Domestic Labor Supply Research Articles

Consequences of a minimum wage increase in a migrant-sending country

A mandated minimum wage supports low-wage workers at the expense of domestic employment and overall welfare in a closed economy. This, however, does not occur in an economy with open labor markets like the Philippines. Our general equilibrium simulations demonstrate that a minimum wage increase would be welfare-improving thanks to remittances earned by, especially, unskilled workers who lose jobs and migrate abroad. Migration would cause currency appreciation and less domestic labor supply which make exports and domestic production weaker, especially in manufacturing, like the Dutch disease. Among four household groups, welfare gains would accrue largely to both the richest and poorest household groups; middle-income groups would gain smaller. Our neutral inequality finding does not imply equal gains by all household groups but is brought by the poorest household group being able to keep up with the second and third-richest household groups, while trailing behind the richest household group.

The changing profile of the internationally educated nurse workforce: Post-pandemic implications for health human resource planning.

As part of its post COVID-19 recovery plan, the Canadian government is increasing the number of skilled immigrants, including Internationally Educated Nurses (IENs). However, pre-pandemic data show that IENs are underutilized and underemployed despite their education and experience. Focusing on the province of Ontario, this article explores trends in the IEN workforce and policies to address the nursing shortage. Barriers to IEN integration are reviewed and changes in the demographic and employment characteristics of IENs are analyzed. The disproportionate number of IENs employed in the Ontario long-term care sector, which has low wages and poor working conditions, emphasizes the need for policies that support the integration of IENs into the broader Canadian health system and increase their earning potential. To engage in strategic workforce planning and policy development, health leaders require access to nurse demographic and employment data that is timely and reflects the international and domestic labour supply.

Investigating the Relationship between Remittances, Institutional Quality, and Labour Supply in India

India is one of the world’s top remittance recipient countries. However, there is an ongoing debate on whether workers’ remittances serve as a ‘political curse or cure.’ Additionally, remittances influence the domestic labour supply left behind by migrant workers. Our study aims to utilise the ARDL bounds test and Granger causality to examine the long-run and short-run relationship between remittances, institutional quality, and labour supply from 1990 to 2018 in India. The results from the ARDL bounds test indicate a cointegrating relationship when institutional quality is treated as the dependent variable. The Granger causality test further supports unidirectional causality from remittances and labour supply to institutional quality in India. In the short run, findings indicate bidirectional causality between remittances and labour supply. The study contributes to the literature by constructing a composite index for a more accurate measure of institutional quality. Furthermore, the study includes relevant break dates as dummy variables, as it allows for country-specific structural breaks to be considered. Contrary to prior studies, we find no evidence of a public moral hazard problem created by India’s remittances. We argue that inbound remittances improve the well-being of recipients and pressure policymakers for more political accountability and better governance.

The Research Progress and Hot Spot Analysis of Labor Supply in China Based on CiteSpace

The analysis in the field of labor supply including the topic of general interest and frontier progress has a significant impact on the mobility and the development of the Chinese labor force. Based on the software of Citespace, this essay makes an in-depth study on the research achievements in the labor supply field published in CSSCI journals from 1998 to 2021, draws a knowledge map and systematically analyzes the research hotspots and frontier progress in this field. The results show that the hot areas of domestic labor supply research include demographic dividend, labor force, severe labor shortage, aging, unemployed people, demand, medical insurance, and so on. The latest research frontier in the field of labor supply in China is related to delayed retirement, manufacturing, artificial intelligence, aging, and intermediary effect. All the research is closely related to the national policy orientation. In the future, it is suggested to strengthen communication and cooperation between scholars and research institutions from a multidisciplinary perspective, enhance research and collaboration in the field of labor supply, reinforce the construction of facilities in labor supply, build a labor supply service system and constantly innovate the development model to promote the development of social integration.

