Don’t worry,be happy? Happiness and reemployment

This study investigates the effect of unemployed individuals’ happiness on their future labor market outcomes. It therefore acknowledges the possibility that happiness could also be a driver of behavior and influence life's outcomes. I use rich survey data from 2007 to 2009 of entrants into unemployment in Germany (the IZA Evaluation Dataset S) to calculate residual happiness, which displays higher (or lower) satisfaction levels than would be predicted by a number of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. I find a statistically significant inverted U-shaped effect of residual happiness on an unemployed individual's future reemployment probability and reentry wage, even after controlling for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, labor market histories and future job prospects. Further investigation offers three mechanisms that have not been previously shown in this context: (a) happiness is mainly a predictor for exit into self-employment rather than regular employment; (b) only male unemployed experience an effect of happiness on reemployment; and (c) the concept of locus of control and the personality traits of neuroticism and extraversion are main drivers of the baseline effect on regular reemployment and are able to explain the effect on reemployment for males.     

失业保险金与再就业行为

现有的失业理论及实证研究都认为失业保险金的提高会增加失业者的失业持续时间。在本文中,我们试图从失业者面临工作机会的工资分布结构出发,对失业保险金与失业者再就业工资分布的关系进行描述。通过对传统工作搜寻理论模型的扩展,我们证明失业保险金对失业持续时间的影响存在三种不同的传导路径,同时我们得到两个推论:失业保险金的增加一方面将提高失业者接受"高"工资工作机会的概率;但另一方面对失业者从事"低"工资工作机会的影响是不确定的。如果将正式工作视为"高"工资的工作机会,而将非正式工作视为"低"工资的工作机会;则基于微观层面的数据所进行的实证研究结果验证了我们的推论。     

Job Training Subsidies,Reemployment and Earnings in the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program

Average job training subsidies in the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program vary by state due to the cost of particular training programs chosen by participants. This study partitions the higher and lower subsidy states from 2010 to 2014 and estimates differences in the effectiveness of their average subsidy levels on reemployment and subsequent earnings. The rationale for partitioning is that higher cost programs tend to be more occupation or skill oriented than lower cost programs and might, therefore, be more effective. There is found to be only a small increase in the rate of reemployment with increases in the subsidy across all states, though it is fractionally higher in the higher subsidy partition. The contemporaneous state-level macroeconomic conditions have virtually no effect on the rate of reemployment. There is also a small increase in subsequent earnings as the subsidy increases, but only in the lower subsidy partition. Increases in earnings across all states are attributed to the state-level macroeconomic conditions, particularly inflation. These findings emerge from a different empirical approach than taken in earlier studies, but corroborate that the program's job training requirement has been only moderately effective overall, though better at promoting reemployment than higher earnings.     

搜寻理论、失业救济金与中国城镇人口失业持续时间

通过对享受失业救济金者和不享受者失业救济金者的再就业概率的分析,我们可以发现,与享受失业救济金者相比,人力资本特征、家庭特征和宏观经济环境对不享受失业救济金者的再就业概率有显著正向影响,转换模型也得出了失业救济金会降低再就业概率、延长失业持续时间的结论。     

就业再选择与劳动力市场效率

本文认为就业再选择是劳动力市场的基本特征。通过就业再选择使企业内部劳动力市场与外部劳动力市场连接在一起而成为一个整体。劳动者进行就业再选择的频度和难易程度,决定企业内外劳动力市场一体化的程度和劳动力市场的效率水平。因此,企业的人力资源管理,则必须摆脱“员工属于组织”的传统观念,以员工的就业再选择为出发点,并且,促进劳动者进行就业再选择才是建立健全劳动力市场机制的根本途径。     

就业压力下的技术政策选择

技术进步具有多种功能,既可以对就业产生严重冲击,也可以产生”第二次就业效应“、”补偿就业效应“、”关联就业效应“.我国的就业问题只能立足于国内解决。应当在适应世界科技进步潮流这个前提下考虑技术进步对就业的可能影响,选择适当的技术政策。     

