Nick Deschacht | KU Leuven (original) (raw)
Papers by Nick Deschacht
Cambridge Journal of Economics, 2024
Many firms engage in marketing efforts to improve their image as an employer (employer branding [... more Many firms engage in marketing efforts to improve their image as an employer (employer branding [EB]). This article re-conceptualises EB as an instrument used by firms to increase their monopsonistic power (Robinson, 1933), that is, the power of firms to set wages below the level that would be expected in a competitive labour market. To test this hypothesis, we perform a vignette experiment using original data collected via Amazon Mechanical Turk in which we randomly vary wage offers at employer-branded and not-branded firms. Our results indicate that employerbranded firms possess more monopsonistic power, particularly over male workers. We conclude by arguing that the wage-setting power of firms not only arises from illegal practices and clear aberrations of the economic system-as is the dominant discourse-but also from certain legal and widely accepted business practices.
Labour Economics, 2021
This paper studies the effect of unemployment duration on asking (reservation) wages. We provide ... more This paper studies the effect of unemployment duration on asking (reservation) wages. We provide new evidence based on unique longitudinal data on unemployed workers in Belgium, who were surveyed about self-reported reservation wages at the start of the unemployment spell, and after 3 and 6 months of unemployment duration. Our estimates suggest that reservation wages decline with unemployment duration by about 0.4 percent per month, or 5 percent per year, and that cross-sectional estimates are biased upward. We find stronger declines among men and among workers who earned high wages in their previous jobs. The paper discusses these findings in the light of learning models and discusses the implications of falling reservation wages for the debate on the effect of unemployment on wages.
ROBONOMICS: The Journal of the Automated Economy, 2021
This paper reviews the economic literature about the effects of the digital revolution on the lab... more This paper reviews the economic literature about the effects of the digital revolution on the labour market, and provides a non-technical introduction to the labour economics of automation. It conceptualizes the digital revolution and describes how recent technological trends, such as robotics, industry 4.0, artificial intelligence and the platform economy, affect specific occupations. It reviews the main economic theories and the empirical evidence of how automation affects labour demand, the occupational structure and the work task composition of occupations. It discusses the consequences of this occupational change for labour market outcomes such as wages, inequality, job quality and unemployment. The paper concludes with a discussion of the main avenues for further research.
International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 2021
We estimate the effect of the gender composition of company boards on firm performance by exploit... more We estimate the effect of the gender composition of company boards on firm performance by exploiting variation in the percentage of women after the implementation of a 2011 Belgian policy reform, which introduced a gender quota for listed companies. Our difference-indifferences estimates show that the policy resulted in the replacement of about one male director by a female one in the average firm between 2010 and 2017. However, this increase in diversity appears to have negatively affected some firm performance indicators. We find statistically significant negative effects for 10 out of the 24 financial indicators included in this study-the other 14 indicators showed no significant effect. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for public policy.
Journal of Social Policy, 2021
Journal of Applied Economics, 2020
We propose a model of excess commuting based on search costs in the labor market and show how the... more We propose a model of excess commuting based on search costs in the labor market and show how the equilibrium rate of excess commuting is determined by the degree of geographical job concentration-without neglecting the importance of the size of the labor market and commuting costs. We test-and largely confirm-the main predictions of our model using Belgian population data on commuting flows between all its 589 municipalities. Our approach is to aggregate the data into 640 sector and skill specific groups in order to generate heterogeneity in the excess commuting rate. We find that workers in sectors with a high degree of job concentration have lower rates of excess commuting and that workers that operate in larger labor markets, such as higher educated workers and men compared to women, have higher rates of excess commuting.
Industrial Relations Journal, 2021
We estimate the effect of the number of children on the female and the male wage-elasticity of la... more We estimate the effect of the number of children on the female and the male wage-elasticity of labor supply to the firm, using instrumental variables estimation in data from the US Current Population Survey (CPS, 2000-2019). Parents' number of children is instrumented with the sex mix of their first two children. We find that the male wage-elasticity of labor supply to the firm significantly increases with the number of children, while the female elasticity is not significantly altered. That is, we find evidence that male labor markets become more competitive with the arrival of children. Our results also show that firms have substantial monopsonistic power and, in line with the monopsony theory of the gender pay gap, that male labor markets are more competitive than female markets.
