Labor Market

Theory at both the micro and macro level predicts that investments in superior human capital generate better firm-level performance. However, human capital takes time and money to develop or acquire, which potentially offsets its positive benefits. Indeed, extant tests appear equivocal regarding its impact. To clarify what is known, we meta-analyzed effects drawn from 66 studies of the human capital-firm performance relationship and investigated 3 moderators suggested by resource-based theory. We found that human capital relates strongly to performance, especially when the human capital in question is not readily tradable in labor markets and when researchers use operational performance measures that are not subject to profit appropriation. Our results suggest that managers should invest in programs that increase and retain firm-specific human capital.

1 The SNB chooses not to term its new policy approach "inflation targeting" as it targets a range of inflation rates (0-2%) instead of a single value. However this is the case in almost all countries that are generally considered to be inflation targeters, as Epstein (2007) clearly documents. To simplify the discussion, we shall denote the new policy approach of the SNB as inflation targeting and leave it to others to determine whether the terminology is appropriate. 2 The paper by Pétersson (2004) is the one exception, but it focuses solely on inflation persistence and does not single out Switzerland in its pooled approach.

A Semana de Arte Moderna transcorre na convergência de duas mudanças decisivas na história brasileira. Uma na esfera sul-atlântica, outra no âmbito do território nacional. A primeira mudança, relativa à emergência da Argentina como concorrente e eventual modelo do “progresso à americana”, repercute no Rio de Janeiro e em São Paulo. A segunda, derivada das migrações do Nordeste para o Centro-Sul – simultaneamente ao declínio da entrada de imigrantes no Brasil –, tem como teatro central a capital paulista e o estado de São Paulo, mas transforma o país inteiro.

Concepts like regional innovation systems, innovative milieu, and learning regions emphasize the positive contribution of intra-regional cooperation to firms' innovation performance. Despite substantial numbers of case studies, the quantitative empirical evidence for this claim is thin. Using data on the co-application and coinvention of patents for 270 German labor market regions the study shows that intraregional cooperation intensity and regional innovation efficiency are associated. In contrast to the negative influence of interregional cooperation, medium levels of intra-regional cooperation stimulate regional innovation efficiency.

The authors would like to thank Andreas Nader and Patrizio Sicari for research assistance and Fritz Breuss, Anita Wölfl and Andreas Wörgötter for valuable comments. The opinions expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the official viewpoint of the OeNB, the Eurosystem, the OECD or their respective member countries.

An increasing fraction of jobs in the U.S. labor market explicitly pay workers for their performance using a bonus, a commission, or a piece rate. In this paper, we look at the e¤ect of the growing incidence of performance pay on wage inequality. The basic premise of the paper is that performance pay jobs have a more "competitive" pay structure that rewards productivity di¤erences more than other jobs. Consistent with this view, we show that compensation in performance pay jobs is more closely tied to both measured (by the econometrician) and unmeasured productive characteristics of workers. We conclude that the growing incidence of performance pay accounts for 25 percent of the growth in male wage inequality between the late 1970s and the early 1990s.

Les analyses traditionnelles du marché du travail s'avèrent incapables d'expliquer le paradoxe apparent entre un taux de chômage relativement modéré dans un pays tel que le Pérou (environ 10%, taux peu sensible aux fortes fluctuations macro-économiques) et la perception d'une grave crise de l'emploi. Une explication possible pourrait résider dans le fait que cet indicateur statique en coupe instantanée ne mesure pas les flux élevés entre les situations d'emploi et d'inemploi. Pour analyser ces questions, il est nécessaire de conduire une analyse dynamique sur données de panel. Nous avons ainsi construit un panel national d'individus en âge de travailler pour la période 1997-1999 à partir de l'enquête péruvienne auprès des ménages (ENAHO). Comme d'autres études réalisées dans des pays en développement, nous constatons qu'il existe une importante mobilité de l'emploi au Pérou. Nous trouvons également que la plupart des transitions interviennent entre emploi et inactivité plutôt qu'entre emploi et chômage. Le taux de chômage permanent apparaît très faible et le chômage serait donc essentiellement un phénomène frictionnel. Pour aller plus loin, nous avons élaborés des profils de transition inconditionnels, incluant les caractéristiques individuelles et du ménage, telles que le genre, l'âge, et le niveau d'éducation, associé avec chaque état de transition. Finalement, après avoir examiné ces transitions sur le marché du travail et les biais de sélection possibles, nous avons estimé un modèle logit multinomial. Ce modèle nous a permis d'apprécier l'incidence (conditionnelle) des caractéristiques individuelles et des ménages ainsi que des différents chocs sur les états de transition en matière d'emploi.

