A new GLO Discussion Paperfinds that benefits do not necessarily reach the poor and vulnerable households at the regional level.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: Tunisian social programs provide direct transfers and free or reduced rate access to public health care for families selected by local and regional commissions. In some areas, poor and vulnerable families are excluded from these programs whose places are occupied by other households. The center is often ill-informed about the performance of different regions in reaching the poor and about the exclusion and inclusion errors sources. This lack of information can severely limit the options for designing reforms that will improve targeting performance. In a nutshell : Two components of social safety nets in Tunisia: one covers more, and the other is more generous. The regional commissions often select households headed by women widowed and elderly as beneficiaries. At the regional level, some beneficiaries are not eligible, and the eligible are not beneficiaries. The inclusion of the non-poor and the exclusion of the poor at the regional level are due to disagreement between eligibility criteria and a person’s poverty status.
A new GLO Discussion Paperpresents cross-country evidence that agricultural credits have a positive impact on agricultural productivity.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: We present cross-country evidence suggesting that agricultural credits have a positive impact on agricultural productivity. In particular, we find that doubling agricultural credits generates around 4-5 percent increase in agricultural productivity. We use two different agricultural production measures: (i) the agricultural component of GDP and (ii) agricultural labor productivity. Employing a combination of panel-data and instrumental- variable methods, we show that agricultural credits operate mostly on the agricultural component of GDP in developing countries and agricultural labor productivity in developed countries. This suggests that the nature of the relationship between agricultural finance and agricultural output changes along the development path. We conjecture that development of the agricultural finance system generates entry into the agricultural labor market, which pushes up the agricultural component of GDP and keeps down agricultural labor productivity in developing countries; while, in developed countries, it leads to labor-augmenting increase in agricultural production. We argue that replacement of the informal credit channel with formal and advanced agricultural credit markets along the development path is the main force driving the labor market response.
A new GLO Discussion Paperfinds that smartphone use reduces student success.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: To study the causal impact of smartphone use on academic performance, we collected—for the first time worldwide—longitudinal data on students’ smartphone use and educational performance. For three consecutive years we surveyed all students attending classes in eleven different study programs at two Belgian universities on general smartphone use and other drivers of academic achievement. These survey data were merged with the exam scores of these students. We analyzed the resulting data by means of panel data random effects estimation controlling for unobserved individual characteristics. A one standard deviation increase in overall smartphone use results in a decrease of 0.349 points (out of 20) and a decrease of 2.616 percentage points in the fraction of exams passed.
A new GLO Discussion Paperfinds that employees with a temporary contract experience more loneliness at work as opposed to employees with a permanent contract. It also reveals that loneliness at work mediates the association between working temporarily and job satisfaction.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: This research contributes to the limited literature concerning the determinants of loneliness at work, as well as to the literature on psychological outcomes associated with temporary work. More specifically, we are adding to the literature by exploring whether there is an association between working temporarily and loneliness at work and whether loneliness at work partly explains the association between working temporarily and job satisfaction. To this end, we analyze—by means of a mediation model—a unique sample of Flemish employees in the private sector. We find that employees with a temporary contract experience more loneliness at work as opposed to employees with a permanent contract. In addition, we discover that loneliness at work mediates the association between working temporarily and job satisfaction.
A new GLO Discussion Paperfinds that the return rate to the labor market is between 50% and two thirds whereas survivors are experiencing lower work abilities and discrimination.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: Objectives: To synthesise the existing reviews conducted on the labour market outcomes of cancer survivors by focusing on (i) the convergences and divergences on the overall work-related outcomes, (ii) the moderating factors studied to date, and (iii) an identification of areas where more research is needed in the future. Methods: A systematic review of the existing reviews on labour market outcomes for cancer survivors was performed. Bibliographic search for eligible studies published before January 2019 involved the following three core concepts: (i) cancer survivors, (ii) work, and (iii) review. The quality of the included reviews was assessed based on the Johns Hopkins Hospital Evidence Level and Quality Guide. Following this, a narrative synthesis of the findings was completed. Results: In total, 35 articles met the inclusion criteria. The average return to work (RTW) rate varied between 54% and 66%. The self-reported work ability was consistently lower following cancer. This review also found strong converging evidence of self-reported discrimination after cancer. The effects on work performance showed several inconsistencies, possibly due to the use of different definitions of work performance. Most moderating factors for successful work outcomes showed converging evidence, except for age, marital status, cancer type, and country. We provide several possible explanations and linkages for these divergencies. Conclusions: Further investigation of causal relationships by (i) using matched control groups and by (ii) gathering longitudinal data, and the use of more standardised definitions of the outcome variables are the two main future research recommendations. Furthermore, no studies have succeeded in measuring the work outcomes objectively. We provide specific recommendations from an interdisciplinary context to solve this.
A new GLO Discussion Paperfinds that same-sex marriage legalization permanently increased the migration flow of homosexuals moving to more tolerant states in the United States.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of marriage regulation on the migratory behavior of individuals using the history of the liberalization of same-sex marriage across the United States. Because the approval of same-sex marriage allows homosexuals access to legal rights and social benefits, marriage becomes more attractive relative to singlehood or other forms of partnership. The differences in the value of other forms of relationship status relative to marriage can affect the migration decisions of individuals, to the extent that those states approving same-sex marriage can be considered less discriminatory. Results show that that legal reform permanently increased the migration flow of homosexuals moving to tolerant states (i.e., those that have legalized same-sex marriage). The physical distance among states does not appear to be driving our estimates since the migration flow of homosexuals is not limited to border or close states. Supplemental analysis, developed to explore whether the migration flow is translated to a significant effect to the stock of homosexuals by state, suggests that that stock increased after the approval of same-sex marriage but that it was transitory, pointing to a ‘no effect’ on the spatial distribution of homosexuals as times went by. The liberalization of marriage for homosexuals also has an effect on the migration behavior of those individuals originating from countries in which same-sex sexual activity is illegal, for whom we observe an outflow migration from those states with same sex marriage, pointing to dissimilarities in cultural aspects related to homosexuality as important factors in migration decisions.
In 2019, Dejan Kovač, GLO fellow and a former postdoc at Princeton University, left his position in the US and joined the presidential race in Croatia as a candidate. He did not become the president of Croatia, but in his campaign he highlighted the need for structural reforms, promoted civic and economic freedoms, and most importantly attacked corruption relying on his previous research experience.
Besides his research on corruption, Dejan Kovač is taking another promising research endeavor – rethinking the design of Croatia’s labor market to increase its global competitiveness.
In 2017, the Global Labor Organization (GLO) had supported a large international conferenceDejan Kovač had organized in Umag to debate the challenges of the global world for labor markets. The event was hosting some of the best labor economists of our time, including the former chief economist to president Obama, the late Alan Krueger, a legendary figure and GLO Fellow (see picture below).
Interview
GLO: The scientist and politics: How has the presidential campaign changed you?
Dejan Kovač: Before the campaign I was an economist, during the campaign I remained an economist, and after the campaign I am still an economist.
GLO: Was knowledge of economics and of scientific evidence helpful for you during the race?
Dejan Kovač: Not really. Presidential races in Croatia historically have a problem. This is not a competition about the better program, but rather about to what part of the political spectrum one belongs. I was not able to push any economics topic, because we are still trapped by tales from our history and historical revisionism. It is very unfortunate that there is so little voters’ awareness about the importance of particular topics. Especially because Croatia “lost” close to 10% of its population through emigration due to several main issues: high corruption, bad economic conditions and lack of structural reforms.
GLO: Is emigration the main motivation for your newly started project “Designing Croatia’s labor market for global competitiveness” or are there other important issues at play?
Dejan Kovač: The 10% loss of population is a great shock to our economy. One does not have to have a PhD in economics to realize that this will have a detrimental effect on GDP. A larger problem than size is the issue of “brain drain” not only in Croatia, but in the entire region. High-skilled workers are leaving and they would otherwise contribute the most to economic growth. Another problem of our labor market is that the entire education system is not adequate to satisfy domestic labor market needs and especially global trends.
GLO: What is wrong with Croatia’s education system?
