Search results for "LABOUR"
showing 10 items of 655 documents
The Employment Effect of Reforming a Public Employment Agency
2015
By how much does an increase in operating effectiveness of a public employment agency (PEA) and a reduction of unemployment benefits reduce unemployment? Using a recent labour market reform in Germany as background, we find that an enhanced effectiveness of the PEA explains about 20% of the observed post-reform unemployment decline. The role of unemployment benefit reduction explains just about 5% of the observed decline. Due to disincentive effects resulting from the reform, the reform of the PEA could have had an even higher impact on unemployment reduction if there had been less focus on long-term unemployed workers.
Unemployment, cycle and gender
2012
Abstract This study analyzes the relationship between unemployment and the business cycle in the UK and the US. For both economies, a strong and definite association is found that shows that cyclical shocks extend their effect on unemployment over several quarters. This association is much more intense for male unemployment than for female unemployment, although some strength has been lost in the UK in the last few years.
Redistribution, selection, and trade
2017
Abstract This paper examines the distributional effects of international trade in a general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents and a welfare state redistributing income. The redistribution scheme is financed by a progressive income tax and gives the same absolute transfer to all individuals. Ceteris paribus, international trade leads to an increase in income per capita but also to higher income inequality on two fronts. Inter-group inequality between managers and workers increases, and intra-group inequality within the group of managers goes up as well. We show that for a given tax rate, there is an endogenous increase in the size of the welfare state that works against the increas…
Do we value mobility?
2015
Is there a trade-off between people's preference for income equality and income mobility? Testing for the existence of such a trade-off is difficult because mobility is a multifaceted concept. We analyse results from a questionnaire experiment based on simple precise concepts of income inequality and income mobility. We fnd no direct trade-off in preference between mobility and equality, but an indirect trade-off, applying when more income mobility can only be obtained at the expense of some income inequality. Mobility preference - but not equality preference - appears to be driven by personal experience of mobility.
Changing returns to education in Spain during the 1980s
1998
We present evidence on returns to education for Spanish employees during the 1980s, a period of remarkable structural transformations. The results show a declining payoff to education between 1981 and 1991 for lower and intermediate educational levels, whereas higher education does not show a reduction in its return. At the same time, earnings inequality by gender declined noticeably as educational attainment expanded. [JEL I21, J31]
Wage gaps between the public and private sectors in Spain
1998
Based on data from the last household survey conducted by the Instituto Nacional de Estatistica in 1990-91, we estimate separate earnings equations by sector of employment and gender, treating the choice of employment sector as endogenous. From these results we compare the wage-generating process for each subgroup and identify the returns to human capital of males and females working in the public and private sectors. We then decompose overall wage gaps by sector for each gender in order to measure the contribution of education and other personal characteristics to public-private wage differentials and to evaluate the economic surplus that public sector workers receive compared to their pri…
Testing the Acemoglu–Pischke model in Spain
2001
Abstract The Acemoglu–Pischke approach to training in imperfect labor markets predicts that wage compressions should shift incentives to invest in training from workers to firms. This will increase firm-sponsored general training when workers are unable to invest in training by themselves. Spain is on the top of the ranking of regulated labor markets. However, the training figures for Spain indicate a poor effect of highly compressed wage structure on firm-sponsored training.
ESTIMATING INCENTIVE AND WELFARE EFFECTS OF NONSTATIONARY UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS
2013
The distribution of unemployment duration in our equilibrium matching model with spell-dependent unemployment benefits displays time-varying exit rates. Building on semi-Markov processes, we translate these rates into an expression for the aggregate unemployment rate. Structural estimation using German microdata allows us to discuss the effects of an unemployment benefit reform (Hartz IV). The reform reduced unemployment by less than 0.1 percentage points. Contrary to general beliefs, the net wage for most skill and regional groups increased. Taking the insurance effect of unemployment benefits into account, however, the reform is welfare reducing for 76% of workers.
Convergence in OECD countries: technical change, efficiency and productivity
1998
The aim of this study is to analyze labor productivity convergence in the countries of the OECD over the period 1965-90. A non-parametric frontier approach is used to calculate the Malmquist productivity index. By breaking it down, the contribution to the growth of labor productivity of technical progress, of changes in efficiency, and of the accumulation of inputs per worker are quantified. Unlike other studies, the results obtained show that technical change has worked against labor productivity convergence, since it has always been greater in the countries with higher labor productivity. El trabajo tiene como objetivo básico analizar la contribución de las distintas fuentes del crecimien…
Human capital and income inequality revisited
2021
This paper revisits the relationship between human capital and income inequality, using an updated data set on human capital inequality and a novel database on earnings inequality. We find an inver...