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on Labor Markets - Supply, Demand, and Wages |
| By: | Alexandre Georgieff |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at the links between AI and wage inequality across 19 OECD countries. It uses a measure of occupational exposure to AI derived from that developed by Felten, Raj and Seamans (2019) – a measure of the degree to which occupations rely on abilities in which AI has made the most progress. The results provide no indication that AI has affected wage inequality between occupations so far (over the period 2014-2018). At the same time, there is some evidence that AI may be associated with lower wage inequality within occupations – consistent with emerging findings from the literature that AI reduces productivity differentials between workers. Further research is needed to identify the exact mechanisms driving the negative relationship between AI and wage inequality within occupations. One possible explanation is that low performers have more to gain from using AI because AI systems are trained to embody the more accurate practices of high performers. It is also possible that AI reduces performance differences within an occupation through a selection effect, e.g. if low performers leave their job because they are unable to adapt to AI tools by shifting their activities to tasks that AI cannot automate. |
| Keywords: | Artificial intelligence, Employment, Skills |
| JEL: | J21 J23 J24 O33 |
| Date: | 2024–04–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:comaaa:13-en |
| By: | Gimenez-Nadal, José Ignacio (University of Zaragoza); Molina, José Alberto (University of Zaragoza); Velilla, Jorge (University of Zaragoza) |
| Abstract: | Commuting is a significant aspect of workers' daily routines and is associated with various negative outcomes. Traditional literature often models commuting from an urban perspective, focusing on the trade-off between commuting and housing. This paper offers an alternative view by using a household model as the theoretical basis to explore the interconnectedness of couples' commuting, wages, labor supply, and consumption. Using data from the PSID for the years 2011-2019, results indicate a positive and highly significant correlation between wages and commuting when analyzed cross-sectionally. However, changes in wages and commuting over an individual's life cycle are not related. Additionally, commuting appears to be associated with spousal commuting, household earnings, and wealth, while higher expenditures are linked to longer commutes, but again, only cross-sectionally. |
| Keywords: | commuting, household behavior, wages, PSID |
| JEL: | D12 D15 J22 J31 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17128 |
| By: | Jones, Melanie K. (Cardiff University); Kaya, Ezgi (Cardiff University); Nan, Jiarui (University of Sheffield) |
| Abstract: | Exploiting rich nationally representative longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies this paper explores the relationship between overeducation, earnings and job satisfaction among graduates in China. We find consistent evidence, across multiple measures of overeducation, of wage and job satisfaction penalties that are not explained by personal and work-related characteristics. Despite attention within the literature, we find a modest role for differences in academic subject and, cognitive and non-cognitive skills as drivers of these penalties. In contrast, controlling for time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity reduces the size and, in many cases, removes the statistical significance of overeducation penalties, aligned to the importance of other unobserved individual heterogeneity. |
| Keywords: | overeducation, China, earnings, job satisfaction, cognitive and non-cognitive skills, unobserved heterogeneity |
| JEL: | J24 J28 J31 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17161 |
| By: | Mouton, Andre (Wake Forest University, Economics Department) |
| Abstract: | An important source of income inequality is wage sorting: high-earning individuals tend to work for employers that pay higher wages, conditional on worker characteristics. This paper combines German survey and administrative data to explore the causal mechanisms behind this poorly-understood phenomenon. I show three main results. First, wage sorting is entirely across industries and occupations, with evidence rejecting an assortative matching mechanism. Second, wage sorting has strengthened over 1993-2017 due to rising skill premia in high-paying sectors, and rising employment in low-skill, low-paying industries - outcomes consistent with demand-side shifts. Third, wage sorting reflects a positive association between human capital and firm investment, which I rationalize through a simple rent-sharing model. Hypothesis tests support a technological mechanism, in which knowledge-intensive production processes engender higher upfront costs - and therefore rents - on either side of the labor market. |
| Keywords: | Wage Inequality; Firm-Wage Differentials; Labor Sorting |
| JEL: | E24 J21 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2024–08–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:wfuewp:0112 |
| By: | Mouton, Andre (Wake Forest University, Economics Department) |
