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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Jonas Jessen; Sebastian Schweighofer-Kodritsch; Felix Weinhardt; Jan Berkes |
| Abstract: | Using novel time-use data from Germany before and after reunification, we document two facts: First, spouses who both work full-time exhibit similar housework patterns whether they do so voluntarily or due to a full-time mandate, as in the GDR. Second, men’s amount of housework is independent of their spouse’s labour supply. We theoretically explain this pattern by the presence of two household goods and socially learned gender-specific comparative advantage in their home production. We label this gender specialisation as separate housework spheres. Empirical evidence strongly confirms separate housework spheres in the GDR, West Germany, subsequent years post-reunification, and in international time-use data across 17 countries since the 1970s. We consider several implications, such as those for child penalties, where separate housework spheres provide a novel explanation for why it is the mothers whose labour market outcomes strongly deteriorate upon the arrival of children. |
| Keywords: | gender, household allocation of time, norms |
| JEL: | D13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2024–07–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdp:dpaper:0043 |
| By: | Julian Budde; Thomas Dohmen; Simon Jäger; Simon Trenkle |
| Abstract: | We study the descriptive and substantive representation of workers through worker representatives, focusing on the selection of German works council representatives and their impact on worker outcomes. Becoming a professional representative leads to substantial wage gains for the elected, concentrated among blue-collar workers. Representatives are positively selected in terms of pre-election earnings and person fixed effects. They are more likely to have undergone vocational training, show greater interest in politics, and lean left politically compared to the employees they represent; blue-collar workers are close to proportionally represented among works councilors. Drawing on a retirement-IV strategy and event-study designs around council elections, we find that blue-collar representatives reduce involuntary separations, consistent with blue-collar workers placing stronger emphasis on job security. |
| Keywords: | worker representatives, works councils, linked administrative and survey data |
| JEL: | J51 J53 P16 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11242 |
| By: | Barbieri, Teresa; Bavaro, Michele; Cirillo, Valeria |
| Abstract: | How does childbirth impact the career paths of men and women within the same household? To what extent does the unpaid care work related to this event contribute to the downward mobility experienced by women in a highly flexible labour market like Italy? Drawing on feminist and labour market studies, this article examines how caregiving responsibilities, particularly childcare, influence downward employment transitions for men and women in couples, specifically from full-time to part-time, from higher-paid to lower-paid jobs, and from employment to unemployment. The study also employs latent class analysis to map out variations in within-household inequality experienced after childbirth among couples. To achieve this, we utilize a unique survey-administrative linked dataset. The findings highlight significant penalties faced by women, not only immediately after childbirth but persisting for up to three years afterwards. Moreover, the latent class analysis reveals a small proportion of pro-female households compared to egalitarian and pro-male classes. |
| Keywords: | Gender pay gaps, occupational downward mobility, gender inequalities, motherhood penalty, micro-econometric analyses |
| JEL: | J13 J16 E24 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1475 |
| By: | Regina T. Riphahn; Irakli Sauer |
| Abstract: | We investigate the wage assimilation of East Germans who migrated to West Germany after reunification (1990-1999). We compare their wage assimilation to that of ethnic German immigrants from Eastern Bloc countries and international immigrants to West Germany who arrived at the same time. The analysis uses administrative as well as survey data. The results suggest that East Germans faced significant initial earnings disadvantages in West Germany, even conditional on age and education. However, these disadvantages were smaller than those of international immigrants, supporting the beneficial role of cultural similarity. The earnings gap relative to West German natives narrowed over time for all immigrants. These findings are robust to controlling for potentially endogenous return migration and labor force participation. Controls for fixed effects reveal that positive assimilation for East German and international immigrants was concentrated among highly educated immigrants. |
| Keywords: | migration, earnings assimilation, internal migration, labor market integration, cultural similarity, Germany, reunification |
| JEL: | F15 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11233 |
| By: | Suguru Otani |
