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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Cirillo, Valeria; Guarascio, Dario; Parolin, Zachary |
| Abstract: | The emergence of the platform economy has served as a defining feature of increasing fragmented labour markets in modern economies. Recent research on platform work, however, has struggled to quantify the socio-economic conditions of platform workers relative to other occupation groups. Moreover, it remains unclear if the socio-economic disadvantages that platform workers are likely to face are primarily channeled through lower incomes or their more precarious working conditions. This study uses representative survey data of platform workers in Italy to investigate their size, composition, and socio- economic conditions relative to individuals in other occupations. Our findings reveal that platform workers tend to be students and of younger age, but are diverse with respect to sex, educational attainment, and native-born status. We find that platform workers face greater economic insecurity relative to all other occupation classes. Strikingly, they also feature a rate of economic insecurity that is not significantly different from that of unemployed adults. Moreover, we find that the higher levels of insecurity are not primarily channeled through lower incomes; instead, higher rates of insecurity persist even when taking family incomes into account, suggesting that the precarity and volatility of platform work matter as much as income differences in shaping economic disadvantage. Results hold under analyses that account for selection into platform work. Our findings carry important consequences for understandings of the intensity and sources of socio- economic disadvantage of individuals engaged in platform work. |
| Keywords: | platform work,non-standard work,economic insecurity |
| JEL: | J40 J80 J81 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:821&r= |
| By: | Sofia Amaral; Sonia Bhalotra; Nishith Prakash |
| Abstract: | We examine the impact of establishing women police stations (WPS) on reporting of gender-based violence. Using administrative crime data and exploiting staggered implementation across Indian cities, we find that the opening of WPS is associated with an increase in police reports of crimes against women of 29 percent, a result driven by domestic violence. This appears to reflect reporting rather than incidence as we find no changes in femicide or in survey-reported domestic violence. We also find some evidence of an increase in women’s labor supply following WPS opening, consistent with women feeling safer once the costs of reporting violence fall. |
| Keywords: | women police stations, gender-based violence, women in policing, India |
| JEL: | J12 J16 J78 K14 K31 K42 N92 I12 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9002&r= |
| By: | Jeremy Greenwood; Nezih Guner; Ricardo Marto |
| Abstract: | The 20th century beheld a dramatic transformation of the family. Some Kuznets style facts regarding structural change in the family are presented. Over the course of the 20th century in the United States fertility declined, educational attainment waxed, housework fell, leisure increased, jobs shifted from blue to white collar, and marriage waned. These trends are also observed in the cross-country data. A model is developed, and then calibrated, to address the trends in the US data. The calibration procedure is closely connected to the underlying economic logic. Three drivers of the great transition are considered: neutral technological progress, skilled-biased technological change, and drops in the price of labor-saving household durables. |
| JEL: | D10 E13 J10 O10 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28656&r=all |
| By: | Fiaschi, Davide (University of Pisa); Tealdi, Cristina (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh) |
| Abstract: | We propose a general methodology to measure labour market dynamics, inspired by the search and matching framework, based on the estimate of the transition rates between labour market states. We show how to estimate instantaneous transition rates starting from discrete time observations provided in longitudinal datasets, allowing for any number of states. We illustrate the potential of such methodology using Italian labour market data. First, we decompose the unemployment rate fluctuations into inflow and outflow driven components; then, we evaluate the impact of the implementation of a labour market reform, which substantially changed the regulations of temporary contracts. |
| Keywords: | labour market flows, instantaneous transition rates, Markov process in continuous time, labour market forecasting, policy evaluation |
| JEL: | C18 C53 E32 E24 J6 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14254&r=all |
| By: | María Esther Caballero; Brian Cadena; Brian K. Kovak |
| Abstract: | Using newly validated data on geographic migration networks, we study how labor demand shocks in the United States propagate across the border with Mexico. We show that the large exogenous decline in US employment brought about by the Great Recession affected demographic and economic outcomes in Mexican communities that were highly connected to the most affected markets in the US. In the Mexican locations with strong initial ties to the hardest hit US migrant destinations, return migration increased, emigration decreased, and remittance receipt declined. These changes significantly increased local employment and hours worked, but wages were unaffected. Investment in durable goods and children's education also slowed in these communities. These findings document the effects in Mexico when potential migrants lose access to a strong US labor market, providing insight regarding the potential impacts of stricter US migration restrictions. |
