EconomicaPub Date : 2026-09-01Epub Date: 2026-04-28DOI: 10.1111/ecca.70052
Róbert Károlyi
{"title":"Wage insurance against short-term sales changes","authors":"Róbert Károlyi","doi":"10.1111/ecca.70052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.70052","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this paper, I study how the wages of job-stayers respond within the year to changes in firm sales, using quarterly matched employer–employee data from Hungary. The analysis compares firm-specific and sectoral shocks with an instrumental variables strategy based on leave-one-out sectoral sales growth. Three main results emerge. Wages are almost fully insured against idiosyncratic firm shocks, with elasticities around 2%. In contrast, wages co-move strongly with aggregate shocks: the elasticity with respect to sectoral sales changes is about 0.07, and even higher in manufacturing, construction and machine-operator jobs. These results show that aggregate shocks pass through even on a short, quarterly time horizon, while firms provide insurance against firm-specific shocks. This implies that changing macroeconomic or monetary conditions can affect wages even at the quarterly level.</p>","PeriodicalId":48040,"journal":{"name":"Economica","volume":"93 372","pages":"1206-1224"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148862527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EconomicaPub Date : 2026-09-01Epub Date: 2026-07-08DOI: 10.1111/ecca.70065
Ningyuan Jia, Swati Dhingra, Emily Fry, Sophie Hale
{"title":"Counting the costs: a quantitative assessment of the effects of Brexit on UK regions and sectors","authors":"Ningyuan Jia, Swati Dhingra, Emily Fry, Sophie Hale","doi":"10.1111/ecca.70065","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.70065","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper examines the implications of the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) using a dynamic spatial general equilibrium model. Unlike previous studies that primarily projected potential impacts of Brexit based on uncertain scenarios, this analysis introduces new estimates of tariffs and non-tariff measures specified by the TCA. The findings show that while the TCA will necessitate substantial adjustments for some sectors, Brexit will not fundamentally alter the overall structure of the UK economy. However, the main impacts will manifest as significant hits to real wages and productivity, exacerbating the long-standing economic challenges faced by the UK.</p>","PeriodicalId":48040,"journal":{"name":"Economica","volume":"93 372","pages":"1464-1500"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148862332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EconomicaPub Date : 2026-09-01Epub Date: 2026-05-11DOI: 10.1111/ecca.70053
Beatrice Braut, Claire Mollier, Sarah Zaccagni
{"title":"Step into action: how reminders shape engagement in fitness apps","authors":"Beatrice Braut, Claire Mollier, Sarah Zaccagni","doi":"10.1111/ecca.70053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.70053","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Regular exercise offers well-documented health benefits, and mobile applications are increasingly used to promote physical activity. In this study, we conduct a large-scale randomized controlled trial with 20,187 users of the <i>WeWard</i> app in France to evaluate the effectiveness of different message framings and intervention durations on app engagement and walking behaviour. Participants were randomly assigned to receive one of three types of messages, each leveraging distinct behavioural features such as peer comparison, self-comparison or a generic reminder, over a period of one or three weeks. Our results show that peer-comparison messages positively influence the extensive margin of app utilization. However, despite these increases in app usage, neither type of message led to a significant increase in the number of steps walked. These findings highlight the limitations of relying on engagement metrics alone when evaluating app-based interventions aimed at behaviour change.</p>","PeriodicalId":48040,"journal":{"name":"Economica","volume":"93 372","pages":"1225-1259"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ecca.70053","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148862381","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EconomicaPub Date : 2026-09-01Epub Date: 2026-06-29DOI: 10.1111/ecca.70063
Rajiv Sethi, Rohini Somanathan
{"title":"Meritocracy in the face of group inequality","authors":"Rajiv Sethi, Rohini Somanathan","doi":"10.1111/ecca.70063","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.70063","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Meritocratic systems are commonly understood as those that assign tasks to individuals who can best perform them. But future performance is not known prior to assignment, and must be inferred from other traits. We consider a model in which performance depends on two attributes—ability and training—where ability is endowed and unobserved, and training is acquired and observed. The potential to acquire training depends on ability and resource access, so ability affects performance through two channels: indirectly through training, and directly through the performance function. The population consists of two groups, each with the same ability distribution, but with differential access to resources. We show that performance-maximizing allocations are not necessarily group-blind or monotonic in training, and can involve greater representation of groups with lower resource access than would arise if the only criteria for selection were past performance. If policies are constrained to be monotonic due to the possibility of strategic applicant behaviour, then these representation effects can be mitigated or amplified, depending on the fraction of the population that is selected.