|
on Labour Economics |
| By: | Longhi, Simonetta (ISER, University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses differences between unemployed and employed job seekers in job finding rates and in the quality of the job found. Compared to the unemployed, employed job seekers have a smaller pool of job offers that they consider acceptable; this leads to lower job finding rates but better quality jobs. Differences in job quality are tiny when unobserved heterogeneity and selection into accepting a job are accounted for. Hence, differences are mostly due to behaviour of unemployed people rather than negative signaling or employer discrimination. |
| Keywords: | on-the-job search, unemployment, job-finding rate, job quality |
| JEL: | J01 J20 J29 J62 J64 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9112&r=lab |
| By: | Guzi, Martin (Masaryk University); Kahanec, Martin (Central European University); Kureková, Lucia Mýtna (Slovak Governance Institute) |
| Abstract: | Theoretical arguments and previous country-level evidence indicate that immigrants are more fluid than natives in responding to changing labor shortages across countries, skill-groups or industries. The diversity across EU member states enables us to test this hypothesis across various institutional, economic and policy contexts. Drawing on the EU LFS and EU SILC datasets we study the relationship between residual wage premia as a measure of labor shortages in different skill-industry-country cells and the shares of migrants and natives working in these cells. We find that immigrants' responsiveness to labor market shortages exceeds that of natives in the EU15, in particular in member states with higher unemployment rates, higher levels of (recent) immigration, and more open immigration and integration policies; but also those with barriers to citizenship acquisition or family reunification. Whereas higher welfare expenditures seem to exert a lock-in effect, a comparison across different types of welfare states indicates that institutional complementarities neutralize that effect. |
| Keywords: | labor supply, skill matching, migration, labor shortage, welfare state, institutions, policy |
| JEL: | J15 J24 J61 J68 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9108&r=lab |
| By: | Boccanfuso, Dorothée (University of Sherbrooke); Larouche, Alexandre (Del Degan, Massé); Trandafir, Mircea (University of Southern Denmark) |
| Abstract: | While many studies examine the effect of primary education quality on labor market outcomes in developing countries, little is known about the effects at higher levels. We exploit the quasi-experiment provided by a large-scale education reform launched in Senegal in 2000 to investigate how quality improvements at the university level affect employment. Our difference-in-difference estimates suggest that young high-skilled workers experienced a nine percentage-point employment gain relative to older workers. They are also more likely to have "better" jobs (in the service industry or government), suggesting a reduction in the mismatch between the quality of high-skill labor demanded and supplied. |
| Keywords: | higher education, employment, impact analysis, quality mismatch |
| JEL: | I21 O15 O55 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9099&r=lab |
| By: | Boll, Christina; Hüning, Hendrik; Leppin, Julian; Puckelwald, Johannes |
| Abstract: | In a simulation-based study with data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), we analyze the effects of the newly introduced statutory minimum wage of 8.50 Euro per working hour in Germany on the gender wage gap. In our first scenario where we abstain from employment effects, the pay differential is reduced by 2.5 percentage points from 19.6 % to 17.1 %, due to a reduction of the sticky-floor effect at the bottom of the wage distribution. In more realistic scenarios where we incorporate minimum wage effects on labor demand, a further reduction of the pay gap by 0.2 pp (1.2 pp) in case of a monopsonistic (neoclassical) labor market is achieved. However, this comes at the cost of job losses by which women are more strongly affected than men. The magnitude of job losses ranges between 0.2 % and 3.0 % of all employees. It is higher in a neoclassical market setting and positively related to the assumed wage elasticity. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage,labor demand,wage elasticity,gender pay gap,monopsony |
| JEL: | J31 J23 J16 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hwwirp:163&r=lab |
| By: | Naci H. Mocan; Luiza Pogorelova |