| JEL: | F22 J21 J23 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28696&r= |
| By: | Sophie Calder-Wang; Paul Gompers; Patrick Sweeney |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we document the historically low rate of hiring of women in the venture capital sector. We find that the high-profile Ellen Pao v. Kleiner Perkins gender discrimination trial had dramatic treatment effects. In difference-in-differences regressions, we find that the rate of hiring of female venture capitalists increased substantially after the trial and that the hiring was more pronounced in states that were more receptive to the exposure. We use the state-level mandated maternity benefits as an instrument for the receptivity to the treatment effects of the Pao Trial. We also show that the fraction of founders who are female increases after the Pao Trial, but that the increase is driven entirely by the hiring of female venture capitalists. There is no increase in the propensity of male venture capitalists to invest in female founders in the post-Pao Trial period. |
| JEL: | G3 J01 J16 J7 K31 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28679&r=all |
| By: | John T. Addison; Paulino Teixeira |
| Abstract: | Using a cross section of matched data from the employee and management questionnaires of the European Company Survey, this paper investigates the determinants of worker commitment and the potential contribution of commitment to establishment performance. An index of worker commitment is constructed from employer perceptions of the motivation of workers and their retention and absenteeism propensities, while the determinants of commitment are fashioned from observations taken from the worker representation side ordered along dimensions such as perceived organizational trust and involvement. The commitment index is then linked to establishment performance outcomes. Key findings from the commitment equation are the positive role of trust in management, the quality of information exchanged, and the degree of worker representation influence in respect of major decisions taken by management. In turn, commitment emerges as a key correlate of establishment financial performance and labor productivity growth. Our supplemental sensitivity analysis is supportive of the interpretation of commitment as a driver of performance. |
| Keywords: | commitment, type of workplace representation, financial performance, labor productivity growth, European Company Survey |
| JEL: | J20 J50 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9009&r= |
| By: | Sophie Calder-Wang; Paul A. Gompers; Kevin Huang |
| Abstract: | We study the role of diversity and performance in the entrepreneurial teams. We exploit a unique dataset of MBA students who participated in a required course to propose and start a real micro-business that allows us to examine horizontal diversity (i.e., within the team) as well as vertical diversity (i.e., team to faculty advisor) and their effect on performance. The design of the course allows for identification of the causal implications of horizontal and vertical diversity. The course was run in multiple cohorts in otherwise identical formats except for the team formation mechanism used. In several cohorts, students were allowed to choose their teams from among students in their section (roughly 90 students). In other cohorts, students were randomly assigned to teams based upon a computer algorithm. In the cohorts that were allowed to choose, we find strong selection based upon shared attributes. Among the randomly-assigned teams, greater diversity along the intersection of gender and race/ethnicity significantly reduced performance. However, the negative effect of this diversity is alleviated in cohorts in which teams are endogenously formed. Finally, we find that teams with more female members perform substantially better when their faculty section leader was also female. Because the gender of the faculty section leader is exogenous to the gender make-up of the entrepreneurial team, the positive performance effects can be interpreted as causal. These findings suggest that diversity policies should take adequate consideration of the multiple dimensions of diversity. |
| JEL: | J1 J15 J16 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28684&r= |
| By: | Mosthaf, Alexander (University of Mainz); Schank, Thorsten (University of Mainz); Schwarz, Stefan (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | Welfare recipients in Germany are allowed to take up supplementary jobs while receiving welfare. The possibility of having a supplementary job was introduced to reduce welfare dependency and facilitate successful labor market integration. In the present study, we use the German Panel Study "Labour Market and Social Security" (PASS) for the years 2006-2014 to analyze the impact of supplementary jobs on the chances of welfare exit. Dynamic multinomial logit models controlling for unobserved heterogeneity and the problem of initial conditions reveal that (part- and full-time) employed males are more likely to exit welfare receipt into employment than their non-employed counterparts. This effect is not driven by household composition changes or earnings increases of household members. For women, however, we find only stepping stone effects for full-time supplementary jobs during welfare receipt. Women having a supplementary part-time job have an even lower probability of leaving welfare into full-time employment. |
| Keywords: | supplementary jobs, labor market mobility, state dependence, stepping stone effect, dynamic panel data models |
| JEL: | C33 J60 I38 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14268&r=all |
| By: | Christopher Foote (Federal Reserve Bank of Boston); Tyler Hounshell (Tobin Predoctoral Program, Yale University); William D. Nordhaus (Cowles Foundation, Yale University); Douglas Rivers (Stanford University); Pamela Torola (Tobin Predoctoral Program, Yale University) |
