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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Arenas-Arroyo, Esther (Vienna University of Economics and Business); Wurm, Elisabeth (Central European University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the long-run effects of women’s economic rights on generations exposed to property and earnings acts during childhood. We find that childhood exposure to these reforms reduced the probability of marriage—particularly among women—and increased female labor force participation in adulthood. To explore potential mechanisms, we document several short-run effects among the adult generation contemporaneous to the reforms, including improved occupational standing, reduced fertility, lower child mortality, and increased schooling among children. Taken together, our findings suggest that expanding economic rights for women can shape outcomes across multiple generations, underscoring the enduring importance of legal and institutional reforms that promote women’s economic empowerment. |
| Keywords: | long-run effects, women’s economic rights, intergenerational mobility |
| JEL: | D13 J12 J16 N31 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18241 |
| By: | Scoppa, Vincenzo (University of Calabria); Spanò, Idola Francesca (University of Calabria) |
| Abstract: | Gender gaps in labor market outcomes have traditionally been attributed to differences in individual productivity or to discrimination. More recently, several studies have documented the role of gender differences in psychological attitudes. Rather than using data on realized wages, we rely on data on reservation wages – the lowest wage workers are willing to accept – for a sample of Italian graduates. Reservation wages reflect individual attitudes and beliefs more directly, while being less affected by employer discrimination. We first relate reservation wages to educational background, individual characteristics, and family background, and investigate how they depend on labor market expectations. We then analyze how reservation wages depend on preferences over specific job attributes, such as permanent positions, geographical mobility, etc. Applying the Gelbach decomposition to quantify the contribution of each factors, we find a substantial role for preferences for job attributes and expectations. However, our estimates reveal a large unexplained component which is likely driven by gender differences in psychological and social attitudes, such as risk aversion, overconfidence and adherence to social norms. |
| Keywords: | Psychological Attitudes, Graduate Labor Market, Reservation Wages, Gender Gaps, Behavioral Economics |
| JEL: | J16 J32 D83 D91 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18230 |
| By: | Stuhler, Jan (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); Dustmann, Christian (University College London); Otten, Sebastian (RWI); Schönberg, Uta (University College London) |
| Abstract: | Most studies on the labor market effects of immigration use repeated cross-sectional data to estimate the effects of immigration on regions. This paper shows that such regional effects are composites of effects that address fundamental questions in the immigration debate but remain unidentified with repeated cross-sectional data. We provide a unifying empirical framework that decomposes the regional effects of immigration into their underlying components and show how these are identifiable from data that track workers over time. Our empirical application illustrates that such analysis yields a far more informative picture of immigration’s effects on wages, employment, and occupational upgrading. |
| Keywords: | elasticity, upgrading, employment effects, wage effects, immigration, selection, identification |
| JEL: | J21 J23 J31 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18229 |
| By: | Adrjan, Pawel (Indeed Hiring Lab); Gromadzki, Jan (Vienna University of Economics and Business) |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether exclusionary government rhetoric targeting a minority group affects residents' migration decisions. In 2019, almost 100 local governments in Poland voted to declare their localities "free from LGBTQ ideology, " providing a unique setting in which government narratives suddenly changed, but the legal situation of targeted minorities remained the same. We study the impact of these resolutions on migration intentions using novel data on domestic and international job search from a large global job site. Comparing counties with anti-LGBTQ resolutions to neighboring counties in a difference-in-differences design, we find that the resolutions increased domestic out-of-county job search by 12 percent and international job search by 15 percent. Our results are likely driven by the shock to beliefs about local social norms, as we find the largest effects in counties with relatively low prior support for far-right parties. We also present suggestive evidence that the rise in job search translated into actual migration, with the treated counties losing nearly 1 percent of their young adult population. |
| Keywords: | job search, migration intentions, migration, discrimination, LGBTQ |
| JEL: | F22 R23 N40 J15 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18217 |
