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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Cai, Zhengyu (Southwestern University of Finance and Economics); Winters, John V. (Iowa State University) |
| Abstract: | Fertility rates have fallen below replacement levels in many economies. We examine the relationship between female incomes and fertility for college graduates in the United States. Female income is likely endogenous to fertility, and candidate instrumental variables are likely imperfect. We use the Nevo and Rosen (2012) imperfect instrumental variable procedure to estimate two-sided bounds for the effect of female income on fertility. The effect of female income on fertility is unambiguously negative and non-trivial, but the magnitude is relatively small. Our results suggest that the recent fertility slowdown in the U.S. is not primarily due to higher female incomes. |
| Keywords: | fertility, children, motherhood, female income |
| JEL: | J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17419 |
| By: | El Haj, Morien (Ghent University); Baert, Stijn (Ghent University); Van Ootegem, Luc (Ghent University); Verhofstadt, Elsy (Ghent University); Lippens, Louis (Ghent University) |
| Abstract: | Disparities in labour market outcomes between parents and non-parents arise partly from discriminatory practices. Understanding these unfair practices is essential for fostering workplace equity. Our systematic review of the literature summarises employer discrimination based on various manifestations of parenthood in multiple labour market outcomes. Unlike previous studies, our review encompasses not only motherhood but also fatherhood and the stages preceding parenthood, namely fertility and pregnancy. In terms of labour market outcomes, we consider discrimination in hiring, remuneration, promotion, and dismissal. We also focus exclusively on experimental research, enabling causal conclusions about discrimination and its underlying mechanisms. Our synthesis suggests that employers consistently penalise women in the labour market when they have children, during pregnancy, and during their fertile years. In contrast, men often experience no adverse effects or even a premium when they have children. Researchers frequently find evidence of statistical discrimination as the primary explanation for their findings. Employers appear to rely predominantly on information based on norms and stereotypes to make decisions about parents in the labour market. We offer a roadmap for academics, policymakers, and employers to map and mitigate this phenomenon in the long term. In particular, we highlight fruitful directions for future research, including (i) more broadly assessing the effects of fertility, (ii) more effectively manipulating parenthood in experiments, (iii) more frequently investigating dismissal as a labour market outcome, and (iv) more profoundly examining the mechanisms of parenthood discrimination. |
| Keywords: | parenthood, pregnancy, fertility, discrimination, labour market outcomes, systematic review |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J71 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17435 |
| By: | Hjorth-Trolle, Anders (Rockwool Foundation Research Unit); Landersø, Rasmus (Rockwool Foundation Research Unit) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies intergenerational income mobility using register data for 630, 000 Danish children and their parents. We document substantial mobility differences across parents' income levels. Decomposing the mobility estimates shows that for children from low income families, intergenerational income persistence is exclusively explained by parents' influence on children's employment. As parents' income increases, education becomes an increasingly dominant factor, except among children from the top-5% where intergenerational income persistence is driven by capital income likely through bequests and business contacts. Finally, we find that progressive public transfers such as those in Denmark suppress the importance of intergenerational transmission of employment. |
| Keywords: | income mobility, education, employment, public transfers |
| JEL: | I24 I30 J62 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17411 |
| By: | Francesconi, Marco (University of Essex); Sonedda, Daniela (University of Insubria) |
| Abstract: | Leveraging a major Italian reform enacted in June 2012 that eroded employment protection to workers on permanent contracts, we use detailed administrative data to estimate how this reduction affected the cost of job loss. We employ a stacked-by-event research design, which compares workers moving into nonemployment before and after the reform. Weakening employment protection led to additional penalties in terms of lower re-hiring earnings and lower re-employment probabilities. Heterogeneous effects of the reform deepened pre-existing divides, penalizing more, among others, young workers and workers living in the South. |
| Keywords: | layoffs, employment protection, dual labor markets, difference-in-differences, Italy |
| JEL: | J63 J65 J30 J41 J68 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17374 |
| By: | Carpenter, Christopher S. (Vanderbilt University); Feir, Donn. L. (University of Victoria); Pendakur, Krishna (Simon Fraser University); Warman, Casey (Dalhousie University) |
| Abstract: | The social and legal recognition of nonbinary people—those who do not exclusively identify with traditionally male or female genders—is growing. Yet, we know little about their economic realities. We offer the first nationally representative evidence on the earnings of nonbinary people using restricted-access 2021 Canadian Census data linked to tax records. We find that, although nonbinary individuals tend to be more educated than their peers, they have significantly lower earnings, especially at the bottom of the income distribution, even after adjusting for various demographic and socioeconomic factors. |
