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on Labor Markets - Supply, Demand, and Wages |
| By: | Daniel Haanwinckel |
| Abstract: | This paper builds a general equilibrium framework with firm and worker heterogeneity, monopsony power, and task-based production to quantify the long-run effects of education, biased demand shocks, and minimum wage. I take it to Brazilian data for 1998 and 2012 and find that (i) supply and demand shocks increase sorting of high-wage workers to high-wage firms, (ii) increased entry of high-wage firms boosts the effect of rising schooling attainment on mean log wages by 25%, and (iii) the minimum wage reduces formal wage inequality but also causes wage loss for mid-productivity workers and disemployment for those at the very bottom. |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J38 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31318&r=lma |
| By: | Filomena, Mattia (Marche Polytechnic University); Picchio, Matteo (Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the impact of temperatures on work-related accident rates in Italy by using daily data on weather conditions matched to administrative daily data on work-related accidents. The identification strategy of the causal effect relies on the plausible exogeneity of short-term daily temperature variations in a given spatial unit. We find that both high and cold temperatures impair occupational health by increasing workplace injury rates. The positive effect of warmer weather conditions on work-related accident rates is larger for men, in manufacturing and service sectors, and for workplace injuries. Colder temperatures lead to a substantial increase in commuting accidents, especially during rainy days. |
| Keywords: | climate change, temperatures, weather conditions, work-related accidents, job safety |
| JEL: | J28 J81 Q52 Q54 |
| Date: | 2023–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16169&r=lma |
| By: | Korpi, Martin (The Ratio Institute); Halvarsson, Daniel (The Ratio Institute) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we build upon a monopsony framework, suggested by Card et. al. 2016, which links firm level productivity and rent-sharing to wage inequality. Specifically, our research questions address i) to which extent labor market concentration across firms (within different types of locally situated industries) affects variation in wages among workers within these firms and industries, and ii) how this variation in turn spills over into economy-wide inequality (measured at the level of local labor markets). Using linked employer-employee full population data for Sweden, and an AKM modelling framework to separate between worker and firm-level heterogeneity, our results suggest that higher firm-level fixed effects (a measure of rent-sharing) is associated with lower labor market employer concentration, something which affects average wage income among firms accordingly. Addressing wage income inequality by applying our model to different segments of the local labor market income distribution, we find that reduced average employer concentration in larger cities accounts for almost all variation in the (positive) link between city size-and wage inequality, except for the largest metropolises where it captures around 30-50 percent of variation depending on the income segment that we focus on. |
| Keywords: | Wage distribution; rent sharing; monopsony; linked employer-employee data; local labor markets |
| JEL: | D22 J31 J42 R12 |
| Date: | 2023–05–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0363&r=lma |
| By: | Piotr Lewandowski; Karol Madoń; Deborah Winkler |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the relationship between global value chain (GVC) participation, worker-level routine task intensity, and wage inequality within countries. Using unique survey data from 38 countries, we find that higher GVC participation is associated with more routine-intensive work, especially among workers in offshorable occupations. This effect is particularly strong in industry and in countries at lower development levels. As higher routine task intensity links with to wages, this indirectly widens within-country wage inequality. However, GVC participation directly contributes to reduced wage inequality, except in the richest countries. Overall, GVC participation is negatively associated with wage inequality in most low- and middle-income countries that receive offshored jobs, and positively in high-income countries that offshore jobs. |
| Keywords: | routine task intensity, global value chains, globalisation, cross-country division of work, wage inequality |
| JEL: | J21 J24 J31 F66 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ibt:wpaper:wp052023&r=lma |
| By: | Stefanos Tyros; Dan Andrews; Alain de Serres |
