Wage Estimates Research Articles

Attrition and the estimation of employment and wage equations: the Canadian survey of labour and income dynamics

This article provides an analysis of the effects of attrition on employment and wages using the Canadian survey of labour and income dynamics. We consider a structural model composed of three freely correlated equations for nonattrition, employment and wages. The model is estimated using microdata from 22 990 individuals who provided sufficient information in the first year of the 1996–2001 panel. The main findings of this article are that attrition is not random. Attritors likely are less attached to employment and come from low-income population. The correlation between nonattrition and employment is positive and statistically significant, though small. Also, wage estimates are biased upwards. Observed wages are on average higher than wages that would be observed if all the individuals initially selected in the panel remained in the sample.

Traditional vs. modern production systems: Price and nonmarket considerations of cacao producers in Northern Ecuador

Many factors besides profit maximization, such as nonmarket ecological and social benefits, influence smallholder households to adopt a specific agricultural production system or sell in a particular market. Thus, different analytical techniques are needed that take into consideration more than monetary income to fully capture these additional benefits to better understand the production decisions of smallholder farmers. We build on previous work on the household model and shadow wage estimation to develop a shadow wage for Ecuadorian cacao producers that includes these nonmarket benefits. We found that the shadow wage correctly indicated that, on average, these households would prefer to use an agroforestry production system instead of the more profitable modern system because of the nonmarket benefits received from the former system.

Sample Attrition in the Canadian Survey of Labor and Income Dynamics

This paper provides an analysis of the effects of attrition and non-response on employment and wages using the Canadian Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics. We consider a structural model composed of three freely correlated equations for non-attrition/response, employment and wages. The model is estimated using microdata from 22,990 individuals who provided sufficient information in the first wave of the 1996-2001 panel. The main findings of the paper are that attrition is not random. Attritors and non-respondents likely are less attached to employment and come from low-income population. The correlation between non-attrition and employment is positive and statistically significant, though small. Also, wage estimates are biased upwards. Observed wages are on average higher than wages that would be observed if all the individuals initially selected in the panel remained in the sample.

Can higher employment levels bring down relative income poverty in the EU? Regression-based simulations of the Europe 2020 target

At the European level and in most EU member states, higher employment levels are seen as key to better poverty outcomes. What can we expect the actual impact to be, however? Up until now shift-share analysis has been used to estimate the impact of rising employment on relative income poverty. This method has serious limitations. We propose a more sophisticated simulation model that builds on regression-based estimates of employment probabilities and wages. We use this model to estimate the impact on relative income poverty of moving towards the Europe 2020 target of 75 percent of the working-age population in work. Two sensitivity checks are included: giving priority in job allocation to jobless households and imputing low instead of estimated wages. This article shows that employment growth does not necessarily result in lower relative poverty shares, a result that is largely consistent with observed outcomes over the past decade.

Examining the Cost Per Caregiver of an Intervention Designed to Improve the Quality of Life of Spousal Caregivers of Stroke Survivors

There is a growing consensus among healthcare researchers that, within the field of family caregiving, cost-effectiveness research is needed to determine which programs have the greatest benefit for family members. This study examines the cost per caregiver of an intervention designed to improve the quality of life of spousal caregivers of stroke survivors. Cost data from the CAReS study were analyzed to determine the cost of the intervention per caregiver. The cost of the intervention per caregiver was $2,500 at the 2009 median wage estimate. It was $1,700 at the 2009 10 percentile wage estimate and $3,500 at the 2009 90 percentile wage estimate. This study provides a prototype cost analysis from which researchers can build. In future analyses, costs should be tracked at a participant level so uncertainty can be calculated using the bias-corrected percentile bootstrapping method and plotted to calculate cost-effectiveness acceptability curves, enabling cost-effectiveness comparisons between interventions.

Geographical Mobility and Potential Wage Gain of Immigrants within Spain

Ruiz A. C. Geographical mobility and potential wage gain of immigrants within Spain, Regional Studies. Geographical mobility of workers within countries can be a means of equilibrating regional economic disparities. Within this context, a relevant topic is the mobility of foreign workers in the destination country. The Spanish case is interesting, because Spain has one of Europe's fastest-growing immigration rates. This paper is aimed, first, at studying the determinants of interregional geographical mobility of immigrants in Spain and, second, at obtaining consistent estimates of an individual's opportunity wage as a mover or a stayer. Findings show that an expected wage gain exerts a positive influence on mobility and leads to a better allocation of resources.

Estimation of Wage and Labor Supply for Japanese Female Clerical Workers Post the Equal Employment Opportunity Law : Comparative Analysis for 1992, 1997, and 2002

Estimation of Wage and Labor Supply for Japanese Female Clerical Workers Post the Equal Employment Opportunity Law : Comparative Analysis for 1992, 1997, and 2002

An Inquiry into the Pay Structure of the New York Yankees: 1919–1941

This paper explores salaries for New York Yankees players during the early 20th century. Thanks to the recent availability of a unique data set, we are able to construct detailed earnings profiles using individual player salaries. Human capital wage estimates suggest that the Yankees’ owners rewarded players on the basis of their contributions to team productivity. Although apparently exploiting their monopsony power, the Yankees’ management set salaries on a systematic, productivity-related, basis. Because of the panel nature of the data, we use fixed-effects regression instead of Ordinary Least Squares regression estimation.

