nep-lma New Economics Papers
on Labor Markets - Supply, Demand, and Wages
Issue of 2016‒01‒18
five papers chosen by
Joseph Marchand
University of Alberta

  1. The Multinational Wage Premium and Wage Dynamics By Gianluca Orefice; Nicholas Sly; Farid Toubal
  2. Managers and Productivity Differences By Nezih Guner; Andrii Parkhomenko; Gustavo Ventura
  3. Remittances and expenditure patterns of the left behinds in rural China By Sylvie Démurger; Xiaoqian Wang
  4. Aging, Taxes and Pensions in Switzerland By Keuschnigg, Christian
  5. Industrial Composition and Intergenerational Mobility By Whitaker, Stephan

  1. By: Gianluca Orefice; Nicholas Sly; Farid Toubal
    Abstract: Using detailed administrative data linking French firms and workers over the years 2002-2007, we document a distinct U-shaped pattern in worker-level wages surrounding the time their employer is acquired by a foreign firm, with a dip in earnings observed in years just before domestic firms switch to MNE status. The dip in earnings is evident in both wages and in-kind payments given to workers. To guide our empirical approach, we present a simple model with fair wage considerations among workers and endogenous cross-border acquisition activity that predicts this U-shaped pattern, and characterizes the selection of domestic targets for acquisition by an MNE.
    Keywords: multinational enterprises;wage premium;in-kind payments;fair wages
    JEL: F14 F23
    Date: 2015–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2015-27&r=lma
  2. By: Nezih Guner; Andrii Parkhomenko; Gustavo Ventura
    Abstract: We document that for a group of high-income countries (i) mean earnings of managers tend to grow faster than for non managers over the life cycle; (ii) the earnings growth of managers relative to non managers over the life cycle is positively correlated with output per worker. We interpret this evidence through the lens of an equilibrium life-cycle, span-of-control model where managers invest in their skills. We parameterize this model with U.S. observations on managerial earnings, the size-distribution of plants and macroeconomic aggregates. We then quantify the relative importance of exogenous productivity differences, and the size-dependent distortions emphasized in the misallocation literature. Our findings indicate that such distortions are critical to generate the observed differences in the growth of relative managerial earnings across countries. Thus, observations on the relative earnings growth of managers become natural targets to discipline the level of distortions. Distortions that halve the growth of relative managerial earnings (a move from the U.S. to Italy in our data), lead to a reduction in managerial quality of 27% and to a reduction in output of about 7% – more than half of the observed gap between the U.S. and Italy. We find that cross-country variation in distortions accounts for about 42% of the cross-country variation in output per worker gap with the U.S.
    Keywords: managers, management practices, distortions, size, skill investments, productivity differences
    JEL: E23 E24 J24 M11 O43 O47
    Date: 2015–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:861&r=lma
  3. By: Sylvie Démurger (Université de Lyon, Lyon, F-69007, France ; CNRS, GATE Lyon St Etienne,F-69130 Ecully, France); Xiaoqian Wang (Université de Lyon, Lyon, F-69007, France ; CNRS, GATE Lyon St Etienne,F-69130 Ecully, France)
    Abstract: This paper investigates how private transfers from internal migration in China affect the expenditure behaviour of families left behind in rural areas. Using data from the Rural-Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) survey, we assess the impact of remittances sent to rural households on consumption-type and investment-type expenditures. We apply propensity score matching to account for the selection of households into receiving remittances, and estimate average treatment effects on the treated. We find that remittances supplement income in rural China and lead to increased consumption rather than increased investment. Moreover, we find evidence of a strong negative impact on education expenditures, which could be detrimental to sustaining investment in human capital in poor rural areas in China.
    Keywords: remittances, labour migration, expenditure behaviour, left-behind, propensity score matching, China
    JEL: O15 J22 R23 D13 O53
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:1601&r=lma
  4. By: Keuschnigg, Christian
    Abstract: The gains in life expectancy are expected to double the dependency ratio and increase population by 10% in Switzerland until 2050. To quantify the effects on pensions, taxes and social contributions, we use an overlapping generations model with five margins of labor supply: labor market participation, hours worked, job search, retirement, and on-the-job training. A passive fiscal strategy would be very costly. A comprehensive reform, including an increase in the effective retirement age to 68 years, may limit the tax increases to 4 percentage points of value added tax and reduce the decline of per capita income to less than 6%.
    Keywords: Aging, pensions, taxation, labor market effects, growth
    JEL: D58 D91 H55 J26 J64
    Date: 2016–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:econwp:2016:01&r=lma
  5. By: Whitaker, Stephan (Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland)
    Abstract: For five decades, the share of adults employed in college-degree-intensive industries, such as health care and education, has been rising. Industries that provided employment for workers without degrees, especially manufacturing, have been reducing their payrolls. This economic transition could impact the probability of children obtaining higher levels of education than their parents achieved. In this analysis, measures of the local industrial composition from the Current Population Survey are merged with the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth using the confidential geo-coded records. Living in a labor market with a higher share of adults employed in degree-intensive industries is positively associated with obtaining a college degree among youth whose parents do not have a degree. An additional standard deviation difference in the share of employment in degree intensive industries corresponds to a 0.02 increase in the probability of ascending to being a college graduate, from a mean of 0.23. For cohorts born in the 1960s, living in a manufacturing-intensive region was negatively correlated with college attainment, but the relationship becomes positive among more recent cohorts. Alternate specifications introduce measures of several factors that could relate the industrial composition to educational attainment, including returns to education (wage premiums), opportunity costs (youth employment), parental inputs (family structure, income), community resources (per capita income), information (regional education levels, post-secondary student populations), and networks (parent’s employment).
    Keywords: Industrial Composition; Intergenerational Mobility; Educational Attainment
    JEL: E24 J24 O14 R11
    Date: 2016–01–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedcwp:1533&r=lma

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