Accounting for General Equilibrium Effects in Program Evalution

program evaluation; general equilibrium; job search; matching

A General Equilibrium Evaluation of the Employment Service

This paper provides a general equilibrium evaluation of the Employment Service, also known as the Public Labor Exchange (PLX), a national program which facilitates meetings between job seekers and vacancies. The paper departs from the partial equilibrium framework of previous evaluations by constructing a dynamic general equilibrium matching model with the PLX as one search channel, and the other search channel comprising all other search methods. The PLX is a directed search channel in the sense that searchers are matched by skill levels. The model is calibrated to the U.S. PLX and to the U.S. labor market and is used to compute general and partial equilibrium impacts of the PLX. The findings are that (i) the partial equilibrium impacts are consistent with the empirical literature, but different from the general equilibrium ones; (ii) the standard assumption in the evaluation literature, that outcomes for agents who do not participate in a program are not directly affected by the program, does not hold for the PLX; (iii) the heterogeneity across and within worker skill levels plays an important role when computing aggregate impacts; and, (iv) equilibrium adjustments are driven by employers who post are high-skill vacancies when both search channels operate.Search Models, Program Evaluation, Public Employment Service, PLX, General Equilibrium Impacts, Partial Equilibrium Impacts

Post-Secondary Education in Canada: Can Ability Bias Explain the Earnings Gap Between College and University Graduates?

Post-Secondary Education in Canada: Can Ability Bias Explain the Earnings Gap Between College and University Graduates? Using the Canadian General Social Survey we compute returns to post-secondary education relative to high-school. Unlike previous research using Canadian data, our dataset allows us to control for ability selection into higher education. We find strong evidence of positive ability selection into all levels of post-secondary education for men and weaker positive selection for women. Since the ability selection is stronger for higher levels of education, particularly for university, the difference in returns between university and college or trades education decreases slightly after accounting for ability bias. However, a puzzling large gap persists, with university-educated men still earning over 20% more than men with college or trades education. Moreover, contrary to previous Canadian literature that reports higher returns for women, we document that the OLS hourly wage returns to university education are the same for men and women. OLS returns are higher for women only if weekly or yearly wages are considered instead, because university-educated women work more hours than the average. Nevertheless, once we account for ability selection into post-secondary education, we generally find higher returns for women than for men for all wage measures as a result of the stronger ability selection for men.returns to university, returns to college, returns to trades, unobserved ability, selection bias

Convolution Products in L1(R+), Integral Transforms and Fractional Calculus

Mathematics Subject Classification: 43A20, 26A33 (main), 44A10, 44A15We prove equalities in the Banach algebra L1(R+). We apply them to integral transforms and fractional calculus.* Partially supported by Project BFM2001-1793 of the MCYT-DGI and FEDER and Project E-12/25 of D.G.A

The Impact of Aggregate and Sectoral Fluctuations on Training Decisions

So far the literature has found that the effect of macroeconomic fluctuations on training decisions is ambiguous. On the one hand, the opportunity cost to train is lower during downturns, and thus training should be counter-cyclical. On the other hand, a positive shock may be related to the adoption of new technologies and increased returns to skill, making training incidence pro-cyclical. Using the Canadian panel of Workplace and Employee Survey (WES) we find that (i) training moves counter-cyclical with the aggregate business cycle (more training during downturns), while at the same time (ii) the idiosyncratic sectoral shocks have a positive impact on training incidence (more training in sectors doing relatively better). This finding helps us understand training decisions by firms and has important theoretical and policy implications.business cycles, training