|
on Labour Economics |
| By: | Bell, David N.F. (University of Stirling); Rutherford, Alasdair C. (University of Stirling) |
| Abstract: | Contrary to much of the established literature, this paper finds that though many older workers would prefer to reduce their working hours (the overemployed), there is a significant group who would like to work longer hours (the underemployed). And contrary to the assumption that the self-employed are more easily able than employees to select a desired combination of hours and the wage rate, this paper finds that older self-employed workers are more likely to wish to adjust their hours, both upward and downward than are employees. A new index of underemployment is used to show that for the UK, since the onset of the Great Recession, underemployment among older workers has been growing more rapidly than unemployment. Using longitudinal data from the UK Labour Force Survey, the paper investigates the effects of overemployment and underemployment on transitions from employment and self-employment into other labour market states. It confirms that overemployment is a significant predictor of retirement among employees while underemployed employees are less likely to retire. |
| Keywords: | retirement, working time, overemployment, underemployment, self-employment |
| JEL: | J01 J11 J21 J22 J23 J38 J64 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7546&r=lab |
| By: | Etienne LEHMANN (CRED (TEPP) University Panth eon-Assas Paris 2 and CREST, UCL-IRES, IDEP, IZA and CESifo); Claudio LUCIFORA (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano and IZA); Simone MORICONI (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano and Univerity of Luxembourg, CREA); Bruno VAN DER LINDEN (FNRS and UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)) |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that, for a given overall level of labour income taxation, a more progressive tax schedule reduces the unemployment rate and increases the employment rate. From a theoretical point of view, higher progressivity induces a wage-moderation effect and increases overall employment since employment of low-paid workers is more responsive. We test these theoretical predictions on a panel of 21 OECD countries over 1998-2008. Controlling for the burden of taxation at the average wage, we show that a more progressive taxation reduces the unemployment rate and increases the employment rate. These findings are confirmed when we account for the potential endogeneity of both average taxation and progressivity. Overall our results suggest that policy-makers should not only focus on the detrimental effects of tax progressivity on in-work effort. |
| Keywords: | Wage moderation, Employment, Taxation |
| JEL: | E24 H22 J68 |
| Date: | 2013–07–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2013018&r=lab |
| By: | Stephan Klasen (Georg-August University Göttingen); Janneke Pieters (Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)) |
| Abstract: | We study the surprisingly low level and stagnation of female labor force participation rates in urban India between 1987 and 2009. Despite rising growth, fertility decline, and rising wages and education levels, women's labor force participation stagnated at around 18%. Using five large cross-sectional micro surveys, we find that a combination of supply and demand effects have contributed to this stagnation. The main supply side factors were rising household incomes, husband's education, stigmas against educated women engaging in menial work, and falling selectivity of highly educated women. On the demand side, employment in sectors appropriate for educated women grew less than the supply of educated workers, leading many women to withdraw from the labor force. |
| Keywords: | female labor force participation; education; India |
| JEL: | J20 J16 I25 O15 |
| Date: | 2013–08–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:gotcrc:146&r=lab |
| By: | Semih Akcomak; Henri de Groot; Stefan Groot |
| Abstract: | This contribution uses an extensive and unique set of combined Dutch micro-data to analyze the relationship between three dimensions of globalization and unemployment. These dimensions are firm level exports, offshorability of jobs, and working for a foreign-owned firm. Both the probability of getting fired and the time that is needed to find a new job after having been fired are studied. A large share of the variation in unemployment incidence is related to worker characteristics. Women, younger workers and foreign-born workers are more likely to become unemployed. After controlling for worker and firm heterogeneity, we find no evidence for a statistically significant relationship between exporting, working for a foreign firm and having an offshorable job, and the probability that an employee is fired. Furthermore, exposure to globalization prior to getting unemployed is not related to the probability of finding a new job after an employee has been fired. |
| JEL: | J64 J62 F16 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:252&r=lab |
| By: | Butschek, Sebastian; Walter, Thomas |
| Abstract: | A growing body of programme evaluation literature recognises immigrants as a disadvantaged group on European labour markets and investigates the employment effects of Active Labour Market Pro-grammes (ALMPs) on this subgroup. Using a meta-analysis, we condense 93 estimates from 33 empir-ical studies of the effectiveness of four types of ALMPs employed across Europe to combat immigrant unemployment: training, job search assistance, and subsidised public and private sector employment. We find that only wage subsidies in the private sector can be confidently recommended to European policy-makers. -- |
| Keywords: | immigrants,unemployment,labour market integration,ALMP,evaluation,meta-analysis |
