Institute for the Study of Labour(IZA)

IZA is a private, independent research institute, which conducts nationally and internationally oriented labor market research. It is closely associated with the Economics Department of the University of Bonn, Germany.

Address: IZA P.O. Box 7240 53072 Bonn Germany

Tel: +49-228-3894-0

Fax: +49-228-3894-180

Email Id: iza@iza.org

Website: http://www.iza.org

Paper Type:

Maternal Education, Parental Investment and Non-Cognitive Characteristics in Rural China

This paper evaluates the parental response to non-cognitive variation across siblings in rural Gansu province, China, employing a household fixed effects specification; the non-cognitive measures of i...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Jessica Leight | On 01 Jun 2018

Social Interactions and Stigmatized Behavior: “Donating” Blood Plasma in Rural China

Despite the resultant disutility, some people, in particular, the poor, are engaged in behaviors that carry social stigma. Empirical studies on stigmatized behavior are rare, largely due to the form...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Xi Chen | On 01 Mar 2018

Cities and Entrepreneurs over Time: Like a Horse and Carriage?

This paper explores the co-evolution of entrepreneurship and cities. First, it provides a stylized model of development wherein the rise of cities (urbanisation) is the outcome of the activities of en...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Wim Naudé | On 01 Dec 2017

Mechanics of Replacing Benefit Systems with a Basic Income: Comparative Results from a Microsimulation Approach

Recent debates of basic income (BI) proposals shine a useful spotlight on the challenges that traditional forms of income support are increasingly facing, and highlight gaps in social provisions that...

Section: Discussion Papers

by James Browne | On 01 Dec 2017

Urban Consumption Inequality in China, 1995–2013

The paper uses 1995, 2002 and 2013 CHIP data to investigate the urban household consumption expenditure inequality. The overall inequality of urban household consumption expenditure measured by Gini c...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Qingjie Xia | On 01 Nov 2017

Severe Air Pollution and School Absences: Longitudinal Data on Expatriates in North China

The paper uses a six-year panel of 6,500 students at three international schools in a major city in north China to estimate how fluctuation in ambient PM2.5 over the preceding fortnight impacts daily...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Haoming Liu | On 01 Nov 2017

Does Information Empower the Poor? Evidence from Indonesia’s Social Security Card

In 2013, the Government of Indonesia conducted one of the largest information interventions in history, in an attempt to further alleviate poverty and as a complement to the Social Protection Card (KP...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Achmad Tohari | On 01 Nov 2017

Inequality, Good Governance and Endemic Corruption

Can a society suffering contests between rich and poor achieve good governance in the face of endemic corruption? The paper examines a stylized poor state with weak institutions in which a “culture of...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Gil S. Epstein | On 01 Nov 2017

Digital Challenges for the Welfare State

Digitalization is the buzzword under which profound changes of the labor market can be summarized. Next to automation, i.e., the increasing use of robots, “intelligent” machines and more comprehensive...

Section: Policy Papers/Policy Briefs

by Werner Eichhorst | On 01 Nov 2017

The Determinants of Virtue: Modelling Changes in the CSR Ratings of Chinese Firms

Most empirical studies on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) use cross-sectional data or case studies, making causality hard to establish. The paper overcomes this limitation by using panel data on...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Shuangqi Wu | On 01 Nov 2017

Adverse Welfare Shocks and Pro-Environmental Behaviour: Evidence from the Global Economic Crisis

This paper examines the effects of the 2008–09 global economic crisis on people’s pro-environmental behaviour and willingness to pay for climate change mitigation. The paper hypothesise that the crisi...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Artjoms Ivlevs | On 01 Nov 2017

Temperature Effects on Productivity and Factor Reallocation: Evidence from a Half Million Chinese Manufacturing Plants

This paper uses detailed production data from a half million Chinese manufacturing plants over 1998-2007 to estimate the effects of temperature on firm-level total factor productivity (TFP), factor in...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Peng Zhang | On 01 Nov 2017

Spillovers in Education Choice

This paper examines how skills are shaped by social interactions in families. The paper shows that older siblings causally affect younger sibling’s education choices and early career earnings. The pap...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Juanna Schrøter Joensen | On 01 Nov 2017

Graduation Incentives Through Conditional Student Loan Forgiveness

The paper evaluates a Finish student financing reform which created substantial financial incentives for on-time graduation, and had the side effect of turning expected nominal interest rates on stude...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Ulla Hämäläinen | On 01 Nov 2017

Labor Market Engagement and the Health of Working Adults: Evidence from India

This paper examines the effect of occupational engagement and work intensity on the weight of urban working women and men in India. Using nationally representative data, a variety of specifications th...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Archana Dang | On 01 Oct 2017

Basic Income and a Public Job Offer: Complementary Policies to Reduce Poverty and Unemployment

Unconditional basic income, or a job guarantee by government as employer-of-last-resort, are usually discussed as alternative policies, though the first does not provide the benefits of an earned inco...

