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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Roff, Jennifer Louise (CUNY Graduate Center) |
| Abstract: | Previous literature has established that unilateral divorce laws may reduce female household work. As shown by Stevenson (2007), unilateral divorce laws may affect overall marital investment. In addition, if unilateral divorce has differential costs by gender, then unilateral divorce may impact household work by gender through bargaining channels. However, little research has examined how divorce laws may affect males' household production and the gender distribution of household work. To examine this issue, I use data on matched couples from the PSID and exploit variation over time in state divorce laws. This research indicates that unilateral divorce laws lead to a decrease in marital investment, as measured by both males and females' household work. The evidence also supports a bargaining response to divorce laws, as fathers in states without joint custody laws show a significantly higher share of household work with unilateral divorce than those in states with joint custody laws, consistent with a relatively higher cost of marital dissolution among fathers who stand to lose custody of their children. |
| Keywords: | divorce law, household bargaining, marriage |
| JEL: | J12 J22 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10527&r=lab |
| By: | Jens Mohrenweiser (Bournemouth University); Gabriele Wydra-Somaggio (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB)); Thomas Zwick (University of Würzburg and ZEW Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | We show that employers that invest in general human capital can positively select the employees they retain even if training contents are transferable and visible to all employers because they are certified by credible external institutions. To solve the puzzle, we distinguish between soft and hard skills. Hard skills are tested in standard exams and can be signalled to outside employers while soft skills are typically not tested and cannot be signalled. Therefore, the information advantage about soft skills can explain why employers keep a positive selection of training participants and invest in certified and transferable skills. |
| Keywords: | training, employer change, adverse selection, asymmetric information |
| JEL: | J31 J62 J63 M52 M53 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0121&r=lab |
| By: | Chinhui Juhn; Kristin McCue; Holly Monti; Brooks Pierce |
| Abstract: | Using linked employer-employee data for the U.S., we examine whether shocks to firm revenues are transmitted to the earnings of continuing employees. While full insurance is rejected, the elasticity of worker earnings with respect to persistent shocks in firm revenues is small and consistent with the notion that firms insulate workers from idiosyncratic shocks. Exploring heterogeneity of effects, we find the largest elasticity in professional services, among employees in the top 5% of their employers’ earnings distribution, suggesting that in certain jobs performance pay may be a countervailing force to wage insurance. |
| JEL: | J01 J3 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23102&r=lab |
| By: | Postepska, Agnieszka (Georgetown University); Vella, Francis (Georgetown University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the phenomenon of occupational hierarchies among immigrant labor groups in the United States. Using census data for 1940-2011 we document the persistent ranking of immigrant labor groups in major metropolitan areas reflected by their position in the empirical distribution of occupations based on the corresponding Duncan Socioeconomic Index values. Having established the existence and persistence of these hierarchies across regions and time we estimate a structural model of the allocation of immigrant labor to the occupational distribution on the basis of employers' perception of their perceived productivity. The model estimates suggest that while human capital characteristics are relevant determinants of location in the occupational distribution the key factor, and the cause of persistence, is the presence of immigrant networks in regional labor markets. |
| Keywords: | occupational hierarchies, immigrant networks, empirical distribution of occupations |
| JEL: | J24 J61 J62 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10514&r=lab |
| By: | Adamopoulou, Effrosyni (Efi) (Bank of Italy); Zizza, Roberta (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | We use information on monthly wage increases set by collective agreements in Italy and exploit their variation across sectors and over time in order to examine how household consumption responds to different types of positive income shocks (regular tranches versus lump-sum payments). Focusing on single-earner households, we find evidence of consumption smoothing in accordance with the Permanent-Income Hypothesis, since total and food consumption do not exhibit excess sensitivity to anticipated regular payments. Consumption does not respond at the date of the announcement of income increases either, as these are known to compensate workers for the overall loss in their wages' purchasing power. However, consumption responds, albeit a little, to transitory and less anticipated one-off payments, as the expenditures on clothing&shoes increase upon the receipt of the lump-sum payments. This behaviour is consistent with bounded rationality as consumers do not consider the lump-sum as part of the overall wage inflation adjustment. |
| Keywords: | union contracts, consumption, permanent income hypothesis, bounded rationality |
| JEL: | D12 E21 J51 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10509&r=lab |
| By: | Fletcher, Jason M. (University of Wisconsin-Madison); Schurer, Stefanie (University of Sydney) |
