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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Christian Pfeifer (Institute of Economics, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Survey data is used to estimate the impact of physical attractiveness rated by the interviewer as well as by the respondent on employment probability and labor income of men and women. In addition to mean linear and non-linear effects on earnings, simultaneous quantile regressions are applied to analyze heterogeneity across the wage distribution. |
| Keywords: | Attractiveness; Beauty; Employment; Wages |
| JEL: | J31 J71 J10 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lue:wpaper:201&r=lab |
| By: | Olivia Ekert-Jaffé; Isabelle Terraz |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of unemployment on earnings for ten European countries. Using an harmonised database (ECHP), we estimate the impact of declared unemployment on individuals while taking account of attrition and unobserved individual heterogeneity. We find that the unemployment effect differs by country and gender. The wage penalty is greater for men than for women. It is also higher in the more flexible economies. We suggest that labour market institutions such as unemployment benefits and wage-setting institutions may be avenues of investigation to explain these differences. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, Unobserved heterogeneity, post unemployment earnings. |
| JEL: | J31 J64 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2011-09&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre Brochu; David A. Green |
| Abstract: | <p><p>We investigate differences in quit, layoff and hiring rates in high versus low minimum wage regimes using Canadian data spanning 1979 to 2008. The data include consistent questions on job tenure and reason for job separation for the whole period. Over the same time frame, there were over 140 minimum wage changes in Canada. We find that higher minimum wages are associated with lower hiring rates but also with lower job separation rates. Importantly, the reduced separation rates are due mainly to reductions in layoffs, occur in the first 6 months of a job, and are present for unskilled workers of all ages. Our estimates imply that a 10% increase in the minimum wage generates a 3.9% reduction in the layoff rate. We present a search and matching model that fits with these patterns and test its implications. Overall, our results imply that jobs in higher minimum wage regimes are more stable but harder to get. </p></p> |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:11/06&r=lab |
| By: | Andersson, Martin (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology); Thulin, Per (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on a much cited but seldom measured micro-foundation for agglomerations: inter-firm labor mobility. Labor mobility has been advanced as a vehicle for knowledge flows and labor market efficiency, and is often maintained to be an important source of agglomeration economies. Based on matched employer-employee data, we estimate the influence that spatial employment density has on the probability of inter-firm job-switching, while controlling for ample attributes of each worker and employer. The rate of inter-firm labor mobility varies substantially across regions and we document a systematic and robust positive influence of density on the probability of job switching. The likelihood that such switching is intra-regional is significantly higher if the employees operate in denser regions, verifying that labor mobility (and thus the effects mediated by it) is indeed localized. Higher rates of inter-firm labor mobility appear as a likely mechanism behind the empirically verified productivity advantage of dense regions. |
| Keywords: | job-switching; inter-firm labor mobility; agglomeration economies; external economies; micro-foundations; density |
| JEL: | J61 J62 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2011–04–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0248&r=lab |
| By: | Luke Haywood (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I) |
| Abstract: | This paper considers how the demand for non-material aspects of jobs evolves over changing wealth levels and how firms may want to react. We first consider the importance of non-material job aspects in general before turning to two specifc human resource practices: flexible working hour arrangements and employer pension provision. In order to estimate the effect of wealth on job preferences without confounding it with the potential effect of job preferences on wealth due to earnings differentials, we focus on non-labour income (e.g. lottery winnings). We test how it affects workers' preferences using an approach based on duration data. |
| Keywords: | job satisfaction; wealth; HRM; job mobility; turnover |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-00588850&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Pfeifer (Institute of Economics, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany); Simon Janssen (University Zurich, Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, Switzerland); Philip Yang (Leibniz University Hannover, Institute of Labor Economics, Germany); Uschi Backes-Gellner (University Zurich, Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the effects of employer-provided formal training on employee suggestions for productivity improvements and on promotions among male blue-collar workers. More than twenty years of personnel data of four entry cohorts in a German company allow us to address issues such as unobserved heterogeneity and the length of potential training effects. Our main finding is that workers have larger probabilities to make suggestions and to be promoted after they have received formal training. The effect on suggestions is however only short term. Promotion probabilities are largest directly after training but also seem to be affected in the long term. |
