nep-lab New Economics Papers
on Labour Economics
Issue of 2014‒03‒22
25 papers chosen by
Erik Jonasson
National Institute of Economic Research

  1. Education, Health and Wages By Heckman, James J.; Humphries, John Eric; Veramendi, Gregory; Urzua, Sergio
  2. Education and Self-employment Propensity By Klaesson, Johan; Larsson, Johan P
  3. The Distribution of Lifetime Earnings Returns to College By Nybom, Martin
  4. Fostering upward economic mobility in the United States By Aparna Mathur; Abby McCloskey
  5. Full price elasticities and the value of time: A tribute to the Beckerian model of the allocation of time. By François Gardes
  6. Unanticipated Effects of California's Paid Family Leave Program By Das, Tirthatanmoy; Polachek, Solomon
  7. Firm Dynamics and Residual Inequality in Open Economies By Gabriel Felbermayr; Giammario Impullitti; Julien Prat
  8. Wage Profiles and Income Inequality among Identical Workers: A Simple Formalization By Akiomi Kitagawa
  9. The Impact of Resident Status Regulations on Immigrants' Labor Supply: Evidence for France By Joachim Jarreau
  10. The role of market access and human capital in regional wage disparities: Empirical evidence for Ecuador By Rafael Alvarado; Miguel Atienza
  11. The impact of vocational training for the unemployed : experimental evidence from Turkey By Hirshleifer, Sarojini; McKenzie, David; Almeida, Rita; Ridao-Cano, Cristobal
  12. Gender and the Labor Market: What Have We Learned from Filed and Lab Experiments? By Ghazala Azmat; Barbara Petrongolo
  13. Values and labor force participation in the Nordic countries By Hall, Axel; Zoega, Gylfi
  14. Do Tertiary Dropout Students Really Not Succeed in European Labour Markets? By Schnepf, Sylke V.
  15. FIRM AGE AND SIZE IN THE LONGITUDINAL EMPLOYER-HOUSEHOLD DYNAMICS DATA By John Haltiwanger; Henry Hyatt; Erika McEntarfer; Liliana Sousa; Stephen Tibbets
  16. Globalization and Wage Convergence: Mexico and the United States By Davide Gandolfi; Timothy Halliday; Raymond Robertson
  17. Success and failure in the operational recruitment process : contrasting the outcomes of search By Rebien, Martina; Kubis, Alexander; Müller, Anne
  18. Parental Occupational Status And Labour Market Outcomes In Russia By Alexey Bessudnov
  19. Do Occupational Demands Explain the Educational Gradient in Health? By Meyer, Sophie-Charlotte; Künn-Nelen, Annemarie
  20. Technology, Wage Dispersion and Inflation By Shoujian Zhang
  21. Measuring a Territorial Labor Market Development Index By Rodriguez-Oreggia, Eduardo; Cardozo-Medeiros, Diego; Parra-Diaz, Pedro Pablo
  22. Wage Development Considered By Jurriaan Eggelte; Jos Jansen; Guido Schotten; Diederik Dicou
  23. Not so modest: Pension benefits for full-career state government employees By Andrew G. Biggs
  24. "Can Formal Elderly Care Stimulate Female Labor Supply? The Japanese Experience" By Shinya Sugawara; Jiro Nakamura
  25. Cities, Tasks and Skills By Suzanne Kok; Bas ter Weel

  1. By: Heckman, James J. (University of Chicago); Humphries, John Eric (University of Chicago); Veramendi, Gregory (Arizona State University); Urzua, Sergio (University of Maryland)
    Abstract: This paper develops and estimates a model with multiple schooling choices that identifies the causal effect of different levels of schooling on health, health-related behaviors, and labor market outcomes. We develop an approach that is a halfway house between a reduced form treatment effect model and a fully formulated dynamic discrete choice model. It is computationally tractable and identifies the causal effects of educational choices at different margins. We estimate distributions of responses to education and find evidence for substantial heterogeneity in unobserved variables on which agents make choices. The estimated treatment effects of education are decomposed into the direct benefits of attaining a given level of schooling and indirect benefits from the option to continue on to further schooling. Continuation values are an important component of our estimated treatment effects. While the estimated causal effects of education are substantial for most outcomes, we also estimate a quantitatively important effect of unobservables on outcomes. Both cognitive and socioemotional factors contribute to shaping educational choices and labor market and health outcomes. We improve on LATE by identifying the groups affected by variations in the instruments. We find benefits of cognition on most outcomes apart from its effect on schooling attainment. The benefits of socioemotional skills on outcomes beyond their effects on schooling attainment are less precisely estimated.