| By: | Verdugo, Gregory (University of Cergy-Pontoise); Kandoussi, Malak (University of Evry) |
| Abstract: | We examine how relocations from the center to the suburbs of establishments employing mainly skilled workers affect the composition and wages of their employees. Using data from the Paris metro area, we find that these relocations increase average commuting time by 19%. In response, firms compensate highly paid workers with 10 to 20% of their hourly wage per additional hour of commuting. Lower-paid workers receive no compensation and are more likely to leave. Consistent with workers valuing locational amenities, we find little increase in separation and no wage adjustment for increased commuting time when establishments relocate to more attractive neighborhoods. |
| Keywords: | firm’s location, commuting time, labor supply |
| JEL: | J16 D13 J18 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18232 |
| By: | Bennett, Patrick (University of Liverpool); Johnsen, Julian V. (SNF, Bergen) |
| Abstract: | We study how the labor market shocks of automation and immigration interact to shape workers’ outcomes. Using matched employer–employee data from Norwegian administrative registers, we combine an immigration shock triggered by the European Union’s 2004 enlargement with an automation shock based on the adoption of industrial robots across Europe. Although these shocks largely occur in separate industries, we show that automation reduces earnings not only in manufacturing but also in construction, where tasks overlap with robot-exposed sectors. Importantly, workers jointly exposed to automation and immigration suffer earnings losses greater than those facing either shock in isolation. These losses are driven by downward occupational mobility into low-wage services and re-sorting into lower-premium firms. Even within the Norwegian welfare system, the ability of social insurance to offset these long-run earnings declines is limited. Our findings underscore the importance of analyzing labor market shocks jointly, rather than in isolation, to fully understand their distributional consequences. |
| Keywords: | labor market shocks, immigration, automation |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18218 |
| By: | Chen, Wen-Hao (OECD); Fang, Tony (Memorial University of Newfoundland) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the labor market impacts of Canada’s 2014 reforms to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), which introduced stricter limits on hiring low-skilled foreign workers. Using a difference-in-differences framework with Labour Force Survey data from 2005 to 2019, we compare wage outcomes for domestic workers in TFW-intensive occupations to those in similar low-skill jobs unaffected by the reforms. Robustness checks— including event study analysis, propensity score matching, placebo tests, and additional validation with Census data (2006, 2011, 2016)—consistently show that the reforms led to a statistically significant increase in wages for affected domestic workers. The estimated impact ranges from 3.7% to 4.5%, suggesting that restricting access to temporary foreign labor modestly improves wage outcomes for low-wage Canadians. These findings offer timely insights amid renewed policy efforts to tighten immigration, highlighting the potential benefits of targeted reforms while cautioning against broader restrictions that could undermine labor market responsiveness and sectoral needs. |
| Keywords: | policy evaluation, low-skilled workers, wages, labor market, immigration policy, temporary foreign workers, difference-in-differences |
| JEL: | J61 J68 J31 J21 O15 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18240 |
| By: | Christian Dustmann; Sebastian Otten; Uta Sch\"onberg; Jan Stuhler |
| Abstract: | Most studies on the labor market effects of immigration use repeated cross-sectional data to estimate the effects of immigration on regions. This paper shows that such regional effects are composites of effects that address fundamental questions in the immigration debate but remain unidentified with repeated cross-sectional data. We provide a unifying empirical framework that decomposes the regional effects of immigration into their underlying components and show how these are identifiable from data that track workers over time. Our empirical application illustrates that such analysis yields a far more informative picture of immigration's effects on wages, employment, and occupational upgrading. |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2510.24225 |
| By: | Pavlina R. Tcherneva |
