|
on Labour Economics |
|
Issue of 2014‒05‒24
thirty-one papers chosen by Erik Jonasson National Institute of Economic Research |
| By: | Per Johansson; Lisa Laun; Mårten Palme |
| Abstract: | We study how economic incentives affect labor force exit through different income security programs, old-age pensions as well as income taxes in Sweden. We use the option value for staying in the labor force as a measure of economic incentives and estimate an econometric model for the choice of leaving the labor market. Besides old-age pension, we focus on the Disability Insurance (DI), which is the most important exit path before age 65. By simulating the effect of different probabilities to be admitted DI we show how changes in the stringency of DI admittance affects labor supply among older workers through economic incentives. |
| JEL: | J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20123&r=lab |
| By: | Daniel Borowczyk-Martins (University of Bristol); Jake Bradley (University of Bristol); Linas Tarasonis (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS & EHESS) |
| Abstract: | In the US labor market the average black worker is exposed to a lower employment rate and earns a lower wage compared to his white counterpart. Lang and Lehmann (2012) argue that these mean differences mask substantial heterogeneity along the distribution of workers’ skill. In particular, they argue that black-white wage and employment gaps are smaller for high-skill workers. In this paper we show that a model of employer taste-based discrimination in a labor market characterized by search frictions and skill complementarities in production can replicate these regularities. We estimate the model with US data using methods of indirect inference. Our quantitative results portray the degree of employer prejudice in the US labor market as being strong and widespread, and provide evidence of an important skill gap between black and white workers. We use the model to undertake a structural decomposition and conclude that discrimination resulting from employer prejudice is quantitatively more important than skill differences to explain wage and employment gaps. In the final section of the paper we conduct a number of counterfactual experiments to assess the effectiveness of different policy approaches aimed at reducing racial differences in labor market outcomes. |
| Keywords: | employment and wage differentials, discrimination, job search |
| JEL: | J31 J64 J71 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:1413&r=lab |
| By: | Jean-Olivier Hairault; François Langot; Thepthida Sopraseuth |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tep:teppwp:wp14-03&r=lab |
| By: | Andersson, Martin (CIRCLE, Lund University); Klaesson , Johan (Department of Economics, Finance and Statistics, Jönköping International Business School); Larsson , Johan P (Department of Economics, Finance and Statistics, Jönköping International Business School) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the respective importance of spatial sorting and agglomeration economies in explaining the urban wage premium for workers with different sets of skills. Sorting is the main source of the wage premium. Agglomeration economies are in general small, but are larger for workers with skills associated with non-routine job tasks. They also appear to involve human capital accumulation, as evidenced by the change in the wage of workers moving away from denser regions. For workers with routine jobs, agglomeration economies are virtually non-existent. Our results provide further evidence of spatial density bringing about productivity advantages primarily in contexts when problem-solving and interaction with others are important. |
| Keywords: | spatial sorting; selection; learning; non-routine skills; spatial wage disparities; density; agglomeration economies; innovation |
| JEL: | J24 J31 R12 |
| Date: | 2014–05–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2014_006&r=lab |
| By: | Benjamin David |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on the job market polarization. We rely on an evolutionary framework by applying a “distance from mean approach”. Using data for 8 industrialized economies, we account for probable heterogeneous and timevarying effects through the estimation of a semi parametric smooth coefficient model. Our results show a significant contribution of ICT on polarization dynamics with some differences between countries and industries. We also find evidence that diffusion of ICT is initially accompanied by a Skill Bias Technological Change (SBTC), then contributing to job market polarization. Finally, our findings highlight a progressive weakening of the positive link between ICT diffusion and the increasing demand for high-skilled workers over time. |
| Keywords: | ICT, Evolutionary economics, Polarization of labor market, Semiparametric Smooth Coefficient Model. |
| JEL: | C14 E11 J21 O33 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2014-25&r=lab |
