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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Benjamin Lochner; Christian Merkl |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how gender-specific application behaviour, firms' hiring practices, and flexibility demands relate to the gender earnings gap, using linked data from the German Job Vacancy Survey and administrative records. Women are less likely than men to apply to high-wage firms with high flexibility requirements, although their hiring chances are similar when they do. We show that compensating differentials for firms' flexibility demands help explain the residual gender earnings gap. Among women, mothers experience the largest earnings penalties relative to men in jobs with high flexibility requirements. |
| Keywords: | job search, application behaviour, gender earnings gap. |
| JEL: | E24 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11813 |
| By: | Firouzi Naeim, Peyman (University of Technology, Sydney); Johnston, David W. (Monash University); Naghsh Nejad, Maryam (University of Technology, Sydney) |
| Abstract: | Parental caregiving responsibilities can disrupt paid work, contributing to persistent gender inequalities in employment and earnings. Using Australian employer-employee linked data and a dynamic difference-in-differences approach, this study examines how workplace environments shape the impacts of caregiving shocks, focusing on working parents of children diagnosed with cancer. Mothers experience large and persistent earnings losses, while fathers’ outcomes remain stable. Supportive firms and occupations, defined by high female representation in senior roles and lower work hour intensity, significantly reduce mothers’ earnings penalties. These findings highlight the important role of workplace conditions in reducing gendered economic costs of caregiving. |
| Keywords: | workplace, gender gap, child health, caregiving, earnings |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17850 |
| By: | Dodini, Samuel (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas); Willén, Alexander (Norwegian School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between labor market power and employer discrimination, providing new causal evidence on when and where discriminatory outcomes arise. We leverage mass layoffs and firm closures as a source of exogenous job search and combine this with an exact matching approach. We compare native–immigrant worker pairs who held the same job at the same firm, in the same occupation, industry, location, and wage prior to displacement. By tracking post-displacement outcomes across labor markets with differing levels of employer concentration, we identify the causal effect of labor market power on discriminatory behavior. We provide four main findings. First, wage and employment discrimination against immigrants is substantial. Second, discrimination is amplified in concentrated labor markets and largely absent in highly competitive ones. Third, product market power has no independent effect, consistent with the idea that wage-setting power is necessary for discriminatory outcomes. Fourth, gaps fade with sustained employer–immigrant interactions, consistent with belief-based discrimination and employer learning. |
| Keywords: | discrimination, immigration, market power |
| JEL: | J7 J61 J42 J63 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17830 |
| By: | Brenøe, Anne Ardila (University of Zurich); Krenk, Ursa (University of Zurich); Steinhauer, Andreas (University of Edinburgh); Zweimüller, Josef (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | How do firms adjust their labor demand when a female employee takes temporary leave after childbirth? Using Austrian administrative data, we compare firms with and without a birth event and exploit policy reforms that significantly altered leave durations. We find that (i) firms adjust hiring, employment, and wages around leave periods, but these effects fade quickly; (ii) adjustments differ sharply by gender, reflecting strong gender segregation within firms; (iii) longer leave entitlements extend actual leave absences but have only short-term effects; and (iv) there is no impact on firm closure up to five years after birth. |
| Keywords: | absence duration, gender, labor demand, labor supply, firms, family leave |
| JEL: | H2 H5 J2 J08 J13 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17845 |
| By: | Leah Boustan; Mathias Fjællegaard Jensen; Ran Abramitzky; Elisa Jácome; Alan Manning; Santiago Pérez; Analysia Watley; Adrian Adermon; Jaime Arellano-Bover; Olof Åslund; Marie Connolly; Nathan Deutscher; Anne C. Gielen; Yvonne Giesing; Yajna Govind; Martin Halla; Dominik Hangartner; Yuyan Jiang; Cecilia Karmel; Fanny Landaud; Lindsey Macmillan; Isabel Z. Martínez; Alberto Polo; Panu Poutvaara; Hillel Rapoport; Sara Roman; Kjell G. Salvanes; Shmuel San; Michael Siegenthaler; Louis Sirugue; Javier Soria Espín; Jan Stuhler; Giovanni L. Violante; Dinand Webbink; Andrea Weber; Jonathan Zhang; Angela Zheng; Tom Zohar |
| 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. |
| JEL: | J61 J62 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33558 |
| By: | Leduc, Elisabeth (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Tojerow, Ilan (Université Libre de Bruxelles) |
| Abstract: | We partner with a Public Employment Service to examine whether jobseekers can be encouraged to reskill for shortage occupations. In a large-scale field experiment involving 100, 000 recently unemployed individuals, we provide information on shortage occupations and related training opportunities. The intervention increased participation in transversal training courses by 6%, but did not boost enrolment in occupational training for shortage jobs. Jobseekers also shifted their search towards high-demand occupations, yet employment remained unchanged. These findings suggest that while low-cost informational interventions can influence job search and training behaviour, different approaches are likely needed to drive substantial reskilling among jobseekers. |