| Abstract: | This paper employs the concept of "enshittification"--the systematic degradation of a service or product in the pursuit of profit--as a powerful metaphor to analyze the decay of the US labor market in the postwar era. Situating this process within Hyman Minsky's theory of capitalist development, it argues that the current phase of money manager capitalism has accelerated a pervasive "bait-and-switch" dynamic that has emerged since the 1970s. The "bait" was the postwar social contract, which promised but never guaranteed economic security through tight full employment and access to good jobs for all. The "switch" was the neoliberal policy shift that dismantled labor protections, weaponized unemployment (via the NAIRU doctrine), and fostered financialization, leading to stagnant wages, precarity, and household indebtedness. The "trap" is the worker's inescapable dependency for survival on a job within a system that uses the threat of unemployment as a policy tool. The paper identifies the erosion of four key forces--competition, regulation, interoperability, and worker power, all of which held the tenuous postwar contract together--as the drivers of this enshittification. It concludes by articulating how the federal job guarantee proposal can act as a systemic circuit breaker capable of reverse reengineering the labor market. The job guarantee is not only an alternative to precarious employment and the NAIRU policy framework, but also a comprehensive de facto regulator that introduces much needed competition for labor by firms in the economy. The paper evaluates how the program can introduce countervailing forces to arrest the degradation of the labor market and establish a new standard for good jobs, thereby laying the foundation for a renewed social contract. |
| Keywords: | Enshittification; Job Guarantee; Social Contract; Money Manager Capitalism; Labor Market Precarity; Financialization |
| JEL: | J01 J08 J38 J64 B52 E24 B26 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_1100 |
| By: | Fabbri, Alessandro (University of Geneva); Pellizzari, Michele (University of Geneva) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines earnings differences between first-generation and continuing generation college graduates across 24 OECD countries using data from the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). In all but two of the countries analysed, first-generation graduates earn less than their peers from college-educated families, with an average gap across all countries of approximately 8%. We investigate potential mechanisms behind this result and find that first-generation graduates are less likely to pursue postgraduate education, more likely to hold vocational degrees, and tend to have lower cognitive skills. These findings highlight the need for policy interventions to enhance educational mobility and promote equality of opportunity. |
| Keywords: | inequality, tertiary education, intergenerational mobility |
| JEL: | I23 I24 J62 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18231 |
| By: | Nezih Guner (CEMFI and Banco de España); Ezgi Kaya (Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University); Alessandro Ruggieri (CUNEF Universidad); Virginia Sánchez-Marcos (Universidad de Cantabria) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of workplace flexibility on female labor market outcomes and fertility, with a particular focus on the Spanish labor market. Using a variety of data sources—including labor force surveys, time-use surveys, and administrative records—we document that rigid schedules, split-shift work arrangements, and long working hours increase the time cost of childcare, reducing women’s participation, wage growth, and career progression. Flexible arrangements, by contrast, facilitate work–family balance but are unevenly distributed across firms, sectors, and occupations. We present a simple model in which job inflexibility lowers both labor force participation and fertility, especially among mothers. We also provide a survey of the literature on the value of flexibility, the costs of family-friendly policies, and equilibrium models linking firm behavior to fertility decisions. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, Flexibility, Family-Friendly Policies, Gender Gaps. |
| JEL: | E24 J08 J13 J18 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cmf:wpaper:wp2025_2525 |
| By: | João Jalles (University of Lisbon); John Beirne (Asian Development Bank); Donghyun Park (Asian Development Bank); Gazi Salah Uddin (Linköping University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the gender-specific effects of exogenous public spending shocks across a global sample using a novel identification strategy and local projections. We distinguish between investment and consumption shocks and further decompose spending by function: education, health, and social protection. Public investment shocks generally reduce female labor force participation but increase wage shares and lower maternal mortality. Consumption shocks also lower participation but raise service sector employment and tertiary enrolment in the short term. Functionally, education spending delays labor force entry but improves wages and enrolment; health spending boosts agricultural employment but may initially increase maternal mortality; and social protection stabilizes rural employment while reducing overall participation. Nonlinear analyses reveal strong heterogeneity by income level, initial gender inequality, and labor informality. For example, investment boosts female employment in poorer emerging markets and developing economies but reinforces participation gaps in richer ones. These results highlight the need for gender-responsive fiscal frameworks tailored to structural conditions, and show that fiscal design—not just scale—shapes inclusive development outcomes. |
| JEL: | C32 E62 H20 H50 J16 O15 F63 |
