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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Hong-Kyun Kim (Department of Economics, Sogang University, Seoul); Seung C. Ahn (Department of Economics, Arizona State University and Sogang University); Jihye Kim (Department of education policy and social analysis, Columbia University, U.S.A) |
| Abstract: | In an analysis based on a cohort of Korean college graduates, there was a positive relationship between over-education and horizontal mismatches, and in a subsequent regression analysis disregarding horizontal education-job mismatches (over-education), the wage penalty for over-education (horizontal mismatches) was overestimated. Low-ability groups showed significant overestimation, ranging from 8.3% to 89.5%. According to the quantile regression results, the level of wage penalties for over-education and horizontal mismatches varied according to the worker¡¯s ability. The relative importance of these penalties varied according to the worker¡¯s ability and gender. Specifically, the wage penalty for horizontal mismatches exceeded that for over-education for low-ability male workers, whereas the wage penalty for over-education exceeded that for horizontal mismatches for female workers regardless of their ability. |
| Keywords: | Horizontal Mismatch, Over-Education, Wage Penalty, Quantile Regression, Ability Bias |
| JEL: | I20 J20 J21 J23 J24 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sgo:wpaper:1201&r=lab |
| By: | Jaap Dronkers (Maastricht University); Rolf van der Velden (Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | In this chapter, we will estimate the effects on language skills of two characteristics of school populations: average/share and diversity, on both the ethnic and the sociocultural dimensions. We will use the cross-national Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006 data for native students and students with an immigrant background, in which both cohorts are 15 years old. A greater ethnic diversity of school populations in secondary education hampers the educational performance of students with an immigrant background but does not significantly affect that of native students. The sociocultural diversity of schools has no effect on educational performance. However, the level of the curriculum attended by the students and the average parental sociocultural status of schools are important variables that explain the educational performance of children. A higher share of students of non-Islamic Asian origin in a school increases the educational performance of both native and immigrant students of other origins in that school. Students from non-Islamic Asian countries in schools with higher shares of students of non-Islamic Asian origin perform better than do comparable students originating from other regions. Students originating from Islamic countries have substantially lower language scores than do equivalent students with an immigrant background from other regions. This cannot be explained by individual socioeconomic backgrounds, school characteristics, or educational systems. |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1211&r=lab |
| By: | Holmlund, Bertil (Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The paper studies wage and employment determination in the Swedish business sector from the mid-1910s to the late 1930s. This period includes the boom and bust cycle of the early 1920s as well as the Great Depression of the early 1930s. The events of the early 1920s are particularly intriguing, involving inflation running at an annual rate of 30 percent followed by a period of sharp deflation where nominal wages and prices fell by 30 percent and unemployment increased from 5 to 30 percent. We examine whether relatively standard wage and employment equations can account for the volatile economic development during the interwar years. By and large, the answer is a qualified yes. Industry wages were responsive to industry-specific firm performance, suggesting a significant role for “insider forces” in wage determination. Unemployment had a strong downward impact on wages. There is evidence that reductions in working time added to wage pressure; yet estimates of labor demand equations suggest that cuts in working time may have slightly increased employment as firms substituted workers for hours. |
| Keywords: | Wage determination; labor demand; interwar labor markets |
| JEL: | J23 J31 N14 N34 |
| Date: | 2012–04–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2012_009&r=lab |
| By: | Holmlund, Bertil (Uppsala Center for Labor Studies) |
| Abstract: | The paper studies wage and employment determination in the Swedish business sector from the mid-1910s to the late 1930s. This period includes the boom and bust cycle of the early 1920s as well as the Great Depression of the early 1930s. The events of the early 1920s are particularly intriguing, involving inflation running at an annual rate of 30 percent followed by a period of sharp deflation where nominal wages and prices fell by 30 percent and unemployment increased from 5 to 30 percent. We examine whether relatively standard wage and employment equations can account for the volatile economic development during the interwar years. By and large, the answer is a qualified yes. Industry wages were responsive to industry-specific firm performance, suggesting a significant role for “insider forces” in wage determination. Unemployment had a strong downward impact on wages. There is evidence that reductions in working time added to wage pressure; yet estimates of labor demand equations suggest that cuts in working time may have slightly increased employment as firms substituted workers for hours. |
| Keywords: | Wage determination; labor demand; interwar labor markets |
| JEL: | J23 J31 N14 N34 |
| Date: | 2012–04–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uulswp:2012_007&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:4364&r=lab |
| By: | Thomas A. Kochan (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | It is widely recognized that human capital is essential to sustaining a competitive economy at high and rising living standards. Yet acceptance of persistent high unemployment, stagnant wages, and other indicators of declining job quality suggests that policymakers and employers undervalue human capital. This paper traces the root cause of this apparent paradox to the primacy afforded shareholder value over human resource considerations in American firms and the longstanding gridlock over employment policy. I suggest that a new jobs compact will be needed to close the deficit in jobs lost in the recent recession and to achieve sustained real wage growth. |
| Keywords: | social contract, jobs compact, job growth, wages |
| JEL: | J01 J08 J53 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:12-180&r=lab |
| By: | Gabriele Cardullo (DIEM, Faculty of Economics, University of Genoa, Italy) |
| Abstract: | In many countries, the government pays almost identical nominal wages to workers living in regions with notable economic disparities. In most cases this is the result of highly centralized pay systems. By developing a two-region general equilibrium model with unions and search frictions in the labour market, I study the differences in terms of unemployment, real wages, and inequality between a regional wage bargaining process and a national one in the public sector. Adopting the former lowers public sector real salaries but it also decreases unemployment and jacks up private sector real earnings. Simulations conducted on the basis of Italian data show that, compared to a national negotiation process, a regional one also increases inequality both within and between regions. |
