Occupational mobility and the returns to training

The literature on the returns to training has pointed out that, immediately following a training episode, wages of participants in employer-sponsored training increase substantially while wages of participants in government-sponsored training hardly change. We argue that there is a potential selection issue—most of the government-sponsored trainees are occupation switchers while most participants in employer-sponsored training are occupation stayers. An occupational switch involves a substantial destruction of human capital, and once we account for the associated decline in wages, we find a large positive impact of both employer- and government-sponsored training on workers’ human capital.     

Firm-financed training: Firm-specific or general skills?

In this article we analyse the specificity and generality of firm-financed training in Norway. Compared to most other OECD countries Norway has a compressed wage structure. According to non-competitive theories of training we should expect to find much firm-sponsored training in such an economy, and furthermore we should expect to find relatively much firm-sponsored general training. The results in this paper suggest that firm-financed training in Norway contain much general skills. We find that training paid for by previous employers has a positive effect on current wages, and the effect is at least on par with the impact on wages from training paid for by the present employer. We use two methods to control for selection bias in training; an instrument variable (IV)-approach and a fixed-effect approach. The IV-approach suggests that the original training estimate is biased downward. However, our training variable may be subject to measurement error, and recent research has shown that the IV-estimate will be biased upward when a mismeasured variable is binary (as in our case). This finding receives support when using a fixed-effect approach. The IV-estimate for training considerably exceeds the fixed-effect estimate. The fixed-effect estimate is also lower than the original OLS-estimate indicating that some selection bias in training is present.First revision received: January 2002/Final revision received: October 2003The paper is financed by grant 108728/510 from the Norwegian Research Council. The financial support is gratefully acknowledged. The author thanks Erling Barth and Hege Torp at the Institute for Social Research, Yngve Willassen at the Department of Economics, University of Oslo, Håkan Regnér at the Swedish Institute for Social Research, two anonymous referees, and participants at the Seminar for education and labour market in Stavern June 2000 for valuable comments and suggestions. All remaining errors are my own     

Returns to job satisfaction in the presence of horizontal mismatch

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we study the relationship among horizontal mismatch, job satisfaction and wages using data from the 2013 Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT). Estimates from 2SLS indicate that 1) field-occupation match in the highest degree has a positive effect on job satisfaction and wages; and 2) controlling for field-occupation matches, job satisfaction has a positive but diminishing effect on wages with a large heterogeneity across different age groups. In addition, we also distinguish between job satisfaction arising from benefits and job satisfaction that is productivity enhancing and find both to have a positive but nonlinear effect on wages.     

The role of unit labor costs in African manufacturing investment and export performance

Several studies have pointed out that manufacturing wages are relatively higher in African countries than in other countries at similar levels of development, and that this contributes to the continent's lower levels of manufacturing competitiveness. This paper derives unit labor costs (ULCs)—average wages relative to productivity—for two-digit manufacturing sectors across a sample of 79 developed and developing countries, including 13 African countries, over the 1990–2015 period. We benchmark the ULCs to China and estimate the relationship between relative ULCs and manufacturing sector investment rates and export performance. We find that relative ULCs have a smaller association with exports in Africa relative to other developing regions. There is some evidence that investment responds to changes in relative ULCs in Africa; however, the estimated effects are smaller than in the full sample. Further, we find that for Africa, the level of labor productivity has a quantitatively stronger and more robust association with manufacturing performance than the level of real wages. The results have important implications for industrial policy in African countries.     

The Impact of Exporting and Export Destination on Manufacturing Wages: Evidence for Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper investigates wage effects of trade status of African firms. Using data for manufacturing firms, we find a positive overall association between individual earnings and export status. Moreover, the skill wage premium in exporting firms is significantly higher. These results are consistent with either trade inducing higher wages in the exporting country, or with more productive (higher wage) firms self‐selecting into exporting. The results are not robust, however, to disaggregation by export destination. Exporting to outside Africa generates a negative wage premium whereas exporting to African markets yields a positive premium in export firms of the exporting country. This suggests that there is a disciplining effect on the wages of exporting firms only when exporting is to more competitive markets.     

Microdata evidence on rent-sharing

We examine the effect of firm profits on wages for individual workers while focusing on the empirical complications associated with estimating the extent of rent-sharing. Controlling for worker and firm fixed-effects and using several instruments to deal with the endogeneity of profits, we report results indicating that Ordinary Least Square (OLS)-estimates strongly underestimate the effects of profits on wages. Moreover, the effect of profits on wages are estimated separately for firms with increasing and decreasing profits within a given time period. We find a positive and stable effect only in firms with increasing profits. This is in line with the idea that falling profits do not lead to wage cuts while increasing profits imply higher wages.     

