Under socialism workers had their wages set by the central planners.. In my thesis I use panel data from SHARLIFE questionnaire in order to analyze how returns to East German human capital variables changed after the reunification in 1990.I also compare these returns to West German returns to human capital variables. Before 1990 the returns to experience and education were lower in East Germany than in West Germany. After the reunification East German returns to experience obtained before 1990 and to education decreased. I find a significant decrease of returns to high educated workers who spent in the East German educational system 15 and more years. East German returns to both human capital variables are smaller than West German ones before the reunification and the difference is more pronounced after the reunification.

During recessions, the male unemployment rate tends to rise more than the female unemployment rate. Researchers agree that segregated labor markets account for most of the unemployment gap between genders. The Swedish labor market is largely divided into male- and female dominated sectors, and during the financial crisis in 2008, male workers had a higher inflow into unemployment than female ones. The male-dominated industries are often described as more reactive to cyclical fluctuations and economic growth. Differences in unemployment rates between high and low educated workers as well as natives and immigrants have also been an issue at stake, whereas low skilled and/or immigrant workers tend to have higher unemployment rates. In order to reveal which factors that drive male versus female unemployment, the regional unemployment rates of men and women are examined through a panel data analysis using the years 2005 to 2019. The findings of the study are the following: male unemployment seems to be more responsive to the industry composition and segregated labor markets, whereas female unemployment is more affected by the share of immigrants. Furthermore, when the share of college graduates is higher, the total unemployment rate is lower. Lastly, the growth in gross regional product has a positive effect on the regional unemployment rate amongst men. / Under lågkonjunkturer tenderar män att förlora arbetet i större utsträckning, vilket forskningen förklarar som en produkt av könssegregerade arbetsmarknader. Den svenska arbetsmarknaden är kraftigt könsuppdelad och under finanskrisen 2008 förlorade fler män än kvinnor sina arbeten. De mansdominerade yrkena beskrivs i många fall som känsliga för konjunkturförändringar och att arbetslösheten bland män svarar mer till förändringar i den ekonomiska tillväxten. Forskningen har också pekat på skillnader i arbetslöshet mellan hög- och lågutbildade såväl som för inrikes- och utrikes födda individer. För att utreda vad som påverkar män och kvinnors arbetslöshet studeras arbetslöshetsnivåerna uppdelat på kön i Sveriges samtliga 21 regioner under tidsspannet 2005 – 2019 i en paneldataanalys. Studien visar på skilda effekter för arbetslösheten bland män respektive kvinnor utifrån regioners branschstruktur och andel utrikes födda: arbetslösheten bland män svarar mer till branschstrukturen och den ojämna könsfördelningen än för kvinnor, medan arbetslösheten bland kvinnor tenderar att öka mer när andelen utrikes födda ökar. Andelen med högre utbildning har en minskande effekt på den totala arbetslösheten, men visar inte på några statistiskt säkerställda samband vad gäller män och kvinnors arbetslöshet separat. Bruttoregionalproduktens tillväxt ger ökande effekter på arbetslösheten bland män, men visar inte på något signifikant samband på arbetslösheten bland kvinnor.