| By: | Eliasson, Tove (Uppsala University, Department of Economics,); Nordström Skans, Oskar (Uppsala University, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of a collective agreement stipulating a one shot increase in establishment-specific wage levels in a public-sector setting where wages otherwise are set according to individualized wage bargaining. The agreement stipulated that wages should increase in proportion to the number of low-paid females within each establishment. We find that actual wages among incubents responded to the share of females with a wage below the stipulated threshold, conditional on the separate effects of the share of low wage earners, and the share of females. We find clear evidence of path-dependence in wages, covered workers remained on higher wage levels 4 years after the agreement took effect. The increase in wages resulted in a reduced probability of exit among young workers with relatively good grades and a lower frequency of new hires at the establishment level. |
| Keywords: | Collective bargaining; wage growth; turnover; wage rigidity; hours of work; labor costs |
| JEL: | J23 J31 J52 J63 |
| Date: | 2014–05–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2014_010&r=lab |
| By: | Carlos Carrillo-Tudela; Ludo Visschers |
| Abstract: | This paper studies unemployed workers’ decisions to change occupations, and their impact on fluctuations in aggregate unemployment and its underlying duration distribution. We develop an analytically and computationally tractable stochastic equilibrium model with heterogenous labor markets. In this model three different types of unemployment arise: search, rest and reallocation unemployment. We document new evidence on unemployed workers’ gross occupational mobility and use it to calibrate the model. We show that rest unemployment is the main driver of unemployment fluctuations over the business cycle and causes cyclical unemployment to be highly volatile. The resulting unemployment duration distribution generated by the model responds realistically to the business cycle, creating substantial longer-term unemployment in downturns. Finally, rest unemployment also makes our model simultaneously consistent with procyclical occupational mobility of the unemployed, countercyclical job separations into unemployment and a negatively-sloped Beveridge curve. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, Business Cycle, Rest, Search, Occupational Mobility |
| JEL: | E24 E30 J62 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:we1410&r=lab |
| By: | Gustavo A. Garcia |
| 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 ndings suggest that, both voluntary and involuntary informal employment co-exist by choice and as a result of labor market segmentation. We also nd that there are striking dierences 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: | O17 J42 J31 C21 |
| Date: | 2014–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000118:011213&r=lab |
| By: | David Candon (School of Economics and Geary Institute, University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | The continued rise in overall cancer survival rates has ignited a field of research which examines the effect that cancer has on survivors’ employment. Previous estimates of the effect of cancer on labour market outcomes, using U.S. data, show a significant reduction in employment and hours of work in the first 6 months after diagnosis. However, this impact has been found to dissipate after 2 years. I use data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and find that, not only does cancer have a negative impact in the first 6-month period following diagnosis, but also in the second 6-month period. I estimate that, in the second 6-month period after diagnosis, respondents with cancer are 20.7 percentage points less likely to work and work 24% less hours a week when compared to matched, healthy controls. This suggests that the negative effects from cancer can persist for longer than the 6 months identified in previous studies. Results are significant at the 1% level. These results have implications for government policy and employers, because it increases both the length of time that survivors may be on government supported sick pay and the expected time that workers will be absent from work due to illness. |
| Keywords: | Labour market; Cancer; Employment; Hours worked |
| JEL: | I10 J21 J22 |
| Date: | 2014–05–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:201408&r=lab |
| By: | Courtney Coile; Kevin S. Milligan; David A. Wise |
| Abstract: | This is the introduction and summary to the sixth phase of an ongoing project on Social Security Programs and Retirement Around the World. The first phase described the retirement incentives inherent in plan provisions and documented the strong relationship across countries between social security incentives to retire and the proportion of older persons out of the labor force. The second phase documented the large effects that changing plan provisions would have on the labor force participation of older workers. The third phase demonstrated the consequent fiscal implications that extending labor force participation would have on net program costs—reducing government social security benefit payments and increasing government tax revenues. The fourth phase presented analyses of the relationship between the labor force participation of older persons and the labor force