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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Partick Nüß |
| Abstract: | Based on a correspondence experiment covering 3,124 fictitious job applications, the paper identifies and quantifies duration dependence in Germany, with a particular emphasis on company and vacancy characteristics as potential determinants. The experiment reveals that duration dependence manifests itself in a sharp decline of 26% to 35% in callbacks when an individual has been unemployed for 10 months, pointing to the existence of an unemployment stigma for Germany. The results are driven by labor market tightness, companies' access to applicants and screening behavior related to company size, with no evidence for an unemployment stigma determined by the contract type. |
| Keywords: | Field Experiments, Labor Demand, Unemployment, Unemployment Duration, Labor Discrimination |
| JEL: | C93 J23 J60 J64 J71 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imk:wpaper:184-2017&r=lab |
| By: | Kudlyak, Marianna (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco); Lange, Fabian (McGill University) |
| Abstract: | We introduce a novel approach to studying heterogeneity in job finding rates by classifying the non-employed, the unemployed and those out of the labor force (OLF), according to their labor force status (LFS) histories using four-month panels in the CPS. Respondents’ LFS histories outperform current-month responses to survey questions about duration and reason for unemployment, desire to work, or reasons for not searching in predicting future employment. We find that the best predictor of future employment for the non-employed is their duration since last employment. For those OLF, the duration since last employment is only available via LFS histories and cannot be inferred from current-month responses. Those who were recently employed are twice as likely to find a job as those who report wanting a job. For the unemployed, the duration since last employment is a better predictor of future employment than the self-reported duration of unemployment is, as the two duration measures often disagree. The disagreement is not caused by classification error but rather arises because self-reported durations reflect individuals’ in short-term jobs either temporarily suspending their search or continuing search while working. Recent employment breaks negative duration dependence in unemployment exits and the unemployed who report long durations after recent employment have similar job finding rates as those who report short durations. Using our proposed approach, we reexamine the unemployment duration distribution and current approach to misclassification error in the CPS. |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J30 J41 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2017–09–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedfwp:2017-20&r=lab |
| By: | Elena Grinza (Department of Economics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino, Italy); Francesco Devicienti (Department of Economics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino, Italy); Mariacristina Rossi (Department of Economics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino, Italy); Davide Vannoni (Department of Economics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino, Italy) |
| Abstract: | Attitudes of women and men about how paid and unpaid work should be divided in the couple largely determine women's earnings and career prospects. Hence, it is important to understand how people's gender role attitudes are formed and evolve over the lifetime. In this paper, we concentrate on one of the most path-breaking events in life: becoming a parent. Using longitudinal panel data for the UK, we first show that, in general, entry into parenthood significantly shifts women's attitudes toward more conservative views, while leaving men unaffected. We also show that the impact on women emerges only after some time from the childbirth, suggesting that attitudes change relatively slowly over time and do not react immediately after becoming a parent. Finally, we show that the impact gets large and strongly significant for women and men whose prenatal attitudes were progressive. In particular, we find that the change in attitudes for such individuals increases as the postnatal arrangements are more likely to be traditional. Overall, these findings suggest that the change in attitudes is mainly driven by the emergence of a cognitive dissonance. Broad policy implications are drawn. |
| Keywords: | Gender equality, Gender role attitudes, Entry into parenthood, Cognitive dissonance, Changes in the hormonal production, Understanding Society (US) dataset |
| JEL: | J16 J13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tur:wpapnw:042&r=lab |
| By: | Christoph Albert (UPF); Joan Monras (CEMFI and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the causes and effects of the spatial distribution of immigrants across US cities. We document that: a) immigrants concentrate in large, high-wage, and expensive cities, b) the earnings gap between immigrants and natives is higher in larger and more expensive cities, and c) immigrants consume less locally than natives. In order to explain these findings, we develop a simple quantitative spatial equilibrium model in which immigrants consume (either directly, via remittances, or future consumption) a fraction of their income in their countries of origin. Thus, immigrants not only care about local prices, but also about price levels in their home country. Hence, if foreign goods are cheaper than local goods, immigrants prefer to live in high-wage, high-price, and high-productivity cities, where they also accept lower wages than natives. Using the estimated model we show that current levels of immigration have reduced economic activity in smaller, less productive cities by around 3 percent while they have expanded the activity in large and productive cities by around 4 percent. This has increased total aggregate output per worker by around .15 percent. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, location choices, spatial equilibrium |
