nep-lab New Economics Papers
on Labour Economics
Issue of 2020‒10‒12
23 papers chosen by
Joseph Marchand
University of Alberta

  1. Do Skilled Migrants Compete with Native Workers? Analysis of a Selective Immigration Policy By Sara Signorelli
  2. An Introduction to the Economics of Immigration in OECD Countries By Edo, Anthony; Ragot, Lionel; Rapoport, Hillel; Sardoschau, Sulin; Steinmayr, Andreas; Sweetman, Arthur
  3. Wind of Change? Cultural Determinants of Maternal Labor Supply By Boelmann, Barbara; Raute, Anna; Schönberg, Uta
  4. Scaring or scarring? Labour market effects of criminal victimisation By Anna Bindler; Nadine Ketel
  5. Maternal Stress and Offspring Lifelong Labor Market Outcomes By Vincenzo Atella; Edoardo di Porto; Joanna Kopinska; Maarten Lindeboom
  6. STEM Occupations and the Gender Gap: What Can We Learn from Job Tasks? By Speer, Jamin D.
  7. International Student Enrollments and Selectivity: Evidence from the Optional Practical Training Program By Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina; Shih, Kevin Y.; Xu, Huanan
  8. Parental Unemployment, Social Insurance and Child Well-Being across Countries By Hansen, Kerstin F.; Stutzer, Alois
  9. Large Losses from Little Lies: Randomly Assigned Opportunity to Misrepresent Substantially Lowers Later Cooperation and Worsens Income Inequality By Michalis Drouvelis; Jennifer Gerson; Nattavudh Powdthavee; Yohanes E. Riyanto
  10. Regional labour migration - Stylized facts for Germany By Mark Trede; Michael Zimmermann
  11. "In knowledge we trust: learning-by-interacting and the productivity of inventors" By Matteo Tubiana; Ernest Miguelez; Rosina Moreno
  12. The Role of Unemployment and Job Change When Estimating the Returns to Migration By Emmler, Julian; Fitzenberger, Bernd
  13. Importing Inequality: Immigration and the Top 1 Percent By Advani, Arun; Koenig, Felix; Pessina, Lorenzo; Summers, Andy
  14. Racial Disparities in Frontline Workers and Housing Crowding during COVID-19: Evidence from Geolocation Data By Milena Almagro; Joshua Coven; Arpit Gupta; Angelo Orane-Hutchinson
  15. Financial Capital and Immigrant Self-Employment: Evidence from a Swedish Reform By Aldén, Lina; Hammarstedt, Mats; Miao, Chizheng
  16. Do Public Subsidies of Union Membership Increase Union Membership Rates? By Barth, Erling; Bryson, Alex; Dale-Olsen, Harald
  17. Do Women Benefit from Minimum Wages? By Olena Chorna; Lucas van der Velde
  18. The Crisis and Job Guarantees in Urban India By Dhingra, Swati; Machin, Stephen
  19. Estimating the Relationship Between Resource Intensity and Occupational Health and Safety in Kazakhstan By Natalia Li
  20. The effect of early childhood education and care services on the social integration of refugee families By Gambaro, Ludovica; Neidhöfer, Guido; Spieß, Christa Katharina
  21. Self-employment by gender in the EU: convergence and clusters By João Ricardo Faria; Juan Carlos Cuestas; Luis Gil-Alana; Estefania Mourelle
  22. Work Disability after Motherhood and How Paternity Leave Can Help By Fontenay, Sébastien; Tojerow, Ilan
  23. Strength in Numbers: A Field Experiment in Gender, Influence, and Group Dynamics By Stoddard, Olga B.; Karpowitz, Christopher F.; Preece, Jessica

  1. By: Sara Signorelli
    Abstract: In recent years high-skill immigration has been often encouraged by governments aiming to support their economy, but its impact on native workers facing a direct increase in competition is still debated. This paper addresses the question by taking advantage of a reform facilitating the hiring of foreign workers within a list of technical occupations. The analysis relies on administrative employer-employee data and applies a difference-in-differences approach. Results show that the reform was successful in boosting migrants' hires without affecting native employment. Wages decrease following the supply shift but, in contrast with the standard model predictions, do so twice as much for migrants than for natives. I find that two channels explain this differential effect: imperfect degree of substitution in production and differences in bargaining power. Overall, this paper provides evidence that policies encouraging high-skill migration do not excessively harm the native labor force.
