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on Labor Markets - Supply, Demand, and Wages |
| By: | Dylan Glover; Amanda Pallais; William Pariente |
| Abstract: | Examining the performance of cashiers in a French grocery store chain, we find that manager bias negatively affects minority job performance. In the stores studied, cashiers work with different managers on different days and their schedules are determined quasi-randomly. When minority cashiers, but not majority cashiers, are scheduled to work with managers who are biased (as determined by an Implicit Association Test), they are absent more often, spend less time at work, scan items more slowly, and take more time between customers. Manager bias has consequences for the average performance of minority workers: while on average minority and majority workers perform equivalently, on days where managers are unbiased, minorities perform significantly better than do majority workers. This appears to be because biased managers interact less with minorities, leading minorities to exert less effort. |
| JEL: | J24 J71 J78 M50 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22786&r=lma |
| By: | Brenøe, Anne Ardila (University of Copenhagen); Lundberg, Evelina (Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | We examine the differential effects of family disadvantage on the education and adult labor market outcomes of men and women using high-quality administrative data on the entire population of Denmark born between 1966 and 1995. We link parental education and family structure during childhood to male-female and brother-sister differences in teenage outcomes, educational attainment, and adult earnings and employment. Our results are consistent with U.S. findings that boys benefit more from an advantageous family environment than do girls in terms of the behavior and grade-school outcomes. Father's education, which has not been examined in previous studies, is particularly important for sons. However, we find a very different pattern of parental influence on adult outcomes. The gender gaps in educational attainment, employment, and earnings are increasing in maternal education, benefiting daughters. Paternal education decreases the gender gaps in educational attainment (favoring sons) and labor market outcomes (favoring daughters). We conclude that differences in the behavior of school-aged boys and girls are a poor proxy for differences in skills that drive longer-term outcomes. |
| Keywords: | gender gap, parental education, family structure, education, labor market outcomes |
| JEL: | I20 J1 J2 J3 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10313&r=lma |
| By: | Ferreira Sequeda, Maria (ROA, Maastricht University); Künn-Nelen, Annemarie (ROA, Maastricht University); de Grip, Andries (ROA, Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides more insight into the relevance of the assumption of human capital theory that the productivity of job-related training is driven by the improvement of workers' skills. We analyse the extent to which training and informal learning on the job are related to employee skill development and consider the heterogeneity of this relationship with respect to workers' skill mismatch at job entry. Using data from the 2014 European Skills Survey, we find – as assumed by human capital theory – that employees who participated in training or informal learning show greater improvement of their skills than those who did not. The contribution of informal learning to employee skill development appears to be larger than that of training participation. Nevertheless, both forms of learning are shown to be complementary. This complementarity between training and informal learning is related to a significant additional improvement of workers' skills. The skill development of workers who were initially underskilled for their job seems to benefit the most from both training and informal learning, whereas the skill development of those who were initially overskilled benefits the least. Work-related learning investments in the latter group seem to be more functional in offsetting skill depreciation than in fostering skill accumulation. |
| Keywords: | training, informal learning, skill development, skill mismatch, human capital |
| JEL: | J24 M53 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10302&r=lma |
| By: | Martins, Pedro S. (Queen Mary, University of London) |
| Abstract: | Personnel economics tends be based on single-firm case studies. Here we examine the personnel practices of nearly 5,000 firms, over a period of 20 years, using detailed matched employer-employee panel data from Portugal. In the spirit of Baker et al. (1994a,b), we consider different dimensions of personnel management within each firm: worker turnover, the role of job levels and human capital as wage determinants, the dispersion of wages within job levels, the importance of tenure in terms of promotions and exits, and the scope for careers. We find a large degree of diversity in most of these practices across firms. Moreover, some personnel practices are shown to be robust predictors of higher levels of firm performance, even after controlling for time-invariant firm heterogeneity and other variables: low wage dispersion at low and intermediate job levels and a tight relationship between human capital variables and wages. |
| Keywords: | personnel economics, job levels, wages, big data |
| JEL: | M51 M52 J31 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10289&r=lma |
| By: | Heywood, John S. (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee); Jirjahn, Uwe (University of Trier); Struewing, Cornelia (University of Trier) |
