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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Jirjahn, Uwe (University of Trier) |
| Abstract: | A series of studies show that unions and works councils have an influence on workers' political activities and attitudes. However, at issue are the transmission channels through which worker representation impacts workers' political activities and attitudes. This article discusses from a theoretical and empirical viewpoint whether the influence of worker representation reflects increased workplace democracy. The article also discusses possible policy implications. |
| Keywords: | party preferences, political engagement, works councils, trade unions, democratic leadership, autocratic leadership |
| JEL: | D70 J51 J53 K31 O35 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17709 |
| By: | Boustan, Leah Platt (Princeton University and NBER); Jensen, Mathias Fjællegaard (University of Oxford); Abramitzky, Ran (Stanford University); Jácome, Elisa (Northwestern University); Manning, Alan (London School of Economics); Perez, Santiago (University of California, Davis); Watley, Analysia (Princeton University); Adermon, Adrian (Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU)); Arellano-Bover, Jaime (Yale University); Aslund, Olof (Uppsala University); Connolly, Marie (University of Melbourne); Deutscher, Nathan (University of Technology, Sydney); Gielen, Anne C. (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Giesing, Yvonne (Ifo Institute for Economic Research); Govind, Yajna (Copenhagen Business School); Halla, Martin (Vienna University of Economics and Business); Hangartner, Dominik (Stanford University); Jiang, Yuyan (University of Cambridge); Karmel, Cecilia (Australian National University); Landaud, Fanny (CNRS); Macmillan, Lindsey (University College London); Martínez, Isabel Z. (KOF Swiss Economic Institute); Polo, Alberto (New York University); Poutvaara, Panu (University of Munich); Rapoport, Hillel (Paris School of Economics); Roman, Sara (IFAU); Salvanes, Kjell G. (Norwegian School of Economics); San, Shmuel (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem); Siegenthaler, Michael (ETH Zurich); Sirugue, Louis (London School of Economics); Espín, Javier Soria (Paris School of Economics); Stuhler, Jan (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); Violante, Giovanni L. (Princeton University); Webbink, Dinand (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Weber, Andrea (Central European University); Zhang, Jonathan (McMaster University); Zhang, Angela (University of Sydney); Zohar, Tom (CEMFI) |
| Abstract: | We estimate intergenerational mobility of immigrants and their children in fifteen receiving countries. We document large income gaps for first-generation immigrants that diminish in the second generation. Around half of the second-generation gap can be explained by differences in parental income, with the remainder due to differential rates of absolute mobility. The daughters of immigrants enjoy higher absolute mobility than daughters of locals in most destinations, while immigrant sons primarily enjoy this advantage in countries with long histories of immigration. Cross-country differences in absolute mobility are not driven by parental country-of-origin, but instead by destination labor markets and immigration policy. |
| Keywords: | immigration, intergenerational mobility |
| JEL: | J15 J61 J62 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17711 |
| By: | García, Jorge Luis (Texas A&M University) |
| Abstract: | I investigate the intra-household labor and resource allocation consequences of an employment guarantee targeting rural households in India. The guarantee insures household earnings, replacing women as added workers and shutting down a motive for saving. Despite sizable program-job take-up, the guarantee decreases participation in other working activities, and, thus, the labor force participation of married women and total time worked by their husbands. The guarantee accounts for up to 30% of a recent countrywide decrease in rural female labor force participation. Though it increases household consumption, the guarantee reduces the command of household earnings by women, and, thereby, their wellbeing. |
| Keywords: | added-worker effect, family insurance, female labor force participation, guaranteed employment, intra-household bargaining power, poverty |
| JEL: | I31 I32 J12 J13 O12 O15 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17689 |
| By: | Martinez, Joan Jennifer (UC Berkeley) |
| Abstract: | Teachers' stereotypical assessments widen the gender gap in earnings and formal sector employment after high school graduation, with lasting positive effects for men and shorter-term negative effects for women. Exposure to these assessments throughout high school disproportionately affects women's graduation, employment, working hours, and earnings during late adolescence and early adulthood. Implicit Association Test scores collected through a survey indicate that students from both genders internalize stereotypes about math and language skills. Stereotyped teachers also deter females from entering male-dominated occupations. I find no evidence that these assessments affect college application or enrollment outcomes for students, irrespective of gender. |
| Keywords: | gender stereotypes, gender pay gap, value-added, math |
| JEL: | J16 J24 I24 J71 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17674 |
| By: | Schüller, Simone (German Youth Institute (DJI)) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates whether (and how) working from home (WFH) affects the gender division of parental unpaid labor. I use the recent COVID-19 pandemic that brought an unanticipated yet lasting shift to WFH combined with a measure of occupational WFH feasibility (Alipour et al. 2023) as a quasi-experiment to employ an instrumental variable (IV) approach and estimate causal effects. I use unique longitudinal data from the "Growing up in Germany" ( AID:A) panel study, which administered a prepandemic wave in 2019, and a post-pandemic wave in 2023. AID:A contains rich information on mothers' and fathers' time use for work, commuting, childcare, and housework. I find that the most robust effects emerge for paternal WFH intensity (at least weekly WFH) on parental division of housework: families in which fathers start weekly WFH in the period 2019 to 2023—due to their occupational WFH capacity in combination with the pandemic WFH-boost—experience a significant decrease in the maternal share of parental housework. Interestingly, this shift appears to be mainly driven by a reduction of maternal time use for housework (combined with an increase of her work hours) and less by an increase in paternal time use for housework suggesting crossparent effects of WFH. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, gender equality, time use, housework, childcare, working from home, AID:A panel survey |
| JEL: | D13 I31 J13 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17694 |
| By: | Gioia, Francesca (University of Milan); Morabito, Leo (University of Milan) |
