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on Demographic Economics |
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Issue of 2012‒11‒17
43 papers chosen by Clarence Nkengne Tsimpo University of Montreal and World Bank Group |
| By: | González de San Román, Ainara (University of the Basque Country); de la Rica, Sara (University of the Basque Country) |
| Abstract: | Our goal in this paper is to focus on highly educated men and women and try to explore the trade‐offs between family and working career in Spain, where changes in female behavior with respect to the labor market have been relatively recent but rather important. We compare male and female behavior with respect to labor supply and labor performance along their life cycle for different birth cohorts to explore the connection between family and work over time. Our results indicate that family plays a crucial role as a source of gender differences in the labor market in Spain. By 2008, children are the main determinant of the observed gap in labor supply between college men and women. Furthermore, with respect to hours worked, children are also an important determinant for the decision of college‐educated mothers to choose to work part‐time. However, children do not seem to contribute to explain the observed gender wage gap (5%) between college men and women. |
| Keywords: | gender gaps, career development, family and work, Spain |
| JEL: | J12 J2 J3 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6978&r=dem |
| By: | Anna Matysiak (Institute of Statistics and Demography, Warsaw School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an overview of developments in fertility, family policy models, and intensity of work-family tensions in the CEE region in the 1990s and 2000s. It hypothesises that the intensification of work-family incongruities in the 1990s might have been an important determinant of the decline in fertility seen in post-socialist countries in the 1990s, and that the implementation of reconciliation policies in some of the post-socialist countries in the 2000s might have led to diversity in rates of fertility improvement in the region. It concludes by encouraging more in-depth research on the interrelationships between fertility, women’s employment, family policies and social norms regarding women’s work in the CEE region, all of which would help verify these hypotheses. |
| Keywords: | fertility, work-family tensions, women’s labour supply, Central and Eastern Europe |
| JEL: | J13 J18 J22 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isd:wpaper:49&r=dem |
| By: | Colin Cannonier (Belmont University); Naci Mocan (Louisiana State University, NBER and IZA) |
| Abstract: | We use data from Sierra Leone where a substantial education program provided increased access to education for primary-school age children but did not benefit children who were older. We exploit the variation in access to the program generated by date of birth and the variation in resources between various districts of the country. We find that the program has increased educational attainment and that an increase in education has changed women’s preferences. An increase in schooling, triggered by the program, had an impact on women’s attitudes towards matters that impact women’s health and on attitudes regarding violence against women. An increase in education has also reduced the number of desired children by women and increased their propensity to use modern contraception and to be tested for AIDS. While education makes women more intolerant of practices that conflict with their well-being, increased education has no impact on men’s attitudes towards women’s well-being. |
| Keywords: | Health, education, empowerment, violence against women |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koc:wpaper:1231&r=dem |
| By: | Robert A. Moffitt |
| Abstract: | The decline in the employment-population ratios for men and women over the period 2000-2007 prior to the Great Recession represents an historic turnaround in the evolution of U.S. employment. The decline is disproportionately concentrated among the less educated and younger groups within the male and female populations and, for women, disproportionately concentrated among the unmarried and those without children. About half of men’s decline can be explained by declines in wage rates and by changes in nonlabor income and family structure influences, but the decline among women is more difficult to explain and requires distinguishing between married and unmarried women and those with and without children, who have each experienced quite different wage and employment trends. Neither taxes nor transfers appear likely to explain the employment declines, with the possible exception of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Other influences such as the minimum wage or health factors do not appear to play a role, but increases in incarceration could have contributed to the decline among men. |
| JEL: | J2 J22 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18520&r=dem |
| By: | Grégory Ponthière (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris - ENS Paris - INRA, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | Individuals save for their old days, but not all of them enjoy the old age. This paper characterizes the optimal capital accumulation in a two-period OLG model where lifetime is risky and varies across individuals. We compare two long-run social optima: (1) the average utilitarian optimum, where steady-state average welfare is maximized; (2) the egalitarian optimum, where the welfare of the worst-o¤ at the steady-state is maximized. It is shown that, under plausible conditions, the egalitarian optimum involves a higher capital and a lower fertility than the utilitarian optimum. Those inequalities hold also in a second-best framework where survival conditions are exogenously linked to the capital level. |
| Keywords: | Egalitarianism ; Differentiated Mortality ; Optimal Capital Accumulation ; Golden Rule ; Fertility |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-00746913&r=dem |
| By: | Florencia Lopez Boo; Maria E. Canon |
| Abstract: | This paper explores children's cognitive outcomes using novel panel data from India for children 6 months through 8 years. For the first time in a developing country, this allow us to estimate a value-added model of cognitive development at a very young age. We look at the nutrition-cognition link and at the relationship between caste and test scores. We use an instrumental variable approach and find that a 1 standard deviation increase in height-for-age at the age of 5 leads to cognitive test scores that are about a 16 per cent of a SD higher at age 8. Our analysis suggests that the differences in income levels between castes found in adulthood arise early in childhood. After controlling for a wide range of controls; upper caste children show a substantial advantage in vocabulary tests, but most importantly, they show a more pronounced gender inequality than their lower caste counterparts. Compensating low caste children with the average nutritional status of their upper caste counterparts would close around one fifth of the caste cognitive differentials. We also show that UC families discriminate more against girls. Using a sub-sample of the data with the siblings' birth weight in a unique way, we find that family fixed effects explain 1SD of the overall nutrition-cognition effect. |