| Abstract: | Changes to occupational and sectoral labor demand are thought to have been skill- biased, raising the skill premium and contributing to wage inequality. I show that these changes have also been firm-biased, impacting the distribution of firm-specific wage components such as shared rents. I characterize firm-bias empirically using German matched employer-employee data, and I quantify its 1993-2017 impact by structurally estimating a search-based model of occupational assignment with industry segmentation. While firm-bias is only marginally important in isolation, interactions with skill-bias - capturing demand's effect on the assortativity of labor markets - account for half of the rise in wage variance from occupational polarization and manufacturing decline. These interactions result in skill-bias being a poor overall predictor of wage outcomes, while policies that target firm rent-sharing can induce skill-biased demand shocks sufficiently strong as to reverse their effect on aggregate inequality. |
| Keywords: | Wage Inequality; Labor Demand; Skill-Bias; Firm Heterogeneity |
| JEL: | E24 E25 J23 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2024–08–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:wfuewp:0111 |
| By: | David Koll; Dominik Sachs; Fabian Stürmer-Heiber; Hélène Turon |
| Abstract: | We formalize and estimate the dynamic marginal efficiency cost of redistribution (MECR) in the spirit of Okun’s “leaky bucket” to compare the MECR of an income-contingent childcare subsidy program and of the income-contingent tax and transfer schedule. We set up a dynamic structural model of heterogeneous households choosing their childcare demand and maternal labor supply. Allowing for the availability of informal childcare and for consumption of leisure, we estimate this model within the German context. Our analysis identifies two competing forces. (i) Labor supply responses increase the MECR of the childcare subsidy relative to the tax and transfer system. (ii) Child development effects decrease the MECR of the childcare subsidy relative to the income tax. We show that, under most plausible assumptions on the long-term returns to childcare attendance for children growing up in households of different incomes, progressive childcare subsidies are the more efficient redistribution tool. |
| Keywords: | female labor supply, childcare, family policies, fiscal externalities, dynamic discrete choice, redistribution |
| JEL: | H23 H31 J13 J22 J24 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11196 |
| By: | Iris Kesternich; Bettina Siflinger; James P. Smith; Franziska Valder |
| Abstract: | Based on a sample of elderly individuals from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe, we investigate the relationship between job and marital stability over the life cycle. We argue that an unobserved, time-varying social skill affects stability in both markets. Using a grouped fixed-effects estimator, we show that unobserved relationship stability in both markets is significantly and positively associated. Instability in both markets is associated with lower levels of trust and conscientiousness and higher levels of extraversion and neuroticism. The absence of the father during childhood perpetuates higher instability later in life. Higher instability is also costly since it is associated with lower levels of late-life well-being. |
| Keywords: | relationship stability, marriage dissolution, job turnover, social skills, non-cognitive skills, grouped fixed-effect estimator, survey of health, ageing and retirement in Europe |
| JEL: | J12 J24 J63 I31 C33 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11198 |
| By: | Ben Weidmann; Joseph Vecci; Farah Said; David J. Deming; Sonia R. Bhalotra |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a novel method to identify the causal contribution of managers to team performance. The method requires repeated random assignment of managers to multiple teams and controls for individuals’ skills. A good manager is someone who consistently causes their team to produce more than the sum of their parts. Good managers have roughly twice the impact on team performance as good workers. People who nominate themselves to be in charge perform worse than managers appointed by lottery, in part because self-promoted managers are overconfident, especially about their social skills. Managerial performance is positively predicted by economic decision-making skill and fluid intelligence – but not gender, age, or ethnicity. Selecting managers on skills rather than demographics or preferences for leadership could substantially increase organizational productivity. |
| JEL: | J24 M54 O15 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32699 |
| By: | Forth, John (City University London); Singleton, Carl (University of Stirling); Bryson, Alex (University College London); Phan, Van (University of the West of England, Bristol); Ritchie, Felix (University of the West of England, Bristol); Whittard, Damian (University of the West of England, Bristol) |
| Abstract: | In April 2016, a National Living Wage replaced the National Minimum Wage for employees in the UK aged 25 and above, raising their statutory wage floor by 50 pence per hour. This uprating was almost double any in the previous decade and expanded the share of jobs covered by the wage floor by around 50%. Using linked employer-employee data, we examine the effect of this policy on the propensity for minimum-wage employees to change firms. We find no evidence that the substantial compression at the bottom of the wage distribution affected the average rates of year-to-year cross-firm mobility among low-paid workers. While past studies have suggested relatively benign effects of UK minimum wage policy on employment levels, our findings suggest that this also applies to employment dynamics and the aggregate reallocation of workers across firms. |