| Keywords: | Human capital; Insider econometrics; Productivity; Promotions; Training |
| JEL: | J24 M53 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lue:wpaper:202&r=lab |
| By: | Stefania Marcassa (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the results of an econometric analysis of the conditional probability of leaving unemployment for four waves of French married men and women entering unemployment from 1991 to 2002. The effect of spouse's hourly earnings on unemployment duration is found to be asymmetric for men and women. In particular, an elasticity of 0.38 for men and -0.15 for women are found to be significant for the entire sample. Individual data from the French Labor Force Survey are used with accurate information on spell durations, and labor earnings of the spouses. Parametric estimation techniques are used. |
| Keywords: | unemployment duration, hazard models, labor earnings, marriage, France |
| Date: | 2011–04–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00588695&r=lab |
| By: | Serra, Danila; Barr, Abigail; Packard, Truman |
| Abstract: | The extent to which teachers and school directors are held to account may play a central role in determining education outcomes, particularly in developing and transition countries where institutional deficiencies can distort incentives. This paper investigates the relationship between an expanded set of school inputs, including proxies for the functionality of"top-down"and"bottom-up"accountability systems, and education outputs in Albanian primary schools. The authors use data generated by an original survey of 180 nationally representative schools. The analysis shows a strong negative correlation between measures of top-down accountability and students'rates of grade repetition and failure in final examinations, and a strong positive correlation between measures of top-down accountability and students'excellence in math. Bottom-up accountability measures are correlated to various education outputs, although they tend lose statistical significance once parent characteristics, school resources and top-down accountability indicators are considered. An in-depth analysis of participatory accountability within the schools focuses on parents'willingness to hold teachers to account. Here, the survey data are combined with data from lab-type experiments conducted with parents and teachers in the schools. In general, the survey data highlight problems of limited parental involvement and lack of information about participatory accountability structures. The experiments indicate that the lack of parental participation in the school accountability system is owing to information constraints and weak institutions that allow parent class representatives to be appointed by teachers rather than elected by parents. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary Education,Education For All,Primary Education,Teaching and Learning,Secondary Education |
| Date: | 2011–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5643&r=lab |
| By: | Yu-Han Jao; Jui-Chung Allen Li |
| Abstract: | Using data from eleven waves of WomenÕs Marriage, Fertility, and Employment Survey, the authors examine trends in labor force participation among married mothers of preschool-aged children in Taiwan. The estimates indicate an upward period trend and an unexpected downward cohort trend. The results show that (1) changes in the population composition of womenÕs education and (2) changes in behavior for women of different levels of education, both associated with educational expansion, as well as (3) changes in economic opportunities in the labor market help explain the trends. However, changes in gendered family norms, as indicated by husbandÕs education, and changes in family composition factors, are largely independent of the trends. They also find that the unexpected cohort trend may be due to sample selectionÑwomen in recent birth cohorts who chose to marry and have children tend to be less committed to employment than their counterparts in earlier birth cohorts on whom the cultural constraints imposed greater pressure for them to stay home. They conclude that two major social changesÑeducational expansion, and industrial and economic developmentsÑare associated with the increase in employment among married mothers of preschool-aged children in Taiwan from 1983 to 2006. |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ran:wpaper:850&r=lab |
| By: | D'Alessandro, Simone; Fioroni, Tamara |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the evolution of child labour, fertility and human capital in an economy with two production sectors and two types of workers endowed with two different levels of human capital. Adults allocate their time endowment between work and child rearing and choose the time allocation of children between schooling and work. The heterogeneity between low and high skilled workers allows for an endogenous analysis of inequality generated by child labour. We show that the persistence of child labour can be explained through the competition between children and low-skilled workers. This persistence, in turn, can easily induce an increase in the inequality and an average impoverishment within the country. |
