nep-dem New Economics Papers
on Demographic Economics
Issue of 2012‒08‒23
forty-one papers chosen by
Clarence Nkengne Tsimpo
University of Montreal and World Bank Group
  1. Can Pro-Marriage Policies Work? An Analysis of Marginal Marriages By Frimmel, Wolfgang; Halla, Martin; Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf
  2. Coresidence with Husband's Parents, Labor Force Participation, and Duration to First Birth By C.Y. Cyrus Chu; Seik Kim; Wen-Jen Tsay
  3. WILL FERTILITY REBOUND IN JAPAN By Creina Day
  4. Is Income Growth Enough to Reduce Total Fertility Rate in the Philippines? Empirical Evidence from Regional Panel Data By Mapa, Dennis S.; Lucagbo, Michael; Balisacan, Arsenio M.; Corpuz, Jose Rowell T.; Ignacio, Czarina Lei S.
  5. Microeconomic Foundations of the Demographic Dividend By David E. Bloom; David Canning; Günther Fink; Jocelyn E. Finlay
  6. Can Pro-Marriage Policies Work? An Analysis of Marginal Marriages By Wolfgang Frimmel; Martin Halla; Rudolf Winter-Ebmer
  7. Women's access to labor market opportunities, control of household resources, and domestic violence By Heath, Rachel
  8. Marriage Institutions and Sibling Competition: Evidence from South Asia By Tom Vogl
  9. Mortality transition and differential incentives for early retirement. By d'Albis, Hippolyte; Lau, Paul S.; Sanchez-Romero, Miguel
  10. What Dimensions of Women's Empowerment Matter Most for Child Nutrition? Evidence Using Nationally Representative Data from Bangladesh: By Bhagowalia, Priya; Menon, Purnima; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Soundararajan, Vidhya
  11. The effect of the number of siblings on education in sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from a natural experiment By KUEPIE Mathias; TENIKUE Michel
  12. Still Unequal At Birth: Birth Weight, Socioeconomic Status,And Outcomes at Age 9 By Mark E. McGovern
  13. Occupation, Marital Status and Life-Cycle Determinants of Women’s Labour Force Participation in Mid-nineteenth-Century Rural France By George Grantham
  14. Low birth weight and health expenditures from birth to late adolescence By Michael Hummer; Thomas Lehner; Gerald J. Pruckner
  15. Estimating the Effects of Pronatal Policies on Residential Choice and Fertility By Ryo Nakajima; Ryuichi Tanaka
  16. The Determinants of First and Second Marital Dissolution. Evidence from Britain By PARISI, Lavinia
  17. Reconstruction of continuous time series of mortality by cause of death in Belarus, 1965–2010 By Pavel Grigoriev; France Meslé; Jacques Vallin
  18. Changes in the Labour Supply of Japanese Women between 1993 and 2008: A Panel Data Analysis By Tomoko Kishi
  19. Somewhere over the Rainbow: Sexual Orientation Discrimination in Germany By Stephan Humpert
  20. Who is happier: Housewife or working wife? By Beja Jr, Edsel
  21. Income Distribution among those of 65 Years and Older in Sweden By Lindquist, Gabriella Sjögren; Wadensjö, Eskil
  22. Ethnic Diversity and Team Performance: A Field Experiment By Sander Hoogendoorn; Mirjam van Praag
  23. Marriage and Corruption : An empirical analysis on european data By Kodila-Tedika, Oasis
  24. Immigrant Status, Early Skill Development, and Postsecondary Participation: A Comparison of Canada and Switzerland By Picot, Garnett<br/> Hou, Feng
  25. Accounting for gender production from a growth accounting framework in Sub-Saharan Africa By Fofack, Hippolyte
  26. Changes in Labor Force Participation of Older Americans and Their Pension Structures: A Policy Perspective By Frank W. Heiland; Zhe Li
  27. Developing Asia’s Pension Systems and Old-Age Income Support By Donghyun Park; Gemma B. Estrada
  28. Health Care Expenditures and Longevity: Is There a Eubie Blake Effect? By Friedrich Breyer; Normann Lorenz; Thomas Niebel
  29. Developing Asia’s Pension Systems and Old-Age Income Support By Donghyun Park; Gemma B. Estrada
  30. Developing Asia’s Pension Systems and Old-Age Income Support By Donghyun Park; Gemma B. Estrada
  31. Developing Asia’s Pension Systems and Old-Age Income Support By Donghyun Park; Gemma B. Estrada
  32. Women's Property, Mobility, and Decisionmaking: Evidence from Rural Karnataka, India: By Swaminathan, Hema; Lahoti, Rahul; Suchita, J. Y.
