|
on Demographic Economics |
|
Issue of 2012‒01‒25
twenty-six papers chosen by Clarence Nkengne Tsimpo University of Montreal and World Bank Group |
| By: | Sarah Carmichael; Tine De Moor; Jan Luiten van Zanden |
| Abstract: | The study of the ages women marry and the age gap between husband and wife is well accepted by social-economic historians and demographers as it is highly associated with the growth of a population. There is however another reason for studying marriage patterns, that of female agency. Young girls who marry men many years their senior are likely left with very little say as to the terms of the union and later decisions made within the household. This is a hypothesis that has been explored by a number of authors recently as marriage patterns data is available on a large scale over a long time period. But how good a measure are ages at marriage of women and spousal age gaps. Rather than explore the mechanisms underlying this relationship this paper seeks to test marriage patterns as a measure of female empowerment by comparing a global set of marriage patterns data against three measures currently in use in the international development community, the Gender –related Development Index, the Global Gender Gap Index and the Gender Inequality Index. We use a new index of marriage ages (the Girlpower-Index) constructed by subtracting spousal age gap from marriage age and find that female SMAM and the Girlpower-Index both correlate strongly with the modern gender empowerment indices. This lends support to the use of marriage patterns as a historical measure of gender empowerment. |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucg:wpaper:0019&r=dem |
| By: | Quamrul H. Ashraf; David N. Weil; Joshua Wilde |
| Abstract: | We assess quantitatively the effect of exogenous reductions in fertility on output per capita. Our simulation model allows for effects that run through schooling, the size and age structure of the population, capital accumulation, parental time input into child-rearing, and crowding of fixed natural resources. The model is parameterized using a combination of microeconomic estimates, data on demographics and natural resource income in developing countries, and standard components of quantitative macroeconomic theory. We apply the model to examine the effect of an intervention that immediately reduces TFR by 1.0, using current Nigerian vital rates as a baseline. For a base case set of parameters, we find that an immediate decline in the TFR of 1.0 will raise output per capita by approximately 13.2 percent at a horizon of 20 years, and by 25.4 percent at a horizon of 50 years. |
| Keywords: | # |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bro:econwp:2011-14&r=dem |
| By: | Angela Luci (INED - Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques Paris - INED, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon Sorbonne); Olivier Thevenon (INED - Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques - INED) |
| Abstract: | We examine how far fertility trends respond to family policies in OECD countries. In the light of the recent fertility rebound observed in several OECD countries, we empirically test the impact of different family policy settings on fertility, using data from 18 OECD countries that spans the years 1982 to 2007. Our results confirm that each instrument of the family policy package (paid leave, childcare services and financial transfers) has a positive influence, suggesting that the addition of these supports for working parents in a continuum during the early childhood is likely to facilitate parents' choice to have children. Policy levers do not have similar weight, however: in-cash benefits covering childhood after the year of childbirth and the coverage of childcare services for children under age three have a larger potential influence on fertility than leave entitlements and benefits granted around childbirth. Our findings are robust once controlling for birth postponement, endogeneity, time lagged fertility reactions and for different national contexts, such as economic development, female employment rates, labour market insecurity and childbearing norms. |
| Keywords: | family policies; fertility; demographic economics; female employment; gender economics |
| Date: | 2011–12–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00660630&r=dem |
| By: | Angela Luci (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon Sorbonne); Olivier Thevenon (INED - Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques - INED) |
| Abstract: | We examine how far fertility trends respond to family policies in OECD countries. In the light of the recent fertility rebound observed in several OECD countries, we empirically test the impact of different family policy settings on fertility, using data from 18 OECD countries that spans the years 1982 to 2007. Our results confirm that each instrument of the family policy package (paid leave, childcare services and financial transfers) has a positive influence, suggesting that the addition of these supports for working parents in a continuum during the early childhood is likely to facilitate parents' choice to have children. Policy levers do not have similar weight, however: in-cash benefits covering childhood after the year of childbirth and the coverage of childcare services for children under age three have a larger potential influence on fertility than leave entitlements and benefits granted around childbirth. Our findings are robust once controlling for birth postponement, endogeneity, time lagged fertility reactions and for different national contexts, such as economic development, female employment rates, labour market insecurity and childbearing norms. |
