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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Jonathan Heathcote; Kjetil Storesletten; Giovanni L. Violante |
| Abstract: | Using a model with constant relative risk-aversion preferences, endogenous labor supply and partial insurance against idiosyncratic wage risk, we provide an analytical characterization of three welfare effects: (a) the welfare effect of a rise in wage dispersion, (b) the welfare gain from completing markets, and (c) the welfare effect from eliminating risk. Our analysis reveals an important trade-off for these welfare calculations. On the one hand, higher wage uncertainty increases the cost associated with missing insurance markets. On the other hand, greater wage dispersion presents opportunities to raise aggregate productivity by concentrating market work among more productive workers. Our welfare effects can be expressed in terms of the underlying parameters defining preferences and wage risk, or alternatively in terms of changes in observable second moments of the joint distribution over individual wages, consumption and hours. |
| JEL: | E21 J22 J31 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13673&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Jaag; Christian Keuschnigg; Mirela Keuschnigg |
| Abstract: | The labor market effects of pension reform stem from retirement behavior and from job search and hours worked of prime age workers. This paper investigates the impact of four often proposed policy measures for sustainable pensions: strengthening the tax benefit link, moving from wage to price indexation of benefits, lengthening calculation periods, and introducing more actuarial fairness in pension assessment. We provide some analytical results and use a computational model to demonstrate the economic and welfare impact of recent pension reform in Austria. |
| Keywords: | Pension Reform, Retirement, Job Search, Life-cycle Unemployment |
| JEL: | D58 D91 H55 J26 J64 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:dp2007:2007-43&r=lab |
| By: | Robertson, Raymond; Gonzalez, Gabriel Martinez; Kaplan, David S. |
| Abstract: | Using a census of all workers in private establishments in the formal sector in Mexico to track workers and establishments over time, this paper presents the first Mexican worker and job flow statistics. The data allow for comparing these flows across time, space, and worker characteristics. Although many patterns are similar to those documented in developing countries, the analysis uncovers patterns that have potentially important policy implications. The authors compare the results to the literature, illustrate how the statistics change during times of reform and crisis, and present novel findings that contribute to the broader literature on worker reallocations. |
| Keywords: | Labor Markets,Microfinance,Labor Policies,Access to Finance,E-Business |
| Date: | 2007–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4433&r=lab |
| By: | Keuschnigg, Christian; Ribi, Evelyn |
| Abstract: | Outsourcing of labour intensive activities challenges the welfare state and undermines the protection of low-skilled workers. The stylized facts are that profits are concentrated among the high-skilled, involuntary unemployment is mostly among the low-skilled, and private unemployment insurance is missing. This paper analyzes the effectiveness of redistribution and social insurance and characterizes the optimal welfare policy when heterogeneous firms can outsource labour intensive components to low-wage economies. |
| Keywords: | Outsourcing; redistribution; social insurance; unemployment |
| JEL: | F23 H21 J64 J65 L23 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6605&r=lab |
| By: | Dong, Xia-Yuan (University of Winnipeg); Jones, Derek C. (Hamilton College); Kato, Takao (Department of Economics, Colgate University) |
| Abstract: | By using a large new panel of individual data, including objective measures of worker performance, we provide some of the most rigorous evidence to date on several related dimensions of enduring debates surrounding upward-sloping earnings-tenure profiles. Most importantly we provide the first direct test of the relative validity of human capital and agency explanations in accounting for upward-sloping earnings-tenure profiles; our findings strongly support the agency view. Our second area of interest concerns employee ownership (many workers at our case are employee owners.) Consistent with agency theory we find that earnings-tenure profiles for employee owners are not upward-sloping but horizontal. In addition we find that pay-performance sensitivities are substantially weaker for employee owners than for other workers. Finally we investigate the impact of residential policies in China. We find that again consistent with the agency view, earnings-tenure profiles are considerably steeper for urban workers than for migrant workers with far more limited alternative employment opportunities. |
| Keywords: | Earnings, Tenure, Seniority, Performance, Human Capital, Agency, Employee Ownership |
| JEL: | J3 M5 L6 |
| Date: | 2007–08–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgt:wpaper:104-26&r=lab |