This paper estimates the returns to career decisions in the marriage market and the returns to marital choices in the labor market. Theoretically, investments in the labor market could affect the chances of receiving a marriage offer, the type of offer, and the probability of getting divorced. Also, marital status could affect one's outcomes in the labor market, most notably the "marriage premium" in wages. To untangle this simultaneous decision-making process, I develop a dynamic programming model of the joint career and marital decisions of young men between the ages of 16 and 39. The results show that labor market decisions are strongly inßuenced by their returns in the marriage market. If there were no returns to career choices in the marriage market, men would tend to work less, study less, and choose blue-collar jobs over white-collar jobs. These results suggest that the existing literature underestimates the true returns to human capital investments by ignoring their returns in the marriage market. In addition, the results show that the "marriage premium" is much lower than traditional OLS estimates, and is virtually non-existent for higher wage men. This result suggests that while marriage may make low wage men more serious about their careers, marriage has little effect on high wage men who are already highly motivated.

Information society, in which we live, is featured by extraordinary dynamic changes where information has an absolute priority. So, every of us, if does not want his or her knowledge to be outdated, should learn continually, even throughout all our life. The transformation resulting from the rising of information society has an impact not only on education sphere, but also on all the areas of his or her functioning, including works. Postgraduate studies are very popular as a form of education enabling quick reaction to the changing needs in the labor market.
Xã hội thông tin mà chúng ta đang sống được nhấn mạnh bởi những sự thay đổi diễn ra một cách phi thường với vai trò chủ đạo của thông tin. Vì đó, mỗi cá nhân chúng ta, nếu không muốn kiến thức của mình trở nên lỗi thời, phải liên tục học hỏi xuyên suốt cuộc sống của mình. Sự thay đổi diễn ra do tầm quan trọng ngày càng lớn của xã hội thông tin đã tác động không chỉ tới lĩnh vực giáo dục mà còn tất cả các lĩnh vực còn lại của mỗi chúng ta bao gồm công việc nghề nghiệp. Đào tạo sau đại học là dạng đào tạo rất được thịnh hành ngày nay, nó cho phép người học phản ứng nhanh với những yêu cầu luôn thay đổi của thị trường lao động.

Cross-cultural research is dominated by the use of values despite their mixed empirical support and their limited theoretical scope. This article expands the dominant paradigm in crosscultural research by developing a theory of cultural tightness-looseness, the strength of social norms and degree of sanctioning within societies, and advancing a multilevel research agenda for future research. Through an exploration of the

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In Spain, care in dependency has traditionally fallen to family members but this situation is changing. The existence of a model based on the family’s contribution used to enable dependent elders to remain at home; however, social changes —such as the crisis of the informal caregiving system, which has been extensively discussed in the literature— is leading to the collapse

We use a discrete-time dynamic multinomial logit model with …xed e¤ects to study the port of entry versus trap hypotheses of temporary contracts in Italy. The WHIP data allows us to observe several kinds of temporary contracts and to distinguish between contract transformations occurring within the same …rm and job changes across di¤erent employers. After controlling for contract sorting due to workers' unobserved heterogeneity, we …nd evidence of state dependence in the form of: (i) contract persistence: whatever the initial state of a worker, retaining the same contract is always the most likely outcome; (ii) port of entry: the transition to open ended employment is more likely for individuals holding any type of temporary contracts than for the unemployed; (iii) yet, not all temporary contracts are the same: training contracts are the best port of entry, while quasi-subordinate work is the worst. (iv) When controlling for transitions within or between …rms it emerges that the port of entry is observed mainly within the same …rm, where a long cursus honorum from temporary to open ended contracts comes to light. Long-lasting open ended jobs are the only port of entry across …rms.

