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on Labour Economics |
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Issue of 2024‒06‒10
twenty-one papers chosen by |
| By: | Breuer, Matthias; Cai, Wei; Le, Anthony; Vetter, Felix |
| Abstract: | Recent proposals for a more inclusive capitalism call for labor and minority representation in corporate governance. We examine the joint promise of labor and minority representation in the context of German works councils. The councils are a powerful form of labor representation that grants elected delegates of shop-floor workers codetermination rights (e.g., over work conditions). Since 2001, a quota ensures that elected delegates include delegates of the minority gender in the workforce. Using detailed survey and administrative data, we find that required minority representation helps the representation of the minority gender on works councils, elevates the effort of works councils, and boosts job satisfaction and well-being of workers, irrespective of their gender. At the establishment level, we find that required minority representation reduces worker turnover and increases investment and productivity. Our findings suggest that laws ensuring labor and minority representation in corporate governance can work (i.e., benefit workers without necessarily hurting employers). The seemingly beneficial impact of the laws suggests that frictions hamper the representation of minorities and cooperation among workers and employers. |
| Keywords: | Corporate Governance, Labor Representation, Gender Quota, Job Satisfaction |
| JEL: | J15 J16 J28 J53 J54 J63 J71 J81 J82 J83 K22 K31 M12 M14 M50 M54 P16 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cbscwp:294850&r= |
| By: | Hunt, Jennifer (Rutgers University); Moehling, Carolyn (Rutgers University) |
| Abstract: | We create a dataset of 14, 000 hand–coded help–wanted advertisements placed by employment agencies in three U.S. newspapers in 1950 and 1960, a time when help–wanted advertisements were divided into male and female sections, and collect information on agency ownership. We find that female–owned agencies specialized in vacancies for women, thereby expanding the access of female jobseekers to agency services, including for positions in majority–male occupations. Female–owned agencies advertised more skilled occupations to women than did male–owned agencies, leading to a 5.5% higher wage for women. On the other hand, female–owned agencies had a greater propensity to match male jobseekers to clerical jobs, contributing to 21% lower male wages than for male–owned agencies. The results are consistent with female proprietors having had a comparative advantage in female jobseekers and clerical occupations or with client firms having trusted female proprietors only with vacancies for women and homogeneous, lower–skill occupations. However, in choosing to establish an agency and to specialize in female jobseekers, female proprietors may have sought to mitigate employer discrimination against female jobseekers; their higher propensity to advertise majority–male occupations among professional, technical and managerial advertisements for women may also reflect discrimination mitigation. |
| Keywords: | job matching, discrimination, gender, employment agencies |
| JEL: | N12 J63 J16 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16941&r= |
| By: | Robert G. Valletta; Mary Yilma |
| Abstract: | We assess the effects of the historically unprecedented expansion of U.S. unemployment insurance (UI) payments during the COVID-19 pandemic. The adverse economic impacts of the pandemic, notably the pattern of job losses and earnings reductions, were disproportionately born by lower-income individuals. Focusing on household income as a broad measure of well-being, we document that UI payments almost completely offset the increase in household income inequality that otherwise would have occurred in 2020 and 2021. We also examine the impacts of the $600 increase in weekly UI benefit payments, available during part of 2020, on job search outcomes. We find that despite the very high replacement rate of lost earnings for low-wage individuals, the search disincentive effects of the enhanced UI payments were limited overall and smaller for individuals from lower-income households. These results suggest that the pandemic UI expansions improved equity but had limited consequences for economic efficiency. |
| Keywords: | unemployment insurance; covid19; inequality; income support; job search |
| JEL: | D31 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2024–05–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedfwp:98195&r= |
| By: | Homrighausen, Pia (Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF)); Oberfichtner, Michael (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | Caseworker meetings have been shown to accelerate exit from unemployment. We explore whether they are also effectual before entering unemployment. In a natural field experiment, we offer caseworker meetings to workers at risk of losing their jobs while they are still employed. We find that the offer induces additional meetings and substantially shifts the first meeting forward but has no effect on entry into unemployment or on labour market outcomes within one year. The intervention does not alter jobseekers' search behaviour, which likely explains its inefficacy. |
