|
on Labour Economics |
| By: | Belot, Michele (European University Institute); Kircher, Philipp (School of Economics, University of Edinburgh); Muller, Paul (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | We study how job seekers respond to wage announcements by assigning wages randomly to pairs of otherwise similar vacancies in a large number of professions. High wage vacancies attract more interest, in contrast with much of the evidence based on observational data. Some applicants only show interest in the low wage vacancy even when they were exposed to both. Both findings are core predictions of theories of directed/competitive search where workers trade o_ the wage with the perceived competition for the job. A calibrated model with multiple applications and on-the-job search induces magnitudes broadly in line with the empirical findings. |
| Keywords: | online job search; directed search; wage competition; field experiments |
| JEL: | C93 J31 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2018–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0739&r=lab |
| By: | Brenøe, Anne Ardila (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | I examine how one central aspect of the childhood family environment – sibling gender composition – affects women's gender conformity, measured through their choice of occupation and partner. Using Danish administrative data, I causally estimate the effect of having a second-born brother relative to a sister for first-born women. The results show that women with a brother acquire more traditional gender norms with negative consequences for their labor earnings. I provide evidence of increased gender-specialized parenting in families with mixed-sex children, suggesting a stronger transmission of traditional gender norms. Finally, I find indications of persistent effects to the next generation of girls. |
| Keywords: | gender identity, sibling gender, occupational choice, family formation |
| JEL: | I2 J1 J3 |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11692&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre Cahuc; Francis Kramarz; Sandra Nevoux |
| 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: | Short-time work, unemployment, employment. |
| JEL: | E24 J22 J65 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfr:banfra:692&r=lab |
| By: | Regina T. Riphahn; Salwan Saif |
| Abstract: | Naturalization may be a relevant policy instrument affecting immigrant integration in host-country labor markets. We study the effect of naturalization on labor market outcomes of immigrants in Germany. We apply recent survey data and exploit a reform of naturalization rules in an instrumental variable estimation. In our sample of recent immigrants, linear regression yields positive correlations between naturalization and beneficial labor market outcomes. Once we account for the endogeneity of naturalization most coefficients decline in magnitude and lose statistical significance: male immigrants' labor market outcomes do not benefit significantly from naturalization. Naturalization reduces the risks of unemployment and welfare dependence for female immigrants. For males and females, the propensity to hold a permanent contract increase as a consequence of naturalization. The results are robust to modifications of samples and the instrument. |
| Keywords: | citizenship, migration, naturalization, labor market outcomes, instrumental variables |
| JEL: | J61 J15 C26 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp980&r=lab |
| By: | Drydakis, Nick (Anglia Ruskin University) |
| Abstract: | Using a data set that contains information on retrospective school-age bullying, as well as on workplace bullying in the respondents' present job, the outcomes of this study suggest that bullying, when it is experienced by sexual orientation minorities tends to persist over time. According to the estimations, it seems that school-age bullying of LGB people is associated with victims' lower educational level and occupational sorting into non-white-collar jobs, especially for gay/bisexual men. In addition, the outputs suggest that for both gay/bisexual men and lesbian/bisexual women, school-age bullying is positively associated with workplace bullying and negatively associated with job satisfaction. Additional results suggest a negative association between workplace bullying and job satisfaction. However, the outcomes show a positive association between the existence of an LGBT group in the workplace and job satisfaction. |
| Keywords: | school-age bullying, workplace bullying, job satisfaction, sexual orientation |
| JEL: | J16 J28 J70 |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11699&r=lab |
