|
on Demographic Economics |
|
Issue of 2013‒01‒07
fifty papers chosen by Clarence Nkengne Tsimpo University of Montreal and World Bank Group |
| By: | Böheim, René (University of Linz); Francesconi, Marco (University of Essex); Halla, Martin (University of Linz) |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of joint custody on marriage, divorce, fertility and female employment in Austria using individual-level administrative data, covering the entire population. We also use unique data obtained from court records to analyze the effect on post-divorce outcomes. Our estimates show that joint custody significantly reduces divorce and female employment rates, significantly increases marriage and marital birth rates, and leads to a substantial increase in the total money transfer received by mothers after divorce. We interpret these results as evidence against Becker-Coase bargains and in support of a mechanism driven by a resource redistribution that favors men giving them greater incentives to invest in marriage specific capital. |
| Keywords: | divorce, fertility, bargaining, intrahousehold allocations, Austria |
| JEL: | J12 J13 J18 K36 N32 R2 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7064&r=dem |
| By: | Arnstein Aassve; Francesco Billari; Léa Pessin |
| Abstract: | We argue that fertility trends in advanced societies are in part driven by differences in trust. The argument builds around the idea that trust implies individuals and couples being willing to outsource traditional family activities to other individuals outside their own family. Trust is therefore seen as a catalyser for the process of increased female labour force participation, the diffusion of childcare facilities, and hence a halt to the continuing fertility decline. Support of this hypothesis is drawn from the World Values Survey and European Values Survey. We present evidence both from country-level regressions and from a series of multilevel analyses. We find that trust by itself is positively associated with fertility over recent decades. Moreover, trust interacts with women’s education. In particular, as higher education for women has expanded, which traditionally is seen as a robust predictor for lower fertility, trust is a precondition for achieving higher fertility among those women with very high education. |
| Keywords: | Generalized trust, low fertility, women’s education, outsourcing, multilevel models |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:don:donwpa:055&r=dem |
| By: | Leonard Lopoo (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244-1020); Thomas DeLeire (University of Wisconsin Madison) |
| Abstract: | An extensive literature that examines the relationship between family structure and children’s outcomes consistently shows that living with a single parent is associated with negative outcomes. Few studies, however, directly test the relationship between family structure and outcomes for the child once he/she reaches adulthood. We directly examine, using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, whether family structure during childhood is related to the child’s economic wellbeing both during childhood as well as adulthood. Our findings suggest that the economic wellbeing of children of mothers who experience a marital dissolution and remarry are no different from the children of mothers who are continuously married. However, the children of mothers whose marriages dissolve but who do not remarry experience large declines in their income over their first ten years of life. We also show that while the children of never married mothers earn a lot less as adults than the children of married parents, these differences can largely be explained by demographic and socioeconomic factors. Finally, our findings suggest that children who have mothers who experience a marital dissolution and who do not remarry have economic losses that persist into adulthood. Robustness checks using family fixed effects models support this result. Key Words: Family Structure JEL No. J12 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:max:cprwps:139&r=dem |
| By: | Mayra Buvinic (UN Foundation and Vital Voices); Monica Das Gupta (World Bank.); Ursula Casabonne (World Bank.); Philip Verwimp (Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles) |
| Abstract: | Violent conflict, a pervasive feature of the recent global landscape, has lasting impacts on human capital, and these impacts are seldom gender neutral. Death and destruction alter the structure and dynamics of households, including their demographic profiles and traditional gender roles. To date, attention to the gender impacts of conflict has focused almost exclusively on sexual and gender-based violence. We show that a far wider set of gender issues must be considered to better document the human consequences of war and to design effective postconflict policies. The emerging empirical evidence is organized using a framework that identifies both the differential impacts of violent conflict on males and females (first-round impacts) and the role of gender inequality in framing adaptive responses to conflict (second-round impacts). War’s mortality burden is disproportionately borne by males, whereas women and children constitute a majority of refugees and the displaced. Indirect war impacts on health are more equally distributed between the genders. Conflicts create households headed by widows who can be especially vulnerable to intergenerational poverty. Second-round impacts can provide opportunities for women in work and politics triggered by the absence of men. Households adapt to conflict with changes in marriage and fertility, migration, investments in children’s health and schooling, and the distribution of labor between the genders. The impacts of conflict are heterogeneous and can either increase or decrease preexisting gender inequalities. Describing these gender differential effects is a first step toward developing evidence-based conflict prevention and postconflict policy. |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:129&r=dem |
| By: | Joyce Wong (NYU); Raquel Fernández (New York University) |
| Abstract: | Women born in 1935 went to college significantly less than their male counterparts and married women's labor force participation (LFP) averaged 40% between the ages of thirty and forty. The cohort born twenty years later behaved very dierently. The education gender gap was eliminated and married women's LFP averaged 70% over the same ages. In order to evaluate the quantitative contributions of the many signicant changes in the economic environment, family structure, and social norms that occurred over this period, this paper develops a dynamic life-cycle model calibrated to data relevant to the 1935 cohort. We find that the higher probability of divorce and the changes in wage structure faced by the 1955 cohort are each able to explain, in isolation, a large proportion (about 60%) of the observed changes in female LFP. After combining all economic and family structure changes, we find that a simple change in preferences towards work can account for the remaining change in LFP. To eliminate the education gender gap requires, on the other hand, for the psychic cost of obtaining higher education to change asymmetrically for women versus men. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed012:176&r=dem |
| By: | Thomas Breda; Son Thierry Ly |
