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LABOR MARKET ISSUES

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Full-Text Articles in Economics

Complementarity And Custom In Wage Contract Violation, John S. Earle, Klara Sabirianova Peter Jul 2006

Complementarity And Custom In Wage Contract Violation, John S. Earle, Klara Sabirianova Peter

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We analyze a model of wage delay in which strategic complementarity arises because each employer's costs of violating its contracts decrease with the arrears in its labor market. The model is estimated on panel data for workers and firms in Russia, facilitating identification through fixed effects for employees, employers, and local labor markets, and instrumental variables based on policy interventions. The estimated reaction function displays strongly positive neighborhood effects, and the estimated feedback loops - worker quits, effort, strikes, and legal penalties - imply that costs of wage delays are attenuated by neighborhood arrears. We also study a nonlinear case …


State Ui Job Search Rules And Reemployment Services, Christopher J. O'Leary Jun 2006

State Ui Job Search Rules And Reemployment Services, Christopher J. O'Leary

Journal Articles

This article examines whether unemployment insurance (UI) requirements pertaining to job searches and UI mechanisms connecting claimants with reemployment services tend to shorten the duration of those claimants' insured unemployment. Evidence is presented from a 2003 National Association of State Workforce Agencies survey of all State UI programs. Also presented is evidence about the effect of State UI policies and reemployment assistance on the duration of insured unemployment. Although the sizes of the estimated impacts differ, the consistent finding is that both UI work search requirements and UI reemployment services tend to shorten claimants' duration of insured unemployment by speeding …


Individual Accounts For Social Security Reform: International Perspectives On The U.S. Debate, John A. Turner Apr 2006

Individual Accounts For Social Security Reform: International Perspectives On The U.S. Debate, John A. Turner

Upjohn Press

John Turner uses the documented experiences of many countries—including the U.K., Sweden, Chile, Australia, Canada, and others—and the tools of economics to analyze the public policy issues surrounding the proposed implementation of individual accounts as part of the U.S. Social Security system. The result is a book that clarifies these issues while offering direction to Social Security policymakers. Also included is a comprehensive overview of the types of defined contribution plans in use today.


Licensing Occupations: Ensuring Quality Or Restricting Competition?, Morris M. Kleiner Feb 2006

Licensing Occupations: Ensuring Quality Or Restricting Competition?, Morris M. Kleiner

Upjohn Press

This book reveals the impacts of occupational licensing on the economies of the United States and several EU countries. Kleiner provides a thorough examination of the costs and benefits of occupational licensing (OL). He offers an explanation for the growth of OL, defines the winners and losers in terms of earnings and the quality of services provided by licensees, compares the differing labor market and price impacts of OL in the United States and Europe, provides evidence on the overall net impacts of OL for society, and offers policy alternatives to OL.


Nonstandard Forms And Measures Of Employment And Unemployment In Transition: A Comparative Study Of Estonia, Romania, And Russia, J. David Brown, John S. Earle, Vladimir Gimpelson, Rostislav Kapeliushnikov, Hartmut Lehmann, Álmos Telegdy, Irina Vantu, Ruxandra Visan, Alexandru Voicu Feb 2006

Nonstandard Forms And Measures Of Employment And Unemployment In Transition: A Comparative Study Of Estonia, Romania, And Russia, J. David Brown, John S. Earle, Vladimir Gimpelson, Rostislav Kapeliushnikov, Hartmut Lehmann, Álmos Telegdy, Irina Vantu, Ruxandra Visan, Alexandru Voicu

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper looks behind the standard, publicly available labor force statistics relied upon in most studies of transition economy labor markets. We analyze microdata on detailed labor force survey responses in Russia, Romania, and Estonia to measure nonstandard, boundary forms and alternative definitions of employment and unemployment. Our calculations show that measured rates are quite sensitive to definition, particularly in the treatment of household production (subsistence agriculture), unpaid family helpers, and discouraged workers, while the categories of part-time work and other forms of marginal attachment are still relatively unimportant. We find that tweaking the official definitions in apparently minor ways …


Wages, Layoffs, And Privatization: Evidence From Ukraine, J. David Brown, John S. Earle, Volodymyr Vakhitov Feb 2006

Wages, Layoffs, And Privatization: Evidence From Ukraine, J. David Brown, John S. Earle, Volodymyr Vakhitov

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper estimates the effects of privatization on worker separations and wages using retrospective data from a national probability sample of Ukrainian households. Detailed worker characteristics are used to control for compositional differences and to assess types of observable "winners" and "losers" from privatization. Preprivatization worker-firm matches are used to control for unobservables in worker and firm selection. The results imply that privatization reduces wages by 5 percent and cuts the layoff probability in half. Outside investor ownership reduces separations but leaves wages unaffected. Winners from privatization tend to be higher-skilled employees of larger firms, but there is no discernible …


Regulating Occupations: Quality Or Monopoly?, Morris M. Kleiner Jan 2006

Regulating Occupations: Quality Or Monopoly?, Morris M. Kleiner

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.


