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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Stephan Humpert; Christian Pfeifer |
| Abstract: | This paper takes a labor supply perspective (neoclassical labor supply, job search) to explain the lower employment rates of older workers and women. The basic rationale is that workers choose non-employed if their reservation wages are larger than the offered wages. Whereas the offered wages depend on workers' productivity and firms' decisions, reservation wages are largely determined by workers' endowments and preferences for leisure. To shed some empirical light on this issue, we use German survey data to analyze age and gender differences in reservation and entry wages, preferred and actual working hours, and satisfaction with leisure and work. |
| Keywords: | Age, family gap, gender, job search, labor supply, reservation wages |
| JEL: | J14 J22 J64 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp449&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Haefke; Marcus Sonntag; Thijs van Rens |
| Abstract: | Recent research in macroeconomics emphasizes the role of wage rigidity in ac- counting for the volatility of unemployment fluctuations. We use worker-level data from the CPS to measure the sensitivity of wages of newly hired workers to changes in aggregate labor market conditions. The wage of new hires, unlike the aggregate wage, is volatile and responds almost one-to-one to changes in labor productivity. We conclude that there is little evidence for wage stickiness in the data. We also show, however, that a little wage rigidity goes a long way in amplifying the response of job creation to productivity shocks. |
| Keywords: | wage rigidity, search and matching model, business cycle |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J31 J41 J64 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:629&r=lab |
| By: | MORIKAWA Masayuki |
| Abstract: | In advanced countries, including Japan, the number of workers with postgraduate qualifications is increasing. These highly-skilled workers are important contributors to innovation. This paper, using published data from the Employment Status Survey, estimates standard wage functions to investigate the effects of postgraduate qualifications on productivity and the rate of return on postgraduate education. According to the analysis, wage premium for postgraduates relative to undergraduates is about 20% in Japan, which is comparable to the figures found in the United States and the United Kingdom. The premium is larger for female employees. Wage reduction after age 60 is smaller, and retirement age is higher for workers with postgraduate education. Under the trend toward advanced technology and the growing demand for human capital, postgraduate education is becoming important to vitalize the Japanese economy. At the same time, expansion of postgraduate education may contribute to narrowing the wage gap between male and female and increasing labor force participation of elderly people. |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:11072&r=lab |
| By: | Leena Rudanko (Department of Economics, Boston University, and NBER); Per Krusell (Stockholm University, CEPR, and NBER) |
| Abstract: | We analyze a labor market with search and matching frictions where wage setting is controlled by a monopoly union. We take a benevolent view of the union in assuming it to care equally about employed and unemployed workers and we assume, moreover, that it is fully rational, thus taking job creation into account when making its wage demands. Under these assumptions, if the union is also able to fully commit to future wages it generates an efficient level of long-run unemployment. However, in the short run, it uses its market power to collect surpluses from firms with existing matches by raising current wages above the efficient level. These elements give rise to a time inconsistency. Without commitment, and in a Markov-perfect equilibrium, not only is unemployment well above its efficient level, but the union wage also exhibits endogenous real stickiness which amplifies the responses of vacancy creation and unemployment to shocks. We consider extensions to partial unionization and collective bargaining between a labor union and an employers’ association. |
| Keywords: | Labor unions, frictional labor markets, time-inconsistency |
| JEL: | E02 E24 J51 J64 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:wpaper:wp2012-014&r=lab |
| By: | Stefania Marcassa (THEMA, Universite de Cergy-Pontoise) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the conditional probability of leaving unemployment of French married individuals from 1991 to 2002. We nd that the eect of spousal labor income on unemployment duration is asymmetric for men and women. In particular, the probability of men to nd a job is increasing in wife labor income, while it is decreasing in husband's earnings for women. To adjust for endogenous selection into marriage, we use the occupation of the fathers in-law as an instrumental variable for the spousal wage. Finally, we show that introducing a breadwinner stigma in a joint job search model generates the positive correlation observed for men in the data. |
| Keywords: | unemployment duration, hazard models, labor income, marriage, joint search theory |
| JEL: | J12 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2012-31&r=lab |
| By: | Baert, Stijn (Ghent University); Cockx, Bart (Ghent University); Verhaest, Dieter (Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates whether young unemployed graduates who accept a job below their level of education accelerate or delay the transition into a job that matches their level of education. We adopt the Timing of Events approach to identify this dynamic treatment effect using monthly calendar data from a representative sample of Flemish (Belgian) youth who started searching for a job right after leaving formal education. We find that overeducation is a trap. This trap is especially important early in the unemployment spell. Our results are robust across various specifications and for two overeducation measures. |
| Keywords: | dynamic treatment, duration analysis, school-to-work transitions, underemployment, overqualification |
| JEL: | C21 C41 I21 J24 J64 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6562&r=lab |
| By: | Nicola Branson (SALDRU, School of Economics, University of Cape Town); Julia Garlick; David Lam; Murray Leibbrandt (SALDRU, School of Economics, University of Cape Town) |
| Abstract: | Following the international literature, income inequality decompositions on data from contemporary South Africa show that the labour market is the key driver of overall household inequality. In order to understand one of the channels driving this labour market inequality, we use national household survey data to review changing returns to education in the South African labour market over the last 15 years; with a focus on both the returns to getting employment as well as the earnings returns for those that have employment. We show that South Africa has experienced a skills twist with the returns to matric and post-secondary education rising and the returns to levels of education below this remaining constant. Then, based on a regression based decomposition of earnings inequality, we show how this has impacted earnings inequality. Indeed, the increase in returns to post-secondary education has directly counteracted the equalising gains that have been made by increased educational attainment, resulting in consistent levels of inequality over time. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ldr:wpaper:75&r=lab |
| By: | Pascal Michaillat |
| Abstract: | This article is based on a paper that models unemployment as the result of matching frictions and job rationing. Job rationing is a shortage of jobs arising naturally in an economic equilibrium from the combination of some wage rigidity and diminishing marginal returns to labor. During recessions, job rationing is acute, driving the rise in unemployment, whereas matching frictions contribute little to unemployment. Intuitively, in recessions jobs are lacking, the labor market is slack, recruiting is easy and inexpensive, so matching frictions do not matter much. In a calibrated model, cyclical fluctuations in the composition of unemployment are quantitatively large. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, matching frictions, job rationing |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J64 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:365&r=lab |
| By: | Jaap Dronkers (Maastricht University); Rolf van der Velden (Maastricht University); Allison Dunne (GHK Consulting Ltd) |
| Abstract: | The main research question of this paper is the combined estimation of the effects of educational systems, school composition, track level, and country of origin on the educational achievement of 15-year-old migrant students. We focus specifically on the effects of socioeconomic and ethnic background on achievement scores and the extent to which these effects are affected by characteristics of the school, track, or educational system in which these students are enrolled. In doing so, we examine the ‘sorting’ mechanisms of schools and tracks in highly stratified, moderately stratified, and comprehensive education systems. We use data from the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) wave. Compared with previous research in this area, the paper’s main contribution is that we explicitly include the tracks-within-school level as a separate unit of analyses, which leads to less biased results concerning the effects of educational system characteristics. The results highlight the importance of including factors of track level and school composition in the debate surrounding educational inequality of opportunity for students in different education contexts. The findings clearly indicate that the effects of educational system characteristics are flawed if the analysis only uses a country- and a student level and ignores the tracks-within-school level characteristics. From a policy perspective, the most important finding is that educational systems are neither uniformly ‘good’ nor ‘bad’, but they can result in different consequences for different migrant groups. Some migrant groups are better off in comprehensive systems, while others are better off in moderately stratified systems. |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1215&r=lab |
| By: | Aysýt Tansel (Middle East Technical University); Elif Öznur Kan (Cankaya University) |
| Abstract: | In this study, we examine the formal/informal sector earnings differentials in the Turkish labor market using detailed econometric methodologies and a novel panel data set drawn from the 2006-2009 Income and Living Conditions Survey (SILC). In particular, we test if there is evidence of traditional segmented labor markets theory which postulates that informal workers are typically subject to lower remuneration than similar workers in the formal sector. Estimation of standard Mincer earnings equations at the mean using OLS on a pooled sample of workers confirms the existence of an informal penalty, but also shows that almost half of this penalty can be explained by observable variables. Along wage/self-employment divide, our results are in line with the traditional theory that formal-salaried workers are paid significantly higher than their informal counterparts. Confirming the heterogeneity within informal employment, we find that self-employed are often subject to lower remuneration compared to those who are salaried. Moreover, using quantile regression estimations, we show that pay differentials are not uniform along the earnings distribution. More specifically, we find that informal penalty decreases with the earnings level, implying a heterogeneous informal sector with upper-tier jobs carrying a significant premium and lower-tier jobs being largely penalized. Finally, fixed effects estimation of the earnings gap depict that unobserved individual fixed effects when combined with controls for observable individual and employment characteristics explain the pay differentials between formal and informal employment entirely, thereby implying that formal/informal segmentation may not be a stylized fact of the Turkish labor market as previously thought. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tek:wpaper:2012/23&r=lab |
