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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Kevin Pineda-Hernández (Université libre de Bruxelles, SBS-EM (CEBRIG & DULBEA), Université de Mons (Soci&ter), National Fund for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS)); François Rycx (Université libre de Bruxelles, SBS-EM (CEBRIG & DULBEA), Université catholique de Louvain (IRES), Université de Mons (Soci&ter), GLO, IZA); Mélanie Volral (Université de Mons (Soci&ter), DULBEA) |
| Abstract: | As immigrants born in developing countries and their descendants represent a growing share of the working-age population in the developed world, their labour market integration constitutes a key factor for fostering economic development and social cohesion. Using a granular, matched employer-employee database of 1.3 million observations between 1999 and 2016, our weighted multilevel log-linear regressions first indicate that in Belgium, the overall wage gap between workers born in developed countries and workers originating from developing countries remains substantial: it reaches 15.7% and 13.5% for first- and second-generation immigrants, respectively. However, controlling for a wide range of observables (e.g. age, tenure, education, type of contract, occupation, firm-level collective agreement, firm fixed effects), we find that, whereas first-generation immigrants born in developing countries still experience a sizeable adjusted wage gap (2.7%), there is no evidence of an adjusted wage gap for their second-generation peers. Moreover, our reweighted, recentered influence function Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions agree with these findings. Indeed, while the overall wage gap for first-generation immigrants born in developing countries is driven by unfavourable human capital, low-paying occupational/sectoral characteristics, and a wage structure effect (e.g. wage discrimination), the wage gap for their second-generation peers is essentially explained by the fact that they are younger and have less tenure than workers born in developed countries. Furthermore, our results emphasize the significant moderating role of geographical origin, gender, and position in the wage distribution. |
| Keywords: | Immigrants, intergenerational studies, labour market integration, wage decompositions, unconditional quantile regressions, employer-employee data |
| JEL: | J15 J16 J21 J24 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2022–11–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2022025&r=lab |
| By: | John T. Addison; Paulino Teixeira |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between worker job satisfaction and workplace representation, to include works councils as well as local union agencies. The paper marks a clear shift away from the traditional focus on union membership per se because its sample of EU nations have industrial relations systems that diverge markedly from those of Anglophone countries. Our dataset comprises two waves of the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS). Pooled cross-section data indicate that workers in establishments with workplace representation have less job satisfaction than their counterparts in plants without formal representation. We proceed to upgrade these findings of conditional correlation by constructing a pseudo-panel with cohort fixed effects to take account of unobserved worker heterogeneity. Causality issues are directly tackled using an endogenous treatment effects model to address the possible endogeneity of worker representation. A persistence of our central finding leads us to conclude that, despite the recent evidence of a turnaround in the association between job satisfaction and unionism, it would be premature to conclude that this result can be generalized to continental European nations. |
| Keywords: | job satisfaction, workplace representation, European Working Conditions Survey, sorting, exit-voice |
| JEL: | I31 J28 J52 J53 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10167&r=lab |
| By: | Julia Bredtmann (IZA Institute of Labour Economics); Sebastian Otten (Universitaet Duisburg Essen) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the impact of source-country culture on the labor supply of female immigrants in Europe. We find that the labor supply of immigrant women is positively associated with the female-to-male labor force participation ratio in their source country, which serves as a proxy for the country’s preferences and beliefs regarding women’s roles. This suggests that the culture and norms of their source country play an important role for immigrant women’s labor supply. However, contradicting previous evidence for the U.S., we do not find evidence that the cultural effect persists through the second generation. |
| Keywords: | Female labor force participation, immigration, integration, culturaltransmission, epidemiological approach |
| JEL: | J16 J22 J61 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:2227&r=lab |
| By: | Francisca M. Antman; Brian Duncan; Stephen J. Trejo |
