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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Jeremy Greenwood (University of Pennsylvania); Nezih Guner (CEMFI); 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, skill-biased technological change, and drops in the price of labor-saving household durables. |
| Keywords: | average weekly hours, blue-collar jobs, college premium, fertility, housework, leisure, Marriage, neutral technological progress, price of labor-saving household durables, skill-biased technological change, theory-based identification, user guide, white-collar jobs |
| JEL: | D10 E13 J10 O10 |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2021-050&r= |
| By: | Clerici, Cristina (Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets (Misum)); Tripodi, Stefano (Copenhagen Business School) |
| Abstract: | Negative economic shocks have the potential to affect intra-household dynamics and the risk of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). The implementation of the COVID-19 lockdown in Uganda creates exogenous variation in employment status and allows us to compare the incidence of violence among employed women whose partners' occupational sectors were or were not shut down. We find that male unemployment increases the likelihood of experiencing physical violence (both sexual abuse and beating) by 4.9 percentage points. The effect is observed right at the onset of the unemployment spell, but vanishes after the economic shock is absorbed. |
| Keywords: | unemployment; domestic violence; Uganda; COVID-19 |
| JEL: | D13 I31 J12 J16 J60 |
| Date: | 2021–11–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:hamisu:2021_004&r= |
| By: | Mirjam Bächli; Teodora Tsankova |
| Abstract: | What affects native support for immigration? At a time of rising anti-immigration sentiments, this is a question raised by both academics and policy makers. We study the role of labor protection in shaping native preferences over migration policies. We look at Swiss national votes which took place from 2000 to 2014. Our results show that a higher immigrant exposure reduces pro-immigration vote shares in municipalities with a relatively low-skilled native population. The negative response is mitigated under higher levels of labor protection as measured by collective bargaining coverage. We look at labor market outcomes to understand mechanisms at play and find some suggestive evidence that collective agreements mitigate negative wage responses among low-skilled natives. Overall, the analysis suggests that labor protection affects vote outcomes by improving in addition other labor market conditions or by alleviating existing fears among the native population. |
| Keywords: | immigration, popular votes, collective bargaining |
| JEL: | D72 F22 J52 J61 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9373&r= |
| By: | Maria Balgova; Simon Trenkle; Christian Zimpelmann; Nico Pestel |
| Abstract: | This paper studies job search behavior in the midst of a pandemic re- cession. We use long-running panel data from the Netherlands (LISS) and complement the core survey with our own COVID-specific module, con- ducted in June 2020, surveying job search e ort of employed as well as un- employed respondents. We estimate an empirical model of job search over the business cycle over the period 2008{2019 to explore the gap between predicted and actual job search behavior in 2020. We find that job search during the pandemic recession di ers strongly from previous downturns. The unemployed search signi cantly less than what we would normally observe during a recession of this size. For the employed, the propensity to search is even greater than what we would expect, but those who do search make significantly fewer job applications. Expectations about the duration of the pandemic seem to play a key role in explaining job search e ort for the unemployed in 2020. Furthermore, employed individuals whose work situation has been a ected by COVID-19 are searching more actively for a new job. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, job search, labor supply, survey |
| JEL: | J21 J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2021–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2021_320&r= |
| By: | Davide M. Coluccia; Lorenzo Spadavecchia |
| Abstract: | This article studies the impact of immigration restriction policies on technology adoption in sending countries. From 1920 to 1921, the number of Italian immigrants to the United States dropped by 85% after Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, a severely restrictive immigration law. In a difference-in-differences setting, we exploit variation in exposure across Italian districts to this massive restriction against human mobility. Using novel individual-level data on Italian immigrants to the US and newly digitized historical censuses, we show that this policy substantially hampered technology adoption and capital investment. We interpret this as evidence of directed technical adoption: an increase in the labor supply dampens the incentive for firms to adopt labor-saving technologies. To validate this mechanism, we show that more exposed districts display a sizable increase in overall population and employment in manufacturing. We provide evidence that “missing migrants,” whose migration was inhibited by the Act, drive this result. |
| Keywords: | age of mass migration, emigration, economic development, immigration barriers, technology adoption |
| JEL: | N14 N34 O15 O33 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9361&r= |
| By: | Aparajita Dasgupta (Ashoka University); Anahita Karandikar (J-PAL, South Asia) |
