Showing papers in "Labour in 2010"
TL;DR: Brodolini et al. as mentioned in this paper empirically tested the relationship between underground labour and schooling achievement for Italy, a country ranking badly in both respects when compared with other high-income economies, with a marked duality between North and South.
Abstract: The paper empirically tests the relationship between underground labour and schooling achievement for Italy, a country ranking badly in both respects when compared with other high-income economies, with a marked duality between North and South. In order to identify underground workers, we exploit the information on individuals' social security positions available from the Bank of Italy's Survey on Household Income and Wealth. After controlling for a wide range of sociodemographic and economic variables and addressing potential endogeneity and selection issues, we show that a low level of education sizeably and significantly increases the probability of working underground. Switching from completing compulsory school to graduating at college more than halves this probability for both men and women. The gain is slightly higher for individuals completing the compulsory track with respect to those having no formal education at all. The different probabilities found for self-employed and dependent workers support the view of a dual informal sector, in which necessity and desirability coexist. Copyright 2010 CEIS, Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
193 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the long-term effects of parental migration abroad on the schooling of children left behind in Albania and found that past parental migration has a negative effect on school attendance in the long term with higher hazards of school dropouts for children leftbehind.
Abstract: This article investigates the long-term effects of parental migration abroad on the schooling of children left behind in Albania. Although parents' migration usually benefits children economically, the lack of parental care may cause relational and psychological problems that may affect children's welfare in the long term. The phenomenon of children left behind — mainly by fathers — is considerable in Albania, where migration has represented the only viable way to cope with an increasing poverty and the scarcity of public resources for sustaining households' incomes. Between 1990 and 2005 in Albania 22 per cent of children under 18 have been left behind, with an average parental absence of 9 months. Using detailed information on family migration drawn from the Living Standard Measurement Survey for 2005, multiple-choice models are applied to evaluate the school progression of older children and adolescents. A duration analysis of school participation with both discrete and continuous time models is then performed. The results show that past parental migration has a negative effect on school attendance in the long term with higher hazards of school dropouts for children left behind. These results are robust to the use of different econometric techniques and model specifications.
112 citations
TL;DR: This paper extended previous field experiments that study ethnic discrimination in the labour market and found that first and second generation immigrants are discriminated against more often than first-generation immigrants in the labor market.
Abstract: Previous field experiments that study ethnic discrimination in the labour market are extended in this paper, which outlines a study comparing discrimination of first and second generation immigrant ...
95 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the effects of teacher strikes on student achievement and found that teacher strikes led to a significant reallocation of students to a lower level of higher education.
Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of a teacher strike on student achievement. From May 1990 until November 1990 teachers in the French community of Belgium stroked to obtain a salary increase. We exploit the political division of Belgium in a French community and a Flemish community, with similar educational institutions, for estimating the long-term effects of the strikes. Based on a difference-in-differences approach, using data from two different surveys, we find some evidence that the strikes reduced educational attainment and increased class repetition. We also find that the strikes led to a significant reallocation of students to a lower level of higher education. Overall, the results suggest that teacher strikes can lead to substantial costs for those not involved in the conflict.
57 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of children on women's wages in the Finnish private sector were investigated and they found evidence of the motherhood wage penalty, the penalty varying with the length of the childrelated career break.
Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of children on women's wages in the Finnish private sector. The paper finds evidence of the motherhood wage penalty, the penalty varying with the length of the child-related career break. Mothers staying at home no longer than for 2 years face considerably smaller penalties than mothers spending longer periods at home. The negative wage effects of children decrease, however, quickly with time. For example, mothers who experience a career break of 2 years or less do not lag behind non-mothers in terms of wages after the second year from the return to employment. There is also variation in the motherhood wage penalty across the wage distribution. The penalty is higher at the top of the distribution than in the middle of it, especially in the cases of prolonged child-related career breaks.
46 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the determinants of the probability of leaving unemployment for employment or the hazard rate in Turkey were analyzed for men and women separately, and the results indicated that the nature of unemployment in Turkey exhibits similarities to the unemployment in both the developed and the developing countries.