| JEL: | J15 J61 J68 I38 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:13056&r=lab |
| By: | Theodore Koutmeridis (University of St. Andrews) |
| Abstract: | During the past four decades both between and within group wage inequality increased significantly in the US. I provide a microfounded justification for this pattern, by introducing private employer learning in a model of signaling with credit constraints. In particular, I show that when financial constraints relax, talented individuals can acquire education and leave the uneducated pool, this decreases unskilled-inexperienced wages and boosts wage inequality. This explanation is consistent with US data from 1970 to 1997, indicating that the rise of the skill and the experience premium coincides with a fall in unskilled-inexperienced wages, while at the same time skilled or experienced wages do not change much. The model accounts for: (i) the increase in the skill premium despite the growing supply of skills; (ii) the understudied aspect of rising inequality related to the increase in the experience premium; (iii) the sharp growth of the skill premium for inexperienced workers and its moderate expansion for the experienced ones; (iv) the puzzling coexistence of increasing experience premium within the group of unskilled workers and its stable pattern among the skilled ones. The results hold under various robustness checks and provide some interesting policy implications about the potential conflict between inequality of opportunity and substantial economic inequality, as well as the role of minimum wage policy in determining the equilibrium wage inequality. |
| Keywords: | wage inequality, experience premium, skill premium, employer learning, signaling, financial constraints, minimum wages |
| JEL: | D31 D82 E44 J31 |
| Date: | 2013–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:san:wpecon:1307&r=lab |
| By: | Christophe Muller (AMSE - Aix-Marseille School of Economics - Aix-Marseille Univ. - Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales [EHESS] - Ecole Centrale Marseille (ECM)); Christophe J. Nordman (DIAL - Développement, institutions et analyses de long terme - Institut de recherche pour le développement [IRD], IZA - Institute for the Study of Labor) |
| Abstract: | We conduct a case study of the linkages of task organization, human capital accumulation and wages in Morocco, using matched worker-firm data for Electrical-mechanical and Textile-clothing industries. In order to integrate task organization into the interacting processes of workers' training and remunerations, we assume a recursive model, which is not rejected by our estimates: task organization influences on-the-job training that affects wages. Beyond sector and gender determinants, assignment of workers to tasks and on-the-job training is found to depend on former education and work experience in a broad sense. Meanwhile, participation in on-the-job training is stimulated by being assigned to a team, especially of textile sector and for well-educated workers. Finally, task organization and on-the-job training are found to affect wages. |
| Keywords: | Morocco; wages; on-the-job training; human capital; task organization |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00854522&r=lab |
| By: | Crespo, Nuno; Simoes, Nadia; Moreira, Sandrina B. |
| Abstract: | In this paper we evaluate if gender influences the pattern of upward and downward occupational mobility. With data for Portugal in the period 1998-2009, we find that women have a lower probability of upward mobility and a higher probability of downward mobility. The results also reveal the importance of some other determinant factors, especially education and initial occupation. Additionally, considering an analysis by quartiles (taking as reference a ranking based on average wages), we confirm that the determinants of occupational mobility depend on the ranking of the initial occupation. This analysis allows us to conclude that the unfavorable pattern of occupational mobility in the case of women is due, essentially, to the disadvantage they have at the bottom of the distribution. On the contrary, in the top occupations, the results suggest the existence of equality between genders. |
| Keywords: | Occupational mobility, Gender, Determinant factors, Portugal |
| JEL: | J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:49195&r=lab |
| By: | Michael R. Strain (American Enterprise Institute) |
| Abstract: | The instability of labor earnings in the United States contributes to earnings inequality and may diminish household welfare. Despite the importance of earnings instability little is known about its correlates or causes. This paper seeks to better understand earnings instability by studying whether volatile firms pay volatile earnings. |
| Keywords: | Labor economics,AEI Economic Policy Working Paper Series |
| JEL: | A H J |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aei:rpaper:37300&r=lab |
| By: | Lara LEBEDINSKI (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)); Vincent VANDENBERGHE (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)) |