| Keywords: | Education ; Nutrition ; Child psychology ; Achievement tests |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2012-051&r=dem |
| By: | Jonas Minet Kinge and Stephen Morris (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the relationship between obesity and life expectancy, and whether or not this relationship varies by socioeconomic status (SES). The underlying model is based on the “Pathways to health” framework in which SES affects health by modifying the relationship between lifestyles and health. We use data from the British Health and Lifestyle Survey (1984-1985) and the longitudinal follow-up in June 2009, and run parametric Gompertz survival models to investigate the association between obesity and life expectancy, also accounting for interactions between obesity and both age and SES. Generally we find that obesity is negatively associated with survival, and that SES is positively associated with survival, in both men and women. There is no evidence of interactions between obesity and SES in predicting survival in men, but these interactions are present in women. Obesity is associated with lower survival in women except for older women in higher SES groups, who have a longer predicted survival than women of normal weight in this group. |
| Keywords: | obesity; life expectancy; socioeconomic status; survival analysis |
| JEL: | I14 I18 I19 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:712&r=dem |
| By: | Saul D. Hoffman (Department of Economics,University of Delaware) |
| Abstract: | : A recent Census Bureau report shows that the gender earnings ratio for year-round full-time workers varies substantially across states, with a range of 24 percentage points. In this paper, I examine this variation by estimating state-fixed effect models of earnings for men and women, using data from the 2008 and 2009 CPS. I find that state fixed effects affecting men’s and women’s earnings are persistent, even after control for other variables. Louisiana has the lowest unadjusted and regression-adjusted gender earnings ratio, while DC and Maine have the highest unadjusted and adjusted earnings ratios, respectively. States with particularly low overall gender earnings ratios have low ratios even within detailed education and occupation categories. |
| Keywords: | Gender Gap, Women’s Earnings, Fixed Effects |
| JEL: | J16 J30 J31 J70 J71 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dlw:wpaper:12-14.&r=dem |
| By: | Nguyen, Trong-Ha (University of Queensland); Liu, Amy Y.C. (Australian National University); Booth, Alison L. (Australian National University) |
| 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: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6974&r=dem |
| By: | Norbert Schady |
| Abstract: | Iron deficiency anemia is the most prevalent nutritional deficiency in the world, affecting more than 2 billion people in developing countries. We show that a modest cash transfer substantially reduced anemia among women of reproductive age in rural Ecuador. |
| Keywords: | Health, Social Development :: Women, Social Development :: Poverty, Cash transfers, health status |
| JEL: | I1 I3 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:75718&r=dem |
| By: | Anna Baranowska-Rataj (Institute of Statistics and Demography, Warsaw School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This article investigates the relationship between nonmarital cohabitation among young people and their relations with parents in the cultural and institutional settings that favour marriage over informal unions. We use data from the recently released Generation and Gender Survey for Poland, a country with limited social acceptance for cohabitation, high attachment to the marriage institution and familialistic culture. Our results show that in a traditional country such as Poland nonmarital cohabitation is selective: these are mainly young people raised in better educated and less religious families living in urban areas who are more likely to choose cohabitation instead of marriage in their first union. Next, we analyse how living arrangement choices are interrelated with the frequency of contacts and satisfaction from relations with parents, as well as chances for receiving material support from family. According to our results, cohabitation may decrease the quality of relations with parents as measured by self-rated satisfaction, but it does not have strong and negative effects on the frequency of meetings with both parents or probability of receiving material support from them. |
| Keywords: | cohabitation, intergenerational relations, intergenerational transfers, parental background |
| JEL: | J12 J14 Z13 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isd:wpaper:50&r=dem |
| By: | Drasch, Katrin (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "In this paper, I examine how family related employment interruptions for women in the FRG (Federal Republic of Germany) and the GDR (German Democratic Republic) looked like in the period prior to German reunification. Furthermore, I investigate how career interruptions developed after the German reunification in the old and new states and whether a convergence of re-entry behaviour can be observed. Following research questions are addressed: Which factors are more important: attitudes towards the employment of mothers, which were transferred through socialisation in childhood and adolescence, or institutional arrangements shaped by parental leave regulations? Based on data from the IAB ALWA study ('Working and Learning in a Changing World'), the results show that even twenty years after the German reunification, significant differences between women in East and West Germany are found to exist with respect to family related employment interruptions. These interruptions are subject to strong institutional control. Women who were raised in the GDR and moved to one of the old federal states after the reunification do not behave differently than West German women. This result suggests that institutional arrangements including for example also childcare availability are more important for re-entry behaviour than socialisation. However, the results must be interpreted carefully: it could be that the willingness to move of East German women is also influenced by socialisation." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Mütter, Erwerbsunterbrechung - Dauer, Frauenerwerbstätigkeit - internationaler Vergleich, gesellschaftliche Einstellungen, institutionelle Faktoren, kulturelle Faktoren, erwerbstätige Frauen, regionaler Vergleich, IAB-Datensatz Arbeiten und Lernen, berufliche Reintegration, Berufsrückkehrerinnen, Erwerbsverhalten, Familienpolitik, Beruf und Familie, Bundesrepublik Deutschland, DDR, Ostdeutschland, Westdeutschland |
| JEL: | J21 C41 |