| Keywords: | J13; J24; J82; K31 |
| JEL: | J13 |
| Date: | 2011–04–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:30454&r=lab |
| By: | Bellou, Andriana; Kaymak, Baris |
| Abstract: | We study the wage growth of job stayers over the business cycle, and show that wage adjustments within a job spell display significant history dependence. This is at odds with the spot market model, which implies that the wage growth of a worker within a job spell depends solely on the change in the contemporaneous economic conditions. Instead, we find that workers hired during recessions, or those who experienced unfavorable economic conditions since they were hired, receive larger wage raises during expansions, and are subject to smaller wage cuts during downswings. The change in the contemporaneous conditions, on the other hand, is not a significant determinant of wage growth. Our findings are consistent with a model of implicit insurance contracts where neither the employer nor the worker can fully commit to the contract. |
| Keywords: | Business Cycles;Wage Rigidity; Implicit Contracts; Cyclical Selection |
| JEL: | E32 J31 J41 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:30401&r=lab |
| By: | Mamoon, Dawood |
| Abstract: | The paper analyses the relationship between the popular Barro and Lee (2001) ‘Average years of Schooling’ with income inequality, wage inequality, and income deciles and income percentiles for the sample of developed and developing countries. The results suggest that countries where students complete higher numbers of years of schooling on average also perform better on relative incomes meaning that increase in average income comes from improvements in the earning capacity of the lower income groups or unskilled labor. The paper also finds that an educated population means that there is redistribution of income from the rich to the poor creating thriving middle class. |
| Keywords: | Education; Inequality |
| JEL: | D31 D33 A2 |
| Date: | 2011–04–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:30511&r=lab |
| By: | Barrera-Osorio, Felipe; Raju, Dhushyanth |
| Abstract: | This study estimates the causal effects of a public per-student subsidy program targeted at low-cost private schools in Pakistan on student enrollment and schooling inputs. Program entry is ultimately conditional on achieving a minimum stipulated student pass rate (cutoff) in a standardized academic test. This mechanism for treatment assignment allows the application of regression-discontinuity (RD) methods to estimate program impacts at the cutoff. Data on two rounds of entry test takers (phase 3 and phase 4) are used. Modeling the entry process of phase-4 test takers as a sharp RD design, the authors find evidence of large positive impacts on the number of students, teachers, classrooms, and blackboards. Modeling the entry process of phase-3 test takers as a partially-fuzzy RD design given treatment crossovers, they do not find evidence of significant program impacts on outcomes of interest. The latter finding is likely due to weak identification arising from a small jump in the probability of treatment at the cutoff. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary Education,Education For All,Primary Education,Teaching and Learning,Secondary Education |
| Date: | 2011–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5638&r=lab |
| By: | Heiner Mikosch (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Jan-Egbert Sturm (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | By using a model of trade union behaviour Grüner (2010) argues that the introduction of the European Monetary Union (EMU) led to lower wage growth and lower unemployment in participating countries. Following Grüner’s model, monetary centralization lets the central bank react less flexibly to national business cycle movements. This increases the amplitude of national business cycles which, in turn, leads to higher unemployment risk. In order to counter-balance this effect, trade unions lower their claims for wage mark-ups resulting in lower wage growth and lower unemployment. This paper uses macroeconomic data on OECD countries and a difference-in-differences approach to empirically test the implications of this model. Although we come up with some weak evidence for increased business cycle amplitudes within the EMU, we neither find a significant general effect of the EMU on wage growth nor on unemployment. |
| Keywords: | Common currency areas, EMU, Phillips curve, unemployment, wages |
| JEL: | E52 E58 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:11-280&r=lab |
| By: | Judith K. Hellerstein; David Neumark |
