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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Ejrnæs, Mette (University of Copenhagen); Kunze, Astrid (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates how the first childbirth affects the wage processes of women who are well-established in the labour market. We estimate a flexible …fixed-effects wage regression model extended by post-childbirth…fixed effects. We use register data on West Germany and exploit the expansionary family policy during the late 1980s and 1990s for identification. On their return to work after childbirth, mothers’wages drop by 3 to 5.7 per cent per year of leave. We find negative selection back to full-time work after childbirth. We discuss policy implications regarding statistical discrimination and results concerning the family gap. |
| Keywords: | Wages; parental leave; human capital; control function. |
| JEL: | C23 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2012–02–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2012_004&r=lab |
| By: | Rottmann, Horst; Flaig, Gebhard |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with the effects of labour market institutions on unemployment in a panel of 19 OECD countries for the period 1960 to 2000. In contrast to many other studies, we use long time series and analyze cyclically adjusted trend values of the unemployment rate. Our novel contribution is the estimation of panel models where we allow for heterogeneous effects of institutions on unemployment. Our main results are that on the average a tighter employment protection, a higher tax burden on labour income and a more generous unemployment insurance system increase, whereas a higher centralization of wage negotiations decreases unemployment. The strength of the effects differs considerably between countries. -- |
| Keywords: | Employment protection,labour market institutions,unemployment,international comparison |
| JEL: | J23 E24 J50 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hawdps:31&r=lab |
| By: | John Schmitt; Janelle Jones |
| Abstract: | Relative to any of the most common benchmarks – the cost of living, the wages of the average worker, or average productivity levels – the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is well below its historical value. These usual reference points, however, understate the true erosion in the minimum wage in recent decades because the average low-wage worker today is both older and much better educated than the average low-wage worker was in the past. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage, low-wage, education, age |
| JEL: | J J3 J31 J1 J11 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epo:papers:2012-11&r=lab |
| By: | Riddell, Chris; Riddell, Craig |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether policies that encourage recipients to exit welfare for full-time employment influence participation in educational activity. The Self-Sufficiency Project (‘SSP’) was a demonstration project where long-term welfare recipients randomly assigned to the treatment group were offered a generous earnings supplement if they exited welfare for full-time employment. We find that treatment group members were less likely to upgrade their education along all dimensions: high-school completion, enrolling in a community college or trade school, and enrolling in university. Thus, ‘work-first’ policies that encourage full-time employment may reduce educational activity and may have adverse consequences on the long-run earnings capacity of welfare recipients. We also find that there was a substantial amount of educational upgrading in this population. For instance, among high-school dropouts at the baseline, 19% completed their diploma by the end of the demonstration. Finally, we simulate the consequences of the earnings supplement in the absence of adverse effects on educational upgrading. Doing so alters the interpretation of the lessons from the SSP demonstration. |
| Keywords: | welfare policy, human capital, experimental methods, earnings supplementation |
| JEL: | I38 J08 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2012-11&r=lab |
| By: | Zuzana Brixiova; Balázs Égert |
| Abstract: | The unemployment rate in Estonia rose sharply in 2010 to one of the highest levels in the EU, after the country entered a severe recession in 2008. While the rate declined relatively rapidly in 2011, it remained high especially for the less educated. In 2009, the Employment Contract Law relaxed employment protection legislation and sought to raise income protection of the unemployed to facilitate transition from less to more productive jobs while mitigating social costs. Utilizing a search model, this paper shows that increasing further labour market flexibility through reducing the tax wedge on labour would facilitate the structural transformation and reduce the long-term unemployment rate. Linking increases in unemployment benefits to participation in job search or training programmes would improve the unemployed workers' incentives to search for jobs or retrain and the medium term labour market outcomes. Social protection schemes for the unemployed should be also strengthened as initially intended to give the unemployed sufficient time to search for adequate jobs or retrain for new opportunities. |
| Keywords: | Labour market reforms, search model, Estonia, OECD countries |
| JEL: | J08 J64 E24 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2012-16&r=lab |
| By: | Russell Cooper; Guan Gong; Ping Yan |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the employment and productivity implications of new labor regulations in China. These new restrictions are intended to protect workers' employment conditions by, among other things, increasing firing costs and increasing compensation. We estimate a model of costly labor adjustment from data prior to the policy. We use the estimated model to simulate the effects of the policy. We find that increases in severance payments lead to sizable job creation, a significant reduction in labor reallocation and an increase in the exit rate. A policy of credit market liberalization will reduce employment, slightly increase labor reallocation and reduce exit. The estimated elasticity of labor demand is about unity so that an increase in the base wage leads to sizable job losses. |