Illegal Immigration, Labour Supply, and Fiscal Policies

ABSTRACT This paper explores the economic impact of illegal immigration in a dynamic general equilibrium model when the domestic labour supply is elastic and the fiscal policies include various taxes and income transfers. We first find that despite the mixed effects of illegal immigration on endogenous leisure-labour and saving-investment decisions, illegal immigration improves the welfare of domestic households in a dynamic competitive economy. The countervailing effects, however, show the wage differential improves individual welfare but hurts aggregate production. We then examine how the fiscal policies of illegal immigration influence a decentralised competitive equilibrium. Whereas the equivalence of economic incidence requires taxation on illegal immigrants, partial compliance causes the nonequivalence between labour income taxes and payroll taxes. Again, due to the countervailing effects, fiscal burden causes an adversary effect on the welfare of domestic households but stimulates aggregate economic performance. The opposite effects also arise in the fiscal contribution of illegal immigrants.

‘Australian sailors wanted’: Labour supply and Australian shipping, c. 1870–c. 1914

AbstractIn the pre‐1914 era Australia did not develop an ocean‐going merchant navy. The problem is well recognised in previous studies that assumed that it was high Australian wages that made the operational cost of deep‐sea vessels uncompetitive on a global scale. This article reconstructs historical shifts in the Australian market for a seagoing workforce and demonstrates there was low recruitment of Australian labour. Drawing on new sources and inspired by efficiency wage theory the article argues that it was this shortage of a domestic labour supply that constrained the development of a national deep‐sea shipping industry.

Immigration and the macroeconomy: Some new empirical evidence

We propose a new SVAR identification scheme that enables us to disentangle immigration shocks from other macroeconomic shocks in a sign-restricted model estimated on Norwegian data over the period 1990Q1 - 2014Q2. Notably, immigration is an endogenous variable in the model and can respond to the state of the economy. We find that domestic labor supply shocks and immigration shocks are well identified and are the dominant drivers of immigration dynamics. An exogenous immigration shock lowers unemployment (even among native workers), has a small positive effect on prices and on public finances, no impact on house prices and household credit, and a negative effect on productivity driven by a large decline in capital intensity.

Collective decisions, household production, and labor force participation

SummaryIn this paper, we generalize the collective model of household labor supply with domestic production to allow for the possibility of nonparticipation in the labor market. We also relax the marketability assumption according to which domestic goods and market goods are perfectly substitutable. Our results are twofold. First, we show that the main structural components of the decision process can be retrieved from observed behavior. Second, we estimate a system of market and domestic labor supply using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and apply the theoretical results to recover the intra‐household sharing of resources.

Workers by any other name: comparing co-ethnics and ‘interns’ as labour migrants to Japan

ABSTRACTIn the field of comparative immigration politics, Japan has been described as a ‘negative case’: despite structural shortages in the domestic labour supply, scholars have commonly pointed to the nation’s extremely restrictive, ethno-nationalist policies as an antithetical case against which traditional migration states can be compared. Applying an approach focused on the viewpoint of the state, I argue that in response to market pressures, Japan simultaneously implemented two schemes: an ethnic return migration programme centred on the discourse of rekindling ancestral ties, and a de facto guest worker programme officially represented as an internship initiative to disseminate Japanese technical knowledge. The perceived failure of co-ethnic migrants to integrate themselves on Japanese terms led to the expansion of the latter programme. Juxtaposing the two, I examine the processes through which the Japanese state ‘learned’ and reacted to differing policy outcomes. In doing so, I argue that policy revisions since the early 2000s have signalled the birth of a Japanese ‘developmental migration state’, in which restrictive immigration policies that uphold a narrow view of a homogenous nation are repeatedly reoriented to accommodate economic and development goals.

Immigration and the Macroeconomy: Some New Empirical Evidence

We propose a new VAR identification scheme that enables us to disentangle immigration shocks from other macroeconomic shocks. Identification is achieved by imposing sign restrictions on Norwegian data over the period 1990Q1 - 2014Q2. The availability of a quarterly series for net immigration is crucial to achieving identification. Notably, immigration is an endogenous variable in the model and can respond to the state of the economy. We find that domestic labor supply shocks and immigration shocks are well identified and are the dominant drivers of immigration dynamics. An exogenous immigration shock lowers unemployment (even among native workers), has a positive effect on prices and on public finances in the medium run, no impact on house prices and household credit, and a negative effect on productivity.

