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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Doerr, Annabelle (University of Freiburg); Fitzenberger, Bernd (University of Freiburg); Kruppe, Thomas (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg); Paul, Marie (University of Duisburg-Essen); Strittmatter, Anthony (University of Freiburg) |
| Abstract: | In 2003, Germany moved from a system in which participants in training programs for the unemployed are assigned by caseworkers to an allocation system using vouchers. Based on the rich administrative data for all vouchers and on actual program participation, we provide inverse probability weighting and ordinary least squares estimates of the employment and earnings effects of a voucher award. Our results imply that after the award, voucher recipients experience long periods of lower labor market success. On average, there are only small positive employment effects and no gains in earnings even four years after the voucher award. However, we do find significantly positive effects both for low-skilled individuals and for degree courses. The strong positive selection effects implied by our estimates are consistent with sizeable cream-skimming effects. |
| Keywords: | active labor market policies, training vouchers, treatment effects evaluation, administrative data |
| JEL: | J68 H43 C21 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8454&r=lab |
| By: | Artuc, Erhan; Chaudhuri, Shubham; McLaren, John |
| Abstract: | This paper studies a simple, tractable model of labor adjustment in a trade model that allows researchers to analyze the economy's dynamic response to trade liberalization. Since it is a neoclassical market-clearing model, duality techniques can be employed to study the equilibrium and, despite its simplicity, a rich variety of properties emerge. The model generates gross flows of labor across industries, even in the steady state; persistent wage differentials across industries; gradual adjustment to a liberalization; and anticipatory adjustment to a pre-announced liberalization. Pre-announcement induces anticipatory flight from the liberalizing sector, driving up wages there temporarily and giving workers remaining there what this paper calls"anticipation rents."By this process, pre-announcement makes liberalization less attractive to export-sector workers and more attractive to import-sector workers, eventually making workers unanimous either in favor of or in opposition to liberalization. Based on these results, the paper identifies many pitfalls to conventional methods of empirical study of trade liberalization that are based on static models. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory&Research,Labor Markets,Labor Policies,Political Economy,Trade Policy |
| Date: | 2014–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7089&r=lab |
| By: | Mai Dao; Davide Furceri; Tae-Jeong Kim; Meeyeon Kim; Jisoo Hwang |
| Abstract: | While the Korean unemployment rates are currently among the lowest in OECD countries, the labor market duality and the underemployment in some segments of the population are important labor market challenges, and factors contributing to lower potential growth. The paper shows the benefits of comprehensive policy reforms aimed at increasing labor force participation and youth employment and reducing duality are likely to be considerable in the medium term. |
| Keywords: | Labor market reforms;Korea, Republic of;Labor markets;Women;Underemployment;Labor force participation;labor market duality, female labor force participations, youth employment, reforms |
| Date: | 2014–07–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:14/137&r=lab |
| By: | Aysit Tansel (Department of Economics Middle East Technical University, Turkey); Başak Dalgıç (Department of Public Finance Hacettepe University, Turkey); Aytekin Güven (Department of Economics Abant İzzet Baysal University, Turkey) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates wage inequality and wage mobility in Turkey using the Surveys on Income and Living Conditions (SILC). This is the first paper that explores wage mobility for Turkey. It differs from the existing literature by providing analyses of wage inequality and wage mobility over various socioeconomic groups such as gender, age, education and sector of economic activity. We first present an overview of the evolution of wages and wage inequality over the period 2005-2011. Next, we compute several measures of wage mobility and explore the link between wage inequality and wage mobility. Further, we compute the transition matrices which show movements of individuals across the wage distribution from one period to another and investigate the determinants of transition probabilities using a multinomial logit model. The results show that overall the real wages increased over the study period and wage inequality exhibits a slight increase.. Wage inequality is one of the highest among the European Union (EU) countries. The wage mobility in Turkey is lower than what is observed in the European Union countries although it increases as time horizon expands. Wage mobility has an equalizing impact on the wage distribution, however; this impact is not substantial enough to overcome the high and persistent wage inequality in Turkey. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tek:wpaper:2014/09&r=lab |
