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Upjohn Institute Working Papers

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Articles 301 - 315 of 315

Full-Text Articles in Labor Economics

Does Employment Protection Inhibit Labor Market Flexibility?: Lessons From Germany, France And Belgium, Katharine G. Abraham, Susan N. Houseman Mar 1993

Does Employment Protection Inhibit Labor Market Flexibility?: Lessons From Germany, France And Belgium, Katharine G. Abraham, Susan N. Houseman

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Laws in most West European countries give workers strong job rights, including the right to advance notice of layoff and the right to severance pay or other compensation if laid off. Many of these same countries also encourage hours adjustment in lieu of layoffs by providing prorated unemployment compensation to workers on reduced hours. This paper compares the adjustment of manufacturing employment and hours in West Germany, France and Belgium, three countries with strong job security regulations and well-established short-time compensation systems, with that in the United States. Although the adjustment of employment to changes in output is much slower …

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Child Care And The Employment Behavior Of Single And Married Mothers, Jean Kimmel Nov 1992

Child Care And The Employment Behavior Of Single And Married Mothers, Jean Kimmel

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper examines the relationship between the cost of child care and the employment behavior of married and single mothers. The data used in this paper are from the 1987 SIPP, the first SIPP panel to utilize an improved probing of child care usage and expenditures. A primary contribution of this paper stems from the use of these improved child care data. A second contribution is to provide a clear comparison between single mothers and married mothers. A third contribution of this paper is its detailed discussion of participation elasticities, with a comparison of elasticities derived from different measures of …

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Employer Training Needs In Hawaii: Summary Report, Stephen A. Woodbury, University Of Hawaii At Manoa, Industrial Relations Center Nov 1992

Employer Training Needs In Hawaii: Summary Report, Stephen A. Woodbury, University Of Hawaii At Manoa, Industrial Relations Center

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The Survey of Employer Training Needs in Hawaii was undertaken to gather information and data on the needs and preferences of employers in Hawaii regarding government assistance with training. The need for such information was created by passage of Act 68, Session Laws of Hawaii 1991, which created the Hawaii Employment and Training Fund "to assist employers and workers through innovative programs to include, but not be limited to, business-specific training, upgrade training, new occupational skills, management skills, and support services to improve the long-term employability of Hawaii's people."

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Workplace Education Programs In Small- And Medium-Sized Michigan Firms, Kevin Hollenbeck, William Anderson Aug 1992

Workplace Education Programs In Small- And Medium-Sized Michigan Firms, Kevin Hollenbeck, William Anderson

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper presents a systematic, baseline picture of workplace education programs in small and medium-sized businesses (less than 500 employees) in Michigan. Specifically, it addresses why some firms are offering and other firms are not offering workplace education programs, what are the characteristics of the programs being provided, and what are the impacts of these programs on firms and employees. The paper draws upon two data sources. Case studies of 28 Michigan businesses were undertaken between May 1991 and July 1992 and a combination mail/telephone survey of small businesses in Michigan was conducted in early 1992. The paper finds that …

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Moonlighting Behavior: Theory And Evidence, Karen Smith Conway, Jean Kimmel May 1992

Moonlighting Behavior: Theory And Evidence, Karen Smith Conway, Jean Kimmel

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Two labor supply issues that have received substantial attention are the responsiveness of labor supply to wage changes and the imposition of labor supply constraints. Adjusting hours worked on a second job may be the practical and perhaps only available response to either event yet, most labor supply studies only examine behavior on the primary job. Examining the motives for moonlighting provides evidence on both the wage-responsiveness of labor supply in general and the existence and consequences of labor supply constraints.

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Postsecondary Education As Triage: Returns To Academic And Technical Programs, Kevin Hollenbeck Apr 1992

Postsecondary Education As Triage: Returns To Academic And Technical Programs, Kevin Hollenbeck

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper examines the labor market outcomes of individuals with various types of postsecondary educational experiences. In particular, it examines differences between students who have pursued technical education programs from those who have pursued academic programs and from those individuals who have not pursued any type of postsecondary education. Empirical evidence is presented concerning the relationship between economic outcomes and grades earned and the degree to which the labor market rewards credentials. Wage and earnings models yield different structural parameter estimates when based on the three different populations. The differences are most dramatic for high school background effects and for …

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Earnings Losses Of Displaced Workers, Louis S. Jacobson, Robert J. Lalonde, Daniel G. Sullivan Feb 1992

Earnings Losses Of Displaced Workers, Louis S. Jacobson, Robert J. Lalonde, Daniel G. Sullivan

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The 1990-1991 recession has intensified concerns about the consequences of workers' job losses. To estimate the magnitude and temporal pattern of displaced workers' earnings losses, we exploit an unusual administrative data set that includes both employees' quarterly earnings histories and information about their firms. We find that when high-tenure workers separate from distressed firms their long-term losses average 25 percent per year. Further, their losses mount even prior to separation, are not limited to workers in a few industrial sectors, and are substantial even for those who find new jobs in similar firms. This evidence suggests that displaced workers' earnings …

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Congressional Testimony On The Effectiveness Of Trade Adjustment Assistance And Suggestions For Improving The Program, Louis S. Jacobson Aug 1991

Congressional Testimony On The Effectiveness Of Trade Adjustment Assistance And Suggestions For Improving The Program, Louis S. Jacobson

