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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Maibom, Jonas (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates a structural model of job search which accounts for utility costs and benefits linked to mandatory reemployment programs. The estimation uses data from a randomized experiment which generates exogenous variation in the threat of program participation. I use the compensating variation (CV) as a measure of the impact of the experimental treatment on worker welfare, the welfare costs. I find that participants would be willing to give up 1.5–1.7 weeks of UI on average to avoid participation in the program, although the program has a positive effect on the job finding rate. Welfare costs vary across workers and are found to be larger for workers with weaker employment prospects. Overall, the analysis shows that the welfare costs are substantial and therefore necessary to take into account when evaluating the case for mandatory reemployment programs. |
| Keywords: | active labor market program, activation, job search, unemployment |
| JEL: | C9 I3 J64 J65 J68 |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14866&r= |
| By: | Elira Kuka; Bryan A. Stuart |
| Abstract: | This paper studies differences in receipt and take-up of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits among white and Black individuals. We combine state-level UI regulations with data containing detailed information on individuals’ work history and UI receipt. Black individuals who separate from a job are 24% less likely to receive UI than whites. The UI receipt gap stems primarily from lower take-up of UI benefits among likely eligible individuals, as opposed to differences in benefit eligibility. Statistical decompositions indicate that about one-half of the take-up gap is explained by Black workers’ lower pre-unemployment earnings and higher tendency to live in the South. |
| JEL: | H5 I38 J15 J65 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29595&r= |
| By: | Moriconi, Simone (IÉSEG School of Management); Rodríguez-Planas, Núria (Queens College, CUNY) |
| Abstract: | Using individual-level data from the European Social Survey, we study the relevance of gender norms in accounting for the motherhood employment gap across 186 European NUTS2 regions (over 29 countries) for the 2002-2016 period. The gender norm variable is taken from a question on whether "men should have more right to a job than women when jobs are scarce" and represents the average extent of disagreement (on a scale 1 to 5) of women belonging to the "grandmothers" cohort. We address the potential endogeneity of our gender norms measure with an index of the degree of reproductive health liberalization when grandmothers were 20 years old. We also account for the endogeneity of motherhood with the level of reproductive health liberalization when mothers were 20 years old. We find a robust positive association between progressive beliefs among the grandmothers' cohort and mothers' likelihood to work while having a small child (0 to 5 years old) relative to similar women without children. No similar association is found among men. Our analysis underscores the role of gender norms and maternal employment, suggesting that non-traditional gender norms mediate on the employment gender gap mainly via motherhood. |
| Keywords: | gender norms, motherhood employment gap, instrumenting for motherhood |
| JEL: | J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14898&r= |
| By: | Belot, Michele; Kircher, Philipp (Université catholique de Louvain, LIDAM/CORE, Belgium); Muller, Paul |
| Abstract: | We propose a simple method for eliciting individual time preferences without estimating utility functions even in settings where background consumption changes over time. It relies on eliciting preferences for receiving high stakes lottery tickets at different points in time. In a standard intertemporal choice model high rewards decouple lottery choices from variation in background consumption. We validate our elicitation method experimentally on a student sample split into two groups: one asked in December when their current budget is reduced by extraordinary expenditures for Christmas gifts; the other asked in February when no such extra constraints exist. We illustrate an application of our method with unemployed job seekers which naturally have income/consumption variation. |
| Keywords: | Time preferences ; experimental elicitation ; job search ; hyperbolic discounting |
| JEL: | D90 J64 |
| Date: | 2021–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cor:louvco:2021035&r= |
| By: | Erten, Bilge (Northeastern University); Keskin, Pinar (Wellesley College) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of trade-induced changes in labor market conditions on violence within the household. We exploit the local labor demand shocks generated by Cambodia’s WTO accession to assess how changes in the employment of women relative to men affected the risk of intimate partner violence. We document that men indistricts facing larger tariff reductions experienced a significant decline in paid employment, whereas women in harder-hit districts increased their entry into the laborforce. These changes in employment patterns triggered backlash effects by increasing intimate partner violence, without changes in marriage, fertility, psychological distress, or household consumption. |
| Keywords: | trade, intimate partner violence, employment, marriage, fertility, consumption, Cambodia |
| JEL: | F16 O15 J12 J16 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14918&r= |
| By: | Bazzi, Samuel (University of California, San Diego); Cameron, Lisa A. (University of Melbourne); Schaner, Simone G. (University of Southern California); Witoelar, Firman (Australian National University) |
