|
on Labour Economics |
| By: | Wendy Dunn |
| Abstract: | Although job creation has improved, since the end of the 2007-08 recession, the effects of the recession on the labour market remain severe. Unemployment duration is still extremely high, and many have withdrawn from the labour market altogether. Because the weakness is largely cyclical in nature, policy makers should place a high priority on supporting aggregate demand in the short term. Even so, policies are needed to help individuals return to work, as there is a risk that high long-term unemployment and weak labour market participation could evolve into structural problems. Greater emphasis should be put on activation measures that help individuals search for jobs more effectively or find adequate training programmes. In the longer run, education and training are key to raising the skills and wages of the workforce. In this regard, educational reforms are needed to increase student achievement at all levels. High-quality vocational training can also be used to advance the skills of high-school graduates. College completion rates could be improved by reducing financial and other barriers to education, and enhancing the community college system would be a cost-effective way to provide more individuals with an affordable way to obtain tertiary education. Disability insurance reforms are needed to reduce dependency on these programmes and encourage participation in the workforce. This Working Paper relates to the 2012 OECD Economic Survey of the United States (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/United States).<P>La reprise du marché du travail aux États-Unis après la grande récession<BR>Bien que la création d'emplois ait repris, les effets de la récession se font toujours sentir sur le marché du travail. La durée du chômage reste très élevée et beaucoup ont cessé de chercher un emploi. Compte tenu du caractère largement conjoncturel de cette situation difficile, les autorités devraient donner à court terme la priorité au soutien de la demande. Mais il faut également prendre des mesures pour faciliter le retour à l'emploi, car le risque existe que le niveau élevé du chômage de longue durée et la faiblesse du taux d’activité deviennent des problèmes structurels. Il convient de mettre davantage l’accent sur les mesures d’incitation à la reprise d’un travail afin d’aider les chômeurs à rechercher un emploi ou à trouver des programmes de formation adéquats. À plus long terme, l’éducation et la formation vont jouer un rôle-clé dans l’amélioration des compétences et des salaires de la main-d’oeuvre. C'est pourquoi des réformes du système éducatif s'imposent pour améliorer le taux de réussite à tous les niveaux d'études. Une formation professionnelle de qualité peut aussi permettre de développer les compétences des diplômés de l'enseignement secondaire. Réduire les obstacles financiers et autres qui empêchent l’accès à l’éducation serait un moyen d’augmenter les taux de réussite dans l'enseignement supérieur, et améliorer le système des community colleges permettrait, à un coût raisonnable, d’offrir à davantage de personnes la possibilité de suivre des études supérieures dans des conditions financièrement accessibles. Enfin, des réformes de l'assurance invalidité sont nécessaires pour diminuer la dépendance à l'égard de ce régime et encourager le retour sur le marché du travail. Ce Document de travail se rapporte à l'Étude économique de l'OCDE des États Unis 2012 (www.oecd.org/eco/etudes/Etats Unis). |
| Keywords: | human capital, disability, vocational training, labour market participation, activation policies, structural unemployment, long-term unemployment, Unemployment duration, job creation, hiring subsidies, capital humain, invalidité, formation professionnelle, participation au marché du travail, politiques d'activation, chômage structurel, chômage de longue durée, durée de chômage, création de l'emploi, subventions à l'embauche |
| JEL: | J2 J6 |
| Date: | 2013–01–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1015-en&r=lab |
| By: | Bruno Amable (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, CEPREMAP, Institut Universitaire de France) |
| Abstract: | A policy proposal is to abolish the distinction between regular open-end employment contracts and fixed-term contracts and substitute a unique labour contract with a degree of employment protection increasing with tenure. A question on the desirability of the "contrat unique" was included in the 2012 post-electoral survey. Using the answers to this question, this paper proposens an empirical analysis of the possible social basis for the contrat unique. Insider/outsider theories would predict that insiders would oppose such a reform whereas outsiders would welcome it. Beyond the theoretical and empirical problems associated with the definition and identification of insiders and outsiders, the results of the estimations do not bring an overwhelming support for the insider/outsider theories. The bulk of the social support for the CTU is made of "insiders". The social support for the contrat unique resembles the traditional social base of the Right with the addition of some "outsiders". |
| Keywords: | Contrat de travail unique/single labour contract, insider/outsider, political economy. |
| JEL: | J41 P16 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:13008&r=lab |
| By: | Autor, David (MIT) |
| Abstract: | An emerging literature argues that changes in the allocation of workplace "tasks" between capital and labor, and between domestic and foreign workers, has altered the structure of labor demand in industrialized countries and fostered employment polarization – that is, rising employment in the highest and lowest paid occupations. Analyzing this phenomenon within the canonical production function framework is challenging, however, because the assignment of tasks to labor and capital in the canonical model is essentially static. This essay sketches an alternative model of the assignment of skills to tasks based upon comparative advantage, reviews key conceptual and practical challenges that researchers face in bringing the "task approach" to the data, and cautions against two common pitfalls that pervade the growing task literature. I conclude with a cautiously optimistic forecast for the potential of the task approach to illuminate the interactions among skill supplies, technological capabilities, and trade and offshoring opportunities, in shaping the aggregate demand for skills, the assignment of skills to tasks, and the evolution of wages. |
| Keywords: | skill demands, technological change, job tasks, Roy model, human capital, occupational choice |
