Institute for the Study of Labor

About: Institute for the Study of Labor is a nonprofit organization based out in Bonn, Germany. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Wage & Unemployment. The organization has 2039 authors who have published 13475 publications receiving 439376 citations.

Economic strain, ethnic concentration and attitudes towards foreigners in the European Union

Abstract: This paper provides a statistical analysis of the determinants of attitudes towards foreigners displayed by Europeans sampled in Eurobarometer surveys in 1988 and 1997. Europeans who compete with immigrants in the labor market have more negative attitudes towards foreigners. In addition, an increased concentration of immigrants in local neighborhoods increases the likelihood of negative attitudes. Racial prejudice exerts a strong influence on anti-foreigner sentiment. The generally rising trend towards greater racial prejudice, and the decline in the strength of educational attainment in reducing negative attitudes towards foreigners, contribute to the increasing anti-foreigner attitudes between 1988 and 1997.

Reducing Foreclosures: No Easy Answers

Abstract: This paper takes a skeptical look at a leading argument about what is causing the foreclosure crisis and what should be done to stop it. We use an economic model to focus on two key decisions: the borrower's choice to default on a mortgage and the lender's subsequent choice whether to renegotiate or modify the loan. The theoretical model and econometric analysis illustrate that unaffordable loans, defined as those with high mortgage payments relative to income at origination, are unlikely to be the main reason that borrowers decide to default. In addition, this paper provides theoretical results and empirical evidence supporting the hypothesis that the efficiency of foreclosure for investors is a more plausible explanation for the low number of modifications to date than contract frictions related to securitization agreements between servicers and investors. While investors might be foreclosing when it would be socially efficient to modify, there is little evidence to suggest they are acting against their own interests when they do so. An important implication of our analysis is that policies designed to reduce foreclosures should focus on ameliorating the immediate effects of job loss and other adverse life events rather than modifying loans to make them more affordable on a long-term basis.

Technological Change, Organizational Change, and Job Turnover

Abstract: This paper uses a German employer-employee matched panel data set to investigate the effect of organizational and technological changes on gross job and worker flows. The empirical results indicate that organizational change is skill-biased because it reduces predominantly net employment growth rates of unskilled and medium-skilled workers via higher job destruction and separation rates, whereas the employment patterns of skilled workers are not affected significantly. New information technologies do not have significant effects on gross job and worker flows as soon as establishment fixed-effects are controlled for.

The Economics of Museums

Abstract: Museums fulfill many important functions in the art world and visits to museums are becoming an important leisure and holiday activity. This chapter surveys research about the functioning of museums from an economic point of view. Museum services are shaped by demand and supply factors and by the institutional setting constraining the decision makers in a museum. This chapter argues that the institutional factors, e.g., whether a museum is private or public, influence greatly how the museum is run with respect to the management of the collection, price setting, or the focus on commercial activities. Two current trends, the evolution of superstar museums and the growing importance of special exhibitions, are analysed from an economic point of view.

When Work Disappears: Manufacturing Decline and the Falling Marriage Market Value of Young Men

Abstract: The structure of marriage and child-rearing in U.S. households has undergone two marked shifts in the last three decades: a steep decline in the prevalence of marriage among young adults, and a sharp rise in the fraction of children born to unmarried mothers or living in single-headed households. A potential contributor to both phenomena is the declining labor-market opportunities faced by males, which make them less valuable as marital partners. We exploit large scale, plausibly exogenous labor-demand shocks stemming from rising international manufacturing competition to test how shifts in the supply of young "marriageable" males affect marriage, fertility and children's living circumstances. Trade shocks to manufacturing industries have particularly negative impacts on the labor market prospects of men and degrade their marriage-market value along multiple dimensions: diminishing their relative earnings - particularly at the lower segment of the distribution - reducing their physical availability in trade-impacted labor markets, and increasing their participation in risky and damaging behaviors. As predicted by a simple model of marital decision-making under uncertainty, we document that adverse shocks to the supply of "marriageable" men reduce the prevalence of marriage and lower fertility but raise the fraction of children born to young and unwed mothers and living in in poor single-parent households. The falling marriage-market value of young men appears to be a quantitatively important contributor to the rising.