| Abstract: | The need to rapidly decarbonise economies raises questions about whether countries’ workforces possess the requisite skills to achieve the net zero transition as well as the capacity to redeploy workers from “brown” to “green” jobs. This paper applies a task-based framework to granular data from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) and country-specific employment sources to generate new indicators of the green skills structure of labour markets for a large number of OECD countries and non-OECD EU countries. Significant cross-country differences emerge in the underlying supply of green skill and the potential of economies to reallocate brown job workers to green jobs within their broad occupation categories. In a majority of detailed brown occupations, workers have in principle the necessary skills to transition to green jobs, with the exception of those in production occupations, who may require more extensive re-skilling. In contrast, workers from most highly automatable occupations are generally not found to have the sufficient skills to transition to green jobs, suggesting more limited scope for the net-zero transition to reinstate labour displaced by automation. |
| Keywords: | green skills, green transition, reallocation |
| JEL: | J24 J62 J68 J82 |
| Date: | 2023–07–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1763-en&r=lma |
| By: | Akin A. Cilekoglu (University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I develop a method to estimate the effect of firm behavior on labor market monopsony power. Using China’s accession to WTO for the identification, I employ the proposed empirical framework to analyse the impact of Spanish firms’ exports on their labor market monopsony power. The findings suggest that higher exports raised monopsony power of firms in labor markets between 1996 and 2007. After 2001, more intensely exporting firms reduced their wages by 36-45 percentage points and paid their employees around 39-49 percent of their marginal revenue product. Aligned with increased monopsony power, exporting firms experienced a decline labor productivity and labor share while they employed more low-skilled workers and temporary contracts. |
| Keywords: | Labor market monopsony, Firm behavior, Exports, Trade JEL classification: J42, D22, F16, F14, J21 |
| Date: | 2023–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aqr:wpaper:202304&r=lma |
| By: | Frimmel, Wolfgang (University of Linz); Schmidpeter, Bernhard (University of Linz); Wiesinger, Rene (Johannes Kepler University Linz); Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf (University of Linz) |
| Abstract: | We show that providing publicly available wage information in vacancies, so-called external pay transparency, can reduce the gender wage gap. There is an increasing interest in pay transparency policies as a tool to combat unequal pay. We exploit a reform of Austria's Equal Treatment Law to evaluate how providing wage information in vacancies affects the gender wage gap. To take into account that the value of providing such external pay information is likely to be heterogeneous along the wage distribution, we implement a Quantile Difference-in-Difference model. The reform led to a small overall reduction of the gender wage gap. Our main results highlight that reductions in the wage gap are larger in circumstances where women are likely to hold misspecified beliefs about their labor market options and when needing to make job acceptance decisions under pressure. The reduction in the gender wage gap was caused by an increase in women's earnings, particularly at the lower part of the distribution. Earnings of men, on the other side, remained largely constant. Our results lend support to policy proposals aimed at increasing external pay transparency. |
| Keywords: | mandatory wage posting, pay transparency law, gender wage gap, job postings, quantile DiD |
| JEL: | J31 J23 J23 J63 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16233&r=lma |
| By: | Bayer, Christian (University of Bonn); Kuhn, Moritz (University of Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Job levels summarize the complexity, autonomy, and responsibility of task execution. Conceptually, job levels are related to the organization of production, are distinct from occupations, and can be constructed from data on task execution. We highlight their empirical role in matched employer-employee data for life-cycle wage dynamics, refine a task-based view of wage determination, and demonstrate that differences in job levels account for most of the observed wage differences. We also show, within a structural framework, that a job-level perspective provides a novel and fruitful interpretation of widely studied phenomena such as the gender wage gap and the returns to education and seniority. |
| Keywords: | job levels, wage structure, career ladder |
| JEL: | D33 E24 J31 |
| Date: | 2023–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16177&r=lma |
| By: | Achyuta Adhvaryu; Emir Murathanoglu; Anant Nyshadham |