Quantile regression for duration data: A reappraisal of the Pennsylvania Reemployment Bonus Experiments

We argue that quantile regression methods can play a constructive role in the analysis of duration (survival) data offering a more flexible, more complete analysis than is typically available with more conventional methods. We illustrate the approach with a reanalysis of the data from the Pennsylvania Reemployment Bonus Experiments. These experiments, conducted in 1988–89, were designed to test the efficacy of cash bonuses paid for early reemployment in shortening the length of insured unemployment spells     

STRUCTURAL EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF JOB SEARCH MONITORING

To evaluate search effort monitoring of unemployed workers, it is important to take account of post‐unemployment wages and job‐to‐job mobility. We structurally estimate a model with search channels, using a controlled trial in which monitoring is randomized. The data include registers and survey data on search behavior. We find that the opportunity to move to better‐paid jobs in employment reduces the extent to which monitoring induces substitution toward formal search channels in unemployment. Job mobility compensates for adverse long‐run effects of monitoring on wages. We examine counterfactual policies against moral hazard, like reemployment bonuses and changes of the benefits path.     

THE WELFARE EFFECTS OF MANDATORY REEMPLOYMENT PROGRAMS: COMBINING A STRUCTURAL MODEL AND EXPERIMENTAL DATA

This article estimates a model of job search with utility costs and benefits triggered by mandatory reemployment programs. I use data from an experiment that generates exogenous variation in the threat of program participation and an increase in the job finding rate. I calculate the impact of the experiment on worker welfare, and find that participants would be willing to give up 1.5–1.7 weeks of unemployment benefits to avoid participation. These welfare costs vary across workers and are larger for workers with weaker employment prospects. Overall, welfare costs are substantial and therefore important to take into account.     

Health Impacts of Invasive Species Through an Altered Natural Environment: Assessing Air Pollution Sinks as a Causal Pathway

In this paper, we study whether the release of pollutant emission information has an effect on housing prices. The event under study is the publication of the first wave of emission quantity data from the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register in 2009. Our analysis is based on quarterly housing prices at the German postal code level for the years 2007–2011 and provides the first evidence from Europe on this research question. Estimating a differences-in-differences model and controlling for observable differences in land use, housing type distribution, tax revenues and other postal code area characteristics by means of propensity score matching, we find no significant effect of the release of emission information on the value of houses in affected postal code areas. This result survives a number of robustness checks designed to assess whether our findings are due to data aggregation issues or the actual treatment definition. This leads to the conclusion that on an aggregate level the 2009 publication of E-PRTR data did not have an immediate and noticeable effect on housing prices in Germany.     

当前劳动就业的几个认识误区

目前在劳动就业方面存在着以下认识误区:经济增长能够带来就业需求增加;视第三产业为社会富余劳动力的“收容所”,认为提前退休或低龄退休能缓解就业压力;把政府购买就业岗位看成是促进失业者再就业的可行方法等。走出认识误区,是制定有效政策、促进中国就业和再就业及实现可持续就业的关键环节。     

不同性别下岗工人创业时的社会资本比较

经济改革体制、产业结构调整引发国企职工下岗,由此产生下岗人群再就业的特殊问题,即将转变为市场化的体制下失业人群再就业的普遍问题.就业在未来十年将始终是热点问题.本文根据西部地区的调查资料,从社会性别视角,从西部下岗职工这一特定人群自谋职业入手,分析和比较不同性别的下岗职工创业时社会资本、体制和人力资本等方面的差异,来解释下岗者的社会资本与创业的关系,讨论如何帮助下岗者创业.最后提出未来改进的政策建议.     

Eliciting,Applying And Exploring Multidimensional Welfare Weights: Evidence From The Field

By combining primary data on dimension importance collected in the field from three different samples and nationally representative survey data from the Dominican Republic, we offer a twofold contribution. The first one comes from an unincentivized questionnaire experiment, where the significance of the treatment effect shows that life domains are valued differently in a poverty vs a well‐being framework. This poses important questions on the anatomy of dimension importance and on the use of weights in empirical analyses, and opens the door to what we call a “concordance paradox” related to the very essence of the constructs of poverty and well‐being. As a second contribution, we employ the sets of weights collected in the field to assess the trend of multidimensional poverty and well‐being in the country. We find that the picking one set of weights or another is not a trivial choice, as they lead to opposite assessment results.     

