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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Gerard, Francois; Gonzaga, Gustavo |
| Abstract: | It is widely believed that the presence of a large informal sector increases the efficiency cost of social programs -- transfer and social insurance programs -- in developing countries. We evaluate such claims for policies that have been heavily studied in countries with low informality -- increases in unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. We introduce informal work opportunities into a canonical model of optimal UI that specifies the typical tradeoff between workers' need for insurance and the efficiency cost from distorting their incentives to return to a formal job. We then combine the model with evidence drawn from comprehensive administrative data to quantify the efficiency cost of increases in potential UI duration in Brazil. We find evidence of behavioral responses to UI incentives, including informality responses. However, because reemployment rates in the formal sector are low to begin with, most beneficiaries would draw the UI benefits absent behavioral responses, and only a fraction of the cost of (longer) UI benefits is due to perverse incentive effects. As a result, the efficiency cost is relatively low, and in fact lower than comparable estimates for the US. We reinforce this finding by showing that the efficiency cost is also lower in labor markets with higher informality within Brazil. This is because formal reemployment rates are even lower in those labor markets absent behavioral responses. In sum, the results go against the conventional wisdom, and indicate that efficiency concerns may even become more relevant as an economy formalizes. |
| Keywords: | Informality; Unemployment insurance |
| JEL: | H00 J65 |
| Date: | 2016–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11485&r=lab |
| By: | Chen, Daniel L.; Sethi, Jasmin |
| Abstract: | Sexual harassment is perceived to be a major impediment to female labor force participation. We use the random assignment of U.S. federal judges setting geographically-local precedent, and the fact that judges’ biographies predict decisions in sexual harassment cases, to document the causal impact of forbidding sexual harassment. Consistent with an insider-outsider theory of involuntary unemployment, but in contrast to a mandated benefits theory of employment protections, pro-plaintiff sexual harassment precedent spurred the adoption of sexual harassment human resources policies, encouraged entry of outsiders, and reduced gender inequality in labor supply and wages among the population. These effects were comparable to the effects of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act and greatest in the construction industry, which was heavily affected by sexual harassment litigation. |
| Keywords: | Gender discrimination, microaggression, trauma, safe spaces, prejudice |
| JEL: | J31 J71 J81 J83 K31 |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:30653&r=lab |
| By: | Nagore Garcia, A.; van Soest, Arthur (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Using administrative data from the Spanish Social Security Administration, we analyse the nature and stability of job matches starting during the economic boom in 2005 and during the recession in 2009. We compare the individual, job and firm characteristics in the two samples and estimate a competing risk model distinguishing job-to-job, job-to-unemployment, and other transitions. We find that job-to-job transitions are pro-cyclical, while unemployment transitions are counter-cyclical. Individuals most affected by the economic crisis tend to be young males, living in regions with high unemployment rates, with low qualifications and working in manual occupations (particularly construction), and (especially Spanish speaking) immigrants. The positive relation between job stability and firm size is stronger during the recession than during the boom. |
| Keywords: | job tenure; business cycle; job-separations |
| JEL: | J64 C41 E32 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiucen:3514fea2-6b69-40e2-bdcc-1ba81a96f0ca&r=lab |
| By: | Rahul Anand; Siddharth Kothari; Naresh Kumar |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the determinants of high unemployment in South Africa by studying labor market dynamics using individual level panel data from the Quarterly Labor Force Survey. While prior work experience and gender are found to be important determinants of the job-finding rate, education attainment and race are important determinants of the job-exit rate. Using stock-flow equations, counterfactual exercises are conducted to quantify the role of these different transition rates on unemployment. The paper also explores the contribution of unemployment towards inequality. Reducing unemployment is found to be important for reducing inequality – estimates suggest that a 10 percentage point reduction in unemployment lowers the Gini coefficient by 3 percent. Achieving a similar reduction solely through transfers would require a 40 percent increase in government transfers. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment;South Africa;Income inequality;Labor markets;Panel analysis;Regression analysis;Unemployment, South Africa, Labor market transitions, Inequality |
| Date: | 2016–07–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:16/137&r=lab |
| By: | Maria D. Fitzpatrick; Timothy J. Moore |
| Abstract: | Social Security eligibility begins at age 62, and approximately one third of Americans immediately claim benefits upon reaching that age. We study the link between retirement and health by examining whether mortality changes discontinuously at this threshold. Using mortality data that covers the entire U.S. population and includes exact dates of birth and death, we document a robust two percent increase in overall male mortality immediately after age 62. The rise in mortality is closely connected to changes in labor force participation, implying that mortality increases by approximately 20 percent among those who stop working because Social Security is available. |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2016-7&r=lab |
| By: | Hong Deng; Yanjun Guan; Chia-Huei Wu; Berrin Erdogan; Talya Bauer; Xiang Yao |
| Abstract: | Theories of perceived overqualification have tended to focus on employees’ job-related responses to account for effects on performance. We offer an alternative perspective and theorize that perceived overqualification could influence work performance through a relational mechanism. We propose that relational skills, in the form of interpersonal influence of overqualified employees, determine their tendency to experience social acceptance and thus engage in positive work-related behaviors. We tested this relational model across two studies using time-lagged, multi-source data. In Study 1, the results indicated that for employees high on interpersonal influence, perceived overqualification was positively related to self-reported social acceptance, whereas for employees low on interpersonal influence, the relationship was negative. Social acceptance, in turn, was positively related to in-role job performance, interpersonal altruism, and team member proactivity evaluated by supervisors. In Study 2, we focused on peer-reported social acceptance and found that the indirect relationships between perceived overqualification and supervisor-reported behavioral outcomes via social acceptance were negative when interpersonal influence was low and nonsignificant when interpersonal influence was high. The implications of the general findings are discussed. |