| Keywords: | job search assistance, caseworker meetings, job search, field experiment |
| JEL: | J68 J63 J62 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16923&r= |
| By: | Nicolas Abad (LERN, University of Rouen Normandy); Johanna Etner (EconomiX, Univ Paris Nanterre,); Natacha Raffin (University Paris-Saclay, ENS Paris-Saclay, Centre for Economics at Paris-Saclay, 91190, Gif-sur-Yvette); Thomas Seegmuller (Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France) |
| Abstract: | We use an overlapping generations model with physical and human capital, and two reproductive periods to explore how fertility decisions may differ in response to economic incentives in early and late adulthood. In particular, we analyze the interplay between fertility choices—related to career opportunities—and wages, and investigate the role played by work experience and investment in both types of capital. We show that young adults postpone parenthood above a certain wage threshold and that late fertility increases with work experience. The long run trend is either to converge to a low productivity equilibrium, involving high early fertility, investment in physical capital and relatively low income, or to a high productivity equilibrium, where households postpone parenthood to invest in their human capital and work experience, with higher late fertility and higher levels of income. A convergence to the latter state would explain the postponement of parenthood and the mitigation or slight reversal of fertility decrease in some European countries in recent decades. |
| Keywords: | fertility, postponement, work experience, overlapping generations |
| JEL: | E21 J11 J13 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:2416&r= |
| By: | Ayyar, S.; Bolt, U.; French, E.; O’Dea, C. |
| Abstract: | Using a digitized sample of thousands of essays written by 11-year-olds in 1969, we construct an index which measures the extent to which girls’ imagined futures conform to gender norms in Britain at the time. We link this index to outcomes over the life-cycle. Conditional on a large set of age-11 covariates, a one standard deviation increase in our index is associated with a decrease in lifetime earnings of 3.5%, due to both lower wages and fewer hours worked. Half of this earnings decline is mediated by reduced educational attainment, selection into lower-paid occupations, and earlier family formation of those who conform more strongly to prevalent gender norms. Holding skills constant, girls whose essays conform less to gender norms, live in regions with higher female employment and educational attainment. This highlights that the wider environment in which girls grow up shapes gender conformity. |
| Keywords: | Gender, Children, Text Analysis |
| JEL: | J16 J13 Z13 |
| Date: | 2024–05–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:2422&r= |
| By: | Zwiers, Esmée (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | In the Netherlands, an immediate baby boom followed the end of WWII and the baby bust of the 1930s. I propose a novel application of the bunching methodology to examine whether the war shifted the timing of fertility or changed women's completed fertility. I disaggregate the number of births by age for cohorts of mothers, and estimate counterfactual distributions of births by exploiting that women experienced the war at different ages. I show that the rise in fertility after the liberation did not make up for the "missed" births that did not occur prior to the war, as fertility would have been 9.4% higher in absence of WWII. |
| Keywords: | lifecycle fertility, bunching, World War II, The Netherlands |
| JEL: | J11 J13 J18 N34 N44 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16927&r= |
| By: | Clemens, Michael A. (George Mason University) |
| Abstract: | Legal and illegal markets often coexist. In theory, marginal legalization can either substitute for the remaining parallel market, or complement it via scale effects. I study migrants crossing without prior authorization at the US southwest border, where large-scale unlawful crossing coexists with substantial, varying, and policy-constrained lawful crossing. I test whether lawful and unlawful crossing are gross substitutes or complements, using lag-augmented local projections to analyze a monthly time-series on the full universe of 10, 658, 497 inadmissible migrants encountered from October 2011 through July 2023. Expanded lawful crossings cause reduced unlawful crossings, an effect that grows over time and reaches elasticity -0.3 after approximately 10 months. That is, in this case, expanded activity on the lawful market substitutes for the parallel market, even net of scale effects. This deterrent effect explains approximately 9 percent of the overall variance in unlawful crossings. In an ancillary finding, I fail to reject a null effect of depenalizing unlawful crossings on future attempted unlawful crossings. |
| Keywords: | migrant, immigrant, border, unauthorized, undocumented, illegal, unlawful, black market, legal, legalize, depenalize, decriminalize, shadow, parallel market, illicit, clandestine, smuggler, wall, fence, irregular, refugee, asylum |
| JEL: | F22 J61 K42 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16940&r= |
| By: | Alexander Bick; Adam Blandin; Karel Mertens; Hannah Rubinton |