    JEL: J61 J62 J63
    Date: 2020–09–22
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jmp:jm2020:psi891&r=all
  2. By: Edo, Anthony (CEPII, Paris); Ragot, Lionel (University Paris Ouest-Nanterre); Rapoport, Hillel (Paris School of Economics); Sardoschau, Sulin (Humboldt University Berlin); Steinmayr, Andreas (University of Munich); Sweetman, Arthur (McMaster University)
    Abstract: The share of the foreign-born in OECD countries is increasing, and this article summarizes economics research on the effects of immigration in those nations. Four broad topics are addressed: labor market issues, fiscal questions, the political economy of immigration, and productivity/international trade. Extreme concerns about deleterious labour market and fiscal impacts following from new immigrants are not found to be warranted. However, it is also clear that government policies and practices regarding the selection and integration of new migrants affect labour market, fiscal and social/cultural outcomes. Policies that are well informed, well crafted, and well executed beneficially improve population welfare.
    Keywords: immigration, labor market and fiscal effects of immigration, integration, diversity and productivity, trade and migration, political economy of immigration, refugees
    JEL: F22 J15 J61
    Date: 2020–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13755&r=all
  3. By: Boelmann, Barbara; Raute, Anna; Schönberg, Uta (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany])
    Abstract: "Does the culture in which a woman grows up influence her labor market decisions once she has had a child? To what extent might the culture of her present social environment shape maternal labor supply? To address these questions, we exploit the setting of German reunification. A state socialist country, East Germany strongly encouraged mothers to participate in the labor market full-time, whereas West Germany propagated a more traditional male breadwinner-model. After reunification, these two cultures were suddenly thrown together, with consequent increased social interactions between East and West Germans through migration and commuting. A comparison of East and West German mothers on both sides of the former Inner German border within the same commuting zone shows that culture matters. Indeed, East German mothers return to work more quickly and for longer hours than West German mothers even two decades after reunification. Second, in exploiting migration across this old border, we document a strong asymmetry in the persistence of the culture in which women were raised. Whereas East German female migrants return to work earlier and work longer hours than their West German colleagues even after long exposure to the more traditional West German culture, West German migrants adjust their post-birth labor supply behavior nearly entirely to that of their East German colleagues. Finally, taking advantage of differential inflows of East German migrants across West German firms in the aftermath of reunification, we show that even a partial exposure to East German colleagues induces 'native' West German mothers to accelerate their return to work after childbirth, suggesting that migration might be a catalyst for cultural change." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) Additional Information Zusammenfassung
    JEL: J01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:202030&r=all
  4. By: Anna Bindler (University of Cologne and University of Gothenburg); Nadine Ketel (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
    Abstract: Little is known about the costs of crime to victims. We use unique and detailed register data on victimisations and monthly labour market outcomes from the Netherlands and estimate event-study designs to assess short- and long-term effects of criminal victimisation. Across offences, both males and females experience significant decreases in earnings (up to -12.9%) and increases in benefit receipt (up to +6%) after victimisation. The negative labour market responses are lasting (up to four years) and accompanied by shorter-lived responses in health expenditure. Additional analyses suggest that the victimisation is a life-changing event leading to escalation points in victims’ lives.
    Keywords: Crime; victimisation; labour market outcomes; event-study design
    JEL: K4 J01 J12 I1
    Date: 2020–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:030&r=all
  5. By: Vincenzo Atella (University of Rome Tor Vergata); Edoardo di Porto (Federico II University of Napoli); Joanna Kopinska (Sapienza University of Rome); Maarten Lindeboom (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
    Abstract: This paper examines the effects of in-utero exposure to stress on lifelong labor market outcomes. We exploit a unique natural experiment that involved randomly placed Nazi raids on municipalities in Italy during WWII. We use administrative data on the universe of private sector workers in Italy and link this data to unique historical data with detailed information about war casualties and Nazi raids across space (Municipality) and time. We find that prenatal stress exposure leads to lower wage earnings when workers start their career, and that this effect persists until retirement. The earnings penalty is in large part due to the type of job that people hold and interruptions in their working career due to unemployment. We further show that workers exposed to in-utero stress face larger earnings reductions after job loss due to mass layoffs. This earnings loss deepens their relative disadvantage over time.