| Date: | 2012–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:092012&r=dem |
| By: | Apps, Patricia (University of Sydney); Mendolia, Silvia (University of Wollongong); Walker, Ian (Lancaster University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between attendance at nursery school and children's outcomes in adolescence. In particular, we are interested in child cognitive development at ages 11, 14 and 16, intentions towards tertiary education, economic activity in early adulthood, and in a group of non-cognitive outcomes, such as risky health behaviours (smoking, early pregnancy, use of cannabis) and personality traits (feelings and commitments about school; psychological well-being). Using matching methods to control for a very rich set of child's and family's characteristics, we find that pre-school childcare largely improves results in cognitive tests at age 11 and 14 and 16, and has a positive effect on intentions towards further education and economic activity at age 19-20. Positive effects are especially noticeable for children coming from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. Results on non-cognitive outcomes are more mixed: we do not find any evidence of improvement in psychological well-being, but we do find some positive effects on health behaviours. |
| Keywords: | childcare, child outcomes |
| JEL: | J13 I21 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6971&r=dem |
| By: | Dasgupta, Basab (World Bank); Zimmermann, Christian (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of loan regulation in rural India on child labor with an overlapping-generations model of formal and informal lending, human capital accumulation, adverse selection, and differentiated risk types. Specifically, we build a model economy that replicates the current outcome with a loan rate cap and no lender discrimination by risk using a survey of rural lenders. Households borrow primarily from informal moneylenders and use child labor. Removing the rate cap and allowing lender discrimination markedly increases capital use, eliminates child labor, and improves welfare of all household types. |
| Keywords: | child labor, India, informal lending, lending discrimination, interest rate caps |
| JEL: | O16 O17 E26 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6979&r=dem |
| By: | Yoshihiko Kadoya; Ting Yin |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this research is to address the lack of a region-wide view of widow discrimination in India, the home of 42 million widows. This study analyzed the household data collected in face-to-face interviews from January to March of 2011 in six major Indian cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad. It was revealed that widow discrimination does not prevail across the nation. That is, this research did not deny the existence of traditional widow discrimination in some areas, but demonstrated that this phenomenon does not represent the whole nation if we focus on the widowfs old age and the treatment by their family. Certainly, this research has some limitations, including the fact that the observations came only from cities. However, this is pioneering research, and more significantly, it addresses the lack of a region-wide view analysis of widow discrimination in India with an aging population. |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpr:wpaper:0858&r=dem |
| By: | Rembrandt D. Scholz (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Sebastian Klüsener (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | In their contributions to the debate on exceptional longevity, several scholars have noted the existence of spatial hot spots, or areas with a high concentration of individuals who have survived to very high ages (e.g. Sardinia in Italy or Okinawa in Japan). However, most of these studies were based on a small number of cases. This study investigates the spatial pattern of exceptional longevity in Germany by place of birth and place of death. We used a large dataset of exceptional longevity that covered all recorded individuals who reached the age of 105 in Germany in the period 1991 to 2002 (N: 1,339). Our research results show that, even in Germany, with its troubled 20th-century past, most of the semi-supercentenarians reached the age of exceptional longevity in the same region in which they were born. The discovery of this highly localised pattern supports the view that an investigation of regional variation in exceptional longevity can produce meaningful results. In our analysis of spatial variation, we were able to detect hot spots of exceptional longevity in Berlin and in north-western Germany. These findings are remarkable, as life expectancy in Germany is currently characterised by a south-north gradient, with the areas of highest life expectancy at birth being located in the south. The observed pattern of exceptional longevity instead reflects the life expectancy at birth pattern in Germany in the early 20th century and to some degree also the current life expectancy at age 80 pattern. Our findings might be interpreted as support to the argument that early and late life conditions might play an important role in explaining spatial variation of exceptional longevity in Germany. |
| Keywords: | Germany, longevity, spatial analysis, spatial distance |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2012-028&r=dem |
| By: | Yahia Salhi (SAF - Laboratoire de Sciences Actuarielle et Financière - Université Claude Bernard - Lyon I : EA2429); Stéphane Loisel (SAF - Laboratoire de Sciences Actuarielle et Financière - Université Claude Bernard - Lyon I : EA2429) |
| Abstract: | Most mortality models are generally calibrated on national population. However, pensions funds and annuity providers are mainly interested in the mortality rates of their own portfolio. In this paper we put forward a multivariate approach for forecasting pairwise mortality rates of related population. The investigated approach links national population mortality to a subset population using an econometric model that captures a long-run relationship between both mortality dynamics. This model does not lay the emphasis on the correlation that the two given mortality dynamics would present but rather on the long-term behaviour, which suggests that the two time-series cannot wander off in opposite directions for very long without mean reverting force on grounds of biological reasonableness. The model additionally captures the short-run adjustment between the considered mortality dynamics. Our aim is to propose a consistent approach to forecast pairwise mortality and to some extent to better control and assess basis risk underlying index-based longevity securitization. An empirical comparison of the forecast of one-year death probabilities of portfolio-experienced mortality is performed using both a factor-based model and the proposed approach. The robustness of the model is tested on mortality rate data for England & Wales and Continuous Mortality Investigation assured lives representing a sub-population. |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00746859&r=dem |
