Labour EconomicsPub Date : 2025-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102666
Yong Suk Lee , Toshiaki Iizuka , Karen Eggleston
{"title":"Robots and labor in nursing homes","authors":"Yong Suk Lee , Toshiaki Iizuka , Karen Eggleston","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102666","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102666","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>How do employment, tasks, and productivity change with robot adoption? Unlike manufacturing, little is known about these issues in the service sector, where robot adoption is expanding. As a first step towards filling this gap, we study Japanese nursing homes using original facility-level panel data that includes the different robots used and the tasks performed. We find that robot adoption is accompanied by an increase in employment and retention and the relationship is strongest for non-regular care workers and monitoring robots. The share of specific tasks performed by robots increases with the adoption of the respective type of robot, leading to reallocation of care worker effort to “human touch” tasks that support quality care. Robots are associated with improved quality (reduction in restraint use and pressure ulcers) and productivity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 102666"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143172173","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Labour EconomicsPub Date : 2025-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102668
Qingxiao Li , Di Xiao
{"title":"Fertility discrimination in the Chinese labor market: Evidence from a correspondence study and an employer survey","authors":"Qingxiao Li , Di Xiao","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102668","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102668","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines fertility discrimination in the Chinese labor market following the implementation of the three-child policy and extended parental leave provisions. We conducted a correspondence study and submitted 18,728 resumes to 4,682 entry-level job postings on a prominent online job board, with randomized applicant gender, marital, and parental status. Our results show that single female applicants are more likely to receive callbacks than married females, who have a higher probability of childbearing. Conversely, male applicants do not experience a similar gap based on their marital or parental status. A complementary survey of 745 hiring managers aligns with these results, with a pronounced disfavor towards married women without children, largely due to their preference for parental status and concerns about maternity leave. The survey further suggests that hiring preferences may be influenced by the managers’ own demographic and personal traits, such as gender, parental status, and time and risk preferences.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 102668"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143172596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Labour EconomicsPub Date : 2025-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102648
Marco Caliendo , Rebecca Olthaus , Nico Pestel
{"title":"Long-term employment effects of the minimum wage in Germany: New data and estimators","authors":"Marco Caliendo , Rebecca Olthaus , Nico Pestel","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102648","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102648","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We investigate the long-term effects of the introduction of the German minimum wage in 2015 and its subsequent increases on regional employment. Using comprehensive survey data, we are able to measure the regional bite of the minimum wage in 2014, just before its introduction, as well as in 2018, before it was raised substantially in several steps. The introduction mainly affected the labour market in East Germany, while the minimum wage increases increasingly affected low-wage regions in West Germany, with about one third of regions changing their (binary) treatment status between 2014 and 2018. We use different specifications and extensions of the canonical difference-in-differences approach, as well as a set of new estimators that allow unbiased effect estimation with a staggered treatment adoption and heterogeneous treatment effects. Our results show a small negative effect on total dependent employment of 0.5%, driven by a significant reduction in marginal employment of 2.4%. The extended specifications suggest additional effects of the minimum wage increases, as well as stronger negative effects for those regions that were strongly affected by the minimum wage in both periods.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 102648"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143104511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Labour EconomicsPub Date : 2025-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102669
Eduard Brüll , Davud Rostam-Afschar , Oliver Schlenker
{"title":"Cut off from new competition: Threat of entry and quality of primary care","authors":"Eduard Brüll , Davud Rostam-Afschar , Oliver Schlenker","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102669","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102669","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We study how the threat of entry affects service quantity and quality of general practitioners (GPs). We leverage Germany’s needs-based primary care planning system, in which the likelihood of new GPs reduces by 20 percentage points when primary care coverage exceeds a cut-off. We compile novel data covering all German primary care regions and up to 30,000 GP-level observations from 2014 to 2019. Reduced threat of entry lowers patient satisfaction for incumbent GPs without nearby competitors but not in areas with competitors. We find no effects on working hours or quality measures at the regional level including hospitalizations and mortality.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 102669"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143172170","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Labour EconomicsPub Date : 2025-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102671
Xuezheng Qin , Jinjie Tan , Haochen Zhang
{"title":"Teaching for happiness: The impact of teachers’ education on student mental health","authors":"Xuezheng Qin , Jinjie Tan , Haochen Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102671","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102671","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates the effect of teachers’ schooling on student mental health in junior high schools in China. Based on the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) data, we exploit the random nature of class assignment for causal identification. The results show that students taught by head teachers with more years of schooling tend to have better mental health outcomes. This effect is shown to operate through several channels: more educated teachers tend to handle students’ mental health problems in a more scientific manner; they also have more effective communication with parents regarding their children's mental health, which potentially cultivates more responsive parenting styles and a closer parent-child relationship; better-educated head teachers also induce higher peer quality for their students. Among them, teachers’ specific know-how on student mental health problems and the role of parents are identified as primary mechanisms. Subsample analyses show the impact of teachers’ schooling on student mental health is larger for students with less maternal schooling, rural students, and male students. Our findings enrich the literature on the education-health gradient, and contribute to the understanding of the social welfare gains of enhancing schoolteachers’ human capital.