| Abstract: | Job seekers often face substantial information frictions related to potential job quality. This is especially true in international labor markets, where intermediaries match prospective migrants with employers abroad. We conducted a randomized trial in Indonesia to explore how information about intermediary quality shapes migration choices and outcomes. Information reduces the migration rate, lowering use of low-quality intermediaries. However, workers who migrate receive better pre-departure preparation and have higher-quality job experiences abroad, despite no change in occupation or destination. Information does not change intentions to migrate or beliefs about the return to migration or intermediary quality. Nor does selection explain the improved outcomes for workers who choose to migrate with the information. Together, our findings are consistent with an increase in the option value of search: with better ability to differentiate offer quality, workers become choosier and ultimately have better migration experiences. This offers a new perspective on the importance of information and matching frictions in global labor markets. |
| Keywords: | international migration, information, middlemen, quality disclosure, search |
| JEL: | F22 O15 D83 L15 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14945&r= |
| By: | Hoch, Felix; Rudsinske, Jonas |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether top managers with personal ties to a foreign country facilitate trade with that country by overcoming bilateral trade barriers that obstruct international business relationships. Using individual managers' nationality, we construct a novel database of bilateral top manager connections. We analyze the trade effects of these bilateral manager connections both on the firm and on the country level. On the country level, we provide evidence for a positive effect on both bilateral exports and imports. On the firm level, we find positive effects on destination-specific foreign sales. We show that this firm-level effect is especially pronounced for institutionally distant destinations, which we interpret as bridging the gap between institutionally dissimilar countries. Furthermore, the effect is stronger for destinations with less developed institutions indicating that manager connections help overcoming trade barriers created by low institutional quality. Moreover, we show that the strength of this effect also depends on characteristics of the individual manager. Namely, the effect differs between connections of male and female managers. Gender discriminating institutions in the destination country severely downsize the pro-trade effect of female managers' connections, which could give rise to an unintended importing of gender inequality regarding management positions. |
| Keywords: | International trade,gravity,international business,board composition,institutions,gender equality |
| JEL: | F14 F22 F23 J16 J61 K38 M16 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ciwdps:42021&r= |
| By: | Michael Clemens |
| Abstract: | Immigration policy can have important net fiscal effects that vary by immigrants’ skill level. But mainstream methods to estimate these effects are problematic. Methods based on cash-flow accounting offer precision at the cost of bias; methods based on general equilibrium modeling address bias with limited precision and transparency. A simple adjustment greatly reduces bias in the most influential and precise estimates: conservatively accounting for capital taxes paid by the employers of immigrant labor. The adjustment is required by firms’ profit-maximizing behavior, unconnected to general equilibrium effects. Adjusted estimates of the positive net fiscal impact of average recent U.S. immigrants rise by a factor of 3.2, with a much shallower education gradient. They are positive even for an average recent immigrant with less than high school education, whose presence causes a present-value subsidy of at least $128,000 to all other taxpayers collectively. |
| Keywords: | immigration, fiscal, budget, budgetary, tax revenue, benefits, taxes, deficit, surplus, gain, contribution, welfare, social security |
| JEL: | F22 H68 J61 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9464&r= |
| By: | Sefane Cetin (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE)) |
| Abstract: | Evidence abounds to suggest the existence of retirement spillovers among spouses. Using the Survey of Health and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), this paper not only confirms the existence of joint retirement behavior among dual-worker couples around Europe, but also shows that the intensity of retirement coordination varies a lot. The results of the paper are essentially five fold. First, among spouses there is a gender asymmetry: wives are more likely to be influenced by their husbands' decision to retire. Second, a higher labour market attachment (proxied by education, income quartile or self reported quality of work) translates into a lower propensity of retirement coordination. Especially, for men who belong to the highest income quartile or education level there is absence of joint retirement. Third, being a secondary earner increases the propensity of retirement coordination. Fourth, higher age differences between couples generally reduces joint retirement, but in interaction with eligibility rules. Five, there is evidence on the enhancing role of converging preferences in terms of activities practiced by both partners, whereas convergence in philosophical views or personality traits do not have any significant effect. Among the traditionally discussed determinants of joint retirement, leisure complementarities are important for couples' retirement incentives, nevertheless, they are mostly dominated by income effect and feasibility of joint retirement (eligibility for both partners to retire). |
| Keywords: | Retirement, pensions, labour supply of couples |
| JEL: | C23 C26 D10 H31 J14 J16 J26 |
| Date: | 2021–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2021031&r= |
| By: | Horton, John J.; Johari, Ramesh; Kircher, Philipp (Université catholique de Louvain, LIDAM/CORE, Belgium) |
| Abstract: | In a model with cheap talk, employers can send messages about their willingness to pay for higher ability workers, which job-seekers can use to direct their search and tailor their wage bid. Introducing such messages leads—under certain conditions—to an informative separating equilibrium which affects the number of applications, types of applications, and wage bids across firms. This model is used to interpret an experiment conducted in a large online labor market: employers were given the opportunity to state their relative willingness to pay for more experienced workers, and workers can easily condition their search on this information. Preferences were collected for all employers, but only treated employers had their signal revealed to job-seekers. In response to revelation of the cheap talk signal, job-seekers targeted their applications to employers of the right “type” and they tailored their wage bids, affecting who was matched to whom and at what wage. The treatment increased measures of match quality through better sorting, illustrating the power of cheap talk to improve market outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Labor market |