| Abstract: | This work contributes to the literature demonstrating an important role for psychological traits in labor market decisions. We show that West German workers with an internal locus of control sort into jobs with performance appraisals. Appraisals provide workers who believe they control their environment a tool to demonstrate their value and achieve their goals. We confirm that workers who are risk tolerant also sort into jobs with performance appraisals but explain why the influence of the locus of control and risk tolerance should not be additive. We demonstrate this by estimating a routinely large and significantly negative interaction in our sorting equations. We also show that important patterns of sorting are revealed only when taking into account the interaction of locus of control and risk tolerance. |
| Keywords: | locus of control, risk attitude, performance appraisal, performance pay, sorting, extrinsic rewards, intrinsic motivation |
| JEL: | D03 J33 M52 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10288&r=lma |
| By: | Bergolo, Marcelo (IECON, Universidad de la República); Galvan, Estefania (Aix-Marseille University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the behavioral responses of coupled men and women to a cash transfer program in Uruguay – Asignaciones Familiares-Plan de Equidad (AFAM-PE) –, by analyzing its effect on labor market responses, marital dissolution, and the decision-making process regarding the use of money. The identification strategy exploits both the fact that the monetary transfer is targeted to women and a local random assignment into the AFAM-PE which exogenously changed the intra-household distribution of resources across applicant households. Based on a regression discontinuity design and on a follow-up survey matched with administrative records of applicant households to the program, the insights of this study may be summarized in four broad results. First, while no significant effects are found for men, the program has significant negative effects on the formality choice of women at the eligibility cut-off, but no robust effect on the margin of employment. Secondly, these responses seem to be associated with a decline in women's movement into formal labor from unregistered jobs. These responses do not depend on their partner's labor supply. Third, contrary to findings for various welfare programs in developed countries, no effect on marital dissolution is found. Fourth, we find suggestive evidence that the AFAM-PE results in women taking greater (perceived) responsibility for decisions in specific spheres of household expenditures. In conclusion, considering the overall effects, these results suggest that conditional cash transfer programs (CCTs) do not necessary imply an increase in women's control over household resources, offering suggestive considerations for the ongoing debate in developing countries and suggesting the need to discuss new designs for social assistance. |
| Keywords: | conditional cash transfer program, intra-household allocations, labor market behavior, women´s decision-making |
| JEL: | H31 O15 D13 J22 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10310&r=lma |
| By: | Devicienti, Francesco (University of Turin); Fanfani, Bernardo (University of Turin); Maida, Agata (University of Milan) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study the evolution of the Italian wage inequality, and of its determinants, using two decades of matched employer-employee data covering the entire population of private-sector workers and firms in the Veneto region. We find that wage inequality has increased since the mid-1980s at a relatively fast pace, and we decompose this trend by means of wage regression models that account for both worker and firm fixed effects. We show that the observed and unobserved heterogeneity of the workforce has been a major determinant of the overall wage dispersion and of its evolution. Instead, we find that the importance of the dispersion in firm-specific wage policies has declined over time. Finally, we show that the growth in wage dispersion has almost entirely occurred between job titles (livelli di inquadramento) for which a set of minimum wages is bargained at the nation-wide sectoral level. We conclude that, even in the presence of the underlying market forces, trends in wage inequality have been channelled through the rules set by the country's fairly centralized system of industrial relations. |
| Keywords: | wage inequality, collective bargaining, two-way fixed effects, employer-employee data |
| JEL: | J00 J5 J31 J40 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10293&r=lma |
| By: | Jan C. van Ours (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands); Yuxin Yao (Tilburg University, The Netherlands) |
| Abstract: | Our paper studies the effects of dialect-speaking on job characteristics of Dutch workers, in particular on their hourly wages. The unconditional difference in median hourly wages between standard Dutch speakers and dialect speakers is about 10.6% for males and 6.7% for females. If we take into account differences in personal characteristics and province fixed effects male dialect speakers earn 4.1% less while for females this is 2.8%. Using the geographic distance to Amsterdam as an instrumental variable to dialect-speaking, we find that male workers who speak a dialect earn 11.6% less while for female workers this is 1.6%. Our main conclusion is that for male workers there is a significant wage penalty of dialect-speaking while for female workers there is no significant difference. |
| Keywords: | Dialect-speaking; wage penalty; job characteristics |
| JEL: | J24 I2 |
| Date: | 2016–10–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20160091&r=lma |
