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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Fan, C. Simon; Stark, Oded |
| Abstract: | An increase in the probability of work abroad, where the returns to schooling are higher than at home, induces more individuals in a developing country to acquire education, which leads to an increase in the supply of educated workers in the domestic labor market. Where there is a sticky wage-rate, the demand for labor at home will be constant. With a rising supply and constant demand, the rate of unemployment of educated workers in the domestic labor market will increase. Thus, the prospect of employment abroad causes involuntary 'educated unemployment' at home. A government that is concerned about 'educated unemployment' and might therefore be expected to encourage unemployed educated people to migrate will nevertheless, under certain conditions, elect to restrict the extent of the migration of educated individuals. -- |
| Keywords: | The prospect of migration,Sticky wages,'Educated unemployment',Government intervention |
| JEL: | E24 F22 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuewef:9&r=lab |
| By: | Yusuf Emre Akgunduz; Janneke Plantenga |
| Abstract: | We investigate the aggregate-level effects of parental leave legislation on various labour market outcomes of women in 16 European countries for the period since 1970. The paper updates and extends previous findings in the literature. Results show increases in participation rates that diminish with length and generosity of leave schemes. While pure participation numbers may not increase as dramatically as hoped, there is strong evidence of increases in weekly working hours. On the flipside, decreases in wages for high-skilled workers and amplified occupational segregation are likely results of generous leave schemes. We conclude with a discussion of recent debates over extending minimum maternity and parental leave rights on the European level. |
| Keywords: | Parental leave, gender gap, labour force participation, wages |
| JEL: | J13 J18 J22 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:1109&r=lab |
| By: | Farber, Henry (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | The Great Recession from December 2007 to June 2009 is associated with a dramatic weakening of the labor market from which the labor market is now only slowly recovering. The unemployment rate remains stubbornly high and durations of unemployment are unprecedentedly long. I use data from the Displaced Workers Survey (DWS) from 1984-2010 to investigate the incidence and consequences of job loss from 1981-2009. In particular, the January 2010 DWS, which captures job loss during the 2007-2009 period, provides a window through which to examine the experience of job losers in the Great Recession and to compare their experience to that of earlier job losers. These data show a record high rate of job loss, with almost one in six workers reporting having lost a job in the 2007-2009 period. The consequences of job loss are also very serious during this period with very low rates of reemployment, difficulty finding full-time employment, and substantial earnings losses. |
| Keywords: | displacement, job loss, unemployment |
| JEL: | J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5696&r=lab |
| By: | Hartmut Lehmann; Alexander Muravyev; Tiziano Razzolini; Anzelika Zaiceva |
| Abstract: | This paper is the first to analyze the costs of job loss in Russia, using unique new data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey over the years 2003-2008, including a special supplement on displacement that was initiated by us. We employ fixed effects regression models and propensity score matching techniques in order to establish the causal effect of displacement for displaced individuals. The paper is innovative insofar as we investigate fringe and in-kind benefits and the propensity to have an informal employment relationship as well as a permanent contract as relevant labor market outcomes upon displacement. We also analyze monthly earnings, hourly wages, employment and hours worked, which are traditionally investigated in the literature. Compared to the control group of non-displaced workers (i.e. stayers and quitters), displaced individuals face a significant income loss following displacement, which is mainly due to the reduction in employment and hours worked. This effect is robust to the definition of displacement. The losses seem to be more pronounced and are especially large for older workers with labor market experience and human capital acquired in Soviet times and for workers with primary and secondary education. Workers displaced from state firms experience particularly large relative losses in the short run, while such losses for workers laid off from private firms are more persistent. Turning to the additional non-conventional labor market outcomes, there is a loss in terms of the number of fringe and in-kind benefits for reemployed individuals but not in terms of their value. There is also some evidence of an increased probability of working in informal jobs if displaced. These results point towards the importance of both firm-specific human capital and of obsolete skills obtained under the centrally planned economy as well as to a wider occurrence of job insecurity among displaced workers |
| Keywords: | Costs of job loss; worker displacement; propensity score matching; Russia |
| JEL: | J64 J65 P50 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:recent:060&r=lab |
| By: | Henry S. Farber |
| Abstract: | The Great Recession from December 2007 to June 2009 is associated with a dramatic weakening of the labor market from which the labor market is now only slowly recovering. The unemployment rate remains stubbornly high and durations of unemployment are unprecedentedly long. I use data from the Displaced Workers Survey (DWS) from 1984-2010 to investigate the incidence and consequences of job loss from 1981-2009. In particular, the January 2010 DWS, which captures job loss during the 2007-2009 period, provides a window through which to examine the experience of job losers in the Great Recession and to compare their experience to that of earlier job losers. These data show a record high rate of job loss, with almost one in six workers reporting having lost a job in the 2007-2009 period. The consequences of job loss are also very serious during this period with very low rates of reemployment, difficulty finding full-time employment, and substantial earnings losses. |
| JEL: | J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17040&r=lab |
| By: | Martin, John P. (OECD); Scarpetta, Stefano (OECD) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a critical review of the recent empirical evidence on the links between regulations affecting the hiring and firing of workers, labour reallocation and productivity growth. It also reviews how workers affected by labour mobility fare and discusses policy options to support them. The upshot is that employment protection has a sizeable effect on labour market flows and these flows, in turn, have significant impacts on productivity growth. At the same time, the evidence also shows that while greater labour market reallocation benefits many workers through higher real wages and better careers, some displaced workers lose out via longer unemployment durations and/or lower real wages in post-displacement jobs. In this context, reforms of employment protection should be considered as part of a comprehensive package that also includes an adequate safety net for the unemployed and effective re-employment services. |
| Keywords: | job and worker flows, employment protection, productivity |
| JEL: | J23 J53 K31 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izapps:pp27&r=lab |
| By: | Moritz Bonn (University of Siegen) |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of high skilled immigration on employment and net income in the receiving economy where the market for low skilled labour is distorted by union wage setting and a redistributive unemployment benefit scheme. Based on the empirical fact that high and low skilled workers are close albeit imperfect substitutes, we show that high skilled immigration can either be beneficial or harmful, both in terms of employment and net income. More precisely, we conclude that a Pareto improvement can be achieved if the unemployment benefit level remains unaffected by high skilled immigration whereas an overall loss in net income cannot be ruled out if we suggest unemployment benefits to be funded by an exogenous egalitarian tax rate. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Imperfect Labour Markets, Fiscal Redistribution |
