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Cavenaile, Laurent (2021): Offshoring, computerization, labor market polarization and top income inequality. In: Journal of macroeconomics, Jg. 69. DOI:10.1016/j.jmacro.2021.103317

Abstract

"This paper proposes a model of occupational choice with heterogeneous agents in terms of human capital to quantify the role of offshoring and computerization in labor market polarization and increased top income inequality. We find that both offshoring and computerization played a major role regarding labor market polarization in the US over the period 1975–2008. We further show that the last decades can be decomposed into two subperiods. Computerization is the main driver of labor market polarization from 1975 to the mid 1990s, after which globalization (through decreased costs of offshoring) explains more than 70% of job and wage polarization. Our model can also explain around 40% of the observed increase in top income inequality since 1975." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2021 Elsevier) ((en))

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Dorn, David & Peter Levell (2021): Trade and Inequality in Europe and the US. (IZA discussion paper 14914), Bonn, 65 S.

Abstract

"The share of low-income countries in global exports nearly tripled between 1990 and 2015, driven largely by the rapid emergence of China as an exporting powerhouse. While research in economics had long acknowledged that trade with lower-income countries could raise income inequality in Europe and the US, empirical estimates indicated only a modest contribution of trade to growing national skill premia. However, if workers are not highly mobile across firms, industries and locations, then the unequal impacts of trade can manifest along different margins. Recent evidence from countries across Europe and the US shows that growing import competition from China differentially reduced earnings and employment rates for workers in more trade-exposed industries, and for the residents of more trade-exposed geographic regions. These adverse impacts were often largest for lower-skilled individuals. We show that domestic manufacturing employment declined much more in countries that saw a large growth of net imports from China (such as the UK and the US), than in countries that maintained relatively balanced trade with China (such as Germany and Switzerland). Drawing on a new analysis for the UK, we further show that trade with China contributed to job loss in manufacturing, but also to substantial declines in consumer prices. However, while the adverse labour market impacts were concentrated on specific groups of workers and regions, the consumer benefits from trade were widely dispersed in the population, and appear similarly large for high-income and low-income households. Globalisation has thus created pockets of losers, and recent evidence indicates that in addition to financial losses, residents of regions with greater exposure to import competition also suffer from higher crime rates, a deterioration of health outcomes, and a dissolution of traditional family structures. We argue that new import tariffs such as those imposed by the US in 2018 and 2019 are unlikely to help the losers from globalisation. Instead, displaced workers may be better supported by a combination of transfers to avert financial hardship, skills training that facilitate reintegration into the labour market, and place-based policies that stimulate job creation in depressed locations." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Engelhardt, Gary V. & Patrick J. Purcell (2021): The minimum wage and annual earnings inequality. In: Economics Letters, Jg. 207. DOI:10.1016/j.econlet.2021.110001

Abstract

"We estimate the impact of the minimum wage on U.S. male annual earnings inequality, using administrative Social Security earnings records from 1981-2015. The minimum wage reduces inequality in the bottom quartile of the earnings distribution, and especially in the bottom decile." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2021 Elsevier) ((en))

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Farmand, Aida & Owen Davis (2021): Who Does the Earned Income Tax Credit Benefit? A Monopsony View. (Working paper / Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis 2021-02), New York, NY, 45 S.

Abstract

"The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) targets refundable tax credits to low-income workers, incentivizing labor supply and raising the incomes of tens of millions of Americans. One possible consequence of subsidizing low-wage work, however, is to reduce wage growth. A monopsony model of the EITC is developed in order to analyze its impacts on labor market outcomes, which are identified by exploiting variation in state EITC supplements. A first set of results focused on the food service industry find that the EITC increases employment and reduces turnover among young women. Further results suggest that the EITC reduces wages for workers without college degrees. These findings prompt a reconsideration of the redistributive effects of the EITC, particularly for groups like older low-wage workers who face slower wage growth as a result of the policy but do not receive the same level of benefits on average." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Struffolino, Emanuela & Zachary Van Winkle (2021): Gender and race differences in pathways out of in-work poverty in the US. In: Social science research, Jg. 99. DOI:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2021.102585

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Grimes, Donald R., Penelope B. Prime & Mary Beth Walker (2019): Geographical variation in wages of workers in low-wage service occupations. A U.S. metropolitan area analysis. In: Economic Development Quarterly, Jg. 33, H. 2, S. 121-133. DOI:10.1177/0891242419836493