| Abstract: | We test whether adverse childhood experiences – exposure to parental maltreatment and its indirect effect on health – are associated with age 30 personality traits. We use rich longitudinal data from a large, representative cohort of young US Americans and exploit differences across siblings to control for the confounding influences of shared environmental and genetic factors. We find that maltreatment experiences are significantly and robustly associated with neuroticism, conscientiousness, and openness to experience, but not with agreeableness and extraversion. High levels of neuroticism are linked to sexual abuse and neglect; low levels of conscientiousness and openness to experience are linked to parental neglect. The estimated associations are significantly reduced in magnitude when controlling for physical or mental health, suggesting that adolescent health could be one important pathway via which maltreatment affects adulthood personality. Maltreatment experiences, in combination with their health effects, explain a significant fraction of the relationship between adulthood conscientiousness and earnings or human capital. Our findings provide a possible explanation for why personality traits are important predictors of adulthood labor market outcomes. |
| Keywords: | human capital, noncognitive skills, Big Five personality traits, adverse childhood experiences, maltreatment, Add Health, siblings-fixed effects |
| JEL: | J24 J13 I0 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10538&r=lab |
| By: | Takuma Kunieda (School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University); Ken-ichi Hashimoto (Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University); Ryonghun Im (Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University) |
| Abstract: | A tractable model with asset bubbles is presented to demonstrate that a financial crisis caused by a bubble bursting increases unemployment rates. A bubbly asset has a positive market value because purchasing the asset is the sole saving method for agents who draw insufficient productivity, whereas selling the asset is a fund-raising method to initiate an investment project. The presence of bubbles corrects allocative inefficiency, relocating investment resources from low-productivity agents to high-productivity agents. Accordingly, the presence of bubbles can promote capital accumulation and reduce unemployment rates. However, a self-fulfilling financial crisis would result in high unemployment rates. |
| Keywords: | Overlapping generations, Labor market friction, Borrowing constraints, Asset bubbles, Unemployment |
| JEL: | J64 O41 O42 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kgu:wpaper:156&r=lab |
| By: | Kyle Herkenhoff (University of Minnesota); Gordon Phillips (Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business); Ethan Cohen-Cole (Econ One Research) |
| Abstract: | How does access to consumer credit affect the allocation of workers to firms, and what happens to sorting and the subsequent recovery if credit tightens during a recession? To answer this question, we develop a labor sorting model with saving and borrowing. We show that even with two-sided heterogeneity and risk aversion, the model remains tractable because it admits a unique block recursive solution. We find that if credit limits tighten during a downturn, employment recovers quicker, but output and productivity remain depressed. This is because when limits tighten, low-asset, low-productivity job losers cannot self-insure. Therefore, they search less thoroughly and take more accessible jobs at less productive firms. We then build a new administrative dataset that merges credit reports with employment histories, and we test the model's mechanisms. |
| Keywords: | sorting model, credit constraints, block recursive, self-insurance |
| JEL: | E13 E20 E24 E32 J21 J24 J31 J60 J63 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2017-012&r=lab |
| By: | Benndorf, Volker; Rau, Holger A.; Sölch, Christian |
| Abstract: | This paper studies motivational crowding-out effects after financial incentives are lowered. In a real-effort setting, workers receive a piece rate before financial incentives are substituted by a one-time payment. Under the fixed payment, effort is significantly lower only when preceded by piece-rate incentives. The decrease is driven by a fraction of men who reduce their effort by 12%, whereas women constantly perform well. We find that this motivational crowding-out effect disappears when men do not have prior experience of a piece rate. In a series of control treatments, we discard all alternative explanations besides from motivational crowding out. |
| Keywords: | gender differences,incentives,motivational crowding out,real-effort task |
| JEL: | C91 J16 M54 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cegedp:304&r=lab |
| By: | Garnero, Andrea (OECD) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a comprehensive portrait of the level and compliance to sectoral minimum wages in Italy between 2008 and 2015. The results show that minimum wages in Italy are relatively high both in absolute terms and relative to the median wage. However, non-compliance rates are not negligible: on average around 10% of workers are paid one fifth less than the reference minimum wage. Non-compliance is particularly high in the South and in micro and small firms and it affects especially women and temporary workers. Overall, wages in the bottom of the distribution appear to be largely unaffected by minimum wage increases. More effective enforcement practices are therefore needed to safeguard a level playing field for firms and ensure that minimum wage increases are effectively reflected into pay increases for workers at the bottom of the distribution. |
| Keywords: | collective bargaining, minimum wages, compliance |
| JEL: | J08 J31 J52 J83 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10511&r=lab |
