EALE Newsletter

December 2011, issue 43

Message from the President The September 2011  conference in Cyprus  was the 23rd annual conference of EALE. Once again the conference was a great success, both intellectually and socially, as well as being extremely well organised in a pleasant environment. I would very much like to thank again all those involved with making it so. In particular the conference local organisers, Louis Christofides, Nicoleta Pissarides and Lambros Yiorkadjis, and the EALE secretariat, but also all referees and the programme chair They all put an enormous effort into making the conference an unforgettable experience for all who attended. For some impressions of this conference, click here.   During the conference we were privileged to hear the key-note lectures presented by Anders Björklund on ‘How important is family background?’ and Janet Currie on ‘Inequality at birth’. We were also delighted to hear The 'Adam Smith' lecture presented by James Heckman entitled: ‘Hard evidence on soft skills’   During the invited, parallel and poster sessions many interesting papers were presented across a broad range of labour market topics, and at a consistently high standard.   The Young Labour Economist prize was awarded to Rasmus Landersø for his paper ‘Does incarceration length affect the labor market outcomes of violent offenders? ’, which he presented at the conference.   This was Steve Machin’s last conference as President. He served 3 years as President and 6 years as committee member. He received an honorary EALE membership to express our gratitude for his enthusiasm and committed support for the smooth running of the association. We also thank our leaving members of the executive committee Nabanita Datta Gupta and Francis Kramarz for their contribution over the past years. During the conference, we welcomed four new members of the executive committee: Marco Caliendo, Andrew Clark, Erik Plug and Klaus Zimmermann.      I am very honoured and happy to be the new President of EALE. I look forward to next year’s conference that will take place in Bonn, Germany, on 20-22 September 2012. This conference, hosted by IZA, will include keynote lectures by David Autor, Sandra Black and Enrico Moretti. It goes without saying that there will also be parallel sessions, poster sessions and topic-related invited sessions.  See for more information EALE conference 2012 and EALE Call for papers 2012. I very much look forward to seeing you all in Bonn. Jan van Ours

Call for papers - 24th EALE Conference - Join us in Bonn We are pleased to invite you to attend the 24th annual  Conference of the European Association of Labour Economists to be held in Bonn, Germany, on 20-22 September 2012. This is only the second time for the EALE Conference to visit Germany. Hosted by IZA, the conference will include invited lectures, topic-related invited sessions, parallel sessions and poster sessions. The conference will allow for informal research collaboration and, not least, some time to enjoy the beautiful Bonn area along the river Rhine. We are looking forward to welcome you in Bonn! Invited lectures: David Autor Sandra Black Enrico Moretti EALE and IZA invite all labor economists to submit papers for presentation at the EALE Conference in Bonn. Type of presentations at EALE conferences There are different ways to present research output at a conference. The usual way is through presentations in a parallel session in which 3 to 4 researchers talk about their work using a presentation program such as PowerPoint. At the end of the presentation there is time for questions. In a poster session the researcher presents information through a poster. Along with his fellow presenters, the researcher waits for passing colleagues to briefly present their work and answer questions. There are pros and cons to each format. In a parallel session the size of the audience is limited. In a poster session the presenter has to tell his/her story many times, but the potential audience is substantially larger and the interaction between presenter and audience can be more intense. At EALE conferences both formats are used and papers has the same status irrespective of the format. Papers presented in a poster session can be submitted to the special conference issue of Labour Economics and poster presenters can be rewarded with the Young Labour Economists' Prize for the best paper at the conference. The council of EALE wants to stimulate poster sessions by awarding a Prize for the best poster, starting from the 2012 conference in Bonn. Instructions for paper submission You are invited to submit papers for this conference according to the list of themes below. A scientific programme committee will evaluate all submitted papers. EALE 2012 will also have poster sessions. Papers should be submitted electronically using the online submission form. Please tick on the electronic submission form whether you wish to present a paper in a parallel sesion or a poster. Please take into account that for organisational reasons, we might need to evolve in a different way from your preference. The electronic submission form is now open for your paper contribution and will close after the deadline of February 1, 2012 at 23:59 Central European time. The link below will lead you automatically through the electronic process of the paper submission. To each paper an abstract must be added. Both your abstract and complete paper should be submitted through the electronic submission process. Only complete (draft) papers will be considered. Please complete all the required fields and enclose your complete paper as one pdf file (no tables, figures, etc. as separate files). You will receive a confirmation e-mail message after your submission has been completed. If you are not receiving this message or you receive an empty message then please contact us at eale-sbe@maastrichtuniversity.nl Acceptance decisions will be communicated by the 1st of March 2012. The conference registration site will be open from the 1st of March, 2012 as well. The accepted papers will be made available for downloading from the conference site. Your paper revisions can be uploaded anytime and should be sent to the EALE secretariat before September 1, 2012. Special conference issue of Labour Economics Authors of an accepted paper for this conference (either a poster or parallel presentation) will be invited shortly after the conference to submit their accepted and presented paper again for publication in the annual Conference Volume of the journal Labour Economics. EALE Young Economist Award The EALE grants an award of € 500 for an outstanding paper selected by a Scientific Committee. Researchers who have not completed their PhD yet, or have completed their PhD within three calendar years before the end of September 2012, are eligible for this Prize. Please note that your paper should be single authored.  If you meet the eligibility conditions and wish to be considered for the award, please tick the corresponding box on the paper submission form. Best Poster Award In addition to the Young Economist Award, EALE grants a Prize for the best poster as well. All actual presented posters will be automatically considered for the best poster award. For questions, please contact us at eale-sbe@maastrichtuniversity.nl Submit paper and abstract here

