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on Demographic Economics |
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Issue of 2011‒11‒14
fourteen papers chosen by Clarence Nkengne Tsimpo University of Montreal and World Bank Group |
| By: | Løken, Katrine; Lommerud, Kjell Erik; Lundberg, Shelly |
| Abstract: | Norwegian registry data is used to investigate the location decisions of a full population cohort of young adults as they complete their education, establish separate households and form their own families. We find that the labor market opportunities and family ties of both partners affect these location choices. Surprisingly, married men live significantly closer to their own parents than do married women, even if they have children, and this difference cannot be explained by differences in observed characteristics. The principal source of excess female distance from parents in this population is the relatively low mobility of men without a college degree, particularly in rural areas. Despite evidence that intergenerational resource flows, such as childcare and eldercare, are particularly important between women and their parents, the family connections of husbands appear to dominate the location decisions of less-educated married couples. |
| Keywords: | Gender relations; Geographic mobility; Married couples; Residence choice |
| JEL: | J12 J16 J61 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8640&r=dem |
| By: | Ebenstein, Avraham; Hazan, Moshe; Simhon, Avi |
| Abstract: | Prior to 1996, Israelis in collective communities (kibbutzim) shared the costs of raising children equally. This paper examines the impact of the privatization of kibbutzim on fertility behavior among members. We find that fertility declined by 6-15 percent following the shift to privatization. In light of the massive change in financial costs associated with childbearing due to privatization, our results suggest that financial considerations may be a more modest factor in fertility decisions than generally regarded. |
| Keywords: | fertility; privatization |
| JEL: | D1 J13 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8634&r=dem |
| By: | Anette Primdal Kvist; Helena Skyt Nielsen; Marianne Simonsen (School of Economics and Management, Aarhus University, Denmark) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses Danish register-based data for the population of children born in 1990-1997 to investigate the effects on parents of having a child with attention-deficit/hyperactivity-disorder (ADHD). Ten years after birth, parents of children diagnosed with ADHD have a 75 % higher probability of having dissolved their relationship and a 7-13 % lower labor supply. Exploiting detailed information about documented risk factors behind ADHD, we find that roughly half of this gap is due to selection. However, a statistically and economically significant gap is left, which is likely related to the impact of high psychic costs of coping with a child with ADHD. |
| Keywords: | ADHD, child health, marital dissolution, labor supply |
| JEL: | I12 J12 J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2011–10–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2011-14&r=dem |
| By: | Nadiya Kelle |
| Abstract: | In the early half of the twentieth century in West Germany the male breadwinner model was dominant with men playing the provider role and women staying at home and taking care of children. The employment of mothers was not a common practice, so that they only worked due to the financial situation of the family or at least justified their labor market activity that way. The present paper deals with the question if and how the employment careers of West German women with at least one child have developed in the process of social change. For this purpose a comparison of three cohorts (1936-45, 1946-55 and 1956-65) is carried out. It is of interest whether and how the employment patterns have changed. Another question is what are the crucial factors affecting the maternal employment and how have they changed with time. The analysis reveals that there are solid employment patterns of mothers, which change across cohorts for instance resulting in more part time employment participation after childbirth. Also the effects of the indicated factors have changed, whereas the marriage as well as the social position have lost their influence on the maternal employment in the process of social change. |
| Keywords: | employment, mothers, childbirth, social change, West Germany, sequence analysis, optimal matching, event history analysis |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp406&r=dem |
| By: | Nicolas Jacquemet (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne); Jean-Marc Robin (Sciences Po - Département d'Economie) |
| Abstract: | We propose a search-matching model of the marriage market that extends Shimer and Smith (2000) to allow for labor supply. We characterize the steady-state equilibrium when exogenous divorce is the only source of risk. The estimated matching probabilities that can be derived from the steady-state flow conditions are strongly increasing in both male and female wages. We estimate that the share of marriage surplus appropriated by the man increases with his wage and that the share appropriated by the woman decreases with her wage. We find that leisure is an inferior good for men and a normal good for women. |