    Keywords: education, early endowments, factor models, health, treatment effects
    JEL: C32 C38 I12 I14 I21
    Date: 2014–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8027&r=lab
  2. By: Klaesson, Johan (Centre for Entrepreneurship and Spatial Economics (CEnSE), Jönköping International Business School (JIBS) and Centre of Excellence in Science and Innovation Studies (CESIS)); Larsson, Johan P (Centre for Entrepreneurship and Spatial Economics (CEnSE), Jönköping International Business School (JIBS) and Centre of Excellence in Science and Innovation Studies (CESIS))
    Abstract: We examine the relationship between entrepreneurship and education length and field. Entrepreneurship and education are both used as policy vehicles for achieving employment and economic growth, regionally and nationally. If entrepreneurship in the form of new firms is the objective, then how will more education influence its achievability? We examine this question at the individual level using a full population data-set, and analyze the influence of education length and field on the propensity of leaving employment in 2007 for self-employment in 2008. The fields of education we investigate is: education, humanities and arts, social sciences, business and law and science. The effect of education on the probability of an individual turning from wage-employment into self-employment is positive overall, but differs considerably with respect to field of education on average and on the margin. The positive effects seem to almost exclusively come from the fields, science, social sciences and business and law. For the other fields the effect is essentially zero or even negative. In the empirics we control for a large set of variables controlling for individual, employer, and regional heterogeneity.
    Keywords: Self-employment; Entry; Human capital; Education; Industry; Region
    JEL: C21 L26 R10
    Date: 2014–03–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0345&r=lab
  3. By: Nybom, Martin (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University)
    Abstract: -
    Keywords: -
    Date: 2014–03–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2014_002&r=lab
  4. By: Aparna Mathur (American Enterprise Institute); Abby McCloskey (American Enterprise Institute)
    Abstract: While the national conversation continues to focus on income inequality and the minimum wage, the level of opportunity for economic mobility in the United States is astonishingly low. This paper proposes several reforms to existing welfare and workfare programs and incentives for teenagers and youth to attain higher education.
    Keywords: school choice,income,Impact of family structure on economic growth,economic mobility
    JEL: A
    Date: 2014–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aei:rpaper:40562&r=lab
  5. By: François Gardes (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne - Paris School of Economics)
    Abstract: This article adopts Becker's allocation of time framework to describe households' choices concerning both their monetary and time use expenditures in order to propose a new method to derive price elasticity at a micro level. Price and full income elasticities are estimated on a matching of a French Family Budget and a Time Use survey. The utility and home production functions are specified in order to allow the computation of the household's opportunity cost for time, which is shown to be smaller in average than the household's wage net of taxes. This estimate serves to value time dedicated to domestic activities and are used in the definition of full prices. The estimated price elasticities compare well with the estimates by other methods, such as Frisch's model based on independence of preferences assumptions or Hicks-Lewbel's method based on the aggregation of commodities. Finally, the model is applied to the computation of a welfare index, to the estimation of the household's labour supply and to a tentative explanation of the classic difference between cross-section and time-series estimates of income elasticities.
    Keywords: Allocation of time, domestic production, full income, full price, opportunity cost for time, price elasticity.
    JEL: C33 D1 D13 J22
    Date: 2014–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:14014&r=lab
  6. By: Das, Tirthatanmoy (Temple University); Polachek, Solomon (Binghamton University, New York)
    Abstract: We examine the effect of California Paid Family Leave (CPFL) on young women's (less than 42 years of age) labor force participation and unemployment. CPFL enables workers to take at most six weeks of paid leave over a 12 month period in order to bond with new born or adopted children, or to care for sick family members or ailing parents. The policy benefits women, especially young women, since they are more prone to take such a leave. However, the effect of the policy on labor market outcomes is less clear. We apply difference-in-difference techniques to identify the effects of the CPFL legislation on young women's labor force participation and unemployment. We find that the labor force participation rate, the unemployment rate, and the duration of unemployment among young women rose in California compared to states that did not adopt paid family leave. The latter two findings regarding higher young women's unemployment and unemployment duration are unanticipated effects of the CPFL program. We utilize a unique placebo test to validate the robustness of these results.
