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on Labour Economics |
| By: | David Neumark; J.M. Ian Salas; William Wascher |
| Abstract: | A central issue in estimating the employment effects of minimum wages is the appropriate comparison group for states (or other regions) that adopt or increase the minimum wage. In recent research, Dube et al. (2010) and Allegretto et al. (2011) argue that past U.S. research is flawed because it does not restrict comparison areas to those that are geographically proximate and fails to control for changes in low-skill labor markets that are correlated with minimum wage increases. They argue that using "local controls" establishes that higher minimum wages do not reduce employment of less-skilled workers. In Neumark et al. (2014), we present evidence that their methods fail to isolate more reliable identifying information and lead to incorrect conclusions. Moreover, for subsets of treatment groups where the identifying variation they use is supported by the data, the evidence is consistent with past findings of disemployment effects. Allegretto et al. (2013) have challenged our conclusions, continuing the debate regarding some key issues regarding choosing comparison groups for estimating minimum wage effects. We explain these issues and evaluate the evidence. In general, we find little basis for their analyses and conclusions, and argue that the best evidence still points to job loss from minimum wages for very low-skilled workers - in particular, for teens. |
| JEL: | J23 J38 J88 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20619&r=lab |
| By: | Artz, Benjamin (University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh); Goodall, Amanda H. (Cass Business School); Oswald, Andrew J. (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | Nearly all workers have a supervisor or 'boss'. Yet there is almost no published research by economists into how bosses affect the quality of employees' lives. This study offers some of the first formal evidence. First, it is shown that a boss's technical competence is the single strongest predictor of a worker's well-being. Second, we examine equivalent instrumental-variable results. Third, we demonstrate longitudinally that even if a worker stays in the same job and workplace then a newly competent supervisor greatly improves the worker's well-being. Finally, we discuss analytical possibilities, and consider necessary future research. |
| Keywords: | bosses, expert leaders, leadership, job satisfaction, happiness |
| JEL: | I31 J28 M54 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8559&r=lab |
| By: | Daniel S. Hamermesh; Elena Stancanelli |
| Abstract: | American workweeks are long compared to other rich countries'. Much less well-known is that Americans are more likely to work at night and on weekends. We examine the relationship between these two phenomena using the American Time Use Survey and time-diary data from 5 other countries. Adjusting for demographic differences, Americans' incidence of night and weekend work would drop by about 10 percent if European workweeks prevailed. Even if no Americans worked long hours, the incidence of unusual work times in the U.S. would far exceed those in continental Europe. |
| JEL: | J08 J22 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20449&r=lab |
| By: | Alexandre Mas |
| Abstract: | This paper asks whether disclosing wages to the public changes wage setting at the top of the public sector income distribution. I evaluate a 2010 California mandate that required cities to submit municipal salaries to the State, to be posted on a public website. City managers--typically the highest paid employees --in cities that had not previously disclosed salaries experienced average compensation declines of approximately 8 percent relative to cities where at the time of the mandate manager wages were already in the public domain. This decline was largely accomplished through nominal pay cuts. The wage cuts were not the result of relatively greater financial stress, as the overall wage bill did not diverge between these sets of cities. Wages were cut irrespective of whether or not they were out of line with (measured) fundamentals. Consequently, the residual variance of manager wages did not decline. Following new disclosure the city manager quit rate increased by 75 percent, suggesting that transparency pressured cities to lower the wages that were already close to reservation levels. The evidence is more consistent with a "populist" response to perceptions of excessive salaries than with the effects of increased accountability. |
| JEL: | J01 J31 J45 J63 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20558&r=lab |
| By: | Hirsch, Boris (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg); Zwick, Thomas (University of Würzburg) |
| Abstract: | Using linked employer-employee panel data for Germany, this paper investigates whether firms implement real wage reductions in a selective manner. In line with insider-outsider and several strands of efficiency wage theory, we find strong evidence for selective wage cuts with high-productivity workers being spared even when controlling for permanent differences in firms' wage policies. In contrast to some recent contributions stressing fairness considerations, we also find that wage cuts increase wage dispersion among peers rather than narrowing it. Notably, the same selectivity pattern shows up when restricting our analysis to firms covered by collective agreements or having a works council. |
| Keywords: | selectivity, real wage cuts, real wage rigidity, Germany |