| Abstract: | Stereotypes, role models played by teachers and social norms influence girls' academic self-concept and push girls to choose humanities rather than science. Do recruiters reinforce this strong selection by discriminating more against girls in more scientific subjects? Using the entrance exam of a French higher education institution (the Ecole Normale Supérieure) as a natural experiment, we show the opposite: discrimination goes in favor of females in more male-connoted subjects (e.g. math, philosophy) and in favor of males in more female-connoted subjects (e.g. literature, biology), inducing a rebalancing of sex ratios between students recruited for a research career in science and humanities majors. We identify discrimination by systematic differences in students' scores between oral tests (non-blind toward gender) and anonymous written tests (blind toward gender). By making comparisons of these oral/written scores differences between different subjects for a given student, we are able to control both for a student's ability in each subject and for her overall ability at oral exams. The mechanisms likely to drive this positive discrimination toward the minority gender are also discussed. |
| Keywords: | discrimination, gender stereotypes, natural experiment, sex and science |
| JEL: | I23 J16 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:386&r=dem |
| By: | Patricia Apps; Jan Kabátek; Ray Rees; Arthur van Soest |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces a static structural model of hours of market labor supply, time spent on child care and other domestic work, and bought in child care for married or cohabiting mothers with pre-school age children. The father's behavior is taken as given. The main goal is to analyze the sensitivity of hours of market work, parental child care, other household production and formal child care to the wage rate, the price of child care, taxes, benefits and child care subsidies. To account for the non-convex nature of the budget sets and, possibly, the household technology, a discrete choice model is used. The model is estimated using the HILDA dataset, a rich household survey of the Australian population, which contains detailed information on time use, child care demands and the corresponding prices. Simulations based on the estimates show that the time allocations of women with pre-school children are highly sensitive to changes in wages and the costs of child care. A policy simulation suggests that labor force participation and hours of market work would increase substantially in a fiscal system based solely on individual rather than joint taxation. |
| Keywords: | Time use, income tax, child care subsidies |
| JEL: | J22 J13 H24 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:677&r=dem |
| By: | Alice Schoonbroodt (The University of Iowa) |
| Abstract: | Further, a combination of shifts in children’s market opportunities and the intro- duction of PAYG social security may help account for fertility patterns, living arrange- ments and intergenerational wealth flows over the past two centuries. The theoretical model we have in mind shows that the optimal living arrangement until the beginning of the 19th century may have been the farm and community based extended family in which parents had full control over their adult children, high fertility would follow naturally. During the 19th and early 20th century, child labor and compulsory edu- cation policies were introduced while adult children’s outside options (in emerging labor markets) increased significantly, which coincided with the fertility decline and an initial increase in education levels. The model also replicates this pattern. Given young adults’ increasing opportunities, parents and children may then have agreed to separate, the parent thereby foregoing transfers from the children which are no longer enforceable. In 1937 the U.S. government introduced a PAYG social security system. Such a system tends to decrease the desire of parents to take from their chil- dren. Hence, desired transfers to children increase. These may come in the form of educational investments, which were increasingly profitable. Hence, this combination may have generated Caldwell (1978)’s reversal of net transfers between parents and children. Whether these channels indeed played a quantitatively important role in U.S. fertility history is an additional question here. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed012:158&r=dem |
| By: | Nezih Guner (ICREA-MOVE); Georgi Kocharkov (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); Cezar Santos (University of Pennsylvania); Jeremy Greenwood (University of Pennsylvania) |
| Abstract: | Marriage has declined since 1960, with the drop being bigger for non-college educated individuals versus college educated ones. Divorce has increased, more so for the non-college educated vis-Ã -vis the college educated. Additionally, assortative mating has risen; i.e., people are more likely to marry someone of the same educational level today than in the past. A uniÂ…fied model of marriage, divorce, educational attainment and married female labor-force participation is developed and estimated to fiÂ…t the postwar U.S. data. The role of technological progress in the household sector and shifts in the wage structure for explaining these facts is gauged. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed012:168&r=dem |
| By: | Yousuf, Ahmed Sadek |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between health aid and infant mortality, using data from in total 135 countries (for the purposes of this study, developing countries), between 1975 and 2010. Utilizing both conventional Instrumental Variable and System GMM approaches, a tentative conclusion can be drawn that aid comes to have a statistically significant and positive effect on infant mortality rate, as doubling of aid leads to an approximately 1.3% reduction in infant mortality rates. Thus for an average aid recipient country, doubling per capita aid leads to a reduction of about 790 deaths per million live births in a particular year. This effect, in comparison to the set goals of the Millennium Development Goals, is small and may not be enough to ensure that the MDG targets are met by 2015. |
| Keywords: | Health Oriented Aid; Instrumental Variable; System GMM; Infant Mortality Rates |
| JEL: | C23 C33 C01 I10 |
| Date: | 2012–10–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:43212&r=dem |
| By: | Marit Rønsen (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | The underrepresentation of women in entrepreneurship is consistent over cultures and countries, and is even higher in Norway than in most other industrialised societies. In spite of a growing literature, the reasons for this pattern are still not well understood. In this paper I explore an area that has been little researched so far, the family and household situation. I study the presence of children and their ages, the role of the partner’s characteristics and the household’s financial resources. The results show that women are more likely to choose self-employment over wage-work when the children are small, indicating that children are no barrier to entrepreneurship, at least not when defined as self-employment as in this paper. The self-employment propensity of both women and men are negatively related to their partner’s working hours and positively related to him (or her) being self-employed himself (herself). The causal direction of these relationships cannot be established in the present analysis and needs to be investigated closer in future research. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; self-employment; gender; work and family; partner’s characteristics |
