Employment Outcomes of Graduates: The Case of Universiti Utara,Malaysia*

Data on the labor market outcomes of graduates of the Universiti Utara Malaysia were analyzed using an ordered logit model. The type of degree, ethnicity, and number of job applications submitted are found to be significant determinants of labor market outcomes. Accounting graduates were found to obtain the best labor market outcomes. Malay graduates had significantly less favorable labor market outcomes. The findings for unemployed graduates support two current programs in Malaysia: re‐training for the long‐term unemployed and job matching assistance. The findings also suggest that universities should monitor the skill‐demands of job vacancies and give specific consideration to Malay graduates.     

The impact of E‐Verify mandates on labor market outcomes

A number of states have adopted laws that require employers to use the federal government's E‐Verify program to check workers' eligibility to work legally in the United States. Using data from the Current Population Survey, this study examines whether such laws affect labor market outcomes among Mexican immigrants who are likely to be unauthorized. We find evidence that E‐Verify mandates reduce average hourly earnings among likely unauthorized male Mexican immigrants while increasing labor force participation among likely unauthorized female Mexican immigrants. Furthermore, the mandates appear to lead to better labor market outcomes among workers likely to compete with unauthorized immigrants. Employment rises among male Mexican immigrants who are naturalized citizens in states that adopt E‐Verify mandates, and earnings rise among U.S.‐born Hispanic men. There is no evidence of significant effects among U.S.‐born non‐Hispanic whites.     

Do E‐verify mandates improve labor market outcomes of low‐skilled native and legal immigrant workers?

We examine the impact of the 2007 Legal Arizona Workers Act (LAWA) on employment outcomes of low‐skilled legal workers. We use the synthetic control method to select a group of states against which the labor market trends of Arizona can be compared. Our results suggest that contrary to its intent, LAWA does not appear to have improved labor market outcomes of legal low‐skilled workers who compete with unauthorized immigrants, the target of the legislation. In fact, we find some evidence of diminished employment and increased unemployment among legal low‐skilled workers in Arizona. These findings are concentrated on the largest demographic group of workers—non‐Hispanic white men. While they are less likely to find employment, those who do have on average higher earnings as a result of LAWA. The pattern of results points to both labor supply and labor demand contractions due to LAWA, with labor supply dominating in terms of magnitude.     

Tattoos,Employment, and Labor Market Earnings: Is There a Link in the Ink?

The popularity of tattooing has increased substantially in recent years, particularly among adolescents and young adults. Moreover, tattooed images are permanent unless the individual opts for expensive, time consuming, and painful removal procedures. Given the increasing popularity of tattooing, and the permanent nature of this action, it is of interest to know whether tattooed workers are more or less likely to be employed and, conditional on employment, if they receive wages that are different from the wages of their non‐tattooed peers. To investigate these questions, we analyze two large data sets—from the United States and Australia—with measures of tattoo status, employment, earnings, and other pertinent variables. Regardless of country, gender, specific measures, or estimation technique, the results consistently show that having a tattoo is negatively and significantly related to employment and earnings in bivariate analyses, but the estimates become smaller and nonsignificant after controlling for human capital, occupation, behavioral choices, lifestyle factors, and other individual characteristics related to labor market outcomes. Various robustness checks confirm the stability of the core findings. These results suggest that, once differences in personal characteristics are taken into account, tattooed and non‐tattooed workers are treated similarly in the labor market. We offer suggestions for improving future surveys to enable a better understanding of the relationships between tattooed workers and their labor market outcomes.     

Sexual Identity,Same‐Sex Relationships,and Labour Market Dynamics: New Evidence from Longitudinal Data in Australia

Using newly collected data on sexual identity from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, this study examines the relationship between sexual identity and labour market outcomes. Our findings show that gay males are: (i) less likely to be continuously employed than their heterosexual counterparts, and (ii) face an annual earnings penalty of 16–21%. There are also important differences in earnings dynamics for men who transition into (or out of) same‐sex versus opposite‐sex live‐in relationships. Individual fixed effects estimates show that opposite‐sex partnerships are associated with increased earnings for men, while same‐sex partnerships are associated with small declines in earnings that are statistically indistinguishable from zero. For women, we find evidence of an earnings premium for lesbians, driven largely by increased labour supply on the intensive margin.     

The Effects of State Merit Aid Programs on Attendance at Elite Colleges

State merit aid programs have been found to reduce the likelihood that students attend college out of state. Using the U.S. News & World Report (USNWR) rankings of colleges and universities to measure college quality and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System data to measure enrollment, we explore how this reduction in out‐of‐state enrollment differs by the academic quality of the institution. Our difference‐in‐differences results suggest that state merit aid programs do not induce students to forgo attending top 15 ranked schools. However, state merit aid does induce some students to forgo attending out‐of‐state schools ranked below the top 15 and shifts them toward lower quality in‐state schools, so that the net effect is a reduction in academic quality, as measured by USNWR. These effects may have long‐term implications for students' degree completion rates and labor market earnings.     