| JEL: | J30 J31 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8417&r=lab |
| By: | Pencavel, John (Stanford University) |
| Abstract: | Workers in cooperatives are self-employed workers and, if they resemble employees in conventional workplaces, they care about the length of their working hours. In this paper, their choice of hours is characterized as a conventional labor supply decision and a familiar hours-wage relationship is derived. This is estimated using mill-year observations on the plywood co-ops in the Pacific Northwest. The results are compared with those from the work behavior of other self-employed workers and with working hours in capitalist plywood mills. |
| Keywords: | labor supply, hours, worker co-ops |
| JEL: | J22 J54 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8561&r=lab |
| By: | Papps, Kerry L. (University of Bath) |
| Abstract: | A model of on-the-job training in the presence of a minimum wage is presented. This predicts that the minimum wage will have a negative effect on a worker's subsequent wage growth when the labour market is competitive but a U-shaped effect when it is not competitive. This prediction is then tested using data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings in the United Kingdom. Workers who were affected by the minimum wage before age 22 are found to have significantly lower wage growth later in life than others, but only if they worked on jobs that were not covered by a collective labour agreement. Evidence suggests that this difference in wage growth reflects differences in productivity between workers. The results reconcile previous theoretical predictions by Becker and Acemoglu and Pischke. |
| Keywords: | minimum wages, wage growth, competitiveness |
| JEL: | J38 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8421&r=lab |
| By: | Maré, Dave C. (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Trust); Sanderson, Lynda (New Zealand Treasury); Fabling, Richard (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Trust) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines remuneration and labour mobility patterns among workers in foreign-owned firms operating in New Zealand. By tracking workers as they move across jobs, we document the extent of the "foreign wage premium" distinguishing between compositional factors (eg, differences in industry and employment composition across foreign and domestic firms) and remaining differences in wage levels and growth rates. We find that much of the average earnings gap between foreign and domestically-owned firms is due to compositional factors – foreign firms tend to be larger and employ workers who would have received relatively high wages regardless of where they worked. However, even among apparently similar workers and firms, we find a two to four percent earnings gap between workers in domestic and foreign-owned firms. This gap is primarily associated with a wage increase of around two percent on moving from a domestic to a foreign firm, augmented by higher wage growth among foreign-owned firms. These premia appear to be specific to foreign-firm employment, as workers who return to domestically-owned firms do not appear to retain the additional earnings in their subsequent jobs. We then consider whether foreign-owned firms source workers differently from other New Zealand firms and whether there are systematic differences in the destinations of departing employees by firm ownership. Although foreign-owned firms do not appear to preferentially hire recent immigrants, employees of foreign-owned firms are more geographically mobile within New Zealand and are more likely to emigrate within a year of leaving their job. |
| Keywords: | foreign direct investment (FDI), earnings, labour mobility |
| JEL: | D22 J31 F23 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8541&r=lab |
| By: | Adsera, Alicia (Princeton University); Ferrer, Ana (University of Waterloo) |
| Abstract: | We use the confidential files of the 1991-2006 Canadian Census, combined with information from O*NET on the skill requirements of jobs, to explore whether Canadian immigrant women behave as secondary workers, remaining marginally attached to the labour market and experiencing little career progression over time. Our results show that the labor market patterns of female immigrants to Canada do not fit the profile of secondary workers, but rather conform to patterns recently exhibited by married native women elsewhere, with rising participation (and wage assimilation). At best, only relatively uneducated immigrant women in unskilled occupations may fit the profile of secondary workers, with slow skill mobility and low-status job-traps. Educated immigrant women, on the other hand, experience skill assimilation over time: a reduction in physical strength and an increase in analytical skills required in their jobs relative to those of natives. |
| Keywords: | skill assimilation, labour market outcomes of immigrant women, wage gaps, female labor force participation, Canadian migration |
| JEL: | J01 J61 F22 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8407&r=lab |
| By: | Barrett, Alan (ESRI, Dublin); Bergin, Adele (ESRI, Dublin); Kelly, Elish (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin); McGuinness, Seamus (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin) |
