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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Gerard J. van den Berg; Barbara Hofmann. Arne Uhlendorff |
| Abstract: | Unemployment insurance agencies may combat moral hazard by punishing refusals to apply to assigned vacancies. However, the possibility to report sick creates an additional moral hazard, since during sickness spells, minimum requirements on search behavior do not apply. This reduces the ex-ante threat of sanctions. We analyze the effects of vacancy referrals and sanctions on the unemployment duration and the quality of job matches, in conjunction with the possibility to report sick. We estimate multi-spell duration models with selection on unobserved characteristics. We find that a vacancy referral increases the transition rate into work and that such accepted jobs go along with lower wages. We also find a positive effect of a vacancy referral on the probability of reporting sick. This effect is smaller at high durations, which suggests that the relative attractiveness of vacancy referrals increases over the time spent in unemployment. Overall, around 9% of sickness absence during unemployment is induced by vacancy referrals. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, vacancy referrals, physician, wage, unemployment insurance, monitoring, moral hazard |
| JEL: | J64 J65 C41 C21 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1542&r=lab |
| By: | Garloff, Alfred (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Wapler, Rüdiger (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "Two stylised facts of the German labour market are that first, the demand for highskilled labour has been growing rapidly for a number of years and second, the country is facing a particularly strong demographic change with the expected size of the population decreasing rapidly and the average age of the labour force increasing sharply. This has led to a widely discussed fear of 'labour shortages'. One of the reasons often stated in the public debate is that within a given time period many more old individuals are retiring than young individuals are entering the labour market. Although there is a certain logic in this argument, it is only prima facie convincing because firstly, a change in labour demand could counteract this effect and secondly, it is unclear whether - given labour demand for the occupations people retire from - people retiring from the labour market are normally 'replaced' by young cohorts entering the labour market. Thirdly, even if the size of a cohort differs between generations, it is by no means clear what the effects on labour supply are as, for example, the participation rates may also differ. We address these issues from a theoretical and empirical perspective. In the theoretical part we focus on the relationship between vacancies and unemployment (labour-market tightness) and show that it does not always increase with demographic change. In the empirical part, we analyse how employment is affected over time by different shares of different age cohorts. We find no evidence that a higher number of retirees in an occupation leads to a higher demand for younger workers. Instead, to a large extent, retirees seem to be 'replaced', if they are replaced at all, by middle-aged cohorts who change occupations. Thus, we conclude that the interaction between large retiring cohorts and small entering cohorts within occupations is less direct than is suggested in the public debate." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Arbeitskräftenachfrage, demografischer Wandel, Integrierte Arbeitsmarktbiografien, ältere Arbeitnehmer, junge Erwachsene, Berufsausstieg, Berufseinmündung, berufliche Integration, Stellenbesetzung |
| JEL: | F22 J11 J21 J22 |
| Date: | 2016–02–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201605&r=lab |
| By: | Alexander Stimpfle; David Stadelmann |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of female age at marriage on female education and educational gender inequality. We provide empirical evidence that early female marriage age significantly decreases female education with panel data from 1980 to 2010. Socio-cultural customs serve as an exogenous identification for female age at marriage. We also show that effects of spousal age gaps between men and women significantly affect female education relative to male education. Each additional year between husband and wife reduces the female secondary schooling completion rate by 14 percentage points, the time women spend at university by 6 weeks, and overall affects female education significantly more negatively than male education. We also document that marriage age and conventional measures of gender discrimination do not act as substitutes. |
| Keywords: | Marriage age; spousal age gap; female education; gender inequality |
| JEL: | J12 J16 I24 O47 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cra:wpaper:2016-02&r=lab |
| By: | Goodman, Sarena (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.)); Isen, Adam (Treasury Department) |
| Abstract: | We study how randomized variation from the Vietnam draft lottery affects the next generation’s labor market. Using the universe of federal tax returns, we link fathers from draft cohorts to their sons and offer two primary findings. First, sons of men called by the lottery have lower earnings and labor force participation than their peers. Second, they are more likely to volunteer for military service themselves. Similar but smaller effects are uncovered for daughters. Our findings demonstrate that manipulating parental circumstances can alter children’s outcomes and, more specifically, are consistent with two separately operating channels: (1) parental inputs as important determinants of human capital development and (2) intergenerational transmission of occupation. |
| Keywords: | Vietnam War draft lottery; household environment; intergenerational mobility; labor supply; military service; occupational transmission; parental inputs |
| JEL: | H56 J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2015–12–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2015-119&r=lab |
