#14-001 -- Alicia Adsera and Ana Ferrer
Immigrants and demography: Marriage, divorce, and fertility
#14-002 -- Ana Ferrer and Alicia Menendez
The returns to flexible postsecondary education: The effect of delaying school
Abstract
We compare the returns to education between graduates of post secondary institutions who delayed their tertiary education for some time and those that proceeded with no delays. Using a unique survey that collects information on a representative cohort of graduates, we are able to estimate the effects of delaying school among successful graduates abstracting from specific macroeconomic conditions at the time of graduation. Our results show that graduates that delayed their education enjoy a premium relative to graduates that did not, even after considering other factors such as experience or labor market connections. These estimates are robust to the possibility of selection in the decision to delay school.
JEL classification
J24, I2
Keywords
Human capital; postsecondary education; flexible school choice; school delay
#14-003 -- Francisco M. Gonzalez, Itziar Lazkano and Sjak A. Smulders
Second-best national saving and growth with intergenerational disagreement
Abstract
We illustrate the contrast between two sources of intergenerational disagreement when generations are overlapping and governments aggregate preferences in a utilitarian manner. Social preferences tend to exhibit a present-bias because generations are imperfectly altruistic about future generations; but they tend to exhibit a future-bias because coexisting generations are imperfectly altruistic about currently older generations. When the future-bias dominates, society faces an intergenerational equity problem, in which case the present-day government tends to support institutions that enable commitments to lower growth at the expense of future generations. This is so even with perfect altruism about future generations.
JEL classification
D60, H30, O40
Keywords
intergenerational disagreement; altruism; overlapping generations; growth;
quasi-hyperbolic discounting; commitment.
#14-004 -- Andrew Clarke and Mikal Skuterud
Immigrant Skill Selection and Utilization: A Comparative Analysis of Australia, Canada, and the United States
Abstract
We compare literacy skills and relative wage and employment outcomes of Australian, Canadian, and U.S. immigrants. We find substantially higher immigrant skill levels at the lower end of the distribution in Australia, especially among recent arrivals, but little difference at the top. In addition, we identify larger wage returns to immigrant skill in the U.S. whch we argue reflects language-skill complementarities. Our results suggest that the benefit of a point system lies in its potential to limit unskilled immigration, rather than in raising skills at the upper end of the distribution where the growth potential of immigration is likely greatest.
JEL classification
J61, J31, J23
Keywords
Immigrant workers; labour market integration; immigrant selection policy.
#14-005 -- Scott Legree, Tammy Schirle, and Mikal Skuterud
The Effect of Labour Relations Laws on Union Density Rates: Evidence from Canadian Provinces
Abstract
We provide evidence on the potential for reforms in labour law to reverse deunionization trends by relating an index of the favorability to unions of Canadian provincial labour relations statutes to changes in provincial union density rates between 1981 and 2012. The results suggest that shifting every province’s 2012 legal regime to the most union-friendly possible could raise the national union density by up to 7 percentage points in the long run. This effect appears driven by regulations related to the certification of new bargaining units, the negotiation of first contracts and the recruitment of replacement workers. The effects of reform are largest for women, particularly university-educated women employed as professionals in public services. Overall, the results suggest a limited potential for labour relations reforms to address growing concerns about labour market inequality.
#14-006 -- Hassan Benchekroun and Alain-Désiré Nimubona
Environmental R&D in the Presence of an Eco-Industry
Abstract
JEL Classification
L13, O32, Q55, Q58
Keywords
Eco-industry, environmental R&D, R&D cooperation, environmental R&D outsourcing, upstream innovation.
#14-007 -- Andrew Leach and Alain-Désiré Nimubona
Abatement Technology Search
Abstract
We develop a three-stage model of abatement technology search, adoption, and deployment. Using this model, which draws on search theory tools more frequently used in labour and monetary economics, we compare market-based and command-and-control pollution control instruments with respect to the incentives each provides for abatement technology search and adoption, expected emissions reductions, and expected compliance costs. We show that the polluting firm always has more incentives to search for and adopt a more efficient abatement technology under either an emissions tax or a tradeable permit system than under an equivalently stringent emissions standard. We also show that while expected incentives for innovation are comparable under emissions taxes and tradeable permit regimes, the likelihood for total future compliance costs to be reduced after an increase in the stringency of environmental policy - the so-called Porter hypothesis - is higher with a tradeable permit regime.
JEL Classification
Q55, Q58, H23, D83
Keywords
Abatement Technology; search; prices versus quantities; oil sands; Porter hypothesis.
#14-008 -- Hongxiu Li and Horatiu A. Rus
Adaptation to Climate Change and International Mitigation Agreements with Heterogeneous Countries
Abstract
This paper investigates the impact of adaptation on a country's incentive to participate in emission-reducing International Environmental Agreements (IEAs) on climate change. We develop a framework where heterogeneity across countries is introduced with respect to the benefits and costs of both mitigation of emissions and adaptation to reduce the impact of climate change. The paper uses two coalition stability concepts and numerical simulations to look at stable coalitions. We also study the effect of an within-coalition increase in the efficiency of adaptation on emissions and on countries' incentives to cooperate. Our main findings are: first, investment in adaptation technology has a public good feature inside the coalition, compared to being strictly a private good in the non-cooperation case. Second, a large coalition cannot be achieved if countries differ much in terms of vulnerability. Third, cooperation incentives can be enhanced by a coalition which diffuses technological progress on climate change adaptation among its members.
JEL Classification
H41, Q54, Q59
Keywords
Climate Change, Mitigation, Adaptation, International Environmental Agreements, Heterogeneous Agents, Coalition Stability