Abstract

"Low-wage, service-providing occupations accounted for almost half of all U.S. net job growth between 2006 and 2016. The authors study the variation in wages of low-wage service employees across U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, using cross-sectional estimations for 2016 for the 10th, 50th, and 90th percentile wage rates. New data are used to examine the impact of different cost-of-living adjustments on model results, arguing that the preferred adjustment separates housing costs from other costs. The main results are that strong labor market conditions positively contribute to real wages in most of the categories; minimum wages contribute positively to the 10th percentile of four occupations with evidence of influencing higher wages in the 50th and 90th percentiles; and using the authors' cost-of-living adjustment and controlling for housing costs, the presence of an educated population did not substantially raise wages in the four low-wage, low-skill occupations." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Phelan, Brian J. (2019): Hedonic-based labor supply substitution and the ripple effect of minimum wages. In: Journal of labor economics, Jg. 37, H. 3, S. 905-947. DOI:10.1086/702651

Abstract

"This paper analyzes a new explanation of the 'ripple effect' of minimum wages based on how minimum wages affect hedonic compensation. Minimum wage hikes lower compensating differentials at low-skill undesirable jobs because they raise wages at the most desirable low-skill job, the minimum wage job. This change in hedonic compensation may cause some individuals to optimally leave low-wage undesirable jobs and seek more desirable employment. If labor supply falls at low-wage undesirable jobs, employers would raise wages, consistent with the ripple effect. Empirically, I provide evidence that hedonic-based labor supply substitution is taking place and contributing to the ripple effect." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Struffolino, Emanuela & Zachary Van Winkle (2019): Is there only one way out of in-work poverty? Difference by gender and race in the US. (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung. Discussion papers SP 1 2019-601), Berlin, 41 S.

Abstract

"The persistency of in-work poverty during the last decades challenges the idea that employment is sufficient to escape poverty. Research has focused on the risk factors associated with in-work poverty, but scholars know little about individuals' experiences after exiting it. The Sequence Analysis Multistate Model procedure is applied to three high-quality longitudinal data sources (NLSY79, NLSY97, and PSID) to establish a typology of employment pathways out of in-work poverty and estimate how gender and race are associated with each pathway. We identify five distinct pathways characterized by varying degrees of labor market attachment, economic vulnerability, and volatility. White men are most likely exit in-work poverty into stable employment outside of poverty, while Black men and women likely remain vulnerable and at-risk of social exclusion as well as recurrent spells of in-work poverty. Gender and race differences persist even after controlling for labor market related characteristics and family demographic behavior." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Leung, Pauline & Alexandre Mas (2018): Employment effects of the affordable care act medicaid expansions. In: Industrial relations, Jg. 57, H. 2, S. 206-234. DOI:10.1111/irel.12207

Abstract

"We examine whether the recent expansions in Medicaid from the Affordable Care Act reduced 'employment lock' among childless adults who were previously ineligible for public coverage. We compare employment in states that chose to expand Medicaid versus those that chose not to expand, before and after implementation. We find that although the expansion increased Medicaid coverage by 3.0 percentage points among childless adults, there was no significant impact on employment." (Author's abstract, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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Panikkar, Bindu, Doug Brugge, David M. Gute & Raymond R. Hyatt (2015): "They see us as machines:" the experience of recent immigrant women in the low wage informal labor sector. In: PLoS one, Jg. 10, H. 11, S. 1-18. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0142686

Abstract

"This study explores the organization of work and occupational health risk as elicited from recently immigrated women (n = 8) who have been in the US for less than three years and employed in informal work sectors such as cleaning and factory work in the greater Boston area in Massachusetts. Additional interviews (n = 8) with Community Key Informants with knowledge of this sector and representatives of temporary employment agencies in the area provides further context to the interviews conducted with recent immigrant women. These results were also compared with our immigrant occupational health survey, a large project that spawned this study. Responses from the study participants suggest health outcomes consistent with being a day-laborer scholarship, new immigrant women are especially at higher risk within these low wage informal work sectors. A difference in health experiences based on ethnicity and occupation was also observed. Low skilled temporary jobs are fashioned around meeting the job performance expectations of the employer; the worker's needs are hardly addressed, resulting in low work standards, little worker protection and poor health outcomes. The rising prevalence of non-standard employment or informal labor sector requires that policies or labor market legislation be revised to meet the needs presented by these marginalized workers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Sykes, Jennifer, Katrin Križ, Kathryn Edin & Sarah Halpern-Meekin (2015): Dignity and dreams: what the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) means to low-income families. In: American Sociological Review, Jg. 80, H. 2, S. 243-267. DOI:10.1177/0003122414551552

