Labor Market Factors Research Articles

Acculturation and Health Insurance of Mexicans in the USA.

We study how the health insurance coverage of Mexican immigrants changes with time in the U.S. Cross sectional estimates indicate that time since arrival is negatively correlated with the probability of being uninsured for both male and female Mexican immigrants, and about a third of the decline could be attributed to civic and labor market incorporation of Mexican immigrants. However, much of the relationship between time in the U.S. and health insurance coverage, after adjusting for demographic and labor market factors, is due to failure to control for age at arrival and period of arrival. Estimates from longitudinal analyses suggest that there is no systematic relationship between time in the U.S. and health insurance of Mexican immigrants, although imprecision in the fixed effects estimates makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions.

Regional determinants of MNE’s location choice in post-transition economies

This article focuses on the impact of agglomeration and labour market factors on the location choice of MNEs in post-transition economies. We compare data from 33 regions in East Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland using a mixed logit model on a sample of 4,343 subsidiaries for the time period between 2000 and 2010. The results show that agglomeration advantages, such as sectoral specialization as well as a region’s economic and technological performance prove to be some of the most important pull factors for FDI in post-transition regions. With respect to access to labour, the results suggest that FDI in post-transition regions is (no longer) only dominated by efficiency seeking behaviour, but also by access to well-qualified labour.

On the political economics of tax reforms: survey and empirical assessment

Political constraints and incentives are the true driver of tax reforms. This paper reviews the political economics literature on personal income tax systems and reforms to see how political mechanisms help explain tax reforms. We take some of the implications of these theories to the data using LABREF, a database that identifies labor tax reforms in the European Union for the period 2000–2007, and control for economic and labor market factors. We find that political variables carry more weight than economic variables, and we show empirical regularities that support political economy theories. We also find that governments tended to reform more in better economic times, engaging in pro-cyclical behavior.

Understanding rural migration in industrialised countries: the role of heterogeneity, amenities and social networks

This paper presents a micro-level econometric analysis of rural households’ migration decisions in industrialised countries. The role of heterogeneity, amenities, transaction costs and social networks is analysed within a latent class approach using Polish household data. The results suggest that rural migration is not only driven by labour market factors, but also by amenities and transaction costs. We identify heterogeneity for both. The former is especially determined by social network structures and the latter by households’ absolute levels of social capital. Our results have implications for rural policies focusing on the rural development and on the quality of life.

Excluded from social security: Rejections of disability pension applications in Norway 1998–2004

Admission to disability pension (DP) in Norway, like most other countries, requires a medical condition as the main cause of income reduction. Still, a widespread assumption is that much of the recruitment to the programme is rather due to non-medical, mainly labour market factors. In this article, we study the grey zones between acceptance and rejection of DP applications, in light of the concept of marginalisation. From the total Norwegian population, aged 18-66 in 1998, we included all first-time applications for DP between 1998 and 2004. Logistic regressions of both application and application outcome were then performed, controlling for a range of socioeconomic variables and medical diagnosis. Medical diagnosis had the strongest impact on application outcome, together with the applicant's age. High rejection risk was found among applicants with complex musculoskeletal diagnoses, and also for complex psychiatric diagnoses as compared to well-defined ones. Persons having previously received social assistance more often applied for a DP and more often were rejected. The same is true, though on a lesser scale, for people with a weak affiliation to the labour market. The DP programme in Norway is to a large degree medically oriented, not only judicially but also in practice. Nevertheless, non-medical factors have a bearing on both application rates and application outcome. The control system seems to work in a way that excludes the most marginalised applicants, thus possibly contributing to further marginalisation of already disadvantaged groups.