| By: | Kerwin Kofi Charles; Jonathan Guryan |
| Abstract: | This paper tests the predictions about the relationship between racial prejudice and racial wage gaps from Becker's (1957) seminal work on employer discrimination - something which has not previously been done in the large economics discrimination literature. Using rich data on racial prejudice from the General Social Survey, we find strong support for all of the key predictions from Becker about the relationship between prejudice and racial wage gaps. In particular, we show that, relative to white wages, black wages: (a) vary negatively with a measure of the prejudice of the "marginal" white in a state; (b) vary negatively with the prejudice in the lower tail of the prejudice distribution, but are unaffected by the prejudice of the most prejudiced persons in a state; and (c) vary negatively with the fraction of a state that is black. We show that these results are robust to a variety of extensions, including directly controlling for racial skill quality differences and instrumental variables estimates. We present some initial evidence to show that racial wage gaps are larger the more racially integrated is a state’s workforce, also as Becker's model predicts. The paper also briefly discusses familiar criticisms and extensions of the standard Becker model, including an argument of our own which, like some recent work, shows that the model's main predictions can be shown theoretically to survive the effects of long run competition. |
| JEL: | J01 J7 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13661&r=lab |
| By: | Cardoso, Ana Rute; Neuman, Shoshana; Ziderman, Adrian |
| Abstract: | Using a unique eight-year data set, merging population census and national insurance data, the paper examines and compares patterns of wage mobility in Israel. First, the public and the private sectors are compared. Second, within each of these sectors, a distinction is made between sub-sector groupings that exhibit a high level of concentration and those that are more diffuse and unregulated. Based on alternative measures of wage mobility, the central finding of the paper is that the extent of wage mobility in a given economic sector is negatively related to the degree of concentration in that sector. |
| Keywords: | concentration; economic sectors; Israel; wage mobility |
| JEL: | J3 J6 L5 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6609&r=lab |
| By: | Silva-Mendez, Jorge Luis; Sadka, Joyce; Kaplan, David S. |
| Abstract: | Using a newly assembled data set on procedures filed in Mexican labor tribunals, the authors of this paper study the determinants of final awards to workers. On average, workers recover less than 30 percent of their claim. The strongest result is that workers receive higher percentages of their claims in settlements than in trial judgments. It is also found that cases with multiple claimants against a single firm are less likely to be settled, which partially explains why workers involved in these procedures receive lower percentages of their claims. Finally, the authors find evidence that a worker who exaggerates his or her claim is less likely to settle. |
| Keywords: | Bankruptcy and Resolution of Financial Distress,Arbitration,Information Security & Privacy,Labor Markets,Judicial System Reform |
| Date: | 2007–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4434&r=lab |
| By: | Mario García-Ferreira (NERA); Ernesto Villanueva (Banco de España) |
| Abstract: | The rate of new household formation among young adults who live with their parents has decreased in the last twenty years, specially in Southern Europe. At the same time, exposure to the risk that a young adult loses his or her job has increased. We use differences in firing costs across contract types in the Spanish labor market to identify if there is a causal link between both developments. Our first identification strategy exploits a legally-induced sharp increase in firing costs 3 years after the starting of a fixed-term contract between 1987 and 1996. The second uses variation in regional incentives to promote high-firing cost contracts between 1997 and 2001. Both strategies fail to detect a causal impact of job insecurity on the probability of forming a new household. Tentative evidence supports the notion that lower job insecurity has an impact on the form of tenure of the first house of residence, favoring home-ownership over renting. |
| Keywords: | Job security, household formation |
| JEL: | J1 J2 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:0737&r=lab |
| By: | Ulf Rinne; Marc Schneider; Arne Uhlendorff |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes the treatment effects of public training programs for the unemployed in Germany. Based on propensity score matching methods we extend the picture that has been sketched in previous studies by estimating treatment effects of medium-term programs for different sub-groups with respect to vocational education and age. Our results indicate that program participation has a positive impact on employment probabilities for all sub-groups. Participants also seem to find more often higher paid jobs than non-participants. However, we find only little evidence for the presence of heterogeneous treatment effects, and the magnitude of the differences is quite small. Our results are thus - at least in part - conflicting with the strategy to increasingly provide training to individuals with better employment prospects. |