| Keywords: | public sector wages; unemployment; economic integration; local labour markets |
| JEL: | H53 J38 J64 R12 R13 |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gea:wpaper:2/2012&r=lab |
| By: | Bennmarker, Helge (IFAU); Nordström Skans, Oskar (Uppsala Center for Labor Studies); Vikman, Ulrika (Uppsala Center for Labor Studies) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effects of conditioning benefits on program participation among older long-term unemployed workers. We exploit a Swedish reform which reduced UI duration from 90 to 60 weeks for a group of older unemployed workers in a setting where workers who ex-hausted their benefits received unchanged transfers if they agreed to participate in a work practice program. Our results show that job finding increased as a result of the shorter duration of passive benefits. The time profile of the job-finding effects suggests that the effects are due to deterrence effects during the program-entry phase. We find no evidence of wage reductions, suggesting that the increased job-finding rate was driven by increased search intensity rather than lower reservation wages. |
| Keywords: | Activation; program evaluation; UI; duration |
| JEL: | J26 J64 J65 J68 |
| Date: | 2012–04–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uulswp:2012_008&r=lab |
| By: | Hori, Masahiro; Iwamoto, Koichiro |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of the erosion in seniority-based wages on lifetime labor income in Japan. Despite the importance of this issue, studies to date have not been able to address it directly because reliable datasets long enough to cover individuals’ entire careers were not available. Taking advantage of administrative data records on individuals’ careers, which became available with the introduction of Pension Coverage Regular Notices, Takayama et al. (2012) constructed a panel dataset of career records covering a period of more than 30 years. We use the dataset to derive wage profiles throughout individuals’ careers. Moreover, using the estimated wage profiles for individuals with different sets of characteristics, we calculate the lifetime labor income (over a 35-year period) for those individuals to examine the impact of the erosion of Japan’s seniority wages on lifetime income. We confirm that the wage-age profile of lifetime employees over their working life has been gradually flattening in recent years. The flattening is particularly prominent among middle-aged and elderly white-collar workers with a college background, and it appears to have decreased their lifetime labor income by about 10 to 30 percent. |
| Keywords: | Seniority-based wages, Lifetime labor income, Japan |
| JEL: | C81 D31 J31 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:cisdps:554&r=lab |
| By: | Robert W Fairlie (University of California); Kanika Kapur (University College Dublin); Susan Gates (RAND) |
| Abstract: | Employer-provided health insurance in the United States is suspected of restricting job mobility, resulting in “job lock.” Previous research on job lock finds mixed results using several methodologies. We take a new approach to examine whether employer-based health insurance discourages job mobility by exploiting the discontinuity created at age 65 through the qualification for Medicare. Using a novel procedure for identifying age in months from matched monthly CPS data and a relatively unexplored administration measure of job mobility, we compare job mobility among male workers in the months just prior to turning age 65 to job mobility in the months just after turning age 65. We find no evidence that job mobility increases at the age 65 threshold when Medicare eligibility starts. Our results are robust to different bandwidths, non-linear age profiles, and frequency of age measurement. The upper bounds of 95 percent confidence intervals for these estimates can rule out the existence of any job lock in some cases, and in most cases can rule out the large levels of job lock found in many previous studies in the literature. We also do not find evidence that other factors such as retirement, reduction in hours worked, social security eligibility, pension eligibility, and sample changes confound the results on job mobility in the month individuals turn 65. |
| Keywords: | Job lock; health insurance; Medicare |
| Date: | 2012–04–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201215&r=lab |
| By: | Abbritti, Mirko (University of Navarra); Mueller, Andreas I. (Columbia University) |
| Abstract: | How does the asymmetry of labor market institutions affect the adjustment of a currency union to shocks? To answer this question, this paper sets up a dynamic currency union model with monopolistic competition and sticky prices, hiring frictions and real wage rigidities. In our analysis, we focus on the differentials in inflation and unemployment between countries, as they directly reflect how the currency union responds to shocks. We highlight the following three results: First, we show that it is important to distinguish between different labor market rigidities as they have opposite effects on inflation and unemployment differentials. Second, we find that asymmetries in labor market structures tend to increase the volatility of both inflation and unemployment differentials. Finally, we show that it is important to take into account the interaction between different types of labor market rigidities. Overall, our results suggest that asymmetries in labor market structures worsen the adjustment of a currency union to shocks. |
| Keywords: | currency union, labor market frictions, real wage rigidities, unemployment, sticky prices, inflation differentials |
| JEL: | E32 E52 F41 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6488&r=lab |
| By: | Laurence Jacquet; Etienne lehmann; Bruno Van Der Linden (THEMA, Universite de Cergy-Pontoise; CREST; IRES - Université Catholique de Louvain and FNRS) |
| Abstract: | This paper characterizes the optimal redistributive tax schedule in a matching unemployment framework where (voluntary) nonparticipation and (involuntary) un- employment are endogenous. The optimal employment tax rate is given by an inverse employment elasticity rule. This rule depends on the global response of the employ- ment rate, which depends not only on the participation (labor supply) responses, but also on the vacancy posting (labor demand) responses and on the product of these two responses. For plausible values of the parameters, our matching environment induces much lower employment tax rates than the usual competitive model with endogenous participation only. |
| Keywords: | Optimal taxation, Labor market frictions, Unemployment, Kalai so- lution. |
| JEL: | D82 H21 J64 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2012-26&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:2919&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Westermeier; Anika Rasner; Markus M. Grabka |
