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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Alexander Ahammer (Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz); Ulrich Glogowsky (Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz); Martin Halla (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business); Timo Hener (Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | Using Austrian and Danish administrative data, we examine the impacts of parenthood on mental health equality. Parenthood imposes a greater mental health burden on mothers than on fathers. It creates a long-run gender gap in antidepressant prescriptions of about 93.2% (Austria) and 64.8% (Denmark). Further evidence suggests that these parenthood penalties in mental health are unlikely to reflect differential help-seeking behavior across the sexes or the biological effects of giving birth to a child. Instead, they seem to mirror the psychological effects of having, raising, and investing in children. Supporting this interpretation, matched adoptive mothers (who do not experience the biological impacts of childbirth) also encounter substantial parenthood penalties. Moreover, mothers who invest more in childcare (by taking extended maternity leave in quasi-experimental settings) are more likely to face mental health problems. |
| Keywords: | Gender equality, fertility, parenthood, motherhood, mental health, parental leave |
| JEL: | D63 J13 I10 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp359&r=lab |
| By: | Engdahl, Mattias (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Willis, Sébastien (Uppsala University and Uppsala Center for Labor Studies); Åslund, Olof (Uppsala University, IFAU, UCLS, CReAM, IZA.) |
| Abstract: | We study how professional networks are related to immigrant labour market integration. Matched employer-employee data for Sweden show that networks grow with time in the host country and that their composition changes from immigrant toward native network members. A firm-dyadic analysis of re-employment of displaced workers suggests that conational connections have a much larger positive effect than native connections. However, the employment effect of native connections grows with years since migration. Furthermore, native connections tend to be associated with higher earnings and increased hires in connected local industries. After 20 years in Sweden, the built-up connections raise immigrant re-employment rates by 0.7 to 1.1 percentage points, amounting to 10–20 percent of the observed difference by years since migration. Our findings indicate complete assimilation in the total productivity of professional connections for displaced workers. |
| Keywords: | labour market integration of immigrants; networks; job search |
| JEL: | J15 J20 J60 |
| Date: | 2024–03–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2024_009&r=lab |
| By: | Terhi Maczulskij; Ohto Kanninen; Hannu Karhunen; Ossi Tahvonen |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates the impact of involuntary job loss on severe debt problems in Finland, where up to 50% of income may be subject to wage garnishment for 25 years. We use linked employer-employee data combined with unique administrative records covering debt enforcements from 2007 to 2018. Our event study analysis uncovers a robust and persistent impact of job loss, characterized by plant closures and mass layoffs, on debt-related challenges. Specifically, displaced workers have a 5% higher likelihood of enforced debts in the year of displacement compared to the control group. This effect increases, peaking at 16% four years post-displacement and maintaining a substantial level of roughly 10% nine years afterwards. Effects are particularly large for unpaid taxes, penal orders and fines, while job loss demonstrates only a modest impact on unpaid social or healthcare payments and alimonies. Moreover, these effects are more profound among males, less educated, and individuals already burdened with excessive debt, such as mortgages, prior to displacement. |
| Keywords: | anonymous applications, discrimination, employment |
| JEL: | D14 G51 J64 J65 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pst:wpaper:339&r=lab |
| By: | Dahl, Gordon B. (University of California, San Diego); Gielen, Anne C. (Erasmus University Rotterdam) |
| Abstract: | Can participation in safety net programs have long-lasting negative effects across multiple generations? Prior work shows a 1993 Dutch disability insurance reform which tightened requirements and lowered benefits for participants resulted in better outcomes for their children. We study the third generation, finding that grandchildren of individuals whose DI eligibility and benefits were reduced are less likely to be born premature, have low birthweight, or experience complicated deliveries. They also have better health and schooling outcomes during early childhood. These early-life improvements are consequential, as they have been linked to better health, education, and labor market outcomes in adulthood. |
| Keywords: | multigenerational links, disability insurance, child health |
| JEL: | I38 H53 J62 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16816&r=lab |
| By: | Hanna Virtanen; Mikko Silliman; Tiina Kuuppelomäki; Kristiina Huttunen |