  33. Monetary transfers from children and the labour supply of elderly parents: evidence from Vietnam By Ha Trong Nguyen; Amy Y.C. Liu; Alison L. Booth
  34. De Jure and De Facto Determinants of Power: Evidence from Mississippi By Bertocchi, Graziella; Dimico, Arcangelo
  35. Quantifying Impact of Aging Population on Fiscal Space By Seok Gil Park
  36. The Effectiveness of Prenatal Care in a Low Income Population: A Panel Data Approach By Ana I. Balsa; Patricia Triunfo
  37. On the Effectiveness of Child Care Centers in Promoting Child Development in Ecuador By Jose Rosero
  38. Can an Ethnic Group Climb up from the Bottom of the Ladder? By Gil Epstein; Erez Siniver
  39. Future Changes of the Industrial Structure due to Aging and Soaring Demands for Healthcare Services in Japan - an Analysis Using a Multi-Sector OLG Model in an Open Economy - By Daisuke Ishikawa; Junji Ueda; Real Arai
  40. Does Raising the Retirement Age increase Employment of Older Workers? By Stefan Staubli; Josef Zweimüller
  41. Macroeconomic Impacts of Canadian Immigration: Results from a Macro-Model By Dungan, Peter; Fang, Tony; Gunderson, Morley
  1. By: Frimmel, Wolfgang; Halla, Martin; Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf
    Abstract: Policies to promote marriage are controversial, and it is unclear whether they are successful. To analyze such policies, it is essential to distinguish between a marriage that is created by a marriage-promoting policy (marginal marriage) and a marriage that would have been formed even in the absence of a state intervention (average marriage). In this paper, we exploit the suspension of a cash-on-hand marriage subsidy in Austria to examine the differential behavior of marginal and average marriages. The announcement of this suspension led to an enormous marriage boom (plus 350 percent) among eligible couples that allows us to identify marginal marriages. Applying a difference-in-differences approach, we show that marginal marriages are surprisingly as stable as average marriages, but have fewer children and have them later in marriage. Notably, the children born to marginal marriages are similar in terms of health at birth.
    Keywords: divorce; fertility; marital instability; marriage subsidies; Marriage-promoting policies
    JEL: H24 H53 I38 J12
    Date: 2012–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9081&r=dem
  2. By: C.Y. Cyrus Chu (Academia Sinica); Seik Kim; Wen-Jen Tsay (Academia Sinica)
    Abstract: This paper investigates the time to first birth treating coresidence with husband's parents and labor force participation as endogenous using representative data on Taiwanese married women born over 1933-1968. We utilize a full information maximum likelihood estimator for a duration model with endogenous binary variables. Results controlling for endogeneity suggest that both coresidence and working result in a delay of childbearing, reversing the effect of coresidence on the timing of first birth, but not that of working. We also find that women in earlier cohorts tend to choose coresidency and not working, but an increasing number of women from later cohorts choose to do both or work only.
    Date: 2012–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udb:wpaper:uwec-2012-04&r=dem
  3. By: Creina Day
    Abstract: Fertility and per capita income are now positively associated across most high income OECD countries. Low fertility and a gender wage gap persist in Japan. This paper presents an original model where endogenous increases in childcare prices and gender equity in capital allocation play important roles in the effect of per capita income growth and rising female relative wages on fertility. Results suggest Japan has cause for optimism. Economic growth will raise female relative wages where capital is equitably allocated in the workforce. In turn, rising female relative wages will sustain a fertility rebound where childcare productivity is sufficiently high.
    JEL: J13 J24 O40
    Date: 2012
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csg:ajrcau:395&r=dem
  4. By: Mapa, Dennis S.; Lucagbo, Michael; Balisacan, Arsenio M.; Corpuz, Jose Rowell T.; Ignacio, Czarina Lei S.
    Abstract: The population debate in the country has been dynamic and contentious. On the one hand, proponents of population management say that the rapid population growth in the Philippines has hindered the country’s economic development. On the other hand, others are saying that population growth is uncorrelated with economic growth. The core idea behind the link between population and economic growth is the demographic transition. Demographic transition is a change from a situation of high fertility and high mortality to one of low fertility and low mortality. Advocates of speeding the demographic transition placed emphasis on the need of public efforts to speed up the voluntary reduction in fertility rates as rapidly as possible, arguing that demographic transitions, where they have occurred, have typically been accelerated and even triggered, by proactive government policies. Those that are against direct government intervention argue that fertility rates fall when income rises and therefore, policies to increase income should be the main concern. This paper looks at the relationship between per capita income and total fertility rate (TFR), controlling for other factors, using a regional panel econometric model using data from the National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), Family Planning Survey (FPS), Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES), Labor Force Survey (LFS) and the Regional Gross Domestic Product (RGDP). The results show that increasing per capita income indeed reduces TFR but its impact is minimal and given that the country average per capita growth is low, it will take some time before the country benefits from the demographic transition through the income effect alone. The results of the analysis can also explain why the decline in fertility rate in the Philippines has been slower in recent times, lagging behind the significant changes in the international scene.