| Keywords: | national minimum wage, on-the-job search, low pay, living wage, UK labour |
| JEL: | J23 J38 J68 J88 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17132 |
| By: | Pereira, João; Ramos, Raul; Martins, Pedro S. |
| Abstract: | Do labour institutions influence how wages respond to the business cycle? Such responsiveness can then shape several economic outcomes, including unemployment. In this paper, we examine the role of two key labour market institutions - collective bargaining and temporary contracts - upon wage cyclicality. Our evidence is drawn from rich, 2002-2020 matched data from Portugal. We find that workers not covered by collective agreements exhibit much higher wage cyclicality, especially new hires, compared to covered workers. In contrast, workers under temporary contracts do not exhibit sizable differences in cyclicality compared to counterparts under permanent (open-ended) contracts. Our findings highlight a novel angle through which labour institutions influence the labour market and the economy. |
| Keywords: | Real wages, Business cycles, Collective bargaining, Temporary contracts, Employment Law, Matched data |
| JEL: | J31 J52 J64 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1469 |
| By: | Bergeaud, Antonin (HEC Paris); Cahuc, Pierre (Sciences Po, Paris); Malgouyres, Clément (CREST); Signorelli, Sara (CREST); Zuber, Thomas (Banque de France) |
| Abstract: | Using French administrative data we estimate the wage gap distribution between in-house and temporary agency workers working in the same establishment and the same occupation. The average wage gap is about 3%, but the gap is negative in more than 25% of establishment × occupation cells. We develop and estimate a search and matching model which shows that while the wage gap is largely inefficient, eliminating it reduces efficiency, as it also arises from objective factors that contribute to the efficient allocation of jobs. |
| Keywords: | wage gap, temporary work agency, labor market frictions |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17124 |
| By: | Pencavel, John H. (Stanford University) |
| Abstract: | The increase in the real wages of British workers over the last one hundred years is often attributed to the growth in labour productivity, but this has rarely been confirmed. In the research reported here, this ascription is confronted with annual observations on wages and productivity spanning more than a century. A positive wage-productivity link is, indeed, found. However, productivity growth alone removes little of the variation over time in real wage changes. When trade union membership was rising, unions were able to direct increases in incomes to the earnings of rank-and-file workers. |
| Keywords: | real wages, labour productivity, trade unions, monopsony |
| JEL: | J31 J42 N14 N34 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17140 |
| By: | Boza, István (Centre for Economic and Regional Studies); Reizer, Balázs (Corvinus University of Budapest) |
| Abstract: | A main driver of the gender wage gap is that women earn a lower firm-specific wage premium than men. We document the role of flexible wage components in driving both within-firm and between-firm gender differences in firm premia. For this purpose, we link wage survey data on performance payments and overtime to an administrative linked employer-employee dataset from Hungary. We find that the gender gap in firm premia is negligible at firms that do not pay either performance payments or overtime, while it is more than 11 percent at firms where all employees receive performance- and overtime payments. These patterns are also present when we control for differences in the labor productivity of firms or after composition differences are accounted for using AKM models. Finally, a decomposition exercise shows that performance payments and overtime payments contribute 60 percent to the gender gap in firm premia and 25 percent to the overall gender gap. |
| Keywords: | wage inequality, bargaining, sorting, overtime, performance payments |
| JEL: | J31 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17125 |
| By: | Pedro Isaac Vazquez-Venegas; Marion Devaux; Hikaru Aihara; Michele Cecchini |
| Abstract: | Promoting health and well-being at the workplace is a valuable investment for employees, employers, governments, and society. Healthy employees are less likely to be absent or have reduced productivity. Employers benefit from improved work outputs, and health systems see reduced treatment costs. Digital tools and innovative technologies can enhance the effectiveness of health promotion programs. The market for these tools is growing globally, with employers keen to improve health and productivity. This working paper, through four case studies, underscores how wearables, mobile applications for female health, AI-driven lifestyle management applications, and health insurance engagement platforms can be utilized to promote health at the workplace. These technologies present avenues for enhancing the efficacy, efficiency, and customization of health promotion interventions. Nevertheless, they also pose challenges such as privacy issues, the requirement for digital proficiency, the necessity for conducive organisational practices for healthier work environments, and the assurance of safety and clinical suitability of the proliferating health applications and tools in the market. |
| JEL: | I15 J24 M1 O3 |
| Date: | 2024–08–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaad:169-en |
| By: | Daniel Goller; Chiara Graf; Stefan C. Wolter |
