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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Paolo Ghinetti (SEMEQ Department - Faculty of Economics - University of Eastern Piedmont) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses longitudinal data for a sample of Italian firms to study the effects of technological and organisational changes on wage levels and on wage differentials by skills inside the firm. Fixed effect estimates reveal that technological changes are associated with higher absolute and relative wages for skilled workers. About organisational changes, initially their relationship with firms’ wages is negative, but it becomes positive in subsequent periods, especially for skilled workers. Finally, there is no evidence that the wage increase is higher when technological and organisational changes are adopted in conjunction instead of separately. |
| Keywords: | Information technology; organisational change; wages; Italy |
| JEL: | J24 J31 L23 O33 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upo:upopwp:111&r=lab |
| By: | Danthine, Jean-Pierre; Kurmann, Andre |
| Abstract: | We develop a reciprocity-based model of wage determination and incorporate it into a modern dynamic general equilibrium framework. We estimate the model and find that, among potential determinants of wage policy, rent-sharing (between workers and firms) and a measure of wage entitlement are critical to fit the dynamic responses of hours, wages and inflation to various exogenous shocks. Aggregate employment conditions (measuring workers' outside option), on the other hand, are found to play only a negligible role in wage setting. These results are broadly consistent with micro-studies on reciprocity in labour relations but contrast with traditional efficiency wage models which emphasize aggregate labour market variables as the main determinant of wage setting. Overall, the empirical fit of the estimated model is at least as good as the fit of models postulating nominal wage contracts. In particular, the reciprocity model is more successful in generating the sharp and significant fall of inflation and nominal wage growth in response to a neutral technology shock. |
| Keywords: | Efficiency wages; Estimated DSGE models; Reciprocity |
| JEL: | E24 E31 E32 E52 J50 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6587&r=lab |
| By: | Elisabeth Cudeville (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne); Leman Yonca Gurbuzer (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | While the topic of gender equality turns out to be an important element in the preparation of Turkey to join the European Union, very little empirical research on this issue has been done using Turkish data. This paper aims to contribute toward filling this gap. We propose an estimate of the wage discrimination in Turkey relying on different decompositions of the gender waga differential. The data set used is the 2003 Turkish Household Budget Survey. In Turkey, the observed average gender wage gap is about 25,2 % in favor of men for the salaried population and around 60 % of it may be attributed to discrimination. In terms of gender wage discrimination, with an observed wage gap close to those observed in France and Italy, and a discrimination component close to the ones obtained in Spain and Greece with comparable methods, Turkey happens to do not so bad. But, in the Turkish case, wage discrimination appears to be a bad indicator of gender inequalities in the labor market, as exclusion and segregation of women are the main concerns. |
| Keywords: | Discrimination, gender wage gap decompositions, Turkey. |
| JEL: | J16 J71 J82 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:bla07067&r=lab |
| By: | Sara de la Rica (The University of the Basque Country, IZA); Ainara González de San Román (The University of the Basque Country) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides microeconomic evidence on the variation over time of the firm-specific wage premium in Spain from 1995 to 2002, and its impact on wage inequality. We make use of two waves of a detailed linked employer-employee data set. In addition, a new data set with financial information on firms is used for 2002 to control as flexibly as possible for di¤erences in the performance of firms (aggregated at industry level). To our knowledge, there is no microeconomic evidence on the dynamics of the firm-specific wage premium for Spain or for any other country with a similar institutional setting. Our results suggest that there is a clear tendency towards centralization in the collective bargaining process in Spain over this seven-year period, that the firm-level contract wage premium undergoes a substantial decrease, particularly for women, and finally that the "centralization" observed in the collective bargaining process has resulted in a slight decrease in wage inequality. |
| Keywords: | Firm-level contracts, Matched employer-employee data, wage inequality |
| Date: | 2007–11–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehu:dfaeii:200707&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. The authors 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 they specify a two-equation dynamic panel data model describing the dynamics of labor force status and self-reported work disability. When they 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. |
| Keywords: | disability, employment policies, cross-national comparisons, labor force dynamics |
| JEL: | H3 J6 J2 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ran:wpaper:536&r=lab |
| By: | Fida Karam (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne); Bernard Decaluwé (Université de Laval - Département d'Economie) |