    Keywords: Total Fertility Rate; Demographic Transition; Fixed Effects Model
    JEL: J13 C23 J11
    Date: 2012–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40750&r=dem
  5. By: David E. Bloom (Harvard School of Public Health); David Canning (Harvard School of Public Health); Günther Fink (Harvard School of Public Health); Jocelyn E. Finlay (Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies)
    Abstract: The potential economic returns to the demographic transition are high. As countries move from a steady state with high mortality and high fertility to an equilibrium with low mortality and fewer children, lower dependency ratios, higher investment in human and physical capital as well as increased female labor force participation contribute to economic growth. In this paper, we analyze the demographic transition at the household level, investigating the distributional patterns of the economic and welfare benefits associated with the demographic transition across socioeconomic groups within countries and over time. We find large differences in the effects of the demographic transition across socioeconomic status (SES) groups in the early stages of the demographic transition, but also substantial behavioral change across all groups during phases of rapid fertility decline, so that the long-run effects of the demographic transition on inequality remain ambiguous.
    Keywords: demographic transition, socioeconomic status, fertility
    Date: 2012–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gdm:wpaper:9312&r=dem
  6. By: Wolfgang Frimmel; Martin Halla; Rudolf Winter-Ebmer
    Abstract: Policies to promote marriage are controversial, and it is unclear whether they are successful. To analyze such policies, it is essential to distinguish between a marriage that is created by a marriage-promoting policy (marginal marriage) and a marriage that would have been formed even in the absence of a state interven- tion (average marriage). In this paper, we exploit the suspension of a cash-on-hand marriage subsidy in Austria to examine the differential behavior of marginal and average marriages. The announcement of this suspension led to an enormous marriage boom (plus 350 percent) among eligible couples that allows us to identify marginal marriages. Applying a difference-in-differences approach, we show that marginal marriages are surprisingly as stable as average marriages, but have fewer children and have them later in marriage. Notably, the children born to marginal marriages are similar in terms of health at birth.
    Keywords: Marriage-promoting policies, marriage subsidies, marital instability, divorce, fertility
    JEL: J12 H24 H53 I38
    Date: 2012–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:nrnwps:2012_07&r=dem
  7. By: Heath, Rachel
    Abstract: While there are many positive societal implications of increased female labor force opportunities, some theoretical models and empirical evidence suggest that working can increase a woman's risk of suffering domestic violence. Using a dataset collected in peri-urban Dhaka, this analysis documents a positive correlation between work and domestic violence. This correlation is only present among women with less education or who were younger at first marriage. These results are consistent with a theoretical model in which a woman with low bargaining power can face increased risk of domestic violence upon entering the labor force as a husband seeks to counteract her increased bargaining power. By contrast, husbands of women who have higher baseline bargaining power cannot resort to domestic violence since their wives have the ability to leave violent marriages. These findings are inconsistent with the models of assortative matching in the marriage market, expressive violence, work in response to economic shocks, or underreporting of domestic violence. The results on age at marriage are also inconsistent with the implications of a reverse causality model in which women enter the labor force to escape violent situations at home, although the results on education are consistent with that story.
    Keywords: Gender and Development,Adolescent Health,Population Policies,Gender and Health,Gender and Law
    Date: 2012–07–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6149&r=dem
  8. By: Tom Vogl
    Abstract: Using data from South Asia, this paper examines how arranged marriage cultivates rivalry among sisters. During marriage search, parents with multiple daughters reduce the reservation quality for an older daughter's groom, rushing her marriage to allow sufficient time to marry off her younger sisters. Relative to younger brothers, younger sisters increase a girl’s marriage risk; relative to younger singleton sisters, younger twin sisters have the same effect. These effects intensify in marriage markets with lower sex ratios or greater parental involvement in marriage arrangements. In contrast, older sisters delay a girl’s marriage. Because girls leave school when they marry and face limited earnings opportunities when they reach adulthood, the number of sisters has well-being consequences over the lifecycle. Younger sisters cause earlier school-leaving, lower literacy, a match to a husband with less education and a less-skilled occupation, and (marginally) lower adult economic status. Data from a broader set of countries indicate that these cross-sister pressures on marriage age are common throughout the developing world, although the schooling costs vary by setting.
    JEL: I25 J12 O12
    Date: 2012–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18319&r=dem
  9. By: d'Albis, Hippolyte; Lau, Paul S.; Sanchez-Romero, Miguel
    Abstract: Many studies specify human mortality patterns parametrically, with a parameter change affecting mortality rates at different ages simultaneously. Motivated by the stylized fact that a mortality decline affects primarily younger people in the early phase of mortalitytransition but mainly older people in the later phase, we study how a mortality change at an arbitrary age affects optimal retirement age. Using the Volterra derivative for a functional, we show that mortality reductions at older ages delay retirement unambiguously, but that mortality reductions at younger ages may lead to earlierretirement due to a substantial increase in the individualʼs expected lifetime human wealth.
    Keywords: incentive for early retirement; lifetime human wealth effect; years-to-consume effect; mortality decline;
    JEL: D91 J11 J26
    Date: 2012
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:dauphi:urn:hdl:123456789/6825&r=dem
  10. By: Bhagowalia, Priya; Menon, Purnima; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Soundararajan, Vidhya
    Keywords: child malnutrition, Stunting, Gender, domestic violence,
    Date: 2012
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1192&r=dem
  11. By: KUEPIE Mathias; TENIKUE Michel
    Abstract: The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of the number of siblings on education in urban sub-Saharan Africa. The birth of twins is considered as a natural experiment that affects the number of siblings but has no direct effect on education. This event is used as instrumental variable in a two-stage least-squared estimation approach to investigate the causal effect of the number of siblings on school achievement. Equations are estimated on subsamples of singleton children born before the twins. The results show that an exogenous fertility increase significantly inhibits human capital accumulation. However, the magnitude of the marginal effect seems small: one additional sibling decreases the total number of school grade by nearly one-tenth. In a context of high fertility, the total effect might become very detrimental.
