The unemployment insurance compensation experience of immigrants in Canada, 1980-1988

This paper utilizes a new data set, compiled by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Revenue Canada and Statistics Canada, to examine the unemployment experience of Canadian immigrant cohorts over the time period 1980 to 1988. Using the records of unemployment insurance benefits of persons who immigrated to Canada in those years and who filed income tax returns, the unemployment experiences of those people are compared by landing year, gender, level of education, language ability, and country of last permanent residence. The determinants of the proportion of each immigrant cohort that received unemployment insurance benefits are estimated by relating the proportions to landing year, duration of time in Canada, and labour market conditions. Briefly, we find no obvious influences on UI receipt behaviour following the immigration reforms of 1982. However, the recession of 1981–82 had a major impact on incomes which did not recover until 5 or 6 years later. Nevertheless, more generous UI benefits did raise slightly the likelihood of UI receipts. Received: 5 December 1995 / Accepted: 14 August 1996     

Hebrew language usage: determinants and effects on earnings among immigrants in Israel

This paper uses the 1983 Census of Israel to analyze Hebrew speaking skills and the effects of Hebrew fluency on the earnings of adult male immigrants. Hebrew fluency increases with a longer duration in Israel, the presence of children in the household, marrying after immigration, living in an area in which a smaller proportion speak one‘s mother tongue, a younger age at migration, a higher level of schooling and varies by country of birth. Earnings increase monotonically with the use of Hebrew. Speaking English as a second language is associated with higher earnings, even when country of origin is held constant. Received: 9 June 1997/Accepted: 6 November 1997     

Immigrant quality and assimilation: a review of the U.S. literature

Empirical research on US immigrants is reviewed: their productivity and assimilation; their contribution and use of public services; and their impact on native Americans. I discuss the characteristics of cohorts of immigrants that enter the United States at different times, and then quantify the assimilation of immigrants, typically in terms of economic productivity of immigrants compared with natives. Few have found quantifiable negative effects of immigrants on native wages or unemployment in local labor markets, but a more general equilibrium approach than has been empirically implemented may be needed to draw any conclusions regarding the distributional consequences of immigration. Received: 22 September 1995 / Accepted: 2 March 1997     

Who gets over the training hurdle? A study of the training experiences of young men and women in Britain

Using longitudinal data from the British National Child Development Study, this paper examines gender differences in the determinants of work-related training. The analysis covers a crucial decade in the working lives of this 1958 birth cohort of young men and women – the years spanning the ages of 23 to 33. Hurdle negative binomial models are used to estimate the number of work-related training events lasting at least three days. This approach takes into account the fact that more than half the men and two thirds of the women in the sample experienced no work-related training lasting three or more days over the period 1981 to 1991. Our analysis suggests that reliance on work-related training to improve the skills of the work force will result in an increase in the skills of the already educated, but will not improve the skills of individuals entering the labor market with relatively low levels of education. JEL classification: C25, I21, J24. Received February 9, 1996/Accepted August 14, 1996     

Altruism and the macroeconomic effects of demographic changes

In this paper we show that the macroeconomic effects of demographic changes strongly depend on the degree of altruism and on the specification of the intertemporal utility function. We allow for agents either to be altruistic in the sense of Barro (1974) or non-altruistic. In the latter case, generations are heterogeneous like in the „unloved children” model of Weil (1989). In the former case, where the model is a standard Ramsey model with identical agents, we distinguish a Millian and a Benthamite intertemporal utility function. For each of these models, we study the effects of an anticipated and unanticipated permanent decline in population growth as well as the consequences of a baby-boom/baby-bust scenario. Received April 17, 1996/Accepted December 10, 1996     

Training and job mobility among young workers in the United States

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth from 1987 to 1992, the determinants of training and the impact of training on job turnover are examined for young private sector workers in the United States. It is found that the receipt of company training is positively correlated with education, ability, and prior tenure at the job. The results provide only limited evidence that company training reduces turnover. There is substantial evidence, however, that training which is not financed by employers increases job mobility. The results imply that training plays an important role in the job search and job matching process among young workers. JEL classification: J24, J41, J63 Received December 11, 1995/Accepted June 27, 1996     

甘肃省出生缺陷1：2配对病例对照研究

为了解甘肃省出生缺陷死亡率及易患因素,为“甘肃省出生缺陷干预工程”项目的实施提供可干预的核心因素。根据甘肃地理特点及经济状况,按随机分层整群抽样方法,抽取了4个县,共42个乡为调查点。结果显示四县市婴儿总死亡率15.8‰(98例),出生缺陷死亡率7.7‰。甘肃省出生缺陷前五位的致病因素依次为:母亲孕早期接触农药史;母亲孕前一月服药史;母亲孕期接触农药史;母亲孕早期感染史;既往流产史。     

Joint decisions on household membership and human capital accumulation of youths. The role of expected earnings and local markets

This paper analyses the effects of expected earnings and local markets conditions on the behaviour of young adults with high school diplomas. Decisions to either remain in the parental home or form a new household are modelled jointly with those of either gaining work experience or investing in a university education. Expected lifetime earnings are found to play a crucial role in determining the choice of studying and residing with parents. Poor labour market opportunities discourage young people from working and induce them to study. The cost of housing greatly influences the choice of working and leaving the parental home. Received: 23 March 2001/Accepted: 26 November 2001 All correspondence to Gianna Claudia Giannelli. Helpful comments by two anonymous referees are gratefully acknowledged. Responsible editor: John F. Ermisch.     

Private transfers with incomplete information: A contribution to the “altruism-exchange motivation for transfers” debate

We examine the role of altruism in determining optimal transfers from a principal (a mother) to selfish agents (her children) in return for attention services. Transfer-attention contracts are studied in a setting in which informational asymmetries arise from the inability of a parent to determine the extent of her children's selfishness. We find a predominating exchange motive for transfers in the symmetric informational regime we study. However, both altruism and exchange are important motives under asymmetric information. We show that altruism facilitates transfer-attention exchange arrangements with certain trade partners under incomplete information, but diminishes trade with others. Received: 19 November 2000/Accepted: 17 May 2001 The paper was written while Edward Seiler was a fellow at the department of Agricultural Economics and Management at the Hebrew University. The authors wish to thank Elad Aharoni for research assistance, and Judith Rivlin, Yacov Tsur, two anonymous referees and seminar participants at the Hebrew University for helpful comments. Responsible editor: Alessandro Cigno.     

Optimal age of retirement and population growth

The purpose of this paper is to study intergenerational optimal resources sharing when the social planer can choose the retirement age in addition to consumptions and investment. We use the extension of the Diamond analysis by Hu [1979] that incorporates endogenous retirement age. We found that the optimal retirement age is an increasing function of the population growth rate if the elasticity of substitution of old agents' labor for young agents' labor is lower than one. In the millian case, when the size of a population does not matter, and when the elasticity of substitution of old agents' labor for young agents' labor is strictly higher than one, the optimal retirement age is a decreasing function of the population growth rate. In the benthamite case, the change in the optimal retirement age is indeterminate. Received: 19 February 1999/Accepted: 27 February 2001 All correspondence to Bertrand Crettez. We would like to thank Jean-Pierre Vidal for very helpful comments on an earlier draft. An anonymous referee provided insightful comments on a previous version of this paper. Responsible editor: Alessandro Cigno.