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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Christopher J. O'Leary (W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research) |
| Abstract: | Research in the 1970s based on observational data provided evidence consistent with predictions from economic theory that paying unemployment insurance (UI) benefits to involuntarily jobless workers prolongs unemployment. However, some scholars also reported estimates that the additional time spent in subsidized job search was productive. That is, UI receipt tended to raise reemployment wages after work search among the unemployed. A series of field experiments in the 1980s investigated positive incentives to overcome the work disincentive effects of UI. These were followed by experiments in the 1990s that evaluated the effects of restrictions on UI eligibility through stronger work search requirements and alternative uses of UI. The new century has seen some related field experiments in employment policy, and reexamination of the earlier experimental results. This paper reviews the experimental evidence and considers it in the context of the current federal-state UI system. |
| Keywords: | field experiments, public employment policy, unemployment insurance, UI, employment service, ES, job search assistance, JSA, targeting employment services, profiling, WPRS, self-employment, short-time compensation, work sharing |
| JEL: | J65 J68 J48 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:17-279&r=lab |
| By: | Anna Raute |
| Abstract: | To assess whether earnings-dependent maternity leave positively impacts fertility and narrows the baby gap between high educated (high earning) and low educated (low earning) women, I exploit a major maternity leave benefit reform in Germany that considerably increases the financial incentives for higher educated and higher earning women to have a child. In particular, I use the large differential changes in maternity leave benefits across education and income groups to estimate the effects on fertility up to 5 years post reform. In addition to demonstrating an up to 22% increase in the fertility of tertiary educated versus low educated women, I find a positive, statistically significant effect of increased benefits on fertility, driven mainly by women at the middle and upper end of the education and income distributions. Overall, the results suggest that earnings-dependent maternity leave benefits, which compensate women commensurate with their opportunity cost of childbearing, could successfully reduce the fertility rate disparity related to mothers’ education and earnings. |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J18 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23793&r=lab |
| By: | Basile, Roberto; Girardi, Alessandro; Mantuano, Marianna; Russo, Giuseppe |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effect of interregional migration on regional unemployment in Italy. With the help of a simple two-region model adapted to the main features of the Italian NorthSouth dualism, we illustrate the effects of labor mobility with and without human capital externalities. Using longitudinal data over the years 2002-2011 for 103 NUTS-3 Italian regions, we document that net outflows of human capital from the South to the North have increased the unemployment rate in the South, while it did not affect the unemployment rate in the North. Our analysis contributes to the literature on interregional human capital mobility suggesting that reducing human capital flight from Southern regions should be a priority. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment,Migration,Human Capital,Exernalities,Italian Regions |
| JEL: | C23 R23 J61 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:168560&r=lab |
| By: | Hollingsworth, Bruce; Ohinata, Asako; Picchio, Matteo; Walker, Ian |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of a policy reform, which introduced free formal personal care for all those aged 65 and above, on caregiving behaviour. Using a difference-indifferences estimator, we estimate that the free formal care reduced the probability of co-residential informal caregiving by 12.9%. Conditional on giving co-residential care, the mean reduction in the number of informal care hours is estimated to be 1:2 hours per week. The effect is particularly strong among older and less educated caregivers. In contrast to co-residential informal care, we find no change in extraresidential caregiving behaviour. We also observe that the average labour market participation and the number of hours worked increased in response to the policy introduction. |
| Keywords: | Long-term elderly care,ageing,financial support,informal caregiving,difference-in-differences |
| JEL: | C21 D14 I18 J14 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:118&r=lab |
| By: | Francisco Campos; Markus Goldstein; Laura McGorman; Ana Maria Munoz Boudet; Obert Pimhidzai |