| Abstract: | In most industrialized countries, the work and family patterns of the baby boomers characterized by more heterogeneous working careers and less stable family lives set them apart from preceding cohorts. Thus, it is of crucial importance to understand how these different work and family lives are linked to the boomers’ prospective material well-being as they retire. This paper presents a new and unique matching-based approach for the projection of the life courses of German baby boomers, called the LAW-Life Projection Model. Basis for the projection are data from 27 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel linked with administrative pension records from the German Statutory Pension In-surance that cover lifecycle pension-relevant earnings. Unlike model-based micro simula-tions that age the data year by year our matching-based projection uses sequences from older birth cohorts to complete the life-courses of statistically similar baby boomers through to retirement. An advantage of this approach is to coherently project the work-life and family trajectories as well as lifecycle earnings. The authors present a benchmark anal-ysis to assess the validity and accuracy of the projection. For this purpose, they cut a signif-icant portion of already lived lives and test different combinations of matching algorithms and donor pool specifications to identify the combination that produces the best fit be-tween previously cut but observed and projected life-course information. Exploiting the advantages of the projected data, the authors compare the returns to education - measured in terms of pension entitlements – across cohorts. The results indicate that within cohorts, differences between individuals with low and high educational attainment increase over time for men and women in East and West Germany. East German boomer women with low educational attainment face the most substantial losses in pension entitlements that put them at a high risk of being poor as they retire. |
| Keywords: | Forecasting Models, simulation methods, SOEP, baby boomers, education, public pensions |
| JEL: | C53 H55 I24 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp440&r=lab |
| By: | Dusan Paredes (IDEAR - Department of Economics, Universidad Católica del Norte - Chile) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the gender wage gap for Chile between 1992-2009, but using by first time a matching comparison. In order to contribute to the empirical literature, this paper uses a novel technique called Coarsened Exact Matching which imposes the comparison among comparable workers. The results suggest that the wage gap exists, but it is lower than previous estimations, specially when only comparable workers are considered. This result opens the discussion about how well estimated is the gap when exist a high heterogeneity between male and female workers. The results also show a increment in wage gap from 2000. Finally, only the 58% of comparable male workers earns more wage than similar females workers. However, this 58% presents larger differential than its comparable 42% of female workers. This differential is also growing during the last years. |
| Keywords: | Gender wage gap, matching comparison, Coarsened Exact Matching |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cat:dtecon:dt201205&r=lab |
| By: | Katarzyna Budnik (National Bank of Poland) |
| Abstract: | The measured TFP growth in Poland slowed from around 4% in the second half of the 90s to 2% a decade later. This reduction in the growth rate of the Solow residual is argued to reflect the evolution of worker effort and, indirectly, of the labour market within the period. The unobserved worker effort is identified within a structural efficiency wage model with shirking. The model estimates suggest that a reduction in the generosity of the unemployment benefit system and the stabilization of the job destruction rate before 2000 reinforced worker motivation. In turn, the economic revival and the intensification of emigration around the date of the Polish accession to the European Union undermined it. Consequently, a steep increase in worker effort before 2000 temporarily boosted the measured TFP growth. A levelling off and the eventual correction of effort after 2000 depressed the observed TFP growth rates. Around 15% of the estimated decline in GDP tied to an increase in emigration after 2004 can be attributed to negative changes in worker discipline. |
| Keywords: | emigration, TFP, labour productivity, efficiency wages, shirking, potential product, gross worker flows, EU enlargement |
| JEL: | C11 J30 J61 J64 F22 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbp:nbpmis:113&r=lab |
| By: | Jaap Dronkers (Maastricht University); Manon de Heus |
| Abstract: | Using Program for International Student Assessment [PISA] 2006 data, we examine the science performance of 9.279 15-year-old children of immigrants, originating from 35 different countries, living in 16 Western countries of destination. Whereas former research has mainly paid attention to the influence of individual-level characteristics on the educational performance of immigrants, this study’s focus is on macro-level characteristics. Using a cross-classified multilevel approach, we examine the impact of educational systems and political, economic, and religious features of both countries of origin and destination. The results show that at the destination level the degree of teacher shortage has a negative, and a longer history of migration has a positive, effect on science performance. Moreover, comprehensive educational systems have a positive influence on immigrant children’s performance, but this is only the case for higher class children. At the origin level, the compulsory period of education has a positive effect on immigrants’ science performance. Moreover, whereas immigrants from countries with an Eastern religious affiliation perform better than immigrants from Christian countries, immigrants from Islamic countries perform worse. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, educational performance, PISA, origin countries, destinationcountries, educational systems. |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1210&r=lab |
| By: | Orley C. Ashenfelter |
| Abstract: | A real wage rate is a nominal wage rate divided by the price of a good and is a transparent measure of how much of the good an hour of work buys. It provides an important indicator of the living standards of workers, and also of the productivity of workers. In this paper I set out the conceptual basis for such measures, provide some historical examples, and then provide my own preliminary analysis of a decade long project designed to measure the wages of workers doing the same job in over 60 countries—workers at McDonald’s restaurants. The results demonstrate that the wage rates of workers using the same skills and doing the same jobs differ by as much as 10 to 1, and that these gaps declined over the period 2000-2007, but with much less progress since the Great Recession. |
| JEL: | J3 O40 O57 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18006&r=lab |
| By: | Abada, Teresa<br/> Hou, Feng<br/> Lu, Yuqian |
| Abstract: | Immigrants in major industrialized countries are disproportionately represented in self-employment as compared to the domestic-born. Using a generational cohort method and data from the 20% sample file of the 1981 Canadian Census and the 20% sample file of the 2006 Canadian Census, this study examines whether the effects of three important determinants of self-employment--expected earnings differentials between paid employment and self-employment, difficulties in the labour market, and ethnic enclaves--differ between immigrants and the Canadian-born, between children of immigrants and children of the Canadian-born, and between children of immigrants and their parents. |
| Keywords: | Ethnic diversity and immigration, Ethnic groups and generations in Canada, Immigrants and non-permanent residents, Labour market and income |
| Date: | 2012–04–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2012342e&r=lab |
| By: | Anne C. Gielen; Jan C. van Ours |
