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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Peter Q. Blair; Benjamin Posmanick |
| Abstract: | During the 1980s, the wage gap between white women and white men in the US declined by approximately 1 percentage point per year. In the decades since, the rate of gender wage convergence has stalled to less than one-third of its previous value. An outstanding puzzle in economics is "why did gender wage convergence in the US stall?" Using an event study design that exploits the timing of state and federal family-leave policies, we show that the introduction of the policies can explain 94% of the reduction in the rate of gender wage convergence that is unaccounted for after controlling for changes in observable characteristics of workers. If gender wage convergence had continued at the pre-family leave rate, wage parity between white women and white men would have been achieved as early as 2017. |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J32 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30821&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 de lays 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 de pend 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. |
| Date: | 2022–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:994&r=lab |
| By: | Rajshri Jayaraman; Bisma Khan |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of co-residence with fathers- and mothers-in-law on married women’s employment in India. Instrumental variable fixed effects estimates using two different household panel datasets indicate that co-residence with a father-in-law reduces married women’s employment by 11-13%, while co-residence with a mother-in-law has no effect. Difference-in-difference estimates show that married women’s employment increases following the death of a co-residing father-in-law, but not mother-in-law. We investigate three classes of explanations for this: income effects, increased domestic responsibilities, and social norms. Our evidence is consistent with gender- and generational norms intersecting to constrain married women’s employment when parents-in-law co-reside. |
| Keywords: | female employment, family structure, labour supply, parents-in-lawJ16, J22, J12, O12, Z13 |
| JEL: | J16 J22 J12 O12 Z13 |
| Date: | 2023–01–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-747&r=lab |
| By: | Bertheau, Antoine (University of Copenhagen); Vejlin, Rune Majlund (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether workers reallocate up firm productivity and wage job ladders, and the cyclicality of this process. We document that productivity is a better measure of the job ladder than the average wage, since high productivity firms relative to low poach more workers than high wage firms relative to low. Employment cyclicality over the business cycle differs between the firm wage and productivity ladders. In recessions, employment decreases more in low than in high productivity firms. Low productivity firms fire more workers in recessions and stop hiring unemployed workers. Thus, there is a cleansing effect of recessions from the point of view of productivity reallocation. Oppositely, employment decreases more in high than in low wage firms, and the poaching channel of employment growth explains the difference. In recessions separations to other firms slow down more in low wage firms relative high wage firms and thus reallocation up the wage job ladder breaks down - a sullying effect of recessions. Thus recessions speed up productivity-enhancing reallocation but impede progression on the wage ladder. |
| Keywords: | job creation rate, firm heterogeneity, employment fluctuations |
| JEL: | E24 E32 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15872&r=lab |
| By: | Bargain, Olivier (Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV); Bue, Maria C. Lo (University of Bordeaux); Palmisano, Flaviana (Sapienza University of Rome) |
| Abstract: | We suggest a simple and flexible criterion to assess relative inter-generational mobility. It accommodates different types of outcomes, such as (continuous) earnings or (discrete and ordinal) education levels, and captures dynastic improvements of such outcomes at different points of the initial distribution. We provide dominance characterizations – for instance on the relative progress made by women vs. men – that are consistent with social preferences upon desirable patterns of mobility. We suggest an application on Indonesia. Using the IFLS data, we match parents observed in 1993 to their children in 2014, providing one of the rare intergenerational mobility analyses based on a long panel in the context of a developing country. Results indicate that mobility in terms of education and potential earnings was markedly at the advantage of women. The bulk of the population came out of illiteracy, possibly due to large-scale education reforms, but the relative educational mobility was regressive, which considerably reduced the progressivity of mobility in terms of potential earnings. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational mobility, education, earnings, social welfare, gender |
| JEL: | J6 J62 O12 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15867&r=lab |
| By: | Alexander Ahammer; Analisa Packham |
