|
on Labour Economics |
| By: | Renato Faccini |
| Abstract: | In Italy, following WWII, specific hiring procedures were developed that prevented firms from screening workers. More in particular, these institutions characterized the Italian labor market with respect to the US labor market, and were gradually removed during the 1990s. A simple matching model in which the usual Nash bargaining criterion is replaced by a game of incomplete information, shows that such hiring procedures endogenously generate wage compression within groups of observationally equivalent workers, as well as higher unemployment rates. Both the estimated behavior of within-group wage inequality in Italy, computed from the micro-data of the SHIW panel of the Bank of Italy, and the behavior of the unemployment rate in the late 1990s, are consistent with the predictions of the model. |
| Keywords: | job-search, labor market institutions, within-group wage inequality, bargaining with incomplete information, screening |
| JEL: | C78 J31 J64 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2007/14&r=lab |
| By: | Katherine Baicker; Helen Levy |
| Abstract: | Employer health insurance mandates form the basis of many health care reform proposals. Proponents make the case that they will increase insurance, while opponents raise the concern that low-wage workers will see offsetting reductions in their wages and that in the presence of minimum wage laws some of the lowest wage workers will become unemployed. We construct an estimate of the number of workers whose wages are so close to the minimum wage that they cannot be lowered to absorb the cost of health insurance, using detailed data on wages, health insurance, and demographics from the Current Population Survey. We find that 33 percent of uninsured workers earn within $3 of the minimum wage, putting them at risk of unemployment if their employers were required to offer insurance. Assuming an elasticity of employment with respect to minimum wage increase of -0.10, we estimate that 0.2 percent of all full-time workers and 1.4 percent of uninsured full-time workers would lose their jobs because of a health insurance mandate. Workers who would lose their jobs are disproportionately likely to be high school dropouts, minority, and female. This risk of unemployment should be a crucial component in the evaluation of both the effectiveness and distributional implications of these policies relative to alternatives such as tax credits, Medicaid expansions, and individual mandates, and their broader effects on the well-being of low-wage workers. |
| JEL: | I1 J01 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13528&r=lab |
| By: | Julie Zissimopoulos; Nicole Maestas; Lynn A. Karoly |
| Abstract: | The authors examine how public and private pension and health insurance systems affect retirement transitions. In many countries, public and private pension eligibility, as well as access to health insurance varies between self-employed and wage and salary workers, and these differences are likely to cause differential retirement patterns both within and across countries. They use the variation in these institutional features within and across the United States and England to analyze retirement patterns. Based on longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) in the United States and the English Longitudinal Survey of Ageing (ELSA) they find that the higher labor force exit rate of wage and salary workers compared to self-employed workers is due to defined benefit pension incentives created by the public and private pension systems. Higher rates of labor force exit at ages 55 and older in England compared to the United States are due in part to the availability of publicly provided health insurance. |
| Keywords: | retirement, self-employment, health insurance, pensions |
| JEL: | J26 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ran:wpaper:528&r=lab |
| By: | Thomas Lemieux |
| Abstract: | The paper reviews recent developments in the literature on wage inequality, with a particular focus on why inequality growth has been particularly concentrated in the top end of the wage distribution over the last 15 years. Several possible institutional and demand-side explanations are discussed for the secular growth in wage inequality in the United States and other advanced industrialized countries. The paper concludes that three promising explanations for the growth in top-end wage inequality are de-unionization, the increased prevalence of pay for performance, and changes in the relative demand for the types of tasks performed by workers in high-paying occupations. |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J51 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13523&r=lab |
| By: | Rute Mendes; Gerard J. van den Berg; Maarten Lindeboom |
| Abstract: | In labor markets with worker and firm heterogeneity, the matching between firms and workers may be assortative, meaning that the most productive workers and firms team up. We investigate this with longitudinal population-wide matched employer-employee data from Portugal. Using dynamic panel data methods, we quantify a firm-specific productivity term for each firm, and we relate this to the skill distribution of workers in the firm. We find that there is positive assortative matching, in particular among long-lived firms. Using skill-specific estimates of an index of search frictions, we find that the results can only to a small extent be explained by heterogeneity of search frictions across worker skill groups. |
