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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Stockhammer, Engelbert |
| Keywords: | income distribution, wages, data collecting, methodology, developed countries, developing countries, répartition du revenu, salaire, collecte des données, méthodologie, pays développés, pays en développement, distribución del ingreso, salario, recopilación de datos, metodología, países desarrollados, países en desarrollo |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:ilowps:470913&r=lab |
| By: | Florida , Richard (University of Toronto); Mellander , Charlotta (Jönköping International Business School) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the geographic variation in inequality, and it distinguishes between wage and income inequality. Wage inequality is associated with skills, human capital, technology and metro size - in line with the literature on skill-biased technical change. Income inequality is instead more closely associated with race, poverty, lower levels of unionization and lower taxes. This suggests that income inequality is a product not only of skill-biased technical change, but also of the enduring legacy of race and poverty at the bottom of the socio-economic order, as well as the unraveling of the post-war social compact between capital and labor. |
| Keywords: | inequality; income; wage; high-tech; skills |
| JEL: | J24 O10 O33 R00 |
| Date: | 2013–04–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0304&r=lab |
| By: | Osuna, Victoria |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the implications for employment, productivity and wages of allowing for more flexibility in weekly hours worked introduced in the recent Spanish labour market reform (the 2012 reform). A crucial aspect of the model will be the extent to which firms will be able to choose the workweek when subject to demand shocks. The model is calibrated so that it reproduces the cross-sectional distribution of workweeks across plants and households and some features of the Spanish economy. The author compares the status quo steady-state, where a 40 hour workweek is imposed and no flexibility is allowed, with the steady state of economies with a higher degree of flexibility in weekly hours: the 2012 Reform, the Work sharing and the Full flexibility scenarios. She finds that the 2012 reform preserves employment and generates a 1.72% increase in productivity. In the work sharing scenario, the increase in employment (1.86%) comes at the expense of a lower productivity increase (1.31%) and a decrease in weekly hours worked (4%). Finally, the full flexibility scenario preserves employment and generates a substantial increase in productivity (2.6%) by allowing firms to completely adapt to changing economic conditions, by expanding or contracting the working week. -- |
| Keywords: | workweek,wages,employment,productivity |
| JEL: | E24 E60 J21 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201327&r=lab |
| By: | Holzer, Harry J. (Georgetown University); Dunlop, Erin (American Institutes for Research) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we provide a comprehensive and up-to-date snapshot of the most important postsecondary education and labor market outcomes in the U.S. using two nationally representative sources of data: The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and The National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS). We find that postsecondary educational attainment has risen modestly among young Americans over the past two decades, with greater gains in BA attainment in the 1990s and in certificate and AA attainment since 2000 (though attainment rose during the Great Recession at all levels). Both younger and older cohorts of blacks and Hispanics have made relative progress in the attainment of certificates and AAs but still lag behind whites in the entry into and completion of BA programs; completion rates in BA programs also lag substantially for those from low-income families or with weak academic achievement in high school. Young women (especially among whites and blacks) now achieve sub-BA and BA degrees at higher levels than their male counterparts and generally have higher achievement. There are labor market returns for all postsecondary credentials, including certificates and AA degrees, though these vary across field of study. Large gender gaps exist in field of study, with men more concentrated in high-paying fields. Lastly, we find that high school achievement measures can account for much of the racial gaps in BA completion and earnings and some of the gaps by family background, though they account for little of the continuing gender gap favoring young men in earnings. |
| Keywords: | postsecondary education, earnings, labor market |
| JEL: | I23 I24 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7319&r=lab |
| By: | Alberto Alesina; Paola Giuliano |
