|
on Labour Economics |
| By: | Alan L. Gustman; Thomas L. Steinmeier; Nahid Tabatabai |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data from the Health and Retirement Study to estimate a structural model of household retirement and saving. It applies that model to analyze the effects of the Great Recession on the work and retirement of older couples who were both employed full-time at the beginning of the recession. We analyze the effects of job loss, changes in wealth and changes in expectations. The largest overall effects of the Great Recession are observed for 2009 and 2010. In 2009, an additional 2.5 percent of all 55 to 59 year old husbands were not working full-time as result of the Great Recession, amounting to a reduction of 3.2 percent in full-time work. In 2010, 2.8 percent of 55 to 59 year old husbands were not working full-time as a result of the Great Recession, amounting to a 3.8 percent reduction in full-time work. For wives the reductions in full-time work due to the Great Recession were 1.7 percent and 2.2 percent of those who initially held a job, or reductions of full-time work of 2.3 and 3.0 percent respectively. For those 60 to 64, the reductions were 1.2 percent of men and 0.9 percent of women. Having been laid off in the last three years reduces full-time work by 30 percent. There also are lingering effects of layoff on the probability of working longer. Having been laid off three or more years in the past reduces full-time employment in the current year by about 12 percent. This reflects the reduced work incentives for full-time work arising from lower earnings due to the loss of job tenure with a layoff as well as the additional earnings penalty from a layoff. The effect on own work of a spouse having been laid off is much smaller. The reason is that, as found in the estimation of our structural model, having one spouse not working increases the value of leisure for the other. In contrast, when one member of the household loses their job, the value of consumption increases relative to leisure. For recent layoffs, these effects are roughly offsetting. All told, the effects of the Great Recession on retirement seem relatively modest. These findings are consistent with our earlier descriptive analyses. |
| JEL: | C61 D31 D91 E21 E24 E32 H55 I3 J11 J14 J16 J32 J63 J64 J82 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22984&r=lab |
| By: | Dauth, Wolfgang (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Haller, Peter (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "We analyze the causal effect of commuting on wages, using a large sample of German job changers. Information on their home and workplace addresses in combination with road navigation software allows us to calculate exact door-to-door commuting distances with an unprecedented degree of precision. We use a theoretical model on spatial job search to motivate our empirical strategy. By focusing on job moves, we can use panel data techniques and control for unobserved individual heterogeneity. We find an asymmetric valuation of distance changes. Job changers value a reduction of their commuting distance higher than an increase. Apparently, individuals are not able to capitalize the full costs of commuting in their wages. A large part of this effect can be explained by sorting into certain firms at different distances and the rest by individual wage bargaining." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| JEL: | J31 J64 R12 R40 |
| Date: | 2016–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201643&r=lab |
| By: | Dorner, Matthias; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hinz, Tina; Hoisl, Karin; Bender, Stefan |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of social ties on the migration of inventors from East to West Germany, using the fall of the Iron Curtain and German reunification as a natural experiment. We identify East German inventors via their patenting track records prior to 1990 and their social security records in the German labor market after reunification. Modeling inventor migration to West German regions after 1990, we find that Western regions with stronger historically determined social ties across the former East-West border attracted more inventors after the fall of the Iron Curtain than regions without such ties. However, mobility decisions made by inventors with outstanding patenting track records (star inventors) were not impacted by social ties. We conclude that social ties support labor market access for migrant inventors and determine regional choices while dependence on these ties is substantially reduced for star performers. |
| JEL: | J60 O30 P20 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–12–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201641&r=lab |
| By: | C. Adam Bee; Joshua Mitchell |