| Abstract: | This article reviews evidence on the labor market performance of Hispanics in the United States, with a particular focus on the US-born segment of this population. After discussing critical issues that arise in the US data sources commonly used to study Hispanics, we document how Hispanics currently compare with other Americans in terms of education, earnings, and labor supply, and then we discuss long-term trends in these outcomes. Relative to non-Hispanic Whites, US-born Hispanics from most national origin groups possess sizeable deficits in earnings, which in large part reflect corresponding educational deficits. Over time, rates of high school completion by US-born Hispanics have almost converged to those of non-Hispanic Whites, but the large Hispanic deficits in college completion have instead widened. Finally, from the perspective of immigrant generations, Hispanics experience substantial improvements in education and earnings between first-generation immigrants and the second-generation consisting of the US-born children of immigrants. Continued progress beyond the second generation is obscured by measurement issues arising from high rates of Hispanic intermarriage and the fact that later-generation descendants of Hispanic immigrants often do not self-identify as Hispanic when they come from families with mixed ethnic origins. |
| JEL: | I24 J15 J31 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30750&r=lab |
| By: | Henning Hermes; Marina Krauß; Philipp Lergetporer; Frauke Peter; Simon Wiederhold |
| Abstract: | We present experimental evidence that enabling access to universal early child care for families with lower socioeconomic status (SES) increases maternal labor supply. Our intervention provides families with customized help for child care applications, resulting in a large increase in enrollment among lower-SES families. The treatment increases lower-SES mothers’ full-time employment rates by 9 percentage points (+160%), household income by 10%, and mothers’ earnings by 22%. The effect on full-time employment is largely driven by increased care hours provided by child care centers and fathers. Overall, the treatment substantially improves intra-household gender equality in terms of child care duties and earnings. |
| Keywords: | child care, maternal employment, gender equality, randomized controlled trial |
| JEL: | D90 J13 J18 J22 C93 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10178&r=lab |
| By: | António Afonso; José Alves; Krzysztof Beck |
| Abstract: | We analyze the migration drivers within the European Union countries. For a set of 23 EU countries over the 1995-2019 period, we use Bayesian Model Averaging and quantile regression to assess notably the relevance of unemployment and earnings. We find that the existence of a common border increases the number of net migrants by 172 people per 1000 inhabitants. In addition, 1000 PPP Euro increase in the difference in net annual salaries increases net migration by approximately 50 and 42 people per 1000 inhabitants in a working age of both countries under uniform and binomial-beta model prior, respectively. Moreover, one percentage point increase in the difference in the unemployment rate is associated with an increase in net immigration by approximately 6 and 3 persons by 1000 inhabitants in both countries. These results are also corroborated with the quantile regression results. Hence, human capital inside the EU is moving in search of higher cross-country earnings. |
| Keywords: | migration flows, earnings, unemployment, Bayesian Model Averaging, quantile regression, EU |
| JEL: | J61 J62 E24 F15 F22 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10131&r=lab |
| By: | Martins, Pedro S.; Thomas, Jonathan P. |
| Abstract: | This paper studies firm-provided training in a context of potential worker mobility. We argue that such worker mobility may be reduced by employers' associations (EAs) through no-poach agreements. First, we sketch a simple model to illustrate the impact of employer coordination on training. We then present supporting evidence from rich matched panel data, including firms' EA affiliation and workers' individual training levels. We find that workers' mobility between firms in the same EA is considerably lower than mobility between equivalent firms not in the same EA. We also find that training provision by EA firms is considerably higher, even when drawing on within-employee variation and considering multiple dimensions of training. We argue that these results are consistent with a role played by EAs in reducing worker mobility. |
| Keywords: | Employers organisations, No-poach agreements, Worker mobility |
| JEL: | J53 J62 L40 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1219&r=lab |
| By: | Toman Barsai; Vojtĕch Bartoš; Victoria Licuanan; Andreas Steinmayr; Erwin Tiongson; Dean Yang; Vojtech Bartos |
| Abstract: | We experimentally study an intervention to reduce mistreatment of Filipino overseas domestic workers (DWs) by their employers. Encouraging DWs to show their employers a family photo while providing a small gift when starting employment reduced DW mistreatment, increased their job satisfaction, and increased the likelihood of contract extension. While generally unaware of the intervention, DWs’ families staying behind become more positive about international labor migration. An online experiment with potential employers suggests that the effect operates through a reduction in employers’ perceived social distance from their employees. A simple intervention can protect migrant workers without requiring destination country policy reforms. |
| Keywords: | temporary labor migration, working conditions, contract enforcement, dictator game |
| JEL: | D90 J61 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10177&r=lab |
| By: | Louis-Pierre Lepage; Xiaomeng Li; Basit Zafar |
