Current Table of Contents

• Using Alsace‐Moselle Local Laws to Build a Difference‐in‐Differences Estimation Strategy of the Employment Effects of the 35‐Hour Workweek Regulation in France
  Journal of Labor Economics, Volume 27, Issue 4, Page 487-524, October 2009. <br/> France’s 1998 implementation of the 35‐hour workweek has been one of the greatest regulatory shocks on labor markets. Few studies evaluate the impact of this regulation because of a lack of identification strategies. For historical reasons due to the way Alsace‐Moselle was returned to France in 1918, the implementation of France’s 35‐hour workweek was less stringent in that region than in the rest of the country, which is confirmed by double and triple differences. Yet it shows no significant difference in employment with the rest of France, which casts doubt on the effectiveness of this regulation.
• The Effect of Teachers’ Unions on Education Production: Evidence from Union Election Certifications in Three Midwestern States
  Journal of Labor Economics, Volume 27, Issue 4, Page 525-587, October 2009. <br/> Using a unique data set on teachers’ union election certifications from Iowa, Indiana, and Minnesota, I estimate the effect of teachers’ unions on school district resources and on student educational attainment. My empirical strategy allows for nonparametric leads and lags of union age. I find no impact on teacher pay or per student district expenditures but that unions increase teacher employment by 5%. I find no class size effect because of enrollment increases in unionized districts, and I estimate that unions have no net effect on high school dropout rates. These findings highlight the importance of correctly measuring unionization status.
• Manager Race and the Race of New Hires
  Journal of Labor Economics, Volume 27, Issue 4, Page 589-631, October 2009. <br/> Using personnel data from a large U.S. retail firm, we examine whether the race or ethnicity of the hiring manager affects the racial composition of new hires. We exploit manager turnover to estimate models with store fixed effects and store‐specific trends. First, we find that all nonblack managers—that is, whites, Hispanics, and Asians—hire more whites and fewer blacks than do black managers. This is especially true in the South. Second, in locations with large Hispanic populations, Hispanic managers hire more Hispanics and fewer whites than do white managers. We also examine possible explanations for these differential hiring patterns.
• Why Does Spousal Education Matter for Earnings? Assortative Mating and Cross‐Productivity
  Journal of Labor Economics, Volume 27, Issue 4, Page 633-652, October 2009. <br/> Spousal education is correlated with earnings for two reasons: cross‐productivity between couples and assortative mating. This article empirically disentangles the two effects by using Chinese twins data. We have two innovations: using twins data to control for the unobserved mating effect in our estimations and estimating both current and wedding‐time earnings equations. We find that both crossproductivity and mating are important in explaining the current earnings. Although the mating effect exists for both husbands and wives, the cross‐productivity effect mainly runs from Chinese husbands to wives. Our findings shed light on the theories of human capital, marriage, and the family.
• Are Training Programs More Effective When Unemployment Is High?
  Journal of Labor Economics, Volume 27, Issue 4, Page 653-692, October 2009. <br/> We estimate short‐run, medium‐run, and long‐run individual labor market effects of training programs for the unemployed by following program participation on a monthly basis over a 10‐year period. Since analyzing the effectiveness of training over such a long period is impossible with experimental data, we use an administrative database compiled for evaluating German training programs. Based on matching estimation adapted to address the various issues that arise in this particular context, we find a clear positive relation between the effectiveness of the programs and the unemployment rate over time.