Author Archives: Simonetta Longhi

Explained and Unexplained Wage Gaps across the Main Ethno-religious Groups in Great Britain

We analyse the difference in average wages (the so called ‘wage gap’) of selected ethno-religious groups in Great Britain at the mean and over the wage distribution with the aim of explaining why such wage gaps differ across minority groups. We distinguish minorities not only by their ethno-religious background, but also by country (UK or abroad) in which people grew up and acquired their qualifications. We find that within all minority ethno-religious groups the second generation achieves higher wages than the first generation, but the amount that is explained by characteristics does not necessarily increase with generation.

Longhi S., Nicoletti C., Platt L. (2013) Explained and Unexplained Wage Gaps across the Main Ethno-religious Groups in Great Britain, Oxford Economic Papers, 65(2) 471-493.

Occupational Change and Mobility among Employed and Unemployed Job Seekers

We use data from the Labour Force Survey to show that employed and unemployed job seekers in Great Britain originate from different occupations and find jobs in different occupations. We find substantial differences in occupational mobility between job seekers: employed job seekers are most likely to move to occupations paying higher average wages relative to their previous occupation, while unemployed job seekers are most likely to move to lower paying occupations. Employed and unemployed job seekers exhibit different patterns of occupational mobility and, therefore, do not accept the same types of jobs.

Longhi S., Taylor M. (2013) Occupational Change and Mobility among Employed and Unemployed Job Seekers, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 60(1) 71-100.

What Determines Attitudes to Immigration in European Countries? An Analysis at the Regional Level

Different disciplines within the social sciences have produced large theoretical and empirical literatures to explain the determinants of anti-immigration attitudes. We bring together these literatures in a unified framework and identify testable hypotheses on what characteristics of the individual and of the local environment are likely to have an impact on anti-immigration attitudes. While most of the previous literature focuses on the explanation of attitudes at the individual level, we focus on the impact of regional characteristics (the local context). Our aim is to explain why people living in different regions differ in terms of their attitudes towards immigration. We isolate the impact of regions from regressions using individual-level data and explain this residual regional heterogeneity in attitudes with aggregate-level indicators of regional characteristics. We find that regions with a higher percentage of immigrants born outside the EU and a higher unemployment rate among the immigrant population show a higher probability that natives express negative attitudes to immigration. Regions with a higher unemployment rate among natives, however, show less pronounced anti-immigrant attitudes.

Markaki Y., Longhi S. (2013) What Determines Attitudes to Immigration in European Countries?  An Analysis at the Regional Level, Migration Studies, 1(3) 311-337.

Occupation and Pay across the Generations: The Labour Market Experience of Four Ethno-religious Groups in Britain

Longhi S., Nicoletti C., Platt L. (2012) Occupation and Pay across the Generations: The Labour Market Experience of Four Ethno-religious Groups in Britain, in Social Stratification: Trends and Processes, ed. by P. Lambert, R. Connelly, B. Blackburn, V. Gayle, Ashgate: 151-165.

Job Competition and the Wage Curve

The wage curve literature consistently finds a negative relationship between regional unemployment rates and regional wages; the most widely accepted theoretical explanations interpret the unemployment rate as a measure of job competition. This paper proposes new ways of measuring job competition, alternative to the unemployment rate, and finds that the negative relationship still holds when job competition is measured following the job search literature. While for men the wage impact of the theoretically based measures of job competition is rather similar to the wage impact of the unemployment rate, for women the difference is substantial.

Longhi S. (2012) Job Competition and the Wage Curve, Regional Studies, 46 (5) 611-620.

Interpreting Wage Gaps of Disabled Men: The roles of productivity and of discrimination

Using the UK Labour Force Survey, we study wage gaps for disabled men after the introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act. We estimate wage gaps at the mean and at different quantiles of the wage distribution and decompose them into a part explained by differences in workers’ and job characteristics, a part that can be ascribed to health‐related reduced productivity, and a residual part. The large original wage gaps reduce substantially when we control for differences in education and occupation, although significant residuals remain. However, when we isolate productivity differences between disabled and nondisabled workers, the residual wage gap becomes insignificant in most cases.

Longhi S., Nicoletti C., Platt L. (2012) Interpreting Wage Gaps of Disabled Men: The roles of productivity and of discrimination, Southern Economic Journal, 78 (3) 931-953.

Occupational Change in Britain and Germany

We use British and German panel data to analyse job changes involving a change in occupation. We assess: (1) the extent of occupational change, taking into account the possibility of measurement error in occupational codes; (2) whether job changes within the occupation differ from occupation changes in terms of the characteristics of those making such switches; and (3) the effects of the two kinds of moves in respect of wages and job satisfaction. We find that occupation changes differ from other job changes, generally reflecting a less satisfactory employment situation, but also that the move in both cases is positive in respect of change in wages and job satisfaction.

Longhi S., Brynin M. (2010) Occupational Change in Britain and Germany, Labour Economics, 17 (4): 655-666.

Joint Impacts of Immigration on Wages and Employment: Review and Meta-analysis

A burgeoning literature has emerged during the last two decades to assess the economic impacts of immigration on host countries. In this paper, we outline the quantitative approaches presented in the literature to estimate the impact of immigration on the labour market, particularly at the regional level. We then revisit the joint impacts of immigration on wages and employment using a meta-analytic approach. As a novel contribution to previous meta-analyses on labour market impacts, we use a simultaneous equations approach to the meta-analysis of wage and employment effects. Using 129 effect sizes, we find that the observed local wage and employment effects are very small indeed. Generally, the employment impact is more pronounced in Europe than in the United States. Controls for endogeneity show a somewhat more negative impact. Wage rigidity increases the magnitude of the employment impact on the native born. The demarcation of the local labour market in terms of geography and skills matters also.

Longhi S., Nijkamp P., Poot J. (2010) Joint Impacts of Immigration on Wages and Employment: Review and Meta-analysis, Journal of Geographical Systems, 12 (4) 355-387.

Meta-analyses of Labour Market Impacts of Immigration: Key Conclusions and Policy Implications

The number of immigrants across the world has doubled since 1980. The estimates of the impact of immigration on wages and employment in host countries are quantitatively small but vary widely. We summarize previous meta-analyses of the empirical literature and consider the implications for policy. We conclude that, on average, the impact on employment of the native born is smaller than on wages, while impacts are generally smaller in the US than in other countries studied to date. The variation in the estimates is related to the definition of the labour market, the extent of substitutability of foreign and native workers, and controls for endogeneity of immigrant settlement in statistical modelling. Policies enhancing labour-market flexibility, while at the same time improving immigrant economic integration, are likely to be effective in reducing transitory negative impacts.

Longhi S., Nijkamp P., Poot J. (2010) Meta-analyses of Labour Market Impacts of Immigration: Key Conclusions and Policy Implications, Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 28 (5) 819-833.

Overqualification, Major or Minor Mismatch?

A proportion of employees are overqualified for their work. This generates a wage premium relative to the job but a penalty relative to the qualification, and is therefore. A puzzle for human capital theory. A part of this derives from the use of measures of time spent in education for the calculation of overqualification. Analysing data from four European countries, we split years of education into two components, one reflecting certification, another reflecting time. While a qualification higher than required mostly generates a wage premium, time does not. The result is that the combination of time with excess (or deficit) qualification may make overqualification either a major or a minor mismatch. The probability of either outcome varies with the institutional arrangements of different countries’ educational systems.

Brynin M., Longhi S. (2009) Overqualification, Major or Minor Mismatch?, Economics of Education Review, 28 114-121.