Dejan Kovač: Quotas are such that we are “over-producing” some occupations, which we realistically do not need, while we lack for instance STEM workers, who are “under-supplied”. This is still a residue from our past, when both skills and quantities were defined through central planning. Today not only domestic, but also global market forces are at play. Nevertheless, we have a rigid set of quotas for higher education which has not changed in a reasonable manner in decades. That is the first step to take. It is not an easy task, because redesigning the entire education system implies evaluating labor demand and supply in the future. For this we need the entire Croatia, not just a government which represents one part of the political spectrum only. Either policy makers will realize that and do the urgent structural reforms, or with the next wave of emigrations, our problems will intensify significantly.
GLO: What are decisive elements of the needed university reform and how does this relate to the vitalization of the labor market?
Dejan Kovač: Beyond quotas, we need to raise the skill levels of our workers in such a way that knowledge learned at our universities is up to date with the frontier of innovations at the labor market. We lack “intermediaries” such as incubators who can “translate” knowledge from pure theory to applied science which can be used at the labor market. Also we need to revise the entire curriculum at most universities.
*** With Dejan Kovač spoke Klaus F. Zimmermann, GLO President.
From the left: GLO FellowsJoshua Angrist (MIT), Hank Farber (Princeton University) and Alan Krueger (Princeton University and former Chief Economist of President Obama); 2017 in Umea/Croatia.
A new GLO Discussion Paperfinds that older age signals to recruiters that applicants have lower technological skill, flexibility, and trainability levels.The relevance of these factors decline with higher levels of older workers in the company.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: Research has shown that hiring discrimination is a barrier for older job candidates in many OECD countries. However, little research has delved into why older job candidates are discriminated against. Therefore, we have conducted an online scenario experiment involving recruiters to empirically investigate 15 potential stigma related to older age drawn from a systematic review of the literature. We found that older age particularly signals to recruiters that the applicant has lower technological skill, flexibility, and trainability levels. Together, these perceptions explain about 41% of the effect of age on the probability of being invited to a job interview. In addition, we found that the negative association between age and invitation probability is smaller when recruiters work for firms with a higher percentage of older employees.
A new GLO Discussion Paperfinds that bribing for public services worsens self-assessed healthusing individual-level data from 28 post-communist countries.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: Corruption is pervasive, but we know little about its effects on individual lives. This paper examines whether living in a corrupt society has deleterious effects on health. Using individual-level data from 28 post-communist countries, we demonstrate that bribing for public services worsens self-assessed health. Unlike other studies, we account for endogeneity of bribery and show that bribing for any type of public service, not just for health services, has an adverse impact. We also find that bribery lowers the quality of services received. Moreover, there are potentially high indirect costs of bribery since, as we show, it comes at the expense of cutting food consumption. These findings suggest that corruption is a potentially important source behind the poor health outcomes in many developing countries.
A new GLO Discussion Paperanalyzes the role of networks in the access of female entrepreneurs to start-up capital and firm performance in Eswatini, a country with one of the highest female unemployment rates in Africa.Women who receive support from professional networks have higher initial capital.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: This paper analyzes the role of networks in the access of female entrepreneurs to start-up capital and firm performance in Eswatini, a country with one of the highest female unemployment rates in Africa. The paper first shows that higher initial capital is associated with better sales performance for both men and women entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs start their firms with smaller start-up capital than men and are more likely to fund it from their own sources, which reduces the size of their firm and sales level. However, women with higher education start their firms with more capital than their less educated counterparts. Moreover, women who receive support from professional networks have higher initial capital, while those trained in financial literacy more often access external funding sources, including through their networks.
Note that due to the numerous requests received to extend the call for papers, the deadline had been changed to 15 January 2020. Notification to authors is 15 February 2020. Those who still want to submit papers should consult the IEA conference website: www.ieawc2020.org
GLO is an Strategic Partner for The 3rd International Conference on Future Education 2020 to be held in 22nd – 23rd June 2020 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Niaz Asadullah of the University of Malaya and the GLO Lead for South-East Asia is a keynote speaker at the conference.
As the strategic partner, members of GLO receive special discount rates and partial scholarship opportunities. They also have the possibility to (i) publish in SCOPUS indexed journals, (ii) serve as a Scientific Committee Member for the conference, and (iii) serve as a Session Chair or Evaluation Panel Member of the conference.
For any inquires or questions regarding the conference please contact Austin Joseph (austin@tiikm.com).
The GLO Discussion Paper of the Month of December uses longitudinal data to investigate the relationship between smartphone use and academic performance in universities. It suggests that smartphone use has a causal negative effect on academic performance. The paper makes a significant contribution to current policy debates around the world, on whether smartphones should be banned from schools.
Author Abstract:To study the causal impact of smartphone use on academic performance, we collected—for the first time worldwide—longitudinal data on students’ smartphone use and educational performance. For three consecutive years we surveyed all students attending classes in eleven different study programs at two Belgian universities on general smartphone use and other drivers of academic achievement. These survey data were merged with the exam scores of these students. We analyzed the resulting data by means of panel data random effects estimation controlling for unobserved individual characteristics. A one standard deviation increase in overall smartphone use results in a decrease of 0.349 points (out of 20) and a decrease of 2.616 percentage points in the fraction of exams passed.
GLO DP Team Senior
Editors: Matloob Piracha (University of Kent) & GLO; Klaus F.
Zimmermann (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University and Bonn University). Managing Editor: Magdalena Ulceluse, University of Groningen. DP@glabor.org
The GLO Discussion Paper of the Month of November 2019 explores the implications of post-communist party membership on the ethics and the nature of doing business in transition economies.It is found that former communist party members often become successful entrepreneurs. The Discussion Paper is the first study separating the causal effect of former communist party membership from self-selection.
Author Abstract:After
the collapse of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe, former party
members were particularly likely to start businesses and become
entrepreneurs. However, it remains unclear whether this entrepreneurial
activity was driven by the resources, information and opportunities
provided by former party membership or because people with specific
individual attributes were more likely to become party members
(self-selection). This study is the first to separate the causal effect
of former Communist party membership from self-selection. Using
individual-level Life in Transition–III survey and instrumental
variables analysis, we find that, in Central and Eastern European
countries, membership of former Communist party has facilitated business
set-up but not business longevity. Our results also suggest evidence of
negative self-selection, meaning that people who joined the former
ruling party tended have fewer of the traits associated with
entrepreneurship such as motivation, risk tolerance, and entrepreneurial
spirit. We show that former Communist party membership still matters
for business practices, business ethics, and the nature of doing
business in transition economies.
GLO DP Team Senior
Editors: Matloob Piracha (University of Kent) & GLO; Klaus F.
Zimmermann (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University and Bonn University). Managing Editor: Magdalena Ulceluse, University of Groningen. DP@glabor.org
On January 3, the Kuznets Prize of the Journal of Population Economics was givento Gautam Hazarika, Chandan KumarJha, and Sudipta Sarangi at the IESR/Jinan University reception with Jim Heckman, Klaus F. Zimmermann and Shuaizhang Feng:
Award and event details. Prize paper: Ancestral ecological endowments and missing women (Please click title for FREE READ LINK) Published in the Journal of Population Economics (2019), 32(4), pp. 1101-1123. The annual prize honors the best article published in the Journal of Population Economics.
1. Paper examines the relationship between ecological endowments in antiquity and contemporary female to male sex ratios in the population. 2. It finds robust evidence that there are proportionately more missing women in countries whose ancestral ecological endowments were poorer. 3. Gender inequality is larger, that is, the female to male sex ratio lower, in regions whose peoples’ ancestors experienced greater resource stress captured by historical crop yields measures. 4. A conclusion is that ecological resource scarcity led to gender inequality in the intra-household allocation of resources in the past and that the associated behaviors have been culturally transmitted to the present as norms.
Shuaizhang Feng (Dean of IESR) introduced IESR and gave a warm welcome to the participants. Klaus F. Zimmermann introduced the Kuznets Prize, the award article and the authors. Jim Heckman congratulated the authors and the responsible organizations for the success and presented the award certificates. Chandan KumarJha and Sudipta Sarangi took the honors for all three authors and received the deserved applause of the large audience. Greetings went to author Gautam Hazarika and the responsible editor of the awarded article, Alessandro Cigno, who both could not be in San Diego.
