Essays in economics : The impact of changes on the labor market induced by structural change, the adoption of a new computer-based technology and economic slowdowns on family formation, family fertility outcomes and new careers

Childlessness, Number of Children and The Labor Market at the Time of a New Technology, the US 1980-2018 The adoption of a new computer-based technology in the US in the late 1970s resulted in broad changes on the labor market that can be described by two major phenomena - job polarization and a shift in the relative returns to skill. A well established theoretical and empirical literature shows that commuting zones with a historically greater specialization in routine task intensive occupations adopted the new computer-based technology faster and subsequently saw greater changes on the local labor markets. In this paper, I build on the previous literature and analyze the relationship between the historical specialization of commuting zones in routine task intensive occupations and the change in family fertility outcomes in the US 1980-2018. The prediction is that commuting zones with a greater initial routine task specialization adopted the new technology faster and thereafter saw greater changes on the local labor markets, which further led to greater changes in the fertility outcomes. The estimation results suggest that among women in the age group 20-39 of any educational level, the shares of women with at least one child and at least two children decreased by more in commuting zones with a historically greater routine task employment. The result is driven by college educated women. Marital economic homogamy and earnings polarization, the US 1970-2018 In this paper I analyze what impact the polarization of earnings had on a rise in the economic resemblance between marriage partners aged 27-36 in the US 1970-2018. An earnings polarization means that the relative earnings gap at the upper end of the earnings distribution has been widening, while the relative earnings gap at the lower end of the earnings distribution has been narrowing in the US since the 1950s-1960s. I employ a structural change driven explanation of labor market polarization and the instrumental variable technique to identify the causal effect of interest. The estimation results show that the marital economic resemblance increases on the widening relative earnings gap at the upper/lower part of the earnings distribution and decreases on the narrowing relative earnings gap at the upper/lower part of the earnings distribution. Keeping all else equal, the polarization of earnings would account for 19 to 25 percent of the rise in the coefficient of marital sorting in the US between 1970 and 2018. New Careers, Labor Market Turmoil and Gender: Evidence from Russia 2000-2016 In this paper I study what was the effect of entering the labor market under adverse economic conditions on the career development of college educated men and women in Russia 2000-2016. The instrumental variable technique is used to identify the causal effect of interest. I find a negative immediate effect of graduating in a bad economy on the log hourly wage among all college graduates and among college graduate men. Although the negative effect gradually dissipates as the economy picks up, it remains present years after graduation. When it comes to college women, no immediate effect of graduating in a bad economy on the hourly wage is identified. The negative effect on the hourly wage among women first pops up three to five years after graduation. College men and women who graduated in a bad economy do, on average, have lower quality jobs which might explain negatively affected hourly wages