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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Zuchuat, Jeremy (University of Lausanne); Lalive, Rafael (University of Lausanne); Osikominu, Aderonke (University of Hohenheim); Pesaresi, Lorenzo (University of Zurich); Zweimüller, Josef (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | The job finding rate declines with the duration of unemployment. While this is a well established fact, the reasons are still disputed. We use monthly search diaries from Swiss public employment offices to shed new light on this issue. Search diaries record all applications sent by job seekers, including the outcome of each application – whether the employer followed up with a job interview and a job offer. Based on more than 600, 000 applications sent by 15, 000 job seekers, we find that job applications and job interviews decrease, but job offers (after an interview) increase with duration. A model with statistical discrimination by firms and learning from search outcomes by workers replicates these empirical duration patterns closely. The structurally estimated model predicts that 55 percent of the decline in the job finding rate is due to "true" duration dependence, while the remaining 45 percent is due to dynamic selection of the unemployment pool. We also discuss further drivers of the observed duration patterns, such as human capital depreciation, stock-flow matching, depletion of one's personal network, and changes in application targeting or quality. |
| Keywords: | job search, job finding, duration dependence, dynamic selection, search effort, job application, callback, job interview, job offer |
| JEL: | J24 J64 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16602&r=lab |
| By: | Carillo-Tudela, Carlos (University of Essex); Kaas, Leo (Universität Frankfurt am Main); Lochner, Benjamin (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, Germany ; FAU) |
| Abstract: | "Firms and workers predominately match via job postings, networks of personal contacts or the public employment agency, all of which help to ameliorate labor market frictions. In this paper we investigate the extent to which these search channels have differential effects on labor market outcomes. Using novel linked survey-administrative data we document that (i) low-wage firms and low-wage workers are more likely to match via networks or the public agency, while high-wage firms and high-wage workers succeed more often via job postings; (ii) job postings help firms the most in poaching and attracting high-wage workers and help workers the most in climbing the job ladder. To evaluate the implications of these findings for employment, wages and labor market sorting, we structurally estimate an equilibrium job ladder model featuring two-sided heterogeneity, multiple search channels and endogenous recruitment effort. The estimation reveals that networks are the most cost-effective channel, allowing firms to hire quickly, yet attracting workers of lower average ability. Job postings are the most costly channel, facilitate hiring workers of higher ability, and matter most for worker-firm sorting. Although the public employment agency provides the lowest hiring probability, its removal has sizeable consequences, with aggregate employment declining by at least 1.4 percent and rising bottom wage inequality." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | IAB-Open-Access-Publikation ; Integrierte Erwerbsbiografien ; IAB-Stellenerhebung ; IAB-Haushaltspanel |
| JEL: | E24 J23 J31 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2023–11–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:202310&r=lab |
| By: | Gerard J. van den Berg (University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, IFAU Uppsala, ZEW, IZA, CEPR); Hanno Foerster (Boston College, IZA); Arne Uhlendorf (CNRS and CREST, IAB Nuremberg, DIW, IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a structural analysis of the role of job vacancy referrals (VRs) by public employment agencies in the job search behavior of unemployed individuals, incorporating institutional features of the monitoring of search behavior by the agencies. Notably, rejections of VRs may lead to sanctions (temporary benefits reductions) while workers may report sick to avoid those. We estimate models using German administrative data from social security records linked with caseworker recorded data on VRs, sick reporting and sanctions. The analysis highlights the influence of aspects of the health care system on unemployment durations. We estimate that for around 25% of unemployed workers, removing the channel that enables strategic sick reporting reduces the mean unemployment duration by 4 days. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, wage, sanctions, moral hazard, sickness absence, physician, structural estimation, counterfactual policy evaluation, unemployment duration |
| JEL: | J64 J65 C51 C54 |
| Date: | 2023–09–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crs:wpaper:2023-10&r=lab |
| By: | Isilda Mara (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw) |
