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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Addison, John T. (University of South Carolina); Teixeira, Paulino (University of Coimbra) |
| Abstract: | Using cross-country data from the European Company Survey, we investigate the relationship between workplace employee representation and five behavioral outcomes: strike incidence, the climate of industrial relations, sickness/absenteeism, employee motivation, and staff retention. The evidence is mixed. From one perspective, the expression of collective voice through works councils may be construed as largely beneficial. However, any such optimistic evaluation is heavily qualified by union organization and in particular workplace unionism. Establishment union density seemingly blunts the performance of employee workplace representation, elevating dissatisfaction at the expense of collaboration. |
| Keywords: | employee representation, works councils, union agency, collective bargaining, strikes, industrial relations quality, employee motivation and retention |
| JEL: | J51 J52 J53 J83 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10899&r=lab |
| By: | Chakravorty, Bhaskar (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Bedi, Arjun S. (ISS, Erasmus University Rotterdam) |
| Abstract: | In a number of countries, youth unemployment is a pressing economic and political concern. In India, 54 percent of the country's population of 1.21 billion is below the age of 25 and faces a high rate of (disguised) unemployment. To augment youth employment, the Government of India has launched a number of skills training programs. This paper deals with participation in and the impact of one of these programs (DDUJKY) located in rural Bihar, one of India's poorest states. The analysis is based on data collected in mid-2016 and compares training participants with non-participants who applied for the scheme but eventually did not attend. We find that the training program squarely reaches the intended target group - rural poor youth. Initially, the program leads to a 29 percentage point increase in the employment rate of the trained graduates. However, two to six months after the training, the employment effect of the program drops to zero. A third of the placed graduates leave their jobs due to caste-based discrimination and another third leave due to a mismatch between the salaries offered and their living costs. The upshot is that while the training program enhances job market prospects, other labor market factors undo the positive effects. |
| Keywords: | India, Bihar, skills training, youth unemployment |
| JEL: | J60 J68 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10902&r=lab |
| By: | Joël Machado (CREA, Université du Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to assess the effects of two different policies dealing with undocumented immigrants on agents’ welfare: amnesties and deportations. I develop a two-period overlapping generations model which accounts for the ex-ante production by undocumented workers and their partial contribution and access to public transfers. Additional channels, such as the discrimination on the labor market and a different productivity of regularized workers are also discussed. The impact of a migration policy strongly depends on the wage effects of the legalized/ deported workers and their net fiscal contribution. The calibration of the model for the United States in 2014 allows to disentangle the importance of the different channels at work. Overall the impact of the two policies on natives’ welfare is quite limited (between -0.1% and +0.15%). Retired agents benefit from an amnesty and are harmed by a deportation. The effect on workers is ambiguous and depends on the wage and fiscal effects in addition to the change in the returns on savings. |
| Keywords: | undocumented immigration, amnesty, regularization, deportation, discrimination. |
| JEL: | F29 J61 J68 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:17-11&r=lab |
| By: | Driouchi, Ahmed; Harkat, Tahar |
| Abstract: | Abstract: The current research analyzes the trend of the NEETs, or young individuals that are not in education, employment, or training, in the Arab economies, based on the estimated NEET data in the contribution of Driouchi and Harkat (2017). Evidence shows that the trends of the NEETs are increasing in 9 Arab economies, decreasing in Algeria and statistically not significant for the remaining countries. This is assumed to be related to the absence of policies, programs, and strategies that directly target this category of youth. The present contribution assesses also, the determinants of the NEETs using Granger Causality test. The link between this category of youth and variables such as education, macroeconomic, and governance is assessed. The empirical findings indicate that each of the Arab economies exhibits a unique model with specific factors leading to the changes of this segment of population. This provides supporting evidence of the surrounding environment of the NEETs, and gives incentives to policy makers for monitoring through targeted policies, the significant factors that enable this category of youth. |
| Keywords: | Keywords: NEETs, Arab countries, Causality, Policies, Targeting |
| JEL: | I25 J62 J68 |
| Date: | 2017–08–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80622&r=lab |
| By: | Francine D. Blau; Anne E. Winkler |
