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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Cristelli, Gabriele; Lissoni, Francesco |
| Abstract: | We study the innovation effects of the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons (AFMP), signed by Switzerland and the EU in 1999. Using geocoded patent data, complemented by matched inventor-immigrant-census records, we identify a large number of cross-border inventors (CBIs), commuters from neighbouring countries working in Swiss R&D labs. We show that, during the AFMP implementation phase, the influx of CBIs increased differentially across regions at different driving distances from the border. That caused a 24% increase in patents, mostly due to large and medium patent holders (as opposed to very large ones) and to inventor teams mixing CBIs and natives. The latter were not displaced and increased their productivity, thanks to complementarity between their knowledge assets and those of CBIs. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Innovation, Patents, Inventors, Free Movement of Persons |
| JEL: | F22 J61 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:104120&r=all |
| By: | Benjamin Lochner; Christian Merkl; Heiko Stüber; Nicole Guertzgen |
| Abstract: | Using the German IAB Job Vacancy Survey, we look into the black box of recruiting intensity and hiring practices from the employers’ perspective. Our paper evaluates three important channels for hiring —namely vacancy posting, the selectivity of hiring (labor selection), and the number of search channels— through the lens of an undirected search model. Vacancy posting and labor selection show a U-shape over the employment growth distribution. The number of search channels is also upward sloping for growing establishments, but relatively flat for shrinking establishments. We argue that growing establishments react to positive establishment-specific productivity shocks by using all three channels more actively. Furthermore, we connect the fact that shrinking establishments post more vacancies and are less selective than those with a constant workforce to churn triggered by employment-to-employment transitions. In line with our theoretical framework, all three hiring margins are procyclical over the business cycle. |
| Keywords: | recruiting intensity, vacancies, labor selection, administrative data, survey data |
| JEL: | E24 J63 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8684&r=all |
| By: | Marek Ignaszak (Goethe University Frankfurt, Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 3, 60323 Frankfurt, Germany,); Philip Jung (TechnicalUniversityofDortmund,FacultyofBusiness,EconomicsandSocialSciences,44221 Dortmund,Germany); Keith Kuester (University of Bonn Adenauerallee 24-42,53113 Bonn, Germany, and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | Consider a union of atomistic member states, each faced with idiosyncratic business-cycle shocks. Private cross-border risk-sharing is limited, giving a role to a federal unemployment-based transfer scheme. Member states control local labor-market policies, giving rise to a trade-off between moral hazard and insurance. Calibrating the economy to a stylized European Monetary Union, we find notable welfare gains if the federal scheme's payouts take the member states' past unemployment level as a reference point. Member states' control over policies other than unemployment benefits can limit generosity during the transition phase. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment reinsurance, labor-market policy, fiscal federalism, search and matching |
| JEL: | E32 E24 E62 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:040&r=all |
| By: | Mari, Gabriele |
| Abstract: | Employed mothers often incur in a trade-off between lower wages and working-time flexibility, and such compensating differentials contribute to persistent gender gaps in labour markets. I ask to what extent working-time flexibility is sought after by those who are not parents of young children, if similar trade-offs may ensue, and with what consequences for disparities among and between women and men. I evaluate the effects of a 2014 reform that extended the “right to request” working-time flexibility from parents of young children to all employees in the UK. Using a difference-in-differences design, I find that women without young children reduce their working hours and move to part-time employment. These adjustments are coupled with a reduction in job-related stress and monthly earnings, but not hourly wage rates. Effects are sizeable, suggesting that right-to-request laws can enhance working-time flexibility within workplaces and mitigate gaps between women with and without children. This holds mainly for the tertiary-educated though, and, as no accompanying changes are observed among men, gender gaps in working hours and earnings are unintendedly amplified. Implications are drawn for both compensating differentials theory and working-time policies, also in light of the current surge in flexible working. |
| Date: | 2020–11–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:bnp9r&r=all |