| Abstract: | Despite women’s increased labor force attachment over the lifecycle, household surveys such as the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC) do not show increases in retirement income (pensions, 401(k)s, IRAs) for women at older ages. We use linked survey-administrative data to demonstrate that retirement incomes are considerably underreported in the CPS ASEC and that women’s economic progress at older ages has been substantially understated over the last quarter century. Specifically, the CPS ASEC shows median household income for women age 65-69 rose 21 percent since the late 1980s, while the administrative records show an increase of 58 percent. Survey biases in women’s own incomes appear largest for women with the longest work histories. We also exploit the panel dimension of our data to follow a cohort of women and their spouses (if present) as they transition into retirement in recent years. In contrast to previous work, we find that most women do not experience noticeable drops in income up to five years after claiming social security, with retirement income playing an important role in maintaining their overall standard of living. Our results pose a challenge to the literature on the “retirement consumption puzzle” and suggest total income replacement rates are high for recent retirees. |
| JEL: | D14 D91 H55 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22970&r=lab |
| By: | David Florian Hoyle (Central Reserve Bank of Peru); Johanna L. Francis (Fordham University) |
| Abstract: | The Great Recession of 2008-09 was characterized by high and prolonged unemployment and a lack of bank lending. In this paper, we account for the depth and persistence of unemployment during and after the crisis by considering the relationship between credit and firm hiring explicitly. We develop a New Keynesian model with nominal rigidities in wages and prices augmented by a banking sector characterized by search and matching frictions with endogenous credit destruction. In response to a financial shock, the model economy produces large and persistent increases in credit destruction, declines in credit creation, and an overall decline in reallocation of credit among banks and firms; total factor productivity declines and unemployment increases. Credit frictions not only amplify the effect of a financial shock by creating variation in the number of firms able to produce but they also increase the persistence of the shocks effects. These findings suggest that credit frictions combined with nominal rigidities are a plausible amplification mechanism for the impact of financial shocks and provide a mechanism for such shocks to have strong and persistent effects on the labor market. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, financial crises, gross credit flows, productivity |
| JEL: | J64 E32 E44 E52 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apc:wpaper:2016-087&r=lab |
| By: | Garcia-Perez, J. Ignacio (Universidad Pablo de Olavide and FEDEA); Rendon, Sílvio (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) |
| Abstract: | We develop and estimate a model of family job search and wealth accumulation. Individuals' job finding and job separations depend on their partners' job turnover and wages as well as common wealth. We fit this model to data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). This dataset reveals a very asymmetric labor market for household members, who share that their job finding is stimulated by their partners' job separation, particularly during economic downturns. We uncover a job search-theoretic basis for this added worker effect and find that this effect is stronger with more children in the household. We also show that excluding wealth and savings from the analysis and estimation leads to underestimating the interdependency between household members. Our analysis shows that the policy goal of supporting job search by increasing unemployment transfers is partially offset by a partner's lower unemployment and wages. |
| Keywords: | job search; asset accumulation; household economics; consumption; unemployment; estimation of dynamic structural models |
| JEL: | C33 E21 E24 J64 |
| Date: | 2016–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:16-34&r=lab |
| By: | Jara Tamayo, Holguer Xavier; Sutherland, Holly; Tumino, Alberto |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to explore the potential of an EMU unemployment insurance scheme (EMU-UI) to improve the income protection available to individuals and their families in case of unemployment. Our analysis uses an illustrative EMU-UI scheme, which has a common design across member states and can therefore be considered as a benchmark with respect to which gaps in national unemployment insurance schemes are assessed. We make use of EUROMOD, the EU-wide tax-benefit microsimulation model, to simulate entitlement to the national and EMU-UI and calculate their effect on household disposable income for all individuals currently in work and those with the highest unemployment risk, in case they would become unemployed. Our results show that the EMU-UI has the potential to reduce current gaps in coverage where these are sizeable due to stringent eligibility conditions, to increase generosity where current unemployment benefits are low relative to earnings and to extend duration where this is shorter than twelve months. The illustrative EMU-UI would reduce the risk of poverty for the potentially new unemployed and would have a positive effect on household income stabilization. The extent of these effects varies in size across EMU member states for two main reasons: differences in the design of national unemployment insurance schemes and differences in labor force characteristics across member states. |
