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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Andreas Landmann; Helke Seitz; Susan Steiner |
| Abstract: | Many people around the world live in patrilocal societies. Patrilocality prescribes that women move in with their husbands’ parents, relieve their in-laws from housework, and care for them in old age. This arrangement is likely to have labour market consequences, in particular for the women. We study the effect of co-residence on female labour supply in Kyrgyzstan, a strongly patrilocal setting. We account for the endogeneity of co-residence by exploiting the tradition that youngest sons usually live with their parents. In both OLS and IV estimations, the effect of co-residence on female labour supply is negative and insignificant. This is in contrast to previous studies, which found positive effects in less patrilocal settings. We go beyond earlier work by investigating effect channels. In Kyrgyzstan, co-residing women invest more time in elder care than women who do not co-reside and they do not receive parental support in child care or housework. |
| Keywords: | Family Structure, Co-residence, Labour Supply, Patrilocality, Kyrgyzstan |
| JEL: | J12 J21 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1705&r=lab |
| By: | Giulia Mancini |
| Abstract: | The economic history of women in Italy is still very much in its infancy. Not only there are few quantitative historical interpretations that explicitly include women, but there is also close to no evidence on many key variables describing women’s evolving economic role, wellbeing, and inequality relative to men throughout the country’s history. This paper takes the first step toward filling this gap: it builds a new time series of female labor force participation for post-Unification Italy, that adjusts census-based estimates using both aggregate and micro-data from alternative sources, including historical household budget surveys. Women’s work before the Second World War was more pervasive than previously thought, and female labor supply has a decidedly asymmetric U-shape throughout Italy’s history. These findings prompt new questions on the consequences of economic development on women’s wellbeing in Italy. |
| Keywords: | female work, gender, historical household budgets, INEA, Italy, labor force participation, marriage records |
| JEL: | J16 N22 N34 |
| Date: | 2017–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hbu:wpaper:8&r=lab |
| By: | Malte Preuss; Juliane Hennecke |
| Abstract: | Due to its extraordinary explanatory power for individual behavior, the interest in the concept of locus of control (LOC) has increased substantially within applied economic research. But, even though LOC has been found to affect economic behavior in many ways, the reliability of these findings is at risk as they commonly rely on the assumption that LOC is stable over the life course. While absolute stability has been generally rejected, the extent to which LOC and thus personality changes is, nonetheless, strongly debated. We contribute to this discussion by analyzing the effect of unemployment on LOC. Based on German panel data, we apply a difference-in-difference approach by using an involuntary job loss as trigger for unemployment. Overall, we find a significant shift in stated LOC due to unemployment. Because the effect is observable during unemployment only and not heterogeneous with respect to individual characteristics or unemployment duration, we conclude that only the stated LOC is biased during unemployment but the underlying personality trait itself is not affected. |
| Keywords: | personality, locus of control, unemployment, measurement error |
| JEL: | C83 J24 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp943&r=lab |
| By: | Ana Cuadros (IIE and Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Joan Martín-Montaner (IIE and Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Jordi Paniagua (IIE and Department of Economic Structure, University of Valencia, Spain) |
| Abstract: | This paper models and quantifies the role played by migrants occupying a variety of jobs positions (managers, professional and non-qualified) in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Higher shares of migrants with management skills are expected to mitigate management and transaction costs of foreign affiliates. We test our model on a global panel data set of Greenfield bilateral investment with wide variety of gravity specifications, both at the extensive and intensive margins. The paper provides a novel rationale for the heterogeneous effects of low-skilled migration and new insights into the mechanisms by which migration operates in the firm’s FDI decisions, with particular attention to the relevance of firm size and activity. |
| Keywords: | migration; foreign Direct Investment; FDI; job skills; gravity equation; extensive margin |
| JEL: | F21 F22 F23 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2017/15&r=lab |
| By: | Sophie Piton |
