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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Caliendo, Marco (University of Potsdam); Künn, Steffen (Maastricht University); Mahlstedt, Robert (University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | The appealing idea of geographically relocating unemployed job seekers from depressed to prosperous regions and hence reducing unemployment leads to industrialised countries offering financial support to unemployed job seekers when searching for and/or accepting jobs in distant regions. In this paper, we investigate the impact of the existence of these mobility assistance programmes (MAPs) on the job search behaviour of unemployed workers and how this affects their labour market outcomes. While job search theory predicts a shift in individuals' search effort from local to distant labour markets, consequences for other dimensions of the search behaviour, e.g. reservation wages or the overall search effort, and job-finding probabilities remain theoretically ambiguous. We use survey data on German unemployed job seekers and apply an instrumental variable approach to empirically identify the causal impact of an increased search radius, due to the availability of MAPs, on job search strategies and subsequent labour market outcomes. The results show that the existence of MAPs shifts individuals' search effort from local to distant regions without affecting the total number of job applications. The increase in search radius causes a higher geographical mobility and hence higher employment probabilities and wages. |
| Keywords: | job search, active labour market policy, labour market mobility, instrumental variable approach |
| JEL: | J61 J68 D04 C21 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11169&r=lab |
| By: | Janna E. Johnson; Morris M. Kleiner |
| Abstract: | Occupational licensure, one of the most significant labor market regulations in the United States, may restrict the interstate movement of workers. We analyze the interstate migration of 22 licensed occupations. Using an empirical strategy that controls for unobservable characteristics that drive long-distance moves, we find that the between-state migration rate for individuals in occupations with state-specific licensing exam requirements is 36 percent lower relative to members of other occupations. Members of licensed occupations with national licensing exams show no evidence of limited interstate migration. The size of this effect varies across occupations and appears to be tied to the state specificity of licensing requirements. We also provide evidence that the adoption of reciprocity agreements, which lower re-licensure costs, increases the interstate migration rate of lawyers. Based on our results, we estimate that the rise in occupational licensing can explain part of the documented decline in interstate migration and job transitions in the United States. |
| JEL: | H7 J01 J08 J1 J11 J18 J24 J44 J58 J6 J8 K0 K2 K31 L38 L51 L98 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24107&r=lab |
| By: | Frimmel, Wolfgang (Johannes Kepler University Linz and Christian Doppler Laboratory Aging, Health and the Labor Market); Halla, Martin (Johannes Kepler University Linz, Christian Doppler Laboratory Aging, Health and the Labor Market, IZA, Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn and G¨OG, Austrian Public Health Institute, Vienna); Schmidpeter, Bernhard (University of Essex, Institute for Social and Economic Research); Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf (Johannes Kepler University Linz, Christian Doppler Laboratory Aging, Health and the Labor Market, IZA, Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn, IHS, Institut for Advanced Studies, Vienna and CEPR, Centre for Economic Policy Research, London) |
| Abstract: | The labor supply effects of becoming a grandmother are not well established in the empirical literature. We estimate the effect of becoming a grandmother on the labor supply decision of older workers. Under the assumption that grandmothers cannot predict the exact date of conception of their grandchild, we identify the effect of the first grandchild on employment (extensive margin). Our Timing-of-Events approach shows that having a first grandchild increases the probability of leaving prematurely the labor market. This effect is stronger when informal childcare is more valuable to the mother. To estimate the effect of an additional grandchild (intensive margin), we assume that the incidence of a twin birth among the third generation is not correlated with unobserved determinants of the grandmother’s labor supply (first generation). Our respective instrumental variable estimations show a significant effect of further grandchildren. Our results highlight the important influence of the extended family on the decisions of older workers and point to mediating effects of different institutional settings. |
| Keywords: | Grandchildren, female labor supply, timing of events, instrumental variables |
| JEL: | J13 J14 J22 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ihs:ihsesp:336&r=lab |
| By: | Paul Bingley; Lorenzo Cappellari; Konstantinos Tatsiramos |
