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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Marjan Petreski; Nikica Mojsoska-Blazevski; Marcelo Bérgolo |
| Abstract: | The aim of this study is to assess how the duration of the unemployment spell of Macedonian youth affects later employment (the employment ‘scarring’ effect) and wage outcomes (the wage ‘scarring’ effect). For this purpose, we first devise a model in which the unemployment spell is determined by individual and household characteristics, and work attitudes and preferences. A discrete-time duration method is used to estimate this model. Then, we rely on standard employment and Mincer earnings functions. We repeatedly impute missing wages to address the selection of observables, and use the regional unemployment rate when the individual finished school as an instrument to mitigate the selection of unobservable. The School to Work Transition Survey 2012 is used. Results robustly suggest a presence of an employment scar as those young persons who stayed unemployed over a longer period of time were found to have lower chances of finding a job afterwards. On the other hand, the study does not provide evidence for the existence of a wage scar. |
| Keywords: | employment scarring, wage scarring, extremely high unemployment, Macedonia |
| JEL: | E24 J24 J64 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:pmmacr:2016-23&r=lab |
| By: | Leonardo Bursztyn; Thomas Fujiwara; Amanda Pallais |
| Abstract: | Do single women avoid career-enhancing actions because these actions could signal personality traits, like ambition, that are undesirable in the marriage market? We answer this question through two field experiments in an elite U.S. MBA program. Newly-admitted MBA students filled out a questionnaire on job preferences and personality traits to be used by the career center in internship placement; randomly-selected students thought their answers would be shared with classmates. When they believed their classmates would not see their responses, single and non-single women answered similarly. However, single women reported desired yearly compensation $18,000 lower and being willing to travel seven fewer days per month and work four fewer hours per week when they expected their classmates would see their answers. They also reported less professional ambition and tendency for leadership. Neither men nor non-single women changed their answers in response to peer observability. A supplementary experiment asked students to make choices over hypothetical jobs before discussing their choices in their career class small groups; we randomly varied the groups' gender composition. Single women were much less likely to select career-focused jobs when their answers would be shared with male peers, especially single ones. Two results from observational data support our experimental results. First, in a new survey, almost three-quarters of single female students reported avoiding activities they thought would help their career because they did not want to appear ambitious. They eschewed these activities at higher rates than did men and non-single women. Second, while unmarried women perform similarly to married women in class when their performance is kept private from classmates (on exams and problem sets), they have significantly lower participation grades. |
| JEL: | C93 J12 J16 Z10 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23043&r=lab |
| By: | Claudia Olivetti; Barbara Petrongolo |
| Abstract: | We draw lessons from existing work and our own analysis on the effects of parental leave and other interventions aimed at aiding families. The outcomes of interest are female employment, gender gaps in earnings and fertility. We begin with a discussion of the historical introduction of family policies ever since the end of the nineteenth century and then turn to the details regarding family policies currently in effect across high-income nations. We sketch a framework concerning the effects of family policy to motivate our country- and micro-level evidence on the impact of family policies on gender outcomes. Most estimates of the impact of parental leave entitlement on female labor market outcomes range from negligible to weakly positive. There is stronger evidence that spending on early education and childcare increases labor force participation of women and reduces gender gaps. |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J18 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23051&r=lab |
| By: | Zhengyu Cai (Southwestern University of Finance and Economics); John V. Winters (Oklahoma State University) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the American Community Survey to examine the previously overlooked fact that foreign STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) graduates have much lower self-employment rates than their non-STEM counterparts, with an unconditional difference of 3.3 percentage points. We find empirical support for differing earnings opportunities as a partial explanation for this self-employment gap. High wages in STEM paid-employment combined with reduced earnings in self-employment make self-employment less desirable for STEM graduates. High self-employment rates among other foreign-born workers partially reflect weak paid-employment opportunities. Public policy should encourage efficient use of worker skills rather than low-value business venture creation. |
| Keywords: | self-employment, immigration, foreign-born, college major, STEM, earnings |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J31 L26 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:okl:wpaper:1706&r=lab |
| By: | Dimitrios Bermperoglou; Evi Pappa; Eugenia Vella |
| Abstract: | We estimate the macroeconomic effects of public wage expenditures in U.S. data by identifying shocks to public employment and public wages using sign restrictions. Aggregate public wage bill shocks induce typically insignifi?cant effects. Disaggregating by government level reveals that public employment shocks are mildly expansionary at the federal level and strongly expansionary at the state and local level by crowding in private consumption and increasing labor force participation and private-sector employment.Similarly, state and local government wage shocks lead to increases in consumption and output, while shocks to federal government wages induce signifi?cant contractionary effects.In a stylized DSGE model we show that the degree of complementarity between public and private goods in the consumption bundle is key for explaining the observed heterogeneity. |
| Keywords: | Matching; government wage bill, fiscal multipliers, VARs, sign restrictions, DSGE model, search and matching frictions |
| JEL: | C22 E12 E32 E62 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lau:crdeep:16.24&r=lab |
| By: | Natarajan Balasubramanian; Jin Woo Chang; Mariko Sakakibara; Jagadeesh Sivadasan; Evan Starr |