| Abstract: | We use micro data from the European Social Survey to investigate the impact of “culture of leisure” and taxes on labor force participation and hours worked of second-generation immigrants who reside in 26 European countries. These individuals are born in Europe, and they have been exposed to institutional, legal and labor market structures of their countries, including the tax rates. Fathers of these individuals are first-generation immigrants who migrated from 81 different countries. We construct measures of “taste for leisure” in the country of origin of each immigrant father. We employ average and marginal taxes for each country of residence, and control for a large set of individual characteristics, in addition to attributes of the country of residence and country of ancestry. The results show that for women, both taxes and culture of leisure impact participation and hours worked. For men, taxes influence labor supply both at the intensive and the extensive margins, but culture of leisure has no impact. |
| JEL: | H2 J22 J61 Z1 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21297&r=lab |
| By: | Dobbelaere, Sabien (VU University Amsterdam); Lauterbach, Rodolfo (Maastricht University); Mairesse, Jacques (CREST-INSEE) |
| Abstract: | Institutions, social norms and the nature of industrial relations vary greatly between Latin American and Western European countries. Such institutional and organizational differences might shape firms' operational environment in general and the type of competition in product and labor markets in particular. Contributing to the literature on estimating simultaneously product and labor market imperfections, this paper quantifies industry differences in both types of imperfections using firm-level data in Chile –a non-OECD member under the considered time period– and France. We rely on two extensions of Hall's econometric framework for estimating price-cost margins by nesting three labor market settings (perfect competition or right-to-manage bargaining, efficient bargaining and monopsony). Using an unbalanced panel of 1,737 firms over the period 1996-2003 in Chile containing unique data on firm-level output price indices and 14,270 firms over the period 1994-2001 in France, we first classify 20 comparable manufacturing industries in 6 distinct regimes that differ in the type of competition prevailing in product and labor markets. We then investigate industry differences in the estimated product and labor market imperfections. Consistent with differences in institutions and in the industrial relations system in the two countries, we find important regime differences across the two countries. In addition, we observe cross-country differences in the levels of product and labor market imperfections within regimes. |
| Keywords: | rent sharing, monopsony, price-cost mark-ups, production function, panel data |
| JEL: | C23 D21 J51 L13 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9125&r=lab |
| By: | Huber, Martin; Lechner, Michael; Strittmatter, Anthony |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the effect of a voucher award system for assignment into vocational training on the employment outcomes of unemployed voucher recipients in Germany, along with the causal mechanisms through which it operates. It assesses the direct effect of voucher assignment net of actual redemption, which may be driven by preference shaping/learning about (possibilities of) human capital investments or simply by costs of information gathering. Using a mediation analysis framework based on sequential conditional independence assumptions and semiparametric matching estimators, our results suggest that the negative short term and positive long term employment effects of voucher award are mainly driven by actual training participation. However, also the direct effect of just obtaining the voucher is negative in the short run. This points to potential efficiency losses of voucher award systems if individuals decide not to redeem, as employment chances are lower than under non-award in the short run and under redemption in the long run, making non-redemption the least attractive option. |
| Keywords: | mediation analysis; voucher award; training programmes; direct effects; indirect effects; causal mechanisms; causal channels; matching estimation |
| JEL: | J64 J68 C21 C31 |
| Date: | 2015–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fri:fribow:fribow00456&r=lab |
| By: | Jana Hromcová (Departament d’Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona); Pablo Agnese (yFH Düsseldorf and IZA, Department of Business Studies) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the e¤ects of low-skill o¤shoring on welfare. In the context of a matching model with di¤erent possible equilibria, we discuss two alternative policies that could potentially outweigh the negative welfare e¤ects of o¤shoring, namely, a change of the unemployment bene?ts and the ?exibilization of the labor market. Our calibrations for the German economy suggest that the ?exibilization of the labor market can bring low-skill workers to pre-o¤shoring welfare levels by slightly reducing the vacancy costs, something that cannot be accomplished by meddling with the unemployment bene?ts scheme. In addition, we ?nd that a full compensation can be achieved by an upgrading of low-skill workers, its size depending on the type of equilibrium involved. In sum, our analysis gives support to ?exibilization and upgrading by education as best therapies for o¤shoring. |