| Abstract: | We estimate the returns to more targeted disability insurance (DI) programs in terms of labor force participation, program spillovers, and worker health. To do so, we analyze workers after an acute workplace injury that experience differential levels of application screening. We find that when workers face stricter 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. Our findings imply that imposing stricter DI screening 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: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2023-01&r=lab |
| By: | Berbée, Paul; Brücker, Herbert; Garloff, Alfred; Sommerfeld, Katrin |
| Abstract: | We study the labor demand effect of immigration on local labor markets by exploiting the fact that refugees in Germany are banned from working in the first few months after arrival. This natural experiment allows isolating a pure immigration-induced labor demand effect. For empirical identification we rely on the local presence of vacant military bases and on allocation quotas from a dispersal policy. The results are in line with our predictions from a theoretical framework with non-homothetic demand, where an increasing share in the consumption of necessities is associated with rising demand of labor-intensive goods: As the number of recently arrived refugees and thus the demand for locally produced goods increases, local employment increases particularly in non-tradable sectors in the short run. At the same time, unemployment drops while individual wages do not change significantly which can be traced back to widespread labor market rigidities in Germany. The isolation of labor demand effects complements the literature that isolates labor supply shocks from immigration, so as to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how immigration affects labor markets. |
| Keywords: | Labor demand, employment, immigration, refugees, natural experiment |
| JEL: | J23 J60 H50 R10 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:22069&r=lab |
| By: | Aydede, Yigit; Dar, Atul A. |
| Abstract: | Most studies investigating the poor earnings performance of immigrants implicitly assume that human capital endowments determine actual earnings, and that immigrant-nativeborn wage gaps can be analyzed in terms of those earnings. In this study we claim that this assumption is not validated by evidence and that wage gaps should be analyzed by examining earning potentials rather than actual wages that are also influenced by market imperfections. We apply a two-tier stochastic wage frontier, which allows us to separate potential wage earnings from actual wage earnings and to identify how much of the observed wage gap between immigrant and native-born workers in Canada is attributable to departures from their potential wage earnings due to imperfect information on the demand and supply side of labour markets. Using the 2006 population census data, our results suggest that, although the ethnic background plays an important role in determining the observed wage, a significant part of the wage gap between immigrants and native-born workers is not driven by worker and employer imperfect information, but by differences in human capital endowments. |
| Keywords: | Imperfect information in labour markets, returns to education, occupational mismatch, stochastic frontier |
| JEL: | J6 J15 J61 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:clefwp:50&r=lab |
| By: | Ewa Cukrowska-Torzewska (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Science); Anna Matysiak (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Science); Agnieszka Kasperska (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Science) |
| Abstract: | This article examines how men and women exploited the work location flexibility enabled by ICT in the context of their family obligations prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. We use the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey for 30 European countries and estimate a set of multinomial logistic regression models, with the dependent variable measuring the frequency of home-based work. We find that when using ICT at work, men were more likely to work from home, both occasionally and more frequently whereas women were more likely to engage in sporadic home-based work but less likely to do so frequently. These results are particularly true for parents, except for single mothers of young children. As single mothers cannot rely on partners’ support in combining paid work and care, the advantages of home-based telework (time savings, flexible time organization) outweigh the negative consequences of this work arrangement. |
| Keywords: | family, gender, home-based telework, ICT use, remote work, teleworkers |
| JEL: | J12 J13 J16 J21 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2023-01&r=lab |
| By: | Maridueña-Larrea, Ángel; Martín-Román, Ángel |
| Abstract: | This research explores the long-term equilibrium relationship between unemployment and labour force participation rates for six selected countries in Latin America at both aggregate and gender-disaggregated levels. Cointegration analysis focused on the study of time series is used to validate the unemployment invariance hypothesis and explore added and discouraged worker effects in depth. The results suggest mixed dynamics for the aggregate model; however, a clear gender bias is revealed towards the added worker effect for women, while the discouraged worker effect is confirmed for men. The validity of the unemployment invariance hypothesis in several countries appears to reflect some rigidities that prevent the improvement of nations' labour markets, exposing issues that economic policies must strategically address. |