    Keywords: education; fertility; twins; sub-Saharan Africa
    Date: 2012–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2012-28&r=dem
  12. By: Mark E. McGovern (Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies)
    Abstract: The prevalence of low birth weight is an important aspect of public health which has been linked to increased risk of infant death, increased cost of care, and a range of later life outcomes. Using data from a new Irish cohort study, I document the relationship between birth weight and socioeconomic status. The association of maternal education with birth weight does not appear to be due to the timing of birth or complications during pregnancy, even controlling for a wide range of background characteristics. However, results do suggest intergenerational persistence in the transmission of poor early life conditions. Birth weight predicts a number of outcomes at age 9, including test scores, hospital stays and health. An advantage of the data is that I am able to control for a number of typically unmeasured variables. I determine whether parental investments (as measured by the quality of interaction with the child, parenting style, or school quality) mediate the association between birth weight and later indicators. For test scores, there is evidence of non-linearity, and boys are more adversely aected than girls. I also consider whether there are heterogeneous eects by ability using quantile regression. These results are consistent with a literature which nds that there is a causal relationship between early life conditions and later outcomes.
    Keywords: Early Life Conditions, Birth Weight, Health Inequalities, Test Scores
    Date: 2012–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gdm:wpaper:9512&r=dem
  13. By: George Grantham (McGill University)
    Abstract: The French census of 1851 is one of the few nineteenth-century censuses that attempted to record the work of women and children carried out within households. This paper argues that the occupational designations in the nominative census lists are an accurate indicator of employment status. This paper analyzes a sample of 70,000 persons drawn from a set of rural communes in northern France. The data indicate that women’s labour force participation was strongly affected by marital status, the occupation of the husband and the presence of young children in the household. The data lend support to the hypothesis that the main driver of labour force participation was poverty.
    Keywords: female labour force participation, France, unpaid household work, home-based workers, occupational segregation
    JEL: A1 D1 J21 J2 J
    Date: 2012–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0022&r=dem
  14. By: Michael Hummer; Thomas Lehner (Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria); Gerald J. Pruckner
    Abstract: Using administrative panel data of health insurants, we estimate the effects of low birth weight on health service utilization among children and young adults between birth and 21 years old. To account for time-invariant heterogeneity of mothers, we use sibling fixed- effects estimation. We find that low birth weight strongly increases subsequent health expenditures and that the effect is particularly pronounced in the first year of life. Starting in compulsory schooling, we observe a shift in expenditures to mental-health problems. Whereas the effects on physical health disappear over time, we provide evidence that mental-health problems prevail until early adulthood. We therefore suggest a screening program tailored to the conditions more likely to be contracted by low-birth-weight children in order to mitigate the negative health consequences.
    Keywords: Low birth weight, health expenditures, sibling fixed-effects
    JEL: I10 I12 I18
    Date: 2012–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:nrnwps:2012_05&r=dem
  15. By: Ryo Nakajima (Yokohama National University); Ryuichi Tanaka (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies)
    Abstract: In this paper, we estimate the impacts of local-government-sponsored pronatal policies on fertility by exploiting information on the geographical variation in policies across municipalities in Japan. We develop an empirical model that accommodates both the location and fertility choices of households to take into account their self-selected migration across municipalities. We estimate the structural parameters using cross-sectional microdata on Japanese households in metropolitan areas. The results suggest that self-selection may generate substantial upward bias in the estimated impacts of pronatal policies on fertility. We also find that, after controlling for self-selection bias, some types of noncash benefit pronatal policies significantly increase the probability of births occurring in metropolitan households, although the magnitudes differ significantly by revenue and birth parity.
    Date: 2012–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ngi:dpaper:12-06&r=dem
  16. By: PARISI, Lavinia (CELPE - Centre of Labour Economics and Economic Policy, University of Salerno - Italy)
    Abstract: This paper investigates whether the determinants of first marriage dissolution differ from determinants of second marriage dissolution. Using data from British Household Panel Survey, I estimate a simultaneous hazard model for the risk of ending a first and a second marriage, taking into account unobserved heterogeneity. The model is estimated for men and women, separately. Cross-equations unobserved heterogeneity is not statistically different from zero. The most interesting findings is related to cohabitation before marriage: it is found to affect first and second marriage dissolution risk differently, namely it is found to increase the hazard of first marriage dissolution, but to reduce the hazard of second one.