| Date: | 2021–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cor:louvco:2021033&r= |
| By: | Kevin Bazer; Sílvio Rendon |
| Abstract: | Using survey data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we document descriptively that unemployment has a relatively large effect on individual mortgage default rates: The average default rate for the employed is 2.4%; whereas for the unemployed, it is 8.5%. Once several other characteristics are controlled for, the unemployed have default rates that are 4 percentage points larger than those of the employed; and when endogeneity is additionally accounted for, the unemployment effect on default rates declines to 3 percentage points. Moreover, we find that more granular metrics for unemployment entail lower comparable effects of unemployment on default rates. That is, the comparable effect of individual unemployment on mortgage defaults is rather lower than the effect of state or county unemployment rates. This finding suggests that local metrics of unemployment, rather than attenuating possibly large individual unemployment effects on defaults, indeed contain more information than the aggregation of these individual effects. |
| Keywords: | mortgage debt; mortgage default; unemployment; consumer credit |
| JEL: | G21 R31 J64 |
| Date: | 2021–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:93424&r= |
| By: | Arpit Gupta; Anup Malani; Bartosz Woda |
| Abstract: | We use a large, representative panel data set from India with monthly data on household finances to examine the incidence of economic harms during the COVID pandemic. We observe a sharp spike in poverty, peaking during India's sharp but short lockdown. However, there was a striking decrease in income inequality outside the lockdown. There was a smaller decrease in consumption inequality, likely due to consumption smoothing. Evidence supports two mechanisms for the decline in income inequality: the capital income of top-quartile earners covaries more with aggregate income, and demand for labor fell more for higher quartiles. |
| JEL: | I15 O15 O53 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29597&r= |
| By: | Shen, Kailing (Australian National University) |
| Abstract: | This chapter provides a bird's eye view of the literature on gender discrimination. The presentation of studies is grouped into five parts. Part 1 presents evidence of gender discrimination measured via various dimensions in various countries and contexts. Part 2 discusses in detail the gender wage gap—one of the most important measures of gender discrimination—as well as gender segregation and its origins. Part 3 discusses the close relationship between female empowerment and violence, and the experience of women of color. Part 4 covers gender behavioral differences. Part 5 presents studies on the experience of women trying to break the glass ceiling, as well as the differential effects of education on boys and girls. |
| Keywords: | gender discrimination, gender wage gap, female empowerment, domestic violence, gender behavioural differences |
| JEL: | J16 J12 J13 |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14897&r= |
| By: | Kristine Langenbucher; Matija Vodopivec |
| Abstract: | OECD countries deliver publicly-funded employment services through different institutional arrangements. While in most OECD countries the majority of such services are delivered by public employment services, in two in five OECD and EU countries (or regions) they are partly or fully contracted out to external providers, including for-profit and not-for-profit entities. Contracting out employment services to outside providers offers many potential benefits: an increased flexibility to scale capacity in line with changes in unemployment, the possibility of offering services more cost-effectively, the option to better tailor services through the use of specialised service providers and the possibility to offer jobseekers choice of providers. However, achieving these benefits will depend on the actual design and monitoring of the contracting arrangements that are put in place. Focusing on the job brokerage, counselling and case-management employment services typically provided by public agencies, this paper reviews the experiences of OECD countries that have contracted out employment services through outcome-based payment schemes. It highlights the need to carefully consider questions related to the design and implementation of this form of contracting: fostering competition amongst potential providers, setting appropriate minimum service requirements and prices for different client groups, and ensuring the accountability of providers through monitoring and evaluations. These issues are discussed based on country examples, which are also detailed in factsheets contained in the online annex of the paper. |
| Keywords: | active labour market programmes, contracting out, employment services, outcome-based payments, private providers, public employment service, quasi-markets |
| JEL: | J68 L33 |
| Date: | 2022–01–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:267-en&r= |
| By: | Bertocchi, Graziella (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia); Bonacini, Luca (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia); Murat, Marina (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the gender gap in Economics among bachelor's and master's graduates in Italy between 2010 and 2019. First we establish that being female exerts a negative impact on the choice to major in Economics: at the bachelor level, only 73 women graduate in Economics for every 100 men, with the mathematical content of high school curricula as the key driver of the effect and a persistence of the gap at the master level. Second, within a full menu of major choices, Economics displays the largest gap, followed by STEM and then Business Economics. Third, decomposition analyses expose a unique role for the math background in driving the Economics gender gap relative to other fields. Fourth, a triple difference analysis of a high school reform shows that an increase in the math content of traditionally low math curricula caused an increase in the Economics gender gap among treated students. |