participation of younger persons in twelve countries. We found no evidence that increasing the employment of older persons will reduce the employment opportunities of youth and no evidence that increasing the employment of older persons will increase the unemployment of youth. The fifth phase on “Historical Trends in Mortality and Health, Employment, and Disability Insurance Participation and Reforms” was intended to set the stage for this current phase. This sixth phase of the ongoing ISS project is particularly related to the fifth phase (Wise, 2012) and the second phase (Gruber and Wise, 2004) of the project. This volume continues the focus of the previous volume on DI programs while extending the methodology to study retirement behavior used in the second phase to focus in particular on the effects of the DI programs. The key question this volume seeks to address is: given health status, to what extent are differences in labor force participation across countries determined by the provisions of disability insurance programs? |
| JEL: | H31 H55 I19 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20120&r=lab |
| By: | Klinger, Sabine; Weber, Enzo |
| Abstract: | Between 1979 and 2009, the German labour market moved along a Beveridge curve with changing slope that used to shift outwards but shifted inwards after severe labour market reforms had come into force. We analyse these dynamics and focus on the macroeconomic outcome of the reforms. For that purpose, we construct a new empirical model that links equilibrium unemployment theory to a flexible unobserved components model: we disentangle permanent and transitory components of matching efficiency and separation rate as well as unemployment and vacancies. Cointegration and identification are addressed. We find that matching efficiency and separation rate each account for about half of the inward shift. Thereby, the increase in trend matching efficiency is extraordinary and testifies to a permanent improvement on the labour market. Its visibility, however, was retarded by an overlay with a structural increase in tightness. |
| Keywords: | Beveridge curve; worker flows; tightness; unobserved components; Hartz reforms |
| JEL: | C32 E24 E32 J2 J69 |
| Date: | 2014–05–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bay:rdwiwi:29927&r=lab |
| By: | Bernt Bratsberg (The Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research, Oslo, Norway); Oddbjørn Raaum (The Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research, Oslo, Norway); Knut Røed (The Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research, Oslo, Norway) |
| Abstract: | Based on individual longitudinal data, we examine the evolution of employment and earnings of postâ€EU accession Eastern European labour immigrants to Norway for a period of up to eight years after entry. We find that the migrants were particularly vulnerable to the negative labour demand shock generated by the financial crisis. During the winter months of 2008/09, the fraction of immigrant men claiming unemployment insurance benefits rose from below 2 to 14 per cent. Some of this increase turned out to be persistent, and unemployment remained considerably higher among immigrants than natives even three years after the crisis. Although we find that negative labour demand shocks raise the probability of return migration, the majority of the labour migrants directly affected by the downturn stayed in Norway and claimed unemployment insurance benefits. |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1419&r=lab |
| By: | Cueto, Begona; Miguel Á., Malo |
| Abstract: | In this article, we estimate the total earnings losses of male workers with a partial disability, i.e., they are able to work in a different occupation after disability onset. We use a Spanish administrative dataset (Muestra Continua de Vidas Laborales) from a specific partial disability pension scheme (Incapacidad Permanente Total). Using propensity score estimators combined with difference-in-differences, the estimation of the causal effect of the disability onset shows earnings losses to be approximately €400 per month for the first two years. For male workers over 54, total earnings losses are greater even though they receive greater benefits. |
| Keywords: | disability pensions; earnings losses; older workers. |
| JEL: | H24 H55 J14 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:55920&r=lab |
| By: | Feld, Jan (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Salamanca, Nicolás (Ph.D. candidate in economics, Maastricht University); Hamermesh, Daniel S. (Sue Killam Professor of Economics, University of Texas at Austin; prof in economics, Royal Holloway University of London; and research assoc, IZA and NBER) |
| Abstract: | The discrimination literature treats outcomes as relative. But does a differential arise because agents discriminate against others—exophobia—or because they favor their own kind—endophilia? Using a field experiment that assigned graders randomly to students' exams that did/ did not contain names, on average we find favoritism but no discrimination by nationality, and some evidence of favoritism for the opposite gender. We identify distributions of individuals' preferences for favoritism and discrimination. We show that a changing correlation between them generates perverse changes in market differentials and that their relative importance informs the choice of a base group in adjusting wage differentials. |