| Abstract: | Recent economic literature on the impact of migration on the country of origin has not successfully analyzed the effect of migration on unemployment and wage rate especially in urban area. Using a detailed CGE model applied to the moroccan economy, we are able to show that if we take into account simultaneously moroccan emigration to European Union, immigration from Sub-Saharan Africa into Morocco and rural-urban migration, the impact on wage rate and unemployment is ambiguous. |
| Keywords: | Imperfect labor market, migration, computable general equilibrium model. |
| JEL: | C68 F22 J44 J61 J64 |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:bla07016a&r=lab |
| By: | Jens Rubart (Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre (Department of Economics), Technische Universität Darmstadt (Darmstadt University of Technology)); Willi Semmler (Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre (Department of Economics), Universität Bielefeld (University of Bielefeld); Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research, New York) |
| Abstract: | When reviewing the literature concerning the development of the Eastern German economy, a too rigid labor market and its respective institutions are considered as the main source of the persistent high unemployment rates and the slow economic performance. However, when important macroeconomic variables are considered a significant decline in investment in new technologies is observed. In addition, we find evidences that the decline in investment might be affected by the steady migration of young and skilled workers to West Germany. The decline in the proportion of skilled workers induces firms not to invest in Eastern Germany which leads to a general decline in job creating activities irrespective rigid labor markets and generous social benefits. In the recent paper we employ a rather standard Dynamic General Equilibrium model in order to study the effects of a decline in the proportion of skilled workers as well as the impacts of increasing benefit payments. Furthermore, we assume equilibrium unemployment due to search and matching frictions on the labor market. This approach enables us further to consider job creating activities of the firms. We show that an emigration shock of skilled- workers is capable to reproduce the findings for the decline in economic activity. This effect is strengthened by assuming generous social benefit payments. |
| Keywords: | DSGE Model, Heterogenous Labor, Skill Biased Technological Change, Search Unemployment, Employment Protection, Minimum Wages |
| JEL: | E20 J21 J24 J64 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tud:ddpiec:187&r=lab |
| By: | Manuel F. Bagues; Mauro Sylos Labini |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the impact of the availability of electronic labor markets on the university-to-work transition. In particular, we analyze the effect of the intermediation activity carried on by the inter-university consortium, AlmaLaurea, on graduates' labor market outcomes. The different timing of universities' enrolment in AlmaLaurea allows us to apply the difference-in-differences method to a repeated cross section data set. If the usual assumption concerning parallel outcomes holds, AlmaLaurea reduces the individual unemployment probability and improves matching quality. Interestingly, we also find that on-line intermediaries foster graduates' geographic mobility. |
| JEL: | J64 J68 O3 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13621&r=lab |
| By: | George Messinis; Nilss Olekalns |
| Abstract: | This paper utilises Australian data to evaluate the effect of firm-provided job training on labour income. It also examines whether training can shed light on the effects of skill-job mismatch. We employ the Heckman selection model to account for selection bias in training as well as work participation. The evidence shows that training has a significant positive impact on wages. Also, training ameliorates the disadvantage associated with the mismatch between formal education and required education. In addition, training is most valuable to the undereducated and young workers, and assists in the restoration and replenishment of human capital |
| Keywords: | Training; Education; Overeducation; Undereducation; Earnings; Human capital depreciation |
| JEL: | J24 J30 I21 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mlb:wpaper:997&r=lab |
| By: | Egon Franck; Stephan Nüesch (Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, University of Zurich; Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | The impact of intra-team pay dispersion on team productivity is a highly discussed issue. On one hand, wage differentials provide incentives for higher employee effort. On the other hand, pay inequality discourages cooperation among team members, which reduces performance. Analyzing non-linear effects of wage dispersion in professional team sports, we find empirical evidence that an initial increase of intra-team inequity reduces team performance, but at some point the relation reverses. In addition, we show that the pay structure of a team clearly affects the teamÕs playing style. |
| Keywords: | wage dispersion, team performance, relative deprivation, tournament theory |
| JEL: | D31 L83 M52 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:wpaper:0073&r=lab |
| By: | Lopez-Pablos, Rodrigo A. |
| Abstract: | Exploring current literature which assess relations between cognitive ability and height, obesity, and its productivity-employability effect on women's labor market; we appraised the Argentine case to find these social-physical relations that involve anthropometric and traditional economic variables. Adapting an anthropometric Mincer approach by using probabilistic and censured econometric models which were developed for it. Have been found evidence that could be understood as existence of discriminative behavior on obese women to market entrance; besides, a good performance of women height as an unobserved approximation of cognitive ability measure to explain feminine productivity. |
