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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Ronald Bachmann; Marion König; Sandra Schaffner |
| Abstract: | Using a linked employer-employee data set on the German construction industry, we analyse the effects of the introduction of minimum wages in this sector on labour market dynamics. In doing so, we focus on accessions and separations, as well as the underlying labour market flows, at the establishment level. The fact that minimum wages in Germany are sector-specific enables us to use other industries as control groups within a difference-in-differences framework. We find that both accessions and separations rise in East Germany as a result of the minimum wage introduction. The evidence on detailed worker flows suggests that this is mainly due to increased recalls. Furthermore, the minimum wage introduction lowered job-to-job transitions in East Germany, which can be explained by a more compressed wage distribution making on-the-job search less worthwhile. No clear effects on labour market dynamics in West Germany arise. |
| Keywords: | Minimum wage; labour market flows; difference-in-differences; linked employer-employee |
| JEL: | J23 J38 J42 J63 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0358&r=lab |
| By: | Picot, Garnett<br/> Hou, Feng |
| Abstract: | This paper examines differences in postsecondary-participation rates between students with and without immigrant backgrounds in Switzerland and Canada. For both countries, a rich set of longitudinal data, including family background, family aspirations regarding postsecondary education, and students' secondary-school performance as measured by Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores, are used to explain these differences. Two groups are analyzed: all 15-year-old students; and all low-performing 15-year-old secondary-school students. |
| Keywords: | Ethnic diversity and immigration, Children and youth, Education, training and learning, Education, Immigrant children and youth, Education, training and skills, Outcomes of education |
| Date: | 2012–07–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2012344e&r=lab |
| By: | M. GAINI (Crest-Insee); A. LEDUC (Insee); A. VICARD (Insee) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of the business cycle on school-leaving decisions in France for the period 1983-2009. Business cycle effects are twofold. On the one hand, bad economic conditions reduce the opportunity cost of schooling and may induce higher school participation. On the other hand, it could entail a loss of income for families which may bear no more the cost of their children's education. Using the French Labor Force Surveys, we estimate the effects of current and past unemployment rates on school leaving decisions. We find that some students postpone their entry into the labor market during an economic crisis. Younger students and students from lower social background at a given age are slightly more likely to delay their entry in the labor market. These effects are statistically significant but weak. Our results suggest that most students have an education target level or that only few of them are able to anticipate or postpone their entry to mitigate the effects of the business cycle. |
| Keywords: | Business cycle, Endogeneous labour market entry, Initial labour market conditions |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crs:wpdeee:g2012-04&r=lab |
| By: | Stefan Staubli; Josef Zweimüller |
| Abstract: | Two pension reforms in Austria increased the early retirement age from 60 to 62 for men and from 55 to 58.25 for women. The reforms reduced early retirement by 18.9 percentage points among affected men aged 60-62 and by 22.3 percentage points among affected women aged 55-58.25. The associated increase in employment was merely 6.8 percentage points among men and 10.1 percentage points among women. The reforms had large spillover effects to the unemployment insurance program but negligible effects on disability insurance claims. Specifically, unemployment increased by roughly 10 percentage points both among men and women. Spillover effects had substantial fiscal implications. Absent spillover effects, the reduction of net government expenditures would have amounted to 264 million Euros per year. Due to higher unemployment insurance claims and associated foregone income tax revenues the actual reduction was only 148 million Euros. High-wage and healthy workers carried the bulk of the fall in net government expenditures. Low-wage and less healthy workers generated much less government savings as they either continue to retire early via disability pensions or bridge the gap to regular retirement by drawing unemployment benefits. |
| Keywords: | Retirement age, policy reform, labor supply, disability, unemployment |
| JEL: | J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:nrnwps:2012_06&r=lab |
| By: | Anat Bracha; Uri Gneezy |
| Abstract: | The authors use a labor supply; relative pay; experimental economics laboratory experiment to examine the impact of relative wages on labor supply. They test the hypothesis that, ceteris paribus, making a given wage high (low) relative to other wage levels will lead to an increase (decrease) in labor supply. They find that labor supply does respond significantly to relative pay, and in the expected direction. However, when a strong enough reason is given for the relative low pay, this difference disappears. |
| Keywords: | Labor supply ; Wages |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedbwp:12-6&r=lab |
| By: | Jesper Bagger (Royal Holloway College, UK); Rune Vejlin (Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University, Denmark); Kenneth L. Sørensen (Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University, Denmark) |
| Abstract: | Using a population-wide Danish Matched Employer-Employee panel from 1980-2006, we document a strong trend towards more positive assortative wage sorting. The correlation between worker and firm fixed effects estimated from a log wage regression increases from -0.07 in 1981 to .14 in 2001. The nonstationary wage sorting pattern is not due to compositional changes in the labor market, primarily occurs among high wage workers, and comprises 41 percent of the increase in the standard deviation of log real wages between 1980 and 2006. We show that the wage sorting trend is associated with worker reallocation via voluntary quits. |
| Keywords: | Matched Employer-Employee Data, Firmfixed effects, Worker fixed effects, Wage sorting, Wage inequality, Voluntary quits. |
| JEL: | J30 J31 J62 |
| Date: | 2012–08–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2012-17&r=lab |
| By: | Bruno, Giovanni S. F. (Bocconi University); Caroleo, Floro Ernesto (University of Naples, Parthenope); Dessy, Orietta (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study labor market transitions out of temporary jobs in Italy focussing on an interesting period of the Italian recent history: the one immediately following the last labor market reform aimed at flexibilizing and liberalizing the Italian labor market by a widespread use of temporary work arrangements in 2003, and immediately preceding the economic downturn starting in the second half of 2007. The data-set used is the 2004-2007 IT-SILC individual panel. We apply a discrete-time duration analysis and estimate a competing-risk model for assessing to which extent, and for whom, starting a temporary job after 2004 results within a 3-years span in a stepping stone to permanent employment rather than a dead end out of the labor market or in precarious jobs. We find that temporary contracts have a positive impact only on men's transitions to permanent employment. School leavers, workers in the South, as well as women, are instead rather penalized after a temporary job. They have an higher probability to remain trapped in temporary contracts than men and an higher probability of exiting the labour market. In particular, school leavers entering the labour market with a temporary contract experience relatively high exit-rates to non-employment just after the first year of the contract. |
| Keywords: | mixed multinomial logit, discrete duration data, temporary jobs |
| JEL: | J24 C41 C33 C35 J6 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6746&r=lab |
| By: | Guillermo Cruces (CEDLAS-UNLP, CONICET and IZA); Carolina García Domench (CEDLAS-UNLP); Leonardo Gasparini (CEDLAS-UNLP) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides original empirical evidence on the evolution of education inequality for all Latin American countries over the decades of 1990 and 2000. The analysis covers a wide range of issues on differences in educational outcomes and opportunities across the population, including inequality in years of education, gaps in school enrollment, wage skill differentials and public social expenditure. The evidence indicates a significant difference between the 1990s and the 2000s in terms of both the assessment of the equity of the education expansion and its impact on the income distribution. In particular, the changes in the 2000s seem to have had a full equalizing impact on earnings given the more pro-poor pattern of the education upgrading and a more stable or even increasing relative demand for low skill labor. |
| Keywords: | education, inequality, enrollment, wage premium, Latin America |
| JEL: | I24 I25 I28 O15 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0135&r=lab |
| By: | M. GAINI (Crest-Insee); A. LEDUC (Insee); A. VICARD (Insee) |
| Abstract: | The late 2000s recession has hit youth very hard, lowering the employment and wage prospects of the entrants into the labour market. In this paper, we address the question of the persistence of these adverse shocks faced by young people who enter into the labour market during an economic downturn, focusing on the French case. Using the French Labour Force Surveys for the cohorts entering the labour market between 1982 and 2009 (which includes more than two entire business cycles), we find no long term effect on wage or employment of having entered the labour market during an economic crisis. "Unlucky" young people completing their studies during a recession have lower employment rates, are more often part-time and temporary workers, but catch-up with "lucky" one within 3 years. This fast catch-up contrasts with results for other countries. Potential explanations for those differences are twofold: first, in France a large share of young entrants are paid at the minimum wage and, second, young people unemployment is high in France, so that unemployment at entry on the labour market may be less often used as a screening device by employers. |
| Keywords: | Scarring effect, Business cycle, Initial labour market conditions |
| JEL: | J30 J21 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crs:wpdeee:g2012-05&r=lab |
| By: | Paul Bingley; Lorenzo Cappellari; Niels Westergård-Nielsen |
| Abstract: | We investigate the relationship between life-cycle wages and flexicurity in Denmark. We separate permanent from transitory wages and characterise flexicurity using membership of unemployment insurance funds. We find that flexicurity is associated with lower wage growth heterogeneity over the life-cycle and greater wage instability, changing the nature of wage inequality from permanent to transitory. While we are in general unable to formally test for moral hazard against adverse selection into unemployment insurance membership, robustness checks suggest that moral hazard is the relevant interpretation. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment insurance, wage dynamics, wage inequality, wage instability |
| JEL: | J31 J65 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:itt:wpaper:wp2012-2&r=lab |
| By: | Jeffrey Brown; Chichun Fang; Francisco Gomes |
| Abstract: | We analyze the returns to education in a life-cycle framework that incorporates risk preferences, earnings volatility (including unemployment), and a progressive income tax and social insurance system. We show that such a framework significantly reduces the measured gains from education relative to simple present-value calculations, although the gains remain significant. For example, for a range of preference parameters, we find that individuals should be willing to pay 300 to 500 (200 to 250) thousand dollars to obtain a college (high school) degree in order to benefit from the 32 to 42 percent (20 to 38 percent) increase in annual certainty-equivalent consumption. We also explore how the measured value of education varies with preference parameters, by gender, and across time. In contrast to findings in the education wage-premia literature, which focuses on present values and which we replicate in our data, our model indicates that the gains from college education were flat in the 1980s and actually decreased significantly in 1991-2007 period. On the other hand, the gains to a high school education have increased quite dramatically over time. We also show that both high school and college education help to decrease the gender gap in life-time earnings, contrary again to the conclusion from wage premia calculations. |
| JEL: | G12 H52 I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18300&r=lab |
| By: | Yu-Fu Chen; Gylfi Zoega |
| Abstract: | We extend the efficiency wage model of Shapiro and Stiglitz to account for the observation that workers’ effort has a tendency to fall when they approach the end of their employment contract. In particular, we find that the efficiency wage increases when the end of term approaches for a given rate of unemployment. We draw implications for the behavior of workers who are approaching retirement, temporary employment contracts, and the advance notice of impending job loss. |
| Keywords: | Wage setting, shirking, finite horizons |
| JEL: | J31 J21 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dun:dpaper:266&r=lab |
| By: | Tomoko Kishi |
| Abstract: | In Japan a negative relationship between the labour force participation rate of married women and spouse income has been observed. It has also been remarked that the labour force participation rate of married women has almost no correlation with their level of educational attainment. This paper examines whether there has been any changes in recent cohorts. Two kinds of panel data released in Japan (the JPSC and KHPS) are used for the analyses; one with two and the other, four observed labour market outcomes as dependent variables. The results suggest that the cohort differentials in both the probability of working and attaining full-time employment are weak. The effect of spouse income on female labour force participation is significantly negative, while that of higher education on working and full-time employment is not robust. The results also indicate both younger university graduates and their older counterparts have approximately the same probability of gaining full time employment, suggesting more needs to be done to ensure higher education is beneficial for Japanese women in terms of employment outcomes. |
| JEL: | C33 J21 J24 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csg:ajrcau:396&r=lab |