| Abstract: | Blacks in the United States are poorer than whites and have much lower employment rates. “Place-based” policies seek to improve the labor markets in which blacks – especially low-income urban blacks – tend to reside. We first review the literature on spatial mismatch, which provides much of the basis for place-based policies. New evidence demonstrates an important racial dimension to spatial mismatch, and this “racial mismatch” suggests that simply creating more jobs where blacks live, or moving blacks to where jobs are located, is unlikely to make a major dent in black employment problems. We also discuss new evidence of labor market networks that are to some extent stratified by race, which may help explain racial mismatch. We then turn to evidence on place-based policies. Many of these, such as enterprise zones and Moving to Opportunity (MTO), are largely ineffective in increasing employment, likely because spatial mismatch is not the core problem facing urban blacks, and because, in the case of MTO, the role of labor market networks was weakened. Finally, we discuss policies focused on place that also target incentives and other expenditures on the residents of the targeted locations, which may do more to take advantage of labor market networks. |
| JEL: | J15 J18 J7 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16986&r=lab |
| By: | Niklas Potrafke (Department of Economics, University of Konstanz, Germany) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates empirically how unemployment-induced employment-breaks at different career stages influence pension benefits. The analysis is based on German data. I distinguish four different career phases and investigate to what extent the prevailing social security policy compensated for earning losses. The results suggest that (1) losses in pension benefits were the greatest if unemployment occurred in the middle of a career (between 31 50); (2) social security policies have had a mitigating effect on losses in pension benefits. These findings indicate that institutions have a decided influence on how career patterns translate into pension benefits. |
| Keywords: | employment histories, career interruptions, pension benefits, social security policy, human capital depreciation, institutions |
| JEL: | J26 J24 H55 I38 |
| Date: | 2011–04–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:knz:dpteco:1105&r=lab |
| By: | Nora Lustig (Department of Economics, Tulane University); Luis F. López Calva (Poverty in the Latin America and the Caribbean Vicepresidency, World Bank); Eduardo Ortiz-Juarez (RBLAC-UNDP, Mexico and World Bank) |
| Abstract: | Between 2000 and 2009, the Gini coefficient declined in 13 of 17 Latin American countries for which comparable data exist. The decline was statistically significant and robust to changes in the time interval, inequality measures and data sources. In depth country studies for Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Peru suggest that there are two phenomena which underlie this trend: (i) a fall in the premium to skilled labor (as measured by returns to education); and (ii) higher and more progressive government transfers. The fall in the premium to skills results from a combination of supply and demand factors and, in Argentina and, to a lesser extent, in Brazil, from more active labor market policies as well. |
| Keywords: | Income inequality, wage gap, government transfers, Latin America |
| JEL: | O15 H53 J48 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:1118&r=lab |
| By: | Andrén, Daniela (Department of Business, Economics, Statistics and Informatics) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the impact of the definition of part-time sick leave (PTSL) when analyzing the effect of PTSL on employees’ probability to fully recover lost work capacity. Using a random sample of 3,607 employees, we estimate an econometric model that aims to answer the hypothetical question of what happens to an employee who has lost his/her work capacity if he/she instead of continuing to be sicklisted full time starts working some hours. The estimated treatment parameters vary across definitions, yet all results show that, regardless of the timing of the intervention, PTSL had a positive effect on the probability of full recovery of lost work capacity one year after the spell started. Moreover, the most attractive definition shows the highest impact: About 48% of those with a reduced degree of sick leave from full time to part time during the spell were recovered about one year after the spell started, and only about 6% of them would have been better off had they remained on full-time. |
| Keywords: | part-time sick leave; full-time sick leave; selection; treatment and control groups; unobserved heterogeneity; treatment effects |
| JEL: | I12 J21 J28 |
| Date: | 2011–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:oruesi:2011_004&r=lab |
| By: | Blom, Andreas; Saeki, Hiroshi |
| Abstract: | Skill shortage remains one of the major constraints to continued growth of the Indian economy. This employer survey seeks to address this knowledge-gap by answering three questions: (i) Which skills do employers consider important when hiring new engineering graduates? (ii) How satisfied are employers with the skills of engineering graduates? and (iii) In which important skills are the engineers falling short? The results confirm a widespread dissatisfaction with the current graduates -- 64 percent of employers hiring fresh engineering graduates are only somewhat satisfied with the quality of the new hires or worse. After classifying all skills by factor analysis, the authors find that employers perceive Soft Skills (Core Employability Skills and Communication Skills) to be very important. Skill gaps are particularly severe in the higher-order thinking skills ranked according to Bloom's taxonomy. In contrast, communication in English has the smallest skill gap, but remains one of the most demanded skills by the employers. Although employers across India asks for the same set of soft skills, their skill demands differ for Professional Skills across economic sectors, company sizes, and regions. These findings suggest that engineering education institutions should: (i) seek to improve the skill set of graduates; (ii) recognize the importance of Soft Skills, (iii) refocus the assessments, teaching-learning process, and curricula away from lower-order thinking skills, such as remembering and understanding, toward higher-order skills, such as analyzing and solving engineering problems, as well as creativity; and (iv) interact more with employers to understand the particular demand for skills in that region and sector. |