| Keywords: | Labour shortages, Training, Job search, RCT, Unemployment |
| JEL: | J24 J62 J68 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17731 |
| By: | Koch, Alexander K. (Aarhus University); Nafziger, Julia (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | Using an online experiment with 5, 762 US participants, we investigate whether individuals who seek competition face inaccurate perceptions of their behaviors and personality and whether women are held to different standards than men. We find that evaluators perceive competitive women as less social, more career-oriented, and less (stereotypically) feminine and more (stereotypically) masculine than they actually are or state to be. However, competitive men face similarly inaccurate beliefs and hence belief accuracy does not differ for men and women. Nevertheless, our findings point to social penalties that competitive women may experience -- not for seeking competition itself (which is socially accepted), but because the behaviors associated with seeking competition violate gender-specific norms. Meanwhile, men encounter a double-edged sword: while seeking competition earns them esteem, both, behaviors associated with seeking and avoiding competition can lead to social penalties. |
| Keywords: | stereotypes, beliefs, competitiveness, gender, norms |
| JEL: | J16 D90 C90 D83 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17840 |
| By: | Chiswick, Barry R. (George Washington University); Robinson, RaeAnn Halenda (George Washington University) |
| Abstract: | This paper is concerned with analyzing the occupational attainment of American Jewish men compared to other free men in the mid-19th century to help fill a gap in the literature on Jewish achievement. It does this by using the full count (100 percent) microdata file from the 1850 Census of Population, the first census to ask the occupation of free men. Independent lists of surnames are used to identify men with a higher probability of being Jewish. These men were more likely than others to be managers, salesmen, and craft workers, and were less likely to be farmers and laborers. The Jewish men have a higher occupational income score on average. In the multiple regression analysis, it is found that among Jewish and other free men occupational income scores increase with age (up to about age 43 for all men), literacy, being married, having fewer children, being native born, living in the South, and living in an urban area. Even after controlling for these variables that impact the occupational income score, Jews have a significantly higher score, which is the equivalent of about the size of the positive effect of being married. Similar patterns are found using the Duncan Socioeconomic Index. This higher occupational status is consistent with patterns found elsewhere for American Jews for the 18th century and throughout the 20th century. |
| Keywords: | Jews, cccupational status, occupational income score, Duncan Socioeconomic Index, 1850 Census of Population |
| JEL: | N31 J62 J15 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17835 |
| By: | Kyyrä, Tomi; Verho, Jouko |
| Abstract: | In 2005, displaced workers in Finland with at least three years of work history were given the option to enroll in a Re-employment Program. Participants met with a caseworker at the beginning of their unemployment and drafted an employment plan. In return, they became eligible for higher benefits for four weeks, as well as for the duration of individually targeted training programs specified in their plan. The program aimed to provide early counseling, encourage participation in labor market training, and improve matches between training programs and job seekers. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we show that the program increased caseworker meetings and participation in training programs but had no effect on unemployment duration in the short run or employment in the longer run. The effect on training participation was particularly strong for men, older workers and low-skilled workers, yet unemployment and employment effects were equally disappointing across all subgroups. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment benefits, caseworkers, re-employment, active labor market policy, labor market training, Labour markets and education, C21, J64, J68, fi=Sosiaaliturva|sv=Social trygghet|en=Social security|, fi=Työmarkkinat|sv=Arbetsmarknad|en=Labour markets|, |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fer:wpaper:175 |
| By: | David Albouy; R. Jason Faberman |
| Abstract: | We examine sorting behavior across metropolitan areas by skill over individuals’ life cycles. We show that high-skill workers disproportionately sort into high-amenity areas, but do so relatively early in life. Workers of all skill levels tend to move towards lower-amenity areas during their thirties and forties. Consequently, individuals’ time use and expenditures on activities related to local amenities are U-shaped over the life cycle. This contrasts with well-documented life-cycle consumption profiles, which have an opposite inverted-U shape. We present evidence that the move towards lower-amenity (and lower-cost) metropolitan areas is driven by changes in the number of household children over the life cycle: individuals, particularly the college educated, tend to move towards lower-amenity areas after having their first child. We develop an equilibrium model of location choice, labor supply, and amenity consumption and introduce life-cycle changes in household composition that affect leisure preferences, consumption choices, and required home production time. Key to the model is a complementarity between leisure time spent going out and local amenities, which we estimate to be large and significant. Ignoring this complementarity and the distinction between types of leisure misses the dampening effect child rearing has on urban agglomeration. Since the value of local amenities is capitalized into housing prices, individuals will tend to move to lower-cost locations to avoid paying for amenities they are not consuming. |
