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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Astrid Kunze; Katrin Scharfenkamp |
| Abstract: | This study investigates boards of (non-executive) directors and whether employee representation has a positive effect on gender diversity on boards. We exploit rich, newly assembled board–director matched panel data for Norway and Germany, which contain unique information on whether a director represents shareholders or employees during the period around 2008, when a Norwegian board gender quota came into effect. We present two novel results that challenge previous thinking about the effects of board gender quotas on women directors. First, we find a positive impact of employee representation before the gender quota reform on gender diversity. Second, although the Norwegian gender quota has increased the probability of a director being female, the effect through employee representation has relatively decreased after the implementation of the reform. We discuss potential mechanisms and implications for the design of co-determination laws and gender quotas. |
| Keywords: | affirmative action, employee representation, shared governance, co-determination, women, boards of directors, firm size |
| JEL: | G30 J16 K30 L21 L25 M54 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10077&r=lab |
| By: | Anna Maria Mayda; Gianluca Orefice; Gianluca Santoni |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the impact of skilled migrants on the innovation (patenting) activity of French firms between 1995 and 2010, and investigates the underlying mechanism. We present district-level and firm-level estimates and address endogeneity using a modified version of the shift-share instrument. Skilled migrants increase the number of patents at both the district and firm level. Large, high-productivity and capital-intensive firms benefit the most, in terms of innovation activ-ity, from skilled immigrant workers. Importantly, we provide evidence that one channel through which the effect works is task specialization (as in Peri and Sparber, 2009). The arrival of skilled immigrants drives French skilled workers towards language-intensive, managerial tasks while foreign skilled workers specialize in technical, research-oriented tasks. This mechanism manifests itself in the estimated increase in the share of foreign inventors in patenting teams as a consequence of skilled migration. Through this channel, greater innovation is the result of productivity gains from specialization. |
| Keywords: | skilled immigration, innovation, patents |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10076&r=lab |
| By: | Stefania Albanesi; Claudia Olivetti; Barbara Petrongolo |
| Abstract: | Using comparable data for 24 countries since the 1970s, we document gender convergence in schooling, employment and earnings, marriage delay and the accompanying decline in fertility, and the large remaining gaps in labor market outcomes, especially among parents. A model of time allocation illustrates how the specialization of spouses in home or market production responds to preferences, comparative advantages and public policies. We draw lessons from existing evidence on the impacts of family policies on women's careers and children's wellbeing. There is to date little or no evidence of beneficial effects of longer parental leave (or fathers' quotas) on maternal participation and earnings. In most cases longer leave delays mothers' return to work, without long-lasting consequences on their careers. More generous childcare funding instead encourages female participation whenever subsidized childcare replaces maternal childcare. Impacts on child development depend on counterfactual childcare arrangements and tend to be more beneficial for disadvantaged households. In-work benefits targeted to low-earners have clear positive impacts on lone mothers' employment and negligible impacts on other groups. While most of this literature takes policy as exogenous, political economy aspects of policy adoption help understand the interplay between societal changes, family policies and gender equality. |
| JEL: | J1 J22 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30685&r=lab |
| By: | Hirshman, Samuel D. (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Willén, Alexander (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | We examine the response to an exogenous change in the risk profile of an important educational choice – requesting a regrade. We demonstrate how ostensibly gender-neutral policies can generate gaps across men and women because they differ in their perceptions of risk. Specifically, we show that an exogenous shift in the risk of requesting a regrade augmented the regrade request gap by nearly 100 percent. We show that this has consequential implications for students through its impact on their grade points. These findings reveal how gender differences identified in the lab manifest when men and women make real world decisions. |
| Keywords: | risk; gender gaps; educational choices; inequality |
| JEL: | D81 I24 I26 J16 J70 |
| Date: | 2022–12–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2022_020&r=lab |
| By: | Pineda-Hernández, Kevin; Rycx, François; Volral, Mélanie |
| Abstract: | As immigrants born in developing countries and their descendants represent a growing share of the working-age population in the developed world, their labour market integration constitutes a key factor for fostering economic development and social cohesion. Using a granular, matched employer-employee database of 1.3 million observations between 1999 and 2016, our weighted multilevel log-linear regressions first indicate that in Belgium, the overall wage gap between workers born in developed countries and workers originating from developing countries remains substantial: it reaches 15.7% and 13.5% for first- and second-generation immigrants, respectively. However, controlling for a wide range of observables (e.g. age, tenure, education, type of contract, occupation, firm-level collective agreement, firm fixed effects), we find that, whereas first-generation immigrants born in developing countries still experience a sizeable adjusted wage gap (2.7%), there is no evidence of an adjusted wage gap for their second-generation peers. Moreover, our reweighted, recentered influence function Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions agree with these findings. Indeed, while the overall wage gap for first-generation immigrants born in developing countries is driven by unfavourable human capital, low-paying occupational/sectoral characteristics, and a wage structure effect (e.g. wage discrimination), the wage gap for their second-generation peers is essentially explained by the fact that they are younger and have less tenure than workers born in developed countries. Furthermore, our results emphasize the significant moderating role of geographical origin, gender, and position in the wage distribution. |