Revised methodology for unit wage costs and unit labour costs: explanation and impact

A revised methodology for whole economy unit labour costs and unit wage costs has been implemented as part of the Q2 2011 Labour Productivity statistical release, published alongside this article on 6 October 2011. These changes are based on recommendations made in a previous article by Turvey (2009). The revised methodology utilises more consistent and robust wage and labour cost estimates for the self‐employed. This paper explains the changes undertaken and demonstrates the impact of these changes on the data.

Obliczanie stopy procentowej z uwzględnieniem zmienności stóp podokresów

A global and quickly changing world needs more and more detailed economic information on process changes as well as change rate. The article proposes how to calculate interest rates (a rate index of two time moments) taking into account dynamic changes of appropriate sub-periods. To describe a process change intensity between its beginning and end kinetic descriptive functions are used fixing the speedy, average and momentary acceleration. The discussed method (using nominal growth rate terms) lets to fix and compare the processes in real term. The theoretical study is exemplified by change analysis and estimation of average wages and salaries in enterprise sector in Poland from December 2009 to December 2010.

Shadow Wages for the EU Regions

The shadow wage is the social opportunity cost of labor. After reviewing earlier theoretical and empirical literature, we define four labor market conditions: fairly socially efficient (FSE), quasi-Keynesian unemployment (QKU), urban labor dualism (ULD) and rural labor dualism (RLD). We offer, for the first time to date, an empirical estimation of the shadow wages for the EU at regional (NUTS2) level. Our estimated values are in the form of conversion factors that translate actual observed real wages into shadow wages, as required by social cost-benefit analysis of investment projects under the Structural Funds of the EU. Our results are obtained with an empirical strategy that is easy to implement with aggregate data, differently from micro-data based approaches that are costly, project specific, and often difficult to be applied because of lack of data. We find that the conversion factor for the shadow wage rate is 0.998 in 29 FSE regions (mostly capital cities); 0.943 in 135 ULD regions (mostly in rich areas); 0.8005 in 74 QKU regions, and just 0.519 in 32 RLD regions. These findings point to high variability of labor markets in the EU and have important applications for project evaluation.

Returns for Education in Kosovo: Estimates of Wage and Employment Premia

Returns for Education in Kosovo: Estimates of Wage and Employment PremiaThis paper provides an analysis of the returns for education in Kosovo using data from a Household and Labour Force Survey. We argue that given the high unemployment rate in Kosovo, employed individuals may not be randomly selected from the labour force. Therefore, the estimates of the rates of returns for education based on the standard Mincerian earnings function may be biased downwards. Hence, the Heckman sample selection model is implemented, which adjusts the estimates of the wage equation for the self-selection of individuals into employment. We estimate the rate of returns for level of education and for years of education. We find relatively low rates of returns for education in terms of wage premia and argue that in countries with chronic labour market disequilibria (such as in Kosovo), the returns for education may be in terms of employment premia. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic study of these issues in this post-socialist and post-conflict economy.

Shadow Wages for the EU Regions*

AbstractAccording to cost–benefit analysis theory, the shadow wage rate (SWR) is the social opportunity cost of labour. After reviewing earlier theoretical and empirical literature, we define the SWR under four labour market conditions: fairly socially efficient (FSE), quasi‐Keynesian unemployment (QKU), urban labour dualism (ULD) and rural labour dualism (RLD). We offer, for the first time, a short‐cut empirical estimation of the shadow wages for the European Union (EU) at the regional (NUTS2) level. Our estimated values are in the form of conversion factors, i.e. coefficients that translate actual observed real wages into shadow wages, as required by the evaluation of public investment projects under the Structural Funds of the EU. Our results are obtained with an empirical strategy that is easy to implement with aggregate regional data, differently from traditional micro‐data‐based approaches to the estimation of the SWR, which are costly, project specific and often difficult to apply because of lack of information.