| Abstract: | Interstate migration by working-age adults in the US declined substantially during the Great Recession and remained subdued through 2019. We document that interstate migration rose sharply following the 2020 Covid-19 outbreak, nearly recovering to pre-Great recession levels, and provide evidence that this reversal was primarily driven by the rise in work from home (WFH). Before the pandemic, interstate migration by WFH workers was consistently 50% higher than for commuters. Since the Covid-19 outbreak, this migration gap persisted while the WFH share tripled. Using quasi-panel data and plausibly exogenous changes in employer WFH policies, we address concerns about omitted variables or reverse causality and conclude that access to WFH induces greater interstate migration. An aggregate accounting exercise suggests that over half of the rise in interstate migration since 2019 can be accounted for by the rise in the WFH share. Moreover, both actual WFH and pre-pandemic WFH potential, based on occupation shares, can account for a sizable share of cross-state variation in migration. |
| Keywords: | interstate migration; work from home; remote work; labor mobility |
| JEL: | J11 J22 J61 O15 R10 |
| Date: | 2024–05–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedlwp:98267&r= |
| By: | Jeronimo Carballo; Richard Mansfield; Charles Adam Pfander |
| Abstract: | Multi-establishment firms account for around 60% of U.S. workers’ primary employers, providing ample opportunity for workers to change their work location without changing their employer. Using U.S. matched employer-employee data, this paper analyzes workers’ access to and use of such between-establishment job transitions, and estimates the effect on workers’ earnings growth of greater access, as measured by proximity of employment at other within-firm establishments. While establishment transitions are not perfectly observed, we estimate that within-firm establishment transitions account for 7.8% percent of all job transitions and 18.2% of transitions originating from the largest firms. Using variation in worker’s establishment locations within their firms’ establishment network, we show that having a greater share of the firm’s jobs in nearby establishments generates meaningful increases in workers’ earnings: a worker at the 90th percentile of earnings gains from more proximate within-firm job opportunities can expect to enjoy 2% higher average earnings over the following five years than a worker at the 10th percentile with the same baseline earnings. |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:24-24&r= |
| By: | Guichard, Lucas (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg); Machado, Joël (LISER) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the externalities arising from a bilateral asylum policy - the list of safe origin countries - relying on a tractable model. Using self-collected monthly data, we estimate that including one origin country on the safe list of a given destination decreases asylum applications from that origin to that destination by 29%. We use a counterfactual policy simulation to quantify the spillover effects occurring across origin and destination countries. Individuals from targeted origin countries move to alternative destinations. Individuals from untargeted origins divert from alternative destinations. The magnitude of the externalities depends on the size of the affected flows. |
| Keywords: | migration, asylum seekers, asylum policy, safe origin country, refugee |
| JEL: | F22 K37 J61 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16935&r= |
| By: | Kathryn Christine Beck; Julia Hellstrand (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Mikko Myrskylä (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Period fertility has declined rapidly in Norway in the 2010s, reaching record lows. While there is a clear education-fertility dynamic, significant educational shifts have occurred and it’s unclear how much this contributed to recent fertility declines. To disentangle this, we utilize high-quality Norwegian register data and model yearly transitions between educational enrolment, attainment and childbearing for men and women born in 1964-2002. Using a counterfactual approach, we explore the contribution of educational expansion versus lower fertility by education to the decline in period and cohort fertility. Forecasting is used to complete fertility for cohorts aged 30+. We found that educational expansion contributed partially to the observed cohort fertility decline (2.11-2.01) for 1964-1974 female cohorts but stagnated for younger cohorts and the predicted decline thereafter (1.76 by the 1988 cohort), and the 2010s period fertility decline, is fully driven by decreased fertility across educational levels. For men, educational expansion was slower and didn’t contribute to the fertility decline. For both genders, the contribution of changed fertility behavior was strongest among the lower educated, particularly for predicted ultimate childlessness. Our results suggest that increased education isn’t the main fertility barrier in contemporary Norway. Instead, socioeconomic resources increasingly promote childbearing for both genders. Keywords: Educational attainment, educational enrollment, fertility decline, Norway, multi-state model, fertility forecasting |
| Keywords: | Norway |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2024-009&r= |
| By: | Karol Jan Borowiecki (University of Southern Denmark); Martin Hørlyk Kristensen (University of Southern Denmark); Marc T. Law (University of Vermont) |