| Keywords: | Teaching and Learning,ICT Policy and Strategies,Primary Education,Educational Sciences,Knowledge for Development |
| Date: | 2011–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5640&r=lab |
| By: | Edward N. Wolff |
| Abstract: | One of the most dramatic changes in the retirement income system over the last three decades has been a decline in traditional defined benefit (DB) pension plans and a corresponding rise in defined contribution (DC) pensions. Have workers benefited from this change? Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, I find that after robust gains in the 1980s and 1990s, pension wealth experienced a marked slowdown in growth from 2001 to 2007. Projections to 2009 indicate no increase in pension wealth from 2001 to 2009. Retirement wealth is also found to offset the inequality in standard household net worth. However, I find that pensions had a weaker offsetting effect on wealth inequality in 2007 than in 1989. As a result, whereas standard net worth inequality showed little change from 1989 to 2007, the inequality of private augmented wealth (the sum of pension wealth and net worth) did increase over this period. These results hold up even when Social Security wealth and employer contributions to DC plans are included in the measure of wealth and when adjustments are made for future tax liabilities on retirement wealth. |
| JEL: | D31 H55 J32 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16991&r=lab |
| By: | Wachenheim, Cheryl J. |
| Abstract: | This work was published in the Review of Agricultural Economics. See Wachenheim, C.J. 2009. Final Exam Scores in Introductory Economics Courses: Effect of Course Delivery Method and Proctoring. Review of Agricultural Economics 31(3), pp. 640-652. |
| Keywords: | Online, Assessment, Education, Economics, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103165&r=lab |
| By: | Thomas Bolli (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Mehdi Farsi (CEPE, ETH Zurich, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the labor productivity of Swiss university departments between 1995 and 2007. Using a parametric input distance function we estimate and decompose the Malmquist productivity indexes in line with Fuentes et al. (2001) and Atkinson et al. (2003). By contrast to those studies, this paper proposes a panel data specification to account for unobserved heterogeneity across production units. The adopted model is a mixed-effects model with department fixed effects as well as random coefficients for time variables. We also use an autoregressive stochastic term to model inefficiency shocks while allowing for gradual improvement of persistent inefficiencies. The results indicate a negative trend in overall productivity measured by Malmquist index, particularly after 2002, with an average productivity decline of about one percent per year. A major part of this productivity decline coincides with the recent developments in Switzerland’s higher education system following the adoption of the Bologna agreement. However, the results do not provide any evidence of statistically significant relationship between productivity and reforms. Our decomposition analysis suggests that the observed productivity decline could be contributed to technical regress but also to a rising inefficiency with a relatively high level of persistence. The results also point to various patterns across different fields. In particular, economics and business departments and law schools show the lowest performance, whereas science departments stand out as an exception with productivity improvement. |
| Keywords: | Swiss Universities, Parametric Distance Function, Heterogeneity, Malmquist Index, Decomposition, Autocorrelation |
| JEL: | C23 D24 I23 J24 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:11-278&r=lab |
| By: | Senses Dayangac, Renginar (Galatasaray University Economic Research Center); Ozturk Goktuna, Bilge (Galatasaray University Economic Research Center) |
| Abstract: | The model presents the dynamics and the equilibrium of an overlapping generation economy when there is informal employment, a pension system and altruistic agents. The model inspires from stylised facts on developping and Euro-Mediteranean countries where family plays a central role in risk insurance. The rational is emphasised by lower costs compared to private and public insurance systems. Given an initial distribution of the informally employed individuals, the model captures the e¤ects of social security decisions and anticipated bequests on the preference of the agents for formal or informal employment. The impact of scal policies on the distribution of employment to formal and informal categories is analysed through the political competition. We show that opportunist behaviour would amplify the relative size of the informal employment. |
