Rigidities In Labour Research Articles

Trade, labor market rigidity, and distributive share in a generalized oligopolistic equilibrium model

AbstractThis paper applies a generalized oligopolistic equilibrium model with labor rigidity under strategic competition between heterogeneous firms, explaining the trade between two similar countries for the declining wage and labor share, the common experiences of many countries worldwide. The specialization effect for the labor movement from a high to less labor‐intensive sector arising from the heterogeneous productivity distribution of firms between trading partners dampens the wage more than the joint effect of market size and competition working favorably on it. Despite the wage drop, the trade ambiguously affects employment but unambiguously reduces their distributive share.

When structural reforms of labor markets harm productivity. Evidence from the German IAB panel

Abstract We find firm-level evidence that removing labor market rigidities can harm productivity growth. This holds, in particular, in industries with a high ‘cumulativeness’ of knowledge, i.e., when accumulation of worker-embodied (and often ‘tacit’) knowledge from experience is important for innovative competencies. We conclude that there is a trade-off between the efficient allocation of scarce resources in a static neoclassical perspective and dynamic Schumpeterian efficiency, the latter requiring rigidities in labor markets that are valuable for innovation.

Labor market concentration and heterogeneous effects on wages: Evidence from Japan

This study provides empirical evidence of the impact of labor market concentration on wages. We find that (1) wages are suppressed in more concentrated labor markets, (2) labor rigidity is associated with wage responsiveness to labor market concentration, (3) the impact of labor market concentration on wages is smaller for firms with more competitive downstream product markets, and (4) greater job opportunities outside the manufacturing sector weaken the relationship between concentration and wages. In sum, our findings indicate that labor rigidity and the degree of competition in downstream product markets, as well as outside options, affect the relationship between market concentration and wages.

The EPL index, youth unemployment and emigration within the EU

This article focuses on analysing the link between the rigidity of labour markets, the youth unemployment rate and the number of emigrants in the 19-30 age group within the EU in the years 2009-2020. The calculations show a very strong link (0.91-0.95) between the EPL index and the youth unemployment rate during the observed period. The nexus between youth unemployment and youth migration is confirmed as well. The linear dependence fluctuated between 0.61 and 0.65 in the same period. Furthermore, the correlation between total unemployment and total emigration reached up to 0.85 in the post-crisis period. The labour market rigidity and the EPL strictness can have, therefore, several effects; in addition to youth unemployment and youth emigration, total emigration is stimulated as well.

Income Insurance and the Equilibrium Term Structure of Equity

ABSTRACTOutput, wages, and dividends feature term structures of variance ratios that are respectively flat, increasing, and decreasing. Income insurance from shareholders to workers explains these term structures. Risk‐sharing smooths wages but only concerns transitory risk and hence enhances short‐run dividend risk. As a result, actual labor‐share variation largely forecasts the risk, premium, and slope of dividend strips. A simple general equilibrium model in which labor rigidity affects dividend dynamics and the price of short‐run risk reconciles standard asset pricing facts with the term structures of the equity premium, volatility, and macroeconomic variables, which are at odds in leading models.

Labour market resilience in India: conceptual and policy issues

This paper addresses two specific issues concerning the labour market resilience with special reference to the Indian experience. First, an effort has been made to engage in exploring theoretical foundations of the discourse on the flexibility and rigidity of labour markets; and, second, an analysis of the Indian labour market responses to policy (or, its behavior, particularly, during the post-reforms period) have been made with specific reference to the dominant phenomenon of informality that has pervaded both the production and labour processes. The first part attempts to have clarity on the concepts of flexibility and rigidity in the labour market context distinguishing between labour market specificities as between industrially matured economies and developing economies as India. The second part brings in informality as a crucial variable influencing labour market characteristics and behavior. Further, it critically reviews several important labour regulations in India in terms of their actual implementation and relevance in an informal sector driven industrial economy. Reflections on labour reforms in times of growing interface between Indian enterprises and global buyers have been made commenting on the functional dynamics of global production networks.