| Abstract: | Career and job fairs are frequently used instruments to improve the matching between employees and employers as well as between employees and professions. Despite their importance, however, their impact has been under-researched. Using an innovative dataset that measures searches on the largest platform for apprenticeship vacancies in real-time and the necessity that some fairs had to switch from in-person to virtual during the COVID-19 phase unexpectedly, we can show that virtual fairs not only had a stronger immediate positive impact on the number of searches for apprenticeship vacancies but also expanded the search radius for different professions. |
| Keywords: | Job fairs, career fairs, career choice, virtual versus in-person |
| JEL: | J68 J24 I20 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0224 |
| By: | Rafael Machado Parente |
| Abstract: | How do minimum wages affect earnings inequality in countries with large informal sectors? I provide reduced-form evidence that the 2000s minimum wage hike in Brazil raised overall inequality by increasing inequality inside the informal sector. I develop a model where heterogeneous firms select into informality to investigate when and how raising the minimum wage can increase inequality. I calibrate the model to Brazil and find that, by generating substantial informality, the increase in the minimum wage raised overall inequality by 6.4%. These results suggest that movements into and out of the informal sector modulate the effects of formal labor legislation. |
| Keywords: | Minimum wages; Inequality; Informality |
| Date: | 2024–07–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2024/159 |
| By: | Xiuming Dong; Johanna Catherine Maclean; David Powell |
| Abstract: | Social insurance programs shield individuals from specific risks, but these programs are not necessarily independent of each other. The existence and scope of one program can potentially influence the use of others, especially when the risks covered by the programs are related. This study investigates the relationship between two mandated benefit programs in the United States: state paid sick leave (PSL) mandates and workers’ compensation. Unlike most developed countries, the U.S. lacks a federal PSL mandate; however, 15 states have implemented such policies. PSL mandates require firms to provide compensated time off for employee health-related needs, while workers’ compensation offers benefits to help workers recover from workplace injuries or illnesses. Using a difference-in-differences analysis, the study explores the impact of state PSL mandates on the usage of workers’ compensation benefits. The findings reveal meaningful spillover effects: when states adopt PSL requirements, there is a decrease in workers’ compensation benefit receipt. While some evidence suggests possible improvements in health, there are no observed reductions in workplace injury rates specifically, indicating that workers may substitute PSL benefits directly for workers’ compensation. |
| JEL: | I18 J28 J32 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32751 |
| By: | Rasmus Wiese; Joåo Tovar Jalles; Jakob de Haan; João Tovar Jalles |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically examines the impact of labour market counter-reforms on real GDP per capita and employment growth in 25 OECD countries between 1973 and 2012. We use a novel, narrative-based dataset of reform indicators and apply the local projections approach. We consider not only aggregated labour market counter-reforms but also distinguish between employment protection legislation (EPL), which we further split into counter-reforms for regular and temporary workers, and unemployment benefits (UB) counter-reforms. The effects of counter-reforms depend on the prevailing economic conditions and are not uniform across different types of counter-reforms. |
| Keywords: | labour market counter-reforms, output growth, employment, local projections, nonlinearities |
| JEL: | D31 J21 H30 L43 L51 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11199 |
| By: | François Roubaud (UMR LEDa, DIAL, IRD, CNRS, Université Paris-Dauphine, PSL, Paris, France); Mireille Razafindrakoto (UMR LEDa, DIAL, IRD, CNRS, Université Paris-Dauphine, PSL, Paris, France); João Hallak Neto (Brazil); Valéria Pero (Instituto de Economia da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro - Brazil); André Simões (Brazil) |
| Abstract: | For nearly a decade, the Brazilian labour market has suffered from periods of deep crisis marked by the growth of unemployment and informality. In this general context, platform jobs, which emerged around 2016, appear with unequaled dynamism in job creation. However, it is difficult to quantify and qualify this phenomenon to date due to the lack of a suitable measuring instrument in Brazil and on a global scale. The nature of jobs and their quality is largely unknown. Therefore, this study has a dual objective. On the methodological front, it aims to contribute to the debate on the concepts and statistical tools needed for measuring the scale and the characteristics of this new type of job reliably. The empirical work is mainly based on the intensive processing of micro-data from the PNAD Contínua (the Brazilian Labour Force Survey). The changes observed in the various job characteristics over the long term as a result of the analysis provide an assessment of the relevance of the approach. On the analytical front, we propose to draw up a panorama as reliable as possible of platform employment in Brazil in its different dimensions (job structure and workers' characteristics, working conditions and earnings, professional trajectories, contribution to the household economy), focusing on the most “visible” of them: drivers and delivery workers. We show that these platform jobs in the transport sector represent a real opportunity. The vast majority of the jobs created are permanent and contribute significantly to the household economy. They are not just occasional jobs for supplementary income. Nor are they a stepping stone to formal employment. However, the jobs are of low quality: in terms of working conditions, they fall between informal and formal workers but closer to the former. Moreover, it should be stressed that their situation tends to deteriorate over time, becoming increasingly precarious. |