| Keywords: | Height; Obesity; Anthropometric Mincer; Discrimination. |
| JEL: | I12 J24 C34 |
| Date: | 2007–08–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:5961&r=lab |
| By: | Jose De Sousa; Sandra Poncet |
| Abstract: | Over the last fifteen years, China’s export performance has been phenomenal but some observers assert that this situation is temporary due to rising labor costs. However, large migration across provinces may increase competition on the labor market of export-intensive provinces and allow firms to keep low wages for many years. This paper attempts to shed some light on this debate over wage dynamics in China. We investigate the respective importance of the upward push of world demand and the downward pressure of migration. This investigation is conducted on a sample of 29 Chinese provinces between 1997 and 2004. We find, holding other factors fixed, that provincial wages increase by about 17 percent per year, due to common trends possibly like total factor productivity growth and national increase in prices. Our results show that besides this general trend, market access and internal migration have statistically and economically significant effects on the provincial wage level but of much less importance. We estimate that on average over the 7 year period of our sample, more intense internal migration has slowed down wage growth by 2 percent per year. The wage increasing impact of market access is three times smaller in magnitude. |
| Keywords: | Wage; China; immigration; economic geography |
| JEL: | F12 F15 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2007-13&r=lab |
| By: | Peter R. Mueser (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia); Kenneth R. Troske; Carolyn J. Heinrich |
| 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. |
| Keywords: | temporary help, mediated employment, program evaluation |
| JEL: | J48 J26 J68 |
| Date: | 2007–10–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:0719&r=lab |
| By: | Isabelle Mejean; Lise Patureau |
| Abstract: | The paper contributes to the living debate on the controversial effects of minimum wage policy on economic performances, focusing on its impact on firms’ location choice. The question is investigated through a theoretical model, that incorporates features from the new trade literature (Krugman (1991)) and the labor-market literature. In a two-country framework, we model endogenous entry of firms under wage rigidity. In this setting, the impact of an unilateral increase in the home country’s minimum wage is analyzed. The policy shock is shown to have a twofold influence on the relative attractiveness of the home country, simultaneously affecting its relative cost competitiveness and the aggregate demand addressed to firms. The final effect on firms’ location decisions notably depends on the way skilled and unskilled labor markets adjust. Our overall results suggest that the impact of labor-market policies on firms’ location decisions have to be taken into account when evaluating their whole consequences in the national economy. |
| Keywords: | Minimum wage; home market effect, firms location decisions |
| JEL: | F12 F16 F21 J31 F41 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2007-16&r=lab |
| By: | Hasan, Zubair |
| Abstract: | Exclusive writings on the contribution of Ibn Khaldun to economics in the English language have not been many, the references to his work also remain scanty and far between. Even in what little is available mostly authors talk about his views on professions, markets and the cloud he castes on merchants. The present paper avoids treading the familiar tracks. It sees close similarities between the views of Ibn Khaldun (1332 – 1406), David Ricardo (1772 – 1823) and Karl Marx (1818 -I823) in regarding labour as the measure of value and source of capital formation in the course of economics maturing to an academic discipline. The three intellectuals agree, directly or indirectly, that labour creates economic surplus which it does not receive. Even so, the policy implications each derives from this conclusion are interestingly much different. Ibn Khaldun did not -- indeed imbued with Islamic faith he could not – think of workers’ predicament becoming a source of social turmoil. Ricardo implicitly saw labour exploitation in a free enterprise system of organizing production but himself being a great capitalist he could not swallow the pill and once tended to regard cost of production – wages plus profit – as the measure of value. Marx regarded exploitation of labour as the intrinsic vice of capitalism that revolution alone could obliterate. |
| Keywords: | Labor; Capital formation; Value;Ibn Khaldun;Ricardo; Narx |
| JEL: | D46 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:5989&r=lab |
| By: | Sayan, Serdar; Tekin-Koru, Ayca |
| Abstract: | ... |
| JEL: | E32 F24 I32 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6030&r=lab |
| By: | Robert Allen; Jean-Pascal Bassino; Debin Ma; Christine Moll-Murata; Jan Luiten van Zanden |
| Abstract: | The paper develops data on the history of wages and prices in China from thr eighteenth century to the twentieth. These data are used to coompare Beijing, Canton, Suzhou and Shanghai to leading cities in Europe, India, and Japan in terms of nominal wages, the cost of living, and the standard of living. In the eighteenth century, the real income of building workers in Asia was similar to that of workers in the backward parts of Europe and far behind that of workers in the leading economies of northwestern Europe. Industrialization led to rising real wages in Europe and Japan. Real wages declined in China in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and rose slowly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth. There was little cumulative changae in the standard of living or workers in Beijing, Canton, and lower Yangzi cities for two hundred years. The income disparities of the early twentieth century were due to long run stagnation in China combined development in Japan and Europe. |