| Abstract: | There is plenty of individual-level evidence, based on the estimation of Mincerian equations, showing that better-educated individuals earn more. This is usually interpreted as a proof that education raises labour productivity. Some macroeconomists, analysing cross-country time series, also support the idea that the continuous expansion of education has contributed positively to growth. Surprisingly, most economists with an interest in human capital have neglected the level of the firm to study the education-productivity-wage nexus. And the few published works considering firm-level evidence are lacking a proper strategy to cope with the endogeneity problem inherent to the estimation of production and wage functions. This paper taps into a rich, firm-level, Belgian panel database that contains information on productivity, labour cost and the workforce’s educational attainment. It aims at providing estimates of the causal effect of education on productivity and wage/labour costs. Therefore, it exclusively resorts to within firm changes to deal with time-invariant heterogeneity bias. What is more, it addresses the risk of simultaneity bias (endogeneity of firms’ education-mix choices in the short run) using the structural approach suggested by Ackerberg, Caves & Frazer (2006), alongside more traditional system-generalized method of moments (GMM) methods (Blundell & Bond, 1998) where lagged values of labour inputs are used as instruments. Results suggest that human capital, in particular larger shares of university-educated workers inside firms, translate into significantly higher firm-level labour productivity, and that labour costs are relatively well aligned on education-driven labour productivity differences. In other words, we find evidence that the Mincerian relationship between education and individual wages is driven by a strong positive link between education and firm-level productivity. |
| Keywords: | Education, Human capital, Firm-Level Productivity and Labour Cost, Cobb-Douglas, CES, imperfect substitutability |
| JEL: | J24 E24 C51 |
| Date: | 2013–08–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2013017&r=lab |
| By: | John V. Winters (Oklahoma State University); Weineng Xu (Department of Finance, University of Arkansas) |
| Abstract: | Economics has been shown to be a relatively high earning college major, but geographic differences in earnings have been largely overlooked. This paper uses the American Community Survey to examine geographic differences in both absolute earnings and relative earnings for economic majors. We find that there are substantial geographic differences in both the absolute and relative earnings of economics majors even controlling for individual characteristics such as age and advanced degrees. We argue that mean earnings in specific labor markets are a better measure of the benefits of majoring in economics than simply looking at national averages. |
| Keywords: | economics major; earnings differentials; college education; local labor markets |
| JEL: | I23 J24 J31 R23 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:okl:wpaper:1405&r=lab |
| By: | Anne C. Gielen; Jessica Holmes; Caitlin Myers |
| Abstract: | Testosterone, which induces sexual differentiation of the male fetus, is believed to transfer from males to their littermates in placental mammals. Among humans, individuals with a male twin have been found to exhibit greater masculinization of sexually dimorphic attributes relative to those with a female twin. We therefore regard twinning as a plausible natural experiment to test the link between prenatal exposure to testosterone and labor market earnings. For men, the results suggest positive returns to testosterone exposure. For women, however, the results indicate that prenatal testosterone does not generate higher earnings and may even be associated with modest declines. |
| Keywords: | testosterone, twins, gender gap |
| JEL: | J30 J71 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mdl:mdlpap:1301&r=lab |
| By: | Korpi, Martin (Ratio & EHFF); Clark, William (California Center for Population Research, UCLA) |
| Abstract: | Empirical studies on internal labor migration are usually based on observed patterns of net flows into local labor markets with relatively lower unemployment and relatively higher real wages. Evidence here suggests that internal migrants move to enhance returns to their labor. In contrast, major surveys in the USA, the UK and Australia show that less than a third of internal migrants are motivated primarily by employment reasons. A possible explanation for this disconnect revolves around average and individual outcomes from migration. Using a sample of 39 000 Swedish regional migrants, this paper addresses this disconnect by examining the distribution of short and long term migrant income changes, and the factors that predict their placement within this distribution. We show that returns to migration do matter, especially for the more educated migrants. Overall, however, about a third of all migrants had negative short term returns to migration and about 40 percent make below median gains even in the long run. The data support a view that average outcomes are an insufficient way to measure the role of human capital motivated migration. |
| Keywords: | migration; human capital; labor mobility; urban rural |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J61 R12 |
| Date: | 2013–08–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0213&r=lab |
| By: | Mark J. Holmes (Department of Economics, Waikato University, New Zealand); Jesús Otero (Facultad de Economía, Universidad del Rosario, Colombia); Theodore Panagiotidis (Department of Economics, University of Macedonia, Greece) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides evidence that unemployment rates across US states are stationary and therefore behave according to the natural rate hypothesis. We provide new insights by considering the effect of key variables on the speed of adjustment associated with unemployment shocks. A highly-dimensional VAR analysis of the half-lives associated with shocks to unemployment rates in pairs of states suggests that distance between states and vacancy rates respectively exert a positive and negative influence. We find that higher homeownership rates do not lead to higher half-lives. When the symmetry assumption is relaxed through quantile regression, support for the Oswald hypothesis through a positive relationship between homeownership rates and half-lives is found at the higher quantiles. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment; market integration; speed of adjustment |