| JEL: | J23 J24 J30 J31 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7178&r=lab |
| By: | Louis N. Christofides (Department of Economics, Universities of Cyprus and of Guelph.); Alexandros Polycarpou (Department of Economics, University of Cyprus); Konstantinos Vrachimis (Department of Economics, University of Cyprus and Cooperative Central Bank of Cyprus.) |
| Abstract: | We consider and attempt to understand the gender wage gap across 26 European countries, using 2007 data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. The size of the gender wage gap varies considerably across countries, definitions of the gap, and selection-correction mechanisms. Most of the gap cannot be explained by the characteristics available in this data set. Quantile regressions show that, in a number of countries, the wage gap is wider at the top (‘glass ceilings’) and/or at the bottom of the wage distribution (‘sticky floors’). We find larger mean/median gender gaps and more evidence of glass ceilings for full-time full-year employees, suggesting more female disadvantage in ‘better’ jobs. These features may be related to country-specific policies that cannot be evaluated at the individual-country level, at a point in time. We use the cross-country variation in the unexplained wage gaps of this larger-than-usual sample of states to explore the influence of (i) country policies that reconcile work and family life and (ii) their wage-setting institutions. We find that country policies and institutions are related to features of their unexplained gender wage gaps in systematic, quantitatively important, ways. |
| Keywords: | Gender wage gap; selection; quantiles;work-family reconciliation; wage-setting institutions |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J50 C21 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gue:guelph:2013-01&r=lab |
| By: | Mathijs Gerritsen; Jens Høj |
| Abstract: | The well performing labour market has delivered low unemployment and relatively stable wage developments. However, it is divided into a small flexible segment and a large more rigid segment, where the adjustment burden of external shocks falls disproportionally on the first group. At the same time, labour utilisation is relatively low, despite a relatively high overall participation rate, due to a high frequency of part-time employment, a low effective retirement age and a high use of disability benefits. Looking ahead, it is unlikely that the organisation of the labour market will allow the economy to continue reaping fully the benefits of globalisation. That would require a labour market that facilitates the allocation of increasingly scarce labour resources to their best use and mobilises underutilised labour resources to counter the ageing related contraction of the labour force.). This Working Paper relates to the 2012 OECD Economic Survey of the Netherlands (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/netherlands<P>Le marché du travail néerlandais : Préparer l'avenir<BR>Le bon fonctionnement du marché du travail a permis de maintenir un faible niveau de chômage et des évolutions salariales relativement stables. Cependant, ce marché est divisé en un grand segment assez rigide et un petit segment flexible, sur lequel pèse de façon disproportionnée la charge de l'ajustement en cas de chocs extérieurs. En outre, l'utilisation de la main-d'oeuvre est faible, malgré un taux d'activité global relativement élevé, en raison de la grande fréquence de l'emploi à temps partiel, d'un faible âge effectif de départ à la retraite et d'un recours important aux prestations d'invalidité. À terme, il est peu probable que l'organisation du marché du travail permettra à l'économie de continuer à tirer pleinement parti de la mondialisation. Il faudrait pour cela un marché du travail qui facilite la réallocation des ressources de main-d'oeuvre de plus en plus rares vers leur meilleure utilisation et mobilise les ressources de main-d'oeuvre sous-utilisées pour contrer la contraction de la population active liée au vieillissement. Ce document de travail se rapporte à l'Étude économique des Pays-Bas de 2012 (www.oecd.org/eco/etudes/Pays-Bas). |
| Keywords: | globalisation, labour market policies, severance pay, labour market, wage formation, allocation of the labour supply, marché du travail, politique du marché du travail, mondialisation, formation des salaires, répartition de l'offre de travail, indemnités de départ |
| JEL: | J08 J3 J62 J65 |
| Date: | 2013–01–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1012-en&r=lab |
| By: | Jens Høj |
| Abstract: | The global crisis led to a smaller increase in the unemployment rate than in most other OECD countries as employment has been sustained through intensive use of reduced working time schemes. These schemes have mostly benefited workers with permanent contracts while the higher unemployment mostly affected workers with weaker labour market attachment. A main challenge for policy makers is therefore to avoid that the increase in labour market segmentation between insiders and outsiders that would hurt the most vulnerable. Over the medium term, labour market policies need to respond to the ageing of the labour force, which implies that an increasing number of workers with permanent contracts will retire. Thus, policies must focus on enabling the current labour market outsiders to get a stronger foothold on the labour market as well as to mobilize under-utilised labour resources. The wage determination system has allowed wages to increase faster than the main competitors and faster than productivity, leading to a gradual loss of cost competitiveness. Minimum wages are high by international standards, hampering entry to the labour market for many low-skilled workers. Unemployment benefits are relatively generous, and particularly for long-term unemployed. A complicated tax-benefit system has created high effective marginal tax rates and numerous labour market traps. This Working Paper relates to the 2011 OECD Economic Survey of Belgium (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/Belgium).