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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Duchini, Emma (University of Warwick); Simion, Stefania (University of Bristol); Turrell, Arthur (King’s College London) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies firms’ and employees’ responses to pay transparency requirements. Each year since 2018, more than 10,000 UK firms have been required to disclose publicly their gender pay gap and gender composition along the wage distribution. Theoretically, pay transparency is meant to act as an information shock that alters the bargaining power of male and female employees vis-a-vis the firm in opposite ways. Coupled with the potential negative effects of unequal pay on firms’ reputation, this shock could improve women’s relative occupational and pay outcomes. We test these theoretical predictions using a difference-in-differences strategy that exploits variations in the UK mandate across firm size and time. This analysis delivers four main findings. First, pay transparency increases women’s probability of working in above-median-wage occupations by 5 percent compared to the pre-policy mean. Second, while this effect has not yet translated into a significant rise in women’s pay, the policy leads to a 2.8 percent decrease in men’s real hourly pay, reducing the pre-policy gender pay gap by 15 percent. Third, combining the difference-in-differences strategy with a text analysis of job listings, we find suggestive evidence that treated firms adopt female-friendly hiring practices in ads for high-gender-pay-gap occupations. Fourth, a reputation motive seems to drive employers’ reactions, as firms publishing worse gender equality indicators score lower in YouGov Women’s Rankings. Moreover, publicly listed firms experience a 35-basis-point average fall in cumulative abnormal returns in the days following their publication of gender equality data JEL codes: J08 ; J16 ; J24 |
| Keywords: | pay transparency ; gender pay gap ; glass ceiling |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1311&r=all |
| By: | Willage, Barton (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Willén, Alexander (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | The first year after childbirth involves dramatic changes to parents’ lives and is crucial for children’s development. Using plausibly exogenous job loss from mass layoffs, we study the effect of labor shocks on mothers and children. Mothers displaced in the postpartum year experience significantly larger effects than mothers displaced in non-birth years. No such effects are present among fathers. Additionally, we find long-lasting harm to children’s educational outcomes. These effects do not extend to children who experience maternal job loss later in life nor to children who experience paternal job loss. Examining potential mechanisms suggest effects are driven by maternal stress. |
| Keywords: | Job Loss; Maternal Labor Supply; Education; Early Childhood; Fertility |
| JEL: | I20 I24 J13 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2020–11–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2020_022&r=all |
| By: | Martín-Román, Ángel L. |
| Abstract: | This paper identifies and analyses a new effect related to the cyclical behavior of labor supply: the Entitled-Worker Effect (EWE). This effect is different from the well-known Added-Worker Effect (AWE) and Discouraged-Worker Effect (DWE). The EWE is a consequence of one of the most important labor institutions: the unemployment benefit (UB). We develop a model with uncertainty about the results of the job seeking and transactions costs linked to such a search process in which a kind of moral hazard appears. This creates new incentives for workers and produces an additional counter-cyclical pressure on aggregate labor supply, but with a different foundation from that of the AWE. Finally, we show some empirical evidence supporting the EWE for the Spanish case. |
| Keywords: | Labor force participation, Business Cycle, Unemployment, Added-worker effect, Discouraged-worker effect, Unemployment Benefit |
| JEL: | E24 E32 H55 J22 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2020–11–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:103973&r=all |
| By: | Ginja, Rita (Uppsala Center for Labor Studies); Karimi, Arizo (Uppsala Center for Labor Studies); Xia, Pengpeng (Yale University) |
| Abstract: | Search frictions make worker turnover costly to firms. A three-month parental l eave expansion in Sweden provides exogenous variation that we use to quantify firms’ adjustment costs upon worker absence and exit. The reform increased women’s leave duration and likelihood of separating from prebirth employers. Firms with greater exposure to the reform hired additional workers and increased incumbent hours, incurring additional wage costs. These adjustment costs varied by firms’ availability of internal and external substitutes. Economy-wide analyses show that a higher reform exposure is correlated with fewer hires and lower starting wages of young women compared to men and older women. |
| Keywords: | Parental Leave; Firm-Specific Human Capital; Statistical Discrimination |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J21 J22 J31 |
| Date: | 2020–11–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2020_018&r=all |
| By: | Sánchez, Rafael (Centro de Estudios Públicos); Finot, Javier (Ministry of Finance, Chile); Villena, Mauricio G. (Universidad Adolfo Ibañez) |
