En opposant "la passion pour la jouissance présente" au "désir d’améliorer notre condition", Adam Smith soulignait dès 1776, l’importance capitale des préférences inter temporelles pour expliquer la richesse et la prospérité économique des nations. Au niveau microéconomique, la modélisation des choix inter temporels conduit à s’intéresser au taux d’intérêt psychologique que revendique un agent économique lorsqu’il doit arbitrer, entre une unité de consommation présente et une unité de consommation future. L’arbitrage inter temporel et les effets de l’impatience sont présents dans deux des principaux modèles comportementaux en économie du travail : la théorie du capital humain et la théorie de la recherche d’emploi. Toutefois, dans la plupart des modèles issus de ces deux théories, la prise en compte des préférences inter temporelles est confrontée à deux problèmes. Le premier problème est lié à la modélisation des préférences inter temporelles qui se limite à la simple introduction d’un facteur d’actualisation. Le deuxième problème est que les comportements de préférence pour le présent relèvent pour l’économètre du domaine des facteurs d’hétérogénéité inobservable. Lors de cette thèse, nous abordons une dimension particulière du rôle des préférences inter temporelles sur la qualité de l’insertion sur le marché du travail. Plus précisément, nous avons à mettre en lumière l’impact des préférences inter temporelles (impatience) sur le taux de sortie du chômage, sur l’hétérogénéité des issues lors de la transition du chômage à l’emploi et enfin sur la décision de suivre une formation professionnelle et ses conséquences sur le salaire dans l’emploi. / By contrasting "the passion for present enjoyment" to "desire to improve our condition", Adam Smith pointed out in 1776, the importance of intertemporal preferences to explain the wealth and prosperity of nations. In the microeconomic, the intertemporal choices modelling leads to analyse of psychological interest rate expressed by the economic agent when he trades off between present consumption unit and future consumption unit. Intertemporal trade-off and impatience effects are present in two major behavioural models in labour economics: human capital theory and job search theory. However, in the most models of these theories, the intertemporal preference analysis presents two problems. The first problem is related to intertemporal preferences modelling, which is limited to only the introduction of a discount factor. The second problem is that the impatience behaviour is unobservable factor in the econometrics studies. In this thesis, we focus a particular aspect of intertemporal preferences role on the quality of labour market insertion. Specifically, we highlight the impact of intertemporal preferences (impatience) on the exit rate from unemployment, on the different destinations in the transition from unemployment to employment, and finally, on the decision to pursue vocational training and its impact on wages in employment.

Unemployment among formerly incarcerated citizens is a complex problem that continues to grow. Previous reentry studies describe the collateral effects of incarceration on employment from the perspective of formerly incarcerated individuals, yet little academic research exists regarding reentry practitioners' perceptions of constraints during the job search process. Using Goldratt's theory of constraints as the foundation, the purpose of this case study of reentry and employment in a mid-Atlantic state was to explore from the perspective of practitioners, the types of constraints individuals with criminal records face during the job search process, the most difficult phase of the job search process, and recommendations on improving employment outcomes. Data for this study were obtained from 20 reentry professionals in Maryland, who completed an online, open-ended response survey. Data were inductively coded and subjected to thematic analysis procedure. The results showed that practitioners perceived the background check to be the most difficult phase in the job search process, and that external and environmental constraints such as employer bias and social stigma prevent individuals with criminal records from securing job offers. The results also showed that reentry professionals support automatic record expungement, record shielding, employer partnerships, and employment programming that provides job leads, resume building, and mock interview assistance. The positive social change implications stemming from this study include policy recommendations to policy makers to include centralizing and expanding the location of statewide employment centers, record shielding under the Second Chance Act, and fair education access through Ban-the Box for state colleges.

