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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Lucifora, Claudio (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Vigani, Daria (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate the association between female leadership, work organization practices and perceived gender discrimination within firms. Using data for 30 European countries for the period 1995-2010, we find that having a female "boss" is associated with lower overall gender discrimination at work. The female boss effect, however, differs across gender: it is associated with lower discrimination among female employees, but higher among male employees. We also investigate the underlying mechanisms that shape gender discrimination within firms. We find evidence of a "women helping women" pattern through spill-over effects which reduce discrimination among women, but increase discrimination among men, particularly in female-dominated jobs. A better balance between work and life, a supportive work environment and flexible working time, particularly for women in high-skilled jobs, are shown to be effective in reducing gender discrimination. The above findings are robust to a number of specification changes and different sub-populations in our sample. Further, similar results are found when more traditional measures of gender imbalance, such as wages or career prospects, are used. Finally, to account for potential endogeneity and selection, arising from the non-random distribution of females in higher-rank jobs, we jointly estimate the selection process and the discrimination equation, finding support for a causal interpretation of the results. |
| Keywords: | gender discrimination, female leadership, work organization |
| JEL: | J16 J70 J81 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9737&r=lab |
| By: | McGuinness, Seamus (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin); Pouliakas, Konstantinos (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop)) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data from the Cedefop European Skills and Jobs (ESJ) survey, a new international dataset of adult workers in 28 EU countries, to decompose the wage penalty of overeducated workers. The ESJ survey allows for integration of a rich, previously unavailable, set of factors in the estimation of the effect of overeducation on earnings. Oaxaca decomposition techniques are employed to uncover the extent to which the overeducation wage penalty can be attributed to either (i) human capital attributes, (ii) job characteristics, (iii) information asymmetries, (iv) compensating job attributes or (v) skill needs of jobs. Differences in human capital and job‐skill requirements are important factors in explaining the wage premium. It is found that asymmetry of information accounts for a significant part of the overeducation wage penalty for tertiary education graduates, whereas job characteristics and low skill content of jobs explain most of the wage gap for medium‐qualified employees. Little evidence is found in favour of equilibrium theories of skills matching and compensating wage differentials. The paper thus highlights the need for customised policy responses (e.g. career guidance; policies to raise job quality) to tackle overeducation. |
| Keywords: | overeducation, skills, mismatch, wages, decomposition |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J70 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9698&r=lab |
| By: | Afridi, Farzana (Indian Statistical Institute); Dinkelman, Taryn (Dartmouth College); Mahajan, Kanika (Indian Statistical Institute) |
| Abstract: | Unlike the global trend, India has witnessed a secular decline in women's employment rates over the past few decades. We use parametric and semi-parametric decomposition techniques to show that changes in individual and household attributes fully account for the fall in women's labor force participation rate in 1987-1999 and account for half of the decline in this rate in 1999-2009. Our findings underscore increasing education levels amongst rural married women and the men in their households as the most prominent attributes contributing to this decline. We provide suggestive evidence that a rise in more educated women's returns to home production, relative to their returns in the labor market, may have adversely affected female labor force participation rates in India. |
| Keywords: | female labor force participation, decomposition analysis, education, India |
| JEL: | J21 J22 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9722&r=lab |
