The GLO Discussion Paper of the Month of October investigates the economic effects of sector-wide bargaining agreements in Portugal, finding that extensions may contribute to unemployment and firm closure.
Author Abstract:Many governments extend the coverage of collective agreements to
workers and employers that were not involved in their bargaining. These
extensions may address coordination
issues but may also distort competition by imposing sector-specific
minimum wages and
other work conditions that are not suitable for some firms and workers.
In this paper,
we analyse the impact of such extensions along several economic margins.
Drawing on
worker- and firm-level monthly data for Portugal, a country where
extensions have been
widespread, and the scattered timing of the extensions, we find that,
while continuing
workers experience wage increases following an extension, formal
employment and wage
bills in the relevant sectors fall, on average, by 2%. These results
increase by about 25%
across small firms and are driven by reduced hirings. In contrast, the
employment and
wage bills of independent contractors, who are not subject to labour law
or collective
bargaining, increases by over 1% following an extension.
GLO DP Team Senior
Editors: Matloob Piracha (University of Kent) & GLO; Klaus F.
Zimmermann (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University and Bonn University). Managing Editor: Magdalena Ulceluse, University of Groningen. DP@glabor.org
Posted inNews, Research|Comments Off on Bargaining Agreement Extensions May Cause Unemployment and Firm Closures. Findings in the GLO Discussion Paper of the Month October.
A new GLO Discussion Paper discusses the US gun-related murder rate and places it in an international perspective, where the US rate is 27 times the average rate for 22 other developed countries; and the gun ownership rate is over five times higher so that the murder rate per gun is 5 times higher.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: This paper examines the US gun-related murder (GM) rate and places it in an international perspective. The data show that the US GM rate is 27 times the average rate for 22 other developed countries (ODC). Its gun ownership rate is 5.4 times that of ODC and the murder rate per gun is 5 times that of ODC. Thus, as is done in the paper, an effective reduction of the US GM rate requires an analysis of both the high gun ownership rate and the high murder rate per gun. The paper examines about fifteen gun-policy reforms – including their impact, cost, structure for maximum benefit – and other reforms affecting the GM rate. It also looks at the GM impact of immigration and of programs that provide alternative life pursuits for young men at risk. It further presents a number of policy implications and some new proposals designed to reduce the GM rate. Four appendices provide 1) results from two recent opinion polls on gun-policy reforms, 2) a detailed analysis of the relationship between gun ownership and the GM rate, 3) calculations of gun buyback costs, and 4) a correction of existing results on the Brady Bill’s impact on gun ownership.
A new GLO Discussion Paper revealsthat in the Netherlands good social contacts and a good mastery of the native language enhance immigrants’ economic performance.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: Using longitudinal data on immigrants in the Netherlands from the survey ‘Social Position and Use of Public Facilities by Immigrants’ (SPVA) for the years 1991, 1994, 1998, 2002, we examined the impacts of social contacts and Dutch language proficiency on adult foreign-born men’s earnings, employment and occupational status. On average, social contacts and a good mastery of the Dutch language enhance immigrants’ economic performances. The effects are much stronger for immigrants with low-skill-transferability than for immigrants with high-skill-transferability, are stronger for economic migrants than for non-economic migrants, and are stronger for white-collar workers than for blue-collar workers. Contact with Dutch people and Dutch organisations unambiguously enhances all aspects of immigrants’ economic performance, however, no evidence is found for a positive effect of co-ethnic contact on employment status. To deal with the endogeneity between Dutch language ability and earnings, an interaction term between age at migration and a dichotomous variable for a non-Dutch-speaking origin is used as the identifying instrument. The selectivity issue of survey respondents was tackled as well to validate the main findings. The study has a strong policy implication for integration policies in the Netherlands, or more broadly in the immigrant receiving countries.
Posted inNews, Research|Comments Off on Social Contacts, Dutch Language Proficiency and Immigrant Economic Performance in the Netherlands: New GLO Discussion Paper
A new GLO Discussion Paper reviews this timely issue for the digital labor markets where labor-intensive services are traded by matching requestors (employers and/or consumers) and providers (workers).
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: This critical and scoping review essay analyses digital labour markets where labour-intensive services are traded by matching requesters (employers and/or consumers) and providers (workers). It first discusses to what extent labour platform can be treated as two-sided or multi-sided markets, and the implications of these classifications. It then moves to address the legal and regulatory issues implied by these technologies. From a theoretical point of view, using a framework where innovation is not neutral in the labour market, platforms have implications for the quantity of jobs, for the kind of skills and tasks which are exchanged, and in terms of bargaining power of the contracting parties. It includes a critical evaluation of the empirical evidence from a variety of sources.