| Keywords: | favoritism; discrimination; field experiment; wage differentials; economics of education |
| JEL: | B40 I24 J71 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0593&r=lab |
| By: | Binelli, Chiara |
| Abstract: | In the 1990s, in many countries, wages became a more convex function of education: returns to college increased and returns to intermediate education declined. This paper argues that an important cause of this convexification was a two-stage demand-supply interaction: an increased demand for educated workers stimulated a supply response; an increased supply of intermediate-educated workers further increased the demand for college-educated workers, because these two types of labour are complementary. This argument is supported by an empirical equilibrium model of savings and educational choices for Mexico, where the degree of convexification was amplified by loosening credit constraints. |
| Date: | 2014–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stn:sotoec:1404&r=lab |
| By: | Sergi Jiménez-Martín |
| Abstract: | The minimum pension program is one of the key welfare programs in many developing and developed countries and a key influence in retirement of low income workers or workers with intermittent working careers. The main purpose of minimum benefits programs is to guarantee a minimum standard of living after retirement. In general minimum contributory pensions that are only made available after the normal retirement age have little (but size- able) incentives effect in at least low incomer workers. Alternatively minimum contributory benefits made available at the early retirement age can generate substantial incentive effects on transitions to retirement of employed and unemployed workers. The importance of this effect critically depends upon both the eligibility conditions and the generosity of the mini- mum pension, that is, in the relationship between the guaranteed minimum pension and the average or the minimum wage. |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2014-04&r=lab |
| By: | Binnur Balkan; Yusuf Soner Baskaya; Semih Tumen |
| Abstract: | The Turkish government started an employment subsidy program in 2008 to generate new employment for younger men and all women, which are the relatively disadvantaged groups in the Turkish labor market. In this paper, we use a nationally representative micro-level dataset and a difference-in-differences approach to evaluate the effects of this subsidy program. Our results indicate that, on aggregate, the subsidy program seems to be ineffective in increasing the employment probabilities of those individuals in the target group. However, when heterogeneity is accounted for by dividing the treatment group into several sub-groups, we observe that the program has been notably effective on some of those sub-groups. In particular, we find that the increase in employment probability is more pronounced for older women, while a weaker positive effect is observed for younger women and almost no effect is detected for younger men. The effect on older women is subject to further heterogeneity : the subsidy program has increased the employment probabilities of low-educated and/or low-skill older women rather than the high-educated and/or high-skill ones. |
| Keywords: | Employment subsidies; treatment effects; difference-in-differences; Turkish micro data. |
| JEL: | C21 H24 J21 J68 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcb:wpaper:1414&r=lab |
| By: | Brunetti, Irene; Corsini, Lorenzo |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyse the effect of an Italian training program on the re-employment probability of young unemployed workers. The program consists solely of workplace training and is coordinated by employment centre, but it is fully implemented by firms. We develop a discrete duration analysis and our results suggest that workplace training improves only the immediate re-employability of trained workers, failing to bestow them with durable human capital improvements. These results appear to be robust to spurious duration dependence and to self-selection. Our analysis focuses on the role of unobserved heterogeneity and, accounting for it, we show that the training implementation is useful to sort “good” trainees from “bad” ones: therefore we suggest that firms are exploiting training as a screening device. |
| Keywords: | duration model; policy evaluation; propensity score matching; screening device; workplace training; youth unemployment. |
| JEL: | C41 I38 J64 J68 M53 |
| Date: | 2014–05–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:55943&r=lab |
| By: | Lance Lochner (University of Western Ontario); Youngki Shin (University of Western Ontario) |
