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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Knaus, Michael C.; Lechner, Michael; Strittmatter, Anthony |
| Abstract: | We systematically investigate the effect heterogeneity of job search programmes for unemployed workers. To investigate possibly heterogeneous employment effects, we combine non-experimental causal empirical models with Lasso-type estimators. The empirical analyses are based on rich administrative data from Swiss social security records. We find considerable heterogeneities only during the first six months after the start of training. Consistent with previous results of the literature, unemployed persons with fewer employment opportunities profit more from participating in these programmes. Furthermore, we also document heterogeneous employment effects by residence status. Finally, we show the potential of easy-to-implement programme participation rules for improving average employment effects of these active labour market programmes. |
| Keywords: | active labour market policy; conditional average treatment effects; individualized treatment effects; Machine Learning |
| JEL: | C21 H43 J68 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12224&r=lab |
| By: | John Haltiwanger; Henry Hyatt; Erika McEntarfer |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we use linked employer-employee data to study the reallocation of heterogeneous workers between heterogeneous firms. We build on recent evidence of a cyclical job ladder that reallocates workers from low productivity to high productivity firms through job-to-job moves. In this paper we turn to the question of who moves up this job ladder, and the implications for worker sorting across firms. Not surprisingly, we find that job-to-job moves reallocate younger workers disproportionately from less productive to more productive firms. More surprisingly, especially in the context of the recent literature on assortative matching with on-the-job search, we find that job-to-job moves disproportionately reallocate less-educated workers up the job ladder. This finding holds even though we find that more educated workers are more likely to work with more productive firms. We find that while more educated workers are less likely to match to low productivity firms, they are even less likely to separate from them, with less educated workers both more likely to separate to a better employer in expansions and to be shaken off the ladder (separate to nonemployment) in contractions. Our findings underscore the cyclical role job-to-job moves play in matching workers to higher productivity and better paying employers. |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J63 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23693&r=lab |
| By: | Ling Li (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University, 426 Eggers Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244); Shawn Rohlin (Department of Economics, Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, Kent State University); Perry Singleton (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University, 426 Eggers Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the dynamic relationship between union elections and occupational safety among manufacturing establishments. Data on union elections come from the National Labor Relations Board, and data on workplace inspections and accident case rates come from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The results indicate that union elections improved occupational safety. First, workplace inspections trended upwards before the election, then decreased immediately after the election, due almost entirely to employee complaints. Second, accident case rates were relatively stable before the election, then trended downwards after the election, due to accidents involving days away from work, job restrictions, and job transfers. These effects are evident regardless of the election outcome. Based on the value of statistical injury, the improvement in occupational safety is equivalent to an increase in the hourly wage between $0.47 and $2.62. |
| Keywords: | Unions, Occupational Safety, OSHA |
| JEL: | J28 J51 J81 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:max:cprwps:205&r=lab |
| By: | Daniel Aaronson; Rajeev Dehejia; Andrew Jordan; Cristian Pop-Eleches; Cyrus Samii; Karl Schulze |
| Abstract: | This paper documents the evolving impact of childbearing on the work activity of mothers. Based on a compiled dataset of 441 censuses and surveys between 1787 and 2015, representing 103 countries and 48.4 million mothers, we document three main findings: (1) the effect of fertility on labor supply is small and typically indistinguishable from zero at low levels of development and economically large and negative at higher levels of development; (2) this negative gradient is remarkably consistent across histories of currently developed countries and contemporary cross-sections of countries; and (3) the results are strikingly robust to identification strategies, model specification, data construction, and rescaling. We explain our results within a standard labor-leisure model and attribute the negative labor supply gradient to changes in the sectoral and occupational structure of female jobs as countries develop. |
| JEL: | J13 J22 N30 O15 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23717&r=lab |
| By: | Pinka Chatterji; Xiangshi Liu; Baris K. Yoruk |
