Labor Market Structure Research Articles

Wage mobility in East and West Germany

This article studies long run wage mobility as a characteristic of regional labor markets. Using German administrative data we describe wage mobility since 1975 in West and since 1992 in East Germany. Wage mobility declined substantially in East Germany in the 1990s and moderately in East and West Germany since the late 1990s. These findings are robust in many dimensions. We apply RIF regression based decompositions to measure the role of factors associated with these mobility changes. Job and employment characteristics contribute to the decline in wage mobility, however, shifts in labor market structures are central for the development of overall wage mobility.

Country-Specific Conditions for Work and Family Reconciliation: An Attempt at Quantification.

The country-specific conditions for work and family reconciliation (family policies, labour market structures and gender norms) are believed to influence tensions between paid employment and childbearing. So far there have been very few attempts to quantify these conditions into a single measure which would allow for comparisons across countries of the magnitude of the barriers that working parents encounter. Such a quantitative index could also facilitate a quantitative investigation of the association between the macro-level conditions for work and family reconciliation and fertility at the individual level. In this paper, we seek to fill this gap by proposing a quantitative index of country-specific conditions for work and family reconciliation, which may be used, for example, in a two-level regression framework. The index takes into account all three components of the conditions for work and family reconciliation. We also perform a series of uncertainty and sensitivity analyses which verify the robustness of our assumptions and which illustrate the range of the index volatility.

How Does Labour Market Structure Affect the Response of Economies to Shocks?

The recent crisis in the Eurozone has led to much discussion about the structure of labour markets in different Eurozone economies. In particular, there has been much talk of the need for structural labour market reform in the Eurozone periphery. But, there are many aspects of labour market structure – eg, wage flexibility, flexibility in hiring and firing, generosity of welfare schemes, etc - and it is not clear a priori which aspects really matter. In this paper, we analyse how cross-country differences in labour market characteristics - in particular, wage and employment rigidities - shape the response of different countries to a variety of macroeconomic shocks. To address this question, we use a calibrated small open economy model in which we set the parameters governing the structural characteristics of the labour market based on three European countries: Estonia, Finland and Spain. We find that, given our labour market calibrations, we would expect output and unemployment to be much more adversely affected by the shocks associated with the financial crisis in countries with high job turnover rates.

Class, migrants, and the European city: spatial impacts of structural changes in early twenty-first century Amsterdam

ABSTRACTPrevailing Anglo-Saxon theories on urban segregation based on class and ‘migrant-status’ have often been rejected for continental European cities, mainly because of different economic and labour market structures and higher levels of state interventions and welfare support in the latter type of cities. As urban economies in continental Europe are growing ever more global and welfare states are in continuous restructuring we seek to investigate whether a typical European socially balanced migrant city, the city (and metropolitan region) of Amsterdam, is developing into the direction of a more outspoken ‘double dual’ condition with populations getting more spatially segregated in terms of class and migrant status. This study looks at developments in terms of the spatial dynamics of the ‘native’ and immigrant population of different classes. We find that the region is undergoing a transformation, which for now reduces spatial concentrations and inequality. As the urban core is gentrifying and some suburban neighbourhoods are declining, the typical dichotomy of a poor-migrant central city versus affluent-native suburbs is vanishing. These developments point to a different type of social-migrant city, one with a patchwork of residential milieus along social and cultural lines. However, we challenge the sustainability of that patchwork over time.

For love or for money? A study of the marriage wage premium in Colombia

Being married may raise worker productivity and increase the probability of remaining in a job and, as consequence, obtaining a wage premium. Yet, this effect may be different for males and females. In developing countries, such as Colombia, the premium may be larger than in developed countries due to the differing social norms and labor market structures. Using cross-sectional data from Colombian Household Surveys, this paper examines the marriage wage premium and its evolution in Colombia both at the aggregate level and by gender. We find a marriage wage premium for both male and female populations; this wage premium is explained by the greater human capital endowment in married people and to employer favoritism due to the “social norms” which consider being married an appropriate behavior and reward it.