| Keywords: | Informal labour; Overlapping generations; Political competition |
| Date: | 2011–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:giamwp:2011_004&r=lab |
| By: | Richard A. Brecher (Department of Economics, Carleton University); Zhiqi Chen (Department of Economics, Carleton University); Zhihao Yu (Department of Economics, Carleton University) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides theoretical support for the popular objection to offshoring, whereby firms at home employ services of labor located abroad. In the presence of unemployment, our analysis highlights welfare losses from offshoring—not only for the static case of a fixed stock of capital, but also for the dynamic one of optimal saving and investment. We compare these static and dynamic losses to the gains that would instead arise under full-employment conditions, assumed by most of the theoretical literature on offshoring. Our results suggest that public concerns over offshoring are justified when unemployment is taken explicitly into account. |
| Keywords: | Offshoring, Outsourcing, Unemployment, Welfare |
| JEL: | F20 |
| Date: | 2010–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:car:carecp:11-02&r=lab |
| By: | Stefania Marcassa (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | At the end of the 1960s, the U.S. divorce laws underwent major changes and the divorce rate more than doubled in all of the states. The new laws introduced unilateral divorce in most of the states and changes in divorce settlements in every state, such as property division, alimony transfers, and child custody assignments. The empirical literature so far has focused on the switch from consensual to unilateral divorce and found that this change cannot fully account for the increase in the divorce rate. Also, the divorce rate increased even in states where the decision remained consensual. In this paper, I consider the effects of other aspects of the legal change. I show that changes in divorce settlements provide economic incentives for both spouses to agree to divorce. Moreover, I describe a mechanism that can explain the different change in divorce rate by age of couples. I solve and calibrate a model where agents differ by gender, and make decisions on their marital status, investment and labor supply. Under the new financial settlements, divorced men gain from a favorable division of property, while women gain from an increase in alimony and child support transfers. Since both of them are better off in the new divorce setting, the existing requirement of consent for divorce (consensual or unilateral) is no longer relevant. Results show that changes in divorce settlements account for a substantial amount of the increase in the aggregate divorce rate. I also find that the increase in divorce rate of young couples with children contributes the most to the overall increase, which is consistent with the data. |
| Keywords: | Age-specific divorce rate, unilateral and consensual divorce, divorce laws, property division, alimony and child support, child custody |
| Date: | 2011–04–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00588693&r=lab |
| By: | Ko, Jun-Hyung |
| Abstract: | Why does the hours worked show a decreasing pattern in the postwar Japanese economy? This paper answers this question in the background of the changing pattern of government spending and tax-imposing behaviors. We construct and simulate a standard optimal growth model with the following key features: various taxes and subsidies. Our main findings are as follows. First, we quantitatively find that the increasing pattern of taxes on labor income played a crucial role in influencing the declining pattern of hours worked in Japan. Second, consumption tax and subsidy have a limited role in explaining the labor supply because they cancel each other out. Third, pension benefit may influence the retirement of the people in their sixties but has a minor effect on the hours worked. Fourth, the legal reduction in the workweek length in 1990 can explain the low level of the hours worked since 1990. Fifth, subsistence consumption can account for the slope of hours worked but cannot explain the long-run level. |
| Keywords: | marginal tax rate; subsidy; hours worked; pension benefit |
| JEL: | E62 E32 E24 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:30058&r=lab |
| By: | Anderson, James (Institute for labor economics, University of London and Data Centre for Work and Welfare) |
| Abstract: | The paper studies the impact of migration policy liberalization in the enlarged EU. Adopting a structural NEG approach, we attempt to asses the direction, size and dynamics of potential labor migration after the end of the 'transitional measures', which are restricting the relocation of workers. According to our simulation results, the liberalization of migration policy would induce additional 2 -3 percent of the total EU workforce to change their country of location,with most of migrant workers relocating as expected from East to the West. The average net migration rate is decreasing in the level of integration, and in portugal and the UK the immigration of workers has even reverted to emigration at higher levels of integration, suggesting that from the economic point of view no regulatory policy responses are necessary to labor mobility restrictions inposed on workers from the balkan member States and the Balkan Candidate Countries are obsolete and should be removed with respect to achieving the objectives of the Europe 2020 Growth Strategy. |