Section: Policy Papers/Policy Briefs

by Felix FitzRoy | On 01 Sep 2017

Household Income Mobility in India: 1993-2011

Using nationally representative longitudinal survey, the paper examines the income mobility among rural (urban) Indian households over 1993-2004 and 2004-2011 (2004-2011). The paper finds mobility est...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Mehtabul Azam | On 01 Oct 2016

Trade Liberalization and Child Labor in China

This paper exploits a quasi-natural experiment the U.S. Granting of Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) to China after China’s accession to the World Trade Organization – to examine whether t...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Liqiu Zhao | On 01 Oct 2016

Do Men Matter to Female Competition Even When They Don’t?

A large literature attempts to identify factors that contribute to gender differences in performance and in the decision to compete. We exploit a highly competitive environment in which elite-female a...

Section: Working Papers

by Erica G. Birk | On 01 Sep 2016

Vulnerability to Poverty: Tajikistan During and After the Global Financial Crisis

The paper examines vulnerability to poverty in Tajikistan during the global financial crisis, focusing on the roles played by international migration and remittances, using a formal, practical, and ea...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Ira N. Gang | On 01 Jul 2016

Searching for Religious Discrimination among Anganwadi Workers in India: An Experimental Investigation

This paper examines whether, in India, discriminatory practices by government-employed child caregivers along religious lines, lead to differential health outcomes among the care receiving children. C...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Utteeyo Dasgupta | On 01 Jul 2016

The Impact of Micro-Credit on Employment: Evidence from Bangladesh and Pakistan

This paper examines the impact of micro-credit on employment. Household-level data was collected, following a quasi-experimental design, in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Three borrower groups are compared:...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Azhar Kahn | On 01 Jul 2016

Chinese Returnees and High-tech Sector Outward FDI: The Case of Changzhou

The rapid growth and high levels of internationalization by Chinese firms, raise a natural interest in the study of the factors which have led the notable international presence of Chinese firms. In t...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Zhao Chen | On 01 Jul 2016

Choosing a Partner for Social Exchange: Charitable Giving as a Signal of Trustworthiness

People benefit from being perceived as trustworthy. Examples include sellers trying to attract buyers, or candidates in elections trying to attract voters. In a laboratory experiment using exchange ga...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Sebastian Fehrler | On 01 Jun 2016

Can War Foster Cooperation?

In the past decade, nearly 20 studies have found a strong, persistent pattern in surveys and behavioral experiments from over 40 countries: individual exposure to war violence tends to increase social...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Michal Bauer | On 01 Jun 2016

Peace, Terrorism, or Civil Conflict? Understanding the Decision of an Opposition Group

This paper models an opposition group’s choice between peace, terrorism, and open conflict. Terrorism emerges if executive constraints are intermediate and rents are sizeable. Open conflict is predict...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Michael Jetter | On 01 Jun 2016

Is Partisan Alignment Electorally Rewarding? Evidence from Village Council Elections in India

Do ruling parties positively discriminate in favour of their own constituencies in allocating public resources? If they do, do they gain electorally in engaging in such a practice? This paper tests wh...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Subhasish Dey | On 01 Jun 2016

How Successful Are Banking Sector Reforms in Emerging Market Economies? Evidence from Impact of Monetary Policy on Levels and Structures of Firm Debt in India

In this paper investigates the success of banking reforms in India where significant banking reforms have been introduced since 1990s. Using the argument that well functioning credit markets would ref...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Sumon Kumar Bhaumik | On 01 Jun 2016

Capabilities and Skills

This paper discusses the relevance of recent research on the economics of human development to the work of the Human Development and Capability Association. The recent economics of human development b...

