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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Ajzenman, Nicolas (São Paulo School of Economics-FGV); Aksoy, Cevat Giray (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development); Guriev, Sergei (Sciences Po, Paris) |
| Abstract: | Does exposure to mass migration affect economic behavior, attitudes and beliefs of natives in transit countries? In order to answer this question, we use a unique locality-level panel from the 2010 and 2016 rounds of the Life in Transition Survey and data on the main land routes taken by migrants in 18 European countries during the refugee crisis in 2015. To capture the exogenous variation in natives' exposure to transit migration, we construct an instrument that is based on the distance of each locality to the optimal routes that minimize travelling time between the main origin and destination cities. We first show that the entrepreneurial activity of natives falls considerably in localities that are more exposed to mass transit migration, compared to those located further away. We then explore the mechanisms and find that our results are likely to be explained by a decrease in the willingness to take risks as well as in the confidence in institutions. We also document an increase in the anti-migrant sentiment while attitudes towards other minorities remained unchanged. We rule out the possibility of out-migration of natives or of trade-related shocks (potentially confounded with the mass-transit migration) affecting our results. Using locality-level luminosity data, we also rule out any effect driven by changes in economic activity. Finally, we find no statistically significant effects on other labor market outcomes, such as unemployment or labor force participation. |
| Keywords: | migrant routes, entrepreneurship, public attitudes, political instability |
| JEL: | F22 L26 D91 O15 O10 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13130&r=all |
| By: | Redmond, Paul (ESRI, Dublin); McGuinness, Seamus (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin); Keane, Claire (ESRI, Dublin) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the impact of a reduction in the child qualifying age criteria for the One Parent Family Payment (OFP) in Ireland. From 2012 to 2015, the child qualifying age for OFP was reduced from 18 years to 7 years. Lone parents who no longer qualified for the payment, based on the age of their child, could avail of Jobseekers Transitional Payment (JST), which involves a labour activation component. While OFP recipients are subject to a maximum weekly earnings limit, there is no such limit for JST recipients, meaning that lone parents on JST had some capacity to increase their hours worked and thereby increase their income from employment. We find that these reforms led to an average increase in the hours worked of lone parents of between two and five hours per week. Two and a half years following the reform, lone parents impacted by the policy were 12 percentage points more likely to be working. In addition, we find an increase in household income of between 8 and 12 percent, and an increase of between 20 and 29 percent in earnings from employment. Finally, the policy was associated with a 10 to 13 percentage point reduction in the poverty rate of lone parents. |
| Keywords: | lone parents, policy reform, employment |
| JEL: | H20 H31 J01 J68 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13109&r=all |
| By: | Blau, Francine D. (Cornell University); Kahn, Lawrence M. (Cornell University); Comey, Matthew (Cornell University); Eng, Amanda (Cornell University); Meyerhofer, Pamela (Cornell University); Willén, Alexander (Norwegian School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | There is a well-known gender difference in time allocation within the household, which has important implications for gender differences in labor market outcomes. We ask how malleable this gender difference in time allocation is to culture. In particular, we ask if US immigrants allocate tasks differently depending upon the characteristics of the source countries from which they emigrated. Using data from the 2003-2017 waves of the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), we find that first-generation immigrants, both women and men, from source countries with more gender equality (as measured by the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index) allocate tasks more equally, while those from less gender equal source countries allocate tasks more traditionally. These results are robust to controls for immigration cohort, years since migration, and other own and spouse characteristics. There is also some indication of an effect of parent source country gender equality for second-generation immigrants, particularly for second-generation men with children. Our findings suggest that broader cultural factors do influence the gender division of labor in the household. |
| Keywords: | housework, childcare, gender, immigration, time allocation |
| JEL: | J13 J15 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13093&r=all |
| By: | Marika Cabral; Marcus Dillender |
