Hosted by the University of Kent on the invitation of GLO Director Matloob Piracha, the Third Renmin University—GLO Conference on the Chinese Labor Market takes place virtually on December 19, 2020. Organizers are GLO Fellows Liqiu Zhao and Zhong Zhao (both Renmin University of China) and GLO Director Matloob Piracha. GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University & Renmin University of China) will participate in the event. GLO Cluster Lead China Corrado Giulietti (University of Southampten) will chair a session. Program and registration details below.
Opening of the Second Conference 2019
Third Renmin University—GLO Conference
TOPIC: The Chinese Labor Market Beijing Time: 16:00-21:20; Berlin Time: 9:00-14:20; London Time: 8:00-13:20 December 19 (Saturday), 2020; Virtual Conference through Zoom Registration in advance needed (on invitation & GLO members & Renmin University only): https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcvduuspzktG9yzjd46fLtWk3hGiHf8q1ls
Posted inEvents, News, Research|Comments Off on Chinese Labor Market: Third Renmin University – GLO Conference takes place virtually on December 19, 2020. Program and pre-registration information available now.
A new GLO Discussion Paper surveys the respective literature and provides a mixed picture about the role of unions for firm performance, for instance researchers found higher productivity but lower profitability.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: The impact of unions on firm performance has been the subject of debate and controversy in most industrialized countries, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. The purpose of this chapter is to review and assess the scope and limitations of the economic analysis of unions as well as the controversies surrounding the conclusions of existing empirical research. Although it is difficult to draw firm and general conclusions on the effects of unions on firm performance, the existing results lead us to consider unions not solely in terms of their costs for the company. Empirical results suggest that unionism is often associated with higher productivity but this relationship might vary across industries, institutional contexts and over time. Estimates of the causal mechanisms through which unions affect productivity allow a better understanding of the effects of unions. The literature on the effect of unions on productivity recognizes that part of this effect may work through reducing employee turnover and other mechanisms, such as technological and organizational innovations, which are essential factors of productivity growth. Recent studies dealing with the effects of unions on firm profits support Freeman and Medoff’s (1984) conclusion that unionization is associated with lower profitability. Finally, union activities, especially collective bargaining, trade off some economic efficiency for greater justice in workplaces and reduced inequalities.
School-to-Work Transition: An International Comparative Perspective
for: International Journal of Manpower. Guest Editor: Francesco Pastore. Professor Pastore is Head of the GLO Cluster on School-to-Work Transition and GLO Country Lead Italy.
Francesco Pastore
The school-to-work transition is at the centre of several academic and public debates. It is behind the debate on persistent youth unemployment in many countries. It is also at the centre of the debate on the future of work and the need to adapt educational and training institutions to the needs of the fourth industrial revolution which is ongoing at a pace which has been clearly accelerated by the COVID-19 emergency.
Posted inJournal Special Issue, News, Research|Comments Off on School-to-Work Transition: An International Comparative Perspective: Call for papers for a special issue.
A new GLO Discussion Paper assesses how the UK health care system performed against the norm of horizontal equity in health care access during the first wave of COVID-19 wave.There is no evidence that horizontal equity, with respect to income, was violated for NHS hospital outpatient and inpatient care during the first wave of the pandemic.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: Using monthly data from the Understanding Society (UKHLS) COVID-19 Survey we analyse the evolution of unmet need and assess how the UK health care system performed against the norm of horizontal equity in health care access during the first wave of COVID-19 wave. Unmet need was most evident for hospital care, and less pronounced for primary health services (medical helplines, GP consultations, local pharmacist advice, over the counter medications and prescriptions). Despite this, there is no evidence that horizontal equity, with respect to income, was violated for NHS hospital outpatient and inpatient care during the first wave of the pandemic. There is evidence of pro-rich inequities in access to GP consultations, prescriptions and medical helplines at the peak of the first wave, but these were eliminated as the pandemic progressed. There are persistent pro-rich inequities for services that relate to individuals’ ability to pay (over the counter medications and advice from the local pharmacist).
A new GLO Discussion Paper reviews the literature on the wellbeing of union members. Union members can be expected to exhibit higher job satisfaction than comparable non-members, but this is not consistent with empirical findings.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: If individuals join a trade union their utility should increase. Therefore, union members can be expected to exhibit higher job satisfaction than comparable non-members. This expectation is not consistent with empirical findings. The evidence sometimes indicates that union members have lower job satisfaction, but overall suggests the absence of a robust correlation. This survey discusses empirically relevant determinants of the relationship between trade union membership and job satisfaction. It distinguishes settings in which a trade union provides public goods from those in which it restricts the provision of benefits to its members. Furthermore, the survey summarizes the empirical evidence and indicates possible future research issues.