| By: | Cansu Akpinar (EA3713 - Centre de Recherche Magellan - Université de Lyon - Université Jean Moulin - Lyon III) |
| Abstract: | The situation where gender pay gaps are typically wider at the top of the wage distribution is known as the 'glass ceiling'. It is one of the most compelling metaphors recently used for analyzing inequality between men and women in the workplace, in order to describe a barrier to further advancement once women have attained a certain level. The general-case glass ceiling hypothesis states that not only is it more difficult for women than for men to be promoted up levels of authority hierarchies within workplaces but also that the obstacles women face relative to men become greater as they move up the hierarchy. This study presents an overview of glass-ceiling type barriers in organizations based on the perceptions of a sample of French and Turkish mid-level women managers. This study investigates how women in middle management perceive their career advancement opportunities and what they consider their organizations to be doing to support their advancement. This study begins with an introduction of the concept of a glass ceiling that prevents women from advancing, and then continues with previous studies on corporate practices and data analysis of samples from French and Turkish organizations. The objective of this work is to summarize the Glass Ceiling Phenomenon and make a comparison of different arguments of researchers. In particular with this study, It has been pointed out that most past research has been relied on indirect tests which fail to distinguish studies of the glass ceiling effect who have investigated a variety of labour market outcomes such as promotions (Powell and Butterfield 1994, Yap and Konrad(2009)), women carrier (Belgihiti Kartochian, Laufer(2004)), inequality (David J. Maume Jr.) and sex segregation (Mia Hultin 2003) |
| Keywords: | Glass Ceiling, Carrier Barriers, Women in Leadership |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00738519&r=dem |
| By: | Ola Lotherington Vestad (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | The main objective of this paper is to estimate labour supply effects of an early retirement programme in Norway. Detailed administrative data are employed in order to characterize full paths towards retirement and account for substitution from other exit routes, such as unemployment and disability insurance. By exploiting a reduction in the lower age limit for early retirement as a source of exogenous variation in individual eligibility I obtain robust difference-in-differences and triple differences estimates indicating that more than two out of three pensioners would still be working at the age of 63 had the age limit been 64 rather than 62. Hence, although successful in creating a more dignified exit route for early leavers, the programme also generated substantial costs in terms of inducing others to retire earlier. |
| Keywords: | Induced retirement; Pension reform; Matched employer-employee register data; Difference-in-differences. |
| JEL: | H55 I38 J26 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:717&r=dem |
| By: | Bowles, Hannah Riley (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | Career stories of 50 female executives from major corporations and high-growth entrepreneurial ventures suggest two alternative accounts of how women legitimize their claims to top leadership positions: navigating and pioneering. In navigating accounts, the women legitimized their claims to top authority positions by following well institutionalized paths of career advancement (e.g., high performance in line jobs) and self-advocating with the gatekeepers of the social hierarchy (e.g., bosses, investors). In pioneering accounts, the women articulated a strategic vision and cultivated a community of support and followership around their strategic ideas and leadership. The career stories suggested that, when the women's authority claims were not validated, they engaged in narrative identity work to revise their aspirations and legitimization strategies. Sometimes narrative identity work motivated women to shift from one type of account to another, particularly from navigating to pioneering. Based on inductive analyses of these 50 career stories, I propose a process model of how women legitimize their claims to top leadership positions by recursively resetting career accounts as authority claims succeed or fail. |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp12-047&r=dem |
| By: | Raschke, Christian (Louisiana State University) |
| Abstract: | The German Child Benefit ("Kindergeld") is paid to legal guardians of children as a cash benefit. This study employs exogenous variations in the amount of child benefit received by households to investigate the extent to which these various changes have translated into an improvement in the circumstances of children related to their well-being. I use the German Socio-Economic Panel to estimate the impact of a given change in the child benefit on food expenditures of households, the probability of owning a home, the size of the home, as well as the probability of parents’ smoking, alcohol consumption, and parents’ social activities such as traveling, visiting movie theaters, going to pop concerts, attending classical music concerts or other cultural events. Households primarily increase per capita food expenditures in response to increases in child benefit, and they also improve housing conditions. I do not find a significant effect of child benefit on parents’ smoking or drinking, but parents of older children use the child benefit to pay for their social and personal entertainment activities. |
| Keywords: | child benefit, fungibility of income, child well-being |
| JEL: | I38 D12 H31 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6980&r=dem |
| By: | Bowles, Hannah Riley (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | A fundamental form of human interaction, negotiation is essential to the management of relationships, the coordination of paid and household labor, the distribution of resources, and the creation of economic value. Understanding the effects of gender on negotiation gives us important insights into how micro-level interactions contribute to larger social phenomena, such as gender gaps in pay and authority. Recent research on gender in negotiation has shown us how gender stereotypes constrain women from negotiating access to resources and opportunities through lowered performance expectations and gendered behavioral constraints. However, this widening research stream is also beginning to provide hints for how individuals and organizations can overcome these limitations to women's negotiation potential. In this chapter, I provide a brief history of psychological research on gender in negotiation, starting with the study of gender-stereotypic personality attributions and transitioning to a more sophisticated analysis of the effects of gender stereotypes on negotiation behaviors and performance. I review contemporary research on gender in negotiation using two interrelated frameworks. The first outlines the ways in which gender stereotypes influence negotiation, the second outlines situational factors that help predict when gender effects are likely to emerge in negotiation. These include ambiguity, which facilitates the emergence of gender effects, and gender triggers, which influence the salience and relevance of gender within the negotiating context. Finally, I highlight practical implications of research on gender in negotiation and point to future research directions that could transform insights about barriers to women's negotiation performance into positive levers for change. |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp12-046&r=dem |