| Abstract: | We study the allocation and productivity consequences of training production line supervisors in soft skills via a randomized controlled trial. Consistent with standard practice for training investments within firms, we asked middle managers -- who sit above supervisors in the hierarchy -- to nominate members of their supervisory team for training. Program access was randomized within these recommendation rankings. Highly recommended supervisors experienced no productivity gains; in contrast, less-recommended supervisors' productivity increased 12% relative to controls. This was not due to poor information or favoritism. Instead, consistent with the fact that supervisor turnover comes at a large effort cost to middle managers due to gaps in coverage and onboarding, middle managers prioritized retention over productivity impacts. Indeed, treated supervisors were 15% less likely to quit than controls; this gain was most pronounced for highly recommended supervisors. Misallocation of training can help explain the persistence of low managerial quality in firms. |
| JEL: | J24 L23 M53 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31335&r=lma |
| By: | Albanesi, Stefania (University of Pittsburgh); Dias da Silva, António (European Central Bank); Jimeno, Juan F. (Bank of Spain); Lamo, Ana (European Central Bank); Wabitsch, Alena (University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | We examine the link between labour market developments and new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and software in 16 European countries over the period 2011- 2019. Using data for occupations at the 3-digit level in Europe, we find that on average employment shares have increased in occupations more exposed to AI. This is particularly the case for occupations with a relatively higher proportion of younger and skilled workers. This evidence is in line with the Skill Biased Technological Change theory. While there exists heterogeneity across countries, only very few countries show a decline in employment shares of occupations more exposed to AI-enabled automation. Country heterogeneity for this result seems to be linked to the pace of technology diffusion and education, but also to the level of product market regulation (competition) and employment protection laws. In contrast to the findings for employment, we find little evidence for a relationship between wages and potential exposures to new technologies. |
| Keywords: | artificial intelligence, employment, skills, occupations |
| JEL: | J23 O33 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16227&r=lma |
| By: | James Harrigan; Ariell Reshef; Farid Toubal |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of techies—engineers and other technically trained workers—on firm-level productivity. We first report new facts on the role of techies in the firm by leveraging French administrative data and unique surveys. Techies are STEM-skill intensive and are associated with innovation, as well as with technology adoption, management, and diffusion within firms. Using structural econometric methods, we estimate the causal effect of techies on firm-level Hicks-neutral productivity in both manufacturing and non-manufacturing industries. We find that techies raise firm-level productivity, and this effect goes beyond the employment of R&D workers, extending to ICT and other techies. In non-manufacturing firms, the impact of techies on productivity operates mostly through ICT and other techies, not R&D workers. Engineers have a greater effect on productivity than technicians. |
| Keywords: | productivity, R&D, ICT, techies, STEM skills |
| JEL: | D20 D24 F10 F16 F60 F66 J20 J23 J24 O52 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10468&r=lma |
| By: | Francesco D'Amuri (Bank of Italy); Salvatore Lattanzio (Bank of Italy); Benjamin S. Smith (Federal Trade Commission) |
| Abstract: | We shed light on the anatomy of labor cost adjustment in German and Italian manufacturing firms with more than 20 employees, leveraging matched employer employee-balance sheet data and an exogenous demand shifter that exploits the collapse in world trade during the Great Recession. Following a 1 per cent exogenous decrease in sales, the average German firm cuts wage growth by 0.19 per cent, twice as much as its Italian counterpart. The employment adjustment is gradual in both countries but more pronounced in Germany, where, however, firms in sectors hardest hit by the world trade collapse had been increasing employment in the run-up to the Great Recession. These results are not driven by differences in the response of hours per worker, in labor supply conditions, or in firms' exposure to the concurrent negative credit shock. Finally, we find that - in both countries - producer prices were reduced to a similar extent in response to the shock. |
| Keywords: | labor demand, wages, employment, flexibility |
| JEL: | J21 J23 J31 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1411_23&r=lma |
| By: | Tania Babina; Anastassia Fedyk; Alex X. He; James Hodson |
| Abstract: | We study the shifts in U.S. firms' workforce composition and organization associated with the use of AI technologies. To do so, we leverage a unique combination of worker resume and job postings datasets to measure firm-level AI investments and workforce composition variables, such as educational attainment, specialization, and hierarchy. We document that firms with higher initial shares of highly-educated workers and STEM workers invest more in AI. As firms invest in AI, they tend to transition to more educated workforces, with higher shares of workers with undergraduate and graduate degrees, and more specialization in STEM fields and IT skills. Furthermore, AI investments are associated with a flattening of the firms' hierarchical structure, with significant increases in the share of workers at the junior level and decreases in shares of workers in middle-management and senior roles. Overall, our results highlight that adoption of AI technologies is associated with significant reorganization of firms' workforces. |
