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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Bassanini, Andrea; Caroli, Eve; Rebérioux, Antoine; Breda, Thomas |
| Abstract: | We study compensation packages in family and non-family firms. Using French matched employer-employee data, we first show that family firms pay on average lower wages. We find that part of this wage gap is due to low wage workers sorting into family firms and high wage workers sorting into non-family firms. However, we also find evidence that company wage policies differ according to ownership status, so that the same worker is paid differently under family and non-family firm ownership. We also 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: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpm:docweb:1110&r=lab |
| By: | Giovanni Mastrobuoni (Collegio Carlo Alberto, CeRP and Netspar); Filippo Taddei (Collegio Carlo Alberto and CeRP) |
| Abstract: | We show how the age prole of earnings, retirement rules and retirement behavior are tightly linked through the general equilibrium of the economy. Generous Social Security benets nanced by large Social Security taxes discourage human capital accumulation. In Social Security systems where Social Security benets prioritize redistribution less productive workers with lower levels of human capital tend to retire earlier. These out ows of workers from the labor force tend to generate wage proles that are monotonically increasing over age and labor markets that display larger seniority premia. This paper theoretically rationalizes the links between retirement rules and the wage structures over the life cycle and uses data on European countries to show how social security taxes, the age prole of earnings, and retirement behavior are related. |
| Keywords: | Social Security tax, early retirement, age prole of earnings, human capital, seniority premium |
| JEL: | H53 H55 D72 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crp:wpaper:120&r=lab |
| By: | Fryer, Roland G.; Pager, Devah; Spenkuch, Jörg L. |
| Abstract: | The extent to which discrimination can explain racial wage gaps is one of the most divisive subjects in the social sciences. Using a newly available dataset, this paper develops a simple empirical test which, under plausible conditions, provides a lower bound on the extent of discrimination in the labor market. Taken at face value, our estimates imply that differential treatment accounts for at least one third of the black-white wage gap. We argue that the patterns in our data are consistent with a search-matching model in which employers statistically discriminate on the basis of race when hiring unemployed workers, but learn about their marginal product over time. However, we cannot rule out other forms of discrimination |
| Keywords: | discrimination; wage gaps; race |
| JEL: | J71 J01 J15 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:33607&r=lab |
| By: | Cory Koedel (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia); Jason A. Grissom; Shawn Ni (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia); Michael Podgursky (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia) |
| Abstract: | Educators in public schools in the United States are typically enrolled in defined-benefit pension plans, which penalize across-plan mobility. We use administrative data from Missouri to examine how the mobility penalties affect the labor market for school leaders. We show that pension borders greatly affect leadership flows across schools – for two groups of schools separated by a pension border, our estimates indicate that removing the border will increase leadership mobility between them by 97 to 163 percent. We consider the implications of the pension-induced rigidities in the leadership labor market for schools near pension borders in Missouri. Our findings are of general interest given that thousands of public schools operate near pension boundaries nationwide. |
| Keywords: | Educator pensions, backloaded compensation, principal quality, leadership quality, compensation in education |
| JEL: | H5 I2 J3 |
| Date: | 2011–09–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:1115&r=lab |
| By: | Aterido, Reyes (World Bank); Hallward-Driemeier, Mary (World Bank); Pagés, Carmen (Inter-American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | Seguro Popular (SP) was introduced in 2002 to provide health insurance to the 50 million Mexicans without Social Security. This paper tests whether the program has had unintended consequences, distorting workers' incentives to operate in the informal sector. The analysis examines the impact of SP on disaggregated labor market decisions, taking into account that program coverage depends not only on the individual's employment status, but also on that of other household members. The identification strategy relies on the variation in SP's rollout across municipalities and time, with the difference-in-difference estimation controlling for household fixed effects. The paper finds that SP lowers formality by 0.4-0.7 percentage points, with adjustments largely occurring within a few years of the program's introduction. Rather than encouraging exit from the formal sector, SP is associated with a 3.1 percentage point reduction (a 20 percent decline) in the inflow of workers into formality. Income effects are also apparent, with significantly decreased flows out of unemployment and lower labor force participation. The impact is larger for those with less education, in larger households, and with somebody else in the household guaranteeing Social Security coverage. However, workers pay for part of these benefits with lower wages in the informal sector. |
| Keywords: | informality, Seguro Popular, Mexico, non-contributory social programs, social assistance |
| JEL: | J08 J62 I38 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5996&r=lab |
| By: | Patricia Justino (Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex) |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews and discusses available empirical research on the impact of violent conflict on the level and access to education of civilian and combatant populations affected by violence. Three main themes emerge from this empirical review. The first is that relatively minor shocks to educational access can lead to significant and long-lasting detrimental effects on individual human capital formation in terms of educational attainment, health outcomes and labour market opportunities. Secondly, the destruction of infrastructure, the absence of teachers and reductions in schooling capacity affect secondary schooling disproportionately. Finally, the exposure of households to violence results in significant gender differentials in individual educational outcomes. The paper then turns its attention to the specific mechanisms that link violent conflict with educational outcomes, an area largely unexplored in the literatures on conflict and education. The paper focuses six key mechanisms: soldiering, household labour allocation decisions, fear, changes in returns to education, targeting of schools, teachers and students and displacement. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:99&r=lab |
| By: | Pimenta, António M. S. (University of the Azores); Silva, Francisco J. F. (University of the Azores); Vieira, José A. Cabral (University of the Azores) |
| Abstract: | This paper includes a survival analysis which attempts to explain the duration, as in the number of years a worker remains in a low wage situation. Explanatory variables take into account the characteristics of the employee, such as education, age, tenure with the company, gender and nationality, and the characteristics of the job and the company such as industry affiliation, number of employees, age of the company and location. |
| Keywords: | low wage, survival, Portugal |
| JEL: | J31 J42 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5972&r=lab |
| By: | Chen, Dandan |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the key aspects of the practices of school-based management in Indonesia, and its effect on education quality. Using a conceptual framework of an accountability system of public service delivery, the paper explores the relations among Indonesian parents, school committees, schools, and government education supervisory bodies from three tenets: participation and voice; autonomy; and accountability. Using the data from a nationally representative survey of about 400 public primary schools in Indonesia, the paper finds that the level of parental participation and voice in school management is extremely low in Indonesia. While the role of school committees is still limited to community relations, school facilities, and other administrative areas of school management, school principals, together with teachers, are much more empowered to assert professional control of the schools. The accountability system has remained weak in Indonesia's school system, which is reflected by inadequate information flow to parents, as well as seemingly low parental awareness of the need to hold schools accountable. The accountability arrangement of the Indonesian school system currently puts more emphasis on top-down supervision and monitoring by government supervisory bodies. The findings show that although the scope of school-based management in Indonesia is limited, it has begun to help schools make the right decisions on allocation of resources and hiring additional (non-civil servant) teachers, and to create an enabling environment of learning, including increasing teacher attendance rates. These aspects are found to have significantly positive effects on student learning outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Education For All,Tertiary Education,Primary Education,Teaching and Learning,Disability |
| Date: | 2011–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5809&r=lab |
| By: | Tealdi, Cristina |
| Abstract: | Short-term employment contracts have been deployed rapidly across the European Union (EU) in the past two decades. Characterized by a high degree of flexibility, they were thought to be the solution to persistent labor market rigidities and high unemployment rates. The objective of this paper is to investigate both theoretically and empirically the effects of introducing short-term employment contracts to the labor market, and to draw conclusions regarding the change in welfare for different categories of people. Data from the Italian labor market show that workers hired on a short-term basis are mostly young, female, inexperienced, less educated, and poorly qualified. Short-term contracts, which are associated with lower wages, often come in sequences. Labor force participation has increased in particular among older workers. Such changes in labor force composition and transition patterns can be explained by a search model with workers heterogeneity and differentiated contracts. In steady state, a pooling equilibrium of less and more productive workers exists, when only permanent contracts are available. In the presence of short-term contracts, a separating equilibrium allocates less and more productive workers towards different career paths. Through model calibration it is possible to quantify the change in welfare for different categories of workers. Moreover, within a multi-state duration framework, the model is estimated with the Heckman and Singer non-parametric maximum likelihood (NPMLE) estimation procedure. One of the major findings is that inexperienced workers are worse off after the reforms. However, after the accumulation of some work experience, they have the opportunity to compensate for their losses, if they are more productive. Less productive workers, even though provided with higher chances to work, are the ones paying the cost of higher turnover and lower wages. |
