Do internal labour markets protect the unskilled from low payment? Evidence from Germany

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 874-894 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Lengfeld ◽  
Clemens Ohlert
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Wage Inequality ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Occupational Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Wage Effects ◽  
Unskilled Workers ◽  
Internal Labour Markets ◽  
The Individual

Purpose – Up to date, it remains an unresolved issue how firms shape inequality in interaction with mechanisms of stratification at the individual and occupational-level. Accordingly, the authors ask whether workers of different occupational classes are affected to different degrees by between-firm wage inequality. In light of the recent rise of overall wage inequality, answers to this question can contribute to a better understanding of the role firms play in this development. The authors argue and empirically test that whether workers are able to benefit from firms’ internal or external strategies for flexibility depends on resources available at the individual and occupational level. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Matched employer-employee data from official German labour market statistics are used to estimate firm-specific wage components, which are then regressed on structural characteristics of firms. Findings – Between-firm wage effects of internal labour markets are largest among unskilled workers and strongly pronounced among qualified manual workers. Effects are clearly smaller among classes of qualified and high-qualified non-manual workers but have risen sharply for the latter class from 2005 to 2010. Social implications – The most disadvantaged workers in the labour market are also most contingent upon employers’ increasingly heterogeneous policies of recruitment and remuneration. Originality/value – This paper combines insights from sociological and economic labour market research in order to formulate and test the new hypothesis that between-firm wage effects of internal labour markets are larger for unskilled than for qualified workers.

scholarly journals Exposure to Global Markets, Internal Labour Markets, and Worker Compensation: Evidence from Canadian Microdata

2010 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-398
Author(s):  
Heather Zhang ◽  
Michael R. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Prolonged Exposure ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Export Markets ◽  
Total Compensation ◽  
Worker Compensation ◽  
Internal Labour Markets ◽  
Labour Market Outcomes

Because of the fact that globalization seems, in aggregate, to be associated with rising inequality, much of the sociological literature treats the process very critically. Our results suggest a more nuanced approach. Prolonged exposure to export markets is associated with higher pay and both prolonged exposure to export markets and foreign ownership are associated with higher total compensation. Pay is substantially tied to productivity, probably through exposure to international best practices. At the same time, the presence of internal labour market traits is also associated with higher pay and higher total compensation. We conclude that it makes little sense to oppose productivity and power explanations of labour market outcomes; rather, they should be regarded as joint influences on compensation determination, consistent with the broad lesson of a "post" new structuralist sociology of labour markets.

The effect of immigration on natives’ task specialisation: the case of Germany

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 939-957 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raquel Sebastian ◽  
Magdalena Ulceluse
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Displacement Effect ◽  
Content Type ◽  
European Working ◽  
Task Reallocation ◽  
Manual Tasks

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of an increase in the relative supply of immigrants on natives’ task reallocation, with a focus on Germany. Specifically, it investigates whether natives, as a response to increased immigration, re-specialise in communication-intensive occupations, where they arguably have a comparative advantage due to language proficiency. Design/methodology/approach The analysis uses regional data from the German Labour Force Survey between 2002 and 2014. To derive data on job tasks requirements, it employs the US Department of Labor’s O*NET database, the results of which are tested through a sensitivity analysis using the European Working Condition Survey and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies data sets. Findings The paper finds that indeed German workers respond to increasing immigration by shifting their task supply and providing more communication relative to manual tasks. Importantly, the decrease in the supply of communication tasks is stronger and more robust than the increase in the supply of manual tasks, pointing to a potential displacement effect taking place between natives and immigrants, alongside task reallocation. This would suggest that countries with relatively more rigid labour markets are less responsive to immigration shocks. Moreover, it suggests that labour market rigidity can minimise the gains from immigration and exacerbate employment effects. Originality/value The paper not only investigates task reallocation as a result of immigration in a different institutional context and labour market functioning, but the results feed into broader policy and scholarly discussions on the effects of immigration, including questions about how the institutional context affects labour market adjustment to immigration, worker occupational mobility in a more rigid labour markets and the fine balance needed between flexibility and rigidity.

Education and inequality in employment in China and Japan in 2000s: a social network perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ka Yi Fung
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Job Search ◽  
Network Effects ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Personal Contact ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Network Influence ◽  
China And Japan ◽  
Job Searching

