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on Labor Markets - Supply, Demand, and Wages |
| By: | Jones, Melanie K. (Cardiff University); Kaya, Ezgi (Cardiff University) |
| Abstract: | In this study we quantify the size and drivers of the contemporary gender pay gap among medical doctors employed in the UK public sector. In using nationally representative data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, we make comparisons to doctors employed in the private sector, as well as to other public sector medical professionals. We find that the substantial 20 per cent hourly gender pay gap among public sector doctors is far larger than in either of these comparator occupations. Decomposing the mean gender pay gap for public sector doctors, we find that it is largely unexplained by personal and work-related characteristics, consistent with evidence of potential substantial gender inequality in rewards. It is at the top end of the wage distribution where this is most pronounced indicating the presence of a 'glass ceiling' in UK medicine. |
| Keywords: | gender pay gap, medicine, public sector, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, wage decompositions, wage distribution |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J45 J71 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14177&r=all |
| By: | Alessandrini, Diana (St. Francis Xavier University); Milla, Joniada (Saint Mary’s University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of the minimum wage on individuals' schooling decisions and the type of human capital acquired by students. Using Canadian longitudinal data, we explore 136 minimum wage amendments across provincial jurisdictions, and find three novel results. First, the minimum wage affects both the quantity and the type of human capital acquired by individuals. High minimum wages stimulate the accumulation of occupation-specific human capital at community colleges but discourage enrollment in academic programs offered by universities. Quantitatively, a 10% increase in the minimum wage increases community-college enrollment by 6% and reduces university enrollment by 5%. Second, high minimum wages strengthen the link between parental background and children educational attainment, worsening the university participation gap between individuals with high and low parental education. Finally, minimum wages also affect whether students dropout of post-secondary education or return to school later in life as mature students. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage, post-secondary enrollment, post-secondary dropouts |
| JEL: | J31 J38 J24 I23 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14178&r=all |
| By: | Lukesch, Veronika; Zwick, Thomas |
| Abstract: | The literature on wage bargaining so far mainly argues that unemployment benefits are relevant outside options for employees. This paper demonstrates that also a change in outside wage options drives wages in continuing jobs. The authors use the natural experiment of a crafts reform that reduces outside wage options for a clearly defined treatment group of employees in deregulated crafts occupations in comparison to employees in crafts occupations that have not been reformed. Five years after the reform, the wages of employees in deregulated crafts increased by five percent less than wages of employees in the other group. Reform effects are concentrated in employers with high increases in their median wage level after the reform. Wage differences therefore seem to be the result of wage renegotiations initiated by employees, rather than renegotiations initiated by employers. Works councils or collective bargaining, firm size, firm profits or regional unemployment have no impact on wage differetiation after taking wage increases into account. They show for the first time that changes in outside options induce wage differentiation at the employer level even in the tightly regulated German labour market. They use entropy matching on the basis of a large representative administrative linked employer-employee panel data set to guarantee homogeneous treatment and control groups before the reform. They isolate the outside wage option effect from other wage determinants by restricting our sample to employers not affected by the crafts reform. |
| Keywords: | wage bargaining,outside options,diff-in-diff estimation,matching |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J44 L11 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:21003&r=all |
| By: | Meurs, Dominique (University Paris Ouest-Nanterre); Puhani, Patrick A. (Leibniz University of Hannover) |
| Abstract: | Criteria used in hiring workers often do not reflect the skills required on the job. By comparing trainee performance for newly hired workers conditional on competitive civil service examination scores for hiring French public sector workers, we test whether women and men with the same civil service examination score exhibit similar performance in a job-related trainee programme. Both the civil service examination and trainee scores contain anonymous and non-anonymous components that we observe separately. We find that by the end of the trainee programme (first year of employment), women are outperforming men on both anonymous written and non-anonymous oral evaluations, a finding that holds both conditionally and unconditionally for the civil service examination results. According to further analysis, however, it is the anonymously graded "essay on common culture" civil service examination that, unlike the other CSE components, disadvantages women in this particular context. |
| Keywords: | recruitment, disparate impact, systemic discrimination, audit |
| JEL: | H83 J45 J71 M51 |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14148&r=all |
| By: | Pabilonia, Sabrina Wulff; Vernon, Victoria |
