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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Rambjer, Lovisa (IFAU); Uhlendorff, Arne (CREST); Vikström, Johan (IFAU) |
| Abstract: | Unemployed job seekers must comply with job-search requirements to be eligible for unemployment insurance benefits. We exploit variation in strictness across caseworkers who conduct monthly reviews of these requirements to examine the effects of stricter monitoring on job search behavior and labor market outcomes. This variation arises from central-office caseworkers who are quasi-randomly assigned to review job seekers’ activity reports and whose only interaction with job seekers occurs through this process. We find that stricter monitoring increases the likelihood of reported violations and benefit sanctions, leading to persistently higher job-search intensity, shorter unemployment durations, and higher employment rates. We find no evidence of negative effects on job quality, as measured by subsequent earnings and wages in the first job. The positive employment effects are more persistent among job seekers from low-growth industries and those with weak labor market attachment. |
| Keywords: | unemployment insurance, job search, monitoring, sanctions, caseworkers |
| JEL: | J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18930 |
| By: | Leighton, Margaret (University of St Andrews); Speer, Jamin (University of Memphis) |
| Abstract: | There is a large gender gap in who chooses STEM majors, yet decades of research have failed to explain this gap in its entirety. We use extensive data on incoming college freshmen to estimate the importance of ability (both test-based and self-assessed), life goals, other self-assessed traits, high school courses, and family background in explaining the gender gap in STEM majors. Even with this detailed data, we can explain only 39% of the gender gap. A Gelbach decomposition shows that self-assessed ability (26%) and high school courses (12%) account for the bulk of the explained gap, while goals explain little and in fact controlling for goals slightly widens the gender gap. Goals are similarly uninformative of the gender gap in STEM persistence from freshman to senior year. On the other hand, goals contribute substantially to gender differences in biology and some non- STEM majors, particularly business, education, and health, but remain uninformative of the gap for the majority of STEM subjects. We conclude that while life goals are strongly related to major choice, gender-based differences in these goals are not the missing piece to the STEM gender gap puzzle. |
| Keywords: | gender gaps, STEM, college major, life goals |
| JEL: | J01 J16 I20 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18936 |
| By: | Becker, Sascha (University of Warwick); Fernandes, Ana (Bern University of Applied Sciences); Lalayev, Nurlan (University of Warwick); Weichselbaumer, Doris (University of Linz) |
| Abstract: | We study gender differences in employers’ responses to commuting distance using data from a large-scale correspondence test in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. A 10 km increase in driving distance reduces women’s probability of receiving an interview invitation by 1.8 percentage points, around 9 percent of the mean female invitation rate, while commuting distance has no corresponding effect for men. The gender difference is statistically significant and robust to alternative distance measures and thresholds, firms’ rural or urban location, and local labor-market tightness. The female distance penalty does not vary detectably with applicants’ reported marital status or the presence of children, providing no support for screening based on these observed indicators of household responsibilities. |
| Keywords: | gender discrimination, commuting, labor market, field experiment, Germany, Switzerland, Austria |
| JEL: | C93 J16 J61 J71 R41 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18950 |
| By: | Joshua T. Dean; Christine L. Exley; Muriel Niederle; Heather Sarsons |
| Abstract: | Gender-neutral attitudes judge a behavior the same way regardless of whether a man or a woman does it. Yet surveys of gender attitudes typically ask respondents to evaluate statements about men's or women's behaviors in isolation, never eliciting how the same behavior is evaluated when assigned to the other gender. Such responses therefore cannot reveal whether respondents perceive society as holding gender-neutral views. We introduce paired (role-reversed) elicitation, which varies the gender assigned to otherwise identical behaviors. In a representative sample of Americans, responses to standard statements suggest that few respondents perceive society as holding traditional views toward women. In isolation, this may be seen as evidence that society has moved past gender roles that confine choices. The paired elicitation, however, reveals a gender-neutrality gap: only about half of respondents report the same beliefs across the standard and role-reversed statements, even though these statements only vary in terms of which gender is assigned to which behavior. Thus, a substantial portion of respondents believe that the social acceptability of different actions depends on gender. Paired responses also uncover substantial heterogeneity and reveal broader underlying beliefs driving responses, such as beliefs about work and family rather than gender-specific views. |