| JEL: | L26 J13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:727&r=dem |
| By: | Del Bono, Emilia; Rabe, Birgitta |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the causal effects of breastfeeding on early child development using exogenous variation in breastfeeding support policies across UK maternity hospitals. Based on data from the Millennium Cohort Study, we find that mothers giving birth in hospitals where such policies are implemented are between 8 and 9 percentage points more likely to breastfeed exclusively at 4 and 8 weeks than mothers who give birth in other hospitals. The effect of breastfeeding are found to be large and positive on many different measures of child cognitive development throughout early childhood. In contrast to the previous literature, we find no statistically significant impact of breastfeeding on a number of health outcomes, but we see an improvement in child emotional development and maternal mental health. |
| Date: | 2012–12–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2012-29&r=dem |
| By: | Arpino, Bruno (Universitat Pompeu Fabra); Pronzato, Chiara D. (University of Turin); Tavares, Lara P. (Bocconi University) |
| Abstract: | Childcare arrangements are key in women's ability to juggle motherhood and working outside the home. As such, the study of the access to childcare and its use is of great policy relevance. We focus on a particular kind of informal childcare, the one provided by grandparents. Empirically, assessing the effect of grandparental childcare is not an easy task due to unobserved preferences. In light of the potential outcome framework, we interpret the biases resulting from unobserved preferences as arising from the non-compliance of mothers to the availability of grandparents and from preferences of grandparents for activities other than childcare. Using an Instrumental Variable approach on Italian data, we find that the effect of grandparental childcare on mothers' labour supply is positive, statistically significant and economically relevant. The effect is stronger for lower educated mothers, with young children and living in the North and Centre. |
| Keywords: | female labour market participation, grandparental childcare, intergenerational transfers, instrumental variables, unobserved preferences |
| JEL: | J10 J13 C26 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7065&r=dem |
| By: | Hugo Benítez Silva (Economics Department, SUNY at Stony Brook); J. Ignacio García Pérez (Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide); Sergi Jiménez Mártin (Department of Economics, Universidat Pompeu Fabra) |
| Abstract: | Unemployment rates in developed countries have recently reached levels not seen in a generation, and workers of all ages are facing increasing probabilities of losing their jobs and considerable losses in accumulated assets. These events have increased the reliance that most (older) workers have on public social insurance programs, exactly at a time that public finances are suffering from a large drop in contributions. Using administrative and household level data we empirically characterize a Life- Cycle model of retirement and claiming decisions in terms of the employment, wage, health, and mortality uncertainty faced by individuals. We analyze the role of three intertwined factors in the recent evolution of work and retirement benefits claiming behavior in the United States; namely, higher unemployment uncertainty, higher unemployment benefits, and wealth shocks. We find that higher employment uncertainty reduces work and increases early claiming, while higher unemployment benefits mildly reduce work and reduce claiming at early ages. Finally, wealth shocks increase both early claiming and work. When all these factors are combined, the final outcome is a mild decline in labor supply and little variation in early claiming. |
| Keywords: | Employment uncertainty, wealth shocks, retirement, labor supply, life-cycle models. |
| JEL: | J14 J26 J65 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pab:wpaper:12.11&r=dem |
| By: | Maren M. Michaelsen (Ruhr University Bochum, Faculty of Economics) |
| Abstract: | In Mexico, conflicts between drug-trafficking organisations result in a high number of deaths and immense suffering among both victims and non-victims every year. Little scientific research exists which identifies and quantifies the monetary and nonmonetary consequences of ongoing violent conflicts on individuals. Using the Mexican Family Life Survey for 2002 and 2005, the causal effect of mental health (symptoms of depression / anxiety) on the extensive and intensive margin of labour supply for workingaged men and women is estimated. Measures of the ongoing drug-related violent conflicts both at the macro level using intentional homicide rates by region, and at the micro level indicated by the presence of armed groups in the neighbourhood, serve as instruments for mental health. The results show a significant adverse impact of the conflicts on anxiety for men and women. Based on IV-Tobit model results, a worse mental health state decreases individual labour supply strongly and significantly for men. The findings demonstrate that Mexico's population not only suffers from the violent conflicts between drug-trafficking organisations by anxiety or even depression but also indirectly from less household income through less work which in turn has consequences for Mexico's social development and economic growth. |
| JEL: | J22 I19 O12 D74 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:117&r=dem |
| By: | Björklund, Anders (SOFI, Stockholm University); Jäntti, Markus (SOFI, Stockholm University); Nybom, Martin (SOFI, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | Research on intergenerational income mobility has shown stronger persistence between parental and offspring's income in the UK than in Sweden. We use similar data sets for the two countries to explore whether these cross-national differences show up already early in offspring's life in outcomes such as birth weight, grades at the end of compulsory school at age 16, height during adolescence, and final educational attainment. We do indeed find significant country differences in the association between parental income and these outcomes, and the associations are stronger in the UK than in Sweden. Therefore, we continue to investigate whether these differentials are large enough to account for a substantial part of the difference in intergenerational persistence estimates. We then conclude that the country differences in the intergenerational associations in birth weight and height are too weak to account for hardly any fraction of the UK-Sweden difference in intergenerational income mobility. For the more traditional human-capital variables grades and final education, however, our results suggest that the country differences can account for a substantial part of the difference in income persistence. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational mobility, birth weight, height, human capital |
| JEL: | J24 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7066&r=dem |
| By: | Shipekesa, Arthur M.; Jayne, Thomas S. |
| Abstract: | Because gender roles and relations are dynamic, programs built on a solid up-to-date understanding of how men and women share labor responsibilities and the proceeds from their agricultural activities have the potential to bring forth positive outcomes. Better information on gender-based constraints and intra-household power dynamics form the foundation for programs that can enhance gender equity. |
