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on Labour Economics |
| By: | John T. Addison; Paulino Teixeira |
| Abstract: | Using the 2019 ECS, we investigate the relationship between union organization, workplace representation, industrial relations quality and strike incidence. We also consider some six issues behind the most recent instances of industrial action or threatened industrial action and their outcomes. Strike incidence is found to be elevated in establishments where union density is higher and where workers are covered by mixed-level collective agreements. Distrust and strained workplace relationships are associated with increased strike incidence, and the converse for an employee-focused business strategy and heightened employee motivation. In discussing the outcomes of different types of industrial action or threatened industrial action specific to the establishment, a distinction is drawn between worker wins, worker retractions/losses, and win-win outcomes, where the default is unresolved outcomes. Higher union density is associated with worker wins, collective bargaining with balanced agreements, and there is now some suggestion that works councils may play a moderating role. |
| Keywords: | strikes, areas and outcomes of conflict, union organization, worker representation, employee-focused strategies, trust, quality of industrial relations |
| JEL: | J51 J52 J53 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9685&r= |
| By: | Kohlbrecher, Britta; Merkl, Christian |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that a search and matching model with idiosyncratic training cost shocks can explain the asymmetric movement of the job-finding rate over the business cycle and the decline of matching efficiency in recessions. Large negative aggregate shocks move the hiring cutoff into a part of the training cost distribution with higher density. The position of the hiring cutoff in the distribution is disciplined by the empirical elasticity of the job-finding rate with respect to market tightness. Our model explains a large fraction of the matching efficiency decline during the Great Recession and generates state-dependent effects of policy interventions. |
| Keywords: | Business cycle asymmetries,matching function,Beveridge curve,job-finding rate,unemployment,effectiveness of policy |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwqwdp:032022&r= |
| By: | Van Borm, Hannah; Baert, Stijn |
| Abstract: | We investigate the drivers of gender differentials in hiring chances. More concretely, we test (i) whether recruiters perceive job applicants in gender stereotypical terms when making hiring decisions and (ii) whether the activation of these gender stereotypes in recruiters' minds varies by the salience of gender in a particular hiring context and the gender prototypicality of a job applicant, as hypothesised in Ridgeway and Kricheli-Katz (2013). To this end, we conduct an innovative vignette experiment in the United States with 290 genuine recruiters who evaluate fictitious job applicants regarding their hireability and 21 statements related to specific gender stereotypes. Moreover, we experimentally manipulate both the gender prototypicality of a job applicant and the salience of gender in the hiring context. We find that employers perceive women in gender stereotypical terms when making hiring decisions. In particular, women are perceived to be more social and supportive than men, but also as less assertive and physically strong. Furthermore, our results indicate that the gender prototypicality of job applicants moderates these perceptions: the less prototypical group of African American women, who are assumed to be less prototypical, are perceived in less stereotypical terms than white women, while some stereotypes are more outspoken when female résumés reveal family responsibilities. |
| Keywords: | hiring,gender discrimination,stereotypes,race,motherhood |
| JEL: | J71 J16 J15 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1083&r= |
| By: | Jon H. Fiva; Max-Emil M. King |
| Abstract: | Women tend to experience substantial declines in their labor income after their first child is born, while men do not. Do such “child penalties” also exist in the political arena? Using extensive administrative data from Norway and an event-study methodology, we find that women drop out of local politics to a larger extent than men after their first child is born. Parenthood also seems to have a differential long-term effect on women and men's political careers, which may explain why women, especially women with children, are underrepresented at higher levels of the political hierarchy. |
| Keywords: | gender gap, child penalties, political selection |
| JEL: | D63 D72 J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9611&r= |
| By: | Field, Erica (Duke University); Vyborny, Kate (Duke University) |
| Abstract: | In cities with conservative norms or high crime, female workers may face greater restrictions on their physical mobility. This limits women’s labor market opportunities and the pool of workers that firms can attract. In this study, we experimentally vary access to a transport service in Lahore, Pakistan, to quantify the overall impact of transport to work on men, women, and the differential impact of transport exclusively for women. We show that reducing physical mobility constraints has a large impact on job searching for women, including women who are not searching at baseline. Women’s response is driven by a women-only transport treatment arm, suggesting that safety and social acceptability, rather than simply cost, are key constraints. |
| Keywords: | transport; mobility; gender; female labor force participation |
| JEL: | J16 J22 J28 L91 |
| Date: | 2022–04–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbewp:0655&r= |
| By: | D'Haultfoeuille, Xavier (CREST); Gaillac, Christophe (University of Oxford); Maurel, Arnaud (Duke University) |
| Abstract: | We consider the identification of and inference on a partially linear model, when the outcome of interest and some of the covariates are observed in two different datasets that cannot be linked. This type of data combination problem arises very frequently in empirical microeconomics. Using recent tools from optimal transport theory, we derive a constructive characterization of the sharp identified set. We then build on this result and develop a novel inference method that exploits the specific geometric properties of the identified set. Our method exhibits good performances in finite samples, while remaining very tractable. Finally, we apply our methodology to study intergenerational income mobility over the period 1850-1930 in the United States. Our method allows to relax the exclusion restrictions used in earlier work while delivering confidence regions that are informative. |