| Abstract: | The content creator economy has rapidly emerged as a new labor market, enabling ordinary individuals equipped with a smartphone or a video camera to embark on real online careers. We analyze over 18, 000 YouTube channels created in Italy between 2006 and 2023 and show that, despite being highly flexible and free of entry barriers, the content creator market has not proven capable of solving traditional gender gaps. Our findings indicate that men seized the opportunities offered by the digital world early on, while women began a significant entry only after 2011, with a peak during the COVID-19 pandemic. The thematic area of the content also varies by gender: women are predominantly active in the Beauty and Food topics, whereas men are more present in Technology and Knowledge. Furthermore, female content creators tend to have a shorter permanence on the platform and, despite producing more videos on average, they receive lower engagement and appreciation from audiences. We suggest several interconnected mechanisms that could possibly explain our findings: gender differences in interest in STEM and ICT fields and entrepreneurial skills; the lack of female role models, particularly in non-stereotypical domains; stereotypes and social norms influencing both content production and audience preferences; and greater female aversion to negative feedback. |
| Keywords: | gender differences, content creator, digital economy |
| JEL: | D9 J01 J16 J2 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17666 |
| By: | Saint-Paul, Gilles (Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the importance of the educated class for the persistence of mass consumption societies in an economy with a hierarchy of needs.Through the demand for managerial talent (which is needed to operate advanced industrial technologies), the latter generate their own demand for skills. In turn, high wages for skilled labor raise the demand for a broad range of industrial products. Thus, mass consumption society is self-sustaining but may also collapse. An increase in the managerial labor requirement, while a form of technical regress, may sustain a high skilled wage, high industrialization, equilibrium. In the dynamic analysis, a collapse of mass consumption society may be triggered after the economy has accumulated a critically high level of human capital. Following a collapse, the educated class disappears but gradually recovers as its own scarcity ignites a positive feedback loop between the demand for skills and the income of skilled workers. But collapses may happen again, and the economy may experience cycles. |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17681 |
| By: | Campos, Francisco (World Bank); Frese, Michael (Leuphana University Lüneburg); Iacovone, Leonardo (World Bank); Johnson, Hillary C. (World Bank); McKenzie, David (World Bank); Mensmann, Mona (University of Cologne) |
| Abstract: | A randomized experiment in Togo found that personal initiative training for small businesses resulted in large and significant impacts for both men and women after two years. We revisit these entrepreneurs after seven years, and find long-lasting average impacts of personal initiative training of $91 higher profits per month, which is larger than the 2-year impacts. However, these long-term impacts are very different for men and women: the impact for men grows over time as they accumulate more capital and increase self-efficacy, whereas the impact for women is flat or declines, and capital build-up is much more limited. |
| Keywords: | microentrepreneurship, business training, personal initiative, firm growth |
| JEL: | O12 O17 L26 J24 J16 D22 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17672 |
| By: | Prodromidis, Nikolaos (University of Duisburg-Essen); Karlsson, Martin (University of Duisburg-Essen); Kühnle, Daniel (University of Duisburg-Essen) |
| Abstract: | Despite the importance of regulating working hours for workers' health and maintaining labour productivity, the literature lacks credible causal estimates on the impact of reduced working hours. We provide new evidence for the causal effect of shorter workweeks on mortality using full population register data, exploiting a nationwide policy in Sweden that reduced the weekly working hours from 55 to 48 hours for certain occupations only in 1920. Using difference-in-differences and event-study models, we show that lower working hours decreased mortality by around 15% over the first six years. We identify several mechanisms behind this effect: the policy led to fewer workplace accidents, a decline in work-related disability, and a reduction in sick days taken by employees. Causal forest estimators indicate particularly strong effects for older workers. Our results imply that many lives could be saved worldwide by reducing long working hours for labour-intensive occupations. |
| Keywords: | working hours, employment legislation, mortality, Sweden |
| JEL: | I18 I18 J10 J81 N14 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17707 |
| By: | Jiaming Mao; Jiayi Wen |
| Abstract: | Between 1980 and 2000, the U.S. experienced a significant rise in geographic sorting and educational homogamy, with college graduates increasingly concentrating in high-skill cities and marrying similarly educated spouses. We develop and estimate a spatial equilibrium model with local labor, housing, and marriage markets, incorporating a marriage matching framework with transferable utility. Using the model, we estimate trends in assortative preferences, quantify the interplay between marital and geographic sorting, and assess their combined impact on household inequality. Welfare analyses show that after accounting for marriage, the college well-being gap grew substantially more than the college wage gap. |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2502.12867 |
| By: | Njikam, Ousmanou; Elomo, Therese Zogo |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether multinational enterprises (MNEs) create high quality jobs than domestic firms in least-developed countries. We argue that the quality of jobs offered by MNEs may differ depending on their two alternative entry modes, that is, greenfields (GRFs) versus joint ventures (JVs). Using 2005-2017 firm-level Cameroonian data, we find that relative to local firms, MNEs offer more secure jobs through lower speeds and greater half-lives of employment adjustment as well as lower elasticity of employment, and they also offer high-wage jobs. GRFs and JVs also offer more secure jobs than local firms, but through different mechanisms, i.e., employment adjustment processes for the former and wage elasticity for the latter, and their generous wage policies differ across skill groups and occupations. In contrast, skill-intensive MNEs and namely GRFs employ less unskilled workers while skill-intensive JVs enhance managerial and technical occupations. We also find that capital-intensive JVs have a significantly positive impact on both non-production and production employment and generate less jobs in managerial and technical occupations. These results hold for the intensity of foreign ownership and firm exit. |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aer:wpaper:fd1d1549-cd45-4420-95de-f3de4d0570cb |