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on Labor Markets - Supply, Demand, and Wages |
| By: | Stephen R.G. Jones; Fabian Lange; W. Craig Riddell; Casey Warman |
| Abstract: | The Canadian labor market experienced a period of unprecedented turmoil following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyze the main changes using standard labor force statistics and new data on job postings. Envisaging a phase of temporary severing of employment relationships followed by a phase of more standard labor market search and matching, we use stock and flow data to understand key developments. We find dramatic changes in employment, unemployment and labor market attachment in 2020 and, looking forward to 2021, signs of an unusual recovery with co-existing strong labor demand and stubborn persistence in depressed employment rates. |
| JEL: | E24 E32 I14 I18 I3 J21 J23 J31 J63 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29098&r= |
| By: | Enghin Atalay; Sebastian Sotelo; Daniel Tannenbaum |
| Abstract: | The returns to skills and the nature of work differ systematically across labor markets of different sizes. Prior research has pointed to worker interactions, technological innovation, and specialization as key sources of urban productivity gains, but has been limited by the available data in its ability to fully characterize work across geographies. We study the sources of geographic inequality and present new facts about the geography of work using online job ads. We show that the (i) intensity of interactive and analytic tasks, (ii) technological requirements, and (iii) task specialization all increase with city size. The gradient for tasks and technologies exists both across and within occupations. It is also steeper for jobs requiring a college degree and for workers employed in non-tradable industries. We document that our new measures help account for a substantial portion of the urban wage premium, both in aggregate and across occupation groups. |
| JEL: | J20 J24 R12 R23 |
| Date: | 2021–08–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:92952&r= |
| By: | Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio (University of Zaragoza); Molina, José Alberto (University of Zaragoza); Sevilla, Almudena (University College London) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the relationship between temporal flexibility at work (i.e., the ability to vary or change the time of beginning or ending work) and the motherhood wage gap of working parents, in the US. To that end, we first characterize temporal flexibility at work using the 2017-2018 Leave and Job Flexibilities (LJF) Module of the American Time Use Survey, which contains self-reported information on temporal flexibility at work. We find cross-occupation differences in the ability to vary or change work-times, with more than 70% of full-time workers having flexibility, in occupations such as computer and mathematical science, management, architecture, and engineering. Less than 40% of full-time workers in construction and extraction, education, training and library, or production have temporal flexibility at work. We examine the temporal flexibility of the gender gap among full-time working parents, using the American Time Use Survey for the years 2003-2019. Our analysis reveals that temporal flexibility has a U-shaped relationship with the wage rates of both fathers and mothers, and that temporal flexibility has a concave relationship with the motherhood wage gap, with a maximum being reached at the level of 55% of temporal flexibility. Our analysis of the structure of work hours reveals that temporal flexibility is reflected in how work hours are structured throughout the working day, and also serves as evidence that our measure of temporal flexibility captures the technologies of production, rather than the characteristics or motivations of a given company policy. This paper posits temporal flexibility as a factor affecting the motherhood wage gap. |
| Keywords: | labour supply, gender wage gap, work interruptions, ATUS |
| JEL: | D63 J16 J22 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14578&r= |
| By: | Zaresani, Arezou (University of Manitoba); Olivo-Villabrille, Miguel (ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR)) |
| Abstract: | Exploiting a quasi-natural experiment and using administrative data, we examine the effects of the return-to-work policies' clawback regime in Disability Insurance (DI) programs on beneficiaries' labor supply decisions, allowing them to collect reduced DI payments while working. We compare two return-to-work policies: one with a single rate clawback regime and another with a progressive clawback regime where a reform further increased its progressiveness. The reform caused an increase in the mean labor supply; beneficiaries who already work, work more, and those who did not work start working. The effects are heterogeneous by beneficiaries characteristics, and the increase is driven mainly by top percentiles of earnings. Findings suggest an essential role for the clawback regime in return-to-work policies and targeted policies to increase the labor supply in DI programs. |