Since 2019, Shuaizhang Feng is also an Editor of the Journal of Population Economics, Jim Heckman has been an Associate Editor for decades, while Klaus F. Zimmermann is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief. Heckman and Zimmermann supported IESR from the beginning. GLO is proud to note that all authors have joined the organization as Fellows, as Cigno, Feng and Heckman.
IESR Dean Shuaizhang Feng(Jinan University), also an Editor of the Journal of Population Economics will open the event as the host. Editor-in-Chief and GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann will introduce the award; and Nobel Prize Winner Jim Heckman (University of Chicago), also an Associate Editor of the Journal, will present the award certificates to the three authors.
The article: Gautam Hazarika, Chandan Kumar & Sudipta Sarangi: (please click title for FREE READ LINK) “Ancestral ecological endowments and missing women“ Journal of Population Economics, Vol. 32 (2019), Issue 4 (October), pp. 1101-1123.
The Center for China and Globalization (CCG) has joined the institutions supporting the Global Labor Organization (GLO). This was agreed during a recent visit of GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann at CCG with CCG President Henry Wang. Wang, who is also a GLO Fellow,and Zimmermann have collaborated in the past over a long period. GLO will support the 2020 International Conference on Global Migration and Talent Mobility, CCG is organizing in Beijing on June 12-14, 2020 together with Metropolis China and Metropolis Asia. Zimmermann was the local organizer of the 2008 International Metropolis Conference in Bonn.
The Center for China and Globalization (CCG) is a leading Chinese non-government think tank based in Beijing. It is dedicated to the study of Chinese public policy and globalization. CCG’s research agenda centers on China’s growing role in the world, drawing from issues of global governance, global trade and investment, global migration, international relations, and other topics pertaining to regional and global development. CCG is a not-for-profit and non-governmental organization registered with the civil affairs system of Chinese authorities. It is independently funded by research grants and donations from private and corporate donors. For years, CCG has been ranked by the Think Tank and Civil Society Program (TTCSP) at University of Pennsylvania as one of the world’s top 50 independent think tanks.
Zimmermann with CCG President Henry Wang on December 12, 2019
Left: CCG-GLO collaboration discussions at the CCG headquarter on December 12, 2019 Right: Zimmermann speaking at the 2008 Metropolis conference in Bonn.
Junsen Zhang( Chinese University of Hong Kong) has been one of the editors of the Journal of Population Economicssince 2001. After 19 years of dedicated work he moves on to work as one of the co-editors of the Journal of Human Resources. To enable a smooth transition, his position was already filled earlier this year by appointing Shuaizhang Feng (Jinan University). The whole editorial team is very grateful for the strong and very successful collaboration with Junsen Zhang for nearly two decades and wish him all the best for his future. Although he leaves his position on December 31 this year, the editorial team still looks forward to further collaborations with him. Alessandro Cigno(University of Florence) and Oded Galor (Brown University) remain in their positions as editors. Editor-in-Chief Klaus F. Zimmermann thanked Junsen Zhang for his inspiring and effective work which helped significantly to establish the high reputation and impact the Journal has today. Zimmermann expressed also his gratefulness for a long-term friendship and the insightful advice he received from him over the years.
On this occasion, we publish an interview with Junsen Zhang on journal editing.
Question: What motivates a productive researcher like you to act as a journal editor? Junsen Zhang: I view it as a social responsibility with an honor.
Question: What is your current research focus and how does this relates to your editorial role? Junsen Zhang: Family economics. I have been handling submissions related to that, especially with applications to China.
Question: Is the profession publishing too much? Junsen Zhang: To the extent that many papers are not highly cited, perhaps the economics profession is publishing too much. But ex ante, we are not very sure which papers would be highly cited, so we need to publish more. Also, the rejection rates for most economics journals are still extremely high. Thus, overall, I do not think the publishing amount is excessive.
Question: What makes in your view a good academic journal? Junsen Zhang: Good editors to have sound judgement on high quality, impactful research, and a fast review and publication process.
Question: What are the current trends in the journal business? Junsen Zhang: More evidence-based research with good theoretical or conceptual underpinning, moving away from lengthy papers, and fast turnaround.
With GLO FellowJunsen Zhang spoke Klaus F. Zimmermann, GLO President & Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Population Economics.
GLO Southeast Asia Lead, Professor Niaz Asadullah of the University of Malaya, Malaysia, delivered the keynote lecture on “Ending Global Poverty by 2030: Progress and challenges”.
The other keynote speaker was Dr. Peter Abrahamson, a Professor of Sociology from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr. Abrahamson spoke on “Leaving Nobody Behind: Poverty and Social Exclusion in the 21st Century”.
The conference provided a great platform for researchers, academics, scholars, and educators from across the world to share their research findings on issues relating to poverty, labor and sustainable development. Presentations were organized in multiple technical sessions under the following themes: (i) FOCUSING ON OUTCOMES (ii) MEASURING POVERTY AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION, and (iii) GENERAL ISSUES REGARDING POVERTY AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION.
For young researchers, ICPSD hosted an intensive and interactive journalpublication workshop where participants received first hand tips on writing scientific papers and scholarly publications. Workshop was led by Dr. Peter Abrahamson and Professor Niaz Asadullah. Both shared their experience as editors of different social sciences SSCI journals.
The conference ended on 6 December with a Round Table discussion on “Eliminating the Inequality Gap: Driving the World for Sustainable Development”. All participants were required to prepare a plan of action for inequality reduction in their respective region and contrast this other each other. This lively session was moderated by the conference co-chair Dr. PeterAbrahamson and Professor Niaz Asadullah.
The conference was a huge success and provided a refreshing experience for young researchers from Southeast Asia to interact with senior scholars and share their research findings on an international platform. GLO looks forward to partnering with TIIKM and other organizers for similar events in the region in 2020.
Keynote speakers: GLO Southeast Asia LeadNiaz Asadullah (left) and PeterAbrahamson
Professor Asadullah moderating the session on inequality reduction
Debate: From the left: Professors Abrahamson & Asadullah ; Anthropologist Professor Samia Huq of BRAC University ; and Dr J N Mbata of UNDP, Malawi.
Dear GLO Members and Friends: Season’s Greetings, happy holidays and a healthy & successful New Year 2020! Many thanks for the large support GLO has experienced in 2019 from you!
In the spirit of the GLO Mission, the GLO VirtYS program’s goal is to contribute to the development of the future generation of researchers, who are committed to the creation of policy-relevant research, are well equipped to work in collaboration with policy makers and other stakeholders, and adhere to the highest standards of academic integrity. This goal is achieved through the process of working on a specific research paper within the duration of the program, which is 9 months, and interact with the GLO VirtYS cohort and advisors.
Under the leadership of GLO VirtYS Program Director Olena Nizalova, the participants have virtually met with GLO officials and advisors on November 15 for a warm welcome and first interactions.
Olena Nizalova
From a large number of excellent applications 7 participants were chosen, many more than the originally planned 3-5.
Ömer Tuğsal Doruk (advisor: Francesco Pastore; GLO cluster: School-to-Work Transition)
Under political pressure of the Hungarian Government, the Central European University (CEU) has left this year Budapest for Vienna. Leaving behind a wonderful and perfect infrastructure, the university has found an attractive new place in Austria’s capital. The matter represents an important chapter in the global fight for academic freedom and evidence-based policy-making. The Global Labor Organization (GLO) had early on first followed and later on reflected the issue, always supportingCEU‘s case. CEU’s Martin Kahanec gave GLO’s Klaus F. Zimmermann an interview about the current state of this development.
Martin Kahanec, a prominent European economist, is currently Mercator Senior Visiting Fellow at Bruegel, Brussels, and was just selected by the Board of Trustees of Academia Europaea, the European Academy of Humanities, Letters and Sciences, as a member of its Section Committee of Economics, Business and Management Sciences. He is a Professor and former Acting Dean (2017-2019) of the School of Public Policy at the CEU. He is also Founder and Scientific Director of CELSI, Bratislava, a GLO Fellow, and a former Chairperson of the Slovak Economic Association (2016-2018).
