The dependent variable problem in quantitative studies of Active Labour Market Programmes: uncovering hidden dynamics?

The question of what explains variation in expenditures on Active Labour Market Programs (ALMPs) has attracted significant scholarship in recent years. Significant insights have been gained with respect to the role of employers, unions and dual labour markets, openness, and partisanship. However, there remain significant disagreements with respects to key explanatory variables such the role of unions or the impact of partisanship. Qualitative studies have shown that there are both good conceptual reasons as well as historical evidence that different ALMPs are driven by different dynamics. There is little reason to believe that vastly different programs such as training and employment subsidies are driven by similar structural, interest group or indeed partisan dynamics. The question is therefore whether different ALMPs have the same correlation with different key explanatory variables identified in the literature? Using regression analysis, this paper shows that the explanatory variables identified by the literature have different relation to distinct ALMPs. This refinement adds significant analytical value and shows that disagreements are at least partly due to a dependent variable problem of ‘over-aggregation’.

Analysis of Structure and Tendencies of Qualified Immigrant Workforce on the Swedish Labor Market

The purpose of this paper is to make quantitative and qualitative analysis of foreign citizens who may participate on the Swedish labor market (in text refers to as ‘immigrants’). This research covers the period 1973-2005 and gives prediction figures of immigrant population, age and gender structure, and education attainment in 2010. To cope with data regarding immigrants from different countries, the population was divided into six groups. The main chapter is divided into two parts. The first part specifies division of immigrants into groups by country of origin according to geographical, ethnical, economical and historical criteria. Brief characteristics and geographic position, dynamic and structure description were given for each group; historical review explain rapid changes in immigrant population. Statistical models for description and estimation future population were given. The second part specifies education and qualification level of the immigrants according to international and Swedish standards. Models for estimating age and gender structure, level of education and professional orientation of immigrants in different groups are given. Inferences were made regarding ethnic, gender and education structure of immigrants; the distribution of immigrants among Swedish counties is given. Discussion part presents the results of the research, gives perspectives for the future brief evaluation of the role of immigrants on the Swedish labor market.

Informality in labor market and welfare

The neoclassical growth model with two sectors in production is employed in this paper in order to investigate how a change in the tax structure affects informality and welfare. We calibrate and simulate the model and find that welfare always increases when we reduce the tax rate on the demand for labor and adjust the tax rate on the value added so that the government revenue remains constant.

Segmentation in the brazilian labor market

This paper measures the degree of segmentation in the brazilian labor market. Controlling for observable and unobservable characteristics, workers earn more in the formal sector, which supports the segmentation hypothesis. We break down the degree of segmentation by socio-economic attributes to identify the groups where this phenomenon is more prevalent. We investigate the robustness of our findings to the inclusion of self-employed individuals, and apply a two-stage panel probit model using the self-selection correction strategy to investigate a potential weakness of the fixed-effects estimator

Informal wages in an economy with active labor courts

In most developing countries, job regulations and the justice branch interfere on several aspects of labor contracts. Inspired by this fact, we build a model that explores the role of labor courts in the determination of the di¤erence between formal and informal wages. We show that the presence of active labor courts in an environment where labor relations are subject to asymmetries of information reproduces features documented by the empirical literature. The main implications of our model are tested using Brazilian data.

From public to private : the performance of former public workers in the Brazilian labor market

This paper analyzes the placement in the private sector of a subset of Brazilian public-sector employees. This group left public employment in the mid-1990’s through a voluntary severance program. This paper contrasts their earnings before and after quitting the public sector, and compares both sets of wages to public and private sector earnings for similar workers. We find that participants in this voluntary severance program suffered a significant reduction in average earnings wage and an increase in earnings dispersion. We test whether the reduction in average earnings and the increase in earnings dispersion is the expected outcome once one controls for observed characteristics, by means of counterfactual simulations. Several methods of controlling for observed characteristics (parametric and non-parametrically) are used for robustness. The results indicate that this group of workers was paid at levels below what would be expected given their embodied observable characteristics.

Computerization, occupational tasks and the labor market : evidence from a natural experiment in Brazil

A hipótese de “rotinização" ou estabelece que computadores substituem tarefas rotineiras e complementam tarefas abstratas não rotineiras. Essa dissertação de mestrado test algumas predições naturais sobre o impacto “rotinização" sobre o mercado de trabalho de uma grande economia em desenvolvimento. Uso o final da política de reserva de mercado para mini e micro-computador (Outubro de 1992) como um experimento natural que gera variação exógena nos preços de tecnologia para identificar os efeitos do uso de computadores em salários e insumos de trabalho. Conjuntamente, os resultados contribuem para a crescente literatura sobre “perspectiva das tarefas" por trazer implicações testáveis de um queda exógena de preços de computador em um contexto com uma estratégia de identificação crível.

Semiparametric modeling of the spatial distribution of occupational accident risk in the casual labor market, Piracicaba, southeast Brazil

The objective of this study was to estimate the spatial distribution of work accident risk in the informal work market in the urban zone of an industrialized city in southeast Brazil and to examine concomitant effects of age, gender, and type of occupation after controlling for spatial risk variation. The basic methodology adopted was that of a population-based case-control study with particular interest focused on the spatial location of work. Cases were all casual workers in the city suffering work accidents during a one-year period; controls were selected from the source population of casual laborers by systematic random sampling of urban homes. The spatial distribution of work accidents was estimated via a semiparametric generalized additive model with a nonparametric bidimensional spline of the geographical coordinates of cases and controls as the nonlinear spatial component, and including age, gender, and occupation as linear predictive variables in the parametric component. We analyzed 1,918 cases and 2,245 controls between 1/11/2003 and 31/10/2004 in Piracicaba, Brazil. Areas of significantly high and low accident risk were identified in relation to mean risk in the study region (p < 0.01). Work accident risk for informal workers varied significantly in the study area. Significant age, gender, and occupational group effects on accident risk were identified after correcting for this spatial variation. A good understanding of high-risk groups and high-risk regions underpins the formulation of hypotheses concerning accident causality and the development of effective public accident prevention policies.

Flexible labour markets, workers' protection and active labour market policies in the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Education and the labor market in Latin America: confronting globalization

Includes bibliography

Educational and professional background and success in the labor market: the case of Portuguese immigrants in the Netherlands

The aim of this paper is to describe the relationship between educational and professional occupation trajectories of Portuguese immigrants in The Netherlands. To this end, the sample used comprises Portuguese immigrants that arrived in The Netherlands in two periods which represent the highest influx of immigrants: around the years 1966 and 2002. The analysis of the data shows a strong relationship between the level of professional education and the level of professional occupation. Furthermore, some exceptions to the generalizations found show that in service training may lead to an improvement of the possibilities to ascend regarding the level of professional occupation.