| Abstract: | In response to the wide-ranging consequences of falling fertility rates, governments across high-income countries are considering how to increase rates of family formation. Despite significant scientific interest, there remains limited empirical evidence on how education shapes family choices across the life cycle. We study the effect of educational attainment on family formation using regression discontinuity designs generated by centralized admissions processes to both secondary and tertiary education in Finland. At both margins, admission to further education increases the probability that women form families – i.e. have children or find a partner. For men, our point estimates are near zero for all outcomes, and sometimes negative. These results contrast a common perception that educational attainment makes it harder for women to form families and men more attractive as potential partners. The positive effects on female fertility may be attributed to education improving the compatibility of work and family. Additionally, as higher-order skills are increasingly important in the labor market, and parental inputs are important in shaping these skills, these results align with the notion that education may make women more attractive as potential spouses. |
| Keywords: | Education, Gender, Family formation, Fertility, Cohabiting Marriage |
| JEL: | J13 I25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pst:wpaper:340&r=lab |
| By: | Pizzo, Alessandra; Villena-Roldán, Benjamin |
| Abstract: | Employers hire more selectively between heterogeneous productivity workers when applicants’ queues are longer. Consistently, CPS data reveal a positive and concave relation between unemployment rates and wage inequality. We rationalize intuition and evidence altogether using a nonsequential search model in which selective hiring stretches out the right tail of the wage distribution and compresses the left one. Using GMM estimated parameters, we show that mean worker productivity distribution shifts are consistent with the evidence. Welfare analysis suggests that regressive taxation may enhance efficiency because expected good matches stimulate vacancies, creating a positive externality for other job seekers. |
| Keywords: | Nonsequential search, Hiring, Inequality, Unemployment, Worker Flows, Efficiency |
| JEL: | E24 J64 |
| Date: | 2024–02–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:120281&r=lab |
| By: | Tim Mensinger; Christian Zimpelmann |
| Abstract: | We examine the influence of gender role attitudes, specifically views about the appropriate role of mothers, on post-childbirth employment decisions. German panel data reveals that mothers with traditional attitudes are 15% less likely to work during early motherhood than their egalitarian counterparts. Among working mothers, those with traditional attitudes work four hours less per week, and these differences persist for at least seven years. Fathers’ attitudes also predict maternal labor supply, highlighting joint decision-making within couples. Examining the interaction of attitudes with policies, we find that the introduction of a cash-for-care payment for parents who abstain from using public childcare substantially reduced the labor supply of traditional mothers, whereas egalitarian mothers’ labor supply remained unaffected. Moreover, a structural life-cycle model of female labor supply demonstrates that labor supply elasticities are substantially larger for traditional mothers, while a counterfactual policy facilitating full-time childcare access has a more pronounced effect on egalitarian mothers. Our findings stress that gender role attitudes moderate the impact of policies, which implies that measured average policy effects depend on the distribution of attitudes and cannot easily be transferred over time or to other countries. |
| Keywords: | Gender role attitudes, Parental labor supply, Gender gaps, Childcare costs, Life cycle |
| JEL: | Z1 J13 J16 J22 D15 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2024_513&r=lab |
| By: | Hellwagner, Timon (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, Germany); Weber, Enzo (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, Germany ; Univ. Regensburg) |
| Abstract: | "Advanced economies will face population decline in the years and decades to come, particularly among those of working age. Yet, there is little empirical evidence of corresponding labor market implications. Tackling this shortcoming from a historical macroeconomic point of view, we compile a new dataset for sixteen advanced economies, covering demographic and labor market variables on an annual basis from 1875 to 2019. Based on a dynamic, nonlinear econometric model, we identify structural population shocks by using lagged births as external instruments for working-age population inflows and outflows, and trace the economic effects conditionally on the demographic regime. Our results suggest regime-specific differences: First, population decline quickly passes through to the labor market, translating into swifter disinvestment and decline in employment, but the effects of population growth take time. Second, in times of population decline, labor force participation increases as a response to reduced labor supply. Likewise, initially swift disinvestment tendencies decelerate. Consequently, we find only incomplete capital adjustment. Third, despite a declining labor supply, we find neither a decrease in unemployment nor any significant changes in wages as indicators of shortage. Finally, while population decline tends to depress total factor productivity, as also suggested by the literature, our results indicate that negative effects for economic growth are mitigated by increases in participation and the capital-labor ratio." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | IAB-Open-Access-Publikation |
