Search Results | VOCEDplus, the international tertiary education and research database

From giving birth to paid labor: the effects of adult education for prime-aged mothers

Women without work after childbirth are at risk of losing their connection to the labor market. However, they may p ... Show more
Women without work after childbirth are at risk of losing their connection to the labor market. However, they may participate in adult education programs. We analyze the effect of this on the duration to work and on the wage rate, by applying conditional difference-in-differences approaches. We use Swedish matched longitudinal register data sets covering the full population. The Swedish adult education program is unprecedented in its size, and enrollment is universally available at virtually no cost. We focus on low-skilled women who have recently given birth. We take account of program accessibility, selection issues, course heterogeneity, the income received during adult education, parental leave, and child care fees. To understand the enrollment decision from the mothers' point of view, we use the estimates to calibrate a job search model.
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Authors: Bergemann, Annette; Berg, Gerard J. van den

Corporate authors: Institute for the Study of Labour (Germany) (IZA)

Date: 2008

Geographic subjects: Europe; Sweden

Resource type: Report, paper or authored book

Series name: IZA discussion paper

Subjects: Participation; Adult and community education; Outcomes ... [+] Show more
School-to-career and post-secondary education: evidence from the Philadelphia Educational Longitudinal Study

We study a set of programs implemented in Philadelphia high schools that focus on boosting post-secondary enrollmen ... Show more
We study a set of programs implemented in Philadelphia high schools that focus on boosting post-secondary enrollment. These programs are less career oriented than traditional school-to-work programs, but are consistent with the broadening of the goals of school-to-work to emphasize post-secondary education. The Philadelphia Longitudinal Educational Study (PELS) data set that we examine contains an unusually large amount of information on individuals prior to placement in STC [school-to-career] programs. We use the detailed information in the PELS to study the process of selection into these programs and to examine their impact on a set of mainly schooling-related outcomes during and after high school, although we also consider their impact on non-academic outcomes. The data point to positive effects of these programs on high school graduation and on both academic and non-academic awards in high school, and similar negative effects on dropping out of high school. The results also suggest positive effects on aspirations for higher education and on college attendance. In addition, there is some evidence that these programs are more effective in increasing college attendance and aspirations among at-risk youths.
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Authors: Furstenberg, Frank F.; Neumark, David

Corporate authors: Institute for the Study of Labour (Germany) (IZA)

Date: 2005

Geographic subjects: North America; United States

Resource type: Report, paper or authored book

Series name: IZA discussion paper

Subjects: Research; Statistics; Providers of education and training ... [+] Show more
Learning but not earning?: the value of Job Corps training for Hispanic youths

The National Job Corps Study (NJCS) was a four-year longitudinal social experiment that randomized over 15,000 Job ... Show more
The National Job Corps Study (NJCS) was a four-year longitudinal social experiment that randomized over 15,000 Job Corps eligible applicants into treatment and control groups. Experimental estimators revealed a positive impact of Job Corps training in the weekly earnings of white and black youths 48 months after randomization, but not for Hispanic youths. This study considers explanations for why Job Corps does not increase the earnings of Hispanics in the NJCS. First, we show that the randomization in the NJCS did not create comparable treatment and control groups for Hispanics. We then apply alternative estimators that adjust for systematic differences in observable and time-invariant characteristics, but still find statistically insignificant effects of Job Corps 48 months after randomization. Finally, we estimate the ‘net treatment effect’ controlling for post-treatment experience to advance an explanation for why Job Corps fails to benefit Hispanics 48 months after randomization: nontreated Hispanics earn a significant amount of labor market experience during the study compared to all other groups. This higher level of experience translates into higher earnings that Hispanic treated individuals are not able to overcome by the end of the study, despite having higher earnings growth in the 48-month period of any group.
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Authors: Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso; Gonzalez, Arturo; Neumann, Todd

Corporate authors: Institute for the Study of Labour (Germany) (IZA)

Date: 2005

Geographic subjects: North America; United States

Resource type: Report, paper or authored book

Series name: IZA discussion paper

Subjects: Vocational education and training; Youth; Demographics ... [+] Show more
Return to training and establishment size: a reexamination of the size-wage puzzle

The paper reexamines the employer size-wage puzzle using NLSY79 [National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979] data. ... Show more
The paper reexamines the employer size-wage puzzle using NLSY79 [National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979] data. The empirical results show that even for those who never receive any training from their employers, size-wage premium still exists and is quantitatively important. Wage increases associated with receiving on-the-job training are less in large establishments than in small ones. In addition, there is no evidence that starting wages in large establishments are lower than in small establishments. Theories that explain the size-wage puzzle using training and other endogenous productivity differences are not consistent with these new findings.
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Authors: Feng, Shuaizhang

Corporate authors: Institute for the Study of Labour (Germany) (IZA)

Date: 2009

Resource type: Report, paper or authored book

Series name: IZA discussion paper

Subjects: Income; Research; Statistics ... [+] Show more
Labor market dynamics in Tunisia: the issue of youth unemployment

This paper analyzes the dynamics of the youth labor market in Tunisia using unique labor force survey data from 200 ... Show more
This paper analyzes the dynamics of the youth labor market in Tunisia using unique labor force survey data from 2005 to 2007 that include a longitudinal component. It first shows that sustained economic growth will reduce youth unemployment over the next few years. Second, forecasts indicate that the growth of private sector services has the highest potential to reduce youth unemployment. Third, the analysis of labor market characteristics reveals that young graduates experience long unemployment as they cue for high-skill jobs. Moreover, the public sector remains the main provider of employment opportunities for many graduates, in particular for women.
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Authors: Stampini, Marco; Verdier-Chouchane, Audrey

Corporate authors: Institute for the Study of Labour (Germany) (IZA)

