Canada has an urgent need for more engineers to support its infrastructure, advance technology, and solve increasingly complex human, economic, and environmental problems. Women have often been identified as a resource who can provide new perspectives, solutions, and innovations. While women’s participation in engineering programs has increased over the last 50 years, their participation rate in the workforce has not, keeping engineering as a male-dominated occupation. Despite challenges, women graduates have entered the engineering workforce, but often they have not stayed. The purpose of this quantitative study is to explore the early career experiences of engineering graduates to identify patterns shaped by the graduates’ gender. Applying feminist lenses to the most recent data on Canadian graduates available at Statistics Canada and utilizing advanced quantitative methods, we study BEng graduates from Canadian universities. This study provides a broader understanding of the phenomenon of women’s underrepresentation in engineering and presents findings that can help retain more women in the occupation. Three samples of BEng graduates with over of 10,100 participants were included in this study to answer three main research questions: a) are there gender differences in the duration of job search and types of jobs these graduates obtained after graduation?; b) are there gender differences in job satisfaction among young engineers?; c) are there gender differences in the intention to look for another job once in a first engineering job? Themes and subthemes relevant to women’s underrepresentation in the occupation are found to help answer these questions. Recommendations for policy and future research are discussed.

A atuação do Estado sempre foi crucial para que as economias nacionais elevassem sua produtividade, no sentido da promoção da industrialização, do aprendizado tecnológico e da inovação para superar o atraso econômico. Nesta tese mostraremos como essa atuação estatal é influenciada pela ação de grupos de interesse, que buscam defender seus valores, angariar vantagens econômicas e proteção diante a concorrência. No entanto, argumentamos que o ambiente institucional criado na relação histórica destes atores apresenta ineficiências que corroboraram para a não consecução dos objetivos propagados pelas políticas industriais mais recentes. Para tanto, investigaremos com maior detalhe como esse ambiente institucional se comporta em um momento de crescimento econômico e maior ativismo estatal, a partir de um efeito não esperado: a situação de escassez de profissionais de engenharia entre os anos 2006 e 2014. Com isso, objetivamos contribuir para a discussão sobre a influência de grupos de interesse na orientação econômica e política do Estado, bem como indicar novas formas de atuação do mesmo no sentido de promover uma economia mais inovadora e competitiva. / State action has been crucial for national economies to increase their productivity, in the sense of promoting industrialization, technological learning and innovation to overcome the economic backwardness. In this thesis we will show how this State action is influenced by interest groups that seek to defend their values, to obtain economic advantages and protection against competition. However, we argue that the institutional environment created in the historical relationship of these actors presents inefficiencies that corroborated the failure to achieve the objectives propagated by the most recent industrial policies. Therefore, we will investigate in more detail how this institutional environment behaves in a moment of economic growth and greater State activism through an unexpected effect: the situation of shortage of professionals of engineering between the years 2006 and 2014. We aim to contribute to the discussion about the influence of interest groups in the economic and political orientation of the State, as well as to indicate new ways of State action in order to promote a more innovative and competitive economy.

Being the largest transition economy Russia has interested economists since the collapse of the USSR. This thesis contributes to the literature on Russian labour market. In the first chapter I investigate cyclicality of real wages in Russia, the second chapter looks into consequences of wage arrears for workers' future and the third chapter develops a model of wage arrears that arise as a result of firms' opportunistic behaviour. The principal source of data used in this thesis is the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (the RLMS). The first chapter investigates cyclicality of real wages in Russia. The analysis is carried out both at the country as well as regional levels and the influence of wage arrears on the cyclicality is examined. The estimated cyclicality coefficient is three to four times larger in magnitude than those observed for Germany, the UK, the USA and other developed countries. An increase in unemployment rate by one percentage point leads to an average reduction in real wages of four percent. The results are robust to changes in sample period and estimation technique. Wage arrears do not prove to be the driving force of this strong procyclicality. The second chapter investigates influence of wage arrears on the future of affected workers. Limited dependent variable models are used to analyse the effects of wage arrears on the probability of future wage arrears and frequent separation from employers. Difference-in-difference approach is used to analyse effects on earnings. The results suggest that affected workers are twice as likely to experience wage arrears again within next three years. Job-movers are able to decrease the probability of repeated wage arrears by nine percentage points. The effect on separations is more modest: affected workers are approximately forty percent more likely to change jobs the following year and eleven percent more likely to experience frequent separations within five years after wage arrears. The effect on future earnings is relatively small and short-lived. Take-home wages decrease by 1 000 RUB compared to unaffected workers and recover within the following year. Analysis of stocks and flows of wage arrears indicates that in the period from 1998 to 2012 on average three quarters of wage debts were repaid. The third chapter picks up the discussion of the nature of wage arrears in Russia. An indirect evidence suggests that sometimes the firms choose to withhold wages despite having the resources to pay and in certain circumstances the employees accept it. The chapter presents a model of wage arrears that is based on worker-firm interactions. Calibration to the Russian data indicates that the parameter values observed in the RLMS dataset are consistent with a stable equilibrium in which an approximately half of the labour force experience late payments. The model predicts average duration of wage arrears of four months. This prediction is consistent with the Russian reality in the late 1990s.

