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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Itzik Fadlon (University of California, San Diego and NBER); Frederik Plesner Lyngse (University of Copenhagen and CEBI); Torben Heien Nielsen (University of Copenhagen and CEBI) |
| Abstract: | We study whether and how early labor market choices determine longer-run career versus family outcomes differentially for male and female professionals. We analyze the physician labor market by exploiting a randomized lottery that determines the sorting of Danish physicians into internships across local labor markets. Using administrative data spanning ten years after physicians’ graduations, we find causal effects of early-career sorting on a range of life cycle outcomes that cascade from labor market choices, including human capital accumulation and occupational choice, to marriage market choices, including matching and fertility. The persistent effects are entirely concentrated among women, whereas men experience only temporary career disruptions. The evidence points to differential family-career tradeoffs and the mentorship employers provide as channels underlying this gender divergence. Our findings have implications for policies aimed at gender equality in outcomes, as they reveal how persistent gaps can arise even in institutionally gender-neutral settings with early-stage equality of opportunity. |
| Keywords: | Economics of Gender, Human Capital, Occupational Choice, Marriage Market, Fertility, Career versus Family Tradeoff, Early Career Sorting |
| JEL: | J16 J13 J24 R23 |
| Date: | 2022–07–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kucebi:2206&r= |
| By: | Simon Jäger; Shakked Noy; Benjamin Schoefer |
| Abstract: | We give an overview of the “German model” of industrial relations. We organize our review by focusing on the two pillars of the model: sectoral collective bargaining and firm-level codetermination. Relative to the United States, Germany outsources collective bargaining to the sectoral level, resulting in higher coverage and the avoidance of firm-level distributional conflict. Relative to other European countries, Germany makes it easy for employers to avoid coverage or use flexibility provisions to deviate downwards from collective agreements. The greater flexibility of the German system may reduce unemployment, but may also erode bargaining coverage and increase inequality. Meanwhile, firm-level codetermination through worker board representation and works councils creates cooperative dialogue between employers and workers. Board representation has few direct impacts owing to worker representatives’ minority vote share, but works councils, which hold a range of substantive powers, may be more impactful. Overall, the German model highlights tensions between efficiency-enhancing flexibility and equity-enhancing collective action. |
| JEL: | E0 H0 J0 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30377&r= |
| By: | Hall, Caroline (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Hardoy, Inés (Institutt for Samfunnsforskning,); von Simson, Kristine (Institutt for Samfunnsforskning,) |
| Abstract: | The rising numbers of young people with disability pension concerns many advanced economies. We present results from a comparative analysis of Sweden and Norway, two countries which are very similar in many respects, but differ regarding the policy mix to enhance the employability of the work disabled. Using rich longitudinal data, we follow unemployed young adults (aged 25-29 years old) with reduced work capacity to investigate the effect of different types of labour market policies. We follow these individuals up to four years after the start of unemployment. Our results indicate that, in spite of radical differences in programme composition and strategies, there are surprisingly small country differences in impacts. Having participated in workplace related programmes about doubles the likelihood of entering regular employment or education. Participating in qualifying training courses also increases this likelihood, but effect sizes are smaller. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment; labour market programmes; reduced work capacity; young adult; |
| JEL: | J08 J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2022–09–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2022_016&r= |
| By: | Robert Collinson; John Eric Humphries; Nicholas S. Mader; Davin K. Reed; Daniel I. Tannenbaum; Winnie van Dijk |
| Abstract: | More than two million U.S. households have an eviction case filed against them each year. Policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels are increasingly pursuing policies to reduce the number of evictions, citing harm to tenants and high public expenditures related to homelessness. We study the consequences of eviction for tenants, using newly linked administrative data from Cook County (which includes Chicago) and New York City. We document that prior to housing court, tenants experience declines in earnings and employment and increases in financial distress and hospital visits. These pre-trends are more pronounced for tenants who are evicted, which poses a challenge for disentangling correlation and causation. To address this problem, we use an instrumental variables approach based on cases randomly assigned to judges of varying leniency. We find that an eviction order increases homelessness, and reduces earnings, durable consumption, and access to credit. Effects on housing and labor market outcomes are driven by impacts for female and Black tenants. |