| Abstract: | It is puzzling that people feel quite unhappy when they become unemployed, while at the same time active labor market policies are needed to bring unemployed back to work more quickly. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we investigate whether there is indeed such a puzzle. First, we find that nearly half of the unemployed do not experience a drop in happiness, which might explain why at least some workers need to be activated. In addition to that, we find that even though unemployed who experience a drop in happiness search more actively for a job, it does not speed up their job finding. Apparently, there is no link between unhappiness and the speed of job finding. Hence, there is no contradiction between unemployed being unhappy and the need for activation policies. |
| Keywords: | Happiness, unemployment duration |
| JEL: | I31 J64 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp437&r=lab |
| By: | Matthieu Bunel; Elisabeth Tovar |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on local job accessibility measurement. We propose an original model that uses national exhaustive micro data and allows for i) a full estimation of job availability according to an extensive set of individual characteristics, ii) a full appraisal of job competition on the labour market and iii) a full control of frontier effects. By matching several exhaustive micro data sources on the Paris region municipalities, we compare the results produced by this benchmark model to a representative set of alternative models, we show that the model may indeed make the results as far as local job accessibility is concerned. Significant empirical differences do stem from the use of different Local Job Accessibility measures. Moreover, these differences are spatially differentiated across the Paris region municipalities. In particular, we show that failing to use a model where job availability is fully estimated according to individual characteristics may lead to the over-estimation of the job accessibility levels of notably under-privileged municipalities. |
| Keywords: | job accessibility measurement, Paris Region, benchmarking, geo-referenced microdata |
| JEL: | R11 J61 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2012-22&r=lab |
| By: | Josheski, Dushko |
| Abstract: | In the past employee interest and influence have been presented mainly through trade unions and collective bargaining (economic regulation). Socially optimal levels of co-determination may be prevented by the existence of high fixed costs of establishing councils. Job security can resolve the adverse selection problem and raise economic efficiency i.e. worker or agent will work efficiently or socially optimal. Co-determination reinforces well functioning social democracy, recent studies discover that consultation and participation increase than innovativeness of the company. The US and EU approach to employment are different under common and civil law, that differ in many ways. The US employment –at- will is liberal individualist model, laissez-faire approach and any regulation is considered to be potentially welfare reducing. And mandatory employment rights model; EU model that seeks it’s rationale in the previously mentioned market failures (agency problems, hold-up problems) caused by asymmetric information and incomplete employment contracts, and the presence of monopolies, monopsonies that reduce workers mobility. Harmonious relations between” social partners” – labor and management are the aim of the European Work Council directive. European law continues to focus on workers and shareholders interest. |
| Keywords: | Asymmetric informations; European model; Employee councils; Co-determination; European Work Council Directive |
| JEL: | M50 |
| Date: | 2012–04–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:38196&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre Kohler (Graduate Institute of International Studies) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether host society culture affects migrant wage discrimination, i.e. whether migrant wage discrimination is more intense in host societies where culture is more inward-looking. The motivation for this investigation in the Swiss context stems from two stylized facts showing that (i) political preferences on issues related to migration, asylum and naturalization of foreigners are markedly more conservative in the German region and (ii) that average wage differences between migrants and natives are larger in the German region. Building on this, the paper begins with a comparison of returns to factors (for eight migrant groups compared to natives) using a human capital model of wage determination. It then performs an Oaxaca decomposition of wage differentials in order to compare its unexplained component across groups and regions. The last step consists in implementing a regression discontinuity design approach to establish whether host society culture is one of the determinants explaining differences in migrant wage discrimination across the language border. Results show returns to factors of wage-earning migrants are lower in the German region for a preponderant majority of migrant groups. The analysis of wage differentials and the associated unexplained parts also support the hypothesis that wage discrimination is more pronounced in this region of the Swiss labor market. Finally, results of the regression discontinuity design approach confirm that host society culture is one of the determinants of wage discrimination endured by migrants. |
| Keywords: | immigration, migration, labour market, culture, political preferences, wage discrimination, Switzerland |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J31 J60 J68 J71 Z10 Z13 |
| Date: | 2012–04–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gii:giihei:heidwp08-2012&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre Kohler (Graduate Institute of International Studies) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores cultural integration paths of eight migrant groups in Switzerland. It specifically analyzes the evolution of objective behaviors and subjective attitudes of migrants from the first to the second generation. In order to deepen the analysis, the cultural integration of migrants is further examined from different perspectives: across cohorts (older vs. younger migrants) and across types of couples (individuals in endogamous vs. mixed couples). Gender differences are also paid attention to. First, behaviors are examined by looking at performances of migrants at school (educational attainment and gender gap). As women play a key role in the transmission of cultural traits and the socialization of the second generation, the focus then turns to their position in the couple (marriage, intermarriage, age and education gap between partners, early marriage, cohabitation, fertility, divorce) and in the labor market (labor force participation). Finally, this paper proposes to look at migrants' use of language, their feelings towards Switzerland, as well as their attitudes towards gender, religious and political issues. Evidence points to overall convergence. As the most striking and lasting differences across groups do not pertain to educational achievement, religious or political attitudes but to gender-related attitudes and, even more, to gender-related behaviors in endogamous couples, it appears that migration-related gender issues and migration-specific household dynamics" should be taken into account in the design of future cultural integration policies. |
| Keywords: | immigration, migration, culture, integration, Switzerland |