| By: | ANDRÉ Pierre; DEMONSANT Jean-luc |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the substitution between formal education and informal religious education for Senegalese households. We use the timing of the opening of formal schools to estimate whether Koranic and formal education systems compete for the children's time. Adapting the diff-in-diff strategy in Duo (2001), we assess the effect of school openings on Koranic and formal schooling. Our estimates show that formal school openings increase formal education attainment, especially in rural areas. Incidentally, this result highlights the lack of primary schools in rural areas : an additional primary school increases the probability to start primary school by 13 percentage points around this school. We then estimate that an additional formal school decreases the time spent in Koranic schools. This proves that, while both school systems are independent in terms of organization and pedagogical content, they still compete for the children's time. This might increase the opportunity cost of formal primary school, and can narrow the political consensus around universal primary education. |
| Keywords: | Koranic Schools; Schools demand; Senegal |
| JEL: | D12 I28 O12 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2012-34&r=lab |
| By: | SHANTANU KHANNA (Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi, India) |
| Abstract: | Traditional analysis of gender wage gaps has largely focused on average gaps between men and women, and mean wage decompositions such as the Blinder-Oaxaca (1973) decomposition method. To answer the question of whether there is a “glass ceiling” or a “sticky floor”, i.e. whether wage gaps are higher at the upper or lower ends of the wage distribution, this paper examines the wage gaps across different quantiles of the wage distribution. These gender wage gaps are analysed for regular wage workers in India using the 66th round of the National Sample Survey’s Employment - Unemployment Schedule (2009-2010). The paper finds evidence of a “sticky floor”. In addition to estimating the standard OLS wage equations for men and women, quantile regressions are used to assess how different covariates such as education, union membership, and occupations, affect within and between group (gender) inequalities. Finally, the Machado-Mata-Melly (2006) decomposition method is used to decompose gender wage gaps at different quantiles to determine whether it is the differences in characteristics (levels of covariates) or the unexplained (discrimination) component that drives the sticky floor effect. The paper concludes with a discussion on the possible reasons for observing a sticky floor phenomenon in India. |
| Keywords: | wage decompositions, gender discrimination, glass ceiling, sticky floor, quantile regressions |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J71 C21 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cde:cdewps:214&r=lab |
| By: | Jones, Melanie K.; Latreille, Paul L.; Sloane, Peter J. |
| Abstract: | This paper uses matched employee-employer data from the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) 2004 to examine the determinants of employee job anxiety and work-related psychological illness. Job anxiety is found to be strongly related to the demands of the job as measured by factors such as occupation, education and hours of work. Average levels of employee job anxiety, in turn, are positively associated with work-related psychological illness among the workforce as reported by managers. The paper goes on to consider the relationship between psychological illness and workplace performance as measured by absence, turnover and labour productivity. Work-related psychological illness is found to be negatively associated with several measures of workplace performance. |
| Keywords: | Employment, Stress, Mental health, Absence, Productivity, Anxiety, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fli:wpaper:26078&r=lab |
| By: | Ayşegül Şahin; Joseph Song; Giorgio Topa; Giovanni L. Violante |
| Abstract: | We develop a framework where mismatch between vacancies and job seekers across sectors translates into higher unemployment by lowering the aggregate job-finding rate. We use this framework to measure the contribution of mismatch to the recent rise in U.S. unemployment by exploiting two sources of cross-sectional data on vacancies, JOLTS and HWOL, a new database covering the universe of online U.S. job advertisements. Mismatch across industries and occupations explains at most 1/3 of the total observed increase in the unemployment rate, whereas geographical mismatch plays no apparent role. The share of the rise in unemployment explained by occupational mismatch is increasing in the education level. |
| JEL: | E24 J24 J61 J62 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18265&r=lab |
| By: | John T. Addison (Department of Economics, Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, USA; RCEA, Italy); McKinley L. Blackburn (Department of Economics, Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, USA); Chad D. Cotti (Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, USA) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact on earnings and employment of substantive increases in the minimum wage under the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. Against the backdrop of a thin contemporary literature offering mixed results, our study uses three different data sets, and three different estimation strategies for addressing geographically-disparate trends. Despite the concatenation of seemingly large wage increases and a soft labor market, our evidence is generally unsupportive of material disemployment effects among industrial and demographic groups typically associated with low-wage employment. Our results are consistent with minimum wage workers being concentrated in sectors of the economy for which the labor-demand response to wage increases is seemingly modest. |
| Keywords: | minimum wages, disemployment, earnings, low-wage sectors, geographically-disparate employment trends, recession |
| JEL: | J2 J3 J4 J8 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rim:rimwps:58_12&r=lab |
| By: | Anna Piil Damm (Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University, Denmark) |
| Abstract: | Using survey information about characteristics of personal contacts linked with administrative register information on employment status one year later, I show that unemployed survey respondents with many employed acquaintances have a higher job finding rate. Settlement in a socially deprived neighborhood may, therefore, hamper individual labor market outcomes because of lack of employed contacts. I investigate this hypothesis by exploiting a unique natural experiment that occurred between 1986 and 1998 when refugee immigrants to Denmark were assigned to municipalities quasirandomly, which successfully addresses the methodological problem of endogenous neighborhood selection. Taking account of location sorting, living in a socially deprived neighborhood does not affect labor market outcomes of refugee men. Furthermore, their labor market outcomes are not affected by the overall employment rate of men living in the neighborhood, but positively affected by the employment rate of non-Western immigrant men and co-national men living in the neighborhood. This is strong evidence that immigrants find jobs in part through their employed immigrant and co-ethnic contacts in the neighborhood of residence and that a high quality of contacts increases the individual’s employment chances and annual earnings. |
| Keywords: | Residential job search networks, referral, contacts, neighborhood quality, labor market outcomes |
| JEL: | J60 J31 R30 |
| Date: | 2012–08–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2012-18&r=lab |
| By: | Kuehn, Zoe; Landeras, Pedro |
| Abstract: | While students from more advantageous family backgrounds tend to perform better, it is not clear that they exert more effort compared to those from less advantageous family backgrounds. We build a model of students, schools, and employers to study the interaction of family background and effort exerted by the student in the education process. Academic qualifications, which entail an income premium in the labor market, are noisily determined by effort and the student's ability to benefit from education, which in turn depends on her family background and innate talent. In a situation where schools set the optimal passing standard, two factors turn out to be key in determining the relationship between effort and family background: (i) the student's risk aversion and (ii) the degree with which family background alters the student's marginal productivity of effort. We show that when the degree of risk aversion is relatively low (high) compared to the sensitivity of the marginal productivity of the student's effort with respect to her family background, the relation between effort and family background is positive (negative) and students from more advantageous family backgrounds exert more (less) effort. Considering Spanish data and controlling for school fixed effects, we find that an improvement in parental education from not having completed compulsory education to holding a university degree is associated to around 15% more effort by the student(approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes of additional weekly homework). We also find empirical evidence consistent with our assumption that students' marginal productivity of effort varies with family background. |
| Keywords: | student effort; family background; risk aversion; educational standards |
| JEL: | D81 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40531&r=lab |
| By: | John Schmitt; Janelle Jones |
| Abstract: | The U.S. workforce is substantially older and better-educated than it was at the end of the 1970s. The typical worker in 2010 was seven years older than in 1979. In 2010, over one-third of US workers had a four-year college degree or more, up from just one-fifth in 1979. Given that older and better-educated workers generally receive higher pay and better benefits, we would have expected the share of “good jobs” in the economy to have increased in line with improvements in the quality of workforce. Instead, the share of “good jobs” in the U.S. economy has actually fallen. The estimates in this paper, which control for increases in age and education of the population, suggest that relative to 1979 the economy has lost about one-third (28 to 38 percent) of its capacity to generate good jobs. The data show only minor differences between 2007, before the Great Recession began, and 2010, the low point for the labor market. The deterioration in the economy's ability to generate good jobs reflects long-run changes in the U.S. economy, not short-run factors related to the recession or recent economic policy. |
| Keywords: | good jobs, retirement, pensions, health insurance, wages, labor, education |
| JEL: | J J3 J31 J32 J38 J5 J1 J11 J15 I I2 I24 I25 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epo:papers:2012-20&r=lab |
| By: | Jung, Philip; Kuhn, Moritz |
| Abstract: | An extensive empirical literature has documented that workers with high tenure suffer large and persistent earnings losses when they get displaced. We study the reasons behind these losses in a tractable search model with a life-cycle dimension, endogenous job mobility, worker- and match-heterogeneity. The model reconciles key characteristics of the U.S. labor market: large average transition rates, a large share of stable jobs, and the earnings losses from displacement. We decompose the earnings losses and find that only 50% result from skill losses. Endogenous reactions and selection account for the remainder. Our findings have important implications for the welfare costs of displacement and labor market policy. |
| Keywords: | Earnings Losses; Life-Cycle; Labor-Market Transitions; Turbulence |
| JEL: | E24 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2012–07–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40287&r=lab |
| By: | Andreas Knabe (Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg and CESifo); Alexander Plum (Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg) |
| Abstract: | We examine whether low-paid jobs have an effect on the probability that unemployed persons obtain better-paid jobs in the future (springboard effect). We make use of data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and apply a dynamic random-effects probit model. Our results suggest that low-wage jobs can act as springboards to better-paid work. The improvement of the chance to obtain a high-wage job by accepting low-paid work is particularly large for less-skilled persons and for individuals with longer periods of unemployment. Low-paid work is less beneficial if the job is associated with a low social status. |
| Keywords: | dynamic random effects models, low pay dynamics, state dependence, unemployment dynamics |
| JEL: | J64 J62 J31 |
| Date: | 2012–07–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:246&r=lab |
| By: | Tom Vogl |
| Abstract: | Taller workers are paid higher wages. A prominent explanation for this pattern is that physical growth and cognitive development share childhood inputs, inducing a correlation between adult height and two productive skills: strength and intelligence. This paper explores the relative roles of strength and intelligence in explaining the labor market height premium in Mexico. While cognitive test scores account for a limited share of the height premium, roughly half of the premium can be attributed to the educational and occupational choices of taller workers. Taller workers obtain more education and sort into occupations with greater intelligence requirements and lower strength requirements, suggesting that the height premium partly reflects a return to cognitive skill. |
| JEL: | I15 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18318&r=lab |
| By: | Justine S. Hastings; Christopher A. Neilson; Seth D. Zimmerman |
| Abstract: | Using data on student outcomes and school choice lotteries from a low-income urban school district, we examine how school choice can affect student outcomes through increased motivation and personal effort as well as through improved school and peer inputs. First we use unique daily data on individual-level student absences and suspensions to show that lottery winners have significantly lower truancies after they learn about lottery outcomes but before they enroll in their new schools. The effects are largest for male students entering high school, whose truancy rates decline by 21% in the months after winning the lottery. We then examine the impact attending a chosen school has on student test score outcomes. We find substantial test score gains from attending a charter school and some evidence that choosing and attending a high value-added magnet school improves test scores as well. Our results contribute to current evidence that school choice programs can effectively raise test scores of participants. Our findings suggest that this may occur both through an immediate effect on student behavior and through the benefit of attending a higher-performing school. |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I24 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18324&r=lab |
| By: | Aretz, Bodo; Gürtzgen, Nicole |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study how wage mobility in the low-wage sector has changed in western Germany between 1984 and 2004. Using German individual register data, we document a clear upward trend in the persistence of low-wage employment for both men and women. Next to compositional shifts of the low-wage sector relative to the high-wage sector, this trend may be explained by an increase in genuinestate dependence, which occurs if low-wage employment today causes lowwage employment in the future for reasons of, e.g., stigmatization or human capital depreciation. To isolate the latter, we model low-pay transitions by estimating a series of multivariate probit models. We address the initial conditions problem and the endogeneity of earnings attrition in our estimation approach by accounting for the selection into low-wage employment and earnings retention. Our findings for men and women point to an upward trend of genuine state dependence among low paid workers especially since the beginning of the 1990s. Using decomposition techniques, we show that between 35 and 54 per cent of the increase in genuine state dependence during the 1990s is accounted for by compositional effects. -- |