| Keywords: | perceived overqualification; social acceptance; interpersonal influence; performance |
| JEL: | R14 J01 J50 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:67547&r=lab |
| By: | Gunes, Pinar (University of Alberta, Department of Economics); Tsaneva, Magda (Clark University) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the effects of early pregnancy on education, labor force participation, physical and mental health, and preventive health behaviors of young girls in Mexico. In order to overcome the selection bias, this paper employs a propensity score matching analysis using a nationally representative longitudinal data from the Mexican Family Life Survey. In the short run, early pregnancy increases the probability of being overweight and anemic, and reduces physical activity; however, it does not affect mental health. The results also demonstrate that early pregnancy increases the probability of dropping out of high school and reduces labor force participation. Finally, the effect on being overweight operate through reduced education and physical activity, and moreover, the effect persists in the long run. |
| Keywords: | Early Pregnancy; Human Capital; Mexico |
| JEL: | I10 J13 |
| Date: | 2016–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:albaec:2016_014&r=lab |
| By: | Govert Bijwaard (Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute); Christian Schluter (Centre de la Vieille Charite) |
| Abstract: | Consider the duration of stay of migrants in a host country. We propose a statistical model of locally interdependent hazards in order to examine whether interactions at the level of the neighbourhood are present and lead to social multipliers. To this end, we propose and study a new two-stage estimation strategy based on an inverted linear rank test statistic. Using a unique large administrative panel dataset for the population of recent labour immigrants to the Netherlands, we quantify the local social multipliers in several factual and counterfactual experiments, and demonstrate that these can be substantial. |
| Keywords: | interdependent hazards, local interaction, social multipliers, return migration |
| JEL: | C41 C10 C31 J61 |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1620&r=lab |
| By: | Bradbury, Katharine L. (Federal Reserve Bank of Boston) |
| Abstract: | Much of America’s promise is predicated on economic mobility—the possibility that people can move up and down the economic ladder during their lifetimes. Mobility is of particular consequence when economic disparities are increasing. Using panel data and mobility concepts and measures adapted from the literature, this paper examines 10-year income mobility levels and trends for U.S. working-age families during the time span 1977–2012. According to many measures, mobility, already limited in the 1978–1988 decade, declined over ensuing decades: families’ later-year incomes increasingly depended on their starting place, and the distribution of longer-term family incomes became less equal. |
| Keywords: | income mobility; income inequality; income distribution |
| JEL: | D31 D63 I32 J15 |
| Date: | 2016–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedbwp:16-8&r=lab |
| By: | A.B. Atkinson (Nuffield College, Oxford; London School of Economics; and INET at the Oxford Martin School); A. Casarico (Università Bocconi; CESifo; and Dondena Centre for Research on Social Dynamics and Public Policy); S. Voitchovsky (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne; and Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva) |
| Abstract: | In the recent research on top incomes, there has been little discussion of gender. How many of the top 1 and 10 per cent are women? A great deal is known about gender differentials in earnings, but how far does this carry over to the distribution of total incomes, bringing selfemployment and capital income into the picture? We investigate the gender divide at the top of the income distribution using tax record data for a sample of eight countries with individual taxation. We show that women are under-represented at the top of the distribution. They account for between a fifth and a third of those in the top 10 per cent. Higher up the income distribution, the proportion is lower, with women constituting between 14 and 22 per cent of the top 1 per cent. The presence of women in the top income groups has generally increased over time, but the rise becomes smaller at the very top. As a result, the gradient with income has become more marked: the under-representation of women today increases more sharply. Examination of the shape of the income distribution by fitting a Pareto distribution shows that at the end of the period women disappear faster than men as one moves up the income scale in all countries. In this sense, there appears to be something of a “glass ceiling” for women. In the case of Canada, Denmark, Norway and New Zealand, there appears to have been a reversal over time, with the slope of the upper tail having been steeper for women in the past. In seeking to explain this, we highlight the role of income composition, where we show that there have been significant changes over time, underlining the fact that it is not sufficient to look only at earned income. |
| Keywords: | Top income groups, gender, income composition |
| JEL: | D31 J16 |
| Date: | 2016–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2016n27&r=lab |
| By: | Cinnirella, Francesco; Hornung, Erik |
| Abstract: | In this study we review the literature on the relationship between landownership inequality and the accumulation of human capital in historical perspective. Furthermore we provide new evidence on the relationship between landownership inequality and marriage patterns at the county level in nineteenth-century Prussia. Formally the landed elite could have influenced not only the labor relations with the peasants but also their marriage decisions. Using cross-sectional as well as panel analysis we find no evidence that noble landowners directly affected marriage rates. Instead we find a robust negative association between average formal education and the share of married women. This finding is in line with recent theoretical and empirical literature on the role of gender specific human capital in the demographic transition. |
| Keywords: | education; Land Inequality; Marriage; Prussian Economic History |
| JEL: | I25 J12 N33 O43 Q15 |
| Date: | 2016–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11486&r=lab |