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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Alan B. Krueger; Andreas I. Mueller |
| Abstract: | This paper provides evidence on the behavior of reservation wages over the spell of unemployment using high‐frequency longitudinal data. Using data from our survey of unemployed workers in New Jersey, where workers were interviewed each week for up to 24 weeks, we find that self‐reported reservation wages decline at a modest rate over the spell of unemployment, with point estimates ranging from 0.05 to 0.14 percent per week of unemployment. The decline in reservation wages is driven primarily by older individuals and those with personal savings at the start of the survey. The longitudinal nature of the data also allows us to test the relationship between job acceptance and the reservation wage and offered wage, where the reservation wage is measured from a previous interview to avoid bias due to cognitive dissonance. Job offers are more likely to be accepted if the offered wage exceeds the reservation wage, and the reservation wage has more predictive power in this regard than the pre-displacement wage, suggesting the reservation wage contains useful information about workers’ future decisions. In addition, there is a discrete rise in job acceptance when the offered wage exceeds the reservation wage. In comparison to a calibrated job search model, the reservation wage starts out too high and declines too slowly, on average, suggesting that many workers persistently misjudge their prospects or anchor their reservation wage on their previous wage. |
| JEL: | E0 H0 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19870&r=lab |
| By: | Rajshri Jayaraman; Debraj Ray; Francis de Vericourt |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the productivity impact of a contract change for tea pluckers in an Indian plantation. The contract, implemented at the end of a three-year cycle in which contracts are generally revised, was (a) the joint outcome of negotiations between twenty unions and plantations, (b) mandated to respect a state government notification stipulating a new minimum wage for plantation workers statewide, and (c) applicable equally to all the plantations in the local region. The contract raised the baseline wage by 30% but lowered marginal incentives, by shifting the existing piece rates to higher minimum thresholds and eliminating an existing penalty per unit for low output. In the one month following the contract change, output increased by a factor between 30-60%, the exact number depending on the choice of counterfactual and the set of controls applied. This large and contrarian response to a flattening of marginal incentives is at odds with the standard model, including one that incorporates dynamic incentives, and it can only be partly accounted for by higher supervisory effort. We conclude that the increase is a “behavioral” response. Yet in subsequent months, the increase is comprehensively reversed. In fact, an entirely standard model with no behavioral or dynamic features that we estimate off the pre-change data, fits the observations four months after the contract change remarkably well. While not an unequivocal indictment of the recent emphasis on “behavioral economics,” the findings suggest that non-standard responses may be ephemeral, especially in employment contexts in which the baseline relationship is delineated by financial considerations in the first place. From an empirical perspective, therefore, it is ideal to examine responses to a contract change over an substantial period of time. |
| JEL: | J43 L14 O13 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19849&r=lab |
| By: | Fatih Guvenen; Greg Kaplan; Jae Song |
| Abstract: | How sensitive are the earnings of top earners to business cycles? And, how does the business cycle sensitivity of top earners vary by industry? We use a confidential dataset on earnings histories of US males from the Social Security Administration. On average, individuals in the top 1% of the earnings distribution are slightly more cyclical than the population average. But there are large differences across sectors: Top earners in Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate (FIRE) and Construction face substantial business cycle volatility, whereas those in Services (who make up 40% of individuals in the top 1 percent) have earnings that are less cyclical than the average worker. |
| JEL: | E2 G12 J31 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19864&r=lab |
| By: | Velden R.K.W. van der; Badillo-Amador L.; Allen J.P. (GSBE) |
| Abstract: | The strong wage effects related to mismatches between a workers education and that required in the job are usually attributed to assignment theory. This theory asserts that productivity and wages depend on the education-job match, which determines the utilization of skills. However, recent research shows that educational mismatches are only weakly related to skill utilization, which in any case fails to account for the bulk of the wage effects. Two alternative theories have been put forward to explain the observed wage effects. One points to wage setting institutions that cause wages to be based on job characteristics regardless of individual performance, the other to the heterogeneity of skills within a given educational level. Both theories explain existing results, but have never been tested directly. In this paper we show that the former theory explains observed wage effects in the public sector, and the latter theory those in the private sector. |
| Keywords: | Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials; Public Sector Labor Markets; Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining: General; |
