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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Chiswick, Barry R.; Robinson, RaeAnn Halenda |
| Abstract: | Rates of labor force participation in the US in the second half of the nineteenth century among free women were exceedingly (and implausibly) low, about 11 percent. This is due, in part, to social perceptions of working women, cultural and societal expectations of female’s role, and lack of accurate or thorough enumeration by Census officials. This paper develops an augmented free female labor force participation rate for 1860. It is calculated by identifying free women (age 16 and older) who were likely providing informal and unenumerated labor for market production in support of a family business, that is, unreported family workers. These individuals are identified as not having a reported occupation, but are likely to be working on the basis of the self-employment occupation of other relatives in their households. Family workers are classified into three categories: farm, merchant, and craft. The inclusion of this category of workers more than triples the free female labor force participation rate in the 1860 Census, from 16 percent to 56 percent, which is comparable to today’s rate (57 percent in 2018). |
| Keywords: | Women,Labor Force Participation,Occupational Attainment,Unpaid Workers,Unreported Family Workers,1860 Census |
| JEL: | N31 J16 J21 J82 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:587&r=all |
| By: | Scott, Dana; Finamor, Lucas |
| Abstract: | In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the United States enacted the CARES Act, which expanded unemployment insurance (UI) benefits by providing a $600 weekly payment in addition to state unemployment benefits. We test whether changes in UI benefit generosity are associated with decreased employment, both at the onset of the benefits expansion and as businesses began to reopen. We use data from Homebase, a private firm that provides scheduling and time clock software to small businesses, which allows us to exploit high-frequency observations to understand how firms and workers respond to policy changes in real time. While our results show that relative declines in employment and hours occurred in mid-March, we find that the workers with higher post-CARES replacement rates did not experience larger declines in employment or hours of work when the benefits expansion went into effect. They have also returned to their previous jobs over time at similar rates as others. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment Insurance, Employment, COVID-19, CARES Act |
| JEL: | J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2020–08–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:102390&r=all |
| By: | Jun Nie; Zoe Xie |
| Abstract: | The CARES Act implemented in response to the COVID-19 crisis dramatically increased the generosity of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, triggering concerns about substantial effects on unemployment. This paper combines a labor market search-matching model with the SIR-type infection dynamics to study the effects of the CARES Act UI on both unemployment and infection. More generous UI policies create work disincentives and lead to higher unemployment but also reduce infection and save lives. Economic shutdown policies further amplify these effects of UI policies. Quantitatively, the CARES UI policies raise unemployment by an average of 3.7 percentage points over April to December 2020, but also reduce cumulative death by 4.7 percent. Eligibility expansion and the extra $600 increase in benefit level account for over 90 percent of the total effects, while the 13-week benefit duration extension plays a much smaller role. Overall, UI policies improve the welfare of workers and reduce the welfare of non-workers, both young and old. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19; Unemployment insurance; CARES Act; Search and matching models |
| JEL: | E24 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2020–08–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedkrw:88579&r=all |
| By: | Furtado, Delia; Papps, Kerry L.; Theodoropoulos, Nikolaos |
| Abstract: | We examine how work norms affect Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) take-up rates in response to worsening economic conditions. By focusing on immigrants in the US, we can consider the influence of work norms in a person’s home country, which we argue are exogenous to labor market prospects in the US. We find that the probability of receiving SSDI is more sensitive to economic downturns among immigrants from countries where people place less importance on work. We also provide evidence that this result is not driven by differential sensitivities to the business cycle or differences in SSDI eligibility. |
| Keywords: | Disability Insurance,Immigrants,Social Norms,Unemployment Rates |
| JEL: | H55 J61 I18 J15 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:590&r=all |
| By: | Victoria Costoya (CEDH-Universidad de San Andres); Lucía Echeverría (CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata and CEDH-Universidad de San Andrés, CEDH-Universidad de San Andres); María Edo (CEDH-Universidad de San Andres); Ana Rocha (CEDH-Universidad de San Andres); Agustina Thailinger (CEDH-Universidad de San Andres) |
