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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Barsbai, Toman; Steinmayr, Andreas; Winter, Christoph |
| Abstract: | We analyze the impact of economic conditions at arrival on the economic integration of family-sponsored migrants in the U.S. A one pp higher unemployment rate at arrival decreases annual wage income by four percent in the short run and two percent in the longer run. The loss in wage income results primarily from lower hourly wages due to occupational downgrading. Migrant and family networks help mitigating the negative labor market effects. Migrants who arrive during a recession take up occupations with higher concentrations of fellow countrypeople and are more likely to reside with family members, potentially reducing their geographical mobility. |
| Keywords: | Immigrant integration, family reunification, chain migration, migrant networks, labor market, business cycle |
| JEL: | E32 F22 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:2240&r=lab |
| By: | Pregaldini, Damiano (University of Zurich); Backes-Gellner, Uschi (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | Our study explores the effects of immigration on the employment of native middle-skilled workers, focusing on how this effect varies with the specificity of their occupational skill bundles. Exploiting the 2002 opening of the Swiss labor market to EU workers and using register data on the location and occupation of these workers, our findings provide novel results on the labor market effects of immigration. We show that the inflow of EU workers led to an increase in the employment of native middle-skilled workers with highly specific occupational skills and to a reduction in their occupational mobility. These findings can be attributed to immigrant workers reducing existing skill gaps, enhancing the quality of job-workers matches, and alleviating firms' capacity restrictions. This allowed firms to create new jobs, thereby providing increased employment options for middle-skilled workers with highly specialized skills and reducing the need to change their occupations. This research provides novel insights on the impact of immigration on the labor market. |
| Keywords: | migration, cross-border workers, occupational skill specificity |
| JEL: | J15 J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2023–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15957&r=lab |
| By: | Mueller, Andreas I. (University of Texas at Austin); Spinnewijn, Johannes (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the predictability of long-term unemployment (LTU) and analyzes its main determinants using rich administrative data in Sweden. Compared to using standard socio-demographic variables, the predictive power more than doubles when leveraging the rich data environment. The largest gains come from adding job seekers' employment history prior to becoming unemployed. Applying our prediction algorithm over the unemployment spell, we show that dynamic selection into LTU explains at least half of the observed decline in job finding. While the within-individual declines are small on average, we find substantial heterogeneity in the individual-level declines and thus reject the commonly used proportional hazard assumption. Applying our prediction algorithm over the business cycle, we find that the cyclicality in average LTU risk is not driven by composition but rather by within-individual cyclicality and that individual rankings are relatively persistent across years. Finally, we evaluate the implications of our findings for the value of targeting unemployment policies and how these change over the unemployment spell and the business cycle. |
| Keywords: | long-term unemployment, heterogeneity, selection, duration dependence, business cycle, targeting |
| JEL: | E24 J64 |
| Date: | 2023–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15955&r=lab |
| By: | Francesca Foliano (University College London); Alex Bryson (University College London); Heather Joshi (University College London); Bozena Wielgoszewska (University College London); David Wilkinson (University College London) |
| Abstract: | We study the evolution of the gender wage gap among young adults in Britain between 1972 and 2015 using data from four British cohorts born in 1946, 1958, 1970 and 1989/90 on early life factors, human capital, family formation and job characteristics. We account for non-random selection of men and women into the labour market and compare the gender wage gap among graduates and non-graduates. The raw and covariate adjusted gender wage gaps at the mean decline over the period among non- graduates, but they rise among young graduates. The gender wage gap across the wage distribution narrows over time for lower wages. Adjusting for positive selection into employment increases the size of the gender wage gap in earlier cohorts, but selection is not apparent in the two most recent cohorts. Thus the rate of convergence in the wages of young men and women is understated when estimates do not adjust for positive selection in earlier cohorts. Differences in traditional human capital variables explain only a very small component of the gender wage gaps among young people in all four cohorts, but occupational gender segregation plays an important role in the later cohorts. |
| Keywords: | gender wage gap; birth cohorts; employment selection; graduates; occupational segregation. |
| JEL: | J16 J2 J3 |
| Date: | 2023–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qss:dqsswp:2302&r=lab |
| By: | Afridi, Farzana (Indian Statistical Institute); Arora, Abhishek (Harvard University); Dhar, Diva (University of Oxford); Mahajan, Kanika (Ashoka University) |
| Abstract: | While it is well-acknowledged that the gendered division of labor within marriage adversely affects women's allocation of time to market work, there is less evidence on how extant social norms can influence women's work choices pre-marriage. We conduct an experiment on an online marriage market platform that allows us to measure preferences of individuals in partner selection in India. We find that employed women are 14.5% less likely to receive interest from male suitors relative to women who are not working. In addition, women employed in 'masculine' occupations are 3.2% less likely to elicit interest from suitors relative to those in 'feminine' occupations. Our results highlight the strong effect of gender norms and patriarchy on marital preferences, especially for men hailing from higher castes and northern India, where communities have more traditional gender norms. These findings suggest that expectations regarding returns in the marriage market may influence women's labor market participation and the nature of market work. |
