Improving the Employment Rates of People with Disabilities through Vocational Education

During the 2001-8 period, the employment rate of people with a disability remained remarkably low in most western economies, hardly responding to better macroeconomic conditions and favourable anti-discrimination legislation and interventions. Continuing health and productivity improvements in the general population are leaving people with disabilities behind, unable to play their role and have their share in the increasing productive capacity of the economy. This paper combines dynamic panel econometric estimation with longitudinal data from Australia to show that vocational education has a considerable and long lasting positive effect on the employment participation and productivity of people with disabilities.vocational training, productivity, disabilities, employment, dynamic panel regression

Zur Arbeitslosigkeits- und Beschäftigungsdauer

"Im Mittelpunkt der Untersuchung steht der Zusammenhang zwischen der Dauer der Arbeitslosigkeit und der sich anschließenden Beschäftigungsdauer. Diese Beziehung wird mit Hilfe von Längsschnittdaten, nämlich der Beschäftigtenstatistik und der Statistik der Leistungsempfänger bei Arbeitslosigkeit für die Zeit 1979-1981 untersucht. Es ergab sich ein positiver Zusammenhang zwischen der Arbeitslosigkeitsdauer und der folgenden Beschäftigungsdauer. Dieses Ergebnis kann so interpretiert werden, daß einige Faktoren, die direkt zu einer längeren Arbeitslosigkeitsdauer beitragen, indirekt auch eine anschließende längere Beschäftigungsdauer bewirken könnten. An einem Modellbeispiel wird dargestellt, wie eine Erhöhung der Arbeitslosenunterstützung sowohl die Arbeitslosigkeits- als auch die Beschäftigungsdauer verlängern kann. Beide Dauern kompensieren sich und der Nettobeschäftigungseffekt wird Null. Eine Reihe denkarer ökonomischer Erklärungen und Zusammenhänge wird dargestellt. Die wichtigste Schlußfolgerung aus der Untersuchung besteht darin, daß man für die Ermittlung des Beschäftigungseffekts einer Maßnahme zugleich den Einluß auf die Arbeitslosigkeit betrachten muß." (Autorenreferat)Arbeitslosigkeit - Dauer, Beschäftigungsdauer, berufliche Reintegration

Intergenerational Transmission of Healthy Eating Behaviour and the Role of Household Income

This paper investigates the possibility of intergenerational transmission of unhealthy eating habits from parents to adult children. It uses the 2003 Scottish Health Survey and estimates the association between the present healthy eating behaviour of adult children and the past parental death from cardiovascular disease (CVD). It uses parental CVD death as an adverse health signal which may cause a healthy eating compensatory response in adult children. This response is due to increased chances and perception of genetic predisposition of adult children as well as an indicator for parental past unhealthy eating habits which may have been passed onto the adult children. Regression analysis suggests that paternal history has no impact on either sons or daughters, and maternal history influences negatively the eating behaviour of daughters only. Unhealthy eating intergenerational transmission appears to be more intense amongst lower household income individuals.intergenerational transmission, healthy eating, household income, cardiovascular disease, public health, gender

Adjusting to Skill Shortages: Complexity and Consequences

Skill shortages are often portrayed as a major problem for the economies of many countries including the Australian economy. Yet, there is surprisingly little evidence about their prevalence, causes and consequences. This paper attempts to improve our understanding about these issues by using econometric methods to analyse the Business Longitudinal Database, an Australian panel data-set with information about skill shortages in small- and medium-sized businesses during 2004/05. We use this information to: (1) explore the incidence of skill shortages and the business attributes that are associated with them; (2) identify which businesses face more complex skill shortages, as measured by the number of different causes reported simultaneously; and, uniquely, (3) examine how this complexity affects businesses' responses to skill shortages and aspects of their subsequent performance. We show that complex skill shortages are more likely than simpler (single-cause) skill shortages to persist and to trigger defensive responses from businesses. We reject the conception of skill shortages as a homogenous phenomenon, and demonstrate the importance of distinguishing between skill shortages according to whether they have simple or complex causes.skill shortages, small medium enterprises

Recalls - Wiederbeschäftigung im alten Betrieb (Recalls - re-employment in the same firm)