| JEL: | J31 J45 J50 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umagsb:2013071&r=lab |
| By: | Luke Haywood |
| Abstract: | Jobs offer different wages and different non-monetary working conditions. This paper investigates how the demand for non-monetary aspects evolves over changing wealth levels. Wages do not perfectly compensate individuals for differential utility of jobs in a labour market with informational frictions. Changes in wealth may then affect preferences for different jobs. Willingness to pay for non-monetary aspects of jobs (measured by job satisfaction for work "in itself") is found to increase with wealth shocks. Duration models are estimated based on the reduced form of a search model. Wealth may play an important role in labour market choices. |
| Keywords: | Labor supply, wealth, job satisfaction, duration models |
| JEL: | J21 J28 J32 J64 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1355&r=lab |
| By: | Chen, Siyan; Desiderio, Saul |
| Abstract: | In this paper we give a clear-cut explanation to the sluggish wage adjustments which are commonly experienced also in face of involuntary unemployment. We prove that unemployment may be the physiological outcome of rational decisions by competing workers who may find it optimal to ask higher wages than the full-employment ones. The key element driving the result is the slope (or elasticity) of labor demand schedule: in case of rigid labor demand, in fact, workers’ wage requests are kept high because of reduced unemployment opportunity costs. This contrasts with other approaches to the analysis of unemployment, where only the level of labor demand is considered. Impatience of working and effort required by the job are also showed to influence the degree of wage stickiness. |
| Keywords: | Sticky wages, involuntary unemployment, labor demand elasticity, game theory |
| JEL: | C72 E24 J23 J64 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:53260&r=lab |
| By: | Elena Crivellaro (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari) |
| Abstract: | While there has been intense debate in the empirical literature over the evolution of the college wage premium in the United States, its evolution in Europe has received little attention. This paper investigates the causes of the evolution of the college wage premium in 12 european countries from 1994 to 2009. I use cross country variation in relative supply, demand, and labour market institutions to examine their effects on the trend in wage inequality. I address possible concerns of endogeneity of the relative supply using an IV strategy exploiting the differential legislations of university autonomy and their variations over time. In explaining the evolution of wage inequality, both market and non-market factors matter: an increase in relative supply decreases the college wage premium; the minimum wage also has a sign?cant and negative effect. |
| Keywords: | College wage premium, Inequality, Relative supply. |
| JEL: | J24 J31 I24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2014:03&r=lab |
| By: | Hirsch, Boris; Jahn, Elke J.; Schnabel, Claus |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the behaviour of employers' monopsony power and workers' wages over the business cycle. Using German administrative linked employer employee data for the years 1985-2010 and an estimation framework based on duration models, we construct a time series of the firm-level labour supply elasticity and estimate its relationship to the aggregate unemployment rate. In line with theory, we find that firms possess more monopsony power during economic downturns, which shows to be robust to controlling for time-invariant unobserved worker heterogeneity. We also document that cyclical changes in workers' entry wages are of similar magnitude as those predicted under monopsonistic wage setting, suggesting that monopsony power should not be neglected when analysing wage cyclicality. -- In diesem Papier untersuchen wir das zyklische Verhalten von Monopsonmacht und Löhnen. Unter Verwendung administrativer deutscher Arbeitgeber Arbeitnehmer-Daten für die Jahre 1985-2010 und eines Schätzansatzes basierend auf Verweildauermodellen konstruieren wir eine Zeitreihe der Arbeitsangebotselastizität auf Firmenebene und untersuchen deren Zusammenhang mit der aggregierten Arbeitslosenquote. Im Einklang mit der Theorie finden wir, dass die Monopsonmacht der Firmen in konjunkturellen Schwächephasen ausgeprägter ist, selbst wenn für unbeobachtete Heterogenität seitens der Beschäftigten kontrolliert wird. Zudem zeigen wir, dass zyklische Schwankungen in den Einstiegslöhnen eine ähnliche Größe aufweisen wie unter monopsonistischer Lohnsetzung prognostiziert. Beides deutet darauf hin, dass Monopsonmacht bei Analysen und Lohnzyklizitäten berücksichtigt werden sollte. |
| Keywords: | monopsony power,business cycle,entry wages |
| JEL: | J42 J31 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:faulre:89&r=lab |
| By: | James Levinsohn (Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University); Neil Rankin (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch); Gareth Roberts (African MicroeconomicResearch Unit, University of the Witwatersrand); Volker Schöer (African MicroeconomicResearch Unit, University of the Witwatersrand) |
