Top income shares and mortality: Evidence from advanced countries

The paper examines the effect of top income shares on the crude death and infant mortality rates. We use balanced panel data that covers nine advanced countries over the period 1952-1998. Top income shares are measured as the shares of pre-tax income going to the richest 0.1%, 1% and 10% of the population. We also estimate separate effects on both female and male mortality rates. The most important finding is that there is no overall relationship between top income shares and mortality. If anything, the estimates based on gender breakdown show that there is evidence that an increase in income inequality is associated with a decrease in the crude death rate for males.income inequality; top income shares; mortality

Job disamenities, job satisfaction, quit intentions, and actual separations: putting the pieces together

We analyze the potential role of adverse working conditions at the workplace in the determination of employees’ quit behavior. Our data contain both detailed information on perceived job disamenities, job satisfaction, and quit intentions from a cross-section survey and information on employees’ actual job switches from longitudinal register data that can be linked to the survey. Reduced-form models show that employees facing adverse working conditions tend to have greater intentions to switch jobs and search for new matches more frequently. Multivariate probit models point out that job dissatisfaction that arises in adverse working conditions is related to job search and this in turn is related to actual job switches

International outsourcing and labour demand: Evidence from Finnish firm-level data

We examine the employment effects of international outsourcing by using firm-level data from the Finnish manufacturing sector. A major advantage of our data is that outsourcing is defined based on firms’ actual use of intermediate inputs from foreign trade statistics. The estimates show that intensive outsourcing (more than two times the 2-digit industry median) does not reduce employment nor have an effect on the share of low-skilled workers.International outsourcing; offshoring; labour demand; propensity score matching

The effect of polytechnic reform on migration

This paper examines the effect of polytechnic reform on geographical mobility. A polytechnic, higher education reform took place in Finland in the 1990s. It gradually transformed former vocational colleges into polytechnics and also brought higher education to regions that did not have a university before. This expansion of higher education provides exogenous variation in the regional supply of higher education. We find that the reform increased the migration of high school graduates. The migration propensities increased particularly close to graduation from high school, but some results also suggest a smaller positive effect over a longer period.Migration; higher education; school reform; polytechnics; high school graduates

Is Variation in Hours of Work Driven by Supply or Demand? Evidence from Finnish Manufacturing Industries

This paper uses panel data from 1989 to 1995 on blue-collar workers in Finnish manufacturing industries and their establishments to assess the extent to which hours of work are affected by individual or establishment characteristics - observed as well as unobserved. We argue that recent research on working hours has focused almost exclusively on the supply of labor, but that insights into the extent to which hours variation is driven not by supply but by demand will affect the likelihood that supply-side policies will succeed. Our estimates suggest that both individual and establishment characteristics matter, but that establishment level effects account for the bulk of the variation in hours.labour supply, labour demand, employment

Enemy of Labour? Analysing the Employment Effects of Mergers and Acquisitions

This paper analyses the employment effects of mergers and acquisitions by using matched establishment-level data from Finland over the period of 1989-2003. The data covers all sectors. We compare the employment effects of cross-border M&As with the effects arising from two different types of domestic M&As and internal restructurings. The results reveal that cross-border M&As lead to downsizing in manufacturing employment. The effects of cross-border M&As on employment in non-manufacturing are much weaker. Changes in ownership associated with domestic M&As and internal restructurings also typically cause employment losses, but these is interesting sectoral variation.Mergers and acquisitions; M&As; takeovers; employment; workforce

Job disamenities, job satisfaction, and on-the-job search: is there a nexus?

This study explores the potential role of adverse working conditions at the workplace in the determination of on-the-job search in the Finnish labour market. The results reveal that workers currently facing adverse working conditions have greater intentions to switch jobs and they are also more willing to stop working completely. In addition, those workers search new matches more frequently. There is evidence that adverse working conditions consistently increase the level of job dissatisfaction and, in turn, it is job dissatisfaction that drives workers’ intentions to quit and intensifies actual job search.working conditions, job satisfaction, on-the-job search, quit intentions

Does Geography Play a Role in Domestic Takeovers? Theory and Finnish Micro-level Evidence

This paper explores domestic mergers and acquisitions (M&As) from the regional perspective. The Finnish firm-level evidence reveals that geographical closeness matters a lot for M&As within a single country. Thus, a great number of domestic M&As occur within narrowly defined regions. Interestingly, domestic M&As reinforce the core-periphery dimension. The results from matched firm-level data show that the strong ability by an acquiring company to monitor the target (measured by the knowledge embodied in human capital) is able to support M&As that occur across distant locations.mergers, acquisitions, monitoring, agglomeration

The job satisfaction-productivity nexus: A study using matched survey and register data

This paper examines the role of job satisfaction in the determination of establishment-level productivity. The matched data contain both information on job satisfaction from the ECHP (European Community Household Panel) and information on establishment productivity from longitudinal register data that can be linked to the ECHP. The estimates for the effect of a one point increase in the establishment average level of employee job satisfaction, on a scale 1-6, on productivity vary depending on the specification of the model. The preferred estimate, based on the IV estimation that uses satisfaction with housing conditions as an instrument for job satisfaction, shows that the effect on value added per hours worked is ~20% in the manufacturing sector. The economic size of this effect is modest, because the observations are bunched towards the higher end of the satisfaction scale making it very difficult to increase the average level of job satisfaction in the establishment by one point.Job satisfaction; employee well-being; productivity; performance

What makes you work while you are sick? Evidence from a survey of union members

We examine the prevalence of sickness absenteeism and presenteeism, using survey data covering 725 Finnish union members in 2008. Controlling for worker characteristics, we find that sickness presenteeism is much more sensitive to working-time arrangements than sickness absenteeism. Permanent full-time work, mismatch between desired and actual working hours, shift or period work and overlong working weeks increase the prevalence of sickness presenteeism. We also find an interesting trade-off between two sickness categories: regular overtime decreases sickness absenteeism, but increases sickness presenteeism. Furthermore, the adoption of three days’ paid sickness absence without a sickness certificate and the easing of efficiency demands decrease sickness presenteeism.absenteeism, presenteeism, working-time arrangements