The Incidence And Cost Of Job Loss In The Ukrainian Labor Market, Hartmut Lehmann, Norberto Pignatti, Jonathan Wadsworth Sep 2005

The Incidence And Cost Of Job Loss In The Ukrainian Labor Market, Hartmut Lehmann, Norberto Pignatti, Jonathan Wadsworth

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We examine the effects of economic transition on the pattern and costs of worker displacement in Ukraine, using the Ukrainian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (ULMS) for the years 1992 to 2002. Displacement rates in the Ukrainian labor market average between 3.4 and 4.8 percent of employment, roughly in line with levels typically observed in several Western economies, but considerably larger than in Russia. The characteristics of displaced workers are similar to those displaced in the West, in so far as displacement is concentrated on the less skilled. Around one third of displaced workers find re-employment immediately while the majority continues into …


The Effect Of Minimum Wages On The Employment And Earnings Of South Africa's Domestic Service Workers, Tom Hertz Aug 2005

The Effect Of Minimum Wages On The Employment And Earnings Of South Africa's Domestic Service Workers, Tom Hertz

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Minimum wages have been in place for South Africa's one million domestic service workers since November of 2002. Using data from seven waves of the Labour Force Survey, this paper documents that the real wages, average monthly earnings, and total earnings of all employed domestic workers have risen since the regulations came into effect, while hours of work per week and employment have fallen. Each of these outcomes can be linked econometrically to the arrival of the minimum wage regulations. The overall estimated elasticities suggest that the regulations should have reduced poverty somewhat for domestic workers, although this last conclusion …


Temporary Agency Employment As A Way Out Of Poverty?, David H. Autor, Susan N. Houseman Aug 2005

Temporary Agency Employment As A Way Out Of Poverty?, David H. Autor, Susan N. Houseman

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The high incidence of temporary agency employment among participants in government employment programs has catalyzed debate about whether these jobs help the poor transition into stable employment and out of poverty. We provide direct evidence on this question through analysis of a Michigan welfare-to-work program in which program participants were randomly allocated across service providers ('contractors') with different job placement practices. We draw on a telephone survey of contractors and on administrative program data linked with wage records data on all participants entering the program over a three-and-a half-year period. Our survey evidence documents a consensus among contractors that temporary …


Refundable Tax Credits For Health Insurance: The Sensitivity Of Simulated Impacts To Assumed Behavior, David W. Emmons, Eva Madly, Stephen A. Woodbury Jul 2005

Refundable Tax Credits For Health Insurance: The Sensitivity Of Simulated Impacts To Assumed Behavior, David W. Emmons, Eva Madly, Stephen A. Woodbury

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We replicate and extend a simulation model developed by Jonathan Gruber with the goals of illuminating Gruber's modeling of health insurance coverage under a tax credit and examining the sensitivity of the results to changes in the model's key parameters. The replications suggest that a refundable tax credit of $1,000 for a single individual or $2,000 for a family for private health insurance would reduce the number of uninsured individuals by between 17.5 and 28 percent and require new government expenditures of between $16.6 and $44 billion, of which about $7.4-$9.7 billion would be for coverage of previously uninsured individuals. …


Refundable Tax Credits For Health Insurance, David W. Emmons, Eva Madly, Stephen A. Woodbury Jul 2005

Refundable Tax Credits For Health Insurance, David W. Emmons, Eva Madly, Stephen A. Woodbury

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.


Do Job Search Rules And Reemployment Services Reduce Insured Unemployment?, Christopher J. O'Leary, Stephen A. Wandner May 2005

Do Job Search Rules And Reemployment Services Reduce Insured Unemployment?, Christopher J. O'Leary, Stephen A. Wandner

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper summarizes state unemployment insurance job search policies based on a recent survey of states by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies. It then reviews research results on the effects of reemployment services on durations of insured unemployment. The paper documents how state administrative practices have changed and questions whether these changes may have affected monitoring of claimant compliance with work search requirements. Since state policies on job search and service referral can affect insured durations of unemployment, these policies can also affect the measured total unemployment rate.