| Abstract: | Optimal insurance benefit design requires understanding how coverage generosity impacts individual behavior and insured costs. Using unique comprehensive administrative data from Texas, we leverage a sharp increase in the maximum weekly wage replacement benefit in a difference-in-differences research design to identify the impact of workers' compensation wage replacement benefit generosity on individual behavior and program costs. We find that increasing the generosity of wage replacement benefits does not impact the number of claims but has a large impact on claimant behavior, leading to longer income benefit durations and increased medical spending. Our estimates indicate that behavioral responses to increased benefit generosity raised insured costs nearly 1.5 times as much as the mechanical effect on insured costs from the benefit increase. Drawing on these estimates along with an estimate of the consumption drop experienced by injured workers, we calibrate a model to estimate the marginal welfare impact of increasing the generosity of workers' compensation wage replacement benefits. This calibration suggests that increasing benefit generosity would not improve welfare, with much of the projected welfare loss attributable to the impact of income benefit generosity on medical spending. |
| JEL: | H00 I1 J01 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26976&r=all |
| By: | Alex Bryson (University College London); Harald Dale-Olsen (Institute for Social Research) |
| Abstract: | We present theoretical and empirical evidence challenging results from early studies that found unions were detrimental to workplace innovation. Under our theoretical model, which extends the Cournot duopoly innovation model, local union wage bargaining is more conducive to innovation - particularly product innovation - than competitive pay setting. We test the theory with workplace data for Britain and Norway. Results are consistent with the theory: local union bargaining is positively associated with product innovations in both countries. In Norway, local union bargaining is also positively associated with process innovation. |
| Keywords: | product innovation; process innovation; trade unions; collective bargaining |
| JEL: | J28 J51 J81 L23 |
| Date: | 2020–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qss:dqsswp:2002&r=all |
| By: | Massimo Bordignon (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Matteo Gamalerio; Edoardo Slerca; Gilberto Turati |
| Abstract: | Why do anti-immigrant political parties have more success in areas that host fewer immigrants? Using regression discontinuity design, structural breaks search methods and data from a sample of Italian municipalities, we show that the relationship between the vote shares of anti-immigrant parties and the share of immigrants follows a U-shaped curve, which exhibits a tipping-like behavior around a share of immigrants equal to 3.35 %. We estimate that the vote share of the main Italian anti-immigrant party (Lega Nord) is approximately 6 % points higher for municipalities below the threshold. Using data on local labor market characteristics and on the incomes of natives and immigrants, we provide evidence which points at the competition in the local labor market between natives and immigrants as the more plausible explanation for the electoral success of anti-immigrant parties in areas with low shares of immigrants. Alternative stories find less support in the data. |
| Keywords: | Migration, extreme-right parties, anti-immigrant parties, populism, tipping point, regression discontinuity design. |
| JEL: | D72 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie1:def086&r=all |
| By: | Joshua Bernstein; Alexander W. Richter; Nathaniel Throckmorton |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the response of the U.S. labor market to a large and persistent job separation rate shock, motivated by the ongoing economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. We use nonlinear methods to analytically and numerically characterize the responses of vacancy creation and unemployment. Vacancies decline in response to the shock when firms expect persistent job destruction and the number of unemployed searching for work is low. Quantitatively, under our baseline forecast the unemployment rate peaks at 19.7%, 2 months after the shock, and takes 1 year to return to 5%. Relative to a scenario without the shock, unemployment uncertainty rises by a factor of 11. Nonlinear methods are crucial. In the linear economy, the unemployment rate “only” rises to 9.2%, vacancies increase, and uncertainty is unaffected. In both cases, the severity of the COVID-19 shock depends on the separation rate persistence. |
| Keywords: | Pandemic; Vacancies; Unemployment Rate; Separation Rate; Nonlinear Solution; COVID-19 |
| JEL: | E24 E27 J63 |
| Date: | 2020–04–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:feddwp:87838&r=all |
| By: | Kasir, Nitsa Kaliner (Haredi Institute for Policy Studies); Yashiv, Eran (Tel Aviv University) |
