The Impact of Local Factors on the Scope of Benefits from Public Investment: The Case of Tourism Infrastructure in Saxon Municipalities
Martin T. W. Rosenfeld, Albrecht Kauffmann
Urban Research & Practice,
No. 3,
2014
Abstract
Following the transition from socialist central planning economies to market economies in all of the former socialist countries, many regions have had to cope with severe structural changes and economic development problems. To overcome these problems, local governments have tried to invest in new public infrastructure to support the development of new industries. This paper looks at infrastructure that supports tourist activities and argues that the impact of infrastructure generally depends on certain local factors which differ between municipalities. One important factor is whether the local population possesses the relevant complementary factors, in particular the right ‘soft skills’.
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Do Better Pre-migration Skills Accelerate Immigrants' Wage Assimilation?
Boris Hirsch, Elke J. Jahn, Ott Toomet, Daniela Hochfellner
Labour Economics,
2014
Abstract
This paper analyzes wage assimilation of ethnic German immigrants to Germany using unique administrative data that include an administrative estimate of immigrants' expected wage in Germany at the time of migration. We find that a 10% higher wage potential translates into a 1.6% higher wage in Germany when also controlling for educational attainment, thus pointing at partial transferability of pre-migration skills to the host country's labor market. We also document that wage assimilation is significantly accelerated for immigrants with higher wage potentials. Our results are both in line with complementarities between pre-migration skills and host country-specific human capital and a U-shaped pattern of immigrants' job mobility with initial downgrading and subsequent upgrading.
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Labor Market Volatility, Skills, and Financial Globalization
Claudia M. Buch, C. Pierdzioch
Macroeconomic Dynamics,
No. 5,
2014
Abstract
We analyze the impact of financial globalization on volatilities of hours worked and wages of high-skilled and low-skilled workers. Using cross-country, industry-level data for the years 1970–2004, we establish stylized facts that document how volatilities of hours worked and wages of workers with different skill levels have changed over time. We then document that the volatility of hours worked by low-skilled workers has increased the most in response to the increase in financial globalization. We develop a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model of a small open economy that is consistent with the empirical results. The model predicts that greater financial globalization increases the volatility of hours worked, and this effect is strongest for low-skilled workers.
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How Can Skill Mismatch be Measured? New Approaches with PIAAC
Daniela Ackermann-Piek, Anja Perry, Simon Wiederhold
Methods, Data, Analyses,
No. 2,
2014
Abstract
Measuring skill mismatch is problematic, because objective data on an individual skill level are often not available. Recently published data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) provide a unique opportunity for gauging the importance of skill mismatch in modern labor markets. This paper systematically compares existing measures of skill mismatch in terms of their implications for labor market outcomes. We also provide a new measure that addresses an important limitation of existing measures, namely, assigning a single competency score to individuals. We find that the importance of skill mismatch for individual earnings differs greatly, depending on the measure of mismatch used.
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Has Labor Income Become More Volatile? Evidence from International Industry-Level Data
Claudia M. Buch
German Economic Review,
No. 4,
2013
Abstract
Changes in labor market institutions and the increasing integration of the world economy may affect the volatility of capital and labor incomes. This article documents and analyzes changes in income volatility using data for 11 industrialized countries, 22 industries and 35 years (1970–2004). The article has four main findings. First, the unconditional volatility of labor income has declined in parallel to the decline in macroeconomic volatility. Second, the industry-specific, idiosyncratic component of labor income volatility has hardly changed. Third, cross-sectional heterogeneity is substantial. If anything, the labor incomes of high- and low-skilled workers have become more volatile relative to the volatility of capital incomes. Fourth, the volatility of labor income relative to the volatility of capital income declines in the labor share. Trade openness has no clear-cut impact.
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Determinants of Illegal Mexican Immigration into the US Southern Border States
A. Buehn, Stefan Eichler
Eastern Economic Journal,
No. 4,
2013
Abstract
We model illegal immigration across the US-Mexico border into Arizona, California, and Texas as an unobservable variable applying a Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes model. Using state-level data from 1985 to 2004, we test the incentives and deterrents influencing illegal immigration. Better labor market conditions in a US state and worse in Mexico encourage illegal immigration while more intense border enforcement deters it. Estimating the state-specific inflow of illegal Mexican immigrants we find that the 1994/95 peso crisis in Mexico led to significant increases in illegal immigration. US border enforcement policies in the 1990s provided temporary relief while post-9/11 re-enforcement has reduced illegal immigration.
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Skill Content of Intra-european Trade Flows
Götz Zeddies
European Journal of Comparative Economics,
No. 1,
2013
Abstract
In recent decades, the international division of labor has expanded rapidly in the wake of European integration. In this context, especially Western European high-wage countries should have specialized on (human-)capital intensively manufactured goods and should have increasingly sourced labor-intensively manufactured goods, especially parts and components, from Eastern European low wage countries. Since this should be beneficial for the high-skilled and harmful to the lower-qualified workforce in high-wage countries, the opening up of Eastern Europe is often considered as a vital reason for increasing unemployment of the lower-qualified in Western Europe. This paper addresses this issue by analyzing the skill content of Western European countries’ bilateral trade using input-output techniques in order to evaluate possible effects of international trade on labor demand. Thereby, differences in factor inputs and production technologies have been considered, allowing for vertical product differentiation. In this case, skill content of bilateral exports and imports partially differs substantially, especially in bilateral trade between Western and Eastern European countries. According to the results, East-West trade should be harmful particularly to the medium-skilled in Western European countries.
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European Integration and National Labor Markets - On the Factor Content of Intra-European Trade Flows
Götz Zeddies
European Journal of Comparative Economics,
2012
Abstract
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Increasing Pressure on East German Labor Market for Skilled Labor
Herbert S. Buscher
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 11,
2012
Abstract
Die Möglichkeit, über fachlich (hoch-)qualifizierte Arbeitskräfte zu verfügen, ist von entscheidender Bedeutung für die Zukunft nicht nur der Unternehmen, sondern auch der ökonomischen Entwicklung einer Region oder eines Landes. Die Wirtschaftspolitik benötigt daher gesicherte Befunde zu Bedarf und Angebot an Fachkräften. Der vorliegende Beitrag wertet für die Neuen Bundesländer die Befragung 2011 des IAB-Betriebspanels aus, die sich speziell mit möglichen Engpässen und Problemen bei der Stellenbesetzung befasst hat. Hierbei wird neben den Ländern auch nach der Größe eines Betriebs sowie der Branchenzugehörigkeit unterschieden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass in den kommenden Jahren eine höhere Zahl ostdeutscher Betriebe eine angespanntere Situation auf dem Arbeitsmarkt erwartet, als dies in der Vergangenheit der Fall war. Eine nicht ausreichende Bewerberzahl und fehlende Zusatzqualifikationen sind die am häufigsten genannten erwarteten Probleme bei der Stellenbesetzung. Mittlere und große Betriebe rechnen eher mit solchen Problemen als kleine Betriebe.
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