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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Kenneth L. Sørensen (Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University, Denmark) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates effects on wages of a Danish field experiment intensifying Active Labor Market Policies (ALMP).We link unemployed workers who participated in an ALMP experiment called “Quickly Back” carried out by the Danish Ministry of Employment 2005-2006 in two counties to matched employer-employee and public transfer register data up to 2008 enabling us to analyze exact labor market transitions and jobs of the participants. Men in one of the counties experienced significant higher probability of earning higher short and long term wages after treatment. Treated men in the other county encountered a higher probability of earning lower wages than non-treated in the short term. Women saw small positive or zero effects on wages. |
| Keywords: | Active Labor Market Policies, controlled experiment, wages, Mixed Proportional Hazard model |
| JEL: | C41 J31 J64 |
| Date: | 2012–08–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2012-20&r=lab |
| By: | Rupert, Peter; Zanella, Giulio |
| Abstract: | We document empirical life cycle profiles of wages, earnings, and hours of work for pay from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, following the same workers for up to four decades along the intensive margin of labor supply. For six of the eight cohorts we analyze the wage profile does not decline with age, while the earnings profile always does. The discrepancy is explained by a sharp drop of the hours profile beginning shortly after age 50, when many workers start a smooth transition into retirement by working progressively fewer hours. This pattern is not an artifact of staggered abrupt retirement, and is robust to attrition- and selection correction (i.e., to taking into account that the composition of our sample, for a given cohort, changes over time). We explore the nontrivial restrictions on dynamic models of the aggregate economy that this evidence suggests, and we provide numerical profiles that can be readily used in quantitative macroeconomic analysis. |
| Keywords: | Economics, General, Economics, Other, International Economics, life cycle, wage profile, labor supply, intensive margin human capital, preretirement |
| Date: | 2012–08–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucsbec:qt61f2f1hv&r=lab |
| By: | Elena Crivellaro (University of Padova) |
| Abstract: | While there has been intense debate in the empirical literature about the evolution of the college wage premium in the US, its evolution in Europe has been given little attention. This paper aims to investigate the evolution of the returns to higher education in 12 European countries from 1994 to 2009. In particular, it explores how does this evolution affect wage inequality and how it differs across age cohorts. The period of interest has seen higher education participation rate increasing dramatically: graduate supply considerably outstripped demand which ought to imply a fall in the premium. I use cross country variation in relative supply, demand and labour market institutions to look at their effects on the trend in the college wage gap. I address possible concerns of endogeneity of relative supply by an instrumental variable strategy. Results show a significant decline of college returns in countries with higher relative supply of skilled workers and a marked fall in college returns for recent cohorts for both men and women in all European countries. find evidence that both market and non market factors matter in explaining wage inequality. More specifically, the estimated growth in the wage gap appears negatively correlated to changes in relative supply and positively correlated with the relative demand index, in particular, in countries with higher relative supply of skilled workers, that present a stronger decline in the returns to college. Institutional constraints also matter. |
| JEL: | J24 J31 D31 I24 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pad:wpaper:0146&r=lab |
| By: | Costas Meghir; Renata Narita; Jean-Marc Robin |
| Abstract: | It is often argued that informal labor markets in developing countries promote growth by reducing the impact of regulation. On the other hand informality may reduce the amount of social protection offered to workers. We extend the wage-posting framework of Burdett and Mortensen (1998) to allow heterogeneous firms to decide whether to locate in the formal or the informal sector, as well as set wages. Workers engage in both off the job and on the job search. We estimate the model using Brazilian micro data and evaluate the labor market and welfare effects of policies towards informality. |
| JEL: | J24 J3 J42 J6 O17 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18347&r=lab |
| By: | Strifler, Matthias; Beissinger, Thomas |
| Abstract: | We consider a theoretical model in which unions not only take the outside option into account, but also base their wage-setting decisions on an internal reference, called the fairness reference. Wage and employment outcomes and the shape of the aggregate wagesetting curve depend on the weight and the size of the fairness reference relative to the outside option. If the fairness reference is relatively high compared to the outside option, higher wages and lower employment than in the standard model will prevail. If hit by an adverse technology shock, the economy will then react with a stronger downward adjustment in employment, whereas real wages are more rigid than in the standard model. With a low fairness reference the opposite results are obtained. An increase in the fairness weight amplifies the deviations of wages and employment from those of the standard model. It also leads to an increase in the degree of real wage rigidity if the fairness reference is high and an increase in the degree of real wage flexibility if the fairness reference is low. Thus, higher wages go hand in hand with more pronounced wage stickiness. -- |
