The Minimum Wage Law and Teenage Crime: Evidence From the US

What is the effect of minimum wage regulation on youth crime? Masanori Hashimoto, of Ohio State University, argues that in the USA the evidence suggests that the minimum wage causes both unemployment and teenage crime.     

The Gender Wage Gap in Europe: Job Preferences,Gender Convergence and Distributional Effects

The gender wage gap has declined over time. However, most of the remaining gap is unexplained, partly because of gender convergence in wage‐determining characteristics. In this paper, we show the degree of convergence differs substantially across Europe. In some countries, predominantly in Eastern Europe, the gender wage gap is entirely unexplained. However, in other countries, differences between the characteristics of men and women explain a relatively large proportion of the wage gap. Gender differences in job preferences contribute 10% to the wage gap, which is more than job tenure, previous employment status or field of study. The role of job preferences is particularly strong at the top of the wage distribution.     

Indexation and Wage Change Settlements: Evidence from Spanish Manufacturing Firms

An endogenous switching model of ex-ante wage changes under indexed and non-indexed settlements is estimated for the Spanish manufacturing sector using collective bargaining firm data for the 1984–1991 period. The likelihood of indexing the settlement is higher for nationwide unions than for other union groups within the works council and increases with the expected level of inflation. For wage change equations, a common structure for indexed and non-indexed settlements is strongly rejected, showing a source of nominal rigidity. For indexed contracts, the expected ex-ante total inflation coverage is nearly complete. It is also shown that workers pay a significant ex-ante change premium (differential) to obtain a cost of living allowance clause. However, the realised contingent compensation exceeds such a premium for all industries. Finally, important spillover efffects in wage setting and the decision to index the settlement have been detected.     

Gender Differences in Entrepreneurial Propensity*

Using data from representative population surveys in 17 countries, we find that the lower rate of female business ownership is primarily due to women's lower propensity to start businesses rather than to differences in survival rates across genders. We show that women are less confident in their entrepreneurial skills, have different social networks and exhibit higher fear of failure than men. After controlling for endogeneity, we find that these variables explain a substantial part of the gender gap in entrepreneurial activity. Although, of course, their relative importance varies significantly across countries, these factors appear to have a universal effect.     

Promotions in the Spanish Labour Market: Differences by Gender

In this paper we compare the professional careers of women and men in the Spanish labour market. We use a sample from the Encuesta de Estructura, Conciencia y Biografia de Clase (1991) to estimate count data models (negative binomial models) to explain the number of promotions received in the firm, for males and females separately. Then, using the estimated coefficients from these models, we apply a variant of Oaxaca's decomposition approach to divide the gap in average promotions by gender into two parts: one of them due to differences in endowments and the other is associated with differences in the 'return' of such as endowments in terms of opportunities of upward mobility. The findings indicate that women receive fewer promotions than men with the same qualifications due to differential treatment in the market.     

Efficiency Wages and the Economic Effects of the Minimum Wage: Evidence from a Low‐Wage Labour Market*

This article exploits a natural experiment provided by the 1999 introduction of the UK National Minimum Wage (NMW) to test for efficiency wage considerations in a low‐wage sector, the UK residential care homes industry. The empirical results provide support to the wage‐supervision trade‐off prediction of the shirking model and suggest that the NMW may have operated as an efficiency wage in the care homes sector, leading to a reduction in supervision costs. These findings can explain earlier evidence suggesting that although the NMW introduction increased wages dramatically in the care homes sector, it generated only moderate negative employment effects.     

Using Occupational Preference in Estimating Market Wage Discrimination: the Case of the Gender Pay Gap

ABSTRACT Past occupational preference is used to estimate the gender pay gap. The use of predetermined variables in a reduced-form wage equation avoids the bias caused by using variables that are correlated with the random error. Using a gender coefficient, the potential discriminatory gap is about 11.5 percent when past occupational preference is included. Decomposition yields an estimate of 10.5 percent when past occupational preference is included. In both cases, the discriminatory gap is close to that obtained when actual occupation is included. This suggests public policy directed toward reducing hiring discrimination by gender might be misdirected.     

Industry Dynamics and Competition from Low‐Wage Countries: Evidence on Italy

This article analyses the effect of competition from low‐wage countries on domestic activity, using data on 230 Italian manufacturing sectors between 1995 and 2007. It finds that low‐wage import penetration is negatively related to employment and other measures of activity. The effect is significantly smaller in more skill, capital and R&D‐intensive sectors and in more vertically differentiated sectors. There is also evidence of significant effects of low‐wage competition through inter‐industry linkages: employment is negatively related to low‐wage import penetration in downstream sectors but positively related to low‐wage import penetration in upstream sectors.     

精力分配视角下婚姻和生育对性别工资差别的影响研究

本文基于中国综合社会调查2008年微观数据,考察“高学历”群体中婚姻、生育对性别收入差异的影响。研究发现,婚姻使性别工资差异的系数扩大了44％;生育对性别工资差异的贡献度达到12．3％;男性仍具有人力资本投资优势,主要表现在工作时间和工龄上。这表明改变传统的家庭精力分配模式,增加女性在劳动力市场中的精力和实践,才能真正改变劳动力市场中性别差异。     

Inequality for Wage Earners and Self‐Employed: Evidence from Panel Data*

In this paper we highlight the importance of analysing the evolution of income inequality separately for employees and self‐employed workers. Using Spanish panel data on income and consumption for the period 1987–96, we find noticeable differences across these groups in the evolution of income inequality, and in the relative importance of the transitory and permanent components of income variance. The evolution of inequality is mainly explained by movements in the transitory component for the self‐employed and by the permanent component for the employees. Our results suggest that different policies should be implemented for each group.     