| By: | Wolfgang Frimmel |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of raising the eligibility age of early retirement on the re-integration into the labor market of elderly unemployed workers. I exploit two Austrian pension reforms increasing the early retirement age step-wise for different quarter-of-birth cohorts. Empirical results based on Austrian administrative data reveal a substantial gender di erence in how unemployed workers are a ected by the policy change. While unemployed women only benefit little with shorter unemployment duration, modest higher re-employment probability as well as labor income after unemployment, unemployed men benefit in several aspects: although unemployment duration remains una ected, re-employment chances, labor income and participation in active labor market policies significantly increase. Elderly unemployed workers closer to their early retirement age are systematically assigned to programs increasing their job application and job search skills, while workers more than five years away from their early retirement age are more likely to participate in programs increasing their skills. The gender di erence may be explained by the nature of the pension reforms. From a policy perspective, these results suggest that increasing the early retirement age is not only a feasible way to improve the financial sustainability of public pension systems but also improves the re-integration of elderly unemployed male workers. |
| Keywords: | pension reform, early retirement, active labor market policies, unemployment |
| JEL: | J14 J26 J68 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2020-24&r=all |
| By: | Yann Thommen |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether flexibility-enhancing reforms of national collective bargaining systems have positive outcomes in terms of employment and unemployment in the short-term, especially when implemented during an economic downturn. The analysis consists in applying local projections to a novel panel database of reforms of collective bargaining institutions in EU countries in the period 2000-2018. There is no evidence that making collective bargaining institutions more flexible during a recession has a positive effect on employment or unemployment in the short term. More specifically, reforms that reduce bargaining coverage have negative short-term effects, particularly on the employment of young people and low-educated workers, and are associated with a decline in the share of temporary jobs. The results do not support the idea that collective bargaining institutions should be reformed during a recession to boost employment. |
| Keywords: | Employment, Unemployment, Short-term effects, Labor market, Collective bargaining, Reforms. |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J08 J21 J5 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2020-47&r=all |
| By: | Azmat, Ghazala (Sciences Po, Paris); Boring, Anne (Erasmus School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the recent efforts by the corporate world and public policy to increase the number of women in leadership positions in the workplace. We review and empirically evaluate the "business case" for gender equality, showing some evidence in favour of it. Despite the evidence and growing support, progress towards more diversity in leadership positions has been slow. We study the importance of supply-side constraints, as well as the main diversity policies (gender quotas, mentoring and network programs, diversity training to change firm culture, and family friendly policies) that have been implemented. We focus on the effectiveness of these policies, their shortcomings, as well as potential future steps that could help guide policy. |
| Keywords: | gender, firms, diversity policies |
| JEL: | J16 M14 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izapps:pp168&r=all |
| By: | Jean-François Fagnart (CEREC, Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles); Marc Germain (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)); Bruno Van der Linden (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)) |
| Abstract: | We study the consequences of a working time reduction (WTR hereafter) in an exogenous growth model with unemployment (due to efficiency wage considerations) and a renewable natural resource. The resource is an essential input whose marginal productivity is bounded by physical laws. In the laissez-faire equilibrium, firms set headcount employment, working time and a wage level which affects workers' effort. We show that if a WTR always decreases the total number of worked hours, its impact on the number of (un)employed crucially depends on the relative scarcity of the resource. If the ressource inflow is unlimited, the economy converges toward a balanced growth path and a WTR lowers the levels of output, employment and wages along this path, without affecting their growth rate. When the resource inflow is finite, the economy converges toward a stationary state. In this case, a WTR increases the stationary level of hourly wages and employment if the resource is scarce enough (which is for instance the case if the labour and capital saving technical progress is unbounded). Furthermore, the long-term elasticity of employment (resp., of the hourly wage) to the cut in hours is larger (resp., smaller) when the resource is scarcer. The transitory dynamics toward the stationary state is studied numerically. As far as the impact of a WTR on employment and wage are concerned, this analysis confirms the results put forward for the stationary state. |
| Keywords: | unemployment; fair wage; work sharing; (limits to) growth; resource constraints |
| JEL: | J68 O44 Q57 |
| Date: | 2020–11–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2020032&r=all |
| By: | Kauhanen, Antti; Maczulskij, Terhi; Riukula, Krista |