This paper examines the impact of immigrants on the income of various groups of resident workers in the United States and Europe. Our approach features the use of a production technology incorporating education, experience, and unskilled labor as inputs. This contrasts with the assumption used in earlier studies that native-born and immigrant labor are distinct inputs into production. We find that in both United States and European production, education, unskilled labor and experience are complementary inputs. Based on these results, simulations of the impact of immigration on residents are carried out. The absolute magnitude of these effects is found to be very small. * Phone: (908) 932-7405,

The Importance of Firms in Wage Determination * Firms are central to many theories of the labor market. However, the extent to which firms affect wages has only recently been explored using matched employer-employee data. This paper investigates (i) the importance of firms in explaining wage differences across individuals and industries, and (ii) how the nature of interfirm mobility -job-to-job vs. jobunemployment-job -affects the relative importance of firms and workers in wage determination. Results indicate that (i) firms are much more important in explaining the variance of average wages across industries rather than individuals, and (ii) using job-to-job transitions reduces the importance of firm wage policies in explaining differences.

The aim of this study is to examine the determinants of Japanese attitudes toward acceptance of foreigners. It specifically focuses on the effects of education on xenophobia, and investigates which of the competing theories -labor market competition theory or contact theory better accounts for the educational effects on attitudes toward foreigners. Analyzing the subsample of those currently employed, the results from logistic regression suggest that age, ratio of foreign residents in the prefecture, and economic threat are positively associated with xenophobia, whereas education, the ratio of Korean residents in the prefecture, and several contact factors are positively associated with pro-foreign attitudes. Although the results indicate that both the dynamics of labor market competition and contact with foreigners are crucial determinants, the effects of education on xenophobia act through the latter rather than the former. The study finds that contact theory provides a better expl...

This paper argues that unemployment persistence in countries like Tunisia is not caused only by labor market rigidities and by population growth. The size of the informal sector and the low level of investment within the formal sector and in public infrastructure and services are other important factors. The main purpose of this paper is to show that the larger the size of the informal sector the more persistent unemployment will be, and that the larger the share of investment allocated to the formal sector the lower and least persistent unemployment will be. We also show that an exogenous increase of the wage rate paid by the informal sector, for instance as a result of the enforcement of some labor regulations within the informal sector, will (paradoxically) reduce unemployment. The reason is that it reduces the gap between work conditions in the formal and the informal sectors and slows down the migration process to the formal sector. The link between unemployment, the size of th...

This paper analyzes the life-cycle career costs associated with child rearing and decomposes their effects into unearned wages (as women drop out of the labor market), loss of human capital, and selection into more child-friendly occupations. We estimate a dynamic life-cycle model of fertility, occupational choice, and labor supply using detailed survey and administrative data for Germany for numerous birth cohorts across different regions. We use this model to analyze both the male-female wage gap as it evolves from labor market entry onward and the effect of pro-fertility policies. We show that a substantial portion of the gender wage gap is explainable by realized and expected fertility and that the long-run effect of policies encouraging fertility are considerably lower than the short-run effects typically estimated in the literature.