| Abstract: | In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness of the participation of refugees in integration programmes intended to help them gain employment. The specific programmes considered are the Competence Check programme and the Integration Year programme that were introduced in Austria around the time of the 2015 crisis, when refugees poured from the Middle East into the EU. The study is based on the fourth and fifth waves of a survey (FIMAS) of refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Syria in Austria, and it uses matching models to evaluate the effects on employment of participation in those two programmes. More specifically, it applies multivariate matching methods that ensure better balancing properties between the control and the treated groups. We find especially positive effects of the programmes on the employability of women, the poorly educated, younger and older age cohorts. These programmes thus seem to work specifically for those that find themselves in a more vulnerable labour market situation. |
| Keywords: | refugees, matching methods, multivariate distance matching, labour market integration, labour market policies |
| JEL: | J68 H43 C13 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:wpaper:234&r=lab |
| By: | Yuki Uemura (Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University) |
| Abstract: | We quantitatively examine the impacts of family policies on labor supply, fertility, and social welfare in a heterogeneous agent overlapping-generations (OLG) economy. We extend a standard incomplete-market OLG model with married and single households by incorporating parental decisions on the number of children, child care, education spending, and time allocation between market work, parental care, and leisure. We use this extended model to examine the possible impacts of four major family policies: child subsidies, child care subsidies, education subsidies, and income tax deductions for dependent children. The results of all four policies suggest a tradeoff between fertility rates and female labor supply, although the individual effects of each policy on households and the macroeconomy differ significantly. Child care subsidies raise female labor supply but lower fertility rates. By contrast, child subsidies, education subsidies, and income tax deductions reduce female labor supply but raise fertility rates. Child care subsidies improve overall welfare the most among the four policies. This is because increased labor supply and a decrease in the number of children raise the consumption level in the long run, while lowering policy costs. |
| Keywords: | Family policies, child care, fertility, household decisions |
| JEL: | D10 E62 H31 J13 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kyo:wpaper:1100&r=lab |
| By: | Dahl, Christian M. (University of Southern Denmark); Hansen, Casper W. (University of Copenhagen); Jensen, Peter S. (Linnaeus University); Karlsson, Martin (University of Duisburg-Essen); Kühnle, Daniel (University of Duisburg-Essen) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the impact of primary-school closures during the 1918 Pandemic in Sweden on mortality and long-term outcomes of school children. Using the universe of death certificates from 1914-1920 and newly-collected data on school closures across 2, 100 districts, we conduct high-frequency event studies at both weekly and daily intervals to show that schools closed in response to local surges in influenza deaths. Faster implementation of school closures significantly reduced peak mortality rates among primary-aged individuals. However, our long-run analysis of approximately 100, 000 affected children per grade shows precisely estimated, minor and mostly insignificant effects on longevity, employment, and income. |
| Keywords: | short- and long-run effects, human capital, mortality, 1918 Pandemic, school closures |
| JEL: | J10 N34 I10 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16592&r=lab |
| By: | Iversen, Vegard (University of Greenwich); Kundu, Anustup (University of Helsinki); Lahoti, Rahul (UNU-WIDER); Sen, Kunal (University of Manchester) |
| Abstract: | We examine how village level social group dominance affects the educational and occupational mobility of minority and other social groups in rural India across multiple generations. Theoretically, we distinguish between upper caste and own group dominance and examine the mechanisms underpinning inequality in mobility outcomes. We find inequality in upward educational mobility to have significantly narrowed over time with SCs doing better in upper caste and own-dominated villages, while STs and Muslims do worse in own-dominated villages. In contrast, for occupational mobility, we find no evidence of minority groups catching up with upper castes while SCs and STs are particularly disadvantaged, but SCs, again, do comparatively better in their own dominated villages. Exploring the mechanisms that explain the relationships between land dominance regimes and mobility, we find that a combination of agroecological and natural resource base and social cohesion of villages underpin the differences observed more than public goods provision. Our findings suggest a new pattern of inequality where historically disadvantaged groups appear less able to convert educational gains into labour market and occupational progress. |