| By: | Hirsch, Boris; Oberfichtner, Michael; Schnabel, Claus |
| Abstract: | Using linked employer-employee panel data for West Germany that include direct information on the competition faced by plants, we investigate the effect of product market competition on the gender pay gap. Controlling for match fixed effects we find that intensified competition significantly lowers the unexplained gap in plants with neither collective agreements nor a works council. Conversely, there is no effect in plants with these types of worker codetermination, which are unlikely to have enough discretion to adjust wages in the short run. We also document a larger competition effect in plants with few females in their workforces. Our findings are in line with Beckerian taste-based employer wage discrimination that is limited by competitive forces. |
| Keywords: | gender pay gap,discrimination,product market competition |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwqwdp:082014&r=lab |
| By: | Beugnot, Julie (Université de Franche Comté); Lacroix, Guy (Université Laval); Charlot, Olivier (University of Cergy-Pontoise) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate Oswald's hypothesis according to which higher homeownership rates increase aggregate unemployment rates. To this end, we develop a matching model à la Pissarides (2000) in which homeowners are assumed to be less mobile than tenants. Based on numerical simulations, we analyze both macroeconomic and microeconomic labour market outcomes following an (exogenous) increase in homeownership rates. We show that (1) Oswald's hypothesis does not always hold as it depends crucially on the importance of mobility costs; (2) while higher homeownership may harm macroeconomic labour market performances, individual performances always improve following an increase in homeownership rates. |
| Keywords: | stochastic job matching, Oswald's hypothesis, homeownership, unemployment, mobility |
| JEL: | J41 J61 J64 E24 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8599&r=lab |
| By: | Jacobsen, Joyce P. (Wesleyan University); Khamis, Melanie (Wesleyan University); Yuksel, Mutlu (Dalhousie University) |
| Abstract: | The changes in women and men's work lives have been considerable in recent decades. Yet much of the recent research on gender differences in employment and earnings has been of a more snapshot nature rather than taking a longer comparative look at evolving patterns. In this paper, we use 50 years (1964-2013) of US Census Annual Demographic Files (March Current Population Survey) to track the changing returns to human capital (measured as both educational attainment and potential work experience), estimating comparable earnings equations by gender at each point in time. We consider the effects of sample selection over time for both women and men and show the rising effect of selection for women in recent years. Returns to education diverge for women and men over this period in the selection-adjusted results but converge in the OLS results, while returns to potential experience converge in both sets of results. We also create annual calculations of synthetic lifetime labor force participation, hours, and earnings that indicate convergence by gender in worklife patterns, but less convergence in recent years in lifetime earnings. Thus, while some convergence has indeed occurred, the underlying mechanisms causing convergence differ for women and men, reflecting continued fundamental differences in women's and men's life experiences. |
| Keywords: | gender earnings gap, lifetime work, lifetime earnings, human capital investment |
| JEL: | J3 J16 J24 N3 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8425&r=lab |
| By: | Garnero, Andrea (OECD and Paris School of Economics); Kampelmann, Stephan (Free University of Brussels); Rycx, Francois (Free University of Brussels) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores how the diversity of minimum wage systems affects earnings inequalities within European countries. It relies on the combination of (a) harmonized micro-data from household surveys, (b) data on national statutory minimum wages and coverage rates, and (c) hand-collected information on minimum rates from more than 1,100 sectoral-level agreements across Europe. The analysis covers 18 countries over the period 2007-2009. Empirical results confirm the intuition of many practitioners that the combination of sectoral minimum rates and high coverage of collective bargaining can, at least for earnings inequalities, be regarded as a functional equivalent to a binding statutory minimum wage at the national level. Regression results suggest indeed that both a national statutory minimum wage and, in countries with sectoral-level minima, a higher collective bargaining coverage are significantly associated with lower levels of (overall and inter-industry) wage inequalities and a smaller fraction of workers paid below prevailing minima. Several robustness checks confirm these findings. |
| Keywords: | wage inequality, collective bargaining, minimum wage systems, Europe |
| JEL: | J31 J33 J51 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8419&r=lab |