| Abstract: | The Arab population in Israel constitutes an ethnic minority, at around 20% of the population. The economy of this minority is characterized by inferior outcomes relative to the Jewish majority by all indicators, including employment, wages, occupational status, social welfare, education, and housing. This paper reviews key data facts and presents a model of barriers to integration facing Arabs in Israel, taking it to the data. The empirical analysis, based on a general equilibrium model of occupational choice with optimizing agents and barriers, points to an increase over time in barriers to the acquisition of human capital in highly skilled occupations, and, concurrently, a reduction in labor market barriers in all occupations. The analysis offers insights relevant to other developed economies with large ethnic minorities. |
| Keywords: | ethnic minority, economic outcomes, human capital barriers, labor market barriers, occupational choice |
| JEL: | J15 J24 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13120&r=all |
| By: | Jakiela, Pamela (Center for Global Development); Ozier, Owen (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | Languages use different systems for classifying nouns. Gender languages assign nouns to distinct sex-based categories, masculine and feminine. We construct a new data set, documenting the presence or absence of grammatical gender in more than 4,000 languages which together account for more than 99% of the world's population. We find a robust negative cross-country relationship between prevalence of gender languages and women's labor force participation and educational attainment. We replicate these associations in four countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and in India, showing that educational attainment and female labor force participation are lower among those whose native languages use grammatical gender. |
| Keywords: | grammatical gender, language, gender, linguistic determinism, labor force participation, educational attainment, gender gaps |
| JEL: | J16 Z10 Z13 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13126&r=all |
| By: | Alexander W. Bartik; Marianne Bertrand; Zoë B. Cullen; Edward L. Glaeser; Michael Luca; Christopher T. Stanton |
| Abstract: | In addition to its impact on public health, COVID-19 has had a major impact on the economy. To shed light on how COVID-19 is affecting small businesses – and on the likely impact of the recent stimulus bill, we conducted a survey of more than 5,800 small businesses. Several main themes emerge from the results. First, mass layoffs and closures have already occurred. In our sample, 43 percent of businesses are temporarily closed, and businesses have – on average – reduced their employee counts by 40 percent relative to January. Second, consistent with previous literature, we find that many small businesses are financially fragile. For example, the median business has more than $10,000 in monthly expenses and less than one month of cash on hand. Third, businesses have widely varying beliefs about the likely duration of COVID related disruptions. Fourth, the majority of businesses planned to seek funding through the CARES act. However, many anticipated problems with accessing the aid, such as bureaucratic hassles and difficulties establishing eligibility. |
| JEL: | E65 L20 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26989&r=all |
| By: | Francesco Fasani (Queen Mary University London); Tommaso Frattini (University of Milan); Luigi Minale (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) |
| Abstract: | This article investigates the medium to long-term effects on refugee labour market outcomes of the temporary employment bans being imposed in many countries on recently arrived asylum seekers. Using a newly collected dataset covering almost 30 years of employment restrictions together with individual data for refugees entering European countries between 1985 and 2012, our empirical strategy exploits the geographical and temporal variation in employment bans generated by staggered introduction and removal coupled with frequent changes at the intensive margin. We find that exposure to a ban at arrival reduces refugee employment probability in postban years by 15%, an impact driven primarily by lower labour market participation. These effects are not mechanical, since we exclude refugees who may still be subject to employment restrictions, are non-linear in ban length, confirming that the very first months following arrival play a key role in shaping integration prospects, and last up to 10 years post arrival. We further demonstrate that the detrimental effects of employment bans are concentrated among less educated refugees, translate into lower occupational quality, and seem not to be driven by selective migration. Our causal estimates are robust to several identification tests accounting for the potential endogeneity of employment ban policies, including placebo analysis of non-refugee migrants and an instrumental variable strategy. To illustrate the costs of these employment restrictions, we estimate a EUR 37.6 billion output loss from the bans imposed on asylum seekers who arrived in Europe during the so-called 2015 refugee crisis. |
| Date: | 2020–04–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:462&r=all |