Section: Discussion Papers

by James J. Heckman | On 01 Jun 2016

The Intimate Link between Income Levels and Life Expectancy: Global Evidence from 213 Years

The paper finds a systematic and economically sizeable relationship between income levels and life expectancy in a panel dataset of 197 countries over 213 years. By itself, GDP/capita explains more th...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Michael Jetter | On 01 Jun 2016

Valuing Air Quality Using Happiness Data: The Case of China

This paper estimates the monetary value of cutting PM2.5, a dominant source of air pollution in China. By matching hedonic happiness in a nationally representative survey with daily air quality data a...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Xin Zhang | On 01 Jun 2016

The Effect of Pollution on Worker Productivity: Evidence from Call-Center Workers in China

The paper investigates the effect of pollution on worker productivity in the service sector by focusing on two call centers in China. Using precise measures of each worker’s daily output linked to dai...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Tom Chang | On 01 Jun 2016

Parental Unemployment and Child Health in China

This paper studies the causal effect of maternal and paternal unemployment on child health in China, analyzing panel data for the period 1997-2004, when the country underwent economic reforms leading...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Janneke Pieters | On 01 Jun 2016

Does Social Health Insurance Reduce Financial Burden? Panel Data Evidence from India

Indian government launched the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), a national health insurance scheme, in 2008 that provides cashless health services to poor households in India. The scheme is eval...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Mehtabul Azam | On 01 Jun 2016

Old-Age Pension and Extended Families: How is Adult Children’s Internal Migration Affected?

This paper makes use of the most recent social pension reform in rural China to examine whether receipt of the pension payment equips adult children of pensioners to migrate. Employing a regression di...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Xi Chen | On 01 Jun 2016

Evaluating Labour Market Policy

This pper reviews major approaches and findings on the evaluation of the impact of different labour market institutions but pays particular attention to active labour market policies that play an impo...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Werner Eichhorst | On 01 May 2016

Optimal Unemployment Benefit Policy and the Firm Productivity Distribution

This paper provides a novel justification for a declining time profile of unemployment benefits that does not rely on moral hazard or consumption-smoothing considerations. It considers a simple search...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Tomer Blumkin | On 01 May 2016

Coerced Labor in the Cotton Sector: How Global Commodity Prices (Don’t) Transmit to the Poor

This paper investigates the economic fortunes of coerced vs. free workers in a global supply chain. To identify the differential treatment of otherwise similar workers we resort to a unique exogenous...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Alexander M. Danzer | On 01 May 2016

Job Creation in a Multi-Sector Labor Market Model for Developing Economies

This paper proposes an overlapping generations multi-sector model of the labor market for developing countries with three heterogeneities – heterogeneity within self-employment, heterogeneity in abili...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Arnab K. Basu | On 01 May 2016

Does Greater Autonomy among Women Provide the Key to Better Child Nutrition?

The paper examine the link between a mother’s autonomy – the freedom and ability to think, express, act and make decisions independently – and the nutritional status of her children. There is a desig...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Wiji Arulampalam | On 01 Feb 2016

Does Joining the EU Make You Happy? Evidence from Bulgaria and Romania

We examine the effect of joining the European Union on individual life satisfaction in Bulgaria and Romania in the context of the 2007 EU enlargement. Although EU membership is among the most importan...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Milena Nikolova | On 01 Jan 2016

Subjective Well-being in China, 2005-2010: The Role of Relative Income, Gender and Location

We use data from two rounds of the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) to study the determinants of subjective well-being in China over the period 2005-2010 during which self-reported happiness score...

Section: Discussion Papers

by M. Niaz Asadullah | On 01 Jan 2016

Local Labor Market Conditions and Crime: Evidence from the Brazilian Trade Liberalization

This paper estimates the effect of local labor market conditions on crime in a developing country with high crime rates. Contrary to the previous literature, which has focused exclusively on developed...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Rafael Dix-Carneiro | On 01 Jan 2016

Temporary and Permanent Migrant Selection: Theory and Evidence of Ability-Search Cost Dynamics

The migrant selection literature concentrates primarily on spatial patterns. This paper illustrates the implications of migration duration for patterns of selection by integrating two workhorses of th...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Joyce Chen | On 01 Jan 2016

Remittances and Expenditure Patterns of the Left Behinds in Rural China

This paper investigates how private transfers from internal migration in China affect the expenditure behaviour of families left behind in rural areas. Using data from the Rural-Urban Migration in Chi...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Sylvie Démurger | On 01 Jan 2016

Leader Networks and Transaction Costs: A Chinese Experiment in Interjurisdictional Contracting

Do leader networks promote efficient intergovernmental contracts? We examine a groundbreaking policy in China where subprovincial governments freely traded land conversion quotas and investigate the r...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Nancy H. Chau | On 01 Jan 2016

Higher Education Expansion and Labor Market Outcomes for Young College Graduates

We examine the causal impact of China's higher education expansion on labor market outcomes for young college graduates using China's 2005 1% Population Sample Survey. Exploiting variation in the expa...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Dongshu Ou | On 01 Jan 2016

Can Welfare Conditionality Combat High School Dropout?