| Abstract: | I examine changes in matching efficiency and elasticities in Japan's labor market via Hello Work for unemployed workers from January 1972 to April 2024 using a nonparametric identification approach by Lange and Papageorgiou (2020). I find a declining trend in matching efficiency, consistent with decreasing job and worker finding rates. The implied match elasticity with respect to unemployment is 0.5-0.9, whereas the implied match elasticity with respect to vacancies is 0.1-0.4. Decomposing aggregate data into full-time and part-time ones, I find that the sharp decline of matching efficiency after 2015 shown in the aggregate trend is driven by the decline of both full-time and part-time ones. Second, I extend the mismatch index proposed by Sahin et al (2014) to the nonparametric version and develop the computational methodology. I find that the mismatch across job categories is more severe than across prefectures and the original Cobb-Douglas mismatch index is underestimated. |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2407.20931 |
| By: | Alexander Ahammer; Analisa Packham |
| Abstract: | Despite the fact that 30 percent of opioid overdoses also involve a benzodiazepine, there is little policy guidance on how to curb concurrent misuse and even less evidence on how changes to co-prescribing practices can affect patients’ economic trajectories. In 2012, Austria restricted access to flunitrazepam, one of the most potent, and most heavily misused, benzodiazepines. We use linked individual-level data to identify opioid users and estimate the reform’s impact on their health and labor market outcomes relative to a randomly selected comparison group of non-opioid users. Estimates indicate a 12.7 percent drop in employment, a 13.1 percent increase in unemployment insurance claims, and a 26.5 percent increase in overall healthcare expenditures. We provide suggestive evidence that these effects are due to incapacitating withdrawal symptoms, rather than substitution to other drugs, including heroin or alcohol. |
| Keywords: | opioids, substance use disorder treatment, benzodiazepines |
| JEL: | I38 I12 J18 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2024-07 |
| By: | Richard Audoly; Manudeep Bhuller; Tore Adam Reiremo |
| Abstract: | How informative are job ads about the actual pay and amenities offered by employers? Using a comprehensive database of job ads posted by Norwegian employers, we develop a methodology to systematically classify the information on both pay and non-pay job attributes advertised in vacancy texts. We link this information to measures of employer attractiveness, which we derive from a job search model estimated on observed wages and worker mobility flows. About 55 percent of job ads provide information related to pay and nearly all ads feature information on non-pay attributes. We show that publicly advertised job attributes are meaningful predictors of employer attractiveness, and non-pay attributes are about as predictive as pay-related attributes. High-pay employers mention pay-related attributes more often, while high-amenity employers are more likely to advertise flexible working hours and contract duration. |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2407.13204 |
| By: | Carla Rowold (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | While research emphasized the risk of gendered sample selection bias among the elderly decades ago, the empirical literature on old-age inequalities remains largely unaware of it. This research note addresses this issue by investigating gendered sample selectivity for individuals aged 65 or older employing two common sample criteria: self-reported retirement status and pension receipt in countries covered by the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Findings show that more than half of older women are excluded when these criteria are applied. Gender selection bias varies widely across countries and is less pronounced in post-socialist or social-democratic welfare states. Visualizing work trajectories by sample status reveals that women with long unpaid care work periods and men with high self-employment, unemployment, and extended education levels are particularly likely to be excluded. Studies employing such sample criteria risk underestimating gender inequalities in pensions, health, and life satisfaction. The implications are severe for Southern, conservative, and liberal welfare states, and for cross-country comparisons, where sample bias often goes undetected due to its variability across contexts. While this article cannot offer a universal recommendation for sample definitions, it aims to promote less biased sample conceptualizations in studies of the elderly population. |
| Keywords: | bias, gender, life cycle, old age, pension schemes, retirement, retirement pensions, samples |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2024-025 |
| By: | Montpetit, Sébastien; Beaureard, Pierre-Loup; Carrer, Luisa |