Human health is frequently omitted from household-level studies on agricultural productivity, land-use choices, and forest degradation and deforestation. Intuition, however, suggests that it could be an extremely important factor. This dissertation is built on three essays that use household survey data from the Brazilian Amazon to examine the conditions under which human health and other critical market conditions are important factors in determining household agriculture production choices and efficiency. Essay I (Chapter 2) examines how health affects the labor allocation and production choices of migrant smallholders in the Brazilian Amazon. We show that the impacts of illness on household decisions depend critically on labor market function in the rural areas of the tropics. Furthermore, results from a formal statistical test of the labor markets shows that they do not work well, in other words are incomplete or thin, in the study area. These results are important both in specification of future smallholder household economic models and in targeting policies to better alleviate poverty and encourage more sustainable use of forest and land resources in similar tropical regions. Essay II (Chapter 3) investigates the role of health as a productive input and non-input factor of production. By using a non-neutral stochastic production approach, the impact of health is decomposed into direct effect on the production function and indirect effects on technical efficiency. The finding of the essay suggests that poor health has significant negative impacts on rural household production. The most important policy implication is that careful designing of agriculture development and rural settlements programs is important, and the provision of health care should be tied to these development projects. Essay III (Chapter 4) examines the demand for labor applied to land clearing, staple food production, livestock, working off-farm, and time taking care of sick people in the household. Specifically the empirical application examines the impact of disease on labor allocation, accounting for time lost by households taking care of sick members as a non-productive activity. Disease plays an important role in household decisions because farm activities are performed inefficiently by sick households and changes in household labor efficiency brings about a change in the relative price of competing uses for a household's time. Chapter 5 provides a summary and general conclusion of the work, and then provides comments on policy design and recommendations for further studies. In summary, the combined results of these studies show that both health condition and the quality of labor markets have significant interacting impacts on the labor allocation decisions by smallholders with accompanying welfare and deforestation implications. / Doctor of Philosophy / Most of the rural population of the Brazilian Amazon is made up of small-scale farmers – the so-called 'smallholders' – who are characterized by a lack of access to formal credit, a disconnection from social services, poor access to markets, and a dependency on their own labor as the main input in agricultural production, and thus survival. Since labor is the main input used in smallholder activities, albeit to different extents, anything that changes total household labor or labor efficiency adjusts the relative returns of competing uses, and thus labor allocation decisions. This PhD dissertation is an effort to understand whether markets, family health, and seasonality affect labor allocation decisions, and furthermore, whether those allocation decisions vary depending on productive activity. Based on cross-sectional farm data from the Brazilian Amazon, I find that the impacts of illness on household decisions depend critically on how well labor market function in rural areas. The results from a statistical test of the labor markets shows that they do not work well in the study area. These results are important both in specification of future smallholder household economic models and in targeting policies to better alleviate poverty and encourage more sustainable use of forests and land resources in similar settings. Also, I find that poor health has a significant negative impact on technical efficiency of rural household farm production. The most important policy implication is that careful designing of agriculture development and rural settlements programs is important, and the provision of health care care should be tied to these development projects. Finally, in the context of the region of study, where labor markets are thin, disease plays an important role on in household decisions because farm activities are performed inefficiently by sick households and change in labor efficiency brings about a change in relative prices of competing uses of household's time. My empirical work supports the hypothesis that health influence labor allocation decisions. In conclusion, the combined results of these studies show that both health conditions and the quality of labor markets have significant interacting impacts on the labor allocation decisions by smallholders with accompanying welfare and deforestation implications.