| JEL: | J30 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33552 |
| By: | Adermon, Adrian (Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU)); Brandén, Gunnar (Center for Epidemiology and Community Medicine); Nybom, Martin (Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU)) |
| Abstract: | Among economists, empirical analysis of social mobility and the role of parental background is largely carried out in two separate strands of research. The intergenerational mobility literature estimates parent-child persistence in a certain outcome of interest, such as income. In contrast, the equality of opportunity literature is rooted in a normative framework, and has only more recently started generating empirical evidence. Intergenerational regressions are relatively straightforward to estimate, but their normative implications are less obvious. In contrast, measures of equality of opportunity have a policy-relelvant interpretation, but are demanding in terms of data, requiring the researcher to observe a large set of determinants of socioeconomic status for large samples. But maybe they capture similar underlying dynamics? We compare the two approaches by estimating equality of opportunity and intergenerational mobility measures — as well as sibling correlations — across 16 cohorts within 126 Swedish local labor markets. We then test to what extent the different measures correlate, resulting in insights on the plausibility of interpreting intergenerational mobility measures as informative about equality of opportunity. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational mobility, equality of opportunity, sibling correlations |
| JEL: | D31 J62 D63 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17792 |
| By: | Tekleselassie, Tsegay (Wellesley College); Witte, Marc J. (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Radbruch, Jonas (Humboldt University Berlin); Hensel, Lukas (Peking University); Isphording, Ingo E. (IZA) |
| Abstract: | We conduct a field experiment with job seekers to investigate how feed- back influences job search and labor market outcomes. Job seekers who re- ceive feedback on their ability compared to other job seekers update their beliefs and increase their search effort. Specifically, initially underconfident individuals intensify their job search. In contrast, overconfident individuals do not adjust their behavior. Moreover, job seekers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for feedback predicts treatment effects: only among underconfident individuals with positive WTP, we observe significant increases in both search effort and search success. We present suggestive evidence that this pattern arises from heterogeneity in how job seekers perceive the relevance of relative cognitive ability to job search returns. While the intervention appears cost-effective, job seekers’ WTP remains insufficient to cover its costs. |
| Keywords: | willingness-to-pay, feedback, overconfidence, job search, field experiment |
| JEL: | C93 J24 J64 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17761 |
| By: | Vethaak, Heike (University of Leiden); de Bruijn, Ernst-Jan (Leiden University); Knoef, Marike (Tilburg University); Koning, Pierre (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effects of application processing times on welfare applicants’ benefit and employment outcomes. For causal inference, we exploit exogenous variation in application processing times stemming from the random assignment of caseworkers. Our findings indicate that longer application processing times deter applicants from receiving benefits, particularly those with better labor market prospects. In contrast, for applicants who eventually receive benefits, longer processing times reduce labor market attachment and increase benefit dependency. Finally, using exogenous variation in caseworkers’ provision of benefit prepayments, we find that the receipt of welfare prepayments increases the employment and earnings of awarded applicants. This suggests that reduced financial stress improves successful job search. |
| Keywords: | instrumental variables, benefit prepayments, processing times, program application, welfare benefits |
| JEL: | D73 H53 I38 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17839 |
| By: | Castro-Pires, Henrique (University of Miami); Fischer, Kai (Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE)); Mello, Marco (University of Aberdeen); Moscelli, Giuseppe (University of Surrey) |
| Abstract: | Restrictive immigration policies may force firms to abruptly change their workforce composition. But how does this impact the performance of these organizations? We study the effects of the 2016 Brexit referendum, which led to a drop in the share of EU nationality nurses in English hospitals. Using high-quality administrative patient-level data and a continuous difference-in-differences design which exploits the different pre-referendum hospital exposure to the shock, we estimate the causal effect of the workforce composition changes on hospital quality of care. We find that, in the post-referendum period, emergency patients admitted to NHS hospitals with a mean pre-referendum share of EU nurses faced an increase in mortality risk, equivalent to about 1, 485 additional deaths per year. These findings are consistent with a theory model that predicts a decrease in the quality of newly hired hospital workers to avert labour shortages. We provide empirical evidence in support of this mechanism by showing that the foreign joiner nurses hired in the post-referendum period were assigned to lower salary grades than those hired prior to the referendum, indicating lower levels of skills and job experience. |
| Keywords: | patient care, migration, worker mobility, labour supply, hospital quality, Brexit |
| JEL: | J45 J61 J68 I11 C26 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17797 |
| By: | Giulio Ecchia; Natalia Montinari; Raimondello Orsini; Sveva Vitellozzi |