A new GLO Discussion Paper surveys evidence in the literature that trans people’s self-esteem and self-respect can be enhanced by policy makers’ positive actions to promote inclusivity at the workplace.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
GLO Fellows Nick Drydakis, Katerina Sidiropoulou & Anna Paraskevopoulou
Author Abstract: This study provides empirical patterns regarding trans people’s self-esteem-oriented reflections during observations of positive workplace actions. The case of a 2015 UK workplace guide is utilized to fulfill our aims. We adopt Rawls’ political philosophy framework in order to evaluate whether trans people’s self-esteem-oriented concepts might be enhanced by policy makers’ positive actions. The study does find that trans people’s self-esteem and self-respect are enhanced by policy makers’ positive actions to promote inclusivity in the workplace. Due to these actions trans people feel more accepted, valued and trusted by the government. We suggest that if a workplace policy is perceived to be recognizing trans people’s worth this may be internalized, resulting in positive self-evaluations by trans people. In addition, we present empirical patterns from HR departments which have been aware of the workplace guide. HR officers suggest that the workplace guide informs their strategies, and positively affects the creation of a more inclusive workplace culture, the corporate profiles of their firms and staff organizational behaviours (such as, achieving results, fostering collegiality, reducing complaints) and addresses LGBT business and trans staff-members’ needs. We suggest that if employers adopt policy makers’ positive workplace policies aiming to increase inclusivity, they may be able to realize positive organizational outcomes in their firms.
A new GLO Discussion Paper demonstrates that the Italian occupational structure is strongly hierarchical, with the locus of power distinct by the locus of knowledge generation.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
GLO Fellows Dario Guarascio & Maria Enrica Virgillito
Author Abstract: Which type of work do Italians perform? In this contribution we aim at detecting the anatomy of the Italian occupational structure by taking stock of a micro-level dataset registering the task content, the execution of procedures, the knowledge embedded in the work itself, called ICP (Indagine Campionaria sulle Professioni), the latter being comparable to the U.S. O*NET dataset. We perform an extensive empirical investigation moving from the micro to the macro level of aggregation. Our results show that the Italian occupational structure is strongly hierarchical, with the locus of power distinct by the locus of knowledge generation. It is also weak in terms of collaborative and worker involvement practices, and possibility to be creative. Our analysis allows to pinpoint the role exerted by hierarchical structures, decision making autonomy, and knowledge as the most relevant attributes characterizing the division of labour.
Contributions to school-to-work transitions: vocational training, skill mismatch and policy
The persistently high youth unemployment rates in many countries are of major concern in society and a challenge for researchers to provide evidence for policy-making (Francesco Pastore and Zimmermann, 2019; Zimmermann et al., 2013). Recent interest has concentrated on a better understanding of the role of specific institutional features of different school-to-work transition (SWT) regimes in affecting the youth labor market performance (Pastore, 2015a, b).
To foster this academic debate, the Global Labor Organization (GLO) had created in 2017 the GLO School-to-Work Transition Cluster under the leadership of Francesco Pastore. From this initiative, a first set of seven research papers were published in a special issue on “Advances on School-to-Work Transitions” (International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40, No. 3) edited by Francesco Pastore and Klaus F. Zimmermann. In a second round, seven additional contributions in this special issue, Part II, deal with the role of vocational training, overeducation and skill mismatch and labor market conditions and policy for the SWT. We provide a brief guide into the value added to our understanding of this important process.
Vocational training
A significant part of the literature expects from vocational education or training an important role in SWT. Is it more important than general education? This crucial question is addressed by Huzeyfe Torun and Semih Tumen (Do vocational high school graduates have better employment outcomes than general high school graduates?). They attempt to reveal causal effects of vocational high school education on employment relative to general high school education using Turkish census data. Initial OLS estimates support the superiority of vocational training for employment performance, but the findings get only qualified backing by instrumental-variable (IV) estimates. While the effects are still positive when IV methods are employed, they are only statistically significant for measures capturing the availability of vocational high school education but not for the inclusion of town-level controls or town fixed effects.