| Abstract: | The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown policies on gender gaps remains unclear. While some studies point to equalizing factors (domestic work becomes more visible, flexible remote work arrangements expand) others highlight the potentially inequitable effects associated to women increasing their already disproportionate burden regarding housework and childcare. This paper provides evidence for Argentina. Based on a novel survey, we track changes in time allocation patterns of couples, before and during lockdown. Our results indicate that on average men allocate more time to paid work and less time to unpaid work (housework, childcare, educational support) than women. These within-couple gender gaps suffered opposite changes during lockdown: while the former reduces, the latter increases. However, given the fact that changes in paid work may be driven by more external forces linked to the labor market while modifications in unpaid work allocation probably reflect results of bargaining processes within couples, the latter may probably have longer lasting consequences. |
| Keywords: | time allocation; unpaid work; within-couple gender gaps; COVID19 |
| JEL: | D10 D13 J16 |
| Date: | 2020–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sad:wpaper:145&r=all |
| By: | Zhang, Hanzhe (Michigan State University, Department of Economics); Zou, Ben (Michigan State University, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We investigate how the marriage market affects risk-taking and career choices in a general equilibrium framework. We show that women's relative inability to reap the benefits of a risky career due to their shorter reproductive span helps explain a set of observed gender differences in the labor market and marriage market outcomes. Our theory predicts that compared with men, women are less likely to choose a risky career when unmarried, have lower within-gender wage dispersion, marry earlier, and if they choose a risky career, are less likely to have children. We provide empirical evidence consistent with theoretical predictions. |
| Keywords: | marriage market; risk-taking; occupational choices; differential fecundity; gender |
| JEL: | C78 D31 J12 J16 |
| Date: | 2020–08–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:msuecw:2020_012&r=all |
| By: | Piera Bello (Istituto di economia politica (IDEP), Facoltà di scienze economiche, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies gender-based price discrimination in the annuity market. The dataset consists of transaction-level data on the universe of individuals accessing the Chilean annuity market in the 2004-2017 period. It exploits the fact that, in Chile, individuals can access the annuity market through three different channels: an independent financial advisor, a sales agent at a company, or directly at a PFA (Pension Fund Administrator). The analysis shows that sales agents severely distort prices to the detriment of women customers. Women who consult sales agents pay higher transaction prices compared to the other two groups of women, while there is no variation in men’s prices across the three channels for market access. Additional evidence shows that this is not driven by differences in negotiation skills or type of annuity product purchased but rather by differences in initial prices. Firms charge higher initial prices to women who access the market through one of their sales agents. These results are consistent with an explanation that links the lack of competition between firms to discriminatory behaviour against female customers. Gender differences in financial literacy might explain why firms find it profitable to offer higher prices to women. |
| Keywords: | annuity market, insurers, gender, bargaining, statistical inference |
| JEL: | J16 C78 G22 D81 |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lug:wpidep:2002&r=all |
| By: | Cai, Zhengyu |
| Abstract: | This study investigates why the strong form of the spatial equilibrium is weakly supported in the literature. Using a discrete choice model, it shows that the strong form of the spatial equilibrium is rarely observed because workers are imperfectly mobile from the perspective of researchers. Incorporating the discrete choice model, a Markov chain is used to model the spatial dynamics of the population distribution. For a given location choice set, the population distribution is shown to converge to a unique spatial steady state. Microdata from the American Community Survey show that the model assumption is reasonable and support the model predictions. |
| Keywords: | imperfect mobility,heterogeneity,spatial steady state,discrete choice model,Markov chain analysis |
| JEL: | J61 R10 C25 C15 C44 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:623&r=all |
| By: | Fontaine, Francois (Paris School of Economics); Nyborg Jensen, Janne (DORS); Vejlin, Rune Majlund (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | We use administrative data on individual balance sheets in Denmark to document how an individual's financial position affects job search behavior. We look at the effect of wealth at the entry into unemployment on the exit rate from unemployment as well as the effect on the subsequent match quality. The detailed data allows us not only to distinguish between liquid and illiquid parts, but also to decompose each of them into assets and liabilities. The decomposition of wealth into these four components is key to understanding how wealth affects job finding rates. In particular, we show that liquid assets reduce the probability of becoming re-employed, but we do not see an effect of liquid liabilities or the illiquid wealth components, while interest payments speed up re-employment. The results on subsequent match quality in form of job duration and wages are mixed. |
| Keywords: | non-employment duration, wealth composition, job search behavior |
