Horizontal mismatch and vocational education

ABSTRACT

Recent literature suggests that vocational education and training (VET) provides individuals with smoother transitions into the labour market but lower wages over the lifecycle, compared to general education. A possible mechanism explaining lower wages is horizontal mismatch, defined as a mismatch between the type of qualifications acquired by individuals and those required for their current job. Some studies have found higher mismatch wage penalties when individuals’ education is more specific, suggesting higher penalties for workers with VET. Therefore, we analyse horizontal mismatch in Switzerland, the country with the highest proportion of firm-based VET in the OECD. We use two measures from the Swiss Household Panel that cover different aspects of horizontal mismatch. While we find sizable mismatch wage penalties in OLS estimations, effects are small or insignificant in fixed-effects regressions. This holds for workers with vocational and general education background alike. We conclude that VET is more transferable than often assumed. We finish with recommendations on concept and methods for future analyses of horizontal mismatch.     

The impact of job security on job satisfaction in economic contractions versus expansions

Job security, often measured using the perceived risk of job loss in the near future, is a significant determinant of job satisfaction. We posit that the impact job security has on job satisfaction is not only a function of how likely it is that a worker loses a job but also how likely it is that a worker could find another. The effect this has on worker job satisfaction then is different depending on whether perceived job loss occurs (or not) when job openings are scarce or when job openings are plentiful. We use difference-in-differences analysis of the 1997 and 2008 waves from the National Study of the Changing Workforce to show that three measures of job security increase private sector worker job satisfaction, and reduce worker incentives to quit, more when job openings are relatively scarce (during contractions) than when job openings are relatively plentiful (during expansions). We find that our results are strongest among less-educated workers.     

The effects of merit pay on teacher job satisfaction

The purpose of this study is to determine if the existence of a district-level merit pay system has any effects on teacher job satisfaction. Using a large sample of public school teachers from the year 2007, the results of this study suggest that teachers who work in districts that use a merit pay system are no less satisfied with their jobs than are other teachers; these results are consistent for both an ordered probit model and a two-stage analysis. Although the effect of merit pay on overall job satisfaction was insignificant, teachers in merit pay districts were less enthusiastic, did not think teaching was important, and were more likely to leave for better pay. However, in examining a sample of teachers who worked only in merit pay districts, it was found that teachers who received merit pay were more satisfied overall with their jobs than were teachers who did not receive merit pay.     

Assessing the impact of different workplace flexibilities on workplace stress in the presence of varying degrees of job control

We apply probit and propensity score matching to 1667 respondents from the 2008 National Survey of the Changing Workforce to quantify how workers’ self-reported stress levels vary under two different workplace flexibilities and varying degrees of job control. The first workplace flexibility considered is the ability to easily take time off for personal and family matters; the second is the option of a compressed work week. Our findings suggest that the first flexibility correlates with lower stress reports regardless of job control level. The second flexibility, however, correlates with lower stress levels only for workers with low levels of job control. This suggests that a compressed work week does not reduce stress for workers that already have high levels of job control. The more general conclusion is that some flexibilities are substitutes for job control whereas other are not, assuming the larger goal is the reduction of workplace stress and the various maladies exacerbated by stress.     

Duration of disability,job mismatch and employment outcomes

Workers with disabilities have functional limitations that affect their productivity in some, but not necessarily all, jobs. Workers who find a job that is a good match for their functional limitations (i.e. a job where their limitations have little or no impact on important job functions) should expect better employment outcomes (e.g. higher wages, longer job tenure) than workers with similar disabilities who are mismatched in their jobs. Merging data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation with O*Net data on job demands, we construct two continuous measures of job mismatch for workers with physical disabilities. We then extend the literature on disability and employment by exploring relationships between duration of disability, job mismatch, wages and hours worked. The results indicate that workers with long durations of disability are employed in jobs that are a better match to their physical limitations than are similar workers with shorter durations of disability. And, workers who are mismatched earn lower wages and work fewer hours than their counterparts whose jobs are a better match. Overall, the findings suggest that disability employment policies should include systematic efforts to help workers with disabilities find good job matches.     

