Search

We use a regression discontinuity design and difference-in-differences estimators to estimatethe impact of a one-shot hiring subsidy for low-educated unemployed youths duringthe Great Recession recovery in Belgium. The subsidy increases job-finding in the privatesector by 10 percentage points within one year of unemployment. Six years later, highschool graduates accumulated 2.8 quarters more private employment. However, they substituteprivate for public and self-employment; thus, overall employment does not increasebut is still better paid. For high school dropouts, no persistent gains emerge. Moreover, theneighboring employment hub of Luxembourg induces a complete deadweight loss near theborder.

We use a regression discontinuity design and difference-in-differences estimators to estimate the impact of a one-shot hiring subsidy for low-educated unemployed youths during the Great Recession recovery in Belgium. The subsidy increases job-finding in the private sector by 10 percentage points within one year of unemployment. Six years later, high school graduates accumulated 2.8 quarters more private employment. However, they substitute private for public and self-employment; thus, overall employment does not increase but is still better paid. For high school dropouts, no persistent gains emerge. Moreover, the neighboring employment hub of Luxembourg induces a complete deadweight loss near the border.

We examine the effects of the large-scale construction of public universities in Egypt during the 1960s and 1970s. We found that opening a local university increased the likelihood of obtaining higher education degrees and had long-lasting positive effects on labor market and marriage outcomes, particularly for women. We give insights on internal migration as a channel and show that migration prior to university enrollment age decreased while migration after that age increased as an outcome of university construction. Local universities reduced men’s migration for study and women’s migration for early marriage. The paper highlights the importance of increasing access to higher education for positive social and labor outcomes, particularly for women.

This paper employs sectoral data to draw conclusions on how structural reforms—implemented during the period 1975–2005—affected differences in cross-country aggregate labor productivity growth in developing countries. Most important, it explores how the effects of reforms on productivity growth are distributed between the intrasectoral and intersectoral components of labor productivity growth. The findings indicate that most of the trade, product market, and financial sector reforms have increased productivity growth. Looking at the subcomponents of labor productivity growth, the results show that structural reforms work mainly through the intra-allocative efficiency channel but not through the interallocative efficiency channel. The intrasectoral component is the main driver of the impacts of reforms on productivity growth, with a contribution that ranges from 76 percent to 96 percent depending on the reform measure considered. The paper also examines the role of labor market regulations and finds that labor market rigidity/flexibility matters for how specific reforms induce reallocation of resources within and across sectors.

The standard economic model of occupational choice following a basic Roy modelemphasizes individual selection and comparative advantage, but the sources of comparative advantage are not well understood. We employ a unique combination of Dutch survey and registry data that links math and language skills across generations and permits analysis of the intergenerational transmission of comparative skill advantages. Exploiting within family between-subject variation in skills, we show that comparative advantages in math of parents are significantly linked to those of their children. A causal interpretation followsfrom a novel IV estimation that isolates variation in parent skill advantages due to their teacher and classroom peer quality. Finally, we show the strong influence of family skill transmission on children’s choices of STEM fields.

This paper investigates the impact of the social environment to which a Ph.D. student is exposed on her scientific productivity during the training period. Vertical and horizontal relationships depict the social environment. Vertical relationships are those supervisor-student, while horizontal relationships are those student-peers. We characterize these relationships by assessing how the supervisor’s and peers’ biographic and academic characteristics relate to the student’s productivity as measured by the publication quantity, quality, and scientific network size. Unique to our study, we cover the entire student population of a European country for all the STEM fields. Specifically, we analyse the productivity of 77,143 students who graduated in France between 2000 and 2014. We find that having a female supervisor is associated with a higher student’s productivity as well as being supervised by a mid-career scientist and having a supervisor with a high academic reputation. The supervisor’s fundraising ability benefits only one specific dimension of the student’s productivity, i.e., the student’s work quality. Interestingly, the supervisor’s mentorship experience negatively associates with student’s productivity. Having many peers negatively associates with the student’s productivity, especially if peers are senior students. Having female peers positively correlates with the student’s productivity, while peers’ academic status shows mixed effects according to the productivity dimension considered. We find results heterogeneity when breaking down our sample by field of research.

