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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Bassanini, Andrea (OECD); Caroli, Eve (University Paris Dauphine); Rebérioux, Antoine (University Paris Ouest-Nanterre); Breda, Thomas (Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We study compensation packages in family and non-family firms. Using matched employer-employee data for a representative sample of French establishments, we first show that family firms pay on average lower wages to their workers. We find that part of this wage gap is due to differences in unobserved characteristics of workers across family and non-family firms. However, we also find evidence that company wage policies differ according to ownership status, so that workers staying in the same firm enjoy on average a 3% pay increase when a family firm becomes non-family owned and suffer a similar pay drop when the ownership transition occurs the other way round. In contrast, we find evidence that family firms are characterised by lower job insecurity, as measured by dismissal rates and by the subjective risk of dismissal perceived by workers. In addition, family firms appear to rely less on dismissals – and more on hiring reductions – than non-family firms when they downsize. We show that compensating wage differentials account for a substantial part of the inverse relationship between the family/non-family gaps in wages and job security. |
| Keywords: | family firms, wages, job security, compensating wage differentials, linked employer-employee data |
| JEL: | G34 J31 J33 J63 L26 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5842&r=lab |
| By: | Stefan Staubli; Josef Zweimüller |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how an increase in the minimum retirement age affects the labor market behavior of older workers. Between 2000 and 2006 the Austrian government gradually increased the early retirement age from 60 to 62.2 for men and from 55 to 57.2 for women. Using administrative data on the universe of Austrian private-sector employees, the results from the empirical analysis suggest that this policy change reduced retirement by 19 percentage points among affected men and by 25 percentage points among affected women. The decline in retirement was accompanied by a sizeable increase in employment of 7 percentage points among men and 10 percentage points among women, but had also a important spillover effects into the unemployment insurance program. Specifically, the unemployment rate increased by 10 percentage points among men and 11 percentage points among women. In contrast, the policy change had only a small impact on the share of individuals claiming disability or partial retirement benefits. |
| Keywords: | Early retirement, retirement age, labor supply, policy reform |
| JEL: | J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:econwp:020&r=lab |
| By: | Rudolf Winter-Ebmer; Mario Schnalzenberger (Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria); Nicole Schneeweis; Martina Zweimüller |
| Abstract: | We study the relationship between job quality and retirement using panel data for European countries (SHARE). While previous studies looked at the impact of bad working conditions on retirement intentions, we can use the panel dimension to study actual retirement as well as other pathways out of a job. As indicators for job quality we use three different approaches: overall job sat- isfaction, over- and undereducation for a particular job as well as effort-reward imbalance which measures the imbalance between a worker's effort and the re- wards he or she receives in turn. |
| Keywords: | retirement, job quality, job satisfaction, educational mismatch, effort- reward imbalance, SHARE |
| JEL: | J14 J18 J26 J28 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2011_08&r=lab |
| By: | Grassi, Emanuele; Di Cintio, Marco |
| Abstract: | We propose a modified version of the Shapiro-Stiglitz’s (1984) efficiency wage model by introducing temporary contracts in the standard setup. New theoretical insights emerge on the incentive problem faced by workers and firms. We argue that the existence of temporary contracts broaden the incentive menu available to employers and that the optimal incentive structure can be sustained as an equi- librium outcome only if permanent contracts do not disappear. We also provide an alternative explanation of the wage penalty suffered by temporary workers even if standard models of efficiency wages would predict higher compensations for workers facing a higher job loss risk. |
| Keywords: | Dual labour market; efficiency wages; wage differentials |
| JEL: | J41 J31 J63 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:32266&r=lab |
| By: | Andrés Erosa (IMDEA Social Sciences Institute); Luisa Fuster (IMDEA Social Sciences Institute); Gueorgui Kambourov (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | We document various facts about the labor supply decisions of male workers in the US over their life cycle. We then build a neoclassical model of labor markets with non-linear wages and heterogeneous agents. The key model feature for delivering periods of non-participation is the non-linear mapping between hours of work and earnings. We show that our model can go a long way towards capturing salient features of individual labor supply over the life cycle. Moreover, the aggregate response of labor supply to a one time unanticipated wage shock is much larger than predicted by the Frisch elasticity of labor supply. |
| Keywords: | aggregate labor supply; intensive margin; extensive margin; heterogeneous agents; life cycle |
| JEL: | D9 E2 E13 E62 J22 |
| Date: | 2011–07–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imd:wpaper:wp2011-13&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Dustmann (University College London); Albrecht Glitz (Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Barcelona GSE); Uta Schoenberg (University College London and Institute for Employment Research (IAB)) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a model and derives novel testable implications of referral-based job search networks in which employees provide employers with information about potential job market candidates that they otherwise would not have. Using unique matched employeremployee data that cover the entire workforce in one large metropolitan labor market over a 20 year period, we find strong support for the predictions of our model. We first show that firms are more likely to hire minority workers from a particular group if the existing share of workers from that group employed in the firm is higher. We then provide evidence that workers earn higher wages, and are less likely to leave their firms, if they were hired by a firm with a larger share of minority workers from their own group and are therefore more likely to have obtained the job through a referral. The effects are particularly strong at the beginning of the employment relationship and decline with tenure in the firm. These findings have important implications in suggesting that job search networks help to reduce informational deficiencies in the labor market and lead to productivity gains for workers and firms. |
| Keywords: | Networks, Referrals, Uncertainty |
| JEL: | J61 J63 J31 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2011012&r=lab |
| By: | Nordman, Christophe J.; Nguyen, Huu Chi; Roubaud, François |
| Abstract: | In spite of its predominant economic weight in developing countries, little is known about informal sector income dynamics vis-à-vis the formal sector. Some works have been done in this field using household surveys, but they only consider some emerging Latin American countries and a few African countries. As a matter of consequence, there is still no way to generalize the (diverging) results to other part of the developing world. Taking advantage of the rich VHLSS dataset in Vietnam, in particular its three waves panel data (2002, 2004, 2006), we assess the magnitude of various formal/informal earnings gaps while addressing heterogeneity issues at three different levels: the worker, the job (wage employment vs. selfemployment) and the earnings distribution.We estimate fixed effects and quantile regressions to control for unobserved individual characteristics. Our results suggest that the informal sector earnings gap highly depends on the workers' job status and on their relative position in the earnings distribution. Penalties may in some cases turn into premiums. By comparing our results with studies in other developing countries, we draw conclusions highlighting the Vietnam's labour market specificity. -- |
| Keywords: | informal employment,earnings gap,transition matrix,quantile regressions,panel data,Vietnam |
| JEL: | J21 J23 J24 J31 O17 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec11:60&r=lab |
| By: | Pieters, Janneke; Klasen, Stephan |
| Abstract: | In the past twenty years, India's economy has grown at increasingly faster rates and now belongs to the fastest-growing economies in the world. One would think that in such economic conditions, women are increasingly being pulled into the labour force by attractive pay and employment conditions. This paper examines trends and drivers of female labour force participation in urban India between 1987 and 2004; we do this using aggregate and unit level data and estimate econometric participation models. Our paper shows a much more nuanced picture than one might expect. While we find, as expected, that cultural and social factors strongly influence female labour force participation rates, among the somewhat unexpected findings are:- Only in the period between 1999 and 2004 did female labour force participation rates increase in urban areas; before, rates remained flat due to offsetting effects of increases among some groups and decreases among others;- At lower levels of education, increases in female labour force participation are driven more by distress than by increasing economic opportunities; this is linked to stagnant real wages at this level;- At mid-levels of education, the income effect of rising male incomes served to reduce female labour force participation rates considerably; while we find some evidence of a positive own wage effect, the income effect of husband's earning remains a very strong driver of female labour force participation;- Only at the highest education levels do we see some evidence from pull factors drawing women into the labour force at attractive employment and pay conditions; this affects, by 2004, only a tiny minority of India's women.As a result, the economic boom has offered remarkably few opportunities to women in India. In fact, for all but the very well-educated, it appears that the labour market conditions have not improved at all, or even deteriorated. -- |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec11:65&r=lab |