| By: | Dietz, Daniel; Zwick, Thomas |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the effect of training participation on employees' retention in the training company. It for the first time empirically combines the human capital and the monopsony theory by jointly controlling for the portability, visibility, and credibility of training. Based on an extensive German linked-employer-employee data set with detailed information on training history (WeLL-ADIAB), we show that training increases employees' retention. We compare the probability to stay at the same employer between training participants and accidental training non-participants (those who could not participate in planned training on the basis of exogeneous reasons). Higher portability of general human capital contents and visibility of training induced by training certificates however reduce the retention effect of training. Retention is further reduced when training is credibly provided and certified by external institutions, the full training effect on retention is still positive, however. We are careful to control for endogeneity of training participation in retention equations, unobserved time-invariant effects, and extensive individual and employer characteristics including wage increases and general job satisfaction. |
| Keywords: | Labor Mobility,Turnover,Employment,Training |
| JEL: | J62 J63 M51 M53 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:16011&r=lab |
| By: | Bachmann, Ronald; Penninger, Marion; Schaffner, Sandra |
| Abstract: | Using a linked employer-employee data set on the German construction industry, we analyse the effects of the introduction of minimum wages in this sector on labour market dynamics at the establishment level, i.e. turnover and churning flows, as well as accessions and separations and their underlying worker flows. The fact that minimum wages in Germany are sector-specific enables us to apply a between approach using other industries as control groups in a difference-in-differences framework. Furthermore, we use a within approach with high-wage workers as control group. While the within approach shows that the minimum wage reduced worker flows in East Germany, the between approach yields positive effect on labour market dynamics in West Germany. Our results can be explained by differences between East and West Germany with respect to the bite of the minimum wage, as well as the much higher prevalence of posted workers in West Germany. Furthermore, spillover effects to highwage workers are likely to have played a role in East Germany. |
| Abstract: | In dem Papier werden die Auswirkungen der Mindestlohneinführung im deutschen Bauhauptgewerbe auf Arbeitsmarktdynamiken untersucht, wobei die Analyse von Einstellungen und Trennungen sowie der damit zusammenhängenden Arbeitsmarktübergänge auf Betriebsebene erfolgt. Dabei kommt ein einzigartiger Linked Employer-Employee Datensatz zum Einsatz. Da der Mindestlohn zunächst nur im Bauhauptgewerbe eingeführt wurde, können Betriebe einer anderen Branche als Kontrollgruppe in einem Differenz-von-Differenzen-Ansatz genutzt werden (between-Ansatz). Zusätzlich wird ein within-Ansatz verwendet, bei dem Arbeitnehmer mit relativ hohem Lohn innerhalb des Bauhauptgewerbes als Kontrollgruppe dienen. Während der within-Ansatz zeigt, dass der Mindestlohn Arbeiterflüsse in Ostdeutschland reduzierte, bringt der between-Ansatz positive Effekte auf Arbeitsmarktdynamiken in Westdeutschland zutage. Diese Ergebnisse können auf Ost-West-Unterschiede hinsichtlich der Eingriffsintensität des Mindestlohns sowie die deutlich höhere Anzahl entsendeter Arbeitnehmer in Westdeutschland zurückgeführt werden. Zudem sind spillover-Effekte auf Arbeitnehmer mit relativ hohen Löhnen in Ostdeutschland wahrscheinlich. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage,labour market flows,difference-in-difference,linked employer-employee |
| JEL: | J23 J38 J42 J63 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:598&r=lab |
| By: | Aaronson, Daniel; French, Eric Baird; Sorkin, Isaac |
| Abstract: | We document three new findings about the industry-level response to minimum wage hikes. First, restaurant exit and entry both rise following a hike. Second, the rise in entry and exit is concentrated in chains. Third, there is no change in employment among continuing restaurants. We develop a model of industry dynamics based on putty-clay technology and show that it is consistent with these findings. In the model, continuing restaurants cannot change employment, and thus industry-level adjustment occurs through exit of labor-intensive restaurants and entry of capital-intensive ones. We show these three findings are inconsistent with other models of industry dynamics. |
| Keywords: | employment; industry dynamics; minimum wage; putty-clay |
| JEL: | E24 L11 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11097&r=lab |
| By: | Clemens, Michael A. (Center for Global Development); Pritchett, Lant (Harvard Kennedy School) |
| Abstract: | For decades, migration economics has stressed the effects of migration restrictions on income distribution in the host country. Recently the literature has taken a new direction by estimating the costs of migration restrictions to global economic efficiency. In contrast, a new strand of research posits that migration restrictions could be not only desirably redistributive, but in fact globally efficient. This is the new economic case for migration restrictions. The case rests on the possibility that without tight restrictions on migration, migrants from poor countries could transmit low productivity ("A" or Total Factor Productivity) to rich countries – offsetting efficiency gains from the spatial reallocation of labor from low to high-productivity places. We provide a novel assessment, proposing a simple model of dynamically efficient migration under productivity transmission and calibrating it with new macro and micro data. In this model, the case for efficiency-enhancing migration barriers rests on three parameters: transmission, the degree to which origin-country total factor productivity is embodied in migrants; assimilation, the degree to which migrants' productivity determinants become like natives' over time in the host country; and congestion, the degree to which transmission and assimilation change at higher migrant stocks. On current evidence about the magnitudes of these parameters, dynamically efficient policy would not imply open borders but would imply relaxations on current restrictions. That is, the new efficiency case for some migration restrictions is empirically a case against the stringency of current restrictions. |