| Keywords: | social norms, work choices, marriage market, gender, India |
| JEL: | J12 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2023–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15948&r=lab |
| By: | Gizem Koşar (Federal Reserve Bank of New York, USA; CESifo); Wilbert van der Klaauw (Federal Reserve Bank of New York, USA; Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis) |
| Abstract: | In addition to realized earnings and employment shocks, forward-looking individuals are presumed to condition their consumption and labor supply decisions on their subjective beliefs about future labor market risks. This paper analyzes these perceptions of earnings and employment risks using rich monthly panel data. It documents considerable individual heterogeneity in expected earnings growth and earnings growth uncertainty and in the perceived likelihood of a voluntary and involuntary job exit. We examine how these expectations evolve over the working life and the business cycle, and how they co-vary with expectations about the macro economy. Our analysis provides novel evidence on the perceived persistence in earnings growth shocks and on the association between future earnings and spending growth. |
| Keywords: | Expectations data, Beliefs, Household surveys, Strategic Survey Questions, Labor Market Uncertainty, Wage Persistence |
| JEL: | D84 D81 J31 J63 D12 C23 |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rim:rimwps:23-05&r=lab |
| By: | Alonzo, Davide; Gallipoli, Giovanni |
| Abstract: | We characterize the employment value of different worker-occupation matches and estimate the substitutability of match-specific inputs in production. In an equilibrium model of the U.S. labor market, we examine the responses of employment and wages to shifts in technology and match values. Earnings are mainly driven by technology while match value heterogeneity influences the distribution of workers across occupations. The model delivers measures of rents and compensating differentials. After 1980, employment rents increased for educated workers but stagnated for others. Compensating differentials have risen on average, particularly in occupations where worker mobility has grown. |
| Keywords: | employment, wages, equilibrium, technological change, heterogeneity, occupations |
| JEL: | D51 D58 J2 J3 J62 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:clefwp:56&r=lab |
| By: | Brais Alvarez Pereira; Shan Aman-Rana; Alexia Delfino |
| Abstract: | We analyse the relationship of performance with team diversity and size. We first propose a model with knowledge spillovers in production, which predicts that the effect of team diversity on individual performance increases with team size. We experimentally test the model by randomly assigning students to solve knowledge questions in teams of different sizes, with or without diversity. Our main finding is that the benefit of diversity is increasing in team size. We further show that such benefit is heterogeneous depending on students’ gender and the gender composition of teams. This has implications for how organizations can design their teams to maximize knowledge flows and performance. |
| Keywords: | Gender, Diversity, Team performance, Information, Communication |
| JEL: | J1 J15 J16 M50 O15 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unl:novafr:wp2301&r=lab |
| By: | Angelo Lorenti (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Jessica Nisén (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Letizia Mencarini; Mikko Myrskylä (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Women’s labor force participation has increased remarkably in western countries, but important gender gaps still remain, especially among parents. This paper uses a novel comparative perspective assessing women’s and men’s mid-life employment trajectories by parity and education. We provide new insight into the gendered parenthood penalty by analyzing the long-term implications, beyond the core childbearing ages by decomposing years lived between ages 40 to 74 into years in employment, inactivity, and retirement. We compare three countries with very different institutional settings and cultural norms: Finland, Italy, and the U.S. Our empirical approach uses the multistate incidence-based life table method. Our results document large cross-national variation, and the key role that education plays. In Finland years employed increase with parity for women and men and the gender gap is small; in the U.S. the relation between parity and years is relatively flat, whereas among those with two or more children a gender gap emerges; and in Italy, years employed decreases sharply with parity for women, and increases for men. Education elevates years employed similarly for all groups in Finland; but in the U.S and Italy, highly educated mothers experience only half of the gender gap compared to low-educated mothers. The employment trajectories of childless women and men differ greatly across countries. |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2023-013&r=lab |
| By: | Lorenzo Ductor; Anja Prummer |
| Abstract: | We consider the implications of gender homophily in Economics, which has persisted despite the significant increase in women in the field. As women remain underrepresented, gender homophily may serve as a constraint in collaboration. It could also lead to less gender diverse co-author teams than may be optimal in terms of generating high quality research papers. We show that gender homophily neither constrains collaboration nor prevents higher quality output. |
| Keywords: | homophily, collaboration, diversity, research quality |
| JEL: | D85 J16 O30 |
| Date: | 2023–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2023-02&r=lab |