| JEL: | D22 E22 J01 J23 J24 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31325&r=lma |
| By: | Bjørnshagen, Vegar (Norwegian Social Research Nova); Rooth, Dan-Olof (Stockholm University); Ugreninov, Elisabeth (Norwegian Social Research Nova) |
| Abstract: | This article examines disability discrimination in the hiring process and explores variation in how the intersection of disability and gender shapes employers' hiring behavior by occupational context and gender segregation. We use data from a field experiment in which approximately 2, 000 job applications with randomly assigned information about disability were sent to Swedish employers with vacancies. We find that nondisabled applicants receive 33 percent more callbacks than similarly qualified wheelchair users despite applying for jobs where the impairment should not interfere with performance. The results indicate no heterogeneity in levels of disability discrimination against men and women on average across occupations or by occupational gender segregation. However, levels of discrimination differ considerably among occupations, varying from no evidence of disability discrimination to discrimination against both disabled men and disabled women as well as cases where disability discrimination is found only against women or only against men. The results thus indicate that disability and gender interact and shape discrimination in distinct ways within particular contexts, which we relate to intersectional stereotyping and norms of gender equality influencing hiring practices but not to declared ambitions for diversity or gender equality legislation. |
| Keywords: | disability, hiring discrimination, gender, field experiment, correspondence study |
| JEL: | I14 J14 J23 J64 J71 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16217&r=lma |
| By: | Cockx, B.; Desiere, Sam |
| Abstract: | Firms without paid employees account for up to 80% of all firms, but only a small minority ever hires. This paper investigates the relationship between labour costs and the decision to hire a first employee and become an employer. Leveraging a unique policy in Belgium that permanently reduced the labour cost of the first employee by 13%, we find that the number of new, first-time employers jumped by 31% immediately following the reform. The elasticity of the probability to hire the first employee with respect to the labour cost is −2.39 [95% CI: −3.45, −1.25]. |
| JEL: | D22 H25 J08 J23 L26 M13 |
| Date: | 2023–06–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umaror:2023001&r=lma |
| By: | Bostwick, Valerie (Kansas State University); Severen, Christopher (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) |
| Abstract: | We provide evidence that graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws, originally intended to improve public safety, impact human capital accumulation. Many teens use automobiles to access both school and employment. Because school and work decisions are interrelated, the effects of automobile-specific mobility restrictions are ambiguous. Using a novel triple-difference research design, we find that restricting mobility significantly reduces high school dropout rates and teen employment. We develop a multiple discrete choice model that rationalizes unintended consequences and reveals that school and work are weak complements. Thus, improved educational outcomes reflect decreased access to leisure activities rather than reduced labor market access. |
| Keywords: | mobility restrictions, human capital, teen employment, graduated driver licensing, multiple discreteness |
| JEL: | I20 J24 J22 C35 R48 |
| Date: | 2023–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16183&r=lma |
| By: | Fang, Tony (Memorial University of Newfoundland); Zhang, Tingting (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); Hartley, John (Memorial University of Newfoundland) |
| Abstract: | Using a representative survey of 801 employers across Atlantic Canada, we empirically test various factors associated with employer hiring attitudes towards international migrants. Our results indicate that employers who hired international immigrants in the past 12 months exhibited more positive attitudes towards them, consistent with the contact theory. We also find provincial variations in hiring attitudes in that employers in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and PEI had more positive attitudes than those in New Brunswick. In addition, employers in the public sector organizations held more positive perceptions than those in the private sector. Although the coefficients for rural-urban divide and organizational sizes have the expected signs but most of them are statistically insignificant. There are no clear patterns cross industries. Interpretations for our main findings are offered, along with policy and practice implications |