| Keywords: | nonbinary, transgender, gender minority, earnings |
| JEL: | J1 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17377 |
| By: | Banerjee, Rakesh (University of Exeter); Bharati, Tushar (University of Western Australia Business School); Fakir, Adnan (University of Sussex); Qian, Yiwei (Southwestern University of Finance and Economics); Sunder, Naveen (Bentley University) |
| Abstract: | We conduct an experiment on a major international online freelancing labor market platform to study the impact of greater flexibility in choosing work hours within a day on female participation. We post identical job advertisements (for 320 jobs) covering a wide range of tasks (80 distinct tasks) that differ only in flexibility and the wage offered. Comparing the numbers of applicants for these jobs, we find that while both men and women prefer flexibility, the elasticity of response for women is twice that for the men. Flexible jobs receive 24 percent more female applications and 12 percent more male applications compared to inflexible jobs. Critically, these changes come at no cost to the quality of applications. In fact, we find suggestive evidence that flexible jobs attract higher quality female candidates. Our findings have important implications for explaining gender differences in labor market outcomes and for equity initiatives in firms. |
| Keywords: | workplace flexibility, online freelancing jobs, female labor force participation |
| JEL: | J22 O14 J16 L86 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17434 |
| By: | von Essen, Emma (Uppsala University); Smith, Nina (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | The paper explores the impact of the gender composition of Boards of Directors on gender diversity and earnings gaps among executive management using administrative data on all Danish private sector firms from 1995 to 2018. We find that it is not the quantity of women directors but the quality of the women entering the board that matters in generating positive spillovers on the gender gaps within the firms. Quality is viewed as the power, conceptualized as the possible influence in the boardroom, and operationalized as the position and board experience of the directors. A way of channeling power is also through the director's networks. Powerful women directors increase spillovers, while male directors have a negative impact. However, male directors' connections to females positively decrease the gender gaps. Interestingly, the spillovers are not large enough to generate a sustained change in the gender composition of the executive board, mainly because women executives exit to a larger extent than men. |
| Keywords: | board of directors, gender diversity, spillover effects |
| JEL: | J16 M12 M51 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17401 |
| By: | Hanno Foerster (Boston College); Tim Obermeier (University of Leicester); Bastian Schulz (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate how job displacement affects whom men marry and study implications for marriage market matching theory. Leveraging quasi-experimental variation from Danish establishment closures, we show that job displacement leads men to break up if matched with low-earning women and to re-match with higher earning women. We use a general search and matching model of the marriage market to derive several implications of our empirical findings: (i) husbands’ and wives’ incomes are substitutes rather than complements in the marriage market; (ii) our findings are hard to reconcile with one-dimensional matching, but are consistent with multidimensional matching; (iii) a substantial part of the cross-sectional correlation between spouses’ incomes arises spuriously from sorting on unobserved characteristics. We highlight the relevance of our results by simulating how the effect of rising individual-level inequality on between-household inequality is shaped by marital sorting. |
| Keywords: | Marriage Market, Sorting, Search and Matching, Multidimensional Heterogeneity |
| JEL: | D1 J12 C78 D83 J31 |
| Date: | 2024–09–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:bocoec:1082 |
| By: | Christina Brinkmann; Simon Jäger; Moritz Kuhn; Farzad Saidi; Stefanie Wolter |
| Abstract: | Governments use short-time work (STW) schemes to subsidize job preservation during crises. We study the take-up of STW and its effects on worker outcomes and firm behavior using German administrative data from 2009 to 2021. Establishments utilizing STW tend to have higher wages, be larger, and have falling employment even before STW take-up. More adverse selection occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. Within firms, STW is targeted towards workers likely to stay even in the absence of STW. To study the effects of STW, we examine two dimensions of policy variation: STW eligibility and extensions of potential benefit duration (PBD). Workers above retirement age, ineligible for STW, have identical employment trajectories compared to their slightly younger, eligible peers when their establishment takes up STW. A 2012 reform doubling PBD from 6 to 12 months did not secure employment at treated firms 12 months afer take-up, with minimal heterogeneity across worker characteristics. However, treated and control firms experienced substantial and persistent differences in their wage trajectories, with control firms without extensions lowering wages compared to treated firms. Across cells, larger wage effects corresponded with smaller employment effects, consistent with downward wage flexibility preventing layoffs and substituting for the employment protection effects of STW. Our research designs reveal that STW extensions in Germany did not significantly improve short- or long-term employment outcomes. |
