Labour Flashcards
Becker 1957
Taste discrimination
- if an individual has a taste for discrimination he must act as if he were willing to pay something to not be associated with some groups instead of others
Mincer 1974
Suggests that the rate of return to an additional year of schooling was approximately 10.7% with the peak being at 34 years old
Why is discrimination not beneficial for firms
They lose on two accounts
- they are hiring the wrong type of workers
- they are hiring the hiring the wrong number of workers
What does Becker say will happen to firms who discriminate
In the long run, these firms will be competed out of the market if there are no barriers to entry
Goldberg 1982
Focuses on nepotism where worker 1s wage seems lower than it actually is because they earn a non monetary utility from hiring them
How is discrimination self reinforcing?
With prejudiced firms in the market, it is harder for minorities to find a job with a wage higher than their current job, meaning their reservation wage is lower, meaning they are more likely to accept an offer with a lower wage, this incentivises firms to offer them less
What is statistical discrimination?
- Different treatment of equally skilled workers belonging to different groups due to imperfect information
- firms have to go off averages
Self reinforcing stereotypes
Stereotype of being lazy may lead to less of that group being employed, leading to more unemployment within that group, reinforcing the stereotype that they are lazy
What are the problems with the oaxaca decomposition
- assumes a linear relationship between education and wage
- Ommitted variables leading to biased estimators
Walby and olsen 2002
Why is there gender wage difffences in uk?
- -7.7 years less full time experience compared to men (explains 26% of gap)
- 3.2 years more family care than men (explains 15% of gap)
- 0.3 years less education than men (explains 6% of gap)
Neumark 1996
In a high priced Restaurant a women was 35% less likely to receive an interview and 40% less likely to receive an offer
Goldin and Rouse 2000
Using info from symphony orchestras, found that use of screens increased the probability of a women progressing from preliminary rounds by 50%
25% increase in female composition of major symphony orchestras from 1970 to 1996
Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004)
Chicago and Boston names
- white applicant can expect call back for every 10 ads
- black applicant needs 15
Why would the govt reduce worker utility by introducing health regulations
- workers underestimate the risk they face
- negative externalities associated with injury and death
- with worker compensation and insurance people are willing to accept too much risk
Viscusi 1993
- A 0.1% increase in the probability of fatal injury increases annual earnings by about $7600 in 2007 dollars
- on average, an additional worker for every thousand will die of job related injuries every year
How does the Viscusi study link to VSL
It means 1000 workers are willing to pay 7.6 million to prevent a death
What does the department of health say one QALY is worth
£60,000
Problems with estimating VSL
Cousineau et al (1992) found that omitting injury risk may cause a positive bias in the estimation of the coefficient on mortality risk
In observed characteristics which affect their choice of job risk
What is an implication of the hedonic wage theory?
If everyone in the population agrees on whether a particular job characteristic is good or bad, good characteristics are associated with low wages, and bad characteristics with high wages
Why do compensating wage differentials go the wrong way?
People who earn higher wages are able to purchase job amenities to make the job better
Lazear and Shaw (2007)
Wage inequality has risen markedly mainly due to upper tail of high earners has grown
Spence and Zeckhauser 1971
Principle agent problem
- asymmetric information between the principal (employer) and the agent (employee) giving rise to morale hazard
How can you avoid the principal agent problem risen by spence and zeckhauser in 1971
Piece rate system
Pencavel (1977)
Interprets piece rate system as an on the job screening device for jobs which are hard to monitor employee productivity and where the employee has occasion to shirk