| Abstract: | Leveraging the introduction of universal low-fee daycare in Québec in 1997, we assess the welfare effect of universal childcare provision. First, using novel data on local daycare coverage and a difference-in-differences design, we show that positive impacts on maternal labor supply and childcare use are greater in areas with larger daycare expansion, suggesting that childcare availability, not just affordability, drives these responses. We then estimate the policy's Marginal Value of Public Funds (MVPF), defined as the ratio of beneficiaries' utility gains to net governmental costs. Unlike the standard sufficient-statistics metric, which assumes a marginal change in fiscal policy, we quantify the beneficiaries' utility gains through a model of maternal labor supply and childcare choices. This allows us to relax the common marginal-policy assumption and to incorporate non-pecuniary benefits for parents. Our results indicate substantial welfare gains from universal policies, with approximately $3.5 of benefits per dollar of net government spending - over twice the amount captured by the sufficient-statistics metric. Counterfactual simulations suggest that allocating more resources to increasing availability, rather than improving affordability, could yield even larger social returns. |
| Keywords: | universal childcare, daycare coverage, social welfare, sufficient statistics |
| JEL: | H43 J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:clefwp:300866 |
| By: | Max Sina Knicker; Karl Naumann-Woleske; Michael Benzaquen |
| Abstract: | In an era of rapid technological advancements and macroeconomic shifts, worker reallocation is necessary, yet responses to labor market shocks remain sluggish, making it crucial to identify bottlenecks in occupational transitions to understand labor market dynamics and improve mobility. In this study, we analyze French occupational data to uncover patterns of worker mobility and pinpoint specific occupations that act as bottlenecks which impede rapid reallocation. We introduce two metrics, transferability and accessibility, to quantify the diversity of occupational transitions and find that bottlenecks can be explained by a condensation effect of occupations with high accessibility but low transferability. Transferability measures the variety of transitions from an occupation to others, while accessibility assesses the variety of transitions into an occupation. We provide a comprehensive framework for analyzing occupational complexity and mobility patterns, offering insights into potential barriers and pathways for efficient retraining programs. We argue that our approach can inform policymakers and stakeholders aiming to enhance labor market efficiency and support workforce adaptability. |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2407.14179 |
| By: | Emilia Brito; Jesse Bruhn; Thea How Choon; E. Anna Weber |
| Abstract: | How does gender composition influence individual and group behavior? To study this question empirically, we assembled a new, national sample of United States city council elections and digitized information from the minutes of over 40, 000 city-council meetings. We find that replacing a male councilor with a female councilor results in a 25p.p. increase in the share of motions proposed by women. This is despite causing only a 20p.p. increase in the council female share. The discrepancy is driven, in part, by behavioral changes similar to those documented in laboratory-based studies of gender composition. When a lone woman is joined by a female colleague, she participates more actively by proposing more motions. The apparent changes in behavior do not translate into clear differences in spending. The null finding on spending is not driven by strategic voting; however, preference alignment on local policy issues between men and women appears to play an important role. Taken together, our results both highlight the importance of nominal representation for cultivating substantive participation by women in high-stakes decision making bodies; and also provide evidence in support of the external validity of |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bro:econwp:2024-002 |
| By: | Michael A. Clemens (Peterson Institute for International Economics) |
| Abstract: | South Korea faces an unprecedented economic crisis driven by rapid population aging, as it approaches a future of negative economic growth. This paper examines the full range of possible policy responses with the potential to restore dynamism to the Korean economy. Contrary to many prior analyses, the author finds that enhanced labor migration to Korea is necessary, sufficient, and feasible. Migration is necessary because in the best forecasts we have, no other class of policy has the quantitative potential to meaningfully offset aging. Migration is sufficient because enhanced temporary labor migration by itself would offset most of Korea's demographic drag on growth over the next 50 years. And migration is feasible because the levels of migration and timescale of the transition would resemble that already carried out by Malaysia and Australia. Many advanced economies will follow in Korea's demographic footsteps in decades to come, and have much to learn from the decisions that the Korean government makes now. |
| Keywords: | Migration, South Korea, Labor, Demography, Economic Growth, Population Aging |
| JEL: | F22 J15 K37 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iie:wpaper:wp24-18 |