| Keywords: | stabilization policies, short-time work, wage rigidity, labor market institutions, intra- firm insurance |
| JEL: | J01 J08 J30 J41 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2024_606 |
| By: | Campa, Pamela (Stockholm School of Economics); Saygin, Perihan (Autonomous University of Barcelona); Tumen, Semih (Amazon) |
| Abstract: | How can women's representation improve in countries that do not embrace legislated gender quotas? We study municipal elections in Turkey during 2009-2019. A conservative dominant party, Erdogan's AKP, is often challenged by a Kurdish party that promotes gender equality in electoral lists. Exploiting within-municipality variation, we find that the Kurdish party winning leads AKP to increase its share of female candidates by 25 to 30% in the next election. Other opposition parties winning has a substantially lower impact. Our results suggest that one party empowering women can help reducing gender gaps in lists across-the-board. |
| Keywords: | women political representation, electoral competition |
| JEL: | D72 J16 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17386 |
| By: | Carlos F. Avenancio-León; Alessio Piccolo; Leslie Sheng Shen |
| Abstract: | After the gender pay gap narrows, what labor choices do men and women make? Several factors contribute to the persistence of the pay gap, such as workplace flexibility, systemic discrimination, and career costs of family. We show that how the labor market responds to the narrowing of the gap is just as pivotal for understanding this persistence. When the gender pay gap declines in a specific sector, women are relatively more likely to seek jobs in that sector, while men readjust their search to less equitable sectors. These compositional effects decrease female participation in less equitable sectors, which typically offer higher wages, reinforcing gender stereotypes and social norms that contribute to the glass ceiling. Through these effects, the same forces that reduce the gender pay gap at the bottom of the pay distribution also contribute to the persistence of gender inequities at the top. This self-reinforcing cycle underscores the need for reforms that are cross-sectoral and comprehensive to effectively achieve meaningful reductions in gender inequities across the labor market. |
| Keywords: | gender pay gap; bank deregulation |
| JEL: | J16 J71 O16 |
| Date: | 2024–11–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedbwp:99067 |
| By: | Osborne Jackson |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the reported race of multiracial persons in the US Current Population Survey (CPS) before 2003, when limited response options exogenously constrained respondents to identify as a single race. Using this survey attribute and the 16-month longitudinal design of the basic monthly CPS, I explore whether market factors help causally determine racial identity. I find that pre-2003 race responds to state-level (1) racial composition, due largely to household composition, and (2) unemployment rates and wages by race. Although these findings suggest potential endogeneity of race, estimation of how race affects individual-level labor market outcomes indicates minimal bias. |
| Keywords: | racial identity; multiracial; biases; Current Population Survey (CPS) |
| JEL: | J15 R23 C18 |
| Date: | 2024–10–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedbwp:99066 |
| By: | Rosa Weber; Camilla Härtull; Jan Saarela |
| Abstract: | Although research in the STEM field has extensively examined its gendered characteristics, the vast majority of the literature has concentrated on educational transitions and young adults. More limited attention has been devoted to the longer-term work-family trajectories of STEM majors, and how these are linked to gender earnings gaps. In response, we exploit Finnish register data to identify the most common work-family trajectories followed by college educated men and women with STEM majors in ages 30–40 (N=150, 796). Given marked differences in gender proportions across STEM fields, we distinguish computer science and engineering majors from natural science majors. In a second step, we assess gender differences in the returns to distinct work-family trajectories and within-gender differences. We report three main findings. First, women are able to combine a career in computer science and engineering and having children. Second, across occupations, mothers earn considerably less than fathers. This suggests that even though women can combine work and family, they do not benefit in terms of earnings. Third, beyond uncovering gender gaps, we show that a major mechanism underlying parental gender gaps is that men receive notable fatherhood premiums across work trajectories. For women, findings reveal more heterogeneous patterns. Among computer science and engineering majors, women have similar earnings across trajectories. Conversely, women with natural science majors gain from working in computer science and engineering. |
| Keywords: | Computer science and engineering, Gender, Sequence analysis, Social stratification, STEM, Occupational life, Family life, Sex discrimination, Parenthood, Careers, Sex differentials, Life course, Finland, FINLANDE / FINLAND, VIE PROFESSIONNELLE / OCCUPATIONAL LIFE, VIE FAMILIALE / FAMILY LIFE, ENSEIGNEMENT SUPERIEUR / HIGHER EDUCATION, DISCRIMINATION ENTRE SEXES / SEX DISCRIMINATION, INFORMATIQUE / COMPUTER SCIENCE, SCIENCES NATURELLES / NATURAL SCIENCES, GENRE / GENDER, DIPLOME / DIPLOMAS, PARENTALITE / PARENTHOOD, CARRIERE / CAREERS, PARCOURS DE VIE / LIFE COURSE, DIFFERENCE ENTRE SEXES / SEX DIFFERENTIALS |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idg:wpaper:3weaqjmbmewvndemrt6i |
