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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Prowse, Victoria |
| Abstract: | We extend existing work on the dynamics of labor force participation by distinguishing between full-time and part-time employment and by allowing unobserved heterogeneity in the effects of previous employment outcomes, children and education on labor supply behavior. In addition, unobserved heterogeneity may feature autocorrelation and correlated random effects. Our results reveal significant variation in the effects of children and education on labor supply behavior. Moreover, the omission of random coefficients and autocorrelation biases estimates of state dependencies. On average, temporary shocks that increase the rate of part-time employment lead subsequently to lower rates of non-employment than do shocks that temporarily increase the rate of full-time work. |
| Keywords: | Discrete Labor Supply; Repeated Multinomial Choice; Maximum Simulated Likelihood Estimation |
| JEL: | C52 J22 C33 |
| Date: | 2012–04–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:38038&r=lab |
| By: | Laura Giuliano (Department of Economics, University of Miami) |
| Abstract: | Using personnel data from a large U.S. retail firm, I examine the firm’s response to the 1996 federal minimum wage increase. Compulsory increases in average wages had negative but statistically insignificant effects on overall employment. However, increases in the relative wages of teenagers led to significant increases in the relative employment of teenagers, especially younger and more affluent teenagers. Further analysis suggests a pattern consistent with non-competitive models. Where the legislation affected mainly the wages of teenagers and so was only moderately binding, it led both to higher teenage labor market participation and to higher absolute employment of teenagers. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage, employment, teenage employment |
| JEL: | J23 J38 D22 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mia:wpaper:2011-12&r=lab |
| By: | Alex Bryson; Simmons, R.; Rossi, G. |
| Abstract: | In efficient global labour markets for very high wage workers one might expect wage differentials between migrant and domestic workers to reflect differences in labour productivity. However, using panel data on worker-firm matches in a single industry over a seven year period we find a substantial wage penalty for domestic workers which persists within firms and is only partially accounted for by individual labour productivity. We show that the differential partly reflects the superstar status of migrant workers. This superstar effect is also apparent in migrant effects on firm performance. But the wage differential also reflects domestic workers' preferences for working in their home region, an amenity for which they are prepared to take a compensating wage differential, or else are forced to accept in the face of employer monopsony power which does not affect migrant workers. |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:388&r=lab |
| By: | Andriy Zapechelnyuk (Queen Mary, University of London); Ro'i Zultan (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) |
| Abstract: | The costs of searching for a job vacancy are typically associated with friction that deters or delays employment of potentially productive individuals. We demonstrate that in a labor market with moral hazard where effort is noncontractible, job search costs play a positive role, whose effect may outweigh the negative implications. As workers are provided incentives to exert effort by the threat of losing their job and having to search for a new vacancy, a reduction in job search costs leads to fewer employees willing to exert effort. The overall lower productivity will make more individuals and firms opting to stay out of the labor market, resulting in lower employment and decreased welfare. Eventually, a reduction of jobs search costs below a certain level results in collapse of the labor market. |
| Keywords: | : Job search, Moral hazard, Labor market, Unemployment insurance |
| JEL: | D83 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qmw:qmwecw:wp693&r=lab |
| By: | Artuc, Erhan |
| Abstract: | Do trade shocks affect workers differently because of their age? This paper examines the issue by estimating the lifetime mobility of workers based on the sectors in which they work. Using U.S. data, the paper shows that mobility costs rise with a worker's age and years of experience, but stay the same regardless of his or her education level. In addition, using a general-equilibrium simulation of counterfactual trade-liberalization policies in the metal manufacturing sector, the paper shows that trade shocks affect workers with higher mobility costs more, for both winners and losers of the policy shocks. But the effects taper off over a worker's lifetime, especially when they are close to retirement. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory&Research,Labor Markets,Tertiary Education,Labor Policies,Trade Policy |
| Date: | 2012–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6035&r=lab |
| By: | Parlow, Anton |
| Abstract: | The experience of the Kashmir insurgency is used, to assess the impact of this armed conflict on educational outcomes of girls and boys who were of school age during the 90's. Girls and boys who went to primary and secondary schools in urban areas of Kashmir during 1990 and 1996 are affected the most by the insurgency. I compare their outcomes to women and men who finished their schooling before 1990 and girls and boys living in less affected regions of Jammu and Kashmir. Girls in urban Kashmir have up to 3.5 years less schooling compared to girls less affected by the violence. Boys and girls more affected by violence are less likely to complete their primary schooling, as well as enroll less in primary schooling, compared to boys and girls less-affected by the insurgency. Secondary education is not affected negatively by the insurgency. The results remain qualitatively robust once accounting for migration, different age cohorts, a different identification of Kashmiri and continuous measurements of violence. The first phase of the insurgency has a negative impact on education, especially for girls in primary schools. Literacy and employment programs should be designed to target these women. |
| Keywords: | Armed Conflicts; Education; Households |
| JEL: | D12 F51 O12 |
| Date: | 2011–12–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:38010&r=lab |
| By: | David Autor (MIT and NBER); Nicole Maestas (RAND); Kathleen Mullen (RAND); Alexander Strand (Social Security Administration) |
| Abstract: | An influential body of research studies the labor supply and earnings of denied Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) applicants to estimate the potential employment and earnings of those awarded benefits. This research design implicitly treats employability as a stable applicant attribute that is not directly impacted by the process of applying for SSDI benefits. If, plausibly, applicants’ employment potential deteriorates while they are out of the labor force, then the labor force participation of denied applicants -- who spend an average of 10 months seeking benefits -- may understate their employment potential at the time of application. This paper tests whether the duration of SSDI applications causally affects applicants’ subsequent employment. We use a unique Social Security Administration workload database to identify exogenous variation in applicants’ initial decision times induced by differences in processing speed among the disability examiners to which they are randomly assigned. This variation significantly affects applicants’ total processing time but, importantly, is uncorrelated with their initial award and denial outcomes. We find that longer processing times reduce the employment and earnings of SSDI applicants in the years after their initial decision. A one standard deviation (2.4 month) increase in initial processing time reduces annual employment rates by 1 percentage point (3.2%) in years two, three and four post-decision. Extrapolating these effects to total applicant processing times, we estimate that the SSDI determination process directly reduces the post-application employment of denied applicants by approximately 3.6 percentage points (7%) and allowed applicants by approximately 5.2 percentage points (33%). |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp258&r=lab |
