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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Andrea Albanese; Adrian Nieto Castro; Konstantinos Tatsiramos |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of childbirth on local and non-local employment dynamics for both men and women using Belgian social security and geo-location data. Applying an event-study design that accounts for treatment effect heterogeneity, we show that 75 percent of the effect of the birth of a first child on the overall gender gap in employment is accounted for by gender disparities in non-local employment, with mothers being more likely to give up non-local employment compared to fathers. This gender specialisation is mostly driven by opposing job location responses of men and women to individual, household and regional factors. On the one hand, men do not give up non-local employment after childbirth when they are employed in a high-paid job, have a partner who is not participating in the labour market or experience adverse local labour market conditions, suggesting that fathers trade off better employment opportunities with longer commutes. On the other hand, women give up non-local jobs regardless of their earnings level, their partner’s labour market status and local economic conditions, which is consistent with mothers specialising in childcare provision compared to fathers. |
| Keywords: | Gender gap; childbirth; job location; cross-border employment; specialisation |
| JEL: | C21 C23 J13 J16 J60 |
| Date: | 2022–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2022-05&r= |
| By: | Blanchflower, David G. (Dartmouth College); Bryson, Alex (University College London); Spurling, Jackson (Dartmouth College) |
| Abstract: | Most economists maintain that the labor market in the United States (and elsewhere) is ‘tight’ because unemployment rates are low and the Beveridge Curve (the vacancies-to-unemployment ratio) is high. They infer from this that there is potential for wage-push inflation. However, real wages are falling rapidly at present and, prior to that, real wages had been stagnant for some time. We show that unemployment is not key to understanding wage formation in the USA and hasn’t been since the Great Recession. Instead, we show rates of under-employment (the percentage of workers with part-time hours who would prefer more hours) and the rate of non-employment which includes both the unemployed and those out of the labor force who are not working significantly reduce wage pressures in the United States. This finding holds in panel data with state and year fixed effects and is supportive of a wage curve which fits the data much better than a Phillips Curve. We find no role for vacancies; the V:U ratio is negatively not positively associated with wage growth since 2020. The implication is that the reserve army of labor which acts as a break on wage growth extends beyond the unemployed and operates from within the firm. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, labor market inactivity, under-employment |
| JEL: | J30 J20 J60 E24 |
| Date: | 2022–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15465&r= |
| By: | Samuel Bazzi (University of California - San Diego, NBER, and CEPR); Lisa Cameron (University of Melbourne); Simone Schaner (University of Southern California and NBER); Firman Witoelar (Australian National University) |
| Abstract: | Job seekers face substantial information frictions, especially in international labor markets where intermediaries match prospective migrants with overseas employers. We conducted a randomized trial in Indonesia to explore how information about intermediary quality shapes migration outcomes. Holding access to information about the return to choosing a high-quality intermediary constant, intermediary-specific quality disclosure reduces the migration rate, cutting use of low-quality providers. Workers who do migrate receive better pre-departure preparation and have improved experiences abroad, despite no change in occupation or destination. These results are not driven by changes in beliefs about average provider quality or the return to migration. Nor does selection explain improved outcomes for those who migrate with quality disclosure. Together, our findings are consistent with an increase in the option value of search: with better ability to differentiate offer quality, workers search longer, select higher-quality intermediaries, and ultimately have better migration experiences. |
| Keywords: | International migration, information, middlemen, quality disclosure, search |
| JEL: | F22 O15 D83 L15 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:22-372&r= |
| By: | Drydakis, Nick (Anglia Ruskin University) |
| Abstract: | This study examines whether an association exists between parental unemployment and health-related quality of life and mental health for adolescents aged 15-18 in Athens, Greece. The gathered dataset covers the same upper high schools in two periods, 2011-2013 and 2017-2019. The study finds that parental unemployment bears an association with decreased health-related quality of life and increased adverse mental health symptoms for adolescents. Moreover, the 2011-2013 period, a period of increased parental unemployment, saw a decrease in health-related quality of life and increased adverse mental health symptoms for adolescents. In addition, parental unemployment proved more detrimental to adolescents’ health-related quality of life and mental health in 2011-2013 than in 2017-2019. The present research ranks among the first studies to examine whether parental unemployment could be associated with worse health-related quality of life and mental health for adolescents during periods of increased parental unemployment. Public policies that can reduce the adverse effects of parental unemployment on adolescents’ health-related outcomes require consideration. This approach proves critical because deteriorated health-related quality of life and mental health can negatively impact on adolescents’ human capital, progression, income, and future health. |