| Abstract: | Firm performance depends critically on the efficient allocation of tasks across employees. Yet, task assignment decisions are often shaped not only by productivity considerations but also by managerial biases and gender stereotypes—frequently resulting in women being disproportionately assigned low-promotability, female-stereotyped tasks. This paper investigates whether making workers' task preferences visible to managers can reduce gender-stereotypical assignments and improve overall outcomes. We conduct two complementary experiments. In the first, participants act as workers, completing real-effort tasks and reporting their task preferences. In the second, a separate group of participants from the same subject pool takes on the role of managers and assigns tasks to pairs of workers under varying information conditions. In the control condition—where managers lack access to workers' preferences—task assignments are more likely to reflect gender stereotypes. In contrast, when managers are informed of workers' preferences, stereotypical assignments decrease, and managerial earnings improve. We also find that preference-informed task allocation leads to higher managerial earnings, suggesting that reducing gender bias not only promotes fairness but also enhances organizational efficiency. Our findings highlight the potential of low-cost informational interventions to promote fairer and more effective task allocation practices. |
| JEL: | J16 J71 M12 C91 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp1202 |
| By: | Frederik Almar; Benjamin Friedrich; Ana Reynoso; Bastian Schulz; Rune M. Vejlin |
| Abstract: | This paper revisits the link between education-based marriage market sorting and income inequality. Leveraging Danish administrative data, we develop a novel categorization of “ambition types” that is based on starting wages and wage growth trajectories associated with detailed educational programs. We find a substantial increase in assortative matching by educational ambition over time, and the marriage market explains more than 40% of increasing inequality since 1980. In contrast, sorting trends are flat with the commonly-used educational level categorization. We conclude that the mapping from education to types matters crucially for conclusions about how education-based marriage market sorting contributes to rising income inequality. |
| JEL: | D1 J12 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33683 |
| By: | Conti, Gabriella (University College London); Ginja, Rita (University of Bergen); Persson, Petra (Stanford University); Willage, Barton (University of Delaware) |
| Abstract: | The motherhood penalty is well-documented, but what happens at the other end of the reproductive spectrum? Menopause—a transition often marked by debilitating physical and psychological symptoms—also entails substantial costs. Using population-wide Norwegian and Swedish data and quasi-experimental methods, we show that a menopause diagnosis leads to lasting drops in earnings and employment, alongside greater reliance on social transfers. The impact is especially severe for women with lower socioeconomic status. Increasing access to menopause-related health care can help offset these losses. Our findings reveal the hidden economic toll of menopause and the potential gains from better support policies. |
| Keywords: | disability income, health care, menopause, fertility |
| JEL: | J01 J13 I10 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17793 |
| By: | Alberto Bucci (University of Milan); Klaus Prettner (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business) |
| Abstract: | Fertility rates have declined dramatically across almost all high-income countries over the past decades. This has raised concerns about future economic prospects. Indeed, fully– and semi–endogenous growth models imply that a shrinking workforce would lead to declining income growth and perhaps even stagnation. We extend the previous analyses to explicitly incorporate an endogenous quantity/quality trade-off between fertility and human capital accumulation. This allows us to assess the extent to which a declining number of workers can be compensated by increasing education. Our analysis demonstrates that economic growth needs not necessarily to decline with a falling population. Under certain conditions, human capital investment can sustain technological progress and economic growth despite the demographic challenges we are facing. |
| Keywords: | Demographic Change, Fertility Decline, Economic Growth, Research and Development, Endogenous Fertility, Endogenous Education, Human Capital Accumulation |
| JEL: | J11 J13 O33 O41 I25 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp377 |
| By: | Ghorpade, Yashodhan (World Bank); Imtiaz, Muhammad Saad (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | We examine the relationship between violent conflict and the willingness of potential migrants to accept lower skilled work (occupational downgrading). We develop a theoretical model of migration decisions, which we test using an innovative survey module administered to high-skilled youth in Myanmar. Consistent with the predictions of the model, we show that insecurity induced by conflict reduces the additional wage premium that individuals would typically demand for taking on lower-skilled work, indicating greater amenability to occupational downgrading. These effects are particularly pronounced for disadvantaged groups, such as women, ethnic minorities, and those with weaker labor market networks or English language skills. The results are driven by respondents from areas under territorial contestation, and those interviewed after the sudden activation of a conscription law during the survey. This further confirms how security considerations may override the preference for skill-appropriate job matching, suggesting that conflict may worsen labor market outcomes and reduce potential gains from migration, especially for disadvantaged groups. |
| Keywords: | occupational downgrading, migration, conflict, compensating differential, Myanmar |