本論文將勞動市場的狀態過程說明非常完整，即是勞動者的搜尋過程、工作配合過程都是詳細介紹其理論背景，以及實証的結果。由於，在勞動市場上，由於勞動者與廠商之間的訊息不完全，造成勞動者與廠商兩者之間往往無法一拍即合，而導致勞動者可能離職他就，廠商亦可能另聘高明，於是工資變動與工作異動就成為經常看到的現象。 在本文研究勞動者工作異動的情形，在理論模型上是以工作契合理論為基礎，而要討論工作契合理論的基礎則必須先知道Lippmam與MaCall(1976)所提出的工作搜尋理論。因為工作契合理論又是以工作搜尋理論為基礎，因此在理論模型上必先討論工作搜尋理論，進而討論工作契合理論。 文中研究主要藉由民國八十五年九月高希均教授與林祖嘉教授於八十四年四月至八十五年六月期間針對民國八十一年六月專上畢業生的資料，分析全体專上畢業生、女性專畢業生與男性畢業生在工資、工作契合期間與勞工離職率決定以及動態行為決定。並且我們把這些資料分為四大類基本資料：個人背景資料、工作配合資料、人力資本資料與工作特徵及其基本資料。在工資的模型方面則利用一般的最小平方法來估計，因為假設市場上的工資分配為一常態分配，是一般實証文獻常用的。就勞工的契合期間，我們運用林祖嘉(1991)的模型，本文則用在勞動者的離職率與工作契合期間的決定。我們分為四個模型，分別是：Weibull、exponential、lognormal與logistic四種分配。在勞工離職方面我們運用了Cox(1972)的比例危險率模型，Lynch(1991)首次將之運用在勞動者工作異動的決定，除此之外，我們也進一步的討論工資、工作契合期間與離職率的進一步的動態的分析。

In Chapter 1 of the dissertation, the role of social networks is analyzed as an important determinant in the search behavior of the unemployed. Based on the hypothesis that the unemployed generate information on vacancies through their social network, search theory predicts that individuals with large social networks should experience an increased productivity of informal search, and reduce their search in formal channels. Due to the higher productivity of search, unemployed with a larger network are also expected to have a higher reservation wage than unemployed with a small network. The model-theoretic predictions are tested and confirmed empirically. It is found that the search behavior of unemployed is significantly affected by the presence of social contacts, with larger networks implying a stronger substitution away from formal search channels towards informal channels. The substitution is particularly pronounced for passive formal search methods, i.e., search methods that generate rather non-specific types of job offer information at low relative cost. We also find small but significant positive effects of an increase of the network size on the reservation wage. These results have important implications on the analysis of the job search monitoring or counseling measures that are usually targeted at formal search only. Chapter 2 of the dissertation addresses the labor market effects of vacancy information during the early stages of unemployment. The outcomes considered are the speed of exit from unemployment, the effects on the quality of employment and the short-and medium-term effects on active labor market program (ALMP) participation. It is found that vacancy information significantly increases the speed of entry into employment; at the same time the probability to participate in ALMP is significantly reduced. Whereas the long-term reduction in the ALMP arises in consequence of the earlier exit from unemployment, we also observe a short-run decrease for some labor market groups which suggest that caseworker use high and low intensity activation measures interchangeably which is clearly questionable from an efficiency point of view. For unemployed who find a job through vacancy information we observe a small negative effect on the weekly number of hours worked. In Chapter 3, the long-term effects of participation in ALMP are assessed for unemployed youth under 25 years of age. Complementary to the analysis in Chapter 2, the effects of participation in time- and cost-intensive measures of active labor market policies are examined. In particular we study the effects of job creation schemes, wage subsidies, short-and long-term training measures and measures to promote the participation in vocational training. The outcome variables of interest are the probability to be in regular employment, and participation in further education during the 60 months following program entry. The analysis shows that all programs, except job creation schemes have positive and long-term effects on the employment probability of youth. In the short-run only short-term training measures generate positive effects, as long-term training programs and wage subsidies exhibit significant locking-in'' effects. Measures to promote vocational training are found to increase the probability of attending education and training significantly, whereas all other programs have either no or a negative effect on training participation. Effect heterogeneity with respect to the pre-treatment level education shows that young people with higher pre-treatment educational levels benefit more from participation most programs. However, for longer-term wage subsidies we also