| By: | Diette, Timothy M. (Washington and Lee University); Uwaifo Oyelere, Ruth (Georgia Tech) |
| Abstract: | The influx of immigrants has shifted the ethnic composition of public schools in many states. Given the perceived negative impact of significant immigrant inflows, we are interested in investigating if these inflows into a school affect the academic performance of native students who remain. To address this question, we analyze education data from North Carolina, a state that has experienced a significant immigrant influx in the last two decades. We focus on the share of the English Language Learners in the student population for students between fourth and eighth grade over the period from 1999 to 2006 and the potential effects of the presence of these students on the level of achievement in math and reading for native students. Our analysis suggests some evidence of immigrant peer effects though the effects are heterogeneous. Specifically, we find some evidence of positive effects among those in the middle and bottom portions of the achievement distribution while we find small negative effects at the top of the distribution. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, student achievement, peer effects, education |
| JEL: | I20 I21 J15 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6561&r=lab |
| By: | R Freguglia; G Spricigo; Geraint Johnes; 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:4444&r=lab |
| By: | Huffman, Sonya Kostova; Rizov, Marian |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the impacts of weight, measured by body mass index (BMI), on employment, wages, and missed work due to illness for Russian adults by gender using recent panel data (1994-2005) from the nationally representative Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS). We employ econometric techniques to control for unobserved heterogeneity and potential biases due to endogeneity in BMI. The results show an inverted U-shaped effect of BMI on probability of employment for men and women. We did not find evidence of wage penalty for higher BMI. In fact, the wages for overweigh men are higher. However, having a BMI above 28.3 increases the number of days missing work due to health problems for men. Overall, we find negative effects of obesity on employment only for women but not on wages. During the transition in Russia, the increasingly competitive pressure in the labour market combined with economic insecurity faced by the population has lead to a muted impact of an individual’s weight on labour market outcomes. |
| Keywords: | BMI, obesity, labour market outcomes, Russia, Health Economics and Policy, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae12:123539&r=lab |
| By: | Simone N. Tuor Sartore (University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration); Uschi Backes-Gellner (University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | Drawing on an unusually large set of employer-employee data, we examine how workers’ pay is related to the educational composition within their occupational group. We find that educational composition as measured by the educational diversity and the educational level of an occupational group is positively related to its workers’ pay within that group. In addition, our findings suggest that the educational level moderates the positive effect of educational diversity, i.e. that pay increases related to diversity are higher in occupational groups with higher levels of education. We also discuss implications for management practice and possible further theoretical developments. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge spillovers, educational diversity, pay, work groups |
| JEL: | I21 J24 J31 L20 M52 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0078&r=lab |
| By: | Hanel, Barbara (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research); Kalb, Guyonne (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research); Scott, Anthony (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research) |
| Abstract: | Many countries face a continuing shortage in nurses' labour supply. Previous research suggests that nurses respond only weakly to changes in wages. We estimate a multi-sector model of nursing qualification holders' labour supply in different occupations. A structural approach allows us to model the labour force participation decision, the occupational and shift-type choice, and the decision about hours worked as a joint outcome following from maximizing a utility function. Disutility from work is allowed to vary by occupation and also by shift type in the utility function. Furthermore, we allow the preference parameters in the utility function to vary by certain family characteristics and personality. Our results suggest that average wage elasticities might be higher than previous research has found. This is mainly due to the effect of wages on the decision to enter or exit the profession, which was not included in the previous literature, rather than from its effect on increased working hours for those who already work in the profession. We find that the negative labour supply elasticities with respect to income are higher for nurses with children, while the positive elasticities with respect to wages are higher for low-qualified, older and childless nurses. Elasticities do not appear to vary by personality trait. |
| Keywords: | nursing, labour supply, shift work, wage elasticities |
| JEL: | J22 J24 I10 I11 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6573&r=lab |
| By: | Sákovics, József |
| Abstract: | We model a market for highly skilled workers, such as the academic job market. The outputs of firm-worker matches are heterogeneous and common knowledge. Wage setting is synchronous with search: firms simultaneously make one personalized o¤er each to the worker of their choice. With large frictions (delay costs), efficient coordination is not possible, but for small frictions efficient matching with Diamond-type monopsony wages is an equilibrium. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:edn:sirdps:285&r=lab |
| By: | L.G. Deidda; Dimitri Paolini |
| Abstract: | We model a competitive labor market populated by workers who are heterogeneous in wealth and skills, in which education plays a signaling role. We show that whenever the accumulation of factors of production such has technology results in a wider wage premium for skills over time – as it might happen under skill biased technological progress – the investment in education needed to sustain a talent separating equilibrium, in which skilled workers are able to perfectly signal their skills, also increases. Hence, increases in the wage skill premium induce an education race as skilled individuals try and invest more to signal themselves. However, if due to imperfect capital markets, the borrowing capacity of poor individuals is lower than that of rich ones, such race will eventually come to an end as poor and skilled individuals are no longer able to finance the amount of investment needed to signal their talent, and end up pooled together with unskilled and rich at a lower level of education. Hence, the behavior of the long run supply of skills with respect to an increase in the wage-skill premium is sluggish. Such mechanism supports a supply side explanation –which complements the skill bias technological change hypothesis – for the long run trends of (i) The wage-skill differentials and (ii) The relative supply of postgraduates and college graduates in the US labor market. |
| Keywords: | Signaling; Wage-skill premium; supply of skills |
| JEL: | D8 D4 L15 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:201206&r=lab |
| By: | Benndorf, Volker; Rau, Holger A. |
| Abstract: | We analyze competition between workers in a gift-exchange experiment where two workers are hired by the same employer. In the competition treatment the two employees simultaneously choose their effort whereas in the baseline treatment competition cannot occur since there is only one employee per employer. We find that in the competition treatment employers implicitly set tournament incentives by rewarding employees who choose higher effort levels than their co-workers. Here, employees' effort levels increase significantly faster, which can be explained by imitation learning. Furthermore we find that employers decrease their wage payments per unit of effort exerted over time when employing two workers. -- |
| Keywords: | Gift Exchange,Competition,Internal Organization,Multiple Employees |
| JEL: | C91 J41 L22 M52 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:dicedp:53&r=lab |
| By: | Kandpal, Eeshani; Baylis, Katherine R.; Arends-Kuenning, Mary |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that participation in a community-level female empowerment program in India significantly increases access to employment, physical mobility, and political participation. The program provides support groups, literacy camps, adult education classes, and vocational training. We use truncation-corrected matching and instrumental variables on primary data to disentangle the program's mechanisms, separately considering its effect on women who work, and those who do not work but whose reservation wage is increased by participation. We also find significant spillover effects on non-participants relative to women in untreated districts. Using instrumental variables and matching, we find consistent estimates for average treatment and intent to treat effects. |
| Keywords: | Consumer/Household Economics, International Development, |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea12:123705&r=lab |
| By: | Anabela Carneiro (Universidade do Porto and CEF.UP); José Varejão (Universidade do Porto and CEF.UP) |
| Abstract: | We consider the determinants of the evolution of wage inequality in the context of the literature on entry and exit of establishments. Using several measures of wage inequality (overall, within-group, and between-groups), we conclude that shutdowns reduce overall and within-group inequality because they eliminate low-pay jobs. Startups increase wage inequality between age and, especially, education groups, because newly-created establishments make staffing choices that are different from those made by continuously-operating establishments and establishments that shut down. |
| Keywords: | Wage Inequality; Labor Demand; Establishment Turnover. |
| JEL: | J23 J31 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:cetedp:1202&r=lab |
| By: | Kazianga, Harounan (Oklahoma State University); Levy, Dan (Harvard Kennedy School); Linden, Leigh L. (University of Texas at Austin); Sloan, Matt (Mathematica Policy Research) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the causal effects of a program that constructed high quality "girl-friendly" primary schools in Burkina Faso, using a regression discontinuity design 2.5 years after the program started. We find that the program increased enrollment of all children between the ages of 5 and 12 by 20 percentage points and increased their test scores by 0.45 standard deviations. The change in test scores for those children caused to attend school by the program is 2.2 standard deviations. We also find that the program was particularly effective for girls, increasing their enrollment rate by 5 percentage points more than boys', although this did not translate into a differential effect on test scores. Disentangling the effects of school access from the unique characteristics of the new schools, we find that the unique characteristics were responsible for a 13 percentage point increase in enrollment and 0.35 standard deviations in test scores, while simply providing a school increased enrollment by 26.5 percentage points and test scores by 0.323 standard deviations. The unique characteristics of the school account for the entire difference in the treatment effect by gender. |