| JEL: | J61 O15 F22 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17735 |
| By: | Abrahamsson, Sara (Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH)); Barschkett, Mara (University of Bonn); Flatø, Martin (Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH)) |
| Abstract: | Menopause marks a crucial juncture in women's lives and careers. We provide novel evidence on the effects of menopause onset on labor and health outcomes. Combining Norwegian register with survey data from the HUNT study on self-reported menopause age, we apply a stacked difference-in-differences design. Our findings show declines in earnings, increased sick leave, and more diagnoses related to menopause. Additionally, women without symptoms, and those with mild symptoms who seek care, do not experience earnings losses. Moreover, timely healthcare-seeking and treatment onset can mitigate earnings losses. This suggests that policies promoting menopause awareness could alleviate individual and societal burdens. |
| Keywords: | administrative health data, women's health, menopause, labor market outcomes, HUNT |
| JEL: | I10 I12 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17789 |
| By: | Nicholas A. Carollo; Jason F. Hicks; Andrew Karch; Morris M. Kleiner |
| Abstract: | The analysis of occupational licensing has concentrated largely on its labor market and consumer welfare effects. By contrast, relatively little is known about how occupational licensing laws originated or the key factors in their evolution. In this paper, we study the determinants of U.S. licensing requirements from 1870 to 2020. We begin by developing a model where licensing arises as an endogenous political outcome and use this framework to study how market characteristics and political incentives influence regulators’ choices. Our empirical analysis draws on a novel database tracking the initial enactment of licensing legislation for hundreds of unique occupations, as well as changes to the specific qualifications required to obtain a subset of licenses over time. We first show that, consistent with the predictions of our model, licensing requirements are more common and were adopted earlier for occupations whose tasks plausibly pose some risk to consumers. Second, large, urbanized states are significantly more likely to produce new policies. Third, among occupations regulated before 1940, licensing requirements appeared earlier in states with more practitioners and where incumbent workers likely experienced greater labor market competition. After 1980, state-level factors are more strongly associated with the timing of policy adoption. Finally, political organization, as measured by the establishment of a state professional association, significantly increases the probability of regulation. Together, our findings suggest that both public and private interests have contributed to the diffusion of licensing requirements across states and occupations. |
| JEL: | J01 J29 J4 J44 J48 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33580 |
| By: | Modestino, Alicia Sasser (Northeastern University); Marks, Mindy (Northeastern University); Hoover, Hanna (University of Michigan); Pandit, Hitanshu (Northeastern University) |
| Abstract: | Summer Youth Employment Programs are known to have significant impacts on youth outcomes based on lotteries from oversubscribed programs. But most cities cannot use a lottery design due to heterogeneity across youth and jobs. How can programs achieve efficiency and equity under alternative assignment mechanisms? Using hiring platform data, we study youth application and employer selection behavior to explore these design challenges. We find large mismatches between the distribution of youth versus jobs leaving 10% to 25% of positions unfilled. Moreover, employers were nearly twice as likely to select white youth relative to their representation in the applicant pool. This disparity persisted when controlling for other demographics, the number and timing of applications, and job readiness. Our findings reveal that workforce development programs may perpetuate inequities in the absence of simple random assignment. Using a job matching algorithm, we show that placing just 30% of positions by lottery can improve both equity and efficiency. |
| Keywords: | youth, workforce development, summer jobs, job matching, algorithm |
| JEL: | D63 D91 I38 J13 M51 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17737 |
| By: | Matano, Alessia (University of Barcelona); Naticchioni, Paolo (Roma Tre University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between China’s import competition and the innovation strategies of domestic firms. Using firm level data from Italy spanning 2005-2010 and employing IV fixed effects estimation techniques, we find that the impact of China’s import competition on innovation varies depending on the type of goods imported (intermediate vs. final). Specifically, imports of final goods boost both product and process innovation, while imports of intermediate goods reduce both. Additionally, we extend the analysis to consider the role of unions in moderating these responses. We find that, in unionized firms, imports' impact on innovation is mitigated, specifically to protect workers' employment prospects. |
| Keywords: | unions, product and process innovation, final and intermediate goods, China’s import competition, IV fixed effects estimations |
| JEL: | C33 L25 F14 F60 O30 J50 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17764 |