| Keywords: | Wage Mobility,Trivariate Probit,Administrative Data |
| JEL: | C23 J31 L13 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:12041&r=lab |
| By: | Prokic-Breuer Tijana; Dronkers Jaap (METEOR) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to explain the high scores of 15-year-old native pupils in the Netherlands andFlanders by comparing them with the scores of pupils in countries with the same highly stratifiededucational system. Therefore, we compare only the educational performance of 15-year-old pupilsfrom the following regions: the Netherlands, Flanders, Wallonia, the German Länder, the SwissGerman cantons, and Austria. We use the data from the general Program for International PupilAssessment (PISA) 2006 together with the specific PISA data of Germany and Switzerland also from2006. We apply a multilevel model that takes into account the individual-, curriculum-, andsystem-level features in these highly stratified educational systems. The high scores of the Dutchpupils can be explained by the size of the Netherlands’ vocational sector. The high Flemish scorescan be only partly explained by the high curriculum mobility (as indicated by the lowest level ofentrance selection). Central exit exams are not a good explanation of the high Dutch scores.Despite being limited to highly stratified systems, we still find educational policies andarrangements to have significant effects on the educational performance of pupils. |
| Keywords: | education, training and the labour market; |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umamet:2012039&r=lab |
| By: | Adriana Lleras-Muney; Allison Shertzer |
| Abstract: | In the early twentieth century, education legislation was often passed based on arguments that new laws were needed to force immigrants to learn English and “Americanize.” We provide the first estimates of the effect of statutes requiring English as the language of instruction and compulsory schooling laws on the school enrollment, work, literacy and English fluency of immigrant children from 1910 to 1930. English schooling statutes did increase the literacy of foreign-born children, though only modestly. Compulsory schooling and continuation school laws raised immigrants’ enrollment and the effects were much larger for children born abroad than for native-born children. |
| JEL: | I28 K30 N32 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18302&r=lab |
| By: | Julie L. Hotchkiss; M. Melinda Pitts; Fernando Rios-Avila |
| Abstract: | This paper uses matched individual-level data from the Current Population Survey to determine that around the 2008 recession, there was a significant upward shift in trend of the share of labor force leavers giving "Schooling" and "Other" as the reason for absence from the labor market. This trend shift is observed primarily among workers between the ages of 25 and 54 and is widespread across all educational groups with at least a high school degree. In addition, the upward shift in the trend of the schooling reason share occurred among workers previously employed in occupations and industries with varying degrees of job losses during the recession. This shift suggests it was a widespread phenomenon and not isolated among sectors or occupations that suffered the most during the recession. The implication is that the upward shift in the schooling reason share has more likely been a response to lower opportunity costs of schooling during economic downturns rather than the result of workers trying to overcome skill mismatch in the labor market. In addition, since transition rates to the labor force are highest among those giving "Schooling" and "Other" as reasons for absence, the decline in labor force participation since 2008 is likely more transitory than permanent. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedawp:2012-10&r=lab |
| By: | Alfonso Rosolia; Paolo Sestito |
| Abstract: | We document the effects of a change in the replacement rate and potential duration of theItalian Ordinary unemployment benefits scheme on the job search process. As of january 2001, benefits were extended from 6 to 9 months selectively for workers aged 50 or more, and the replacement rate was raised from 30 to 40 percent for all workers. We draw on social security records that cover the employment and welfare histories of a representative sample of individuals. Comparisons of eligible and non eligible workers across the relevant age and time thresholds conducted on a variety of samples and conditional on several specifications of the information set suggest that(a) the average duration of benefits’ collection increased by around one month for individuals entitled to 3 additional months of potential duration, while it did not change significantly for those only exposed to higher replacement rates;(b) the pace of reemployment is never found to be statistically different among claimants exposed to the new regime, although point estimates for those exposed to a longer duration point consistently toa2-4percentagepoints lower probability of reemployment at several horizons. Graphical evidence suggests that job-separation rates did not change with the new regime, while take-up apparently did, although the clear cyclical pattern could bias the picture. We conclude that, if any, the behavioral response induced by such institutional change, must have been economically modest. We discuss reasons why the response may have been so subdued. |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:itt:wpaper:2012-7&r=lab |
| By: | Mario Macis (Johns Hopkins University and IZA); Fabiano Schivardi (University of Cagliari, EIEF, CEPR and Centro Studi Luca d\'Agliano) |
| Abstract: | We use linked employer-employee data from Italy to explore the relationship between exports and wages. Our empirical strategy exploits the 1992 devaluation of the Italian Lira, which represented a large and unforeseen shock to Italian firms’ incentives to export. The results indicate that the export wage premium is due to exporting firms both (1) paying a wage premium above what their workers would earn in the outside labor market – the “rent-sharing” effect, and (2) employing workers whose skills command a higher price after the devaluation – the “skill composition” effect. The latter effect only emerges once we allow for the value of individual skills to differ in the pre- and post-devaluation periods. In fact, using a fixed measure of skills, as typically done in the literature, we would attribute the wage increase only to rent sharing. We also document that the export wage premium is larger for workers with more export-related experience. This indicates that the devaluation increased the demand for skills more useful for exporting, driving their relative price up. |
| Keywords: | Export Wage Premium, Linked Employer Employee Data |
| JEL: | F16 J31 |
| Date: | 2012–07–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:333&r=lab |
| By: | Gary Bolton; Peter Werner |
| Abstract: | We investigate how the introduction of a salient norm for pay differentiation influences wage offers and effort exertion in a gift exchange experiment. Exogenously induced claims indeed lead to substantial differentiation in wages. At the same time, unequal wage schemes do not crowd out effort exertion. In particular, we do not observe strong detrimental effects resulting from disadvantageous relative wage positions. Finally, we find that specific communication patterns have a significant impact on effort exertion. |
| Keywords: | Communication, entitlements, fairness norms, gift exchange, relative wages |
| JEL: | J31 M52 D63 C92 |
| Date: | 2012–08–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kls:series:0056&r=lab |
| By: | Elena Pastorino |
| Abstract: | This paper develops and structurally estimates an equilibrium model of the labor market that integrates learning, job assignment, and human capital acquisition to account for the main patterns of job and wage mobility characteristic of careers in firms. A key innovation is the modeling of firms’ incentives to experiment that arise from the ability of firms, through job assignment, to affect the rate at which they acquire information about workers. The resulting trade-off between output and information implies that a firm’s retention and job assignment policy solves an experimentation problem: a so-called multi-armed bandit with dependent arms. The model is estimated using longitudinal administrative data from one U.S. firm in a service industry (the same data used by Baker, Gibbs, and Holmström (1994a,b)) and fits the data remarkably well. My estimates indicate that learning during employment accounts for a significant fraction of measured wage growth on the job, whereas experimentation through job assignment primarily contributes to explaining the patterns of job mobility within the firm. Since learning is gradual, however, persistent uncertainty about workers’ abilities is responsible for a substantial compression of wage growth with tenure. |
| Keywords: | Wages |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedmsr:469&r=lab |
| By: | Philip R. P. Coelho (Department of Economics, Ball State University); Tung Liu (Department of Economics, Ball State University) |
| Abstract: | We apply grouped college-level data to estimate the returns to a college education. After comparing different econometric methods for estimating cluster samples with grouped data, we argue that there are two sets of population parameters of concern: one for estimating withingroup effects, and the other for between-group effects. This leads to three major points: 1) the traditional use of fixed-effects models usually ignores the importance of between-group effects and may lead to erroneous conclusions; 2) regressions with group variables have several identifiable econometric issues; and 3) estimations of between-group estimators for betweengroup effects with grouped data are valid. We investigate the returns to higher education using explanatory variables representing characteristics for individuals, colleges and universities, and states with grouped data from over 500 colleges and universities. We generate a major index measuring college characteristics that are related to students’ disciplines in their degree majors. We find that college majors are important determinants of post-graduation incomes; in contrast the incremental value of private schooling over publically funded colleges is relatively modest. At zero rates of interest it takes approximately 59 years for the excess earnings in starting salaries attributable to a private education to equal the extra costs of four years of private schooling. |
| Keywords: | college education, between-group effects, cluster samples |
| JEL: | C23 C38 I23 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bsu:wpaper:201202&r=lab |
| By: | Frank W. Heiland; Zhe Li |
| Abstract: | We investigate how the shift in private pension coverage from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) retirement plans since the 1980s has contributed to the substantial rise in labor force participation of older Americans. We develop a life cycle model of retirement that captures important aspects of private (DB and DC) and public (Social Security Old-Age) pensions. We demonstrate how this novel framework can assist policy makers and researchers in analyzing the complex interrelations of labor supply decisions, retirement behavior, and wealth accumulation. We begin by illustrating important differences in the incentives for labor supply and retirement behavior provided by DB and DC pensions. We show that the timing of the exit from the labor force is closely tied to wealth accrual in DB plans, while wealth accrual in DC plans does not provide similar incentives for the timing of retirement. We then use the model to conduct a cohort-based simulation analysis of labor force participation for the period 1977 to 2010. The results illustrate the potential significance of the rise in employer-sponsored DC pensions in explaining the increase in labor force participation of older Americans. We estimate that, holding the share of individuals with employer-sponsored pensions constant, the shift from DB to DC pension coverage increased the labor force participation rate of workers age 60 to 64 by 4.9 percentage points (1.7 points for ages 65-69). Finally, we show that DC pension holders are more concentrated at the earliest take-up age for Social Security old-age retirement benefits and are less responsive to changes in Social Security retirement age policy than DB pension holders. |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2012-18&r=lab |
| By: | Gerards Ruud; Grip Andries de; Witlox Maaike (METEOR) |
| Abstract: | This article studies the use and impact of a firm-sponsored training (“Employability-miles”)voucher scheme that aims to stimulate employees to develop a more active attitude toward their ownemployability. Using data from two surveys of the firm’s workforce, we find that voucher use isrelated to various personality traits and personal characteristics. In particular, a worker’sambition, goal setting, and education level are positively related to voucher use. In addition,women and those with longer tenure spend their vouchers more often. Conversely, workers with amore positive self-image as well as those who are negatively reciprocal spend their vouchers lessoften. The negative relation between voucher use and negative reciprocity suggests that workerswho are more negatively reciprocal perceive the voucher as a threat. Further, we find that voucheruse positively affects worker employability awareness and willingness to train.Remarkably, participation in non-voucher training shows little relation to personality traits.From a human resources perspective, this finding suggests that by employing a voucher scheme, thefirm makes training participation more dependent on employee personality and individualcharacteristics instead of human resources practices. |
| Keywords: | labour economics ; |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umamet:2012043&r=lab |
| By: | Miguel Casares (Departamento de Economía, Universidad Pública de Navarra); Antonio Moreno (Departamento de Economía, Universidad de Navarra); Jesús Vázquez (Departamento FAE II, Universidad del País Vasco) |
| Abstract: | Wage stickiness is incorporated to a New-Keynesian model with variable capital in a way that generates endogenous unemployment fluctuations as the log difference between aggregate labor supply and aggregate labor demand. After estimation with U.S. data, the implied second-moment statistics of the unemployment rate provide a reasonable match with those observed in the data. Our results also show that wage-push shocks, demand shifts and monetary policy shocks are the three major determinants of unemployment fluctuations. Compared to an estimated canonical DSGE model without unemployment: wage stickiness is higher, labor supply elasticity is lower, the slope of the New-Keynesian Phillips curve is flatter, and the importance of technology innovations on output growth variability increases. |
| Keywords: | sticky wages, unemployment, business cycles, New-Keynesian models. |
| JEL: | C32 E30 |