| JEL: | F22 Z10 Z13 |
| Date: | 2012–04–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gii:giihei:heidwp06-2012&r=lab |
| By: | Bachmann, Ronald (RWI); Bauer, Thomas (RWI); Kroeger, Hanna (RWI) |
| Abstract: | This study analyses employers' support for the introduction of industry-specific minimum wages as a cost-raising strategy in order to deter market entry. Using a unique data set consisting of 800 firms in the German service sector, we find some evidence that high-productivity employers support minimum wages. We further show that minimum wage support is higher in industries and regions with low barriers to entry. This is particularly the case in East Germany, where the perceived threat of low-wage competition from Central and Eastern European Countries is relatively high. In addition, firms paying collectively agreed wages are more strongly in favour of minimum wages if union coverage is low and the mark-up of union wage rates is high. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage, product market competition, service sector |
| JEL: | J38 J50 L41 L80 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6484&r=lab |
| By: | Alicia Sasser Modestino; Julia Dennett |
| Abstract: | U.S. policymakers are concerned that negative home equity arising from the severe housing market decline may be constraining geographic mobility and consequently serving as a factor in the nation's persistently high unemployment rate. Indeed, the widespread drop in house prices since 2007 has increased the share of homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages. At the same time, migration across states and among homeowners has fallen sharply. Using a logistic regression framework to analyze data from the Internal Revenue Service on state-to-state migration between 2006 and 2009, the authors discover evidence that "house lock" decreases mobility but find it has a negligible impact on the national unemployment rate. A one-standard deviation increase in the share of underwater nonprime households in the origin state reduces the outflow of migrants from the origin to the destination state by 2.9 percent. When aggregated across the United States, this decrease in mobility reduces the national state-to-state migration rate by 0.05 percentage points, resulting in roughly 110,000 to 150,000 fewer individuals migrating across state lines in any given year. Assuming that all of these discouraged migrants were job-seekers who were previously unemployed before relocating and then found a job in their new state would reduce the nation's unemployment rate by at most one-tenth of a percentage point in a given year. The cumulative effect over this period would yield an unemployment rate of 9.0 percent versus 9.3 percent in 2009. Recognizing that not all state-to-state migrants are job-seekers, not all job-seekers were previously unemployed, and not all previously unemployed job-seekers will successfully find work in their new location yields an unemployment rate that is virtually unchanged from the actual one that prevailed from 2006 to 2009. |
| Keywords: | Housing - Prices ; Migration, Internal ; Unemployment |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedbwp:12-1&r=lab |
| By: | Rafal Kierzenkowski; Isabell Koske |
| Abstract: | Despite a general trend of increasing labour income inequality, there have been differences in the timing, intensity and even direction of these changes across OECD countries. These stylized facts have led to numerous studies about the main determinants of labour income inequality and, as a result, a significant revision of the previous consensus about the key drivers. The most researched channels include skill-biased technological change, international trade, immigration, education as well as the role of labour market policies and institutions.<P>Moins d'inégalités de revenu et plus de croissance – Ces deux objectifs sont-ils compatibles? Partie 8. Les déterminants de l'inégalité de revenu du travail – une revue de la littérature<BR>En depit d'une tendance generale a l.augmentation des inegalites de revenu du travail, des differences sont apparues quant a l.occurrence, l.intensite et meme le sens de ces evolutions au sein des pays de l'OCDE. Ces faits stylises ont mene a de nombreuses etudes consacrees aux facteurs principaux de l'inegalite de revenu du travail et, en consequence, d'une revision significative du consensus precedent concernant les determinant cles. Les canaux les plus recherches incluent le progres technique, le commerce international, l'immigration, l'education ainsi que le role des politiques du marche du travail et des institutions. |
| Keywords: | globalisation, trade, technological change, labour market policies, education policy, immigration, income inequality, labour income, progrès technique, politique du marché du travail, commerce, politique d'éducation, mondialisation, immigration, inégalité des revenus, revenus du travail |
| JEL: | D63 F16 I24 J31 J58 O33 |
| Date: | 2012–04–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:931-en&r=lab |
| By: | Marie-Agnès Barrère-Maurisson (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | How the transformations of the family, but also those of employment, did lead to new practices, specific and distinct from domestic work in the strict sense, around the assumption of responsibility of the children by the family ? How this particular work, the parental one, could be isolated and defined ? How was it evaluated, in reference to which standard measurement, and why ?. |
| Keywords: | Parental work, working hours, family, measure, men/women. |
| JEL: | J01 J1 J13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:12024&r=lab |
| By: | Ching-Yang Lin (Graduate School of International Relations, International University of Japan); Hiroaki Miyamoto (Graduate School of International Relations, International University of Japan) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how well a search and matching model can describe aggregate Japanese labor market dynamics in a full information setting. We develop a discrete- time search and matching model with productivity and separation shocks and use it as a data-generating process for our empirical analysis. Using Bayesian methods, we estimate the model for data on unemployment and vacancy postings in Japan. We Â…nd that the model is successful in matching the volatility in unemployment and vacancies while it does not match the volatility of output and wages. We also Â…nd that both productivity and separation shocks contribute to movements in unemployment and vacancies, but productivity shocks more so. |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tky:fseres:2012cf850&r=lab |
| By: | Moretti, Enrico (Department of Economics); Thulin, Per (Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum) |
| Abstract: | We show that every time a local economy generates a new job by attracting a new business in the traded sector, a significant number of additional jobs are created in the non-traded sector. This multiplier effect is particularly large for jobs with high levels of human capital and for high tech industries. These findings are important for local development policies, as they suggest that in order to increase local employment levels, municipalities should target high tech employers with high levels of human capital. |
| Keywords: | Local multipliers; Local labor markets; Labor demand |
| JEL: | J23 R11 R12 R23 |
| Date: | 2012–04–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0914&r=lab |
| By: | E. OPDECAM; P. EVERAERT; H. VAN KEER; F. BUYSSCHAERT |
