Essays on Empirical Labor Economics

Three studies on labor economics are the subject of this work. The first one investigates the effect of firm size on wages using quantile regression. Empirical evidence shows that larger firms pay higher wages than smaller ones. This wage premium is called the firm size wage effect. In this study, I use the quantile regression approach to investigate the firm size effect and try to sort out possible meaning for the effect. Using this alternative methodology, the firm size wage premium continues to exist, however, the conditional quantile analysis shows that the reward is larger for the lower quantiles and gradually decreases for the upper ones. The second explores the marital status income differential for women. The empirical literature shows that, while the marriage premium is significant in different studies for men, the results for women are inconclusive. The main innovation is the use of controls for sample selection. We have two sources of selectivity: into the labor force and into a marital status' category. To correct that, this study uses the switching regressions model, and Oaxaca/Kuhn decomposition. Correcting for both types of selection, the difference in wages varies between 48% and 61% when married women are compared with those cohabiting. In addition, the marriage penalty can oscillate between 26% and 34% when the comparison is made between married and single females. The final paper presents an investigation about compliance with child support orders. In this study, I analyze the child support compliance gap---the difference between expected child support payments and received child support payments. I use the 1990--1993 SIPP on child support agreements. I explore the factors that determine the existence and the magnitude of a gap in payments using a probit model and regression analysis. Finally, I use multinomial logit analysis to determine the factors that induce three distinct types of agreements. My results suggest that both the existence of and magnitude of the child support gap are positively influenced by non-voluntary agreements received indirectly by the custodial parent. Family income also has the influence of increasing the odds of a gap and its size.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Economics

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Madalozzo, Regina Carla

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kevin F. Hallock

• Women's Studies

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3044167

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/85520