| JEL: | F22 H53 J51 J61 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:201121&r=lab |
| By: | Hamaaki, Junya; Hori, Masahiro; Maeda, Saeko; Murata, Keiko |
| Abstract: | Despite changes in the economic and social environment following the burst of the bubble economy in the early 1990s, studies on the Japanese employment system so far have detected few major changes in seniority-based wage or lifetime employment patterns. Using recent microdata from the Basic Survey on Wage Structure, this paper takes another look at developments in these two key elements of the Japanese employment system. In contrast with previous studies, we do find evidence that the two practices are eroding and that, hence, the traditional employment system overall has begun to unravel. Specifically, with regard to seniority wages, we found, for example, that the age-wage profile has become flatter in recent years, especially for employees in the middle and final phase of their career. And as for lifetime employment, we found a clear downward trend in the share of lifetime employees among younger, university-educated workers from the early 2000s. Taken together, the findings suggest that a growing share of educated younger workers choose to leave indefinite-contract jobs due to the poor prospects for seniority-based wage progression, while older workers choose to stay in their present job despite stagnating or falling wages, since it is more difficult for them to find alternative employment. |
| Keywords: | Seniority-based wages, Lifetime employment, Japan |
| JEL: | J21 J31 J01 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:piecis:511&r=lab |
| By: | Bampasidou, Maria; Flores, Carlos A.; Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso |
| Abstract: | Government-sponsored education and training programs have the goal to enhance participants' skills so as to become more employable, productive and dependable citizens and thus alleviate poverty and decrease public dependence. While most of the literature evaluating training programs concentrates on estimating their total average treatment effect, these programs offer a variety of services to participants. Estimating the effect of these components is of importance for the design and the evaluation of labor market programs. In this paper, we employ a recent nonparametric approach to estimate bounds on the "mechanism average treatment effect" to evaluate the causal effect of attaining a high school diploma, General Education Development or vocational certificate within a training program for disadvantaged youth 16-24 (Job Corps) relative to other services offered, on two labor outcomes: employment probability and weekly earnings. We provide these estimates for different demographic groups by race, ethnicity, gender, and two age-risk groups (youth and young adults). Our analysis depicts a positive impact of a degree attainment within the training program on employment probability and weekly earnings for the majority of its participants which in general accounts for 55 - 63 percent of the effect of the program. The heterogeneity of the key demographic subgroups is documented in the relative importance of a degree attainment and of the other services provided in Job Corps. |
| Keywords: | Causal Inference, Treatment Effects, Mechanism Average Effects, Nonparametric Bounds, Potential Outcomes, Principal Stratification, Training Programs, Job Corps, Active Labor Market Policies, Labor and Human Capital, Public Economics, C14, I20, J01, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103619&r=lab |
| By: | Vincent VANDENBERGHE (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we explore a matched employer-employee data set to investigate the presence of gender wage discrimination in the Belgian private economy labour market. Contrary to many existing papers, we analyse gender wage discrimination using an independent productivity measure. Using firm-level data, we are able to compare direct estimates of a gender productivity differential with those of a gender wage differential. We take advantage of the panel structure to identify 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 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 suggest that there is no gender wage discrimination inside private firms located in Belgium, on the contrary. |
| Keywords: | gender wage discrimination; labour productivity; structural production function estimation; IV-GMM; firm-level panel data |
| JEL: | J24 C52 D24 |
| Date: | 2011–04–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2011016&r=lab |
| By: | Matteo PICCHIO (Tilburg University, CentER, ReflecT, The Netherlands and IZA, Germany); Jan C. van OURS (Tilburg University, CentER, ReflecT, The Netherlands, University of Melbourne, Australia, CESifo, Germany, CEPR, United Kingdom and IZA, Germany) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether on-the-job training has an effect on the employability of workers. Using data from the Netherlands we disentangle the true effect of training incidence from the spurious one determined by unobserved individual heterogeneity. We also take into account that there might be feedback from shocks in the employment status to future propensity of receiving firm-provided training. We find that firm-provided training significantly increases future employment prospects. This finding is robust to a number of robustness checks. It also holds for older workers, suggesting that firm-provided training may be an important instrument to retain older workers at work. |
| Keywords: | training, employment, human capital, older workers |
| JEL: | C33 C35 J21 J24 M53 |
| Date: | 2011–04–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2011017&r=lab |
| By: | Cristian Bartolucci |
| Abstract: | In standard equilibrium search models with strategic wage bargaining and on-the-job search, renegotiation is permitted without requirement of a credible threat. Workers trigger renegotiation whenever they have a new outside option that could raise their wages. In this note I modify the model to be consistent with renegotiation by mutual agreement and I show that estimating the model without imposing credible threats for renegotiation generates downward bias in the estimates of the bargaining power. |
| Keywords: | Credible Threats; On-the-job search; Wage bargaining |
| JEL: | J3 J64 C7 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:203&r=lab |
| By: | Makoto Nakajima |
| Abstract: | This paper measures the effect of extensions of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits on the unemployment rate using a calibrated structural model that features job search and consumption-saving decision, skill depreciation, UI eligibility, and UI benefit extensions that capture what has happened during the current downturn. I find that the extensions of UI benefits contributed to an increase in the unemployment rate by 1.2 percentage points, which is about a quarter of an observed increase during the current downturn (a 5.1 percentage point increase from 4.8 percent at the end of 2007 to 9.9 percent in the fall of 2009). Among the remaining 3.9 percentage points, 2.4 percentage points are due to the large increase in the separation rate, while the staggering job-finding probability contributes 1.4 percentage points. The last extension in December 2010 moderately slows down the recovery of the unemployment rate. Specifically, the model indicates that the last extension keeps the unemployment rate higher by up to 0.4 percentage point during 2011. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment Insurance, Extension, Labor Market, Search, Consumption Smoothing |
| JEL: | J64 J65 E24 D83 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:ghsdps:gd10-175&r=lab |
| By: | Carlsson, Mikael (Research Department, Central Bank of Sweden); Messina, Julián (Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean); Nordström Skans, Oskar (Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation (IFAU), UCLS, and IZA) |