| By: | Albanese, Mattia; Aliberti, Manfredi (Rome Economics Doctorate) |
| Abstract: | Skills acquired on the job, whether general or industry-specific, significantly influence workers' labor market outcomes. Workers with general skills tend to have higher re-employment prospects and greater resilience to economic shocks. Using novel data from a recent policy intervention in the Italian labor market, we develop a new measure that captures the tasks taught in firm-provided training for individual workers. This measure enables us to examine the relationship between labor market competition and firms' decisions to invest in general versus industry-specific skills. Our findings indicate that, as theory predicts, workers in more competitive labor markets receive less general training. |
| Date: | 2024–10–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:4ugq5 |
| By: | Minh Tam Bui (Faculty of Economics, Srinakharinwirot University, THAILAND); Ivo Vlaev (Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK); Katsushi Imai (Department of Economics, The University of Manchester, UK and Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University, JAPAN) |
| Abstract: | Ageing society poses an increasing need for elderly care and the essential role of unpaid family care in developing countries where more care burdens are imposed on women. Literature on the driver of gender care gap is limited and its association with social gender norms is both understudied and hardly measured/quantified. Using time-use data in 2014-15 and Labor Force Survey data in 2013-15 from Thailand, we first construct an altruistic time ratio for the whole sample to measure the extent to which individuals spend time on unpaid activities for others than themselves. We found that significant gender gaps in providing eldercare are associated with gender differences in altruistic time ratio. To consider the non-random selection for the elderly care, we then estimate the Tobit model with propensity score matching (PSM) for both elderly carers and non-carers and found that the social gender norm, defined as the district-level gender difference in the modes of altruistic time ratio, explains why women are more burdened with elderly care than men. To examine the underlying mechanisms behind women's time burden, we estimate a simultaneous equation Tobit consisting of elderly care time, leisure time, and time for paid work. The results show that the social gender norm indirectly reduces elderly care time for women by significantly reducing leisure time and paid work time, while the direct effect is dominant for men. The trade-off between paid work time and elderly care time is similar for men and for women, while that between leisure time and elderly care time is greater for men. Associations between elderly care and altruism or peer pressure imply that behavioural changes with a focus on social norms and social policies inducing such changes are important to achieve more gender-equitable eldercare provision besides the state provision of long-term care. |
| Keywords: | Unpaid work; Time use; Elder care; Gender gaps; Altruism; Behavioral change |
| JEL: | D13 D64 D9 J14 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2024-37 |
| By: | Hatsor, Limor; Shurtz, Ity |
| Abstract: | We use a baby formula “food scare” in Israel in 2003 as a plausible natural experiment to study the causal relationship between breastfeeding and mothers’ return to work after childbirth. Analysis of administrative data covering the universe of births in the country shows that first-time mothers who gave birth shortly after the scare delayed their return to work. Their average months worked in the first six months after childbirth fell by about 11 percent relative to their counterparts in the previous year. Data from a major medical equipment lender in Israel indicates an increased likelihood of borrowing milk pumps, suggesting that the delay in returning to work was driven by an increase in breastfeeding. The results indicate that despite developments in technology and policy changes in recent decades, mothers still trade off work for the breastfeeding of their children. |
| Keywords: | motherhood, labor supply, breastfeeding, food scare, maternity leave, return to work |
| JEL: | I18 J13 J22 D1 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:306141 |
| By: | Randi Hjalmarsson; Stephen Machin; Paolo Pinotti; Steve Machin |
| Abstract: | The economics of crime has emerged as a critical field over the past 30 years, with economists increasingly exploring the causes and consequences of criminal behavior. This chapter surveys key contributions and developments from labor economists, who investigate the (often two-way) intersection of crime with labor market factors, such as education, wages, and unemployment. The chapter underscores the importance of understanding criminal decision-making in economic analysis through the lens of opportunity costs and labor market conditions. Methodological advancements, particularly those addressing causation, have propelled the field forward, enabling more accurate conclusions to be drawn for policy recommendations. The chapter also explores the role of social policies and international contexts, emphasizing the need for evidence-based reforms to effectively reduce crime. This comprehensive review underscores the transformative impact of economics on crime research and its potential to influence real-world policies. |
| Keywords: | economics of crime, labor market, criminal record, education, research directions |
| JEL: | K42 J01 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11425 |