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Journal for Labour Market Research
Number of Followers: 11

This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Print) 2510-5019 - ISSN (Online) 2510-5027
Published by SpringerOpen

[228 journals]

The impact of the coronavirus on African American unemployment: lessons
from history
- Abstract: Abstract In this article, our fundamental research question is to investigate the effect of the Coronavirus (named COVID-19) on the African American labor market. More specifically, we attempt to examine the potential economic impact of COVID-19 on the state of racial disparities among the African American labor market by examining two effects, namely, employment and income differentials, using national, state, and city level data (using data for all 77 neighborhood areas of the City of Chicago). Our central finding is that the labor market does not appear to treat black and white laborers as homogeneous, as attested by the finding that African American workers suffer from higher unemployment rates with higher volatility, lower median incomes, and they are more likely to work in the service sector, compared to their white counterparts, and we find this condition to be even larger in the City of Chicago. These findings have important policy implications.
  PubDate: 2022-04-11
The evolution of wage inequality within local U.S. labor markets
- Abstract: Abstract There are few concentrated studies on wage inequality across local labor markets at the city or metropolitan level. This paper studies the changes in wage inequality among 170 metropolitan areas by using micro-level data from the U.S. Census and American Community Survey from 1980 to 2019. We propose that shifts in the relative demand for “college-educated” or “college equivalent” workers have been persistent in both temporal and spatial dimensions; and that this persistence has contributed to the increase in wage inequality along with the rise in managerial employment. Using fixed-effects models, we find that on average, changes in managerial intensity between 1980 and 2019 accounts for 6.9% of the change in wage inequality across U.S. labor markets.
  PubDate: 2022-03-30
An input–output analysis of unit labour cost developments of the German
manufacturing sector since the mid-1990s
- Abstract: Abstract According to empirical studies, a statistically significant factor for German exports success is high cost (or price) competitiveness. Studies by Deutsche Bundesbank recommend correcting the nominal effective exchange rate by broad cost (or price) indicators (Deutsche Bundesbank, 1998, 2016a). This would call for total economy unit labour costs. In contrast to these findings, Dustmann et al. (2014) suggest using refined unit labour costs for the exporting manufacturing sector only, corrected for inputs from other sectors and from abroad in an Input–Output (IO) analysis framework. According to these authors’ novel calculation, the export-oriented manufacturing sector of Germany experienced a decrease in unit labour costs by 25% between the mid-1990s and 2007. We try to replicate their findings. Following standard approaches in calculating sectoral unit labours costs, correcting for inputs from other sectors and from abroad, and using consistent input–output data from the Federal Statistical Office and from the World Input–Output Database, nominal unit labour costs of the manufacturing sector did not decrease over the period of analysis, and developed similarly to total unit labour costs. The similarity to total economy costs is also confirmed for a more recent period. In contrast to these authors’ claim, our findings are in line with recommendations of Deutsche Bundesbank for using total economy unit labour costs.
  PubDate: 2022-02-02
Measuring the effect of gender segregation on the gender gap in
time-related underemployment
- Abstract: Abstract This paper focuses on the impact that gender segregation in the labour market exerts on the underemployment gender gap for young adult workers in Spain. In order to analyse the relative importance of segregation in this gap, we develop a methodology based on two counterfactual simulations that provides a detailed decomposition of the gap into endowments and coefficients effects as well as the interaction of these effects. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to perform a decomposition using bivariate probit models with sample selection. Using annual samples of the Spanish Labour Force Survey 2006–2016, the results show that working in female-dominated occupations or industries hinders working as many hours as desired, especially for women. Furthermore, we conclude that the gender gap in underemployment is mainly due to the different distribution of male and female workers across occupations and industries. Additionally, the different impact by gender that working in the same gender-typing jobs exerts on the risk of underemployment contributes to widening the gap.
  PubDate: 2021-11-28
Money also is sunny in a retiree’s world: financial incentives and
work after retirement
- Abstract: Abstract This paper assesses the impact of financial incentives on working after retirement. The empirical analysis is based on a large administrative individual career data set that includes information about 2% of all German employees subject to social security or in marginal employment until age 67 and their employers in the period 1975–2014. We use the classical labor supply model and differentiate between the impact of (potential) labor and non-labor (pension entitlements) income. A Heckman-type two step selection model corrects for endogeneity. We show that labor income has a positive and non-labor income a negative impact on the decision to work after retirement. Especially individuals who can substantially increase their earnings in comparison to their pension entitlements accordingly have a higher probability to work. Men are more attracted by labor earnings incentives than women. Also individuals who work until retirement are easier attracted to work after retirement by higher labor income than those with gaps between employment exit and retirement. Our results allow the calculation of the impact of changes in taxes on labor and non-labor income and changes in earnings offers by employers on work after retirement for different demographic groups.