| By: | Chiang, Jack Ting Ju; Chen, Xiao Ping; Liu, Haiyang; Akutsu, Satoshi; Wang, Zheng |
| Abstract: | How do authoritarian leaders in modern organizations influence work team emotional climate and performance? Defining authoritarian leadership as an ambient, demanding, and controlling leadership style, we conducted a survey study of 252 leaders and 765 subordinates matched in 227 work teams in three large public Japanese organizations. The results indicate that authoritarian leaders are more likely to create a team climate of emotion suppression, which induces a higher level of team emotional exhaustion that negatively impacts team performance. Furthermore, we found that authoritarian leaders’ own emotion suppression enhances the above sequential mediation effects, i.e. the more emotion suppression the authoritarian leader him/herself exercises, the stronger the team climate of emotion suppression, the higher the level of team emotional exhaustion, and the lower the team performance. These findings suggest that leadership effectiveness may be improved if leaders can reduce their authoritarian behaviors and identify appropriate channels for employees to release emotions in the workplace. |
| Keywords: | authoritarian leadership; emotional exhaustion; leader emotion suppression; team emotion suppression climate; team performance |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2020–02–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:104058&r=all |
| By: | Leonid Kogan; Dimitris Papanikolaou; Lawrence D. W. Schmidt; Jae Song |
| Abstract: | We examine the relation between technological progress and the riskiness of labor income. Motivated by a simple model of creative destruction, we draw a distinction between technological innovation advanced by the firm, or its competitors. Using administrative data from the United States, we find that own firm innovation is associated with a modest increase in worker earnings growth, while innovation by competing firms is related to lower future worker earnings. Importantly, these earnings changes are asymmetrically distributed across workers: both gains and losses are concentrated on a subset of workers, which implies that the distribution of worker earnings growth rates becomes more right- or left-skewed following innovation by the firm, or its competitors, respectively. These effects are particularly strong for the highest-paid workers. Our results therefore suggest innovation is associated with a substantial increase in the labor income risk, especially for workers at the top of the earnings distribution. Our simulations reveal that the increased disparity in innovation outcomes across firms in the 1990s can account for a significant part of the recent rise in income inequality. |
| JEL: | E24 G10 G12 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26964&r=all |
| By: | Jo Mhairi Hale (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Maarten J. Bijlsma (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Angelo Lorenti (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Life-course sociodemographic and behavioral factors affect later-life cognitive function. Some evidence suggests that contemporaneous labor force participation also affects cognitive function; however, it is unclear whether it is employment itself or endogenous factors related to individuals’ likelihood of employment that protects against cognitive decline. We exploit innovations in counterfactual causal inference to disentangle the effect of postponing retirement on later-life cognitive function from the effects of other life-course factors. With the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (1996-2014, n=20,469), we use the parametric g-formula to estimate the population-averaged effect (PAE) of postponing retirement to age 67, the average treatment on the treated (ATT), the moderating effect of gender, education, and occupation, and the mediating effect via depressive symptoms and comorbidities. We find that postponing retirement is protective against cognitive decline, accounting for other life-course factors (age 67 PAE: 0.34, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.20,0.47; ATT: 0.43, 95% CI: 0.26,0.60). The extent of the protective effect depends on subgroup, with the highest educated experiencing the greatest reduction in cognitive decline (age 67 ATT: 50%, 95% CI: 32%,71%). By using innovative models that better reflect the empirical reality of interconnected life-course processes, this work makes progress in understanding how retirement affects cognitive function. |
| Keywords: | America, age at retirement, ageing, labor, length of working life, retirement |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2020-013&r=all |
| By: | Stijn Baert; Louis Lippens; Eline Moens; Philippe Sterkens; Johannes Weytjens (-) |