| Keywords: | Marriage search model, collective labor supply, structural estimation. |
| JEL: | C78 D83 J12 J22 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:11050&r=dem |
| By: | Letizia Mencarini; Cristina Solera |
| Abstract: | Paths to adulthood have changed greatly in the last decades: entries into the labour market as well as into partnership or parenthood have been postponed, with also new sequences and interconnections. In this piece of work we observe life-courses from the ages of 14 to 35 of men and women born in four successive cohorts. We distinguish them by level of education, and we analyse the timing and frequencies of their first job, the first job as an insider (as an employee with a permanent contract or as a typical self-employed worker), episodes of atypical work or unemployment between first job and age 35, couple formation, and childbirth. Our analyses confirm that today's young Italians form a 'postponement generation', which achieves later, if at all, what previous generations had already achieved in their twenties. For men, until the cohort born in the 1960s, the norm for both high- and low-educated men was to be insiders at age 35, and to achieve that status rapidly. What has changed is that now men become labour-market insiders later, and the route is more tortuous, with long and repeated spells of unemployment or atypical work. For women – for whom being in employment, and working as insiders, has never been the norm – the change has been their greater involvement in the labour market, but with the greater risk, compared with men, of job insecurity, especially if their education level is low. In the later cohorts, the ages at first marriage or cohabitation and first childbirth have also changed, especially for highly educated men. This is strongly connected with changes in labour market paths, but with gender differences. Not holding an insider position inhibits the assumption of family responsibilities for men. For women economic and job insecurity seem to have less influence on childbirth. |
| Keywords: | Labour market stability and transition to first child; paths to adulthood; gender; education; changes across cohorts |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J62 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:219&r=dem |
| By: | Blanca Gutiérrez Valdivia; Pilar GarcÃa Almirall |
| Abstract: | Demographic change occurred in the last decade by the arrival of immigrant population has produced significant social and physical transformations in the Spanish cities. This article is part of a research on the residential and urban conditions of immigrant population in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona. In this study we have analyzed through case studies the relation between immigration and city through the study of the use of public space and housing characteristics. The immigrant population is generally a very diverse collective. We propose that points in common can be drawn from analyses that take into account other major characteristics, beyond country of origin, such as gender, economic situation and education level. Through observation of groups in public spaces, especially squares, it is possible to identify aspects related both to social status and to gender roles assigned by their original and adopted cultures. This paper focuses on Metropolitan Region of Barcelona, and analyzes its reality based on concrete data and specific in case studies, to verify and compare the initial proposal. To be able to determine parameters for comparison, we have worked with a methodological strategy based of several quantitative and qualitative tools to get an insight on residential and urban conditions of the immigrant population. The main technique used was the participant observation, involving direct observation and presence in different interaction spaces: streets, squares and public facilities. The observations involve two dimensions to make the analysis and the comparison between different fields of study easier: Physical dimension and Social dimension. This made it possible for us to become aware of the different uses made by immigrants and by the Spanish population based on their activities, gender, age, and interaction with other persons. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p1361&r=dem |
| By: | Delphine Boutin (Larefi - Laboratoire d'analyse et de recherche en économie et finance internationales - Université Montesquieu - Bordeaux IV : EA2954) |
| Abstract: | By reducing financial constraints and income variability, remittances can increase educational attainment and thereby reduce child labor supply, in the context of imperfect financial markets. This paper aims to analyze the impact of remittances on child labor and educational outcomes in Niger. More specifically, we investigate how recipient households in Niger decide to spend this extra income with regard to the decision on sending their children to school or to work. Our methodology differs from previous ones in important respects. First, we estimate whether there are significant differences according the negative shocks occurrence. Second, the endogeneity of migration decisions complicates the analysis as it requires the identification of two separate events that are often driven