| JEL: | D1 J16 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35761 |
| By: | Busso, Matias (Inter American Development Bank); Gonzalez-Velosa, Carolina (Inter American Development Bank); Muñoz-Morales, Juan (IÉSEG School of Management); Ruiz, Juanita (Georgetown University); Valencia, Juan (Inter American Development Bank); van der Werf, Cynthia (Inter American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies whether government-issued skill certification improves labor market integration when workers' skills are hard to verify. We evaluate a randomized offer of access to an occupation-specific certification program in Colombia among locals and migrants, two groups with different ex ante signaling capacity. The program certifies existing skills rather than providing training. Among locals, the offer increases employment by reducing inactivity and raises hours worked. The effects persist unevenly over time and are robust to attrition bounds and alternative outcome measures. Among migrants, estimates are less precise and provide no evidence of effects in employment, hours, or wages. The results show that a common skill certification generates different patterns of labor-market adjustment among locals and migrants. |
| Keywords: | signaling, certifications, skills, migration, Colombia |
| JEL: | J24 J61 J64 I26 O15 D82 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18963 |
| By: | Nxumalo, Mpumelelo (World Bank); Raju, Dhushyanth (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | Formal labor market integration remains central to Türkiye’s Syrian refugee response as policy shifts toward longer-term self-reliance and social cohesion. This paper uses a 2026 survey of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) across all 81 provinces in the country, with a dedicated Syrian refugee employment module in 24 provinces covering about 95 percent of Syrians under temporary protection. Among MSMEs in these provinces, 4.5 percent have ever hired Syrian refugee workers and 2.6 percent currently employ them, representing roughly 100, 000 and 58, 000 firms. Employer-reported experience is generally favorable, yet formal hiring remains constrained by limited knowledge of formal employment requirements, procedural complexity, low support program awareness and use, and reliance on personal networks and direct applications. Current and former employers are far more likely than never-employers to report that additional support would make hiring easier. The findings point to making work authorization pathways clearer and easier to use, reducing administrative frictions, strengthening matching and support services, and differentiating assistance by firms’ prior hiring experience. |
| Keywords: | Syrian refugees, MSMEs, formal employment, work permits, employer-side constraints, labor market integration, Türkiye |
| JEL: | J15 J61 J68 O15 L26 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18916 |
| By: | Fang, Guanfu (School of Business, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics); Qian, Benyu (School of Economics, Jinan University); Zhao, Zhong (Renmin University of China) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the labor market effects of China's After-School Care policy—commonly known as the After-School 3:30 PM Service reform—on maternal employment and earnings. Introduced in 2017, the policy addresses the longstanding mismatch between early school dismissal times and standard work schedules by extending on-campus supervision and enrichment activities into the late afternoon. Exploiting the staggered rollout of the program across counties and over time, we show that the policy significantly increases mothers' labor supply and earnings. We document null effects for fathers. The policy operates by reducing maternal housework time, enabling longer commutes, and facilitating access to formal employment, while also inducing firms to increase job postings for female workers. Effects are concentrated among mothers with egalitarian gender attitudes, with minimal impact on those holding traditional views. |
| Keywords: | after-school care, maternal labor supply, gender norms |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J18 J22 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18949 |
| By: | Lepinteur, Anthony (University of Luxembourg); Nieto Castro, Adrian (Lund University) |
| Abstract: | We study whether pay timing shapes employment stability using staggered state reforms that allow employers to pay less frequently. Combining rich longitudinal labor-market records with multiple complementary data sources, we show that deregulation reduces pay frequency and produces a sharp but temporary increase in employment-to-unemployment transitions, concentrated among workers in the lowest prior-income quartile. The employment separations arise through layoffs, while quits remain unchanged. We provide detailed evidence on the mechanisms underlying this asymmetry. Less frequent pay tightens workers’ financial constraints, reduces their use of medical and professional services, worsens their health-care affordability and functional health, and lowers the time they spend working and interacting at work, thereby weakening employment relationships and contributing to employer-initiated separations. To explain the absence of quits, we examine responses on both sides of the labor market. Workers do not increase on-the-job search or interviewing, while employers neither compensate for less frequent pay by increasing earnings nor broadly reduce job openings. |
