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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Christian M. Dahl (University of Southern Denmark and CREATES); Daniel le Maire (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen); Jakob R. Munch (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how decentralization of wage bargaining from sector to firm-level influences wage levels and wage dispersion. We use detailed panel data covering a period of decentralization in the Danish labor market. The decentralization process provides variation in the individual worker's wage-setting system that facilitates identification of the effects of decentralization. We find a wage premium associated with firm-level bargaining relative to sector-level bargaining, and that the return to skills is higher under the more decentralized wage-setting systems. Using quantiel regression, we also find that wages are more dispersed under firm-level bargaining compared to more centralized wage-setting systems. |
| Keywords: | Wage bargaining, decentralization, wage dispersion |
| JEL: | J31 J51 C23 |
| Date: | 2011–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:create:2011-48&r=lab |
| By: | Andrea Bassanini; Eve Caroli; Antoine Rebérioux; Thomas Breda |
| Abstract: | We study compensation packages in family and non-family firms. Using French matched employer-employee data, we first show that family firms pay on average lower wages. We find that part of this wage gap is due to low wage workers sorting into family firms and high wage workers sorting into non-family firms. However, we also find evidence that company wage policies differ according to ownership status, so that the same worker is paid differently under family and non-family firm ownership. We also find evidence that family firms are characterised by lower job insecurity, as measured by dismissal rates and by the subjective risk of dismissal perceived by workers. In addition, family firms appear to rely less on dismissals – and more on hiring reductions – than non-family firms when they downsize. We show that compensating wage differentials account for a substantial part of the inverse relationship between the family/non-family gaps in wages and job security. |
| Keywords: | family firms, wages, job security, compensating wage differentials, linked employer-employee data |
| JEL: | G34 J31 J33 J63 L26 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2011-38&r=lab |
| By: | Hensvik, Lena (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether women benefit from working under female management using Swedish matched employer-employee panel data. I account for unobserved heterogeneity among both workers and firms potentially correlated with manager gender. The results show a substantial negative and statistically significant correlation between the proportion of female managers and the establishment’s gender wage gap. However, estimates that account for sorting on unobserved worker skills do not support that that managers favor same-sex workers in wage setting. Additional results show female-led organizations recruit more non-managerial, high-wage women but this is primarily due to (unobserved) firm attributes rather than gender-specific management practices. |
| Keywords: | Gender wage gap; managers; worker sorting |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J53 |
| Date: | 2011–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2011_022&r=lab |
| By: | Anja Deelen |
| Abstract: | <p>The Dutch labour market is characterized by low job mobility and high average unemployment duration. This study investigates the role of wage-tenure profiles in explaining patterns of job mobility.</p><p>Based on a large administrative database, the estimates show that wage-tenure profiles in the Netherlands are relatively steep. Furthermore, industries with high returns to tenure appear to have a high share of older workers, as well as high average job tenure. This implies that steep wage-tenure profiles are related to low levels of mobility.</p> |
| JEL: | J31 J62 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:198&r=lab |
| By: | Adda, Jerome; Dustmann, Christian; Stevens, Katrien |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the life-cycle career costs associated with child rearing and decomposes their effects into unearned wages (as women drop out of the labor market), loss of human capital, and selection into more child-friendly occupations. We estimate a dynamic life-cycle model of fertility, occupational choice, and labor supply using detailed survey and administrative data for Germany for numerous birth cohorts across different regions. We use this model to analyze both the male-female wage gap as it evolves from labor market entry onward and the effect of pro-fertility policies. We show that a substantial portion of the gender wage gap is explainable by realized and expected fertility and that the long-run effect of policies encouraging fertility are considerably lower than the short-run effects typically estimated in the literature. |
| Keywords: | Fertility; gender wage gap; labour supply; occupational choice |
| JEL: | J13 J22 J31 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8697&r=lab |
| By: | Addison, John T. (Department of Economics, Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA); Ozturk, Orgul Demet (Department of Economics, Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA) |
| Abstract: | The authors investigate the employment consequences of minimum wage regulation in 16 OECD countries, 1970-2008. Their treatment is motivated by Neumark and Wascher’s (2004) seminal cross-country study. Apart from the longer time interval examined, a major departure is the authors’ focus on prime-age females, a group often neglected in the minimum wage literature. Another is their deployment of time-varying policy and institutional regressors. The average effects they report are consistent with minimum wages causing material employment losses among the target group. Their secondary finding is that minimum wage increases are more associated with (reduced) participation rates than with elevated joblessness. Further, although the authors find common ground with Neumark and Wascher as regards the role of some individual labor market institutions and policies, they do not observe the same patterns in the institutional data. Specifically, prime-age females do not exhibit stronger employment losses in countries with the least regulated markets. |
| Keywords: | Minimum wages, minimum wage institutions, prime-age females, disemployment, participation, unemployment, employment protection, labor standards, labor market policies, unions |
| JEL: | J20 J38 J48 J58 J88 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ihs:ihsesp:278&r=lab |
| By: | H. Lehmann; T. Razzolini; A. Zaiceva |
| Abstract: | Having unique data we investigate the link between job separations (displacement and quits) and informal employment, which we define in several ways posing the general question whether the burden of informality falls disproportionately on job separators in the Russian labor market. After we have established positive causal effects of displacement and quits on informal employment we analyze whether displaced workers experience more involuntary informal employment than their non-displaced counterparts. Our main results confirm our contention that displacement entraps some of the workers in involuntary informal employment. Those who quit, in turn, experience voluntary informality for the most part, but there seems a minority of quitting workers who end up in involuntary informal jobs. This scenario does not fall on all the workers who separate but predominantly on workers with low human capital. We also pursue the issue of informality persistence and find that informal employment is indeed persistent as some workers churn from one informal job to the next. Our study contributes to the debate in the informality literature regarding segmented versus integrated labor markets. It also contributes to the literature on displacement by establishing informal employment as an important cost of displacement. We also look at the share of undeclared wages in formal jobs and find that these shares are larger for separators than for incumbents, with displaced workers bearing the brunt of this manifestation of informality. |
| JEL: | J64 J65 P50 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp800&r=lab |
| By: | Yamauchi, Futoshi; Liu, Yanyan |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of a large supply-side education intervention in the Philippines, the Third Elementary Education Project, on students' national achievement test scores. We find that the program significantly increased student test scores at grades 4 to 6. The estimate indicates that the six-year exposure to the program increases test scores by about 15 score points. Interestingly, the mathematics score is more responsive to this education reform than other subjects. We also find that textbooks, instructional training of teachers, and new classroom constructions particularly contributed to these outcomes. The empirical results also imply that early-stage investments improve student performance at later stages in the elementary school cycle, which suggests that social returns to such an investment are greater than what the current study demonstrates. |
| Keywords: | School quality, policy intervention, elementary schools, human capital formation, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1121&r=lab |
| By: | Fei Li (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the aggregate consequences of individual learning in the labor market. Specifically, I examine this issue in a model of directed search on the job. Once matched, a firm-worker pair gradually learns the match-specific quality, taking the history of realized production as signals. Heterogeneity in beliefs about the match quality and in the job search behavior of workers naturally occurs, resulting from a variety of individual histories. I describe the efficient learning and searching strategy and implement the efficient allocations through a market mechanism in which the labor contract depends deterministically on tenure. Consistent with the stylized facts, the model successfully predicts the tenure effect on both the job separation rate and the probability of on-the-job search, and when search frictions are small, the model generates a dispersed wage distribution with a at tail, along the lines of observations. |