| By: | Nishimura, Yoshinori |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes whether the government intervention on the firm’s employment policy has an effect on the employment of the elderly. The pensionable age has increased in Japan. As a result, this policy makes a difference between the mandatory retirement age and the pensionable age. The Japanese government has obliged firms to employ elderly workers until they arrive at the pensionable age. According to the literature, the labor force participation rate of the elderly male workers increases after the implementation of this policy. However, according to the result in this paper, after omitting the unobserved heterogeneity and controlling the worker’s demographics, there is no effect on the employment of the elderly workers. This paper discusses why the effect of the government intervention on the demand side of the elderly labor market has no effect on the employment of the elderly. According to this discussion, it is possible that the firms avoid the cost which they will burden from the employment of the elderly worker by using measures which are not illegal while they only follow the directions which the law directly requires. |
| Keywords: | government intervention, labor market, social security |
| JEL: | J2 J7 K2 |
| Date: | 2016–10–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:73444&r=lma |
| By: | Katrin Huber; Erwin Winkler |
| Abstract: | We examine the distributional effect of Germany’s trade integration with China and Eastern Europe and show that there are considerable differences between the household level and the individual level impact. The trade shock increased inequality of individual earnings. At the household level, however, about 40% of this distributional effect is reduced by a simple insurance effect that occurs if partners within married and unmarried couples are differently affected by the trade shock. The insurance effect is substantial since the trade shock had a large variation across industries and 80% of individuals within couples are employed in different industries. Our analysis also reveals that many workers who individually benefit from the trade shock turn into ’losers’ at the household level because they have a partner who experiences a strong negative impact. All in all, this paper suggests that a household level perspective is essential in order to understand the exact distributional consequences of globalization. |
| Keywords: | Earnings inequality, international trade, household, insurance |
| JEL: | J31 F16 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp873&r=lma |
| By: | Michaud, Amanda M. (Indiana University); Nelson, Jaeger (Indiana University); Wiczer, David (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) |
| Abstract: | Along with health, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) evaluates work-limiting disability by considering vocational factors including age, education, and past work experience. As the number of SSDI applicants and awards has increased, these vocational criteria are increasingly important to acceptances and denials. A unique state-level dataset allows us to estimate how these factors relate to the SSDI award process. These estimates are used to asses how changes to the demographic and occupational composition have contributed to awards trends. In our results, the prevalence of workers in their 50s are especially important. Further, increasing educational attainment lowers applications and vocational awards. |
| Keywords: | Disability Insurance; Vocational Criteria; Demographic Decomposition |
| JEL: | E62 I13 |
| Date: | 2016–10–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2016-018&r=lma |
| By: | Grabrucker, Katharina (University of Passau); Grimm, Michael (University of Passau) |
| Abstract: | An often-heard argument is that South Africa's very high crime rate is the main reason for the country's small share of business ownership. Combining a fixed-effects model with an instrumental variable approach, we estimate the effect of crime on self-employment and business performance using a matched data set of census, survey and police data. In contrast to previous studies, which focus on perceived rather than actual crime and often deal with geographically limited areas, we do not find robust evidence that high crime rates have a negative impact on self-employment. Although the impact of crime is statistically significant and negative, it is economically small. Moreover, our results suggest a positive rather than a negative relationship between robbery and burglary and sales and average business profits. These results suggest that crime may not be in general a serious threat for small businesses in low and middle-income countries. |
| Keywords: | crime, self-employment, microenterprises, South Africa, informal sector |
| JEL: | D22 J24 J46 K40 L26 O12 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10280&r=lma |
| By: | Borisov, Gleb V. (St. Petersburg State University); Pissarides, Christopher A. (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We make use of longitudinal data for the Russian economy over 1994-2013 to obtain earnings and education information about parents and children. We estimate the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment and earning capacity and find high intergenerational correlation of earnings for both sons and daughters independently of educational qualifications. We attribute them to the impact of informal networks. We also find high correlation of educational qualifications but with critical variations due to labour market conditions. At the time of transition around 1990 children's educational attainment fell well below parents but recovered a decade later when the economy was booming. |
| Keywords: | human capital, intergenerational education mobility, intergenerational earnings elasticity, Russia |
| JEL: | J21 J23 J24 J62 O15 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10300&r=lma |