| By: | Macis, Mario; Schivardi, Fabiano |
| Abstract: | We use linked employer-employee data from Italy to explore the relationship between exports and wages. Our empirical strategy exploits the 1992 devaluation of the Italian Lira, which represented a large and unforeseen shock to Italian firms' incentives to export. The results indicate that the export wage premium is due to exporting firms both (1) paying a wage premium above what their workers would earn in the outside labor market -- the 'rent-sharing' effect, and (2) employing workers whose skills command a higher price after the devaluation -- the ‘skill composition’ effect. The latter effect only emerges once we allow for the value of individual skills to differ in the pre- and post-devaluation periods. In fact, using a fixed measure of skills, as typically done in the literature, we would attribute the wage increase only to rent sharing. We also document that the export wage premium is larger for workers with more export-related experience. This indicates that the devaluation increased the demand for skills more useful for exporting, driving their relative price up. |
| Keywords: | Export wage premium; Linked employer employee data |
| JEL: | F16 J31 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8931&r=lab |
| By: | Christoph Helbach; Klemens Keldenich |
| Abstract: | This study uses a laboratory experiment to analyze the effectiveness of performance-based monetary incentives in the teaching process. The process of knowledge transmission is recreated using a video-stream. Four different teacher payment schemes are compared, three of which depend on the student‘s success. Furthermore, the experiment is done with two different subject pools: prospective teachers and regular students. Results indicate that prospective teachers do not react to monetary incentives in the given task. However, regular students do react in the expected way: Teachers transmit a significantly higher share of their knowledge when paid according to student performance. |
| Keywords: | Education; monetary incentives; video analysis |
| JEL: | C91 D03 I21 J33 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0328&r=lab |
| By: | S Bradley; Colin Green; J Mangan |
| Abstract: | A standard finding in the literature on gender wage gaps is that the public sector exhibits much lower gaps than in the private sector. This finding is generally attributed to the existence of less gender discrimination in the public sector. In this paper we show that this conclusion is flawed because the standard finding for the public sector is biased by the dominating influence of large feminised occupational groups, such as those in nursing and teaching, both of which have relatively flat job hierarchies and hence low overall wage variance. However, when we examine other occupations within the public sector, there is evidence of sizeable wage gaps, much of which cannot be explained by observable or unobservable workplace or worker characteristics. This finding implies that gender discrimination is substantial in some occupations in the public sector. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:2911&r=lab |
| By: | Julie Rosaz (University of Montpellier 1, LAMETA, avenue Raymond Dugrand - Site Richter C.S. 79606, F-34960 Montpellier Cedex 2, France); Robert Slonim (University of Sydney, Department of Economics, Merewether building, NSW 2006 Sydney, Australia; IZA, Bonn, Germany); Marie-Claire Villeval (University of Lyon 2, Lyon, F-69007, France ; CNRS, GATE Lyon St Etienne, Ecully, F-69130, France; IZA, Bonn, Germany. GATE: 93, Chemin des Mouilles, 69130 Ecully, France) |
| Abstract: | While peer effects have been shown to affect worker's productivity when workers are paid a fixed wage, there is little evidence on their influence on quitting decisions. This paper presents results from an experiment in which participants receive a piece-rate wage to perform a real-effort task. After completing a compulsory work period, the participants have the option at any time to continue working or quit. To study peer effects, we randomly assign participants to work alone or have one other worker in the room with them. When a peer is present, we manipulate the environment by giving either vague or precise feedback on the co-worker's output, and also vary whether the two workers can communicate. We find that allowing individuals to work with a co-worker present does not increase worker's productivity. However, the presence of a peer in all working conditions causes workers to quit at more similar times. When, and only when, communication is allowed, workers are significantly more likely to (1) stay longer if their partner is still working, and (2) work longer the more productive they are. We conclude that when workers receive a piece-rate wage, critical peer effects occur only when workers can communicate with each other. |
| Keywords: | Quits, peer effects, communication, feedback, experiment |
| JEL: | C91 D83 J63 J28 J81 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:1204&r=lab |
| By: | David H. Autor; Susan N. Houseman; Sari Pekkala Kerr |
| Abstract: | Federal and state employment programs for low-skilled workers typically emphasize rapid placement of participants into jobs and often place a large fraction of participants into temporary-help agency jobs. Using unique administrative data from Detroit's welfare-to-work program, we apply the Chernozhukov-Hansen instrumental variables quantile regression (IVQR) method to estimate the causal effects of welfare-to-work job placements on the distribution of participants' earnings. We find that neither direct-hire nor temporary-help job placements significantly affect the lower tail of the earnings distribution. Direct-hire placements, however, substantially raise the upper tail, yielding sizable earnings increases for more than fifty percent of participants over the medium-term (one to two years following placement). Conversely, temporary-help placements have zero or negative earnings impacts at all quantiles, and these effects are economically large and significant at higher quantiles. In net, we find that the widespread practice of placing disadvantaged workers into temporary-help jobs is an ineffective tool for improving earnings and, moreover, that programs focused solely on job placement fail to improve earnings among those who are hardest to serve. Methodologically, one surprising result is that a reduced-form quantile IV approach, akin to two-step instrumental variables, produces near-identical point estimates to the structural IVQR approach, which is based on much stronger assumptions. |
| JEL: | J24 J48 J62 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17972&r=lab |
| By: | Bönke, Timm; Corneo, Giacomo; Lüthen, Holger |
| Abstract: | This paper documents the magnitude, pattern, and evolution of lifetime earnings inequality in Germany. Based on a large sample of earnings biographies from social security records, we show that the intra-generational distribution of lifetime earnings of male workers has a Gini coefficient around .2 for cohorts born in the late 1930s and early 1940s; this amounts to about 2/3 of the value of the Gini coefficient of annual earnings. Within cohorts, mobility in the distribution of yearly earnings is substantial at the beginning of the lifecycle, decreases afterwards and virtually vanishes after age forty. Earnings data for thirty-one cohorts reveals striking evidence of a secular rise of intra-generational inequality in lifetime earnings: West-German men born in the early 1960s are likely to experience about 80 % more lifetime inequality than their fathers. In contrast, both short-term and long-term intra-generational mobility have been rather stable. Longer unemployment spells of workers at the bottom of the distribution of younger cohorts contribute to explain 30 to 40 % of the overall increase in lifetime earnings inequality. |