Estimation Of Labor Demand Elasticity For The RMSM-LP: Revised Minimum Standard Model For Labor And Poverty Module

The RMSM-LP (Revised Minimum Standard Model for Labor and Poverty) is a Microsoft Excel-based simulation package for facilitating the forecasting, monitoring and analysis of financial flows of developing countries developed by the World Bank. It models the demand side of the economy by using an economy wide consistent flow-of-funds framework in which different agents are identified. More precisely, the basic model includes the National Accounts; Balance of payments; general Government; Monetary survey and a rest of the economy account. In addition to the above-mentioned sectors, the model forecasts detailed trade accounts and foreign debt flows and stocks. As such it can be used to produce a comprehensive outlook for a developing economies.To be able to calibrate RMSM-LP module, we need to provide labor demand elasticity of wage and output for two heterogeneous labor groups (skilled and unskilled). However, in reality, reliable labor data is unavailable or do not have sufficient observations for the efficient estimation of labor demand elasticity for many developing countries. For this reason, (1) we do a literature survey to find acceptable ranges of wage and output elasticity for the labor demand and (2) provide some labor database accessible for economists and (3) provide actual estimates of wage and output elasticity of labor demand using aggregated data of manufacturing and agricultural sector for two regions (Africa and Latin America).Finally, based on survey and actual estimates, we provide an acceptable range of elasticity for the proper calibration of RMSM-LP module.

Can Higher Employment Levels Bring Lower Poverty in the EU? Regression Based Simulations of the Europe 2020 Target

At the European level and in most EU member states, higher employment levels are seen as key to better poverty outcomes. But what can we expect the actual impact to be? Up until now shift-share analysis has been used to estimate the impact of rising employment on relative income poverty. This method has serious limitations. We propose a more sophisticated simulation model that builds on regression based estimates of employment probabilities and wages. We use this model to estimate the impact on relative income poverty of moving towards the Europe 2020 target of 75 percent of the working aged population in work. Two sensitivity checks are included: giving priority in job allocation to jobless households and imputing low instead of estimated wages. This paper shows that employment growth does not necessarily result in lower relative poverty shares, a result that is largely consistent with observed outcomes over the past decade.

Unions and the Gender Wage Gap in South Africa

Studies of the wage effects of unions in South Africa have been concerned largely with the impact of union membership on the wages of African and white male workers. Consistent with findings in the international literature, these studies have concluded that unions compress the distribution of wages in South Africa, and more specifically, that racial inequality is lower in the union sector than in the non-union sector. In this paper, we explore whether unions in South Africa are associated with comparable gender wage effects among African workers, using data collected in the nationally representative Labour Force Surveys. Contrary to initial expectations, we find that when wage estimations control for broad occupational sorting by gender in union and non-union employment, then the gender wage gap is larger in the union sector than in the non-union sector. We also consider how possible selection into union status affects our estimates, and demonstrate the difficulty of addressing this problem in the South African context by evaluating a variety of selection models.

Demand for redistribution, support for the welfare state, and party identification in Austria

This paper describes subjective wage inequality and the demand for redistribution in Austria using individuals’ estimates of occupational wages from the International Social Survey Program. Although these estimates differ widely across individuals, the data clearly show that most individuals would like to decrease wage inequality, relative to the level of inequality which they perceive to exist. The empirical analysis also shows that the demand for redistribution is strongly associated not only with variables describing self-interested motives for redistribution, but also with perceptions of and social norms with respect to inequality. Further, the demand for redistribution is a strong predictor for whether an individual is supportive of redistribution by the state. On the other hand, however, I find almost no evidence for an empirical association between the demand for redistribution and individuals’ party identification.

Can the “one-drop rule” tell us anything about racial discrimination? New evidence from the multiple race question on the 2000 Census

The inclusion of multiple race information for the first time in the 2000 Census allows for a novel test for the presence of labor discrimination using the “one-drop rule.” Identifying discrimination is straightforward and essentially relies on the discontinuous nature of the one-drop rule, which treats biracial blacks similarly as monoracial blacks. If biracial blacks have levels of unmeasurable and measurable human capital that lie between the levels of monoracial blacks and whites then, absent discrimination, their wages should also lie between the wages of the two groups. Estimates from the Census indicate that biracial blacks have levels of education that lie almost perfectly between monoracial blacks and whites. In contrast, however, biracial blacks have wages that are roughly similar to monoracial blacks after controlling for education and potential work experience. Estimates from the 1980 Census also do not indicate that the parental characteristics and educational outcomes of biracial children differ from what would be expected by having both black and white parents. Several additional factors that potentially affect the human capital of biracial adults are explored. These findings provide some suggestive evidence on the “one drop rule” and the presence of discrimination in the labor market and provide new estimates of wages and educational levels of biracial blacks.

The Plaintiff and Defense Attorney's Guide to Understanding Economic Damages

The Plaintiff and Defense Attorney's Guide to Understanding Economic Damages

Demand for Redistribution, Support for the Welfare State, and Party Identification in Austria

This paper describes subjective wage inequality and the demand for redistribution in Austria using individuals' estimates of occupational wages from the International Social Survey Program. Although these estimates differ widely across individuals, the data clearly show that most individuals would like to decrease wage inequality, relative to the level of inequality which they perceive to exist. The empirical analysis also shows that the demand for redistribution is strongly associated not only with variables describing self-interested motives for redistribution, but also with perceptions of and social norms with respect to inequality. Further, the demand for redistribution is a strong predictor for whether an individual is supportive of redistribution by the state. On the other hand, however, I find almost no evidence for an empirical association between the demand for redistribution and individuals' party identification.