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.

Household Production, Full Consumption and the Costs of Children

Abstract: Recent work criticises both the logic and relevance of the theoretical basis of the approach to estimating the costs of raising children adopted in much of the economics literature. This tends to be restricted purely to models in which the household members consume market goods with given household income. The "costs of children" are perceived essentially as market consumption costs. This ignores the fact that an important, possibly preponderant element of child costs takes the form of parental time, which must be diverted from alternative uses such as market work, other house-hold production activities and leisure, to care for children. The studies also ignore the question of the distribution of income among adults and, in particular, the differential incidence of child costs on adult members of the household. In this paper we first of all argue that a satisfactory theoretical approach to modelling child costs must simultaneously incorporate an "individualistic" formulation of the household (as in Apps and Rees, 1988, 99) and a formal treatment of household production (as suggested by Becker 1965, and adapted in Apps and Rees, 1988, 99). We then provide such a model. Using data from a recent Time Use Survey, we estimate specialized versions of the model for families with two children and use the results to derive the intra-family distribution of resources and implied child-rearing costs.

Dismissals for Cause: The Difference That Just Eight Paragraphs Can Make *

Abstract: This paper provides evidence about the effects of dismissals-for-cause requirements, a specific component of employment protection legislation that has received little attention despite its potential relevance. We study a quasi-natural experiment generated by a law introduced in Portugal in 1989: out of the 12 paragraphs in the law that dictated the costly procedure required for dismissals for cause, eight did not apply to firms employing 20 or fewer workers. Using detailed matched employer-employee longitudinal data and differencein-differences matching methods, we examine the impact of that differentiated change in firing costs upon several variables, measured from 1991 to 1999. Unlike predicted by theory, we do not find robust evidence of effects on worker flows. However, firm performance improves considerably while wages fall. Overall, the results suggest that firing costs of the type studied here decrease workers’ effort and increase their bargaining power.

On the Wage Growth of Immigrants: Israel, 1990-2000

Abstract: This paper develops a descriptive methodology for the analysis of wage growth of immigrants, based on human capital theory. The sources of the wage growth are: (i) the rise of the return to imported human capital; (ii) the impact of accumulated experience in the host country; and, (iii) the mobility up the occupational ladder in the host country. Using human capital theory, we derive a non-linear model that imposes restrictions across the earning equations of natives and immigrants. The two earning functions are estimated jointly, using repeated cross section data. Using data on immigrants from the former Soviet Union to Israel, we find: Upon arrival, immigrants receive no return for imported skills. In the ten years following arrival, wages of highly skilled immigrants grow at 8% a year. Rising prices of skills, occupational transitions, accumulated experience in Israel and economy-wide rise in wages account for 3.4, 1.1, 1.5 and 1.4 percent each. In the long run, the return for schooling converges to .028, substantially below the .069 for natives. We do not reject the hypothesis that the return for experience converges to that of natives, and immigrants receive higher return for their unmeasured skills. We find that there is some downgrading in occupational distribution of immigrants relative to that of natives. Moreover, the average wages of immigrants approach but do not converge to the wages of comparable natives. The main reason for that is the low return to their imported skills.

Culture and Language

Abstract: Common culture and common language facilitate trade between people. Minorities have incentives to become assimilated and to learn the majority language so that they have a larger pool of potential trading partners. The value of assimilation is larger to someone from a small minority than to one from a large minority group. When a society has a very large majority of individuals from one culture, individuals from minority groups will be assimilated more quickly. Assimilation is less likely when an immigrant's native culture and language is broadly represented in his new country. Also, when governments protect minority interests directly, incentives to be assimilated into the majority culture are reduced. Both factors may explain the recent rise in multiculturalism. Individuals do not properly internalize the social value of assimilation and ignore the benefits others receive when they learn the majority language and become assimilated. In a pluralistic society, a government policy that encourages diverse cultural immigration over concentrated immigration is likely to increase the welfare of the population. In the absence of strong offsetting effects, policies which encourage multi- culturalism reduce the amount of trade and have adverse welfare consequences. Conversely, policies that subsidize assimilation and the acquisition of majority language skills can be socially beneficial. The theory is tested and confirmed by examining U.S. Census data, which reveals that the likelihood that an immigrant will learn English is inversely related to the proportion of the local population that speaks his or her native language.

Business Start-Ups or Disguised Unemployment? Evidence on the Character of Self-Employment from Transition Economies

Abstract: We study the character of self-employment, drawing upon household survey evidence from six transition economies. Multinomial-logit analysis distinguishing employers from own-account self-employed and comparing both groups to employees and unemployed finds that own-account status is intermediate in most characteristics; tests reject the pooling of any of these categories. Selection-bias-corrected earnings premia are large for employers and smaller for own-account. A structural polychotomous model shows that employers respond strongly to predicted earnings premia in all countries, while the own-account response is estimated to be negative, supporting the interpretation that individuals may be pushed into own-account status by lack of work opportunities.