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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Boll, Christina; Rossen, Anja (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Wolf, André |
| Abstract: | "This paper estimates size and impact factors of the gender pay gap in Europe. It adds to the literature in three aspects. First, we update existing figures on the gender pay gaps in the EU based on the Structure of Earnings Survey 2010 (SES). Second, we enrich the literature by undertaking comprehensive country comparisons of the gap components based on an Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition. Overall, we analyze 21 EU countries plus Norway, which clearly exceeds the scope of existing microdata studies. Third, we examine the sources of the unexplained gap. We find that about one third of the gap can be traced back to the role of the explanatory factors included in our analysis. The sectoral segregation of genders is identified as the most important barrier to gender pay equality in European countries. In addition, the fact that part-time positions are more frequent among women notably contributes to the gap. We conclude that policies aiming at closing the gender pay gap should focus more on the sector level than on the aggregate economy." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | geschlechtsspezifischer Arbeitsmarkt, Lohnunterschied, erwerbstätige Frauen, erwerbstätige Männer, Lohndiskriminierung - internationaler Vergleich, geschlechtsspezifische Faktoren, Segregation, sektorale Verteilung, Wirtschaftssektoren, Arbeitsmarktsegmentation, Europäische Union, Belgien, Bulgarien, Dänemark, Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Estland, Finnland, Frankreich, Griechenland, Italien, Lettland, Litauen, Niederlande, Polen, Portugal, Rumänien, Schweden, Slowakei, Spanien, Tschechische Republik, Ungarn, Großbritannien, Kroatien, Norwegen |
| JEL: | J31 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2016–10–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201636&r=lab |
| By: | Yamaguchi, Shintaro |
| Abstract: | This paper constructs and estimates a dynamic discrete choice structural model of female employment and fertility decisions that incorporates job protection and cash benefits of parental leave legislation. The estimated structural model is used for ex ante evaluation of policy reforms that change the duration of job protection and/or the arrangement for cash benefits. Counterfactual simulations indicate that introducing an initial one-year job protection policy increases maternal employment significantly, but extending the existing job protection period from one to three years has little effect. The employment effects of cash benefits also seem modest. Overall, parental leave policies have little effect on fertility. |
| Keywords: | parental leave, female labor supply, discrete choice model, structural estimation |
| JEL: | J13 J22 J24 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hitcei:2016-8&r=lab |
| By: | Herz, Holger; Taubinsky, Dmitry |
| Abstract: | People’s fairness preferences are an important constraint for what constitutes an acceptable economic transaction, yet little is known about how these preferences are formed. In this paper, we provide clean evidence that previous transactions play an important role in shaping perceptions of fairness. Buyers used to high market prices, for example, are more likely to perceive high prices as fair than buyers used to low market prices. Similarly, employees used to high wages are more likely to perceive low wages as unfair. Our data further allows us to decompose this history dependence into the effects of pure observation vs. the experience of payoff-relevant outcomes. We propose two classes of models of path-dependent fairness preferences -either based on endogenous fairness reference points or based on shifts in salience- that can account for our data. Structural estimates of both types of models imply a substantial deviation from existing history-independent models of fairness. Our results have implications for price discrimination, labor markets, and dynamic pricing. |
| Keywords: | Reference Points; Fairness; Salience; Bargaining; Endogenous Preferences; Price Stickiness |
| JEL: | D00 C9 C78 |
| Date: | 2016–10–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fri:fribow:fribow00477&r=lab |
| By: | Manuel Arellano (Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros); Richard Blundell (University College London); Stéphane Bonhomme (University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | We develop a new quantile-based panel data framework to study the nature of income persistence and the transmission of income shocks to consumption. Log-earnings are the sum of a general Markovian persistent component and a transitory innovation. The persistence of past shocks to earnings is allowed to vary according to the size and sign of the current shock. Consumption is modeled as an age-dependent nonlinear function of assets, unobservable tastes and the two earnings components. We establish the nonparametric identification of the nonlinear earnings process and of the consumption policy rule. Exploiting the enhanced consumption and asset data in recent waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we find that the earnings process features nonlinear persistence and conditional skewness. We confirm these results using population register data from Norway. We then show that the impact of earnings shocks varies substantially across earnings histories, and that this nonlinearity drives heterogeous consumption responses. The framework provides new empirical measures of partial insurance in which the transmission of income shocks to consumption varies systematically with assets, the level of the shock and the history of past shocks. |
| Keywords: | earnings dynamics, Consumption, partial insurance, panel data, quantile regression, latent variables |