| Abstract: | The main aim of this work is to explain the Chilean gender wage gap using a dynamic monopsony model to estimate the labor supply elasticities at the firm level. Our results suggest that the elasticities of labor supply to firms are small, which implies that firms have labor market power. We also found that depending on the especification, Chilean men would earn approximately 19% - 28% more than women as a result of the difference in labor supply elasticities by gender, ceteris paribus. Furthermore, we find that in the long run, the magnitude of between-firm differences in elasticities are higher than within-firm differences, which suggests that the gender wage gap is driven by structural factors that generate gender sorting to firms. Finally, using the same methodology, we find that the elasticities for a high-income countries (e.g. the United States) are higher than those obtained for a middle-income country (e.g. Chile) for both men and women, which suggests higher labor market frictions in middle-income countries. The main difference between USA and Chile comes from the low labor supply elasticity of Chilean women, which appears to be explained from their low recruitment elasticity from nonemploeyment. |
| Keywords: | gender pay gap, dynamic monopsony, elasticity of labor supply, worker mobility, Chile |
| JEL: | J16 J18 J42 J62 J71 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13856&r=all |
| By: | Shahe Emran, M.; Ferreira, Francisco; Jiang, Yajing; Sun, Yan |
| Abstract: | This paper extends the Becker-Tomes model of intergenerational educational mobility to a rural economy characterized by farm-nonfarm occupational dualism and provides a comparative analysis of rural China and rural India. The model builds a micro-foundation for the widely used linear-in-levels estimating equation. Returns to education for parents and productivity of financial investment in children’s education determine relative mobility, as measured by the slope, while the intercept depends, among other factors, on the degree of persistence in nonfarm occupations. Unlike many existing studies based on coresident samples, our estimates of intergenerational mobility do not suffer from truncation bias. The sons in rural India faced lower educational mobility compared with the sons in rural China in the 1970s to 1990s. To understand the role of genetic inheritance, Altonji et al. (2005) biprobit sensitivity analysis is combined with the evidence on intergenerational correlation in cognitive ability in economics and behavioral genetics literature. The observed persistence can be due solely to genetic correlations in China, but not in India. Father’s nonfarm occupation was complementary to his education in determining a sons’ schooling in India, but separable in China. There is evidence of emerging complementarity for the younger cohorts in rural China. Structural change in favor of the nonfarm sector contributed to educational inequality in rural India. Evidence from supplementary data on economic mechanisms suggests that the model provides plausible explanations for the contrasting roles of occupational dualism in intergenerational educational mobility in rural India and rural China. |
| Keywords: | educational mobility; rural economy; occupational dualism; farm-nonfarm; complementarity; coresidency bias; China; India |
| JEL: | O12 J62 |
| Date: | 2020–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:107480&r=all |
| By: | Gang, Ira N.; Natarajan, Rajesh Raj; Sen, Kunal |
| Abstract: | How does informal economic activity respond to increased financial inclusion? Does it become more entrepreneurial? Does access to new financing options change the gender configuration of informal economic activity and, if so, in what ways and what directions? We take advantage of nationwide data collected in 2010/11 and 2015/16 by India's National Sample Survey Office on unorganized (informal) enterprises. This period was one of rapid expansion of banking availability aimed particularly at the unbanked, under-banked, and women. We find strong empirical evidence supporting the crucial role of financial access in promoting entrepreneurship among informal sector firms in India. Our results are robust to alternative specifications and alternative measures of financial constraints using an approach combining propensity score matching and difference-in-differences. However, we do not find conclusive evidence that increased financial inclusion leads to a higher likelihood of women becoming entrepreneurs than men in the informal sector. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship,financial constraints,gender,informal sector,difference-indifferences,India |
| JEL: | O12 G28 L26 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:708&r=all |
| By: | Manning, Alan |
| Abstract: | It is hard to find a negative effect on employment effect of rises in the minimum wage: the elusive employment effect. It is much easier to find an impact on wages. This paper argues the elusive employment effect is unlikely to be solved by better data, methodology or specification. The reason for the elusive employment effect is that there are reason why the link between higher minimum wages and higher labor costs are weaker than one might think and because imperfect competition is pervasive in the labor market. |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2020–10–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:107415&r=all |
| By: | Ekaterina A. Aleksandrova (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Venera I. Bagranova (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Christopher J. Gerry (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides evidence for the effects of health shocks measured by any negative change in self-assessed health (SAH) status on employment, personal income, and wages in the Russian population. We employ the average treatment effect on the treated (ATET) estimator combined with propensity score and nearest neighbour matching and data from Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey-HSE (RLMS-HSE) for 2000–2018. We find that adverse health shocks are associated with a reduction in the probability of remaining employed by 2%, and losses of income and wages of 17% and 11%, respectively. For men the consequences of health shocks are more drastic. Severe health shocks that are measured as a drop in SAH by two or more levels are associated with greater losses: respondents aged 30–45 years old lose approximately 60% of their monthly income for severe shocks, and those aged 46–72 lose 35–45% of their wages and 9–10% in the probability of remaining employed. |