    Keywords: paid family leave, maternity leave, unemployment, policy evaluation
    JEL: H43 J13 J18 J48
    Date: 2014–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8023&r=lab
  7. By: Gabriel Felbermayr; Giammario Impullitti; Julien Prat
    Abstract: Increasing wage inequality between similar workers plays an important role for overall inequality trends in industrialized societies. To analyse this pattern, we incorporate directed labour market search into a dynamic model of international trade with heterogeneous firms and homogeneous workers. Wage inequality across and within firms results from their different hiring needs along their life cycles and the convexity of their adjustment costs. The interaction between wage posting and firms' growth process allows us to explain some recent empirical regularities on firm and labour market dynamics. Fitting the model to capture key features obtained from German linked employer-employee data, we investigate how falling trade costs and institutional reforms interact in shaping firm dynamics and aggregate labor market outcomes. Focusing on the period 1996-2007, we find that neither trade nor key features of the Hartz labour market reforms account for the sharp increase in residual inequality observed in the data. By contrast, inequality is highly responsive to the increase in product market competition triggered by domestic deregulation reforms
    Keywords: Wage Inequality, International Trade, Directed Search, Firm Dynamics, Product and Labour Market Regulation.
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notgep:14/01&r=lab
  8. By: Akiomi Kitagawa
    Abstract: This paper explores the implications of the possible bankruptcies of firms for their own wage schemes and the structure of the labor market using a two-period general equilibrium model. The bankruptcy risk flattens the wage profile of each firm, weakening its incentive effect and thereby making room for the efficiency wage to be used as a supplementary incentive device. This, in turn, stratifies the labor market into the primary market, in which job rationing is observed, and the secondary market, in which job rationing is not observed. A substantial utility differential emerges between those who have found a job in the primary market and those who have not, even though there is no difference in their innate abilities. This differential widens as bankruptcies become more likely. Moreover, the dual structure of the labor market renders the employment size in the primary market too small to attain a social optimum.
    Date: 2014–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:toh:tergaa:314&r=lab
  9. By: Joachim Jarreau (AMSE - Aix-Marseille School of Economics - Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole Centrale Marseille (ECM))
    Abstract: Many OECD countries have changed the rules for immigrants in recent decades, generally making harder to enter and to stay. France is one example. This paper studies the immigrants' response to the 2004 reform of the immigration law, which made it harder for foreigners to obtain resident status. The strategy for identification exploits a discontinuity in exposure to the reform, determined by the time of entry. The first result is that the 2004 reform prompted a wave of departures among low-skilled, unemployed, unmarried men. This effect is observed among those with previous work experience in France and searching for work, indicating that the difficulty to find a job without resident status creates an incentive for outmigration. Second, the obtention of resident status lowers significantly but marginally the labor supply of women, consistently with an adjustment role of women's work, and with a small substitution effect of labor income with welfare benefits. Overall, these results suggest that restrictions on access to resident status prompted outmigration, but not among the population with the most elastic labor supply. Thus, the reform did not reach its main objectives: selection occurred, but not of those less willing to work; cutting access to benefits increased labor supply, but only marginally.
    Keywords: immigration policy; labor markets; welfare magnets
    Date: 2014–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00954262&r=lab
  10. By: Rafael Alvarado (Department of Economics, Universidad Tecnica Particular de Loja); Miguel Atienza (IDEAR - ORDHUM - Department of Economics, Universidad Católica del Norte - Chile)
    Abstract: This article examines the effect of market access and human capital on regional wage disparities in Ecuador using the wage equation of the core-periphery model of the New Economic Geography and a multi-level model. Our results, based on cross-sectional data, suggest that market access has a positive and statistically significant effect on wages, although this effect is relatively small. Only a small degree of regional wage variation can be attributed to the effect of market size, while the composition of the labor force explains a significant part of the reduction of regional wage disparities. Consequently, efforts to reduce the unequal spatial distribution of human capital can contribute to the reduction of regional income disparity.
    Keywords: Market access, Human capital, Wages, NEG. Multilevel regression, Ecuador.