| JEL: | C23 D31 D91 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfi:wpaper:2016-25&r=lab |
| By: | Andersson Joona, Pernilla (SOFI, Stockholm University); Lanninger, Alma W. (SOFI, Stockholm University); Sundström, Marianne (SOFI, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we evaluate the Swedish Establishment Reform, carried out in 2010 with the goal of speeding up the establishment of refugees and their family. From December 1, 2010 the reform transferred the responsibility for the integration of newly‐arrived refugees from the municipalities to the government funded Public Employment Service through which those eligible should get establishment talks, individual plans and coaches. The Reform was motivated by concern over the low employment level and slow integration of refugees. Our approach is to compare the outcomes of the Treatment group, which took part in establishment activities and arrived between December 1, 2010 and December 31, 2011, to those of the Comparison group, which arrived in the eleven months preceding the Reform and participated in municipal introduction programs, controlling for a rich set of observables, including country of birth and month of residence permit. Outcomes are measured in terms of employment and earnings in 2012, 2013 and 2014 for the Treatment group and in 2011, 2012 and 2013 for the Comparison group. Our data comes from registers held by Statistics Sweden and covers all immigrants. The results suggest positive and significant effects of the Reform. In the second year after program‐start the Treatment group had about 5.7 percent higher probability of employment and in the third year about 7.5 percent higher. The effects on earnings were larger, about 20 percent higher earnings for the Treatment group after the second year and about 22 percent higher after the third year. |
| Keywords: | integration, refugees, labor market policy, treatment effect, employment, earnings, caseworkers |
| JEL: | J15 J61 J68 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10307&r=lab |
| By: | Lindquist, Matthew J. (SOFI, Stockholm University); Sol, Joeri (University of Amsterdam); van Praag, Mirjam C. (Copenhagen Business School); Vladasel, Theodor (Copenhagen Business School) |
| Abstract: | Promoting entrepreneurship has become an increasingly important part of the policy agenda in many countries. The success of such policies, however, rests in part on the assumption that entrepreneurship outcomes are not fully determined at a young age by factors that are unrelated to current policy. We test this assumption and assess the importance of family background and neighborhood effects as determinants of entrepreneurship, by estimating sibling correlations in entrepreneurship. We find that between 20 and 50 percent of the variance in different entrepreneurial outcomes is explained by factors that siblings share (i.e., family background and neighborhood effects). The average is 28 percent. Hence, entrepreneurship is far less than fully determined at a young age. Our estimates increase only a little when allowing for differential treatment within families by gender and birth order. We then investigate a comprehensive set of mechanisms that explain sibling similarities. Parental entrepreneurship plays a large role in explaining sibling similarities, as do shared genes. We show that neighborhood effects matter, but are rather small, particularly when compared with the overall importance of family factors. Sibling peer effects, and parental income and education matter even less. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, family background, intergenerational persistence, neighborhood effects, occupational choice, sibling correlations |
| JEL: | D13 J62 L26 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10278&r=lab |
| By: | Mikel Casares (Departamento de Economía-UPNA); Jesús Vázquez (Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU)) |
| Abstract: | The volatility of unemployment fluctuations has been about 3 times higher in Spain than in Germany over the recent business cycles (1996-2013). In contrast, fluctuations of the rate of wage inflation were significantly more volatile in Germany than in Spain. We estimate a New-Keynesian model and find several explanatory factors: wage rigidity has been higher in Spain, the labor force has been more elastic in Germany than in Spain, large and persistent shocks augmenting the labor force have been estimated for Spain whereas in Germany there have been substantial shocks reducing the intensity of hours per worker, and the ECB’s policy design brought monetary shocks with much greater influence to the Spanish unemployment. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, Germany versus Spain, DSGE models |
| JEL: | E12 E23 E32 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nav:ecupna:1602&r=lab |
| By: | Christian Dustmann (University College London and CReAM); Uta Schönberg (University College London and CReAM); Jan Stuhler (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) |
| Abstract: | We classify the empirical literature on the wage impact of immigration into three groups, where studies in the first two estimate different relative effects, and the third the total effect of immigration on wages. We interpret the estimates obtained from the different approaches through the lens of the canonical model to demonstrate that they are not comparable. We then relax two key assumptions in this literature, allowing for inelastic and heterogeneous labor supply elasticities of natives and the downgrading of immigrants. We show that heterogeneous labor supply elasticities, if ignored, may complicate the interpretation of wage estimates, in particular of relative wage effects. Moreover, downgrading may lead to biased estimates in those approaches that estimate relative effects of immigration, but not in approaches that estimate total effects. We conclude that empirical models that estimate total effects not only answer important policy questions, but are also more robust to alternative assumptions than models that estimate relative effects. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, impact, wage effects |