| Keywords: | Gender Control, Zambia, Food Security and Poverty, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:midcwp:140904&r=dem |
| By: | Camelia Minoiu (International Monetary Fund IMF Institute); Olga N. Shemyakina (Georgia Institute of Technology School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of the 2002-2007 civil conflict in Côte d'Ivoire on children's health status using household surveys collected before, during, and after the conflict, and information on the exact location and date of conflict events. Our identification strategy relies on exploiting both temporal and spatial variation across birth cohorts to measure children's exposure to the conflict. We find that children from regions more affected by the conflict suffered significant health setbacks compared with children from less affected regions. We further examine possible war impact mechanisms using rich data on households' experience of war from the post-conflict survey. Our results suggest that conflict-induced economic losses, health impairment, displacement, and other forms of victimization are important channels through which conflict negatively impacts child health. |
| Keywords: | child health, conflict, height-for-age, sub-Saharan Africa |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:115&r=dem |
| By: | Christian Raschke |
| 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 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp520&r=dem |
| By: | Pieter Bevelander (Malmoe University); Ravi Pendakur |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the employment and earnings trajectories of refugee and family reunion category immigrants in Canada and Sweden using two national level sources of data. The Canadian Immigration Database (IMDB) is a file that links the intake record of post 1979 immigrants with annual taxation records. The 2007 Swedish Register Data includes information on all legal permanent residents. Using standard regression methods we compare labour force outcomes of age-sex-schooling-place of birth cohorts looking specifically at non-economic (family reunion and refugee intake) immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia. We find that the employment and earning trajectories of the selected non-economic migrant groups are quite similar in the two host countries, although earnings are higher in Canada than in Sweden. |
| Keywords: | Refugees, immigrants, family reunion, labour market integration, comparison |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2012041&r=dem |
| By: | Alexander M. Danzer; Firat Yaman |
| Abstract: | It is widely debated whether immigrants who live among co-ethnics are less willing to integrate into the host society. Exploiting the quasi-experimental guest worker placement across German regions during the 1960/70s as well as information on immigrants’ inter-ethnic contact networks and social activities, we are able to identify the causal effect of ethnic concentration on social integration. The exogenous placement of immigrants “switches off” observable and unobservable differences in the willingness or ability to integrate which have confounded previous studies. Evidence suggests that the presence of co-ethnics increases migrants’ interaction cost with natives and thus reduces the likelihood of integration. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, integration, enclaves, political participation, culture, social interaction, guest workers |
| JEL: | J15 R23 J61 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp519&r=dem |
| By: | Emily Moiduddin; Nikki Aikens; Louisa Tarullo; Jerry West; Yange Xue |
| Keywords: | Child Outcomes, Classroom Quality, FACES 2009, Early Childhood |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2012–09–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:7622&r=dem |
| By: | Björn Erikssoon; Tobias Karlsson; Tim Leunig; Maria Stanfors |
| Abstract: | Women have, on average, been less well-paid than men throughout history. Prior to 1900, most economic historians see the gender wage gap as a reflection of men's greater strength and correspondingly higher productivity. This paper investigates the gender wage gap in cigar making around 1900. Strength was rarely an issue, but the gender wage gap was large. Two findings suggest that employers were not sexist. First, differences in earnings by gender for workers paid piece rates can be fully explained by differences in experience and other productivity-related characteristics. Second, conditioning on those characteristics, women were just as likely to be promoted to the better paying piece rate section. Neither finding is compatible with a simple model of sex-based discrimination. Instead, the gender wage gap can be decomposed into two components. First, women were typically less experienced, in an industry in which experience mattered. Second there were some jobs that required strength, for which men were better suited. Because strength was so valuable in the other jobs at this time, men commanded a wage premium in the general labour market, raising their reservation wage. Hiring a man required the firm to pay a 'man's wage'. This implies that firms that were slow to feminise their time rate workforce ended up with a higher cost structure than those that made the transition more quickly. We show that firms with a higher proportion of women in their workforce in 1863 were indeed more likely to survive 35 years later. |
| Keywords: | gender, productivity, discrimination, piece-rates, time-rates, labour markets, firm survival |
| JEL: | J16 J24 J71 J33 J40 L25 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:385&r=dem |
| By: | Eckstein, Zvi (Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya); Lifshitz, Osnat (Academic College of Tel-Aviv Yaffo) |
| Abstract: | Changing social norms, as reflected in the interactions between spouses, are hypothesized to affect the employment rates of married women. A model is built in order to estimate this effect, in which the employment of married men and women is the outcome of an internal household game. The type of the household game is exogenously determined as either Classical or Modern. In the former type of household, the spouses play a Stackelberg leader game in which the wife's labor supply decision is based on her husband's employment outcome while the latter type of household is characterized by a symmetric and simultaneous game that determines the spouses' joint labor supply as Nash equilibrium. Females in Modern households are predicted to have higher employment rates than women in Classical households if they have narrower labor market opportunities and/or higher relative risk aversion. The household type is exogenously determined when the couple gets married and is treated as unobserved heterogeneity. The model is estimated using the Simulated Moments Method (SMM) and data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) survey for the years 1983-93. The estimated model provides a good fit to the trends in employment rates and wages. We estimate that 38 percent of households are Modern and that the participation rate of women in those households is almost 80 percent, which is about 10 higher than in Classical households. Meanwhile, the employment rate among men is almost identical in the two types of household. |
| Keywords: | dynamic discrete choice, household labor supply, household game |
| JEL: | E24 J2 J3 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7067&r=dem |