| Abstract: | This study is the first in the world to investigate the expected impact of the COVID-19 crisis on career outcomes and career aspirations. To this end, highquality survey research with a relevant panel of Belgian employees was conducted. About 21% of them fear losing their jobs due to the crisis—14% are concerned that they will even lose their jobs in the near future. In addition, 26% expect to miss out on promotions that they would have received had the COVID-19 crisis not occurred. This fear of a negative impact is higher in vulnerable groups, such migrants. In addition, we observe that many panel members believe they will look at the labour market differently and will have different work-related priorities in the future. In this respect, more than half of the panel members indicate that they have attached more importance to working conditions and work-life balance since the COVID-19 crisis. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, careers, employment, career aspirations |
| JEL: | J63 J62 J30 J41 J15 J16 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:20/995&r=all |
| By: | Fabian Lange; Theodore Papageorgiou |
| Abstract: | Exploiting results from the literature on non-parametric identification, we make three methodological contributions to the empirical literature estimating the matching function, commonly used to map unemployment and vacancies into hires. First, we show how to non-parametrically identify the matching function. Second, we estimate the matching function allowing for unobserved matching efficacy, without imposing the usual independence assumption between matching efficiency and search on either side of the labor market. Third, we allow for multiple types of jobseekers and consider an “augmented” Beveridge curve that includes them. Our estimated elasticity of hires with respect to vacancies is procyclical and varies between 0.15 and 0.3. This is substantially lower than common estimates suggesting that a significant bias stems from the commonly-used independence assumption. Moreover, variation in match efficiency accounts for much of the decline in hires during the Great Recession. |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26972&r=all |
| By: | Mark R. Rosenzweig; Rafael J. Santos Villagran |
| Abstract: | We exploit variation in the composition of local fish catches around the time of birth using administrative and census data on adult cognitive test scores, schooling attainment, and occupation among coastal populations in Colombia to estimate the causal effects of early-life consumption of methylmercury (MeHg) and DHA, elements contained in fish, on cognitive development. Using an IV strategy based on an equilibrium model of fish supply that exploits time-series variation in oceanic SST anomalies on both coasts of Colombia from 1950 to 2014 as instruments, we find that net of cohort and municipality fixed effects increases in high-(low-)MeHg fish catches around a cohort’s birth negatively (positively) affect the cohort’s verbal and math test scores upon exiting high school and their likelihood of continuing their schooling, while increasing (decreasing) the likelihood the cohort is disproportionally represented in manual-labor occupations. |
| JEL: | J13 O15 Q22 Q53 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26957&r=all |
| By: | Peter Eibich (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Angelo Lorenti (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Irene Mosca |
| Abstract: | Voluntary work is an important contribution for many non-profit organizations, such as charities, political and religious organizations. Older individuals make up a sizable share of the volunteer workforce, and volunteering is often regarded as an example of “active ageing”. In this study, we examine whether retirement has a causal effect on the frequency of voluntary work provision in three English-speaking countries – England, Ireland and the U.S. We draw on data from the ELSA, TILDA and HRS studies and employ a harmonised approach in the empirical analysis. We use eligibility ages for old age pensions in an instrumental variable estimation to address potential confounding. We find that retirement increases the frequency of voluntary work provision in all three countries, especially among men. This suggests that labour market policies aimed at increasing labour force participation at older ages might have unintended consequences for the size of the volunteer workforce. |
| Keywords: | England, Ireland, USA, retirement |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2020-015&r=all |
| By: | Robertson, Raymond (Texas A&M University) |
| Abstract: | The rise of global supply chains over the last three decades intensified international attention to the conditions endured by workers in poor countries. Collapsed buildings, fires and death created an imperative to address poor conditions. Consumers, non-governmental organizations, inter-governmental organizations, international buyers and governments began seeking ways to improve working conditions in exporting factories in developing countries. The goals of this chapter is to describe the birth and growth of the Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) program, review the academic literature that has focused on both the BFC program and its descendent, Better Work, and identify some of the key aspects of the program that have been shown to be particularly successful. |
| Keywords: | working conditions, global value chains, Cambodia, Better Factories Cambodia |