| Date: | 2012–07–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:una:unccee:wp0112&r=lab |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Investing in higher (tertiary) education is one of the more significant decisions a person can take. In some countries, the direct costs of higher education can be large, often requiring a significant investment of an individual’s personal funds, either in up-front payments or loan repayments later on. Even in countries where the direct costs of higher education to an individual are much lower, such as Finland, Norway, and Turkey, the time invested in pursuing a degree – and the opportunity cost of foregone earnings while an individual is in school – can be a major factor. In light of the personal costs associated with pursuing a tertiary degree, how do the benefits compare? OECD analyses based on the most recent year of available data (2007 for most countries), suggest that as far as the long-term economic benefits of higher education are concerned, the return on investment is very good. |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaf:6-en&r=lab |
| By: | Bart Hobijn |
| Abstract: | I introduce a method that combines data from the U.S. Current Population Survey, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, and state-level Job Vacancy Surveys to construct annual estimates of the number of job openings in the U.S. in the Spring by industry and occupation. I present these estimates for 2005-2011. The results reveal that: (i) During the Great Recession job openings for all occupations declined. (ii) Job openings rates and vacancy yields vary a lot across occupations. (iii) Changes in the occupation mix of job openings and hires account for the bulk of the decline in measured aggregate match efficiency since 2007. (iv) The majority of job openings in all industries and occupations are filled with persons who previously did not work in the same industry or occupation. |
| Keywords: | Labor market ; Employment |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedfwp:2012-09&r=lab |
| By: | Hanusch, Marek |
| Abstract: | Was economic growth in East Asia jobless? This paper addresses this question using data from eight East Asian countries during the period between 1997 and 2011 to estimate the Okun's Law Coefficient, which captures the relationship between growth and employment. The analysis suggests that growth was not jobless. However, there is considerable variation across countries. Generally, the effect of growth on employment tends to magnify under more flexible hiring and firing rules. Yet even where labor markets are more tightly regulated, economic growth affects employment, not necessarily in the aggregate but in its composition. There is evidence that agricultural employment moves counter-cyclically, as opposed to non-agricultural employment. The effect is particularly pronounced in periods of economic crisis, suggesting that agriculture may serve as a shock-absorber for workers laid off in the industrial sector. Isolating non-agricultural employment reveals a stronger relationship between growth and job creation. |
| Keywords: | Labor Markets,Labor Policies,Labor Management and Relations,Labor Standards,Work&Working Conditions |
| Date: | 2012–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6156&r=lab |
| By: | Turturean, Monica |
| Abstract: | Higher education from Romania passes an authentically crises caused by the necessity of our society to adapt at European Union’ demands. University teachers have a huge role in satisfying these requests. They need to posses a lot of competencies, and, one of the most important is the managerial competency what will help university teachers to have a good relationship with their colleagues, theirs students and other officials in order to help higher education to be better and performing. But we want to know which is the place of the managerial competence (it is an essential component or not) and its impact for a university teachers, to develop himself and his undergraduates students, to ensure quality and performance in higher education and to achieve the society needs. |
| Keywords: | managerial competence; higher education; university teacher; quality and performance |
| JEL: | A23 I21 M12 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40309&r=lab |
| By: | DIOP-CHRISTENSEN Anna |
| Abstract: | This study examines the impact of a Danish policy change that intended to 'make work pay' for married immigrant women receiving social assistance. According to new regulations adopted in 2006, married social benefit recipients in jobless households were required to work 300 hours within a two year period in order to remain eligible for social assistance. In the case of non-compliance, one spouse would lose the benefit entitlements (about 18,000? yearly). We have some evidence that the new rules did have an impact, but the central question of this paper is how economic incentives may influence the labour market integration of groups with low employability? In order to answer this question I pursue a qualitative research approach contrasting two theoretical explanations. One that relates to the effect on the immigrant women, and another that focuses on changes in the behaviour of social welfare workers. The analysis suggests that the strong economic incentives did speed up job search efforts and made these women less choosy, but due to employment barriers, it was often difficult to 'transform' the increased job wish into employment. Moreover, this policy intensified the cross-pressure of social welfare workers which fostered an atmosphere of emergency and a break with past coping-behaviour. All in all this study questions the impact of economic incentives towards groups with low employability, but highlights the potential role of social welfare workers. |
| Keywords: | Coping behaviour; Economic incentives; Immigrants; Marginalisation; Social assistance; Streetlevel bureaucracy |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2012-30&r=lab |
| By: | N. CECI-RENAUD (Insee); V. COTTET (Insee) |
| Abstract: | This study describes the human resources management along several dimensions, based on administrative data (DADS and tax data): wage schedule both in terms of level but also dispersion, stability of the workforce, proportion of different qualifications and age, share of subsidized jobs ... A typology of these companies is available from these dimensions. Then we compare these wage structures with the performance. We observe that the most productive firms are also those who pay the highest wages, even after taking into account their specific characteristics (size, sector) and those of their employees. The link between wage dispersion and the productivity is more difficult to characterize: the estimate parameters are very sensitive to the empirical specification. |
| Keywords: | wage dispersion, wage structure, productivity |
| JEL: | L25 M52 J31 J33 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crs:wpdeee:g2012-02&r=lab |
| By: | Sara Rica (DFAE II, Universidad del Pais Vasco); Juan Dolado (Universidad Carlos III); Cecilia Garcia Peñalosa (Centre de la Vieille Charité, GREQAM) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a model of self-fulfilling expectations by firms and households which generates multiplicity of equilibria in pay and housework time allocation for ex-ante identical spouses. Multiplicity arises from statistical discrimination exerted by firms in the provision of paid-for training to workers, rather than from incentive problems in the labor market. Employers´ beliefs about differences in spouses´ reactions to housework shocks lead symmetric (ungendered) and asymmetric (gendered) equilibria. We find that: (i) the ungendered equilibrium tends to prevail as aggregate productivity in the economy increases (regardless of the generosity of family aid policies), (ii) the ungendered equilibrium could yield higher welfare under some scenarios, and (iii) gender-neutral job subsidies are more effective that gender-targeted ones in removing the gendered equilibrium. JEL Classification: J16 and J71. |
| Keywords: | gender wage gaps, housework shares, multiple equilibria |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aia:ginidp:dp24&r=lab |
| By: | Alessio J. G. Brown, Johannes Koettl |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a new perspective in classifying ALMPs depending on their main objective, also in light of their relevance and cost-effectiveness during normal times, during a crisis, and during recovery. We distinguish ALMPs that provide incentives for retaining employment, incentives for creating employment, incentives for seeking and keeping a job, incentives for human capital enhancement, and improved labor market matching. We will discuss their direct and indirect effects determining their cost- effectiveness as well as to provide examples which may provide lessons to learn for transition and developing countries. This paper provides a systematic overview of how, why, when and to what extent specific policies are effective |
| Keywords: | Active labor market programs, short work, subsidies, training, workfare, activation, sanctions, job search assistance, intermediation, counselling, cost- effectiveness |
| JEL: | J08 J22 J23 J38 E24 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1785&r=lab |
| By: | R. AEBERHARDT (Dares-Crest); P. GIVORD (Insee); C. MARBOT (Insee) |
| Abstract: | This study evaluates the impact of the minimum wage on the earnings distribution in France, using an unconditional quantile regression method proposed by Firpo, Fortin, and Lemieux (2009). To address the endogeneity issue due to the specific French revaluation process of the minimum wage, we use a natural experiment. As several minimum wage levels coexisted because of different schedules in the French 35-hour week" application, they were forced to converge to one single level between 2003 and 2005. We find significant effects of the minimum wage on the earnings distribution of male and female employees up to the seventh decile. |
| Keywords: | Minimum wage, earnings distribution, unconditional quantile regressions |
| JEL: | J31 J38 C18 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crs:wpdeee:g2012-07&r=lab |
| By: | Anna De Paoli (University of Milan Bicocca); Mariapia Mendola (University of Milan Bicocca and Centro Studi Luca d\'Agliano) |
| Abstract: | Global international migration may influence child labor through a labor market effect. We empirically investigate this issue by using an original cross-country survey dataset, which combines information on international emigration flows with detailed individual-level data on child labor at age 5-15 in a wide range of developing countries. By using variation in the emigration supply shocks across labor market units de.ned on the basis of both geography and skill, we estimate a set of child labor equations where the variable of interest is the interactive effect between parental skill and country-level emigration shocks. We measure the latter through different indicators including a direct measure of the relative skill composition of emigrants relative to the resident population in the country of origin. Overall, after controlling for a large set of individual-level characteristics, remittances, and country fixed effects, our findings are consistent with predictions and show that international out-migration may significantly reduce child labor in disadvantaged households through changes in the local labor market. |
| Keywords: | International Migration, Child Labor, Factor Mobility, Cross-country Survey Data |
| JEL: | F22 F1 J61 |
| Date: | 2012–07–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:339&r=lab |
| By: | Christoph Helbach |
| Abstract: | Since their first implementation in 2000, the PISA studies have attracted public attention and spurred the demand for institutional changes in schooling systems. The introduction of standardized student tests and of incentives for schools and teachers are notable examples of such institutional changes. This paper examines the effects of these particular developments. Identification is based on within-country variation between PISA 2000 and PISA 2009. The results indicate that comparing schools by means of standardized student test results is a promising measure, while evaluating teachers this way decreases the overall performance of a schooling system. The discussion provides possible explanations for these ambiguous findings. |
| Keywords: | Education economics; incentives; standardized tests; PISA |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I29 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0356&r=lab |
| By: | Gábor Kézdi (Magyar Nemzeti Bank (central bank of Hungary), Central European University, Institute of Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences); István Kónya (Magyar Nemzeti Bank (central bank of Hungary)) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents new evidence on the flexibility of the Hungarian labor market, with special emphasis on wages. The results are based on a new survey on wage setting among Hungarian firms. The survey is part of the Eurosystem Wage Dynamics Network (WDN), and it is a harmonized questionnaire administered in 17 countries in Europe, including almost all Euro Area countries as well as five Central and Eastern European countries. The survey results show that the Hungarian labor market, while institutionally flexible, appears to be surprisingly rigid. The survey evidence points to low turnover and possibly more rigid wages than previously thought. |
| Keywords: | wage setting, survey, wage dynamics network, Hungary |
| JEL: | C83 J01 J30 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mnb:opaper:2012/103&r=lab |
| By: | Ana I. Balsa; Alejandro Cid |
| Abstract: | Using a randomized trial, we evaluate the impact of a free privately-managed middle school in a poor neighborhood. The research compares over time adolescents randomly selected to enter Liceo-Jubilar and those that were not drawn in the lottery. Besides positive impacts on expectations, we find better educational outcomes in the treatment group relative to control subjects. The features of Liceo-Jubilar -autonomy of management, capacity for innovation, and adaptation to the context- contrast with the Uruguayan highly centralized and inflexible public education system. Our results shed light on new approaches to education that may contribute to improve opportunities for disadvantaged adolescents in developing countries. Unlike the experiences of charter schools in developed countries, Liceo-Jubilar does not have autonomy regarding the formal school curricula nor depends on public funding by any means. |
| Keywords: | Education; Field Experiment; Poverty; Impact Evaluation |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mnt:wpaper:1202&r=lab |
| By: | KUEPIE Mathias; TENIKUE Michel |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of the number of siblings on education in urban sub-Saharan Africa. The birth of twins is considered as a natural experiment that affects the number of siblings but has no direct effect on education. This event is used as instrumental variable in a two-stage least-squared estimation approach to investigate the causal effect of the number of siblings on school achievement. Equations are estimated on subsamples of singleton children born before the twins. The results show that an exogenous fertility increase significantly inhibits human capital accumulation. However, the magnitude of the marginal effect seems small: one additional sibling decreases the total number of school grade by nearly one-tenth. In a context of high fertility, the total effect might become very detrimental. |
| Keywords: | education; fertility; twins; sub-Saharan Africa |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2012-28&r=lab |