| By: | Elisabet Motellón (Department of Econometrics. University of Barcelona); Enrique López-Bazo (Department of Econometrics. University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | The profound crisis that has affected the Spanish economy since mid-2008 has been characterized by significant job losses and a marked rise in the country´s unemployment rate. However, unemployment has had a differential impact on different population groups. Compared to native, immigrant workers have experienced higher rates of job loss. Against this backdrop, this paper examines the differences between immigrants and natives (distinguished by gender) in terms of their probability of suffering job loss in the downturn of late 2008 and 2009. Our results indicate that the higher rate of job loss among female immigrant workers can be fully explained by their lower endowment of human capital. By contrast, human capital endowment and over-representation in certain occupations, sectors and regions in which the crisis had greatest impact do not appear to be the only reason for the penalty suffered by immigrant males in terms of their chances of losing their job in the downturn. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Job Loss, Crisis, Labour Market Segregation, Spain JEL classification: I24, J24, J61 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aqr:wpaper:201415&r=lab |
| By: | Scott Legree, Tammy Schirle, Mikal Skuterud (Wilfrid Laurier University) |
| Abstract: | We provide evidence on the potential for reforms in labour law to reverse deunionization trends by relating an index of the favorability to unions of Canadian provincial labour relations statutes to changes in provincial union density rates between 1981 and 2012. The results suggest that shifting every province’s 2012 legal regime to the most union-friendly possible could raise the national union density by up to 7 percentage points in the long run. This effect appears driven by regulations related to the certification of new bargaining units, the negotiation of first contracts and the recruitment of replacement workers. The effects of reform are largest for women, particularly university-educated women employed as professionals in public services. Overall, the results suggest a limited potential for labour relations reforms to address growing concerns about labour market inequality. |
| Keywords: | Unions, labour relations, Canada |
| JEL: | J52 J53 K31 |
| Date: | 2014–09–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wlu:lcerpa:0078&r=lab |
| By: | Kahanec, Martin (Central European University); Pytlikova, Mariola (VSB Technical University Ostrava); Zimmermann, Klaus F. (IZA and University of Bonn) |
| Abstract: | The eastern enlargements of the European Union (EU) and the extension of the free movement of workers to the new member states' citizens unleashed significant east-west migration flows in a labor market with more than half a billion people. Although many old member states applied transitional arrangements temporarily restricting the free movement of new member states' citizens, the need for adjustment became ever more important during the Great Recession, which affected EU member states unevenly. This chapter studies whether and how east-west migration flows in an enlarged EU responded to institutional and economic factors. We first develop a simple framework of adjustment through migration of workers between labor markets affected by asymmetric economic shocks. Using a new migration dataset and treating the EU enlargement and labor market openings towards the new EU members as a natural experiment allows us to estimate the effects of the EU accession and economic opportunities on migration. Applying the difference-in-differences and triple differences empirical modeling framework, we subsequently find that east-west migration flows in the EU responded positively to the EU entry and economic opportunities in receiving labor markets. However, this potential through which migration helped to ease the imbalances across EU labor markets was hampered by transitional arrangements, which negatively affected the flows of east-west migrants. We conclude that the free movement of workers is an asset that the EU needs to nurture as a means of adjusting to structural economic asymmetries as well as to short-run shocks across EU member states. |
| Keywords: | migration policy, difference-in-differences, EU eastern enlargement, free movement of workers, transitional arrangements, determinants of migration, Great Recession, natural experiment |
| JEL: | F22 J61 J68 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8456&r=lab |
| By: | Dolls, Mathias (ZEW Mannheim); Fuest, Clemens (ZEW Mannheim); Neumann, Dirk (Université catholique de Louvain); Peichl, Andreas (ZEW Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | We analyze different alternatives how a common unemployment insurance system for the euro area (EA) could be designed and assess their effectiveness to act as an insurance device in the presence of asymmetric macroeconomic shocks. Running counterfactual simulations based on micro data for the period 2000-13, we highlight and quantify the trade-off between automatic stabilization effects and the degree of cross-country transfers. In the baseline, we focus on a non-contingent scheme covering short-term unemployment and find that it would have absorbed a significant fraction of the unemployment shock in the recent crisis. However, 5 member states of the EA18 would have been either a permanent net contributor or net recipient. Our results suggest that claw-back mechanisms and contingent benefits could limit the degree of cross-country redistribution, but might reduce desired insurance effects. We also discuss moral hazard issues at the level of individuals, the administration and economic policy. |