| Keywords: | health shock, labour market outcomes, matching, difference-in-difference, Russia |
| JEL: | C23 I12 J60 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:237/ec/2020&r=all |
| By: | Thomas B. Foster; Marta Murray-Close; Liana Christin Landivar; Mark deWolf |
| Abstract: | The narrowing of the gender wage gap has slowed in recent decades. However, current estimates show that, among full-time year-round workers, women earn approximately 18 to 20 percent less than men at the median. Women’s human capital and labor force characteristics that drive wages increasingly resemble men’s, so remaining differences in these characteristics explain less of the gender wage gap now than in the past. As these factors wane in importance, studies show that others like occupational and industrial segregation explain larger portions of the gender wage gap. However, a major limitation of these studies is that the large datasets required to analyze occupation and industry effectively lack measures of labor force experience. This study combines survey and administrative data to analyze and improve estimates of the gender wage gap within detailed occupations, while also accounting for gender differences in work experience. We find a gender wage gap of 18 percent among full-time, year-round workers across 316 detailed occupation categories. We show the wage gap varies significantly by occupation: while wages are at parity in some occupations, gaps are as large as 45 percent in others. More competitive and hazardous occupations, occupations that reward longer hours of work, and those that have a larger proportion of women workers have larger gender wage gaps. The models explain less of the wage gap in occupations with these attributes. Occupational characteristics shape the conditions under which men and women work and we show these characteristics can make for environments that are more or less conducive to gender parity in earnings. |
| Keywords: | gender; earnings gap; wage gap; women’s employment; occupations; administrative records |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:20-34&r=all |
| By: | José Garcia Montalvo; Daniele Alimonti; Sonja Reiland; Isabelle Vernos |
| Abstract: | Women are underrepresented in the top ranks of the scientific career, including the biomedical disciplines. This is not generally the result of explicit and easily recognizable gender biases but the outcome of decisions with many components of unconscious nature that are difficult to assess. Evidence suggests that implicit gender stereotypes influence perceptions as well as decisions. To explore these potential reasons of women's underrepresentation in life sciences we analyzed the outcome of gender-science and gender-career Implicit Association Tests (IAT) taken by 2,589 scientists working in high profile biomedical research centers. We found that male-science association is less pronounced among researchers than in the general population (34% below the level of the general population). However, this difference is mostly explained by the low level of the IAT score among female researchers. Despite the highly meritocratic view of the academic career, male scientists have a high level of male-science association (261% the level among women scientists), similar to the general population. |
| Keywords: | gender bias, implicit association test, research centers, scientific career |
| JEL: | J16 J44 J7 O32 |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1750&r=all |
| By: | Kauhanen, Antti (ETLA - The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy); Maczulskij, Terhi (ETLA - The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy); Riukula, Krista (ETLA - The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the heterogeneous effects of the decentralization of collective bargaining on the incidence of wage increases and wage dispersion in Finland. We use linked employer-employee panel data for the 2005-2013 period, which includes major changes in bargaining systems and economic conditions. Our regression results from models with high-dimensional individual and firm fixed effects show that decentralized bargaining leads to very different outcomes for blue- and white-collar employees. Decentralized bargaining decreases wage dispersion among blue-collar employees and slightly increases it among white-collar employees. Decentralization also affects the incidence of wage increases differently for blue- and white-collar employees. We argue that these differences reflect the different preferences of the employee groups. We also show that the fallback option in local negotiations affects the decentralization outcomes. |
| Keywords: | decentralization, collective agreements, wage bargaining, wage increase, wage dispersion |
| JEL: | J31 J51 J52 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13867&r=all |
| By: | Ewa Cukrowska-Torzewska (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences, ul. Dluga 44/50, 00-241, Warsaw, Poland); Anna Lovasz (KRTK-KTI, 1097 Budapest, Tóth Kálmán u. 4., Hungary and University of Washington Tacoma, 1900 Commerce St, Tacoma, WA 98402, USA); Mariann Rigo (Institute of Medical Sociology, Centre for Health and Society, Medical Faculty, University of Düsseldorf, Moorenstr. 5., 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany) |