| Keywords: | positive assortative matching, matched employer-employee data, productivity, skill, unobserved heterogeneity, sorting, fixed effects. |
| JEL: | J21 J24 D24 J63 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:62&r=lab |
| By: | Sven Wehke (Faculty of Economics and Management, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg) |
| Abstract: | Small monopoly trade unions decide upon the wage rate per hour and the hours of work subject to firm's demand for union members. Since the resulting Nash equilibrium is characterized by excess unemployment, we study the employment and welfare effects when trade unions try to coordinate their policies. Firstly, we consider a joint agreement about marginal wage moderation, where trade unions remain free to choose the hours of work non-cooperatively. Secondly, we analyze in which way a joint change in the hours of work affects employment and welfare if trade unions are free to choose the wage rate. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, wage setting, hours of work, partial cooperation |
| JEL: | C72 J51 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mag:wpaper:07019&r=lab |
| By: | John S. Earle; Almos Telegdy |
| Abstract: | Studies of public-private and foreign-domestic wage differentials face difficulties distinguishing ownership effects from correlated characteristics of workers and firms. This paper estimates these ownership differentials using linked employer-employee data (LEED) from Hungary containing 1.35mln worker-year observations for 21,238 firms from 1986 to 2003. We find that ownership type is highly correlated with characteristics of both workers (education, experience, gender, and occupation) and firms (size, industry, and productivity), suggesting ownership type is systematically selected along these dimensions. The large unconditional wage gaps in the data, 0.24 for public-private and 0.40 for foreign-domestic, are little affected by conditioning on worker characteristics, but controlling for industry reduces the public and foreign premia to 0.16 and 0.34, respectively, and controlling for employment size further reduces them to 0.07 and 0.28. We also exploit the presence of 3,700 switches of ownership type in the data to estimate firm fixed-effects and random trend models, accounting for unobserved firm characteristics affecting the average level and trend growth of wages. These controls have little effect on the conditional public-private gap, but they reduce the estimated foreign premium to 0.07. The results imply that the substantial unconditional wage differentials are mostly, but not entirely, a function of differences in worker and firm characteristics, and they illustrate the value of analyzing LEED to take such correlated factors into account. |
| Keywords: | wages, linked employer-employee data, public sector labor markets, foreign direct investment |
| JEL: | D21 G34 J23 J31 L33 P31 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hwe:certdp:0711&r=lab |
| By: | Weichselbaumer, Doris (Department of Economics, University of Linz, Linz, Austria); Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf (Department of Economics, University of Linz, Linz, Austria, and Department of Economics and Finance, Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, Austria); Zweimüller, Martina (Department of Economics, University of Linz, Linz, Austria) |
| Abstract: | Two very different approaches are used to explore the relation between market orientation and gender wage differentials in international data. More market orientation might be related to gender wage gaps via its effects on competition in product and labor markets and the general absence of regulation in the economy. The first approach employs meta-analysis data and takes advantage of the fact that many studies already exist which use national data sources to the best possible extent. The second approach uses comparable micro data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), which allows calculating internationally consistent gender wage residuals in the first place. By comparing these two very different methods of data collection we get a robust result relating higher levels of market orientation as proxied by the Economic Freedom Index with lower gender wage gaps. |
| Keywords: | Gender wage gap, Competition, Market orientation |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ihs:ihsesp:217&r=lab |
| By: | Dimitri Paolini |
| Abstract: | This article studies the behavior of a firm searching to fill a vacancy. The main assumption is that the firm can offer two different kinds of contracts to the workers, either a short-term contract or a long-term one. The short-term contract acts as a probationary stage in which the firm can learn the worker's type. After this stage, the firm can propose a long- term contract to the worker or it can decide to look for another worker. We show that, if the short-term wage is fixed endogenously, for the firms can be optimal to start a working relationship with a short-term contract, but that this policy has a negative impact on unemployment and welfare. On the contrary, if this wage is fixed exogenously, this policy could be optimal also from welfare point of view. |
| Keywords: | Search, Temporary Employment, Short-Term Wage. |
| JEL: | J31 J41 J64 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:200708&r=lab |