| Keywords: | European fiscal integration, unemployment insurance, automatic stabilizers |
| JEL: | F55 H23 J65 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8598&r=lab |
| By: | Kohlbrecher, Britta (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg); Merkl, Christian (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg); Nordmeier, Daniela (Deutsche Bundesbank) |
| Abstract: | This paper shows analytically and numerically that there are two ways of generating an observationally equivalent comovement between matches, unemployment, and vacancies in dynamic labor market models: either by assuming a standard Cobb-Douglas contact function or by combining a degenerate contact function with idiosyncratic productivity shocks for new jobs. Despite this observational equivalence, we provide several reasons for why it is important to understand what happens inside the black box of job creation. We calibrate a combined model with both mechanisms to administrative German wage and labor market flow data. In contrast to the model without idiosyncratic shocks, the combined model is able to replicate the observed negative time trend in estimated matching functions. In addition, the full nonlinear combined model generates highly asymmetric business cycle responses to large aggregate shocks. |
| Keywords: | matching function, idiosyncratic productivity, job creation, vacancies, time trend, asymmetries |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8515&r=lab |
| By: | Bispinck, Reinhard; Schulten, Thorsten |
| Abstract: | During the last decades, German industrial relations have undergone significant changes leading to a partial erosion and fragmentation of collective bargaining as well - and more fundamentally - to a significant change in power relations and the weakening of trade unions. As a result, wage developments in the 2000s in Germany became rather moderate with a growing differentiation among sectors, a sharply rising incidence of low wages and an overall decline of the wage share. This moderate wage development also influenced Germany's overall economic development model as it significantly dampened private demand and thereby promoted a growing discrepancy between a flourishing export industry and a largely stagnating domestic sector. More recently, there have been some indications that German wage policy might change again in a somewhat more expansive and solidaristic direction. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wsidps:191&r=lab |
| By: | Fouarge D.; Kriechel B.; Dohmen T.J. (GSBE) |
| Abstract: | We relate risk attitudes and patience of young graduates from high-school, college and university, measured around the time that they start their labor market career in a large representative survey, to the riskiness and timing of earnings in the occupations they choose to work in. We find a systematic positive and significant relation between willingness to take risks and measures of occupational earnings risks and employment risk that we derive from a large administrative data set. Patient individuals are significantly more likely to choose for occupations with a steep earnings profile. Individuals whose economic preferences are not well aligned with the riskiness and timing of earnings in their initial occupation are more likely to change to an occupation that better matches their economic preferences. |
| Keywords: | Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials; |
| JEL: | J24 J31 D01 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umagsb:2014031&r=lab |
| By: | Baum, Charles L. (Middle Tennessee State University); Ruhm, Christopher J. (University of Virginia) |
| Abstract: | We examine whether the benefits of high school work experience have changed over the last 20 years by comparing effects for the 1979 and 1997 cohorts of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Our main specifications suggest that the future wage benefits of working 20 hours per week in the senior year of high school have fallen from 8.3 percent for the earlier cohort, measured in 1987-1989, to 4.4 percent for the later one, in 2008-2010. Moreover, the gains of work are largely restricted to women and have diminished over time for them. We are able to explain about five-eighths of the differential between cohorts, with most of this being attributed to the way that high school employment is related to subsequent adult work experience and occupational attainment. |
| Keywords: | youth employment, work experience, wages |
| JEL: | J13 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8431&r=lab |
| By: | Saul Estrin; Ute Stephan; Suncica Vujic |