Date: 2011

Geographic subjects: Tunisia; Africa

Resource type: Report, paper or authored book

Series name: IZA discussion paper

Subjects: Youth; Labour market; Employment ... [+] Show more
Training background and early retirement

Several studies show that employees with firm-specific skills are more likely to be covered by employer-sponsored p ... Show more
Several studies show that employees with firm-specific skills are more likely to be covered by employer-sponsored pension schemes than workers with general skills. Therefore it can be expected that workers with firm-specific skills retire earlier. This paper tests this prediction using US data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Older Men. We find that workers who participated in firm-specific training in their early careers retire earlier than workers with a general training background. This indicates that shared investments in firm-specific training are embedded in implicit contracts that induce early retirement. The results remain robust when controlling for technological change and work commitment.
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Authors: Montizaan, Raymond; Corvers, Frank; Grip, Andries de

Corporate authors: Institute for the Study of Labour (Germany) (IZA)

Date: 2008

Geographic subjects: North America; United States

Resource type: Report, paper or authored book

Series name: IZA discussion paper

Subjects: Statistics; Workforce development; Research ... [+] Show more
Job search and job finding in a period of mass unemployment: evidence from high-frequency longitudinal data

This paper presents findings from a survey of 6,025 unemployed workers who were interviewed every week for up to 24 ... Show more
This paper presents findings from a survey of 6,025 unemployed workers who were interviewed every week for up to 24 weeks in the fall of 2009 and spring of 2010. Our main findings are: (1) the amount of time devoted to job search declines sharply over the spell of unemployment; (2) the self-reported reservation wage predicts whether a job offer is accepted or rejected; (3) the reservation wage is remarkably stable over the course of unemployment for most workers, with the notable exception of workers who are over age 50 and those who had nontrivial savings at the start of the study; (4) many workers who seek full-time work will accept a part-time job that offers a wage below their reservation wage; and (5) the amount of time devoted to job search and the reservation wage help predict early exits from Unemployment Insurance (UI).
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Authors: Krueger, Alan B.; Mueller, Andreas

Corporate authors: Institute for the Study of Labour (Germany) (IZA)

Date: 2011

Geographic subjects: United States; North America

Resource type: Report, paper or authored book

Series name: IZA discussion paper

Subjects: Statistics; Employment; Income
Imperfect information, on-the-job training, and the employer size-wage puzzle: theory and evidence

This paper develops a two-period labor market model with imperfect information and on-the-job training, and uses da ... Show more
This paper develops a two-period labor market model with imperfect information and on-the-job training, and uses data from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Cohorts (NLSY79) to test its predictions. We find that training does not explain the positive relationship between employer size and wage. In addition, for industries that display size-wage premium, workers in large establishments are more likely to receive on-the-job training but their return to training is smaller. Our theory, substantiated by the new empirical evidence, suggests that it is not large firms, per se, but firms that hire better workers who are paying a wage premium.
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Authors: Feng, Shuaizhang; Zheng, Bingyong

Corporate authors: Institute for the Study of Labour (Germany) (IZA)

Date: 2010

Geographic subjects: United States; North America

Resource type: Report, paper or authored book

Series name: IZA discussion paper

Subjects: Labour market; Workforce development; Statistics ... [+] Show more
Returns for entrepreneurs vs. employees: the effect of education and personal control on the relative performance of entrepreneurs vs. wage employees

How valuable is education for entrepreneurs' performance as compared to employees'? What might explain any differen ... Show more
How valuable is education for entrepreneurs' performance as compared to employees'? What might explain any differences? And does education affect peoples' occupational choices accordingly? We answer these questions based on a large panel of US labor force participants. We show that education affects peoples' decisions to become an entrepreneur negatively. We show furthermore that entrepreneurs have higher returns to education than employees (in terms of the comparable performance measure 'income'). This is the case even when estimating individual fixed effects of the differential returns to education for spells in entrepreneurship versus wage employment, thereby accounting for selectivity into entrepreneurial positions based on fixed individual characteristics. We find these results irrespective of whether we control for general ability and/or whether we use instrumental variables to cope with the endogenous nature of education in income equations. Finally, we find (indirect) support for the argument that the higher returns to education for entrepreneurs is due to fewer (organizational) constraints faced by entrepreneurs when optimizing the profitable employment of their education. Entrepreneurs have more personal control over the profitable employment of their human capital than wage employees.
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Authors: Praag, Mirjam van; Witteloostuijn, Arjen van; Sluis, Justin van der

Corporate authors: Institute for the Study of Labour (Germany) (IZA)

Date: 2009

Geographic subjects: United States; North America

Resource type: Report, paper or authored book

Series name: IZA discussion paper

Subjects: Performance; Income; Career development ... [+] Show more
Long-term impact of youth minimum wages: evidence from two decades of individual longitudinal data

This paper quantifies the long-run impact of exposure to youth minimum wages and sheds light on its mechanisms. It ... Show more
This paper quantifies the long-run impact of exposure to youth minimum wages and sheds light on its mechanisms. It uses remarkable longitudinal data spanning for twenty years and explores legislative changes that define groups of teenagers exposed for different durations. After controlling for the contemporaneous impact of the minimum wage, its long-run impact translates into: an overall wage premium, consistent with an upgrading in the quality of jobs offered; a flatter tenure-earnings profile, consistent with lower initial investment in firm-specific training. Interestingly, the overall wage premium increases with exposure and the tenure-earnings profile is flatter the longer the exposure.
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Authors: Cardoso, Ana Rute

Corporate authors: Institute for the Study of Labour (Germany) (IZA)

Date: 2009

Geographic subjects: Portugal; Europe

Resource type: Report, paper or authored book

Series name: IZA discussion paper

Subjects: Youth; Statistics; Income ... [+] Show more