A Hierarchical Process of Applicant Screening by Korean Employers

Korean employers screen job applicants’ detailed personal backgrounds with the intent to discriminate among them. This study develops a statistical model of employers’ problem in recruiting, and identifies a hierarchical process whereby employers screen applicants’ personal characteristics in the diminishing order of their incremental predictive power or increasing order of their cost. Recognizing that benefit of marginal screening depends on information obtained through inframarginal screening, this study evaluates different elements of screening jointly using conditional count-variable and probability models, in a sample of job application forms of 365 firms. Firms are found to screen applicants systematically, according to the information content versus intrusiveness of marginal factors screened—from applicants’ appearance, through lifestyle and background, to detailed health and financial status. Companies’ working conditions, labor costs and labor-organization rate help explain the extent of companies’ screening. Working hours and mandatory compensation in the relevant market are associated positively, and bonuses and discretionary benefits negatively with the extent of screening, agreeing with theoretical predictions. Worker unionization is associated positively with screening, suggesting that unions may be protecting their membership at the cost of harming non-members and propping up firms’ traditional practices. Results for the occurrence of individual screening questions are also reported.     

When the Name Matters: An Experimental Investigation of Ethnic Discrimination in the Finnish Labor Market

This article considers the possibilities and limits of human-capital credentials in entering the labor market for immigrants in Finland. It reports findings of a correspondence study on how employers respond to job applicants of five different backgrounds who were otherwise equivalently matched on various demographic and human-capital characteristics. The findings strongly indicate the continuing salience of ethnicity in securing employment opportunities in the Finnish labor market. Employers significantly prefer Finnish applicants over ethnic candidates, and within ethnic applicants, they prefer candidates with a European name over a non-European name. They further show that locally acquired human capital provides a better payoff only when the job candidate belongs to a group that is placed higher on the ethnic preference ladder. Drawing on the empirical observations, the article thus suggests that a recruitment process driven by abstract or impersonal criteria and governed by mere considerations of human capital in real-life situations is much less prevalent than often claimed.     

Uneven Development in North Carolina? Job Quality Differences Between Local and Nonlocal Firms1

Abstract Do outside firms come to North Carolina or, more generally, to the rural South to take advantage of the low-wage unorganized local relations of production? Do they disrupt local labor market arrangements? We use data from a survey of North Carolina employees to examine labor market and job quality differences between local and outside firms and also the organization of regional labor markets. Results, based on multiple regression models, suggest that outside firms provide higher quality jobs, mediated by organizational resources and internal firm relations of production. Urban Piedmont labor markets provide better jobs than rural labor markets, regardless of the establishment's ownership locale. Generally, uneven development predictions are supported by additive models, but challenged by additional analyses of interactions. These analyses suggest that outside firms may be undermining local relations of production in rural North Carolina. Results of this research present rural policymakers with a challenge for future economic development strategies.     

The Disability Screening Process and the Labor Market Behavior of Accepted and Rejected Applicants: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study

This paper uses Social Security earnings records linked to data from the Health and Retirement Study to examine the labor market behavior of rejected and accepted disability applicants prior to their application. We find that rejected applicants have substantially lower earnings and labor force participation rates during the decade prior to application than beneficiaries. Also, we find some evidence of a divergence between these groups, with rejected applicants leaving the labor force at a faster rate than beneficiaries as their application date approaches. One interpretation of these results is that the disability screening process on average separates those who are at least partially motivated by adverse economic circumstances when applying for disability benefits from other applicants.     

The Reverse Gender Gap in Ethnic Discrimination: Employer Stereotypes of Men and Women with Arabic Names,

We examine differences in the intensity of employer stereotypes of men and women with Arabic names in Sweden by testing how much work experience is needed to eliminate the disadvantage of having an Arabic name on job applications. Employers are first sent curriculum vitaes (CVs) of equal merit in a field experiment setup. Arabic‐named CVs are thereafter enhanced with more relevant work experience than Swedish‐named CVs. The results indicate a reverse gender gap in employer stereotypes because initial differences in the number of callbacks disappear for female applicants when Arabic‐named CVs are enhanced but remain strong and significant for male applicants. Thus, contrary to what is often assumed about the interaction of gender and ethnicity, we find that Arabic men face stronger discrimination in the labor market than Arabic women.     