by similar factors. In order to delineate the effect of remittances from migration, we focus on children residing in non-migrant households. Third, we use a Propensity Score Matching method to calculate the average treatment effects of remittances on children labor force or schooling participation decisions. We use this approach to avoid the identification problem generated by a simple comparison of households that receive remittances and households that do not. This approach requires a rich database, which is provided by the Troisième enquête nationale sur le budget et la Consommation des ménages (Niger, 2007). Indeed, with a sample size close to 4 thousand households, this survey contains information on the size of remittances received, the nature of remittances, the country where the cash transfers come from and the frequency with respect to previous year. Our findings show the positive role of remittances on schooling in every scenario selected (with or without shocks experienced). The remittances' effects on children's participation in economic activities are however much more complex and depend if the household has recently experienced a negative shock. Thus, while one of the main advantages of remittances is to diversify income sources and protect families in downturns, the use of children to work as a coping strategy is still frequent in Niger. These two mechanisms (remittance and child work) appear to be complementary. |
| Keywords: | Remittances, Children time allocation, Propensity Score matching |
| Date: | 2011–07–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00637607&r=dem |
| By: | Roberto Leombruni; Michele Mosca |
| Abstract: | In Italy large work career gender gaps currently exists, particularly regarding wages and activity rates. The paper investigates the issue looking at lifetime incomes, where from the one side all the career gaps tend to accumulate, from the other the redistribution acted by the pension system may mitigate the differences. Exploiting an original database on the entire work careers, we document how the pay gap constantly opens with age and how women tend to cumulate lower seniority. Both gaps have an impact in the pension calculation, so that the day after retirement gender differences are even higher. By means of a microsimulation model we show that the pension system partially countervails labour market outcomes, implying lower differences in lifetime incomes. However, due to the current transition to an actuarially neutral system, the effect is going to vanish in following decades, posing some concerns about future prospects of gender income inequality. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wplabo:113&r=dem |
| By: | Federico Pablo-Marti; Antonio GarcÃa-Tabuenca; José Luis Crespo-Espert |
| Abstract: | The participation of women in entrepreneurial activity forty years ago was virtually an exception. However, nowadays this is an important economic and social phenomenon, with an outstanding impact on the dynamics of both advanced and emerging economies. This is significant not only from a quantitative viewpoint. The fact that female personal features, motives and managerial methods differ from those of men gives a new and interesting perspective –which is still subject to debate- to the analysis regarding training and consolidation of enterprises. Gender-related differences can be the vehicle to introduce innovative aspects that could be influential in the uncertain and changing economic environment after the current crises, particularly in those fields where business output is related to the quality of life. Adopting a previous regional model as a basis of study, we analyse in this work the characteristics that differentiate entrepreneurial women in Spain on the grounds of data collected from an own drafted survey regarding the entrepreneurial activity (607 complete questionnaires) carried out in 2009. The results obtained indicate the coexistence of two different types of entrepreneurial women. The first group gathers those women whose enterprises show, generally speaking, a similar sectoral distribution to that of the whole productive fabric, although with a slight tendency to be more present in services activities. Their characteristics and attitudes are, in general, quite similar to those registered among entrepreneurial men and many of these women come from entrepreneurial families. The second group is mainly made up of entrepreneurial women –frequently with family burdens and low qualified- devoted to services, particularly personal services and retail trade. Technological and managerial characteristics of companies managed by the entrepreneurial women belonging to this group differ substantially from the average of the economy, with a much more traditional and less innovative profile. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p1130&r=dem |
| By: | Flora M. Diaz-Perez; Olga Gonzalez-Morales |
