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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Reichelt, Malte (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Abraham, Martin |
| Abstract: | "Job mobility offers opportunities for workers to obtain wage increases, but returns to job changes differ considerably. We argue that parts of this inequality result from a trade-off between occupational and regional mobility. Both mobility types offer alternative strategies to improve one's labor market position; however, they each contain unique restrictions. High costs for regional mobility can thus evoke occupation changes, even though the resulting human capital devaluation leads to lower wage increases. We use linked retrospective life-course data for Germany (ALWA-ADIAB) and apply competing risks models to show that restrictions on one type of mobility drive individuals toward the other. Using fixed-effects regressions, we show that occupational mobility leads to lower wage increases compared to regional mobility. We conclude that the trade-off between occupational and regional mobility explains part of the differential returns to job mobility and contributes to wage inequality. We expect these mechanisms to become more pronounced in the future as technological and institutional changes alter job requirements and thereby mobility incentives." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| JEL: | J31 J61 J62 |
| Date: | 2015–04–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201514&r=lab |
| By: | Patricia Gallego-Granados; Johannes Geyer |
| Abstract: | The gender wage gap is a persistent labor market phenomenon. Most research focuses on the determinants of these wage differences. We contribute to this literature by exploring a different research question: if wages of women are systematically lower than male wages, what are the distributional consequences (disposable income) and what are the labor market effects (labor supply) of the wage gap? We demonstrate how the gender gap in gross hourly wages shows up in the distribution of disposable income of households. This requires taking into account the distribution of working hours as well as the tax-benefit system and other sources of household income. We present a methodological framework for deriving the gender wage gap in terms of disposable income which combines quantile decomposition, simulation techniques and structural labor supply estimation. This allows us to examine the implications of the gender wage gap for income inequality and working incentives. We illustrate our approach with an application to German data. |
| Keywords: | gender wage gap, quantile regression, wage decomposition, labor supply, microsimulation, income distribution, tax-benefit system |
| JEL: | D31 J31 J16 H23 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1469&r=lab |
| By: | María F. Prada; Graciana Rucci; Sergio S. Urzúa |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of mandated employer-provided child care on the wages of women hired in large firms in Chile. We use a unique employer-employee database from the country's unemployment insurance (UI) system containing monthly information for all individuals that started a new contract between January 2005 and March 2013. We estimate the impact of the program using regression discontinuity design (RDD) exploiting the fact that child care provision is mandatory for all firms with 20 or more female workers. The results indicate that monthly starting wages of the infra-marginal woman hired in a firm with 20 or more female workers are between 9 and 20 percent below those of female workers hired by the same firm when no requirement of providing child care was imposed. |
| JEL: | C21 J32 J71 J82 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21080&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre-Philippe Combes (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS & EHESS, 2, Rue de la Charité,13002 Marseille, France; Sciences Po, Department of Economics, 28, Rue des Saints-Pères, 75007 Paris, France. Also affiliated to the CEPR.); Sylvie Démurger (Université de Lyon, Lyon, F-69007, France ; CNRS, GATE Lyon St Etienne,F-69130 Ecully, France); Shi Li (School of Business, Beijing Normal University, China; IZA, Bonn, Germany) |
| Abstract: | We analyse the impact of internal migration in China on natives’ labour market outcomes. We find evidence of a large positive correlation of the city share of migrants with natives’ wages. Using different sets of control variables and instruments suggests that the effect is causal. The large total migrant impact (+10% when one moves from the first to the third quartile of the migrant variable distribution) arises from gains due to complementarity with natives in the production function (+6.4%), and from gains due to agglomeration economies (+3.3%). Finally, we find some evidence of a stronger effect for skilled natives than for unskilled, as expected from theory. Overall, our findings support large nominal wage gains that can be expected from further migration and urbanisation in China. |
| Keywords: | Migration, urban development, agglomeration economies, wage disparities, China |
| JEL: | O18 J61 R23 J31 O53 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:1503&r=lab |
| By: | Maggian, Valeria (University of Milano Bicocca); Montinari, Natalia (Department of Economics, Lund University); Nicolò, Antonio (University of Manchester) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate the role of reciprocity in sustaining the emergence of implicit collusive agreements in hierarchical organizations. We conduct a laboratory experiment in which an agent hires, on behalf of the principal, one worker out of two candidates. The two candidates differ in their ability and, once employed, the worker chooses a level of non-contractible effort to exert in two tasks: one benefits the organization (that is both the principal and the agent) while the other one is less profitable, only benefits the agent and provides him with higher earnings. We provide evidence that: i) low ability workers are more likely to exert effort in the task that is exclusively beneficial to the agent; ii) as a consequence, agents distort the hiring process in favor of the low ability workers and iii) sharing a small part of the organization’s profits with the workers alleviates their effort distortion. |
| Keywords: | Conflict of Interest; Effort Distortion; Profit Sharing; and Reciprocity |
| JEL: | C91 J50 L14 M52 |
| Date: | 2015–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2015_010&r=lab |
| By: | Apolte, Thomas; Gerling, Lena |
