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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Aaronson, Daniel; Dehejia, Rajeev; Jordon, Andrew; Pop-Eleches, Cristian; Samii, Cyrus; Schultze, Karl |
| Abstract: | This paper documents the evolving impact of childbearing on the work activity of mothers between 1787 and 2014. It is based on a compiled data set of 429 censuses and surveys, representing 101 countries and 46.9 million mothers, using the International and U.S. IPUMS, the North Atlantic Population Project, and the Demographic and Health Surveys. Using twin births (Rosenzweig and Wolpin 1980) and same gendered children (Angrist and Evans 1998) as instrumental variables, we show three main findings: (1) the effect of fertility on labor supply is small and often indistinguishable from zero at low levels of income and large and negative at higher levels of income; (2) these effects are remarkably consistent both across time looking at the historical time series of currently developed countries and at a contemporary cross section of developing countries; and (3) the results are robust to other instrument variation, different demographic and educational groups, rescaling to account for changes in the base level of labor force participation, and a variety of specification and data decisions. We show that the negative gradient in female labor supply is consistent with a standard labor-leisure model augmented to include a taste for children. In particular, our results appear to be driven by a declining substitution effect to increasing wages that arises from changes in the sectoral and occupational structure of female jobs into formal nonagricultural wage employment as countries develop. |
| Keywords: | Labor Supply, Fertility, Mothers, Development, History |
| JEL: | F63 F66 J0 J01 J13 N0 N30 |
| Date: | 2017–02–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:76768&r=lab |
| By: | Marios Michaelides |
| Abstract: | This paper examines racial disparities in entrepreneurship success using longitudinal data from Project GATE, an experimental-design entrepreneurship training program. These data are unique because they provide rich information on the characteristics of nascent entrepreneurs who applied for program participation, as well as on their entrepreneurship outcomes over a 60-month follow-up period. Analyses show that white nascent entrepreneurs were more successful than nonwhites in starting a business, becoming self-employed, and achieving high self-employment earnings over the entire 60-month follow-up period. These disparities are largely because whites started their pursuit of entrepreneurship with higher human capital and entrepreneurship skills, and better access to start-up financing. In fact, access to financing is the most important determinant of short-term and long-term success, while human capital and entrepreneurship skills are less important than previous work has suggested, particularly in explaining long-term differences. Finally, government-sponsored entrepreneurship training is found effective in helping nascent entrepreneurs to improve their entrepreneurship skills and become self-employed earlier than they would in the absence of training. There is no evidence, however, that training has higher effects for individuals with unfavorable initial conditions, and thus it is unlikely that government-sponsored training programs can reduce racial gaps in entrepreneurship success. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship; self-employment; race; small business; Project GATE; entrepreneurship training; workforce development |
| JEL: | J6 H4 L2 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucy:cypeua:02-2017&r=lab |
| By: | Tomoki Kitamura (Finance Research Group, NLI-Research Institute); Yoshimi Adachi (Department of Economics, Konan University); Toshiyuki Uemura (School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University) |
| Abstract: | We examined employment and caregiving behavior at retiring age in Japan, considering the marital status, living-with-parent status, spouse employment, spouse income, and net financial assets. We found that the labor participation rate for caregiving married females living with parents was lowest when husbands work full-time, indicating that opportunity cost is an important factor. Net financial assets had a mixed impact. For married female caregivers, a lower amount of net financial assets decreases the labor participation rate. This tendency is reversed for married males. We also found that a flexible work style prevents a fall in labor participation rate due to caregiving. The government should introduce policies for drastic improvement in balancing nursing care and employment. |
| Keywords: | Elderly caregiving, labor participation rate, retirement, panel data |
| JEL: | D12 I10 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kgu:wpaper:158&r=lab |
| By: | John Bound; Gaurav Khanna; Nicolas Morales |
| Abstract: | Over the 1990s, the share of foreigners entering the US high-skill workforce grew rapidly. This migration potentially had a significant effect on US workers, consumers and firms. To study these effects, we construct a general equilibrium model of the US economy and calibrate it using data from 1994 to 2001. Built into the model are positive effects high skilled immigrants have on innovation. Counterfactual simulations based on our model suggest that immigration increased the overall welfare of US natives, and had significant distributional consequences. In the absence of immigration, wages for US computer scientists would have been 2.6% to 5.1% higher and employment in computer science for US workers would have been 6.1% to 10.8% higher in 2001. On the other hand, complements in production benefited substantially from immigration, and immigration also lowered prices and raised the output of IT goods by between 1.9% and 2.5%, thus benefiting consumers. Finally, firms in the IT sector also earned substantially higher profits due to immigration. |
| JEL: | J23 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23153&r=lab |
| By: | Nir Jaimovich; Henry E. Siu |
| Abstract: | We study the role of foreign-born workers in the growth of employment in STEM occupations since 1980. Given the importance of employment in these fields for research and innovation, we consider their role in a model featuring endogenous non-routine-biased technical change. We use this model to quantify the impact of high-skilled immigration, and the increasing tendency of such immigrants to work in innovation, on the pace of non-routine-biased technical change, the polarization of employment opportunities, and the evolution of wage inequality since 1980. |
| JEL: | E0 J0 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23185&r=lab |
| By: | Benjamin U. Friedrich; Martin B. Hackmann |
| Abstract: | Nurses comprise the largest health profession. In this paper, we measure the effect of nurses on health care delivery and patient health outcomes across sectors. Our empirical strategy takes advantage of a parental leave program, which led to a sudden, unintended, and persistent 12% reduction in nurse employment. Our findings indicate detrimental effects on hospital care delivery as indicated by an increase in 30-day readmission rates and a distortion of technology utilization. The effects for nursing home care are more drastic. We estimate a persistent 13% increase in nursing home mortality among the elderly aged 85 and older. Our results also highlight an unintended negative consequence of parental leave programs borne by providers and patients. |
| JEL: | D22 H75 I10 I11 J13 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23174&r=lab |