    JEL: J31 R12 J24
    Date: 2014–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cat:dtecon:dt201404&r=lab
  11. By: Hirshleifer, Sarojini; McKenzie, David; Almeida, Rita; Ridao-Cano, Cristobal
    Abstract: A randomized experiment is used to evaluate a large-scale, active labor market policy: Turkey's vocational training programs for the unemployed. A detailed follow-up survey of a large sample with low attrition enables precise estimation of treatment impacts and their heterogeneity. The average impact of training on employment is positive, but close to zero and statistically insignificant, which is much lower than either program officials or applicants expected. Over the first year after training, the paper finds that training had statistically significant effects on the quality of employment and that the positive impacts are stronger when training is offered by private providers. However, longer-term administrative data show that after three years these effects have also dissipated.
    Keywords: Labor Markets,Labor Policies,Access&Equity in Basic Education,Primary Education,Education For All
    Date: 2014–03–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6807&r=lab
  12. By: Ghazala Azmat; Barbara Petrongolo
    Abstract: We discuss the contribution of the experimental literature to the understanding of both traditional and previously unexplored dimensions of gender differences and discuss their bearings on labor market outcomes. Experiments have offered new findings on gender discrimination, and while they have identified a bias against hiring women in some labor market segments, the discrimination detected in field experiments is less pervasive than that implied by the regression approach. Experiments have also offered new insights into gender differences in preferences: to gain less from negotiation, women appear to have lower preferences than men for risk and competition and may be more sensitive to social cues. These gender differences in preferences also have implications in group settings, whereby the gender composition of a group affects team decisions and performance. Most of the evidence on gender traits comes from the lab, and key open questions remain as to the source of gender preferences—nature versus nurture, or their interaction—and their role, if any, in the workplace.
    Keywords: Gender, field experiments, lab experiments, discrimination, gender preferences
    JEL: J16 J24 J71 C91 C92 C93
    Date: 2014–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepops:40&r=lab
  13. By: Hall, Axel; Zoega, Gylfi
    Abstract: The Nordic countries are known for their success in combining an extensive welfare state with high labor force participation. This is explained by the origins of their welfare states that can be traced to a unique set of values and beliefs that emphasize the right of women to participate in the labor market. These values are currently shared by individuals born in other European countries of Nordic parents. Some possible causal explanations are proposed. --
    Keywords: employment,,taxes,values,beliefs
    JEL: J21 J22
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201411&r=lab
  14. By: Schnepf, Sylke V. (University of Southampton)
    Abstract: Tertiary education has been expanding hugely over the last decades, so that tertiary dropout students will constitute a growing distinctive group in future labour markets. University dropout is regularly discussed as a 'negative' indicator in terms of reinforcing socio-economic inequalities and being a sign of university inefficiency. However, research on actual career trajectory of dropout students is virtually non-existent. Using data from the 2011 Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) this study first validates the uncommon self-reported measure of dropout used and compares the percentage of adults with tertiary dropout experience between OECD countries. Second, we examine whether tertiary dropout is a permanent decision as a considerable part of literature assumes. In a third step, we investigate characteristics of adults with dropout experience. Finally, we estimate the effect of dropout in terms of their employment status and success of entering managerial professions comparing results of logistic regressions and propensity score matching taking individuals' socio-economic and demographic background, work experience and cognitive skills into account. Results indicate that consistently across countries dropout is repeatedly a 'positive' indicator in the labour market. This is first due to the fact that the dropout decision is often not a permanent one as well as that for those adults who do not re-enrol into tertiary education labour market chances are better than for equally educated adults in about half of the countries examined.
