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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Christina DePasquale; Kevin Stange |
| Abstract: | There is concern that licensure requirements impede mobility of licensed professionals to areas of high demand. Nursing has not been immune to this criticism, especially in the context of perceived nurse shortages and large expected future demand. The Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) was introduced to solve this problem by permitting registered nurses to practice across state lines without obtaining additional licensure. We exploit the staggered adoption of the NLC to examine whether a reduction in licensure-induced barriers alters the nurse labor market. Using data on over 1.8 million nurses and other health care workers we find no evidence that the labor supply or mobility of nurses increases following the adoption of the NLC, even among the residents of counties bordering other NLC states who are potentially most affected by the NLC. This suggests that nationalizing occupational licensing will not substantially reduce labor market frictions. |
| JEL: | J21 J44 J61 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22344&r=lab |
| By: | Martin Halla; Wolfgang Frimmel; Rudolf Winter-Ebmer |
| Abstract: | Numerous papers report a negative association between parental divorce and child outcomes. To provide evidence whether this correlation is driven by a causal effect, we exploit idiosyncratic variation in the extent of sexual integration in fathers’ workplaces: Fathers who encounter more women in their relevant age-occupationgroup on-the-job are more likely to divorce. This results holds also conditioning on the overall share of female co-workers in a firm. We find that parental divorce has persistent, and mostly negative, effects on children that differ significantly between boys and girls. Treated boys have lower levels of educational attainment, worse labor market outcomes, and are more likely to die early. Treated girls have also lower levels of educational attainment, but they are also more likely to become mother at an early age (especially during teenage years). Treated girls experience almost no negative employment effects. The latter effect could be a direct consequence from the teenage motherhood, which may initiate an early entry to the labor market. JEL Classification: . |
| Keywords: | Divorce; children; human capital; fertility; sexual integrated workplaces; |
| JEL: | J12 D13 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2016_04&r=lab |
| By: | Bratti, Massimiliano (University of Milan); Frattini, Tommaso (University of Milan); Scervini, Francesco (Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori di Pavia (IUSS)) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we exploit pension reform-induced changes in retirement eligibility requirements to assess the role of grandparental child care availability in the employment of women who have children under 15. We focus on Italy for two reasons: first, it has low rates of female employment and little formal child care provision, and second, it has undergone several pension reforms in a relatively short time span. Our analysis shows that, among the women studied, those whose own mothers are retirement eligible have a 13 percent higher probability of being employed than those whose mothers are ineligible. The pension eligibility of maternal grandfathers and paternal grandparents, however, has no significant effect on the women's employment probability. We also demonstrate that the eligibility of maternal grandmothers mainly captures the effect of their availability for child care. Hence, pension reforms, by potentially robbing households of an important source of flexible, low-cost child care, could have unintended negative consequences for the employment rates of women with children. |
| Keywords: | grandparental child care, maternal employment, pension reform, retirement |
| JEL: | J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9979&r=lab |
| By: | Girum Abebe; Stefano Caria; Marcel Fafchamps; Paolo Falco; Simon Franklin; Simon Quinn |
| Abstract: | We conduct a randomised evaluation of two job-search support programmes for urban youth in Ethiopia. One group of treated respondents receives a subsidy to cover the transport costs of job search. Another group participates in a job application workshop where their skills are certified and they are given orientation on how to make effective job applications. The two interventions are designed to lower spatial and informational barriers to employment. We find that both treatments significantly improve the quality of jobs that young jobseekers obtain. Impacts are concentrated among women and the least educated. Using rich high-frequency data from a phone survey, we are able to explore the mechanisms underlying the results; we show that while the transport subsidy increases both the intensity and the efficacy of job search, the job application workshop mainly operates through an increase in search efficacy. Both interventions mitigate the adverse effects of spatial constraints on employment outcomes, and the job application workshop alleviates informational asymmetries by helping workers to signal their ability. |
| JEL: | O12 O18 J22 J61 J64 M53 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2016-10&r=lab |
| By: | Wozniak, Marcin |
| Abstract: | In this paper, an agent-based search model of the labor market with heterogeneous agents and an on-the-job search is developed, i.e. the long-term unemployed and other job seekers compete for vacancies which differ in skills demands and in the sector of the economy. Job placement agencies help both types of unemployed persons find the proper vacant job by improving their search effectiveness and by sharing leveraged job advertisements. The agents' interactions take place in an artificial world drawn from labor market search theory. Six global model parameters were calibrated with the Latin hypercube sampling technique for one of the largest urban areas in Poland. To investigate the impact of parameters on model output, two global sensitivity analysis methods were used, i.e. Morris screening and Sobol indices. The results show that both programs considerably influence unemployment and long-term unemployment ratios as well as the level of wages, duration of unemployment, skills demand and worker turnover. Moreover, strong cross-effects were detected: programs aimed at one group of job seekers affect other job seekers and the whole economy. This impact is sometimes positive and sometimes it is negative. |
