Documents Rigó, Mariann 3 results

"We provide new empirical evidence on the link between age and productivity using a transitional context. Building on a model of skill obsolescence, we assess the long-term adjustment process following a sudden change in skills needed in production that severely worsened older workers' labor market situation. The model implies that (a) the devaluation of skills should affect highly educated older workers more severely, (b) the disadvantage should disappear over time as newer cohorts acquire more suitable human capital, and (c) the timing should differ among firm ownership types, reflecting the inflow of modern technologies and practices.Rather than focusing on wage differentials, we estimate the firm-level productive contribution of older relative to younger workers differentiated by education level. To assess long-run trends, we adapt the augmented production function methodology developed in international literature and apply it to a linked employer–employee dataset from Hungary covering from before (1986) to 20 years after (2008) the economic transition. The results suggest that – in line with the model – the within firm productivity differential between older and younger workers following the transition was largest among the highly skilled. The fall in relative productivity followed the inflow of modern capital: the gap was largest in 1992–1995 in foreign-owned firms, while it appeared gradually and was smaller in domestic firms. The magnitude and the negative effects of the adjustment period witnessed in Hungary highlight the importance of policies aimed at providing core competencies and adult training that enable older workers to adjust to sudden economic and technological changes."

"Background
Employees have witnessed rising trend in work stress over the last few decades. However, we know a little about country differences in those trends. Our article fills this gap in the literature by examining heterogeneities in trends in working conditions by country groups defined by their amount of investment into labor market policy (LMP) programs. Additionally, we provide findings on differences in occupational inequalities between country groups.

Methods
We use comparative longitudinal data of the European Working Conditions Surveys including cross-sectional information on employees from 15 countries surveyed in Waves 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015. Estimation results are provided by three-way multilevel models with employees nested within country-years nested within countries. Our work stress measure is the proxy version of job strain based on the demand-control model.

Results
Our regression results indicate that for employees in countries with the least LMP spending job strain increased by 10% from 1995 to 2015 compared to a smaller and insignificant change in middle- and high-LMP countries. In low-LMP countries, inequalities in job strain also widened during the studied period: the gap in job strain between the highest- and lowest-skilled increased by 60% from 1995 to 2015. This contrasts a stable gap in middle- and high-LMP countries.

Conclusions
Our results direct the attention to the vulnerable position of the least skilled and highlight that LMP investments may buffer some of the adverse impacts of globalization and technological changes and effectively improve the labor market situation of the least skilled."

"Objective
The rapid transformation of labor markets has been accompanied by the belief of rising stress at work. However, empirical evidence on such trends based on reliable survey data is scarce. This study analyzes long-term trends in well-established measures of work stressors across Europe, as well as potential occupational differences.

Methods
We use repeated cross-sectional data of 15 European countries from waves 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015 of the European Working Conditions Surveys. We apply three-way multilevel regressions (with employees nested in country-years, which are in turn nested in countries) to analyze trends in work stressors measured according to the demand-control and effort-reward imbalance models. Trends by occupational groups are also assessed.

Results
Our findings suggest that work stress generally increased from 1995 to 2015, and that the increase was mostly driven by psychological demands. People working in lower-skilled occupations had generally higher levels of job strain and effort-reward imbalance, as well as they tend to have a steeper increase in job strain than people working in higher-skilled occupations. Most of the change occurred from 1995 to 2005.

Conclusion
Our results indicate that work stress has been on rise since 1995, specifically for people working in disadvantageous occupations. This directs the attention to the vulnerable position of the least skilled and also to the use of preventive measures to counteract some of the disadvantages experienced by this occupational group."