| Abstract: | There is mixed evidence in the literature on the effect of rainfall shocks on educational outcomes for children in rural areas, with a limited understanding of how the gender-gap in education evolves in the face of such a shock. We posit that the vulnerability to climatic shocks can vary by the gender institutions of the setting which can have a bearing on the gender-gap in educational outcomes. On one hand, a negative productivity shock can lead to a disproportionate reduction in human capital outcomes for girls, as investments for girls may be more sensitive to income constraints. On the other hand, as the opportunity cost of schooling goes down in the face of a negative shock, it can translate into gains in educational outcomes, which are higher for female children in areas that favour female labour force participation. Leveraging the variation in cropping patterns that guide norms around female labor force participation (FLFP) in rural India, we examine how exposure to contemporaneous and past rainfall shocks a effects learning outcomes for girls and boys. We find the widest gaps in outcomes in positive versus negative rainfall shock years for female children in regions that favour FLFP. We provide suggestive evidence that this is driven by increased participation in paid employment and full time domestic work during a positive rainfall shock. |
| Keywords: | Female labour force participation, rainfall, education, India |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ash:wpaper:70&r= |
| By: | Ekaterina Sprenger (ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics) |
| Abstract: | This article analyses the determinants of international migration flows within the European Union and specifically focuses on the role of cultural and linguistic differences in explaining the size of these flows. For that purpose, a set of indicators of cultural distance are controlled for along with economic, demographic, geographical, political and network variables using data from 28 member states of the European Union over the period 1998-2018. Economic factors play an important role in examining migration flows, but economic differentials alone may be insufficient to explain the uneven real-life migration pattern in the EU. The results suggest strong evidence of the importance of linguistic distance in explaining the direction of migration flows across the European Union. |
| Keywords: | European Union; Geographic Mobility; Labour Mobility; Migration; Optimum Currency Area |
| JEL: | J61 F22 O15 |
| Date: | 2021–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bai:series:series_wp_04-2021&r= |
| By: | Chuan, A.; Zhang, W. |
| Abstract: | Women used to lag behind men in college enrollment but now exceed them. We argue that changes in non-college job prospects contributed to these trends. We first document that routine-biased technical change disproportionately displaced non-college occupations held by women. We next employ a shift-share instrument for the impact of routinization to show that declining non-college job prospects for women increased female enrollment. Results show that a one percentage point decline in the share of routine task intensive jobs leads to a 0.6 percentage point rise in female college enrollment, while the effect for male enrollment is directionally smaller and insignificant. We next embed this instrumental variation into a dynamic model that links education and occupation choices. The model finds that routinization decreased returns to non-college occupations for women, leading them to shift to cognitive work and increasing their college premium. In contrast, non-college occupations for men were less susceptible to routinization. Altogether, our model estimates that workplace routinization accounted for 63% of the growth in female enrollment and 23% of the change in male enrollment between 1980 to 2000. |
| Keywords: | human capital, college enrollment, gender, occupations, automation |
| JEL: | I23 I24 I26 J16 J24 I26 |
| Date: | 2021–11–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:2177&r= |
| By: | Ben J. Heijdra; Pim Heijnen |
| Abstract: | We study the rent-seeking phenomenon using a simple, static general equilibrium model. The economy consists of two sectors, both employing a constant returns-to-scale technology with labor as its sole input. One of the sectors is a monopoly, where a continuum of agents compete for a share of monopoly profits (i.e. rent). Agents are heterogeneous in labor productivity and rent-seeking ability: they face a choice between engaging in (productive) work or vying for a share of the rent (i.e. a contest against other rent-seekers). At the aggregate level, rent-seeking reduces the available amount of labor in the economy and thereby lowers output and welfare (rent-seeking is inefficient). At the individual level, rent-seeking shifts income towards rent-seekers. Consequently, an economy with few rent-seekers tends to have high income inequality: an effect that is exacerbated by the fact that rent is decreasing in the number of rent-seekers (low levels of rent-seeking increase inequity). This tradeoff between efficiency and equity is the primary focus of this paper. We investigate how the distribution of rent-seeking ability and the correlation between labor productivity and rent-seeking ability shape this tradeoff. |
| Keywords: | rent-seeking, economic waste, inequality, monopolization, contest |
| JEL: | D62 D63 D72 E13 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9375&r= |
