstract: | Using a discrete choice one-factor model, we estimate mean treatment parameters and distributional treatment parameters to analyze the effects of degree of sick leave on the probability of full recovery of lost work capacity for employed and unemployed individuals, respectively. Our results indicate that one year after the sick leave spell started, the average potential impact of part-time sick listing on an individual randomly chosen from the population on sick leave was positive for both groups, but the average effect on those who actually were on part-time sick leave was positive only for the employed, and negative for the unemployed. |
| Keywords: | unemployed; part-time sick leave; selection; unobserved heterogeneity; treatment effects |
| JEL: | I12 J21 J28 |
| Date: | 2011–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:oruesi:2011_005&r=lab |
| By: | Fernando Martins (Banco de Portugal (Research Department), ISEG (Technical University of Lisbon) and Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa.) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the main findings of a survey conducted on a sample of Portuguese firms. The main aim was to identify some relevant characteristics about the dynamics of prices and wages in Portugal. The most important conclusions are: i) changes to wages are more synchronized than changes to prices; ii) most wages are defined using inflation as a yardstick, even though there are no formal rules; iii) the wages of most workers are defined in terms of sector-related collective agreements; iv) a considerable proportion of workers receive wages above those been agreed under the collective agreement; v) firms make frequent use of other mechanisms to cut payroll costs as a way of overcoming the restrictions imposed by downward nominal wage rigidity. JEL Classification: D21, E30, J31. |
| Keywords: | survey data, wage rigidity, price rigidity, indexation, institutions. |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20111314&r=lab |
| By: | Annamaria Lusardi (Dartmouth College); Olivia S. Mitchell (University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School) |
| Abstract: | In an increasingly risky and globalized marketplace, people must be able to make well-informed financial decisions. Yet new international research demonstrates that financial illiteracy is widespread when financial markets are well developed as in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Japan, Italy, New Zealand, and the United States, or when they are changing rapidly as in Russia. Further, across these countries, we show that the older population believes itself well informed, even though it is actually less well informed than average. Other common patterns are also evident: women are less financially literate than men and are aware of this shortfall. More educated people are more informed, yet education is far from a perfect proxy for literacy. There are also ethnic/racial and regional differences: city-dwellers in Russia are better informed than their rural counterparts, while in the U.S., African Americans and Hispanics are relatively less literate than others. Moreover, the more financially literate are also those most likely to plan for retirement. In fact, answering one additional financial question correctly is associated with a 3-4 percentage point higher chance of planning for retirement in countries as diverse as Germany, the U.S., Japan, and Sweden; in the Netherlands, it boosts planning by 10 percentage points. Finally, using instrumental variables, we show that these estimates probably underestimate the effects of financial literacy on retirement planning. In sum, around the world, financial literacy is critical to retirement security. |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crp:wpaper:106&r=lab |
| By: | Mehlhorn, Sandy; Parrott, Scott D.; Mehlhorn, Joey; Burcham, Timothy; Roberts, Jason; Smartt, Philip |
| Abstract: | Students in a traditional agriculture class were surveyed to learn their perceptions of digital learning objects created by the instructor to improve student problem solving ability. Student assignments and exam scores were compared. The students enrolled in the course with digital learning objects scored higher on exams than a similar section which did not include digital learning objects. However, student performance was mixed with regard to assignment and exam scores for the students who used the digital learning objects. |
| Keywords: | digital learning object, online education, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea11:98763&r=lab |