"Of the typically cited agglomeration advantages labor market pooling receives strong empirical support - yet remains under-explored theoretically. This paper presents a model of human capital formation in an imperfectly competitive, pooled local labor market with heterogeneous workers and firms. Firms produce for a competitive output market with differing technologies, thus requiring diverse skills. In anticipation of firm behavior, workers choose between specializing into specific skills and accumulating general human capital. While labor market pooling provides static efficiency gains, our approach also suggests that there are long-term effects: under a diversified industrial structure, industry-specific shocks lead to a labor market pooling advantage which raises the incentive for workers to acquire both general and specific human capital. This will not only strengthen a region's capability to adapt to change but will also contribute to higher growth." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
{"title":"Labor Market Pooling and Human Capital Investment Decisions","authors":"Elke Amend, P. Herbst","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1479393","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1479393","url":null,"abstract":"\"Of the typically cited agglomeration advantages labor market pooling receives strong empirical support - yet remains under-explored theoretically. This paper presents a model of human capital formation in an imperfectly competitive, pooled local labor market with heterogeneous workers and firms. Firms produce for a competitive output market with differing technologies, thus requiring diverse skills. In anticipation of firm behavior, workers choose between specializing into specific skills and accumulating general human capital. While labor market pooling provides static efficiency gains, our approach also suggests that there are long-term effects: under a diversified industrial structure, industry-specific shocks lead to a labor market pooling advantage which raises the incentive for workers to acquire both general and specific human capital. This will not only strengthen a region's capability to adapt to change but will also contribute to higher growth.\" (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))","PeriodicalId":142467,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Human Capital","volume":"91 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122091982","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
How important is luck in determining labor market outcomes? We address this question using a new dataset of all international test cricketers who debuted between 1950 and 1985. We present evidence that a player’s debut performance is strongly affected by an exogenous source of variation: whether the debut series is played at home or abroad. This allows us to identify the role of luck - factors unrelated to ability - in shaping future career outcomes. We find that players lucky enough to debut at home perform significantly better on debut. Moreover, debut performance has a large and persistent impact on long run career outcomes. We also make headway in empirically distinguishing between competing explanations for why exogenous initial conditions exercise a persistent impact on career performance
{"title":"What Can International Cricket Teach Us About the Role of Luck in Labor Markets?","authors":"Shekhar Aiyar, Rodney Ramcharan","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1478408","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1478408","url":null,"abstract":"How important is luck in determining labor market outcomes? We address this question using a new dataset of all international test cricketers who debuted between 1950 and 1985. We present evidence that a player’s debut performance is strongly affected by an exogenous source of variation: whether the debut series is played at home or abroad. This allows us to identify the role of luck - factors unrelated to ability - in shaping future career outcomes. We find that players lucky enough to debut at home perform significantly better on debut. Moreover, debut performance has a large and persistent impact on long run career outcomes. We also make headway in empirically distinguishing between competing explanations for why exogenous initial conditions exercise a persistent impact on career performance","PeriodicalId":142467,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Human Capital","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122084636","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Partly in response to increased testing and accountability, states and districts have been raising the minimum school entry age, but existing studies show mixed results regarding the effects of entry age. These studies may be severely biased because they violate the monotonicity assumption needed for LATE. We propose an instrument not subject to this bias and show no effect on the educational attainment of children born in the fourth quarter of moving from a December 31 to an earlier cutoff. We then estimate a structural model of optimal entry age that reconciles the different IV estimates including ours. We find that one standard instrument is badly biased but that the other diverges from ours because it estimates a different LATE. We also find that an early entry age cutoff that is applied loosely (as in the 1950s) is beneficial but one that is strictly enforced is not.