| Keywords: | Learning, Directed Search, Block Recursive Equilibrium, Turnover, Wage Dispersion |
| JEL: | D83 J31 |
| Date: | 2011–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pen:papers:11-040&r=lab |
| By: | Geraint Johnes; R Freguglia; G Spricigo; A Aggarwal |
| Abstract: | The effect of education on labour market outcomes is analysed using both survey and administrative data from The Brazilian PNAD and RAIS-MIGRA series, respectively. Occupational destination is examined using both multinomial logit analyses and structural dynamic discrete choice modelling. The latter approach is particularly useful as a means of evaluating policy impacts over time. We find that policy to expand educational provision leads initially to an increased take-up of education, and in the longer term leads to an increased propensity for workers to enter non-manual employment. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:4255&r=lab |
| By: | Irene Mosca (TILDA, Trinity College, Dublin); Robert Wright (Department of Economics, The University of Strathclyde) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the persistence of under-employment amongst UK higher education graduates. For the cohort of individuals who graduated in 2002/3, micro-data collected by the Higher Education Statistical Agency, are used to calculate the rates of “non-graduate job†employment 6 months and 42 months after graduation. A logit regression analysis suggests the underemployment is not a short-term phenomenon and is systematically related to a set of observable characteristics. It is also found that under-employment 6 months after graduation is positively related to under-employment 42 months after graduation, which is consistent with the view that the nature of the first job after graduation is important in terms of occupational attainment later in the life-cycle. |
| Keywords: | graduates, under-employment, over-education, persistence, United Kingdom |
| JEL: | I23 J24 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:str:wpaper:1134&r=lab |
| By: | Mathias Kuepie (CEPS/INSTEAD, UMR DIAL IRD Université Paris Dauphine); Christophe Nordman (IRD, UMR DIAL Université Paris Dauphine) |
| Abstract: | (english) The aim of this study is to analyze the impact of education on labor market entry, particularly on earnings in the two largest cities of the Republic of Congo. We examine firsthand data from the 2009 Congo's Employment and Informal Sector Survey (Enquête sur l’emploi et le secteur informel au Congo - EESIC) from a representative sample of about 3000 households in the cities of Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire. Results indicate that education is relatively widespread in both cities, with an average of about ten years of schooling. This phenomenon goes back a relatively long time, since even for the over 50 generations, more than eight out of ten adults completed primary school. The labor market itself is characterized by a large informal sector (where more than six out of ten working age people have an activity), which could potentially become a poverty trap and reflects high unemployment (especially among the youth), increasing with the level of education on the market. The Congolese urban labor market is also specifically characterized by the weight of the public sector, where almost one out of three people employed in the capital (Brazzaville) and a little over one out of five for both cities are employed. Therefore, the formal private sector is reduced to its congruent proportion. Multivariate analyses of the risk of unemployment and sectoral choice confirm that young people suffer greatly from lack of professional insertion: for most of these youth, their only choice is to remain unemployed or join the informal sector. To measure the specific impact of education on entry into various segments of the labor market, particularly on activity generated earnings, we directly address issues related to sample selection (related to the endogenous distribution among sectors) and the endogeneity of the education variable in the earnings function. Another important methodological challenge relates to the definition of the functional shape of the link that exists between earnings and the number of years of schooling. In the context of this study, we propose a piecewise linear function that allows variation in the marginal return to education when graduating from one educational cycle to another. With this specification, it is possible to emphasize the convexity of education returns; in other words, the last years in secondary and tertiary schooling yield the highest returns, while those of primary education are generally lower. This convexity is also apparent in the informal sector, where education (albeit on another scale) is also an important determinant of earnings. These results point to employment and poverty alleviation policies in the Republic of Congo. Policy proposals are thus developed in that regard throughout the study. _________________________________ (français) L’objectif de cette étude est d’analyser l’impact de l’éducation sur l’insertion sur le marché du travail et en particulier sur les rémunérations dans les deux principales métropoles de la République du Congo. Nous exploitons les données de première main de l’Enquête sur l’Emploi et le Secteur Informel au Congo (EESIC) de 2009 portant sur environ 3000 ménages représentatifs des villes de Brazzaville et de Pointe-Noire. Les résultats montrent que l’éducation est relativement répandue dans les deux villes, puisque le niveau moyen tourne autour de dix années d’études. Il s’agit d’un phénomène relativement ancien, car même dans les générations de plus de 50 ans, plus de huit adultes sur dix ont achevé le cycle primaire. Quant au marché du travail, il est marqué par une hypertrophie du secteur informel (plus de six actifs sur dix y exercent), qui constitue potentiellement une trappe à pauvreté et reflète un chômage élevé (surtout chez les jeunes) et croissant avec le niveau d’étude sur le marché. Le marché du travail urbain congolais présente aussi une caractéristique spécifique qui est le poids du secteur public, qui emploie presqu’un actif sur trois dans la capitale (Brazzaville) et un peu plus d’un sur cinq dans l’ensemble des deux villes. Le secteur privé formel y est donc réduit à la portion congrue. Des analyses multivariées sur le risque de chômage et l’orientation sectorielle confirment que les jeunes sont très défavorisés en matière d’insertion professionnelle : ces jeunes n’ont, pour la plupart, que le choix entre le chômage et le secteur informel. Pour mesurer l’effet propre du capital éducatif sur l’insertion dans les différents segments du marché du travail et en particulier sur les revenus de l’activité, nous abordons de front les problèmes de sélection d’échantillon (liée à l’allocation endogène entre les secteurs) et d’endogénéité de la variable d’éducation dans la fonction de revenu. Un autre défi méthodologique important concerne la spécification de la forme fonctionnelle du lien entre rémunération et années d’éducation. Dans le cadre de cette étude, nous proposons une fonction linéaire par morceaux, qui permet au rendement marginal de l’éducation de varier quand on passe d’un cycle à l’autre. Cette spécification permet de mettre en évidence le caractère convexe des rendements de l’éducation, c'est-à-dire que les dernières années du lycée et du supérieur sont les plus rentables alors que les rendements du primaire sont généralement plus faibles. Cette convexité s’observe même dans le secteur informel dans lequel l’éducation (certes à une autre échelle) est également un important déterminant des gains. Ces résultats interpellent les politiques d’emploi et de lutte contre la pauvreté à Congo-Brazzaville. Des propositions de politiques sont ainsi développées dans ce sens tout au long de l’étude. |
| Keywords: | Participation au marché du travail, Chômage, Rendements de l’éducation, Fonctions de gains, Secteur informel, Congo-Brazzaville,Labor market participation, Unemployment, Returns to education, Earnings functions, Informal sector,Congo-Brazzaville. |
| JEL: | J24 J31 O12 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt201111&r=lab |
| By: | Geraint Johnes; A Aggarwal; R Freguglia; G Spricigo |
| Abstract: | The impact of education on labour market outcomes is analysed using data from various rounds of the National Sample Survey of India. Occupational destination is examined using both multinomial logit analyses and structural dynamic discrete choice modelling. The latter approach involves the use of a novel approach to constructing a pseudo-panel from repeated cross-section data, and is particularly useful as a means of evaluating policy impacts over time. We find that policy to expand educational provision leads initially to an increased takeup of education, and in the longer term leads to an increased propensity for workers to enter non-manual employment. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:4256&r=lab |
| By: | OKUDAIRA Hiroko; OHTAKE Fumio; KUME Koichi; TSURU Kotaro |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to test whether or not a temporary help service (THS) job benefits workers in Japan. By applying the average treatment effect on the treated estimation and its sensitivity tests to the Japanese survey data, we obtained the following findings. First, we observed evidence that THS work negatively impacts the probability of permanent employment in subsequent waves, when compared to directly hired part-time employment. Second, THS workers earn a significantly higher hourly wage than those originally unemployed. For those seeking permanent employment in particular, THS work provides a quick way to make a living for up to two years. We conclude that THS work in Japan has provided a means to obtaining quick earnings but has not offered a stepping-stone to permanent employment. |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:11077&r=lab |