| Keywords: | Labor Unions,Fairness,Wage Rigidity,Wage Flexibility,Wage Stickiness,Wage-Setting Curve,Wage-Setting Process,Unemployment |
| JEL: | J51 J64 E24 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fziddp:562012&r=lab |
| By: | Gerards Ruud; Grip Andries de; Witlox Maaike (ROA rm) |
| Abstract: | This article studies the use and impact of a firm-sponsored training (“Employabilitymiles”)voucher scheme that aims to stimulate employees to develop a more activeattitude toward their own employability. Using data from two surveys of the firm’sworkforce, we find that voucher use is related to various personality traits and personalcharacteristics. In particular, a worker’s ambition, goal setting, and education level arepositively related to voucher use. In addition, women and those with longer tenure spendtheir vouchers more often. Conversely, workers with a more positive self-image as wellas those who are negatively reciprocal spend their vouchers less often. The negativerelation between voucher use and negative reciprocity suggests that workers whoare more negatively reciprocal perceive the voucher as a threat. Further, we find thatvoucher use positively affects worker employability awareness and willingness to train.Remarkably, participation in non-voucher training shows little relation to personalitytraits. From a human resources perspective, this finding suggests that by employing avoucher scheme, the firm makes training participation more dependent on employeepersonality and individual characteristics instead of human resources practices. |
| Keywords: | education, training and the labour market; |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2012010&r=lab |
| By: | Bick, Alexander; Fuchs-Schündeln, Nicola |
| Abstract: | We document contemporaneous differences in the aggregate labor supply of married couples across 19 OECD countries. We quantify the contribution of international differences in non-linear labor income taxes and consumption taxes, as well as male and female wages, to the international differences in the data. Our model replicates the comparatively small differences of married men's hours worked very well. Moreover, taxes and wages account for a large part of the observed substantial differences in married women's labor supply between the US and Western, Eastern, and Northern Europe, but cannot explain the low labor supply of married women in Southern Europe. |
| Keywords: | Hours Worked; Taxation; Two-Earner Households |
| JEL: | E60 H20 H31 J12 J22 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9115&r=lab |
| By: | Daniela Glocker; Johanna Storck |
| Abstract: | Applying a financial assets approach, we analyze the returns and earnings risk of investments into different types of human capital. Even though the returns from investing in human capital are extensively studied, little is known about the properties of the returns to different types of human capital within a given educational path. Using information from the German Micro Census, we estimate the risk and returns to around 70 fields of education and differentiate between vocational and academic education. We identify fields of education that are efficient investment goods, i.e. high returns at a given level of risk, and fields that are chosen for other (non-monetary) reasons. Furthermore, we rank fields of education by their return per unit of risk and find that university education is not always superior to other educational paths. |
| Keywords: | Educational choice, human capital investment, returns to schooling, mean-variance analysis |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1240&r=lab |
| By: | Karen Andrea García Rojas |
| Abstract: | On average women are paid less than men for equal work in every country in the world. In Colombia, the average of the wage gap seems to be between 10% and 13% although women have surpassed men in average years of education. A part of these gap can be explained because of men are greater represented in better paid disciplines, but the main explanation, 'the subjective one', relevant with gender wage discrimination, could explain more than the half of the gap. Historically, the female has had to cope with the existence of a stereotyped division of work, which has assigned her, specific roles with deep traditional roots. For women it has not been easy to get rid of these cultural patterns, which not only involve employment discrimination by employers, but also involve, in general, doubts and dilemmas that make them less competitive in a world dominated by men during centuries. There are several papers about the gender wage gap in Colombia. But this field only considers women professional workers, it means, high and middle classes. If they are in that situation, what happen with the lower classes’ women? This essay constructs a discussion since a political economy critical view, around the difficult situation of labor gender discrimination and particular situations of female workers in all social classes, making a comparison between the roles and dilemmas of women workers of different classes; under the recognition that low class women face a deeper and more dramatic discrimination. In the lower classes, women's situation is far to be ‘liberation’, although in some social circles there is the wrong idea that work gender discrimination ‘is over’. In general, lower classes’ women do have a low possibility of independence, autonomy and gender consciousness, because of the difficult access to quality education and formal jobs. Moreover, there is evidence which proves that executive women and women in leadership jobs have been decisively supported by the domestic work to get 'success' in their careers; which shows that in our society there is a gender gap by social class: the dynamics of modern capitalism has allowed, in general, the improved of the welfare, independence and equality for women in upper class (although there remains a gap with their male counterparts), but has not brought the same benefits to lower class women. |