| Abstract: | Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Frédéric Chopin are household names, but few will recognize Francesca Caccini, Elisabeth Lutyens or Amy M. Beach, who are among the top-10 female composers of all time. Why are female composers overshadowed by their male counterparts? Using novel data on over 17, 000 composers who lived from the sixth to the twentieth centuries, we conduct the first quantitative exploration of the gender gap among classical composers. We use the length of a composer's biographical entry in Grove Music Online to measure composer prominence, and shed light on the determinants of the gender gap with a focus on the development of composers' human capital through families, teachers, and institutionalized music education. The evidence suggests that parental musical background matters for composers' prominence, that the effects of teachers vary by the gender of the composer but the effects of parents do not, and while musician mothers and female teachers are important, they do not narrow the gender gap in composer prominence. We also find that the institutionalization of music education in conservatories increases the relative prominence of female composers. |
| Keywords: | gender gap, human capital, music education, music history, student-teacher interactions, conservatories |
| JEL: | I23 J16 J24 N30 Z11 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cue:wpaper:awp-01-2024&r= |
| By: | Dehos, Fabian T. (RWI); Paul, Marie (University of Duisburg-Essen); Schäfer, Wiebke (Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology (BIPS)); Süss, Karolin (University of Duisburg-Essen) |
| Abstract: | This paper combines German claims and survey data to provide a comprehensive picture of the health dynamics surrounding the transition into motherhood. Event-study estimates reveal good mental health around birth, but declines afterward, as reflected by increasing mental illness diagnoses and antidepressant and psychotherapy use during the first four years of motherhood. Painkillers, headaches, obesity, and other potentially stress-related physical illnesses, as well as survey evidence on well-being, show a similar pattern. A sustained reduction in sleep, sports, and other leisure activities, coupled with childcare obligations and possible psychosocial distress, may contribute to the long-term adverse effects of motherhood. |
| Keywords: | maternal health, mental health, claims data |
| JEL: | J13 I10 I12 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16942&r= |
| By: | Ludovica Ciasullo; Martina Uccioli |
| Abstract: | We document how a change to work arrangements reduces the child penalty in labor supply for women, and that the consequent more equal distribution of household income does not translate into a more equal division of home production between mothers and fathers. The Australian 2009 Fair Work Act explicitly entitled parents of young children to request a (reasonable) change in work arrangements. Leveraging variation in the timing of the law, timing of childbirth, and the bite of the law across different occupations and industries, we establish three main results. First, the Fair Work Act was used by new mothers to reduce their weekly working hours without renouncing their permanent contract, hence maintaining a regular schedule. Second, with this work arrangement, working mothers’ child penalty declined from a 47 percent drop in hours worked to a 38 percent drop. Third, while this implies a significant shift towards equality in the female- and male-shares of household income, we do not observe any changes in the female (disproportionate) share of home production. |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notnic:2024-02&r= |
| By: | Eduardo Andrade; Otaviano Canuto |
| Abstract: | Most high-income countries will experience declines in their populations over the next few decades. Some negative consequences of aging are on the horizon: greater fiscal imbalances and risks of economic stagnation. Immigration may by a way for those countries to mitigate the tendency. On the source side of immigration flows, brain drain is a risk. The policy paper presents the case of Japan, a nation that has grappled with the consequences of a declining and aging population for several years, as an example for other countries destined to confront similar circumstances in the forthcoming decades. Population aging is a strong trend in place. Some negative consequences of aging are on the horizon: greater fiscal imbalances and the risk of economic stagnation. Most high-income countries will experience a decline in their populations over the next few decades, and immigration is a way to offset this tendency. On the source side of immigration flows, ‘brain drain’ is a risk. |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ocp:rpaper:pp-0324&r= |