| Abstract: | This chapter focuses on women, work, and family, with a particular focus on differences by educational attainment. First, we review long-term trends regarding family structure, participation in the labor market, and time spent in household production, including time with children. In looking at family, we focus on mothers with children. Next we examine key challenges faced by mothers as they seek to combine motherhood and paid work: workforce interruptions associated with childbearing, the impact of home and family responsibilities, and constraints posed by workplace culture. We also consider the role that gendered norms play in shaping outcomes for mothers. We conclude by discussing policies that have the potential to increase gender equality in the workplace and mitigate the considerable conflicts faced by many women as they seek to balance work and family. |
| JEL: | J1 J12 J13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23644&r=lab |
| By: | Scheller, Friedrich |
| Abstract: | The paper analyses the role of the relative regional group size for the labor market integration of three different ethnic groups in Germany. The analysis addresses the question of whether there is a consistent group size effect, or if group size functions differently for different immigrant groups and for different indicators of labor market integration in Germany. Using data provided by the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) multilevel cross-classification models are fitted. The final dataset contains 10,970 observations from Turkish, Greek, and Italian immigrants, and their offspring. Results generally show no effect of relative regional group size on the risk of unemployment, but a significant effect on job status. The effect is nonlinear, and manifests differently for each ethnic group. It becomes apparent that findings on the relationship between group size and labor market integration found for one immigrant group cannot readily be extended to other origin groups. |
| Keywords: | group size,labor market integration,migration,cross-classification,Gruppengröße,Arbeitsmarktintegration,Migration,Kreuzklassifizierung |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:udesoz:201703&r=lab |
| By: | Berton, Fabio (University of Turin); Devicienti, Francesco (University of Turin); Grubanov-Boskovic, Sara (European Commission, Joint Research Centre) |
| Abstract: | Liberalization of temporary contracts has been a hallmark of labor market reforms during the last decades. More recently, factors like the sovereign debt crisis pushed the most indebted countries to unprecedented reductions of employment protection legislation (EPL) also on open-ended contracts. These policies are justified under the assumption that EPL harms the allocation of workers on the jobs where they are most productive. How EPL affects the quality of job matches is nonetheless an underexplored issue. In this paper, we provide new evidence that exploits exactly one of these recent reforms, the so-called Fornero Law, introduced in Italy in 2012 in the background of austerity reforms. Results show that good matches have increased. Further, the reduction in EP favored labor reallocation. Eventually, it was also followed by an increase in productivity, albeit small. While the results are consistent with the economic theory that informed deregulation, we highlight caveats and limitations. |
| Keywords: | employment protection legislation, turnover, mismatch, productivity, Fornero Law, difference-in-differences |
| JEL: | J24 J63 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10904&r=lab |
| By: | Emran, M. Shahe; Shilpi, Forhad |
| Abstract: | Most of the household surveys available in developing countries suffer from sample truncation because coresidency is used to define household membership. This paper provides evidence on truncation bias in the rank-based relative and absolute mobility estimates in coresident samples, and compares with the bias in intergenerational regression coefficient (IGRC) and intergenerational correlation (IGC). Using surveys from Bangladesh and India that include non-resident children, we find that the slope estimates are biased downward, while the intercept estimates are biased upward, but expected years of schooling conditional on parental education are overestimated in coresident samples. The downward bias in rank correlation is much smaller than that in IGRC, and comparable to that in IGC. The upward bias in the intercept is the largest in the regression used for IGC. Truncation bias in rank-based absolute mobility estimates is the lowest in most cases. The results add to an emerging body of evidence that the rank-based measures are more robust than the widely-used IGRC and IGC in estimating intergenerational mobility with incomplete data. |
| Keywords: | Rank correlation, Rank-based Absolute Mobility, Coresidency, Truncation Bias, Intergenerational Mobility, Developing Countries, Intergenerational Regression Coefficient (IGRC), Intergenerational Correlation (IGC), Bangladesh, India |
| JEL: | I3 I32 O1 |
| Date: | 2017–08–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80724&r=lab |
| By: | Yang, Guangliang; Li, Lixing; Fu, Shihe |
| Abstract: | We combine the 2005 China Inter-Census Population Survey data and the 2004 China Manufacturing Census to test whether workers, particularly rural migrants, benefit from labor market Marshallian externalities. We find that workers in general, and rural migrants in particular, benefit from labor market pooling effect (measured by total employment in a city-industry cell) and human capital externalities (measured by share of workers with a college degree or above in a city-industry cell). These findings are robust to various sorting bias tests. However, rural migrants benefit much less than do local or urban workers, possibly because rural migrants lack social networks and are discriminated doubly in terms of being both “rural” and “migrants.” Our findings have policy implications on how Chinese cities can become skilled during the rapid urbanization process coupled with global competition. |