| Keywords: | Offshoring, Welfare, Unemployment bene?ts, Labor Market Flexibility, Upgrading. |
| JEL: | J68 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uab:wprdea:wpdea1505&r=lab |
| By: | Erich Battistin (Queen Mary University of London, IRVAPP and IZA); Michele De Nadai (University of New South Wales); Mario Padula (Università della Svizzera italiana, IdEP, CSEF and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the role of grandparental childcare for fertility decisions of their offspring. Exploiting pension reforms in Italy, we argue that delayed retirement represents a negative shock to the supply of informal childcare for the next generation. We show that, when the maternal grandmother is not available, motherhood after age 30 is less likely. This effect persists as the woman ages, and parallels that on number of children. We argue that these are permanent changes to completed fertility for many cohorts in our data. Consistent with our interpretation, we show that results are limited to the most familistic close-knits where the role of grandparents is more important, and that are not the mechanical consequence of changes of living arrangements and labor supply. Given the Italian lowest low fertility, we conclude that pension reforms may have had unintended inter-generational effects. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, Informal child care, Pension reforms |
| JEL: | J08 J13 H42 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qmw:qmwecw:wp748&r=lab |
| By: | Cheng, Lingguo (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics); Liu, Hong (Central University of Finance and Economics); Zhang, Ye (Nanjing University); Zhao, Zhong (Renmin University of China) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of pension income on living arrangements of the elderly. Taking advantage of a unique opportunity due to the recent establishment and expansion of the social pension system in rural China, we explicitly address the endogeneity of pension status and income through a fixed-effect model with instrumental variable approach by exploiting exogenous time variation in the program implementation at county level. We find an overall positive effect of pension income on independent living as well as considerable heterogeneity. The elderly with easy access to their adult children, possessing higher financial capacity, in less long-term care and psychological need, and having more education are more likely to live independently after receiving pension income. Our results confirm that independent living is a normal good, but highlight that living arrangement is multidimensional in rural China. |
| Keywords: | pension income, living arrangements, heterogeneity, China |
| JEL: | J12 H55 I38 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9116&r=lab |
| By: | Riphahn, Regina T. (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg); Schwientek, Caroline (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | We study the mechanisms that are associated with the gender education gap and its reversal in Germany. We focus on three outcomes, graduation from upper secondary school, any tertiary education, and tertiary degree. Neither individual and family background nor labor market characteristics appear to be strongly associated with the gender education gap. There is some evidence that the gender gap in upper secondary education reflects the rising share of single parent households which impacts boys' attainment more than girls'. The gender education gap in tertiary education is correlated with the development of class sizes and social norms. |
| Keywords: | educational attainment, wage premium, gender gap |
| JEL: | I21 J16 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9117&r=lab |
| By: | Anne Case; Angus Deaton |
| Abstract: | Suicide rates, life evaluation, and measures of affect are all plausible measures of the mental health and wellbeing of populations. Yet in the settings we examine, correlations between suicide and measured wellbeing are at best inconsistent. Differences in suicides between men and women, between Hispanics, blacks, and whites, between age groups for men, between countries or US states, between calendar years, and between days of the week, do not match differences in life evaluation. By contrast, reports of physical pain are strongly predictive of suicide in many contexts. The prevalence of pain is increasing among middle-aged Americans, and is accompanied by a substantial increase in suicides and deaths from drug and alcohol poisoning. Our measure of pain is now highest in middle age—when life evaluation and positive affect are at a minimum. In the absence of the pain epidemic, suicide and life evaluation are likely unrelated, leaving unresolved whether either one is a useful overall measure of population wellbeing. |
| JEL: | I12 I3 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21279&r=lab |