| Abstract: | Abstract This paper analyses the heterogeneous effects of the decentralization of collective bargaining on the incidence of wage increases and wage dispersion in Finland. We use linked employer-employee panel data for the 2005–2013 period, which includes major changes in bargaining systems and economic conditions. Our regression results from models with high-dimensional individual and firm fixed effects show that decentralized bargaining leads to very different outcomes for blue- and white-collar employees. Decentralized bargaining decreases wage dispersion among blue-collar employees and slightly increases it among white-collar employees. Decentralization also affects the incidence of wage increases differently for blue- and white-collar employees. We argue that these differences reflect the different preferences of the employee groups. We also show that the fallback option in local negotiations affects the decentralization outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Decentralization, Collective agreements, Wage bargaining, Wage increase, Wage dispersion |
| JEL: | J31 J51 J52 |
| Date: | 2020–11–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:wpaper:83&r=all |
| By: | José García-Montalvo; Daniele Alimonti; Sonja Reiland; Isabelle Vernos |
| Abstract: | Women are underrepresented in the top ranks of the scientific career, including the biomedical disciplines. This is not generally the result of explicit and easily recognizable gender biases but the outcome of decisions with many components of unconscious nature that are difficult to assess. Evidence suggests that implicit gender stereotypes influence perceptions as well as decisions. To explore these potential reasons of women's underrepresentation in life sciences we analyzed the outcome of gender-science and gender-career Implicit Association Tests (IAT) taken by 2,589 scientists working in high profile biomedical research centers. We found that male-science association is less pronounced among researchers than in the general population (34% below the level of the general population). However, this difference is mostly explained by the low level of the IAT score among female researchers. Despite the highly meritocratic view of the academic career, male scientists have a high level of male-science association (261% the level among women scientists), similar to the general population. |
| Keywords: | gender bias, implicit association test, research centers, scientific career |
| JEL: | J16 J44 J7 O32 |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1212&r=all |
| By: | Walter Paternesi Meloni (Roma Tre University); Antonella Stirati (Roma Tre University) |
| Abstract: | After the 1980s, advanced capitalist economies witnessed a significant decline of the labor share in income. Along with the conventional view, which ascribed this decline to technological factors and international trade, another line of enquiry has endorsed a `Political Economy` approach to identifying several drivers of the labor share erosion. Among the latter, the role of persistent labor market slack has remained relatively unexplored. We try to fill this gap moving from a recent contribution by Anwar Shaikh, who elaborated on the relation between unemployment and changes in income distribution and in the US economy. We study this relationship by adopting a long-term approach, using two alternative measures of labor market slack (namely, the unemployment rate and the unemployment intensity, an index that incorporates the duration of unemployment). We first extend Shaikh`s method of analysis to eight mature countries, and subsequently we approach the relationship between changes in labor market slack and the (adjusted) wage share in the private sector of the economy from 1960 to 2017 with other econometric techniques. Our findings confirm the existence of a negative relationship between labor market slack and the wage share, and we find no tendency to return to a `normal` unemployment rate associated with a stable wage share. |
| Keywords: | wage share, income distribution, unemployment, labor market slack, unemployment duration, bargaining power. |
| JEL: | E11 E25 J64 |
| Date: | 2020–09–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:inetwp137&r=all |
| By: | Burkhard Heer; Stefan Rohrbacher |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of endogenous longevity on optimal tax progressivity and inequality in an overlapping generations model with skill heterogeneity. Higher tax progressivity decreases both the longevity gap and net income inequality, but at the expense of lower average lifetime and lower aggregate labor supply and income. We find that the welfare-maximizing income tax is less progressive than in the case of exogenous longevity and that the present US income tax should redistribute less. Our result is robust to the empirically observed range of labor supply elasticity and the assumptions of both missing annuity markets and tax deductibility of private health expenditures. |
| Keywords: | health and inequality, demography, second-best, optimal taxation, personal income distribution, overlapping generations |
| JEL: | I14 J10 H21 H51 D31 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8691&r=all |
| By: | Lea Heursen; Eva Ranehill; Roberto A. Weber |