| By: | Ghorpade, Yashodhan (World Bank); Imtiaz, Muhammad Saad (World Bank); Han, Theingie (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | In recent years Myanmar has witnessed considerable economic and political instability, leading many young people, particularly the higher-skilled, to consider migrating abroad for improved prospects. We employ an innovative method to quantify migration intentions among high-skilled youth by analyzing the take-up of migration at different wage premia. A randomized survey experiment then evaluates how hypothetical political and economic stabilization scenarios impact these intentions. We find that 35 percent of the respondents would be willing to take a similar job abroad for pay equal to their current income. Randomization within the survey indicates that political stabilization would potentially reduce high-skilled workers' desire to migrate by about 15 percent, especially among men, those living in high conflict areas, and persons with lower absolute income, but higher perceived relative income. In contrast, prospects of economic stabilization do not have a significant effect on migration intentions. Economic stabilization, in the absence of political stability and a reduction in conflict, is unlikely to reduce talent outflows among the young. |
| Keywords: | migration, emigration, Myanmar, brain drain, high-skilled migration, conflict |
| JEL: | J61 O15 D74 F2 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17736 |
| By: | Matthias Doepke; Hanno Foerster; Anne Hannusch; Michèle Tertilt |
| Abstract: | During the first half of the twentieth century, many US states enacted laws restricting women’s labor market opportunities, including maximum hours restrictions, minimum wage laws, and night-shift bans. The era of so-called protective labor laws came to an end in the 1960s as a result of civil rights reforms. In this paper, we investigate the political economy behind the rise and fall of these laws. We argue that the main driver behind protective labor laws was men’s desire to shield themselves from labor market competition. We spell out the mechanism through a politico-economic model in which singles and couples work in different sectors and vote on protective legislation. Restrictions are supported by single men and couples with male sole earners who compete with women for jobs. We show that the theory’s predictions for when protective legislation will be introduced are well supported by US state-level evidence. |
| Keywords: | protective legislation, political economy, women's rights, labor market competition, structural transformation, family economics, gender |
| JEL: | D13 D72 D78 E24 J12 J16 N30 O10 O43 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2025_686 |
| By: | Louis-Pierre Lepage; Xiaomeng Li; Basit Zafar |
| Abstract: | We study whether gender differences in university major choices result from anticipated labor market discrimination. First, we document two novel facts using administrative transcript records from a large Midwestern university: women are less likely to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as well as business and economics, but 1) those who do are positively selected on ability, and 2) obtain higher grades conditional on ability. Second, we show that these facts are consistent with a signaling model in which women anticipate greater labor market discrimination in STEM, business, and economics than in other fields. Third, we provide direct empirical evidence of anticipated discrimination using a student survey. The survey reveals striking patterns of anticipated discrimination by women, particularly in STEM, business, and economics, affecting both expected economic outcomes such as wages as well as expected workplace conditions. We conclude by showing that anticipated discrimination explains women's course taking and intended major choices, but not men's. |
| JEL: | I23 J16 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33680 |
| By: | Bertrand Garbinti (CREST-ENSAE-Institut Polytechnique Paris, and CEPR); Cecilia Garcia-Pe˜nalosa (Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, EHESS, Banque de France, CEPR and CESifo); Vladimir Pecheu (Paris School of Economics, Institut des politiques publiques); Frédérique Savignac (Banque de France) |
| Abstract: | Using a long administrative panel dataset for France, we analyse the dynamics and drivers of the narrowing gender gap in lifetime earnings (LTE) for cohorts born after WWII. We find that the level, trends, and distribution of gender differences in LTE contrast sharply with those observed in the US, and that these differences are more marked than when we compare cross-sectional gender gaps. We show that this reflects a specific pattern in which both men and women experienced earnings gains over the whole distribution (with the exception of the very top), in contrast with the US, where the same cohorts of men experienced earnings losses in the three bottom quartiles of the distribution. We then decompose the changing role of various factors (e.g., working (part) time, education, occupation, geographical location) in shaping the evolution of the gender LTE gap in France. The contribution of unobserved factors decreases across cohorts and increases along the distribution, remaining larger at the top, consistent with a glass ceiling effect. Meanwhile, the impact of observed factors rises, mostly due to the decline in the years worked full time by women, which has slowed gender convergence. Differences in educational attainment contribute to a lesser extent, as the gender gap in returns to education has narrowed. |
| Keywords: | Lifetime earnings, inequality, gender earnings gaps. |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J62 |
| Date: | 2025–04–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crs:wpaper:2025-06 |
| By: | Gordon H. Hanson; Enrico Moretti |
| Abstract: | We examine changes in the spatial distribution of good jobs across US commuting zones over 1980-2000 and 2000-2021. We define good jobs as those in industries in which full-time workers attain high wages, accounting for individual and regional characteristics. The share of good jobs in manufacturing has plummeted; for college graduates, good jobs have shifted to (mostly tradable) business, professional, and IT services, while for those without a BA they have shifted to (non-tradable) construction. There is strong persistence in where good jobs are located. Over the last four decades, places with larger concentrations of good job industries have tended to hold onto them, consistent with a model of proportional growth. Turning to regional specialization in good job industries, we find evidence of mean reversion. Commuting zones with larger initial concentrations of good jobs have thus seen even faster growth in lower-wage (and mostly non-tradable) services. Changing regional employment patterns are most pronounced among racial minorities and the foreign-born, who are relatively concentrated in fast growing cities of the South and West. Therefore, good job regions today look vastly different than in 1980: they are more centered around human-capital-intensive tradable services, are surrounded by larger concentrations of low-wage, non-tradable industries, and are more demographically diverse. |
