WAGE AND HUMAN CAPITAL IN EXPORTING FIRMS IN MOROCCO

We study the relationship of wages and education and training practices in Morocco in a context of trade and liberalisation reforms in a matched worker-firm data of eight exporting firms in two industrial sectors: Metallurgical-Electrical industries and Textile-Clothing. We find that the specific characteristics of the surveyed firms little affect worker wages. Moreover, the textile sector does not appear to be a significant channel for promoting skills in the economy. The minimal wage legislation is found to exert a positive pressure on wages. Also, some evidence of gender wage gap exists in the data. In these data, the effects of education and experience on wages are quite limited below the third quantile of wages, as well as the role of apprenticeship. In contrast, On-the-Job Training (OJT) much contributes to labour productivity as measured by wage levels. Most of the OJT is concentrated in the Metallurgical-Electrical industries. Education is positively correlated to OJT. Moreover, estimates of explanatory relationships of task organisation (chain gangs, teams, supervision and executive workers) show the powerful sector and educational determinations of job organisation in the firms. Then, our results suggest that the impact of worker education may take indirect routes and not only appear through education coefficients in wage regressions.wage, returns to human capital, matched worker-firm data, quantile regressions, Tunisia

WHICH HUMAN CAPITAL MATTERS FOR RICH AND POOR'S WAGES: EVIDENCE FROM MATCHED WORKER-FIRM DATA FROM TUNISIA

In this paper, we study the return to human capital variables for wages of workers observed in Tunisian matched worker-firm data in 1999. We develop a new method based on multivariate analysis of firm characteristics, which allows us most of the benefits obtained by introducing firm dummies in wage equations. It also provides a human capital interpretation of the effect of these dummy variables. Moreover, in the studied data, using three firm characteristics easily collectable yields results close to those obtained by using the matched structure of the data.wage, returns to human capital, matched worker-firm data, quantile regressions, factor analysis, Tunisia

HUMAN CAPITAL AND WAGES IN TWO LEADING INDUSTRIES OF TUNISIA: EVIDENCE FROM MATCHED WORKER-FIRM DATA

From Tunisian matched worker-firm data in 1999, we study the returns to human capital for workers observed in two leading manufacturing sectors. Workers in the mechanical and electrical industries (IMMEE) benefit from higher returns to human capital than their counterparts in the Textile-clothing industry. In the IMMEE firms, low wage workers experience greater returns to labour market experience than high wage workers. The wage premium for on-the-job training is substantial for both sectors. However, taking into account whether formal training is still ongoing at the time of the survey, our results clearly indicate that workers bear heavy costs for their training. Our analysis shows that on-the-job training (OJT) and education can be efficient channels of policies aiming at raising earnings for low wages as well as high wages workers. However, careful consideration of the industrial sector should accompany these policies since specific impact of education, experience, OJT are found in the studied sectors.wage, returns to human capital, matched worker-firm data, quantile regressions, Tunisia

Task Organization, Human Capital and Wages in Moroccan Exporting Firms

We conduct a case study of the linkages of task organization, human capital accumulation and wages in Morocco, using matched worker-firm data for Electrical-mechanical and Textile-clothing industries. In order to integrate task organization into the interacting processes of workers’ training and remunerations, we use a recursive model, which is not rejected by our estimates: task organization influences on-the-job training that affects wages. Beyond sector and gender determinants, assignment of workers to tasks and onthe- job training is found to depend on former education and work experience in a broad sense. Meanwhile, participation in on-the-job training is stimulated by being assigned to a team, especially of textile sector and for well educated workers. Finally, task organization and on-the-job training are found to affect wages.Morocco, Wages, On-the-job training, Human capital, Task organization.

WHICH HUMAN CAPITAL MATTERS FOR RICH AND POOR'S WAGES? EVIDENCE FROM MATCHED WORKER-FIRM DATA FROM TUNISIA

In this paper, we study the return to human capital variables for wages of workers observed in Tunisian matched worker-firm data in 1999. This reveals us how returns to human capital in a Less Developed Country like Tunisia may differ from the industrial countries usually studied with matched data. We develop a new method based on multivariate analysis of firm characteristics, which allows us most of the benefits obtained by introducing firm dummies in wage equations for studying the effect of education. It also provides a human capital interpretation of the effect of these dummy variables. Moreover, in the studied data, using three firm characteristics easily collectable yields results close to those obtained by using the matched structure of the data. The workers with low wages or low conditional wages experience greater returns to human capital than workers belonging to the middle of the wage distribution, while their return to schooling is significantly lower than that of high wage workers. The estimates support the hypothesis that human capital is associated with positive intra-firm externality on wages. Therefore, a given worker would be more productive and better paid in an environment strongly endowed in human capital. However, the low wage workers do not take advantage of the human capital in the firm. Conversely, the low wage workers benefit from working in the textile sector in terms of wages unlike the middle and high wage workers. Finally, the low wage workers and high wage workers benefit from an innovative environment, while the middle wage workers do not.Wage, returns to human capital, matched worker-firm data, quantile regressions, factor analysis, Tunisia