| By: | Moffat, John; Roth, Duncan (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "Using data from 49 European regions covering 2005-2012, this paper finds that the estimated effect of cohort size on employment and unemployment outcomes is very sensitive to the age range of the sample. We argue that this is because the identification strategy commonly used in this literature is unable to eliminate the bias caused by measurement error in the cohort-size variable. The latter arises because large shares of the young choose to acquire education and consequently the size of an age group provides a poor measure of age-specific labour supply. In our view older age groups provide a more suitable sample to test the implications of cohort crowding since the former will have largely entered the labour market. Using a sample aged 25 - 29, which has relatively low rates of participation in education, we find robust evidence that an increase in cohort size increases employment and reduces unemployment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| JEL: | J10 J21 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–10–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201637&r=lma |
| By: | Ivan Zilic (The Institute of Economics, Zagreb) |
| Abstract: | This paper identifies the causal effect of an educational reform implemented in Croatia in 1975/76 and 1977/78 on educational and labor market outcomes. High-school education was split into two phases which resulted in reduced tracking and extended general curriculum for pupils attending vocational training. Exploiting the rules on elementary school entry and timing of the reform, we use a regression discontinuity design and pooled Labor Force Surveys 2000–2012 to analyze the effect of the reform on educational attainment and labor market outcomes. We find that the reform, on average, reduced the probability of having university education, which we contribute to attaching professional context to once purely academic and general high-school programs. We also observe heterogeneity of the effects across gender, as for males we find that the probability of finishing high school decreased, while for the females we do not observe any adverse effects, only an increase in the probability of having some university education. We explain this heterogeneity with different selection into schooling for males and females. Reform did not positively affect individuals’ labor market perspectives; therefore, we conclude that the observed general-vocational wage differential is mainly driven by self-selection into the type of high school. |
| Keywords: | general education, vocational training, reform |
| JEL: | I21 J24 P20 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iez:wpaper:1608&r=lma |
| By: | Devicienti, Francesco (University of Turin); Grinza, Elena (University of Turin); Manello, Alessandro (University of Turin); Vannoni, Davide (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | Using three waves of a uniquely rich survey on Italian private firms, we explore the impact of female managers on the use of part-time work. Building on a literature arguing that female leaders are more sensitive to their employees' needs and more self-transcendent than their male counterparts, we assess whether such attitudes manifest themselves also in relation to working time arrangements. Results indicate that female managers are indeed more responsive to their employees' needs: they heavily limit the employment of involuntary part-time work, correspondingly increasing full-time employment, and concede more part-time arrangements to employees asking for them. All in all, our results show that there are some hitherto unexplored benefits from increasing the number of female leaders: on the one hand, they strongly contain the widespread phenomenon of involuntary part-time employment and, on the other hand, they enhance the work-life balance of workers engaged in child care or elderly care activities. |
| Keywords: | female managers, part-time work, involuntary part-time work, work-life balance, meeting employees' needs, self-transcendence |
| JEL: | J23 J41 M51 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10314&r=lma |
| By: | Murard, Elie (IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of international migration on the welfare of family members left behind at the origin. Previous literature has produced inconclusive evidence, with some studies suggesting that migration reduces income poverty while others show that non-migrants bear a larger work burden to compensate for the loss of migrants' earnings. This paper provides a new unified framework that generates testable predictions of whether migration increases non-migrants' welfare in terms of both consumption and leisure time. Drawing on household panel data in rural Mexico, I find that migration increases non-migrants' consumption, but that this consumption gain cannot be explained by labor supply adjustments. Migration improves left-behinds' welfare through two different channels: (i) migrants' remittances exceed their forgone income contribution to the origin household; and (ii) the out-migration of a farmer increases the marginal productivity of agricultural labor for those left behind in the farm. |
| Keywords: | migration, remittances, welfare, labor supply, consumption, Mexico |
| JEL: | J22 F22 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10305&r=lma |
| By: | Hadjivassiliou, Kari P (Institute for Employment Studies (IES)); Tassinari, Arianna (University of Warwick); Eichhorst, Werner (IZA); Wozny, Florian (IZA) |
| Abstract: | The Great Recession that has engulfed Europe since 2008 has had a profound impact on the process of young people's school-to-work (STW) transition. Countries' institutional configurations considerably matter in shaping the structure of young people's STW transitions and mediating the impact of the Great Recession on youth unemployment. Drawing upon Pohl and Walther's concept of 'youth transition regime' (2007), we have assessed the performance of selected EU countries belonging to different clusters regarding the speed, ease and quality of STW transitions. Differences in performance across regimes exists, with some faring better than others, although at the same time a common, worrying trend can be identified across clusters, comprising a progressive deterioration of the quality of youth transitions across the board, despite the positive policy intentions to strengthen and improve the efficacy of transition regimes. |