| Keywords: | Earnings distribution; Lifetime inequality |
| JEL: | D31 H24 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8929&r=lab |
| By: | Samuel Muehlemann (University of Bern and IZA Bonn); Harald Pfeifer (Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) Bonn) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyze the structure of hiring costs of skilled workers in Germany. Using detailed and representative firm-level data on recruitment and adaptation costs of new hires, we find that average hiring costs amount to more than 8 weeks of wage payments (4,700 Euros). The structure of hiring costs is convex, as an increase in the number of hires by 1% increases hiring costs by 1.3%. We find a moderate effects of labor market institutions on the magnitude, but none on the structure hiring costs. |
| Keywords: | Labor adjustment costs, hiring costs |
| JEL: | J32 J63 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0077&r=lab |
| By: | Seik Kim; Emiko Usui (Nagoya University and IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper takes a new approach to testing whether employer learning is public or private. We show that public and private learning schemes make two distinct predictions about the curvature of wage growth paths when there is a job change, because the amount of information transferred to a new employer about workers' productivity is smaller in the private learning case than in the public learning case. This prediction enables us to account for individual and job-match heterogeneity, which was not possible in previous tests. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79), we find that learning is primarily public. |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udb:wpaper:uwec-2012-01&r=lab |
| By: | Alex Bryson; Bockerman, P.; Ilmakunnas, P. |
| Abstract: | Employees exposed to high involvement management (HIM) practices have higher subjective wellbeing, fewer accidents but more short absence spells than “like” employees not exposed to HIM. These results are robust to extensive work, wage and sickness absence history controls. We present a model which highlights the possibility of higher short-term absence in the presence of HIM because it is more demanding than standard production and because multi-skilled HIM workers cover for one another’s short absences thus reducing the cost of replacement labour faced by the employer. We find direct empirical support for the assumptions in the model. Consistent with the model, because long-term absences entail replacement labour costs for HIM and non-HIM employers alike, long-term absences are independent of exposure to HIM. |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:380&r=lab |
| By: | Eberhard, Juan |
| Abstract: | I analyze the effect of an unexpected influx of immigrants on the price of skill and hence on the earnings, human capital accumulation and educational attainment of native workers. In order to study these effects, I develop a general equilibrium model with heterogeneous workers who differ in their level of skill and in their ability to learn new skills. These workers accumulate human capital optimally using information about the current and future market price of skill to guide their decisions. To assess the impact of immigration, I compare simulated earnings in the presence of immigration with a series of counterfactual experiments. My findings suggest that immigration has a small negative direct effect on earnings, but a positive and relatively large impact indirectly through human capital accumulation and educational attainment. This latter mechanism explains 60% of the variations in earnings caused by immigration. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital; Immigration; Heterogeneous Agents |
| JEL: | D31 E24 J61 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:37844&r=lab |
| By: | Ariane TICHIT MINISCLOUX (Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur le Développement International); Solenne TANGUY |
| Abstract: | This article analyses the impact on the labor market of the transition from a state-controlled economy towards a market economy. We consider a dynamic matching-model with a declining and an emerging competitive sector. We show that there are two opposite strategies in the move towards a market economy: a massive decrease in employment or a small decrease in employment in the non-competitive sector. We find that the transition is achieved faster with a big reduction in state employment than with a small one. Surprisingly, the end of transition is also characterized by lower unemployment when there are massive layoffs - because in the short run, the high unemployment implied by the massive decrease makes job creation in the competitive sector more profitable. In fact, this seems to have been the way chosen by most of the CEECs. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, Matching models, transitional economies |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdi:wpaper:1346&r=lab |
| By: | Setty, Ofer |
| Abstract: | Unemployment Accounts (UA) are mandatory individual saving accounts that can be used by governments as an alternative to the Unemployment Insurance (UI) system. I study a two tier UA-UI system where the unemployed withdraw from their unemployment account until it is exhausted and then receive unemployment benefits. The hybrid policy provides insurance to workers more efficiently than a traditional UI because it provides government benefits selectively. Using a structural model calibrated to the US economy, I find that relative to a two tier UI system the hybrid policy leads to a welfare gain of 0.9%. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment Accounts; Unemployment Insurance; Job-search; Moral hazard; Mechanism Design; Optimal Policy; |
| JEL: | E24 J65 J64 E61 |
| Date: | 2012–04–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:38064&r=lab |
| By: | Gregory A. Gilpin (Montana State University); Luke A. Pennig (Montana State University) |
| Abstract: | Minimum dropout age (MDA) laws have been touted as effective policies to bring dropouts off streets and into classrooms. One question to better understand the costs and benefits of these laws is: to what extent do MDA laws displace crime from streets to schools? This research expands the compulsory schooling literature and extends the sparse research on in-school crime by studying how MDA laws affect crimes committed in U.S. public high schools. The analysis is conducted using a difference-in-difference estimator exploiting variation in state-level MDA laws over time. The results indicate that an increase in the MDA to 18 significantly increases in-school crime by 0.434 incidences per 1,000 students or a 6.2% increase. Analyzing specific crime types, the results find that attacks without a weapon, threats without a weapon, and illegal drug incidences increase by 0.627, 0.588 and 0.437 incidences (or 12.2%, 36.3%, and 43.4% increase), respectively. An increase in the MDA to 17 is found to have no effect on in-school crime. The results are robust across different socioeconomic student bodies and control groups. Lastly, we find that in-school crime prevention resources do not increase with an increase in the MDA, but that utilization rates of suspensions and expulsions change in the direction of fortifying state policymakers efforts to keep juveniles in schools. |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inu:caeprp:2012-005&r=lab |
| By: | Emmanuelle Duguet; Christine Le Clainche |
| Abstract: | We studied the effect of health events (accidents and chronic diseases) on the occupation probabilities at the individual level, while accounting for both correlated individual and time effects. Using difference-in-differences with exact matching estimators, we found that health events have a strong impact on individual labor market histories. The workers affected by a health event have a stronger probability of entering inactivity and a lower probability of keeping their jobs. We also found that the less qualified workers, women, and workers with short term jobs are the most negatively affected by health events. |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lam:wpaper:12-08&r=lab |