| JEL: | E24 J08 J23 O38 O53 P2 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17948&r=lab |
| By: | NISHIMURA Kazuo; HIRATA Junichi; YAGI Tadashi; URASAKA Junko |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examined the impact of changes in the content of science learning on the formation of personal capacity and on the competitiveness of workers in the labor market, by analyzing data on the incomes of university graduates. In order to analyze the impact of changes in the Guidelines for the curriculum, we divided the samples into three groups according to the curriculum applied to their high school education (pre-Yutori Education generation, Yutori Education generation, New Outlook on Academic Achievement generation). Our analysis showed that the younger the sampled subject, or, to put it another way, the lesser the emphasis on subject-based learning, the greater the negative effect on learning in the science subjects, manifesting itself in a tendency for students to adopt an unfavorable view of science subjects. Moreover, our results also showed that, in every generation, physics learning contributed to an increase in income, and further implied that physics learning was also a significant factor in the formation of earning capacity. |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:12001&r=lab |
| By: | Adda, Jérôme; Dustmann, Christian; Stevens, Katrien |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the life-cycle career costs associated with child rearing and decomposes their effects into unearned wages (as women drop out of the labor market), loss of human capital, and selection into more child-friendly occupations. We estimate a dynamic life-cycle model of fertility, occupational choice, and labor supply using detailed survey and administrative data for Germany for numerous birth cohorts across different regions. We use this model to analyze both the male-female wage gap as it evolves from labor market entry onward and the effect of pro-fertility policies. We show that a substantial portion of the gender wage gap is explainable by realized and expected fertility and that the long-run effect of policies encouraging fertility are considerably lower than the short-run effects typically estimated in the literature. |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:syd:wpaper:2123/8068&r=lab |
| By: | Hilary W. Hoynes; Douglas L. Miller; Jessamyn Schaller |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine how business cycles affect labor market outcomes in the United States. We conduct a detailed analysis of how cycles affect outcomes differentially across persons of differing age, education, race, and gender, and we compare the cyclical sensitivity during the Great Recession to that in the early 1980s recession. We present raw tabulations and estimate a state panel data model that leverages variation across US states in the timing and severity of business cycles. We find that the impacts of the Great Recession are not uniform across demographic groups and have been felt most strongly for men, black and Hispanic workers, youth, and low education workers. These dramatic differences in the cyclicality across demographic groups are remarkably stable across three decades of time and throughout recessionary periods and expansionary periods. For the 2007 recession, these differences are largely explained by differences in exposure to cycles across industry-occupation employment. |
| JEL: | J11 J21 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17951&r=lab |
| By: | Alessia Matano; Paolo Naticchioni (Sapienza University of Rome Italy.) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at disentangling the role played by different theoretical explanations in accounting for the urban wage premium along the wage distribution. We analyze the wage dynamics of migrants from low-to-high-density areas in Italy, using quantile regression and individual panel data to control for the sorting of workers. The results show that skilled workers enjoy a higher wage premium when they migrate (wage level effect), in line with the agglomeration externalities explanation, while unskilled workers benefit more from a wage premium accruing over time (wage growth effect). Further, investigating the determinants of the wage growth effect in greater depth, we find that for unskilled workers the wage growth is mainly due to human capital accumulation over time, consistently with the “learning” hypothesis, while for skilled workers it is the “coordination” hypothesis that matters. |
| Keywords: | Urban Wage Premium, Human Capital, Spatial Sorting, Wage Distribution, Quantile Fixed Effects |
| JEL: | J31 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:des:wpaper:23&r=lab |
| By: | Joanna K Swaffield |
| Abstract: | This paper presents difference-in-differences estimates of the impact of the British minimum wage on the wage growth of low-wage employees. Estimates of the probability of low-wage employees receiving positive wage growth have been significantly increased by the minimum wage upratings or hikes. However, whether the actual wage growth of these workers has been significantly raised or not depends crucially on the magnitude of the minimum wage hike considered. Findings are consistent with employers complying with the legally binding minimum wage but holding down or offsetting the wage growth that they might have awarded in periods of relatively low minimum wage hikes. |
| Keywords: | Minimum wages, wage growth, difference-in-differences estimator, measurement error |
| JEL: | J31 J38 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:yorken:12/10&r=lab |
| By: | Keifman, Saul N.; Maurizio, Roxana |