<P>Pour un marché du travail plus inclusif en Belgique<BR>La crise mondiale a entraîné une progression du chômage moindre que dans la plupart des autres pays de l’OCDE car l’emploi est resté soutenu du fait du recours intensif à des dispositifs de réduction du temps de travail. Ces dispositifs ont bénéficié essentiellement aux travailleurs titulaires de contrats permanents tandis que la hausse du chômage a principalement touché les travailleurs dont les liens avec le marché du travail étaient plus distendus. L’un des principaux défis pour les responsables des politiques publiques est donc d’éviter que la segmentation accrue du marché du travail entre travailleurs intégrés et travailleurs exclus frappe les plus vulnérables. A moyen terme, les politiques du marché du travail doivent s’adapter au problème du vieillissement de la main d’oeuvre qui impliquera le départ à la retraite d’un nombre croissant de travailleurs titulaires de contrats permanents. Les politiques publiques doivent donc s’attacher à permettre aux travailleurs aujourd’hui exclus du marché du travail de s’y implanter plus fermement mais aussi à mobiliser les ressources en main d’oeuvre sous-utilisées. Le mécanisme de fixation des salaires leur a permis d’augmenter plus vite que ceux des principaux concurrents et plus vite que la productivité, ce qui a abouti à une perte progressive de compétitivité-coûts. Les salaires minimums sont élevés comparés aux standards internationaux, ce qui est un frein à l’entrée sur le marché du travail d’un grand nombre de travailleurs peu qualifiés. L’indemnisation du chômage est relativement généreuse, en particulier pour les chômeurs de longue durée. Une fiscalité et un régime de prestations complexes ont généré des taux d’imposition effectifs marginaux élevés et de nombreux pièges sur le marché du travail. Ce Document de travail se rapporte à l'Étude économique de l'OCDE de la Belgique 2011 (www.oecd.org/eco/etudes/Belgique). |
| Keywords: | labour supply and demand, unemployment benefits, wage formation, ageing of the labour force, labour market traps, formation des salaires, vieillissement de la main-d'oeuvre, allocations de chômage, pièges du marché du travail, offre de travail et demande |
| JEL: | J11 J2 J31 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2013–01–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1009-en&r=lab |
| By: | Ronald Wolthoff |
| Abstract: | Empirical evidence suggests that transitions between employment states are highly clustered around the ï¬rst day of each workweek or each month. Motivated by this observation, I present an equilibrium search model in which the period length is a parameter that determines the degree of clustering. If the period length goes to zero, convergence to a continuous-time model without clustering is obtained. Longer time periods, however, introduce the possibility of recall (or simultaneity) of job offers. In this environment, I show that the period length has a profound effect on the equilibrium outcomes, including the unemployment rate, average unemployment duration, the labor share, the amount of wage dispersion, as well as the shape of the wage density. |
| Keywords: | labor market flows, search frictions, simultaneous search, on-the-job search, wage dispersion, wage mobility, unemployment |
| JEL: | E24 J31 J64 |
| Date: | 2013–02–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-476&r=lab |
| By: | Cui, Yuling (Macquarie University, Sydney); Nahm, Daehoon (Macquarie University, Sydney); Tani, Massimiliano (Macquarie University, Sydney) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies differences in the motivation to be self-employed between rural migrants and urban residents in modern China. Estimates of the wage differential between self-employment and paid-employment obtained through a three-stage methodology using the 2002 China Household Income Project (CHIP), reveal that rural migrants become self-employed to avoid low-pay city jobs, enhancing their odds of economic assimilation. Conversely, urban residents become entrepreneurs to move out of unemployment. The empirical analysis confirms that self-employment also attracts married individuals and those in good health, while it negatively relates to high educational attainment. The decomposition of hourly wage differences between pairs (by type of employment and residence status) shows that higher hourly wages of paid and self-employed urbanites over migrants predominantly arise through differences in coefficients (i.e. "discrimination") while those between self- and paid employment among urbanites are mostly due to differences in individual characteristics. Discrimination overwhelmingly accounts for hourly wage differences between self- and paid employment among rural immigrants. We interpret the relevant effect of discrimination in 2002 in urban labour markets as a sign of the institutional barriers associated with the Hukou system. |
| Keywords: | rural migrant workers, wage differentials, self-employment, urban residents |
| JEL: | C36 J61 J31 J21 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7191&r=lab |
| By: | Wulfgramm, Melike (University of Bremen); Fervers, Lukas (University of Bremen) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the effect of unemployment insurance generosity and active labour market policy on reemployment stability in Europe. Using EU‐SILC and OECD data, we conduct discrete time survival analyses with shared frailty specification to identify policy effects at the micro and macro level. Empirical evidence suggests that unemployment benefit receipt is associated with longer reemployment duration at the individual level. Furthermore, countries with more generous unemployment insurance and higher ALMP spending show a more sustainable reintegration record of previously unemployed workers. These results point to a policy trade‐off between the well‐confirmed disincentive and locking‐in effect of unemployment benefits and ALMP programmes on the one hand, and their positive effect on reemployment stability on the other hand. |
| Keywords: | reemployment duration, job match quality, post‐unemployment employment stability, active labour market policy, unemployment benefits |
| JEL: | J64 J65 J68 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7193&r=lab |
| By: | Aretz, Bodo (ZEW Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the evolution of wage inequality and wage mobility separately for men and women in West and East Germany over the last four decades. Using a large administrative data set which covers the years 1975 to 2008, I find that wage inequality increased and wage mobility decreased for male and female workers in East and West Germany. Women faced a higher level of wage inequality and a lower level of wage mobility than men in both parts of the country throughout the entire observation period. The mobility decline was sharper in East Germany so that the level of wage mobility has fallen below that of West Germany over time. Looking at long-term mobility, a slowly closing gap between men and women is observed. |
| Keywords: | wage mobility, wage inequality, administrative data |
