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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2007‒05‒04
three papers chosen by |
| By: | Guiseppe Fiori (Boston College); Giuseppe Nicoletti (OECD); Stefano Scarpetta (OECD; IZA); Fabio Schiantarelli (Boston College; IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a systematic empirical investigation of the effect of product market liberalization on employment when there are interactions between policies and institutions in product and labor markets. Using panel data for OECD countries over the period 1980-2002, we present evidence that product market deregulation is more effective at the margin when labor market regulation is high. Moreover, there is evidence in our sample that product market deregulation promotes labor market deregulation. We show that these results are mostly consistent with the basic predictions of a standard bargaining model (e.g. Blanchard and Giavazzi (2003)), once one allows for a full specification of the fall back position of the unions. |
| Keywords: | Employment, Competition, Deregulation, Liberalization, Unions |
| JEL: | J23 J50 L50 |
| Date: | 2007–04–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:bocoec:663&r=ltv |
| By: | Lechner, Michael; Wiehler, Stephan |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates active labour market programs in Austria with a special emphasis on male-female effect heterogeneity. On average, we find only small effects, if any, for most of the programs. A crucial advantage of the large and informative administrative data we use is that it provides records about pregnancies and times of parental leave, in addition to the information that can typically be found in European administrative data sources used for evaluating active labour market policies. We show that these variables play a key role in removing selection bias and defining outcome variables which may explain why other similar studies found such programs to be more effective for women than for men. In particular for younger women a key effect of the programs is to reduce or postpone pregnancies and to increase the attachment to the labour force. After taking into account gender specific selection effects and the effects of the programs on pregnancies, gender differences (almost) disappear. |
| Keywords: | Active Labour market policy; matching estimation; panel data; program evaluation |
| JEL: | J68 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6267&r=ltv |
| By: | Coral del Río (Universidade de Vigo); Olga Alonso-Villar (Universidade de Vigo) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of several intermediate inequality measures, paying special attention to whether inequality rankings between income distributions are affected by the monetary units in which incomes are expressed. |
| Keywords: | Income distribution; Intermediate inequality indices; Unit-consistency. |
| JEL: | D63 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2007-68&r=ltv |