| Date: | 2012–01–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000176:009935&r=lab |
| By: | Todd, Petra E. |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effectiveness of a variety of policy interventions that have been tried in developing and transition economies with the goal of improving women's employability and quality of work. The programs include active labor market programs, education and training programs, programs that facilitate work (such as childcare subsidies, parental leave programs and land titling programs), microfinance programs, entrepreneurship and leadership programs, and conditional cash transfer programs. Some of these policy interventions were undertaken to increase employment, some to increase female employment, and some for other reasons. All of these programs have been subjected to impact evaluations of different kinds and some also to rigorous cost-benefit analyses. Many were found to be effective in increasing women's quantity of work as measured by increased rates of labor market participation and number of hours worked. In some cases, the programs also increased women's quality of work, for example, by increasing the capacity for women to work in the formal rather than the informal sector where wages are higher and where women are more likely to have access to health, retirement, and other benefits. |
| Keywords: | Labor Markets,Labor Policies,Poverty Impact Evaluation,Poverty Monitoring&Analysis,Population Policies |
| Date: | 2012–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6189&r=lab |
| By: | Fossen, Frank M.; Büttner, Tobias J. M. |
| Abstract: | We assess the relevance of formal education for the productivity of the self-employed and distinguish between opportunity entrepreneurs, who voluntarily pursue a business opportunity, and necessity entrepreneurs, who lack alternative employment options. We expect differences in the returns to education between these groups because of different levels of control. We use the German Socio-economic Panel and account for the endogeneity of education and non-random selection. The results indicate that the returns to a year of education for opportunity entrepreneurs are 3.5 percentage points higher than the paid employees' rate of 8.1%, but 6.5 percentage points lower for necessity entrepreneurs. -- |
| Keywords: | returns to education,opportunity,necessity,entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | J23 J24 J31 I20 L26 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:201219&r=lab |
| By: | Wen Fan (University College Dublin); Yuanyuan Ma (University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | Good understanding on the human capital externalities is important for both policy makers and social science researchers. Economists have speculated for at least a century that the social returns to education may exceed the private returns. In this paper, using the longitudinal data from China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), we examine how individual wage changes associated with the share of college graduates in the same province across years for a person who has never moved by implementing individual fixed effects estimates. The individual fixed effect model shows that the external returns to education in China appear to be negative and on the order of -2%, which might be biased by potential endogeneity. Concerned with this problem, we then implement the IV fixed effect estimates and find positive external returns to education at about 10%. We also find this returns differ across individual heterogeneity. |
| Keywords: | Education, Externalities, Spillover, Signalling, China |
| JEL: | J0 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2012–08–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201220&r=lab |
| By: | Monica I. Garcia-Perez (Department of Economics, St. Cloud State University) |
| Abstract: | Using a simple search model, with urn-ball derived matching function, this paper investigates the effect of firm owner’s and coworkers’ nativity on hiring patterns and wages. In the model, social networks reduce search frictions and wages are derived endogenously as a function of the efficiency of the social ties of current employees. As a result, individuals with more efficient connections tend to receive higher wages and lower unemployment rate. However, because this efficiency depends on matching with same-type owners and coworkers, there is also a differential effect among workers’ wages in the same firm. This analysis highlights the potential importance of social connections and social capital for understanding employment opportunities and wage differentials between these groups. |
| Keywords: | immigration; search models; social networks; wage differential; hiring process. |
| JEL: | J15 J21 J31 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:scs:wpaper:1221&r=lab |
| By: | Lavy, Victor (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I examine how student academic achievements and behavior were affected by a school finance policy experiment undertaken in elementary schools in Israel. Begun in 2004, the funding formula changed from a budget set per class to a budget set per student, with more weight given to students from lower socioeconomic and lower educational backgrounds. The experiment altered teaching budgets, the length of the school week, and the allocation of time devoted to core subjects. The results suggest that spending more money and spending more time at school and on key tasks all lead to increasing academic achievements with no behavioral costs. I find that the overall budget per class has positive and significant effects on students' average test scores and that this effect is symmetric and identical for schools that gained or lost resources due to