| Abstract: | Labour market incomes have been a major contributor to the important fall in inequality in Latin America during the 2000s. Indeed, it was the main contributor in countries where inequality fell more dramatically. A proper understanding of the workings of the labour market is necessary to comprehend why inequality fell, what lies ahead of us and what we can do to achieve more equitable societies in Latin America. Social progress was real in the last decade but we should not overlook the structural deficits that still remain in Latin American labour markets. Inequality fell more dramatically in countries where formality rose faster and real minimum wages increased more significantly. Labour market institutions have a played positive role in reducing inequity in the last decade. |
| Keywords: | labour institutions, inequality, Latin America, minimum wage |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2012-14&r=lab |
| By: | Seungjin Han; Shintaro Yamaguchi |
| Abstract: | This paper studies a stable job matching equilibrium and the implicit pricing of non-wage job characteristics. It departs from the previous literature by allowing worker heterogeneity in productivity instead of preferences, giving rise to a double transaction problem in a hedonic model. We show explicitly how wage differences across jobs can be decomposed into compensating wage differentials for non-wage job characteristics and differences in worker productivity. We also derive sufficient conditions for an assortative job matching and a stable matching condition in a model with continuous agent types. Empirical evidence from the U.S. Census and job amenity data from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles strongly supports our theory. |
| Keywords: | assortative matching, compensating wage differentials, hedonic model, stable matching equilibrium, worker productivity heterogeneity |
| JEL: | C78 J31 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:deptwp:2012-01&r=lab |
| By: | Julie L. Hotchkiss; Myriam Quispe-Agnoli; Fernando Rios-Avila |
| Abstract: | Using administrative, individual-level, longitudinal data from the state of Georgia, this paper finds that a documented worker employed by a firm that hires undocumented workers can expect to earn 0.15 percent less than if employed by a firm that does not hire undocumented workers. However, in sectors where there are opportunities for task specialization and benefits from communication skills, documented workers can expect to earn a wage premium of less than 1 percent from being employed at a firm that also hires undocumented workers. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedawp:2012-04&r=lab |
| By: | Clarke, Andrew; Skuterud, Mikal |
| Abstract: | Research comparing the labour market performance of recent cohorts of immigrants to Australia and Canada points to superior employment and earnings outcomes in Australia. Examining Australian and Canadian Census data between 1986 and 2006, we find that this performance advantage is not driven by differences in broader structural and macroeconomic labour market conditions affecting all new labour market entrants. Rather, the results from comparing immigrants from a common source country { either the UK, India, or China { suggest that the advantage, particularly in earnings, primarily reflects a difference in the source country distribution of Australian immigrants. Moreover, the recent tightening of Australian selection policy, most notably its use of mandatory pre-migration English-language testing, appears to be having an effect primarily by further shifting the source country distribution of immigrants away from non-English-speaking source countries, rather than in identifying higher-quality migrants within source countries. |
| Keywords: | Immigrant workers; labour market integration; immigrant selection policy |
| JEL: | J61 J31 J23 |
| Date: | 2012–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2012-10&r=lab |
| By: | George Chouliarakis; Monica Correa-Lopez |
| Abstract: | Theories of psychology and empirical evidence suggest that the reference transactions against which workers judge fairness exhibit inertia. This paper shows that a fair-wage model with inertia in fairness perceptions provides a plausible explanation for the observed negative correlation between changes in productivity growth and equilibrium unemployment over the medium run, a stylized fact that remains elusive to most other classes of models. It also shows that skillbiased productivity shocks and shocks to workers’ taste for equal pay have permanent effects on unemployment and the skill premium. Thus, skill-biased shocks to productivity increase unemployment among the lowskilled while, if high-skilled workers are less inequity-averse, they reduce unemployment among the high-skilled. |
| Keywords: | Fairnesss; Unemployment; Skill Premium; Fair Wage-Effort Hypothesis; Inequity Aversion; Personnel Management |
| JEL: | D03 E24 J31 M12 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bbv:wpaper:1203&r=lab |
| By: | Klasen, Stephan; Otter, Thomas; Villalobos Barria, Carlos |
| Abstract: | We examine the drivers of inequality change in Honduras between 1991-2007, trying to understand why inequality increased in Honduras until 2005, while it was falling in most other Latin American countries. Using annual household surveys, we document first rising inequality between 1991-2005, which is followed by falling inequality thereafter. Using an inequality decomposition technique, we show that the rising inequality between 1991 and 2005 was, for the most part, driven by the dispersion of labour incomes in rural areas. We also show that the extraordinary labour earnings disequalization is mainly the result of a widening wage gap between the tradable and non-tradable sectors and occupations, combined with highly segmented labour markets and poor overall educational progress. The underlying determinants of the divergencebetween tradable and non-tradable sectors were highly overvalued currencies and poor commodity process for Honduras. agricultural exports. Between 2005 and 2007, however, the inequality reduction was a result of equalizing trends in labour and non-labour incomes. The commodity boom promoting the tradable sector and remittances (in this order) played a significant role here, with government transfers playing a small supporting role. Since the decline in inequality is largely driven by international factors, we cannot be sure whether the decline in inequality will continue. |