Klaus F. Zimmermann is the GLO President, and has been the George Soros Chair at the School of Public Policy, in Spring 2019 in Budapest. Kahanec and Zimmermann have worked and published together over a longer period.
GLO: What can we learn from the CEU experience for academic freedom?
Kahanec: Let me mention three key lessons from this experience. First, never take freedom, and academic freedom in particular, for granted. Second, do not rely on politicians for its protection, it has become just one of the many tokens they are playing with. And there are many tokens they value more, such as political support in the European Parliament, or a military deal. Even worse, for some types of politicians an attack on an academic institution wins voters’ support. Third, we might lose a battle or two, but we will prevail as long as we do not give up nurturing and defending academic freedom. Free, open societies provide for innovation, critical thinking, and the pursuit of happiness and prosperity, and as such are more competitive and prevail in the long run.
GLO: How will this affect academic capacity building in Eastern Europe?
Kahanec: As the Hungarian government is trying to convince the general public that the expulsion of CEU is not a loss for Hungary, it downplays its academic excellence and invests in domestic capacity building – but including pro-Orban institutions only. It also facilitates the opening of branches of foreign schools – from carefully selected countries – in Hungary. For example, PM Orban recently personally supported the opening of Shanghai’s Fudan University campus and an elementary and high school connected to Turkish President Erdogan in Budapest.
But many of the
prominent academics are leaving Hungary and yet more will decide not to come or
return to, or cooperate with, Hungary. As many prominent Hungarian academics
realized early on, the attack on academic freedom was not to be confined to CEU
– it has affected the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and many Hungarian
universities. In the long run, this will be a huge blow to the Hungarian
academe. As the attack on CEU in several ways follows the script already
applied in Russia and Turkey, it is clear there are negative spillovers. How
the contagion will spread to the rest of Europe will also depend on how the
European political elites will respond. So far they have a worryingly poor track
record.
GLO: Will there be a chance for CEU to return back?
Kahanec: We are determined not to abandon Hungary and keep the Budapest campus. We will use it for non-teaching activities. As for our degree programs, my personal opinion is ‘never say never’.
GLO: How supportive is the EU and its Commission for CEU?
Kahanec: Some attempts to save CEU have been made, but they all have been eventually utterly ineffective. The EU has very limited instruments to protect democracy and freedom, let alone academic freedom, in its member states. The EU treaties did not really foresee, let alone provide safeguards against, rogue governments in its member states.
GLO: How well can CEU adjust in Vienna?
Kahanec: This will not be trivial, but we take this crisis as an opportunity to reinvent the university and to update its mission in order to even more strongly respond to the deep challenges societies around the globe are facing. We are opening new programs in Vienna, and I am proud to have stood, as the dean of CEU’s School of Public Policy, at the cradle of the new Masters’ program in International Public Affairs – the first graduate degree program that Central European University accredited in Austria to establish CEU in its new home in Vienna. And I must say, I am deeply impressed by, and grateful for the support from Austrian academics and institutions. There will be many challenges, but I am confidently looking forward to CEU’s future in Austria.
A new GLO Discussion Paperis providing evidence that heterogeneity in populism does not follow a left/right divide.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: We present an exploratory machine learning analysis of populist votes at municipality level in the 2018 Italian general elections, in which populist parties gained almost 50% of the votes. Starting from a comprehensive set of local characteristics, we use an algorithm based on BIC to obtain a reduced set of predictors for each of the two populist parties (Five-Star Movement and Lega) and the two traditional ones (Democratic Party and Forza Italia). Differences and similarities between the sets of predictors further provide evidence on 1) heterogeneity in populisms, 2) if this heterogeneity is related to the traditional left/right divide. The Five-Star Movement is stronger in larger and unsafer municipalities, where people are younger, more unemployed and work more in services. On the contrary, Lega thrives in smaller and safer municipalities, where people are less educated and employed more in manufacturing and commerce. These differences do not correspond to differences between the Democratic Party and Forza Italia, providing evidence that heterogeneity in populism does not correspond to a left/right divide. As robustness tests, we use an alternative machine learning technique (lasso) and apply our predictions to France as to confront them with candidates’ actual votes in 2017 presidential elections.
A new GLO Discussion Paper firstly measures poverty among refugees.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: The increasing growth of forced displacement worldwide has led to the stronger interest of various stakeholders in measuring poverty among refugee populations. However, refugee data remain scarce, particularly in relation to the measurement of income, consumption, or expenditure. This paper offers a first attempt to measure poverty among refugees using cross-survey imputations and administrative and survey data collected by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Jordan. Employing a small number of predictors currently available in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees registration system, the proposed methodology offers out-of-sample predicted poverty rates. These estimates are not statistically different from the actual poverty rates. The estimates are robust to different poverty lines, they are more accurate than those based on asset indexes or proxy means tests, and they perform well according to targeting indicators. They can also be obtained with relatively small samples. Despite these preliminary encouraging results, it is essential to replicate this experiment across countries using different data sets and welfare aggregates before validating the proposed method.
A new GLO Discussion Paper shows that in Portugal employee representatives foster firm performance through increased training of workers.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: Employee representatives in firms are a potentially key but not yet studied source of the impact of unions and works councils. Their actions can shape multiple drivers of firm performance, including collective bargaining, strikes, and training. This paper examines the impact of union rep mandates by exploiting legal membership thresholds present in many countries. In the case of Portugal, which we examine here, while firms employing up to 49 union members are required to have one union rep, this increases to two (three) union reps for firms with 50 to 99 (100-199) union members. Drawing on matched employer- employee data on the unionized sector and regression discontinuity methods, we find that a one percentage point increase in the legal union rep/members ratio leads to an increase in firm performance of at least 7%. This result generally holds across multiple dimensions of firm performance and appears to be driven by increased training. However, we find no effects of union reps on firm-level wages, given the predominance of sectoral collective bargaining.
A new GLO Discussion Paper shows that the China-drivenfall in IT prices has increased the demand for high wage occupations and reduced the demand for low wage occupations.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: I use data from the World Input-Output Database and show that trade in information technologies (IT) has a significant contribution to the growth in foreign intermediate goods in 2001-2014 period. China has become one of the major foreign suppliers of IT and has strongly contributed to the rise in trade in IT. The growth in IT imports from China is associated with lower IT prices in sample European countries. The fall in IT prices has increased the demand for high wage occupations and reduced the demand for low wage occupations. From 20 to 95 percent of the variation in the demand for occupations stemming from the fall in IT prices can be attributed to the trade with China.
Gautam Hazarika (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley), Chandan Kumar Jha (Le Moyne College, Madden School of Business), and Sudipta Sarangi (Virginia Tech) will receive the 2020 Kuznets Prize for their article (please click title for FREE READ LINK)
which was published in the Journal of Population Economics (2019), 32(4), pp. 1101-1123. The annual prize honors the best article published in the Journal of Population Economics.
The award will be given to the authors during the ASSA 2020 meeting in San Diego, USA, at a reception on Friday, Jan. 3, 2020, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM, at the Marriott Marquis San Diego, Coronado Room, hosted by the Institute for Economic and Social Research (IESR) of Jinan University.
Biographical Abstracts
Gautam Hazarika is presently Associate Professor of Economics at
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the newest branch of the University
of Texas system. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of
Delhi’s St. Stephen’s College, and his Ph.D. at the University of Rochester. His
research has spanned labor and development economics. He is presently conducting
research in economic anthropology. Dr. Hazarika’s research has appeared in such
journals as American Journal of
Agricultural Economics, Review of
Income and Wealth, the Journal of
Development Studies, and, recently, the Journal
of Population Economics.