| Abstract: | We study the role of the most primitive institution in society: the family. Its organization and relationship between generations shape values formation, economic outcomes and influences national institutions. We use a measure of family ties, constructed from the World Values Survey, to review and extend the literature on the effect of family ties on economic behavior and economic attitudes. We show that strong family ties are negatively correlated with generalized trust; they imply more household production and less participation in the labor market of women, young adult and elderly. They are correlated with lower interest and participation in political activities and prefer labor market regulation and welfare systems based upon the family rather than the market or the government. Strong family ties may interfere with activities leading to faster growth, but they may provide relief from stress, support to family members and increased wellbeing. We argue that the value regarding the strength of family relationships are very persistent over time, more so than institutions like labor market regulation or welfare systems. |
| JEL: | J2 J6 O4 O5 Z1 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18966&r=lab |
| By: | Y. Ge; H. Lehmann |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the costs of job loss in China, using unique new data from the Rural-to-Urban Migration in China (RUMIC) data set for the year 2009. We investigate conventional labor market outcomes upon displacement like the length of unemployment spells, hours worked and monthly earnings. We also analyze whether displaced workers are more likely to be in informal employment relationships or selfemployed or less happy than their non-displaced counterparts. We also look at health and psychic costs as additional outcomes. Displaced migrant workers do not encounter losses in terms of longer unemployment spells or wage penalties, while urban displaced workers incur very large costs in terms of these two outcomes. These results point to segmented urban labor markets in China. All displaced workers have an increased likelihood of being informal, while only migrants among the displaced experience a lowered incidence of self-employment. Also, health costs and psychic costs can be linked to displacement although these costs are not prevalent in a uniform fashion. Stratification of the data by gender, level of development and ownership seems important as it shows substantial heterogeneity of the costs of job loss across these dimensions. |
| JEL: | J64 J65 P50 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp876&r=lab |
| By: | Michael Reiter (Institute for Advanced Studies); Christian Haefke (Institut for Advanced Studies) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we use information on the cyclical variation of labor market participation to learn about the aggregate labor supply elasticity. For this purpose, we extend the standard labor market matching model to allow for endogenous participation. A model that is calibrated to replicate the variability of unemployment and participation, and the negative correlation of unemployment and GDP, implies an aggregate labor supply elasticity along the extensive margin of around 0.3 for men and 0.5 for women. This is in line with recent microeconometric estimates. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed012:594&r=lab |
| By: | Sylvia Dixon (Labour Group, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment); Maré, David C (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the incidence of involuntary job loss and its impact on the employment and earnings of affected workers, using data from the Survey of Families, Incomes and Employment (SoFIE) for the 2002–09 period. It focusses on employees who had been working in their job for at least one year before the job loss. The impact of displacement on employment and earnings was estimated by using a propensity score-matching approach to select similar non-displaced workers and then compare their outcomes. We find that the employment rate of displaced workers was on average 27 percentage points lower 0–1 years after displacement, 14 percentage points lower 1–2 years after, and 8 percentage points lower 2–3 years after, than that of the matched comparison group. The average wage of re-employed displaced workers was 12 percent lower 0–1 years after displacement, 11 percent lower 1–2 years after and 7 percent lower 2–3 years after. Other impacts included increases in unemployment and self-employment, reductions in average weekly hours, and reductions in weekly and annual earnings. |
| Keywords: | Displaced workers; redundancy; SoFIE; propensity matching |
| JEL: | J63 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtu:wpaper:13_03&r=lab |
| By: | Alessia Matano (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona); Paolo Naticchioni (University of Cassino, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, CeLEG-Luiss) |
| 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 classification: J31, J61, R23 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aqr:wpaper:201202&r=lab |
| By: | John Kennes (Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University); Daniel le Maire (University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | We develop a new directed search model of a frictional labor market with a continuum of heterogenous workers and firms. We estimate two versions of the model - auction and price posting - using Danish data on wages and productivities. Assuming heterogenous workers with no comparative advantage, we find that each model gives a reasonable approximation of the statistical moments of both the wage and productivity distribution. A sensitivity analysis then draws out further implications of the theory. We explain how the feasible matchings between workers and firms changes as the worker moves up the job ladder, how the identification of assortative matching is fundamentally different in directed and undirected search models, how our theory accounts for business cycle facts related to inter-temporal changes in job offer distributions, and how our model could also be used to identify the contributions of specific versus general human capital. |