| Abstract: | We test whether the ACA dependent care provision is associated with young adults’ propensity to live with/near parents and to receive food assistance. Data come from the 2008 Survey of Income and Program Participation. Findings indicate that the provision is associated with a 3.0 percentage point increase in young adults’ living with parents during the period in which the ACA had been passed but the provision was not effective, and a 6.0 percentage point increase during the time between the provision becoming effective and the end of 2013. In some specifications, the provision is associated with reduced use of food assistance. |
| JEL: | I0 I13 J1 J62 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23700&r=lab |
| By: | Bagir, Yusuf |
| Abstract: | Turkey received about 2.7 million refugees between 2011 and 2015. This paper examines the causal relationship between the Syrian refugee induced increase in labor supply and natives’ labor market outcomes in Turkey using the micro level Household Labor Force Surveys. The migration impact is analyzed in two distinct categories considering the motives behind the migration decision. The initial migration to the border regions is assumed to be completely exogenous and defined as the primary migration. Hence, a standard difference in differences strategy is employed to estimate the labor market impacts in those regions. On the other hand, migration from the primary regions towards the inner regions in Turkey (secondary migration) has suffered from the endogenous selection issues. To handle these concerns, I developed an instrumental variables estimation method following David Card (2009)’s ethnic enclave approach. I found statistically significant negative employment and wage effects on the low-skilled and less-experienced individuals in the primary migration analysis. The decline in the wages of informal workers is the main contributor of the negative wage effects. Secondary migration has no impact on the employment at all but there are statistically significant negative wage effects on the low-skilled and less-experienced workers. |
| Keywords: | Syrian Refugees, Turkey, Labor Economics, İnternational Economics, Migration Economics |
| JEL: | J1 J10 J2 J3 J6 J61 |
| Date: | 2017–08–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80803&r=lab |
| By: | Gerald J. Pruckner; Thomas Schober; Katrin Zocher (JKU, Austria) |
| Abstract: | There is widespread agreement that behavior crucially influences one’s health. However, little is known about what actually determines health-related behavior. We explore the impact of the place where many people spend most of their time, at work, and analyze whether an individual’s decision to participate in health screening is related to the observed behavior of peers at work. We use linked employer-employee data and exploit the transitions of workers to new jobs. We find the health behavior of co-workers highly correlated. A comparison of individuals moving into new firms shows that participation in general health checks, mammography screening, and prostate-specific antigen tests increases with the share of work peers attending these screenings. To differentiate between peer effects and common influences at the workplace, we further separate the peer groups within firms and show that workers with similar characteristics tend to have a stronger effect on individual screening participation. |
| Keywords: | : Health behavior, screening, peer effects, workplace. |
| JEL: | I10 I12 D83 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2017_07&r=lab |
| By: | Russell Cooper; Moritz Meyer; Immo Schott |
| Abstract: | We study the employment and output effects of the short-time work (STW) policy in Germany between 2009 and 2010. This intervention facilitated reductions in hours worked per employee with the goal of preventing layoffs. Using confidential German micro-level data we estimate a search model with heterogeneous multi-worker firms as a basis for policy analysis. Our findings suggest that STW can prevent increases in unemployment during a recession. However, the policy leads to a decrease in the allocative efficiency of the labor market, resulting in significant output losses. These effects arise from a reduction in the vacancy filling rate resulting from the policy intervention. |
| JEL: | E24 E32 E65 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23688&r=lab |
| By: | Anand, Smriti; Hasan, Iftekhar; Sharma, Priyanka; Wang, Haizhi |
| Abstract: | Non-compete agreements (also known as Covenants Not to Compete or CNCs) are frequently used by many businesses in an attempt to maintain their competitive advantage by safeguarding their human capital and the associated business secrets. Although the choice of whether to include CNCs in employment contracts is made by firms, the real extent of their restrictiveness is determined by the state laws. In this paper, we explore the effect of state level CNC enforceability on firm productivity. We assert that an increase in state level CNC enforceability is detrimental to firm productivity, and this relationship becomes stronger as comparable job opportunities become more concentrated in a firm’s home state. On the other hand, this negative relationship is weakened as employee compensation tends to become more long-term oriented. Results based on hierarchical linear modeling analysis of 21,134 firm-year observations for 3,027 unique firms supported all three hypotheses. |
| JEL: | J61 K2 O31 |
| Date: | 2017–08–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bof:bofrdp:2017_024&r=lab |
| By: | Cheng, Zhiming; Wang, Ben Zhe; Taksa, Lucy |