| Keywords: | school-to-work, youth unemployment, transition regime, European Union |
| JEL: | I2 J23 J24 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10301&r=lma |
| By: | Julie Berry Cullen (University of California San Diego); Cory Koedel (University of Missouri); Eric Parsons (University of Missouri) |
| Abstract: | Improving public sector workforce quality is challenging in sectors such as education where worker productivity is difficult to assess and manager incentives are muted by political and bureaucratic constraints. In this paper, we study how providing information to principals about teacher effectiveness and encouraging them to use the information in personnel decisions affects the composition of teacher turnovers. Our setting is the Houston Independent School District, which recently implemented a rigorous teacher evaluation system. Prior to the new system teacher effectiveness was negatively correlated with district exit and we show that the policy significantly strengthened this relationship, primarily by increasing the relative likelihood of exit for teachers in the bottom quintile of the quality distribution. Low-performing teachers working in low-achieving schools were especially likely to leave. However, despite the success, the implied change to the quality of the workforce overall is too small to have a detectable impact on student achievement. |
| Keywords: | Teacher quality, teacher evaluation, teacher attrition, education workforce quality, public sector management |
| JEL: | I20 J45 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:1614&r=lma |
| By: | Ortega, Javier (City University London); Verdugo, Gregory (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | Exploiting a large French panel for 1976-2007, we examine the impact of low-educated immigration on the labour market outcomes of blue-collar natives initially in jobs where immigrants became overrepresented in the last decades. Immigrant inflows generate substantial reallocations of natives across locations and occupations. Location movers are negatively selected while occupation movers are positively selected and move towards better paid-jobs characterised by less routine tasks. As a result, controlling for composition effects has an important quantitative impact on the estimated effects of immigration. Low-educated immigration generally lowers the wages of blue-collar workers, but its impact is heterogeneous across sectors. |
| Keywords: | immigration, wages, employment |
| JEL: | J15 J31 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10303&r=lma |
| By: | Sara Markowitz; E. Kathleen Adams; Mary Jane Lewitt, PhD,CNM; Anne Dunlop, MD |
| Abstract: | The demand for health care and healthcare professionals is predicted to grow significantly over the next decade. Securing an adequate health care workforce is of primary importance to ensure the health and wellbeing of the population in an efficient manner. Occupational licensing laws and related restrictions on scope of practice (SOP) are features of the market for healthcare professionals and are also controversial. At issue is a balance between protecting the public health and removing anticompetitive barriers to entry and practice. In this paper, we examine the controversy surrounding SOP restrictions for certified nurse midwives (CNMs). We use the variation in SOP laws governing CNM practice that has occurred over time in a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the effect of the laws on the markets for CNMs and their services, and on related maternal and infant outcomes. We focus on SOP laws that pertain to physician oversight requirements and prescribing rules, and examine the effects of SOP laws in geographic areas designated as medically underserved. Our findings indicate that SOP laws are neither helpful nor harmful in regards to maternal behaviors and infant health outcomes, but states that allow CNMs to practice with no SOP-based barriers to care have lower rates of induced labor and Cesarean section births. We discuss the implications of these findings for the policy debate surrounding SOP restrictions and for health care costs. |
| JEL: | I1 J44 K2 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22780&r=lma |
| By: | Valerija Botric (The Institute of Economics, Zagreb) |
| Abstract: | Recent crisis in Croatia has more adversely affected private than public sector workers. However, the question is whether the pay schemes are more related to the nature of jobs in the public sector, where certain skills are in demand and consequently paid more than in the private sector. To shed some light on this issue, wages during the period 2008–2014 have been analysed in two sectors separately. For each sector wage skill premium was assessed by classifying workers into three skills groups: the first is related to abstract problem solving and organizational tasks, the second is relatively more routine-task intensive, while the third is primarily manual-task intensive. Additional emphasis is placed on the young workers (up to age 30). There are two reasons for this. The first is related to the adverse effects recent recession had on youth labour market outcomes throughout the European Union. Croatia, with the youth unemployment rate of 45.5 percent (age group 15–24) in 2014 is no exception to this problem. The second reason is related to the question of a specific active labour market policy (ALMP) measure design for inclusion of young people in the labour market by offering them internship/traineeship subsidized in the amount of an approximately minimum wage. The question remains whether such measure channels young workers into certain jobs and disrupts normal labour market competition due to its wide popularity. |
| Keywords: | public vs. private sector, wage differences, skill premia, Croatia |
| JEL: | J31 J33 J45 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iez:wpaper:1607&r=lma |