Labour Economics最新文献

This study examines the influences of minimum wage on self-employment exits, using recent changes in the minimum wage level in South Korea. Using the cross-industry variation on the impact of the minimum wage—the proportion of workers whose wages are below the minimum wage in the upcoming year—combined with individual longitudinal data, I estimate the model of self-employment exits. Overall, the estimates show that the minimum wage hike has no significant impact on self-employed workers. However, it increases the likelihood of the business closing for the self-employed who hire employees. The results imply that a ten percent increase in the minimum wage raises the exit probability by 2.6 percentage points, which is 30.9 % of the average exit rate for those with employees. Moreover, the exits are significantly associated with the transition to non-employment.

University programs differ in the subsequent earnings processes of their enrollees, including many features that students might care about to differing degrees such as the level of average earnings, earnings growth, and volatility. Do the earnings features of a university program’s enrollees reflect the causal effect of enrolling in that program or the self-selection of students into that program? Would students experience a different earnings process if they enrolled in a different program of study? To estimate the causal impact of enrolling in a program of study on the enrollees’ future earnings process, we exploit a discontinuity built into the Danish national university admissions system, which provides quasi-random assignment of similar applicants to different programs. We leverage the rich cross-program variation in the enrollees’ future earnings processes to measure the impact of entering a program whose enrollees experience high earnings levels, growth, and volatility on their own subsequent earnings level, growth, and volatility. We find that a student’s subsequent earnings levels and volatility – but not their earnings growth – are caused by entering programs of study whose enrollees have those features.

This paper studies gender differences in labor market responses of workers in Mexico to trade liberalization with China. To measure exposure to import competition, I exploit variation in the initial industry structure of Mexican local labor markets. I show that aggregate outcomes mask heterogeneous responses based on gender. Both women and men experience lower growth in employment shares but the change in the labor force participation rate is negatively affected for men and positively affected for women. Further analysis shows that women move into self-employment and that informal employment acts as a “buffer” to attenuate negative employment effects, especially for male workers.

This paper presents the findings of an artefactual field experiment conducted in urban Ecuador to investigate discrimination against individuals self-identifying as lesbian or gay (LG) job seekers in the labor market. Focusing on occupations and sectors that attract the employment interest of both LG and non-LG individuals, the study employed fictitious job applications evaluated by 394 human resource analysts. The results reveal gender-based differential discrimination. Female LG candidates experienced positive discrimination and were more likely to be selected and offered higher wages compared to their heterosexual counterparts. In contrast, male LG candidates experienced negative discrimination, saw no wage differences, and were less likely to be selected. The study finds that female recruiters are especially influential in driving these discriminatory behaviors. These findings contribute to the understanding of the complex dynamics of discrimination towards LG workers in the labor market and of the interaction of that form of discrimination with gender.

Unemployed workers search for jobs that ideally offer both high wages and short commutes. But would they accept jobs with lower wages or longer commutes or both as the unemployment spell lengthens? Using a unique panel of Austrian workers, we find that job seekers do indeed accept jobs with significantly lower wages. However, the majority group of job seekers who used to commute to jobs located outside their municipality of residence tend to increasingly accept jobs in their home municipality, and do not necessarily broaden geographically their search. Based on quasi-experimental variations in the duration of unemployment benefits, we find that this evolution of commuting patterns is not linked to the loss of benefits. We explain these findings through the lens of a job search model where flexible parameters such as search costs are allowed to vary across space and time. We estimate that search costs are substantial and increase differently over time for local and non-local jobs, accounting for the patterns found in the data. A counterfactual policy exercise suggests that unemployment insurance does not hinder geographical mobility. Competing mechanisms are discussed and their role is left to future research.

We examine labor supply responses to piece rate changes relative to the reference piece rate (RR). In experimental conditions without RR, labor supply increases monotonically with the actual piece rate. In conditions with RR, labor supply increases both when the piece rate rises and falls relative to RR. This non-monotonicity in labor supply responses to piece rate changes around RR is consistent with the effects of framing a given level of income as gain or loss relative to the target level induced by RR: loss aversion makes subjects work more at a given piece rate when the implied income is in the loss rather than gain domain. However, the framing effects disappear when the piece rate could both rise or fall relative to RR.

This paper investigates the effects of survivor benefits (SB) on the labour supply of widows. Using rich administrative data on the Dutch population and a reform that considerably restricted eligibility to SB, we identify the causal effect of SB on labour supply. Using a regression discontinuity design strategy based on the cohort-based implementation of the reform, we show that labour income after spousal death increased significantly following the reform (+110 euros, +23%). The effects are driven by changes in labour force participation and hours worked by widows. We also find evidence of program substitution, with widows relying more on disability, unemployment and welfare benefits as a result of the reform. This increase in alternative benefits further limits the reduction in total income caused by the reform by an average of 60 euros. Regarding the heterogeneity of the labour supply response, we find that widows with a relatively higher need for self-insurance increase their labour supply relatively more.

We leverage the exogenous variation in education induced by the implementation of a national compulsory schooling law (CSL) in China in 1986 to study the mean and heterogeneous effects of education on mental health. Regression discontinuity (RD) estimates suggest that on average CSL beneficiaries had better mental health and lower probability of being severely depressed. We combine the RD design with novel distributional analysis methods to demonstrate that this average effect is largely driven by improvements in the top half of the mental health distribution (higher scores indicating worse mental health). These findings not only add to the scant evidence on the effect of education on mental health in low- and middle- income contexts, but also suggest that looking beyond average effects might better inform how policies can be targeted to enhance their benefits. In terms of potential mechanisms, we find that CSL beneficiaries experienced better physical health, labor market outcomes and marital outcomes.

We evaluate school-based, intensive learning camps for pupils assessed ‘not ready’ for post-compulsory education, using a stratified cluster randomized trial involving 15,559 pupils in 264 schools in Denmark. Next to Danish and mathematics, the main variant targets non-cognitive skills. The alternative variant uses this time for more training in Danish and math. We find some weak evidence for positive short-run effects in the standardized test score in math (effect sizes 0.07–0.17) but not in Danish. We find some evidence of positive long-run effects on the final exams in math in grade 9 and enrolment in post-compulsory education 2.5 years post-intervention. We find no evidence that the camp affects non-cognitive skills. Our results provide a perspective on recent evidence regarding the effects of training non-cognitive skills — by running an intervention with older pupils and in a comparatively high-resource school system.

Using annual and quarterly data from the French LFS, we investigate the interplay between the extensive and intensive margins of labor adjustment, job polarization, and non-standard work ($NS$) along the business cycle. We find that the declines in aggregate work hours during economic downturns can primarily be attributed to the reduction in routine standard employment ($R,S$) during past recessions in France. We then study the dynamics of routine standard employment, highlighting several key findings: (i) The primary drivers of $R,S$ employment are inflows from routine non-standard work ($R,NS$) and unemployment. (ii) Individuals who lose $R,S$ jobs are more likely to transition to $R,NS$ positions following a brief period of unemployment. (iii) A majority of transitions within this employment category occur within the same employer, resulting in asymmetric adjustments in individual working hours. This often involves a notable increase in hours following either a contractual upgrade or a change in employer. Finally, we draw a comparative analysis between these findings and the United States, where the dynamics of routine employment appear distinct, despite a similar trend in job polarization.