| Abstract: | From the introduction of the Euro up to the 2008 global financial crisis, macroeconomic imbalances widened among Member States. This divergence took the form of strong differences in the dynamics of unit labor costs. This paper asks why this happened. Is it the result of distortionary public spending, or the consequence of economic integration? To answer this question, this paper builds a theoretical framework that is able to provide a decomposition of unit labor costs growth into various effects of economic integration and policy intervention. Using a novel dataset, it then measures the contribution of each effect to the dynamics of unit labor costs in 12 countries of the Euro area from 1995 to 2014. Results show that trade and financial integration are significant drivers of unit labor costs divergence. Before the global financial crisis, in Greece and Portugal for example, trade and financial integration explain up to 20% of the increase in unit labor costs relative to core countries. On the contrary, distortionary public spending plays a minor role. |
| JEL: | F41 O41 O47 O52 |
| Date: | 2017–12–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jmp:jm2017:ppi361&r=lab |
| By: | Breunig, Christoph (Humboldt University Berlin) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a test for missing at random (MAR). The MAR assumption is shown to be testable given instrumental variables which are independent of response given potential outcomes. A nonparametric testing procedure based on integrated squared distance is proposed. The statistic\'s asymptotic distribution under the MAR hypothesis is derived. In particular, our results can be applied to testing missing completely at random (MCAR). A Monte Carlo study examines finite sample performance of our test statistic. An empirical illustration analyzes the nonresponse mechanism in labor income questions. |
| Keywords: | incomplete data; missing-data mechanism; selection model; nonparametric hypothesis testing; consistent testing; instrumental variable; series estimation; |
| JEL: | C12 C14 |
| Date: | 2017–12–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:59&r=lab |
| By: | Nieminen, Mika; Heimonen, Kari; Tohmo, Timo |
| Abstract: | This study provides novel evidence on the impact of labor market institutions on current account dynamics. Our results suggest that a high degree of coordination of wage bargaining has a positive effect on the current account balance over the long run. This result is not driven entirely by wage moderation induced by centralized wage setting, however. A high degree of coordination of wage bargaining is associated with a slower current account adjustment toward its long-run equilibrium. This result seems theoretically plausible; the aggregate shocks in the exporting sector are largely driven by idiosyncratic shocks and the presence of idiosyncratic shocks increases the importance of labor market flexibility. This analysis of the impact of labor market institutions on current account balances complements the existing empirical current account literature focused on macroeconomic and financial measures. |
| JEL: | F21 F32 F41 |
| Date: | 2017–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bof:bofitp:2017_020&r=lab |
| By: | Zhou, Haiwen |
| Abstract: | While financial or trade integration between countries may increase the size of the market and helps the adoption of more advanced technologies, will it also increase the level of urban unemployment for a developing country? In this model, there is unemployment in the urban sector. Manufacturing firms engage in oligopolistic competition and choose increasing returns technologies to maximize profits. Financial firms provide capital to manufacturing firms and they also engage in oligopolistic competition. We show that an increase in the wage rate in the manufacturing sector changes neither the level of technology nor the level of employment in the manufacturing sector. While financial or trade integration between developing countries leads manufacturing firms to adopt more advanced technologies, the level and rate of employment in the manufacturing sector will not deteriorate. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, economic development, financial integration, international trade, choice of technology |
| JEL: | D43 F12 O10 |
| Date: | 2017–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:83313&r=lab |
| By: | Avram, Silvia; Canto, Olga |
| Abstract: | Using EU-SILC data for 2005 and 2011, we compare the role of family background on labour outcomes in three EU countries that experienced large swings in unemployment during this period. We use a multidimensional family background indicator that avoids undesirable cohort effects. Our results suggest that family background affects employment prospects and job quality (hourly wages and contract insecurity), and that human capital formation explains a significant part (but not all) of the family background effects. There is significant cross-national variation in the extent to which human capital can explain the effects of family background. Finally, we do not find any evidence that the effect of family background is substantially moderated by the economic cycle in any of our countries. |
| Date: | 2017–12–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2017-15&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre Chausse (Department of Economics, University of Waterloo); George Luta (Department of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics and Biomathematics, Georgetown University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we propose a one step method for estimating the average treatment effect, when the assignment to treatment is not random. We use a misspecified generalized empirical likelihood setup in which we constrain the sample to be balanced. We show that the implied probabilities that we obtain play a similar role as the weights from the weighting methods based on the propensity score. In Monte Carlo simulations, we show that GEL dominates many existing methods in terms of bias and root mean squared errors. We then apply our method to the training program studied by Lalonde (1986). |
