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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Grunau, Philipp; Hoffmann, Florian; Lemieux, Thomas; Titze, Mirko |
| Abstract: | We study the wage and employment effects of a German place-based policy using a research design that exploits conditionally exogenous EU-wide rules governing the program parameters at the regional level. The place-based program subsidi- zes investments to create jobs with a subsidy rate that varies across labor market regions. The analysis uses matched data on the universe of establishments and their employees, establishment-level panel data on program participation, and regional scores that generate spatial discontinuities in program eligibility and generosity. These rich data enable us to study the incidence of the place-based program on different groups of individuals. We find that the program helps establishments create jobs that disproportionately benefit younger and less-educated workers. Funded establishments increase their wages but, unlike employment, wage gains do not persist in the long run. Employment effects estimated at the local area level are slightly larger than establishment-level estimates, suggesting limited spillover effects. Using subsidy rates as an instrumental variable for actual subsidies indicates that it costs approximately EUR 25, 000 to create a new job in the economically disadvantaged areas targeted by the program. |
| Keywords: | local labor market, matched employer-employee data, place-based policies |
| JEL: | D04 H25 J21 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:289442&r=lab |
| By: | Alicia De Quinto; Libertad González Luna |
| Abstract: | Countries often encourage part-time work among new parents as part of their family policies, aiming to foster mothers'attachment to the labor force. However, this well-intentioned approach may inadvertently impede women's long-term prospects in the labor market. We examine the impact of a 1999 Spanish reform allowing new parents to reduce working hours by up to a half while their youngest child is under age 6, along with job protection measures. Leveraging eligibility rules, we employ a regression kink design, comparing ineligible women to mothers with varying eligibility durations, and track women's subsequent work trajectories. We find that longer eligibility resulted in a modest increase in maternal part-time work during her child's early years. Mothers worked part time, on average, about one additional day for each extra month of eligibility. This rise in part-time work came at the expense of fewer days of unemployment, rather than fewer days of full-time work, and thus correlated with higher earnings. In the long term, we document slightly higher employment and earnings for those with extended eligibility after aging out of the program. The long-term effects remain modest. In conclusion, we find that the policy had minimal impact on the labor supply and earnings of women with children, both in the short and longer term. |
| Keywords: | worktime reduction, maternity, childcare policies |
| JEL: | J08 J13 J16 J18 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1881&r=lab |
| By: | Jose Garcia-Louzao; Ruben Perez-Sanz |
| Abstract: | Uneven family responsibilities are at the root of gender gaps. Using a new dataset covering all firm-level agreements signed in Spain between 2010 and 2018, we explore whether the presence of female worker representatives can facilitate the negotiation of family-friendly policies with management. We compare firms that operate under the same set of labor regulations but differ in the presence of women among employee representatives. Our findings suggest that having female representatives at the bargaining table can help transform workplaces to better meet women’s needs and ultimately close the gender gap. |
| Keywords: | women representation, bargaining, family-friendly firms |
| JEL: | J16 J32 J53 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10982&r=lab |
| By: | Jelena Reljic; Francesco Zezza |
| Abstract: | We contribute to the long-standing debate on the Italian North–South divide by assessing the impact of public spending on social infrastructure - including education, healthcare, childcare and social assistance - on the gender employment gap over the last two decades, using a P-SVAR analysis. These investments, while not explicitly targeting women, may increase both their labour supply - by reducing the unpaid care work burden - and pro-women labour demand through job creation in care sectors that predominantly employ women. Our research reveals a positive and long-lasting impact of social infrastructure expenditure on private investment, GDP and employment in all areas of the country. However, the reduction of the gender employment gap is detected only in the South and among high-skilled women. These results stress the need for targeted policies to fill the investment gaps in social infrastructure, aiming for a more inclusive labour market, particularly in Southern regions, which suffer from chronic underinvestment and structural challenges. |
| Keywords: | Social infrastructure; Gender inequality; Fiscal Policy; Panel SVAR; Italian regions |
| JEL: | C33 E24 H30 J16 J18 J21 R58 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sap:wpaper:wp246&r=lab |
| By: | Teodora Boneva; Marta Golin; Katja Kaufmann; Christopher Rauh |
