Bernt Bratsberg - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Bernt Bratsberg

Journal of Education and Work, 2020

Some countries have certifying institutions for competence acquired at the workplace. These insti... more Some countries have certifying institutions for competence acquired at the workplace. These institutions provide incentives for workplace training that may have favourable effects on productivity, earnings and labour market participation. We present evidence on the earnings effects of attaining vocational qualifications in adulthood through two alternative routes: (1) apprenticeship and (2) recognition and testing of vocational competence acquired through relevant work experience. Drawing on longitudinal administrative data from Norway and tracking the labour market careers of individuals without completed upper secondary education by age 25, we estimate the impacts of acquiring vocational qualifications on future labour earnings. To allow for differential labour market trajectories of those who do and do not acquire qualifications, we account for unobserved individual heterogeneity in both levels and earnings growth. Without a rich representation of unobserved heterogeneity, estimated earnings effects are exaggerated. We find that vocational qualifications from both the apprenticeship and the experience-based routes boost earnings of men and women. Certification of already acquired skills has some value in itself, but adult apprenticeships have more positive effects on future earnings, as they involve greater individual skills development.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2009

Performance Pay and Within-Firm Wage Inequality * This paper examines the impact of performance-r... more Performance Pay and Within-Firm Wage Inequality * This paper examines the impact of performance-related pay on wage differentials within firms. Our theoretical framework predicts that, compared to a fixed pay system, pay schemes based on individual output increase within-firm wage inequality, while group-based bonuses have minor effects on wage dispersion. Theory also predicts an interaction between performance-related pay and union bargaining, where union power reduces the impact of performance pay on wage dispersion. The empirical contribution utilizes two recent Norwegian employer surveys, linked to a full set of individual employee pay records. A longitudinal sub-sample allows for identification based on fixed establishment effects. Introduction of performance-related pay is shown to raise residual wage inequality in nonunion firms, but not in firms with high union density. Our findings suggest that even though performance-related pay appears to be on the rise, the overall impact on wage dispersion is likely to be small, particularly in European countries with strong unions.

Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning, 2004

ABSTRACT Land of Opportunity? Comparing Earnings Profiles of Immigrants in Norway and the United ... more ABSTRACT Land of Opportunity? Comparing Earnings Profiles of Immigrants in Norway and the United States. The authors use com- parable micro data from Norway and the United States to estimate and compare earn- ings profiles of immigrants relative to those of natives of the two host countries. The analyses control for differences in individual characteristics, such as education, gender and age, as well as local labour market con- ditions. Results reveal that immigrants face steeper earnings profiles than natives. The initial wage gap between immigrants and natives is significantly reduced over time in the new country. In general, immigrants to the United States earn more, have steeper profiles and catch up with natives at a faster rate than immigrants to Norway. The US advantage is greater for immigrants with higher education. These findings are dis- cussed with reference to differences between the two countries in selection of immigrants, immigrant histories and labour markets. A compressed wage structure and high levels of employment protection do not assure immigrants equal opportunities in the labour market.

Labour Economics, 2020

Any opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research pu... more Any opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but IZA takes no institutional policy positions. The IZA research network is committed to the IZA Guiding Principles of Research Integrity. The IZA Institute of Labor Economics is an independent economic research institute that conducts research in labor economics and offers evidence-based policy advice on labor market issues. Supported by the Deutsche Post Foundation, IZA runs the world's largest network of economists, whose research aims to provide answers to the global labor market challenges of our time. Our key objective is to build bridges between academic research, policymakers and society. IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author.

TemaNord, 2012

Educating Children of Immigrants: Closing the Gap in Norwegian Schools * Children of immigrant pa... more Educating Children of Immigrants: Closing the Gap in Norwegian Schools * Children of immigrant parents constitute a growing share of school cohorts in many OECD countries, and their educational performance is vital for successful social and economic integration. This paper examines educational outcomes of first and second generation non-OECD immigrants in Norway. We show that children of immigrants, and particularly those born outside Norway, are much more likely to leave school early than native children. Importantly, this gap shrunk sharply over the past two decades and second generation immigrants are now rapidly catching up with the educational performance of natives. For childhood immigrants, upper secondary completion rates decline with age at arrival, with a particularly steep gradient after age seven. Finally, we find that immigrant-native attainment gaps disappear when we condition on grade points from compulsory school.

Søkelys på arbeidslivet, 2017

Gjennom laerlingordningen og praksiskandidatordningen kan voksne ta fagbrev og fullføre en yrkesf... more Gjennom laerlingordningen og praksiskandidatordningen kan voksne ta fagbrev og fullføre en yrkesfaglig videregående opplaering. I denne artikkelen analyserer vi hva som kjennetegner dem som oppnår sitt første fagbrev i voksen alder. Mens voksne med fagbrev fra praksiskandidatordningen har en sosial bakgrunn svaert lik dem som ikke oppnår videregående kompetanse, har voksenlaerlingene en bakgrunn svaert lik den vi finner hos dem som fullfører yrkesfag som unge. Multinomiske regresjonsanalyser viser at saerlig praksiskandidatordningen bidrar til å utjevne sosiale forskjeller i hvem som fullfører videregående opplaering.