| Keywords: | Program Evaluation; Active Labor Market Policy; Effect Heterogeneity; Public Training Programs; Matching |
| JEL: | J64 J68 H43 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp749&r=lab |
| By: | Jakobsson, Robin (Department of Business, Economics, Statistics and Informatics); Karlsson, NiKlas (Department of Business, Economics, Statistics and Informatics) |
| Abstract: | This paper tests the hypothesis of market efficiency for the fixed odds betting market of Swedish trotting head-to-head matches. The hypothesis is carried out by a Wald test within a logistic regression model. Data support rejection of semi-strong efficiency at the 5 percent level of significance, while the weak form efficiency cannot be rejected. Moreover, evaluation of the simple strategy to bet on those horses where, conditional on the estimated model, the expected profit is positive results in a profit of 7.8 percent per bet. |
| Keywords: | efficient market; betting; trotting; logit |
| JEL: | G14 |
| Date: | 2007–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:oruesi:2007_012&r=lab |
| By: | Bertola, Giuseppe; Checchi, Daniele; Oppedisano, Veruska |
| Abstract: | We discuss how a schooling system’s structure may imply that private school enrolment leads to worse subsequent performance in further education or in the labour market, and we seek evidence of such phenomena in Italian data. If students differ not only in terms of their families’ ability to pay but also in terms of their own ability to take advantage of educational opportunities (“talent” for short), theory predicts that private schools attract a worse pool of students when publicly funded schools are better suited to foster progress by more talented students. We analyze empirically three surveys of Italian secondary school graduates, interviewed 3 year after graduation. In these data, the impact of observable talent proxies on educational and labour market outcomes is indeed more positive for students who (endogenously) choose to attend public schools than for those who choose to pay for private education. |
| Keywords: | ability; education; vouchers |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6602&r=lab |
| By: | Elizabeth Cascio; Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach |
| Abstract: | Older children outperform younger children in a school-entry cohort well into their school careers. The existing literature has provided little insight into the causes of this phenomenon, leaving open the possibility that school-entry age is zero-sum game, where relatively young students lose what relatively old students gain. In this paper, we estimate the effects of relative age using data from an experiment where children of the same biological age were randomly assigned to different classrooms at the start of school. We find no evidence that relative age impacts achievement in the population at large. However, disadvantaged children assigned to a classroom where they are among the youngest students are less likely to take a college-entrance exam than others of the same biological age. Controlling for relative age also reveals no long-term effect of biological age at school entry in the aggregate, but striking differences by socioeconomic status: Disadvantaged children who are older at the start of kindergarten are less likely to take the SAT or ACT, while the opposite may be true for children from more advantaged families. These findings suggest that, far from being zero-sum, school-entry age has far-reaching consequences for the level of achievement and achievement gaps between the rich and poor. |
| JEL: | I20 J18 J24 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13663&r=lab |
| By: | Nana Bourtchouladze (IUHEI, The Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva) |
| Abstract: | Offshoring has gained a significant momentum in recent years. Firm size appears to be the leading factor differentiating firms that offshore from those that do not. We present a model that blends offshoring, or trade in tasks, with a Melitz-style model of monopolistic competition with heterogeneous firms and show that this is indeed the case. Accounting for firm heterogeneity offers new tools for analyzing the effects of offshoring on the employment dynamics within an individual firm and at the aggregate sector level. We show that offshoring unambiguously reduces per-firm labour demand in smaller firms, but has ambiguous effects in larger firms. As a result, irrespective of whether or not the number of firms operating in the offshoring nation increases, the overall sector employment may increase or decrease. Policies promoting free trade have a significant role to play in job creation. The model also permits a straightforward derivation of positive and normative effects of offshoring: trade in tasks increases productivity of active firms and improves welfare in the offshoring nation. |