    Keywords: marriage dissolutions; retrospective data; simultaneous hazard model
    JEL: C33 C41 D19 J12
    Date: 2012–07–30
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sal:celpdp:0121&r=dem
  17. By: Pavel Grigoriev (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); France Meslé; Jacques Vallin
    Abstract: -
    Keywords: Belarus, causes of death, classification, mortality, mortality trends
    JEL: J1 Z0
    Date: 2012–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2012-023&r=dem
  18. By: Tomoko Kishi
    Abstract: In Japan a negative relationship between the labour force participation rate of married women and spouse income has been observed. It has also been remarked that the labour force participation rate of married women has almost no correlation with their level of educational attainment. This paper examines whether there has been any changes in recent cohorts. Two kinds of panel data released in Japan (the JPSC and KHPS) are used for the analyses; one with two and the other, four observed labour market outcomes as dependent variables. The results suggest that the cohort differentials in both the probability of working and attaining full-time employment are weak. The effect of spouse income on female labour force participation is significantly negative, while that of higher education on working and full-time employment is not robust. The results also indicate both younger university graduates and their older counterparts have approximately the same probability of gaining full time employment, suggesting more needs to be done to ensure higher education is beneficial for Japanese women in terms of employment outcomes.
    JEL: C33 J21 J24
    Date: 2012
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csg:ajrcau:396&r=dem
  19. By: Stephan Humpert (Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany)
    Abstract: This paper observes sexual orientation based differences in German incomes. Gay men and lesbian women sort themselves into different occupations and sectors than their heterosexual counterparts. I find evidence that cohabitating gay men have an income penalty of 9 to 10 percent compared with married men, while lesbian women have a premium of about 10 to 12 percent compared with married women. Lesbians in a registered same-sex union have an income gain of about 16 to 21 percent, while the effect for men is not statistically significant. There is evidence that gay households have 9 to 15 percent higher household income than mixed-sex couples. The results for lesbian household income are not statistically significant.
    Keywords: Wage Discrimination, Labor Supply, Sexual Orientation
    JEL: J31 J16 J22
    Date: 2012–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lue:wpaper:245&r=dem
  20. By: Beja Jr, Edsel
    Abstract: Earlier research found no difference in the happiness between a housewife and a working wife. However, there now is the expectation that a difference in their happiness exists today given the increase in the labor participation of women over the years. This paper revisits the debate using data from the 2000s. For the upper- and low-income economies, there is still no difference in the happiness between a housewife and a working wife. In contrast, results for the middle-income economies clearly show that a part-time working wife is happier than a housewife and that both part-time working wife and housewife are happier than a full-time working wife.
    Keywords: Housewife; working wife; happiness; life satisfaction
    JEL: I31 Z13 J12 D60 J20 B54 C80
    Date: 2012–08–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40533&r=dem
  21. By: Lindquist, Gabriella Sjögren (SOFI, Stockholm University); Wadensjö, Eskil (Stockholm University)
    Abstract: The population of Sweden is ageing and the number of pensioners is increasing. This means that the incomes of older people and the income differences between older and younger people and among pensioners have become more important in terms of public debate and research. In this paper, we examine the income distribution of those 65 years and older. The income differences among both men and women have increased among those of 65-74 years and older since 1982. Women generally have lower incomes and pensions than men. Foreign born persons generally have lower incomes and pensions compared to natives. This difference has increased, especially with regard to those coming from non-OECD countries. Among those with low pensions, women, the foreign born and those who have been self-employed are overrepresented. Many who retire have large amount of net wealth, especially in the form of property (houses, apartments).
    Keywords: older workers, retirement, pension, income inequality
    JEL: J14 D31 H55
    Date: 2012–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6745&r=dem
  22. By: Sander Hoogendoorn (University of Amsterdam); Mirjam van Praag (University of Amsterdam)
    Abstract: One of the most salient and relevant dimensions of team heterogeneity is ethnicity. We measure the causal impact of ethnic diversity on the performance of business teams using a randomized field experiment. We follow 550 students who set up 45 real companies as part of their curriculum in an international business program in the Netherlands. We exploit the fact that companies are set up in realistic though similar circumstances and that we, as outside researchers, had the unique opportunity to exogenously vary the ethnic composition of otherwise randomly composed teams. The student population consists of 55% students with a non-Dutch ethnicity from 53 different countries of origin. We find that a moderate level of ethnic diversity has no effect on team performance in terms of business outcomes (sales, profits and profits per share). However, if at least the majority of team members is ethnically diverse then more ethnic diversity has a positive impact on the performance of teams. In line with theoretical predictions, our data suggest that this positive effect could be related to the more diverse pool of relevant knowledge facilitating (mutual) learning within ethnically diverse teams.
    Keywords: Ethnic diversity; team performance; field experiment; entrepreneurship; (mutual) learning
    JEL: J15 L25 C93 L26 M13 D83
    Date: 2012–07–13
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20120068&r=dem
  23. By: Kodila-Tedika, Oasis
    Abstract: In recent years the topic of corruption has attracted a great deal of attention. However, there is still a lack of substantial empirical evidence about the determinants of corruption. Despite an increasing interest of economists in the determinants of corruption, the factor of marriage has been widely neglected in the literature. The results suggest a positive but ambiguous effect marriage on corruption.