| Keywords: | family policies; fertility; demographic economics; female employment; economics of gender |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-00657603&r=dem |
| By: | Klaus Prettner (Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies); David E. Bloom (Harvard School of Public Health); Holger Strulik |
| Abstract: | It is widely argued that declining fertility slows the pace of economic growth through its negative effect on labor supply. There are, however, theoretical arguments suggesting that the effect of falling fertility on effective labor supply can be offset by the associated behavioral changes. We formalize these arguments by setting forth a dynamic consumer optimization model that incorporates endogenous fertility as well as endogenous educational and health investments. The model shows that a fertility decline induces higher education and health investments that are able to compensate for declining fertility under certain circumstances. We assess the theoretical implications by investigating panel data for 118 countries over the period 1980 to 2005 and show that behavioral changes partly mitigate the negative impact of declining fertility on effective labor supply. |
| Keywords: | demographic change, effective labor supply, human capital,population health, economic growth |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gdm:wpaper:8412&r=dem |
| By: | Simone BERTOLI (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Francesca Marchetta (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I) |
| Abstract: | Return migration exerts wide-ranging influence upon the countries of origin of the migrants. We analyze whether returnees adjust their fertility choices to match the norms which prevail in their previous countries of destinations, using Egyptian household-level data. Egyptians migrate predominantly towards other Arab countries characterized by higher fertility rates. Relying on a two-step instrumental variable approach to control for the endogeneity of the migration decisions, we show that return migration has a significant and positive influence on the total number of children. These results suggest that migration might not be an unmitigated blessing for Egypt, as it has contributed to slow down the process of demographic transition. |
| Keywords: | temporary migration; fertility; household-level data; North Africa; Egypt |
| Date: | 2012–01–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00659292&r=dem |
| By: | Simone BERTOLI (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Francesca Marchetta (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I) |
| Abstract: | Return migration exerts wide-ranging influence upon the countries of origin of the migrants. We analyze whether returnees adjust their fertility choices to match the norms which prevail in their previous countries of destinations, using Egyptian household-level data. Egyptians migrate predominantly towards other Arab countries characterized by higher fertility rates. Relying on a two-step instrumental variable approach to control for the endogeneity of the migration decisions, we show that return migration has a significant and positive influence on the total number of children. These results suggest that migration might not be an unmitigated blessing for Egypt, as it has contributed to slow down the process of demographic transition. |
| Keywords: | temporary migration; fertility; household-level data; North Africa; Egypt |
| Date: | 2012–01–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00659825&r=dem |
| By: | Jones, Kelly M. |
| Abstract: | US development assistance represents a significant source of funding for many population programs in poor countries. The Mexico City policy, known derisively as the global gag rule, restricts activities of foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that receive such assistance. The intent of the policy is to reduce the use of abortion in developing countries—a policy that is born entirely of US domestic politics and that turns on and off depending on the political party in power. I examine here whether the policy achieves its aim, and how the policy affects reproductive outcomes for women in Ghana. Employing a woman-by-month panel of pregnancies and woman fixed effects, I estimate whether a given woman is less likely to abort a pregnancy during two policy periods versus two nonpolicy periods. I find no evidence that any demographic group reduces the use of abortion as a result of the policy. On the contrary, rural women significantly increase abortions. This effect seems to arise from their increased rate of conception during these times. The policy-induced budget shortfalls reportedly forced NGOs to cut rural outreach services, reducing the availability of contraceptives in rural areas. The lack of contraceptives likely caused the observed 12 percent increase in rural pregnancies, ultimately resulting in about 200,000 additional abortions and between 500,000 and 750,000 additional unintended births. I find that these additional unwanted children have significantly reduced height and weight for age, relative to their siblings. Rather than reducing abortion, this policy increased pregnancy, abortion, and unintended births, resulting in more than a half-million children of significantly reduced nutritional status. |
| Keywords: | abortion, child health, fertility, Foreign aid, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1147&r=dem |