| Keywords: | Directed Search, Auctions, Wage Posting, On-the-Job Search, Comparative Advantage, Assortative Matching, Business Cycles, Human Capital |
| JEL: | J64 J63 E32 |
| Date: | 2013–04–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2013-09&r=lab |
| By: | Edelman, Peter B. (Georgetown University); Holzer, Harry J. (Georgetown University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we will briefly review recent trends in employment outcomes for disadvantaged youth, focusing specifically on those who have become "disconnected" from school and the labor market, and why these trends have occurred. We then review a range of policy prescriptions that might improve those outcomes. These policies include: 1) Efforts to enhance education and employment outcomes, both among in-school youth who are at risk of dropping out and becoming disconnected as well as out-of-school youth who have already done so; 2) Policies to increase earnings and incent more labor force participation among youth, such as expanding the eligibility of childless adults (and especially non-custodial parents) for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC); and 3) Specific policies to reduce barriers to employment faced by ex-offenders and non-custodial parents (NCPs). We also consider policies that target the demand side of the labor market, in efforts to spur the willingness of employers to hire these young people and perhaps to improve the quality of jobs available to them. |
| Keywords: | youth, education, employment |
| JEL: | J08 J13 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izapps:pp56&r=lab |
| By: | Benabou, Roland (Princeton University); Tirole, Jean (IDEI) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the impact of labor market competition and skill-biased technical change on the structure of compensation. The model combines multitasking and screening, embedded into a Hotelling-like framework. Competition for the most talented workers leads to an escalating reliance on performance pay and other high-powered incentives, thereby shifting effort away from less easily contractible tasks such as long-term investments, risk management and within-firm cooperation. Under perfect competition, the resulting efficiency loss can be much larger than that imposed by a single firm or principal, who distorts incentives downward in order to extract rents. More generally, as declining market frictions lead employers to compete more aggressively, the monopsonistic underincentivization of low-skill agents first decreases, then gives way to a growing overincentivization of high-skill ones. Aggregate welfare is thus hill-shaped with respect to the competitiveness of the labor market, while inequality tends to rise monotonically. Bonus caps and income taxes can help restore balance in agents' incentives and behavior, but may generate their own set of distortions. |
| Keywords: | incentives, performance pay, bonuses, executive compensation, inequality, multitask, contracts, screening, adverse selection, moral hazard, work ethic, Hotelling, competition |
| JEL: | D31 D82 D86 J31 J33 L13 M12 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7321&r=lab |
| By: | Elaine Liu (University of Houston); Shu Zhang (University of Houston) |
| Abstract: | This paper performs a meta-analysis to investigate how changes over time, model specifications, differences in data sets, and variable definitions could contribute to the differences in estimates of returns to education in China. The results show that approximately 10 percent of the variation can be explained by changes in labor market over time, while the other 45 percent can be explained by differences in samples used and empirical methods. Return to education has increased approximately 0.2 percentage points a year since the economic reform, and increases more quickly as the reform progresses; however, this accelerating trend has reached a stop in the last few years when the global recession hit China. We also find that returns to education for rural-to-urban migrant workers are 2.3 percentage points lower than that of urban workers. We conclude that the increasing reward for human capital accumulation over time signals that China is moving toward a well functioning labor market. |
| Keywords: | Returns to Education, China, Meta-Analysis |
| JEL: | I20 J3 O12 |
| Date: | 2013–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hou:wpaper:201309855&r=lab |
| By: | Behaghel, L.; Caroli, E.; Roger, M. |
| Abstract: | We analyze the role of training in mitigating the negative impact of technical and organizational changes on the employment of older workers. Using a panel of French firms in the late 1990s, our empirical analysis confirms that new technologies and some innovative workplace practices are biased against older workers. The use of the Internet and the adoption of computer networks tend to increase the wage share of middle-aged workers and to reduce the share of workers older than 50. By contrast, the reduction of the number of hierarchical layers is favourable to older workers. Training contributes to protect older workers in terms of employment and/or of wages. |
