Immigration, Working Conditions, and Compensating Differentials

The large inflow of less-educated immigrants into the United States in recent decades may have affected US natives’ labor market outcomes in many ways, including their working conditions. Although the general consensus is that low-skilled immigrants tend to hold “worse” jobs than US natives, the impact of immigration on natives’ working conditions has received little attention. This study examines how immigration has affected US natives’ occupational exposure to workplace hazards and the compensating differential paid for such exposure from 1990 to 2018. Results indicate that immigration causes less-educated natives’ exposure to workplace hazards to fall, and instrumental variables results show a larger impact among women than among men. The corresponding compensating differential appears to fall among men, but not after accounting for immigration-induced changes in the financial returns to occupational skills.

Familie und Beruf: Vereinbarkeit durch Homeoffice? Soziologische und rechtwissenschaftliche Perspektiven

Zusammenfassung Arbeit im Homeoffice verspricht, berufliche und familiale Pflichten besser vereinbaren zu können. Die rechtspolitische Debatte um einen Rechtsanspruch auf Homeoffice wurde von der gegenwärtigen pandemiebedingten Ausnahmesituation nahezu überholt. Für viele Dienststellen und Unternehmen ist die Weiterarbeit der Beschäftigten im Homeoffice unverzichtbar. Trotz aller Chancen zeigen Untersuchungen, dass Homeoffice oft misslingt und als Flexibilisierungsstrategie auf vier Dilemmata trifft: (1) Anordnung vs. Freiwilligkeit; (2) Kontrolle der Arbeitsleistung vs. Privatheit, (3) reine Output-Orientierung vs. betriebliche Sozialintegration und (4) Arbeitsunterstützung vs. bloßes Zugeständnis. Unter Verweis auf empirische Untersuchungen wird aufgezeigt, unter welchen tatsächlichen Bedingungen sich welche Dilemmata verwirklichen bzw. wie diese verhindert oder positiv gewendet werden können. Im Anschluss werden der rechtliche Hintergrund umrissen und bestehende Regulierungslücken aufgezeigt. Der Beitrag schließt mit konkreten Vorschlägen für den weiteren empirischen Forschungs- und regulatorischen Handlungsbedarf. Abstract: Homeoffice As Solution For Reconciling Work And Family Life? Sociological And Jurisprudential Perspectives Home-based telework promises to reconcile work and family duties better than less flexible work arrangements. However, implementing home-based telework faces four dilemmas that have to be solved in one or the other direction: (1) unsolicited telework versus employer’s latitude to enact it; (2) the right of the employer to observe and control telework at home versus protection of privacy; (3) focus solely on results versus social integration through physical presence at the workplace; and (4) home-based telework as compensating differential versus career support. We give an overview of existing studies to highlight supportive conditions as well as pitfalls to implement home-based telework in ways that avoid negative consequences when solving these dilemmas. A specific focus is on the role of law and jurisdiction. Finally, we discuss solutions for a successful implementation and point to existing gaps at the levels of the legal, institutional and informal regulation of home-based telework.

Paying to Program? Engineering Brand and High-Tech Wages

We test the hypothesis that information technology (IT) workers accept a compensating differential to work with emerging IT systems and that employers that invest in these systems can, in turn, capture greater value from the wages they pay. We show that much of the utility IT workers derive from these systems is from skills acquired on the job. This is principally true for younger workers at employers where skill development is encouraged, and the effects are stronger in thicker markets where workers with newer skills have more outside options. An analysis of the text in online employer reviews supports the notion that IT workers value access to interesting IT systems above most other employer attributes. These findings are important because (1) they provide evidence of how worker preferences can influence corporate IT investment decisions, (2) they shed light on factors influencing IT skill development, and (3) they point to a potentially important explanation for returns from IT investments. This paper was accepted by Chris Forman, information systems.

Estimation of a Roy/Search/Compensating Differential Model of the Labor Market

In this paper, we develop a model that captures key components of the Roy model, a search model, compensating differentials, and human capital accumulation on‐the‐job. We establish which components of the model can be non‐parametrically identified and which ones cannot. We estimate the model and use it to assess the relative contribution of the different factors for overall wage inequality. We find that variation in premarket skills (the key feature of the Roy model) is the most important component to account for the majority of wage variation. We also demonstrate that there is substantial interaction between the other components, most notably, that the importance of the job match obtained by search frictions varies from around 4% to around 29%, depending on how we account for other components. Inequality due to preferences for non‐pecuniary aspects of the job (which leads to compensating differentials) and search are both very important for explaining other features of the data. Search is important for turnover, but so are preferences for non‐pecuniary aspects of jobs as one‐third of all choices between two jobs would have resulted in a different outcome if the worker only cared about wages.

Do Sex Workers Respond to Disease? Evidence from the Male Market for Sex

Sex markets play a key role in the transmission of sexually transmitted infections (STI) and HIV/AIDS in developing countries. While individuals should substitute away from risky sex as STI prevalence rises, female sex workers draw a premium for engaging in unprotected sex, mitigating their propensity to use condoms. We provide the first evidence of a positive premium for non-condom sex in developing country male sex markets. Testing whether this is a compensating differential for disease risk, we find that a one percentage point increase in the STI rate increases the premium 28 percent. Market forces may curb the self-limiting effect of STI epidemics.

The Prostitute's Allure: The Return to Beauty in Commercial Sex Work

We estimate the earnings premium for beauty in an occupation where returns to physical attractiveness are likely to be important: commercial sex work. Using data from sex workers in Ecuador and Mexico, we find that a one standard deviation increase in attractiveness yields 10-15 percent higher earnings. Including controls for personal characteristics (communication ability and desirability of personality) cuts the beauty premium by up to one-half. Beautiful sex workers earn higher wages, have more clients, and enjoy a larger compensating differential for disease risk.