This paper studies the level and the causes of earnings inequality in late nineteenth century America and Britain using microdata from the United States Commissioner of Labor Survey in 1890 and 1891. We examine whether lessons from studies on changes in earnings inequality over time -- the...

Kosovo is a war-torn corner of the former Yugoslavia, where a civil war between ethnic Albanians and ethnic Serbs raged during most of the 1990s. We examine the incidence and depth of poverty and some of its correlates in post-conflict Kosovo using the Living Standards Measurement Survey.

We examine the labor market performance of return migrants using the Hungarian Household Panel Survey. Two distinct selection issues are considered in the estimation of the earnings equation; we implement a natural method using MLE. The result that there is a "premium" to work experience abroad...

This paper analyzes the determinants of rural poverty in India, contrasting the situation of scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) households with the non-scheduled population. The incidence of poverty in SC and ST households is much higher than among non-scheduled households. By...

East Germany, a unique socialist command economy prior to the 1990s, underwent rapid transition to a market-oriented economic system. This transition has been of intense interest given the environment of Eastern Germany vis-a-vis Western Germany, a setting different from most other transition...

Using the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) household survey from post-conflict Kosovo we investigate the comparative economic well-being of Serbs and Albanians. An Oaxaca decomposition shows Serb households are both better endowed with income generating characteristics, such as...

We introduce a structural model which jointly estimates the full-time wage premium and female labor supply, using the piecewise-linear budget constraint method. Our model incorporates a discontinuous budget line at cut-off hours (35 hours a week), caused by the coexistence of both full- and...

East Germany underwent rapid transition from a socialist to a market economy since the fall of the Berlin Wall. We are interested in whether women are better off or worse off relative to men as a result of this transition. We use the German Socio-Economic Panel Data 1990-1997 to study wage...

We examine the earnings determinants of the self-employed and wage earners in Hungary in the mid-1990's, taking into account two forms of selection: selection into working or non-working for every individual in our sample and selection into self-employment or wage-earning jobs for workers only....

We review the role immigration amnesties have played in US immigration policy, placing them in the context of similar programs embarked upon by other nations. The theory of amnesties suggests rent-seeking, bargaining, and costs as reasons for a country offering an amnesty, often in conjunction...