| Abstract: | This study presents the design and results of a rapid-ï¬ re survey that collects labor market data for individuals in the United States. The purpose is to test online panels for their application to social, economic, and demographic information as well as to apply this approach to the U.S. labor market. The Yale Labor Survey (YLS) used an online panel from YouGov to replicate statistics from the Current Population Survey (CPS), the government’s official source of household labor market statistics. The YLS’s advantages included its timeliness, low cost, and ability to develop new questions quickly to study unusual labor market patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from the YLS track employment data closely from the CPS during the pandemic. Although YLS estimates of unemployment and participation rates mirrored the broad trends in CPS data, YLS estimates of those two rates were less accurate than for employment. The study demonstrates the power of carefully crafted online surveys to replicate expensive traditional methods quickly and inexpensively. |
| Keywords: | Employment, Unemployment, Survey, Weighting |
| JEL: | J1 J11 C83 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2282&r= |
| By: | Card, David (University of California, Berkeley); Cardoso, Ana Rute (IAE Barcelona (CSIC)) |
| Abstract: | Sectoral contracts in many European countries set wage floors for different occupation groups. In addition, employers often pay a wage premium (or wage cushion) to individual workers. We use administrative data from Portugal, linked to collective bargaining agreements, to study the interactions between wage floors and wage cushions and quantify the impact of sectoral wage floors. Although wages exhibit a "spike" at the wage floor, a typical worker receives a 20% premium over the floor, with larger cushions for older and better-educated workers and at higher-productivity firms. Cushions also allow wages to covary with firm-specific productivity, even within sectoral agreements. Contract negotiations tend to raise all wage floors proportionally, with increases that reflect average productivity growth among covered firms. As floors rise, however, cushions are compressed, leading to an average passthrough rate of only about 50%. We find no evidence of employment responses to floor increases. Finally, we use a series of counterfactual simulations to show that real wage reductions during the recent financial crisis arose through reductions in real wage floors, reductions in real cushions, and a re-allocation of workers to lower wage floors. Offsetting these effects was a rapid rise in education of new cohorts, which in the absence of other factors would have led to rising real wages. |
| Keywords: | sectoral bargaining, trade unions, wage flexibility |
| JEL: | J31 J41 J51 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14283&r=all |
| By: | Altindag, Onur (Bentley University); Erten, Bilge (Northeastern University); Keskin, Pinar (Wellesley College) |
| Abstract: | Using a strict, age-specific lockdown order for adults aged 65 and older in Turkey, we examine the mental health consequences of an extended period of tight mobility restrictions on senior adults. Adopting a regression discontinuity design, we find that the curfew-induced decline in mobility substantially worsened mental health outcomes, including somatic and nonsomatic symptoms of mental distress (approximately 0.2 standard deviation). Exploring potential channels, we document an increase in social and physical isolation, with no evidence of robust changes in labor market outcomes or intrahousehold conflict for this subpopulation. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, mental health, lockdown, regression discontinuity, Turkey |
| JEL: | I18 I31 O15 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14281&r=all |
| By: | Osea Giuntella; Lorenzo Rotunno; Luca Stella |
| Abstract: | Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we analyze the effects of exposure to trade on the fertility and marital behavior of German workers. We find that individuals working in sectors that were more affected by import competition from Eastern Europe and suffered worse labor market outcomes were less likely to have children. In contrast, workers in sectors that benefited from increased exports had better employment prospects and higher fertility. These effects are driven by low-educated and married men, and reflect changes in the likelihood of having any child (extensive margin). While among workers exposed to import competition there is evidence of some fertility postponement, we find a significant reduction of completed fertility. There is instead little evidence of any significant effect on marital behavior. |
| Keywords: | International Trade, Labor Market Outcomes, Fertility, Marriage |
| JEL: | F14 F16 J14 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp1126&r= |
| By: | Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina (University of California, Merced); Romiti, Agnese (University of Strathclyde) |
| Abstract: | On June 23, 2016, the people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. We examine how this decision (henceforth, Brexit) has impacted international student applications in the United Kingdom. Using administrative data spanning from 2013 through 2019, along with a quasi-experimental approach, we find evidence of Brexit curtailing the growth rate of international student applications by 14 percent. The impact appears larger for applications to pursue STEM studies and for those received by more selective universities, suggestive of students with more alternatives choosing to study elsewhere. Furthermore, applications appear to have dropped the most among EU students originating from countries with weaker labor markets and economies for whom the ability to stay in the United Kingdom after their studies might have been a critical pull factor. Finally, the drop in applications has resulted into fewer international enrolments. Given the contributions of international student exchanges to research, development and growth, further research on the implications of Brexit for UK universities and the ability to attract valuable talent is well-warranted. |
