The effects of neighbourhood and workplace income comparisons on subjective wellbeing

<p>We investigate how the incomes of a person’s neighbours and coworkers affect her happiness, using survey data on subjective wellbeing linked to unprecedentedly rich administrative data on the characteristics of survey respondents’ peer groups. Linear regressions of subjective wellbeing on peer income variables establish that people care exclusively about their ordinal rank within their peer income distribution, that workplace rank matters much more than neighbourhood rank, and that workplace comparisons are driven primarily by fairness concerns. We confirm that our results reflect a causal effect of peer income by implementing sensitivity analyses, identifying off changes in peer income over time for immobile people, exploiting plausibly exogenous moves between workplaces triggered by mass layoffs, and testing for the effects of unobservable group-level confounders.</p>

The effects of neighbourhood and workplace income comparisons on subjective wellbeing

<p>We investigate how the incomes of a person’s neighbours and coworkers affect her happiness, using survey data on subjective wellbeing linked to unprecedentedly rich administrative data on the characteristics of survey respondents’ peer groups. Linear regressions of subjective wellbeing on peer income variables establish that people care exclusively about their ordinal rank within their peer income distribution, that workplace rank matters much more than neighbourhood rank, and that workplace comparisons are driven primarily by fairness concerns. We confirm that our results reflect a causal effect of peer income by implementing sensitivity analyses, identifying off changes in peer income over time for immobile people, exploiting plausibly exogenous moves between workplaces triggered by mass layoffs, and testing for the effects of unobservable group-level confounders.</p>

The master narrative of older employees in changing workplaces

PurposeInterest in older employees increases in times of population ageing. Previous research exploring the situation has underlined older employees' struggle with workplace changes. However, it has not explored their master narrative – the socially shared narrative about older employees that steers behaviour. This study explores this narrative and its differences across changing workplaces. It draws on Lyotard's suggestion that master narratives disintegrate in post-modern societies.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducts focus groups among older Finnish employees of an airline, postal service and social care. These groups experienced different kinds of workplace changes, namely mass layoffs, digitalisation and restructuring. The focus groups highlight the individuals' shared narratives, thereby pinpointing the master narrative.FindingsThe master narrative describes how simultaneous changes at the workplace and in their health lead older employees to look for ways to exit their jobs. This narrative is largely stable across workplaces, showing no disintegration but some variation.Originality/valueThis is the first study on the master narrative of older employees and its disintegration. To the authors’ knowledge, it is also the first study to use focus groups to explore a master narrative.

Between Two Crises: New York's Artisanal Food Startup Founders

Food startups, small-scale artisanal food preparation enterprises, have proliferated in many global cities since the 2008-2009 financial crisis. In the United States, specialty food sales in 2019 had a 10.7 percent increase since 2017 (Specialty Food Association, 2020). In New York City, food manufacturing added 3,753 jobs or a 27 percent increase during the period between 2005 and 2015, providing opportunities for small-scale entrepreneurs (Center for an Urban Future, 2016; Evergreen, 2015; Schrock et al 2019). Mass layoffs in the 2008 economic crisis sped up the sector’s development, which provided a way for a diverse group of business founders including immigrants, expats, and recent college graduates to capitalize on their knowledge, skills, and networks. The current COVID-19 pandemic, a global public health crisis, has put a pause to this decade-long development, sheds lights on precarious conditions that food entrepreneurs face, and shows the important role that the city government plays in supporting this group.

Displacement and debt – the role of debt in returning to work after displacement

Purpose This paper aims to analyze the question of how household indebtedness impacts households’ incentives to search for and accept work after displacement. Design/methodology/approach To analyze the relationship between household indebtedness and unemployment duration, this paper applies standard proportional hazard models. For data, this paper relies on the longitudinal US National Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), covering the period between 2008 and 2012. Findings The findings show that a 10% increase in household debt increases the likelihood (hazard) of leaving unemployment by 0.2%–0.4% points. Independent of measuring a household's indebtedness and in light of a series of robustness tests, the results indicate that the pressure of servicing an existing debt burden forces individuals to return to work. Social implications From a policy perspective, the research findings support the notion that household indebtedness plays an important mediating role for labor market outcomes through influencing households’ incentives to return to work after displacement. This finding has important implications for the design of effective policy responses to mass layoffs during the current pandemic. Originality/value A key innovation of the research is that we can show that household indebtedness impacts the labor supply side. From a macroeconomic perspective, this insight is important in better understanding the role of increased indebtedness (and financialization) in amplifying aggregate macroeconomic dynamics.