| Abstract: | We develop a model of insurrection markets and integrate the youth bulge as measured by the relative youth cohort size. As youth-specific characteristics we define the young person's attitude toward revolutionary groups and the government, the degree of risk aversion and the relative productivity of young people on the insurrection market as compared to the official labor market. We find that, apart from certain spontaneous outbreaks of violence or riots, youth bulges alone are not a good predictor for political violence. Nevertheless, deliberate insurrection activities that aim at changing political and economic power positions are indeed affected by youth bulges, but indirectly so, and their intensity is driven by the characteristics of the respective underlying set of politico-economic institutions. We test our implications in an empirical model based on cross-country panel data and find that the effect of the relative youth cohort size on insurrection outbreaks is moderated by changes in the underlying istitutional setting, and more precisely changes in the labor-market conditions as approximaed by unemployment rates. |
| JEL: | H56 J10 J22 P16 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ciwdps:32015&r=lab |
| By: | Zetterdahl, Emma (Department of Economics, Umeå School of Business and Economics); Hellström, Jörgen (Umeå School of Business and Economics) |
| Abstract: | Novel empirical evidence indicates the importance of gender identity and gender norms on individuals’ financial risk-taking. Specifically, by use of matching and by dividing male and females into those with “traditional” versus “nontraditional” gender identities, comparison of average risk-taking between groupings indicate that over a third (about 35-40%) of the identified total gender risk differential is explained by differences in gender identities. Results further indicate that risky financial market participation is 19 percentage points higher in groups of women with nontraditional, compared with traditional, gender identities. The results, obtained while conditioning upon a vast number of controls, are robust towards a large number of alternative explanations and indicate that some individuals (mainly women) partly are fostered by society, through identity formation and socially constructed norms, to a relatively lower financial risk-taking. |
| Keywords: | Gender Identity; Financial Risk-Taking; Risky Share; Asset Allocation |
| JEL: | D01 D14 G02 G11 J16 |
| Date: | 2015–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:umnees:0905&r=lab |
| By: | Riccardo Crescenzi; Luisa Gagliardi |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at the link between inter-regional mobility, innovation and firms' behavioural heterogeneity in their reliance on localised external sources of knowledge. By linking patent data (capturing inventors' inter-regional mobility) with firm-level data (providing information on firms' innovation inputs and behaviour) a robust identification strategy makes it possible to shed new light on the geographical mobility-innovation nexus. The analysis of English firms suggests that firm-level heterogeneity - largely overlooked in previous studies - is the key to explain the innovation impact of inter-regional mobility over and above learning-by-hiring mechanisms. A causal link between inflows of new inventors into the local labour market and innovation emerges only for firms that make the use of external knowledge sources an integral part of their innovation strategies. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Labour Mobility, Inter-regional Migration, Spillovers |
| JEL: | O31 O15 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0174&r=lab |
| By: | David Marsden |
| Abstract: | The paper examines recent evidence on the erosion of the German industrial relations model. Although its coverage has declined, much of this has occurred in smaller and newer establishments, and compared with Britain, it has remained solid in the areas of Germany's traditional industrial strength. This is explained by the nature of high performance work systems that involve flexible working and on-the-job problem-solving. Both countries have modernised their work systems in recent decades, with German industrial firms maintaining higher degrees of worker autonomy and learning and British ones relying more on managerial control. The survival of the German model in this sector, as compared with services, is attributed to the role of such work systems in the high end of international competition. A model is developed to explain why stable cooperation within these work relationships is enhanced by means of a strong institutional framework. It is then used to explain why employers in the sectors using these systems have continued to work within these institutions. It is argued that employers' increased focus on the match between commercial needs and workplace institutions has contributed to the growing segmentation within German industrial relations which has been widely documented, and represents a departure from the classical post-war German model. The article finishes by asking how far this can go before damaging social and political cohesion. |
| Keywords: | Labor-management relations, trade unions, collective bargaining, human capital skills, labor contracting devices, Germany |
| JEL: | J5 J24 M55 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1344&r=lab |
| By: | Sonia Oreffice; Climent Quintana-Domeque |
| Abstract: | We analyze how attractiveness rated at the start of the interview in a nation- ally representative sample is related to weight, height, and body mass index (BMI), separately by gender and accounting for interviewers' characteristics or fixed effects. We also compute the non-anthropometric residual attractiveness, and present novel estimates of how non-anthropometric attractiveness and anthropometric attributes are related to labor and marital outcomes such as hourly wage and spousal educa- tion. We show that height, weight, and BMI all strongly contribute to male and female attractiveness when attractiveness is rated by opposite-sex interviewers, and that anthropometric characteristics are irrelevant to male interviewers when assessing male attractiveness. In addition, we estimate that non-anthropometric attractiveness and height matter for both men and women in the labor market, while BMI plays a stronger role than (residual) beauty in the marriage market. |
| Keywords: | Attractiveness, Body Mass Index, Height, Weight, Wage, Spousal Education. |
| JEL: | J01 J10 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wchild:35&r=lab |
| By: | Ewan McGaughey |