  PubDate: 2021-10-07
KWReq—a new instrument for measuring knowledge work requirements of
higher education graduates
- Abstract: Abstract Starting from the observation that questionnaires for appropriately measuring the changing working conditions and requirements of the highly qualified workforce do not exist, we developed a new German-language instrument focussing on knowledge work. Based on theoretical considerations, we first identified three basic dimensions that constitute knowledge work: novelty, complexity, and autonomy. During the subsequent process of questionnaire development with higher education graduates, including a cognitive pretest, a quantitative development study, and a replication study, these dimensions were operationalised by initially 173 and finally 22 items. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling of the data of both the development and the replication study show that the 22-item instrument validly and reliably measures novelty (4 items), complexity with three subdimensions (9 items), and autonomy, also with three subdimensions (9 items). An English version of the questionnaire is available. However, the empirical test of the English-language questionnaire as well as possible refinements of the measurement instrument, which will be discussed in the final section of the paper, are left to future research.
  PubDate: 2021-08-16
Place of study, field of study and labour-market region: What matters for
wage differences among higher-education graduates'
- Abstract: Abstract This paper focuses on the structure and extent of wage differences among graduates of different higher-education institutions in Germany. We ask how large these differences are and how they relate to fields of study and regional labour markets. The results from our application of cross-classified random-effects models to a cohort of the DZHW Graduate Panel show that there is a considerable amount of wage variation depending on the graduates’ alma mater. However, this variation can be fully explained by structural characteristics: Selection based on individual characteristics is of only minor importance, while regional labour markets do matter. Most of all, however, the differences relate to fields of study.
  PubDate: 2021-07-13
Diversity of experience and labor productivity in creative industries
- Abstract: Abstract This paper studies how the previous experience among workers relates to the labor productivity of the creative industries in Sweden. Effective knowledge transfers are dependent on the cognitive distance among employees. Using longitudinal matched employer-employee data, I measure the portfolio of the skills within a workplace through (i) the workers' previous occupation, and (ii) the industry they have been working in previously. Estimates show that diversity of occupational experience is positive for labor productivity, but the diversity of industry experience is not. When distinguishing between related and unrelated diversity, the relatedness of occupational experience is positive for labor productivity, while unrelated occupational experience instead shows negative relationship with productivity. These results point towards the importance of occupational skills that workers bring with them to a new employment, for labor productivity.
  PubDate: 2021-07-06
Micro-econometric evaluation of subsidized employment in morocco: the case
of the "Idmaj" program
- Abstract: Abstract This paper aims to assess the impact of the Moroccan wage subsidy program "Idmaj". It applies the propensity score matching method to the data from a survey conducted by the Ministry of Labour on a sample of eligible individuals. Our results suggest that wage subsidies in Morocco have a positive but marginally significant effect on reducing unemployment and improving employment and a significant negative impact on wages. It also highlights some heterogeneous effects of the program, particularly on women. Finally, it appears that the program did not serve as a stepping stone to higher-paying, high-quality work and, in contrast, it had a stigmatizing effect on beneficiaries.
  PubDate: 2021-06-25
Development of a new COVID-19 panel survey: the IAB high-frequency online
personal panel (HOPP)
- Abstract: Abstract Since January 2020, the COVID-19 crisis has affected everyday life around the world, and rigorous government lockdown restrictions have been implemented to prevent the further spread of the pandemic. The consequences of the corona crisis and the associated lockdown policies for public health, social life, and the economy are vast. In view of the rapidly changing situation during this crisis, policymakers require timely data and research results that allow for informed decisions. Addressing the requirement for adequate databases to assess people’s life and work situations during the pandemic, the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) developed the High-frequency Online Personal Panel (HOPP). The HOPP study started in May 2020 and is based on a random sample of individuals drawn from the administrative data of the Federal Employment Agency in Germany, containing information on all labour market participants except civil servants and self-employed. The main goal of the HOPP study is to assess the short-term as well as long-term changes in people’s social life and working situation in Germany due to the corona pandemic. To assess individual dynamics the HOPP collected data on a monthly (wave one to four) and bi-monthly (wave five to seven) basis. Furthermore, respondents were divided into four groups. The different groups of a new wave were invited to the survey at weekly intervals (wave two to four) or bi-weekly intervals (wave five to seven). This gives us the advantage of being able to provide weekly data while each participant only had to participate on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. In this article, we delineate the HOPP study in terms of its main goals and features, topics, and survey design. Furthermore, we provide a summary of results derived from HOPP and the future prospects of the study.
