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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Jonathan Briody (University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | The incidence of adiposity in the early years of life has outgrown the prevalence rate in older children and adolescents globally; however, the relationships between unemployment and weight are predominantly studied in adults. This study examines the relationship between changing economic conditions during the Irish recession and child weight. Fixed effect logistic regression is used to examine the effects of parental unemployment on weight using the Growing up in Ireland infant cohort from 2008 to 2013. This study is the first to use longitudinal anthropometric measurements to estimate the impact of parental unemployment on children’s weight before, during and after a recession. Child growth charts are used to quantify children according to overweight for BMI, weight for age, and weight for height measures. For BMI, the probability of a child being overweight is 6 percentage points higher if either parent has experienced unemployment. For weight for age the probability is of similar magnitude across several alternative growth charts and definitions of adiposity. The analysis is repeated, cross-sectionally, for physical activity and diet to clarify mechanisms of effect. The probability of a child consuming healthy food and physical activity with an implied cost is lower if either parent becomes unemployed. A focus on excess adiposity in the early years is of crucial importance as if current trends are not addressed a generation of children may grow up with a higher level of chronic disease. |
| Keywords: | Health; Panel data; Unemployment; The Great Recession; Children |
| JEL: | I12 I18 C33 J10 J13 |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:duh:wpaper:2002&r=all |
| By: | Bonacini, Luca; Gallo, Giovanni; Scicchitano, Sergio |
| Abstract: | The recent global COVID-19 pandemic forced most of governments in developed countries to introduce severe measures limiting people mobility freedom in order to contain the infection spread. Consequently, working from home (WFH) procedures became of great importance for a large part of employees, since they represent the only option to both continue working and keep staying home. Based on influence function regression methods, our paper explores the role of WFH attitude across labour income distribution in Italy. Results show that increasing WFH attitudes of occupations would lead to a rise of wage inequality among Italian employees. The opportunity of WFH tends to benefit male, older and high-paid employees, as well as those living in provinces more affected by the novel coronavirus. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19,working from home,inequality,unconditional quantile regressions |
| JEL: | D31 I18 J16 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:541&r=all |
| By: | Benoit Dostie; Jiang Li; David Card; Daniel Parent |
| Abstract: | We use longitudinal data from the income tax system to study the impacts of firms’ employment and wage-setting policies on the level and change in immigrant-native wage differences in Canada. We focus on immigrants who arrived in the early 2000s, distinguishing between those with and without a college degree from two broad groups of countries – the U.S., the U.K. and Northern Europe, and the rest of the world. Consistent with a growing literature based on the two-way fixed effects model of Abowd, Kramarz, and Margolis (1999), we find that firm-specific wage premiums explain a significant share of earnings inequality in Canada and contribute to the average earnings gap between immigrants and natives. In the decade after receiving permanent status, earnings of immigrants rise relative to those of natives. Compositional effects due to selective outmigration and changing participation play no role in this gain. About one-sixth is attributable to movements up the job ladder to employers that offer higher pay premiums for all groups, with particularly large gains for immigrants from the “rest of the world” countries. |
| JEL: | J15 J31 J62 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27096&r=all |
| By: | Cockx, Bart; Lehner, Michael; Bollens, Joost |
| Abstract: | Based on administrative data of unemployed in Belgium, we estimate the labour market effects of three training programmes at various aggregation levels using Modified Causal Forests, a causal machine learning estimator. While all programmes have positive effects after the lock-in period, we find substantial heterogeneity across programmes and unemployed. Simulations show that “black-box†rules that reassign unemployed to programmes that maximise estimated individual gains can considerably improve effectiveness: up to 20% more (less) time spent in (un)employment within a 30 months window. A shallow policy tree delivers a simple rule that realizes about 70% of this gain. |
| JEL: | J68 |
| Date: | 2020–05–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umagsb:2020015&r=all |
| By: | Ina Ganguli; Ricardo Hausmann; Martina Viarengo |