find strong positive effects for young people with low initial education levels. The relative benefit of training measures is higher in West than in East Germany. In the evaluation studies of Chapters 2 and 3 semi-parametric balancing methods of Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) are used to eliminate the effects of counfounding factors that influence both the treatment participation as well as the outcome variable of interest, and to establish a causal relation between program participation and outcome differences. While PSM and IPW are intuitive and methodologically attractive as they do not require parametric assumptions, the practical implementation may become quite challenging due to their sensitivity to various data features. Given the importance of these methods in the evaluation literature, and the vast number of recent methodological contributions in this field, Chapter 4 aims to reduce the knowledge gap between the methodological and applied literature by summarizing new findings of the empirical and statistical literature and practical guidelines for future applied research. In contrast to previous publications this study does not only focus on the estimation of causal effects, but stresses that the balancing challenge can and should be discussed independent of question of causal identification of treatment effects on most empirical applications. Following a brief outline of the practical implementation steps required for PSM and IPW, these steps are presented in detail chronologically, outlining practical advice for each step. Subsequently, the topics of effect estimation, inference, sensitivity analysis and the combination with parametric estimation methods are discussed. Finally, new extensions of the methodology and avenues for future research are presented. / In Kapitel 1 der Dissertation wird die Rolle von sozialen Netzwerken als Determinante im Suchverhalten von Arbeitslosen analysiert. Basierend auf der Hypothese, dass Arbeitslose durch ihr soziales Netzwerk Informationen über Stellenangebote generieren, sollten Personen mit großen sozialen Netzwerken eine erhöhte Produktivität ihrer informellen Suche erfahren, und ihre Suche in formellen Kanälen reduzieren. Durch die höhere Produktivität der Suche sollte für diese Personen zudem der Reservationslohn steigen. Die modelltheoretischen Vorhersagen werden empirisch getestet, wobei die Netzwerkinformationen durch die Anzahl guter Freunde, sowie Kontakthäufigkeit zu früheren Kollegen approximiert wird. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass das Suchverhalten der Arbeitslosen durch das Vorhandensein sozialer Kontakte signifikant beeinflusst wird. Insbesondere sinkt mit der Netzwerkgröße formelle Arbeitssuche - die Substitution ist besonders ausgeprägt für passive formelle Suchmethoden, d.h. Informationsquellen die eher unspezifische Arten von Jobangeboten bei niedrigen relativen Kosten erzeugen. Im Einklang mit den Vorhersagen des theoretischen Modells finden sich auch deutlich positive Auswirkungen einer Erhöhung der Netzwerkgröße auf den Reservationslohn. Kapitel 2 befasst sich mit den Arbeitsmarkteffekten von Vermittlungsangeboten (VI) in der frühzeitigen Aktivierungsphase von Arbeitslosen. Die Nutzung von VI könnte dabei eine „doppelte Dividende“ versprechen. Zum einen reduziert die frühe Aktivierung die Dauer der Arbeitslosigkeit, und somit auch die Notwendigkeit späterer Teilnahme in Arbeitsmarktprogrammen (ALMP). Zum anderen ist die Aktivierung durch Information mit geringeren locking-in‘‘ Effekten verbunden als die Teilnahme in ALMP. Ziel der Analyse ist es, die Effekte von frühen VI auf die Eingliederungsgeschwindigkeit, sowie die Teilnahmewahrscheinlichkeit in ALMP zu messen. Zudem werden mögliche Effekte auf die Qualität der Beschäftigung untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass VI die Beschäftigungswahrscheinlichkeit signifikant erhöhen, und dass gleichzeitig die Wahrscheinlichkeit in ALMP teilzunehmen signifikant reduziert wird. Für die meisten betrachteten Subgruppen ergibt sich die langfristige Reduktion der ALMP Teilnahme als Konsequenz der schnelleren Eingliederung. Für einzelne Arbeitsmarktgruppen ergibt sich zudem eine frühe und temporare Reduktion, was darauf hinweist, dass Maßnahmen mit hohen und geringen „locking-in“ Effekten aus Sicht der Sachbearbeiter austauschbar sind, was aus