| Abstract: | We provide representative evidence on the perceived returns to maternal labor supply. A mother’s decision to work is perceived to have sizable impacts on child skills, family outcomes, and the mother’s future labor market outcomes. Beliefs about the impact of additional household income can account for some, but not all, of the perceived positive effects. Perceived returns are predictive of labor supply intentions under different policy scenarios related to childcare availability and quality, two factors that are also perceived as important. An information experiment reveals that providing information about benefits of mothers working causally affects labor supply intentions. |
| Keywords: | Subjective expectations, maternal labor supply, childcare, child penalties |
| JEL: | J22 J13 I26 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2024_517&r=lab |
| By: | Cole, Matthew A. (University of Birmingham); Jabbour, Liza (University of Birmingham); Ozgen, Ceren (University of Birmingham); Yumoto, Hiromi (University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | We explore whether a civic integration component dedicated to labor market training (the ONA) boosts refugees' economic outcomes and the quality of firms they work for. Using linked employer-employee administrative data from 2014 to 2021 for the Netherlands and Regression Discontinuity design we find that taking the ONA sped up the economic integration of refugees for 3 years in terms of increased employment probability, hours worked and higher hourly wages. We further show that taking the ONA results in refugees working for larger, less labor-intensive and less routine-task intensive firms and experiencing increased job stability. The ONA benefits male and female refugees and particularly those from Syria. |
| Keywords: | refugees, firms, labor market performance, integration exam, Netherlands |
| JEL: | J08 J15 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16828&r=lab |
| By: | Gordon B. Dahl; Anne Gielen |
| Abstract: | Can participation in safety net programs have long-lasting negative effects across multiple generations? Prior work shows a 1993 Dutch disability insurance reform which tightened requirements and lowered benefits for participants resulted in better outcomes for their children. We study the third generation, finding that grandchildren of individuals whose DI eligibility and benefits were reduced are less likely to be born premature, have low birthweight, or experience complicated deliveries. They also have better health and schooling outcomes during early childhood. These early-life improvements are consequential, as they have been linked to better health, education, and labor market outcomes in adulthood. |
| JEL: | H53 I38 J62 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32212&r=lab |
| By: | Meryem Gökten (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Philipp Heimberger (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Andreas Lichtenberger (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses deviations from full employment in EU countries, compared with the US and the UK. We apply the Beveridge (full-employment-consistent) rate of unemployment (BECRU), derived from the unemployment-vacancies relationship. The BECRU is the level of unemployment that minimises the non-productive use of labour. Based on a novel dataset for the period 1970-2022, we find full employment episodes in selected EU countries (Germany, Sweden, Austria, Finland) during the 1970s. The European unemployment problem emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, as Beveridgean full employment gaps increased. In the run-up to the global financial crisis, full employment gaps declined, then increased during the Great Recession. Slack in labour markets increased initially during the pandemic. Labour markets became tighter when recovering from the COVID-19 crisis, but few countries hit full employment. Panel regressions highlight that hysteresis, labour market institutions, structural factors, macroeconomic factors and political factors contribute to explaining full employment gaps. |
| Keywords: | Full employment, unemployment, vacancies, EU, UK, US |
| JEL: | E24 E32 E6 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:wpaper:245&r=lab |
| By: | Marianna Kudlyak |
| Abstract: | In employment relationships, a wage is an installment payment on an implicit long-term agreement between a worker and a firm. The price of labor that impacts firm’s hiring decisions, instead, reflects the hiring wage as well as the impact of economic conditions at the time of hiring on future wages. Measured by the labor’s user cost, the price of labor is substantially more pro-cyclical than the new-hire wage or the average wage. The strong procyclicality of the price of labor calls for other forces for cyclical labor demand to explain employment fluctuations. |
| Keywords: | User Cost of Labor; wages; cyclicality; wage rigidity; unemployment |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J30 J41 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2024–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedfwp:98027&r=lab |
| By: | Jan Gromadzki (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business); Honorata Bogusz (University of Warsaw) |