Task Organization, Human Capital and Wages in Moroccan Exporting Firms

We conduct a case study of the linkages of task organization, human capital accumulation and wages in Morocco, using matched worker-firm data for Electrical-mechanical and Textile-clothing industries. In order to integrate task organization into the interacting processes of workers’ training and remunerations, we use a recursive model, which is not rejected by our estimates: task organization influences on-the-job training that affects wages. Beyond sector and gender determinants, assignment of workers to tasks and on-the-job training is found to depend on former education and work experience in a broad sense. Meanwhile, participation in on-the-job training is stimulated by being assigned to a team, especially of textile sector and for well educated workers. Finally, task organization and on-the-job training are found to affect wages.Morocco, Wages, On-the-job training, Human capital, Task organization.

Which Human Capital Matters for Rich and Poor’s Wages? Evidence from Matched Worker-Firm Data from Tunisia

In this paper, we study the return to human capital variables for wages of workers observed in Tunisian matched worker-firm data in 1999. This tells us how returns to human capital in a Less Developed Country like Tunisia differ from the industrial countries usually studied with matched data. We develop a new method based on multivariate analysis of firm characteristics, which allows us most of the benefits obtained by introducing firm dummies in wage equations for studying the effect of education. It also provides a human capital interpretation of the effect of these dummy variables. Moreover, in the studied data, using three firm characteristics easily collectable yields results close to those obtained by using the matched structure of the data. The workers with low wages or low conditional wages experience greater returns to human capital than workers belonging to the middle of the wage distribution, while their return to schooling is significantly lower than that of high wage workers. Wage regressions including the computed factors confirm that human capital is associated with positive intra-firm externality on wages. Therefore, a given worker would be more productive and better paid in an environment strongly endowed in human capital. However, the poorest workers do not take advantage of the human capital in the firm. Conversely, the poor benefit from working in the textile sector in terms of wages unlike the middle and high wage workers. Finally, the poorest and richest workers benefit from an innovative environment while the middle workers of the wage distribution do not.wage, returns to human capital, matched worker-firm data, quantile regressions, factor analysis, Tunisia

Intra-Firm Human Capital Externalities in Tunisia

In this case-study, we use matched worker-firm Tunisian data to elicit the roles of intra-firm human capital and modern firm features in worker remunerations. We show that the estimated return to education in wage equations is not modified when replacing in the list of regressors the firm dummies, representing observed and unobserved firm heterogeneity, by the first three factors of a Principal Component Analysis of the observed firm characteristics. These factors can be interpreted as: the activity sector, the intra-firm human capital density and the modernity of the firm. These results constitute an interesting argument in favour of the presence of intra-firm human capital externalities. Moreover, the estimated education coefficient does not change when the three factors are replaced by three surrogate variables, respectively: the textile industry dummy, the intra-firm mean education, and the firm’s age.economic development, rate of returns, human capital, wage differentials, intra-firm knowledge externalities, Tunisia.

Reassessing the Gender Wage Gap: Does Labour Force Attachment Really Matter? Evidence from Matched Labour Force and Biographical Surveys in Madagascar

Assessing gender inequalities has become one of the key issues of the new international poverty reduction strategies implemented in most LDCs in the past few years. It has been argued that differences in labour force attachment across gender are important to explain the extent of the gender earnings gap. However, measures of women's professional experience are particularly prone to errors given discontinuity in labour market participation. For instance, the classical Mincerian approach, where potential experience is used as a proxy for actual experience due to lack of appropriate data, has its limits in estimating the true returns to human capital. Such biases in the estimates cannot be ignored since the returns to human capital are used in the standard decomposition techniques to measure the extent of gender-based wage discrimination. By matching two original surveys conducted in Madagascar in 1998 - a labour force survey and a biographical survey - we built a unique dataset that enabled us to combine the original information gathered from each of them, particularly the earnings from current employment and the entire professional trajectories. Our results lead to an upward reappraisal of returns to experience, as potential experience always exceeds actual experience, for both males and females. In addition, controlling for further qualitative aspects of labour force attachment, we obtain a significant increase in the portion of the gender gap explained by observable characteristics, while the differences in average actual experience across sexes lead to markedly different estimates of the fraction of the gender earnings gap explained by experience.gender wage gap, returns to human capital, labour force participation, biographical data, Madagascar.