| Date: | 2016–12–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:emodwp:em11-16&r=lab |
| By: | R. Jason Faberman; Guido Menzio |
| Abstract: | Using data from the Employment Opportunity Pilot Project, we examine the relationship between the starting wage paid to the worker filling a vacancy, the number of applications attracted by the vacancy, the number of candidates interviewed for the vacancy, and the duration of the vacancy. We find that the wage is positively related to the duration of a vacancy and negatively related to the number of applications and interviews per week. We show that these surprising findings are consistent with a view of the labor market in which firms post wages and workers direct their search based on these wages if workers and jobs are heterogeneous and the interaction between worker’s type and job’s type in production satisfies some rather natural assumptions. |
| JEL: | D21 J30 J60 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22915&r=lab |
| By: | Giorgio Calcagnini (Department of Economics, Society, and Politics Universita' di Urbino Carlo Bo); Germana Giombini (Department of Economics, Society, and Politics Universita' di Urbino Carlo Bo); Giuseppe Travaglini (Universita' di Urbino Carlo Bo, Facolta' di Economia, DESP, Dipartimento di Economia Societa' e Politica) |
| Abstract: | Theoretical and empirical models provide ambiguous responses on the relationship between labor regulation, innovation and investment. Labor regulation tends to raise firms. adjustment costs. But, also, labor regulation stimulates firms to make innovations and investment to recover productivity in the long-run. In this paper we present a neo- Schumpeterian endogenous growth model, which explains how these opposite forces operate over time, and why a stricter labor regulation may positively a.ect innovation and investment. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous growth model; Labor regulation; Innovation, Investment. |
| JEL: | O4 J5 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wmofir:132&r=lab |
| By: | Jennifer Brown; David A. Matsa |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how housing market distress affects job search. Using data from a leading online job search platform during the Great Recession, we find that job seekers in areas with depressed housing markets apply for fewer jobs that require relocation. With their search constrained geographically, job seekers broaden their search to lower level positions nearby. These effects are stronger for job seekers with recourse mortgages, which we confirm using spatial regression discontinuity analysis. Our findings suggest that housing market distress distorts labor market outcomes by impeding household mobility. |
| JEL: | D14 J64 R21 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22929&r=lab |
| By: | Avdic, Daniel (University of Duisburg-Essen, IFAU, CINCH); Karimi, Arizo (Department of Economics at Uppsala University, UCLS, IFAU) |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of unanticipated changes to the intra-household division of parental leave on family stability exploiting two parental leave reforms in Sweden. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, we find that a decrease in the mother’s share of parental leave increases the probability of separation among couples that were married or cohabiting at the time of the reforms. Our results also suggest a lower likelihood of cohabiting couples to upgrade to marriage. Examination of reform compliers reveal that the increased separation risk is mainly driven by more traditional couples, and among couples with previous children. |
| Keywords: | marital stability; parental leave; intra-household division; regression discontinuity |
| JEL: | C26 D13 J13 J31 |
| Date: | 2016–12–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2016_023&r=lab |
| By: | Verena Lauber; Johanna Storck |
| Abstract: | Despite political efforts, balancing work and family life is still challenging. This paper provides novel evidence on the effect of firm level interventions that seek to reduce the work-life conflict. The focus is on how a specific workplace policy, namely childcare support, affects the well-being, working time, and caring behavior of mothers with young children. We exploit the fact that since the mid 2000s an increasing number of employers have become proactive and implemented more family-friendly workplaces. These changes over time allow us to identify causal effects of childcare support using a difference-in-differences approach combined with matching. Based on a large panel dataset on families with children in Germany (FiD), we find evidence pointing to welfare enhancing effects of childcare support, as it strongly increases both childcare satisfaction and job satisfaction. In particular mothers who worked limited hours before the introduction, possibly due to constraints, increase their working time and use formal care more intensively. Satisfaction levels are also more strongly affected if mothers are career-orientated. In comparison, flexible work schedules, another family-friendly policy, only affect job satisfaction. Paternal well-being and behavior is not affected by the workplace policy. |