| Keywords: | pay frequency, payday regulation, unemployment transitions, layoffs, quits |
| JEL: | J33 J63 J64 D14 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18925 |
| By: | Kauhanen, Antti (ETLA Economic Research); Riukula, Krista (ETLA Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies whether collective bargaining can reduce gender inequality through targeted wage increases. We examine the Finnish equality allowance, a small contractual wage component corresponding to a wage increase of up to 0.5 percent, introduced in the 2005 comprehensive agreement and implemented in collective agreements in 2006. Using worker-level earnings data linked to collective agreements, we estimate its effects with difference-in-differences methods robust to heterogeneous treatment effects. Equality allowances were more commonly applied in more female-dominated sectors and occupations. Our preferred analysis focuses on the private-sector agreements, where some agreements introduced an equality allowance and others did not. We find no statistically significant effects on hourly earnings, working hours, or employer mobility. However, subgroup analyses provide some evidence of reduced working hours among low-wage women. The findings suggest that a small equality-oriented wage component was insufficient to produce detectable wage gains for women or narrow the gender wage gap, with point estimates consistent with partial offsetting through other components of the contractual settlement. |
| Keywords: | collective bargaining, gender wage gap, equality allowance, targeted wage increases, Finland |
| JEL: | J52 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18932 |
| By: | Marina Díez-Rituerto; Javier Gardeazabal; Nagore Iriberri; Pedro Rey Biel |
| Abstract: | Geographic mobility facilitates labor-market adjustment, yet home bias can impede relocation and perpetuate regional disparities, including in the provision of essential services. Using administrative records covering the universe of Spanish medical graduates who selected their first job between 1986 and 2019, we examine whether university lo- cation shapes early-career mobility. We first document substantial home attachment: more than half of graduates begin their careers in their home province. We then show that university location has a large effect on subsequent location choices. Completing a medical degree in one's home province increases the probability of starting work there by 22 percentage points. The effect of opening a medical school on aggregate home bias depends on the local labor market's capacity to absorb additional graduates. Finally, a nationwide liberalization of university admissions reduced students' propensity to study in their home university district and, through this channel, significantly weakened home bias. These findings show that the location of higher-education institutions and the de- sign of admissions policies can shape the geographic allocation of skilled workers at labor-market entry. |
| Keywords: | home bias, labor mobility, university location |
| JEL: | J61 I23 J18 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1594 |
| By: | Daniele Checchi (Università degli Studi di Milano = University of Milano); Daniel Kreisman (Georgia College and State University); Cecilia García-Peñalosa (Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France) |
| Abstract: | We examine the contribution of the intensive margin of labour supply (hours worked above zero) to the gender wage gap over a long time-horizon across four high-income economies: France, Germany, the UK, and the US. We do so by bridging a recent literature on gender differences in high-paying, high-hour jobs with traditional wage gap decomposition methods. We first build a model in which firms offer two wage contracts – one that pays a fixed wage but allows workers to choose their preferred number of hours up to "full time", and a second in which wages are determined by imperfectly observable productivity and can require working more than standard hours. The former includes partand full-time work, while the latter requires workers to supply long hours but allows them to earn a higher remuneration. We then decompose the hourly wage gap separately for part-, full-, and overtime workers to observe the relative contribution of sorting and remuneration across these "hours regimes" over time and across countries. We show that while female employment in overtime work has increased and the gender wage gap has decreased in most countries and hours regimes, this was not driven by increasing selection on observables but rather by a decline over time of the unexplained component of the wage gap — a pattern that holds for most countries and hours regimes. We conclude by considering the contribution of institutional framework (unions, labour market flexibility, parental leaves) to these cross-country differences. |