| Abstract: | We examine gender gaps in career dynamics in the legal sector using rich panel data from one of the largest global law firms in the world. The law firm studied is representative of multinational law firms and operates in 23 countries. The sample includes countries at different stages of development. We document the cross-country variation in gender gaps and how these gaps have changed over time. We show that while there is gender parity at the entry level in most countries by the end of the period examined, there are persistent raw gender gaps at the top of the organization across all countries. We observe significant heterogeneity among countries in terms of gender gaps in promotions and wages, but the gaps that exist appear to be declining over the period studied. We also observe that women are more likely to report exiting the firm for family and work-life balance reasons, while men report leaving for career advancement. Finally, we show that various measures of national institutions and culture appear to play a role in the differential labor-market outcomes of men and women. |
| Keywords: | gender gaps, human capital, job mobility, promotion, culture, legal sector |
| JEL: | I26 J16 J62 M51 Z10 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8257&r=all |
| By: | Perugini, Cristiano |
| Abstract: | The microeconomic drivers of medium- and short-term income mobility in Russia over the period 1996–2016 are investigated using data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS). Focusing on the role of access to credit in triggering household income growth, the descriptive analysis suggests that high levels of mobility materialising in pro-poor patterns of growth may accompany Russia’s notoriously high levels of inequality. Controlling for other personal and household characteristics, the econometric model for drivers of income mobility indicates that access to credit boosts income mobility. Complementary empirical evidence suggests that this effect may unfold through channels related to the labour market and non-labour sources of income. |
| JEL: | D31 H81 J60 O15 |
| Date: | 2020–05–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bof:bofitp:2020_011&r=all |
| By: | Rossello, Giulia (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University); Cowan, Robin (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, BETA, Universite de Strasbourg, IUF Descartes, and CREST, Stellenbosch University.); Mairesse, Jacques (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, CREST-ENSAE, and NBER) |
| Abstract: | We study whether student-advisor gender and race couples matter for publication productivity of Ph.D. students in South Africa. We consider the sample of all Ph.D.s in STEM graduating between 2000 and 2014, after the recent systematic introduction of doctoral programs in this country. We investigate the joint effects of gender and race for the whole sample and looking separately at the sub-samples of (1) whitewhite; (2) black-black; and (3) black-white student-advisor couples. We find early career productivity differences: while female students publish on average 10% to 20% fewer articles than males, this is true mainly for female students working with a male advisor, not for those working with a female one. These disparities are similar, though more pronounced, when looking at the joint effects of gender and race for the white-white and black-black student-advisor pairs. We also explore whether publication productivity differences change significantly for students with a high, medium, or low “productivity-profile†, and find that they are U-shaped. Female students with a high (or low) “productivity-profile†studying with female advisors are as productive than male students with a high (or low) “productivity-profile†studying with male advisors. |
| Keywords: | Gender and race, Student Advisor, South Africa, Doctoral research, research productivity, Role models |
| JEL: | A14 I23 I24 J15 J16 J24 O32 |
| Date: | 2020–05–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2020021&r=all |
| By: | Ana Maria Montoya Gómez; Marie-Theres von Schickfus; Markus Zimmer |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the effects of different energy transition paths on regional value added and on employment. We extend traditional input-output analysis by taking into account the scarcity of factors of production, and construct a dataset incorporating the regional dimension and specific electricity producing technologies. We find that the three observed districts in the German Oberland region benefit (to varying degrees) from investments towards regional energy transition, both in terms of additional value added and employment. Yet, the positive development comes at the expense of value added and employment in the rest of the country. Moreover, our analysis shows that medium-skilled employment increases most across all scenarios. This finding deserves attention in light of the current shortage of medium-skilled labor in Germany. |
| JEL: | Q43 R15 C67 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8253&r=all |
| By: | Ryan Kim; Jonathan Vogel |
