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on Labour Economics |
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Issue of 2013‒09‒06
seventeen papers chosen by Erik Jonasson National Institute of Economic Research |
| By: | Gong, Xiaodong (NATSEM, University of Canberra); Breunig, Robert (Australian National University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate the response of female lone parents to two reforms to the welfare system in Australia. We look at changes to both hours and participation and focus on the channels of adjustment, in particular the role of job changes for adjustment in hours. We highlight the relationship between policy design and heterogeneous outcomes. Workers/non-workers and mothers with high/low education respond differently to different policies. We find evidence of within job rigidities as the adjustment of working hours happens primarily through changing jobs. Our findings also provide support for the importance of accounting for fixed costs of working. |
| Keywords: | channel of labour supply adjustment, lone mothers, job changes, difference-in-differences |
| JEL: | C23 H31 I38 J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7574&r=lab |
| By: | Karolina Goraus (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw); Joanna Tyrowicz (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw; National Bank of Poland) |
| Abstract: | This study evaluates quantitatively the context of gender discrimination in transition countries in terms of access to the labor market. Over economic transition female labor market participation has generally weakened. Notwithstanding, transition countries differ in institutional design, structural labor supply patterns, labor demand characteristics and the speed of transition processes. We propose to evaluate the contribution of these effects to the observed extent of gender discrimination. Using estimators of gender discrimination obtained from a panel of micro-datasets covering a possibly large set of transition countries, we seek determinants cross-country variation in gender discrimination in the labor market. Empirical evidence suggest that while countries with generally higher female labor force participation are characterized by less discrimination, ceteris paribus, this pattern does not hold for the transition countries. |
| Keywords: | gender wage gap, transition, non-parametric estimates |
| JEL: | C24 J22 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2013-19&r=lab |
| By: | Céspedes, Nikita (Banco Central de Reserva del Perú; PUCP); Sánchez, Alan (GRADE) |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of the minimum wage in over employment and income by considering a monthly database that captures seven minimum wage changes registered between 2002 and 2011. We estimate that about 1 million workers have an income by main occupation in the neighbourhood of the minimum wage. We found that the minimum wage-income elasticity is statistically significant; the evidence also suggests that those who receive low incomes and those working in small businesses are the most affected by increases in the minimum wage. Employment effects are monotonically decreasing in absolute terms by firm size: moderate in big firms and higher in small firms. Results are robust when assessing the job-to-job transitions. Finally, we present evidence that supports the hypothesis that the minimum wage in Peru is correlated with income. The movement of income distribution in the context of changes in the minimum wage as well as the results provided by a model that captures the drivers of income justify this result. |
| Keywords: | Minimum wage, Labor mobility, Income dynamics, Informality |
| JEL: | E24 E26 J20 J21 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rbp:wpaper:2013-012&r=lab |
| By: | Hart, Robert A. (University of Stirling); Ma, Yue (City University of Hong Kong) |
| Abstract: | We present a wage-hours contract designed to minimize costly job turnover given investments in on the job training combined with firm and worker information asymmetries. It may be optimal for the parties to work 'long hours' remunerated at premium rates for guaranteed overtime hours. Based on British plant and machine operatives, we test three predictions. First, trained workers with longer job tenure are more likely to work overtime. Second, hourly overtime pay exceeds the value of marginal product while the basic hourly wage is less than the value of marginal product. Third, the basic hourly wage is negatively related to the overtime premium. |
| Keywords: | paid overtime, wage-hours contract, plant and machine operatives |
| JEL: | J41 J33 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7560&r=lab |
| By: | Long, Wenjin (University of Nottingham); Appleton, Simon (University of Nottingham); Song, Lina (University of Nottingham) |