| Abstract: | We study whether one reason behind female underrepresentation in leadership is that female leaders are less effective at coordinating action by followers. Two experiments using coordination games investigate whether female leaders are less successful than males in persuading followers to coordinate on efficient equilibria. Group performance hinges on higher-order beliefs about the leader’s capacity to convince followers to pursue desired actions, making beliefs that women are less effective leaders potentially self-confirming. We find no evidence that such bias impacts actual leadership performance, identifying a precisely-estimated null effect. We show that this absence of an effect is surprising given experts’ priors. |
| Keywords: | Gender, coordination games, leadership, experiment |
| JEL: | D23 C72 C92 J1 |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:econwp:368&r=all |
| By: | Nicholas Campisi (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Hill Kulu (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Julia Mikolai (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Sebastian Klüsener (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Mikko Myrskylä (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | -Since 2010, some of the Nordic countries have experienced fertility declines down to unprecedented levels. Fertility decline in the Nordic countries was unexpected for most experts, considering that these countries were not heavily affected by the 2008 economic recession which was related to fertility declines in other European countries. Researchers have sought to understand why fertility is declining in these countries but have so far paid little attention to the spatial dimension of this process, despite evidence of large spatial variation of fertility. This paper contributes new understanding to the role of space in Nordic fertility changa and how the uncertainty perspective is related to spatial patterns of fertility. We apply advanced spatial panel models to data covering 1,099 municipalities in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden to separate out spatial variation and temporal variation. Our models use both economic (employment, income) and social (partnership dissolution, voting) measures of uncertainty to explore how uncertainty is related to fertility. Results show that fertility levels and trends by age vary substantially by level of urbanization. Differences in uncertainty by age appear essential to spatial variation – while social contexts are related to variation at all ages, economic measures are more related to fertility under age thirty than over age thirty. In addition, stability in fertility over age thirty seems to be an important buffer for the overall rate of total fertility decline, especially in rural municipalities. |
| Keywords: | Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2020-036&r=all |
| By: | Tendai Zawaira (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa); Matthew W. Clance (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa); Carolyn Chisadza (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa) |
| Abstract: | Using data on historical homelands of ethnicities from the Ethnographic Atlas (Murdock, 1959, 1967) and World Values Survey (WVS) data, we analyse how social institutions perpetuate social attitudes that legitimise gender inequality in the labour market, specifically on female labour force participation in sub- Saharan Africa. We find that patriarchal systems in general such as patrilineal kinship, patrilineal land inheritance and patrilocal residence upon marriage reduce female labour force participation, whilst matriarchal systems have the opposite effect. These results are partly influenced by unequal gender attitudes towards women and their work. The findings suggest that social institutions are an important element in understanding gender dynamics in sub-Saharan Africa because they have over time informed on gender identification and appropriate gender roles in most societies. |
| Keywords: | Gender, Africa, Institutions, Culture |
| JEL: | J16 O11 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:2020101&r=all |
| By: | Douglas Sutherland |
| Abstract: | The U.S. population is becoming increasingly urban and has gradually shifted to the south and west. Policy restrictions have played a role in preventing dynamic areas expanding, and when they do expand it can be through low-density housing sprawl. Land use restrictions and a sluggish housing supply as well as difficulties in making timely and co-ordinated supply of infrastructure have hindered workers benefiting from new opportunities including through moving. Policies can address these issues by targeting housing affordability, help families move and invest in infrastructure to improve accessibility and connectivity. |
| JEL: | J61 J68 R12 R14 R31 R52 R53 |
| Date: | 2020–11–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1628-en&r=all |
| By: | Sonnabend, Hendrik; Lackner, Mario |
| Abstract: | This study examines gender differences in overconfidence and decision-making in a high-stakes environment. Using data on more than 40,000 individual attempts from international freediving competitions, we provide evidence that women, on average, are less likely than men to overestimate their ability. This result is robust to different measures of overconfidence and can be partly explained by experience. There are no substantial gender differences on the intensive margin of overconfidence. In terms of performance, results suggest that women suffer more from overconfidence than men. |
| Keywords: | overconfidence,gender,decision-making,competition,freediving |
| JEL: | D81 J16 Z2 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc20:224595&r=all |