Brussels Studies, 2020
Since the 1980s, there has been a trend for businesses and public administrations to focus on the... more Since the 1980s, there has been a trend for businesses and public administrations to focus on their core activities, outsourcing tasks such as IT, security, catering and cleaning services. However, in recent years, many organisations have been reversing the trend by insourcing, or “backsourcing”, some of these activities. The aim of this article is to study the extent to which activities have been outsourced in the Brussels regional administrations, its impact on workers and organisations involved, and the attitudes of stakeholders towards a possible re-internalisation of low-skilled jobs. Based on a multidisciplinary BSI project for Talent.Brussels, our findings show that decisions about outsourcing and insourcing are complex and multidimensional, and that they should not be based solely on monetary cost considerations.
Environmental and Resource Economics, 2020
As our behavioral patterns change due to the COVID-19 crisis, our impact on nature and the enviro... more As our behavioral patterns change due to the COVID-19 crisis, our impact on nature and the environment changes too. Pollution levels are showing significant reductions. People are more aware of the importance of access to local green and blue spaces. By analyzing online search behavior in twenty European countries, we investigate how public awareness of nature and the environment has evolved during the COVID-19 crisis. We find that the crisis goes hand in hand with a positive shift in public awareness of nature-related topics, but that awareness of environmental topics remains unaffected. While the decreasing pollution levels and media attention may reduce the overall sense of urgency to tackle pollution problems, the increased experience with local natural resources may strengthen public support for a recovery program that puts the transition towards a more sustainable economic system centrally.
Journal of Business Research, 2020
The literature on service encounters rarely disentangles linguistic preferences from their associ... more The literature on service encounters rarely disentangles linguistic preferences from their association with ethnic preferences of customers, and rarely studies the selection of the service provider. We analyse the choice of domestic workers in the Brussels urban region, a region characterized by a high degree of ethnic and linguistic heterogeneity. A discrete choice experiment disentangles the linguistic from the ethnic preferences of households with respect to the recruitment of domestic workers before the encounter takes place. Our results show that households attach substantial value to linguistic convergence: they strongly prefer a housekeeper that speaks their home language, while alternative common languages are still preferred over no communication at all. Furthermore, after taking into account linguistic preferences, households still exhibit discriminatory tastes, with clear-cut ethnic preferences. The particular strength of the linguistic preferences is most likely due to the fact that domestic service encounters are recurrent and occur in the personal sphere.
Urban Studies, 2019
The literature on spatial mismatch often focuses on a mismatch within cities or local labour mark... more The literature on spatial mismatch often focuses on a mismatch within cities or local labour markets. This paper looks at the spatial mismatch between local labour markets. Using US data, we study the evolution of inter-regional mismatch between 1980 and 2010 and how this evolution varies across skill levels. Since we expect the spatial structure of supply and demand in the labour market to play a central role at this geographical level, we develop an extension of the spatial mismatch index, as the standard version does not take this spatial structure into account. Our results indicate that spatial mismatch has been increasing over the past decades, an increase that is largely attributable to spatial structure effects. The inter-regional spatial mismatch mainly affects low-skilled jobs and workers: our findings suggest that the degree of the spatial mismatch for low-skilled, relative to high-skilled workers, increased from a ratio of two in 1980 to almost four in 2010.
Over.Werk, 2017
Eén van de centrale uitdagingen voor de arbeidsmarkt van de toekomst wordt “monopsonie” – een sit... more Eén van de centrale uitdagingen voor de arbeidsmarkt van de toekomst wordt “monopsonie” – een situatie van relatief lage lonen en slechte arbeidsvoorwaarden in bepaalde jobs als gevolg van gebrekkige concurrentie. De aandacht voor monopsonie is de voorbij jaren sterk toegenomen onder economen en ook onder beleidsmakers in sommige landen. Monopsonie is immers belangrijk voor de loonvorming, maar ook voor fenomenen zoals de gender-loonkloof of de moeilijk invulbare vacatures in bepaalde sectoren. Een aantal structurele trends doen bovendien vermoeden dat het belang ervan voor de loonvorming de komende jaren verder zal toenemen. Dit artikel bespreekt enkele recente onderzoeksbevindingen en beleidsmaatregelen omtrent monopsonie en het pleit ervoor om het probleem ook in Vlaanderen de nodige aandacht te geven.