Does "Work First" Work? The Long-Term Consequences Of Temporary Agency And Direct-Hire Job Placements, David H. Autor, Susan N. Houseman Mar 2005

Does "Work First" Work? The Long-Term Consequences Of Temporary Agency And Direct-Hire Job Placements, David H. Autor, Susan N. Houseman

Reports

A principal objective of the welfare reform act of 1996 (PRWORA) was to encourage welfare recipients to obtain jobs rapidly, a strategy termed "Work First." Much analysis shows that Work First raises the incidence of direct-hire and—in a sizable minority of cases—temporary-help agency jobs among welfare clients. But the effect of these jobs on longer term labor market outcomes, such as labor force participation, earnings, and welfare recidivism, is unknown. Because welfare recipients who obtain jobs rapidly are positively selected from the pool of all Work First participants, a simple comparison of long-term outcomes among job takers and non-takers is …


Asynchronous Risk: Unemployment, Equity Markets, And Retirement Savings, Jason S. Seligman, Jeffrey Brian Wenger Jan 2005

Asynchronous Risk: Unemployment, Equity Markets, And Retirement Savings, Jason S. Seligman, Jeffrey Brian Wenger

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The link between unemployment and pension accumulations is conceptually straightforward; periods of unemployment lead to lower pension contributions, and thus to lower accumulations. However, impacts on accumulation may differ as a result of the timing and frequency of unemployment spells. We hypothesize that unemployment is more likely during periods in which the equities market experiences greater than average returns, largely due to a lead/lag structure of the stock and labor markets, respectively. This would imply that workers may systematically miss opportunities to purchase equities through DC plans when prices are relatively low. To test this hypothesis, we match historic stock …


Single Mothers, Social Capital, And Work-Family Conflict, Teresa Ciabattari Jan 2005

Single Mothers, Social Capital, And Work-Family Conflict, Teresa Ciabattari

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The purpose of this paper is to examine work-family conflict among low-income, unmarried mothers. I examine how social capital affects work-family conflict and how both social capital and work-family conflict affect employment. I analyze the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a national sample of non-marital births collected in 1998-2000 and 1999-2002. Results show that social capital reduces unmarried mothers' reports of work-family conflict, especially for low-income women. In addition, mothers who report high levels of work-family conflict are less likely to be employed; this pattern holds for women who are not looking for work as well as those who …


Do Temporary Help Jobs Improve Labor Market Outcomes For Low-Skilled Workers? Evidence From Random Assignments, David H. Autor, Susan N. Houseman Jan 2005

Do Temporary Help Jobs Improve Labor Market Outcomes For Low-Skilled Workers? Evidence From Random Assignments, David H. Autor, Susan N. Houseman

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

A disproportionate share of low-skilled U.S. workers is employed by temporary help firms. These firms offer rapid entry into paid employment, but temporary help jobs are typically brief and it is unknown whether they foster longer-term employment. We draw upon an unusual, large-scale policy experiment in the state of Michigan to evaluate whether holding temporary help jobs facilitates labor market advancement for low-skilled workers. To identify these effects, we exploit the random assignment of welfare-to-work clients across numerous welfare service providers in a major metropolitan area. These providers feature substantially different placement rates at temporary help jobs but offer otherwise …


Health, Wealth And Workforce Exit: Disability Insurance And Individual Accounts, Jason S. Seligman Jan 2005

Health, Wealth And Workforce Exit: Disability Insurance And Individual Accounts, Jason S. Seligman

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Current debate on the Social Security Administrations long-term finance of benefits includes proposals for independent private investment via individual accounts. The author first investigates what implications disability might have for equity savings account balances. In light of results, incentives to exit the workforce ahead of retirement age are considered when a defined benefit program for disability insurance continues to be available. Included simulation uses historic wage series, equity market performance, and current OASDI regulations for cohorts retiring over the period of 1929 - 2003.


Work And Retirement Plans Among Older Americans, Katharine G. Abraham, Susan N. Houseman Oct 2004

Work And Retirement Plans Among Older Americans, Katharine G. Abraham, Susan N. Houseman

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.


Single Mothers Working At Night: Standard Work, Child Care Subsidies, And Implications For Welfare Reform, Erdal Tekin Sep 2004

Single Mothers Working At Night: Standard Work, Child Care Subsidies, And Implications For Welfare Reform, Erdal Tekin

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper estimates the effect of child care subsidies on the standard work decision of single mothers and examines whether this effect differs between welfare recipients and nonrecipients. The analysis uses data from the 1999 National Survey of America's Families. Results suggest that child care subsidy receipt is associated with a 6.9 percentage point increase in the probability of single mothers' working at standard jobs. When the effect of subsidy receipt is allowed to differ between welfare recipients and nonrecipients, results indicate that welfare recipients who are offered a child care subsidy are 14 percentage points more likely to work …


Work And Retirement Plans Among Older Americans, Katharine G. Abraham, Susan N. Houseman Jul 2004

Work And Retirement Plans Among Older Americans, Katharine G. Abraham, Susan N. Houseman

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We compare older workers' plans for work and retirement with their subsequent work and retirement outcomes using panel data from the Health and Retirement Study. Among those with retirement plans, about half indicate they would like to cut back on their work hours or otherwise change the type of work they do prior to, or instead of, fully retiring. Yet, the fraction that follows through on these alternative plans is dramatically lower than the fraction that realizes plans to stop working. Our analysis shows that individuals who likely would need to change jobs in order to reduce their work hours …


What Are Jobs Worth?, Joseph Persky, Daniel Felsenstein, Virginia Carlson Jul 2004

What Are Jobs Worth?, Joseph Persky, Daniel Felsenstein, Virginia Carlson

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.