| By: | Brian Silverstone (University of Waikato); Will Bell |
| Abstract: | Data on the flow of workers moving between employment, unemployment and non-participation provide some of the most interesting and useful insights into labour market outcomes. These insights include information on the number and probability of workers moving between labour market states from, say, unemployment to employment. Despite the usefulness of labour flows data, New Zealand’s official gross flows statistics are relatively neglected and almost entirely unused in published public and private sector commentaries, forecasting, modelling activities and policy debates. Using a framework of questions and answers, this paper considers selected aspects of New Zealand’s gross labour flows data as well as international comparisons. |
| Keywords: | gross labour flows; labour market dynamics; household labour force survey; New Zealand |
| JEL: | E24 J64 |
| Date: | 2011–12–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:11/15&r=lab |
| By: | Marina Murat |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data from PISA 2006 on science, mathematics and reading to analyse immigrant school gaps – negative difference between immigrants’ and natives’ scores - and the structural features of educational systems in two adjacent countries, Italy and France, with similar migration inflows and with similar schooling institutions, based on tracking. Our results show that tracking and school specific programs matter; in both countries, the school system upholds a separation between students with different backgrounds and ethnicities. Residential segregation or discrimination seem also to be at work, especially in France. Given the existing school model, a teaching support in mathematics and science in France and in reading in Italy would help immigrant students to converge to natives’ standards |
| Keywords: | International migration; educational systems; PISA; |
| JEL: | F22 I21 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:depeco:0670&r=lab |
| By: | Douglas Webber |
| Abstract: | Using the Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics (LEHD) data from the United States Census Bureau, I compute firm-level measures of labor market (monopsony) power. To generate these measures, I extend the dynamic model proposed by Manning (2003) and estimate the labor supply elasticity facing each private non-farm firm in the US. While a link between monopsony power and earnings has traditionally been assumed, I provide the first direct evidence of the positive relationship between a firm\'s labor supply elasticity and the earnings of its workers. I also contrast the semistructural method with the more traditional use of concentration ratios to measure a firm\'s labor market power. In addition, I provide several alternative measures of labor market power which account for potential threats to identification such as endogenous mobility. Finally, I construct a counterfactual earnings distribution which allows the effects of firm market power to vary across the earnings distribution. I estimate the average firm\'s labor supply elasticity to be 1.08, however my findings suggest there to be significant variability in the distribution of firm market power across US firms, and that dynamic monopsony models are superior to the use of concentration ratios in evaluating a firm\'s labor market power. I find that a one-unit increase in the labor supply elasticity to the firm is associated with wage gains of between 5 and 18 percent. While nontrivial, these estimates imply that firms do not fully exercise their labor market power over their workers. Furthermore, I find that the negative earnings impact of a firm\'s market power is strongest in the lower half of the earnings distribution, and that a one standard deviation increase in firms\' labor supply elasticities reduces the variance of the earnings distribution by 9 percent. |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:11-41&r=lab |
| By: | Alan Manning; Barbara Petrongolo |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data on very small UK geographies to investigate the effective size of local labour markets. Our approach treats geographic space as continuous, as opposed to a collection of nonoverlapping administrative units, thus avoiding problems of mismeasurement of local labour markets encountered in previous work. We develop a theory of job search across space that allows us to estimate a matching process with a very large number of areas. Estimates of this model show that the cost of distance is relatively high - the utility of being offered a job decays at exponential rate around 0.3 with distance (in km) to the job - so that labour markets are indeed quite 'local'. Also, workers are discouraged from applying to jobs in areas where they expect relatively strong competition from other jobseekers. The estimated model replicates fairly accurately actual commuting patterns across neighbourhoods, although it tends to underpredict the proportion of individuals who live and work in the same ward. Finally, we find that, despite the fact that labour markets are relatively 'local', local development policies are fairly ineffective in raising the local unemployment outflow, because labour markets overlap, and the associated ripple effects in applications largely dilute the impact of local stimulus across space. |
| Keywords: | Job search, local labour markets, location-based policies, ripple effects |
| JEL: | J61 J63 J64 R12 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1101&r=lab |
| By: | Hanushek, Eric A. (Stanford University); Link, Susanne (Ifo Institute for Economic Research); Woessmann, Ludger (Ifo Institute for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Decentralization of decision-making is among the most intriguing recent school reforms, in part because countries went in opposite directions over the past decade and because prior evidence is inconclusive. We suggest that autonomy may be conducive to student achievement in well-developed systems but detrimental in low-performing systems. We construct a panel dataset from the four waves of international PISA tests spanning 2000-2009, comprising over one million students in 42 countries. Relying on panel estimation with country fixed effects, we identify the effect of school autonomy from within-country changes in the average share of schools with autonomy over key elements of school operations. Our results show that autonomy affects student achievement negatively in developing and low-performing countries, but positively in developed and high-performing countries. These results are unaffected by a wide variety of robustness and specification tests, providing confidence in the need for nuanced application of reform ideas. |
| Keywords: | school autonomy, decentralization, developing countries, educational production, international student achievement tests, panel estimation |
| JEL: | I20 O15 H75 I25 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6185&r=lab |
| By: | S Bradley; Colin Green; J Mangan |
| Abstract: | A standard finding in the literature on gender wage gaps is that the public sector exhibits much lower gaps than in the private sector. This finding is generally attributed to the existence of less gender discrimination in the public sector. In this paper we show that this conclusion is flawed because the standard finding for the public sector is biased by the dominating influence of large feminised occupational groups, such as those in nursing and teaching, both of which have relatively flat job hierarchies and hence low overall wage variance. However, when we examine other occupations within the public sector, there is evidence of sizeable wage gaps, much of which cannot be explained by observable or unobservable workplace or worker characteristics. This finding implies that gender discrimination is substantial in some occupations in the public sector. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:2808&r=lab |
| By: | Mehmet Eris |
| Abstract: | Overall, the education system fares well by international comparison. Slovenia has one of the highest shares of the population aged 25 to 64 to have completed at least upper secondary education, and ranks high in international educational achievement tests. Nevertheless, in some areas, reforms could significantly improve performance and equip the labour force with the skills most in demand in a rapidly changing economy. In particular, low student-teacher ratios, small class sizes, and a high share of non-teaching staff suggest that there is room for improving spending efficiency. Rationalising teaching and non-teaching staff would also free up valuable public resources that could be redirected towards underfunded aspects of the education system. Low enrolment rates in short vocational education programmes and in certain higher education fields, such as science and engineering, contribute to a skill deficit in some occupations, underlining the need to make such programmes more attractive. At the tertiary level, completion rates and spending per student are low by international standards, and students take too long to complete their studies. The combination of low student fees and access to generous financial support, coupled with the preferential treatment of student work until recently, creates “fake students”; it also provides genuine students with an incentive to remain in the tertiary education system too long. Introducing universal tuition fees along with loans with income-contingent repayment would help to address such issues. This Working Paper relates to the 2011 Economic Survey of Slovenia (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/Slovenia).