Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This paper examines the impact of noncognitive (socio-emotional) skills on job market outcomes, using a randomized control trial implemented in an online job portal in India. Job seekers who registered in the portal were asked to take a Big-Five type personality test and, for a random subsample of the test takers, the results were displayed to potential employers. The outcomes are measured by whether a potential employer shortlisted a job seeker by opening (unlocking) his/her application and background information. The results show that the treatment group for whom test results were shown generally enjoyed a higher probability of unlock. That is, employers are more interested in those for whom they can see personality test results. Such a relationship was not seen in the pre-test period, which confirms that the results are unlikely to be spurious. The study also finds a significant impact among organized, calm, imaginative, and/or quiet applicants (no effect is detected among easy-going, sensitive, realistic, and/or outgoing applicants), which seems to display employers' preference.

Job Creation --- Job Portal --- Jobs --- Labor Skills --- Labor Standards --- Noncognitive Skills --- Randomized Control Trial --- Social Development --- Social Protections and Labor

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Many economists believe that the returns to migration are high. However, credible experimental estimates of the benefits of migration are rare, particularly for low-skilled international migrants and their families. This paper studies a natural experiment in Bangladesh, where low-skilled male migrant workers to Malaysia were selected via a large-scale lottery program. This study tracked the households of lottery applicants and surveyed 3,512 lottery winners and losers. Five years after the lottery, 76 percent of the winners had migrated internationally compared with only 19 percent of the lottery losers. Using the lottery outcome as an instrument, the paper finds that the government intermediated migration increased the incomes of migrants by over 200 percent and their household per capita consumption by 22 percent. Furthermore, low-skilled international migration leads to large improvements in a wide array of household socioeconomic outcomes, including female involvement in key household decisions. Such large gains arise, at least in part, due to lower costs of government intermediation.

Employment and Unemployment --- Government Intermediation --- Internal Migration --- International Economics and Trade --- International Migration --- Labor Markets --- Labor Skills --- Lottery --- Poverty Reduction --- Social Protections and Labor --- Welfare

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Does increased import competition lead to higher returns to skill within an industry and, therefore, to greater incentives for skill acquisition? Does it also induce skill upgrading by the industry's existing workforce? To answer these questions, this paper follows individual workers across skills/occupations, firms, and industries using a longitudinal matched employer-employee data set covering all workers and firms in Portugal over 1986-2000. To identify the effects of international competition the analysis uses two exogenous measures of changes in international competition at the industry level. The first is a quasi-natural experiment based on the strong appreciation of the Portuguese currency during 1989-1992 and preexisting differences in trade exposure across industries in a differences-in-differences estimation. The second is source-weighted real exchange rates defined at the industry level. Based on both empirical strategies, and two definitions of skill, the paper shows that international competition increases returns to skill and induces skill/occupation upgrading within industries.

Education --- Industry --- International Economics and Trade --- International Trade --- Labor Market Adjustment --- Labor Markets --- Labor Skills --- Skill Acquisition --- Social Protections and Labor --- Trade Adjustment --- Trade and Labor

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Several studies have documented a positive and causal relationship product or process innovation - and labor productivity. Given the links between labor productivity and wages, a likely implication of this positive relationship is that innovation is associated with higher wages of more productive firms. This paper explores the relationship between innovation and wages using Brazil's employer-employee census and a novel measure of innovation derived from the share of technical and scientific occupations of workers in the firm. The results show a robust and positive wage premium associated with innovative firms. The decomposition of this innovation-related wage premium suggests a series of important stylized facts: (i) the innovation wage premium is larger for manufacturing but also positive and significant for agriculture and services; (ii) it is larger for large firms, but also positive and significant for all firm size categories including micro firms; and (iii) it is larger for medium- and low-skill occupations, although this depends on the use of firm fixed effects. More importantly, the paper explores the causality between innovation and wages and finds empirical support for the ideas that "self-selection" firms that innovate already pay higher wages before becoming innovators - and increases in wages associated with starting innovation activity, which are persistent for three years after firms start innovating.

Firm Size --- Innovation --- Labor Markets --- Labor Productivity --- Labor Skills --- Microenterprises --- Private Sector Development --- Private Sector Economics --- Science and Technology Development --- Skills Development and Labor Force Training --- Small and Medium Size Enterprises --- Social Protections and Labor --- Wage Premium

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The role of employer discrimination in widening labor market differences between men and women has been hypothesized and investigated in different settings. Using a field experiment, this paper examines the presence and magnitude of gender-based discrimination by employers at the point of screening in Tunisia. The study sent out 1,571 fictitious and substantially identical pairs of male and female resumes in response to online job advertisements. On average, women were 2.4 percentage points more likely than men to receive a callback from an employer. However, this average effect hides substantial heterogeneity across economic sectors. In the information technology sector, women were 15 percentage points less likely to receive a callback than men. No discrimination against or in favor of women is found in engineering, whereas in marketing and finance, women were 19 and 4 percentage points more likely to receive a callback, respectively. The paper also finds that, unlike men, women may suffer from discrimination based on their physical appearance. Veiled women were 8.5 percentage points less likely to receive a callback than non-veiled women. Overall, the findings suggest that, at the point of screening, employer discrimination against women in Tunisia is sector specific, and, on its own, it cannot fully explain the complex challenge of female unemployment in the country.

Employment and Unemployment --- Field Experiment --- Gender --- Gender and Economics --- Gender and Social Policy --- Gender Economics --- Gender Gap --- Hiring Bias --- Labor Discrimination --- Labor Economics --- Labor Markets --- Labor Policies --- Labor Skills --- Social Protections and Labor --- Unemployment --- Wage Differential