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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Müller, Dagmar (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN),) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I study the importance of market work during high school for graduates’ school-towork transition and career prospects. Relying on Swedish linked employer-employee data over a 30-year period, I show that market work during school provides students with an important job search channel, accounting for 30 percent of direct transitions into regular employment. I use the fact that some graduates are deprived of this channel due to establishment closures just prior to graduation and labor market entry. I compare classmates from vocational tracks with the same field of specialization to identify the effects of the closures and show that lost job-finding opportunities due to an establishment closure lead to an immediate and sizable negative effect on employment after graduation. The lost employer connection have also persistent, but diminishing negative effects on employment and earnings for up to 10 years, but are not permanent. Parts of the effect appear to be driven by a process where graduates who are subject to a closure of a relevant employer before graduation have to find employment in an industry which is less relevant to their education. |
| Keywords: | social contacts; young workers |
| JEL: | J01 |
| Date: | 2020–10–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2020_017&r=all |
| By: | Schmutte, Ian M.; Skira, Meghan M. |
| Abstract: | The costs to a firm of employee absence depend on how easy it is to find a replacement. We study how firms respond to predictable, but uncertain, worker absences that arise from maternity and non-work-related sickness leave. Using administrative data on over two million spells of leave in Brazil, we identify the short-run effects of a leave spell starting on a firm's employment, hiring, and separations. We find that firms respond immediately to the start of leave by hiring new workers, and to a lesser extent, by limiting job separations. However, firms replace leave-takers at far less than the onefor- one rate implied by a frictionless labor market model. Hiring responses are more pronounced for absences arising in occupations with more transferable skills and in firms operating in thicker labor markets. Altogether, our results suggest that replacing workers using external markets is costly and firms manage predictable worker absences through other channels. |
| JEL: | J23 J21 J63 J68 J13 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:691&r=all |
| By: | Amirapu, Amrit; Asadullah, M Niaz; Wahhaj, Zaki |
| Abstract: | Traditional gender norms can restrict independent migration by women, thus preventing them from taking advantage of economic opportunities in urban non-agricultural industries. However, women may be able to circumvent such restrictions by using marriage to engage in long-distance migration - if they are able to match with migrating grooms. Guided by a theoretical model in which women make marriage and migration decisions jointly, we hypothesize that marriage and labour markets will be inextricably linked by the possibility of marital migration. To test our hypotheses, we use the event of the construction of a major bridge in Bangladesh - which dramatically reduced travel time between the economically deprived north-western region and the manufacturing belt located around the capital city Dhaka - as a source of plausibly exogenous variation in migration costs. Our empirical ffndings support our model's main predictions and provide strong evidence for the existence of social barriers to female migration. |
| Keywords: | migration,marriage markets,female labour force participation,gender norms |
| JEL: | J12 J16 J61 O15 O18 R23 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:692&r=all |
| By: | Manoj Pant (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT)); Sugandha Huria (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT)) |
| Abstract: | This paper reassesses the link between labour, trade, and wage-inequality by proposing a simple modification of the standard 2-sector model with wage differential by incorporating the importance of consumption time. Emphasising the point that outsourcing of this time is limited by a country’s demographics, unlike outsourcing of production, which is restricted by both geography and technology, we focus on the role of a household sector that enables formal sector workers to monetise their time utilised in completing irksome household tasks by outsourcing them to unemployed-unskilled workers available in the labour market. The introduction of this sector alters some of the conventional results in the trade theory. In particular, we show how an increase in household labourers' supply unambiguously benefits formal skilled and unskilled workers, without affecting their gross earnings and production activity, though net income-inequality rises. However, the effect of trade on wage-inequality depends on the extent to which the formal sector workers can free up their time by hiring household labourers. Our framework also questions the cornerstone of the traditional results on trade and wage-inequality based on H-O-S type models and shows how one can explain the simultaneous increase in wage-inequality in developed and developing economies around the world. |
| Keywords: | Labour, Immigration, Trade, Wage Inequality, Household sector |
| JEL: | F11 F16 F22 |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ift:wpaper:2043&r=all |
| By: | Carlos Rodríguez-Castelán (World Bank); Emmanuel Vazquez (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP); Hernan Winkler (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | Evidence about the effect of exports on welfare at the local level is scarce. Using a unique dataset of international trade and poverty maps for almost 2,000 Mexican municipalities between 2004 and 2014, the study presented in this paper provides new evidence on the impact of a significant rise in exports on poverty and inequality at the local level. The analysis implements an instrumental variable approach that combines the initial structure of exports across municipalities with global trends in exports from developing to developed countries by sector. The results show that a 10 percent increase in the ratio of exports to workers reduces income inequality measured by the Gini coefficient by 0.17 points (using a 0 to 100 scale), but no significant effects on poverty reduction or average household incomes are identified. The lack of impacts on average incomes is driven by a rise in the supply of labor at the local level because municipalities with higher export growth experienced an increase in labor force participation and attracted more net migration, particularly of unskilled workers. Therefore, while total labor incomes grew in response to an increase in exports, average labor incomes per worker did not change. Declining remittances also blunted the effect of growing exports on household incomes. |
