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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Saul D. Hoffman (Department of Economics,University of Delaware); Wai-Kit (Ricky) Shum (Department of Economics,University of Delaware) |
| Abstract: | Although the Federal minimum wage has been constant since July 2009, many states have increased their own minimum wages since then. We use those increases to compare employment changes across the two groups of states, using a variety of difference methods. Our data come from the Current Population Survey for March through May of 2011 and 2014. We find no evidence that these minimum wage increases had an adverse effect on the employment of two groups heavily represented among minimum wage workers—teens not in college and adults with less than a high school education. We speculate that the findings may reflect a small decrease in unfilled job slots and in the number of workers engaged in full-time job search, so that the observed wage-employment combination lies closer to the maximum employment potentially available at that wage. |
| Keywords: | Minimum Wage |
| JEL: | J08 J21 J38 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dlw:wpaper:14-12.&r=lab |
| By: | David C. Maré (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research and the University of Waikato); Lynda Sanderson (The Treasury); Richard Fabling (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines remuneration and labour mobility patterns among workers in foreign-owned firms operating in New Zealand. By tracking workers as they move across jobs in different types of firms, we document the extent of the “foreign wage premium”, distinguishing between compositional factors (e.g., differences in industry and employment composition across foreign and domestic firms) and remaining differences in wage levels and growth rates. We find that much of the average earnings gap between foreign- and domestically-owned firms is due to compositional factors -- foreign firms tend to be larger and employ workers who would have received relatively high wages regardless of where they worked. However, even among apparently similar workers and firms, we find a two to four percent earnings gap between workers in domestic and foreign-owned firms. This gap is primarily associated with a wage increase of around two percent on moving from a domestic to a foreign firm, augmented by higher wage growth among foreign-owned firms. However, these premia appear to be specific to foreign-firm employment, as workers who return to domestically-owned firms do not appear to retain the additional earnings associated with foreign-firm employment into their subsequent jobs. We then consider whether foreign-owned firms source workers differently from other New Zealand firms and whether there are systematic differences in the destinations of departing employees by firm ownership. Although foreign-owned firms do not appear to preferentially hire recent immigrants, employees of foreign owned firms are more geographically mobile within New Zealand than comparable workers in domestically owned firms, and are more likely to emigrate within a year of leaving their job. |
| Keywords: | Foreign Direct Investment (FDI); Earnings; Labour mobility |
| JEL: | D22 F23 J31 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtu:wpaper:14_10&r=lab |
| By: | Kaya, Ezgi (Cardiff Business School) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates labor supply elasticities of married men and women allowing for heterogeneity among couples (in educational attainments of husbands and wives) and explicitly modeling how household members interact and make labor supply decisions. We find that the labor supply decisions of husbands and wives are interdependent unless both spouses are highly educated (college or above). Couples with high education, the labor supply decisions of husband and wife are jointly determined only if they have pre-school age children. We also find that labor supply elasticities differ greatly between households. The participation own-wage elasticity is largest (0.77) for women with low education married to men with low education, and smallest (0.03) for women with high education married to men with low education. The participation own-wage elasticities for women with low education married to highly educated men and for women with high education married to highly educated men are similar and fall between these two extremes (about 0.30 for each). For all types of couples, participation non-labor family income elasticity is small. We also find that participation cross-wage elasticities for married women are relatively small (less than -0.05) if they are married to men with low education and larger (-0.37) if they are married to highly educated men. Allowing for heterogeneity across couples yields an overall participation wage elasticity of 0.56, a cross wage elasticity of -0.13 and an income elasticity of -0.006 for married women. The analysis in this paper provides a natural framework to study how changes in educational attainments and household structure affect aggregate labor supply elasticities. |
| Keywords: | Labor supply elasticity; household labor supply; household interactions; educational homogamy |
| JEL: | J22 D10 C30 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdf:wpaper:2014/18&r=lab |
| By: | Davide Gandolfi (Macalester College); Timothy Halliday (University of Hawaii at Manoa and UH Economic Research Organization); Raymond Robertson (Macalester College) |
| Abstract: | Large wage differences between countries ("place premiums") are well documented. Neoclassical trade theory suggests that factor price convergence should follow increased commercial integration. Rising commercial integration, foreign direct investment, and migration followed the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Mexico. This paper evaluates the degree of wage convergence between Mexico and the United States between 1988 and 2011. We match survey and census data from Mexico and the US to estimate the change in wage differentials for observationally identical workers over time. We find no evidence of long-run wage convergence among cohorts characterized by low migration propensities although this was, in part, due to large macroeconomic shocks. On the other hand, we do find some evidence of convergence for workers with high migration propensities. Finally, we find evidence of convergence in the border of Mexico vis-Ã -vis its interior in the 1990s but this was reversed in the 2000s. We conclude that the place premium is largely stable, even following large reductions to trade and investment barriers and high migration. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Labor-market Integration, Factor Price Equalization |
| JEL: | F15 F16 J31 F22 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hai:wpaper:201425&r=lab |
| By: | John T. Addison (University of South Carolina, Durham University, GEMF-University of Coimbra, and IZA Bonn); McKinley L. Blackburn (University of South Carolina); Chad D. Cotti (University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | Recent attempts to incorporate spatial heterogeneity in minimum-wage employment models have been attacked for using overly simplistic trend controls, and for neglecting the potential impact on employment growth. We investigate whether such considerations call into question our earlier findings of statistically insignificant employment effects for the restaurant-and-bar sector. We find that a focus on employment levels is still appropriate, and nonlinear trend controls do not dislodge our limited support for the existence of minimum-wage effects. |