LABOR CONTRACTS AND FLEXIBILITY: EVIDENCE FROM A LABOR MARKET REFORM IN SPAIN

This paper evaluates the effects of a labor market reform in Spain that removed restrictions on fixed‐term or temporary contracts. Our empirical results are based on longitudinal firm‐level data that cover observations before and after the reform. We posit and estimate a dynamic labor demand model with indefinite and fixed‐term labor contracts, and a general structure of labor adjustment costs. Experiments using the estimated model show important positive effects of the reform on total employment (i.e., a 3.5% increase) and job turnover. There is a strong substitution of permanent by temporary workers (i.e., a 10% decline in permanent employment). The effects on labor productivity and the value of firms are very small. In contrast, a counterfactual reform that halved all firing costs would produce the same employment increase as the actual reform, but much larger improvements in productivity and in the value of firms. (JEL J23, J32, J41)     

Flexible employment: Positive work strategies for the 21st century

V. Conclusion The United States has thus far wisely rejected the European path of low jobs growth and high unemployment and has instead embraced flexibility. Moreover, attention is starting to be paid to the need for change in the laws affecting the workplace to accommodate and promote this new flexibility. The “jobs clearinghouse” role of temporary help and staffing firms is one of the most salutary developments in the labor market in this century and should be encouraged. Not only is there no need for laws to regulate or limit temporary work, consideration should be given to providingincentives to firms that provide those services, such as tax credits based on the skills training provided and the job placements made. This would help promote a vigorous and efficient private sector job service that has become increasingly essential to American workers’ ability to find the right job at the right time in an increasingly complex and mobile work force.     

Corporate Restructuring, Downsizing, and the Middle Class: The Process and Meaning of Worker Displacement in the “New” Economy

This article conceptualizes, describes, and analyzes the phenomenon of corporate downsizing and the experience of worker displacement as a process of work and employment change that occurs within the context of structural changes in the economy, large firms and labor markets. The research is based on a case study of displaced IBM computer and Link aerospace workers in Binghamton, New York. Research participants encountered a process of displacement that began before job loss, as the firms abandoned longstanding paternalistic work relations and altered their internal labor market structures. Following job loss, displaced workers negotiated a job search in a declining Binghamton economy and a competitive local labor market. In subsequent employment, the majority of those in the study experienced significant work and employment change associated with downward mobility. The findings suggest that in the new economy, the concept of worker displacement should be thought of in more expansive terms than the more narrow and conventional definition that is often associated with it. Workers' experiences of downsizing, displacement and employment change were not simply, or even primarily, associated with job loss, but were characterized by significant departure from objective conditions and subjective meanings of work and of being workers.     

How to Succeed in a Transnational Labor Market: Job Search and Wages among Hungarian,Slovak, and Czech Commuters in Austria

This paper deals with job search strategies and wages among cross‐border commuters residing in the Central European Region (CENTROPE). Our main aim is to investigate the role of social networks as constitutive for job searching and for successful labor market integration. We build upon a theoretical framework developed by Aguilera and Massey, reflecting on the nexus of social networks, job search methods, and related labor market outcomes. Methodologically, we use a new quantitative survey on the employment careers of cross‐border commuters residing in the regions of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary bordering on Austria, conducted in the winter/spring of 2012/2013 (N = 2,573). Our results corroborate the hypothesis that human and social capital resources as well as labor market characteristics serve as key factors for job search and labor market integration among cross‐border commuters in the CENTROPE transnational labor market.     

DO LABOR MARKETS PROVIDE ENOUGH SHORT-HOUR JOBS? AN ANALYSIS OF WORK HOURS AND WORK INCENTIVES

This paper examines the role that work incentives play in the determination of work hours. We use a conventional efficiency wage model to analyze how firms respond to worker preferences regarding wage-hours packages. In contrast to previous work, we study markets in which workers have heterogeneous preferences. In this context we demonstrate that job offers will specify both wages and work hours and many individuals will not be able to work their preferred number of hours. We show that the labor market equilibrium may be characterized by a less than optimal number of short-hour jobs.     