    Keywords: European countries, labour market chances, tertiary dropout, propensity score matching
    JEL: I21
    Date: 2014–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8015&r=lab
  15. By: John Haltiwanger; Henry Hyatt; Erika McEntarfer; Liliana Sousa; Stephen Tibbets
    Abstract: The Census Bureau’s Quarterly Workforce Dynamics (QWI) and OnTheMap now provide detailed workforce statistics by employer age and size. These data allow a first look at the demographics of workers at small and young businesses as well as detailed analysis of how hiring, turnover, job creation/destruction vary throughout a firm’s lifespan. Both the QWI and OnTheMap are tabulated from the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) linked employer-employee data. Firm age and size information was added to the LEHD data through integration of Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS) microdata into the LEHD jobs frame. This paper describes how these two new firm characteristics were added to the microdata and how they are tabulated in QWI and OnTheMap
    Date: 2014–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:14-16&r=lab
  16. By: Davide Gandolfi (Macalester College); Timothy Halliday (Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa); Raymond Robertson (Macalester College)
    Abstract: Neoclassical trade theory suggests that factor price convergence should follow increased commercial integration. Rising commercial integration and foreign direct investment followed the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Mexico. This paper evaluates the degree of wage convergence between Mexico and the United States between 1988 and 2011. We apply a synthetic panel approach to employment survey data and a more descriptive approach to Census data from Mexico and the US. First, we find no evidence of long-run wage convergence among cohorts characterized by low migration propensities although this was, in part, due to large macroeconomic shocks. On the other hand, we do find some evidence of convergence for workers with high migration propensities. Finally, we find evidence of convergence in the border of Mexico vis-à-vis its interior in the 1990s but this was reversed in the 2000s.
    Keywords: Migration, Labor-market Integration, Factor Price Equalization
    JEL: F15 F16 J31 F22
    Date: 2014–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hai:wpaper:201405&r=lab
  17. By: Rebien, Martina (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Kubis, Alexander (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Müller, Anne (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany])
    Abstract: "Following microeconomic theory, every vacancy should be filled by appropriate manpower after a certain time. However, from an empirical point of view it is evident that vacancies remain unfilled as establishments cancel their search for a suitable applicant. The German Job Vacancy Survey (JVS) is a representative survey of job offers for the entire German economy and provides information about the search and matching processes for both the establishments' most recent hires and for failures in the recruitment processes. The analysis is based on a binary explanatory variable, resulting from the interaction of individual successful and unsuccessful search processes (cancellation probability). Our results show that with increasing recruitment duration, the number of search cancellations becomes more likely. Moreover, the results indicate that the probability of a search cancellation is strongly linked to the characteristics that an applicant must provide and to the way the search is organised." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
    Keywords: IAB-Stellenerhebung, Personalbeschaffung, Stellenausschreibung, Stellenakquisition, Stellenbesetzung - Determinanten
    JEL: J23 J63 D22
    Date: 2014–03–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201407&r=lab
  18. By: Alexey Bessudnov (National Research University Higher School of Economics)
    Abstract: This paper looks at the effect of parental occupational status on their children’s occupational status and earnings in Russia. The analysis based on twelve surveys conducted from 1991 to 2011 (n=21,639) demonstrates a statistically significant effect of parental occupational status on respondents’ occupational status and earnings even after controlling for respondents’ education. Contrary to previous findings (Gerber and Hout 2004), the association between social origins and destinations did not strengthen over time. The size of the effect of parental status in Russia is similar to other European countries. A separate analysis shows that monetary returns on higher education increased in post-Soviet Russia, while returns on higher education in terms of occupational status decreased.
    Keywords: returns on education, social mobility, parental occupational status, ISEI, earnings
    JEL: I24
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:36/soc/2014&r=lab
  19. By: Meyer, Sophie-Charlotte (University of Wuppertal); Künn-Nelen, Annemarie (ROA, Maastricht University)
    Abstract: The aim of this paper is to investigate to what extent occupation-specific demands explain the relationship between education and health. We concentrate on ergonomic, environmental, psychical, social and time demands. Merging the German Microcensus 2009 data with a dataset including detailed occupational demands (German Employment Survey 2006), we have a unique dataset to analyze the mediating role of occupational demands in the relationship between education and health status on the one hand and education and health behavior (BMI and smoking) on the other. We base our analyses on the entire working population and therefore also include those who no longer work, taking occupational demands related to their last job. First, we find that occupational demands are significantly related to subjective health and health behaviors. This holds even stronger for those who are no longer employed. Second, we find that whereas occupational demands do not explain educational differences in subjective health status, they do partially mediate the education gradient in the considered health behaviors. Educational differences in smoking status can partly be explained by ergonomic, environmental, psychical and social demands. The educational gradient in BMI is partly attributable to social occupational demands.
