Heterogeneous returns to personality: the role of occupational choice

We analyze the role of personality in occupational choice and wages using data from Germany for the years 1992 to 2009. Characterizing personality by use of seven complementary measures (Big Five personality traits, locus of control, and a measure of reciprocity), the empirical findings show that personal characteristics are important determinants of occupational choice. Associated with that, identical personality traits are differently rewarded across occupations. Hence, breaking down the analysis on the level of occupational groups provides more detailed results of returns to personality. By evaluating different personality profiles, we additionally estimate the influence of personality as a whole. The estimates establish occupation-specific patterns of significant returns to particular personality profiles. These findings underline the importance to consider the occupational distribution when analyzing returns to personality due to its heterogeneous valuation.     

Wage Determination and Occupational Attainment in the Rural Industrial Sector of China

The development of China's rural township, village, and private enterprises (TVP), in which real wages have grown at around 11% per annum over the past decade, is one of the most remarkable achievements of China's economic reform. This achievement has taken place despite relatively rigid control of labor mobility and job assignment by local authorities. Individual firms, however, have considerable influence over wage determination. This study applies human capital theory to explore the wage setting process in this sector. It is found that the impact of both labor market experience and education reflect labor productivity rather than sociopolitical rules of wage setting. The paper employs a logit model to investigate the links between education and occupational attainment. The relationship between wages, education, and occupational attainment, for those who find jobs through their own efforts, is similar to that of western market economies. Although education does not affect wages of those assigned jobs it affects their occupational attainment.     

Trade and technological explanations for changes in sectoral labour demand in OECD economies

This paper sets out to establish the main determinants of variations in the demand for aggregate labour in manufacturing and service sectors (22) for a cross-section of OECD countries (14). A relatively new panel data set is employed in the analysis, the OECD's International Sectoral Data Base. Preliminary analysis revealed that the ‘within’ sector variation in the wage share dominated overall variation for most countries and time periods. A separate dynamic model was thus generated to explain the ‘within’ sector variation in the wage share. This model contained real wages, output, the capital stock, technological change (total factor productivity) and trade (the imports to value-added ratio) as independent variables. In addition the wage level was also interacted with these explanatory variables on the presumption that skill is positively correlated with the level of wages. Because of the potential for simultaneity bias, estimation was conducted by IV and OLS. The main findings were that the capital stock and technological change were the main determinants of shifts in labour demand. While some countries reported the trade variable as significant its influence was only of slight importance in most cases. The interaction terms proved to be significant in a large number of countries. Some evidence was found that capital and technological were complementary with skill. Overall it was found that broad agreement existed across countries in the factors which influence labour demand despite considerable differences in the cross-country nature of labour market institutions.     

The heterogeneous regional effects of minimum wages in Poland

We evaluate the impact of large minimum wage hikes on employment and wage growth in Poland between 2004 and 2018. We estimate panel data models utilizing the considerable variation in wage levels, and in minimum wage bites, across 73 Polish NUTS 3 regions. We find that minimum wage hikes had a significant positive effect on wage growth and a significant negative effect on employment growth only in regions of Poland that were in the first tercile of the regional wage distribution in 2007. These effects were moderate in size, and appear to be more relevant for wages. Specifically, if the ratio of minimum wage to average wage had remained constant after 2007, by 2018, the average wages in these regions would have been 3.2% lower, while employment would have been 1.2% higher. In the remaining two-thirds of Polish regions, we find no significant effects of minimum wage hikes on average wages or on employment.     

GENDER WAGE DIFFERENCES IN AUSTRALIA, SWEDEN AND THE UNITED STATES

In this paper I use microdata from the Luxembourg Income Study t s investigate the contributions of industrial structure, occupational mix and personal and family characteristics to observed gender differences in wages in Australia, Sweden and the United States. A particular effort is made to analyse differences in distribution as well as level of wages. The conclusion reached is that different factors determine the wages of low- and high-wage workers. For higher-wage workers, personal and family characteristics are important explanations for wage variation. For lower-wage workers, occupation plays a more significant role.     

A Village Economy: Land and People of Huecorio

This paper utilizes an original establishment survey in a select few low-wage industries in Los Angeles to draw conclusions about the existence of and explanations for intra-industry wage differentials. We explore differences in average establishment wages but also in the starting wage of the largest low-wage occupations in establishments. Well over 50 percent of the variation in average establishment wages occurs across establishments within industries and 60 percent or more of the starting occupational wages of establishments occurs both within industries and occupations. Differences in the skills of workers account for a portion of the variation in intra-industry average and intra-occupational starting wages, but so too do institutional factors such as unions, rent sharing, monitoring difficulty, and recruitment difficulty.     

Demand for redistribution,support for the welfare state,and party identification in Austria

This paper describes subjective wage inequality and the demand for redistribution in Austria using individuals’ estimates of occupational wages from the International Social Survey Program. Although these estimates differ widely across individuals, the data clearly show that most individuals would like to decrease wage inequality, relative to the level of inequality which they perceive to exist. The empirical analysis also shows that the demand for redistribution is strongly associated not only with variables describing self-interested motives for redistribution, but also with perceptions of and social norms with respect to inequality. Further, the demand for redistribution is a strong predictor for whether an individual is supportive of redistribution by the state. On the other hand, however, I find almost no evidence for an empirical association between the demand for redistribution and individuals’ party identification.     