Chandan Kumar Jha is an Assistant Professor of
Finance at the Madden School of Business, Le Moyne College. He holds a Ph.D.
and an M.S. from Louisiana State University. His research interests lie in the
areas of economic growth and development, political economy, and finance and
development. His current research topics include corruption, gender inequality,
financial risk, and economic and financial reforms. He has published several
research articles in many reputed journals such as the Journal of Economic Behavior &
Organization, the Journal of Population Economics, International Review of
Finance, and Information
Economics and Policy.
Sudipta Sarangi is currently
Department Head and Professor of Economics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University. His research interests range from network theory to
development economics. He studies how gender differences affect economic
activity, as well as the origins of gender inequality. His work on networks
focuses on the strategic formation of social and economic networks and how
participation in multiple networks affects social outcomes. He is a research
associate of DIW Berlin, GATE, University of Lyon-St. Etienne and the Lima
School of Economics. He serves on the editorial boards of Journal of
Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Public Economic Theory
and Studies in Microeconomics.
Hazarika
Jha
Sarangi
Abstract of the Winning Paper
“This paper examines the relationship between
ecological endowments in antiquity and contemporary female to male sex ratios
in the population. It is found that there are proportionately more missing
women in countries whose ancestral ecological endowments were poorer. This
relationship is shown to be strong even after ancestral plough use, the timing
of the Neolithic Transition, and many other potentially confounding factors are
controlled for. Similar results are also obtained using district-level data
from India.”
About the Kuznets Prize
The Journal of Population Economics awards the ‘Kuznets Prize’ for the best paper published in the Journal of Population Economicsin the previous year. Starting from 2014 the Prize has been awarded annually. Papers are judged by the Editors of the Journal.
Simon Kuznets, a pioneer in population economics, Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and the 1971 Nobel Prize laureate in economics, died on July 10, 1985. Professor Kuznets was born 1901 in Pinsk, Belarus, and came to the United States in 1922. He earned his Bachelor of Science in 1923, a Master of Arts degree in 1924 and his doctorate in 1926, all from Columbia University. During World War II he was Associate Director of the Bureau of Planning and Statistics on the War Production Board, and he served on the staff of the National Bureau of Economic Research from 1927 to 1960. Mr. Kuznets was a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania for 24 years and Professor of Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University from 1954 until he joined Harvard University in 1960. He retired in 1971 and was given the title of George F. Baker Professor Emeritus of Economics. He was a former president of the American Economic Association and the American Statistical Association.
Previous Winners
The Kuznets Prize (please click titles for READ LINKS FOR FREE) has previously been awarded to:
2016: Loren Brandt (University of Toronto), Aloysius Siow (University of Toronto), and Hui Wang (Peking University) for their article “Compensating for unequal parental investments in schooling,” Journal of Population Economics 28: 423-462.
Period 2010-2012: Richard W. Evans (Brigham Young University), Yingyao Hu (Johns Hopkins University) and Zhong Zhao (Renmin University) for their article “The fertility effect of catastrophe: US hurricane births“, Journal of Population Economics 23: 1-36.
The 2020 Annual Congress of the Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES/SGVS) onJune 18-19 takes place at the University of Zürich organized by the Department of Economics. GLO Fellow and GLO Country Lead Switzerland Rainer Winkelmann heads the Organizing Committee that includes also GLO Fellow David Dorn.
Paper submission deadline: February 1, 2020.All fields of economics and statistics are welcome. PDF Call for Papers.
There will be keynote lectures and special sessions on the topic of Digital Transformation with speakers including: Christina Caffarra (CRA), Hal Varian (Google) and John van Reenen (MIT).
CALL FOR PAPERS: 2020 Annual Congress of the Swiss Society for Economics and Statistics, June 18-19, 2020, Zurich, Switzerland.
The Department of Economics at the University of Zürich is proud to host the Annual Meeting of the Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES/SGVS) on June 18 (Thursday) and June 19 (Friday), 2020.
Topics
Submissions of papers across all fields of economics and statistics are
welcome. In addition, there will be keynote lectures and special sessions on
the topic of Digital Transformation. Speakers include: Christina
Caffarra (CRA), Hal Varian (Google) and John van Reenen (MIT).
Paper submission
Authors are invited to submit their preliminary or complete papers electronically (PDF files only) to: https://www.sgvs.ch/conferences/sses2020 Paper submission deadline: February 1, 2020.
Papers will be selected by a Program Committee consisting of a panel of
scholars from member institutions of the SSES. The submitting authors will be
notified of the Program Committee’s decision by April
1, 2020, at the latest.
The registration deadline for the conference is May 1, 2020.
Contributed Sessions
In addition, there will be a possibility to propose contributed sessions
(with 3-4 speakers each) on a specific topic. If you are interested, please
write an email with the topic and the names of the contributors by December 31, 2019 at the latest to: rainer.winkelmann@econ.uzh.ch. These proposals will be evaluated and you will be informed about the
decision by January 15, 2020.
SSES Young Economist Award
Authors who wish to be considered for the 2020 SSES Young Economist
Award should indicate this when submitting their paper.
Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics
A selection of contributions related to the special theme will be
published in a proceedings volume of the Swiss Journal of Economics and
Statistics (http://www.sjes.ch).
Organizing Committee Rainer Winkelmann (Chair), David Dorn, Marek Pycia, Florian Scheuer, Ulrich Woitek
The Second GLO – Renmin University of China Conference on Labor Economics in Beijing took place in the North Hall, Century Hall, RUC 7-8 December 2019. More details and full program.
Conference organizers were GLO Fellows Corrado Giulietti and Jun Han. The event is part of the GLO China Research Cluster, which is lead by Corrado Giulietti, who is also a GLO Research Director.
The conference was opened on December 7 by Corrado Giulietti, Jun Han, GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann, and Deputy Dean and GLO Fellow Zhong Zhao.
Keynote speakers were GLO FellowsShi Li of Zhejiang University and Xi Chen of Yale University. The conference saw 15 further paper presentations, one of them by GLO Director Matloob Piracha on Sunday, the second day of the event.
DAY 1; December 7
Zhong Zhao
Shi Li
From the left: Corrado Giulietti, Jun Han, Matloob Piracha, Xi Chen, Xianqiang Zou, and Zhangfeng Jin
GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann started his December visit to Beijing on December 5 to participate in a one-day event on:
For the Future: International Conference on Vocational Education and Training Development
The event took place in the Conference Center, Beijing International Hotel, Beijing/China. It was hosted by the China Development Research Foundation (CDRF) and The Chinese Society of Technical and Vocational Education (CSTVE) and supervised by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China and the Development Research Center of the State Council.
Next to following an intensive program with over 300 participants, Zimmermann was the Luncheon Keynote Speaker on the topic “Vocational Education & Training: Socio-Economic Sustainable Development“.
Key topics:
Vocational systems and youth unemployment
A roadmap to vocational education and training
General education versus vocational education
Challenges in the digital age
Central messages:
The Youth-to-Adult Unemployment Ratio of Germany With Its Dual Vocational Training System is Far Below Others in the Western World.
Vocational systems are a valued alternative beyond the core of general education.
Vocational high school graduates have better employment outcomes than general high school graduates.
The dual system is more effective in helping youth transition into employment than alternative academic or vocational training.
In the digital age, ICT skills are obviously important, but success comes with the development of non-cognitive skills.
Selective references:
Klaus F. Zimmermann, Costanza Biavaschi, Werner Eichhorst, Corrado Giulietti, Michael J. Kendzia, Alexander Muravyev, Janneke Pieters, Núria Rodríguez-Planas & Ricarda Schmidl (2013), Youth Unemployment and Vocational Training”, Foundations and Trends® in Microeconomics (2013), 9: 1-157.
Werner Eichhorst, Núria Rodríguez-Planas, Ricarda Schmidl & Klaus F. Zimmermann, A Roadmap to Vocational Education and Training in Industrialized Countries, Industrial and Labor Relations Review (2015), 68: 314-337.
Pierre Cahuc, Stéphane Carcillo, Ulf Rinne & Klaus F. Zimmermann, Youth Unemployment in Old Europe: The Polar Cases of France and Germany, IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, (2013), 2:18
Huzeyfe Torun & Semih Tumen, Do Vocational High School Graduates Have Better Employment Qutcomes Than General High School Graduates?, International Journal of Manpower (2019), 40: 1364-1388.
