The effect of job displacement on women’s fertility decisions

Emilia del Bono, Andrea Weber, Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 25 February 2008

Over the last century careers or jobs that provide opportunities for promotion and advancement have become more desirable for females and labour market conditions that impede the establishment of stable careers early in their lives like unemployment, temporary jobs or involuntary turnover, may be reasons for a delay or even a permanent reduction in fertility. The authors of CEPR DP6719 explore how women’s fertility decisions are affected by these considerations and find that certain stages of their careers might be particularly sensitive to labour supply interruptions.

Over the last century women’s role in the labour market has gradually changed from secondary workers with limited planning horizon to equivalent partners or independent decision makers with a life-time planning perspective.

Journalists are entitled to free DP downloads on request; please contact pressoffice@cepr.org. To learn more about subscribing to CEPR's Discussion Paper Series, please visit the CEPR website.

URL: http://www.cepr.org/pubs/new-dps/dplist.asp?dpno=6719.asp
Topics: Labour markets
Tags: fertility, human capital, plant closing, unemployment

Assessing the recent labour market agreement in France

Gilles Saint-Paul, 1 February 2008

France has agreed a raft of labour market reforms. Here one of France’s most market-oriented labour economists evaluates the likely impact, concluding that it’s an improvement, but heightens incentives to become unemployed.

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In my view, the recent agreement between employers and unions on labour market reforms is globally positive.

Topics: Labour markets
Tags: benefit system, France, labour market reforms, temporary contracts, turnover costs, unemployment

Immigrants help improve the output-inflation trade-off

Samuel Bentolila, Juan Dolado, Juan Francisco Jimeno , 12 January 2008

Spain’s inflation-less drop in unemployment is due in large part to its immigration boom. If immigrants’ labour-supply behaviour comes closer to that of natives and inflation remains above target, a deeper slowdown or increasing immigration flows will be needed to bring it down.

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Until the mid-1990s, Spain was seen as the paradigm of high unemployment among developed countries. But things have changed considerably. From 1995 to 2006, the unemployment rate has fallen by 15 percentage points, from 22% to 8%, while inflation remained subdued around 3.5%.

Topics: Labour markets
Tags: immigration, inflation, Phillips curve, Spain, unemployment

Too old to work, too young to retire?

Andrea Ichino, Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, Josef Zweimüller , Guido Schwerdt, 8 November 2007

Raising the retirement age is one of the standard solutions for Europe’s aging problem. But won’t this only increase their unemployment rate? New empirical evidence suggests that increasing the retirement age is unlikely to produce a band of workers who are too old to work but too young to retire.

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy had to strike a special deal with the train drivers in order to alleviate recent strikes by French rail workers protesting against increasing their minimum retirement age.

Topics: Labour markets
Tags: pensions, retirement age, unemployment

Germany’s supply-side backsliding

Michael Burda, 23 October 2007

Germany’s equilibrium rate of unemployment has not fallen as much over the past two decades as in the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, and Britain. Unlike those successful reformers, Germany has not yet finished its supply-side homework. If it backslides now, it and the rest of Europe will pay the price when the next downturn comes.

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This article appears on our Consortium partner's site www.Telos-eu.com in English and in French.

Topics: Labour markets
Tags: Germany, reform, unemployment

Do temporary jobs improve workers long-term labour market performance?

Julia Lane, Harry J. Holzer , Fredrik Andersson, 15 October 2007

Research has long shown that workers who take temp jobs subsequently do better in the labour market. New research from the US suggests that the positive effects seem mostly to occur because those working for temp agencies have a higher chance of subsequently working for higher-wage firms.

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What are the long term labour market consequences of temporary help work? As the importance of temporary help work has increased across OECD countries, economists have started paying attention to this question.

Topics: Labour markets
Tags: OECD, temporary work, unemployment

More incentives for employees to work longer hours in US than in Europe

Josep Pijoan-Mas, Claudio Michelacci, 28 May 2007

Since the 1970s, the number of hours worked per employee has fallen substantially in continental Europe, while it has remained roughly constant in the US. The authors of CEPR DP6314 show that this divergence in the number of hours worked per employee on the two sides of the Atlantic can be explained by the evolution of the respective labour market conditions over the last three decades.

Since the 1970s, the number of hours worked per employee has fallen substantially in continental Europe, while it has remained roughly constant in the US after reverting a trend of secular decline.

Journalists are entitled to free DP downloads on request; please contact pressoffice@cepr.org. To learn more about subscribing to CEPR's Discussion Paper Series, please visit the CEPR website.

URL: http://www.cepr.org/pubs/new-dps/dplist.asp?dpno=6314.asp
Topics: Labour markets
Tags: human capital, search, unemployment, wage inequality, working hours

Hiring vouchers more efficient than wage subsidies

Dennis J Snower, Christian Merkl, Alessio J G Brown, 11 June 2007

Employment subsidies are often used to reduce both unemployment and earnings inequality together, a prime objective throughout the OECD. In CEPR DP6334, the authors compare the effectiveness of various employment subsidies in Germany and find that while hiring vouchers can be both effective and efficient if targeted appropriately, wage subsidies are too expensive and ineffective.

Employment subsidies are often used to reduce both unemployment and earnings inequality together, a prime objective throughout the OECD. In CEPR DP6334, the authors compare the effectiveness of various employment subsidies in Germany and find that while hiring vouchers can be both effective and efficient if targeted appropriately, wage subsidies are too expensive and ineffective.

Journalists are entitled to free DP downloads on request; please contact pressoffice@cepr.org. To learn more about subscribing to CEPR's Discussion Paper Series, please visit the CEPR website.

URL: http://www.cepr.org/pubs/new-dps/dplist.asp?dpno=6334.asp
Topics: Labour markets
Tags: duration, employment, hiring voucher, low wage subsidy, self-financing, targeting, unemployment

Does finding work come down to who you are, or where you live?

Laurent Gobillon, Thierry Magnac, Harris Selod, 19 March 2007

The authors of CEPR DP6198 and DP6199 focus on Paris to discover the effects of location on unemployment. They find that around 30% of the spatial disparities in duration of unemployment in Paris can be attributed to personal characteristics of workers, while around 70% can be attributed to characteristics of the local area.

Local unemployment is seen as a key contributing factor in the riots that spread out of Paris to many low-income areas throughout France in 2005, and to similar events going back to the 1965 Watts riots in the US. The common conclusion drawn is that workers residing in distressed and isolated areas simply do not have enough job opportunities.

Journalists are entitled to free DP downloads on request; please contact pressoffice@cepr.org. To learn more about subscribing to CEPR's Discussion Paper Series, please visit the CEPR website.

URL: http://www.cepr.org/DP6199
Topics: Labour markets
Tags: access to jobs, job search, unemployment

Over €10 billion spent on unproven or ineffective labour market policies in Germany

Werner Eichhorst, Klaus F. Zimmermann, 23 April 2007

Only four instruments have led to positive results in the form of increased integration into the labour market - (i) placement vouchers; (ii) training programmes; (iii) wage subsidies; and (iv) business start-up grants. This translates to only around 28%, or €4.2 billion, of the total expenditure on active labour market policies.

The growing unemployment rate in Germany has led to a large number of instrumental regulations that have complicated, rather than simplified, employment policy.

Journalists are entitled to free DP downloads on request; please contact pressoffice@cepr.org. To learn more about subscribing to CEPR's Discussion Paper Series, please visit the CEPR website.

URL: www.cepr.org/DP6246
Topics: Labour markets
Tags: Germany, labour market policy, unemployment

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