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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Andrea Albanese (Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business, SHERPPA); Bart Cockx (Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business, SHERPPA, UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES), IZA and CESifo); Yannick Thuy (Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business, SHERPPA) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study the effects on the survival rate in employment of a scheme that facilitates gradual retirement through working time reductions. We use information on the entire labour market career and other observables to control for selection and take dynamic treatment assignment into account. We also estimate a competing risks model considering different (possibly selective) pathways to early retirement. We find that participation in the scheme initially prolongs employment, as participants keep accumulating full pension rights. However, as participants become eligible for early retirement subsequently, these larger financial incentives induce them to leave the labour force prematurely. These adverse incentives are stronger for individuals who reduce their working time most. After two (four) years for men (women), the positive effects reverse. The more favourable effect for women is likely a consequence of their lower opportunities to enter early retirement. The gradual retirement scheme fails the cost-benefit test. |
| Keywords: | Part-time work, older workers, Inverse Probability Weighting, dynamic selection into treatment, endogenous sampling |
| JEL: | J14 C22 J18 J22 |
| Date: | 2015–12–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2015024&r=lab |
| By: | BARGAIN Olivier; DOORLEY Karina; VAN KERM Philippe |
| Abstract: | Since women are disproportionately in low paid work, they should benefit the most from minimum wage policies. We exploit the introduction of a national minimum wage (MW) in Ireland (in 2000) and the UK (in 1999) to check this prediction. Using panel survey data, we implement difference-in-difference estimation of a distribution regression model. We separate out "price" effects from "composition" effects. A large reduction of the gap at low wages is found for Ireland, with small spill-over effects further up in the distribution. There is hardly any effect in Britain, largely because of apparent non-compliance with the minimum wage legislation. |
| Keywords: | gender wage gap; minimum wage; distribution regression; UK; Ireland |
| JEL: | C14 J16 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2016-02&r=lab |
| By: | Abigail Cooke; Thomas Kemeny; David L. Rigby |
| Abstract: | Do job characteristics modulate the relationship between import competition and the wages of workers who perform those jobs? This paper tests the claim that workers in occupations featuring highly routine tasks will be more vulnerable to low-wage country import competition. Using data from the US Census Bureau, we construct a pooled cross-section (1990, 2000, and 2007) of more than 1.6 million individuals linked to the establishment in which they work. Occupational measures of vulnerability to trade competition – routineness, analytic complexity, and interpersonal interaction on the job – are constructed using O*NET data. The linked employer-employee data allow us to model the effect of low-wage import competition on the wages of workers with different occupational characteristics. Our results show that low-wage country import competition is associated with lower wages for US workers holding jobs that are highly routine and less complex. For workers holding nonroutine and highly complex jobs, increased import competition is associated with higher wages. Finally, workers in occupations with the highest and lowest levels of interpersonal interaction see higher wages, while workers with medium-low levels of interpersonal interaction suffer lower wages with increased low-wage import competition. These findings demonstrate the importance of accounting for occupational characteristics to more fully understand the relationship between trade and wages, and suggest ways in which task trade vulnerable occupations can disadvantage workers even when their jobs remain onshore. |
| Keywords: | Task trade; import competition; wages; globalization; occupational characteristics; trade |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:16-03&r=lab |
| By: | Francisco Gonzalez (Department of Economics, University of Waterloo); Irving Rosales (Universidad Iberoamericana) |
| Abstract: | We argue that enforcing blanket child labor restrictions in developing economies, as advocated in the ILO Convention 138, is harmful even in the long run. The social return to child labor can be higher than its private return if laws against crime and laws in favor of compulsory education are not enforced, in which case child labor crowds out both child crime and crime against children. |
| JEL: | J88 O15 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wat:wpaper:1601&r=lab |
| By: | Clemens Hetschko; Malte Preuss |
| Abstract: | Using German panel data, we assess the causal effect of job loss, and thus of an extensive income shock, on risk attitude. In line with predictions of expected utility reasoning about absolute risk aversion, losing one’s job reduces the willingness to take risks. This effect strengthens in previous hourly wage, begins to manifest itself as soon as an employee perceives the threat of job loss and is of a transitory nature. The change in stated risk attitude matches observable job finding behaviour, confirming the behavioural validity of our results. |
| Keywords: | absolute risk aversion; income shock; job loss; plant closure; general risk attitude |
| JEL: | D81 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp813&r=lab |