| Keywords: | immigration, migration, migrant, wages, impact, globalization, labor, GDP, productivity |
| JEL: | F22 J61 O11 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9730&r=lab |
| By: | Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude; Kugler, Adriana D. |
| Abstract: | It is well known that a substantial part of income and education is passed on from parents to children, generating substantial persistence in socio-economic status across generations. In this paper, we examine whether another form of human capital, health, is also largely transmitted from generation to generation, contributing to limited socio-economic mobility. Using data from the NLSY, we first present new evidence on intergenerational transmission of health outcomes in the U.S., including weight, height, the body mass index (BMI), asthma and depression for both natives and immigrants. We show that both native and immigrant children inherit a prominent fraction of their health status from their parents, and that, on average, immigrants experience higher persistence than natives in weight and BMI. We also find that mothers’ education decreases children’s weight and BMI for natives, while single motherhood increases weight and BMI for both native and immigrant children. Finally, we find that the longer immigrants remain in the U.S., the less intergenerational persistence there is and the more immigrants look like native children. Unfortunately, the more generations immigrant families remain in the U.S., the more children of immigrants resemble natives’ higher weights, higher BMI and increased propensity to suffer from asthma. |
| Keywords: | health status; immigrants; intergenerational mobility |
| JEL: | I12 I14 J61 J62 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11100&r=lab |
| By: | Yassine Khoudja; Lucinda Platt |
| Abstract: | In the context of increasing women’s labour force participation (LFP) across Western countries, there remain large differences in LFP for women of different ethnic origins. While existing research has demonstrated that part of these differences can be attributed to compositional differences (age, qualifications, family context etc.) and to differences in gender role attitudes and religiosity, residual ‘ethnic effects’ typically remain. Further insight into the drivers of such differences has the potential to inform us about factors shaping women’s LFP more widely. In this paper we exploit a large-scale longitudinal study of the UK to investigate ethnic differences in both LFP entry and exit probabilities. We examine how far we can account for overall ethnic differences in LFP entry and exit, taking account of individual characteristics, gender role attitudes and religiosity, and the contribution of relevant life-course events. We find that, adjusting for all these factors, Indian and Caribbean women do not differ from White majority women in their labour force entry and exit probabilities but that Pakistani and Bangladeshi women are less likely to enter and more likely to exit the labour market, while Black African women have higher entry rates. We also find that Pakistani and Bangladeshi women’s labour market entries and exits are less sensitive to partnership and child-bearing events than other women’s. |
| Keywords: | ethnic minority women; labour force participation; labour force transition; life-course events; gender role attitudes |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:65384&r=lab |
| By: | Hjalmarsson, Randi; Lindquist, Matthew |
| Abstract: | This paper uses detailed individual register data to identify the causal effect of mandatory peacetime military conscription in Sweden on the lives of young men born in the 1970s and 80s. Because draftees are positively selected into service based on their draft board test performance, our primary identification strategy uses the random assignment of potential conscripts to draft board officiators who have relatively high or low tendencies to place draftees into service in an instrumental variable framework. We find that military service significantly increases post-service crime (overall and across multiple crime categories) between ages 23 and 30. These results are driven primarily by young men with pre-service criminal histories and who come from low socioeconomic status households. Though we find evidence of an incapacitation effect concurrent with conscription, it is unfortunately not enough to break a cycle of crime that has already begun prior to service. Analyses of labor market outcomes tell similar post-service stories: individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds have significantly lower income, and are more likely to receive unemployment and welfare benefits, as a result of service, while service significantly increases income and does not impact welfare and unemployment for those at the other end of the distribution. Finally, we provide suggestive evidence that peer effects may play an important role in explaining the unintended negative impacts of military service. |
| Keywords: | conscription; crime; criminal behaviour; draft; incapacitation; labor market; military conscription; military draft; unemployment |
| JEL: | H56 J08 K42 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11110&r=lab |
| By: | Claude Diebolt; Audrey-Rose Menard; Faustine Perrin |
| Abstract: | The education-fertility relationship is a central element of the models explaining the transition to sustained economic growth. In this paper, we use a three-stages least squares estimator to disentangle the causality direction of this relationship. Controlling for a wide array of socio-economic, cultural, and geographical determinants, our cliometric contribution on French counties during the nineteenth century corroborates the existence of a single negative causal link from fertility to education. We put forward the hypothesis that in France a decrease in fertility is strongly associated to greater schooling. |
| Keywords: | Education, Family, Fertility, Growth Theory, Nineteenth-Century, France. |
| JEL: | N33 O10 I25 J13 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2016-10&r=lab |