El estudio de las ocupaciones TIC se vuelve relevante en la actualidad donde la información y el conocimiento resultan cruciales para el desarrollo económico y social. El cambio tecnológico avanzado requiere de trabajadores altamente calificados, capaces de desarrollar las denominadas habilidades del siglo XXI (WEF, 2016). En este contexto
el artículo presenta una primera aproximación al análisis de las denominadas ocupaciones en Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC) para el caso de Uruguay. Para su caracterización, se realiza una comparación entre los años 2011 (año a partir del cual se cuenta con datos para las ocupaciones TIC en Uruguay), y 2016. Se
aplica la escala internacional SES (Socioeconomic Scale de Nam y Powers, 2004), la cual permite realizar análisis más “micro” o individualizado para cada ocupación (Grusky y Ku, 2008). A la vez que se analizan los resultados según componentes atributivos de la desigualdad como la edad y el género. Entre los resultados se identifican mayores niveles de mejora en términos socioeconómicos para las ocupaciones TIC, así como un crecimiento del 12% sobre el
total de ocupados. Dichos resultados impactan positivamente en la reducción de las desigualdades etarias. En el caso del género, se observa una correlación de tipo positiva que se debilita al año 2016. Estos resultados muestran la importancia de dar continuidad
y seguir profundizando las políticas sociales tanto educativas como laborales, para la promoción del empleo en el sector, sobretodo juvenil. Finalmente, se presentan insumos para la revisión de la clasificación del grupo ocupacional TIC según ISCO, con el objetivo de perfeccionar el análisis a futuro, y adaptarlo a las características del mercado actual.

We present a model that deals with continuous space and functional regions in the form of overlapping, interacting, and constantly changing contact fields associated with the individual actors in a labor market. Simulations illustrate the results of the model, presenting individual histories of firms and workers. The model demonstrates the importance of the relative location of t h e firm and the employee in terms of the effort needed t o construct functional contact fields. Firms and workers located at either the boundary of the region or in isolated interior positions endure two locational effects: the reduced ability t o gather information and t o recruit workers d u e t o a truncated or low-density contact field.

In this paper, factors explaining the regional disparity of unemployment in Switzerland at the level of the Swiss states (cantons) and labor market regions over time are examined. We estimate a dynamic panel using particularly suited estimation techniques in order to find out to what extent existing estimation results are robust to the econometric specification. We find that particularly high tax burdens increase cantonal unemployment, the number of foreign workers is positively correlated with unemployment and human capital investment reduces unemployment.

In the given article discussed conceptual development of management theories, reviewed main approaches of leading economic literatures, explained stages of development of organizational behavior and its transformation to corporate culture, analyzed context of organizational behavior and corporate culture, concluded efficiency of organizational performance.

El presente estudio estudia la población joven uruguaya, entendiendo por tal a las personas comprendidas entre los 14 y 29 años. El aporte de los(as) adolescentes y jóvenes al funcionamiento de la sociedad no se limita exclusivamente a su contribución económica. Su participación resulta esencial en las instituciones sociales como forma de darles la flexibilidad necesaria para adaptarse a los cambios, al cumplimiento de su papel en la reproducción biológica y en la socialización de las nuevas generaciones. Se estudian las condiciones de vida actual de los jóvenes a través de la realización de una encuesta sobre

Recent literature on the interactions between labor unions and monetary institutions features either a supply or a demand channel of monetary policy, but not both. This leads to two opposing views about the effects of central bank conservativeness. We evaluate the relative merits of those conflicting views by developing a unified framework. We find that: (i) the effect of conservativeness on employment depends on unions' relative aversion to unemployment versus inflation, and (ii) for plausible values of this relative aversion (and more than one union), social welfare is maximized under a highly conservative central bank. We also evaluate the effects of centralization of wage bargaining and product market competition on unemployment and inflation.

In Italy the participation of women has not increased very much in the last few decades relative to other developed countries and it is still among the lowest in Europe. The female employment rate stands almost 13 percentage points below the EU average and 22 below the Lisbon target. One of the most important reasons is related to the characteristics of child care system. In this paper we analyze the characteristics of the child care system in Italy and its relationship to the labor market participation decision of mothers. We present a simple discrete choice framework in which the two decisions can be jointly considered, which also allows for simple forms of rationing. We go on to estimate a bivariate probit model of the child care and employment decisions and interpret the results within the framework of our model. We find evidence that rationing is an important factor in interpreting price effects on utilization rates and employment decisions.