| Keywords: | educational mobility, occupational mobility, caste, village dominance regimes, India |
| JEL: | J62 J71 O12 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16601&r=lab |
| By: | Sebastian Leitner (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw) |
| Abstract: | Refugees are more likely to develop mental diseases as most of them have been exposed to potentially traumatic events and fundamental stressors in their home countries, during migration and after resettling in the host countries. This diminishes their prospects for social and economic integration, which also may have detrimental effects on their mental health. We examine the prevalence of mental disorders in the refugee population from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Syria who arrived in Austria recently, drawing on data from four waves of the FIMAS refugee survey project. Interviews were conducted between December 2017 and April 2022 in Austria, with a specific focus on Vienna, Salzburg, Graz, Linz and Innsbruck. We found a high share of refugees (31% in 2017/2018, declining to 26% in 2022) who showed moderate or severe levels of mental distress. Women were found to have a significantly higher risk of mental illness. We also investigate the effects of mediators on mental health, applying pooled and panel regression model. A positive association was found, for example, in the cases of discrimination experienced in Austria and obviously potentially traumatic events experienced during migration. Negative correlations were detected for certain mitigating factors that foster resilience, such as proficiency in the German language, living in the same household with one’s partner and children, being employed, having more supportive relationships, and being more satisfied with the housing situation. |
| Keywords: | refugees, mental health, social integration, labour market integration, longitudinal study |
| JEL: | I10 J15 F22 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:wpaper:233&r=lab |
| By: | Magnac, Thierry |
| Abstract: | We review a tractable model of human capital investments that can accommodate lots of heterogeneity and we investigate its compatibility with some job search and equilibrium wage models that have been proposed in the literature. We show that the log wage equation derived from the combination of these set-ups is additively separable in the process of human capital investments and the dynamic effects of the job ladder under a few conditions among which strict liquidity constraints and exogeneity of search are prominent. This is the case in particular with the popular model proposed by Bagger, Fontaine, Postel-Vinay and Robin [2014] in which the predicted wage equation can be generalized to accommodate richer heterogeneous effects due to endogenous human capital accumulation. |
| Keywords: | Human capital; job search; wage inequalities; applied econometrics |
| JEL: | D31 I24 J24 J31 J64 |
| Date: | 2023–11–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:128739&r=lab |
| By: | Nikolova, Milena; Lepinteur, Anthony; Cnossen, Femke |
| Abstract: | Using survey data from 20 European countries, we construct novel worker-level indices of routine, abstract, social, and physical tasks across 20 European countries, which we combine with industry-level robotization exposure. Our conceptual framework builds on the insight that robotization simultaneously replaces, creates, and modifies workers' tasks and studies how these forces impact workers' job content. We rely on instrumental variable techniques and show that robotization reduces physically demanding activities. Yet, this reduction in manual work does not coincide with a shift to more challenging and interesting tasks. Instead, robotization makes workers' tasks more routine, while diminishing the opportunities for cognitively challenging work and human contact. The adverse impact of robotization on social tasks is particularly pronounced for highly skilled and educated workers. Our study offers a unique worker-centric viewpoint on the interplay between technology and tasks, highlighting nuances that macro-level indicators overlook. As such, it sheds light on the mechanisms underpinning the impact of robotization on labor markets. |
| Keywords: | robotization, technological change, worker-level data, tasks |
| JEL: | J01 J30 J32 J81 I30 I31 M50 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1350&r=lab |
| By: | Kevin André Pineda-Hernández |