| Abstract: | Remote work is rapidly increasing in the US. Using data on full-time wage and salary workers from the GHIJ-GHIL American Time Use Survey Leave and Job Flexibilities Module, we estimate hourly wage differentials between teleworkers and office workers and compare how teleworkers and office workers allocate their time on office days and work-at-home days. Using an econometric method that relates selection on observables with selection on unobservables, we find that some teleworkers earn a wage premium, but it varies by occupation, gender, parental status, and teleworking intensity. In all subsamples, male, but not female, home-based teleworkers earn a wage premium. Among occasional teleworkers, we find a wage premium for all subsamples with the exception of mothers and men without children. Using time diaries, we find that teleworkers spend less time on commuting and grooming activities but more time on leisure and household production activities and more time with family on work-at-home days than office days. We do not find differences in workers' hours on average by telework status, but male teleworkers regardless of their work location on their diary day work slightly fewer minutes on weekday workdays than office workers. |
| Keywords: | remote work,working from home,telework,wages,time use,commuting |
| JEL: | J22 J31 D13 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:546r&r=all |
| By: | Hong Cheng; Lukasz A. Drozd; Rahul Giri; Mathieu Taschereau-Dumouchel; Junjie Xia |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of modern automation on firm-level labor shares using a 2018 survey of 1,618 manufacturing firms in China. We exploit geographic and industry variation built into the design of subsidies for automation paid under a vast government industrialization program, “Made In China 2025,” to construct an instrument for automation investment. We use a canonical CES framework of automation and develop a novel methodology to structurally estimate the elasticity of substitution between labor and automation capital among automating firms, which for our preferred specification is 3.8. We calibrate the model and show that the general equilibrium implications of this elasticity are consistent with the aggregate trends during our sample period. |
| Keywords: | labor share; labor’s share in income; automation; labor demand; industrial robots |
| JEL: | D33 E25 O33 J23 J24 E24 O25 |
| Date: | 2021–03–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:90188&r=all |
| By: | Yana Gallen; Melanie Wasserman |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates gender differences in access to informal information regarding the labor market. We conduct a large-scale field experiment in which real college students seek information from 10,000 working professionals about various career paths, and we randomize whether a professional receives a message from a male or a female student. We focus the experimental design and analysis on two career attributes that prior research has shown to differentially affect the labor market choices of women: the extent to which a career accommodates work/life balance and has a competitive culture. When students ask broadly for information about a career, we find that female students receive substantially more information on work/life balance relative to male students. This gender difference persists when students disclose that they are concerned about work/life balance. In contrast, professionals mention workplace culture to male and female students at similar rates. After the study, female students are more dissuaded from their preferred career path than male students, and this difference is in part explained by professionals’ greater emphasis on work/life balance when responding to female students. Finally, we elicit students’ preferences for professionals and find that gender differences in information provision would remain if students contacted their most preferred professionals. |
| Keywords: | career information, gender, discrimination, correspondence study |
| JEL: | C93 J16 J24 J71 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8875&r=all |
| By: | Anthony Strittmatter; Conny Wunsch |
| Abstract: | The vast majority of existing studies that estimate the average unexplained gender pay gap use unnecessarily restrictive linear versions of the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition. Using a notably rich and large data set of 1.7 million employees in Switzerland, we investigate how the methodological improvements made possible by such big data affect estimates of the unexplained gender pay gap. We study the sensitivity of the estimates with regard to i) the availability of observationally comparable men and women, ii) model flexibility when controlling for wage determinants, and iii) the choice of different parametric and semi-parametric estimators, including variants that make use of machine learning methods. We find that these three factors matter greatly. Blinder-Oaxaca estimates of the unexplained gender pay gap decline by up to 39% when we enforce comparability between men and women and use a more flexible specification of the wage equation. Semi-parametric matching yields estimates that when compared with the Blinder-Oaxaca estimates, are up to 50% smaller and also less sensitive to the way wage determinants are included. |
| Keywords: | gender inequality, gender pay gap, common support, model specification, matching estimator, machine learning |
| JEL: | J31 C21 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8912&r=all |
| By: | Martins, Pedro S. (Queen Mary, University of London) |