| JEL: | J31 D63 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7158&r=lab |
| By: | Atalay, Kadir; Kim, Woo-Yung; Whelan, Stephen |
| Abstract: | This paper using the Australian panel data(HILDA) investigates the declining trend of self-employment rate in Australia, a pattern observed in a number of other developed countries in the 2000s. We focus on the entry into and the exit from self-employment, treating males and females separately. Our results show that the self-employment rate has declined in Australia because older workers, especially older female workers, remained longer in paid-employment. This finding indicates that although the self-employment rate of older workers is higher than that of younger workers, the gap has decreased in recent years so that the average self-employment rate has declined. In addition, we provide some evidence that industry and institutional changes, such as reforms in tax and pension systems, may have contributed to an increase in the labour force participation of older females, which may explain why the decline of self-employment has been severe for this group. |
| Keywords: | Retirement; Older Workers; Self Employment |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:syd:wpaper:2123/8925&r=lab |
| By: | Bachmann, Rüdiger (RWTH Aachen University); Bayer, Christian (University of Bonn); Seth, Stefan (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg); Wellschmied, Felix (University of Bonn) |
| Abstract: | We study the relationship between cyclical job and worker flows at the plant level using a new data set spanning from 1976-2006. We find that procyclical labor demand explains relatively little of procyclical worker flows. Instead, all plants in the employment growth distribution increase their worker turnover during booms. We also find that cyclical changes in the employment growth distribution are mostly driven by plants moving from inactivity to a growing labor force during booms. Consequently, increased labor turnover at growing plants is the main quantitative driver behind increased labor turnover during booms. We argue that on the job search models are able to capture non-parallel shifts in the employment growth distribution and procyclical conditional worker flows for a range of the growth distribution. Yet, they fail to rationalize procyclical accession rates for all shrinking and procylical separation rates for all growing plants. |
| Keywords: | job flows, worker flows, aggregate fluctuations |
| JEL: | E32 J23 J63 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7192&r=lab |
| By: | Stüber, Heiko |
| Abstract: | Several recent marcoeconomic models rely on rigid wages. Especially wage rigidity of newly hired workers seems to play a crucial role, since the decision of opening a vacancy or not is mainly influenced by their real wages. However, so far little empirical evidence exists on how real wages of newly hired workers react to business cycle conditions. This paper aims at filling this gap for a large economy, namely Germany, by analyzing the cyclical behavior or real wages of newly hired workers while controlling for cyclical up- and downgrading in employer/employee matches. For the analysis two endogenous variables are used: either the typical (e.g. modal) real wages paid to entrants into particular jobs of particular firms or entrants' individual real wages. The results show that entry-wages are not rigid, but considerably respond to business cycle conditions. This finding strengthens Pissarides' (2009) dismissal of theories based on cyclically rigid hiring wages. Furthermore, I show that the procyclicality of the employment / population ratio is (nearly) identical to the procyclicality of real entry-wages. -- |
| Keywords: | real wage cyclicality,entry-wages,search and matching model |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J31 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fziddp:622012&r=lab |
| By: | Dickerson, Andy (University of Sheffield); McIntosh, Steven (University of Sheffield); Valente, Christine (University of Bristol) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses microdata for 19 African countries to examine the gender difference in maths test scores amongst primary school children. There is a significant difference in maths test scores in favour of boys, similar to that previously observed in developed countries. This difference cannot be explained by gender differences in school quality, home environment, or within-school gender discrimination in access to schooling inputs. However, the gender gap varies widely with characteristics of the regions in which the pupils live, and these regional characteristics are more predictive of the gender gap than parental education and school characteristics, including teacher gender. At the cross-country level, differences in fertility rates account for nearly half the variation in the gender gap, and this relationship is not due to the correlation between fertility and GDP nor to gender inequality as measured by the Gender Gap Index. |
| Keywords: | cognitive maths skills, gender, Africa |
| JEL: | O15 I20 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7174&r=lab |
| By: | Andini, Corrado (University of Madeira) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an expression for the bias of the OLS estimator of the schooling coefficient in a simple static wage-schooling model where earnings persistence is not accounted for. It is argued that the OLS estimator of the schooling coefficient is biased upward, and the bias is increasing with potential labor-market experience and the degree of earnings persistence. In addition, NLSY data are used to show that the magnitude of the persistence bias is non-negligible, and the bias cannot be cured by increasing the control set. Further, it is shown that disregarding earnings persistence is still problematic for the estimation of the schooling coefficient even if individual unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity are taken into account. Overall, the findings support the dynamic approach to the estimation of wage-schooling models recently suggested by Andini (2012; 2013). |
| Keywords: | schooling, wages, dynamic panel-data models |
| JEL: | C23 I21 J31 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7186&r=lab |
| By: | Dammert, Ana C. (Carleton University); Ural Marchand, Beyza (University of Alberta); Wan, Chi (University of Massachusetts Boston) |
