Labor market policies and IMF advice in advanced economies during the Great Recession

In this paper we present and analyze the IMF's labor market recommendations for advanced economies since the beginning of the crisis, both in general and specifically in program countries. Our analysis is informed by our reading of the theoretical and empirical literature on the design of labor market policies and institutions in advanced economies. We organize our discussion around two concepts: micro flexibility, namely the ability of the economy to allow for the reallocation of workers to jobs needed to sustain growth; and macro flexibility, namely the ability of the economy to adjust to macroeconomic shocks. Achieving both types of flexibility while protecting workers and maintaining incentives for workers and firms to invest in existing relations, is not that simple, and the design of labor market institutions faces delicate trade-offs

Compulsory Military Service in Germany Revisited

This paper estimates the causal impact of compulsory military service on men in Germany using social security and pension administrative data for the cohort of individuals born in the period 1932-1942. Due to the combination of laws restricting conscription only to men born on or after July 1, 1937, difference-in-differences estimates of the effect of conscription on average daily wages can be computed using cohorts of women as a comparison group. The results indicate that conscription had no significant impact on a draftee's labor-market performance, validating an earlier result using an alternative identification strategy.Dieses Papier zeigt den kausalen Einfluss der Wehrpflicht auf Männer in Deutschland. Es werden Daten der Sozialversicherung und administrativen Pensionsdaten für die Kohorte der Individuen, die im Zeitraum von 1932 bis 1942 geboren wurden, verwendet. Aufgrund der Kombination der Gesetze zur eingeschränkten Wehrpflicht kann nur bei Männern, die am 01. Juli 1937 oder danach geboren wurden mittels des Differenz von Differenzen-Ansatzes der Effekt der Wehrpflicht auf den durchschnittlichen Tageslohn geschätzt werden. Als Vergleichsgruppe wird die Kohorte der Frauen verwendet. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Wehrpflicht keinen signifikanten Einfluss auf die Arbeitsmarktentwicklung Wehrpflichtiger hat, was ein früheres Ergebnis mit einer alternativen Identifikationsstrategie bestätigt

Trade Imbalances and Multilateral Trade Cooperation

Rising current account and merchandise trade imbalances marked the years before the global financial and economic crisis. These imbalances either contributed to or precipitated the crisis and to the extent that they create systemic risks, it is desirable that they be reduced. There are many factors related to macroeconomic, structural, exchange rate and financial policies that contributed to the imbalances. The inability to manage these issues at the international level reflects the coherence gap in global governance. This paper examines the contribution that the WTO can make in its three areas of activities - negotiations, rule-making and dispute settlement - to deal with trade imbalances and with the main factors leading to them, including exchange rate misalignments. First, market opening efforts in services, including in the area of financial services, can reduce policy-related distortions and market imperfections in surplus countries that lead to the build-up of unsustainable imbalances. Second, in the context of a broad international effort to coordinate macroeconomic, exchange rate and structural policies to deal with the roots of imbalances (the first-best solution), there is a general efficiency argument that could be made for the use of WTO-triggered trade actions to enforce cooperative behaviour towards rebalancing. Absent this first-best response, trade rules alone would not provide an efficient instrument to compensate for the weaknesses in international co-operation in macroeconomic, exchange rate and structural policies

Women between Part-Time and Full-Time Work: The Influence of Changing Hours of Work on Happiness and Life-Satisfaction

This paper asks whether part-time work makes women happy. Previous research on labour supply has assumed that as workers freely choose their optimal working hours on the basis of their innate preferences and the hourly wage rate, outcome reflects preference. This paper tests this assumption by measuring the impact of changes in working-hours on life satisfaction in two countries (the UK and Germany using the German Socio-Economic Panel and the British Household Panel Survey). We find decreases in working-hours bring about positive and significant improvement on well-being for women

Les femmes sur le marché du travail : Évidence empirique sur le rôle des politiques économiques et autres déterminants dans les pays de l'OCDE

Dans la plupart des pays de l’OCDE, la participation des femmes au marché du travail a fortement augmenté au cours des dernières décennies (graphique 1). Ce processus n’a pas suivi le même déroulement temporel dans tous les pays : il a démarré plus tôt dans certains (par exemple les pays nordiques et les États- Unis), et au cours des deux dernières décennies, les progressions les plus fortes ont été enregistrées dans les pays à revenu plus faible...

