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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Cords, Dario |
| Abstract: | In recent years, Germany and other European countries face the strongest immigration flow in their history. Experts unanimously agree that one of the core factors of a successful social integration is the labor market participation of the new arrivals. This paper investigates the impact of low-skilled immigration on a unionized economy with labor market frictions. It especially examines how immigration affects the technology choice of firms and, thereby, the technological alignment of the host country. The labor market is characterized by heterogeneity on both sides of the market. Within this framework, it can be shown that low-skilled immigration encourages firms to invest more in a basic technology, which leads to a deterioration of the technology level in the whole economy. It can be further shown that policies, which improve the access of already existing low-skilled immigrants to the labor market counteract the effect that is triggered by an increase in low-skilled immigration. |
| Keywords: | Immigration,Technology Choice,Search and Matching,Labor Unions,Skillheterogeneity |
| JEL: | F22 J24 J31 J51 J61 J64 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hohdps:202017&r=lab |
| By: | Böhlmark, Anders (Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University, IFAU, CReAM); Willén, Alexander (Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University, USA) |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of ethnic residential segregation on short- and long-term education and labor market outcomes of immigrants and natives. Our identification strategy builds on the one-sided tipping point model, which predicts that neighborhood native population growth drops discontinuously once the immigrant share exceeds a certain threshold. After having identified a statistically and economically significant discontinuity in native population growth at candidate tipping points in the three metropolitan areas of Sweden between 1990 and 2000, we show that these thresholds also are associated with a discontinuous jump in ethnic residential segregation. We exploit these thresholds to estimate the intent-to-treat effect of tipping. We find modest adverse education effects among both immigrants and natives. These effects do not carry over to the labor market. |
| Keywords: | residential segregation; education; labor market; regression discontinuity |
| JEL: | J15 J16 R23 |
| Date: | 2017–08–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2017_014&r=lab |
| By: | Gordon Hanson; Chen Liu; Craig McIntosh |
| Abstract: | From the 1970s to the early 2000s, the United States experienced an epochal wave of low-skilled immigration. Since the Great Recession, however, U.S. borders have become a far less active place when it comes to the net arrival of foreign workers. The number of undocumented immigrants has declined in absolute terms, while the overall population of low-skilled, foreign-born workers has remained stable. We examine how the scale and composition of low-skilled immigration in the United States have evolved over time, and how relative income growth and demographic shifts in the Western Hemisphere have contributed to the recent immigration slowdown. Because major source countries for U.S. immigration are now seeing and will continue to see weak growth of the labor supply relative to the United States, future immigration rates of young, low-skilled workers appear unlikely to rebound, whether or not U.S. immigration policies tighten further. |
| JEL: | J11 J15 J61 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23753&r=lab |
| By: | Pagano, Marco (University of Naples Federico II); Picariello, Luca (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| 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:hhs:nhheco:2017_011&r=lab |
| By: | Stefania Albanesi; Ayşegül Şahin |
| Abstract: | The gender unemployment gap, the difference between female and male unemployment rates, was positive until the early 1980s. This gap disappeared after 1983, except during recessions, when men’s unemployment rate has always exceeded women’s. Using a calibrated three-state search model, we show that the convergence in female and male labor force attachment accounts for most of the closing of the gender unemployment gap. Evidence from nineteen OECD countries is consistent with this finding. We show that gender differences in industry composition are the main source of the cyclicality of the unemployment gap. |
| JEL: | E24 J16 J21 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23743&r=lab |
| By: | Clément Gorin (Univ Lyon, UJM Saint-Etenne, GATE L-SE UMR 5824, F-42023 Saint- Etienne, France) |
| Abstract: | Empirical studies on the geography of innovation have established that skilled workers’ mobility and collaboration networks shape the diffusion of knowledge across firms and regions. At the same time, the literature on absorptive capacity insisted on the importance of local research capabilities to take advantage of knowledge developed elsewhere. This paper inves- tigates both phenomena in an integrated framework by assuming that mobility and networks provide access to knowledge, but the proportion of accessible knowledge effectively used for innovation depends on absorptive capacity. Such complementaries in regional research efforts are effectively captured using a spatial Durbin model in which the connectivity structure stems from mobility and collaboration patterns. Results confirm the relative importance of these two channels in the diffusion of knowledge, and suggests that human capital increases absorptive capacity. These findings have implications for the geography of innovation. While greater accessibility encourages convergence, the notion of absorptive capacity implies a self-reinforcing effect leading to divergence. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Mobility, Network, Absorptive capacity, Spatial Durbin model, Urban areas |
| JEL: | C33 J61 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:1722&r=lab |
| By: | Åslund, Olof (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Forslund, Anders (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Liljeberg, Linus (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy) |
| Abstract: | We describe the short- and long-term patterns of labour market entry and integration among Non-Western, predominantly non-labour, immigrants to Sweden. Our main sample considers the 1990-2014 period. The patterns of time to first contact and labour market entry vary with business cycle conditions, country of origin and other background characteristics. But the main message is the remarkable stability of a relatively slow entry process and long-term outcomes below those of the average worker. The number of jobs before the “first real job” (entry) is limited and the first employer contact is for many a port to a more stable position. First jobs are comparatively often found in small, low-wage firms, which over time have become increasingly present in service industries. Our discussion of policy experiences suggests several margins and factors affecting the labour market outcomes of recent migrants, but also indicates that no single reform or measure is likely to in itself radically change the patterns. |
| Keywords: | immigration; Labour market entry; integration policy |
| JEL: | J61 J68 |
| Date: | 2017–08–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2017_015&r=lab |
| By: | John, June |
| Abstract: | Gender differences in competition have been demonstrated in a variety of contexts, yet it remains unclear how people respond to competitors they perceive to be hard or easy, and whether gender differences exist in this response. I run an experiment in eighteen public high school classrooms to study the effect of competing in a math task against different levels of competitors. I exploit natural sorting within grade levels in Malaysian public schools to randomly assign competitors of different perceived difficulty levels. Using a standard competition measure, males are significantly more competitive than females. However, when students face harder competitors, males respond by lowering performance while the performance of females does not vary significantly by level of competition. |
| Keywords: | gender differences; competition; gender performance; tournament; piece-rate; information |
| JEL: | I20 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2017–08–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:81072&r=lab |