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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Coral del Rio (Universidade de Vigo and EQUALITAS); Olga Alonso-Villar (Universidade de Vigo, Facultade de CC. Economicas, Departamento de Economia Aplicada) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is twofold: a) To explore the evolution of occupational segregation of women and men of different racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. during the period 1940-2010; and b) to assess the consequences of segregation for each of them. For that purpose, this paper proposes a simple index that measures the monetary loss or gain of a group derived from its overrepresentation in some occupations and underrepresentation in others. This index has a clear economic interpretation. It represents the per capita advantage (if the index is positive) or disadvantage (if the index is negative) of the group, derived from its segregation, as a proportion of the average wage of the economy. Our index seems a helpful tool not only for academics but also for institutions concerned with inequalities related to gender, race, ethnicity, and migration status, among others, since it makes it possible to rank different groups in an economy or a target group across time according to its segregation nature. |
| Keywords: | Occupational segregation; local segregation; race; ethnicity; gender; wages; U.S. |
| JEL: | J15 J16 J71 D63 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2014-323&r=lab |
| By: | Markus Jantti (Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University, Sweden); Stephen P. Jenkins (Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics, UK and ISER, University of Essex, IZA, Bonn.) |
| Abstract: | We survey the literature on income mobility, aiming to provide an integrated discussion of mobility within- and between-generations. We review mobility concepts, descriptive devices, measurement methods, data sources, and recent empirical evidence. |
| Keywords: | Intragenerational mobility, intergenerational mobility, income mobility, earnings mobility |
| JEL: | D31 I30 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2014-319&r=lab |
| By: | Andrew S. GRIFFEN; NAKAMURO Makiko; INUI Tomohiko |
| Abstract: | Using panel data on Japanese mothers, this paper estimates the impact of fertility on maternal labor supply using twins as an instrument for the total number of children. We find that having twins actually has a longer term positive impact on maternal labor force participation. To understand this result, we present evidence that spacing effects and the cost of children are particularly salient in Japan and differ in important ways between twins and non-twin families of the same size. Implications for fertility and labor supply policy in Japan are discussed. |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:14016&r=lab |
| By: | Verdugo, Gregory (Bank of France) |
| Abstract: | Wage inequality decreased continuously in France from 1969 to 2008. In contrast to the US and the UK, this period was also characterised by a substantial increase in the educational attainment of the labour force. This paper investigates whether differences in the timing of educational expansion over the last forty years can explain the divergent evolution of upper tail wage inequality in France relative to other countries. Using a model with imperfect substitution between experience groups, the estimates suggest that the rapid increase in the supply of educated workers during the 1970s and 1990s produced a substantial decline in the skill premium within cohorts. As a result, between a third and half of the decline in wage inequality at the top of the distribution in France during this period is explained by the increase in the educational attainment of the labour force. |
| Keywords: | wage inequality, France |
| JEL: | J31 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8088&r=lab |
| By: | Jean-Olivier Hairault (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne); François Langot (IZA - Institute for the Study of Labor, GAINS-TEPP - Université du Maine, CEPREMAP - Centre pour la recherche économique et ses applications); Thepthida Sopraseuth (CEPREMAP - Centre pour la recherche économique et ses applications, THEMA - Théorie économique, modélisation et applications - CNRS : UMR8184 - Université de Cergy Pontoise) |
| Abstract: | Since the last recession, it is usually argued that older workers are less affected by the economic downturn because their unemployment rate rose less than the one of prime-age workers. This view is a myth: older workers are more sensitive to the business cycle. We document volatilities of worker flows and hourly wage across age groups on CPS data. We find that old worker's job flows are characterized by a higher responsiveness to business cycles than their younger counterparts. In contrast, their wage cyclicality is lower than prime-age workers'. Beyond this empirical contribution, we show that a life-cycle Mortensen & Pissarides (1994) model is well suited to explain these facts: older workers' shorter work-life expectancy endogenously reduces their outside options and leads their wages to be less sensitive to the business cycle. Thus, in a market where wage adjustments are small, quantities vary a lot: this is the case for older workers, whereas the youngest behave like infinitively-lived agents. Our theoretical results point out that Shimer (2005)'s view on the MP model is consistent with prime-age workers' labor market while aging endogenously introduces real wage rigidities, allowing to match what we observe for old workers, without specific assumptions as in Hagendorn & Manovskii (2008). |