This paper studies the effect of working hours on vertical sex segregation using Belgian micro-da... more This paper studies the effect of working hours on vertical sex segregation using Belgian micro-data on promotions. Using Yun decompositions we find that more than 40 percent of the promotion gaps between men and women can be explained by gender differences in contract hours, overtime hours and occasional late work. The fact that women often work in sectors that offer less promotion possibilities is another important factor. The presence of children strongly affects the promotion chances of female employees, but not those of the male employees in our sample. This evidence supports theories that relate the availability of part-time work to the degree of vertical segregation in countries.
We study cross-cultural differences in self-promotion by comparing the self-citation behavior of ... more We study cross-cultural differences in self-promotion by comparing the self-citation behavior of scholarly authors originating from individualist and collectivist cultures, using original data on 1,346 journal articles published between 2009 and 2014 in the fields of Management and Business. Our main finding is that articles by authors from individualist cultures are about twice as likely to contain many self-citations. Our results confirm the presence of a gender gap in self-citations, but we show that this effect is smaller than the cultural effect and that the effect appears to be stable across cultures. These findings show that the structure of rewards and costs associated with particular self-promotion tactics differ from culture to culture. Implications of cultural variations in self-promotion are discussed. Practitioner points • We develop theory and provide empirical evidence about cultural and gender differences in self-promoting behavior. • As the workforce diversifies, a broader awareness of these differences might affect the actions of both employees and HR departments.. Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Vetle Ingvald Torvik for assistance with the ethnicity classification and to the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.
Purpose – This study tests hypotheses regarding the importance of employee preferences in explain... more Purpose – This study tests hypotheses regarding the importance of employee preferences in explaining Sticky Floors, the pattern that women are, compared to men, less likely to start to climb the job ladder. Data/methods – We use original data obtained using a survey and a vignette study in which participants had to score the likeliness with which they would accept job offers with different promotion characteristics. Findings – The main findings are that female young professionals have a less pronounced preference for more demanding and less routinary jobs and that this effect is mediated by the greater risk aversion and anticipated gender discrimination among women. No gender differences were found in the relative likeliness to apply for jobs that involve a promotion in terms of job authority.
Reemployment chances for unemployed aged fifty and over are low compared to those of younger pers... more Reemployment chances for unemployed aged fifty and over are low compared to those of younger persons. To explain the different chances, the job search literature has largely focused on the job search behaviour of unemployed individuals. Based on job search models, we propose that not only job search behaviour, but also wage setting behaviour, attitudinal variables and personal variables impact the difference in reemployment opportunities. Besides gaining insight into which variables explain the difference in reemployment opportunities, we also test how much of the difference each of these variables explains. We do this by drawing on a decomposition analysis. Using data from 647 recently unemployed, we find that about one third of the reemployment gap can be explained by the variables suggested by job search models, mostly in terms of age differences in search behaviour, educational levels and reservation wage. Hence, about 70 percent can be ascribed to other factors, such as employer preferences for those aged between 18 and 49. Implications of these results for theory, policy and practice are discussed.
This article examines the effect of blended learning on adult learners’ academic success. Using a... more This article examines the effect of blended learning on adult learners’ academic success. Using a large administrative data set we test the impact of introducing a blended learning format within the first year of a business education curriculum on course persistence and performance. Our difference-in-difference research design minimizes the potential bias resulting from the selectivity of learners enrolled in blended programmes. We find that blended learning improves exam results. Although we observe a negative effect on the course persistence of adult learners (increased dropout due to blended learning), the overall effect on course pass rates remains positive. Implications for practice and follow-up studies are discussed.
This article analyses the migration dynamics in the wake of the 1845–1847 subsistence crisis in... more This article analyses the migration dynamics in the wake of the 1845–1847 subsistence crisis in Flanders by means of a quantitative analysis of key demographic and economic data at municipal level. The data are unique in that they allow to directly measure in-migration and out-migration at the level of individual villages and towns. The results show that contrary to the powerful image of a push-driven rural exodus, it was not the villages hardest hit by the crisis that recorded the highest levels of migration. Rather, in-migration and out-migration rates often moved in tandem, and were determined primarily by existing migration traditions.