| Abstract: | As work changes more quickly, firm-provided training may become more relevant. However, there is little causal evidence about the effects of training on firms. This paper studies a large training grants programme in Portugal, supported by the European Social Fund, contrasting firms that received the grants and firms that also applied but were unsuccessful. Combining several rich data sets, we compare a large number of potential outcomes of these firms, while following them over several years both before and after the grant decision. Our difference-in-differences models estimate significant positive effects on take up (training hours and expenditure), with limited deadweight; and that such additional training led to increased sales, value added, employment, productivity, and exports. These effects tend to be of at least 5% and, in some cases, 10% or more, and are robust in multiple dimensions. |
| Keywords: | training subsidies, productivity, programme evaluation |
| JEL: | J24 H43 M53 |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14153&r=all |
| By: | Michael Baker; Derek Messacar; Mark Stabile |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether child tax benefits reduce child poverty and labor force participation among single mothers within the context of the 2015 expansion of the Canadian Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) and the 2016 introduction of the Canada Child Benefit (CCB). We compare single mothers to single childless women as single mothers have historically had the highest poverty rates. Our analysis indicates that both reforms reduced child poverty, although the Canada Child Benefit had the greater effect. We find no evidence of a labor supply response to either of the program reforms on either the extensive or intensive margins. |
| JEL: | H27 J13 J21 J30 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28556&r=all |
| By: | David Neumark; Maysen Yen |
| Abstract: | We analyze the impacts of recent city minimum wage increases in California and nationwide, following a pre-analysis plan (PAP) registered prior to the release of data covering two years of minimum wage increases. For California cities we find a hint of negative employment effects. Nationally, we find some evidence of disemployment effects for teens, but not young adults or high school dropouts. City-specific analyses provide limited evidence of adverse effects on the share low-income, but the pooled city analysis does not; the national analysis generally finds no impact on the share low-income, with one exception that may reflect prior trends. |
| JEL: | J23 J38 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28555&r=all |
| By: | Jack Blundell |
| Abstract: | In this paper I study a policy in which employers are required to publicly report gender pay gap statistics. Proponents argue that increasing the information available to workers and consumers places pressure on firms to close pay gaps, but opponents argue that such policies are poorly targeted and ineffective. This paper contributes to the debate by analyzing the UK's recent reporting policy, in which employers are mandated to publicly report simple measures of their gender pay gap each year. Exploiting a discontinuous size threshold in the policy's coverage, I apply a difference-in-difference strategy to linked employer-employee payroll data. I find that the introduction of reporting requirements led to a 1.6 percentage-point narrowing of the gender pay gap at affected employers. This large-magnitude effect is primarily due to a decline in male wages within affected employers, and is not caused by a change in the composition of the workforce. To explain this effect, I propose that a worker preference against high pay gap employers induces the closing of pay gaps upon information revelation. Newly-gathered survey evidence shows that female workers in particular exhibit a significant preference for low pay gap employers. In a hypothetical choice experiment, over half of women accept a 2.5% lower salary to avoid a high pay gap employer. I also demonstrate substantial heterogeneity in the interpretation of pay gap statistics across workers, and show that this affects their valuation of jobs at employers with different pay gaps. |
| Keywords: | gender pay gap, gender pay gap reporting, transparency, discrimination, information, public policy |
| JEL: | J31 J38 J33 J71 J78 J16 D82 D83 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1750&r=all |
| By: | Andreas Gulyas; Sebastian Seitz; Sourav Sinha |
| Abstract: | We study the 2011 Austrian Pay Transparency Law, which requires firms above a size threshold to publish internal reports on the gender pay gap. Using an event-study design, we show that the policy had no discernible effects on male and female wages, thus leaving the gender wage gap unchanged. The effects are precisely estimated and we rule out that the policy narrowed the gender wage gap by more than 0.5 p.p.. Moreover, we do not find evidence for wage compression within firms. The Austrian transparency reform might have little 'bite' because wage reports are company secret and not public information. |
| Keywords: | Pay Transparency, Gender Pay Gap |
| JEL: | J08 J31 J38 J78 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2021_194v2&r=all |
| By: | Tejada, Mauricio (Universidad Alberto Hurtado); Piras, Claudia (Inter-American Development Bank); Flabbi, Luca (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill); Bustelo, Monserrat (Inter-American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | We develop and estimate a search model that captures the specific characteristics of Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) labor markets and the crucial differences between men and women. Labor force participation decisions are integrated in the labor market dynamics, taking into account sample selection over unobservables. The model is estimated on four LAC countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico) and on three education levels (Primary, Secondary and Tertiary). We use the estimated model to study changes in gender gaps and in output implied by policies that increase the labor force participation of women. We focus on four policies: an increase in the provision of child care, an increase in average female productivity, a gender-based contribution rate for formal employees, and changes in formality and informality costs. We find that the impact on the extensive margin of the female labor supply is the main channel responsible for the policy-induced increase in output. |