| JEL: | F22 J31 J61 R11 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1707&r=lab |
| By: | Mouganie, Pierre; Wang, Yaojing |
| Abstract: | Women have historically been underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) jobs. There are concerns that the persistence of this gap over time is in part due to path dependence and the historical lack of high-performing women in these fields. This paper uses administrative data from China to examine the extent to which the presence of high-performing peers in mathematics affects the likelihood that women choose a science track during high school. Results indicate that exposure to a higher proportion of high-performing females increases girls' likelihood of majoring in STEM, while exposure to more high-performing males reduces it. There is little evidence that boys' major decisions are affected by their peers. Our results indicate that high-achieving girls in quantitative fields may have a role model or affirmation effect that encourages their female classmates to pursue a path in science. |
| Keywords: | STEM, Peer Quality, Gender Effects, China |
| JEL: | I20 J01 J70 |
| Date: | 2017–10–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:81860&r=lab |
| By: | Celia Melguizo (AQR-IREA, University of Barcelona. Diagonal Av. 690, 08034, Barcelona, Spain.); Vicente Royuela (AQR-IREA, University of Barcelona. Diagonal Av. 690, 08034, Barcelona, Spain.) |
| Abstract: | In Spain, economic disparities between regions have traditionally played a relevant role in migration. Nevertheless, during the previous high-instability period, analyses provided conflicting results about the effect of these variables. In this work, we aim to determine the role that labour market factors play in internal migration during the Great Recession, paying special attention to the migration response of the heterogeneous population groups. To do so, we resort to an extended gravity model and we consider as a territorial unit the 45 Spanish Functional Urban Areas. Our results point to real wages as having a significant influence on migration motivations. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Spanish urban areas, Labour market factors |
| JEL: | C23 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xrp:wpaper:xreap2017-03&r=lab |
| By: | Malte Sandner (University College London) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the results of a randomized study of a home visiting program implemented in Germany for low-income, first-time mothers. A major goal of the program is to improve the participants' economic self-sufficiency and family planning. I use administrative data from the German social security system and detailed telephone surveys to examine the effects of the intervention on maternal employment, welfare benefits, and household composition. The study reveals that the intervention unintentionally decreased maternal employment by 8.7 percentage points and increased subsequent births by 6.6 percentage points, in part through a reduction in abortions. |
| Keywords: | early childhood intervention, randomized experiment, fertility |
| JEL: | J13 J12 I21 H52 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2017-074&r=lab |
| By: | Murillo Campello; Janet Gao; Jiaping Qiu; Yue Zhang |
| Abstract: | Unionized workers are entitled to special treatment in bankruptcy court. This can be detrimental to other corporate stakeholders in default states, with unsecured creditors standing to lose the most. Using data on union elections covering several decades, we employ a regression discontinuity design to identify the effect of worker unionization on bondholders in bankruptcy states. Closely won union elections lead to significant bond value losses, especially when firms approach bankruptcy, have underfunded pension plans, and operate in non-RTW law states. Unionization is associated with longer, more convoluted, and costlier bankruptcy court proceedings. Unions further depress bondholders' recovery values as they are assigned seats on unsecured creditors' committees. |
| JEL: | G32 G33 J51 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23869&r=lab |
| By: | Louis Kaplow |
| Abstract: | Despite decades of research on mechanism design and on many practical aspects of cost-benefit analysis, one of the most basic and ubiquitous features of regulation as actually implemented throughout the world has received little theoretical attention: exemptions for small firms. These firms may generate a disproportionate share of harm due to their being exempt and because exemption induces additional harmful activity to be channeled their way. This article analyzes optimal regulation with exemptions where firms have different productivities that are unobservable to the regulator, regulated and unregulated output each cause harm although at different levels, and the regulatory regime affects entry as well as the output choices of regulated and unregulated firms. In many settings, optimal schemes involve subtle effects and have counterintuitive features: for example, higher regulatory costs need not favor higher exemptions, and the incentives of firms to drop output to become exempt can be too weak as well as too strong. A final section examines the optimal use of output taxation alongside regulation, which illustrates the contrast with the mechanism design approach that analyzes the optimal use of instruments of a type that are not in widespread use. |