"In the article the extent and distribution of recalls in the Federal Republic of Germany are examinded for the first time and are related to all the cases of recruitment in employment covered by the social security system. The empirical results are based on the evaluations of the IAB employment sample for the years 1975-1990. - Of 7,5 million entries into employment with remuneration in 1989, 6,87 million were new employment contracts and 630,000 were continuations of employment after interruptions in accordande with insurance legislation, in which the right to the job was maintained; - 1,2 million recruitments were assigned to cases of first employment covered by the social security system; - 5,67 million recuitments were made after preceding unemployment or non-activity. Among these were 821,000 recalls into the firms where those concerned had previously been employed, and 4,85 million cases of a change to another company, in some cases with longer-term unemployment or non-activity. Recalls therefore made up about 12% of all new employment contracts. They were to be found mainly in seasonnally dependent industries and outdoor occupations. Of the men almost half of the cases were skilled workers and master craftsmen, more than 40% of the women were in part-time employment. By of legal and economic criteria a typology of the recalls is drawn up, according to which for the men 30% of the cases were assigned to seasonal work, 30% to temporary activities, 20% to recalls due to economic factors and 18% to recalls after longer periods of non-activity without employment benefit. As for the women, 60% of their recalls were assigned to temporary work, 10% to seasonal work and 15% each to recalls due to economic factors and recalls after periods of non-employment. Among the men 2-3% of the recalls were made after supported further training measures (women less than 1%) For men the frequency of recalls with regard to the (total number of) recruitments decreases with the size of the company, whereas women in medium-sized companies have the greatest changes of being recalled. The distribution of recalls according to industries, occupations and other characteristics is shown in the appendix of tables." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Wiederbeschäftigung, IAB-Beschäftigtenstichprobe, vorübergehende Entlassungen, Erwerbsunterbrechung, Personaleinstellung - Struktur, Geschlechterverteilung, Berufsstruktur, zwischenbetriebliche Mobilität, Altersstruktur, Wirtschaftszweige, Saisonarbeit

Verteilungseffekte der Arbeitslosenversicherung in Deutschland in den 80er Jahren (Distribution effects of unemployment insurance in Germany in the 1980s)

"In this article the contributions to the unemployment insurance scheme and the expenditure on the benefits under this scheme are estimated from the microdata of the IAB employment sample for the period 1980-1989. The distribution of contributions and expenditure is estimated according to three variables: the age of contributors and benefit recipients, and the size of the enterprise and the industry in which they previously worked. In this way areas of unemployment insurance can be identified in which the contributions do not cover the expenditure on selected benefits and where absolute deficits are therefore produced. By comparing the structure of contributions and benefits it is also possible to determine relative deficit areas in which the contribution margin is insufficient. With the aid of the mismatch indicator, global trends of the distribution effect are shown: The deficit from the benefits to older unemployed people increased in the late 1980s. The deficit from younger workers lessened in the study period, but remained an underproportional contribution. A large proportion of the benefits is paid to unemployed people who subsequently leave the labour market permanently. More than one third of the benefits were paid to this group. As the size of the enterprise increases, so too does the proportion of benefits increase which is paid to unemployed people before their withdrawal from the labour market. This trend increased in the course of the 1980s. Branches of industry which are subject to seasonal influences and have many recalls put pressure on the unemployment insurance scheme. About 10% of the benefits are paid to recipients who are taken on again by their old company." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Arbeitslosenversicherung, Verteilungseffekte, IAB-Beschäftigtenstichprobe, Arbeitslosengeld, Arbeitslosenhilfe, Unterhaltsgeld, mismatch, Leistungsempfänger, Wirtschaftszweige, Betriebsgröße, Altersstruktur

Disability and Job Mismatches in the Australian Labour Market

We examine the relationship between disability, job mismatch, earnings and job satisfaction, using panel estimation on data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey (2001-2008). While we do not find any relationship between work-limiting disability and over-skilling, it appears that there is a positive relationship between work-limiting disability and over-education, which is consistent with disability onset leading to downward occupational movement, at least in relative terms. We find a negative correlation between work-limiting disability and both earnings and job satisfaction. However, there is only evidence of a causal relationship in terms of the latter, where the impact of disability is found to be multifaceted.job mismatch, disability, earnings, job satisfaction

Job Mismatches and Labour Market Outcomes: Panel Evidence on Australian University Graduates

The interpretation of graduate mismatch manifested either as overeducation or as overskilling remains problematical. This paper uses annual panel information on both educational and skills mismatches uniquely found in the HILDA survey to analyse the relationship of both mismatches with pay, job satisfaction and job mobility. We find that overeducation and overskilling are distinct phenomena with different labour market outcomes and that their combination results in the most severe negative labour market outcomes. Using panel methodology reduces strongly the size of many relevant coefficients, questioning previous cross-section results and suggesting the presence of considerable unobserved heterogeneity which varies by gender.overeducation, overskilling, wages, satisfaction, mobility

Policies to Encourage the Employment of People with Disabilities: Case of Romania

In the last decades, the employment of persons with disabilities became a priority for the social policy from many countries. Usually, such policies are oriented in two directions: to support the persons with disabilities seeking jobs and to provide for the employers who hire these persons some facilities that compensate certain supplementary costs. In the last years, Romania updated its legislation regarding the persons with disabilities, being offered some stimulants for their employment. In this paper we examine this legislation by comparing it with those from other countries. We also present the results of an inquiry among some managers from Romanian enterprises, who were interviewed about hiring people with disabilities