| Keywords: | international immigrants, labour and skill shortages, employer hiring attitudes, employer survey, Atlantic Canada |
| JEL: | J23 J61 J63 J68 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16219&r=lma |
| By: | Ana Margarida Fernandes; Joana Silva |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates worker and firm impacts of foreign shocks, and the income support provided by assistance programs. It exploits quasi-experimental variation in firms’ foreign demand resulting from the global financial crisis, using employer-employee data for Brazil in 2004-2017, linked with firm customs and financial data, and administrative data covering the universe of cash transfer, unemployment insurance, and training beneficiaries. Negative employment effects take over a decade to dissipate fully, wage effects persist, and firm restructuring involves occupational adjustment, increasing permanently skilled workers while reducing unskilled workers. Brazilian workers suffer smaller employment losses in highly informal locations and concentrated sectors. Underlying labor scarring is firm scarring caused by selection (exit) and (revenue, employment and productivity) downsizing. Unemployment insurance and cash transfers yield limited wage loss replacement (6 percent). Training does not increase. The evidence shows that a temporary shock induces persistent effects: firm restructuring scars incumbent workers and increases long-run inequality. Firm scarring may be even more severe in less flexible labor markets. Using data from Ecuador, analysis finds that firms do not adjust workforce composition, but they permanently reduce capital which increases scarring. |
| Keywords: | employment, wages, firms, exports, foreign shocks, global financial crisis |
| JEL: | F14 F16 J24 J46 L25 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10479&r=lma |
| By: | Sam Cosaert; Adrián Nieto; Konstantinos Tatsiramos |
| Abstract: | We combine exogenous variation in temperature at the county-day level in the U.S. with daily time use data to examine the effect of temperature on joint time use. We show that low temperatures reduce time spent with friends but increase time spent with family. Conversely, high temperatures increase time alone but reduce time with family. We also provide evidence of the effect of temperature on joint time use being location-dependent. We rationalize this finding using a model in which the chosen time allocation is the outcome of a dual-self decision process with an indoor and an outdoor self. The two selves have different tastes for time alone, time with family, and time with friends. Weather conditions can change the influence of each self, and thereby the corresponding preferences for joint time use. We test the predictions of the model empirically by drawing on methods from the household economics literature. The test results support the hypothesis that weather affects joint time use insofar it affects where the activities take place. |
| Keywords: | temperature, joint time use, social interactions, dual-self model, indoors, outdoors |
| JEL: | D70 I31 J22 Q51 Q54 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10464&r=lma |
| By: | Qingnan Xie; Richard B. Freeman |
| Abstract: | The close connection between US and China in scientific research and education in the 2000s produced a large group of China-born researchers who work in the US (“diaspora”) and a larger group of China-born researchers who gained US-research experience and returned to do their research in China (“returnee”). Analyzing 2018 Scopus data on research papers, we estimate that diaspora researchers contributed to 27% of US addressed papers, and that returnee researchers contributed to 38% of China addressed papers. Both the number of papers with diaspora authors and the number of papers with returnee authors far exceeded the usual measure of US-China collaborative work, papers with both US and China addresses. In terms of quality or impact, papers with diaspora or returnee authors averaged more citations and had higher proportions of publication in high CiteScore journals than other US-addressed or China-addressed papers. Finally, papers with diaspora and/or returnee authors were at the center of the US-China coauthor network and major conduits of research findings between the countries in the network of scientific citations. The benefits of the US-China research connection notwithstanding, the link between the countries’ research began to fray from 2018 through the early 2020s, with potential deleterious effects on each country’s future research output and on global science writ large to which US and China are the two biggest contributors. |
| JEL: | F1 F22 F63 I2 I20 J2 J20 J3 J30 O3 O30 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31306&r=lma |