| Abstract: | In the absence of discrimination, there should be no wage-productivity differentials as relative wages should be equal to the relative marginal productivity levels of workers. This paper investigates the role of globalization on the structure and evolution of gender differentials in China by simultaneously estimating demand-side wage and productivity outcomes using nonlinear least squares. The analyses are based on a comprehensive population-wide panel survey of manufacturing firms between the years of 2004 and 2007, covering 94 percent of total industry output and providing an accurate representation of labor demand. The results suggest that more exposure to globalization through increased exports is associated with lower gender wage-productivity differentials, and more exposure through increased foreign investment leads to differentials in favor of female workers. On the other hand, gender discrimination is found to be prevalent among domestically owned and non-exporting firms. |
| Keywords: | China, gender wage discrimination, globalization, firm ownership |
| JEL: | D22 F21 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7159&r=lab |
| By: | Angelov, Nikolay (IFAU); Johansson, Per (IFAU); Lindahl, Erica (IFAU) |
| Abstract: | We compare the income and wage trajectories of women in relation to their male partners before and after parenthood. Focusing on the within-couple gap allows us to control for both observed and unobserved attributes of the spouse and to estimate both short- and long-term effects of entering parenthood. Our main finding is that 15 years after the first child was born, the male-female gender gaps in income and wages have increased with 35 and 10 percentage points, respectively. In line with a collective labor supply model, the magnitude of these effects depends on relative incomes or wages within the family. |
| Keywords: | gender gap, quantile regression, income, wages |
| JEL: | J21 D13 C21 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7181&r=lab |
| By: | Joensen, Juanna Schrøter (Stockholm School of Economics); Nielsen, Helena Skyt (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | There is a large gender gap in advanced math coursework in high school that many believe exists because girls are discouraged from taking math courses. In this paper, we exploit an institutional change that reduced the costs of acquiring advanced high school math to determine if access is, in fact, the mechanism – in particular for girls at the top of the math ability distribution. By estimating marginal treatment effects of acquiring advanced math qualifications, we document substantial beneficial wage effects from encouraging even more females to opt for these qualifications. Our analysis suggests that the beneficial effect comes from accelerating graduation and attracting females to high-paid or traditionally male-dominated career tracks and to CEO positions. Our results may be reconciled with experimental and empirical evidence suggesting there is a pool of unexploited math talent among high ability girls that may be retrieved by changing the institutional set-up of math teaching. |
| Keywords: | math, gender, career choice, high school curriculum, instrumental variable |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7164&r=lab |
| By: | Aydemir, Abdurrahman (Sabanci University); Kirdar, Murat G. (Middle East Technical University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the employment effects of a large burst of immigration – the politically-driven exodus of ethnic Turks from Bulgaria into Turkey in 1989. In some locations, the rise in the labor force due to this inflow of repatriates was 5 to 10 percent. A key feature of our context is the strong involvement of the Turkish state in the settlement of earlier waves of repatriates, which provides us a strong source of exogenous variation in the 1989 immigrant shock across locations and brings our study closer to an ideal natural experiment. Using a reservoir of 342 cities and towns in Turkey with variable treatment intensity, this analysis places much attention on constructing a matched sample that is well balanced in terms of covariate distributions of the treatment and comparison groups – using propensity score matching. We find a positive effect of repatriates on the unemployment of non-repatriates. In fact, a 1 percent increase in the labor force due to repatriates increases the unemployment rate of natives by 0.4 percentage points. When the analysis is done according to skill groups, we find that the impact is the strongest on the young and on non-repatriates with similar educational attainment. |
| Keywords: | labor force and employment, immigrant workers, quasi experiments |
| JEL: | J21 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7161&r=lab |
| By: | Smirnykh, Larisa (Higher School of Economics, Moscow); Wörgötter, Andreas (OECD, Paris) |
| Abstract: | This study looks into the use of fixed term contracts and agency work in Russia during and shortly after the crisis 2009–10 with the help of an enterprise survey. The results of variance analysis show that the use of fixed-term or agency work contracts is not uniform across sectors, size and skill requirements. Probit analysis reveals that the use of fixed term contracts also increases the likelihood of using agency work, but not the other way around. The increase of temporary and agency work contracts increases the turnover on the labour market and contributes to an increase in dualisation, but may also help to prevent a larger increase in unemployment during crisis periods. |
| Keywords: | labour contracts, employment level, turnover, labour demand, Russia |
| JEL: | J41 J21 J63 J23 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izapps:pp54&r=lab |
| By: | Simon Janssen (Department of Business Administration (IBW), University of Zurich); Simone N. Tuor Sartore (Department of Business Administration (IBW), University of Zurich); Uschi Backes-Gellner (Department of Business Administration (IBW), University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the relationship between gender-specific social norms and firms’ pay-setting behavior. We combine information about regional voting behavior relative to gender equality laws, as a measure for gender-specific social norms, with a large data set of multi-branch firms and workers. The results show that multi-branch firms pay more discriminatory wages in branches located in regions with a higher social acceptance of gender inequality than in branches located in regions with a lower acceptance. Voter approval rates account for about 50% of the entire variation of within-firm gender pay gaps across regions. By investigating a subsample of performance pay workers for whom we are able to observe their time-based and performance pay component separately, we show that unobserved productivity differences within firms across regions cannot explain the relationship between social norms and within-firm gender pay gaps. As performance pay is more closely related to workers’ productivity than time-based pay, gender-specific productivity differences would manifest in the workers’ performance pay component. However, as the relationship between social norms and within-firm gender pay gaps manifests only for the time-based pay component but not for the performance pay component of the same workers, unobserved gender-specific productivity differences cannot explain our findings. The results support a strong relationship between social norms and the discriminatory pay-setting behavior of firms. |