| By: | Tony Muhumuza |
| Abstract: | The study analyses the relationship between access to rural product markets and the extent and nature of child labour. It is built on the view that if physical markets can shape rural development through, for instance, influencing prices, household production decisions and employment, the associated activity growth could increase child labour. Using household survey data from Uganda, I find that children increase time in domestic work when local product markets are distant, while their time in economic activity declines. A similar pattern is observed for the incidence of child labour. The likelihood of child labour in domestic activity increases for each extra hour of travel to the market, while child labour in economic activity declines. This could reflect the possibility that households may switch child work from market-oriented activities to domestic work when they are remotely located from markets. Results confirm findings from earlier cross-country studies that access to product markets may be detrimental to children. Second, they demonstrate that the effect of the markets varies, depending on the age of children, as well as the nature of the work they engage in. |
| Keywords: | Child labour, market access, Uganda |
| JEL: | J22 J82 O12 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1251&r=dem |
| By: | Ana Corbacho; Steve Brito; Rene Osorio Rivas |
| Abstract: | The drivers of educational attainment have been the subject of much research both in the developed and the developing world. Yet, nothing is known about the effect of birth registration on schooling outcomes. Birth registration is not only a fundamental human right but also a requirement to obtain additional documents of legal identity and access many government benefits. Using data for the Dominican Republic, this paper is the first to shed light on the causal impact of the lack of birth registration on education. Controlling for potential endogeneity and standard socioeconomic determinants of education, this paper finds that children without documents of birth registration do not face lower chances of entering the schooling system. Yet, the absence of birth registration becomes a critical obstacle to graduate from primary school and translates into fewer years of overall educational attainment. |
| Keywords: | Public Sector :: Civil Registration, Economics :: Economic Development & Growth, Rural & Urban Development, Tax Revenue, Elasticities, Business Cycles, Schooling, Under-registration |
| JEL: | O12 R12 R20 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:76178&r=dem |
| By: | Jürgen Faik (FaMa – Neue Frankfurter Sozialforschung) |
| Abstract: | This paper is concerned with the interplay between demography and macroeconomics on one hand and macroeconomics and income inequality on the other hand. For this purpose, several estimation equations are derived by econometric methods (on the empirical basis of the 1984-2010 German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) waves). In concrete terms, the macroeconomic variables inflation, economic growth, and unemployment are at first connected with the German demographic ageing; afterwards, these connections are used to produce a nexus between German income inequality and the stated macroeconomic variables (additionally to the exogenous effects of ageing). For the empirical periods examined (1983-2009), there have been a) a (slightly) negative influence of demographic ageing on the inflation rate, b) a (weak) positive effect of ageing on the level – not on the increases (reductions) – of economic growth rates, and c) a somewhat stronger positive impact of demographic ageing on unemployment rates. While the measured income inequality is upwards directly (exogenously) driven by demographic ageing, the mechanisms through the different macroeconomic channels are more difficile: inflation is positively and unemployment negatively correlated with income inequality, and regarding economic growth a (slightly) concave effect upon income inequality has been observed. All these findings imply that demographic ageing, ceteris paribus and by tendency, diminishes income inequality via inflation and unemployment rate, which is also valid for economic growth (within the empirically relevant value range for the German demographic ageing). But on balance, there is an overcompensating direct, exogenous impact of demographic ageing on inequality in the model used in this paper, and this causes tendencies towards a remarkable increase of German income inequality until 2060. These tendencies are more pronounced in the forecast variant in which a strongly ageing population is assumed. |
| Keywords: | Demographic ageing, macroeconomics, personal income distribution, inequality. |
| JEL: | D30 D31 D60 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2012-272&r=dem |
| By: | Schneeweis, Nicole (Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz); Skirbekk, Vegard (IIASA, Laxenburg); Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf (Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, affiliated with IHS, IZA, and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | We study the relationship between education and cognitive functioning at older ages by exploiting compulsory schooling reforms, implemented in six European countries during the 1950s and 1960s. Using data of individuals aged 50+ from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we assess the causal effect of education on old-age memory, fluency, numeracy, orientation and dementia. We find a positive impact of schooling on memory. One year of education increases the delayed memory score by about 0.3, which amounts to 16% of the standard deviation. Furthermore, for women, we find that more education reduces the risk of dementia. |
| Keywords: | Compulsory schooling, Instrumental variables, Education, Cognitive functioning, Memory, Aging, Dementia |
| JEL: | I21 J14 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ihs:ihsesp:293&r=dem |