Globalization, Adjustment, And Compensation, Carl Davidson, Steven J. Matusz Apr 2004

Globalization, Adjustment, And Compensation, Carl Davidson, Steven J. Matusz

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.


Ui Work Search Rules And Their Effects On Employment, Christopher J. O'Leary Feb 2004

Ui Work Search Rules And Their Effects On Employment, Christopher J. O'Leary

Reports

This paper summarizes state unemployment insurance (UI) job search policies based on a survey of state rules conducted in 2003 by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA). Commonalities in policies are identified and a summary of research evidence on the effects of job search assistance (JSA) is then presented. The conclusion considers promising directions for future research and policy.


Does "Trickle Down" Work?: Economic Development Strategies And Job Chains In Local Labor Markets, Joseph Persky, Daniel Felsenstein, Virginia Carlson Jan 2004

Does "Trickle Down" Work?: Economic Development Strategies And Job Chains In Local Labor Markets, Joseph Persky, Daniel Felsenstein, Virginia Carlson

Upjohn Press

Persky, Felsenstein, and Carlson explore a new framework for evaluating state and local economic development efforts. They propose a method, referred to as the “job-chains approach,” that they say clarifies the potential justifications for economic development subsidies as well as the limitations surrounding these efforts. This innovative approach addresses not only the number of job vacancies created as a result of a subsidized business investment or expansion, but also the extent to which gains are achieved by the unemployed and the underemployed, whether skilled or unskilled.


Kids At Work: The Value Of Employer-Sponsored On-Site Child Care Centers, Rachel Connelly, Deborah S. Degraff, Rachel A. Willis Jan 2004

Kids At Work: The Value Of Employer-Sponsored On-Site Child Care Centers, Rachel Connelly, Deborah S. Degraff, Rachel A. Willis

Upjohn Press

Connelly, DeGraff, and Willis chronicle the trends in the growth in on-site child care programs and perform analyses that shed light on the value of employer-sponsored child care to employees. The authors note that employees may not be the only ones to benefit. Employers may be able to gain wage savings for the firm.


International Trade And Labor Markets: Theory, Evidence, And Policy Implications, Carl Davidson, Steven J. Matusz Jan 2004

International Trade And Labor Markets: Theory, Evidence, And Policy Implications, Carl Davidson, Steven J. Matusz

Upjohn Press

Davidson and Matusz develop simple yet compelling models that allow for documented differences in labor markets across countries in order to investigate the impact of trade and trade policies on society's underclass.


Workplace Justice Without Unions, Hoyt N. Wheeler, Brian S. Klaas, Douglas M. Mahony Jan 2004

Workplace Justice Without Unions, Hoyt N. Wheeler, Brian S. Klaas, Douglas M. Mahony

Upjohn Press

Wheeler, Klaas, and Mahony provide a thorough analysis of organizational justice systems by exploring nonunion systems of workplace justice and comparing them with the union system, American courts, and systems in 11 other countries.


Community Norms And Organizational Practices: The Legitimization Of Wage Arrears In Russia, 1992-1999, John S. Earle, Andrew Spicer, Klara Sabirianova Peter Dec 2003

Community Norms And Organizational Practices: The Legitimization Of Wage Arrears In Russia, 1992-1999, John S. Earle, Andrew Spicer, Klara Sabirianova Peter

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

What role do community norms play in the diffusion and persistence of new organizational practices? We explore this question through an examination of the widespread practice of wage arrears, the late and non-payment of wages, in Russia during the 1990s. Existing research on wage arrears most often examines this practice as a means of flexible wage adjustment under difficult economic conditions. We develop an alternative theory that explains wage arrears through their acceptance as a legitimate form of organizational behavior within local communities. Our empirical analysis finds some support for the neoclassical position that wage arrears reflect adjustment to negative …


Upjohn Institute Hosts Research Conference On Microeconomic Analyses Of Labor Reallocation, John S. Earle Oct 2003

Upjohn Institute Hosts Research Conference On Microeconomic Analyses Of Labor Reallocation, John S. Earle

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.