| Abstract: | Based upon unique survey data collected using respondent driven sampling methods, we investigate whether there is a gender pay gap among social entrepreneurs in the UK. We find that women as social entrepreneurs earn 29% less than their male colleagues, above the average UK gender pay gap of 19%. We estimate the adjusted pay gap to be about 23% after controlling for a range of demographic, human capital and job characteristics, as well as personal preferences and values. These differences are hard to explain by discrimination since these CEOs set their own pay. Income may not be the only aim in an entrepreneurial career, so we also look at job satisfaction to proxy for non-monetary returns. We find female social entrepreneurs to be more satisfied with their job as a CEO of a social enterprise than their male counterparts. This result holds even when we control for the salary generated through the social enterprise. Our results extend research in labour economics on the gender pay gap as well as entrepreneurship research on women's entrepreneurship to the novel context of social enterprise. It provides the first evidence for a "contented female social entrepreneur" paradox. |
| Keywords: | Social entrepreneur, gender pay gap, social enterprise, earnings, job satisfaction |
| JEL: | J28 J31 J71 L32 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1313&r=lab |
| By: | Bruno Amable (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne, CEPREMAP - Centre pour la recherche économique et ses applications - 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 I - 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:journl:halshs-00973884&r=lab |
| By: | Carroll, David (UNSW Canberra); Heaton, Christopher (Macquarie University, Sydney); Tani, Massimiliano (IZA) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the relationship between university quality and graduate starting salaries using pooled Australian data from the Graduate Destination survey and a two-stage estimation methodology. The results suggest that average starting salaries for young undergraduates differ significantly across universities after controlling for relevant confounding factors, though the range of university effects is fairly small in relation to other salary determinants, particularly course area. The results are robust to alternative specifications and suggest that employers generally do not place salary premia on attending a high-quality or prestigious university, at least upon workforce entry. |
| Keywords: | human capital, returns to education, university choice |
| JEL: | A22 I23 J24 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8473&r=lab |
| By: | Gerdes, Christer (SOFI, Stockholm University); Wadensjö, Eskil (Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | Sweden has made its labour market more open for labour immigration since the mid1990s: becoming member of the common labour market of EES/EU in 1994, no transitional rules introduced at the enlargement of European Union in 2004 and 2007, and opening up for labour migration from non-EES/EU countries in December 2008. The changes have led to increased labour immigration. The labour immigration expanded for example after the enlargement in 2004 but not so much as in for example the United Kingdom and Ireland. Other forms of immigration have been more important. On the other hand, the migration has been rather stable in the years after the crisis in 2008. The main explanation is most likely that the recession in Sweden was only for one year, 2009, and that it was concentrated to some parts of the manufacturing industry where few migrant workers were employed. If the present EMU crisis is spreading to Sweden the result may of course be different. |
| Keywords: | immigration, wages, EU enlargement, Sweden |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8408&r=lab |
| By: | Mäder, Miriam; Müller, Steffen; Riphahn, Regina T.; Schwientek, Caroline |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the association between the unemployment experience of fathers and their sons. Based on German survey data that cover the last decades we find significant positive correlations. Using instrumental variables estimation and the Gottschalk (1996) method we investigate to what extent fathers' unemployment is causal for offsprings' employment outcomes. In agreement with most of the small international literature we do not find a positive causal effect for intergenerational unemployment transmission. This outcome is robust to alternative data structures and to tests at the intensive and extensive margin of unemployment. |
| Keywords: | youth unemployment,non-employment,intergenerational mobility,causal effect,Gottschalk method |
| JEL: | J62 C21 C26 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:14077&r=lab |
| By: | Alves, Guillermo (IECON, Universidad de la República); Burdín, Gabriel (IECON, Universidad de la República); Dean, Andres (IECON, Universidad de la República) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between workplace democracy and job flows (net job creations, gross job creations and destructions) by comparing the behavior of worker-managed firms (WMFs) and conventional firms. The empirical analysis relies on high frequency administrative firm-level panel data from Uruguay over the period April 1996-July 2009. The main findings of the paper are that (1) WMFs exhibit much more stable job dynamics than CFs; (2) both types of firms have decreasing in age and increasing in size gross job creation profiles; (3) there are heterogeneous employment regimes within WMFs: high job creation and destruction rates of hired workers and low job creation and destruction of members. This paper contributes to the literature on the role of institutions in shaping job flows. Our results may have important implications for the understanding of the allocative efficiency effects of worker participation. |
