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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2015‒10‒10
seven papers chosen by |
| By: | Spiros Bougheas (University of Nottingham); Carl Davidson (Michigan State University); Richard Upward (University of Nottingham); Peter Wright (University of Sheffield) |
| Abstract: | We develop a dynamic, stochastic, multi-sectoral, equilibrium model that allows for worker turnover, job turnover and career mobility. This serves to bridge the literatures on job reallocation and career progression. Our model makes a number of predictions: a positive correlation between job turnover rates and promotion rates; a positive correlation across sectors between mean real income and their corresponding variance; an inverse relationship between sector profitability and both the job turnover rate and income inequality. These predictions are supported empirically. |
| Keywords: | Worker turnover, job turnover, career mobility |
| JEL: | J62 J63 J24 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cst:wpaper:14&r=all |
| By: | Herrera Prada, Luis Omar; Kugler, Adriana D.; Kugler, Maurice; Saavedra, Juan Esteban |
| Abstract: | We use administrative data to examine medium and long-term formal education and labor market impacts among participants and family members of a randomized vocational training program for disadvantaged youth in Colombia. In the Colombian program, vocational training and formal education are complementary investments: relative to non-participants, randomly selected participants are more likely to complete secondary school and to attend and persist in tertiary education eight years after random assignment. Complementarity is strongest among applicants with high baseline educational attainment. Training also has educational spillover effects on participants’ family members, who are more likely to enroll in tertiary education. Between three and eight years after randomization, participants are more likely to enter and remain in formal employment, and have formal sector earnings that are at least 11 percent higher than those of non-participants. |
| Keywords: | education complementarities; formal employment; long-term effects; randomized experiments; spillover effects; vocational training; youth employment |
| JEL: | C9 I2 J24 J68 O2 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10859&r=all |
| By: | Sjoquist, David L. (Georgia State University); Winters, John V. (Oklahoma State University) |
| Abstract: | State merit aid programs have been found to reduce the likelihood that students attend college out-of-state. Using the U.S. News & World Report rankings of colleges and universities to measure college quality and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System data to measure enrollment, we explore how this reduction in out-of-state enrollment differs by the academic quality of the institution. Our results suggest that state merit aid programs do not reduce the likelihood that a student attends a top ranked school, but that these programs do reduce the likelihood of enrolling at less prestigious out-of-state schools, with generally larger effects the lower the ranking of the schools. |
| Keywords: | merit aid, college choice, college quality, elite college |
| JEL: | H31 I22 J24 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9371&r=all |
| By: | Cho, Yoon Y. (World Bank); Robalino, David A. (World Bank); Romero, Jose (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the determinants of labor market transitions into and out of self-employment (own-account work and employer), using panel data from 12 developing countries in multiple regions. Despite cross-country heterogeneity, a few consistent patterns emerge. Entering the labor market through, or moving from wage employment into, own-account work is generally infrequent even during economic downturns, suggesting that own-account work is not an automatic choice for subsistence. Some better educated and older workers become employers by starting their business with paid employees or by growing their business from own-account work, although the overall chances of becoming employers are quite low and employer downsizing to own-account work is common. Reflecting the frequent transitions between own-account work and employer statuses, in many cases, particularly in middle-income countries, a substantial proportion of own-account workers share common characteristics with employers (and vice versa). The results suggest that there is a role for programs to support employers sustain its activities and facilitate own-account workers to become employers. |
| Keywords: | labor market transitions, self-employment, entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | O12 J24 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9358&r=all |
| By: | Grossman, Michael (CUNY Graduate Center) |
| Abstract: | Many studies suggest that years of formal schooling completed is the most important correlate of good health. There is much less consensus as to whether this correlation reflects causality from more schooling to better health. The relationship may be traced in part to reverse causality and may also reflect "omitted third variables" that cause health and schooling to vary in the same direction. The past five years (2010-2014) have witnessed the development of a large literature focusing on the issue just raised. I deal with that literature and what can be learned from it in this paper. I conclude that there is enough conflicting evidence in the studies that I have reviewed to warrant more research on the question of whether more schooling does in fact cause better health outcomes. |
| Keywords: | schooling, health, causality, efficiency, time preference |
| JEL: | I10 I20 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9369&r=all |
| By: | Edward L. Glaeser; Giacomo A. M. Ponzetto; Yimei Zou |
| Abstract: | Should China build mega-cities or a network of linked middle-sized metropolises? Can Europe’s mid-sized cities compete with global agglomeration by forging stronger inter-urban links? This paper examines these questions within a model of recombinant growth and endogenous local amenities. Three primary factors determine the trade-o¤ between networks and big cities: local returns to scale in innovation, the elasticity of housing supply, and the importance of local amenities. Even if there are global increasing returns, the returns to local scale in innovation may be decreasing, and that makes networks more appealing than mega-cities. Inelastic housing supply makes it harder to supply more space in dense con…fines, which perhaps explains why networks are more popular in regulated Europe than in the American Sunbelt. Larger cities can dominate networks because of amenities, as long as the benefits of scale overwhelm the downsides of density. In our framework, the skilled are more likely to prefer mega-cities than the less skilled, and the long-run benefits of either mega-cities or networks may be quite different from the short-run benefits. |
| Keywords: | cities, Networks, growth, Migration |
| JEL: | R10 R58 F15 O18 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:841&r=all |
| By: | Hersch, Joni (Vanderbilt University); Xiao, Jean (Vanderbilt University) |
| Abstract: | There has been a considerable amount of work focusing on job satisfaction and sex, generally finding that women are more satisfied than men despite having objectively worse job conditions. But there is little evidence on whether job satisfaction differs by race or ethnicity. We use data from the 2010 National Survey of College Graduates to examine the relation between job satisfaction and race and ethnicity among Asian, black, Hispanic/Latino, and white workers. Overall job satisfaction does not differ by sex among college graduates. Relative to white workers of the same sex, Asian and black workers are far less satisfied. The lower satisfaction of Asian and black workers relative to white workers is not explained by immigrant status, job match, or other individual or job characteristics. |
| Keywords: | job satisfaction, gender, race and ethnicity, immigrants, college graduates, discrimination |
| JEL: | J15 J16 J28 J71 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9355&r=all |