Sexual orientation and labour relations: new evidence from Athens,Greece

We use data from the 2008–2009 Athens Area Study (AAS) to provide the first evidence on the relationship between men's sexual orientation and wages in the Greek capital, Athens. Gay and bisexual men are found to receive significantly lower monthly wages than heterosexual male workers after accounting for demographic and occupational characteristics. The estimations reveal that educated gay and bisexual workers face lower wage differentials than less-educated gay and bisexual workers, which is consistent with the statistical theory of discrimination. However, wage gaps are significant at all educational attainment levels, suggesting that these workers face strong prejudices in the Athenian labour market. The same pattern holds also across all occupations and sectors. Furthermore, to better understand the determinants of the wage gaps, we compare gay/bisexual men with both married and unmarried heterosexual men. By making these comparisons, we are able to disentangle the penalty associated with being unmarried from other human-capital explanations for the wage gap.     

Real exchange rates and job flows: evidence from Turkey

This study investigates the effects of the real exchange rate on job flows in Turkish manufacturing industries between 2006 and 2015 using data at the four-digit NACE Revision 2 level. Using dynamic panel data models, we find that a real appreciation increases gross and net job creation rates, and that the effect of appreciation is magnified as the exposure to international competitiveness of industries increases. We think that this is because Turkish manufacturing firms import a greater share of their inputs compared to the firms in developed countries. Hence, an appreciation creates more jobs because lower imported input costs enable firms to outcompete foreign producers.     

The Gender Wage Gap in Offered,Observed, and Reservation Wages for Spain

The literature on the gender wage gap and wage discrimination has exclusively analyzed observed wage differences, ignoring inactive or unemployed individuals. In order to obtain a more complete overview of gender wage differences, this paper analyzed inactive or unemployed individuals in terms of offered and reservation wages in Spain in the years 1994, 2000, and 2006. The results show that the observed wages give a more positive perspective of the gender wage gap than offered ones. Furthermore, the existence of an important gender wage gap for reservation wages has been noted, which is possibly because women take charge of household and family caregiving tasks to a greater degree than men. The results show that Spanish women had higher reservation wages and lower offered wages than men, which explains their lower participation in the labor market.     

The wage effects of ethnicity in Estonia

Using the retrospective (1989-94) Estonian Labour Force Survey (ELFS), we attempt to examine potential wage discrimination based on ethnicity (Estonian and Russian). Using standard wage decomposition methodology, we look at male full-time workers in the years 1989 and 1994. There is no evidence of discrimination against either ethnic group in 1989. However, the available data provide substantial evidence of discrimination against ethnic Russians in 1994. The evidence also suggests that Estonian language ability does not significantly affect wages. Surprisingly, Estonian-born ethnic Russians appear to fare worse than immigrant ethnic Russians in terms of wages.
JEL classification: J71, P23.     

The effect of oil prices on stock prices: fresh evidence from asymmetric causality tests

This article investigates the causal impact of oil prices on stock prices in each G7 market as well as in the world market. An asymmetric causality test developed by Hatemi-J is used for this purpose. Since the underlying data appears to be non-normal with time-varying volatility, we use bootstrap simulations with leverage adjustments in order to produce more reliable critical values than the asymptotic ones. Based on symmetric causality tests, we find no causal effect of oil prices on the stock prices of the world market or any of the G7 countries. However, when we apply an asymmetric causality test, we find that increasing oil prices cause stock prices to rise in the world, the U.S. and Japan while decreasing oil prices cause stock prices to fall in Germany. This may imply that the world, the U.S. and Japanese stock markets consider increases in oil prices as an indicator of good news as this may mean that there is an increase in oil demand due to an expected growth in the economy while the German stock market treats decreasing oil prices as a signal of an expected contraction in the economy.     

The effects of privatization on productive efficiency: evidence from the Baltic republics

By using new and unusual data sets for large samples of firms in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania we find that, since privatization, diverse patterns of enterprise ownership have emerged and ownership configurations are quite dynamic.   To test competing theories on the productivity effects of alternative ownership structures, identical cross sectional production functions specifications are estimated for each country for varying years during 1993 1996. While the effects of private ownership upon productivity are found to vary considerably over time and across countries, productivity effects are always found to be either zero or positive, thus providing partial support for the hypothesis that state ownership is less efficient than private ownership.   Findings are mixed concerning hypotheses on the effects of particular ownership structures. Often (e.g. for Lithuania) estimates indicate that all forms of private ownership have zero productivity effects. However, some estimates for Estonia provide support for the mainstream hypothesis that outside (and especially foreign) ownership is preferred to insider ownership. But in other estimates (again for Estonia) majority ownership by employees is found to deliver better business performance than majority ownership by managers (thus refuting the hypothesis that the preferred form of insider ownership is ownership by managers).     

Equal Pay for Equal Work? Evidence from Sweden and a Comparison with Norway and the U.S.

