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.

When Does FDI Have Positive Spillovers? Evidence from 17 Transition Market Economies

Abstract: We use rich firm-level data and national input-output tables from 17 countries over the 2002-2005 period to test new and existing hypotheses about the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the efficiency of domestic firms in the host country (i.e. spillovers). We document that backward linkages have a consistently positive effect on productivity of domestic firms while horizontal and forward linkages show no consistent effect. We also examine how the strength of spillovers varies by sector, FDI source, business environment (corruption, red tape, level of development), firm's distance to the technological frontier, education of workers, and other firm- and country-specific characteristics.

International migration: a panel data analysis of economic and non-economic determinants

Abstract: In this paper I empirically investigate economic and non-economic determinants of migration inflows into fourteen OECD countries by country of origin, between 1980 and 1996. I use an annual panel data set, which allows me to exploit both the time-series and cross-country variation in immigrant inflows, and find results broadly consistent with the theoretical predictions of an international-migration model. In particular, I find evidence of robust and significant pull effects, that is improvements in the income opportunities in the host country, and of the negative impact on emigration rates of distance between destination and origin country.

Gift Exchange and Workers' Fairness Concerns: When Equality is Unfair

Abstract: We study how different payment modes influence the effectiveness of gift exchange as a contract enforcement device. In particular, we analyze how horizontal fairness concerns affect performance and efficiency in an environment characterized by contractual incompleteness. In our experiment, one principal is matched with two agents. The principal pays equal wages in one treatment and can set individual wages in the other. We find that the use of equal wages elicits substantially lower efforts. This is not caused by monetary incentives per se since under both wage schemes it is profit-maximizing for agents to exert high efforts. The treatment difference instead seems to be driven by the fact that the norm of equity is violated far more frequently in the equal wage treatment. After having suffered from violations of the equity principle, agents withdraw effort. These findings hold even after controlling for the role of intentions, as we show in a third treatment. Our results suggest that adherence to the norm of equity is a necessary prerequisite for successful establishment of gift-exchange relations.

Did the Elimination of Mandatory Retirement Affect Faculty Retirement Flows

Abstract: A special exemption from the 1986 Age Discrimination Act allowed colleges and universities to enforce mandatory retirement of faculty at age 70 until 1994. We compare faculty turnover rates at a large sample of institutions before and after the federal law change, and at a set of institutions that were covered by earlier state laws prohibiting compulsory retirement. Retirement rates at institutions that enforced mandatory retirement exhibited sharp "spikes" at ages 70 and 71. About 90 percent of professors who were still teaching at age 70 retired within two years. After the elimination of compulsory retirement the retirement rates of 70 and 71-year-olds fell to levels comparable to 69-year-olds, and over one-half of 70-year-olds were still teaching two years later. These findings indicate that U.S. colleges and universities will experience a rise in the number of older faculty over the coming years. The increase is likely to be larger at private research universities, where a higher fraction of faculty has traditionally remained at work until age 70.

Equality of opportunity and the distribution of long-run income in Sweden

Abstract: Equality of opportunity is an ethical goal with almost universal appeal. The interpretation taken here is that a society has achieved equality of opportunity if it is the case that what individuals ...