Doctorat en sciences sociales, politiques et économiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Cette thèse a pour objectif d’étudier l’évolution de l’offre de travail des individus à l’entrée dans la vie adulte. Elle se compose de deux thèmes majeurs. Tout d’abord, nous abordons les décisions d’offre de travail des jeunes adultes et les liens qui existent avec l’environnement familial et les politiques publiques qui leur sont destinées. Dans un second temps, nous abordons l’impact de la naissance d’un premier enfant sur l’offre de travail des mères et des pères. Nous trouvons que l’environnement familial est un facteur d’inégalités entre les jeunes adultes et que la mise en place de politiques de revenu minimum permettrait de réduire ces inégalités. Concernant la naissance d’un enfant, ce sont essentiellement les femmes éduquées qui sont pénalisées au niveau salarial sur les court et moyen termes. Il semble que les politiques publiques mais également les entreprises ont un rôle imp ortant à jouer dans les comportements de retour à l’emploi des mères. / This thesis aims to study the evolution of the labor supply of individuals at the entry into adulthood. It consists of two major themes. First of all, we discuss the labor supply decisions of young adults and the links existing between labor supply and family environment as well as public policies. Second, we discuss the impact of the first birth on the labor supply of mothers and fathers. We find that the family environment is a factor of inequality between young adults and that the implementation of minimum income policies would reduce these inequalities. With regard to the birth of a child, it is mainly educated women who are penalized at the wage level over the short and medium terms. It seems that public policies, but also firms, have an important role to play in mothers' return to work behaviors.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Economics / William F. Blankenau / This dissertation consists of three essays on how health and education affect the labor market outcomes of workers. Health and education issues have been key determinants of labor demand and supply. In light of increasing incidence of health problems and the rapid growth of post-baccalaureate certificates in the US, this dissertation seeks to answer questions about labor market outcomes of workers with poor health history and with post-baccalaureate certificates. The first essay which I co-authored with Dr. William Blankenau and Dr. Benjamin Schwab uses a résumé-based correspondence test to compare the employment consequences of an illness-related employment gap to those of an unexplained employment gap. The results of the experiment show that while the callback rate of applicants with an illness-related employment gap is lower than that of the newly unemployed, applicants with illness-related employment gaps are 2.3 percentage points more likely to receive a callback than identical applicants who provide no explanation for the gap. Our research provides evidence that employers use information on employment gaps as additional signals about workers' unobserved productivity. Co-authored with Dr. Amanda Gaulke and Dr. Hugh Cassidy, the second essay tests how employers perceive the value of post-baccalaureate certificates using the same methodology in the first essay. We randomly assign a post-baccalaureate certificate credential to fictitious résumés and apply to real vacancy postings for managerial, administrative and accounting assistant positions on a large online job board. We find that post-baccalaureate certificates are 2.4 percentage points less likely to receive a callback than those without this credential. However, this result is driven by San Francisco, and there is no effect in Los Angeles or New York. By occupation, we also find that there is only significant negative effect in administrative assistant jobs, and there is none in managerial or accounting assistant jobs. A typographical error made in the résumés of certificate holders regarding the expected year of completion of the certificate may also contribute to negative effects of a certificate. Using NLSY79 data, the third essay tests whether the source of health insurance creates incentives for newly-diagnosed workers to remain sufficiently employed to maintain access to health insurance coverage. I compare labor supply responses to new diagnoses of workers dependent on their own employment for health insurance with the responses of workers who are dependent on their spouse's employer for health insurance coverage. I find that workers who depend on their own job for health insurance are 1.5-5.5 percentage points more likely to remain employed and for those employed, are 1.3-5.4 percentage points less likely to reduce their labor hours and are 2.1-6.1 percentage points more likely to remain full-time workers.