| Keywords: | Africa, education, gender inequality, enrollment |
| JEL: | I24 I25 I28 O15 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6574&r=lab |
| By: | José I. Silva (Universitat de Girona); Javier Vázquez-Grenno (Universitat de Barcelona & IEB) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to shed some light on the dynamics of the Spanish labor market, using data from the Spanish Labor Force Survey for the period 1987 to 2010. We examine transition rates in a three-state model and compare our results with those reported for the UK and the US. Explicitly introducing the employment duality present in the Spanish labor market, we study labor market dynamics in a four-state model set-up. We also analyze the behavior of these rates within two sub-periods of recession and a further two sub-periods of boom. We provide evidence of the cyclicality of the transition rates using unconditional and conditional correlations. Finally, we compute the contribution of the different transitions to unemployment rate volatility. Our over-all conclusion points out that the employment duality is the key to understand the unemployment volatility and the functioning of the Spanish labor market. |
| Keywords: | Job finding rate, job separation rate, unemployment |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J6 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:2012/5/doc2012-17&r=lab |
| By: | A Aggarwal; R Freguglia; Geraint Johnes; 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:4445&r=lab |
| By: | Silva, José I. (Campus de Montilivi, 17071 Girona, Spain); Vázquez-Grenno, Javier (Av. Diagonal 690, 08034 Barcelona, Spain) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to shed some light on the dynamics of the Spanish labor market, using data from the Spanish Labor Force Survey for the period 1987 to 2010. We examine transition rates in a three-state model and compare our results with those re- ported for the UK and the US. Explicitly introducing the employment duality present in the Spanish labor market, we study labor market dynamics in a four-state model set-up. We also analyze the behavior of these rates within two sub-periods of recession and a further two sub-periods of boom. We provide evidence of the cyclicality of the transition rates using unconditional and conditional correlations. Finally, we compute the contribution of the dierent transitions to unemployment rate volatility. Our over- all conclusion points out that the employment duality is the key to understand the unemployment volatility and the functioning of the Spanish labor market. |
| Keywords: | job finding rate; job separation rate; unemployment |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J60 |
| Date: | 2012–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uulswp:2012_012&r=lab |
| By: | Kang, Lili; Peng, Fei |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the intrahousehold resource allocation on children’s education and its earnings consequence in Chinese labour market. In order to overcome the endogeneity problem of schooling, we consider the siblings structure and the available public facilities as instrumental variables. Females’ education is negatively affected by siblings (brothers or sisters) number, while males’ education is also negatively affected by their brothers but much less by their sisters. For the youngest cohort born after 1980, the education of a girl would be heavily impeded by her sisters, reflecting strong distortion of “One-Child Policy” on intrahousehold resource allocation. Comparing the OLS and GIV estimations for returns to schooling, we find that there are downwards biases of OLS estimations for males in all cohorts and in all years. However, for females, downwards biases of OLS estimation are only for data before 2004, as females in the old cohorts actually have upwards biases after 2004. Education returns of the youngest cohort are much higher than old cohorts supporting the argument of heterogeneous human capital accumulation during transition. |
| Keywords: | Siblings; education returns; China |
| JEL: | J13 J31 J16 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:38922&r=lab |
| By: | Abel Brodeur (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); Marie Connolly (CIRPEE - Centre interuniversitaire sur le risque, les politiques économiques et l'emploi - Centre Interuniversitaire sur le Risque, les Politiques Economiques et l'Emploi, Université du Québec - Université du Québec - Université du Québec) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate the effect of a change in childcare subsidies on parental subjective well-being. Starting in 1997, the Canadian province of Québec implemented a generous program providing $5-a-day childcare to children under the age of 5. By 2007, the percentage of children attending subsidized day care had tripled and mothers' labor force participation had increased substantially. Objectively, more labor force participation is seen as a positive improvement, bringing with it higher income, independence and bargaining power. Yet a decrease in women's subjective well-being over previous decades has been documented, perhaps due to a Second Shift effect where women work more but still bear the brunt of housework and childrearing (Hochschild and Machung, 1989). Using data from the Canadian General Social Survey, we estimate a triple-differences model using differences pre- and post- reforms between Québec and the rest of Canada and between parents with young children and those with older children. Our estimates suggest that Québec's family policies led to a small decrease in parents' subjective well-being. Of note, though, we find large and positive effects for poor household families and high school graduates and negative effects for middle household income families. We find similar negative effects on life satisfaction for both men and women, but different effects on satisfaction with work-life balance. This suggests that fathers' life satisfaction could be influenced by their wives' labor supply while their work-life balance is not. |
| Keywords: | Childcare ; Labor Supply ; Subjective Well-being ; Life Satisfaction ; Happiness ; Work-life Balance |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-00699671&r=lab |
| By: | Lundborg, Petter (Lund University); Nilsson, Anton (Lund University); Rooth, Dan-Olof (Linnaeus University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we exploit the Swedish compulsory schooling reform in order to estimate the causal effect of parental education on son's outcomes. We use data from the Swedish enlistment register on the entire population of males and focus on outcomes such as cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills, and various dimensions of health at the age of 18. We find significant and positive effects of maternal education on sons' skills and health status. Although the reform had equally strong effects on father's education as on mother's education, we find little evidence that paternal education improves son's outcomes. |
| Keywords: | education, cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills, health, causality, schooling reforms |
| JEL: | I12 I28 J13 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6570&r=lab |
| By: | Chzhen, Yekaterina (University of Oxford); Mumford, Karen A. (University of York); Nicodemo, Catia (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | We use quantile regression and counterfactual decomposition methods to explore gender gaps across the earning distribution for full-time employees in the Australian private sector. Significant evidence of a self selection effect for women into full-time employment (or of components of self selection related to observable or unobservable characteristics) is, interestingly, not found to be relevant in the Australian context. Substantial gender earnings gaps (and glass ceilings) are established, with these earnings gaps found to be predominantly related to women receiving lower returns to their observable characteristics than men. |
| Keywords: | gender, earnings, selection, quantile distribution |
| JEL: | J3 J7 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6558&r=lab |
| By: | Charlotte Geay; Sandra McNally; Shqiponja Telhaj |
| Abstract: | In recent years there has been an increase in the number of children going to school in England who do not speak English as a first language. We investigate whether this has an impact on the educational outcomes of native English speakers at the end of primary school. We show that the negative correlation observed in the raw data is mainly an artefact of selection: non-native speakers are more likely to attend school with disadvantaged native speakers. We attempt to identify a causal impact of changes in the percentage of non-native speakers within the year group. In general, our results suggest zero effect and rule out negative effects. |
| Keywords: | primary school education, UK, educational attainment, curriculum, immigration, language |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:368&r=lab |
| By: | Brindusa Anghel; Antonio Cabrales; Jesús M. Carro |
| Abstract: | We evaluate a program that introduced bilingual education in English and Spanish in primary education in some public schools of the Madrid region in 2004. Under this program students not only study English as a foreign language but also some subjects (at least Science, History and Geography) are taught in English. Spanish and Mathematics are taught only in Spanish. The first class receiving full treatment finished Primary education in June 2010 and they took the standardized test for all 6th grade students in Madrid on the skills considered "indispensable" at that age. This test is our measure of the outcome of primary education to evaluate the program. We have to face a double self-selection problem. One is caused by schools who decide to apply for the program, and a second one caused by students when choosing school. We take several routes to control for these selection problems. The main route to control for self-selected schools is to take advantage of the test being conducted in the same schools before and after the program was implemented in 6th grade. To control for students self-selection we combine the use of several observable characteristics (like parents' education and occupation) with the fact that most students were already enrolled at the different schools before the program was announced. Our results indicate that there is a clear negative effect on learning the subject taught in English for children whose parents have less than upper secondary education, and no clear effect for anyone on mathematical and reading skills, which were taught in Spanish. |
| Keywords: | Bilingual education, Program evaluation, Teaching in English |
| JEL: | H40 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:we1214&r=lab |
| By: | Mine Hancioglu; Bastian Hartmann |
