IAB-Veranstaltungen Archiv - Page 2 of 33 - IAB - Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung

Valuing Non-Wage Amenities: Survey and Experimental Evidence from Army Enlistments

In this paper, we estimate willingness to pay (WTP) across two key amenities in the U.S. Army.

Survey-based discrete choice experiments are widely used to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for non-wage amenities. Recent innovations in elicitation methods, such as Bayesian Adaptive Choice Experiments (BACE), can generate precise, individualized WTP estimates, making possible a more stringent field test of survey-based discrete choice methods against person-level realized choices.

In this paper, we estimate WTP across two key amenities in the U.S. Army: (i) the compensation recruits require to accept longer initial service obligations, and (ii) recruits’ willingness to pay for a first duty station of their choosing. We implement two complementary approaches. First, we conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) that randomizes enlistment bonuses across these amenities, allowing us to estimate WTP for station of choice and for extending recruits’ contractually obligated service from 3 years to 4, 5, and 6 years. Second, we administer a BACE survey to a sample of potential recruits—nearly half of whom subsequently enlist—to estimate the same parameters. We compare estimates across the RCT and survey-based approaches, examining both internal consistency within the survey and external consistency with real-world enlistment choices.

Together, these analyses provide a field test of survey-based valuation methods and suggest that targeted changes to Army enlistment incentive structures could yield substantial cost savings.

Joint: Michael T. Baker, Kyle Greenberg, and Linh Tô

How to Make Tax Systems Regressive

This study is about tax regressivity in a two-period model with intergenerational transfers through bequests, inter vivos gifts, and trust funds.

Our paper proposes a novel mechanism underlying a regressive tax system. We study tax regressivity in a two-period model with intergenerational transfers through bequests, inter vivos gifts, and trust funds.

Transfers are subject to piecewise linear tax schedules with exemptions and positive marginal rates above the allowance. Bequests and inter vivos gifts are perfect substitutes and occur late in life, while trust funds must be established early and involve a sizable fixed cost, making them accessible only to very wealthy individuals.

We show that tax regressivity can arise only for the very and super rich - those who optimally use all three transfer channels. In particular, paying the fixed cost to establish a trust fund is a necessary condition for a declining average tax rate. Regressivity then emerges if and only if any one of the tax allowances falls below a threshold that depends on preferences and marginal tax rates.

Our results highlight the central role of fixed-cost avoidance technologies in generating regressivity at the top of the wealth distribution.

Joint work with Hoang Van Khieu.

Furloughs, Employment, and Worker Reallocation in Normal Times

We discuss about furlough schemes: Are they useful under normal business cycle conditions?

Are furlough schemes useful under normal business cycle conditions? We address this question using administrative data from Finland, where such a scheme has long existed, and a model of firm dynamics with hiring and layoff costs, frictional unemployment, and firm-level wage rigidity.

Furloughs provide firms with flexibility by allowing temporary workforce reductions at a lower cost than layoffs followed by rehiring. Yet in the model, it is optimal to eliminate the furlough option, as it does little to facilitate reallocation from low productivity to high productivity firms and does not reduce layoffs much. In contrast, a small layoff tax improves welfare by balancing employment gains against reduced productivity.

Joint work with Niku Määttänen and Eero Mäkynen.

Find here draft of the working paper.

The Effect of Worker Health Shocks on Coworkers’ Employment and Health Behavior

This study analyzes how a worker’s severe health shock affects older coworkers.

We analyze how a worker’s severe health shock affects the employment and health behavior of their older coworkers. We link comprehensive administrative data on labor market histories and health records from Austria to identify coworker networks and severe health shocks in small firms, which cause substantial increases in healthcare expenditures, absenteeism, and mortality, as well as persistent reductions in the labor supply of affected workers. Combining a matching approach with a difference-in-difference framework, we find a significant impact of a health shock on the labor market outcomes and health behavior of older coworkers.

Affected coworkers are about 2.3 percentage points more likely to be employed in the shock firm and tend to delay retirement. Although there is no change in daily earnings and earnings growth, coworkers are more likely to receive special bonus payments after leaving the firm. The employment effects are larger when the health shock affects a high-skilled worker and when the shocked worker leaves the firm after the health shock.

Finally, we find that female coworkers in the treatment group are more likely to have a mammography, especially in response to health shocks due to cancer. We find no statistically significant effects on participation in general health check-ups and PSA tests, or on coworker absenteeism.