| Keywords: | disability insurance, clawback rate, return-to-work policy, financial incentives, labor supply |
| JEL: | D3 H3 I3 J3 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14565&r= |
| By: | Jose Maria Barrero; Nicholas Bloom; Steven J. Davis |
| Abstract: | About one-fifth of paid workdays will be supplied from home in the post-pandemic economy, and more than one-fourth on an earnings-weighted basis. In view of this projection, we consider some implications of home internet access quality, exploiting data from the new Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes. Moving to high-quality, fully reliable home internet service for all Americans (“universal access”) would raise earnings-weighted labor productivity by an estimated 1.1% in the coming years. The implied output gains are $160 billion per year, or $4 trillion when capitalized at a 4% rate. Estimated flow output payoffs to universal access are nearly three times as large in economic disasters like the COVID-19 pandemic. Our survey data also say that subjective well-being was higher during the pandemic for people with better home internet service conditional on age, employment status, earnings, working arrangements, and other controls. In short, universal access would raise productivity, and it would promote greater economic and social resilience during future disasters that inhibit travel and in-person interactions. |
| JEL: | D24 D84 E24 E27 E71 H54 J22 J24 J31 J81 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29102&r= |
| By: | Fabian Busch; Robert Fenge; Carsten Ochsen |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses how demographic changes of the labour force affect labour demand. Do firms adjust their hiring behaviour to an ageing society? Combining data at the firm level and the administrative district level, we analyse the hiring behaviour of firms. Our findings suggest that firms with an ageing workforce hire relatively more older workers. Since the willingness to hire older workers also increases with the share of older unemployed, the propensity to employ older people does generally rise with an ageing labour force. Also, part-time employment induces firms to engage more older workers but this effect disappears for large firms. In contrast, partial retirement regulations have a negative effect on hiring older workers which reveals unintended incentives of the German law on this matter. Finally, firms with a higher share of educated personnel demand more older workers. |
| Keywords: | ageing labour force, hiring of older workers, panel data models |
| JEL: | J11 J23 C33 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9219&r= |
| By: | Genz, Sabrina (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg); Gregory, Terry (IZA); Janser, Markus (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg); Lehmer, Florian (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg); Matthes, Britta (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | We investigate how workers adjust to firms' investments into new digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, augmented reality, or 3D printing. For this, we collected novel data that links survey information on firms' technology adoption to administrative social security data. We then compare individual outcomes between workers employed at technology adopters relative to non-adopters. Depending on the type of technology, we find evidence for improved employment stability, higher wage growth, and increased cumulative earnings in response to digital technology adoption. These beneficial adjustments seem to be driven by technologies used by service providers rather than manufacturers. However, the adjustments do not occur equally across worker groups: IT-related expert jobs with non-routine analytic tasks benefit most from technological upgrading, coinciding with highly complex job requirements, but not necessarily with more academic skills. |
| Keywords: | technological change, artificial intelligence, employment stability, wages |
| JEL: | J23 J31 J62 |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14626&r= |
| By: | Alexander Bick; Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln; David Lagakos; Hitoshi Tsujiyama |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how structural change in labor supply along the development spectrum shapes cross-country differences in hours worked. We emphasize two main forces: sectoral reallocation from self-employment to wage work, and declining fixed costs of wage work. We show that these forces are crucial for understanding how the extensive margin (the employment rate) and intensive margin (hours per worker) of aggregate hours worked vary with income per capita. To do so we build and estimate a quantitative model of labor supply featuring a traditional self-employment sector and a modern wage-employment sector. When estimated to match cross-country data, the model predicts that sectoral reallocation explains more than half of the total hours decrease at lower levels of development. Declining fixed costs drive the rise in employment rates at higher levels of income per capita, and imply higher hours in the future, in contrast to the lower hours resulting from income effects and expansions in tax-and-transfer systems. |