No Brasil, as organizações do terceiro setor têm intensificado sua atuação buscando ocupar as lacunas existentes na articulação dos esforços dos atores de outros setores no campo da inserção profissional de pessoas com deficiência (PcD). Entretanto, percebem-se ainda características assistencialistas e pontuais nas ações empreendidas por estas organizações. Frente a este contexto, o presente artigo objetiva discutir a contribuição dessas organizações no processo de inserção profissional de pessoas com deficiência. Para tanto, foi realizado um estudo de caso, utilizando-se observação participante e entrevistas semi-estruturadas. A instituição objeto de estudo foi a Associação Amigos Metroviários Excepcionais (AME), uma organização não governamental sem fins lucrativos localizada na cidade de São Paulo que executa, entre outras ações, assessoria e consultoria para contratação de PcD. Como conclusão do estudo, destaca-se a relevância da atuação das organizações do terceiro setor na inserção profissional de pessoas com deficiência, pois, além de lutar pelos interesses dessa parcela da população, desempenha um papel prático e objetivo tanto para as empresas, quanto para o Estado e para a sociedade em geral, como evidenciam as atividades realizadas pela AME.

Previous studies show that controlling for ability measured in the teenage years eliminates young adult wage gaps for all groups except black males, for whom the gap is reduced by approximately three-fourths. This suggests that disparity in skills, rather than the differential treatment of such skills in the market, produces racial and ethnic wage differentials. However, minority children and their parents may have pessimistic expectations about receiving fair rewards for their skills in the labor market and so they may invest less in skill formation. Poor schools may also depress cognitive achievement, even in the absence of any discrimination.

For the many-to-one matching model in which firms have substitutable and quota q−separable preferences over subsets of workers we show that the workers-optimal stable mechanism is group strategy-proof for the workers. Therefore, in centralized markets like entry-level professional labor markets if the proposed matching is the workers-optimal stable matching then, no group of workers can never benefit by reporting untruthfully their preference relations. We exhibit an example showing that this property fails if the preferences of firms are substitutable but not quota q−separable.

The impact of private equity on employment outcomes arouses considerable controversy. Critics claim that private equity buyouts bring huge job losses, while private equity groups claim large employment gains. To address the issue, we construct and analyze a new dataset that overcomes many of the limitations in previous research. We examine U.S. private equity transactions from 1980 to 2005, following 4,500 target firms and more than 200,000 establishments before and after acquisition by private equity groups. We compare employment outcomes at target firms and their establishments to controls that have no private equity ties and that are similar in terms of industry, size and age.

A number of recent papers have focused on the role of real factors in accounting for the persistent effects of monetary shocks. These factors include habit persistence in consumption, variable capital utilization, and produced inputs. In this chapter, I focus on labor market rigidities that prevent unemployed workers from Þnding new jobs immediately and Þrms with job vacancies from Þlling them immediately. I employ dynamic simulations to investigate the role the job matching process plays in affecting the economy's adjustment to real and monetary shocks. By combining labor market rigidities with sticky prices, it is possible to study the relative roles of real and nominal rigidities in accounting for the impact of monetary shocks.