| By: | Nishimura, Y.; Oikawa, M.; |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes the effect of informal elderly care on caregiver labor supply. Since the Japanese government intervenes on the supply side of the elderly care market and market entry of nursing home suppliers is regulated, this analysis utilizes exogenous variations from the supply side of government intervention on the elderly care market. Owing to such intervention and regulation, public nursing home capacity exogenously changes for caregivers, which we use to estimate the effect of informal elderly care on labor supply. To the best of our knowledge, no study has thus far utilized exogenous institutional variation as an instrument to estimate this effect. Analysis results reveal that the effect of informal elderly care on female labor force participation is negative. By contrast, male labor force participation is not affected by such care, since, in Japan, females spend more time on informal care than males. The increase in nursing home capacity is thus effective for decreasing the female burden of informal care. |
| Keywords: | informal care; labor supply; government intervention; JSTAR; |
| JEL: | J14 J18 J22 I18 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:17/02&r=lab |
| By: | Frimmel, Wolfgang (University of Linz); Halla, Martin (University of Innsbruck); Paetzold, Jörg (University of Salzburg) |
| Abstract: | Does tax evasion run in the family? To answer this question, we study the case of the commuter tax allowance in Austria. This allowance is designed as a step function of the distance between the residence and the workplace, creating sharp discontinuities at each bracket threshold. The distance to these brackets is a strong determinant of compliance since it corresponds to the probability of detection. The match of different administrative data sources allows us to observe actual compliance behavior at the individual level across two generations. To identify the intergenerational causal effect in tax evasion behavior, we use the paternal distance-to-bracket as an instrumental variable for paternal compliance. We find that paternal noncompliance increases children's non-compliance by about 20 percent. |
| Keywords: | tax evasion, tax morale, intergenerational correlation, intergenerational causal effect |
| JEL: | H26 A13 H24 J62 D14 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10529&r=lab |
| By: | Robert Jensen; Nolan H. Miller |
| Abstract: | In rural areas of most developing countries, intergenerational coresidence is both widespread and an important determinant of well-being for the elderly. Most parents want at least one adult child to remain at home (e.g., so they can work on the family farm or provide care and assistance around the house). However, children themselves may prefer to migrate when they grow up, and parents cannot directly prevent them from doing so. We present a model where parents may strategically limit investments in some children's education so that they will not find it optimal to migrate when they reach maturity, and will thus voluntarily choose to remain home. We provide evidence for the model’s predictions using an intervention that provided recruiting services for the business process outsourcing industry in randomly selected rural Indian villages. Because awareness of these high-paying, high education, urban jobs was limited at baseline, the intervention increased the attractiveness of migration for educated children. Consistent with the model, in response to the treatment we find declines in school enrollment among children that parents reported wanting to remain home at baseline. Children that parents want to migrate have increased enrollment, and parents want more children to migrate. |
| JEL: | D1 I21 J14 O12 O15 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23122&r=lab |
| By: | Heather C. Vough; Uta K. Bindl; Sharon K. Parker |
| Abstract: | Proactive work behaviors are self-initiated, future-focused actions aimed at bringing about changes to work processes in organizations. Such behaviors occur within the social context of work. The extant literature that has focused on the role of social context for proactivity has focused on social context as an overall input or output of proactivity. However, in this paper we argue that the process of engaging in proactive work behavior (proactive goal striving) may also be a function of the social context it occurs in. Based on qualitative data from 39 call center employees in an energy-supply company, we find that in a context characterized by standardized work procedures, proactive goal striving can occur through a proactivity routine- a socially constructed and accepted pattern of action by which employees initiate and achieve changes to work processes, with the support of managers and colleagues. Our findings point to the need to view proactive work behaviors at a higher level of analysis than the individual in order to identify shared routines for engaging in proactivity, as well as how multiple actors coordinate their efforts in the process of achieving individually-generated proactive goals. |
| Keywords: | Proactive work behaviors are self-initiated; future-focused actions aimed at bringing about changes to work processes in organizations. Such behaviors occur within the social context of work. The extant literature that has focused on the role of social context for proactivity has focused on social context as an overall input or output of proactivity. However; in this paper we argue that the process of engaging in proactive work behavior (proactive goal striving) may also be a function of the social context it occurs in. Based on qualitative data from 39 call center employees in an energy-supply company; we find that in a context characterized by standardized work procedures; proactive goal striving can occur through a proactivity routine- a socially constructed and accepted pattern of action by which employees initiate and achieve changes to work processes; with the support of managers and colleagues. Our findings point to the need to view proactive work behaviors at a higher level of analysis than the individual in order to identify shared routines for engaging in proactivity; as well as how multiple actors coordinate their efforts in the process of achieving individually-generated proactive goals. |
| JEL: | R14 J01 J50 |
| Date: | 2017–01–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:68584&r=lab |