| By: | Ishida, Ryo; Oguro, Kazumasa; Takahata, Junichiro |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the possibility of improving the efficiency of child benefit programs in an overlapping generations economy that has endogenous fertility and large government debt levels. We derive the conditions for this improvement using Representative-Consumer and Children-for-Representative-Consumers efficiency criteria in the endogenous fertility setting, as proposed by Michel and Wigniolle (2007). We find that the result crucially depends on the relative amount of accumulated government debt in the economy. When the elasticity of interest rates to child benefit is close to zero and there exists a huge amount of accumulated debt in the economy, financing child benefit programs by issuing debt and using lump-sum tax leads to RC-improvements. This finding is likely to hold in the economies of developed countries that have low fertility rates. We finally provide the implications of these findings on the real economy. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous fertility, Pareto-efficiency, child benefit, fiscal burden |
| JEL: | D9 J13 D61 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:cisdps:533&r=dem |
| By: | Lei, Xiaoyan (Peking University); Strauss, John (University of Southern California); Tian, Meng (Peking University); Zhao, Yaohui (Peking University) |
| Abstract: | Recent increases in Chinese elderly living alone or only with a spouse has raised concerns about elderly support, especially when public support is inadequate. However, using rich information from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, we find that the increasing trend in living alone is accompanied with a rise in living close to each other. This type of living arrangement solves the conflicts between privacy/independence and family support. This is confirmed in further investigation: children living close by visit their parents more frequently. We also find that children who live far away provide a larger amount of net transfers to their parents, a result consistent with responsibility sharing among siblings. Having more children is associated with living with a child or having a child nearby, while investing more in a child's schooling is associated with greater net transfers to parents. |
| Keywords: | living arrangement, coresidence, proximity of children, CHARLS |
| JEL: | J12 J14 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6249&r=dem |
| By: | MARCÉN, MIRIAM |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the role of the birth control pill on divorce. To identify its effect, we use a quasi experiment exploiting the differences in the language of the Comstock anti-obscenity statutes approved in the 1800s and early 1900s in the US. Results suggest that banning the sales of oral contraceptive methods has a negative impact on divorce. These findings are robust to alternative specifications and controls for observed (such as female labour force participation, or changes in the early legal access to the birth control pill) and unobserved state-specific factors, and time-varying factors at the state level. Additional analysis, developed to examine whether the impact of subsequent divorce law reforms on divorce is modified after controlling for the birth control pill effect, shows that, although sales bans matter, the impact of divorce law reforms on divorce rate does not vary. |
| Keywords: | Divorce rate; birth control pill; sales bans; unilateral divorce |
| JEL: | J13 J12 K36 J18 |
| Date: | 2012–01–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:35955&r=dem |
| By: | Kosse, Fabian (University of Bonn); Pfeiffer, Friedhelm (ZEW Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | Using experimental data of children and their mothers, this paper explores the intergenerational relationship of impatience. The child's impatience stems from a delay of gratification experiment. Mother's impatience has been assessed by a choice task where the mothers faced trade-offs between a smaller-sooner and a larger-later monetary reward with a delay of six or twelve months. The findings demonstrate an intergenerational relationship in short-run decision making. Controlling for mother's and child's characteristics the child's impatience at preschool age is significantly correlated with the six month maternal reservation interest rate. |
| Keywords: | time preferences, impatience, intergenerational transmission, field experiments |
| JEL: | C93 D03 D90 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6247&r=dem |
| By: | Dirk Bethmann (Faculty of Economics and Management, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg) |
| Abstract: | Marriage regimes exist in many guises and forms. Economists have studied monogamy and polygyny, the two most commonly encountered types, and pointed to various benefits that can explain why and which individuals form conjugal unions in each regime. However, many of these same benefits should favor polygamy over monogamy more generally, including polyandrous and cenogamous marriages, which are only rarely observed in practice. We show that human reproductive technology in combination with regime-specific potential for conflict among parents of the same and opposite sex over resources devoted to own children can explain why monogamy is most common, polygyny frequent, polyandry rare, and cenogamy virtually non-existent. Within-wives conflicts over resources also provide an alternative explanation for why polygyny has historically been less common than monogamy and why the former has declined in many parts of the world over the last century. |
| Keywords: | Marriage Regimes, Monogamy, Polygyny, Polyandry, Paternal Uncertainty, Reproductive Capacity |