| Keywords: | Immigrants,intergenerational studies,labour market integration,wage decompositions,unconditional quantile regressions,employer-employee data |
| JEL: | J15 J16 J21 J24 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1204&r=lab |
| By: | António Afonso; José Alves; Krzysztof Beck |
| Abstract: | We analyze the migration drivers within the European Union countries. For a set of 23 EU countries over the 1995-2019 period, we use Bayesian Model Averaging and quantile regression to assess notably the relevance of unemployment and earnings. We find that the existence of a common border increases the number of net migrants by 172 people per 1000 inhabitants. In addition, 1000 PPP Euro increase in the difference in net annual salaries increases net migration by approximately 50 and 42 people per 1000 inhabitants in a working age of both countries under uniform and binomial-beta model prior, respectively. Moreover, one percentage point increase in the difference in the unemployment rate is associated with an increase in net immigration by approximately 6 and 3 persons by 1000 inhabitants in both countries. These results are also corroborated with the quantile regression results. Hence, human capital inside the EU is moving in search of higher cross-country earnings. |
| Keywords: | Migration flows; Earnings; Unemployment; Bayesian Model Averaging; Quantile regression; EU |
| JEL: | J61 J62 E24 F15 F22 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:remwps:wp02512022&r=lab |
| By: | Zuzanna Kowalik; Piotr Lewandowski; Paweł Kaczmarczyk |
| Abstract: | The gig economy has grown worldwide, opening labour markets but raising concerns about precariousness. Using a tailored, quantitative survey in Poland, we study taxi and delivery platform drivers' working conditions and job quality. We focus on the gaps between natives and migrants, who constitute about a third of gig workers. Poland is a New Immigration Destination where networks and institutions to support migrants are weak. We find that migrants take up gig jobs due to a lack of income or other job opportunities much more often than natives, who mostly do it for autonomy. Migrants’ job quality is noticeably lower in terms of contractual terms of employment, working hours, work-life balance, multidimensional deprivation, and job satisfaction. Migrants who started a gig job immediately after arriving in Poland are particularly deprived. They also cluster on taxi platforms which offer inferior working conditions. The gig economy can be an arrival infrastructure, but its poor working conditions may exacerbate the labour market vulnerabilities of migrants and hinder mobility to better jobs. |
| Keywords: | gig jobs, platform economy, job quality, immigrant workers |
| JEL: | J28 J61 J21 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ibt:wpaper:wp092022&r=lab |
| By: | Willén, Alexander (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Willage, Barton (Department of Economics, University of Colorado, Denver); Riise, Julie (University of Bergen) |
| Abstract: | This paper exploits conditional random assignment of patients to general practitioners to calculate a leniency measure of paid sick leave certification. We link these data to information on the human capital development of the patients’ children. We find sizable negative effects of parental sick leave enrollment on the child’s human capital development. In addition, we show that the timing of parental enrollment in these programs matter. In terms of mechanisms, we find that sick leave makes parents more likely to exit the workforce, earn lower wages, and become increasingly dependent on the social safety net. The results highlight that the trade-off between social protection and work incentives extends well beyond the individual worker, and emphasizes another dimension of the home environment through which children’s human capital is shaped. In addition, it implies that the costs of traditional employment protection programs are larger than previously thought. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital Development; Skill Formation; Employment Protection; Intergenerational Links; Welfare Dependence; Sick Leave |
| JEL: | I10 I20 J20 J60 |
| Date: | 2022–12–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2022_019&r=lab |
| By: | Maite Blázquez (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.); Ainhoa Herrarte (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.); Ana I. Moro Egido (Department of Economic Theory and Economic History, University of Granada.) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes gender differences as regards the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labor transitions from employment to unemployment, inactivity and furloughs schemes, and the role that teleworking may have had as a protector of job loss in Spain. Based on more than 2,000 types of jobs, we propose an Evidence-Based Teleworking Index that considers the intensity of telework use in a given job, but also reflects the actual ability of firms to adapt to telework. By means of multinomial probit models with sample selection, our results show that the job loss suffered by women during the pandemic has been greater than that experienced by men. The findings confirm that the ability to telework has been a potential cushion against employment losses, but the effect has been mainly driven by males. The shielding effects of telework have been especially relevant in reducing the transitions from employment to ERTEs, while the power of telework to protect against unemployment and inactivity seems to be insignificant, even during the pandemic. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, teleworking, working from home, job loss, gender gap, labor market transitions. |
