|
on Labour Economics |
| By: | Steinhauer, Andreas |
| Abstract: | In this paper I provide empirical evidence that the strength of beliefs regarding the harm children suffer when their mothers work plays an important role in explaining gender gaps in labor market outcomes and fertility trends. I exploit a unique setting in Switzerland and compare outcomes of one cohort of Swiss women born in the 1950s either into the French or German ethno-linguistic group. This allows me to compare outcomes of women exposed to different norms regarding working mothers while holding constant typical confounding factors such as composition, labor market opportunities, and work-family policies. Consistent with the strong belief that children suffer with working mothers in the German region, I find that German-born women are 15-25% less likely to work as mothers and 20-20% more likely to remain childless compared to their French-born peers. Only the extensive margins show marked differences and especially among the highly educated. I argue that an identity framework along the lines of Akerlof and Kranton (2000) can rationalize these patterns in a tractable way. |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J22 Z10 |
| Date: | 2018–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12929&r=lab |
| By: | Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes (Department of Economics, San Diego State University); Cristina Borra (University of Seville) |
| Abstract: | The Spanish welfare state was practically inexistent in the 1980s. It expanded throughout the 1990s and became fully in place by the 2000s. At the same time, internal migration rates dropped to less than 0.3 percent –among the lowest in the world. In a country with large labor market imbalances, internal mobility can prove crucial to economic growth. We look at the role that non-contributory pensions might have played on inter-provincial mobility over the past two decades. We find that the expansion of the welfare state has curtailed the mobility of young working-age individuals, especially less educated women. The effects are unique to non-contributory pensions, and are not restricted to cohabitating family members or tied to the care for disabled relatives, signaling the need for policy measures that facilitate the mobility of the young from lower income households. |
| Keywords: | internal migration, labor mobility, welfare benefits |
| JEL: | I38 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2018–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1806&r=lab |
| By: | Nikolova, Milena; Nikolaev, Boris N. |
| Abstract: | We are the first to examine how parental unemployment experienced during early-, mid- and late-childhood affects adult life satisfaction. Using German household panel data, we find that parental unemployment induced by plant closures and experienced during early (0-5 years) and late (11-15 years) childhood leads to lower life satisfaction at ages 18-31. Nevertheless, parental unemployment can also have a positive effect depending on the age and gender of the child. Our results are robust even after controlling for local unemployment, individual and family characteristics, parental job loss expectations, financial resources, and parents’ working time when growing up. These findings imply that the adverse effects associated with parental unemployment experienced at a young age tend to last well into young adulthood and are more nuanced than previously thought. |
| Keywords: | life satisfaction,parental unemployment,company closures,life-cycle analysis,German Socio-Economic Panel |
| JEL: | I31 J01 J65 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:212&r=lab |
| By: | Bratsberg, Bernt (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Raaum, Oddbjørn (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Røed, Knut (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Immigrants from low‐income source countries tend to be underrepresented in employment and overrepresented in social insurance programs. Based on administrative data from Norway, we examine how these gaps reflect systematic differences in the impacts of social insurance benefits on work incentives. Drawing on a benefit formula reform of the temporary disability insurance program, we identify behavioral employment and earnings responses to changes in benefits, and find that responses are significantly larger for immigrants. Among female immigrant program participants, earnings of the male spouse also drop in response to more generous benefits. We uncover stronger behavioral responses among natives with characteristics similar to those of immigrants. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, labor supply, social insurance |
| JEL: | H53 J15 J22 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11482&r=lab |
| By: | Stefan Seifert; Marica Valente |
| Abstract: | In the 2011 post-Arab Spring migration wave, over 64,000 migrants landed on the southern Italian coast, with many of them potentially working illegally on farms through caporalato, a widespread system of illegal recruitment of underpaid farm labor run by Italian agrimafias. To test this hypothesis, this paper evaluates the causal effects of the 2011 migration wave on reported labor productivity focusing on vineyards in southern Italy. Based on a dynamic panel data model, labor productivity is estimated to increase by about 11% on average for 2011 and 2012. We show that this corresponds to a total of around 10 million unreported work hours, or 21,000 full-time employees, in each year. We interpret this as an increase in employment of illegal workforce due to the migration wave. Magnitude, direction, and statistical significance of the effect are confirmed under various model specifications and using synthetic control and post-lasso approaches. |