Shubha Jayaram, Tara Hill & Daniel Plaut, Training Models for Employment in the Digital Economy, Results for Development Institute (2013).
The new European Union Commission under the leadership of Ursula von der Leyen started working on December 1, 2019 with the aim to re-vitalize Europe.
GLO Fellow Jo Ritzen is a Professorial Fellow of UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance.UNU-MERIT is a joint institute of the United Nations University (UNU) and Maastricht University. Ritzen is a former Minister of Education, Culture, and Science of the Netherlands, served in the Dutch Cabinet at the Maastricht Treaty, is a former Vice President of the World Bank and a former President of Maastricht University.
On December 3, Jo Ritzen presented his new book at the Campus Brussels of Maastricht University on the future of Europe: Una segunda oportunidad para Europa (A Second Chance for Europe) calls upon to rethink and reboot the European Union, obviously right in time for the fresh start of Europe, Ursula von der Leyen attempts to organize.
On this occasion, GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann was visiting Brussels to prepare a European strategy for this organization. Zimmermann, Professor Emeritus of Bonn University, a Honorary Professor of Maastricht University and Co-Director of POP at UNU-MERIT, was also participating in the book launch; he was chairing the event and was moderating the respective policy panel.
The book was first introduced in Spanish by Salvador Pérez-Moreno, Professor of Economic Policy, University of Malaga, and discussed in Spanish by Javier López, Member of the European Parliament. Then Zimmermann moderated the panel discussion in English between Jo Ritzen, SalvadorPérez-Moreno and Javier López.
MORE DETAILS on the book. The video of this event will be available in due course.
From the right: López, Ritzen, Pérez-Moreno and Zimmermann.
After a Christmas shopping tour on the Grand Place, he was visiting Bruegel, the economic think tank, to discuss research and policy projects with GLO Fellow Martin Kahanec. Kahanec, who is a Professor at the Central European University (CEU) in Vienna & Budapest and a Mercator Senior Visiting Fellow at Bruegel, acts also as the GLO Cluster Lead for EU Mobility.
Labor market issues will play the major role at the Second GLO – Renmin University of China Conference in Beijing on 7-8 December 2019. Keynote speakers of the event are GLO FellowsShi Li of Zhejiang University and Xi Chen of Yale University. This continues the very successful tradition started with the first conference. See program and event pictures of the 2018 event. The 2019 program is now out (LINK), see also below. Conference organizers are GLO Fellows Corrado Giulietti and Jun Han.GLO Director Matloob Piracha will give one of the many contributed papers. GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann will attend and address the conference. The event is part of the GLO China Research Cluster, which is lead by Corrado Giulietti, who is also a GLO Research Director. Place: North Hall, Century Hall, RUC.
A new GLO Discussion Paper finds for The Netherlands that retirement of partnered men positively affects mental health of both themselves and their partners, while single men experience a drop in mental health.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: We study the retirement effects on mental health using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design based on the eligibility age to the state pension in the Netherlands. We find that the mental effects are heterogeneous by gender and marital status. Retirement of partnered men positively affects mental health of both themselves and their partners. Single men retiring experience a drop in mental health. Female retirement has hardly any effect on their own mental health or the mental health of their partners. Part of the effects seem to be driven by loneliness after retirement.
An article in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economicsreveals that former residents of the German Democratic Republic have a smaller present bias than former residents of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Journal of Population Economics 33 (2020), 349–387 GLO Discussion PaperNo. 306, 2019.
GLO FellowMarkus Pannenberg
Author Abstract: We use the separation and later reunification of Germany after World War II to show that a political regime shapes time preferences of its residents. Using two identification strategies, we find that former residents of the German Democratic Republic exhibit a significantly less pronounced present bias when compared with former residents of the Federal Republic of Germany, whereas measures of patience are statistically indistinguishable. Interpreting the years spent under the regime as a proxy for treatment intensity yields consistent results. Moreover, we present evidence showing that present bias predicts choices in the domains of health, finance, and education, thereby illustrating lasting repercussions of a regime’s influence on time preferences.
An article published in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economicsfinds that assortative mating in education has become stronger in the United States, which has contributed to the observed rise in inequality.
Journal of Population Economics 33 (2020), 307–347
Author Abstract: In this paper, we describe mating patterns in the USA from 1964 to 2017 and measure the impact of changes in marital preferences on between-household income inequality. We rely on the recent literature on the econometrics of matching models to estimate complementarity parameters of the household production function. Our structural approach allows us to measure sorting along multiple dimensions and to effectively disentangle changes in marital preferences and in demographics, addressing concerns that affect results from existing literature. We answer the following questions: Has assortativeness increased over time? Along which dimensions? To what extent can the shifts in marital preferences explain inequality trends? We find that, after controlling for other observables, assortative mating in education has become stronger. Moreover, if mating patterns had not changed since 1971, the 2017 Gini coefficient between married households would be 6% lower. We conclude that about 25% of the increase in between-household inequality is due to changes in marital preferences. Increased assortativeness in education positively contributes to the rise in inequality, but only modestly.
Despite a measured strong cross-sectional relationship between income and health, a new article in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economicsfinds no necessary connection between changes in income inequality and changes in health inequality.
Journal of Population Economics 33 (2020), 197–231
GLO FellowHannes Schwandt
Author Abstract: We develop a method for comparing levels and trends in inequality in mortality in the United States and France between 1990 and 2010 in a similar framework. The comparison shows that while income inequality has increased in both the United States and France, inequality in mortality in France remained remarkably low and stable. In the United States, inequality in mortality increased for older groups (especially women) while it decreased for children and young adults. These patterns highlight the fact that despite the strong cross-sectional relationship between income and health, there is no necessary connection between changes in income inequality and changes in health inequality.
A new article in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economicssuggests that migrant social networks in host cities mitigate adverse mental health challenges of Chinese rural-urban migrant workers.
Journal of Population Economics 33 (2020), 155–195 GLO Discussion PaperNo. 370, 2019.
GLO FellowsXin Meng & Sen Xue
Author Abstract: Over the past two decades, more than 160 million Chinese rural workers have migrated to cities to work. They are separated from their familiar rural networks to work in an unfamiliar, and often hostile, environment. Many of them thus face significant mental health challenges. This paper is the first to investigate the extent to which migrant social networks in host cities can mitigate these adverse mental health effects. Using unique longitudinal survey data from Rural-to-Urban Migration in China (RUMiC), we find that network size matters significantly for migrant workers. Our preferred instrumental variable estimates suggest that a one standard deviation increase in migrant city networks, on average, reduces the measure of mental health problems by 0.47 to 0.66 of a standard deviation. Similar effects are found among the less educated, those working longer hours, and those without access to social insurance. The main channel of the network effect is through boosting migrants’ confidence and reducing their anxiety.
The number of deaths from the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to fall. This is particularly true in Africa with a striking example in South Africa, where new infections and deaths have both been reduced by 40 percent since 2010. However, the problem is still worrisome in the South of the USA and in Eastern Europe. (See the three figures below.)
The Journal of Population Economics has published a number of economic research articles on the disease and the societal consequences. The 2019 Kuznets Prize of the Journal was devoted to a recent article:
A new article in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economicssuggests that intergenerational altruism explains between 24 and 42% of the African American northward migration.
Journal of Population Economics 33 (2020), 115–154
GLO FellowJohn Gardner
Author Abstract: It is widely believed that many migrations are undertaken at least in part for the benefit of future generations. To provide evidence on the effect of intergenerational altruism on migration, I estimate a dynamic residential location choice model of the African American Great Migration in which individuals take the welfare of future generations into account when deciding to remain in the Southern USA or migrate to the North. I measure the influence of altruism on the migration decision as the implied difference between the migration probabilities of altruistic individuals and myopic ones who consider only current-generation utility when making their location decisions. My preferred estimates suggest that intergenerational altruism explains between 24 and 42% of the Northward migration that took place during the period that I study, depending on the generation.
