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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Vallizadeh E.; Muysken J.; Ziesemer T.H.W. (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | We examine the effects of endogenous offshoring on cost-efficiency, wages and unemployment in a task assignment model with skill heterogeneity. Exact conditions for the following insights are derived. The distributional effect of offshoring high- low-skill-intensive tasks is similar to unskilled- skill-biased technology changes, while offshoring medium-skill-intensive tasks induces wage polarization. Offshoring improves cost-efficiency through international task reallocation and puts a downward pressure on all wages through domestic skill-task reallocation. If elasticities of task substitution are low high, the downward pressure on wages in neighbouring skill segments is low high with a net effect of higher lower wages and employment. |
| Keywords: | Trade and Labor Market Interactions; Globalization: Labor; Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity; Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search; |
| JEL: | F16 J21 J24 J64 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2015004&r=lab |
| By: | Stephen Bazen (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS and EHESS); Kadija Charni (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS and EHESS) |
| Abstract: | Cross section data suggest that the relationship between age and hourly earnings is an inverted-U shape. Evidence from panel data does not necessarily confirm this finding suggesting that older workers may not experience a reduction in earnings at the end of their working life. In this paper we use panel data on males for Great Britain in order to examine why the two types of data provide conflicting conclusions. Concentrating on the over 50s, several hypotheses are examined: overlapping cohorts, job tenure, job-changing, labour supply behaviour and selectivity bias. Cohort and individual fixed effects partly explain the divergent conclusions. However, for fully, year-on-year employed individuals, there is no evidence of earnings decline at the end of working life. We find no role for selectivity due to retirement, although shorter working hours or partial retirement along with job-changing late in life do provide an explanation for why hourly earnings decline for certain older workers. We find no evidence that the process of ageing itself leads to lower earnings as suggested by the cross section profile. |
| Keywords: | age-earnings profile, older workers, Labour supply, cohort effects |
| JEL: | J3 J14 J24 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:1511&r=lab |
| By: | Bertrand, Marianne; Black, Sandra; Jensen, Sissel; Lleras-Muney, Adriana |
| Abstract: | In late 2003, Norway passed a law mandating 40 percent of each gender on the board of publicly limited liability companies. The primary objective of this reform was to increase representation of women in top positions in the corporate sector and decrease gender disparity in earning within that sector. We document that the newly (post-reform) appointed female board members were observably more qualified than their female predecessors, and that the gender gap in earnings within boards fell substantially. While the reform may have improved representation of female employees at the very top of the earnings distribution(top 5 highest earners)within firms that were mandated to increase female participation on their board, there is no evidence that these gains at the very top trickled-down. Moreover the reform had no obvious impact on highly qualified women whose qualifications mirror those of the board members but who were not appointed to boards. We observe no statistically significant change in the gender wage gaps or in the female representation in top positions, although standard errors are large enough that we cannot rule economically meaningful gains. Finally, there is little evidence that the reform affected the decisions of women more generally;it was not accompanied by any change in female enrollment in business education programs, or a convergence in earnings trajectories between recent male and female graduates of such programs. While young women preparing for a career in business report being aware of the reform and expect their earnings and promotion chances to benefit from it, the reform did not affect their fertility and marital plans. Overall, in the short run the reform had very little discernable impact on women in business beyond its direct effect on the newly appointed female board members. |
| Keywords: | affirmative action; boards; gender gap |
| JEL: | G38 J31 J7 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10467&r=lab |
| By: | Michael Amior |
| Abstract: | The skill gap in geographical mobility is entirely driven by workers who report moving for a new job. A natural explanation lies in the large expected surplus accruing to skilled job matches. Just as large surpluses ease the frictions which impede job search in general, they also help overcome those frictions (specifically moving costs) which plague cross-city matching in particular. I reject the alternative hypothesis that mobility differences are driven by variation in the moving costs themselves, based on PSID evidence on self-reported willingness to move. Evidence on wage processes also supports my claims. |