| By: | Flavio Cunha (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania); James Heckman (Department of Economics, University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | A large empirical literature documents a rise in wage inequality in the American economy. It is silent on whether the increase in inequality is due to greater heterogeneity in the components of earnings that are predictable by agents or whether it is due to greater uncertainty faced by agents. Applying the methodology of Cunha, Heckman, and Navarro (2005) to data on agents making schooling decisions in different economic environments, we join choice data with earnings data to estimate the fraction of future earnings that is forecastable and how this fraction has changed over time. We find that both predictable and unpredictable components of earnings have increased in recent years. The increase in uncertainty is substantially greater for unskilled workers. For less skilled workers, roughly 60% of the increase in wage variability is due to uncertainty. For more skilled workers, only 8% of the increase in wage variability is due to uncertainty. Roughly 26% of the increase in the variance of returns to schooling is due to increased uncertainty. Using conventional measures of income inequality masks the contribution of rising uncertainty to the rise in the inequality of earnings for less educated groups. |
| Keywords: | wage inequality, uncertainty, sorting, inequality accounting |
| JEL: | D3 J8 |
| Date: | 2007–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pen:papers:07-032&r=lab |
| By: | Arie Kapteyn; James P. Smith; Arthur van Soest; James Banks |
| Abstract: | Many western industrialized countries face strong budgetary pressures due to the aging of the baby boom generations and the general trends toward earlier ages of retirement. We use the American PSID and the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) to explain differences in prevalence and dynamics of self-reported work disability and labor force status. To that end we specify a two-equation dynamic panel data model describing the dynamics of labor force status and self-reported work disability. When we apply the U.S. parameters to the equations for the thirteen European countries we consider, the result is generally that work disability is lower and employment is higher. Furthermore, measures of employment protection across the different countries suggest that increased employment protection reduces reentry into the labor force and hence is a major factor explaining employment differences in the pre-retirement years. |
| JEL: | C81 I12 J28 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13536&r=lab |
| By: | Julie Zissimopoulos; Lynn A. Karoly |
| Abstract: | Year 2005 brought four severe hurricanes to the U.S. Gulf states, including Hurricane Katrina, an exceptional storm in terms of its magnitude of destruction. The authors examine the short- and long-term effects of Hurricane Katrina on the labor market outcomes of prime age individuals in the states most affected by the hurricane and for evacuees using data from the monthly Current Population Survey. They find that in the states most affected by Hurricane Katrina-Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi-employment and unemployment by the end of 2006 were at similar rates as the end of 2003 with the exception of Mississippi, which still had lower employment and higher unemployment at the end of 2006 compared with pre-Katrina levels. By one year after the hurricane, evacuees that returned to their pre-Katrina state of residence have labor force participation rates and unemployment rates at the same level or near that of non-evacuees. Evacuees that relocated (non-returnees) have lower employment rates and higher unemployment rates, both immediately following the hurricane and one year later. Self-employment rates are higher for returning evacuees in all states compared with non-evacuees in those states in the months immediately following the hurricane but are no different one year later. There is some evidence of higher self-employment rates among non-returnees that may be due to poor job prospects in the wage and salary sector or due to new opportunities for starting businesses in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. |
| Keywords: | Hurricane Katrina, self-employment, labor force |
| JEL: | J21 J64 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ran:wpaper:525&r=lab |
| By: | Guido Schwerdt |
| Abstract: | Involuntary job loss in administrative data is commonly identified by focusing on mass-layoffs or plant closures. However, such events usually do not happen without prior knowledge, which potentially leads to selection in the labor turnover of distressed firms. We find that workers separating from closing plants up to 2 quarters before closure are associated with significantly lower displacement costs and on average significantly higher pre-closure earnings levels as opposed to ultimately displaced workers. Furthermore, our results indicate that displaced workers with high pre-closure earnings experience significantly lower reductions in future employment probabilities. These findings suggest that compositional differences cause estimated displacement costs to differ between early leavers and ultimately displaced workers. Focusing exclusively on the latter group would lead to an overestimation of displacement costs. |
| Keywords: | plant closure, labor turnover, exact-matching, employer-employee data |