| Abstract: | In nationally representative household data from the 2008 wave of the Rural to Urban Migration in China survey, nearly two thirds of rural-urban migrants found their employment through family members, relatives, friends or acquaintances. This paper investigates why the use of social network to find jobs is so prevalent among rural-urban migrants in China, and whether migrants face a wage penalty as a result of adopting this job search method. We find evidence of positive selection effects of the use of networks on wages. Users of networks tend to be older, to have migrated longer ago and to be less educated. In addition, married workers and those from villages with more out-migrant are more likely to use networks, while those without local residential registration status are less likely. Controlling for selectivity, we find a large negative impact of network use on wages. Using job contacts brings open access to urban employment, but at the cost of markedly lower wages. |
| Keywords: | social network, job contact, wage, rural-urban migrants, switching regression, China |
| JEL: | J24 J31 O15 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7577&r=lab |
| By: | Gallagher, Mary (University of Michigan); Giles, John T. (World Bank); Park, Albert (Hong Kong University of Science & Technology); Wang, Meiyan (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents empirical evidence from household and firm survey data collected during 2009-2010 on the implementation of the 2008 Labor Contract Law and its effects on China's workers. The government and local labor bureaus have made substantial efforts to enforce the provisions of the new law, which has likely contributed to reversing a trend toward increasing informalization of the urban labor market. Enforcement of the law, however, varies substantially across cities. The paper analyzes the determinants of worker satisfaction with the enforcement of the law, the propensity of workers to have a labor contract, workers' awareness of the content of the law, and their likelihood of initiating disputes. The paper finds that all of these factors are highly correlated with the level of education, especially for migrants. Although higher labor costs may have had a negative impact on manufacturing employment growth, this has not led to an overall increase in aggregate unemployment or prevented the rapid growth of real wages. Less progress has been made in increasing social insurance coverage, although signing a labor contract is more likely to be associated with participation in social insurance programs than in the past, particularly for migrant workers. |
| Keywords: | social insurance, informal sector, labor regulations, migration, gender, China |
| JEL: | J08 J16 J28 J41 J52 J53 O15 O17 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7555&r=lab |
| By: | William T. Alpert (University of Connecticut); Alexander Vaninsky (Hostos Community College) |
| Abstract: | The paper discusses the worthiness of the resources allocated for college education from the point of view of their value in the labor market. We use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to weigh the share of GDP spent on a college education and weighted time of labor force college study against productivity, employment rate, and labor force participation. Based on the data of the United States labor market for the period of 1980 - 2010, we received that the efficiency of a college education had no statistically significant tendency to increase or decrease over the period of the research but was closely related to the business cycles with a lag of one year. JEL Classification: |
| Keywords: | College education; Efficiency; Labor force productivity; Employment rate; Labor force participation; Data Envelopment Analysis |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2013-22&r=lab |
| By: | Machikita, Tomohiro (Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO)); Kohara, Miki (Osaka University); Sasaki, Masaru (Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how changes in extended unemployment insurance (UI) benefit affect the duration of unemployment. We investigate this question by exploiting not only strict age thresholds but also the pre-displacement tenure and the reason for separation from the previous job in the Japanese UI system which determines a worker's maximum potential UI benefit duration at the age of 45. Job-seekers who became unemployed due to exogenous reasons (such as establishment closure) at the age threshold of 45 who have longer pre-displacement tenure receive maximum benefits for longer durations. This rule creates a local randomized experiment. Using a large administrative dataset to implement a difference-in-differences approach for the narrow age range of 44-46 who entered unemployment in the same month in the same year, we find that longer maximum benefit durations do not lead to a decrease in the jobless hazard; the duration of unemployment is not prolonged among jobseekers who have longer maximum benefit duration. This result is robust to shorter and longer tenure before entering unemployment. The non-negative effect on the jobless hazard is primarily due to a small difference in maximum duration between the treated group and the control group. In addition, workers with firm-specificity are likely to take any job in difficult position. Since the disincentive effects of UI benefit is weaker among UI recipients with firm-specific human capital, the results suggest that extending UI benefit of prime-age job-seekers with longer tenure at previous job is an effective tool to enhance welfare. |
| Keywords: | maximum benefit durations, unemployment hazard, administrative data |
| JEL: | J64 J65 J68 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7559&r=lab |
| By: | Ekaterina Selezneva (IOS Regensburg); Philippe Van Kerm |