| By: | Bervoets, Sebastian; Calvó-Armengol, Antoni; Zenou, Yves |
| Abstract: | We propose a dynastic model in which individuals are born in an educated or uneducated environment that they inherit from their parents. We study the role of social networks on the correlation in the parent-child educational status independent of any parent-child interaction. We show that the network reduces the intergenerational correlation, promotes social mobility and increases the average education level in the population. We also show that a planner that encourages social mobility also reduces social welfare, hence facing a trade off between these two objectives. When individuals choose the optimal level of social mobility, those born in an uneducated environment always want to leave their environment while the reverse occurs for individuals born in an educated environment. |
| Keywords: | education; intergenerational correlation; Social mobility; strong and weak ties |
| JEL: | I24 J13 Z13 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8932&r=lab |
| By: | Michael S. Delgado (Department of Economics, State University of New York at Binghamton); Daniel J. Henderson (Department of Economics, State University of New York at Binghamton); Christopher F. Parmeter (Department of Economics, University of Miami) |
| Abstract: | Empirical economic research typically uses education as a proxy for human capital. However, research aimed at validating the inclusion of education measures in growth regressions has yet to reach a consensus, often finding that the sign and significance of education depends on the sample of observations or the specification of the model. The goal of this paper is to reconcile the conflicting empirical evidence and validate (or invalidate) the inclusion of education in international growth regressions by providing a rigorous and systematic search for significance of education. Using methods which are largely immune to model misspecification, we examine six of the most comprehensive education databases in an attempt to identify a robust empirical link between mean years of schooling and economic growth rates. Contrary to a few recent papers that have identified significant nonlinearities between education and growth, our results show that the inclusion of mean years of schooling in growth regressions is not warranted. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital, Education, Irrelevant Variables, Least-Squares Cross-Validation, Nonparametric |
| JEL: | C14 J24 I20 O10 O40 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mia:wpaper:2011-13&r=lab |
| By: | Stark, Oded; Byra, Lukasz |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study the impact of the international migration of unskilled workers on skill formation and the average skill level in the home country. We analyze what appears to be the least threatening scenario from the point of view of its effect on the supply of skills at home: namely, migration exclusively by unskilled workers. Somewhat surprisingly, we find that even without the departure of skilled workers, the home country suffers reduced aggregate skill formation. Although as a response to a higher wage rate per unit of human capital in the new equilibrium skilled workers choose to accumulate more human capital than before the opening up to migration of unskilled workers, the number and share of skilled workers in the home country’s workforce fall. The combined effect is a decrease in the average level of human capital in the home country. |
| Keywords: | Migration of unskilled workers, Human capital formation, Depletion of human capital, Labor and Human Capital, F22, J24, O15, |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ubzefd:122433&r=lab |
| By: | Heinrich R. Bohlmann (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria) |
| 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: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:201213&r=lab |
| By: | Tuvana Pastine (Department of Economics Finance and Accounting, National University of Ireland, Maynooth); Ivan Pastine (University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines student incentives when faced with a college admissions policy which pursues student body diversity. The effect of a diversify-conscious admissions policy critically depends on the design of the policy. If the admissions policy fails to incentivize students from a disadvantaged socioeconomic background it may lead to a deterioration in the intergroup score gap while failing to improve student body diversity in equilibrium. |
| Keywords: | Affirmative Action, College Admissions, All-Pay Auction, Contest, Tournament |
| JEL: | H0 J7 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:may:mayecw:n218-11.pdf&r=lab |
| By: | Dawn Holland; Tatiana Fic; Pawel Paluchowski; Ana Rincon-Aznar; Lucy Stokes |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:379&r=lab |
| By: | Rebecca Riley; David Wilkinson; Richard Dickens |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:378&r=lab |
| By: | Grell, Britta |
| Abstract: | Systems of unemployment compensation in many OECD countries have undergone major institutional changes during the past three decades. These changes were a response to severe fiscal pressures and the fear of potential adverse effects on labor market behaviour that might arise from generous public income support. This is less true for the United States where the basic structure of the safety net for unemployed workers has only experienced modest modifications since the 1980s. The paper gives an overview of the most important legal reforms and the current provisions at the state and federal level available to unemployed workers and their families, including unemployment insurance and means-tested public assistance programs (Food Stamps, housing assistance, etc.). It concludes that the decentralized unemployment insurance system in the United States contains a major gap between the statutory coverage of workers and the proportion of unemployed actually claiming and receiving benefits. -- |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbisi:spi2011202&r=lab |
| By: | Wörz, Markus |
| Abstract: | Pensions absorb the largest share of the welfare state in financial terms. This is true not only in the aggregate but also for individuals. Financial security in old age is of key importance. The provision of financial security, however, is contingent upon the institutional arrangement of social security systems. This paper describes key features of Statutory Pension Insurance (SPI), the most important provision for financial security in old age from which most senior citizens derive the largest part of their retirement income. It focuses next on core SPI features: How benefits are calculated; important changes since the 1980s; and, how these changes affect average pensions. With various routes into retirement - particularly in Germany - the following chapter then discusses these different paths and how they were reformed over time. Following that, occupational and private pensions are examined as alternative means to oldage financial security other than SPI. Here we do so with empirical data showing the evolution of different, old-age income sources since the 1990s. This institutional description shows that SPI became less generous between 1980 and 2007: First, the pension formula has been modified several times resulting in shrinking benefits. The introduction of actuarial reductions, in 1997, for early enrolment of benefits amplified this, since a considerable number of people retire before the statutory retirement age and, therefore, receive lower pensions. Moreover, in several steps, university education has been completely disregarded in the valuation of pensions. At the same time, credits were given for child-raising and child-care services. Whereas the former is already in force, the latter will only benefit future generations of pensioners. Thus, those most affected by welfare state changes in relation to old-age pensions are pensioners who retire early and have higher education. -- |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbisi:spi2011208&r=lab |
| By: | Martin Weale; Silvia Lui |
