Self-employment and labour market transitions: a multiple state model

In this paper we estimate a multiple state transition model for the UK describing transitions in and out three possible labour market states: self-employment, paid employment and unemployment. This enables us to assess the effect of demographic characteristics as well as time changing economics conditions on the probabilities of exiting and entering each different state. A reduced form model is estimated allowing for unobservable individual heterogeneity. The results are consistent with the hypothesis of a deterioration of the labour market conditions generating an increase in the self-employment rates in adverse economic conditions. However unemployment duration generates a loss on human capital that reduce the probabilities of switching to self-employment. It appears also that -family background and education play and important role in determining the transition probabilities. Medium level educated individuals are the most likely to become self-employed

Health status and retirement decisions for older European couples

In this paper we use data the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) to describe and analyse the dynamics of joint labour force behaviour of older couples for the EU12 countries. We focus on three main issues: the relevance of joint retirement across EU12 countries, the existence of complementarities in leisure and/or assortative matting and the effects of health variables. Concerning the evidence, we first find that a working spouse is more likely to retire the more recently the other spouse has retired; this effect is stronger if the wife is the working spouse. Second, there is evidence of assortative mating and/or complementarities in leisure; the effects of all relevant factors on the retirement decision of one spouse depend strongly on whether the other one is working, unemployed, or retired. Third, besides the standard evidence that poor health increases the retirement probability, we find that the husband's health affects the couple's retirement decisions much more strongly than the wife's health does. Additional asymmetric effects are detected with respect to income related variables.joint retirement decisions ; labour force transitions ; health variables ; asymmetric effects

An Empirical Analysis of the Demand for Physician Services Across the European Union

This paper presents parameter estimates for physician services equations using the European Community Household Panel for 12 countries covering the period 1994-1996. The focus is on two specific points: i) the identification of behavioural similarities and differences in the demand for health across the countries; ii) the variability of the demand for health captured through a joint model for all the countries. We find that there are significant differences across countries, although there are also similarities in the effect of variables such as the health stock, labour situation or family structure. An important fraction of the variability of the demand of health services across countries could be explained from differences in age, income, and the role of General Practitioners (GP) as a gatekeepers in the public health system. We also find some evidence of induced demand effects in both the decision to visit and the number of visits to specialists.count data; demand; physician services; latent class model; two-part model

Health status and retirement decisison for older european couples.

In this paper we use data the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) to describe and analyse the dynamics of joint labour force behaviour of older couples for the EUI2 countries. We focus on three main issues: the relanvance of joint retirement across EUI2 countries, the existence of complementarities in leisure and/or assortative matting and the effects of health variables. Concerning the evidence, we first find that a working spouse is more likely to retire the more recently the other spouse has retired; this effect is stronger if the wife is the working spouse. Second, there is evidence of assortative mating and/or complementarities in leisure; the effects of all relevant factors on the retirement decision of one spouse depend strongly on whether the other one is working, unemployed, or retired. Third, besides the standard evidence that poor health increases the retirement probabiliby, we find that the husband's health affects the couple's retirement decisions much more strongly than the wife's health does. Additional asymmetric effects are detected with respect to income related variables.Joint retirement decisions; Labour force transitions; Health variables; Asymmetric effects;

The decisions of Spanish youth : a cross-section study.

This paper presents a simultaneous model for the joint decisions of working, studying and leaving the parental household by young people in Spain. Using cross-section data from the 1990–1991 Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares, the model is estimated by a two stage estimation method. Endogeneity of the three decisions proves to be important in order to understand the dynamics of household formation. Our results also confirm a number of plausible intuitions about the effect of individual characteristics and economic variables on these decisions, and provide some new insights into the reasons for young people in Spain remaining in large numbers in the parental home. Most of the results are gender independent.Household formation; Working and studying decisions; Two stage estimation;

An empirical analysis of the demand for health using the European Community Household Panel