| Keywords: | Migration wave, agrimafias, illegal employment, vineyard productivity |
| JEL: | F22 J61 J43 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1735&r=lab |
| By: | Krieger, Tim (University of Freiburg); Renner, Laura (University of Freiburg); Ruhose, Jens (Leibniz University of Hannover) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of the long-term relatedness between countries, measured by their genetic distance, on educational migrant selection. Analyzing bilateral migrant stocks of the 15 main destination countries and 85 sending countries for the year 2000, we find that migrant selection and genetic distance follow a nonlinear J-shaped pattern: at low levels of genetic distance, increases in genetic distance reduce the positive selection of migration. However, at higher levels of genetic distance, this pattern is reversed and migration becomes more positively selected. We complement this finding by showing that the net benefits of genetic distance are strongly decreasing for low-skilled migrants with increasing genetic distance, while high-skilled migrants are less responsive to genetic distance in general. Results are robust to conditioning on bilateral control variables, including various destination- and sending-country-specific fixed effects and applying an instrumental-variables approach that exploits exogenous variation in genetic distances in the year 1500. |
| Keywords: | long-term relatedness, genetic distance, culture, international migration, selection |
| JEL: | F22 J61 Z1 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11488&r=lab |
| By: | Bernardo Fanfani (Department of Economics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino, Italy) |
| Abstract: | We study a model where wage differences between men and women arise from taste-based discrimination and monopsonistic mechanisms. We show how preferences against women affect heterogeneity in firms' pay policies in the context of an imperfect labour market, deriving a rigorous test for the presence of taste-based discrimination and of other firm-level mechanisms driving the gender wage gap, in particular compensating wage differentials. These results inform an analysis of sex pay differences in the Italian manufacturing sector showing that taste-based discrimination and preferences for workplaces providing more flexible schedules are two significant determinants of the gender wage gap. |
| Keywords: | Gender Wage Gap; Taste-Based Discrimination; Monopsonistic Discrimination; Compensating Wage Differentials; Firm Wage Policy; Matched Employer-Employee Data. |
| JEL: | J00 J16 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2018–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tur:wpapnw:054&r=lab |
| By: | LIU Yang |
| Abstract: | This study examines the determinants of the outmigration intentions of highly skilled foreign workers, i.e., workers who received post-secondary education, following conventional migration theories. Data come from a survey of firms and their foreign employees in Japan; most of whom were born in Asia, especially in China (77.4% of total observations). The results found that education level and average wage gaps did not significantly affect the outmigration decisions of Asian-born workers. However, the labor segmentation variable, which represents the firm's differentiation between foreign and native workers, has a significant estimated effect. Results indicate that Asian-born employees of firms that differentiate between foreigners and native workers are more likely to migrate away from Japan. The explanation could be that labor segmentation reduces foreign workers' expected future wage. Furthermore, the lifetime employment system in Japan could reduce the outmigration of Asian-born foreign workers, because the reduced future unemployment risk increases workers' expected wage from working in Japan. Moreover, a higher current job satisfaction could have a negative effect on Asian-born foreign workers' outmigration intention. Finally, among the control variables for the original migration motivations, Asian-born foreign workers who were motivated by the Japanese lifestyle tend to remain in Japan, while Asian-born foreign workers who were motivated by wages are more likely to migrate away in the future. |
| Date: | 2018–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:18028&r=lab |
| By: | East, Chloe N. (University of Colorado Denver); Luck, Philip (University of Colorado Denver); Mansour, Hani (University of Colorado Denver); Velasquez, Andrea (University of Colorado Denver) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of reducing the supply of low-skilled immigrant workers on the labor market outcomes of domestic workers. We use temporal and geographic variation in the introduction of Secure Communities (SC), a county-based immigration enforcement policy, combined with data over 2005-2014 from the American Community Survey to estimate a difference-in-difference model with geographic and time fixed effects. We find evidence that SC had a negative impact on the employment of low-skilled non-citizen workers, who are likely to be directly affected by the policy. Importantly, we also find that SC negatively impacted the employment of citizens working in middle to high-skill occupations. This is the first paper to provide quasi- experimental evidence on the labor market effects of immigration enforcement policies on citizens across the occupational skill distribution, which is of paramount importance given the current immigration policy debates. |