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

In this testimony, I will sketch key findings from research that I conducted with others, bearing on the justification and effectiveness of trade adjustment assistance. Most economists agree that protecting workers from the negative consequences of the North American Free Trade Agreement is appropriate, since we believe that a measure is unambiguously good only when some benefit, but no one is hurt. Thus, my central policy conclusion is that the combination of UI and TAA does a good job in protecting the majority of trade impacted workers. But available funds would be better spent by helping dislocated workers find jobs, …

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The Effects Of Metropolitan Job Growth On The Size Distribution Of Family Income, Timothy J. Bartik Mar 1991

The Effects Of Metropolitan Job Growth On The Size Distribution Of Family Income, Timothy J. Bartik

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper examines how a metropolitan area's job growth affects its income distribution. The research uses annual Current Population Survey data on the income distribution in different metropolitan areas from 1979 through 1988. Faster metropolitan job growth increases real family income in the lowest income quintile by a significantly greater percentage than for the average family. Metropolitan job growth also increases the value of property owned by upper income quintiles, but property value effects are not large enough to offset the progressive effects of growth on labor income. Simulations indicate that economic development programs to increase metropolitan job growth will …

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Congressional Testimony On The Effectiveness Of The Employment Service In Aiding Ui Claimants, Louis S. Jacobson Feb 1991

Congressional Testimony On The Effectiveness Of The Employment Service In Aiding Ui Claimants, Louis S. Jacobson

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This testimony describes the results of a study of the Employment Service (ES) conducted by Dr. Jacobson and Prof. Arnold Katz of the University of Pittsburgh using data on over 100,000 individuals who registered with the Pennsylvania ES between 1978 and 1987, and an even larger sample of non-registrants. One major finding is that much of the decline in the ES's performance over the past thirty years can be explained by changes in: funding, characteristics of registrants, and characteristics of job vacancies. Thus, we concluded that criticism of the ES often ignores changes in crucial factors outside of the ES's …

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The Employment And Earnings Impacts Of The Targeted Jobs Tax Credit, Kevin Hollenbeck, Richard J. Willke Feb 1991

The Employment And Earnings Impacts Of The Targeted Jobs Tax Credit, Kevin Hollenbeck, Richard J. Willke

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The Targeted Jobs Tax Credit (TJTC) is intended to stimulate the employment of individuals who are members of certain groups of the labor force by providing a wage subsidy (in the form of a tax credit) to employers of recently-hired eligible workers. This intervention into the labor market has direct and indirect earnings and employment consequences for both eligible and ineligible individuals. The paper evaluates the impacts of TJTC by using a treatment and comparison group methodology. Corrections for nonrandom selection are undertaken. The primary sources of data are state quarterly wage record data from the Unemployment Insurance system and …

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Efficient Bargains In The Context Of Recent Labor Market Experience And Policy, Robert A. Hart, Thomas Moutos Sep 1990

Efficient Bargains In The Context Of Recent Labor Market Experience And Policy, Robert A. Hart, Thomas Moutos

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

In Europe in recent times, bargaining between a leading nationally-based industrial union and a representative group of employers over the issues of employment, wages and working time has proved to be influential in a much wider industrial context. Adopting a generalized Nash bargaining approach, this paper considers the possible effects on such "key" bargains of several prominent labor market events and policies experienced since the middle 1970s. These include the impacts of OPEC supply shocks, changes in union power, greater emphasis on payroll taxes as well as growing government economic orthodoxy as expressed through the goal of a balanced budget.

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The Displacement Effect Of Reemployment Bonus Programs, Carl Davidson, Stephen A. Woodbury Jul 1990

The Displacement Effect Of Reemployment Bonus Programs, Carl Davidson, Stephen A. Woodbury

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper explores whether reemployment bonuses--cash payments made to insured unemployed workers who find reemployment quickly--have the unintended consequence of displacing workers who are not covered by the bonus program. We develop two partial equilibrium matching models of the labor market, patterned after the work of Diamond (1982), Mortensen (1982), and Pissarides (1984). In the first model, wages are assumed exogenous, in the second endogenous. In both, we find that the direct substitution of covered for uncovered workers (which constitutes displacement) is countered by two offsetting effects : a gross job creation effect, which results from the increased search effort …

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Dislocated Worker Human Capital Depreciation And Recovery, Kevin Hollenbeck May 1990

Dislocated Worker Human Capital Depreciation And Recovery, Kevin Hollenbeck

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Previous studies have estimated the "human capital depreciation" of women re-entering the work force after voluntary, lengthy interruptions. Those studies have found reduced real wages and furthermore the decrease is positively related to the length of the interruption. Upon re-entry, however, real wages grow rapidly as human capital is restored. This paper develops a model of the wage histories of dislocated workers. Similar to labor force re-entrants, those dislocated workers who become re-employed would experience wages below their final wage prior to dislocation and the decrease should be associated with the length of dislocation. However, the model suggests that since …

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An Econometric Analysis Of Unemployment Insurance Benefits Adequacy, Christopher J. O'Leary Jan 1990

An Econometric Analysis Of Unemployment Insurance Benefits Adequacy, Christopher J. O'Leary

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Traditionally studies of unemployment insurance benefit adequacy have relied on an expenditure survey. This is expensive, yields small samples, and presumes that the analyst knows which categories of expenditure are necessary. This paper uses an existing large data set, and an agnostic approach. Labor supply are equations are estimated on PSID data using an estimator which accounts for rationing in the labor market. The results are used to compute labor market constraint compensation for comparison to payments under UI systems of representative states. The results suggest that payments which meet the accepted standard of adequacy would usually slightly overcompensate individuals.

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