| Keywords: | Great Divergence, Preindustrial Real Wages, England, Europe, China, Japan, India |
| JEL: | N33 N35 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:316&r=lab |
| By: | Friebel, Guido; Schnedler, Wendelin |
| Abstract: | We investigate a team setting in which workers have different degrees of commitment to the outcome of their work. We show that if there are complementarities in production and if the team manager has some information about team members, interventions that the manager undertakes in order to assure certain efforts may have destructive effects: they can distort the way workers perceive their fellow workers and they may also lead to a reduction of effort by those workers that care most about output. Moreover, interventions may hinder the development of a cooperative organizational culture in which workers trust each other. Thus, our framework provides some first insights into the costs and benefits of interventions in teams. It identifies that team governance is driven by the importance of tasks that cannot be monitored. The more important these tasks, the more likely it is that teams are empowered. |
| Keywords: | incentives; informed principal; intrinsic motivation; team work |
| JEL: | D86 M54 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6575&r=lab |
| By: | Alberto Alesina; Andrea Ichino; Loukas Karabarbounis |
| Abstract: | Gender Based Taxation (GBT) satisfies Ramsey's optimal criterion by taxing less the more elastic labor supply of (married) women. This holds when different elasticities between men and women are taken as exogenous and primitive. But in this paper we also explore differences in gender elasticities which emerge endogenously in a model in which spouses bargain over the allocation of home duties. GBT changes spouses implicit bargaining power and induces a more balanced allocation of house work and working opportunities between males and females. Because of decreasing returns to specialization in home and market work, social welfare improves by taxing conditional on gender. When income sharing within the family is substantial, both spouses may gain from GBT. |
| JEL: | D13 H21 J16 J20 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13638&r=lab |
| By: | Erqian Zhu (Department of Resource Economics, University of Nevada, Reno); Shunfeng Song (Department of Economics, University of Nevada, Reno) |
| Abstract: | Since the late 1970s, many state-owned enterprise employees have been laid off and more and more rural people have migrated to urban areas. In this massive laying-off and migration process, many laid-off workers and migrants have become urban poor. Using data collected from a survey on 1641 relatively low-income households in Changsha in January 2007, this paper compares migrant workers with their city counterpart regarding income, employment, education, and social support. Based on qualitative and regression analysis, we found that worker’s age, Hukou status, education, enterprise ownership, and contract length are significantly affecting the annual income. There exists a big gap in the coverage of social security between urban and migrant workers. This paper provides some policy recommendations. |
| Keywords: | Urban poor; Hukou; Laid-off workers; Migrant workers; Income determinants; Social insurance |
| JEL: | R23 I30 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unr:wpaper:07-009&r=lab |
| By: | Bygren, Magnus (Department of Sociology, Stockholm University); Gähler, Michael (The Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | We assess whether the gender gap in authority in Sweden has changed during the period 1968–2000, and investigate to what extent family factors are responsible for this gap. We find that the gap has narrowed modestly during this period, and identify the life-event of parenthood as a major cause of the gap. When men become fathers, they gain authority; when women become mothers, they do not. Our fixed effects panel estimates of the effects of family factors deviate from the cross-sectional estimates, suggesting that unobserved individual heterogeneity – routinely neglected in this line of research – matters. |
| Keywords: | Workplace authority; gender gap; work-family balance; Sweden |
| JEL: | J12 J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2007–10–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2007_028&r=lab |
| By: | Kristin E. Davis; Martha Negash |
| Abstract: | "TA mixed-methods, multiple-stage approach was used to obtain data on how gender and wealth affected participation in community groups in Meru, Kenya, and how men and women farmers obtain and diffuse agricultural information. Research techniques included participant observation, documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews, social mapping, group timelines, and structured questionnaires. Dairy-goat farmer groups were interviewed for the study. Qualitative data provided baseline information, and helped in the formulation of research questions. Quantitative data were analyzed using contingency tables, descriptive statistics, correlations, tests of significance, and regression. Factors that affected participation in different types of groups included household composition, age, and gender. Women made up 59 percent of the dairy-goat group (DGG) members, with the DGG project encouraging women's participation. Women made up 76 percent of DGG treasurer positions; 43 percent of secretary positions, and 30 percent of chairperson positions. Gender also influenced participation in