| Abstract: | We study how workers’ wages respond to TFP-driven innovations in firms’ labor productivity. Using unique data with highly reliable firm-level output prices and quantities in the manufacturing sector in Sweden, we are able to derive measures of physical (as opposed to revenue) TFP to instrument labor productivity in the wage equations. We find that the reaction of wages to sectoral labor productivity is almost three times larger than the response to pure idiosyncratic (firm-level) shocks, a result which crucially hinges on the use of physical TFP as an instrument. These results are all robust to a number of empirical specifications, including models accounting for selection on both the demand and supply side through worker-firm (match) fixed effects. Further results suggest that technological progress at the firm level has negligible effects on the firm-level composition of employees. |
| Keywords: | matched employer-employee data; sorting; wage; labor productivity; TFP |
| JEL: | J23 J31 J33 |
| Date: | 2011–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:rbnkwp:0253&r=lab |
| By: | Cristian Bartolucci |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the impact of downward wage rigidity on the labor market. It shows that imposing downward wage rigidity in a matching model with cyclical fluctuations in productivity, endogenous match-destruction, and on-the-job search, quits are procyclical and layoffs countercyclical. It provides evidence that downward wage rigidity is empirically relevant in ten European countries. It finally shows that layoffs are countercyclical and quits are procyclical, as predicted by the model. |
| Keywords: | Downward wage rigidity; Business cycles; Wage renegotiation |
| JEL: | J63 J41 E3 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:205&r=lab |
| By: | Blanco, German; Flores, Carlos A.; Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the effect of the U.S. Job Corps (JC), the nation's largest and most comprehensive job training program targeting disadvantaged youths, on wages. We employ partial identification techniques and construct informative nonparametric bounds for the causal effect of interest under weaker assumptions than those conventionally used for point identification of treatment effects in the presence of sample selection. In addition, we propose and estimate bounds on quantile treatment effects of the program on participants' wages. In general, we find convincing evidence of positive impacts of JC on participants' wages. Importantly, we find that estimated impacts on lower quantiles of the distribution are higher, with the highest impact being in the 5th percentile where a positive effect on wages is bounded between 8.4 and 16.1 percent. These bounds suggest that JC results in wage compression within eligible participants. |
| Keywords: | Job Corps, Nonparametric Bounds, Principal Stratification, Active Labor Market Programs., Labor and Human Capital, Public Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, J24, J68, C14, C21, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103761&r=lab |
| By: | Genda, Yuji; Kuroda, Sachiko; Ohta, Souichi |
| Abstract: | Using official household micro data from the Labour Force Survey, this paper examines the increase in the working hours of regular male employees in Japan under recession from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. The most important findings of this paper are that working hours tended to be longer among male regular employees of firms in which (1) there was major employment adjustment, (2) substantial increase in proportion of non-regular workers, and (3) wide variance in regular wages. The results suggest that the existence of a large amount of fixed duties that are necessary to maintain internal organization and transition from the traditional employment system are the main factors that explain the increase in the working hours during the recession in Japan. |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:piecis:510&r=lab |
| By: | Flaig, Dorothee; Siddig, Khalid; Grethe, Harald; Luckmann, Jonas; McDonald, Scott |
| Abstract: | A high number of Palestinian workers used to work in Israel for decades. They are mostly employed in low-skilled jobs in Israeli sectors which are highly dependent on foreign labour, namely agriculture and construction. With the beginning of the second Intifada in 2000 border restrictions increased severely due to security concerns, limiting employment possibilities for Palestinians and leaving Palestine with severe unemployment and loss of income. Israeli employers have substituted Palestinian workers with an increasing number of foreign workers, mostly coming from Asia. Growing unemployment among Israeli unskilled workers caused Israel to impose quotas on the employment of foreigners. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the benefits of lifting movement and access restrictions between Israel and the West Bank for both economies. The macro-economic effects of the Israeli labour policy are important to determine the absorptive capacity of the Israeli labour market. Therefore, we use an extended version of the single country CGE model âSTAGEâ (McDonald, 2009), adapted to a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) of Israel for the year 2004 (Siddig et al., forthcoming), to simulate the effects of different Israeli labour policy regimes. |
| Keywords: | labor market, CGE, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103861&r=lab |
| By: | Ana Maria DIAZ ESCOBAR (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores whether the agglomeration of human capital leads to social employment advantages in urban labor markets of a developing country: Colombia. I estimate the social effects of human capital agglomeration by comparing employment opportunities of individuals located in urban areas in which the level of education differs. Results show that employment opportunities are higher on average in skilled urban areas. Three explanations have been offered: human capital externalities, production complementarities, and consumption spillovers. To distinguish between them, I analyze the effect of an increase on the college share on the employment rate for different education groups. Spatial employment differences in Colombia are mostly explained by human capital externalities and production complementarities. |
| Keywords: | local labor markets, employment, human capital externalities, production complementarities, consumer demand spillovers, signaling, congestion |
| JEL: | R23 J21 J24 |
| Date: | 2011–04–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2011015&r=lab |
| By: | Abe, Yukiko |
| Abstract: | This study uses cross-sectional data to investigate the regional differences in women's participation in the labor market. Women's participation is high in the northern coastal region of Japan. Their high rate of participation is caused by the fact that married women with children participate as regular full-time eployees. A possible explanation for the high participation in the northern coastal region is a combination of (1) a high degree of manufacturing in the northern coastal region and (2) supply side factors that motivate women to work. |
| Keywords: | Regional differences, regular employment, part-time employment, Japan |
| JEL: | J21 R23 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hitcei:2010-12&r=lab |
| By: | Ilmakunnas, Pekka; Ilmakunnas, Seija |
| Abstract: | We examine the impact of a Finnish reform in the 1990s that restricted the use of particular early retirement channels, unemployment pension and individual early retirement, and simultaneously changed the rules of firm size related experience rating in disability pensions. Our emphasis is on how the reforms affected the incentives of the firms to hire older employees. In a simple model we illustrate how forward-looking behaviour of firms affects the value of a new hire. Simulations with the model illustrate that although the reform in the unemployment pension in principle affected particular age groups, 53-54 year olds in the case of unemployment pension and 55-57 year olds in the case of individual early retirement, the impacts on hiring may have been felt also in other, younger, age groups. On the other hand, the effects of both reforms are likely to have varied by firm size. In a differences-indifferences-in-differences analysis with firm-level data we show that the impact of the reforms has been to increase the probability of hiring especially in the age group 51-52 and especially in the largest firms. |