PurposeThis paper attempts to discover whether or not social networks work in the same way in different sectors of the labour market in the same society, using data from the 2008 Asian Social Survey. Labour markets in some societies are segmented; there are two segments in the labour market, namely, the core sector and the peripheral sector. The practices of each sector differs from the others. Some sectors employ CME labour markets, while others favour LME labour markets (Kanbayashi and Takenoshita, 2014). In other words, we can find both CME and LME labour market in one society.Design/methodology/approachSince Granovetter’s (1973) pioneer study, scholars are interested in investigating in what way social network influence our job searching outcomes. However, these researchers have not yet yielded consistent results. Scholars argue that the institutional context of labour market can shape the network impacts on our job search outcome (Chen, 2014; Chua, 2011).FindingsSurprisingly, this paper finds that there is no room for the use of personal contact in the public sector in both China and Japan. But, mean status is positively related to annual income in the private companies sector in both Japan and China. The significant influences of mean status in the private sectors in both China and Japan reflect the reinforcing of existing social inequality structure. This is because as the status of contact can facilitate respondents' job attainment process, those who are already in higher social status are more likely than those who are in the bottom of the social strata, to get a better job with the help from their network members.Originality/valueThe above findings show us that social network can exert various impacts on people's job searching process even in the same society. This is because it is possible that the labour market are segmented. These segments have very different practices. This difference attributes to the inconsistent findings of network effects on occupational attainment process. Therefore, it is essential to locate which labour market respondents are in, and the features of this labour market. This can help us know more about the use and effectiveness of network in different types of labour markets.

scholarly journals Job separation rates of immigrants and natives in the UK during the Great Recession

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (7) ◽  
pp. 1036-1054
Author(s):  
Dafni Papoutsaki
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The Business Cycle ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the probability of job separations of immigrants and natives in the UK before and during the economic crisis of 2008. Design/methodology/approach A mixed proportional hazard duration model with a semi-parametric piecewise constant baseline hazard is used on a data sample of inflows into employment. Findings It is found that the crisis increased the probability of exits to unemployment for all groups, while immigrants from the new countries of the European Union seemed to have the lowest hazard towards unemployment even after controlling for their demographic and labour market characteristics. More specifically, even when we account for the fact that they tend to cluster in jobs that are most vulnerable to the business cycle, they are still less likely to exit dependent employment than natives. However, this migrant group is adversely affected by the crisis the most. Research limitations/implications Possible implications of out-migration of the lower performers are discussed. Originality/value This paper makes use of the panel element of the UK Quarterly Labour Force Survey, and uses duration analysis on the individual level to assess the labour market outcomes of natives and immigrants in the UK.

Educational mismatch and its impact on earnings: evidence from Indian labour market

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (12) ◽  
pp. 1778-1795 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swati Sharma ◽  
Prateek Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Sample Selection ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Educational Mismatch ◽  
Endogeneity Bias ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Wage Effects ◽  
Identification Strategy

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the incidence and determinants of educational mismatch in the Indian labour market. It also attempts to measure the wage effects of educational mismatch, and other individual and work-related characteristics. Design/methodology/approach Educational mismatch is modelled using multiple Mincerian equations. Wage effects are measured using the novel identification strategy of Lewbel (2012), which constructs internal instruments to obviate potential endogeneity problems. Findings The authors find that the returns to over-education are positive and significant, while the returns to under-education are negative and significant. However, over-educated would earn less than the workers who have the same educational level, but who are engaged in occupations for which they are adequately educated. Originality/value This study is one of the earliest attempts to identify the determinants of educational mismatch in the Indian labour market. Additionally, it measures the effect of educational mismatch on labour market earnings, as well as marginal wage effects of each surplus (or deficit) year of education. Methodological improvements ensure that the results are robust to the sample selection bias, as well as the endogeneity bias.

Classifying the narrated #selfie: genre typing human-branding activity

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (9/10) ◽  
pp. 1835-1857 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toni Eagar ◽  
Stephen Dann
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Combined Effect ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Wave Technique ◽  
Coffee Table ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Communication Approach

Purpose This paper explores the purposive use of the selfie in the construction of personal narratives that develop and support an individual’s human brand. Selfies were divided into archetypical clusters of “genres” that reflected the combined story told through Instagram image and accompanying text captions. Design/methodology/approach The analysis drew a randomized sample of 1,000 images with accompanying text from a large capture of 3,300 English language captioned selfies. Coding for semantic and semiotic data used a three-wave technique to overcome interpretive limitations. Findings Based on their structural characteristics, seven genre types emerged from the coded sample set. These primary genres of selfie meta-narratives are autobiography, parody, propaganda, romance, self-help, travel diary and coffee-table book. Research limitations/implications The research is limited in generalization to the Instagram photo-sharing app platform by design. Samples were taken from the app due both to its popularity and its capacity to annotate images. Selfies conducted in non-public, non-annotation-based apps may produce alternative genres and classifications. Practical implications The paper presents a genre classification to examine how selfies are used to “show, not tell” a portion of the consumer’s life story. Brands, firms and marketers can apply genres to examine the selfie types that best connect with the identity of their brands and consumers, based on how their consumers communicate within the Instagram network. Social implications Selfies are an oft pathologized and moralized aspect of consumer conduct. We present a view of the selfie as a deliberate, consciously considered communication approach to maintaining social bonds between friends, family and wider audience. Selfies are presented as a combined effect of consumption of a social media service (Instagram) and the co-production of valued content (the selfie) that recognizes the individual as an active constructor of their digital self. Originality/value The paper outlines a novel framework of selfie genres to classify the deliberate human-brand narratives expressed in selfies. By taking a narrative perspective to the Instagram selfie practice, the genre type captures the combined effect of the mimesis and diegesis, where the mimesis showing of self is contextualized with the diegesis of the provided captions to capture an intentional storytelling act of image and text.