Selection bias arises in non-random samples when unobserved factors are correlated both with the ... more Selection bias arises in non-random samples when unobserved factors are correlated both with the probability of being selected in the sample and with the explanatory variables. A common identification strategy when selection bias is suspected, is to apply the ‘heckit model’ proposed by James Heckman, whose seminal work reconceptualised selection bias as a form of omitted variable bias that can be corrected by adding a control to the model that reflects the probability of selection into the sample. This chapter examines the problem of sample selection bias and Hechman’s sample selection model in the field of educational issues. We discuss the importance of sample selection bias in educational research, review the use of the heckit model in the educational literature and present an overview of the extent to which heckit models re-adjust previous findings. The strengths and weaknesses of the heckit approach are critically assessed and potential directions for future research are explored.
Cambridge Journal of Economics, 2024
Many firms engage in marketing efforts to improve their image as an employer (employer branding [... more Many firms engage in marketing efforts to improve their image as an employer (employer branding [EB]). This article re-conceptualises EB as an instrument used by firms to increase their monopsonistic power (Robinson, 1933), that is, the power of firms to set wages below the level that would be expected in a competitive labour market. To test this hypothesis, we perform a vignette experiment using original data collected via Amazon Mechanical Turk in which we randomly vary wage offers at employer-branded and not-branded firms. Our results indicate that employerbranded firms possess more monopsonistic power, particularly over male workers. We conclude by arguing that the wage-setting power of firms not only arises from illegal practices and clear aberrations of the economic system-as is the dominant discourse-but also from certain legal and widely accepted business practices.
Labour Economics, 2021
This paper studies the effect of unemployment duration on asking (reservation) wages. We provide ... more This paper studies the effect of unemployment duration on asking (reservation) wages. We provide new evidence based on unique longitudinal data on unemployed workers in Belgium, who were surveyed about self-reported reservation wages at the start of the unemployment spell, and after 3 and 6 months of unemployment duration. Our estimates suggest that reservation wages decline with unemployment duration by about 0.4 percent per month, or 5 percent per year, and that cross-sectional estimates are biased upward. We find stronger declines among men and among workers who earned high wages in their previous jobs. The paper discusses these findings in the light of learning models and discusses the implications of falling reservation wages for the debate on the effect of unemployment on wages.
ROBONOMICS: The Journal of the Automated Economy, 2021
This paper reviews the economic literature about the effects of the digital revolution on the lab... more This paper reviews the economic literature about the effects of the digital revolution on the labour market, and provides a non-technical introduction to the labour economics of automation. It conceptualizes the digital revolution and describes how recent technological trends, such as robotics, industry 4.0, artificial intelligence and the platform economy, affect specific occupations. It reviews the main economic theories and the empirical evidence of how automation affects labour demand, the occupational structure and the work task composition of occupations. It discusses the consequences of this occupational change for labour market outcomes such as wages, inequality, job quality and unemployment. The paper concludes with a discussion of the main avenues for further research.
International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 2021
We estimate the effect of the gender composition of company boards on firm performance by exploit... more We estimate the effect of the gender composition of company boards on firm performance by exploiting variation in the percentage of women after the implementation of a 2011 Belgian policy reform, which introduced a gender quota for listed companies. Our difference-indifferences estimates show that the policy resulted in the replacement of about one male director by a female one in the average firm between 2010 and 2017. However, this increase in diversity appears to have negatively affected some firm performance indicators. We find statistically significant negative effects for 10 out of the 24 financial indicators included in this study-the other 14 indicators showed no significant effect. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for public policy.
Journal of Social Policy, 2021
Journal of Applied Economics, 2020
We propose a model of excess commuting based on search costs in the labor market and show how the... more We propose a model of excess commuting based on search costs in the labor market and show how the equilibrium rate of excess commuting is determined by the degree of geographical job concentration-without neglecting the importance of the size of the labor market and commuting costs. We test-and largely confirm-the main predictions of our model using Belgian population data on commuting flows between all its 589 municipalities. Our approach is to aggregate the data into 640 sector and skill specific groups in order to generate heterogeneity in the excess commuting rate. We find that workers in sectors with a high degree of job concentration have lower rates of excess commuting and that workers that operate in larger labor markets, such as higher educated workers and men compared to women, have higher rates of excess commuting.
