Testing for Labor Rationing: Revealed Preference Estimates from Demand Shocks

劳动力配给测试：揭示需求冲击带来的偏好估计

• 批准号: 1658924
• 负责人: Supreet Kaur
• 金额: $ 27万
• 依托单位: National Bureau of Economic Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-04-15 至 2022-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1658924&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Testing; Labor; Rationing; Revealed; Preference

AbstractThis research project will test for and quantify the existence of surplus labor---individuals who are involuntarily rationed out of the wage labor market---in low income communities. In both the U.S. and in developing countries, many social programs are predicated on the idea of surplus labor; yet there has not been an empirical test of its existence. The research will use field experiments which involve creating many industry jobs in a nearby city to test the labor surplus theory in a rural setting. If rural workers can be absorbed into these factory jobs without any change in the wage or employment levels in the rural labor market, then this will demonstrate the existence of surplus labor. A pilot study of 36 local labor markets provides initial support for the existence of labor surplus in low income communities. The results of this research will provide a better explanation of the functioning of labor markets in low income and high unemployment communities, and therefore provide guidance on crafting policies to reduce unemployment or to combat the effects of such high unemployment rates. In addition, by revealing which types of self-employed small entrepreneurs would prefer wage work, the findings have implications for how to better target programs to enable small business growth in high unemployment settings. The results will be central to understanding many issues in development economics and will have applications in several fields of economics, such as labor economics, public economics, and industrial policy. By improving the functioning of the U.S. labor market, the results thus improve U.S. competitiveness. This research project uses field experiments to obtain revealed preference estimates of labor rationing in rural labor markets, using rural labor markets in India as the test bed. A large labor demand shock will be created by recruiting up to about 30 percent of workers in surrounding villages to work in nearby factory jobs. If the amount of labor rationing is at least as big as the demand shock, then there will be: (i) no effect on local village level wages, (ii) no change in local village employment, and (iii) positive employment spillovers on workers who do not receive factory jobs. In addition, a supplementary experiment will be conducted to estimate the short run elasticity of supply of labor, in order to check whether labor supply is perfectly elastic. Examination of who benefits from unemployment spillovers can be used to explain the two possible components of labor rationing---voluntary unemployment and disguised unemployment. Finally, comparing traditional survey-based measures of unemployment to these revealed preference estimates can help provide some validation of the reliability of traditional survey measures. The results of this research provide strong microeconomic foundations of labor market rationing and provide guidance for labor market policies in both low income and developed countries.

摘要这项研究项目将测试并量化剩余劳动的存在 - - 在低收入社区中，非自愿配给工资劳动力市场的个人。 在美国和发展中国家，许多社会计划都取决于盈余劳动的想法。然而，没有对其存在的经验检验。 该研究将使用现场实验，其中涉及在附近的城市创建许多行业工作，以在农村环境中测试劳动盈余理论。 如果农村工人可以吸收这些工厂工作，而不会在农村劳动力市场的工资或就业水平上发生任何变化，那么这将证明存在盈余劳动力。对36个地方劳动力市场的试点研究为低收入社区中的劳动盈余提供了初步支持。 这项研究的结果将更好地解释低收入和高失业社区劳动力市场的运作，因此为制定政策提供指导，以减少失业或打击这种高失业率的影响。 此外，通过揭示哪些类型的自营小型企业家更喜欢工资工作，这些发现对如何更好地针对计划以使小型失业环境中的小企业增长具有影响。结果将是理解发展经济学许多问题的核心，并将在劳动经济学，公共经济学和工业政策等多个经济学领域中应用。 通过改善美国劳动力市场的功能，结果可以提高美国的竞争力。 该研究项目使用现场实验来获得揭示农村劳动力市场劳动分配的偏好估计，并以印度的农村劳动力市场为试床。 通过招募大约30％的村庄工人从事附近工厂工作的工作，将造成巨大的劳动力冲击。 如果劳动配给的数量至少与需求冲击一样大，那么（i）对当地村庄一级工资没有影响，（ii）当地乡村就业没有变化，以及（iii）对未获得工厂工作的工人的积极就业溢出。 此外，还将进行补充实验，以估计劳动力供应的短期弹性，以检查劳动力供应是否完全弹性。 检查谁受益于失业溢出物的好处可以用来解释劳动配给的两个可能的组成部分 - 自愿失业和伪装的失业。 最后，将基于调查的失业率的传统措施与这些揭示的偏好估计进行比较，可以帮助您对传统调查措施的可靠性进行一些验证。这项研究的结果为劳动力市场配给提供了强大的微观经济基础，并为低收入国家和发达国家的劳动力市场政策提供了指导。

项目成果

Labor Rationing

劳动力配给

• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20201385
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: American Economic Review
• 影响因子: 10.7
• 作者: Breza, Emily;Kaur, Supreet;Shamdasani, Yogita
• 通讯作者: Shamdasani, Yogita