A new article in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economicssuggests that foreign aid may reduce asylum inflows from poor countries in the short run, but inflows from less poor economies show a positive but weak relation with aid. Aid is not an effective instrument to avoid migration flows.
Journal of Population Economics 33 (2020), 79–114 GLO Discussion PaperNo. 378, 2019.
GLO FellowMarina Murat
Author Abstract: This paper measures the links between aid from 14 rich to 113 developing economies and bilateral asylum applications during the years 1993 to 2013. Results show that asylum applications are related to aid in a U-shaped fashion with respect to the level of development of origin countries, although only the downward segment proves to be robust to all specifications. Asylum inflows from poor countries are significantly and negatively associated with aid in the short run, with mixed evidence of more lasting effects, while inflows from less poor economies show a positive but non-robust relationship to aid. Moreover, aid leads to negative cross-donor spillovers. Applications linearly decrease with humanitarian aid. Voluntary immigration is not related to aid. Overall, the reduction in asylum inflows is stronger when aid disbursements are conditional on economic, institutional and political improvements in the recipient economy.
Are new immigrants causing persistent voting effects? The lead article in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economics suggests that the voting effects are short-term only.
Read more in:
Read free the Lead Article of issue 1 (2020) of the Journal of Population Economics :
Author Abstract: In this paper, we test the hypothesis that the causal effect of immigrant presence on anti-immigrant votes is a short-run effect. For this purpose, we consider a distributed lag model and adapt the standard instrumental variable approach proposed by Altonji and Card (1991) to a dynamic framework. The evidence from our case study, votes for the UK Independent Party (Ukip) in recent European elections, supports our hypothesis. Furthermore, we find that this effect is robust to differences across areas in terms of population density and socioeconomic characteristics, and it is only partly explained by integration issues.
Interested researchers are cordially invited to submit their abstracts or papers for presentation consideration at the 31st EBES Conference – Warsaw, which will take place on April 15-17, 2020 hosted by the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, Warsaw/Poland, with the support of the Istanbul Economic Research Association.
This is aGLO supported conference.EBESis theEurasia Business and Economics Society, a strategic partner and institutional supporter of GLO. GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann is also President of EBES.
Invited Speaker
EBES is pleased to announce that distinguished scholar Professor Brian Lucey will join the conference as keynote speaker:
Professor Brian Lucey is a well-known researcher in the finance field. He
is professor of finance at the School of Business, Trinity College Dublin and
editor of Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance; International Review
of Financial Analysis; and Finance Research Letters. He also is an associate
editor of Journal of Banking and Finance. He worked as an economist in the
Department of Health and Central Bank in Ireland and has more than 150
peer-reviewed papers which were published in reputable finance journals
including Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money;
Journal of Banking and Finance; Journal of Financial Stability; and Journal of
Multinational Financial Management.
Board Prof. Klaus F. Zimmermann, UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, The Netherlands, & GLO. Prof. Jonathan Batten, Monash University, Australia, & GLO Prof. Iftekhar Hasan, Fordham University, U.S.A. Prof. Euston Quah, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Prof. John Rust, Georgetown University, U.S.A., & GLO Prof. Dorothea Schäfer, German Institute for Economic Research DIW Berlin,Germany, and GLO Prof. Marco Vivarelli, Università Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore, Italy, & GLO
Abstract/Paper Submission
Authors are invited to submit their abstracts or papers no later than February 12, 2020.
Qualified papers can be published
in EBES journals (Eurasian Business Review and Eurasian Economic Review) or
EBES Proceedings books after a peer review process without any submission or
publication fees. EBES journals (EABR and EAER) are published by Springer and
both are indexed in the SCOPUS, EBSCO EconLit with Full Text, Google Scholar,
ABS Academic Journal Quality Guide, CNKI, EBSCO Business Source, EBSCO
Discovery Service, EBSCO TOC Premier, International Bibliography of the Social
Sciences (IBSS), OCLC WorldCat Discovery Service, ProQuest ABI/INFORM, ProQuest
Business Premium Collection, ProQuest Central, ProQuest Turkey Database,
ProQuest-ExLibris Primo, ProQuest-ExLibris Summon, Research Papers in Economics
(RePEc), Cabell’s Directory, and Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory. In addition,
while EAER is indexed in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (Clarivate
Analytics), EABR is indexed in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and
Current Contents / Social & Behavioral Sciences.
Furthermore, high qualified
papers will be invited to be submitted for publication in regular issues of the
Review of Managerial Science (SSCI) and they will go through a review process.
However, presentation at the EBES Conference does not guarantee publication in
the Review of Managerial Science.
Also, all accepted abstracts will
be published electronically in the Conference Program and the Abstract Book
(with an ISBN number). It will be distributed to all conference participants at
the conference via USB. Although submitting full papers are not required, all
the submitted full papers will also be included in the conference proceedings
in a USB. After the conference, participants will also have the opportunity to
send their paper to be published (after a refereeing process managed by EBES)
in the Springer’s series Eurasian Studies in Business and Economics (no
submission and publication fees).
This will also be sent to
Clarivate Analytics in order to be reviewed for coverage in the Conference
Proceedings Citation Index – Social Science & Humanities (CPCI-SSH). Please
note that the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and
20th (Vol. 2) EBES Conference Proceedings are accepted for inclusion in the
Conference Proceedings Citation Index – Social Science & Humanities
(CPCI-SSH). 20th (Vol. 1), 21st and subsequent conference proceedings are in
progress.
Important Dates
Abstract Submission Start Date: November 1, 2019 Abstract Submission Deadline: February 12, 2020 Reply-by: February 14, 2020* Registration Deadline: March 13, 2020 Announcement of the Program: March 17, 2020 Paper Submission Deadline (Optional): March 13, 2020** Paper Submission for the EBES journals: July 15, 2020
* The decision regarding the acceptance/rejection of each abstract/paper will be communicated with the corresponding author within a week of submission. ** Completed paper submission is optional. If you want to be considered for the Best Paper Award or your full paper to be included in the conference proceedings in the USB, after submitting your abstract before February 12, 2020, you must also submit your completed (full) paper by March 13, 2020.
Contact Ugur Can, Director of EBES (ebes@ebesweb.org); EBES & GLO Dr. Ender Demir, Conferene Coordinator of EBES (demir@ebesweb.org); EBES & GLO
The paper studies the migrant-native differences in wealth among older households in Europe which is significant and to the advantage of the natives. The importance of origin country, age at migration, and citizenship status in reducing the gap is shown.
Author Abstract: This study uses a matching method to provide an estimate of the nativity wealth gap among older households in Europe. This approach does not require imposing any functional form on wealth and avoids validity-out-of-the-support assumptions; furthermore, it allows estimation not only of the mean of the wealth gap but also of its distribution for the common-support sub-population. The results show that on average there is a positive and significant wealth gap between natives and migrants. However, the average gap may be misleading as the distribution of the gap reveals that immigrant households in the upper part of the wealth distribution are better off, and those in the lower part of the wealth distribution are worse off, than comparable native households. A heterogeneity analysis shows the importance of origin, age at migration, and citizenship status in reducing the gap. Indeed, households who migrated within Europe, those who moved at younger ages rather than as adults, and those who are citizens of the destination country display a wealth gap that is consistently smaller over the entire distribution.
The article finds thatparents compensate disadvantaged children with greater cognitive resources using data fromprimary school-aged Ethiopian siblings.
Author Abstract: A small but increasing body of literature finds that parents invest in their children unequally. However, the evidence is contradictory, and providing convincing causal evidence of the effect of child ability on parental investment in a low-income context is challenging. This paper examines how parents respond to the differing abilities of primary school-aged Ethiopian siblings, using rainfall shocks during the critical developmental period between pregnancy and the first 3 years of a child’s life to isolate exogenous variations in child ability within the household, observed at a later stage than birth. The results show that on average parents attempt to compensate dis-advantaged children through increased cognitive investment. The effect is significant,but small in magnitude: parents provide about 3.9% of a standard deviation more in educational fees to the lower-ability child in the observed pair. We provide suggestive evidence that families with educated mothers, smaller household size and higher wealth compensate with greater cognitive resources for a lower-ability child.
