Search results

THE European Fighter Aircraft (EFA) is an 800‐aircraft programme to equip the airforces of Great Britain, West Germany, Italy and Spain with an agile, single seat, twin engine, air combat fighter. British Aerospace, MBB, Aeritalia and CASA have formed the Munich based Eurofighter company to manage the programme with the work split 33; 33; 21; and 13% to match each country's share of the 800 aircraft.

This theoretical study aims to clarify the (a priori) ambiguous effect of homeownership on unemployment. In general, in fact, homeownership discourages job mobility, but homeowners are less likely to be unemployed than tenants, since homeownership would seem to be positively related to human capital.

This study develops a modified version of the benchmark theoretic model of the labour market – the well-known “equilibrium unemployment theory” – where homeownership affects both the “Beveridge Curve” (BC, by means of job immobility) and the “Job Creation Condition” (JCC, by means of human capital).

The general result is that an increase in homeownership increases unemployment. Therefore, policymakers could encourage job mobility, before facilitating homeownership. This policy implication, however, may not apply in the case of high inflation and/or low nominal interest rate, and when the job destruction rate depends on the homeownership rate.

The model studies the steady-state equilibrium of the labour market, so the policy implications only relate to the long-run. The model, therefore, does not consider the short-run effects of homeownership on unemployment (which may differ from the long-term results).

The model suggests a public policy characterised by large investment in rail lines and subsidised commuter fares. By promoting a more efficient allocation of workers across regions (and, thus, job mobility), indeed, this policy can be a good way to increase employment, without harming homeownership.

The practical implication of this model is also a social implication, since it relates to homeownership and housing tenure.

To the best of author’s knowledge, this is the first model that introduces the key role of homeownership in the so-called “Equilibrium unemployment theory”. Precisely, the model uses a modified version of both the BC (which includes the negative effect of homeownership on the overall job search intensity of unemployed workers) and the JCC (which includes the positive effect of homeownership on both the business start-up and the human capital of workers). By comparing these two opposite effects, this theoretical work makes clearer the net effect of homeownership on unemployment.

This paper aims to examine the short-term effect of the Arizona Immigration Law of 2010 (SB 1070) on the noncitizen Hispanic state population.

To get a consistent estimate of this effect, a synthetic control method has been used to calculate a suitable counterfactual.

Results indicate that this bill produced a statistically significant short-term reduction in the proportion of noncitizen Hispanics in Arizona between 10 and 15 per cent. However, the evidence suggests that this effect vanishes after a few months.

These findings are consistent with previous evidence of the high mobility of the undocumented population in the US, and contribute to the understanding of the effects of federal and state-level immigration legislation.

Este artículo examina el efecto a corto plazo de la Ley de Inmigración de Arizona de 2010 (SB 1070) sobre la población hispana no ciudadana.

Para obtener una estimación consistente sobre este efecto, he utilizado un método de control sintético para calcular una hipótesis de contraste adecuada.

Los resultados indican que este proyecto produjo una reducción a corto plazo estadísticamente significativa en la proporción de hispanos no ciudadanos en Arizona —entre el 10% y el 15%—. Sin embargo, la evidencia sugiere que este efecto desaparece después de unos meses.

Estos hallazgos son consistentes con la evidencia previa de la alta movilidad de la población indocumentada en los Estados Unidos, y contribuyen a la comprensión de los efectos de la legislación de inmigración federal y estatal.

Población hispana, Inmigración ilegal, Control sintético

Artículo de investigación

The economic literature starting with Borjas (2001) suggests that immigrants are more flexible than natives in responding to changing sectoral, occupational and spatial shortages in the labor market. The purpose of this paper is to study the relative responsiveness to labor shortages by immigrants from various origins, skills and tenure in the country vis-à-vis the natives, and how it varied over the business cycle during the Great Recession.

Using data primarily from the EU Labor Force Survey and the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, the authors calculate a wage-based measure of labor shortages in the first stage while in the second stage the authors use them in a first-differences fixed-effects model as a regressor to explain changes in immigrants’ distribution across sectors, occupations and countries vis-à-vis the natives.

The authors show that immigrants have responded to changing labor shortages across EU member states, occupations and sectors at least as much and in many cases more flexibly than natives. This effect is especially significant for low-skilled immigrants from the new member states or with the medium number of years since migration, as well as with high-skilled immigrants with relatively few (one to five) or many (11+) years since migration. The relative responsiveness of some immigrant groups declined during the crisis years (those from Europe outside the EU or with 11 or more years since migration), whereas other groups of immigrants became particularly fluid during the Great Recession, such as those from new member states.

The results suggest that immigrants may play an important role in labor adjustment during times of asymmetric economic shocks, and support the case for well-designed immigration policy and free movement of workers within the EU. Some limitations include alternative interpretations of the wage premium as our measure of shortage, as well as possible endogeneity of this measure in the model.

The results provide new insights into the functioning of the European Single Market and the roles various immigrant groups play for its stabilization through labor adjustment during the times of uneven economic development across sectors, occupations and countries.

Decades of impact evaluation of vocational training have produced very heterogeneous findings. If heterogeneity can be ascribed to the diversity in contents and target population, it can be reduced analyzing specific subprograms. The purpose of this paper is to focus on Italian “Post Diploma” training, which consists of intensive courses for unemployed holding a high school degree. Evidence on the benefits for different types of workers is provided, distinguishing in particular between common unemployed and those who attend training as a further investment in human capital after finishing their schooling.

The evaluation is based on a non-experimental control group design. Exploiting extremely rich administrative data, impact estimates are obtained via propensity score matching. The robustness of results is checked through extensive sensitivity analysis.