| Keywords: | Labor Economics; Policy |
| JEL: | J08 J64 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:33573&r=lab |
| By: | Tobal, Martin |
| Abstract: | On the one hand, empiricists debate on which and how many labor dimensions are relevant for understanding the employment effects of the 1990's service offshoring boom. On the other hand, theorists pursue trade theory's traditional goal: to explain wage-responses to the shock. This paper rationalizes recent evidence on employment and reconciles theory with a current empirical debate. To this purpose, the article derives employment responses that are continous in occupations' off shoring costs and depend on two labor dimensions: skill-intensities and tradeability characteristics. Furthermore, the paper yields intutitive wage-respsonses and addresses theorists' traditional concern. In particular, under the assumption that knowledge is occupation-specific, the article derives wage- responses that are not fully explained by skill-levels. More precisely, service offshoring deteriorates the wage of "many" skilled workers whose tasks have relatively low offshoring costs. |
| Keywords: | labor; wages, Labor Economics |
| Date: | 2011–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucsdec:2252344&r=lab |
| By: | Bodvarsson, Örn B. (St. Cloud State University); Sessions, John G. (University of Bath) |
| Abstract: | The traditional Becker/Arrow style model of discrimination depicts majority and minority and workers as perfectly substitutable inputs, implying that all workers have the same job assignment. The model is only appropriate for determining whether pay differences between, for example, whites and non-whites doing job assignment A are attributable to prejudice ('within-assignment discrimination'); It is inappropriate, however, for determining whether pay differences between whites in job assignment A and non-whites in job assignment B reflect discriminatory behaviour ('cross-assignment discrimination'). We test the model of such cross assignment discrimination developed by Bodvarsson and Sessions (2011) using data on Major League Baseball hitters and pitchers for four different seasons during the 1990s, a decade during which monopsony power fell. We find strong evidence of ceteris paribus racial pay differences between hitters and pitchers, as well as evidence that cross-assignment discrimination varies with labour market structure. |
| Keywords: | wage discrimination, complementarity, monopsony power |
| JEL: | J7 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5989&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre-Philippe Combes (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille II - Université Paul Cézanne - Aix-Marseille III - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - CNRS : UMR6579); Bruno Decreuse (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille II - Université Paul Cézanne - Aix-Marseille III - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - CNRS : UMR6579); Morgane Laouenan (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille II - Université Paul Cézanne - Aix-Marseille III - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - CNRS : UMR6579); Alain Trannoy (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille II - Université Paul Cézanne - Aix-Marseille III - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - CNRS : UMR6579) |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates the link between the over-exposure of African immigrants to unemployment in France and their under-representation in jobs in contact with customers. We build a two-sector matching model with ethnic sector-specific preferences, economy-wide employer discrimination, and customer discrimination in jobs in contact with customers. The outcomes of the model allow us to build a test of ethnic discrimination in general and customer discrimination in particular. We run the test on French individual data in a cross-section of Employment Areas. Our results show that there is customer discrimination in the French labor market for contact jobs; a decrease in discrimination intensity by one standard deviation would reduce the raw unemployment rate of African immigrants by 4.3 percentage points. |
| Keywords: | Customer Discrimination; Matching frictions; Jobs in contact; Ethnic Unemployment |
| Date: | 2011–09–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00624435&r=lab |
| By: | Bjerk, David (Claremont McKenna College) |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that while high school dropouts fare far worse on average than otherwise similar high school completers in early adulthood outcomes such as success in the labor market and future criminal activity, there are important differences within this group of dropouts. Notably, those who feel "pulled" out of school (i.e, they say they dropped out of school to work or take care of family) do similarly with respect to labor market and criminal outcomes in their early twenties to individuals with similar pre-dropout characteristics who complete high school. It is only those who feel they are more "pushed" out of school (i.e, they say they drop out for other reasons including expulsion, poor grades, moving, and not liking school) who do substantially worse than otherwise similar high school completers. These results suggest that any detrimental impacts from dropping out of school arise primarily when the drop out does not have a plan for how to use his time after dropping out. |
| Keywords: | dropouts, crime, wages, earnings, idleness |
| JEL: | J31 K42 I21 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5995&r=lab |
| By: | Kar, Saibal (Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta); Marjit, Sugata (Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta) |
| Abstract: | We provide an analysis of enforcement policies applicable to formal sector in dual labor markets. We use a framework with heterogeneous firms, endogenous determination of informal wage and politically dictated enforcement strategies. Firms which operate both in the formal and informal sectors do very little to increase employment when faced with the opportunity of hiring workers in the informal labor market. Thus enforcement of labor laws and other regulations should not have aggregate employment effects, particularly when workers are productively homogeneous. For firms operating exclusively in the informal sector, the outcome is different. Such features determine the stringency of enforcement in a market characterized by firms with varying levels of productivity. For example, in case of firms with relatively high levels of productivity, enforcement has to be stricter than in the case with relatively low productivity firms. Taxing the more productive seems to be the optimal strategy. |
| Keywords: | heterogeneous firms, informal labor, wage, labor regulations, enforcement |
| JEL: | J21 J31 J50 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5978&r=lab |
| By: | Kevin Lang; Jee-Yeon K. Lehmann |
| Abstract: | We review theories of race discrimination in the labor market. Taste-based models can generate wage and unemployment duration differentials when combined with either random or directed search even when strong prejudice is not widespread, but no existing model explains the unemployment rate differential. Models of statistical discrimination based on differential observability of productivity across races can explain the pattern and magnitudes of wage differentials but do not address employment and unemployment. At their current state of development, models of statistical discrimination based on rational stereotypes have little empirical content. It is plausible that models combining elements of the search models with statistical discrimination could fit the data. We suggest possible avenues to be pursued and comment briefly on the implication of existing theory for public policy. |
| JEL: | J31 J64 J71 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17450&r=lab |
| By: | Gibbons, Steve (London School of Economics); Silva, Olmo (Harvard Kennedy School); Weinhardt, Felix (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effect of neighbours' characteristics and prior achievements on teenage students' educational and behavioural outcomes using census data on several cohorts of secondary school students in England. Our research design is based on changes in neighbourhood composition caused explicitly by residential migration amongst students in our dataset. The longitudinal nature and detail of the data allows us to control for student unobserved characteristics, neighbourhood fixed effects and time trends, school-by-cohort fixed effects, as well as students' observable attributes and prior attainments. The institutional setting also allows us to distinguish between neighbours who attend the same or different schools, and thus examine interactions between school and neighbourhood peers. Overall, our results provide evidence that peers in the neighbourhood have no effect on test scores, but have a small effect on behavioural outcomes, such as attitudes towards schooling and anti-social behaviour. |
| Keywords: | peer and neighbourhood effects, cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes, secondary schools |
| JEL: | C21 I20 H75 R23 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5980&r=lab |
| By: | Alan L. Gustman; Thomas L. Steinmeier; Nahid Tabatabai |
| Abstract: | Studies using data from the early 1990s suggested that while the progressive Social Security benefit formula succeeded in redistributing benefits from individuals with high earnings to individuals with low earnings, it was much less successful in redistributing benefits from households with high earnings to households with low earnings. Wives often earned much less than their husbands. As a result, much of the redistribution at the individual level was effectively from high earning husbands to their own lower earning wives. In addition, spouse and survivor benefits accrue disproportionately to women from high income households. Both factors mitigate redistribution at the household level. This paper compares outcomes for the earlier cohort with those of a cohort born twelve years later. The aim of the study is to see whether, after the recent growth in two earner households, and the growth in women's labor market activity and earnings, the Social Security system now fosters somewhat more redistribution from high to low earning households. The analysis is based on data from the Health and Retirement Study and includes members of households with at least one person age 51 to 56 in either 1992 or in 2004. As expected, women enjoyed a more rapid growth of labor force participation, hours of work and covered earnings than men. This increased the redistribution of Social Security benefits among households. Nevertheless, a considerable gap remains between the labor market activities and earnings of women versus men. As a result, the Social Security system remains much less successful in redistributing benefits from households with high covered earnings to those with lower covered earnings than in redistributing benefits from individuals with high covered earnings to those with lower covered earnings. |
