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.

Estimates of the Economic Return to Schooling from a New Sample of Twins

Abstract: This paper uses a new survey to contrast the wages of genetically identical twins with different schooling levels. Multiple measurements of schooling levels were also collected to assess the effect of reporting error on the estimated economic returns to schooling. The data indicate that omitted ability variables do not bias the estimated return to schooling upward, but that measurement error does bias it downward. Adjustment for measurement error indicates that an additional year of schooling increases wages by 12-16 percent, a higher estimate of the economic retums to schooling than has been previously found. (JEL J31) This paper uses a new survey of identical twins to study the economic returns to schooling. We estimate the returns to schooling by contrasting the wage rates of identical twins with different schooling levels. Our goal is to ensure that the correlation we observe between schooling and wage rates is not due to a correlation between schooling and a worker's ability or other characteristics. We do this by taking advantage of the fact that monozygotic (from the same egg) twins are genetically identical and have similar family backgrounds. In our survey we also took some unusual steps to measure a worker's schooling level accurately. We obtained independent estimates of each sibling's schooling level by asking the twins to report on both their own and their twin's schooling. These new data provide a simple and powerful method for assessing the role of measurement error in estimates of the economic returns to schooling.

Peers at Work

Abstract: We investigate how and why the productivity of a worker varies as a function of the productivity of her co-workers in a group production process. In theory, the introduction of a high productivity worker could lower the effort of incumbent workers because of free riding; or it could increase the effort of incumbent workers because of peer effects induced by social norms, social pressure, or learning. Using scanner level data, we measure high frequency, worker-level productivity of checkers for a large grocery chain. Because of the firm's scheduling policy, the timing of within-day changes in personnel is unsystematic, a feature for which we find consistent support in the data. We find strong evidence of positive productivity spillovers from the introduction of highly productive personnel into a shift. A 10% increase in average co-worker permanent productivity is associated with 1.7% increase in a worker's effort. Most of this peer effect arises from low productivity workers benefiting from the presence of high productivity workers. Therefore, the optimal mix of workers in a given shift is the one that maximizes skill diversity. In order to explain the mechanism that generates the peer effect, we examine whether effort depends on workers' ability to monitor one another due to their spatial arrangement, and whether effort is affected by the time workers have previously spent working together. We find that a given worker's effort is positively related to the presence and speed of workers who face him, but not the presence and speed of workers whom he faces (and do not face him). In addition, workers respond more to the presence of co-workers with whom they frequently overlap. These patterns indicate that these individuals are motivated by social pressure and mutual monitoring, and suggest that social preferences can play an important role in inducing effort, even when economic incentives are limited.

Unemployment in the OECD Since the 1960s. What Do We Know

Abstract: This paper presents an empirical analysis of unemployment patterns in the OECD countries from the 1960s to the 1990s. Our results indicate the following. First, broad movements in unemployment across the OECD can be explained by shifts in labour market institutions. Second, interactions between average values of these institutions and shocks make no significant additional contribution to our understanding of OECD unemployment changes.

Are People Conditionally Cooperative? Evidence from a Public Goods Experiment

Abstract: We study the importance of conditional cooperation in a one-shot public goods game by using a variant of the strategy-method. We find that a third of the subjects can be classified as free riders, whereas 50 percent are conditional cooperators.

The Cyclical Behavior of Equilibrium Unemployment and Vacancies Revisited

Abstract: Recently, a number of authors have argued that the standard search model cannot generate the observed business-cycle-frequency fluctuations in unemployment and job vacancies, given shocks of a plausible magnitude. We use data on the cost of vacancy creation and cyclicality of wages to identify the two key parameters of the model - the value of non-market activity and the bargaining weights. Our calibration implies that the model is, in fact, consistent with the data.