| JEL: | E0 E24 O11 O41 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29099&r= |
| By: | Kline, Patrick (University of California, Berkeley); Rose, Evan K. (University of Chicago); Walters, Christopher R. (University of California, Berkeley) |
| Abstract: | We study the results of a massive nationwide correspondence experiment sending more than 83,000 fictitious applications with randomized characteristics to geographically dispersed jobs posted by 108 of the largest U.S. employers. Distinctively Black names reduce the probability of employer contact by 2.1 percentage points relative to distinctively white names. The magnitude of this racial gap in contact rates differs substantially across firms, exhibiting a between-company standard deviation of 1.9 percentage points. Despite an insignificant average gap in contact rates between male and female applicants, we find a between-company standard deviation in gender contact gaps of 2.7 percentage points, revealing that some firms favor male applicants while others favor women. Company-specific racial contact gaps are temporally and spatially persistent, and negatively correlated with firm profitability, federal contractor status, and a measure of recruiting centralization. Discrimination exhibits little geographical dispersion, but two digit industry explains roughly half of the cross-firm variation in both racial and gender contact gaps. Contact gaps are highly concentrated in particular companies, with firms in the top quintile of racial discrimination responsible for nearly half of lost contacts to Black applicants in the experiment. Controlling false discovery rates to the 5% level, 23 individual companies are found to discriminate against Black applicants. Our findings establish that systemic illegal discrimination is concentrated among a select set of large employers, many of which can be identified with high confidence using large scale inference methods. |
| Keywords: | discrimination, audit studies, empirical bayes, q-values |
| JEL: | C11 C9 C93 J7 J71 J78 K31 K42 |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14634&r= |
| By: | Zhixiu Yu (University of Minnesota) |
| Abstract: | The labor supply of older men increased from the 1930s to the 1950s cohort. I estimate a structural model that fits the participation and hours worked by the 1930s cohort well. The observed policy changes in normal retirement age, the earnings test, and delayed retirement credits explain 73.4% and 88.7% of the observed rises in labor force participation and hours worked by the 1950s cohort. Additional policy experiments suggest that postponing retirement age have little effect on older workers, while eliminating the earnings test and reducing retirement benefits would further increase older age participation by 3.37 and 5.10 percent, respectively. |
| Keywords: | Social Security reform, retirement, labor force participation, health, older workers |
| JEL: | D15 H55 I12 J14 J22 |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2021-041&r= |
| By: | Ingrid Huitfeldt; Andreas R. Kostol; Jan Nimczik; Andrea Weber |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a new method to study how workers’ career and wage profiles are shaped by internal labor markets (ILM) and job hierarchies in firms. Our paper tackles the conceptual challenge of organizing jobs within firms into hierarchy levels by proposing a data-driven ranking method based on observed worker flows between occupations within firms. We apply our method to linked employer-employee data from Norway that records fine-grained occupational codes and tracks contract changes within firms. Our findings confirm existing evidence that is primarily based on case studies for single firms. We expand on this by documenting substantial heterogeneity in the structure and hierarchy of ILMs across a broad range of large firms. Our findings on wage and promotion dynamics in ILMs are consistent with models of careers in organizations. |
| Keywords: | internal labor markets, organization of labor, wage setting |
| JEL: | J31 J62 M50 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9227&r= |
