The purpose of the study is to highlight women's experiences of and beliefs about the labour market, in relation to wearing the veil. It´s based on a qualitative study of semi-structured interviews with thirteen university students of women wearing hijab and illustrate how their reflections of discrimination affect educational choices. It also describes what treatment the women wearing hijab has experienced in previous contact with the labor market and when the veil has been actualized in different work situations. The result is described in three themes:  “wearing hijab”, “education and profession” and “work life”. It displays how the women highlight their experiences of discrimination towards their hijab and states that there is discrimination in social and public contexts, as well as in the Swedish labor market. Furthermore, the women tell how difficult it is for the hijab wearing woman to be considered as her own individual, instead, she is defined by the hijab and met with prejudiced values and reactions. The results were analyzed with theories as postcolonial feminism, orientalism, and different forms of discrimination, stigmatization and exclusion. During the job search, the respondents in this study tells that they need to over emphasize their skills because they constantly feel that they need to disprove prejudices about an imagine incompetence. Especially after the European Court of Justice ruled (2017-03-14) that entitles the employers to deny women wearing hijab at the workplace. Additionally, the negative attitude is not always visible but hidden outward and towards the periphery of society. This study clarifies how they are treated in society and highlights the limits of their opportunities in the labor market because of prejudice about the hijab. The results are related to previous studies and are discussed in relation to the dominant image of the veil in the West.

Labor market indicators such as unemployment and labor force participation show a significant amount of heterogeneity across demographic groups, which is often not incorporated in monetary policy analysis. This dissertation is composed of three essays that explore the effect of labor market heterogeneity on the design and conduct of monetary policy. The first chapter, <b>Effect of Monetary Policy Shocks on Labor Market Outcomes</b>, studies this question empirically by looking at dynamics of macroeconomic outcomes to a monetary policy shock. I construct a measure of monetary policy shock using narrative methods that represent the unanticipatory changes in policy. Impulse response of unemployment rates for high and low-skill workers show low-skill workers bear a greater burden of contractionary monetary policy shock. Their unemployment rates increase by almost four times that of the high-skill group. Even though we see differences in dynamic response of unemployment rates, the empirical analysis shows some puzzling results where effects of contractionary shock are expansionary in nature. Moreover, these results are plagued by the “recursiveness assumption” that the shock does not affect current output and prices, which is at odds with theoretical models in the New Keynesian literature. In the second chapter, <b>Skill Heterogeneity in an Estimated DSGE Model</b>, I use a structural model to better identify these shocks and study dynamic responses of outcomes to economic shocks. I build a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model, which captures skill heterogeneity in the U.S. labor market. I use Bayesian estimation techniques with data on unemployment and wages to obtain distribution of key parameters of the model. Low-skilled workers have a higher elasticity of labor supply and labor demand, contributing to the flatness of the wage Phillips curve estimated using aggregate data. A contractionary monetary policy shock has immediate effects on output and prices, lowering both output and inflation. Moreover, it increases unemployment rates for both high and low-skill groups, the magnitude being larger for the latter group. The presence of labor market heterogeneity will have new implications for the design of monetary policy, that I study in the third chapter, <b>Optimal Monetary Policy with Skill Heterogeneity</b>. I design an optimal policy for the central bank where policymakers respond to the different inflation-unemployment trade-off between high and low-skill workers. The monetary authority must strike a balance between stabilization of inflation, GDP and outcomes of high and low-skill workers separately. This optimal policy can be implemented by a simple interest rate rule with unemployment rates for high and low-skill workers and this policy is welfare improving.

