nep-lma New Economics Papers
on Labor Markets - Supply, Demand, and Wages
Issue of 2014‒01‒24
24 papers chosen by
Joseph Marchand
University of Alberta

  1. International Migration and the Economics of Language By Chiswick, Barry R.; Miller, Paul W.
  2. Parenthood and Productivity of Highly Skilled Labor: Evidence from the Groves of Academe By Krapf, Matthias; Ursprung, Heinrich W.; Zimmermann, Christian
  3. How Sticky Wages in Existing Jobs Can Affect Hiring By Mark Bils; Yongsung Chang; Sun-Bin Kim
  4. Risk, Insurance and Wages in General Equilibrium By Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak; Mark Rosenzweig
  5. Do Payroll Tax Cuts Raise Youth Employment? By Egebark, Johan; Kaunitz, Niklas
  6. Eastern Partnership Migrants in Germany: Outcomes, Potentials and Challenges By Biavaschi, Costanza; Zimmermann, Klaus F.
  7. Incentives, Selection and Productivity in Labor Markets: Evidence from Rural Malawi By Raymond P. Guiteras; B. Kelsey Jack
  8. Skill Variety, Innovation and New Business Formation By Hessels, Jolanda; Brixy, Udo; Naudé, Wim; Gries, Thomas
  9. Your very private job agency : job referrals based on residential location networks By Hawranek, Franziska; Schanne, Norbert
  10. On the size of sheepskin effects: A meta-analysis By Jhon James Mora; Juan Muro
  11. Interacting Product and Labor Market Regulation and the Impact of Immigration on Native Wages By Prantl, Susanne; Spitz-Oener, Alexandra
  12. Returns to Skills around the World: Evidence from PIAAC By Hanushek, Eric A.; Schwerdt, Guido; Wiederhold, Simon; Woessmann, Ludger
  13. Are Female Top Managers Really Paid Less? By Geiler, P.H.M.; Renneboog, L.D.R.
  14. Minimum Wages, Unemployment and Informality: Evidence from Panel Data on Russian Regions By Muravyev, Alexander; Oshchepkov, Aleksey
  15. Profit Sharing and Workplace Productivity: Does Teamwork Play a Role? By Long, Richard J.; Fang, Tony
  16. Beneath the Surface: The Decline in Gender Injury Gap By Razzolini, Tiziano; Leombruni, Roberto; Mastrobuoni, Giovanni; Pagliero, Mario
  17. Growth in Within Graduate Wage Inequality: The Role of Subjects, Cognitive Skill Dispersion and Occupational Concentration By Joanne Lindley; Steven McIntosh
  18. Voluntary work and wages By Bruno, Bruna; Fiorillo, Damiano
  19. Re-defining Informal Employment and Measuring its Determinants: Evidence from Russia By Lehmann, Hartmut; Zaiceva, Anzelika
  20. Why and Wherefore of Increased Scientific Collaboration By Richard B. Freeman; Ina Ganguli; Raviv Murciano-Goroff
  21. Local Employer Competition and Training of Workers By Sylvi Rzepka; Marcus Tamm
  22. Rainfall Forecasts, Weather and Wages over the Agricultural Production Cycle By Mark R. Rosenzweig; Christopher Udry
  23. Affirmative Action through Extra Prizes By Dahm, Matthias; Esteve, Patrícia,
  24. Labour Market Discrimination against Former Juvenile Delinquents: Evidence from a Field Experiment By Baert, Stijn; Verhofstadt, Elsy

  1. By: Chiswick, Barry R. (George Washington University); Miller, Paul W. (Curtin University of Technology)
    Abstract: This paper provides a review of the research on the ‘economics of language' as applied to international migration. Its primary focuses are on: (1) the effect of the language skills of an individual on the choice of destination among international (and internal) migrants, both in terms of the ease of obtaining proficiency in the destination language and access to linguistic enclaves, (2) the determinants of destination language proficiency among international migrants, based on a model (the three E's) of Exposure to the destination language in the origin and destination, Efficiency in the acquisition of destination language skills, and Economic incentives for acquiring this proficiency, (3) the consequences for immigrants of acquiring destination language proficiency, with an emphasis on labor market outcomes, and in particular earnings. Factors that are considered include age, education, gender, family structure, costs of migration, linguistic distance, duration in the destination, return migration, and ethnic enclaves, among others. Analyses are reported for the immigrant experiences in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, Germany, Israel and Spain.