| Keywords: | gender gaps, female labor force participation, labor market frictions, search and matching, Nash bargaining, informality |
| JEL: | J24 J3 J64 O17 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14186&r=all |
| By: | Cavalcanti, T.; Hasna, Z.; Santos, C. |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the aggregate and distributional effects of climate change mitigation policies using a multi-sector equilibrium model with intersectoral input–output linkages and worker heterogeneity calibrated to different countries. The introduction of carbon taxes leads to changes in relative prices and inputs reallocation, including labor. For the United States, reaching its original Paris Agreement pledge would imply at most a 0.6% drop in output. This impact is distributed asymmetrically across sectors and individuals. In the US, workers with a comparative advantage in dirty energy sectors who do not reallocate suffer a welfare loss 12 times higher than workers in non-dirty sectors, but constitute less than 1% of the labor force. |
| Keywords: | Climate change, carbon taxes, worker heterogeneity, labor reallocation |
| JEL: | E13 H23 J24 |
| Date: | 2021–03–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:2122&r=all |
| By: | Atav, Tilbe (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis); Jongen, Egbert L. W. (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis); Rabat, Simon (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis) |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of the recent increase in the statutory retirement age (SRA) in the Netherlands, using RDD and rich administrative data on the universe of the Dutch population. We find large interaction effects with a preceding early retirement reform. The employment effect of the SRA reform is much larger for cohorts receiving less generous early retirement benefits. Indeed, the level of employment before the SRA, together with the retirement hazard at the SRA, is key to understanding the effects of retirement age reforms. Our results further point to a big role for automatic job termination in the Netherlands. |
| Keywords: | social insurance, employment, statutory retirement age, bunching, Netherlands |
| JEL: | J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14150&r=all |
| By: | Bernardo Guimaraes; Joao Paulo Pessoa; Vladimir Ponczek |
| Abstract: | We propose a model to study non-compete agreements and evaluate their quantitative effects. We explore an exogenous policy change that removed non-compete clauses in the market for Brazilian footballers, the Pele Act of 1998. The Act raised players' lifetime income but changed the wage profile in a heterogeneous way, reducing young players' salaries. We structurally estimate the model's parameters by matching wages and turnover profiles in the post Act period. By changing a single parameter related to the non-compete friction, we can match the changes in the age-earnings profile. We then show that the bulk of income gains is due to distributional forces, with efficiency gains playing a minor role. |
| Keywords: | labor mobility, labor frictions, wage profile, labor turnover |
| JEL: | J30 J41 J60 K31 Z22 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1751&r=all |
| By: | Gaetano Basso (Bank of Italy); Adele Grompone (Bank of Italy); Francesca Modena (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | The accommodation and food services and entertainment and sport activities are the worst hit by the economic crisis that followed the COVID-19 pandemic. The possibility for these workers to find new jobs might be limited due to low competence and skill levels. We study the employment transitions of these workers before the COVID-19 crisis in Italy and find that, in the medium run, workers employed in accommodation and food service activities were as likely to be employed as those in other non-financial private services were. Entertainment sector employees instead had a higher probability of being non-employed compared with other non-financial private services; if they found a job, these workers moved more frequently to other sectors and occupations. To get insights into the potential for reallocation during the pandemic and post-pandemic periods, we perform a simple counterfactual exercise based on the similarity in skill demand: the evidence indicates there is little reallocation potential for these hard-hit workers, especially if service demand remains depressed for a long time. |
| Keywords: | Covid-19, employment transitions, Italy, tourism |
| JEL: | J23 J24 |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_597_21&r=all |
| By: | Raquel Fonseca; Hugo Morin; Ana I. Moro-Egido |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the bi-directional causal relationship between retirement and stress. We use PSID data for the period 2007-2015. Using a simultaneous equations approach, we find that a rise in stress increases the probability to retire by roughly 15.4 percentage points, while retirement decreases stress by 34.5 percentage points. We find the same results when we disaggregate by individuals’ characteristics, but the former effect is stronger for males, for people working in typical blue-collar jobs, and for people whose wealth is below the mean; while the latter is stronger for males, for white-collar workers, for people whose wealth is above the mean, and for white individuals. We show that official retirement ages are a strong instrument for actual retirement age, and that lagged physical activity levels are a non-linear instrument for perceived stress. We also confirm that objective measures of mental health are a strong instrument for perceived stress. |