| Abstract: | The economic collapse was more severe in Ireland relative to elsewhere. Many questions have arisen concerning the impacts of the collapse, including the impacts on immigrants and their subsequent reactions. Previous research shows that immigrant employment contracted sharply over the recession, thereby suggesting reduced demand for immigrant labour. In this paper, we ask whether immigrants' earnings also fell, relative to natives. Although the raw data shows a widening of the immigrant/native pay gap, when we control for relevant characteristics the adjusted wage gap narrows. A decomposition analysis shows that most of the change in the raw wage gap is generated by the changing composition of the immigrants who were employed. |
| Keywords: | recession, immigrant earnings, Ireland |
| JEL: | J61 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8459&r=lab |
| By: | Naticchioni, Paolo (University of Rome 3); Ragusa, Giuseppe (LUISS Guido Carli University); Massari, Riccardo (Sapienza University of Rome) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the dynamics of the distribution of unconditional and conditional – on technology – wages in Europe, using both industry and individual level data for the period 1995-2007. We find that the unconditional wage distribution shows scant signs of polarization in Europe. On the other hand, the effect of technology is more nuanced. At the industry level, technological changes have an effect on polarization of jobs, but not on polarization of wages. At the individual level, we use a counterfactual distributional analysis which accounts for the heterogeneity of tasks across occupations, and we find only mild evidence of wage polarization. Technology affects the lower and upper part of the wage distribution in different ways, with service tasks affecting the lower quantiles and abstract tasks affecting the higher ones. |
| Keywords: | wage inequality, polarization, occupational tasks, offshoring, RIF-regressions |
| JEL: | J3 J5 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8465&r=lab |
| By: | Martin Gervais; Nir Jaimovich; Henry E. Siu; Yaniv Yedid-Levi |
| Abstract: | Why is unemployment higher for younger individuals? We address this question in a frictional model of the labor market that features learning about occupational fit. In order to learn the occupation in which they are most productive, workers sample occupations over their careers. Because young workers are more likely to be in matches that represent a poor occupational fit, they spend more time in transition between occupations. Through this mechanism, our model can replicate the observed age differences in unemployment which, as in the data, are due to differences in job separation rates. |
| JEL: | E0 J0 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20628&r=lab |
| By: | Arcidiacono, Peter (Duke University); Hotz, V. Joseph (Duke University); Maurel, Arnaud (Duke University); Romano, Teresa (Goucher College) |
| Abstract: | We show that data on subjective expectations, especially on outcomes from counterfactual choices and choice probabilities, are a powerful tool in recovering ex ante treatment effects as well as preferences for different treatments. In this paper we focus on the choice of occupation, and use elicited beliefs from a sample of male undergraduates at Duke University. By asking individuals about potential earnings associated with counterfactual choices of college majors and occupations, we can recover the distribution of the ex ante monetary returns to particular occupations, and how these returns vary across majors. We then propose a model of occupational choice which allows us to link subjective data on earnings and choice probabilities with the non-pecuniary preferences for each occupation. We find large differences in expected earnings across occupations, and substantial heterogeneity across individuals in the corresponding ex ante returns. However, while sorting across occupations is partly driven by the ex ante monetary returns, non-monetary factors play a key role in this decision. Finally, our results point to the existence of sizable complementarities between college major and occupations, both in terms of earnings and non-monetary benefits. |
| Keywords: | ex ante treatment effects, occupational choice, subjective expectations |
| JEL: | J24 I23 C31 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8549&r=lab |
| By: | Clemens Hetschko |
| Abstract: | German Socio-Economic Panel data is used to show that the decrease in life satisfaction caused by an increase in the probability of losing work is higher when self-employed than when paid employed. Further estimations reveal that becoming unemployed reduces self-employed workers' satisfaction considerably more than salaried workers' satisfaction. These results indicate that losing self-employment is an even more harmful life event than losing dependent employment. Monetary and non-monetary reasons seem to account for the difference between the two types of work. Moreover, it originates from the process of losing self-employment and the consequences of unemployment rather than from advantages of self-employment. |
| Keywords: | life satisfaction; self-employment; probability of losing work; Unemployment; SOEP |
| JEL: | I31 J24 J65 L26 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp699&r=lab |
| By: | Doerr, Annabelle; Fitzenberger, Bernd; Kruppe, Thomas; Paul, Marie; Strittmatter, Anthony |
| 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 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:14065&r=lab |
| By: | Masayuki Morikawa |