| JEL: | J12 J13 D02 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mag:wpaper:110029&r=dem |
| By: | Mok, Wallace (Chinese University of Hong Kong); Siddique, Zahra (IZA) |
| Abstract: | We examine racial and ethnic inequality in offers of employer provided fringe benefits (health insurance, life insurance and pension). Restricting to full-time workers in the private sector, we find that African Americans are significantly less likely to get fringe benefit offers than non-Hispanic whites after we control for individual differences in age and youth characteristics that matter for labor market success using the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. We do not find ethnic differences in the 1979 cohort or racial/ethnic differences in the 1997 cohort to be significantly large after controlling for individual differences in age and youth characteristics. Irrespective of race, ethnicity, gender or cohort, we always find that older workers are more likely to get fringe benefit offers as are workers with higher cognitive ability and years of education at age 22. We find that the cross-sections from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth have more fringe benefit offers than cross-sections from the 1997 cohort. A large part of the difference across cohorts can be explained by the older age profile of cross-sections from the 1979 cohort. Some part of the difference across cohorts can also be explained by differences in family background characteristics, particularly changing family structures which are important for non-Hispanic whites and for African American men. Improvements in cognitive ability and years of education at age 22 for the 1997 cohort increase the unexplained difference in fringe benefit offers across the two cohorts for women (irrespective of race or ethnicity), but not for men. |
| Keywords: | economics of minorities and races, non-wage labor costs and benefits |
| JEL: | I11 J15 J32 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6255&r=dem |
| By: | Burke, Marshall; Gong, Erick; Jones, Kelly |
| Abstract: | Poverty is commonly cited as a key driver of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, yet little causal evidence exists linking economic conditions to actual disease outcomes. Using data on more than 200,000 individuals across 19 Sub-Saharan African countries, we present evidence that negative income shocks can lead to substantial increases in HIV prevalence, particularly for women in rural areas. Building on recent work showing that income shortfalls can induce some women to engage in higher-risk sex, we match data on individuals' HIV status from the Demographic and Health Surveys to data on recent variation in local rainfall, a primary (and exogenous) source of variation in income for rural households in Africa. We find that infection rates for women (men) in HIV-endemic rural areas increase significantly by 14 percent (11 percent) for every drought event experienced in the previous 10 years. Further analysis suggests that women most affected by the shocks (that is, those engaged in agriculture) are driving the women's results; these women are partnering with men least affected (those employed outside agriculture). Our findings suggest a role for formal insurance and social safety nets in tackling the HIV/AIDS epidemic. |
| Keywords: | HIV/AIDS, Income shocks, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1146&r=dem |
| By: | Dargnies, Marie-Pierre |
| Abstract: | Recent results in experimental and personnel economics indicate that women do not like competitive environments as much as men. This article presents an experimental design giving participants the opportunity to enter a tournament as part of a team rather than alone. While a large and significant gender gap in entry in the individual tournament is found in line with the literature, no gender gap is found in entry in the team tournament. Women do not enter the tournament significantly more often when it is team-based but men enter significantly less when they are part of a team rather than alone. The main reason for men's disaffection for the team competition appears to be linked to the uncertainty on their teammate's ability. More precisely, high-performing men fear to be the victims of the free-riding behaviour of their teammate. -- |
| Keywords: | Teams,Gender Gap,Tournament |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbmbh:spii2011201&r=dem |
| By: | Dargnies, Marie-Pierre |
| Abstract: | Recent experimental results indicate that women do not like competitive environments as much as men do. Another literature is interested in the effect of social identity on economic behaviors. This paper investigates in the lab the impact of social identity on men and women's willingness to compete both individually and as part of a team. To this aim, participants from the Identity sessions had to go through group identity building activities in the lab while participants from the Benchmark sessions did not. The main result is that men are only willing to enter a team competition with a teammate of unknown ability if they share a common group identity with him or her. This change of behavior seems to be caused by high-performing men who are less reluctant to be matched with a possibly less able participant when he or she belongs to his group. On the other hand, group identity does not seem to induce women to take actions more in the interest of the group they belong to. -- |
| Keywords: | Social Identity,Gender Effects,Tournament,Teams |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbmbh:spii2011202&r=dem |