| Keywords: | early retirement; hiring; pension reform |
| JEL: | J14 J63 J26 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:30885&r=lab |
| By: | Klaas de Vos; Arie Kapteyn; Adriaan Kalwij |
| Abstract: | This paper presents information on labor market participation of the elderly, mortality and health, pathways to retirement and rates of participation in various earnings replacing programs in the Netherlands. It presents an overview of reforms to Disability Insurance (DI) and other income maintenance and early retirement programs over the past few decades, and examines to what extent these reforms have affected labor market exit routes of older workers. The overall picture that emerges is that DI receipt appears unrelated to the general health of the population and that over the last two decades relatively fewer older workers exit the labor market through DI. This reduction may, arguably, in part be attributed to stricter DI eligibility rules. |
| JEL: | J26 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17053&r=lab |
| By: | Daniel Baumgarten |
| Abstract: | Using a linked employer-employee data set for Germany, this paper studies how worker turnover is related to establishments‘ international trade involvement. The descriptive analysis shows that trading establishments have lower worker turnover rates than non-traders, suggesting a higher degree of employment stability. Conditional on an extensive set of control variables, exporting is further associated with a higher net job flow rate, which is almost entirely due to a lower separation rate (particularly for highskilled workers and transitions into non-employment). In contrast, an increase in import intensity is associated with a lower accession rate (particularly for low-skilled workers and their accessions out of non-employment). These results are more pronounced for smaller establishments, and they partly lose statistical significance once unobservable establishment characteristics are taken into account. |
| Keywords: | International trade; worker turnover; job turnover; linked employer-employee data |
| JEL: | F16 J21 J23 J63 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0228&r=lab |
| By: | Manuel Flores; Adriaan Kalwij |
| Abstract: | Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, this paper provides empirical evidence for the Netherlands and Spain on the associations between individuals' early life circumstances - measured by health and socioeconomic status (SES) during childhood - educational attainment, and later life health and employment (at ages 50-64). We find that for both men and women in the Netherlands and Spain, favorable early life circumstances (i.e., better childhood health and higher SES) are associated with a higher level of education, which is in turn associated with better health later in life. This latter is also linked to early life circumstances conditional on educational attainment. For men only, favorable early life circumstances are associated with a higher incidence of later life employment, primarily because of better later life health. Our findings thus suggest that policies aimed at improving children's s health and SES may have long-term benefits through increased individual educational attainment and later life health and employment. |
| Keywords: | Early life circumstances, health, employment |
| JEL: | D00 I10 J10 J20 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:1110&r=lab |
| By: | Daiji Kawaguchi; Tetsushi Murao |
| Abstract: | The way age-specific unemployment rates fluctuate over the business cycle differs significantly across countries. This paper examines the effect of labor-market institutions on the fluctuations of age-specific unemployment rates based on panel data of 18 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries between 1971 and 2000. Empirical results suggest that the cost of the business cycle disproportionately falls on youths in countries with stricter employment protection and higher union coverage. These results are consistent with a theoretical prediction that a higher adjustment cost of an existing workforce induces the employment adjustment of new entrants into the labor market. |
| JEL: | E24 J80 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:ghsdps:gd10-184&r=lab |
| By: | Pilar García-Gómez; Sergi Jiménez-Martín; Judit Vall Castelló |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyze the trends in labor force participation and transitions to benefit programs of older workers in relation to health trends as well as recent Social Security reforms. Our preliminary conclusions are pessimistic regarding the effect of health improvements on the labor market attachment of older workers since we show that despite the large improvements in the mortality rates among older individuals in Spain, the employment rates of individuals older than fifty-five remain lower than the ones observed in the late 1970s. Some caution should remain in our conclusions as the evidence on health trends is inconclusive. Regarding the effect of Social Security reforms, we find that both the 1997 and the 2002 reform decreased the stock into old-age benefits at the cost of an increased share of the participation into disability. Finally, we find that there was a significant increase in the outflow from employment into disability after the 2002 reform. |
| JEL: | H55 I18 J11 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17048&r=lab |
| By: | Angrist, Joshua (MIT); Dynarski, Susan (University of Michigan); Kane, Thomas J. (Harvard University); Pathak, Parag A. (MIT); Walters, Christopher R. (MIT) |
| Abstract: | The nation's largest charter management organization is the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP). KIPP schools are emblematic of the No Excuses approach to public education, a highly standardized and widely replicated charter model that features a long school day, an extended school year, selective teacher hiring, strict behavior norms, and a focus on traditional reading and math skills. No Excuses charter schools are sometimes said to focus on relatively motivated high achievers at the expense of students who are most diffiult to teach, including limited English proficiency (LEP) and special education (SPED) students, as well as students with low baseline achievement levels. We use applicant lotteries to evaluate the impact of KIPP Academy Lynn, a KIPP school in Lynn, Massachusetts that typifies the KIPP approach. Our analysis focuses on special needs students that may be underserved. The results show average achievement gains of 0.36 standard deviations in math and 0.12 standard deviations in reading for each year spent at KIPP Lynn, with the largest gains coming from the LEP, SPED, and low-achievement groups. The average reading gains are driven almost completely by SPED and LEP students, whose reading scores rise by roughly 0.35 standard deviations for each year spent at KIPP Lynn. |
| Keywords: | human capital, charter schools, achievement |
| JEL: | I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5690&r=lab |
| By: | Spaulding, Aslihan D.; Steffen, Richard |