| JEL: | F16 F66 F23 J8 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13095&r=all |
| By: | Raven S. Molloy; Christopher L. Smith; Abigail Wozniak |
| Abstract: | We confront two seemingly-contradictory observations about the US labor market: the rate at which workers change employers has declined since the 1980s, yet there is a commonly expressed view that long-term employment relationships are more difficult to attain. We reconcile these observations by examining how the distribution of employment tenure has changed in aggregate and for various demographic groups. We show that the fraction of workers with short tenure (less than a year) has been falling since the 1980s, consistent with the decline in job changing. Meanwhile, the fraction of workers with long tenure (20 years or more) has been rising modestly owing to an increase in long tenure for women and the ageing of the population. Long tenure has declined markedly among older men; this trend may have spurred popular perceptions that long-term employment is less common than in the past. The decline in long-tenure for men appears due to an increase in mid-career separations that reduce the likelihood of reaching long-tenure, rather than an increase in late-career separations. Nevertheless, survey evidence indicates that these changes in employment relationships are not associated with heightened concerns about job insecurity or decreases in job satisfaction as reported by workers. The decline in short-tenure is widespread, associated with fewer workers cycling among briefly-held jobs, and coincides with an increase in perceived job security among short tenure workers. |
| Keywords: | Employment stability; Job to job transitions; Job tenure; Labor market dynamism; Labor market fluidity |
| JEL: | J62 J63 |
| Date: | 2020–02–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2020-17&r=all |
| By: | Miquel Pellicer (Maynooth University and SALDRU, University of Cape Town); Vimal Ranchhod (School of Economics and SALDRU, University of Cape Town) |
| Abstract: | Most empirical studies on discrimination focus on the differential treatment in the labour market of people of equal productivity. However, if discrimina-tion over the life-cycle affects productivity, then these estimates do not capture the full impact of discrimination on labour market outcomes. We study the cu-mulative effect of discrimination for the (extreme) case of South Africa during apartheid. South Africa's apartheid government implemented a comprehensive system of discrimination against "non-Whites" that covered every major facet of life and was designed to create productivity differentials across race groups. We quantify the cumulative effect of all of these forms of discrimination by esti-mating the causal effect of being classified as White on education, employment and income. Our identification strategy is based on a policy change that privileged ancestry over appearance in the process of racial classification for those born after the 1951 Census. We use census data from 1980, 1991, and 1996, and restrict our sample to Whites and "Coloureds". The data exhibits a discontinuity as well as a change in the trend of racial shares for cohorts born after 1951. Combined, these imply a 6 percentage point lower likelihood of being classified as White for people born 10 years after 1951. Our preferred estimates indicate that being classified as White instead of "Coloured" resulted in a more than threefold increase in income for men. This corresponds to approximately 65% of the difference in mean incomes between the two population groups. Our findings for women are inconclusive. |
| Keywords: | Discrimination, South Africa, Education, Income |
| JEL: | E24 J15 J7 N37 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:may:mayecw:n300-20.pdf&r=all |
| By: | Mariacristina Piva (Dipartimento di Politica Economica, DISCE, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Massimiliano Tani (UNSW Canberra, Australia – IZA, Bonn, Germany); Marco Vivarelli (Dipartimento di Politica Economica, DISCE, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore – UNU-MERIT, Maastricht, The Netherlands – IZA, Bonn, Germany) |
| Abstract: | This paper builds on and considerably extends Piva, Tani and Vivarelli (2018), confirming the key role of Business Visits as a productivity enhancing channel of technology transfer. Our analysis is based on a unique database on business visits sourced from the U.S. National Business Travel Association, merged with OECD and World Bank data and resulting in an unbalanced panel covering 33 sectors and 14 countries over the period 1998-2013 (3,574 longitudinal observations). We find evidence that BVs contribute to fostering labour productivity in a significant way. While this is consistent with what found by the previous (scant) empirical literature on the subject, we also find that short-term mobility exhibits decreasing returns, being more crucial in those sectors characterized by less mobility and by lower productivity performances. |
| Keywords: | Business visits, Labour mobility, Knowledge diffusion, R&D, Productivity |
| JEL: | J61 O33 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie5:dipe0010&r=all |