| Abstract: | Using longitudinal data based on administrative registers for the population of Danish men we develop a model which accounts for the joint earnings dynamics of siblings and youth community peers. We are the first to decompose the sibling correlation of permanent earnings into family and community effects allowing for life-cycle dynamics; finding that family is the most important factor influencing earnings inequality over the life cycle. Community background explains a substantial share of the sibling correlation of earnings early in the working life, but its importance diminishes over time and becomes negligible after age 30. |
| Keywords: | sibling correlation, neighborhoods, schools, long-term inequality |
| JEL: | D31 J62 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6743&r=lab |
| By: | Heinz, Matthias; Jeworrek, Sabrina; Mertins, Vanessa; Schumacher, Heiner; Sutter, Matthias |
| Abstract: | We present a field experiment in which we set up a call-center to study how the productivity of workers is affected if managers treat their co-workers in an unfair way. This question cannot be studied in long-lived organizations since workers may change their career expectations (and hence effort) when managers behave unfairly towards co-workers. In order to rule out such confounds and to measure productivity changes of unaffected workers in a clean way, we create an environment where employees work for two shifts. In one treatment, we lay off parts of the workforce before the second shift. Compared to two different control treatments, we find that, in the layoff treatment, the productivity of the remaining, unaffected workers drops by 12 percent. We show that this result is not driven by peer effects or altered beliefs about the job or the managers' competence, but rather related to the workers' perception of unfair behavior of employers towards co-workers. The latter interpretation is confirmed in a survey among professional HR managers. We also show that the effect of unfair behavior on the productivity of unaffected workers is close to the upper bound of the direct effects of wage cuts on the productivity of affected workers. This suggests that the price of an employer's unfair behavior goes well beyond the potential tit-for-tat of directly affected workers. |
| Keywords: | gift exchange,layoffs,labor markets,fairness,field experiment |
| JEL: | C93 J50 J63 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:262017&r=lab |
| By: | Alexander Hijzen (OECD and IZA); Pedro S. Martins (Queen Mary University of London, NovaSBE and IZA); Jante Parlevliet (De Nederlandsche Bank and University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Since the global financial crisis, sector-level bargaining has come under renewed scrutiny. While in Southern Europe, the crisis raised concerns about the role of collective bargaining as an obstacle to labour market adjustment, in Northern Europe it was perceived more favourably and, according to some, may even have helped to weather the fallout of the crisis more easily. This paper seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of sector-level bargaining systems and their role for labour market performance. We compare two countries with seemingly similar collective bargaining systems, the Netherlands and Portugal, and document a number of features that may affect labour market outcomes, including: i) the scope for flexibility at the firm or worker level within sector-level agreements; ii) the emphasis on representativeness as a criterion for extensions; iii) the effectiveness of coordination across bargaining units; and iv) pro-active government policies to enhance trust and cooperation between the social partners. |
| Keywords: | Industrial Relations, Social Dialogue, Employment |
| JEL: | J5 P52 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mde:wpaper:0089&r=lab |
| By: | Christopoulou, Rebekka; Pantalidou, Maria |
| Abstract: | Labor market conditions in Greece have severely deteriorated during the crisis, affecting youths the most. Using the Greek crisis as a case-study, this paper examines the role of the family as a social safety net for its young members. Specifically, we test the relationship between youth labor outcomes and parental co-residence, whether this relationship has become stronger during the crisis, and the degree to which the relationship is causal. Our results confirm that the parental home is a refuge both for jobless youth and for those in poorly paid, insecure jobs, and this role has intensified during the crisis. We find no reverse causality between co-residence and employment status for young men, and significant reverse causality for women. This finding implies that all youths live in the parental home when they are in need themselves, but it is young women not men who live with parents when parents are in need or for cultural reasons. |
| Keywords: | Living arrangements,parental coresidence,youth employment,great recession,Greece |
| JEL: | J12 J21 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:158&r=lab |
| By: | Inna Petrunyk (Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany); Christian Pfeifer (Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the effects of a major reform of unemployment benefits in Germany on the labor market outcomes of individuals with some health impairment. The reform induced a substantial reduction in the potential duration of regular unemployment benefits for older workers. This work analyzes the reform in a wider framework of institutional interactions, which allows us to distinguish between its intended and unintended effects. Our results provide causal evidence for a significant decrease in the number of days in unemployment benefits and increase in the number of days in employment. However, they also suggest a significant increase in the number of days in unemployment assistance, granted upon exhaustion of unemployment benefits. Transitions to unemployment assistance represent an unintended effect, limiting the success of a policy change that aims to increase labor supply via reductions in the generosity of the unemployment insurance system. |