Abstract

"Money has meaning that shapes its uses and social significance, including the monies low-income families draw on for survival: wages, welfare, and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). This study, based on in-depth interviews with 115 low-wage EITC recipients, reveals the EITC is an unusual type of government transfer. Recipients of the EITC say they value the debt relief this government benefit brings. However, they also perceive it as a just reward for work, which legitimizes a temporary increase in consumption. Furthermore, unlike other means-tested government transfers, the credit is seen as a springboard for upward mobility. Thus, by conferring dignity and spurring dreams, the EITC enhances feelings of citizenship and social inclusion." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Thiede, Brian C., Daniel T. Lichter & Scott R. Sanders (2015): America's working poor. Conceptualization, measurement, and new estimates. In: Work and occupations, Jg. 42, H. 3, S. 267-312. DOI:10.1177/0730888415573635

Abstract

"This article addresses measurement challenges that have stymied contemporary research on the working poor. The authors review previously used measurement schemes and discuss conceptual assumptions that underlie each. Using 2013 March Current Population Survey data, the authors estimate national- and race-specific rates of working poverty using more than 125 measures. The authors then evaluate the association between each measure and a latent construct of working poverty using factor analysis and develop a working poverty index derived from these results. Finally, the authors estimate multivariate regression models to identify key social and demographic risk factors for poverty among workers. The authors' national estimates of working poverty range from 2% to nearly 19% and are highly sensitive to alternative assumptions. The authors' analyses find that the latent construct is most highly correlated with empirical measures of working poverty that include part-time or part-year employment and that use poverty income thresholds that include both the poor and near poor. Crude rates and conditional risks of poverty among workers vary considerably among racial groups. This article provides a conceptual and empirical baseline for decisions about how best to estimate the magnitude and composition of America's working poor population." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Albelda, Randy & Michael Carr (2014): Double trouble: US low-wage and low-income workers, 1979 - 2011. In: Feminist economics, Jg. 20, H. 2, S. 1-28. DOI:10.1080/13545701.2014.886125

Abstract

"There is research on low-wage earners and on low-income adults, yet little that looks specifically at workers who are both. Changes in antipoverty programs and job structure in the United States suggest a rise in this group of workers, but not necessarily an accompanying change in the set of social protections that might cover them. We track the share of low-wage and low-income (LW/LI) workers and their access to a subset of employer benefits and antipoverty programs from 1979 - 2011. We explore changes by worker's gender and family status based on feminist labor market and welfare state regime research that argues jobs and social protection programs are shaped by a heteronormative male-breadwinner model. We find increased shares of LW/LI workers; that LW/LI workers are least likely to receive antipoverty supports and employer benefits; and evidence for a male-breadwinner model in US social protection programs." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gesthuizen, Maurice & Heike Solga (2014): Is the labor market vulnerability of less-educated men really about job competition? New insights from the United States. In: Journal for labour market research, Jg. 47, H. 3, S. 205-221., 2013-03-01. DOI:10.1007/s12651-013-0131-4

Abstract

"Es gibt verschiede Gründe, warum schlechter ausgebildete Männer höheren Risiken der Arbeitsmarktverwundbarkeit - Arbeitslosigkeitsrisiken oder bei Beschäftigten ein niedriger sozioökonomischer Status - unterliegen. Die gebräuchliche Erklärung hierfür ist, dass der Grund für diese höheren Risiken ein gesteigerter beruflicher Wettbewerb ist, der auf ein Überangebot an besser ausgebildeten Arbeitskräften zurückzuführen ist, die die schlechter ausgebildeten Arbeitskräfte aus ihren Beschäftigungen verdrängen. Zusätzlich zur Untersuchung dieser Erklärung analysieren wir den Einfluss der kognitiven Fähigkeiten schlechter ausgebildeter Männer, ihre sozialen Ressourcen und den (historisch eingebetteten) Signalwert, über keine Bildungsnachweise zu verfügen. Wir untersuchen diese Auswirkungen mittels institutioneller und kompositioneller Variationen über Arbeitsmarkt-Eintrittskohorten hinweg in den USA. Für unsere Analysen nutzen wir die Daten des 1974-2008 US General Social Survey (GSS). Sie zeigen, dass ein Überangebot an gut ausgebildeten Arbeitskräften hauptsächlich die Arbeitslosigkeitsrisiken der besser ausgebildeten Personen selbst steigert. In Arbeitsmarkt-Eintrittskohorten, in welchen die negative Selektion basierend auf dem Hintergrund der Eltern der Gruppe der schlechter ausgebildeten deutlicher ist, haben die schlechter ausgebildeten ein relativ hohes Arbeitslosigkeitsrisiko." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Henly, Julia R. & Susan J. Lambert (2014): Unpredictable work timing in retail jobs. Implications for employee work-life conflict. In: ILR review, Jg. 67, H. 3, S. 986-1016. DOI:10.1177/0019793914537458