| JEL: | J21 J23 J24 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1626&r=lab |
| By: | Suvi Vasama; ; |
| Abstract: | We examine optimal managerial compensation and turnover policy in a principal-agent model in which the firm output is serially correlated over time. The model captures a learning-by-doing feature: higher effort by the manager increases the quality of the match between the firm and the manager in the future. The optimal incentive scheme entails an inefficiently high turnover rate in the early stages of the employment relationship. The optimal turnover probability depends on the past performance and the likelihood of turnover decreases gradually with superior performance. With good enough past performance, the turnover policy reaches efficiency; the manager is never retained if it is inefficient to do so. The manager’s compensation depends on the firm value and the optimal performance-compensation relation increases with past performance. |
| JEL: | C73 D82 D86 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2016-044&r=lab |
| By: | Fougère, Denis (Sciences Po, Paris); Gautier, Erwan (LEMNA - University of Nantes); Roux, Sébastien (CREST-INSEE) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines empirically how industry-level wage floors are set in French industry-level wage agreements and how the national minimum wage (NMW) interacts with industry-level wage bargaining. For this, the authors use a unique dataset containing about 50,000 occupation-specific wage floors in 365 French industries over the period 2007-2015. They find that the NMW has a significant impact on the seasonality and on the timing of the wage bargaining process. Inflation, past sectoral wage increases and real NMW increases are the main drivers of wage floor adjustments; elasticities of wage floors with respect to these macro variables are 0.6, 0.4 and 0.2 respectively. Wage floor elasticities to inflation and to the NMW both decrease along the wage floor distribution but are still positive for all levels of wage floors. |
| Keywords: | collective bargaining, wages, minimum wage |
| JEL: | J31 J51 E24 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10290&r=lab |
| By: | Agnese, Pablo (UIC Barcelona); Hromcová, Jana (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | We discuss the effects of low-skill offshoring on the endogenous schooling decision of workers along with the potential changes in the labor market. The analysis is performed in the context of a matching model with different possible equilibria. Our exercise suggests that the endogenous adjustment of low-skill workers can only partially offset the welfare-deteriorating effects of offshoring. As a result, we aim at restoring welfare by increasing the opportunity cost of staying low-skill. In addition to this, we also consider labor flexibility as an effective policy to deal with the adverse welfare effects of offshoring that befall those in the lowest end of the skill ladder. |
| Keywords: | offshoring, welfare, skills, education, flexibility |
| JEL: | F66 I25 J64 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10299&r=lab |
| By: | Schmitz, Hendrik; Westphal, Matthias |
| Abstract: | In this paper we estimate the long-run effects of informal care provision on female caregivers' labor market outcomes up to eight years after care provision. We compare a static version, where the average effects of care provision in a certain year on later labor market outcomes are estimated, to a partly dynamic version where the effects of up to three consecutive years of care provision are analyzed. Our results suggest that there are significant initial negative effects of informal care provision on the probability to work full time. The reduction in the probability to work full time by 4 percentage points (or 2.4 to 5.0 if we move from point to partial identification) is persistent over time. Effects on the probability of being in the labor force are quite small, however high care intensity strongly reduces the probability to be in the labor force eight years after the start of the episode. Short-run effects on hourly wages are zero but we find considerable long-run wage penalties. |
| Abstract: | In diesem Papier wird der langfristige Einfluss von häuslicher Pflege auf das Arbeitsangebot von Frauen (bis zu acht Jahre nach Aufnahme der Pflegetätigkeit) untersucht. Wir vergleichen statische Ergebnisse, die Aufschluss darüber geben, wie sich der Effekt einer Pflegeaufnahme durchschnittlich über die Zeit entwickelt, mit einem teilweise dynamisch geschätzten Ansatz, in dem die Effekte von drei aufeinanderfolgenden Pflegejahren analysiert werden. Unsere Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass Pflege mit einem negativen Effekt auf die Wahrscheinlichkeit, einer Vollzeitbeschäftigung nachzugehen, einhergeht. Der Effekt beträgt anfänglich 4 Prozentpunkte (oder 2,4 bis 5,0 Prozentpunkte bei partieller Identifikation anstelle von Punktidentifikation) und ist über die Zeit persistent. Der Effekt auf die Wahrscheinlichkeit im Arbeitsmarkt zu verbleiben ist relativ gering. Allerdings reduziert eine hohe Pflegeintensität substanziell die Wahrscheinlichkeit nach acht Jahren im Arbeitsmarkt verblieben zu sein. Kurzfristige Effekte auf den Stundenlohn werden nicht gefunden, jedoch gibt es beträchtliche Lohneffekte, die nach ein paar Jahren zu Tage treten. |
| Keywords: | informal care,labor supply,inverse probability weighting,dynamic sequential models |
| JEL: | I10 I18 C21 J14 J22 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:646&r=lab |