| Abstract: | • Youth unemployment in South Africa is high, differs substantially by race group and is increasing. In 2012, close to two-thirds of young Africans were broadly unemployed. Over the four years prior to this the unemployment rate had increased by almost ten percentage points. • A wage subsidy is one type of intervention which aims to reduce youth unemployment by providing a subsidy to firms which covers part of the cost of employing young people. The outline of a youth employment incentive was provided by the National Treasury in 2011. • Evidence from other countries suggests that the success of a wage subsidy can be context specific and depends on the nature of the intervention and the structure of the labour market amongst other things. Thus, in order to understand how a wage subsidy may affect youth unemployment it is useful to know how South African young people and firms may react to a wage subsidy. A randomised control trial (RCT) is one way to investigate this. • In an RCT the participants in the study are randomly divided into two groups – one which received the intervention, in this case a voucher for a wage subsidy which a firm who employs the individual could claim for six months (called the treatment group), and the second group which does not receive anything (called the control group). Since allocation to the groups is random and both groups share similar characteristics, any observed changes on average should be the result of the wage subsidy voucher. We can thus attach a causal interpretation to our results. • The key finding of the paper is that those who were allocated a wage subsidy voucher were more likely to be in wage employment both one year and two years after allocation. The impact of the voucher thus persisted even after it was no longer valid. The magnitude of these effects was relatively large – those in the voucher group were 7.4 percentage points (approximately 25 percent) more likely to be in wage employment one year after allocation and of similar magnitude two years later. This impact was not driven by changes in the sample composition. • This suggests that those young people who entered jobs earlier than they would have because of the voucher were more likely to stay in jobs. This confirms the important dynamic impacts of youth employment. It also suggests that government interventions which successfully create youth employment are important and can virtuous longer-term effects. • Relatively few firms actually claimed the voucher. Interviews with firms and young people suggest that this was for a number of reasons: the young people did not even get a chance to show the voucher to someone who makes hiring decision; the administrative burden associated with claiming the money, although not onerous, could not be overcome (for example, larger firms did not have a process for accepting subsidy money, human resource functions were centralised and HR had little incentive to engage in the process of claiming the voucher); or managers or firm owners questioned the legitimacy of the voucher. This suggests that a national wage subsidy policy would need to be widely advertised and information and support provided to firms who would like to claim the subsidy. • However, the impact of the voucher among those individuals who were employed in firms who claimed or enquired about the subsidy was much larger than the broader estimated effect. In this paper we are unable to ascertain whether these jobs were new or not. • Even after controlling for firm take up and enquiry there is still a difference in the probability of wage employment between the group with a voucher and the group without. This indicates that part of the impact of the voucher is through supply side responses of those allocated the voucher. • The results indicate that the observed impact of the voucher is not driven by changes in search, increases in search intensity or movement either to look for jobs or to take up employment. • Rather it seems that part of the impact may be driven by people turning down job offers. Those in the control group, especially those in households with other employed members, were more likely to turn down job offers than those in the treatment group. This suggests that there is some queuing in the South African youth labour market as young people who can wait for better paid jobs do. • We can only speculate about why those in the treatment group did not engage in this behaviour. One explanation is that the voucher changed their perceptions of potential success in the job market and thus they were more willing, or able, to go to these jobs, since they thought the voucher advantaged them or they were able to borrow money from their households to travel and incur the initial costs associated with accepting a job. It may also be that households which contained voucher holders were more likely to encourage the holder to take up the job since it was perceived as part of a special programme, or it may be that more information about jobs was passed onto the households of voucher holders with employees since they were linked into firms and people in their network may have known about the voucher. • These results confirm that the structure of the household is important for success in the labour market. Research on South African labour markets shows that networks are the main channel through which information about jobs is transmitted. Households with working members are thus advantaged since members receive more information about jobs. These types of households can also provide intra-household cash transfers to help pay for transport costs or other costs associated with taking up a job. • However, there can also be relatively negative implications for young people in households with other earners – they can afford to turn down jobs as they wait for potentially better paying or better matched jobs. The consequences of this may not necessarily be negative if these types of jobs eventually arrive but if they do not then these young people have sacrificed both earnings and work experience as they wait. |