| JEL: | F14 F16 I3 D3 J61 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0269&r=all |
| By: | Pierre Brochu (Department of Economics, University of Ottawa); Jonathan Créchet (Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON); Zechuan Deng (Statistics Canada and Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON) |
| Abstract: | We use the confidential-use files of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) to study the employment dynamics in Canada from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic through to mid-summer. Using the longitudinal dimension of this dataset, we measure the size of worker reallocation, and document the presence of high labour market churning, that persists even after the easing of social-distancing restrictions. As of July, many of the recent job losers - especially those who had been temporarily laid-off between February and April - have regained employment. However, this apparent strong recovery dynamics hides important heterogeneity, and large groups of workers, such as those who were not employed prior to the pandemic, face important difficulties with finding a job. Three factors appear to be key in accounting for the incomplete employment recovery of July: (1) the unusually high separation flows that characterize the labour market in the reopening phase; (2) the low reemployment probability of recent job losers who were classified as out of the labour force during the lockdown; and (3), the low job-finding rate of individuals who were out of work prior to the pandemic. Our results further suggest that gross job losses were higher among women and young workers during the shutdown, and that older workers were more likely to leave the labour force when the economy reopened. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, Employment Flows, Labour-Market Transitions, Nonresponse |
| JEL: | C83 E24 J60 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ott:wpaper:2005e&r=all |
| By: | Serdar Birinci; Fatih Karahan; Yusuf Mercan; Kurt See |
| Abstract: | We study the positive and normative implications of labor market policies that counteract the economic fallout from containment measures during an epidemic. We incorporate a standard epidemiological model into an equilibrium search model of the labor market to compare unemployment insurance (UI) expansions and payroll subsidies. In isolation, payroll subsidies that preserve match capital and enable a swift economic recovery are preferred over a cost-equivalent UI expansion. When considered jointly, however, a cost-equivalent optimal mix allocates 20 percent of the budget to payroll subsidies and 80 percent to UI. The two policies are complementary, catering to different rungs of the productivity ladder. The small share of payroll subsidies is sufficient to preserve high-productivity jobs, but it leaves room for social assistance to workers who face inevitable job loss. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19; fiscal policy; labor productivity; unemployment; job search |
| JEL: | E24 E62 J64 |
| Date: | 2020–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednsr:88957&r=all |
| By: | Sena Coskun; Husnu Dalgic |
| Abstract: | Fertility in the US has exhibited a procyclical pattern since the 1970s. We argue that gender differences in employment risk leads to procyclical fertility: men tend to work in volatile and procyclical industries, while women are more likely to work in relatively stable and countercyclical industries. The relative gender employment gap is countercyclical as women become breadwinners in recessions, producing an insurance effect of female income. Our quantitative framework features a general equilibrium OLG model with endogenous fertility and human capital choice and shows that the current gender industry composition in the US data fully accounts for the procyclicality observed. We can also generate countercyclical fertility, as observed in the 1960s, either when the female income share is low or procyclical. Finally, we argue that the insurance effect of female income in bad times tilts the quality-quantity trade-off towards quality. |
| Keywords: | fertility, fertility cyclicality, industry cyclicality, gender asymmetric employment, gender income gap, quality-quantity trade-off |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J11 J13 J16 J21 J24 |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2020_142v2&r=all |
| By: | Bernardo Fanfani (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a model where wage di erences between men and women arise from taste-based discrimination and monopsonistic mechanisms. We show how preferences against women a ect heterogeneity in firms' pay policies in the context of an imperfect labour market, deriving a test for the presence of taste-based discrimination and of other firm-level mechanisms driving the gender wage gap, in particular compensating wage differentials. These results inform an analysis of sex pay di erences in the Italian manufacturing sector showing that preferences for workplaces providing more exible schedules are a significant determinant of the gender wage gap. Taste-based discrimi- nation mechanisms appear to be significant as well, but small in size. |
| Keywords: | Gender Wage Gap, Taste-Based Discrimination, Monopsonistic Discrimination, CompensatingWage Di erentials, FirmWage Policy, Matched Employer-Employee Data. |
| JEL: | J00 J16 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie1:def094&r=all |
| By: | John Jerrim (UCL Social Research Institute); Sam Sims (UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities); Rebecca Allen (University of Brighton); Hannah Taylor (University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | There is growing concern about the mental health and wellbeing of teachers globally, with the stress caused by the job thought to be a key factor driving many to leave the profession. It is often claimed that teachers have worse mental health and wellbeing outcomes than other occupational groups. Yet academic evidence on this matter remains limited, with some studies supporting this notion, while a handful of others do not. We contribute to this debate by providing the largest, most comprehensive analysis of differences in mental health and wellbeing between teachers and other professional workers to date. Drawing upon data from across eleven social surveys, we find little evidence that teachers have worse health and wellbeing outcomes than other occupational groups. Research in this area should shift away from whether teachers are disproportionately affected by such issues towards strengthening the evidence on the likely drivers of mental ill-health within the education profession. |