| Keywords: | search ; matching ; business cycle ; life-cycle |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00972291&r=lab |
| By: | Alain Jousten; Mathieu Lefebvre; Sergio Perelman |
| Abstract: | Many Belgian retire well before the statutory retirement age. Numerous exit routes from the labor force can be identified: old-age pensions, conventional early retirement, disability insurance, and unemployment insurance are the most prominent ones. We analyze the retirement decision of Belgian workers adopting an option value framework, and pay special attention to the role of health status. We estimate probit models of retirement using data from SHARE. The results show that health and incentives matter in the decision to exit from the labor market. Based on these results, we simulate the effect of potential reforms on retirement. |
| JEL: | H55 J21 J26 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20035&r=lab |
| By: | Peter Paz (Centro de Investigación Económica, ITAM.); Carlos Urrutia (Centro de Investigación Económica, ITAM.) |
| Abstract: | In the last two decades, the Peruvian economy exhibited rapid growth. Moreover, the composition of the labor force improved in terms of education and experience, two variables which are typically associated to higher human capital. The average worker in 2012 had a higher level of education and was one and a half years older than in 1998, reflecting the impact of the demographic transition. However, the average real wage was roughly constant. We show that a decline in the wage premium for education, and to a minor extent for experience, is responsible for the lack of growth in the average real wage. Had these two premia remained constant throughout the period of analysis, average labor earnings would have increased by about 2.6 percent per year, of which 0.7 percentage points are accounted for the changes in the composition of the labor force in terms of age and education. We explore the role of the relative supply of workers with different levels of human capital as an explanation for the decline in the wage premium for education. Finally, we analyze the implications of these findings for some macroeconomic variables, as earnings and wage inequality, the labor share and total factor productivity. JEL Classification-JEL: I24, J21, J24, J31, O47 |
| Keywords: | education, economic growth, human capital, labor productivity, wages |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pcp:pucwps:wp00372&r=lab |
| By: | Joseph Mercante; Penny Mok (The Treasury) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates wage equations for New Zealand based on pooled data from the Household Economic Survey (HES) from 2006/07 to 2010/11. Equations are estimated separately for couple men and women, single men and women and sole parents. The results are compared to previous New Zealand estimates using the HES from 1991 to 2001. We estimate wage equations and account for possible sample selection bias. Our estimates of the wage equations are largely comparable to the earlier estimates. We extend the equations to predict wage rates for workers and non-workers by drawing from the estimated wage distribution. We find that sample selection is significant for married men, single women and sole parents but not significant for married women and single men. Overall, we find that wage rates are positively related to age, education and experience but the wage rates are generally lower for non-Europeans and for people living outside Auckland. |
| Keywords: | wage rate; labour supply; selection bias; wage prediction |
| JEL: | J21 J31 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nzt:nztwps:14/09&r=lab |
| By: | Jesper Bagger; Rasmus Lentz |
| Abstract: | This paper studies wage dispersion in an equilibrium on-the-job-search model with endogenous search intensity. Workers differ in their permanent skill level and firms differ with respect to productivity. Positive (negative) sorting results if the match production function is supermodular (submodular). The model is estimated on Danish matched employer-employee data. We find evidence of positive assortative matching. In the estimated equilibrium match distribution, the correlation between worker skill and firm productivity is 0.12. The assortative matching has a substantial impact on wage dispersion. We decompose wage variation into four sources: Worker heterogeneity, firm heterogeneity, frictions, and sorting. Worker heterogeneity contributes 51% of the variation, firm heterogeneity contributes 11%, frictions 23%, and finally sorting contributes 15%. We measure the output loss due to mismatch by asking how much greater output would be if the estimated population of matches were perfectly positively assorted. In this case, output would increase by 7.7%. |