    Keywords: Early-life, Stress, Life-long earnings, mass layoff, dynamic complementarities
    JEL: I1 J1
    Date: 2020–09–29
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20200065&r=all
  6. By: Speer, Jamin D. (University of Memphis)
    Abstract: Policymakers often promote the importance of STEM jobs but are concerned about the underrepresentation of women and minorities in these jobs. However, there is no agreed-upon definition of STEM jobs. I use occupation task data from O*Net to analyze the STEM task content of occupations, drawing several conclusions. First, there is no clear, robust definition of STEM occupations, even when using task data. The occupations included are highly sensitive to the cut-offs and methods used. Second, there are a number of occupations that should clearly be considered STEM by task content but are typically not, including nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and economists. Third, the gender gap in STEM jobs depends heavily on how one defines STEM. One traditional definition shows that STEM jobs are 76% male, but most task-based definitions show gender gaps only half as large (62-65% male). Racial gaps in STEM and the earnings premium for STEM occupations (35-43%) are fairly stable across definitions. The results imply that policies promoting traditionally-defined STEM jobs can unnecessarily exclude women and draw workers away from other important occupations.
    Keywords: gender gaps, STEM
    JEL: J01 J15 J16
    Date: 2020–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13734&r=all
  7. By: Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina (University of California, Merced); Shih, Kevin Y. (Queens College, CUNY); Xu, Huanan (Indiana University)
    Abstract: We examine how the 17 month extension of Optional Practical Training—a program that allows international Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) majors the opportunity to work in the United States for 1-2 years following graduation—affects the quantity and quality of international students. Extension benefits not only include extended work duration, but also an additional attempt at securing more permanent employment through an H-1B visa. We find sizable positive treatment effects on the number of students matriculating into U.S. higher education, and also increases in the quality of students, as captured by the selectivity of institutions they attend.
    Keywords: selectivity, optional practical training, international students, enrollments, United States
    JEL: F22 J61 J68
    Date: 2020–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13730&r=all
  8. By: Hansen, Kerstin F. (University of Basel); Stutzer, Alois (University of Basel)
    Abstract: Based on a unique repeated cross-sectional data set of school-aged children in Europe, the Middle East and North America, we analyze how children's subjective well-being is related to parents' employment status, depending on the institutional context. We find that parental unemployment is strongly negatively related to children's life satisfaction across countries and years. The effect is thereby moderated by the generosity of unemployment benefits. Exploiting across- and within-country variation, our results suggest that a higher benefit replacement rate alleviates the negative effects of fathers', but not mothers', unemployment. We further test the robustness of our results considering unemployment benefits jointly with social work norms. While the buffering effect of unemployment insurance remains, the spillover effects of paternal unemployment seem to be more pronounced in environments with stricter social work norms.
    Keywords: unemployment, parental unemployment, children, child well-being, subjective well-being, unemployment insurance, social work norms
    JEL: D1 I3 J6
    Date: 2020–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13752&r=all
  9. By: Michalis Drouvelis; Jennifer Gerson; Nattavudh Powdthavee; Yohanes E. Riyanto
    Abstract: Social media has made anonymized behavior online a prevalent part of many people’s daily interactions. The implications of this new ability to hide one’s identity information remain imperfectly understood. Might it be corrosive to human cooperation? This paper investigates the possibility that a small deceptive act of misrepresenting some information about one’s real identity to others – a social media-related behavior commonly known as ‘catfishing’ – increases the likelihood that the individual will go on to behave uncooperatively in an otherwise anonymous prisoner’s dilemma game. In our intention-to-treat analysis, we demonstrated that randomly allowing people to misrepresent their gender identity information reduced the aggregate cooperation level by approximately 12-13 percentage points. Not only that the average catfisher was substantially more likely to go on to defect than participants in the control and the true gender groups, those who were paired with a potential catfisher also defected significantly more often as well. Participants also suffered a significant financial loss from having been randomly matched with a catfisher; 64% of those who played against someone who chose to misrepresent information about their gender received a payoff of zero from the prisoner’s dilemma game. Our results suggest that even small short-term opportunities to misrepresent one’s identity to others can potentially be extremely harmful to later human cooperation and the economic well-being of the victims.