| Abstract: | We consider a general framework to study the evolution of wage and earnings residuals that incorporates features highlighted by two inf uential but distinct literatures in economics: (i) unobserved skills with changing non-linear pricing functions and (ii) idiosyncratic shocks with both permanent and transitory components. We first provide nonparametric identification conditions for the distribution of unobserved skills, all unobserved skill pricing functions, and (nearly) all distributions for both permanent and transitory shocks. We then discuss identification and estimation using a moment-based approach, restricting unobserved skill pricing functions to be polynomial functions. Using data on log earnings for men ages 30-59 in the PSID, we estimate the evolution of unobserved skill pricing functions and the distributions of unobserved skills, transitory, and permanent shocks from 1970 to 2008. We highlight five main findings: (i) The returns to unobserved skill rose over the 1970s and early 1980s, fell over the late 1980s and early 1990s, and then remained quite stable through the end of our sample period. Since the mid-1990s, we observe some evidence of polarization: the returns to unobserved skill declined at the bottom of the distribution while they remained relatively constant over the top half. (ii) The variance of unobserved skill changed very little across most cohorts in our sample (those born between 1925 and 1955). (iii) The variance of transitory shocks jumped up considerably in the early 1980s but shows little long-run trend otherwise over the more than thirty year period we study. (iv) The variance of permanent shocks declined very slightly over the 1970s, then rose systematically through the end of our sample by 15 to 20 log points. The increase in this variance over the 1980s and 1990s was strongest for workers with low unobserved ability. (v) In most years, the distribution of unobserved skill pricing functions is positively skewed, while the distributions of permanent and (especially) transitory shocks are negatively skewed. |
| Keywords: | none |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwo:hcuwoc:20142&r=lab |
| By: | Vanessa Mertins (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the EU, University of Trier); Sabrina Jeworrek (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the EU, University of Trier) |
| Abstract: | By conducting a natural field experiment, we test whether a managerial policy of allowing employees to self-determine their wages is as successful as recently suggested by laboratory evidence. We find that this policy indeed enhances performance. However, our data is clearly at odds with the conjecture of Pareto improvements, since labor costs grow even faster. Admittedly, the performance change is remarkable given that a considerable pay increase has no effect at all. Surprisingly, the data suggests that explicitly denying parts of the workforce this choice boosts performance, too. Additional experimental and survey data provides important insights into employees' underlying motivations. |
| Keywords: | Field experiment, Delegation, Reciprocity, Responsibility alleviation, Compensation, Worker empowerment, Workplace democracy |
| JEL: | C91 C93 J33 M52 M54 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iaa:dpaper:201408&r=lab |
| By: | Jorge Andrés Tamayo; Jairo Núñez; Carlos Medina |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the effects of the Colombian Unemployment Subsidy (US), which includes benefits as well as training for some recipients. Using regression discontinuity and matching differences-in-differences estimators, the study finds that participation in the labor market, earnings of beneficiaries, and household income do not increase, and for some populations decrease during the 18 months after leaving the US program. Enrollment in formal health insurance falls. Effects on male heads of household include reductions in their earnings, decreases in their labor participation, and increases in their unemployment rates. The study also finds a small though statistically significant positive effect on beneficiaries¿ school attendance, but none on their children¿s weight or height at birth. The results are sensitive to the type of training that beneficiaries receive. Overall, the program serves more as a mechanism for smoothing consumption and providing social assistance than for increasing labor market efficiency. |
| Keywords: | Social Security, Fiscal Policy, Workforce & Employment, Unemployment, Social assistance, Labor markets |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:82158&r=lab |
| By: | Frederic Gavrel |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tep:teppwp:wp14-02&r=lab |
| By: | Kristin E. Smith (University of New Hampshire) |
| Abstract: | This paper tracks factors contributing to the ups and downs in women’s employment from 1970 to 2010 using regression decompositions focusing on whether changes are due to shifts in the means (composition of women) or due to shifts in coefficients (inclinations of women to work for pay). Compositional shifts in education exerted a positive effect on women’s employment across all decades, while shifts in the composition of other family income, particularly at the highest deciles, depressed married women’s employment over the 1990s contributing to the slowdown in this decade. A positive coefficient effect of education was found in all decades, except the 1990s, when the effect was negative, depressing women’s employment. Further, positive coefficient results for other family income at the highest deciles bolstered married women’s employment over the 1990s. Models are run separately for married and single women demonstrating the varying results of other family income by marital status. This research was supported in part by an Upjohn Institute Early Career Research Award. |