| By: | Kyle Greenberg; Michael Greenstone; Stephen P. Ryan; Michael Yankovich |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the value of a statistical life (VSL), or the willingness to trade-off wealth and mortality risk, among 430,000 U.S. Army soldiers choosing whether to reenlist between 2002 and 2010. Using a discrete choice random utility approach and significant variation in retention bonuses and mortality risk, we recover average VSL estimates that range between $500,000 and $900,000, an order of magnitude smaller than U.S. civilian labor market estimates. Additionally, we fulfill Rosen's (1974) vision to recover indifference curves between wealth and non-market goods (e.g., mortality risk) and document substantial heterogeneity in preferences across types. We find that the VSL increases rapidly with mortality risk within type, and that soldiers in combat occupations have much lower VSLs than those in noncombat occupations. We estimate that the quadrupling of mortality risk from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars reduced annual welfare by $2,355 per soldier, roughly 8 percent of pay. |
| JEL: | J17 J31 J45 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29104&r= |
| By: | Ayaita, Adam |
| Abstract: | Labor market discrimination is a topic of considerable societal and economic relevance and may lead to suboptimal management decisions. Previous research indicates that labor market discrimination against applicants with an ethnic minority background is at least partly explained by employer beliefs about unobserved personality characteristics, such as lower conscientiousness or lower agreeableness. In this preregistered study, I investigate whether and to what extent these beliefs are statistically justified, as predicted by the theory of statistical discrimination (understood as discrimination based on statistically accurate beliefs). To this aim, I test differences in personality characteristics between individuals with an ethnic minority vs. majority background, using data from a large representative sample of the adult population in Germany. Analogously to field experiments showing ethnic discrimination, only individuals who have completed secondary schooling in Germany are considered and the qualification level is held constant between individuals. The results indicate that statistical ethnic differences are mostly insignificant and always estimated to be smaller than the experimentally observed discrimination. Therefore, there is only partial support for statistical discrimination, and the results suggest that mistaken or exaggerated stereotypes might contribute to ethnic discrimination in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | beliefs,bias,discrimination,ethnic background,labor market,statistical discrimination |
| JEL: | D83 D91 J15 J71 M51 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:236615&r= |
| By: | Chakravorty, Bhaskar; Bhatiya, Apurav Yash; Imbert, Clément; Lohnert, Maximilian; Panda, Poonam; Rathelot, Roland |
| Abstract: | This paper presents evidence on the short and long-term impact of the first COVID-19 wave on India's rural youth. We interviewed about 2,000 vocational trainees from Bihar and Jharkhand between March 2020 and March 2021. We report a stark difference between men and women: while many male workers took up informal employment, most female workers dropped out of the labour force. Using a randomised experiment, we find that a government supported digital job platform does not increase job search or employment. Our findings suggest that bridging the gap between rural youths and urban formal labour markets requires much more active and targeted policy interventions, especially for female workers. |
| Keywords: | Youth unemployment,gender,vocational training,public policy |
| JEL: | J2 J3 J6 J7 M5 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:909&r= |
| By: | Spencer Bastani; Tomer Blumkin; Luca Micheletto |
| Abstract: | We analyze optimal redistribution in the presence of labor market signaling where innate productive ability is not only unobserved by the government, but also by prospective employers. Signaling in both one and two dimensions is considered, where in the latter case firms have an informational advantage vis-a-vis the government. The dual role of income taxation in redistributing income and affecting signalling incentives is analyzed, as well as extended tax systems that combine income taxation with direct instruments allowing the signals to be taxed. A key focus is the analysis of the feasibility and social desirability of redistribution through wage compression. |
| Keywords: | optimal taxation, signaling, education, monitoring |
| JEL: | D82 H21 H52 J31 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9210&r= |
| By: | Daron Acemoglu; Tuomas Pekkarinen; Kjell G. Salvanes; Matti Sarvimäki |
| Abstract: | Upon assuming power for the first time in 1935, the Norwegian Labour Party delivered on its promise of a major schooling reform. The reform raised minimum instruction time in less developed rural areas and boosted the resources available to rural schools, reducing class size and increasing teacher salaries. We document that cohorts more intensively affected by the reform significantly increased their education and experienced higher labor income. Our main result is that the schooling reform also substantially increased support for the Norwegian Labour Party in subsequent elections. This additional support persisted for several decades and was pivotal in maintaining support for the social democratic coalition in Norway. These results are not driven by the direct impact of education and are not explained by higher turnout, or greater attention or resources from the Labour Party targeted towards the municipalities most affected by the reform. Rather, our evidence suggests that cohorts that benefited from the schooling reform, and their parents, rewarded the party for delivering a major reform that was beneficial to them. |
