The Costs and Benefits of Labor Market Reforms

October, Saturday 29th | 11-13hs

Contributed Session CS39

Room 33

 
Chair: Sebastian Galiani, Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina
 
 

 

The Long-Term Impact on Wages of a Mass Displacement Event

 

 

 

Session: The Costs and Benefits of Labor Market Reforms

 

 

Presenter

Francisco Lima, Instituto Superior Técnico, DEG, Portugal

 

 

Author(s)

Francisco Lima, Instituto Superior Técnico, DEG, Portugal

Mário Centeno, Banco de Portugal and ISEG, Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa

 

 

 

 

This paper analyzes the long-term wage losses of workers displaced due to firms’ privatization. We use a unique panel covering all major privatization events in the Portuguese banking industry. We present a critical assessment of the standard panel treatment evaluation procedure. When comparing workers with similar predisplacement characteristics we find evidence of small wage losses, mainly concentrated in female workers. Older (and more tenured) and less-educated workers suffered the most.

 

 

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Structural Reform and Displaced Workers Earning Losses

 

 

 

Session: The Costs and Benefits of Labor Market Reforms

 

 

Presenter

Federico Sturzenegger, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina, and Harvard University

 

 

Author(s)

Federico Sturzenegger, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina, and Harvard University

Sebastian Galiani, Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina

 

 

 

 

We study the long-term impact of job displacement after a privatization experience in a developing country. Our results suggest large reductions in earnings, which persist throughout the years. However, we also find that the displaced worker’s current earnings are in line with competitive market wages, indicating that the long-term reduction in earnings as a result of displacement can be traced to the loss of wage rents.

 

 

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The Costs of Displacement in Brazil

 

 

 

Session: The Costs and Benefits of Labor Market Reforms

 

 

Presenter

Naercio Menezes-Filho, Universidade de São Paulo

 

 

Author(s)

Naercio Menezes-Filho, Universidade de São Paulo

 

 

 

 

This paper uses new data that combines information on workers’ education and earnings trajectories with information about their firms to estimate the costs of job displacement in Brazil. We find that high-tenure workers displaced from their firms during mass lay-offs suffer a long-term loss in monthly wages of about 20% per year. We show that this result is driven by the losses suffered by more educated individuals working in big firms at the time of displacement.

 

 

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Successes and Failures of the Labor Reform in Colombia

 

 

 

Session: The Costs and Benefits of Labor Market Reforms

 

 

Presenter

Jairo Nuñez, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia

 

 

Author(s)

Jairo Nuñez, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia

 

 

 

 

This study intends to measure the impact of labor reform through the only variable that theoretically does not have ambiguous effects: duration of unemployment. The study also analyzes the effects over the duration of employment. The approximation to the problem of measures is elaborated through the effects of labor rotation and the unemployment-employment-unemployment flows. We also explore the impact on different population groups using the triple differences estimator.

 

 

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Effective Labor Regulation and Microeconomic Flexibility

 

 

 

Session: The Costs and Benefits of Labor Market Reforms

 

 

Presenter

Kevin N. Cowan, Banco Central de Chile

 

 

Author(s)

Kevin N. Cowan, Banco Central de Chile

Ricardo J. Caballero, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Eduardo Engel, Yale University

Alejandro Micco, Banco Central de Chile and Universidad de Chile

 

 

 

 

While few economists object to the hypothesis that labor market regulation hinders the process of creative-destruction, its empirical support is limited. In this paper we revisit this hypothesis, using a new sectoral panel for 60 countries and a methodology suitable for such a panel. We find that job security regulation clearly hampers the creative-destruction process, especially in countries where regulations are likely to be enforced.

 

 

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The Changes in Work Schedule and Employment in Colombia

 

 

 

Session: The Costs and Benefits of Labor Market Reforms

 

 

Presenter

Carlos Medina, Banco de la República, Colombia

 

 

Author(s)

Carlos Medina, Banco de la República, Colombia

José_Escobar, Banco de la República, Colombia

 

 

 

 

This study estimates the effect of labor reform, on hourly wages and hours of work. To identify the parameter of interest, we estimate difference in difference models. We exploit the necessary conditions for the intervention to affect them, and define treatment and comparison group. The results we get would not be good new to male workers of industry; there are signals of increases in hourly wages for male workers of the other sectors of the economy that might bring good news in the short run.

 

 

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Social Contributions Cuts and Unskilled Labour: A Revaluation

 

 

 

Session: The Costs and Benefits of Labor Market Reforms

 

 

Presenter

Ilsem Gafsi, Université d’Evry

 

 

Author(s)

Ilsem Gafsi, Université d’Evry

Yannick L'Horty, Université d’Evry

Ferhat Mihoubi, Université d’Evry

 

 

 

 

The model describes the effects of social contribution cuts skill-biased technical progress and the business cycle on the skilled and unskilled labour demands, capital and wage and price. We come up to several robust conclusions. The most important substitution effect implies skilled and unskilled employment. Unskilled labour seems to be sensitive to the business cycle and to the skilled-biased technical change. We come up to 150 000 unskilled jobs created by the social contribution cuts.

 

 

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