Labour EconomicsPub Date : 2024-08-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102581
{"title":"Economic sanctions and informal employment","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102581","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102581","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper examines how economic sanctions affect the allocation of workers across formal and informal employment. We analyse the case of the unprecedented sanctions imposed on Iran in 2012 and focus on the manufacturing sector. Employing a difference-in-differences approach, we compare the probability of being employed in the informal sector before and after 2012 for workers in industries with different pre-existing exposure to international trade. Our analysis reveals that, following the sanctions, workers in industries with higher trade exposure are significantly more likely to experience informal employment compared to workers in industries with lower trade exposure. These results remain robust when accounting for potential sorting issues by using an instrumental variable approach. Our findings shed light on an important margin of labour market adjustment through which sanctions can affect the economy of the target country.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537124000769/pdfft?md5=066860a9b6f0904bc36a6f10988ea9b5&pid=1-s2.0-S0927537124000769-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141277924","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 : 2024-08-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102599
Olof Åslund , Fredrik Larsson , Lisa Laun
{"title":"Joining late, leaving early? Immigrant-native disparities in labor market exit","authors":"Olof Åslund , Fredrik Larsson , Lisa Laun","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102599","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102599","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The retirement behavior of immigrants has received limited attention, despite many countries seeing rising immigrant shares in their aging populations. Population-wide data for Sweden reveals that the retirement hazard rate is higher among immigrants as early as age 50. Approaching age 65, marginal migrant groups are instead more likely to remain in the labor force rather than conform to retirement age norms. While education and family circumstances explain little of these retirement gaps, labor market history, health, and occupation are important determinants. Immigrant-native differences are more pronounced among men than women. Findings suggest that economic necessity or opportunity, rather than varying preferences, are the driving factors behind the observed retirement disparities.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537124000940/pdfft?md5=22f80736c38bd3b248ddd4ee6a177edf&pid=1-s2.0-S0927537124000940-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141696419","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 : 2024-08-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102577
{"title":"Stereotyping and ethnicity gaps in teacher assigned grades","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102577","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102577","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We explore the contribution of stereotyping to attainment gaps between pupils from different ethnic groups when grades are assigned by teachers. We exploit a change in assessment methods in England to compare grades based on teacher predictions to grades received through blindly marked examinations. When grades are assigned by teachers, ethnic minority pupils receive higher grades in maths and lower grades in English relative to White British pupils and compared to when grades are assigned through exams marked by external assessors. We use an extension of the Gelbach decomposition (Gelbach, 2016) to investigate whether the effects can be accounted for by differences in the levels of, or returns to, observed characteristics between years. Accounting for these differences partially reduces the grade gap changes in maths but roughly doubles the magnitude of the grade gap changes in English. Grade gap changes are also not driven by time trends or ceiling effects. We conclude that group-specific stereotyping is a convincing explanation of the results.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537124000721/pdfft?md5=f8aed4435881c8e48102c5b361910be1&pid=1-s2.0-S0927537124000721-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141229650","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 : 2024-08-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102541
{"title":"The pandemic push: Digital technologies and workforce adjustments","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102541","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102541","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Using a novel firm survey matched to administrative employee records, we demonstrate that the COVID-19 pandemic was a push factor for the diffusion of digital technologies in Germany. Two out of three firms invested in digital technologies. Three quarters of those investing firms invested because of the pandemic, particularly in hardware and software to enable decentralized communication, management, and coordination. These investments also fostered additional firm-sponsored training, underscoring the complementarity between investments in digital technologies and training. We then show that the investments helped firms insure their workers against the economic downturn. Firms with additional digital investments retained more of their employees on regular working hours and relied less on short-time work. Low- and medium-skilled, as well as young workers, benefited the most from the insurance effect of digital investments.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140783453","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}
Labour EconomicsPub Date : 2024-08-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102589
{"title":"Parental allowance increase and labor supply: Evidence from a Czech reform","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102589","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102589","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We study the effect of a substantial increase (36%) in parental allowance, a universal basic income-type benefit, on the labor supply of parents of young children in the Czech Republic. Parental allowance does not preclude labor market activity, which allows us to estimate the income effect. We find that the reform resulted in a 4.8 percentage point (11%) decrease in labor market participation of mothers of young children. Mothers with only one child (7.8 p.p., 20%) and university-educated mothers (17 p.p., 32%) reacted particularly strongly. The percentage reduction in hours worked was virtually identical to that in labor force participation. We argue that the sizeable labor supply reduction was driven by the option to extend the parental allowance period, which enabled mothers to postpone their return to work. We find no effect on the labor supply of fathers of young children.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537124000848/pdfft?md5=7a77203b67ca7ca1cb52326cefae0cb6&pid=1-s2.0-S0927537124000848-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141588215","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 : 2024-08-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102583