| By: | Ana I. Moro Egido (Department of Economic Theory and Economic History, University of Granada.); Joaquin Naval (Universidad de Girona.); Jose I. Silva (Universidad de Girona.) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the non-linear relationship between part-time hours and wages in 10 European Union countries. We use the harmonized 2018 Structure of Earnings Survey, that provides comparable microdata on the link between the level of earnings and paid hours. We empirically assess the relevance of the relationship correcting for self-selection and endogeneity. We show the presence of two effects going in opposite directions. First, a part-time wage premium due to the presence of decreasing returns in the production function. Second, a wage penalty due to the presence of coordination costs that arises when a part-time worker deviates from the usual hours worked in the firm. We also show that the unexplained part-time wage penalty is considerably affected by the hours-wage relationship. |
| Keywords: | Hours-wage relationship, full-time equivalent, coordination costs, fixed labor costs. |
| JEL: | C21 J31 J32 |
| Date: | 2023–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gra:wpaper:23/06&r=lma |
| By: | Jason B. Cook; Chloe N. East |
| Abstract: | We are the first to document that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) caseworker behavior impacts program receipt, likely due to differing levels of helpfulness in navigating the complicated application process. We use the conditional random assignment of caseworkers as an instrument for SNAP receipt to assess the impact of SNAP on work decisions. Two-thirds of SNAP applicants do not work before applying and experience no change in work if granted SNAP. Those working beforehand decrease work temporarily. The canonical, static labor supply model cannot fully explain these results, but taking account of other reasons individuals do not work can. |
| JEL: | H51 H53 I38 J22 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31307&r=lma |
| By: | Jirjahn, Uwe; Mohrenweiser, Jens |
| Abstract: | While studies on individual-based and collective payment schemes are largely unconnected, there appears to be a widely held belief that individual-based schemes have a stronger influence on firm performance than collective ones. This also applies to an index of best management practices developed by Bloom and Van Reenen (2007). The index assigns the highest weight to individual-based performance pay, a medium weight to group-based performance pay and a low weight to profit sharing. This weighting is obviously driven by the implicit assumption that collective payment schemes suffer from a free-rider problem so they have a less strong influence on productivity than individual-based schemes. We show that this assumption is questionable from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view. Using the German Management and Organizational Practices Survey, one of the datasets initiated by Bloom and Van Reenen, we show that individual-based performance pay does not outperform group-based performance pay or profit sharing. The finding also holds when accounting for possible interactions among the payment schemes and considering the moderating roles of firm size, employee representation, and innovativeness. Our results suggest that researchers should be careful with respect to the assumptions and subjective priors guiding their empirical analyses. |
| Keywords: | management practices, free-rider problem, individual performance pay, group performance pay, profit sharing |
| JEL: | J33 M52 M50 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1298&r=lma |
| By: | Lordan, Grace (London School of Economics); Lekfuangfu, Warn N. (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) |
| Abstract: | Occupational segregation is one of the major causes of the gender pay gap. We probe the possibility that individual beliefs regarding gender stereotypes established in childhood contribute to gendered sorting. Using an experiment with two vignette designs, which was carried out in schools in the UK, we consider whether students aged 15-16 years recommend that a fictitious peer pursue different college majors and career paths simply because of their gender. We find strong evidence that this is the case. The within-majors treatment design shows that our respondents are 11 percentage points more likely to recommend corporate law to a male peer. The across-majors design reveals that students presented with a male fictitious peer tend to recommend degrees that have lower shares of females to males. |
| Keywords: | sorting, gender stereotype, gender, vignette design, occupational choice, college major choice |
| JEL: | J24 |
| Date: | 2023–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16161&r=lma |
| By: | Donehower, Gretchen (University of California at Berkeley) |
| Abstract: | In Asia, aging countries with slow population growth worry about a lack of workers in the future and see older people’s labor as a potential solution. However, this leaves out the work that many older people already do—unpaid care work. Drawing on data from Bangladesh, India, Mongolia, and Thailand, the estimates in this paper show that older people, especially older women, are doing a great deal of work caring for others. In this case, policies that aim to increase overall market labor force effort by increasing the market labor of older people may underachieve their goals if they do not account for the older people’s unpaid care work responsibilities. Finally, we use the estimates of the older people’s unpaid care work to think about investments in the paid care economy that might be needed to replace unpaid care work of the older people if they increase labor market effort but not total work. These simple calculations indicate that the scale of investment required is manageable. |