| Abstract: | This paper compares the wage structure between the public and private sectors in Japan by using a large microdata set covering public and private sector employees. Rather than comparing overall wage levels, we examine the differences in relative wages by gender, age, education, and region. According to the estimation of wage functions, wage gaps by gender and educational attainment are smaller in the public sector than in private companies. The public sector’s age-wage profile is steeper than that of the private sector. Public sector wages are more compressed; the wages are relatively higher at the lower end of the wage distribution and relatively lower at the higher end. The regional wage differential is smaller in the public sector. As a result, the wage level of public sector workers is relatively higher in rural regions and relatively lower in large metropolitan regions. To ensure the efficient provision of public services, it is inappropriate to compare only average wages. We should carefully observe the differences in wage structure by individual characteristics and by region. |
| JEL: | J31 J45 R23 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csg:ajrcwp:1407&r=lab |
| By: | Addison, John T. (University of South Carolina); Blackburn, McKinley L. (University of South Carolina); Cotti, Chad (University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh) |
| Abstract: | Just as the standard two-way fixed effects model for estimating the impact of minimum wages on employment has been sharply criticized for its neglect of spatial heterogeneity so, too, have the latest models been attacked for their uncritical use of state- or county-specific linear trends (and other spatial counterfactuals). Further attenuation of the effects of policy is also alleged to obtain in such circumstances where the true effect of minimum wages is upon employment growth rather than levels. This paper investigates whether such considerations call into question our earlier findings of statistically insignificant employment effects for an archetypal low-wage sector. We report that a continued focus on employment levels is indicated and that while experimentation with nonlinear trends may be productive their use is unlikely to dislodge the finding of considerably reduced negative employment effects. |
| Keywords: | minimum wages, employment, employment change, spatial controls |
| JEL: | J23 J38 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8420&r=lab |
| By: | Constant, Amelie F. (George Washington University, Temple University) |
| Abstract: | Immigrants do not fare as well as natives in economic terms; even after including many controls, an unexplained part remains. The ethnic identity entered the field of labor and migration economics in an effort to better explain the economic outcomes of immigrants, their behavior and their often perceived as irrational and suboptimal choices. Quantifying ethnic identity is a major issue; even more challenging is to measure its impact on economic outcomes such as the probability to work or the earnings of immigrants. The thin but burgeoning theoretical and empirical literature shows that ethnic identity has a significant impact on the economic behavior of immigrants. |
| Keywords: | assimilation, discrimination, employment, ethnic identity, ethnicity, human capital, identity, immigration, informal networks, labor force participation, labor markets, integration, marginalization, national identity, oppositional identity, separation, wages, work |
| JEL: | F22 J15 Z10 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8571&r=lab |
| By: | Hans G. Bloemen (VU University Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | We empirically analyze the language proficiency of migrants in the Netherlands. Traditionally, the emphasis in studying language proficiency and economic outcomes has been on the relation between earnings and indicators for language proficiency, motivated by the human capital theory. Here we analyze whether there is a relation between proficiency of the destination language and job level. A lack of language skills may induce the migrant to work in jobs of a lower level leading to lower job satisfaction. We use subjective survey information about job satisfaction and the fit between the migrant's education and skill level and the job. We also use objective information on professional level. Our estimation strategy allows for unobservable correlations between language proficiency and labour market outcomes by employing a simultaneous two equations framework which also exploits the panel nature of our data, by allowing for time persistent random effects. We use a variety of different instrumental variables, some of which are related to linguistic distance, to shed light on the robustness of the results. For men, we find evidence for a positive relationship between indicators for language proficiency and satisfaction with work type and professional level. For women, no impact of language proficiency on the level of the job can be found. Rather, women with lower proficiency levels are not selected into employment in the first place. |
| Keywords: | Skills; Occupational choice; Economics of Immigrants; Panel data models |
| JEL: | J15 J24 C33 |
| Date: | 2014–11–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20140148&r=lab |
| By: | Francesco Zanetti; Haroon Mumtaz |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how key labor market stylized facts and the responses of labor market variables to technology shocks vary over the US postwar period. It uses a benchmark DSGE model enriched with labor market frictions and investment specific technological progress that enables a novel identification scheme based on sign restrictions on a SVAR with time-varying coefficients and stochastic volatility. Key findings are: i) the volatility in job finding and separation rates has declined over time, while their correlation varies across time; ii) the job finding rate plays an important role for unemployment, and the two series are strongly negatively correlated over the sample period; iii) the magnitude of the response of labor market variables to technology shocks varies across the sample period. |