| JEL: | J01 R0 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33631 |
| By: | Addison, John T. (Durham University Business School); Teixeira, Paulino (University of Coimbra) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates one aspect of the structured management practices literature which has argued that exogenous legislative changes leading to reductions in union power (identified with the passage of RTW laws) serve to increase the use of management incentives practices often resisted by unions as giving too much discretion to the employer. Capturing such alterations in the business environment by compound legal changes in employee representation protection we investigate whether corresponding changes in the use of incentive management practices are found in European nations. Our baseline difference-in-differences model shows that reductions in the protection offered employees are associated with increased adoption of “people management, ” while increases in employee representation protection point to more strongly significant negative treatment effect estimates. Each finding is corroborated in a complementary analysis using synthetic control methods. Future discussion of management practices might be expected to take explicit account of the value of employee voice. |
| Keywords: | difference-in-differences, employee representation protection, right-to-work laws, incentives management practices, structured management practices, synthetic controls, CBR Labour Regulation Index, European Company Survey |
| JEL: | D22 J8 L2 M11 M50 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17778 |
| By: | Patrick Bayer; Kerwin Kofi Charles; JoonYup Park |
| Abstract: | We introduce the concept of racial capital, defined as the collective material and non- material assets of the racial groups to which a child is exposed while growing up, and examine its potential to explain racial disparities in life outcomes that persist even after accounting for a broad range of parental and neighborhood resources. Estimates for Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White children born around 1980 imply that metro-level racial capital measures: (i) have substantial power to explain racial differences in life outcomes, (ii) sharply close and, in many cases, reverse the sign of racial intergenerational mobility gaps in education, income, and employment, and (iii) matter most when racial dissociation, as measured by residential and marriage segregation, is greatest. In contrast to standard estimates, our empirical framework implies a steady state equilibrium that is characterized by near equality for Black and White Americans. The inclusion of racial capital in the model, however, greatly slows the speed of convergence to the steady state, helping to explain the historically slow speed of racial economic convergence in the United States over the past two centuries. Finally, our framework highlights the complementary way that policies related to racial dissociation and wealth transfers affect the speed of convergence across generations. |
| JEL: | J15 J71 R31 R32 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33690 |
| By: | Benjamin W. Arold; Elliott Ash; W. Bentley MacLeod; Suresh Naidu |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes novel natural language methods to measure worker rights from collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) for use in empirical economic analysis. Applying unsupervised text-as-data algorithms to a new collection of 30, 000 CBAs from Canada in the period 1986-2015, we parse legal obligations (e.g., “the employer shall provide...”) and legal rights (e.g., “workers shall receive...”) from the contract text. We validate that contract clauses provide worker rights, which include both amenities and control over the work environment. Companies that provide more worker rights score highly on a survey indicating pro-worker management practices. Using time-varying province-level variation in labor income tax rates, we find that higher taxes increase the share of worker-rights clauses while reducing pre-tax wages in unionized firms, consistent with a substitution effect away from taxed compensation (wages) toward untaxed amenities (worker rights). Further, an exogenous increase in the value of outside options (from a leave-one-out instrument for labor demand) increases the share of worker rights clauses in CBAs. Combining the regression estimates, we infer that a one-standard-deviation increase in worker rights is valued at about 5.7% of wages. |
| JEL: | J50 J83 K12 K31 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33605 |
| By: | Schuyler Louie; John A. Mondragon; Johannes Wieland |
| Abstract: | The standard view of housing markets holds that the flexibility of local housing supply–shaped by factors like geography and regulation–strongly affects the response of house prices, house quantities and population to rising housing demand. However, from 2000 to 2020, we find that higher income growth predicts the same growth in house prices, housing quantity, and population regardless of a city's estimated housing supply elasticity. We find the same pattern when we expand the sample to 1980 to 2020, use different elasticity measures, and when we instrument for local housing demand. Using a general demand-and-supply framework, we show that our findings imply that constrained housing supply is relatively unimportant in explaining differences in rising house prices among U.S. cities. These results challenge the prevailing view of local housing and labor markets and suggest that easing housing supply constraints may not yield the anticipated improvements in housing affordability. |