| JEL: | H0 I30 I32 J01 R0 R28 R38 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30382&r= |
| By: | Cockx, Bart; Declercq, Koen; Dejemeppe, Muriel |
| Abstract: | Providing income support to unemployed education-leavers reduces the returns to investments in education because it makes the consequences of unemployment less severe. We evaluate a two-part policy reform in Belgium to study whether conditioning the prospective entitlement to unemployment benefits for education-leavers on age or schooling attainment can affect educational achievements. The results show that the prospect of financial loss in case of unemployment can significantly raise degree completion and reduce dropout in higher education, but not in high school. We argue that the higher prevalence of behavioral biases among lower educated and younger students could explain these contrasting findings. |
| Keywords: | unemployment insurance,conditionality,degree completion,school dropout,behavioral biases |
| JEL: | H52 I21 I26 I28 J08 J18 J24 J65 J68 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1154&r= |
| By: | Zhang, Mingxue; Hou, Lingling; Wang, Yue |
| Abstract: | Using a comprehensive individual panel dataset in China and an event study method, we examined the effects of having a child on gender inequality from the perspectives of labor market outcomes and its mechanisms. Results show that becoming a mother implies a sharp decline in labor earnings, labor market participation, working hours and wage rate, while fathers' outcomes remain unaffected. These outcomes are driven by two potential channels: career choices and social norms. After having a child, mothers have a higher likelihood for engaging in informal jobs and less possibility of being promoted if they work in the formal sector. Moreover, social norms towards gender roles lead mothers to devote more time to housework and babysit, which generate motherhood earnings penalty in labor market. Finally, well-being analysis shows that subjective happiness and life satisfaction of both males and females are barely not changed after childbirth, and females experience an increase in social status after child arrival. |
| Keywords: | motherhood penalty,gender inequality,gender gap,individual earnings |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J22 J31 D13 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1152&r= |
| By: | Halvarsson, Daniel (The Ratio Institute); Lark, Olga (Department of Economics, Lund University); Tingvall, Patrik (The National Board of Trade Sweden, Södertörn University); Videnord, Josefin (Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study the link between globalization of firms and gender inequality. Specifically, we examine how the need for interpersonal contacts in trade and gender-specific differences in negotiations are related to the gender wage gap. Our key finding is that export of goods that are intensive in interpersonal contacts widens the gender wage gap. The effect is robust across various specifications and is most pronounced for domestic exporting firms, which do not trade within multinational corporations but with external foreign partners, where the contracting problem is most distinct. We ascribe this result to a male comparative advantage in bargainin |
| Keywords: | Export; Gender wage gap; Gender inequality; Contract intensity; Interpersonal contacts; International trade |
| JEL: | F16 F66 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2022–09–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1437&r= |
| By: | Kerstin Grosch (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business); Simone Haeckl (University of Stavanger); Martin G. Kocher (University of Vienna) |
| Abstract: | We examine individual-level determinants of interest in STEM and analyze whether a digital web application for elementary-school children can increase children's interest in STEM with a specific focus on narrowing the gender gap. Coupling a randomized-controlled trial with experimental lab and survey data, we analyze the effect of the digital intervention and shed light on the mechanisms. We confirm the hypothesis that girls demonstrate a lower overall interest in STEM than boys. Moreover, girls are less competitive and exhibit less pronounced math confidence than boys at the baseline. Our treatment increases girls' interest in STEM and decreases the gender gap via an increase in STEM confidence. Our findings suggest that an easy-to-implement digital intervention has the potential to foster gender equality for young children and can potentially contribute to a reduction of gender inequalities in the labor market such as occupational sorting and the gender wage gap later in life. |