| By: | Devicienti, Francesco (University of Turin); Manello, Alessandro (University of Turin); Vannoni, Davide (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the link between the presence of unions in the workplace, the adoption of decentralized labor agreements and technical efficiency, using a large sample of Italian manufacturing firms. We apply the Data Envelopment Analysis, and its robust version based on bootstrap theory, to get reliable estimates of technical efficiency at the firm level in a standard first stage. We devote particular attention to the specific technology adopted, by distinguishing 20 different sector frontiers, as well as to the presence of outliers. The obtained efficiency scores are analyzed in a second stage applying a truncated regression model estimated via Maximum Likelihood, following the Simar and Wilson (2007, 2011) methodology. Our results highlight that the presence of workplace unionization decreases the level of technical efficiency, while aspects limiting the unions' power such as a strong exposure to international markets, high debt levels or the prevalence of flexible assets partially reduce the negative effect. However, when firms adopt decentralized labor contracts agreements, the effect on efficiency is positive and partially compensates the negative unions' effect. The results are robust to the inclusion of many firm characteristics and to different model specifications. |
| Keywords: | technical efficiency, trade unions, decentralized bargaining, data envelopment analysis, truncated regression model |
| JEL: | J51 D22 D24 C24 C44 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10292&r=lab |
| By: | Reed, Joshua; Vandegrift, Donald |
| Abstract: | Paid parental leave policy remains a continuing source of controversy in the United States. Advocates for parental leave policy maintain that it has a positive effect on child rearing outcomes and family happiness. Critics, however, maintain that paid parental leave will cause firms to hire fewer women. This paper evaluates the critics’ claim that paid family leave entitlements will reduce employment using the New Jersey family leave law that took effect in 2009. We conduct a difference-in-difference analysis that compares county-level employment in western New Jersey using eastern Pennsylvania as a control. We disaggregate county-level employment to test whether women, workers of childbearing age, educated workers experienced larger employment effects in western New Jersey (relative to eastern Pennsylvania) following the New Jersey family leave law. We also conduct similar comparisons within New Jersey. Our estimates suggest that the New Jersey family leave law reduces overall employment by about 3.3 percent. However, the employment reductions among women, people of childbearing age, and more highly skilled workers are relatively larger. Finally, we find little evidence that family leave mandates have employment effects for unskilled workers. |
| Keywords: | paid family leave, paid maternity leave, difference-in-difference, employment |
| JEL: | J08 J23 J88 K31 |
| Date: | 2016–10–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:74794&r=lab |
| By: | Silvia Fedeli; Vito Mariella; Marco Onofri |
| Abstract: | On the basis of a newly built regional panel data set that considers, not only the evolution of employment in the Italian regions, but also indicators of counterfeiting activities and criminality, we empirically explore the link between employment performance and criminality during the period of a deep economic and financial crisis. We consider both unemployment and inactivity rates in order to check whether and to what extent, in a period of widely recognized economic crisis, criminal activities of counterfeit and other forms of crime have affected the labour market. We present results of GMM regressions showing a positive/peculiar effect of criminal activities on both the components of joblessness. |
| Keywords: | Inactivity rate, unemployment rate, criminality counterfeit, joblessness |
| JEL: | E24 J6 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sap:wpaper:wp176&r=lab |
| By: | Giuntella, Osea (University of Oxford); Mazzonna, Fabrizio (USI Università della Svizzera Italiana); Nicodemo, Catia (University of Oxford); Vargas-Silva, Carlos (University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effects of immigration on the allocation of occupational physical burden and work health risks. Using data for England and Wales from the Labour Force Survey, we find that, on average, immigration leads to a reallocation of UK-born workers towards jobs characterized by lower physical intensity and injury risk. The results also show important differences across skill groups. Immigration reduces the average physical burden of UK-born workers with medium levels of education, but has no significant effect on those with low levels. |
| Keywords: | immigration, labor-market, physical burden, work-related injuries, health |
| JEL: | J61 I10 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10304&r=lab |
| By: | David Card; David S. Lee; Zhuan Pei; Andrea Weber |
| Abstract: | A regression kink design (RKD or RK design) can be used to identify casual effects in settings where the regressor of interest is a kinked function of an assignment variable. In this paper, we apply an RKD approach to study the effect of unemployment benefits on the duration of joblessness in Austria, and discuss implementation issues that may arise in similar settings, including the use of bandwidth selection algorithms and bias-correction procedures. Although recent developments in nonparametric estimation (e.g. Imbens et al. (2012) and Calonico et al. (2014)) are sometimes interpreted by practitioners as pointing to a default estimation procedure, we show that in any given application different procedures may perform better or worse. In particular, Monte Carlo simulations based on data generating processes that closely resemble the data from our application show that some asymptotically dominant procedures may actually perform worse than “sub-optimal” alternatives in a given empirical application. |
| JEL: | C2 J65 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22781&r=lab |