clan groups, water groups, and merry-go-round (savings and loans) groups. Wealth did not appear to have a significant effect on participation in community groups. Extension was the most important information source for both men and women farmers. However, church and indigenous knowledge (passed on from parents) seemed more important to women. Both men and women mentioned other farmers, groups, and “baraza” (public meetings used to make announcements and diffuse information) as important information sources, but they rated them at different levels of importance. Men were diffusing information to greater numbers of people than women, although men and women diffused to similar sources. This study shows that because men and women traditionally participate in different types of groups and receive agricultural information from different sources, development agencies must target different types of groups and institutions to reach men, women, or poor farmers. Mechanisms should be developed to include women, the poor, and other targeted groups in community associations that provide market and other income-earning opportunities.." Author's Abstract |
| Keywords: | Gender, Collective action, |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:worpps:65&r=lab |
| By: | Golo Henseke (University of Rostock and Rostock Centre for the Study of Demographic Change, Germany); Pascal Hetze (Rostock Centre for the Study of Demographic Change, Germany); Thusnelda Tivig (University of Rostock and Rostock Centre for the Study of Demographic Change, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Population aging translates into aging of the labor force. However, the impact of the former on the latter is neither straightforward nor uniform over specific groups. The reason is that economic decisions concerning, for example, duration of schooling or labor-market participation of women and those aged 60+ as well as industry-specific requirements on the demand side affect age-specific employment rates and thus the age structure of labor. In this paper we describe and use different measures of aging to obtain a picture of the aging process in selected German industries and professions between 1980 and 2000. Our results reveal pronounced differences in the age structure, timing and dynamics of aging. However, we find that aging is, in general, subject to convergence towards a homogenous age composition: Subgroups that were relatively young in 1980 aged faster, and vice versa. |
| JEL: | J21 J11 J01 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ros:wpaper:73&r=lab |
| By: | Bursell, Moa (Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides evidence of extensive ethnic discrimination in the Swedish labour market. A field experiment (correspondence test) that tests employer discrimination has been performed. Pairs of equally merited applications has been sent to job openings, one with a Swedish sounding name and one with a foreign sounding name. Discrimination is measured by documenting the existence of an ethnic difference in call-backs. The results indicate that there is discrimination in all of the occupations that were tested in the experiment, but that the extent of the ethnic discrimination differs between the occupations. An attempt is also made to explain the results applying the theories of statistical discrimination and social distance. |
| Keywords: | ethnic discrimination in the labour market; statistical discrimination; social distance; field experiment; correspondence test |
| JEL: | J15 J71 |
| Date: | 2007–11–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sulcis:2007_007&r=lab |
| By: | Daniel Sullivan; Till von Wachter |
| Abstract: | This paper uses administrative data on quarterly employment and earnings matched to death records to estimate the effects of job displacement on mortality. We find that job displacement leads to a 15-20% increase in death rates during the following 20 years. If such increases were sustained beyond this period, they would imply a loss in life expectancy of about 1.5 years for a worker displaced at age 40. These results are robust to extensive controls for sorting and selection, and are consistent with estimates of the effects of job loss on mortality pooling displaced workers and stayers that are not affected by selective job displacement. To examine the channels through which mass layoffs raise mortality, we exploit the panel nature of our data -- covering over 15 years of earnings -- to analyze the correlation of long-run career outcomes, such as the mean and standard deviation of earnings, with mortality at the individual and group level, something not possible with typical data sets. Our findings suggest that factors correlated with a decrease in mean earnings and a rise in standard deviation of earnings have the potential to explain an important fraction of the effect of a job displacement on mortality. |
| JEL: | I1 J63 J65 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13626&r=lab |
| By: | Susana Iranzo; Giovanni Peri |
| Abstract: | Two prominent features of globalization in recent decades are the remarkable increase in trade and in migratory flows between industrializing and industrialized countries. Due to restrictive laws in the receiving countries and high migration costs, the increase in international migration has involved mainly highly educated workers. During the same period, technology in developed countries has become progressively more skill-biased, increasing the productivity of highly educated workers more than less educated workers. This paper extends a model of trade in differentiated goods to analyse the joint phenomena of migration and trade in a world where countries use different skill-specific technologies and workers have different skill levels (education). We calibrate the model to match the features of the Western European countries (EU-15) and the new Eastern European members of the EU. We then simulate the effects of freer trade and higher labor mobility between the two regions. Even in a free trade regime the removal of the restrictions on labor movements would benefit Europe as a whole by increasing the GNP of Eastern and Western Europe. Interestingly, we also find that the resulting skilled migration (the so-called "brain drain") from Eastern European countries would not only benefit the migrants but, through trade, could benefit the workers remaining in Eastern Europe as well. |