| Abstract: | To explore single mothers' labor market participation we analyze specific circumstances and dynamics in their life courses. We focus on the question which individual and institutional factors determine both professional advancement and professional descent. Due to dynamics in women's life course identifying and analyzing restrictions and interruptions of employment requires a longitudinal research design. The German Socio-Economic Panel (1984-2009) provides all necessary information identifying episodes of single motherhood and employment during life courses. Since family statuses of single mothers are partially endogenous and can end in multiple ways, we use semi-parametric survival models. Competing risks estimations offer a detailed view by analyzing single mothers' transition from not being employed to full-time or part-time work and vice versa simultaneously. Estimates show that occupational careers of single mothers are influenced by both individual factors and institutional circumstances. Whereas specific problems occur shortly after becoming a single mother, these problems seem to be dealt with over time. Enhancing labor market participation or maintaining full-time employment as a single mother can be achieved when certain challenges are met such as appointed and reliable working hours. Single mothers that do not have to rely on public childcare arrangements, but are capable of finding individual solutions are more likely to balance work and family life. Among institutional determinants welfare benefits have a negative effect on the market labor participation of women in low-paid jobs. |
| Keywords: | Single mothers, labor supply, event history analysis, Cox-regression |
| JEL: | C14 C23 J12 J13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp446&r=lab |
| By: | Eric Delattre; Jean-Baptiste Combès; Bob Elliott; Diane Skatun (THEMA, Universite de Cergy-Pontoise; Health Economics Research Unit, University of Aberdeen; Health Economics Research Unit, University of Aberdeen; Health Economics Research Unit, University of Aberdeen) |
| Abstract: | Research has shown that where nurses’ wages are regulated but wages in other sectors are not this results in spatial variations in the competitiveness of nurses pay and that in England these are correlated with spatial differences in nurses’ labour supply. In France there is general regulation of wages and public hospitals compete with the private hospital and non hospital sectors for nurses. We construct and employ a unique dataset on nurses pay and the characteristics of hospitals in France. We undertake the first study of the impact of spatial wage differentials on nursing supply to French public hospitals. We show that nurse assistants’ labour supply is sensitive to spatial wage differentials, the more competitive their pay the smaller the shortage of nurse assistants, and that registered nurses and nurse assistants labour supply are interdependent, the greater the supply of nurse assistants the greater the supply of registered nurses. |
| Keywords: | Wage regulation, local pay, standardised spatial wage differentials, nursing shortage, nursing labour supply |
| JEL: | I12 I18 J31 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2012-35&r=lab |
| By: | Chinhui Juhn; Gergely Ujhelyi; Carolina Villegas-Sanchez |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of trade liberalization on an under-explored aspect of wage inequality – gender inequality. We consider a model where firms differ in their productivity and workers are differentiated by skill as well as gender. A reduction in tariffs induces more productive firms to modernize their technology and enter the export market. New technologies involve computerized production processes and lower the need for physically demanding skills. As a result, the relative wage and employment of women improves in blue-collar tasks, but not in white-collar tasks. We test our model using a panel of establishment level data from Mexico exploiting tariff reductions associated with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Consistent with our theory we find that tariff reductions caused new firms to enter the export market, update their technology and replace male blue-collar workers with female blue-collar workers. |
| JEL: | F1 J2 J31 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18106&r=lab |
| By: | Uschi Backes-Gellner (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich); Yvonne Oswald (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of financial incentives on student performance and analyzes for the first time how the incentive effect in education is moderated by students’ risk and time preferences. To examine this interaction we use a natural experiment that we combine with data from surveys and economic experiments on risk and time preferences. We not only find that students who are offered financial incentives for better grades have on average better first- and second-year grade point averages, but more importantly, we find that highly impatient students respond more strongly to financial incentives than less impatient students. This finding suggests that financial incentives are most effective if they solve educational problems of myopic students. |
| Keywords: | Student performance; Financial incentive; Time preference; Risk preference |
| JEL: | I20 C91 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0079&r=lab |
| By: | Busch, Anne (DIW Berlin); Holst, Elke (DIW Berlin) |
| Abstract: | The paper analyzes the gender pay gap in private-sector management positions based on German panel data and using fixed-effects models. It deals with the effect of occupational sex segregation on wages, and the extent to which wage penalties for managers in predominantly female occupations are moderated by firm size. Drawing on economic and organizational approaches and the devaluation of women's work, we find wage penalties for female occupations in management only in large firms. This indicates a pronounced devaluation of female occupations, which might be due to the longer existence, stronger formalization, or more established "old-boy networks" of large firms. |
| Keywords: | gender pay gap, managerial positions, occupational sex segregation, gendered organization, firm size |
| JEL: | B54 J16 J24 J31 J71 L2 M51 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6568&r=lab |
| By: | Karsten Marshall Elseth Rieck and Kjetil Telle (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | Using registry data on every employed Norwegian woman giving birth to her first child during the period 1995–2008, we describe patterns of certified and paid sick leave before, during and after pregnancy. By following the same women over time, we can explore how observed sick leave patterns are – or are not – related to the women’s exiting (or reentering) employment. The results show that sick leave increases abruptly in the month of conception, and continues to grow throughout the term of pregnancy. Sick leave during pregnancy has been rising substantially compared with pre-pregnancy levels over the period 1995–2008, but this increase seems unrelated to women’s growing age at first birth. In line with hypotheses of women’s “double burden”, observed sick leave rates increase in the years after birth. However, when we handle some obvious selection issues – like sick leave during a succeeding pregnancy – the increase in women’s sick leave in the years after birth dissolves. Overall, we find little, if any, sign of the relevance of “double burden” hypotheses in explaining the excessive sick leave of women compared with men. |
| Keywords: | sick leave; pregnancy; female employment; double burden. |
| JEL: | C23 H55 I18 J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:690&r=lab |
| By: | Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano; Giovanni Peri; Greg C. Wright |
| Abstract: | How do offshoring and immigration affect the employment of native workers? What kinds of jobs suffer, or benefit, most from the competition created by offshore and immigrant workers? In contrast to the existing literature that has mostly looked at the effects of offshoring and immigration separately, we argue that one can gain useful insights by jointly investigating the interactions among native, immigrant and offshore workers. We develop our argument in three steps. First, we present some new facts on 58 U.S. manufacturing industries from 2000 to 2007. Second, we build on Grossman and Rossi-Hansberg (2008) to design a model of task assignment among heterogeneous native, immigrant and offshore workers that fits those facts. Third, we use the model to draw systematic predictions about the effects of immigration and offshoring on native workers and we test these predictions on the data. We find that, within the manufacturing sector, immigrants do not compete much with natives, as these two groups of workers are relatively specialized in tasks at opposite ends of the skill intensity spectrum. Offshore workers, on the other hand, seem to be specialized in tasks of intermediate skill intensity. We also find that offshoring has no effect on native employment in the aggregate, while the effect of immigration on native employment is positive. This hints at the presence of a "productivity effect" whereby offshoring and immigration improve industry efficiency, thereby creating new jobs. |
| Keywords: | Employment, production tasks, immigrants, offshoring |
| JEL: | F22 F23 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1147&r=lab |
| By: | Kadir Atalay and Garry F. Barrett |
| Abstract: | Identifying the effect of the financial incentives created by social security systems on the retirement behaviour of individuals requires exogenous variation in program parameters. In this paper we study the 1993 Australian Age Pension reform which increased the eligibility age for women to access the social security benefit. We find economically significant responses to the increase in the Age Pension eligibility age. An increase in the eligibility age of 1 year induced a decline in retirement probability by approximately 10 percent. In addition, we find that the social security reform induced significant "program substitution." The rise in the Age Pension eligibility age had an unintended consequence of increasing enrolment in other social insurance programs, particularly the Disability Support Pension, which functioned as an alternative source for funding retirement. |
| Keywords: | Retirement, age pension, program substitution |
| JEL: | D91 I38 J26 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:sedapp:295&r=lab |
| By: | Fingleton, Bernard; Longhi, Simonetta |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates individual wage equations in order to test two rival non-nested theories of economic agglomeration, namely New Economic Geography (NEG), as represented by the NEG wage equation and urban economic (UE) theory , in which wages relate to employment density. The paper makes an original contribution by evidently being the first empirical paper to examine the issue of agglomeration processes associated with contemporary theory working with micro-level data, highlighting the role of gender and other individual-level characteristics. For male respondents, there is no significant evidence that wage levels are an outcome of the mechanisms suggested by NEG or UE theory, but this is not the case for female respondents. We speculate on the reasons for the gender difference. |
| Keywords: | urban economics, new economic geography, household panel data, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:edn:sirdps:276&r=lab |
| By: | Montagna, Catia; Nocco, Antonella |
| Abstract: | We study how unionisation affects competitive selection between heterogeneous fi rms when wage negotiations can occur at the fi rm or at the profi t-centre level. With productivity speci c wages, an increase in union power has: (i) a selection-softening; (ii) a counter-competitive; (iii) a wage-inequality; and (iv) a variety effect. In a two-country asymmetric setting, stronger unions soften competition for domestic firms and toughen it for exporters. With profit-centre bargaining, we show how trade liberalisation can affect wage inequality among identical workers both across firms (via its effects on competitive selection) and within firms (via wage discrimination across destination markets). |
| Keywords: | firm selection, unionisation, wage inequality, trade liberalisation, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:edn:sirdps:282&r=lab |
| By: | Graevenitz, Georg von; Weber, Richard |