| Keywords: | inequality, decomposition, education, wages, Honduras, migration |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2012-17&r=lab |
| By: | Esther Duflo; Pascaline Dupas; Michael Kremer |
| Abstract: | We examine a program that enabled Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) in Kenya to hire novice teachers on short-term contracts, reducing class sizes in grade one from 82 to 44 on average. PTA teachers earned approximately one-quarter as much as teachers operating under central government civil-service institutions but were absent one day per week less and their students learned more. In the weak institutional environment we study, civil-service teachers responded to the program along two margins: first, they reduced their effort in response to the drop in the pupil-teacher ratio, and second, they influenced PTA committees to hire their relatives. Both effects reduced the educational impact of the program. A governance program that empowered parents within PTAs mitigated both effects. Better performing contract teachers are more likely to transition into civil-service positions and we estimate large potential dynamic benefits of contract teacher programs on the teacher workforce. |
| JEL: | D71 I21 M51 O15 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17939&r=lab |
| By: | Chong, Sophia; Guillen, Pablo |
| Abstract: | We compare individual with collective contracts using variations of a repeated gift- exchange game. Firms consist of one employer and three workers. In the individual variation (I) different workers can receive separate wages. In the collective variation (C) workers receive the same wage. I and C are played altering the order across sessions resulting in four treatments: 1I, 1C, 2I, 2C. The wage offered in the first period of 1C is significantly higher than the wage offered in the first period of 1I. Average wage and effort become indistinguishable in phase 1 afterwards. Individual contracts resulted on higher average effort but undistinguishable wages when comparing 2I with 2C. In spite of an experimental design favourable to individual contracts, collective contracts fared unexpectedly well . |
| Keywords: | collective contracts; gift exchange; laboratory experiments |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:syd:wpaper:2123/8090&r=lab |
| By: | Barr, Abigail; Packard, Truman; Serra, Danila |
| Abstract: | There is general agreement that the existence of participatory institutions is a necessary condition for accountability, especially where top-down institutions are malfunctioning or missing. In education, the evidence on the effectiveness of participatory accountability is mixed. This paper argues that participation is a social dilemma and therefore depends, at least partly, on individuals'propensity to cooperate with others for the common good. This being the case, the mixed evidence could be owing to society-level heterogeneities in individuals'willingness and ability to overcome collective action problems. The authors investigate whether individuals'propensity to cooperate plays a role in parents'decisions to participate in both a school accountability system -- a"short route"to accountability -- and parliamentary elections -- a"long route"to accountability -- by combining survey data on 1,800 individuals'participation decisions with measures of their willingness to contribute to a public good in the context of a very simple, clearly defined laboratory experiment. They conduct a study in a new democracy, Albania, involving parents of children enrolled in primary schools. The findings confirm that, both across individuals within communities and across communities, the decision to hold teachers and school directors accountable directly through participation at the school level, and indirectly through political participation correlates with cooperativeness in a simple public goods game. |
| Keywords: | Parliamentary Government,Education For All,Tertiary Education,Primary Education,Governance Indicators |
| Date: | 2012–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6027&r=lab |
| By: | Heinrich R. Bohlmann |
| Abstract: | South African authorities are attempting to limit inflows of illegal immigrants. Evidence for the United States presented in Dixon et al (2011) suggests that a policy-induced reduction in labour supply from illegal immigrants generates a welfare loss for legal residents. I use a similar labour market mechanism within a dynamic CGE model for South Africa, but take into consideration a number of well-known facts about the local economy. With high unemployment rates among low skilled workers and a legal minimum wage in place, I find a net gain in employment and welfare for legal residents in South Africa when reducing the inflow of illegal immigrants. |
| Keywords: | Illegal immigration, dynamic CGE modelling |
| JEL: | J61 C68 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:274&r=lab |
| By: | Mosca, Irene |
| Abstract: | I use data from the first wave of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) to investigate the impact of obesity on the labour market status of older Irish individuals. I employ an anthropometric indicator of body composition (waist circumference) along with body mass index. I include a wide array of subjective and objective health indicators in the empirical model. I find that obese women are less likely to be at work. However, both the magnitude and statistical significance of this correlation are sensitive to the definition of obesity. Factors other than socioeconomic characteristics and health are also found to play a role in explaining why obese older women are less likely to be employed. Much weaker evidence is found for men. |
| Keywords: | BMI/data/employment/Individuals/Ireland/labour market/older/Waist Circumference |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp431&r=lab |
| By: | Yoshito Takasaki |