| Keywords: | job flows, worker-managed firms |
| JEL: | D21 J54 J63 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8539&r=lab |
| By: | Erling Barth; Alex Bryson; James C. Davis; Richard Freeman |
| Abstract: | This paper links data on establishments and individuals to analyze the role of establishments in the increase in inequality that has become a central topic in economic analysis and policy debate. It decomposes changes in the variance of ln earnings among individuals into the part due to changes in earnings among establishments and the part due to changes in earnings within-establishments and finds that much of the 1970s-2010s increase in earnings inequality results from increased dispersion of the earnings among the establishments where individuals work. It also shows that the divergence of establishment earnings occurred within and across industries and was associated with increased variance of revenues per worker. Our results direct attention to the fundamental role of establishment-level pay setting and economic adjustments in earnings inequality. |
| JEL: | D3 J3 J31 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20447&r=lab |
| By: | Maitra, Pushkar (Monash University); Mani, Subha (Fordham University) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the treatment effects from participating in a subsidized vocational training program targeted at women residing in low-income households in India. We combine pre-intervention data with two rounds of post-intervention data from a randomized field experiment to quantify the 6- and 18-month treatment effects of the program. The 6-month effects of the program indicate that women who were offered the training program are 6 percentage points more likely to be employed, 4 percentage points more likely to be self-employed, work 2.5 additional hours per week, and earn 150 percent more per month than women in the control group. Using a second round of follow-up data collected 18 months after the intervention, we find that the 6-month treatment effects are all sustained over this period. Our findings indicate credit constraints, distance, and lack of proper child care support as important barriers to program completion. Further, we also rule out two alternative mechanisms – signalling and behavior that could drive these findings. Finally, a simple cost-benefit analysis suggests that the program is highly cost-effective. |
| Keywords: | vocational training, panel data, India, economic returns, field experiment |
| JEL: | I21 J19 J24 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8552&r=lab |
| By: | McGuinness, Seamus (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin); Byrne, Delma (National University of Ireland, Maynooth) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses graduate survey data and econometric methods to estimate the incidence and wage/job satisfaction effects of over-education and overskilling among immigrants graduating from EU 15 based universities in 2005. Female immigrants with shorter durations of domicile were found to have a higher likelihood of overskilling. Newly arrived immigrants incurred wage penalties' which were exacerbated by additional penalties resulting from overskilling in the male labour market and overeducation in the female labour market. Established immigrants were found to enjoy a wage premia, particularly within the male labour market, with no evidence of disproportionate wage impacts arising as a consequence of mismatch. Female immigrants were generally found to have a significantly lower probability of being job satisfied relative to native female graduates. |
| Keywords: | overeducation, overskilling, immigrants, pay, job satisfaction |
| JEL: | J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8440&r=lab |
| By: | Clarke, Andrew; Skuterud, Mikal |
| Abstract: | We compare literacy test scores and relative wage and employment outcomes of Australian, Canadian and U.S. immigrants using the 2003/2006 Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALLS). We find substantially higher immigrant skill levels at the lower end of the distribution in Australia, especially among recent arrivals, but little difference across countries at the top. In addition, we identify substantially larger wage returns to immigrant skill in the U.S., which we argue reflects language-skill complementarities, as opposed to more efficient skill utilization or unobserved productivity characteristics. Our results suggest that the benefit of a point system for the U.S. lies in its potential to limit unskilled immigration flows, rather than in raising skills at the top end of the distribution where the economic growth potential of immigration is likely greatest. |
| Keywords: | Immigrant workers; labour market integration; immigrant selection policy |
| JEL: | J61 J31 J23 |
| Date: | 2014–09–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2014-41&r=lab |