| JEL: | J63 J65 C21 C23 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2007/22&r=lab |
| By: | Paolo Buonanno; Dario Pozzoli |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at estimating early labour market returns (i.e. participation probability, employment probability and log hourly earnings) of Italian university graduates across college subjects. We devote great attention to endogenous selection issues using alternative methods to control for potential self-selection associated with the choice of the degree subject in order to unravel the causal link between college major and subsequent outcomes in the labour market. We use both a propensity score matching-average treatment on the treated method and the polychotomous selectivity model introduced by Lee (1983) to investigate the existence of unobserved heterogeneity. Our results suggest that "quantitative" fields (i.e. Sciences, Engineering and Economics) increase not only participation to the labour market and employment probability but also early earnings, conditional on employment. |
| Keywords: | University to work transition, college subject, self-selection, returns to education |
| JEL: | C34 J24 I21 |
| Date: | 2007–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:brg:wpaper:0705&r=lab |
| By: | Ernesto F. L. Amaral; Daniel S. Hamermesh; Joseph E. Potter; Eduardo L.G. Rios-Neto |
| Abstract: | With rapidly declining fertility and increased longevity the age structure of the labor force in developing countries has changed rapidly. Changing relative supply of workers by age group, and by educational attainment, can have profound effects on labor costs. Their impacts on earnings have been heavily studied in the United States but have received little attention in Asia and Latin America, where supply shocks are at least as large and have often proceeded less evenly across the economy. We use data on 502 local Brazilian labor markets from Censuses 1970-2000 to examine the extent of substitution among demographic groups as relative supply has changed. The results suggest that age-education groups are imperfect substitutes, so that larger age-education cohorts see depressed wage rates, particularly among more-educated groups. The extent of substitution has increased over time, so that the decreasing size of the least-skilled labor force today is barely raising its remaining members' wages. |
| JEL: | J23 O15 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13533&r=lab |
| By: | Wolfgang Eggert (University of Paderborn & CESifo); Tim Krieger (University of Paderborn); Volker Meier (Ifo Institute for Economic Research, University of Munich & CESifo) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies a two-region model in which unemployment, education decisions and interregional migration are endogenous. The poorer region exhibits both lower wages and higher unemployment rates, and migrants to the richer region are disproportionally skilled. The brain drain from the poor to the rich region is accompanied by stronger incentives to acquire skills even for immobile workers. Regional shocks tend to affect both regions in a symmetric fashion, and skilled-biased technological change reduces wages of the unskilled. Both education and migration decisions are distorted by a uniform unemployment compensation, which justifies a corrective subsidization. |
| Keywords: | Education, Unemployment, Interregional migration, Externalities, Brain drain |
| JEL: | H23 I20 J61 J64 R10 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pdn:wpaper:7&r=lab |
| By: | Pedro Albarrán (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); Raquel Carrasco (Banco de España); Maite Martínez-Granado (Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study the evolution of income inequality for employees and self-employed workers. We highlight the importance of separately analyzing these different sources of income to gain a broader understanding of inequality. Using Spanish panel data on income and consumption from the ECPF for the period 1987-96, we decompose the variance of income shocks into a permanent and a transitory component. We find that there are noticeable differences in the evolution of income inequality, as well as in the relative importance of the permanent and transitory components across these groups. Our results point that the evolution of inequality can be basically explained by movements in the variance of the transitory component of income for the self-employed, while for the employees it is mainly driven by the variance of the permanent component, specially at the end of the period. Given these disparities, it seems that these two sources of income should be studied separately and that different policies are suitable for each group. |
| Keywords: | Permanent income inequality, transitory income inequality, consumption, selfemployment, panel data |
| JEL: | D12 D31 D91 E21 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:0734&r=lab |
| By: | Carolyn J. Heinrich; Peter R. Mueser; Kenneth R. Troske |