| Keywords: | Stress,Retirement,Physical Activity,Simultaneous Equation Models, |
| JEL: | C30 J26 |
| Date: | 2021–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2021s-10&r=all |
| By: | Mehrzad B. Baktash; John S. Heywood; Uwe Jirjahn |
| Abstract: | We study the link between performance pay and alcohol use in Germany, a country with mandated health insurance. Previous research from the US argues that alcohol use as a form of “self-medication” may be a natural response to the stress and uncertainty of performance pay when many workers do not have access to health insurance. We find that the likelihood of consuming each of four types of alcohol (beer, wine, spirits, and mixed drinks) is higher for those receiving performance pay even controlling for a long list of economic, social and personality characteristics and in sensible IV estimates. We also show that the total number of types of alcohol consumed is larger for those receiving performance pay. We conclude that even in the face of mandated health insurance, the link found in the US persists in Germany. |
| Keywords: | Performance Pay; Alcohol; Stress |
| JEL: | I12 J33 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trr:wpaper:202102&r=all |
| By: | Hansen, Anne Toft (VIVE - The Danish Centre for Applied Social Science); Hvidman, Ulrik (Aarhus University); Sievertsen, Hans Henrik (University of Bristol) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the labor-market returns of skill signals. We identify the labor-market effect of grade point averages (GPA) by leveraging a nationwide change in the scaling of grades in Danish universities. Results show that a reform-induced increase in GPA that is unrelated to ability causes higher earnings immediately after graduation, but the effect fades in subsequent years. The effect at labor-market entry is largest for individuals with fewer alternative signals and the earnings adjustment occurs both within and across firms. Although employers initially screen candidates based on skill signals, our findings suggest that they rapidly learn about worker productivity. |
| Keywords: | job-market signaling, employer learning, higher education |
| JEL: | I20 J20 I26 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14200&r=all |
| By: | Bonacini, Luca; Gallo, Giovanni; Scicchitano, Sergio |
| Abstract: | Working from home (WFH) has become a key factor during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in countries that have implemented severe social distancing measures. This paper investigates the potential influence of the working from home attitude of occupations on the gender wage gap (GWG) reported by Italian employees, on average and along the distribution. Based on Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions and unconditional quantile regressions, our results show that the GWG is greater among females working in an occupation with a high level of WFH attitude, thus among those more likely to be affected by a (probably) persistent spread of WFH procedures after the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, we find evidence of both sticky floor and glass ceiling effects for employees with a high WFH attitude and only a sticky floor effect for the group with a low WFH attitude. The positive association revealed between the level of WFH attitude and the GWG appears particularly strong among older and married female employees, as well as among those working in the private sector. Finally, this study confirms that allocating adequate resources to programmes and instruments that aim to achieve genderrelated goals is strongly recommended. |
| Keywords: | working from home,gender wage gap,COVID-19,Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition,RIF regressions |
| JEL: | D31 J31 I24 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:771&r=all |
| By: | Florian Bünning; Ben Chan; Sascha L. Schmidt; Dominik Schreyer; Benno Torgle |
| Abstract: | Despite the potential importance of awards as a possible career catalyst, the theoretical and empirical research on awards is still in its infancy. Here, we address this notable shortcoming in the economic literature by exploring data from German youth football. Analyzing whether an early career award, the so-called Fritz Walter Medal, significantly affects the awardee’s career trajectory in a highly competitive environment, where performance differences are often hardly perceivable, we find that receiving an early career award seems, per se, to be a robust positive signal for a player’s future career success. Intriguingly, though, both the award characteristics, that is, whether it is bestowed in gold, silver, or bronze, and also the exact age at which the awardee receives the bestowal only add limited explanatory power. |
| Keywords: | Awards; career effects; football/soccer; incentives; personnel economics |
| JEL: | A13 M52 J30 Z20 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cra:wpaper:2021-09&r=all |
| By: | McManus, Richard (University of Canterbury); Mumford, Karen A. (University of York); Sechel, Cristina (University of Sheffield) |
| Abstract: | Using a rich new data source, we explore the selection of economics Lecturers into the last UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise. Only some one-in-two (54%) of these Lecturers were submitted to REF2014; 57% of men and 46% of women. The decision making of Institutions is found to be well approximated by a simplified selection approach; focusing on working papers and higher quality journal publications. Our results also reveal sizeable conditional differences in the probability of selection, especially so in departments with higher research rankings. More than half of the variance in selection probability remains unexplained, revealing considerable idiosyncrasies in the management of submissions and uncertainty across the discipline in this research assessment process. |