The Puzzling Pattern of Multiple Job Holding across U.S. Labor Markets

Multiple job holding (MJH) rates differ substantially across U.S. regions, states, and metropolitan areas. Rates decrease markedly with respect to labor market size. These patterns have been largely overlooked, despite being relatively fixed over (at least) the past 20 years. This article explores explanations for these persistent differences. We account for roughly two‐thirds of the mean absolute deviation in MJH across local labor markets (MSAs). The results suggest that variation in MJH across labor markets is driven by labor market differences in job opportunities and worker preferences. Most important in explaining variation in MJH are MSA industry and occupation structure, ancestry shares, commute times, and, to a lesser extent, labor market churn.     

Real Interest Rate and Labor Market Performance around the World

This article studies the effects of the real interest rate on labor market performance. Using a much larger sample of countries and more indicators of labor market performance than have been used in previous articles, it finds that a rise in the real interest rate increases the unemployment rate, raises the share of long‐term unemployed, and reduces the employment rate. The magnitude of these effects is very small in the short run but much more pronounced—though still fairly small—in the long run. Young people are disproportionately affected. The results are robust to variations in specification.     

Family size,labor supply,and job prestige: Evidence from three decennial censuses in China

This study investigates the relationship between family size and parents’ labor market performance, measured by labor supply and occupational prestige scores, based on three census waves in 1990, 2000, and 2010. To address the endogeneity problem of family size, we use the indicator of twins at first birth as an instrumental variable. Our results suggest that in nuclear households, family size affects the labor market performance only of mothers, not of fathers, with the negative effects fading and gradually disappearing over time. More specifically, an increase in family size decreases female labor supply in the 1990 wave, leads to lower prestige scores among working mothers in the 2000 wave, and has no impact on labor supply or occupational prestige scores in the 2010 wave. Our subsample analysis indicates that the negative effects of family size are more severe for parents of households with all children under seven years old and for husbands or wives with lower education level than that of their partners. In addition, we find that the negative effects of family size on parental labor market outcomes are not observed in extended households, especially when no grandparents are aged 65 years or older.     

On the heterogeneous short‐term effects of minimum wages on labor demand

A strand of the literature documents no effects or even positive effects of a higher minimum wage on employment. This evidence is frequently linked to the existence of monopsonistic labor markets or search frictions. However, empirical studies show that these findings could be related to a low short‐term minimum wage–employment elasticity in a competitive labor market. We show that mixed theoretical employment effects of a minimum wage policy can be predicted in the short term in assignment economies with price‐taker agents and no search frictions.     

Endogenous,Intra‐household Decision‐making and its Impact on the Labor Supply of Couples in Rural India*

Using data for rural India, this paper analyzes households' labor supply decision‐making, taking into consideration non‐participation, endogenous intrahousehold bargaining and nutritional status. Analyses of unitary and collective models suggest that bargaining between household members forms the basis of households' decisions, and these decisions alter households' internal power balance. Analysis of households' internal bargaining process suggests that women's bargaining power increases when their wages are higher and they are better educated. The results indicate that it is crucial to account for the mechanics of decision‐making within households when studying the effects of changing labor market conditions or designing development policies to improve individual well‐being or to empower women.     

社会网络与民工工资：来自中国的证据

 本文基于来自中国22个省的农户调查数据研究了利用的不同社会网络对于不同的民工在城市劳动力市场上的工资水平的影响,结果发现：并不是利用所有的社会网络都能够提高所有民工的工资水平。首先,只有利用亲友关系找到的工作才能够得到更高的工资;其次,即使亲友关系也不能提高利用它找到工作的所有民工的工资水平,而只能显著提高女性和已婚民工的工资水平。所以,在研究中忽略社会网络和民工的差异性会导致错误的研究结论。本文有助于帮助理解中国的劳动力流动及社会网络在劳动力市场中的作用。     

Optimal government spending in an economy with imperfectly competitive goods and labor markets

This article examines the growth‐ and welfare‐maximizing government spending in an economy that is characterized by market imperfections, namely, unionization in the labor market and monopolistic competition in the goods market. To thoughtfully explore the optimal spending, two distinct scenarios where the government spending is financed by labor/capital income taxes are considered. Our analysis shows that the optimal growth‐maximizing government spending is inconsistent with the welfare‐maximizing government spending. Moreover, the growth‐maximizing/welfare‐maximizing government spending have quite different responses to distinctive market imperfections (markups in the goods and labor markets), particularly in the scenarios with distinctive financing modes. Our numerical study indicates that the growth‐maximizing and welfare‐maximizing government expenditures, in general, are more responsive to the change in the labor market friction than that in the product market friction and the growth‐maximizing government spending is more likely to be lower than the welfare‐maximizing government spending.     