| Date: | 2025–11–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbewp:021725 |
| By: | Lisa Berntsen; Sonil Danaaj; Paul de Beer; Nikko Bilitza |
| Abstract: | This article contributes to a nuanced theoretical understanding of industrial relations dynamics driving cross-country differences in the expansion and containment of precarious migrant labour, by investigating the role of industrial relations actors, labour market regulations and collective bargaining specifically. It compares the differential reliance on temporary and migrant labour in the food (and meat) sector in the Netherlands and Austria, two countries with a strong corporatist industrial relations tradition. The analysis draws on desk and policy research and interviews with trade union representatives, inspectors, employers, works councillors and migrant workers. The findings highlight the importance of regulations regarding flexible employment, the strength of sectoral industrial relations and collective bargaining, and representation at the workplace to explain the different outcomes for migrant workers. |
| Date: | 2025–10–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cel:dpaper:76 |
| By: | Fenizia, Alessandra (George Washington University); Li, Nicholas Y. (George Washington University); Citino, Luca (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the cost-effectiveness of targeted payroll taxes for stimulating labor demand. It uses rich administrative data to study the effects of an Italian reform that raised social security contributions for apprenticeship contracts but granted a substantial discount for firms with 9 employees or less. The discount does not increase demand for apprenticeship contracts. Instead, it subsidizes inframarginal hiring. This reform is not cost-effective. Point estimates imply that each million euros of foregone social security contributions supports the employment of 29 apprentices for one year and no permanent contracts (these estimates are not statistically different from zero). |
| Keywords: | cost effectiveness, targeted payroll taxes, labor demand |
| JEL: | J01 J08 H20 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18233 |
| By: | Nguyen, Ha; Zając, Tomasz; Tomaszewski, Wojtek; Mitrou, Francis |
| Abstract: | This study employs 2011 Census data linked to population-based administrative datasets to explore disparities in educational attainment and earnings trajectories among Australian-born children of diverse parental migration backgrounds from mid-adolescence to early adulthood. Non-English Speaking Background (NESB) second-generation immigrants exhibit superior academic outcomes, primarily driven by children of parents from select Asian countries. These individuals are more likely to complete higher education, particularly bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and specialise in fields such as management and commerce, health, natural and physical sciences, and engineering. Children of NESB immigrant parents initially earn less than their peers with Australian-born parents at ages 21–22. However, this gap closes by ages 23–24 and reverses by ages 26–27, with children of NESB fathers out-earning their counterparts by ages 28–29. Conversely, children of English-Speaking Background (ESB) immigrant parents, who exhibit weaker academic performance, also experience lower earnings compared to peers with Australian-born parents. This disparity emerges by ages 22–23 and widens throughout the study period, peaking at ages 28–29. The findings underscore the academic and economic advantages of NESB second-generation immigrants, contrasting with the challenges faced by ESB migrant counterparts. Overall, the results highlight the critical role of education in supporting the economic integration of migrants and their descendants in the host country. |
| Keywords: | Migration; Intergenerational Correlation; Education; Income; Census; Administrative data; Australia |
| JEL: | I24 J15 J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:126127 |
| By: | Salverda, Wiemer (University of Amsterdam); Hartog, Joop (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | The Netherlands has long been an example of a highly and centrally institutionalized labor market paying considerable attention to equity concerns. We describe how this model has been falling apart under the influence of the neoliberal ideology. Fracturing of the labor force by the rapid demise of the single-earner model and accelerating immigration, falling union density, and reductions in welfare state provisions have shrunk labor’s market power centrally and decentrally. Wages lagged far behind productivity growth, job security strongly declined and wage inequality increased. This comes to the fore with a lack of offensive union power when after 2016 labor demand accelerates and the economy and employment quickly reach new heights after the pandemic crisis. |
| Keywords: | Netherlands, dual earners, institutions, wages |
| JEL: | J21 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18211 |