| Abstract: | The Visegrad 4 countries are characterized by low female and maternal employment rates compared to other Western and Nordic countries. Employment rates of mothers with children aged 0-2 years old are especially low, except in Poland. Work-family balance indicators and gender wage gaps are also unfavorable. The poor labor market situation of mothers in V4 countries has to do with the peculiarities of the national family policies: excessively long parental leaves coupled with poor childcare coverage for children under the age of 2. The only exception is Poland, which provides a shorter leave of 1 year. Though parental leaves are aimed at both parents, the provision of leaves for the exclusive use of fathers is low. Company-level corporate attitudes also play a role. Specifically, part-time work and time flexibility of working hours could be useful tools, however, they are scarcely used in V4 countries compared to other countries in Europe. |
| Keywords: | Female employment, maternal employment, gender gaps, family policies, company level institutions |
| JEL: | J08 J16 J21 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:discpr:2045&r=all |
| By: | Joan Llull |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the effect of immigration on gender gaps in the labor market. Using an equilibrium structural model for the U.S. economy, I simulate the importance of two mechanisms: the differential labor market competition induced by immigration on male and female workers, and the availability of cheaper child care services. On top of wage gaps, the structural model allows me to evaluate gender differences in human capital and labor supply adjustments, which are also influenced by these mechanisms. The main findings suggest that while the labor market competition effects increase gender wage and participation gaps substantially, the availability of cheaper child care compensates this negative effect on average, making overall average effects negligible. However, there is an important degree of heterogeneity of these effects, and while gender gaps are reduced at some points of the skill distribution, they are substantially increased in others. |
| Keywords: | gender gaps, Immigration, human capital, childcare cost, competition, equilibrium |
| JEL: | J16 J2 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1217&r=all |
| By: | Caria, Stefano (University of Bristol); Franklin, Simon (Queen Mary, University of London); Witte, Marc (IZA) |
| Abstract: | We study how active labor market policies affect the exchange of information and support among jobseekers. Leveraging a unique social network survey in Ethiopia, we find that a randomized job-search assistance intervention reduces information sharing and support between treated jobseekers and their active job-search partners. Due to lower job-search support, untreated individuals search less and, suggestively, have worse employment outcomes. These results are explained by a model of networks where unemployed individuals form job-search partnerships to exploit the complementarities of job search. These partnerships are broken if policy creates inequality in the access to information about job vacancies. |
| Keywords: | job search, social networks, RCT, active labor market policies |
| JEL: | D85 L14 O12 J64 D8 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13857&r=all |
| By: | Daniela Casale (School of Economics and Finance, University of the Witwatersrand); Debra Shepherd (Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University) |
| Abstract: | The data from Wave 1 of NIDS-CRAM showed that women were disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 crisis and the first month of the lockdown period in South Africa. Not only were they much more likely than men to lose their jobs between February and April or to work fewer hours compared to the pre-crisis period, they also took on a greater share of the additional childcare as a result of school closures and the suspension of all childcare services. In this policy paper, we use Wave 2 of NIDS-CRAM to explore how women and men have fared as the economy started to reopen and lockdown restrictions were relaxed. The data suggest that with the move from Level 5 lockdown in April to Level 3 lockdown in June, there was hardly any change in employment levels overall. However, women may have gained slightly relative to men. Nonetheless, given the very large job losses recorded among women between February and April (women lost 2 million jobs and men 1 million jobs), women still remained well behind men in reaching their pre-Covid employment levels in June. In contrast, men benefited more from the reopening of some school grades and childcare services in June. Compared to April, the hours men reported spending on childcare in June fell by more than the hours women reported spending on childcare. The data also show that much higher numbers of women than men found childcare to affect their ability to work, to work the same hours as before lockdown, and to search for work. |
| Keywords: | gender, employment, childcare, Covid-19, lockdown, South Africa |
| JEL: | J10 J16 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers356&r=all |
| By: | Dolado, Juan J. (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); Felgueroso, Florentino (FEDEA, Madrid); Jimeno, Juan F. (Bank of Spain) |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the experience so far of the Spanish labour market during the Covid-19 crisis in the light of current institutions, past performance during recessions, and the policy measures adopted during the pandemic. Emphasis is placed on the role of worldwide trends in labour markets (automation and AI) in shaping a potential recovery from this (hopefully) transitory shock through a big reallocation process of employment and economic activity. |
| Keywords: | epidemic, COVID-19, dual labour markets, flows, recessions |
| JEL: | J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13869&r=all |
| By: | Aglio, Daniele; Di Mauro, Filippo |
