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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Fitzenberger, Bernd (Humboldt University Berlin); Licklederer, Stefanie (University of Freiburg); Zwiener, Hanna (Humboldt University Berlin) |
| Abstract: | Distinguishing carefully between mobility across firms and across occupations, this study provides causal estimates of the wage effects of mobility among graduates from apprenticeship in Germany. Our instrumental variables approach exploits variation in regional labor market characteristics. Pure firm changes and occupation-and-job changes after graduation from apprenticeship result in average wage losses, whereas an occupation change within the training firm results in persistent wage gains. For the majority of cases a change of occupation involves a career progression. In contrast, for job switches the wage loss dominates. |
| Keywords: | apprenticeship training, job mobility, occupational mobility, wages |
| JEL: | J62 J24 J30 J31 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9006&r=lab |
| By: | Olsson, Martin (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Tåg, Joacim (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | Although private equity firms are often criticized for layoffs, little evidence exists regarding which employees lose their jobs and why. We argue that explanations for the job polarization process can also explain layoffs after buyouts. Buyouts reduce agency problems, which triggers automation, offshoring, and tougher bargaining with labor unions. We show that workers in less productive firms who perform routine or offshorable job tasks are more likely to lose their jobs. The opposite trend holds for workers who perform non-routine or non-offshorable job tasks. Moreover, workers who belong to aggressive labor unions are more likely to lose their jobs. |
| Keywords: | Employment; Job polarization; Labor unions; Private equity buyouts; Leveraged buyouts; Offshoring; Restructuring; ask-biased technological change; Unemployment |
| JEL: | G32 G34 J60 |
| Date: | 2015–04–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1068&r=lab |
| By: | Carlos Carrillo-Tudela (University of Essex, CEPR, CESifo and IZA); Eric Smith (University of Essex, CESifo) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies an environment in which workers accumulate information about employment contacts made while searching on-the-job. Workers use this search capital to improve wages and insure against job destruction. This behaviour generates voluntary and involuntary job-to-job transitions with both wage hikes and wage cuts. The equilibrium wage distribution becomes less disperse than when workers cannot recall previously met job opportunities. The impact on output depends on depreciation and the extent of on-the-job search, among other factors. If search capital does not depreciate too quickly, the insurance benefits outweigh rent seeking costs and total output is higher with search capital. |
| Keywords: | Search Capital, Turnover, Wage Cuts |
| JEL: | J62 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apc:wpaper:2015-041&r=lab |
| By: | Hanna Wielandt; ; ; |
| Abstract: | Building on the task-based approach of technological change, this paper discusses the interaction between occupational polarization (e.g. a gradual increase of native employment in the lowest and highest-paying jobs) and employment opportunities of immigrant workers. Using high quality administrative data for Germany, I first show that technological change is positively related to employment growth of natives in low-paying occupations that are also typically held by immigrant workers. In a second step, I show that labor markets in which native employment in those low-paying occupations grew more also experienced a larger decline in immigrant employment rates. The findings are consistent with the idea that the reallocation of natives towards low paying occupations induces stronger competition in the low-skill labor market, a segment in which foreign workers are typically employed. The results suggest that this relationship is more relevant for recent immigrants who have been in Germany for less than 5 years, and that approximately one third of the decline in employment rates could be associated with occupational polarization of native employment. |
| Keywords: | Job Tasks, Polarization, Technological Change, Immigration |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J62 O33 R23 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2015-025&r=lab |
| By: | Carlos Carrillo-Tudela (University of Essex, CEPR, CESifo and IZA); Bart Hobijn (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco); Powen She (University of Essex); Ludo Visschers (University of Edinburgh, Universidad Carlos III and CESifo) |
| Abstract: | Using quarterly data for the U.K. from 1993 through 2012, we document that in economic downturns a smaller fraction of unemployed workers, when starting a new job, start it in a new occupation or industry (a career change, in the parlance of this paper). Moreover, the proportion of total hires that involves a career change for the worker also drops in recessions. Together with a simultaneous drop in overall turnover, this implies that the number of career changes declines during recessions. These results suggest that recessions are times of subdued occupational and industrial reallocation, and do not reflect, or point to, a large role of accelerated and involuntary structural transformation. We investigate this interpretation further, with evidence on who changes careers, which industries and occupations they come from and go to, and at which wage gains. |
