1,721,091 research outputs found
Book review: unexplored dimensions of discrimination edited by Tito Boeri, Eleonora Patacchini and Giovanni Peri
Full text linkWhat mechanisms serve to maintain the gender pay gap and what other forms of discrimination persist in the labour market? In Unexplored Dimensions of Discrimination, editors Tito Boeri, Eleonora Patacchini and Giovanni Peri provide a comprehensive, empirically-driven interrogation of various facets of discrimination through data obtained from the USA, Spain and Italy. Ria Ivandic welcomes the book for opening up a highly important academic dialogue on previously unexamined aspects of labour market discrimination
Measuring Ethnic Identity and Its Impact on Economic Behavior
Full text linkThe paper advocates for a new measure of the ethnic identity of migrants, models its determinants and explores its explanatory power for various types of their economic performance. The ethnosizer, a measure of the intensity of a person's ethnic identity, is constructed from information on the following elements: language, culture, societal interaction, history of migration, and ethnic self-identification. A two-dimensional concept of the ethnosizer classifies migrants into four states: integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization. The ethnosizer largely depends on pre-migration characteristics. Empirical evidence studying economic behavior like work participation, earnings and housing decisions demonstrates the significant relevance of ethnic identity for economic outcomes.Ethnicity, ethnic identity, acculturation, migrant assimilation, migrant integration,work, cultural economics
Unexplored Dimensions of Discrimination in Europe: Homosexuality and Physical Appearance
No full textWe study labor-market discrimination of individuals with specific characteristics in Italy. We conduct a field experiment in two Italian cities: Rome and Milan, by sending fake CVs to real ads. We find that there is a strong penalty for homosexuals, i.e. about 30% less chance to be called back compared to an heterosexual male and even more so if they are highly skilled. On the other hand, we find no penalty for homosexual females. We also find a beauty premium for females only but this premium is much lower when the "pretty" woman is skilled
Moving to Segregation: Evidence from 8 Italian cities
No full textWe use a new dataset and a novel identification strategy to analyze the effects on labor market outcomes of residential segregation of migrants in 8 Italian cities. Our data are representative of the population of both legal and illegal migrants, allow us to measure segregation at the very local level (the block) and include measures of housing prices, commuting costs and migrants’ linguistic ability. We find evidence that migrants who reside in areas with a high concentration of non-Italians are less likely to be employed compared to similar migrants who reside in less segregated areas. In our preferred specification, a 10 percentage points increase in residential segregation reduces the probability of being employed by 7 percentage points or about 8% over the average. Additionally, we also show that this effect emerges only above a critical threshold of 15-20% of migrants over the total local population, below which there is no statistically detectable effect. Contrary to common wisdom, in our data migrants seem to be positively selected into segregated areas. A matching model with heterogeneous workers and endogenous sorting into heterogeneous locations rationalizes our findings and is supported by additional empirical results
One Nation Under a Groove? Identity and Multiculturalism in Britain
Full text linkThere is a lot of evidence that identity matters for behavior. There is a widespread belief that societies will function better if they manage to establish a common sense of identity among the population. And there are also contemporary fears that this common identity is threatened in several countries. In this paper we investigate the correlates of various measures of identity in the UK, a country currently greatly concerned about a perceived failure to build a common identity from a collection of diverse cultures. We find that the alleged failure to establish a British identity among ethnic minorities is exaggerated - for most their ethnicity and religion seem no barrier to a British identity. But there is a segment of the white population that clearly feels neglected and alienated, and are hostile to the multicultural agenda.Identity, Multiculturalism
Measuring Ethnic Identity and Its Impact on Economic Behavior
Full text linkThe paper advocates for a new measure of the ethnic identity of migrants, models its determinants and explores its explanatory power for various types of their economic performance. The ethnosizer, a measure of the intensity of a person's ethnic identity, is constructed from information on the following elements: language, culture, societal interaction, history of migration, and ethnic self-identification. A two-dimensional concept of the ethnosizer classifies migrants into four states: integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization. The ethnosizer largely depends on pre-migration characteristics. Empirical evidence studying economic behavior like work participation, earnings and housing decisions demonstrates the significant relevance of ethnic identity for economic outcomes.Ethnicity, ethnic identity, acculturation, migrant assimilation, migrant integration, work, cultural economics
Urban Density, Human Capital, and Productivity: An empirical analysis using wage data
Full text linkNumerous studies have indicated that densely populated cities enhance the productivity of workers through knowledge spillover and superior matching with employers in the labor market. This paper quantitatively analyzes the relationship among urban density, human capital, and wages by using micro data from the Basic Survey on Wage Structure for the years from 1990 to 2009. According to the estimation of standard wage functions augmented with population density, the agglomeration premium is larger for workers with higher observable skills such as education, tenure, and potential experience, which suggests rapid learning and superior matching in densely populated cities. Under structural changes such as a declining population and the trend toward a knowledge-based service economy, forming densely populated areas by facilitating the migration of workers has desirable effects throughout Japan on both individual wages and firm productivity.
Women’s Labour Market Performance in Europe: Trends and Shaping Factors
No full textThe objective of this paper is two-fold. First, it aims to assess recent trends in women’s employment and labour market participation with a focus on the changes in the ‘type’ of occupation (temporary vs. regular and part-time vs. full-time) women are involved in. Secondly, it examines the role played by the interplay of macro-institutional factors and policies and individual characteristics in explaining the observed trends and cross-country differences by means of a multi-level approach. In particular, it questions the role that the reforms towards a model of a ‘flexicure’ labour market have played in explaining recent trends in women’s participation
Extending working life in Finland. CEPS Working Document No. 387, 22 November 2013
Full text linkThis report reviews national and private initiatives to allow the elderly to continue their participation in the Finnish labour market and provides an analysis of the labour market and living conditions of seniors. We are interested in how those over 50 can be engaged in various forms of employment and lifelong learning. We find strong evidence that Finland generally provides good institutional conditions for active ageing. The quick and early ageing process was tackled by the fundamental pension reform that already prolonged retirement substantially and will probably facilitate later retirement as the attitudes concerning retirement change. On the other hand, Finland still seems to lag behind the other Nordic welfare states, has considerable problems in providing the same health conditions to low educated people in physically demanding occupations and could - – with respect to family pension in particular – invest further efforts in reforming the pension system. While many of the reforms Finland has conducted seem to be favourable and transferable to other European countries that still face the steepest phases of ageing in their societies, a reluctance towards changing attitudes that we observe in Finland, shows that organizing active ageing is a long-term project
Women Labor Market Participation in Europe: Novel Evidence on Trends and Shaping Factors
Full text linkWe investigate the changes in women's participation patterns across 15 EU countries over the last 20 years using individual data from ECHP and EUSILC databases. Our findings reveal a role of social policies and institutional factors that is stronger than what has so far been assessed. Labor market reforms explain almost 25% of the actual increase in labor force participation for young women, and more than 30% for highly educated women. The effects of labor market reforms on the participation of low skilled women in the labor force are instead surprisingly small. We also find that reforms of the institutional framework towards a model of flexicure labor market are effective in enhancing women labor supply only when deregulation is accompanied by sufficient social compensation
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