Labour Economics Report of the Editor-in-Chief June 2011 The attached PDF reports on the statistics of submission and the reviewing process for the period December 15 2003 – June 2011.  The submission numbers continue to grow apace: over this period we received 2124 submissions - 227 in 2004, 206 in 2005, 239 in 2006, 279 in 2007, 292 in 2008, 319 in 2009, 370 in 2010.  Out of the 96% of submissions that have received at least a first decision to date, our average response time has been 2.8 months: but in the last two years we have speeded up our response rate and have achieved a response time to first decision of around 2.3 months. Some, but by no means all, of this increase is due to increased desk rejections. The acceptance rate rose until 2008 where it peaked at about 20%, reflecting the increasing reputation of the journal, but it averaged about 15% over the period 2004-8. In the last two years the acceptance rate has fallen back as we exercise a little more discretion. The impact factor of Labour Economics has risen consistently: from 0.59 in 2006, to 0.67 in 2007, to 0.9 in 2008, and to 1.0 in 2009 but only to 0.78 in 2010.  Our analysis suggests that the 2008 value contained a couple of outliers which have now washed out of the index. Ian Walker Find here the reports as printable PDF

Sponsors The Association is grateful for the financial support from:

Other Conferences - Call for Papers X "BRUCCHI LUCHINO" Labour Economics Workshop Rome,  December 15 - 16, 2011 More details >> Second International BIBB/IAB Workshop Germany, January 17 - 18, 2012 Keynotes and invited speakers: David Autor, MIT Department of Economics, Bernd Fitzenberger, Department of Applied Economics, University of Freiburg, Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, Department of Economics and Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, Heike Solga, Research Unit ‘Skill Formation and Labor Markets’, Social Science Research Center Berlin More details >> 15th IZA European Summer School in Labor Economics Buch am Ammersee Lake, 23 - 29 April 2012 Lecturers: Andrew Oswald (University of Warwick and IZA), Rainer Winkelmann (University of Zurich) The deadline for submission January 18, 2012 More details Seventeenth Annual Meeting SOLE Chicago, 4 - 5 May 2012 More details Eleventh IZA/SOLE Transatlantic Meeting of Labor Economists Buch/Ammersee, 31 May - 3 June 2012 The deadline for submission is January 16, 2012 More details The third International Workshop on Applied Economics of Education Catanzaro, 17 - 19 June 2012 Keynote speakers: Giorgio Brunello (University of Padova), Kjell Salvanes (Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration), Holger Sieg (University of Pennsylvania The deadline for submission is February 29, 2012 More details 26th ESPE Conference Bern, 20 - 23 June 2012 The deadline for submission is February 1, 2012 More details International Conference 'Inequalities, skills and globalization' Lille, 21 - 22 June 2012 The deadline for submission is March 1, 2012 More details