| Abstract: | Rapidly decreasing gender gaps in schooling in developing countries can be a result of a gendered division of child farm labor as a coping response to increased natural disasters. This paper makes a case for this conjecture by analyzing original household survey data from rural Fiji. Boys, not girls, contribute to farming only among cyclone victims with dwelling damage, independent of housing aid receipt. Boys' school enrollment is significantly lower than girls' only among victims who did not receive aid early enough. Boys with no elder brother and an educated father are particularly vulnerable in their progression to higher-level schools. |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tsu:tewpjp:2012-001&r=lab |
| By: | O'Sullivan, Vincent |
| Abstract: | Using data from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, I find that exogenous changes in the schooling of men born into lower social class families in Ireland during the late 1940s and 1950s had a statistically significant positive effect on their self-reported health in later life. I also find that the increased level of schooling had a statistically significant positive effect on physical exercise in later life as well as reducing the probability of an individual experiencing certain non-cardiovascular chronic conditions. However no statistically significant effect was found in relation to cardiovascular disease, self-rated mental health, smoking behaviour or self-reported and objectively measured memory although there is a high degree of imprecision in these estimates. |
| Keywords: | education/data/Social class/Ireland |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp429&r=lab |
| By: | Francesco Bogliacino (Amsterdam Insitute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS), Universiteit van Amsterdam); Lucchese, M. |
| Abstract: | In this article we use the unification of Germany in 1990 to test the hypothesis that an increase in the supply of a production factor generates skill biased technical change. We test for this mechanism in the context of the model presented by Acemoglu and Autor (2011) that allows endogenous assignment of skills to tasks in the economy. We use cohorts of workers from comparable countries as a control group. After discussing the possible confounding factors, we conclude that this effect is absent. The differential pattern among the countries seems to be determined by labor market flexibilization and tax reform. |
| Keywords: | Skill Biased Technological Change, Polarization, Natural Experiment JEL codes: J31, O33, O52 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aia:ginidp:dp26&r=lab |
| By: | Daysal, N. Meltem; Orsini, C. (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Abstract: In an aging society, determining which factors contribute to the employment of older individuals is increasingly important. This paper sheds light on the impact of medical innovation in the form of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) on employment of middle-aged women. HRT are drugs taken by middle-aged women to soften symptoms related to menopause. Before 2002, HRT products were among the most popular prescription drugs in America. We use the timing of the release of information of the potential hazardous effects of HRT—uncovered in 2002 by the largest randomized trials on women ever undertaken—as an instrument for the purchase of the affected drugs within a Fixed Effect Instrumental Variable framework. We find that HRT use impacts employment: namely, that HRT use increases employment by 25 percentage points among middle-aged women who would have taken HRT but who do not take HRT after the release of information of its potential hazardous effects. |
| Keywords: | Employment of middle-aged women;Drug safety. |
| JEL: | H8 I1 J2 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:2012026&r=lab |
| By: | Filipe R. Campante (Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University); Davin Chor (School of Economics, Singapore Management University) |
| Abstract: | We examine several hypotheses regarding the determinants and implications of political protest, motivated by the wave of popular uprisings in Arab countries starting in late 2010. We draw attention to one of the most fundamental correlates of political activity identied in the literature, namely education, and its interaction with economic circumstances. Using a combination of individual-level micro data and cross-country macro data, we highlight how rising levels of education coupled with economic under-performance display a strong link with participation in protest modes of political activity as well as incumbent turnover. Political protests are thus more likely when an increasingly educated populace does not have commensurate economic gains. We also nd that the implied political instability is associated with heightened pressures towards democratization. |
| Keywords: | Education; Human capital; Political protest; Demonstrations; Economic under-performance; Democratization. |
| JEL: | D72 D78 I20 I21 O15 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:siu:wpaper:08-2012&r=lab |
| By: | Naci H. Mocan; Duha Tore Altindag |
| Abstract: | Using data from the NLSY97 we analyze the impact of education on health behaviors, measured by smoking and heavy drinking. Controlling for health knowledge does not influence the impact of education on health behaviors, supporting the productive efficiency hypothesis. Although cognition, as measured by test scores, appears to have an effect on the relationship between education and health behaviors, this effect disappears once the models control for family fixed effects. Similarly, the impact of education on smoking and heavy drinking is the same between those with and without a learning disability, suggesting that cognition is not likely to be a significant factor in explaining the impact of education on health behaviors. |
| JEL: | I12 I20 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17949&r=lab |
| By: | Jesse Rothstein |
| Abstract: | Four years after the beginning of the Great Recession, the labor market remains historically weak. Many observers have concluded that "structural" impediments to recovery bear some of the blame. This paper reviews such structural explanations. I find that there is little evidence supporting these hypotheses, and that the bulk of the evidence is more consistent with the hypothesis that continued poor performance is primarily attributable to shortfalls in the aggregate demand for labor. |