| Keywords: | minimum wages, employment, employment change, spatial controls. |
| JEL: | J23 J38 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gmf:wpaper:2014-17.&r=lab |
| By: | Claudio Michelacci (EIEF and CEPR); Hernan Ruffo (UTDT) |
| Abstract: | We argue that US welfare would rise if unemployment insurance were increased for younger and decreased for older workers. This is because the young tend to lack the means to smooth consumption during unemployment and want jobs to accumulate high-return human capital. So unemployment insurance is most valuable to them, while moral hazard is mild. By calibrating a life cycle model with unemployment risk and endogenous search effort, we find that allowing unemployment replacement rates to decline with age yields sizeable welfare gains to US workers. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eie:wpaper:1411&r=lab |
| By: | Katrin Auspurg; Maria Iacovou; Cheti Nicoletti |
| Abstract: | Using an experimental design, we investigate the reasons behind the gendered division of housework within couples. In particular, we assess whether the fact that women do more housework may beexplained by differences in preferences deriving from differences in gender identity between men and women. We find little evidence of any systematic gender differences in the preference for housework, suggesting that the reasons for the gendered division of housework lie elsewhere. |
| Keywords: | Gender, housework, unpaid work, division of labor, experiment |
| JEL: | J16 J22 C35 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:yorken:14/20&r=lab |
| By: | Henry R. Hyatt; James R. Spletzer |
| Abstract: | Statistics on hires, separations, and job tenure have historically been tabulated from survey data. In recent years, these statistics are increasingly being produced from administrative records. In this paper, we discuss the calculation of hires, separations, and job tenure from quarterly administrative records, and we present these labor market statistics calculated from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) program. We pay special attention to a phenomenon that survey data is ill-suited to analyze: single quarter jobs, which we define as jobs in which the hire and separation occur in the same quarter. We explore the trends of hires, separations, tenure, and single quarter jobs in the United States for the years 1998-2010. We discuss issues associated with creating these statistics from quarterly earnings records, and we identify the challenges that remain. |
| Keywords: | hires; separations; tenure; administrative records |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:14-29&r=lab |
| By: | Orbeta, Aniceto Jr. C.; Paqueo, Vicente B.; Lanzona, Leonardo Jr. A.; Dulay, Dean Gerard C. |
| Abstract: | The Philippines is at a crossroad. It can choose to continue to follow current unrealistic policies that despite good intentions have been shown to be actually detrimental to the poor. Or, it can elect to try another development path to get a better chance at reducing poverty. This study proposes a 12-point agenda, conveniently referred to as the Jobs Expansion and Development Initiative (JEDI) for poverty reduction. JEDI has two objectives. One is to expand gainful jobs through the acceleration of labor intensive production, particularly, the manufacturing of tradable commodities. The other is to improve investments in education and other human capital development and sustain total factor productivity gains. These objectives require inter alia minimum wage reform, which should be undertaken immediately, while investors are looking for new places to locate labor-intensive production and the Philippine economy is getting another look as a potential destination. The study recognizes the Filipinos` aspirations for secure jobs with decent wages. But it challenges the idea that imposing minimum wages and other current labor regulations should be the weapons of choice. They do not work; worse, there is preponderant evidence of its detrimental consequences. Alternatives should, therefore, be considered, such as better education, increased labor-intensive manufacturing, and greater opportunities for training on the job. Arguably, alternatives like these might take time. Consequently, bridging social protection programs need to be implemented in the meantime to help the poor directly with their subsistence needs. For this, instead of imposing mandatory minimum wages, the paper points out that it would be better to use direct and temporary income subsidy, carefully targeted to extremely poor households to meet suitable norms that society considers a public good. Such an approach would be both efficient and equitable, conforming to the general principle of public economics that a public good should be financed by general tax revenues. The study concludes that the time has come for the country to leave the beaten path and try new approaches that would rebalance current labor laws and practices to expand gainful jobs and minimize unintended consequences detrimental to the poor, the young, the women, the less educated, and the unorganized workers. |
| Keywords: | Philippines, jobs, minimum wages, labor market policy, human resource policy |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phd:dpaper:dp_2014-34_(revised)&r=lab |
| By: | Aziza Garsaa; Nadine Levratto |
| Abstract: | This paper seeks to shed some light on the relationship between individual performance and local context. We empirically address this question focusing on the employment growth rate of French manufacturing establishments geo-referenced at the employment area level, an economically consistent territorial division. Using an unbalanced panel of 149,929 plants over the period 2004-2010, we estimate different growth models including local specific variables controlled with company specific ones. The results confirm that the firm growth rate is influenced by the local context and that some features such as unemployment, agglomeration effects or skills matter significantly. The robustness checks performed on subsamples, however, show that the profile of the areas or the market (local or larger) may significantly affect the intensity of the link between a firm and its environment. |
| Keywords: | firm growth, geographical location, manufacturing industry, panel data. |
| JEL: | L25 R11 C23 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2014-49&r=lab |
| By: | Eisele, Katharina |
| Abstract: | Labour immigration schemes that effectively attract qualified immigrant workers are a policy priority for many governments. But what are ‘attractive’ labour immigration schemes and policies? To whom are (or should) such policies (be) attractive? In Europe, the US is often portrayed as one of the most ‘attractive’ countries of immigration – if not the most ‘attractive’. This paper aims to analyse and provide a better understanding of the elements of the US immigration system that are supposedly attractive to foreign workers, by examining key features of the current and prospective US labour immigration rules. The paper finds that ‘attractiveness’ in this policy context is a highly malleable and flexible concept: What might be ‘attractive’ to one key stakeholder might not be to another. |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eps:cepswp:9642&r=lab |