Financial and Labor Market Determinants of Mortgage Delinquency Rates: Mclean County, Il, 1985-2011

It is generally understood that the 20072009 recession in the United States had its roots in the real estate market. To quote Schiller (2008): “a speculative bubble in the housing market (...) has now caused ruptures among many other countries in the form of financial failures and a global credit crunch” (p. 1). There is a growing body of literature on the economic impact of the bursting of this “speculative bubble”. Efforts have been directed at examining how financial institutions have been impacted and at considering different efforts to re-regulate this industry. As the economic recovery from this particular recession has been slower than after previous contractions, particularly in terms of job creation, research efforts have also focused on labor markets. In this paper, we examine the interplay between financial and labor market factors and the real estate market at the local level. We study McLean County, Illinois, since this county, while being the largest in the state in terms of square mileage, has a median income level and a home ownership rate comparable to those of Cook County –where the City of Chicago is located. This article is available in The Park Place Economist: http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/parkplace/vol20/iss1/14 The Park Place Economist, Volume XX 53 FINANCIAL AND LABOR MARKET DETERMINANTS OF MORTGAGE DELINQUENCY RATES: MCLEAN COUNTY, IL, 1985-2011

Employment Difficulties Experienced by Employed Homeless People: Labor Market Factors That Contribute to and Maintain Homelessness

Labor market issues and challenges are primarily understood at an individual level, entrenched socially in policies and initiatives that seek to improve the workplace skills of people having difficulty attaching to the labor market, including people experiencing homelessness. In fact, the labor market is perceived to alleviate a person's situation of homelessness. In 2008 and 2009 qualitative data was collected from 61 employed people experiencing homelessness in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to better understand the intersection between the labor market and housing-related experiences. Respondents identified aspects of the labor market that were contributing to their current and ongoing situation of homelessness. Implications for practitioners are discussed to help address labor market attachment difficulties experienced by homeless people.

Bestimmungsgründe des Arbeitsmarktes für die Wiedereingliederung von Rehabilitanden aus Berufsförderungswerken: eine Untersuchung auf Ebene der Agenturbezirke

This paper is aimed at identifying labour market factors impacting vocational retraining centre participants' return to work on Employment Agencies level and at comparing results to unemployed people's return to work (Social Code Book III). Databases are regional return to work rates of 2006 graduates, selected labour market indicators 2007, and the 2007 labour market classification of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). The n = 75 Employment Agency districts where 74.5 % of the participants followed-up lived were analyzed using analyses of variance and multiple loglinear regression. Compared to the unemployment context (Social Code Book III), the impact of the labour market is much lower and less complex. In the multiple model, the regional unemployment rate and the regional tertiarization rate (size of the service sector) are found to be significant and superior to the IAB-classification. Hence, participants' return to work is less dependent on labour market conditions than unemployed people's return to work (Social Code Book III).

Postacquisition evolution of the appraisal and reward systems: A study of Chinese IT firms acquired by US firms

AbstractThis study investigates changes and continuity in the performance appraisal and reward systems of four Chinese IT firms after they were acquired by US‐owned multinational corporations. Drawing on different perspectives, it examines changes in the appraisal and reward systems of the acquired units and the extent to which they may be influenced by the interplay of business strategy, organizational structure, resource‐based power of the acquiring and acquired partners, management competence, labor market factors, and the cultural norms of China. The study reveals that the guiding principle of performance management and reward policy of the acquired firms have experienced changes. However, the structure of compensation remains largely unchanged. There is a high level of resistance from the Chinese managers to adopt more sophisticated performance appraisal techniques and to widen the wage band to differentiate employees' performance. The foreign acquirers have taken a cautious and pragmatic approach to implement changes. As a result, the relatively slow speed of change and limited substantive changes in the performance and reward practices make it impossible to achieve a full strategic alignment of human resource practices at the corporate‐level post‐acquisition. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Is a College Degree Still the Great Equalizer? Intergenerational Mobility across Levels of Schooling in the United States

A quarter century ago, an important finding in stratification research showed that the intergenerational occupational association was much weaker among college graduates than among those with lower levels of education. This article provides a comprehensive assessment of the “meritocratic power” of a college degree. Drawing on five longitudinal data sets, the author analyzes intergenerational mobility in terms of class, occupational status, earnings, and household income for men and women. Findings indicate that the intergenerational association is strong among those with low educational attainment; it weakens or disappears among bachelor’s degree holders but reemerges among those with advanced degrees, leading to a U-shaped pattern of parental influence. Educational and labor market factors explain these differences in mobility: parental resources influence college selectivity, field of study, and earnings more strongly for advanced-degree holders than for those with a bachelor’s degree alone.