| By: | Kelly, Elish; McGuinness, Seamus; O'Connell, Philip J. |
| Abstract: | Many young people have short spells of unemployment during their transition from school to work; however, some often get trapped in unemployment and risk becoming long-term unemployed (OECD, 2009). Much research has been undertaken on the factors that influence unemployment risk for young people during their school-to-work transition. However, very little is known about the factors associated with long-term unemployment risk for those youths that become unemployed. This paper attempts to fill this gap in the literature by identifying the characteristics associated with young peoples' long-term unemployment risk in Ireland. The research, which is conducted using multivariate statistical analysis, uses a combination of unemployment register data and information gathered from a specially designed claimant questionnaire that was issued to all jobseekers making an unemployment benefit claim between September and December 2006. The results indicate that factors such as a recent history of long-term unemployment, a lack of basic literacy/numeracy skills and low levels of educational attainment, all have a significant impact on the likelihood that young people will remain unemployed for 12 months or more. A number of attributes are gender specific, such as the presence of children, additional welfare benefits and spousal earnings for females, and apprenticeship training and participation in a public sector job creation scheme for males. Comparisons with the characteristics associated with older welfare claimants long-term unemployment risk, reveal some interesting difference between younger and older unemployed individuals. |
| Keywords: | children/data/Gender/Individuals/Ireland/Long-term Unemployment/risk/school to work/skills/unemployment |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp394&r=lab |
| By: | David Neumark; Hans P. Johnson; Marisol Cuellar Mejia |
| Abstract: | The impending retirement of the baby boom cohort represents the first time in the history of the United States that such a large and well-educated group of workers will exit the labor force. This could imply skill shortages in the U.S. economy. We develop medium-term labor force projections of the educational demands on the workforce and the supply of workers by education to assess the potential for skill imbalances to emerge. Based on our formal projections, we see little likelihood of skill shortages emerging by the end of this decade. More tentatively, though, skill shortages are more likely as all of the baby boomers retire in later years, and skill shortages are more likely in the medium-term in states with large and growing immigrant populations. We discuss conflicting evidence on skill shortages based on alternative projections as well as criticisms of the definition of skill requirements, concluding that our projections are likely the most reasonable. |
| JEL: | J11 J24 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17213&r=lab |
| By: | Danzer, Alexander M. |
| Abstract: | This paper uses an unanticipated, exogenous doubling of the legal minimum pension in Ukraine as a unique quasi-experiment to evaluate the income effect on various aspects of labor supply among the elderly. In contrast to previous studies, the unusually simple pension eligibility rule allows estimating a pure causal income effect. Applying difference-indifferences and regression discontinuity methods on two nationally representative data sets yields a retirement elasticity of 0.3. Men and women respond at different margins of labor supply but with similar overall effect. Despite retirement incentives being disproportionally large for low income earners old-age poverty declined significantly. -- |
| Keywords: | pure income effect,benefit generosity,labor supply,retirement,poverty,wage effect |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec11:23&r=lab |
| By: | Eva Moreno-Galbis |
| Keywords: | TFP growth, unemployment, training, human capital depreciation, capitalization, creative destruction effect |
| JEL: | J23 J24 O33 |
| Date: | 2010–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tep:teppwp:wp1015&r=lab |
| By: | Basu, Arnab K; Chau, Nancy H; Kanbur, Ravi |
| Abstract: | Two stylized representations are often found in the academic and policy literature on informality and formality in developing countries. The first is that the informal (or unregulated) sector is more competitive than the formal (or regulated) sector. The second is that contract enforcement is easier in the formal sector than in the informal sector, precisely because the formal sector comes under the purview of state regulation. The basic contention of this paper is that these two representations are not compatible with each other. We develop a search-theoretic model of contractual dualism in the labor market where the inability to commit to contracts in the informal sector leads to employer market power in equilibrium, while an enforced minimum wage in the formal sector provides employers with a commitment technology but which reduces their market power in equilibrium. The contributions of this paper are three-fold. It (i) provides the micro-underpinnings for endogenous determination of employer market power in the formal and informal sectors due to contractual dualism in the two sectors, (ii) offers a unified and coherent setup whereby a host of salient features of developing country labor markets can be explained together, and (iii) places the original Stiglerian prescription of the optimal (unemployment minimizing) minimum wage in the broader context of labor markets where formal job creation is costly, and where formal employment, informal employment, and unemployment co-exist. |
| Keywords: | Contractual Dualism; Employer Market Power; Informality; Wage Dualism |
| JEL: | J3 J6 O17 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8485&r=lab |
| By: | Dumas, Christelle |
| Abstract: | There is some indirect evidence that child labor is affected by market imperfections. This paper provides a theoretical model to discuss the effect of improvements on the labor market, when households cannot rely on neither the land nor the credit markets. The predictions differ by land ownership: landless or large landowners should decrease child labor when labor market imperfections decrease. Households who had chosen not to supply any labor on the wage market (households with intermediate-upper land levels) remain unaffected and households who combine farm work with wage work (households with intermediate-lower land levels) may either increase or decrease their child labor use. We use Malagasy data to estimate the relation between child labor and various measures of markets imperfections. We match those data with a municipality census so as to control for a large set of village characteristics. We find that on average market imperfections (labor but also land and credit) do indeed increase child labor and obtain heterogenous effects by land ownership that are consistent with the theoretical model. The results point to the fact that an improvement of markets competitiveness should decrease child labor (and even the more so for labor markets), which provides an alternative policy to fight against child labor. -- |
| Keywords: | Child labor,Market imperfections,Land,Labor,Credit,Madagascar |
| JEL: | O12 O13 O15 J13 J43 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec11:25&r=lab |
| By: | Frenette, Marc |
| Abstract: | Aboriginal people generally have lower levels of educational attainment than other groups in Canada, but little is known about the reasons behind this gap. This study is the second of two by the same author investigating the issue in detail. The first paper (Frenette 2011) concludes that the labour market benefits to pursuing further schooling are generally not lower for Aboriginal people than for non-Aboriginal people. This second paper takes a more direct approach to the subject by examining the gap in educational attainment between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth using the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS), Cohort A. Aboriginal people who live on-reserve or in the North are excluded from the YITS and, thus, from this analysis. The results of the analysis show that most (90 percent) of the university attendance gap among high school graduates is associated with differences in relevant academic and socio-economic characteristics. The largest contributing factor among these is academic performance (especially differences in performance on scholastic, as opposed to standardized, tests). Differences in parental income account for very little of the university attendance gap, even when academic factors are excluded from the models (and thus do not absorb part of the indirect effect of income). Differences in academic and socio-economic characteristics explain a smaller proportion of the gap in high school completion than in university attendance. |
| Keywords: | Educational attainment, Aboriginal |
| JEL: | I21 J15 |
| Date: | 2011–06–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2011-13&r=lab |
| By: | Dearden, Lorraine (Institute for Fiscal Studies, London); Micklewright, John (Institute of Education, University of London); Vignoles, Anna (Institute of Education, University of London) |