| JEL: | E24 E32 E6 J21 J3 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17966&r=lab |
| By: | Michael D. Makowsky (Department of Economics, Towson University); Thomas Stratmann (Department of Economics, George Mason University) |
| Abstract: | Immigration control-related audits and their resulting sanctions are not solely determined by impartial enforcement of laws and regulations. They are also determined by the incentives faced by vote-maximizing congressmen, agents acting on their behalf, and workers likely to compete with immigrants in the local labor market. In this paper we test to what extent congressional oversight, i.e., legislative involvement, determines the bureaucratic immigration enforcement process. We examine the determinants of decisions made at each stage of regulatory enforcement for over 40,000 audits from 1990 to 2000. This includes an analysis of the determinants of whether a firm is 1) found in violation, 2) whether a warning or fine issued, 3) the size of the fine issued, and 4) how much of dollar reduction fined employers were able to negotiate after the fact. Consistent with the hypothesis that locals will provide more tips to the enforcement agency when unemployment is high, we find that the number of audits conducted grows with increased local unemployment. We also find that a congressman's party affiliation and its interaction with committee membership, party rank, and party majority status, as well as firm size and local union membership, correlate to bureaucratic decisions made at every stage of immigration enforcement. |
| JEL: | J61 K31 K42 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tow:wpaper:2012-04&r=lab |
| By: | Christopher L. House; Jing Zhang |
| Abstract: | We develop a dynamic equilibrium model of labor demand with adverse selection. Firms learn the quality of newly hired workers after a period of employment. Adverse selection makes it costly to hire new workers and to release productive workers. As a result, firms hoard labor and under-react to labor demand shocks. The adverse selection problem also creates a market for temporary workers. In equilibrium, firms hire a buffer stock of permanent workers and respond to changing business conditions by varying their temp workers. A hiring subsidy or tax can improve welfare by discouraging firms from hoarding too many productive workers. |
| JEL: | D82 E24 J23 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17962&r=lab |
| By: | Hornig, Stephan O.; Rottmann, Horst; Wapler, Rüdiger |
| Abstract: | In the literature there are basically two main approaches that explain the positive link between the level of education and wages: the human-capital theory and the signalling/screening (collectively known as sorting) theory. We highlight the similarity and differences between these theories and present a general theoretical model of screening with productivity-enhancing effects of education from which we derive four empirically testable hypothesis. -- In der Literatur sind zwei Theorien zur Erklärung des positiven Zusammenhangs zwischen dem Bildungsniveau und dem Lohn vorherrschend: die Human Kapital-Theorie und die Signaltheorie. Wir beschreiben die Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede beider Theorien und präsentieren ein allgemeines theoretisches Signal-Modell mit produktivitätserhöhenden Effekten der Bildung. Anhand diesem Modell entwickeln wir vier Hypothesen, die empirisch getestet werden können. |
| Keywords: | human-capital theory,signalling,screening |
| JEL: | J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hawdps:27&r=lab |
| By: | Martine Mariotti (Research School of Economics, Australian National University and University of Stellenbosch) |
| Abstract: | I exploit the sudden increase in employment in 1975, 1976 and 1977 in four former South African homelands to compare the long term adult outcomes of children benefitting from the employment increase to those not subject to it. Using a standard difference in difference approach I find that there was severe malnutrition in the homelands resulting in stunting in African men born during the shock providing support to the foetal origins hypothesis. The employment shock did not affect other long term outcomes such as education and general health, although there is some evidence of an improvement in long term health. This study provides previously unmeasured individual level information on the quality of life in the homelands during apartheid, an era when African living standards were neglected but unmeasured because of a lack of data collection. |
| Keywords: | apartheid; living standards; stunting; difference-in-difference; foetal origins hypothesis |
| JEL: | I31 N37 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers154&r=lab |
| By: | Zhang, Chuanchuan |
| Abstract: | Most people in rural China have no plans for retirement other than the ingrained Chinese tradition that children care for old parents. Actually there are also no sources of social support such as social old-age insurance to rely on in rural people’ old age for a long time in China. In 1992, a social old-age insurance program, rural pension program, was initiated by the Chinese government to firstly establish a social security system in China’s rural area. The rural pension program experienced rapid development in the beginning years but grounded to halt after 1998. Since either children or pension program provides support for elderly, we expected that these two can be viewed as substitutes to some extent. Using data from China’s 2005 mini-census, we find that rural people who have at least one son are less likely to participate in pension program and each additional son and daughter both decreases their participation rate. Moreover, the effect of an additional son is much larger than that of an additional daughter. In addition, both evidence from mini-census and China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study show that peasants accessing to pension are less likely to rely on their children for support in old age. These findings suggest that demand for children, especially for sons are partly driven by concerns relating to care in old age; children and formal social old-age insurance are substitutes for support in old age. We then expect that implementation of social old-age insurance may mitigate rural people’ demand for children, especially sons and thus correct China’s severe sex ratio bias to some extent. We test this hypothesis using the difference-in-differences strategy, and find that increase of sex ratio at the region level slowed down after the implementation of the rural pension program. Overall, our empirical analysis in this paper implies that sex ratio bias is partly due to demanding for sons for support in old age and carrying out social old-age insurance in rural China are helpful in mitigating demand for children and correcting sex ratio bias. |
