Quality of match for statistical matches using the Consumer Expenditure Survey 2011 and Annual Social Economic Supplement 2011

This paper describes the quality of the statistical match between the Current Population Survey (CPS) March 2011 supplement and the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX) 2011, which are used for the integrated inequality assessment model for the United States. In the first part of this paper, the alignment of the datasets is examined. In the second, various aspects of the match quality are described. The results show appropriate balance across different characteristics, with some imbalances within narrow characteristics

Los sindicatos y rendimiento económico en los países en desarrollo: Estudios de Casos de América Latina

This paper analyzes the economic impact of unions on productivity in the manufacturing sector across six Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, and Panama. Using an augmented Cobb-Douglas production function, the paper finds that unions have positive, but mostly small, effects on productivity, with the exception of Argentina, with a large negative effect, and Bolivia, with no effect. An analysis on profitability shows that, in most cases, the positive productivity effects barely offset higher union compensation, and that unions are negatively related to investment in capital and R & D. Different explanations for these effects are discussed.Este artículo analiza el impacto económico de los sindicatos sobre la productividad en el sector manufacturero en seis países de América Latina: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, México, Uruguay y Panamá. Utilizando una función de producción aumentada de Cobb-Douglas, el documento encuentra que los sindicatos tienen efectos positivos, pero sobre todo pequeños, sobre la productividad, con la excepción de Argentina, con un gran efecto negativo, y Bolivia, sin efecto. Un análisis de la rentabilidad muestra que, en la mayoría de los casos, los efectos positivos de la productividad apenas compensan una indemnización sindical más alta, y que los sindicatos están relacionados negativamente con la inversión en capital y en I + D. En el artículo se discuten diferentes explicaciones de estos efectos

Domestic Violence and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Mixed-Race Developing Country

This study investigates the heterogeneous effects of domestic violence over labor markets in an ethnically fragmented country such as Bolivia. Among developing countries, Bolivia “excels” in having one of the highest levels of domestic violence in the region. Anecdotal evidence and empirical evidence suggest that response to domestic violence is not homogeneous across different ethnic groups. Using information from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) for Bolivia, we examine the heterogeneous impacts of domestic violence over one of the key labor market outcomes such as employment. We employ a probabilistic decision model and treatment regression techniques to examine this effect. We claim that the impact of domestic violence on labor markets is limited among indigenous people, given that violence is, to some extent, socially recognized and accepted. We find that for most of the cases, indigenous women are less responsive to domestic violence than non-indigenous ones, except for groups with a high income level. Our results are robust for alternative methodologies to address possible endogeneity problems.labor markets, domestic violence, Bolivia, indigenous

Immigrant Birthcountry Networks and Unemployment Duration: Evidence around the Great Recession

Using data from the CPS this paper examines the role of birth-country networks on immigrants' unemployment duration from 2001 to 2013. We find that networks significantly lower unemployment duration for all immigrants. Varying the effect of networks over duration categories we find that networks are more effective in lowering duration for immigrants unemployed for 1-2 months than immigrants who are unemployed for longer periods and this effect is further strengthened during the post recession period. This supports the Calvo-Armengol and Jackson hypothesis which posits that longer the agent is unemployed, less effective are her social networks in job search. Our findings are robust to different specifications

Bank accounts and savings - the impact of remittances and migration: a case study of Moldova

In many developing countries, the formal financial sector is underdeveloped and majority of the population does not have access to it. This paper analyzes the empirical link between remittances and financial sector development on a microeconomic level. Using a unique household dataset for Moldova, we find that receiving monetary remittances has a positive and significant effect on the probability of having a bank account, thereby promoting financial sector development. Furthermore, we show that remittances tend to have an even higher positive effect on household savings, which is a sign for a hidden potential for financial sector development

Domestic violenceand labor market outcomes: Evidence from a mixed-race developing country

This study investigates the heterogeneous effects of domestic violence over labor markets in an ethnically fragmented country such as Bolivia. Among developing countries, Bolivia excels in having one of the highest levels of domestic violence in the region. Anecdotal evidence and empirical evidence suggest that response to domestic violence is not homogeneous across different ethnic groups. Using information from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) for Bolivia, we examine the heterogeneous impacts of domestic violence over one of the key labor market outcomes such as employment. We employ a probabilistic decision model and treatment regression techniques to examine this effect. We claim that the impact of domestic violence on labor markets is limited among indigenous people, given that violence is, to some extent, socially recognized and accepted. We find that for most of the cases, indigenous women are less responsive to domestic violence than nonindigenous ones, except for groups with a high income level. Our results are robust for alternative methodologies to address possible endogeneity problems

Unemployed, Now What? The Effect of Immigration on Unemployment Transitions of Native-born Workers in the United States

Although one would expect the unemployed to be the population most likely affected by immigration, most of the studies have concentrated on investigating the effects immigration has on the employed population. Little is known of the effects of immigration on labor market transitions out of unemployment. Using the basic monthly Current Population Survey from 2001 and 2013 we match data for individuals who were interviewed in two consecutive months and identify workers who transition out of unemployment. We employ a multinomial model to examine the effects of immigration on the transition out of unemployment, using state-level immigration statistics. The results suggest that immigration does not affect the probabilities of native-born workers finding a job. Instead, we find that immigration is associated with smaller probabilities of remaining unemployed, but it is also associated with higher probabilities of workers leaving the labor force. This effect impacts mostly young and less educated people

Standard Error Correction in Two-Stage Optimization Models: A Quasi-Maximum Likelihood Estimation Approach

Following Wooldridge (2014), we discuss and implement in Stata an efficient maximum likelihood approach to the estimation of corrected standard errors of two-stage optimization models. Specifically, we compare the robustness and efficiency of this estimate using different non-linear routines already implemented in Stata such as ivprobit, ivtobit, ivpoisson, heckman, and ivregress

Unions, Wage Gaps, and Wage Dispersion: New Evidence from the Americas

Using a common methodology, the effects of unions on wage levels and wage dispersion are estimated for two neighboring countries, Bolivia and Chile, and for the U.S. The analysis shows that unions have broadly similar effects on the wage distribution within these three economies. The findings suggest that the political economy of unions, coupled with market constraints on labor costs, produce commonality in union wage effects that transcend other economic and institutional differences