Based on administrative data, we analyze empirically the effects of stricter conditionality for social assistance receipt on welfare dependency and high school completion rates among Norwegian youths....

Section: Discussion Papers

by Øystein Hernæs | On 01 Jan 2016

Television, Cognitive Ability, and High School Completion

We exploit supply-driven heterogeneity in the expansion of cable television across Norwegian municipalities to identify developmental effects of commercial television exposure during childhood. We fin...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Øystein Hernæs | On 01 Jan 2016

Low Paid Employment in Britain: Estimating State-Dependence and Stepping Stone Effects

Using 18 waves of the British Household Panel Study, this paper examines state dependence and stepping stone effects of low pay. A distinguishing feature is that five types of transition- not in the l...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Lixin Cai | On 01 Jan 2016

Market Design for Altruistic Supply: Evidence from the Lab

Volunteer supply is widespread, yet without a price inefficiencies occur due to suppliers’ inability to coordinate with each other and with demand. For these contexts, we propose a market clearinghous...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Robert Slonim | On 01 Jan 2016

Religion and Depression in Adolescence

The probability of being depressed increases dramatically during adolescence and is linked to a range of adverse outcomes. Many studies show a correlation between religiosity and mental health, yet th...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Jane Cooley Fruehwirth | On 01 Jan 2016

How Soon Is Now? Evidence of Present Bias from Convex Time Budget Experiments

Empirically observed intertemporal choices about money have long been thought to exhibit present bias, i.e. higher short-term compared to long-term discount rates. Recently, this view has been called...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Uttara Balakrishnan | On 01 Jan 2016

Crowding Out in the Labour Market: Do Employers Lend a Hand?

We test the basic assumption underlying the job competition and crowding out a hypothesis: that employers always prefer higher educated to lower educated individuals. To this end, we conduct a randomi...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Dieter Verhaest | On 01 Jan 2016

Consumption Smoothing in the Demand for Health Care

We investigate how, in temporary economic hardship, agents change their consumption of health services, and how this depends on whether the service is universally free-of-charge visits to GP’s or priv...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Nicolai Kristensen | On 01 Jan 2016

Something in the Air? Pollution, Allergens and Children’s Cognitive Functioning

Poor air quality has been shown to harm the health and development of children. Research on these relationships has focused almost exclusively on the effects of human-made pollutants, and has not full...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Dave Marcotte | On 01 Jan 2016

Parental Influences on Health and Longevity: Lessons from a Large Sample of Adoptees

To what extent is the length of our lives determined by pre-birth factors? And to what extent is it affected by parental resources during our upbringing that can be influenced by public policy? We stu...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Mikael Lindahl | On 01 Jan 2016

Can Parental Migration Reduce Petty Corruption in Education?

Educational outcomes of children are highly dependent on household and school-level inputs. In poor countries remittances from migrants can provide additional funds for the education of the left behin...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Lisa Höckel | On 01 Jan 2016

Intergenerational Educational Persistence among Daughters: Evidence from India

The paper examines educational transmission between fathers (mothers) and daughters in India for daughters born during 1962-1991. We find that educational persistence, as measured by the regression co...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Mehtabul Azam | On 01 Nov 2015

Skill Gaps in the Workplace: Measurement, Determinants and Impacts

This paper identifies the key factors determining the correct identification of skill gaps within firms. The impact of skill gaps on average training expenditures and labour costs is also measured. Th...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Luis Ortiz | On 01 Aug 2015

The Great Expectations: Impact of One-Child Policy on Education of Girls

The findings of the paper highlights the role of fertility policies in women’s empowerment of last century. This paper investigates the impact of the birth control policies on teenage girls’ education...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Wei Huang | On 01 Aug 2015

The Effect of Family Size on Education: New Evidence from China’s One Child Policy