| JEL: | E22 E24 J11 J21 |
| Date: | 2024–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:20245&r=lab |
| By: | Bastani, Spencer (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Dickmanns, Lisa (Department of Economics, University of Cologne); Giebe, Thomas (Department of Economics and Statistics, School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, Sweden); Gürtler, Oliver (Department of Economics, University of Cologne, Germany) |
| Abstract: | We study how the presence of promotion competition in the labor market affects household specialization patterns. By embedding a promotion tournament model in a household setting, we show that specialization can emerge as a consequence of competitive work incentives.This specialization outcome, in which only one spouse invests heavily in his or her career, can be welfare superior to a situation in which both spouses invest equally in their careers. The reason is that household specialization reduces the intensity of competition and provides households with consumption smoothing. The specialization result is obtained in a setting where spouses are equally competitive in the labor market and there is no household production. It is also robust to several modifications of the model, such as varying the number of households, two spouses competing for promotion in the same workplace, and the inclusion of household production. |
| Keywords: | contest theory; gender equality; family; household; competition |
| JEL: | C72 D13 J16 J71 M51 M52 |
| Date: | 2024–03–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2024_007&r=lab |
| By: | Nicolò Gnocato (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies, analytically and quantitatively, the occurrence of demand-deficient recessions due to uninsurable unemployment risk when jobs are endogenously destroyed. The ensuing unemployment fears induce a precautionary saving motive that counteracts the desire to borrow during recessions: negative productivity shocks may cause falling natural interest rates and positive unemployment gaps. Analytically, these demand-deficient recessions are shown to require a lesser degree of real wage rigidity when jobs are destroyed endogenously rather than exogenously. Quantitatively, the demand-deficient nature of supply-driven recessions can only be captured when accounting for endogenous job destruction. |
| Keywords: | heterogeneous agents, unemployment risk, endogenous separation, Keynesian supply shocks |
| JEL: | E12 E21 E24 E32 J64 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1444_24&r=lab |
| By: | Dariel, Aurelie (New York University, Abu Dhabi); Ham, John C. (New York University, Abu Dhabi); Nikiforakis, Nikos (New York University, Abu Dhabi); Stoop, Jan (Erasmus University Rotterdam) |
| Abstract: | There are pronounced racial, ethnic, and gender gaps in income in the U.S. We investigate whether these correspond with differences in competitiveness, risk tolerance, and confidence relative to performance in a large, stratified sample of the U.S. prime-age population. We find substantial differences in all three traits across Black, Hispanic, and White males and females. These traits predict individual income. Competitiveness and risk tolerance help explain the White gender income gap. Competitiveness also affects the Black-White income gap between men. Confidence about one's performance helps explain a substantial and significant portion of all five race-gender income gaps with White men. |
| Keywords: | racial/gender income gaps, overconfidence, competitiveness, risk tolerance |
| JEL: | C90 D03 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16818&r=lab |
| By: | Felix Glaser; Rene Wiesinger |
| Abstract: | We use high-quality administrative data from Austria to credibly identify the causal effect of parental death on daughters' fertility. To account for the endogeneity of parental death, we exploit the timing of deaths in a difference-in-differences research design. Parental death has no statistically significant effect on daughters' fertility, even in situations where the loss of informal childcare should be particularly pronounced. The absence of a fertility effect is strengthened by an extensive series of robustness checks and results on complementary outcomes, including labor market participation, place of residence, and mental health. Our findings suggest that women do not make significant adjustments to important life decisions after the loss of a parent. |
| Keywords: | Parental death, fertility, difference-in-differences |
| JEL: | J13 J10 J20 I10 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2024-01&r=lab |
| By: | Stéphane Benveniste (Aix-Marseille Univ., CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France) |
| Abstract: | Dynasties constitute a visible sign of intergenerational persistence and raise questions about the legitimacy of the ruling elite. This paper uses data on graduates of elite colleges to explore the influence of political and business dynasties in France. I link nominative data on 103, 309 graduates of 12 French Grandes ´ Ecoles born between 1931 and 1975 to their professional careers as politicians with national-level mandates or as board members of French firms. Identifying lineage through surnames, I find that sons of political and business leaders were substantially more likely than their graduate peers to pursue elite careers themselves, revealing a social gradient in returns to elite education. Political dynasties were particularly sizeable, although progressively declining. These dynasties also affected the composition of the French elite: fewer dynastical board members were graduates of top colleges than their first-generation colleagues. Yet, they were propelled much younger into top business and political positions. |