A new GLO Discussion Paper outlines the key theoretical channels by which worker voice can affect political and civic participation, highlights important methodological challenges in identifying causal relationships and mechanisms, and summarizes the major research findings pertaining to nonunion and union voice.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: Worker voice can relate to political and civic participation in numerous ways. Individual and collective voice can equip individuals with skills and attitudes that increase political engagement, and unions also explicitly encourage members to be politically aware, vote, and run for office. Labor unions and union federations are also often direct participants in the political and policy-making process. This chapter outlines the key theoretical channels by which worker voice can affect political and civic participation, highlights important methodological challenges in identifying causal relationships and mechanisms, and summarizes the major research findings pertaining to nonunion and union voice. In summarizing the major theoretical alternatives, a distinction is made between (a) experiential spillovers in which political and civic participation is facilitated by workers’ experience with voice, and (b) intentional efforts by voice institutions, especially labor unions, to increase political and civic participation. In practice, however, the experiential versus intentional transmission mechanisms can be hard to distinguish, so the review of the empirical record is structured around individual-level voice versus collective voice, especially labor unions. Attention is also devoted to the aggregate effects of and participation in the political arena by labor unions. Overall, a broad approach is taken which includes not only classic issues such higher voting rates among union members, but also emerging issues such as whether union members are less likely to vote for extremist parties and the conditions under which labor unions are likely to be influential in the political sphere.
A new GLO Discussion Paper finds that social identityreflected by caste and gender affect future aspirations negatively.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: This study investigates the relationship between individuals’ social identity and their future aspirations in a developing country. We analyse primary survey data from participants of a large-scale skill-training programme that targets rural poor youths in India, focusing on two dimensions of individuals’ identity: caste and gender. Our empirical findings suggest that training participants from the most socially disadvantaged groups – Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Scheduled Caste (SC) – have significantly lower income aspiration when compared to Other Backward Class (OBC) and Other Caste (OC) participants. Female participants also have significantly lower aspiration than their male counterparts. The aspiration gaps exist even after controlling for various background characteristics, including participants’ pre-training personality traits and soft skills. Individual-level and household-level factors mediate some of the aspiration gaps based on caste and gender. We find evidence that for SC/ST female participants, the disadvantages on both caste and gender dimensions add up; this is reflected in their lower income aspiration levels, in comparison with all other groups. Thus, our results support the hypothesis of “double jeopardy” instead of “intersectionality” in this context.
A new paper published online in the Journal of Population Economicsfinds for European countries that parents who are firstborns are better educated and have more educated children compared with later born parents.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
The intergenerational effects of birth order on education by Enkelejda Havari and Marco Savegnago
Published ONLINE: Journal of Population Economics, scheduled for 2021. OPEN ACCESS!!
Author Abstract: We study the intergenerational effect of birth order on educational attainment using rich data from different European countries included in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). The survey allows us to link two or more generations in different countries. We use reduced-form models linking children’s education to parents’ education, controlling for a large number of characteristics measured at different points in time. We find that not only are parents who are themselves firstborns better educated, on average, but they also have more-educated children compared with laterborn parents (intergenerational effect). Results are stronger for mothers than for fathers, and for daughters than for sons. In terms of heterogeneous effects, we find that girls born to firstborn mothers have higher educational attainment than girls born to laterborn mothers. We do not find evidence for potential channels other than parental education that could explain the intergenerational effect of parental birth order.
A new GLO Discussion Paper studies the distributional properties of VAT to reveal who bears higher payments, natives or migrants. There are no gaps in Germany, but in France and Spain.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: This paper contributes to the literature on the distributional properties of VAT analysing who bears higher VAT payments between native and migrant household in France, Germany and Spain. The question is of interest both from a distributional and fiscal perspective, fitting the ongoing debate of the net fiscal impact of immigration. Using data from the 2010 EU HBS and a simple VAT calculator we show the existence of gaps in effective VAT rates between native and migrant households in France and in Spain, while no significant gap is observed in Germany. Our results also confirm the existing evidence on the regressivity of VAT with respect to income. These findings suggest that the fairness consequences of VAT reforms should be carefully assessed and advocate for the importance of considering indirect taxation when assessing the fiscal cost of migration.
A new GLO Discussion Paper studies the influence of ozone pollution on labor productivity in China.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: Ground-level ozone is a continuing problem worldwide, but research on the influences of ozone pollution on labour productivity in developing countries is insufficient. We investigate the effect of ozone pollution on outdoor worker productivity in the service sector using a unique panel dataset of courier productivities from a top five express company in China. Using an instrumental variable constructed from ozone pollution of upwind nearby cities, we find that a one-standard-deviation increase in daily ozone pollution decreases courier productivity by 8.91%. The same increase in ozone in the previous 30 days decreases worker productivity by 37.9%.
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