| Abstract: | Abstract The present paper aims to ascertain whether gender differences continue to exist in Spain’s working population. It sets out to obtain empirical evidence of the employment profile according to gender, quantify the extent to which self-employment or salaried employment is associated with certain characteristics (age, education, marital status and economic sector) and to analyse the evolution undergone during the recent economic crisis (2005-2009). In the study multivariate analysis statistical techniques will be applied to micro-data from the Working Population Survey compiled by Spain’s National Statistics Office (INE). Results shows that significant gender differences in employment status are seen when this is disaggregated and that the economic crisis has had a negative impact especially in certain groups. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p478&r=dem |
| By: | Dobre Mihaela Hrisanta; Ailenei Dorel; Cristescu Amalia |
| Abstract: | A highly segmented labor market usually favors a mismatch between supply and demand, significantly limiting the functional flexibility and the resilience of this market to macroeconomic shocks. From this perspective, such a market hampers the transition of an EU member to the euro zone, adversely affecting the quality of integration. The causes of labor market segmentation are related to: imperfect competition between firms, information asymmetry, how workers signal on the labor market, limited mobility of workers across different sectors, etc. Labor market segmentation can be done according to several criteria: type of employment, length of employment, salary level, gender, ethnicity, age, etc. When the labor market segmentation is based on discriminatory attitudes, the propagated effects may adversely affect the economic, social and territorial cohesion status of a country. Being in the process of modernizing the labor market, of adapting the economic and social institutions to the requirements of the acquis communautaire, Romania has significant gaps to recover in relation to more developed countries in EU. Although virulent discrimination does not occur on the Romanian labor market, this phenomenon may delay the process of modernization and effective integration in the single European market. In this article, the authors analyze the main forms of discrimination at the regional level based on the following indicators: the Duncan Index at local level; rate discrimination by sex, nationality, and age; wage gap and occupational segregation by gender. They will also assess the effects of various forms of discrimination on the Romanian labor market flexibility. Keywords: discrimination; wage ; labor market. JEL classification: J01, J15, 16. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p1129&r=dem |
| By: | Rafael Lalive; Analía Schlosser; Andreas Steinhauer; Josef Zweimüller |
| Abstract: | Parental leave regulations in most OECD countries have two key policy instruments: job protection and cash benefits. This paper studies how mothers’ return to work behavior and labor market outcomes are affected by alternative mixes of these key policy parameters. Exploiting a series of major parental leave policy changes in Austria, we find that longer cash benefits lead to a significant delay in return to work and that the magnitude of this effect depends on the relative length of job protection and cash benefits. However, despite their impact on time on leave, we do not find a significant effect on mothers’ labor market outcomes in the medium run, neither of benefit duration nor of job-protection duration. To understand the relative importance (and interaction) of the two policy instruments in shaping mothers’ return to work behavior, we set up a non-stationary job search model in which cash benefits and job protection determine decisions of when to return to work and whether or not to return to the pre-birth employer. Despite its lean structure, the model does surprisingly well in matching empirically observed return to work profiles. The simulation of alternative counterfactual regimes shows that a policy that combines both job protection and benefits payments succeeds to induce mothers to spend some time with the child after birth without jeopardizing their medium run labor market attachment. |
| Keywords: | Parental leave, family and work obligations, return to work, labor supply, earnings, family earnings gap |
| JEL: | J13 J18 J22 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:econwp:042&r=dem |
| By: | Cipollone, Angela |
| Abstract: | By using data from the latest wave of the Indonesia Life Family Survey, the present work investigates whether and to which extent child time allocation depends on the joint impact of liquidity constraints and risk attitudes. We employ a double selection model of school hours, by adding time preferences, risk attitudes and proxies of risks and shocks among the relevant regressors, and controlling for sample selection and endogeneity of liquidity constraints and school enrolment. To this aim, we exploit measures of time preferences and risk attitudes elicited from individuals’ responses to hypothetical gambles and consider the past occurrence of shocks to proxy the risk profiles of the households under the assumption that households use past income volatility to predict future volatility. It will be shown that, under liquidity constraints, risk averse parents raise a precautionary demand for education as an ex-ante risk coping strategy, so to insure future consumption through higher returns from their children’s work. |
| Keywords: | schooling; risk aversion; liquidity constraints; risks; shocks |
| JEL: | J13 J22 D91 |
| Date: | 2011–11–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:34575&r=dem |