Ekonomia http://www.ekonomia.ucy.ac.cy/ the journal of the Cyprus Economic Society (edited by the Department of Economics, University of Cyprus) http://www.ucy.ac.cy/goto/economics/en-US/HOME.aspx invites submissions of high quality original articles which are not under review by another journal. Papers in any field of economics will, after a speedy initial screening by the editors, be submitted for refereeing and processed expeditiously. There is no submission fee.  Please follow the link above to submit a paper for consideration.

New Books   Martin Kahanec/Klaus F. Zimmermann Ethnic diversity in European labor markets: challenges and solutions ISBN: 978-1848445598   New 2011 volumes of the IZA Prize Book Series In cooperation with renowned publisher Oxford University Press, IZA published four new volumes of the prestigious IZA Prize Book Series in 2011. Each IZA Prize in Labor Economics Laureate contributes a volume to this unique collection of seminal research covering a broad range of topics in labor economics. Among the new titles are books authored by 2010 Nobel Prize Laureates Dale Mortensen and Chris Pissarides, the former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the US President, Edward Lazear, and the incumbent Chairman Alan Krueger (with David Card). The fourth 2011 volume was contributed by IZA Prize winners Richard Layard and Stephen Nickell. The year 2012 will see new series volumes by Francine Blau, Orley Ashenfelter and George Borjas/Barry Chiswick.   D. Mortensen/C. Pissarides Job Matching, Wage Dispersion, and Unemployment ISBN: 978-0-19-923378-6 (edited by: Konstantinos Tatsiramos and Klaus F. Zimmermann) E. Lazear Inside the Firm: Contributions to Personnel Economics ISBN: 978-0-19-969339-9 (edited by: Steffen Altman and Klaus F. Zimmermann)           D. Card/A. Krueger Wages, School Quality and Employment Demand ISBN: 978-0-19-969338-2 (edited by: Randall K.Q. Akee and Klaus F. Zimmermann)   R. Layard/S. Nickell Combatting Unemployment ISBN: 978-0-19-960978-9 (edited by: Werner Eichhorst and Klaus F. Zimmermann)           R. Easterlin Happiness, Growth and the Life Cycle ISBN: 978-0-19-959709-3 (edited by: Holger Hinte and Klaus F. Zimmermann) Jacob Mincer A Founding Father of Modern Labor Economics ISBN: 978-3-540-69381-0 (edited by: Pedro N. Teixeira)

The EALE Executive Committee President: Jan van Ours, CenTER, University of Tilburg, the Netherlands Secretary: Thomas Dohmen, ROA, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands Treasurer: Ana Rute Cardoso, IAE-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain Members: Marco Caliendo, IZA Bonn, Germany Louis Christofides, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus/University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada Andrew Clark, PSE, Ecole normale supérieure and CNRS, Paris, France Simon Gaechter, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK Maia Güell, University of Edinburgh, Edingburgh, UK and Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain Tuomas Pekkarinen, Helsinki School of Economics, Helsinki Finland Erik Plug, Amsterdam School of Economics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Åsa Rosén, Stockholm University, SOFI, Stockholm, Sweden Kjell Salvanes, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen, Norway Alexandra Spitz-Oener, Humboldt-University Berlin, Berlin, Germany Uwe Sunde, University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland Ian Walker, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster, UK Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria Klaus F. Zimmermann, IZA, Bonn, Germany

Contribute to the Newsletter The EALE newsletter provides information on the association’s activities, within the association's framework. All members are kindly invited to use the EALE Newsletter to make announcements of events in the field of Labour economics. Please send all contributions to the EALE secretariat.  Deadline for copy for Issue No. 44 is 15 April 2012. Previous issue of the EALE Newsletter: Newsletter 42

EALE secretariat Maastricht University • 6200 MD Maastricht • The Netherlands Tel: + 31 433883647 • Fax: +31 433884914 E-mail: eale-sbe@maastrichtuniversity.nl http://www.eale.nl