| Keywords: | Labor Migration, Romania |
| JEL: | F12 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rjr:wpiecf:110427&r=lab |
| By: | Ollinger, Michael; Ralston, Katherine; Guthrie, Joanne |
| Abstract: | On a given school day, over 31 million lunches and 10.1 million breakfasts are served to children in participating American schools through the USDA National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. The United States Department of Agriculture reimburses schools for some or all of their costs. Reimbursement rates are based on an average meal cost, adjusted each year based on the national CPI for food away from home. There is no adjustment for school characteristics such as size, although there can be as much as a seven-fold difference in the number of meals served, from the smallest to largest schools. Yet, economists have shown that economies of scale exist in a variety of commercial and industrial settings. Thus, we use a multiproduct translog cost function to estimate the costs of school breakfasts and lunches. Results indicate substantial and persistent economies of scale across 21 locations for school breakfasts but few unexploited scale economies in school lunches. |
| Keywords: | National School Lunch Program, school meal costs, school breakfast costs, School breakfast program, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103191&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Pfeifer (Institute of Economics, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany) |
| Abstract: | I use a question about works council relations from the 2006 wave of the IAB Establishment panel to analyze the heterogeneous effects of works councils on productivity, wages, and profits. The results indicate that the effects differ significantly between works council relationship types in a systematic pattern. The overall findings are in line with productivity-enhancing and rent-sharing functions of works councils. |
| Keywords: | Codetermination; Firm performance; Industrial relations; Works councils |
| JEL: | J53 M54 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lue:wpaper:203&r=lab |
| By: | Joshua S. Graff Zivin; Matthew J. Neidell |
| Abstract: | Environmental protection is typically cast as a tax on the labor market and the economy in general. Since a large body of evidence links pollution with poor health, and health is an important part of human capital, efforts to reduce pollution could plausibly be viewed as an investment in human capital and thus a tool for promoting economic growth. While a handful of studies have documented the impacts of pollution on labor supply, this paper is the first to rigorously assess the less visible but likely more pervasive impacts on worker productivity. In particular, we exploit a novel panel dataset of daily farm worker output as recorded under piece rate contracts merged with data on environmental conditions to relate the plausibly exogenous daily variations in ozone with worker productivity. We find robust evidence that ozone levels well below federal air quality standards have a significant impact on productivity: a 10 ppb decrease in ozone concentrations increases worker productivity by 4.2 percent. |
| JEL: | I1 J3 Q5 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17004&r=lab |
| By: | Ralf Meisenzahl; Joel Mokyr |
| Abstract: | During the Industrial Revolution technological progress and innovation became the main drivers of economic growth. But why was Britain the technological leader? We argue that one hitherto little recognized British advantage was the supply of highly skilled, mechanically able craftsmen who were able to adapt, implement, improve, and tweak new technologies and who provided the micro inventions necessary to make macro inventions highly productive and remunerative. Using a sample of 759 of these mechanics and engineers, we study the incentives and institutions that facilitated the high rate of inventive activity during the Industrial Revolution. First, apprenticeship was the dominant form of skill formation. Formal education played only a minor role. Second, many skilled workmen relied on secrecy and first-mover advantages to reap the benefits of their innovations. Over 40 percent of the sample here never took out a patent. Third, skilled workmen in Britain often published their work and engaged in debates over contemporary technological and social questions. In short, they were affected by the Enlightenment culture. Finally, patterns differ for the textile sector; therefore, any inferences from textiles about the whole economy are likely to be misleading. |
| JEL: | N13 N73 O31 O34 O43 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16993&r=lab |
| By: | Nicholas Barr; Peter Diamond |
| Abstract: | Pension systems have wide-ranging and important effects. They influence the living standards of older people and hence the welfare of both older people and their children. They can also affect national economic performance through potential effects on the labor supply and saving. The design of pensions therefore matters. In discussing the topic, this paper draws on two of our earlier works. It starts by setting out some central lessons from economic theory. Then we derive some policy implications of particular relevance to Latin America. |
| Date: | 2010–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000425:008338&r=lab |