| Abstract: | We examine the effects of temporary help service employment on later earnings and employment for individuals participating in three federal programs providing supportive services to those facing employment difficulties. The programs include Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, whose participants are seriously disadvantaged; a job training program with a highly heterogeneous population of participants; and employment exchange services, whose participants consist of Unemployment Insurance claimants and individuals seeking assistant in obtaining employment. We undertake our analyses for two periods: the late 1990s, a time of very strong economic growth, and shortly after 2000, a time of relative stagnation. Our results suggest that temporary help service firms may facilitate quicker access to jobs for those seeking employment assistance and impart substantial benefits as transitional employment, especially for individuals whose alternatives are severely limited. Those who do not move out of temporary help jobs, however, face substantially poorer prospects, and we observe that nonwhites are more likely than whites to remain in THS positions in the two years following program participation. Our results are robust to program and time period. |
| JEL: | J48 J62 J68 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13520&r=lab |
| By: | Luca Flabbi |
| Abstract: | Earnings differentials between men and women have experienced a stable convergence during the 1980s, following a process started in the late 1970s. However, in the 1990s the convergence has almost stopped. The first objective of the paper is to evaluate if discrimination, defined as explicit prejudice, may have a role in explaining this slowdown in the converge. The second objective is to assess whether the prediction of a de- crease in the proportion of prejudiced employers implied by the Becker's model of taste discrimination is taking place and if so at what speed. These objectives are achieved by developing and estimating a search model of the labor market with matching, bargaining, employer's prejudice and worker's participation decisions. The results show that the proportion of prejudiced employers is estimated to be decreasing at an increasing speed, going from about 69% in 1985 to about 32% in 2005. Therefore prejudice does not seem a relevant factor in explaining the slower convergence be- tween male and female earnings in the 1990s. The results are consistent with the Becker's model of taste discrimination if one is willing to assume a very slow adjustment process. |
| Keywords: | Gender Differentials; Discrimination; Search Models; Maximum Likelihood Estimation; Structural Estimation. |
| JEL: | C51 J7 J64 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:57&r=lab |
| By: | Pontus Rendahl |
| Abstract: | This paper studies a model of optimal redistribution policies in which agents face unemployment risk and in which savings may provide partial self-insurance. Moral hazard arises as job search effort is unobservable. The optimal redistribution policies provide new insights into how an unemployment insurance scheme should be designed: First, the unemployment insurance policy is recursive in an agent's wealth level, and thus independent of the duration of the unemployment spell. Second, the level of benefit payments is negatively related to the agent's asset position. The reason behind the latter result is twofold; in addition to the first-order insurance effect of wealth, an increase in non-labor income (wealth) amplifies the opportunity cost of employment and thus reduces the agent's incentive to search for a job. During unemployment the agent decumulates assets and the sequence of benefit payments is observationally increasing - a result that stands in sharp contrast with previous studies. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment insurance; Moral hazard; Self-insurance; Decentralized taxes |
| JEL: | D82 H21 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2007/15&r=lab |
| By: | Giovanni Mastrobuoni |
| Abstract: | In 1995, the Social Security Administration started sending out the annual Social Security Statement. It contains information about the worker’s estimated benefits at the ages 62, 65, and 70. We use this unique natural experiment to analyze the retirement and claiming decision making. First, we find that, despite the previ- ous availability of information, the Statement has a significant impact on workers’ knowledge about their benefits. These findings are consistent with a model where workers need to gather costly information in order to improve their retirement deci- sion. Second, we use this exogenous variation in knowledge to analyze the optimality of workers’ decisions. We do not find an overall improvement in workers’ retirement behavior, but there are some changes among particular groups. Workers aged 62 and 65 become less sensitive to Social Security Incentives. Age 62 and 65 are the two ages at which the retirement benefits are reported in the Statement, which suggests that some workers may use them as focal points. Additionally, we find evidence that before the Statement was introduced uninformed workers, who are more likely to be low–educated and black, made, on average, worse retirement decisions, and that workers with a dependent spouse usually disregarded their own spouse’s benefits in their calculations. The information contained in the Statement appears to have helped both groups, though with the important exception of black workers. |
| Keywords: | social security statements, retirement expectations, retirement behavior, social security incentives |
| JEL: | H55 J26 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:51&r=lab |
| By: | David Grubb; Jae-Kap Lee; Peter Tergeist |