the funding reform. Separate estimations of the effect of increasing the length of the school week and the subject-specific instructional time per week also show positive and significant effects on math, science, and English test scores. However, no cross effects of additional instructional time across subjects emerge, suggesting that the effect of overall weekly school instruction time on test scores reflects only the effect of additional instructional time in these particular subjects. As a robustness check of the validity of the identification strategy, I also use an alternative method that exploits variation in the instruction time of different subjects. Remarkably, this alternative identification strategy yields almost identical results to the results obtained based on the school funding reform. Additional results suggest that the effect on test scores is similar for boys and girls but it is much larger for pupils from low socioeconomic backgrounds and it is also more pronounced in schools populated with students from homogenous socioeconomic backgrounds. The evidence also shows that a longer school week increases the time that students spend on homework without reducing social and school satisfaction and without increasing school violence. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:warwcg:94&r=lab |
| By: | Zax, Ori |
| Abstract: | In contrast to the predictions of conventional economic theory, it is well documented that similar workers receive wages positively correlated with the size of the firm employing them. To explain these findings the author augments the Waldman framework (Job Assignments, Signaling, and Efficiency, 1984) by adding a size variable and construct a dynamic model of promotion and workers' transitions where the firms' competition over workers is via the promotion policy and the wage levels. In equilibrium, managers in larger firms are on average better, thus commanding and receiving a higher wage than their counterparts in smaller firms, while the laborers of the larger firms receive higher wages to compensate them for the lower promotion rates in such firms. Hence the wage-size correlation is shown to be consistent with conventional economic theory in a large class of plausible environments. -- |
| Keywords: | Firm size and wages,promotion decisions,hierarchies |
| JEL: | J30 J31 M51 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201242&r=lab |
| By: | Antonio Estache; Renaud Foucart |
| Abstract: | This paper shows how high bargaining power for firms and search costs in the labor market can impede a switch towards new, more competitive economic activities. This is because search costs drive the quality of the horizontal matching between worker types and the old and new sectors of the economy. The high bargaining power of firms pushes wages down, so that small search costs are enough for young workers or workers with new skills to give up looking for jobs in the new sector. Employers end up giving up offering these jobs as well. Politically popular labor policies protecting a dominating old sector and old workers, fail to address the mismatches and increase unemployment. Simply switching support to the new sector may cut jobs for the older workers and thus create other welfare losses. A more effective modernization policy, for both jobs and products, is to link wages to output. |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/126623&r=lab |
| By: | Christoph Basten; Andreas Fagereng; Kjetil Telle |
| Abstract: | We identify the causal effect of lump-sum severance payments on nonemployment duration in Norway by exploiting a discontinuity in eligibility at age 50. We find that a severance payment worth 1.2 months’ earnings at the median lowers the fraction re-employed after a year by seven percentage points. Data on household wealth enable us to verify that the effect is decreasing in prior wealth, which favors an interpretation as liquidity constraints over the alternative of mental accounting. Finding liquidity constraints in Norway, despite its equitable wealth distribution and generous welfare state, means they are likely to exist also in other countries. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, Optimal Unemployment Insurance, Liquidity Constraints, Mental Accounting, Severance Pay, Regression Discontinuity Design |
| JEL: | C41 E21 E24 J65 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2012/21&r=lab |
| By: | Andrea Canidio |
| Abstract: | I explore the effect of skill-biased technological change on long-run inequality using a theoretical model where the supply of skilled and unskilled workers, the cost of education, and credit rationing are endogenous. I show that the existence of unequal steady states does not depend on the degree of technological skill bias, but on the credit market, the cost of education, altruism, and the overall growth rate of the economy. However, when unequal steady states exist, economies with a higher technological skill bias have a greater long-run inequality. Therefore, skill-bias technological change is a second-order determinant of long-run inequality: a higher technological skill bias is associated with greater long-run inequality only if long-run inequality exists; the existence of long-run inequality does not depend on skill bias. |
| Date: | 2012–03–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ceu:econwp:2012_10&r=lab |
| By: | Gabriel Burdin (Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración. Instituto de Economía / University of Siena (Italia). Department of Economics.) |