| Abstract: | Entrepreneurship education has two purposes: To improve students’ entrepreneurial skills and to provide impetus to those suited to entrepreneurship while discouraging the rest. While entrepreneurship education helps students to make a vocational decision its effects may conflict for those not suited to entrepreneurship. This study shows that vocational and the skill formation effects of entrepreneurship education can be identified empirically by drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior. This is embedded in a structural equation model which we estimate and test using a robust 2SLS estimator. We find that the attitudinal factors posited by the Theory of Planned Behavior are positively correlated with students’ entrepreneurial intentions. While conflicting effects of vocational and skill directed course content are observed in some individuals, overall these types of content are complements. This finding contradicts previous results in the literature. We reconcile the conflicting findings and discuss implications for the design of entrepreneurship courses. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship education; entrepreneurial intention; theory of planned behavior; structural equation models; two stage least squares. |
| JEL: | L11 L13 O34 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:msmdpa:12440&r=lab |
| By: | Roxana Maurizio |
| Abstract: | Abstract Analysis of labour informality is very relevant in Latin America. More than half of all workers in the region are employed in informal activities, mainly as ownaccount workers or wage earners in small enterprises. A similar percentage of people work in jobs not registered in the social security system. The aim of this paper is to analyse two important aspects related to informality from a comparative point of view. The first is the association of informality, labour precariousness and income segmentation. The second is the relationship between informality and poverty. In order to conduct this study, four countries were selected – Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru – whose informal sectors and informal employment are significantly different from each other. Data used in this paper come from household surveys with the most recent available information. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bwp:bwppap:16512&r=lab |
| By: | Chen, Yu-Fu; Zoeg, Gylfi |
| Abstract: | It has been observed that university professors sometimes become less research active in their later years. This paper models the decision to become inactive as a utility maximising problem under conditions of uncertainty and derives an age-dependent activity condition for the level of research productivity. The model implies that professors who are close to retirement age are more likely to become inactive when faced with setbacks in their research while those who continue research do not lower their activity levels. Using data from the University of Iceland, we find support for the model’s predictions. The model suggests that universities should induce their older faculty to remain research active by striving to make their research more productive and enjoyable, maintaining peer pressure, reducing job security and offering higher performance related pay. |
| Keywords: | Inactivity, aging, optimal stopping, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:edn:sirdps:268&r=lab |
| By: | Paul Maarek (THEMA, Universite de Cergy-Pontoise) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to understand the pattern of the labor share of income during the devel- opment process. We highlight a U-shapped relationship between development and the labor share. Our theory emphasizes the interplay between rms'monopsony power and the size of the informal sector when the formal labor market has frictions. The size of the informal sector parameterizes workers'outside opportunities in wage setting. In the rst stage of development, productivity gains are not compensated by wage increases, as most of workers'outside opportunities depend on the in- formal sector whose productivity remains unchanged. The labor share decreases as a result. In the second stage of development, outside opportunities rely more on productivity in formal rms as the formal sector expands. Consequently, the labor share increases. We then use a policy experiment, namely capital account liberalization episodes, in order to determine the causal impact of economic development on the labor share. |
| Keywords: | Development ; Informal sector ; Labor share ; Matching frictions |
| JEL: | E25 J42 O17 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2012-34&r=lab |
| By: | Chiara Criscuolo; Ralf Martin; Henry Overman; John Van Reenen |
| Abstract: | Business support policies designed to raise productivity and employment are common worldwide, but rigorous micro-econometric evaluation of their causal effects is rare. We exploit multiple changes in the area-specific eligibility criteria for a major program to support manufacturing jobs ("Regional Selective Assistance"). Area eligibility is governed by pan-European state aid rules which change every seven years and we use these rule changes to construct instrumental variables for program participation. We match two decades of UK panel data on the population of firms to all program participants. IV estimates find positive program treatment effect on employment, investment and net entry but not on TFP. OLS underestimates program effects because the policy targets underperforming plants and areas. The treatment effect is confined to smaller firms with no effect for larger firms (e.g. over 150 employees). We also find the policy raises area level manufacturing employment mainly through significantly reducing unemployment. The positive program effect is not due to substitution between plants in the same area or between eligible and ineligible areas nearby. We estimate that "cost per job" of the program was only $6,300 suggesting that in some respects investment subsidies can be cost effective. |
| Keywords: | industrial policy, regional policy, employment, investment, productivity |
| JEL: | H25 L52 L53 O47 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:370&r=lab |
| By: | James J. Heckman; Junjian Yi |
| Abstract: | China’s rapid growth was fueled by substantial physical capital investments applied to a large stock of medium skilled labor acquired before economic reforms began. As development proceeded, the demand for high skilled labor has grown, and, in the past decade, China has made substantial investments in producing it. The egalitarian access to medium skilled education characteristic of the pre-reform era has given rise to substantial inequality in access to higher levels of education. China’s growth will be fostered by expanding access to all levels of education, reducing impediments to labor mobility, and expanding the private sector. |
| JEL: | I25 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18100&r=lab |
| By: | Espey, Molly |
| Abstract: | While critical thinking may be difficult to define, development of critical thinking skills is a principle goal of education, particularly higher education. It is vital that college graduates can question assumptions, synthesize information, evaluate evidence, draw inferences, and make reasoned arguments. Critical thinking skills do not improve without practice; effective teaching methods engage students with course material and each other, challenging them to think through issues and problems relevant to the real world. Engagement or problem solving alone, however, does not guarantee improved critical thinking. This study evaluates the impact of one alternative teaching method, team-based learning, on students’ perceptions of the development of critical thinking skills. |
| Keywords: | Economic Education, Economics, Education, Pedagogical, Pedagogy, Teaching, Teaching of Economics, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, A200, A220, |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea12:123521&r=lab |
| By: | Justine Burns; Malcolm Keswell (SALDRU, School of Economics, University of Cape Town) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the changes in the educational attainment of three successive generations in South Africa: grandparents, parents and children. Many of the results accord with widely known facts, such as the educational penalty faced by individuals who are African or who live in rural areas or in female-headed households. Similarly, the larger impact of mothers education on child outcomes relative to fathers education accords with previous work, although it is interesting that this gender difference is only sizeable and significant for relationships between the second and third generation. Key findings in this paper include the fact that persistence has increased with subsequent generations. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ldr:wpaper:71&r=lab |
| By: | Hugh G. Mosley |
| Abstract: | The Accountability in Decentralised Employment Service Regimes report, prepared by independent expert Hugh Mosely, compares and contrasts four OECD countries with decentralised delivery systems for managing active labour market policy (Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark). This report contextualises the findings of the OECD LEED "Managing Accountability and Flexibility" study in current academic discussions relating to new performance management and accountability. |
| Date: | 2012–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:cfeaaa:2012/10-en&r=lab |
| By: | Giulia Faggio; Olmo Silva |
| Abstract: | Research on entrepreneurship often uses information on self-employment to proxy for business creation and innovative behaviour. However, little evidence has been collected on the link between these measures. In this paper, we use data from the UK Labour Force Survey (LFS) combined with data from the Business Structure Database (BSD), and the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) to study the relation between self-employment, business creation and innovation. In order to do so, we aggregate individual and firm-level data at the Travel-to-Work Area (TTWA) and investigate how the incidence of self-employment correlates with the density of business start-ups and innovative firms. Our results show that in urban areas a higher incidence of self-employment positively and strongly correlates with more business creation and innovation, but this is not true for rural areas. Further analysis suggests that this urban/rural divide is related to lack of employment opportunities in rural areas, which might push some workers into self-employment as a last resort option. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, self-employment, spatial distribution |
| JEL: | L26 J21 R12 R23 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0109&r=lab |
| By: | Abo-Zaid, Salem |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I study the monthly net job creation (NJC) at the aggregate level in the U.S. over the period 1950-2011. The paper has few important findings. First, NJC did not show a significant trend over the last 6 decades, which resulted in a fall in the NJC rate. Second, NJC is very volatile and it may change course even in the span of one month. Third, there is no clear pattern about the co-movement between NJC and the change in the unemployment rate in the U.S. Fourth, the average of total NJC and private NJC since late 2010 are significantly higher than their respective historical averages and the volatility in NJC since the end of the Great Recession is not unusual by historical standards. Fifth, the size of NJC in the first decade of the 21st century has been the lowest along the entire sample. Finally, the most frequent drop in the unemployment rate is by 0.1 percent, and drops of more than 0.2 percent should not be highly expected. |
| Keywords: | U.S. Net Job Creation; U.S. Unemployment Rate; U.S. Labor Force; The Great Recession |