Effizienzgesichtspunkten fragwürdig ist. Es wird ein geringer negativer Effekt auf die wöchentliche Stundenanzahl in der ersten abhängigen Beschäftigung nach Arbeitslosigkeit beobachtet. In Kapitel 3 werden die Langzeiteffekte von ALMP für arbeitslose Jugendliche unter 25 Jahren ermittelt. Die untersuchten ALMP sind ABM-Maßnahmen, Lohnsubventionen, kurz-und langfristige Maßnahmen der beruflichen Bildung sowie Maßnahmen zur Förderung der Teilnahme an Berufsausbildung. Ab Eintritt in die Maßnahme werden Teilnehmer und Nicht-Teilnehmer für einen Zeitraum von sechs Jahren beobachtet. Als Zielvariable wird die Wahrscheinlichkeit regulärer Beschäftigung, sowie die Teilnahme in Ausbildung untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass alle Programme, bis auf ABM, positive und langfristige Effekte auf die Beschäftigungswahrscheinlichkeit von Jugendlichen haben. Kurzfristig finden wir jedoch nur für kurze Trainingsmaßnahmen positive Effekte, da lange Trainingsmaßnahmen und Lohnzuschüsse mit signifikanten locking-in‘‘ Effekten verbunden sind. Maßnahmen zur Förderung der Berufsausbildung erhöhen die Wahrscheinlichkeit der Teilnahme an einer Ausbildung, während alle anderen Programme keinen oder einen negativen Effekt auf die Ausbildungsteilnahme haben. Jugendliche mit höherem Ausbildungsniveau profitieren stärker von der Programmteilnahme. Jedoch zeigen sich für längerfristige Lohnsubventionen ebenfalls starke positive Effekte für Jugendliche mit geringer Vorbildung. Der relative Nutzen von Trainingsmaßnahmen ist höher in West- als in Ostdeutschland. In den Evaluationsstudien der Kapitel 2 und 3 werden die semi-parametrischen Gewichtungsverfahren Propensity Score Matching (PSM) und Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) verwendet, um den Einfluss verzerrender Faktoren, die sowohl die Maßnahmenteilnahme als auch die Zielvariablen beeinflussen zu beseitigen, und kausale Effekte der Programmteilahme zu ermitteln. Während PSM and IPW intuitiv und methodisch sehr attraktiv sind, stellt die Implementierung der Methoden in der Praxis jedoch oft eine große Herausforderung dar. Das Ziel von Kapitel 4 ist es daher, praktische Hinweise zur Implementierung dieser Methoden zu geben. Zu diesem Zweck werden neue Erkenntnisse der empirischen und statistischen Literatur zusammengefasst und praxisbezogene Richtlinien für die angewandte Forschung abgeleitet. Basierend auf einer theoretischen Motivation und einer Skizzierung der praktischen Implementierungsschritte von PSM und IPW werden diese Schritte chronologisch dargestellt, wobei auch auf praxisrelevante Erkenntnisse aus der methodischen Forschung eingegangen wird. Im Anschluss werden die Themen Effektschätzung, Inferenz, Sensitivitätsanalyse und die Kombination von IPW und PSM mit anderen statistischen Methoden diskutiert. Abschließend werden neue Erweiterungen der Methodik aufgeführt.

Sachsen hat Zukunft Hochschulabsolventinnen und -absolventen stehen im Freistaat Sachsen eine Vielzahl beruflicher Möglichkeiten offen. Damit der Einstieg in den sächsischen Arbeitsmarkt erfolgreich gelingt, haben die Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter des Career Service der TU Chemnitz ihre Erfahrungen aus der täglichen Arbeit gebündelt und stellen sie nun allen Studierenden und Interessierten zur Verfügung Das Buch bietet von der Jobrecherche bis zur Gehaltsverhandlung wertvolle Tipps zum Bewerbungsprozess. Daran anschließend werden in 15 Branchenreports Perspektiven und Einstiegsmöglichkeiten sowohl auf Bundesebene als auch für den Freistaat Sachsen vorgestellt. Außerdem schildern zahlreiche Persönlichkeiten aus Politik, Wirtschaft und Hochschule ihre Sicht auf das Thema Zukunft in Sachsen und geben individuelle Karrieretipps. / Career Prospects in Saxony The Free State of Saxony offers graduates a variety of career opportunities. The Career Service of Chemnitz University of Technology offers advice on how to access Saxony’s job market most successfully by making its experience and expertise of its daily work available. The book provides valuable information on the application process, ranging from job research to salary negotiation. 15 industry reports introduce career prospects in Saxony as well as nationwide. In addition, leading figures and renowned personalities from the fields of politics, society and academia express their views on career perspectives in Saxony.