| Abstract: | 'League table' information on school effectiveness in England generally relies on either a comparison of the average outcomes of pupils by school, e.g. mean exam scores, or on estimates of the average value added by each school. These approaches assume that the information parents and policy-makers need most to judge school effectiveness is the average achievement level or gain in a particular school. Yet schools can be differentially effective for children with differing levels of prior attainment. We present evidence on the extent of differential effectiveness in English secondary schools, and find that even the most conservative estimate suggests that around one quarter of schools in England are differentially effective for students of differing prior ability levels. This affects an even larger proportion of children as larger schools are more likely to be differentially effective. |
| Keywords: | school effectiveness, school choice, value added, England |
| JEL: | I2 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5839&r=lab |
| By: | Philip, Jung; Moritz, Kuhn |
| Abstract: | Comparing labor markets in the United States and Germany as Europe’s largest economy over the period from 1980−2004 uncovers three stylized differences: (1) Germany’s mean transition rates from unemployment to employment (UE) were lower by a factor of 5 and transition rates from employment to unemployment (EU) were lower by a factor of 4. (2) The volatility of the UE rate was equal in both countries, but the EU rate was 2.3 times more volatile in Germany. (3) In Germany EU flows contributed 60−70% to unemployment volatility, whereas in the U.S. they contributed only 30−40%. Using a search and matching model we show theoretically that the joint analysis of first and second moments offers general identification restrictions on the underlying causes for these differences. We find that a lower efficiency in the matching process can consistently explain the facts while alternative explanations such as employment protection, the benefit system, union power, or rigid earnings can not. We document that a lower matching efficiency due to lower occupational and regional mobility in Germany finds strong support in the data. Finally, we show that the highlighted matching friction leads in the model calibrated to the German economy to a substantial amplification and propagation of shocks. |
| Keywords: | Business Cycle Fluctuations; Labor Market Institutions; Unemployment; Endogenous Firing |
| JEL: | E32 E24 |
| Date: | 2011–07–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:32322&r=lab |
| By: | C. Kirabo Jackson |
| Abstract: | I analyze changes in teacher turnover, hiring, effectiveness, and salaries at traditional public schools after the opening of a nearby charter school. While I find small effects on turnover overall, difficult to staff schools (low-income, high-minority share) hired fewer new teachers and experienced small declines in teacher quality. I also find evidence of a demand side response where schools increased teacher compensation to better retain quality teachers. The results are robust across a variety of alternate specifications to account for non-random charter entry. |
| JEL: | I2 I28 J00 J18 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17225&r=lab |
| By: | Jeremy Greenwood (University of Pennsylvania); Nezih Guner (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona); Georgi Kocharkov (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); Cezar Santos (University of Pennsylvania) |
| Abstract: | Marriage has declined since 1960. The drop is bigger for non-college educated individuals versus college educated ones. Divorce has increased. More so for the non-college educated vis à vis the college educated. Additionally, assortative mating has risen. People are more likely to marry someone of the same education level today than in the past. A model of marriage and divorce is calibrated/estimated to fit the postwar U.S. data. The contribution of different factors, such as skilled-biased technological progress in the market, labor-saving technological progress in the home, and the narrowing of the gender gap, to explaining these facts is gauged. Work in Process! |
| Keywords: | Assortative mating, education, female labor supply, household production, marriage and divorce, minimum distance estimation |
| JEL: | E13 J12 J22 O11 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eag:rereps:18&r=lab |
| By: | Xu, Guo |
| Abstract: | Exploiting Tangshan 1976 - the deadliest earthquake in the 20th century - as a source of exogenous variation, we estimate the cohort-specific effects of a historical shock on contemporary socio-economic outcomes. While cohorts born after the earthquake were considerably larger, the adverse post-disaster conditions did not translate into lasting impacts on schooling and labour market outcomes. Cohorts at schooling age during the earthquake, however, exhibit considerably lower education levels today, particularly among the female. Despite lower education, there is no evidence for adverse labour market outcomes. We conduct extensive robustness checks and argue that the effect is causal. -- |
| Keywords: | Environmental shock,earthquake,natural disaster,education,fertility |
| JEL: | I20 J00 O18 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec11:82&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Dustmann (CReAM, University College London); Albrecht Glitz (CReAM, Universitat Pompeu Fabra) |
| Abstract: | Sjaastad (1962) viewed migration in the same way as education: as an investment in the human agent. Migration and education are decisions that are indeed intertwined in many dimensions. Education and skill acquisition play an important role at many stages of an individual’s migration. Differential returns to skills in origin- and destination country are a main driver of migration. The economic success of the immigrant in the destination country is to a large extent determined by her educational background, how transferable these skills are to the host country labour market, and how much she invests into further skills after arrival. The desire to acquire skills in the host country that have a high return in the country of origin may also be an important reason for a migration. From an intertemporal point of view, the possibility of a later migration may also affect educational decisions in the home country long before a migration is realised. In addition, the decisions of migrants regarding their own educational investment, and their expectations about future migration plans may also affect the educational attainment of their children. But migration and education are not only related for those who migrate or their descendants. Migrations of some individuals may have consequences for educational decisions of those who do not migrate, both in the home and in the host country. By easing credit constraints through remittances, migration of some may help others to go to school. By changing the skill base of the receiving country, migration may change incentives to invest in certain types of human capital. Migrants and their children may create externalities that influence educational outcomes of non-migrants in the destination country. This chapter will discuss some of the key areas that connect migration and education. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Education, Human Capital, Return Migration, Immigrant Selection, Second-generation Immigrants. |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2011011&r=lab |
| By: | Simonetta Longhi (Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex and IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper combines individual data from the British Household Panel Survey and yearly population estimates for England to analyse the impact of cultural diversity on individual wages and on different aspects of job satisfaction. Do people living in more diverse areas have higher wages and job satisfaction after controlling for other observable characteristics? The results show that cultural diversity is positively associated with wages, but only when cross-section data are used. Panel data estimations show that there is no impact of diversity. Using instrumental variables to account for endogeneity also show that diversity has no impact. |
| Keywords: | Cultural Diversity, Wages, Job Satisfaction. |
| JEL: | J28 J31 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2011010&r=lab |
| By: | Frigyes Ferdinand Heinz (European Central Bank, Kaiserstrasse 29, D-60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.); Desislava Rusinova (European Central Bank, Kaiserstrasse 29, D-60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we estimate the degree of real wage flexibility in 19 EU countries in a wage Phillips curve panel framework. We find evidence for a reaction of wage growth to unemployment and productivity growth. However, due to unemployment persistence, over time the real wage response weakens substantially. Our results suggest that the degree of real wage flexibility tends to be larger in the central and eastern European (CEE) countries than in the euro area; weaker in downturns than during upswings. Moreover, there exists an inflation threshold, below which real wage flexibility seems to decrease. Finally, we find that part of the heterogeneity in real wage flexibility and unemployment might be related to differences in the wage bargaining institutions and more specifically the extent of labour market regulation in different country groups within the EU. JEL Classification: J31, J38, P5. |
| Keywords: | real wage flexibility, bargaining institutions, central and eastern Europe, euro area, panel heterogeneity. |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20111360&r=lab |
| By: | Wald, Nina; Bozzoli, Carlos |
| Abstract: | Recently, Conditional Cash Transfer Programs (CCT) became increasingly popular in developing countries due to their positive outcomes on health and education. In this paper, we are particularly interested in testing if children participating in CCT (treated) in conflict affected regions benefit more (or less) than their counterparts in peaceful areas. To test this, we combine longitudinal CCT data from Colombia with a conflict event dataset. This allows us to use standard techniques in treatment evaluation, but it augments the testing equations by adding interactions between dummies identifying different groups and indicators of violence. We find that the CCT program had an extra benefit in conflict areas concerning enrolment. However, grade progression is similar for treated children in low and high conflict regions. Results suggest that the program may work in attracting children to school, but in high conflict regions children tend to do less homework and miss more days in school. -- |
