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on Transition Economics |
| By: | Telegdy, Álmos (Institute of Economics, Budapest) |
| Abstract: | I identify wage spillovers from the public to the corporate sector with the help of a large and sudden public sector wage increase, which raised real compensation by 40 percent in two years, changing the average public wage premium from minus 10 to plus 12 percent. Using a dataset covering about 7 percent of Hungarian workers and their employer, the spillover effect is identified with the variation of the share of public sector employment within groups defined by gender, experience and occupation. The analysis shows that 10 percent higher share of public sector workers within worker-type induces an additional wage growth of 15-20 percent around the wage increase. Controlling for firm (worker spell) fixed effects does not change the results qualitatively and results in a spillover effect of 11-14 (7.5-12) percent. The spillover effect is positively correlated with the public wage premium within worker type, with occupations which are abundant in the public sector, with the availability of public sector jobs and being hired after the wage increase. |
| Keywords: | wage spillover, public sector, Hungary |
| JEL: | J31 J45 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7524&r=tra |
| By: | Lei, Xiaoyan (Peking University); Smith, James P. (RAND); Sun, Xiaoting (Peking University); Zhao, Yaohui (Peking University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we model gender differences in cognitive ability in China using a new sample of middle-aged and older Chinese respondents. Modeled after the American Health and Retirement Survey (HRS), CHARLS respondents are 45 years and older and are nationally representative of the Chinese population in this age span. Our measures of cognition in CHARLS relies on two measures that proxy for different dimensions of adult cognition – episodic memory and intact mental status. We relate these cognitive measures to adult health and SES outcomes during the adult years. We find large cognitive differences to the detriment of women that were mitigated by large gender differences in education among these generations of Chinese people. These gender differences in cognition are especially concentrated in the older age groups and poorer communities within the sample. We also investigated historical, geographical, and cultural characteristics of communities to understand how they impact cognition. Economic development and environmental improvement such as having electricity, increase in wage per capita and green coverage ratio generally contribute to higher cognition ability. Women benefit more from the fruits of development – electricity and growth of green coverage ratio are conducive to lessening female disadvantage in cognition. |
| Keywords: | China, cognition |
| JEL: | H10 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7536&r=tra |
| By: | Agarwal, Manmohan (entre for International Governance Innovation); Whalley, John (University of Western Ontario) |
| Abstract: | The relative performance of China and India is compared using two different methods and they provide a very different picture of their relative performance. We compare the average absolute values of indictors for the decade of the 1980s, 1990s and the 2000s. We use indicators such as the current account balance (CAB), exports of goods and services (XGS), foreign direct investment inflow (FDI), gross domestic savings, gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), aid, private capital inflows (PrK) and workers’ remittances, all as a percentage of GDP. We also look at the growth rate of per capita GDP, exports of goods and services and of gross fixed capital formation. Using a two tailed- test we find that China does better than India for most of these indicators. For instance, China has a higher growth rate of per capita income, XGS and GFCF as also a higher share of XGS, GFCF etc in GDP than does India. We also find that China usually has a lower CV, namely a more stable performance. But over the three decades the CV falls in India so it is approaching that in China, namely the two economies are becoming more similar. We also compare the dynamic performance of the two economies since their reforms. We form index numbers for the indicators. So for example, we from an index number for share of exports in GDP with year 1 of reform in China being 100, i.e. the index for the share in 1979 is 100. Year 2 would be the index number for 1980, namely the value of the share in 1980 with the share in 1979 being 100, etc. In the case of India year 1 would be 1992 once the reforms started, year 2 would be 1993 and so on, so the index would have 1992 as the base year. We find that the indices behave very similarly in the two economies for many of the indicators, namely the pattern of change in China after 1979 is the same as in India after 1992. |
| Keywords: | China |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:warwcg:128&r=tra |
| By: | Smith, James P. (RAND); Tian, Meng (Peking University); Zhao, Yaohui (Peking University) |
| Abstract: | There is increasing interest in neighborhood or area effects on health and individual development. China, due to its vast regional variations in health infrastructure and geography and relative immobility of older residents, provides a rare opportunity to study such effects. Utilizing China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) baseline survey 2011-2012 which covered over 17,000 individuals in 450 randomly selected communities/villages, this paper addresses two questions: whether community/village characteristics matter for individual health and SES (Socio-Economic Status), and why they matter. Our statistical results indicate that community/village characteristics have strong associations with individual health and SES. |
| Keywords: | China, neighborhood effects, health |
| JEL: | I10 I14 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7535&r=tra |
| By: | Domadenik, Polona (University of Ljubljana); Farčnik, Daša (University of Ljubljana); Pastore, Francesco (University of Naples II) |
| Abstract: | We follow Brodaty et al. (2008) and develop a model within the signalling literature where an employer decides whether to hire a worker or not conditionally on the signals she sends – field and length of study and high education (HE) institution. The empirical design of our paper builds on evidence relative to first labour market entry of graduates to identify a signalling effect of individual and institutional quality of study on individual horizontal match quality. First, based on a matched unique employer-employee dataset we report the extent of horizontal mismatch for graduates of different fields of education for a post-transition economy (Slovenia). Second, we test the signal of HE institutions and above average study duration on the likelihood of a horizontal mismatch separately for each field of education. We find that graduates from specific HE institutions experience significantly higher likelihood to get a job that matches the field of study for social sciences, namely business and administration and to a smaller extent education. On the contrary, HE institutions do not signal skills or abilities in the most technical fields of education (engineering, computing, manufacturing). The above average study duration has mixed effects based on the field of education. It can either signal lower innate ability (i.e. for law graduates) or increased skills due to student work (i.e. computing graduates). |
| Keywords: | horizontal mismatch, signalling, Slovenia |
| JEL: | J21 J24 J44 I21 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7527&r=tra |
| By: | Michal Myck; Anna Kurowska; Michal Kundera |
| Abstract: | Financial support for families with children implies inherent trade-offs some of which are less obvious than others. In the end these trade-offs determine the effectiveness of policy with respect to the material situation of families and employment of their parents. We analyse several kinds of trade-offs involved using a careful selection of potential changes to the system of financial support for families with children. We focus on: 1) the trade-off between redistribution of income to poorer households and improving work incentives, 2) the trade-off between improving work incentives for first and for second earners in couples, 3) the trade-off between improving work incentives for those facing strong and weak incentives in the baseline system. The exercise is conducted on data from Poland, a country characterized by high levels of child poverty, low female employment and one of the lowest fertility rates in Europe. We demonstrate the complexity of potential consequences of family support policy and stress the need for well-defined policy goals and careful analysis ahead of any reform. |
| Keywords: | labour supply, tax and benefit reforms, microsimulation, family policy |
| JEL: | J22 J13 J18 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1315&r=tra |