| By: | Bergantino, Angela S.; Clemente, Antonello; Iandolo, Stefano; Turati, Riccardo |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the evolution and determinants of skill-specific internal mobility among Italian citizens by urban-rural origin. Using administrative data from the Registry of Transfer of Residence (ADELE), which records the universe of skill-specific bilateral moves across more than 700 millions potential municipality pairs between 2012 and 2022, we document distinct trends in residential mobility for college-educated and non-college-educated citizens. We then assess the role of economic and non-economic factors in shaping these flows, employing a Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimator with an extensive set of destination and origin-by-nest fixed effects. Our findings show that low-skilled movers respond more strongly to economic factors, while high-skilled movers are respond more to non-economic ones, with the urban-rural divide at origin amplifying these differences. Moreover, we find that after the COVID-19 pandemic, economic drivers became less relevant, whereas non-economic factors gained importance. Overall, this study highlights that, similar to international migration, the drivers of internal mobility are inherently skill-specific. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Human Capital, Urban-Rural, Italy, COVID-19 |
| JEL: | J24 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1685 |
| By: | LUNARDELLI, ANDRE |
| Abstract: | The notion that much of the reduction in disinflation costs in recent decades is due to better anchoring converges with the proposition of Dow, Simonsen and Werlang's (1993) that part of the sacrifice ratios of poorly anchored economies may be caused by coordination problems, which they modeled as ambiguity. The present paper associates ambiguity in disinflation with fairness in the labor market, but modeling it without an effective reduction in effort, and with inflation persistence, thus presenting similarities with Driscoll and Holden (2004). Bayesian inference with North American data with the model shows that the pattern here associated with ambiguity and fairness was especially pronounced during the Volcker disinflation, had local peaks after the oil shocks during the great inflation, did not happen following the wave of adverse productivity shocks after Volcker's macroeconomic anchorage, nor did it happen in the disinflation immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic. To make this inference, this paper models wage markup shocks by including in them factors such as an ambiguity premium, in contrast with the format that restricts them solely to shocks in the elasticity of substitution between different kinds of labor. This provides an explanation for the results of some well-known works with evidence compatible with the idea that increases in the (wide concept of) wage markups were a major cause of the increase of the unemployment rate and of the decrease in output during the Volcker disinflation. The paper concludes by briefly discussing ambiguity in disinflations of high and moderate inflations under both inflation targeting and exchange rate anchors. |
| Keywords: | Disinflation, ambiguity, fairness, wage markups, sacrifice ratios, inflation persistence, Phillips curve, inflation targeting, Central Bank coordination of expectations. |
| JEL: | D81 E31 E42 E50 J30 J60 |
| Date: | 2025–08–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:126505 |
| By: | Snower, Dennis J. (University College London) |
| Abstract: | Whereas labor markets are traditionally viewed as machine-like environments – where agents, coordinated by price signals, solve constrained optimization problems or adhere to established heuristics – this paper views labor markets as human ecosystems, containing living things, namely, the human beings who participate in these markets. Living things adapt to their environment and evolve across their domains of life. Consequently, activities in labor markets cannot be understood independently of their social and political foundations. Labor markets are embedded in social, economic, political and environmental systems, and their adaptiveness to their social and natural environments. In this context, the insider-outsider theory may be generalized by reconceptualizing insiders and outsiders in terms of their relative adaptive advantages and the structural barriers to adaptation. The functions and misfunctions of adaptively embedded labor markets can be specified in terms of the adaptiveness as systems or the adaptiveness of the components of these systems. The ecosystemic approach also involves a reconceptualization of agents operating in labor markets, implying a new theories of the firm and workers. |
| Keywords: | evolution, embedded labor markets, insider-outsider theory, theory of the firm |
| JEL: | J0 J2 J6 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18202 |
| By: | Nils H. Lehr; Pascual Restrepo |
| Abstract: | Leading AI firms claim to prioritize social welfare. How should firms with a social mandate price and deploy AI? We derive pricing formulas that depart from profit maximization by incorporating incentives to improve welfare and reduce labor disruptions. Using US data, we evaluate several scenarios. A welfarist firm that values both profit and welfare should price closer to marginal cost, as efficiency gains outweigh distributional concerns. A conservative firm focused on labor-market stability should price above the profit-maximizing level in the short run, especially when its AI may displace low-income workers. Overall, socially minded firms face a trade-off between expanding access to AI and the resulting loss in profits and labor market risks. |