| Keywords: | Teachers, wellbeing, mental health, occupational comparisons |
| JEL: | I12 |
| Date: | 2020–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qss:dqsswp:2018&r=all |
| By: | Soskice, David |
| JEL: | J1 N0 R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2020–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:107102&r=all |
| By: | Prem, M; Bautista, M. A.; González, F; Martínez, L. R.; Muñoz, P |
| Abstract: | We exploit the sharp downward kink in college enrollment experienced by cohorts reaching college age after the 1973 military coup in Chile to study the causal effect of higher education on mortality. Using micro-data from the vital statistics for 1994-2017, we document an upward kink in the age-adjusted yearly mortality rate among the affected cohorts. Leveraging the kink in college enrollment, we estimate a negative effect of college on mortality, which is larger for men, but also sizable for women. Intermediate labor market outcomes (e.g., labor force participation) explain 30% of the reduction in mortality. A similar upward kink in mortality over multiple time horizons is also present among hospitalized patients in the affected cohorts, with observable characteristics (i.e. diagnostic, hospital, insurance) explaining over 40%. Survey responses reveal that college substantially improves access to private health care, but has mixed effects on health behaviors. |
| Keywords: | Mortality; Higher education; Chile; Mortality rate of the university population in Chile; Relationship educational level mortality |
| JEL: | I12 I14 I26 |
| Date: | 2020–10–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:018486&r=all |
| By: | Ackah, Charles Godfred; Görg, Holger; Hanley, Aoife; Hornok, Cecília |
| Abstract: | We explore the export performance of Africa's underperforming female entrepreneurs, using the Ghanaian ISSER-IGC panel, a comprehensive dataset of manufacturing firms for 2011-2015. Uniquely, the data provides information about the severity of key business constraints, across both male and female entrepreneurs. We find that females are less likely to export (and optimize their exporting) than their male peers. Although reduced access to finance seriously constrains the exports of female entrepreneurs, this limitation does not explain their relative inability to leverage value from exports. Consistent with related work, we find that certain social and cultural constraints, in particular constraints linked to bribes and security concerns, are more deeply felt by female entrepreneurs. This may hint at the exclusion of Africa's females (voluntarily or involuntarily) from male-dominated networks or business practices. |
| Keywords: | female entrepreneurship,business constraints,productivity,exporting,Africa,Ghana |
| JEL: | D22 F14 J16 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:2168&r=all |
| By: | Bernardo Fanfani (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the wage and employment e ects of Italian collective bargaining, analysing monthly data on the population of private-sector employees matched with information on contractual pay levels settled in industry-wide agreements bargained by trade unions' and employers' representatives at the national level. The research design exploits the generalised wage growth induced by changes in contractual pay levels, whose timing and size di ers across collective agreements, and it compares the outcomes of interest within sectors and geographical locations between workers subject to di erent contracts. The specification adopted controls for space-specific sectoral unobserved time-varying disturbances in a fully non-parametric way. Results show that a growth in contractual wages increases actual pay levels, determining at the same time negative effects on employment. The confidence interval of the implied own-price labour demand elasticity ranges between -0.4 and -1.2 in the preferred model specification. The interactions of this parameter with firm-level outcomes {value added per worker, size, the labour share and capital intensity{ are broadly consistent with Hicks-Marshall laws and with traditional models of centralized wage bargaining. Further analyses carefully document the dynamics of employment adjustments to contractual wage levels across time and assess the overall robustness of the results. |
| Keywords: | collective bargaining, labour demand, employment, industrial relations, minimum wage. |
| JEL: | J01 J08 J21 J23 J38 J52 |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie1:def095&r=all |
| By: | Patrick Bareinz; Silke Uebelmesser |
| Abstract: | We conduct a survey experiment on the effect of information provision on attitudes towards immigration in Germany. The focus lies on two theory-based economic channels, labor market and welfare state concerns, and immigration policy preferences. Using probability-based representative survey data, we experimentally vary the quantity and the type of information provided to respondents. We find that a bundle of information on both the share and the unemployment rate of foreigners robustly decreases welfare state concerns about immigration. There are slightly less pronounced effects on the labor market and policy channels. Further data-driven analyses reveal heterogeneity in treatment effects. Our findings therefore suggest that careful composition and targeting of information interventions can increase their effectiveness in the public debate on immigration. |
| Keywords: | immigration attitudes, survey experiment, information provision, belief updating, welfare state, labor market, machine learning |
| JEL: | C90 D83 F22 J15 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8635&r=all |
| By: | Garth Heutel; Xin Zhang |
| Abstract: | We study the incidence of pollution taxes and their impact on unemployment in an analytical general equilibrium efficiency wage model. We find closed-form solutions for the effect of a pollution tax on unemployment, factor prices, and output prices, and we identify and isolate different channels through which these general equilibrium effects arise. An effect arising from the efficiency wage specification depends on the form of the workers' effort function. Numerical simulations further illustrate our results and show that this efficiency wage effect can fully offset the sources-side incidence results found in models that omit it. |
| JEL: | H22 J64 Q52 |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27960&r=all |