Increase In Relative Supply Research Articles

College Wage Premium Over Time: Trends in Europe in the Last 15 Years

While there has been intense debate in the empirical literature over the evolution of the college wage premium in the United States, its evolution in Europe has received little attention. This paper investigates the causes of the evolution of the college wage premium in 12 european countries from 1994 to 2009. I use cross country variation in relative supply, demand, and labour market institutions to examine their effects on the trend in wage inequality. I address possible concerns of endogeneity of the relative supply using an IV strategy exploiting the differential legislations of university autonomy and their variations over time. In explaining the evolution of wage inequality, both market and non-market factors matter: an increase in relative supply decreases the college wage premium; the minimum wage also has a sign?cant and negative effect.

Household and Individual Decision-Making Over the Life Cycle: A First Look at Evidence from Peruvian Cohorts

Peruvian society has achieved significant improvements in terms of lower fertility and mortality over the last forty years, which has brought down population growth rates to less than 1. 2% a year. These improvements have led, on average, to a demographic transition with lower dependency ratios. In general, this transition increases the ability of the society to take proper care of its non-working population groups, children and the elderly, which may be reflected in changes in household structure. We identify stylized facts about the implications of these changes at the micro level through the use of pseudo-panels from household-level data for Peru. We calculate age, cohort and year effects for variables related to household structure, educational attainment, labor force participation and savings. We find some evidence that suggests differences, by educational level, in the Peruvian demographic transition. Household size is smaller for the younger cohorts in all households but those with less educated heads. We argue that these different profiles are explained by the fact that reductions in fertility have not reached the less educated. On the one hand, these differences in household size patterns are similar to those in the number of children. On the other hand, cohort patterns in family living arrangements—i. e. , households with extended families—are similar across educational groups. However, family living arrangements change throughout the life cycle, in the sense that extended families are more common for households with very young (under 25) and elderly (over 60) heads. These changes in family arrangements over the life cycle add confusion to the meaning of headship, since in some cases the household reports as its head the older member and in other cases the main income earner. We also find that younger cohorts are more educated, are larger than older ones, and show lower returns to education. This is consistent with an increase in relative supply of educated workers that outpaces the increase in relative demand induced by economic growth, under the assumption of imperfect substitutability between equally educated workers of different cohorts. Finally, we show that intergenerational family arrangements over the life cycle limit the ability of the life cycle hypothesis (LCH) to explain household savings behavior. We find evidence that Peruvian households, especially the less educated, smooth consumption over the life cycle, not only through the typical saving-dissaving mechanism, but also by smoothing income. Net cash transfers, or living arrangements between parents and their offspring, play an important role in this income smoothing.

India's Increasing Skill Premium: Role of Demand and Supply

Abstract Using micro data for India from 1983 to 2005, this paper finds that the tertiary (college)-secondary (high school) wage premium has been increasing in India over the past decade and that this increase differs across age groups. The increase in wage premiums has been driven mostly by younger age groups while older age groups have not experienced any significant increase. Using a demand and supply model with imperfect substitution across age groups (developed in Card and Lemieux, 2001), this paper demonstrates that workers are not perfect substitutes across age groups. The paper finds that the increase in the wage premium has come mostly from demand shifts in favor of workers with a tertiary education. More importantly, the growth rate of demand for tertiary educated workers relative to secondary educated workers was fairly stable in the 1980s and the 1990s. However, the relative supply played an important role not only in determining the extent of increase in wage premium, but also its timing. The increase in relative supply of tertiary workers during 1983-1993 negated the demand shift; as a result, the wage premium did not increase much. But during 1993-1999, the growth rate of the relative supply of tertiary workers decelerated, while relative supply became virtually stagnant during 1999-2004. Both these periods saw an increase in the wage premium as the countervailing supply shift was weak.

India's Increasing Skill Premium: Role of Demand and Supply

The tertiary-secondary (college-high school) wage premium has been increasing in India over the past decade, but the increase differs across age groups. The increase in wage premium has been driven mostly by younger age groups, while older age groups have not experienced any significant increase. This paper uses the demand and supply model with imperfect substitution across age groups developed in Card and Lemieux (2001) to explain the uneven increase in the wage premium across age groups in India. The findings of this paper are that the increase in the wage premium has come mostly from demand shifts in favor of workers with a tertiary education. More importantly, the demand shifts occurred in both the 1980s and 1990s. Relative supply has played an important role not only determining the extent of increase in wage premium, but also its timing. The increase in relative supply of tertiary workers during 1983-1993 offset the demand shift, limiting the wage premium increase. But during 1993-1999, the growth rate of the relative supply of tertiary workers decelerated, while relative supply was virtually stagnant during 1999-2004. Both of these periods saw an increase in the wage premium as the countervailing supply shift was weak.

Children's books as a commodity: The rise of a new literary subsystem in the eighteenth-century Dutch republic

This article describes the rise of a new literary subsystem, that of children's books, as an integral part of the Dutch literary field. An analysis was made of the strategies of 18th-century Dutch publishers of children's books. Data on booksellers' lists, patents, and other historic sources, especially newspaper advertisements, made it possible to qualify current assumptions and to describe in more detail the production and consumption of children's books as a subsystem of the Dutch literary field. Although the Dutch literary market was fairly small, this did not prevent it from producing a substantial number of children's books. Developments in the production of children's books kept pace with those in Germany, and the number of translations in the overall supply was not predominant. The relative increase in supply during the 1760s makes this period the historical starting point of the advance of the Dutch children's book. Towards the end of the 18th century, Dutch fiction genres appear to be less dominant than in Germany. Traditional categories like religious works are still on a par with relatively new genres for children like almanacs and periodicals, which focused more on entertainment. By analysing the content of advertisements, it is possible to show how publishers tried to reconcile commercial interests and ideological motives.