2nd Workshop on Imperfect Competition in the Labor Market

Studies addressing topics from a theoretical and/or empirical perspective for presentation at the workshop.

The Institute for Employment Research (IAB) is pleased to announce our 2nd workshop on imperfect competition in the labor market. Studies addressing one of the following topics from a theoretical and/or empirical perspective are particularly welcome for presentation at the workshop:

Models of monopsonistic and oligopsonistic competition
Quantifying the elasticity of labor supply to the firm
The role of firms in wage-setting and rent-sharing
Outside options and wages
Employment concentration and wages
Policies to remedy imperfect competition

Technological Rivalry and the Allocation of Talent: Evidence from China’s College Admission

This paper studies how the U.S-China technology rivalry reshapes college admissions using data from China.

This paper studies how the U.S-China technology rivalry reshapes college admissions across fields of study using novel college admissions data from China.

Exploiting differential exposure to tariff escalation and export restrictions across major-region pairs over time, we find that more exposed pairs experience larger increases in admissions selectivity and enrollment, particularly for STEM majors and elite universities.

A one percentage point increase in the tariff exposure raises admission cutoff scores by 2-3 percent. Labor market returns shift in the same direction, with rising wage premia for STEM-related and R&D-intensive positions, consistent with a defensive-innovation channel in which rivalry pressure spurs self-reliance and innovation effort in China, increasing demand for science and high-end engineering skills.

The OECD Economic Survey of Germany 2025

After a decade of strong export-led growth COVID-19, war in Ukraine and rising trade tensions have hit the German economy and emphasised the need to accelerate structural reforms.

After a decade of strong export-led growth, the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and rising trade tensions have hit the German economy and emphasised the need to accelerate structural reforms. The recent reform of fiscal rules will allow to raise spending to improve defence capacity and address a large infrastructure backlog.

To ensure medium-term fiscal sustainability, this should be combined with raising spending efficiency, reallocating spending and broadening the tax base. Addressing rising spending pressures due to population ageing will require reforming the pension, health and long-term care systems. Simplifying and harmonising public procurement and infrastructure planning and approval procedures should be complemented with improving the capacity of the public administration to ensure a timely and efficient implementation of public investment projects.

To ensure that increasing domestic demand is matched by supply, it is key to address skilled labour shortages and reduce high administrative burdens and regulatory barriers to competition, which have weighed on business dynamism, innovation and productivity growth. Fostering regional development requires better coordination of placed-based with industrial, infrastructure and innovation policies as well as improving the financial and administrative capacity of municipalities.

Beyond the Chores: Mental Load, Gender, and Careers

This study investigates the often-overlooked "mental load" of domestic labor and its implications for gender equality and careers.

This study investigates the often-overlooked “mental load” of domestic labor-the invisible planning, organizing, and anticipating required for household functioning- and its implications for gender equality and careers.

Drawing on a survey experiment with 2,104 white-collar professionals across 11 provinces in Turkey, I test whether information interventions can shift awareness and attitudes toward the unequal distribution of domestic and cognitive labor. Participants in the treatment group viewed two short videos explaining the concept of mental load, its gendered burden, and possible tools for more equitable task-sharing, while the control group received only a brief statistic on cooking responsibilities.

Findings show that the intervention significantly increased participants’ willingness to request support in household tasks, especially among women, and heightened recognition of under-appreciation, conflict, and time poverty linked to domestic work. While implicit gender biases remained unchanged, men in the treatment group reported greater awareness of unfair household labor allocation. These results provide early causal evidence on how simple information treatments can raise recognition of invisible labor and highlight their potential for workplace and policy interventions targeting gender equity.

Working Hours, Workplace Hazards, and Health: The Long-Term Impact of the Eight-Hour Day

This study is about a nationwide policy trial from Sweden in 1920 that reduced the standard workweek from 55 to 48 hours.

Despite the well-known negative correlation between long working hours and workers’ health, credible causal evidence for the short- and particularly long-run is scarce.

We study a nationwide policy trial from Sweden in 1920 that reduced the standard workweek from 55 to 48 hours--but only for selected occupations--while keeping earnings constant. Using full population data and difference-in-differences designs, we demonstrate that reduced working hours led to a 15% decline in annual mortality rates over the first six years, driven by fewer workplace accidents, serious injury at work, and deaths from heart disease. Causal forest estimators indicate particularly strong effects for older workers. Long-run effects were substantial: affected workers lived up to one year longer over the next 50 years.

Our results suggest that reducing working hours, particularly in labour-intensive occupations, could yield large and lasting health benefits globally.