This article compares UK labour productivity during the Great Depression (GD) and the Great Recession (GR) in engineering, metal working, and allied industries. Over the downturn of the GD cycle, hourly labour productivity was countercyclical. Over the GR downturn, hourly productivity was procyclical. The combined flexibility of workers and hours, together with short-run diminishing returns, is argued to be the main drivers behind the GD productivity outcomes. There was less workers and hours responsiveness in the GR downturn. These differences are linked to educational and human capital arguments. Employers’ real-wage costs feature importantly in both depressions. In the GD, real hourly product wages rose steeply serving to encourage shorter work weeks, which produced positive impacts on average hourly labour productivity. Unusually, high-labour supply pressures in the GR acted to reduce real hourly product wages serving to protect the jobs of less efficient workers and to lower average hourly labour productivity.

We empirically investigate the link between parental involvement and shaping of the economic preferences, attitudes and personality traits of their children. We exploit information on the risk and trust attitudes, the Big Five personality traits and locus of control of parents and their children, as well as rich information about parental efforts in the upbringing of their children from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). Our results show that parents who are more involved in the upbringing of their children have children with more favourable attitudes and traits. These children rank higher in traits that further their success in life, and they are more similar to their parents in those attitudes, where the optimum level is more ambiguous.

Providing income support to unemployed education-leavers reduces the returns to investments in education because it makes the consequences of unemployment less severe. We evaluate a two-part policy reform in Belgium to study whether conditioning the prospective entitlement to unemployment benefits for education-leavers on age or schooling attainment can affect educational achievements. The results show that the prospect of financial loss in case of unemployment can significantly raise degree completion and reduce dropout in higher education, but not in high school. We argue that the higher prevalence of behavioral biases among lower educated and younger students could explain these contrasting findings.

Providing income support to unemployed education-leavers reduces the returns to investments in education because it makes the consequences of unemployment less severe. We evaluate a two-part policy reform in Belgium to study whether conditioning the prospective entitlement to unemployment benefits for education-leavers on age or schooling attainment can affect educational achievements. The results show that the prospect of financial loss in case of unemployment can significantly raise degree completion and reduce dropout in higher education, but not in high school. We argue that the higher prevalence of behavioral biases among lower educated and younger students could explain these contrasting findings.

We study prices paid at auction for artworks created by male and female artists, based on birth-identified sex, and how these prices have evolved over time. Artworks produced by female artists comprise less than 4% of art auction sales; after controlling for artwork characteristics, we find that artworks by female artists are 4.4% more expensive than artworks by male artists. In the top echelon of the art market—for sales above $1 million—artworks by male artists sell for 18.4% more than by female artists. The top 40 artists represent 40% of total market share; no female artist makes the top 40 ranking of artists in terms of total sales value at auction in the period under study, 2000–2017. However, for contemporary artists, our empirical results show that works by male artists sell for 8.3% more than their female counterparts. Overall, this study highlights significant price differences across birth-identified sex in the secondary market for fine art.

Over the course of the last decade, the uncertainty and gloomy forecasts of global poverty, inequality and climate change impact on socio-ecological systems in the next few years have given impetus to calls and widespread global resolve to decouple economic development from environmental and natural capital degradation and enhance sustainable development .These concerns have largely informed the ongoing global shift and growing emphasis on green economy as a sustainable growth strategy to stem this scenario and to build the sustainable “Future We Want” and more recently, to “build back better” from the COVID-19 pandemic. The vision of green economy is to be realised by instituting the necessary measures, strategies and policies to facilitate sustainable development, just, inclusive and resilient societies for all. Following the launch of the EU Green Deal in 2019, and the increasing global shift to green economy, it is envisaged that these initiatives would help to address the challenges of technical skills gaps and skills shortage in facilitating the transition to green economy. In spite of the corresponding ongoing efforts to promote regular migration channels, skills development and to attract talent from abroad, there has been limited policy and scientific discussion on the link and the critical role of migration in contributing to the green economy. This has thus underscored the need to examine the potential of labour migration, human mobility, skills development and transfer to address the skills requirements of the green economy. This discussion paper aims to contribute to the growing scientific and policy discussion by exploring the links between human mobility and the green economy. The discussion would help to identify points of entry and avenues to leverage labour migration in propelling the transition to greater sustainability, and building inclusive, just and resilient societies and argues for the inclusion of labour (migration) and mobility as part of green growth strategies.By exploring existing good examples and lessons learnt, this paper identifies pointers as to how they could be replicated in other countries. Also, the paper highlights gaps in current understanding of the topic and proposes further avenues for discussion and research in this domain. The paper argues for the inclusion of labour (migration) and mobility as part of green growth strategies