| Keywords: | Labour market turnover, occupational and industry mobility, wage growth |
| JEL: | J63 J64 G10 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apc:wpaper:2015-043&r=lab |
| By: | François Langot ((GAINS-TEPP-IRA) Université du Mans, Paris School of Economics, Banque de France & IZA); Alessandra Pizzo (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne & Banque de France) |
| Abstract: | We develop a balanced growth model with labor supply and search and matching frictions in the labor market to study the impact of economic policy variables on the two margins which constitute the (total) labor input: the extensive one (the rate of employment) and the intensive one (the hours worked per worker). We show that the dynamics of the taxes have an impact mainly on the hours worked while labor market institutions have a large influence on the rate of employment. However, our findings underline that there is an interaction between the two margins. The model is tested on four countries (US, France, Germany and UK) which experiment different tax and labor market dynamics since the sixties. Using this structural approach, we can then perform counterfactual experiments about the evolution of the policy variables and to compare welfare levels implied by policy changes |
| Keywords: | Taxes; labor market institutions; hours; employment; labor market search |
| JEL: | E20 E60 J22 J60 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:15036&r=lab |
| By: | Haan, Peter (DIW Berlin); Prowse, Victoria L. (Cornell University) |
| Abstract: | We analyze empirically the optimal design of social insurance and assistance programs when families obtain insurance by making labor supply choices for both spouses. For this purpose, we specify a structural life-cycle model of the labor supply and savings decisions of singles and married couples. Partial insurance against wage and employment shocks is provided by social programs, savings and the labor supplies of all adult household members. The optimal policy mix focuses mainly on Social Assistance, which provides a permanent universal household income floor, with a minor role for temporary earnings-related Unemployment Insurance. Reflecting that married couples obtain intra-household insurance by making labor supply choices for both spouses, the optimal generosity of Social Assistance decreases in the proportion of married individuals in the population. The link between optimal program design and the family context is strongest in low-educated populations. |
| Keywords: | life-cycle labor supply, family labor supply, unemployment insurance, social assistance, design of benefit programs, intra-household insurance, household savings, employment risk, added worker effect |
| JEL: | J18 J68 H21 I38 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8980&r=lab |
| By: | Corinna GHIRELLI (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether the early experience of non-employment has a causal impact on workers' subsequent career. The analysis is based on a sample of low educated youth graduating between 1994 and 2002 in Flanders (Belgium), i.e. a rigid labour market. To correct for selective incidence of non-employment, we instrument early non-employment by the provincial unemployment rate at graduation. Since the instrument is clustered at the province-graduation year level and the number of clusters is small, inference is based on wild bootstrap methods. We find that one percentage point increase in the proportion of time spent in non-employment during the first two and a half years of the career decreases six years after graduation annual earnings from salaried employment by 10% and annual hours worked by 7% (unconditional effects). |
| Keywords: | youth unemployment, scars, instrumental variable, wild bootstrap |
| JEL: | J31 J64 |
| Date: | 2015–04–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2015008&r=lab |
| By: | Albanese, Andrea (Ghent University); Cockx, Bart (Ghent University) |
| Abstract: | In several OECD countries age-targeted wage subsidies have been introduced to increase the employment of older workers, but evidence on their effectiveness is scarce. This paper examines the effects of a permanent wage cost subsidy in Belgium on the employment rate, working time and hourly wage. We estimate these effects by integrating Inverse Probability Weighting in a, possibly trend-adjusted, Difference-in-Differences of endogenously sampled repeated cross sections. We find small positive short-run impacts on working time and larger ones on the employment rate, but only for employees at high risk of leaving to early retirement. The wage is not affected. |
| Keywords: | wage cost subsidies, older workers, weighted Difference-in-Differences, endogenous sampling |
| JEL: | J14 C21 J18 J3 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8988&r=lab |
| By: | Gerdes, Christer (SOFI, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | One of the services provided at the Swedish Public Employment Services is job coaching. Since 2012, that service has been organized according to a voucher-based choice system. In 2013, a performance indicator of job coaching providers was made available at an online website. This study examines to what extent such information affected job coaches' ability to attract participants, as well as how the use of provider ratings varied across different groups of participants. The results indicate that the performance indicator strengthened the positive link between "quality" of services and the number of new participants that signed up with a provider. At the same time, there is evidence showing that more vulnerable groups, such as the less educated and those born outside Europe, do not use the rating values to the same extent as others. It appears that there is a tradeoff as to efficiency and inequality with respect to services that are contracted to private companies in a system based on consumer choice. |