Common Perceptions of the Interests of Employers, Workers, and the Government to Prevent Mass Layoffs During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Since the outbreak of the first case of the Covid-19 coronavirus infection in early March 2020 to break the chain of spread, the government has taken a policy by limiting community activities that have an impact on economic and business training to reduce losses, business actors have made efficiency, among others by laying off workers or Even carrying out mass layoffs of employment, the role of all parties concerned in HI (employers, workers, or government) is needed to prevent or reduce mass layoffs and employers to reduce losses can still carry out efficiency. This study aims to analyze the shared perceptions of employers, workers, and the government to prevent mass layoffs in Indonesia. The method used in this research is a descriptive analysis using a normative juridical approach. This study concludes that in the perspective of interests, each party has different interests, namely the interests of employers to make efficiency to reduce losses, the interests of workers do not occur mass layoffs, the presence of Collective Labor Agreement (PKB) among them is to integrate and coordinate these different interests. So as not or to minimize the conflict between interests. for this reason, PKB must protect the interests of all parties in HI by limiting the interests of the parties in HI, namely, on the one hand, the PKB must safeguard the interests of employers in carrying out efficiency to reduce losses, on the other hand, PKB must protect the interests of workers, so that mass layoffs do not occur. Employers to make efficiency can only be done by limiting or reducing the interests of workers 'rights both in terms of labour legislation and terms of employment, and PKB also limits employers' interests to reduce workers' rights, namely reducing the rights of these workers. This can only be done as long as the entrepreneur has suffered losses for 3 (three) consecutive years as evidenced by a financial audit from a public accountant, the government's interest, in this case, the institution responsible for the human resources sector for strength in the legality aspect, can ratify the PKB. Therefore, from a systems perspective, all parties with interest in HI have a very close attachment and synergize with one another in harmonizing the implementation of HI (industrial peace) in the end during the Covid-19 pandemic through PKB can create a shared perception between the interests of entrepreneurs, workers and government

Transformation of the Russian Labor Market in the Context of the Pandemic: Key Issues and Trends

The article discusses the main problems and trends in the labor market in the context of pandemics using the example of the COVID-2019 virus pandemic. The most typical consequences of the pandemic and its impact on the labor market are identified, including the growth of unemployment, the decline in employment, mass layoffs of workers, and the structural transformation of the labor market. The industries most and least affected by the COVID-2019 pandemic are highlighted. It is emphasized that the most important direction in the transformation of the domestic labor market will be digitalization, which was triggered by the global pandemic in 2020. Among the key areas in the labor market in the field of digitalization, remote forms of work and the emergence and development of new “digital” professions were highlighted. It was revealed that during the months of quarantine measures adopted in the Russian Federation, the number of vacancies in “digital” professions increased on job search websites, including specialists in contextual advertising, targetologists, administrators of online schools, SMM managers, copywriters, and personal online assistants. The analysis of the average level of remuneration of employees of “digital” professions in Russia is carried out. It is concluded that such a transformation of the labor market will require labor resources to acquire fundamentally new skills and competencies, as well as readiness for continuous training. The article uses general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, generalization, classification, the method of system analysis, the statistical method of studying economic processes, and information analysis.

Pandemic response policies’ democratizing effects on online learning

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed peoples’ lives in unexpected ways, especially how they allocate their time between work and other activities. Demand for online learning has surged during a period of mass layoffs and transition to remote work and schooling. Can this uptake in online learning help close longstanding skills gaps in the US workforce in a sustainable and equitable manner? We answer this question by analyzing individual engagement data of DataCamp users between October 2019 and September 2020 (n = 277,425). Exploiting the staggered adoption of actions to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 across states, we identify the causal effect at the neighborhood level. The adoption of nonessential business closures led to a 38% increase in new users and a 6% increase in engagement among existing users. We find that these increases are proportional across higher- and lower-income neighborhoods and neighborhoods with a high or low share of Black residents. This demonstrates the potential for online platforms to democratize access to knowledge and skills that are in high demand, which supports job security and facilitates social mobility.

Job Loss, Credit, and Crime in Colombia

We investigate the effects of job displacement, as a result of mass layoffs, on criminal arrests using a matched employer-employee crime dataset from Medellín, Colombia. Job displacement leads to immediate and persistent earnings losses and higher probability of arrest for both the displaced worker and family members. Leveraging a banking policy reform, we find that greater access to credit attenuates the criminal response to job loss. Impacts on arrests are pronounced for property crimes and among younger men for whom opportunities in criminal enterprises are prevalent. Taken together, our results are consistent with economic incentives contributing to criminal participation decisions after job losses. (JEL G21, G51, J63, K42, O16, O17)