| Abstract: | We study the labor market outcomes of same-sex couples using data from large representative household surveys. We use high-quality data representing more than two-thirds of the world's population with access to same-sex marriage on three continents. Same-sex couples are less likely to be inactive and work more hours than different-sex couples, largely due to the differences in the probability of having a child. Men in same-sex couples are up to 60 percent more likely to be unemployed than men in different-sex couples. These unemployment gaps cannot be explained by occupational sorting or other observable characteristics. |
| Keywords: | labor supply, unemployment, same-sex couples, discrimination, LGBTQ, parenthood |
| JEL: | J15 J16 J22 J23 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp360&r=lab |
| By: | Laszlo Goerke (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU), Trier University); Nora Paulus (University of Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | If a profit-maximising firm credibly commits to an employment-enhancing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) objective in negotiations with a trade union, the union can reduce its wage demands. Lower wages, ceteris paribus, raise profits, while the increase in employment enhances the payoff of a wage-setting trade union. Therefore, both the firm and the trade union can be better off in the presence of a collectively bargained CSR-objective than in its absence. Accordingly, establishing a CSR-objective can give rise to a Pareto-improvement and can mitigate the inefficiency resulting from collective wage negotiations. |
| Keywords: | : Collective Bargaining, Corporate Social Responsibility, Employment, Pareto-Improvement, Trade Union, Wages |
| JEL: | D60 J51 M14 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iaa:dpaper:202401&r=lab |
| By: | Olivier Guillot; Magali Jaoul-Grammare; Isabelle Terraz |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to contribute to the analysis of the impact of employees’ working conditions on union membership by specifically examining whether being exposed to job strain (or job iso-strain) increases the propensity to join unions. The study is based on data from the REPONSE survey, carried out in France in 2011. Two-level (individual / economic sector) logistic regression models are used to analyse the individual decision of union membership while accounting for sectoral effects. The results indicate that having a job with low or medium decision latitude (as opposed to high decision latitude) is associated with a higher probability of union membership. This latter effect is stronger when support from the hierarchy is low rather than high or medium. By contrast, the level of psychological demand does not seem to have any significant influence on unionisation. The link between job iso-strain (or a certain form of iso-strain) and union membership remains significant when the potential endogeneity of this factor is taken into account. These findings lend some support to theories like the frustration-aggression approach, which relates the union membership decision to work dissatisfaction and the desire of employees to change their working conditions. |
| Keywords: | Trade unions; Union membership; Working conditions; Job strain; Economic sectors; France. |
| JEL: | J5 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2024-08&r=lab |
| By: | Maxime Liegey; Nathalie Picard |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to contribute to the analysis of the impact of employees’ working conditions on union membership by specifically examining whether being exposed to job strain (or job iso-strain) increases the propensity to join unions. The study is based on data from the REPONSE survey, carried out in France in 2011. Two-level (individual / economic sector) logistic regression models are used to analyse the individual decision of union membership while accounting for sectoral effects. The results indicate that having a job with low or medium decision latitude (as opposed to high decision latitude) is associated with a higher probability of union membership. This latter effect is stronger when support from the hierarchy is low rather than high or medium. By contrast, the level of psychological demand does not seem to have any significant influence on unionisation. The link between job iso-strain (or a certain form of iso-strain) and union membership remains significant when the potential endogeneity of this factor is taken into account. These findings lend some support to theories like the frustration-aggression approach, which relates the union membership decision to work dissatisfaction and the desire of employees to change their working conditions. |
| Keywords: | Trade unions; Union membership; Working conditions; Job strain; Economic sectors; France. |
| JEL: | C33 J31 J42 J62 R10 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2024-11&r=lab |
| By: | Joseph Briggs (Goldman Sachs); Andrew Chaplin (New York University, NBER); Soeren Leth-Petersen (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen); Christopher Tonetti (Stanford Graduate School of Business, NBER) |
| Abstract: | We develop a method to identify the individual latent propensity to select into treatment and marginal treatment effects. Identification is achieved with survey data on individuals’ subjective expectations of their treatment propensity and of their treatmentcontingent outcomes. We use the method to study how child birth affects female labor supply in Denmark. We find limited latent heterogeneity and large short-term effects that vanish by 18 months after birth. We support the validity of the identifying assumptions in this context by using administrative data to show that the average treatment effect on the treated computed using our method and traditional event-study methods are nearly equal. Finally, we study the effects of counterfactual changes to child care cost and quality on female labor supply. |
