Caste discrimination in the Indian urban labour market

This, the pioneering quantitative analysis of caste in the Indian urban labour market, examines the age-old problem of caste in the light of discrimination theory and government policy. Using a survey of workers in Delhi, the gross wage difference between ‘scheduled’ (untouchable) and ‘non-scheduled’ caste is decomposed into its ‘explained’ and ‘discrimination’ components and, from a model of occupation choice, into wage- and job-discrimination. Discrimination is found to exist, and to operate at least in part through the traditional mechanism, viz. assignment to jobs, with the scheduled castes entering poorly-paid ‘dead-end’ jobs. It is assisted by methods of recruitment based on contacts, prevalent in the manual occupation, which also cause past discrimination to carry over to the present. Its practice serves the economic interests of those who exercise a taste for discrimination.     

An econometric analysis of the world zinc market

A fairly detailed market form of econometric model is built, based on the technological, behavioral and institutional features of the world zinc industry. An estimated version of the model indicates different systems of lag responses in the structures of demand and supply to the price of zinc, a very poor substitutability on the demand side, free market price as a long-run equilibrator for the U.S. producers' price, and an important influence of the U.S. interventions on the world market. The model meets reasonably well the predictability criterion based on the technique of dynamic simulation. The performance properties of the world zinc industry, analysed through dynamic multiplier simulation technique, show that the industry exhibits a reasonably, stable market environment to the exogenous disturbances such as an increase in the activity levels of consumers and variations in the prices of substitutes. It is, however, quite sensitive to technological changes in the consumer industries. The stockpile policy of the U.S. Government does not seem to be properly geared to its objectives and, in general, it seems to have restricted the development of the industry as a whole.     

Weight discrimination in the German labour market

We explore the effects of higher body mass index (BMI) or obesity on different labour market outcomes. We extend the present literature by investigating the effect of obesity on (i) promotion likelihood and (ii) unemployment duration, in addition to the effect on (iii) wages and (iv) probability of being employed. We find an obesity penalty on wages, employment likelihood, promotion likelihood and unemployment duration among females in Germany taking into account of endogeneity of BMI and sample selection. We are also able to identify an unexplained effect of obesity on wages, employment and promotion likelihood for females using decomposition techniques that can be attributed to weight discrimination.     

Caste discrimination and transaction costs in the labor market: Evidence from rural North India

This paper is an empirical attempt to quantify caste-based discrimination in the labor market using household data taken from rural North India. In the regression analysis, transaction costs associated with entry into the labor market and reservation wages are estimated simultaneously along with market wages. The estimation results provide evidence of the existence of transaction costs in the labor market and discrimination against backward classes with regard to access to regular employment. In line with previous studies, the results suggest that the achievements of India's reservation policy so far have at best been limited. In addition, a comparison between the estimates from the model employed in this paper and conventional (reduced-form) approaches shows that discrimination in labor market entry is likely to be underestimated in the conventional reduced-form approaches.     

Output cost of gender discrimination in the Korean labour market

This study constructs and calibrates a macroeconomic model that explains Korea's glass ceiling and examines the output cost of gender discrimination. The model is based on the span‐of‐control framework in Lucas (1978). It is assumed that the source of the glass ceiling is women requiring more managerial skill than men to be considered for promotion. According to simulation results, without the glass ceiling, besides an increase in the share of female managers, aggregate output also increases by 8.4%. The output gain from a glass ceiling removal policy is monotonic because the number of workers continues to decline while the number of managers increases gradually. This implies that the more effective the policy implementation, the greater the increase in output.     

Identification, screening and stereotyping in labour market discrimination

According to social-psychological research, feelings of uncertainty in decision-making evoke two opposite responses: (i) reduction of uncertainty by information search, leading to less stereotyping of people, and hence less discrimination; (ii) social identification with an ingroup, inducing more reliance on stereotypic perceptions and prejudices, and hence more discrimination against an outgroup. We integrate both responses in a microeconomic model of hiring and pay decisions by an employer. Increasing competition in the product market makes the employer feel more uncertain about his profits, but also raises the opportunity cost of screening expenditures. This elicits substitution of ingroup identification for screening expenditures, and hence enhances discrimination.     

Segmentation or competition in China's urban labour market?