Rural Shadow Wages and Youth Agricultural Labor Supply in Ethiopia: Evidence from Farm Panel Data

The majority of the youth in Ethiopia live in rural areas where agriculture is the main source of livelihood. Using gender- and age-specific values of agricultural labor return (shadow wages), we systematically analyse trends, patterns and prospects of youth’s labor supply in agriculture across space (farm locations). We also analyse whether the household male and female youth members’ agricultural labor supply is responsive to economic incentives. We investigate these using shadow wages estimation techniques applied to farm-household panel data collected during the 2010/11 and 2014/15 agricultural seasons. The results indicate that trends and patterns of the youth’s involvement in agriculture vary across gender and farm work locations, and so do their labor returns. Yet the on-farm participation for youth members is declining across time irrespective of gender, whilst their participation in off-farm activities is increasing. The findings also suggest that changes in agricultural shadow wages matter for the youth’s involvement in the sector, but their impact differs for male and female youth. The results are consistent after controlling for individual heterogeneity, sample selection and instrumenting for possible endogeneity. In addition, we find that youth’s intentions and actual engagement in agricultural production vary greatly. This suggests that the frequent narrative of youth disengaging from agriculture may be a result of methodological flaws or data limitations. Taking into account the intensity of the youth’s involvement in family farm, own farm and off-farm work, the results challenge the presumption that youth are abandoning agriculture, at least in agricultural potential areas of Ethiopia. Instead the youth’s involvement makes an important economic contribution to the operation of the family farm. Therefore, it is necessary to invest in agricultural development to enhance productivity and employment opportunities; and structural transformation that addresses the imperfections and rigidities in labor and other input markets to make agriculture more attractive to youth.

Labor Rigidity, Inflation Risk and Bond Returns

This paper exploits information from the variance-ratios of macroeconomic variables to infer about the short and long-run components of dividend risk and ination risk. While labor rigidity shifts dividend risk towards the short horizon, it also reveals {by means of labor-share variation{ the component of ination risk which is correlated with fundamentals. A simple general equilibrium model with labor rigidity can explain how ination interacts with the real growth and the labor-share, as well as many patterns of the term-structures of real and nominal bond yields. The model is robust to many properties of equity returns.

Labor Rigidity and the Dynamics of the Value Premium

This paper documents that (i) the labor-share is a strong predictor of both the value and duration premia, (ii) these premia are highly correlated, and (iii) the labor-share does not forecast the component of the value premium orthogonal to the duration premium. A simple equilibrium model with labor rigidity and heterogeneity in cash- flow durations rationalizes these stylized facts. The economic channel is a term-structure effect: labor rigidity boosts short-run dividend risk because wages are more responsive to permanent than transitory shocks. This leads to downward-sloping equity risk and to a cross-sectional duration premium. In turn, value firms earn a compensation over growth firms which is predicted by labor-share variation.

Labor Rigidity, Inflation Risk and Bond Returns

This paper exploits information from the variance-ratios of macroeconomic variables to infer about the short and long-run components of dividend risk and ination risk. While labor rigidity shifts dividend risk towards the short horizon, it also reveals {by means of labor-share variation{ the component of ination risk which is correlated with fundamentals. A simple general equilibrium model with labor rigidity can explain how ination interacts with the real growth and the labor-share, as well as many patterns of the term-structures of real and nominal bond yields. The model is robust to many properties of equity returns.

Labor Protection and Leverage

This paper exploits inter-temporal variations in employment protection across countries and finds that rigidities in labor markets are an important determinant of firms’ capital structure decisions. Over the 1985-2007 period, we find that reforms increasing employment protection are associated with a 187 basis point reduction in leverage. We interpret this finding to suggest that employment protection increases operating leverage, crowding out financial leverage. This result is robust across measures of employment protection and leverage, and does not appear to be due to pre-treatment differences between treated and control firms, omitted variables, unobserved changes in regional economic conditions, and reverse causality. Heterogeneous treatment effects are consistent with our economic intuition: we find that the negative effect is more pronounced in firms that are subject to frequent hiring and firing.

On price convergence in Eurozone

We investigate price level convergence with Germany in eleven countries belonging to the Eurozone between January 1970 and July 2011. Relying on smooth transition regression models, we show that the price convergence process is nonlinear, depending on the size of the price differential: for most countries, price convergence occurs only when price differentials with Germany exceed a certain threshold. Moreover, our findings put forward some heterogeneity across the Eurozone members in terms of price convergence speed, that can be explained by the evolution of price-competitiveness, rigidities in labor markets, but also by specialization patterns.