| Keywords: | Trade in tasks, offshoring, heterogeneous firms, employment, productivity, welfare |
| JEL: | F12 F16 F29 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gii:giihei:heiwp28-2007&r=lab |
| By: | Laura Hospido (Banco de España) |
| Abstract: | In this paper I consider a model for the heterogeneity and dynamics of the conditional mean and the conditional variance of standarized individual wages. In particular, I propose a dynamic panel data model with individual effects both in the mean and in a conditional ARCH type variance function. I posit a distribution for earning shocks and I build a modified likelihood function for estimation and inference in a fixed-T context. Using a newly developed bias-corrected likelihood approach makes it possible to reduce the estimation bias to a term of order 1 over T squared. The small sample performance of bias corrected estimators is investigated in a Monte Carlo simulation study. The simulation results show that the bias of the maximum likelihood estimator is substantially corrected for designs that are broadly calibrated to the PSID. The empirical analysis is conducted on data drawn from the 1968-1993 PSID. I find that it is important to account for individual unobserved heterogeneity and dynamics in the variance, and that the latter is driven by job mobility. I also find that the model explains the non-normality observed in logwage data. |
| Keywords: | Panel data, dynamic nonlinear models, conditional heteroskedasticity, fixed effects, bias reduction, individual wages |
| JEL: | C23 J31 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:0738&r=lab |
| By: | De, Utpal Kumar; Ghosh, Bhola Nath |
| Abstract: | The issue of empowerment of women has been much discussed at various levels to find out the solution to age old problem of gender discrimination, exploitation of women and to uplift their status and position in the society. However, in most of the tribal societies even if poor, women always have an instilled special position and role they play in different spheres with great responsibility vis a vis their counterpart men. The Khasi society of Meghalaya is such a society, commonly known as matrilineal where authority, title, inheritance, residence after marriage and succession are traced through female line. So it is presumed that they do not require any special effort to make them aware and get social, economic, political or psychological understanding and knowledge to establish their rights along with men in their society as they are automatically placed on an esteemed level. They are presumed to have access to education, ownership of property, authority in their family and society; they are the heads of their families and decide what to be done or not etc. But a recent survey by us in the rural areas of Meghalaya shows that about one-third of the families are headed by the male. Also many of the families headed by females who are either widow or deserted. Also in the political sphere, hardly anybody is there who is female and even in the Dorbar; females are not allowed to take part in the meeting or decision-making. But in most of the socio-economic activities, still now dominance on female is observed even though they are assumed to be physically weak. Also, even though some families are headed by males it may be that they are just to carry out activities with the guidance of their female counterpart who has better control over assets and therefore no fear of loosing anything even if they are deserted by their husbands. Therefore, a question may arise whether in Khasi tribe the status of women is ascribed or prescribed by the society. Also it is pertinent to enquire about the direction to which the position and status of women are moving with the development of the society. This paper is thus an attempt to examine the dynamics of status and role of tribal women in Meghalaya, especially of Khasi women. It is examined through a number of social, economic, political, cultural, psychological and attitudinal indicators on the basis of the primary data on such factors collected from two villages in East Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya. |
| Keywords: | Status of Women; Empowerment of Women |
| JEL: | Z1 A31 |
| Date: | 2007–02–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6290&r=lab |
| By: | James Andreoni; Abigail Payne |
| Date: | 2007–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cla:levrem:122247000000001769&r=lab |
| By: | Pedro Vasconcelos Amaral (Cedeplar-UFMG); Mauro Borges Lemos (Cedeplar-UFMG); Rodrigo Ferreira Simões (Cedeplar-UFMG); Flávia Chein Feres (Cedeplar-UFMG) |