In China, urban residents have traditionally been protectedagainst labour market competition from rural–urban migrants.Over the period of urban economic reform, rural–urbanmigration was allowed to increase in order to fill the employmentgap as growth of labour demand outstripped that of the residentlabour force in urban areas. However, as reforms gained paceand controls were lifted, it is plausible that competition forwork between migrants and urban residents would have increased.The paper examines whether the relationship is one of segmentationor competition in the labour market. It uses attitudinal responsesfrom two urban surveys. The urban workers who perceive competitionfrom migrants are those who are most vulnerable. The findingsare consistent with the presence of continued labour marketsegmentation, but suggest also that competition between thetwo groups is increasing.     

Technology transfer to the USSR: An econometric analysis

A production-function study is undertaken that attempts to estimate the marginal productivity of machinery imported from the West for Soviet industry, and for the subsectors of chemicals, petroleum, and machinery during the period 1960–1975. The basic conclusion is that the marginal productivity of imported Western capital is not significantly different from that of capital of non-Western Western origin. It seems quite difficult to detect any influence of Western technology on the Soviet economy from the aggregate time-series data available to us.     

An econometric analysis of the effects of market liberalization on price dynamics and price volatility

The paper investigates price dynamics under market liberalization, with a focus on the effects of lowering price floors. We analyze price dynamics by specifying and estimating a dynamic Tobit model under time-varying volatility, where the market price is censored by a government-set support price. The model is applied to the U.S. butter market over the last three decades. The econometric results show how the price support program affects both expected prices and the volatility of prices. It is found that the censoring effects of a price support program can be significant and large even if the price support is set relatively low.

Investment growth fluctuations in the Soviet Union: An econometric analysis

This paper investigates the determinants of overall investment growth in the Soviet Union by means of an econometric analysis using data for 1959–1982. Theory suggests that investment growth responds to structural pressures toward high growth and to the intensities of shortage in the economy. Econometric results are encouraging since the fitted variable follows, with the exception of 1966, all peaks and troughs of investment growth.     

Labour market characteristics and profitability: An econometric analysis of Hugarian exporting firms, 1986-951

This paper follows through an aspect of microeconomic restructuring in Hungary during the transition period. This restructuring brought about substantial changes in the behaviour of all economic agents. Our study combines labour market and corporate financial information to explore the effect of the quality of labour employed on the profitability of the firm. The quality of labour is measured as that portion of wage differentials that cannot be explained by a standard human capital model. The profitability of Hungarian exporting firms can be explained by economic factors during transition. In addition the quality of labour, export share, wage and bank costs, payables, receivables, foreign ownership, inventories, amortization and equity are all significant explanatory variables.     

Oil dependency of the Russian economy: An econometric analysis

A macro econometric model of the Russian economy is tailored to analyze the effects of changes in the oil price and alternative fiscal policies. Model simulations indicate that the Russian economy is vulnerable to large fluctuations in the oil price, but we also find evidence of significant economic growth capabilities in the absence of oil price growth. A higher oil price not only leads to higher economic growth and savings in the sovereign wealth fund, but also induces a rupture in the Russian economy. Public spending and household spending increase while the traditional export industries suffer from real appreciation, in line with the Dutch disease hypothesis. We also show that alternative policies for spending of the petroleum income may have considerable consequences for economic growth, the degree of crowding out of traditional export industries and wealth accumulation in the fund.     

Temporary employment and segmentation in the Spanish labour market: An empirical analysis through the study of wage differentials

We aim to add empirical evidence to the already studied field of wage differentials between temporary and permanent workers in Spain. Our goal is to find out which determinants of wage differentials are relevant when explaining such differences. Furthermore, the endogeneity of such feature (the type of contract) is controlled for. The same exercise is done with two data sets: the ECHP and the Structure of Earnings Survey. Results show that wage differentials between temporary and permanent workers are explained by the differences in the distribution of personal and job characteristics in both groups, but not by differences in the rewards for those characteristics. These results remain mostly unchanged during the second part of the 1990s, using information from five waves of the ECHP, and are robust to different changes in the econometric specification.JEL Classification: J31, J41The authors would like to thank the participants in the 3rd Summer School of Labour Economics (organised by IZA in Amersee, Munich), in a seminar in the University of Alcalá and in another seminar in the European University Institute in Florence and especially Alison Booth, Luis Toharia, Juan F. Jimeno, Juan José Dolado and two anonymous referees for their helpful comments and suggestions. Florentino Felgueroso kindly helped us with the handling of data. The usual disclaimer applies. The ECHP is being used on behalf of the contract reference ECHP/15/00 between the University of Alcalá and EUROSTAT.     