| Keywords: | Rural migrants; labor market agglomeration economies; Marshallian externalities; labor market pooling; human capital externalities |
| JEL: | J30 J61 J71 O15 O18 R23 |
| Date: | 2017–08–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80713&r=lab |
| By: | González-Val, Rafael; Marcén, Miriam |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine whether the business cycle plays a role in marriage and divorce. We use data on Spain, since the differences between recession and expansion periods across regions are quite pronounced in that country. We find that the unemployment rate is negatively associated with the marriage rate, pointing to a pro-cyclical evolution of marriage; however the response of the divorce rate to the business cycle is mixed. Results show the existence of different patterns, depending on geography: divorce rates in coastal regions are pro-cyclical, while in inland regions divorces react to unemployment in a counter-cyclical way. |
| Keywords: | Divorce, marriage, divorce law, unemployment, business cycle, geography |
| JEL: | J12 |
| Date: | 2017–08–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80644&r=lab |
| By: | Averett, Susan L. (Lafayette College); Smith, Julie K. (Lafayette College); Wang, Yang (University of Wisconsin-Madison) |
| Abstract: | States are increasingly resorting to raising the minimum wage to boost the earnings of those at the bottom of the income distribution. In this paper, we examine the effects of minimum wage increases on the health of low-educated Hispanic women, who constitute a growing part of the U.S. labor force, are disproportionately represented in minimum wage jobs and typically have less access to health care. Using a difference-in-differences identification strategy and data drawn from the Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance Survey and the Current Population Survey from the years 1994–2015, we find little evidence that low-educated Hispanic women likely affected by minimum wage increases experience any changes in health status, access to care, or use of preventive care. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage, Hispanic women, health outcomes, health insurance, preventive care |
| JEL: | J15 I12 I13 I14 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10916&r=lab |
| By: | Chae, Seyoung (Sogang University); Heshmati, Almas (Jönköping University, Sogang University) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the characteristics that contribute to elderly poverty, mainly focusing on individuals' lifetime work experience. It adopts the heterogeneous relative poverty line which differs by gender, province of residence and over time. It calculates the work experience and obtains demographic variables using the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study's survey data for 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015. The objective is to estimate poverty amongst elderly and explain its variations in relation to individual characteristics and lifetime work experience. Poverty is measured as the head count, poverty gap and the poverty severity indices. The poverty measures are based on the monetary dimensions of well-being namely income and consumption. The methodology used in this study is the logit model to explain incidence of poverty and the sample selection model to analyze the depth and severity of poverty. The results show evidence of a significant selection bias in all the poverty models based on income, but not on the consumption. In both income and consumption models increase in the total work years lessens the incidence of poverty and a decrease in the gap years downsizes the probability of being poor. High-income occupation and labor market participation greatly decrease the incidence of poverty. Most of the work relevant variables become insignificant in the poverty gap and severity models of consumption while both work years and gap years are significant in the income model. The number of jobs representing turnover rate significantly increases the probability of being impoverished only in the consumption model. |
| Keywords: | poverty incidence, poverty gap, poverty severity, lifetime work experience, gap years between jobs, Korea |
| JEL: | E20 I30 I38 J10 N35 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10909&r=lab |
| By: | Stephen Gibbons; Henry Overman; Matti Sarvimäki |
| Abstract: | We study the local economic impacts of a major regeneration programme aimed at enhancing the quality of life of local people in deprived neighbourhoods in the UK. The analysis is based on a panel of firm and area level data available at small spatial scales. Our identification strategies involve: a) exploiting the fine spatial scale of our data to study how effects vary with distance to the intervention area; and b) comparing places close to treatment in early rounds of the programme with places close to treatment in future rounds. We consider the long run impact of schemes funded between 1995 and 1997 on outcomes up to 2009. Our estimates suggest that the programme increased workplace employment in the intervention area but this had no impact on the employment rates of local residents. |
| Keywords: | single regeneration budget, regeneration, employment, neighbourhoods, urban policy |
| JEL: | R11 J08 H50 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0218&r=lab |