| Keywords: | Conditional Cash Transfer Program,Education,Conflict,Colombia,Panel Data,Treatment Effects |
| JEL: | C23 D74 I21 I38 O54 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec11:80&r=lab |
| By: | Krieger, Tim; Haupt, Alexander M.; Lange, Thomas |
| Abstract: | The paper presents a model of two countries competing for the international pool of talented students from the rest of the world. To relax tuition-fee competition, countries differentiate their education systems in equilibrium, albeit inefficiently. One country offers high educational quality at high tuition fees and attracts the brightest students; the other country provides lower quality and charges lower fees. Recent developments, such as an increasing number of international students or growing graduate incomes in developing countries, widen the gap between education systems. Furthermore, educational competition among developed countries provides scope for a qualitative brain gain in less developed countries. -- |
| Keywords: | Higher education,student mobility,vertical quality differentiation,return migration,brain gain |
| JEL: | H87 F22 I28 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec11:49&r=lab |
| By: | Bigoni, Maria (University of Bologna); Fort, Margherita (University of Bologna); Nardotto, Mattia (Telecom - Paris Tech); Reggiani, Tommaso (University of Bologna) |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the effect of two stylized and antithetic non-monetary incentive schemes on students’ effort. We collect data from a field experiment where incentives are exogenously imposed, performance is monitored and individual characteristics are observed. Students are randomly assigned to a tournament scheme that fosters competition between coupled students, a cooperative scheme that promotes information sharing and collaboration between students and a control treatment in which students can neither compete, nor cooperate. In line with theoretical predictions, we find that competition induces higher effort with respect to cooperation and cooperation does not increase effort with respect to the baseline. However, this is true only for men, while women do not seem to react to non-monetary incentives. |
| Keywords: | education, field experiments, incentives, competition, cooperation |
| JEL: | A22 C93 I20 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5844&r=lab |
| By: | Priebe, Jan |
| Abstract: | Over the last two decades Indonesia has experienced a significant decline in fertility rates and substantial increases in the level of education of women. Despite this development female labor force participation rates have remained roughly constant throughout this period. This paper explores the causes for the seeming unresponsiveness of female labor supply to changes in fertility. The empirical analysis is performed using annual data from the national household survey Susenas for the period 1993-2008. The final sample comprises about 850,000 woman aged 21 to 35 with at least two children. Identification of causal effects builds upon the empirical strategy as outlined in Angrist and Evans (1998). The results suggest that a considerable share of women in Indonesia works in the labor market in order to finance basic expenditures on their children. Therefore, reductions in fertility rates seem to have led to two opposing effects that contributed to aggregate levels of female labor supply being constant. While some women were more likely to participate in the labor market due to a lower number of children, others might now lack the need to engage in the labor market due to a relaxation in their budget constraint. -- |
| Keywords: | Causality,Child Costs,Indonesia,Labor Supply,LATE |
| JEL: | C21 D01 J13 J20 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec11:67&r=lab |
| By: | Ragni Hege Kitterød, Marit Rønsen and Ane Seierstad (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | Considering the high female part-time rates in Norway, one may envisage a sizeable additional labour supply if more part-time working women would switch to full time. In view of an ageing population and increased demand for labour in the future, we investigate this issue by studying married and cohabiting women’s transitions from part-time to full-time work based on panel data from 2003-2009. Contrary to evidence from other countries with well-established support for working mothers, we find that young children in the household still restrain Norwegian women’s mobility to full-time work. On the other hand, there is a strong trend of higher full-time transition rates over our study period, which may reflect a vast expansion of the day care sector with more and cheaper day care, as well as a booming economy. Part timers who work in typical female occupations such as nursing, and sales and services are also less likely to switch to full time. Whether this is a result of true preferences or constraints is difficult to say, but previous research suggest that involuntary part time may be substantial. Voluntariness may further be a matter of degree, and “chosen” part timers may also switch to full time if conditions were right. |
| Keywords: | Female labour supply; part-time; full-time transitions |
| JEL: | J21 J22 J24 J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:658&r=lab |
| By: | Sara LaLumia (Williams College) |
| Abstract: | The Earned Income Tax Credit generates large average tax refunds for low-income parents, and these refunds are distributed in a narrow time frame. I rely on this plausibly exogenous source of variation in liquidity to investigate the effect of cash-on-hand on unemployment duration. Among EITC-eligible women, unemployment spells beginning just after tax refund receipt last longer than unemployment spells beginning at other times of year. There is no evidence that tax refund receipt is associated with longer unemployment duration for men, or that the longer durations for women are associated with higher-quality subsequent job matches. |
| Keywords: | Tax evasion, compliance, honesty, dependent exemption |
| JEL: | H26 H24 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wil:wileco:2011-09&r=lab |
| By: | Peter Haan; Victoria Prowse |
| Abstract: | How can public pension systems be reformed to ensure fiscal stability in the face of increasing life expectancy? To address this pressing open question in public finance, we estimate a life-cycle model in which the optimal employment, retirement and consumption decisions of forward-looking individuals depend, inter alia, on life expectancy and the design of the public pension system. We calculate that, in the case of Germany, the fiscal consequences of the 6.4 year increase in age 65 life expectancy anticipated to occur over the 40 years that separate the 1942 and 1982 birth cohorts can be offset by either an increase of 4.34 years in the full pensionable age or a cut of 37.7% in the per-year value of public pension benefits. Of these two distinct policy approaches to coping with the fiscal consequences of improving longevity, increasing the full pensionable age generates the largest responses in labor supply and retirement behavior. |
| Keywords: | Life expectancy, public pension reform, retirement, employment, life-cycle models, consumption, tax and transfer system |
| JEL: | D91 J11 J22 J26 J64 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1140&r=lab |
| By: | Arnaud Cheron; Benedicte Rouland |
| Date: | 2010–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tep:teppwp:wp1020&r=lab |
| By: | Anne Bucher; Sebastien Menard |
| Date: | 2010–12–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tep:teppwp:wp1021&r=lab |
| By: | Bryson, Alex; Gomez, Rafael; Papps, Kerry L. |
| Abstract: | A detailed longitudinal dataset is assembled containing annual performance and biographical data for every player over the entire history of professional major league baseball. The data are then aggregated to the team level for the period 1920-2009 in order to test whether teams built on a more intermediate distribution of observed talent perform better than those teams with either too high or too low a mixture of highly able and less able players. The key dependent variable used in the regressions is the percentage of games a team wins each season. Our finding is that conditioning on average player ability, dispersion in team pitching and hitting talent prior to the start of a season is related in a non-linear way to subsequent team performance. This suggests that there is an optimum heterogeneity of ability at the team level that maximises joint output. This result is robust to the inclusion of team fixed effects as well as year dummies and after controlling for the potential endogeneity of skill dispersion. These findings have potentially important applications both inside and outside of the sporting world. |
| Keywords: | Baseball, Inequality, Team-based Performance |
| JEL: | J24 J21 |
| Date: | 2011–03–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2011-6&r=lab |
| By: | Datta Gupta, Nabanita (Aarhus School of Business); Kleinjans, Kristin J. (California State University, Fullerton); Larsen, Mona (SFI - Danish National Centre for Social Research) |
| Abstract: | We study how severe acute health shocks affect the probability of not working in the U. S. versus in Denmark. The results not only provide insight into how relative disease risk affects labor force participation at older ages, but also into how different types of health care and health insurance systems affect individual decisions of labor force participation. We find that the effect of an acute health shock on labor force participation is stronger in the U.S. than in Denmark, and provide compelling evidence that this is the result of health care system-related differential mortality and baseline health differences. |