| Keywords: | women’s employment, other family income, stalled gender revolution, regression decomposition |
| JEL: | J11 J21 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:14-211&r=lab |
| By: | Emilio Espino; Juan M. Sánchez |
| Abstract: | Providing unemployment insurance is particularly problematic in countries with high informality because workers can claim unemployment benefits and work in the informal sector at the same time. This paper proposes a method to evaluate alternative schemes to provide insurance for unemployed individuals. First, it presents an economy that can be calibrated to reproduce key features of the economy for which the reform will be evaluated. Then, it shows how the implementation of an unemployment insurance savings account (UISA) scheme can be evaluated. The method is applied to Mexico, and the results show how the UISA scheme would eliminate incentives for participation in the informal sector. The implementation of the UISA would imply large welfare gains from the ex-ante perspective. |
| Keywords: | Workforce & Employment, Social Security, Labor Policy, Unemployment, insurance, informality |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:80859&r=lab |
| By: | Backman, Mikaela (Centre for Entrepreneurship and Spatial Economics (CEnSE) Center for Science and Innovation Studies (CESIS), Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping, Sweden); Karlsson, Charlie (Centre for Entrepreneurship and Spatial Economics (CEnSE) Center for Science and Innovation Studies (CESIS), Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping, Sweden) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyse the determinants of the decision to become self-employed among commuters and non-commuters. In the entrepreneurship literature it is claimed that the rich-ness and quality of an individual’s business, professional and social networks play an im-portant role for the decision to become self-employed. People that commute between localities in the same region or between localities in different regions will most proba¬bly be able to develop richer personal networks than non-commuters, since they can develop network links both in the locality where they live and in the locality where they work. In this paper, we test this hypothesis using micro-data for around three million individuals in Sweden. As far as we know, this is the first time this hypothesis is tested. In our empirical analysis, we make a distinction between three groups of individuals: non-com¬muters, intra-regions commuter and inter-region commuters. For each of this groups we test how the probability of becoming self-employed is influenced by a number of characteristics of individuals, characteristics of home and work localities and regions. Our results indicate a significant difference between non-commuters and commuters in terms of the role of networks for becoming self-employed. On the one hand, we find for non-commuters that living and working in a locality with rich business networks reduce the probability of becoming self-employed. For commuters, on the other hand we find that working in a locality with rich business networks increase the probability to become self-employed. In this latter case, living in a municipality with rich business networks has a non-significant effect on the probability of becoming self-employed. Our results indicate that it is the business networks where people work, rather than where they live that exerts a positive influence on the probability of becoming self-employed. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship; individual attributes; regional attributes; networks; micro-level data |
| JEL: | C21 J24 L26 R12 |
| Date: | 2014–05–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0365&r=lab |
| By: | Giovanni Caggiano (Department of Economics and Management, University of Padova); Efrem Castelnuovo (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne; Department of Economics and Management, University of Padova; and Research Unit, Bank of Finland); Nicolas Groshenny (School of Economics, The University of Adelaide) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effects of uncertainty shocks on unemployment dynamics in the post- WWII U.S. recessions via non-linear (Smooth-Transition) VARs. The relevance of uncertainty shocks is found to be much larger than that predicted by standard linear VARs in terms of (i) magnitude of the reaction of the unemployment rate to such shocks, and (ii) contribution to the variance of the prediction errors of unemployment at business cycle frequencies. We discuss the ability of different classes of DSGE models to replicate our results. |
| Keywords: | Uncertainty shocks, unemployment dynamics, Smooth Transition Vector-AutoRegressions, recessions |
| JEL: | C32 E32 E52 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2014n12&r=lab |