<P>Améliorer les résultats du système éducatif en Slovénie<BR>Dans l’ensemble, le système éducatif donne des résultats satisfaisants par rapport aux autres pays. La proportion de la population slovène âgée de 25 à 64 ans ayant achevé au moins le deuxième cycle de l’enseignement secondaire est parmi les plus élevées de la zone OCDE et le pays est très bien placé dans les évaluations internationales du niveau des élèves. Néanmoins, dans certains domaines, des réformes pourraient largement contribuer à améliorer les performances et à doter les travailleurs des qualifications les plus recherchées dans une économie en pleine mutation. Ainsi, le faible nombre d’élèves par enseignant, la taille réduite des classes et la proportion élevée de personnel non enseignant donnent à penser qu’il serait possible d’accroître l’efficacité des dépenses. La rationalisation des effectifs enseignants et non enseignants serait un autre moyen de dégager des ressources publiques précieuses qui pourraient être réaffectées à des secteurs du système éducatif dont le financement est insuffisant. Le faible nombre d’inscrits dans les filières courtes de l’enseignement professionnel et dans certaines branches de l’enseignement supérieur comme les sciences et les études d’ingénieur se traduit par un déficit de compétences dans certains métiers, d’où la nécessité de rendre ces formations plus attrayantes. Dans l’enseignement supérieur, les taux de réussite et les dépenses par étudiant sont faibles par rapport aux moyennes internationales et les études durent trop longtemps. De plus, la modicité des droits de scolarité et l’accès à des aides financières généreuses, conjugués au traitement préférentiel dont bénéficiait jusqu’à une date récente le travail des étudiants, ont pour effet de créer des « faux étudiants », tout en incitant ceux qui font vraiment des études à rester trop longtemps dans l’enseignement supérieur. L’instauration de droits de scolarité universels, parallèlement à des prêts remboursables en fonction des ressources, pourrait apporter une solution à ces problèmes. Ce Document de travail se rapporte à l’Étude économique de l’OCDE de la Slovénie 2011 (www.oecd.org/eco/etudes/Slovénie). |
| Keywords: | tertiary education, early childhood education, PISA, income-contingent loans, tuition fees, vocational and technical education, student work, éducation tertiaire, PISA, éducation préscolaire, frais de scolarité, éducation technique et professionnelle, travail des élèves |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I22 I23 I24 I28 |
| Date: | 2011–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:915-en&r=lab |
| By: | Carole Brunet (LED - Laboratoire d'économie dyonisien - Université Paris VIII - Vincennes Saint-Denis); Nathalie Havet (GATE Lyon Saint-Etienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - CNRS : UMR5824 - Université Lumière - Lyon II - École Normale Supérieure de Lyon) |
| Abstract: | Our empirical study stems from previous research on the inter-relations between residential status and microeconomic labour market outcomes. It focuses on employees and assesses the a priori ambiguous effect of homeownership on job-match quality. We use the French data set of the 1995-2001 European Community Household Panel to build a subjective measure of job downgrading. We estimate a recursive trivariate probit with partial observability that simultaneously models the residential status choice, its impact on the probability of being downgraded, and the selection into employment. The comparison with simpler models indicates that taking into account the selection into employment and controlling unobservable individual heterogeneity are of prime necessity to obtain robust conclusions. |
| Keywords: | residential status; job downgrading; overeducation; job matching |
| Date: | 2011–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00649088&r=lab |
| By: | Enrique López-Bazo (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona); Elisabet Motellón (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | Regional disparities in unemployment rates are large and persistent. The literature provides evidence of their magnitude and evolution, as well as evidence of the role of certain economic, demographic and environmental factors in explaining the gap between regions of low and high unemployment. Most of these studies, however, adopt an aggregate approach and so do not account for the individual characteristics of the unemployed and employed in each region. This paper, by drawing on micro-data from the Spanish wave of the Labour Force Survey, seeks to remedy this shortcoming by analysing regional differentials in unemployment rates. An appropriate decomposition of the regional gap in the average probability of being unemployed enables us to distinguish between the contribution of differences in the regional distribution of individual characteristics from that attributable to a different impact of these characteristics on the probability of unemployment. Our results suggest that the well-documented disparities in regional unemployment are not just the result of regional heterogeneity in the distribution of individual characteristics. Non-negligible differences in the probability of unemployment remain after controlling for this type of heterogeneity, as a result of differences across regions in the impact of the observed characteristics. Among the factors considered in our analysis, regional differences in the endowment and impact of an individual’s education are shown to play a major role. |
| Keywords: | Regional labour markets, Regional unemployment, Education, Gap decomposition for non-linear models. JEL classification:C25, J64, J70, R23 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:201125&r=lab |
| By: | Deborah A. Cobb-Clark; Mathias Sinning; Steven Stillman |
| Abstract: | We use 2009 Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) data to link institutional arrangements in OECD countries to the disparity in reading, math, and science test scores for migrant and native-born students. We find that achievement gaps are larger for those migrant youths who arrive later and for those who do not speak the test language at home. Institutional arrangements often serve to mitigate the achievement gaps of some migrant students while leaving unaffected or exacerbating those of others. For example, earlier school starting ages help migrant youths in some cases, but by no means in all. Limited tracking on ability appears beneficial for migrants‘ relative achievement, while complete tracking and a large private school sector appear detrimental. Migrant students‘ achievement relative to their native-born peers suffers as educational spending and teachers‘ salaries increase, but is improved when examination is a component of the process for evaluating teachers. |
| Keywords: | Migrant youths; PISA test scores; schools; institutions; academic achievement |
| JEL: | F22 I24 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0292&r=lab |
| By: | Veronica Amarante; Rodrigo Arim; Andres Dean |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the main institutional features of the Uruguayan labor market and its recent evolution, with a focus on unemployment. The main policies aimed at protecting workers against unemployment are analyzed. Using administrative data from social security records, the paper studies the dynamics of the labor market. Particularly examined are inflows and outflows from the formal labor market, as well as the effect, in terms of earnings loss, of episodes out of the formal labor market. Finally, an impact evaluation of recent changes in the unemployment insurance program is presented. |
| JEL: | J01 J08 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:wpaper:4731&r=lab |
| By: | Cockx, Bart (Ghent University); Dejemeppe, Muriel (Université catholique de Louvain); Launov, Andrey (University of Mainz); Van der Linden, Bruno (IRES, Université catholique de Louvain) |
| Abstract: | We develop and estimate a non-stationary job search model to evaluate a scheme that monitors job search effort and sanctions insured unemployed whose effort is deemed insufficient. The model reveals that such schemes provide incentives to the unemployed to front-load search effort prior to monitoring. This causes the job finding rate to increase above the post sanction level. After validating the model both internally and externally, we conclude that the scheme is effective in raising the job finding rate with minor wage losses. A basic cost-benefit analysis demonstrates that welfare losses for the unemployed are compensated by net efficiency gains for public authorities and society. |
| Keywords: | monitoring, sanctions, non-stationary job search, unemployment benefits, structural estimation |
| JEL: | J64 J68 C41 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6181&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre Lefebvre; Philip Merrigan; Pierre-Carl Michaud |
| Abstract: | Using data from three waves of the General Social Survey on retirement and older workers (1994, 2002 and 2007), we document the evolution of retirement patterns over the last three decades. We combined the analysis of retirement ages of actual retirees with data on expected retirement ages of current workers to create a longer perspective on changes in retirement behaviour in Canada. We also investigate trends in work after retirement. Our findings are in line with findings from other countries. There is an upward trend in retirement ages which likely started around year 2000 for cohorts born after 1945. This trend contrasts with the slow decline in retirement ages observed prior to the end of the millennium. While the downward trend was likely due to factors such as the offering of early retirement programs in private firms, the upward trend is likely to be caused by a wider variety of sources, including better health, less pervasive defined benefit pensions and in general less generous pensions. |
| Keywords: | Retirement, aging, older workers, expectations |
| JEL: | J26 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:sedapp:287&r=lab |