| Abstract: | We examine how the enforceability of covenants not to compete (CNCs) affects employee mobility and wages of high-tech workers. We expect CNC enforceability to lengthen job spells and constrain mobility, but its impact on wages is ambiguous. Using a matched employer-employee dataset covering the universe of jobs in thirty U.S states, we find that higher CNC enforceability is associated with longer job spells (fewer jobs over time), and a greater chance of leaving the state for technology workers. Consistent with a “lock-in” effect of CNCs, we find persistent wage-suppressing effects that last throughout a worker’s job and employment history. |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:17-09&r=lab |
| By: | Roth, Duncan (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "This paper estimates the effect that the size of an individual's labour-market entry cohort has on the subsequent duration of search for employment. Survival-analysis methods are applied to empirically assess this relationship using a sample of apprenticeship graduates who entered the German labour market between 1999 and 2012. The results suggest that apprentices from larger graduation cohorts take less time to find employment, but this effect appears to be significant only for a period of up to six months after graduation. These results therefore do not support the cohort-crowding hypothesis that members of larger cohorts face depressed labour-market outcomes. Moreover, there is no evidence that shorter search durations are the result of graduates being pushed into lower-quality employment. The finding that graduating as part of a larger cohort leads to shorter search durations is in line with those parts of the cohort-size literature that find larger youth cohorts being associated with lower unemployment rates. A possible explanation is that firms react to an anticipated increase in the number of graduates by creating jobs." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Kohortenanalyse, Berufseinmündung, Ausbildungsabsolventen, Integrierte Erwerbsbiografien, junge Erwachsene, berufliche Integration, Bevölkerungsstruktur, Erwerbsquote |
| JEL: | J21 J64 R23 |
| Date: | 2017–01–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201702&r=lab |
| By: | Bart Cockx (SHERPPA, Ghent University, UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales IRES, IZA and CESIfo); Muriel Dejemeppe (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)); Andrey Launov (University of Kent, IZA and CESIfo); Bruno Van der Linden (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES), FNRS, IZA and CESIfo) |
| Abstract: | We build and estimate a non-stationary structural job search model that incorporates the main stylized features of a typical job search monitoring scheme in unemployment insurance (UI) and acknowledges that search effort and requirements are measured imperfectly. Based on Belgian data, monitoring is found to affect search behavior only weakly, because (i) assessments were scheduled late and infrequently; (ii) the monitoring technology was not suffciently precise, (iii) lenient Belgian UI results in caseloads that are less responsive to incentives than elsewhere. Simulations show how changing the aforementioned design features can enhance effectiveness and that precise monitoring is key in this. |
| Keywords: | Monitoring, sanctions, non-stationary job search, unemployment benefits, structural estimation |
| JEL: | J64 J68 C41 |
| Date: | 2016–12–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2017002&r=lab |
| By: | Sanni N. Breining; Joseph J. Doyle, Jr.; David N. Figlio; Krzysztof Karbownik; Jeffrey Roth |
| Abstract: | Birth order has been found to have a surprisingly large influence on educational attainment, yet much less is known about the role of birth order on delinquency outcomes such as disciplinary problems in school, juvenile delinquency, and adult crime: outcomes that carry significant negative externalities. This paper uses particularly rich datasets from Denmark and the state of Florida to examine these outcomes and explore potential mechanisms. Despite large differences in environments across the two areas, we find remarkably consistent results: in families with two or more children, second-born boys are on the order of 20 to 40 percent more likely to be disciplined in school and enter the criminal justice system compared to first-born boys even when we compare siblings. The data allow us to examine a range of potential mechanisms, and the evidence rules out differences in health at birth and the quality of schools chosen for children. We do find that parental time investment measured by time out of the labor force is higher for first-borns at ages 2-4, suggesting that the arrival of a second-born child extends early-childhood parental investments for first-borns. |
| JEL: | J01 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23038&r=lab |
| By: | Hongqin Chang; Jing Liu; Yanyun Gao |
| Abstract: | Using the data from three waves (1995, 2002 and 2008) of the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP), which covers nine provinces in China, this paper investigates the impact of land tenure security on farmers’ labor market outcomes in rural China, especially for women’ s labor market behavior. To identify the effect of land tenure security, this paper used difference-in-differences strategy to control for time invariant heterogeneity, and a number of observed time-varying economic characteristics for its validity. The paper finds that in response to more security land rights, both women and men increase their probability of wage employment participation and individual income. |
| Keywords: | Land Tenure, off-farm, rural China |
| JEL: | O15 J61 Q15 R23 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:pmmacr:2017-03&r=lab |
| By: | Luke Ignaczak (Transport Canada); Marcel-Cristian Voia (Department of Economics, Carleton University) |
| Abstract: | This paper extends the investigation of Ignaczak [5] of the first employment spell of workers across five different birth cohorts using pooled data from the 15th and 20th cycles of the Canadian General Social Survey (GSS) to subsequent spells of employment with the purpose of testing for employment duration dependence. As the information on the GSS surveys spans well over the last half of the 20th century we are able to test not only the potential duration dependence but its stability over time. This paper contributes to the debate of employment stability by analyzing the differences between job and employment durations and showing that successive cohorts of workers have had increasingly shorter first employment durations. The analysis finds cohort effects which play a significant role in explaining declining employment tenure. The cohort effects can be seen as a proxy for a number of socio-economic factors that affect the hazard of separation from employment. Separate analysis is completed for men and women by birth cohort. This pattern of declining tenure has occurred for both men and women, but the decline has been far more prominent for men. For men, macroeconomic factors affect the hazard more strongly in more recent cohorts, which is consistent with recessionary periods generating decreasing employment stability across cohorts. For women, cohort effects are consistent with the increasing generosity of maternity leave provisions through Unemployment Insurance. |
| Keywords: | Employment Stability, Multiple Spells Employment Duration |
| JEL: | J01 C14 C12 C16 C41 |
| Date: | 2017–01–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:car:carecp:17-01&r=lab |