| JEL: | E0 H0 J0 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34424 |
| By: | Mariia Vasiakina (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Christian Dudel (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | The ongoing economic transformation driven by automation has significant social implications, particularly for the health and well-being of workers who face the risk of job displacement and the pressure to acquire new skills and qualifications. However, the specific pathways through which exposure to automation risk affects health outcomes remain poorly understood, and the relative contribution of each potential mechanism is still unclear. In this study, we examine the nature of the relationship between high workplace exposure to automation risk and a range of subjective health outcomes – including self-reported health, anxiety, and both physical and mental component summary scores from the SF-12 Health Survey – among workers in Germany. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) linked with administrative records from the Occupational Panel for Germany (2014–2022), we apply the Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) mediation analysis method to assess whether broader indicators of economic uncertainty, alongside automation-specific factors, mediate the relationship between high automation risk and workers’ health. Our results indicate that the negative impact of high automation risk on health in Germany primarily operates through indirect pathways (related to mediators) for both genders, with the exception of physical health among male workers, where a direct negative effect is also evident. Economic concerns – particularly job insecurity and worries about one’s future financial situation – emerge as more significant mediators than automation-specific factors. Overall, our findings suggest that the mechanisms linking high automation risk to health are gender- and context-sensitive, and are shaped by broader economic conditions and workplace environments. |
| Keywords: | Germany, automation, health, risk exposure, technological change |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2025-032 |
| By: | Klara Kantova (Institute of Economic Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic); Michaela Hasikova (Institute of Economic Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic) |
| Abstract: | Pay transparency laws are a key policy response to persistent gender wage disparities, yet evidence on their effectiveness is mixed. This meta-analysis synthesizes 268 estimates from 12 studies. Across a broad suite of publication bias diagnostics, we find at most weak evidence of selective reporting, while most approaches indicate a small but significant positive effect beyond bias. The pooled mean effect is 0.012 log points, corresponding to an average 1.2% increase in women´s wages relative to men, consistent with a modest narrowing of the gap. Heterogeneity analysis using Bayesian and frequentist model averaging shows that policy design is pivotal. Public disclosure regimes produce larger reductions than internal access or job-ad disclosure, while evidence for pay-secrecy bans is imprecise. Specification choices also matter, with regional and employee controls attenuating effects and sector controls amplifying them. Overall, effective transparency depends on both robust policy design and careful empirical specification. |
| Keywords: | pay transparency, gender gap, wages, policy-design, model averaging, meta-analysis |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J38 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fau:wpaper:wp2025_22 |
| By: | Pascual Restrepo |
| Abstract: | This chapter explores the long-run implications of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) for economic growth and labor markets. AGI makes it feasible to perform all economically valuable work using compute. I distinguish between bottleneck and supplementary work—tasks that are essential versus non-essential for unhindered growth. As computational resources expand: (i) the economy automates all bottleneck work, (ii) some supplementary work may be left exclusively to humans, (iii) output becomes linear in compute and labor and its growth is driven by the expansion of compute, (iv) wages converge to the opportunity cost of computational resources required to reproduce human work, and (v) the share of labor income in GDP converges to zero. |
| JEL: | E0 J0 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34423 |
| By: | Cauê Dobbin (Georgetown University); Daniel Fernandez (CEMFI, Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros); Tom Zohar (CEMFI, Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros) |