| JEL: | J31 J33 J71 M5 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zrh:wpaper:327&r=lab |
| By: | Olivier CARDI (Université Panthéon-Assas ERMES, Paris); Romain RESTOUT (Université de Lorraine BETA, Nancy, UCL IRES) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relative price and relative wage effects of a higher productivity in the traded sector compared with the non traded sector in a two-sector open economy model with imperfect substitutability in hours worked across sectors. The Balassa-Samuelson [1964] model predicts that a rise in the sectoral productivity ratio by 1% raises the relative price of non tradables by 1% while leaving unchanged the non traded wage-traded wage ratio. Applying cointegration methods to a panel of fourteen OECD countries over the period 1970-2007, our estimates show that the relative price rises by only 0.78% while the relative wage falls by 0.27%. Hence, our first set of empirical findings cast doubt on the quantitative predictions of the Balassa-Samuelson model. A second set of empirical findings highlights the role of imperfect labor mobility: interacting the ratio of sectoral labor share-adjusted total factor productivities with an index of labor mobility across sectors, we find that the relative price responds more to a productivity differential between tradables and non tradables while the reaction of the relative wage is more muted as the degree of labor mobility increases. We show that the ability of the two-sector model to account for our evidence quantitatively relies upon two ingredients: i) imperfect mobility of labor across sectors, and ii) physical capital accumulation. Finally, our numerical results are robust to the introduction of i) non-separability in preferences between consumption and labor, and ii) traded investment. |
| Keywords: | Relative price of non tradables; Sectoral wages; Productivity growth; Sectoral labor reallocation; Investment |
| JEL: | E22 F11 F41 F43 |
| Date: | 2013–01–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2013002&r=lab |
| By: | Theodore Panagiotidis (Department of Economics, University of Macedonia, Greece; The Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis, Italy); Gianluigi Pelloni (Department of Economics, University of Bologna, Italy; Department of Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada; Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center, Italy; The Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis, Italy) |
| Abstract: | This study revisits the sectoral shifts hypothesis for the US for the period 1948 to 2011. A quantile regression approach is employed in order to investigate the asymmetric nature of the relationship between employment and unemployment. Significant asymmetries emerge. Lilien’s dispersion index is significant only for relative high levels of unemployment and becomes insignificant for low levels suggesting that reallocation affects unemployment only when the latter is high. More reallocation takes places when unemployment is higher. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, employment reallocation, sectoral shifts, aggregate shocks, conditional quantile regression model, bootstrapping |
| JEL: | C22 C50 E24 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rim:rimwps:01_13&r=lab |
| By: | Andrew Kerr (DataFirst, University of Cape Town); Martin Wittenberg (DataFirst, University of Cape Town); Jairo Arrow |
| Abstract: | Analysts of the South African labour market have predominantly used household surveys to analyse the labour market. It has been more difficult to explore labour demand from the firm side, as a result of limited data from relatively small cross sectional firm surveys, mainly funded by the World Bank. We use the Quarterly Employment Survey conducted by Statistics South Africa that allows us to explore how South African enterprises create and destroy jobs, shedding light on many of the policy questions that are relevant in a high unemployment society like SouthAfrica. We find job creation and destruction rates are similar to those found in OECD countries. There is little evidence that labour legislation creates rigidities that prevent firms from hiring or firing workers.We also find that larger firms are better net creators of jobs than small firms and that net job creation rates are negative in manufacturing, consistent with work using household surveys. Our research has important policy implications - particularly for the National Planning Commission's suggestion that new jobs will come mainly from small and medium sized firms. Our research suggests this is not likely without changes to policy or legislation. This is a joint SALDRU/DataFirst Working Paper |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ldr:wpaper:92&r=lab |
| By: | Alain de Serres; Fabrice Murtin |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine whether past labour market reforms aiming at reducing the rate of unemployment have raised its long-run volatility. Using non-linear panel data models applied to 24 OECD countries between 1985 and 2007, as well as Monte-Carlo techniques, we do not find any evidence of such policy trade-off. In contrast, we find that reduced unemployment benefit duration, more competition-inducing product market regulation and looser employment protection legislation are associated with a weaker persistence of unemployment over time, which implies a lower volatility of unemployment in the long run. More specifically, the evidence suggests that even in the case of reforms that may have raised the shortterm sensitivity of unemployment to business cycles (such as with the easing of employment protection), the weaker persistence effect dominates the higher cyclical volatility, implying a net reduction in long-term volatility.