| By: | Montagna, Catia; Nocco, Antonella |
| Abstract: | We study how unionisation affects competitive selection between heterogeneous firms when wage negotiations can occur at the rm or at the profit-centre level. With productivity specific 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: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:edn:sirdps:346&r=lab |
| By: | Fang, Tony (York University, Canada); Samnani, Al-Karim (York University, Canada); Novicevic, Milorad M. (University of Mississippi, Ole Miss); Bing, Mark N. (University of Mississippi, Ole Miss) |
| Abstract: | We examined the liability-of-foreignness (LOF) hypothesis for immigrant and native job seekers by analyzing a national dataset that tracks their use of job-search methods and their associated job outcomes in the Canadian labor market. To our knowledge this is the first empirical test of LOF at the individual-level while controlling for variables at multiple levels. We found support for LOF when job applicants used the rich media job-search methods of social networks and recruitment agencies, but not when they used the lean media of newspaper ads and the internet. Study limitations, implications, and future research are discussed. |
| Keywords: | liability-of-foreignness, immigration policy, levels of analysis, job success, labor market |
| JEL: | J15 J71 J78 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6742&r=lab |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Science project. The very phrase is nearly synonymous with hands-on learning, learning-by-doing, collaboration. Are students more engaged and do they perform better in science if their school encourages them to work on science projects, participate in science fairs, belong to a science-related club or go on science-related field trips – in addition to teaching them the mandatory science curriculum? To find out, PISA 2006 asked school principals about what kinds of extracurricular science activities they offered their students and linked their responses with students’ performance on the PISA science test. |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduddd:18-en&r=lab |
| By: | Hiroaki Miyamoto (International University of Japan) |
| Abstract: | The share of non-regular employment has been increasing in many developed countries during the past two decades. The objective of this paper is to study a cause of the upward trend in non-regular employment by focusing on productivity growth. Data from Japan shows that productivity growth reduces both unemployment and the proportion of nonregular workers to total employed workers. In order to study the impact of long-run productivity growth on unemployment and non-regular employment, I develop a search and matchingmodel with disembodied technological progress and two types of jobs, regular and non-regular jobs. The numerical analysis demonstrates that faster growth reduces the share of non-regular employment, but the effect of faster growth on unemployment is ambiguous. |
| Keywords: | Growth, Unemployment,Non-regular employment, Search, matching model |
| JEL: | E24 J64 O40 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iuj:wpaper:ems_2012_04&r=lab |
| By: | De Luca, Giuseppe (ISFOL); Rossetti, Claudio (LUISS Guido Carli University); Vuri, Daniela (University of Rome Tor Vergata) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates labor supply and redistributive effects of in-work benefits for Italian married couples using a tax-benefit microsimulation model and a multi-sectoral discrete choice model of labor supply. We consider two in-work benefit schemes following the key principles of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Working Tax Credit (WTC) existing in the US and the UK, respectively. The standard design of these in-work benefits is however augmented with a new benefit premium for two-earner households in order to overcome the well-known disincentive effects that these welfare instruments may generate on secondary earners. In simulation, the proposed in-work benefits are financed through the abolition of Italian family allowances for dependent employees and contingent workers thus ensuring tax revenue neutrality. We show that our EITC and WTC reforms have strong positive effects on labor supply of wives, weak negative effects on labor supply of husbands, and strong positive effects on equity. The EITC is more effective than the WTC in boosting employment of wives, while the WTC is more effective than the EITC in fighting poverty. In both schemes, the trade-off between labor supply incentives and redistributive effects is crucially related to the new benefit premium for two-earner households. Other things being equal, tax revenue neutrality implies that a higher value of this policy coefficient yields stronger incentive effects and weaker redistributive effects. |
| Keywords: | in-work benefits, multi-sectoral labor supply, poverty, microsimulation, married couples, Italian tax-benefit system |
| JEL: | I38 H31 H53 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6739&r=lab |
| By: | Tom Vogl |
| Abstract: | Using data from South Asia, this paper examines how arranged marriage cultivates rivalry among sisters. During marriage search, parents with multiple daughters reduce the reservation quality for an older daughter's groom, rushing her marriage to allow sufficient time to marry off her younger sisters. Relative to younger brothers, younger sisters increase a girl’s marriage risk; relative to younger singleton sisters, younger twin sisters have the same effect. These effects intensify in marriage markets with lower sex ratios or greater parental involvement in marriage arrangements. In contrast, older sisters delay a girl’s marriage. Because girls leave school when they marry and face limited earnings opportunities when they reach adulthood, the number of sisters has well-being consequences over the lifecycle. Younger sisters cause earlier school-leaving, lower literacy, a match to a husband with less education and a less-skilled occupation, and (marginally) lower adult economic status. Data from a broader set of countries indicate that these cross-sister pressures on marriage age are common throughout the developing world, although the schooling costs vary by setting. |
| JEL: | I25 J12 O12 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18319&r=lab |
| By: | P. AUBERT (Insee); M. BACHELET (Insee) |
| Abstract: | In this study, we quantify the amount of redistribution that is performed by the French public pension system, using Insees dynamic microsimulation model DESTINIE. We more precisely focus on two issues: to what extent does the pension system reduce variability within the distribution of pensions compared to the variability within the distribution of wages ? do redistribution mechanisms really benefit to lower income individuals ? Our results show that pension inequalities are much lower than wage inequalities, which strengthen the idea that the French pension system indeed performs a large amount of redistribution. The decrease in variability mainly concerns the lower part of the distributions of pensions and wages. Besides, women benefit from redistribution more than men: this stems both from their lower pensions on average (due to their lower wages and shorter career) and from the existence of some redistribution mechanisms that target mothers. Most redistribution tools have been implemented in the pension system during the 1970s. This has resulted in an increase of the systems capacity to reduce inequalities among pensioners, up to the cohorts that are going into retirement nowadays. |
| Keywords: | pension systems, redistribution, microsimulation |
| JEL: | H55 J26 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crs:wpdeee:g2012-06&r=lab |
| By: | O. BARGAIN (University Aix-Marseille II and IZA (Bonn)); A. VICARD (Insee) |
| Abstract: | In metropolitan France, in the absence of a child, only those aged 25 and older are eligible to the minimum income (called RSA since June 2009, or RMI before that date). This article assesses whether the RMI or the RSA discourages young people to work. If this was indeed the case, we should observe a decline in the employment rate for those aged 25 and older, if some young people choose not to work, or reduce their job search effort from this age. Using the annual population census from 2004 to 2011, we observe no discontinuity in the employment rate around 25 years for all young people without children, which means that the minimum income schemes in France would have no sharp disincentive effect on youth employment around that age. A small discontinuity in the employment rate is nonetheless detectable for young people with no or low qualification (at the best the brevet des collèges) in the early years of the study (2004 and 2005), but it is no longer detectable thereafter, especially after the introduction of the RSA. |
| Keywords: | RSA, RMI, public policy evaluation, regression dicontinuity, youth performance on the labour market |
| JEL: | C21 H22 H24 H31 J68 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crs:wpdeee:g2012-09&r=lab |
| By: | Bruno Contini; Elisa Grand |
| Abstract: | This paper is about very long term unemployment (a more appropriate denomination could be "out-of-official-employment") in Italy, its concentration and the process of young worker disposal, an important, yet unexplored, determinant. “Very long” is not just “long”: we are dealing with 10-20 years of absence from the official labor market of male workers who were young at the beginning of these spells, and are in their thirties, forties or early fifties when we observe them. Young workforce disposal (YWD) reflects the fact that young people are observed at the beginning of their career as dependent employees, their services are "used" for few years (sometimes only few months) as if it were a disposable commodity, after which they disappear from the official labor market. The magnitude of YWD is dramatic: out of 100 new young entries - aged 19-30 at the start of their working career -, between 79 and 86 % are still at regular work (“survive”) after 10 years, and only 78 to 83% by 2009, after 17-22 years, depending on the timing of their initial employment. Many of these people may have joined the irregular economy, but there is no way to estimate their numbers other than by a gross comparison with the estimates of hidden employment provided by ISTAT. These developments imply out-of-official-employment durations four times longer than the unemployment durations provided by official statistics and econometric estimates based on LFS-type microdata. A simple model of the medium run development of the YWD process explains the medium run impact of several demand-side factors: labor cost dynamics, flexibility, age, initial entry conditions. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:260&r=lab |
| By: | Alessia LO TURCO (Universit… Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali); Daniela MAGGIONI (Universit… Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali); Matteo PICCHIO (Ghent University, Sherppa, Department of Social Economics Ghent University) |
| Abstract: | We study the relationship between offshoring and job stability in Italy in the period 1995-2001 by using an administrative dataset on manufacturing workers. We find that the international fragmentation of production negatively affects job stability. Service offshoring and material purchases from developed countries foster job-to-job transitions within manufacturing of all workers and white collars, respectively. However, the most detrimental effects for job stability come from material offshoring to low income countries which drives blue collar workers out of manufacturing. Therefore, policy interventions should especially focus on this latter category of workers more exposed to fragmentation processes and foreign competition. |
| Keywords: | Offshoring, duration analysis, job stability, manufacture, proportional hazard |
| JEL: | C41 F14 F16 J62 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wpaper:378&r=lab |
| By: | Eurico, Sofia (School of Tourism and Maritime Technology); Valle, Patrícia (cieo - research centre for spatial and organizational dynamics); Silva, João Albino (cieo - research centre for spatial and organizational dynamics); Marques, Catarina (Department of Quantitative Methods, ISCTE) |
| Abstract: | This research explores the European Consumer Satisfaction Index model applied to higher education in tourism by accounting for unobserved heterogeneity. In particular, it intends to identify segments of Higher Education Institutions’ consumers based on the structural model estimates of the European Consumer Satisfaction Index, enlarged with the employability construct. A model-based segmentation approach in Partial Least Squares path modelling is used. The European Consumer Satisfaction Index was properly adjusted to the educational framework and has shown its effectiveness when assessing students’ satisfaction regarding the attended Higher Education Institution. Two distinctive, graduates’ segments were identified using a sample of 166 Higher Education Institutions’ consumers. Results confirm the assumption of heterogeneity as the relationships differ across segments and the need for Higher Education Institutions to differently target those segments in such a competitive context. These results may be used strategically by Higher Education Institutions and policy makers as segments of graduates are identified according to their perception of employability and the future influence of this on their satisfaction. Deepening the knowledge on their consumers, Higher Education Institutions will be better prepared to adjust their educational performance to graduates’ best interests and to promote their offer. |
| Keywords: | ECSI; Segmentation; Higher Education; Employability |
| JEL: | M31 |
| Date: | 2012–03–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:cieodp:2012_007&r=lab |
| By: | David G. Atkin |
| Abstract: | This paper presents empirical evidence that the growth of export manufacturing in Mexico during a period of major trade reforms, the years 1986-2000, altered the distribution of education. I use variation in the timing of factory openings across municipalities to show that school dropout increased with local expansions in export manufacturing. The magnitudes I find suggest that for every twenty jobs created, one student dropped out of school at grade 9 rather than continuing through to grade 12. These effects are driven by the least-skilled export-manufacturing jobs which raised the opportunity cost of schooling for students at the margin. |
| JEL: | F16 J24 O12 O14 O19 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18266&r=lab |
| By: | Stefan P.T. Groot (VU University Amsterdam); Henri L.F. de Groot (VU University Amsterdam, and Ecorys NEI); Paolo Veneri (OECD, Paris) |
| Abstract: | This study analyses the relation between education and commuting behaviour of Dutch workers. Results show that, ceteris paribus, higher educated workers commute further, both in terms of distance and time. In addition, higher educated workers are more frequent users of public transport and of bicycles. Furthermore, we find that higher educated workers are relatively more likely to commute towards agglomerated areas and areas that pay relatively high wages, while they are more likely to live in and commute from areas with higher land rents. |
| Keywords: | commuting; education; urban amenities; agglomeration |
| JEL: | R12 R21 R23 |
| Date: | 2012–07–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20120080&r=lab |
| By: | Turturean, Monica; TURTUREAN, Ciprian Ionel |