| JEL: | E24 J60 J21 |
| Date: | 2012–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:39084&r=lab |
| By: | Crilly, Niamh; Pentecost, Anne; Tol, Richard S. J. |
| Abstract: | When in employment, after-tax income must be spent on childcare, required clothing and transport for example. These additional costs must be taken into account when analysing the motivation to work as not to do so could underestimate the incentives to take-up paid employment. Using data from the Irish Household Budget Survey, this paper takes a two-stage logit model and Hausman selection model to control for selection effects to estimate the additional costs an employed CES faces compared to an unemployed CES. The main finding is that the additional costs of working are highly significant at nearly ?7000 per year without children; increasing to nearly ?9000 per year with one child under the age of five. These substantial additional costs seriously hamper work incentives as it is shown that there is a 25-fold increase (without young children) in the number of individuals who have a higher income when unemployed than when in employment with the inclusion of these additional costs of working. |
| Keywords: | costs of working/work incentives |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp436&r=lab |
| By: | Noel, Jay E.; Qenani, Eivis |
| Abstract: | The goal of this study was to improve the current understanding of labor market demands for various skills and attributes of college graduates. Changes such as globalization, technological advancements and the emergence of the knowledge economy have caused educational institutions to focus their attention in revising and redesigning their curriculum. The timely identification and the effective response to these changes requires that higher education revisits the issue of the set of skills essential to the economy and the labor market, and the best ways to transfer them to college graduates. A choice-based conjoint experiment was used to identify labor market preferences for college graduate attributes. A web survey with employers in the food and fiber industry was carried out during the months of September 2011-April 2012. Using an experimental design, hypothetical candidate profiles were created and used in an interactive conjoint survey. Hierarchical Bayesian method was used to estimate marginal utilities for college graduate attributes. Results of the study indicate that there has been a shift in the needs for skills in the labor market. New skills, such as creativity are emerging as important attributes to the knowledge economy. |
| Keywords: | Graduate Skills, Creativity, Hierarchical Bayesian, Conjoint Analysis, Agribusiness, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Labor and Human Capital, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea12:123947&r=lab |
| By: | Caterina Calsamiglia; Antonio Miralles |
| Abstract: | When school choice is implemented it is often implied that parents' preferences will a ffect the school their children attend. The matching literature in school choice shows how the design of the norms that govern the allocation process can have different desirable properties but that no unique mechanism has them all. The literature has ignored a crucial aspect in this process, which is the importance of the priorities that the administration give for the different schools in determining the final allocation. We show that if all individuals agree on what the worse schools are, the two most debated mechanisms, the Boston mechanism and the Gale Shapley (DA), will provide an allocation that fully corresponds to those priorities independently of families' listed preferences. Top Trading Cycles, a third proposal presented in the literature but not implemented yet, improves upon the allocation determined by priorities and therefore is the only responding to parents' preferences. Another interpretation of the results is that if the authorities have some preferences over where families should go to school they can implement them fully through setting priorities accordingly and choosing the Boston or DA mechanisms, which are the two most commonly used mechanisms. |
| Keywords: | priorities, school choice |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:631&r=lab |
| By: | Paz, Lourenco |
| Abstract: | The literature concerning the effect of tariffs on the inter-industry wage premium has not addressed the role of total factor productivity (TFP) in determining both the wage premium and tariffs. This omission invalidates the use of the pre-reform tariff level as an instrument for the change in tariffs. Based on an analysis of Colombian data, I find that including TFP in the estimated model of the effects of tariffs on the wage premium leads to a 36% decrease in the effect of tariffs on the inter-industry wage premium relative to the model that omits TFP. More specifically, a ten percentage point decrease in tariffs reduces the wage premium by 1.1%. This finding suggests the importance of using policies that boost productivity to offset the effect of tariffs on the wage premium. |
| Keywords: | inter-industry wage premium; trade liberalization; productivity; Colombia |
| JEL: | F16 J3 O15 |
| Date: | 2012–01–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:39024&r=lab |
| By: | Holter, Hans A (Uppsala Center for Fiscal Studies); Chakraborty, Indraneel (Southern Methodist University); Stepanchuk, Serhiy (Magyar Nemzeti Bank) |
| Abstract: | Americans work more than Europeans. Using micro data from the U.S. and 17 European countries, we study the contributions from demographic subgroups to these aggregate level dierences. We document that women are typically the largest contributors to the discrepancy in work hours. We also document a negative empirical correlation between hours worked and dierent measures of taxation, driven by men, and a positive correlation between hours worked and divorce rates, driven by women. Motivated by these observations, we develop a life-cycle model with heterogeneous agents, marriage and divorce and use it to study the impact of two mechanisms on labor supply: (i) dierences in marriage stability and (ii) dierences in tax systems. We calibrate the model to U.S. data and study how labor supply in the U.S. changes as we introduce European tax systems, and as we replace the U.S. divorce and marriage rates with their European equivalents. We nd that the divorce and tax mechanisms combined explain 58% of the variation in labor supply between the U.S. and the European countries in our sample. |
| Keywords: | Aggregate Labor Supply; Taxation; Marriage; Divorce; Heterogeneous Households |
| JEL: | E24 E62 H24 H31 J21 J22 |
| Date: | 2012–05–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uufswp:2012_007&r=lab |
| By: | M. Bigoni; G. Camera; M. Casari |
| Abstract: | We study individual behavior of students and workers in an experiment where they repeatedly faced with the same cooperative task. The data show that clerical workers differ from college students in overall cooperation rates, strategies adopted, and use of punishment opportunities. Students cooperate more than workers, and cooperation increases in both subject pools when a personal punishment option is available. Students are less likely than workers to adopt strategies of unconditional defection and more likely to select strategies of conditional cooperation. Finally, students are more likely than workers to sanction uncooperative behavior with decentralized punishment and also personal punishment when available. |
| JEL: | C90 C70 D80 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp828&r=lab |
| By: | Jordi GalÃ; Frank Smets; Rafael Wouters |
| Abstract: | An analysis of the performance of GDP, employment and other labor market variables following the troughs in postwar U.S. business cycles points to much slower recoveries in the three most recent episodes, but does not reveal any significant change over time in the relation between GDP and employment. This leads us to characterize the last three episodes as slow recoveries, as opposed to jobless recoveries. We use the estimated New Keynesian model in GalÃ-Smets-Wouters (2011) to provide a structural interpretation for the slower recoveries since the early nineties. |
| Keywords: | jobless recoveries, U.S. business cycle, estimated DSGE models, Okun's law |
| JEL: | E32 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:630&r=lab |
| By: | Fagernäs, Sonja (University of Sussex); Pelkonen, Panu (University of Sussex) |
| Abstract: | With a sample of 700 future public sector primary teachers in India, a Discrete Choice Experiment is used to measure job preferences, particularly regarding location. General skills are also tested. Urban origin teachers and women are more averse to remote locations than rural origin teachers and men respectively. The joint analysis of preferences and skills suggests that existing caste and gender quotas are detrimental for the objective of hiring skilled teachers willing to work in remote locations. The most preferred location is home, which supports decentralised hiring, although evidence suggests that in remote areas this could compromise skills. |
| Keywords: | discrete choice experiment, teacher recruitment, job preferences, hiring quotas, skills, India |
| JEL: | I25 J33 J45 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6563&r=lab |
| By: | Steve Gibbons; Sandra McNally; Martina Viarengo |
| Abstract: | This research paper is motivated by a long tail at the bottom of the educational distribution, educational inequality between those from high and low socio-economic groups and the question as to what role an increase in school resources has in changing all this. The issue about whether investing more money in schools is effective has long been controversial in the academic literature. It is also a controversial policy issue in this time of public expenditure cuts and reforms to educational finance. With regard to the latter, the Pupil Premium is an important new policy introduced this year - and this paper is useful for considering the potential effects. |
| Keywords: | education, government policy, pupil premium, education funding, inequality |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:367&r=lab |
| By: | Malcolm Keswell; Sarah Girdwood; Murray Leibbrandt |
| Abstract: | We analyse the role of educational opportunity in shaping inequality in the distribution of occupations in the long-run. We start by modelling the probability that a child occupies the same or a different rung on the occupational ladder as her parents controlling for both the educational attainment of the child, as well as the level of educational opportunity of the child. These conditional probabilities are then used to construct separate transition matrices by level of educational opportunity, race and gender, which in turn are used to the compute the steady-state distribution of occupations. Finally, we use the timing of political events in the history of the struggle to end Apartheid to devise an identification strategy that permits a causal interpretation of the role of educational opportunity. We find evidence that educational opportunity has a strong conditioning effect on the distribution of occupations in steady state. In particular, African female children who inherit the same level of educational opportunity as their parents are 9% more likely to be in the bottom of the occupation distribution in steady-state, than the observed rate for the population at large, whereas they would face a 4% lower probability if they were exposed to better educational opportunities. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ldr:wpaper:73&r=lab |
| By: | Capogrossi, Kristen; You, Wen |
