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.

Dividing justly in bargaining problems with claims

Abstract: Theoretical research on claims problems has concentrated on normative properties and axiomatizations of solution concepts. We complement these analyses by empirical evidence on the predictability of three classical solution concepts in a bankruptcy problem. We examine both people’s impartial normative evaluations as well as their actual negotiation behavior in a bargaining with claims environment. We measure people’s judgments on the normative attractiveness of solution concepts with the help of a survey and also observe actual agreements in a bargaining experiment with real money at stake. We find that the proportional solution is the normatively most attractive rule, whereas actual negotiation agreements are closest to the ‘constrained equal-award’ solution.

Selection and Economic Gains in the Great Migration of African Americans: New Evidence from Linked Census Data

Abstract: The onset of World War I spurred the "Great Migration" of African Americans from the U.S. South, arguably the most important internal migration in U.S. history. We create a new panel dataset of more than 5,000 men matched from the 1910 to 1930 census manuscripts to address three interconnected questions: To what extent was there selection into migration? How large were the migrants' gains? Did migration narrow the racial gap in economic status? We find evidence of positive selection, but the migrants' gains were large. A substantial amount of black-white convergence in this period is attributable to migration.Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

Co-Determination, Efficiency, and Productivity

Abstract: We present the first panel estimates of the productivity effects of the unique German institution of parity, board-level co-determination. Although our data span two severe recessions when labour hoarding costs of co-determination are probably highest, and the panel is too short to capture the likely long run benefits in terms of human capital formation and job satisfaction, we find positive productivity effects of the 1976 extension to parity co-determination in large firms.

The distribution of total work in the EU and US

Abstract: Using two time-diary data sets each for Germany, Italy the Netherlands and the US from 1985-2003, we demonstrate that Americans work more than Europeans: 1) in the market; 2) in total (market and home production) - there is no one-for-one tradeoff across countries in total work; 3) at unusual times of the day and on weekends In addition, gender differences in total work within a given country are significantly smaller than variation across countries and time We conclude that some of the transatlantic differences could reflect inferior equilibria that are generated by social norms and externalities While an important outlet for total work, home production by females appears very sensitive to tax rates in the G-7 countries We adapt the theory of home production to account for fixed costs of market work and adduce evidence that they, in contrast to other relative costs, vary significantly across countries

Do Stock Markets Promote Economic Growth

Abstract: One of the most enduring debates in economics is whether financial development causes economic growth or whether it is a consequence of increased economic activity. Little research into this question, however, has used a true causality framework. This paper fills this lacuna by using Granger-causality tests and finds little evidence of a causal relationship going from stock market development to economic growth. We do find evidence that stock market development can cause currency appreciation, which may confound studies that use dollar denominated measures of economic growth.