Søkelys på arbeidslivet, 2016

Sammendrag I likhet med andre europeiske land mottok Norge i fjor et stort antall asylsøkere, og ... more Sammendrag I likhet med andre europeiske land mottok Norge i fjor et stort antall asylsøkere, og bosettingstallene forventes å bli høye i årene som kommer. Dette gir åpenbare utfordringer knyttet til integrering i det norske arbeidsmarkedet. I denne artikkelen undersøker vi hva vi kan laere av historiske erfaringer for tidligere kohorter av bosatte flyktninger fra land utenfor Europa. En hovedkonklusjon er at ikke-europeiske flyktninger har hatt store problemer med å oppnå høy sysselsetting, og at mange derfor har blitt avhengige av helserelaterte trygdeytelser. Med ambisjon om å oppnå sysselsettingsrater i naerheten av det vi observerer for norskfødte, følger behov for politikkendringer.

Naturalisation: A Passport for the Better Integration of Immigrants?, 2011

This chapter studies the labour market integration of immigrants in Norway from lower-income coun... more This chapter studies the labour market integration of immigrants in Norway from lower-income countries and assesses whether their integration process is influenced by acquisition of Norwegian citizenship. It finds that there is no positive effect of citizenship on the labour market status of immigrants. For some groups, there are even small, but statistically significant, negative effects on employment and earnings when estimated with individual fixed effects to account for unobserved heterogeneity. The chapter also discusses the discrepancy between these findings and prior evidence from the United States in light of possible causal mechanisms and differences in the labour market institutions of the two host countries.

The Economic Journal, 2014

This publication has been published with financial support by the Nordic Council of Ministers. Ho... more This publication has been published with financial support by the Nordic Council of Ministers. However, the contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views, policies or recommendations of the Nordic Council of Ministers. www.norden.org/en/publications Nordic cooperation Nordic cooperation is one of the world's most extensive forms of regional collaboration, involving

Review of Economics and Statistics, 2006

The Economic Journal, 2012

To identify relative wage impacts of immigration, we make use of certification and licensing requ... more To identify relative wage impacts of immigration, we make use of certification and licensing requirements in the Norwegian construction sector that give rise to exogenous variation in immigrant employment shares across trades. Individual panel data reveal substantially lower wage growth for workers in trades with rising immigrant employment than for other workers. Selective attrition from the sector masks the causal wage impact unless accounted for by individual fixed effects. For low and semiskilled workers, effects of new immigration are comparable for natives and older immigrant cohorts, consistent with perfect substitutability between native and immigrant labor within trade. Finally, we present evidence that immigration reduces price inflation, as price increases over the sample period were significantly lower in activities with growth in the immigrant share than in activities with no or small change in immigrant employment.

Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 2004

Labour market outcomes of immigrants and natives are affected differently by changes in macroecon... more Labour market outcomes of immigrants and natives are affected differently by changes in macroeconomic conditions. In particular, we show that earnings of immigrants from outside the OECD area are more sensitive to local labour market conditions than are earnings of natives. Failure to account for this may bias estimates of earnings assimilation of immigrants considerably, particularly when periods of rising or declining unemployment are important to identify assimilation effects on immigrant earnings. We show that this is the case for Norway: An observed drop in relative earnings of non-OECD immigrants after about 10 years in the host country disappears when we allow for differential business cycle effects. Furthermore, the empirical evidence reveals that the earnings assimilation rate of non-OECD immigrants is significantly affected by local labour market conditions. The ef fect of unemployment on assimilation rates is interpreted in terms of a combined "wage curve effect" and a "learning effect" on the rate at which immigrants acquire country-specific human capital.

Labour Economics, 2012

Life cycle wages of immigrants from developing countries fall short of catching up with wages of ... more Life cycle wages of immigrants from developing countries fall short of catching up with wages of natives. This disparity reflects both lower wages at entry and lower wage growth. Using linked employer-employee data, we show that 40 percent of the native-immigrant wage gap is explained by differential sorting across establishments. Our findings point to differences in job mobility and intermittent spells of unemployment as major sources of the discrepancy in lifetime wages. The inferior wage growth of immigrants primarily results from failure to advance to higher paying establishments over time. This pattern is consistent with statistical discrimination in hiring but not with monopsonistic discrimination due to informational frictions.

Journal of Labor Economics, 2010

Journal of Labor Economics, 2002

For young male immigrants, naturalization facilitates assimilation into the U.S. labor market. Fo... more For young male immigrants, naturalization facilitates assimilation into the U.S. labor market. Following naturalization, immigrants gain access to public-sector, white-collar, and union jobs, and wage growth accelerates-consistent with removal of employment barriers. The faster wage growth of immigrants who naturalize might alternatively result from greater human capital investment prior to naturalization, stemming from a long-term commitment to U.S. labor markets, but there is no evidence that wage growth accelerates or the distribution of jobs improves until citizenship is attained. Finally, the gains from naturalization are greater for immigrants from less-developed countries and persist when we control for unobserved productivity.

International Journal of Manpower, 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to improve our understanding of why some firms tie compensati... more PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to improve our understanding of why some firms tie compensation to worker performance as well as the variation in type of performance pay system across firms.Design/methodology/approachThe study first presents a theoretical framework that motivates n empirical study of performance‐related pay. The data are based on Norwegian establishment surveys from 1997 and 2003. The empirical analysis addresses determinants of adoption of performance pay systems.FindingsPerformance‐related pay is more prevalent in firms where workers of the main occupation have a high degree of autonomy in how to organise their work. Performance pay is also more widespread in large firms, but is less common in highly unionised firms and in firms where wages are determined through centralised bargaining. Results show that performance pay is on the rise in Norway, even after accounting for changes in industry structure, bargaining regime, and union density. Finally, it is found ...