| Keywords: | REF, gender, selection, outputs, quality, inclusivity |
| JEL: | J00 J44 J71 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14156&r=all |
| By: | Ma, Xinxin; Iwasaki, Ichiro |
| Abstract: | In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis of 2,191 empirical results reported in 213 existing studies to estimate the Mincer-type return to schooling in China. The results revealed that the return to schooling showed a positive trend, and the effect size was medium in terms of the partial correlation coefficient. We also found that workers in non-state sectors and urban regions, urban hukou workers, and women tend to have higher returns to schooling than their counterparts. Furthermore, the results indicate that the return to schooling registered a significant increase over time. |
| Keywords: | return to schooling, meta-analysis, publication selection bias, China |
| JEL: | D31 I26 J31 P23 P36 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hitcei:2020-12&r=all |
| By: | Maczulskij, Terhi (ETLA - The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes whether occupational polarization takes place within workers or due to changes in the composition of workers by using comprehensive panel data from Finland. The decomposition analysis shows that the decrease in mid-level routine occupations and the simultaneous increase in high-level abstract occupations is largely a within-worker phenomenon. In contrast, the share of low-skilled nonroutine manual tasks has largely increased through entry dynamics. Data on plant closures are used to identify involuntary separations from routine occupations. These results demonstrate a strong, uneven adjustment pattern, with routine cognitive workers being more able to move to abstract tasks and adjust with smaller wage costs than routine manual workers. |
| Keywords: | job market polarization, routine manual, routine cognitive, decomposition, occupational mobility, displacement |
| JEL: | J23 J62 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14190&r=all |
| By: | Focacci, Chiara Natalie; Santarelli, Enrico |
| Abstract: | The recent SARS-Cov-2 pandemic has contributed to several corporate crises. As a result, many Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Italy have filed for bankruptcy in the first quarter of 2020. In addition to a gigantic macroeconomic effect, the lockdown has impacted individuals to a large ex- tent. In this article, we investigate the behavioural response of employees who are under a dual condition of stress; namely, the pandemic and the risk of job loss. The hypothesis of employment hysteresis is challenged by looking at the tendency of individuals who are employed in firms facing a crisis, or in diffi- culty, to participate in training measures for: a similar job, remote working, and self-employment. Findings from a seemingly unrelated regressions (SUR) model show a significant increase in the likelihood to participate in standard or high-commitment training measures for similar jobs and remote working for employees who: i) positively value their professional social capital, i.e. their membership in a trade union (+24.4 and +25.2 percentage points, respectively); ii) have some displaced colleagues (+29.6 and +40.7 percentage points, respec- tively). Finally, we find that employees with a lower educational background are less likely to consider the possibility of switching between occupations. |
| Keywords: | Corporate Crisis,Displaced Workers,Employment Hysteresis,Job Training,Self-Employment,SARS-Cov-2,Remote Working |
| JEL: | J24 J51 J62 L26 M14 M53 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:780&r=all |
| By: | Bilgrami, Anam; Cutler, Henry; Sinha, Kompal |
| Abstract: | We analyse the impact of harmonising workplace health and safety laws in Australia on workplace injury and disease by estimating effects on the probability of receiving workers compensation in the past year. The introduction of the reform in all but two Australian states created a unique, region-based natural experiment. We exploit this regional variation to perform difference-in-difference estimation on a panel data sample of workers from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey, accounting for a diverse range of individuallevel covariates associated with workers compensation claiming. We find harmonisation reduced the probability of receiving workers compensation in treated states by 0.9 percentage points (p=0.047). This is likely to have resulted from increased enforcement activity by state governments and increased managerial focus on improving workplace health and safety. Subgroup analysis suggests the high-risk construction industry had a larger and more significant reduction of 2.9-3.6 percentage points (p=0.030). We suggest the construction industry had a greater potential for achieving reductions in workplace injury and disease due to a higher level of underlying workplace risk and the introduction of construction specific legislative requirements imposed by harmonisation. |
| Keywords: | workplace health and safety,Australia,workers compensation,causal analysis,workplace injury |
| JEL: | D04 I18 J28 J38 L52 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:773&r=all |
| By: | Manthei, Kathrin (RFH Koeln); Sliwka, Dirk (University of Cologne); Vogelsang, Timo (Frankfurt School of Finance and Management) |