| Keywords: | wage subsidies, youth employment, South Africa, impact evaluation, randomised control trials, employment incentives |
| JEL: | C93 D22 H25 J22 J23 J58 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers207&r=lab |
| By: | Velden R.K.W. van der; Humburg M. (ROA) |
| Abstract: | In this study we elicit employers preferences for a variety of CV attributes and types of skills when recruiting university graduates. Using two discrete choice experiments, we simulate the two common steps of the graduate recruitment process 1 the selection of suitable candidates for job interviews based on CVs, and 2 the hiring of graduates based on observed skills. We show that in the first step, employers attach most value to CV attributes which signal a high stock of occupation-specific human capital indicating low training costs and short adjustment periods; attributes such as relevant work experience and a good match between the field of study and the job tasks. In line with the preferences in the first step, employers actual hiring decision is mostly influenced by graduates level of professional expertise and interpersonal skills. Other types of skills also play a role in the hiring decision but are less important, and can therefore not easily compensate for a lack of occupation-specific human capital and interpersonal skills. |
| Keywords: | Analysis of Education; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity; |
| JEL: | J24 I21 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umaror:2014002&r=lab |
| By: | Caroli, Eve; Bassanini, Andrea |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the literature on the impact of work on health. We consider work along two dimensions: (i) the intensive margin, i.e. how many hours an individual works and (ii) the extensive margin, i.e. whether an individual is in employment or not, independent of the number of hours worked. We show that most of the evidence on the ne gative health impact of work found in the literature is based on situations in which workers have essentially no control (no choice) over the amount of work they provide. In essence, what is de trimental to health is not so much work per se as much as the gap which may exist between the actual and the desired amount of work, both at the intensive and extensive margins. |
| Keywords: | Santé; travail; retraite; heures travaillées; licenciement; choix individuel; health; work; retirement; hours worked; job loss; individual choice; |
| JEL: | I10 I31 J22 J28 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dau:papers:123456789/12483&r=lab |
| By: | Mariusz Kaszubowski (Gdansk University of Technology, Gdansk, Poland); Joanna Wolszczak-Derlacz (Gdansk University of Technology, Gdansk, Poland) |
| Abstract: | By using unique web-survey data, this paper assesses the gender wage gap in Polish academia. We conduct a detailed study of the gender gap considering monthly salaries and reservation wages. The study involves regression analysis, Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition of mean wage differentials and decomposition of differences in distributions using quintile regression. The results from the Oaxaca-Blinder wage decomposition imply that differences in total salary are mostly due to academic rank. For reservation wages there is evidence of a mean residual gap of 10%. In addition, both differences in raw salary and the reservation wage between females and males are more pronounced at the top of the distribution. |
| Keywords: | gender wage gap, reservation wage, higher education |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gdk:wpaper:19&r=lab |
| By: | Joanne Lindley (Department of Management, Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy, King’s College); Steven McIntosh (Department of Economics, The University of Sheffield) |
| Abstract: | Given the UK finance sector is one of the largest in the world, it provides the perfect setting for a study into the nature of the finance sector wage premium. We reveal the pervasiveness of this premium, across all sub-sectors of finance, and across all occupations within finance, and with the very highest rewards going to 40-49 year old men working in London. Moreover, the UK premium has continued to rise despite the recent financial crisis. Consequently, this study uses rich data from the UK to investigate potential explanations. We find that the financial sector is more skill intensive but also that financial sector workers have higher childhood test scores vis-à-vis non-finance workers. So we investigate to what extent these higher qualifications and higher cognitive skills can explain the financial pay differential. We then go on to consider whether the financial premium is a consequence of differences in job characteristics and thus whether technological change can explain the growth in the premium. While each of these factors has some role to play, we find that none can fully explain the wage premium found in the financial sector, which we find to be pervasive across 17 OECD countries, including the US. We therefore attribute to this to rent-sharing. |
| Keywords: | wage inequality; financial services; cognitive skills; bonuses |
| JEL: | J20 J31 I24 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shf:wpaper:2014002&r=lab |