| JEL: | D31 H55 J11 J14 J16 J18 J26 J38 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17439&r=lab |
| By: | Addison, John T. (Department of Economics, Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA and Institute for Advances Studies, Vienna); Blackburn, McKinley L. (Department of Economics, Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA); Cotti, Chad D. (Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, USA) |
| Abstract: | Do apparently large minimum wage increases in an environment of straightened economic circumstances produce clearer evidence of disemployment effects than is typically reported in the new economics of the minimum wage? The present paper augments the sparse literature covering the very latest increases in the U.S. minimum wage, using three different data sets and the principal estimation strategies for handling geographically-disparate trends. Despite the seemingly more favorable milieu for identifying displacement effects, and although our treatment calls into question one well-received estimation strategy, our preferred specification generally fails to support a finding of negative employment effects. That is to say, minimum-wage workers are apparently concentrated in sectors of the economy for which the labor demand response to statutory wage hikes is minimal. Popular concern with a “recessionary multiplier” thus seems overdone. |
| Keywords: | Minimum wages, Disemployment, Earnings, Low-wage sectors, Geographically-disparate employment trends, Recession |
| JEL: | J2 J3 J4 J8 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ihs:ihsesp:273&r=lab |
| By: | Shawn Ni (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia); Michael Podgursky (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia) |
| Abstract: | The rising costs and large unfunded liabilities of defined benefit (DB) teacher retirement systems raise questions about their efficacy and viability. Reform of teacher pension plans depends critically on reliable predictions of behavioral responses to alternative pension rules. We estimate an option-value model of individual teacher retirement using administrative data for Missouri teachers. The model fits the observed aggregate retirement behavior very well. We use the estimated structural parameters to simulate retirement behavior under alternative pension rules. Our simulations show that on net the enhancements of Missouri teacher pension benefits in the 1990's lowered the average retirement age for teachers. Conversion from the current DB plan to a defined contribution (DC) plan would have the opposite effect, and would dampen "spikes" in teacher retirement timing. The 1990's enhancements raised welfare for all teachers, however, the DC plan that we simulate has a mixed welfare impact, raising welfare for teachers near retirement but reducing it for teachers with less experience. |
| Keywords: | teacher pensions, school staffing, school finance |
| JEL: | H30 I22 J26 J38 |
| Date: | 2011–09–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:1111&r=lab |
| By: | Lindley, Joanne (University of Surrey); Machin, Stephen (University College London) |
| Abstract: | This paper considers what has hitherto been a relatively neglected subject in the wage inequality literature, albeit one that has been becoming more important over time, namely the role played by increases in postgraduate education. We document increases in the number of workers with a postgraduate qualification in the United States and Great Britain. We also show their relative wages have risen over time as compared to all workers and more specifically to graduates with only a college degree. Consideration of shifts in demand and supply shows postgraduates and college only workers to be imperfect substitutes in production and that there have been trend increases over time in the relative demand for postgraduate vis-à-vis college only workers. These relative demand shifts are significantly correlated with technical change as measured by changes in industry computer usage and investment. Moreover, the skills sets possessed by postgraduates and the occupations in which they are employed are significantly different to those of college only graduates. Over the longer term period when computers have massively diffused into workplaces, it turns out that the principal beneficiaries of this computer revolution has not been all graduates, but those more skilled workers who have a postgraduate qualification. This has been an important driver of rising wage inequality amongst graduates over time. |
| Keywords: | wage inequality, postgraduate education, computers |
| JEL: | J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5981&r=lab |
| By: | Konstantopoulos, Spyros (Michigan State University); Sun, Min (Virginia Polytechnic University) |
| Abstract: | We examined the persistence of teacher effects from grade to grade on lower-performing students using high-quality experimental data from Project STAR, where students and teachers were assigned randomly to classrooms of different sizes. The data included information about mathematics and reading scores and student demographics such as gender, race, and SES. Teacher effects were computed as residual classroom achievement within schools and within grades. Then, teacher effects were used as predictors of achievement in following grades and quantile regression was used to estimate their persistence. Results consistently indicated that all students benefited similarly from teachers. Overall, systematic differential teacher effects were not observed and it appears that lower-performing students benefit as much as other students from teachers. In fourth grade there was some evidence that lower-performing students benefit more from effective teachers. Results from longitudinal analyses suggested that having effective teachers in successive grades is beneficial to all students and to lower-performing students in particular in mathematics. However, having low-effective teachers in successive grades is detrimental to all students and to lower-performing students in particular in reading. |
| Keywords: | teacher effects, low-achievers, quantile regression |
| JEL: | I20 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5974&r=lab |
| By: | Gerald Eisenkopf (Department of Economics, University of Konstanz, Germany); Zohal Hessami (Department of Economics, University of Konstanz, Germany); Urs Fischbacher (Department of Economics, University of Konstanz, Germany); Heinrich Ursprung (Department of Economics, University of Konstanz, Germany) |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of random assignment to coeducational and single-sex classes on the academic performance of female high school students. Our estimation results show that single-sex schooling improves the performance of female students in mathematics. This positive effect increases if the single-sex class is taught by a male teacher. An accompanying survey reveals that single-sex schooling also strengthens female students’ selfconfidence and renders the self-assessment of their mathematics skills more level-headed. Single-sex schooling thus has profound implications for human capital formation and the mind-set of female students. |
| JEL: | I21 J16 |
| Date: | 2011–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:knz:dpteco:1135&r=lab |
| By: | Lefebvre, Pierre (University of Québec at Montréal); Merrigan, Philip (University of Québec at Montréal); Michaud, Pierre-Carl (University of Québec at Montréal) |
| Abstract: | Using data from three waves of the General Social Survey on retirement and older workers (1994, 2002 and 2007), we document the evolution of retirement patterns over the last three decades. We combined the analysis of retirement ages of actual retirees with data on expected retirement ages of current workers to create a longer perspective on changes in retirement behaviour in Canada. We also investigate trends in work after retirement. Our findings are in line with findings from other countries. There is an upward trend in retirement ages which likely started around year 2000 for cohorts born after 1945. This trend contrasts with the slow decline in retirement ages observed prior to the end of the millennium. While the downward trend was likely due to factors such as the offering of early retirement programs in private firms, the upward trend is likely to be caused by a wider variety of sources, including better health, less pervasive defined benefit pensions and in general less generous pensions. |
| Keywords: | retirement, pensions, Canada |
| JEL: | J26 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5979&r=lab |
| By: | Cornwell, Christopher (University of Georgia); Mustard, David B. (University of Georgia); Van Parys, Jessica (Columbia University) |
| Abstract: | We extend the analysis of early-emerging gender differences in academic achievement to include both (objective) test scores and (subjective) teacher assessments. Using data from the 1998-99 ECLS-K cohort, we show that the grades awarded by teachers are not aligned with test scores, with the disparities in grading exceeding those in testing outcomes and uniformly favoring girls, and that the misalignment of grades and test scores can be linked to gender differences in non-cognitive development. Girls in every racial category outperform boys on reading tests and the differences are statistically significant in every case except for black fifth-graders. Boys score at least as well on math and science tests as girls, with the strongest evidence of a gender gap appearing among whites. However, boys in all racial categories across all subject areas are not represented in grade distributions where their test scores would predict. Even those boys who perform equally as well as girls on reading, math and science tests are nevertheless graded less favorably by their teachers, but this less favorable treatment essentially vanishes when non-cognitive skills are taken into account. White boys who perform on par with white girls on these subject-area tests and exhibit the same non-cognitive skill level are graded similarly. For some specifications there is evidence of a grade "bonus" for white boys with test scores and behavior like their girl counterparts. While the evidence is a little weaker for blacks and Hispanics, the message is essentially the same. |