    Keywords: education, occupational demands, working conditions, occupations, health, health behavior
    JEL: I1 J2 I2
    Date: 2014–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8011&r=lab
  20. By: Shoujian Zhang (University of St Andrews)
    Abstract: We study the effect of inflation on the wage dispersions due to firm heterogeneity and on-the-job search, in the context of a labour market á la Postel-Vinay and Robin (International Economic Review 43, 2002) and micro-founded money demand. The productivity distribution of firms is firstly assumed to be exogenously given and we find that a rise of inflation diminishes the wage dispersion. We then allow the firms to adjust their productivity level by investment. We then find that a rise in inflation can makes firms' productivity less dispersed by driving the least productive firms not profitable and thus out of business, because the demand declines due to the increase in the cost of holding money. This decrease in productivity dispersion furthermore also diminishes the wage dispersion.
    Keywords: inflation, search frictions, wage dispersion
    JEL: E24 E52
    Date: 2014–03–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:san:cdmawp:1403&r=lab
  21. By: Rodriguez-Oreggia, Eduardo; Cardozo-Medeiros, Diego; Parra-Diaz, Pedro Pablo
    Abstract: There is a widespread debate on the importance of the quality of labor, which is the requirement for wages to cover basic needs and provide people with a decent way of life and fostering development at the same time. This paper proposes to measure a labor market development index, using variables that can usually be found in labor surveys and can be applied for regional and country comparisons with easiness of aggregation through geometric means. We consider three principal pillars that make of labor one of the main mechanics for development: equality, productivity, and welfare.
    Keywords: development, labor market, welfare, equality, productivity
    JEL: D30 D60 J01 J21 J48
    Date: 2014–03–14
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:54439&r=lab
  22. By: Jurriaan Eggelte; Jos Jansen; Guido Schotten; Diederik Dicou
    Abstract: Wage formation can be seen as the outcome of bargaining between workers and employers about the distribution of output proceeds. Employers and workers each approach this from a different perspective: employers compare the development of total wages against the development of labour productivity and output prices, while workers look at the development of net wages versus inflation. The risk in wage bargaining is that special interests may prevail over the general interest. Coordination in wage formation at a central level, as is customary in the Dutch institutional setting, can reduce this risk. In the long run, efforts to systematically raise (or reduce) the income share of labour can be counterproductive as these will induce changes in the production structure, leading to a new equilibrium with lower (or higher) employment.
    Date: 2014–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dnb:dnbocs:1201&r=lab
  23. By: Andrew G. Biggs (American Enterprise Institute)
    Abstract: City and state governments around the country are pursuing reforms to address the rising costs of public employee pension plans. In response, public employee unions and pension plans often portray these benefits as “modest.” Public employees should be willing to accept—and private-sector workers to demand—more equity in the generosity of their pension plans.
    Keywords: retirement income,pension reform,Pension plans,Government employees
    JEL: A H
    Date: 2014–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aei:rpaper:40543&r=lab
  24. By: Shinya Sugawara (Faculty of Economics, the University of Tokyo); Jiro Nakamura (Faculty of Economics, Nihon University)
    Abstract:    This study analyzes the impacts of the Japanese Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI), a decade after its launch, with respect to the female labor supply in Japan. The radical program has caused the emergence of markets for various care services apart from permanent institutional care, which is only a major formal care sector in many developed countries. The availability of various formal care services can stimulate female labor supply through a reduction of the burden of informal caregiving. To investigate the impacts of the LTCI, we compare the labor market behavior of females who face requirements for elderly care in their household for three periods before the launch of the LTCI, four years after the launch, and ten years after the launch. Our empirical analysis indicates positive effects of the launch and diffusion of the LTCI on female labor supply. As a result of the LTCI, care for male elders is no longer an obstacle for female labor supply, but care for female elders is still burdensome. We also find that the care requirement reduces the probability of being a regular worker; however, regular workers are more likely to utilize formal care, whereas many nonregular workers provide informal care by themselves.
    Date: 2014–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tky:fseres:2014cf924&r=lab
  25. By: Suzanne Kok; Bas ter Weel
    Abstract: This research applies a task-based approach to measure and interpret changes in the employment structure of the 168 largest US cities in the period 1990-2009. As a result of technological change some tasks can be placed at distance, while others require proximity. We construct a measure of task connectivity to investigate which tasks are more likely to require proximity relative to others. Our results suggest that cities with higher shares of connected tasks experienced higher employment growth. This result is robust to a variety of other explanations including industry composition, routinisation, and the complementarity between skills and cities.
    JEL: J20 J30 O30
    Date: 2014–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:269&r=lab

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