| Keywords: | Brexit, international student applications, college education, United Kingdom |
| JEL: | F22 I20 O15 I28 J61 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14247&r=all |
| By: | Milovanska-Farrington, Stefani (University of Tampa) |
| Abstract: | Nutritious eating habits contribute to a stronger immune system necessary for prevention and easier recovery from illnesses. A job loss, experienced by millions of Americans during the Covid-19 pandemic, is expected to negatively affect food security of families. This research explores the effect of a recent job loss during the Covid-19 crisis on food sufficiency. The findings suggest that a job loss in the family is associated with greater food insecurity, reduced likelihood that a family has a sufficient amount of food, and deteriorated child nutrition. There is also a differential effect between currently employed and unemployed job losers, with the latter group being more adversely affected. The negative effect is primarily driven by Hispanic and low-educated individuals. These results have policy implications in the context of identifying vulnerable groups that are most likely to benefit from programs designed to provide sufficient nutrition to the population. |
| Keywords: | food security, nutrition, job loss, COVID-19 |
| JEL: | J63 J60 I19 D12 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14273&r=all |
| By: | Milovanska-Farrington, Stefani (University of Tampa); Farrington, Stephen (University of Tampa) |
| Abstract: | Happiness is strongly associated with goal attainment, productivity, mental health and suicidal risk. This paper examines the effect of satisfaction with areas of life on subjective well-being (SWB), the importance of relative perceptions compared to absolute measures in predicting overall life satisfaction, and differences in the domains of life which have the greatest impact on happiness of men and women. The findings suggest that relative perceptions have a large statistically significant effect on SWB. Satisfaction with family life and health have the largest while satisfaction with income has the lowest impact on overall SWB for both genders. Work satisfaction is more important for men than for women, whereas partner's happiness is more valued by female respondents. Satisfaction with household compared to personal income has a larger effect on SWB in all subsamples except employed women. Understanding the perceived and factual determinants of happiness has urgent implications in the context of the detrimental impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on SWB. |
| Keywords: | subjective well-being, satisfaction with areas of life, perceptions, values, gender differences |
| JEL: | D60 I31 J16 D03 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14270&r=all |
| By: | Milovanska-Farrington, Stefani (University of Tampa) |
| Abstract: | With more than 29 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the U.S. and 119 million cases worldwide, the pandemic has affected companies, households and the global economy. We explore the effect of this health and economic shock on labor market outcomes, and the changes in labor market disparities between ethnic groups and genders. The results provide evidence of an adverse effect of Covid-19 on labor market outcomes of all demographic groups, a widening gap between the employment prospects of minorities and whites, but no change in the earnings gaps between racial and ethnic groups. We also do not find a deterioration of the differentials between genders. The findings have implications related to the priorities of policy decision makers when implementing policies to combat race and ethnic, and gender gaps in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | labor market, ethnic disparities, gender disparities, inequality, health and economic shock, COVID-19 |
| JEL: | J70 J71 J01 J15 J23 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14272&r=all |
| By: | Omoshoro-Jones, Oyeyinka Sunday |
| Abstract: | Since 1994, the ineffectiveness of adopted pro-growth policies to reduce the persistently high unemployment rate in the Free State (FS) province has become a conundrum for policymakers, begging the questions: Is Okun’s law that predicts an inverse unemployment-output relationship exists in the FS province? If so, what is the nature of Okun’s relationship? This paper re-examines the asymmetric unemployment–output tradeoff employing the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) modelling framework. Cyclical components of unemployment and output are generated from annual data covering the period 1994-2019, using Hodrick-Prescott and Corbae-Ouliaris filters. We controlled for structural breaks and performed a sensitivity analysis on the models estimated. Irrespective of the filtering method, our results confirm asymmetric Okun’s relationship among variables in both the long-and-short run. The negative and statistically significant coefficient on changes of the positive cyclical output reveals that a 1% rise in cyclical output could lower cyclical unemployment between –0.87 to –0.70 percentage points, reliant on a sustained economic expansion. Estimated long-run coefficients of changes in the positive cyclical output show that an economic upswing between 1.88% and 2.03% would lower unemployment by 1%, in the FS province, consistent with the accepted 2:1 ratio for Okun’s law in the empirical literature. We also find significant contemporaneous effects of changes in cyclical output on cyclical unemployment, where a 1% increase (decrease) in one-period lagged positive (negative) cyclical output reduces (increases) cyclical unemployment between –0.52 and –0.41 (+0.99 and +0.56) percentages points. The detection of these asymmetries explains the failure of the enacted policies to successfully reduce the prevalent high unemployment rate in the FS province. Based on these findings, some apt remedial actions are suggested to policymakers. |