| Keywords: | gender differences, test scores, grades, educational attainment |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5973&r=lab |
| By: | Gerald Eisenkopf; Zohal Hessami; Urs Fischbacher; Heinrich Ursprung |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of random assignment to coeducational and single-sex classes on the academic performance of female high school students. Our estimation results show that single-sex schooling improves the performance of female students in mathematics. This positive effect increases if the single-sex class is taught by a male teacher. An accompanying survey reveals that single-sex schooling also strengthens female studentsÕ selfconfidence and renders the self-assessment of their mathematics skills more level-headed. Single-sex schooling thus has profound implications for human capital formation and the mind-set of female students. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:twi:respas:0069&r=lab |
| By: | Luis Fernando Gamboa; Blanca Zuluaga |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to provide an estimation and decomposition of the motherhood wage penalty in Colombia. Our empirical strategy is based on the matching procedure designed by Ñopo (2008) for the case of gender wage gaps. This is an alternative procedure to the well-known Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method. The cross-section data of the Colombian Living Standard Survey allows us to decompose the wage gap in four components, according to the characteristics of mothers and non-mothers. We found that mothers earn, in average, 1:73% less than their counterparts without children and that this gap slightly decreases as the group includes older women. Taking into account that this procedure is sensitive to the set of variables included in the matching, several specifica- tions are tested. The main result of the paper is obtained when considering schooling as a matching variable. Once schooling is included, the unex-plained part of the gap considerably decreases and turns non significant.Thus, we do not find evidence of wage discrimination against mothers in the Colombian labor market. |
| Date: | 2011–09–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:008980&r=lab |
| By: | Fairlie, Robert W. (University of California, Santa Cruz); Hoffmann, Florian (University of British Columbia, Vancouver); Oreopoulos, Philip (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses detailed administrative data from one of the largest community colleges in the United States to quantify the extent to which academic performance depends on students being of similar race or ethnicity to their instructors. To address the concern of endogenous sorting, we use both student and classroom fixed effects and focus on those with limited course enrolment options. We also compare sensitivity in the results from using within versus across section instructor type variation. Given the computational complexity of the 2-way fixed effects model with a large set of fixed effects we rely on numerical algorithms that exploit the particular structure of the model's normal equations. We find that the performance gap in terms of class dropout and pass rates between white and minority students falls by roughly half when taught by a minority instructor. In models that allow for a full set of ethnic and racial interactions between students and instructors, we find African-American students perform particularly better when taught by African-American instructors. |
| Keywords: | race, education, minorities, college |
| JEL: | I23 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5983&r=lab |
| By: | Susumu Imai (Queen`s University, Department of Economics); Derek Stacey (Queen`s University, Department of Economics); Casey Warman (Queen`s University, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We examine the ability of male immigrants to transfer their occupational human capital using information from the O*NET and a unique dataset that includes both the last source country occupation and the first four years of occupations in Canada. We first augment a model of occupational choice and skill accumulation to derive predictions about the cross-border transferability of occupational human capital. We then test the empirical implications using the skill requirements of pre- and post-immigration occupations. We find that male immigrants to Canada were employed in source country occupations that required high levels of cognitive skills, but relied less intently on manual skills. Following immigration, they find initial employment in occupations that require the opposite. Regression analysis uncovers large returns to the quantitative skill requirements of Canadian occupations, but no returns to source country skill requirements. Finally, our empirical findings suggests that occupational skill gaps are detrimental to immigrants` earnings. |
| Keywords: | occupational mobility, skills, human capital, immigration |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J61 J71 J80 J62 D83 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qed:wpaper:1275&r=lab |
| By: | Bayo-Moriones, Alberto (University of Navarra); Galdón-Sánchez, José Enrique (Universidad Pública de Navarra); Martinez-de-Morentin, Sara (Universidad Pública de Navarra) |
| Abstract: | This article presents a study of the influences on the factors that shape wage adjustments. The cost of living, comparability with other firms' wages, the fulfilment of collective agreements at sector level, the need to recruit and retain employees, the performance of the organisation, and the climate of industrial relations are included as factors of interest. The analysis was carried out using a sample of Spanish manufacturing plants. Our results show that the structural characteristics of the establishment such as its size or foreign ownership, as well as the wage setting arrangements and trade unions, play a role in explaining the importance of the factors mentioned in shaping wage adjustments. The human resource management policies adopted by the employer seem to be less relevant, although the qualification of workers and the use of pay for performance have a significant impact on the process of wage adjustment. |
| Keywords: | pay settlements, collective bargaining, wage negotiation |
| JEL: | J30 J40 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5998&r=lab |
| By: | René Böheim (WIFO); Thomas Leoni (WIFO) |
| Abstract: | Sick workers in many countries receive sick pay during their illness-related absences from the workplace. In several countries, the social security system insures firms against their workers' sickness absences. However, this insurance may create moral hazard problems for firms, leading to the inefficient monitoring of absences or to an underinvestment in their prevention. In the present paper, we investigate firms' moral hazard problems in sickness absences by analysing a legislative change that took place in Austria in 2000. In September 2000, an insurance fund that refunded firms for the costs of their blue-collar workers' sickness absences was abolished (firms did not receive a similar refund for their white-collar workers' sickness absences). Before that time, small firms were fully refunded for the wage costs of blue-collar workers' sickness absences. Large firms, by contrast, were refunded only 70 percent of the wages paid to sick blue-collar workers. Using a difference-in-differences-in-differences approach, we estimate the causal impact of refunding firms for their workers' sickness absences. Our results indicate that the incidences of blue-collar workers' sicknesses dropped by approximately 8 percent and sickness absences were almost 11 percent shorter following the removal of the refund. Several robustness checks confirm these results. |
| Keywords: | Absenteeism Moral Hazard Sickness Insurance |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2011:i:400&r=lab |
| By: | de Grip, Andries (ROA, Maastricht University); Sauermann, Jan (ROA, Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the effects of work-related training on worker productivity. To identify the causal effects from training, we combine a field experiment that randomly assigns workers to treatment and control groups with panel data on individual worker performance before and after training. We find that participation in the training programme leads to a 10 percent increase in performance. Moreover, we provide experimental evidence for externalities from treated workers on their untreated teammates: An increase of 10 percentage points in the share of treated peers leads to a performance increase of 0.51 percent. We provide evidence that the estimated effects are causal and not the result of employee selection into and out of training. Furthermore, we find that the performance increase is not due to lower quality provided by the worker. |
| Keywords: | training, field experiment, peer effects, productivity |
| JEL: | J24 M53 C93 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5976&r=lab |
| By: | Lorenzo Corsini |
| Abstract: | We analyse the role that wealth and unemployment benefits have on unemployment duration and try to tackle the different mechanisms through which they may interact. In particular, we investigated on whether liquidity constraints (which are influenced both by wealth and benefits) are affecting negatively search effort and thus unemployment duration and whether the benefits eligibility criteria, requiring active search could produce incentives to find a job. Using a sample of newly unemployed from Italy in 2007, we perform estimations of Cox hazard models and as- sess what variables are important in determining unemployment duration. Our analysis highlights three relevant features. 1) Benefits have a mixed effect on duration: initially they provide incentives to actively search and increase re-employment probability, as the eligibility criteria impose certain search requirements and benefits are associated to re-employment services and counseling. However, with time, the mitigation of liquidity constraints takes over and they increase duration. 2) Household wealth, reducing liquidity constraints, seems to increase duration. 3) We find interactions between benefits and wealth: individuals from richer house- holds have less liquidity constraints and therefore the mitigating effect of benefits on liquidity constraints is less relevant and, in fact, we do not find evidence that, for these individuals, benefits increase unemployment duration. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment Insurance; Household Wealth; Unemployment Duration; Duration Models. |
| JEL: | J64 J65 D31 |
| Date: | 2011–01–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pie:dsedps:2011/119&r=lab |
| By: | Peter J. Kuhn; Kailing Shen |