| Abstract: | The Korean labor market has created many jobs over the past several decades, accompanying rapid economic growth. More recently, this favorable job performance has gone hand-in-hand with a rapid increase of temporary employment and other flexible or atypical work arrangements (usually called "non-regular" work in Korea. This trend has raised much concern in Korean society about the risk of persistent labor market duality and the various downsides associated with such a development... <BR>Dans la foulée d'une croissance économique rapide, le marché du travail coréen a, depuis quelques décennies, crée de nombreux emplois. Mais récemment, cette évolution positive de l'emploi s'est accompagnée d'un développement rapide des emplois temporaires et autres types d'emplois flexibles ou atypiques (généralement dénommés en Corée emplois "non réguliers"). Cela a suscité dans la société coréenne beaucoup d’inquiétude quant à la persistance d’un marché du travail à deux vitesses et aux divers inconvénients que cela comporte… |
| JEL: | J20 J21 J30 J53 J64 J65 J68 J71 |
| Date: | 2007–10–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:61-en&r=lab |
| By: | Andrew Leigh |
| Abstract: | Using data from the 2001-2005 waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey, and taking account of existing estimates of ability bias and social returns to schooling, I estimate the economic return to various levels of education. Raising high school attainment appears to yield the highest annual benefits, with per-year gains as high as 30 percent (depending on the adjustment for ability bias). Some forms of vocational training also appear to boost earnings, with significant gains from Certificate Level III/IV qualifications (for high school dropouts only), and from Diploma and Advanced Diploma qualifications. At the university level, Bachelor degrees and postgraduate qualifications are associated with significantly higher earnings, with each year of a Bachelor degree raising annual earnings by about 15 percent. For high school, slightly less than half the gains are due to increased productivity, with the rest due to higher levels of participation. For vocational training, about one-third of the gains are from productivity, and two-thirds from greater participation. For university, most of the gains are from productivity. I find some evidence that the productivity benefits of education are higher towards the top of the distribution, but the participation effects are higher towards the bottom of the conditional earnings distribution. |
| Keywords: | Returns to education, ability bias, high school, vocational training, university |
| JEL: | I28 J31 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:561&r=lab |
| By: | Muriel Niederle; Alvin E. Roth |
| Abstract: | New gastroenterologists participated in a labor market clearinghouse (a "match") from 1986 through the late 1990's, after which the match was abandoned. This provides an opportunity to study the effects of a match, by observing the differences in the outcomes and organization of the market when a match was operating, and when it was not. After the GI match ended, programs hired fellows earlier each year, eventually almost a year earlier than when the match was operating. It became customary for GI program directors to make very short offers, rarely exceeding two weeks and often much shorter. Consequently many potential fellows had to accept positions before they finished their planned interviews, and most programs experienced cancellations of interviews they had scheduled. Furthermore, without a match, many programs hired more local fellows, and fewer from other hospitals and cities than they did during the match. Wages, however, seem not to have been affected. To restart the match, we proposed a policy, subsequently adopted by the gastroenterology professional organizations, that even if applicants had accepted offers prior to the match, they could subsequently decline those offers and participate in the match. This made it safe for programs to delay hiring until the match, confident that programs that did not participate would not be able to "capture" the most desirable candidates beforehand. Consequently it appears that most programs waited for the match in an orderly way in 2006, when the GI match was reinstated. The market for gastroenterologists provides a case study of market failures, the way a centralized clearinghouse can fix them, and the effects on market outcomes. In the conclusion we discuss aspects of the experience of the gastroenterology labor market that seem to generalize fairly widely. |
| JEL: | J01 J3 J4 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13529&r=lab |
| By: | Stephanie Von Hinke Kessler Scholder |
| Abstract: | Recent literature has shown consistent evidence of a positive relationship between maternal employment and children’s excess body weight. These studies have mainly focused on the effect of average weekly work hours over the child’s life on its overweight or obesity status. This paper attempts to explore whether the timing of maternal employment with respect to the child’s age is an important factor in this relationship. Data on a nationally representative British birth cohort are used to examine this; the 1958 National Child Development Study. The results show a significant positive correlation between maternal employment at age 7 of the child and the probability that a child is overweight at age 16. Additionally, the analysis shows it is full-time as opposed to part-time employment that increases the child’s weight. Subgroup analysis suggests this effect is driven by the lower socio-economic groups. Various econometric techniques are used to explore possible unobserved heterogeneity, but there is no evidence that the estimates are biased. |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:07/12&r=lab |