| Keywords: | health shock, health care regimes, work |
| JEL: | I12 I18 J26 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5843&r=lab |
| By: | Aker, Jenny C.; Clemens, Michael A.; Ksoll, Christopher |
| Abstract: | Labor markets in developing countries are subject to a high degree of frictions. We report the results from a randomized evaluation of an adult education program (Project ABC) in Niger, in which students learned how to use simple mobile phones as part of a literacy and numeracy class. Overall, our preliminary results suggest that access to this technology substantially influenced seasonal migration in Niger, increasing the likelihood of migration by at least one household member by 7 percentage points and the number of households' members engaging in seasonal migration. Evidence suggests that there are some heterogeneous impacts of the program, with a higher probability of a household member migrating in one region. These effects do not appear to be driven by differences in observable characteristics of households or differential effects of drought during the survey period. Rather we posit that they are largely explained by the effectiveness of mobile phones as a search technology: Students in ABC villages used mobile phones in more active ways and communicated more with migrants within Niger. These initial results suggest that simple and cheap information technology can be harnessed to affect labor mobility among rural populations. -- |
| JEL: | D83 J61 O15 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec11:2&r=lab |
| By: | Bande, Roberto (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain); Karanassou, Marika (University of London) |
| Abstract: | On both theoretical and empirical grounds, this paper provides evidence that refutes the natural rate of unemployment (NRU) hypothesis as an explanation of the evolution of regional disparities in the unemployment rate. We first present our analytical framework, which follows the chain reaction theory (CRT) of unemployment and argues that (i) a system of interactive labour market equations, rather than a single-equation unemployment rate model, is better equipped to accommodate unemployment dynamics, and (ii) due to the interplay of frictions and growth in labour markets, the NRU ceases to be an attractor of the unemployment rate time path. We then provide evidence that the Spanish economy is characterised by large and persistent disparities in the regional unemployment rates. Through standard kernel density tecnhiques, we demonstrate the existence of marked differences between two groups of high and low unemployment regions that remain stable in their composition through time. Finally, we review our empirical labour market model for each group of regions and evaluate the corresponding natural rates. Our findings confirm that the evolution of regional disparities cannot be attributed to disparities in the natural rates, given that these, although different, do not act as an attractor of unemployment. Thus, the NRUs offer little help in the formulation of labour market policies. |
| Keywords: | regional unemployment, disparities, kernel, natural rate, frictional growth |
| JEL: | R23 J64 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5838&r=lab |
| By: | Anne Bucher |
| Date: | 2010–12–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tep:teppwp:wp1016&r=lab |
| By: | Gille, Véronique |
| Abstract: | Empirical evidence of education spillovers in developing countries and rural contexts is scarce and focuses on specific channels. This paper provides evidence of such spillovers in rural India, by evaluating the overall impact of education of neighbors on farm productivity. We use cross-sectional data from the India Human Development Survey of 2005. Spatial econometric tools are used to take into account social distance between neighbors. To be sure that our definition of the neighborhood does not drive our results, we test three different definitions of neighbors. Our results show that education spillovers are substantial: one additional year in the mean level of education of neighbors increases households' farm productivity by 3%. These findings are robust to changes in specification and open the way to further research. In particular, the paper does not explore the channels through which this spillover effect happens. This paper confirms the choice of improving education in developing countries: giving a child education will certainly provide him greater revenues but it may also provide his neighbors greater revenues. It also shows the importance for policy makers of taking into account education spillovers and policies' complementarity when facing political trade-offs. This paper is one of the few to underline that education externalities do not only exist in urban contexts and that education spillovers do not only occur between workers of the manufacturing and service sectors. There are also spillovers in sectors considered as more traditional such as agriculture. -- |
| Keywords: | Education externalities,Rural India,Farm productivity |
| JEL: | D13 O12 Q12 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec11:31&r=lab |
| By: | Anne Bucher |
| Date: | 2010–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tep:teppwp:wp1013&r=lab |
| By: | Vincent Fromentin; (CEREFIGE); ; |
| Abstract: | This article examines the relationships of substitutability and complementarity between native workers and immigrants in France, depending on skill level, using a translog production function. We analyze the impact of immigrant workers on employment and wages of native workers by taking into account the interrelations between all factors. In general, there is a relationship of complementarity between immigrant workers and native workers, although high and intermediate-skilled migrant workers are respectively substitutable for intermediate and low-skilled native workers. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Substitutability, Production Function, Employment, Wages |
| JEL: | J61 C39 D24 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fie:wpaper:1105&r=lab |
| By: | Sara Connolly (School of Economics, University of East Anglia); Susan Long (School of Economics, University of East Anglia) |
| Abstract: | The groundbreaking MIT report (1999) was the first study to quantify the disadvantages faced by female scientists. This has been followed by studies of gender pay differentials amongst academics working in the humanities (US), economics (UK and US) and the sciences (US). This paper provides the first detailed study of gender pay differentials amongst scientists working in the UK. Our data allows us to contrast the experiences of scientists working in Higher Education (academic scientists) with those working in Research Institutes (research scientists). We find that there is a gender pay differential of 22% (?6-7,000), most of which can be accounted for in terms of age, grade, subject, research esteem, workplace and domestic responsibilities, but a significant proportion remains unexplained (19% in academic and 30% in research science). Our results suggest that across grades, if female scientists were to receive the same returns as male scientists, the gender pay gap would narrow significantly and would close at the bottom end of the distribution. |
| Keywords: | occupation, pay, decomposition, institutions |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J44 J71 |
| Date: | 2011–07–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uea:aepppr:2011_27&r=lab |
| By: | Pinka Chatterji; Sara Markowitz; Jeanne Brooks-Gunn |
| Abstract: | This study uses longitudinal data from the NICHD Study on Early Child Care (SECC) to examine the effects of maternal employment on family well-being, measured by maternal mental and overall health, parenting stress, and parenting quality. First, we estimate the effects of maternal employment on these outcomes measured when children are 6 months old. Next, we use dynamic panel data models to examine the effects of maternal employment on family outcomes during the first 4.5 years of children’s lives. Among mothers of six month old infants, maternal work hours are positively associated with depressive symptoms and self-reported parenting stress, and negatively associated with self-rated overall health among mothers. Compared to mothers who are on leave 3 months after childbirth, mothers who are working full-time score 22 percent higher on the CES-D scale of depressive symptoms. However, maternal employment is not associated with the quality of parenting at 6 months, based on trained assessors’ observations of maternal sensitivity. Moreover, during the first 4.5 years of life as a whole, we find only weak evidence that maternal work hours are associated with maternal health, and no evidence that maternal employment is associated with parenting stress and quality. We find that unobserved heterogeneity is an important factor in modeling family outcomes. |
| JEL: | I1 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17212&r=lab |
| By: | Barreda-Tarrazona, Raquel; Carausan, Mihaela Victorita; Márquez-García, Alfonso Miguel; Souto-Pérez, Jaime |
| Abstract: | This study examines the impact of ethical commitment generic competence in higher education and culture. We used an ad-hoc questionnaire to evaluate the responses of graduate-level business students in Romania and Spain when they are asked about their self-assessment, the importance of the competence for working in their profession in the labour market and the role of University in improving their assessment in this competence, as well as 10 items from the National Culture Survey to determine the extent of the association between five cultural dimensions and ethical commitment in Romania and Spain. Research suggests that Spanish and Romanian students' perceptions of their self-assessment are significantly higher than their perceptions of the role of the university. We conclude that we should promote the role of universities in improving their assessment. |
| Keywords: | Cross-country research; Ethics Commitment; Generic Competences; Higher Education |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsu:apasro:310&r=lab |