| JEL: | J64 J21 J22 J71 |
| Date: | 2022–12–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gra:wpaper:22/17&r=lab |
| By: | Alexander Ahammer (Johannes Kepler University Linz); Analisa Packham (Vanderbilt University and NBER) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the returns to more targeted disability insurance (DI) programs in terms of labor force participation and worker health. To do so, we analyze male workers after an acute workplace injury that experience differential levels of application screening. We find that when workers face tighter screening requirements, they are less likely to claim disability and are more likely to remain in the labor force. We observe no differences in any physical or mental health outcomes, including reinjury. Our findings imply that imposing stricter DI screening requirements has large fiscal benefits but does not yield any detectable health costs, on the margin. |
| Keywords: | disability insurance, retirement, health |
| JEL: | I38 I18 J18 J16 |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:22-375&r=lab |
| By: | Michael T. Owyang; Hannah Shell; Daniel Soques |
| Abstract: | The slow recovery of the labor market in the aftermath of the Great Recession highlighted mismatch, the misallocation of workers across space or across industries. We consider the historical evolution of regional mismatch. We construct MSA-level unemployment rates and vacancy data using techniques similar to Barnichon (2010) and a new dataset of online help-wanted ads by MSA. We estimate regional Beveridge curves, identifying the slopes by restricting them to be equal across locations with similar labor market characteristics. We find that the 51 U.S. cities in our sample have four groupings which are influenced by industry classification, union membership, and geographic proximity. Additionally, allowing for a structural break suggests match efficiency increased across regions after adoption of the internet. |
| Keywords: | mismatch; vacancies; clustering |
| JEL: | C33 J63 |
| Date: | 2022–11–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedlwp:95203&r=lab |
| By: | Porras-Arena, M. Sylvina; Martín-Román, Ángel L.; Dueñas Fernández, Diego; Llorente Heras, Raquel |
| Abstract: | Official statistics indicated a break in Okun's law in all the Spanish regions due to the COVID-19 pandemic; however, herein, evidence of the validity of the law is shown. The temporary layoff procedures (ERTE) allowed many workers to maintain their jobs. From the productive point of view, the law remained in effect in the regions, showing a strong relationship between idle labour resources and economic activity, and from the social point of view, the apparent breakdown of the law can be interpreted as the implementation of a policy that mitigated the dramatic impact of the economic crisis. |
| Keywords: | Okun's law,ERTE,expanded unemployment rate |
| JEL: | E23 E24 J64 R23 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1205&r=lab |
| By: | Anderson VIL (Université de Cergy-Pontoise, THEMA) |
| Abstract: | There is a growing literature that attempts to assess the cost of children. However, these previous studies exclusively emphasized on children living with couples. The purpose of this present paper is to see to what extent the adapta- tion of the unitary approach to single-parents can allow estimating the resource sharing in a one-headed household with children. To that end, we use the UK Family Expenditure Survey over the 1978-2007 period. The inferences of the children's cost rest on the assignable goods method, here clothing and the tradi- tional assumption of orthogonality of parents' tastes and demographic change. Our results show that the cost of children increases with the number of chil- dren but decreases with family size. Also, we observe that single mothers are more altruists than single fathers in the sense that they devote a larger part of total expenditures to children welfare. However, single fathers try to catch up with their counterparts as the number of children increases. Finally, there is evidence of economies of scale with the presence of same-sex siblings in the household. |
| Keywords: | Collective Model, Shadow price, Economies of scale, Identifica-tion, Resource sharing. |
| JEL: | C30 D11 D12 D63 I31 J12 J13 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2022-21&r=lab |
| By: | Hoffmaister, Alexander W |
| Abstract: | The seminal work by Blanchard and Quah (1989) identifying long-run shocks finds that the unemployment rate increases following a “supply” shock. This puzzling result engenders a lively debate between leading schools of macroeconomic thought. But should we employ this model to study macroeconomic fluctuations? Faust and Leeper (1997) warn that the model is not reliable for structural inference, nor is the related Bayoumi and Eichengreen (1993) model. In this paper, I revisit the disputed result from the viewpoint of IRF’s bias. Using a novel methodology to parse the sources of IRF’s bias, I find that “supply-induced” unemployment increases reflect mis-aggregation of technology and labor-supply shocks. |
| Keywords: | Vector autoregression, Permanent and temporary shocks to output, Missing-variables, Fundamentalness, Mis-aggregated shocks, Co-mingled shocks, Impulse response function bias, Moving-average representation, Aggregate demand and supply shocks, Long-run neutrality, Labor-supply shocks, Contractionary technology shocks |
| JEL: | C32 C52 E32 |
| Date: | 2022–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:115513&r=lab |
| By: | Catherine Cox; Osborne Jackson |