| Abstract: | The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) cites the 2005 National Association of Manufacturerâs Skills Gap Report that over 80 percent of respondents to that survey said that they were experiencing a shortage of qualified workers. It is the Career and Technical Education (CTE) field that tries to close this gap by preparing students for the 21st century workforce. Sustaining educationally sound and robust CTE programs depends on a stable level of enrollment. When student demand for CTE classes suffers due to increased academic demands, opportunities for CTE to play a role in enhancing the performance of schools through practical application of academics to the âreal worldâ suffers. One of the factors playing a direct role in the success of CTE programs at the secondary level is the knowledge and perceptions of guidance counselors. It is logical to believe that if the guidance counselor understands the career and higher education opportunities related to those fields, they would be more likely to advise students to explore CTE. Guidance Counselor knowledge of the opportunities for careers and for higher education in a specific career field is vital to the continued success of CTE, the schools and to industry needing a well trained work force. CTE leaders and proponents are often concerned about School Counselorsâ(SC) knowledge of CTE career and higher education opportunities and their willingness to encourage students to consider CTE fields (Brand, 2008). Anecdotally, counselorâs knowledge and support of CTE is often cited as a concern. The importance of the role of the SC in promoting or discouraging students for CTE fields has been examined (Matulis, and Osborne 1990). Research by Dyer et.al (2003) found that agriculture teachers perceived support of guidance counselors the second most influential factor behind scheduling conflicts as a problem preventing students from taking agriculture. In fact, the Association of California School Administrators (2008) identified guidance counselors as a key component in efforts to improve graduation rates and achievement scores by strengthening CTE. In an attempt to understand more clearly, the role of Illinois school counselors in the guidance process, and to identify support the CTE fields might provide school counselors to assist with their professional duties, a series of research projects were conducted. The initial two studies in this series sought to identify the knowledge levels and perceptions of school counselors about the career and higher education opportunities in agriculture. This was followed by a two part study, first to assess knowledge levels and perceptions of school counselors about the career and higher education opportunities in Career and Technical Education (CTE) fields, and in the second phase, to use a consensus process to identify tools and methods to help educate the school counselors about opportunities in CTE. |
| Keywords: | School Counselors, CTE, Guidance for Careers in Agriculture, Agriculture Education, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, I23, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103586&r=lab |
| By: | Heiwai Tang (Tufts University and Centro Studi Luca d\'Agliano); Stan Hok-Wui Wong (Chinese University of Hong Kong) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how immigration affects native wages by exploiting an unexpected episode of immigrant influx. The episode happened in Hong Kong, when its government unexpectedly relaxed the restriction on immigration from mainland China in 1993, resulting in a seven-fold increase in the net inflow of Chinese immigrants between 1992 and 1993. We use variation in the employment share of immigrants across occupations for identification. To tackle endogeneity between wages and immigrant inflows across occupations, we use Welch’s (1999) congruence indices, which capture the degree of substitutability between workers from different skill groups, to construct instruments for the prevalence of Chinese immigrants in an occupation. Using micro-level data, our two-stage-least-squares estimates show that a 1 percentage point increase in the ratio of new Chinese immigrants to natives decreases native monthly real wages in the same occupation by 2.8-3.6 percents (controlling for immigrant shocks in similar occupations). Within an occupation, female and more skilled native workers experience more adverse wage impact, reflecting a high switching cost associated with occupation-specific human capital. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Labor Market Outcomes, Occupation-specific Human Capital |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2011–05–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:308&r=lab |
| By: | Luc Behaghel; Didier Blanchet; Thierry Debrand; Muriel Roger |
| Abstract: | The French pattern of early transitions out of employment is basically explained by the low age at “normal” retirement and by the importance of transitions through unemployment insurance and early-retirement schemes before access to normal retirement. These routes have exempted French workers from massively relying on disability motives for early exits, contrarily to the situation that prevails in some other countries where normal ages are high, unemployment benefits low and early-retirement schemes almost non-existent. Yet the role of disability remains interesting to examine in the French case, at least for prospective reasons in a context of decreasing generosity of other programs. The study of the past reforms of the pension system underlines that disability routes have often acted as a substitute to other retirement routes. Changes in the claiming of invalidity benefits seem to match changes in pension schemes or controls more than changes in such health indicators as the mortality rates. However, our results suggest that increases in average health levels over the past two decades have come along with increased disparities. In that context, less generous pensions may induce an increase in the claiming of invalidity benefits partly because of substitution effects, but also because the share of people with poor health increases. |
| JEL: | H55 H63 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17055&r=lab |
| By: | Barbara S. Grave |
| Abstract: | There is a large literature on the influence of institutional characteristics on student academic achievement. In contrast, relatively little research focuses on student time allocation and its effects on student performance. This paper contributes to the literature by investigating the effect of student time allocation on the average grade of undergraduate students, by gender, ability and field of study. The results suggest that time spent on attending courses is positively associated with grades for females, high ability students and students of Social Sciences and Sciences/Engineering. Spending time on self-study, on other study-related activities or on working as a student assistant or tutor is positively correlated with grades for almost all students. Devoting time for attending tutorials or student work groups is negatively correlated with grades if the ability of the students is below average or if they study Sciences/ Engineering. Using a translog production function, the results indicate that spending time on courses, on self-study, and on other study-related activities are substitutes. However, time spent on courses and time spent on working as a student assistant or tutor are complements. |
| Keywords: | Student time allocation; student performance; educational production function |
| JEL: | I21 J2 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0235&r=lab |
| By: | McGraw, Katherine; Popp, Jennie; Dixon, Bruce |
| Keywords: | job choice, government, academic, preferences, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103441&r=lab |
| By: | Takashi Oshio; Satoshi Shimizutani |
| Abstract: | This paper utilizes historical information to explore the relationship between labor force participation of middle aged and old people and the disability program in Japan. In particular, we explore the time series dimension to identify what has determined the trend in disability program participation over time and relate it with the labor supply. We find that mortality and health measures have been largely unrelated to the disability program participation rates. While major revisions to the disability program have slightly expanded the eligibility for DI programs, the program participation is still very low; thus, the effect on labor force participation is very limited in Japan, which is in contrast with some European countries that have high take up rates, inducing early retirement. |
| JEL: | H55 J26 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17052&r=lab |