| JEL: | J6 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13423&r=all |
| By: | William Pyle |
| Abstract: | This article links Russians’ individual experiences during the late-Gorbachev and early-Yeltsin years to the beliefs those same individuals espoused in the Putin era, over a decade later. Drawing on questions, some of which are retrospective, from the first wave of the Life in Transition Survey, I show that a range of attitudes – including diminished support for markets and democracy and stronger support for reducing inequality – can be explained by whether an individual suffered labor market hardships (wage cuts, arrears, and/or unemployment) in the half decade from 1989 to 1994. More recent labor market disruptions, surprisingly, bear no such relationship to beliefs in 2006. Relative to the rest of the former Soviet Union, this pattern is unique. Though an explanation is difficult to pin down, one speculative hypothesis is that Russians were uniquely impressionable during this exit-from-communism period. Individual economic hardship, in conjunction with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, may have been particularly disorienting for those living in the country in which communism first took root. Life experiences during these years of instability, uncertainty, and diminished status may have left a uniquely deep and enduring impression. |
| Keywords: | Russian, endogenous beliefs |
| JEL: | A13 D91 P26 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8379&r=all |
| By: | Deole, Sumit; Huang, Yue |
| Abstract: | We apply difference-in-differences regressions to study the impact of the 2015 refugee crisis in Germany on the culturally closer diaspora of existing immigrants originating from Turkey and Middle- Eastern and North-African countries (TMENA). Our identification allows us to emphasize the role of immigrants’ culture in estimating immigration’s socio-economic impact. Additionally, we distinguish between the labor demand and labor supply effects associated with immigration, which enables us to reflect on the ambiguous labor market impact of immigration suggested in the existing literature. In particular, we find that TMENA immigrants experienced a substantial reduction in unemployment in 2015, consistent with the differential demand shock induced by refugees’ consumption of culturally similar goods and services. However, the unemployment effects dissipated starting in 2016, coinciding with refugees’ delayed yet incremental labor market integration. We also consider the social impact of the refugee crisis and find that while worries about immigration increased among all respondents, the increases were statistically significantly smaller among TMENA immigrants, primarily due to their cultural proximity to arriving refugees. Our results suggest that TMENA immigrants’ assimilation of German identity was unaffected by the refugee crisis. |
| Keywords: | European refugee crisis,existing immigrants,socio-economic assimilation |
| JEL: | F22 J15 Z13 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:579&r=all |
| By: | Titan Alon (University of California San Diego); Matthias Doepke (Northwestern University); Jane Olmstead-Rumsey (Northwestern University) |
| Abstract: | In recent US recessions, employment losses have been much larger for men than for women. Yet, in the current recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the opposite is true: unemployment is higher among women. In this paper, we analyze the causes and consequences of this phenomenon. We argue that women have experienced sharp employment losses both because their employment is concentrated in heavily affected sectors such as restaurants, and due to increased childcare needs caused by school and daycare closures, preventing many women from working. We analyze the repercussions of this trend using a quantitative macroeconomic model featuring heterogeneity in gender, marital status, childcare needs, and human capital. Our quantitative analysis suggests that a pandemic recession will i) feature a strong transmission from employment to aggregate demand due to diminished within-household insurance; ii) result in a widening of the gender wage gap throughout the recovery; and iii) contribute to a weakening of the gender norms that currently produce a lopsided distribution of the division of labor in home work and childcare. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, gender, marital status, human capital |
| JEL: | I14 J16 E24 |
| Date: | 2020–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2020-057&r=all |
| By: | Massimo Anelli; Gætano Basso; Giuseppe Ippedico; Giovanni Peri |
| Abstract: | Emigration of young, motivated individuals may deprive countries-of-origin of entrepreneurs. We isolate exogenous variation in a large emigration wave from Italy between 2008 and 2015 by interacting diaspora networks with economic pull factors in destination countries, and find that larger emigration rates reduced firm creation and innovative start-ups. We estimate that for every 100 emigrants, 26 fewer firms were created. An accounting exercise shows that 37 percent of the effect was due to the disproportionate loss of young people. The remaining effect was due to selection into emigration of highly entrepreneurial individuals, as well as negative spillovers on firm creation. |
| Keywords: | emigration, demography, brain drain, entrepreneurship, innovation, EU integration |
| JEL: | J61 H70 O30 M13 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8388&r=all |