| By: | Jürgen Faik |
| Abstract: | The discussion 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 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp518&r=dem |
| By: | Katrin Golsch |
| Abstract: | Strong gender inequalities persist in the career advancement of men and women. Vertical and horizontal dimensions of segregation, gender role beliefs, and the public provision of welfare services all provide explanations for gender inequalities. Much less is known about the social mechanisms at work within couples, however. Following the notion of linked lives, the present study investigates the provision of social support for career advancement within partnerships. Using data from wave 23 (2006) of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) and considering couples as units of analysis, this study focuses on individual resources and aspirations, intra-couple bargaining as well as on educational and occupational homogamy between spouses. The empirical analysis controls for individual qualifications, characteristics of career development and current job of both partners. Family-specific variables and regional differences are also taken into account. The results of the analysis, although cross-sectional, give some initial insights into patterns of social support within couples. |
| Keywords: | Social support, partnership, gender |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp523&r=dem |
| By: | Scrimgeour, Dean (Department of Economics, Colgate University); Conover, Emily (Department of Economics, Colgate University) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the health effects of a reduction in New Zealand's minimum legal purchase age for alcohol. Difference-in-differences (DD) estimates show a substantial increase in alcohol-related hospitalizations among those newly eligible to purchase liquor, around 24.6% (s.e.=5.5%) for males and 22% (s.e.=8.1%) for females. There is less evidence of an effect among ineligible younger cohorts. There is little evidence of alcohol either complementing or substituting for drugs. We do not find evidence that earlier access to alcohol is associated with learning from experience. We also present regression discontinuity estimates, but emphasize DD estimates since in a simulation of a rational addiction model DD estimates are closer than regression discontinuity estimates to the policy's true effect. |
| Keywords: | alcohol, minimum purchase age, youth, health, hospitalizations, New Zealand |
| JEL: | I12 I18 J13 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgt:wpaper:2012-04&r=dem |
| By: | Paul Beer (AIAS, Universiteit van Amsterdam); Maarten Berg (AIAS, Universiteit van Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of differences in sex, age, ethnicity and residency on the willingness of individuals to share money with others in a solidarity game. The solidarity game that was used in this study consists of groups of four players and has similarities with the well-known ‘dictator game’. The dictator role was either randomly assigned (random conditions) or earned by performing well on a quiz (performance conditions). In each group, two ‘dictators’ could distribute 20 credits (reflecting real money). Contrary to most experimental games, this experiment was carried out both with university students in a laboratory at the University of Amsterdam and with ‘ordinary’ people who visited the Dapper market in a multicultural Amsterdam neighbourhood as subjects. This working paper reports on the latter case. Since the players were informed about the age, the sex, the cultural background and the number of years of residency in the Dapper area of their co-players, we can examine the effect of a difference between two players and of heterogeneity of the group. Thus we test the thesis of Robert Putnam (2007) that ethnic diversity of a group harms both out-group and in-group solidarity. A difference in cultural background between two players appears to have a significantly negative impact on the gift they bestow each other. Natives discriminate against co-players with a Turkish, Moroccan or European background, but not against Surinamese co-players. Surinamese players and players with an ‘other’ cultural background also demonstrated a bias in favour of players of their own or each other’s group compared to natives, Turks, Moroccan and European players. We also found an effect of the ethnic composition of groups on giving, but there is no straightforward relationship between ethnic diversity and the size of gifts. In general, gifts are largest in groups with either three natives or three non-natives, due to intra-ethnic favouritism within these groups. In case of an equal number of natives and non-natives within a group, however, there is little evidence for intra-ethnic favouritism or discrimination against the other ethnic group. Remarkably, we found a similar effect with respect to the diversity of residency within the group, i.e. the number of players who live in the Dapper neighbourhood. Regarding age, both the age of the players and the age difference between the players matters. Up till the age of 50, the size of gifts rises with the age of the player, and gifts are the largest when the players differ about 18.5 years in age, irrespective of who is older and who is younger. Consequently, solidarity seems to be stimulated by a substantial but not too large age difference. Finally, we also examine the relationship between media use and political party preferences on the one hand and gift giving on the other. |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aia:aiaswp:125&r=dem |
| By: | Peter J. Lambert (University of Oregon, USA); S. Subramanian (Madras Institute of Development Studies, India) |
| Abstract: | Demographic disparities between the rates of occurrence of an adverse economic outcome can be observed to be increasing even as general social improvements supposedly lead towards the elimination of the adverse outcome in question. Scanlan (2006) noticed this tendency and developed a ‘heuristic rule’ to explain it. In this paper, we explore the issue analytically, providing a criterion from stochastic ordering theory under which one of two demographic groups can be considered disadvantaged and the other advantaged, and showing that Scanlan’s heuristic obtains as a rigorous finding in such cases. Normative implications and appropriate social policy are discussed. |
| Keywords: | disparity, economic outcome, poverty, mortality rate. |
| JEL: | D63 I31 I32 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2012-281&r=dem |
| By: | Julie A. Nelson |
| Abstract: | Many public debates about climate change now focus on the economic "costs" of taking action. When called on to advise about these, many leading mainstream economists downplay the need for care and caution on climate issues, forecasting a future with infinitely continued economic growth. This essay highlights the roles of binary metaphors and cultural archetypes in creating the highly gendered, sexist, and age-ist attitudes that underlie this dominant advice. Gung-ho economic growth advocates aspire to the role of The Hero, rejecting the conservatism of The Old Wife. But in a world that is not actually as safe and predictable as they assume, the result is guidance from The Fool. Both intellectual and cultural change are necessary if the voice of The Wise Grandmother (which may come through women or men) is to—alongside The Hero—receive the attention it deserves. |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dae:daepap:12-04&r=dem |