| By: | NATICCHIONI PAOLO; RICCI ANDREA; RUSTICHELLI EMILIANO |
| Abstract: | In this paper we apply quantile regressions to investigate the evolution of Educational Wage Premia (EWP) in Italy from 1993 to 2004. Using SHIW data (Bank of Italy) and different classifications for educational attainments, we show that EWP have generally decreased over time across the wage distribution. In particular, the falling of EWP in the private sector is striking, considering both continuous and categorical specifications for education, at all quantiles of the distribution. Different patterns are observed in the public sector, where EWP remain basically stable over time. A number of robustness checks and various econometric specifications are also applied in order to address sample selection issues. Our findings also provide additional evidence in favour of the thesis that the increasing patterns in inequality and EWP, and the related interpretations concerning skill-biased changes, are much less pronounced in continental Europe than in Anglo Saxon countries. |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtv:ceiswp:260&r=lab |
| By: | Behncke, Stefanie; Frölich, Markus; Lechner, Michael |
| Abstract: | We evaluate a randomized experiment of a statistical support system developed to assist caseworkers in Swiss employment offices in choosing appropriate active labour market programmes for their unemployed clients. This statistical support system predicted the labour market outcome for each programme and thereby suggested an 'optimal' labour market programme for each unemployed person. The support system was piloted in several employment offices. In those pilot offices, half of the caseworkers used the system and the other half acted as control group. The allocation of the caseworkers to treatment and control group was random. The experiment was designed such that caseworkers retained full discretion about the choice of active labour market programmes, and the evaluation results showed that caseworkers largely ignored the statistical support system. This indicates that stronger incentives are needed for caseworkers to comply with statistical profiling and targeting systems. |
| Keywords: | active labour market programmes; ALMP; Profiling; public employment services; statistical treatment rules; unemployment |
| JEL: | J68 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6537&r=lab |
| By: | Andrés Rodríguez-Pose (London School of Economics); Vassilis Tselios (London School Of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an empirical study of the determinants of income inequality across regions of the EU. Using the European Community Household Panel dataset for 102 regions over the period 1995-2000, it analyses how microeconomic changes in human capital distribution affect income inequality for the population as a whole and for normally working people. The different static and dynamic panel data analyses conducted reveal that, while the relationship between income inequality and income per capita is positive, the relationship between income inequality and educational attainment is not clear. Across European regions high levels of inequality in educational attainment are associated with higher income inequality. This may be interpreted as the responsiveness of the EU labour market to differences in qualifications and skills. The above results are robust to changes in the definition of income distribution. Other results indicate that population ageing and inactivity are sensitive to the specification model, while work access and latitude are negatively associated to income inequality. Urbanisation has a negative impact on inequality, but for the population as a whole only, and the relationship between unemployment and income inequality is positive. Female participation in the labour force is negatively associated with inequality and explains a major part of the variation in inequality. Finally, income inequality is lower in social-democratic welfare states, in Protestant areas, and in regions with Nordic family structures. |
| Date: | 2007–09–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imd:wpaper:wp2007-17&r=lab |
| By: | Patricia Apps |
| Abstract: | Cross country comparisons of lifecycle labour supplies show that female hours of market work are significantly lower in Australia than in other comparable OECD countries, notably, the US, UK and Sweden. This paper argues that an explanation can be found in the rate structure of the Australian family income tax system, in combination with a poorly developed and costly childcare sector. A detailed analysis of marginal and average tax rates shows how various policy instruments are used to set rates on the income of a second earner, typically the female partner, that reduce her net wage to a level that makes it difficult to finance childcare from the additional income. The system is also shown to be unfair. The paper proposes a return to a progressive individual income tax, with universal family benefits, together with the development of a high quality, education oriented, public sector childcare system. |
| Keywords: | Income Taxes, Time Allocation, Labor Supply, Life Cycle Choices |