Diese Dissertation umfasst drei empirische Analysen regionaler Arbeitsmärkte in Deutschland. Wir wenden dabei Methoden der räumlichen Ökonometrie auf regionale Arbeitsmarktdaten an, um der räumlichen Struktur von Arbeitsmarktaktivitäten Rechnung zu tragen. In der ersten Analyse schlagen wir ein räumliches Paneldatenmodell zur Untersuchung deutscher Matchingfunktionen vor. Mit Hilfe dieses Modells sollen verzerrte und ineffiziente Koeffizientenschätzungen aufgrund räumlicher Abhängigkeiten vermieden werden. Wir zeigen, dass das Vernachlässigen der räumlichen Struktur zu nach oben verzerrten Matchingkoeffizienten führt. Das Ziel der zweiten Untersuchung ist es, Bestimmungsfaktoren für regionale Unterschiede in Arbeitslosigkeit zu identifizieren. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass ein räumlich und zeitlich dynamisches Paneldatenmodell am besten für diese Fragestellung geeignet ist. Zudem zeigen unsere Ergebnisse, dass die regionalen Unterschiede in der deutschen Arbeitslosigkeit einen Ungleichgewichtszustand darstellen. Diese Erkenntnis kann als Argument für politische Interventionen dienen. In der letzten Analyse wenden wir uns der räumlichen Gewichtungsmatrix zu, der eine zentrale Bedeutung in räumlichen Modellen zukommt. Auf Basis einer empirischen Analyse wollen wir die Definition von räumlichen Gewichten untersuchen und ermitteln Faktoren, die die räumlichen Abhängigkeiten auf Arbeitsmärkten bestimmen. Dabei untersuchen wir sowohl unterschiedliche Dimensionen ökonomischer als auch geographische Distanzen als Wirkungskanal räumlicher Abhängigkeit. Für die Entscheidung, welche dieser Distanzdimensionen einen Einfluss auf die räumlichen Relationen hat, verwenden wir ein räumlich-autoregressives Modell höherer Ordnung. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass geographische Distanz alleine nicht ausreicht, um die räumlichen Interdependenzen zwischen regionalen Arbeitsmärkten zu erklären, sondern auch Dimensionen ökonomischer Distanz einen signifikanten Erklärgehalt haben. / In this dissertation, we present different empirical analyses of regional labor markets in Germany. To account for the spatial structure of labor market activities, we apply spatial econometric methods to regional labor market data. In the first analysis, we propose a spatial panel model for German matching functions to avoid possibly biased and inefficient estimates due to spatial dependence. Based on an official data set, we show that neglecting spatial dependencies in the data results in upward-biased coefficients. Furthermore, our results suggest that a dynamic modeling is more appropriate for matching functions than a static approach. In the second analysis, we study determinants for regional differences in unemployment rates. We specify a spatial panel model to avoid biased and inefficient estimates due to spatial dependence. The study covers the whole of Germany as well as East and West Germany separately. Our results suggest that a spatial dynamic panel model is the best model for this analysis. Moreover, we find that German regional unemployment is of disequilibrium nature, which justifies political interventions. Finally, we study the spatial weights matrix which is the key component in spatial econometric models. We investigate empirically the issue of defining spatial weights in labor market applications and propose factors driving spatial dependence in regional labor markets. In addition to geographic distance, we consider different dimensions of economic distance as transmission channel of spatial dependence. To decide which factors influence spatial dependence in labor markets, we apply a higher-order spatial autoregressive model to data on regional labor markets in Germany. Our results suggest that geographic distance does not capture the spatial dependence between regional labor markets sufficiently but economic distance needs to be considered as well.

Diese Dissertation besteht aus vier Aufsätzen, die einen Beitrag zur Literatur über die empirische Analyse von lokalen Arbeitsmärkten leisten. Der erste Aufsatz nutzt den Abzug eines Großteils der US-Stationierungsstreitkräfte in Deutschland seit 1990 als ein natürliches Experiment, das die Identifikation von kausalen Effekten von Nachfrageschocks in lokalen Arbeitsmärkten ermöglicht. Als Datengrundlage dient ein neu aufbereiteter Datensatz zu den regionalen Veränderungen der Personalstärke der U.S. Stützpunkte. Die empirischen Ergebnisse belegen, dass der Abzug zu einem signifikanten Rückgang der Beschäftigung in der lokalen Privatwirtschaft und einem nachfolgenden Anstieg in der lokalen Arbeitslosenrate führte. Im Gegensatz dazu weisen die Ergebnisse keine Evidenz für signifikante Anpassungen in den lokalen Löhnen oder Wanderungssalden auf. Der zweite Aufsatz vertieft die Frage der lokalen Lohnrigiditäten angesichts des Nachfrageschocks. Der Einfluss von zwei Institutionen wird als mögliche Quelle von heterogenen Lohnanpassungen in lokalen Arbeitsmärkten identifiziert. Die empirischen Ergebnisse zeigen, dass der Einfluss der beiden Institutionen isoliert mit keinen heterogenen Lohnanpassungen verbunden ist, aber das Zusammenwirken beider Dimensionen verbunden ist mit differenziellen Lohnreduktionen. Der dritte Aufsatz erweitert die Analyse der Folgen des amerikanischen Truppenabzugs um die Frage nach der Entwicklung der lokalen Kriminalitätsrate. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass der Truppenabzug mit einem Rückgang der Kriminalität insbesondere von Drogen- und Sexualstraftaten verbunden ist. Der vierte Aufsatz untersucht die langfristige Entwicklung der Zeitarbeit in den regionalen Arbeitsmärkten in Deutschland seit 1979. Dabei zeigt sich, dass die anfängliche Verteilung der Beschäftigungsanteile für manuelle Nicht-Routine- und Routine-Tätigkeiten eine starke Vorhersagekraft für das unterschiedliche regionale Beschäftigungswachstum von Zeitarbeit in Deutschland besitzt. / This thesis consists of four essays that contribute to the empirical analysis of local labor markets. The first essay exploits the massive withdrawal of U.S. Armed Forces in the aftermath of the German Reunification as a natural experiment that enables the identification of the causal impact of local labor demand shocks. It introduces a novel dataset that details the evolution of the U.S. manpower levels at the disaggregated regional level and thereby enables the measurement how U.S. base closures affected the demand for local non-tradable goods and services. The results from the empirical analyses suggest that the drop in local labor demand caused a significant loss of private sector employment and generated a subsequent rise in local unemployment rates. In contrast, wages and migration patterns do not exhibit any significant responses. The second essay further explores the rigidity of wages in local labor markets in response to the U.S. base closures. The presence of two types of institutions (i.e. works councils and the German Trade and Crafts Code) and their interplay are characterized as potential sources of wage heterogeneities. While in isolation these two institutions do not seem to alter the pattern of insignificant wage adjustments, their interaction is found to introduce a channel for small downward wage adjustments. The third essay is concerned with the change in local crime rates in response to the U.S. presence and withdrawal. The empirical findings suggest that the drawdown of the U.S. military presence can be related to large and significant drops in the local rate of drug and sex offenses. The fourth essay provides an empirical analysis of the diverging patterns of employment in temporary help services across labor markets in Germany over the last 30 years. The differential growth pattern both at the level of occupations and across regional labor markets are found to be related to the initial intensity of routine and non-routine manual tasks.

This thesis investigates several macroeconomic aspects of labor markets. First chapter finds that in the US more educated individuals experience lower and less volatile unemployment due to a lower hazard rate of losing a job. A theoretical model with initial on-the-job training illustrates that accumulation of match-specific human capital can explain this empirical pattern. Second chapter develops a theoretical model with state-dependent wage setting. The model predicts that higher wage bargaining costs lead to higher and more volatile unemployment, consistent with some cross-country empirical evidence. Third chapter proposes a method to indirectly measure job-embodied technical change by using data on job tenure. The results show that job-embodied technical change has increased substantially since the midnineties. / Aquesta tesi investiga diversos aspectes dels mercats de treball. El primer capítol troba que, als Estats Units, els individus amb un nivell d'educació més elevat experimenten un nivell de desocupació més baix i menys volàtil, degut a una menor probabilitat de perdre el lloc de treball. Un model teòric que incorpora formació inicial al lloc de treball il·lustra que l'acumulació de capital humà específic pot explicar aquesta regularitat empírica. El segon capítol desenvolupa un model teòric amb un mecanisme de fixació de salaris que depèn de l'estat de l'economia. El model prediu que uns costos de negociació salarial més elevats comporten un nivell de desocupació més elevat i més volàtil, de forma consistent amb l'evidència empírica entre països. El tercer capítol proposa un mètode per mesurar, de forma indirecta, el canvi tecnològic incorporat als llocs de treball, mitjançant l'ús de dades sobre l'antiguitat al lloc de treball. Els resultats mostren que el canvi tecnològic incorporat als llocs de treball ha augmentat considerablement des de mitjans dels anys noranta.

The objective of this thesis has been to analyze whether booms in the iron ore market has any significant effects on local labor markets in certain municipalities in Norrbotten County during the time period 2000-2016. Previous research has established that certain types of booms and busts influenced local labor markets. The analysis was done by using panel data and regression models where the results where compared over non-mining and mining municipalities. The results gave a vague response with both conclusive and inconclusive results over the variables investigated. The main conclusion is that although the mining industry is a big part of local labor markets in Norrbotten County, it is important for firms and policymakers to understand that the mining industry is not the only important factor and that decisions should not be entirely based on the mining industry and its markets. / Målet med denna uppsats var att analysera ifall booms i järnmalmsmarknaden har någon signifikant påverkan på lokala arbetsmarknader i utvalda kommuner i Norrbotten under tidsperioden 2000–2016. Tidigare forskning har fastställt att vissa booms och busts kan influera lokala arbetsmarknader. Analysen har genomförts med paneldata och regressionsmodeller där resultat jämförts mellan gruvkommuner och ickegruvkommuner. Resultaten gav otydliga resultat då vissa var konklusiva medan andra inte var konklusiva. Den huvudsakliga slutsatsen som nåtts är att även om gruvindustrin är en viktig del av de lokala arbetsmarknaderna, är det viktigt för företag och beslutsfattare att förstå att gruvindustrin inte är den enda påverkande faktorn och att framtida beslut och satsningar inte enbart ska baseras kring gruvindustrin och dess marknad.