Cognitive Skills Matter: The Employment Disadvantage of Low-Educated Workers in Comparative Perspective

It is now a widely acknowledged fact that the low-educated workers are facing important risks of labour market exclusion in modern economies. However, possessing low levels of educational qualifications leads to very different situations from one country to another, as the cross-national variation in the unemployment rates of these workers attest. While conventional wisdom usually blames welfare states and the resulting rigidity of labour markets for the low employment opportunities of low-educated workers, empirical evidence tends to contradict this predominant view. Using microdata from the International Adult Literacy Survey that was conducted between 1994 and 1998, we examine the sources of the cross-national variation in the employment disadvantage of low-educated workers in 14 industrialized nations. In particular, we test the validity of the conventional theories concerning the supposedly harmful effect of labour market regulation against a new and promising hypothesis on the importance of cognitive skills for the employment opportunities of the low-educated workers. Our findings support the latter and suggest that the greater the cognitive gap between the low-educated workers and those with intermediate education, the lower the chances of being employed for the former relatively to their higher educated counterparts.

Labor Protection, Debt and Access to Finance

This paper exploits inter-temporal variations in employment protection across countries and finds that rigidities in labor markets are an important determinant of firms' capital structure decisions. Over the 1985-2007 period, we find that reforms increasing employment protection are associated with a 187 basis point reduction in leverage. We interpret this finding to suggest that employment protection increases operating leverage, crowding out financial leverage. This result is robust across measures of employment protection and leverage, and does not appear to be due to pre treatment differences between treated and control firms, omitted variables, unobserved changes in regional economic conditions, and reverse causality. Heterogeneous treatment effects are consistent with our economic intuition: we find that the negative effect is more pronounced in firms that are subject to frequent hiring and firing.

Cognitive Skills Matter: The Employment Disadvantage of the Low-Educated in International Comparison

It is now a widely acknowledged fact that the low-skilled are facing important risks of labour market exclusion in modern economies. However, possessing low levels of educational qualifications leads to very different situations from one country to another, as the cross-national variation in the unemployment rates of the low-skilled attest. While conventional wisdom usually blames welfare states and the resulting rigidity of labour markets for the low employment opportunities of low-skilled workers, empirical evidence tends to contradict this predominant view.Using microdata from the International Adult Literacy Survey that was conducted between 1994 and 1998, we examine the sources of the cross-national variation in the employment disadvantage of low-skilled workers in 14 industrialized nations. In particular, we test the validity of the conventional theories concerning the supposedly harmful effect of labour market regulation against a new and promising hypothesis on the importance of cognitive skills for the employment opportunities of the low-educated. Our findings support the latter and suggest that the employment disadvantage the low-educated experience relatively to medium-educated workers is mainly due to their deficit in the skills that have become so important for labour market success in the recent past, namely cognitive skills.

Rigidities in Employment Protection and Exporting

There have been significant improvements in traditional trade policies in the past few decades. However, these improvements can only be fully effective when they are complemented with a favorable investment climate. This study focuses on a particular aspect of investment climate, namely labor regulations, and shows how these regulations can be discouraging from exporting. Using firm level data from 26 countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, the paper empirically shows that firms that cannot create new jobs due to stringent labor regulations are less likely to export. Firms that plan to export expand their sizes before they start to export. However, the rigidities in labor markets make this adjustment process costly. Higher costs of employment decrease operating profits and lead to a higher productivity threshold level required for entering export markets. As a result, a smaller fraction of firms can afford to export.

Flexibilidad laboral en Iberoamérica: un análisis comparado

La mayoría de los estudios en materia de flexibilidad laboral muestran una imagen parcial sobre la situación de los mercados de trabajo latinoamericanos. Se limitan a confirmar la existencia de elevados grados de rigidez y la necesidad de emprender reformas laborales al margen de las circunstancias nacionales específicas. El diseño de un indicador sintético de rigidez laboral, utilizando la metodología considerada por la ocde, mediante el uso del análisis factorial, pero aplicada a países de Iberoamérica, permite obtener ciertos avances en relación con este debate. Los resultados establecen la elevada importancia de la rigidez en los procedimientos de despido colectivo por encima de aspectos normativos relacionados con contratos por tiempo determinado. Por último, se constata la escasa relación entre niveles de flexibilidad y resultados en términos de desarrollo económico, poniendo en cuestión afirmaciones que intentan extrapolar estrategias flexibilizadoras como medida aislada para facilitar el progreso económico de un país.