| By: | Cremer, Helmuth (TSE, (IDEI and Institut universitaire de France)); Pestieau, Pierre (TSE, (CREPP, University of Liège, CORE, UCL)); Roeder, Kerstin (LMU) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how the risk of divorce a¤ects the human capital decisions of a young couple. We consider a setting where complete specialization (one of the spouses uses up all the education resources) is optimal with no divorce risk. Symmetry in education (both spouses receive an equal amount of education) then acts like an insurance device in case of divorce particularly when the institutions do not compensate for di¤erences in earnings. But, at the same time symmetry in education is less e¢ cient than the extreme specialization. This is the basic tradeo¤ underlying our analysis. We show that the symmetric allocation will become more attractive as the probability of divorce increases, if risk aversion is high and/or labor supply elasticity is low. However, it is only a ?second-best? solution as the insurance protection is achieved at the expense of an e¢ ciency loss. E¢ ciency can be restored through suitably designed marriage contracts because they can provide the appropriate insurance against divorce to a couple who opts for specialization. Finally, we study how the (economic) use of marriage is a¤ected by the possibility of divorce. |
| Keywords: | post-marital education, marriage contract, divorce |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:26593&r=dem |
| By: | Tom Bundervoet (the International Rescue Committee) |
| Abstract: | This article examines the impact of war-induced ill early childhood health on educational attainment in early adolescence. Using data on a small panel of children we find that children who were malnourished at baseline had on average attained fewer grades than children of the same year of birth cohort who were healthier at baseline. The effect is particularly salient for the older children who were most exposed to violence in their early childhood years. We find that the worse educational status of malnourished children is due to both an enrolment effect and a poor school performance effect. |
| Keywords: | childhood, health, education, nutrition, Burundi |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:114&r=dem |
| By: | Toke Fosgaard (Institute of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen); Lars Gaarn Hansen (Institute of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen); Marco Piovesan (Institute of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate if people cheat more when they observe their peers cheating because they conform or because they become aware that cheating is something to actively consider. In our experiment subjects toss a coin in private and report the outcome (white or black). We reward only those who report white and leave them the possibility to cheat without being discovered. In our 2x2 experimental design, we manipulated subjects’ report sheet to i) suggest (or not) that cheating is an option; ii) suggest that their peers were honest (or dishonest). We find that increasing awareness of cheating as an option significantly increases the probability that women cheat; whereas men – who are already aware that cheating is an option - are not affected. When we suggest that peers have cheated, men cheat significantly more, whereas women do not. |
| Keywords: | cheating, norms, conformity, awareness, gender differences |
| JEL: | D63 K42 D81 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:foi:wpaper:2012_15&r=dem |
| By: | Patricia Justino (Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex); Ivan Cardona (Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex); Rebecca Mitchell (Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex); Catherine Müller (Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex) |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:131&r=dem |
| By: | Martin Gustafsson (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch) |
| Abstract: | In South Africa, like in many developing countries, the differences between enrolment totals, estimated by the education authorities, and the numbers of children in the country, estimated by demographers in the national statistical agency, defy easy explanations and suggest that one or both sets of statistics are inaccurate. In South Africa the gap between the two sets of estimates is substantially larger than one would expect. The typical reasons that have been found to underlie developing country data problems of this kind are discussed and their applicability to the South African data is investigated, using a variety of data sources. It is found that not clarifying the reasons behind the data discrepancies and not making necessary adjustments lead to distortions in commonly cited international development indicators that are not insignificant. It is demonstrated that analysing the various possible reasons for unexplained gaps between enrolment and population aggregates can reveal patterns that are in general useful for education planning. For instance, comparing the educational attainment of adults to enrolment patterns for children in the household data can help to gauge the extent to which the child enrolment responses are subject to typical upward biases. The analysis as a whole highlights the importance of collaboration between the education authorities and national statistical agencies to improve data collection and imputation techniques on both sides. |
| Keywords: | population estimates, school enrolment, enrolment ratios, household surveys, gross enrolment ratio |
| JEL: | D19 I21 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers176&r=dem |
| By: | Naqvi, Nadeem |
| Abstract: | Ken Arrow (1998) asks, “What has economics to say about racial discrimination?” He replies – entirely correctly – that racial “segregation within an industry – that is, firms with either all black or all white labor forces” – may be explained by economic theory, but “the hypothesis of employer discrimination does not at all explain segregation by occupation, [and] discriminatory tastes of other employees … may explain segregation [by firms] within industries but not segregation by occupation[s]” (p. 95), that are filled by racially distinct persons within firms. Becker (1957) and Akerlof and Kranton (2000 and 2010) offer economic theories that deal with social identity differentiation, but these lack rational choice theory foundations, insofar as they impose a utility indicator function as a primitive concept via persuasion, rather than such a function being entailed by derivation from a preference ranking relation defined on a set of outcomes, with restrictions imposed both on the set and the relation. This is a methodological weakness of their work relative to that of Arrow and Debreu (1954). A more serious difficulty with these contributions is that they ascribe a utility function to each individual in an economy, but I prove that assigning to individuals binary preferences, with or without their numerical representation as utility indicator functions, entails the impossibility of interpersonal social-identity diversification, rendering all persons in society indistinguishable by identity. The information necessary to identify a person’s social identity is stripped off the model by the binariness restriction. A person in a binariness-salient model would simply not know against whom to discriminate. Economic theory is, therefore, endogenously