{"title":"Take-up and labor supply responses to disability insurance earnings limits","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102583","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102583","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In most disability insurance programs beneficiaries lose some or all of their benefits if they earn above an earnings threshold. While intended to screen out applicants with high remaining working capacity, earnings limits can also distort the labor supply of beneficiaries. We use a reduction in the earnings limit in Hungary to evaluate this trade-off and examine screening and labor supply responses. We find that the policy changed selection into the program modestly but reduced labor supply on the intensive margin significantly. These findings suggest that the earnings threshold should be higher.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537124000782/pdfft?md5=8cb04602322aa5208d66e87c6f5b8d10&pid=1-s2.0-S0927537124000782-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141508497","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 : 2024-08-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102587
{"title":"Recruiting effective soldiers: Comparing Danish conscripts and volunteers deployed to peace-keeping and peace-enforcing missions","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102587","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102587","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Several countries have changed between conscription and volunteer militaries, yet very little is known about the outcomes of conscripts compared with volunteers. Denmark is one of the few countries that recruits conscripts and volunteers for military service and assigns conscripts through a draft lottery—a uniquely informative combination. While deployment to the missions we study was voluntary, we use the initial assignment mechanism to estimate the relationships between recruitment methods and a variety of military and post-military deployment outcomes. We find that conscription improves the deployed intelligence pool compared to a volunteer force. However, the intelligence of deployed conscripts varies more over the business cycle than that of volunteers. Denmark’s mixed recruitment method is able to recruit effective soldiers as we find no other significant associations between recruitment method and outcomes while deployed.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141524995","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}
Labour EconomicsPub Date : 2024-08-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102538
{"title":"Reducing the gender gap in parental leave through economic incentives? – Evidence from the gender equality bonus in Sweden","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102538","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102538","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Using a regression discontinuity design, I evaluate an internationally unique policy in Sweden that rewarded equal division of parental leave with a cash bonus. The policy caused a small but significant reduction in the <em>difference</em> in days of leave between the parents. But since parent couples responded in different directions depending on the gender of the person with the lower uptake, the average effect on the <em>mother-father difference</em> in uptake was insignificant. Expectedly, given this result, the bonus did not affect average gender differences in earnings or indicators of later childcare responsibility. However, mothers who lowered their uptake of parental leave in response to the bonus displayed positive point estimates with regard to earnings while mothers who increased their uptake displayed negative estimates. This indicates that we cannot rule out a potential link between the length of parental leave and later allocation of time between home and market production. While the bonus did not affect average gender differences in parental leave and earnings, a key finding is that parents’ division of parental leave <em>can</em> be affected by economic incentives, suggesting that better calibrated bonus programs have potential to be useful policy tools.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537124000332/pdfft?md5=9e04d63d053111ba964a9420ade77d95&pid=1-s2.0-S0927537124000332-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140268590","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 : 2024-08-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102573
{"title":"Everybody’s got to learn sometime? A causal machine learning evaluation of training programmes for jobseekers in France","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102573","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102573","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper estimates the heterogeneous impact of three types of vocational training- preparation, qualifying, and combined – on jobseekers’ return to employment using the Modified Causal Forest method. Analysing data from 33,699 individuals over 24 months, it reveals a short-term negative lock-in effect for all programmes, persisting in the medium term for combined training. Only qualifying training shows a positive medium-term effect. Seniors, low-skilled, foreign-born, and those with poor job histories benefit most, while youth and higher education levels benefit less. Targeting foreign-born individuals could significantly enhance programme effectiveness, as indicated by the clustering analysis and optimal policy trees.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092753712400068X/pdfft?md5=dfbf9945a6ec1aad9c91fdad63eaceae&pid=1-s2.0-S092753712400068X-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141133983","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 : 2024-08-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102568
{"title":"Measuring the quality of a match","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102568","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102568","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>The quality of an employment match is a central concept in labor economics. It is relevant for evaluating the welfare impact of </span>labor market policies<span>, and for our understanding of labor market dynamics. This paper reviews the challenges associated with measuring match quality. We first review measures commonly used in the literature, their advantages, and drawbacks. We then present novel evidence from a survey sample of US employees where alternative measures were collected simultaneously. We show that while some of these measures correlate well, others do not. Finally, we present additional partial evidence on the correlations between measures based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), a substantially larger and nationally representative survey. The takeaway message is a word of caution regarding the interpretation of some of these measures and specific concerns regarding using wages and tenure as indicators of match quality.</span></p></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141524996","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}