| Keywords: | policy evaluation, labor market reform, unemployment insurance, difference-in-differences |
| JEL: | I1 J2 J65 |
| Date: | 2018–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lue:wpaper:377&r=lab |
| By: | Gustafsson, Björn Anders (University of Gothenburg); Mac Innes, Hanna (University of Gothenburg); Österberg, Torun (University of Gothenburg) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines immigrant poverty at an older age in Sweden with an emphasis on late-in-life immigrants. We analyse tax data for the entire Swedish-born and non-Swedish-born population. The poverty status of a household is assessed using two criteria. First, the disposable income of the household in which the person lived in 2007 must be below 60 per cent of the median equivalent in-come in Sweden as a whole. Second, to be classified as 'twice poor' a household net assets must be below SEK 10,000. The results indicate that three out of four Swedish-born older persons were not classified as poor by either of the criteria, and only one per cent by both criteria. In contrast, among older persons born in low-income countries almost three out of four were classified as poor according to one of the criteria and not fewer than one in three according to both. Results of estimating logistic models indicate that the risk of being considered poor according to both criteria is strongly positively related to one's age at immigration. Our results indicate that it is crucial that migrants, particularly those who arrive after age 40, be better integrated into the Swedish labour market. To alleviate pov-erty among those migrants who are already of older age, increased transfers are probably the only possible alternative. |
| Keywords: | older people, poverty, immigrants, Sweden |
| JEL: | I32 J14 J15 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11144&r=lab |
| By: | Ewa Cukrowska-Torzewska (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw); Anna Lovasz (Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) |
| Abstract: | We use cross-national data on 26 EU countries to assess how much children and the responsibilities related to them contribute to the gender wage gap, and how institutional elements - especially family policies - affect this relationship. Our analysis is based on a decomposition that reveals what portion of the gender wage gap may be attributed to: (1) the motherhood wage penalty, (2) the fatherhood wage premium, and (3) the gender wage gap among childless individuals. Our findings suggest that the variability in the magnitude of the gaps is closely related to the institutional context, pointing to different reasons behind the gender wage gap and policy implications. Southern EU countries have low gender wage gaps and low motherhood penalties or even premiums. Short leaves, low childcare coverage, and traditional norms do not support maternal labor supply, but mothers who work do not face a wage penalty. Western EU countries with higher childcare coverage, moderate length leaves, supportive norms, and flexible jobs have relatively high maternal employment and mothers are not faced with significant wage penalties. The highest motherhood penalties are found in CEE countries, where long leaves, low childcare availability under age 3, and preferences for within-family care lead to long absences from the labor market. In all countries, irrespective of cultural norms and policies, we find high positive family gaps among men, which drive men’s average wages up, and lead to gender wage inequality. |
| Keywords: | Family Gap, Gender Wage Gap, Family Policies |
| JEL: | J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2017-25&r=lab |
| By: | Alex Bell; Raj Chetty; Xavier Jaravel; Neviana Petkova; John Van Reenen |
| Abstract: | We characterize the factors that determine who becomes an inventor in America by using de-identified data on 1.2 million inventors from patent records linked to tax records. We establish three sets of results. First, children from high-income (top 1%) families are ten times as likely to become inventors as those from below-median income families. There are similarly large gaps by race and gender. Differences in innate ability, as measured by test scores in early childhood, explain relatively little of these gaps. Second, exposure to innovation during childhood has significant causal effects on children's propensities to become inventors. Growing up in a neighborhood or family with a high innovation rate in a specific technology class leads to a higher probability of patenting in exactly the same technology class. These exposure effects are gender-specific: girls are more likely to become inventors in a particular technology class if they grow up in an area with more female inventors in that technology class. Third, the financial returns to inventions are extremely skewed and highly correlated with their scientific impact, as measured by citations. Consistent with the importance of exposure effects and contrary to standard models of career selection, women and disadvantaged youth are as under-represented among high-impact inventors as they are among inventors as a whole. We develop a simple model of inventors' careers that matches these empirical results. The model implies that increasing exposure to innovation in childhood may have larger impacts on innovation than increasing the financial incentives to innovate, for instance by cutting tax rates. In particular, there are many "lost Einsteins" - individuals who would have had highly impactful inventions had they been exposed to innovation. |