| JEL: | I28 J26 P16 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29095&r= |
| By: | Filip Premik (Group for Research in Applied Economics (GRAPE)) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates effects of introduction of a universal child benefit program on female labor supply. Large scale government interventions affect economic outcomes through different channels of various magnitude and direction of the effects. In order to account for this feature, I develop a model in which a woman decides whether to participate in the labor market in a given period. I show how to use the resulting decision rules to explain flows in aggregate labor supply and simulate counterfactual paths of labor force. My framework combines flexibility of reduced form approaches with an appealing structure of dynamic discrete choice models. The model is estimated nonparametrically using recent advances in machine learning methods. The results indicate a 2-4 percentage points drop in labor force among the eligible females, mainly driven by changes in women's perceived trade-offs and beliefs that discouraged inflows. |
| Keywords: | child benefits, labor supply, program evaluation, difference-in-difference estimation, covariate balancing propensity score |
| JEL: | C21 C23 I38 J22 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fme:wpaper:54&r= |
| By: | Dávila, Andrés O. (Universidad de los Andes); Fernandez Sierra, Manuel (Universidad de los Andes); Zuleta, Hernando (Universidad de los Andes) |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of the upsurge of natural resources income from the commodity price boom of the 2000s on the functional distribution of income. To do so, we build a general equilibrium model of Dutch disease that characterizes how natural resource windfalls affect equilibrium factor shares. The theory suggests that the response of factor shares to exogenous changes in commodity prices depends on the relative intensity in which factors are used in the tradable and natural resource sectors. We construct estimates of income shares accruing to raw labor, human capital, physical capital, and natural resources, and quantify the effect of the resource boom on factor shares. For identification, we use a two-way fixed effects strategy and a differential exposure design to instrument commodity prices. We find that a natural resource boom negatively impacts the total labor, human capital, and physical capital shares, while the raw labor share remains unchanged. Our estimates suggest that the natural resource boom explains nearly 25.7 percent of the global decline of the total labor share during the 2000s. We also find a redistribution effect within labor income that indicates that the fall of the labor share was unevenly distributed against human capital. |
| Keywords: | labor share, factor income shares, natural resource boom, commodity price boom, dutch disease, human capital |
| JEL: | D33 F14 J31 O13 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14592&r= |
| By: | Mireia Borrell-Porta; Valentina Contreras; Joan Costa-i-Font |
| Abstract: | Does employment during motherhood change peoples preferences? We study whether the experience of employment during motherhood exerts an effect on attitudes towards gender norms, and more specifically, attitudes towards the impact of women’s employment on children’s wellbeing (which proxy traditional gender attitudes). Drawing on a large, representative and longitudinal data and an instrumental variable (IV) strategy that exploits a Bartik instrument for employment, we find that, that non-mothers who work and mothers who do not work are more likely to agree that pre-school children suffer if mothers work, which we proxy as having more traditional views. However, this is not the case when women experience both working and motherhood it does not significantly change women's attitudes. These results suggest that exogenous changes in employment during motherhood confirm individuals priors, and point towards the critical role of early life value formation. That is, employment during motherhood is not a “value changing experience” but rather a “value preserving experience”. Hence, the so-called ‘motherhood penalty’ cannot be fully explained by a change in attitudes after employment during motherhood. |
| Keywords: | attitude formation, value changing experiences, confirmation bias, women employment attitudes, women employment after maternity, later life attitudes, children |
| JEL: | Z10 J22 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9222&r= |
| By: | Carlos F. Avenancio-León; Leslie Sheng Shen |