  PubDate: 2021-06-23
On the effectiveness of case management for people with disabilities
- Abstract: Abstract Case managers provide individual and comprehensive support to employees who have become incapable of working. Using data from a large insurance company we find that overall, 43.9% of the people in our sample could be reintegrated. Controlling for personal characteristics, we analyze the effectiveness of case management by modelling the probability of reintegrating people being incapable of working into the labor market. Using parametric and semiparametric decomposition methods, we control for observational differences. We analyze how much of the difference in the reintegration rate between people who participate in case management and those who do not, is due to differences in characteristics and how much is due to case management itself. We find that the estimated probability of reintegration is 18.9% higher if people participate in case management. Moreover, our results show that no more than 15% are due to differences in characteristics and at least 85% can be attributed to case management itself.
  PubDate: 2021-05-21
Mapping the (mis)match of university degrees in the graduate labor market
- Abstract: Abstract This paper contributes to the scarce literature on the topic of horizontal education-job mismatch in the labor market for graduates of universities. Field-of-study mismatch or horizontal mismatch occurs when university graduates, trained in a particular field, work in another field at their formal qualification level. The data used in the analysis come from the first nationally representative survey of labor insertion of recent university graduates in Spain. By estimating a multinomial logistic regression, we are able to identify the match status 4 years after graduation based on self-assessments. We find a higher likelihood of horizontal mismatch among graduates of Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Pharmacy, and Languages and Literature. Only graduates in Medicine increase the probability of being adequately matched in their jobs. It may be hypothesized that horizontal mismatch is more likely among those graduates in degree fields that provide more general skills and less likely among those from degree fields providing more occupation-specific skills. Other degrees such as Business Studies, and Management and Economics Studies increase the probability of being vertically mismatched (over-educated). Vertical mismatch preserves at least some of the specific human capital gained through formal educational qualifications. However, some workers with degrees in Labor Relations and Social Work are in non-graduate positions and study areas unrelated to their studies. The paper also shows that graduates in the fields of health sciences and engineering/architecture increase the probability of achieving an education-job match after external job mobility.
  PubDate: 2021-05-07
The association of economic and cultural capital with the NEET rate:
differential geographical and temporal patterns
- Abstract: Abstract Using data from 103 Italian provinces, we investigated the relationship between local/regional development, and NEET. We constructed an indicator of cultural capital and another of economic capital and we studied their relation with the NEET rate. Covariance Structure Analysis with Generalized Least Squares estimation was employed, considering a three time-points retrospective model. Results indicate a consistent protective effect of the economic capital on the NEET rate, both in the short run (2 years) and in the medium run (10 years). However, this effect has been obtained in the Central provinces (at 2 and 10 years) and Southern provinces (at 10 years), but not in the Northern provinces. A mediation analysis indicated that, historically, the cultural capital may partly mediate the effect of the economic capital. We did not detect a significant direct effect of the cultural capital on the NEET rate, which is strongly mediated by the action of the economic capital. Together, these results denote that the economic capital is a strong predictor of NEET, but not in very competitive economic areas.
  PubDate: 2021-04-28
The relationship between voluntary employer change and work ability among
older workers: investigating the honeymoon-hangover effect
- Abstract: Abstract The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of voluntary employer changes on self-reported work ability among older workers in Germany and whether a honeymoon-hangover effect (HHE) exists here. In research on job satisfaction, three typical periods around a voluntary employer change characterize a HHE: a deterioration in the old job (deterioration), an initial increase in the new job (honeymoon) and a subsequent decline over time (hangover). Whether a HHE exists in respect to work ability following a voluntary employer change remained open. The analyses are based on data from the first three waves of the lidA study (2011, 2014, 2018), a representative cohort study of older employees in Germany born in 1959 or 1965. Data from 2502 workers who participated in all three study waves was analyzed. Fixed-effects regression analyses including lag and lead variables were conducted. A deterioration, honeymoon and hangover period were found. Work ability increased substantially following the voluntary employer change. Our study shows that voluntary employer changes have the potential to maintain work ability at higher working age, but not to increase the work ability in the long-term perspective. However, despite the existence of a hangover period, the positive overall effect of the voluntary change should not be underestimated.