| Keywords: | STEM, digital intervention, gender equality, field experiment |
| JEL: | C93 D91 I24 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp329&r= |
| By: | Stefania Albanesi; Rania Gihleb; Ning Zhang |
| Abstract: | Labor market outcomes for young college graduates have deteriorated substantially in the last twenty five years, and more of them are residing with their parents. The unemployment rate at 23-27 year old for the 1996 college graduation cohort was 9%, whereas it rose to 12% for the 2013 graduation cohort. While only 25% of the 1996 cohort lived with their parents, 31% for the 2013 cohort chose this option. Our hypothesis is that the declining availability of ‘matched jobs’ that require a college degree is a key factor behind these developments. Using a structurally estimated model of child-parent decisions, in which coresidence improves college graduates' quality of job matches, we find that lower matched job arrival rates explain two thirds of the rise in unemployment and coresidence between the 2013 and 1996 graduation cohorts. Rising wage dispersion is also important for the increase in unemployment, while declining parental income, rising student loan balances and higher rental costs only play a marginal role. |
| JEL: | D1 E20 J01 J23 J3 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30397&r= |
| By: | Annarita Macchioni Giaquinto (Department of Economics, University Of Venice CÃ Foscari; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) |
| Abstract: | Birth control is fundamental for gender equality and women’s empowerment. Historically, oral contraceptives, most notably the pill, transferred from men to women the control on contraception, shifting out the frontier of women’s available choices in terms of educational and career planning. This paper uses a quasi-experimental design exploiting the staggered and uncoordinated introduction of the contraceptive pill on-demand to young, adult, unmarried women in 14 European countries between the 60s and 80s to explore the causal link between the pharmaceutical innovation of oral contraceptives and further female achievements. Using SHARE data, results show that the pill induced a significant and sizable increase in women’s educational attainments and labour market outcomes due to higher human capital investments. |
| Keywords: | pharmaceutical innovation, contraception, education, labour market, women’s empowerment, gender equality |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J18 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2022:09&r= |
| By: | NARAZANI Edlira (European Commission - JRC); AGUNDEZ GARCIA Ana (European Commission - JRC); CHRISTL Michael; FIGARI Francesco |
| Abstract: | The Barcelona targets on childcare help increase women’s labour-market participation and close the gender employment gap by enhancing the provision of early childhood education and care. To contribute to the debate on the revision of the targets, this paper estimates the impact on labour participation of mothers of alternative scenarios of formal childcare policies for a number of countries. The selected countries (IT, EE, IE, AT, HU, FI, PT, PL) represent different female participation in the labour market and childcare systems. The analysis makes use of the EUROLAB and EUROMOD models, based on EU-SILC data, to estimate female labour supply reactions to childcare reforms. Furthermore, EUROLAB allows us to also account for the labour demand side. The first reforms analyzed consist in providing formal childcare to 40%, 50%, 60% and 65% of children under 3. Our results show that the achievement of these levels of childcare (through increases in childcare availability and usage) would lead to significant increases in the labour supply of mothers (at the extensive and intensive margins), especially in countries where the current labour participation of women and the share of formal childcare is low. Accounting for labour demand, we show that the expected final employment effects in the new labour market equilibrium will be less pronounced, but still positive. |
| Keywords: | Labour market equilibrium, labour supply, labour demand, behavioural models, discrete choice, childcare |
| Date: | 2022–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:taxref:202208&r= |
| By: | Ariel Kalil; Hope Corman; Dhaval M. Dave; Ofira Schwartz-Soicher; Nancy Reichman |
| Abstract: | This study investigates effects of welfare reform in the U.S., a major policy shift that increased employment of low-income mothers and reliance on their own earnings instead of cash assistance through the welfare system, on the quality of the home environments they provide for their preschool-age children. Using empirical methods designed to identify plausibly causal effects, we estimate effects of welfare reform on validated survey and observational measures of maternal behaviors that support children’s cognitive skills and emotional adjustment and material goods that parents purchase to stimulate their children’s skill development. The results suggest that welfare reform did not affect the amount of time and material resources mothers devoted to cognitively stimulating activities with their young children but was significantly associated with approximately 0.3–0.4 standard deviation lower scores on provision of emotional support, with stronger effects for mothers with low human capital. The findings provide evidence that maternal work incentives as implemented by welfare reform came at a cost to children in the form of lower quality parenting and underscore the importance of considering quality, and not just quantity, in assessing the effects of maternal work incentive policies on parenting and children’s home environments. |