The Impact of Rainfall on Women/Child Agricultural and Domestic Labor Supply, Climate and Child Labor Using Ugandan Panel Data 2009-2012

The Impact of Rainfall on Women/Child Agricultural and Domestic Labor Supply, Climate and Child Labor Using Ugandan Panel Data 2009-2012

(Differential Effects of FDI on the SMEs and Wage Premium for Skilled Labor)

Korean Abstract: 국내 외국인직접투자는 1980년대부터 유입되기 시작하여 1998년 ？외국인투자 촉진법？이 제정되면서 급격히 증가하였다. 2000년대 초반에는 9ㆍ11테러, IT 거품 붕괴 등으로 인한 세계 경기 침체, M&A 물량 축소 등으로 감소세로 전환되었다가 다시 2004년부터 회복세를 보이기 시작했다. 이후 매년 100억 달러 이상의 안정적인 외국인직접투자를 달성하였고, 정부의 적극적인 외국인투자 유치 정책에 힘입어 2014년에는 약 190억 달러의 사상 최고치를 기록하였다.그동안 선진국 및 개발도상국은 ‘외국인직접투자가 고용창출, 선진기술 및 경영방식 도입 등의 긍정적인 효과를 가져온다’는 믿음하에 규제완화 및 제도개선, 세금혜택, 현금지원 등의 다양한 정책을 통해 외국인투자 유치 전략을 추진하였다. 우리나라도 외환위기를 기점으로 종전의 소극적인 투자 유치전략에서 적극적인 개방 및 지원 중심의 정책으로 전환하여 투자 유치 확대에 많은 노력을 기울여왔으며, 그 결과 외국인직접투자가 국내 수출의 20%, 고용의 6%를 차지하기에 이르렀다. 이에 따라 외국인직접투자는 국내 기업 및 고용 전반에 영향을 미치는 중요한 요인으로 대두되었다.하지만 최근 외국인직접투자의 기업 및 노동시장에 미치는 차별적 영향에 대한 우려가 나타나기 시작하면서, 외국인직접투자와 경제 양극화 간의 관계에 대한 의문이 제기되었다. 주로 국내기업보다 생산성이 높고 선진기술을 보유한 외국인투자기업(이하 ‘외투기업’)의 유입은 경쟁을 심화시키고 국내시장을 잠식할 수 있는데, 특히 경쟁력이 약한 국내 중소기업에 상대적으로 큰 구축효과를 일으켜 대기업과 중소기업의 차이를 더욱 심화시킬 수 있다. 또한 기술집약산업과 서비스산업에 집중된 외투기업의 진입은 숙련 노동자에 대한 수요를 증가시키고, 따라서 숙련 노동자와 비숙련 노동자의 임금격차를 확대시킴으로써 임금의 양극화를 초래할 수 있다.이러한 배경하에서 본 보고서는 현 한국경제의 중요한 두 이슈인 외국인직접투자 확대와 경제 양극화 현상의 관계에 대한 면밀한 분석이 필요하다는 문제의식하에 산업통상자원부에서 제공하는 ？외국인투자 통계？와 통계청의 ？기업활동조사？, 고용노동부의 ？고용형태별 근로실태조사？의 미시데이터를 활용하여 외국인직접투자가 중소기업의 퇴출 및 성장에 미치는 영향과 숙련노동자의 임금 프리미엄에 미치는 영향을 실증분석하였다.