Using a new data set covering most privately employed workers in Sweden, we compare gender wage differences to those previously reported for Norway and the U.S. The central finding is that the wage gap is small when comparing men and women working in the same type of occupation for the same employer. Segregation of men and women by occupation accounts for more of the gap in Sweden than in the other two countries. In all three countries, we find that segregation by occupation explains more than segregation by establishment, and that institutional changes over the past two decades aimed at improving the status of women had little effect on the gender wage gap.
JEL classification : J 16; J 71     

The behaviour of producer prices: evidence from French PPI micro data

This paper provides some new empirical findings for how French producers set prices. We used the micro data that composes the producer and business-service price indices from 1994 to 2005. First we address how producer prices are collected. Then we present the main characteristics of how producers change their prices: they are modified infrequently and in small amounts. Also, a behavioural heterogeneity across sectors is observed. Business-service prices change less often than industrial producer prices. The data corroborates both time and state-dependent model predictions. Taylor contracts are not unusual, but a firm’s prices will also react to its economic situation. Nevertheless, the most relevant models, to explain producer price rigidity, are time-dependent.

“The fact that some prices are rigid or sticky, while others are variable, has attracted a good deal of comments from economists in recent years” Tucker (1938)

This study was conducted in the context of the Eurosystem Inflation Persistence Network. Data were processed under the responsibility of INSEE in the context of an agreement between INSEE and the Banque de France (20B-21B-E301/R05019/2005).     

Determinants of privatization of public corporations: evidence from the Japanese experience

The main purpose of this study is to find factors affecting privatization decisions. This study investigates the determinants of privatization by applying the probit model for a data set of special public corporations in Japan. In December 2001, the Japanese government made a resolution to consider the privatization of special public corporations, evaluating 74 special public corporations for possible privatization. In the empirical analysis on the determinants of privatization, we find that among several factors affecting privatization decisions, two are important—the market condition factor and the policy/regulation factor. As for market conditions, a public corporation which exists in a commercialized industry is about 20% more likely to be privatized than others. As for the policy and regulation factor, the public corporation’s privatization under a single regulator is about 25% more likely, compared with the public corporation’s privatization under multiple regulators.     

Determinants of retail wine prices: evidence from Cyprus

This study uses a detailed panel dataset for the Cyprus wine market and a fixed effects simultaneous equations model specification to investigate retail wine price determinants. Our results show that producers’ pricing policies tend to be influenced more by the level of market concentration in the wine and retail industries than by competitors’ price movements. We propose a sales response model to identify the impact of marketing drivers on sales. Wine consumption in Cyprus is unit elastic, but the impact of competitive prices and retail distribution coverage on sales is small.     

Influence Factors on Gender Wage Gap: Evidences from Chinese Household Income Project Survey

By constructing a gender wage gap evolution model, this paper examines the source and evolutionary process of gender wage inequality from a theoretical perspective. The purpose of this study is thoroughly investigating the factors affecting the gender wage inequality from the perspective of gender discrimination and variations in non-gender endowments. Based on the Chinese Household Income Project Survey Data, this study indicates that: (1) since companies continue to re-evaluate the gender endowment value of gender, the gender wage inequality exhibits an endogenous sustainability and self-reinforcing effect. (2) The gender wage gap of urban residents is derived mainly from the top tier of wages, while the gender wage gap of the migrant people is mainly determined from the bottom rung of wages. (3) Female age has a ‘U-curve’ impact on gender wage inequality from the standpoint of non-gender endowment differences, and the female age has an ‘inverted U-curve’ impact on gender wage inequality as a result of discrimination. (4) Female appearance and actual work hours are insufficient to affect the changing trend of gender wage inequality; however, h-register location and marital status are still considered to be very important.     

The exceptional performance of exporters and labour market outcomes: evidence from Egyptian firms

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the manufacturing export market in Egypt after the Arab Spring using a novel firm-level census dataset from 2013. Export is very rare in Egypt. The conventional export premia are very high, except for total factor productivity. Exporters have stark effects on labour market outcomes, including wages, employment, demand for skilled and female workers, wage inequality, and job security. These findings have two important implications: (1) Manufacturing exports might be monopolized by large firms, and (2) promoting exports could improve labour market outcomes, especially for skilled and female workers.     

The determinants of pollution levels: Firm-level evidence from Chinese manufacturing

Using a large, unique, firm-level dataset from the Chinese manufacturing sector, we study important factors that are related to emission intensity for three pollutants in China – sulfur dioxide, wastewater, and soot. Our main findings are as follows: (1) compared to state-owned enterprises (SOEs), both foreign-owned firms and domestic public-listed firms exhibit less intensive pollutant emissions; (2) firms in regions with less local protection have lower pollution intensity; (3) better property rights protection is negatively correlated with pollutant discharge over and beyond the national standards; and (4) larger firms, firms in industries that export more, and firms with more educated employees pollute less. These results suggest that China should not target foreign firms more harshly in its effort to reduce industrial pollution. Better institutions in the form of more effective law enforcement and lower entry barriers across regional markets are also means of curbing China’s pressing environmental problems during its current stage of economic development.     