| Keywords: | Technology shocks, labor market frictions, Bayesian SVAR methods, sign restrictions |
| JEL: | E32 C32 |
| Date: | 2014–10–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:728&r=lab |
| By: | Kentaro Nakajima (Graduate School of Economics, Tohoku University); Ryosuke Okamoto (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies) |
| Abstract: | Observed spatial wage disparities reflect not only disparities in regional productivity but also an uneven geographical distribution of heterogeneous worker skills. We measure spatial skill disparities in Japan and evaluate how migration contributes to these disparities. For this purpose, we regress the individual wage on the residential region dummy variables and a series of individual characteristics to decompose the wage into regional productivity and the workers’ skills. The estimation illustrates that by removing the skill heterogeneities, the productivity disparity is approximately half of the observed wage disparity. Workers living in metropolitan areas have 9.7% higher skills than those in nonmetropolitan areas on average. The spatial skill disparity that stems from individuals’ hometowns is approximately 4.2%. Hence, migration increases the spatial skill disparity from 4.2% to 9.7%, which is an increase of 5.5 percentage points. Furthermore, we investigate migration effects in terms of the workers’ characteristics and find that most sorting effects of migration come from highly educated and regularly employed male workers. |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ngi:dpaper:14-19&r=lab |
| By: | O'Neill, Donal (National University of Ireland, Maynooth) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses economists' support for the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, by examining the characteristics of almost 1000 economists who signed open letters either supporting or opposing the Bill prior to a Senate debate on the legislation. In contrast to previous work, which found that economists' disagreements were surprisingly random, I find systematic differences between those economists supporting the legislation and those opposing it. There is evidence of a saltwater-freshwater divide in attitudes, with support for the Bill stronger for economists located further from Chicago. In addition support for the legislation is higher among females and those who obtained their PhD outside the US. Financial economists are more likely to oppose the Bill, while those specialising in labour economics are more likely to support it. Furthermore the support among labour economists is strongest for academics who have received their PhD in recent years. This may reflect the impact of recent work in labour economics challenging the traditional competitive model of labour markets. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage, schools of thought |
| JEL: | J38 A23 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8601&r=lab |
| By: | Combes, Pierre-Philippe (GREQAM, University of Aix-Marseille); Gobillon, Laurent (INED, France) |
| Abstract: | We propose an integrated framework to discuss the empirical literature on the local determinants of agglomeration effects. We start by presenting the theoretical mechanisms that ground individual and aggregate empirical specifications. We gradually introduce static effects, dynamic effects, and workers' endogenous location choices. We emphasise the impact of local density on productivity but we also consider many other local determinants supported by theory. Empirical issues are then addressed. Most important concerns are about endogeneity at the local and individual levels, the choice of a productivity measure between wage and TFP, and the roles of spatial scale, firms' characteristics, and functional forms. Estimated impacts of local determinants of productivity, employment, and firms' locations choices are surveyed for both developed and developing economies. We finally provide a discussion of attempts to identify and quantify specific agglomeration mechanisms. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration gains, density, sorting, learning, location choices |
| JEL: | R12 R23 J31 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8508&r=lab |
| By: | Ronald Wolthoff |
| Abstract: | I develop a directed search model of the labor market in which firms choose a recruiting intensity, determining the number of applicants they will interview. Interviewing applicants is costly but reveals their productivity, allowing the firm to hire better workers. I characterize the equilibrium and find that the uniqueness and cyclicality of recruiting intensity crucially depend on parameter values. Calibration of the model to the US labor market indicates a multiplicity of the equilibrium. An increase in aggregate productivity---given selection of a particular equilibrium---causes recruiting intensity to move counter to unemployment, while a shock to the equilibrium selection rule predicts the opposite pattern. |
| Keywords: | labor market, search, frictions, recruiting, efficiency |
| JEL: | J64 E24 |
| Date: | 2014–11–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-522&r=lab |
| By: | Dossche, Maarten; Lewis, Vivien; Poilly, Céline |