| By: | Hjalmarsson, Randi (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Lindquist, Matthew J. (Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI)) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses detailed individual register data to identify the causal effect of mandatory peacetime military conscription in Sweden on the lives of young men born in the 1970s and 80s. Because draftees are positively selected into service based on their draft board test performance, our primary identification strategy uses the random assignment of potential conscripts to draft board officiators who have relatively high or low tendencies to place draftees into service in an instrumental variable framework. We find that military service significantly increases post-service crime (overall and across multiple crime categories) between ages 23 and 30. These results are driven primarily by young men with pre-service criminal histories and who come from low socioeconomic status households. Though we find evidence of an incapacitation effect concurrent with conscription, it is unfortunately not enough to break a cycle of crime that has already begun prior to service. Analyses of labor market outcomes tell similar post-service stories: individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds have significantly lower income, and are more likely to receive unemployment and welfare benefits, as a result of service, while service significantly increases income and does not impact welfare and unemployment for those at the other end of the distribution. Finally, we provide suggestive evidence that peer effects may play an important role in explaining the unintended negative impacts of military service. |
| Keywords: | Conscription; Crime; Criminal Behavior; Draft; Military Conscription; Military Draft; Incapacitation; Labor Market; Unemployment |
| JEL: | H56 J08 K42 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0645&r=lab |
| By: | Marcus Noland (Peterson Institute for International Economics); Marcus Tyler Moran (Peterson Institute for International Economics); Barbara Kotschwar (Peterson Institute for International Economics) |
| Abstract: | Analysis of a global survey of 21,980 firms from 91 countries suggests that the presence of women in corporate leadership positions may improve firm performance. This correlation could reflect either the payoff to nondiscrimination or the fact that women increase a firm’s skill diversity. Women’s presence in corporate leadership is positively correlated with firm characteristics such as size as well as national characteristics such as girls’ math scores, the absence of discriminatory attitudes toward female executives, and the availability of paternal leave. The results find no impact of board gender quotas on firm performance, but they suggest that the payoffs of policies that facilitate women rising through the corporate ranks more broadly could be significant. |
| Keywords: | Women, gender, diversity, boards of directors, CEOs |
| JEL: | G3 J16 M14 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iie:wpaper:wp16-3&r=lab |
| By: | Pilar García-Gómez; Sergi Jiménez-Martín; Judit Vall Castello |
| Abstract: | In a world with limited PAYGO financing possibilities this paper explores whether older Spanish individuals have the health capacity to work longer. For that purpose we use Milligan-Wise and Cutler-Meara Cutler-Meara- Richards-Shubik simulation methods. Our results suggest that Spanish workers have significant additional capacities to extend their working careers. |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2016-02&r=lab |
| By: | Stephen A. Wandner (Urban Institute and W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research) |
| Abstract: | Wage insurance is a program that attempts to help permanently displaced workers transition to employment rapidly, effectively, and equitably. Because displaced workers have been found to suffer substantial earnings losses when they become reemployed, a wage insurance program provides a temporary wage supplement that partially reduces the wage loss experienced by targeted, newly reemployed workers. While participating workers receive a “wage supplement,” the program is called “wage insurance” because of its design as a social insurance program rather than an income transfer program. This paper provides a discussion of the development of wage insurance as a policy option in the United States and proposals that have had varying goals and designs. |
| Keywords: | wage insurance, unemployment insurance, displaced workers, trade adjustment assistance, earnings losses, wage supplement |
| JEL: | J65 J68 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:16-250&r=lab |
| By: | Jed Armstrong; Miles Parker (Reserve Bank of New Zealand) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the micro-foundations of wage dynamics in New Zealand, using a large behavioural survey. The majority of firms adjust wages annually, with smaller firms more likely to set wages less frequently. Firms have limited synchronicity in wage setting, with over half of firms reporting that they do not have a fixed month for wage changes. There are some links from inflation and minimum wage legislation to wage adjustments; in both cases the link is stronger as firm size increases. |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nzb:nzbdps:2016/03&r=lab |