<P>Est-ce que les politiques qui réduisent le chômage augmentent sa volatilité ? : Une analyse empirique couvrant les pays de l'OCDE<BR>Cette étude examine dans quelle mesure les réformes passées du marché du travail visant à réduire le taux de chômage peuvent avoir eu pour effet d’accroître sa volatilité. L’analyse empirique combinant l’estimation de modèles non-linéaires basés sur des données de panel couvrant 24 pays de l’OCDE sur la période 1985-2007 et l’application de techniques de Monte Carlo, n’a pas mis à jour d’éléments permettant d’étayer l’hypothèse d’un tel conflit (trade-off) dans l’impact des politiques publiques du marché du travail. A l’inverse, l’étude montre qu’une réduction de la durée des bénéfices d’assurance chômage, une réforme de la réglementation conduisant à une plus forte concurrence sur le marché des produits et services, ainsi qu’un assouplissement de la législation sur la protection de l’emploi entraînent une plus faible persistance du chômage, impliquant une plus faible volatilité à long terme. Même dans les cas où des réformes ont pu accroître la sensibilité du chômage aux fluctuations cycliques, l’effet de cette plus grande variance cyclique sur la volatilité à long terme est plus que compensée par la baisse de la persistance. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, business cycle, labour market institutions, unemployment persistence, chômage, institutions du marché du travail, persistance du chômage, fluctuations cycliques |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J21 |
| Date: | 2013–01–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1020-en&r=lab |
| By: | Scott Fulford (Boston College) |
| Abstract: | Despite the evidence for high returns to education at an individual level, large increases in education across the developing world have brought disappointing returns in aggregate. This paper shows that the same pattern holds in India by building aggregates from micro-data so that the comparability and quality issues that plague cross-country analyses are not a problem. In India both men and women with more education live in households with greater consumption per capita. Yet in aggregate, comparing across age cohorts and states, better educated male cohorts consume only about 4% more than less well educated ones. Better educated female cohorts do not live in households with higher consumption. This result is robust to: (1) using econometric models that account for survey measurement error, (2) different measures of household consumption and composition, (3) allowing returns to differ by state, and (4) age mismeasurement. Comparing state returns to a measure of school quality, it does not seem that poor quality is responsible for the low returns. |
| Keywords: | education, India, household consumption, school quality |
| JEL: | O15 I2 |
| Date: | 2012–12–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:bocoec:819&r=lab |
| By: | Semih Akcomak; Suzanne Kok; Hugo Rojas-Romagosa |
| Abstract: | Combining employment data with the British Skill Survey (BSS) –which has comparable within-occupation task data for three waves: 1997, 2001 and 2006– we analyse employment changes between occupations (extensive margin) and within occupations (intensive margin). First, we find that the task-content of occupations (i.e. the intensive margin) has experienced significant changes in the United Kingdom between 1997 and 2006. Second, our econometric results suggest that these intensive margin changes can be explained by technological improvements (SBTC) and unionisation levels, while offshoring has not been a factor explaining how tasks are organized within occupations. Analysing changes at the extensive margin we confirm previous findings in the literature: there has been job polarization for both the UK and the Netherlands, and this job polarization can be explained by both SBTC and offshoring, though SBTC seems to be a more influential factor. |
| JEL: | J21 J23 J24 O33 F16 F23 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:233&r=lab |
| By: | Jesse Bricker; Gary V. Engelhardt |
| Abstract: | We test whether individuals in the Health and Retirement Study who consented to have administrative earnings data matched to survey responses represent a non-random sample. For both men and women, there is a general pattern of negative selection across three measures of pre-entry labor-market behavior: labor-force participation, self-employment, and earnings. However, for some outcomes the estimates are not precise enough to draw firm conclusions. The strongest results are that men who consented were 4.7 percentage points less likely to be self-employed than those who did not, and women who consented earned 13 percent less than those who did not. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2013-07&r=lab |
| By: | Fanny Moffette (GREDI, University of Sherbrooke); Dorothée Boccanfuso (Département d'économique, Université de Sherbrooke); Patrick Richard (Département d'économique, Université de Sherbrooke); Luc Savard (Département d'économique, Université de Sherbrooke) |
| Abstract: | In 2005, a wage subsidy program was established in Québec to encourage low-income individuals, particularly recipients of social assistance, to work, by offering them fiscal relief. We analyse the effect of this program (the Prime au travail) with a microsimulation model which determines the impact on the labour supply. We estimate the variation in the labour supply at the extensive and intensive margins which allows us to grasp both the income effect and the substitution effect of the Prime au travail on individuals’ willingness to work. On the other hand, our labour supply model has the necessary characteristics to link it to a general equilibrium model and offer an integrated macro-microsimulation analysis. Nonetheless, unlike the usual microsimulation models employed in integrated macro-microsimulation analysis, we provide a number of innovations, notably the analysis at the intensive margin so that it captures both the substitution effect and the income effect. Our results show that a number of individuals entered the labour market in response to the Prime au travail, while others decided to work fewer hours, due to increased income linked to the program. Ultimately, the variation in labour supply was less in the intensive margin than in the extensive margin and it is positive for all types of households, with the exception of female single parents. |
| Keywords: | Labour supply, reservation wage, public policy |
| JEL: | J22 J39 J68 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shr:wpaper:13-01&r=lab |
| By: | Tolga Umut Kuzubas; Andrea Szabo |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bou:wpaper:2013/06&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre Pestieau; Maria Racionero |