| JEL: | D61 D62 H23 J88 K20 K23 K32 K42 L51 Q58 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23887&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Ochsner |
| Abstract: | I study the economic consequences of the Red Army’s misdeeds after WWII. I exploit differences in spatial economic activity across the arbitrarily drawn and only for 74 days lasting liberation demarcation line between the Red Army and the Western Allies in South Austria. Dismantling and pillaging, but also (sexual) crimes made regions liberated by the Red Army a less desirable place to live and to start economic activities compared to adjacent regions. Spatial regression discontinuity (RD) estimates show that the liberation causes a relative population decline by around 26 to 31 percent until the present day. Measures of labor productivity also lag behind in Red Army liberated regions. I explain persistence with the selective migration pattern across the demarcation line in the direct aftermath of WWII. |
| Keywords: | Regional economic activity, population shock, dismantling, Red Army, Austria |
| JEL: | J11 N14 N94 R12 R23 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ifowps:_240&r=lab |
| By: | Michael Clemens (Center for Global Development) |
| Abstract: | Despite the large individual benefits of guest work by the poor in rich countries, agencies charged with global poverty reduction do little to facilitate guest work. This may be because guest work is viewed as a repugnant transaction—one whose harmful side-effects might cause third parties to discourage it. This paper sets out six criteria for a transaction to be repugnant in consequentialist terms, and conducts uncommon tests for repugnance: It uses these criteria to formulate several empirical tests for the repugnance of guest work by Indian construction workers in the United Arab Emirates. It separates the effects of guest work from the correlates of guest work using a natural experiment that quasi-exogenously allocated guest work among a group of several thousand job applicants. The effects offer little evidence that guest work in this setting is typically the cause of repugnant consequences |
| JEL: | F22 J6 O12 O16 O19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:463&r=lab |
| By: | Cowan, Robin (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University); Rossello, Giulia (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | This paper is about the South African job market for PhDs. PhD to first job mobility involves the preferences of both the hiring institution and the candidate. Both want to make the best choice and here institutional prestige plays a crucial role. A university’s prestige is an emergent property of the hiring interactions, so we use a network perspective to measure it. Using this emergent ordering, we compare the subsequent scientific performance of scholars with different changes in the prestige hierarchy. We ask how movements between universities of different prestige from PhD to first job correlates with academic performance. We use data of South African scholars from 1970 to 2004 and we find that those who make large movements in terms of prestige have lower research ratings than those wo do not. Further, those with higher prestige PhD or first job have high research ratings throughout their careers. |
| Keywords: | Academia, South Africa, faculty hiring network, institutional prestige, institutional stratification, scholars research performance, university system, matched pair analysis |
| JEL: | D7 I2 J15 O31 O32 O33 Z13 |
| Date: | 2017–10–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2017046&r=lab |
| By: | Camille Landais; Arash Nekoei; Peter Nilsson; David Seim; Johannes Spinnewijn |
| Abstract: | This paper studies whether adverse selection can rationalize a universal mandate for unemployment insurance (UI). Building on a unique feature of the unemployment policy in Sweden, where workers can opt for supplemental UI coverage above a minimum mandate, we provide the first direct evidence for adverse selection in UI and derive its implications for UI design. We find that the unemployment risk is more than twice as high for workers who buy supplemental coverage, even when controlling for a rich set of observables. Exploiting variation in risk and prices to control for moral hazard, we show how this correlation is driven by substantial risk-based selection. Despite the severe adverse selection, we find that mandating the supplemental coverage is dominated by a design leaving the choice to workers. In this design, a large subsidy for supplemental coverage is optimal and complementary to the use of a minimum mandate. Our findings raise questions about the desirability of the universal mandate of generous UI in other countries, which has not been tested before. |
| Keywords: | Adverse Selection, Unemployment Insurance, Mandate, Subsidy |
| JEL: | H40 J65 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:stippp:33&r=lab |
| By: | Scholz, Robert |
| Abstract: | In the varieties of capitalism literature, Germany is understood as a monolithic model of a coordinated market economy. This analysis shows how institutions for configuring capital and labour at the national level are implemented at state and regional level. By focussing on the labour side this article gives a contribution to the investor dominated shareholder value discussion. It identifies a spatial distinction between capital and labour and concludes a variation of German Models instead of one German Model. |
| Keywords: | Corporate Governance,Labour-Management Relations,Political Economy,Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity,Unternehmensführung,Arbeitgeber-Arbeitnehmer-Beziehungen,Politische Ökonomie,Räumliche Verteilung regionalökonomischer Aktivitäten |
| JEL: | G34 J53 P16 R12 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbgwp:spiii2017301&r=lab |