| Abstract: | The core role of managerial accounting is to provide information to facilitate managers' decisions and influence their behavior through incentives. We study the impact of these two roles of information on profits by implementing a field experiment in a large retail chain. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, we vary: (i) whether store managers obtain access to decision-facilitating accounting information on the profit margins of individual products and (ii) whether they receive performance pay based on an objective profit metric to influence their decisions. We find that both practices increase profits significantly, albeit through different behavioral channels. In particular, managers make use of the information provided by placing higher-margin products, thereby raising the gross profit margin. While we hypothesized a priori that both practices are complements, we find that the profit increases induced by the combined intervention do not significantly exceed those of the separate interventions. We attribute this finding to an attention-directing role of the interventions toward the objective of raising profits, thereby inducing a countervailing substitution effect. We show that this effect fades over time such that the combined intervention tends to induce more persistent profit increases. |
| Keywords: | management controls, performance pay, monetary incentives, decision-facilitating, decision-influencing, accounting information, field experiment, complementarity |
| JEL: | J33 M52 C93 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14199&r=all |
| By: | Robbiano, Simone |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically analyzes whether a prominent place-based innovation policy, the institution of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), has affected the treated region innovative capacity. By relying on the Synthetic Control Method (SCM) approach and Italian NUTS-3 regional panel data, the innovative development of the latter, proxied by (per-capita) fractional count of patents, is compared with a set of Italian NUTS-3 control ones. Results suggest that the establishment of IIT has impacted on the regional innovative output, on average, by about 22.5 more patents for million inhabitants per year in the post-intervention period. The paper also provides evidence of knowledge spillovers from IIT in the hosting region. In addition, positive effects on the regional endowment of high-skilled human capital as well as regional growth are also documented. Finally, these results are robust to a variety of placebo permutation tests as well as several sensitivity checks, or when considering a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) approach. Finally, the paper may provide useful insights to inform policy makers about the marginal benefits of additional research funding by highlighting the stream of private and social returns, against which the opportunity cost of the intervention must be compared. |
| Keywords: | Public Research Institutes; Regional Development; Growth; Innovation; Human Capital; Knowledge Spillovers; Knowledge Accumulation; Synthetic Control Method. |
| JEL: | I23 I25 J24 O10 O15 O18 O30 O31 R10 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:106386&r=all |
| By: | Leonardi, Marco (University of Milan); Meschi, Elena (Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia) |
| Abstract: | Before the recent rebound due to the US–China trade war, tariffs on international trade were being progressively reduced over the last decades and advanced countries increasingly relied on non-tariff measures (NTMs) to protect their industries from foreign competition. In this paper, we exploit a novel database on NTMs to test their role in shaping the labour market effects of exposure to Chinese import competition over the 2000–2015 period. We relate changes in manufacturing employment to the share of employed workers protected by NTMs across US local labour markets and we instrument NTMs using the industry share of employment in swing states during presidential elections. Our results indicate that NTMs mitigate the negative employment effect of exposure to Chinese imports and have a positive effect on manufacturing wages (especially for the unskilled). |
| Keywords: | import competition, non-tariff barriers, labour market, Chinese imports |
| JEL: | E24 J23 J31 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14162&r=all |
| By: | René Böheim; Sarah Gust |
| Abstract: | In Austria, a gender pay transparency law was introduced in 2011, requiring companies with more than 1,000 employees to publish a pay report every other year. Firms with 500, 250, and 150 employees were subject to this requirement at later years. We estimate the impact of the law on men’s wages, women’s wages, and the gender pay gap using administrative data. The results from a regression discontinuity design suggest that the wage transparency law did not change wages or the gender wage gap. In larger firms, the wage of newly hired women increased more due to the reform than of newly hired men, suggesting that the gender wage gap decreased among newly hired workers. Our estimates of the effect of the law on employment growth or turnover are small, and statistically insignificant. For larger firms, we estimate that the transparency law led to a lower share of women in treated firms. These results are robust to several additional specifications. |
| Keywords: | wage transparency, gender wage gap |
| JEL: | J31 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2021-05&r=all |
| By: | Anurag Banerjee (Durham University Business School); Parantap Basu (Durham University Business School); Elisa Keller (University of Exeter) |
| Abstract: | Skilled individuals are rewarded more in poor countries than in rich countries. Why aren’t more individuals acquiring skills in poor countries? We study the role of unemployment risk. In a sample of 33 countries, we document that the unemployment rate of the skilled net of that of the unskilled decreases with a country’s level of development. Using a matching model of endogenous occupational choice and skill acquisition, we argue that the cost of doing business is a first order determinant of these unemployment rates and, therefore, of the skill acquisition decision. We then quantify the model and find that decreasing each country’s gap in the cost of doing business to the US by 10% decreases the gap in skill acquisition between rich and poor countries of between 48% and 63%. |