The demands of a rapidly changing future on learners of Higher Education Institutions who need to be effectively employed, necessitate that these institutions become responsive to the demands and challenges of the future world of work. Employers keep on emphasising that first entry employees not only lack basic skills when entering the world of work, but that they also have difficulty in coping with the accelerated nature of the changing future. In order to address this dilemma, this research firstly focussed on the current state of Academic Development programmes at universities and technikons in South Africa, because these programmes claim to address problems which learners and the institutions might have, such as the support of teaching policies and procedures, quality assurance and advisory services. The documenting of the current state of academic development (AD) revealed that AD of learners focusses on issues such as access, redress, academic performance and throughput. These endeavours constitute a model where remedial, supportive work is done in fragmented fashion, to enable learners to attain the necessary skills to cope with the demands of higher education. It was further indicated that by adopting this aim for AD, higher education is not proactively responsive to the needs of the future world of work, but rather reactive to the immediate needs of learners and institutions alike. They focus on better results in stead of lifetime employability. A causal action research phase followed to identify what the demands of the future are for man, and to assess the current state of academic development of learners against these demands. The conclusion is that these demands constitute a total paradigm shift and that higher education is not responsive to these challenges. In order for learners to pursue lifetime employability, a totally new, reengineering AD-model should therefore be constructed. It is concluded that only through maximising human potential, which can be attained through facilitating lifelong learning, will leamers be able to meet the challenging demands of the future world of work. This reengineering AD-model contains the guiding idea or purpose and vision of the model namely that it should maximise human potential. It contains the theory, methods and tools, represented in the development of intra-, inter- and supra-personal relationships through facilitating metal earning and cooperative learning, and it contains innovations for the infrastructure to encompass whole institutions. Recommendations for future research fall in two categories, namely the future as source of research, and future research still to be undertaken. In terms of the future as source of research, ongoing research is needed by researchers all over the world to determine what the future holds in store. Regarding the proposed AD-model, future research still needs to be undertaken with regard to the implementation and ongoing reengineering of the model. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Curriculum Studies / Unrestricted

Graduate unemployment, more specifically the continued inability of young people to make a successful transition from institutions of higher learning to labour markets, remains a key concern and one of the most pressing socio-economic issues facing South Africa. Of similar concern, has been the inordinate length of time it takes for graduates (particularly black graduates) to acquire employment. This research study was undertaken in an attempt to understand employment trends among black graduates: its specific aim is to determine, the length of time it takes for black graduates to acquire employment after graduation. As a secondary aim the study also seeks to determine the underlying causes of long-lasting unemployment. The study investigated the employment circumstances involving a sample of 40 graduate participants from Motherwell Township: it was discovered that it took from 1-3 years for the respondents to acquire employment. The study also found that relative to their male counterparts it took much longer for female graduate participants to acquire employment. It also emerged that the type of qualification possessed by the graduates was a determining factor in the likelihood of their gaining employment timeously.

Purpose of this treatise: The aim of this research is to determine, if the skilled labour shortage has had any impact on how construction projects are executed. If there is an impact the study aims to determine the nature and extent of the problem. Design/methodology/approach: A review of related literature was conducted, mainly to ensure that existing research is not replicated, in order to generate new ideas. The quantitative research approach was applied for this research. The questionnaire was designed so that scores can be easily summed in order to obtain an overall measure of the attitudes and opinions of the respondents. Findings: The results revealed that the skilled labour shortage has a negative effect on how construction projects are executed. The results further revealed that the biggest concern amongst employers and management of construction companies was the negative impact the shortage of skilled labour has on the levels of workmanship. Research limitations: The sample (construction companies) is mostly situated in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Practical implications: The research is of importance to managers and supervisors of construction companies of all sizes. The findings of this study will assist in ensuring that projects are efficiently managed irrespective of the current skills crisis in the construction industry.

The technological revolution that is currently underway is building on the foundations of machine learning, exponential speed of technological development and digitalization. Machines in near future will become cheaper and more efficient and will replace human workers in a wide range of disciplines. Diploma thesis summarizes the reasons and consequences of current technological development and presents an unconditional basic income as the tool for ensuring a sustainable level of social equality. Using the real numbers from the Czech Republic it shows that the introduction of an unconditional basic income is rather a problem of cultural and social than economic. Basic income in future may become an effective tool in the fight against human poverty, especially in the environment where demand for human labor becomes scarce.