| Abstract: | In this article we will try to realize a comparative study in order to find out if the internet has a positive or a negative role for undergraduate’s university students. The purpose of this study is to identify the perception of undergraduate university students regarding the effects of the internet for their scientific activities and their training needs. The study is based on data obtained from the application of a sample survey which studies the opinion of undegraduate students regarding the role of internet in students education. The sample size was 496 students (students from „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi and from „Stefan cel Mare” University of Suceava. |
| Keywords: | higher education; internet role; attitude; academic performance; students’ training needs |
| JEL: | I23 I21 L86 |
| Date: | 2012–04–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40434&r=lab |
| By: | C.Y. Cyrus Chu (Academia Sinica); Seik Kim; Wen-Jen Tsay (Academia Sinica) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the time to first birth treating coresidence with husband's parents and labor force participation as endogenous using representative data on Taiwanese married women born over 1933-1968. We utilize a full information maximum likelihood estimator for a duration model with endogenous binary variables. Results controlling for endogeneity suggest that both coresidence and working result in a delay of childbearing, reversing the effect of coresidence on the timing of first birth, but not that of working. We also find that women in earlier cohorts tend to choose coresidency and not working, but an increasing number of women from later cohorts choose to do both or work only. |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udb:wpaper:uwec-2012-04&r=lab |
| By: | Laura Rosendahl Huber (University of Amsterdam); Randolph Sloof (University of Amsterdam); Mirjam van Praag (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of early entrepreneurship education. To this end, we conduct a randomized field experiment to evaluate a leading entrepreneurship education program that is taught worldwide in the final grade of primary school. We focus on pupils' development of relevant skill sets for entrepreneurial activity, both cognitive and non-cognitive. The results indicate that cognitive entrepreneurial skills are unaffected by the program. However, the program has a robust positive effect on non-cognitive entrepreneurial skills. This is surprising since previous evaluations found zero or negative effects. Because these earlier studies all pertain to education for adolescents, our result tentatively suggests that non-cognitive entrepreneurial skills are best developed at an early age. |
| Keywords: | Skill formation; field experiment; entrepreneurship education; entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | L26 I21 J24 C93 |
| Date: | 2012–04–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20120041&r=lab |
| By: | Fofack, Hippolyte |
| Abstract: | This paper draws on an expanded growth accounting framework to estimate the relative contribution of women to growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Empirical results show a consistently positive contribution of women to growth in gross domestic product in the region, both during economic downturns and growth spurts. This is despite the absence of any valuation of home-produced goods and informal sector production, which accounts for the bulk of womens production, in national product and income accounts. Women's positive contribution is largely attributed to their increased rates of labor force participation in wage employment and the reduction in the gender gap in education in recent years. |
| Keywords: | Economic Growth,Gender and Development,Achieving Shared Growth,Population Policies,Labor Policies |
| Date: | 2012–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6153&r=lab |
| By: | NAKATA Daigo |
| Abstract: | Using the Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR) dataset (1st wave and 2nd wave), we examine the redistribution effect of taxes and social security on the labor participation decisions for elderly households. We show that the redistribution of taxes and social security in Japan works only with the generation of pensioners over the age of 65 and is ineffective for the working generation. The pension benefits prevent elderly households from falling into relative poverty, but the effect is comparatively weak in relation to the labor income. In addition, the curbing effects for the labor supply of pension benefits are observed only in the elderly with significant benefits. Moreover, mental and physical health also significantly affects the elderly's labor participation decisions.<br />The results of this paper suggest that social security benefits need to be designed to harmonize with the elderly's self-help or employment situation, and that some measures to improve their quality of life (QOL) are essential to encourage their labor participation. |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:12028&r=lab |
| By: | George Grantham (McGill University) |
| Abstract: | The French census of 1851 is one of the few nineteenth-century censuses that attempted to record the work of women and children carried out within households. This paper argues that the occupational designations in the nominative census lists are an accurate indicator of employment status. This paper analyzes a sample of 70,000 persons drawn from a set of rural communes in northern France. The data indicate that women’s labour force participation was strongly affected by marital status, the occupation of the husband and the presence of young children in the household. The data lend support to the hypothesis that the main driver of labour force participation was poverty. |
| Keywords: | female labour force participation, France, unpaid household work, home-based workers, occupational segregation |
| JEL: | A1 D1 J21 J2 J |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0022&r=lab |
| By: | Isilda Mara |
| Abstract: | This report describes the migration patterns of Romanian migrants in Italy before and after the accession of Romania into the European Union (EU). The findings and the main results presented throughout the report were collected by carrying out a survey in three main cities of Italy Milan, Turin and Rome which are recognized as the main destination regions of Romanians who have migrated to Italy since free visa liberalization in May 2004.The report focuses on four broad areas the profile and migration plans of migrants, regional differences and basic characteristics; labour market patterns during the migration experience, including income and remittances; social inclusion of migrants and access to social security and the health system; and, self-assessment of the migration experience and results of moving to Italy. The survey demonstrated that the mobility of migrants during the free visa regime was initially labour supply driven, whereas more recently, it has been labour demand that moved the migrant from his/her country of origin. However, the survey points out that almost half of Romanian migrants in Italy have indefinite migration plans. The remainder of the migrants express a preference for permanent migration, followed by long-term migration, while a preference for short-term migration is the least popular. The accession of Romania to the EU was accompanied by a flow of migrants with a higher preference for permanent and long-term migration, especially among those who arrived immediately after January 2007. Half of the migrants who had defined migration plans indicated that their current migration preferences, compared to the ones they had upon arrival, have shifted towards permanent migration. This is particularly true among women. As concerns remigration, or return to Romania, the survey reveals that migrants who are more likely to return to the country of origin or move to another country are those living in Rome while migrants who prefer to remain permanently are those living in Turin. As for labour market patterns and regional differences, four-fifths of migrants are employed, with the highest share of those working full-time found in Rome, followed by Turin and Milan. Unemployment among Romanian migrants seems to be the highest in Milan and the lowest in Turin. A significant proportion of migrant women have jobs in the categories ‘Sales and services elementary job’, ‘Personal care and related workers’ and ‘Housekeeping and restaurant services’. Men mostly work as ‘Extraction and building trades workers’, ‘Drivers and mobile plant operators’ and ‘Metal, machinery and related trades workers’. A non-negligible share of migrants work without a fixed contract which makes their employment position more vulnerable and open to exploitation. In addition, the survey shows that occupational switches occurred within all categories of occupational skill levels. In particular, there has been a trend towards jobs distinguished as medium and low skilled. Moreover, a comparison between education level and occupational skill level shows that highly skilled migrants, especially men, are employed in jobs below their level of educational achievement. A concern often expressed is that migrants who have access to health and social security services are more encouraged to enter or stay in a country. However, the survey rejected this hypothesis and suggests that neither receiving social security benefits nor the availability of accessing healthcare drives migrants’ decision to enter and remain in the destination country. Access to healthcare, however, appears to have some potential effect on migration plans. We find that the longer migrants plan to stay in the country, the higher the percentage of them who have access to a general practitioner/doctor and the higher the number of them whose migration decision is affected by access to such services. Accordingly, it emerges that the length of stay in the destination country matters and it confirms that there is a correlation between the duration of stay and the effect on migration plans attributed to access to social security and health services, even though such cases represent less than one-fifth of migrants. Self-assessment of the migration experience and outcomes from moving to Italy demonstrated that overall most of Romanian migrants are happy with their migration experience in Italy. The self-assessment indicated ‘making more money’, ‘finding a better job’ and ‘learning a new language’ as the main positive outcomes from the migration experience. In contrast, ‘insecurity about the future’, ‘discrimination’, ‘negative impact on family relationships’ and ‘doing work under the level of qualification’ are listed among the main negative outcomes. |
| Keywords: | data collection, migration, regions, employment, earnings, health, education, welfare, Romanian migrants |
| JEL: | C8 I J11 J21 J24 J31 J6 R Y Z |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:rpaper:rr:378&r=lab |
| By: | David L. Fuller; B. Ravikumar; Yuzhe Zhang |
| Abstract: | The most prevalent incentive problem in the U.S. unemployment insurance system is that individuals collect unemployment benefits while being gainfully employed. We show how the unemployment insurance authority can efficiently use a combination of tax/subsidy and monitoring to prevent such fraud. The optimal policy monitors the unemployed at fixed intervals. Employment tax is nonmonotonic: it increases between verifications but decreases after a verification. Unemployment benefits are relatively flat between verifications but decrease sharply after a verification. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment ; Insurance |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2012-024&r=lab |
| By: | Scholz, Theresa (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "During the recession of 2008-09 Germany experienced a huge decrease in GDP. Employment, however, remained surprisingly stable. The so-called German labor market miracle is often ascribed to the intensive usage of short-time work. Despite the resurgence of this instrument, little is known about the employees affected by it. This paper analyzes whether employers select certain individuals for short-time work, where special focus is given on the effect of human capital. The analysis is based on a unique linked-employer-employee data set on short-time workers in the district of the employment agency of Nuremberg. We use methods of event history analysis to estimate transition rates from regular employment to short-time work. Our results indicate that employers select a broad range of workers for STW, irrespective of their level of human capital. Fears that short-time work is mainly applied to a certain group of workers are not confirmed." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| JEL: | J23 J24 J3 |
| Date: | 2012–08–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201218&r=lab |
| By: | Florian S. Peters (Duisenberg school of finance, University of Amsterdam); Alexander F. Wagner (Swiss Finance Institute, University of Zuerich, CEPR, Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | We establish that CEOs of companies experiencing volatile industry conditions are more likely to be dismissed. At the same time, industry risk is, controlling for various other factors, unlikely to be directly associated with CEO compensation other than through dismissal risk. Using this identification strategy, we document that CEO turnover risk is significantly positively associated with compensation. This finding is important because job-risk compensating wage differentials arise naturally in competitive labor markets. By contrast, the evidence rejects a simple entrenchment model according to which powerful CEOs have lower job risk and at the same time secure higher compensation. |
| Keywords: | CEO turnover; CEO Compensation; Corporate Governance |
| JEL: | D8 G34 M52 |
| Date: | 2012–03–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20120021&r=lab |
| By: | Ozdemir, Zeynel / A.; Balcilar, Mehmet; Tansel, Aysit |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that the structural breaks are an important characteristic of the monthly labor force participation rate (LFPR) series of Australia, Canada and the USA. Therefore we allow for endogenously determined multiple structural breaks in the empirical specifications of fractionally integrated ARMA model. The findings indicate that contrary to the previous research the LFPRs of Australia, Canada and the USA are stationary implying that the informational value of the unemployment rates about the behavior of labor markets and the causes of joblessness are useful. |
| Keywords: | Labor Force Participation Rates; Structural Change; Stationarity |
| JEL: | E24 J21 C22 |
| Date: | 2012–08–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40572&r=lab |
| By: | Zeynel Abidin Ozdemir (Department of Economics, Gazi University); Mehmet Balcilar (Department of Economics, Eastern Mediterranean University); Aysit Tansel (Department of Economics, Middle East Technical University) |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that the structural breaks are an important characteristic of the monthly labor force participation rate (LFPR) series of Australia, Canada and the USA. Therefore we allow for endogenously determined multiple structural breaks in the empirical specifications of fractionally integrated ARMA model. The findings indicate that contrary to the previous research the LFPRs of Australia, Canada and the USA are stationary implying that the informational value of the unemployment rates about the behavior of labor markets and the causes of joblessness are useful. |