| Abstract: | We explore the effects of income and, additionally education on the income, self-reported health and survival of people aged sixty-five and over in order to identify benefits resulting from education which are omitted in the conventional analysis with its focus on labour income excluding employer contributions. We find that well educated people enjoy substantially higher incomes and longer healthy lives. However our estimates of the magnitudes of these are sharply reduced if we imposed on our model, estimated from British Household Panel Survey Data, the restrictions that the mortality rates it generates should be consistent with aggregate official data. |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:383&r=lab |
| By: | Alber, Jens; Heisig, Jan Paul |
| Abstract: | The German Hartz reforms, introduced by the Red-Green coalition government in the years 2003 to 2005, form part of a broader pattern of European activation policies which have become known as new labour policies. The idea of these reforms was to reduce welfare dependency and to boost activity rates by making work pay, and by transforming the welfare state from a passive instrument of social protection to an enabling social investment that fosters universal labour force participation as the ultimate form of social inclusion. The German variety of these policies abolished earnings-related benefits to the long-term unemployed, partly fused the unemployment compensation scheme with the minimum income social assistance scheme and increased activating pressures on ablebodied people at working age by combining new sanctions with an extension of placement services. Based on a description of the relevant institutional changes, we show that means-tested benefits have become the major form of social transfer payments to the unemployed. The reforms also entailed a massive growth in German employment and especially in low-wage employment. As non-standard forms of employment proliferated, growing proportions of economically active people joined the ranks of the working poor by combining earnings from work with means-tested in-work benefits. Based on survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), we show that the working poor enjoy higher life satisfaction, social integration and civic engagement than the nonworking poor. However, these individual and social benefits of employment critically depend on pay levels and overall job quality, as our own analyses confirm for the case of men's life satisfaction. The welfare gains achieved by Germany's recent reforms may therefore be smaller than suggested by employment rates alone, because people near the poverty line are now more willing to make concessions and to accept job offers even if the jobs they get are of minor quality. -- Die von der rot-grünen Bundesregierung nach der Jahrtausendwende durchgesetzten Hartz-Reformen sind Teil eines allgemeinen Musters der Aktivierungspolitik, die von mehreren sozialdemokratischen Regierungen Europas unter dem Stichwort new labour betrieben wurde. Das Ziel dieser Reformpolitik war es, die Abhängigkeit von staatlichen Transferzahlungen zu mindern und das Beschäftigungsniveau zu steigern, indem Arbeit im Niedriglohnsektor mit Hilfe von Subventionen attraktiver gemacht und der Sozialstaat von einer reaktiven Instanz des sozialen Schutzes zu einem befähigenden Instrument sozialer Investition umgebaut wurde. Die deutsche Variante dieser Politik schaffte die einkommensbezogenen Leistungen für Langzeitarbeitslose ab, fusionierte die soziale Sicherung der Arbeitslosen teilweise mit der Sozialhilfe und erhöhte den Aktivierungsdruck auf die Leistungsempfänger durch eine Politik des Forderns und Förderns, die neue Sanktionsmöglichkeiten mit verbesserten Bildungs- und Vermittlungsdiensten verband. Auf der Grundlage einer Beschreibung der wichtigsten institutionellen Reformen zeigen wir, dass die an Bedürftigkeitstests gebundene Grundsicherung heute die bei weitem häufigste Transferzahlung für Arbeitslose darstellt. Das Beschäftigungsniveau ist seit den Reformen insbesondere im Niedriglohnsektor beträchtlich gestiegen. Da vor allem diverse Formen atypischer Beschäftigung zugenommen haben, zählt ein wachsender Teil der Erwerbstätigen zur Gruppe der arbeitenden Armen, die ihr Erwerbseinkommen mit Leistungen der Grundsicherung aufstocken. Auf der Basis von SOEP-Daten zeigen wir, dass die arbeitenden Armen nicht nur zufriedener, sondern auch in vielfältiger Weise besser sozial integriert sind als vergleichbare nicht arbeitende Arme. Wie wir am Beispiel der Lebenszufriedenheit von Männern zeigen, hängen die positiven Effekte der Erwerbstätigkeit allerdings entscheidend von der Entlohnung und anderen Aspekten der Arbeitsplatzqualität ab. Die Wohlfahrtsbilanz der Hartz-Reformen könnte deshalb ungünstiger ausfallen, als die Beschäftigungsentwicklung vermuten lässt, da Arbeitsuchende nun eher zu Konzessionen bereit sind und auch schlechtere Stellenangebote akzeptieren. |
| Keywords: | Minimum income support,unemployment compensation,labour market reforms,Hartz reform,activation policy,social inclusion,recommodification,working and non-working poor,Mindestsicherung,Arbeitslosenunterstützung,Arbeitsmarktreformen,Hartz-Reform,Aktivierungspolitik,soziale Inklusion und Teilhabe,Rekommodifizierung,arbeitende und nicht arbeitende Arme |
| JEL: | I38 J68 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbisi:spi2011211&r=lab |
| By: | Jianjun Miao (Department of Economics, Boston University, CEMA, Central University of Finance and Economics, and AFR, Zhejiang University); PENGFEI WANG (Department of Economics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, ClearWater Bay, Hong Kong.); Lifang Xu (Department of Economics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, ClearWater Bay, Hong Kong.) |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces endogenous credit constraints in a search model of unemployment. These constraints generate multiple equilibria supported by self-fulfilling beliefs. A stock market bubble exists through a positive feedback loop mechanism. The collapse of the bubble tightens the credit constraints, causing firms to reduce investment and hirings. Unemployed workers are hard to find jobs generating high and persistent unemployment. |
| Keywords: | stock market bubbles, unemployment, self-fulfilling beliefs, credit constraints, multiple equilibria |
| JEL: | E24 E44 J64 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:wpaper:wp2012-011&r=lab |
| By: | Paolo Lucchino; Chiara Rosazza Bondibene; Jonathan Portes |
| Abstract: | Immigration has been central in recent UK policy debates and has attracted significant concern over its possible adverse effect on labour market outcomes. This paper contributes to the evidence on this issue by presenting initial results on the impact of migration inflows on the claimant count rate using previously unused data on National Insurance Number registrations of foreign nationals. Our results, which appear robust to different specifications, different levels of geographic aggregation, and to a number of tests, seem to confirm the lack of any impact of migration on unemployment in aggregate. We find no association between migrant inflows and claimant unemployment. In addition, we test for whether the impact of migration on claimant unemployment varies according to the state of the economic cycle. We find no evidence of a more adverse during periods of low growth or the recent recession. |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:386&r=lab |
| By: | Arnaud Chevalier (Royal Holloway, University of London, CEE & IZA); Orla Doyle (UCD Geary Institute & School of Economics, University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | One of the most consistent findings in studies of electoral behaviour is that individuals with higher education have a greater propensity to vote. The nature of this relationship is much debated, with US studies generally finding evidence of a causal relationship, while European studies generally reporting no causal effect. To assess whether the US is an exception we rely on an international dataset incorporating 38 countries, the ISSP (International Social Survey Programme) from 1985 to 2010. Both instrumental variable and multi-level modelling approaches, reveals that the US is an outlier regarding the relationship between education and voter turnout. Moreover country-specific institutional and economic factors do not explain the heterogeneity in the relationship of interest. Alternatively, we show that disenfranchisement laws in the U.S. mediates the effect of education on voter turnout, such that the education gradient in voting is greater in U.S. States with the harshest disenfranchisement legislature. As such, the observed relationship between education and voting is partly driven by the effect of education on crime. |