| Abstract: | The first objective of this study is to investigate students’ preferences for learning methods in relation to their learning strategy, motivation, gender, and ability. Two learning methods are considered: team learning and lecture-based learning. The second objective is to explore the effectiveness of the chosen learning method by comparing academic achievement between the lecture-based and team-learning groups. A quasi-experiment was administered, consisting of an untreated control group with a pre-test and a post-test, for a first-year undergraduate accounting class. Students choose one of the two learning paths and subsequently follow their chosen learning path. The results show that female students had a higher preference for team learning than male students. Furthermore, team-learning students were more intrinsically motivated, had a lower ability level, and had less control of their learning beliefs, but they were more willing to share their knowledge with peers. The teamlearning approach also resulted in increased performance in an advanced accounting course while controlling for the differences in gender and ability. This beneficial impact of team learning on performance was not found for other courses, leading to the conclusion that team learning offers an appropriate learning method at the university level for a first-year accounting course. |
| Keywords: | Team learning, cooperative learning, academic performance, MSLQ, instructional preferences |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:12/774&r=lab |
| By: | Gill, David; Prowse, Victoria |
| Abstract: | In a real effort experiment with repeated competition we find striking differences in how the work effort of men and women responds to previous wins and losses. For women losing per se is detrimental to productivity, but for men a loss impacts negatively on productivity only when the prize at stake is big enough. Responses to luck are more persistent and explain more of the variation in behavior for women, and account for about half of the gender performance gap in our experiment. Our findings shed new light on why women may be less inclined to pursue competition-intensive careers. |
| Keywords: | Real effort experiment; Gender differences; Gender gap; Competition aversion; Tournament; Luck; Win; Loss; Competitive outcomes |
| JEL: | J33 C91 J16 |
| Date: | 2012–01–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:38220&r=lab |
| By: | Sotiris Blanas |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of trade within US-headquartered multinational companies (MNCs) on labour demand for all employees, as well as, for those of high and low skill in US manufacturing for the period 1995 – 2005. We find strong evidence on the positive and negative effect of intra-firm exports and imports respectively, on aggregate employment. The former effect is stronger than the latter. Moreover, we find that demand for low-skilled labour is negatively associated with intra-firm imports, while unaffected by intra-firm exports. In contrast, high-skilled labour demand is positively linked to intra-firm exports but unaffected by intra-firm imports. The last two findings put together, suggest that low-skill intensive stages of the value-added chain are mostly transferred to the US affiliates abroad, while highskill intensive ones are mostly kept within the US parents. |
| Keywords: | Multinational Companies (MNCs), intra-firm imports, intra-firm exports, employment, low-skilled workers, high-skilled workers |
| JEL: | F16 F23 J21 J23 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wsr:wpaper:y:2012:i:077&r=lab |
| By: | Raymundo M. Campos Vazquez (El Colegio de México); Andres Hincapie (Washington University in St. Louis); Ruben Irvin Rojas-Valdes (El Colegio de México) |
| Abstract: | We study family income inequality in Mexico from 1988 to 2010. The share of married females' income among married couples grew from 13 to 23 percent in the period. However, the correlation of married males' and married females' earnings has been fairly stable at 0.28, one of the highest correlations recorded across countries. We follow Cancian and Reed's (1999) methodology in order to analize whether married females' income equalizes total family income distribution. We investigate several counterfactuals and conclude that the increment in female employment has contributed to a decrease in family income inequality through a rise in married females' labor supply in poor families. |
| Keywords: | income inequality, female employment, female earnings, Latin America, Mexico |
| JEL: | J12 J21 J31 O15 O54 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emx:ceedoc:2012-08&r=lab |
| By: | Brewer, Mike; Wren-Lewis, Liam |
| Abstract: | Average real UK household income has almost doubled over the past forty years. With four decades of micro-data on household incomes, and relatively simple decomposition methods, we document the contribution to this growth in the mean net household income of working-age households from different income sources, and break down further changes in employment income by household member and into separate participation, hours and hourly wage effects. We also perform such analyses for the mean income of the richest working-age households, and among a group defined by having a low household income but a strong connection to the labour market. |
| Date: | 2012–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2012-08&r=lab |
| By: | Francesco Nucci (Sapienza, Universita' di Roma); Alberto Franco Pozzolo (Universita' del Molise) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effect of exchange rate movements on firm-level wages, using a representative panel of manufacturing firms. We show that the direction and size of wage adjustment is shaped by the international exposure of each firm on both the sale and cost side of the balance sheet, similar to the response of employment documented in Nucci and Pozzolo (2010). Through the revenue side, wages tend to rise after a currency depreciation and the effect is more pronounced the higher is the firm's exposure to sales from exports. Through the expenditure side, a depreciation induces a cut in the firm's wages, and the effect is larger the higher is the incidence of imported inputs in total production costs. For a given degree of external orientation, both these effects are larger for firms with a lower market power. Moreover, we document that the effect of exchange rates on wages is shaped by (i) the extent of sectoral import penetration in the domestic market; (ii) the proportion of newly hired workers in each firm in a given year; and (iii) the composition of the firm's workforce by occupational category. |
| Keywords: | Exchange Rate; Firms' Foreign Exposure; Wages. |
| JEL: | E24 F16 F31 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sas:wpaper:20123&r=lab |
| By: | Jennifer Weiner |
| Abstract: | The unemployment insurance (UI) program is a federal-state program aiming to: (1) provide temporary, partial compensation for the lost earnings of individuals who become unemployed through no fault of their own and (2) serve as a stabilizer during economic downturns by injecting additional resources into the economy in the form of benefit payments. Each state, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, operates its own UI program within federal guidelines. ; Since the onset of the Great Recession in late 2007, two-thirds of state UI programs depleted their trust funds and borrowed from the federal government in order to continue paying benefits to unemployed workers. This research examines why some state UI programs experienced insolvency during the Great Recession or in its aftermath while others did not. It places special emphasis on New England, describing the key features of the region’s UI programs and examining the solvency of their trust funds over time, as well reforms enacted in these states that impact solvency. It concludes by offering policy options for strengthening UI trust fund solvency in the future. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment insurance ; Recessions ; Recessions - New England ; Unemployment insurance - New England |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedbcr:12-1&r=lab |