Institutions versus market forces: Explaining the employment insecurity of European individuals during (the beginning of) the financial crisis

In reaction to the recent financial crisis, the European Commission re-stated its view that the balance between flexibility and security is the key to success for the future of the European social economy, as well as its belief in the power of institutional arrangements it deems necessary for this balance. However, do powerful institutions actually counter market forces where flexicurity is concerned? In this paper we address this question by analysing the impact of institutional configurations and market factors on perceived employment insecurity among workers in Europe. We use the 4th wave of the European Social Survey for 2008/2009, which covers 22 countries, and implement a multi-level approach where contextual effects are taken into account and individuals are considered to be embedded within a country. We find that policies that secure one’s income and employability skills, such as passive and active labour market policies, are more important for providing employment security for individuals than institutions that secure one’s current job, such as employment protection. Of the economic and labour market factors, general market conditions (measured as employment rate average) and the strength of the financial crisis (measured as gross domestic product growth rate from 2008 to 2009) are both similarly influential in explaining cross-national variance in the employment insecurity perception of individuals. More generally, and most interestingly, we find that institutional factors lose their significance when market factors are taken into account. Thus, it seems that differences in economic and labour market conditions between countries better explain why workers feel insecure about their employment, than the differences in employment and income policies. Although this result could be influenced by the time period under investigation, which is characterized by a financial crisis, results from previous studies using data from different periods suggest that it is not period-specific.

Unemployment and finance: how do financial and labour market factors interact?

Using data for 18 OECD countries over the period 1980-2004, we investigate how labour and financial factors interact to determine unemployment. We show that the impact of financial variables depends strongly on the labour market context. Increased market capitalization as well as decreased banking concentration reduce unemployment if the level of labour market regulation, union density and coordination in wage bargaining is low. The above financial variables have no effect otherwise. Increasing intermediated credit worsens unemployment when the labour market is weakly regulated and coordinated, whereas it reduces unemployment otherwise. These results suggest that the respective virtues of bank-based and market-based finance are crucially tied to the strength of labour regulation.

Racial differences in high school dropout rates: An analysis of U.S. Metropolitan areas

In this paper, we explore the differences in high school dropout rates among white, black and Hispanic students in 275 U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in 2000. Our analysis focuses on the impact of community and labor market conditions, in hopes of providing insight into the relationship between place and educational outcomes. The explanatory power of our regression models is mixed across racial groups, performing best for whites and Hispanics. Our results also indicate that community factors – most importantly, same-race adult educational attainment in the community, teenage birth rates and residential stability – have a greater impact on dropout rates than labor market factors. Our results suggest that as education reform moves toward broad-based solutions to improve student outcomes including dropout rates, it will be increasingly important to address the structural origins of inequality outside of schools.

Local Labour Markets, Organizations and the Distribution of Family‐responsive Benefits in the USA

Family‐responsive benefits have important consequences for workers balancing work–family demands. Previous research on the distribution of family‐responsive benefits has focused on intra‐organizational determinants or general labour market characteristics, at the expense of local labour market factors. We address this deficiency by analysing a unique random sample of US work establishments nested in their local labour markets. Specifically, we ask whether, net of establishment and local labour market characteristics, women's local labour market standing influences the prevalence of family‐responsive benefits. The results indicate that women's labour market status, measured with a composite of occupational gender integration, aggregate educational attainment and percentage of women in managerial roles, has a strong positive net effect on the prevalence of family‐responsive workplace benefits. However, no significant interaction between women's status and establishment‐level characteristics was found. Our findings highlight the importance of local labour markets in the distribution of family‐responsive benefits across organizations.