| JEL: | J24 J33 J62 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20031&r=lab |
| By: | Pavel V. Travkin (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the wage return to job-related training using a difference-in-differences estimator to control for unmeasured differences in ability and measured differences in past wages as a proxy for ability and motivation. Estimates use data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey from 2004 to 2011. As predicted, positive returns to training are identified, and the returns increase absolutely with the level of past wages, consistent with human capital and selection models. |
| Keywords: | returns to training, human capital, unobserved abilities, Russia. |
| JEL: | J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:56/ec/2014&r=lab |
| By: | Theodoridis, Konstantinos (Bank of England); Zanetti, Francesco (Bank of England) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a vector autoregression model estimated with Bayesian methods to identify the effect of productivity news shocks on labour market variables by imposing that they are orthogonal to current technology but they explain future observed technology. In the aftermath of a positive news shock, unemployment falls, whereas wages and the job finding rate increase. The analysis establishes that news shocks are important in explaining the historical developments in labour market variables, whereas they play a minor role for movements in real activity. We show that the empirical responses to news shocks are in line with those of a baseline search and matching model of the labour market and that the job destruction rate and real wage rigidities are critical for the variables’ responses to the news shock. |
| Keywords: | Anticipated productivity shocks; Bayesian SVAR methods; labour market search frictions |
| JEL: | C32 C52 E32 |
| Date: | 2014–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boe:boeewp:0488&r=lab |
| By: | Joseph Mercante; Penny Mok (The Treasury) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we estimate labour supply using a discrete choice approach for single men, single women and single parents and a joint labour supply equation for couples in New Zealand. The data are based on pooled cross-sectional data from the Household Economic Survey over 2006/07 to 2010/11. We allow singles to choose from eleven discrete hours whilst couples choose from 66 combined working hour choices. Net incomes at all possible discrete working-hours are calculated using Treasury’s TAXWELL microsimulation model. For non-workers, net incomes are estimated based on an imputed wage. In order to fit the model to the observed working hour distribution we include a fixed cost of working parameter and we explicitly take account of observed and unobserved heterogeneity in the data. We find that the coefficient estimates of the labour supply equations mostly accord with expectations and are reasonably comparable with previously estimated equations for New Zealand. Using the equations we find that the labour supply predictions fit the observed data reasonably well. However, despite the inclusion of a fixed cost of working parameter, the peak working hours of around 40 hours per week in the observed data is under-predicted by the models, while part-time hours of work remain over-predicted. We compute labour supply elasticities from the estimated parameters which show that single parents and single women are the most responsive, whilst partnered men and single men are the least responsive. |
| Keywords: | labour supply; discrete choice; random utility; multinomial logit |
| JEL: | C25 J22 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nzt:nztwps:14/08&r=lab |
| By: | Bruno Amable (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne, CEPREMAP - Centre pour la recherche économique et ses applications, IUF - Institut Universitaire de France - Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique); Baptiste Françon (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate the microeconomic effects of one major feature of the German Hartz Reforms (2003-2005), namely the reduction in compensation duration for older unemployed above 45 years of age. We look at two potential effects of this measure: on job take-up rates, but also on post-unemployment outcomes, through various indicators of matching quality (job stability, skill adequacy) and job quality (type of job contract). Applying difference-in-differences estimators, we show that the effects of this specific feature were rather scant. Regarding unemployment duration, only unemployed within a specific age group (55 to 59 years old) were affected by the reform. Evidence suggests that this is because they previously used unemployment schemes as a bridge to early retirement. In addition, there is some evidence of detrimental effects on job or matching quality. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment benefits; unemployment duration; job matching; job quality; early retirement; difference-in-differences |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00973884&r=lab |