Social scientists theorize that the inverse relationship between socio-economic status and family size represents a trade-off between the quality and quantity of children. Evaluating this hypothesis e...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Susan Averett | On 01 Jul 2015

Youth Unemployment

This paper looks at recent trends in youth unemployment and joblessness and seeks to clarify some issues related to the nature of the youth labour market ‘problem’. During the recession, the prevalenc...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Niall O’Higgins | On 01 Jun 2015

Changing Norms about Gender Inequality in Education: Evidence from Bangladesh

This paper examines norms about gender equality of the education of children and adults in Bangladesh using a recent household survey for two cohorts of married women. Education norms are found to dif...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Niels-Hugo Blunch | On 01 Aug 2014

The Parameters of a National Minimum Hourly Wage

Both academic and political debates over the minimum wage generally focus on the minimum wage rate. However, the minimum wage is a complex institution composed of a wide variety of parameters. In t...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Vinish Kathuria | On 01 Jun 2014

Worker Displacement in Transition Economies and in China

Continuous enterprise restructuring is needed for the transition and emerging market economies to become and remain competitive. However, the beneficial effects of restructuring in the medium run are...

Section: Research Papers

by Hartmut Lehmann | On 01 May 2014

The Impact of Fiscal and Political Decentralization on Local Public Investments in Indonesia

The effects of the Indonesian decentralization and democratization process on budget allocation at the sub-national level is analyzed. Based on panel data for 271 Indonesian districts for the years...

Section: Working Papers

by Krisztina Kis Katos | On 01 Jan 2014

Left-Behind Children and Return Decisions of Rural Migrants in China

This paper examines how left-behind children influence return migration in China. A simple illustrative model based on Dustmann (2003) is presented that incorporates economic and non-economic motive...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Sylvie Démurger | On 01 Nov 2013

The Return of the Prodigy Son: Do Return Migrants Make Better Leaders?

This paper investigates the impact of political leaders’ migration experience on the quality of their leadership. A database is constructed on the personal background of 932 politicians who were at...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Marion Mercier | On 01 Nov 2013

Employment Effects of Low-Skilled Immigrants in Korea

This study examines the impact of inflows of foreign workers on Korean natives’ economic performance – namely, employment – through the Employment Permit System, the basis of Korea’s system by which...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Jungho Kim | On 01 Mar 2013

Women Political Leaders, Corruption and Learning: Evidence from a Large Public Program in India

In the paper there is a use of nation-wide policy of randomly allocating village council headships to women to identify the impact of female political leadership on the governance of projects implemen...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Farzana Afridi | On 01 Feb 2013

Self-Employment in China: Are Rural Migrant Workers and Urban Residents Alike?

This paper studies differences in the motivation to be self-employed between rural migrants and urban residents in modern China. Estimates of the wage differential between selfemployment and paid-empl...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Yuling Cui | On 01 Jan 2013

It’s a Boy! Women and Non-Monetary Benefits from a Son in India

Son preference is widespread in a number of developing countries. Anecdotal evidence suggests that women may contribute to the persistence of this phenomenon because they derive substantial long-run...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Laura Zimmermann | On 01 Sep 2012

Does Breastfeeding Support at Work Help Mothers and Employers at the Same Time?

This paper asks whether the availability of breastfeeding facilities at the workplace helps to reconcile breastfeeding and work commitments. Using data from the 2005 UK Infant Feeding Survey, we model...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Emilia Bono | On 01 Jun 2012

Like Father, Like Son? Intergenerational Education Mobility in India

This paper employs a novel strategy to create a unique father-son matched data that is representative of the entire adult male population in India. Using this father-son matched data, the paper stu...

Section: Working Papers

by Mehtabul Azam | On 01 May 2012

The Impact of Indian Job Guarantee Scheme on Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Public works programs, aimed at building a strong social safety net through redistribution of wealth and generation of meaningful employment, are becoming increasingly popular in developing countries....

Section: Discussion Papers

by Mehtabul Azam | On 01 May 2012

Human Capital, Economic Growth, and Inequality in China

The paper examines the Chinese Economy on the basis of four factors namely, human development, education, growth and inequality. [IZA DP No. 6550] URL: [http://ftp.iza.org/dp6550.pdf]

Section: Discussion Papers

by James J Heckman | On 01 May 2012

Internal vs. International Migration: Impacts of Remittances on Child Well-Being in Vietnam

This paper focuses on the effects of domestic and international remittances on children’s well-being. Using data from the 1992/93 and 1997/98 Vietnam Living Standards Surveys, an investigation of the...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Michele Binci | On 30 Apr 2012

Do Middle Classes Bring Institutional Reforms?

