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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Marco Pagano (University of Naples "Federico II", CSEF and EIEF); Luca Picariello (Norwegian School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | In talent-intensive jobs, workers’ performance reveals their quality. This enhances productivity and wages, but also increases layoff risk. If workers cannot resign from their jobs, firms can insure them via severance pay. If instead workers can resign, private insurance cannot be provided, and more risk-averse workers will choose less informative jobs. This lowers expected productivity and wages. Public unemployment insurance corrects this inefficiency, enhancing employment in talent-sensitive industries and investment in education by employees. The prediction that the generosity of unemployment insurance is positively correlated with the share of workers in talent-sensitive industries is consistent with international and U.S. evidence. |
| Keywords: | talent, learning, layoff risk, unemployment insurance |
| JEL: | D61 D62 D83 J24 J65 |
| Date: | 2017–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:480&r=lab |
| By: | Shubha Chakravarty (The World Bank); Mattias Lundberg (The World Bank); Plamen Nikolov (State University of New York (at Binghamton)); Juliane Zenker (University of Göttingen) |
| Abstract: | Lack of skills is arguably one of the most important determinants for high levels of unemployment and poverty. Targeting youth unemployment and also important because of its strong influence on other important social outcomes. Using a “fuzzy” regression discontinuity design, we examine the employment effects of a vocational training program in Nepal launched in 2009 over a three-year period. We find program participation generated an increase in non-farm employment of 28 percentage points for an overall gain of 95 percent, three years into the program. The program also generated an average monthly earnings gain of 2,167NRs (˜ 29 USD) or 171 percent. Applying heterogeneous local average treatment effect (HLATE) estimators, we find striking differences in the impacts by gender: program impacts are almost double the size for women than for men. |
| Keywords: | training, employment, labor, economic development, Nepal, Regression Discontinuity, gender |
| JEL: | I21 I28 I38 J08 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2017-056&r=lab |
| By: | Gehrke, Britta (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Weber, Enzo (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "This paper investigates whether the effects of structural labor market reforms depend on the business cycle. Based on search and matching theory, we propose an unobserved components approach with Markov switching to distinguish the effects of structural reforms that increase the flexibility of the labor market in recession and expansion. Our results for Germany and Spain show that reforms have substantially weaker expansionary effects in the short-run when implemented in recessions. In consequence, reforms are unlikely to mitigate the impact of crisis in the short-run. From a policy perspective, these results highlight the costs of introducing reforms in recessions." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| JEL: | C32 E02 E32 J08 |
| Date: | 2017–07–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201723&r=lab |
| By: | Joris Ghysels (Top Institute for Evidence Based Education Research, TIER-Maastricht University); Zoltán Hermann (Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences and ELTE University); Iryna Rud (Top Institute for Evidence Based Education Research, TIER-Maastricht University); Melline Somers (Top Institute for Evidence Based Education Research, TIER-Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at the evaluation of the reform of vocational education introduced in 1998 in Hungary. The reform extended the duration of education by one year, and increased teaching time spent on non-vocational subjects. The reform affected two of the three tracks in upper-secondary education in Hungary, vocational secondary school and vocational school. We estimate the effect of the reform on educational attainment, employment and wages in a comparative interrupted time series (CITS) framework, using the academic track and secondary school drop-outs as control groups. The results suggest that the reform has had heterogeneous effects. First, we detect no effect for the vocational secondary track, while the reform has improved labour market outcomes of vocational school students. Second, in the vocational school group the reform has increased men’s wages, while not affected their employment. For women we found a positive employment effect, while wages have increased only for the younger cohorts. |
| Keywords: | vocational education, reform, employment, wages, skills |
| JEL: | J08 J01 D00 |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:bworkp:1707&r=lab |
| By: | Giuliano, Paola |
| Abstract: | Social attitudes toward women vary significantly across societies. This chapter reviews recent empirical research on various historical determinants of contemporary differences in gender roles and gender gaps across societies, and how these differences are transmitted from parents to children and therefore persist until today. We review work on the historical origin of differences in female labor-force participation, fertility, education, marriage arrangements, competitive attitudes, domestic violence, and other forms of difference in gender norms. Most of the research illustrates that differences in cultural norms regarding gender roles emerge in response to specific historical situations, but tend to persist even after the historical conditions have changed. We also discuss the conditions under which gender norms either tend to be stable or change more quickly. |
| Keywords: | Cultural persistence; Cultural Transmission; Gender |
| JEL: | J16 N0 Z1 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12183&r=lab |
| By: | Eleftherios Goulas (Department of Law & Finance, Bedfordshire University, UK); Athina Zervoyianni (Department of Economics, University of Patras, Greece; The Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis) |
| Abstract: | While the labour-market impact of ALMP interventions has been extensively studied, an issue that has not been widely addressed in the literature is to what extent active labour-market policies have beneficial effects for the whole economy at the macroeconomic level. This paper addresses this issue by examining how additional resources allocated to active labour-market policies relate to output-growth rates. It also examines the sensitivity of the growth-ALMP relationship to the economy's business-cycle position and the state of market expectations. Using data from OECD countries during 1991-2011, we find evidence of a positive output-growth differential due to implementing active labour-market policies in normal times of between 0.004 and 0.005 percentage point. This differential becomes larger during economic upturns and when market expectations are optimistic. These results are obtained after controlling for other standard, direct and indirect, influences on output-growth rates and after addressing the issue of potential endogeneities. |
| Keywords: | output growth, labour-market policy, cyclical influences |
| JEL: | E60 E23 J08 E30 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rim:rimwps:17-20&r=lab |