| By: | Garcia Cruz, Gustavo Adolfo |
| Abstract: | The labor market in developing countries is remarkably heterogeneous with a small productive formal sector, enjoying high wages and attractive employment conditions and another large informal sector with low productivity and volatile wages. The informal sector is particularly diverse. In this paper we examine the heterogeneity of the informal sector at regional level in Colombia. In general, our findings suggest that, both voluntary and involuntary informal employment co-exist by choice and as a result of labor market segmentation. We also find that there are striking differences in labor market characteristics between cities, in particular in the traditional informal segment. |
| Keywords: | Informality, local labor markets, quantile regression, selection bias, formal/informal wage gap decomposition |
| JEL: | C21 J31 J42 O17 |
| Date: | 2014–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:55224&r=lab |
| By: | Bruna Bruno; Damiano Fiorillo |
| Abstract: | The effects of voluntary work on earnings have recently been studied for some developed countries such as Canada, France and Austria. This paper extends this line of research to Italy, using data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) dataset. A double methodological approach is used in order to control for unobserved heterogeneity: Heckman and IV methods are employed to account for unobserved worker heterogeneity and endogeneity bias. Empirical results show that, when the unobserved heterogeneity is taken into account, a wage premium of 2.7 percent emerges, quite small if compared to previous investigations on Canada and Austria. The investigation into the channels of influence of volunteering on wages gives support to the hypotheses that volunteering enables the access to fruitful informal networks, avoids the human capital deterioration and provides a signal for intrinsically motivated individuals. |
| Keywords: | Voluntary work, wages, Mincer equation, selection bias, instrumental variables, Italy. |
| JEL: | C31 C36 J31 |
| Date: | 2014–04–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eei:rpaper:eeri_rp_2014_05&r=lab |
| By: | Shonchoy, Abu S.; Junankar, P. N. (Raja) |
| Abstract: | The informal economy is a very important sector of the Indian economy. The National Council of Applied Economic Research estimates that the informal sector - "unorganised sector" - generates about 62% of GDP and provides for about 55% of total employment (ILO 2002, p. 14). This paper studies the characteristics of the workers in the informal economy and whether internal migrants treat this sector as a temporary location before moving on to the organised or formal sector to improve their lifetime income and living conditions. We limit our study to the Indian urban (non-agricultural) sector and study the characteristics of the household heads that belong to the informal sector (self-employed and informal wage workers) and the formal sector. We find that household heads that are less educated, come from poorer households, and/or are in lower social groups (castes and religions) are more likely to be in the informal sector. In addition, our results show strong evidence that the longer a rural migrant household head has been working in the urban sector, ceteris paribus, the more likely that individual has moved out of the informal wage sector. These results support the hypothesis that, for internal migrants, the informal wage labour market is a stepping stone to a better and more certain life in the formal sector. |
| Keywords: | Labor market, Informal sector, Migrant labor, Caste, Religion, Informal labour markets, Migrant |
| JEL: | J15 J42 J61 O17 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper461&r=lab |
| By: | Luc Behaghel; Didier Blanchet; Muriel Roger |
| Abstract: | We analyze the influence of health and financial incentives on the retirement behavior of older workers in France, building upon Stock and Wise (1990) option value approach. The model accounts for three main retirement routes: the normal retirement, disability insurance (DI) and unemployment/preretirement pathways, and is estimated with a combination of microeconomic datasets that include the French data of the European SHARE survey. The estimates confirm that a decrease in the generosity of the pension and DI schemes induces people to stay longer in the labor market, and that people with better health tend to retire later. We present extreme situations simulating what individual's retirement behavior would have been if only one retirement route had existed and in the absence of constraints on work capabilities. We show that average years of work between 55 and 64 are nearly 14% greater when regular retirement incentives are applied to the whole population than when it is DI rules that are systematically applied. |
