Eduardo Haddad , Luis Galvis (p)

Colombia is a country with high income inequalities compared to other economies in the international context. In 2016, the Gini index reached 0.51, placing Colombia as one of the most unequal countries on the continent, second only to Haiti. On the other hand, there are notable regional economic differences within the country. For example, the per capita GDP in the department of Casanare is ten times that of Vaupés. In order to reduce disparities, the decentralization policy has redistributed revenues from the resources of the Central National Government (CNG), but the inequalities have not decreased. In this work we carry out an analysis of the distribution of CNG resources evaluating different scenarios. Specifically, we use an interregional CGE model to we simulate a distribution using the participation of territorial entities in terms of population, the number of poor people and the gaps in terms of horizontal fiscal equity. The results show that when the distribution is carried out based on the number of inhabitants, there are gains in the growth of the aggregate income. However, when the distribution is carried out according to redistributive criteria, such as the number of poor or the horizontal equity gaps, the growth of aggregate income is reduced. In this sense, in order to overcome the reduction of growth, it is necessary that there are increases in the productivity of the regions that receive the greatest amount of resources, so that we maintain higher levels of growth. We highlight the importance of the tradeoff between equity and efficiency.

Kristina Nyström (p)

Many entrepreneurs witness problems with recruiting new employees. In fact, many firms identify recruitment as the main obstacle to firm growth. In the Swedish context about 1/4 of the businesses perceive that difficulties to recruit employees who match their demand is an obstacle to growth (The Swedish Federation of Business Owners, 2017 and The Swedish confederation of employers, 2016). Furthermore, recruitment problems may lead to skill mismatches. According to OECD (2016) about 40% of Swedish employees are mismatched by qualifications, while about 10% are mismatched by skills. Accordingly, skill shortages and skill mismatch are identified as one of the main challenges to the Swedish economy, which have potential to negatively influence economic growth. (see. e.g. World Bank, 2014). Recruitment problems and skill mismatch can be expected to be particularity pronounced in small and remotely located regions where the number of applicants for open positions may be limited. Hence, in these regions recruitment process of scarce competences calls for thinking outside the box in order to be successful. This paper study the recruitment strategies and skill mismatch of scarce competences in remote regions. Do entrepreneurs in remote regions to a greater extent need to hire employees with skill mismatch?

For the purpose of studying recruitment of scarce competences the IT-sector has been selected as a highly relevant sector for investigation. Unique data are gathered by conducting a survey to firms that recently has been involved in recruitment processes. In order to reach this target- group job postings in the IT-sector is gathered and contact persons for the recruitment are contacted to follow up with a questionnaire covering questions about the recruitment process and the success of the recruitment in terms perceived skill-and qualification match. In order to study to what extent remotely located firms perceive the skill mismatch more or less prevalent in the recruitment, compared to other firms, the same questionnaire is sent to a control group of firms located in non-remotely located regions. The empirical material is currently gathered and I look forward to receive feedback at the ERSA conference on the findings.

Bruno De Oliveira Cruz, Luiz Rubens Câmara Araújo , Thiago Mendes Rosa (p)

Brasilia (FD), the administrative capital of Brazil, has a very high youth unemployment rate, 40.4%, according the PED (Employment and Unemployment Survey). Young people without job or out of the school, the so-called ninja, has reached the impressive figure of 20% of this group (15 to 29 years). In absolute number, almost 105,000 young workers were in this situation in January 2018. The absence of job or any kind of occupation can potentially be a source of various social problems, like poverty and incidence of crime. At the same time, there is a growing effort by local government to increase vocational training and technical education opportunity to this population. This paper attempts to contribute to this debate, estimating the return for workers in technical related jobs in Federal District (FD), Brazil, between 2007 and 2014. We use a very rich administrative record of Brazilian formal labor market (RAIS), which allowed us to construct a panel of all formal workers in 2007, following them until 2014; identification of workers in technical occupation was based on national catalog of technical occupations organized by the Ministry of Education. The results shows a positive and significant wage premium – between 13% to 20% in favor of workers in technical occupation, controlling for other available observable variables (schooling, age, firm size, economic sector, job spell). Even restricting our sample to young workers (18 to 24 year-old) having high school diploma in the beginning of period– profile required for a technical occupation –the positive and significant wage premium remains, but in a lower magnitude (4.6% to 8.5%). Our results are in line with the Brazilian literature, which has mainly used cross-section data to evaluate the impact of vocational training and/or technical education (high school level). Nonetheless, given the panel structure of our data, we believe that our panel structure can control in a more efficient way the non-observable confounders and can explain the relative lower magnitude of coefficients. The results are also an encouraging and promising support for public policies in technical education, an opportunity to face young unemployment rate and give a professional career opportunity to the youthfulness, improving their transition from school to the labor market.

Kenichi Ishibashi (p)

In this research, we aim to clarify the situation that public hearing participants will change their opinions, and further clarify the factors that cause change in opinions using Game Simulation (GS).
Specifically, in lecture of university urban planning, we hold a virtual public hearing, observe the dynamics of change of opinion of participants, and clarify change pattern of opinion.
As a result, it became clear that opinion of the audience who participated continuously in the virtual public hearing changes greatly.