本文分成兩個部分探討失業者的工作搜尋決策，第一部分利用遞延選擇權模型模擬市場景氣、預期工作機會出現機率、不確定性等因素對失業者工作搜尋決策的影響。第二部份利用2006年至2010年主計處的「人力資源調查」及「人力運用調查」資料從事實證分析。本文從實證分析中驗證以下的模擬結果：一、市場上的工資波動率與失業者的保留工資有正向關係，與移轉到就業的機率有負向關係。二、失業者對工作機會出現機率的預期較高時，擁有較高的保留工資，移轉到就業的機率較低。另外，學習速度較快的失業者在搜尋工作的過程中會以較快的速度下降保留工資，移轉到就業的機率較高。三、失業者對於工作搜尋報酬的不確定程度較高時，擁有較低的保留工資，移轉到就業的機率較高。 / This thesis consists of two parts. The first part is devoted to applying a real option approach to simulate the impacts of market prospect, expected offer arrival rate, and uncertainty on job search decisions. The second part provides an empirical illustration to validate the simulation results by using unemployment data from the 2006-2010 Taiwan Manpower Utilization Survey. The main findings of this thesis can be summarized as follows: (i) The wage volatility is related positively with the reservation wage of the unemployed, but inversely with the transition probability into employment. (ii) If a rising offer arrival rate is expected, the unemployed increase reservation wages and thus decrease transition probabilities. Furthermore, higher learning speed acts to intensively lower the reservation wage. (iii) When the degree of payoff uncertainty is higher, the unemployed decrease reservation wages and thus increase transition probabilities.

Dans les pays en voie de développement, les politiques visent à augmenter les opportunités d'emploi afin d'élever les revenus et les niveaux de vie des populations. Parmi ces pays, les pays arabes de la région MENA ont récemment connu une vague de soulèvement populaire, faisant suite aux accroissements de la pauvreté, des inégalités et de l'exclusion, résultats des faibles performances du marché du travail. Comme l'analyse des flux est devenu l'outil de base de l'économie du travail moderne, cette thèse propose d'expliquer le fonctionnement de ces marchés du travail assez spécifiques, particulièrement ceux de l'Egypte et de la Jordanie, en utilisant la théorie de la recherche d'emploi. Elle se penche sur l'analyse des créations et destructions d'emploi ainsi que des mobilités entre emplois. Elle montre que ces marchés sont très rigides. L'impact de l'introduction des réformes structurelles, visant à flexibiliser l'emploi est ensuite discuté de manière empirique ainsi que théorique. Les résultats montrent que la baisse des coûts de licenciement en Egypte a augmenté significativement les destructions d'emploi, mais n'a eu aucun impact sur les créations. Cet échec partiel de la réforme est un paradoxe empirique, qui est interprété théoriquement par un effet d'éviction dû à l'augmentation du coût de la corruption ou/et à l'augmentation des salaires du secteur public. Une extension originale du modèle théorique de Mortensen-Pissarides est alors développée, permettant l'existence de trois secteurs, public, privé formel et privée informel. Ce cadre rend compte de la nature particulière des pays en voie de développement. Pour examiner la qualité des emplois et pour étudier les avancements dans l'échelle des salaires, une estimation structurelle du modèle de Burdett-Mortensen est ensuite proposée. Elle permet d'étudier et mesurer les frictions d'appariement sur les marchés du travail égyptien et jordanien. Les paramètres estimés sont extrêmement faibles, soulignant la forte rigidité de ces marchés. Le marché du travail jordanien s'avère, par contre, être plus flexible que l'égyptien. Compte tenu de la non-disponibilité de données de panels annuelles dans ces pays, il est montré que des données de panel rétrospectives peuvent être utilisées, pour étudier les transitions de court terme sur ces marchés du travail. Ces données de panel sont par contre soumises à un biais de mémoire. Une méthode originale de correction du biais de mémoire est donc proposée et développée. Elle vise à corriger les transitions à la fois à un niveau macro, en utilisant une méthode de moments simulés, ainsi qu'au niveau micro, en construisant des matrices de poids. / Policy prescriptions for poor developing countries struggle to expand employment opportunities toraise their income levels. Among these are the MENA Arab countries that have recently experiencedan unprecedented tide of popular uprisings following the rising poverty, inequality and exclusion, muchof which is related to the labor market. Since the flow approach to labor markets has become the basic toolbox to modern labor economics, this thesis has at its central insight explaining the functioning ofthose specific labor markets, particularly the Egyptian and Jordanian, using the search equilibrium theory. It looks at analyzing job accession, separations and mobility trends. Overall, evidence of highlevels of rigidity is revealed. The impact of introducing flexible employment protection regulations in these rigid markets is then discussed both empirically and theoretically. Findings show that lowering firing costs in Egypt increased significantly the job separations, but had no impact on