| JEL: | F16 F22 J31 J61 O52 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13631&r=lab |
| By: | John Cawley; Feng Liu |
| Abstract: | Recent research has found that maternal employment is associated with worse child performance on tests of cognitive ability. This paper explores mechanisms for that correlation. We estimate models of instrumental variables using a unique dataset, the American Time Use Survey, that measure the effect of maternal employment on the mother's allocation of time to activities related to child cognitive development. We find that employed women spend significantly less time reading to their children, helping with homework, and in educational activities in general. We find no evidence that these decreases in time are offset by increases in time by husbands and partners. These findings offer plausible mechanisms for the association of maternal employment with child cognitive development. |
| JEL: | D1 I2 J22 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13609&r=lab |
| By: | Keith Head; Thierry Mayer; John Ries |
| Abstract: | Advances in communication technology make it possible for workers in India to supply business services to head offices located anywhere. This has the potential to put high-wage workers in direct competition with much lower paid Indian workers. Service trade, however, like goods trade, is subject to strong distance effects, implying that the remote supply of services remains limited. We investigate this proposition by deriving a gravity-like equation for service trade and estimating it for a large sample of countries and different categories of service trade. We find that distance costs are high but are declining over time. Our estimates suggest that delivery costs create a significant advantage for local workers relative to competing workers in distant countries. |
| Keywords: | Services; distance; gravity; trade |
| JEL: | F10 F14 F15 F16 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2007-18&r=lab |
| By: | Sohrab Abizadeh (Department of Economics, University of Winnipeg); Manish Pandey (Department of Economics, University of Winnipeg); Mehmet Serkan Tosun (University of Nevada, Reno) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of trade openness on the productivity of skilled labor intensive and unskilled labor intensive industries in the group of 20 OECD countries. Using panel data and fixed effects approach, we find that skilled workers’ relative gains in productivity exceed those of their unskilled counterpart. Given this differential impact of trade openness on the relative productivity of the skilled and unskilled intensive industries, our findings lend support to the conclusions of past studies that skilled labor is likely to be more pro trade than unskilled labor. |
| Keywords: | Trade openness; Skilled intensive industries; Unskilled intensive industries; Productivity |
| JEL: | F16 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unr:wpaper:07-007&r=lab |
| By: | Philippe De Vreyer (Université de Lille II, DIAL); Flore Gubert (DIAL, IRD, Paris); François Roubaud (DIAL, IRD) |
| Abstract: | (english) We use a unique set of identical labour force surveys that allow to observe, at the same time, migrants in seven WAEMU countries and their country of origin's labour market. We use these data first to document the patterns of migration flows in the sub-region, second to estimate the determinants of migration behaviour across these countries and to correct the estimated returns to education for the endogeneity of location choice. We finally estimate a structural model to evaluate the impact of expected earnings differentials on the probability of selecting a particular country to reside in. Our results show that Cote d'Ivoire remains the most important immigration country in the sub-region. Our data also suggests that Mali and Burkina Faso have been and still are major labour-exporting countries, largely towards Cote d'Ivoire. Benin and Togo, by contrast, combine both emigration and immigration. Looking at migrants characteristics we find that migrants tend to be less educated than non migrants in both their origin and destination countries, are more likely than natives to work in the informal sector and that they receive lower wages. Our econometric results suggest that not holding account of international migration in estimating returns to education yields upward biased estimates in three countries out of seven and downward biased estimates in two others. However, disparities in returns to education between capital cities do not vanish, suggesting that country-specific amenities and other un-measurable non-wage variables play important roles in the location choice of individuals with different levels of education. We also find that expected earnings differentials have a very significant effect on the choice probabilities: all else equal, people tend to live in countries in which their expected earnings are higher than elsewhere. _________________________________ (français) Nous utilisons les données issues d'enquêtes réalisées simultanément dans sept capitales de l'Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine pour documenter les caractéristiques des flux migratoires entre pays de l'Afrique de l'Ouest, puis pour estimer