| By: | Danzer, Alexander M. (Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt); Feuerbaum, Carsten (Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt); Gaessler, Fabian (Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition) |
| Abstract: | While economic theory suggests substitutability between labor and capital, little evidence exists regarding the causal effect of labor supply on inventing labor-saving technologies. We analyze the impact of exogenous changes in regional labor supply on automation innovation by exploiting an immigrant placement policy in Germany during the 1990s and 2000s. Difference-in-differences estimates indicate that one additional worker per 1,000 manual and unskilled workers reduces automation innovation by 0.05 patents. The effect is most pronounced two years after immigration and confined to industries containing many low-skilled workers. Labor market tightness and external demand are plausible mechanisms for the labor-innovation nexus. |
| Keywords: | labor supply, automation, innovation, patents, labor market tightness, quasiexperiment |
| JEL: | O31 O33 J61 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13429&r=all |
| By: | Nina Boberg-Fazlic (University of Southern Denmark); Paul Sharp (University of Southern Denmark, CAGE, CEPR) |
| Abstract: | The “refugee gap” in the economic status of refugees relative to other migrants might be due to the experience of being a refugee, or to government policy, which often denies the right to work during lengthy application processes. In Denmark before the Second World War, however, refugees were not treated differently from other migrants, motivating our use of a database of the universe of Danish naturalizations between 1851 and 1960. We consider labor market performance and find that immigrants leaving conflicts fared no worse than other migrants, conditional on other characteristics, within this relatively homogenous sample of those who attained citizenship. Refugees must be provided with the same rights as other migrants if policy aims to ensure their economic success. |
| Keywords: | Asylum policy, Denmark, immigration, naturalizations, refugee gap |
| JEL: | F22 J61 N33 N34 |
| Date: | 2020–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0194&r=all |
| By: | Luna Bellani (University of Konstanz and IZA); Anselm Hager (Humboldt University and WZB); Stephan E. Maurer (University of Konstanz and CEP) |
| Abstract: | This paper documents the persistence of the Southern slave owning elite in political power after the end of the American Civil War. We draw on a database of Texan state legislators between 1860 and 1900 and link them to their or their ancestors’ slaveholdings in 1860. We then show that former slave owners made up more than half of nearly each legislature’s members until the late 1890s. Legislators with slave owning backgrounds differ systematically from those without, being more likely to represent the Democratic party and more likely to work in an agricultural occupation. Regional characteristics matter for this persistence, as counties with higher soil suitability for growing cotton on average elect more former slave owners. |
| Keywords: | Wealth Inequality, Elites and Development, US South, Intergenerational Per-sistence, Slavery |
| JEL: | D72 J62 N31 H4 |
| Date: | 2020–08–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:knz:dpteco:2003&r=all |
| By: | Sameh Hallaq |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to estimate the intergenerational transmission of human capital in Palestine. The main question is whether formal parental education improves their offspring's cognitive skills and school achievements. I use the instrumental variable (IV) method in the estimations to overcome the potential endogeneity of parental education. The main source of variation in parental educational attainment is parents' exposure to the First Palestinian Intifada (1988-93) during their middle- and high school ages. During the First Palestinian Intifada, many school days were lost due to frequent school closures and other restrictions. Furthermore, many young people preferred to search for low-skill employment in Israel, since it provided them with better wages than the local labor market and hardly required any level of educational attainment. This study employs two outcomes, namely the standardized cognitive test scores and school achievements during the academic year 2012/13 for students between grade 5 and grade 9 in West Bank schools. Overall, the results support the hypothesis of a human capital spillover but more so for girls than for boys, where the IV results are often insignificant because of their large standard errors. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational Mobility; First Intifada |
| JEL: | I20 J62 |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_965&r=all |
| By: | John Eric Humphries (Cowles Foundation, Yale University); Christopher Neilson (Department of Economics, Princeton University); Gabriel Ulyssea (Department of Economics, University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) extended 669 billion dollars of forgivable loans in an unprecedented effort to support small businesses affected by the COVID-19 crisis. This paper provides evidence that information frictions and the "first-come, first-served" design of the PPP program skewed its resources towards larger firms and may have permanently reduced its effectiveness. Using new daily survey data on small businesses in the U.S., we show that the smallest businesses were less aware of the PPP and less likely to apply. If they did apply, the smallest businesses applied later, faced longer processing times, and were less likely to have their application approved. These frictions may have mattered, as businesses that received aid report fewer layoffs, higher employment, and improved expectations about the future. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, Small business, Information frictions, CARES Act |