Over the course of the last decade, the uncertainty and gloomy forecasts of global poverty, inequality and climate change impact on socio-ecological systems in the next few years have given impetus to calls and widespread global resolve to decouple economic development from environmental and natural capital degradation and enhance sustainable development . These concerns have largely informed the ongoing global shift and growing emphasis on green economy as a sustainable growth strategy to stem this scenario and to build the sustainable “Future We Want” and more recently, to “build back better” from the COVID-19 pandemic. The vision of green economy is to be realised by instituting the necessary measures, strategies and policies to facilitate sustainable development, just, inclusive and resilient societies for all. Following the launch of the EU Green Deal in 2019, and the increasing global shift to green economy, it is envisaged that these initiatives would help to address the challenges of technical skills gaps and skills shortage in facilitating the transition to green economy. In spite of the corresponding ongoing efforts to promote regular migration channels, skills development and to attract talent from abroad, there has been limited policy and scientific discussion on the link and the critical role of migration in contributing to the green economy. This has thus underscored the need to examine the potential of labour migration, human mobility, skills development and transfer to address the skills requirements of the green economy. This discussion paper aims to contribute to the growing scientific and policy discussion by exploring the links between human mobility and the green economy. The discussion would help to identify points of entry and avenues to leverage labour migration in propelling the transition to greater sustainability, and building inclusive, just and resilient societies and argues for the inclusion of labour (migration) and mobility as part of green growth strategies. By exploring existing good examples and lessons learnt, this paper identifies pointers as to how they could be replicated in other countries. Also, the paper highlights gaps in current understanding of the topic and proposes further avenues for discussion and research in this domain. The paper argues for the inclusion of labour (migration) and mobility as part of green growth strategies

Over the course of the last decade, the uncertainty and gloomy forecasts of global poverty, inequality and climate change impact on socio-ecological systems in the next few years have given impetus to calls and widespread global resolve to decouple economic development from environmental and natural capital degradation and enhance sustainable development . These concerns have largely informed the ongoing global shift and growing emphasis on green economy as a sustainable growth strategy to stem this scenario and to build the sustainable “Future We Want” and more recently, to “build back better” from the COVID-19 pandemic. The vision of green economy is to be realised by instituting the necessary measures, strategies and policies to facilitate sustainable development, just, inclusive and resilient societies for all. Following the launch of the EU Green Deal in 2019, and the increasing global shift to green economy, it is envisaged that these initiatives would help to address the challenges of technical skills gaps and skills shortage in facilitating the transition to green economy. In spite of the corresponding ongoing efforts to promote regular migration channels, skills development and to attract talent from abroad, there has been limited policy and scientific discussion on the link and the critical role of migration in contributing to the green economy. This has thus underscored the need to examine the potential of labour migration, human mobility, skills development and transfer to address the skills requirements of the green economy. This discussion paper aims to contribute to the growing scientific and policy discussion by exploring the links between human mobility and the green economy. The discussion would help to identify points of entry and avenues to leverage labour migration in propelling the transition to greater sustainability, and building inclusive, just and resilient societies and argues for the inclusion of labour (migration) and mobility as part of green growth strategies. By exploring existing good examples and lessons learnt, this paper identifies pointers as to how they could be replicated in other countries. Also, the paper highlights gaps in current understanding of the topic and proposes further avenues for discussion and research in this domain. The paper argues for the inclusion of labour (migration) and mobility as part of green growth strategies

During the COVID-19 pandemic, traditional (offline) chess tournaments were prohibited and instead held online. We exploit this unique setting to assess the impact of remote work policies on the cognitive performance of individuals. Using the artificial intelligence embodied in a powerful chess engine to assess the quality of chess moves and associated errors, we find a statistically and economically significant decrease in performance when an individual competes remotely versus offline in a face-to-face setting. The effect size decreases over time, suggesting an adaptation to the new remote setting.

We present a semiparametric method to estimate group-level dispersion, which is particularly effective in the presence of censored data. We apply this procedure to obtain measures of occupation-specific wage dispersion using top-coded administrative wage data from the German IAB Employment Sample. We then relate these robust measures of earnings risk to the risk attitudes of individuals working in these occupations. We find that willingness to take risk is positively correlated with the wage dispersion of an individual’s occupation.