| Keywords: | agent-based search model,skills heterogeneity,on-the-job search,ALMP evaluation,sensitivity analysis |
| JEL: | C63 C69 J48 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201624&r=lab |
| By: | Daniel Borowczyk-Martins (Département d'économie); Etienne Lalé (Department of Economics (University of Bristol)) |
| Abstract: | Employed individuals in the U.S. are increasingly more likely to work part-time involuntarily than to be unemployed. Spells of involuntary part-time work are different from unemployment spells: a full-time worker who takes on a part-time job suffers an earnings loss while remaining employed, and is unlikely to receive income compensation from publicly-provided insurance programs.We analyze these differences through the lens of an incomplete-market, job-search model featuring unemployment risk alongside an additional risk of involuntary part-time employment.A calibration of the model consistent with U.S. institutions and labor-market dynamics shows that involuntary part-time work generates lower welfare losses relative to unemployment. This finding relies critically on the much higher probability to return to full-time employment from part-time work. We interpret it as a premium in access to full-time work faced by involuntary part-time workers, and use our model to tabulate its value in consumption-equivalent units. |
| Keywords: | Involuntary part-time work; Unemployment; Welfare |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/4f4eu80n0h8r28g6dadlk02mtb&r=lab |
| By: | Clarke, Damian (Department of Economics, Universidad de Santiago de Chile); Mühlrad, Hanna (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of a large-scale, free, elective abortion program implemented in Mexico City in 2007. Prior to this program, all states and districts in Mexico had very limited, or no, access to elective abortion. A localized reform in Mexico City resulted in a sharp increase in the request and use of early term elective abortions: approximately 90,000 abortions were administered by public health providers in the four years following the reform, versus only 62 in the five years preceding the reform. We provide evidence using national vital statistics data from Mexico covering over 23 million births and over 11,000 cases of maternal deaths. Our difference-in-difference estimates suggest that this program resulted in a reduction in births by 2.3 to 3.8% among women aged 15-44 and by 5.1 to 7.1% among teenage women (15-19 year-olds). Similar results are found for maternal mortality, for which we find a sharp fall in the rate of maternal deaths, by 8.8 to 16.2% for women aged 15-44 and by 14.9 to as much as 30.3% among teenagers. All told, the reform appears to increase the average age of women at first birth, and reduce the number of mothers giving birth at higher parities. |
| Keywords: | Fertility; Maternal Mortality; Abortion legalization; Mexico |
| JEL: | I15 I18 J13 O15 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0661&r=lab |
| By: | Lauren L. Schmitz; Dalton Conley |
| Abstract: | This study examines whether the effect of job loss on body mass index (BMI) at older ages is moderated by genotype using twenty years of socio-demographic and genome-wide data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). To avoid any potential confounding we interact layoffs due to a plant or business closure—a plausibly exogenous environmental exposure—with a polygenic risk score for BMI in a regression-adjusted semiparametric differences-in-differences matching framework that compares the BMI of those before and after an involuntary job loss with a control group that has not been laid off. Results indicate genetically-at-risk workers who lost their job before they were eligible for Social Security benefits, or before age 62, were more likely to gain weight. Further analysis reveals heterogeneous treatment effects by demographic, health, and socioeconomic characteristics. In particular, we find high risk individuals who gained weight after a job loss were more likely to be male, in worse health, single, and at the bottom half of the wealth distribution. Across the board, effects are concentrated among high-risk individuals who were not overweight prior to job loss, indicating unemployment at older ages may trigger weight gain in otherwise healthy or normal weight populations. |
| JEL: | I1 J63 J69 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22348&r=lab |
| By: | Markussen, Simen (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Røed, Knut (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | In virtually all industrialized countries, women are underrepresented in entrepreneurship, and the gender gap exhibits a remarkable persistence. We examine one particular source of persistence, namely the prevalence of gendered networks and associated peer effects. We study how early career entrepreneurship is affected by existing entrepreneurship among neighbors, family members, and recent schoolmates. Based on an instrumental variables strategy, we identify strong peer effects. While men are more influenced by other men, women are more influenced by other women. We estimate that differences between male and female peer groups explain approximately half of the gender gap in early career entrepreneurship. |
| Keywords: | early career entrepreneurship, peer effects, gender gap, instrumental variables |
| JEL: | L26 M13 J16 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9984&r=lab |
| By: | Robert A. Pollak |
| Abstract: | The standard Beckerian analysis of marriage market equilibrium assumes that allocation within marriage implements agreements made in the marriage market. This paper investigates marriage market equilibrium when allocation within marriage is determined by bargaining in marriage and compares that model with the standard model. When bargaining in marriage determines allocation within marriage, the marriage market is the first stage of a two-stage game. The second stage, bargaining in marriage, determines allocation within each marriage. This analysis is consistent with any bargaining model with a unique equilibrium as well as with Becker's "altruist model," the model that underlies the Rotten Kid Theorem. Marriage-market participants are assumed to rank prospective spouses on the basis of the allocations they foresee emerging from bargaining in marriage. The first stage game, the marriage market, determines both who marries and, among those who marry, who marries whom (assortative marriage). When bargaining in marriage determines allocation within marriage, the appropriate framework for analyzing marriage market equilibrium is the Gale-Shapley matching model, not the Koopmans-Beckmann assignment model. These models have different implications for who marries, for who marries whom, and for the Pareto efficiency of marriage market equilibrium. |
