The formation of a new transnational labour market: Polish labour migration to Vienna in the 1990s

After the fall of the Iron Curtain Austria's position within the framework of Europe's migration league table shifted from a marginal one to that of an appealing "Gateway to the Golden West" with a strong attraction for migrants. So it is not surprising that the inflow of labour force from Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary was growing during the 1990s. This has led to the formation of a new transnational labour market which includes the eastern regions of Austria and the countries of East-Central Europe. In 1981 5,911 Polish citizens legally lived and worked in Austria. In 1991 the figure was three times as high (18,321), including 8,932 Polish citizens who had taken Austrian citizenship in the meantime. The highest number of labour migrants from Poland (19,421 persons) was registered in 1995. In 1995-96 there was a clear decline in numbers. As the range of information about Polish migration to Austria provided by official census data was quite inadequate we made field research among Vienna's Polish community. The location chosen for the inquiry was the Polish church, one of the favoured meeting points of the Poles. A sample of 408 Poles were interviewed during a spring week in 1993. Naturally, the financial and personal resources of our Institute were too meagre to aspire to an overall study of Vienna's manifold "Polonia". So we tried to concentrate our analysis on some specific topics listed below: - socio-demographic characteristics; - educational background and qualifications level; - labour market position (distribution of migrants among the sectors of the economy, the role of brain drain and its transformation into brain waste, illegal employment); - position on the Viennese housing market; - spatial distribution of the areas of origin in Poland. The main empirical results of the survey which needs stressing are: - the selectivity of Polish immigration by socio-demographic criteria; - the broad variety of family and household structures; - the uneven spatial distribution of the areas of origin of Viennese immigrants; - the overrepresentation of the large urban regions among migration origins; - the importance ot the mainly economic pull factors of the Austrian labour market; - the growing importance of temporary migration; - the high proportion of highly-qualified personnel among migrants; - a broad range of occupations; - a substantial degree of dequalification and brain waste; - an upward occupational mobility which depends on the duration of stay in Vienna; - a close relation of size and standard of dwelling and length of stay in Vienna; - significantly better housing conditions than those of Turkish or Balkanese guest-workers; - the phenomenon of large-scale illegal employment.

Is it sex or personality? The impact of sex-stereotypes on discrimination in applicant selection

This paper investigates whether differential treatment of men and women in the labor market is due to unobservable differences in productivity or if it is motivated by a taste for discrimination. While studies on sex-discrimination typically control for human capital (formal education, job-experience etc.), there is usually no information on personality traits available. We argue that personality might affect productivity just as human capital: For many traditionally male occupations (e.g. managers) stereotypically masculine characteristics - like being ambitious, competitive, dominant - seem to be required. On the other hand, stereotypically feminine characteristics - like being gentle, cheerful, friendly - are particularly acknowledged in traditionally female occupations (e.g. nurses). The central question of this paper is whether women are treated differently because "they are different" (they posses more "feminine" and less "masculine" personality traits on the average) or because they are discriminated against. To gather the necessary data a field experiment is conducted. Job applications of candidates, who are equivalent in their human capital but differ in sex and personality are sent out in response to various job advertisements. We found minor indicators that signaling a masculine personality slightly reduces unfavorable treatment of women in typically male professions; nevertheless discrimination in hiring prevails even after controlling for personality characteristics.sex-discrimination; matching process; experimental economics; economic psychology

Education and permanent childlessness: Austria vs. Sweden; a research note

In this research note we extend our previous study of the association between educational attainment and permanent childlessness in Sweden (Hoem et al., 2006) to cover Austria, and we make comparisons between the two countries. In both investigations we have defined educational attainment in terms of both educational level and educational field. We find largely the same pattern of childlessness by educational field in both countries; in particular at each educational level women educated for teaching jobs or for health occupations typically have lower childlessness than other lines of education. However, for most groups childlessness is higher in Austria, and for academic educations it is much higher. We attribute these differences to institutional differences in the two countries which may bring about a different culture of reproductive behavior.Austria, education, fertility

The gender pay gap in Austria: Tamensi movetur!

Policies to reduce the gender pay gap feature prominently on the political agenda and interventions in the labor market are frequently proposed, claiming a persistent wage gap. We examine the change of the gender wage gap in Austria between 2002 and 2007 with new data from administrative records and find that it declined from 24% in 2002 to 19% in 2007. We observe that women's improved educational attainments were partly ofiset by a shift in the demand for skilled workers that disadvantaged unskilled labor. The main determinant of this decline is however the improvement of women's relative position in unobserved characteristics.gender wage differentials, wage inequality, decomposition, matched employer-employee data

Sexual orientation discrimination in hiring

Little research has been done to examine discrimination against gays and lesbians in the labor market. Badgett (1995) conducted the only previous study investigating labor market outcomes of gays and lesbians using a random data set. However, due to the structure of the data, the wage differential between heterosexuals and gays and lesbians that is found can not be directly assigned to employer discrimination. Some gays and lesbians might deploy passing strategies to hide their sexual orientation on the workplace which lower their productivity. Consequently, the measured wage differential is a conglomerate of employer discrimination against "out" workers and lower productivity of those employees trying to conceal their sexual orientation. To investigate whether lesbians’ unfavorable labor market outcomes are due to discrimination or result from passing strategies, a labor market experiment is conducted. Job applications of candidates, who are equivalent in their human capital but differ in their sexual orientation are sent out in response to job advertisements. Furthermore, since it has been suggested that gender non-conformity is one of the reasons why lesbians are disliked, the applicants differ in their perceived gender identity. While results show a strong negative effect for lesbian orientation, gender identity does not have a significant overall impact on hiring chances.sex-discrimination; experimental economics; sexual orientation

Education and childlessness: the relationship between educational field, educational level, employment and childlessness among Greek women born in 1955-1959

In this article we expand the analysis of the relationship between educational attainment, educational field and fertility by presenting the case of Greece. The importance is emphasised of both educational field and occupation, as well as their role in the diversity of fertility observed among women. Our empirical investigation is based on census data (2001) pertaining to childbearing, educational and employment histories of an entire cohort of Greek women born in the country in 1955-1959. The analysis indicates that in some cases, the field of education serves better as an indicator of a woman’s potential reproductive behaviour than the educational level attained. In general, the results show some similarities with those already obtained for other countries. In particular, women educated in teaching and health care have lower permanent childlessness at any educational level than any other major grouping. Our results confirm the findings of other studies that higher education does not systematically result in higher childlessness. Among the various factors related to an educational system, which may influence the relationship between education and childlessness, we emphasise the association of education with the labour market and mainly the distinction between employment opportunities in the public and in the private sector for highly educated women. We find that, in several cases, a woman’s profession tends to modify the pattern of childlessness by educational field.