Flexible work in call centres: Working hours, work-life conflict & health

Call-centre workers encounter major psychosocial pressures, including high work intensity and undesirable working hours. Little is known, however, about whether these pressures vary with employment status and how they affect work-life conflict and health. Questionnaire data were collected from 179 telephone operators in Sydney, Australia, of whom 124 (69.3%) were female and 54 (30.2%) were male. Ninety-three (52%) were permanent full-time workers, 37 (20.7%) were permanent part-time, and 49 (27.4%) were casual employees. Hypothesised structural relationships between employment status, working hours and work organisation, work-life conflict and health were tested using partial least squares modelling in PLS (Chin, 1998). The final model demonstrated satisfactory fit. It supported important elements of the hypothesised structure, although four of the proposed paths failed to reach significance and the fit was enhanced by adding a path. The final model indicated that casual workers reported more variable working hours which were relatively weakly associated with greater dissatisfaction with hours. The interaction of schedule control and variability of hours also predicted dissatisfaction with hours. Conversely, permanent workers reported greater work intensity, which was associated with both lower work schedule control and greater work-life conflict. Greater work-life conflict was associated with more fatigue and psychological symptoms. Labour market factors and the undesirability of longer hours in a stressful, high-intensity work environment appear to have contributed to the results.

Geography and the Market for CEOs

I examine the role of geography in the market for CEOs and find that firms hire locally five times more often than expected if geography were irrelevant to the matching process. This local matching bias is widespread and exists even among the largest U.S. firms. Tests reveal that both labor supply and demand influence local matching. Compensation and unforced turnover are lower for local than for non-local CEOs, and unlike non-local CEOs, the compensation of locals depends on local labor market factors. These findings suggest the presence of market segmentation and contrast with much of the prior literature which explicitly or implicitly assumes a single national market.

Inequality and migration: what different European patterns of migration tell us

Migration flows are often thought of as stemming from a reserve army of labour from developing countries, putting downward pressure on wages of low‐qualified workers in developed countries. This paper analyses the major determinants of migration flows among European countries and stresses their diversity through a combination of labour market factors in receiving countries and network effects attached to countries of origin. The first part of the paper describes the changes in the dynamics of European migration flows. The second part estimates a reduced form of model of the relative determinants of migration flows, distinguishing between labour market and network effects. The results of these estimations lead to a distinction among various ‘regimes of labour migration’ among European countries. These are briefly compared with the pattern of migration observed in the US.

Sickness Absence among Immigrants in Norway, 1992—2003

Utilizing register panel data (1992—2003), in this article we study long-term sickness absence among immigrants and ethnic Norwegians ( n = 200,022). The data contain detailed information on socio-economic background, labour market participation and social insurance benefits for all individuals aged between 16 and 67 years residing in Norway. We present four main findings: (1) There is no difference in sickness absence between ethnic Norwegians and immigrants from the other Nordic countries, Western and Eastern Europe after controlling for demographic, socio-economic and labour market factors; (2) the sickness absence rates are higher among individuals from Asia (men and women) and Africa (men), and lower among men from North America and Oceania compared with ethnic Norwegians; (3) second-generation immigrants share the same level of sickness absence as ethnic Norwegians; (4) residence time has a curve-linear effect (reversed U-shape) on sickness absence for most immigrant groups. We discuss the findings in relation to the reason for emigrating, health risks related to immigration, social exclusion and norms towards sickness absence.

Immigrant Selection and Short-Term Labour Market Outcomes by Visa Category

This paper studies the efficacy of immigrant selection based on skill requirements in the Canadian context. The point system results in a much higher skill level than would otherwise be achieved by family preferences. This positive selection is achieved by directly selecting higher skilled principal applicants who are assessed by the point system and also indirectly through higher skilled spouses. However, due to difficulties in transfer of foreign human capital immigrants admitted for their skills do not necessarily perform better in the labour market and important factors used to assess admissibility have very limited power to predict short-term labour market success.

Economic Well-being and British Regions: The Problem with GDP Per Capita

Economists and policy-makers often present per capita gross domestic product (GDP) as by far the most significant indicator of economic well-being. Such measures are frequently adopted in making international comparisons, constructing time-series for particular countries and in studies of regional inequality. In this paper we challenge this view using a regional analysis of 2001 data focusing upon differences between London and the south-eastern regions, in comparison to the rest of Great Britain (GB). Initially GDP per capita is decomposed into the demographic and labour-market factors which generate it. Thereafter we broaden the notion of work-time used in productivity measures to include other necessary work-related activity, namely commuting. This leads to us to construct a new indicator which we call social productivity. Our conclusion is that our decomposition and notion of social productivity are both relevant in comparisons of regional well-being; in addition such methods may be used fruitfully in international and historical contexts.