| Abstract: | We study firms' advertised gender preferences in a population of ads on a Chinese internet job board, and interpret these patterns using a simple employer search model. The model allows us to distinguish firms' underlying gender preferences from firms' propensities to restrict their search to their preferred gender. The model also predicts that higher job skill requirements should reduce the tendency to gender-target a job ad; this is strongly confirmed in our data, and suggests that rising skill demands may be a potent deterrent to explicit discrimination of the type we document here. We also find that firms' underlying gender preferences are highly job-specific, with many firms requesting men for some jobs and women for others, and with one third of the variation in gender preferences within firm*occupation cells. |
| JEL: | J16 J63 J71 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17453&r=lab |
| By: | Cawley, John (Cornell University) |
| Abstract: | This guide, updated for the 2011-12 job market season, describes the U. S. academic market for new Ph.D. economists and offers advice on conducting an academic job search. It reports findings from published papers, describes practical details, and provides links to internet resources. Topics addressed include: preparing to go on the market, applying for academic jobs, signaling, interviewing at the ASSA meetings, campus visits, the secondary market scramble, offers and negotiating, diversity, and dual job searches. |
| Keywords: | academic labor market, market for economists, salaries |
| JEL: | A11 J0 J44 A23 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5984&r=lab |
| By: | Avdic, Daniel (Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation); Gartell, Marie (Institute for Futures Studies) |
| Abstract: | In 2001, the Swedish system of student aid for college students was substantially reformed; the grant-share of the total aid was increased, students were allowed to earn more without a reduction in student aid, and the repayment schedule of the loans was significantly tightened. In this paper, we examine the effects of the reform on individual study efficiency, measured as the number of credit points achieved each semester. We use all program students with a first registration at a Swedish college between 1995 and 2001(before the reform) and estimate a linear regression model including individual fixed effects. There is a slightly positive and significant effect of the reform on the aggregate level. However, dividing the sample conditionally on the parental educational level reveals that the individual study efficiency has increased only for students from a strong academic background. In other words, the relative study efficiency has decreased for students from a weak academic background. The different results between students from different parental backgrounds appear to be related to the reallocation of time between work and studies. |
| Keywords: | study efficiency; time-to-graduation; university education; student aid |
| JEL: | I29 |
| Date: | 2011–09–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2011_012&r=lab |
| By: | Camille Landais; Pascal Michaillat; Emmanuel Saez |
| Abstract: | This paper characterizes optimal unemployment insurance (UI) over the business cycle using a model of equilibrium unemployment in which jobs are rationed in recession. It offers a simple optimal UI formula that can be applied to a broad class of equilibrium unemployment models. In addition to the usual statistics (risk aversion and micro-elasticity of unemployment with respect to UI), a macro-elasticity appears in the formula to capture the macroeconomic impact of UI on unemployment. In a model with job rationing, the formula implies that optimal UI is countercyclical. This result arises because in recession, jobs are lacking irrespective of job search. Therefore (1) a higher aggregate search effort cannot reduce aggregate unemployment much; and (2) individual search effort creates a negative externality by reducing other jobseekers' probability of finding a job as in a rat race. Hence the social benefits of job search are low. In a calibrated model, optimal UI increases significantly in recession. This quantitative result holds whether the government adjusts the level or duration of benefits; whether it balances its budget each period or uses deficit spending. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment insurance, business cycle, job rationing, matching frictions |
| JEL: | E24 E32 H21 H23 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1078&r=lab |
| By: | Karlson, Nils (The Ratio Institute); Lindberg, Henrik (The Ratio Institute) |
| Abstract: | The paper contributes to the discussion about the possible trends and processes towards decentralization of wage bargaining or wage setting within the OECD-countries since the 1970s. Based on a data set of 16 OECD countries from 1950 to 2000 our results show that in terms of bargaining level the trend is clear towards decentralization since the 1970s, even though there are important exceptions. In terms of confederal involvement the major decrease occurs among the Nordic countries and the Netherlands, whereas many of the other countries have had a status quo more or less. In terms of government involvement, however, the change is the almost non-existent. The overall tendency is still towards less centralisation, even though a number of countries have not changed or have moved in the opposite direction. Sweden, Denmark, UK and the Netherlands experience the largest decreases in decentralization overall. The processes of decentralization of wage bargaining look very differently in each country. It may occur through changes in the collective agreements themselves or through individual wage-setting outside the system of collective agreements. And the decentralization process may occur both in a context of cooperation between the labor-market organizations or in a setting of conflicts. |
| Keywords: | Wage bargaining; wage setting; collective agreements; centralization; decentralization; labour market models; OECD |
| JEL: | J52 |
| Date: | 2011–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0178&r=lab |
| By: | Anna Matysiak; Daniele Vignoli (Institute of Statistics and Demography, Warsaw School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we compare Italy and Poland, two countries where the country-specific obstacles to work and family reconciliation are similarly strong, but which differ in terms of the history of women’s labour force participation and of household living standards. We adopt a life course perspective, and trace women’s employment choices around the first and the second birth. On the one hand, our findings suggest the presence of a strong conflict between women’s paid work and childbearing in both countries. On the other, our results show that women’s employment clearly inhibits childbearing in Italy, while in Poland women tend to combine the two activities. Overall, we find that countries characterised by similarly strong institutionally or culturally driven tensions between work and family may differ in how women’s fertility and employment behaviours are interrelated. |
| Keywords: | work and family reconciliation, fertility, women’s employment, Poland, Italy |
| JEL: | J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isd:wpaper:41&r=lab |
| By: | Lorenzo Corsini |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates empirically the relationship between international trade (in particular with non-OECD countries) and wage differentials of workers with different skills. We examine years from 1996 and 2005 in several countries and, whereas past studies (conducted on previous years) had not detected any relevant relationship, we find a clean cut positive effect of imports from non-OECD countries on differentials. In addition, we find evidence that technological change is having a polarization effect on wages. |
| Keywords: | International Trade; Wage Differentials, Skills. |
| JEL: | D31 F16 J31 |
| Date: | 2011–01–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pie:dsedps:2011/118&r=lab |
| By: | Levenson, Alec (University of Southern California); Zoghi, Cindy (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics); Gibbs, Michael (University of Chicago); Benson, George (University of Texas at Arlington) |
| Abstract: | We study effects of a firm's attempt to optimize an existing incentive scheme to increase sales growth for direct store delivery workers. Before optimization workers reported Ratchet Effects that lowered productivity. The altered incentive plan offered higher compensation for increased sales relative to a sales growth target, and lower compensation for failing to meet the target. We gathered data on performance and attitudes at pilot and control sites before and after the change. Relative to control sites, sales growth increased in the pilot sites by two percent, a meaningful contribution to firm profits. We find no change in distortion of effort or manipulation of the performance measure. Workers did not substantially change number of hours worked, though allocation of time across tasks changed slightly. Despite increased productivity, workers continued to report Ratchet Effects after the change. We also find that an unplanned price increase midway through a fiscal year affected the extent of Ratchet Effects that year. |
| Keywords: | incentives, ratchet effect |
| JEL: | M52 J33 M12 L81 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5985&r=lab |
| By: | Monstad, Karin (University of Bergen); Propper, Carol (University of Bristol); Salvanes, Kjell G. (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | There is relatively little research on peer effects in teenage motherhood despite the fact that peer effects, and in particular social interaction within the family, are likely to be important. We estimate the impact of an elder sister’s teenage fertility on the teenage childbearing of their younger sister. To identify the peer effect we utilize an educational reform that impacted on the elder sister’s teenage fertility. Our main result is that within families, teen births tend to be contagious and the effect is larger where siblings are close in age and for women from low resource households. |
| Keywords: | Teenage pregnancy; spillover effects; education. |
| JEL: | I21 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2011–07–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2011_012&r=lab |
| By: | Peeters, Marga |
| Abstract: | Variations between the diverse pension systems in the member states of the European Union hamper labour market mobility, across country borders but also within the countries of the European Union. From a macroeconomic perspective, and in the light of demographic pressure, this paper argues that allowing individual instead of collective pension building would greatly improve labour market flexibility and thus enhance the functioning of the monetary union. I argue that working citizens would benefit, for three reasons, from pension saving in a risk-free savings account. First, citizens would have a clear picture of the accumulation of their own pension savings throughout their working life. Second, they would pay hardly any extra costs and, third, once retired they would not be subject to the whims of government or other pension fund managers. This paper investigates the feasibility of individual pension building under various parameter settings by calculating the pension saved during a working life and the pension dis-saved after retirement. The findings show that there are no reasons why the European Union and individual member states should not allow individual risk-free pension savings accounts. This would have macroeconomic benefits and provide a solid pension provision that can enhance mobility, instead of engaging workers in different mandatory collective pension schemes that exist around in the European Union. |