job creations.This partial failure of the liberalization reform is interpreted theoretically by a crowding out effect due to increased corruption set up costs or increased public sector wages. A novel theoretical matching model a la Mortensen Pissarides is developped allowing for the existence of public, formal private and informal private sectors, reflecting the particular nature of developing countries. Workers’ movements up the job ladder is then explored through a structural estimation of the frictional parameters in a job search model a la Burdett Mortensen. These markets are found to have very high levels of search frictions especially among the young workers. Given the non-availability of panel data to study labor market flows, longitudinal retrospective panel datasets are extracted from the Egypt and Jordan Labor Market Panel Surveys. These panels are then compared to available contemporaneous crosssectional information, showing that they suffer from recall and design measurement erros. An original methodology is therefore proposed and developped to correct the biased labor market transitionsboth on the aggregate macro-level, using a Simulated Method of Moments (SMM), as well as on themicro-individual transaction level, using constructed micro-data weights.

Essay I: Employment Security Agreements, which are elements of Swedish collective agreements, offer a unique opportunity to study very early job search counselling of displaced workers. These agreements provide individual job search assistance to workers who are dismissed due to redundancy, often as early as during the period of notice. Compared to traditional labor market policies, the assistance provided is earlier and more responsive to the needs of the individual worker. In this study, I investigate the effects of the individual counseling and job search assistance provided through the Employment Security Agreement for Swedish blue-collar workers on job finding and subsequent job quality. The empirical strategy is based on the rules of eligibility in a regression discontinuity framework. I estimate the effect for workers with short tenure, who are dismissed through mass-layoffs. My results do not suggest that the program has an effect on the probability of becoming unemployed, the duration of unemployment, or income. However, the results indicate that the program has a positive effect on the duration of the next job. Essay II: The well-known positive relationship between the unemployment benefit level and unemployment duration can be separated into two potential sources; a moral hazard effect, and a liquidity effect pertaining to the increased ability to smooth consumption. The latter is a socially optimal response due to credit and insurance market failures. These two effects are difficult to separate empirically, but the social optimality of an unemployment insurance policy can be evaluated by studying the effect of a non-distortionary lump-sum severance grant on unemployment durations. In this study, I evaluate the effects on unemployment duration and subsequent job quality of a lump-sum severance grant provided to displaced workers, by means of a Swedish collective agreement. I use a regression discontinuity design, based on the strict age requirement to be eligible for the grant. I find that the lump-sum grant has a positive effect on the probability of becoming unemployed and the length of the completed unemployment duration, but no effect on subsequent job quality. My analysis also indicates that spousal income is important for the consumption smoothing abilities of displaced workers, and that the grant may have a greater effect in times of more favorable labor market conditions. Essay III: Evidence from around the world suggest that individuals who are awarded disability benefits in some cases still have residual working capacity, while disability insurance systems typically involve strong disincentives for benefit recipients to work. Some countries have introduced policies to incentivize disability insurance recipients to use their residual working capacities on the labor market. One such policy is the continuous deduction program in Sweden, introduced in 2009. In this study, I investigate whether the financial incentives provided by this program induce disability insurance recipients to increase their labor supply or education level. Retroactively determined eligibility to the program with respect to time of benefit award provides a setting resembling a natural experiment, which could be used to estimate the effects of the program using a regression discontinuity design. However, a simultaneous regime change of disability insurance eligibility causes covariate differences between treated and controls, which I adjust for using a matching strategy. My results suggest that the financial incentives provided by the program have not had any effect on labor supply or educational attainment.