color-blind, race-blind, gender-blind, ethnicity-blind, and in general, social-identity-blind. Everybody in the economy is White, or all persons are Black, or all female, or all Hispanics, and so on, but no two persons can endogenously have distinct social identities. This is also true of every player in a game, as in Nash (1951). However, if preferences are non-binary, interpersonal social identity diversification is possible, though their real-valued utility function representation is impossible. This begs the question as to what exact form preferences must take to support the specific utility function of Akerlof and Kranton, which also is non-traditional relative to the utility indicator function in Arrow and Debreu. As it happens, to exhibit diversity of persons by social identity, ascribing a utility function to a person is conceptually too restrictive. By substituting non-binary for binary preferences in the model of Arrow and Debreu, I extend their economic theory. The more general model I thus formulate has the following features: (i) there exists a social state in which all persons maximize their preferences on their feasible sets, (ii) endogenous interpersonal social-identity diversification characterizes this state of the economy, (iii) it is a free-market equilibrium without any state intervention, (iv) it is a Pareto optimal social state, and (v) a sizable proportion of Black workers are segregated into low-rank, low income jobs, whereas White workers in the same observable proficiency domain are placed in high-ranking, high-income jobs, thereby explaining occupational segregation within firms along a racial divide, which entails that (vi) income and wealth distributions vary by social identity. Thus free markets deliver a Pareto optimal state but it is fraught with remediable injustices. Further, my explanation meets standards Arrow sets for such a theory (see p. 21). (543 words) |
| Keywords: | justice; social identity; discrimination; race; gender; non-binariness; maximization; rational choice theory; social choice theory; general equilibrium; game theory; asymmetric information; social norms |
| JEL: | D11 D63 D82 Z13 D51 J16 D46 D71 D74 J15 |
| Date: | 2012–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:43352&r=dem |
| By: | Douglas Almond; Bhashkar Mazumder |
| Abstract: | We review the literature on how parental investments respond to health endowments at birth. Recent studies have combined insights from an earlier theoretical literature on how households allocate resources within the family, with a growing empirical literature that identifies early life health shocks using sharp research designs. We describe the econometric challenges in identifying the behavioral responses of parents and how recent studies have sought to address these challenges. We also discuss the emerging literature that has considered how there may be dynamic complementarities in parental investments due to the developmental nature of human capital production and how there may be multiple dimensions of skill. We find that thus far, the bulk of the empirical evidence is consistent with the notion that parents reinforce initial endowments. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-2012-14&r=dem |
| By: | Nikki Aikens; Emily Moiduddin; Yange Xue; Louisa Tarullo; Jerry West |
| Keywords: | Child Outcomes, Classroom Quality, FACES 2009, Data Tables |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2012–09–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:7623&r=dem |
| By: | Julie A. Nelson |
| Abstract: | While a substantial literature in economics and finance has concluded that women are more risk averse than men, this conclusion merits reconsideration. Drawing on literatures in statistics and cognitive science, this essay discusses the important difference between drawing conclusions based on statistical inference, which concerns aggregates such as mean scores, and generalization, which posits characteristics of individuals classified into kinds. To supplement findings of statistical significance, quantitative measures of substantive difference (Cohen's d) and overlap (the Index of Similarity) are computed from the data on men, women, and risk used in 28 published articles. The results are considerably more mixed and overlapping than might be expected. Paying attention to empirical evidence that challenges subjective cultural beliefs about sex and risk has implications for labor economics, finance, and the economics of climate change. |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dae:daepap:12-05&r=dem |
| By: | Pierre-Carl Michaud; Philip Merrigan; Pierre Lefebvre |
| Abstract: | Using data from three waves of the General Social Survey on retirement and older workers (1994, 2002 and 2007), we document the evolution of retirement patterns over the last three decades. We combined the analysis of retirement ages of actual retirees with data on expected retirement ages of current workers to create a longer perspective on changes in retirement behaviour in Canada. We also investigate trends in work after retirement. Our findings are in line with findings from other countries. There is an upward trend in retirement ages which likely started around year 2000 for cohorts born after 1945. This trend contrasts with the slow decline in retirement ages observed prior to the end of the millennium. While the downward trend was likely due to factors such as the offering of early retirement programs in private firms, the upward trend is likely to be caused by a wider variety of sources, including better health, less pervasive defined benefit pensions and in general less generous pensions. <P> |
| Keywords: | retirement, pensions, Canada, |
| JEL: | J26 |
| Date: | 2012–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2012s-37&r=dem |
| By: | Andrew L. Dabaleno (The World Bank); Saumik Paul (Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we estimate the causal effects of civil war on years of education in the context of a school-going age cohort who are exposed to armed conflict in Cote d’Ivoire. Using year and department of birth to identify an individual’s exposure to war, the difference-in-difference outcomes indicate that the average years of education for a school-going age cohort is .94 years fewer compared to an older cohort in war-affected regions. To minimize the potential bias in the estimated outcome, we further use a set of victimization indicators to identify the true effect of war. The propensity score matching estimates do not alter the main findings. In addition, the outcomes of double-robust models minimize the specification errors in the model. Moreover, we find the outcomes are robust across alternative matching methods, estimation by using subsamples and other education outcome variables. Overall, the findings across different models suggest a drop in average years of education by a range of .2 to .9 fewer years. |
| Keywords: | war, human capital, education, propensity score matching, evaluation, Africa |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:120&r=dem |
| By: | Jeffrey Lin |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I study long-run population changes across U.S. metropolitan areas. First, I argue that changes over a long period of time in the geographic distribution of population can be informative about the so-called \resilience" of regions. Using the censuses of population from1790 to 2010, I find that persistent declines, lasting two decades or more, are somewhat rare among metropolitan areas in U.S. history, though more common recently. Incorporating data on historical factors, I find that metropolitan areas that have experienced extended periods of weak population growth tend to be smaller in population, less industrially diverse, and less educated. These historical correlations inform the construction of a regional resilience index. |