The labor market of the Russian Federation and prospects of its development in import-substituting production

The article is devoted to consideration of issues concerning the peculiarities of the implementation in the Russian Federation of the import substitution policy and its influence on the development and functioning of the labor market in every period of economic instability. In the research process was the analysis of the main aspects of the labour market, the most important it trends and the impact of the import substitution policy in its formation, functioning and development; identified the most significant directions of development of the modern labor market in import-substituting production. It is possible to describe the set in the analysis features of functioning and development of the labor market in import-substituting production, highlighted its main features, with a direct impact on the formation, functioning and development of the labour market in import-substituting production. The study pointed out that the situation on the labour market of the Russian Federation, will slow down the efficiency of the import substitution program, without proper attention to the existing problems of employment and labour market, and without a system of education and qualification corresponding to the rate of technical-technological, informational development of enterprises, for-the formation of a positive image in demand on the labour market professions, without raising the prestige of working professions, no analysis of the demand in the labour market for the future and related skills. Developed proposals for improving the interaction between institutional labour market structures will minimize the modern negative trends and to contribute to its qualitative functioning and development. Therefore, we can conclude that the labor market development in import-substituting production will contribute to productive employment.

The labor market of the Russian Federation and prospects of its development in import-substituting production

The article is devoted to consideration of issues concerning the peculiarities of the implementation in the Russian Federation of the import substitution policy and its influence on the development and functioning of the labor market in every period of economic instability. In the research process was the analysis of the main aspects of the labour market, the most important it trends and the impact of the import substitution policy in its formation, functioning and development; identified the most significant directions of development of the modern labor market in import-substituting production. It is possible to describe the set in the analysis features of functioning and development of the labor market in import-substituting production, highlighted its main features, with a direct impact on the formation, functioning and development of the labour market in import-substituting production. The study pointed out that the situation on the labour market of the Russian Federation, will slow down the efficiency of the import substitution program, without proper attention to the existing problems of employment and labour market, and without a system of education and qualification corresponding to the rate of technical-technological, informational development of enterprises, for-the formation of a positive image in demand on the labour market professions, without raising the prestige of working professions, no analysis of the demand in the labour market for the future and related skills. Developed proposals for improving the interaction between institutional labour market structures will minimize the modern negative trends and to contribute to its qualitative functioning and development. Therefore, we can conclude that the labor market development in import-substituting production will contribute to productive employment.

Budget-Neutral Labour Tax Wedge Reductions: A Simulation-Based Analysis for Selected Euro Area Countries

Budget-neutral tax wedge reductions rank high in the policy agenda of several EMU member states. Using a New Keynesian DSGE model of a monetary union with a complex labour market structure and a comprehensive public sector, we evaluate the macroeconomic and welfare effects of reducing the firms' and workers' labour tax rates under alternative financing instruments. Overall, a tax wedge reduction is beneficial in terms of both welfare and output, as long as the financing measure does not harm private-sector productivity and/or the incentive for private capital investments over-proportionately. While financing the labour tax wedge reduction by an increase in consumption taxation yields most favourable output effects, financing it by a reduction in government spending is more beneficial in terms of welfare as the latter does not imply a policy-induced increase in private consumption costs. We also show that, when we assume that firms can adjust the ex- and intensive labour margin in response to policy changes, a reduction in the workers' and not the firms' burden is most beneficial.

Employment modelling through classification and regression trees

The research paper leverages a big dataset from the field of social sciences - the combined World Values Survey 1981-2014 data - to investigate what determines an individual's employment status. We propose an approach to model this by first reducing data dimensionality at a small informational loss and then fitting a number of alternative machine-learning algorithms. A decision tree and a random forest model are studied in more detail. Variable importance is investigated to glean insight into what determines employment status. Employment is explained through traditional demographic and work attitude variables but unemployment is not, meaning that the latter is likely driven by other factors, including structural labour market characteristics and even randomness. The main contribution of this paper is to outline a new approach for doing big data-driven research in labour economics and apply it to a dataset that was not previously investigated in its entirety, thus achieving a more sophisticated process understanding.

Sources of unemployment in Namibia: an application of the structural VAR approach

The main purpose of the research was to establish the sources of unemployment in Namibia for the period 1980 to 2013 using the SVAR methodology. Empirical results show that persistently high unemployment is the result of a combination of various shocks as well as the hysteresis mechanism. The impulse response functions and variance decomposition functions agree that labour supply, aggregate demand, and real wages seem to be the critical factors affecting unemployment. Moreover, the price shocks affect unemployment in the long run and productivity shocks explain only a small fraction of the forecast error variance decomposition of unemployment in both the short run and long run. This finding is consistent with the controversy of uncertain effects of productivity shocks on the unemployment rate. Aggregate demand policies, deregulation policies and structural labour market reforms can be useful policy instruments to tackle unemployment in Namibia.

¿Hay discriminación en contra de las mujeres en el mercado laboral ecuatoriano?