| Keywords: | Okun’s Law, cyclical unemployment, cyclical output, NARDL, Free State province |
| JEL: | C51 E24 E32 J64 |
| Date: | 2021–04–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:107126&r=all |
| By: | Gordon H. Hanson |
| Abstract: | I examine the specialization of US commuting zones in AI-related occupations over the 2000 to 2018 period. I define AI-related jobs based on keywords in Census occupational titles. Using the approach in Lin (2011) to identify new work, I measure job growth related to AI by weighting employment growth in AI-related occupations by the share of job titles in these occupations that were added after 1990. Overall, regional specialization in AI-related activities mirrors that of regional specialization in IT. However, foreign-born and native-born workers within the sector tend to cluster in different locations. Whereas specialization of the foreign-born in AI-related jobs is strongest in high-tech hubs with a preponderance of private-sector employment, native-born specialization in AI-related jobs is strongest in centers for military and space-related research. Nationally, foreign-born workers account for 55% of job growth in AI-related occupations since 2000. In regression analysis, I find that US commuting zones exposed to a larger increases in the supply of college-educated immigrants became more specialized in AI-related occupations and that this increased specialization was due entirely to the employment of the foreign born. My results suggest that access to highly skilled workers constrains AI-related job growth and that immigration of the college-educated helps relax this constraint. |
| JEL: | J61 R12 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28671&r=all |
| By: | Andrea Gerali (Bank of Italy); Elisa Guglielminetti (Bank of Italy); Danilo Liberati (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study the allocative (in)efficiency of employment protection in relation to firing costs, in a general equilibrium model with labor market frictions. The optimal firing costs depend on the level of unemployment benefits and the degree of centralized wage bargaining, two features of the labor market that induce downward wage rigidity and trigger inefficient employment separations. When restrictions on firing employees with permanent contracts are inefficiently high, the introduction of temporary contracts improves welfare but does not fully restore efficiency. A quantitative analysis for the Italian economy shows that the firing costs before the recent labor market reforms were 30% higher than the optimal level, implying a consumption loss of almost 2% in the steady state. The introduction of fixed-term jobs in the early 2000’s closed one fourth of the gap between inefficient and efficient allocation, although it led to higher unemployment rates and turnover. |
| Keywords: | employment protection, temporary contracts, labor market institutions, structural reforms, general equilibrium model, search and matching |
| JEL: | E32 J41 J65 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1330_21&r= |
| By: | Qingen Gai; Naijia Guo; Bingjing Li; Qinghua Shi; Xiaodong Zhu |
| Abstract: | We use a unique panel dataset and a policy experiment as an instrument to estimate the impact of policy-induced migration cost reductions on rural-to-urban migration and the associated increase in labor earnings for migrant workers in China. Our estimation shows that there exist both large migration costs and a large underlying productivity difference between rural agricultural and urban non-agricultural sectors in China. More than half of the observed labor earnings gap between the two sectors can be attributed to the underlying productivity difference, and less than half of the gap can be attributed to sorting of workers. We also structurally estimate a general equilibrium Roy model and use it to quantify the effects of reducing migration costs on the observed sectoral productivity difference, migration, and aggregate productivity. If we implement a hukou policy reform by setting the hukou liberalization index in all regions of China to the level of the most liberal region, the observed agricultural productivity gap would decrease by more than 30%, the migrant share would increase by about 9%, and the aggregate productivity would increase by 1.1%. In contrast, in a partial equilibrium in which the underlying productivity difference does not change with migration cost, the hukou policy reform would reduce the observed agricultural productivity gap by only 9%, the migrant share would increase by more than 50%, and the aggregate productivity would increase by 6.8%. |
| Keywords: | Migration cost; sorting; agricultural productivity gap; panel data; general equilibrium Roy model; China |
| JEL: | E24 J24 J61 O11 O15 |
| Date: | 2021–04–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-693&r= |
| By: | Haoran He; David Neumark; Qian Weng |