AIDS mortality and its effect on the labor market: Evidence from South Africa

This paper investigates how HIV/AIDS has impacted the labor market in South Africa, focusing on its effect on wages and employment. This is done by matching individual level data with group specific cumulative AIDS mortality rates. Exploiting the panel nature of the data, I remove individuals whose productivity is most likely impacted by HIV/AIDS, and find evidence that cumulative AIDS mortality has led to reductions in wages of between 3 and 6% for the African population group (Black South Africans). Furthermore, I also find evidence that the epidemic has lowered employment in South Africa. This result is concentrated among those with the lowest levels of education and employment. Although not large in magnitude, these effects are widespread across a significant portion of the population, contributing to a substantial loss of income throughout the South African economy.     

最低工资标准提升的就业效应——一个基于自然实验的经验研究

本文以最低工资标准提升作为自然实验,应用回归调整的差中差方法分析了最低工资标准提升对青年和中年低技能劳动力就业的影响。研究结果表明,最低工资标准提升对低技能群体中的男性和青年女性的就业没有产生显著影响;但对低技能群体中的中年女性就业却产生显著的消极影响,且最低工资标准提升幅度越大,对就业的消极影响越大。因此,政府适当的提升最低工资标准将有助于低技能劳动力整体工资水平的增长。     

The Effect of Emigration from Poland on Polish Wages

In this paper, we analyse the effect of emigration from Poland on Polish wages. Focusing on the 1998–2007 period for Poland, we use a unique dataset that contains information about household members who are currently living abroad, which allows us to develop region‐specific emigration rates and to estimate the effect of emigration on wages using within‐region variation. Our findings show that emigration led to a slight increase in wages for high‐ and medium‐skilled workers, which are the two groups with the largest relative outmigration rates. Workers at the low end of the skill distribution might have experienced wage decreases.     

A spatial model of corporate tax incidence

Using a unique, self-compiled data-set on international tax rates, we explore the link between taxes and manufacturing wages for a panel of 66 countries over 25 years. We find, controlling for other macroeconomic variables, that wages are significantly responsive to corporate taxation. Higher corporate tax rates depress wages. Using spatial modelling techniques, we also find that tax characteristics of neighbouring countries, whether geographic or economic, have a significant effect on domestic wages. We test for, and reject, spatial autocorrelation in our model using a modification of the Moran-I test statistic that accounts for country-specific fixed effects in a panel data setting. Our article fits in with the new economic geography literature as well as the urban economics literature which attempt to explain the spatial distribution of wages.     

Beyond lectures and tutorials: Formal on-the-job training received by young European university graduates

This paper examines the probability of receiving job-related formal training and the returns to on-the-job training in Europe using a sample containing personal, educational, and firm characteristics. The results show that certain occupations, such as managers and professionals, receive more training than others. Furthermore, certain types of workers are more likely to receive training—for example, those graduates in the public sector and those working in larger firms. With respect to the returns to training, estimation results show that the training measure has a significant impact on wages. In estimating the returns to training we have also taken into account the fact that participation in training is endogenous and not random.     

The wage effects of investments in enterprise-related training

Empirical Economics - In this paper we calculate the rate of return to enterprise-related training (ERT) using a simultaneous equations self-selection model of investment in ERT and wages. For...     

互联网使用能否减小性别工资差距?——基于CFPS数据的经验分析

互联网的广泛应用为减小性别工资差距带来了新的可能.基于中国家庭追踪调查( CFPS)数据,文章考察了互联网使用及偏好对性别工资的影响作用,利用RIF回归分解的方法分析了互联网对性别工资差距的影响.结果表明:第一,使用互联网促进了性别工资的增长,并且对于不同婚姻状况、年龄和学历的就业者而言,这种影响作用存在差异;第二,上网时长与性别工资之间呈"倒U形"关系,并且男性无论在家还是在工作场所上网,均对工资有正向影响,而女性在工作场所上网对工资有显著影响;第三,利用网络收发邮件和信息获取能够提高男性工资,但娱乐游戏会减小男性工资,而上网专业学习能够提高女性工资;第四,使用互联网能够减小低收入层和中高收入层就业者的性别工资差距,但却加大了高收入层就业者的性别工资差距.据此文章建议,为减小性别工资差距,不仅要强化网络建设和扩大教育培训,增加女性互联网使用率和使用技能,而且要发展新经济新业态,升级产业结构,减小职业性别隔离.     

The impact of regional and sectoral labor market conditions on wages and labor supply — An empirical analysis for married women using West-German Panel data

In this paper we examine the effects of regional and industry specific labor market indicators on wages and labor supply of married females. Based on the standard life cycle labor supply theory we derive a two equation censored panel model and estimate it using the Minimum Distance Method.For our empirical analysis we use four waves (1984–1987) of West German Panel data merged with regional indicators and industry specific demand side indicators. We obtain the result that, unlike industry specific indicators, regional demand side conditions have virtually no significant effect on market wages but that a direct effect of regional labor market conditions on labour supply remains. We conclude that regional labor market conditions can directly constrain the individual labor supply decision.     

