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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Kyeongkuk Kim (University of Hawai‘i at MÄ noa); Sang-Hyop Lee (University of Hawai‘i at MÄ noa); Timothy J Halliday (University of Hawai‘i at MÄ noa) |
| Abstract: | We consider the nexus of intra-household transfers, the sex composition of the sibship, and parental retirement behavior in Korea. We provide evidence that the cost of raising sons is higher than it is for daughters in Korea. In the absence of sufficient transfers from adult sons to parents, this implies that parents will increase their labor supply to fund earlier investments in their sons. Consistent with this, we show that parents with more adult sons delay their retirements. In particular, an elderly parent with all sons has a retirement probability that is 7-10 percentage points lower than a comparable parent with all daughters. Elderly parents also work between 1.8-2.7 hours more per week when their sibship consists of all sons. These effects are the most pronounced when the first born is a son as well as for poorer households. |
| Keywords: | retirement, intra-household transfers, gender, sex ratios |
| JEL: | J1 J13 J16 J26 |
| Date: | 2018–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hai:wpaper:201804&r=lab |
| By: | Bolhaar, Jonneke; Ketel, Nadine; van der Klaauw, Bas |
| Abstract: | In this paper we focus on the role of caseworkers in the assignment and take-up of welfare-to-work programs. We conduct a field experiment that generates exogenous variation in the assignment to different policy regimes to caseworkers. The experiment allows us to provide evidence on the effectiveness of welfare-to-work programs and to study how caseworkers exploit their discretion in assigning these programs to welfare recipients. We find substantial heterogeneity in how caseworkers assign welfare-to-work programs. Participation in the experiment and learning about the effectiveness of the different programs does not induce caseworkers to focus more on the effective programs. This implies that obtaining knowledge about welfare-to-work programs is not enough to improve policy, also effort on implementation is required. |
| Keywords: | caseworkers; field experiment; welfare-to-work |
| JEL: | C93 I38 J08 J64 |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13047&r=lab |
| By: | Turrell, Arthur (Bank of England); Speigner, Bradley (Bank of England); Djumalieva, Jyldyz (Bank of England); Copple, David (Bank of England); Thurgood, James (Bank of England) |
| Abstract: | Mismatch in the labour market has been implicated as a driver of the UK’s productivity ‘puzzle’, the phenomenon describing how the growth rate and level of UK productivity have fallen behind their respective pre-Great Financial Crisis trends. Using a new dataset of around 15 million job adverts originally posted online, we examine the extent to which eliminating occupational or regional mismatch would have boosted productivity and output growth in the UK in the post-crisis period. To show how aggregate labour market data hide important heterogeneity, we map the naturally occurring vacancy data into official occupational classifications using a novel application of text analysis. The effects of mismatch on aggregate UK productivity and output are driven by dispersion in regional or occupational productivity, tightness, and matching efficiency. We find, contrary to previous work, that unwinding occupational mismatch would have had a weak effect on growth in the post-crisis period. However, unwinding regional mismatch would have substantially boosted output and productivity relative to their realised paths, bringing them in line with their pre-crisis trends. |
| Keywords: | Vacancies; matching; mismatch |
| JEL: | E24 J63 |
| Date: | 2018–07–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boe:boeewp:0737&r=lab |
| By: | Cahuc, Pierre; Kramarz, Francis; Nevoux, Sandra |
| Abstract: | Short-time work programs were revived by the Great Recession. To understand their operating mechanisms, we first provide a model showing that short-time work may save jobs in firms hit by strong negative revenue shocks, but not in less severely-hit firms, where hours worked are reduced, without saving jobs. The cost of saving jobs is low because short-time work targets those at risk of being destroyed. Using extremely detailed data on the administration of the program covering the universe of French establishments, we devise a causal identification strategy based on the geography of the program that demonstrates that short-time work saved jobs in firms faced with large drops in their revenues during the Great Recession, in particular when highly levered, but only in these firms. The measured cost per saved job is shown to be very low relative to that of other employment policies. |
| Keywords: | employment; Short-time work; unemployment |
| JEL: | E24 J22 J65 |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13041&r=lab |
| By: | Nikolova, Milena |