Impact of terrorism on tourism in Turkey: empirical evidence from Turkey

This article aims at investigating the causal impact of terrorist attacks on the tourism industry in Turkey based on the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing procedure for the period between 1986 and 2006. The ARDL bounds test reveals that tourism is in a long-run equilibrium level relationship with terrorism. The evidence obtained from the long-run and short-run parameter estimates indicates the existence of a negative causal effect of terrorism on tourism.     

Macroeconomic determinants of remittances: evidence from Romania

Given the globalization of the labour market and the promotion of free movement for work, young people are looking for employment opportunities from at least two perspectives – professional careers and socio-economic benefits from employment. In developing countries, such as Romania, the labour market is less attractive, which has led to profound, numerical and structural imbalances, due to external mobility for work. Both new generations of graduates and young people aged up to 40 years, decide to work abroad as a more beneficial individual solution, i.e. remittances. The purpose of this paper is to examine the macroeconomic determinants of remittances to Romania, in order to substantiate public policies on diaspora, to adjust employment policy on the national labour market by promoting incentives to create decent, youth-friendly jobs. Using panel data model we selected several variables with potential influence on remittances level. The results demonstrate that traditional influence’s factors as distance, migration routes diaspora concentration or unemployment rate are, at present, less important than wage gap or tax rate at least for developing origin countries.     

The determinants of retail petrol prices in Greece

The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between retail prices of petrol, international oil prices and tax rates in Greece. We examine not only the hypothesis that retail prices act asymmetrically to crude oil price changes and the pass-through rates of tax increases, but also use the cross-sectional dimension of the data to explore whether the existence or otherwise of market power affects retail prices. Our results provide little evidence for asymmetric behaviour. However, the degree to which prices overreact to tax changes and the significance of market power across the different regions suggests that the market for petrol/diesel is not very competitive.     

Wages distribution in Poland: The roles of privatization and international trade, 1992-96

This paper reports an investigation into the changes in the wage distribution in Poland in the first half of the 1990s. We concentrate on the effects of privatization and international trade. We show that the tendency towards increased dispersion in wages halted between 1992 and 1996, despite a rapid expansion in private-sector work. We also show that, during the same period, private-sector workers typically earned less than their state-sector counterparts on an hourly basis, and this gap widened. However, if one controls for experience, tenure and size of workplace, then there existed a small positive private-sector premium. On the effects of international trade, we find suggestive circumstantial evidence that the increase in trade with Western Europe raised wages and employment in manufacturing.     

Spillover effects of a minimum wage increase – evidence from Slovenia

This article Analysis the effects of a large increase in Slovenia’s minimum wage in March 2010 on the wage distribution using an administrative matched employer–employee panel database. We find that the minimum wage hike increased the concentration of low-paid workers, creating a much more pronounced spike at the minimum, particularly in market services, and for the young, the least educated and those with the least work experience. Our analysis also shows that the March 2010 minimum wage increase also produced sizeable spillover effects. The spillover effects were higher among young and older workers, especially for wage levels near the new minimum wage. The results are based on a difference-in-differences approach comparing changes in wages during the control and treatment periods as experienced by workers in the wage group immediately above the level of the new minimum wage and workers in wage groups higher up in the wage distribution.     

The impact of financial factors on export decisions: The evidence from Turkey

The paper tests the validity of the financial constraint hypothesis in Turkey. In this context, we apply a panel logit model by using the dataset of firms whose stocks are traded in Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) for the period 2000–2011. As a result of analysis, we find that the financial constraint hypothesis is not valid in Turkey. The findings are crucial for firms in Turkey since the hypothesis has not been tested before for Turkey.     

Good News and Bad News: Search from Unknown Wage Offer Distributions

The largest market in national economies is the labor market. Labor market contracting is characterized by job search, often from unknown wage offer distributions. This paper reports experimental tests of finite horizon models of job search in which the wage offer distribution is unknown. Theoretically-optimal search from an unknown wage offer distribution can have the seemingly paradoxical property that some offers will be accepted that are lower than other offers that will be rejected in the same period of the search horizon. Thus the reservation wage property (or lowest acceptable wage path) may not exist. This can occur because an offer that is a priori relatively high (good news) can imply that it is highly probable that search is from a favorable distribution, and such an offer can look unattractive when it is an a posteriori relatively low offer from a favorable distribution (bad news). This paper reports results from experimental treatments for search from unknown distributions in which the reservation wage property does exist and treatments in which it does not exist. We find that the consistency of search behavior with search theory reported in earlier papers is robust to the presence or absence of the reservation wage property and to whether the draws come from known or unknown distributions.