Industrial Relations Journal, 2021
We estimate the effect of the number of children on the female and the male wage-elasticity of la... more We estimate the effect of the number of children on the female and the male wage-elasticity of labor supply to the firm, using instrumental variables estimation in data from the US Current Population Survey (CPS, 2000-2019). Parents' number of children is instrumented with the sex mix of their first two children. We find that the male wage-elasticity of labor supply to the firm significantly increases with the number of children, while the female elasticity is not significantly altered. That is, we find evidence that male labor markets become more competitive with the arrival of children. Our results also show that firms have substantial monopsonistic power and, in line with the monopsony theory of the gender pay gap, that male labor markets are more competitive than female markets.
Brussels Studies, 2020
Since the 1980s, there has been a trend for businesses and public administrations to focus on the... more Since the 1980s, there has been a trend for businesses and public administrations to focus on their core activities, outsourcing tasks such as IT, security, catering and cleaning services. However, in recent years, many organisations have been reversing the trend by insourcing, or “backsourcing”, some of these activities. The aim of this article is to study the extent to which activities have been outsourced in the Brussels regional administrations, its impact on workers and organisations involved, and the attitudes of stakeholders towards a possible re-internalisation of low-skilled jobs. Based on a multidisciplinary BSI project for Talent.Brussels, our findings show that decisions about outsourcing and insourcing are complex and multidimensional, and that they should not be based solely on monetary cost considerations.
Environmental and Resource Economics, 2020
As our behavioral patterns change due to the COVID-19 crisis, our impact on nature and the enviro... more As our behavioral patterns change due to the COVID-19 crisis, our impact on nature and the environment changes too. Pollution levels are showing significant reductions. People are more aware of the importance of access to local green and blue spaces. By analyzing online search behavior in twenty European countries, we investigate how public awareness of nature and the environment has evolved during the COVID-19 crisis. We find that the crisis goes hand in hand with a positive shift in public awareness of nature-related topics, but that awareness of environmental topics remains unaffected. While the decreasing pollution levels and media attention may reduce the overall sense of urgency to tackle pollution problems, the increased experience with local natural resources may strengthen public support for a recovery program that puts the transition towards a more sustainable economic system centrally.
Journal of Business Research, 2020
The literature on service encounters rarely disentangles linguistic preferences from their associ... more The literature on service encounters rarely disentangles linguistic preferences from their association with ethnic preferences of customers, and rarely studies the selection of the service provider. We analyse the choice of domestic workers in the Brussels urban region, a region characterized by a high degree of ethnic and linguistic heterogeneity. A discrete choice experiment disentangles the linguistic from the ethnic preferences of households with respect to the recruitment of domestic workers before the encounter takes place. Our results show that households attach substantial value to linguistic convergence: they strongly prefer a housekeeper that speaks their home language, while alternative common languages are still preferred over no communication at all. Furthermore, after taking into account linguistic preferences, households still exhibit discriminatory tastes, with clear-cut ethnic preferences. The particular strength of the linguistic preferences is most likely due to the fact that domestic service encounters are recurrent and occur in the personal sphere.
Urban Studies, 2019
The literature on spatial mismatch often focuses on a mismatch within cities or local labour mark... more The literature on spatial mismatch often focuses on a mismatch within cities or local labour markets. This paper looks at the spatial mismatch between local labour markets. Using US data, we study the evolution of inter-regional mismatch between 1980 and 2010 and how this evolution varies across skill levels. Since we expect the spatial structure of supply and demand in the labour market to play a central role at this geographical level, we develop an extension of the spatial mismatch index, as the standard version does not take this spatial structure into account. Our results indicate that spatial mismatch has been increasing over the past decades, an increase that is largely attributable to spatial structure effects. The inter-regional spatial mismatch mainly affects low-skilled jobs and workers: our findings suggest that the degree of the spatial mismatch for low-skilled, relative to high-skilled workers, increased from a ratio of two in 1980 to almost four in 2010.