Classical political economy: the subsistence wage,and job guarantee concerns

Abstract:

In the theoretical framework of classical political economy, including the revisions of Marx and the more recent work of Piero Sraffa and others, the concept of the subsistence wage figures prominently. Here, following a recounting of this concept and demonstrating its significance not only for classical theory but also for larger social concerns, I argue that the “base wage” (as it is sometimes termed) as articulated within a “Job Guarantee” program, is (or should be) comparable to the subsistence wage but requires modification to make it (roughly) equivalent. It will be demonstrated that adherents of the classical approach did not rest their wage theory on a quasi-neoclassical supply–demand approach (with some primitive marginal productivity notion lying behind a supposed demand for labor schedule), but understood wages as socially determined where institutional and historic forces established a normative standard around which market wages gravitated. Such an approach was shared by, among others, Thorstein Veblen and John Maynard Keynes.     

Social comparisons of wage increases and job satisfaction

We combine status quo and social comparison considerations and investigate whether relative wage increases in the sense of differences between individual wage increases and wage increases of comparable employees are related to managers’ job satisfaction. Using a panel data set of managers in the German chemical industry, we indeed find first evidence. The relation between relative wage increases and job satisfaction is relevant for managers with lower absolute wage levels in particular.     

Youth labour market integration in Spain: Search time, job duration and skill mismatch

In recent years young workers in Spain have had great difficulties in finding and maintaining a job. Furthermore, the early histories of new entrants into the Spanish labour market has typically involved young workers accepting jobs for which the required level of education is lower that the attained level. Using the ad hoc module of the Labour Force Survey (2nd quarter, 2000), in this paper I analyse the transition from school to work for a sample of Spanish youths who left education for the first time after 1990. I allow the search period after completing education, the duration of the first significant job, and the probability of being over-educated in that job to be correlated in a system of simultaneous equations which is estimated by maximum likelihood. The results suggest that over-educated workers experience shorter durations in their first significant job. I do not find a direct effect of search time on employment duration. However, there are unobserved factors that increase the first unemployed job search period after completing education, and that also increase the subsequent employment duration.JEL Classification: C34, J64The data set has been provided by professor Alfonso Alba-Ramírez. I am also grateful to Juan José Dolado, Marcel Jansen, Ricardo Mora, José Ignacio Garía, Juan Francisco Jimeno and two anonymous referees for useful comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.     

Return to work after cancer and pre-cancer job dissatisfaction

We investigate the association between pre-cancer job dissatisfaction and return-to-work probability 3 years after a cancer diagnosis. We use a Danish data set combining administrative data and a survey to breast and colon cancer survivors. We find that the return-to-work probability has a negative correlation with pre-cancer job dissatisfaction with mental demands (where the correlation is driven by the high-educated) and with physical demands and the superior (where the correlation is driven by the low-educated). Educational gradients in the probability of returning to work after cancer are not significantly affected by controlling for pre-cancer job dissatisfaction and pre-cancer ability to work.     

Temporary employment,work quality,and job satisfaction

Using European Working Conditions Survey, this paper shows that being employed on a temporary, rather than an open-ended, contract has a negative bearing for job satisfaction. While this effect has been established previously, the novelty of this paper is to show that the effect propagates both directly and indirectly, through working conditions and work quality. Accounting for this indirect effect allows to obtain the effect of the contractual status on job satisfaction that is substantially larger in magnitude as compared to simple direct effects, confirming the importance of accounting for unobservable individual, company-specific, and job-specific heterogeneity when addressing this relationship. Moreover, the extent of co-determination of poorer working conditions and temporary contractual status, as well as the resulting bias in estimating only a direct effect of temporary employment on job satisfaction without accounting for such co-determination, vary depending on a country setting. It is shown that in transition economies, this co-determination is larger than in non-transition economies, possibly because of the workers’ weaker bargaining power, strategic use of temporary employment to circumvent labor regulations, the absence of regulations prescribing equal treatment of workers with different contractual arrangements, or lack of compliance with such regulations.     

Overeducation,job mobility and earnings mobility among holders of first degrees

Overeducation has been researched extensively for nearly three decades, but some major issues in regard to it are still topics of ongoing debate. By using a panel data, that combines a survey of two cohorts of Israeli first-degree holders and data from administrative sources on jobs and wages, we examine the contribution of job turnover, cognitive abilities and continuing graduate studies to the likelihood of overeducation and wage dynamics. The study produces four main findings. First, rapid job-switching makes a negative contribution to the increase in employee’s wage and there is a negative correlation between two variables – an employee’s tenure and the number of past employers in the years after the completion of degree studies – and the probability of being overeducated. Second, the contribution of the individual’s cognitive abilities and quantitative reasoning skills to the likelihood of becoming overeducated is negative. Third, the wages of overeducated employees are some 11% lower and rise more slowly than the wages of those whose level of schooling corresponds to their jobs; this outcome may be interpreted as indicating that the ‘scars’ of being overeducated tend to be long-lasting. Fourth, the overeducated workers have lower propensity to continue to advanced academic studies.     

