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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Maria Koumenta (Queen Mary, University of London); Mario Pagliero (University of Turin, Collegio Carlo Alberto, CEPR); Davud Rostam-Afschar (University of Mannheim, University of Hohenheim) |
| Abstract: | We study how licensing, certification and unionisation affect the wages of natives and migrants and their representation among licensed, certified, and unionized workers. We provide evidence of a dual role of labor market institutions, which both screen workers based on unobservable characteristics and also provide them with wage setting power. Labor market institutions confer significant wage premia to native workers (3.9, 1.6, and 2.7 log points for licensing, certification, and unionization respectively), due to screening and wage setting power. Wage premia are significantly larger for licensed and certified migrants (10.2 and 6.6 log points), reflecting a more intense screening of migrant than native workers. The representation of migrants among licensed (but not certified or unionized) workers is 14% lower than that of natives. This implies a more intense screening of migrants by licensing institutions than by certification and unionization. |
| Keywords: | Occupational regulation, Licensing, Certification, Unionization, Migration, Wages |
| JEL: | J61 J31 J44 J71 J16 |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2022-606&r= |
| By: | Mariana Viollaz (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP and IZA); Mauricio Salazar-Saenz (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana); Luca Flabbim (University of North Carolina); Monserrat Bustelo (Inter-American Development Bank); Mariano Bosch (Inter-American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | We study the labor supply impact of the COVID-19 pandemic by gender in four Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries: Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, and Mexico. To identify the impact, we compare labor market stocks and labor market flows over four quarters for a set of balanced panel samples of comparable workers before and after the pandemic. We find that the pandemic has negatively affected the labor market status of both men and women, but that the effect is significantly stronger for women, magnifying the already large gender gaps that characterize LAC countries. The main channel through which this stronger impact is taking place is the increase in child care work affecting women with school-age children. |
| JEL: | J6 J16 J46 O10 O17 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0296&r= |
| By: | Barry Chiswick (George Washington University); RaeAnn Robinson (George Washington University) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the occupational status and distribution of free women in the antebellum United States. It considers both their reported and unreported (imputed) occupations, using the 1/100 IPUMS files from the 1860 Census of Population. After developing and testing the model based on economic and demographic variables used to explain whether a free woman has an occupation, analyses are conducted comparing their occupational distribution to free men, along with analyses among women by nativity, urbanization, and region of the country. While foreign-born and illiterate women were more likely to report having an occupation compared to their native-born and literate counterparts, they were equally likely to be working when unreported family workers are included. In the analysis limited to the slave-holding states, it is shown that the greater the slave-intensity of the county, the less likely were free women to report having an occupation, particularly as private household workers, suggesting substitution in the labor market between free women and enslaved labor. |
| Keywords: | Women, Labor Force Participation, Occupational Distribution, Unreported Family Workers, Enslaved Workers, Immigrants, 1860 Census of Population |
| JEL: | N31 J16 J21 J82 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2022-04&r= |
| By: | Feiyang Shi (IHEID, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva) |
| Abstract: | Focusing on Sino-Indian trade, this paper uses detailed district-level data, exploits India's drastic increase in imports from China since 2001, and uses the instrumental variables approach to examine the impact of trade shock on the local labour market outcomes. Through a matching procedure, the geographical coverage of the paper is significantly improved comparing with prior studies. The range of labour market outcome variables examined is also much wider, including wage, residual wage fluctuation, and employment and underemployment as shares of working-age population. By exploiting spatial variations in industrial activities and labour participation in the industries, the paper finds that, unlike in some other cases, the import competition from China did not have a significant impact on the Indian district average wages. However, it did result in an increase in employment share. In further contribution, the paper also allows heterogeneous effects across consumption, age, gender, occupation and industrial groups. The results confirm that the effect of import shock is not uniformly distributed within the districts. Rather, it varies with respect to certain socio-economic characteristics. |
| Keywords: | International Trade; Wages; Income Inequality; Import shock; Underemployment |
| JEL: | F14 F16 J16 |
| Date: | 2022–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gii:giihei:heidwp04-2022&r= |
| By: | Nieuwenhuis, Rense (Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | Comparative welfare state research has mostly examined the outcomes of active labour market policies and work-family reconciliation policies separately. As a result, potential complementarities between these policy areas have received scant attention empirically. Using macro-level data, this study answers the question to what extent, and in which way, governments’ efforts in active labour market policies (ALMP) and in early childhood education and care (ECEC) services are correlated with women’s employment rates, women’s unemployment and inactivity rates in 30 OECD countries from 1985 to 2018. The article theorizes about how the various policies that constitute a welfare state relate to each other, distinguishing between pluralism, complementarity and substitutability. I interpret the empirical findings as being consistent with welfare pluralism, in the sense that ALMP and ECEC policies work together in improving women’s employment rates in slightly different ways: ALMP is associated with low female unemployment rates, whereas ECEC also is associated with lower inactivity rates for women. There was, however, more support for the notion of substitution rather than complementarity: the marginal benefits associated with an increase in either ALMP or ECEC were smaller in the context of large investments in the other policy. In other words, the highest rates of women’s employment, and the lowest rates of unemployment and inactivity, are found in countries with large investments in both ALMP and ECEC, but such higher investments are associated with diminishing returns. |