| Abstract: | This paper exploits data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) to re-examine the gender wage gap in Germany on the basis of inequality-adjusted measures of wage differentials which fully account for gender differences in pay distributions. The inequality-adjusted gender pay gap measures are significantly larger than suggested by standard indicators, especially in East Germany. Women appear penalized twice, with both lower mean wages and greater wage inequality. A hypothetical risky investment question collected in 2004 in the SOEP is used to estimate individual risk aversion parameters and benchmark the ranges of inequality-adjusted wage differentials measures. |
| Keywords: | gender gap, wage differentials, wage inequality, expected utility, risk aversion, East and West Germany, SOEP, Singh-Maddala distribution, copula-based selection model |
| JEL: | D63 J31 J70 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ost:wpaper:334&r=lab |
| By: | Nikulainen, Tuomo; Pajarinen, Mika |
| Abstract: | Industries go through different phases of evolution where old skills become obsolete and new skills arecrucial for the industrial renewal process. Industry evolution is usually addressed from the perspectives of production and exports, leaving one factor largely unexplored: human capital. Industry restructuring isa dynamic process where skills developed in one industry move to other industries as individuals change employers. We argue that the labor flows between industries reveal skill relatedness because individuals move to industries that value their existing skills. We also argue that the labor flows differ between highand low-skill labor. By examining these flows, we can identify spillover effects between industries during restructuring. To address this argument, we analyze all individual-level labor flows originating from the Finnish ICT sector for 1989-2010. This industry sector-level study focuses on three ICT industries (manufacturing, services and software), and we address the differences in labor mobility between the individuals with different professional skill levels. We find several differences in the labor market dynamics over time for each ICT industry and for the different skill levels. |
| Keywords: | labor mobility, skill relatedness, ICT sector, knowledge spillovers |
| JEL: | J24 J21 J62 |
| Date: | 2013–08–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:wpaper:17&r=lab |
| By: | Assaad, Ragui (University of Minnesota) |
| Abstract: | It is well-established that Arab labor markets share certain common characteristics, including an oversized public sector, high unemployment for educated youth, weak private sector dependent on government welfare for their survival, rapid growth in educational attainment, but much of it focused on the pursuit of formal credentials rather than productive skills, and low and stagnant female labor force participation rates. I argue in this paper that all of these features can be explained by the deep and persistent dualism that characterizes Arab labor markets as a result of the use of labor markets by Arab regimes as tool of political appeasement in the context of the "authoritarian bargain" social contract that they have struck with their citizens in the post-independence period. Even as fiscal crises have long destabilized these arrangements in most non-oil Arab countries, culminating in the dramatic political upheavals of the Arab spring revolutions, the enduring legacy of dualism will continue to strongly shape the production and deployment of human capital in Arab economies for some time. This will undoubtedly pose serious challenges to any efforts to transform these economies into dynamic, rapidly growing and more equitable globally competitive economies. |
| Keywords: | labor market dualism, Arab Spring, unemployment, education, authoritarian bargain |
| JEL: | I25 J21 J24 J31 J45 O53 P52 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7573&r=lab |
| By: | Gail Pacheco (Department of Economics, Faculty of Business and Law, Auckland University of Technology); Jessica Dye |
| Abstract: | Youth exclusion, disengagement, and overall underutilisation in the labour market has short term costs to the economy, as well as long term impacts on society. In this research we project the loss to productivity, measured in foregone wages, and the expected cost to public finances for NZ and Auckland youth aged 15-24 not in employment, education, or training (collectively known as NEET). We estimate the expected per capita cost of each NEET youth in NZ is approximately $26,847 over the next 1-3 years. The analogous cost for the Auckland cohort is found to be higher, due largely to higher foregone wages. Closer inspection reveals that Auckland NEET youth of Maori and Pacifica descent are associated with relatively high per capita costs compared to their NZ European counterparts. This result is driven by the greater propensity of Maori and Pacific Peoples to disengage from the education system earlier, to withdraw from the work force due to caregiving responsibilities at a younger age, and to experience longer durations of unemployment than their NZ European counterparts. The sizeable estimated costs associated with NEET youth highlight the urgent need for policy intervention directed at improving transitions from NEET status to the workforce, or further education/training. |