Race and Loss of Privilege: African American/White Differences in the Determinants of Job Layoffs From Upper-Tier Occupations

Data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics supports predictions from the minority vulnerability thesis concerning the determinants of job layoffs among African Americans and Whites who work in upper-middle-class occupations. Specifically, after controlling for seniority, layoffs for African Americans are relatively unstructured by traditional stratification-based causal factors, namely, background socioeconomic status, human-capital credentials, and job/labor market characteristics. Analyses also indicate that racial differences in the determinants of layoffs are more pronounced in nonservice-based than service-based firms in the private sector and in the private sector relative to the public sector.     

Have Labor Market Reforms at the Turn of the Millennium Changed the Job and Employment Durations of new Entrants?

Many European countries during the 1990s and early 2000s tried to raise labor market flexibility by relaxing their employment protection legislation. This paper investigates whether the reforms have influenced job and employment stability for labor market entrants in Germany and Italy. Duration models are estimated using comparable administrative data for the two countries. The results provide, to some extent, evidence of a decrease in job stability. However, this is not accompanied by a compensating increase in employment stability during the first 3 years after labor market entry.     

The Road to the Top: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Mobility in the Elite Labor Market of College Basketball Coaching

We examine how career paths, job performance, affiliation ties, and race combine to affect who secures top jobs in an elite labor market. Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis, we show that examining these traits in conjunction, rather than in isolation, reveals novel insights into how one reaches the top of an occupation. Specifically, we document how factors coalesce in various ways to propel a coach to or from the top of NCAA Division I basketball. Results are particularly informative regarding race and social ties, as the importance of these conditions depend on signs of success. These findings illustrate the importance of context and perception in occupational advancement and suggest the analytic benefit of viewing job applicants as attribute clusters when examining advancement at the highest levels of an occupation.     

Gender differences in the reemployment status of displaced workers human capital as signals that mitigate effects of bias

Data from the Current Population Survey's Displaced Workers Supplement for year 2000 indicate that after job loss, women become reemployed less frequently than do men. To explain this difference, we test sets of hypotheses derived from Human Capital and Gender Queuing theories. The results support the theory that in their hiring of displaced workers, employers tend to place men in a higher labor queue than women. Net of human capital factors, women are significantly less likely than men to be reemployed following the loss of a job. However, results also show that for women only, certain human capital characteristics substantially improve their reemployment chances. Unmarried women displaced from full-time and white-collar high-level occupations were significantly more likely to become reemployed than were women without these characteristics. The results suggest that queuing processes interact with human capital characteristics in a gender specific manner. Because employers lack perfect information about job applicants, they rely on certain human capital characteristics that signal the extent to which women in the labor market depart from prevailing negative stereotypes about women workers. To employers, unmarried women displaced from full-time managerial and professional jobs may appear more productive and committed to work than do women lacking these types of human capital. Thus, the possession of certain types of human capital among women can mitigate the effects of gender bias in the hiring of displaced labor.     

Befristete Beschäftigung: Chance oder Risiko?

The paper investigates whether increased labor market flexibility leads to a reinforcement of the existing segmentation of the labor market or whether it is dismantling the barriers in the labor market. Using spell data (employment and unemployment periods) from the German Socio-economic Panel (GSOEP, time period: 1984–1999) both determinants of fixed-term contracts and their consequences (renewed temporary employment, unemployment) are investigated with the help of random-effects logit-models. The results show that respondents’ characteristics (amount and type of human capital, formerly experienced periods of unemployment), structural variables (branch, firm size), and occupational characteristics (position, marginal employment) are influencing the risk of getting a temporary job. Furthermore it becomes evident that fixed-term contracts are increasing the risk of getting a temporary job again or of becoming unemployed after termination of the temporary job. These results show that fixed-term contracts above all are part of the secondary labor market, and that they especially have negative consequences for the employees in this segment. On the other hand fixed-term contracts can be seen as a chance in the way that they offer at least an alternative to unemployment. Hence, a too narrow evaluation of temporary employment would be too simplistic.     