| By: | Pedro Gonzaga (CEF.UP and Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto (FEP)); António Brandão (CEF.UP and Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto (FEP)); Helder Vasconcelos (CEF.UP and Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto (FEP)) |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of cooperative wage setting in industries that use two different types of labor. In particular, we consider a two-stage game where firms hire non-specialized workers in a perfectly competitive labor market and specialized workers that are more productive and expensive, but whose wages can be cooperatively determined by firms. It is shown that semi-collusion leads to lower wages and employment of specialized labor, lower production levels and higher prices, due to the elimination of the business stealing effect, labor force stealing effect and as a result of a dynamic effect that is specific to semi-collusive games. |
| Keywords: | Semi-collusion, labor market, oligopsony, business stealing effect, labor force stealing effect, price war effect, shooting the moon strategy. |
| JEL: | L11 L13 L41 L44 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:522&r=lab |
| By: | Krapf, Matthias (University of Zurich); Ursprung, Heinrich W. (University of Konstanz); Zimmermann, Christian (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of pregnancy and parenthood on the research productivity of academic economists. Combining the survey responses of nearly 10,000 economists with their publication records as documented in their RePEc accounts, we do not find that motherhood is associated with low research productivity. Nor do we find a statistically significant unconditional effect of a first child on research productivity. Conditional difference-in-differences estimates, however, suggest that the effect of parenthood on research productivity is negative for unmarried women and positive for untenured men. Moreover, becoming a mother before 30 years of age appears to have a detrimental effect on research productivity. |
| Keywords: | fertility, research productivity, gender gap, research productivity, life cycle |
| JEL: | J13 I23 J24 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7904&r=lab |
| By: | HAURET Laetitia; WILLIAMS Donald R. |
| Abstract: | Research over the past two decades has found significant gender differences in subjective job-satisfaction, with the result that women report greater satisfaction than men in some countries. This paper examines the so-called ?gender paradox? using data from the European Social Survey for a subset of fourteen countries in the European Union. We focus on the hypothesis that women place higher values on certain work characteristics than men, which explains the observed differential. Using estimates from Probit and ordered Probit models, we conduct standard Blinder-Oaxaca decompositions to estimate the impact that differential valuations of characteristics have on the gender difference in self-reported job satisfaction. The results indicate that females continue to report higher levels of job satisfaction than do men in some countries, and the difference remains even after controlling for a wide range of personal and job characteristics and working conditions. The decompositions suggest that a relatively small share of the gender differential is attributable to gender differences in the weights placed on working conditions in most countries. Rather, gender differences in job characteristics contribute relatively more to explaining the gender job-satisfaction differential. |
| Keywords: | job satisfaction; gender; Oaxaca decomposition |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2013-27&r=lab |
| By: | Müller, Kai-Uwe; Steiner, Viktor |
| Abstract: | A popular argument for a federal minimum wage is that it will prevent in-work poverty and reduce income inequality. We examine this assertion for Germany, a welfare state with a relative generous means-tested social minimum and high marginal tax rates. Our analysis is based on a microsimulation model that accounts for the interactions between wages, the tax-benefit system and net incomes at the household level as well as employment and price effects on the distribution of incomes induced by the introduction of a minimum wage. We show that the impact of even a relatively high federal minimum wage on disposable incomes is small because low wage earners are scattered over the whole income distribution and wage increases would to a large extent be offset by reductions in means-tested welfare transfers and high marginal tax rates. Taking into account negative employment effects and increases in consumer prices induced by the minimum wage would wipe out any positive direct effects on net incomes of households affected by the minimum wage. -- |
| Keywords: | minimum wage,employment effects,income distribution,inequality,microsimulation |
| JEL: | I32 H31 J31 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:201321&r=lab |
| By: | Lechner, Michael; Sari, Nazmi |
| Abstract: | Based on the Canadian National Population Health Survey we estimate the effects of individual sports and exercise on individual labor market outcomes. The data covers the period from 1994 to 2008. It is longitudinal and rich in life-style, health, and physical activity information. Exploiting these features of the data allows for a credible identification of the effects as well as for estimating dose-response relationships. Generally, we confirm previous findings of positive long-run income effects. However, an activity level above the current recommendation of the WHO for minimum physical activity is required to reap in the long-run benefits. |
| Keywords: | Physical activity, Canadian National Population Health Survey, individual sports participation, human capital, labor market, matching estimation |
| JEL: | I12 I18 J24 L83 C21 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:econwp:2014:02&r=lab |