| By: | Nilsen, Øivind A. (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Reiso, Katrine Holm (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | Using Norwegian individual register data of young workers, from the period 1986-2008, we analyse whether there are large and persistent negative relationships between unemployment and the risk of repeated unemployment and being out of labour force. A nearest-neighbour propensity score matching method is applied to make the treatment group (the unemployed)and the control group (the employed) as similar as possible. By tracking workers over a 10-year follow-up period, we find that unemployment has a negative effect on later labour market attachment. This is consistent with existing findings in the literature. The negative effects decrease over time. Using the bounding approach proposed by Rosenbaum (2002) to analyse the importance of unobserved variables, our results indicate that a relatively high level of unobserved selection bias could be present in the data before changing the inference. Thus, unemployment leaves young workers with long-term scars. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment persistency; scarring; matching technique. |
| JEL: | C23 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2011–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2011_026&r=lab |
| By: | Xing, Chunbing (Beijing Normal University) |
| Abstract: | We use household surveys from 1995, 2002, and 2007 to examine how changes in job structure contributed to China's rising urban wage inequality, considering three job characteristics: occupation, industry, and firm ownership. The explanatory power of job structure for wage inequality increased between 1995 and 2007. Both the change in relative number of jobs (composition effect) and the change in between-job and within-job wage gaps (price effect) contributed to rising wage inequality. Price effect was the major contributor, whereas composition effect played a larger role in the 1995-2002 period than in the 2002-2007 period, and at the lower-half distribution. Between-job inequality played a major role in the first period, and within-job inequality played a major role in the second period. Our results suggest that both technological change and institutional features influence job structure and wage inequality. |
| Keywords: | job structure, wage inequality, urban China, decomposition |
| JEL: | C21 J31 O15 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6184&r=lab |
| By: | Bart Cockx (Sherppa, Ghent U., IZA and CESIfo); Muriel Dejemeppe (IRES, Universit´e catholique de Louvain); Andrey Launov (Department of Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universitaet Mainz, Germany); Bruno Van der Linden (IRES, Universit´e catholique de Louvain, FNRS and IZA) |
| Abstract: | We develop and estimate a non-stationary job search model to evaluate a scheme that monitors job search effort and sanctions insured unemployed whose effort is deemed insufficient. The model reveals that such schemes provide incentives to the unemployed to front-load search effort prior to monitoring. This causes the job finding rate to increase above the post sanction level. After validating the model both internally and externally, we conclude that the scheme is effective in raising the job finding rate with minor wage losses. A basic cost-benefit analysis demonstrates that welfare losses for the unemployed are compensated by net efficiency gains for public authorities and society. |
| Keywords: | Monitoring, sanctions, non-stationary job search, unemployment benefits, structural estimation |
| JEL: | J64 J68 C41 |
| Date: | 2011–11–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jgu:wpaper:1114&r=lab |
| By: | Corinne Perraudin; Héloïse Petit; Antoine Rebérioux |
| Abstract: | Information disclosure requirements significantly increased in French listed companies in the early 2000s, converging toward the U.S./U.K. stock market standards. Following the burgeoning literature on relations between corporate governance and labor, we investigate the consequences of this process regarding worker information: does more information for shareholders mean more information for workers? We take advantage of a French (representative) establishment survey that generates linked 'employer–employee' data at two points in time, 1998 and 2004. Our results strongly suggest that worker information has improved in listed companies but not in private ones, as an externality of the financialization process. We find however that this extra information is only partially correlated with greater employee satisfaction, as measured through the perception of fair recognition by supervisors. |
| Keywords: | information sharing, firm disclosure, corporate governance, job satisfaction, linked employer employee data |
| JEL: | J53 G39 J28 C21 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2011-37&r=lab |
| By: | Benno Torgler |
| Abstract: | The paper reports on work values in Europe. At the country level we find that job satisfaction is related to lower working hours, higher well-being, and a higher GDP per capita. Moving to the micro level, we turn our attention from job satisfaction to analyse empirically work centrality and work value dimensions (without exploring empirically job satisfaction) related to intrinsic and extrinsic values, power and social elements. The results indicate substantial differences between Eastern and Western Europe. Socio-demographic factors, education, income, religiosity and religious denomination are significant influences. We find additional differences between Eastern and Western Europe regarding work-leisure and work-family centrality that could be driven by institutional conditions. Furthermore, hierarchical cluster analyses report further levels of dissimilarity among European countries. |
| Keywords: | work values; job satisfaction; work-leisure relationship; work-family centrality; Eastern Europe; Western Europe |
| JEL: | P20 D10 J28 J17 J22 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cra:wpaper:2011-22&r=lab |
| By: | Andersson, Fredrik (U.S. Department of the Treasury); Davis, Elizabeth E. (University of Minnesota); Freedman, Matthew L. (Cornell University); Lane, Julia (National Science Foundation); McCall, Brian P. (University of Michigan); Sandusky, L. Kristin (U.S. Census Bureau) |
| Abstract: | This paper exploits longitudinal employer-employee matched data from the U.S. Census Bureau to investigate the contribution of worker and firm reallocation to changes in earnings inequality within and across industries between 1992 and 2003. We find that factors that cannot be measured using standard cross-sectional data, including the entry and exit of firms and the sorting of workers across firms, are important sources of changes in earnings distributions over time. Our results also suggest that the dynamics driving changes in earnings inequality are heterogeneous across industries. |
| Keywords: | inequality, linked employer-employee data, sorting |
| JEL: | J0 J30 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6182&r=lab |
| By: | Hanna Kröger; Sandra Schaffner |
| Abstract: | Labour supply is determined by two factors: the participation of workers in the labour market (extensive margin), and the number of hours supplied by those working (intensive margin). Based on the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS), we analyse which margin is more decisive in determining overall labour supply in 24 Member States. The results reveal large diff erences between countries, even after controlling for composition effects in terms of socio-demographic and household characteristics. In addition to individual labour supply, our focus is on differences between EU Member States concerning household labour supply. Joint determination of the number of hours worked between spouses can be observed for dual-income couples in Austria, the Netherlands and Spain. |
| Keywords: | Female labour supply; household labour supply; European Union; EU-LFS |
| JEL: | J22 J21 J16 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0291&r=lab |
| By: | Robert Fairlie (Department of Economics, University of California, Santa Cruz); Jonathan Robinson (Department of Economics, University of California, Santa Cruz) |
| Abstract: | Are home computers are an important input in the educational production function? To address this question, we conduct a field experiment involving the provision of free computers to schoolchildren for home use. Low-income children attending middle and high schools in 15 schools in California were randomly selected to receive free computers and followed over the school year. The results indicate that the experiment substantially increased computer ownership and total computer use among the schoolchildren with no substitution away from use at school or other locations outside the home. We find no evidence that the home computers improved educational outcomes for the treatment group. From detailed administrative data provided by the schools and a follow-up survey, we find no evidence of positive effects on a comprehensive set of outcomes such as grades, test scores, credits, attendance, school enrollment, computer skills, and college aspirations. The estimates also do not indicate that the effects of home computers on educational outcomes are instead negative. Our estimates are precise enough to rule out even modestly-sized positive or negative impacts. The lack of a positive net effect on educational outcomes may be due to displacement from non-educational uses such as for games, social networking, and entertainment. We find evidence that total hours of computer use for games and social networking increases substantially with having a home computer, and increases more than total hours of computer use for schoolwork. |
| Keywords: | Computers, education, technology, experiment |
| JEL: | I24 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:1114&r=lab |
| By: | Philip Jung; Keith Kuester |
| Abstract: | The authors examine the optimal labor market-policy mix over the business cycle. In a search and matching model with risk-averse workers, endogenous hiring and separation, and unobservable search effort they first show how to decentralize the constrained-efficient allocation. This can be achieved by a combination of a production tax and three labor-market policy instruments, namely, a vacancy subsidy, a layoff tax and unemployment benefits. The authors derive analytical expressions for the optimal setting of each of these for the steady state and for the business cycle. Their propositions suggest that hiring subsidies, layoff taxes and the replacement rate of unemployment insurance should all rise in recessions. The authors find this confirmed in a calibration targeted to the U.S. economy. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment ; Labor market ; Business cycles |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:11-48&r=lab |
