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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Arendt, Jacob Nielsen (Rockwool Foundation Research Unit); Dustmann, Christian (University College London); Ku, Hyejin (University College London) |
| Abstract: | We analyze an immigration reform in Denmark that tightened refugee immigrants' eligibility criteria for permanent residency to incentivize their labor market attachment and acquisition of local language skills. Contrary to what the reform intended, the overall employment of those affected decreased while their average language proficiency remained largely unchanged. This was caused by a disincentive effect, where individuals with low pre-reform labor market performance reduced their labor supply. Our findings suggest that stricter permanent residency rules, rather than incentivizing refugees' skill investment, may decrease the efforts of those who believe they cannot meet the new requirements. |
| Keywords: | immigrant assimilation, refugee integration, labor supply, language proficiency, human capital |
| JEL: | J22 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2023–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16313&r=lab |
| By: | Ager, Philipp (University of Mannheim); Goñi, Marc (University of Bergen); Salvanes, Kjell Gunnar (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the link between gender-biased technological change in the agricultural sector and structural transformation in Norway. After WWII, Norwegian farms began widely adopting milking machines to replace the hand milking of cows, a task typically performed by women. Combining population-wide panel data from the Norwegian registry with municipality-level data from the Census of Agriculture, we show that the adoption of milking machines triggered a process of structural transformation by displacing young rural women from their traditional jobs on farms in dairy-intensive municipalities. The displaced women moved to urban areas where they acquired a higher level of education and found better-paid employment. These findings are consistent with the predictions of a Roy model of comparative advantage, extended to account for task automation and the gender division of labor in the agricultural sector. We also quantify significant inter-generational effects of this gender-biased technology adoption. Our results imply that the mechanization of farming has broken deeply rooted gender norms, transformed women’s work, and improved their long-term educational and earning opportunities, relative to men. |
| Keywords: | Farming; Gender bias |
| JEL: | J16 |
| Date: | 2023–07–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2023_016&r=lab |
| By: | Pedro Carneiro (University College London); Kjell Salvanes (Norges Handelshøyskole); Barton Willage (University of Colorado--Denver); Alexander Willén (Norwegian School of Economics, CESifo, and UCLS) |
| Abstract: | We provide estimates of the causal impact of shocks to home environments during childhood on the human capital formation of children and their adult earnings, and document how these impacts differ depending on the age of the child when the shock occurs. We do so by comparing the outcomes of children whose parents experienced an involuntary job loss at different points in time. The rich data we have access to enable us to examine a broad range of short- and long-term educational outcomes related to performance, attainment, and behavior. In addition, for a subsample of our cohorts we can explore earnings effects at age 30. Consistent with other studies, we confirm that early childhood represents a crucial time for acquiring skills and abilities, but also establish that changes in the home environment for children in early adolescence matter as much, and sometimes more. We rationalize these results by noting that sensitive periods for different skills occur at different stages of childhood. Furthermore, it is during early adolescence that children face key junctures in their educational choices. |
| Keywords: | early childhood development, intergenerational links, human capital |
| JEL: | I20 J12 J13 J63 D10 |
| Date: | 2023–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2023-018&r=lab |
| By: | Harka, Elona; Nunziata, Luca; Rocco, Lorenzo |
| Abstract: | We examine the gender legacy of past institutions by comparing Italian municipalities located in a narrow band across the borders between the former Papal States on the one hand, and the former Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Duchy of Modena on the other. Our results show that a century after the dissolution of these pre-unification states, the municipalities once governed by the Papacy have lower female labor market participation and employment than their counterparts in Tuscany and Modena, while we find no discontinuity for males. We interpret these findings as the lingering effects of a deep-rooted conservatism that characterized the Papal States relative to the other preunification states, as confirmed by the analysis of the incidence of religious marriages, and voting patterns for a confessional political party and in two referenda on divorce and abortion rights. Our results also suggest that such a legacy is not permanent, although it takes centuries to dissipate. |