| Abstract: | We propose an "asset channel of inequality" that contributes to gender inequities. We establish that industries with low (high) gender pay gaps have high (low) shares of tangible assets. Because asset tangibility determines firms' ability to collateralize assets and borrow, credit conditions affect industries differently. We show that credit expansions further reduce the pay gap in low-pay-gap industries while leaving it unaffected in high-pay-gap industries, making low-pay-gap industries more appealing for women. Consequently, gender sorting across industries increases, which then cements gender roles and accentuates workplace gender bias. Ultimately, credit expansions help women "swim upstream" but also reinforce glass ceilings. |
| Keywords: | Gender Pay Gap; Credit Markets; Asset Tangibility; Equitable Finance |
| JEL: | J71 O16 |
| Date: | 2021–08–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgif:1322&r= |
| By: | Frohm, Erik |
| Abstract: | Tight labour markets are usually accompanied by mounting wage pressures. Yet, in the past decade, wage growth has remained subdued despite the appearance of widespread labour shortages. This paper re-examines labour market conditions since 2007 through the lens of a novel indicator, relative labour shortages (RLS), based on data from a large representative business survey in Sweden. Four main results emerge from the analysis: (1), the time-series average of RLS suggested much weaker labour market conditions during the 2013–2019 recovery from the Great Recession and during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 than qualitative surveys or the vacancy-unemployment ratio. (2), the reason is that RLS contains a time-varying intensive margin of labour shortages not recorded in most surveys, which has been trending downwards since the Great Recession. (3), fixed-effects regressions with several aggregate-, sector, region and establishment-level controls confirm that RLS is strongly and positively correlated with annual wage growth at the establishment level. (4), sector-level wage Phillips curves show that the subdued level of RLS can help explain the sluggish wage growth in Sweden since the Great Recession. JEL Classification: C80, E31, E60, J23, J31 |
| Keywords: | labour markets, survey data, wage inflation |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20212576&r= |
| By: | Bobba, Matteo (Toulouse School of Economics); Ederer, Tim (University of Toulouse I); Leon-Ciliotta, Gianmarco (Universitat Pompeu Fabra); Neilson, Christopher A. (Princeton University); Nieddu, Marco (University of Cagliari) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how increasing teacher compensation at hard-to-staff schools can reduce inequality in access to qualifed teachers. Leveraging an unconditional change in the teacher compensation structure in Perú, we first show causal evidence that increasing salaries at less desirable locations attracts better quality applicants and improves student test scores. We then estimate a model of teacher preferences over local amenities, school characteristics, and wages using geocoded job postings and rich application data from the nationwide centralized teacher assignment system. Our estimated model suggests that the current policy is both inefficient and not large enough to effectively undo the inequality of initial conditions that hard-to-staff schools and their communities face. Counterfactual analyses that incorporate equilibrium sorting effects characterize alternative wage schedules and quantify the cost of reducing structural inequality in the allocation of teacher talent across schools. |
| Keywords: | inequality, teacher school choice, teacher wages, matching with contracts |
| JEL: | J31 J45 I21 C93 O15 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14581&r= |
| By: | Echeverría, Lucía (University of Zaragoza); Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio (University of Zaragoza); Molina, José Alberto (University of Zaragoza) |
| Abstract: | Mobility gives individuals access to different daily activities, facilities, and places, but at the cost of imposing environmental burdens. The sustainable growth of society is linked to green mobility (e.g., public transport, walking, cycling) as a way to alleviate individual carbon footprints. This study explores the socio-demographic profile of individuals performing green travel (public and physical modes of transport) and identifies cross-country differences in green travelling behavior. We rely on information from the Multinational Time Use Study, MTUS. for Bulgaria, Canada, Spain, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States, from 2000 to 2019. We estimate Ordinary Least Squares regressions modelling individual decisions regarding green mobility. Our results indicate that the socio-demographic and family profile of travelers is not homogenous across green modes of transport, with physical travel exhibiting a much more consistent profile, across countries, in comparison to the use of public transport. Results indicate a positive relationship between living in urban areas and the time proportion of green travel, but estimates by country differ in magnitude and depend on the mode. We also find that some countries are more prone to green travel, and that transport infrastructure is more related to the proportion of time travelled by physical transport than by public transport. Our findings help in understanding who is committed to green mobility, while revealing systematic differences across countries that are worth analyzing. |