| Keywords: | partially linear model, data combination, partial identification, intergenerational mobility |
| JEL: | C14 C21 J62 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15230&r= |
| By: | Mitra, Devashish (Syracuse University); Pham, Hoang (Oregon State University); Ural Marchand, Beyza (University of Alberta, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Using eight rounds of the Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys (VHLSSs) spanning 16 years and exploiting the US Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) in 2001 as a large export shock, we investigate the impact of this shock on intergenerational occupational mobility in Vietnam employing a difference-in-differences research design. Our analysis suggests that the BTA has led to substantial upward occupational mobility, allowing both sons and daughters to have better occupations than their parents, with the effects being larger for daughter-mother pairs. The effect is larger in the long-run compared to the short-run. We find evidence that the driving force is an increase in skill demand via gender-biased expansion in export volumes. The effects are largely driven by intersectoral resource reallocation rather than within-sector upgrades. In addition, the BTA induced a higher likelihood of college education for both sons and daughters, but of vocational training only for sons. Overall, the BTA shock accounts for 36% of the overall increase in mobility for both genders. Our results control for Vietnam's own tariff reductions, which do not seem to have any statistically significant impact on mobility. |
| Keywords: | International Trade; Export Market Access; Intergenerational Mobility |
| JEL: | F13 F16 F66 J62 O19 |
| Date: | 2022–04–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:albaec:2022_009&r= |
| By: | Matthias Doepke; Anne Hannusch; Fabian Kindermann; Michèle Tertilt |
| Abstract: | In this survey, we argue that the economic analysis of fertility has entered a new era. First-generation models of fertility choice were designed to account for two empirical regularities that, in the past, held both across countries and across families in a given country: a negative relationship between income and fertility, and another negative re- lationship between women’s labor force participation and fertility. The economics of fertility has entered a new era because these stylized facts no longer universally hold. In high-income countries, the income-fertility relationship has flattened and in some cases reversed, and the cross-country relationship between women’s labor force participation and fertility is now positive. We summarize these new facts and describe new models that are designed to address them. The common theme of these new theories is that they view factors that determine the compatibility of women’s career and family goals as key drivers of fertility. We highlight four factors that facilitate combining a career with a family: family policy, cooperative fathers, favorable social norms, and flexible labor markets. We also review other recent developments in the literature, and we point out promising new directions for future research on the economics of fertility. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, Family Economics, Marital Bargaining |
| JEL: | D13 J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2022_347&r= |
| By: | Guido Menzio |
| Abstract: | I study a search equilibrium model of the labor market in which workers have stubborn beliefs about their labor market prospects, i.e. beliefs about their probability of finding a job and the wage they will earn that do not respond to aggregate fluctuations in fundamentals. I show that, when workers have stubborn beliefs, the response of the wage bargained by a firm and a worker to aggregate shocks is dampened. As a result, the response of labor market tightness, job-finding probability, unemployment and vacancies to aggregate fluctuations is amplified. I show that stubborn beliefs generate cyclical inefficiencies in the labor market that can be corrected with countercyclical employment subsidies. I find that the response of the labor market to negative shocks is the same even if only a small fraction of workers has stubborn beliefs. In contrast, if the fraction of workers with stubborn beliefs is small, the response of the labor market to positive shocks is approximately the same as under rational expectations. |
| JEL: | E03 E32 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29937&r= |
| By: | Jacob Nielsen Arendt; Christian Dustmann; Hyejin Ku |
| Abstract: | Denmark has accepted refugees from a large variety of countries and for more than four decades. Denmark has also frequently changed policies and regulations concerning integration programs, transfer payments, and conditions for permanent residency. Such policy variation in conjunction with excellent administrative data provides an ideal laboratory to evaluate the effects of different immigration and integration policies on the outcomes of refugee immigrants. In this article, we first describe the Danish experience with refugee immigration over the past four decades. We then review different post-arrival refugee policies and summarize studies that evaluate their effects on the labor market performance of refugees. Lastly, we discuss and contrast these findings in the context of international studies of similar policies and draw conclusions for policy. |
| Keywords: | refugee integration, immigration policies, labor supply, employment, language |
| JEL: | J22 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9689&r= |
| By: | Elisa Birch (Economics Department, Business School, The University of Western Australia); Alison Preston (Economics Department, Business School, The University of Western Australia) |