| Keywords: | cointegration, added worker effect, discouraged worker effect, unemployment invariance, unemployment rate, labour force participation rate |
| JEL: | E24 C10 J21 J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1224&r=lab |
| By: | Bart Hobijn; Aysegul Sahin |
| Abstract: | Since the start of the pandemic the U.S. labor market has been characterized as being plagued by missing jobs, i.e. payroll employment has fallen more than five million jobs short of its pre-pandemic trend, and missing workers, i.e. the participation rate has declined by 1.2 percentage points: A pandemic-induced shortage of workers has restrained job creation and, as a result, been a substantial drag on post-pandemic job growth. In this paper, we show that this is a misinterpretation of the data for two reasons. The first is that the number of missing jobs is inflated because it is based on the unrealistic assumption that the pre-pandemic tailwinds for job growth from the decline in the unemployment rate and cyclical upward pressures on participation would have continued in 2020 and beyond if the pandemic would not have occurred. Second, the number of workers missing due to Covid is overstated because the bulk of the 1.2 percentage-point decline in the participation rate since the start of the pandemic reflects a continuation of its long-run downward trend that was already part of projections before the pandemic broke out. Instead, our payroll jobs accounting yields an 810, 000 cyclical shortfall in payroll jobs in October 2022 compared to right before the pandemic. At the recent pace of job growth, even without monetary and fiscal tightening, we expect a substantial deceleration of payroll growth in the coming months. |
| Keywords: | Covid; job growth; participation |
| JEL: | J2 J6 |
| Date: | 2022–11–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedhwp:95235&r=lab |
| By: | Sousso Bignandi (: ULiège (HEC-Liege & CEDEM)); Céline Piton (Economics and Research Department, NBB and and Université libre de Bruxelles (SBS-EM, CEBRIG, DULBEA)) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether citizenship acquisition affects immigrants’ employment in Belgium. To do so, we rely on a longitudinal database, over the period 2008-2014, coupling administrative data from the Crossroads Bank for the Social Security (CBSS) and survey data from the Labour Force Surveys (LFS). During this period, citizenship was open to all immigrants who have been legally resident for at least 7 years, without any language or integration requirements. This allows us to study naturalisation in a liberalised context, avoiding part of the selection bias. The econometric analysis has been carried out using panel data fixed effects techniques applied to a programme evaluation model. We find that citizenship acquisition increases immigrants’ employment by 7 percentage points after naturalisation. This effect persists even after controlling for endogeneity by exploiting an instrument for naturalisation and thus confirms the existence of citizenship premium in Belgium. Furthermore, the analysis by type of employment shows that citizenship has a positive effect on migrants' entrepreneurship as well as on their probability of finding a better and more stable job. Finally, using cross-section administrative data from the CBSS, covering the entire population, we find that citizenship effect is stronger for individuals with a non-EU origin. |
| Keywords: | Employment, Immigration, citizenship, labour market integration, Belgium |
| JEL: | J15 J16 J18 J21 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbb:reswpp:202212-427&r=lab |
| By: | Lei, Lei; Wu, Fengyu; Xia, Yiming |
| Abstract: | In many societies, parents prefer sons over daughters, but the well-being effects of child gender, especially in later life, are less studied. Using the latest two waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), this paper evaluates the impacts of having daughters on older parents' subjective well-being (SWB) in China, which has a rapidly aging population and the traditional preference for sons. Studying the cohort of parents whose child gender is as good as random, we find that having more daughters promotes older parents' SWB, especially overall life satisfaction, satisfaction with health, and satisfaction with children. Our results suggest that the increase in SWB is achieved through better health, more financial support from daughters, more spending on leisure and a lower probability of working. The positive SWB effects of daughters are found to be more salient among more vulnerable groups, including those who are older, less educated, and with fewer children. |
| Keywords: | Subjective Well-being, Child Gender, Older Parents, China, Life Satisfaction, Domain Satisfaction |
| JEL: | I31 J14 J16 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1229&r=lab |
| By: | Jirjahn, Uwe; Le, Thi Xuan Thu |
| Abstract: | Research on the consequences of works councils has been dominated by economic aspects. Our study provides evidence that works councils have nonfinancial consequences for civic society that go beyond the narrow boundaries of the workplace. Using panel data from a large sample of male workers, the study shows that works councils have an influence on workers' party preferences. The presence of a works council is negatively associated with preferences for extreme right-wing parties and positively associated with preferences for the Social Democratic Party and The Left. These results holds in panel data estimations including a large set of controls and accounting for unobserved individual-specific factors. Our findings fit the notion that workplace democracy increases workers' generalized solidarity and their awareness of social and political issues. |