Gender pay gaps are still of much concern, in particular in the United States. A paper published in the Journal of Population Economics adds to our understanding how the gender gap is shaped by multiple different forces such as parenthood, gender segregation, part-time work and unionization.
GLO Fellows Francesco Pastore & Allan Webster The paper is also GLO Discussion Paper No. 363, 2019.
Author Abstract: This study examines the gender wage gap in the USA using two separate cross-sections from the Current Population Survey (CPS). The extensive literature on this subject includes wage decompositions that divide the gender wage gap into “explained” and “unexplained” components. One of the problems with this approach is the heterogeneity of the sample data. In order to address the difficulties of comparing like with like, this study uses a number of different matching techniques to obtain estimates of the gap. By controlling for a wide range of other influences, in effect, we estimate the direct effect of simply being female on wages. However, a number of other factors, such as parenthood, gender segregation, part-time working, and unionization, contribute to the gender wage gap. This means that it is not just the core “like for like” comparison between male and female wages that matters but also how gender wage differences interact with other influences. The literature has noted the existence of these interactions, but precise or systematic estimates of such effects remain scarce. The most innovative contribution of this study is to do that. Our findings imply that the idea of a single uniform gender pay gap is perhaps less useful than an understanding of how gender wages are shaped by multiple different forces.
“A Second Chance for Europe” calls upon us to rethink and reboot the European Union. The discontents of globalization threaten European values and call for a new economic order. EU Member States are backsliding on the rule of law and control of corruption. There is a need to rethink immigration policy. The debt overhang of some Euro countries is unsustainable.
Given the sum total of these vulnerabilities, the book argues that the EU may not survive beyond 2025 in its present form. It puts forward a number of workable solutions: a European economic model to secure full employment, a stronger European Court of Human Rights, a points-based immigration system, clear exit options from the Eurozone and an Open Education Area with a common second language. These solutions may reduce the number of EU countries in the core-EU, but would increase cohesion and overall sustainability.
“Una segunda oportunidad para Europa” nos llama a repensar y reiniciar la Unión Europea. El descontento con la globalización amenaza los valores europeos y pide un nuevo orden económico. Los Estados Miembros están retrocediendo en el mantenimiento del estado de derecho y el control de la corrupción. Existe la necesidad de repensar la política migratoria. La deuda pública de algunos países de la Eurozona es insostenible.
Teniendo en cuenta la suma de estas vulnerabilidades, el libro argumenta que la Unión Europea podría no sobrevivir más allá de 2025 en su forma actual. El libro propone una serie de soluciones: un modelo económico europeo para asegurar el pleno empleo, un Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos más fuerte, un sistema de inmigración por puntos, opciones claras de salida de la Eurozona, y un Área de Educación Abierta con un segundo idioma común. Estas soluciones podrían reducir el número de países de la UE en el núcleo de la Unión, pero incrementarían la cohesión y la sostenibilidad general.
INVITATION: The United Nations University – MERIT and Maastricht University Campus Brussels invite to the book launch of
Una segunda oportunidad para Europa edited by Jo Ritzen
on December 3, 2019, 16:00-18:00. Venue: Maastricht University Campus Brussels | Avenue de Tervueren 153, 1150, Brussels. The event will be in both Spanish and English.
Presentation of the book in Spanish by Mr. Salvador Pérez-Moreno, Professor of Economic Policy, University of Malaga
Comments in Spanish by Mr. Javier López, Member of the European Parliament
Discussion in English between Prof. Moreno, Prof. Inmaculada Serón-Ordoñez, Lecturer of Translation and Interpretation at Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, and Mr. Javier Lopez, led by Prof. Klaus F. Zimmermann, President of the Global Labor Organization (GLO), UNU-MERIT and Bonn University
Drinks
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Jo Ritzen is a professorial fellow in the International Economics of Science, Technology and Higher Education at United Nations University-MERIT and its School of Governance. UNU-MERIT is a joint institute of the United Nations University (UNU) and Maastricht University. Prof. Ritzen is a former Minister of Education, Culture, and Science of the Netherlands, served in the Dutch Cabinet at the Maastricht Treaty, a former Vice President of the World Bank and former President of Maastricht University. Jo Ritzen is also a Fellow of the Global Labor Organization (GLO).
Jo Ritzen (right) & Klaus F. Zimmermann
How to order the book: https://www.edicionespiramide.es/libro.php?id=5928108 https://www.amazon.fr/Una-segunda-oportunidad-para-Europa/dp/8436841166
The issue is now available online. Three articles are open access. All articles listed below have a READ LINK which allows free reading. These links can be freely used on websites and in the social media. The link enables to READ the article. For the concept behind read more: https://www.springernature.com/gp/researchers/sharedit
A new GLO Discussion Paper finds in line with the literature on vocational education programs that internship experience has a positive effect on labor market outcomes.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: The literature on workplace learning in secondary education has mainly focused on vocational education programs. In this study, we examine the impact of internship experience in secondary education on a student’s schooling and early labor market outcomes, by analyzing unique, longitudinal data from Belgium. To control for unobserved heterogeneity, we model sequential outcomes by means of a dynamic discrete choice model. In line with the literature on vocational education programs, we find that internship experience has a positive effect on labor market outcomes that diminishes over time, although within the time window of our study, we find no evidence for a null or negative effect over time.
A new GLO Discussion Paper studies female entrepreneurship as a possible growth driver. It finds that tertiary education makes entrepreneurial training of females effective.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, policymakers have been increasingly striving to support female entrepreneurship as a possible growth driver. This paper contributes to reconciling mixed findings in the literature on the effectiveness of entrepreneurial training with an analysis that links training and human capital, including tertiary education and non-cognitive skills, with gender gaps in entrepreneurial performance in Africa. We have found that while financial literacy training directly benefits men, it does not raise the sales level of women entrepreneurs. Instead, tertiary education has a direct positive link with the performance of women. Consistent with our theoretical model where different skills are complements, tertiary education can act as a channel that makes training effective. Regarding non-cognitive skills, evidence shows that women entrepreneurs who are tenacious achieve stronger sales performance. Our results underscore the importance of incorporating tertiary education and entrepreneurial training programs focused on a balanced set of skills, including non-cognitive skills, among policies for women entrepreneurs.
The Department of Economics at Macquarie University in collaboration with Macquarie University Centre for Health Economy (MUCHE) and Global Labor Organization (GLO) was organizing an international conference on the “Economics of Health, Inequality and Behaviour (WEHIB)” in Sydney/Australia over 11-13 November 2019. The multidisciplinary conference aimed to foster dialogue among social scientists on the nexus between health, behavior, and inequality across developed and developing societies.
The event was organized at the University under the leadership of GLO FellowKompal Sinha, a Senior Lecturer and HDR Director at the Department of Economics of Macquarie University. Sinha is also an Associate Editor of the Journal of Population Economics and the GLO Research Cluster Lead for Development, Health, Inequality and Behavior. The cluster is keen to develop the event further as its trade-mark.
Keynote speakers at the conference were Lisa Cameron (University of Melbourne), Andrew Jones (University of York), and Klaus F. Zimmermann (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University & GLO). The conference started on November 11 with an address by Hon Chris Bowen MP, Shadow Minister for Health, followed by the keynote speech of GLO – President Klaus F. Zimmermann on “Arsenic in drinking water: health challenges and responses”. (See also.) Lisa Cameron (University of Melbourne) spoke on November 12 about “Crime against morality: unintended consequences of criminalising sex work” and Andrew Jones (University of York) on November 13 about “Equity, opportunity and health”. Next to the 4 keynotes, the event included 18 fine contributed papers, among others by GLO Fellows Cahit Guven (Deakin University), Alfredo Paloyo (University of Wollongong), Michael Palmer (University of Western Australia) and Jaai Parasnis (Monash University).
The conference ended on November 13 with a farewell speech by the Head of the Economics Department, ProfessorElisabetta Magnani, who also had welcomed the participants at the opening ceremony. Everybody was pleased with the wonderful event, with the place and service, the excellent meeting and working conditions, the very high quality of papers presented, and the lively discussions.