| Keywords: | Family-friendly workplace policies, well-being, work-life balance, difference-in-differences, matching |
| JEL: | I31 J13 J22 J28 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1630&r=lab |
| By: | Fitzenberger, Bernd; Furdas, Marina; Sajons, Christoph |
| Abstract: | This study re-estimates the employment effects of training programs for the unemployed using exogenous variation in participation caused by budget rules in Germany in the 1980s and early 1990s, resulting in the infamous "end-of-year spending". In addition to estimating complier effects with 2SLS, we implement a flexible control-function approach to obtain the average treatment effect on the treated (ATT). Our findings are: Participants who are only selected for budgetary reasons do not benefit from training programs. However, the ATT estimates suggest modest positive effects in the long run. Longer programs are more effective than shorter and more practice-oriented programs. |
| Keywords: | training for the unemployed,budgetary conditions,administrative data,Germany |
| JEL: | J64 J68 H43 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:aluord:1608&r=lab |
| By: | Lång, Elisabeth (Division of Economics, Department of Management and Engineering, Linköping University); Nystedt, Paul (Jönköping University) |
| Abstract: | We analyze how education is associated with earnings and health-related behaviors (HRBs) over the adult life cycle using a sample of 18,000 twins. The underlying motive is to improve the understanding of to what extent schooling may contribute to increased human welfare over time and age through the intermediaries of earnings and HRBs. We find that one additional year of schooling is associated with around 5-6 percent higher earnings at ages 35-75 and generally improved HRBs for both men and women. Much of the estimated relationships between schooling, earnings and HRBs can be traced back to genetic inheritance. Controlling for such inheritance, the remaining education-earnings premium is non-linear and increasing with educational level, and the education premium in HRBs is mainly concentrated to smoking habits. |
| Keywords: | Schooling; Education; Health-Related Behavior; Life-Cycle |
| JEL: | J01 |
| Date: | 2016–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:liuewp:0004&r=lab |
| By: | Guido Matias Cortes; Nir Jaimovich; Henry E. Siu |
| Abstract: | We study the deterioration of employment in middle-wage, routine occupations in the United States in the last 35 years. The decline is primarily driven by changes in the propensity to work in routine jobs for individuals from a small set of demographic groups. These same groups account for a substantial fraction of both the increase in non-employment and employment in low-wage, non-routine manual occupations observed during the same time period. We analyze a general neoclassical model of the labor market featuring endogenous participation and occupation choice. We show that in response to an increase in automation technology, the model embodies an important tradeoff between reallocating employment across occupations and reallocation of workers towards non-employment. Quantitatively, we find that advances in automation technology on their own account for a relatively small portion of the joint decline in routine employment and associated rise in non-routine manual employment and non-employment. |
| JEL: | E0 J0 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22918&r=lab |
| By: | Gilberto Antonelli (Department of Economics and SDIC, University of Bologna; AlmaLaurea Interuniverisity Consortium); Sara Binassi (AlmaLaurea Interuniversity Consortium); Giovanni Guidetti (Department of Economics and SDIC, University of Bologna); Giulio Pedrini (Interuniversity Research Centre on Public Services (CRISP) and SDIC, University of Bologna) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at investigating the phenomenon of graduates’ migration from an OECD country at microeconomic level in order to offer an insight into the scholarly debate on migration decision of high-skilled workers living in a developed country. By merging data on working conditions on Italian graduates with the results of an ad-hoc survey on Italian graduates working abroad, the paper assesses the selectivity of migration choices, the wage premium associated to migration decision on their earnings, and the determinants of the earning function for those graduates that work abroad. Results partially confirms the applicability of the Borjas model on selectivity of migration choice. It also shows the existence of a substantial wage premium associated with the decision to work abroad in line with an extended human capital approach. However, it also suggests a greater complexity of both the selection and the earning function of high-skilled workers, due to their longer and differentiated educational career, the stronger weight attached to preference variables, the degree of skills’ portability attached to university’s location and fields of study, and, in general, to the capability of a tertiary education system to provide their graduates with the skills required by international labour markets. |