The effect of distance and road quality on food collection, marketing margins, and traders' wages: evidence from the former Zaire

Food price variation is typical of the food economies of many low income countries. The presence or absence of road infrastructure is perceived to be one of the main determinants of this variation. This analysis shows that in the case of the former Zaire, food price dispersion is significant both across products and across regions. It is demonstrated that transportation costs explain most of the differences in food prices between producer regions and that road quality is an important factor in the transportation costs. However, food prices decrease relatively faster than transportation costs increase and traders' wages are higher on bad roads.     

Schooling,wages and profits: Negative pecuniary externalities from schooling and their consequences for schooling investments

This paper tests the hypothesis that the schooling of the poor reduces profits for landowners, and that such negative pecuniary externalities in turn adversely affect schooling investments made by local governments. A theoretical model of occupational choice in the presence of credit and labor market constraints, combined with existing political economy models of the delivery of local public goods delivers such a result. This hypothesis is tested using household data from India. The empirical analysis shows that profits are reduced by the schooling of the poor and that this is primarily because of the effect of schooling on wages. It also shows that the negative effect of wages on profits reduces government provided schooling inputs.     

Race,Gender and Regional Labor Market Inequalities in Brazil

This study investigates the relationship between unequal regional development and racial and gender wage inequality in Brazil. Using sample data from the 1991 Brazilian census, I estimated monthly wages for a white, brown and black women and men working in the states of S"o Paulo and Bahia. The findings suggest that while women and Afro-Brazilians in Brazil's most developed region of S"o Paulo had the advantages of higher levels of state sponsored work benefits and more equitable occupational and wage distribution, they nevertheless experienced the greatest discrimination. In contrast, the less developed state of Bahia where racial and gender gaps in education, occupation and wages were the most severe, wage discrimination was lowest.     

State Accountancy Regulations,Audit Firm Size,and Auditor Quality: An Empirical Investigation

This paper extends the literature on occupational licensing by examining the effect of states' licensing requirements for Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). We related variations in licensing requirements across states to CPA firm based assessments of service quality. Based upon prior research, we also examined the relationship between service quality and a market generated quality indicator: CPA firm size. The results show no association between audit quality and variations in regulatory strictness. However, a positive relationship was found between audit quality and firm size, suggesting that market forces, rather than governmental intervention, is effective in addressing the information asymmetry that can exist between CPAs and their clients.     

OPENING THE FLOODGATES: PARTIAL AND GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM ADJUSTMENTS TO LABOR IMMIGRATION

We investigate the impact of a large immigration shock on occupational wages. We develop a general equilibrium model where individuals sort into occupations and confront testable hypotheses with data. To identify the effect of the labor supply shock, we introduce a novel instrument that exploits that immigrants systematically sort into different occupations than natives. We study the immigration wave to Norway after the Eastern enlargement and find that immigration led to lower relative occupational wages. A quantification of the general equilibrium shows welfare effects of immigration close to zero for natives, but negative effects for the pre-existing population of immigrants.     

Wage determination and the gender pay gap: A feminist political economy analysis and decomposition

Abstract

This paper develops a heterodox analytical framework of wage determination and a new method of decomposition of the gender pay gap drawing on Marxian and feminist theories. The proposed framework utilizes two wage equations for the analysis of the gender gap: the first equation refers to average occupational wages and the second to individual wages as deviations from occupational wages. Using a data set for wages from industries in Greece, this paper demonstrates and explains differences in results between this proposed decomposition of the gender pay gap and that of Oaxaca-Blinder, and discusses the merits of this new technique compared to the Brown-Moon-Zoloth method. The authors argue that the main advantage of this proposed method of decomposition over the other two methods is that the proposed method allows for separate estimates of the impact of social and individual gender wage discrimination on the gender pay gap.     

The Spatial Determinants Of Wage Inequality: Evidence From Recent Latina Immigrants In Southern California

Abstract

Recent Latina immigrants to the United States earn lower hourly wages than any other broad demographic group. This paper investigates the role space and scale play in shaping the employment opportunities and wages this group receives in Southern California relative to others there. Results suggest that, although individual factors such as education, experience, and ability to speak English are important, spatial forces also influence wages. Access to jobs, particularly low-skilled jobs and those held by Latinos, as well as ethnic neighborhood networks, explain a large share of the variation in hourly wages. The paper provides evidence that labor-market scales differ across groups within US metropolitan areas, with recent Latina immigrants being more geographically constrained and hence more dependent on local opportunities and resources than other workers, with the exception of black women.     