우선 외국인직접투자가 국내기업의 퇴출에 미치는 영향을 분석한 결과에 따르면, 외투기업의 유입은 국내기업의 퇴출을 증가시키는데, 특히 중소기업일수록 더 큰 퇴출 압력을 받는 것으로 확인되었다. 그리고 제조업 종사 그룹과 서비스업 종사 그룹, 고수출 그룹과 저수출 그룹을 비교한 세부 분석에서는 제조업 종사 그룹과 저수출 그룹에서 구축효과가 더 크게 나타났다. 또한 각 그룹에서 규모가 작은 기업일수록 상대적으로 더 큰 퇴출 압력을 받는 것을 확인할 수 있었다.하지만 경쟁에서 생존한 기업들만을 대상으로 매출액 증감을 분석한 결과에 따르면, 외투기업의 유입은 국내기업의 매출액에 유의한 영향을 주지 않는 것으로 관찰되었다. 하지만 제조업 종사 그룹과 서비스업 종사 그룹, 고수출 그룹과 저수출 그룹을 비교한 세부 분석에서는 제조업 종사 그룹과 고수출 그룹이 더 큰 폭의 매출액 증가를 보이고, 각 그룹별 중소기업일수록 더 큰 매출액 증가를 경험하는 것으로 나타났다.이상의 결과를 종합하면 외투기업의 국내 진출이 반드시 대기업과 중소기업의 양극화를 심화시킨다고 단정하기 어렵다. 외국인직접투자는 중소기업을 중심으로 구축효과를 일으켜 기업의 양극화를 심화시키는 것처럼 보이지만, 일부 그룹에서는 경쟁에서 살아남은 중소기업의 경우 오히려 더 큰 매출액 증가를 경험하는 것으로 나타나 양극화를 완화시킬 수도 있기 때문이다. 이를 경제 전체적인 관점에서 해석하면 외투기업의 국내 진출은 생산성이 낮고 경쟁력이 약한 기업을 시장에서 퇴출시킴으로써 산업 전반의 경쟁력을 향상 시키는 효과가 있다고 볼 수 있으며, 또한 경쟁에서 살아남은 기업들에는 연쇄 및 선진기술전파 효과를 일으켜 경제 전체의 경쟁력을 증대시키는 효과도 있다.외국인직접투자가 숙련 노동자와 비숙련 노동자의 임금 프리미엄에 미치는 영향을 실증분석하기에 앞서, 이론적으로는 외투기업의 특성, 즉 상대적으로 숙련 노동 집약적인 경우와 비숙련 노동 집약적인 경우에 따라 상반되는 결과를 초래함을 알 수 있었다. 전자의 경우 외국인직접투자의 증가는 숙련노동자에 대한 수요를 증가시켜 숙련 노동자에 대한 임금 프리미엄을 증가시키는 반면, 후자의 경우에는 비숙련 노동자에 대한 수요를 증가시키고 오히려 숙련 노동자에 대한 임금 프리미엄을 감소시킴을 확인할 수 있었다.이를 실제 데이터를 이용해 분석한 결과, 종합적으로는 뚜렷한 관계가 나타나지 않지만 전기ㆍ전자, 음식ㆍ숙박, 금융ㆍ보험, 기계ㆍ장비, 비즈니스 서비스업, 도소매유통, 기타 제조, 화공산업 분야에서는 외국인직접투자가 숙련 노동자에 대한 임금 프리미엄을 높이는 것으로 나타났다. 이론과 연결시켜보면 위 산업의 외투기업은 상대적으로 숙련 노동 집약적이며, 따라서 외투기업의 진입은 숙련 노동자에 대한 수요와 임금 프리미엄의 증가로 이어진다고 해석할 수 있다. 또한 위 산업분야에 이미 외국인직접투자가 많이 들어와 있는 상황임을 고려할 때, 이외의 산업에서는 아직 충분한 외국인직접투자가 이루어지지 않아 숙련 노동자의 임금 프리미엄 증가가 관찰되지 않은 것일 뿐 외국인직접투자의 증가에 따라 숙련 노동자에 대한 임금 프리미엄이 증가할 가능성을 완전히 배제할 수 없다.이상의 결과를 종합하여 국내에 진출한 외투기업의 긍정적인 효과를 극대화할 수 있는 방안을 다음과 같이 제시할 수 있다. 일부 그룹에서 외국인직