| Keywords: | Voter turnout, Education, Disenfranchisement laws |
| JEL: | D72 I20 K42 |
| Date: | 2012–04–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:201210&r=lab |
| By: | Andrea Colciago (Department of Economics, University of Milano Bicocca); Lorenza Rossi (Department of Economics and Quantitative Methods, University of Pavia) |
| Abstract: | Recent U.S. evidence suggests that the response of the labor share to a productivity shock is characterized by countercyclicality and overshooting. These findings cannot be easily reconciled with existing business cycle models. We extend the standard model of search and matching in the labor market by considering strategic interactions among an endogenous number of producers. This leads to countercyclical price markups. While Nash bargaining is sufficient to capture the labor share countercyclicality, we show that countercyclical markups are key to address the overshooting. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous Market Structures, Oligopolistic Competition, Firms' Entry, Search and Matching Frictions, Labor Share Overshooting. |
| JEL: | E24 E32 L11 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pav:wpaper:168&r=lab |
| By: | Wörz, Markus |
| Abstract: | Social protection in case of unemployment has always been a particularly contentious issue. This paper focuses on institutional changes in the unemployment compensation system in Germany since the 1980s. It starts with a description of key features and the structure of the unemployment insurance system. The paper goes on to show how insurance coverage, benefit generosity (in terms of amount and duration of benefits), and eligibility requirements for drawing on unemployment benefits have evolved over time. Nearly all aspects of unemployment benefits have been reduced since the 1980s. An exception to this rule can be seen in the duration of benefits; they were first extended and then subsequently reduced. Elsewhere, the pattern has been of cutbacks. For example, the scope of insurance (measured as the proportion of the labour force being insured) was reduced. This decline, however, was due more to changes in the labour force than to direct government intervention. Replacement rates for unemployment benefits and assistance were cut. In the case of the latter these were transformed into a flat-rate benefit. Finally, regulations regarding eligibility and criteria for qualification and disqualification became increasingly strict. -- |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbisi:spi2011206&r=lab |
| By: | Arnaud Costinot; Jonathan Vogel; Su Wang |
| Abstract: | A salient feature of globalization in recent decades is the emergence of "global supply chains" in which different countries specialize in different stages of a sequential production process. In Arnaud Costinot, Jonathan Vogel and Su Wang (2011), CVW hereafter, we have developed a simple theory of trade with sequential production to shed light on how global supply chains affect the interdependence of nations. In this paper we develop a multi-factor extension of CVW to explore how the emergence of global supply chains may affect wage inequality within countries. Our main theoretical prediction is that the emergence of global supply chains has opposite effects on wage inequality among workers employed at the bottom and the top of these chains. This suggests that the consequences of globalization on wage inequality may be very different in primary sectors like agriculture or mining than in manufacturing sectors. |
| JEL: | F1 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17976&r=lab |
| By: | Alex Bryson; White, M. |
| Abstract: | The HRM-performance linkage often invokes an assumption of increased employee commitment to the organization and other positive effects of a motivational type. We present a theoretical framework in which motivational effects of HRM are conditional on its intensity, utilizing especially the idea of HRM ‘bundling’. We then analyse the association between HRM practices and employees’ organisational commitment (OC) and intrinsic job satisfaction (IJS). HRM practices have significantly positive relationships with OC and IJS chiefly at high levels of implementation, but with important distinctions between the domain-level analysis (comprising groups of practices for specific domains such as employee development) and the across-domain or HRM-system level. Findings support a threshold interpretation of the link between HRM domains and employee motivation, but at the system-level both incremental and threshold models receive some support. |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:381&r=lab |
| By: | Alex Bryson; Addison, J. T.; Teixeira, P.; Pahnke, A. |
| 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 agreeements 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. |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:382&r=lab |
| By: | Ronald B. Davies (University College Dublin; Institute for International Integration Studies, Trinity College Dublin; CES-Ifo); Rodolphe Desbordes (University of Strathclyde) |
| Keywords: | Greenfield FDI, Labour Demand, Skill Upgrading |
| JEL: | F16 F23 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp395&r=lab |
| By: | Wadho, Waqar Ahmed |
| Abstract: | Empirical evidence suggests that natural resources breed corruption and reduce educational attainments, dampening economic growth. The theoretical literature has treated these two channels separately, with natural resources affecting growth either through human capital or corruption. In this paper, we argue that education and corruption are jointly determined and depend on the endowment of natural resources. Natural resources affect the incentives to invest in education and rent seeking that in turn affect growth. Whether natural resources stimulate growth or induce a poverty-trap crucially depends on inequality in access to education and political participation, as well as on the cost of political participation. For lower inequality and higher cost of political participation, a high-growth and a poverty-trap equilibrium co-exist even with abundant natural resources. |
| Keywords: | Natural resources; Resource curse; Growth; Human capital; Rent-seeking; Corruption |
| JEL: | O11 O41 O13 J24 D72 |
| Date: | 2011–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:37831&r=lab |
| By: | Monaco, Luisa |
| Abstract: | This work analyses the performance of Italian universities taking into account technical efficiency. The study provides an assessment of levels of technical efficiency taking into account also environmental factors. We focus on the relationship between levels of technical efficiency and university students dropouts. The efficiency analysis, using Data Envelopment Analysis, w.r.t. the 2009/10 academic year, shows that universities belonging to the private sector have higher efficiency scores than public owned universities. Moreover, a difference arises on a geographical basis where centre-northern universities are generally more efficient than southern ones. |
| Keywords: | Technical efficiency – DEA – Second stage analysis; Technical efficiency – DEA – Second stage analysis JEL Classification: |
| JEL: | C14 I23 I21 |
| Date: | 2011–12–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:37949&r=lab |