| Keywords: | parental unemployment, adolescents, health-related quality of life, mental health, recession, economic crisis |
| JEL: | E24 J13 I10 I14 |
| Date: | 2022–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15468&r= |
| By: | Canaan, Serena (Simon Fraser University); Fischer, Stefanie (Monash University); Mouganie, Pierre (Simon Fraser University); Schnorr, Geoffrey C. (University of California, Davis) |
| Abstract: | To boost college graduation rates, policymakers often advocate for academic supports such as coaching or mentoring. Proactive and intensive coaching interventions are effective, but are costly and difficult to scale. We evaluate a relatively lower-cost group coaching program targeted at first-year college students placed on academic probation. Participants attend a workshop where coaches aim to normalize failure and improve self-confidence. Coaches also facilitate a process whereby participants reflect on their academic difficulties, devise solutions to address their challenges, and create an action plan. Participants then hold a one-time follow-up meeting with their coach or visit a campus resource. Using a difference-in-discontinuity design, we show that the program raises students’ first-year GPA by 14.6% of a standard deviation, and decreases the probability of first-year dropout by 8.5 percentage points. Effects are concentrated among lower-income students who also experience a significant increase in the probability of graduating. Finally, using administrative data we provide the first evidence that coaching/mentoring may have substantial long-run effects as we document significant gains in lower-income students’ earnings 7–9 years following entry to the university. Our findings indicate that targeted, group coaching can be an effective way to improve marginal students’ academic and early career outcomes. |
| Keywords: | college graduation, mentoring, college advising, academic coaching |
| JEL: | I23 I24 J16 |
| Date: | 2022–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15469&r= |
| By: | Domenico Ferraro; Giuseppe Fiori |
| Abstract: | We develop a business cycle model with search frictions in the labor market and a labor supply decision along the extensive margin that yields cyclical asymmetry between peaks and troughs of the unemployment rate and symmetric fluctuations of the labor force participation rate as in the U.S. data. We calibrate the model and find that cyclical changes in the extent of search frictions are solely responsible for the peak-trough asymmetry. Participation decisions do not generate asymmetry but contribute to the fluctuations in search frictions by changing the size and composition of the pool of job seekers, which in turn affects the tightness ratio and thereby slack in the labor market. The participation rate would be counterfactually asymmetric absent labor supply responses to shocks. |
| Keywords: | Asymmetric business cycles; Labor supply; Search frictions; Employment; Unemployment rate; Labor force participation rate |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2022–08–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgif:1355&r= |
| By: | Grenet, Julien (Paris School of Economics, CNRS); Grönqvist, Hans (Linnaeus University, IFAU); Niknami, Susan (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | Electronic monitoring (EM) is a popular instrument to reduce large prison populations. Evidence on the effects of EM on criminal recidivism is, however, limited and it is unclear how this alternative to incarceration affects the labor market outcomes of offenders. Moreover, little is known about potential spillover effects on family members. We study the introduction of EM in Sweden in 1997 wherein offenders sentenced to up to three months in prison were given the possibility to avoid entering prison by substituting to EM. Our difference-in-differences estimates comparing the change in the prison inflow rate of eligible offenders to that of non-eligible offenders with slightly longer sentences show that the reform dramatically decreased incarcerations. Our main finding is that EM lowers criminal recidivism and improves offenders’ labor market outcomes. There is also some evidence of improvements in the short and intermediate run outcomes of the children of the offenders. The main channels through which EM operates seem to be by allowing offenders to maintain regular work and potentially also by reducing employer discrimination. Our calculations suggest that the social benefits of EM are at least six to nine times larger than the fiscal savings from reduced prison expenditure. This makes the welfare improvements from EM potentially much greater than what has been previously recognized. |
| Keywords: | Electronic monitoring; Incarceration; Labor supply; Crime; Spillovers |
| JEL: | K42 |
| Date: | 2022–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2022_003&r= |
| By: | Cristina Lafuente and Astrid Ruland |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate the impact that Short-Time Work schemes (STWs) had on employment and labour market flows during the COVID emergency of 2020 in four of the five largest economies of the EU. Most European countries used STWs at this time to alleviate the negative impact of sanitary measures like lockdowns. Looking at labour market stocks and flows, we document that these schemes were widely adopted and likely prevented substantial job losses. However, they failed to protect temporary workers. Moreover, in all countries, transitions from employment to non-participation reached unprecedented levels. These flows are reverted in subsequent quarters, which implies that many workers postponed job search during the lockdown. We do not observe permanent increases in non-participation, but we document a large fall in flows between temporary and permanent jobs. We interpret this as a drop in labour market mobility. We find that vacancy posting and firm dynamics may be able to explain part of the observed differences between countries. |
| Keywords: | labour market flows; short-time work; inactivity; labour force survey |
| JEL: | C82 E24 J21 J60 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2022/02&r= |