| Keywords: | NEET, youth disengagement, economic productivity, labour market, transition to work |
| JEL: | J64 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aut:wpaper:201304&r=lab |
| By: | Guillaud, Elvire (University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne); Marx, Paul (University of Southern Denmark) |
| Abstract: | Insider-outsider theory suggests that in dual labour markets two groups have opposing preferences regarding protection against dismissals: insiders defend employment protection, because it increases their rents. Outsiders see it as a mobility barrier and demand deregulation. Similar divides are expected for unemployment benefits: as insiders and outsiders have diverging unemployment risks, they should demand different levels of protection. Although these views are influential in the political economy debate, there is little empirical research on the effect of contract types on social and labour market policy preferences. We use a novel data set collected in the most recent presidential contest in France, which combines detailed information on respondents' employment status with questions measuring attitudes towards dismissal regulation and other labour market policies. Going beyond insider-outsider theory, we argue and show empirically that the effect of membership in either segment is moderated by the employment situation in workers' occupation. |
| Keywords: | employment protection, insider-outsider theory, political preferences, France, single employment contract |
| JEL: | J08 J41 K31 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7569&r=lab |
| By: | Piazzalunga, Daniela (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the gender and ethnic wage differentials for female Immigrants, applying the Oaxaca ecomposition to estimate the level of discrimination. The gender pay gap is quite small (7.42%), but it's not explained by observable differences, whilst the ethnic wage gap is larger (27.11%), but the explained components account for about 30%. Ultimately, we will evaluate how the multiple levels of discrimination (due to being a woman and a foreigner at the same time) intersect, following the decomposition suggested by Shamsuddin (1998). The double - negative effect is estimated to be 56 - 62%. |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:201337&r=lab |
| By: | Ishizuka, Futaba |
| Abstract: | Labor export has been part of Vietnam’s socio-economic development strategy since the beginning of the doi moi era. Recent years, Vietnam has sent about 80,000 workers abroad per year. Vietnam has become a major source country of unskilled foreign workers for high-income East Asian countries. However, in these receiving countries, the desertion rate among Vietnamese workers is quite high, compared with that for workers from other countries. This paper examines the impact of Korean and Japanese policies for receiving foreign workers applied to and implemented in Vietnam, as well as the impact of Vietnamese labor sending system, on the problem of runaway workers. |
| Keywords: | Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Migrant labor, Alien labor, Migration, International Labor Migration |
| JEL: | J61 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper414&r=lab |
| By: | Huynh, Phu; Kapsos, Steven |
| Abstract: | Presents trends and estimates of the poor, near poor and middle class working population in developing Asia and the Pacific. |
| Keywords: | employment, unemployment, employment opportunity, labour force participation, age group, sex, social class, data collecting, methodology, trend, projection, Asia, Pacific, emploi, chômage, possibilités d'emploi, taux d'activité, groupe d'âge, sexe, classe sociale, collecte des données, méthodologie, tendance, projection, Asie, Pacifique, empleo, desempleo, oportunidades de empleo, tasa de actividad de mano de obra, grupo de edad, sexo, clase social, recopilación de datos, metodología, tendencia, proyección, Asia, Pacífico |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:ilowps:482296&r=lab |
| By: | Busetta, Giovanni; Fiorillo, Fabio; Visalli, Emanuela |
| Abstract: | The paper deals with the impact of beauty on employability of people, stressing the first stage of the hiring process. In particular, we studied if there exists a preference for attractive candidates and if it does whether it depends on sex, physical features and racial characteristics. We monitored all relevant agencies offering jobs in Italy from August 2011 to September 2012 sending 11008 CVs to 1542 advertised job openings. To do so, we construct fake CVs and we sent the same CV 8 times, changing only name and surname, address, and the photo included. In particular, we sent 4 CVs with photo of an attractive and unattractive man and women, and 4 CVs without photo of an Italian and a foreign men and women to each job opening. Callbacks rates are statistically significant higher for attractive women and men than unattractive ones. Racial discrimination appears to be statistically relevant, but less than discrimination based on the physical features, especially for women. |
| Keywords: | beauty premium, racial discrimination, experimental economics. |
| JEL: | C93 J71 |
| Date: | 2013–08–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:49392&r=lab |