| Keywords: | Skill acquisition, Unemployment, Business cost |
| JEL: | O11 J31 J24 E24 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dur:durham:2021_01&r=all |
| By: | Sven Resnjanskij; Jens Ruhose; Simon Wiederhold; Ludger Woessmann |
| Abstract: | We study a mentoring program that aims to improve the labor-market prospects of school-attending adolescents from disadvantaged families by offering them a university-student mentor. Our RCT investigates program effectiveness on three outcome dimensions that are highly predictive of adolescents’ later labor-market success: math grades, patience/social skills, and labor-market orientation. For low-SES adolescents, the one-to-one mentoring increases a combined index of the outcomes by half a standard deviation after one year, with significant increases in each dimension. Part of the treatment effect is mediated by establishing mentors as attachment figures who provide guidance for the future. The mentoring is not effective for higher-SES adolescents. The results show that substituting lacking family support by other adults can help disadvantaged children at adolescent age. |
| Keywords: | mentoring, disadvanted youths, adolescence, school performance, patience, social skills, labor-market orientation, field experiment |
| JEL: | I24 J24 H52 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8870&r=all |
| By: | Orhun Sevinc; Ufuk Demiroglu; Emre Cakir; E. Meltem Bastan |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates potential growth in Turkey using a production function estimation approach. Our approach aims to measure the inputs of production in the most detailed fashion that is possible and empirically addresses concepts of sustainable potential growth for Turkey. While developing measures of the sources of potential growth, we provide a thorough discussion of the estimated trends in labor force participation, capital growth by asset type, and total factor productivity since the mid-2000s. Our results suggest that the key driver of potential growth has increasingly been capital accumulation. The declining trend in the positive TFP growth stands out as the key area of improvement for potential growth. |
| Keywords: | Potential growth, Labor force participation, Productivity, Capital accumulation |
| JEL: | E1 J21 O4 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcb:wpaper:2107&r=all |
| By: | Alberto Corsini (Université Côte d'Azur, France; CNRS, GREDEG); Michele Pezzoni (Université Côte d'Azur, France; CNRS, GREDEG); Fabiana Visentin (Maastricht University; UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of the social environment to which a Ph.D. student is exposed on her scientific productivity during the training period. Vertical and horizontal relationships depict the social environment. Vertical relationships are those supervisor-student, while horizontal relationships are those student-peers. We characterize these relationships by assessing how the supervisor's and peers' biographic and academic characteristics relate to the student's productivity as measured by the publication quantity, quality, and scientific network size. Unique to our study, we cover the entire student population of a European country for all the STEM fields. Specifically, we analyze the productivity of 77,143 students who graduated in France between 2000 and 2014. We find that having a female supervisor is associated with a higher student's productivity as well as being supervised by a mid-career scientist and having a supervisor with a high academic reputation. The supervisor's fundraising ability benefits only one specific dimension of the student's productivity, i.e., the student's work quality. Interestingly, the supervisor's mentorship experience negatively associates with student's productivity. Having many peers negatively associates with the student's productivity, especially if peers are senior students. Having female peers positively correlates with the student's productivity, while peers' academic status shows mixed effects according to the productivity dimension considered. We find results heterogeneity when breaking down our sample by field of research. |
| Keywords: | French Ph.D. students, Productivity determinants, Social environment, Supervisor, Peers |
| JEL: | J24 O30 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2021-11&r=all |
| By: | Walter Paternesi Meloni; Antonella Stirati |
| Abstract: | The drop in the labor share experienced in high-income countries in the last three to four decades testifies to a general divergence in the growth rates of labor productivity and average wages. In this respect, we first quantify the magnitude of this decoupling; second, we inquire into the factors that prevented wage growth from keeping pace with productivity. We endorse a ‘political economy’ approach – a line of inquiry which has been recently fueled and followed by the post-Keynesian literature – focusing on the effects on wage dynamics of some macroeconomic and institutional factors in a panel of 22 OECD economies for the post-1970 period. We find that, on average and over the cycle, only 50% of increased productivity went to workers. Our empirics indicate that labor market slack and the weakening of pro-labor institutions have acted as wage-squeezing factors; a negative effect is also found for globalization, specifically for trade openness and international capital mobility. Other aspects of the process of financialization, such as market capitalization and the dynamics of the real interest rate, seem not to have exerted a substantial impact on real wage growth. |
| Keywords: | political economy; income distribution; labor market institutions; labor market slack; globalization; financialization |
| JEL: | E25 J30 P16 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pke:wpaper:pkwp2028&r=all |