| Keywords: | ALMP; ECEC; women’s employment; substitution; complementarity; pluralism |
| JEL: | J16 J21 Z18 |
| Date: | 2022–03–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2022_004&r= |
| By: | Qingyang Lin (IHEID, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva) |
| Abstract: | Switzerland implemented an immigration quota system to manage the inflow of immigration between 1970 and 2002. This paper adopts a difference-in-difference strategy taking advantage of subnational variations in the implementation of the quota system to evaluate this migration policy. An instrument variable of antiimmigration attitudes is used to address the potential endogeneity issue. The author finds that the immigration quota system slowed down the growth of foreign population in Switzerland, but had no impact on unemployment. Moreover, such immigration restriction lowered the average skill level of the Swiss population which in turn hurt the productivity of the Swiss economy. |
| Keywords: | Migration; Anti-Immigration Attitudes; Unemployment; Labor Skills |
| JEL: | F22 J21 J24 J61 K37 |
| Date: | 2022–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gii:giihei:heidwp05-2022&r= |
| By: | Deepak Saraswat (University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | Affordable housing programs as place-based programs in the United States have an impact on the neighborhoods, but little is known about the impact of affordable housing construction on individuals living in the neighborhoods hosting these projects. This paper investigates the effects of affordable housing construction under the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program on individuals’ labor market outcomes and welfare dependence. We exploit the timing of changes in the LIHTC program leading to spatial changes in the affordable housing supply to compare labor market outcomes of individuals exposed to varying levels of housing construction. We overcome the empirical challenges posed by the selective sorting of individuals into neighborhoods by matching the timing of the change in housing supply to an individuals’ neighborhood of residence. We find an average improvement in the labor market outcomes of individuals as a result of higher exposure to the supply of affordable housing in their neighborhood. In addition, we document significant heterogeneities by race and ethnicity and find evidence that these heterogeneities are likely explained by the program-induced and migration-induced changes in neighborhood quality. |
| Keywords: | Low-income housing, Gentrification, Tax credits, Labor supply, Neighborhood changes |
| JEL: | I38 J15 J22 R23 R31 R38 |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2022-09&r= |
| By: | Brad Hershbein; Bryan Stuart |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how government transfers respond to changes in local economic activity that emerge during recessions. Local labor markets that experience greater employment losses during recessions face persistent relative decreases in per capita earnings. However, these areas also experience persistent increases in per capita transfers, which offset 16 percent of the earnings loss on average. The increase in transfers is driven by unemployment insurance in the short run, and medical, retirement, and disability transfers in the long run. Our results show that nominally place-neutral transfer programs redistribute considerable sums of money to places with depressed economic conditions. |
| Keywords: | recessions; safety net; government transfers |
| JEL: | E32 H50 R12 R28 |
| Date: | 2022–03–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:93859&r= |
| By: | Meier, Dennis H.; Thomsen, Stephan L.; Trunzer, Johannes |
| Abstract: | Many university students depend on employment during their studies. The closing of universities and the loss of many typical student jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic particularly affected their situation. Based on survey data from a major German university, we analyze changes in students' income and its composition throughout the different phases of the pandemic. Students' job income declined by 66\% (total income by 19\%), on average, during the first lockdown. There was a quick recovery during the reopening. Job income fell again in the second lockdown, but this decrease was only half as large as that in the first lockdown. Women and students from non-academic backgrounds were particularly affected by job income loss, which widened pre-existing financial inequalities. Students compensated for income losses by increasing loan financing and by reducing their leisure expenses. Although dropout intentions increased for all students, there are no differences across socio-economic groups thus far. |
| Keywords: | higher education; student earnings; student employment; inequality |
| JEL: | I23 I24 |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:han:dpaper:dp-696&r= |
| By: | Florent Dubois (University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom and EconomiX, University Paris Nanterre, 92000 Nanterre, France); Christophe Muller (Aix-Marseille Univ, CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France.) |
| Abstract: | We contend that residential segregation should be an essential component of the analyses of socio-ethnic income gaps. Focusing on the contemporary White/African gap in South Africa, we complete Mincer wage equations with an Isolation index that reflects the level of segregation in the local area where individuals dwell. We decompose the income gap distribution into detailed composition and structure components. Segregation is found to be the main contributor of the structure effect, ahead of education and experience, and to make a sizable contribution to the composition effect. Moreover, segregation is found to be harmful at the bottom of the African income distribution, notably in relation to local informal job-search networks, while it is beneficial at the top of the White income distribution. Specific subpopulations are identified that suffer and benefit most from segregation, including for the former, little educated workers in agriculture and mining, often female, confined in their personal networks. Finally, minimum wage policies are found likely to attenuate most segregation’s noxious mechanisms, while a variety of policy lessons are drawn from the decomposition analysis by distinguishing not only compositional from structural effects, but also distinct group-specific social positions. |
| Keywords: | residential segregation, post-apartheid South Africa, distribution analysis, generalized decompositions |
| JEL: | J15 D31 R23 |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:2205&r= |