| By: | Gregory Gilpin (Montana State University) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates how salary rigidities affect teacher quality across teaching subjects and high schools and whether high quality teachers can be compensated sufficiently to attract them into unfavorable schools. For identification, we rely on idiosyncratic variations in compensation across adjacent districts within the same state. The results indicate that, on average, math/science teachers’ scholastic aptitudes are 8.5 percentiles lower and humanities teachers are 4.5 percentiles lower compared to other teachers. Furthermore, we find that schools with higher percentages of student eligible for free lunch hire teachers with, on average, 7 to 17 percentiles lower scholastic aptitudes with the math/science teachers being even lower. Increases in lifetime compensation is found to raise the scholastic aptitude of teachers hired across all schools, with diminishing returns in schools with more favorable working conditions. However, the lower 26% of the teacher aptitude distribution seems to not respond to compensation at all with only marginal gains up to the 60th percentile. Furthermore, bonus/merit pay or additional school activity income do not seem to be significant in recruiting/retaining high aptitude teachers. |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inu:caeprp:2011-004&r=lab |
| By: | Glewwe, Paul; Huang, Qiuqiong; Park, Albert |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to examine whether noncognitive skills explain differences in employment status and hourly wages even after controlling for age, experience, schooling and cognitive skills. Of particular interest is to examine the relative magnitudes of the impacts of the cognitive and noncognitive skills on these labor market outcomes. Data used in this paper come from the Gansu Survey of Children and Families (GSCF), which followed a random sample of 2,000 children in rural areas of Gansu Province who were 9-12 years old in the year 2000. Three waves of surveys were completed in 2000, 2004, and 2007-2009. The GSCF is the first large-scale data collection on child and adolescent cognitive and noncognitive skills in rural China. |
| Keywords: | cognitive skills, noncognitive skills, years of schooling, wage, Gansu, China, International Development, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103407&r=lab |
| By: | Antoine Bozio (Institute for Fiscal Studies and UCL); Carl Emmerson (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Gemma Tetlow (Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Abstract: | <p>We use a unique dataset, containing individual survey data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing linked to administrative data on earnings histories from administrative records, to construct measures of lifetime earnings and examine how these relate to financial resources in retirement. Retirement income and wealth at retirement is, as expected, positively correlated with lifetime earnings but there is also substantial dispersion in retirement income and retirement wealth among people with similar lifetime earnings. For example, we find that those with greater numerical ability and higher education tend to have greater retirement resources even after controlling for differences in lifetime earnings. The retirement resources of single women are far less well explained by their own lifetime earnings than those of couples or single men. We hypothesise that, as the vast majority of single women in the age group considered had previously been married and are now widowed or divorced, this reflects the fact that we do not observe the lifetime earnings of their former spouses. </p> |
| Keywords: | Lifetime earnings, savings, wealth, retirement |
| JEL: | D91 H25 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:11/02&r=lab |
| By: | Boone, Jan (Tilburg University); van Ours, Jan C. (Tilburg University); Wuellrich, Jean-Philippe (University of Zurich); Zweimüller, Josef (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | Workplace accidents are an important economic phenomenon. Yet, the pro-cyclical fluctuations in workplace accidents are not well understood. They could be related to fluctuations in effort and working hours, but workplace accidents may also be affected by reporting behavior. Our paper uses unique data on workplace accidents from an Austrian matched worker-firm dataset to study in detail how economic incentives affect workplace accidents. We find that workers who reported an accident in a particular period of time are more likely to be fired later on. And, we find support for the idea that recessions influence the reporting of moderate workplace accidents: if workers think the probability of dismissals at the firm level is high, they are less likely to report a moderate workplace accident. |
| Keywords: | workplace accidents, economic incentives, cyclical fluctuations |
| JEL: | I10 J60 J81 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5688&r=lab |
| By: | Husain, Zakir; Dutta, Mousumi; Saha, Manashi |
| Abstract: | Strong son preference in developing countries often motivates parents to undertake sex selection at birth, infanticide, and subsequent neglect of daughters, leading to low child sex ratios in these countries. An interesting question is whether such attitudes also lead to gender discrimination in primary education. While there is a vast literature on inter-household gender discrimination in education, studies of discrimination between siblings is comparatively rare. This paper asks the question: Do parents tend to educate sons more than daughters? Using unit level National Sample Survey Organization data for the 61st Round (2004-2005), we analyze disparity in primary educational attainments between siblings and examine whether such intra-household disparity is higher in areas where child sex ratios are low. Findings indicate that parental attitude towards education and practices may be more complicated and less uniformly negative at lower levels of education than commonly portrayed. |
| Keywords: | Education; Gender; Sibling; India |
| JEL: | I21 C25 J16 |
| Date: | 2011–05–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:30791&r=lab |
| By: | Kuroda, Sachiko; Yamamoto, Isamu |
| Abstract: | By using a unique dataset on managerial-level employees who were transferred from Japan to European branches of the same global firms, we examine what would happen to work hours when a worker moves from a long-hour-working country to relatively shorter-hour countries. Even after controlling for business cycles, unobserved individual heterogeneity, job characteristics, and work hour regulations, we find a significant decline in Japanese work hours after their transfer to Europe, resulting from working-behavior influences of locally hired staff. We also find that the reduction in hours worked highly depends on the extent of the workers’ interactions with local peers. |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:piecis:514&r=lab |
| By: | Giuseppe Cappelletti (Bank of Italy); Giovanni Guazzarotti (Bank of Italy); Pietro Tommasino (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | In most advanced countries, future retirees will have to rely less on social security schemes and more on private pension plans, which mostly leave to the worker the choice between ashing-in or annuitizing pension wealth at retirement. Therefore, a better understanding of the determinants of the demand for annuities will soon become a priority. Research in this field has been hampered by lack of data (due to current market thinness) and by difficulties in disentagling demand from supply-side effects. In this paper, we avoid these problems resorting to ad hoc survey data from Italy. Our results highlight the importance of wealth, impatience, education and (to a lesser extent) financial literacy in shaping annuity demand. |
| Keywords: | annuities, retirement, life cycle model |
| JEL: | D91 G23 H55 J26 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_805_11&r=lab |
| By: | Yusuf Emre Akgunduz; Janneke Plantenga |
| Abstract: | The empirical findings for the labour force participation elasticity with regards to child prices are varied. While some estimates imply substantial participation gains from child care subsidies, others find insignificant effects from child care prices on participation decisions. This paper analyzes the elasticity sizes using estimates from 37 peer-reviewed articles and working papers in the literature. Using meta-analysis tools, we attempt to provide a weighted elasticity estimate and variation between countries and over time. The results suggest that the elasticity size has a positive inverse U-shaped relationship with aggregate labour force participation, and decreases with higher rates of part-time work and social spending. The findings imply that the impact of changes in child care prices and success of child care subsidy policies are correlated with aggregate level factors. |