| Abstract: | Brazil presented in the last 30 years not only periods of economic growth but also crises and stagnation. The Brazilian regions’ performance (in face of the challenges and opportunities presented during this period) was not even at all, as we can see by the massive regional imbalances around the country. Various approaches have tried to understand this reality of economic activity spatial concentration. Among them, the emerging New Economic Geography (NEG). Could this theory comprehend and explain the regional unevenness on wages among Brazilian municipalities over the recent decades? Using 1980, 1991 and 2000 Brazilian Census data (at comparables municipalities areas), this paper aims to estimate the NEG wage equation, using panel data model with spatially correlated errors components. The results point to a strong relationship between market potential and wages, indicating that the NEG theoretical framework might be well fit to recent Brazilian municipalities’ reality. |
| Keywords: | New economic geography, market potential, Brazil |
| JEL: | F12 R12 C21 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td324&r=lab |
| By: | Sparber, Chad (Department of Economics, Colgate University) |
| Abstract: | This paper employs industry-level US Census data from 1980-2000 to assess the aggregate effects of racial diversity. While most international accounts find that diversity reduces productivity, I argue that the US experience is more nuanced. Unqualified statements about the costs and merits of diversity are unwarranted, as racial heterogeneity increases productivity within many, but not all, industries. Sectors employing a large number of workers responsible for creative decision-making and customer service experience gains from diversity, while industries characterized by high levels of group effort suffer losses. The results thus reconcile two competing literatures by suggesting that diversity improves decision-making and problem solving, but also encumbers common action and public goods provision. |
| Keywords: | Racial Diversity, Productivity |
| JEL: | O40 J24 O51 |
| Date: | 2007–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgt:wpaper:2007-01&r=lab |
| By: | Gordon H. Hanson; Craig McIntosh |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine net emigration from Mexico over the period 1960 to 2000. The data are consistent with labor-supply shocks having made a substantial contribution to Mexican emigration, accounting for one third of Mexican labor flows to the U.S. over the last 25 years of the 20th century. Net emigration rates by Mexican state birth-year cohort display a strong positive correlation with the initial size of the Mexican cohort, relative to the corresponding U.S. cohort. Labor-demand shocks also contribute to emigration, but the state-specific component of these is muted relative to labor supply. In states with long histories of emigration, the effects of cohort size on emigration are relatively strong, consistent with the existence pre-existing networks. In states without a history of emigration, the effects of cohort size on emigration accelerate as a cohort ages, consistent with the creation of new networks. |
| JEL: | F2 J61 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13675&r=lab |
| By: | Facundo Albornoz; Marco Ercolani |
| Abstract: | We identify characteristics that affect firms' ability to learn from their export activities. Our analysis is based on a panel of Argentinian firms spanning 1992-2001 and we employ Granger causality tests, propensity score matching techniques and GMM regressions. The characteristics we find to be important are: foreign ownership, intensive use of imported inputs, a skilled workforce and small firm size. Finally, firms that are new to exporting seem to experience particularly high productivity gains but begin enjoying them before entering into the export market. |
| Keywords: | Exporting, Learning by Exporting, Productivity, Absorptive Capacity, Argentina |
| JEL: | F14 D21 D24 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bir:birmec:07-17&r=lab |
| By: | Bentolila, Samuel; Dolado, Juan José; Jimeno, Juan Francisco |
| Abstract: | The Phillips curve has flattened in Spain over 1995-2006: unemployment has fallen by 15 percentage points, with roughly constant inflation. This change has been more pronounced than elsewhere. We argue that this stems from the immigration boom in Spain over this period. We show that the New Keynesian Phillips curve is shifted by immigration if natives’ and immigrants’ labour supply or bargaining power differ. Estimation of the curve for Spain indicates that the fall in unemployment since 1995 would have led to an annual increase in inflation of 2.5 percentage points if it had not been largely offset by immigration. |
| Keywords: | Immigration; Phillips curve |
| JEL: | E31 J64 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6604&r=lab |
| By: | Rosella Nicolini |
| Abstract: | This study examines the evolution of labor productivity across Spanish regions during the period from 1977 to 2002. By applying the kernel technique, we estimate the effects of the Transition process on labor productivity and its main sources. We find that Spanish regions experienced a major convergence process in labor productivity and in human capital in the 1977-1993 period. We also pinpoint the existence of a transition co-movement between labor productivity and human capital. Conversely, the dynamics of investment in physical capital seem unrelated to the transition dynamics of labor productivity. The lack of co-evolution can be addressed as one of the causes of the current slowdown in productivity. Classification-JEL: J24, N34, N940, O18, O52, R10 |
