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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Périvier, Hélène; Verdugo, Gregory (University of Evry) |
| Abstract: | Does providing nontransferable months of parental leave earmarked to fathers, as mandated by the European Union to its member countries since 2019, increase their participation? To answer that question, the authors investigate the consequences of a 2015 French reform that earmarked up to 12 months of paid leave for fathers while simultaneously reducing the maximum paid leave for mothers by the same number of months. While the benefits were low, parental leave could be taken part-time, which can be more attractive for fathers. Using administrative data and comparing parents of children born before and after the reform, the authors find that in response to a 25 p.p. decline in mothers' participation rate triggered by the reform, fathers' participation increased by less than 1 p.p., mostly through part-time leave. The reform increased mothers' labor earnings, but it had no significant impact on fathers' earnings. |
| Keywords: | gender inequality, labor supply, parental leave |
| JEL: | J16 D13 J18 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16244&r=lab |
| By: | Matsuda, Norihiko (Florida International University); Hayashi, Ryotaro (Asian Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | Online job fairs are a new labor market intervention. This paper provides the first experimental evidence on their impact by evaluating an online fair for information and communication technology jobs in Bangladesh. The fair generated a non-negligible number of job offers; however, over 90% of them were rejected, so no effect on employment probability or type was found. Interestingly, jobseekers lowered their reservation wages, kept their jobs longer, and ended up in worse skill-matched jobs. The reason is that jobseekers initially had overoptimistic expectations, but learned about market conditions at the fair, lowered their expectations, and became discouraged from job search. As a result, those who had already been employed kept their jobs longer, even if the jobs did not match their skills, and those who had initially been unemployed ended up with lower employment probabilities and lower skill-match quality. |
| Keywords: | job fair; job matching; online search; youth employment; Bangladesh |
| JEL: | J24 J64 O12 O15 |
| Date: | 2023–07–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbewp:0689&r=lab |
| By: | Suresh Naidu; Yaw Nyarko; Shing-Yi Wang |
| Abstract: | We estimate the individual returns to temporary migration programs using a randomized experiment with several thousand job seekers in India applying to guest worker jobs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Working with construction companies and the UAE Ministry of Labor, we randomized job offers to potential migrant workers at recruitment sites. We measured effects on labor market outcomes, well-being, social relationships, and work satisfaction, as well as on labor intermediation costs, assets and debt. We find that workers who received the randomized offer experienced 30% higher earnings, and those who take up the offer to migrate to the UAE doubled their compensation. However, they also paid substantial upfront costs to labor intermediaries, financed by additional debt, that reduced take-home pay by about 10%. Migrants also reported a significant fall in subjective well-being, driven by increases in physical pain, effort, and heat. There were no significant effects on loneliness or other dimensions of well-being. Our finding of negative effects on well-being is consistent with the large share of workers offered jobs who did not migrate to the UAE. Extrapolating using a linear marginal treatment effects framework to workers who decline the UAE job offer, we find large and positive pecuniary returns to migration, even including intermediary fees, but even larger non-pecuniary costs. |
| JEL: | J6 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31354&r=lab |
| By: | Giulia Rossello; Robin Cowan; Jacques Mairesse |
| Abstract: | We study whether student-advisor gender and race composition matters for publication productivity of Ph.D. students in South Africa. We consider all Ph.D. students 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) white-white; (2) black-black; and (3) black-white student-advisor couples. We find significant productivity differences between male and female students. These disparities are more pronounced for female students working with male advisors 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”. We find that female productivity gaps are U-shaped over the range of productivity. Female students working with male advisors have more persistent productivity gaps over the productivity distribution, while female students with a high (or low) “productivity-profile” studying with female advisors are as productive as male students with similar “productivity-profile” studying with male advisors. |
| JEL: | A14 I23 I24 J15 J16 O32 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31346&r=lab |