Projecting the effects of long-term care policy on the labor market participation of primary informal family caregivers of elderly with disability: insights from a dynamic simulation model.

BackgroundUsing Singapore as a case study, this paper aims to understand the effects of the current long-term care policy and various alternative policy options on the labor market participation of primary informal family caregivers of elderly with disability.MethodsA model of the long-term care system in Singapore was developed using System Dynamics methodology.ResultsUnder the current long-term care policy, by 2030, 6.9 percent of primary informal family caregivers (0.34 percent of the domestic labor supply) are expected to withdraw from the labor market. Alternative policy options reduce primary informal family caregiver labor market withdrawal; however, the number of workers required to scale up long-term care services is greater than the number of caregivers who can be expected to return to the labor market.ConclusionsPolicymakers may face a dilemma between admitting more foreign workers to provide long-term care services and depending on primary informal family caregivers.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12877-016-0243-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Immigration and the Macroeconomy: Some New Empirical Evidence

We propose a new VAR identification scheme that enables us to disentangle immigration shocks from other macroeconomic shocks. Identification is achieved by imposing sign restrictions on Norwegian data over the period 1990Q1 - 2014Q2. The availability of a quarterly series for net immigration is crucial to achieving identification. Notably, immigration is an endogenous variable in the model and can respond to the state of the economy. We find that domestic labor supply shocks and immigration shocks are well identified and are the dominant drivers of immigration dynamics. An exogenous immigration shock lowers unemployment (even among native workers), has a positive effect on prices and on public finances in the medium run, no impact on house prices and household credit, and a negative effect on productivity.

Economic growth and inequality in Singapore: The case for a minimum wage

Abstract.In the context of Singapore's ageing population, the employment of large numbers of low‐skilled foreign workers is proving to be a major challenge to inclusive growth because of the stagnation of low‐wage workers' incomes. In order to address this problem, the author makes the case for introducing a minimum wage to complement existing in‐work benefit schemes. After addressing the commonly voiced objections to a minimum wage system, he suggests ways in which a minimum wage could be implemented in Singapore. New measures to enhance the social safety net and foster more sustainable economic growth are also proposed.

Modelling Gender Impacts of Policy Reforms in Bangladesh: A Study in a Sequential Dynamic CGE Framework

This is a PEP funded on-going research. The research explores the gender aspects of policy reforms in Bangladesh in a sequential dynamic computational general equilibrium (CGE) framework. This research uses the most updated SAM of Bangladesh and is the first attempt to build a gendered sequential dynamic CGE model for the Bangladesh economy. A ‘home production’ version of gendered CGE model for the Bangladesh economy is developed. This research tries to understand how gender interests are affected by greater exposure to trade and other policy reforms. The short-run and long-run impacts of policy reforms in the labour market and in the household in a gendered framework are also explored. The research performs two simulations to examine the impact of: (1) domestic trade liberalisation in Bangladesh, and (2) the phasing-out of Multi-fibre Agreement (MFA) on textile and garments. This research builds a gendered social accounting matrix (SAM) for the year 2000 and uses it in a sequential dynamic computable general equilibrium framework. The representative household approach is followed. It is found that domestic trade liberalisation leads to a significant expansion of the ready-made garment sectors in the economy as a result of which the share of market labour supply of unskilled female labour increases. But, this results in a fall in the shares of domestic labour supply and leisure of unskilled female members of the households. The fall in the share of leisure time may have significant negative implications for the time spent on education by this labour category. It is also observed that the long run impacts are different from the short run impacts with respect to the magnitude of the effects. In the case of second simulation, it can be noted that the phasing out of the MFA works in completely the opposite direction. The share of market labour supply of unskilled female members of the households decrease, and the shares of domestic work and leisure increase for most of the households both in the short and long run.