| Keywords: | public sector, private providers, ALMP, rating, efficiency, equality |
| JEL: | H41 J64 J68 J78 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8992&r=lab |
| By: | Osuna, Victoria |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the job creation and destruction model of the search and matching type proposed by García-Pérez and Osuna (2014) to study the effectiveness of subsidizing permanent job creation as a strategy to reduce labour market segmentation between permanent and temporary contracts. The 2006 and 2012 Spanish labour market reforms are used as a benchmark to compare the effects of subsidizing permanent job creation with that of reducing the severance cost gap between permanent and temporary contracts. The change in the degree of duality is measured in terms of the changes in job destruction rates and the tenure distribution. The steady-state results show that, from a fiscal point of view, reducing the severance cost gap between these two type of contracts may be more effective than subsidizing permanent job creation, provided dismissals for objective reasons are effectively made easier to justify and firms make use of that option instead of agreeing to an indemnity closer to the amount paid for unfair dismissals. The model also points to the relevance of designing appropriate penalties for those firms that do not comply with the obligations that subsidies involve. Finally, the sensitivity analysis reveals the importance of the magnitude of training costs and the relative differences in productivity between temporary and permanent workers for the effectiveness of policies involving subsidies for permanent job creation. |
| Keywords: | Subsidies,Severance Costs gap,Permanent and Temporary Contracts,Duality,Unemployment,Tenure Distribution,Job Destruction |
| JEL: | J23 J32 J63 J64 J65 J68 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201521&r=lab |
| By: | Isabelle Bensidoun (Centre d’études de l’emploi, PSL, Université Paris-Dauphine, LEDa, IRD UMR DIAL); Danièle Trancart (Centre d’études de l’emploi) |
| Abstract: | (english) Differences between men and women in non-cognitive skills could be the reason why the gender gap closing didn’t improve since the middle of the nineties. To investigate this issue in the case of France we used the "Génération 1998 à 10 ans" database conducted by the Céreq. This survey provides information on gender preferences differences in terms of career versus family, risk attitudes or the vision individuals have of their professional futures. As these non-cognitive factors are likely to influence wages but also occupational choices, the decomposition of wage differentials proposed by Brown, Moon and Zoloth (1980) is implemented. This makes it possible to consider this indirect mechanism by which non-cognitive variables can determine wages, but also the potentially discriminatory nature of occupational segregation. We find that differences in non-cognitive skills matter, 6.3% of the total gender wage gap, that is almost twice as experience, but a large part, 60% of the gap, remains unexplained by the characteristics considered in this work. _________________________________ (français) La réduction des écarts de salaires entre les hommes et les femmes est depuis maintenant deux décennies au point mort. Le fait que les unes et les autres se distinguent en matière de caractéristiques non cognitives constitue une des raisons qui pourrait expliquer qu’il en soit ainsi. Dans ce travail, à partir de l’enquête Génération 1998 à 10 ans réalisée par le Céreq, le rôle que les préférences en termes de carrière versus famille, l’attitude face au risque ou le rapport à son avenir professionnel peuvent avoir sur les écarts de salaires est examiné. Comme ces facteurs non cognitifs sont susceptibles d’influencer les salaires mais aussi les choix professionnels, la décomposition des écarts de salaires proposée par Brown, Moon et Zoloth (1980) est mise en oeuvre. Celle-ci permet de tenir compte de ce mécanisme indirect par lequel les variables non cognitives peuvent déterminer les salaires, mais aussi du caractère potentiellement discriminatoire de la ségrégation occupationnelle. Si les différences de caractéristiques non cognitives comptent, 6,3 % de l’écart de salaires total, soit près de deux fois plus que l’expérience, 60 % restent inexpliqués par les caractéristiques retenues. |
| Keywords: | gender wage gap, Brown-Moon and Zoloth wage decomposition, noncognitive factors, occupational segregation. |
| JEL: | J16 J24 J31 J38 J71 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt201508&r=lab |
| By: | Carneiro, Pedro (University College London); Ginja, Rita (Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of permanent and transitory shocks to income on parental investments in children. We use panel data on family income, and an index of investments in children in time and goods, from the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Consistent with the literature focusing on non-durable expenditure, we find that there is only partial insurance of parental investments against permanent income shocks, but the magnitude of the estimated responses is small. We cannot reject the hypothesis full insurance against temporary shocks. Another interpretation of our findings is that there is very little insurance available, but the fact that skill is a non-separable function of parental investments over time results in small reactions of these investments to income shocks, especially at later ages. |
