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There is a well-established positive correlation between life-satisfaction measures and income in individual level cross-sectional data. This paper attempts to provide some evidence on whether this correlation reflects causality running from money to happiness. I use industry wage differentials as instruments for income. This is based on the idea that at least part of these differentials is due to rents, and part of the pattern of industry affiliations of individuals is random. To probe the validity of these assumptions, I compare estimates for life satisfaction with those for job satisfaction, present fixed effects estimates, and present estimates for married women using their husbands' industry as the instrument. All these specifications paint a fairly uniform picture across three different data sets. [Instrumental variables] IV estimates are similar to the [ordinary least square] OLS estimates suggesting that most of the association of income and well-being is causal.

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The chapter is part of a book that adds to the literature on the sociology of employment by comparing the quality of working life in European societies with very different institutional systems: France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain and Sweden. In particular, it focuses on skills and skill development, opportunities for training, the scope for initiative in work, the difficulty of combining work and family life and the security of employment. This chapter contains an empirical analysis of the structure and change in skills and wages in the five countries, with a focus on the job, or demand, side of skills. The author begins with a look at the structure of skills, including skill formation and the economic returns to skills, then examines trends in the level and distribution of skills. Throughout the change analysis, there is a consideration of inequality by class and gender, including long-term change analysis of gender segregation. Differences in skills and wages by industry and employment contract are also examined.

The book from which this chapter is taken is indexed at TD/TNC 98.593. Individual chapters are indexed from TD/TNC 98.594 to TD/TNC 98.600. Show less

[This] study assesses whether high school science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses provide non-college bound youth with the skills and training necessary to successfully transition from high school into the STEM economy. Specifically, [the] study estimates the effects that advanced math, advanced science, engineering, and computer science courses in high school have on the probability that non-college bound youth will obtain employment in the STEM economy and on wages within two years of graduating from high school. [The] findings indicate that STEM coursework is unrelated with the probability of securing a job in the STEM economy and is unrelated with wages two years post high school graduation.

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First published online 29 September 2016 by Routledge, Taylor and Francis. Show less

[Chief executive officers] CEOs affect the performance of the firms they manage, and family CEOs seem to weaken it. Yet little is known about what top executives actually do, and whether it differs by firm ownership. [The authors] study CEOs in the Indian manufacturing sector, where family ownership is widespread and the productivity dispersion across firms is substantial. Time use analysis of 356 CEOs of listed firms yields three sets of findings. First, there is substantial variation in the number of hours CEOs devote to work activities, and longer working hours are associated with higher firm productivity, growth, profitability and CEO pay. Second, family CEOs record eight per cent fewer working hours relative to professional CEOs. The difference in hours worked is more pronounced in low-competition environments and does not seem to be explained by measurement error. Third, difference in differences estimates with respect to the cost of effort, due to weather shocks and popular sport events, reveal that the observed difference between family and professional CEOs is consistent with heterogeneous preferences for work versus leisure. Evidence from six other countries reveals similar findings in economies at different stages of development.

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This study uses data from the Labour Force Survey to examine whether offshorable service-sector occupations and other comparable occupations have displayed similar wage growth since the late 1990s. The analysis allows results to vary across service-sector occupations and worker characteristics. Of all jobs held in the private service sector, about one in four is potentially subject to service offshoring. Service-sector jobs most susceptible to service offshoring are held by workers employed in business, finance and administrative occupations (e.g., secretaries, clerks and telephone operators) or in natural and applied sciences (e.g., computer programmers, engineers and architects). More than one-half of these workers are in offshorable positions. Because they generally require face-to-face contact or involve a service that cannot be transmitted by information and communication technologies, jobs in sales and service occupations and those in retail trade, accommodation and food services are the least susceptible to service offshoring. Overall, at most six per cent of these jobs are offshorable. Overall, wages in offshorable service-sector jobs and in other service-sector jobs have grown at a similar pace since the late 1990s. Between 1998 and 2009, real wages in offshorable occupations and other service-producing occupations grew roughly 15 per cent. In some occupational groups, wages grew at a different pace. Among workers with similar characteristics, wages in offshorable clerical occupations grew two percentage points less than those in non-offshorable business, finance and administrative occupations between the periods from 1998 to 2000 and from 2006 to 2009. Meanwhile, wages in offshorable jobs in natural and applied sciences increased five percentage points faster than among other natural and applied sciences occupations.

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This paper examines the education premium in Singapore. Using a large dataset drawn from the 2000 Survey on Educational Qualifications, we estimate the premium on various levels of education. The average number of years of schooling among the employed was estimated to be 10.1 years, which suggests a general increase in educational attainment when compared to earlier studies. The proportion of degree holders among the labour force has also risen from less than 5% in the early 1980s to more than 17%, currently. Our econometric work, which makes use of the standard Mincerian human capital earnings equation, confirms a relatively high premium on higher education in Singapore. On average, a worker who invests in an additional year of education is expected to increase his earnings by 13.2%. This estimate of the premium on education falls within the range of 10-13% estimated in earlier studies done on some of the Asian countries. In addition, there is evidence of a positive ‘interaction’ effect between education and work experience, implying that the wages of more educated workers increase at a faster rate than those of the less educated, as work experience increases. The results indicating a strong premium on post-secondary education and beyond imply that it is rational for individuals to invest in education. The standard Mincerian equation was also estimated separately for subgroups of data, segregated by industry and occupation types. We find that, in general, the premiums on education and work experience tend to be higher among the industries with a higher proportion of higher skilled workers (such as the financial intermediation industry), as well as among white-collar jobs (such as professionals and managers).

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This address to a Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) event discusses spare capacity in the labour market from four perspectives: (1) the rates of unemployment and underemployment; (2) the flexibility of labour supply; (3) the effectiveness with which people are matched with job vacancies; and (4) trends in wages growth. The speech finishes with some comments on monetary policy.

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less

'Key indicators of the labour market' (KILM) provides 20 labour market indicators: Labour force participation rate; Employment-to-population ratio; Status in employment; Employment by sector; Part-time employment; Hours or work; Employment in the informal economy; Unemployment; Youth unemployment; Long-term unemployment; Unemployment by educational attainment; Time-related underemployment; Inactivity rate; Educational attainment and illiteracy; Manufacturing wages indices; Occupational wage and earning indices; Hourly compensation costs; Labour productivity and unit labour costs; Employment elasticities; Poverty. Show less

Previous research confirms that many employees work in jobs not well matched to their skills and education, resulting in lower pay and job satisfaction. While this literature typically uses cross-sectional data, we examine the evolution of mismatch and its consequences over a career, by using a panel data set of scientists in the USA. The results show that both the incidence of mismatch and its negative consequences appear concentrated among those late in careers. This suggests that past studies of mismatch may exaggerate the degree of inefficiency in labor market matching.

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The paper investigates the economic benefits and costs of higher education as these are perceived by higher education candidates and labour market entrants in Cyprus. It provides further evidence on the topic after a similar study which preceded the present project by 10 years. Perceived rates of return to education are presented for two points in time, namely, 1993 and 2003. The findings point to an increasing awareness of the link between education and earnings on the part of young people, which can be linked to the country’s economic development. The main influences on the respondents’ expected lifetime earnings are examined through multiple regression analysis. Gender and ability are found to be significantly related to expected earnings.

Published abstract reprinted from ‘International journal of educational development’, copyright 2008, with permission from Elsevier. Show less