    Keywords: immigrants, language, bilingualism, human capital, earnings
    JEL: J15 J24 J31 J61
    Date: 2014–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7880&r=lma
  2. By: Krapf, Matthias (University of Zurich); Ursprung, Heinrich W. (University of Konstanz); Zimmermann, Christian (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis)
    Abstract: We examine the effect of pregnancy and parenthood on the research productivity of academic economists. Combining the survey responses of nearly 10,000 economists with their publication records as documented in their RePEc accounts, we do not find that motherhood is associated with low research productivity. Nor do we find a statistically significant unconditional effect of a first child on research productivity. Conditional difference-in-differences estimates, however, suggest that the effect of parenthood on research productivity is negative for unmarried women and positive for untenured men. Moreover, becoming a mother before 30 years of age appears to have a detrimental effect on research productivity.
    Keywords: Fertility; research productivity; gender gap; research productivity; life cycle.
    JEL: I23 J13 J24
    Date: 2014–01–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2014-001&r=lma
  3. By: Mark Bils; Yongsung Chang; Sun-Bin Kim
    Abstract: We consider a matching model of employment with wages that are flexible for new hires, but sticky within matches. We depart from standard treatments of sticky wages by allowing effort to respond to the wage being too high or low. Shimer (2004) and others have illustrated that employment in the Mortensen-Pissarides model does not depend on the degree of wage flexibility in existing matches. But this is not true in our model. If wages of matched workers are stuck too high in a recession, then firms will require more effort, lowering the value of additional labor and reducing new hiring.
    JEL: E24 E32 J22 J23
    Date: 2014–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19821&r=lma
  4. By: Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak; Mark Rosenzweig
    Abstract: We estimate the general-equilibrium labor market effects of a large-scale randomized intervention in which we designed and marketed a rainfall index insurance product across three states in India. Marketing agricultural insurance to both cultivators and to agricultural wage laborers allows us to test a general-equilibrium model of wage determination in settings where households supplying labor and households hiring labor face weather risk. Consistent with theoretical predictions, we find that both labor demand and equilibrium wages become more rainfall sensitive when cultivators are offered rainfall insurance, because insurance induces cultivators to switch to riskier, higher-yield production methods. The same insurance contract offered to agricultural laborers smoothes wages across rainfall states by inducing changes in labor supply. Policy simulations based on our estimates suggest that selling insurance only to land-owning cultivators and precluding the landless from the insurance market (which is the current regulatory practice in India and other developing countries), makes wage laborers worse off relative to a situation where insurance does not exist at all.
    JEL: J2 O13 O16 O17 Q12
    Date: 2014–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19811&r=lma
  5. By: Egebark, Johan (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Kaunitz, Niklas (Department of Economics, Stockholm University)
    Abstract: In 2007, the Swedish employer-paid payroll tax was cut on a large scale for young workers, substantially reducing labor costs for this group. Using Difference-in-Differences paired with exact matching, we estimate a small impact, both on employment and on wages, implying a labor demand elasticity for young workers at around –0.31. Since the tax reduction applied also to existing employments, the cost of the reform was sizable, and the estimated cost per created job is at more than four times that of directly hiring workers at the average wage. Hence, we conclude that payroll tax cuts are an inefficient way to boost employment for young individuals.
    Keywords: Youth unemployment; Payroll tax; Tax subsidy; Labor costs; Exact matching
    JEL: H25 H32 J23 J38 J68
    Date: 2014–01–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1001&r=lma
  6. By: Biavaschi, Costanza (IZA); Zimmermann, Klaus F. (IZA and University of Bonn)
    Abstract: Despite the ongoing dialogue on facilitating mobility between the European Union and the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, very little is known about the magnitude and characteristics of migration from these countries. We find that EaP migrants experience worse labor market outcomes than other migrant groups, but current and potential migrants hold qualifications in those areas were skill shortages are expected. Therefore, the monitoring and supervision of EaP integration will be consequential in order to understand how much of the current brain waste is driven by poor assessment of foreign qualifications, and to unleash the potential of migration for the German economy.
