Search results for "J31"
showing 10 items of 17 documents
Heritability of Lifetime Income
2013
Using 15 years of data on Finnish twins, we find that 24% (54%) of the variance of women’s (men’s) lifetime income is due to genetic factors and that the contribution of the shared environment is negligible. We link these figures to policy by showing that controlling for education reduces the variance share of genetics by 5-8 percentage points; by demonstrating that income uncertainty has a genetic component half the size of its variance share in lifetime income; and by exploring how the genetic heritability of lifetime income is related to the macroeconomic environment, as measured by GDP growth and the Gini-coefficient of income inequality.
Graduate employment and the returns to higher education in Africa
2013
http://cemapre.iseg.utl.pt/educonf/2e3/files/submissions_to_web/Barounia%20Mahdi_Broeckeb%20%20Stijn.docx; In this paper, we estimate the return to higher education for 12 African countries using recent data and a variety of methods. Importantly, one of our methods adjusts for the effect of higher education on the rate of joblessness, which is substantial in most African countries, and particularly for women. Our results confirm that Mincerian coefficients cannot be interpreted as a true rate of return, and that the latter (even after taking into account the employment effect) is considerably lower than what has previously been suggested in the literature (less than half). For Sub-Saharan A…
Technology and Labor Regulations: Theory and Evidence
2015
This paper shows that different labor market policies can lead to differences in technology across sectors in a model of labor saving technologies. Labor market regulations reduce the skill premium and as a result, if technologies are labor saving, countries with more stringent labor regulation, which bind more for low skilled workers, become less technolog- ically advanced in their high skill sectors, but more technologically advanced in their low skill sectors. We then present data on capital-output ratios, on estimated productivity levels and on patent creation, which tend to support the predictions of our model.
Does Commuting Reduce Wage Disparities?
2004
ABSTRACT This paper shows that in the Baltic countries, commuting reduces urban-rural wage and employment disparities and increases national output. To quantify the effect of commuting on wage differentials, two sets of earnings functions are estimated (based on Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian Labor Force Surveys) with location variables (capital city, rural, etc.) measured at the workplace and at the place of residence. We find that the ceteris paribus wage gap between capital city and rural areas, as well as between capital and other cities is significantly narrowed by commuting in some cases but remains almost unchanged in others. Different outcomes are explained by country-specific s…
Workplace Heterogeneity and the Returns to Versatility
2021
Abstract In the canonical random on-the-job search model with continuous firm heterogeneity, I show that a mean-preserving spread of the firm-productivity distribution raises the returns to mobility, i.e., the inter-firm mobility of workers as measured by the number of outside contacts per employment spell. Both sorting and rent-share mechanisms play a role. In a further contribution, I distinguish frictional and structural impediments to mobility in order to establish a link between mobility and skills via the concept of versatility. Versatility enhances a person’s mobility since a mismatch between job requirements and the person’s skill set is less likely to occur. I provide some statisti…
Higher Education Institutions Quality and Graduate Wages in Tunisia
2017
International audience; We estimate the effect of university characteristics on the return to higher education in Tunisia. We use a variety of administrative data from the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, the Ministry of Vocational Training and Employment and the National Social Security Fund. We consider econometric approaches based on multilevel modeling, which distinguishes more precisely between the effects of individual factors and institutional factors on earnings. Our findings confirm the relationship between the income and some university characteristics such as the number of permanent teachers, the selectivity of the higher learning institutions at the academic orientatio…
Determinants of inter-regional migration in the Baltic countries
2003
We show that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania despite small geographical size feature considerable and persistent regional disparities. Registered migration rates have declined dramatically since the last years of Soviet era, yet they are high by international standards. Evidence from regional inflows and outflows in Latvia and from Estonian labour force survey is used to show that regional unemployment and especially wage differentials, as well as demographic factors, have a significant impact both on gross and net migration flows. Age and education effects are consistent with predictions of the human capital model of migration. Unemployed persons, as well as commuters between regions, are si…
The public–private sector wage gap in Latvia
2018
This study investigates the public-private sector wage gap in Latvia using microdata from the labour force survey. The severity of public sector wage cuts employed as a response to the economic crisis and subsequent recovery provides a test bed to analyse whether and how the public-private sector wage gap has adjusted after consolidation-driven wage cuts. Findings reveal that the observed wage gap is slightly in favour of the public sector; however, once differences in individual characteristics and selection effects are considered, results point to a private sector wage premium. Findings also suggest that the private sector wage premium has increased since the pre-crisis period. A signific…
The labour market consequences of self-employment spells:European evidence
2008
Hundreds of thousands of Europeans enter self-employment each year, but because self-employment spells are typically brief, many of them exit soon after entry. We examine how those who return to paid-employment fare on the labour market using the European Community Household Panel (ECHP). Like earlier evidence for the US, ours indicate that, in general, brief spells of self-employment do not increase average hourly earnings upon return to paid-employment. For highly educated men, an additional year of self-employment actually decreases their earnings by 4-5% relative to a year of continued wage employment. We also find that brief spells of self-employment are associated with increased proba…
Wage Cyclicality under Different Regimes of Industrial Relations
2010
Since there is scant evidence on the role of industrial relations in wage cyclicality, this paper analyzes the effect of collective wage contracts and of works councils on real wage growth. Using linked employer-employee data for western Germany, we find that works councils affect wage growth only in combination with collective bargaining. Wage adjustments to positive and negative economic shocks are not always symmetric. Only under sectoral bargaining there is a (nearly symmetric) reaction to rising and falling unemployment. In contrast, wage growth in establishments without collective bargaining adjusts only to falling unemployment and is unaffected by rising unemployment.