| By: | Cyprien Batut (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, DGTPE - Direction Générale du Trésor et de la Politique Economique - Ministère de l'Economie, des Finances et de l'Industrie); Caroline Coly (Bocconi University - Bocconi University [Milan, Italy], PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, AXA - Groupe AXA, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Sarah Schneider-Strawczynski (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Abstract: | Sexual harassment and sexists behaviors are pervasive issues in the workplace. Around 12% of women in France have been subjected to toxic behaviors at work in the last year, including sexist comments, moral, sexual or physical harassment, or violence. Such toxic behaviors can not only deter women from entering the labor market, but can also lead them to leave toxic workplaces at their own expense. This article is one of the first to examine the relationship between toxic behaviors and worker flows. We use the #MeToo movement as an exogenous shock to France's workplace norms regarding toxic behaviors. We combine survey data on reported toxic behaviors in firms with exhaustive administrative data to create a measure of toxic behaviors risk for all French establishments. We use a tripledifference strategy comparing female and male worker flows in high-risk versus low-risk firms before and after #MeToo. We find that #MeToo increased women's relative quit rates in higher-risk workplaces, while men's worker flows remained unaffected. This demonstrates the existence of a double penalty for women working in high-risk environments, as they are not only more frequently the victims of toxic behaviors, but are also forced to quit their jobs in order to avoid them. |
| Keywords: | Occupational Gender Inequality,Workflows,Sexual harassment,Social Movement |
| Date: | 2021–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-03403513&r= |
| By: | Drydakis, Nick |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews studies on LGBT workplace outcomes published between 2015 and 2020. In terms of earnings differences, in the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia, gay men were found to experience earnings penalties of 7% in comparison to heterosexual men, bisexual men experienced earnings penalties of 9% in comparison to heterosexual men, and bisexual women faced earnings penalties of 5% in comparison to heterosexual women. In the same regions, lesbian women experienced an earnings premium of 7% in comparison to heterosexual women. Trans women, in the US and Europe, faced earnings penalties ranging from 4% to 20%. In terms of job satisfaction, in the US, Canada, and Europe, gay men, and lesbian women experienced 15% and 12%, respectively lower job satisfaction than their heterosexual counterparts. Additionally, bullying against sexual minorities has persisted. In the UK, sexual minorities who experienced frequent school-age bullying faced a 32% chance of experiencing frequent workplace bullying. In relation to job exclusions, in OECD countries, gay men and lesbian women were found to experience 39% and 32%, respectively lower access to occupations than comparable heterosexual men and women. For trans men and women in Europe, comparable patterns are in evidence. Given these patterns, it is not of surprise that LGBT people in the US and the UK experience higher poverty rates than heterosexual and cis people. However, in these two regions, anti-discrimination laws and positive actions in the workplace helped reduce the earnings penalties for gay men, enhance trans people's self-esteem, spur innovation and firms' performance, and boost marketing capability, corporate profiles, and customer satisfaction. The evidence indicated that LGBT inclusion and positive economic outcomes mutually reinforced each other. |
| Keywords: | Sexual Orientation,Gender Identity,Discrimination,Earnings,Poverty,Bullying,Job Satisfaction,Inclusivity |
| JEL: | C93 E24 J15 J16 J71 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:980&r= |
| By: | Ana Lucia Abeliansky; Holger Strulik |
| Abstract: | We investigate health and aging before and after retirement for specific occupational groups. We use five waves of the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and construct a frailty index for elderly men and women from 10 European countries. Occupational groups are classified according to low vs. high education, blue vs. white collar color, and high vs. low physical or psychosocial job burden. Controlling for individual fixed effects, we find that, regardless of the used classification, workers from the first (low status) group display more health deficits at any age and accumulate health deficits faster than workers from the second (high status) group. We instrument retirement by statutory retirement ages (“normal” and “early”) and find that the health of workers in low status occupations benefits greatly from retirement, whereas retirement effects for workers in high status occupations are small and frequently insignificant. We also find that workers from low status occupations always have higher health deficits, i.e. we find evidence for an occupational health gradient that widens with increasing age, before and after retirement. |
| Keywords: | health deficits, occupation, retirement, frailty index, Europe |
| JEL: | I10 I19 J13 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9370&r= |
| By: | Ishaan Bansal (IDInsight); Kanika Mahajan (Ashoka University) |