{"title":"School Entry, Educational Attainment and Quarter of Birth: A Cautionary Tale of LATE","authors":"R. Barua, K. Lang","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1437617","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1437617","url":null,"abstract":"Partly in response to increased testing and accountability, states and districts have been raising the minimum school entry age, but existing studies show mixed results regarding the effects of entry age. These studies may be severely biased because they violate the monotonicity assumption needed for LATE. We propose an instrument not subject to this bias and show no effect on the educational attainment of children born in the fourth quarter of moving from a December 31 to an earlier cutoff. We then estimate a structural model of optimal entry age that reconciles the different IV estimates including ours. We find that one standard instrument is badly biased but that the other diverges from ours because it estimates a different LATE. We also find that an early entry age cutoff that is applied loosely (as in the 1950s) is beneficial but one that is strictly enforced is not.","PeriodicalId":142467,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Human Capital","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129437097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Theory presents two broad channels through which profit sharing can increase worker training. First, it directly increases training by alleviating hold-up problems and/or by encouraging co-workers to provide training. Second, it indirectly increases training by reducing worker separation and increasing training investments' amortization period. This article provides the first attempt at separately identifying these two channels. We confirm a strong direct effect, but also identify a weaker, more tenuous indirect effect. This suggests that profit sharing's influence on training is unlikely to operate primarily through its reduction on separations while simultaneously presenting the first evidence confirming the prediction of an indirect causation.
{"title":"Profit Sharing, Separation and Training","authors":"Colin Green, J. Heywood","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1007683","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1007683","url":null,"abstract":"Theory presents two broad channels through which profit sharing can increase worker training. First, it directly increases training by alleviating hold-up problems and/or by encouraging co-workers to provide training. Second, it indirectly increases training by reducing worker separation and increasing training investments' amortization period. This article provides the first attempt at separately identifying these two channels. We confirm a strong direct effect, but also identify a weaker, more tenuous indirect effect. This suggests that profit sharing's influence on training is unlikely to operate primarily through its reduction on separations while simultaneously presenting the first evidence confirming the prediction of an indirect causation.","PeriodicalId":142467,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Human Capital","volume":"137 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122915689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In an OLG (overlapping generations) economy with only two risky factors of production, human capital and physical capital, a social security system that optimally shares risks among generations was incorporated. By allowing for physical capital acumulation, this paper extends John Compbell's fixed supplies of asset economy into a dynamic environment. Under certain conditions, this new system has milder effects than Campbell's on risk-free interest rate, and prices and risk premium of physical capital. We also find that the level of human capital could make the system's effects on asset markets ambiguous and steady state physical capital stock is lower in the long run equilibrium.
{"title":"Intergenerational Risksharing and Equilibrium Asset Prices: An Economy with Factor Accumulation","authors":"Yongyang Su","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1437320","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1437320","url":null,"abstract":"In an OLG (overlapping generations) economy with only two risky factors of production, human capital and physical capital, a social security system that optimally shares risks among generations was incorporated. By allowing for physical capital acumulation, this paper extends John Compbell's fixed supplies of asset economy into a dynamic environment. Under certain conditions, this new system has milder effects than Campbell's on risk-free interest rate, and prices and risk premium of physical capital. We also find that the level of human capital could make the system's effects on asset markets ambiguous and steady state physical capital stock is lower in the long run equilibrium.","PeriodicalId":142467,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Human Capital","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123319336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Using establishment data covering the time period 1997 to 2007, this paper investigates trends of employer-sponsored further training in Germany, with a focus on the share of establishments investing in training. In West and East Germany alike I find a positive time trend in the share of training active establishments. Applying Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition techniques shows that changes in some establishment characteristics affect the trend, however not only in a positive way. While the increase of the fraction of skilled workers, changes in industry composition and the risen share of innovative establishments contributed positively to the trend, the decreased fraction of establishments engaged in collective bargaining operates in opposite direction. In spite of these findings, the overall characteristics effect is rather small.