| By: | Bengtsson, Erik (Department of Economic History, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | Sweden is renowned for its centralized wage bargaining system, which has been studied for decades from the point of view of inflation, wage differentials and unemployment. A coordinated system in place since 1997 has been compared to the centralized system of the postwar era, while other scholars have pointed to differences in how the institutions work in practice. This paper studies media coverage of wage bargaining rounds in the 1950s-1960s and in the 2000s-2010s to investigate the social understanding of what the wage bargaining institutions are supposed to do. The results indicate that the operation of the wage bargaining system in the 2000s and that in the post-war era are in fact understood very differently: while widely shared aims for wage bargaining rounds in the 1950s and 1960s were to a high degree formulated by the trade unions, trade union influence over the agenda was significantly weaker in the 2000s and 2010s, when external experts, not the least from the financial sector, were to a much higher degree used to define and formulate what good bargaining outcomes would be. |
| Keywords: | trade unions; collective bargaining; Sweden; Social Democracy |
| JEL: | J50 N34 |
| Date: | 2023–01–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:luekhi:0245&r=lab |
| By: | Daniel Ciganda (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Julia Hellstrand (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Mikko Myrskylä (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2023-010&r=lab |
| By: | Giovanis, Eleftherios |
| Abstract: | Purpose: The effects of disability are well recognised by the social security systems worldwide. This study aims to examine the disability and health-related costs of Syrian migrants in Turkey using the standard of living (SoL) approach. Design/Methodology: The empirical analysis relies on primary data collected from 1, 067 Syrian migrants in Turkey, and we apply the ordered Probit model. The SoL is operationalized by frequency of attendance to a Turkish theatrical play or movie, inviting Turkish friends for food and attending a theatrical play or movie with Turkish friends. Findings: The findings show that health problems and disability are negatively related to the frequency of participation in socio-cultural activities. Moreover, employed, wealthier and educated Syrian migrants participate more frequently in the social and cultural activities explored. Practical Implications: The results show that the costs range between 9-38 per cent, which translates in monetary values between 3, 700-10, 700 Turkish Liras (TL) per annum or between 530-1, 530 US Dollars (USD) expressed in 2020 values. These findings highlight the significant cost and burden that disability and health problems may put in migrant households. Social Implications: Policies encouraging immigrants to participate in socio-cultural events, particularly those with disabilities and health issues, may promote their integration into the host society’s social and cultural values. Furthermore, policies improving employment opportunities, income, and educational attainment of Syrian migrants may enhance their participation in socio-cultural activities. Originality: This is the first study exploring the disability and health costs of migrants related to integration and participation in cultural activities. |
| Keywords: | Disability and Health Costs; Mental Health; Standard of Living Approach; Syrian Migrants; Socio-Cultural participation |
| JEL: | I14 I31 I32 J15 O15 |
| Date: | 2023–02–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:116299&r=lab |
| By: | Bacic, Ryan; Zheng, Angela |
| Abstract: | We study whether racial disparities in economic opportunity appear at an early age. Using administrative education data linked to tax records, we study the income-achievement gap across different races and find important variation. The income-achievement gap is small for East Asian children while it is close to twice as large for Indigenous children. Sorting by income into schools accounts for a large portion of the variation in the income-achievement gap across all student groups. In addition, our results suggest that the large income-achievement gap for Indigenous students may be rooted in inequality in health outcomes and poor housing conditions. Our findings on income-achievement gaps across race could partially explain the different intergenerational mobility outcomes by race documented by others. |
| Keywords: | test scores, income-achievement gaps, race |
| JEL: | I20 I24 J15 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:clefwp:55&r=lab |
| By: | Bouscasse, P.; Nakamura, E.; Steinsson, J. |
| Abstract: | We provide new estimates of the evolution of productivity in England from 1250 to 1870. Real wages over this period were heavily influenced by plague-induced swings in the population. We develop and implement a new methodology for estimating productivity that accounts for these Malthusian dynamics. In the early part of our sample, we find that productivity growth was zero. Productivity growth began in 1600—almost a century before the Glorious Revolution. We estimate productivity growth of 3% per decade between 1600 and 1760, which increased to 6% per decade between 1770 and 1860. Our estimates attribute much of the increase in output growth during the Industrial Revolution to a falling land share of production, rather than to faster productivity growth. Our evidence helps distinguish between theories of why growth began. In particular, our findings support the idea that broad-based economic change preceded the bourgeois institutional reforms of 17th century England and may have contributed to causing them. We estimate relatively weak Malthusian population forces on real wages. This implies that our model can generate sustained deviations from the “iron law of wages†prior the Industrial Revolution. |
| JEL: | N13 O40 J10 |
| Date: | 2023–03–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:2323&r=lab |
| By: | Ferreira, Daniel; Nikolowa, Radoslawa |
| Abstract: | We develop a theory in which financial (and other professional services) firms design career structures to “sell” prestigious jobs to qualified candidates. Firms create less-prestigious entry-level jobs, which serve as currency for employees to pay for the right to compete for the more prestigious jobs. In optimal career structures, entrylevel employees (“associates”) compete for better paid and more prestigious positions (“managing directors” or “partners”). The model provides new implications relating job prestige to compensation, employment, competition, and the size of the financial sector. |
| Keywords: | job prestige; professional careers; financial service firms |
| JEL: | F3 G3 R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2023–02–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:118369&r=lab |