| By: | David E. Bloom (Harvard School of Public Health); Emmanuel Jimenez (World Economic Forum); Larry Rosenberg (Harvard School of Public Health) |
| Abstract: | Social protection is a major arena of government activity aimed at ensuring that vulnerable population groups receive appropriate and effective public support to ensure their financial security and to safeguard their health. However, despite the growth and extent of social protection programs in both developed and developing countries, most emerging economies have nascent systems and only a small portion of all such efforts address the specific vulnerabilities and needs of older people. This paper (a) discusses the vulnerabilities of older people and the benefits of crafting social programs to address them; (b) describes the nature of social protection and the forms it can take to address those vulnerabilities; (c) reports descriptive evidence on the availability and use of social protection programs; and (d) delineates steps that can be taken to remedy the shortfalls experienced by older people. |
| Keywords: | aging, social protection |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gdm:wpaper:8311&r=dem |
| By: | Tim Lohse; Peter F. Lutz; Christian Thomann |
| Abstract: | Recently, early investments in the human capital of children from socially disadvantaged environments have attracted a great deal of attention. Programs of such early intervention are spreading considerably in the U.S. and are currently tested in several European countries. In a discrete version of the Mirrlees model with a parents' and a children's generation we show the intra-generational and the inter-generational redistributional consequences of such intervention programs. It turns out that the parents' generation always loses when such intervention programs are implemented. Among the children's generation it is the rich who always benefit. Despite the expectation that early intervention puts the poor descendants in a better position, our analysis reveals that the poor among the children's generation may even be worse off if the effect of early intervention on their productivity is not large enough. |
| Keywords: | Early Intervention, Welfare, Redistribution, Taxation |
| JEL: | J13 H21 I14 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpi:wpaper:investments_in_the_human_capital_of_the_socially_disadvantaged_children&r=dem |
| By: | Sonja Bastin (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Michaela Kreyenfeld (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Christine Schnor (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | - |
| Keywords: | Germany, family dynamics |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2012-001&r=dem |
| By: | Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude (Dalhousie University); Rosenblum, Daniel (Dalhousie University) |
| Abstract: | The liberalization of the Indian economy in the 1990s made prenatal ultrasound technology affordable and available to a large fraction of the population. As a result, ultrasound use amongst pregnant women rose dramatically in many parts of India. This paper provides evidence on the consequences of the expansion of prenatal ultrasound use on sex-selection. We exploit state-by-cohort variation in ultrasound use in India as a unique quasi-experiment. We find that sex-selective abortion of female fetuses is rising in states with a slow expansion of ultrasound relative to those states with a rapid expansion of ultrasound. Thus, our findings suggest that the recent rapid spread of ultrasound is not causing higher rates of sex-selection in India. |
| Keywords: | ultrasound, sex-selective abortion, India |
| JEL: | J13 J16 O1 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6273&r=dem |
| By: | Dustmann, Christian (University College London); Frattini, Tommaso (University of Milan) |
| Abstract: | This paper first presents a brief historical overview of immigration in Europe. We then provide (and distinguishing between EU and non-EU immigrants) a comprehensive analysis of the skill structures of immigrants and their labor market integration in the different European countries, their position in the wage distribution, and the situation of their children, and discuss the disadvantage of immigrants and their children relative to natives. We show that immigrants – in particular those from non-EU countries – are severely disadvantaged in most countries, even if we compare them to natives with the same measurable skills. We conclude with a discussion of the role of regulations and institutions as one possible mechanism for these findings, and suggest directions for future research. |
| Keywords: | immigration, Europe, integration, institutions |
| JEL: | J15 J61 J62 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6261&r=dem |
| By: | Aysit Tansel (Middle East Technical University); Yousef Daoud (Birzeit University) |
| Abstract: | This study exposes a comparative treatment of the private returns to education in Palestine and Turkey over the period 2004-2008. Comparable data, similar definitions and same methodology are used in the estimations. The estimates are provided first for average returns to education second for returns at different levels of schooling and finally for returns by different sectors of employment. The results suggest that returns to schooling are higher for Turkey at the various levels of education for Females and males and for both years 2004 and 2008. It is believed that the relative size of the Palestinian economy the uniqueness of subjugation to military occupation contribute greatly to this result. In 2008, returns are lower than 2004 levels for all levels of education; the pattern is less obvious for Turkey across the various levels. However, the 2008 crisis seems to have influenced the more educated more severely (MA and above) in both countries. Female returns to education are higher for women than men in both countries; the gender gap has worsened in 2008, but more so for Palestine. The median ratio of male to female return is 0.55 (university) in 2004 and decreased to 0.17 (high school) in 2008 in Palestine. The corresponding figures for Turkey are 0.79 and .082 (both for high school).Finally, it was found that the selectivity corrected return estimates are lower than the OLS estimates in Palestine while they are higher than the OLS estimates in Turkey. |