| Keywords: | Internal migration, job search, education, skills |
| JEL: | J24 J61 J64 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1338&r=lab |
| By: | Carluccio, Juan; Fougère, Denis; Gautier, Erwan |
| Abstract: | We estimate the impact of international trade on wages using data for French manufacturing firms. We instrument firm-level trade flows with firm-specific instrumental variables based on world demand and supply shocks. Both export and offshoring shocks have a positive effect on wages. Exports increase wages for all occupational categories while offshoring has heterogeneous effects. The impact of trade on wages varies across bargaining regimes. In firms with collective bargaining, the elasticity of wages with respect to exports and offshoring is higher than in firms with no collective bargaining. Wage gains associated with collective bargaining are similar across worker categories. |
| Keywords: | collective bargaining; exports; firm-level wages; offshoring |
| JEL: | E24 F16 J51 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10478&r=lab |
| By: | Paul Gomme (Concordia University and CIREQ); Damba Lkhagvasuren (Concordia University and CIREQ) |
| Abstract: | It is well known that the Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides model exhibits a strong trade-off between cyclical unemployment fluctuations and the size of rents to employment. Introducing endogenous job search effort reduces the strength of the trade-off while bringing the model closer to the data. Ignoring worker search effort leads to a large upward bias in the elasticity of matches with respect to vacancies. Merging the American Time Use Survey and the Current Population Survey, new evidence in support of procyclical search effort is presented. Average search effort of the unemployed is subject to cyclical composition biases. |
| Keywords: | Variable Search Effort, Unemployment and Vacancies, Beveridge Curve, Search Intensity, Time Use |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crd:wpaper:15001&r=lab |
| By: | Jürgen Bitzer (University of Oldenburg - Department of Economics & ZenTra); Erkan Gören (University of Oldenburg - Department of Economics); Sanne Hiller (Aarhus University - Department of Economics and Business) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the role of immigrant employees for a firm’s capability to absorb international knowledge. Using matched employer-employee data from Denmark for the years 1996 to 2009, we are able to show that non-Danish employees from technological advanced countries contribute significantly to a firm’s economic output through their ability to access international knowledge. The empirical results suggest that the immigrants’ impact increases if they come from technological advanced countries, have a high educational level, and are employed in high-skilled positions. |
| Keywords: | R&D Spillovers, Absorptive Capacity, Firm-Level Analysis, Foreign Workers, Immigrants |
| JEL: | D20 J82 L20 O30 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zen:wpaper:49&r=lab |
| By: | Mina, Wasseem; Jaeck, Louis |
| Abstract: | In this paper we empirically examine the impact of labor market flexibility on FDI flows to oil-rich GCC and compare it to middle income countries in 2006-2011. We account for potential endogeneity and nonstationarity and adopt system GMM and IV estimation methodologies. Our findings show that in middle income countries overall flexibility increases FDI flows under both system GMM and IV methodologies. In GCC countries overall LMF decreases FDI flows under system GMM methodology. Results also show a positive “GCC region” influence outweighing the negative flexibility influence. Growth potential and infrastructure development matter for both GCC and middle income countries. |
| Keywords: | Labor markets; FDI; GCC; Middle income countries; UAE |
| JEL: | F2 F21 J3 J32 J38 J5 J53 J58 J6 J65 J68 |
| Date: | 2015–03–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62652&r=lab |
| By: | Bøler, Esther Ann; Javorcik, Beata; Ulltveit-Moe, Karen-Helene |
| Abstract: | While the impact of globalization on income inequality has received a lot of attention,little is known about its effect on the gender wage gap (GWG). This study argues that there is a systematic difference in the GWG between exporting firms and non-exporters. By the virtue of being exposed to higher competition, exporters require greater commitment and flexibility from their employees. If commitment is not easily observable and women are perceived as less committed workers than men, exporters will statistically discriminate against female employees and will exhibit a higher GWG than non-exporters. We test this hypothesis using matched employer-employee data from the Norwegian manufacturing sector from 1996 to 2010. Our identification strategy relies on an exogenous shock, namely, the legislative changes that increased the length of the parental leave that is available only to fathers. We argue that these changes have narrowed the perceived commitment gap between the genders and show that the initially higher GWG observed in exporting firms relative to non-exporters has gone down after the changes took place. |