The link between poverty, the middle class and institutional outcomes are analyzed using a newly developed cross-country panel dataset containing detailed information on the distribution of income a...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Norman Loayza | On 30 Mar 2012

Brides for Sale: Cross-Border Marriages and Female Immigration

Every year, a large number of women immigrate as brides from developing countries to developed countries in East Asia. This phenomenon virtually did not exist in the early 1990s, but foreign brides...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Daiji Kawaguchi | On 30 Mar 2012

Parents’ Economic Support of Young-Adult Children: Do Socioeconomic Circumstances Matter?

This paper assesses how the economic support provided by parents to young adults as they complete their education and enter the labor market is related to the family’s socioeconomic circumstances. W...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Deborah Cobb clark | On 28 Feb 2012

The Complexity of Immigrant Generations: Implications for Assessing the Socioeconomic Integration of Hispanics and Asians

Much of the socioeconomic mobility achieved by U.S. immigrant families takes place across rather than within generations. When assessing the long-term integration of immigrants, it is therefore impo...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Brian Duncan | On 30 Jan 2012

Is Caste Destiny? Occupational Diversification among Dalits in Rural India

he caste system – a system of elaborately stratified social hierarchy – distinguishes India from most other societies. Among the most distinctive factors of the caste system is the close link betwee...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Ira Gang | On 30 Jan 2012

Cultural Diversity, Geographical Isolation, and the Origin of the Wealth of Nations

This research argues that variations in the interplay between cultural assimilation and cultural diffusion have played a significant role in giving rise to differential patterns of economic developm...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Quamrul Ashraf | On 15 Jan 2012

Are All Migrants Really Worse Off in Urban Labour Markets? New Empirical Evidence from China

The rapid and massive increase of rural-to-urban migration in China has drawn attention to the welfare of migrant workers, particularly to their working conditions and pay. This paper uses data from...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Jason Gagnon | On 30 Dec 2011

Are Drone Strikes Effective in Afghanistan and Pakistan? On the Dynamics of Violence between the United States and the Taliban

Strikes by unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, have been the primary weapon used by the United States to combat the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This paper examines the dynamic...

Section: Discussion Papers

by David A. Jaeger | On 03 Dec 2011

Analysis of Gender Wage Differential in China’s Urban Labor Market

This paper estimates the gender wage gap and its composition in China’s urban labor market using the 2009 survey data from the Chinese Family Panel Studies. Several estimation and decomposition meth...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Biwei Su | On 03 Dec 2011

Got Water? Social Divisions and Access to Public Goods in Rural India

Data for 436 rural districts has been used from the 2001 Census of India to examine whether different aspects of social divisions help explain the wide variation in access to tap water across rural In...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Divya Balasubramaniam | On 01 Sep 2011

Economic Returns to Education: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and Where We Are Going – Some Brief Pointers

The estimation of the economic return to education has perhaps been one of the predominant areas of analysis in applied economics for over 50 years. In this short note we consider some of the recent d...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Colm Harmon | On 01 Aug 2011

Consumption and Social Identity: Evidence from India

Spending on consumption items is examined which have signaling value in social interactions across groups with distinctive social identities in India, where social identities are defined by caste an...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Melanie Khamis | On 15 Dec 2010

Towards an Objective-Driven System of Smart Labor Migration Management

This policy note aims to achieve a coherent and mutually beneficial labor migration system. It argues that migrant workers may importantly contribute to economic growth and development both in sen...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Robert Holzmann | On 01 Nov 2010

Gender Discrimination in Job Ads: Theory and Evidence

We study firms’ advertised gender preferences in a population of ads on a Chinese internet job board, and interpret these patterns using a simple employer search model. The model allows us to dis...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Peter Kuhn | On 28 Sep 2010

The Wage Elasticity of Informal Care Supply: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study

This paper focuses on the relationship between wages and supply of informal care to elderly parents. Unlike most of the previous research estimating wage elasticities of informal care supply, this...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Olena Nizalova | On 28 Sep 2010

The Predictive Value of Subjective Labour Supply Data: A Dynamic Panel Data Model with Measurement Error