Abstract

"Unpredictability is a distinctive dimension of working time that has been examined primarily in the context of unplanned overtime and in male-dominated occupations. The authors assess the extent to which female employees in low-skilled retail jobs whose work schedules are unpredictable report greater work -- life conflict than do their counterparts with more predictable work schedules and whether employee input into work schedules reduces work -- life conflict. Data include measures from employee surveys and firm records for a sample of hourly female workers employed across 21 stores of a U.S. women's apparel retailer. Results demonstrate that, independent of other dimensions of nonstandard work hours, unpredictability is positively associated with three outcomes: general work -- life conflict, time-based conflict, and strain-based conflict as measured by perceived employee stress. Employee input into work schedules is negatively related to these outcomes. Little evidence was found that schedule input moderates the association between unpredictable working time and work -- life conflict." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Lindstrom, Lauren, Kara Hirano, Colleen McCarthy & Charlotte Alverson (2014): "Just having a job". Career advancement for low-wage workers with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In: Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals, Jg. 37, H. 1, S. 40-49. DOI:10.1177/2165143414522092

Abstract

"This study examined career development and early employment experiences for four young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Researchers used a multiple-method, multiple case-study longitudinal design to explore career development within the context of family systems, high school and transition programs, adult services, and early and continued experiences in the labor market. Data sources included school and rehabilitation records, job observations, and interviews with young adults, family members, high school special education personnel, employers, and adult agency staff (N = 39). During the early career years, participants maintained stable employment, but earned annual wages well under the federal poverty line. Employment opportunities seemed to be influenced by family advocacy and expectations, schoolbased work experiences, job development services, and work environments." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Masters, Adrian (2014): Statistical discrimination from composition effects in the market for low-skilled workers. In: Labour economics, Jg. 26, H. January, S. 72-80. DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2013.12.002

Abstract

"In a random search environment with two racial groups each composed of identical numbers of high and low productivity workers, firms use an imperfect screening device (interviews) to control hiring. If inconclusive interviews lead firms to hire majority workers but not minority workers, then the unemployment pool for majority workers is of higher average quality. This can justify the initial hiring choices. Color-blind hiring always eliminates racial disparities but is not necessarily beneficial; in the USA it would improve welfare with only a brief small increase in white unemployment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Addison, John T., McKinley L. Blackburn & Chad D. Cotti (2013): Minimum wage increases in a recessionary environment. In: Labour economics, Jg. 23, H. August, S. 30-39. DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2013.02.004

Abstract

"Do seemingly large minimum-wage increases in an environment of deep recession produce clearer evidence of disemployment than is often observed in the modern minimum wage literature? This paper uses three data sets to examine the employment effects of the most recent increases in the U.S. minimum wage. We focus on two high-risk groups - restaurant-and-bar employees and teenagers - for the years 2005 - 2010. Although the evidence for a general disemployment effect is not uniform, estimates do suggest the presence of a negative minimum wage effect in states hardest hit by the recession." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Boffy-Ramirez, Ernest (2013): Minimum wages, earnings, and migration. In: IZA journal of migration, Jg. 2, S. 1-24. DOI:10.1186/2193-9039-2-17

Abstract

"Does increasing a state's minimum wage induce migration into the state? Previous literature has shown mobility in response to welfare benefit differentials across states, yet few have examined the minimum wage as a cause of mobility. Focusing on low-skilled immigrants, this paper empirically examines the effect of minimum wages on location decisions within the United States. This paper expands upon minimum wage and immigration literatures by demonstrating that the choice of destination is sensitive to minimum wage changes, and that the effects are highly dependent on the number of years an immigrant has resided in the U.S." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Boyd-Swan, Casey, Chris M. Herbst, John Ifcher & Homa Zarghamee (2013): The Earned Income Tax Credit, health, and happiness. (IZA discussion paper 7261), Bonn, 41 S.

Abstract

"This paper contributes to the small but growing literature evaluating the health effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). In particular, we use data from the National Survey of Families and Households to study the impact of the 1990 federal EITC expansion on several outcomes related to mental health and subjective well-being. The identification strategy relies on a difference-in-differences framework to estimate intent-to-treat effects for the post-reform period. Our results suggest that the 1990 EITC reform generated sizeable health benefits for low-skilled mothers. Such women experienced lower depression symptomatology, an increase in self-reported happiness, and improved self-efficacy relative to their childless counterparts. Consistent with previous work, we find that married mothers captured most of the health benefits, with unmarried mothers' health changing very little following the 1990 EITC reform." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))