If vocational training is relevant, it should be the focus of
significant policy measures. An innovative study by Elena Cappellini,
Marialuisa Maitino, Valentina Patacchini, Nicola Sciclone (Are
traineeships stepping-stones for youth working careers in Italy?)
documents the role of traineeships as an active labor market policy in
Italy. The evaluation study relies on administrative data where a
counterfactual approach was used to compare trainees to unemployed young
people registered with Public Employment Services with respect to
employment success measured as hiring, job quality and persistence. The
paper concludes that traineeships may delay the transition to work, but
can open youngsters’ perspectives for a quality career in the long term.
To broaden and complete the picture, Irene Brunetti and Lorenzo Corsini (School-to-work transition and vocational education: a comparison across Europe) examine the impact of the types of vocational education across 11 European countries using the 2009 and 2014 European Union Labor Force Survey. Eichhorst et al. (2015) had classified vocational education and training strategies into school-based vocational education and training (as part of upper secondary education), formal apprenticeships, and dual vocational training: Which vocational systems show better results? Multinomial probit models provide indications that dual vocational training speeds up SWT and the vocational focus is particularly effective here.
Overeducation and skill mismatch
Skill mismatches including overeducation are important aspects of SWT
affecting labor market success in many ways. Two further studies
dealing with those issues in a more global country setting are involving
data from the Lebanon and Kyrgyzstan. Ghassan Dibeh, Ali Fakih and
Walid Marrouch (Employment and skill mismatch among youth in Lebanon)
were estimating a bivariate probit model where employment status and
skill mismatch perceptions for the labor market were jointly modeled.
Employability and skill mismatch were found jointly determined for males
and the core region only.
Kamalbek Karymshakov and Burulcha Sulaimanova (The school-to-work
transition, overeducation and wages of youth in Kyrgyzstan) study
overeducation and the impact on wages using Mincer type OLS regressions.
The propensity score matching method is applied to deal with potential
unobserved heterogeneity. Mismatch in the SWT process is studied
employing the Kaplan-Meier failure analysis. Tertiary education
correlates highly with being employed with a good match. Overeducated
workers reflecting the required level of education for a certain
position receive lower wages than those with suitable matches. However,
those individuals judging their education or qualifications to be larger
than necessary have higher wages.
Labor market conditions and policy
Are local labor market conditions an important driver of
post-compulsory schooling decisions and how this vary by gender? Elena
Francesca Meschi, Joanna Swaffield and Anna Vignoles (The role of local
labour market conditions and youth attainment on post-compulsory
schooling decisions) investigate this using the 2006/2007 wave of the
Longitudinal Study of Young People in England survey coupled with
individual-level attainment and school-based data available through
national administrative databases and local labor market data. Their
nested logit model shows that the most relevant factors behind
post-compulsory schooling decisions are expected wages, current
educational attainment and attitudes to school and parental aspirations.
How can labor policy foster the fast integration of young individuals
into the labor market? Stefan Sonke Speckesser, Francisco Jose Gonzalez
Carreras and Laura Kirchner Sala (Active labour market policies for
young people and youth unemployment: An analysis based on aggregate
data) provide a paper using European Union 27 countries Eurostat data
for 1996–2012. The findings suggest that wage subsidies and job creation
programs have reduced youth unemployment effectively. However, the
20–24-year-old unemployed benefit more than the very young.
References
Eichhorst, W., Rodríguez-Planas, N., Schmidl, R. and Zimmermann, K.F. (2015), “A roadmap to vocational education and training in industrialized countries”, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 68 No. 2, pp. 314-337.
Francesco Pastore, F. and Zimmermann, K.F. (2019), “Understanding school-to-work transitions”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 3, pp. 374-378.
Pastore, F. (2015a), The Youth Experience Gap: Explaining National Differences in the School-to- Work Transition, Springer International Publishing, Heidelberg.
Pastore, F. (2015b), “The European Youth Guarantee: labor market context, conditions and opportunities in Italy”, IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Vol. 4.
Zimmermann, K., Biavaschi, C., Eichhorst, W., Giulietti, C., Kendzia, M.J., Muravyev, A., Pieters, J., Rodrìguez-Planas, N. and Schmidl, R. (2013), “Youth unemployment and vocational training”, Foundations and Trends in Microeconomics, Vol. 9 Nos 1-2, pp. 1-157.