| Abstract: | Drawing upon theoretical insights from the Job Demand-Control model, which links occupational characteristics to health, this paper provides the first causal evidence of the physical and mental health consequences of self-employment. Specifically, I utilize German longitudinal data for the period 2002-2014 and difference-in-differences estimations and find that both switches from unemployment to self-employment (necessity entrepreneurship) and transitions from regular employment to self-employment (opportunity entrepreneurship) lead to health enhancements for entrepreneurs with and without employees. Specifically, necessity entrepreneurs experience improvements in mental but not physical health, while opportunity entrepreneurship is associated with both physical and mental health gains, which is in line with the theoretical predictions. Importantly, the health improvements cannot be explained by changes in income or working conditions and are not driven by personality and risk preferences or the local unemployment conditions. The results have implications for entrepreneurship theory and practice, current and would-be entrepreneurs as well as policy-makers. |
| Keywords: | mental health,physical health,self-employment,difference-in-differences |
| JEL: | I10 J01 L26 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:226&r=lab |
| By: | Li, Chunyun; Liu, Mingwei |
| Abstract: | In contrast to various structural accounts of collective inaction or short-lived contention of Chinese workers, the authors take an agency-centered approach to explain how the few sustained labor protests during closure bargaining develop against long odds. They suggest that workers’ capacity to resolve collective action problems is essential to understanding why a few contending workers are able to sustain protests whereas many others fail to do so. They argue that workplace representatives and external labor activists are crucial for helping Chinese workers resolve the collective action problems that prevent the formation of sustained labor protests. Their comparative analysis of four protests against Walmart store closures—including one unusually long, one relatively sustained, and two short-lived—shows how presence and strategic capacity of workplace representatives and external labor activists shape protest duration. The authors conclude by discussing lessons learned from these cases of closure bargaining for future development of labor contention in China. |
| Keywords: | workplace representatives; collective bargaining; labor NGOs; sustain protest; strategic capacity |
| JEL: | J50 |
| Date: | 2018–06–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:89066&r=lab |
| By: | Töpfer, Marina |
| Abstract: | This paper elaborates whether women bringing their diversity, cross-cultural awareness and transformational leadership skills to corporate boards offer strategic advantages for firms. In the analysis the effect of women in the board room on innovation activity and corporate firm performance as well as the joint consequences of female directors and innovation activity on the firm's success are examined. The latter may be particularly important in the context of gender diversity as more gender-diverse boards allow for higher levels of creativity and hence innovation. In order to account for endogeneity issues, different model specifications are employed (two-way fixed effects models and linear dynamic panel data models). Unconditional quantile regressions are used in order to go beyond the mean. The analysis is conducted using Chinese firm-level data from 2006-2015. The results suggest positive effects of gender diversity in corporate boards and patenting activities on firm performance. Women directors are found to have statistically significant effects on both input-(positive) and output-oriented (negative) innovation activity. |
| Keywords: | Women Directors,Innovation Activity,Firm Performance,Gender-diverse Boards,Unconditional Quantile Regression |
| JEL: | G30 J16 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hohdps:152018&r=lab |
| By: | Claudia Noumedem Temgoua |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the role of Chinese and Indian highly skilled diaspora in the internationalization of knowledge networks, for a sample of OECD destination countries. We mainly focus on two types of knowledge networks: co-inventorship and co-authorship. We jointly exploit country-level data on highly skilled migration and information on co-authorship and co-inventorship from publication and patent data. Based on a gravity model regression analysis, we find that OECD country pairs hosting sizeable portions of the Indian or Chinese highly skilled diasporas tend to collaborate more on publications and patents, after controlling for other migration trends. When extending the analysis to other countries, we find similar results for Vietnam, Pakistan and Iran. |
| Keywords: | migration, highly skilled, publications, R&D cooperation, diffusion, patent |
| JEL: | C8 F22 J61 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2018-16&r=lab |