Over.Werk, 2017
Eén van de centrale uitdagingen voor de arbeidsmarkt van de toekomst wordt “monopsonie” – een sit... more Eén van de centrale uitdagingen voor de arbeidsmarkt van de toekomst wordt “monopsonie” – een situatie van relatief lage lonen en slechte arbeidsvoorwaarden in bepaalde jobs als gevolg van gebrekkige concurrentie. De aandacht voor monopsonie is de voorbij jaren sterk toegenomen onder economen en ook onder beleidsmakers in sommige landen. Monopsonie is immers belangrijk voor de loonvorming, maar ook voor fenomenen zoals de gender-loonkloof of de moeilijk invulbare vacatures in bepaalde sectoren. Een aantal structurele trends doen bovendien vermoeden dat het belang ervan voor de loonvorming de komende jaren verder zal toenemen. Dit artikel bespreekt enkele recente onderzoeksbevindingen en beleidsmaatregelen omtrent monopsonie en het pleit ervoor om het probleem ook in Vlaanderen de nodige aandacht te geven.
This paper studies the effect of working hours on vertical sex segregation using Belgian micro-da... more This paper studies the effect of working hours on vertical sex segregation using Belgian micro-data on promotions. Using Yun decompositions we find that more than 40 percent of the promotion gaps between men and women can be explained by gender differences in contract hours, overtime hours and occasional late work. The fact that women often work in sectors that offer less promotion possibilities is another important factor. The presence of children strongly affects the promotion chances of female employees, but not those of the male employees in our sample. This evidence supports theories that relate the availability of part-time work to the degree of vertical segregation in countries.
We study cross-cultural differences in self-promotion by comparing the self-citation behavior of ... more We study cross-cultural differences in self-promotion by comparing the self-citation behavior of scholarly authors originating from individualist and collectivist cultures, using original data on 1,346 journal articles published between 2009 and 2014 in the fields of Management and Business. Our main finding is that articles by authors from individualist cultures are about twice as likely to contain many self-citations. Our results confirm the presence of a gender gap in self-citations, but we show that this effect is smaller than the cultural effect and that the effect appears to be stable across cultures. These findings show that the structure of rewards and costs associated with particular self-promotion tactics differ from culture to culture. Implications of cultural variations in self-promotion are discussed. Practitioner points • We develop theory and provide empirical evidence about cultural and gender differences in self-promoting behavior. • As the workforce diversifies, a broader awareness of these differences might affect the actions of both employees and HR departments.. Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Vetle Ingvald Torvik for assistance with the ethnicity classification and to the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.
Purpose – This study tests hypotheses regarding the importance of employee preferences in explain... more Purpose – This study tests hypotheses regarding the importance of employee preferences in explaining Sticky Floors, the pattern that women are, compared to men, less likely to start to climb the job ladder. Data/methods – We use original data obtained using a survey and a vignette study in which participants had to score the likeliness with which they would accept job offers with different promotion characteristics. Findings – The main findings are that female young professionals have a less pronounced preference for more demanding and less routinary jobs and that this effect is mediated by the greater risk aversion and anticipated gender discrimination among women. No gender differences were found in the relative likeliness to apply for jobs that involve a promotion in terms of job authority.
Reemployment chances for unemployed aged fifty and over are low compared to those of younger pers... more Reemployment chances for unemployed aged fifty and over are low compared to those of younger persons. To explain the different chances, the job search literature has largely focused on the job search behaviour of unemployed individuals. Based on job search models, we propose that not only job search behaviour, but also wage setting behaviour, attitudinal variables and personal variables impact the difference in reemployment opportunities. Besides gaining insight into which variables explain the difference in reemployment opportunities, we also test how much of the difference each of these variables explains. We do this by drawing on a decomposition analysis. Using data from 647 recently unemployed, we find that about one third of the reemployment gap can be explained by the variables suggested by job search models, mostly in terms of age differences in search behaviour, educational levels and reservation wage. Hence, about 70 percent can be ascribed to other factors, such as employer preferences for those aged between 18 and 49. Implications of these results for theory, policy and practice are discussed.