| Keywords: | Labor productivity, employment, human capital, physical capital, Spanish regions. |
| Date: | 2007–12–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aub:autbar:719.07&r=lab |
| By: | Rebecca M. Blank; Kerwin Kofi Charles; James M. Sallee |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the response of young people in the United States to state laws dictating the minimum age at which individuals could marry, with and without parental consent. We use variation across states and over time to document behavioral responses to laws governing the age of marriage using both administrative records from the Vital Statistics and retrospective reports from the U.S. Census. We find evidence that state laws delayed the marriages of some young people, but the effects are much smaller in Census data than in Vital Statistics records. This discrepancy appears to be driven by systematic avoidance behavior of two kinds. First, some young people marry outside their state of residence, in states with less restrictive laws. Second, many young people appear to have evaded minimum age of marriage laws by misrepresenting age on their marriage certificate. This avoidance was especially pronounced in earlier years, when few states required documented proof of age and when there was greater gain to marrying out of state because of wider variation in laws. Our results have important implications about the quality of administrative data when it is poorly monitored; about the effect of laws when agents can avoid them; and about the validly of estimates using cross-state variation in laws as an instrumental variable. By contrasting two data sources, we achieve a more complete picture of behavioral response than would be possible with either one alone. |
| JEL: | C81 H73 J12 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13667&r=lab |
| By: | Ian Babetskii; Nauro F. Campos |
| Abstract: | Despite the many benefits associated with structural reforms, the literature has thus far failed to establish a positive significant effect of reforms on growth. Using data from 43 econometric studies, we show that one third of the coefficients (of reform on growth) are positive and significant, another third are negative and significant, and the final third are not statistically significant. In trying to understand this remarkable variation, we find that the measurement of reform and controlling for institutions and initial conditions are the main factors in decreasing the probability of reporting a significant and positive effect of reform on growth. |
| Keywords: | Growth, liberalisation, structural reforms, transition. |
| JEL: | O11 P21 C49 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cnb:wpaper:2007/2&r=lab |
| By: | Hakenes, Hendrik; Peitz, Martin |
| Abstract: | In a market environment with random detection of product quality, a firm can employ umbrella branding as a strategy to convince consumers of the high quality of its products. Alternatively, a firm can rely on external certification of the quality of one or both of its products. We characterize equilibria in which umbrella branding fully or partially substitutes for external certification. We also show that the potential to signal quality is improved if consumers condition their beliefs on the source of information, namely whether information comes from external certification or from random detection. |
| Keywords: | certification; signalling; umbrella branding |
| JEL: | D82 L14 L15 M37 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6601&r=lab |
| By: | James J. Heckman; Paul A. LaFontaine |
| Abstract: | This paper uses multiple data sources and a unified methodology to estimate the trends and levels of the U.S. high school graduation rate. Correcting for important biases that plague previous calculations, we establish that (a) the true high school graduation rate is substantially lower than the official rate issued by the National Center for Educational Statistics; (b) it has been declining over the past 40 years; (c) majority/minority graduation rate differentials are substantial and have not converged over the past 35 years; (d) the decline in high school graduation rates occurs among native populations and is not solely a consequence of increasing proportions of immigrants and minorities in American society; (e) the decline in high school graduation explains part of the recent slowdown in college attendance; and (f) the pattern of the decline of high school graduation rates by gender helps to explain the recent increase in male-female college attendance gaps. |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13670&r=lab |
| By: | Jones, Derek C. (Hamilton College); Kato, Takao (Department of Economics, Colgate University) |