| Abstract: | This study uses the longitudinal design of the US Current Population Survey to describe sectoral mobility trends for workers before and after the emergence of COVID-19. We find a small increase in the 15-month rate of workers who switched industries following the onset of the pandemic, likely driven by workers who did not have an unemployment stint following job separation. However, larger changes in sectoral mobility during this time are evident when we examine differences across regions, industries, and individuals who are stratified by characteristics such as sex, age, or education. These results suggest that while the COVID-19 pandemic is not associated with a large aggregate change in sectoral mobility, more considerable disaggregated patterns can be found across markets and people. |
| Keywords: | sectoral mobility; COVID-19; pandemic; Current Population Survey |
| JEL: | J63 J24 I18 |
| Date: | 2022–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedbcq:95265&r=lab |
| By: | Hee-Seung Yang (Yonsei University); Sungjin Kim (Yonsei University) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the role of trusted institutions and political orientation in people’s tendency to comply with COVID-19-related preventive measures. Using data on public transportation mobility and political orientation in the Seoul metropolitan area, we show that political messages on quarantine success downplayed the severity of the virus and, thus, hindered policy compliance during the major waves of COVID-19 in 2020 – 2021. Individuals with high institutional trust align their mobility behavior with the government’s messaging, feeling safe and engaging more in social activities. Additional channels come from the area’s occupation and industry classifications, mainly through remote work availability. |
| Keywords: | political orientation; political message; mobility; social distancing; policy compliance; COVID-19. |
| JEL: | I18 O18 J08 R11 D72 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yon:wpaper:2022rwp-206&r=lab |
| By: | Brittany Street (Department of Economics, University of Missouri) |
| Abstract: | Economic theory suggests crime should decrease as economic opportunities increase the returns to legal activities. However, there are well-documented cases where crime increases in response to areas becoming more prosperous. This paper addresses this puzzle by examining the effects on crime only for residents already living in the area prior to the economic boom. This approach isolates the effect of local economic opportunity from the effect of changing composition due to in-migration during these periods. To identify effects, I exploit withinand across-county variation in exposure to hydraulic fracturing activities in North Dakota using administrative individual-level data on residents, mineral lease records, and criminal charges. Results indicate that the start of economic expansion – as signaled by the signing of leases – leads to a 14 percent reduction in criminal cases filed. Effects continue once the fracking boom escalates into to production period. These results are in contrast to the observed aggregate increase in crime from fracking activities and consistent with improved economic opportunity reducing crime, highlighting the important role of compositional changes. |
| Keywords: | Crime, Economic Opportunity, Fracking |
| JEL: | K42 J60 R23 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:2212&r=lab |
| By: | Keith Finlay (U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, D.C.); Michael Mueller-Smith (Department of Economics, University of Michigan); Brittany Street (Department of Economics, University of Missouri) |
| Abstract: | Intergenerational exposure to the justice system is both a marker of vulnerability among children and a measurement of the potential unintended externalities of crime policy in the U.S. Estimating the size of this population has been hampered by inadequate data resources, including the inability to (1) observe non-incarceration sources of exposure, (2) follow children throughout their childhood, and (3) measure multiple adult influences in increasingly dynamic households. To overcome these challenges, we leverage billions of restricted administrative and survey records linked with the Criminal Justice Administrative Records System (CJARS). We find substantially larger prevalences of intergenerational exposure to the criminal justice system than previously reported: 9% of children born between 1999–2005 were intergenerationally exposed to prison, 18% to a felony conviction, and 39% to any criminal charge; charge exposure rates reach as high as 62% for Black children. We regress these newly quantified types of exposure on measures of child well-being to gauge their importance and find that all types of exposure (parent vs. non-parent, prison vs. charges, current vs. previous) are strongly negatively correlated with development outcomes, suggesting substantially more U.S. children are harmed by crime and criminal justice than previously thought. |
| Keywords: | criminal justice, intergenerationality, economic mobility |
| JEL: | K14 K42 J12 I32 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:2211&r=lab |
| By: | Hee-Seung Yang (Yonsei University); Sungjin Kim (Yonsei University) |
| Abstract: | Is the recent stagnation in population growth a threat to the economy? The answer may not be obvious if cities are losing population while gaining households. This paper unveils an important but unexplored channel for local economic growth: the rise in single-person households. We analyze the intercity relationship between the growing number of singleperson households and its impact on the local economy. To address endogeneity concerns, we predict the actual concentration of singletons using the uneven distribution of convenience store operating permits attracting one-person households. IV-2SLS results indicate that single households generate new jobs, firm entry, and a higher level of gross regional domestic product. The effect is primarily caused by industries substituting household production, meal preparation, and recreation services. |
| Keywords: | Single-person household; Local economy; Employment; Firm entry; Gross Regional Domestic Product; South Korea. |
| JEL: | E24 J12 R12 R20 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yon:wpaper:2022rwp-208&r=lab |