un modèle individuel de choix résidentiel faisant intervenir la différence de gains potentielle comme déterminant. Une estimation en trois étapes est réalisée qui permet de contrôler de l'auto-sélection des individus dans les différentes destinations. Nos résultats montrent que la Côte d'Ivoire demeure le premier pays d'accueil des migrants de la sous région, alors que le Burkina Faso et le Mali sont au contraire des pays d'émigration, principalement à destination de la Côte d'Ivoire. Le Bénin et le Togo sont à la fois des pays d'émigration et d'immigration. L'examen des caractéristiques des migrants montre qu'ils tendent à être moins éduqués que les non migrants, aussi bien dans leur pays d'origine que dans leur pays d'accueil, travaillent plus fréquemment dans le secteur informel et reçoivent une rémunération plus faible. Nos estimations économétriques montrent que la prise en compte de l'auto-sélection des individus dans les différentes destinations modifie les rendements estimés de l'éducation dans certains pays. Nous trouvons également que les différences de gains potentielles ont un impact très significatif sur les probabilités de choix et que, toutes autres choses égales par ailleurs, les individus tendent à vivre dans des pays où ils reçoivent des revenus plus élevés. |
| Keywords: | International migration, Wage differentials,Discrete regressions, qualitative choice models, Migrations internationales, Différences de salaires, Régressions sur variables discrètes, modèles de choix qualitatifs. |
| JEL: | F22 C35 J31 O15 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt200710&r=lab |
| By: | Cunha, Miguel Pina e; Cardoso, Carlos Cabral; Rego, Armenio; Clegg, Stwart |
| Abstract: | F. W. Taylor is often celebrated as a founding father of organization and management theory, one whose commitment to efficiency is legendary. If we define efficiency in terms of maximizing output from a given – or lesser – number of workers it can be considered that, in some cases, Taylor’s science has achieved a remarkable success. Contemporary organizations managed to create such a state of commitment (be it spontaneous or imposed), that people have adopted excessive working as lifestyle. Life is organized around work, with work occupying more and more territory from the former private life. We discuss the notion of excessive working, present several forms of excessive working, contest the idea that excessive working is necessarily noxious, suggest a dynamic understanding of the different forms of excessive working, and challenge researchers critically to discuss their practical success. As the saying goes, there can be too much of a good thing. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unl:unlfep:wp519&r=lab |
| By: | Robert Allen |
| Abstract: | The paper compares Feinstein`s and Clark`s consumer price and real wage indices for the British industrial revolution. The sources for their weights and component price series are evaluated. While some of Clark`s innovations are improvements, many of his changes degrade the price index. A new price index is developed using the best components of Clark`s and Feinstein`s. This index is much closer to Feinstein`s than to Clark`s. The implied growth in real wages is also close to Feinstein`s and contradicts Clark`s `optimistic` view of rising working class living standards during the industrial revolution. |
| Keywords: | Real Wage, Consumer Price Index, Inequality, Industrial Revolution |
| JEL: | D33 E25 N13 N33 O11 O15 O41 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:314&r=lab |
| By: | Brück, Tilman; Danzer, Alexander M.; Muravyev, Alexander; Weißhaar, Natalia |
| Abstract: | The paper analyzes the scale and the determinants of household poverty in Ukraine during transition. We derive estimates of poverty incidence and severity and estimate the determinants of poverty in 1996 and 2004 using two comparable surveys. Poverty in both periods follows some of the determinants commonly identified in the poverty literature, including greater poverty among households with children and with less education. We also identify features of poverty in transition, including the relatively low importance of unemployment and the existence of poverty even among households with employment. Poverty determinants change over time in line with emerging labor markets. |
| Keywords: | poverty, transition, Ukraine |
| JEL: | I32 J20 P20 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec07:6556&r=lab |
| By: | Boris Groysberg; Ashish Nanda; M. Julia Prats |
| Abstract: | Our paper contributes to the studies on the relationship between workers' human capital and their decision to become self-employed as well as their probability to survive as entrepreneurs. Analysis from a panel data set of research analysts in investment banks over 1988-1996 reveals that star analysts are more likely than non-star analysts to become entrepreneurs. Furthermore, we find that ventures started by star analysts have a higher probability of survival than ventures established by non-star analysts. Extending traditional theories of entrepreneurship and labor mobility, our results also suggest that drivers of turnover vary by destination: (a) turnover to entrepreneurship and (b) other turnover. In contrast to turnover to entrepreneurship, star analysts are less likely to move to other firms than non-star analysts. |
| JEL: | J24 J4 J6 J63 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13633&r=lab |
| By: | Dziubinski, Marcin; Roy, Jaideep |