| Keywords: | education gender gap, economics, higher education, business economics, major choice, major switching, mathematics, stereotypes |
| JEL: | A22 I23 J16 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14911&r= |
| By: | Borland, Jeff (University of Melbourne); Hunt, Jennifer (Rutgers University) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the JobKeeper lump-sum wage subsidy introduced by the Australian government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, paying particular attention to the role of temporary layoffs in saving jobs. Although temporary layoffs were widely used, we find that recalls of workers on temporary layoff played only a small role in the early recovery. This suggests either that temporary layoffs were very long, or that many workers on temporary layoffs were never recalled. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, JobKeeper, wage subsidy, temporary layoffs |
| JEL: | J08 J20 |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14859&r= |
| By: | Nicholas Bloom; Takafumi Kawakubo; Charlotte Meng; Paul Mizen; Rebecca Riley; Tatsuro Senga; John Van Reenen |
| Abstract: | We link a new UK management survey covering 8,000 firms to panel data on productivity in manufacturing and services. There is a large variation in management practices, which are highly correlated with productivity, profitability and size. Uniquely, the survey collects firms’ micro forecasts of their own sales and also macro forecasts of GDP. We find that better managed firms make more accurate micro and macro forecasts, even after controlling for their size, age, industry and many other factors. We also show better managed firms appear aware that their forecasts are more accurate, with lower subjective uncertainty around central values. These stylized facts suggest that one reason for the superior performance of better managed firms is that they knowingly make more accurate forecasts, enabling them to make superior operational and strategic choices. |
| JEL: | J0 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29591&r= |
| By: | Andrés F. Castro Torres (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Edith Yolanda Gutierrez Vazquez; Tereza Bernardes |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2022-003&r= |
| By: | Cho, Sungwoo (UCLA); Gonçalves, Felipe (UCLA); Weisburst, Emily (University of California, Los Angeles) |
| Abstract: | Do reductions in arrests increase crime? We study line-of-duty deaths of police officers, events that likely impact police behavior through increased fear but are unlikely to directly impact civilian behavior. Officer deaths cause significant short-term reductions in all arrest types, with the largest reductions in arrests for lower-level offenses. In contrast, we find no evidence of an increase in crime or a change in victim reporting through 911 calls. There is also no apparent threshold of arrest decline beyond which crime increases. Our findings suggest that enforcement activity can be reduced at the margin without incurring public safety costs. |
| Keywords: | policing, crime, deterrence, broken windows, Ferguson effect, community trust |
| JEL: | J15 J18 K42 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14907&r= |
| By: | Martin Halla (Johannes Kepler University Linz); Christopher Kah (Mercedes-Benz AG); Rupert Sausgruber (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business) |
| Abstract: | To test for ethnic discrimination in access to outpatient health care services, we carry out an email-correspondence study in Germany. We approach 3,224 physician offices in the 79 largest cities in Germany with fictitious appointment requests and randomized patients’ characteristics. We find that patients’ ethnicity, as signaled by distinct Turkish versus German names, does not affect whether they receive an appointment or wait time. In contrast, patients with private insurance are 31 percent more likely to receive an appointment. Holding a private insurance also increases the likelihood of receiving a response and reduces the wait time. This suggests that physicians use leeway to prioritize privately insured patients to enhance their earnings, but they do not discriminate persons of Turkish origin based on taste. Still, their behavior creates means-based barriers for economically disadvantaged groups. |
| Keywords: | Discrimination, immigrants, ethnicity, health care markets, health insurance, inequality, correspondence experiment, field experiment |
| JEL: | I11 J15 I14 I18 H51 C93 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp319&r= |
| By: | Tavares, Aida Isabel |
| Abstract: | This study contributes to the discussion about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the working hours and on the workplace by older workers, aged between 55 and 64. Our aim is to find the factors associated with working more and less hours during the first wave of the pandemic among older workers in Europe. We use data collected by SHARE Corona Survey during the summer of 2020. We estimate two logistic regressions on working more and less hours using a set of individual controls, workplace and a country lockdown control. Our findings show that male workers are less likely to work more hours; older workers are more likely to work less hours; more educated workers work more hours and not less; people with difficulty to meet ends are more often working less hours; worsening of health during the pandemic is associated with working more hours; working home or both home and usual work place are correlated with working more and working less hours. The contribution of this work comes from additional knowledge about the profile of older workers and their changed hours of work during a first wave of COVID-19 in Europe. |
| Keywords: | working hours, older workers, logistic regression, Europe, pandemic COVID-19 |
| JEL: | J01 |
| Date: | 2021–12–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:111263&r= |