The results suggest a positive impact on the employment probability, also in the long run. Training is particularly effective for people who attend it just after finishing high school. Cost-benefit analysis yields a positive rate return on public investment only after more than five years.

The study focuses on a limited and homogeneous segment of training in order to provide more exploitable evidence for program design purposes. Due to its specific characteristics and aims, Post Diploma training represents an example of intervention which, unlike many programs for unemployed, works better for the youngest. The conclusions stress the general need for evaluations that properly account for the cost of an intervention and its effectiveness in the long run.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effect of the recent Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Dependent Mandate (DM) that requires health insurers to extend dependent coverage to the children of their insured, up to age 26. The DM has the potential to free young persons from “job lock,” enabling them to engage in entrepreneurial activity. Using the American Community Survey, the authors analyze the change in self-employment for ages 18-25 relative to the implementation of the DM.

The authors approach the research question in a unique manner and in doing so, extend the literature. Employing national data, the authors focus on young adults impacted by the DM (those under the age of 26 may remain on their parents’ insurance). While the DM is a condition of the ACA, prior to its implementation several states had already passed their own such provision. The authors exploit this state-by-state variation in the methodology.

The authors find no evidence that the ACA has stimulated self-employment among all young adults. However, the authors determine that the DM has a positive and significant effect on the likelihood of students being self-employed. The result is even more pronounced when using a stricter definition of entrepreneurship, an incorporated business. Sub-group analyses show no evidence of a significant effect on entrepreneurship among young adults in other groups. The results remain after conducting various falsification tests.

The paper empirically addresses the commonly held belief that the ACA is creating new businesses via reduced job lock. Policy makers may wish to target other explanations of job lock rather than health insurance availability.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current state of the single European labor market (SELM), its related risks and opportunities, and identify useful measures for reaching the goal of increased European labor mobility.

The authors conducted an online survey among European labor market experts (IZA research and policy fellows) on the current state of the SELM, its determinants, and the role of the Great Recession. The authors evaluate the data using descriptive and regression-based methods.

The experts agree on the SELM’s importance, especially for larger economic welfare, but are not convinced that it has been achieved. To enhance labor mobility across Europe, the respondents identify key factors such as recognizing professional qualifications more efficiently, harmonizing social security systems, and knowing several languages. Moreover, at least 50 percent of the respondents consider positive attitudes – by policy makers and citizens alike – toward free mobility to be important to enhance labor mobility.

The IZA Expert Opinion Survey presents a unique opportunity to learn how numerous experts think about the important issue of European labor market integration and moreover constitutes a valuable extension to public opinion surveys on related topics. This survey’s findings provide a sophisticated basis for a discussion about policy options regarding the SELM.

This paper aims to investigate the effects of contractionary fiscal policy shocks on major Greek macroeconomic variables within a structural vector autoregression framework while accounting for debt dynamics.

The sign restriction approach is applied to identify a linear combination of government spending and government revenue shock simultaneously while accounting for debt dynamics. Additionally, output and unemployment responses to fiscal shocks under different scenarios concerning the amalgamation of austerity measures are considered.

The results indicate that a contractionary consumption policy shock, namely, a 1 per cent decrease in government consumption and a 1 per cent increase in indirect taxes, is preferred, as it produces a minor decrease in output and substantially decreases public debt, while a contractionary wage policy shock is suitable only when the government aims to sharply reduce public debt, as the consequences for the economy are harsh. A contractionary investment policy shock is not recommended, as it triggers a rise in unemployment and a fall in output, while the effect on the public debt is minor.

Policymakers should focus their efforts on reducing unproductive government consumption on the expenditure side. Concerning revenues, the reinforcement of tax administration is recommended to ensure that indirect taxes will be collected.

This paper contributes to the existing literature by providing a disaggregated analysis of the effects of fiscal policy actions in Greece by implementing several fiscal policy scenarios and accounting for the level of public debt. All scenarios are in the vein of the economic adjustment programs guidelines.

Influences on the pattern of internal migration in the US, including economic factors, quality-of-life factors and public policy variables have been extensively studied by regional scientists since the early 1970s. Interestingly, a small number of studies also address the effects of economic freedom on migration. The purpose of this paper is to add to the migration literature by examining the impact of labor market freedom on both gross and net state in-migration over the study period 2008–2016.

This study uses dynamic panel data analysis to investigate the impact of labor market freedom on both gross and net state in-migration over the study period 2008–2016.

The panel generalized method of moments analysis reveals that overall labor market freedom exercised a positive and statistically significant impact on both measures of state in-migration over the study period. The study finds a 1 percentage point increase in the overall labor market freedom index results in a 2.8 percent increase in the gross in-migration rate.

The findings imply states interested in attracting migrants and stimulating economic growth should pursue policies consistent with increased labor freedom.

The emphasis in the present study is on the impact of labor market freedom on state-level in-migration patterns, both gross and net, over a contemporary time period that includes both the Great Recession and subsequent recovering.

The administration of social assistance benefits is devolved to local agencies in Belgium, which raises questions about how much variation in spell lengths of benefit receipt is associated with differences across agencies. We address this issue by analysing the monthly hazard of benefit exit using administrative record data for 14,270 individuals in 574 welfare agencies. Our random-effects model allows for differences in both the observed and unobserved characteristics of beneficiaries and of local agencies. There are large differences in median benefit duration for individuals serviced by different welfare agencies: the range is from two months to more than 24 months. We find strong associations between beneficiary characteristics (sex, age, foreign nationality, citizenship acquisition, work history and being a student) and spell length. The estimates show higher odds of exiting social assistance receipt in bigger municipalities and in agencies which provide more generous supplementary assistance, and also strong evidence of shorter episodes in agencies where active labour market programme participation rates are higher.