| Abstract: | The School Breakfast Program (SBP) and National School Lunch Program (NSLP) are two federally assisted school meal programs that currently serve over 31.7 million children each day. Most of the existing literature examines the nutritional quality of school meals with a handful studying the impacts on child weight. A couple of studies also examine whether SBP has impacts on academic performance, and, to our knowledge, no studies examine the direct or indirect effects of NSLP participation on performance. Using full-information maximum likelihood, we simultaneously estimate the child weight and academic performance production functions along with child choice equations and program participation equations to examine potential spillover effects of SBP and NSLP on academic performance through the mediator of child weight. Results do show spillover effects on 8th grade math and English scores with particularly large impacts on FRP eligible participants: negative impacts of NSLP participation and positive impacts of SBP participation on achievement. |
| Keywords: | child weight, academic achievement, school meal programs, structural equation models, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea12:123836&r=lab |
| By: | Joël MACHADO (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to assess the effects of an immigration amnesty on agents' welfare by using a simple two-period overlapping generations model. Given that illegal immigrants play a role in the economy even before being regularized, an amnesty differs from new immigration. In the presence of labor market discrimination, capital holders are harmed as the acquisition of legal status increases the wage bill that they pay. The net fiscal effect strongly depends on the discrimination that illegal workers face ex ante. A calibration of the model on Germany and the United Kingdom highlights overall limited economic consequences of amnesty which can be contrasted to the effects of deportation and new legal immigration. In particular, when public welfare expenditures are low, amnesty and new immigration can increase native's welfare in the long run while deportation might harm less-educated agents. |
| Keywords: | illegal immigration, amnesty, regularization, discrimination |
| JEL: | F29 J61 J79 |
| Date: | 2012–05–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2012010&r=lab |
| By: | Pfau, Wade Donald; Kariastanto, Bayu |
| Abstract: | This article simulates the savings rates required to meet retirement income goals in the worst-case scenario from overlapping historical periods for savers in 19 developed market countries. In the baseline, workers save for 30 years to replace 50 percent of their pre-retirement net income with subsequent inflation adjustments over a 30-year retirement. Public pension benefits would be added to this. The worst-case scenario saving rates ranged across the countries from 16.3 percent to 74.3 percent. Americans enjoyed the best worst-case savings scenario, and a broader international perspective suggests more caution may be needed when formulating retirement planning guidance. |
| Keywords: | safe saving rate; retirement planning; historical simulation; developed countries |
| JEL: | G11 C15 D14 |
| Date: | 2012–05–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:39066&r=lab |
| By: | Garry F. Barrett and Milica Kecmanovic |
| Abstract: | Does retirement represent a state of relative prosperity or a time of unanticipated economic hardship? To assess whether individuals are successful in smoothing their well-being across the transition to retirement we analyse measures of relative subjective wellbeing (SWB) in the Australian HILDA Survey. Specifically, this research examines individual's self-reported change in their standard of living, financial security, and overall happiness over the transition to retirement. It is found SWB either improves or remains constant for the large majority of individuals as they retire from the labour force. However, there are significant disparities in changes in well-being with retirement among retirees. In particular, the subset of individuals who are forced to retire early due to job loss or their own health, and who find their income in retirement to be much less than expected, report marked declines in their well-being in retirement. |
| Keywords: | Retirement, subjective well-being, welfare, income expectations |
| JEL: | D91 I31 J26 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:sedapp:296&r=lab |
| By: | Tubeuf, Sandy; Jusot, Florence; Bricard, Damien |
| Abstract: | The paper focuses on the long-term effects of early-life conditions with comparison to lifestyles and educational attainment on health status in a cohort of British people born in 1958. Using the longitudinal follow-up data at age 23, 33, 42 and 46, we build a dynamic model to investigate the influence of each determinant on health and the mediating role of education and lifestyles in the relationship between early-life conditions and later health. Direct and indirect effects of early-life conditions on adult health are explored using auxiliary linear regressions of education and lifestyles and panel Probit specifications of self-assessed health with random effects addressing individual unexplained heterogeneity. Our study shows that early-life conditions are important parameters for adult health accounting for almost 20% of explained health inequality when mediating effects are identified. The contribution of lifestyles reduces from 32% down to 25% when indirect effects of early-life conditions and education are distinguished. Noticeably, the absence of father at the time of birth and experience of financial hardships represent the lead factors for direct effects on health. The absence of obesity at 16 influences health both directly and indirectly working through lifestyles. |
| Keywords: | Cohort; early-life conditions; education; lifestyles; random effects; |
| JEL: | I12 D63 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:dauphi:urn:hdl:123456789/9292&r=lab |
| By: | Lynn McDonald; Peter Donahue |
| Abstract: | In this paper we raise the question, as to whether retirement is lost as we currently know it in Canada. Here we look at the retirement research according to the scope of retirement and the new retirement, possible theoretical developments, the timing of transitions into retirement and life as a retiree including the quality of pensions. On the basis of this selected review we propose that retirement is undergoing modifications based on several trends that commenced before the 2008 economic downturn. The data would appear to lean towards the emergence of a different retirement, insofar as the collective Canadian vision of retirement is lost, notwithstanding the economic meltdown in global markets. |
| Keywords: | Retirement, pension shift, retirement planning, work and retirement, pension policy, retirement theory, retirement and the life course |
| JEL: | Z10 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:sedapp:291&r=lab |
| By: | Kluve, Jochen (Humboldt University Berlin, RWI); Rinne, Ulf (IZA); Uhlendorff, Arne (University of Mannheim); Zhao, Zhong (Renmin University of China) |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the importance of reverse causality when evaluating the impact of training duration for unemployed workers. We use planned duration as an instrumental variable for actual duration. Our results suggest that the potential endogeneity of exits seems to be only relevant in the lower and upper part of the treatment duration distribution. |
| Keywords: | treatment duration, local average treatment effect, dropouts |
| JEL: | C21 C26 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6565&r=lab |
| By: | Andrew Carrothers; Seungjin Han; Jiaping Qiu |
| Abstract: | This paper develops an equilibrium matching model for a competitive CEO market in which CEOs’ wage and perks are both endogenously determined by bargaining between firms and CEOs. In stable matching equilibrium, firm size, wage, perks and talent are all positively related. Perks are more sensitive than wage to changes in firm size if there are economies of scale in the cost of providing perks. Productivity-related perks provide common value by increasing both the CEO’s productivity and utility while non productivity-related perks provide private value by increasing the CEO’s utility only. The more perks enhance the CEO’s productivity, the faster perks increase in firm size. We test the predictions of the model using information on CEO wage and perks for S&P 500 companies and find consistent empirical evidence. |
| Keywords: | matching, perks, executive compensation, private benefits |
| JEL: | C78 J33 G30 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:deptwp:2012-05&r=lab |
| By: | Subhani, Dr. Muhammad Imtiaz |
| Abstract: | Today's workplace is diverseand constantly altering. The conventional employer/employee relationship of past has been turned upside down. Employees are living in a diverse and growing economy and have almost unlimited job opportunities but they face the bad times of recession too. The overall work environment and global economy are rapidly changing that leaves no space for definite forecasting. These factors have created an environment where the business is in need of its employees more and not the employees in need of job opportunities. For this reason, managers at workplace face several ethical issues; sexual harassment is one of the majors. This paper examines the relationships between survey-based reports of sexual harassment at work places and its impact on job performance. The findings of this paper revealed that sexual harassment is the most rated violence in organizations. The findings further revealed that gestures of sexual nature of opposite sex are associated with sexually offensive comments, invitation of dates and sexual involvements. |
| Keywords: | Workplace; Sexual harassment; Sexual aggression; Offensive comments; Job performance |
| JEL: | O1 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:39103&r=lab |
| By: | Marco Bertoni; Giorgio Brunello; Lorenzo Rocco |
| Abstract: | Using a natural experiment designed by the Italian national test administrator (INVALSI) to monitor test procedures in Italian primary schools, this paper shows that the presence of an external examiner who monitors test procedures has both a direct and an indirect effect on the measured performance of monitored classes and schools. The direct effect is the difference in the test performance between classes of the same school with and without external examiners. The indirect effect is instead the difference in performance between un-monitored classes in a school with an external examiner and un-monitored classes in schools without external monitoring. We find that having an external examiner in the class reduces the proportion of correct answers by 5.5 to 8.6 percent compared to classes in schools with no external monitor, and by 1.2 to 1.9 percent compared to un-monitored classes of the same school. The size of the overall effect of external supervision varies significantly across regions and it is highest in Southern Italy. |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpr:wpaper:0845&r=lab |
| By: | Yuki, Kazuhiro |
| Abstract: | In the post-WWII era, most developing economies had decent economic growth, but, with current growth trends, the great majority of them are unlikely to transform into developed economies in near future. In these economies, the dual economic structure, the coexistence of the modern/formal sector and the traditional/informal sector, is persistent. The educational level of the population increased greatly, but the growth of the skill level, especially when measured by the share of high-skill workers, is relatively modest. Wage inequality between workers with basic skills and with advanced skills rose over time, while the inequality between workers with and without basic skills fell greatly. In order to understand these facts, this paper develops a dynamic dual-economy model and examines how the long-run outcome of the economy depends on the initial distribution of wealth and sectoral productivity. It is shown that, for fast transformation into a developed economy, the initial distribution must be such that extreme poverty is not prevalent and the size of ”middle class” is enough. If the former is satisfied but the latter is not, which would be the case for many developing economies falling into ”middle income trap”, the fraction of workers with basic skills and the share of the modern sector rise, but inequality between workers with advanced skills and with basic skills worsens and the traditional sector remains, consistent with the above-mentioned facts. |