Most studies addressing gender inequality focus exclusively on the wage gap. This work aims at correcting this bias by focusing on factors such as employment, formality of employment and underemployment. Ecuador has been chosen as a scenario for this study because of its relatively unique labour market structure in Latin America. Using survey data at a household level, this study finds evidence of discrimination against women in the form of lower wages and disparities in terms of employment, underemployment and formality. It is argued that equal pay legislations could foster the reduction of these gaps. This study also recommends policies driven to promote equality at home by, for example, teaching the benefits of formal employment to household members.

Vietnam's Socialist Servants: Domesticity, Class, Gender, and Identity

1. Introduction 2. Live In, Live Out, Live In the Middle of Nowhere: Labour Regimes and Market Structure 3. Power at Work: Between Harmony and Hierarchy 4. Unruly Servants, Erotic Bodies and Cultural Delinquents: The Representation of Domestic Service 5. Needs, Consumption, and Domestic Service 6. Between Work and Home: Boundaries, Connections and Gendered Expectations Chapter 7. Narrating Identity: the Power and Limits of Individual Life Choice 8. Domesticity, Gender, Class, and Identity

SUPPLY, DEMAND, FORECAST OF LATVIAN LABOUR MARKET AND TOOLS FOR ITS DEVELOPMENT

Many factors influence situation on Latvian labour market. Employment is one of the core subject to explorer observing changes of labour market supply, demand and forecasts. Focusing on organisational problems concerning labour issues the microenvironment of the organisations ought to be study. The authors would like to compare Latvian labour market forecasts and the real situation for the period starting from the economic crises year 2009 in Latvia to 2015. Reaching the objective of the study additionally, the data on labour market structure is observed focusing on young participants of the employment process (new enterprises and young employees, job seekers). Describing the forecasts fulfilment and current situation on the labour market in Latvia, some risks were defined connected with future employment situation in Latvia. In addition, some tools of labour market development implemented in Latvia were evaluated defining their advantages and disadvantages. The main assessed tools are lifelong education, youth guarantee, new enterprises support programs. They are implemented along the European Commission initiative and European Union funds. This research has an exploratory and descriptive design. The authors develop tentative hypotheses for the future researches. The primary methods used are literature review on employability and labour market topics; statistical data interpretation, statistical data comparison, synthesis, contextual analysis (SWOT). The forecasts about Latvian Labour market done by Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia mainly were wrong. The last tendencies shows that there is a demand for specialists in such areas as trade, agriculture, construction and building, education. The demand of labour for this field is in the top ten rating. However, the forecast was correct about construction field; the demand of the specialists of this field has been decreasing slowly for the last five years. In addition, demand for the specialists of transportation, logistics field is high as it was forecasted as well as demand of medical specialists. The general tendencies of the employment on Labour market are positive. The unemployment rate has been deceased for last five years and is about 10% during last two years. However, youth unemployment rates decrease does not show positive results as it is still high and is about 20 % during last two years. The main risk that can be urgent for the next five years are: economically inactive citizens, higher education institutions non-cooperation with Latvian government, lack of specialists in engineering fields, medicine, Information Technologies, and some other, surplus of humanitarian and social sciences specialists, young specialist emigration, economy dependence on small, medium and microenterprises business. The authors propose public administration work more with their stakeholders especially scientists and younger representatives of the society (pupils). Evaluating unemployment data general and youth some factors needs to be taken in to account before the data interpretation. Before propose any eco171 European Integration Studies 2015/9 Introduction nomically inactive citizens engagement and stimulation activities, it is beneficial to identify and take into account reasons of their inactivity. The authors propose especially public organisations and governmental institutions to work more on youngest generation awareness about new trend on labour market and public organisations’ employer brand development.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.0.9.12805

Środki prawne służące aktywności zawodowej osób z niepełnosprawnością w obecnej strukturze rynku pracy

Środki prawne służące aktywności zawodowej osób z niepełnosprawnością w obecnej strukturze rynku pracy

Persistence of the Gender Gap and Low Employment of Female Workers in a Stratified Labor Market: Evidence from South Korea

The gender gap in working conditions has barely improved in South Korea where various measures for gender equality have been in place for a relatively long time. Furthermore, the female employment rate is also the lowest in OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. This study will evaluate the stratified structure of the labor market to identify the causes and will analyze changes in the gender employment distribution and mobility. This study conducted an empirical analysis of gender distribution and labor mobility in the South Korean labor market, utilizing long-term data (2005–2014) from the supplementary survey by employment type on the Economically Active Population of the Korea National Statistical Office. From the analysis, women showed a relatively smaller increase than men in the primary labor market, classified as the large and standard employment market, in 2014 compared with 2005, but showed a relatively greater increase than men in the secondary labor market, comprising the small–medium and non-standard employment market. Thus, gender skewness in employment distribution was greater in the stratified labor market. On the other hand, the non-economically active population more than doubled for women compared to men. From the analysis of labor mobility by gender, a higher proportion of women were employed in the peripheral labor market than in the core labor market and women were also more likely to be employed in the relatively weak peripheral labor market. These results imply that dichotomous gender equality policies for resolving the gender gap have a certain limitation in the stratified labor market. Thus, what is needed is a holistic approach that takes into account the labor market structure.