| Abstract: | We study a unique grading policy at a large US public university allowing students to mask their letter grades into a “Pass”, after having observed their original grade. Using administrative transcript records, we find that female students are substantially less likely to mask their grades than male students, even after accounting for differences in grades, GPA, and course/major taking. We present a framework showing how anticipated discrimination in the labor market can distort incentives to mask across gender. Consistent with the framework, a survey reveals that students anticipate that female students, particularly in STEM, Business, and Economics, will face labor market discrimination which makes them less likely to mask. Our survey allows us to distinguish between anticipated discrimination and other explanations which could contribute to the masking gap, such as preferences for risk or transparency. We find that anticipated discrimination can explain a sizable fraction of the gender gap in masking. |
| JEL: | D8 I23 J16 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30765&r=lab |
| By: | Nybom, Martin (Uppsala University); Plug, Erik (University of Amsterdam); van der Klaauw, Bas (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Ziegler, Lennart (University of Vienna) |
| Abstract: | This paper formulates a simple skill and education model to explain how better access to higher education leads to stronger assortative mating on skills of parents and more polarized skill and earnings distributions of children. Swedish data show that in the second half of the 20th century more skilled students increasingly enrolled in college and ended up with more skilled partners and more skilled children. Exploiting college expansions, we find that better college access increases both skill sorting in couples and skill and earnings inequality among their children. All findings support the notion that rising earnings inequality is, at least in part, supply driven by rising skill inequality. |
| Keywords: | assortative mating, intergenerational mobility, education, earnings inequality |
| JEL: | J62 I24 J12 J11 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15824&r=lab |
| By: | Berbée, Paul (ZEW); Brücker, Herbert (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg); Garloff, Alfred (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action); Sommerfeld, Katrin (ZEW) |
| Abstract: | We study the labor demand effect of immigration on local labor markets by exploiting the fact that refugees in Germany are banned from working in the first few months after arrival. This natural experiment allows isolating a pure immigration-induced labor demand effect. For empirical identification we rely on the local presence of vacant military bases and on allocation quotas from a dispersal policy. The results are in line with our predictions from a theoretical framework with non-homothetic demand, where an increasing share in the consumption of necessities is associated with rising demand of labor-intensive goods: As the number of recently arrived refugees and thus the demand for locally produced goods increases, local employment increases particularly in non-tradable sectors in the short run. At the same time, unemployment drops while individual wages do not change significantly which can be traced back to widespread labor market rigidities in Germany. The isolation of labor demand effects complements the literature that isolates labor supply shocks from immigration, so as to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how immigration affects labor markets. |
| Keywords: | labor demand, employment, immigration, refugees, natural experiment |
| JEL: | J23 J60 H50 R10 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15833&r=lab |
| By: | Manudeep Bhuller; Gordon B. Dahl; Katrine V. Løken; Magne Mogstad |
| Abstract: | Almost one third of women worldwide report some form of physical or sexual violence by a partner in their lifetime, yet little is known about the mental health and well-being effects for either victims or their children. We study the costs associated with domestic violence (DV) in the context of Norway, where we can link offenders to victims and their children over time. Our difference-in-differences framework uses those who will be victimized in the future as controls. We find that a DV report involving the police is associated with large changes in the home environment, including marital dissolution and a corresponding decline in financial resources. A DV report increases mental health visits by 35% for victims and by 19% for their children in the year of the event, effects which taper off over time for the victim, but not for children. Victims also experience more doctor visits, lower employment, reduced earnings and a higher use of disability insurance while their children are more likely to receive child protective services and commit a crime. Using a complementary RD design, we find that a DV report results in declines both in children’s test scores and completion of the first year of high school. |
| JEL: | I10 J12 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30792&r=lab |
| By: | Sengupta, Shruti (Oklahoma State University); Azam, Mehtabul (Oklahoma State University) |
| Abstract: | Using a district-level panel constructed from five waves of decennial Indian censuses covering 1971-2011, we examine the medium-term (1991-2001) and long-term (1991-2011) impacts of the 1991 Indian trade liberalization on marriage and fertility rates among young women aged 15-34 years. We exploit the fact that countrywide tariff reductions varied across industries creating exogenous local labor market shocks based on the initial employment composition of the district. We find heterogeneous results across urban and rural areas. We find that urban areas of the districts that experienced larger tariff cuts experienced relative increase in marriage rate compared to the districts that experienced smaller tariff cuts. Moreover, tariff cuts positively affect the workforce participation among both young men and women in urban areas. However, there is no impact of tariff cuts on marriage rate or workforce participation among young for rural areas. In contrast, tariff cuts reduced fertility rate mostly in rural areas. |