| Keywords: | pensions; labour market; monetary union; mobility; migration; |
| JEL: | H55 J32 G23 R23 J11 H75 H83 J61 E5 J26 |
| Date: | 2011–09–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:33571&r=lab |
| By: | Lindberg, Henrik (The Ratio Institute) |
| Abstract: | The paper studies the modern conflict patterns and conflict dimensions in Sweden 1993-2005. The aim is to trace and interpret the new patterns and dimensions of labour market conflict by collecting and compiling strike data from the National Conciliation Office, (1993-99) and the National Mediation Office (2000-2005). On the whole, strike activity has decreased steadily from the 1980s and onwards and in large parts of the Swedish labour market conflicts are very rare. A few small un-ions organising primarily non-manufacturing working class in the domestic sector, account for the majority of the sanctioned conflicts. The new pattern is that the re-maining conflicts in broad terms can be divided in two parts: conflicts over wages and other working conditions and conflicts about the collective bargaining itself. Each with its own logic. |
| Keywords: | Labour market; conflict; strike; secondary strike; blockade; Sweden; collective bargaining; strike patterns |
| JEL: | J52 |
| Date: | 2011–09–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0176&r=lab |
| By: | Kuhn, Peter J. (University of California, Santa Barbara); Villeval, Marie Claire (CNRS, GATE) |
| Abstract: | Are women disproportionately attracted to work environments where cooperation rather than competition is rewarded? This paper reports the results of a real-effort experiment in which participants choose between an individual compensation scheme and a team-based payment scheme. We find that women are more likely than men to select team-based compensation in our baseline treatment, but women and men join teams with equal frequency when we add an efficiency advantage to team production. Using a simple structural discrete choice framework to reconcile these facts, we show that three elements can explain the observed patterns in the team-entry gender gap: (1) a gender gap in confidence in others (i.e. women are less pessimistic about their prospective teammates' relative ability), (2) a greater responsiveness among men to instrumental reasons for joining teams, and (3) a greater "pure" preference for working in a team environment among women. |
| Keywords: | gender, cooperation, self-selection, confidence, experiment |
| JEL: | C91 J16 J24 J31 M5 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5999&r=lab |
| By: | Óscar Afonso (CEFUP, NIFIP, OBEGEF, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto); Armando Silva (Instituto Politécnico do Porto-ESEIG) |
| Abstract: | We built a general equilibrium endogenous growth model in which final goods are produced either in the relatively skilled-labour intensive exports sector or in the relatively unskilled-labour intensive domestic sector. We show that, by affecting the technological-knowledge bias, subsidies explain the simultaneous rise in the exports sector, the skill wage premium and the economic growth rate. Then, we use a Portuguese longitudinal database (1996-2003) and implement a propensity score matching approach to shed light upon the causal nexus between production-related subsidies and exports. Our empirical results seem to prove the theoretical predictions: subsides generate the rise in the wage premium of exporters and the increase in the relative size of export sector, even if no impact of subsidies is found in the capacity of enhancing new exporters. |
| Keywords: | Subsidies, Exports, Scale-invariant growth, Wages |
| JEL: | C61 J31 O13 O31 F13 F14 H29 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:429&r=lab |
| By: | Fanti, Luciano; Gori, Luca |
| Abstract: | We analyse the stability issue in a Cournot duopoly with heterogeneous players. We show that labour market institutions matter for the stability of the unique interior Cournot-Nash equilibrium. Interestingly, the role played by the existence of firm-specific unions on stability, when the degree of unionism is asymmetric between the two firms, is at all different depending on whether the unionised firm has bounded rational or naive expectations. Indeed, a shift in the union’s preference from employment towards wages acts as an economic (de)stabiliser when workers are paid with the (competitive) unionised wage by the bounded rational firm and with the (unionised) competitive wage by the naïve firm. |
| Keywords: | Bifurcation; Cournot; Heterogeneous expectations; Monopoly union |
| JEL: | J51 L13 D43 C62 |
| Date: | 2011–09–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:33694&r=lab |
| By: | Beleva, Iskra |
| Abstract: | The current study analyzes the status of both the European and the Bulgarian labor markets from the standpoint of the effects of the current crisis, which has affected the supply and demand of labor as well as the employment structure. It further examines the anti-crisis policies, which have been implemented by the EU and the member-countries of the Community as a means to mitigate the negative effects of the present global crisis that has befallen labor markets. It examines the scale of the crisis and the magnitude of its effect on the quantitative and qualitative parameters, which characterize the labor markets in the European countries and in Bulgaria. The current paper comments on the effects of the short-term policies aimed at overcoming the initial crisis-induced shocks. It further underlines the palliative characteristic of those measures and the need for a modern transition towards policies of a structural character. The combination of short-term anti-crisis measures with fundamental structural changes within labor markets is the successful strategy for restructuring labor markets as a means to achieve a higher level of labor productivity alongside a greater degree of competitiveness and dynamic economic growth. The book analyzes the status of both European and Bulgarian labour markets in regards to the effects of the current crisis on the labour supply and demand and employment structure. Further it examines anti-crisis policies implemented by EU member countries as a means to mitigate the negative effects of the current global crisis on the labour markets. The study examines the scale of the crisis and the magnitude of its effect on the quantitative and qualitative parameters characterizing the labour markets in EU countries and Bulgaria. The book comments on the effects of the short-term policies for overcoming the initial crisis-induced shocks. It underlines the palliative characteristic of those measures and the need for a modern transition towards structural policies. The combination of short-term anti-crisis measures and substantial structural changes is a successful strategy for restructuring the labour markets. Thus, a higher labour productivity and higher competitiveness and dynamic economic growth will be achieved. |
| Keywords: | labour market policy; labour demand; labour supply; unemployment; anti-crisis measures |
| JEL: | J21 J24 J23 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:33505&r=lab |
| By: | Yaw Nyarko; Kwabena Gyimah-Brempon |
| Abstract: | We study the role of education as a social protection mechanism. We compare the effectiveness of direct cash handouts in comparison to education over the long-term in reducing the vulnerability to poverty. We also look at the role of three inter-related mechanisms related to protection against shocks: Education, Remittances and Migration. We compute internal rates of return to investments education when the objective is social protection or poverty, and not just the value of incomes. We use Ghanaian Livings Survey data and show that, for benchmark interest rates, the returns to primary and secondary education are positive for social protection. This suggests that for the long-run, education may be a more important means of social protection than cash transfers. |
| Keywords: | Education; Migration; Remittances; Safety-Nets; Africa; O; O55; F35; F43 |
| Date: | 2011–05–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rsc:rsceui:2011/26&r=lab |
| By: | Gonzalez, Libertad (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) |
| Abstract: | I study the impact of a universal child benefit on fertility and family well-being. I exploit the unanticipated introduction of a new, sizeable, unconditional child benefit in Spain in 2007, granted to all mothers giving birth on or after July 1, 2007. The regression discontinuity-type design allows for a credible identification of the causal effects. I find that the benefit did lead to a significant increase in fertility, as intended, part of it coming from an immediate reduction in abortions. On the unintended side, I find that families who received the benefit did not increase their overall expenditure or their consumption of directly child-related goods and services. Instead, eligible mothers stayed out of the labor force significantly longer after giving birth, which in turn led to their children spending less time in formal child care and more time with their mother during their first year of life. I also find that couples who received the benefit were less likely to break up the year after having the child, although this effect was only short-term. Taken together, the results suggest that child benefits of this kind may successfully increase fertility, as well as affecting family well-being through their impact on maternal time at home and family stability. |
| Keywords: | child benefit, policy evaluation, fertility, regression discontinuity, labor supply, consumption |
| JEL: | D1 H5 J1 J2 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5994&r=lab |
| By: | Yaw Nyarko and Kwabena Gyimah-Brempong |
| Abstract: | We study the role of education as a social protection mechanism. We compare the effectiveness of direct cash handouts in comparison to education over the long-term in reducing the vulnerability to poverty. We also look at the role of three inter-related mechanisms related to protection against shocks: Education, Remittances and Migration. We compute internal rates of return to investments education when the objective is social protection or poverty, and not just the value of incomes. We use Ghanaian Livings Survey data and show that, for benchmark interest rates, the returns to primary and secondary education are positive for social protection. This suggests that for the long-run, education may be a more important means of social protection than cash transfers. |
| Date: | 2011–01–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erp:euirsc:p0288&r=lab |