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Diese Dissertation umfasst vier Essays, die einen Beitrag zur empirischen Literatur über die Determinanten der Veränderungen in der Beschäftigungs- und Lohnstruktur in Deutschland leisten. Im ersten Aufsatz wird der Zusammenhang zwischen technologischem Wandel und Wachstum von Beschäftigung am unteren Ende der Lohnverteilung untersucht. Eine ökonometrische Analyse zeigt, dass technologischer Wandel die Arbeitsnachfrage von routine-intensiven Berufen hin zu Berufen verschiebt, die niedrig entlohnte manuelle Tätigkeiten erfordern und sich nicht zur Substitution durch Informationstechnologien eignen. Damit trägt er zur Polarisierung der Beschäftigungsstrukturen bei. Der zweite Aufsatz untersucht die Rolle von technologischem Wandel in der Entstehung räumlicher Lohnungleichheiten. Es wird gezeigt, dass technologischer Wandel zu einem Zuwachs in der Entlohnung von nicht-routine kognitiven Tätigkeiten und zu einem Rückgang der Entlohnung für routine und nicht-routine manuelle Tätigkeiten führte und damit zur Vergrößerung der inter- und intra-regionalen Lohnungleichheit beitrug. Der dritte Aufsatz untersucht die Beschäftigungswirkung von Produktmarktderegulierung am Beispiel der Liberalisierung der Ladenschlussgesetze, wobei regionale Variation in der Gesetzgebung zur Identifikation des kausalen Effekts dient. Es wird gezeigt, dass die Beschäftigung im Einzelhandel durch die Deregulierung um etwa 19.000 vollzeitäquivalente Stellen zurückging. Dem zugrunde liegt ein signifikanter Rückgang an kleinen Unternehmen, die personalintensiver arbeiten als große Unternehmen. Im vierten Aufsatz werden die Auswirkungen von öffentlicher Beschäftigung auf die Beschäftigung im Privatsektor untersucht. Ergebnis ist, dass die Schaffung öffentlicher Beschäftigung erhebliche Verdrängungseffekte auf die Gesamtbeschäftigung im Privatsektor hat, wobei hauptsächlich der handelbare Sektor von Beschäftigungsverlusten betroffen ist. / This thesis consists of four essays that contribute to the empirical literature on the determinants of recent changes in the employment and wage structure in Germany. The first essay analyzes recent employment growth at the lower tail of the wage distribution and its relation to technological progress. An econometric analysis suggests that tech-nological progress has shifted the demand from routine intensive occupations towards low-paying service occupations that require non-routine manual tasks, which are difficult to be replaced by information technologies, thereby contributing to the polarization of the employment structure. The second essay explores the role of technological change in the evolution of spatial wage inequality. The results indicate technological change is one driver of wage inequality by increasing the compensation for non-routine cognitive tasks, and by decreasing the compensation for routine and non-routine manual tasks. The third essay exploits regional variation in the liberalization of shop-closing legislation in Germany to identify the causal impact of product market deregulation on employment outcomes in the retail sector. The results from the empirical analysis suggest that the deregulation had moderately negative effects on retail employment, leading to a loss of approximately 19,000 full-time equivalent jobs. The reason is that deregulation induced a change in the market structure by significantly decreasing the number of small retail stores which are relatively more personnel-intensive than larger formats. The fourth essay provides an empirical analysis of the impact of changes in public sector employment on employment in the private sector at the level of local labor markets. It shows that expansions in public employment can be associated with a sizeable crowding out effect on private sector employment. Moreover, the results indicate that employment losses are concentrated in the tradable sector.