The wage effects of overeducation across overall wage distribution on university graduates: incidence, heterogeneity and comparison

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongye Sun ◽  
Giseung Kim
Keyword(s):  
Wage Distribution ◽  
University Graduates ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Wage Penalty ◽  
Educational Mismatch ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rapid Economic Growth ◽  
Wage Loss ◽  
Wage Effects ◽  
The Individual

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the extent to which overeducation imposes wage effects on university graduates, taking into account the individual heterogeneity due to skills and innate ability.Design/methodology/approachUsing Graduates Occupation and Mobility Survey (GOMS) 2019 and Korea Dictionary of Occupations (KDOT) 2019, the overeducated and adequately educated graduates are differentiated by the job analysis (JA) measure. To unveil the masked results, the unconditional quantile regression (UQR) accompanying skills and field of study mismatches is adopted to explore the wage effects of overeducation across the overall wage distribution.FindingsEmpirical evidence shows that the incidence of overeducation is high; however, overeducated graduates only suffer a 6.5% wage loss relative to their adequately matched peers. The findings indicate that regardless of being derived from either overskilled or field of study mismatch, genuine overeducation impose a higher wage penalty at all percentiles relative to the apparent overeducation. Meanwhile, high-ability men suffer lower-wage penalties than their low-ability peers, whereas the inverted “U” pattern is exhibited for women. The theoretical hypotheses differ depending on the estimated results by gender.Research limitations/implicationsEach measure of educational mismatch has been criticized for its insurmountable shortcoming. The recent graduates are likely to overstate the job requires of skills.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the insufficient evidence on the multiple aspects of wage effects of overeducation by providing new and rigorous examinations and by focusing on the country experiencing rapid economic growth, industrial upgrading and educational expansion.

A Perfunctory Sort of Post-Fordism: Economic Restructuring and Labour Market Segmentation in Britain in the 1980s

1990 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 9-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Lovering
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Market Segmentation ◽  
Selection Criteria ◽  
Economic Restructuring ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
British Economy ◽  
Labour Market Segmentation ◽  
International Importance ◽  
Internal Labour Markets ◽  
Relative Decline

It has been claimed that the changes of the last decade represent a transition from a `Fordist' towards a `post-Fordist' pattern of economic organisation. A review of aspects of economic change in Britain in the last decade suggests that popular versions of this theory are misleading. Despite the international importance of some sectors, the British economy as a whole continued its relative decline. The labour market is being restructured through the contraction and truncation of internal labour markets, alongside the dualistic development of external labour markets. These trends are redrafting the map of labour market `places' and altering the balance of selection criteria governing access to them. The effect is to heighten employers ability to differentiate between workers according to the different terms under which they are available. In Britain's idiosyncratic version of `post-Fordism' long-established status inequalities associated with gender, race, age and class, are mobilised as key axes of segmentation in the labour market.

Rendering the hidden visible: subjected to “work on the self” in a local labour market measure

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Sunnerfjell
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
The Self ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Local Labour Market ◽  
Local Labour ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Socially Excluded ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to complement the literature understanding present labour market measures as infused by a so-called neoliberal rationality, fostering self-managerial selves by means of self-inspection. It does so by providing a much-needed illustration of how such “work on the self” is achieved in practice.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis draws on ethnographic fieldwork tracing the “active society” at the local level, depicting practices aimed at activating welfare clients in a local labour market measure organised in a rural Swedish municipality. Here, the author was offered to undergo a method aimed at enhancing participants' employability. As a result, data consists of ethnographic as well as auto-ethnographic accounts from this experience.FindingsThis analysis shows how destabilisation of subjectivity was central to the remoulding of individuals into employable and self-reliant selves. Moreover, by dispersing responsibility to the individual, it is shown how the organisation was able to refrain from accountability, hence reducing the levels of uncertainty and ambiguity that is part and parcel of people-processing welfare organisations.Practical implicationsThe article concludes with the warning that, in the wake of “local worlds of activation”, municipalities may sometimes draw on questionable assumptions of the human mind and behaviour, as well as the vulnerability of individuals' self-understanding, as a way of managing the “active society” at the local level.Originality/valueThe literature on activation lacks ethnographic accounts depicting concrete practices of turning the socially excluded into active and employable selves. Here, this article offers an illustrating example of such practices in action.

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