| Abstract: | Worker-managed firms (WMFs) represent a marginal proportion of total firms and aggregate employment in most countries. The bulk of firms in real economies is ultimately controlled by capital suppliers. Different theoretical explanations suggest that WMFs are prone to failure in competitive environments. Using a panel of Uruguayan firms based on social security records and including the entire population of WMFs over the period January 1997-July 2009, I present new evidence on worker managed firms´ survival. I find that the hazard of exit is 24%-38% lower for WMFs than for conventional firms. This result is robust to alternative estimation strategies based on semi-parametric and parametric frailty duration models that impose different distributional assumptions about the shape of the baseline hazard and allow to consider firm-level unobserved heterogeneity. The evidence suggests that the marginal presence of WMFs in market economies can hardly be explained by the fact that these organizations exhibit lower survival chances than conventional firms. This paper adds to the literature on labor-managed firms, shared capitalism and to the industrial organization literature on firm survival. |
| Keywords: | labor-managed firms, capitalist firms, survival analysis. |
| JEL: | P13 P51 C41 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulr:wpaper:dt-06-12&r=lab |
| By: | Thomas Grandner (Vienna University of Economics and Business); Dieter Gstach (Vienna University of Economics and Business) |
| Abstract: | Using income and other individual data from EU-SILC for Germany and Austria, we analyze wage discrimination for three break-ups: gender, sector of employment, and country of origin. Using the method of Machado and Mata [2005] the discrimination over the whole range of the wage distribution is estimated. Significance of results is checked via confidence interval estimates along the lines of Melly [2006]. To narrow down the extent of discrimination both basic decomposition possibilities are compared. The economies of Germany and Austria appear structurally very similar. Especially the institutional setting of the labor markets seem to be closely comparable. One would, therefore, expect to find similar levels and structures of wage discrimination. Our findings deviate from this conjecture significantly. |
| Keywords: | Wage discrimination, decomposition, quantile-regression |
| JEL: | J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp145&r=lab |
| By: | Dhillon, Amrita (University of Warwick); Iversen, Vegard (University of Manchester); Torsvik, Gaute (University of Bergen) |
| Abstract: | We study ex-post hiring risks in low income countries with limited legal and regulatory frameworks. In our theory of employee referral, the new re- cruit internalises the rewards and punishments of the in-house referee meted out by the hiring firm. This social mechanism makes it cheaper for the rm to induce worker discipline. The degree of internalization depends on the un- observed strength of the endogenous social tie between the referee and the recruit. When the referee's utility is increasing in the strength of ties, referee workplace incentives do not matter and referee and employer incentives are aligned, in this case industries and jobs with high costs of opportunism and where dense kinship networks can match the skill requirements of employers will have clusters of close family and friends, they will show a high incidence of referrals rather than anonymous hiring and will show a wage premium to referred workers matched by their higher productivity. This no longer applies if the referee's utility is decreasing in the strength of ties: referrals are then more costly for firms, they will be used less frequently by employers and will require higher referee wages (or status). We illustrate how these insights add to our understanding of South-Asian labour markets. |
| Keywords: | Efficiency wage Contracts, Moral hazard, Referee incentives, Referrals, Networks, Strength of ties, Spot market |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:warwcg:89&r=lab |
| By: | Anette Haas (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB)); Michael Lucht (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB)); Norbert Schanne (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB)) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the performance of migrants on the German labor market and its dependence on the tasks performed on their jobs. Recent work suggests quantifying the imperfect substitutability relationship between migrants and natives as a measure for the hurdles migrants have to face. Our theoretical work adopts that migrant shares are very heterogeneous across firms which is hard to reconcile with an aggregate production function. We argue that the ability to integrate migrants may form a competitive advantage for firms. We show in a Melitz-type framework that the output reaction to wage changes varies across firms. Hence, substitution elasticities of an aggregate production function can be quite different from those individual firms are faced with. Finally we estimate elasticities of substitution for different aggregate CES-nested production functions for Germany between 1993 and 2008 using administrative data and taking into account the task approach. We find significant variation in the substitutability between migrants and natives across qualification levels and tasks. We show that especially interactive tasks seem to impose hurdles for migrants on the German labor market. |
| Keywords: | Heterogeneity, Migrants, Substitution Elasticity, Tasks |
| JEL: | J15 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2012026&r=lab |
| By: | Asako Ohinata (Department of Economics and CentER, Tilburg University); Jan C. van Ours (Department of Economics, CentER, Tilburg University; University of Melbourne; CESifo; CEPR and IZA) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the determinants of reading literacy, mathematical skills and science skills of young immigrant children in the Netherlands. We find that these are affected by age at immigration and whether or not one of the parents is native Dutch. |
| Keywords: | Immigrant children, Educational attainment |
| JEL: | I21 J15 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2012027&r=lab |
| By: | Mark Strøm Kristoffersen (Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University, Denmark) |