Returns to cognitive and non-cognitive skills: evidence for Mexico

This study examines how cognitive and non-cognitive skills are valued in the labour market in Mexico. It uses a novel dataset which includes a wide array of cognitive and non-cognitive skill measures. Non-cognitive skills are rewarded in the market even after controlling for family background and educational attainment. Returns to non-cognitive skills are similar between men and women. However, controlling for educational attainment and family background, only men are rewarded for their cognitive skills.     

The impact of job mobility on earnings: using occupational and industrial classifications to identify job changes

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median number of years that a US worker has been with their current employer is 4.4 years. Although many job changes may not be classified as ‘career changes,’ any type of job change may have an impact on a person’s future earnings. In the present study, the following three types of job changes are examined in order to determine which ones result in higher incomes: a change in occupational status; a change in industry; or a change in both. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), a log-linear wage regression with a correction for self-selection is estimated. Results suggest that changing jobs within the same industry or within the same occupation both increase a person’s income. However, a job change that is characterized by both a change in industry and occupation reduces a person’s income. The present study is one of the few studies to examine the effects of job mobility on earnings when mobility is defined in the context of changes in occupational and/or industrial classification.     

多层次模糊模型在企业顾客满意度测评中的应用研究

运用模糊集合的原理,对顾客满意度、顾客满意度均值和顾客满意度指数赋予了新的定义,在此基础上提出了企业顾客满意度的多层次模糊测评模型,以提高测评的准确性。     

Labour Mobility and Returns to Experience in Foreign Firms*

This paper uses Finnish linked employer–employee panel data to study whether employees are able to appropriate returns to knowledge accumulated in foreign‐owned firms when moving to domestic firms. The estimates indicate that highly educated employees earn a return to prior experience in a foreign‐owned firm, which is over and above the return to other previous experience. These employees do not appear to pay for the knowledge they accumulate in the form of lower starting wages in foreign‐owned firms.     

工作满意度和组织承诺对管理人员离职倾向的影响

本文基于管理人员工作满意度、组织承诺及离职倾向问卷调查,实证研究发现,对管理人员离职倾向有影响的主要是情感承诺、与上司关系、组织制度及工作内容等因素,且都与离职倾向呈负相关。另外,单位的性质对管理人员的情感承诺、与上司关系及离职倾向的影响,所在单位工作年数对管理人员离职倾向的影响,婚姻状况对情感承诺的影响,也得到了实证数据的支持。     

Assessing the role of components of life satisfaction

Factors affecting subjective well-being and their gross effect measurement have been widely studied. However, how people derive utility from these factors has not been fully explored. This article provides a way to decompose the gross effect of major determinants on life satisfaction into direct and indirect effects and make inference for the latter. Because the indirect effect is nonlinear in parameters associated with different models in an equation system, it creates a problem in estimating the standard error. Besides, the categorical nature in survey data further introduces bias to the covariance estimation even asymptotically. To address these issues without knowing the form of heteroskedasticity under the null hypothesis, we propose to extend the wild bootstrap procedure in this particular context. Its robustness against various data properties is validated via several simulation experiments. Using three recent waves of World Values Survey, we find that the relative importance of life control has significantly increased recently, and endowing citizens with the right to enjoy their freedoms and liberties is a more effective policy in raising life satisfaction than promoting national income.     

收入满足度差距的国别比较及其启示

一般认为,基尼系数达到0.4以上,社会将会出现危机.本文根据目前运用比较广泛的GSS、GSOEP、WVS、RUSSET等数据库,计算了美国、俄国、德国及其它29国的基尼系数、收入满足度均值及收入满足度差距,进行了历史纵向比较和同期横向比较,并对这三个数据进行了两两之间的相关性分析.笔者认为基尼系数、收入满足度差距、收入满足度均值三者结合,能很好地描述一个社会的福利水平和福利分配状况.     

Reservation wages of first- and second-generation migrants

We analyse the reservation wages of first- and second-generation migrants, based on rich survey data of the unemployed in Germany. Our results confirm the hypothesis that reservation wages increase over migrant generations and over time, suggesting that the mobility benefit of immigration may be limited in time.