    Keywords: corruption; marriage; vulnerability; Europe
    JEL: D73 J12 Z13
    Date: 2012–07–27
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40311&r=dem
  24. By: Picot, Garnett<br/> Hou, Feng
    Abstract: This paper examines differences in postsecondary-participation rates between students with and without immigrant backgrounds in Switzerland and Canada. For both countries, a rich set of longitudinal data, including family background, family aspirations regarding postsecondary education, and students' secondary-school performance as measured by Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores, are used to explain these differences. Two groups are analyzed: all 15-year-old students; and all low-performing 15-year-old secondary-school students.
    Keywords: Ethnic diversity and immigration, Children and youth, Education, training and learning, Education, Immigrant children and youth, Education, training and skills, Outcomes of education
    Date: 2012–07–27
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2012344e&r=dem
  25. By: Fofack, Hippolyte
    Abstract: This paper draws on an expanded growth accounting framework to estimate the relative contribution of women to growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Empirical results show a consistently positive contribution of women to growth in gross domestic product in the region, both during economic downturns and growth spurts. This is despite the absence of any valuation of home-produced goods and informal sector production, which accounts for the bulk of womens production, in national product and income accounts. Women's positive contribution is largely attributed to their increased rates of labor force participation in wage employment and the reduction in the gender gap in education in recent years.
    Keywords: Economic Growth,Gender and Development,Achieving Shared Growth,Population Policies,Labor Policies
    Date: 2012–08–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6153&r=dem
  26. By: Frank W. Heiland; Zhe Li
    Abstract: We investigate how the shift in private pension coverage from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) retirement plans since the 1980s has contributed to the substantial rise in labor force participation of older Americans. We develop a life cycle model of retirement that captures important aspects of private (DB and DC) and public (Social Security Old-Age) pensions. We demonstrate how this novel framework can assist policy makers and researchers in analyzing the complex interrelations of labor supply decisions, retirement behavior, and wealth accumulation. We begin by illustrating important differences in the incentives for labor supply and retirement behavior provided by DB and DC pensions. We show that the timing of the exit from the labor force is closely tied to wealth accrual in DB plans, while wealth accrual in DC plans does not provide similar incentives for the timing of retirement. We then use the model to conduct a cohort-based simulation analysis of labor force participation for the period 1977 to 2010. The results illustrate the potential significance of the rise in employer-sponsored DC pensions in explaining the increase in labor force participation of older Americans. We estimate that, holding the share of individuals with employer-sponsored pensions constant, the shift from DB to DC pension coverage increased the labor force participation rate of workers age 60 to 64 by 4.9 percentage points (1.7 points for ages 65-69). Finally, we show that DC pension holders are more concentrated at the earliest take-up age for Social Security old-age retirement benefits and are less responsive to changes in Social Security retirement age policy than DB pension holders.
    Date: 2012–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2012-18&r=dem
  27. By: Donghyun Park (Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI)); Gemma B. Estrada
    Abstract: Old-age income support is becoming an issue of growing importance throughout Asia. This is especially true in East and Southeast Asia where the population is aging. This paper provides a broad overview of the current state of pension systems in the People’s Republic of China, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam; analyzes the pension systems; and identifies their major structural weaknesses. The paper concludes with some specific policy directions for pension reform to strengthen the capacity of Asian pension systems in delivering economic security for the large and growing population of elderly looming on the region’s horizon.
    Keywords: Pension system, Old-age income support, Asia, East and Southeast Asia, pension reform
    JEL: H55 J11 J14
    Date: 2012–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eab:develo:23319&r=dem
  28. By: Friedrich Breyer; Normann Lorenz; Thomas Niebel
    Abstract: It is still an open question whether increasing life expectancy as such is causing higher health care expenditures (HCE) in a population. According to the "red herring" hypothesis, the positive correlation between age and HCE is exclusively due to the fact that mortality rises with age and a large share of HCE is caused by proximity to death. As a consequence, rising longevity - through falling mortality rates - may even reduce HCE. However, a weakness of previous empirical studies is that they use cross-sectional evidence to make inferences on a development over time. In this paper we analyse the impact of rising longevity on the trend of HCE over time by using data for a pseudo-panel of German sickness fund members over the period 1997-2009. Using (dynamic) panel data models, we find that age, mortality and five-year survival rates have a positive impact on per-capita HCE. Our explanation for the last finding is that physicians treat patients more aggressively if they think the result will pay off for a longer time span, which we call "Eubie Blake effect". A simulation on the basis of an official population forecast for Germany is used to isolate the effect of demographic ageing on real per-capita HCE over the next decades.
    Keywords: Health care expenditures, ageing, longevity, 5-year survival rate
    JEL: H51 J11 I19
    Date: 2012
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1226&r=dem
  29. By: Donghyun Park (Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI)); Gemma B. Estrada
    Abstract: Old-age income support is becoming an issue of growing importance throughout Asia. This is especially true in East and Southeast Asia where the population is aging. This paper provides a broad overview of the current state of pension systems in the People’s Republic of China, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam; analyzes the pension systems; and identifies their major structural weaknesses. The paper concludes with some specific policy directions for pension reform to strengthen the capacity of Asian pension systems in delivering economic security for the large and growing population of elderly looming on the region’s horizon.