| JEL: | I3 J13 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30407&r= |
| By: | Marcén, Miriam; Morales, Marina |
| Abstract: | Despite the notable progress that has been made in bridging the gap between women and men in the world of work, women are still underrepresented in several occupations. In this article, the effect of gender norms on whether women enter male-dominated occupations is analysed using differences in gender equality among early-arrival migrants. The variations in gender norms according to the cultural backgrounds of those migrants by country of origin are exploited to identify their impact on occupational choices. Using data from the American Community Survey, it is found that greater gender equality in the country of origin reduces the gender gap in maledominated occupations. Suggestive evidence is further shown on the roles of job flexibility and women's relative preferences for family-friendly jobs in shaping gender-based sorting across occupations. |
| Keywords: | culture,gender,occupation,remote work |
| JEL: | J24 J16 Z13 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1160&r= |
| By: | Feir, Donn. L. (University of Victoria); Gillezeau, Rob (University of Victoria); Jones, Maggie E. C. (University of Victoria) |
| Abstract: | In the late nineteenth century, the North American bison was brought to the brink of extinction in just over a decade. We demonstrate that the loss of the bison had immediate, negative consequences for the Native Americans who relied on them and ultimately resulted in a permanent reversal of fortunes. Once amongst the tallest people in the world, the generations of bison-reliant people born after the slaughter lost their entire height advantage. By the early twentieth century, child mortality was 16 percentage points higher and the probability of reporting an occupation 29.7 percentage points lower in bison nations compared to nations that were never reliant on the bison. Throughout the latter half of the twentieth century and into the present, income per capita has remained 28% lower, on average, for bison nations. This persistent gap cannot be explained by differences in agricultural productivity, self-governance, or application of the Dawes Act. We provide evidence that this historical shock altered the dynamic path of development for formerly bison-reliant nations. We demonstrate that limited access to credit constrained the ability of bison nations to adjust through respecialization and migration. |
| Keywords: | North American Bison, Buffalo, extinction, economic history, Native Americans, indigenous, income shock, intergenerational mobility |
| JEL: | I15 J15 N31 N32 O10 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15498&r= |
| By: | Reio Tanji (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | This paper identifies discrimination in the professional baseball league in the United States. We consider players, umpires, and team managers as employees, middle managers, and employers in general workplaces. Using huge pitch-bypitch tracking data of the Major League Baseball reveals that umpires from North America favor players with the same region when a pitcher from North America and a batter from other regions are facing. The impact of this is dramatic: players from other regions lose their chances to hit by the unfair pitch call, which values to loss of about $130,000 for in three years. |
| Keywords: | sports, discrimination, in-group bias, baseball |
| JEL: | D91 J01 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:2202&r= |
| By: | Martins, Pedro S. |
| Abstract: | Does employers' association (EA) membership affect the wages paid by firms? Such effects could follow from several channels, including increased productivity, different management practices, or employer collusion promoted by EA affiliation. We test these hypotheses drawing on detailed matched employer-employee panel data, including timevarying EA affiliation and worker mobility across firms. We consider the case of private schools in Portugal, 2010-2020, and its EA, and develop a methodology to delimit the sector's scope. We find that, even when controlling extensively for worker characteristics, including worker fixed effects, EA firms pay significantly higher wages. However, when controlling for firm fixed effects, these wage differences are significantly reduced or disappear. Our evidence indicates that the EA wage premium can be largely explained by the selection of high-wage firms (but not high-wage workers) into EA membership. |