| Abstract: | We challenge the view that the negative correlation between firm quality and separation rates reflects efficient separations. Using Brazilian administrative data, we show that this correlation is driven by lower layoff rates at high-quality firms, not differences in quits. We develop a job search model where wage rigidity and productivity uncertainty generate inefficient layoffs. The model predicts that higherquality firms have larger markdowns and, consequently, fewer layoffs. Empirically, we validate this by showing that firms facing stronger wage rigidity have higher layoffs and a steeper quality-layoff correlation, and that markdowns are higher in better firms and negatively correlated with layoffs. |
| Keywords: | Layoffs, wage rigidity, firm quality, separations, job stability, Brazil, markdowns. |
| JEL: | J63 J41 J31 J64 E24 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cmf:wpaper:wp2025_2524 |
| By: | Wang, Di; Wang, Xilin |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the dynamic effects of labor unions on economic growth and income inequality in a Schumpeterian growth model with heterogeneous households and endogenous market structure. Income inequality arises from an unequal distribution of wealth and heterogeneous labor productivity. In the short run, increasing union bargaining power reduces both growth and inequality when the union is wage-oriented. In the long run, stronger unions continue to lower inequality without affecting the steady-state growth rate. The model identifies the channels through which unions shape inequality: an income-share shift from asset income to labor income, wage compression, and changes in the wealth-wage correlation. Calibrating the model to U.S. data, we find that increasing union bargaining power significantly reduces long-run income inequality. |
| Keywords: | Labor unions; Economic growth; Income inequality; Endogenous market structure |
| JEL: | D30 J50 O30 O40 |
| Date: | 2025–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:125948 |
| By: | Calabresi, Elisabetta (University of Barcelona); Rodríguez-Planas, Núria (Queens College, CUNY) |
| Abstract: | The chapter reviews the economic literature on intimate partner violence (IPV), a widespread human rights violation affecting nearly one in three women globally and generating significant societal costs. It focuses on the relationship between various dimensions of female empowerment and IPV. The chapter begins by outlining key theoretical frameworks—including household bargaining, instrumental violence, male backlash, and exposure theories—as well as the main data sources used to study IPV. It then reviews empirical evidence on how factors shaping female empowerment at the individual, relationship, community, and societal levels influence IPV outcomes. Central themes include labor market dynamics, education, income shocks, family formation, legal frameworks, institutional access, and gender norms. The chapter also considers how these factors interact across levels and discusses additional drivers of IPV not directly linked to female empowerment. The goal is to provide an overview of causal evidence from the economic literature on IPV while emphasizing its complexity and the importance of a context-specific, intersectional approach to both its analysis and prevention. |
| Keywords: | intimate partner violence |
| JEL: | J1 J12 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18207 |
| By: | Yörük, Baris (University at Albany, SUNY) |
| Abstract: | How does diversity affect charitable giving? On the one hand, diversity can lead to increased charitable giving, as individuals may feel more connected to and invested in their community when they see the diversity of needs and perspectives within it. On the other hand, diversity can also create challenges for charitable giving, as individuals may have different priorities, beliefs, and cultural norms that affect their willingness to give to certain causes and organizations. Using data from 2010-2020 county-level income tax returns linked to the U.S. Census population estimates, I find a negative impact of local ethnic diversity on charitable giving. In particular, I document that a one percentage point increase in the local ethnic fragmentation index is associated with up to a 2.9 percent decrease in the fraction of tax returns with charitable contributions and a 2 percent decrease in charitable contributions as a fraction of adjusted gross income. |
| Keywords: | local ethnic diversity, charitable giving, fundraising |
| JEL: | J10 J18 H30 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18222 |
| By: | Natee Amornsiripanitch; Philip E. Strahan; Song Zhang |
| Abstract: | Older home sellers receive lower returns than younger home sellers. Homes sold by older people have fewer major renovations but higher rates of poor upkeep. Older sellers are also more likely to sell off-MLS (“pocket listings”) and to sell to investors, leading to lower prices. These patterns suggest that older sellers may be disproportionately disadvantaged by agents’ incentive to maximize fees through generating high sales volume instead of maximizing sale prices. Age-related cognitive decline makes the elderly more vulnerable. For causal evidence, we show that reforms making private listings more transparent reduced both the prevalence of pocket listings and the magnitude of the age gap in returns. |
| Keywords: | Aging; housing returns; incentive misalignment |
| JEL: | G5 J1 |
| Date: | 2025–11–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:102051 |