I take advantage of a discontinuity in the probability of admission to a highly selective private university to estimate causal returns to investing in elite university education. I use a newly assembled data set that combines individual administrative records about high school attendance, university admission, university attendance, and tax returns. I find a discontinuity in income of 38 log points at the admission cutoff. The fuzzy regression discontinuity estimate for the elite enrollment effect is 58 log points. This should be interpreted as the average treatment effect for students applying to the elite university who are close to the cutoff and chose to enroll. When I take into account the evidence that students enrolling in the elite university tend to make different field choices, the net institutional enrollment premium is 41 log points. Cumulated over 15 years, the net-of-tuition elite premium is €246,991. I explore potential channels explaining the sizeable enrollment effects and I find that students just above the admission cutoff are 15 percentage points more likely to complete a university degree, they are 26 percentage points more likely to graduate on time and attend university with substantially higher quality peers.

Skill mismatches have strong negative effects on productivity, job satisfaction, and other outcomes. To reduce skill mismatches, governments need to rely on accurate data on the prevalence of these mismatches. The Programme of the International Assessment of Adult Competences (PIAAC) is currently the most important data source providing excellent and unparalleled information for many countries on two key information-processing skills (i.e., literacy and numeracy skills). However, although these data contain rich information about possessed skills, countries lack directly comparable information on the required skills in those domains. Hence, it has been difficult to use the PIAAC data to identify skill mismatches, other than through proxies of required skills (e.g., the average skill level in occupations) or workers’ self-assessments of skill mismatch. In this paper, we use the Job Analysis Method (JAM) to determine the required skill levels of literacy and numeracy for all 4-digit ISCO08 unit groups of occupations in the same metric and scale as was used in PIAAC. JAM involves the use of occupational experts to rate the skill requirements in the different occupations. JAM has never been used before to identify required skill levels for literacy and numeracy as measured in PIAAC, and the paper thus presents the first results on the prevalence of skill shortages and skill surpluses in these key information-processing skills across different OECD countries and across different occupations and sectors that is based on a more direct estimate of the required skills. We provide estimates for the proportions of well-matched, overskilled and underskilled workers per country, and compare these with estimates based on alternative methods for estimating skill mismatch. We also compare JAM with these other methods in explaining wage differentials, as well as job satisfaction. We conclude that there are large differences in the estimates of the prevalence of skill mismatches depending on the method used. We show several advantages using JAM and discuss some of the limitations as well.

Fertility in the US exhibits an increasingly more procyclical pattern. We argue thatwomen’s breadwinner status is behind procyclical fertility: (i) women’s relative incomein the family has increased over time; and (ii) women are more likely to work inrelatively stable and countercyclical industries whereas men tend to work in volatileand procyclical industries. This creates a countercyclical gender income gap aswomen become breadwinners in recessions, producing an insurance effect ofwomen’s income. Our quantitative framework features a general equilibrium OLGmodel with endogenous fertility and human capital choice. We show that the changein gender employment cyclicality can explain 38 to 44 percent of the emergence ofprocyclical fertility. Our counterfactual analysis shows that in a world in which menbecome nurses and women become construction workers, we would observe“countercyclical fertility” but at the expense of lower human capital accumulation asfamilies lean in more towards quantity in the quality-quantity trade-off., IAB-Discussion Paper

We document the sources behind the costs of job loss over the business cycle usingadministrative data from Germany. Losses in annual earnings after displacement are large,persistent, and highly cyclical, nearly doubling in size during downturns. A large part of thelong-term earnings losses and their cyclicality is driven by declines in wages. Key to theselong-lasting wage declines and their cyclicality are changes in employer characteristics, asdisplaced workers switch to lower-paying firms. Changes in characteristics of workers ordisplacing firms explain little of the cyclicality, though nonemployment durationscorrelated with losses in employer ettects play a role., IAB-Discussion Paper