Throughout the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Member states, a number of significant policy reforms have coincided with significant changes in their socio-economic trajectories. This is especially evident within the employment domain, where a rapidly increasing labour force challenges the capacity of the regions domestic labour markets to provide employment. With increasing unemployment rates, combined with the region’s burgeoning young population, of whom some are well educated and seeking first-time employment, strain is placed on labour markets that were traditionally characterised by high levels of inactivity, a low skills base for the native population, the substantial presence of migrant labour and extensive segmentation and inequalities across wage and gender lines. The political implications for the future political stability and regime legitimacy in these states are easy to imagine and the challenges ahead are substantial. Moreover, policies aiming to sustainably increase the capacity of domestic labour markets to provide employment for the national citizenry are currently developed in a context where the Gulf States have to navigate their repositioning in the global economic architecture by diversifying their economies and reorganizing their socio-political formations towards ‘late rentier’ governance structures. Against this background, this thesis explores how GCC governments are attempting to transform their rentier based political economies, by comparatively analysing recent labour market reforms in three Gulf states, namely Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. A mixed methodological approach has been adopted, whereby through conducting a policy analysis on key labour reforms, namely the Kafala sponsorship system and Nationalisation based policies, alongside elite semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, this thesis has contributed to the identification of the emerging trends which characterise the post-rentier labour market governance structures in the GCC. Furthermore, due to the different development visions adopted by these three states, this thesis highlights the marked diversity within the regionally adopted policies of the Kafala system and Nationalisation based reforms and, thus, contributes to our understanding of the emerging variety of late rentier political economies in the region and their likely future developmental paths.

O ponto de partida para o desenvolvimento deste estudo é a existência de segmentação na produção aqui entendida como contínua diferenciação de atividades produtivas – de formas de organizar a produção e o trabalho, de processos produtivos e de trabalhos e de atributos requeridos para exerce-lo – e com este pano de fundo conceitua-se o termo Setor Informal e desenvolve-se o quadro metodológico que irá originar um conjunto de elementos empíricos sobre os trabalhadores no Município de São Paulo em 1980. O Setor Informal é aqui associado com as formas de organizar a produção, que não tem como motor o trabalho assalariado, ou seja, considera-se Setor Informal como o conjunto de produtores que, de posse dos meios de trabalho, desenvolvem suas atividades baseadas na própria força de trabalho. O quadro metodológico, por sua vez, foi desenvolvido com a finalidade de refletir espectros de formas dos indivíduos participarem da produção – proprietários, assalariados e trabalhadores por conta própria - , qualificados por aspectos referentes: requisitos para o trabalho – idade, sexo e escolaridade –, condições de trabalho – vínculo jurídico, qualificação, horas trabalhadas e tempo de permanência no posto de trabalho ou atividade – e níveis de renda. Decorre da análise empreendida, dos elementos empíricos coletados, bem como dos testes hipotéticos aplicados, que não se pode afirmar serem os trabalhadores informais, sob a conceituação aqui adotada, proporcionalmente a massa de trabalhadores que detêm os mais baixos requisitos e as piores condições de trabalho e níveis de rena no Município de São Paulo. Propostas de políticas de emprego e renda específicas para o Setor Informal não são priorizadas por este estudo, visto esse Setor ocupar espaço econômico intersticial e subordinado aos movimentos das firmas capitalistas. Além do que, no caso do Município de São Paulo em 1980, a maioria dos trabalhadores é assalariada e compõe parcela significativa dos que exercem o trabalho em condições e níveis de renda precários. Agrade-se à Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP) e à Fundação Instituto de Pesquisas Econômicas (FIPE), cujo apoio financeiro possibilitou a elaboração desta pesquisa. Agradece-se também aos Profs. Drs. José Tiacci Kirsten – Coordenador do Projeto FINEP/IPE, Roberto Brás Matos Macedo – Orientador do trabalho de doutoramento, José Paulo Z. Chahad., Carlos Antonio Luque, Ana Maria Bianchi, Ivo Torres e Maria Elisete Licursi pelas leituras e discussões realizadas durante as etapas preliminares deste estudo. / The starting point for the development of this study is the existence of segmentation in the production, understood herein as a continuous fashion of differentiation in productive activities. With this background define the term Informal Sector and develop a methodological picture that will result in a set of empirical elements about the workers in São Paulo in 1980. The Informal Sector is herein related to the ways of organizing the production that do not have, as its drive, the work payed on the basis of wages. Therefore, the Informal Sector is considered as a set of producers that by possessing the means of work develop their activities in their own labour force. The methodological picture, was developed with the purpose of reflecting a spectrum of ways of individual participation in the production – owners, wage workers and independent workers – desegregated by specific work requirements – age, sex and education -, conditions – legal ties, qualification, hours worked and duration in the position in his job or activity – and income levels. Considering the empirical elements gathered and the hypothesis tested, one can not state that the independent workers – or the Informal Workers, under the definition adopted herein constitute the mass of workmen who are the unqualified and have the worst working conditions and income levels in São Paulo. Proposal concerning job policies and income policies which are specific for the Informal Sector are not emphasizes in this study due to the fact the refereed sector occupies and interstitial economic space and depends on the movements of capitalistic enterprises. We should also note that in the case of São Paulo in 1980, the majority of workmen work on a wage payment basis and make us a significant part of those who perform their works under precarious conditions and low income level.