    Keywords: Pension system, Old-age income support, Asia, East and Southeast Asia, pension reform
    JEL: H55 J11 J14
    Date: 2012–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eab:laborw:23319&r=dem
  30. By: Donghyun Park (Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI)); Gemma B. Estrada
    Abstract: Old-age income support is becoming an issue of growing importance throughout Asia. This is especially true in East and Southeast Asia where the population is aging. This paper provides a broad overview of the current state of pension systems in the People’s Republic of China, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam; analyzes the pension systems; and identifies their major structural weaknesses. The paper concludes with some specific policy directions for pension reform to strengthen the capacity of Asian pension systems in delivering economic security for the large and growing population of elderly looming on the region’s horizon.
    Keywords: Pension system, Old-age income support, Asia, East and Southeast Asia, pension reform
    JEL: H55 J11 J14
    Date: 2012–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eab:financ:23319&r=dem
  31. By: Donghyun Park (Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI)); Gemma B. Estrada
    Abstract: Old-age income support is becoming an issue of growing importance throughout Asia. This is especially true in East and Southeast Asia where the population is aging. This paper provides a broad overview of the current state of pension systems in the People’s Republic of China, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam; analyzes the pension systems; and identifies their major structural weaknesses. The paper concludes with some specific policy directions for pension reform to strengthen the capacity of Asian pension systems in delivering economic security for the large and growing population of elderly looming on the region’s horizon.
    Keywords: Pension system, Old-age income support, Asia, East and Southeast Asia, pension reform
    JEL: H55 J11 J14
    Date: 2012–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eab:govern:23319&r=dem
  32. By: Swaminathan, Hema; Lahoti, Rahul; Suchita, J. Y.
    Keywords: Gender, Property rights, Decision-making, decisionmaking, Mobility, autonomy,
    Date: 2012
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1188&r=dem
  33. By: Ha Trong Nguyen; Amy Y.C. Liu; Alison L. Booth
    Abstract: In the absence of a broad-based pension scheme, the elderly in developing countries may rely on monetary transfers made by their children and on their own labour supply. This paper examines whether monetary transfers from children help to reduce elderly parents’ need to work. Taking the possible endogeneity of children’s transfers in the parents’ labour supply into account and using maximum likelihood methods and Vietnamese data, we find that monetary transfers help the elderly cope with risks associated with old age or illness. At the same time, however, monetary transfers are not sufficient to fully substitute for parents’ labour supply.
    Keywords: old-age support, labour supply, inter-generational transfers, endogenous variable, maximum likelihood
    JEL: J14 J22 J26
    Date: 2012–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:664&r=dem
  34. By: Bertocchi, Graziella (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia); Dimico, Arcangelo (Queen's University Belfast)
    Abstract: We evaluate the empirical relevance of de facto vs. de jure determinants of political power in the U.S. South between the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. We apply a variety of estimation techniques to a previously unexploited dataset on voter registration by race covering the counties of Mississippi in 1896, shortly after the introduction of the 1890 voting restrictions encoded in the state constitution. Our results indicate that de jure voting restrictions reduce black registration but that black disfranchisement starts well before 1890 and is more intense where a black majority represents a threat to the de facto power of white elites. Moreover, the effect of race becomes stronger after 1890 suggesting that the de jure barriers may have served the purpose of institutionalizing a de facto condition of disfranchisement.
    Keywords: race, voting, institutions, education, inequality
    JEL: J15 N41 O43 P16
    Date: 2012–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6741&r=dem
  35. By: Seok Gil Park
    Abstract: This paper quantitatively investigates how population aging trend affects fiscal space measured as unused revenue generating capacity by utilizing a standard neoclassical growth model. A calibration exercise for G-7 countries shows that France, Germany and Italy suffer greater revenue impact from a given reduction in hours worked due to their larger government expenditure. Corrective measures such as pension reform and flexible expenditure policy would be required in order to mitigate the impact of aging on fiscal space.
    Keywords: Aging , Cross country analysis , Economic models , Fiscal policy , France , Germany , Group of seven , Italy , Labor supply , Population , Tax revenues ,
    Date: 2012–06–25
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:12/164&r=dem
  36. By: Ana I. Balsa; Patricia Triunfo
    Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of prenatal care on the likelihood of low birth weight and prematurity using panel data on births taking place between 1995 and 2008 in the largest maternity ward in Uruguay. The use of difference-Generalized Method of Moments estimation addresses biases due to time invariant unobserved heterogeneity and feedback effects from prior pregnancies. Our estimates are larger than those usually found for developed countries: an adequate use of prenatal care - as defined by the Kessner criterion - decreases the probability of low birth weight by half and the likelihood of a pre-term birth by 70%. Even when imposing less stringent requirements on the total number of prenatal controls, the improvements over birth outcomes are considerable. In addition to indicating the crucial role of prenatal care in the birth outcomes of low-income populations, our analysis highlights the importance of using econometric techniques that use the full distribution of pregnancies to estimate the effectiveness of prenatal care.