| Keywords: | higher education, migration, international labour markets, inequality |
| JEL: | J61 I26 J24 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:laa:wpaper:76&r=lab |
| By: | Rania Gihleb; Kevin Lang |
| Abstract: | Some economists have argued that assortative mating between men and women has increased over the last several decades, thereby contributing to increased family income inequality. Sociologists have argued that educational homogamy has increased. We clarify the relation between the two and, using both the Current Population Surveys and the decennial Censuses/American Community Survey, show that neither is correct. The former is based on the use of inappropriate statistical techniques. Both are sensitive to how educational categories are chosen. We also find no evidence that the correlation between spouses' potential earnings has changed dramatically. |
| JEL: | J1 J12 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22927&r=lab |
| By: | Moritz Zöllner (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena); Michael Fritsch (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena); Michael Wyrwich (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena) |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the results of studies that investigate the most important active labour market policy (ALMP) measures in Germany. A particular focus is on programs devoted to foster entrepreneurship which can make important contributions to a country's growth and social welfare. The available evidence suggests that most ALMP measures increase labour market prospects of the participants. Evaluations of the entrepreneurship promotion activities show high success rates as well as high cost efficiency. The bulk share of participants of entrepreneurship measures is still self-employed after several years and nearly one third of these businesses had at least one employee. We mention problems regarding the evaluation of previous programs and highlight future challenges of German ALMP. |
| Keywords: | Active labour market policy, evaluations, effectiveness, entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | J08 J64 J68 L26 |
| Date: | 2016–12–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2016-022&r=lab |
| By: | Samia Badji (Univ Lyon, CNRS, GATE L-SE UMR 5824, F-69131 Ecully, France) |
| Abstract: | The paper aims at identifying households who have their children work more because their access is constrained on the land and the labor markets. Data from the 2005 "Enquête auprès des Ménages" (EPM) collected in Madagascar provide information on the amount of hours worked by each household member along with measures for market imperfections. A simple theoretical model highlights that land should not influence the number of hours of child work when the household can fully access the land or the labor markets. When the access is limited in both markets, land may impact the amount of child work whereas the external wage should not. Using a switching regression model with unknown sample separation to classify households in the two regimes (constrained or not), this paper shows that not belonging to the largest ethnic group at the local level significantly decreases access to the market. The same result holds for religion, thereby highlighting the importance of the informal market. |
| Keywords: | child labor, market imperfections, wealth paradox, sub-Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | D13 J13 J82 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:1638&r=lab |
| By: | Pedro Bordalo; Katherine B. Coffman; Nicola Gennaioli; Andrei Shleifer |
| Abstract: | We conduct a laboratory experiment on the determinants of beliefs about own and others’ ability across different domains. A preliminary look at the data points to two distinct forces: miscalibration in estimating performance depending on the difficulty of tasks and gender stereotypes. We develop a theoretical model that separates these forces and apply it to analyze a large laboratory dataset in which participants estimate their own and a partner’s performance on questions across six subjects: arts and literature, emotion recognition, business, verbal reasoning, mathematics, and sports. We find that participants greatly overestimate not only their own ability but also that of others, suggesting that miscalibration is a substantial, first order factor in stated beliefs. Women are better calibrated than men, providing more accurate estimates of ability both for themselves and for others. Gender stereotypes also have strong predictive power for beliefs, particularly for men’s beliefs about themselves and others’ beliefs about the ability of men. Our findings help interpret evidence on gender gaps in self-confidence. |
| JEL: | C91 D01 J16 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22972&r=lab |