| By: | Thérèse McDonnell (School of Economics, University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between maternal employment during infancy and the non-cognitive development of pre-school children. Non-cognitive skills such as self-control, emotional regulation, empathy and patience are at least as important as cognitive skills for personal development and later labour market success. Drawing on recent advances in the economics literature on the theory of skill formation, this study uses data on Irish pre-school children (Growing Up in Ireland, Infant Cohort) to examine the influence of maternal employment in infancy on children’s non-cognitive skills. Propensity score matching addresses the issue of potential selection bias and mediation analysis is used to investigate possible mechanisms for the effect of maternal employment, in particular the role of childcare, parental stress, quality of parent-child attachment and income. Using the score derived from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to identify a problematic behavioural score at 3 years, no significant effects are found for maternal employment at 9 months. However, when heterogeneity is investigated, effects are identified for children from less advantaged backgrounds, as measured by maternal education, with full-time maternal employment at 9 months having a significant and detrimental effect on non-cognitive development at 3 years old. This effect is primarily mediated by childcare choices, such that children in informal childcare at 9 months, particularly unpaid grandparental arrangements, are more likely to have behavioural difficulties at 3 years. While parent-child attachment plays a modest role, income and parental stress do not explain the effect of maternal employment on child socio-emotional scores. When selection on observables is used to assess bias arising from selection on unobservables, maternal employment estimates are determined to be a lower bound. As no adverse effects are found for children from more advantaged backgrounds, policies that support less advantaged families during this sensitive period, such as adequate paid maternity leave and access to quality affordable childcare, should be considered in order to address this inequality. |
| Keywords: | non-cognitive skills, socio-emotional, maternal employment, childcare. |
| JEL: | D10 D60 J13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2016–02–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:201606&r=lab |
| By: | García, A. |
| Abstract: | Existing inference procedures to perform counterfactual decomposition of the difference between distributional features, applicable when data is fully observed, are not suitable for censored outcomes. This may explain the lack of counterfac- tual analyses using target variables related to duration outcomes, typically observed under right censoring. For instance, there are many studies performing counterfac- tual decomposition of the gender wage gaps, but very few on gender unemployment duration gaps. We provide an Oaxaca-Blinder type decomposition method of the mean for censored data. Consistent estimation of the decomposition components is based on a prior estimator of the joint distribution of duration and covariates under suitable restrictions on the censoring mechanism. To decompose other distribu- tional features, such as the median or the Gini coefficient, we propose an inferential method for the counterfactual decomposition by introducing restrictions on the func tional form of the conditional distribution of duration given covariates. We provide formal justification for asymptotic inference and study the finite sample performance through Monte Carlo experiments. Finally, we apply the proposed methodology to the analysis of unemployment duration gaps in Spain. This study suggests that factors beyond the workers' socioeconomic characteristics play a relevant role in explaining the difference between several unemployment duration distribution fea- tures such as the mean, the probability of being long term unemployed and the Gini coefficient. |
| Keywords: | Oaxaca-Blinder Decomposition, Right Censoring, Counterfactual Out- comes, Duration Data, Hazard Models, Unemployment Duration, Gender Gaps. |
| JEL: | C14 C24 C41 J64 |
| Date: | 2016–01–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:014186&r=lab |
| By: | Pierre Koning (VU University Amsterdam, Leiden University, the Netherlands); Jan-Maarten van Sonsbeek (VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands) |
| Abstract: | This study provides insight in the responsiveness of disabled workers to financial incentives, using administrative individual data from the Netherlands from 2006 to 2013. We focus on workers receiving partial DI benefits and with substantial residual work capacities that can be exploited. After the first phase of benefit entitlement, workers that do not use their residual income capacity experience a large drop in benefit income. In effect, this implies a substantial increase in incentives to resume work. With entitlement periods in the first phase of DI benefits varying across individuals, we use a difference-in-difference approach to analyze the effects on the incidence of work, the wage earnings and full work resumption of disabled workers. Based on the effect estimate on work incidence, we infer a labor elasticity rate of 0.12. Elasticity estimates are highest among younger DI recipients, as well as individuals with mental impairments. The incentive change has only a limited impact on wage earnings of partially disabled workers and no significant impact on work resumption rates. |
| Keywords: | Disability Insurance, Work Incentives |
| JEL: | C52 H53 |
| Date: | 2016–01–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20160001&r=lab |