| Keywords: | Brazil, Digital Platform, Informal Economy, Labour Market, Structural Transformation |
| JEL: | E26 J21 J81 L16 O17 O33 O54 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt202408 |
| By: | Moritz Kuhn; Iourii Manovskii; Xincheng Qiu |
| Abstract: | Two prominent secular trends characterize the transformation of labor markets in industrialized countries in recent decades. First, employment has shifted from manufacturing to services. Second, the share of female employment in total employment has risen sharply. This paper documents a novel fact linking these two trends: female employment shares within manufacturing and within services have remained virtually constant over time and across developed economies. Constant sectoral gender shares imply that an exogenous increase in female labor supply can by itself induce structural change. We provide empirical evidence for the presence of this effect in the data. We then propose a quantitative theory of structural change with nonhomothetic preferences, differential sectoral productivity growth, gender complementarity in sectoral production, and rising female employment, and calibrate it to the U.S. economy. Quantitatively, we find that the rise in female employment accounts for about two-thirds of structural change in the U.S. over the past five decades. |
| Keywords: | Structural Change, Female Employment, Labor Markets |
| JEL: | E24 J21 J24 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2024_577 |
| By: | Richard K. Mansfield |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how spatial frictions that differ among heterogeneous workers and establishments shape the geographic and demographic incidence of alternative local labor demand shocks, with implications for the appropriate level of government at which to fund local economic initiatives. LEHD data featuring millions of job transitions facilitate estimation of a rich two-sided labor market assignment model. The model generates simulated forecasts of many alternative local demand shocks featuring different establishment compositions and local areas. Workers within 10 miles receive only 11.2% (6.6%) of nationwide welfare (employment) short-run gains, with at least 35.9% (62.0%) accruing to out-of-state workers, despite much larger per-worker impacts for the closest workers. Local incidence by demographic category is very sensitive to shock composition, but different shocks produce similar demographic incidence farther from the shock. Furthermore, the remaining heterogeneity in incidence at the state or national level can reverse patterns of heterogeneous demographic impacts at the local level. Overall, the results suggest that reduced-form approaches using distant locations as controls can produce accurate estimates of local shock impacts on local workers, but that the distribution of local impacts badly approximates shocks' statewide or national incidence. |
| JEL: | J23 J61 R23 R58 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32706 |
| By: | Kevin L. McKinney; John M. Abowd |
| Abstract: | We use place of birth information from the Social Security Administration linked to earnings data from the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Program and detailed race and ethnicity data from the 2010 Census to study how long-term earnings differentials vary by place of birth for different self-identified race and ethnicity categories. We focus on foreign-born persons from countries that are heavily Hispanic and from countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). We find substantial heterogeneity of long-term earnings differentials within country of birth, some of which will be difficult to detect when the reporting format changes from the current two-question version to the new single-question version because they depend on self-identifications that place the individual in two distinct categories within the single-question format, specifically, Hispanic and White or Black, and MENA and White or Black. We also study the USA-born children of these same immigrants. Long-term earnings differences for the 2nd generation also vary as a function of self-identified ethnicity and race in ways that changing to the single-question format could affect. |
| JEL: | J15 J31 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32758 |
| By: | Johanna Catherine Maclean; Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia |
