Does Entry Regulation Hinder Job

Creation? Evidence from the French Retail

Industry
Marianne Bertrand, Francis Kramarz
The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 117, Issue 4, November 2002, Pages 1369–
1413, https://doi.org/10.1162/003355302320935052
Published:
01 November 2002

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Abstract
Are product market and entry regulation key sources of low employment growth in many
European countries? We investigate this question in the context of the French retail trade
industry. Since 1974, approval by regional zoning boards has been required for the creation or
extension of any large retain store in France. We exploit a unique database that provides time-
and region-specific variation in boards' approval decisions. We show that stronger deterrence
of entry by the boards increased retailer concentration and slowed down employment growth
in France.

Upskilling: Do Employers Demand Greater

Skill When Workers Are Plentiful?
Alicia Sasser Modestino,
Daniel Shoag,
Joshua Ballance
Author and Article Information
The Review of Economics and Statistics (2020) 102 (4): 793–805.
https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_00835
Article history

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Abstract
Using a proprietary database of online job postings, we find that education and experience
requirements rose during the Great Recession. These increases were larger in states and
occupations that experienced greater increases in the supply of available workers. This finding
is robust to controlling for local demand conditions and firm ×

job-title fixed effects and using a natural experiment arising from troop withdrawals as an
exogenous shock to labor supply. Our results imply that the increase in unemployed workers
during the Great Recession can account for 18% to 25% of the increase in skill requirements
between 2007 and 2010.

© 2019 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology

Supplementary data
rest_a_00835-esupp- pdf file
Unemployment Insurance and Job Search
Behavior
Ioana Marinescu, Daphné Skandalis
The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 136, Issue 2, May 2021, Pages 887–931,
https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjaa037
Published:
31 October 2020

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Abstract
How does unemployment insurance (UI) affect unemployed workers’ search behavior?
Search models predict that until benefit exhaustion, UI depresses job search effort and
increases reservation wages. Over an unemployment spell, search effort should increase up to
benefit exhaustion and stay high thereafter. Meanwhile, reservation wages should decrease up
to benefit exhaustion and stay low thereafter. To test these predictions, we link administrative
registers to data on job search behavior from a major online job search platform in France. We
follow over 400,000 workers, as long as they remain unemployed. We analyze the changes in
search behavior around benefits exhaustion and take two steps to isolate the individual
response to unemployment benefits. First, our longitudinal data allows us to correct for
changes in sample composition over the spell. Second, we exploit data on workers eligible for
12–24 months of UI as well as workers ineligible for UI, to control for behavior changes over
the unemployment spell that are independent of UI. Our results confirm the predictions of
search models. We find that search effort (the number of job applications) increases by at
least 50% during the year preceding benefits exhaustion and remains high thereafter. The
target monthly wage decreases by at least 2.4% during the year preceding benefits exhaustion
and remains low thereafter. In addition, we provide evidence for duration dependence:
workers decrease the wage they target by 1.5% over each year of unemployment, irrespective
of their UI status.

JEL
J64 - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search J65 - Unemployment
Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings
Issue Section:
Article
Trade liberalization, roads and firm
productivity☆
Author links open overlay panelMatteoFiorinia
MarcoSanfilippobcdeAshaSundaramf
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2021.102712Get rights and content

Highlights
•

Better roads magnify pass-through of tariff reductions to imported input prices.

They also improve access to intranational markets.

They thus incentivize firms to exploit this cost advantage to enhance productivity.

Road infrastructure magnifies productivity gains from input tariff liberalization.

Abstract
We examine the role of road infrastructure in determining the impact of a reduction in input
tariffs on firm productivity. We combine new geo-spatial data on road improvements in
Ethiopia with establishment level data on manufacturing firms that allow us to estimate
physical productivity. Results show that an input tariff reduction is associated with a larger
increase in firm productivity in areas where better roads improve access to other intranational
markets. Roads magnify pass-through of tariff reductions to imported input prices and also
incentivize firms to exploit this cost advantage to enhance productivity. Road infrastructure
hence complements trade liberalization.

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JEL classification
F14
O14
O18
Keywords
Input tariffs
Transport infrastructure
Roads
Firms
Productivity
Ethiopia

Trade liberalization and local labor market

adjustment in South Africa☆
Author links open overlay panelBilgeErtena
JessicaLeightbFionaTregennac
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2019.02.006Get rights and content

Abstract
Despite a large literature analyzing trade liberalization in developing countries, little evidence
exists around its effects in sub-Saharan African economies characterized by high levels of
baseline unemployment and weak manufacturing sectors. Using a local labor market
approach, we investigate the causal effects of tariff reforms implemented in South Africa
between 1994 and 2004 on labor market outcomes at the individual level. More specifically,
we construct a district-level measure of exposure to tariff reductions equal to a weighted
average of industry tariffs using baseline industry shares as weights, and estimate the effect of
this shock on local economies. We find that workers in districts facing larger tariff reductions
experience a significant decline in both formal and informal employment in the tradable
sector, driven primarily by a decline in manufacturing employment, relative to workers in
districts less exposed to these reductions. There is no evidence of any significant effect on
wages for those who remain employed. However, displaced workers do not show any
evidence of transitions into other sectors, or migration to less affected regions; rather, they are
more likely to become discouraged workers or exit the labor force entirely, and show an
increased probability of accessing government transfers.

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JEL Classification
F14
F16
O14
O19
☆

For their comments and suggestions, we would like to thank Rafael Dix-Carneiro,
Mindy Marks, Brian McCaig, seminar participants at American University, and
conference participants at Oxford University CSAE Conference 2018. We thank
Lawrence Edwards for providing the detailed tariff data for South Africa. Tregenna
acknowledges funding under the South African Research Chairs Initiative of the
Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation of South
Africa (Grant No 98627). Thanks to Ngoc Ngo and Baraka Nafari for research
assistance. All errors are, of course, our own.
Abstract

The secular rise in female labor force participation, highlighted in the recent macroeconomics
literature on growth and structural change, has been associated with the declining price and
wider availability of home appliances. This paper uses a new and unique country data set on
the price of home appliances to test its impact on female labor supply. We assess the role of
the price of appliances in raising participation by comparing it to other structural determinants
such as average male income. A decrease in the relative price of appliances--the ratio of the
price of appliances to the consumer price index--leads to a substantial and statistically
significant increase in female labor force participation. In the United Kingdom, for instance,
the decline in the relative price of home appliances alone accounts for about 10% to 15% of
the increase in female labor force participation from 1975 to 1999. This result is robust to the
inclusion of additional controls, such as country dummies, time trend, government spending,
and the growth rate of real GDP. To assess causality, we test for exogeneity and use the
manufactured price index and the terms of trade adjustment as instrumental variables
confirming that lower appliance prices lead to increased female participation.

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