Ott Toomet

Ethnic Wage Gap and Political Break-Ups: Estonia During Political and Economic Transition

We analyse the ethnic wage gap in Estonia, a former Soviet republic and current EU member, which hosts a substantial Russianspeaking minority. The analysis covers a lengthy period from the final years of the Soviet Union until the first years of EU membership. We document the rise of a substantial wage gap among males in favour of the Estonian-speaking population. This result is robust with respect to controls for language skills, education, industry and occupation. The main factors causing the unexplained wage gap include different ethnicity-specific returns to education and working in the capital city. The gap for young and established workers is of equal size.We argue that the most plausible explanations are establishmentlevel segregation, possibly related to sorting and screening discrimination. Unobserved human capital, related to the segregated school system, may also play a certain role.

Ethnic segmentation in leisure time activities in Estonia

This paper examines the differences between the leisure time activities of members of the minority and majority populations of Estonia. Because people only meet when they undertake similar activities, it is important for social cohesion to identify the kinds of activities that different ethnic groups engage in during their free time. The data for this study were obtained from the Estonian Time Use Surveys of 2000 and 2010. In this paper, we analyse rates of participation in various cultural events, entertainment activities, outdoor recreation and sport. Our analysis reveals important ethnic differences in almost all leisure activities that partly stem from the uneven distribution of minorities over settlement types. Less than half of the differences relate to socio-economic status and individual wealth. The rest of ethnic segmentation in leisure activities can be attributed to preferences, differential residential patterns of ethnic groups over Estonia’s regions and the feeling of being a stranger in leisure time places where other ethnic groups are already over-represented.

Where Do Ethno-Linguistic Groups Meet? How Copresence during Free-Time Is Related to Copresence at Home and at Work

This paper analyzes ethnic segregation across the whole activity space—at place of residence, place of work, and during free-time. We focus on interethnic meeting potential during free-time, measured as copresence, and its relationship to copresence at place of residence and work. The study is based on cellphone data for a medium-sized linguistically divided European city (Tallinn, Estonia), where the Estonian majority and mainly Russian-speaking minority populations are of roughly equal size. The results show that both places of residence and work are segregated, while other activities occur in a far more integrated environment. Copresence during free-time is positively associated with copresence at place of residence and work, however, the relationship is very weak.

The supercluster-void network V. - The regularity periodogram

We analyze the distribution of Abell clusters of galaxies to study the regularity of the supercluster-void network. We apply a new method, the regularity periodogram, that is sensitive to the geometry of the location of clusters, and measure the regularity of the network. We find that the supercluster-void network resembles a cubic lattice over the entire volume considered (out to the distance of 350 h 1 Mpc). The distribution of clusters in rich superclusters is not isotropic: it is periodic along a cubic lattice approximately aligned with the supergalactic coordinates SGX;SGY;SGZ. This large-scale inhomogeneity does not contradict recent CMB data, but its theoretical explanation remains a challenge.We analyse the distribution of Abell clusters of galaxies to study the regularity of the supercluster-void network. We apply a new method sensitive to the geometry of the location of clusters, and measure the goodness of regularity of the network. We find that the superclustervoid network resembles a cubical lattice over the whole space investigated. The distribution of rich superclusters is not isotropic: along the main axis of the network it is periodic with a step of length ≈ 130 h Mpc, whereas along the diagonal of the network the period is larger, as expected for a cubical lattice. This large-scale inhomogeneity is compatible with recent CMB data.

Social Networks and Labor Market Inequality between Ethnicities and Races

This paper analyzes the relationship between unexplained racial/ethnic wage differentials on the one hand and social network segregation, as measured by inbreeding homophily, on the other hand. Our analysis is based on both U.S. and Estonian surveys, supplemented with Estonian telephone communication data. In case of Estonia we consider the regional variation in economic performance of the Russian minority, and in the U.S. case we consider the regional variation in black-white differentials. Our analysis finds a strong relationship between the size of the differential and network segregation: regions with more segregated social networks exhibit larger unexplained wage gaps.

Threat Effect Of The Labour Market Programs In Denmark: Evidence From A Quasi-Experiment

This paper analyses the pre-participation effect of the Danish active labour market programs on the welfare recipients. The Danish participation rules differ for “young” and “old” individuals. A reform which increased the age boundary between “young” and “old”is used to identify the effect of the “threat” of active labour market program participation before the actual participation starts. We use a register-based dataset and focus on the transition intensity out of welfare. We show that the reform led to a 25% increase in early exit rate for men, which corresponds to effect of halving the benefits. There is no indication that the reform led to exits elsewhere than employment or to lower-quality jobs. The impact on women is smaller, statistically not significant, and partially related to movements to education. There is some evidence that the effect is related to the arrival of specific information (anticipation effect) and it is limited to a number of compliers only.

Wage Gap in an Ethnically Segmented Labor Market: The Role of Cognitive Skills

We analyzed the ethnic wage gap in Estonia that hosts a large Russian-speaking minority population. We used the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition to test whether the observed wage gap among the working population is related to commonly unobserved skills. Data from the Estonian Labor Force Survey and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) have been used. We find that the three PIAAC skills combination lowered the estimated unexplained wage differential by approximately 20%. We conclude that the unexplained wage gap is most likely related to entry barriers, combined with low-level segregation and segregated social networks.