| Keywords: | international migration, labor demand, immigration policy |
| JEL: | F22 J11 J23 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11486&r=lab |
| By: | Finkelstein Shapiroy, Alan (Tufts Unversity); Olivero, Maria (Drexel University) |
| Abstract: | Standard models with search frictions in labor markets face limitations in replicating the empirical volatility of unemployment and market tightness in the U.S. In this paper we study the importance of endogenous labor force participation amid credit market disruptions in a labor search model with bank lending relationships. In response to both aggregate productivity and financial shocks that replicate the empirical volatility of labor force participation and volatility and cyclicality of credit spreads, the model produces more than 75 percent of the volatility of unemployment and 90 percent of the volatility of market tightness in the data. The interaction between endogenous participation in labor markets, and long-lasting lending relationships that quantitatively generate the cyclical behavior of credit spreads gives rise to sharper vacancy fluctuations amid financial shocks and plays a key role in replicating the data. In addition, we document a negative link between measures of credit-market distress and labor force participation alongside a positive link between measures of credit-market distress and unemployment. Moreover, we illustrate the policy importance of accounting for labor force participation by analyzing the effects of countercyclical credit subsidies. Only when labor force participation is an endogenous choice does this policy represent an effective stabilization tool. |
| Keywords: | unemployment; endogenous labor force participation; financial shocks; deep habits in credit markets; lending relationships |
| JEL: | E24 E32 E44 |
| Date: | 2018–05–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:drxlwp:2018_005&r=lab |
| By: | Holzmann, Robert (University of New South Wales); Wels, Jacques (University of Cambridge) |
| Abstract: | The importance of cross-border portability of social benefits is increasing in parallel with the rise in the absolute number of international migrants and their share of the world population, and perhaps more importantly, with the rising share of world population that for some part of their life is working and/or retiring abroad. This paper estimates how the rising stock of migrants is distributed over four key portability regimes: those with portability through bilateral social security arrangements (regime I); those with potential exportability of eligible benefits from abroad (regime II); documented workers with no access to national schemes but no contribution payment either (regime III); and undocumented workers with no access to any scheme (regime IV). Estimates for 2000 and 2013 are compared. The results indicate a modest but noticeable increase in the share of migrants under regime I, from 21.9 percent in 2000 to 23.3 percent in 2013. The biggest change occurred under regime III, which almost doubled to 9.4 percent. Regime II reduced by 3.0 percentage points but remains the dominant scheme (at 53.2 percent). The estimates suggest that the scope of regime IV (informality) reduced by 2.9 percentage points, accounting for 14.0 of all migrants in 2013. This trend is positive, but more will need to be done to progress on benefit portability. |
| Keywords: | labor mobility, retirement mobility, portability regimes, bilateral social security agreements, social benefits |
| JEL: | D69 H55 I19 J62 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11481&r=lab |
| By: | Schurer, Stefanie (University of Sydney); Trajkovski, Kristian (University of Sydney) |
| Abstract: | Over the past two decades, researchers have shown a growing interest in the role of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) – children's confrontation with maltreatment and household dysfunction – in shaping lifetime opportunities. However, this is the first study to quantify the economic penalties of ACEs and identify the mechanisms which produce the relationship. We source data from the National Child Development Study to construct an ACE index based on prospective childhood information and estimate an earnings penalty of 7.3 percent for each additional ACE, a 53.1 percent higher probability of being welfare dependent, and a 34 percent higher probability of poverty at age 55, controlling for important background factors measured in childhood. The results are driven by parental neglect, a component of the ACE index based on teacher assessments. Observed differences in later-life earnings between children with and without neglect exposure can be fully explained by observable differences in human capital accumulated by age 33. The productivity loss in an economy due to parental failures to nurture and protect their children is likely to be high. Our findings contribute to a wider discussion on the multidimensionality and expanding definitions of childhood poverty. |
| Keywords: | childhood poverty, adverse childhood experiences, economic outcomes, welfare dependence, human capital |
| JEL: | I32 J12 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11450&r=lab |