| Abstract: | The paper studies an evolutionary model where players from a given population are randomly matched in pairs each period to play a co- ordination game. At each instant, a player can choose to adopt one of the two possible behavior rules, called the rational rule and the as- piring rule, and then take actions prescribed by the chosen rule. The choice between the two rules depends upon their relative performance in the immediate past. We show that there are two stable long run outcomes where either the rational rule becomes extinct and all play- ers in the population achieve full eciency, or that both the behavior rules co-exist and there is only a partial use of ecient strategies in the population. These ndings support the use of the aspiration driven behavior in several existing studies and also help us take a comparative evolutionary look at the two rules in retrospect. |
| Keywords: | Co-evolution; Aspirations; Best-response; Random matching; Coordination games |
| JEL: | C73 C72 |
| Date: | 2007–11–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:5941&r=lab |
| By: | Walentin, Karl (Research Department, Central Bank of Sweden) |
| Abstract: | We present data from the Survey of Consumer Finances showing that the increased earnings (labor income) inequality, in combination with increased stockmarket partic- ipation, has roughly doubled stockholders’share of aggregate labor income in the last four decades. We explore the impact of the increase in this share on returns to equity and returns to a risk-free bond in a model with limited stockmarket participation, labor income and borrowing constraints. The main result is that the increase in stockholders’ share of aggregate labor income has lead to 130 basis points (45 percent) decrease in the ex ante equity premium (i.e. the discount rate applied to equity). The reason for this change is that the increase in stockholders’share of aggregate labor income leads to a change in income composition for stockholders - an increase in the fraction of their income that consists of labor income and a decrease in the fraction that consists of dividend income. This reduces the covariance between stockholder income growth and dividend growth. The size of the decrease in the equity premium implied by our model roughly coincides with the historical change in the post-1951 equity premium implied by the simple dividend growth model in Fama and French (2002). |
| Keywords: | labor income; earnings inequality; asset pricing; equity premium; limited participation; borrowing constraints |
| JEL: | D31 E24 E44 G12 |
| Date: | 2007–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:rbnkwp:0215&r=lab |
| By: | Gebremariam Woldemicael (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Current research and policy on maternal and child health-care in Eritrea and Ethiopia focus primarily on female education and employment, while little attention is placed on women’s decision-making autonomy. However, the role of women’s decision-making in reproductive health cannot be overemphasized. In this paper, different dimensions of women’s decision-making autonomy and their relationship to maternal and child health-care utilization are investigated using data from the Demographic and Health Surveys of Ethiopia and Eritrea. We simultaneously consider the role of socio-economic (indirect) indicators of women’s status . The study shows that most autonomy indicators are important predictors of maternal and child health-care utilization although the strength and statistical significance vary by health-care utilization outcome and country, and in some cases significance is lost when socio-economic indicators are held constant. The strong positive effect of women’s sole decision-making in visiting family or relatives on use of antenatal care and child immunization is particularly impressive. On the other hand, the loss of significance of other dimensions of women’s decision-making when socio-economic factors are controlled for indicates that some health-care seeking behaviours are more dependent on socio-economic factors like education and employment. The results show that most socio-economic indicators have strong influence on both women’s decision-making autonomy and on maternal and child health-care utilization. These findings suggest that both women’s autonomy and socio-economic indicators should be analyzed in order to derive a complete understanding of the determinants of maternal and child health-care utilization. |
| Keywords: | Eritrea, Ethiopia |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2007-035&r=lab |
| By: | Robert Allen |
| Abstract: | The paper reviews the macroeconomic data describing the British economy from 1760 to 1913 and shows that it passed through a two stage evolution of inequality. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the real wage stagnated while output per worker expanded. The profit rate doubled and the share of profits in national income expanded at the expense of labour and land. After the middle of the nineteenth century, real wages began to grow in line with productivity, and the profit rate and factor shares stabilized. An integrated model of growth and distribution is developed to explain these trends. The model includes an aggregate production function that explains the distribution of income, while a savings function in which savings depended on property income governs accumulation. Simulations with the model show that technical progress was the prime mover behind the industrial revolution. Capital accumulation was a necessary complement. The surge in inequality was intrinsic to the growth process. Technical change increased the demand for capital and raised the profit rate and capital`s share. The rise in profits, in turn, sustained the industrial revolution by financing the necessary capital accumulation. After the middle of the nineteenth century, accumulation had caught up with the requirements of technology and wages rose in line with productivity. |
| Keywords: | British Industrial Revolution, Kuznets Curve, Inequality, Savings, Investment |
| JEL: | D63 N13 O41 O47 O52 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:315&r=lab |