| Abstract: | To investigate the size and the timing of the direct impact of participatory arrangements on business performance, we assemble and analyze extraordinary daily data-- for rejection, production and downtime rates for all operators in a single plant during a 35 month period, more than 77,000 observations. Consistent with core hypotheses that employee involvement enhances productivity and quality through mechanisms including employees becoming better motivated, more informed and paying greater attention to product details, we find that membership in offline teams: (i) initially enhances individual productivity by about 3%; (ii) and lowers rejection rates by about 27%. We also find that: (iii) these improvements are dissipated, typically at 10 to 16% per 100 days in a team; (iv) while initially teams lead to more downtime, these costs diminish over time; (v) the performance-enhancing effects of team membership are generally greater and more long-lasting for team members who are solicited by management; (vi) similar relationships exist for more educated team members. These findings square with diverse hypotheses concerning predicted gains from complementarities in organizational design, the benefits that flow from management solicitation and enhanced education, but are inconsistent with hypotheses based on Hawthorne effects. |
| JEL: | M54 J50 J41 D20 |
| Date: | 2007–07–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgt:wpaper:104-24&r=lab |
| By: | Grimpe, Christoph; Sofka, Wolfgang |
| Abstract: | Searching for externally available knowledge has been characterised as a vital part of the innovation process. Previous research has, however, almost exclusively focused on hightechnology environments, largely ignoring the substantial low- and medium-technology sectors of modern economies. We argue that low- and high-technology firms differ in their search patterns and that these moderate the relationship between innovation inputs and outputs. Based on a sample of 4,500 firms from 13 European countries we find that search patterns in low-technology industries focus on market knowledge while they are built around differences in technology sourcing activities for high-technology industries. |
| Keywords: | Absorptive capacity, search strategies, low-, medium- and high-technology sectors, open innovation |
| JEL: | L60 O32 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:6800&r=lab |
| By: | Bruce A. Blonigen; Benjamin H. Liebman; Wesley W. Wilson |
| Abstract: | A primary function of trade policy is to restrict imports to benefit the targeted domestic sector. However, a well-established theoretical literature highlights that the form of trade policy (e.g., quotas versus tariffs) can have a significant impact on how much trade policy affects firms’ abilities to price above marginal cost (i.e., market power). The US steel industry provides an excellent example to study these issues, as it has received many different types of trade protection over the past decades. We model the US steel market and then use a panel of data on major steel products from 1980 through 2006 to examine the effects of various trade policies on the steel market. We find that the US steel market is very competitive throughout our sample with the exception of the period in which they received comprehensive voluntary restraint agreements (i.e., quotas) and were able to price substantially above marginal cost. All other forms of protection were in tariff form and had little effect on market power, consistent with prior theoretical literature on the nonequivalence of tariffs and quotas. We also find evidence that market power eroded over time in steel products where mini-mill producers gained sizeable market share, highlighting the role of technology in the market as well. |
| JEL: | F13 F23 L11 L61 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13671&r=lab |
| By: | Samuel Berlinski; Torun Dewan; Keith Dowding |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of individual and collective ministerial performance on the length oftime a minister serves in British government from 1945-97, using the number ofresignation calls for a minister as an individual performance indicator and the cumulativenumber of such calls as an indicator of government performance. Our analysis lendssupport to a 'two-strike rule': ministers facing a second call for their resignation have asignificantly higher hazard than those facing their first, irrespective of the performance ofthe government. A minister's hazard rate is decreasing in the cumulative number ofresignation calls; but conditional on receiving a first resignation call, the hazard rateincreases with the number of calls that all government ministers have faced in the past.Our message is that collective ministerial performance is a key determinant of whether aminister survives his first resignation call. |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:stipep:25&r=lab |
| By: | Stefania Mojon-Azzi; Alfonso Sousa-Poza |
| Abstract: | This study examines the relationship between hypertension and life satisfaction using objective measures of hypertension from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Our results confirm the analysis in Blanchflower and Oswald (2007): there is a significant negative correlation between high blood-pressure problems and life satisfaction. |
| Keywords: | Hypertension, blood pressure, life satisfaction |
| JEL: | I10 I12 I19 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:dp2007:2007-44&r=lab |