    Keywords: brain waste, eastern partnership countries, labor mobility, foreign qualifications
    JEL: J15 J24 J61 J62
    Date: 2013–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7861&r=lma
  7. By: Raymond P. Guiteras; B. Kelsey Jack
    Abstract: An observed positive relationship between compensation and productivity cannot distinguish between two channels: (1) an incentive effect and (2) worker selection. We use a simplified Becker-DeGroot-Marschak mechanism, which provides random variation in piece rates conditional on revealed reservation rates, to separately identify the two channels in the context of casual labor markets in rural Malawi. A higher piece rate increases output in our setting, but does not attract more productive workers. Among men, the average worker recruited at higher piece rates is actually less productive. Local labor market imperfections appear to undermine the worker sorting observed in well-functioning labor markets.
    JEL: C93 J22 J24 J33 O12
    Date: 2014–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19825&r=lma
  8. By: Hessels, Jolanda (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Brixy, Udo (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg); Naudé, Wim (Maastricht School of Management); Gries, Thomas (University of Paderborn)
    Abstract: We extend Lazear's theory of skills variety and entrepreneurship in three directions. First, we provide a theoretical framework linking new business creation with an entrepreneur's skill variety. Second, in this model we allow for both generalists and specialists to possess skill variety. Third, we test our model empirically using data from Germany and the Netherlands. Individuals with more varied work experience seems indeed more likely to successfully start up a new business and that being a generalist does not seem to be important in this regard. Finally, we find that innovation positively moderates the relationship between having varied experiences, and being successful in starting up a new business. Our conclusion is that entrepreneurs with more varied work experience are more likely to introduce innovations that have not only technical, but also commercial value. Our findings support the notion that entrepreneurship can be learned.
    Keywords: entrepreneurship, start-ups, human capital, innovation, skills
    JEL: L26 M13 J24 O31
    Date: 2014–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7889&r=lma
  9. By: Hawranek, Franziska; Schanne, Norbert (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany])
    Abstract: "This paper analyzes job referral effects that are based on residential location. We use georeferenced record data for the entire working population (liable to social security) and the corresponding establishments in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area, which is Germany's largest (and EU's second largest) metropolitan area. We estimate the propensity of two persons to work at the same place when residing in the same neighborhood (reported with an accuracy of 500m×500m grid cells), and compare the effect to people living in adjacent neighborhoods. We find a significant increase in the probability of working together when living in the same neighborhood, which is stable across various specifications. We differentiate these referral effects for socioeconomic groups and find especially strong effects for migrant groups from former guestworker countries and new EU countries. Further, we are able to investigate a number of issues in order to deepen the insight on actual job referrals: distinguishing between the effects on working in the same neighborhood and working in the same establishment - probably the more accurate measure for job referrals - shows that the latter yield overall smaller effects. Further, we find that clusters in employment although having a significant positive effect play only a minor role for the magnitude of the referral effect. When we exclude short distance commuters, we find the same probabilities of working together, which reinforces our interpretation of this probability as a network effect." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
    Keywords: Arbeitsvermittlung, informelle Kommunikation, soziales Netzwerk - Auswirkungen, soziale Umwelt, Beschäftigungseffekte, Arbeitsort, Wohnort, Inländer, Einwanderer, ausländische Arbeitnehmer, Arbeitsplatzwahl, peer group, Integrierte Erwerbsbiografien, Rhein-Region, Ruhrgebiet, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Bundesrepublik Deutschland
    JEL: J20 R23
    Date: 2014–01–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201401&r=lma
  10. By: Jhon James Mora (Departamento de Economía. Universidad ICESI.); Juan Muro (Departamento de Economía, Universidad de Alcalá.)
    Abstract: We use information gathered from 122 studies on the effects of high school degrees on wages in different countries worldwide to carry out a meta-analysis that shows high school degrees have a statistically significant effect on wages of nearly 8%. This effect varies either when the review is made in countries away from the tropics or when factors such as sex, race, and continent are taken into account. Our results also reveal the existence of a publication bias that tends to increase the magnitude of the sheepskin effect. Nevertheless, when the former is included into the analysis the later remains statistically significant.