| JEL: | H0 J01 J08 |
| Date: | 2020–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2247&r=all |
| By: | Bennett, Patrick (Centre for Applied Research, Norwegian School of Economics); Blundell, Richard (University College London and IFS); Salvanes, Kjell Gunnar (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | Roughly one third of a cohort drop out of high school across OECD countries, and developing effective tools to address prime-aged high school dropouts is a key policy question. We leverage high quality Norwegian register data, and for identification we exploit reforms enabling access to high school for adults above the age of 25. The paper finds that considerable increases in high school completion and beyond among women lead to higher earnings, increased employment, and decreased fertility. As male education remains unchanged by the reforms, later life education reduces the pre-existing gender earnings gap by a considerable fraction. |
| Keywords: | Adult Education; Returns to Education; Fertility; Gender inequality |
| JEL: | I26 I28 J13 |
| Date: | 2020–08–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2020_014&r=all |
| By: | Mandal, Biswajit; Chaudhuri, Saswati; Prasad, Alaka Shree |
| Abstract: | To combat COVID-19 the entire world has resorted to global lockdown implying restriction on international labor migration and trade. This paper aims to check the effect of such restrictions on the unemployment of unskilled labor in the source country. In competitive general equilibrium framework with three goods and four factors restriction on migration raises unemployment for given factor intensity. The results remain same even in a slightly different structure of the economy. In case of trade restriction, however, the rise or fall in unemployment depends on both the structure of the economy and the factor intensity assumption. |
| Keywords: | General Equilibrium,COVID-19,Migration,Trade,Unemployment |
| JEL: | D5 F22 F12 J6 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:614&r=all |
| By: | Maximilian Longmuir; Carsten Schröder; Matteo Targa |
| Abstract: | The job polarization hypothesis suggests a U-shaped pattern of employment growth along the earnings/skill distribution, which is driven by simultaneous growth in the employment of high-skill/high-earnings and low-skill/low-earnings occupations due to Routine-Biased Technological Change (RBTC) [Acemoglu and Autor, 2011]. An aspect of both high social and political relevance is the implications of job polarization and technological change for earnings distributions. In this paper, we put the RBTC trend into perspective by decomposing earnings growth into parts attributable to job polarization and other components. Using a novel harmonized dataset provided by the Luxembourg Income Study and the Economic Research Forum, we find evidence for employment polarization in 30 out of the 35 countries under analysis, in both developed and developing economies. However, the effects of this displacement in the workforce have no polarizing effect on the earnings distribution in 33 countries, once we account for between and within variation in occupational classes returns. |
| JEL: | D3 J3 J8 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lis:liswps:796&r=all |
| By: | Ingar K. Haaland; Christopher Roth |
| Abstract: | Do labor market concerns affect support for immigration? Using a large, representative sample of the US population, we first elicit beliefs about the labor market impact of immigration. To generate exogenous variation in beliefs, we then provide respondents in the treatment group with research evidence showing no adverse labor market impacts of immigration. Treated respondents update their beliefs and become more supportive of immigration, as measured by self-reported policy views and petition signatures. Treatment effects also persist in an obfuscated follow-up study. Our results demonstrate that information about the labor market impact of immigration causally affects support for immigration. |
| Keywords: | labor market concerns, support for immigration, political behavior |
| JEL: | C91 D83 F22 J15 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8401&r=all |
| By: | Edwards, Lee |
| Abstract: | The role of the PR industry in the disinformation debate has been largely overlooked, while an emphasis has been put on the responsibilities of platforms, media organisations and audiences to monitor content and eliminate fake news. In contrast, this paper argues that disinformation and fake news are well-established tools in PR work and are implicated in the current crisis. Drawing on an exploratory study of UK industry publications about fake news and disinformation, the paper shows that public relations has addressed disinformation as a commercial opportunity and a platform for demonstrating professional legitimacy. Their narratives position professional practice ethical, trustworthy and true, while simultaneously ‘othering’ dubious practices and normalising ‘organised lying’. The paper concludes by arguing that the fight against disinformation must take seriously the impact of public relations, if it is to be effective. |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2020–08–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:106161&r=all |