| Abstract: | What are the welfare implications of trade shocks? We provide a sufficient statistic that measures changes in welfare, to a first-order approximation, taking into account adjustment in labor supply, in frictional unemployment, and in the sectors to which workers apply while allowing for arbitrary heterogeneity in worker productivity and nonpecuniary returns across sectors. We apply these insights to measure changes in welfare across commuting zones (CZs) in the U.S. between 2000-2007. We find that granting China permanent normal trade relations lowers the welfare of a CZ at the 90th percentile of exposure by 3.1 percentage points relative to a CZ at the 10th percentile; of this, approximately 65 percent is due to changes in unemployment and much of this is driven by the non-pecuniary costs of unemployment. |
| JEL: | F1 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27133&r=all |
| By: | Hao Wang; Jan Fidrmuc; Qi Luo |
| Abstract: | When investigating the relationship between inward FDI and rural-urban inequality, previous studies overlook the inter-regional interactions. Building on the literature that highlights the significant role of rural-urban migration in inequality, this article investigates spatial spillover effect of inward FDI on the rural-urban wage inequality by utilizing the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) both in the short run and long run. In particular, we carefully consider the heterogeneity of inward FDI and categorize it with respect to entry modes and sectoral distribution. On the basis of a panel dataset covering 30 provinces in China from 2000 to 2016, our results show that overall the inward FDI should not be blamed for the exacerbation of rural-urban wage inequality. We do not find significant relationship between inward FDI in secondary and tertiary sector while the FDI in primary sector has a slight negative effect. When we separate the FDI according to entry modes, we find that WFE is shown to have a negative effect on the rural-urban wage inequality and this effect is more pronounced in the long run when we conduct a period average estimation. This change also similarly applies to the equity joint ventures. |
| Keywords: | spatial spillovers, foreign direct investment, rural-urban wage inequality, SDM |
| JEL: | C21 F21 O19 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8258&r=all |
| By: | Fabian Lange (McGill University); Theodore Papageorgiou (Boston College) |
| Abstract: | Exploiting results from the literature on non-parametric identification, we make three methodological contributions to the empirical literature estimating the matching function, commonly used to map unemployment and vacancies into hires. First, we show how to non-parametrically identify the matching function. Second, we estimate the matching function allowing for unobserved matching efficacy, without imposing the usual independence assumption between matching efficiency and search on either side of the labor market. Third, we allow for multiple types of jobseekers and consider an “augmented” Beveridge curve that includes them. Our estimated elasticity of hires with respect to vacancies is procyclical and varies between 0.15 and 0.3. This is substantially lower than common estimates suggesting that a significant bias stems from the commonly-used independence assumption. Moreover, variation in match efficiency accounts for much of the decline in hires during the Great Recession. |
| Keywords: | matching function, unemployment, hires |
| JEL: | E32 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2020–04–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:bocoec:1006&r=all |
| By: | Karen Clay; Ethan J. Schmick; Werner Troesken |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of a large negative agricultural shock, the boll weevil, on black-white inequality in the first half of the twentieth century. To do this we use complete count census data to generate a linked sample of fathers and their sons. We find that the boll weevil induced enormous labor market and social disruption as more than half of black and white fathers moved to other counties following the arrival of the weevil. The shock impacted black and white sons differently. We compare sons whose fathers initially resided in the same county and find that white sons born after the boll weevil had similar wages and schooling outcomes to white sons born prior to its arrival. In contrast, black sons born after the boll weevil had significantly higher wages and years of schooling, narrowing the black-white wage and schooling gaps. This decrease appears to have been driven by relative improvements in early life conditions and access to schooling both for sons of black fathers that migrated out of the South and sons of black fathers that stayed in the South. |
| JEL: | I24 J10 J62 N32 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27101&r=all |
| By: | Cäcilia Lipowski; Ralf A. Wilke; Bertrand Koebel |