Challenges for European Welfare States

In the absence of social security reform, current pension entitlements of an aging population exceed future fiscal capacity. However, structural labor market reforms facilitate the transition to sustainable schemes in which a sizeable part of the current generosity of European welfare states can be maintained. In fact, many European states have already taken important steps in this direction. In the end insufficient productive capacities to support the welfare state pose smaller challenges to reform than do time inconsistencies built into the political process of redesigning pension plans.

Challenges for European welfare states

In the absence of social security reform, current pension entitlements of an aging population exceed future fiscal capacity. However, structural labor market reforms facilitate the transition to sustainable schemes in which a sizeable part of the current generosity of European welfare states can be maintained. In fact, many European states have already taken important steps in this direction. In the end insufficient productive capacities to support the welfare state pose smaller challenges to reform than do time inconsistencies built into the political process of redesigning pension plans.

Poverty, labor markets and trade liberalization in Indonesia

We measure the effects of trade liberalization over the period of 1993–2002 on regional poverty levels in 259 Indonesian districts, and investigate the labor market mechanisms behind these effects. The identification strategy relies on combining information on initial regional labor and product market structure with the exogenous tariff reduction schedule over four three-year periods. We add to the literature on local labor market effects of trade policies by distinguishing between tariffs for output markets and for intermediate inputs, and finding that poverty reduced especially in districts with a greater sector exposure to input tariff liberalization. Among the potential channels behind this effect, we show that low-skilled work participation and middle-skilled wages were more responsive to reductions in import tariffs on intermediate goods than to reductions in import tariffs on final outputs. These results point towards increasing firm competitiveness as a driving factor behind the beneficial poverty effects.

Young women and rural exodus – Swedish experiences

Labour market structures which offer fewer options to women than to men, as well as relatively poor educational facilities, are usually mentioned as primary causes for why remote and economically weak regions are affected by selective out-migration and a shortage of young women. This paper is a spin-off from the ESPON-project SEMIGRA – Selective Migration and Unbalanced Sex Ratio in Rural Regions. Its aim is to analyse the out-migration patterns of young women from the Swedish rural region of Västernorrland – with its dual economic and social character – and contrast it to the migration patterns in the expanding Stockholm. The empirical evidence consists of age-specific gross migration data for cohorts in the ages between 18 and 34.By disaggregating the migratory flows during the period 2000–2014 some contrasting results can be shown. Net out-migration is only a reality in the ages between 18 and 24, while the opposite is true in the ages 25–29 and 30–34. This indicates that the ‘problem’ of out-migration of young women is connected to the pursuit of education and moving to more female-friendly labour markets. In the household creating ages there seems to be a return-migration flow, with net in-migration as one consequence. In the dualistic region of Västernorrland this was particularly evident, especially in the more densely populated coastal areas. It is also highlighted that immigration of both women and men hamper the population decrease and sometimes also result in population increase even if the internal migration is negative for all communities.The dual character of Västernorrland region is also highlighted, and the differing municipalities and cities are analysed. Here, different migratory patterns amongst young women seem to be related to economic, social, behavioural, and demographic structures that also accentuate the dualistic character if the region.

Potential for Diversification? The Role of the Formal Sector in Bechuanaland Protectorate's Economy, 1900–65

While Botswana since independence has experienced impressive economic growth and development this progress has not been accompanied by economic diversification and endogenous growth. In this article we focus on the colonial period and investigate to what extent the formal sector of Bechuanaland Protectorate (colonial Botswana) had the potential to constitute the basis for a diversification of the dominating cattle economy away from its dependency on exporting a single natural resource good – beef. We base our study on colonial archive sources and anthropological evidence which we use to: examine labour market structures; estimate welfare ratios and surplus; and discuss government spending. We find that the demand for skilled labour and human capital development was low throughout the colonial period and that the private sector generally lacked the economic strength and dynamics to develop alternative and/or complementary sectors. Further, we find no evidence of demand driven diversification, neither stemming from private sector consumption and investments, nor from government spending on economic activities outside the cattle sector, infrastructure and human capital development.