Abstract: There is little evidence on unemployment duration and its determinants in developing countries. This study is on the duration aspect of unemployment in a developing country, Turkey. We analyse the determinants of the probability of leaving unemployment for employment or the hazard rate. The effects of the personal and household characteristics and the local labour market conditions are examined. The analyses are carried out for men and women separately. The results indicate that the nature of unemployment in Turkey exhibits similarities to the unemployment in both the developed and the developing countries.
46 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that adulthood extraversion is positively associated with income when education, work experience, and unemployment history, measured prospectively from longitudinal data, are controlled for, and childhood constructiveness indicating active and well-controlled behaviour has a positive association with income in adulthood.
Abstract: This study contributes to the literature on how personality is rewarded in the labour market by examining the relationship between personality and labour market income. Our results suggest that adulthood extraversion is positively associated with income when education, work experience, and unemployment history, measured prospectively from longitudinal data, are controlled for. In addition, childhood constructiveness indicating active and well-controlled behaviour has a positive association with income in adulthood.
45 citations
TL;DR: In order to remain competitive, firms need to keep the quantity and composition of jobs close to optimal for their given output as discussed by the authors, and the main solution is seen to be the creation of institutional conditions that stimulate a more efficient reallocation of labour.
Abstract: In order to remain competitive, firms need to keep the quantity and composition of jobs close to optimal for their given output. Since the beginning of the transition period, Russian industrial firms have been widely reporting that the quantity and composition of hired labour is far from being optimal. This paper discusses what kinds of firms in the Russian manufacturing sector are unable to optimize their employment and why. The main conclusion is that the key issue is an excess of non-viable firms and a shortage of highly efficient firms because of weak selection mechanisms. The main solution is seen to be the creation of institutional conditions that stimulate a more efficient reallocation of labour. The analysis presented in this chapter is based on data from a large-scale survey of Russian manufacturing firms.
42 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the trade-off between early and late specialization in the context of higher education and developed a model in which individuals accumulate field-specific skills and receive noisy signals of match quality across different fields of study.
Abstract: This paper examines the trade-off between early and late specialization in the context of higher education. I develop a model in which individuals accumulate field-specific skills and receive noisy signals of match quality across different fields of study. I derive comparative static predictions between educational regimes with early and late specialization, and examine these predictions across British systems of higher education. Using survey data on 1980 university graduates, I find that individuals who switch to unrelated occupations have lower initial earnings, and that early specialization in England is associated with more costly switches. But higher wage growth among those who switch eliminates the wage difference after several years, and average earnings are not significantly different between England and Scotland.
41 citations
TL;DR: This article analyzed both theoretically and empirically the effects of immigration on the wage rate of native workers and concluded that native skilled wages always increase whereas native unskilled wages can both increase or decrease with immigration.
Abstract: This paper analyses both theoretically and empirically the effects of immigration on the wage rate of native workers There is rare evidence in empirical literature that immigration generates a fall in the wages of manual workers By hypothesizing an economic system where advanced firms buy an intermediate good from traditional firms, which employ manual workers in both clean and dirty tasks, the latter being more disliked by native workers, we present a theoretical model that justifies these results We conclude that native skilled wages always increase whereas native unskilled wages can both increase or decrease with immigration An empirical analysis of the Italian labour market follows, showing that native workers' wages always rise with immigration
38 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the development of working hours over successive generations of women using the Dutch Labour Force Survey 1992-2005, and find evidence of a strictly increasing propensity to work part-time and a decreasing tendency to work full-time for the generations born after the early 1950s.
Abstract: The Netherlands combines a high female employment rate with a high part-time employment rate. This is likely to be the result of (societal) preferences as the removal of institutional barriers has not led to higher working hours. We investigate the development of working hours over successive generations of women using the Dutch Labour Force Survey 1992–2005. We find evidence of a strictly increasing propensity to work part-time and a decreasing propensity to work full-time for the generations born after the early 1950s. Our results are in line with results of studies on social norms and attitudes. It seems likely that without changes in (societal) preferences part-time employment is indeed here to stay.
TL;DR: In this article, the determinants of employment and wages for workers in the United Arab Emirates were investigated using data from a sample of 1,099 workers, and the wage distribution and the decomposition of the wage gap between the public and the private sectors were investigated.