| Keywords: | Stock-Based Labor Force Participation Rates; Structural Change; Stationarity. |
| JEL: | C22 E24 J21 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koc:wpaper:1223&r=lab |
| By: | Ratto, Marisa (Université Paris-Dauphine); Tominey, Emma (University of York); Vergé, Thibaud (CREST) |
| Abstract: | The adoption of performance related pay schemes has become increasingly popular in the public sector of several countries. In the UK, the scheme designers favoured collective performance pay with the aim to foster cooperation across offices. The resulting team structure included several offices (subteams) within the same team, defined by the remuneration scheme. In this paper we analyse the strategic interactions across subteams created by a two-level team structure, in order to assess whether rewarding collective performance necessarily promotes cooperation. We show that such team structure creates conflicting incentives to free-ride across and within subteams. Moreover, the relative size of subteams can be a powerful means to deliver incentives when funds for performance rewards are limited. Using data for one of the incentive schemes piloted in the UK, we analyse the role of the target level and of the relative size of subteams on subteams' performance. |
| Keywords: | incentives, teams performance, sub-teams, cooperation |
| JEL: | M52 M54 J33 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6747&r=lab |
| By: | Vincze, Szilvia; Harsányi, Gergely |
| Abstract: | In the Széll Kálmán Plan the government committed itself to transform the higher education system; this change is necessary and actual. Reduction of neither the state-controlled higher education institutions, nor the number of students participating in higher education is justified: in an international comparison the number of Hungarian state-controlled institutions is significantly below the European average; in terms of the number of state financed students per one million inhabitants our arrears is considerable compared both to the surrounding and to the European developed countries. Number of people graduated in higher education in Hungary is below the OECD and UE19 average. In terms of higher education expenditures Hungary is amongst the last countries. However, government investments into higher education return significantly; Hungary is within the leading group in terms of this index. While rate of employment in basic and secondary education is below the average of OECD and EU19, our index in higher education is average or even above that. In the case of an employee with a higher education qualification the increased tax incomes mean approximately 20 million Ft additional income as compared to the case of a physical employee. Education directly defines the development path of a country; therefore it is extremely important for trends of modification to be professionally established and to serve growth. |
| Keywords: | higher education; return; economic and social benefit |
| JEL: | I23 I28 I22 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40371&r=lab |
| By: | Glenn Ellison; Ashley Swanson |
| Abstract: | This paper explores differences in the frequency with which students from different schools reach high levels of math achievement. Data from the American Mathematics Competitions is used to produce counts of high-scoring students from more than two thousand public, coeducational, non-magnet, non-charter U.S. high schools. High-achieving students are found to be very far from evenly distributed. There are strong demographic predictors of high achievement. There are also large differences among seemingly similar schools. The unobserved heterogeneity across schools includes a thick tail of schools that produce many more high-achieving students than the average school. Gender-related differences and other breakdowns are also discussed. |
| JEL: | C25 I21 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18277&r=lab |
| By: | Judith Scott-Clayton; Olga Rodriguez |
| Abstract: | Half of all college students take at least one remedial course as part of their postsecondary experience, despite mixed evidence on the effectiveness of this intervention. Using a regression-discontinuity design with data from a large urban community college system, we extend the research on remediation in three ways. First, we articulate three alternative models of remediation to help guide interpretation of sometimes conflicting results in the literature. Second, in addition to credits and degree completion we examine several under-explored outcomes, including the initial decision to enroll, grades in subsequent college courses, and post-treatment proficiency test scores. Finally, we exploit rich high school background data to examine heterogeneity in the impact of remedial assignment by predicted academic risk. We find that remediation does little to develop students’ skills. But we also find relatively little evidence that it discourages either initial enrollment or persistence, except for a subgroup we identify as potentially mis-assigned to remediation. Instead, the primary effect of remediation appears to be diversionary: students simply take remedial courses instead of college-level courses. These diversionary effects are largest for the lowest-risk students. Implications for remediation policy are discussed. |
| JEL: | I21 I23 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18328&r=lab |
| By: | João Carlos Lopes; Paula Cristina Albuquerque |
| Abstract: | Population ageing is a common trend in most developed countries with many important economic, social and political consequences. In Portugal, this trend has been particularly strong. The ageing index was 34% in 1970, it is about 129% in 2011, according to the provisory results of the last Census and most recent demographic projections, is expected to be over 240% in 2030. One of the main issues associated with ageing is its effect on the composition of the labour force. The main purpose of this paper is to study the changes in the age structure of the Portuguese labour force between 1989 and 2009. First of all, the size and relative weight of older workers are quantified, both as a group (people with more than 54 years old), by age sub-groups (55-59; 60-64; 65+) and gender. Then, particular attention is given to the regional distribution of these workers, both at the Nuts II (7 regions) and Nuts III (30 regions) levels. The sectoral distribution is also measured, at national and regional levels. Finally, a comparative analysis is made between younger and olderer workers, considering the education levels, establishments’ size, labour compensation and part-time versus full time work regime. The main data used are Quadros de Pessoal, from Ministry of Solidarity and Social Security covering people working in the private business sector (around 3,3 million workers, in 2009) and excluding liberal professionals. |
| Keywords: | Older workers; Private business sector; Portuguese regions |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:isegwp:wp222012&r=lab |
| By: | Ha Trong Nguyen; Amy Y.C. Liu; Alison L. Booth |
| Abstract: | In the absence of a broad-based pension scheme, the elderly in developing countries may rely on monetary transfers made by their children and on their own labour supply. This paper examines whether monetary transfers from children help to reduce elderly parents’ need to work. Taking the possible endogeneity of children’s transfers in the parents’ labour supply into account and using maximum likelihood methods and Vietnamese data, we find that monetary transfers help the elderly cope with risks associated with old age or illness. At the same time, however, monetary transfers are not sufficient to fully substitute for parents’ labour supply. |
| Keywords: | old-age support, labour supply, inter-generational transfers, endogenous variable, maximum likelihood |
| JEL: | J14 J22 J26 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:664&r=lab |
| By: | SHIMIZUTANI Satoshi; FUJII Mayu; OSHIO Takashi |
| Abstract: | This study examines retirement decisions in Japan, using the option value (OV) model proposed by Stock and Wise (1990) and examined by subsequent studies. This model assumes that individuals maximize a weighted average of utility from their labor income until retirement as well as that from their pension income afterward and determine the timing of retirement based on the OV of postponing it. Using micro-level data collected from the Japanese Study on Aging and Retirement (JSTAR), we computed the OV for each individual working in 2007 and examined its association with the retirement decisions made in 2009. We found that the probability of retirement correlates negatively with the OV and that healthier individuals are somewhat more sensitive to the OV. Furthermore, our simulations show that more generous parameters vis-à-vis eligibility for disability pension benefits slightly increase the probability of retirement, while reduced pension benefits have no significant impact. |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:12050&r=lab |
| By: | Burgess, Simon (University of Bristol); Propper, Carol (University of Bristol); Ratto, Marisa (Université Paris-Dauphine); Tominey, Emma (University of York) |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses a lack of evidence on the impact of performance pay in the public sector by evaluating a pilot scheme of incentives in a major government agency. The incentive scheme was based on teams and covered quantity and quality targets, measured with varying degrees of precision. We use data from the agency's performance management system and personnel records plus matched labour market data. We focus on three main issues: whether performance pay matters for public service worker productivity, what the team basis of the scheme implies, and the impact of the differential measurement precision. We show that the use of performance pay had no impact at the mean, but that there was significant heterogeneity of response. This heterogeneity was patterned as one would expect from a free rider versus peer monitoring perspective. We found that the incentive scheme had a substantial positive effect in small teams, and a negative response in large teams. We found little impact of the scheme on quality measures, which we interpret as due to the differential measurement technology. We show that the scheme in small teams had non-trivial effects on output, and our estimates suggest that the use of incentive pay is much more cost effective than a general pay rise. |
| Keywords: | incentives, public sector, teams, performance, personnel economics |
| JEL: | J33 J45 D23 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6738&r=lab |
| By: | Gautier, Pieter (VU University Amsterdam); Muller, Paul (VU University Amsterdam); van der Klaauw, Bas (VU University Amsterdam); Rosholm, Michael (Aarhus University); Svarer, Michael (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | Randomized experiments provide policy relevant treatment effects if there are no spillovers between participants and nonparticipants. We show that this assumption is violated for a Danish activation program for unemployed workers. Using a difference-in-difference model we show that the nonparticipants in the experiment regions find jobs slower after the introduction of the activation program (relative to workers in other regions). We then estimate an equilibrium search model. This model shows that a large scale role out of the activation program decreases welfare, while a standard partial microeconometric cost-benefit analysis would conclude the opposite. |
| Keywords: | randomized experiment, policy-relevant treatment effects, job search, externalities, indirect inference |
| JEL: | C21 E24 J64 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6748&r=lab |
| By: | Steven Glazerman |
| Abstract: | This article discusses the trade-offs associated with study designs that involve random assignment of students within schools and describes the experience from one such study of Teach For America (TFA). The article concludes that within-school random assignment studies such as the TFA evaluation are challenging but may also be feasible and generate useful evidence. |
| Keywords: | Random Assignment, Teach For America, Education Programs, Students |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2012–04–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:7414&r=lab |
| By: | Roel van Veldhuizen (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Previous studies have proposed a link between corruption and wages in the public sector. This paper investigates this link using a laboratory experiment. In the experiment, public officials have the opportunity to accept a bribe and can then decide between a neutral and a corrupt action. The corrupt action benefits the briber but poses a large negative externality on a charity. The results show that increasing public officials' wages greatly reduces their corruptibility. In particular, experienced low wage public officials accept 91% of bribes on average, whereas high wage public officials accept 38%. Moreover, high wage public officials are less likely to choose the corrupt option. |
| Keywords: | bribery; corruption; experimental economics; laboratory experiment |
| JEL: | D73 C91 K42 |
| Date: | 2012–04–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20120038&r=lab |
| By: | Martine Druant (National Bank of Belgium); Silvia Fabiani (Bank of Italy); Gábor Kézdi (Magyar Nemzeti Bank (central bank of Hungary), Central European University, Institute of Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences); Ana Lamo (European Central Bank); Fernando Martins (Bank of Portugal, ISEG (Technical University of Lisbon), Universidade Lusíada of Lisbon); Roberto Sabbatini (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents new evidence on the patterns of price and wage adjustment in European firms and on the extent of nominal rigidities. It uses a unique dataset collected through a firm-level survey conducted in a broad range of countries and covering various sectors. Several conclusions are drawn from this evidence. Firms adjust wages less frequently than prices: the former tend to remain unchanged for about 15 months on average, the latter for around 10 months. The degree of price rigidity varies substantially across sectors and depends strongly on economic features, such as the intensity of competition, the exposure to foreign markets and the share of labour costs in total cost. Instead, country specificities, mostly related to the labour market institutional setting, are more relevant in characterising the pattern of wage adjustment. The latter exhibits also a substantial degree of time-dependence, as firms tend to concentrate wage changes in a specific month, mostly January in the majority of countries. Wage and price changes feed into each other at the micro level and there is a relationship between wage and price rigidity. |
| Keywords: | survey, wage rigidity, price rigidity, indexation, institutions, time dependent |
| JEL: | D21 E30 J31 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mnb:opaper:2012/102&r=lab |