    Keywords: cooperation, misrepresentation, social media, social dilemma, experiment
    JEL: C92 D91
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8564&r=all
  10. By: Mark Trede; Michael Zimmermann
    Abstract: We present stylized facts of the local German labour markets in a systematic way. Using a large German administrative dataset and newly available regional price level data, we study workers' biographies at the local level. Huge regional variation is documented in: unemployment rates and nominal as well as real wages. The distinction between urban and rural areas plays a substantial role. We show that the real wage gap between East and West Germany still persists 30 years after reunification whereas unemployment rates tend to converge. We investigate monthly worker flows across 328 regions (roughly equivalent to NUTS 3 regions or "Landkreise"). Unemployed workers in depressed regions are less likely to move to a new working place in another region than unemployed workers in prosperous regions. The most (and increasingly) mobile group are unemployed workers in dense and active regions. Employed workers are less willing to move and have procyclical fluctuations in their moving rates.
    Keywords: labour mobility; business cycle fluctuations; regional disparities
    JEL: R23 J61 J63 C55
    Date: 2020–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cqe:wpaper:9320&r=all
  11. By: Matteo Tubiana (University of Bergamo); Ernest Miguelez (GREThA UMR CNRS 5113 - Université de Bordeaux); Rosina Moreno (AQR-IREA Research Group, University of Barcelona. Department of Econometrics, Statistics and Applied Economics. Av. Diagonal 690, 08034 Barcelona, Spain)
    Abstract: Innovation rarely happens through the actions of a single person. Innovators source their ideas while interacting with their peers, at different levels and with different intensities. In this paper, we exploit a dataset of disambiguated inventors in European cities to assess the influence of their interactions with co-workers, organizations’ colleagues, and geographically co-located peers, to understand if the different levels of interaction influence their productivity. Following inventors’ productivity over time and adding a large number of fixed effects to control for unobserved heterogeneity, we uncover critical facts, such as the importance of city knowledge stocks for inventors’ productivity, with firm knowledge stocks and network knowledge stocks being of smaller importance. However, when the complexity and quality of knowledge is accounted for, the picture changes upside down and closer interactions (individuals’ co-workers and firms’ colleagues) become way more important.
    Keywords: Inventors, Productivity, Stock of knowledge, Interactions. JEL classification: O18, O31, O33, O52, R12.
    Date: 2020–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:202013&r=all
  12. By: Emmler, Julian (Humboldt University Berlin); Fitzenberger, Bernd (Humboldt University Berlin)
    Abstract: Estimating the returns to migration from East to West Germany, we focus on pre-migration employment dynamics, earnings uncertainty, and job change. Migrants are found to be negatively selected with respect to labor market outcomes, with a large drop in earnings and employment during the last few months before migration. We find sizeable positive earnings and employment gains of migration both in comparison to staying or job change. The gains vary considerably with pre-migration earnings and with the counterfactual considered. Future migrants have worse expectations for their labor market prospects in the East and migrants show a greater openness to mobility.
    Keywords: migration, returns, selection, unemployment, moving costs
    JEL: J61 R23 O15 P25
    Date: 2020–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13740&r=all
  13. By: Advani, Arun (Institute for Fiscal Studies, London); Koenig, Felix (Carnegie Mellon University); Pessina, Lorenzo (Columbia University); Summers, Andy (London School of Economics)
    Abstract: In this paper we study the contribution of migrants to the rise in UK top incomes. Using administrative data on the universe of UK taxpayers we show migrants are over-represented at the top of the income distribution, with migrants twice as prevalent in the top 0.1% as anywhere in the bottom 97%. These high incomes are predominantly from labour, rather than capital, and migrants are concentrated in only a handful of industries, predominantly finance. Almost all (85%) of the growth in the UK top 1% income share over the past 20 years can be attributed to migration.
    Keywords: income inequality, migration, top income shares
    JEL: H2 J3 J6
    Date: 2020–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13731&r=all
  14. By: Milena Almagro; Joshua Coven; Arpit Gupta; Angelo Orane-Hutchinson
    Abstract: We document that racial disparities in COVID-19 in New York City stem from patterns of commuting and housing crowding. During the initial wave of the pandemic, we find that out-of-home activity related to commuting is strongly associated with COVID-19 cases at the ZIP Code level and hospitalization at an individual level. After layoffs of essential workers decreased commuting, we find case growth continued through household crowding. A larger share of individuals in crowded housing or commuting to essential work are Black, Hispanic, and lower-income. As a result, structural inequalities, rather than population density, play a role in determining the cross-section of COVID-19 risk exposure in urban areas.