| Keywords: | older workers; unpaid care work; care economy; labor supply |
| JEL: | J13 J14 J22 |
| Date: | 2023–06–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbewp:0687&r=lma |
| By: | Fietz, Katharina; Lay, Jann |
| Abstract: | Digitalisation has a major impact on labour markets in developing countries. While Internet access expands, digital platforms proliferate and "gig-work" is performed in the Global South, access to and use of digital technologies remains far from universal. As the scope and speed of digitalisation vary across countries and "context matters". The present study reviews the evidence on the effects that selected key aspects of digitalisation on labour markets in developing economies with a focus on digital platforms. Although several studies find considerable effects regarding the employment impacts of digital infrastructures, the evidence on the impacts of digital platforms remains relatively patchy. For example, while transaction data from global online labour platforms demonstrate the important role of the Global South as a supplier on online platforms, we know very little about the extent of work on location-based online platforms. We discuss digital skills to harness digitalisation gains and identify several evidence gaps. |
| Keywords: | Digitalisation, labour markets, employment, digital platforms, digital skills |
| JEL: | O14 O33 E24 J21 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gigawp:335&r=lma |
| By: | Kenta Kojima (Faculty of Economics, Kansai University); Katsuya Takii (Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a new method for assigning a value to each job that evaluates the likelihood and speed of promotion from that job to top executive and applies it to personnel data for Japanese bureaucrats. We find that outwardly similar jobs within the same hierarchical rank involve very different opportunities for promotion to top executive. We also reveal frequent real demotions and the early selection of elite bureaucrats unable to be detected through use of hierarchical rank. These findings suggest that assignment to a specific job can be a credible signal for promotion to top management. |
| Keywords: | Internal labor market; Career paths; Promotion; Fast track; Job Assignment |
| JEL: | J45 M12 M51 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osp:wpaper:23e001&r=lma |
| By: | Ufuk Akcigit (University of Chicago); Raman Chhina (University of Chicago); Seyit Cilasun (TED University); Javier Miranda (Halle Institute for Economic Research, and Friedrich-Schiller University Jena); Eren Ocakverdi (Independent Researcher); Nicolas Serrano-Velarde (Bocconi University) |
| Abstract: | Small and young businesses are essential for job creation, innovation, and economic growth. Even most of the superstar firms start their business life small and then grow over time. Small firms have less internal resources, which makes them more fragile and sensitive to macroeconomic conditions. This suggests the need for frequent and real-time monitoring of the small business sector’s health. Previously this was difficult due to a lack of appropriate data. This paper fills this important gap by developing a new Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index that focuses on the smallest of small businesses with at most 9 workers in the US and the UK and at most 19 workers in Canada. The Index aggregates a sample of anonymous QuickBooks Online Payroll subscriber data (QBO Payroll sample) from 333, 000 businesses in the US, 66, 000 in Canada, and 25, 000 in the UK. After comparing the QBO Payroll sample data to the official statistics, we remove the seasonal components and use a Flexible Least Squares method to calibrate the QBO Payroll sample data against official statistics. Finally, we use the estimated model and the QBO Payroll sample data to generate a near real-time index of economic activity. We show that the estimated model performs well both in-sample and out-of-sample. Additionally, we use this analysis for different regions and industries. |
| Keywords: | Small Businesses, Employment, Index, Entrepreneurship, Job Creation, Turnover |
| JEL: | J23 J63 |
| Date: | 2023–06–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2023-005&r=lma |
| By: | Kol, Cemre; Kurt, Beliz |
| Abstract: | Covid-19 lockdowns resurfaced the dynamics that influence the distribution of household duties and reinforced gender disparity due to the domestic roles of women. We analyzed the effects of remote work on work efficacy and satisfaction of employees in terms of gender equality in Turkey. The primary data gathered from the authors' survey have been compared to unique e-survey of Eurofound for Italy. The methodology of this research has displayed a regression analysis to find the impact of remote work on the remote workers of Turkey by using the data collected from our online survey. It has been found that the satisfaction and wellbeing of employees have been reduced by the effects of remote work. Women in comparison to men, in particular, have reported higher levels of work quality and efficacy while reporting lower levels of satisfaction during remote work period. |