| Keywords: | marriage, fertility, trade liberalization |
| JEL: | J12 J13 O12 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15841&r=lab |
| By: | Gabriele Pellegrino (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Orion Penner (Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne); Etienne Piguet (University of Neuchatel); Gaetan de Rassenfosse (Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the relationship between migration and the productivity of high-skilled workers, as captured by inventors listed in patent applications. Using machine learning techniques to identify inventors across patents uniquely, we are able to track the worldwide migration patterns of nearly one million individual inventors. Migrant inventors account for more than ten percent of inventors worldwide. The econometric analysis seeks to explain the recurring finding in the literature that migrant inventors are more productive than non-migrant inventors. We find that migrant inventors become about thirty-percent more productive after having migrated. The disambiguated inventor data are openly available. |
| Keywords: | inventor; productivity; skilled migration |
| JEL: | F22 J61 O30 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iip:wpaper:20&r=lab |
| By: | Buyi Wang; Richard G. Frank; Sherry A. Glied |
| Abstract: | A growing body of evidence indicates that poor health early in life can leave lasting scars on adult health and economic outcomes. While much of this literature focuses on childhood experiences, mechanisms generating these lasting effects – recurrence of illness and interruption of human capital accumulation – are not limited to childhood. In this study, we examine how an episode of depression experienced in early adulthood affects subsequent labor market outcomes. We find that, at age 50, people who had met diagnostic criteria for depression when surveyed at ages 27-35 earn 10% lower hourly wages (conditional on occupation) and work 120-180 fewer hours annually, together generating 24% lower annual wage incomes. A portion of this income penalty (21-39%) occurs because depression is often a chronic condition, recurring later in life. But a substantial share (25-55%) occurs because depression in early adulthood disrupts human capital accumulation, by reducing work experience and by influencing selection into occupations with skill distributions that offer lower potential for wage growth. These lingering effects of early depression reinforce the importance of early and multifaceted intervention to address depression and its follow-on effects in the workplace. |
| JEL: | I10 I3 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30776&r=lab |
| By: | Xidong Guo; Sarah Parlane (School of Economics, University College Dublin, and UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy, University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a normative analysis which investigates the optimal management of private practices within a public hospital. Private income supplementation induces consultants to attend to more patients which reduces waiting lists and the public cost of healthcare. It is however optimal to cap the consultants’ private income, regardless of seniority. When first-degree discrimination is possible, the more productive (senior) consultants receive a higher private income than their junior counterparts when priority is given to shortening waiting lists. However, they must charge a lower fee when priority is given to protecting the private patient's consumer surplus. When discrimination is not possible, the design of envy-free contracts enables senior consultants to extract rents and these rents increase with the private fee charged by their junior colleagues. As a result, and in this situation, junior consultants systematically get a lower private supplemental income when working alongside senior consultants. |
| Keywords: | Public Hospital; Senior Consultants; discrimination; Healthcare |
| JEL: | D86 I11 I18 L32 |
| Date: | 2023–01–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:202301&r=lab |
| By: | Shai Bernstein; Rebecca Diamond; Abhisit Jiranaphawiboon; Timothy McQuade; Beatriz Pousada |
| Abstract: | We characterize the contribution of immigrants to US innovation, both through their direct productivity as well as through their indirect spillover effects on their native collaborators. To do so, we link patent records to a database containing the first five digits of more than 230 million of Social Security Numbers (SSN). By combining this part of the SSN together with year of birth, we identify whether individuals are immigrants based on the age at which their Social Security Number is assigned. We find immigrants represent 16 percent of all US inventors, but produced 23 percent of total innovation output, as measured by number of patents, patent citations, and the economic value of these patents. Immigrant inventors are more likely to rely on foreign technologies, to collaborate with foreign inventors, and to be cited in foreign markets, thus contributing to the importation and diffusion of ideas across borders. Using an identification strategy that exploits premature inventor deaths, we find that immigrant inventors create especially strong positive externalities on the innovation production of their collaborators, while natives have a much weaker impact. A simple decomposition illustrates that immigrants are responsible for 36% of aggregate innovation, two-thirds of which is due to their innovation externalities on their native-born collaborators. |