| Abstract: | Productivity developments have been rather divergent across EU countries and particularly between Central Eastern Europe (CEE) and elsewhere in the continent (non-CEE). How is such phenomenon related to wage bargaining institutions? Starting from the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) shock, we analyse whether the specific set-up of wage bargaining prevailing in non-CEE may have helped their respective firms to sustain productivity in the aftermath of the crisis. To tackle the issue, we merge the CompNet dataset - of firm-level based productivity indicators - with the Wage Dynamics Network (WDN) survey on wage bargaining institutions. We show that there is a substantial difference in the institutional set-up between the two above groups of countries. First, in CEE countries the bulk of the wage bargaining (some 60%) takes place outside collective bargaining schemes. Second, when a collective bargaining system is adopted in CEE countries, it is prevalently in the form of firm-level bargaining (i. e. the strongest form of decentralisation), while in non-CEE countries is mostly subject to multi-level bargaining (i. e. an intermediate regime, only moderately decentralised). On productivity impacts, we show that firms' TFP in the non-CEE region appears to have benefitted from the chosen form of decentralisation, while no such effects are detectable in CEE countries. On the channels of transmission, we show that decentralisation in non-CEE countries is also negatively correlated with dismissals and with unit labour costs, suggesting that such collective bargaining structure may have helped to better match workers with firms' needs. |
| Keywords: | total factor productivity,firm-level contracts,multi-level contracts,centralised contracts,unit labour costs,dismissals |
| JEL: | J30 J51 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhcom:32020&r=all |
| By: | Ochsen, Carsten |
| Abstract: | Since the early 1970s, it was argued that shifts from relatively smaller to larger youth cohorts in the labor force raise the unemploy- ment rate. In contrast, Shimer (2001) comes to a contrary conclusion using US state level data. I provide a theoretical framework for local labor markets that considers age cohort differences in labor market characteristics. Using a spatial panel data model and US county level data (2000-2014), the estimates provide strong evidence that aging of the working age population reduces overall unemployment by almost one percentage point. Long-run effects that consider local feedbacks are even larger. |
| Keywords: | Regional Unemployment,Spatial Interactions,Aging,Panel Data,Spatial Model |
| JEL: | J60 R12 J10 C23 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:roswps:165&r=all |
| By: | Pierre Pora |
| Abstract: | I leverage the staggered expansion of subsidized childcare facilities across municipalities in response to a succession of national plans to investigate the effect of collective childcare on parents' labor outcomes and childcare choices in France between 2007 and 2015. These plans did not lead to any substantial change in parents' labor outcomes or in paid parental leave take-up. Instead, these collective childcare expansions crowded out more costly formal childcare solutions, such as childminders or at-home childcare. These crowding-out effects highlight a downside of family policy strategies that foster the coexistence of multiple childcare arrangements. |
| Keywords: | Labor supply, childcare, event-study, parental leave |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J18 J22 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2020-29&r=all |
| By: | Emanuela Ciapanna (Bank of Italy); Sauro Mocetti (Bank of Italy); Alessandro Notarpietro (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper quantifies the macroeconomic effects of three major structural reforms (i.e., service sector liberalizations, incentives to innovation and civil justice reforms) undertaken in Italy in the last decade. We employ a novel approach that estimates the impact of each reform on total factor productivity and markups in an empirical micro setting and that uses these estimates in a structural general equilibrium model to simulate the macroeconomic impact of the reforms. Our results indicate that, accounting for estimation uncertainty, the increase in the level of GDP as of 2019 due to the sole effect of these reforms (ignoring all the other shocks that the Italian economy suffered in the same period) would be between 3% and 6%. The long-run increase in Italy's potential output would lie between 4% and 8%, with non-negligible effects on the labor market. |
| Keywords: | structural reforms, DSGE models, liberalization, innovation, civil justice |
| JEL: | E10 E20 J60 K40 L50 O30 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1303_20&r=all |
| By: | Caliendo, Marco (University of Potsdam); Mahlstedt, Robert (University of Copenhagen); van den Berg, Gerard (University of Bristol); Vikström, Johan (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy) |
| Abstract: | Labor market policy tools such as training and sanctions are commonly used to help bring workers back to work. By analogy to medical treatments, the individual exposure to these tools may have side effects. We study effects on health using individual-level population registers on labor market events outcomes, drug prescriptions and sickness absence, comparing outcomes before and after exposure to training and sanctions. We find that training improves cardiovascular and mental health and lowers sickness absence. The results suggest that this is not due to improved employment prospects but rather to instantaneous features of participation such as, perhaps, the adoption of a more rigorous daily routine. Unemployment benefits sanctions cause a short-run deterioration of mental health, possibly due higher stress levels, but this tapers out quickly. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment; health; sickness; prescriptions; mental health; drugs; training; depression; cardiovascular disease; sanctions |
| JEL: | H51 I12 I18 J68 |
| Date: | 2020–11–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2020_020&r=all |