Education and Unemployment of Women

The more education, the less unemployment of women; this relationship is as strong as it is in the male labor force. The channel through which this relation arises is also the same, namely, labor turnover, almost half of which involves unemployment. However, the relation between education and turnover is mediated largely by educational differences in on-the-job training among men, while educational differences in labor force attachment are the main source of turnover differences among women. This is because levels of educational differences in on-the-job (in-house) training are small among women, while nonparticipation in the labor market and educational differences in it are quite small among men. Educational differences in the duration of unemployment are negligible among women, though they are observable, if small, among men. Recent growth in women's work attachment has reduced their inter-labor force turnover and their unemployment rate to the point of eliminating the sex differential. On-the-job training of women appears to have increased, though it still remains skimpy.

Human Capital and Economic Growth

Individuals differ in both inherited and acquired abilities, but only the latter differ among countries and time periods. Human capital analysis deals with acquired capabilities which are developed through formal and informal education at school and at home, and through training, experience, and mobility in the labor market. Just as accumulation of personal human capital produces individual economic (income) growth, so do the corresponding social or national aggregates. At the national level, human capital can be viewed as a factor of production coordinate with physical capital. This implies that its contribution to growth is greater the larger the volume of physical capital and vice versa. The framework of an aggregate production function shows also that the growth of human capital is both a condition and a consequence of economic growth. Human capital activities involve not merely the transmission and embodiment in people of available knowledge, but also the production of new knowledge which is the source of innovation and of technical change which propels all factors of production. This latter function of human capital generates worldwide economic growth regardless of its initial geographic locus. Contrary to Malthus, economic growth has not been eliminated by population growth. Indeed, spatial and temporal patterns of the "demographic transition" appear to be congruent with economic growth. Human capital is a link which enters both the causes and effects of these economic-demographic changes.

The Economics of Wage Floors

This paper contains a theoretical analysis of and summaries of empirical information on consequences of wage floors in the labor market imposed by minimum wages and by labor unions. Excess supplies are rationed in part probabilistically ("first come, first served"), and in part systematically -- by raising hiring standards, or by discrimination and nepotism. Effects on employment, unemployment, and labor force participation, and on wage differentials between the II covered'' and the free sector follow. Empirical information on these effects is cited in the minimum wage case, but only wage differentials are analyzed in the union context. Other consequences outlined here are: lengthening of school attendance, reduction of hours of work, substitution of paid out wages for fringes in the minimum wage case. However, union pressure on fringes is greater than on wages. This strategy produces larger income and greater job security for union members. The minimum wage reduces opportunities for job training and consequent wage growth. Quits initially decline as wages are pushed up, but turnover is likely to increase as the training content of jobs is reduced. Union wage and fringe advantages reduce quits significantly. However, training as well as wage growth are reduced.

Wage Changes in Job Changes

This is a study of short and longer-runwage gains observed in moving from one job (firm) to the next. Short-run wage gains are defined as wage changes over the survey year bracketing the move minus the opportunity cost of moving. The latter is measured by waqe growth of a subgroup of stayers whose mobility behavior and other charactristics are the same as of the current period movers. Longer-run wage gains are defined as the difference in wages between two successive jobs at the same tenure levels, net of experience, again net of opnortunity costs. Wage gains of movers are generally positive, except for layoffsof older workers. A large part of the gain is due to the lesser wage growth on the job of movers compared to (all) stayers. This is consistent with below average amounts of on the job training observed for movers compared to all workers. Wage gains of quits exceed those of layoffs, despite similar wage levels and wage growth on the preceding job. Wage gains of older movers are smaller compared to gains of younger movers, both in quits and in layoffs. Differences in search conditions and in the nature of separations help to explain these findings.

Education and Unemployment

A major benefit of education is the lower risk of unemployment at higher educational levels. In PSID (Panel Study of Income Dynamics) data on the male labor force1 the reduction of the incidence of unemployment is found to be far more important than the reduced duration of unemployment in creating the educational differentials in unemployment rates. In turn, the lesser unemployment incidence of the more educated workers is, in about equal measure, due to their greater attachment to the firms employing them, and to the lesser risk of becoming unemployed when separated from the firm. The lesser frequency of job turnover of more educated workers, which creates fewer episodes of unemployment, is in large part attributable to more on-the-job training. In explaining the lesser conditional unemployment of educated workers and the somewhat shorter duration of their unemployment, indirect evidence is provided that (1) costs of on-the-job search for new employment relative to costs of searching while unemployed are lower for more educated workers; (2) that these workers are also more efficient in acquiring and processing job search information; and (3) that firms and workers search more intensively to fill more skilled vacancies.

Job Training: Costs, Returns, and Wage Profiles

Using information on time costs of training and gains in wages attributable to training I computed rates of return on training investments. The range of estimates based on several data sets generally exceeds the magnitudes of rates of return usually observed for schooling investments. It is not clear, however, that the difference represents underinvestment in job training. Two methods were used to estimate total annual costs of job training in the U.S. economy, for 1958, 1976, and 1987. The "direct' calculation uses information on time spent in training and on wages. For 1976 so calculated costs amounted to 11.2% of Total Employee Compensation and a half of costs of school education. In the "indirect" method training costs were estimated from wage functions fitted to PSID data. In 1976 the direct estimate amounted to between 65% and 80% of the indirect estimate based on the wage profile. This result represents strong support for the human capital interpretation of wage profiles. The estimates indicate a slower growth of training than of school expenditures in the past decades. Substitution of schooling for job training is a likely cause.