| By: | Lucifora, Claudio (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Meurs, Dominique (University Paris Ouest-Nanterre) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the links between family values, social needs and individual preferences for welfare using data from the 2005 French “Generation and Gender Survey” (GGS). We analyse individual preferences, for financial assistance and the provision of care services, with respect to welfare support as opposed to within household production. The strength of family ties is based on individual's self-assessed family values (such as, duties, responsibilities and norms of reciprocity), both within the couple and between parents and children. We find a positive association between weak (strong) family values and the preferences for welfare state support (provision of domestic services). The relevance of family values is shown to be invariant to different socio-economic circumstances, such as: financial distress, bad health or family size. Using long term cultural determinants of selected ethnic and religious groups as instruments for family values, we also provide evidence for causal effects. |
| Keywords: | family values, preferences for welfare, culture, religion |
| JEL: | J12 J13 I31 I38 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6977&r=dem |
| By: | John Chalmers; Woodrow T. Johnson; Jonathan Reuter |
| Abstract: | The Oregon Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) is a hybrid pension plan that provides employees the security of a defined benefit (DB) pension plus the option to receive instead retirement benefits based on a defined contribution-style (DC) retirement account. We use PERS administrative data for 1990 to 2003 to study the effect of this hybrid design on employers’ costs and employees’ retirement-timing decisions. We have four findings. First, the option built into PERS is costly for employers to provide. Ex post, average retirement benefits are 49% higher in the hybrid plan than they would have been in a traditional DB plan. For the typical retiree, simulations show that our ex post estimate lies between the 50th and 75th percentiles of the ex ante distribution. Second, the hybrid plan distorts employees’ retirement timing decisions relative to a traditional DB plan. Looking across benefit formulas, we find that as an employee’s DC benefit increases above her DB benefit, so does the probability that she retires before the normal retirement age. Third, we find that retirement timing decisions respond to two sources of exogenous variation in the level of the DC benefit. Finally, we find evidence of peer effects in that employees respond more strongly to their own retirement incentives when more of their coworkers face similar incentives. The retirement waves that result from employees seeking to avoid declines in pension benefits are likely to impose significant administrative costs on employers. |
| JEL: | D83 H55 J26 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18517&r=dem |
| By: | Giorgio Calcagnini (Department of Economics, Society & Politics, Università di Urbino "Carlo Bo"); Germana Giombini (Department of Economics, Society & Politics, Università di Urbino "Carlo Bo"); Elisa Lenti (Department of Economics, Society & Politics, Università di Urbino "Carlo Bo") |
| Abstract: | Traditionally female entrepreneurs report difficulties or higher costs in accessing bank credit. These difficulties can be either the result of supply side discrimination, or the lower profitability of female-owned firms than male-owned ones. This paper aims at analyzing gender differences in bank loan access by means of a large dataset on firms’ lines of credit provided by four Italian banks over the period 2005-2008. Estimates show that, after controlling for loan, firm and bank characteristics, female-owned firms: (a) experience a higher probability of having to pledge guarantees than male-owned firms; (b) have a lower probability of access to credit. |
| Keywords: | Gender discrimination, Bank loan, Guarantees. |
| JEL: | E43 G21 D82 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:urb:wpaper:12_12&r=dem |
| By: | David Masclet (University of Rennes1 - CREM UMR CNRS 6211, France and CIRANO, Montréal, Canada); Emmanuel Peterle (University of Rennes 1 - CREM UMR CNRS 6211, France); Sophie Larribeau (University of Rennes 1 - CREM UMR CNRS 6211, France) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates experimentally gender and race discrimination in hiring decisions through a simple controlled setting where employers can observe workers’ individual characteristics before recruiting them. In this paper, we explore whether discrimination, if any, is statistical or taste-based. For this purpose, we varied across our treatments the level of information available to the employer during the hiring stage regarding workers’ potential ability. When no relevant information on ability is provided, we observe both significant gender and race discrimination. The introduction of information on ability or competitiveness reduces discrimination significantly, suggesting that discrimination is mainly due to a lack of information rather than preferences. Our findings indicate however that the reduction in discrimination strongly depends on the nature of the additional information available. |
| Keywords: | real effort experiment; statistical discrimination; taste based discrimination; performance |
| JEL: | C90 C92 J15 J16 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tut:cremwp:201238&r=dem |
| By: | Brunello, Giorgio (University of Padova); De Paola, Maria (University of Calabria) |
| Abstract: | Having leader positions at school, as well as participating in sports and clubs helps promoting valuable non cognitive skills, including leadership, self-discipline, motivation, competitiveness and self-esteem. We use survey data from the US and Japan to investigate whether these behaviors in middle and high school are affected by the gender composition of siblings. We find that having only sisters at age 15 increases substantially the probability of school leadership both for males and for females in the US and the probability of sport participation for males in Japan. We also find that parental education matters more for these behaviors in the US than in Japan, and that in the latter country the oldest son or daughter are more likely to be leaders in school. |
| Keywords: | non-cognitive skills, school behaviors, siblings |
| JEL: | J24 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6976&r=dem |
| By: | Parrotta, Pierpaolo (Aarhus School of Business); Pozzoli, Dario (Aarhus University); Pytlikova, Mariola (Aarhus School of Business) |
| Abstract: | Using a matched employer-employee data-set, we analyze how workforce diversity in terms of cultural background, education and demographic characteristics affects the productivity of firms in Denmark. Implementing a structural estimation of the firms' production function (Ackerberg et al. 2006), we find that labor diversity in education significantly enhances a firm's value added. Conversely, diversity in ethnicity and demographics induces negative effects on firm productivity. Therefore, the negative effects, which are derived from the communication and integration costs associated with a more culturally and demographically diverse workforce, seem to outweigh the positive effects of creativity and knowledge spillovers. |
| Keywords: | labor diversity, skill complementarity, communication barriers, total factor productivity |
| JEL: | J15 J16 J24 J61 J81 L20 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6973&r=dem |
