Job accessibility and employment probability

The objective of this paper is to estimate the impact of residential job accessibility on female employment probability in the metropolitan areas of Barcelona and Madrid. Following a “spatial mismatch” framework, we estimate a female employment probability equation where variables controlling for personal characteristics, residential segregation and employment potential on public transport network are included. Data used come from Microcensus 2001 of INE (National Institute of Statistics). The research focuses on the treatment of endogeneity problems and the measurement of accessibility variables. Our results show that low job accessibility in public transport negatively affects employment probability. The intensity of this effect tends to decrease with individual’s educational attainment. A higher degree of residential segregation also reduces job probability in a significant way..

Changes in fuel economy: An analysis of the Spanish car market

This paper estimates the role that technological change and car characteristics have played in the rate of fuel consumption of vehicles over time. Using data from the Spanish car market from 1988 to 2013, we estimate a reduced form equation that relates fuel consumption with a set of car characteristics. The results for the sales-weighted sample of vehicles show that energy efficiency would have improved by 32% and 40% for petrol and diesel cars respectively had car characteristics been held constant at 1988 values. However, the shift to bigger and more fuel-consuming cars reduced the gains from technological progress. Additionally, using the results of the fuel equation we show that, besides a natural growth rate of 1.1%, technological progress is affected by both the international price of oil and the adoption of mandatory emission standards. Moreover, according to our estimations, a 1% growth in GDP would modify car characteristics in such a way that fuel consumption would increase by around 0.23% for petrol cars and 0.35% for diesel cars

A new proposal to gauge intergenerational mobility: educational mobility in Europe as a case study

This paper is aimed at presenting a new intergenerational mobility index that (a) combines the intergenerational elasticity and the R-squared of the intergenerational regression and (b) enables the expression of the total degree of mobility as the weighted sum of mobility with respect to both parents. As a case study, we apply our proposal to investigate the intergenerational mobility of education in several European countries and its changes across birth cohorts. The results derived from the proposed index indicate that Nordic countries display higher levels of educational mobility than Southern countries, whereas continental countries are in an intermediate positio

Job Accessibility, Employment and Job-Education Mismatch in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona

This paper analyses the effect of job accessibility by public and private transport on labour market outcomes in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. Beyond employment, we consider the effect of job accessibility on job-education mismatch, which represents a relevant aspect of job quality. We adopt a recursive system of equations that models car availability, employment and mismatch. Public transport accessibility appears as an exogenous variable in the three equations. Even though it may reflect endogenous residential sorting, falsification proofs suggest that the estimated effect of public transport accessibility is not entirely driven by the endogenous nature of residential decisions

Necesidad de formación en el mercado de trabajo español: composición del empleo y estructura productiva

Este trabajo estudia las intensas transformaciones que se han producido en la composición del empleo español por niveles de educación y por categoría profesional. Mediante una técnica de descomposición “shift-share” se desagregan los efectos inputados al cambio técnico sesgado y al cambio técnico desigual, y se advierte que, en la segunda mitad de los noventa, se ha producido una ruptura con la pauta de comportamiento anterior. En efecto, a partir de 1995, el incremento de participación total del empleo cualificado ha venido determinado con mucha mayor intensidad que en períodos anteriores por el cambio técnico sesgado. Cuando, en cambio, esta influencia se examina desde la perspectiva de la recomposición del empleo por categoría profesional se observa que ha sido mucho menor. Ello permite introducir, aunque de manera muy preliminar, la hipótesis de sobreeducación en el mercado de trabajo español, que según los resultados obtenidos y como es de esperar, sólo afectaría a los colectivos más formados con relación a las categorías profesionales con empleos no manuales.empleo, cambio técnico, educación, ocupaciones, sobreeducación.

Education, age and skills: an analysis using the PIAAC survey [WP]

The main aim of this paper is to analyse the evolution of adult skills, as captured by cognitive competencies assessed in the PIAAC, across age cohorts, explicitly taking into account that the quality of schooling might change from one cohort to another. We estimate a model that relates numeracy and literacy competencies to age, schooling, gender and variables related to both family background and labour market performance. The specification allows us to control for changes in the efficiency of the transformation of schooling into competencies when drawing age-skill profiles. Our results show that the effect of ageing on skills, once isolated from cohort effects related to schooling, decreases monotonically across consecutive cohorts. The evolution of the efficiency of the transformation of schooling into both numeracy and literacy skills shows a remarkably similar pattern. Nonetheless, this evolution differs substantially between education levels, with the efficiency of the transformation of schooling into skills showing a steadier profile for intermediate than it does for higher education. Finally, empirical evidence is provided for the decomposition of the differences in the skill levels of the older vs. the prime age generations. The results suggest that the progressive expansion of schooling across younger generations partially offsets the negative effect of the irrepressible ageing of society on skills

Education, age and skills: An analysis using PIAAC data

The main aim of this article is to analyse the change of adult skills, as captured by cognitive skills assessed in PIAAC, across age cohorts, taking into account that the quality of schooling may change from one cohort to another. We estimate a model that relates numeracy and literacy skills to age, schooling, gender and variables related to both family background and labour market performance. The specification allows us to control for changes in the efficiency of the transformation of schooling into skills when drawing age‐skill profiles. Our results show that the effect of ageing on skills, once isolated from cohort effects related to schooling, decreases monotonically across consecutive cohorts. The change of the efficiency of the transformation of schooling into both numeracy and literacy skills shows a remarkably similar pattern. Nonetheless, this change differs substantially between education levels, with the efficiency of the transformation of schooling into skills showing a steadier profile for intermediate than for higher education. Finally, empirical evidence is provided for the decomposition of the differences in the skill levels of the older vs. the prime age generations. The results suggest that the progressive expansion of schooling across younger generations partially offsets the negative effect of the irrepressible ageing of society on skills.safety

How do road infrastructure investments affect the regional economy? Evidence from Spain

This paper analyses the relationship between road infrastructure improvements and investment in capital assets. Using aggregate data at a provincial level for 1977-2008, an equation for machinery and equipment investment is estimated applying Panel Corrected Standard Errors. The results indicate that the long-term elasticities of investment in relation to market potential, GDP and average years of schooling are 0.90, 0.75 and 0.80, respectively. Additionally, the long run impact of a road infrastructure investment policy is assessed. We find that the elasticities of investment in machinery and equipment, capital stock and GDP in relation to travel time are 1.18, 0.33 and 0.11, respectively

Job Accessibility and Job-Education Mismatch in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona

This paper analyses the effect of job accessibility on job-education mismatch in the metropolitan area of Barcelona with regard to both public and private transport. Transit accessibility is defined in terms of the spatial distribution of employment relative to travel time by public transport, whereas accessibility by private transport is approximated by car availability. The results obtained from a joint model for car ownership, employment selectivity and mismatch confirm that car availability matters for job-education mismatch. Moreover, public transport connectivity to job locations favours the matching between schooling and occupation in the urban labour market