EXAMINING THE OBSTACLES TO BROADENING PARTICIPATION IN COMPUTING: EVIDENCE FROM A SURVEY OF PROFESSIONAL WORKERS

I. INTRODUCTION Insuring that the nation has a sufficient number of trained information technology (IT) professionals and that the composition of this group reflects a diversity of backgrounds, especially in terms of race and gender, has been widely recognized as important issue (Gilbert, 2006). Despite recent growth in the off shoring of some IT work, employment growth has remained strong, yet enrollment in computer science programs has declined, and the number of women and underrepresented minorities in the IT workforce has remained frustratingly low. Encouraging more women and minorities to choose IT careers would help raise both overall numbers in the field and the diversity of the resulting workforce. Expanding the domestic labor supply that is available to U.S. employers is a major reason for encouraging female entry into IT that has been identified in the literature. Bartol and Aspray (2006) found that employers who struggled to find enough qualified IT workers at the height of the IT boom around 1999 could have solved these labor shortage problems had they done a better job of including women and minorities in the IT workforce. Rather than adopting strategies that moved women toward parity in IT, U.S. industry resorted to importing temporary foreign workers to fill the open positions. The current politically controversial trend of offshoring technical jobs is also primarily being driven by efforts to gain access to a labor force that would allow firms to hire adequate numbers of qualified workers. As Bartol and Aspray (2006, p. 408) argued, however, an increase in the domestic IT labor pool by representative participation by women and minorities would go a long way toward meeting that end. In addition to the labor supply issue, diversity in the IT workforce is important since a more gender-balanced workforce is more likely to understand the concerns of increasingly diverse customer base. As Wulf (1999) argued, ... those differences in experience are the 'gene pool' from which creativity springs. In the past few years, a number of pilot efforts have been undertaken to address a variety of perceived obstacles that are believed to discourage these underrepresented groups. These policy initiatives have focused on a variety of avenues through which the problem of under representation might be addressed including labor and workforce issues, immigration policy, and research funding initiatives. Policy solutions designed to increase the diversity of the IT workforce must, however, be informed by a clear understanding of the underlying reasons for the limited numbers of women and minorities in IT careers. With this in mind, we report here a number of results derived from a recently completed study of current IT professionals that help to explain the reasons for the relatively small number of women in IT occupations. Our data suggest two important conclusions. First, our evidence leads us to reject the argument that the demanding nature of IT careers is the primary barrier for increasing the number of women. Weinberger's (2004) survey of college women, for example, found that 30%--40% of the women surveyed believed that IT careers would be incompatible with raising children because of demanding schedules. Our first conclusion suggests that this is not a sufficient explanation. Women do report that family responsibilities conflict with work more than men, but we find that women in IT report no greater conflict than in comparable careers that have much higher proportions of women workers. Thus, while work-family conflicts may discourage some women from pursuing demanding careers, they do not offer a mechanism to explain the relatively small numbers of women in IT careers. Our second conclusion is that the concept of occupational personality can help to account for the relative shortage of women in IT careers. These findings suggest several strategies for increasing gender diversity that we discuss in our conclusion. …

Labor supply, home production, and welfare comparisons

We consider the collective model of labor supply with marketable domestic production. We first show that, if domestic production is mistakenly ignored, the ‘collective’ indirect utility functions that are retrieved from observed behavior will be unbiased if and only if the retrieved from observed behavior will be unbiased if and only if the profit function is additive. Otherwise, in the non-additive case, the direction and the size of the bias will depend on the complementarity-substitutability of spouses' time inputs in the production process. We then show that, even if domestic labor supply functions are not observed, valid welfare comparisons are possible. This identification result generalizes that in Chiappori [Chiappori, P.A., 1992. Collective labor supply and welfare. Journal of Political Economy 100, 437–467].

Fair Wages and Unemployment in a Small Open Economy

In this paper we develop a model of a multi-sector multi-factor small open economy with involuntary unemployment due to fair wages. The model is used inter alia to analyse the labour market effects of changes in unemployment benefits and the domestic labour supply. Our analysis covers both the case where factor prices do not react to endowment changes - as in the Heckscher-Ohlin model - and the case where they do. Results are sensitive to this distinction, thereby emphasizing the benefit of employing a general production structure that encompasses both cases.

Managing the Smart City‐State: Singapore Approaches the 21st Century1

ABSTRACTSingapore has a remarkable reputation for its successful deployment of limited resources and for its strength and stability even during Asia's current economic crisis. Widespread recognition and attempts by other countries and cities at emulation of some of the strategies it has adopted have confirmed that Singapore has achieved longstanding aspirations for excellence in many areas. As Singapore positions itself to enter the new millennium the government's distinctive and sometimes controversial corporate management style is evidenced in its approach to such matters as growing the economy, enhancing the physical infrastructure, constraining residential segregation, and encouraging increased family size to enhance domestic labour supply. Sometimes it is the means of achieving the desired ends which attracts criticism, at others it is the goals themselves which are questioned. This paper examines some of the features of Singapore's drive to enhance its regional and global role in vastly different circumstances from those which confronted the same government at internal independence in 1959 and full independence in 1965.