| By: | Irem Guceri (Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the effect of R&D tax incentives in a quasi-experimental setting. I identify the impact by exploiting a reform in UK policy which increased the SME threshold from 250 to 500 employees. First, I provide evidence that tax incentives help to increase R&D spending at the company level, and the effect translates to a user cost elasticity of -1.18. Second, R&D generated through the reform may be attributable to an increase in the number of R&D employees. I use R&D survey data for which the companies do not have an incentive to relabel their ordinary spending as R&D. |
| Keywords: | R&D, tax credits, difference-in-differences |
| JEL: | H25 O30 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:btx:wpaper:1602&r=lab |
| By: | John V. Winters (Oklahoma State University) |
| Abstract: | College graduates are considerably more mobile than non-graduates, and previous literature suggests that the difference is at least partially attributable to college graduates being more responsive to employment opportunities in other areas. However, there exist considerable differences in migration rates by college major that have gone largely unexplained. This paper uses microdata from the American Community Survey to examine how the migration decisions of young college graduates are affected by earnings in their college major. Results indicate that higher major-specific earnings in an individual’s state of birth reduce out-migration suggesting that college graduates are attracted toward areas that especially reward the specific type of human capital that they possess. |
| Keywords: | graduate migration; college major; college graduates; human capital |
| JEL: | J24 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:okl:wpaper:1604&r=lab |
| By: | Goldberg, Pinelopi; Pavcnik, Nina |
| Abstract: | The last two decades have witnessed a shift in the focus of international trade research from trade policy to other forms of trade frictions (e.g., transportation, information and communication costs). Implicit in this development is the widespread view that trade policy no longer matters. We confront this view by critically examining a large body of evidence on the effects of trade policy on economically important outcomes. We focus on actual as opposed to hypothetical policy changes. We begin with a discussion of the methodological challenges one faces in the measurement of trade policy and identification of its causal effects. We then discuss the evidence on the effects of trade policy on a series of outcomes that include: (1) aggregate outcomes, such as trade volumes (and their price and quantity subcomponents), the extensive margin of trade, and static, aggregate gains from trade; (2) firm and industry performance, i.e., productivity, costs, and markups; (3) labor markets, i.e., wages, employment, and wage inequality; (4) long-run aggregate growth and poverty, secondary distortions and misallocation, uncertainty. We conclude that the perception that trade policy is no longer relevant arises to a large extent from the inability to precisely measure the various forms of non-tariff barriers that have replaced tariffs as the primary tools of trade policy. Better measurement is thus an essential prerequisite of policy-relevant research in the future. Despite measurement challenges and scant evidence on the impact of actual policy changes, existing evidence when properly interpreted points to large effects of trade policy on economically relevant outcomes, especially when trade policy interacts with other developments, e.g., technological change. We point to areas and opportunities for further research and draw lessons from the past to apply to future studies. |
| Keywords: | firms and trade; growth; international trade; labor markets; trade policy |
| JEL: | F10 F13 F14 L11 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11104&r=lab |
| By: | Shantanu Bagchi (Department of Economics, Towson University) |
| Abstract: | I examine how strongly Social Security benefits should be linked to past work-life income, while accounting for the fact that the wealthy live longer than the poor. Using a general equilibrium macroeconomic model calibrated to the U.S. economy, I find that the optimal Social Security arrangement warrants benefits that are flat and completely unrelated to past work-life income. While this arrangement leads to higher implicit tax rates for high-income households, their welfare losses are relatively small, because Social Security's current tax structure is regressive: the marginal tax rate is zero above the taxable maximum. On the other hand, full insurance from unfavorable labor income shocks generates large welfare gains to the low- and medium-income households. Under this flat-benefit arrangement, Social Security benefits increase by as much as a factor of 17 for low-income households, and decline by as much as 40% for high-income households, but the overall size of Social Security remains unchanged. |
| Keywords: | Differential mortality, Social Security, taxable maximum, mortality risk, labor income risk, incomplete markets, general equilibrium. |
| JEL: | E21 E62 H55 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tow:wpaper:2016-03&r=lab |
| By: | Barnard, Helena (GIBS, University of Pretoria, South Africa); Cowan, Robin (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, and BETA, Universite de Strasbourg, Institut Universitaire de France); Muller, Moritz (BETA, Universite de Strasbourg) |