| Keywords: | Child care, female labour force participation, meta-analysis |
| JEL: | J13 J18 J21 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:1108&r=lab |
| By: | Paolo Sestito (Bank of Italy, Structural Economic Analysis Department); Marco Tonello (Catholic University of Milan and University of Milano-Bicocca) |
| Abstract: | The paper compares the quality of Italian Medical schools’ freshmen on the basis of the scores obtained in the locally conducted entry exams which are using a common national test frame. The test is quite selective (partly because of the reduced size of the intake yearly allowed): winners are people on average better than the average graduates of their own secondary schools and 15% of them have already had some college education in other fields. Among Universities there appear to be sizable and stable over time differences in the average quality of freshmen; while students from the South have on average worse results in the tests, those of them moving to Northern Universities contribute to the higher average quality of these Universities’ freshmen. Comparing, for Dental Surgery schools which have used both, local tests and a national test (the position in the national test governing the priority in the choice of the school where to enroll), it seems that the latter amplifies (shrinks) the difference between (within each of the several) Universities in the freshmen’s composition. |
| Keywords: | college enrollment, freshmen quality, selection mechanisms |
| JEL: | I23 I21 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_90_11&r=lab |
| By: | Ana Maria DIAZ ESCOBAR (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the geographic distribution of unemployment rates in Colombian urban areas. It introduces measures of spatial correlation and spatial econometric techniques to analyze the dependence in local unemployment rates across municipalities. Results suggest that Colombian municipalities have experienced a polarization process between 1993 and 2005, as municipalities' unemployment rates have followed different evolutions relative to the National average. This process has been accompanied by the creation of unemployment clusters, that is to say, municipalities had very similar unemployment outcomes to those of their neighbors. This analysis uses a spatial Durbin model to explore the influence of various factors in determining differences in regional unemployment rates. According to our findings differences in labor demand, immigration rates, and urbanization are factors behind observed municipal unemployment disparities. |
| Keywords: | local labor markets, unemployment di erential, polarization, clustering, spatial econometrics, spatial Durbin model |
| JEL: | R23 C14 C23 C31 |
| Date: | 2011–04–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2011014&r=lab |
| By: | Hani Mansour; Terra McKinnish |
| Abstract: | In direct contrast to conventional wisdom and most economic models of gender differences in age of marriage, we present robust evidence that men and women who are married to differently-aged spouses are negatively selected. Earnings analysis of married couples in the 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000 Decennial Censuses finds that male earnings decrease with within-couple age difference, regardless of whether the man is older or younger than his wife. In contrast, female earnings increase with within-couple age difference. We argue and present evidence that women in differently-aged couples have higher earnings not because of positive selection, but because their hours of work increase in response to partnering with a lower earning man. We test for negative selection into differently-aged couples using three measures: average earnings per hour in occupation using Census data, cognitive skills assessments from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort (NLSY79), and measures of physical appearance from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The point estimates indicate negative selection on all of these characteristics, although statistical significance varies by outcome and sample. |
| Keywords: | marital sorting, occupational choice, non-labor market outcomes |
| JEL: | J11 J12 J24 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1123&r=lab |
| By: | Brown, Jason P. |
| Abstract: | Most U.S. farm households have either the operator or spouse working off-farm for wages and salaries or proprietorships. Additionally, off-farm income continues to grow as a share of total household income. Little is known about how changes in local industrial composition impact off-farm labor decisions. Using a household utility maximization framework, this analysis employs a two-stage process to 1) predict joint off-farm labor participation of operators and spouses, and 2) measure the impact of farm and household characteristics, and changes in county-level industry on levels of off-farm labor supply. Results show that labor participation decisions are jointly determined. Human capital is among the most significant individual characteristics impacting labor supply. The most important factors are the industrial sector of the off-farm job, and whether that sector is growing or in decline. Growth in retail trade and service employment is associated with increases in labor supply for the operator and spouse. |
| Keywords: | farm household, labor supply, bivariate logit, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Labor and Human Capital, Q12, J22, R23, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103555&r=lab |
| By: | Christopher Reicher |
| Abstract: | Several authors have proposed staggered wage bargaining as a way to introduce sticky wages into search and matching models while preserving individual rationality. I evaluate the quantitative implications of such an approach. I feed through a series of estimated shocks from US data into a search and matching model with sticky prices and wages. I compare the implications of how the sticky wages enter into the hiring decision, and there seems to be a tradeoff between generating business cycle volatility and matching the lack of a long-run relationship between vacancy creation and inflation. With regard to wages, the sticky wage model unconditionally does a better job at matching wages than the flexible wage model |
| Keywords: | wages, sticky prices, staggered Nash bargaining, inflation, new hires, search and matching, business cycles |
| JEL: | E24 E25 E32 J23 J31 J63 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1674&r=lab |
| By: | Daniel Kemptner; Jan Marcus |
| Abstract: | This is the first study investigating the causal effect of maternal education on child’s health and schooling outcomes in Germany. We apply an instrumental variables approach that has not yet been used in the intergenerational context. For that purpose, we draw on a rich German panel data set (SOEP) containing information about three generations. This allows instrumenting maternal education by the number of her siblings while conditioning on a set of variables describing the grandparents’ social status and the area where the mother grew up. Given these variables, the number of siblings generates exogenous variation in the years of education by affecting the household resources available per child. We present evidence for strong and significant effects on schooling outcomes for both sexes. And, we find substantial effects on health behaviour for adolescent daughters, but not for adolescent sons. We show that possible concerns for the validity of the instrument are unlikely to compromise these results. We also discuss assortative mating and household income as possible channels of causality. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational mobility, returns to education, health, instrumental variables |
| JEL: | I12 I21 J62 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp375&r=lab |
| By: | Chawanote, Chayanee; Barrett, Christopher B. |