| Keywords: | Workplace democracy, worker participation, political spillover, party identification |
| JEL: | D72 J51 J52 J58 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1228&r=lab |
| By: | Ranasinghe, Ashantha (University of Alberta, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Women account for a small share of all business owners and a small share of the market in India's manufacturing sector. To account for these patterns, I estimate the extent of gender-specific distortions to operating a business using firm-level data. Feeding these estimates that differ across gender into a standard framework of heterogeneous producers replicates key features of the firm size distribution, on aggregate and across gender. While women face high entry barriers into entrepreneurship, they have modest impacts on female market shares. Accounting for the distribution of distortions, instead of its average, provides a more accurate view of the differential barriers to production women face and their quantitative relevance. Policies that promote female entrepreneurship are effective, yet have only marginal impacts on aggregate productivity. These findings are not unique to India, and apply across a broader set of countries. |
| Keywords: | gender; entrepreneurship; misallocation; productivity; micro data. |
| JEL: | J16 O10 O40 O50 |
| Date: | 2023–01–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:albaec:2023_001&r=lab |
| By: | Fischbacher, Urs; Kübler, Dorothea; Stüber, Robert |
| Abstract: | Many occupations and industries are highly segregated with respect to gender. This segregation could be due to perceived job-specific productivity differences between men and women. It could also result from the belief that single-gender teams perform better. We investigate the two explanations in a lab experiment with students and in an online experiment with personnel managers. The subjects bet on the productivity of teams of different gender compositions in tasks that differ with respect to gender stereotypes. We obtain similar results in both samples. Women are picked more often for the stereotypically female task and men more often for the stereotypically male task. Subjects do not believe that homogeneous teams perform better but bet more on diverse teams, especially in the task with complementarities. Elicited expectations about the bets of others reveal that subjects expect the effect of the gender stereotypes of tasks but underestimate others' bets on diversity. |
| Keywords: | Gender segregation, hiring decisions, teams, discrimination, stereotypes |
| JEL: | C91 D9 J16 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbmbh:spii2022207&r=lab |
| By: | Zhang, Zheyuan (Renmin University of China); Zhao, Zhong (Renmin University of China) |
| Abstract: | Using data from the China Family Panel Studies, this paper exploits the Compulsory Education Law of China implemented in the 1980s to empirically examine the causal impact of women's education on fertility in rural China by difference-in-differences methods. The results show that an additional year of schooling lowered the number of children a woman would have by approximately 0.09 children, postponed the age of first childbirth by 0.7 years, and reduced the probability of having a second child or more children by 0.18 among those mothers whose first child was a girl. In addition to the income effect, these results are also partly explained by more educated women preferring quality to quantity of children, placing a greater value on leisure and no longer perceiving children as the sole focus in their lives. |
| Keywords: | women's education, fertility, demographic transition, compulsory education law, quality and quantity of children |
| JEL: | I25 J11 J13 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15857&r=lab |
| By: | Antman, Francisca M. (University of Colorado, Boulder); Duncan, Brian (University of Colorado Denver) |
| Abstract: | This paper links Native American racial self-identification with the rise in tribal gaming across the United States. We find that state policy changes allowing tribes to open casinos are associated with an increase in the probability that individuals with American Indian ancestors will self-identify as Native American and a decrease in the probability that individuals with no American Indian ancestry will self-identify as Native American. Moreover, we find that the magnitudes of the impacts are increasing in the strength of American Indian ancestral ties. Similar results hold when causal identification comes from American Indian casino openings across states over time and suggestive evidence shows stronger impacts if casinos are likely to pay per capita dividend payments to their members. These results are consistent with a conceptual framework in which we tie racial identification to economic motivations as well as social stigma associated with affiliating with a racial group for those without documented ancestral ties. Our results underscore the importance of economic incentives and social factors underlying the individual choice of racial identity. |
| Keywords: | race, Native American, identity, casinos |
| JEL: | J15 L83 Z13 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15861&r=lab |