{"title":"The Development of Employers' Training Investments Over Time - A Decomposition Analysis Using German Establishment Data","authors":"Katja Goerlitz","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1358390","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1358390","url":null,"abstract":"Using establishment data covering the time period 1997 to 2007, this paper investigates trends of employer-sponsored further training in Germany, with a focus on the share of establishments investing in training. In West and East Germany alike I find a positive time trend in the share of training active establishments. Applying Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition techniques shows that changes in some establishment characteristics affect the trend, however not only in a positive way. While the increase of the fraction of skilled workers, changes in industry composition and the risen share of innovative establishments contributed positively to the trend, the decreased fraction of establishments engaged in collective bargaining operates in opposite direction. In spite of these findings, the overall characteristics effect is rather small.","PeriodicalId":142467,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Human Capital","volume":"177 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115780210","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper aims at investigating empirically at the firm level the effect of the use of modern information and communication technologies (ICT), and also of two other factors, the adoption of new forms of workplace organization and trade (export) activities, on the demand for employees with different levels of (vocational) education. The study is based on firm-level data collected through a common questionnaire from firms' samples of similar composition (concerning firm sizes and industries) in Greece and Switzerland; from these data econometric models of similar specification have been constructed for both countries. The results of multivariate analysis show that the intensive use of ICT correlates positively with the employment shares of high-educated personnel and negatively with the ones of the loweducated personnel. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis of 'skill-biased technical change'. Further, the intensive use of "employee voice"-oriented organizational practices correlates positively with the employment shares of high-educated employees in both countries, and also negatively with the employment share of low-educated ones only for the Swiss firms. The results for the "work design" organizational practices are more ambiguous. Thus, there is only partial confirmation of the hypothesis of skilled-biased organizational change. Finally, we found some evidence in favour of the trade effect (export activities) only for the Swiss firms. Our results show both similarities and differences in the above aspects between Greece and Switzerland and indicate that national context characteristics affect the relationship of the demand for employees with different levels of (vocational) education with ICT use, adoption of new forms of workplace organization and trade.
{"title":"Employee Education, Information and Communication Technology, Workplace Organization and Trade: A Comparative Analysis of Greek and Swiss Enterprises","authors":"Spyros Arvanitis, E. Loukis","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1436456","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1436456","url":null,"abstract":"This paper aims at investigating empirically at the firm level the effect of the use of modern information and communication technologies (ICT), and also of two other factors, the adoption of new forms of workplace organization and trade (export) activities, on the demand for employees with different levels of (vocational) education. The study is based on firm-level data collected through a common questionnaire from firms' samples of similar composition (concerning firm sizes and industries) in Greece and Switzerland; from these data econometric models of similar specification have been constructed for both countries. The results of multivariate analysis show that the intensive use of ICT correlates positively with the employment shares of high-educated personnel and negatively with the ones of the loweducated personnel. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis of 'skill-biased technical change'. Further, the intensive use of \"employee voice\"-oriented organizational practices correlates positively with the employment shares of high-educated employees in both countries, and also negatively with the employment share of low-educated ones only for the Swiss firms. The results for the \"work design\" organizational practices are more ambiguous. Thus, there is only partial confirmation of the hypothesis of skilled-biased organizational change. Finally, we found some evidence in favour of the trade effect (export activities) only for the Swiss firms. Our results show both similarities and differences in the above aspects between Greece and Switzerland and indicate that national context characteristics affect the relationship of the demand for employees with different levels of (vocational) education with ICT use, adoption of new forms of workplace organization and trade.","PeriodicalId":142467,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Human Capital","volume":"78 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126310993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Modern societies depend on the successful and comprehensive provision of skills, and receiving vocational training in any form has been experienced by a majority of the population in younger cohorts. There has therefore been a constant demand for timely information about the various forms of training and their relations to a broader societal context. Over the recent decades, the patterns of participation in education and training have become more extended, more complex and more heterogeneous. Against this background, the paper discusses to what extent existing and projected data sources are suitable for investigating the relevant scientific and policy-related questions. Among these questions are: How does participation in training develop over the life course? What are the relative chances of receiving specific types of training; who, in particular, is likely to receive the most attractive types? Are training measures effective? When reviewing the current data situation, it becomes clear that progress has undoubtedly been made in the past few years. It is also obvious, however, that fundamental questions can presently not be answered on the basis of the available large-scale data on vocational education and training. Some key recommendations are presented.