| By: | Miki Kohara (Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University); Fumio Ohtake (Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | Recent research has shown that low-income households have a higher probability of babies being born underweight, which is an indicator of poor health. The causes and effects of the weights of newborn babies need to be analyzed in Japan, where the proportion of low-weight babies is extremely high relative to the other OECD countries. In this paper, we use panel data by prefecture to analyze the influence of market labor conditions on the weights of newborn babies in Japan. Controlling for heterogeneity among prefectures and years as random effects, we first show that high unemployment rates among parents do reduce the weights of newborn babies. However, our analysis does not confirm the influence of poverty and low income on the weights of newborn babies. Unemployment of parents may hamper the health of a baby for reasons other than financial difficulties. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, low birth]weight, panel data, Japan |
| JEL: | I1 J1 J2 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osp:wpaper:12e003&r=lab |
| By: | William Waite; Fred Carstensen; Jill Coghlan; Marcello Graziano; Kathryn Parr |
| Abstract: | For seven years, the All Our Kin, Inc. (AOK) Child Care Licensing Program in helped address the New Haven helped address the area’s vital need for affordable, high-quality child care. CCEA prepared an economic impact study using the REMI dynamic modelling software and survey responses gathered directly from the Program’s graduates. CCEA estimated that every $1 of AOK program expense results in between $15 to $20 of macro-economic benefit. Survey data from this program's graduates shows that most experience higher incomes than before entering the Program and earn, on average, 10% higher wages than the New Haven area’s industry mean. |
| Keywords: | child care provider training; economic impact from education; |
| JEL: | D6 I3 R2 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:cceast:2011-july-01&r=lab |
| By: | Chao Fu (Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin, Madison) |
| Abstract: | I develop and estimate a structural equilibrium model of the college market. Students, having heterogeneous abilities and preferences, make college application decisions, subject to uncertainty and application costs. Colleges, observing only noisy measures of student ability, choose tuition and admissions policies to compete for more able students. Tuition, applications, admissions and enrollment are joint outcomes from a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium. I estimate the structural parameters of the model using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, via a three-step procedure to deal with potential multiple equilibria. In counterfactual experiments, I use the model .rst to examine the extent to which college enrollment can be increased by expanding the supply of colleges, and then to assess the importance of various measures of student ability. |
| Keywords: | College market, tuition, applications, admissions, enrollment, discrete choice, market equilibrium, multiple equilibria, estimation |
| JEL: | J00 I20 |
| Date: | 2012–01–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pen:papers:12-013&r=lab |
| By: | Alicia H. Munnell; Steven A. Sass |
| Abstract: | The option to claim Social Security benefits earlier than the program’s Full Retirement Age, in exchange for receiving an actuarially reduced benefit, is a key feature of the nation’s Social Security program. This principle remained in place when Congress increased the Full Retirement Age from 65 to 67. Most workers choose to claim early and retire on the reduced benefits. The option to claim early was enacted over 50 years ago, when Congress set 62 as the program’s Earliest Age of Eligibility. To make up for the extra three years of benefit payments, those claiming at 62 received 20 percent less in monthly benefits than if they had claimed at 65. Despite a significant increase in life expectancy in the intervening years, benefits claimed at 62 today are still about 20 percent less than benefits claimed at 65. This brief asks whether this actuarial reduction is still correct... |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:issbrf:ib2012-6&r=lab |
| By: | Girum Abebe (Ethiopian Development Research Institute, Ethiopia); Tetsushi Sonobe (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies) |
| Abstract: | Many observational studies of micro and small enterprises have found that enterprise performance and education levels of entrepreneurs are positively associated. Does it follow that entrepreneurs’ management capacities depend on their academic achievements? This paper examines what types of entrepreneurs participated in a managerial training program held in Ethiopia, who benefited more from the program, and who had better management knowledge before the program. We find that highly educated entrepreneurs were more willing to learn about management, more knowledgeable about management, and gaining more from the training program, but that such simple relationships are missing among entrepreneurs operating larger enterprises. |
| Keywords: | Africa, Ethiopia, education, management practices, management training |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ngi:dpaper:11-23&r=lab |
| By: | Cory Koedel (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia); Mark Ehlert (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia); Michael Podgursky (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia); Eric Parsons (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia) |
| Abstract: | We compare teacher preparation programs in Missouri based on the effectiveness of their graduates in the classroom. The differences in effectiveness between teachers from different preparation programs are very small. In fact, virtually all of the variation in teacher effectiveness comes from within-program differences between teachers. Prior research has overstated differences in teacher performance across preparation programs for several reasons, most notably because some sampling variability in the data has been incorrectly attributed to the preparation programs. |
| Keywords: | Teacher Training, Value Added, Data Clustering, Teacher Preparation, Teacher Preparation Program Effectiveness |
| JEL: | I20 |
| Date: | 2012–04–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:1204&r=lab |
| By: | Ehlert, Martin |
| Abstract: | This article analyzes how institutional changes in the welfare state influence income mobility around job loss in the United States andWest Germany. Drawing both on an analysis of changes in provisions for the unemployed and on panel data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the German Socio-Economic panel (GSOEP), I demonstrate that the material well-being of American households hit by job loss has decreased substantially over time because of welfare state retrenchment, while unemployed German households have experienced only little deterioration of their economic well-being despite worsening labor market circumstances and institutional changes. The analysis also reveals that women in the United States are especially disadvantaged by job loss because, in their case, the withdrawal of the state has not been counteracted by an increase in influence on the part of the family. -- |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbisi:spi2011205&r=lab |
| By: | Tetsushi Sonobe (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies); Yuki Higuchi (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies); Keijiro Otsuka (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies) |
| Abstract: | Poor management has long been suspected as a major constraint on job creation in the manufacturing sector in low-income countries. In this sector, numerous micro and small enterprises in industrial clusters account for a large share of employment. This paper examines the roles of industrial clusters and entrepreneurship in improving productivity and creating jobs, by reviewing the literature and case studies, including recent experiments. We find that the managerial capacity of entrepreneurs largely determine firms’ employment sizes, that their innovative capacity is a major determinant of productivity growth, and that entrepreneurship consisting of these capacities boosts cluster-based industrial development. |