| By: | Parrotta, Pierpaolo (Aarhus School of Business); Pozzoli, Dario (Aarhus University); Pytlikova, Mariola (Aarhus School of Business) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate the nexus between firm labor diversity and innovation using a linked employer-employee data from Denmark. Specifically, exploiting information retrieved from this comprehensive database and implementing proper instrumental variable strategies, we are able to identify the contribution of workers' diversity in cultural background, education and demographic characteristics to valuable firm's innovation activity. The latter is measured by: (1) the firm's propensity to apply for a patent, (2) the number of patent applications (intensive margin) and (3) the firm's ability to patent in different technological areas (extensive margin). We find that ethnic diversity plays an important role in propelling firm's innovation outcomes. |
| Keywords: | labor diversity, ethnic diversity, patenting activity, extensive and intensive margins |
| JEL: | J15 J16 J24 J61 J82 O32 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6972&r=dem |
| By: | Wunder, Christoph; Heineck, Guido |
| Abstract: | We analyze how well-being is related to working time preferences and hours mismatch. Selfreported measures of life satisfaction are used as an empirical approximation of true wellbeing. Our results indicate that well-being is generally lower among workers with working time mismatch. Particularly underemployment is detrimental for well-being. We further provide first evidence on spillovers from the partner's working time mismatch. However, the spillover becomes insignificant once we control for the partner's well-being. This suggests that well-being is contagious, and the spillover is due to interdependent utilities. Females experience the highest well-being when their partner is working full-time hours. Male wellbeing is unaffected over a wide interval of the partner's working hours. -- |
| Keywords: | subjective well-being,life satisfaction,working time preferences,working time mismatch,spillovers,utility interdependence |
| JEL: | I31 J21 J22 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:bamber:85&r=dem |
| By: | Damir Esenaliev; Susan Steiner |
| Abstract: | We investigate horizontal inequality between two conflictive ethnic groups, the Kyrgyz and the Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan, by employing the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition. This technique has a long tradition in labour economics but has not been used in the literature that links ethnic inequality and violent conflict. We measure welfare differentials between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks and find that, depending on the welfare indicator used, Uzbeks are either better off or worse off than Kyrgyz. Specifically, we find that Uzbeks are not better off, if welfare is measured in terms of household expenditure. They are, however, clearly more prosperous in terms of the value and the size of their houses - at least in urban areas, where most Uzbeks reside. The picture is mixed when we use ownership of assets as a welfare measure. We conclude that the choice of welfare indicator is essential in studies of horizontal inequality, as it is most likely the more visible aspects of life that drive people's perceptions about other ethnic groups' standard of living. Decomposing welfare differentials between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks shows that the gap in expenditure is due to differences in group characteristics, such as household composition and ownership of livestock, whereas the gap in assets and house values remains unexplained. |
| Keywords: | Measurement of welfare, horizontal inequality, ethnic conflict, Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, Kyrgyzstan |
| JEL: | D74 J15 I31 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1252&r=dem |
| By: | Asheim, Geir B. (Dept. of Economics, University of Oslo); Zuber, Stephane (CERSES) |
| Abstract: | Evaluation of climate policies and other issues requires a variable population setting where population is endogenously determined. We propose and axiomatize the rank-discounted critical-level utilitarian social welfare order. It is shown to ll out the space between critical-level utilitarianism and (a version of) critical-level leximin. Moreover, it satis fies many conditions and principles used to evaluate variable population criteria. In particular, it avoids the repugnant conclusion even when the critical level is zero. |
| Keywords: | Social evaluation; population ethics; critical-level utilitarianism; social discounting |
| JEL: | D63 D71 H43 Q56 |
| Date: | 2012–08–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:osloec:2012_023&r=dem |
| By: | Kubis, Alexander (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Schneider, Lutz |
| Abstract: | "Since the fall of the iron curtain in 1989, the migration deficit of the Eastern part of Germany has accumulated to 1.8 million people, which is over 10 percent of its initial population. Depending on their human capital endowment, these migrants might either - in the case of low-skilled migration - accelerate or - in high-skilled case - impede convergence. Due to the availability of detailed data on regional human capital, migration and productivity growth, we are able to test how geographic mobility affects convergence via the human capital selectivity of migration. With regard to the endogeneity of the migration flows and human capital, we apply a dynamic panel data model within the framework of ß-convergence and account for spatial dependence. The regressions indicate a positive, robust, but modest effect of a migration surplus on regional productivity growth. After controlling for human capital, the effect of migration decreases; this decrease indicates that skill selectivity is one way that migration impacts growth." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Binnenwanderung, Qualifikationsniveau, regionale Disparität, Konvergenz, Zuwanderung, Abwanderung, Ostdeutschland, Westdeutschland, Bundesrepublik Deutschland |
| JEL: | R23 R11 C23 |
| Date: | 2012–09–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:232012&r=dem |
| By: | Dean R. Lillard; Anna Manzoni |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether Germans immigrants to the US work in higher-status occupations than they would have had they remained in Germany. We account for potential bias from selective migration. The probability of migration is identified using life-cycle and cohort variation in economic conditions in the US. We also explore whether occupational choices vary for Germans who migrated as children or as adults. Our results allow us to decompose observed differences in occupational status of migrants and non migrants into the part explained by selection effects and the part that is causal, extending the literature on international migration. |
| JEL: | J24 J61 J62 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp498&r=dem |