Thesis (M.Com. (Development Theory and Policy))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 201 / Drawing on data from the National Income Dynamics Survey (NIDS) from 2008-2012, this paper investigates informal-formal earnings gaps in South Africa in order to assess the validity of labour market segmentation theories and to shed light on the motivations behind informal labour. In addition to controlling for observed individual characteristics using pooled OLS regression, fixed effects and quantile regressions are also estimated to control for time-invariant individual heterogeneity and to assess variations in earnings gap along the income distribution. Results are indicative of segmentation both within informal employment and in the labour market as a whole. Overall, informal employment in South Africa can be characterised as highly diverse and heterogeneous, with earnings differentials varying by employment type (whether salaried or self-employed), gender, and level of income. This earnings analysis is complemented by a brief exploration into the non-pecuniary characteristics of informal employment, with a consideration of the relationship between subjective wellbeing and informality.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the efficacy of EPWP employment in enhancing workers’ subsequent employability once they exit these programmes. The study also examined the conditions of EPWP employment to glean evidence about whether or not jobs offered in these programmes are distinguishable from other forms of casual employment preponderant within the South African labour market. Through the use of structured interviews complemented by individual diaries conducted with thirty-two former participants of the Modimola Integrated EPWP in the North West province this study reveals that public works employment is not distinguishable from other forms of “precarious” employment when evaluated against the general indicators of labour market security, minimum wages and benefits, working time, training, and union representation, inter alia. Contrary to the documented policy expectation that EPWP employment will enhance workers’ skills and labour market exposure and thereby improve their subsequent labour market performance, this study reveals that public works employment was not successful in enhancing participants’ access to other employment opportunities. This study found a broad unemployment level of 97% amongst former participants of the Modimola EPWP almost five years after they went through the programme’s training component. The principal reason given by all the respondents was overwhelmingly lack of employment opportunities that required a recipe of skills they had acquired during participation in this programme.

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the academic requirements for the degree of Masters in Development Theory and Policy, School of Economics and Business Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, March 2017 / This study explores labour market inequality amongst those with post-secondary education in South Africa. The need to invest in higher education has been emphasised as the gateway to facilitating equal opportunities in the labour market, with the view of bridging inequality in employment and incomes. Nevertheless, South Africa’s labour market remains highly unequal, despite higher rates of enrolment and completion in higher education. The existing body of literature suggests that labour market outcomes amongst those with post-secondary education are not equal, consequently widening the level of inequality within the economy. Using the Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2014 annual dataset a combination of descriptive statistics and econometric tools are employed to investigate employment and earnings outcomes between graduates and diplomates. The findings indicate that graduates are more successful in obtaining employment relative to diplomates even once demographic and geographic characteristics and field of study are controlled for. Moreover, graduates obtain a substantial earnings premium relative to diplomates even when controlling for job characteristics / XL2018

Thesis (Ph.D. (Economics))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic & Business Sciences, 2016. / No abstract.

Thesis (M.Com. (Management))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2016. / Graduate unemployment has become a significant factor in the global economy. The economic system now relies on institutional unemployment figures as the indices of the socio-economic well-being of any country. Research shows that graduate unemployment is potentially damaging to the economy. If such unemployment persists, it may lead to the erosion and outdating of graduates' skills–bases, which will affect the economy in the long term. Statistical reports show that there is high graduate unemployment in South Africa; hence graduates struggle to find work despite the skills shortage in the country. This seems to contradict previous studies suggesting that the higher a person‘s education level, the higher his or her probability of finding employment. As a result of the significant rise in unemployment rates among South Africa‘s stock of graduates, the extent of the emerging skills-mismatch possessed by new graduate labour market entrants are increasingly misaligned with the skills demanded by employers.