| Keywords: | green mobility, public transport, walking/cycling, Multinational Time Use Study |
| JEL: | R40 J22 O57 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14577&r= |
| By: | Riddell, Chris; Riddell, William Craig |
| Abstract: | The Income Maintenance Experiments have received renewed attention due to growing international interest in a Basic Income. Proponents viewed a Negative Income Tax as a replacement for traditional welfare with stronger work incentives and reduced poverty. However, existing labor supply estimates for single parents are uniformly negative. We reassess the experimental evidence and find randomization failure in two NITs (Gary and Seattle). In Denver and Manitoba, we find a positive labor supply response for those on welfare prior to random assignment. Our results provide strong evidence that a NIT can increase work activity among single parents on welfare. |
| JEL: | C9 I38 J22 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:clefwp:36&r= |
| By: | Filomena, Mattia; Picchio, Matteo |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a meta-analysis on the effects of retirement on health. We select academic papers published between 2000 and 2021 studying the impact of retirement on physical and mental health, self-assessed general health, healthcare utilization and mortality. Among 275 observations from 85 articles, 28% (13%) find positive (negative) effects of retirement on health outcomes. Almost 60% of the observations do not provide statistically significant findings. Using meta-regression analysis, we checked for the presence of publication bias after distinguishing among different journal subject areas and, once correcting for it, we find that the average effect of retirement on health outcomes is small and barely significant. We apply model averaging techniques to explore possible sources of heterogeneity and our results suggest that the different estimated effects can be explained by the differences in both health measurements and retirement schemes. |
| Keywords: | Retirement,health,meta-analysis,meta-regression,publication bias |
| JEL: | I10 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:897&r= |
| By: | Tiziana M. Gauci |
| Abstract: | This study looks at the trends in educational attainment of the Maltese population over the last 15 years. Data obtained from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) show that the educational attainment of the Maltese workforce has ameliorated significantly during this period, though it still falls short of the European Union (EU) benchmark in some respects. The first part of this study looks at the long-term trends in education attainment in Malta and how it compared with other EU countries. In terms of EU targets, Malta had reached its national target with respect to the percentage of persons aged between 30 and 34 years having a tertiary level of education already in 2017. On the contrary, despite the country managed to half the rate of early school leavers from its 2005 levels, the rate of early school leavers in 2020 is still short of the EU’s benchmark. The second part compares the earnings, employment and unemployment of high skilled workers compared to those with lower levels of education. The third section looks at the main factors behind the increase in education attainment. The share of population having a tertiary level of education increased to 28.0% in 2020, up from 10.3% in 2005. In addition, this section attempts to measure the efficiency of public spending in Malta, with indicators for primary, secondary and tertiary indicators, as well as the role of migration. |
| JEL: | I21 I26 J24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mlt:ppaper:0321&r= |
| By: | Diane E. Alexander; Michael R. Richards |
| Abstract: | Hospitals anchor much of US health care and receive a third of all medical spending, including various subsidies. Nevertheless, some become insolvent and exit the market. Research has documented subsequent access problems; however, less is understood about broader implications. We examine over 100 rural hospital closures spanning 2005-2017 to quantify the effects on the local economy. We find sharp and persistent reductions in employment, but these localize to health care occupations and are largely driven by areas experiencing complete closures. Aggregate consumer financial health is only modestly affected, and housing markets were already depressed prior to hospital closures. |
| JEL: | H51 I11 I18 J21 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29110&r= |