In the modern industrialized society, a long commuting time is becoming more and more common. However, commuting results in a number of different costs, for example, external costs such as congestion and pollution as well as internal costs such as individual time consumption. On the other hand, increased commuting opportunities offer welfare gains, for example via larger local labor markets. The length of the commute that is acceptable to the workers is determined by the workers' preferences and the compensation opportunities in the labor market. In this thesis the value of travel time or commuting time changes, has been empirically analyzed in four self-contained essays. First, a large set of register data on the Swedish labor market is used to analyze the commuting time changes that follow residential relocations and job relocations. The average commuting time is longer after relocation than before, regardless of the type of relocation. The commuting time change after relocation is found to differ substantially with socio-economic characteristics and these effects also depend on where the distribution of commuting time changes is evaluated. The same data set is used in the second essay to estimate the value of commuting time (VOCT). Here, VOCT is estimated as the trade-off between wage and commuting time, based on the effects wage and commuting time have on the probability of changing jobs. The estimated VOCT is found to be relatively large, in fact about 1.8 times the net wage rate. In the third essay, the VOCT is estimated on a different type of data, namely data from a stated preference survey. Spouses of two-earner households are asked to individually make trade-offs between commuting time and wage. The subjects are making choices both with regard to their own commuting time and wage only, as well as when both their own commuting time and wage and their spouse's commuting time and wage are simultaneously changed. The results show relatively high VOCT compared to other studies. Also, there is a tendency for both spouses to value the commuting time of the wife highest. Finally, the presence of hypothetical bias in a value of time experiment without scheduling constraints is tested. The results show a positive but not significant hypothetical bias. By taking preference certainty into account, positive hypothetical bias is found for the non-certain subjects.

Industrial-organizational psychologist Stephen S.W. Gilliland developed a model for studying job-seeker fairness perceptions in 1993 based on existing research in organizational justice. The model includes several rules which will result in job-seeker perceptions of fairness if satisfied and job-seeker perceptions of unfairness if violated. Given the prominence of this model in the literature as well as changes which have occurred in personnel selection (such as human resource information systems, or HRIS, and e-recruitment), scholars have called for a technological re-envisioning of the original model, especially the explanations/descriptions ascribed to each rule. The present study seeks to understand how HRIS e-recruitment technology impacts job-seeker fairness perceptions and in so doing update the Gilliland (1993) model using a qualitative methodology and website success measures from information systems success theory. It contributes to the literature on applicant fairness perceptions by accounting for technological change, and contributes to the field of Public Administration by studying a governmental e-recruitment portal thereby accounting for the particularities of public-sector HRM which is underrepresented in the organizational justice literature. Over the course of one (1) year, twelve (12) job-seekers participated in a series of focus group interviews where they reflected on their experiences applying for jobs in the Canadian federal civil service using the government’s e-recruitment portal. Participants completed profiles, sent applications, communicated with government personnel, and wrote internet tests, among other job-search activities, and reported on their experiences from the perspective of fairness. Results confirm the validity of all original procedural justice rules and offer insight into their application in a recruitment environment where applicants invest considerable time interacting with computerized systems. Two additional rules are also put forth including the ease with which candidates can deceive tests and privacy/trustworthiness using technology. The findings are limited insofar as data gathering took place during a time of reduced hiring activity by the employer and because participation was limited to one (1) specific geographic location.