| Abstract: | Occupational segregation significantly contributes to the earnings gender gap worldwide. We look at differences in outcomes for male and female enterprises and their sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region of high female participation in entrepreneurship. Data on Uganda show that women breaking into male-dominated sectors make as much as men, and three times more than women staying in female-dominated sectors. Factors including entrepreneurial skill/abilities and credit/human capital constraints do not explain women’s sectoral choices. However, information about profitability, male role models’ influence, and exposure to the sector from family and friends are critical in helping women circumvent or overcome norms undergirding occupational segregation. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2017-166&r=lab |
| By: | Blau, Francine D. (Cornell University); Kahn, Lawrence M. (Cornell University); Brummund, Peter (University of Alabama); Cook, Jason (University of Pittsburgh); Larson-Koester, Miriam (Cornell University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we use 2008-2013 American Community Survey data to update and further probe Dahl and Moretti's (2008) son preference results, which found evidence that having a female first child increased the probability of single female headship and raised fertility. In light of the substantial increase in immigration, we examine this question separately for immigrants and natives. Among the population in the aggregate, as well as among the native-born separately, consistent with Dahl and Moretti (2008), we find that having a female first child raises the likelihood that the mother is a single parent. However, in sharp contrast to Dahl and Moretti (2008), we find that having a female first child is actually associated with lower fertility. Thus, by the 2008-2013 period, any apparent son preference among natives in their fertility decisions appears to be outweighed by factors such as cost concerns in raising girls. This change may be plausible in light of the reversal of the gender gap in college attendance beginning in the 1980s (Goldin, Katz and Kuziemko 2006), making girls more costly. For immigrants, we also find evidence that having a female first child contributes to female headship, with an effect that has the same magnitude as that for natives although is not statistically significant. However, in contrast to natives, we do find a positive fertility effect, suggesting son preference in fertility among this group. This interpretation is further supported by evidence that, for both first and second generation immigrants (second generation immigrants were examined using the Current Population Surveys) having a girl has a more positive effect on fertility for those whose source countries have lower values of the World Economic Forum's Gender Equity Index, or lower female labor force participation rates and higher sex (boy-to-girl) ratios among births. We also examine sex selection and find no evidence that sex selection has spread beyond the race groups identified in previous work (e.g., Almond and Edlund 2008). |
| Keywords: | gender, son preference, family structure, fertility, sex selection, immigrants |
| JEL: | J1 J11 J12 J13 J15 J16 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11003&r=lab |
| By: | Jerg Gutmann; Matthias Neuenkirch; Florian Neumeier |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we empirically analyze the effect of UN and US economic sanctions on life expectancy and its gender gap in target countries. Our sample covers 98 less developed and newly industrialized countries over the period 1977–2012. We employ a matching approach to account for the endogeneity of sanctions. Our results indicate that an average episode of UN sanctions reduces life expectancy by about 1.2–1.4 years. The corresponding decrease of 0.4–0.5 years under an average episode of US sanctions is significantly smaller. These average effects conceal that the damage to life expectancy is accumulating over time; with every additional year under UN (US) sanctions the size of the adverse effect on life expectancy increases by 0.3 (0.2) years. Finally, we find evidence that women are affected more severely by the imposition of sanctions. The fact that sanctions are not “gender-blind” can be interpreted as evidence that sanctions disproportionately affect (the life expectancy of) the more vulnerable members of society. |
| Keywords: | Gender Gap, Human Development, Life Expectancy, Sanctions, United Nations, United States |
| JEL: | F51 F52 F53 I15 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trr:wpaper:201706&r=lab |
| By: | Galbiati, Roberto; Ouss, Aurélie; Philippe, Arnaud |
| Abstract: | We study how local labor market conditions and information about jobs affect recidivism among former inmates. Our identification strategy exploits daily variations on new job vacancies and news coverage of job openings and closings at the county level, merged with individual-level administrative data on inmates released from French prisons. Overall job creations do not affect recidivism, but inmates released when more jobs in manufacturing are created are less likely to recidivate. We also show that media coverage of job creation reduces recidivism, beyond actual employment opportunities, suggesting implications for crime-control policies: information about employment contributes to reduce recidivism. |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:32064&r=lab |