| Keywords: | inventor, America, innovation |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1519&r=lab |
| By: | Aysit Tansel (Department of Economics, Middle East Technical University, IZA (Germany) and ERF (Egypt)); Halil Ibrahim Keskin (Department of Econometrics, Cukurova University) |
| Abstract: | The strong relationship between various health indicators and education is widely documented. However, the studies that investigate the nature of causality between these variables became available only recently and provide evidence mostly from developed countries. We add to this literature by studying the causal effect of education on days hospitalized and days out of work for health reasons. We consider two educational reforms. One is the educational expansion of the early 1960s and the other is the 1997 increase in compulsory level of schooling from five to eight years. However, due to the possibility of weak instruments we do not further pursue this avenue. We focus on individuals in two cohorts namely, 1945-1965 which is an older cohort and 1980-1980 which is a younger cohort. We estimate Tobit models as well as Double Hurdle models. The results suggest that an increase in years of education causes to reduce the number of days hospitalized for both men and women unambiguously and the number of days out of work only for men while an increase in education increases the number of days out of work for a randomly selected women. |
| Keywords: | Education, Days hospitalized, Days out of work, Education reform, Tobit model, Double Hurdle model, Gender, Turkey. |
| JEL: | I15 J16 J18 C34 C36 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koc:wpaper:1721&r=lab |
| By: | Jordi Brandts; Cristina Rott |
| Abstract: | We study how gender matching affects the impact of advice on men’s and women’s entry into a real-effort tournament and how advice varies with gender and gender matching. We analyze the impact as well as the content and justification of advice. Our results show that gender pairings do not affect the impact of advice. With respect to the advice process we find that for medium performers women are less likely to reccommend entry than men, and that women give worse advice. Men are more reluctant to weaken women’s than men’s confidence in their success. |
| Keywords: | experiments, advice, gender gap in competitiveness |
| JEL: | C91 J08 J16 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1007&r=lab |
| By: | Porras, María Sylvina; Martín-Román, Ángel L. |
| Abstract: | The present research provides evidence on the determinants driving the differences in the unemployment-output relationship in Spanish regions. We followed a two-step approach. First, we estimated a set of time-varying Okun’s coefficients (rolling-window) for the autonomous communities in Spain (1981-2013) showing significant regional differences as well as important changes over time. At the second step, we estimated FMOLS and DOLS models to explain regional differences in Okun’s law. The results obtained lead to the conclusion that differences in the weight of self-employment and its variations over time prove relevant when accounting for differences in Okun’s law between Spanish regions, and its effect (in standard deviations) is greater than that of variations in labour productivity per worker, which so far had been considered the main driver of regional discrepancies. The economic policy implications of this outcome are huge due to the fact that Spanish regional and national authorities are promoting self-employment. |
| Keywords: | Okun’s Law,self-employment,unemployment,GDP,Spanish regions |
| JEL: | C23 R11 R23 E24 J64 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:157&r=lab |
| By: | Bredtmann, Julia; Nowotny, Klaus; Otten, Sebastian |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the interaction between migrant networks and linguistic distance in the location choice of migrants to the EU at the regional level. We test the hypothesis that networks and the ability to communicate in the host country language, proxied by linguistic distance, are substitutes in the location decision. Based on individual level data from a special evaluation of the European Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) and a random utility maximization framework, we find that networks have a positive effect on the location decisions while the effect of linguistic distance is negative. We also find a strong positive interaction effect between the two factors: networks are more important the larger the linguistic distance between the home country and the host region, and the negative effect of linguistic distance is smaller the larger the network size. In several extensions and robustness checks, we show that this substitutable relationship is extremely robust. |
| Keywords: | Location choice,ethnic networks,linguistic distance,EU migration,multilateral resistance |
| JEL: | F22 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:725&r=lab |