| By: | Kaiser, Ulrich (University of Zurich); Kuhn, Johan Moritz (CEBR, Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | Subsidized research joint ventures (RJVs) between public research institutions and industry have become increasingly popular in Europe and the US. We study the long-run effects of such a support scheme that has been maintained by the Danish government since 1995. To cope with identification problems we apply nearest neighbor caliper matching and conditional difference-in-difference estimation methods. Our main findings are that (i) program participation effects are instant for annual patent applications and last for three years, (ii) employment effects materialize first after one year and (iii) there are no statistically significant effects on value added or labor productivity. We further show that these overall results are primarily driven by firms that were patent active prior to joining the RJV and that there are no statistically significant effect for large firms. Both types of firms are disproportionally represented in the support program we study. |
| Keywords: | public-private partnership, research joint venture, research and development, research subsidies |
| JEL: | O31 O38 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5986&r=lab |
| By: | Addison, John T. (University of South Carolina); Teixeira, Paulino (University of Coimbra); Bryson, Alex (National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR)); Pahnke, André (IfM Bonn) |
| Abstract: | This paper depicts and examines the decline in collective bargaining coverage in Germany. Using repeat cross-section and longitudinal data from the IAB Establishment Panel, we show the overwhelming importance of behavioral as opposed to compositional change and, for the first time, document workplace transitions into and out of collective agreements via survival analysis. We provide estimates of the median duration of coverage, and report that the factors generating entry and exit are distinct and symmetric. |
| Keywords: | sectoral and firm agreements, changes in collective bargaining/works council coverage, shift-share analysis, bargaining transitions, survivability |
| JEL: | J50 J53 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5987&r=lab |
| By: | Sunde, Uwe (University of St. Gallen); Vischer, Thomas (University of St. Gallen) |
| Abstract: | This paper suggests that the weak empirical effect of human capital on growth in existing cross-country studies is partly the result of an inappropriate specification that does not account for the different channels through which human capital affects growth. A systematic replication of earlier results from the literature shows that both, initial levels and changes in human capital, have positive growth effects, while in isolation, each channel often appears insignificant. Moreover, the effects are heterogeneous across countries with different levels of development. The results suggest that the effect of human capital is likely to be underestimated in empirical specifications that do not account for both channels. This study therefore complements alternative explanations for the weak growth effects of human capital based on outlier observations and measurement issues. |
| Keywords: | human capital, growth regressions, specification |
| JEL: | O47 O11 O15 E24 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5991&r=lab |
| By: | Thomas Bossuroy |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the individual determinants of ethnic identication using large sample surveys (about 30,000 respondents) representative of seven capitals of West-African countries. A small model that relates ethnic identication to an investment in ethnic capital suggests that individuals initially deprived of social or human capital resort to ethnicity to get socially inserted, and do even more so if their ethnic group itself is well inserted. Empirical results are consistent with this simple theory. First, education lowers ethnic salience. Second, ethnic identication is higher for uneducated unemployed or informal workers who seek a new or better job, and is further raised by the share of the individual's ethnic group integrated on the job market. Third, ethnic identication is higher among migrants, and raised by the share of the migrant's ethnic group that is employed. Group solidarity makes ethnic identity more salient for individuals deprived of other means for upward mobility. |
| Keywords: | Ethnicity, Identity, Social capital, Networks, Africa |
| JEL: | A13 A14 D74 O17 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:242&r=lab |
| By: | Martin-Barroso, David; Nuñez-Serrano, Juan Andres; Turrion, Jaime; Velazquez, Francisco J. |
| Abstract: | The European Map of Job Flows (EMJF) is a term used to denote a dataset of meso- and macro-level variables describing different aspect of labour mobility within national labour markets in Europe. In this paper, EMJF is centred on the notion of job “flows”, namely the changes in the level of employment at different breakdowns and levels of aggregation. EMJF is very rich in information content due to the wide variety of possible breakdown of the data and in this sense it is a “map” mostly in the virtual sense, namely, that it is not possible to visualise in the form of geographic maps all the wealth of available information. In terms of its value as a research product and tool, EMJF is mostly an intermediate product in the sense that it is a convenient means to organise the relevant information, which could subsequently be used for different analytical and research purposes. It provides both for cross-sections/snapshots of job flows at different point in time but also it allows their assessment and analysis over longer periods of time. In this sense, EMJF can be widely used for various types of labour-market analysis and research. EMJF’s visual components can also be a convenient tool for policy makers dealing with labour market policies at different level (regional, national or supra-national) in the decision-making process. Here we present a Compilation of a EMJF on the basis of firm-level data In this sense the job flows are built up on the basis of firm-level data for individual countries, following a common methodology. We adopt an approach of establishing such a EMJF on the basis of the AMADEUS dataset developed by the consultancy Bureau van Dijk. The dataset in its most extended version contains balance sheet data and ownership data for almost 14 million firms from 43 different European countries (September 2009 update). For many EU countries the dataset has in principle access to the entire universe of firms which have to report a balance sheet. In terms of countries, the geographic coverage of AMADEUS encompasses information for all the 27 members of the European Union (albeit with different qualities in terms of national coverage) as well as other 16 European countries that complete the geographical and political definition of the continent. Another interesting feature of the database is given by the detailed definition of a firm's location, with data available on the region (NUTS2) and the city in which the firm operates. This project deliverable presents the main results from the final stage of MICRO-DYN work on the EMJF. It discusses the approach to building the EMJF on the basis of AMADEUS data and illustrates the analytical potential of the EMJF as a research tool with a range of Europe-wide analytical exercises. Probably the most important outcome of this research effort is the demonstrated capability to perform meta-analysis at the European level of important labour market characteristics on the basis of firm-level data. |
| Keywords: | job flows; europe; labor market; microdata |
| JEL: | J21 J23 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:33602&r=lab |
| By: | Emel Memis; S. A. Kaya Bahce |
| Abstract: | This paper provides estimates of the impact of the recent economic crisis on paid and unpaid work time in Turkey. The data used in this study come from the first and only time-use survey available at the national level. Infrequency of collection of time-use data in Turkey does not allow us to make a direct comparison of pre- versus postcrisis time-use patterns. We introduce a tractable way for estimating these possible effects by measuring the impact of an increase in unemployment risk on time-use patterns of women and men living in couple households. The method developed here can be applied to other developing-country cases where there is a lack of longitudinal data availability. Our findings support the argument that economic crises reinforce the preexisting gender inequalities in work time. |
| Keywords: | Economic Crisis; Gender Inequality; Time Use; Unemployment Risk; Unpaid Work; Turkey |
| JEL: | B54 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_686&r=lab |
| By: | Bruce Chapman (The Australian National University, Research School of Social Sciences (RSSS) - Economics Program; The Australian National University (ANU) - Crawford School of Economics and Government) |
| Abstract: | It is commonplace in Australian policy debate for groups presumed to be adversely affected by proposed policies to provide estimates of the undesirable consequences of change. A fashionable form relates to predictions of job losses for the group affected, usually accompanied by counter-claims made by the government of the day or other groups in favour of the policy. A highly public example of the above is the claim by the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA), based on work done in 2009 by Concept Economics (2009) that the then-planned Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) would result in 23,510 fewer jobs in Australian mining than would otherwise be the case. A major background issue is that most economists would argue that any changes in the relative price of carbon-producing output must also be associated with offsetting increases in employment as a result of the higher level of activity in, for example, alternative energy production, and this is perhaps the critical point in the jobs debate concerning the consequences of policy reform. While we acknowledge this fact, the very large "job loss" figure might be a frighteningly large number for many observers, so we address the question: how many jobs is 23,510, really? Our research reports on findings using three different data series and methods to put into context the supposed jobs loss figure. The paper presents analyses of different data sets aimed at improving the understanding of, and putting into an aggregate economy context, the projected mining sector "job losses" as a result of the 2009 planned ETS. While the focus is on the ETS and mining, the illustrations apply to almost all public and political debate concerning the meaning of job loss projections from anticipated policy reform in an aggregate labour market context. It matters, for example, for the Murray Darling Basin Plan. We recognise that there are some weaknesses with respect to the data and methods used. Even so, a very clear and consistent message has come through. It is that the projected job losses from the ETS, particularly when considered over a 10 year time horizon, are in a statistical sense close to invisible with respect to employment and unemployment stocks, and trivial with respect to aggregate flows in the labour market. Also, it is apparently the case that with respect to mining sector employment the projected losses are a very small proportion of overall inflows to and outflows from mining. Further, it seems to be the case that those leaving mining periods of growth are not then entering a protracted period, and more likely any period at all, of unemployment. Our results should not be taken to mean that economic policy reform is costless to all employees who might be affected by sectoral changes in the labour market, and there remain clear roles for government to minimise the personal costs for those so disadvantaged. As well, the details of this research cannot be translated into precise analyses of the employment effects of the carbon price policy being developed by the current government. But the essential points concerning the size and meaning of mining sector employment effects should not be in dispute; the alleged "jobs losses" aspect of the climate change policy debate is not in any sense important to the overall discourse. |
