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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2019‒01‒07
three papers chosen by |
| By: | Jorge Rodríguez; Fernando Saltiel; Sergio S. Urzúa |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the dynamic returns to job training. We posit a dynamic-discrete choice model of sequential training participation, where choices and earnings depend on observed and unobserved characteristics.We define treatment effects, including policy relevant parameters, and link them to continuation values. The empirical analysis is carried out using data combining job training records, matched employee-employer information, and pre-labor market ability measures from Chile. We document small positive average returns, large unobserved heterogeneity in responses, and dynamic substitutability of training investments. Our policy relevant treatment effects vary across dynamic response types, highlighting the relevance of our framework. |
| JEL: | C31 C32 J24 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25408&r=all |
| By: | John T. Addison; Pedro Portugal; Hugo Vilares |
| Abstract: | Using matched employer-employee-contract data for Portugal – a country with near-universal union coverage – we find evidence of a sizable effect of union affiliation on wages. Gelbach's (2016) decomposition procedure is next deployed to ascertain the contributions of worker, firm, match, and job-title heterogeneity to the union wage gap. Of these the most important is the firm fixed effect, followed at some distance by union workers gaining from elevated job titles and/or more generous promotion policies. For its part, unobserved worker quality plays only a very weak role, while there is even less suggestion that improved match quality bolsters the union premium. |
| Keywords: | union density, union wage gap, worker/form/job-title fixed effects, match quality, Gelbach decomposition, Portugal |
| JEL: | J31 J33 J41 J51 J52 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7392&r=all |
| By: | David Neumark |
| Abstract: | I discuss the econometrics and the economics of past research on the effects of minimum wages on employment in the United States. My intent is to try to identify key questions raised in the recent literature, and some from the earlier literature, which I think hold the most promise for understanding the conflicting evidence and arriving at a more definitive answer about the employment effects of minimum wages. My secondary goal is to discuss how we can narrow the range of uncertainty about the likely effects of the large minimum wage increases becoming more prevalent in the United States. I discuss some insights from both theory and past evidence that may be informative about the effects of high minimum wages, and try to emphasize what research can be done now and in the near future to provide useful evidence to policymakers on the results of the coming high minimum wage experiment, whether in the United States or in other countries. |
| JEL: | J38 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7397&r=all |