| By: | Sumru Altug (Koc University and CEPR); Serdar Kabaca (Department of Economics, University of British Columbia); Meltem Poyraz (University of Virginia) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the role of the extensive and intensive margins of work in the context of business cycles in emerging markets with a financial friction. The earlier literature analyzed the role of search frictions with only an extensive margin of work and showed that such a framework can address the distinguishable business-cycle characteristics of emerging markets such as highly volatile consumption, countercyclical net exports, highly volatile wages and pro-cyclical wages. One of our contributions is to show that in the presence of an endogenous hours choice, search frictions fail to predict not only these characteristics but also the positive co-movement of hours worked per worker and employment with output. This occurs due to the strong income effect on hours worked. On the other hand, introducing a financial friction, namely working capital, significantly increases the performance of the model and suggests frictions in both labor markets and financial markets are necessary for explaining emerging market business cycles. |
| Keywords: | search frictions, emerging markets, business cycles, working capital |
| JEL: | F41 E44 J40 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koc:wpaper:1136&r=lab |
| By: | Ahmed, Ali (Linnaeus University); Andersson, Lina (Linnaeus University); Hammarstedt, Mats (Linnaeus University) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the first field experiment on sexual orientation discrimination in the hiring process in the Swedish labor market. Job applications were sent to about 4,000 employers in 10 different occupations in Sweden. Gender and sexual orientation were randomly assigned to applications. The results show that sexual orientation discrimi-nation exists in the Swedish labor market. The discrimination against gays and lesbian varies across different occupations and appears only in the private sector. The results also seem to suggest a new dimension of traditional gender roles; the gay applicant was discriminated against in typical male-dominated occupations whereas the lesbian applicant was discriminated against in typical female-dominated occupations. Thus, the results suggest that gays to some extent face the same obstacles on the labor market as heterosexual women. |
| Keywords: | Labor market discrimination; sexual orientation; field experiment |
| JEL: | C93 J15 J71 |
| Date: | 2011–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2011_021&r=lab |
| By: | Andrei, Jean; Saša, Stefanovic |
| Abstract: | The paper analyzes the situation of especially vulnerable groups both in EU and in the Serbian labour market. They include Roma as particularly vulnerable ethnic minority, refugees and displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija (IDPs) and people with disabilities. The results of the analysis indicate that the position of these groups is particularly disadvantaged since their unemployment rate in Serbia is significantly higher than among the general population. It turned out that the high unemployment and low employment activity rates are the main causes of extreme poverty among the Roma and Romani women which are particularly affected by the problem of unemployment. The population of refugees and IDPs is different than in the general population of Serbia primarily in higher participation of self-employed and lower participation of persons who share the status of unpaid family members. Unemployment rate of persons with disabilities is close to the level of average unemployment rates due to high rates of inactivity. Roma and people with disabilities belong to category of highly vulnerable population, as long as the refugees and internally displaced persons belong to moderately vulnerable population. Due to the lack of data we could have not determined a solid indicator of change in their position during the economic crisis. |
| Keywords: | Labour Market; Especially Vulnerable Groups; Unemployment |
| JEL: | J78 J82 |
| Date: | 2011–10–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:35285&r=lab |
| By: | Alexander Hijzen |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the impact of unemployment insurance and severance pay on the duration of nonemployment and transitions from non-employment to formal salaried employment, informal salaried employment and self-employment. It makes use of panel data from the Pesquisa Mensal de Emgrego, a monthly survey for six large cities in Brazil, for the period 2002M3 to 2010M10. The impact of income support to job losers is identified by means of a difference-in-differences approach that exploits eligibility conditions for income support in combination with proportional hazard models that take account of the spell-based nature of the data. A key aspect of the analysis is that it attempts to assess the role of moral hazard while controlling for the role of liquidity effects. The aggregate results indicate that income support has an important impact on the duration of non-employment. This largely appears to be driven by liquidity effects, while the role of moral hazard is limited. By contrast, the analysis by destination state suggests that moral hazard effects dominate liquidity effects associated with income support. The apparent inconsistency between the two sets of results is due to the fact that the aggregate analysis only accounts for moral hazard effects that increase the duration of nonemployment, while the analysis by destination state captures both moral hazard effects in the form of reduced work incentives per se and those in the form of increased incentives to work informally during the period of benefit receipt. In practice, the latter effect may reflect the tendency for firms to employ benefit recipients informally until their benefits expire.<BR>Ce document analyse l’impact de l’assurance chômage et des indemnités de licenciement sur la durée du chômage et la transition vers un emploi salarié dans le secteur formel ou informel, ou vers un emploi indépendant. L’analyse repose sur des données de panel comprises entre M3 2003 et M10 2010 tirées de l’enquête mensuelle sur l’emploi Pesquisa Mensal de Emprego qui concerne six grande zone urbaines du Brésil. Le test de l’incidence du soutien de revenu pour les chômeurs s’appuie sur la méthode de la différence des différences, exploitant les conditions d’éligibilité aux indemnités de soutien de revenu en combinaison avec des modèles de risque proportionnels qui tiennent compte de la nature épisodique des données. Un point essentiel de l’analyse est de tenter d’évaluer le rôle de l’aléa moral tout en tenant compte du rôle des effets de liquidités. Les résultats au niveau agrégé indiquent que le soutien des revenus a un impact important sur la durée du chômage. Il semble que ce résultat soit largement dû aux effets de liquidités, le rôle de l’aléa moral étant limité. En revanche, l’analyse par type d’emploi retrouvé suggère que les effets d’aléa moral dominent les effets de liquidité associés à la garantie de revenu. Cette contradiction apparente entre les deux groupes de résultats s’explique par le fait que l’analyse au niveau agrégé ne prend en compte que les effets d’aléa moral qui augmentent la durée du chômage, alors que l’analyse par destination capture à la fois les effets d’aléa moral qui se manifestent sous la forme d’une incitation réduite à reprendre un emploi, mais aussi ceux associés à l’incitation plus forte à travailler dans le secteur informel pendant la période d’indemnisation. En pratique, ce dernier effet pourrait refléter une tendance des entreprises à employer de manière informelle les bénéficiaires de prestations jusqu’à ce que leurs droits à indemnisation cessent. |
| Date: | 2011–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:119-en&r=lab |
| By: | Taskin, Temel |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we incorporate home production into a quantitative model of unemployment and show that realistic levels of home production have a significant impact on the optimal unemployment insurance rate. Motivated by recently documented empirical facts, we augment an incomplete markets model of unemployment with a home production technology, which allows unemployed workers to use their extra non-market time as partial insurance against the drop in income due to unemployment. In the benchmark model, we find that the optimal replacement rate in the presence of home production is roughly 40% of wages, which is 40% lower than the no home production model’s optimal replacement rate of 65%. The 40% optimal rate is also close to the estimated rate in practice. The fact that home production makes a significant difference in the optimal unemployment insurance rate is robust to a variety of parameterizations and alternative model environments. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment insurance; home production; incomplete markets; self-insurance |
| JEL: | D13 J65 E21 |
| Date: | 2011–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:34878&r=lab |
| By: | Roberto Torrini (Bank of Italy and ANVUR); Fabiano Schivardi (Cagliari University and EIEF) |
| Abstract: | We study the role of human capital in the restructuring of the Italian economy. The share of university graduates in the population has long been far lower in Italy (12 per cent in 2007) that in the rest of Europe (24 per cent). The 3+2 reform of Italian degree programmes has significantly increased the supply of graduates, mostly absorbed by the private sector. Firm-level evidence shows that the growth in graduate employment is due almost entirely to a “within” firm component rather than to a shift of the productive structure from low to high human capital activities. We also find that a higher share of university graduates at local level is positively associated with restructuring activities and with productivity growth. This suggests that increasing the workforce’s level of educational attainment is crucial to overcome the stagnation in productivity that has characterized the Italian economy since the mid-nineties. |