| By: | van Veldhuizen, Roel; Oosterbeek, Hessel; Sonnemans, Joep |
| Abstract: | In an in influential study, Mas and Moretti (2009) found that worker effort is positively related to the productivity of workers who see him, but not workers who do not see him. They interpret this as evidence that social pressure can reduce free riding. In this paper we report an attempt to reproduce the findings of Mas and Moretti in a lab experiment. Lab experiments have the advantage of being able to shut down alternative channels through which workers can influence the productivity of colleagues whom they observe. Although the subjects in our experiment are aware of the productivity of others and although there is sufficient scope for subjects to vary their productivity, we find no evidence of the type of peer effects reported by Mas and Moretti. This suggests that their findings are less generalizable than has been assumed. -- |
| Keywords: | peer effects,experiment,laboratory experiment |
| JEL: | C91 J24 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbmbh:spii2014204&r=lab |
| By: | Herr, Hansjörg; Ruoff, Bea |
| Keywords: | wage rate, wage determination, trade union attitude, employment, economic theory, trend, taux des salaires, fixation du salaire, attitude syndicale, emploi, théorie économique, tendance, tasa de salario, determinación del salario, actitud sindical, empleo, teoría económica, tendencia |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:ilowps:485325&r=lab |
| By: | Marc van der Steeg; Karen van der Wiel; Bram Wouterse |
| Abstract: | in this paper we investigate the individual returns to a doctorate education in the Netherlands over the first twenty years of a career. We compare monthly incomes of PhDs to that of Master graduates with the same years of experience, gender and field of study and who took the same time to obtain a Master degree. The latter covariate can be seen as a measure of ability. It turns out that over the first twenty years of experience, the average annual return (AAR) to a PhD education is not significantly different from zero. During the PhD track and the first years after PhD graduation PhDs earn less than Masters, but this initial investment is compensated by higher earnings in later years. Extrapolation of the return suggests an average annual return to a PhD education over the entire career of six percent. Similarly, the internal rate of return (IRR) – an alternative measure that takes both the timing and level of income differences into account - would equal nine percent over the entire career. Returns to a PhD education differ strongly by sex. Female PhDs experience a positive annual return of ten percent over the first twenty years after graduation, whereas male PhDs experience a negative return of seven percent. Positive returns for women are largely driven by the fact that they tend to work more hours than female Master graduates. |
| JEL: | I20 J30 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:276&r=lab |
| By: | Stark, Oded; Hyll, Walter |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of gender quotas on the acquisition of human capital. We assume that individuals' formation of human capital is influenced by the prospect of landing high-pay top positions, and that these positions are regulated by gender-specific quotas. In the absence of quotas, women consider their chances of getting top positions to be lower than men's. The lure of top positions induces even men of relatively low ability to engage in human capital formation, whereas women of relatively high ability do not expect to get top positions and do not therefore engage in human capital formation. Gender quotas discourage men who are less efficient in forming human capital, and encourage women who are more efficient in forming human capital. We provide a condition under which the net result of the institution of gender quotas is an increase in human capital in the economy as a whole. -- |
| Keywords: | Gender quotas,Affirmative action,Human capital formation |
| JEL: | D01 D21 J16 J24 J70 M51 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuewef:71&r=lab |
| By: | Sarbu, Miruna |
| Abstract: | Flexible work arrangements such as allowing employees to work at home are used in firms, especially since information and communication technologies have become so widespread. Using individual-level data from 10,884 German employees, this paper analyses the determinants of working at home as a form of flexible work arrangements. The analysis is based on descriptive analyses and a discrete choice model using a probit estimation approach. The results reveal that men have a higher probability to work at home but women are more likely to work at home intensively. Education, tenure and the use of computers increase the probability of working at home while firm size and a young age of employees reduce it. Having children less than six years old, overtime and work time have a positive impact on both working at home and on working at home intensively. -- |
| Keywords: | work at home,telecommuting,home office,workplace organisation |
| JEL: | J01 J10 J20 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:14028&r=lab |