| Keywords: | Employers organisations,Worker mobility,Social dialogue |
| JEL: | J53 J62 L40 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1163&r= |
| By: | Lisa A. Gennetian; Greg Duncan; Nathan A. Fox; Katherine Magnuson; Sarah Halpern-Meekin; Kimberly G. Noble; Hirokazu Yoshikawa |
| Abstract: | A key policy question in evaluating social programs to address childhood poverty is how families receiving unconditional financial support would spend those funds. Economists have limited empirical evidence on this topic in the U.S. We provide causal estimates of financial and time investments in infants among families living in poverty from a large-scale, multi-site randomized controlled study of monthly unconditional cash transfers starting at the time of a child’s birth. We find that the cash transfers increased spending on child-specific goods and mothers’ early-learning activities with their infants. The marginal propensity to consume child-focused items from the cash transfer exceeded that from other income, consistent with the behavioral cues in the cash transfer design. We find no statistically detectable offsets in household earnings nor statistically detectable impacts in other pre-registered outcomes related to general household expenditures, maternal labor supply, infants’ time in childcare, or mothers’ subjective well-being. |
| JEL: | D13 H31 I30 J13 J18 J22 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30379&r= |
| By: | Tomo Nishimura (School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University) |
| Abstract: | This study used Japanese time use data to analyze the effect of fathers' nonstandard work schedules on childcare time. The results indicated that weekday evening and weekend work reduce fathers' childcare time and increase that of mothers. In addition, the marginal effect found through multivariate analysis revealed that mothers do not fully compensate for the reduction in fathers' childcare time, leading to the possibility that the total childcare time is shortened. However, the results of the weekday/weekend integrated data analysis showed that fathers (especially white-collar fathers) working weekday evenings reduce the gap with other fathers through weekend childcare. |
| Keywords: | Nonstandard Working Schedules, Childcare time, Time use, Japanese Time-Use Survey |
| JEL: | J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2022–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kgu:wpaper:239&r= |
| By: | Marx, Paul (University of Duisburg-Essen); Eichhorst, Werner (IZA); Rinne, Ulf (IZA); Brunner, Johannes (IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an overview on the income support measures for non-covered workers implemented in response to the COVID-19 crisis, describing the collection of measures and policies in place in each selected country. This document provides a comparative overview of the different measures implemented in the context of the crisis, considering their design and evolution across the course of the crisis. In sum, there has been a worldwide wave of income transfers to support those hit hard by the pandemic. While the bulk of fiscal resources for these measures was (unsurprisingly) concentrated in high-income countries, there has been an impressive policy effort in middle- and low-income countries as well. Particularly the novel tools to identify potential beneficiaries and to distribute assistance is worthy of further research and evaluation. The sheer amount of policy activity should not blind us to the fact that responses were often insufficient to alleviate even the most extremes of poverty. In this sense, the pandemic is yet another reminder for how important investments in sustainable social protection systems, including infrastructures, in the global South will be for the future. |
| Keywords: | income support, employment policy, economic policy, inequality, poverty, COVID-19, international comparison |
| JEL: | I38 J08 J68 |
| Date: | 2022–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izapps:pp189&r= |
| By: | Christian Scharrer (University of Augsburg, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the age-group-specific evolution of inequality of total income among highly and less educated females and males at ages 26-80 from 2005 to 2018. On the one hand, it presents time series of Gini coefficients and associated decompositions by different income components. On the other hand, it investigates the extent to which changes in Gini coefficients were associated with a redistribution of total income between the bottom 40 percent, the middle class, and the top 10 percent. The results indicate that increases in inequality particularly burdened the youngest age groups in the bottom 40 percent. However, older age groups, especially elderly individuals, from the middle class also contributed to the increasing income shares of the top 10 percent. |
| Keywords: | Inequality, Total Income, Age Groups, Gini Coefficient, Income Shares |
| JEL: | D63 P10 J11 |
| Date: | 2022–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aug:augsbe:0344&r= |