| By: | Maarek, Paul; Decreuse, Bruno |
| Abstract: | We address the effects of FDI on the labor share in developing countries. Our theory relies on the impacts of FDI on productive heterogeneity in a frictional labor market. FDI have two opposite effects: a negative force originated by technological advance, and a positive force due to increased labor market competition between firms. We test this theory on aggregate panel data through fixed effects and system-GMM estimations. We find a U-shaped relationship between the labor share in the manufacturing sector and the ratio of FDI stock to GDP. Most countries are stuck in the decreasing part of the curve. -- |
| Keywords: | FDI,Matching frictions,Firm heterogeneity,Technological advance |
| JEL: | E25 F16 F21 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec11:54&r=lab |
| By: | Rahim, Fazeer; Tavares, José |
| Abstract: | We present a growth model where savings, fertility, labour force participation and gender wage discrimination are endogenously determined. Households consist of husband and wife, who disagree on how to allocate resources to their individual consumption. Household decisions are made by bargaining and the bargaining power of each spouse depends on the market income he/she brings home. This provides the basis for the reluctance of men to grant women equal access to labour markets despite the fact that this hurts them in terms of reduced family income. Economic development makes discrimination costlier, initiating a positive cycle of high female participation, low fertility and high growth. Our empirical study is in two parts. Firstly, we use cross-country micro data to test the hypothesis that development is negatively related to male 'preference for discrimination'. We show that men's views converge to those of women over the development process and that, for low levels of income, a large majority of men have discriminatory views. Our conclusion is that a turning point occurs at an annual per capita GDP of around $15000. Secondly, we exploit the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 to find out what cause individuals to change their discriminatory preferences over time. -- |
| Keywords: | Economic Development,Fertility,Female Labor Force Participation,Gender Discrimination |
| JEL: | D13 J7 J13 J16 O15 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec11:69&r=lab |
| By: | Christopher Bruffaerts; Catherine Dehon; Bertrand Guisset |
| Abstract: | By using data collected through a survey containing newly enrolled student in Management Engineering at the University of Brussels, we show that even if all students do not come with the same chance of success at university, their working/studying behavior may lessen the burden of the past. Unlike the majority of the literature focusing on deterministic vision of success, we propose a more balanced view of the determining factors of academic success where success is explained both by what the student controls and what he does not control. We indeed take into account by means of a multivariate analysis the background of the student(personal characteristics, schooling and human capital of the family) as well as variables that are related to the study methods and habits of the student such as class attendance, the regularity of study and the study capacity during the exam period. Our results show that the work/studying pays off: the two most relevant factors explaining success are the work/study regularity as well as the number of hours the student studies/works during the exam period. In addition and in contrast with the common belief, both class attendance and guidance courses do not seem to be important to succeed but are the keys in successfully completing the year with a grade. |
| Keywords: | academic achievement; management engineering; multivariate models; socioeconomic factors; study methods |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/92704&r=lab |
| By: | Pieter A. Gautier (VU University Amsterdam, CEPR, IZA); Christian L. Holzner (University of Munich, Ifo Institute for Economic Research, CESifo) |
| Abstract: | When workers send applications to vacancies they create a network. Frictions arise because workers typically do not know where other workers apply to and firms do not know which candidates other firms consider. The first coordination friction affects network formation, while the second coordination friction affects network clearing. We show that those frictions and the wage mechanism are in general not independent. The wage mechanism determines both the distribution of networks that can arise and the number ofmatches on a given network. Equilibria that exhibit wage dispersion are inefficient in terms of network formation. Under complete recall (firms can go back and forth between all their candidates) only wage mechanisms that allow for ex post Bertrand competition generate the maximum matching on a realized network. |
| Keywords: | Efficiency; network clearing; random bipartite network formation; simultaneous |
| JEL: | D83 D85 E24 J64 |
| Date: | 2011–07–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20110092&r=lab |
| By: | Kröger, Antje; Meier, Kristina |
| Abstract: | The financial crisis in 2008/2009 had a presumably substantial influence on the everyday social and economic life of many Tajik people, including their behavior in the labor market. In our paper, we aim to study the impact of the economic crisis on individual labor market decisions. This is the first study investigating the impact of the financial crisis in a transition country using a unique panel data set from Tajikistan. We find that the global financial crisis had a strong impact on employment and migration patterns in Tajikistan. Our results show that regular wage employment and self-employment with hired labor decreased while piece-based wage employment and unpaid family work increased during the crisis. Further, households are more likely to send a family member abroad suggesting that the dependency on sending migrants abroad grows in times of economic turmoil. In combination with increased migration risk our results show that the Tajik labor market has largely been affected by the global financial crisis. -- |
| Keywords: | financial crisis,wage employment,migration,Tajikistan |
| JEL: | C23 J24 J16 O10 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec11:50&r=lab |
| By: | Shiyuan Pan (School of Economics and Center for Research of Private Economy, Zhejiang University); Heng-fu Zou (Central University of Finance and Economics CEMA; Wuhan University IAS; Peking University; China Development Bank); Tailong Li (School of Economics & Management, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University) |
| Abstract: | We develop a directed-technological-change model to address the issue of the optimal patent system and investigate how the optimal patent system influences the direction of technological change and the inequality of wage, where patents are categorized as skill- and labor-complementary. The major results are: (i) Finite patent breadth maximizes the social welfare level; (ii) Optimal patent breadth increases with the amount of skilled (unskilled) workers; (iii) Optimal patent protection is skill-biased, because an increase in the amount of skilled workers increases the dynamic benefits of the protection for skill-complementary patents via the economy of scale of skill-complementary technology; (iv) Skill-biased patent protection skews inventions towards skills, thus increasing wage inequality; And, (v) international trade leads to strong protection for skill-complementary patents, hence increasing skill premia. |
| Keywords: | Patent Breadth, Skill-Biased Patent Protection, Skill-Biased Technological Change, Wage Inequality, Growth |
| JEL: | O31 O34 J31 |
| Date: | 2010–08–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cuf:wpaper:437&r=lab |
| By: | Sánchez-Sánchez, Nuria; McGuinness, Seamus |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the REFLEX dataset to test the hypothesis that the generally observed negative impacts of overeducation and overskilling on both job satisfaction and earnings can be attributed to under-utilisation in specific job related skills. We find that the penalties to both forms of mismatch are insensitive to the inclusion of controls for overskilling in a wide range of job specific competencies. The research suggests that the problem of mismatch relates to an inability for fully utilise general or innate ability as opposed to specific areas of acquired learning. The analysis suggests the problem of mismatch can only be effectively addressed by raising general levels of job quality within economies and this, in turn, presents serious challenges for policy. |
| Keywords: | data/impacts/Overeducation/Overskilling/skills/Competencies/Policy |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp393&r=lab |
| By: | Duarte, Paulo |
| Abstract: | Weblogs or just blogs are increasingly used in higher education. Several studies suggest that blogs can be a great way to share knowledge, improve learning and interactivity, but the review of the literature revealed that blogging remains the object of inconsistent and mixed research findings. The purpose of this study is to review the potential of blogs as complementary learning spaces in higher education and present the five-years' experience of Bimarketing group blog to assist traditional teaching activities. The results show that students find blogging a useful learning tool, and that blogs can effectively be used to support learning activities for longer than one semester. However, instructors must be prepared to find ways to motivate students to keep participating, since the sense of community was not as strong as expected. The findings are important both theoretically and practically as they provide a framework and a benchmark against which other blogging experiences can be gauged. |
| Keywords: | higher education; marketing; teaching; learning; blogging; blogs |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsu:apasro:321&r=lab |
| By: | Dan Wheatley and Zhongmin Wu |