The following is a study of the impact of migration on unemployment rates for natives in Sweden, on municipal level. A cross sectional data set has been analyzed using multiple linear regressions. The regression analysis has searched for the impact on the unemployment rates among natives of the size of the share of migrants in the municipalities as well as of the change in the size of the share of migrants during a time span of 13 years. The results show that migration has small or non-existent impact on the unemployment rates of natives. The results vary depending on the period being investigated and also depending on the characteristics of the municipality that is investigated. When dividing the municipalities into three categories (city, urban and rural municipalities) significant impact of migration on native’s unemployment rates is to be found in city and urban municipalities, but not in rural. The results also indicate that the most significant impact is to be found in the present period of time, while in the long term the impact diminishes to become less significant or not significant at all. 10% migrants in a city municipality in 2015 increased natives’ unemployment level that same year by 0.4 percentage units. More rapid increases of the share of migrants in the labor force have more impact as well. A municipality were the share of migrants grew with 1 percentage unit between 2003 and 2015, had 0.1 percentage unit higher unemployment rate for natives in 2015. This study’s results follow the pattern from earlier studies in the field, that since the 1990’s have shown similar effects when measuring different countries on different continents – sometimes the effect has been significant, sometimes not, and when significant the impact has been rather small, often clustering around zero.

This paper identifies the determinants of employment for rural young people aged 15 to 29 from the National Survey of Youth (Enajuv 2011), the first such survey representative of Peruvian rural youth. Data from this survey shows that rural unemployment is half of the urban rate, and that participation rates in labor markets are higher for rural youth. The pattern is different for rural young women, only 62.1% of whom provide labor to the market. The results, from a logit model, show that the decision to enter the labor market is closely linked to the decision to study and to undertaking unpaid family work. Moreover, the high percentages of youth engaged in unpaid family work (39% for men, 42% women) seem to show that the decision to participate in the labor market is made at the household level and not individually. / Este documento identifica los determinantes de la inserción laboral para los jóvenes rurales de 15 a 29 años a partir de la Encuesta Nacional de la Juventud (Enajuv, 2011), la primera encuesta representativa de los jóvenes rurales peruanos. Esta encuesta evidencia que el desempleo rural es la mitad del desempleo urbano y las tasas de actividad son mayores para los jóvenes rurales, pero el patrón es diferente para las mujeres jóvenes rurales, de las cuales solo el 62,1% ofrece mano de obra al mercado. Los resultados, a partir de un modelo logit, muestran que la decisión de insertarse en el mercado laboral se encuentra muy ligada a la decisión de estudiar y a la realización de trabajo familiar no remunerado (TFNR). Sin embargo, los altos porcentajes de jóvenes que realizan TFNR (39% para los varones, 42% para las mujeres) parecen mostrar que la decisión de inserción laboral es tomada a nivel del hogar y no individualmente.

This dissertation contains three chapters in the field of family and development economics. The first two chapters study the effects of traditional gender roles on economic outcomes. The last chapter discusses the effects of a spatial development policy in India. Chapter 1 examines the dynamics of intra-household time allocation in response to economic incentives, and the role of traditional gender norms. Using unique longitudinal data on Japanese households, it finds that spouses in dual-income households adjust their market hours but not home hours as own wages change. In addition, per earthquake-induced changes in market hours, wives make little or no change in home hours while husbands show significant, yet small in magnitude, responses. The responses are driven by individuals with less traditional gender role attitudes. Traditional gender roles exacerbate not only the asymmetry but also the rigidity of gendered division of intrafamily labor. Chapter 2 studies whether the effects of traditional gender roles on female labor supply are greater in endogamous marriage by examining the labor supply pattern of immigrant women in the United States. The endogenous formation of marriage is addressed by incorporating local marriage market conditions. Using survey responses on gender roles in source countries as cultural proxies, it finds that the negative effects of traditional gender roles on female labor supply are amplified in endogamous marriage at the extensive and intensive margins of labor market. Differential patterns of immigrant assimilation by marriage type fail to fully explain the asymmetry, supporting the hypothesis that culture is more relevant within endogamous marriage. Chapter 3 (with Shree Ravi) analyzes the aggregate and distributional effects of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in India. It investigates the influence of Indian SEZs by exploiting spatial variations in the timing of zonal operations. Using satellite and survey data, it establishes that SEZs boosted economic activity within areas several times the size of the zones. The zones also drove a structural change in the local economy with resources shifting away from the informal sector and the formal sector growing in size and productivity. This growth, however, differently benefits workers across income and skill distributions.