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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Jeffrey A. Groen; Mark J. Kutzbach; Anne E. Polivka |
| Abstract: | We study the responsiveness of individuals’ employment and earnings to the damages and disruption caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which struck the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005. Our analysis is based on individual-level survey and administrative data that tracks workers over time, both in the immediate aftermath of the storm and over a seven-year period. For individuals who were employed at the time of the storm, we estimate models that compare the evolution of earnings for individuals who resided in storm-affected areas and individuals who resided in a set of control counties with pre-storm characteristics similar to those of the storm-affected areas prior to the storm. We find that, on average, the storms reduced the earnings of affected individuals during the first year after the storm. These losses reflect various aspects of the short-run disruption caused by the hurricanes, including job separations, migration to other areas, and business contractions. Starting in the third year after the storms, however, we estimate that the storms increased the quarterly earnings of affected individuals. We provide evidence that the long-term earnings gains experienced by affected individuals were the result of differences in wage growth between the affected areas and the control areas, due to reduced labor supply and increased labor demand, especially in sectors related to rebuilding. Despite short-term earnings losses due to an increased rate of non-employment, we find a net increase in average quarterly earnings among affected individuals over the entire post-storm period. However, subgroups with large and persistent earnings losses after the storms had a net decrease in average quarterly earnings over the seven-year period due to the storms. |
| Keywords: | Disaster, Hurricane, Employment, Earnings, Local Labor Markets, Katrina, Rita |
| JEL: | J6 Q54 R23 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:15-21&r=all |
| By: | Baert, Stijn (Ghent University); Norga, Jennifer (Ghent University); Thuy, Yannick (Ghent University); Van Hecke, Marieke (Ghent University) |
| Abstract: | This study presents a new field experimental approach for measuring age discrimination in hiring. In addition to the classical approach in which candidates' ages are randomly assigned within pairs of fictitious resumes that are sent to real vacancies, we randomly assign activities undertaken by the older candidates during their additional life years between these pairs. When applying this design to the Belgium case, we find that age discrimination is fundamentally heterogeneous by older candidates' career pattern. Older age affects call-back only (negatively) in case older candidates were inactive or employed in an out-of-field job during their additional post-educational years. |
| Keywords: | age discrimination, design of experiments, field experiments, difference in post-educational years problem, ageing, hiring discrimination |
| JEL: | C90 C93 J14 J71 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9289&r=all |
| By: | Frederico Belo; Xiaoji Lin; Jun Li; Xiaofei Zhao |
| Abstract: | We introduce labor-force heterogeneity in a neoclassical investment model. In the baseline model, we highlight the fact that labor adjustment costs are higher for high skilled workers than for low skilled workers. The model predicts that the negative hiring-expected return relation should be steeper in industries that rely more on high skilled workers because firm's hiring responds less elastically to changes in the discount rate when labor adjustment costs are higher. In an extended version of the model we show that the previous prediction also holds in the presence of additional sources of labor-force heterogeneity such as higher wage rigidity of high skilled workers. Empirically, we document that the negative hiring-expected return relation is between 1.7 and 3.2 times larger in industries that rely more on high skilled workers, than in industries that rely more on low skilled workers. This result is robust: it holds in U.S data, in international data, across sub-samples, and in both firm-level and portfolio-level analyses. Taken together, our results show that labor-force heterogeneity affects asset prices in financial markets. |
| JEL: | E13 E22 E23 E24 E44 G12 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21487&r=all |
| By: | Giulietti, Corrado (IZA); Tonin, Mirco (University of Southampton); Vlassopoulos, Michael (University of Southampton) |
| Abstract: | Discrimination in access to public services can act as a major obstacle towards addressing racial inequality. We examine whether racial discrimination exists in access to a wide spectrum of public services in the US. We carry out an email correspondence study in which we pose simple queries to more than 19,000 local public service providers. We find that emails are less likely to receive a response if signed by a black-sounding name compared to a white-sounding name. Given a response rate of 72% for white senders, emails from putatively black senders are almost 4 percentage points less likely to receive an answer. We also find that responses to queries coming from black names are less likely to have a cordial tone. Further tests demonstrate that the differential in the likelihood of answering is due to animus towards blacks rather than inferring socioeconomic status from race. |
| Keywords: | discrimination, public services provision, school districts, libraries, sheriffs, field experiment, correspondence study |
| JEL: | D73 H41 J15 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9290&r=all |