An iteration process for calculating labour market flows

This article presents a technique for calculating labour market flows, given labour market stocks of workers and nonemployed agents at the beginning and at the end of a certain period of time. I build a system of equations that define the stocks as a product of the flows. For a vector of stocks Y and a vector of flows X, the system of equations is defined as Y = A*X. However, the system is not solvable (the flows cannot be identified) due to singularity of the matrix A. I suggest an iteration process that enables us to solve the system and identify the flows given a chosen negligible deviation from the true flows.     

Disequilibrium models with rational expectations: An application to the UK labour market

This paper develops and estimates an explicit switching model for the U.K. labour market which includes expectations terms in the labour demand function. These expectations terms are dealt with by using the rational expectations hypothesis.     

An econometric analysis of global warming hiatus

There is an avid debate concerning the presence of a hiatus in global warming. Recognizing that this phenomenon has considerable economic implications, this study aims to make a threefold contribution to the climate econometrics literature. Firstly, it formulates a testable hypothesis; secondly, it proposes a systematic empirical procedure; thirdly, it performs the Bai–Perron test to detect the starting point of the global warming hiatus. The findings supported the existence of the global warming hiatus.     

An econometric analysis of skewed productivity outcomes

An econometric model is developed to help explain uncertain yields from processes that generate inherently skewed outcomes. The yield is modeled as the interaction of potential and effort functions, where potential represents maximum yield that would be observed if the effort was infinite. The potential function is determined by some endogenous factors, and the effort function is determined by an exogenous input and allows for increasing and decreasing marginal returns to effort. A non-linear model incorporating these features is theoretically derived and empirically tested using data on outcomes from sales-tax audits. The results document the superiority of this model in capturing the underlying relationships, and provide a better out-of-sample fit to the data compared to two OLS models. The proposed model can be applied in various business and non-business settings.     

Canadian regional labour market evolutions: a long-run restrictions SVAR analysis

Canada's high reliance on commodities can work against its constitutionally mandated goal of regional equity in economic development, while also inhibiting macroeconomic performance and limiting monetary policy effectiveness. Yet, flexible and integrated regional labour markets can help achieve both equity and macroeconomic goals. Therefore, this study examines the dynamics of Canadian provincial labour markets using a long-run restrictions structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model. Labour market fluctuations are decomposed into the parts arising from shocks to labour demand (new jobs), labour supply through migration (new people) and internal labour supply (original residents). The results suggest that demand innovations primarily underlie provincial labour market fluctuations. Despite significant geographic and language barriers that could impede their performance, there also is little overall evidence to suggest that provincial labour markets are more sluggish or less flexible than US state labour markets. Finally, original residents benefit slightly more from increased provincial labour demand compared to findings for US states.     

Ethnic discrimination in hiring,labour market tightness and the business cycle - evidence from field experiments

Several studies using observational data suggest that ethnic discrimination increases in downturns of the economy. We investigate whether ethnic discrimination depends on labour market tightness using data from correspondence studies. We utilize three correspondence studies of the Swedish labour market and two different measures of labour market tightness. These two measures produce qualitatively similar results, and, opposite to the observational studies, suggest that ethnic discrimination in hiring decreases in downturns of the economy.     

Intra-industry spillovers and innovation: An econometric analysis at the firm level

This paper studies spillover effects of innovation at the firm level and the comparability of generalized method of moments (GMM) estimators with maximum likelihood estimators of the earlier studies. Two sources of spillovers are identified, i.e. intra-industry R&D expenditure and intra-industry innovation output. This paper estimates a negative R&D spillover effect and a positive output spillover effect. Because of the substitution effect of intra-industry R&D spillovers, the elasticity of patent with respect to firm's own R&D expenditure is greater than those estimated in the earlier studies. With GMM, individual effects are incorporated into the models either by developing proxies for them or attempting to eliminate them.