| By: | Andries de Grip (ROA, Maastricht University, IZA and Netspar); Arnaud Dupuy (Reims Management School, ROA, IZA and Netspar. Corresponding address: Maastricht University PO Box 616, NL-6200, MD, The Netherlands. Email: a.dupuy@maastrichtuniversity.nl.); Jelle Jolles (Faculty of Psychology and Education, Free University of Amsterdam); Martin van Boxtel (Department of Neuropsychology, Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses longitudinal test data to analyze the relation be- tween retirement and cognitive development. Controlling for individ- ual xed e¤ects and lagged cognition, we nd that retirees face greater declines in information processing speed than those who remain em- ployed. However, remarkably, their cognitive exibility declines less, an e¤ect that appears to be persistent 6 years after retirement. Both e¤ects of retirement on cognitive development are comparable to the e¤ect of a ve to six-year age di¤erence. We show that the e¤ects of retirement on cognitive decline cannot be explained by (1) a re- lief e¤ect after being employed in low-skilled jobs, (2) mood swings or (3) changes in lifestyle. Controlling for changes in blood pressure, which are negatively related to cognitive exibility, we still nd lower declines in cognitive exibility for retirees. Since the decline in in- formation processing speed after retirement holds particularly for the low educated, activating these persons after retirement could lower the social costs of an aging society. |
| Keywords: | Cognitive decline, labor market activity, retirement |
| JEL: | J24 J26 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msm:wpaper:2012/14&r=lab |
| By: | Hyeongwoo Kim; Henry Thompson |
| Abstract: | This paper examines US wage adjustment in a structural vector autoregression of the factor proportions model of production and trade with energy, capital, and labor inputs. Data cover the years 1949 to 2006. The wage adjusts to changes in inputs levels and output prices over 6 to 8 years. Energy has a more robust wage impact than capital. The wage reacts weakly if at all to the falling price of manufactures and rising price of services over the sample period. Estimates relate directly to factor proportions theory, suggesting robust substitution with labor in the middle of the factor intensity ranking. |
| Keywords: | Wages; Energy; Factor Proportions Model; Vector Autoregression |
| JEL: | F11 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:abn:wpaper:auwp2012-05&r=lab |
| By: | Allen Jim; Velden Rolf van der (METEOR) |
| Abstract: | The world is changing rapidly in a lot of ways, but the dominant change is in ICT. Changingtechnology has far-reaching implications for how we act and interact at work, in education, incivic life and at home. Furthermore, this change is in large part the driving force behind many ofthe other major changes, such as globalization and flexibilization. These changes have led manyscholars to point to a new set of skills – the so-called 21st century skills – that are thought tobe essential for people’s ability to function and participate fully in today’s world. While we donot dispute the importance of these 21st century skills, we do caution against blindly pursuingthese skills and neglecting other more traditional classes of skill, such as basic skills (readingand math) as well as specialized knowledge and abilities – the so-called specific skills.Educational policy and practice should proceed from the insight that skills of individual humanbeings form a complete interdependent package of all these three kinds of skills: basic skills,specific skills and 21st century skills. It is far more fruitful to view 21st century skills inrelation to the basic skills that underlie them and the specific skills that they combine with inconcrete purposive action. In this essay we present a framework for the evaluation of what we knowabout our current situation in terms of various kinds of skills and learning which alerts us togaps in our knowledge that need to be filled for future policy purposes. It also performs asimilar function when looking at the challenges facing education and what education can do to meetthese challenges. |
| Keywords: | education, training and the labour market; |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umamet:2012044&r=lab |
| By: | John Morgan (University of California, Berkeley); Dana Sisak (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Felix Vardy (University of California, Berkeley and IMF) |
| Abstract: | We study career choice when competition for promotion is a contest. A more meritocratic profession always succeeds in attracting the highest ability types, whereas a profession with superior promotion benefits attracts high types only if the hazard rate of the noise in performance evaluation is strictly increasing. Raising promotion opportunities produces no systematic effect on the talent distribution, while a higher base wage attracts talent only if total promotion opportunities are sufficiently plentiful. |
| Keywords: | career choice; promotion competition; selection; meritocracy |
| JEL: | J45 J24 M52 |
| Date: | 2012–07–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20120077&r=lab |
| By: | Edward P. Lazear; Kathryn L. Shaw; Christopher T. Stanton |
| Abstract: | Do supervisors enhance productivity? Arguably, the most important relationship in the firm is between worker and supervisor. The supervisor may hire, fire, assign work, instruct, motivate and reward workers. Models of incentives and productivity build at least some subset of these functions in explicitly, but because of lack of data, little work exists that demonstrates the importance of bosses and the channels through which their productivity enhancing effects operate. As more data become available, it is possible to examine the effects of people and practices on productivity. Using a company-based data set on the productivity of technology-based services workers, supervisor effects are estimated and found to be large. Three findings stand out. First, the choice of boss matters. There is substantial variation in boss quality as measured by the effect on worker productivity. Replacing a boss who is in the lower 10% of boss quality with one who is in the upper 10% of boss quality increases a team’s total output by about the same amount as would adding one worker to a nine member team. Using a normalization, this implies that the average boss is about 1.75 times as productive as the average worker. Second, boss’s primary activity is teaching skills that persist. Third, efficient assignment allocates the better bosses to the better workers because good bosses increase the productivity of high quality workers by more than that of low quality workers. |
| JEL: | J01 J24 J3 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18317&r=lab |
| By: | Timothy J. Halliday (University of Hawai’a at Manoa and IZA) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we use the death file from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to investigate the relationship between county-level unemployment rates and mortality risk. After partialling out important confounding factors including baseline health status as well as state, industry and occupation fixed effects, we show that poor local labor market conditions are associated with higher mortality risk for working-aged men. There is little to no such relationship for people with weaker labor force attachments such as women or the elderly. Our results contribute to a growing body of work that suggests that poor economic conditions pose health risks and illustrate an important contrast with studies based on aggregate data. The latter underscores the need to arrive at a better understanding of the aggregation mechanism linking the micro and macro studies. |
| Keywords: | Recessions, Mortality, Health, Aggregation |
| JEL: | I0 I12 J1 |
| Date: | 2012–08–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hai:wpaper:201214&r=lab |
| By: | Caliendo, Lorenzo; Monte, Ferdinando; Rossi-Hansberg, Esteban |
| Abstract: | We use a comprehensive dataset of French manufacturing firms to study their internal organization. We first divide the employees of each firm into `layers' using occupational categories. Layers are hierarchical in that the typical worker in a higher layer earns more, and the typical firm occupies less of them. In addition, the probability of adding (dropping) a layer is very positively (negatively) correlated with value added. We then explore the changes in the wages and number of employees that accompany expansions in layers, output, or markets (by becoming exporters). The empirical results indicate that reorganization, through changes in layers, is key to understand how firms expand and contract. For example, we find that firms that expand substantially add layers and pay lower average wages in all pre-existing layers. In contrast, firms that expand little and do not reorganize pay higher average wages in all pre-existing layers. |
| Keywords: | Firm Dynamics; Firm Growth; Organizational Change; Organizations; Skills; Wages |
| JEL: | D22 F16 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9073&r=lab |
| By: | Gilbert Cette (Banque de France et DEFI - Université de la Méditerranée); Nicolas Dromel (Paris School of Economics - Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne); Rémy Lecat (Banque de France); Anne-Charlotte Paret (Banque de France et ENSAE) |
| Abstract: | This analysis characterizes empirically how good labour relations can alleviate the negative impact on productivity of regulatory constraints or workforce opposition. Our evidence of good labour relations lies in the existence of binding collective agreements, at the firm or at the industry level. The estimations are based on a unique dataset collected by the Banque de France about the obstacles French firms may face in increasing their utilisation of production factors. Data are an unbalanced sample of 7,441 observations, corresponding to 1,545 companies, over the period 1991-2008. Our main results may be summarised as follows : i) ‘workforce or union opposition’ interacted with ‘regulatory constraints’ has a negative significant impact on total factor productivity (TFP). Regulatory constraints would become really binding when workers or unions use them as a tool to oppose management's decisions ; ii) ‘regulatory constraints’ interacted with ‘branch or firm agreement’ has a positive significant impact on TFP. These agreements, which can only be obtained if labour relations are supportive, would be used by firms to offset the negative impact of regulatory constraints. These results confirm that labour relations quality, at the branch or the firm levels, is an important factor of productive performance. |
| Keywords: | Labour relation, collective bargaining, trade unions, productivity. |
| JEL: | J53 J52 J51 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:12052&r=lab |
| By: | Leung, Ming D. |
| Abstract: | I examine the phenomenon of occupational agglomeration – the observation that workers with similar skills tend to co-locate geographically. Extant explanations point to the fact that industries also tend to agglomerate – thereby creating a need for a particular type of employee to locate there. However, labor markets can pool even when propinquity to employers is not beneficial. I argue that particular types of work become associated with specific geographical locations. This association becomes a categorical stereotype – which leads employers to prefer employees from particular geographic regions because they will seem more appropriate – a form of “spatial signaling.†I test this theory in an online, virtual marketplace for freelancing services. I find that the greater the association between a particular job category and a country – what I termjob specific geographic identity– the more likelyanyfreelancer from that country will win a job in that category. I also find this effect is stronger when a freelancer has no previous relevant experience but a bad experience by a buyer (at this job/country intersection) can eliminate this positive effect. This effect holds net of other explanations such as spatial mismatch, knowledge spillovers, and input cost advantages. |
| Keywords: | Management Science, Economics, General, Occupational Agglomeration, Job Categories, Space, Labor Markets |
| Date: | 2012–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:indrel:qt31b4c6p8&r=lab |
| By: | Uluc Aysun (University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL); Florence Bouvet (Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA); Richard Hofler (University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we derive an alternative measure for structural unemployment using a stochastic frontier analysis. This measure, by empirical design, is always less than total unemployment and it is, thus, more consistent with the theoretical description of structural unemployment than its usual interpretation as a smoothed long-run average of total unemployment. We find that our measure does not always track the long-run trends in total unemployment in the U.S. and when compared to the existing measures can produce different insights about the evolution of structural unemployment. Demographic and regional evidence provides some validation for our approach and allows us to determine how demographic and regional factors are related to the variation in structural unemployment across time and regions. |
| Keywords: | frictional, cyclical, structural unemployment, stochastic frontier |
| JEL: | E24 J21 J64 C13 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfl:wpaper:2012-04&r=lab |
| By: | Matthew McCauley (University of Alaska Anchorage) |
| Abstract: | The growing popularity of alternative choices to traditional-based public schools—such as public charter/lottery-based schools—has prompted nationwide research. In Anchorage, however, there are few quantitative studies that compare student performance across traditional public schools, charter schools, and lottery-based schools. The purpose of this project is to create and analyze panel data for all public elementary schools within the Anchorage School District and compare the achievement of charter/lottery with traditional-based schools. This will be done using public Terra Nova and SBA data from ASD for the years 2007–2010 in addition to U.S. Census data. Data will be imported into Stata, a robust statistical software application, and regression techniques will be used to compare student Terra Nova and SBA scores while controlling for other factors that also influence test scores. |
| Date: | 2012–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:scon12:2&r=lab |
| By: | Elena Pastorino |
| Abstract: | In this appendix I present details of the model and of the empirical analysis and results of counterfactual experiments omitted from the paper. In Section 1 I describe a simple example that illustrates how, even in the absence of (technological) human capital acquisition, productivity shocks, or separation shocks, the learning component of the model can naturally generate mobility between jobs within a firm and turnover between firms. I also present omitted details of the proofs of Propositions 1, 2, and 3 in the paper. In Section 2 I provide an overview of the numerical solution of the model. In Section 3 I discuss in detail model identification. In Section 4 I briefly describe the original U.S. firm dataset of Baker, Gibbs, and Holmström (1994a), on which my work is based. In Section 5 I derive the likelihood function of the model. In Section 6 I present results from a Monte Carlo exercise to show the identifiability of the model’s parameters in practice. In Section 7 I derive bounds on the informativeness of jobs at competitors of the firm in my data, based on the estimates of the parameters reported in the paper. Finally, in Section 8 I present estimation results based on a sample that includes entrants into the firm at levels higher than Level 1. Results of counterfactual experiments omitted from the paper are contained in Tables A.12–A.14. |
| Keywords: | Wages |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedmsr:470&r=lab |