| Abstract: | Dual career households have the potential to be the most egalitarian of all households. However, while paid work is increasingly distributed evenly between career men and women, household time remains a social constraint for many women. This paper considers the distribution of work among dual career households, using weekly time-use trends, reflecting on the fit of household models and the effectiveness of current work-focused policy. Descriptive analysis, random-effects probit regression, and case households provide an empirical focus on a post-industrial economy - the UK - using the 1993-2009 British Household Panel Survey. Long hours, especially overtime, persist in managerial and professional occupations. Meanwhile, housework burdens women with up to fourteen hours of additional work per week. Preferences for shorter hours remain greater among women, reflecting the impact of household time on paid work. The evidence presented in this paper suggests that the distribution of household labor renders dual career households less than egalitarian. |
| Keywords: | Dual career households, time-use, equality, work-time, household time |
| JEL: | J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbs:wpaper:2011/03&r=lab |
| By: | Cathy J. Bradley; David Neumark; Meryl I. Motika |
| Abstract: | We study how men’s dependence on their own employer for health insurance affects labor supply responses and loss of health insurance coverage when faced with a serious health shock. Men with employment-contingent health insurance (ECHI) are more likely to remain working following some kinds of adverse health shocks, and are more likely to lose insurance. With the passage of health care reform, the tendency of men with ECHI as opposed to other sources of insurance to remain employed following a health shock may be diminished, along with the likelihood of losing health insurance. |
| JEL: | I18 J22 J38 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17223&r=lab |
| By: | Arnaud Maurel; Xavier D'Haultfoeuille |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the identification and estimation of an extension of Roy’s model (1951) of sectoral choice, which includes a non-pecuniary component in the selection equation and allows for uncertainty on potential earnings. We focus on the identification of the non-pecuniary component, which is key to disentangle the relative importance of monetary incentives versus preferences in the context of sorting across sectors. By making the most of the structure of the selection equation, we show that this component is point identified from the knowledge of the covariates effects on earnings, as soon as one covariate is continuous. Notably, and in contrast to most results on the identification of Roy models, this implies that identification can be achieved without any exclusion restriction nor large support condition on the covariates. As a byproduct, bounds are obtained on the distribution of the ex ante monetary returns. We also propose a three-stage semiparametric estimation procedure for this model, which yields root-n consistent and asymptotically normal estimators. Finally, we apply our results to the educational context, by providing new evidence from French data that non-pecuniary factors are a key determinant of higher education attendance decisions. |
| Keywords: | Roy model, nonparametric identification, schooling choices, ex ante returns to schooling |
| JEL: | C14 C25 J24 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:duk:dukeec:11-10&r=lab |
| By: | Kakarot-Handtke, Egmont |
| Abstract: | Unemployment is usually explained with reference to the equilibrium of supply and demand in the labour market. This approach rests on specific behavioral assumptions that are formally expressed as axioms. The standard set of axioms is replaced in the present paper by a set of structural axioms. This approach yields the objective determinants of employment. They consist of effective demand, the actual outcome of price formation, structural stress as determined by the heterogeneity within the business sector and the income distribution. Sudden changes of employment are effected by latent relative switchers that are hard to spot empirically. |
| Keywords: | New framework of concepts; Structure-centric; Axiom set; Full employment; Employment–profit ratio trade-off; Causality; Economic law; Historical specificity; Latent relative switcher |
| JEL: | E24 E21 |
| Date: | 2011–07–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:32248&r=lab |
| By: | Olivier l’Haridon (Greg-HEC, Institut Universitaire de France and University Paris Sorbonne.); Franck Malherbet (Université de Rouen, CECO – Ecole Polytechnique, IZA and fRDB.); Sébastien Pérez-Duarte (European Central Bank, Kaiserstrasse 29, D-60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.) |
| Abstract: | In this article, we use a stylized model of the labor market to investigate the effects of three alternative and well-known bargaining solutions. We apply the Nash, the Egalitarian and the Kalai-Smorodinsky bargaining solutions in the small firm's matching model of unemployment. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to implement and systematically compare these solutions in search-matching economies. Our results are twofold. First from the theoretical and methodological viewpoint, we extend a somewhat flexible search-matching economy to alternative bargaining solutions. In particular, we prove that the Egalitarian and the Kalai-Smorodinsky solutions are easily implementable within search-matching economies. Second, our results show that even though the traditional results of bargaining theory apply in this context, they are generally qualitatively different from the standard results, and the differences are quantitatively weaker than expected. This is of particular relevance in comparison with the results established in the earlier literature. JEL Classification: C71, C78, J20, J60. |
| Keywords: | Search and matching models, Bargaining theory, Nash, Egalitarian, Kalai-Smorodinsky. |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20111359&r=lab |
| By: | Thuan Quang Thai (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Evangelos M. Falaris |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of early life conditions, proxied by rainfall shocks, on schooling and height in rural Vietnam. Our measure of rainfall shock is defined as deviations from the long-run average. Vietnamese rural dwellers engage in rain-fed crop production, mostly irrigated paddy rice. Sufficient annual rainfall could play an important role in the harvest and thus, the household income. Nutritional deficiencies resulting from the household's income shocks may have negative consequences on health. We find that negative rainfall shocks during gestation delays school entry and slows progress through school. In addition, negative rainfall shocks in the third year of life affects adversely both schooling and height. The effects differ by region in ways that reflect differing constraints on families that are shaped by regional economic heterogeneity. We predict that policies that help rural families smooth income shocks will result in increases in human capital and in substantial cumulative returns in productivity over the life course. |
| Keywords: | Vietnam, child nutrition, early childhood, school enrolment |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2011-011&r=lab |
| By: | Ding, Weili; Lehrer, Steven F. |
| Abstract: | Proponents of class size reductions draw heavily on the results from Project STAR to support their initiatives. Adding to the political appeal of these initiative are reports that minority and economically disadvantaged students received the largest benefits from smaller classes. We extend this research in two directions. First, to address correlated outcomes from the same class size treatment, we account for the over-rejection of the Null hypotheses by using multiple inference procedures. Second, we conduct a more detailed examination of the heterogeneous impacts of class size reductions on measures of cognitive and noncognitive achievement using more flexible models. We find that students with higher test scores received greater benefits from class size reductions. Furthermore, we present evidence that the main effects of the small class treatment are robust to corrections for the multiple hypotheses being tested. However, these same corrections lead the differential impacts of smaller classes by race and freelunch status to become statistically insignificant. |
| Keywords: | class size; multiple inference; unconditional quantile regression; treatment effect heterogeneity; test score gaps; and education experiment |
| JEL: | I20 C21 C12 |
| Date: | 2011–06–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2011-12&r=lab |
| By: | Nicolescu, Cristina |
| Abstract: | The paper at hand is a continuation of the work in progress presented at 9th International Congress of the International Association on Public and Nonprofit Marketing 2010, whose scientific approach is aimed at the use of promotion, as instrument of the marketing mix, triggered by the interest to analyze the ability of Romanian higher education to use the marketing strategies, as strategies of boosting their competitive advantage. The research final conclusions highlight, however, an incipient crystallization of this ability, standing by the initial statement, according to which the Romanian higher education institutions have not yet reached the maturity level in using the marketing instruments, which calls for, in a fairly foreseeable future, the need to adjust their using manner. |
| Keywords: | promotion instruments; educational market; marketing mix; University p romotion |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsu:apasro:342&r=lab |
| By: | Rappai, Gábor; Rekettye, Gábor |