    Keywords: Coronavirus; COVID-19; Housing crowding; Mobility; Racial disparities
    JEL: I10 J15 R23
    Date: 2020–09–23
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedmoi:88803&r=all
  15. By: Aldén, Lina (Department of Economics and Statistics); Hammarstedt, Mats (Linnæus University and); Miao, Chizheng (Department of Economics and Statistics)
    Abstract: We study the role of capital requirement in immigrants’ self-employment decision with the help of a reform implemented in Sweden in 2010 which reduced capital requirements for limited liability companies. For both men and women, the reform increased both the probability of starting a limited liability firm and the probability of changing corporate form for those self-employed prior to the reform. We found that the reform affected immigrants and natives differently. Natives primarily responded to the reform by changing corporate form whereas immigrant men, especially those originating from the Middle East, responded to the reform by starting limited liability firms. Small differences emerge when we compare native women with immigrant women. Finally, it is the wage employed who start a limited liability business in the post-reform period, underlining the fact that access to financial capital is an obstacle for wage-employed individuals who opt for self-employment. This is true for both immigrants and natives. In contrast, more marginalised groups (i.e. unemployed immigrants), do not respond to the reform by starting limited liability firms.
    Keywords: Self-employment; Financial capital; Limited liability; Immigrants
    JEL: J15 J68 L26 L51
    Date: 2020–09–29
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1359&r=all
  16. By: Barth, Erling (Institute for Social Research, Oslo); Bryson, Alex (University College London); Dale-Olsen, Harald (Institute for Social Research, Oslo)
    Abstract: Using administrative linked employer-employee data for Norway we estimate the impact of changes in tax subsidies for union membership on individuals' membership probabilities. Increased subsidisation of the union good increases union take-up, while increased union fees reduce the demand for membership. The price elasticity of demand for union membership is - 7 percent in 2012 (the last year for which we have data) though effects are heterogeneous across types of worker. In the absence of the hikes in tax subsidies and holding workforce composition constant aggregate private sector union membership density would have fallen by 5 percentage points between 2001 and 2012. Since membership fees are a substantial part of unions' total revenues the findings have important implications for unions' viability. They are also significant because union bargaining strength, which is often proxied by union density, affects a range of social, economic and political outcomes.
    Keywords: trade unions, union membership, wages, tax subsidies
    JEL: J01 J08 J50 J51
    Date: 2020–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13747&r=all
  17. By: Olena Chorna (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Opletalova 26, 110 00, Prague, Czech Republic); Lucas van der Velde (Warsaw School of Economics – FAME|GRAPE)
    Abstract: We study how the large and unexpected increase in the minimum wage in Poland impacted the gender wage gap. For this purpose, we employ a distribution regression model coupled with a difference-in-differences estimator that recovers changes in the gender wage gap with minimum assumptions on the counterfactual wage distribution. We find that the increase in minimum wage closes the gender wage gap by almost 4 percentage points at the bottom of the wage distribution with a small spillover effect around the minimum wage. By contrast, at the top of the wage distribution gender inequality continued to grow. Minimum wage increases reduced gender wage gap even in a context of growing inequality.
    Keywords: Minimum wage, wage gap, distribution-regression, difference-in-difference
    JEL: C2 I2 J16
    Date: 2020–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fau:wpaper:wp2020_36&r=all
  18. By: Dhingra, Swati (London School of Economics); Machin, Stephen (London School of Economics)
    Abstract: This paper uses a new field survey of low-wage areas of urban India to show that employment and earnings were decimated by the lockdown resulting from the Covid-19 crisis. It examines workers' desire for a job guarantee in this setting. Workers who had a job guarantee before the crisis were relatively shielded by not being hit quite so hard in terms of the increased incidence of job loss or working zero hours and earnings losses. A stated choice experiment contained in the survey reveals evidence that low-wage workers are willing to give up around a quarter of their daily wage for a job guarantee. And direct survey questions corroborate this, with informal, young and female workers being most likely to want a job guarantee, and to want it even more due to the current crisis.
    Keywords: job guarantee, India, urban labour markets, job vignettes, COVID-19
    JEL: J46 J68 L52 P25
    Date: 2020–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13760&r=all
  19. By: Natalia Li (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Opletalova 26, 110 00, Prague, Czech Republic)
    Abstract: This paper evaluates the impact of resource intensity on occupational health in Kazakhstan, exploiting official statistical data on injury rates, mining production and employment, income and inequality measurements across 16 regions for period from 2001 to 2014. The injury and the fatality rates in the panel are estimated using fixed effects and random effects model respectively. The results indicate positive correlation between engagement in the resource sector and the injury rate. The paper also finds other significant determinants of occupational accident rates in Kazakhstan – inequality, income, and unemployment.