| Keywords: | exporters; gender wage gap; globalization |
| JEL: | F10 F14 F16 J16 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10475&r=lab |
| By: | Natalia Ramírez Bustamante; Ana Maria Tribin Uribe; Carmiña O. Vargas |
| Abstract: | Our research seeks to determine the impact on female labor outcomes of the amendment on the Colombian labor law in which maternity leave was extended from 12 to 14 weeks (through Law 1468 of July 2011). To identify this impact we compare labor market outcomes of two groups of women with differences in their fertility rates. We find evidence that as a result of the extension of the maternity leave period, women in the high-fertility age group have experienced an increase in inactivity rates, informality, and self-employment. We argue that a redesign of maternity protection policy is due, one through which the economic and social costs of bearing children are shared by both parents and which may generate social change regarding the importance of paternal care. |
| Keywords: | Maternity leave, women’s labor market, labor regulation. |
| JEL: | J08 J2 J3 J7 K31 |
| Date: | 2015–03–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000094:012610&r=lab |
| By: | John T. Addison (Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, U.S.A.; The Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis, Italy); Paulino Teixeira (University of Coimbra and GEMF, Portugal); Katalin Evers (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Germany); Lutz Bellmann (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Germany) |
| Abstract: | It is sometimes alleged that collective bargaining coverage in Germany is understated because uncovered firms ‘orient’ themselves toward sectoral agreements. In fact, although orientation has grown as sectoral bargaining has declined, their joint frequency has fallen. Further, where orientation occurs at firms that leave a sectoral agreement, it provides only partial compensation. But the small deficits involved, in conjunction with some indirect evidence on joiners, suggest modest attenuation of the undoubted decline in collective bargaining. |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rim:rimwps:15-06&r=lab |
| By: | Sebastian Königs (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a study of the monthly dynamics of social assistance benefit receipt – in particular the distribution of spell lengths and the incidence of repeat receipt – in four European countries: Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. The analysis is based on four separate administrative panel data sets with long observation periods. Benefit dynamics vary considerably across countries over the eight-year period from January 2001 to December 2008: In the two Nordic countries, short-term benefit receipt is the norm with only around 6% and 11% of spells in Norway and Sweden lasting longer than 12 months. Most recipients however have multiple spells, and the majority of benefit leavers return to benefits within three months of leaving. In Luxembourg and the Netherlands, long-term benefit receipt is frequent, with median spell lengths of 14 and 9 months, respectively, and one-third and one-quarter of all spells lasting 24 months or longer. Benefit leavers in these countries are by contrast much less likely to return to benefit receipt after exit. The total duration of benefit receipt per individual across spells is two to three times as high in the Netherlands and Luxembourg than in Norway and Sweden over the eight-year period. |
| Keywords: | Social assistance dynamics; Welfare benefit dynamics; Benefit spell lengths |
| JEL: | I38 J60 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:797&r=lab |
| By: | Campaña, Juan Carlos; Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio; Molina, José Alberto |
| Abstract: | We analyze differences by gender in the time dedicated to total work (paid and unpaid) by families in Latin America, with particular attention to the effect of social norms. To this end, we use survey data on time use in Mexico (2009), Peru (2010), Ecuador (2012) and Colombia (2012), to estimate differential equations through OLS. Our results reveal differences between countries in terms of the gender distribution of total work (paid work plus unpaid work), with Colombia and Peru being more equitable. These two countries could be approaching a situation of "iso-work", or equality of work, in the sense that men and women spend similar amounts of time in total work. When considering the social norms that explain gender differences in the time spent in total work, we use data from the last wave (2010-2014) of the World Values Survey (WVS). Our results indicate that the more egalitarian countries exhibit the highest levels of equality in the distribution of work. It is important to know how men and women from these four countries distribute their time in total work, in order to understand why there are clear differences by gender. |
| Keywords: | Total work, Latin America, differences by gender, social norms. |
| JEL: | D13 J13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2015–03–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62759&r=lab |