    Keywords: prenatal care, panel data, difference GMM, lowbirth weight, low SES populations
    JEL: I12 J13 C14
    Date: 2012
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mnt:wpaper:1204&r=dem
  37. By: Jose Rosero (University of Amsterdam)
    Abstract: Although the literature on the effectiveness of child care centers in developing countries is thin, most of the studies have concluded that the provision of these services are beneficial to enhance the development of poor children at early ages. Using different matching techniques, the results in this paper contrast with that conclusion as it finds no support of a positive effect of a large scale child care program in Ecuador on any of the dimensions considered of cognitive development. This paper also provides evidence that the program increased mother's labor force participation and family income but reduced health outcomes of children. The results are in line with the ones found in (Rosero and Oosterbeek, 2011) and support the existence of a trade-off between children development and labor market participation that should be considered at the moment of designing and implementing social policies.
    Keywords: Early childhood development; child care centers; propensity score matching; developing country; Ecuador
    JEL: J13 I28 H40 O12
    Date: 2012–07–19
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20120075&r=dem
  38. By: Gil Epstein (Bar-Ilan University, Israel, CReAM, London and IZA, Bonn); Erez Siniver (The College of Management, Israel)
    Abstract: Studies in the US have shown that black immigrants have remained at the bottom of the wage ladder and that other groups of immigrants have overtaken them over time. The goal of this research is to determine whether a specific group of immigrants can displace a group at the bottom of the ladder. We use Israeli data to compare two ethnic groups: Israeli Arabs and Ethiopian immigrants. Israeli Arabs were considered to be the least successful ethnic group in the Israeli labor market until they were displaced by the Ethiopian immigrants. The results of our analysis show that an ethnic group at the bottom of the wage ladder can be replaced by another.
    Keywords: wage differences, immigrants
    JEL: J15 J24 J31
    Date: 2012–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1219&r=dem
  39. By: Daisuke Ishikawa (Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance Japan); Junji Ueda (Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance Japan); Real Arai (Graduate School of Social Sciences, Hiroshima University)
    Abstract: In order to quantify the effects of declining birthrate and changing demographic structure on the Japanese economy, we show the results of simulations by using a multi-sector dynamic general equilibrium model with overlapping generations (OLG) in an open economy. The model is constructed to incorporate substitutability between domestic products and imports and show the evolution of the industrial structure, reflecting the impacts of aging population from both supply and demand sides of the economy. Based on the scenario of increasing public demands for healthcare services, the share of healthcare sector expands to almost 2.5 times in 2050 relative to the base year 1985. The result of a simulation based on an alternative scenario where the government increases net transfer to the elderly shows smaller labor participation and GDP per capita, due to the income effects and crowding out of private capital by the increase of government debt outstanding in the long run.
    Keywords: multi-sector OLG model, demographic change, soaring public healthcare spending
    JEL: J11 H51 H68
    Date: 2012–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mof:wpaper:ron243&r=dem
  40. By: Stefan Staubli; Josef Zweimüller
    Abstract: Two pension reforms in Austria increased the early retirement age from 60 to 62 for men and from 55 to 58.25 for women. The reforms reduced early retirement by 18.9 percentage points among affected men aged 60-62 and by 22.3 percentage points among affected women aged 55-58.25. The associated increase in employment was merely 6.8 percentage points among men and 10.1 percentage points among women. The reforms had large spillover effects to the unemployment insurance program but negligible effects on disability insurance claims. Specifically, unemployment increased by roughly 10 percentage points both among men and women. Spillover effects had substantial fiscal implications. Absent spillover effects, the reduction of net government expenditures would have amounted to 264 million Euros per year. Due to higher unemployment insurance claims and associated foregone income tax revenues the actual reduction was only 148 million Euros. High-wage and healthy workers carried the bulk of the fall in net government expenditures. Low-wage and less healthy workers generated much less government savings as they either continue to retire early via disability pensions or bridge the gap to regular retirement by drawing unemployment benefits.
    Keywords: Retirement age, policy reform, labor supply, disability, unemployment
    JEL: J14 J26
    Date: 2012–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:nrnwps:2012_06&r=dem
  41. By: Dungan, Peter (University of Toronto); Fang, Tony (York University, Canada); Gunderson, Morley (University of Toronto)
    Abstract: We use a macro-econometric forecasting model to simulate the impact on the Canadian economy of a hypothetical increase in immigration. Our simulations generally yield positive impacts on such factors as real GDP and GDP per capita, aggregate demand, investment, productivity, and government expenditures, taxes and especially net government balances, with essentially no impact on unemployment. This is generally buttressed by conclusions reached in the existing literature. Our analysis suggests that concern should be with respect to immigrants themselves as they are having an increasingly difficult time assimilating into the Canadian labour market, and new immigrants are increasingly falling into poverty.
    Keywords: macroeconomic impact, immigration, FOCUS Model, Canada
    JEL: J15 E17 J18
    Date: 2012–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6743&r=dem
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