Female Labour Force Participation: Past Trends and Main Determinants in OECD Countries

This paper examines the determinants of female labour force participation in OECD countries, including a number of policy instruments such as the tax treatment of second earners (relative to single individuals), childcare subsidies, child benefits, paid maternity and parental leaves, and tax incentives to sharing market work between spouses. The econometric analysis uses a panel data set covering 17 OECD countries over the period 1985-1999, and distinguishes between part-time and full-time female participation rates. It shows a positive impact on female participation of a more neutral tax treatment of second earners (relative to single individuals), stronger tax incentives to share market work between spouses, childcare subsidies, and paid maternity and parental leaves Unlike childcare subsidies, child benefits reduce female participation due to an income effect and their lump-sum character. Finally, female education, the general labour market conditions, and cultural attitudes ... Participation des femmes au marché du travail : Tendances passées et principaux déterminants dans les pays de l'OCDE Cet article examine les déterminants de la participation des femmes au marché du travail dans les pays de l’OCDE, incluant un certain nombre d’instruments de politique économique tels que le traitement fiscal du deuxième revenu du foyer (par rapport à la taxation d’un individu célibataire), les subsides aux dépenses de garde d’enfants, les allocations familiales, les congés de maternité et parentaux rémunérés, ainsi que les incitants fiscaux à partager le travail rémunéré entre époux. L’analyse économétrique utilise une base de données de panel couvrant 17 pays de l’OCDE sur la période 1985-1999, et distingue entre taux de participation féminine à temps partiel et à temps complet. Elle révèle que la participation féminine est stimulée par un traitement fiscal plus neutre du deuxième revenu du foyer, de plus grands incitants fiscaux à partager le travail rémunéré entre époux, les subsides aux dépenses de garde d’enfants, et par les congés de maternité et parentaux ...economics of gender, efficiency, fiscal policies and behaviour of households, child care, labour force and employment, time allocation and labour supply (part-time employment, work sharing), government expenditure, size and structure, optimal taxation, garde d'enfants, allocation du temps, offre de travail, emploi à temps partiel, politiques publiques et comportement des ménages, économie de l'égalité des sexes, partage du travail, taille et structure, efficience, taxation optimale, force de travail et emploi, dépenses publiques

The Spanish Labor Market in a Cross-Country Perspective

The Spanish labor market is not working: the unemployment rate is structurally very high; wages are not very responsive to labor market conditions, causing a high cyclicality of unemployment; and the labor market is highly dual. Compared with the EU15, Spanish labor market institutions and policies stand out by the structure of its collective bargaining, which occurs mostly at an intermediate level, and by very high severance payments for permanent workers. Based on a quantitative analysis, the paper shows that moving away from the intermediate level of bargaining would go a long way toward bringing the unemployment rate closer to the EU15 average. The key reform needed to reduce the share of temporary workers is reducing employment protection of permanent workers. Substantially reforming the collective bargaining system and reducing the protection of permanent workers are likely to be highly complementary to secure a substantial reduction in the unemployment rate. The recent 2010 labor market reform attempts to address these issues, although its effects are still to materialize.Unemployment;Economic models;Labor costs;Labor markets;Wage bargaining;unemployment rate, employment, bargaining, unemployment benefits, employment protection, severance, unemployment benefit, employment protection legislation, unemployment rates, high unemployment, equilibrium unemployment, labor demand, social security, equilibrium unemployment rate, unemployment insurance, high unemployment rate, high employment, social assistance, employment subsidies, unemployed, labor force participation, rate of unemployment, employment growth, negotiations, equilibrium unemployment rates, employment promotion, effects on employment, employment creation, employment rates, temporary employment, permanent employee, duration of unemployment benefits, permanent employment, unemployment durations, labor force survey, employment costs, equilibrium ? unemployment, employment adjustment, effects of unemployment, public employment, duration of unemployment, average unemployment benefit, equilibrium ? unemployment rate, employment declines, increasing unemployment, frictional unemployment, job creation, average unemployment, incidence of unemployment, employment patterns, public employment services, employment services, new employee, unemployment increases, unemployed worker