| Abstract: | We characterize optimal monetary policy in a New Keynesian search-and-matching model where multiple-worker firms satisfy demand in the short run by adjusting hours per worker. Imperfect product market competition and search frictions reduce steady state hours per worker below the efficient level. Bargaining results in a convex ‘wage curve’ linking wages to hours. Since the steady-state real marginal wage is low, wages respond little to hours. As a result, firms overuse the hours margin at the expense of hiring, which makes hours too volatile. The Ramsey planner uses inflation as an instrument to dampen inefficient hours fluctuations. JEL Classification: E30, E50, E60 |
| Keywords: | employment, hours, optimal monetary policy, wage curve |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20141713&r=lab |
| By: | Gilberto Tadeu Lima; Jaylson Jair Silveira |
| Abstract: | This paper explores implications for capacity utilization and economic growth driven by effective demand of income distribution featuring the possibility of profit sharing with workers. Firms choose to compensate workers with either a base wage or a share of profits on top of this base wage. In accordance with robust empirical evidence, workers in sharing firms have higher productivity than workers in non-sharing firms. Meanwhile, the joint frequency distribution of employee compensation strategies and labor productivity across firms is evolutionarily time-varying. Two major results carrying relevant theoretical and policy implications obtain from our exploration. First, heterogeneity in employee compensation strategies across firms may emerge as a permanent, long-run equilibrium outcome. Second, in the long run, a higher frequency of profit-sharing firms does not necessarily generate higher rates of capacity utilization and economic growth. |
| Keywords: | Profit sharing; evolutionary dynamics; income distribution; capacity utilization; economic growth. |
| JEL: | E12 E25 J33 O40 |
| Date: | 2014–11–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2014wpecon27&r=lab |
| By: | Kenneth Y. Chay; Jonathan Guryan; Bhashkar Mazumder |
| Abstract: | Chay, Guryan and Mazumder (2009) found substantial racial convergence in AFQT and NAEP scores across cohorts born in the 1960's and early 1970's that was concentrated among blacks in the South. We demonstrated a close tracking between variation in the test score convergence across states and racial convergence in measures of health and hospital access in the years immediately after birth. This study analyzes whether the across-cohort patterns in the black-white education and earnings gaps match those in early life health and test scores already established. It also addresses caveats in the earlier study, such as unobserved selection into taking the AFQT and potential discrepancies between state-of-birth and state-of-test taking. With Census data, we find: i) a significant narrowing across the same cohorts in education gaps driven primarily by a relative increase in the probability of blacks going to college; and ii) a similar convergence in relative earnings that is insensitive to adjustments for employment selection, as well as time and age effects that vary by race and state-of-residence. The variation in racial convergence across birth states matches the patterns in the earlier study. The magnitude of the earnings gains is greater than can be explained by only the black gains in education and test scores for reasonable estimates of the returns to human capital. This suggests that other pre-market, productivity factors also improved across successive cohorts of blacks born in the South between the early 1960's and early 1970's. Finally, our cohort-based hypothesis provides a cohesive explanation for the aggregate patterns in several, previously disconnected literatures. |
| JEL: | I12 I14 J13 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20539&r=lab |
| By: | Sander Gerritsen |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the effects of the raising of the minimum school leaving age (ROSLA) from 14 to 15 in the Netherlands in 1971. The policy goal was to increase the number of high school graduates. The analysis shows that the change led to a decrease in the high school dropout rate of approximately 20%. However, there were no benefits in terms of employment or higher wages. I investigate several explanations for this finding and present suggestive evidence in support of the skill-based explanation that no more labor-market relevant skills were learned during this extra year of school compared to those skills previously learned out of school. |
| JEL: | I2 J24 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:293&r=lab |
| By: | Brooke Helppie McFall; Marta Murray-Close; Robert J. Willis; Uniko Chen |
| Abstract: | This paper describes the job market experiences of new PhD economists, 2007-10. Using information from PhD programs' job candidate websites and original surveys, the authors present information about job candidates' characteristics, preferences and expectations; how job candidates fared at each stage of the market; and predictors of outcomes at each stage. Some information presented in this paper updates findings of prior studies. However, design features of the data used in this paper may result in more generalizable findings. This paper is unique in comparing pre-market expectations and preferences with post-market outcomes on the new PhD job market. It shows that outcomes tend to align with pre-market preferences, and candidates' expectations are somewhat predictive of their outcomes. Several analyses also shed light on sub-group differences. |
| JEL: | J24 J4 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20654&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Ebeke; Greetje Everaert |