| Abstract: | Birth rates differ strongly across European states, despite the deep economic harmonisation process related to European integration. This study uses large scale administrative data from France and Germany to analyse and directly compare fertility patterns in two major European economies over a period of 15 years. Strong evidence is found that opportunity costs play a role in fertility decisions, and for a positive income effect for females with high earnings. Females in Germany adapt their fertility behaviour more strongly in response to economic incentives than their counterparts in France. This is explained by pronounced differences in the national approaches to childcare support. |
| Keywords: | family policy, fertility behaviour, count data, panel data. |
| JEL: | J13 J11 C23 C25 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2020-24&r=all |
| By: | Jesper Bagger (Royal Holloway, University of London and Dale T. Mortensen Centre, Aarhus University); Francois Fontaine (Paris School of Economics, Universite Paris 1-Pantheon Sorbonne); Manolis Galenianos (Royal Holloway, University of London); Ija Trapeznikova (Royal Holloway, University of London) |
| Abstract: | We use a comprehensive dataset from Denmark that combines online job advertisements with a matched employer-employee dataset and a firm-level dataset with value added and revenue information to study the relationship between vacancy-posting and various firm outcomes. We find that posting a vacancy significantly increases a firm's hiring rate, and that two-third of the additional hiring occurs in the same quarter while one-third occurs with one quarter lag. The majority of the effect is accounted for by hiring from employment. Small and slow-growth firms show greater hiring responses and the hiring response of high-productivity firms takes longer to materialize. We find that separations that are likely associated with quits predict vacancy posting, consistent with replacement hiring and vacancy chains. Growth in value added and revenue has a strong positive effect on vacancy posting but only when shocks are permanent - transitory shocks do not affect vacancy posting. |
| Keywords: | Vacancies, hiring, separations, employment growth, firm growth, value added, revenue |
| JEL: | J23 J63 |
| Date: | 2020–05–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2020-04&r=all |
| By: | Fernandes, Ana (University of Applied Sciences); Huber, Martin; Vaccaro, Giannina |
| Abstract: | Using a survey on wage expectations among students at two Swiss institutions of higher education, we examine the wage expectations of our respondents along two main lines. First, we investigate the rationality of wage expectations by comparing average expected wages from our sample with those of similar graduates; we further examine how our respondents revise their expectations when provided information about actual wages. Second, using causal mediation analysis, we test whether the consideration of a rich set of personal and professional controls, namely concerning family formation and children in addition to professional preferences, accounts for the difference in wage expectations across genders. We find that males and females overestimate their wages compared to actual ones, and that males respond in an overconfident manner to information about outside wages. Despite the attenuation of the gender difference in wage expectations brought about by the comprehensive set of controls, gender generally retains a significant direct, unexplained effect on wage expectations. |
| Keywords: | Wage expectations; gender wage differences; mediation; direct effect; indirect effect; experiment |
| JEL: | C21 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2020–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fri:fribow:fribow00516&r=all |
| By: | Oğuzhan Okumuş, Mehmet |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of economic and socio-cultural pull factors on migration decisions of graduate students and highly skilled professionals with a specific focus on recent highly skilled Turkish immigration in Berlin. The main hypotheses of this study are that economic factors play a significantly more important role in the migration decisions of highly skilled professionals whereas socio-cultural factors have a significantly more impact on graduate student migration. The data are collected through an online survey and analyzed in the light of previous literature on highly skilled immigration. Compatible with the results of earlier studies, the findings reveal significant differentiation in the effect of economic pull factors on highly skilled professionals compared to graduate students, especially in the domains career opportunities, employment opportunities and expectations for a higher quality of life. Sociocultural pull factors appear to have insignificant difference despite being favored more by immigrants who moved to Berlin through an educational channel. Altogether, these results indicate the importance of diversified migration policies for the distinct needs of different highly skilled groups. |
| Keywords: | Highly skilled immigration,Brain drain,Germany,Turkey |
| JEL: | J61 J15 K37 O15 F66 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ipewps:1422020&r=all |