Journal of Labor Economics 2023年第3期

Journal of Labor Economics 2023年第3期

Volume 41, Number 3, July 2023

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The Consequences of Letter Grades for Labor Market Outcomes and Student Behavior

字母等级对劳动力市场结果和学生行为的影响

Brandon JoelTan

I study the consequences of letter grades serving as coarse measures of academic achievement using university administrative data that record both the letter grade and the precise mark (0–100) received for each course that a given student takes. I exploit a regression discontinuity design with marks as the running variable. I find that receiving a better grade in a single class results in USD 32 greater monthly earnings after graduation, a 1.4% increase. I also find that marginal students who receive a worse grade take significantly easier courses and earn lower grades in future semesters

Interactions with Powerful Female Colleagues Promote Diversity in Hiring

与强大的女性同事的互动促进了招聘的多样性

MarcoBattaglini,

Jorgen M.Harris, and

EleonoraPatacchini

We study the effect of hearing cases alongside female judicial colleagues on the probability that a federal judge hires a female law clerk. Federal judges are assigned to judicial panels at random and have few limitations on their choices of clerks. Using a unique dataset of federal case records merged with judicial hiring information, we find a significant effect of the fraction of copanelists who are female on a male judge’s likelihood of hiring a female clerk. This finding suggests that increases in the diversity of the upper rungs of a profession can create opportunities at the entry level.

The Health and Welfare Effects of Increases in Workers’ Compensation Benefits

增加工人补偿福利对健康和福利的影响

LuJinks

This paper estimates the causal impacts of workers’ compensation income benefits on workers’ health and welfare outcomes. Using claims data from 2004 to 2016, I explore the variation in benefits due to a reform of New York workers’ compensation that increased the maximum weekly benefits. I find that a $77 increase in the weekly benefits led to an additional 3.4 days off work. Medical utilization did not increase. Each extra day off work decreased the reinjury likelihood by 2.9%. The current benefit level in New York is close to optimal in balancing payer cost and worker health outcomes.

The Effect of School and Neighborhood Peers on Achievement, Misbehavior, and Adult Crime

学校和社区同伴对成就、不良行为和成人犯罪的影响

Stephen B.Billings and

MarkHoekstra

This paper assesses the importance of school and neighborhood peers in shaping educational achievement, adolescent misbehavior, and adult crime. Using cohort variation within Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, we focus on the impact of peers whose parents have been arrested, which is strongly and independently predictive of worse outcomes. Results indicate that a 5 percentage point increase in school peers linked to parental arrest reduces educational achievement by 0.016 standard deviations and increases adult arrest rates by 5%. Additional evidence indicates that peer effects are primarily driven by interactions in schools rather than in neighborhoods.

Testing Means-Tested Aid

调查经济援助状况

RichardMurphy and

GillWyness

We estimate the effect of an unexpected institutional financial aid (IFA) award on student outcomes using administrative data collected from nine universities, exploiting variation in IFA schedules within and across university-entry cohorts. Each £1,000 of IFA during the first year of college increases the chances of completing that year by 1.4 percentage points, improves test scores by 0.059 standard deviations, and increases the chances of graduating with a good degree by 3.4 percentage points. We find that high-ability and low-income students benefit the most and calculate outcome-maximizing and cost-minimizing IFA schedules for each university.

The Direct and Spillover Effects of a Nationwide Socioemotional Learning Program for Disruptive Students

全国性社会情绪学习计划对破坏性学生之直接与外溢效应

Clémentde Chaisemartin and

NicolásNavarrete H.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) programs that target disruptive students aim to improve their classroom behavior. Small-scale programs in high-income countries have demonstrated positive effects. Using a randomized experiment, we show that a nationwide SEL program in Chile has no effect. Very disruptive students seem to reduce the program’s effectiveness. With attention deficit hyperactivity disorder being more prevalent in middle- than high-income countries, very disruptive students may be more present there, which could diminish the effectiveness of SEL programs. Moreover, implementation fidelity seems lower in this program than in the small-scale ones considered earlier, which could also explain the program’s null effect.

Understanding the Effect of Parental Education and Financial Resources on the Intergenerational Transmission of Income

AidaySikhova

There are two essential mechanisms in the canonical model of the transmission of income across generations—parents’ financial resources and parental education. I provide novel empirical evidence to disentangle the significance of these two mechanisms in explaining the intergenerational transmission of income. Utilizing two reforms and administrative data from Sweden, I find that parents’ financial resources amount to about 25% of the effect of parental education on children’s income. Additionally, I show that parents’ financial resources matter less for sons. Overall, my findings suggest a comparatively modest impact of parental financial resources on children’s income.

在收入代际传递的典型模型中，有两个基本机制——父母的经济资源和父母的教育。我提供了新的经验证据，以理清这两种机制在解释收入代际传递中的重要性。利用瑞典的两项改革和行政数据，我发现父母的财政资源约占父母教育对子女收入影响的25%。此外，我还表明，父母的经济资源对儿子的影响较小。总的来说，我的研究结果表明，父母的经济资源对孩子收入的影响相对较小。

Wage Inequality in Germany after the Minimum Wage Introduction

MarioBossler and

ThorstenSchank

Monthly wage inequality in Germany continued to increase in the early 2000s, which is mainly explained by a rising part-time employment share. After 2010, inequality returned to the level of 2000. About half of the recent decrease is due to the introduction of the national minimum wage in 2015. While employment effects of the minimum wage are negligible, we find strong wage increases among the existing workforce. The minimum wage lowered wage inequality within eastern and western Germany but also led to a convergence of the east-west wage differential. The increased labor incomes were not offset by decreasing social benefits.

德国的月工资不平等在21世纪初继续扩大，这主要是由于兼职就业比例的上升。2010年之后，不平等又回到了2000年的水平。近一半的下降是由于2015年引入了全国最低工资标准。虽然最低工资对就业的影响可以忽略不计，但我们发现现有劳动力的工资增长强劲。最低工资降低了德国东部和西部的工资不平等，但也导致了东西工资差距的趋同。劳动收入的增加并没有被社会福利的减少所抵消。