| Keywords: | human capital, tertiary education, firm restructuring, growth |
| JEL: | J24 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_108_11&r=lab |
| By: | OKUDAIRA Hiroko; TAKIZAWA Miho; TSURU Kotaro |
| Abstract: | Recent developments in the literature on employment protection legislation (EPL) have revealed that changing the stringency of employment protection can lead to extensive consequences outside of the labour market, by affecting firms' production decisions or workers' commitment levels. This paper provides the first empirical evaluation of the comprehensive effect of restrictions on firing employees in Japan, by exploiting the variations in court decisions. We find that judgments lenient to workers significantly reduce firms' total-factor productivity growth rate. The effect on capital is mixed and inconclusive, although we obtain modest evidence that an increase in firing costs induces a negative scale effect on capital inputs. |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:11078&r=lab |
| By: | Anees, Muhammad; Sajjad, Muhammad; Ahmed, Ishfaq |
| Abstract: | Economics of discrimination has been the topic of interest of many in the last decade or two. Human capital theory describes wage determination as a function of labour human capital and should be determined based on marginal productivity theorem of labour economics. Islamic theology also dictates paying labour well in time and equal to their productivity not based on his colour, race, gender, nationality health status and other non-economic factors. The current study analyses the immigrants-natives wage gap to find the extent of potential discrimination against the immigrants. Using employees' level data from the Enterprise Surveys by the World Bank in 2007, standard Oaxaca-Blinder technique and Machado-Mata counterfactual decomposition is applied. Findings indicate an existence of earning's differential in favour of natives or the Malaysian citizens and immigrants have a disadvantage. On the other hand, the differential increases until the middle of income distribution and the start declining. It suggests higher-income groups have a low level of discriminatory disadvantage. Labour market productivity could be increased if this differential is reduced, which motivates the employees. -- |
| Keywords: | Labour market discrimination,Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition,Machado-Mata decomposition,quantile regression,earnings differential,enterprise survey,World Bank,Malaysia |
| JEL: | J J1 J3 J7 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201151&r=lab |
| By: | John P. Papay; Martin R. West; Jon B. Fullerton; Thomas J. Kane |
| Abstract: | The Boston Teacher Residency is an innovative practice-based preparation program in which candidates work alongside a mentor teacher for a year before becoming a teacher of record in Boston Public Schools. We find that BTR graduates are more racially diverse than other BPS novices, more likely to teach math and science, and more likely to remain teaching in the district through year five. Initially, BTR graduates for whom value-added performance data are available are no more effective at raising student test scores than other novice teachers in English language arts and less effective in math. The effectiveness of BTR graduates in math improves rapidly over time, however, such that by their fourth and fifth years they out-perform veteran teachers. Simulations of the program’s overall impact through retention and effectiveness suggest that it is likely to improve student achievement in the district only modestly over the long run. |
| JEL: | I20 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17646&r=lab |
| By: | Antje Kröger; Kristina Meier |
| Abstract: | The financial crisis in 2008/2009 substantially influenced the everyday social and economic life of many Tajik people, including their behavior in the labor market. However, not much is known about the dynamics of the labor markets of the transition economies, especially in the context of the current financial crisis. Arguably, this is mainly due to paucity of panel data. In this paper, we aim to study the impact of the economic crisis on individual labor market outcomes in Tajikistan. This is the first study investigating the possible impact of the financial crisis in a transition country and uses a unique panel data set from Tajikistan. Although an impact evaluation in the true sense is impossible, due to the lack of a control group, comparing before and after-crisis outcomes can give insights as to how the crisis might have affected labor market outcomes. We do this by calculating transition probabilities between employment categories between 2007 and 2009, using a simple count method as well as predicted probabilities from multinomial probit regressions. Our results suggest an increased probability of moving into unemployment, inactivity or unpaid work during the crisis, with the self-employed being at more risk than the wage employed. This effect is more pronounced for females, as well as for very young and very old individuals. We also find that labor migration (predominantly to Russia) could be a mitigation strategy during the crisis. |
| Keywords: | Financial crisis, wage employment, migration, Tajikistan |
| JEL: | J24 J16 O10 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1174&r=lab |
| By: | Ohinata, A.; Ours, J.C. van (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyze how the share of immigrant children in the classroom affects the educational attainment of native Dutch children. Our analysis uses data from various sources, which allow us to characterize educational attainment in terms of reading literacy, mathematical skills and science skills. We do not find strong evidence of negative spill-over effects from immigrant children to native Dutch children. Immigrant children themselves experience negative language spill-over effects from a high share of immigrant children in the classroom but no spill-over effects on maths and science skills. |
| Keywords: | Immigrant children;Peer effects;Educational attainment. |
| JEL: | I21 J15 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:2011136&r=lab |
| By: | Vikesh Amin (SUNY Binghamton); Jere R. Behrman (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania) |
| Abstract: | Using data on MZ (monozygotic, identical) female twins from the Minnesota Twin Registry, we estimate the causal effect of schooling on completed fertility, probability of being childless and age at first birth, using the within-MZ twins methodology. We find strong cross-sectional associations between schooling and the fertility outcomes and some evidence that more schooling causes women to have fewer children and delay childbearing, though not to the extent that interpreting cross-sectional associations as causal would imply. Our conclusions are robust when taking account of (1) endogenous within-twin pair schooling differences due to reverse causality and (2) measurement error in schooling. We also investigate possible mechanisms and find that the effect of women’s schooling on completed fertility is not mediated through husband’s schooling but rather through age at first marriage. |
| Keywords: | twins, twins fixed-effects, schooling, fertility |
| JEL: | I2 J13 |
| Date: | 2011–12–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pen:papers:11-041&r=lab |
| By: | Graziella Bertocchi; Arcangelo Dimico |
| Abstract: | We study the evolution of racial educational inequality across US states from 1940 to 2000. We show that throughout this period, despite evidence of convergence, the racial gap in attainment between blacks and whites has been persistently determined by the initial gap. We obtain these results with 2SLS estimates where slavery is used as an instrument for the initial gap. The excludability of slavery is preliminarily established by instrumenting it with the share of disembarked slaves from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Using the same approach we also find that income growth is negatively affected by the initial racial gap in education and that slavery affects growth indirectly through this channel |
| Keywords: | Race; inequality; education; slavery; development; |
| JEL: | J15 I24 N31 O11 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:depeco:0672&r=lab |
| By: | Pierpaolo Parrotta (Aarhus University and University of Lausanne); Dario Pozzoli (Aarhus University, Department of Economics and Centre for Research in Integration and Marginalization (CIM)); Mariola Pytlikova (Aarhus Univserity, Centre for Corporate Performance (CCP) and Centre for Research in Integration and Marginalization (CIM)) |
| Abstract: | Using a matched employer-employee data-set, we analyze how workforce diversity in cultural background, education and demographic characteristics affects productivity of firms in Denmark. Implementing a structural estimation of the firms' production function (Ackerberg et al., 2006) we find that labor diversity in education significantly enhances a firm's value added. Hence, the negative effects, coming from communication and integration costs connected to a more culturally and demographically diverse workforce, seem to outweigh the positive effects coming from creativity and knowledge spillovers. |
| Keywords: | Labor diversity, skill complementarity, communication barriers, total factor productivity. |
| JEL: | C23 J24 L20 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2011022&r=lab |
| By: | Thomas K. Bauer; Barbara S. Grave |
| Abstract: | German universities are regarded as being under-financed, inefficient, and performing below average if compared to universities in other European countries and the US. Starting in the 1990s, several German federal states implemented reforms to improve this situation. An important part of these reforms has been the introduction of indicator-based funding systems. These financing systems aimed at increasing the competition between universities by making their public funds dependent on their relative performance concerning different output measures, such as the share of students obtaining a degree or the amount of third party funds. This paper evaluates whether the indicator-based funding created unintended incentives, i.e. whether the reform caused a grade inflation. Estimating mean as well as quantile treatment effects, we cannot support the hypothesis that increased competition between universities causes grade inflation. |