Economic resilience to shocks

Cyclical fluctuations in economic activity have moderated over time but the extent and dynamics of volatility remain different across OECD countries. A reason behind this heterogeneity is that countries exhibit different degrees of resilience in the face of common shocks. This paper traces divergences in resilience back to different policy settings and institutions in labour, product and financial markets. Using pooled regression analysis across 20 OECD countries over the period 1982-2003, the paper identifies the impact of policy settings on two dimensions of resilience: the impact effect of a shock and its subsequent persistence. Policies and institutions associated with rigidities in labour and product markets are found to dampen the initial impact of shocks but to make their effects more persistent, while policies allowing for deep mortgage markets lower persistence and thereby improve resilience. Combining these two dimensions of resilience, the paper then uses the estimated equations to derive indicators of resilience for the OECD countries concerned, based on their current or recent policy settings. Three groups of countries emerge. In English-speaking countries, simulations suggest shocks have a significant initial effect on activity but this impact then dies out relatively quickly. By contrast, in many continental European countries the initial impact of shocks is cushioned but their effect linger for longer, with the cumulated output loss tending to be larger than in English-speaking countries. Finally a few, mostly small, European countries combine cushioning of the initial shock with a fairly quick return to baseline.

Structural Policies and Economic Resilience to Shocks

Cyclical fluctuations in economic activity have moderated over time but the extent and dynamics of volatility remain different across OECD countries. A reason behind this heterogeneity is that countries exhibit different degrees of resilience in the face of common shocks. This paper traces divergences in resilience back to different policy settings and institutions in labour, product and financial markets. Using pooled regression analysis across 20 OECD countries over the period 1982-2003, the paper identifies the impact of policy settings on two dimensions of resilience: the impact effect of a shock and its subsequent persistence. Policies and institutions associated with rigidities in labour and product markets are found to dampen the initial impact of shocks but to make their effects more persistent, while policies allowing for deep mortgage markets lower persistence and thereby improve resilience. Combining these two dimensions of resilience, the paper then uses the estimated equations to derive indicators of resilience for the OECD countries concerned, based on their current or recent policy settings. Three groups of countries emerge. In English-speaking countries, simulations suggest shocks have a significant initial effect on activity but this impact then dies out relatively quickly. By contrast, in many continental European countries the initial impact of shocks is cushioned but their effect linger for longer, with the cumulated output loss tending to be larger than in English-speaking countries. Finally a few, mostly small, European countries combine cushioning of the initial shock with a fairly quick return to baseline. Politiques structurelles et resilience economique aux chocs Bien que les fluctuations cycliques de l'activite se soient attenuees au cours des annees recentes, leur ampleur et leur evolution continuent de differer sensiblement entre pays de l'OCDE. L'une des explications a cette heterogeneite est que les pays affichent differents degres de resilience a des chocs communs. Cet article explore la contribution des politiques et des institutions sur les marches financiers, du travail et des biens et services a ces ecarts de resilience. A partir de regressions sur un panel de 20 pays de l'OCDE portant sur la periode 1982-2003, l'article identifie l' impact des politiques sur deux dimensions de la resilience : l'effet d'un choc a l'impact et sa persistance ulterieure. Il ressort que les politiques et les institutions entrainant des rigidites sur les marches du travail et des biens et services attenuent l'impact initial d'un choc mais rendent cet effet plus persistant, tandis que des politiques favorisant le developpement des marches hypothecaires reduisent la persistance et ainsi ameliorent la resilience. Combinant ces deux dimensions de la resilience, l'article utilise ensuite les equations estimees pour construire des indicateurs de resilience pour chacun des pays de l'OCDE concernes, sur la base de leurs politiques et de leurs institutions actuelles ou recentes. Cette analyse fait ressortir trois groupes de pays. Dans les pays anglophones, les simulations suggerent que les chocs ont un impact initial significatif, mais que celui-ci se dissipe assez rapidement. A contrario, dans de nombreux pays d'Europe Continentale, l'impact initial des chocs est attenue, mais leurs effets se font ressentir plus longtemps et la perte de production cumulee tend a etre plus elevee que dans les pays anglophones. Enfin, quelques petits pays Europeens combinent a la fois un impact modere des chocs et un retour relativement rapide a l'equilibre.

Trade liberalisation and CAP reform in the EU

Europe has underperformed relative to its peers and to its own previous performance over the last two decades. That underperformance reflects a range of factors, from structural rigidities in labour and capital markets, to inappropriate macroeconomic policy. But one set of policy measures that could contribute to improved economic performance in the future is trade liberalisation and reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). This article examines the benefits that could accrue to the UK, EU and global economies from the liberalisation of trade in goods and from the replacement of the current CAP with other, more productive forms of spending. It finds that the current barriers to trade in the EU, and the resources dedicated to the maintenance of the CAP, are set to cost the EU some 2% of GDP by 2015 if they remain in place. Moreover, this cost falls disproportionately on the poorer members of society.