Papers Containing Keywords(s): 'labor'
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Viewing papers 201 through 210 of 255
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Working PaperProduction Function and Wage Equation Estimation with Heterogenous Labor: Evidence from a New Matched Employer-Employee Dataset
April 2004
Working Paper Number:
CES-04-05
In this paper, we first describe the 1990 DEED, the most recently constructed matched employeremployee data set for the United States that contains detailed demographic information on workers (most notably, information on education). We then use the data from manufacturing establishments in the 1990 DEED to update and expand on previous findings, using a more limited data set, regarding the measurement of the labor input and theories of wage determination (Hellerstein, et al., 1999). We find that the productivity of women is less than that of men, but not by enough to fully explain the gap in wages, a result that is consistent with wage discrimination against women. In contrast, we find no evidence of wage discrimination against blacks. We estimate that both the wage and productivity profiles are rising but concave to the origin (consistent with profiles quadratic in age), but the estimated relative wage profile is steeper than the relative productivity profile, consistent with models of deferred wages. We find a productivity premium for marriage equal to that of the wage premium, and a productivity premium for education that somewhat exceeds the wage premium. Exploring the sensitivity of these results, we also find that different specifications of production functions do not have any qualitative effects on the these results. Finally, the results indicate that the returns to productive inputs (capital, materials, labor quality) as well as the residual variance are virtually unaffected by the choice of the construction of the labor quality input.View Full Paper PDF
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Working PaperWorker Advancement in the Low-Wage Labor Market: The Importance of Good Jobs
July 2003
Working Paper Number:
tp-2003-08
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Working PaperHow Workers Fare When Employers Innovate
May 2003
Working Paper Number:
CES-03-11
Complementing existing work on firm organizational structure and productivity, this paper examines the impact of organizational change on workers. We find evidence that employers do appear to compensate at least some of their workers for engaging in high performance workplace practices. We also find a significant association between high performance workplace practices and increased wage inequality. Finally, we examine the relationship between organizational structure and employment changes and find that some practices, such as self-managed teams, are associated with greater employment reductions, while other practices, such as the percentage of workers involved in job rotation, are associated with lower employment reductions.View Full Paper PDF
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Working PaperFirms and Layoffs: The Impact of Unionization on Involuntary Job Loss
March 2003
Working Paper Number:
CES-03-09
This paper focuses on the impact of unionization on involuntary job loss using establishment data from the 1997 National Employer Survey (NES-II) and merging those data with contextual data at the industry level as well as with local labor market data. The estimated logit models included information on unionization rates and employment security provisions present in collective bargaining agreements as factors influencing layoff rates for individual establishments, controlling for establishment size, firm structure, use of non-regular employees, product/service demand and local employment. Results show that the impact of unionization is not significant except for (1) establishments that operate in the non-manufacturing sector; and (2) establishments operating in industries that have major collective bargaining agreements which contain moderate employment security provisions. Under those conditions, unionization decreases layoff rates; otherwise, unionization has no effect on layoff rates. These results provide some evidence that unions may have placed increased emphasis on employment security in order to protect members against involuntary job loss. This is in contrast to earlier studies which found a positive relationship between unionization and layoffs. In addition, establishments in Right-to-Work states have higher rates of involuntary job loss.View Full Paper PDF
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Working PaperThe Impact of Minimum Wages on Job Training: An Empirical Exploration with Establishment Data
February 2003
Working Paper Number:
CES-03-04
Human capital theory suggests that workers may finance on-the-job training by accepting lower wages during the training period. Minimum wage laws could reduce job training, then, to the extent they prevent low-wage workers from offering sufficient wage cuts to finance training. Empirical findings on the relationship between minimum wages and job training have failed to reach a consensus. Previous research has relied primarily on survey data from individual workers, which typically lack both detailed measures of job training and important information about the characteristics of firms. This study addresses the issue of minimum wages and on-the-job training with a unique employer survey. We find no evidence indicating that minimum wages reduce the average hours of training of trained employees, and little to suggest that minimum wages reduce the percentage of workers receiving training.View Full Paper PDF