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 102671"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143172174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Skill demand versus skill use: Comparing job posts with individual skill use on the job","authors":"Moira Daly , Fane Groes , Mathias Fjællegaard Jensen","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102661","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102661","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Skill requirements in a job post reflect an employer’s “wish list,” but do they also reflect skills used on the job by the hired worker? We compare skill measures derived from the text of online job posts with individual-level data from the Danish Labour Force Survey (LFS) in which participants report their main skills used on the job as free text. By identifying individual workers from the LFS who can be matched to a job post, we validate that the extensive margin skills measures derived from job postings data reflect main skills used on the job. Thus, using job postings data to analyze skill use on the job is generally a valid empirical strategy. However, we also show that heterogeneity in returns to skills is missed if only the extensive margin of skill demand is considered.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 102661"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143172598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Labour EconomicsPub Date : 2025-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102662
Karin Hederos , Anna Sandberg , Lukas Kvissberg , Erik Polano
{"title":"Gender homophily in job referrals: Evidence from a field study among university students","authors":"Karin Hederos , Anna Sandberg , Lukas Kvissberg , Erik Polano","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102662","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102662","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We conducted a field study at a Swedish business school to investigate gender homophily in referrer behavior. In the study, 453 participants were asked to refer another student at the school for a real job. We find that both men and women mainly refer candidates of their own gender: 71% of female participants referred a female candidate, and 75% of male participants referred a male candidate. The gender composition of close friendship networks appears to be an important driver of this pattern. Randomizing participants across two job advertisements, we find suggestive evidence that the degree of gender homophily in job referrals is stronger when the job is more consistent with stereotypes associated with the participant’s own gender.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 102662"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143172597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Labour EconomicsPub Date : 2024-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102617
Yu-Wei Luke Chu , Ming-Jen Lin , Huici Nian
{"title":"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree: Intergenerational wealth mobility in Taiwan","authors":"Yu-Wei Luke Chu , Ming-Jen Lin , Huici Nian","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102617","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102617","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We estimate intergenerational wealth mobility using administrative records from Taiwan and find strong intergenerational rank correlations in household gross wealth, around 0.40 for sons and 0.30 for daughters. The wealth rank correlations are similar for single and married children, even though married children have greater household wealth and relatively strong assortative mating. The intergenerational wealth correlation is nonlinear and particularly strong for families in the top 10 % of household wealth. Different family sizes and gender compositions do not significantly affect intergenerational wealth mobility, regardless of the children's gender or marital status. Since our sample includes only parents who are still alive, these correlations are not driven by bequests. However, inter vivos transfers appear to play a significant role.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"91 ","pages":"Article 102617"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142744207","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Improving children's foundational learning through community-school participation: Experimental evidence from rural India","authors":"Deepak Kumar , Naveen Sunder , Ricardo Sabates Aysa , Wilima Wadhwa","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102615","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102615","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Due to almost-universal enrolment in primary schools, policy focus has shifted towards improving learning outcomes. One important way of doing this is to enhance accountability, especially in the case of public provision of education. In this context, we examine the effectiveness of two different strategies of increasing accountability – one involving only the community, and the other which builds collaboration between the schools and the community. We implement a randomized controlled trial in 400 villages in India, and find: (i) both interventions led to a significant enhancement in children's foundational literacy and numeracy skills, (ii) we observed limited differences between the impacts of the two interventions, and (iii) the community-school intervention exhibited significantly greater effects when parents reported visiting the school, underscoring the vital role of parent-teacher interactions and their shared responsibility in shaping children's learning outcomes. In terms of mechanism, we find that direct learning inputs play a major role in mediating the observed effects of both interventions. Additionally, parent-teacher engagement and children's studying habits outside of the school are potential important channels through which the observed effects operate in the community-school intervention.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"91 ","pages":"Article 102615"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142196131","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Labour EconomicsPub Date : 2024-11-19DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102651
Jaesoo Kim
{"title":"Incentive contracts with pay gap and pay equity","authors":"Jaesoo Kim","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102651","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102651","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper explores the impact of non-standard work hours on job performance, with a particular focus on the gender pay gap within the principal–agent model. We develop a moral hazard model that introduces a gender-specific dimension, examining the relationship between optimal contracts and performance pay disparities. We explore two distinct scenarios—one featuring different pay and another with equal pay. The situation with different pay enables us to discern the factors contributing to the wage gap between the two workers. Upon examining the scenario where the contract is constrained to equal pay, we identify two noteworthy outcomes within the optimal contract. Firstly, the compensation structure shifts toward dependence on relative performance, departing from the independent performance evaluation observed in scenarios with different pay. Secondly, equal pay decreases the likelihood of having both the glass ceiling and glass cliff phenomena.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"91 ","pages":"Article 102651"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142704610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}