| By: | Zapf, Ines (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "This study brings together results of the establishment and the individual level to get a better understanding of the use of working-time accounts in Germany. Using data from the Establishment Panel we first show that industrial relations factors, employment-contract characteristics and individual characteristics determine working-time accounts' use in establishments. Second, we provide the first analysis concerning the determinants of working-time accounts' use among employees and the employees' access to working-time accounts in establishments using working-time accounts. Using data from the German Socio Economic Panel we show that qualified employees more often have access to working-time accounts. Using linked-employer-employee data we show that in establishments using working-time accounts female employees, part-time employees and employees with fixed-term contracts are not disadvantaged regarding the access to working-time accounts." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Arbeitszeitkonto, IAB-Betriebspanel, Arbeitszeitflexibilität, Beschäftigungsform, geschlechtsspezifische Faktoren, Personalpolitik, qualifikationsspezifische Faktoren, Teilzeitarbeitnehmer, Betriebsgröße, Wirtschaftszweige |
| JEL: | J51 J81 |
| Date: | 2015–08–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201523&r=all |
| By: | Wolfgang Frimmel; Thomas Horvath; Mario Schnalzenberger; Rudolf Winter-Ebmer |
| Abstract: | In general, retirement is seen as a pure labor supply phenomenon, but firms can have strong incentives to send expensive older workers into retirement. Based on the seniority wage model developed by Lazear (1979), we discuss steep seniority wage profiles as incentives for firms to dismiss older workers before retirement. Conditional on individual retirement incentives, e.g., social security wealth or health status, the steepness of the wage profile will have different incentives for workers as compared to firms when it comes to the retirement date. Using an instrumental variable approach to account for selection of workers in our firms and for reverse causality, we find that firms with higher labor costs for older workers are associated with lower job exit age. |
| Keywords: | retirement, seniority wages, firm incentives |
| JEL: | J14 J26 J31 H55 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:cdlwps:wp1506&r=all |
| By: | Shuaizhang Feng; Yingyao Hu; Robert Moffitt |
| Abstract: | Unemployment rates in countries across the world are typically positively correlated with GDP. China is an unusual outlier from the pattern, with abnormally low, and suspiciously stable, unemployment rates according to its official statistics. This paper calculates, for the first time, China’s unemployment rate from 1988 to 2009 using a more reliable, nationally representative household survey in China. The unemployment rates we calculate differ dramatically from those supplied in official data and are much more consistent with what is known about China’s labor market and how it has changed over time in response to structural changes and other significant events. The rate averaged 3.9% in 1988-1995, when the labor market was highly regulated and dominated by state-owned enterprises, but rose sharply during the period of mass layoff from 1995- 2002, reaching an average of 10.9% in the subperiod from 2002 to 2009. We can also calculate labor force participation rates, which are not available in official statistics at all. We find that they declined throughout the whole period, particularly in 1995-2002 when the unemployment rate increased most significantly. We also report results for different demographic groups, different regions, and different cohorts. |
| JEL: | J64 O15 O53 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21460&r=all |
| By: | Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. (University of Melbourne); Zhu, Anna (University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the long-term consequences of children experiencing homelessness. Our primary goal is to assess the importance of the potential pathways linking childhood homelessness to adult employment. We use novel panel data that link survey and administrative data for a sample of disadvantaged adults who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. We find that those experiencing homelessness for the first time as children are less likely to be employed than those who were never homeless as a child. For women, this relationship is largely explained by the lower educational attainment and higher welfare receipt (both in general and in the form of mental illness-related disability payments) of those experiencing childhood homelessness. Higher rates of high-school incompletion and incarceration explain some of the link between childhood homelessness and men's employment, however, childhood homelessness continues to have a substantial direct effect on male employment rates. |
| Keywords: | employment, homelessness, welfare receipt, education, incarceration |
| JEL: | J1 J2 I2 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9250&r=all |
| By: | Norma B. Coe; Gopi Shah Goda; Courtney Harold Van Houtven |
| Abstract: | We examine how long-term care insurance (LTCI) affects family outcomes expected to be sensitive to LTCI, including utilization of informal care and spillover effects on children. An instrumental variables approach allows us to address the endogeneity of LTCI coverage. LTCI coverage induces less informal caregiving, suggesting the presence of intra-family moral hazard. We also find that children are less likely to co-reside or live nearby parents with LTCI and more likely to work full-time, suggesting that significant economic gains from private LTCI could accrue to the younger generation. |
| JEL: | H5 H75 I13 J12 J14 J22 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21483&r=all |