| Keywords: | Dynasties, Returns to College Education, intergenerational mobility, Elite Occupations, Politics, Business, Grandes ´ Ecoles. |
| JEL: | I24 I26 J62 D72 M51 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:2410&r=lab |
| By: | Ghorpade, Yashodhan; Franco Restrepo, Camila; Castellanos Rodriguez, Luis Eduardo |
| Abstract: | This paper provides conceptual definitions and distinctions between formalization, worker protection and productivity enhancement, and examines the impact of social protection and labor market policies in achieving these inter-related yet distinct policy goals. Focusing on empirical evidence from low- and middle-income countries collated from over 200 reviewed studies, reports, and documents, the authors find that workforce formalization is best achieved through macroeconomic and firm-level policies and through the extension of social insurance programs to the informally employed. Other social protection and labor market programs may only contribute marginally and indirectly to formalization. Workers’ protection is best enhanced through social insurance, social assistance, economic inclusion, and health benefits programs, and not as much through voluntary savings schemes, microinsurance, or wage subsidies on their own. Finally, the authors find that workers’ productivity can be enhanced through social assistance and economic inclusion programs, and the provision of childcare services. Contrary to expectations, labor market programs such as short-term job search assistance, vocational training, and job search assistance do not appear have a sustained impact on labor productivity among the informally employed. The authors outline guidelines and considerations for adopting the right mix of policies for pursuing formalization, protection, and productivity objectives, depending on the characteristics of workers and the economy, and argue for the prioritization of enhancing worker protection and productivity over pursuing formalization for its own sake. |
| Date: | 2024–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:hdnspu:188471&r=lab |
| By: | Auster, Sarah (University of Bonn); Gottardi, Piero (University of Essex); Wolthoff, Ronald P. (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of diminishing search frictions in markets with adverse selection by presenting a model in which agents with private information can simultaneously contact multiple trading partners. We highlight a new trade- off: facilitating contacts reduces coordination frictions but also the ability to screen agents' types. We find that, when agents can contact sufficiently many trading partners, fully separating equilibria obtain only if adverse selection is sufficiently severe. When this condition fails, equilibria feature partial pooling and multiple equilibria co-exist. In the limit, as the number of contacts becomes large, some of the equilibria converge to the competitive outcomes of Akerlof (1970), including Pareto-dominated ones; other pooling equilibria continue to feature frictional trade in the limit, where entry is inefficiently high. Our findings provide a basis to assess the effects of recent technological innovations that have made meetings easier. |
| Keywords: | search, adverse selection, information frictions, efficiency |
| JEL: | D82 D83 J64 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16822&r=lab |
| By: | Sandra M. Leitner (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the relationship between working from home (WFH) and mental well-being at different stages during the first two critical years of the COVID-19 pandemic, when governments repeatedly imposed lockdowns and enacted WFH mandates to contain the spread of the virus. Using data from a representative survey conducted at four different time periods in 2020 (first lockdown, subsequent gradual reopening), 2021 (further lockdown) and 2022 (restrictions widely lifted) in the 27 EU member states, it examines the potentially changing role of several mediators over time, such as work-family conflict, family-work conflict, stability, resilience, isolation, the importance of different support networks, workload, physical risk of contracting COVID-19 at work, and housing conditions. For the first lockdown, it also differentiates by previous WFH experience, in terms of WFH novices and experienced WFH workers. It differentiates by gender, in order to take the potential gendered nature and effect of COVID-19 measures into account. The results show that while there was no direct relationship between WFH and mental well-being, there are several important mediators whose relevance was specific not only to certain stages of the pandemic, but also to previous experience with WFH and gender. Stability is the only mediator that was relevant over the entire two-year pandemic period. Work-family conflict and family-work conflict were only relevant during the first lockdown, while resilience and isolation mattered especially when most of the EU economies had lifted most of their restrictions. Unlike established WFH workers, WFH novices had an advantage during the first lockdown, benefiting from lower family-work conflict and more helpful networks of family and friends. Moreover, our results differ by gender for females who undertook WFH, important mediators were work-family conflict and family-work conflict. Both were related to adjustments they had to make in work and non-work hours in response to the enforced closure of schools and childcare facilities during the lockdowns, especially during the first. For males who undertook WFH, especially WFH novices, support from networks of family and friends was an important mediator. |