| JEL: | J6 O31 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30797&r=lab |
| By: | Paul Gertler; Tadeja Gracner |
| Abstract: | We show that sugar-rich diet early in life has large adverse effects on the health and economic well-being of adults more than fifty years later. Excessive sugar intake early in life led to higher prevalence of chronic inflammation, diabetes, elevated cholesterol and arthritis. It also decreased post-secondary schooling, having a skilled occupation, and accumulating above median wealth. We identified elevated sugar consumption across lifespan as a likely pathway of impact. Exploiting the end of the post-WWII rationing of sugar and sweets in 1953 in the United Kingdom, we used a regression discontinuity design to identify these effects. |
| JEL: | I1 I12 J13 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30799&r=lab |
| By: | Danielle V. Handel; Eric A. Hanushek |
| Abstract: | The impact of school resources on student outcomes was first raised in the 1960s and has been controversial since then. This issue enters into the decision making on school finance in both legislatures and the courts. The historical research found little consistent or systematic relationship of spending and achievement, but this research frequently suffers from significant concerns about the underlying estimation strategies. More recent work has re-opened the fundamental resource-achievement relationship with more compelling analyses that offer stronger identification of resource impacts. A thorough review of existing studies, however, leads to similar conclusions as the historical work: how resources are used is key to the outcomes. At the same time, the research has not been successful at identifying mechanisms underlying successful use of resources or for ascertaining when added school investments are likely to be well-used. Direct investigations of alternative input policies (capital spending, reducing class size, or salary incentives for teachers) do not provide clear support for such specific policy initiatives. |
| JEL: | H41 H72 I20 J08 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30769&r=lab |
| By: | Mundra, Kusum (Rutgers University); Uwaifo Oyelere, Ruth (Agnes Scott College) |
| Abstract: | Housing is a basic need and is intricately connected to a household's health and wellness. The current pandemic has exposed the housing vulnerability for certain subgroups of the population and further jeopardized these household's health and stability. Using the Household Pulse Survey launched by the US Census Bureau since April 2020, we examine the correlates of housing vulnerability during the pandemic. We explore both subjective and objective measures of vulnerability. In addition, we explore heterogeneity in the evolution of housing vulnerability along demographic characteristics such as ethnicity and housing type (renter vs owner) during the pandemic. Our results suggest that individuals perception on their housing vulnerability in the immediate future is on average higher than the objective evaluation of their current vulnerability. In addition, not being employed, lower levels of education and household size all increase home vulnerability. We also find significant heterogeneity across race in the evolution of vulnerability during the pandemic (2000-2022) with a "chilling effect" on Asians. |
| Keywords: | renter, homeowner, housing vulnerability, pandemic, ethnicity, Asian, COVID-19 |
| JEL: | R2 R3 J10 I31 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15835&r=lab |
| By: | Collin Constantine (Girton College, University of Cambridge) |
| Abstract: | This paper utilises recent survey data to estimate income inequality in Guyana from 1990 to 2021. It finds that class-based inequality exceeds ethnic income inequality, and the latter is more pronounced in the top 10 percent of the population. The over-representation of Indo- and Indigenous-Guyanese in the top decile increases class inequality within these groups because Afro- and Mixed-Guyanese are over-represented in the middle 40 and bottom 50 percent of the population. Thus, the magnitude of ethnic income differences violates the principle of distributive justice. The paper tentatively concludes that fiscal policy is the main explanation of the inequality dynamics, for example, the reduction of the middle class' share of income in 2017. Overall, the evidence indicates that intra-class competition for ethnic dominance of the top decile can account for inter-ethnic conflict, as politicians invest in ethnic prejudice and rivalry to weaken inter-class competition and strengthen the intra-class contest. |
| Keywords: | Guyana, class-based inequality, ethnic income inequality, distributive justice |
| JEL: | D31 D63 J15 N36 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2022-631&r=lab |
| By: | Nienhüser, Werner; Peetz, David; Murray, Georgina; Troup, Carolyn |
| Abstract: | Public debates have been transformed by the internet and social media. This survey of employees in Germany and Australia asks: How are attitudes to unions shaped by use of traditional and social media and the internet? The results show that greater reliance on the internet and the use of social media tend to have a positive influence on trade union attitudes in both countries. It appears that even if social media spread anti-social conspiracy memes, they have little net effect in spreading anti-union ideology and may even be potentially useful for disseminating pro-union ideas. |
| Keywords: | social media, trade unions, attitudes |
| JEL: | J51 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hbsfof:262&r=lab |