| Abstract: | This study explores occupational and earnings dynamics of rural non-farm economy (RNFE) in Thailand. Using occupational transition matrices, we finds significant occupational transitions in rural Thailand, mainly involving moving to non-farm employment, rather than starting businesses. Moreover, results from conditional micro mobility regressions show that transitions into the RNFE are associated with statistically significant earnings gains while transitions into farming are associated with earnings losses. The cumulative distribution of income indicates that non-farm employersâ earnings distribution stochastically dominates the others, signaling an occupational ladder. However, only a small number of individuals become non-farm employers, reflecting the difficulty involved in starting, expanding or even keeping a rural non-farm business. |
| Keywords: | earnings mobility, non-farm employment, non-farm business, occupational choice, Community/Rural/Urban Development, International Development, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2011–05–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103879&r=lab |
| By: | Artz, Georgeanne M.; Kimle, Kevin L.; Orazem, Peter F. |
| Abstract: | Agribusiness firms are increasingly hiring non-agriculture college graduates. Unclear is whether the demand for non-agriculture graduates is predicated on an undersupply of agriculture graduates or if non-agriculture graduates have skills that are not being developed in traditional agriculture programs. This study uses a large random sample of graduates of a Midwestern Land-Grant University to explore the returns by major in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. The strength of the study is its ability to identify the value of agricultural sector-specific skills versus general skills developed by major. The results suggest that there are substantial returns to agriculture majors working in agriculture, but only when the firms are located in urban areas. In addition, the pay gap between working in agriculture and outside of agriculture varies by majors within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. This suggests that some majors develop substantial sector-specific skills, while others, notably Agricultural Business/Agricultural Economics develop more generally valued skills. |
| Keywords: | salary models, agricultural economics, college of agriculture graduages, industry specific skills, Agribusiness, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103658&r=lab |
| By: | Berger, Frederic; Islam, Nizamul; Liégeois, Philippe |
| Abstract: | In this study, the household labour supply is modelled as a discrete choice problem assuming that preference for leisure and consumption can be described by a quadratic utility function which allows for non-convexities in the budget set. We assess behavioural responses to the significant changes in the tax-benefit system during 2001-2002 in Luxembourg. Only moderate impact is found, on average, on the efficiency of the economy as measured by the labour supply effects. The impact is indeed concentrated on richer single women. These increase significantly their labour force, which more than doubles the non-behavioural effect of the tax reform on disposable income and boosts the gains in well-being for that part of population. |
| Date: | 2010–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:emodwp:em5-10&r=lab |
| By: | Attali, Yigal (ETS); Neeman, Zvika (Tel Aviv University); Schlosser, Analia (Tel Aviv University) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how different demographic groups respond to incentives by comparing performance in the GRE examination in "high" and "low" stakes situations. The high stakes situation is the real GRE examination and the low stakes situation is a voluntary experimental section of the GRE that examinees were invited to take immediately after they finished the real GRE exam. We show that males exhibit a larger difference in performance between the high and low stakes examinations than females, and that Whites exhibit a larger difference in performance between the high and low stakes examinations relative to Asians, Blacks, and Hispanics. We find that the larger differential performance between high and low stakes tests among men and whites can be partially explained by the lower level of effort invested by these groups in the low stake test. |
| Keywords: | gender, competition, incentives, GRE, high stakes, low stakes, test score gap |
| JEL: | J16 J24 M52 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5693&r=lab |
| By: | Cornaglia, Francesca (Queen Mary, University of London); Feldman, Naomi E. (Ben Gurion University) |
| Abstract: | Using a sample of professional baseball players from 1871–2007, this paper aims at analyzing a longstanding empirical observation that married men earn significantly more than their single counterparts holding all else equal (the "marriage premium"). Baseball is a unique case study because it has a long history of statistics collection and numerous direct measurements of productivity. Our results show that the marriage premium also holds for baseball players, where married players earn up to 16 percent more than those who are not married, even after controlling for selection. The results hold only for players in the top third of the ability distribution and post 1975 when changes in the rules that govern wage contracts allowed for players to be valued closer to their true market price. Nonetheless, there do not appear to be clear differences in productivity between married and nonmarried players. We discuss possible reasons why employers may discriminate in favor of married men. |
| Keywords: | marriage premium, wage gap, productivity, baseball |
| JEL: | J31 J44 J70 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5695&r=lab |
| By: | James Banks; Richard Blundell; Antoine Bozio; Carl Emmerson |
| Abstract: | Over the last thirty years pathways to retirement have changed substantially in the UK. They have been dominated by spells of unemployment in the late 1970s, with then an increased importance of disability spells from the mid-1980s onwards. At the end of the period the direct route from work to retirement was increasingly more common. General economic conditions seem to have been important driving forces during the entire period. In contrast changes in health do not seem to provide convincing explanations for these trends: mortality has been falling over the period without any apparent link to the share of the population reporting ill health or disability or to the number claiming benefits. We also find evidence that recent reforms have had some impact. The halting of the previous growth in the rate of in-flow onto disability benefits in the mid-1990s coincided with the implementation of a major reform. Evidence from the pilots of the Pathways-to-Work programme in 2003-2005 suggests that those moving onto disability benefits moved off these benefits faster than they would otherwise have done as a direct result of the programme. |
| JEL: | H55 I1 I38 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17049&r=lab |
| By: | Tairi Rõõm; Aurelijus Dabušinskas |
| Abstract: | The time series of various economic variables often exhibit asymmetry: decreases in the values tend to be sharp and fast, whereas increases usually occur slowly and gradually. We detect signs of an analogous asymmetry in firms\' wage setting behaviour on the basis of managerial surveys, with employers tending to react faster to negative than to positive shocks in the same variables. As well as describing the presence of asymmetry in the speed of wage adjustment, we investigate which companies are more likely to demonstrate it in their behaviour. For this purpose, we apply the Heckman selection model and develop a methodology that improves identification by exploiting heteroscedasticity in the selection equation. The estimation results imply that companies operating in a more competitive environment have a higher propensity to react asymmetrically. We also find that businesses relying on labour-intensive production technology are more likely to react faster to negative shocks. Both of these findings support the hypothesis that this behaviour results from companies\' attempts to protect profit margins. |
| Keywords: | wage dynamics, asymmetry, wage setting, survey |
| JEL: | J30 J31 J33 |
| Date: | 2011–05–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2011-04&r=lab |