| Keywords: | children; rural pension; sex ratio |
| JEL: | I12 J38 I38 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:37798&r=lab |
| By: | Mohd Amran Mahat; Lai Ming Ling |
| Abstract: | Purpose –This paper aimed (i) to solicit undergraduates‟ opinions on tax education, and (ii) to identify undergraduates‟ preferences on taxation topics. Design/methodology/approach – The paper used a survey to collect data. Survey questionnaires were personally administered on 575 undergraduates from accounting and non-accounting faculties in one of the public universities in Malaysia. Findings – The findings revealed that more than 90% of the respondents perceived that tax education is important and relevant, and should be introduced at the undergraduate levels. The survey also found that „Personal Taxation‟ and „Tax Planning for Individuals‟ were the two most preferred tax topics that undergraduates wished to learn. Originality/value – The paper support the call to introduce tax education into non-accounting curriculum in disseminating tax knowledge for better tax compliance among future taxpayers. -- |
| Keywords: | Tax education,Non-accounting curriculum,Undergraduates,Malaysia |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esconf:56066&r=lab |
| By: | Anil Markandya; Mikel González-Eguino; Marta Escapa |
| Abstract: | The theoretical literature relevant to the relationship between environmental taxation and employment creation is centred on the suggestion by Pearce (1991) that environmental taxation could lead to a “double dividendâ€. In this paper we review the literature on the employment double dividend for Spain and add to it with some new analysis of our own that fills some important gaps in the literature. |
| Keywords: | Environmental fiscal reform, double dividend hypothesis, unemployment, Spain |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcc:wpaper:2012-04&r=lab |
| By: | Rosenzweig, Mark (Yale University); Zhang, Junsen (Chinese University of Hong Kong) |
| Abstract: | Data from two surveys of twins in China are used to contribute to an improved understanding of the role of economic development in affecting gender differences in the trends in, levels of, and returns to schooling observed in China and in many developing countries in recent decades. In particular, we explore the hypothesis that these phenomena reflect differences in comparative advantage with respect to skill and brawn between men and women in the context of changes in incomes, returns to skill, and/or nutritional improvements that are the result of economic development and growth. |
| JEL: | I15 I25 J16 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:yaleco:98&r=lab |
| By: | Yamamura, Eiji |
| Abstract: | The Great Hanshin-Awaji (Kobe) earthquake in 1995 has had a significant detrimental effect on the economic conditions of southern-central Japan. However, the earthquake also led people to acknowledge the importance of the many volunteer activities in Japan at that time. Using a large sample of individual-level data from 1991 and 1996, this study investigates how and the extent to which the earthquake increased the participation of students and house-workers in volunteer activities. After controlling for various individual characteristics, a Heckman-Tobit model was used and the following key findings were obtained: (1) the probability of students’ participating in volunteer activities was 2% higher after the earthquake than before, and (2) the number of days that students spent participating in volunteer activities was 4.38 days longer after the earthquake than before. However, the same did not hold true for house-workers. |
| Keywords: | Natural disasters; social capital; volunteer activities |
| JEL: | N35 Z13 Q54 |
| Date: | 2012–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:37734&r=lab |
| By: | Timothy N. Bond; Kevin Lang |
| Abstract: | Although both economists and psychometricians typically treat them as interval scales, test scores are reported using ordinal scales. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study and the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey, we examine the effect of order-preserving scale transformations on the evolution of the black-white reading test score gap from kindergarten entry through third grade. Plausible transformations reverse the growth of the gap in the CNLSY and greatly mitigate it in the ECLS-K during early school years. All growth from entry through first grade and a nontrivial proportion from first to third grade probably reflects scaling decisions. |
| JEL: | C18 I24 J15 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17960&r=lab |
| By: | Svensson, Mikael (Dept. of Economics); Persson, Mattias (Örebro University) |
| Abstract: | We use a discrete choice experiment conducted in Sweden to elicit the willingness to pay (WTP) to reduce school bullying. The estimations indicate a mean marginal WTP of 5.95 to 8.48 Swedish kronor (€0.66 to €0.95), which implies that the aggregate WTP for each reduced statistical victim of bullying (the value of a statistical bullying-victim - VSBV) is 585,090 to 835,280 Swedish kronor (€65,446 to €93,431). The results may be used to conduct economic evaluations of antibullying programs, with an example shown in this paper, and provide policymakers with useful information on taxpayers’ preferred allocations to antibullying programs |
| Keywords: | Willingness to Pay; Discrete Choice Experiment; Bullying; School; Adolescents |