| Keywords: | Returns to Education, Mincer Equation, Gender, Palestine, Turkey |
| JEL: | J16 J24 J31 J45 O31 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tek:wpaper:2011/7&r=dem |
| By: | LORD Sébastien; GERBER Philippe; SOHN Christophe; EGGERICKX Thierry; HERMIA Jean-Pierre; KESTELOOT Christian |
| Abstract: | This paper puts forward a methodology to rank the population along a hierarchical continuum, from a lower level to a higher level of social precariousness. Going beyond the complex layered issues related to the concept of poverty, it rather explores the notion of deprivation with the idea of social inequalities which are observable according to specific socio-economic key dimensions. Part of a broader research – Destiny – focusing on both the spatial and the temporal evolutions of social inequalities in Belgium and Luxembourg, this method represents a first phase of the project. The social inequalities are addressed in an individual perspective with disaggregated data. This standpoint allowed the analysis of the whole population for Belgium and Luxembourg in a ten-year period (1991 and 2001). The method is based, on the one hand, on the national censuses from both countries – the only comprehensive data available on an individual basis –, and on the second hand, on the European Union - Study on Income and Living Conditions Panel (EU-SILC). These two data sources have been combined for accessing economic information from EU-SILC and transposed into the national censuses in both countries. The EU-SILC detailed data on household income were used as an indicator of social inequalities for three dimensions: education, socio-professional status and housing. This enabled to rank each individual on a ‘social continuum’. After a presentation of the methodological framework, individual ranking results are exposed and discussed on the basis of spatial analysis. |
| Keywords: | Social inequality; Spatial inequality; Methodology; Census; Luxembourg; Belgium |
| JEL: | J11 J21 J80 R10 R20 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2011-47&r=dem |
| By: | Machado, C. Sofia (Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave); Portela, Miguel (University of Minho) |
| Abstract: | Using a novel dataset from the 2006 Portuguese Labor Force Survey this paper examines the impact of a voluntary reduction in hours of work, before retirement, on the moment of exit from the labor force. If, as often suggested, flexibility in hours of work is a useful measure to postpone retirement, then a reduction in working hours should be associated with retirement at later ages. Results prove otherwise suggesting that reducing hours of work before retirement is associated with early exits from the labor force. A reduction in hours of work seems to signal the worker's wish to retire sooner rather than to announce the desire of remaining in the labor market. This result may enclose the need for some alternative policy strategies regarding working hours. |
| Keywords: | aging, retirement, working hours, older workers |
| JEL: | J14 J26 J22 J21 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6270&r=dem |
| By: | Kahanec, Martin (Central European University, Budapest); Kim, Anna Myunghee (IZA); Zimmermann, Klaus F. (IZA and University of Bonn) |
| Abstract: | This paper's main purpose is to gauge immigrants' demand for social assistance and services and identify the key barriers to social and labor market inclusion of immigrants in the European Union. The data from an online primary survey of experts from organizations working on immigrant integration in the EU is analyzed using simple comparative statistical methods; the robustness of the results is tested by means of Logit and ordered Logit statistical models. We find that the general public in Europe has rather negative attitudes towards immigrants. Although the business community views immigrants somewhat less negatively, barriers to immigrant labor market inclusion identified include language and human capital gaps, a lack of recognition of foreign qualifications, discrimination, intransparent labor markets and institutional barriers such as legal restrictions for foreign citizens. Exclusion from higher education, housing and the services of the financial sector aggravate these barriers. Changes in the areas of salaried employment, education, social insurance, mobility and attitudes are seen as most desired by members of ethnic minorities. The current economic downturn is believed to have increased the importance of active inclusion policies, especially in the areas of employment and education. These results appear to be robust with respect to a number of characteristics of respondents and their organizations. |
| Keywords: | ethnic minorities, migration, labor market integration, economic crisis, enlarged European Union, welfare state |
| JEL: | J15 J71 J78 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6260&r=dem |