| Keywords: | Technical change; organizational change; training; older workers. |
| JEL: | J14 J24 J26 O30 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfr:banfra:431&r=lab |
| By: | Adrian Chadi (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the EU, University of Trier); Clemens Hetschko (School of Business and Economics, Freie Universitaet Berlin) |
| Abstract: | Fixed-term contracts are often considered a key policy tool for increasing employment. As we show that contract limitation lowers job satisfaction using data from the German Socio- Economic Panel study, we detect a drawback of promoting temporary employment that has not been identified so far. We find that the “honeymoon-hangover” effect of a new job must be taken into account to reveal this result. We examine reasons why employees suffer from temporary contracts and analyse the “Flexicurity” idea of compensating workers with security. Our findings contribute to research on workers’ well-being as well as to the debate on labour market flexibilisation. |
| Keywords: | labour market flexibilisation, job satisfaction, temporary contracts |
| JEL: | J28 J41 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iaa:dpaper:201304&r=lab |
| By: | Johannes Pöschl; Neil Foster |
| Abstract: | The paper addresses the link between productivity and labour mobility. The hypothesis tested is that technology is transmitted across industries through the movement of skilled workers embodying human capital. The embodied knowledge is then diffused within the new environment creating spillovers and leading to productivity improvements. The empirical analysis is based on household survey and industry-level data for a sample of 12 EU countries covering the years 1995-2005. The estimates document the importance of positive cross-sectoral knowledge spillovers and indicate that labour mobility has considerable beneficial effects on industry productivity. Possible endogeneity problems related to labour mobility are tackled by employing a two stage instrumental variables approach. Moreover we show that the spillover effects vary considerably by technology level of the giving industry. While workers moving away from high and medium-tech industries are found to produce positive productivity effects for the receiving industry, no effect is found for those coming from low-tech industries. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge Spillovers, Labour Mobility, Productivity, Human Capital, Industry Level |
| JEL: | J24 J60 O47 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wsr:wpaper:y:2013:i:117&r=lab |
| By: | Kauhanen, Antti; Maliranta, Mika |
| Abstract: | Abstract: We propose an approach for measuring and analyzing the dynamics of standard aggregate wage growth of macro statistics with micro-data. Our method decomposes aggregate wage growth to the wage growth of job stayers and to various terms related to job and worker restructuring. This method produces explicit expressions with clear interpretations for the various restructuring components and therefore opens new opportunities for a deeper analysis of various micro-level mechanisms and their cyclicality. The methodology also allows us to study many topics simultaneously that have previously been studied in isolation. Using comprehensive longitudinal employer-employee data over an extended period of time, we study how job and worker restructuring influences aggregate wage growth and its cyclicality. We show that wage formation is significantly more flexible than suggested by the aggregate numbers, and we identify the microlevel mechanisms that explain the greater flexibility. This version: December 7, 2012 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:wpaper:1&r=lab |
| By: | Damiani, Mirella; Ricci, Andrea |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate the influence of the education of entrepreneurs, which we hypothesise to be a signal of talent, on the adoption of variable pay (VP) schemes in the Italian economy. We estimate to what extent differences in the diffusion of VP between Italian firms reflect differences in the quality of entrepreneurs. Our estimates, which we obtained by taking both endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity into account, validate hypotheses about the direct positive effects of entrepreneurs’ education on the adoption of VP schemes. Furthermore, we ascertain the role of entrepreneurs’ education by examining its influence on the choice between different types of VP bonuses at the individual, group, or establishment levels. Our results suggest that highly educated entrepreneurs are more likely to use individual or collective forms of VP schemes at the establishment level rather than team VP incentives. |
| Keywords: | Variable pay, education |
| JEL: | J33 J50 |
| Date: | 2013–04–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:46163&r=lab |
| By: | Böckerman, Petri; Kauhanen, Antti; Maliranta, Mika |