| JEL: | H24 J22 D91 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:560&r=lab |
| By: | Mcdonald, Ian Martin |
| Abstract: | Unemployment in Australia is now at its lowest in over 30 years. This experience of low rates of unemployment has prompted a number of statements that the Australian economy is at or very close to full employment. However, even though unemployment is low in comparison with the previous 30 years, it is greater than the rates experienced in the 1950s and 1960s, during which the average was slightly below two per cent. Furthermore, the 4.4 per cent rate of unemployment in April 2007 included 84,000 who had been unemployed for more than a year. These doubts about whether the Australian economy is currently at full employment are supported by findings of a body of research reported in this paper. This research suggests that, given current policy settings on labour market regulation, microeconomic reform and welfare support, full employment may occur at a rate of unemployment as low as 2.5 per cent. The estimation of this low rate of unemployment is based on a model of a range of equilibrium rates of unemployment. |
| Keywords: | full employment; range of equilibria; Keynesian economics |
| JEL: | E0 |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:5404&r=lab |
| By: | Mario Pagliero |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the first empirical evidence of a positive impact of the quality and number of potential entrants on entry requirements in professional markets. The estimated effects are so large that increases in the quality of candidates are completely offset by increases in exam difficulty and therefore do not lead to any long run increase in the number of successful candidates. Variations in the number of candidates are also significantly (but not completely) offset by changes in exam difficulty. About one third of the additional candidates that otherwise would have passed the examination fail because of the increase in standards. These results are not in line with public interest theory of licensing. The classic rent seeking view of licensing can explain some (but not all) of the results. |
| Keywords: | professional licensing, legal market, bar exam, minimum standards, entry regulation. |
| JEL: | L4 L5 J4 K2 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:53&r=lab |
| By: | Philippe Belley; Lance Lochner |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data from the 1979 and 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth cohorts (NLSY79 and NLSY97) to estimate changes in the effects of ability and family income on educational attainment for youth in their late teens during the early 1980s and early 2000s. Cognitive ability plays an important role in determining educational outcomes for both NLSY cohorts, while family income plays little role in determining high school completion in either cohort. Most interestingly, we document a dramatic increase in the effects of family income on college attendance (particularly among the least able) from the NLSY79 to the NLSY97. Family income has also become a much more important determinant of college 'quality' and hours/weeks worked during the academic year (the latter among the most able) in the NLSY97. Family income has little effect on college delay in either sample. To interpret our empirical findings on college attendance, we develop an educational choice model that incorporates both borrowing constraints and a 'consumption' value of schooling - two of the most commonly invoked explanations for a positive family income - schooling relationship. Without borrowing constraints, the model cannot explain the rising effects of family income on college attendance in response to the sharply rising costs and returns to college experienced from the early 1980s to early 2000s: the incentives created by a 'consumption' value of schooling imply that income should have become less important over time (or even negatively related to attendance). Instead, the data are more broadly consistent with the hypothesis that more youth are borrowing constrained today than were in the early 1980s. |
| JEL: | H52 I2 J24 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13527&r=lab |
| By: | Matthew Dey; Christopher Flinn |
| Abstract: | Health insurance in the United States is typically acquired through an employer-sponsored program. Often an employee offerred employer-provided health insurance has the option to extend coverage to their spouse and dependents. We investigate the implications of the “publicness” of health insurance coverage for the labor market careers of spouses. The theoretical innovations in the paper are to extend the standard partial-partial equilibrium labor market search model to a multiple searcher setting with the inclusion of multi-attribute job offers, with some of the attributes treated as public goods within the household. The model is estimated using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) using a Method of Simulated Moments (MSM) estimator. We demonstrate how previous estimates of the marginal willingness to pay (MWP) for health insurance based on cross-sectional linear regression estimators may be seriously biased due to the presence of dynamic selection effects and misspecification of the decision-making unit. |
| Keywords: | Household Search, Health Insurance Provision, Marginal Willingness to Pay |
| JEL: | D1 J33 J64 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:56&r=lab |