Müasir dövrdə məşğulluğun təmin edilməsi hər bir dövlət üçün aktual problemlərdən biri hesab
edilir. İqtisadiyyatın innovasiyalı inkişafı isə məşğulluğun təmin olunmasında təhsilin, xüsusilə peşə
təhsilinin rolunu artırır. Yeni əmək bazarına daxil olan gənclərdən müasir peşə biliklərinə malik olmaq
tələb edilir. Bu baxımdan, Azərbaycan Respublikasında peşə təhsilinin əmək bazaına təsirini və
gənclərin məşğulluğunun təmin olunmasındakı problemlərin təhlilinə həsr olunmuş məqalə aktual
problemə həsr olunmuşdur. Məqalədə bu sahədəki problemlər təhlil edilmiş, həlli yollarına dair
təkliflər verilmişdir. Əmək bazarında gənc işçi qüvvəsinin rəqabət qabiliyyətinin yüksəldilməsi üçün
peşə təhsilinin səmərəli təşkilinin vacibliyi qeyd edilmiş,. müasir dövrdə həm iqtisadiyyatın inkişafında,
həm də gənclərin səmərəli məşğulluğunun təmin edilməsində müasir peşə biliklərinə yiyələnmənin
əhəmiyəti qeyd olunmuşdur
Məqalədə vurğulanmişdır ki, 2016-ci ildən başlayaraq ölkədə gerçəkləşdirilən islahatlar yeni keyfiyyət
mərhələsinə keçmiş və başlıca hədəflər “Milli iqtisadiyyat və iqtisadiyyatın əsas sektorları üzrə Strateji
Yol Xəritələri”ndə öz ifadəsini tapmışdır. Əhalinin, o cümlədən gənclərin məşğulluğunun, iqtisadiyyatın
rəqabətqabiliyyətli işçi qüvvəsi ilə təmin olunması, əmək bazarında çevik siyasətin həyata keçirilməsini
təmin edən institutlar vasitəsilə sosial dialoqun inkişafı, inklüziv məşğulluğun artmasına nail olunması
əsas strateji hədəf və prioritetlər kimi müəyyən edilmişdir. Bunu əsas tutaraq gənclərin məşğulluğu
sahəsində problemlərin araşdırılmasına həsr edilmiş məqalədə bu nəticələr əldə edilmişdir:
- “Milli iqtisadiyyat və iqtisadiyyatın əsas sektorları üzrə Strateji Yol Xəritələri”ndə öz ifadəsini tapmış
strateji hədəf və prioritetlərə nail olunması, iqtisadiyyatın innovativ inkişafı gənclərin təhsil səviyyəsini
yüksəltməyi, onların peşə-ixtisas səviyyəsinə olan tələbləri artırır;
- ali təhsil müəssisələrində “təhsil-tədqiqat-innovasiya” formatına keçidin ləngiməsi, müasir tələblərə
cavab verən peşə-ixtisas təhsil sisteminin qurulmaması və bu üzdən peşəkarlıq səviyyələrinin çox aşağı
olması gənclərin məşğulluğuna mənfi təsir göstərir;
- əksər gənc məzunlarda əmək bazarında özünü realizə etmək qabilliyətinin və işəgötürənlərin
tələb etdikləri təcrübənin, peşəkarlığın olmaması gənclərin işə qəbulu ilə bağlı dövlətin təşviqedici
proqramlar həyata keçirilməsini zəruri edir və s.

The difficulties most Latin American countries have experienced in returning to sustained growth after the world recession and debt crisis of 1982 have surprised and frustrated many observers. Concern is increasingly expressed about the social costs of this period of recession and adjustment, especially for the poorest sectors of the population. Nowhere is this concern better placed than Brazil, with roughly 45 million people living in households below the poverty line in1987. By effectively failing to adjust internal demand to the decline in external funds, Brazil set records with respect to its neighbors in per capita growth and inflation between 1982-88. Brazil, by choosing an expansionary fiscal path, traded growth in the middle years of the decade for inflation and a larger debt three years later. This study looks at the impact of that tradeoff on poverty alleviation in Brazil. Macroeconomic policy affects few people directly. Instead, macroeconomic policy operates through fact...

The potential duration of benefits is generally viewed as an important determinant of unemployment duration. This paper evaluates a unique policy change that prolonged entitlement to regular unemployment benefits from 30 weeks to a maximum of 209 weeks for elderly individuals in certain regions of Austria. In the evaluation, we explicitly account for the fact that the program was an endogenous policy response to deteriorating labor market conditions for older workers in certain regions and sectors. The main results are: (i) REBP reduced the transition rate to jobs by 17%; (ii) accounting for endogenous policy adoption is important and quantitatively significant.