</p>","PeriodicalId":48040,"journal":{"name":"Economica","volume":"93 372","pages":"1446-1463"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148862448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EconomicaPub Date : 2026-09-01Epub Date: 2026-05-22DOI: 10.1111/ecca.70055
Paolo Brunori, Francisco H. G. Ferreira, Pedro Salas-Rojo
{"title":"Inherited inequality and the distribution of opportunities in the USA, China, India and South Africa","authors":"Paolo Brunori, Francisco H. G. Ferreira, Pedro Salas-Rojo","doi":"10.1111/ecca.70055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.70055","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Researchers have sought to quantify the extent of inequality that is inherited from previous generations or factors that are predetermined at birth in multiple ways, including a large body of work on intergenerational mobility and inequality of opportunity. Many of the most frequently used approaches to measuring mobility or inequality of opportunity fit within a general framework that involves, as a first step, an estimation of the extent to which inherited personal characteristics can predict current incomes. We suggest a new approach, within that broad framework, that is sensitive to differences across the entire conditional distributions of relevant population subgroups, rather than just in their means. Sensitivity to differences in higher moments of the conditional distributions allows for a comprehensive assessment of inherited inequality. We apply this approach to household income distributions in China, India, South Africa and the USA, to illustrate how the method performs in different settings. We find that inherited inequality accounts for large shares of total inequality, from 36% in the USA to 59% in China, 62% in India, and 81% in South Africa.</p>","PeriodicalId":48040,"journal":{"name":"Economica","volume":"93 372","pages":"1300-1335"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148862493","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EconomicaPub Date : 2026-09-01Epub Date: 2026-08-05DOI: 10.1111/ecca.70067
Pinjas Albagli, Nye Cominetti, Rui Costa, Andrew Eyles, Guglielmo Ventura
{"title":"Changing jobs: worker mobility and wages in the UK labour market","authors":"Pinjas Albagli, Nye Cominetti, Rui Costa, Andrew Eyles, Guglielmo Ventura","doi":"10.1111/ecca.70067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.70067","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We study the role of job-to-job transitions in shaping wage dynamics in the UK. We show that job moves have continued to generate substantial wage gains for movers even during a period of real wage stagnation and declining labour market mobility. Using an econometric model that accounts for worker, firm and match heterogeneity, we decompose the job mobility premium, and find a limited role for worker and firm effects, with most of the return explained by match-specific factors. We also examine the determinants of job mobility, and show that much of its recent decline reflects compositional changes in the workforce, particularly ageing and increasing occupational professionalization. We conclude by discussing the policy challenges of promoting job mobility as a driver of wage growth and more efficient labour market reallocation.</p>","PeriodicalId":48040,"journal":{"name":"Economica","volume":"93 372","pages":"1501-1532"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ecca.70067","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148862377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EconomicaPub Date : 2026-09-01Epub Date: 2026-06-25DOI: 10.1111/ecca.70062
Gianluca Grimalda, Fabrice Murtin, David Pipke, Louis Putterman, Matthias Sutter
{"title":"Did the outbreak of COVID-19 and individual exposure to it increase ingroup bias in the USA? An experimental investigation of interethnic trust","authors":"Gianluca Grimalda, Fabrice Murtin, David Pipke, Louis Putterman, Matthias Sutter","doi":"10.1111/ecca.70062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.70062","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Pathogen-stress and terror-management theories predict that lethal epidemics heighten parochial cooperation. We test this prediction experimentally in two nationally representative US samples surveyed before and at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We compare trust and expected trustworthiness across the two waves in monetarily incentivized trust games involving non-Hispanic Whites, African Americans and Hispanics. We find significant ingroup favouritism in both waves. However, the aggregate ingroup premium fell by about one-half between waves. This decline was concentrated among left-leaning and moderate respondents. While non-Hispanic Whites tended to reduce their ingroup bias in expected trustworthiness, the opposite was found for African Americans. Respondents more exposed to COVID-19 displayed higher intergroup trust, altruism and expected trustworthiness than others. These results contradict the hypothesis that lethal epidemics intensify parochialism, also suggesting that the response may be diversified across groups.</p>","PeriodicalId":48040,"journal":{"name":"Economica","volume":"93 372","pages":"1421-1445"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148862507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EconomicaPub Date : 2026-09-01Epub Date: 2026-05-19DOI: 10.1111/ecca.70054