| Abstract: | Abstract: To examine the productivity, employment and wage effects of ICT, we apply novel occupation based measures of organisational change within firms. With these measures, we directly address the complementarities between ICT and organisational changes. Our results support the view that organisational change complements ICT investments in a productivity-enhancing manner. In particular, the ICT-driven productivity gains are associated with the destruction of routine and non-interactive tasks in an organisation. Furthermore, using longitudinal aspects of our linked employer-employee data, we find that whereas ICT does not affect the probability of an employee becoming unemployed, it has a positive impact on the wage growth of retained employees. |
| Keywords: | ICT, innovation, organisational change, restructuring, productivity, performance, wages |
| JEL: | J24 J31 L23 M51 |
| Date: | 2013–04–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:wpaper:2&r=lab |
| By: | Tansel, Aysit; Gazioglu, Saziye |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the job satisfaction in relation to managerial attitudes towards employees and firm size using the linked employer-employee survey results in Britain.We first investigate the management-employee relationships and the firm size using maximum likelihood probit estimation . Next various measues of job satisfaction are related to the management-employee relations via maximum likelihood ordered probit estimates. Four measures of job satisfaction that have not been used often are considered. They are satisfaction with influence over job; satisfaction with amount of pay; satisfaction with sense of achievement and satisfaction with respect from supervisors. Main findings indicate that management-employee relationships are less satisfactory in the large firms than in the small firms. Job satisfaction levels are lower in large firms. Less satisfactory management-employee relationships in the large firms may be a major source of the observed lower level of job satisfaction in them. These results have important policy implications from the point of view of the firm management while achieving the aims of their organizations in particular in the large firms in the area of management-employee relationships. Improving the management-employee relations in large firms will increase employee satisfaction in many respects as well as increase productivity and reduce turnover. The nature of the management-employee relations with firm size and job satisfaction has not been investigated before. |
| Keywords: | Job Satisfaction, Managerial Attitudes,Firm size, Linked Employer-Employee data, Britain |
| JEL: | D23 J21 J28 |
| Date: | 2013–03–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45060&r=lab |
| By: | Agnese, Pablo (FH Düsseldorf) |
| Abstract: | The subject of offshoring and productivity has not yet received the attention it deserves. Here I propose a simple framework for estimating the contribution of these strategies to the growth rate of labor productivity from a time-series perspective. This framework is then used to assess the impact of offshoring on skill upgrading and the labor share. For both empirical questions I take up the study of a group of Japanese industries during the recent years of slow growth. The results should be interpreted with caution yet clearly suggest that offshoring can improve labor productivity in the Semiconductors industry. Moreover, offshoring is found to be the source of important changes among industries with different skills (skill upgrading) and an important factor behind the fall of the labor share. |
| Keywords: | offshoring, labor productivity, skill upgrading, labor share |
| JEL: | J23 J24 E25 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7323&r=lab |
| By: | Fagan, Colette; Lyonette, Clare; Smith, Mark; Saldaña-Tejeda, Abril |
| Keywords: | arrangement of working time, work life balance, gender, hours of work, developed countries, developing countries, aménagement du temps de travail, conciliation travail-vie personnelle, genre, durée du travail, pays développés, pays en développement, ordenamiento del tiempo de trabajo, equilibrio trabajo-vida, género, horas de trabajo, países desarrollados, países en desarrollo |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:ilowps:470503&r=lab |
| By: | Yann Kossi (GATE Lyon Saint-Etienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - CNRS : UMR5824 - Université Lumière - Lyon II - École Normale Supérieure - Lyon); Jean-Yves Lesueur (GATE Lyon Saint-Etienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - CNRS : UMR5824 - Université Lumière - Lyon II - École Normale Supérieure - Lyon); Mareva Sabatier (IREGE - Institut de Recherche en Gestion et en Economie - Université de Savoie) |
| Abstract: | The scientific environment might influence university researchers' job designs. In a principal-agent model, researchers must choose between substitutable tasks, publishing or teaching, according to their individual abilities and the scientific and pedagogical context that exists in their universities. This proposed model shows that scientific production can increase, regardless of researchers' abilities, if the scientific environment favours agglomeration effects. The authors test these predictions using an original data set of French economics professors that reveals their individual investments in both teaching and publishing. The econometric results confirm that the tasks conflict and that the scientific context affects researchers' investments in each task. |
| Keywords: | scientific production; multitasking; scientific environment |
| Date: | 2013–04–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00806801&r=lab |