| By: | McKenzie, David; Theoharides, Caroline; Yang, Dean |
| Abstract: | The authors use an original panel dataset of migrant departures from the Philippines to identify the responsiveness of migrant numbers and wages to gross domestic product shocks in destination countries. They find a large significant elasticity of migrant numbers to gross domestic product shocks at destination, but no significant wage response. This is consistent with binding minimum wages for migrant labor. This result implies that labor market imperfections that make international migration attractive also make migrant flows more sensitive to global business cycles. Difference-in-differences analysis of a minimum wage change for maids confirms that minimum wages bind and demand is price sensitive without these distortions. |
| Keywords: | Labor Markets,Labor Policies,Population Policies,International Migration,Economic Theory&Research |
| Date: | 2012–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6041&r=lab |
| By: | Clémence Berson (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne - Paris School of Economics et CEE) |
| Abstract: | This paper tests the impact of competition on the hiring process in the French retail sector. Following the Becker's theory, higher the competition, lower is discrimination. Using local Herfindhal-Hirschman indexes, a correspondence study ensures to observe how competition affects discrimination. A strong employment gap is observable between French natives and second generation immigrants. Concerning gender, women are favored as cashiers. The impact of competition depends on the target population : competition reinforces preference for women, whereas discrimination due to origin is follows the Becker's theory. However, increasing competition to fight against discrimination is not a solution, as it will enhance bad condition of women in the labor market and an increase of awareness of human resources department to equality of treatment is more efficient. |
| Keywords: | Discrimination, hiring, competition. |
| JEL: | J71 C93 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:12019&r=lab |
| By: | Ran Abramitzky; Leah Platt Boustan; Katherine Eriksson |
| Abstract: | During the Age of Mass Migration, the US maintained open borders and absorbed 30 million European immigrants. Using cross-sectional data, prior work on this era finds that immigrants held lower-paid occupations than natives upon first arrival but experienced rapid convergence. In newly-assembled panel data following immigrants over time, the initial immigrant earnings penalty disappears almost entirely, and immigrants experience occupational upgrading at the same rate as natives. Cross-sectional patterns are driven by declines over time in arrival cohort quality and the departure of negatively-selected return migrants. We show that these findings vary substantially across sending countries and explore potential mechanisms. |
| JEL: | F22 J61 N31 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18011&r=lab |
| By: | Hasnain, Zahid; Manning, Nick; Pierskalla Henryk |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to provide a review of the theoretical and, in particular, empirical literature on performance-related pay in the public sector spanning the fields of public administration, psychology, economics, education, and health with the aim of distilling useful lessons for policy-makers in developing countries. This study to our knowledge is the first that aims to disaggregate the available evidence by: (i) the quality of the empirical study; (ii) the different public sector contexts, in particular the different types of public sector jobs; and (iii) geographical context (developing country or OECD settings). The paper's main findings, based on a comprehensive review of 110 studies of public sector and relevant private sector jobs are as follows. First, we find that overall a majority (65 of 110) of studies find a positive effect of performance-related pay, with higher quality empirical studies (68 of the 110) generally more positive in their findings (46 of the 68). These show that explicit performance standards linked to some form of bonus pay can improve, at times dramatically, desired service outcomes. Second, however, these more rigorous studies are overwhelmingly for jobs where the outputs or outcomes are more readily observable, such as teaching, health care, and revenue collection (66 of the 68). There is insufficient evidence, positive or negative, of the effect of performance-related pay in organizational contexts that that are similar to that of the core civil service, characterized by task complexity and the difficulty of measuring outcomes, to reach a generalized conclusion concerning such reforms. Third, while some of these studies have shown that performance-related pay can work even in the most dysfunctional bureaucracies in developing countries, there are too few cases to draw firm conclusions. Fourth, several observational studies identify problems with unintended consequences and gaming of the incentive scheme, although it is unclear whether the gaming results in an overall decline in productivity compared to the counterfactual. Finally, few studies follow up performance-related pay effects over a long period of time, leaving the possibility that the positive findings may be due to Hawthorne Effects, and that gaming behavior may increase over time as employees become more familiar with the scheme and learn to manipulate it. |
| Keywords: | Labor Policies,Educational Sciences,E-Business,Tertiary Education,Economic Theory&Research |
| Date: | 2012–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6043&r=lab |
| By: | Jaime Andrés Sarmiento Espinel (El Colegio de México; Universidad Militar Nueva Granada) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates for a sample of Mexican families a structural collective model of household labor supply with children and home production. The framework of Blundell, Chiappori, and Meghir (2005) is used to address how household allocations are affected by the intra-household decision-making process when both parents care for their children’s welfare, particularly their education. In households with characteristics equal to the average of the sample, more household resources are directed toward children’s education when the balance of bargaining power changes in favor of fathers instead of mothers. Moreover, in spite of mothers having a larger estimated marginal willingness to pay than fathers for resources associated with children’s utility, more (less) expenditures and time would be dedicated to children when fathers. bargaining power increases (decreases) exogenously. These results draw attention to the design of targeting strategies which presumes that mothers care more for children than fathers, being possible to be less effective in some cases than if it had been focused on augment fathers’power. |
| Keywords: | collective household models, children, labor supply, household production. |