| Abstract: | In the wake of the financial and economic crisis the discussion about social insurance and optimal stabilization policies has re-blossomed. This paper adds to the literature by studying the effects of a business cycle dependent level of unemployment benefits in a model with labor market matching, wealth heterogeneity, precautionary savings, and aggregate fluctuations in productivity. The results are ambiguous: both procyclical and countercyclical unemployment benefi?ts can increase welfare relative to business cy- cle invariant benefits. Procyclical benefits are beneficial due to countercyclicality of the distortionary effect (on job creation) from providing unemployment insurance, whereas countercyclical benefits facilitate consumption smoothing. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment insurance, business cycles, wealth heterogeneity, precautionary savings |
| JEL: | E32 H3 J65 |
| Date: | 2012–08–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2012-19&r=lab |
| By: | Ohinata, Asako; van Ours, Jan C |
| Abstract: | We analyze the determinants of reading literacy, mathematical skills and science skills of young immigrant children in the Netherlands. We find that these are affected by age at immigration and whether or not one of the parents is native Dutch. |
| Keywords: | Educational attainment; Immigrant children |
| JEL: | I21 J15 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9117&r=lab |
| By: | Daishin Yasui (Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops an overlapping generations model in which agents make educational and fertility decisions under life-cycle considerations, and retirement from work is distinguished from death. This model sheds light on a novel mechanism that links life expectancy, retirement, education, fertility, and growth. Gains in adult longevity induce agents to save more for retirement, reduce fertility, invest in education, and achieve sustained growth. Even if the length of working life is shortened by early retirement, this mechanism works as long as adult longevity increases sufficiently. Our model replicates the stylized facts of the transition from stagnation to growth in terms of longevity, time in retirement, fertility, education, and income, as well as reconciles the theory that gains in life expectancy trigger a growth takeoff by increasing education with the observation that the length of working life is not substantially prolonged because of retirement. This study provides a framework for considering the joint determination of education, fertility, and retirement. |
| Keywords: | Fertility; Growth; Human capital; Life expectancy; Retirement |
| JEL: | J13 O11 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koe:wpaper:1218&r=lab |
| By: | Anila Channa; Jean-Paul Faguet |
| Abstract: | We review empirical evidence on the ability of decentralization to enhance preference matching and technical efficiency in the provision of health and education in developing countries. Many influential surveys have found that the empirical evidence of decentralization's effects on service delivery is weak, incomplete and often contradictory. Our own unweighted reading of the literature concurs. But when we organize the evidence first by substantive theme, and then - crucially - by empirical quality and the credibility of its identification strategy, clear patterns emerge. Higher quality evidence indicates that decentralization increases technical efficiency across a variety of public services, from student test scores to infant mortality rates. Decentralization also improves preference matching in education, and can do so in health under certain conditions, although there is less evidence for both. We discuss individual studies in some detail. Weighting by quality is especially important when evidence informs policy-making. Firmer conclusions will require an increased focus on research design, and a deeper examination into the prerequisites and mechanisms of successful reforms. |
| Keywords: | Decentralization, School-Based Management, Education, Health, Service Delivery, Developing Countries, Preference Matching, Technical Efficiency |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:stieop:038&r=lab |
| By: | Allen Jim; Velden Rolf van der (ROA rm) |
| Abstract: | The world is changing rapidly in a lot of ways, but the dominant change is in ICT.Changing technology has far-reaching implications for how we act and interact at work,in education, in civic life and at home. Furthermore, this change is in large part the drivingforce behind many of the other major changes, such as globalization and flexibilizationThese changes have led many scholars to point to a new set of skills – the so-called21st century skills – that are thought to be essential for people’s ability to functionand participate fully in today’s world. While we do not dispute the importance of these21st century skills, we do caution against blindly pursuing these skills and neglectingother more traditional classes of skill, such as basic skills (reading and math) as well asspecialized knowledge and abilities – the so-called specific skills.Educational policy and practice should proceed from the insight that skills of individualhuman beings form a complete interdependent package of all these three kinds ofskills: basic skills, specific skills and 21st century skills. It is far more fruitful to view 21stcentury skills in relation to the basic skills that underlie them and the specific skills thatthey combine with in concrete purposive action.In this essay we present a framework for the evaluation of what we know about ourcurrent situation in terms of various kinds of skills and learning which alerts us to gapsin 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 educationcan do to meet these challenges. |
| Keywords: | labour market entry and occupational careers; |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2012011&r=lab |