| By: | Aysit Tansel (Department of Economics, METU); Nil Demet Gungor (Department of Economics, Atilim University) |
| Abstract: | Several recent empirical studies have examined the gender effects of education on economic growth or on steady-state level of output using the much exploited, familiar cross-country data in order to determine their quantitative importance and the direction of correlation. This paper undertakes a similar study of the gender effects of education using province level data for Turkey. The main findings indicate that female education positively and significantly affects the steady-state level of labor productivity, while the effect of male education is in general either positive or insignificant. Separate examination of the effect of educational gender gap was negative on output. The results are found to be robust to a number of sensitivity analyses, such as elimination of outlier observations, controls for simultaneity and measurement errors, controls for omitted variables by including regional dummy variables, steady-state versus growth equations and considering different samples. |
| Keywords: | Labor Productivity, Economic Development, Education, Gender, Turkey |
| JEL: | O11 O15 I21 J16 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:met:wpaper:1203&r=dem |
| By: | Cléo Chassonnery-Zaïgouche (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | A la suite des travaux de Gary S. Becker, un ensemble de contributions théoriques s'est consacré à la description, à l'explication et à la mesure de la dynamique inégalitaire des discriminations - cela dans une perspective essentiellement " positive ". Le modèle " préférence-commerce " de Becker et les mod`les de la discrimination statistique apportent deux réponses différentes à la question de l'efficacité économique du comportement discriminatoire. Inefficace - par hypothèse - dans le modèle de Becker, la discrimination devient - sous certaines conditions - efficace dans le cas des modèles de "discrimination statistique". Or, une discrimination, même efficace, reste une discrimination au sens juridique (voire éthique). La base normative implicite que constitue le critère d'efficacité entre ainsi en contradiction avec le principe de non-discrimination. Le critère d'efficacité économique n'est donc pas suffisant d'un double point de vue : 1) il ne suffit pas à produire une analyse positive des discriminations qui prenne en charge la complexité du phénomène ; 2) il ne peut servir de base normative pour construire des recommandations de politiques publiques pour lutter contre les discriminations. Une analyse renouvelée doit ainsi se fonder sur deux principes : les agents sont guidés par des normes sociales et non uniquement par des critères économiques ; le principe de non-discrimination doit être jugé supérieur au critère d'efficacité en cas de conflit. |
| Keywords: | Discrimination; discrimination statistique; critère d'efficacité; philosophie économique; économie normative; économie positive. |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00748511&r=dem |
| By: | Rachel Berner Shalem; Francesca Cornaglia; Jan-Emmanuel De Neve |
| Abstract: | The question of whether there is a lasting effect of childhood experience on mental health has eluded causal measurement. We draw upon identical twin data and econometric instrumentation to provide an unbiased answer. We find that 55% of a one standard deviation change in mental health due to idiosyncratic experience at age 9 will still be present three years later. Extending the analysis, we find such persistence to vary with age at impact, gender, and mental health sub-categories. This investigation allows us to get a grasp on the degree to which childhood events influence health and socio-economic outcomes by way of their lagged effect on subsequent mental health. A better understanding of the evolution of mental health also helps identifying when mental health issues can be most effectively treated. |
| Keywords: | mental health, childhood experience, twin study, instrumental variable analysis |
| JEL: | I10 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1175&r=dem |
| By: | Roxana Gutiérrez-Romero |
| Abstract: | This article investigates whether vote-buying and the instigation of violence in the disputed 2007 Kenyan elections were strategically motivated, and whether those affected by electoral violence changed their views towards ethno-politics and the use of violence. To answer these questions, a panel survey conducted before and after the elections is combined with external indicators of electoral violence. We find that political parties targeted vote-buying towards specific groups to weaken the support of their political rivals and to mobilize their own supporters. Furthermore, parties instigated violence strategically in areas where they were less likely to win. Although the victims of violence would prefer that parties are no longer allowed to organize in ethnic or religious lines, they are more likely to identify in ethnic terms, support the use of violence and avoid relying on the police to resolve disputes. The overall findings suggest an increased risk of electoral-violence reoccurring. |
| Keywords: | Political competition; electoral violence; vote-buying; election fraud; ethnic identity; Kenya |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2012-16&r=dem |
| By: | Parodi, Giuliana; Sciulli, Dario |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the dynamics of social exclusion comparing Italian households with and without disabled people, adopting the EU definition of social exclusion and the social model approach to the disability. The analysis applies a dynamic probit model accounting for true state dependence, unobserved heterogeneity and endogenous initial conditions to the 2004-2007 IT-SILC data. Our findings indicate that the incidence of social exclusion for households with disable people is about double with respect to other households, and this disadvantage is especially due to exclusion in the work intensity and material deprivation dimensions. This suggests that analysis based just on income perspective could be insufficient to provide a proper picture of reality. Second, households with disabled people are more likely to persist in social exclusion than other households. Third, persistence in social exclusion for households with disabled people is more likely to be explained by unobserved (and observed) heterogeneity, than by true state dependence. Fourth, households with disabled members experience a stronger severity of social exclusion, explained more in terms of structural factors than in terms of state dependence. Our findings suggest that households with disabled people could benefit more than other households from long-term policies aimed at removing structural factors determining a social exclusion history. The severity of social exclusion, that is stronger for households with disabled members, conforms to the same pattern. |
| Keywords: | social exclusion; persistence; disability; dynamic probit model; initial conditions |
| JEL: | J14 C23 I32 |
| Date: | 2012–11–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:42445&r=dem |