Matching using semiparametric propensity scores

This paper considers the application of semiparametric methods to estimate propensity scores or probabilities of program participation, which are central to certain program evaluation methods. To evaluate the practical benefits, we first conduct a Monte Carlo study. Second, we use data from the NSW experiment, CPS, and PSID. We compare treatment effect and evaluation bias estimates using propensity scores estimated from parametric logit, semiparametric single index, and semiparametric binary quantile regression models. Our results suggest that it is important to account for very general forms of heterogeneity in (semiparametric) estimation of the propensity score, particularly when the treatment effects vary in an unsystematic manner with the true propensity score.     

弱势就业群体的就业与再就业问题探讨

在我国社会转型、体制转轨的背景下，由于社会保障制度的建立与改革滞后，弱势就业群体的范围和数量不断扩大，他们与其他群体之间的差距加大，其社会心理动荡强烈，日益被边缘化。因此，研究弱势就业群体的就业与再就业问题具有十分重要的现实意义。     

Non-Parametric Identification and Estimation of Truncated Regression Models

In this paper, we consider non-parametric identification and estimation of truncated regression models in both cross-sectional and panel data settings. For the cross-sectional case, Lewbel and Linton (2002) considered non-parametric identification and estimation through continuous variation under a log-concavity condition on the error distribution. We obtain non-parametric identification under weaker conditions. In particular, we obtain non-parametric identification through discrete variation under a non-periodicity condition on the hazard function of the error distribution. Furthermore, we show that the presence of continuous regressors may lead to stronger identification results. Our non-parametric estimator is shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal, and outperforms that of Lewbel and Linton (2002) in a simulation study. For the panel data setting, we provide the first systematic treatment of non-parametric identification and estimation of the truncated panel data model with fixed effects by extending our treatment of the cross-sectional case. We also consider various other extensions.     

Effects of longevity and dependency rates on saving and growth: Evidence from a panel of cross countries

While earlier empirical studies found a negative saving effect of old-age dependency rates without considering longevity, recent studies have found that longevity has a positive effect on growth without considering old-age dependency rates. In this paper, we first justify the related yet independent roles of longevity and old-age dependency rates in determining saving and growth by using a growth model that encompasses both neoclassical and endogenous growth models as special cases. Using panel data from a recent World Bank data set, we then find that the longevity effect is positive and the dependency effect is negative in savings and investment regressions. The estimates indicate that the differences in the demographic variables across countries or over time can well explain the differences in aggregate savings rates. We also find that both population age structure and life expectancy are important contributing factors to growth.     

Immigration,ethnic diversity and voting: The role of individual income

We exploit a unique panel dataset merging data on individual socio-economic characteristics and individual turnout in an Italian municipality to investigate the relationship between ethnic diversity in residential neighborhoods and propensity to vote. Using these data, we document for the first time a differential effect of diversity on electoral turnout depending on household equivalent income. Specifically, we show that ethnic diversity in the neighborhood reduces the political participation of the poor, while it fosters that of the more affluent. These results highlight a potential democratic deficit stemming from reduced and unequal electoral turnout in increasingly heterogeneous neighborhoods.     

Partial identification of distributional and quantile treatment effects in difference-in-differences models

In this paper, we supplement the identification results for the mean treatment effect for the treated in the difference-in-differences framework studied by Abadie (2005) by establishing partial identification results for the distribution and quantile of the counterfactual outcome and of the treatment effect for the treated. Unlike the mean treatment effect which is identifiable from either the panel or the repeated cross sectional data, we show that the distribution/quantile of either the counterfactual outcome or of the treatment effect is only partially identified and in general the identified interval is tighter with panel than with the repeated cross sectional data. We further illustrate this gain from the panel via a numerical example.