| JEL: | H55 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20030&r=lab |
| By: | Giulietti, Corrado (IZA); Wahba, Jackline (University of Southampton); Zenou, Yves (Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the role of strong versus weak ties in the rural-to-urban migration decision in China. We first develop a network model that puts forward the different roles of weak and strong ties in helping workers to migrate to the city. We then use a unique longitudinal data that allows us to test our model by focusing on first-time migration. Strong ties are measured by the closest family contact, while weak ties are determined by the fraction of migrants from the village in which the individual resides. We address the endogeneity of the network formation in the migration decision. Our results indicate that both weak and strong ties matter in the migration decision process, although the impact of weak ties is higher than that of strong ties. We also show that one underestimates the effect of social networks on migration by not taking into account the strong ties in the mobility process. We finally find that weak and strong ties act as complements in the migration decision, which indicates that the interactive effect between weak and strong ties is particularly strong above a certain threshold of the size of weak ties. |
| Keywords: | social networks, internal migration, China |
| JEL: | O15 J61 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8089&r=lab |
| By: | Görlitz, Katja; Rzepka, Sylvi |
| Abstract: | Using data from the National Educational Panel Study of 2009/2010, this paper investigates the relationship between regional training supply and employees´ training participation. Controlling for other regional factors such as the local unemployment rate, the educational level, the population density and the regional industry composition, the results indicate that training participation is significantly higher in regions with many firms in the training supply market. The predictive power of the other regional factors is rather minor. -- |
| Keywords: | training,local labor markets |
| JEL: | J24 R12 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:20149&r=lab |
| By: | Saïd Aboubacar; Nong Zhu |
| Abstract: | Using data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) – we analyze non-employment episodes for immigrants from developing countries and compare their situation to that of immigrants from more developed countries and Canadian-born individuals between 1996 and 2006. The methods used allowed us to draw the following conclusion: significant differences exist between these three groups in the labour market mobility, the average duration of a non-employment episode, and the factors that affect the propensity to exit from a non-employment episode. These differences demonstrate a particular disadvantage for immigrants from developing countries. In fact, they tend to spend more time in non-employment episodes compared to their counterparts from the more developed countries and compared to Canadian-born individuals. À partir des données de l’Enquête sur la Dynamique du Travail et du Revenu (EDTR), nous analysons la situation des immigrants des pays en voie de développement au Canada en matière de non-emploi et leur situation par rapport aux immigrants des pays développés et personnes nées au Canada durant la période 1996-2006. Les méthodes utilisées nous ont permis de tirer la conclusion suivante : il existe des différences importantes entre les trois groupes au niveau de la mobilité dans le marché de l’emploi, la durée moyenne passée dans un épisode de non-emploi et les facteurs qui agissent sur la propension à sortir d’un épisode de non-emploi. Ces différences démontrent un désavantage particulier pour les immigrants originaires des pays en développement. En effet, ces derniers tendent à passer beaucoup plus de temps dans un épisode de non-emploi comparativement à leurs homologues immigrants issus des pays développés et les Canadiens de naissance. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, labour market, developing countries, Canada, immigrants, marché de l’emploi, pays en voie de développement, Canada |
| Date: | 2014–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2014s-14&r=lab |
| By: | Rodríguez-Planas, Núria (IZA and IAE-CSIC); Farré, Lídia (IAE Barcelona (CSIC)) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the labour market and welfare changes experienced by enlarged-EU migrants before and after 2007. For this purpose, we briefly review the Spanish socio-economic institutional background, as well as its migration policy towards enlarged-EU citizens. Then we discuss the importance of inflows and stocks of enlarged-EU migrants in Spain, including their socio-demographic, labour market and welfare use characteristics. We proceed to evaluate the impact of enlarged-EU migrants on the Spanish labour market and the welfare state, with particular attention paid to how the situation has changed for enlarged-EU migrants after 2007, in relation to other migrants and natives. After investigating the effects of enlarged-EU migrants on the native population, the paper concludes with a discussion on lessons learned. |