| Keywords: | Papal States, Gender Equality, Female Condition, Women Rights, Religion, Labour Market, Spatial Regression Discontinuity |
| JEL: | J16 J12 N9 P48 Z12 Z13 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1315&r=lab |
| By: | Sule Alan (European University Institute); Corekcioglu (Kadir Has University); Mustafa Kaba (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn); Matthias Sutter (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Using data from over 2, 000 professionals in 24 large corporations, we show that female leaders shape the relational culture in the workplace differently than male leaders. Males form homophilic professional ties under male leadership, but female leadership disrupts this pattern, creating a less segregated workplace. Female leaders are more likely to establish professional support links with their subordinates. Under female leadership, female employees are less likely to quit their jobs but no more likely to get promoted. Our results suggest that increasing female presence in leadership positions may be an effective way to mitigate toxic relational culture in the workplace. |
| Keywords: | female leadership; workplace climate; social networks |
| JEL: | C93 J16 M14 |
| Date: | 2023–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2023_09&r=lab |
| By: | Brunetti, Marianna; Zaiceva, Anzelika |
| Abstract: | Using a unique Italian dataset covering the period 2004-2020, we assess the immigrant-native gap in entrepreneurship and investigate channels behind it. The data allows us to account for many observable characteristics as well as for risk aversion, which is usually not observed, yet crucial for the self-employment decision. Unlike most of the existing empirical literature, we find that immigrants in Italy are less likely to be self-employed. The negative gap is confirmed when propensity score matching methodology is used. Heterogeneity analysis suggests that the negative gap is larger for men, for economic migrants and those coming from Sub-Saharan Africa, while it is not significant for mixed immigrant-native couples, for highly skilled, and for migrants from Asia and Oceania. The largest gap is found for those working in the agricultural sector. Regarding additional channels, we explore the role of access to credit, including the informal one, and whether migrants are credit constrained, as well as the importance of migrant networks, easiness of doing business, and expenditures on services for migrants. Despite finding significant correlations between self-employment and some of these factors, none of them seem to decrease the magnitude of the negative gap. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, self-employment, gender, intermarriage, propensity score matching |
| JEL: | F22 J21 O15 J15 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1313&r=lab |
| By: | Klaus Gründler; Niklas Potrafke |
| Abstract: | Most industrialized countries today are facing historical demographic changes, paring increasing retirement with a declining labor force. We study the consequences of an increasing pensioner-worker ratio in a macroeconomic framework, which suggests a negative effect on total factor productivity. Using newly collected longitudinal data on pensioners, we quantify this effect by exploiting variation in the pre-determined component of retirement. We find that a 10-point increase in the pensioner-worker ratio decreases factor productivity by 5-6%. The effect is stronger when production is labor intensive and automation potential is low. Economic aging also impedes the creation of innovation at the technological frontier. |
| Keywords: | aging, retirement, factor productivity, secular stagnation, demographic transition |
| JEL: | C23 C26 D24 J11 J14 O40 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10594&r=lab |
| By: | Vogtenhuber, Stefan; Steiber, Nadia; Mühlböck, Monika |
| Abstract: | This study is the first to investigate the impact of short-time work (STW) schemes on earnings during the COVID-19 pandemic. STW schemes have been implemented to preserve employee-employer matches, support workers' incomes and uphold consumption. By construction, affected workers suffer temporary earnings losses, yet an important question is whether negative earnings effects of STW persist beyond the STW period or are limited to the STW spell. Using a dynamic difference-in-difference (DiD) identification strategy on administrative data, this study aims to identify any lasting causal STW effects on earnings, accounting for the factors that influence the selection of workers into STW and testing for heterogeneous effects across subgroups of workers. We find lasting earnings losses that persist beyond the actual STW participation. First and foremost, these earnings losses depend on the duration of STW exposure, with greater negative effects especially in the case of long-term or recurring STW spells. In general, lasting earnings losses post STW tend to be more pronounced in white-collar jobs, where women incur larger losses than men. The largest losses, however, are observed among men in blue-collar jobs with long STW spells of more than one year. |
| Date: | 2023–07–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:p2qvh&r=lab |
| By: | Misty Heggeness; Ana Sofía León |