Das Erlernen der deutschen Sprache spielt eine Schlüsselrolle für die Integration von neu zugewanderten Menschen. In diesem Beitrag wird der Zweitspracherwerb von Personen, die im vergangenen Jahrzehnt in die Bundesrepublik gekommen sind, in den ersten Jahren nach dem Zuzug untersucht. Hierzu werden Geflüchtete mit anderen Neuzugewanderten verglichen. Die Auswertungen verweisen auf ähnliche Prozesse des Zweitspracherwerbs in beiden Gruppen. Wichtig für die Verbesserung der Deutschkenntnisse sind vor allem die Lerngelegenheiten, die sich einerseits im Alltagsleben über Kontakte zu anderen ergeben, andererseits in strukturierten Lernsituationen stattfinden, wie beim Besuch von Sprachkursen. Die Ergebnisse belegen, dass solche Kurse in recht kurzer Zeit zu deutlichen Zuwächsen bei den Deutschkenntnissen führen. Gerade bei Geflüchteten spielen Sprachkurse eine wichtige Rolle, während andere Zugewanderte auch stark von Alltagskontakten profitieren. Insbesondere Sprachkurse sind also ein effektives Instrument, mit der die Politik über entsprechende Angebote neu zugewanderte Personen beim Erwerb von Sprachkenntnissen gezielt unterstützen kann., DIW Wochenbericht

In der Diskussion über die staatliche Förderung des Breitbandausbaus wird immer wieder die Frage aufgeworfen, ob und in welchem Umfang Unternehmen von neuen Netzen profitieren. Empirische Analysen auf Grundlage von Unternehmensdaten und Daten zur Breitbandverfügbarkeit in Deutschland zeigen, dass ein Teil der Unternehmen im Untersuchungszeitraum (2010 bis 2015) vom Breitbandausbau profitiert hat. Vor allem Dienstleistungsunternehmen konnten ihre Produktivität erhöhen. Die Stärke der Effekte unterscheidet sich aber deutlich zwischen den verschiedenen Wirtschaftszweigen. Wichtig sind außerdem möglichst geringe Entfernungen zwischen den Endpunkten des Glasfasernetzes und den Breitbandnutzern. Nur dann lassen sich positive Effekte sicherstellen. Die Ergebnisse der Untersuchung unterstützen den wirtschaftspolitischen Ansatz, den Ausbau der Breitbandversorgung zu fördern, da er die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der Unternehmen und damit ihre Überlebensfähigkeit verbessert., DIW Wochenbericht

We examine the role of siblings' sex ratio on adolescents' physical and human capital development, as well as gendered time allocation using data from the Young Lives project in Ethiopia. We use BMI-for-age and Weight-for-age to measure physical capital and grade attainment and scores in Mathematics and English tests as human capital indicators. Gendered time use is proxied by the hours per day the adolescent spends doing traditionally female-specific chores. Our identification strategy relies on the absence of sex-selective reproduction in our study area which implies that for a given number of siblings, their sex ratio should be exogenous. Our results show that having relatively more brothers than sisters increases both physical and human capital for adolescents, typically with a stronger effect for boys. Yet it also increases girls' time spent on traditionally female-specific tasks, especially in the rural areas. This points to a complex relationship between siblings' sex composition and long-term life outcomes for women.

Routine-intensive occupations have been declining in many countries, but how does thisaffect individual workers’ careers if this decline is particularly severe in their local labormarket? This paper uses administrative data from Germany and a matcheddifference-in-differences approach to show that the individual costs of job loss stronglydepend on the task-bias of regional structural change. Workers displaced from routinemanual occupations have substantially higher and more persistent employment and wagelosses in regions where such occupations decline the most. Regional and occupationalmobility partly serve as an adjustment mechanism, but come at high cost as these switchesalso involve losses in firm wage premia. Non-displaced workers, by contrast, remain largelyunaffected by structural change., IAB-Discussion Paper

Skill mismatches have strong negative effects on productivity, job satisfaction, and other outcomes. To reduce skill mismatches, governments need to rely on accurate data on the prevalence of these mismatches. The Programme of the International Assessment of Adult Competences (PIAAC) is currently the most important data source providing excellent and unparalleled information for many countries on two key information-processing skills (i.e., literacy and numeracy skills). However, although these data contain rich information about possessed skills, countries lack directly comparable information on the required skills in those domains. Hence, it has been difficult to use the PIAAC data to identify skill mismatches, other than through proxies of required skills (e.g., the average skill level in occupations) or workers’ self-assessments of skill mismatch. In this paper, we use the Job Analysis Method (JAM) to determine the required skill levels of literacy and numeracy for all 4-digit ISCO08 unit groups of occupations in the same metric and scale as was used in PIAAC. JAM involves the use of occupational experts to rate the skill requirements in the different occupations. JAM has never been used before to identify required skill levels for literacy and numeracy as measured in PIAAC, and the paper thus presents the first results on the prevalence of skill shortages and skill surpluses in these key information-processing skills across different OECD countries and across different occupations and sectors that is based on a more direct estimate of the required skills. We provide estimates for the proportions of well-matched, overskilled and underskilled workers per country, and compare these with estimates based on alternative methods for estimating skill mismatch. We also compare JAM with these other methods in explaining wage differentials, as well as job satisfaction. We conclude that there are large differences in the estimates of the prevalence of skill mismatches depending on the method used. We show several advantages using JAM and discuss some of the limitations as well.