| Abstract: | Existing evidence shows that the Covid-19 pandemic has led to employed women witnessing larger losses in the labor market in India. We examine the heterogeneity that underlie these trends by studying the impact of Covid-19 induced income shocks on female employment. Using individual level panel data and a difference-in-differences strategy that exploits lockdown timing (April 2020) and accounts for seasonal employment trends, we find that women in households facing a hundred percent reduction in household male income during the lockdown were 1.5 pp (25%) more likely to take up work during the "unlockdown" months (June-August 2020). We also find these results to be predominant in poorer and less educated households. However, these positive employment trends are only transitory in nature with a reversal in female employment in these households from September 2020 onwards. These findings underscore the use of women's labor as insurance during low-income periods by poorer households. |
| Keywords: | Employment, COVID-19, income shocks, gender, India |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ash:wpaper:69&r= |
| By: | Michele Costa; Flavio Delbono |
| Abstract: | We investigate the economic resilience of the Italian regions between 2008 and 2019. We then calculate some indices of resistance as well as recovery for both real GDP per capita and employment. We show that during (and after) recessions such indices follow different patterns and the Southern regions perform worse than the rest of the country. Then we try to detect if and how the composition of employment relates to regional resilience. We show that the size of the cooperative employment improves the overall resilience of regional employment, especially during recoveries. We also show and explain that this is not the case with cooperative added value as related to the resilience of regional GDP. Overall, the cooperative movement seems to positively contribute to the resilience of regional economies, supporting an inclusive growth especially through the employment channel. |
| JEL: | E32 J54 L21 R11 |
| Date: | 2021–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp1166&r= |
| By: | Sheely, Amanda |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between food insecurity and the uncertainty and inadequate financial resources associated with low quality work among lone mother households in the United States. Food insecurity has increased since the start of the Great Recession and is particularly high among lone mother households. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, I find that mothers who have are employed part-time involuntarily and experienced job loss have an increased likelihood of experiencing food insecurity. This relationship holds even after controlling for multiple measures of household income, suggesting the relationship between low quality work and food insecurity is not solely determined by low financial resources. Results suggest that, to reduce food insecurity among lone mother families, policymakers must address both the low wages and uncertainty associated with low quality employment. |
| Keywords: | food insecurity; precarious employment; lone mothers; working poor |
| JEL: | R14 J01 N0 |
| Date: | 2021–10–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:112504&r= |
| By: | Monica Costa Dias; Ella Johnson-Watts; Robert Joyce; Fabien Postel-Vinay; Peter Spittal; Xiaowei Xu |
| Abstract: | We develop a measure of labour market opportunities for heterogenous types of worker, exploiting information on their suitability different jobs encoded in historical patterns of worker mobility.We provide a theoretical foundation for our measure, which features naturally in a general random search framework. Our measure is flexible in the sense that it admits general definitions of worker and job heterogeneity, and is easily implementable empirically with data on worker mobility and labour demand. We apply our measure to high-quality data on labour demand in the UK, based on the universe of 104.7 million job adverts posted online from January 2015 to June 2021. We demonstrate the utility of our measure with an analysis of worker prospects throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. First, while the direct impact of lockdown policies was concentrated on relatively few industries, labour demand fell much more broadly. And, as our measure highlights,the full effects were broader still because of the disruption to usual career progression, even for those in less -affected sectors such as healthcare. Second, despite aggregate labour demand returning to pre-pandemic levels by June 2021, 25% of the work force faced new job opportunities more than 10% below pre-pandemic levels. This is because of a change in the composition of vacancy postings (towards lower-paying occupations) which our measure of labour market opportunities is sensitive to. Finally,the majority (64%) of unemployed workers faced at least 10% more competition for jobs from unemployed job seekers than before the pandemic. |
| Date: | 2021–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:uobdis:21/753&r= |
| By: | Aysegul Sahin; Murat Tasci; Jin Yan |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a flow-based methodology for real-time unemployment rate projections and shows that this approach performed considerably better at the onset of the COVID-19 recession in spring 2020 in predicting the peak unemployment rate as well as its rapid decline over the year. It presents an alternative scenario analysis for 2021 based on this methodology and argues that the unemployment rate is likely to end slightly below 5 percent by the end of 2021. The predictive power of the methodology comes from its combined use of real-time data with the flow approach. |
| Keywords: | E32; E24; D21; J6; R1 |
| Date: | 2021–11–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedcwq:93330&r= |
| By: | Hellwagner, Timon; Weber, Enzo |
| JEL: | J11 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc21:242455&r= |