Abstract: Using data from a sample of 1,099 workers, this paper investigates the determinants of employment and wages for workers in the United Arab Emirates. The paper further examines the wage distribution and the decomposition of the wage gap between the public and the private sectors. Results of the study are consistent with the dual labour market theory and indicate that the labour market in the United Arab Emirates is segmented based on sectors (public versus private) and types of workers (nationals versus non-nationals). The study concludes with a discussion of the implication of these findings for the effectiveness of labour and economic policy.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors exploited a large matched employer-employee data set for an Italian region, the Veneto, that is presented here for the first time, in order to analyse job and worker flows.
Abstract: This research exploits a large matched employer–employee data set for an Italian region, the Veneto, that is presented here for the first time, in order to analyse job and worker flows. In a first part, the paper computes worker turnover, job turnover, and excess worker reallocation over a time span of 14 years. The results are discussed, and comparisons are made between the quantitative features of the labour market in the Veneto region and those of other labour markets. In a second part, turnover and excess worker reallocation are related to search costs, and new empirical evidence is presented that helps in understanding the connections between search activity, unemployment, and the economic cycle.
TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of Dutch long-term care and labour market policies on women's labour market participation and informal caregiving decisions are investigated through a multivariate dynamic binary probit on European Community Household Panel data.
Abstract: This paper focuses on the effects of Dutch long-term care and labour market policies on women's labour market participation and informal caregiving decisions. Labour market participation and informal caregiving are estimated jointly through a multivariate dynamic binary probit on European Community Household Panel data. Under Dutch policy, informal care decisions appear to be independent of household non-labour income and no significant impediment seems to hinder the contemporaneous practice of work activities and care. However, past informal care provision still slightly reduces the probability of currently working and vice versa, leaving room for policy improvements to enhance labour market participation.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provided an estimate of the impact of the 30/2003 reform on the wage gap across fixed-term and long-term employees, showing that the policy has widened the wage differentials and the effect is particularly stronger to skilled workers compared with unskilled workers.
Abstract: By easing restrictions on the use of short-term contracts, the 30/2003 act represents contemporaneously the more extensive and the more radical policy aimed at introducing flexibility in the Italian labour market. By virtue of a difference-in-differences estimator, the paper provides an estimate of the impact of the 30/2003 reform on the wage gap across fixed-term and long-term employees. It will be given evidence that the policy has widened the wage differentials and the effect is particularly stronger to skilled workers compared with unskilled workers. These findings would suggest the existence of a possible brand-new form of wage inequality.
Abstract: The very decade which has witnessed the decline of legal Jim Crow has also seen the rise of de facto segregation in our most fundamental socioeconomic institutions,” vet eran civil rights activist Bayard Rustin wrote in 1965, pointing out that black workers were more likely to be unemployed, earn low wages, work in “jobs vulnerable to automation,” and live in impoverished ghettos than when the US Supreme Court banned legal segregation in 1954 Historians have attributed that divergence to a narrowing of African American political objectives during the 1950s and early 1960s, away from demands for employment and economic reform that had dominated the agendas of civil rights organizations in the 1940s and later regained urgency in the late 1960s Jacquelyn Dowd Hall and other scholars emphasize the negative effects of the Cold War, arguing that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other civil rights organizations responded to domestic anticommunism by distancing themselves from organized labor and the Left and by focusing on racial rather than economic forms of inequality Manfred Berg and Adam Fairclough offer the more positive assessment that focusing on racial equality allowed civil rights activists to appropriate the democratic rhetoric of anticommunism and solidify alliances with white liberals during the Cold War, although they agree that “anti communist hysteria retarded the struggle for racial justice and narrowed the political
TL;DR: The authors found that both men and women earn a wage premium in the public sector in Canada, although the premium is higher for women than in the private sector, and that public sector workers are positively selected on observables and consist of the cream of the crop.