| By: | Markussen, Simen (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Røed, Knut (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | We use administrative data from Norway to examine recent trends in the association between parents' prime age earnings rank and offspring's educational performance rank by age 15/16. We show that the intergenerational correlation between these two ranks has increased over the past decades, and that offspring from economically disadvantaged families have fallen behind. This has happened despite public policies contributing to leveling the playing field. In particular, we show that the expansion of universal childcare and, more recently, the increased teacher-pupil ratio in compulsory school, have disproportionally benefited lower class offspring. The rising influence of parents' earnings rank can partly be explained by a strengthened intragenerational association between earnings rank and education among parents, as educational achievement has an inheritable component. Yet a considerable unexplained rise in the influence of family background remains, pointing towards an impending decline in intergenerational economic mobility. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational mobility, achievement gaps, parental influence, meritocracy, GPA |
| JEL: | I24 J62 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16223&r=lab |
| By: | Peter Haan; Victoria Prowse |
| Abstract: | We empirically analyze the heterogeneous welfare effects of unemployment insurance and social assistance. We estimate a structural life-cycle model of singles' and married couples' labor supply and savings decisions. The model includes heterogeneity by age, education, wealth, sex and household composition. In aggregate, social assistance dominates unemployment insurance; however, the opposite holds true for married men, whose leisure time declines more than that of their spouses when unemployment insurance is reduced. A revenue-neutral rebalancing of social support away from unemployment insurance and toward social assistance increases aggregate welfare. Income pooling in married households decreases the welfare value of social assistance. |
| Keywords: | Life-cycle labor supply, family labor supply, unemployment insurance, social assistance, household savings, employment risk, added worker effect, intra-household insurance |
| JEL: | J18 J58 H21 I38 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp2040&r=lab |
| By: | Alstadsæter, Annette (The Norwegian University of Life Sciences); Bratsberg, Bernt (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Markussen, Simen (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Raaum, Oddbjørn (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Røed, Knut (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | We examine employment effects of the COVID-19 crisis in Norway during the initial lockdown, through the subsequent recovery, and after the dust had settled. While we identify large and socially skewed effects of the crisis through its early phases, we find no long-term effects on employees exposed to early risk of job loss. For those employed at the onset of the pandemic, both the level and the socioeconomic composition of employment quickly returned to normal. In contrast, we find considerable negative long-term employment effects on people who were non-employed when the crisis hit. We argue that these patterns can be explained by social insurance policies that gave priority to protecting existing jobs and to distribute benefits to those who were temporarily laid off. Given the extreme increase in the social insurance caseload, an almost unavoidable side-effect was reduced capacity for providing services to the already non-employed. |
| Keywords: | labor demand shock, COVID-19, employment, social gradient |
| JEL: | E24 J2 J4 J6 J11 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16260&r=lab |
| By: | Mario Carillo; Gemma Dipoppa; Shanker Satyanath |
| Abstract: | Official reports from the International Labor Organization have been increasingly highlighting the pervasive presence of forced labor, especially involving migrants, in the developed world. There is, however, little work explaining the demand-side determinants of modern forced labor. We address this gap by focusing on variations in modern forced labor within a single developed country (Italy). Regression discontinuity and triple differences designs show that modern forced labor is strongly associated with prior exposure to the ideology of the Italian Fascist regime (1922-43) which emphasized the subjugation of non-white ethnic groups (the primary subjects of forced labor). |
| Keywords: | political extremism, ideology, labor coercion, migration |
| JEL: | J7 J15 J81 O15 P00 Z00 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1865&r=lab |
| By: | Mikula, Stepan (Masaryk University); Montag, Josef (Charles University, Prague) |
| Abstract: | This paper tests for discriminatory treatment of the Roma minority by public officials in the Czech Republic at the stage of initial contact preceding a potential application for unemployment benefit. Our correspondence experiment facilitates testing for the presence of each of two intertwined drivers of discrimination: ethnic animus and socioeconomic status prejudice. We find substantial evidence for the presence of discrimination based on both of these sources. Since Roma tend to have lower socioeconomic status, the two sources of discrimination compound for them. |
| Keywords: | discrimination, Roma, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, public services, social security, field experiment |
| JEL: | J15 D73 H55 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16218&r=lab |
| By: | McConnell, Brendon; Valladares-Esteban, Arnau |