| JEL: | C21 C13 J01 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wat:wpaper:1707&r=lab |
| By: | Francesco Fasani (QMUL, CReAM, IZA and CEPR); Tommaso Frattini (University of Milan, LdA, CReAM, IZA and CEPR); Luigi Minale (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, CReAM and IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the labour market performance of refugees vis-à -vis comparable migrants across several EU countries and over time. We use recently released repeated cross–sectional survey data and find that refugees are 13% less likely to have a job and 32% more likely to be unemployed than migrants with similar characteristics. Their performance is relatively weaker also when analysing participation in the labour market, quality of occupation and income. Between 60 and 80% of the “refugee gap†remains unexplained even when conditioning on unobservable factors by means of a rich set of fixed effects for areas of origin, entry cohorts, destination countries as well as their interactions. These gaps are larger for the areas of origin from which most refugees currently arrive and they persist until about ten years after immigration. We also assess the role played by asylum policies. First, we exploit the differential timing of the enactment of dispersal policies across European countries in a difference–in–differences setup and find that refugee cohorts exposed to these polices have persistently worse labour market outcomes. Second, we document how entry cohorts admitted when refugee status’ recognition rates were relatively high integrate better in the host country labour market. |
| Keywords: | Asylum seekers; Assimilation; Refugee gap; Asylum policies |
| JEL: | F22 J61 J15 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1716&r=lab |
| By: | Ayşe Abbasoğlu Özgören (Department of Demography, Hacettepe University Institute of Population Studies, Ankara, Turkey); Banu Ergöçmen (Department of Demography, Hacettepe University Institute of Population Studies, Ankara, Turkey); Aysıt Tansel (Department of Economics, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Bonn, Germany; Economic Research Forum (ERF) Cairo, Egypt) |
| Abstract: | The relationship between fertility and employment among women is a challenging topic that requires further exploration, especially for developing countries where the micro and macro evidence fails to paint a clear picture. This study analyzes the two-way relationship between women’s employment and fertility in Turkey using a hazard approach with piece-wise constant exponential modelling, using data from the 2008 Turkey Demographic and Health Survey. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that makes use of an event history analysis to analyze this relationship within a developing country context. Specifically, a separate analysis is made of the association between the employment statuses of women in their first, second, third, and fourth and higher order conceptions, and the association of fertility and its various dimensions with entry and exit from employment. The findings suggest that a two-way negative association exists between fertility and employment among women in Turkey, with increasing intensities identified among some groups of women. Our findings also cast light on how contextual changes related to the incompatibility of the roles of worker and mother have transformed the fertility-employment relationship in Turkey, in line with propositions of the role incompatibility hypothesis. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, Employment, Women, Event History Analysis, Turkey. |
| JEL: | C41 J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:met:wpaper:1716&r=lab |
| By: | Kantur, Zeynep; Keskin, Kerim |
| Abstract: | Although New Keynesian models with labor market frictions found an increase in unemployment and a decrease in labor market tightness in response to a positive technology shock (which appears to be in line with recent empirical findings), the volatilities of unemployment and labor market tightness are not as high as their empirical counterparts. This calls for the introduction of new tools that will amplify the volatilities of these variables. This paper contributes to the theoretical literature by studying the effect of employment-to-employment flows in a New Keynesian model with labor market frictions. In that regard, the authors assume two types of firms which offer different wage levels, thereby incentivizing low-paid agents to search on-the-job. Differently from the literature, the main source of wage dispersion is the assumption of different bargaining powers of firms motivated by the strength of labor unions. The authors show that the proposed model generates a higher volatility of unemployment and labor market tightness in response to a positive technology shock compared to the model without on-the-job search without causing a change in the responses of the other variables. |
| Keywords: | New Keynesian model,employment-to-employment flow,unemployment fluctuations,the Shimer puzzle,search and matching |
| JEL: | E12 E24 E32 J63 J65 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201799&r=lab |