| Abstract: | This paper compares the career effects of overseas and domestic PhD training for scientists working in an emerging economy, South Africa. Variations in scientific achievements of South African academics may arise because those who attend "better" PhD programmes receive better training, but it may also be because good students select into good universities. We examine selection and training effects for four tiers of South African and two tiers of foreign universities. Those who received PhDs from universities in industrialized countries tend to be more productive than those whose PhDs were locally granted, but universities from industrialized countries do not necessarily provide better training than local universities. Pure selection effects contribute to career outcomes nearly as much as training effects. When looking at training in isolation, PhDs from top South African universities produce a similar quantity and quality research output to those from leading universities in the developed world. |
| Keywords: | Scientific mobility, Doctoral studies, University evaluation, Developing country, South Africa, Technological upgrading |
| JEL: | H52 I2 O15 O20 O30 |
| Date: | 2016–01–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2016006&r=lab |
| By: | Iva Tomic (The Institute of Economics, Zagreb) |
| Abstract: | This article explores the main determinants of youth unemployment rates in Europe in the period 2002-2014, by estimating panel data models on a unique dataset for 28 EU member countries. Taking into account heterogeneity among EU countries, models are also estimated on two different subsamples: high and low youth unemployment rate. The results suggest that for better understanding of the determinants of youth unemployment in Europe it is not only relevant to focus on traditional macroeconomic variables, but it is also important to consider different structural and institutional factors. Hence, main empirical results suggest that youth unemployment in the EU is more pronounced in countries with poor GDP growth, low share of construction and high public debt. Low share of temporary employment and high perceived corruption also matter. Less mobility due to homeownership, high remittances from abroad, low work intensity of other household members or less possibilities for young people to live outside parental homes are also meaningful, at least for EU countries with comparatively high youth unemployment rates. These results could be of high importance, especially when determining and evaluating different measures taken in order to mitigate (high) youth unemployment rates in Europe. |
| Keywords: | labour market, youth unemployment, panel data models, recession, Europe |
| JEL: | J21 J64 C23 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iez:wpaper:1601&r=lab |
| By: | Wagner, N.; Rieger, M.; Bedi, A.S.; Hout, W. |
| Abstract: | Can the feminization of public services improve quality and lower corruption? The underlying logic of such efforts is the belief that women have higher ethical standards than men. To answer this question, we examine the links between gender and policing practice using data from twelve vignette cases assessed by 600 Ugandan police officers. Our empirical strategy is based on a randomized framing experiment, which is designed to isolate the effect of gender from institutional factors and social norms. We find that the gender of the police officer depicted in the cases and victim gender are not related to the judgment of police malpractice, nor to suggested disciplinary measures. However, respondent gender matters for the reporting of misconduct and the perception of the official institutional policy of the police. Men are stricter when assessing cases along these dimensions. The results indicate that simply feminizing the police force is unlikely to enhance service quality. |
| Keywords: | gender, discrimination, stereotyping, police, survey experiments, Uganda |
| JEL: | C90 J16 O12 |
| Date: | 2016–02–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ems:euriss:79808&r=lab |
| By: | Kanbur, Ravi; Ronconi, Lucas |
| Abstract: | This paper provides, to our knowledge for the first time, cross-country measures of enforcement of labor law across almost every country in the world. The distinction between de jure and de facto regulation is well understood in theory, but almost never implemented in cross-country empirical work because of lack of data. As a result, influential papers like the one by Botero et. al. (2004) published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, which have shaped the policy debate by finding strong negative consequences of labor regulation on labor market outcomes, are based entirely on measures of de jure stringency of regulations. We show that this neglect of regulation enforcement matters. There is, on average, a negative correlation between the stringency of labor regulation and the intensity of its enforcement. The strong results of Botero et. al. (2004) on the consequences of labor regulation, and the hypotheses of La Porta et. al (2008) on the legal origin theory of regulation stringency, no longer hold for effective labor regulation. |
| Keywords: | effective regulation; enforcement; labor market outcomes; labor regulation; legal origin theory |
| JEL: | J88 K42 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11098&r=lab |