Abstract: Although previous research has pointed to a public/private sector wage gap for men and women in Canada, the extent of this gap has not been measured in recent years. Using data from the Canadian Labour Force Survey for September 2008, and using an endogenous switching regression framework to control for self-selection, I find that both men and women earn a wage premium in the public sector in Canada, although the premium is higher for women. The pure wage premium or economic rent that public sector workers receive relative to their counterparts in the private sector is $1.09, or 5.4 per cent for men and $3.15, or 20 per cent for women. An analysis of selection in the pubic/private sector reveals that public sectors workers are ‘positively selected’ on observables and consist of the ‘cream of the crop’.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors characterize the redistributive preferences of the Irish government between 1987 and 2005 by inverting Saez's model of optimal income taxation and reveal that the marginal social welfare function revealed by this approach is consistently comparable over time and shows great stability despite profound changes in market incomes and important fiscal reforms over the period.
Abstract: By inverting Saez's model of optimal income taxation, we characterize the redistributive preferences of the Irish government between 1987 and 2005. The (marginal) social welfare function revealed by this approach is consistently comparable over time and shows great stability despite profound changes in market incomes and important fiscal reforms over the period. Results are robust to numerous checks regarding data, income concepts, and elasticities. A comparison with the UK shows marked differences reflecting the narrow political spectrum in Ireland compared with radical changes in British politics over the past 30 years. Some ‘anomalies’ in the revealed social welfare function suggest introducing transfers to the working poor.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a dynamic policy simulation analysing what would have happened to wages, employment, and total hours had the federal minimum wage increased in September 1998, a year after the last actual increase in our data.
Abstract: We present a dynamic policy simulation analysing what would have happened to wages, employment, and total hours had the federal minimum wage increased in September 1998, a year after the last actual increase in our data. Prior work suggests that employment responses take 6 years to play out. Using a time-series model for 23 low-wage industries, we find a positive response of average wages over 54 months following an increase in the minimum wage, but neither employment nor hours can be distinguished from random noise. Ignoring confidence intervals, the adjustment of hours is complete after 1 year, the adjustment of employment after no more than two and one half years.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a simple model that explains how the likelihood of job changes and their complexity changes over a worker's career, and the empirical work presented here uses the life cycle patterns of mobility and the complexity to infer the relative importance of firm-specific versus career-specific concerns as determinants of mobility decisions.
Abstract: This paper presents a simple model that explains how the likelihood of job changes and their complexity changes over a worker's career, and the empirical work presented here uses the life cycle patterns of mobility and their complexity to infer the relative importance of firm-specific versus career-specific concerns as determinants of mobility decisions. The estimates of the model indicate that the contemporaneous presence of two quality matches, one career-specific and one firm-specific, is necessary to understand the patterns of the data. The model also predicts that the welfare losses implied by a disappearance of a career can be on average twice as large as the losses implied by a plant closure.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors evaluate the effects of the most frequently used German welfare-to-work program on the employment chances of immigrant welfare recipients and investigate whether program effects differ between immigrants and natives and what might cause these potential differences.
Abstract: We evaluate the effects of the most frequently used German welfare-to-work program on the employment chances of immigrant welfare recipients. In particular, we investigate whether program effects differ between immigrants and natives and what might cause these potential differences. Our results reveal that the program fails to achieve its objectives. The effects are more adverse for natives, but the program does not help otherwise identical immigrants to leave the welfare system either. Therefore, the program is a dead-end road rather than a merging lane to regular employment both for natives and for immigrants.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present evidence on the impact of distance to school and school availability on households' decisions concerning time allocation of primary-age children between work, schooling, and household chores activities using data from the Ghana Living Standard Survey 1998-99.
Abstract: In this paper we present evidence on the impact of distance to school and school availability on households' decisions concerning time allocation of primary-age children between work, schooling, and household chores activities using data from the Ghana Living Standard Survey 1998-99. Our results indicate that the increased and eased access to school has a well-defined impact on children's time use. In particular, reducing the distance to primary school encourages children school attendance and reduces children work. Interestingly, the distance to middle school discourages children's work and boosts household chores activities. Moreover, the availability of both primary and middle schools has a positive effect on schooling decisions, and having a primary school nearby discourages household chores activity. Our results are robust to controlling for the endogeneity of school placement and per capita expenditures. We also find that household decisions about children's time use differ by children's sex, suggesting that girls may be differently responsive to policy measures aimed at reducing work and household chores activities and at increasing their school attendance.