| Abstract: | Unlike most developed countries, the U.S. lacks a federal paid sick leave policy. As a result, many workers must choose between losing earnings and attending to childcare responsibilities. To date, 14 states and the District of Columbia have adopted paid sick leave mandates that provide up to seven days of paid leave per year that can be used for family responsibilities and healthcare. In this study, we estimate the effects of state paid sick leave mandates on parents’ time spent providing childcare using time diaries from the 2004–2022 American Time Use Survey. Findings from difference-in-differences estimators suggest that post-mandate, parental time spent providing childcare increases by 4.9%. Effects are generally stronger among women and parents with younger children. Overall, our findings suggest that paid sick leave mandates allow parents to better balance work and family responsibilities. |
| JEL: | I18 J28 J33 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32710 |
| By: | Johannes Geyer; Peter Haan; Mia Teschner |
| Abstract: | The price for institutional long-term care is a central determinant of the demand for formal and informal long-term care. In this paper, we show how macroeconomic conditions affect these prices. The analysis is based on administrative data that contains rich information on the universe of nursing homes and ambulatory care services and about all recipients of long-term care benefits in Germany. For identification, we exploit variation in macroeconomic conditions measured by the unemployment rate across districts and over time, applying a panel data approach with facility and time fixed effects. Our empirical results show that a higher unemployment rate increases prices for permanent long-term care as well as for prices of accommodation and meals in nursing homes. We provide empirical evidence for the mechanism of these price effects. While we find that employment, working hours, and quality of care in nursing homes are not significantly affected by macroeconomic conditions, our results show that a higher unemployment rate increases the price of nursing homes through a change in the composition of patients: it induces a shift from care recipients with a low degree of impairment to patients with high demands for labor-intensive care. We also document a substitution of low-impairment care from nursing homes toward ambulatory and informal home care. |
| Keywords: | Long-Term Care, Nursing home prices, Unemployment rate, Macroeconomic Conditions, Informal care |
| JEL: | E32 I11 J20 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp2096 |
| By: | Joseph P. Ferrie; Claudia Goldin; Claudia Olivetti |
| Abstract: | The Lanham Act was a federal infrastructure bill passed by Congress in 1940 and eventually used to fund programs for the preschool and school-aged children of working women during WWII. It remains, to this day, the only example in US history of an (almost) universal, largely federally-supported childcare program. We explore its role in enabling and increasing the labor supply of mothers during WWII. Our information is at the city or town level and includes war contracts, the size of and expenditures on the childcare program, and the “reserve labor force” of mothers as of 1939. We find that the programs became well-funded but were late to start, limited in scope, and incapable of greatly increasing women’s employment in the aggregate. They were more numerous in places that already had high participation rates of women suggesting that they were effective in caring for the children of women who had already entered the labor force. Their impact on the children as adults is still to be determined. |
| JEL: | J21 N32 N42 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32755 |
| By: | Gonçalves, Judite; Rocha-Gomes, João; Amorim-Lopes, Mário; Martins, Pedro S. |
| Abstract: | Women appear to take sick leave at a higher rate and for longer periods than men. However, the reasons for these differences are poorly understood. This study starts by outlining several channels (biological, psychological, socio-economic, and occupational) that may drive this gender gap. We then analyse rich individual longitudinal administrative data on employment and sickness benefits. We consider the case of Portugal, where sickness benefits are relatively generous, in contrast to other potentially related social support (such as childcare). We find that women's adjusted monthly odds of receiving sickness benefits are 1.66 times those of men. This ratio falls to 1.37 when considering only hospitalisation-initiated sickness benefits, which may be driven exclusively by health factors. Overall, our results suggest that biological factors, as well as work-related hazards and stressors, play a large role in the gender gap in sickness benefits; yet behavioural and socioeconomic factors are non-negligible. For example, more women may use sickness benefits to accommodate caregiving responsibilities, and more men may forgo statutory sick leave to provide for their family. Our findings underscore the importance of more evidence for the enhancement of health and equity at work. Improved social and workplace policies to mitigate the double burden of work and family responsibilities, laying mostly on (poorer) women, may be needed, also to increase fair use of sickness benefits. |
| Keywords: | Sick leave, Gender inequality, Hospitalisation, Diagnosis, Caregiving responsibilities |
| JEL: | I18 H55 J28 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1468 |