This paper tests the predictive value of subjective labour supply data for adjustments in working hours over time. The idea is that if subjective labour supply data help to predict next year’s wor...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Rob Euwals | On 12 Aug 2010

Stakeholders, Bargaining and Strikes

In this paper they study bilateral bargaining problems with interested third parties, the stakeholders that enjoy benefits upon a bilateral agreement. We explore the strategic implications of this th...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Paola Manzini | On 10 Aug 2010

Economic Governance of MFIs: Inside the Black Box

This paper investigates a relationship between economic governance and the dual objectives of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs): poverty reduction and financial viability. Using an unbalanced pan...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Thankom Arun | On 06 Aug 2010

The Impact of Child Care Subsidies on Child Well-Being: Evidence from Geographic Variation in the Distance to Social Service Agencies

In recent years, child care subsidies have become an integral part of federal and state efforts to move economically disadvantaged parents from welfare to work. Although previous empirical studies c...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Chris M. Herbst | On 05 Jul 2010

Youth Labour Markets in Europe and Central Asia

This paper looks at developments in and around the transition of young people from education to work in the ECA region in recent years. The purpose of the paper is to aid understanding of the curren...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Niall O’Higgins | On 05 Jul 2010

The Returns to English-Language Skills in India

India's colonial legacy and linguistic diversity give English an important role in its economy, and this role has expanded due to globalization in recent decades. It is widely believed that there are...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Mehtabul Azam | On 26 Mar 2010

How Important Are Labor Market Institutions for Labor Market Performance in Transition Countries?

This paper offers a first comprehensive study of the relationship between labor market institutions and policies and labor market performance in the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Hartmut Lehmann | On 01 Dec 2009

Public Infrastructure, Location of Private Schools and Primary School Attainment in an Emerging Economy

The paper argues that access to public infrastructure plays a crucial role on the presence of private schools in a community, as it could not only minimise the cost of production, but also ensure a hi...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Sarmistha Pal | On 01 Nov 2009

Conceptualising Informality: Regulation and Enforcement

The informality discourse is large and vibrant, and is expanding rapidly. But there is a certain conceptual incoherence to the literature. New definitions of informality compete with old definitions l...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Ravi Kanbur | On 02 May 2009

Access to Banking Services and Poverty Reduction: A State-wise Assessment in India

Financial inclusion is the broad based delivery of banking and other financial services at affordable cost to the poorest sections of the society. In India, financial inclusion emphasizes to include m...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Amit. K. Bhandari | On 16 Apr 2009

Offshoring and Unemployment: The Role of Search Frictions and Labor Minority

In this paper, in order to study the impact of offshoring on sectoral and economy wide rates of unemployment, we construct a two sector general equilibrium model in which unemployment is caused by sea...

Section: General

by Devashish Mitra | On 05 Apr 2009

The Elite Brain Drain

They collect data on the movement and productivity of elite scientists. Their mobility is remarkable: nearly half of the world’s most-cited physicists work outside their country of birth. They show th...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Rosalind S Hunter | On 01 Feb 2009

India’s Approach to Capital Account Liberalization

In this paper, the author analyzes India’s approach to capital account liberalization through the lens of the new literature on financial globalization. India’s authorities have taken a cautious and c...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Eswar S. Prasad | On 01 Jan 2009

Lessons from the Laureates

This paper uses as source material twenty-three autobiographical essays by Nobel economists presented since 1984 at Trinity University (San Antonio, Texas) and published in Lives of the Laureates (MIT...

Section: Discussion Papers

by William Breit | On 01 Jan 2009

A Distributional Analysis of Social Group Inequality in Rural India

This paper examines the differences in welfare, as measured by per capita expenditure (PCE), between social groups in rural India across the entire welfare distribution. The paper establishes that the...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Mehtabul Azam | On 01 Jan 2009

Changes in Wage Structure in Urban India 1983-2004: A Quantile Regression Decomposition

This paper examines changes in the wage structure in urban India during the past two decades (1983-2004) across the entire wage distribution using the Machado and Mata (2005) decomposition approach. R...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Mehtabul Azam | On 01 Jan 2009

Earnings Instability and Earnings Inequality in Urban China: 1989–2006

This paper investigates the evolution of earnings inequality in urban China from 1989 to 2006. After decomposing the variance of log of earnings into transitory and permanent two parts, we find that...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Zhong Zhao | On 23 Dec 2007

Who Leaves and Who Returns? Deciphering Immigrant Self-Selection from a Developing Country

Existing research examining the self-selection of immigrants suffers from a lack of information on the immigrants’ labor force activities in the home country, quotas limiting who is allowed to enter t...