| JEL: | E22 J61 R21 R31 R52 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33576 |
| By: | Donehower, Gretchen (University of California, Berkeley) |
| Abstract: | Aging populations in Asia are worried that they are facing a “care crisis, ” with many older people in need of care having no one to care for them. However, we do not have a clear picture of current care patterns: How much care is currently being consumed? Who is providing that care? Are women and men serving equally as paid or unpaid caregivers? We explore the methods for answering some of these basic empirical questions about unpaid care work using the National Time Transfer Accounts, which show that older people are far from being a major source of unpaid care demand, but are making net transfers of time to other age groups well into their elder years. In our group of Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Thailand, Türkiye, and Viet Nam), these time transfers come on average from women. |
| Keywords: | eldercare; childcare; unpaid care work; time use; transfers |
| JEL: | J13 J14 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2025–04–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbewp:0777 |
| By: | Mahnaz, Susama (Monash University) |
| Abstract: | Most countries have experienced a substantial narrowing of the gender employment and wage gaps in recent decades. However, the determinants of the convergence in gender productivity, an important factor underpinning the gender wage gap, remain largely unexplained. This paper addresses this gap by exploring how technological advancements, from physical (brawn) to intellectual (brain) skills demand, and evolving social norms about women’s roles in societies have contributed to women’s changing work choices and productivity. Using panel data from 26 European countries over the period 2008 to 2020, I estimate the impact of technological factors and social norms on the productivity of women relative to men with a fixed effects specification. I find that changing skill requirements and skill-biased technical change have a significant and robust relationship with female labour productivity across countries. Moreover, in countries with higher levels of gender inequality, women’s productivity gains are also strongly related to reduced gender inequality. |
| Keywords: | gender productivity ; occupations ; skill requirement ; social norms ; technical change. JEL classifications: I20 ; J16 ; J21 ; J24 ; J31 ; O52 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:wrkesp:82 |
| By: | Anne Polivka; Mary Dorinda Allard; Emy Sok |
| Abstract: | When the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, the amount of telework sharply increased, allowing people to work while limiting their exposure to others. At that time, there were no regular monthly economic indicators measuring the prevalence of telework. Thus, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) supplemented its monthly economic indicators to better measure the effect of the pandemic on the labor market, adding a short set of questions to the Current Population Survey (CPS) in May 2020. This set focused on the immediate labor market response to COVID-19, including one question about whether people were teleworking because of the pandemic. These questions became less relevant over time and were replaced in October 2022 by a new set of questions that focused entirely on telework—specifically, telework prior to the onset of the pandemic and current telework practices. The questions about telework prior to the pandemic were discontinued in November 2023, but the questions about current telework were permanently retained. This paper describes the development, evaluation, collection, analysis, and publication of the two sets of questions. We then compare the results of the telework metrics in the two sets, demonstrating how, although related, they measure fundamentally different concepts. |
| JEL: | J01 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33613 |
| By: | Jacob Funk Kirkegaard (Peterson Institute for International Economics) |
| Abstract: | As the world and especially other Asian and European economies enter the accelerated process of aging that Japan experienced from the mid-1990s onwards, learning the right policy lessons from Japan's response is crucial. This paper argues that, overall, Japan has done relatively well by implementing a response that--even if often belatedly so--has mitigated some of the worst economic effects of aging. Japan has successfully raised domestic labor utilization and immigration levels, integrated its economy more with the rest of the world, and implemented a fiscal policy based on debt expansion that has seen debt costs decline. Other advanced Asian economies and China now face aging processes materially faster than Japan's and will age simultaneously rather than alone like Japan. In addition, many advanced economies will age during a period of much slower global economic growth and less rather than more global trade and investment opening than what Japan faced from the mid-1990s. These less benign international economic and political circumstances mean that many advanced economies will likely not age with the same relative political and economic stability seen in Japan in the last 30 years. In time, this paper argues, "Japanification" will no longer mean a slowly developing economic disaster but will come to mean competent management of a very difficult economic transition. |
| Keywords: | Japan, Aging, Demographics, Labor Utilization, Immigration, Productivity, Fiscal Policy, Government Debt and Deficits |
| JEL: | E24 E63 F22 H30 H51 H55 H62 J11 J13 N15 N35 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iie:wpaper:wp25-4 |