    Keywords: occupational health and safety, Kazakhstan, mining, resource sector, occupational accidents
    JEL: J28 J24 I15 J80
    Date: 2020–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fau:wpaper:wp2020_34&r=all
  20. By: Gambaro, Ludovica; Neidhöfer, Guido; Spieß, Christa Katharina
    Abstract: Devising appropriate policy measures for the integration of refugees is high on the agenda of many governments. This paper focuses on the social integration of families seeking asylum in Germany between 2013 and 2016. Exploiting regional differences in early childhood education and care (ECEC) services as an exogenous source of variation, and controlling for local level heterogeneity that could drive the results, we estimate the effect of ECEC attendance by refugee children on their parents' integration. We find a significant and substantial positive effect, in particular on the social integration of mothers. The size of the estimate is on average around 52% and is particularly strong for improved language proficiency and employment prospects.
    Keywords: asylum seekers,refugees,childcare,early education,integration
    JEL: I26 J13 J15
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:20044&r=all
  21. By: João Ricardo Faria (Department of Economics, Florida Atlantic University, USA); Juan Carlos Cuestas (Department of Economics and Finance, Tallinn University of Technology and Research Unit, Eesti Pank, Estonia; IEI and Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Luis Gil-Alana (Department of Economics, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain); Estefania Mourelle (Department of Economics, University of A Coruna, Spain)
    Abstract: This paper studies the convergence of self-employment by gender in the European Union, through tests for the order of integration and cluster analysis, in order to investigate the occurrence of two types of convergence: between genders and among European countries. The paper makes two contributions to the literature: 1) theoretically, it provides useful insights into the macroeconomic determinants of self-employment; 2) methodologically, it uses unit roots, fractional integration and cluster analysis to assess convergence. The empirical results point at mixed evidence of convergence, but with clear differences between the core and the periphery of Europe.
    Keywords: Self-employment, gender, European Union, convergence, cluster analysis
    JEL: J16 J24 O57
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2020/22&r=all
  22. By: Fontenay, Sébastien (Free University of Brussels); Tojerow, Ilan (Free University of Brussels)
    Abstract: We study how childbirth increases the likelihood of young, working mothers to claim disability insurance and how paternity leave could ease this effect. Our event study analysis uses Belgian data to show that the incidence rate of disability across gender only diverges after first-time childbirth. This "other child penalty" can be reduced with the provision of paternity leave. Our regression discontinuity difference-in-differences design shows that mothers with partners eligible for a two-week-long paternity leave spent on average 21% fewer days on disability over twelve years. Moreover, we show links between this incidence of paternity leave and consequent birth-spacing decisions.
    Keywords: disability insurance, gender, child penalty, paternity leave, maternal health, birth spacing, natural experiment, regression discontinuity, event study
    JEL: J16 J13 I13 H55
    Date: 2020–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13756&r=all
  23. By: Stoddard, Olga B. (Brigham Young University); Karpowitz, Christopher F. (Brigham Young University); Preece, Jessica (Brigham Young University)
    Abstract: Policy interventions to increase women's presence in the workforce and leadership positions vary in their intensity, with some including a lone or token woman and others setting higher quotas. However, little is known about how the resulting group gender compositions influence individuals' experiences and broader workplace dynamics. In this paper, we investigate whether token women are disadvantaged compared to women on majority-women mixed-gender teams. We conducted a multi-year field experiment with a top-10 undergraduate accounting program that randomized the gender composition of semester-long teams. Using laboratory, survey, and administrative data, we find that even after accounting for their proportion of the group, token women are seen as less influential by their peers and are less likely to be chosen to represent the group than women on majority-women teams. Token women also participate slightly less in group discussions and receive less credit when they do. Women's increased authority in majority-women teams is driven primarily by men's behavior, not homophily or self-assessment. We find that over time, the gap in general assessments of influence between token and other women shrinks, but this improvement does not carry over to task-specific assessments. Finally, predictors of future grades are different for token women than for other participants, and regardless of treatment condition, women's task expertise is incorporated into group decisions less often than men's. Our findings have implications for team assignments in male-dominated settings and cast significant doubt on the idea that token women can solve influence gaps by "leaning in."
    Keywords: gender, field experiment
    JEL: J16
    Date: 2020–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13741&r=all

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