| JEL: | D61 I12 I21 |
| Date: | 2012–04–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:kaunek:0003&r=lab |
| By: | Geir H. Bjertnæs (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates whether excess effort to climb a career ladder justifies policy interventions. The answer depends on whether the government is able to levy a higher tax burden on career workers than on non-career workers. Both a tax on top income aimed at lowering the rewards of promotion and a labour law that restricts excess effort require such a differentiation in the tax burden to improve welfare. The differentiation in tax burden prevents that the welfare gain of reducing excess effort is neutralized by the welfare cost connected to an increase in the number of career workers. |
| Keywords: | Tournaments; Promotions; Status; Taxation |
| JEL: | H21 H23 L22 J33 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:686&r=lab |
| By: | Nicole Votolato Montgomery; Lisa R. Szykman; Julie R. Agnew |
| Abstract: | Workers under age 35 have the lowest 401(k) participation of any age group. Failing to save for retirement at a young age means missing out on compounded investment earnings that can substantially ease the burden of building a nest egg. The reasons young workers save less for retirement range from college loan repayments and low starting salaries to a desire to save for a house. Another reason is deeply rooted in psychology: when an event such as retirement is far from the future, people tend to distance themselves from it and think about it abstractly. In visual terms, it is more difficult to see the details of a photograph when one is far away - just as it is difficult for young adults to perceive old age. It will become more concrete only as they move closer. For young workers, then, retirement security lacks the urgency older workers feel. This brief reflects preliminary results from research positing that young adults' distance to retirement may discourage them from saving, and it tests what types of communication tactics might be most effective in promoting saving. |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:issbrf:ib2012-7&r=lab |
| By: | Takayama, Noriyuki; Shiraishi, Kousuke |
| Abstract: | There has been a growing concern about “Bad Start, Bad Finish (BS/BF)” issues in European countries for the last decade. Many young persons make a bad start to their working career and remain as atypical workers for long periods, being anticipated to reach retirement age with inadequate social security pension benefits. What about the case of Japan? In this paper, we discuss whether the BS/BF problem is as serious in Japan. The data set used is the 2011 Longitudinal Survey on Employment and Fertility (LOSEF): An Internet Version. The survey represents a sample of 3893 individuals aged 30-49 (born between November 1961 and October 1981). It contains long-term retrospective panel data of around 160,000 observations transcribed from the special Social Security Statements (the Japanese version of “Orange Letter”) issued by the Social Insurance Agency in fiscal 2009. Our provisional findings in this paper confirm that the BS/BF issue is currently as serious in Japan as in European countries. For young workers of the current generation, the proportions of BS have been increasing up to around 40% (females) and 32% (males) respectively, and the BF risk for current young BS persons will be around 90% (females) and a little more than 50% (males) respectively. Their incidence of poverty after retirement is likely to become quite problematic. |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:cisdps:547&r=lab |
| By: | Bohnet, Iris (Harvard University); van Geen, Alexandra (Harvard University); Bazerman, Max H. |
| Abstract: | We examine a new intervention to overcome gender biases in hiring, promotion, and job assignments: an "evaluation nudge," in which people are evaluated jointly rather than separately regarding their future performance. Evaluators are more likely to focus on individual performance in joint than in separate evaluation and on group stereotypes in separate than in joint evaluation, making joint evaluation the money-maximizing evaluation procedure. Our findings are compatible with a behavioral model of information processing and with the System 1/System 2 distinction in behavioral decision research where people have two distinct modes of thinking that are activated under certain conditions. |
| JEL: | C91 D03 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp12-009&r=lab |
| By: | Mike Burkart; Konrad Raff |
| Abstract: | We propose that an active takeover market provides incentives by o¤ering acqui- sition opportunities to successful managers. This allows ?rms to reduce performance- based compensation and can rationalize loss-making acquisitions. At the same time, takeovers remain a substitute for board dismissal in the replacement of poorly per- forming managers. The joint impact of the two mechanisms on managerial turnover is, however, multi-faceted: In ?rms with strong boards, turnover and performance- based pay are non-monotonic in the intensity of the takeover threat. In ?rms with weak boards, turnover (performance-based pay) increases (decreases) with the in- tensity of the takeover threat. When choosing its acquisition policy and the quality of its board, each ?rm ignores the adverse e¤ect on other ?rms?acquisition oppor- tunities and takeover threat. As a result, the takeover market is not su¢ ciently liquid and too few takeovers occur. |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fmg:fmgdps:dp694&r=lab |
| By: | Abraham, Vinoj |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the major sources of data for understanding wages and earnings of Social and Religious Groups in India. It also discusses the limitations of the data sets,and issues for further research but are limited by the availability of data for such research. It also provides suggestions for new data and ways to improve the existing statistical data. |
| Keywords: | social groups; caste; religion; wages; India; data sources |
| JEL: | J31 C80 |
| Date: | 2012–02–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:37799&r=lab |