| Abstract: | This PhD thesis contains three analyses: one taking an international approach and two focusing on the Belgian labour market. Using macro-level data for 25 developed countries between 1990 and 2015 and several panel data estimations, the results of Chapter 1 suggest that collective bargaining has a poverty-reducing effect through the interaction between trade unions and the welfare state rather than through its role in wage formation. Using matched employer-employee data for Belgium covering the period 1999-2016, the results of Chapter 2 show that first- and second-generation from developing countries earn remarkedly less than workers born in developed countries (i.e. a persistent intergenerational wage gap). However, most of these gaps are explained by compositional effects (e.g. age, tenure, education and occupation), whose extent considerably varies across generations. Using the same data as in Chapter 2, yet focusing exclusively on tertiary-educated workers, the results of Chapter 3 point out that while immigrants overeducation disappears across two generations among full-time workers, this issue remains intergenerational persistent among part-time workers. Therefore, this PhD thesis provides insightful advice for the implementation of policies and strategies that ensure fair and well-functioning labour markets and social protection systems for people at risk of poverty and/or with a foreign background. |
| Keywords: | Collective bargaining, trade unions, poverty, first- and second-generation immigrants, wages, overeducation |
| Date: | 2023–11–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/364640&r=lab |
| By: | Contini, Dalit (University of Torino); Di Tommaso, Maria Laura (University of Torino); Maccagnan, Anna (University of Torino); Mendolia, Silvia (Frisch Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the gendered choice of high school in the Italian context, where children are tracked at age 14 and are free to choose the type of school, with no binding teacher recommendation or ability restriction. It is therefore a context in which preferences, however influenced by different factors, are freely expressed, without any institutional constraints imposed on the decision-making process. Previous literature has mainly analysed gendered educational choices by focusing on the field at later stages in life. The transition from lower secondary to upper secondary school is particularly relevant for children who do not go on to university and can help to understand gender segregation in low and middle-level occupations. We analyse the role of school performance in mathematics and Italian (teacher grades and standardized test scores), the position in the class ranking, the comparative advantage in one subject and find that, while school performance hardly explains the gender gap for the children with low educated parents, it explains part of the gender gap observed for children from more advantaged backgrounds. |
| Keywords: | gender gap, high school choices, school performance, STEM fields |
| JEL: | I21 I24 J16 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16584&r=lab |
| By: | Gravina, Antonio Francesco (University of Palermo); Lanzafame, Matteo (Asian Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides estimates of the impact of demographic change on labor productivity growth, relying on annual data over 1961-2018 for a panel of 90 advanced and emerging economies. We find that increases in both the young and old population shares have significant negative effects on labor productivity growth, working via various channels—including physical and human capital accumulation. Splitting the analysis for advanced and emerging economies shows that population aging has a greater effect on emerging economies than on advanced economies. Extending the benchmark model to include a proxy for the robotization of production, we find evidence indicating that automation reduces the negative effects of unfavorable demographic change—in particular, population aging—on labor productivity growth. |
| Keywords: | demographic change; labor productivity; robots |
| JEL: | C33 J11 O40 |
| Date: | 2023–11–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbewp:0701&r=lab |
| By: | Gihleb, Rania (University of Pittsburgh); Giuntella, Osea (University of Pittsburgh); Tan, Jian Qi (University of Pittsburgh) |
| Abstract: | Unions play a crucial role in determining wages and employment outcomes. However, union bargaining power may also have important effects on non-pecuniary working conditions. We study the effects of right-to-work laws, which removed agency shop protection and weakened union powers on long hours and non-standard work schedules that may adversely affect workers' health and safety. We exploit variation in the timing of enactment across US states and compare workers in bordering counties across adopting states and states that did not adopt the laws yet. Using the stacked approach to difference-in-differences estimates proposed by Cengiz et al. (2019), we find evidence that right-to-work laws increased the share of workers working long hours by 6%, while there is little evidence of an impact on hourly wages. The effects on long hours are larger in more unionized sectors (i.e. construction, manufacturing, and transportation). While the likelihood of working non-standard hours increases for particular sectors (education and public administration), there is no evidence of a significant increase in the overall sample. |
| Keywords: | unions, working conditions, workers' health |
| JEL: | J50 I10 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16588&r=lab |