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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Giorgio Bellettini; Carlotta Berti Ceroni |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the determinants of immigration policy in an economy with entrepreneurs and workers where a trade union has monopoly power over wages. The presence of the union leads a benevolent government to implement a high level of immigration and induces a welfare loss not only from an aggregate point of view, but even from the point of view of workers. In the politico-economic equilibrium where interest groups lobby for immigration, we show the condition under which workers are no longer hurt by the presence of the union. |
| JEL: | F22 J51 J61 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1421&r=lab |
| By: | Christophe Kolodziejczyk (Institute of Economics, University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | In the context of the unitary model of household labour supply we test whether the husband’s work is separable from consumption and the wife’s work. We apply a conditional preferences approach to derive a conditional labor supply function for the wife consistent with a unitary model with nonseparable preferences. Our main results are that consumption and wife’s work hours are not separable from the husband’s labour supply. Furthermore we find that the wife’s and husband’s work hours are complements when men tend to work longer hours than a typical full-time contract. |
| Keywords: | conditional preferences; non-separability; income taxation; married women labor supply |
| JEL: | D13 H24 H31 J22 |
| Date: | 2005–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kuieca:2005_02&r=lab |
| By: | Anna Piil Damm (Institute of Economics, University of Copenhagen); Michael Rosholm (Department of Economics, University of Aarhus) |
| Abstract: | Spatial dispersal policies may influence labour market integration of refugees through two mechanisms. First, it may affect the local job offer arrival rate, and second, it may affect place utility. We investigate the second mechanism theoretically by formulating a partial search model in which an individual searches simultaneously for a job and for a new residential location. The model predicts that the reservation wage for local jobs is decreasing in place utility. We argue that spatial dispersal policies decrease average place utility of refugees which decrease the transition rate into first job due to large local reservation wage effects. We investigate both mechanisms empirically and test the predictions of the theoretical model by evaluating the employment effects of the Danish spatial dispersal policy carried out 1986-1998. |
| Keywords: | spatial dispersal policy; job search; residential search; employment; migration |
| JEL: | J64 J61 J68 J15 |
| Date: | 2005–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kuieca:2005_03&r=lab |
| By: | Mary A. Silles (Institute of Economics, University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses longitudinal data for the UK to investigate the observed correlation between computer use at work and labor market earnings. Our findings suggest that there are no returns to computer use at work. This is evidence against the productivity interpretation of these returns and supports the view that the premium can be attributed to unobserved characteristics. |
| Keywords: | technological change; earnings |
| JEL: | I21 J31 |
| Date: | 2005–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kuieca:2005_05&r=lab |
| By: | Kent Smetters (The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania) |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that many common methods of privatizing social security fail to reduce labor market distortions when taxes are second best, challenging a key reason to privatize. Ironically, providing “transition relief” to workers alive at the time of the reform, in an effort to protect their previous contributions, undercuts potential efficiency gains. Chile’s reform -- the first major privatization that also served as a model for subsequent countries -- actually increased distortions. It is then shown that privatization with limited transition relief can reduce labor market distortions and produce gains to current and future generations without hurting initial retirees, i.e., a Pareto gain even with second-best taxes. |
| Date: | 2005–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp092&r=lab |
| By: | ESAU (Unassigned) |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, poverty, public works programmes, South Africa, labour market |
| Date: | 2005–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:odi:bpaper:2&r=lab |