| JEL: | D1 J12 K36 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22309&r=lab |
| By: | Laeven, Luc; Popov, Alexander |
| Abstract: | We exploit regional variations in house price fluctuations in the United States during the early to mid-2000s to study the impact of the housing boom on young Americans' choices related to home ownership, household formation, and fertility. We also introduce a novel instrument for changes in house prices based on the predetermined industrial structure of the local economy. We find that in MSAs which experienced large increases in house prices between 2001 and 2006, the youngest households were substantially less likely to purchase residential property, to be married, and to have a child, both in 2006 and in 2011. JEL Classification: E32, G21, J10, R21 |
| Keywords: | credit constraints, fertility, home ownership, house prices, household formation |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20161910&r=lab |
| By: | Alexander Stimpfle; David Stadelmann |
| Abstract: | We examine whether immigrants have brought the missing women phenomenon to Germany and Switzerland. Using a range of micro data since 1990, we find no systematic gender selection of foreigners collectively, but a group of Balkan, Chinese and Indian immigrants display comparatively high sex ratios at birth. Employing different estimation methods we consistently calculate around 1,500 missing girls in Germany (2003-2014) and Switzerland (1990-2014) combined from these selected Balkan and Asian immigrant groups. A Germany-specific measure of cultural adaptation has no substantial effect on the level of son preference, and Swiss-specific data indicate a skewed ratio for fourth parity births. With household survey data we attempt to identify underlying reasons for son preference in Germany, but find no robust associations for any socio-economic variable employed. However, the sex of older siblings tends to matter, and again Balkan, Chinese and Indian immigrants increase the boy-birth likelihood whereas immigrants collectively do not. |
| Keywords: | Missing Women; Sex Ratio at Birth; Son Preference; Migration |
| JEL: | J11 J16 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cra:wpaper:2016-04&r=lab |
| By: | José-Ignacio Antón; Zuleika Ferre; Patricia Triunfo |
| Abstract: | This work evaluates the impact of an abortion reform in Uruguay allowing free interruption of pregnancy until 12 weeks of gestation on the quantity and quality of births in the short run. We employ a differences-in-differences approach, a comprehensive administrative register of births and a novel identification strategy based on the planned or unplanned nature of pregnancies that end in births. Our results suggest that this policy induced an 8% decline in the number of births of unplanned pregnancies, driven by the group of mothers between 20 and 34 years old with secondary education. This increased the average quality of births in terms of more intensive prenatal control care and a lower probability of having a single mother. Furthermore, we document a positive selection process of births affected by the reform, as adequate prenatal control care and Apgar scores rose among the affected |
| Keywords: | abortion, Uruguay, fertility, difference-in-differences |
| JEL: | I12 I18 J13 J18 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2016_06&r=lab |
| By: | Sankar Ramasamy |
| Abstract: | This paper is part of the joint project between the Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs of the European Commission and the OECD’s Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs on “Review of Labour Migration Policy in Europe”. This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Grant: HOME/2013/EIFX/CA/002 / 30-CE-0615920/00-38 (DI130895). A previous version of this paper DELSA/ELSA/MI(2015)8 was presented and discussed at the OECD working party on migration in June 2015. The paper examines the ways in which employers are protagonists in international labour migration, and what can be done to ensure that they are partners in increasing European attractiveness for internationally mobile talent. Facilitating movement of Intra-Corporate Transfer (ICT) workers in multinational companies, improving the ability of SMEs to access foreign workers, as well as attracting entrepreneurs and investors in the EU single market, are the three principal channels examined in the report. The paper provides recommendations for policy development in these three areas. |
| JEL: | F21 F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2016–06–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:178-en&r=lab |
| By: | Massimo Anelli; Giovanni Peri |
| Abstract: | Mobility within the European Union (EU) brings great opportunities and large overall benefits. Economically stagnant areas, however, may be deprived of talent through emigration, which may harm dynamism and delay political, and economic, change. A significant episode of emigration took place between 2010 and 2014 from Italy following the deep economic recession beginning in 2008 that hit most acutely countries in the southern EU. This period coincided with significant political change in Italy. Combining administrative data on Italian citizens who reside abroad and data on characteristics of city councils, city mayors and local vote, we analyze whether emigration reduced political change. The sudden emigration wave interacted with the pre-existing networks of emigration from Italian municipalities allow us to construct a proxy for emigration that is municipality-specific and independent of local political and economic trends. Using this proxy as an instrument, we find that municipalities with larger emigration rates had smaller shares of young, college educated and women among local politicians. They were also more likely to have had municipal councils dismissed due to inefficiency or corruption, a larger share of vote for status-quo-supporting parties and lower political participation. Migration was also associated with lower firm creation. |
| JEL: | H7 J61 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22350&r=lab |