Gender diversity,gender norms and firm performance: Evidence from India

This paper examines the effect of gender diversity on the financial performance of firms in India. Specifically, we examine two specific aspects of gender diversity- how the implementation of gender diversity across various workforce levels affects firm performance and the role of gender norms and culture in the external environment where the firm operates in influencing the relation. Using the World Bank Enterprise Survey, 2014, we use propensity score matching and instrumental variable estimation techniques to test the effect of gender diversity on firm performance. The results suggest that better women’s representation at higher levels of the workforce is associated with better performance. In contrast, women’s representation at the worker level of the workforce does not affect performance. Additionally, the state-level gender empowerment norms strongly condition the effect of gender diversity on performance. In states with better gender empowerment indicators, firms with better female representation at all levels of permanent employment also have better performance. In contrast, there is no effect of gender diversity on performance in states with worse women empowerment indicators.     

Regional Foreign Direct Investment and Wage Spillovers: Plant Level Evidence from the UK Electronics Industry*

This paper examines the extent to which foreign investment in the UK generates wage spillovers in the domestic sector of the economy using a simultaneous dynamic panel data model and focusing on the electronics sector, possibly the most ‘globalized’ sector of UK manufacturing. It finds evidence that the higher wages paid by foreign firms cause wages in the domestic sector to be bid up. This phenomenon is, however, largely confined to the region where foreign direct investment takes place.     

Wage Differences Between Men and Women: Performance Appraisal Ratings vs. Salary Allocation as the Locus of Bias

This article explores the nature and origins of wage differences between men and women in the context of a single large financial services organization. Data collected on 800 women and 1831 men showed that modest wage differences do exist and that they tend to be concentrated primarily in managerial levels. Two possible sources of bias in evaluation were assessed – performance appraisal ratings and the translation of performance appraisal ratings into salay. Our analyses showed that performance appraisal ratings, on average, do not differ between men and women at the same level; however, the relationship between performance appraisal ratings and salary was stronger for men then women, particularly at higher levels. This suggests that the salary allocation process, and not the performance appraisal process, may be the source of bias in large organizations.     

Low Wage Returns to Schooling in a Developing Country: Evidence from a Major Policy Reform in Turkey

In this paper, we estimate returns to schooling for young men and women in Turkey using the exogenous and substantial variation in schooling across birth cohorts brought about by the 1997 reform of compulsory schooling within a fuzzy regression discontinuity design. We estimate that the return from an extra year of schooling is about 7–8% for women and an imprecisely estimated 2–2.5% for men. The low level of the estimates for men contrasts starkly with those estimated for other developing countries. We identify several reasons why returns to schooling are low for men and why they are higher for women in our context. In particular, the policy alters the schooling distributions of men and women differently, thus the average causal effect puts a higher weight on the causal effect of schooling at higher grade levels for women than for men.     

幸福法则与性别差异——基于中国城市居民的实证调查

通过对"2007年中国城市幸福调查"的数据进行分析,我们发现(1)工作时间短的人更幸福;(2)对于已婚者,性别与个人收入对幸福感存在交互作用,男性的幸福感更易受到个人收入的影响;(3)对于已婚者,性别与每周工作时间对幸福感存在交互作用,女性的幸福感更易受到工作时间的影响.同时,幸福函数的分析结果还显示女性、月收入高的人、有房产的人幸福感较高.最后,我们讨论了本研究的意义以及局限性.     

The Value of Employee Retention: Evidence From a Natural Experiment

We estimate the firm‐level returns to retaining employees using difference‐in‐differences analysis and a natural experiment where the enforcement of employee noncompete agreements was inadvertently reversed in Michigan. We find that noncompete enforcement boosted the short‐term value of publicly traded companies by approximately 9%. The effect is increasing in local competition and growth opportunities, and offset by patenting.     

董事会特征与会计师事务所的选择——来自中国证券市场的经验证据

本文利用2002—2004年中国上市公司及其主审会计师事务所作为研究样本，检验董事会特征对公司选择会计师事务所类型的影响。在控制了上市公司的规模、行业、经营业绩和财务杠杆等因素的影响后，研究发现，设立了审计委员会的上市公司更加倾向于选择“国际四大”会计师事务所，同时证明了董事会受大股东控制对于选择“国际四大”所的概率具有显著影响。     

From quality to innovation: Evidence from two French Employer Surveys

In this article we investigate the impact of quality systems on innovation performance using the method of propensity matching. We use two French microeconomic surveys, the “Organizational Changes and Computerization” (COI 1997) and the “Community Innovation Survey” (CIS3 1998–2000). The first hypothesis indicating that quality (ISO 9000 certification) impacts positively on innovation is supported for certain areas of innovation performance. Furthermore, the second hypothesis states that different levels of quality differentially improve innovation performance. Results indicate that the innovation performance of firms with Top Quality Level is higher than that of firms with Medium Quality Level which is also higher than that of firms with Low Quality Level for certain areas of innovation. However, we found that the difference in innovation performance between firms with Medium and Low Quality Levels is not of a great magnitude. This study implies that in order to achieve a significant innovation performance improvement via quality systems, a very well-established quality system is needed within a firm.