| Keywords: | immigration, EU enlargement, Great Recession |
| JEL: | J15 J24 J61 J62 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8091&r=lab |
| By: | Henze, Philipp |
| Abstract: | This paper measures the impact of sectoral composition, international trade and technological progress on the rising wage gap in Germany. I find a positive effect of the increasing importance of services on the rising wage gap in Germany that is comparable to the effects of international trade and technological change. To quantify the causal relationship between the structural change of the German economy and the wage premium, I use the Establishment History Panel (in German: Betriebs-Historik-Panel - BHP), a detailed establishment-level data set provided by the German Federal Employment Office covering the period 1975-2010. This empirical work puts the focus on an important cause of the rising wage gap that so far has been largely ignored by the literature. -- |
| Keywords: | income inequality,structural change,international trade,technological change |
| JEL: | F16 J31 O15 O30 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cegedp:204&r=lab |
| By: | Jean Cartelier |
| Abstract: | The purpose of the paper is to offer a logical genesis of the differenciation of agents in two classes: capitalist entrepreneurs and wage-earners. The model presented here does not follow the Classical (or Marxian) tradition (where the two opposed classes are the straight consequence of the concentration of the means of production in the hands of a limited fraction of people). It does not follow mainstream economists either (no difference according to general competitive equilibrium or a difference taken as given in labour economics in general). Models belonging to those traditions fail to reproduce a major stylised fact: wage-earners cannot be distinguished from entrepreneurs when they are in the market for commodities but they radically differ in the'market for labour'or in production (wage-earners do not produce for their own account but for that of entrepreneurs who get pro ts, not wages). Modern tentatives to deal with the differenciation of agents (Matsuyama for instance) explain it by a progrssive differenciation of the level of wealth up to a threshold which makes some agents able to accumulate and others not. We propose a different view based on the process of issuance of money. If a fraction of agents have not a direct access to that process they cannot act in the market for their own account. The alternatives they have are limited to autarky or to work for the account of those who have additional alternatives due to their direct access to money (to be independent producers or entrepreneurs hiring wage-earners). The model makes explicit the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of an E-equilibrium in which co-exist heterogeneous agents (entrepreneurs and wage-earners) starting from a population homogeneous except for bank rationing. These reasonable conditions are: an efficient monetary system, a sufficient gap between productivity of production in mass compared to other types and a possibility to induce wage-earners to work signifi cantly more than they would as free producers. A non-Marxian notion of exploitation is suggested to conclude. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurs, wage-earners. |
| JEL: | A10 B50 J01 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2014-19&r=lab |
| By: | Fumio Ohtake; Naoko Okuyama; Masaru Sasaki; Kengo Yasui |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the effects of the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake on the wages of people in the area of the earthquake over the 17 years after its occurrence and identified which part of the wage distribution has been most affected by this event by comparing the wage distributions of disaster victims and non-victims. To do this, we used three decomposition methods, developed by (i) Oaxaca (1973) and Blinder (1973); (ii) DiNardo, Fortin, and Lemieux (1996) (gDFLh); and (iii) Machado and Mata (2005) and Melly (2006). Our findings are as follows. First, the Oaxaca and Blinder decomposition analysis shows that the negative impact of the earthquake still affects the mean wages of male workers. Second, the DFL decomposition analysis shows that middle-wage males would have earned more had the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake not occurred. Finally, the Machado-Mata-Melly decomposition analysis shows that the earthquake had a large, adverse impact on the wages of middle-wage males, and that their wages have been reduced since the earthquake, by 5.0-8.6%. This result is similar to that from the DFL decomposition analysis. In the case of female workers, a long-term negative impact of the earthquake was also observed as the wages of high-wage females were reduced by 8.3-13.8%. |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpr:wpaper:0897&r=lab |