This paper estimates demand for health equations using three waves of data from the European Community Household Panel. The economic model is a typical specification of Grossman's [1] proposal. The paper focuses on three specific points: i) the existence of two stages in the demand for health decision process (to contact a physician and how often to visit him). ii) the analysis of this double-hurdle process in different scenarios (visits to the general practitioners, the specialists and the dentists). iii) the analysis of differences across countries due to the differences on the coverage of the National Insurance Systems. The results suggest that the contact and frequency decisions of visits to either the general practitioner, the specialist or even the dentist are governed by different stochastic processes. As expected, we find some differences in the behaviour of men and women, mainly in the decisions to visit and the number of visits to specialist. We also show that the behavioural differences across countries are not extremely important, being perhaps income a determinant of the decision to contact and the intensity of the treatment in poor countries

Health status and retirement decisison for older european couples

In this paper we use data the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) to describe and analyse the dynamics of joint labour force behaviour of older couples for the EUI2 countries. We focus on three main issues: the relanvance of joint retirement across EUI2 countries, the existence of complementarities in leisure and/or assortative matting and the effects of health variables. Concerning the evidence, we first find that a working spouse is more likely to retire the more recently the other spouse has retired; this effect is stronger if the wife is the working spouse. Second, there is evidence of assortative mating and/or complementarities in leisure; the effects of all relevant factors on the retirement decision of one spouse depend strongly on whether the other one is working, unemployed, or retired. Third, besides the standard evidence that poor health increases the retirement probabiliby, we find that the husband's health affects the couple's retirement decisions much more strongly than the wife's health does. Additional asymmetric effects are detected with respect to income related variables

Inequality for wage earners and self-employed : evidence from panel data

In this paper we study the evolution of income inequality for employees and self-employed workers. We highlight the importance of separately analyzing these different sources of income to gain a broader understanding of inequality. Using Spanish panel data on income and consumption from the ECPF for the period 1987-96, we decompose the variance of income shocks into a permanent and a transitory component. We find that there are noticeable differences in the evolution of income inequality, as well as in the relative importance of the permanent and transitory components across these groups. Our results point that the evolution of inequality can be basically explained by movements in the variance of the transitory component of income for the self-employed, while for the employees it is mainly driven by the variance of the permanent component, specially at the end of the period. Given these disparities, it seems that these two sources of income should be studied separately and that different policies are suitable for each grou

Oferta de trabajo femenina en España: un modelo empírico aplicado a mujeres casadas

En este artículo se estima un modelo de ciclo vital de oferta de trabajo para mujeres casadas en España. El modelo se estima utilizando tres bases de datos complementarias de 1990 (Encuesta de Población Activa, EPA, Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares, y Encuesta Anexa de Ganancias y Subempleo) y la estimación se realiza en dos etapas. En una primera etapa se estiman ecuaciones de forma reducida de las variables endógenas (horas, participación, salarios y otras rentas familiares) y en una segunda etapa se utilizan las predicciones de la estimación anterior como variables explicativas de una ecuación de oferta de trabajo estructural. Se obtienen dos resultados principales que resultan coherentes con la literatura existente. Primero, la elasticidad de la oferta de trabajo con respecto a los salarios es positiva, significativa y varía con las características personales de la mujer. En particular aumenta con la edad y con la presencia de hijos en el hogar. En segundo lugar, la elasticidad de la oferta de trabajo con respecto a las otras rentas del hogar tiende a ser negativa y a aumentar con la edad. La presencia de hijos en el hogar hace desaparecer la sensibilidad de las horas de trabajo frente a las otras rentas familiares

Computing abuse related damages in the case of new entry: an illustration for the directory enquiry services market

A number of European countries, among which the UK and Spain, have opened up their Directory Enquiry Services (DQs, or 118AB) market to competition. We analyse the Spanish case, where both local and foreign firms challenged the incumbent as of April 2003. We argue that the incumbent had the ability to abuse its dominant position, and that it was a perfectly rational strategy. In short,the incumbent raised its rivals' costs directly by providing an inferior quality version of the (essential) input, namely the incumbent's subscribers' database. We illustrate how it is possible to quantify the effect of abuse in situation were the entrant has no previous history in the market. To do this, we use the UK experience to construct the relevant counterfactual, that is the "but for abuse" scenario. After controlling for relative prices and advertising intensity, we find that one of the foreign entrants achieved a Spanish market share substantially below what it would have obtained in the absence of abuse