| Keywords: | dual economy; modernization; education; wealth distribution |
| JEL: | J31 O17 O15 |
| Date: | 2012–05–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:39062&r=lab |
| By: | KWON Hyeog Ug; YoungGak KIM; MAKINO Tatsuji |
| Abstract: | Using establishment-level data from the Basic Survey of Human Resources Development for 2006, we estimate both the determinants and the impact of training. In the probit analysis, we find that larger firms /establishments and more productive firms have a higher probability of providing training, even when controlling for industry dummies. Furthermore, we find that on-the-job training (OJT) with respect to full-time workers has a positive influence on the labor productivity of establishment. |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:12013&r=lab |
| By: | Hiroya Kawashima (Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically analyzes the impact of labor market conditions and poverty on crime using the prefectural panel data for each five years from 1980 to 2000. When estimating these relations, it is often the case that endogeneity causes biased estimator. Therefore panel data and Instrumental Variable method are used to consider endogeneity. The results indicate that labor market conditions do not have significant impact on crime rate; however, increase in poverty rate leads to higher crime rate. |
| Keywords: | crime, labor markets, poverty, police, empirical analysis |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osp:wpaper:12j007&r=lab |
| By: | Ishdorj, Ariun; Crepinsek, Mary Kay; Jensen, Helen H. |
| Abstract: | Considering most children spend a majority of their weekdays at school and, on average, obtain more than one-third of their daily caloric intake from meals consumed at school during the school year, school is a natural place to implement nutrition policies that would help develop healthy eating habits and improve health and well-being of children. At the same time, local school meal policies may influence what foods are offered and how the foods are prepared. In this regard, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) two school meal programs can play an important role in children’s diets and food habit formation and thus positively influence children’s health. The focus of our research is children’s intakes of fruits and vegetables by location of consumption. We include intake of the fruits and vegetables at school and at home and evaluate whether the school meal intake substitutes or supplements intake at home. We use data from the third School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study (SNDA-III), and estimate jointly the student’s latent consumption of target foods (fruits and vegetables) by location of consumption and the student’s endogenous decision to participate in the school meal program. We find demographic effects influence consumption, and although school food policies examined had little effect on participation in the school meal program, some school policies do affect fruits and vegetables consumption. There is evidence that increased exposure to fruits and vegetables in school will positively affect home consumption. |
| Keywords: | Food Assistance, Fruits and Vegetables, School Meals, Endogeneity, Censoring, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, C11, C34, C36, |
| Date: | 2012–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaeafe:123534&r=lab |
| By: | Mumtaz, Haroon (Bank of England); Zanetti, Francesco (Bank of England) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the dynamic response of labour input to neutral technology shocks. It uses a standard real business cycle model enriched with labour market search and matching frictions and investment-specific technological progress that enables a new, agnostic, identification scheme based on sign restrictions on an SVAR. The estimation supports an increase of labour input in response to neutral technology shocks. This finding is robust across different perturbations of the SVAR model. The model is extended to allow for time-varying volatility of shocks and the identification scheme is used to investigate the importance of neutral and investment-specific technology shocks to explain the reduced volatility of US macroeconomic variables over the past two decades. Neutral technology shocks are found to be more important than investment-specific technology shocks. |
| Date: | 2012–05–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boe:boeewp:0453&r=lab |
| By: | Jordan SIEGEL; KODAMA Naomi |
| Abstract: | We address a gap in prior literature on female managerial representation and corporate performance. Prior evidence linking increases in female managerial representation to corporate performance has been surprisingly mixed, due in part to data limitations and methodological difficulties. Using panel data from Japan, we are able to address several of these prior challenges. With the help of a nationally representative sample of Japanese firms covering the 2000s, we find that increases in the female executive ratio, employing at least one female executive, and employing at least one female section chief are associated with increases in corporate profitability in the manufacturing sector. Employing a female executive appears particularly helpful to corporate performance for the Japanese affiliates of North American multinationals. The results are robust to controlling for time effects and company fixed effects and the time-varying use of temporary and part-time employees. Part of the competitive benefit to employing female managers is shown to come from compensation savings, in line with Becker's economic theory of discrimination. |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:11073&r=lab |
| By: | Abo-Zaid, Salem |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the optimality of labor tax smoothing in a simple model with credit frictions. Firms’ borrowing to pay their wage payments in advance is constrained by the value of their collateral at the beginning of the period. The labor tax and the shadow value on the credit constraint lead to a (static) wedge between the marginal product of labor and the marginal rate of substitution between labor and consumption. This paper suggests that while the notion of “wedge smoothing” is carried over to this environment, it is achieved only through a volatile labor-income tax rate. As the shadow value on the financing constraint varies over the business cycle, tax volatility is needed in order to counteract this variation and thus allow for “wedge smoothing”. In particular, the optimal labor-income tax rate is lower when the credit market is more tightened and higher when the credit market is less tightened. Therefore, when firms are more credit-constrained and the demand for labor is reduced, optimal fiscal policy calls for boosting labor supply by lowering the labor-income tax rate. |
| Keywords: | Labor tax smoothing; Credit frictions; Borrowing constraints |
| JEL: | E62 H21 E44 |
| Date: | 2012–05–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:39083&r=lab |
| By: | Salamon, Petra; Weible, Daniela; Buergelt, Doreen; Christoph, Inken B.; Peter, Guenter |
| Abstract: | A German federal research was established to analyse determinants on school milk demand. Among those, individual factors, like children’s eating habits, attitudes, preferences and socio-economic variables were considered but also contextual factors like attitudes and habits of class teachers and school variables were regarded; and more, price effects on demand were derived via a price experiment. As girls order significantly less school milk than boys this paper aims to analysis gender-specific decisions. In the analysis, a database is used in which individual order information are merged with survey results concerning pupils, parents, class teachers, school principals and school milk managers of the sampled schools. A multilevel analysis is applied, because included explanatory variables of gender-specific school milk orders can be assigned to different groups (individual, class, school, price phase) in which the independence of variable distributions may be hampered; whereas equations are established as ordinary logistic function. Estimates for both genders comprise individual factors affecting positively the school milk orders like e.g., the provision of school milk free of charge, or when pupils think that `milk tastes good´ and contextual factors such as their class teachers’ involvement. Gender-specific distinctions cover e.g., the fact that male pupils have a higher probability to order school milk and react to price incentives. Concerning the context variables, boys react to teachers and principal attitudes. In contrast, with girls prices have a very limited impact, but their parents and teachers are regarded as role models. Girls prefer more choices in product differentiation. These results indicate gender-specific programs integrating their family and teachers, and a wider range of product choices. |
| Keywords: | gender differences, multilevel analysis, school milk, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaeafe:123532&r=lab |
| By: | Brian Bell; John Van Reenen |
| Abstract: | Does it matter whether you work for a successful company? And if so, does it matter who you are? To answer these questions we construct a unique panel dataset covering the pay of all CEOs, senior managers and a fully representative sample of workers for a large group of publicly-listed companies covering just under 90% of the market capitalization of the UK stock market. We show that senior management appear to have pay that is strongly associated with various measures of firm performance (such as shareholder returns and quasi-rents), while workers' pay is only weakly associated with such measures. A 10% increase in firm value is associated with an increase of 3% in CEO pay but only 0.2% in average workers' pay. Falls in firm performance are also followed by CEO pay cuts and significantly more CEO firings. This is essentially a result of the responsiveness of flexible pay to performance and only senior executives have a large enough share of pay in bonuses to generate a sizeable overall effect on pay. External control matters for pay - firms with lower levels of institutional ownership have smaller pay-performance elasticities for CEOs and do not cut their pay when performance is poor. |
| Keywords: | CEO, performance pay, executive pay, firms, management |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:373&r=lab |
| By: | James Ted McDonald; Casey Warman; Christopher Worswick |
| Abstract: | We analyze the process of immigrant selection and occupational outcomes of International Medical Graduates (IMGs) in the US and Canada. The IMG relicensing model of Kugler and Sauer (2005) is extended to incorporate two different approaches to immigrant selection: employer nomination systems and point systems. Consistent with the predictions of our model, we find that, in Canada where a point system has been in place, IMGs are less likely to be employed as physicians than are IMGs in the US, where employer nomination is a more important entry path for IMGs. |
| Keywords: | Physicians, immigration, occupation, skills, human capital |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J61 J62 J71 J80 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:sedapp:293&r=lab |