Search results for "jel:J3"
showing 10 items of 20 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.
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.
Discrimination by microcredit officers: Theory and evidence on disability in Uganda
2015
This paper studies the relationship between a microfinance institution (MFI) and its loan officers when officers discriminate against a particular group of micro-entrepreneurs. Using survey data from Uganda, we provide evidence that loan officers are more biased than other employees against disabled micro-entrepreneurs. In line with the evidence, we build an agency model of a non-profit MFI and a biased loan officer in charge of granting loans. Since incentive schemes are costly and the MFI's budget is limited, the MFI faces a trade-off between combating discrimination and granting loans. We show that the optimal incentive premium is a non-decreasing function of the MFI's budget. Moreover, …
Heterogeneidad en el impacto de la política de becas en la escolaridad secundaria postobligatoria en España: un análisis por subgrupos poblacionales
2013
El presente trabajo analiza el impacto de las becas sobre la probabilidad de finalizar con éxito el nivel secundario postobligatorio en España en el caso de diferentes subgrupos poblacionales. Se aplica un diseño cuasiexperimental (Propensity score matching) a partir de la Encuesta de Condiciones de Vida (ECV-2006). Los resultados confirman la existencia de efectos diferenciales positivos (con relación al impacto medio) de la política educativa en el caso de las mujeres y de los alumnos provenientes de hogares desfavorecidos, demostrando la existencia de heterogeneidad en el impacto de la política analizada.
Foreign Taleovers and Wages: Theory and Evidence from Hungary
2005
This study discriminates FDI technology spillover from learning effects. Whenever learning takes time, our model predicts that foreign investors deduct the economic value of learning from wages of inexperienced workers and add it to experienced ones to prevent them from moving to local competitors. Hence, the national wage bill is unaffected by foreign takeovers. In contrast to learning, technology spillover effects occur whenever a worker with MNE experience contributes more to local firms’ than to MNEs’ productivity. In this case, experienced MNE workers are hired by local firms and the host country obtains a welfare gain. We investigate empirically wages, productivity, and worker turnove…
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…
Biomarkers and Long-Term Labour Market Outcomes: The Case of Creatine
2014
I evaluate the impact of the UK Working Time Regulations 1998, which introduced mandatory paid holiday entitlement. The regulation gave (nearly) all workers the right to a minimum of 4 weeks of paid holiday per a year. With constant weekly pay this change amounts effectively to an increase in the real hourly wage of about 8.5% for someone going from 0 to 4 weeks paid holiday per year, which should lead to adjustments in employment. For employees I use complementary log-log regression to account for right-censoring of employment spells. I find no increase in the hazard to exit employment within a year after treatment. Adjustments in wages cannot explain this result as they are increasing for…
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 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.