Pastore, F. and Zimmermann, K. (2019), “Contributions to school-to-work transitions: vocational training, skill mismatch and policy”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1361-1363. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-11-2019-420
Torun, H. and Tumen, S. (2019), “Do vocational high school graduates have better employment outcomes than general high school graduates?”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1364-1388. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-11-2017-0314
Cappellini, E., Maitino, M., Patacchini, V. and Sciclone, N. (2019), “Are traineeships stepping-stones for youth working careers in Italy?”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1389-1410. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-03-2018-0099
Brunetti, I. and Corsini, L. (2019), “School-to-work transition and vocational education: a comparison across Europe”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1411-1437. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-02-2018-0061
Dibeh, G., Fakih, A. and Marrouch, W. (2019), “Employment and skill mismatch among youth in Lebanon”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1438-1457. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-02-2018-0073
Karymshakov, K. and Sulaimanova, B. (2019), “The school-to-work transition, overeducation and wages of youth in Kyrgyzstan”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1458-1481. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-02-2018-0054
Meschi, E., Swaffield, J. and Vignoles, A. (2019), “The role of local labour market conditions and pupil attainment on post-compulsory schooling decisions”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1482-1509. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-11-2017-0303
Speckesser, S., Gonzalez Carreras, F. and Kirchner Sala, L. (2019), “Active labour market policies for young people and youth unemployment”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1510-1534. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-03-2018-0100
Francesco Pastore & Klaus F. Zimmermann discussing the project 2017 at the Transilvania University of Brasov/Romania
Posted inJournal Special Issue, News, Research|Comments Off on Special Issue Part II of the International Journal of Manpower on ‘Contributions to School-to-Work Transitions’ edited by Pastore & Zimmermann
GLO President Zimmerman visited the University of Nottingham Ningbo/China Globalisation and Economic Policy Centre (GEP) on November 1-2 for the 11th GEP China Conference on “Globalisation with Chinese Characteristics: The Belt and Road Initiative, International Trade and FDI”. See Report. He used the visit to explore local sightseeing highlights on November 3 in museums and libraries. On November 4-5, he moved to Sydney, Australia.
Posted inNews, Travel|Comments Off on Visiting Ningbo on November 3, 2019 after the Belt & Road Conference at the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China.
A new GLO Discussion Paperreviews the growing body of research in economics which concentrates on the education gender gap and its evolution, over time and across countries.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: This paper reviews the growing body of research in economics which concentrates on the education gender gap and its evolution, over time and across countries. The survey first focuses on gender differentials in the historical period that roughly goes from 1850 to the 1940s and documents the deep determinants of the early phase of female education expansion, including pre-industrial conditions, religion, and family and kinship patterns. Next, the survey describes the stylized facts of contemporaneous gender gaps in education, from the 1950s to the present day, accounting for several alternative measures of attainment and achievement and for geographic and temporal differentiations. The determinants of the gaps are then summarized, while keeping a strong emphasis on an historical perspective and disentangling factors related to the labor market, family formation, psychological elements, and societal cultural norms. A discussion follows of the implications of the education gender gap for multiple realms, from economic growth to family life, taking into account the potential for reverse causation. Special attention is devoted to the persistency of gender gaps in the STEM and economics fields.
On October 31, 2019 GLO President Zimmermann terminated his visit at Lexin University in Shanghai (see Report 1 and Report 2) to travel by car to Ningbo. There, he visited the University of Nottingham Ningbo/ChinaGlobalisation and Economic Policy Centre(GEP) to participate on November 1-2 at the 11th GEP China Conference: “Globalisation with Chinese Characteristics: The Belt and Road Initiative, International Trade and FDI”. He investigated the upcoming B&R research, followed on November 1 the “World Economy China Lecture” of Justin Yifu Lin (Peking University) on “The Rise of China and the Belt and Road Initiative” and gave on November 2 his own “Distinguished GEP China Lecture” on “Global Labor Challenges and the B&R Initiative”. GLO Fellow Minghai Zhou of the University of Nottingham Ningbo had introduced Zimmermann and chaired his lecture and the following intensive discussions. Zimmermann also gave a longer interview to a team of student journalists from the Ningbo Economic Review. Full Conference Program.
Speaking: Justin Yifu Lin (Peking University)
With GLO Fellow Minghai Zhou (left)
Enjoying the event “after the hour” with friends at the river.
Posted inEvents, News, Travel|Comments Off on Globalization with Chinese Characteristics: The Belt and Road Initiative, International Trade and FDI. GLO President Zimmermann participated at the conference and provided a public keynote lecture on “Global Labor Challenges and the B&R Initiative”.
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