| Abstract: | Throughout the pandemic Chile implemented a series of public health mandates restricting mobility and high social-contact activities with a goal of reducing disease spread. In this paper, we study the impact of one of these policies - central planner variation in school re-openings on labor market outcomes. We examine how access to supervised care for children in school affected mothers’ labor supply and show that mothers increased labor force participation anywhere from 2.6 to 21.0 percentage points (ppts) as schools re-opened. As mothers came back to the labor force, however, unplanned disruptions decreased their ability to stay actively engaged in work and increased their take up of leave from work, an artifact of unanticipated sick children and quarantine policies that particularly affected mothers who were secondary earners in the household. Conditional on being in the labor force, having a teenager buffered both mothers and fathers from work disruptions; parents were more likely to be actively working and less likely to be on leave. Our findings support a theory that parental labor supply is sensitivity to disruptions in the care of children but also depends on household composition and each parent’s role beyond gender. Policies that encourage consistent formalized systems of care and learning for children will not only benefit children, but also a second-earner’s ability to re-enter the labor force and advance at work. |
| Keywords: | Gender; Cost of caregiving; Labor force participation; NPI policies |
| JEL: | J22 J16 J13 |
| Date: | 2023–06–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedmoi:96531&r=lab |
| By: | Anna Schwarz; Philipp Warum |
| Abstract: | This article presents a novel explanation why demand for redistribution on average does not respond to information on low intergenerational mobility. Building on insights from behavioral economics, we expect that incentives to update perceptions of intergenerational mobility change along the income distribution. Empirically, we conduct a survey experiment in Austria and show that the average treatment effect of information on perceptions is mostly driven by higher income individuals while low-income respondents hardly react. We replicate this result for the United States and Germany using data from two closely related survey experiments (Alesina, Stantcheva, and Teso, 2018; Fehr, Müller, and Preus, 2022). Thus, the frequently observed unresponsiveness of demand for redistribution may result because the group which drives the effect on beliefs does not increase demand for redistribution and may even decrease it. Indeed, despite the strong perception shift in the high-income group, the treatment effects on its preferences are mostly zero and even negative for certain policies. At the same time, the group with the clearest incentives to change its redistributive preferences, the low-income group, is systematically less inclined to update its perceptions and thus their redistributive preferences are mostly unaffected and only partially increased in response to the treatment. We suggest that different responses to information could be due to motivated beliefs, since high social mobility implies for low-income earners that effort is more likely to pay off. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational mobility, beliefs, survey experiment, redistributive preferences |
| JEL: | C93 D63 D83 H23 J62 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10592&r=lab |
| By: | Mette Ejrnæs (University of Copenhagen and CEBI); Esteban García-Miralles (Banco de España); Mette Gørtz (University of Copenhagen, CEBI and IZA); Petter Lundborg (IZA and Department of Economics, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | Longer life expectancy can affect individuals’ incentives to work, save and marry, net of any changes in their underlying health. We test this hypothesis by using the sudden arrival of a new treatment in 1995 that dramatically increased life expectancy for HIV-infected individuals. We compare the behavioural responses of HIV-infected individuals who were still in good health but who differed in their access to the new treatment. Those with access to treatment work substantially more, marry later, but do not save more. Our results highlight the importance of accounting for such incentive effects when valuing increases in life expectancy. |
| Keywords: | esperanza de vida, empleo, matrimonio, VIH |
| JEL: | D84 I12 J12 J21 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:2317&r=lab |
| By: | Alquezar-Yus, M.; |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how time constraints affect the quality of physician care. Insufficient examination time may hamper physicians’ care and diagnostic provision, leaving physicians more inclined to over-prescribe medication. I test this prediction using high frequency data from a Spanish outpatient department and leverage on-the-day cancellations as random time shocks. I find that longer visits lead to better care, measured by providing more detailed diagnoses, higher testing intensity, and lower drug prescriptions. These effects are driven by junior physicians, who use this extra time to compensate for their more overloaded shifts. |
| Keywords: | healthcare productivity; quantity-quality trade-off; contracts; decision-making; |
| JEL: | H0 I0 J0 |
| Date: | 2023–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:23/06&r=lab |