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Working PaperDisplaced workers, early leavers, and re-employment wages
November 2002
Working Paper Number:
tp-2002-18
In this paper, we lay out a search model that takes explicitly into account the information flow prior to a mass layoff. Using universal wage data files that allow us to identify individuals working with healthy and displacing firms both at the time of displacement as well as any other time period, we test the predictions of the model on re-employment wage differentials. Workers leaving a "distressed" firm have higher re-employment wages than workers who stay with the distressed firm until displacement. This result is robust to the inclusion of controls for worker quality and unobservable firm characteristics.View Full Paper PDF
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Working PaperThe 1990 Decennial Employer-Employee Dataset
October 2002
Working Paper Number:
CES-02-23
We describe the construction and assessment of a new matched employer-employee data set, the 1990 Decennial Employer-Employee Dataset (1990 DEED). By using place of work name and address, we link workers from the 1990 Long Form Sample to their place of work in the 1990 Standard Statistical Establishment List. The resulting data set is much larger and more representative across regional and industry dimensions than previous matched data sets for the United States. The known strengths and limitations of the data set are discussed in detail.View Full Paper PDF
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Working PaperSurvival of the Best Fit: Competition from Low Wage Countries and the (Uneven) Growth of U.S. Manufacturing Plants
October 2002
Working Paper Number:
CES-02-22
We examine the relationship between import competition from low wage countries and the reallocation of US manufacturing from 1977 to 1997. Both employment and output growth are slower for plants that face higher levels of low wage import competition in their industry. As a result, US manufacturing is reallocated over time towards industries that are more capital and skill intensive. Differential growth is driven by a combination of increased plant failure rates and slower growth of surviving plants. Within industries, low wage import competition has the strongest effects on the least capital and skill intensive plants. Surviving plants that switch industries move into more capital and skill intensive sectors when they face low wage competition.View Full Paper PDF
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Working PaperAgent Heterogeneity and Learning: An Application to Labor Markets
October 2002
Working Paper Number:
tp-2002-20
I develop a matching model with heterogeneous workers, rms, and worker-firm matches, and apply it to longitudinal linked data on employers and employees. Workers vary in their marginal product when employed and their value of leisure when unemployed. Firms vary in their marginal product and cost of maintaining a vacancy. The marginal product of a worker-firm match also depends on a match-specific interaction between worker and rm that I call match quality. Agents have complete information about worker and rm heterogeneity, and symmetric but incomplete information about match quality. They learn its value slowly by observing production outcomes. There are two key results. First, under a Nash bargain, the equilibrium wage is linear in a person-specific component, a firm-specific component, and the posterior mean of beliefs about match quality. Second, in each period the separation decision depends only on the posterior mean of beliefs and person and rm characteristics. These results have several implications for an empirical model of earnings with person and rm eects. The rst implies that residuals within a worker-firm match are a martingale; the second implies the distribution of earnings is truncated. I test predictions from the matching model using data from the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) Program at the US Census Bureau. I present both xed and mixed model specifications of the equilibrium wage function, taking account of structural aspects implied by the learning process. In the most general specification, earnings residuals have a completely unstructured covariance within a worker-firm match. I estimate and test a variety of more parsimonious error structures, including the martingale structure implied by the learning process. I nd considerable support for the matching model in these data.View Full Paper PDF
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Working PaperThe interactions of workers and firms in the low-wage labor market
August 2002
Working Paper Number:
tp-2002-12
This paper presents an analysis of workers who persistently have low earnings in the labor market over a period of three or more years. Some of these workers manage to escape from this low-earning status over subsequent years, while many do not. Using data from the Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics (LEHD) project at the U.S. Census Bureau, we analyze the characteristics of persons and especially of their firms and jobs that enable some to improve their earnings status over time.View Full Paper PDF