| By: | Mikołaj Szołtysek (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Radosław Poniat; Siegfried Gruber (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Sebastian Klüsener (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | In this article, we present a new measure for use in cross-cultural studies of family-driven age- and gender-related inequalities. This composite measure, which we call the Patriarchy Index, combines a range of variables related to familial behaviour that reflect varying degrees of sex- and age-related social inequality across different family settings. We demonstrate the comparative advantages of the index by showing how 266 historical populations living in regions stretching from the Atlantic coast of Europe to Moscow scored on the patriarchy scale. We then compare the index with contemporary measures of gender discrimination, and find a strong correlation between historical and current inequality patterns. Finally, we explore how variation in patriarchy levels across Europe is related to the socio-economic and institutional characteristics of the regional populations, and to variation across these regions in their degree of demographic centrality and in their environmental conditions. Overall, the results of our study confirm previous findings that family organisation is a crucial generator of social inequality, and point to the importance of considering the historical context when analysing the current global contours of inequality. |
| Keywords: | Europe, gender, patriarchy, social heterogeneity, spatial analysis |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2016-014&r=lab |
| By: | Anghel, Remus Gabriel; Botezat, Alina; Cosciug, Anatolie; Manafi, Ioana; Roman, Monica |
| Abstract: | Romanian migration is today one of the biggest, complex, and dynamic migration to Western Europe. This paper is a comprehensive review of the existing literature that aims at providing a full picture of this dynamic migratory process and discusses its far-reaching consequences. It first presents and characterizes the Romanian migration through the different phases during and after state socialism. The second part of the paper is dedicated to unfolding the socio-economic effects of the Romanian migration addressing the remitting behavior and its development over the past years. The issue of return migration is also addressed stressing that return is not much developed, however it has significant impacts through the emergence of returnees’ entrepreneurship. Finally we address some of the consequences of the medical doctors’ migration which is today considered one of the main migration challenges the country is facing. |
| Keywords: | Romania, international migration, remittances, return migration, physicians migration |
| JEL: | F22 F24 J15 P36 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75528&r=lab |
| By: | Alexis Grigorieff; Christopher Roth; Diego Ubfal |
| Abstract: | We study whether providing information about immigrants affects people’s attitude towards them. First, we use a large representative cross-country experiment to show that, when people are told the share of immigrants in their country, they become less likely to state that there are too many of them. Then, we conduct two online experiments in the U.S., where we provide half of the participants with five statistics about immigration, before evaluating their attitude towards immigrants with self-reported and behavioral measures. This more comprehensive intervention improves people’s attitude towards existing immigrants, although it does not change people’s policy preferences regarding immigration. Republicans become more willing to increase legal immigration after receiving the information treatment. Finally, we also measure the same self-reported policy preferences, attitudes, and beliefs in a four-week follow-up, and we show that the treatment effects persist. Keywords: Biased Beliefs, Survey Experiment, Immigration, Policy Preferences, Persistence. JEL classification: C90, J15, Z1, Z13 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:igi:igierp:590&r=lab |
| By: | Michael D. Frakes; Melissa F. Wasserman |
| Abstract: | Despite much theoretical attention over the concept of procrastination and much exploration of this phenomenon in laboratory settings, there remain few empirical investigations into procrastination in real world contexts, especially in the workplace. In this paper, we attempt to fill these gaps by exploring procrastination among U.S. patent examiners. We find that nearly half of examiners’ first substantive reports are completed immediately prior to the operable deadlines. Moreover, we find a range of additional empirical markers to support that this “endloading” of reviews results from a model of procrastination rather than various time-consistent models of behavior. In one such approach, we take advantage of the natural experiment afforded by the Patent Office’s staggered implementation of its telecommuting program, a development that we theorize might exacerbate employee self-control problems. Supporting the procrastination theory, we estimate an immediate spike in application endloading and other indicia of procrastination upon the onset of telecommuting. Finally, we assess the consequences of procrastination for the quality of the completed reviews. This analysis suggests that the primary harm stemming from procrastination is delay in the ultimate application process, with rushed reviews completed at deadlines resulting in the need for revisions in subsequent rounds of review. |
| JEL: | D03 J01 K0 O34 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22987&r=lab |