| By: | Jonathan de Quidt |
| Abstract: | Empirically, labor contracts that financially penalize failure induce higher effort provision than economically identical contracts presented as paying a bonus for success, an effect attributed to loss aversion. This is puzzling, as penalties are infrequently used in practice. The most obvious explanation is selection: loss averse agents are unwilling to accept such contracts. I formalize this intuition, then run an experiment to test it. Surprisingly, I find that workers were 25 percent more likely to accept penalty contracts, with no evidence of adverse or advantageous selection. Consistent with the existing literature, penalty contracts also increased performance on the job by 0.2 standard deviations. I outline extensions to the basic theory that are consistent with the main results, but argue that more research is needed on the long-term effects of penalty contracts if we want to understand why firms seem unwilling to use them. |
| Keywords: | loss aversion, reference points, framing, selection, Mechanical Turk |
| JEL: | D03 J41 D86 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:stieop:52&r=lab |
| By: | Fischer, Justina A.V. |
| Abstract: | Accounting for within-country spatial differences is a neglected aspect in many cross-country comparisons. This paper highlights this importance in this empirical analysis of the impact of a country’s degree of informational and economic globalization on female employment in 30 OECD countries, using a micro pseudo panel of 110’000 persons derived from five waves of repeated cross-sections from the World Values Survey, 1981 to 2008. I conjecture that informational globalization affects societal values and perceived economic opportunities, while economic globalization impacts actual economic opportunities. A traditional cross-country analysis suggests that the informational dimension of globalization but not the economic one increases the probability of employment for women – contradicting the Becker (1957)-hypothesis of international competition mitigating discrimination in employment. However, accounting for sub-national regional gender heterogeneity reveals that the impact of worldwide information exchange works rather at the regional level, while economic globalization (trade) increases female employment in general. |
| Keywords: | Globalization; economic integration; labor market; employment; regions; social norms; communication; discrimination; gender; World Values Survey |
| JEL: | D83 F14 F16 J16 J71 R23 Z1 |
| Date: | 2014–04–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:55142&r=lab |
| By: | Sato, Hitoshi; Zhu, Lianming |
| Abstract: | International production fragmentation has been a global trend for decades, becoming especially important in Asia where the manufacturing process is fragmented into stages and dispersed around the region. This paper examines the effects of input and output tariff reductions on labor demand elasticities at the firm level. For this purpose, we consider a simple heterogenous firm model in which firms are allowed to export their products and to use imported intermediate inputs. The model predicts that only productive firms can use imported intermediate inputs (outsourcing) and tend to have larger constant-output labor demand elasticities. Input tariff reductions would lower the factor shares of labor for these productive firms and raise conditional labor demand elasticities further. We test these empirical predictions, constructing Chinese firm-level panel data over the 2000--2006 period. Controlling for potential tariff endogeneity by instruments, our empirical studies generally support these predictions. |
| Keywords: | China, Tariff, International trade, Labor market, Labor demand elasticities, Tariff reductions, Intermediate inputs |
| JEL: | F14 F16 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper463&r=lab |
| By: | Antonio Baez (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to examine whether informal labor markets affect the flows of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and also whether this effect is similar in developed and developing countries. With this aim, different public data sources, such as the World Bank (WB), and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) are used, and panel econometric models are estimated for a sample of 65 countries over a 14 year period (1996-2009). In addition, this paper uses a dynamic model as an extension of the analysis to establish whether such an effect exists and what its indicators and significance may be. While the results shows that informal labor markets are significant and do positively affect the flow of FDI, these effects are felt up to a certain level of informality, above which the effect becomes negative. The results are similar for developed and developing countries and are robust to several checks. |
| Keywords: | Foreign Direct Investment, Informal labor markets, Institutions. JEL classification: F16, F23, J8, M5 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aqr:wpaper:201402&r=lab |