| Keywords: | marginal treatment effects, survey data, expectations |
| JEL: | C32 C52 C83 J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2024–04–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kucebi:2406&r=lab |
| By: | Barbara Boelmann |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that the local availability of universities acted as a catalyst in the catch-up of women in higher education that has been documented for developed countries in the latter half of the 20th century. It uses the foundation of new universities in the 1960s and 1970s in West German regions which previously did not have a university as a case study to understand how women’s mobility and education decisions interact. I first document women’s low regional mobility in post-war West Germany along with their low educational attainment. Second, I exploit that the university expansion exogenously brought universities to women’s doorsteps in a difference-indifferences (DiD) strategy. Comparing regions which experienced a university opening within 20 km to those where no university was opened, I show that women benefited more than men from a close-by university opening, closing the local gender gap in university education by about 72%. Third, I provide evidence that local universities partly increased university education through reduced costs, while part of the effect is due to higher expected returns, highlighting an important second channel through which universities promote education to local youths. |
| Keywords: | college gender gap, geographic mobility, university expansion |
| JEL: | I23 I24 I28 J16 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2024_518&r=lab |
| By: | Katherine B. Coffman; Lucas C. Coffman; Keith Marzilli Ericson |
| Abstract: | Economics research has largely overlooked non-binary individuals. We aim to jump-start the literature by providing data on several economically-important beliefs and preferences. Among many results, non-binary individuals report more gender-based discrimination and express different career and life aspirations, including less desire for children. Anti-non-binary sentiment is stronger than anti-LGBT sentiment, and strongest among men. Non-binary respondents report lower assertiveness than men and women, and their social preferences are similar to men’s and less prosocial than women’s, with age an important moderator. Elicited beliefs reveal inaccurate stereotypes as people often mistake the direction of group differences or exaggerate their size. |
| JEL: | C90 D10 J16 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32222&r=lab |
| By: | Melanie Wallskog; Nicholas Bloom; Scott W. Ohlmacher; Cristina Tello-Trillo |
| Abstract: | Combining confidential Census worker and firm data, we find three key results. First, employees at more productive firms earn higher pay at all earnings levels. Second, this pay-productivity relationship strengthens with seniority, doubling from an elasticity of 0.07 for pay on productivity for the median-paid employee to 0.15 for the top-paid employee. Consequently, more productive firms have higher within-firm inequality. Our data suggests this is driven by their greater adoption of aggressive performance-pay bonus and management schemes. Finally, the magnitude of this pay-performance slope suggests rising productivity can explain 40% of the rise in within-firm inequality since 1980. |
| JEL: | J0 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32240&r=lab |
| By: | Kabir Dasgupta (Federal Reserve Board); Linda Kirkpatrick (New Zealand Policy Research Institute, Auckland University of Technology); Alexander Plum (New Zealand Policy Research Institute, Auckland University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic had disproportionate impacts on women’s employment, especially for mothers with school-age and younger children. However, the impacts likely varied depending on the type of policy response adopted by various governments. New Zealand presents a unique policy setting in which one of the strictest lockdown restrictions was combined with a generous wage subsidy scheme to secure employment. We utilize tax records to compare employment patterns of parents from the pandemic period (treatment group) to similar parents from a recent pre-pandemic period (control group). For mothers whose youngest child is aged between one and 12, we find a 1-2-percentage point decline in the likelihood of being employed in the first six months of the pandemic; for fathers, we hardly see any significant changes in employment. Additionally, the decline in mothers’ employment rates is mainly driven by those not employed in the month before the lockdown. We also find similar employment patterns for future parents who had no children during the evaluation period. This indicates that the adverse labour market impacts are not uniquely experienced by mothers, but by women in general. |
| Keywords: | : pandemic, employment, parental gap, administrative data |
| JEL: | D10 D13 E24 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aut:wpaper:2024-02&r=lab |