| By: | Diogo G. C. Britto; Roberto Hsu Rocha; Paolo Pinotti; Breno Sampaio |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effect of having a child on parents’ criminal behavior using rich administrative data from Brazil. Fathers’ criminal activity sharply increases by up to 10% during the pregnancy period, and by up to 30% two years after birth, while mothers experience only a transitory decline in criminal activity around childbirth. The effect on fathers lasts for at least six years and can explain at least 5% of the overall male crime rate. Domestic violence within the family also increases after childbirth, reflecting both increases in actual violence and women’s propensity to report. The generalized increase in fathers’ crime stands in sharp contrast with previous evidence from developed countries, where childbirth is associated with significant and enduring declines in criminal behavior by both parents. Our findings can be explained by the costs of parenthood and the pervasiveness of poverty among newly formed Brazilian families. Consistent with this explanation, we provide novel evidence that access to maternity benefits largely offsets the increase in crime by fathers after childbirth. |
| Keywords: | crime, parenthood, maternity benefits |
| JEL: | D10 J13 K42 H55 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11083&r= |
| By: | Olivier Thévenon; Chris Clarke; Gaëlle Simard-Duplain |
| Abstract: | While child poverty has decreased significantly in recent years due to increased support for families with children, measures to assist socio-economically disadvantaged children only partially address their challenges. To enhance equality of opportunity and social mobility in Canada, it is crucial to strengthen efforts addressing the root causes of socio-economic disadvantages and bridge gaps in policies aimed at reducing child poverty. This paper presents an overview of child poverty trends in Canada and discusses the challenges associated with the Poverty Reduction Strategy aimed at enhancing equality of opportunity and social mobility. |
| Keywords: | child poverty, childhood disadvantage, children, education, health, inequality |
| JEL: | I31 I32 J13 |
| Date: | 2024–05–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:wiseaa:25-en&r= |
| By: | Silvia Angerer (UMIT TIROL - Private University for Health Sciences and Health Technology); Hanna Brosch (Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Management, Heilbronn Campus); Daniela Glätzle-Rützler (University of Innsbruck); Philipp Lergetporer (Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Management, Heilbronn & ifo Institute); Thomas Rittmansberger (Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Management) |
| Abstract: | We present representative evidence of discrimination against migrants through an incentivized choice experiment with over 2, 000 participants. Decision makers allocate a fixed endowment between two receivers. To measure discrimination, we randomly vary receivers’ migration background and other attributes, including education, gender, and age. We find that discrimination against migrants by the general population is both widespread and substantial. Our causal moderation analysis shows that migrants with higher education and female migrants experience significantly less discrimination. Discrimination is more pronounced among decision makers who are male, non-migrants, have right-wing political preferences, and live in regions with lower migrant shares. |
| Keywords: | discrimination, representative sample, migration, experiment |
| JEL: | C91 C93 J15 D90 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aiw:wpaper:35&r= |
| By: | Sylvain Leduc; Zheng Liu |
| Abstract: | We study the implications of trade uncertainty for reshoring, automation, and U.S. labor markets. Rising trade uncertainty creates incentive for firms to reduce exposures to foreign suppliers by moving production and distribution processes to domestic producers. However, we argue that reshoring does not necessarily bring jobs back to the home country or boost domestic wages, especially when firms have access to labor-substituting technologies such as automation. Automation improves labor productivity and facilitates reshoring, but it can also displace jobs. Furthermore, automation poses a threat that weakens the bargaining power of low-skilled workers in wage negotiations, depressing their wages and raising the skill premium and wage inequality. The model predictions are in line with industry-level empirical evidence. |
| Keywords: | offshoring; reshoring; automation; robots; uncertainty; unemployment; wages; productivity |
| JEL: | F41 E24 J64 O33 |
| Date: | 2024–05–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedfwp:98206&r= |
| By: | Linden, Mikael |
| Abstract: | A model with special attention on the (subjective) survival probability is proposed to understand salient aspects of retirement age decision. Optimal retirement age results are derived with a death hazard rate function having non-negative duration dependence. At the optimum age, the retiree wants to have a compensation in the form of early retirement for his/her evident non-zero death risk. A retiree with large welfare inputs supporting mortality risk decreasing effects delays his/her retirement time. From policy perspective we need to lower the elderly health costs to reduce the death hazard rates leading to higher optimal retirement ages. Some empirical findings with the birth year 1947 cohort in Finland do not conflict the model results. Death hazard rate function estimates show that gender, health, civil status, incomes, and pension affect the death hazard rates. The retirement age has a longevity increasing effect across the different model specification. |
| Keywords: | Optimal retirement age, survival probabilities, death hazard rate function, survival model estimation, frailty. |
| JEL: | C41 I12 J14 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:120786&r= |