| Keywords: | Oaxaca decomposition; Overtime work; Gender wage gap; Labour supply |
| JEL: | J01 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2026–09–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:2623 |
| By: | Tanaka, Mari (University of Tokyo); Okudaira, Hiroko (Doshisha University); Sakka, Mariko (University of Tsukuba); Yamaguchi, Shintaro (University of Tokyo) |
| Abstract: | We test whether employers can shift household allocation by targeting men as fathers. Among 1, 225 male employees in four Japanese organizations, we randomized a two-hour work-life balance training and an information treatment correcting misperceptions of colleagues' support. Training increased fathers' weekend childcare by about one hour per day in young-child households and raised spouses' reported paid work; spouses' housework also fell. Training strengthened beliefs that paternity leave benefits workplace functioning but not leave intentions. Information modestly shifted perceived support but affected neither intentions nor information-seeking. Employer training can affect household allocation without changing formal rights or work arrangements. |
| Keywords: | workplace intervention, paternity leave, household time allocation, second-order beliefs, field experiment |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J22 M54 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18913 |
| By: | Marco Alberto De Benedetto; Maria De Paola; Marco Francesconi |
| Abstract: | We estimate the labor market effects of Italy's statutory priority to work from home (WFH) for parents of children under age twelve. Using population-wide administrative data and a sharp regression discontinuity design, we find that eligibility raises mothers' annual earnings by 1.6-2.3 percent in high-WFH-intensity firms, alongside increases in paid days and weeks. Mothers in low-WFH-intensity firms and fathers in general show no detectable effects. The estimates have an intention-to-treat interpretation and persist beyond the pandemic. Placebo tests show no effects before the pandemic, in firms that never adopted WFH, or among manual workers, consistent with a WFH mechanism. |
| Keywords: | flexible work arrangements, female labor supply, work-family policy, remote-work intensity, work organization, regression discontinuity |
| JEL: | C31 J16 J22 J31 J81 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_13010 |
| By: | Diris, Ron (Leiden University); Meekes, Jordy (Leiden University); van Vliet, Olaf (Leiden University) |
| Abstract: | This study analyses whether temporary work agency (TWA) employment is a stepping stone to better labour market outcomes for displaced workers. Using monthly Dutch administrative data for the period 2010-2022, we focus on a sample of incumbent employees who are displaced because of a firm bankruptcy, and analyse the causal effect of the first job after displacement being a TWA job vs. another job. The main contribution of this study is that we exploit variation in firm bankruptcy dates in a novel instrumental variable approach to deal with the endogeneity of TWA employment. We find that TWA causes negative effects on employment and working hours, which dissipate around 30 months after firm bankruptcy. Effects on hourly wages are negative (20\%) and consistent up until seven years after firm bankruptcy. TWA employment also reduces the probability of having a permanent contract by around 20 percentage points in the long run. |
| Keywords: | temporary work agency, stepping stone, labour market flexibilization, instrumental variables, displaced workers |
| JEL: | J31 J64 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18959 |
| By: | Mark Colas |
| Abstract: | Occupational licenses are typically jurisdiction-specific: workers who cross borders must relicense before resuming work. I quantify the resulting misallocation in the United States. I estimate a dynamic equilibrium model of occupation and location choice with occupational licensing and interstate relicensing costs. Non-portability reduces migration among workers in non-portable occupations, reduces employment among those who move, and deters entry into these occupations altogether because workers anticipate future relicensing costs. As a result, non-portability reduces aggregate earnings by roughly $18 billion annually. Workers in these occupations benefit, however, as non-portability raises their earnings. |
| Keywords: | occupational licensing, spatial equilibrium, labor market dynamics |
| JEL: | J44 J24 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12992 |