    Keywords: Sheepskin effects, meta-analysis, publication bias
    JEL: C80 I21 J24
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:alc:alcamo:1401&r=lma
  11. By: Prantl, Susanne (University of Cologne); Spitz-Oener, Alexandra (Humboldt University Berlin)
    Abstract: Does interacting product and labor market regulation alter the impact of immigration on wages of competing native workers? Focusing on the large, sudden and unanticipated wave of migration from East to West Germany after German reunification and allowing for endogenous immigration, we compare native wage reactions across different segments of the West German labor market: one segment without product and labor market regulation, to which standard immigration models best apply, one segment in which product and labor market regulation interact, and one segment covering intermediate groups of workers. We find that the wages of competing native West Germans respond negatively to the large influx of similar East German workers in the segment with almost free firm entry into product markets and weak worker influence on the decision-making of firms. Competing native workers are insulated from such pressure if firm entry regulation interacts with labor market institutions, implying a strong influence of workers on the decision-making of profit-making firms.
    Keywords: immigration, product market regulation, labor market regulation
    JEL: J61 L50 J3
    Date: 2014–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7882&r=lma
  12. By: Hanushek, Eric A. (Stanford University); Schwerdt, Guido (Ifo Institute for Economic Research); Wiederhold, Simon (Ifo Institute for Economic Research); Woessmann, Ludger (Ifo Institute for Economic Research)
    Abstract: Existing estimates of the labor-market returns to human capital give a distorted picture of the role of skills across different economies. International comparisons of earnings analyses rely almost exclusively on school attainment measures of human capital, and evidence incorporating direct measures of cognitive skills is mostly restricted to early-career workers in the United States. Analysis of the new PIAAC survey of adult skills over the full lifecycle in 22 countries shows that the focus on early-career earnings leads to underestimating the lifetime returns to skills by about one quarter. On average, a one-standard-deviation increase in numeracy skills is associated with an 18 percent wage increase among prime-age workers. But this masks considerable heterogeneity across countries. Eight countries, including all Nordic countries, have returns between 12 and 15 percent, while six are above 21 percent with the largest return being 28 percent in the United States. Estimates are remarkably robust to different earnings and skill measures, additional controls, and various subgroups. Intriguingly, returns to skills are systematically lower in countries with higher union density, stricter employment protection, and larger public-sector shares.
    Keywords: cognitive skills, education, labor market, earnings, international comparisons
    JEL: J31 I20
    Date: 2013–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7850&r=lma
  13. By: Geiler, P.H.M.; Renneboog, L.D.R. (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research)
    Abstract: Abstract: Are female top managers paid less than their male counterparts? Is the gender gap higher in male-dominated industries? What effect on pay do female non-executive directors and remuneration consultants exert? While we find no pay gap for the figure-head (CEO), there is strong pay discrimination at the level of the other top managers. These female executive directors earn over a five-year tenure period £1.3 million less than male directors, and this pay gap is visible for all components of pay. The pay gap is lower for executives in firms with one or more female non-executives. Female executives in ‘male’ industries receive less remuneration than male executives but the gender pay gap is smaller. The advice of top remuneration consultants does not reduce the pay gap.
    Keywords: executive compensation;gender pay gap;gender discrimination;pay-for-performance;glass ceiling;glass cliff
    JEL: J31 J33 M52 G30
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:2014004&r=lma
  14. By: Muravyev, Alexander (St. Petersburg University GSOM and IZA); Oshchepkov, Aleksey (Higher School of Economics, Moscow)
    Abstract: This paper revisits labor market effects of the minimum wage by taking advantage of a unique institutional setting and rich data from Russia that cover 89 regions over 10 years, from 2001 to 2010. Our empirical analysis draws on the methodology introduced by Neumark and Wascher, in which labor market outcomes at the regional level are related to the relative minimum wage (captured by the Kaitz index) in a panel setting. We find that the minimum wage raises unemployment among young workers aged 15 to 24. In contrast, there is no evidence of disemployment effects of the minimum wage for workers aged 25-72, including women. In addition, minimum wage hikes are associated with an increase in informal employment.
    Keywords: minimum wages, unemployment, informal employment, Russia
    JEL: J38 J23
    Date: 2013–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7878&r=lma
  15. By: Long, Richard J. (University of Saskatchewan); Fang, Tony (Monash University)
    Abstract: The conditions under which profit sharing affects workplace productivity have never been fully understood. Using panel data, this paper examines whether there is any link between adoption of an employee profit sharing plan and subsequent productivity growth in Canadian establishments, and whether this relationship is affected by various contextual factors, particularly use of work teams. In so doing, we use both three and five-year panels. Overall, we find a significant link between adoption of a profit sharing program and subsequent productivity growth in both panels, but only among establishments that utilize employee work teams.