| Abstract: | Should special pension provisions be offered to workers in harsh occupations? We address this question in an optimal tax setting where individuals differ in longevity and occupation. Longevity is private information but workers in harsh occupations have on average shorter lifes than workers in safe occupations. We adopt a weighted utilitarian social objective to partially redress the implicit redistribution from short- to long-lived individuals that the unweighted utilitarian objective entails. We show that there is a case for differentiating the social security policy by occupation. We also show that short-lived workers are induced to overconsume when young and to retire early in order to prevent mimicking by long-lived ones. This is achieved by taxing, often quite heavily, the savings and the earnings from prolonging activity of short-lived individuals. |
| Keywords: | longevity, retirement, harsh occcupations, tagging |
| JEL: | H21 H55 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:678&r=lab |
| By: | Jeffrey Grogger; Gordon H. Hanson |
| Abstract: | We use data from the NSF Survey of Earned Doctorates to examine the post-degree location choices of foreign-born students receiving PhDs from US universities in science and engineering. Over the period 1960 to 2008, 77% of foreign-born S&E PhDs state that they plan to stay in the United States. The foreign students more likely to stay in the US are those with stronger academic ability, measured in terms of parental educational attainment and the student’s success in obtaining graduate fellowships. Foreign students staying in the United States thus appear to be positively selected in terms of academic ability. We also find that foreign students are more likely to stay in the United States if in recent years the US economy has had strong GDP growth or the birth country of the foreign student has had weak GDP growth. Foreign students are less likely to remain in the US if they are from countries with higher average income levels or that have recently democratized. Education and innovation may therefore be part of a virtuous cycle in which education enhances prospects for innovation in low-income countries and innovation makes residing in these countries more attractive for scientists and engineers. |
| JEL: | J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18780&r=lab |
| By: | Adnan Q. Khan; Steven F. Lehrer |
| Abstract: | Debates centered on the role of social networks as a determinant of labour market outcomes have a long history in economics and sociology; however, determining causality remains a challenge. In this study we use information on random assignment to a unique intervention to identify the impact of changes in the size of alternative social network measures on subsequent employment at both the individual and community level. Our results indicate that being assigned to the treatment protocol significantly increased the size of social networks, particularly weak ties. Nevertheless, these increases did not translate into improved employment outcomes 18 months following study completion. We do not find any evidence of treatment effect heterogeneity based on the initial size of one's social network; but those whose strong ties increased at a higher rate during the experiment were significantly less likely to hold a job following the experiment. We find that many of these results also hold at the community level among those who did not directly participate in the intervention. In summary, our results suggest that policies can successfully influence the size of an individual's social network, but these increases have limited impacts on long run labour market outcomes with the notable exception of changes in the composition of individuals who hold jobs. |
| JEL: | C93 J08 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18786&r=lab |
| By: | Giulio Bottazzi; Marco Grazzi |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of size on labor cost and productivity for Italian man- ufacturing firms. The distributions of both labor cost and productivity display a wide support, even when disaggregated by sector of industrial activity. Further, both labor cost and productivity, when considered alone, are growing with the size of the firm. We investigate this relationship on a new set of data and we are able to show that once ac- counted for productivity differences among firms, size still retains a positive effect on cost of labor in most of the sectors considered. |
| Keywords: | Size-wage effect; Labor productivity |
| Date: | 2013–02–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2013/02&r=lab |
| By: | Valerie Smeets (Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University); Michael Waldman (Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University); Frederic Warzynski (Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | There is an extensive theoretical literature based on what is called the scale-of-operations effect, i.e., the idea that the return to managerial ability is higher the more resources the manager influences with his or her decisions. This idea leads to various testable predictions including that higher ability managers should supervise more subordinates, or equivalently, have a larger span of control. And although some of this theory’s predictions have been empirically investigated, there has been little systematic investigation of the theory’s predictions concerning span of control. In this paper we first extend the theoretical literature on the scale-of-operations effect to allow firms’ beliefs concerning a manager’s ability to evolve over the manager’s career, where much of our focus is the determinants of span of control. We then empirically investigate testable predictions from this theoretical analysis using a unique single firm dataset that contains detailed information concerning the reporting relationships at the firm. Our investigation provides strong support both for the model’s predictions concerning wages, wage changes, and probability of promotion, and also for the model’s predictions concerning span of control including predictions derived from the learning component of the model. Overall, our investigation supports the notion that the scale-of-operations effect and additionally learning are important determinants of the internal organization of firms including span of control. |
| Keywords: | performance, career dynamics, span of control |
| JEL: | J31 M5 |
| Date: | 2013–02–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2013-02&r=lab |