Section: Working Papers

by Randall K. Q. Akee | On 09 Dec 2007

Child Labor

The essay is to provides a detailed overview of the state of the recent empirical literature on why and how children work as well as the consequences of that work. It provides a descriptive overview o...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Eric Edmonds | On 01 Jun 2007

Selection into Worst Forms of Child Labor: Child Domestics, Porters and Ragpickers in Nepal

A large literature considers why children work, but little is known about why children participate in activities that are labeled worst forms of child labor. The principal international convention o...

Section: Working Papers

by Eric Edmonds | On 20 Apr 2007

Trade Adjustment and Human Capital Investments: Evidence from Indian Tariff Reform

Do the short and medium term adjustment costs associated with trade liberalization influence schooling and child labor decisions? This question is examined in the context of India's 1991 tariff reform...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Eric Edmonds | On 13 Feb 2007

Choice and Success of Job Search Methods

Job seekers can influence the arrival rate of job offers by the choice of search effort and the search methods they use. In this paper we empirically investigate the contribution of the use of differe...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Andrea Weber | On 01 Jan 2006

Do Professionals Choke Under Pressure?

High rewards or the threat of severe punishment do not only provide incentives to exert high levels of effort but also create pressure. Such pressure can cause paradoxical performance effects, namel...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Thomas J. Dohmen | On 06 Dec 2005

Do Emotions Improve Labor Market Outcomes?

Traditionally, models of economic decision-making assume that individuals are rational and emotionless. This chapter argues that the neglect of emotion in economic models explains their inability to...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Lorenz Goette | On 06 Dec 2005

Inequalities and Their Measurement

This paper is a review of the recent advances in the measurement of inequality. Inequality can have several dimensions. Economists are mostly concerned with the income and consumption dimensions of in...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Almas Heshmati | On 01 Jul 2004

Structural Estimates of the Intergenerational Education Correlation

Using a structural dynamic programming model, we investigate the relative importance of family background variables and individual specific abilities in explaining cross-sectional differences in...

Section: Working Papers

by Christian Belzil | On 23 Dec 2003

Fertility, Female Labor Supply and Public Policy

Historically, in virtually all developed economies there seems to be clear evidence of an inverse relationship between female labor supply and fertility. However, particularly in the last decade or...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Patricia Apps | On 10 Dec 2001

Testing for the Option Value of Migration

Using uncertainty about the future returns to migration, the option value theory of migration can explain low migration rates in spite of huge wage differences. This paper presents the theory in a...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Lilo Locher | On 12 Nov 2001

The Economics of Human Cloning

In this paper, we analyze the extent to which market forces create an incentive for cloning human beings. We show that a market for cloning arises if a large enough fraction of the clone’s income ca...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Gilles Saint Paul | On 13 Dec 2000

Betit: A Family that Nests Probit and Logit

This paper proposes a dichotomous choice model that is based on a transformed beta (or z”) distribution. This model, called betit, nests both logit and probit and allows for various skewed and peak...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Wim P.M. Vijverberg | On 13 Dec 2000

Why do Indian Children Work, and is it Bad for Them?

The causes and consequences of child labour are examined theoretically and empirically within a household decision framework, with endogenous fertility and mortality. The data come from a nationally r...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Alessandro Cigno | On 16 Feb 2000

Immigrant Assimilation and Welfare Participation: Do Immigrants Assimilate Into or Out-of Welfare

This paper analyzes differences in welfare utilization between immigrants and natives in Sweden using a large panel data set, LINDA, for the years 1990 to 1996. Both welfare expenditures and immigra...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Jörgen Hansen | On 09 Dec 1999

Residential Location and Youth Unemployment: The Economic Geography of School-To-Work

In response to increased international policy attention to youth unemployment this study investigates post-secondary school transitions of school leavers. Multinomial log it models are estimated for m...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Regina T. Riphahn | On 09 Dec 1999

Privacy, time consistent optimal labor income taxation and education policy

Incomplete information is a commitment device for time consistency problems. In the context of time consistent labour income taxation privacy can lead to a Pareto superior outcome and increases the ef...

Section: Discussion Papers

by Kai A. Konrad | On 09 Dec 1999