M.Sc., Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011 / The need for Official Statistics to assist in the planning and monitoring of development projects is becoming more intense, as the country shifts toward better service delivery by local government. It is evident that the demand for statistics at small area level (municipal rather than provincial) is high. However, the statistics with respect to employment status at municipal level is limited by the poor estimation of unemployment in 2001 Census and by changes in boundaries in local government areas. Estimates are judged to be reliable only at provincial level (Stats SA, 2003) The aim of this study is to investigate possible methods to resolve the problem of the misclassification of employment status in Census 2001 by readjusting the data with respect to the classification of people as employed, unemployed or economically inactive, to that of Labour Force Survey of September 2001. This report gives an overview of the different methods of small area estimation proposed in the literature, and investigates the use of these methods to provide better estimates of employment status at a small area (municipal) level. The application of the small area estimation methods to employment status shows that the choice of the method used is dependent on the available data as well as the specification of the required domain of estimation. This study uses a two-stage small area model to give estimates of unemployment at different small areas of estimation across the geographical hierarchy (i.e. District Council and Municipality). Even though plausible estimates of the unemployment rate were calculated for each local municipality, the study points out some limitations, one of which is the poor statistical representation (very few people) living in some specific municipalities (e.g. District Management Areas used for national parks). Another issue is the poor classification of employment status in rural areas due to poor data with respect to economic activities, mostly with respect to family businesses, and the non-availability of additional auxiliary data at municipal level, for the validation of the results. The inability to incorporate the time difference factors in the small area estimation model is also a problem. In spite those limitations, the small area estimation of unemployment in South Africa gives the reference estimates of unemployment at municipality level for targeted policy intervention when looking at reducing the gap between those who have jobs and those who do not. Hence, the outcome of the small area estimation investigation should assist policy makers in their decision-making. In addition, the methodological approach used in this report constitutes a technical contribution to the knowledge of using Small Area Estimation techniques for South African Employment statistics.

This dissertation consists of three chapters on financial friction, misallocation and development dynamics. The first chapter considers how financial frictions and mobility distortions generate the persistence of post-reform development dynamics. I build a general equilibrium model and calibrate it to China. The mobility distortion is an occupation distortion that restricts a proportion of agents to the low-productive sector. A removal of distortions triggers the transition of the economy. Using a calibrated version of the model, the transition path displays slow convergence and mimics the patterns observed in data. The mobility distortion creates high-ability, but poor, agents before the reform. This provides a channel for financial frictions to have longer effect after the reform. Compared with the literature that uses tax distortions, the economy with mobility distortions generates slower convergence. The second chapter is a welfare analysis of the well-documented depressed migrant wage in China from a dynamic perspective. The depressed migrant wage per se attracts fewer migrant workers and lowers the migrants' consumption and the aggregate output. However, it encourages urban entrepreneurs to substitute capital for labor, relaxing the effect of financial frictions. The net effect on output and consumption depends on the stage of development. Initially, it benefits the economy by speeding up TFP growth and capital accumulation in the urban sector. In the later stage, owing to low consumption of migrants, policy intervention can increase aggregate consumption and output. The third chapter investigates why the intergenerational income mobility decreases and the inequality increase for China over the past 30 years. I propose a theoretical overlapping generation model with missing capital markets, increasing the return to human capital and increasing education cost to explain these facts. After the economic reform happens, all levels of wages go up and all families accumulate and update human capital. However, the increasing education cost and credit constraint prevent the children from rural families from accumulating human capital quickly. The urban families accumulate human capital faster than the rural families. These predictions from the model are verified in the census data. Whether this process continues or not depends on the subsidy of education. Government education policy can improve the allocation of education in the economy.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine if there is a difference between Swedish urban and rural regions in terms of job-matching efficiency. The thesis employs the Beveridge curve with unemployment rate as the dependent variable as a framework and a longitudinal dataset covering 60 regions and the period 1998-2015. Two aspects of the job-matching efficiency are considered; the determinants of unemployment and the temporal changes in the job-matching efficiency. Considering the determinants of unemployment, some differences between urban and rural regions are detected. The results indicate that the mean age of a region’s population is negatively related to the unemployment rate while the share of women in the labor force is positively related in both types of regions. According to the Beveridge curve, this implies that the job-matching efficiency increases with a higher mean age while a higher share of women in the labor force decreases the matching efficiency. However, both variables are significantly stronger related to the unemployment rate in urban regions. Education is found to be positively associated with unemployment rate in urban regions while insignificant in rural ones. Lastly, no major difference between the two types of regions regarding the changes or position of the Beveridge curve are found. This implies that the job-matching efficiency is similar and change simultaneously in both urban and rural regions.