| By: | Chang, Simon (University of Western Australia); Connelly, Rachel (Bowdoin College); Ma, Ping (Central University of Finance and Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the natural experiment of a large imbalance between men and women of marriageable age in Taiwan in the 1960s to test the hypothesis that higher sex ratios lead to husbands (wives) having a lower (higher) share of couple's time in leisure and higher (lower) share of the couple's total work time (employment, commuting and housework). A large sample of Taiwanese couples' time diaries from 1987, 1990, and 1994 is used. The analysis finds evidence of the predicted effects of the county-level sex ratio on husbands' and wives' share of leisure and total work time. In addition, the age difference between husbands and wives is shown to be positively correlated with heightened county-level sex ratio a result which is also consistent with the theory that marriage market participants' choices are affected by the prevailing sex ratio. |
| Keywords: | sex ratios, time use, time diaries, Taiwan, marriage markets, bargaining power |
| JEL: | J12 J16 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9287&r=all |
| By: | John X. LAMBINO |
| Abstract: | The paper considers the interaction of the dual elements of the nation-state: territory and people. Particularly, it discusses the interaction of geopolitics and migration, i.e. the non-mobile territory and the mobile people, from the perspectives of political-security, economy, and culture, and how the interactions influence government policy focusing on the case of the Philippines.The paper ferrets-out the major factors in the geopolitical transformation of the Philippine Is-lands into the westernmost frontier of the United States, and how this geopolitical transformation created a migratory linkage from the Philippine Islands to the United States. The paper shows how migratory movements shaped the geopolitics of East Asia or Western Pacific before World War II by pointing out the following. One: The westward expansion of the American people ini-tially changed the geopolitical conditions in the American continent, and eventually changed the geopolitical make-up in the Western Pacific. Two: The migration of Filipinos to the United States was a key factor in the granting of Philippine independence, thereby reshaping the geopo-litical conditions in the Western Pacific region.The paper shows that the geopolitical transformation of the Philippine Islands came with the im-plantation of American culture and English language. The paper discusses how this cultural as-pect has functioned in terms of a migratory linkage by looking at the current migratory pattern of Filipinos. The paper then shows how the economic agreement the Philippines signed with the United States in 1946 to attain independence eventually led to the establishment of a migratory system as the Philippine government adopted of a labor export policy in the 1970s. The paper further shows the importance of remittances from overseas Filipinos to the Philippine economy.The paper elaborates and discusses how the political-security policies undertaken by the Philip-pines have been deeply influenced by both its geopolitical circumstance and the current situation of Filipino migration. Finally, the paper points out that the large presence of Filipinos overseas and the country’s dependence to their remittances are a cause of weakness for the Philippine state in maintaining a credible foreign and security policy. |
| Keywords: | Geopolitics in East Asia; Filipino Migration; Nation-state |
| JEL: | J61 F51 F52 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kue:dpaper:e-15-004&r=all |
| By: | Irene Brunetti; Davide Fiaschi |
| Abstract: | The paper proposes a novel methodology based on a non-parametric method to estimate intragenerational income mobility. We apply it to the analysis of mobility of a sample of Italian individuals (between 16 and 65 years old) from the Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) by the Bank of Italy in the period 1987-2010. First, the linear specification of the Markovian model is estimated removing the assumption of no serial correlation in the error term suggesting a low level of income mobility. Second, a non-linear specification of Markovian model is estimated providing both "local" and global measures of income mobility. Income mobility appears to be low; in particular it reaches a minimum in the middle of income distribution and maximum values at the extreme bounds, with an income elasticity ranging from 0.4 to 0.8 in the relevant range of income (0.5-2). Moreover, from 1987-1998 to 2000-2010 income mobility has increased over time, in particular in the middle of distribution. |
| Keywords: | Relative Income Mobility, Mobility Indexes, Markov Chain, Non-parametric Estimate. |
| JEL: | C14 J60 J62 |
| Date: | 2015–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pie:dsedps:2015/204&r=all |
| By: | Gerdes, Christer (SOFI, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | This study looks at the effects of participating in active labour market policy programs for persons with work disabilities. More in detail, it draws attention to the importance of taking into account the timing of when a work disability has been registered for persons attending ALMP programs. We argue that not controlling for time of events, i.e. the exact time a participant starts a program, as well as the time that person is being registered with a work disability, implies a risk of ending up with biased estimations with respect to the effectiveness of certain ALMP programs. |
| Keywords: | work disability, ALMP programs, endogenous selection, post registration bias |
| JEL: | C18 C52 D04 J18 H42 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9264&r=all |