Has the Youth Labor Market in Japan Changed? An Event History Analysis Approach

Abstract: This paper examines whether the Japanese youth labor market has become more unstable, particularly since the 1990s. To address this problem, I suggest that we consider the transition rate of job exit to be the benchmark of instability in the labor market and focus on workers' career histories until they reach the age of 34 years. This paper presents six hypotheses that explain the instability of the youth labor market as follows: the total increase in the job-exit transition rate, the higher risk of job exit for provisional workers, the increase in the number of provisional workers, the increasing transition rate for provisional workers and stable regular workers, the impact of firm size, and the impact of the collapse of the bubble economy. I present the summary statistics of job exit rates and the results of the Cox partial likelihood estimation models. A conspicuous phenomenon of the 1990s entailed an increasing number of provisional workers who ran a higher risk of job exits compared to regular workers. However, the job exit transition rates are generally stable. Moreover, the transition rates for regular female workers have decreased since the 1980s due to the increasing realization of gender equality in society. Although partial likelihood estimation states that firm size and the type of officer concerned (public/private) had significant effects on the transition rates, their effect did not intensify after the collapse of the bubble economy. In sum, the evidence that the Japanese youth labor market changed in the 1990s is limited.     

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO? CAREER CHOICES FOR YOUNG WORKERS IN LATIN AMERICA

This paper presents the first estimates of the returns to formal labor market experience and tenure in a developing country context. We take advantage of rich matched employer–employee data from Brazil and Chile, exploiting job displacement as a source of identification. We find positive returns to both dimensions in these countries, with larger returns to tenure in Brazil and larger returns to experience in Chile. Our findings suggest the more rigid Brazilian labor legislation may encourage firms to invest in young workers' specific skills. Chile's institutions, on the contrary, might promote the acquisition of general skills. (JEL J24, J31, M50)     

ON GENDER GAPS AND SELF‐FULFILLING EXPECTATIONS: ALTERNATIVE IMPLICATIONS OF PAID‐FOR TRAINING

This paper presents a model of self‐fulfilling expectations by firms and households which generates multiplicity of equilibria in pay and housework time allocation for ex‐ante identical spouses. Multiplicity arises from statistical discrimination exerted by firms in the provision of paid‐for training to workers, rather than from incentive problems in the labor market. Employers' beliefs about differences in spouses' reactions to housework shocks lead to symmetric (ungendered) and asymmetric (gendered) equilibria. We find that: (1) the ungendered equilibrium tends to prevail as aggregate productivity in the economy increases (regardless of the generosity of family aid policies), (2) the ungendered equilibrium could yield higher welfare under some scenarios, and (3) gender‐neutral job subsidies are more effective that gender‐targeted ones in removing the gendered equilibrium. (JEL J16, J70, J71)     

Cooperation,job security,and wages in a dual labor market equilibrium

By introducing cooperation among individuals working within a firm, this paper constructs a model generating a dualistic competitive equilibrium with differentials in wages and job security in an industry with product demand uncertainty. Primary firms offer high job security to promote cooperation and achieve high productivity. Secondary firms merely take advantage of ability to adjust employment. Wage differentials arise because cooperation is more productive among members of the same social group and thus different groups of workers face different labor demand. In contrast to the Arrow-Debreu economy, firms making long-term decisions and those making short-term decisions coexist in the equilibrium.     

The Effect of Private Sector Work Opportunities in Prison on Labor Market Outcomes of the Formerly Incarcerated

This paper examines the effects of a private-sector prison work program called the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP) on formal unemployment duration, duration of formal employment, and earnings of men and women released from various state prisons between 1996 and 2001. It also investigates the labor market dynamics of formerly incarcerated men and women. The program is found to increase reported earnings and formal employment on the extensive margin, with a stronger impact on the formal employment of women. There is little evidence that it increases formal employment along the intensive margin (i.e., duration of formal employment). Contrary to segmented labor market theories, superior employment (i.e., higher-paying jobs) does not lead to increased job stability. Roughly 92 % of individuals who obtained formal employment in the sample experienced job loss; however, reincarceration rates are too low to explain this fact. An evaluation of labor market dynamics reveals that traditional human capital variables, criminogenic factors, and a few demographic characteristics determine job loss. In addition, black women, single women, and women with more extensive criminal histories face greater barriers in the labor market than their male counterparts.