| Abstract: | We explore the impact of wage offers on job applications, testing implications of the directed search model and trying to distinguish it from random search. We use a field experiment conducted on a Chinese job board, with real jobs for which we randomly varied the wage offers across three ranges. We find that higher wage offers raise application rates overall, which is consistent with directed search but can also arise with random search. We also find that higher wage offers raise application rates for job seekers with wage offers above reservation wages, and that – among the latter – the increase in application rates is stronger for those with higher reservation wages. The latter two types of evidence are consistent with directed search but not random search. Hence, our evidence lends support to directed search models. |
| JEL: | E24 J64 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28660&r=all |
| By: | Nina Boberg-Fazlić (University of Southern Denmark); Markus Lampe (WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, CEPR); Paul Sharp (University of Southern Denmark, CAGE, CEPR) |
| Abstract: | What determines emigration, and what impact does it have on the sending country? We consider the case of Denmark between 1868 and 1908, when a large number of people left for America. A significant fraction of these were tyender, a servant-like occupational group that was heavily discriminated against at the time, and who saw little opportunities for advancement at home. We exploit the fact that the Danish agrarian reforms between 1784 and 1807 had differential impacts on this class of landless laborers around the country, and use detailed parish-level data – police protocols of emigrants; population censuses and land registers – to show that areas with a more unequal distribution of land witnessed larger emigration. We then use income tax data, finding evidence of a positive income effect on the areas which saw most emigration. |
| Keywords: | Agrarian reform, Denmark, emigration, landless laborers |
| JEL: | J15 N33 O15 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0213&r= |
| By: | Brain, Isabel; Prieto, Joaquin |
| Abstract: | The geography of opportunity research has made significant progress in recent years. The use of composite indexes aimed at capturing the attributes of different urban areas has been particularly useful to deepen the understanding of the role that the urban context plays in people’s life chances. However, little attention has been paid to the dynamic component of the geography of opportunity, that is, what explains its changes over time and whether or not those changes (positive or negative) are substantial. The contribution of this work is that it offers a methodology (a conceptual framework, a composite geography of opportunity index and relative and absolute measures) that provides a holistic and in-depth approach to analyse not only the set of opportunities available in the different urban areas but also their change over time (how they change, the depth of those changes and the forces explaining it). The information generated through this approach has the advantage of better informing place-based policy interventions since it offers not only a clear classification of areas but also a useful method for comparing and monitoring the changes in the geography of opportunity over time. |
| Keywords: | geography of opportunity; drives of urban change; multidimensional indices; municipal fiscal capacity; urban attributes; urban land market activity |
| JEL: | R14 J01 N0 |
| Date: | 2021–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:109915&r= |
| By: | Andrea Papetti (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a multi-country two-sector overlapping-generations model to study the impact of demographic change on the relative price of nontradables and current account balances. An aging population expands the relative demand for nontradables, exerting upward pressure on their relative price (structural transformation), and entails a willingness to save more, as households discount higher survival probabilities, and invest less, as firms face increasing labor scarcity. The general equilibrium reduction of the real interest rate (secular stagnation) dampens the increase in the relative price as savings become less profitable, thus lowering consumption at older ages. The model robustly predicts that faster-aging countries will face greater increases in the relative price of nontradables and unprecedented accumulations of net foreign asset positions (global imbalances) over the twenty-first century. |
| Keywords: | population aging, relative prices, capital flows, overlapping generations, tradable nontradable, secular stagnation, structural transformation, global imbalances |
| JEL: | E21 F21 J11 O11 O14 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1333_21&r= |
| By: | Nancy A. Daza Báez (University College London, Social Research Institute) |
| Abstract: | Intergenerational mobility is a growing concern among academics and policymakers. However, due to the absence of information on earnings for successive generations, little evidence is available for developing countries. This paper adds to this scarce body of evidence by studying intergenerational mobility of earnings for Mexico. I rely on the Two-Sample Two-Stage Least Squares approach to estimate the intergenerational elasticity of earnings and the rank-rank coefficient at the national, urban and regional levels, considering the attenuation and life-cycle biases suffered by the estimators. The key results show less mobility than previously suggested. On average, 70.9% of the relative difference in father's earnings is transmitted to their children. Moreover, a 10 percentile point increase in the father's earnings rank is associated with a 3.15 percentile point increase in the son's earnings rank. At the regional level, strong intergenerational persistence is found in the South; whilst the North presents the highest intergenerational earnings mobility. |
| Keywords: | Inequality, Intergenerational earnings mobility, Rank-rank coefficient, Two-Sample Two-Stage Least Squares, Mexico |
| JEL: | D31 D64 J62 C20 |
| Date: | 2021–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qss:dqsswp:2110&r=all |