| By: | Braga, Michela (University of Milan); Paccagnella, Marco (Bank of Italy); Pellizzari, Michele (University of Geneva) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the impact of college teaching on students' academic achievement and labor market outcomes using administrative data from Bocconi University (Italy) matched with Italian tax records. The estimation exploits the random allocation of students to teachers in a fixed sequence of compulsory courses. We find that good teaching matters more for the labor market than for academic performance. Moreover, the professors who are best at improving the academic achievement of their best students are also the ones who boost their earnings the most. On the contrary, for low ability students the academic and labor market returns of teachers are largely uncorrelated. We also find that professors who are good at teaching high ability students are often not the best teachers for the least able ones. These findings can be rationalized in a model where teaching is a multi-dimensional activity with each dimension having differential returns on the students' academic outcomes and labor market success. |
| Keywords: | teacher quality, higher education |
| JEL: | I20 M55 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7902&r=lab |
| By: | Bande, Roberto; López-Mourelo, Elva |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of worker’s age on the consequences of occupational injuries. Using data from the Spanish Statistics on Accidents at Work for 2004-2010, a multinomial model is estimated in order to analyse the impact of the age on the probability of suffering a severe or fatal accident. Further, a duration model is used to assess the effect of worker’s age on the length of sick leave caused by occupational injuries. The analysis shows that the probability of suffering a severe or fatal accident, as well as the duration of the sick leave, increases with the worker’s age once personal, job, and accident characteristics are controlled for. From a policy perspective, the results point out that decisions about delaying the retirement age require additional measures, such as the occupational reallocation of these older workers towards tasks with lower incidence rates, in order to minimise these effects |
| Keywords: | occupational accidents, ageing, sick leave |
| JEL: | J14 J28 J81 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:53097&r=lab |
| By: | Vassilis Monastiriotis; Angelo Martelli |
| Abstract: | The remarkable rise in unemployment in Greece has in a way overshadowed the substantial differentiation, across regions, in terms of regional unemployment and labour market adjustment. This paper examines the geography of these dynamics using probit regressions of unemployment risk and decomposing the observed regional unemployment differentials into three components corresponding to differences in labour quality, matching efficiency and effective demand. We find that, underlying the general increase in unemployment is a wealth of unemployment dynamics and adjustment trajectories. The fall in effective demand has been largest in the main metropolitan regions and the north and north-western periphery. Adjustment has been strong in some areas (e.g., Athens) but, overall, adjustment processes (such as bumping-down and changes in the mix of workforce characteristics) have been weak. The crisis has nullified the improvements in labour market performance registered since the country’s entry into the Eurozone, hitting especially those regions that benefitted most from the latter. The spatial differentiation of adjustment intensities and demand pressures suggests a heightened role for regional policy in the post-crisis period, especially in relation to addressing problems of over-education and matching efficiency in the demand-depressed areas and of inter-regional adjustment mechanisms nationally. |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hel:greese:80&r=lab |
| By: | Rodrigo Montero (Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Universidad Diego Portales); Diego Vasquez (Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Universidad Diego Portales) |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ptl:wpaper:48&r=lab |
| By: | Holz , Carsten A. (BOFIT); Mehrotra, Aaron (BOFIT) |
| Abstract: | This study finds that the growth in labour costs in China is not passed through fully to final prices in China, neither in the tradable goods sector nor in the economy as a whole. This probably reflects the strong pressure on profit margins from a highly competitive environment, especially in manufactured goods. The potential implications of labour cost increases in China for global inflation pressures are also discussed. |
| Keywords: | labour costs; inflation; China; global economic slack; globalisation |
| JEL: | E31 F42 J30 |
| Date: | 2014–01–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bofitp:2014_003&r=lab |
| By: | Fernando Rios-Avila |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the economic impact of unions on productivity in the manufacturing sector across six Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, and Paraguay. Using an augmented Cobb-Douglas production function, the paper finds that unions have positive, but mostly small, effects on productivity, with the exception of Argentina, with a large negative effect, and Bolivia, with no effect. An analysis on profitability shows that, in most cases, the positive productivity effects barely offset higher union compensation, and that unions are negatively related to investment in capital and R and D. Different explanations for these effects are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Unions; Productivity; Profitability; Investment; Latin America; Developing Countries |
| JEL: | J50 L1 O54 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_787&r=lab |