| Keywords: | Grade inflation; higher education funding; university competition |
| JEL: | H52 I21 I22 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0288&r=lab |
| By: | Kambayashi, Ryo (Hitotsubashi University); Kato, Takao (Colgate University) |
| Abstract: | Taking advantage of a recent relaxation of Japanese government's data release policy, we conduct a cross-national analysis of micro data from Japan's Employment Status Survey and its U.S. counterpart, Current Population Survey. Our focus is to document and contrast changes in long-term employment and job security over the last twenty five years between the two largest advanced economies. We find that in spite of the prolonged economic stagnation, the ten-year job retention rates of core employees (employees of prime age of 30-44 who have already accumulated at least five years of tenure) in Japan were remarkably stable at around 70 percent over the last twenty-five years, and there is little evidence that Japan's Great Recession of the 1990s had a deleterious effect on job stability of such employees. In contrast, notwithstanding its longest economic expansion in history, the comparable job retention rates for core employees in the U.S. actually fell from over 50 percent to below 40 percent over the same time period. The probit estimates of job loss models in the two nations also point to the extraordinary resilience of job security of core employees in Japan, whereas showing a significant loss of job security for similar employees in the U.S. Though core employees in Japan turned out to have weathered their Great Recession well, we find that mid-career hires and young new job market entrants were less fortunate, with their employment stability deteriorating significantly. We interpret the findings, based on the theory of institutional complementarity, and derive lessons for policy makers around the world who are currently facing their own Great Recessions and developing effective policy responses. |
| Keywords: | long-term employment, job security, Great Recession, Lost Decade, Japan and the U.S. |
| JEL: | J63 J64 J41 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6183&r=lab |
| By: | Giuseppe Bertola (Edhec Business School and CEPR); Paolo Sestito (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the evolution of educational institutions and outcomes over the 150 years since Italy’s unification, and discusses their interaction with national and regional growth patterns. While initial educational conditions contributed to differentiate across regions the early industrial take off in the late 19th century, and formal education does not appear to have played a major role in the postwar economic boom, the slowdown of Italy’s economy since the 1990s may be partly due to interactions between its traditionally low human capital intensity and new comparative advantage patterns, and to the deterioration since the 1970s of the educational system’s organization. |
| Keywords: | Education systems, tracking, economic growth, regional convergence |
| JEL: | N30 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:workqs:qse_6&r=lab |
| By: | Bentolila, Samuel (CEMFI, Madrid); Dolado, Juan José (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); Jimeno, Juan F. (Banco de Espana) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a case study on reforming a very dysfunctional labor market with a deep insider-outsider divide, namely the Spanish case. We show how a dual market, with permanent and temporary employees makes real reform much harder, and leads to purely marginal changes that do not alter the fundamental features of labor market institutions. While the Great Recession and the start of the sovereign debt crisis triggered two labor reforms, the political economy equilibrium has not allowed them to be transformational enough. |
| Keywords: | temporary contracts, dualism, labor market reform, political economy, Great Recession |
| JEL: | H29 J23 J38 J41 J64 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6186&r=lab |
| By: | Brunello, Giorgio; Fort, Margherita; Schneeweis, Nicole; Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf |
| Abstract: | We study the contribution of health-related behaviors to the health-education gradient by distinguishing between short-run and long-run mediating effects: while in the former only current or lagged behaviors are taken into account, in the latter we consider the entire history of behaviors. We use an empirical approach that addresses the endogeneity of education and behaviors in the health production function. Focusing on self-reported poor health as our health outcome, we find that education has a protective effect for European males and females aged 50+. We also find that the mediating effects of health behaviors--measured by smoking, drinking, exercising and the body mass index--account in the short run for 17% to 31% and in the long run for 23% to 45% of the entire effect of education on health, depending on gender. |
| Keywords: | education; Europe; health; health behaviours |
| JEL: | I1 I12 I21 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8707&r=lab |
| By: | Jungmin Lee; Daiji Kawaguchi; Daniel S. Hamermesh |
| Abstract: | How would people spend additional time if confronted by permanent declines in market work? We examine the impacts of cuts in legislated standard hours that raised employers’ overtime costs in Japan around 1990 and Korea in the early 2000s. Using time-diaries from before and after these shocks, we show that these shocks were effective—per-capita hours of market work declined discretely. The economy-wide drops in market work were reallocated solely to leisure and personal maintenance. In the absence of changing household technology a permanent time gift leads to no increase in time spent in household production by the average individual. |
| JEL: | E20 J11 J22 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17649&r=lab |
| By: | Hugo Rojas-Romagosa |
| Abstract: | <p>Recent trade-in-tasks models suggest that relative low-skill wages may increase when low-skill tasks are offshored. However, using extensive numerical simulations of these models we find that wage inequality is increasing for almost all endowment combinations when we use a broad range of parameter values and model specifications. </p><p>The most common exception is when the country is relatively small and cannot affect international prices. In the case of relatively poor lowskill abundant countries, we find that offshoring is always welfare improving, but wage inequality effects are ambiguous. Finally, we find that a trade-intasks model with three skill-types can also account for wage polarization when we allow medium-skill tasks to be offshored.</p> |
| JEL: | F11 F16 J31 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:196&r=lab |
| By: | Katharine Bradbury |
| Abstract: | Much of America's promise is predicated on economic mobility—the idea that people are not limited or defined by where they start, but can move up the economic ladder based on their efforts and accomplishments. Family income mobility—changes in individual families' income positions over time—is one indicator of the degree to which the eventual economic wellbeing of any family is tethered to its starting point. In the United States, family income inequality has risen from year to year since the mid-1970s; given this rising cross-sectional inequality, changes over time in mobility determine the degree to which long-term income is also increasingly unequally distributed. ; Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and a number of mobility concepts and measures drawn from the literature, this paper examines family income mobility levels and trends for U.S. working-age family heads and spouses during the time span 1969–2006, based on a post-tax, post-transfer concept of income adjusted for family size. By most measures, mobility is lower in more recent periods (1995–2005) than in the late seventies and the eighties (the 1977–1987 or 1981–1991 periods). Comparing results based on pre-government income suggests that an increasingly redistributive tax and transfer system contributed to rising mobility into the 1980s, but that its impact has since waned. Overall, the evidence indicates that over the 1969-to-2006 time span, family income mobility across the distribution decreased, families' later-year incomes increasingly depended on their starting place, and the distribution of families' lifetime incomes became less equal. |
| Keywords: | Income distribution ; Labor mobility ; Migration, Internal |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedbwp:11-10&r=lab |
| By: | Joanne W. Hsu |
| Abstract: | American women tend to be less financially literate than men, which is consistent with a household division of labor in which men manage finances. However, women also tend to outlive their husbands, so they will eventually need to take over this task. Using a new survey of older couples, I find that women acquire financial literacy as they approach widowhood. At an estimated increase of 0.04 standard deviations per year approaching widowhood, 80 percent of women in the sample would catch up with their husbands prior to the expected onset of widowhood. These findings reflect actual increases by women and are not merely an artifact of cognitive decline among older men. The results are consistent with a model in which the household division of labor breaks down when a spouse dies: women have incentives both to delay acquiring financial knowledge and also to begin learning before widowhood. This paper represents the first empirical examination of the financial literacy of both members of couples and provides a life-cycle interpretation of the gender gap in financial literacy. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2011-53&r=lab |