| Keywords: | Mining employment, job flows, carbon pricing policies, unemployment |
| JEL: | E24 E27 E60 J20 J23 J60 Q48 Q54 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:crwfrp:1104&r=lab |
| By: | Chloe Gibbs; Jens Ludwig; Douglas L. Miller |
| Abstract: | Head Start is a federal early childhood intervention designed to reduce disparities in preschool outcomes. The first randomized experimental study of Head Start, the National Head Start Impact Study (NHSIS), found impacts on academic outcomes of .15 to .3 standard deviations measured at the end of the program year, although the estimated impacts were no longer significant when measured at the end of kindergarten or first grade. Assessments that Head Start is ineffective based on the NHSIS results are in our view premature, given our currently limited understanding of how and why early childhood education improves long-term life chances. Many of the specific changes to Head Start that have been proposed could potentially wind up doing more harm than good. |
| JEL: | I21 I38 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17452&r=lab |
| By: | John T. Addison (University of South Carolina and GEMF); Paulino Teixeira (University of Coimbra and GEMF); Alex Bryson (National Institute of Economic and Social Research and CEP); André Pahnke (Institut für Mittelstandsforschung) |
| Abstract: | This paper depicts and examines the decline in collective bargaining coverage in Germany. Using repeat cross-section and longitudinal data from the IAB Establishment Panel, we show the overwhelming importance of behavioral as opposed to compositional change and, for the first time, document workplace transitions into and out of collective agreements via survival analysis. We provide estimates of the median duration of coverage, and report that the factors generating entry and exit are distinct and symmetric. |
| Keywords: | Sectoral and firm agreements, changes in collective bargaining/works council coverage, shift-share analysis, bargaining transitions, survivability. |
| JEL: | J50 J53 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gmf:wpaper:2011-15&r=lab |
| By: | Maarten van Rooij (De Nederlandsche Bank and Netspar); Annamaria Lusardi (The George Washington University School of Business and Netspar); Rob Alessie (University of Groningen, Netspar and Tinbergen Institute) |
| Abstract: | There is ample empirical evidence documenting widespread financial illiteracy and limited pension knowledge. At the same time, the distribution of wealth is widely dispersed and many workers arrive on the verge of retirement with few or no personal assets. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between financial literacy and household net worth, relying on comprehensive measures of financial knowledge designed for a special module of the DNB (De Nederlandsche Bank) Household Survey. Our findings provide evidence of a strong positive association between financial literacy and net worth, even after controlling for many determinants of wealth. Moreover, we discuss two channels through which financial literacy might facilitate wealth accumulation. First, financial knowledge increases the likelihood of investing in the stock market, allowing individuals to benefit from the equity premium. Second, financial literacy is positively related to retirement planning, and the development of a savings plan has been shown to boost wealth. Overall, financial literacy, both directly and indirectly, is found to have a strong link to household wealth. |
| Keywords: | Financial education; Savings and wealth accumulation; Retirement preparation; Knowledge of finance and economics; Overconfidence; Stock market participation. |
| JEL: | D91 D12 J26 |
| Date: | 2011–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crp:wpaper:119&r=lab |
| By: | Nicholas-James Clavet; Jean-Yves Duclos; Guy Lacroix |
| Abstract: | In 2002 the Government of Quebec enacted Bill 112, known as An Act to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion. It has also instituted an advisory committee whose role is to advise the government on policies that may have a direct or indirect impact on poverty and social exclusion. The Committee published a series of recommendations in 2009 that more or less amount to a Guaranteed Minimum Income scheme. We investigate the likely consequences of the recommendations on employment and income of all individuals residing in the Province of Quebec. We do this through the use of a behavioural micro-simulation model. Our results show that the proposed recommendations would have a large negative impact on hours of work and labor force participation – and mostly so among low-income workers. The recommendations would involve outlays in the order of $2.2 billion per year. |
| Keywords: | Poverty, Guaranteed minimum income (GMI), Micro-simulation, Behavioural response, Cost of GMI |
| JEL: | I38 J22 J48 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:lacicr:1129&r=lab |
| By: | Ivan O. Kitov |
| Abstract: | Okun's law for the biggest developed countries is re-estimated using the most recent data on real GDP per capita and the rate of unemployment. Our results show that the change in unemployment rate can be predicted with a high accuracy. The link needs the introduction of a structural break which might be caused by the change in monetary policy or/and in measurement units. Statistically, the link between the studied variables is characterized by the coefficient of determination between 0.40 (Australia) and 0.84 (the USA). The residual errors can be associated with measurement errors. The obtained results suggest the absence of structural unemployment in the studied developed countries. |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1109.4383&r=lab |
| By: | Reinshagen, Felix |
| Date: | 2011–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:dissen:13430&r=lab |
| By: | Timothy Perri |
| Abstract: | Spence (1974a) considered a variant of his signaling model in which there are two types of jobs, and in which signaling can increase wealth by improving the allocation of individuals to jobs. Using results in signaling games since Spence’s work---the Riley outcome (Riley, 1979), the intuitive criterion (Cho and Kreps, 1987), and undefeated equilibrium (Mailath et al., 1993)---it is possible to be more precise than Spence was in determining when signaling would occur and what the effect of signaling on wealth would be. We find the likelihood of efficient signaling, inefficient signaling, and pooling equilibria depends on the fraction of more able individuals in the population. With non-trivial gains from job allocation, inefficient signaling does not appear to be the most likely outcome. Key Words: signaling, pooling, Riley outcome, intuitive criterion, and undefeated equilibrium |
| JEL: | D82 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apl:wpaper:11-16&r=lab |
| By: | Chiara Diana |
| Abstract: | The Education affair in Egypt is a Janus-faced case considered both as ‘local’ and ‘global’. There are local factors specific to this country - the Islamization of the Egyptian society’s moeurs - as well as elements of global and international nature, that insert the Egyptian education case in the larger analytical framework of Globalization. After highlighting how Egypt got involved in the global system by the application of new economic and neoliberal policies, the paper will focus on the dilemma of the Education affair, on islamized attitudes of the educational staff and on new educational policies aimed at contrasting with the rise of Islamization of all public education system. By this, two opposing forces are being in action in Egypt today: on the one hand, a ‘local’ inner force which pushes a part of society toward a radicalization of religious references and on the other hand, a ‘global’ international force which supports the Egyptian government to enforce laws, projects, programmes enabling to guarantee an apparent and precarious balance in the country. |
| Keywords: | globalization |
| Date: | 2011–01–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erp:euirsc:p0278&r=lab |
| By: | Ivan Kitov; Oleg Kitov |
| Abstract: | We have modeled the employment/population ratio in the largest developed countries. Our results show that the evolution of the employment rate since 1970 can be predicted with a high accuracy by a linear dependence on the logarithm of real GDP per capita. All empirical relationships estimated in this study need a structural break somewhere between 1975 and 1995. Such breaks might be caused by revisions to monetary policy (e.g. inflation targeting) or/and changes in measurement units. Statistically, the link between measured and predicted rate of employment is characterized by the coefficient of determination from 0.84 (Australia) to 0.95 (Japan). The model residuals are likely to be associated with measurement errors. |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1109.4399&r=lab |
| By: | Dessi, Roberta (Toulouse School of Economics (IDEI and GREMAQ), and CEPR); Rustichini, Aldo (University of Minnesota) |
| Abstract: | Standard economic models with complete information predict a positive, monotonic relationship between pay and performance. This prediction does not always hold in experimental tests: offering a small payment may result in lower performance than not offering any pay- ment. We test experimentally two main explanations that have been put forward for this result: the "incomplete contract" hypothesis views the payment rule as a signal given to subjects on purpose of the activity. The "informed principal" hypothesis views it as a signal concerning the characteristics of the agent or of the task. The incomplete contract view appears to oer the best overall explanation for our results. We also nd that high-powered monetary incentives do not "crowd out" intrinsic motivation, but may elicit "too much" eort when intrinsic motivation is very high. |
| Date: | 2011–09–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ide:wpaper:24942&r=lab |