| By: | Klejdysz, Justyna (LMU Munich and ifo Institute); Zawisza, Tom (OECD and Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Abstract: | How does the differential tax treatment of employees versus self-employed affect the decision to switch to self-employment? Using administrative data on the universe of taxpayers, we study the impact of a large tax cut for business owners in Poland on high-income individuals’ decisions to transition from employment to self-employment. In 2004, the marginal tax rate for business owners in the top income bracket decreased from 40% to a flat rate of 19%, while employees remained subject to a progressive tax schedule with a top rate of 40%. We find a 17% increase in the probability of high-income employees switching to self-employment five years after the reform. The increase in entries to self-employment was driven by increased transitions to long-term solo self-employment (self-employment without dependent workers), especially in high-skilled service industries. In 2009, another reform reduced the tax differential. The entries from employment to self-employment temporarily decreased, but those who had previously switched to self-employment did not return to employment. These findings suggest that large tax differentials increased the attractiveness of self-employment as an alternative to employment but also increased the share of entrants to self-employment who do not hire workers. |
| Keywords: | employment; self-employment; optimal taxation; income tax; highincome earners |
| JEL: | D31 H20 J62 L26 |
| Date: | 2024–08–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:mfplwp:0043 |
| By: | Marzi, Marta Serena Liliana; Marini, Alessandra; Cherchi, Ludovica; Cenedese, Francesco |
| Abstract: | Across European Union (EU) countries, the institutional design of Minimum Income (MI) programs varies widely in terms of the benefits and services provided to recipients, despite significant convergence toward a similar MI model and shared common approaches. This discussion paper investigates the delivery of social inclusion pathways, i.e., non-monetary support components to foster MI recipients’ social inclusion and highlights common challenges and good practices across eight EU case study countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden). The paper shows that while some countries prioritize labor activation for workforce reintegration of MI recipients, others aim for broader social inclusion, recognizing the challenges in integrating such recipients into the labor market due to their complex needs. Moreover, the paper examines how the social inclusion pathway and case management interventions in MI programs affect recipient’s welfare within poverty-targeted programs. It notes the lack of evidence on the effectiveness and impact of social inclusion pathways within MIs and mentions ongoing evaluations in Spain, Italy, and France to address this gap. |
| Date: | 2024–07–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:hdnspu:193099 |
| By: | Mohammad Haroon Asadi; Mohammad Reza Farzanegan; Mohammad Reza Farzanegan |
| Abstract: | This study investigates men's attitudes toward women’s education in Afghanistan, focusing on primary, secondary, and tertiary levels, as well as studying in another province or abroad, through the lens of identity theory and the intra-household bargaining framework. We use data from Afghan surveys conducted by the Asia Foundation from 2014 to 2021 across 34 provinces and apply multivariate regression analysis with a comprehensive set of covariates. Our findings reveal that men’s attitudes toward women's education are predominantly negative, notably in rural areas. However, women's contributions to household income significantly mitigate these negative attitudes, particularly toward secondary education, followed by tertiary education, and studying in other provinces or abroad. Moreover, fear of insecurity in society amplifies the negative attitudes of men toward women’s education. This research underscores the potential of increased financial contributions by women to transform gender attitudes and promote educational equality in Afghanistan. |
| Keywords: | education, gender gap, attitudes, education inequality, security, Afghanistan, survey |
| JEL: | C83 D63 I24 I25 J16 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11244 |
| By: | Leo Röhlke |
| Abstract: | This study empirically tests the displacement hypothesis, examining whether adolescents' mobile phone use displaces time spent on activities that benefit cognitive development and academic performance. Longitudinal time-use data from a sample of Australian early adolescents (ages 10-13) and a difference-in-differences design are used to model the effect of first mobile phone acquisition on allocation of time to various activities. The results challenge the displacement hypothesis, providing no evidence that mobile phone acquisition displaces enrichment, physical activity or sleep time in early adolescence. However, acquiring a mobile phone is associated with a significant reduction in time spent watching TV, movies, or videos. This suggests the rise in adolescent mobile phone use may partly represent shifting away from traditional screen activities rather than displacing cognitively beneficial activities. Guidelines for parents recommending later ages of mobile phone acquisition are unlikely to affect early adolescents' time spent on non-screen activities. |
| Keywords: | academic performance, early adolescents, difference-in-differences, displacement hypothesis, educational outcomes, enrichment activities, longitudinal data, mobile phones, parental mediation, time use |
| JEL: | J13 O33 |
| Date: | 2024–08–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bss:wpaper:49 |