| Keywords: | working from home, mental well-being, COVID-19, structural equation modelling |
| JEL: | I10 I31 J81 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:wpaper:244&r=lab |
| By: | Nicola Caravaggio (Università di Roma Tre) |
| Abstract: | The so-called Dignity Decree (DD), entered into force in summer 2018, represented one of the main legislative interventions of employment protection within the Italian labor market. The aim of this work is to evaluate the impact of DD on the career paths of young workers (15-29) recently entered in the labor market. Specically, we focus on their probability of being employed after 1 year or more from the implementation of DD as well as the probability of reaching an open-ended contract within the same time horizons. The analysis relies on an exclusive sample of Compulsory Communications data using a Propensity Score Matching estimation. Results show a poor eect of the reform in boosting the persistence in the labor market. Nonetheless, the positive impact is more pronounced when focused on the probability of being employed with an open-ended contract, which increased by 2.3% after one year. |
| Keywords: | Italian labor market, Dignity Decree, Employment, Propensity Score Matching |
| JEL: | J08 J21 C55 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtr:wpaper:0280&r=lab |
| By: | Ronconi, Lucas (University of Buenos Aires); Raphael, Steven (University of California, Berkeley) |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews recent efforts in social science to analyze labor enforcement in low-and-middle income countries (LMIC) and inform policy debates. Despite the existing limitations, the empirical evidence suggests that: 1) Enforcement is quite low in LMIC; there are fewer inspectors and inspections, lower penalties, and less trust in the judiciary compared to developed countries. 2) Increasing enforcement produces more compliance with little job destruction, although there is substantial debate and heterogeneity across countries. 3) Countries with more protective labor codes tend to enforce less. 4) Countries that become more open to trade also tend to enforce less. However, trade agreements with special clauses protecting workers can promote higher labor enforcement. 5) Inspection agencies in LMIC tend to focus their efforts on formal firms, leaving informal firms out of the radar which implies that the most vulnerable workers are usually excluded. 6) The constituency base of the government shapes labor enforcement, wherein labor-based governments devote more resources to inspection, although this is a debated issue. 7) Labor unions help promote enforcement, although in LMIC they can displace public inspections from small informal firms to larger formal firms because there is where labor unions members work. 8) Autonomous and professional bureaucracies do more labor enforcement presumably because they internalize the long-run benefits of enforcing the law and allow inspectors to accumulate experience. |
| Keywords: | labor, inspections, enforcement, informality, development, judiciary |
| JEL: | J88 K42 O43 P48 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izapps:pp210&r=lab |
| By: | Hermes, Henning; Legetporer, Philipp; Mierisch, Fabian; Schwerdt, Guido; Wiederhold, Simon |
| Abstract: | We investigate public preferences for equity-enhancing policies in access to early child care, using a survey experiment with a representative sample of the German population (n ≈ 4, 800). We observe strong misperceptions about migrant-native inequalities in early child care that vary by respondents' age and right-wing voting preferences. Randomly providing information about the actual extent of inequalities has a nuanced impact on the support for equity-enhancing policy reforms: it increases support for respondents who initially underestimated these inequalities, and tends to decrease support for those who initially overestimated them. This asymmetric effect leads to a more consensual policy view, substantially decreasing the polarization in policy support between under- and overestimators. Our results suggest that correcting misperceptions can align public policy preferences, potentially leading to less polarized debates about how to address inequalities and discrimination. |
| Keywords: | child care, policy support, information, inequality, discrimination, survey experiment |
| JEL: | I24 J18 J13 D83 C99 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cexwps:285348&r=lab |
| By: | Enea Baselgia; Isabel Z. Martínez |
| Abstract: | We present a new data set we built based on Swiss rich lists going back to 1989. We show, among other things, that 60% of the super-rich are heirs—a fraction twice as large as in the US—and that wealth mobility at the very top has declined significantly. We find that top 0.01% wealth shares are higher than previous estimates based on wealth tax statistics suggest. At the same time, we argue that rich list data lead to overestimating wealth inequality. While rich lists are valuable to study the super-rich, we recommend to use reported wealth figures with caution. |
| Keywords: | super-rich, wealth inequality, inheritances, wealth mobility |
| JEL: | C81 D31 D64 J62 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10993&r=lab |