JOB MOBILITY IN BRITAIN: ARE THE SCOTS DIFFERENT? EVIDENCE FROM THE BHPS†

The Scottish extension‐sample of the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) is used to shed light on differences in job mobility patterns in England and Scotland for both men and women. Based on probit estimates of the overall mobility rate, a new decomposition technique is applied to distinguish between explained and unexplained differences. Furthermore, exploiting data on the number of job changes, a zero inflated Poisson model is estimated to provide information on possible differences in the expected number of job changes. Overall, there is evidence that suggests significant differences in mobility patterns south and north of the Borders; however, this is confined to men. Yet, whether this suffices to justify a heterogeneous regional labour market remains to be seen.     

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.     

PRICE SETTING PRACTICES IN GREECE: EVIDENCE FROM A SMALL‐SCALE FIRM‐LEVEL SURVEY

The paper documents the price setting practices followed by some 400 or so firms operating in Greece. Survey replies reveal a low percentage of firms changing prices with frequency higher than annual and staggering of price changes during the year. As to firms’ reactions to unexpected shocks, prices appear to adjust sluggishly to cost shocks with asymmetries in price adjustment across positive and negative shocks. Adjustments to increases in costs appear speedier than those to reductions in demand. The data confirm a result found for other countries: the existence of cross‐sectional variations in price setting strategies and in the extent to which prices are adjusted in reaction to unexpected shocks. The results suggest a positive association between, on the one hand, product market competition and, on the other hand, state‐dependent pricing, frequent price changes and the likelihood of a price adjustment following an adverse demand shock.     

THE IMPACT OF BESTSELLER RANK ON DEMAND: EVIDENCE FROM THE APP MARKET*

This article uses daily data on the ranking by sales of the top 100 apps sold through Apple’s App Store to provide evidence of the causal impact of today’s bestseller rank information on tomorrow’s demand. The estimates indicate that the willingness to pay of consumers is about $4.50 greater for a top ranked app than for the same unranked app. The results also indicate that the effects of bestseller status on willingness to pay decline steeply with rank at the top ranks, but remain economically significant for the apps in the first half of the top 100 list.     

SHORT-TERM CONTRACTS REGULATIONS AND DYNAMIC LABOUR DEMAND: THEORY AND EVIDENCE

We present a dynamic labour demand model where we evaluate the impact of employment regulations on permanent and temporary employment. We consider three different kinds of regulations, namely firing costs, hiring costs and a constraint on temporary contracts. These regulations differently affect the size and composition of employment. The theoretical results are interpreted and questioned on the basis of empirical evidence on the employment effects of the regulation reforms that occurred in the major European countries in the period 1983–1999. The empirical analysis is based on a new set of time‐varying indicators on permanent employment protection, fixed‐term contracts and temporary agency work regulations. We find evidence in support of the hypothesis that fixed‐term contracts have been effective stepping‐stones to permanent jobs during the period under observation. On the contrary, flexible temporary agency work regulations seem to induce a substitution of permanent with temporary contracts.     

APPRENTICES AND YOUNG WORKERS: A STUDY OF THE NORWEGIAN YOUTH LABOUR MARKET

Apprenticeship programmes are in many countries important stepping stones into the labour market. However, recruitment of apprentices seems to follow the business cycle. This pattern may be caused by firms' contemporaneous demand for labour, but may also be consistent with an investment hypothesis. A model, in which the tightness in the labour market is taken into account, is tested on a sample of Norwegian quarterly firm‐specific data. The empirical findings give moderate support to an investment hypothesis. The apprentices substitute to some degree for skilled labour but are recruited primarily based on the labour market situation. The wage level plays a minor role for recruitment of apprentices.     

ADULT EDUCATION AND EARNINGS: EVIDENCE FROM BRITAIN

This paper uses the National Child Development Study to investigate the relationship between adult schooling and labour market earnings for men. In line with several other studies, the findings suggest that there are returns to all educational qualifications acquired early in life. A variety of statistical models are estimated to try to measure the causal effect of adult education on earnings. Careful analysis reveals that there are no genuine returns to additional qualifications awarded in middle adulthood. The central conclusion of this paper is that rates of return to human capital are greater for individuals who were educated early in life.     

内部人交易与股票市场回报——来自中国市场的证据

本文系统地分析了自2007年6月1日以来,我国上市公司内部人的公开市场交易行为。本文的结论表明,在实施了内部人交易监管法规以来,我国上市公司的内部人依然能够利用私有信息在二级市场上赚取超额收益。当内部人购买或出售公司股票时,股票市场都会出现异常反应。而这些超额收益的大小直接受到公司的股权集中度、企业是否为国有等因素的影响。公司治理结构越差,则内部人赚取的超额收益越多。依据上述结论,笔者提出了相应的政策建议。     

农地市场对耕地零碎化的影响-理论与来自苏浙鲁的经验

农地市场可能是矫正耕地零碎化的一个工具。但是,由于存在较高的交易费用,农户自发交易耕地对耕地零碎化的影响可能是不显著的。此时,村集体介入农地市场可能降低交易费用,促进土地集中和规模经营,从而降低耕地零碎化程度。本文利用2000年苏浙鲁1083个农户的调查数据对以上假说进行了验证。     

农地市场对耕地零碎化的影响-理论与来自苏浙鲁的经验

农地市场可能是矫正耕地零碎化的一个工具.但是,由于存在较高的交易费用,农户自发交易耕地对耕地零碎化的影响可能是不显著的.此时,村集体介入农地市场可能降低交易费用,促进土地集中和规模经营,从而降低耕地零碎化程度.该文利用2000年苏浙鲁1083个农户的调查数据对以上假说进行了验证.     

ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION IMPACTS: EVIDENCE FROM THE AUSTRALIAN TREASURY-BOND FUTURES MARKET

Abstract.  The effect of information flows on the return volatility of Australian 3-year Treasury bond futures is examined using linear and non-linear GARCH models. Results show significant asymmetric information effects, where bad news has a greater impact on volatility than good news and a non-linear Threshold ARCH(1,1) in mean model provides the most accurate estimation of return volatility. Diagnostic tests confirm this finding and out of sample forecasting error statistics verify that the Threshold ARCH(1,1) in mean model yields the lowest forecasting error. The Threshold ARCH(1,1)-M model is best at capturing the asymmetric information impact on the Australian three-year T-Bond futures return volatility.     

GLOBAL AND DISAGGREGATED MEASURES OF EARNINGS MOBILITY: EVIDENCE FROM FIVE EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

This paper offers the first application of the local approximation method pioneered by Schluter and Trede (2003) for the Shorrocks mobility indices across the earnings distribution for a range of European Countries covering the main European social models: Denmark, Germany, Spain, the UK and Italy in the pre‐accession EU (1994‐2001). This insightful approach allows us to offer a global and disaggregate analysis of mobility as proportionate change in inequality and hence provide the reader with a full set of information to make his/her own judgment about the extent of mobility and country ranking. Specifically, we investigate the degree to which mobility is driven by low or high earners and how this picture changes across three different earnings measures: full‐time full‐year working, adding part‐time working and then part‐year working. Our results draw out some general key facts. First of all the vast bulk of the measured mobility occurs in the tails especially the lower tail with at least half of the index driven by mobility in the bottom earning quintile. Second, in the top 20 percent of the distribution there are few movements of earnings that effect the level of permanent inequality except in Denmark. Third, no country has a clear dominance for mobility across the full earnings distribution but Denmark differs from the other countries with clearly greater mobility in the middle and at the top. Finally, we find that with the exception of Denmark and Italy, mobility does not lead to clear convergence to the mean but rather to points around 0.7‐0.8 and 1.5 to 2 times the mean.     

ECONOMIC FREEDOM AND LABOR MARKET CONDITIONS: EVIDENCE FROM THE STATES

Using 1981–2009 data for the 50 states, this article examines the relationship between economic freedom and the unemployment rate, the labor force participation rate, and the employment‐population ratio. After controlling for a variety of state‐level characteristics, the results from most specifications indicate that economic freedom is associated with lower unemployment and with higher labor force participation and employment‐population ratios. (JEL J68, K31, O43)     

Money and rank in the labor market

We analyze the gains/losses in wage and in rank position for workers switching firm. Voluntary movers enjoy a wage premium relative to stayers, but that premium declines with rank inside the new firm, indicating that movers are trading-off money and rank.     

MARKET EFFICIENCY: EVIDENCE FROM A NO-BUBBLE ASSET MARKET EXPERIMENT

Abstract.  We report the results of an experiment that demonstrates that market experience is not necessary to eliminate bubbles in the type of asset markets studied in Smith et al . (1988) . We introduce a pre-market phase in which subjects experience a dividend flow themselves by literally observing and receiving dividends for 12 periods. The robust bubble–crash phenomenon never occurs in our experiment. Our results provide strong evidence that so long as a majority of the subjects have full understanding of the structure of the dividend, market efficiency can be ensured.     

THE FOOTBALL PLAYERS' LABOR MARKET: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM THE MAJOR EUROPEAN LEAGUES

The growing economic importance of professional football and the recent fundamental changes in the regulatory regime governing the football players' labor market together with the availability of detailed information on player salaries, transfer fees and contract lengths have convinced an increasing number of economists from all over Europe to devote their attention to the operation of that particular market. The following paper reviews the available evidence on the various dimensions of that market (remuneration, transfers, contracts and mobility) and points out some promising directions for further research.     

劳动力市场收入冲击对消费行为的影响

失业会造成不利的收入冲击,外部收入冲击会影响消费者的消费行为。失业对食品和教育支出的影响不同,平均而言,消费者对食品支出具有更强的修匀能力,教育水平对教育支出具有正向修匀作用。失业者实现再就业之后,食品支出比例显著下降,教育支出相对上升,失业持续时间对再就业者教育支出依然具有负向影响。女性失业会降低家庭的食品和教育支出比例,女性再就业后会提高家庭的教育支出。     

CREDIT CONSTRAINTS IN THE MARKET FOR CONSUMER DURABLES: EVIDENCE FROM MICRO DATA ON CAR LOANS*

We investigate the significance of borrowing constraints in the market for consumer loans. Using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey on auto loan contracts we estimate the elasticities of loan demand with respect to interest rate and maturity. We find that, with the exception of high income households, consumers are very responsive to maturity and less responsive to interest rate changes. Both elasticities vary with household income, with the maturity elasticity decreasing and the interest rate elasticity increasing with income. We argue that these results are consistent with the presence of binding credit constraints in the auto loan market.