Evaluating the Impact of Educational Expansion on the Occupational Status of Youth

This paper exploits the remarkable increase in the average educational attainment of Australian youth during the 1980's to evaluate the role of education in labour market performance. Rather than focus on the impact of schooling on wages, however, we examine changes in the occupational distribution of recent labour market entrants. The evidence indicates that the educational expansion appears to move all individuals up the educational ladder without altering their relative position. The results indicate that while the second cohort obtained substantially more education than the first cohort the occupational distribution of the two cohorts were almost identical. Furthermore, there was no evidence that the increased education counterbalanced changes in the structure of labour demand or manifested itself in higher wages.     

OCCUPATIONAL AND INDUSTRY SPECIFICITY OF HUMAN CAPITAL IN THE BRITISH LABOUR MARKET

This paper builds on the recent literature on the importance of occupational and industry experience on wages and extends Kambourov and Manovskii's (2002) study using British data. Occupational experience is estimated to make a significant contribution to wage growth, while the evidence on industry specificity is not very supportive. The second contribution of the paper is that it assesses whether there is heterogeneity in the estimated returns to work experience across one-digit industries and occupations. The findings suggest that industry and occupational experience is important for individuals in professional and managerial jobs or jobs in the banking and finance sector.     

Community banks,money and labour productivity

Does money affect productivity? We examine whether bank deposits, a measure of the money supply that excludes currency in circulation, influence labour productivity. Banks deposits are special in that they facilitate transactions and, in aggregate, add liquidity and credit availability to a region. By exploiting the distribution of community bank deposits across the states, we test the hypothesis that money is an input to the production function under a variety of panel data methods. We find evidence that bank transaction deposits and total deposits along with other production function inputs such as wages, labour and gross state product are cointegrated across the states; however, the economic contribution of money to labour productivity appears limited.     

POVERTY AND INCOME DISTRIBUTION IN BRAZIL1

The article refutes the contention that Brazil's development has not benefited the poor and that rapid growth has had a polarizing effect on the distribution of income. It uses the National Household Expenditure Survey of 1974–75 to try to quantify the extent of poverty and concludes that the incòme levels of the poor have been underestimated in the past. The evidence suggests also that occupational and regional variables are powerful determinants of income stratification. Wage rate statistics convey information about long-term trends in income. The article notes considerable increases in rural wages during the 1970s as well as wage improvements in the urban informal sector. Shifts in the structure of employment have probably been the most powerful cause of economic improvement in Brazil. The enormous absorption of rural-urban migrants occurred without a flooding of the lower income urban categories. Social indicators and statistics referring to ownership of household durable consumer goods corroborate income and labor market evidence to the effect that there has been considerable progress for the poor during the 1970s. The article reviews statistical evidence bearing on distribution. There is little doubt that the distribution of income in Brazil is very skewed. It is not possible, however, to come to conclusions about changes that might have occurred in the degree of inequality over time. Finally, the article includes data on the “distribution of education” and the “distribution of life expectancy” and notes improvement over time in both. This article takes advantage of the Brazilian population census of 1980 to bring up to date some of the statistical material that bears on the issues of poverty and income distribution. First, the article describes the overall context of Brazilian development since 1960. The second part analyzes the extent of poverty in the mid-1970s. The third part deals with trends in wages, employment and selected welfare indicators. The last section briefly summarizes the information relating to income distribution: what is the extent of skewedness and how has it evolved over time?     

What is behind low wages in central and eastern Europe?

This paper compares wages across Europe in relation to the characteristics of workers and firms, with a particular focus on wage levels in central and eastern European countries. Worker and workplace endowments can be taken as a proxy for labour productivity. We estimate the extent to which wage differences observed at an aggregate level can be related to the different compositions of workforces and workplaces, as well as the types of jobs conducted in separate countries. We also decompose the observed differences in returns on endowments by identifying the sectors and occupational categories that contribute most to the wage gaps observed at the aggregate level. The wage gaps in low-wage countries actually appear larger once differences in worker, work and workplace characteristics are controlled for. In contrast, the differences in wages between high-wage countries diminish when we control for these endowments. The wage gap between East and West thus seems to be explained by a much lower return on skills and other characteristics rather than by differences in the composition of workforces and firms. Sectoral and occupational analysis suggests that central and eastern European countries have developed a generalised low-cost and low-wage model, with relative returns particularly low on higher skills. There is much less wage disparity across European countries in more labour intensive and lower-paid services sectors, such as accommodation and food service activities. The magnitude of the wage gap seems to be driven by the relative position of sectors and occupations in high-wage countries.     

The Dynamics of Poverty and the Promotion of Transition from Non‐Regular to Regular Employment in Japan: Economic Effects of Minimum Wage Revision and Job Training Support

Comparison between Japan and other advanced countries shows that the relative poverty rate is high in Japan, and that many of the poor households are those with a non‐regular worker. As for mobility between income classes, the proportion of households remaining in the poor class for a long period of time in Japan is close to the average for EU countries. The panel estimation of its effect on wages shows that the raising of the minimum wage is statistically significantly associated with an increase in wages of non‐regular workers, in particular, female, but does not seem to decrease employment. The result shows that for male non‐regular workers, firm‐provided training promotes their transition to regular employment, and that for female non‐regular workers, occupational training promotes their transition to regular employment at different firms.