| JEL: | D12 D13 J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emx:ceedoc:2012-09&r=lab |
| By: | Dusan Paredes (IDEAR - Department of Economics, Universidad Católica del Norte - Chile) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an empirical framework for analyzing the spatial wage inequality in a Latin American country: Chile. This country is mainly characterized by two stylized facts: the high spatial concentration around metropolitan areas and the key role of natural resources. We consider both elements with a competition between NEG versus amenity framework. Both theories are combined with human capital through a Multilevel Analysis. The results show the low performance of NEG for Chile and how the natural resources are a winner causal mechanism for the case. Additionally, the spatial wage variability is extremely small when it is compared with the wage variation at individual level. |
| Keywords: | Spatial wage inequality, spatial concentration, natural resources, NEG, amenity framework, wage variation at individual level |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cat:dtecon:dt201206&r=lab |
| By: | Petri, Böckerman; Mika, Maliranta |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the effects of outsourcing on employee well-being through the use of the Finnish linked employer-employee data. The direct negative effect of outsourcing is attributable to greater job destruction and worker outflow. In terms of perceived well-being, the winners in international outsourcing are those who are capable of performing interactive tasks (i.e., managers, professionals and experts), especially when offshoring involves closer connections to other developed countries. |
| Keywords: | globalization; outsourcing; offshoring; working conditions; job satisfaction; subjective well-being |
| JEL: | F23 J28 |
| Date: | 2012–04–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:38230&r=lab |
| By: | Kahanec, Martin (Central European University and IZA) |
| Abstract: | The 2004 and 2007 enlargements of the EU extended the freedom of movement to workers from the twelve new member states mainly from Central Eastern Europe. This study summarizes and comparatively evaluates what we know about mobility in an enlarged Europe to date. The pre-enlargement fears of free labor mobility proved to be unjustified. No significant detrimental effects on the receiving countries’ labor markets have been documented, nor has there been any discernible welfare shopping. Rather, there appear to have been positive effects on EU’s productivity. The sending countries face some risks of losing their young and skilled labor force, but free labor mobility has relieved them of some redundant labor and the associated fiscal burden. They have also profited from remittances. Of key importance for the sending countries is to reap the benefits from brain gain and brain circulation in an enlarged EU. For the migrants the benefits in terms of better career prospects have with little doubt exceeded any pecuniary and non-pecuniary costs of migration. In conclusion, the freedom of movement in the EU provides for a triple-win situation for the receiving and sending countries as well as for migrants themselves, provided the risks are contained and efficient brain circulation is achieved. |
| Keywords: | EU labor markets, migration, EU enlargement, labor mobility, free movement of workers, transitional arrangements, new member states, European Union |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6485&r=lab |
| By: | Lucifora, Claudio (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Origo, Federica (University of Bergamo) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the causal effect of a switch from fixed wages to collective performance-related pay on firm productivity, exploiting an exogenous variation in the institutional environment regulating collective bargaining. We find that the introduction of collective performance related pay significantly increases productivity by around 3-5 per cent, but such effect varies greatly by firm size, industry and union density. We show that the design of the PRP scheme – in terms of number and type of parameters used – is also relevant for firm productivity. |
| Keywords: | performance related pay, productivity, unions |
| JEL: | J31 J33 J52 L61 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6483&r=lab |
| By: | Prokic-Breuer, Tijana |
| Abstract: | -- |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbdds:spi2011403&r=lab |
| By: | Isabelle Chort (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris - ENS Paris - INRA, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | Comparing intentions to migrate and actual migration of Mexicans, I intend to assess the impact of unexpected shocks and misevaluated costs on the materialization of migration plans. I show that both sets of reasons may explain discrepancies between intentions and subsequent actions without denying the rationality of intentions by resorting to the theoretical framework of the Roy model. I use intention and migration data from the Mexican Family Life Survey, together with precipitations monthly series, hurricane and crime data to represent different sets of shocks. Correlations between intentions and migration on the one hand, and between intentions and individual labor market characteristics show that intentions are not devoid of informational content. Then, modelling intentions and migration with a bivariate probit, I find that shocks, and in particular rainfall and hurricanes, affect the probability to migrate conditional on initial intentions. The key finding is nonetheless the much lower propensity for women to migrate abroad conditional on intentions, which suggests that women incur specic costs or constraints misestimated at the intention stage. Alternative explanations, such as gendered preferences are discussed, but convergent empirical evidence suggest that women are more constrained than men on the international migration market. Moreover the data suggest that migrants are positively selected with respect to their unobserved characteristics whereas those with intention to migrate abroad are negatively selected. The shift in selection between the two stages of the migration process may be due to the cost reducing effect of individuals' unobserved characteristics that explain their higher local wages. Mots-clés : Migration, Roy model, migrant self-selection, subjective data, shocks, Mexico |
| Keywords: | Migration ; Roy Model ; Migrant Self-Selection ; Subjective Data ; Shocks ; Mexico |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-00689467&r=lab |
| By: | Christina Gathmann ; Björn Sass |
| Abstract: | Previous studies report a wide range of estimates for how female labor supply responds to childcare prices. We shed new light on this question using a reform that raised the prices of public daycare. Parents respond by reducing public daycare and increasing childcare at home. Parents also reduce informal childcare indicating that public daycare and informal childcare are complements. Female labor force participation declines and the response ist strongest for single parents and low-income households. The short-run effects on cognitive and non-cognitive skills are mixed, but negative for girls. Spillover effects on older siblings suggest that the policy affects the whole household, not just targeted family members. |
| Keywords: | Childcare, Labor supply, Cognitive skills, Family Policy, Germany |
| JEL: | J13 J22 J18 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp438&r=lab |