| Abstract: | The structure of higher education is constantly changing world-wide - including Hungary. The traditional view of Higher Education as a ‘public good' financed by the state, is weakening since it is becoming increasingly obvious that governments cannot afford to finance the growing demand for Higher education. The consequence of these trends in Hungary is that, whilst some students are financed by the government, the rest pay tuition fees. The paper discusses the possible methods which a public University may use when calculating its tuition fee for a given field of study. The advantages and disadvantages of cost-based pricing, ongoing pricing, and value-based pricing are discussed. The study introduces a model for calculating the life-cycle value of a degree, which may help in a comparison of the pricing methods of the competing institutions |
| Keywords: | value of a degree; ongoing pricing; cost-based pricing; tuition fee; Public Universities |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsu:apasro:350&r=lab |
| By: | Bhalotra, Sonia; Venkataramani, Atheendar |
| Abstract: | We exploit the introduction of sulfa drugs in 1937 to identify the impact of exposure to pneumonia in infancy on later life well-being and productivity in the United States. Using census data from 1980-2000, we find that cohorts born after the introduction of sulfa experienced increases in schooling, income, and the probability of employment, and reductions in disability rates. These improvements were larger for those born in states with higher pre-intervention pneumonia mortality rates, the areas that benefited most from the availability of sulfa drugs. Men and women show similar improvements on most indicators but the estimates for men are more persistently robust to the inclusion of birth state specific time trends. With the exception of cognitive disabilities for men and, in some specifications, work disability for men and family income, estimates for African Americans tend to be smaller and less precisely estimated than those for whites. Since African Americans exhibit larger absolute reductions in pneumonia mortality after the arrival of sulfa, we suggest that the absence of consistent discernible long run benefits may reflect barriers they encountered in translating improved endowments into gains in education and employment in the pre- Civil Rights Era. -- |
| Keywords: | early childhood,infectious diseases,pneumonia,medical innovation,antibiotics,schooling,income,disability,mortality trends |
| JEL: | I18 H41 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec11:10&r=lab |
| By: | Cervera-Taulet, Amparo; Iniesta-Bonillo, M. Ángeles; Sánchez-Férnadez, Raquel; Schlesinger-Díaz, M. Walesska; Soler-Ramo, Leonarda |
| Abstract: | Information and communication technologies (ICT) represent a source of competitive advantage for an organization. In particular, the expansion of ICT knowledge and experience in higher education is a key component of an educational reform agenda. This paper reports findings about which factors influence on the ICT usage in this context. Results confirm that graduates' experiences with some particular technologies in education are related to gender, area of expertise and University of origin. |
| Keywords: | areas of expertise; University of origin; gender; higher education; ICT usage |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsu:apasro:353&r=lab |
| By: | Jane Humphries (University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | The newly dominant interpretation of the British industrial revolution contends that Britain was a high wage economy (HWE) and that the high wages themselves caused industrialization by making profitable labour-saving inventions that were economically inefficient in the context of other relative factor prices. Once adopted these macro inventions put Britain on a growth path that transcended the trajectories associated with more labour-intensive production methods. This account of the HWE economy is misleading because it focuses on men and male wages, underestimates the relative caloric needs of women and children and bases its views of living standards on an ahistorical and false household economy. A more realistic depiction of the working-class family in these times provides an alternative explanation of inventive and innovative activity based on the availability of cheap and amenable female and child labour and thereby a broader interpretation of the industrial revolution. |
| Date: | 2011–07–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nuf:esohwp:_091&r=lab |
| By: | Philippe Belley; Marc Frenette; Lance Lochner |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the implications of tuition and need-based financial aid policies for family income – post-secondary (PS) attendance relationships. We first conduct a parallel empirical analysis of the effects of parental income on PS attendance for recent high school cohorts in both the U.S. and Canada using data from the 1997 Cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and Youth in Transition Survey. We estimate substantially smaller PS attendance gaps by parental income in Canada relative to the U.S., even after controlling for family background, adolescent cognitive achievement, and local residence fixed effects. We next document that U.S. public tuition and financial aid policies are actually more generous to low-income youth than are Canadian policies. By contrast, Canada offers more generous aid to middle-class youth than does the U.S. These findings suggest that the much stronger family income – PS attendance relationship in the U.S. is not driven by differences in the need-based nature of financial aid policies. Based on previous estimates of the effects of tuition and aid on PS attendance, we consider how much stronger income – attendance relationships would be in the absence of need-based aid and how much additional aid would need to be offered to lower income families to eliminate existing income – attendance gaps entirely. |
| JEL: | H52 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17218&r=lab |
| By: | Robert C. Allen; Tommy E. Murphy; Eric B. Schneider |
| Abstract: | Part of a long-run project to put together a systematic database of prices and wages for the American contingents, this paper takes a first look at standards of living in a series of North American and Latin American cities. From secondary sources we collected price data that - with diverse degrees of quality - covers various years between colonization and independence and, following the methodology now familiar in the literature, we built estimations of price indexes for Boston, Philadelphia, and the Chesapeake Bay region in North America and Bogota, Mexico, and Postosi in Latin America exploring alternative assumptions on the characteristics of the reference basket. We use these indexes to deflate the (relatively more scarce) figures on wages, and compare the results with each other, and with the now widely known series for various European and Asian cities. We find that real wages were higher in North America than in Latin America from the very early colonial period: four times the World Bank Poverty Line (WBPL) in North America while only two times the WBPL in Latin America. These wages place the North American colonies among the most advanced countries in the world alongside Northwestern European countries and the Latin American colonies among the least developed countries at a similar level to Southern European and Asian countries. These wage differences existed from the early colonial period because wages in the American colonies were determined by wages in the respective metropoles and by the Malthusian population dynamics of indigenous peoples. Settlers would not migrate unless they could maintain their standard of living, so wages in the colonies were set in the metrople. Political institutions, forced labour regimes, economic geography, disease environments and culture shaped the size of the economy of each colony but did not affect income levels. |
| Keywords: | Economic history, Real wages, Standard of living, Labour market, Population, Great Divergence, North America, Latin America |
| JEL: | N16 N31 N36 J2 J4 I32 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:559&r=lab |
| By: | Bogicevic, Marija; Curic, Maja; Petrovic, Ivana B. |
| Abstract: | The aim of research was to apply principles of marketing to the development of career guidance services for liberal arts students at the University of Belgrade. The paper includes a brief overview of the context of higher education in Serbia where Bologna process goes along the transition from socialist, state planned to market economy. Major findings of survey research on a sample of 312 liberal arts students about their career related needs indicate that students need a great deal of information about both studies and future jobs. In discussing research implications, it is argued that career services, in the discourse of the ‘Bologna' higher education, can and should be developed utilizing the marketing process, starting from the exchange as the basic principle of marketing dialogue. |
| Keywords: | Transitional Economy; Bologna Process; Marketing Perspective; Liberal Arts Students; Career Services |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsu:apasro:346&r=lab |
| By: | Michela Bia; Pierre-Jean Messe; Roberto Leombruni |
| Keywords: | exit age; youth employment; propensity score; match- |
| JEL: | J23 J62 J63 |
| Date: | 2010–12–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tep:teppwp:wp1014&r=lab |
| By: | Nica, Aser |
| Abstract: | EU expansion has mainly reduced the capacity of Balkan states of adjusting their administrative structures and models promoted by the EU standards. The discussions around this theme are founded on traditions, economic, social, cultural, administrative values of the states in the Balkans in relation to those promoted in Western countries and the EU. Our study on the convergence of the public policy considers the description of how various factors and economic, social and political mechanisms act or compete in mitigating the differences or gaps between entities. Therefore the research attempts to highlight some elements of the convergence of national public policies between Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Croatia in the labor market employment. |
| Keywords: | labor market employment; public policy; europeanisation; convergence |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsu:apasro:373&r=lab |