| JEL: | E24 J60 F15 R10 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rim:rimwps:39_13&r=lab |
| By: | Peri, Giovanni (University of California, Davis); Romiti, Agnese (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg); Rossi, Mariacristina (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | Women contribute disproportionately to household production, especially in Southern European countries. As a consequence of population aging assistance to elderly parents, rather than child care, has become a prevalent activity in home-production services. Immigrant labor has increasingly become a substitute for women labor in those services. Their presence, therefore, may allow women over 55 to work more outside of the house and retire later. We use a unique database of Italian households to identify the effect of local availability of foreign workers on planned retirement age and labor supply of Italian women. We find that an exogenous increase by one point in the immigrant percentage of the local population increased the planned retirement age of women over 55 by two months relative to similar men. For women with old parents the increase was four months and if they were in low-wealth households the increase was one full year. The same inflow of immigrants also increased the probability that women over 55 work outside the home by nine percentage points, relative to men. |
| Keywords: | international migration, retirement, labor supply, home production, elderly care |
| JEL: | J22 J26 F22 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7549&r=lab |
| By: | Julie Beugnot; Bernard Fortin; Guy Lacroix; Marie Claire Villeval |
| Abstract: | This paper extends the standard work effort model by allowing workers to interact through networks. We investigate experimentally whether peer performances and peer contextual effects influence individual performances. Two types of network are considered. Participants in Recursive networks are paired with participants who played previously in isolation. In Simultaneous networks, participants interact in real-time along an undirected line. Mean peer effects are identified in both cases. Individual performances increase with peer performances in the recursive network. In the simultaneous network, endogenous peer effects vary according to gender: they are large for men but not statistically different from zero for women. |
| Keywords: | Peer effects, social networks, Work effort, piece rate, experiment |
| JEL: | C91 J16 J24 J31 M52 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:lacicr:1320&r=lab |
| By: | Alexander Herzog-Stein; Fabian Lindner; Simon Sturn |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the reasons for the exceptionally robust performance of the German labour market during the Great Recession. While GDP dropped by more than five per cent in 2009, employment remained constant and started to increase soon after. We compare this recession to other major recessions in Germany and analyse to what extent changes in hourly productivity and working time cushioned their impact on employment. We find that reductions in hourly productivity played a significant role in all recessions while working time reductions helped to safeguard jobs only occasionally. However, in the Great Recession, temporary working time reductions were amply used to stabilise employment. Using a time series model, we show that the reduction in hourly productivity during the Great Recession is predictable with historical data, while the reduction in working time was unexpectedly pronounced. Using detailed information on instruments for the adjustment of working hours, we show that new instruments which have been established in the decade before the Great Recession have been heavily used to reduce working time in the Great Recession. We argue that the development of these instruments was only possible within the framework of corporatist industrial relations. |
| Keywords: | Germany, Great Recession, employment miracle, working time reduction, labour hoarding, internal labour market flexibility, working time accounts, short time work |
| JEL: | E24 E32 E37 J20 J50 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imk:wpaper:114-2013&r=lab |
| By: | Fries, Jan; Göbel, Christian; Maier, Michael F. |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the effect of the Apprenticeship Bonus, an employment subsidy programme, on early dropout of apprenticeship. Eligibility to the programme is restricted to school leavers who have actively searched for apprenticeship training to start immediately after leaving school, but were unsuccessful in finding a position. Our analysis is based on rich survey data that has been collected specifically for this study. Using this data, we describe the characteristics of school leavers who have searched for apprenticeship positions unsuccessfully directly leaving school and analyse the effect of the subsidy on the risk of apprenticeship dropout. Even though the subsidy provides strong incentives to prevent dropout, we do not find significant effects of the programme. Our finding suggests that financial incentives are not effective in increasing the probability to finish vocational in-firm training successfully. -- |
| Keywords: | Apprenticeship,vocational training,subsidized employment,dropout |