| Abstract: | This article provides a review of the Australian labour market in 2021. It describes patterns of employment, unemployment and other key labour market outcomes in the year, including wages. In the year to September 2021, total employment increased by 2.6% for males and 2.2% for females, driven by a growth in full-time employment. While most labour market indictors returned to their pre-pandemic levels in 2021, young adults, particular men, casual employees, the self-employed were most disadvantaged by COVID-19. New South Wales and Victorian residents were similarly adversely affected. Notwithstanding inflationary fears, in the year to September 2021 headline inflation increased by 3.0% and the wage price index by 2.2%, rendering a fall in real wages during the year. Despite record low unemployment at year’s end and a positive economic outlook for 2022, the future remains unclear. |
| Keywords: | Employment, unemployment, underutilisation, wages, younger workers, COVID-19, labour market. |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwa:wpaper:22-02&r= |
| By: | Panayiota Lyssiotou; Ružica SavÄ ic |
| Abstract: | We exploit the changes in the distancing measures instituted by the UK government in the different phases of the pandemic to identify the impact on the daily lives of couples with children and gender equality within the household. We estimate a weighted tobit simultaneous system of market, housework and child care hours of parents and correct for possible endogeneity of the wages. We find that once the restrictive measures were lifted there was a significant increase in the hours of paid work and decrease in the hours of housework and childcare of both parents. The changes were not significantly different among the two parents. These findings confirm previous evidence that access to market childcare services increases the working hours of mothers. They also indicate that the initial pandemic shock did not eliminate pre-pandemic inequalities in the labour market and division of housework and childcare among parents with underage children. The evidence tends to suggest that changes in gender norms for more equality within the family are more likely to occur when the shock is enforced by law or has a long enough duration to change the behaviour of men and women and shape the norms of the next generation. |
| Keywords: | time allocation; COVID-19; gender equity; labour supply; housework; childcare |
| JEL: | D13 J16 J21 J22 |
| Date: | 2022–05–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucy:cypeua:03-2022&r= |
| By: | Fernando V. Ferreira; Maisy Wong |
| Abstract: | We investigate how neighborhood preferences and choices changed one year after the beginning of the COVID pandemic. We study a Neighborhood Choice Program that helped graduating students choose where to live by providing new information about rents and amenities. Using panel data on neighborhood rankings before and after information, we find that changes in rankings favor neighborhoods where social and professional network shares are higher by 2.2 percentage points, rents are lower by $432, and are 2.4 kilometers farther from the city center. Interestingly, we did not detect this movement away from downtowns when the program was offered prior to the pandemic. We then estimate a neighborhood choice model to recover MWTP for amenities both before and after the pandemic. Our estimates reveal that MWTP for network shares post COVID is markedly lower than prior to COVID. Finally, we perform counterfactuals to quantitatively assess how changes in preferences affect where people live, and find that weaker network preferences are most impactful, while heterogeneity by commute and work-from-home are less relevant. |
| JEL: | G0 H0 J0 R0 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29960&r= |
| By: | Meccheri, Nicola |
| Abstract: | This paper compares the welfare outcomes obtained under alternative unionization regimes (decentralized vs. centralized wage setting) in a duopoly market, in which shareholders delegate strategic decisions to biased (overconfident or underconfident) managers. In such a framework, the common tenet that consumer surplus and overall welfare are always higher under decentralized wage setting is completely overturned. Indeed, since in the presence of centralized unionization (industry-wide union) firms' shareholders always prefer to hire more aggressive or less conservative managers, output (consumer surplus) and overall welfare are larger in a centralized wage setting structure. This result holds true independently of the degree of product differentiation and the weight attached by unions to wages with respect to employment. Moreover, it also proves to be largely robust relative to the competition regime (quantity or price) in the product market. |
| Keywords: | unionization structure,strategic delegation,biased managers,social welfare |
| JEL: | J51 L13 L22 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1084&r= |
| By: | Philippe Askenazy (Centre Maurice Halbwachs, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and ENS); Thomas Breda (Paris School of Economics, CNRS); Vladimir Pecheu (Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France) |
| Abstract: | The existence of a peak at 49 employees in the firm size distribution in France, followed by a permanent decrease in the number of firms has been the starting point of political discourses and academic studies on the cost of size-dependent regulations at 50-employee. These features of the distribution are visible when firm size is declared by employers in fiscal data but not when it is reconstructed from individual-level social security data. This working paper explores these differences both from statistical and institutional viewpoints. It provides evidence showing that a large proportion of employers manipulate the firm size they declare in their fiscal documents. This manipulation generates the particular shape of the size distribution in the fiscal data. We discuss the rationale for such behavior: the key point is that the under-declaration in fiscal data is not subject to substantial sanctions and it can allow firms not to comply with the labor law. Event studies and comparisons of firms below and above the 50-employee threshold suggest that this threshold may only have limited effects on firm performance or growth potential. Consequently the welfare costs of the regulations at 50-employee might be smaller than what was found by some of the studies that assume a perfect compliance with the law. |
| Keywords: | regulations, firm size, firm dynamics, economic cost, non-compliance |
| JEL: | L11 L51 J8 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:2211&r= |