Ronald Bachmann, Gökay Demir, Colin Green, Arne Uhlendorff
{"title":"How important are within-occupation task changes for wage growth? Evidence from administrative micro data","authors":"Ronald Bachmann, Gökay Demir, Colin Green, Arne Uhlendorff","doi":"10.1111/ecca.70054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.70054","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We examine how changes in task content over time condition occupational wage development. Using survey data from Germany, we document substantial heterogeneity in within-occupation changes in task content. Combining this evidence with administrative data on individual employment outcomes over a 25-year period, we find important heterogeneity in wage penalties amongst jobs that were initially routine-task-intensive. While occupations that remain (relatively) routine-intensive generate substantial wage penalties, occupations with a decreasing routine intensity experience stable or even increasing wages. These findings suggest that changing task profiles of occupations is an important adaptation mechanism to technological change. They cannot be explained by composition or cohort effects.</p>","PeriodicalId":48040,"journal":{"name":"Economica","volume":"93 372","pages":"1260-1299"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ecca.70054","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148862259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EconomicaPub Date : 2026-09-01Epub Date: 2026-05-27DOI: 10.1111/ecca.70058
Christine Bangum, Benny Geys, Rune Sørensen
{"title":"Universalism: an 11-year longitudinal study","authors":"Christine Bangum, Benny Geys, Rune Sørensen","doi":"10.1111/ecca.70058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.70058","url":null,"abstract":"<p>How individuals make trade-offs between socially proximate or distant groups impacts upon a wide range of social, political and economic behaviours. This paper exploits Norwegian administrative register data over the 2012–2022 period to assess whether, and if so how, such ‘(moral) universalism’ develops as individuals age and go through major life events. We show that ageing is associated with increases in universalism in early adulthood and declining universalism among older individuals, but the magnitude of these changes remains very small. Similarly, major life events—such as starting higher education, first-time parenthood, positive income shocks and retirement—are linked to at best minor and short-lived changes in universalism. These results add important insights regarding the (in)stability of individuals' value orientations during adulthood, and raise new questions about the potential influence of broader social forces on universalism across cohorts.</p>","PeriodicalId":48040,"journal":{"name":"Economica","volume":"93 372","pages":"1336-1355"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ecca.70058","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148862525","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
EconomicaPub Date : 2026-09-01Epub Date: 2026-04-28DOI: 10.1111/ecca.70051
Katharina Brütt, Huaiping Yuan
{"title":"Transparency upon request: the right to pay information and the gender pay gap","authors":"Katharina Brütt, Huaiping Yuan","doi":"10.1111/ecca.70051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.70051","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Pay transparency measures are widely adopted policy instruments to decrease the gender pay gap. This paper studies a policy that grants access to wage information only upon request, analysing a German pay transparency law that grants workers the right to request information about the earnings of colleagues in comparable positions. Using large-scale administrative data and exploiting variation in exposure to the policy due to an exogenous cut-off in firm size, we investigate the causal impact of this pay transparency policy. Wages and the gender wage gap in treated firms were unaffected. The right to request wage information alone, that is, the endogenous access to wage information, is not an effective policy tool. These findings are robust, with no detectable effects in firms where pay transparency may be particularly powerful.</p>","PeriodicalId":48040,"journal":{"name":"Economica","volume":"93 372","pages":"1169-1205"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ecca.70051","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148862526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}