    Keywords: profit sharing plans, workplace productivity, teamwork, firm-worker linked survey, Canada
    JEL: J33 J24 J54
    Date: 2013–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7869&r=lma
  16. By: Razzolini, Tiziano (University of Siena); Leombruni, Roberto (University of Turin); Mastrobuoni, Giovanni (Collegio Carlo Alberto); Pagliero, Mario (University of Turin)
    Abstract: Despite its policy relevance there is little evidence on the joint evolution of gender differences in wages and workplace safety. Between 1994 and 2002 Italian micro-level data show a decline in both gaps, as well as an increased concentration of injuries among low-skilled female workers. The reduction in the gender wage gap is driven by sorting of workers across sectors and occupations, while the reduction in the gender injury gap and the increased concentration of injuries among low skilled female workers appears to be driven by changes in unobservables characteristics. Moreover, our findings indicate that in 2002 women became more vulnerable to non-employment spells, which seems to be followed by both wage reductions and increased workplace risk for the re-employed low-skilled female workers.
    Keywords: gender gap, workplace injury, job amenities, wage differentials
    JEL: J16 J28 J31
    Date: 2013–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7849&r=lma
  17. By: Joanne Lindley (Department of Management, Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy, King’s College); Steven McIntosh (Department of Economics, The University of Sheffield)
    Abstract: UK graduate wage inequality has increased over the previous three decades. This paper demonstrates that most of the growth has occurred within degree subjects, with the largest occurring in non-STEM subjects. The paper therefore investigates two potential explanations. The first is the increase in the variance of childhood cognitive test scores amogst graduates in the same subject. This increase differs across subjects, and is again in the non-STEM subjects where the variance of test scores has increased the most, especially during the second period of rapid higher education expansion in the 1990s. The second potential explanation explored is the fall in the occupational concentration of subjects. Graduates of some subjects (like Medicine and Education) are highly concentrated into only a few jobs whereas others are much more widely dispersed. Generally, all subjects have become more widely dispersed across occupations over time, but some more so than others. The paper then shows that both of these factors have played a role in explaining growing graduate wage inequality within subjects, though the largest is by far from the widening in the variance of test scores. The path of graduate wage inequality would have been relatively flat without the accompanying increase in the variance of cognitive skills.
    Keywords: wage inequality; subject of degree; graduates
    JEL: J2 J24 J31
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shf:wpaper:2014001&r=lma
  18. By: Bruno, Bruna; Fiorillo, Damiano
    Abstract: The effects of voluntary work on earnings have recently been studied for some developed countries such as Canada, France and Austria. This paper extends this line of research to Italy, using data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) dataset. A double methodological approach is used in order to control for unobserved heterogeneity: Heckman and IV methods are employed to account for unobserved worker heterogeneity and endogeneity bias. Empirical results show that, when the unobserved heterogeneity is taken into account, a wage premium of 2.7 percent emerges, quite small if compared to previous investigations on Canada and Austria. The investigation into the channels of influence of volunteering on wages gives support to the hypotheses that volunteering enables the access to fruitful informal networks, avoids the human capital deterioration and provides a signal for intrinsically motivated individuals.
    Keywords: Voluntary work, wages, Mincer equation, selection bias, instrumental variables, Italy
    JEL: C31 C36 D64 J31 Z1
    Date: 2014–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:52989&r=lma
  19. By: Lehmann, Hartmut (University of Bologna); Zaiceva, Anzelika (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
    Abstract: Informal activities impact countries' economic development and overall growth. However, studying informal employment is not easy and it is crucial to provide a valid definition of it. This paper contributes to the recent discussion of the measures of informality by taking advantage of a rich dataset on Russia over the period 2003 - 2011, that is before and after the economic downturn, together with a special supplement on informality that allows to construct different measures of informal employment and to analyze its determinants. We demonstrate that the incidence of informal employment varies across the different definitions. However, the determinants of informal employment are roughly stable across the different measures as long as we exclude firm size as a criterion. We also show that risk-averse individuals, as expected, are less likely to select themselves into informal employment.