  PubDate: 2021-04-18
Short-term earnings mobility in the Canadian and German context: the role
of cognitive skills
- Abstract: Abstract It is well-established that human capital contributes to unequal levels of earnings mobility. Individuals with higher levels of human capital, typically measured through education, earn more on average and are privy to greater levels of upward change over time. Nevertheless, other factors may have an incremental effect over education, namely cognitive ability and the skill demands of employment. To deepen insight into whether these aspects contribute to earnings mobility over a four-year period, the present study examines positional change in Canada and Germany—two contexts typified as examples of liberal and coordinated market economies. A series of descriptive indices and relative change models assess how different measures of human capital are associated with earnings mobility. The results indicate that, while individuals with higher cognitive skills experience greater earnings stability and upward mobility in both countries, there is only an incremental effect of skills on mobility in Germany once we account for educational credentials. The results also provide evidence on the role of skill demands for earnings mobility; in both countries, advanced skills at work are associated with greater short-term mobility, even while controlling for cognitive ability and other factors. Together the results showcase how longitudinal data containing detailed measures of human capital allow for deeper insight into what facilitates earnings mobility.
  PubDate: 2021-04-06
Spatial matching on the urban labor market: estimates with unique micro
data
- Abstract: Abstract In the paper, we investigate spatial relationship on the labor market of Poznań agglomeration (Poland) with unique data on job vacancies. We have developed spatial panel models to assess the search and matching process with a particular focus on spatial spillovers. In general, spatial models may provide different findings than regular panel models regarding returns to scale in matching technology. Moreover, we have identified global spillover effects as well as other factors that impact the job-worker matching. We underline the role of data on job vacancies: the data retrieved from commercial job portals produced much more reliable estimates than underestimated registered data.
  PubDate: 2021-04-06
A cross-country study of skills and unemployment flows
- Abstract: Abstract Using an international survey that directly assesses the cognitive skills of the adult population, I study the relation between skills and unemployment flows across 37 countries. Depending on the specifically assessed domain, I document that skills have an unconditional correlation with the log-risk-ratio of exiting to entering unemployment of 0.65–0.68 across the advanced and skill-abundant countries in the sample. The relation is remarkably robust and it is unlikely to be due to reverse causality. I do not find evidence that this positive relation extends to the seven relatively less advanced and less skill-abundant countries in the sample: Peru, Ecuador, Indonesia, Mexico, Chile, Turkey and Kazakhstan.
  PubDate: 2021-03-27
Intergenerational mobility and self-selection on unobserved skills: New
evidence
- Abstract: Abstract This study proposes a novel way to examine self-selection on unobserved skills and applies it to a sample of young males seeking asylum in 2015/2016 in Germany. First, the degree of intergenerational mobility of these refugees is assessed, specifically their educational improvement in comparison to their parents’ level of education. Next, the estimates are compared with the level of educational mobility of similar-aged males in the refugees’ regions of origin. The idea is that this difference indicates the pattern of self-selection on unobserved skills such as grit and motivation. Our findings hint at positive selection on such unobserved skills among these young male refugees.
  PubDate: 2021-03-22
Labour market polarisation revisited: evidence from Austrian vacancy data
- Abstract: Abstract Recent research suggests that new technologies are important drivers of empirically observed labour market polarisation. Many analyses in the field of economics are conducted to evaluate the changing share of employment in low-skill, medium-skill and high-skill occupations over time. This occupation-based approach, however, may neglect the relevance of specific skills and skill bundles, which potentially can be used to explain the observable patterns of labour market polarisation. This paper adds to the literature in two ways: First, we present the results of an analysis of data on job vacancies rather than the currently employed and, second, we derive occupation-defining skills using network analysis tools. The analysis and tool usage allowed us to investigate polarisation patterns in Austrian vacancy data from 2007 to 2017 and identify changes in the skills demanded in job vacancies in Austria. In contrast to most previous research, we find no evidence for polarisation, but rather a trend towards upskilling.
  PubDate: 2021-03-17
Price discrimination in informal labor markets in Bogotá: an audit
experiment during the 2018 FIFA World Cup
- Abstract: Abstract We conducted an audit experiment to examine whether street vendors in Bogotá (Colombia) exert price discrimination based on buyers’ attributes, such as gender and nationality, and based on product characteristics, such as the increasing marginal valuation of items needed to complete a collection. We exploited the seasonal demand for album stickers related to the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018. In our within-subjects design, experimenters carried out in-person audits and quoted a pre-determined list of missing stickers. They interacted with 59 sticker vendors located in five geographic clusters and collected 287 vendor–buyer interactions. We find that prices quoted to foreign buyers are higher than prices quoted to Colombian buyers. By contrast, we do neither find evidence supporting direct gender-based discrimination, nor that vendors charge a higher price per sticker when the list of missing stickers is shorter. We complement the study with a qualitative analysis based on interviews that reveal vendors’ pricing strategies, their awareness of price discrimination, and the trade of counterfeits. The qualitative results suggest that price discrimination appears to be unconscious.
  PubDate: 2021-03-14