| Abstract: | In the US labor market, married men and women earn higher wages than their single counterparts. At the same time, individuals with higher cognitive and non-cognitive skills are more likely to be married. We extend the frameworks of Altonji and Pierret (2001) and Pinkston (2009) to the case of marriage and find no evidence that employers use marriage to statistically discriminate workers. Contrary to what statistical discrimination implies, the returns to being married increase with labor market experience. For women without experience being married is associated with a penalty. However, as experience increases, the relationship between wages and being married becomes positive. These findings are valuable in building a better understanding of the determinants of the marriage wage premium. |
| Keywords: | Marriage Wage Premium, Employer Learning, Statistical Discrimination |
| JEL: | J12 J16 J30 |
| Date: | 2023–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:econwp:2023:05&r=lab |
| By: | Brown, Jessica H. (University of South Carolina); Herbst, Chris M. (Arizona State University) |
| Abstract: | This paper combines multiple data sources to study the impact of the minimum wage on service quality and consumer well-being within the child care market. Although child care firms increase teacher pay in response to minimum wage reforms, we find no impact on employment levels. Instead, providers respond by implementing a range of other revenue-enhancing and cost-saving practices, such as raising prices, increasing child-to-staff ratios, and serving fewer children in the child care subsidy system. We also find evidence that service quality increases: staff turnover declines, teachers are more likely to make human capital investments, and teacher-child interactions improve. Despite the increase in quality, parents report that they are less satisfied with their child care provider, a result we attribute to the increase in prices. |
| Keywords: | child care, child care quality, minimum wage |
| JEL: | J13 J15 J21 K39 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16257&r=lab |
| By: | Caroline Fry; Ina Ganguli |
| Abstract: | We estimate spillovers from public funding for health research in the context of the NIH's Fogarty International Center's AIDS International Training and Research Program, which aims to strengthen scientific capacity in AIDS endemic countries by providing African researchers with training opportunities in the U.S. We use an event study difference-and-differences framework with information on scientists who participated in the program and the outcomes of African scientists working in the same scientific fields at their home institutions. Compared to control groups of similar scientists, our results show that scientists exposed to a returned trainee increase their publication output, particularly those with international coauthors. They also increase their grant funding and publish more HIV and WHO policy documents, showing that the Fogarty program impacted health policy related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in African countries. |
| JEL: | F22 J61 O1 O3 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31374&r=lab |
| By: | Dan Andrews; Elif Bahar; Jonathan Hambur |
| Abstract: | The consequences of the pandemic for potential output will partly hinge on its impact on productivity-enhancing reallocation. While recessions can accelerate this process, the more ‘random’ nature of the COVID-19 shock coupled with policy responses that prioritised preservation could disrupt productivity-enhancing reallocation. Our analysis based on novel high-frequency employment data for Australia shows that labour reallocation (and firm exit) remained connected to firm productivity over 2020 and 2021. However, outside of the initial acute phase of the shock the relationship weakened significantly compared to history. Australia’s job retention scheme (JobKeeper) initially reinforced the connection between growth and productivity, supporting more productive firms. But it became more distortive over time and as the economy recovered. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, productivity, reallocation, recessions |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J63 O4 |
| Date: | 2023–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:camaaa:2023-29&r=lab |
| By: | Zhu, Maria (Syracuse University) |
| Abstract: | For decades, Asian Americans have been characterized as a "model minority" due to perceived success in educational attainment and labor market outcomes. However, there are concerns that Asians remain underrepresented in top level positions in the workplace. This study presents new evidence on the extent of this underrepresentation between US-born Asian American and White men and examines mechanisms driving racial leadership gaps. Results indicate that Asian men are significantly less likely to work in management and executive positions compared to White men with similar qualifications. However, Asian men are not underrepresented in other high-paying, non-leadership occupations, suggesting this is a phenomenon unique to leadership occupations. Furthermore, these gaps are only present among East Asian and Southeast Asian men, while South Asian men do not differ from White men in the likelihood of working in leadership occupations. I examine several mechanisms and find no evidence that gaps are driven by racial differences in preferences for leadership positions, selection into self-employment, intergenerational transmission effects, immigration recency, or ethnic attrition. |
| Keywords: | Asian Americans, leadership, labor market outcomes |
| JEL: | J01 J15 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16230&r=lab |