In this study, we examine the impact of exchange programs’ timing on students’ academic performance, focusing on the moment in which students travel and the length of the period spent abroad. To provide causal evidence, we exploit unique data of more than 10,000 students from a well-known and internationalized Brazilian university from 2010 to 2020. By combing Propensity Score Matching with Difference in Differences techniques, we find that international mobility impacts groups of students differently. Students who travel closer to the end of their undergraduate courses benefit the most from the mobility experience (an increase of 0.06 points on final standardized grades), while negative effects (-0.05 points) are found for those who travel at the beginning of their university program. Our results also show that, while student mobility impacts positively and significantly students who participate in programs lasting from one semester to one year (0.08 points), negative effects are associated with shorter periods abroad (-0.1 points).

This study analyzes the influence of mental and physical health, coping abilities, cooperativeness, and work commitment on the transition from apprenticeship training to a first job. In doing so, we first investigate transitions to regular employment within six months post-graduation. Second, we analyze gapless transitions from training to a first job. Third, we investigate transitions to a decent first job. This study draws on a unique dataset of 1,061 individuals from Germany that combines rich survey and register data. The baseline survey takes place during the last year of training for these individuals and contains information on their schooling, health, personality disorders andwork attitudes. The register data measure the training environment and labor market outcomes. The results from linear probability models reveal that only physical health is associated with finding a first job within six months. Physical and mental health are associated with gapless transitions. Overall health, coping abilities and work commitment are important in terms of finding decent employment. However, when conditioning on individual and training firm characteristics, these associations are weakened and become statistically insignificant. Thus, the constructs under study might drive school graduates into certain training firms and occupations leading to decent first jobs. Fourth, our results indicate that the effect of overall health on gapless transitions is largest for individuals with higher levels of education, while the overall health effect is almost zero for those who are least educated. Thus, this study provides evidence of a cumulative disadvantage of the least educated in the school-to-work transition., Die vorliegende Studie analysiert den Zusammenhang zwischen mentaler und physischer Gesundheit, Coping-Fähigkeiten, Kooperationsfähigkeit und Work Commitment und dem Übergang von der Ausbildung in den Arbeitsmarkt. Dafür analysieren wir zunächst den Übergang in sozialversicherungspflichtige Beschäftigung innerhalb der ersten sechs Monate nach Ausbildungsabschluss. Zudem betrachten wir den lückenlosen Übergang von Ausbildung in Beschäftigung sowie die Qualität der ersten Beschäftigung. Dafür greifen wir auf einen Datensatz zurück, der Survey- und Registerdaten kombiniert, und Informationen über 1,061 Auszubildende in Deutschland enthält. Die erstmalige Befragung fand im letzten Jahr der Ausbildung statt und umfasst Angaben zur Bildung, Gesundheit, Persönlichkeitsstörungen und Arbeitseinstellungen. Die Registerdaten liefern Informationen über die Ausbildungsumgebung und Beschäftigungsmerkmale. Die Ergebnisse linearer Wahrscheinlichkeitsmodelle zeigen, dass einzig die physische Gesundheit mit Übergängen in eine erste Beschäftigung innerhalb von sechs Monaten nach Beendigung der Ausbildung korreliert. Hinsichtlich lückenloser Übergänge ist ebenfalls die mentale Gesundheit von Bedeutung. Für den Übergang in eine qualitativ hochwertige erste Tätigkeit werden der allgemeine Gesundheitszustand, Coping-Fähigkeiten sowie Work Commitment als signifikante Faktoren identifiziert. Unter Kontrolle individueller und arbeitgeberspezifischer Eigenschaften werden diese Zusammenhänge jedoch schwächer und statistisch insignifikant. Dieser Befund verweist auf die vermittelnde Rolle IAB-Discussion Paper 2|2022 6 von Individual- sowie Betriebsmerkmalen. Somit scheinen die betrachteten Konstrukte insbesondere den Zugang zu hochwertigen Ausbildungsfirmen und -berufen zu beeinflussen. Darüber hinaus finden wir, dass der Effekt des allgemeinen Gesundheitszustands für Individuen mit höherer Bildung (d.h. mit Realschul- oder Gymnasialabschluss) beim lückenlosen Übergang in den Arbeitsmarkt am ausgeprägtesten ist. Für Personen mit Hauptschulabschluss beträgt dieser hingegen fast null. Insgesamt verweisen die empirischen Befunde auf einen kumulativen Nachteil für Personen mit Hauptschulabschluss im Übergang von der Ausbildung in den Arbeitsmarkt., IAB-Discussion Paper