| Abstract: | This study uses the longitudinal data from the Building a New Life in Australia survey to examine the relationships between human capital and labour market participation and employment status among recently arrived/approved humanitarian migrants. It includes attention to the heterogeneity of labour force participation and employment status across genders and also migration pathways. We find that the likelihood of participating in the labour force is higher for those who had preimmigration paid job experience, completed study/job training and have job searching knowledge/skills in Australia and possess higher proficiency in spoken English. We find that the chance of getting a paid job is negatively related to having better pre-immigration education, but it is positively related to having unpaid work experience and job searching skills in Australia, and better health. |
| Keywords: | Australia,humanitarian migrant,human capital,labour force participation,employment status |
| JEL: | J15 J21 J24 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:106&r=lab |
| By: | Wang, Zhiling; de Graaff, Thomas; Nijkamp, Peter |
| Abstract: | We examine the heterogeneous impacts of foreign language use at work on earnings of both native-born workers and foreign-born workers, using a longitudinal survey, viz. the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) running from 1994 to 2001. Our findings are the following. First, for native-born workers with a tertiary diploma, using a foreign language at work is found to have an unambiguously positive impact on their earnings (2% on average). Second, for foreign-born workers, returns to foreign language use at work is highly complementary to education. Foreign language users below the upper secondary educational level earn significantly less (¡8%) than those who use the local language at work. Third, with regard to language types, a linguistically distant foreign language gives native-born workers the highest wage premium, while the use of EU official languages pays off the most for foreign-born workers. Fourth, our results do not show evidence that the lack of local language knowledge of low-educated migrants causes these results, as immigrants for whom themother tongue is similar to the local language show a similar pattern. |
| Keywords: | foreign language at work,earnings,native-born,foreign-born |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:104&r=lab |
| By: | Raj Chetty (Harvard University); John N. Friedman (Brown University); Emmanuel Saez (University of California, Berkeley); Nicholas Turner (US Treasury); Danny Yagan (University of California, Berkeley) |
| Abstract: | We characterize intergenerational income mobility at each college in the United States using data for over 30 million college students from 1999-2013. We document four results. First, access to colleges varies greatly by parent income. For example, children whose parents are in the top 1% of the income distribution are 77 times more likely to attend an Ivy League college than those whose parents are in the bottom income quintile. Second, children from low- and high-income families have similar earnings outcomes conditional on the college they attend, indicating that low-income students are not mismatched at selective colleges. Third, rates of upward mobility – the fraction of students who come from families in the bottom income quintile and reach the top quintile – differ substantially across colleges because low-income access varies significantly across colleges with similar earnings outcomes. Rates of bottom-to-top quintile mobility are highest at certain mid-tier public universities, such as the City University of New York and California State colleges. Rates of upper-tail (bottom quintile to top 1%) mobility are highest at elite colleges, such as Ivy League universities. Fourth, the fraction of students from low-income families did not change substantially between 2000-2011 at elite private colleges, but fell sharply at colleges with the highest rates of bottom-to-top-quintile mobility. Although our descriptive analysis does not identify colleges’ causal effects on students’ outcomes, the publicly available statistics constructed here highlight colleges that deserve further study as potential engines of upward mobility. |
| Keywords: | income mobility, college students, role of education |
| JEL: | J62 H75 I24 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2017-059&r=lab |
| By: | Charles Goodhart; Manoj Pradhan |
| Abstract: | Between the 1980s and the 2000s, the largest ever positive labour supply shock occurred, resulting from demographic trends and from the inclusion of China and eastern Europe into the World Trade Organization. This led to a shift in manufacturing to Asia, especially China; a stagnation in real wages; a collapse in the power of private sector trade unions; increasing inequality within countries, but less inequality between countries; deflationary pressures; and falling interest rates. This shock is now reversing. As the world ages, real interest rates will rise, inflation and wage growth will pick up and inequality will fall. What is the biggest challenge to our thesis? The hardest prior trend to reverse will be that of low interest rates, which have resulted in a huge and persistent debt overhang, apart from some deleveraging in advanced economy banks. Future problems may now intensify as the demographic structure worsens, growth slows, and there is little stomach for major inflation. Are we in a trap where the debt overhang enforces continuing low interest rates, and those low interest rates encourage yet more debt finance? There is no silver bullet, but we recommend policy measures to switch from debt to equity finance. |
| Keywords: | demography, global labor supply, ageing, real interest rates, inequality |
| JEL: | J11 J18 E43 D63 E31 H63 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:656&r=lab |