| Keywords: | job creation, labor productivity, industrial cluster, management, entrepreneurship |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ngi:dpaper:11-22&r=lab |
| By: | Francesc Dilmé (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania) |
| Abstract: | Asymmetric information is an important source of inefficiency when assets (like firms) are transacted. The two main sources of this asymmetry are unobserved idiosyncratic characteristics of the asset (for example, quality) and unobserved idiosyncratic choices (actions done by the current owners). We introduce moral hazard in a dynamic signaling model where heterogeneous sellers exert effort to affect the distribution of a stochastic signal (for example sales or profits) of their firms. Buyers observe the signal history and make price offers to the sellers. High-quality sellers try to separate themselves from the less quality ones in order to receive high price offers, while the latter try to pool with the first group to avoid receiving a low price. We characterize the competitive equilibria of the model, and we propose an adaptation of existing refinements to the incorporation of moral hazard in dynamic signaling that implies uniqueness of equilibria. We find that similar individual characteristics across types of sellers make everyone worse off, since competition increases signaling waste. Also, due to the new intensive margin (effort), non-trivial signaling will take place even when the cost of signaling is large. In particular cases, we find analytical solutions, that allow transparent comparative statics analysis. The model can be applied to education where grades depend not only on the students’ skills, but also on their effort. |
| Keywords: | Dynamic Signaling, Dynamic Moral Hazard, Endogenous Effort |
| JEL: | D82 D83 C73 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–03–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pen:papers:12-012&r=lab |
| By: | Grell, Britta |
| Abstract: | When policy discussions turn to income provisions for the old-aged, the focus is often on Social Security programs and the long-term solvency of national public pension systems. While Social Security remains the most important income source for the non-working elderly in the United States, Americans have a much longer tradition of relying on occupational and individual pensions as a crucial part of their retirement income. The paper gives an account of relevant social and legal provisions with implications for voluntary and involuntary retirement, and documents how statutory changes during the past three decades have affected the financial well-being of current and future retirees. It concludes that growing risks in old age are less due to declining Social Security benefits than to several trends in the private industry and financial markets that have seriously weakened employmentbased, old-age protection. In terms of institutional changes, however, the United States has not seen any fundamental restructuring of its public pension system since the 1980s. -- |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbisi:spi2011204&r=lab |
| By: | Finger, Claudia |
| Abstract: | This discussion paper deals with the social selectivity of internationally mobile German students prior to and after the Bologna Process thereby linking two mobility dimensions that a very rarely brought together - social and spatial mobility. Tackling this issue on multiple levels, I ask how student mobility is understood within key Bologna documents (declarations and communiqués) and how this is related to the social selectivity of international mobility among university students in Germany before and after the begin of the Bologna process (1998/99). At the European level, I examine the Bologna model of mobility as it is presented within central documents of the Bologna Process using a theory-guided qualitative content analysis. Sociological Neo-Institutionalism serves as theoretical and analytical framework to investigate institutional facilitators and barriers to the diffusion of the mobility model to the national and individual levels. Afterwards, I contextualize the German higher education system and describe the specific reception and translation of the Bologna model of mobility by German actors in higher education. At the individual level, Bourdieu's theory of educational reproduction is applied to the case of international student mobility to explain the socially stratified mobility behavior of German students with regard to the decision to go abroad, the country of destination and the duration of a study-related stay abroad. Further, I analyze the impact of the Bologna Process using survey data provided by the German National Association of Student Affairs (Deutsches Studentenwerk) of two cohorts: pre-Bologna (1997) and post-Bologna (2006). The main findings suggest that the social background of students is especially important when it comes to the decision to go abroad. However, if students have broken through the first obstacle and decided to go abroad, the influence of the social origin on the country of destination and the duration of mobile periods declines. The correlation between social origin and international mobility has, thus far, not weakened over the course of the Bologna Process. Rather, it has increased over time, indicating an incomplete diffusion in Germany of the relatively vague contents of the Bologna model of mobility from the European to the individual level. This result suggests that the Bologna process goals of enhanced spatial and social mobility have not (yet) been achieved. -- Dieses Discussion Paper behandelt die soziale Selektivität internationaler Mobilität deutscher Studierender im Bologna-Prozess und versucht, dabei zwei Mobilitätsdimensionen zu verbinden, die so bisher nur selten kombiniert wurden: räumliche und soziale Mobilität. Auf verschiedenen Ebenen wird untersucht, wie Studierendenmobilität in zentralen Bologna-Dokumenten (Erklärungen, Communiqués) verstanden wird und inwiefern dieses Verständnis mit der sozialen Selektivität internationaler Studierendenmobilität zusammenhängt. Auf der europäischen Ebene werden hierzu mithilfe einer theoriegeleiteten qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse zentrale Bologna-Dokumente untersucht und beschrieben. Der soziologische Neo-Institutionalismus dient dabei als theoretischer sowie analytischer Rahmen, mit dem eine mögliche Diffusion des Bologna-Mobilitätsmodells von der europäischen zur nationalen und individuellen Ebene erfasst werden soll. Anschließend werden das deutsche Hochschulsystem sowie die Aufnahme und Übertragung des Mobilitätsmodells durch zentrale deutsche Hochschulakteure dargestellt. Auf der letzten, der individuellen, Ebene wird schließlich Bourdieus Theorie der sozialen Reproduktion auf internationale Mobilität übertragen, um so die sozial stratifizierten Mobilitätsentscheidungen deutscher Studierender im Hinblick auf die Entscheidung, überhaupt ins Ausland zu gehen, auf das Zielland sowie auf die Dauer des studienbezogenen Auslandsaufenthalts zu erklären. Auf den vorangegangenen Kapiteln basierend werden außerdem Hypothesen zum Einfluss des Bologna-Prozesses gebildet, die im Anschluss mithilfe einer Pre-Bologna- (1997) und Post-Bologna-Kohorte (2006) der Sozialerhebung des Deutschen Studentenwerkes analysiert werden. Die Ergebnisse verweisen darauf, dass der soziale Hintergrund der Studierenden besonders für die Entscheidung, überhaupt ins Ausland zu gehen, großen Einfluss hat. Wenn die Studierenden diese erste Hürde genommen und sich für einen studienbezogenen Auslandsaufenthalt entschieden haben, verliert ihre soziale Herkunft allerdings an Bedeutung für die Wahl des Ziellands und die Dauer des Aufenthalts. Der Zusammenhang zwischen der sozialen Herkunft deutscher Studierender und ihrer Entscheidung, ins Ausland zu gehen, nahm im Laufe des Bologna-Prozesses nicht ab. Er stieg über die Zeit sogar an, was auf eine unvollständige Diffusion des ohnehin relativ vage formulierten Bologna-Mobilitätsmodells von der europäischen über die nationale zur individuellen Ebene hindeutet. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbslm:spi2011503&r=lab |