| Abstract: | Why does codetermination exist in Germany? Law and economics theories have contended that if there were no legal compulsion, worker participation in corporate governance would be ‘virtually nonexistent’. This positive analysis, which flows from the ‘nexus of contracts’ conception of the corporation, supports a normative argument that codetermination is inefficient because it is supposed that it will seldom happen voluntarily. After discussing competing conceptions of the corporation, as a ‘thing in itself’, and as an ‘institution’, this article explores the development of German codetermination from the mid-19th century to the present. It finds the inefficiency argument sits at odds with the historical evidence. In its very inception, the right of workers to vote for a company board of directors, or in work councils with a voice in dismissals, came from collective agreements. It was not compelled by law, but was collectively bargained between business and labour representatives. These ‘codetermination bargains’ were widespread. Laws then codified these models. This was true at the foundation of the Weimar Republic from 1918 to 1922 and, after abolition in 1933, again from 1945 to 1951. The foundational codetermination bargains were made because of two ‘Goldilocks’ conditions (conditions that were ‘just right’) which were not always seen in countries like the UK or US. First, inequality of bargaining power between workers and employers was temporarily less pronounced. Second, the trade union movement became united in the objective of seeking worker voice in corporate governance. As the practice of codetermination has been embraced by a majority of EU countries, and continues to spread, it is important to have an accurate positive narrative of codetermination’s economic and political foundations. |
| JEL: | J50 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:61593&r=lab |
| By: | Thomas, Deckers; Armin, Falk; Fabian, Kosse; Hannah, Schildberg-Hörisch |
| Abstract: | We show that socio-economic status (SES) is a powerful predictor of many facets of a child's personality. The facets of personality we investigate encompass time preferences, risk preferences, and altruism, as well as crystallized and fluid IQ. We measure a family's SES by the mother's and father's average years of education and household income. Our results show that children from families with higher SES are more patient, tend to be more altruistic and less likely to be risk seeking, and score higher on IQ tests. We also discuss potential pathways through which SES could affect the formation of a child's personality by documenting that many dimensions of a child's environment differ systematically by SES: parenting style, quantity and quality of time parents spend with their children, the mother's IQ and economic preferences, a child's initial conditions at birth, and family structure. Finally, we use panel data to show that the relationship between SES and personality is fairly stable over time at age 7 to 10. Personality profiles that vary systematically with SES might offer an explanation for social immobility. |
| Keywords: | personality; human capital; risk preferences; time preferences; altruism; experiments with children; origins of preferences; social immobility; socio-economic status |
| JEL: | C90 D64 D90 D81 J13 J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2015–04–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trf:wpaper:498&r=lab |
| By: | Gaëlle Ferrant; Michele Tuccio |
| Abstract: | Using the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) from the OECD Development Centre, this paper provides evidence of the two-way relationship between gender inequality in social institutions and South-South migration. Discriminatory social institutions in both origin and destination countries are one additional determinant of female migration. Gender inequality appears to be both a pull and a push factor for migrant women. On one hand, higher gender discrimination at home reduces female emigration, since women’s restricted opportunities and low decision-power limit their possibility to move abroad. On the other hand, lower discrimination in the destination country attracts female immigration. However, they have no significant impact on male migration, suggesting that male and female incentives to migrate differ.<BR>Cet article étudie l’influence réciproque entre discriminations de genre au sein des institutions sociales et migration. D’un côté, le niveau de discrimination de genre dans les institutions sociales du pays d’origine et du pays d’accueil influence significativement la migration des femmes dans les pays du Sud. Ainsi les discriminations auxquelles les femmes font faces dans les lois formelles et informelles, les normes sociales et pratiques coutumières dans leurs pays d’origine constituent un déterminant supplémentaire à la migration : lorsque les discriminations dans les pays d’origine sont trop fortes, elles entravent les opportunités de migration des femmes et réduisent ainsi les flux migratoires Sud-Sud. En outre, le niveau de discrimination dans les institutions sociales des pays d’origine semblent aussi jouer un rôle important, les femmes étant attirés par des pays ayant des niveaux de discrimination plus faibles que dans leurs pays d’origine. Ce type d’inégalité n’a pas d'impact significatif sur les hommes, suggérant que les facteurs de migration diffèrent entre les hommes et les femmes. |
| Keywords: | social institutions, gender inequality, South-South migration, Inégalités de genre, migrations Sud-Sud, institutions sociales |
| JEL: | F22 J16 O15 |
| Date: | 2015–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:devaaa:326-en&r=lab |
| By: | Richard B. Freeman; Wei Huang |
| Abstract: | In the past two decades China leaped from bit player in global science and engineering (S&E) to become the world's largest source of S&E graduates and the second largest spender on R&D and second largest producer of scientific papers. As a latecomer to modern science and engineering, China trailed the US and other advanced countries in the quality of its universities and research but was improving both through the mid-2010s. This paper presents evidence that China's leap benefited greatly from the country's positive response to global opportunities to educate many of its best and brightest overseas and from the deep educational and research links it developed with the US. The findings suggest that global mobility of people and ideas allowed China to reach the scientific and technological frontier much faster and more efficiently. |
| JEL: | I2 I23 J0 J24 O3 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21081&r=lab |