| JEL: | I21 J08 J38 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:13053&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre-Philippe COMBES (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS & EHESS); Bruno DECREUSE (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS & EHESS); Morgane LAOUENAN (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES) and Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS & EHESS); Alain TRANNOY (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS & EHESS) |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates the link between the over-exposure of African immigrants to unemployment in France and their under-representation in jobs in contact with customers. We build a two-sector matching model with ethnic sector-specifc preferences, economy-wide employer discrimination, and customer discrimination in jobs in contact with customers. The outcomes of the model allow us to build a test of ethnic discrimination in general and customer discrimination in particular. We run the test on French individual data in a cross-section of local labor markets (Employment Areas). Our results show that there is both ethnic and customer discrimination in the French labor market. |
| Keywords: | Discrimination, Matching frictions, Jobs in contact, Ethnic unemployment, Local labor markets |
| JEL: | J15 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2013–06–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2013016&r=lab |
| By: | Vera, Celia Patricia |
| Abstract: | One issue that has pervaded policy discussions for decades is the difficulty that school districts experience in retaining teachers. Almost a quarter of entering public school teachers leave teaching within the first three years and empirical evidence has related high attrition rates of beginner teachers to family circumstances, such as maternity or marriage. I examine female teachers' career choices and inquire about the effects that wage increases and child care subsidies have on their employment decisions. I set up a dynamic model of job search where individuals simultaneously make employment and fertility decisions, fit it to data from a national longitudinal survey and estimate it by Simulated Method of Moments. Estimates indicate that gains of exiting the teaching workforce to start a family vary between 75% and 88% of the average teaching wage if the exit occurs during the first five years. At late periods and provided a positive stock of children, nonpecuniary penalties to return to teach lie between one and two times the average teaching wage. A 20 percent raise in teaching wages increases retention by 14% and decreases the proportion of teachers giving birth by 50%. Results suggest that fertility changes occur not only at earlier periods but also after a career interruption when teachers are considering a returning decision. The effectiveness of the wage policy in attracting back to the field individuals who left teaching to enroll in nonteaching jobs is positively associated with the greatest impact that the policy has on fertility in nonteaching. Child care subsidies increase retention by 11% and 29% with the lowest and highest subsidy, respectively. New births are concentrated at earlier periods of teachers' careers and thus, generate longer first teaching spells. However, large nonpecuniary rewards at late periods of the non labor market alternative relative to being in teaching as well as exits out of the workforce concentrated at later periods lead the decrease of returning rates of teachers who dropped the workforce altogether. |
| Keywords: | Teachers, Fertility, Attrition, Structural Model. |
| JEL: | C61 J13 J44 J45 |
| Date: | 2013–08–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:49340&r=lab |
| By: | Emanuela Cardia; Paul Gomme |
| Abstract: | Over the twentieth century, the allocation of womens' time changed dramatically. This paper explores the implications for the allocation of married womens' time stemming from: (1) the household revolution associated with the introduction of a variety of labor-saving devices in the home; (2) the remarkable increase in the relative wage of women; and (3) changes in childcare requirements associated with changes in fertility patterns. To do so, we construct a life-cycle model with home production and childcare constraints. The parameters of the childcare production function are estimated using micro evidence from U.S. time use data. We find that the increase in the relative wage of women is the most important explanation of the increase in married womens' market work time over the twentieth century. Changes in fertility had large effects up to 1980, but little effect thereafter. The declining price of durables has an appreciable effect only since 1980, an effect that is consistent with a broader interpretation of durable goods re ecting the marketization of home production. |
| Keywords: | Household technology, childcare, women labor force participation, home production |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtl:montec:08-2013&r=lab |
| By: | Lindberg, Henrik (Ratio) |
| Abstract: | The Insider-Outsider theory is an attempt, through the Labour Turnover Costs (LTC), to explain the clash of interests between different employees – insiders and outsiders. My claim is that the most important factor that has shaped the insider and outsider status among construction employees at the Swedish labour market is union action and strategies in different phases of the political process. The strategies included attempts to impose, interpret or modify regulations on the labour market in such way that occupation, eductional requirements, employment status, union membership, and even citizenship, shaped the insiderness of different categories of employees and workers. Those excluded came to be outsiders. |
| Keywords: | Insiderness; Employee; Construction industry; Insider-Outsider; Labour Turnover Costs; Union strategies; Immigration |
| JEL: | J51 J58 |
| Date: | 2013–08–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0217&r=lab |
| By: | Bernd Fitzenberger; Katrin Sommerfeld; Susanne Steffes |