The effects of human resource management on small firms’ productivity and employees’ wages

This paper analyses whether employees and firms differently benefit from particular human resource (HR) practices. The focus is on small firms that may be badly informed on the impact of HR practices on firm performance. In this study on Dutch pharmacies, it is found that firms do not reward employees’ skills according to their contribution to firms’ productivity, as (1) employees are over-rewarded for their sector-specific skills and under-rewarded for the productivity enhancing effect of their computer skills and (2) employees’ work experience positively affects their wages but does not have real productivity effects. Moreover, it is found that training employees in case of vacancy problems seems to be an adequate HR practice, since it increases productivity without affecting the average wage level. The opposite holds for offering higher wages to newly recruited employees. Furthermore, we find that only the employees benefit from performance evaluation interviews, whereas employing many employees by temporary contracts appears to have a negative effect on productivity, without affecting the wage level.     

A tale of industrial stagnation from Africa

Many African economies have experienced rather dismal industrial development since the 1980s. The consensus is that African firms lack competitiveness in a world with increasing trade openness. What determines competitiveness? A well‐known explanation is that resource endowments in Africa favour land not labour, which results in high wages, especially in comparison with ‘labour abundant’ Asian economies. This paper examines the validity of this view on the basis of the case of Sudan. We demonstrate that the lack of competitiveness of manufacturing industries is not caused by high wages. Assuming a direct relationship between labour productivity and international competitiveness, we argue that acute capacity underutilisation, caused by supply‐side constraints, lowers manufacturing productivity, which in turn negatively influences competitiveness.     

教育错配对工资的惩罚效应——来自中国微观面板数据的证据

教育错配如何影响工资?文章基于2010?2014年中国家庭追踪调查面板数据,基于固定效应模型和工具变量估计,测度了教育错配产生的工资惩罚效应及其产生的理论机制.研究表明:过度教育员工每过度一年将承受1.4%的工资惩罚,教育不足员工将获得2.4%的工资红利.工作所需教育水平是40岁以上员工工资的主要决定因素;随着任职生涯的推进,教育错配会得到改善;教育错配与人力资本之间存在补偿机制.文章的政策涵义是:教育主管部门应从市场需求端改革教育体系,提供市场需要的相应技能毕业生.高校应主动顺应社会主义市场经济需求,及时有效地调整学科专业结构和人才培养结构.企业应建立人才识别和多层奖惩机制,充分释放过度教育者的劳动生产率水平.政府应加强就业指导工作,帮助求职者精准定位与其教育水平相匹配的工作,以减少搜寻成本.     

The wage effects of training in Portugal: differences across skill groups,genders, sectors and training types

This article investigates the determinants and wage effects of training in Portugal. In a first stage, we show that there are considerable differences in training participation across groups of workers, with elder and low educated individuals participating substantially less. In a second stage, we show that training has a positive and significant impact on wages. The estimated wage return is about 30% for men and 38% for women. Discriminating between levels of education and working experience and the public and private sector reveals important differences across categories of workers. We find that women, low educated workers and workers with long working experience earn larger returns from training. The average effect of training is similar in the private sector and the public sector. However, differences across experience groups are larger in the private sector, while differences across education groups are larger in the public sector. We use three alternative classifications of training activities and find that training in the firm, training aimed to improve skills needed at the current job and training with duration less than a year are associated to larger wage gains.     

Do Immigrants Affect Firm‐Specific Wages?*

We propose and test a novel effect of immigration on wages. Existing studies have focused on the wage effects that result from changes in the aggregate labour supply in a competitive labour market. We argue that if labour markets are not fully competitive, immigrants might also affect wage formation at the most disaggregate level – the workplace. Using linked employer?employee data, we find that an increased use of low‐skilled immigrant workers has a significantly negative effect on the wages of native workers at the workplace – also when controlling for potential endogeneity of the immigrant share using both fixed effects and instrumental variables.     

The effect of real wages and inflation on labour productivity in Malaysia

This study examines the relationship between labour productivity, real wages and inflation in Malaysia using the bounds testing approach to cointegration and also the Granger causality test. The findings of this study suggest that inflation is negatively related to labour productivity. However, the effect of real wages on labour productivity is non-linear and the two have an inverted-U shape relationship. From a policy viewpoint, the Granger causality test shows that real wages Granger-cause labour productivity, but there is no evidence of reversal causation. Hence, the Malaysian dataset supports the claims by the efficiency wage theory. Moreover, we find that inflation and labour productivity in Malaysia have bilateral causality in the short- and the long-run.