There is a growing literature studying unemployment dynamics by means of worker flow data between labor market states. This paper contributes to this literature stream by analyzing the dynamics of the Austrian unemployment rate applying novel worker flow data for 2005-2016. Our main results can be summarized along two dimensions: First, we show that worker flows between unemployment and inactivity are major determinants of unemployment fluctuations in Austria. Second, we show for the working-age population that the contribution of male worker flows to the overall variation of the unemployment rate is higher, but that this relation turns when it comes to the youth cohort. The gender differences are probably related to the early occupational and educational segregation of young men and women in Austria. The paper concludes by stressing a strong need for further empirical and theoretical research which aims to link structural differences in an economy with different responses to the business cycle. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

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This study examines how institutional actors interpret, influence and respond to skills availability in the labour market for graduates. It researches and draws lessons from the Maltese experience of managing graduate employability over three decades, focusing on the three fastest-growing economic sectors, namely, Accountancy, Pharmachem and ICT, each of which is the subject of a case study. The study investigates the interaction of governments, firms, higher education institutions and professional associations in identifying skills shortages and gaps, as well as in devising policy frameworks and skills regimes at national, sectoral and corporate levels. Drawing upon theories of employability and employee skills, first, there is development of an analytical framework to examine how these institutional actors affect the labour market, which informs the analysis of the three case studies. The qualitative research involved an interpretative analysis of key policy documents related to graduate employability and seventy in-depth interviews with interlocutors positioned in strategic policy making, senior management, academic, expert and professional leadership roles within government, regulators, major corporations, higher education institutions, training providers and professional associations. The data was thematically analysed. Twelve key themes emerged from the in-depth interviews, which included the following: use of different language; the meaning of employability; the value of credentials; the role of the University; perceptions; expectations; competitiveness; modes of training provision; labour mobility; placements and incentives; collaboration and skills gap. The institutional actors across the three focal sectors, namely, accountancy, pharmachem and ICT tended to emphasise some themes more than others, these having previously been identified in scholarly literature (Appendix 1). Both patterns and inconsistencies emerged from a comparison of the accountancy, pharmachem and ICT sectors. In so far as the labour market is concerned, the study revealed a lack of technical skills and major non-technical graduate skills gaps, specifically, in the aspects of communication, teamwork and problem-solving. A number of professional characteristics or behaviours were also identified as lacking with Accountancy, Pharmachem and ICT graduates, namely, attitude, confidence, drive, professional outlook, independent working, personality fit and a ‘can do’ approach. The study revealed the absence of permanent systemic connections between the formulation of national and sectoral economic strategies on the one hand, and higher education and training policies on the other. Consequently, state higher education institutions have been responding reactively to labour market needs, which could explain the endemic skills gap which the study found. The study concludes by discussing limitations and limits to this research as well as recommending policy initiatives and further research that could contribute to the science and practice of public policy in this field.