| Keywords: | Remote work; Gender inequality; Well-being; Work efficacy; Covid-19 |
| JEL: | C1 I31 J16 J28 |
| Date: | 2023–06–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:117683&r=lma |
| By: | Maite Blázquez (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.); Ainhoa Herrarte (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.); Ana I. Moro Egido (Department of Economic Theory and Economic History, University of Granada.) |
| Abstract: | The increase in atypical jobs (self-employment and temporary jobs) driven by the digital platform economy (gig economy) has put this type of work in the spotlight of the social and political debate. Among the countries of the European Union, Spain stands out for having the highest volume of digital platform work. This study uses microdata from the Spanish Living Conditions Survey for the year 2018 and Google trends data on Deliveroo, Airbnb, Just Eat, Uber, and Freelance as a proxy of digital platform economy demand to analyse the well-being effects of being employed in any of the types of employment arrangements associated with the gig economy. Using an econometric approached based on instrumental variables, we find evidence that the most deleterious well-being effects are found among self-employed workers and for the dimension of well-being based on self-reported health. The self-employed (ownaccount workers) display a 125.8% decrease in average self-reported health levels compared to permanent workers. Our results suggest that the greater job insecurity and precariousness associated with self-employment outweighs the potential positive impact caused by the greater flexibility and autonomy of this type of work. |
| Keywords: | Digital platform economy, Gig economy, Digital platform work, Self-employment, Temporary jobs, Well-being, Self-reported health, Happiness, Life satisfaction. |
| JEL: | I31 J21 J81 J40 |
| Date: | 2023–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gra:wpaper:23/05&r=lma |
| By: | Floor Goedkoop; Madi Mangan; Mauro Mastrogiacomo; Stefan Hochguertel |
| Abstract: | We investigate the determinants of trust in one’s pension fund and the effect of trust on the decision to ensure additional pension savings. Our analysis is based on exogenous shocks arising from pension cuts and indexation, and on how these are perceived. These instruments allow identifying the effect of trust in pension funds on participation in voluntary pension saving plans. We disentangle the effects of age, birth cohort, and time in the determination of trust, and counter previous findings of a positive age gradient with trust. This implies that in the future the general level of trust in pension funds will decline. This study also finds a positive effect of trust on additional pension savings. Hence, the positive correlation found in previous studies can be interpreted as causal. Lastly, we contribute to the current debate on self-employment and retirement preparation. Our findings suggest that the decision to become self-employed and to arrange one’s own pension savings is likely not driven by the desire to exit the occupational pension system, as those who make additional pension savings arrangements — including self-employed workers — in fact trust their pension fund. |
| Keywords: | Trust; additional pension savings; cohort-time effect; self-employment |
| JEL: | G51 J32 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dnb:dnbwpp:783&r=lma |
| By: | Lateef Akanni (Department of Economics, University of Strathclyde); Otto Lenhart (Department of Economics, University of Strathclyde); Alec Morton (University of Strathclyde) |
| Abstract: | This study evaluates the mental health effects of two simultaneously implemented but conflicting policies in the UK: the National Living Wage and the benefits freeze policy. We employed the Callaway and Sant’Anna (2021) DID estimator to evaluate the heterogeneous policy effects, and we found that NLW leads to positive improvements in mental health. Also, we find that the negative impact of the benefits freeze policy constricts the NLW effects. Our result is robust to the sensitivity analysis of the parallel trend assumption. Additional results support the psychosocial hypothesis that increased job satisfaction is strongly correlated with improvements in mental health. Also, we found evidence of substitution effects between work hours and leisure. Overall, our findings suggest that the effects of the NLW cannot be understood in isolation from how the entire suite of policy instruments operates on earnings and liveable income for affected low-wage workers. |
| Keywords: | National living wage, Benefits freeze, Mental health, Income policy, Difference in Differences, Treatment effect heterogeneity |
| JEL: | C14 C21 C23 I18 J38 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:str:wpaper:22-10&r=lma |