| By: | Essbaumer, Elisabeth |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes peer effects at the University of St. Gallen (HSG) in Switzerland. The identification strategy relies on randomized student groups to investigate how graduates’ outcomes are affected by the social composition of their peer groups. The results indicate that a 10 percentage points higher share of peers with low socio-economic status (SES) leads to a 5.08% increase in graduates’ income one year after graduation. The effect is strongest on other low-SES students and functions through an adoption of job searching behavior, occupational choices and labor supply. I do not find evidence in this sample that the outcomes of low-SES students are negatively affected by high-SES peer exposure. |
| Keywords: | peer effects, social mobility, human capital, educational mobility |
| JEL: | D64 J62 I24 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:econwp:2024:01&r=lab |
| By: | O'Donoghue, Cathal (National University of Ireland, Galway); Doorley, Karina (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin); Sologon, Denisa Maria (LISER (CEPS/INSTEAD)) |
| Abstract: | The cost-of-living crisis has increased attention on consumption and how it differs for particular societal groups. There is much theoretical evidence that consumption patterns of men and women should differ, but the empirical evidence is scant, due in part to the availability of individual-level consumption data. This paper tackles the question of consumption differentials between men and women over nearly three decades in Ireland. Using harmonised survey data, we show how patterns of consumption of male- and female-headed households have changed over this period of significant economic turmoil and growth. |
| Keywords: | consumption, gender |
| JEL: | E21 J16 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16852&r=lab |
| By: | Nathaniel Pattison (Southern Methodist University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the role that late housing payments play in helping households cope with job loss. The key idea is that the ability to postpone housing payments often operates as a valuable source of informal credit for households facing income or expense shocks. Using a stylized model, I first show that late payments can reduce the costs of income shocks and offset the disadvantages of consumption commitments. I then empirically examine the prevalence and consequences of missed housing payments after job loss. Missed housing payments are common, especially among renters, and provide substantial liquidity during unemployment. Indeed, the amount of informal credit from missed payments exceeds existing estimates of formal credit card borrowing during unemployment. Lastly, I examine the consequences of missed payments. The large majority of missed payments do not lead to evictions or other forced moves. Instead, households are able to fall behind on housing payments while remaining in the same residence, consistent with missed payments providing an important source of informal credit. |
| Keywords: | consumption smoothing, job loss, housing, borrowing, credit, eviction, unemployment, household finance |
| JEL: | D14 E21 E24 G51 J64 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smu:ecowpa:2401&r=lab |
| By: | Andrés Blanco (Federeal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and Emory University); Andrés Drenik (University of Texas at Austin); Christian Moser (Columbia University, CEPR, and IZA); Emilio Zaratiegui (Columbia University) |
| Abstract: | We develop a theory of labor markets with four features: search frictions, worker productivity shocks, wage rigidity, and two-sided lack of commitment. Inefficient job separations occur in the form of endogenous quits and layoffs that are unilaterally initiated whenever a worker’s wage-to-productivity ratio moves outside an inaction region. We derive sufficient statistics for the labor market response to aggregate shocks based on the distribution of workers’ wage-to-productivity ratios. These statistics crucially depend on the incidence of inefficient job separations, which we show how to identify using readily available microdata on wage changes and worker flows between jobs. |
| Keywords: | Wage Rigidity, Directed Search, Limited Commitment, Job Separations, Quits, Layoffs, Inflation |
| JEL: | E31 E52 J64 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aoz:wpaper:313&r=lab |
| By: | Goux, Dominique (CREST-INSEE); Maurin, Eric (Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Driven by new information technologies, working from home has experienced unprecedented growth since the COVID pandemic. We contribute to the debate on the consequences of this development by drawing on a French reform conducted in 2017, with the aim of facilitating telework agreements between employers and employees. We show that the reform was followed by a boom in working from home, particularly in mid-level occupations. On the other hand, employees in lower-level occupations were virtually unaffected. By comparing occupational groups before and after the reform, in firms that have signed telework agreements and in firms that have not, we find that the development of working from home coincides with a significant deterioration in the health status of mid-level employees, particularly men. Wages and number hours worked, on the other hand, remain largely unaffected. |
| Keywords: | occupational level, teleworking, health status, working from home |
| JEL: | J81 J53 I19 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16848&r=lab |