| By: | Albertini, Julien (University of Lyon 2); Hairault, Jean-Olivier (University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne); Langot, François (University of Le Mans); Sopraseuth, Thepthida (University of Cergy-Pontoise) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates job polarization in the United States and in France. In the data, the dynamics of employment shares for abstract, routine, and manual jobs appear very similar in the two countries. This similarity actually hides major differences in the dynamics of employment levels by tasks. In particular, the routine employment level fell significantly in France until the mid-1990s, and then rebounded until 2007. The evolution of US routine employment went in opposite directions to that of the French economy. We then develop a multi-sectorial search and matching model with endogenous occupational choice to disentangle the respective contributions of task-biased technological change (TBTC), labor market institutions (LMI), and rising educational attainment to job polarization. For the US economy, we find that TBTC and the rising supply of skilled labor are the main drivers of polarization in a context of growing employment levels. In France, in contrast, polarization is driven mainly by LMI changes. This led to a sharp drop in routine employment in a context of declining aggregate employment until the mid-1990s, which then reversed when the impact of the minimum wage was alleviated by a subsidy policy targeted at low wage earners. Next, we quantify the welfare consequences of job polarization. Abstract and manual workers are the main winners of job polarization in both countries. Welfare gains and losses are more dispersed in the routine group. The most productive French routine workers would have been worse off without LMI changes. In contrast, displaced low-ability, routine French workers would have preferred a more flexible labor market to improve their employment prospects in their occupational change. All US routine workers suffered as a result of the drop in LMI generosity. |
| Keywords: | search and matching, job polarization, labor market institutions |
| JEL: | E24 J62 J64 O33 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11013&r=lab |
| By: | Cahuc, Pierre; Nevoux, Sandra |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that the reforms which expanded short-time work in France after the great 2008-2009 recession were largely to the benefit of large firms which are recurrent short-time work users. We argue that this expansion of short-time work is an inefficient way to provide insurance to workers, as it entails cross-subsidies which reduce aggregate production. An efficient policy should provide unemployment insurance benefits funded by experience rated employers' contributions instead of short-time work benefits. We find that short-time work entails significant production losses compared to an unemployment insurance scheme with experience rating. |
| Keywords: | experience rating; Short-time work; Unemployment insurance |
| JEL: | J63 J65 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12269&r=lab |
| By: | Gregory Clark, Andrew Leigh, Mike Pottenger |
| Abstract: | The paper estimates long run social mobility in Australia 1870-2017 tracking the status of rare surnames. The status information includes occupations from electoral rolls 1903-1980, and records of degrees awarded by Melbourne and Sydney universities 1852-2017. Status persistence was strong throughout, with an intergenerational correlation of 0.7-0.8, and no change over time. Notwithstanding egalitarian norms, high immigration and a well-targeted social safety net, Australian long-run social mobility rates are low. Despite evidence on conventional measures that Australia has higher rates of social mobility than the UK or USA (Mendolia and Siminski, 2016), status persistence for surnames is as high as that in England or the USA. Mobility rates are also just as low if we look just at mobility within descendants of UK immigrants, so ethnic effects explain none of the immobility. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational mobility; social mobility; inequality |
| JEL: | J62 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:hpaper:058&r=lab |
| By: | Francesco Carbonero; Christian Offermanns; Enzo Weber |
| Abstract: | The non-constancy of factor shares is drawing the attention of many researchers. We document an average drop of the labour share of 8 percentage points for eight European countries and the US between 1980 and 2007. We investigate theoretically and empirically two mechanisms: the substitution between Information Communication Technology (ICT) and labour and the presence of hiring costs. We find that the ICT-labour replacement is a promising channel to explain the decline of the labour share, though labour market frictions takes part of its explanatory power over. In particular, hiring costs have a bigger role in Europe than in the US. Finally, by modelling the elasticity of substitution between ICT and labour as a function of institutional and structural variables, we find that it correlates with the share of routine occupations (positively) and with the share of high-skill workers (negatively). |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bav:wpaper:173_carbonerooffermannsweber&r=lab |