{"title":"Knowing More about Vocational Training - New Demands for Data and Research Infrastructure","authors":"Steffen Hillmert","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.1452661","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.1452661","url":null,"abstract":"Modern societies depend on the successful and comprehensive provision of skills, and receiving vocational training in any form has been experienced by a majority of the population in younger cohorts. There has therefore been a constant demand for timely information about the various forms of training and their relations to a broader societal context. Over the recent decades, the patterns of participation in education and training have become more extended, more complex and more heterogeneous. Against this background, the paper discusses to what extent existing and projected data sources are suitable for investigating the relevant scientific and policy-related questions. Among these questions are: How does participation in training develop over the life course? What are the relative chances of receiving specific types of training; who, in particular, is likely to receive the most attractive types? Are training measures effective? When reviewing the current data situation, it becomes clear that progress has undoubtedly been made in the past few years. It is also obvious, however, that fundamental questions can presently not be answered on the basis of the available large-scale data on vocational education and training. Some key recommendations are presented.","PeriodicalId":142467,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Human Capital","volume":"128 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124225737","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2009-06-18DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8489.2009.00459.x
P. Nuthall
The efficiency of production from a farm’s land, labour and capital is critically dependent on the ability of the farm manager. Yet, while there are studies correlating a wide range of manager-related variables with returns, and, therefore, probably ability, little understanding of the basic determinants of managerial ability exists. Questions such as ‘what is the importance of a farmer’s family experiences and training in determining the farmer’s managerial ability?’ need answering. The solution to this, and other, questions will enable determining ways of improving farmers’ inherent ability developed both in early, and later, life. In that most decisions on a farm are made intuitively, in contrast to the use of a formal analysis, improving farmers’ inherent ability will have a significant payoff. The research reported here uses data from a large stratified random survey of 740 developed farmers (29 per centhadtertiary education,30per centhad4ormoreyears secondary education) to create a structural equation model of the determinants of managerial ability. The results suggest that a farmer’s exposure to experiences is a significant factor in ability, as is the farmer’s management style and the family influence on early life experience.
{"title":"Modelling the Origins of Managerial Ability in Agricultural Production","authors":"P. Nuthall","doi":"10.1111/j.1467-8489.2009.00459.x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8489.2009.00459.x","url":null,"abstract":"The efficiency of production from a farm’s land, labour and capital is critically dependent on the ability of the farm manager. Yet, while there are studies correlating a wide range of manager-related variables with returns, and, therefore, probably ability, little understanding of the basic determinants of managerial ability exists. Questions such as ‘what is the importance of a farmer’s family experiences and training in determining the farmer’s managerial ability?’ need answering. The solution to this, and other, questions will enable determining ways of improving farmers’ inherent ability developed both in early, and later, life. In that most decisions on a farm are made intuitively, in contrast to the use of a formal analysis, improving farmers’ inherent ability will have a significant payoff. The research reported here uses data from a large stratified random survey of 740 developed farmers (29 per centhadtertiary education,30per centhad4ormoreyears secondary education) to create a structural equation model of the determinants of managerial ability. The results suggest that a farmer’s exposure to experiences is a significant factor in ability, as is the farmer’s management style and the family influence on early life experience.","PeriodicalId":142467,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Human Capital","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127979370","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper explains a stylized fact about the correlation between rising wage inequality and declining marriage rates. A two-sided matching model is developed to explore how this interaction occurs. The model features a steady state equilibrium in which the whole marriage market is divided into distinct groups and only people in the same group will marry each other. Using IPUMS data from 1970 to 2000, our estimates show that in past decades the U.S. marriage market experienced a structural change. The higher matching efficiency and declining elasticity of matching suggest that the marriage market today provides more chance to meet and better gender equity, though higher arrival rates also raise the outside option of getting married. Additionally, the results obtained reveal that wage inequality accounts for over 38% of the decline in marriage rate, which is underestimated in Gould (2003).
{"title":"Money and Marriage: Implications of Wage Inequality on Marriage Outcomes","authors":"Jing Liu","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1414562","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1414562","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explains a stylized fact about the correlation between rising wage inequality and declining marriage rates. A two-sided matching model is developed to explore how this interaction occurs. The model features a steady state equilibrium in which the whole marriage market is divided into distinct groups and only people in the same group will marry each other. Using IPUMS data from 1970 to 2000, our estimates show that in past decades the U.S. marriage market experienced a structural change. The higher matching efficiency and declining elasticity of matching suggest that the marriage market today provides more chance to meet and better gender equity, though higher arrival rates also raise the outside option of getting married. Additionally, the results obtained reveal that wage inequality accounts for over 38% of the decline in marriage rate, which is underestimated in Gould (2003).","PeriodicalId":142467,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Human Capital","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117237486","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}