| By: | A. Chung (Department of Economics, University of Reading); D S. Hamermesh (University of Texas at Austin, IZA, and NBER); C. Singleton (Economics Division, Stirling Management School, University of Stirling, and IZA); Z. Wang (School of Economics, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics); J. Zhang (School of Economics, Zhejiang University, Department of Economics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and IZA) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the relationship between physical attractiveness and the time people devote to video/computer gaming. Average American teenagers spend 2.6% of their waking hours gaming, while for adults this figure is 2.7%. Using the American Add Health Study, we show that adults who are better-looking have more close friends. Arguably, gaming is costlier for them, and they thus engage in less of it. Physically attractive teens are less likely to engage in gaming at all, whereas unattractive teens who do game spend more time each week on it than other gamers. Attractive adults are also less likely than others to spend any time gaming; and if they do, they spend less time on it than less attractive adults. Using the longitudinal nature of the Add Health Study, we find supportive evidence that these relationships are causal for adults: good looks decrease gaming time, not vice-versa. |
| Keywords: | physical attractiveness, beauty, time allocation, social activity, teenage behavior |
| JEL: | J22 L82 L86 |
| Date: | 2024–08–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rdg:emxxdp:em-dp2024-04 |
| By: | Victor Lavy; Rigissa Megalokonomou |
| Abstract: | A recent critique of using teachers’ test score value-added (TVA) is that teacher quality is multifaceted; some teachers are effective in raising test scores, others are effective in improving long-term outcomes. This paper exploits an institutional setting where high school teachers are randomly assigned to classes to compute multiple long-run TVA measures based on university schooling outcomes and high school behavior. We find substantial correlations between test scores and long-run TVA but zero correlations between these two TVA measures and behavior TVA. We find that short-term test-score TVA and long-run TVA are highly correlated and equally good predictors of long-term outcomes. |
| JEL: | I20 J24 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32671 |
| By: | Vasishth, Mahima (Bocconi University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I estimate the inter-generational health impact of maternal employment opportunities using evidence from the ready-made garment industry in Bangladesh. This industry was exposed to a trade liberalization policy in 2005, which generated spatial and temporal variation in the establishment of garment factories and therefore, potential employment opportunities for women. Using a difference-in-difference strategy, I find that the expansion of this sector improved the probability of neonatal survival for children who are born in areas that experience higher growth in employment opportunities post trade liberalization. This is driven by the improved labor market participation by mothers, enabling them to delay childbirth and improve their intra-household bargaining power. |
| Keywords: | neonatal mortality, female labor force participation, ready-made garment sector |
| JEL: | J21 I15 I12 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17106 |
| By: | Nezih Guner (CEMFI); Yuliya Kulikova (Bank of Spain); Arnau Valladares-Esteban (University of St. Gallen) |
| Abstract: | In the US, the likelihood of a married woman entering the labor force in a given month increases by 60% if her husband loses his job, known as the added worker effect. However, only 1.5% to 3.5% of married women entering the labor force in a given month can be added workers. This raises the question of whether the added worker effect can significantly impact aggregate labor market outcomes. Building on Shimer (2012), we introduce a new methodology to evaluate how joint transitions of married couples across labor market states affect aggregate participation, employment, and unemployment rates. Our results show that the added worker effect significantly impacts aggregate outcomes, increasing married women's participation and employment by 0.72 and 0.65 percentage points each month. Additionally, the added worker effect reduces the cyclicality of married women's participation and unemployment, lowering the correlation between GDP's cyclical components and participation by 4.5 percentage points and unemployment by 8 percentage points. |
| Keywords: | household labor supply, intra-household insurance, female employment, cyclicality |
| JEL: | D10 E32 J21 J22 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2024-015 |
| By: | Bhalotra, Sonia R. (University of Warwick); Deming, David J. (Harvard Kennedy School); Said, Farah (Lahore University of Management Sciences); Vecci, Joseph (University of Gothenburg); Weidmann, Ben (Harvard Kennedy School) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a novel method to identify the causal contribution of managers to team performance. The method requires repeated random assignment of managers to multiple teams and controls for individuals’ skills. A good manager is someone who consistently causes their team to produce more than the sum of their parts. Good managers have roughly twice the impact on team performance as good workers. People who nominate themselves to be in charge perform worse than managers appointed by lottery, in part because self-promoted managers are overconfident, especially about their social skills. Managerial performance is positively predicted by economic decision-making skill and fluid intelligence – but not gender, age, or ethnicity. Selecting managers on skills rather than demographics or preferences for leadership could substantially increase organizational productivity. JEL Codes: J24 ; M54 ; O15 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1506 |