This article examines the effect of blended learning on adult learners’ academic success. Using a... more This article examines the effect of blended learning on adult learners’ academic success. Using a large administrative data set we test the impact of introducing a blended learning format within the first year of a business education curriculum on course persistence and performance. Our difference-in-difference research design minimizes the potential bias resulting from the selectivity of learners enrolled in blended programmes. We find that blended learning improves exam results. Although we observe a negative effect on the course persistence of adult learners (increased dropout due to blended learning), the overall effect on course pass rates remains positive. Implications for practice and follow-up studies are discussed.
This article analyses the migration dynamics in the wake of the 1845–1847 subsistence crisis in... more This article analyses the migration dynamics in the wake of the 1845–1847 subsistence crisis in Flanders by means of a quantitative analysis of key demographic and economic data at municipal level. The data are unique in that they allow to directly measure in-migration and out-migration at the level of individual villages and towns. The results show that contrary to the powerful image of a push-driven rural exodus, it was not the villages hardest hit by the crisis that recorded the highest levels of migration. Rather, in-migration and out-migration rates often moved in tandem, and were determined primarily by existing migration traditions.
Selection bias arises in non-random samples when unobserved factors are correlated both with the ... more Selection bias arises in non-random samples when unobserved factors are correlated both with the probability of being selected in the sample and with the explanatory variables. A common identification strategy when selection bias is suspected, is to apply the ‘heckit model’ proposed by James Heckman, whose seminal work reconceptualised selection bias as a form of omitted variable bias that can be corrected by adding a control to the model that reflects the probability of selection into the sample. This chapter examines the problem of sample selection bias and Hechman’s sample selection model in the field of educational issues. We discuss the importance of sample selection bias in educational research, review the use of the heckit model in the educational literature and present an overview of the extent to which heckit models re-adjust previous findings. The strengths and weaknesses of the heckit approach are critically assessed and potential directions for future research are explored.
In De promotiekloof worden de promotiekansen van mannen en vrouwen op de Belgische arbeidsmarkt g... more In De promotiekloof worden de promotiekansen van mannen en vrouwen op de Belgische arbeidsmarkt geanalyseerd. Bestaat het glazen plafond? Zijn de carrièreverschillen tussen vrouwen en mannen aan het verdwijnen? Kiezen vrouwen er zelf voor om te werken in lagere carrièreniveaus of worden vrouwen gediscrimineerd? Nick Deschacht beschrijft op een heldere manier de resultaten van zijn recent econometrisch onderzoek naar deze vragen.
Vrouwen verdienen nog steeds minder dan mannen en lijken ook moeilijker carrière te maken. Weinig... more Vrouwen verdienen nog steeds minder dan mannen en lijken ook moeilijker carrière te maken. Weinig topposities worden ingenomen door vrouwen of meer algemeen: vrouwen stromen minder vlot door in hiërarchische jobladders.
De carrièrekloof is het resultaat van een complex samenspel van een veelheid aan invloedsfactoren waaronder persoonlijke kenmerken (opleiding, gezinssituatie, etc.), en jobkarakteristieken (zoals deeltijds werk). Daarnaast heeft ook het gevoerde beleid een invloed op carrières.
In dit boek worden inzichten verworven in carrièreverschillen tussen mannen en vrouwen in België. Hierbij wordt carrièrevooruitgang bestudeerd rekening houdend met het loon, maar ook met dimensies zoals functieniveau en mate van autoriteit. De carrièrekloof wordt onderzocht op basis van de gegevens die verzameld werden in de Panel Study on Belgian Households (PSBH). Een antwoord wordt geformuleerd op vragen zoals: Maken mannen vaker promotie dan vrouwen? Bestaat het glazen plafond in België? Wat is de invloed van de partner op de eigen carrière?
Using maps to visualize the spatial distribution of geographical data used to be reserved for spe... more Using maps to visualize the spatial distribution of geographical data used to be reserved for specialists. New tools, such as the spmap command in Stata, make the creation of maps more accessible to a wider group of researchers and students. I illustrate how Stata can be used to create smoothed maps. Just like smoothed time-series can visualize trends over time by using a moving average, a smoothed map may help to visualize patterns across space. I show that smoothed maps are a great tool for exploratory and descriptive analysis.