| By: | Benjamin W. Cowan; Mohamed Hafis Zida |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the causal effect of fertility on mothers’ work arrangements, with a particular focus on remote work. Using harmonized individual-level data from the American Community Survey (ACS) for the period 2003--2024, we exploit exogenous variation in fertility generated by the sex composition of the first two children and twin births at the second parity. We find that fertility significantly reduces labor force participation across our sample period, consistent with existing evidence, but its effects on remote work are nuanced. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, an additional child increases the likelihood of working remotely. However, these effects turn negative after 2020 when remote work became common. We show that these patterns are not driven by changing selection into teleworkable occupations nor by changes in the observable characteristics of compliers over time. The limited feasibility or attractiveness of remote work for many women, combined with changes in the nature of remote work over time, are more likely explanations. Taken together, these findings suggest that remote work, in its current form, has limited potential to meaningfully reduce child penalties for higher-order births. |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J22 J24 J32 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35763 |
| By: | Riccardo Di Francesco; Peter Hull; Seetha Menon |
| Abstract: | We study how firms’ orientation toward employee well-being shapes the health of their workers. Because this orientation is not directly observable, we measure it from the language Danish firms use in their public disclosures, applying language models to construct a firm-level well-being salience score. We link this score to population-wide administrative registers of health and sickness absence over 2013–2022, and exploit workers’ mobility between firms to estimate how workers respond to a change in the salience of their employer. We find an asymmetry: workers who move to higher-salience firms take substantially more sickness absence, while their use of health care does not change. Because worsening health would raise both, the absence response suggests a behavioral change rather than deteriorating health. Broadly, our results show that firms shape not only worker health but how workers act on it, and that the language of routine corporate disclosure can reveal economically meaningful features of the workplace that administrative data leave unrecorded. |
| JEL: | I12 J28 J32 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35760 |
| By: | Shonchoy, Abu (Florida International University and J-PAL); Fujii, Tomoki (Singapore Management University); Raihan, Selim (University of Dhaka) |
| Abstract: | Migration into stable urban manufacturing jobs offers large returns, yet rural-to-urban migration remains limited in developing countries. Using a field experiment in Bangladesh, we sequentially relax constraints on information, skills, liquidity, and migration risk for poor rural youth seeking jobs in the urban apparel sector. Information and training alone have limited effects. By contrast, combining training with a stipend, paid internship, and transition support increases migration, employment, and earnings, reduces poverty, and produces intra-household spillovers. We find that reducing job-search uncertainty and migration risk is central to labor-market entry, and skills-training programs may require complementary financing, migration assistance, and job-search support for scalable impacts. |
| Keywords: | field experiment, internal migration, vocational training, internship, Bangladesh, apparel sector |
| JEL: | J61 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18912 |
| By: | Molina, Teresa (University of Hawaii at Manoa); Tan, Cara (California Policy Lab) |
| Abstract: | Using population census data, this paper documents substantial variation in municipality-level measures of upward and relative education mobility across the Philippines. Regressions that control for a rich set of covariates leave one-fifth of the variation in upward mobility and two-thirds of the variation in relative mobility unexplained. To explore the extent to which these measures capture meaningful variation that can be changed by government policy, we exploit municipality-level variation in exposure to a national conditional cash transfer program. Exposure to the program significantly increased average municipality education and upward mobility but had no significant effects on relative mobility. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational mobility, conditional cash transfers, education, Philippines |
| JEL: | J62 I24 I38 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18921 |
| By: | Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln; Jonas Jessen; Pinchuan Ong; Jessica Pan |
| Abstract: | We assess whether survey responses to hypothetical policy scenarios can recover actual labor supply responses from policy variation. We study the German Mütterrente, a pension benefit crediting parents for child-rearing, benchmarking against Artmann et al. (forthcoming). Surveying mothers and fathers about a hypothetical reform modeled on that expansion, we find that mothers expect to reduce their labor supply, with an implied marginal propensity to earn of −0.65—close to the quasi-experimental estimate of −0.54. The response is sensible across subgroups, falls mainly on the extensive margin, and spills over to fathers. In the aggregate, spousal predictions match partners’ own reports. |
| Keywords: | marginal propensity to earn, pension reform, hypothetical scenarios |
| JEL: | J22 H55 D84 J26 D10 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12993 |