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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2015‒07‒25
nine papers chosen by |
| By: | David Neumark; Joanne Song; Patrick Button |
| Abstract: | We explore the effects of disability discrimination laws on hiring of older workers. A concern with anti-discrimination laws is that they may reduce hiring by raising the cost of terminations and – in the specific case of disability discrimination laws – raising the cost of employment because of the need to accommodate disabled workers. Moreover, disability discrimination laws can affect non-disabled older workers because they are fairly likely to develop work-related disabilities, yet are not protected by these laws. Using state variation in disability discrimination protections, we find little or no evidence that stronger disability discrimination laws lower the hiring of non-disabled older workers. We similarly find no evidence of adverse effects of disability discrimination laws on hiring of disabled older workers. |
| JEL: | J14 J71 J78 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21379&r=ltv |
| By: | Alex Bryson; John Forth; Lucy Stokes |
| Abstract: | This paper uses linked employer-employee data to investigate the relationship between employees' subjective well-being and workplace performance in Britain. The analyses show a clear, positive and statistically-significant relationship between the average level of job satisfaction at the workplace and workplace performance. This finding is present in both cross-sectional and panel analyses and is robust to various estimation methods and model specifications. In contrast, we find no association between levels of job-related affect and workplace performance. |
| Keywords: | Subjective well being, job satisfaction, job-related affect, workplace performance |
| JEL: | J28 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1363&r=ltv |
| By: | Pierre Cahuc (Department of Economics); Stéphane Carcillo (Departement d'Economie de Sciences Po); Ulf Rinne (Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)); Klaus F. Zimmermann (Bonn University (Bonn Graduate School of Economics) (BGSE)) |
| Abstract: | France and Germany are two polar cases in the European debate about rising youth unemployment. Similar to what can be observed in Southern European countries, a “lost generation” may arise in France. In stark contrast, youth unemployment has been on continuous decline in Germany for many years, hardly affected by the Great Recession. This paper analyzes the diametrically opposed developments in the two countries to derive policy lessons. As the fundamental differences in youth unemployment primarily result from structural differences in labor policy and in the (vocational) education system, short-term oriented policies do not address the core of the problems. Ultimately, the youth unemployment disease in France and in other European countries has to be cured with structural reforms. |
| Keywords: | Labor Policy; Labor Market Institutions; Great Recession; Youth Unemployment; Minimum Wages; Demographic Trends; Vocational Education and Training; Unemployment Protection |
| JEL: | J24 J38 J68 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/7k0plsobem9tuo09eg04jujb9a&r=ltv |
| By: | Burda, Michael C; Genadek, Katie R.; Hamermesh, Daniel S. |
| Abstract: | Using the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) 2003-12, we estimate time spent by workers in non-work while on the job. Non-work time is substantial and varies positively with the local unemployment rate. While the average time spent by workers in non-work conditional on any positive non-work rises with the unemployment rate, the fraction of workers who report time in non-work varies pro-cyclically, declining in recessions. These results are consistent with a model in which heterogeneous workers are paid efficiency wages to refrain from loafing on the job. That model correctly predicts relationships of the incidence and conditional amounts of non-work with wage rates and measures of unemployment benefits in state data linked to the ATUS, and it is consistent with observed occupational differences in non-work. |
| Keywords: | efficiency wage; labor productivity; loafing; non-work; shirking; time use |
| JEL: | E24 J22 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10712&r=ltv |
| By: | Ellul, Andrew; Pagano, Marco; Schivardi, Fabiano |
| Abstract: | We investigate the determinants of firms’ implicit employment and wage insurance to employees, using a difference-in-difference approach: we rely on differences between family and non-family firms to identify the supply of insurance, and exploit variation in unemployment insurance programs across and within countries to gauge workers’ demand for insurance. Using a firm-level panel from 41 countries, we find that family firms provide more stable employment than non-family ones, and in exchange they obtain both greater wage flexibility and lower labor cost: on average, their real wages are 5 percent lower, controlling for country, industry and time effects. The additional employment security provided by family firms is greater, and the wage discount larger, the less generous is public unemployment insurance: private and public provision of employment insurance appear to be substitutes. |
| Keywords: | family firms; insurance; risk-sharing; social security; unemployment; wages |
| JEL: | G31 G32 G38 H25 H26 M40 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10711&r=ltv |
| By: | Xavier Gabaix; Jean-Michel Lasry; Pierre-Louis Lions; Benjamin Moll |
| Abstract: | The past forty years have seen a rapid rise in top income inequality in the United States. While there is a large number of existing theories of the Pareto tails of the income and wealth distributions at a given point in time, almost none of these address the fast rise in top inequality observed in the data. We show that standard theories, which build on a random growth mechanism, generate transition dynamics that are an order of magnitude too slow relative to those observed in the data. We then suggest parsimonious deviations from the basic model that can explain such changes, namely heterogeneity in mean growth rates or deviations from Gibrat's law. These deviations are consistent with theories in which the increase in top income inequality is driven by the rise of "superstar" entrepreneurs or managers. |
| JEL: | D31 E24 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21363&r=ltv |
| By: | John F. Helliwell; Shun Wang |
| Abstract: | In this paper we estimate the size of weekend effects for seven emotions and then explore their main determinants for the working population in the United States, using the Gallup/Healthways US Daily Poll 2008-2012. We first find that weekend effects exist for all emotions, and that these effects are not explained by sample selection bias. Full-time workers have a larger weekend effects than do part- time workers for all emotions except sadness, for which weekend effects are almost identical for all workers. We then explore the sources of weekend effects and find that workplace trust and workplace social relations, combined with differences in social time spent with family and friends, together almost fully explain the weekend effects for happiness, laughter, enjoyment and sadness, for both full-time and part-time workers, with significant but smaller proportions explained for the remaining three emotions - worry, anger and stress. |
| JEL: | I31 J81 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21374&r=ltv |
| By: | Pierre Cahuc (Department of Economics); Stéphane Carcillo (Departement d'Economie de Sciences Po) |
| Abstract: | In October 2007, France introduced an exemption on the income tax and social security contributions that applied to wages received for hours worked overtime. The goal of the policy was to increase the number of hours worked. This article shows that this reform has had no significant impact on hours worked. Conversely, it has had a positive impact on the overtime hours declared by highly qualified wage earners, who have opportunities to manipulate the overtime hours they declare in order to optimize their tax situation since the hours they work are difficult to verify. |
| Keywords: | Overtime; Research; Working hours; Income tax; Labor productivity |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/1aeo7h7o569ilqjt5db064dfm3&r=ltv |
| By: | Goldin, Claudia D.; Katz, Lawrence F. |
| Abstract: | Pharmacy has become a female-majority profession that is highly remunerated with a small gender earnings gap and low earnings dispersion relative to other occupations. We sketch a labor market framework based on the theory of equalizing differences to integrate and interpret our empirical findings on earnings, hours of work, and the part-time work wage penalty for pharmacists. Using extensive surveys of pharmacists for 2000, 2004, and 2009 as well as samples from the American Community Surveys and the Current Population Surveys, we explore the gender earnings gap, the penalty to part-time work, labor force persistence, and the demographics of pharmacists relative to other college graduates. We address why the substantial entrance of women into the profession was associated with an increase in their earnings relative to male pharmacists. We conclude that the changing nature of pharmacy employment with the growth of large national pharmacy chains and hospitals and the related decline of independent pharmacies played key roles in the creation of a more family-friendly, female-friendly pharmacy profession. The position of pharmacist is probably the most egalitarian of all U.S. professions today. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:faseco:17368603&r=ltv |