For decades, researchers tried to get a deeper understanding of the intergenerational transmission of education to shed light on inequality of educational opportunities (IEO) that determine social mobility. The underlying drivers of IEO can stem from three types of parental resources: parent’s key skills (i.e., proficiency in important domains like math and language), parent’s soft skills (i.e., the skills needed to navigate successfully in education), and parent’s financial resources. Previous research was not able to accurately distinguish between the contributions of these different resources, mainly because adequate data on the intergenerational transmission of key skills was missing. This study aims to fill this gap. We developed a unique and unparalleled dataset, theIntergenerational Transmission of Skills (ITS) dataset, combining key skills of more than 25,000 Dutch parents and their children measured with the same test at age 12 with detailed information on the educational pathways and household income. Wedemonstrate that parent’s key skills is the most important mechanism driving IEO. One standard deviation increase in parent’s key skills is associated with almost one-third of a standard deviation increase in the key skills of their offspring. The intergenerationaltransmission of key skills accounts for 50-60% of the effect of all measured resources available in the family. The role of financial resources available to the family is a bit stronger than the role of parent’s soft skills, accounting for some 25-30% of the totaleffect of family resources, with parent’s soft skills taking up some 20-25%.

The extensive literature on intergenerational mobility highlights the importance of family linkages but fails to provide credible evidence about the underlying family factors that drive the pervasive correlations. We employ a unique combination of Dutch survey and registry data that links math and language skills across generations. We identify a causal connection between cognitive skills of parents and their children by exploiting within-family between-subject variation in these skills. The data also permit novel IV estimation that isolates variation in parental cognitive skills due to school and peer quality. The between-subject and IV estimates of the key intergenerational persistence parameter are strikingly similar and close at about 0.1. Finally, we show the strong influence of family skill transmission on children’s choices of STEM fields.

The extensive literature on intergenerational mobility highlights the importance of family linkages but fails to provide credible evidence about the underlying family factors that drive the pervasive correlations. We employ a unique combination of Dutch survey and registry data that links math and language skills across generations. We identify a causal connection between cognitive skills of parents and their children by exploiting within-family between-subject variation in these skills. The data also permit novel IV estimation that isolates variation in parental cognitive skills due to school and peer quality. The between-subject and IV estimates of the key intergenerational persistence parameter are strikingly similar and close at about 0.1. Finally, we show the strong influence of family skill transmission on children’s choices of STEM fields.

For decades, researchers tried to get a deeper understanding of the intergenerational transmission of education to shed light on inequality of educational opportunities (IEO) that determine social mobility. The underlying drivers of IEO can stem from three types of parental resources: parent’s key skills (i.e., proficiency in important domains like math and language), parent’s soft skills (i.e., the skills needed to navigate successfully in education), and parent’s financial resources. Previous research was not able to accurately distinguish between the contributions of these different resources, mainly because adequate data on the intergenerational transmission of key skills was missing. This study aims to fill this gap. We developed a unique and unparalleled dataset, theIntergenerational Transmission of Skills (ITS) dataset, combining key skills of more than 25,000 Dutch parents and their children measured with the same test at age 12 with detailed information on the educational pathways and household income. Wedemonstrate that parent’s key skills is the most important mechanism driving IEO. One standard deviation increase in parent’s key skills is associated with almost one-third of a standard deviation increase in the key skills of their offspring. The intergenerationaltransmission of key skills accounts for 50-60% of the effect of all measured resources available in the family. The role of financial resources available to the family is a bit stronger than the role of parent’s soft skills, accounting for some 25-30% of the totaleffect of family resources, with parent’s soft skills taking up some 20-25%.