| By: | Peter Ganong; Fiona E. Greig; Pascal J. Noel; Daniel M. Sullivan; Joseph S. Vavra |
| Abstract: | We show that the largest increase in unemployment benefits in U.S. history had large spending impacts and small job-finding impacts. This finding has three implications. First, increased benefits were important for explaining aggregate spending dynamics—but not employment dynamics—during the pandemic. Second, benefit expansions allow us to study the MPC of normally low-liquidity households in a high-liquidity state. These households still have high MPCs. This suggests a role for persistent behavioral characteristics, rather than just current liquidity, in driving spending behavior. Third, the mechanisms driving our results imply that temporary benefit supplements are a promising countercyclical tool. |
| JEL: | E21 E24 E32 E62 E71 G5 H3 J18 J65 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30315&r= |
| By: | Giacomo De Giorgi; Costanza Naguib |
| Abstract: | We analyze the impact of credit default on individual trajectories. Using a proprietary dataset for the years 2004-2020, we find that after default individuals relocate to cheaper areas. Importantly, default has long-lasting negative effects on income, credit score, total credit limit, and home-ownership status. |
| Keywords: | mobility, bankruptcy, default, credit, income |
| JEL: | J61 G51 D12 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ube:dpvwib:dp2206&r= |
| By: | Bryson, Alex (University College London); Willman, Paul (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We maintain that employer associations are a specific form of employer collusion that is overt, formal and labour market focused which encompasses but is by no means confined to collective bargaining. We consider the conditions under which this form of collusion might emerge, and how it might develop. Since the context is the decline of employers’ associations in collective bargaining, we look at how collective bargaining involvement (and its disappearance) might relate to the growth or decline of other forms of collusion in areas such as product and financial markets, and political influence. Our central contention is that employers’ associations continue to perform an important role in helping employers set the terms of trade, albeit one that has adapted to the demise of sectoral bargaining. |
| Keywords: | employers’ associations, collusion, collective bargaining |
| JEL: | J50 J52 |
| Date: | 2022–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15467&r= |
| By: | Toshitaka Gokan (Institute of Developing Economies - JETRO); Sergei Kichko (University of Trento); Jesse A. Matheson (Department of Economics, University of Sheffield, UK); Jacques-Francois Thisse (CORE-UCLouvain, Institute of Developing Economies - JETRO and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | In recent years the land-rent gradient for the city of London has flattened by 17 percentage points. Further, teleworking has increased 24 percentage point for skilled workers, but much less for unskilled workers. To rationalize these stylized facts, we propose a model of the monocentric city with heterogeneous workers and teleworking. Skilled workers, working in final goods production, can telework while unskilled workers, working in either final goods or local services production, cannot. We show that increased teleworking flattens the land-rent gradient, and eventually skilled workers move from the city center to the city’s periphery, fundamentally changing the city structure. The increased teleworking has implications for unskilled workers who move from the local services sector into final goods, leading to greater wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers. The model is extended to two cities which differ in productivity. Teleworking allows skilled workers of the more productive city to reside in the less productive city where housing is cheaper. This increases housing prices in the less productive city, relative to the more productive city, and has implications for unskilled workers in both cities. We provide empirical evidence from housing prices in England which is consistent with this result. |
| Keywords: | telecommuting, working from home, gentrified cities, doughnut cities, inter-city commuting |
| JEL: | J60 R00 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shf:wpaper:2022013&r= |
| By: | Nichola Lowe (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill); Greg Schrock (Portland State University); Matthew D. Wilson (Great Cities Institute, University of Illinois Chicago); Rumana Rabbani (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill); Allison Forbes (Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness) |
| Abstract: | As the U.S. economy rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic, strategies that promote long-term transformation toward high-quality jobs will be critical. This includes workplace-improving interventions that enable employers to upgrade existing jobs, often while enhancing their own competitive position. This paper focuses on the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a national network of federally funded centers that support small and medium-sized manufacturing firms. We document the range of workforce- and workplace-enhancing strategies that MEP centers have adopted since the network’s inception in the mid-1990s. While workforce development is unevenly implemented across today’s MEP network, leading centers within the network are devising transformative strategies that shape underlying business practices in ways that can improve the quality of front-line manufacturing jobs. The pandemic recovery, along with federal commitment to reenergize domestic supply chains, presents an opportunity to establish NIST-MEP as a national workforce-development leader while also strengthening localized institutional partnerships to center that effort on inclusive economic development and recovery. |
| Keywords: | Industrial policy, industry studies,economic development policy, workforce development policy |
| JEL: | L6 R11 J81 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:22-371&r= |