INFORMALIZATION OF INDUSTRIAL LABOR IN INDIA: EFFECTS OF LABOR MARKET RIGIDITIES AND IMPORT COMPETITION

Since the 1980s, industrial labor in India has been increasingly informalized, manifested in a rising share of unorganized sector employment and the growing use of temporary and contract workers, and subcontracting in organized manufacturing. Using unit‐level data from the National Sample Survey employment–unemployment survey for 2004–5, the paper investigates econometrically whether labor market rigidities and import competition have been responsible for the informalization of industrial labor in India. The results of econometric models show that labor market reforms tend to increase the creation of regular jobs, while import competition tends to raise casual employment among workers with education levels above primary.     

Actual age at school entry, educational outcomes, and earnings

This paper reports on the effect of actual age measured by month at school entry on test scores, eventual educational attainment, and labor market outcomes, using school test score data and a labor force survey of Japan. Japan is an ideal country for examining the pure effect of actual age at school entry on eventual years of education because the length of compulsory education does not vary by birth month and legal administrations assure that almost all children follow a fixed schedule of grade progress. Older children of both sexes in a school cohort obtain higher test scores and more education years than their younger counterparts. This better academic performance translates into higher annual earnings among males.     

The market for public office: Why the Indian state is not better at development

How and why officials are transferred from one post to another can — in India, does — have far-reaching consequences for the effectiveness of public service organizations, such as Irrigation, Agriculture, Forestry and Soil Conservation Departments. The transfer mechanism used in many departments of Indian states involves a kind of ‘internal labor market’ (a truer market than in the way that term is often used by labor market economists). It allows pressures for corrupt behavior to bear down on the incumbents of certain posts, and itself amplifies those pressures. Frequently, the pressures on officials to be corrupt cause them to behave in ways contrary to the ostensible objectives of their departments. Why is the Indian state not better at promoting development? To an important degree, because of the corruption-transfer mechanism and its effects on bureaucratic initiatives.     

The Relative Returns to Graduating from a Historically Black College/University: Propensity Score Matching Estimates from the National Survey of Black Americans

This paper considers the returns to earning a baccalaureate degree from a Historically Black College/University (HBCU) relative to a non-HBCU for black Americans. With data from the National Survey of Black Americans, we use propensity score matching estimators to estimate the treatment effect of graduating from an HBCU on direct labor market outcomes, and on psychological outcomes that indirectly increase wages. We find that the treatment effect of graduating from an HBCU relative to a non-HBCU is positive with respect to labor market and psychological outcomes across three decades. As our direct labor market outcome measure reflects permanent earnings, our results suggest that as HBCUs afford graduates relatively superior long-run returns they continue to have a compelling educational justification, as the labor market outcomes of their graduates are superior to what they would have been had they graduated from a non-HBCU.     

Does Ethnicity Matter for Access to Childhoodand Adolescent Health Capital in China? Evidence from the Wage-Height Relationship in the 2006 China Health and Nutrition Survey

This paper considers whether ethnicity conditions the return and access to health capital in China. Given that the wage-height relationship reflects the labor market earnings returns to childhood and adolescent health capital, differences in the labor market returns to height by ethnicity reflect ethnic differences in access to health capital during childhood and adolescence. We theoretically motivate the role of height in earnings by providing a Bioeconomic rationale for stature and height determining individual wages, and estimate height-augmented Mincerian earnings functions with data from the 2006 China Health and Nutrition Survey. Our results show that when the effects of unobserved genetic influences on adult height are accounted for, the labor market return on height is higher for Chinese ethnics. This suggests that in China there are ethnic disparities in access to the inputs that produce childhood and adolescent health capital.     

Second language skills and labor market outcomes: Evidence from the handover of Hong Kong

This paper analyzes the effects of second languages skills on labor market outcomes in Hong Kong. Using data from the Hong Kong Population Censuses, we find that both Mandarin and English language skills are linked to improved labor market performance, and the premiums for English are much larger than those for Mandarin. We further show that the sovereignty transfer of Hong Kong from the UK to China in 1997 has strengthened the positive role of Mandarin and English language skills in finding a job in Hong Kong. The political change has also increased the earnings of people with the ability to speak Mandarin. As a comparison, the earnings premium for speaking English has declined in magnitude after the sovereignty transfer. Investigating into the mechanisms, we show that the rising premiums for Mandarin language skills are operated through choices of occupations and industry sectors. Our findings suggest that important political changes can affect the economic returns to language skills in the labor market.     

Evolution of Education Premiums in Cambodia: 1997–2007

This paper evaluates education premiums in Cambodia over the past decade using data from the 1997, 2003–2004 and 2007 Socio‐economic Surveys of Households. The Cambodian labor market has undergone a transformation over the past decade. In 1997, the earnings of workers employed for wages exhibited limited association with education and skills. The picture was dramatically different by 2003 and more so by 2007. The profitability of education had increased sharply, especially for women. There is evidence that the human capital model is now applicable to both men and women, resulting in a wider distribution of earnings. Instrumental variables estimates of the return to an additional year of schooling for male wage earners are found to be higher than the corresponding OLS estimates, but only in the private sector.