    Keywords: informal employment, definitions, incidence, determinants, Russia
    JEL: J31 J40 P23
    Date: 2013–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7844&r=lma
  20. By: Richard B. Freeman; Ina Ganguli; Raviv Murciano-Goroff
    Abstract: This paper examines international and domestic collaborations using data from an original survey of corresponding authors and Web of Science data of articles with a US coauthor in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology, and Particle and Field Physics. The data allows us to investigate the connections among coauthors and the views of corresponding authors about the collaboration. We have four main findings. First, we find that US collaborations have increased across US cities as well as across international borders, with the nature of collaborations across cities resembling that across countries. Second, face-to-face meetings are important in collaborations: most collaborators first met working in the same institution and communicate often through meetings coauthors from distant location. Third, the main reason for most collaborations are to combine the specialized knowledge and skills of coauthors, with however, substantial differences in the mode of collaborations between small lab-based science and big science, where international collaborations are more prevalent. Fourth, we find that citation rates are higher in international collaborations than in domestic collaborations in biotech but not in the other two fields. Moreover, in all three fields, papers with the same number of coauthors had lower citations if they were international collaborations. Overall, our findings suggest that all collaborations are best viewed from a framework of collaborations across space broadly, rather than in terms of international as opposed to domestic collaborative activity.
    JEL: J01 J2 J24 J4 J44 J61 J68 O31 O32 O33
    Date: 2014–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19819&r=lma
  21. By: Sylvi Rzepka; Marcus Tamm
    Abstract: The new training literature suggests that in a monopsonistic market employers will not only pay for firm-specific training but also for general training if the risk of poaching is limited. This implies that training participation should decrease when competition for employees is higher among firms. Using worker level data for Germany, we find that the hypothesis is supported empirically. Specifically, we find that employees are significantly less likely to participate in training if the density of firms in a sector is higher within the local labor market.
    Keywords: Training; local labor markets; monopsony
    JEL: I24 J24 J42
    Date: 2013–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0463&r=lma
  22. By: Mark R. Rosenzweig; Christopher Udry
    Abstract: We look at the effects of rainfall forecasts and realized rainfall on equilibrium agricultural wages over the course of the agricultural production cycle. We show theoretically that a forecast of good weather can lower wages in the planting stage, by lowering ex ante out-migration, and can exacerbate the negative impact of adverse weather on harvest-stage wages. Using Indian household panel data describing early-season migration and district-level planting- and harvest-stage wages over the period 2005-2010, we find results consistent with the model, indicating that rainfall forecasts improve labor allocations on average but exacerbate wage volatility because they are imperfect.
    JEL: J2 J31 J43 O1 O13 Q12
    Date: 2014–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19808&r=lma
  23. By: Dahm, Matthias; Esteve, Patrícia,
    Abstract: Some affirmative action policies establish that a set of disadvantaged competitors has access to an extra prize. Examples are gender quotas or a prize for national competitors in an international competition. We analyse the effects of creating an extra prize by reducing the prize in the main competition. Contestants differ in ability and agents with relatively low ability belong to a disadvantaged minority. All contestants compete for the main prize, but only disadvantaged agents can win the extra prize. We show that an extra prize is a powerful tool to ensure participation of disadvantaged agents. Moreover, for intermediate levels of the disadvantage of the minority, introducing an extra prize increases total equilibrium effort compared to a standard contest. Thus, even a contest designer not interested in affirmative action might establish an extra prize in order to enhance competition. Keywords: Asymmetric contest, equality of opportunity, affirmative action, discrimination, prize structure, exclusion principle. JEL: C72, D72, I38, J78
    Keywords: Jocs no-cooperatius (Matemàtica), Política pública, Política laboral, Discriminació positiva, Igualtat d'oportunitats, Preus -- Control, 33 - Economia,
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:urv:wpaper:2072/222197&r=lma
  24. By: Baert, Stijn (Ghent University); Verhofstadt, Elsy (Ghent University)
    Abstract: We identify hiring discrimination against former juvenile delinquents in a direct way. To this end we conduct a field experiment in the Belgian labour market. We find that labour market discrimination is indeed a major barrier in the transition to work for former juvenile delinquents. Labour market entrants disclosing a history of juvenile delinquency get about 22 percent less callback compared to their counterparts without a criminal record. This discrimination is more outspoken among the low-educated.
    Keywords: hiring discrimination, field experiments, juvenile delinquency, transitions in youth
    JEL: C93 J2 J71
    Date: 2013–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7845&r=lma

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