This thesis examines the interplay between gender, family, and the Taiwanese public-sector labour market at national, local, and individual levels. It focuses on gendered occupational segregation, worker mobility in terms of job transfers and promotion, everyday work–life arrangements, and the influence of locality on workplace dynamics and individuals’ career moves. The public sector, especially that in East Asian countries, has long been regarded as a more women-friendly employer that promotes gender equality in the public sphere. Nonetheless, relevant research lacks a systematic investigation into the interplay of gender, social norms, and structured opportunities and constraints in this labour market. Therefore, I conducted this research by analysing governmental statistics and carrying out interviews. My research shows that gender segregation exists in the Taiwanese public sector and women are still underrepresented at senior levels, although the Taiwanese government has launched many measures to achieve gender equality in the public-sector labour market. It further scrutinises how the career trajectories of male and female civil servants differ because of gendered task assignment at work and gendered expectation after marriage, which restrain women’s mobility in spatial and career terms. Through the comparison of the experience of the civil servants working in three regions, I point out that locality influences the formation and function of social networks, work culture, and familial power relations. I also explain how local networking, work culture, and family relationships correlate with one another and thus implicitly influence the career development of male and female civil servants in the researched regions. In addition, my discussion looks at how extended family members influence household gender dynamics, which is seldom discussed in existing literature. There are three main findings in my research. First, prevalent gender norms in the wider societal context play an important role in the gendering process of civil servants’ career trajectories. Gendered investment in human capital contributes to gendered occupational choices and the tendency of men to start their civil service career at higher entry levels. Second, gender segregation exists in the assignment allocation, which is the result of prevalent gender stereotyping at work and in return reinforces the existing gender stereotypes. Third, the career plans of married civil servants, especially those with children, are highly determined by the interplay of gender dynamics at home and at work. Mothers tend to have the most limited career choices. Different family structures and local work cultures constitute diverse local settings for these mothers. In general, women who live close to or with their husbands’ extended families tend to prioritise their family commitments, although their extended family members provide them with resources and support, such as childcare. My research theorises back from the East Asian context to the literature on gender and families by unveiling multiple forms of patriarchy in different family structures, whereas previous Western-focused research has often focused on nuclear families. My research also suggests that the interlocking relationship between home and workplace gender relations and the influence of locality on these relations should be carefully considered during policy making and implementation.

This dissertation consists of three chapters that aim to build a framework which can be used to study interactions between the labour market and macroeconomic dynamics. To achieve this, we reformulate a standard New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model to include search and matching frictions in the labour market and heterogeneity in price and wage stickiness. The first chapter, coauthored with Professor Engin Kara, builds a real business cycle model with labour search frictions and heterogeneity in wage stickiness. Shimer’s (2005) critique on labour search models, that it cannot explain observed unemployment movements, reignited a long-standing debate on unemployment fluctuations and wage determination. Gertler and Trigari (2009) introduce wage stickiness to the model to match unemployment volatility, while Pissarides (2009) finds this modification not satisfactory, citing evidence on high wage cyclicality. We find heterogeneity in wage stickiness in microdata on wages. Our model, which reflects this heterogeneity, matches the data better than its one sector alternatives. The second chapter, coauthored with Professor Engin Kara, studies output dynamics in New Keynesian models with the standard labour market and heterogeneity in price stickiness. We analytically and numerically show that these models can reproduce a hump-shaped output response to persistent monetary shocks, which is a key feature of monetary transmission mechanism. The version of models without heterogeneity cannot generate a hump. Flexible prices in models with heterogeneity play a crucial role, by generating inertia to price-setting and output. The third chapter studies how the labour search frictions affect output dynamics in New Keynesian models, when combined with heterogeneity in nominal rigidities. Long-term employment relationship, that arises under search and matching framework, makes marginal costs history dependent. We show that this history dependence generates inertia in the model. Heterogeneity in nominal rigidities significantly reinforces this inertia, resulting in a hump-shaped output response to persistent monetary shocks. The model without the search frictions cannot replicate a hump even when monetary shocks are persistent, when wages are sticky.