| Abstract: | While the unemployment rate in the Baltics has fallen sharply from its crisis-peaks, it remains close to double digits. This paper estimates the structural component of the jobless rate in the three Baltic countries and analyzes its causes. Our main findings are that the current still elevated levels of unemployment mostly reflect structural factors. We then turn to why structural unemployment is so high. This paper points to skill mismatches, high tax wedges, and unemployment and inactivity traps as potential causes. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment;Estonia;Latvia;Lithuania;Baltics;Labor markets;Skilled labor;Migrations;Unemployment, Structural Unemployment, Baltics, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania |
| Date: | 2014–08–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:14/153&r=lab |
| By: | Loukas Karabarbounis; Brent Neiman |
| Abstract: | The labor share is typically measured as compensation to labor relative to gross value added ("gross labor share"), in part because gross value added is more directly measured than net value added. Labor compensation relative to net value added ("net labor share") may be more important in some settings, however, because depreciation is not consumed. In this paper we make three contributions. First, we document that gross and net labor shares generally declined together in most countries around the world over the past four decades. Second, we use a simple economic environment to show that declines in the price of capital necessarily cause gross and net labor shares to move in the same direction, whereas other shocks such as a decline in the real interest rate may cause the net labor share to rise when the gross labor share falls. Third, we illustrate that whether the gross or the net labor share is a more useful proxy for inequality during an economy's transition depends sensitively on the nature of the underlying shocks that hit the economy. |
| JEL: | E21 E22 E23 E25 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20606&r=lab |
| By: | Theron, Jan |
| Abstract: | This study is one of a series of country studies commissioned by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on non-standard work arrangements in the public sector. Its aim is to understand, firstly, the implications of this trend for the decent work objectives and, secondly, to identify appropriate policy responses. In doing so, we have also endeavoured to identify the gender dimension of non-standard work arrangements, and obtain data that is disaggregated by sex. As understood here, non-standard work (or non-standard employment, as we prefer to term it) takes two different forms. Firstly, it refers to the increased utilisation of part-time and temporary workers, which we will refer to here as casualization, to distinguish it from the second form. The second form refers to the utilisation of contractors or intermediaries to employ the workers required, in this instance, to provide services to government. We refer to this as externalization (Theron and Godfrey, 2000). In the case of externalisation, the workers providing the service in question are generally employed on a temporary basis (typically the term for which the contractor or intermediary is engaged). Less usually, they may also be employed on a part-time basis. Accordingly, casualization and externalisation overlap. However the implications for decent work objectives are more likely to be negative in the case of externalisation than casualization, particularly where lesser skilled workers are involved. We elaborate on the reasons for this below. Since this study is supposed to be based on the existing literature and statistics regarding non-standard work arrangements, rather than original research, it is necessary to point out at the outset that there is a dearth of literature on the subject. There is also a dearth of meaningful statistical data. This is because of the difficulties of measuring non-standard employment, which we believe are not unique to South Africa. |
| Keywords: | precarious employment, employment, working conditions, quality of working life, civil servant, collective bargaining, trade union, social dialogue, public administration, South Africa R, emploi précaire, emploi, conditions de travail, qualité de la vie de travail, fonctionnaire, négociation collective, syndicat, dialogue social, administration publique, Afrique du Sud R, empleo precario, empleo, condiciones de trabajo, calidad de la vida de trabajo, funcionario, negociación colectiva, sindicato, diálogo social, administración pública, República de Sudáfrica |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:ilowps:486177&r=lab |
| By: | Zimmermann, Katharina; Fuertes, Venesa |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the employment policy mechanisms in the EU and the United Kingdom and Germany. |
| Keywords: | employment policy, governance, EU countries, Germany, UK, politique de l'emploi, gouvernance, pays de l'UE, Allemagne, Royaume-Uni, política de empleo, gobernabilidad, países de la UE, Alemania, Reino Unido |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:ilowps:485644&r=lab |
| By: | Dedecca, Claudio Salvadori |
| Abstract: | The paper discusses the NEPs implementation mechanism in Brazil. |
| Keywords: | employment policy, promotion of employment, labour market, evaluation, Brazil, politique de l'emploi, promotion de l'emploi, marché du travail, évaluation, Brésil, política de empleo, fomento del empleo, mercado de trabajo, evaluación, Brasil |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:ilowps:485639&r=lab |