| Keywords: | insurance, human capital, consumption |
| JEL: | D12 D91 I30 J1 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8979&r=lab |
| By: | Chevalier, Arnaud (IZA); Marie, Olivier (Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | After the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany experienced an unprecedented temporary drop in fertility driven by economic uncertainty. Using various educational measures, we show that the children born during this nativity slump perform worse from an early age onwards. Consistent with negative selection, mothers who gave birth in that period had worse observed personal characteristics. These children are also less likely to have grown up within stable family environment. Investigating underlying mechanisms reveals that parental educational input and emotional attachment were also lower for these children. Finally, sibling analysis enables us to reject time of birth effects. |
| Keywords: | parental selection, fertility, economic uncertainty, education |
| JEL: | J13 I20 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9004&r=lab |
| By: | Gianna Claudia Giannelli (Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa); Chiara Rapallini (Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa) |
| Abstract: | The performance gap in math of immigrant students is investigated using PISA 2012. The gap with respect to non-immigrant schoolmates is first measured. The hypothesis that first (second) generation students coming from (whose parents come from) countries with a higher performance in math fare better than their immigrant peers coming from lower-ranked countries is then tested on a sample of about 13,000 immigrant students. The estimated average immigrant-native score gap in math amounts to -12 points. The results show that immigrant students coming from higher-ranked origin countries have a significantly lower score gap, and are thus relatively less disadvantaged. For example, coming from a country in the top quintile for math and having attended school there for one year improves the absolute score gap by nearly 39 points, the highest coefficient among the variables that reduce the gap, such as parental education and socio-economic status. |
| Keywords: | mathematical skills, migration, countries of origin |
| JEL: | I25 J15 O15 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2015_06.rdf&r=lab |
| By: | Piritta Sorsa; Jan Mares; Mathilde Didier; Caio Guimaraes; Marie Rabate; Gen Tang; Annamaria Tuske |
| Abstract: | The low and declining female labour force participation rate in India despite strong growth over the past decade is puzzling and stands out among emerging markets. At the same time greater economic participation of women can be a source of inclusive growth, and wellbeing. Assessing determinants of the labour force participation of women in India can open important policy insights. This paper first describes key employment trends in India by gender. Then the potential determinants of female labour force participation are identified based on literature, basic statistics and econometric techniques. Given the large regional differences in India the analysis is also conducted by region and between rural and urban areas. In contrast to other BRIICs or OECD countries, education and incomes are negatively correlated with female labour for participation in India. Apart from lack of jobs, social and cultural factors keep women outside the labour force. Other determinants relate to infrastructure, access to finance, labour laws and rural employment programmes. This Working Paper relates to the 2014 OECD Economic Survey of India (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/economic-survey-india.htm).<P>Les déterminants de l'activité économique des femmes en Inde<BR>Le taux d’activité féminin en Inde, faible et en repli en dépit de la solide croissance des dix dernières années, laisse perplexe et fait figure d’exception parmi les économies émergentes. Parallèlement, une plus forte participation des femmes à l’économie pourrait être source de croissance inclusive et de bien-être. L’évaluation des déterminants de l’activité économique des femmes en Inde pourrait ouvrir d’importantes pistes d’analyse pour l’action publique. Le présent document décrit tout d’abord les principales tendances de l’emploi en Inde, en fonction des sexes. Puis les déterminants potentiels de l’activité féminine sont identifiés à partir d’une revue des publications, de statistiques élémentaires et de modèles économétriques. Compte tenu des grandes différences régionales en Inde l'analyse est également menée par région et entre les zones rurales et urbaines. Contrairement à d'autres pays de l'OCDE ou BRIICS, l'éducation et les revenus sont en corrélation négative avec le travail des femmes à la participation en Inde. Outre le manque d'emplois, facteurs sociaux et culturels empêchent les femmes en dehors du marché du travail. Autres facteurs déterminants ont trait à l'infrastructure, l'accès au financement, la législation du travail et des programmes d'emploi rural. Ce Document de travail se rapporte à l’Étude économique de l’OCDE de l'Inde, 2014 (www.oecd.org/fr/eco/etudes/etude-econom ique-inde.htm). |
| Keywords: | gender, India, gender equality, female labour force participation, activité économique des femmes, égalité des sexes, Inde |
| JEL: | J16 J18 J21 J22 J71 J82 J83 |
| Date: | 2015–04–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1207-en&r=lab |