| By: | Wieser, Luisa (FAU, Erlangen Nuremberg); Abraham, Martin (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg); Schnabel, Claus (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg); Niessen, Cornelia (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg); Wolff, Mauren (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines what affects supervisors' considerations about (not) using monitoring technologies to keep track of their subordinates and their work performance. Following a cost-benefit calculus approach we hypothesize that employers weigh costs and benefits of monitoring their subordinates to decide if employee performance monitoring (EPM) is beneficial to their ends. Thus, we conduct a factorial survey experiment (N = 494 supervisors). The hypothetical descriptions of workplace situations – so-called vignettes – were designed to create a situation where the surveyed supervisor is faced with a new team of subordinates and a given technology that can be used to track employees at work. Several components of the situation were randomly varied across vignettes and respondents. At the end of each situation, we asked our respondents to rate their interest to use a given monitoring technology in the described scenario. We find that supervisors are less interested in using monitoring technologies if the monitoring technology targets people rather than tasks and if the time effort for the supervisor is high. However, supervisors' monitoring interest increases if their subordinates interact with sensitive (firm) data and the data evaluation is AI supported. Further, we find that works councils play a role regarding supervisors' monitoring interest. Thus, our results support the thesis that supervisors take the costs and benefits of EPM into consideration regarding their attitude towards monitoring technologies at work. |
| Keywords: | employee performance monitoring, workplace technology, factorial survey experiment, Germany |
| JEL: | M50 D22 J01 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16261&r=lab |
| By: | Baker, Jennifer L.; Bjerregaard, Lise G.; Dahl, Christian M. (University of Southern Denmark); Johansen, Torben S. D. (University of Southern Denmark); Sørensen, Emil N. (University of Bristol); Wüst, Miriam (University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | Exploiting a 1960s government trial in Copenhagen, we study the long-run and inter-generational effects of preventive care for toddlers. We combine administrative data with handwritten nurse records to document universal treatment take-up and positive health effects for treated children over the life course. Beneficial health impacts are largest for disadvantaged children and may even extend to their offspring. While initial trial cohorts experienced positive health and socioeconomic impacts, those are absent for the final cohorts. This heterogeneity across individuals' background and cohorts documents that universal toddler care can alleviate inequalities at low costs, and that the counterfactual policy environment matters. |
| Keywords: | early-life investments, health, public policy, government trial, Denmark, digitization, automated transcription |
| JEL: | I1 J1 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16270&r=lab |
| By: | Ina Ganguli (University of Massachusetts Amherst); Fabian Waldinger (LMU Munich) |
| Abstract: | We discuss the impacts of the Russian invasion on Ukrainian science. Using newly collected data, we show that the war has already had significant effects on science in Ukraine: research papers produced by Ukrainian scientists declined by about 10%, approximately 5% of the most prolific scientists are publishing with a foreign affiliation, 22% of top universities have faced destruction of physical capital, and international collaborations with Russian scientists have declined by more than 40%. Drawing upon the economics of science and innovation literature, we highlight three primary channels through which wars impact science: 1) the loss of human capital, 2) the destruction of physical capital, and 3) reductions in international scientific cooperation. The evidence from the literature on the long-run effects of losing human or physical capital indicates that shocks to physical capital can be remedied more easily than shocks to human capital. Our new data also suggests that human capital shocks are the main drivers of the reduction in Ukrainian research output that has occurred since the beginning of the war. Hence, reconstruction efforts should be focused on supporting scientists to continue in the research sector and to return to Ukraine after the war has ended. |
| Keywords: | war and science; scientific human capital; physical capital destruction; international migration; international scientific cooperation; |
| JEL: | H52 I23 I25 J44 J61 J62 O38 O52 |
| Date: | 2023–06–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:402&r=lab |
| By: | Eric A. Hanushek; Yuan Wang; Lei Zhang |
| Abstract: | The dramatic expansion of the education system and the transformation of the economy in China provide an opportunity to investigate how the labor market rewards skills. Between 2007 and 2018, the overall return to cognitive skills is virtually constant at 10%, whereas the college premium drops steeply by more than 20 percentage points. But, the regional differences in returns are significant and highlight the importance of differential demand factors. College returns are higher in more developed regions, but the declining trend is more pronounced. Returns to cognitive skills increase in more developed regions and decrease in less developed regions. |
| JEL: | I26 J01 O10 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31367&r=lab |