This paper studies the di¨erences in earnings between Mexican legal and illegal immigrants in the United States. The analysis includes a crosssectional examination of the wage di¨erences between legal and undocumented workers as well as a longitudinal analysis examining the impact of legalization on the earnings of previously-undocumented workers. It is shown that the average hourly wage rate of male Mexican legal immigrants in the United States was 41.8% higher than that of undocumented workers while female legal immigrants earned 40.8% more. Though illegal immigrants have lower education and English pro®ciency, and a shorter period of residence in the United States, than legal immigrants, it is shown that di¨erences in the observed characteristics of legal and illegal immigrants explain only 48% of the log-wage gap between male legal and illegal workers and 43% of the gap for women. An analysis of undocumented immigrants legalized after the 1986 U.S. immigration policy reform shows signi®cant wage growth in the four years following legalization. These gains are due mostly to the change in legal status itself, not to changes in the characteristics of immigrants over time.

Labor market issues and challenges are primarily understood at
an individual level, entrenched socially in policies and initiatives
that seek to improve the workplace skills of people having difficulty
attaching to the labor market, including people experiencing
homelessness. In fact, the labor market is perceived to alleviate
a person’s situation of homelessness. In 2008 and 2009 qualitative
data was collected from 61 employed people experiencing
homelessness in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to better understand
the intersection between the labor market and housing-related
experiences. Respondents identified aspects of the labor market
that were contributing to their current and ongoing situation
of homelessness. Implications for practitioners are discussed to
help address labor market attachment difficulties experienced by
homeless people.

In this paper, we analyze the spatial distribution of economic activity and labor market variables in Greece from 1980 to 2006. Using a distance-based method within a stochastic point process, we identify two periods with opposite trends regarding the concentration of economic activity in the Greek territory. First, twenty years (1980-1999) of a moderately decreasing trend of agglomeration due to systematic efforts by the Greek governments to decentralize the economic activity away from the capital. Second, a short period (2000-2006) of sharp increases in agglomeration, coinciding-in space and time-with the public and private investments for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. In the same period, a similar effect of a smaller size is observed on the concentration of the labor force, employment and unemployment.

For decades, the maquiladora industry has been a major economic engine along the U.S.-Mexico border. Since the 1970s, researchers have analyzed how the maquiladora industry affects cities along both sides of the border. Gordon Hanson (2001) produced the first comprehensive study on the impact of the maquiladoras on U.S. border cities, considering the impact of these in-bond plants on both employment and wages. His estimates became useful rules of thumb for the entire U.S.-Mexico border. These estimates have become dated, as Hanson's study covered the period from 1975 to 1997. The purpose of this paper is to update Hanson's results using data from 1990 to 2006, and to extend the estimates to specific border cities. For the border region as a whole, we find that the impact of a 10 percent increase in maquiladora production leads to a 0.5 to 0.9 percent change in employment. However, we also find that the border average is quite misleading, with large differences among individual border cities. Cities along the Texas-Mexico border benefit the most from growing maquiladora production. We also estimate the cross-border maquiladora impacts before and after 2001 when border security begins to rise, the maquiladora industry entered a severe recession and extensive restructuring and global low-wage competition intensified as China joined the World Trade Organization. Empirical results indicate that U.S. border cities are less responsive to growth in maquiladora production from 2001-2006 than in the earlier period; however, when looking into specific-sectors we find that U.S. border city-employment in service-sectors are far more responsive post-2001. JEL Classification: F15, F16, O54, R11.

This paper explores the relationship between microcredit and poverty reduction. To investigate this question, we posit a bare-bone, household model that outlines the economic environment within which various types of familymicroenterprises operate. It highlights a number of issues that impinge on household earnings such as the nature of the labor market, technology, product demand and entrepreneurial skills. The paper argues that the impact of microcredit is likely to be different across household types as well as across different economic environments. The paper identifies several important demand and supply constraints to the household's graduation from poverty. These constraints are difficult to overcome in a traditional economic environment, marked by stagnant technology and market saturation.

We study the rural-urban divide in educational attainment in a cross-country setting. In order to do this, we present a newly constructed cross-country data set measuring average educational attainment in rural and urban regions of 56 countries. This data set is used to study the sources of variation in (i) rural educational attainment, (ii) urban educational attainment, and (iii) the