| Abstract: | The effects of childbirth on future labor market outcomes are a key issue for policy discussion. This paper implements a dynamic treatment approach to estimate the effect of having the first child now versus later on future employment for the case of Germany, a country with a long maternity leave coverage. Effect heterogeneity is assessed by estimating ex post outcome regressions. Based on SOEP data, we provide estimates at a monthly frequency. The results show that there are very strong negative employment effects after childbirth. Although the employment loss is reduced over the first five years following childbirth, it does not level off to zero. The employment loss is lower for mothers with a university degree. It is especially high for medium-skilled mothers with long prebirth employment experience. We find a significant reduction in the employment loss for more recent childbirths. |
| Keywords: | Female labor supply, Maternity leave, Dynamic treatment effect, Inverse Probability Weighting |
| JEL: | C14 J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp576&r=lab |
| By: | Bauer, Anja (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "This paper provides detailed empirical evidence on the scope of mismatch in Germany in the past decade, using a comprehensive administrative data set that allows for disaggregation at the levels of industry, occupation and region. The findings suggest that regional mismatch did not play an important role in explaining movements of aggregate unemployment. Across industries and occupations, there was a decrease in mismatch unemployment from over 5 percent to below 4 percent (on the highest disaggregation level), whereas the share of mismatch unemployment (across industries and occupations) within total unemployment remains almost unchanged between 2000 and 2010. The results provide no evidence that the Hartz reforms have substantially reduced mismatch, in line with the fact that reallocation across occupations appears not to have been eased." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| JEL: | E24 J6 |
| Date: | 2013–08–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201310&r=lab |
| By: | Svaleryd, Helena (Department of Economics, Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | The business cycle is likely to be of importance for self-employment rates. When the economy is growing, business opportunities open up and encourage the set-up of new firms. In downturns, self-employment may be a way to avoid unemployment. The strength of these pull and push factors may depend on the amount of human capital a person has. The findings in this paper show that although the local business cycle is of minor importance for total self-employment rates in Sweden, there are heterogeneous effects across groups. People with higher human capital endowments are more likely to be pulled into self-employment, while those with lower human capital endowments are to a larger extent pushed into self-employment. This pattern is particularly strong for women. |
| Keywords: | Self-employment; local business cycle; panel data |
| JEL: | J21 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–08–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2013_016&r=lab |
| By: | Nicola Fuchs-Schuendeln (Goethe University Frankfurt); Bettina Brueggemann (Goethe University Frankfurt); Alexander Bick (Arizona State University) |
| Abstract: | We use three different micro data sets, the European Labor Force Survey, the Current Population Survey, and the German Microcensus, to obtain annual hours worked for various demographic subgroups in the US and 18 European countries. One major difficulty in constructing annual hours from micro data sets is the fact that hours are only reported for selected reference weeks, which are not distributed evenly over the year. As a consequence, hours lost due to public holidays or annual leave are mis-measured. Consequently, we use external data sources to account for these hours. We compare the generated time series of aggregate annual hours worked to the data series provided by the OECD and the Conference Board. In 29 out of 38 cases, average deviations amount to less than 10 percent, in 20 out of 38 cases to less than 5 percent. It is worthwhile pointing out that there are also non-negligible differences between the OECD and the Conference Board. We also decompose hours worked in an intensive and an extensive margin, and compare both to OECD and Conference Board data, as well as checking internal consistency of different possible extensive margin definitions. Finally, we document a set of stylized facts on hours worked (conditional on working and unconditional) over time and across countries for different demographic subgroups distinguished by marital status, gender, and age. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed013:107&r=lab |
| By: | Loughrey, Jason; Donnellan, Trevor; Hanrahan, Kevin; Hennessy, Thia |
| Abstract: | Factor markets that function well are a crucial condition for the competitiveness and growth of agriculture. Institutions and regulation may give rise to agricultural labour market heterogeneity, which could have important effects on the functioning of the labour market and other agricultural factor markets in EU member states. This paper first defines the institutional framework for the labour market, and then presents a brief literature review of previous studies of labour market institutional frameworks. Based on the literature, a survey to characterise agricultural labour markets was undertaken, which was implemented for a selection of EU27 and EU candidate countries, with responses based on expert opinion. The survey data were then used to construct indices of labour market flexibility/rigidity for the countries examined. These indices were used to make inter-country labour market comparisons and to draw inferences about the institutions and functioning of the agricultural labour market. |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eps:fmwppr:161&r=lab |