| By: | Bilal, Adrien (Princeton University); Rossi-Hansberg, Esteban (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | The location of individuals determines their job opportunities, living amenities, and housing costs. We argue that it is useful to conceptualize the location choice of individuals as a decision to invest in a ‘location asset’. This asset has a cost equal to the location’s rent, and a payoff through better job opportunities and, potentially, more human capital for the individual and her children. As with any asset, savers in the location asset transfer resources into the future by going to expensive locations with good future opportunities. In contrast, borrowers transfer resources to the present by going to cheap locations that offer few other advantages. As in a standard portfolio problem, holdings of this asset depend on the comparison of its rate of return with that of other assets. Differently from other assets, the location asset is not subject to borrowing constraints, so it is used by individuals with little or no wealth that want to borrow. We provide an analytical model to make this idea precise and to derive a number of related implications, including an agent’s mobility choices after experiencing negative income shocks. The model can rationalize why low wealth individuals locate in low income regions with low opportunities even in the absence of mobility costs. We document the investment dimension of location, and confirm the core predictions of our theory with French individual panel data from tax returns. |
| JEL: | D14 E21 J61 R13 R23 R30 |
| Date: | 2018–08–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedmoi:0012&r=lab |
| By: | Abebe, Girum; Caria, Stefano; Fafchamps, Marcel; Falco, Paolo; Franklin, Simon; Quinn, Simon |
| Abstract: | We show that helping young job-seekers to signal their skills to employers can generate large and persistent improvements in labour market outcomes. We do this by comparing an intervention that improves the ability to signal skills (the 'job application workshop') to a transport subsidy treatment designed to reduce the cost of job search. We find that in the short-run both interventions have large positive effects on the probability of finding formal jobs. The workshop also increases the probability of having a stable job with an open-ended contract. Four years later, the workshop significantly increases earnings, job satisfaction and employment duration, while the effects of the transport subsidy have dissipated. These gains are concentrated among groups who generally have worse labour market outcomes. Overall, our findings highlight that young people possess valuable skills that are unobservable to employers. Making these skills observable generates earning gains that are far greater than the cost of the intervention. |
| Keywords: | job search; signaling; transport costs; urban growth; youth unemployment |
| JEL: | J22 J24 J61 J64 M53 O18 |
| Date: | 2018–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13136&r=lab |
| By: | Enflo, Kerstin; Karlsson, Tobias; Molinder, Jakob |
| Abstract: | This paper revisits the Power Resource Theory by testing one of its more influential claims: the relation between the strength of the labor movement and the reduction of industrial conflicts. Using panel data techniques to analyze more than 2,000 strikes in 103 Swedish towns we test whether a shift in the balance of power towards Social Democratic rule was associated with fewer strikes. The focus is on the formative years between the first general election in 1919 and the famous Saltsjöbaden Agreement in 1938, the period when Sweden went from a country of fierce labor conflicts to a state of industrial peace. The spatial dimension provides new possibilities to test the theory. We find that Social Democratic power reduced strike activity, but only in towns where union presence was strong. Powerful unions in themselves did not reduce local strike activity. On the contrary, we find that the rise of the Social Democratic Party in municipal governments offset about 45 percent of the estimated effect of growing union presence on industrial conflicts. We do not see any significant tangible concessions in terms of increased social spending by local governments after a left-wing victory as predicted by Power Resource Theory. Instead the mechanism leading to fewer strikes appears to be related to corporatist explanations. |
| Keywords: | industrial conflicts; Local Labor Markets; Power Resource Theory; strikes |
| JEL: | H53 J51 N34 N44 |
| Date: | 2018–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13130&r=lab |
| By: | Rodrigo Adão; Michal Kolesár; Eduardo Morales |
| Abstract: | We study inference in shift-share regression designs, such as when a regional outcome is regressed on a weighted average of observed sectoral shocks, using regional sector shares as weights. We conduct a placebo exercise in which we estimate the effect of a shift-share regressor constructed with randomly generated sectoral shocks on actual labor market outcomes across U.S. Commuting Zones. Tests based on commonly used standard errors with 5% nominal significance level reject the null of no effect in up to 55% of the placebo samples. We use a stylized economic model to show that this overrejection problem arises because regression residuals are correlated across regions with similar sectoral shares, independently of their geographic location. We derive novel inference methods that are valid under arbitrary cross-regional correlation in the regression residuals. We show that our methods yield substantially wider confidence intervals in popular applications of shift-share regression designs. |
| JEL: | C13 C26 F16 F22 |
| Date: | 2018–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24944&r=lab |