The extensive literature on intergenerational mobility highlights the importance of family linkages but fails to provide credible evidence about the underlying family factors that drive the pervasive correlations. We employ a unique combination of Dutch survey and registry data that links math and language skills across generations. We identify a causal connection between cognitive skills of parents and their children by exploiting within-family between-subject variation in these skills. The data also permit novel IV estimation that isolates variation in parental cognitive skills due to school and peer quality. The between-subject and IV estimates of the key intergenerational persistence parameter are strikingly similar and close at about 0.1. Finally, we show the strong influence of family skill transmission on children’s choices of STEM fields.

The extensive literature on intergenerational mobility highlights the importance of family linkages but fails to provide credible evidence about the underlying family factors that drive the pervasive correlations. We employ a unique combination of Dutch survey and registry data that links math and language skills across generations. We identify a causal connection between cognitive skills of parents and their children by exploiting within-family between-subject variation in these skills. The data also permit novel IV estimation that isolates variation in parental cognitive skills due to school and peer quality. The between-subject and IV estimates of the key intergenerational persistence parameter are strikingly similar and close at about 0.1. Finally, we show the strong influence of family skill transmission on children’s choices of STEM fields.

In many countries, high-stakes tests play an important role in the allocation of pupils to prestigious tracks or schools in secondary education or students to prestigious programs or colleges in tertiary education. It is not clear what would happen if the standards for these tests were systematically raised or lowered. Would that affect the subsequent educational career? This paper exploits a unique natural experiment in the Netherlands using the market entrance of two new suppliers of high-stakes tests in primary education. In the first year of introduction, these new tests were not yet properly calibrated: For one test the standards were too low, while for the other test they were too high, compared to the standards of the traditional test that continued to be the main supplier. We use high-quality register data and a within-schools-across-cohorts design to model the short- and long-term outcomes (i.e., change in teacher advice and actual track three years later) for the students that were affected by the new tests. We find evidence for short-term effects, but no evidence for long-term effects. This implies that the Dutch educational system is sufficiently flexible to allocate pupils to the appropriate track, even if a high-stakes test advice does not recommend the right track. At the same time, it also implies that lowering the bar is not a simple way to increase the share of students going to prestigious tracks.

In many countries, high-stakes tests play an important role in the allocation of pupils to prestigious tracks or schools in secondary education or students to prestigious programs or colleges in tertiary education. It is not clear what would happen if the standards for these tests were systematically raised or lowered. Would that affect the subsequent educational career? This paper exploits a unique natural experiment in the Netherlands using the market entrance of two new suppliers of high-stakes tests in primary education. In the first year of introduction, these new tests were not yet properly calibrated: For one test the standards were too low, while for the other test they were too high, compared to the standards of the traditional test that continued to be the main supplier. We use high-quality register data and a within-schools-across-cohorts design to model the short- and long-term outcomes (i.e., change in teacher advice and actual track three years later) for the students that were affected by the new tests. We find evidence for short-term effects, but no evidence for long-term effects. This implies that the Dutch educational system is sufficiently flexible to allocate pupils to the appropriate track, even if a high-stakes test advice does not recommend the right track. At the same time, it also implies that lowering the bar is not a simple way to increase the share of students going to prestigious tracks.

This paper considers the sources of employment demand in Asian economies. Using data from the World–Input Output Database, I examine the relative importance of domestic and foreign demand in generating employment. Despite some degree of heterogeneity across the sample, domestic demand is found to be the major driver of employment in all cases. Further, the relative importance of final and intermediate exports in generating employment varies by economy, with some economies relying on intermediate exports to generate employment to a greater extent than others, reflecting their importance as suppliers of intermediate inputs in global value chains, while others rely to a greater extent on final exports, reflecting their role as assemblers within global value chains. Considering developments over time, I find that employment is driven by two offsetting factors: (i) final demand (either domestic or foreign) and (ii) labor productivity, with changes in interindustry structure also being important in the case of intermediate exports.

In this work, we test the employment impact of distinct types of innovative investments using a representative sample of Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 2002-2013. Our GMM-SYS estimates generate various results, which are partially in contrast with the extant literature. Indeed, estimations carried out on the entire sample do not provide statistically significant evidence of the expected labor-friendly nature of innovation. More in detail, neither R&D nor investment in innovative machineries and equipment (the so-called embodied technological change, ETC) turn out to have any significant employment effect. However, the job-creation impact of R&D expenditures becomes highly significant when the focus is limited to the high-tech firms. On the other hand - and interestingly - ETC exhibits its labor-saving nature when SMEs are singled out.