| Keywords: | Population ; Metropolitan areas |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:13-1&r=dem |
| By: | J. Ignacio García Pérez (Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide); Alfonso R. Sánchez Mártin (Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide) |
| Abstract: | The job search demands made upon older unemployed workers in developed economies have traditionally been very relaxed. This has recently changed in some European countries (eg, Germany and Finland), as part of an effort to increase the labor force participation of older workers. Is this new approach appropriate? There is some disagreement among academics about the optimality of this new policy stance. We contribute to this debate by exploring the consequences of institutional reform in Spain, a country with a high rate of unemployment and a tolerant attitude toward the use of unemployment benefits as early retirement income. We develop an applied model of job-search and retirement behavior; calibrate it to the specificities of the Spanish case and successfully verify its empirical validity. We use the model to explore the effects of a change in the pension rules to link early retirement penalties to the age when an individual stops paying contributions. This reform removes the incentives to remain unemployed without searching, encouraging individuals to either retire or actively engage in job seeking. It results in welfare losses, especially for those workers that respond by changing behavior; yet the reform also raises enough extra resources whereby the public authorities may more than compensate all the affected workers. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, retirement, pension reform, search models. |
| JEL: | J64 J68 J26 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pab:wpaper:12.09&r=dem |
| By: | Natacha Raffin (University Paris Ouest Nanterre la Défense, EconomiX and Climate Economics Chair.); Thomas Seegmuller (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS and EHESS.) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the interplay between longevity, pollution and growth. We develop an OLG model where longevity, pollution and growth are endogenous. The authorities may provide two types of public services, public health and environmental maintenance, that participate to increase agents’ life expectancy and to sustain growth in the long term. We show that global dynamics might be featured by a high growth rate equilibrium, associated with longer life expectancy and a environmental poverty trap. We examine changes in public policies: increasing public intervention on health or environmental maintenance display opposite effects on global dynamics, i.e. on the size of the trap and on the level of the stable balanced growth path. On the contrary, each type of public policy induces a negative leverage on the long run rate of growth. |
| Keywords: | Life expectancy; Pollution; Health; Growth. |
| JEL: | I15 O44 Q56 |
| Date: | 2012–10–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:1230&r=dem |
| By: | Franziska Tollnek (University of Tuebingen); Joerg Baten (University of Tuebingen and CESifo) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we assess the inheritance of human capital in the early modern period with a comprehensive dataset covering eight countries in Europe and Latin America. We focus on the within-household process of human capital formation. Gregory Clark suggested that the wealthy and ‘capitalist’ groups of society provided their offspring with favorable skills. We confirm this finding partially, but there is another large group that reproduces successfully: farmers. By applying age-heaping-based techniques to a dataset of more than 322,000 observations, we argue that farmers contributed significantly to the formation of human capital and, consequently, to modern economic growth. |
| JEL: | J13 J24 N30 O14 Q12 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0033&r=dem |
| By: | Richard Akresh (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and IZA); Sonia Bhalotra (University of Bristol and IZA); Marinella Leone (University of Sussex); Una Osili (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis) |
| Abstract: | The Nigerian civil war of 1967-70 was precipitated by secession of the Igbodominated south-eastern region to create the state of Biafra. It was the first civil war in Africa, the predecessor of many. We investigate the legacies of this war four decades later. Using variation across ethnicity and cohort, we identify significant long-run impacts on human health capital. Individuals exposed to the war at all ages between birth and adolescence exhibit reduced adult stature and these impacts are largest in adolescence. Adult stature is portentous of reduced life expectancy and lower earnings. |
| Keywords: | war, height, early life conditions, human capital investments, Nigeria |
| JEL: | I12 O12 J13 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:113&r=dem |
| By: | Nicolas Sirven (IRDES Institute for research and information in health economics) |
| Abstract: | Recent studies on the demand for long-term care emphasised the role of frailty as a specific precursor of disability besides chronic diseases. Frailty is defined as vulnerable health status resulting from the reduction of individuals’ reserve capacity. This medical concept is brought here in an economic framework in order to investigate the role social policies may play in preventing disability or maintaining life quality of people in a disablement process. Using four waves of panel data from the Survey on Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), a frailty index is created as a count measure for five physiologic criteria (Fried model) for respondents aged 50+ in 10 European countries, between 2004 and 2011. The longitudinal dimension is explored in two ways. First, differences in frailty dynamics over a seven-year-time period are analysed through variables that are relevant for social policy (income maintenance, housing adaptation, and prevention of social isolation) in a panel model for count data with fixed effects. Second, the individual fixed effects are decomposed by means of a random effects model with Mundlak specification. SHARE additional retrospective data on life history (SHARELIFE) are then used to investigate differences in frailty levels. The results reveal the presence of various sources of social inequalities over the life-course. Social Protection Systems thus appear to play a major role in accompanying, preventing or reducing the frailty process. Several policy implications are suggested. |
| Keywords: | Demand for health, Long-term care, Income maintenance, Health prevention, Panel models for count data, Mundlak device. |
| JEL: | I12 J14 C23 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irh:wpaper:dt52&r=dem |
| By: | Andrew L. Dabalen (The World Bank); Ephraim Kebede (The World Bank); Saumik Paul (Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | A multiethnic country like Côte d’Ivoire, which was relatively stable until the late 1980s, has been mired in crisis in the last two decades and experienced large-scale violence. This paper undertakes a disaggregated analysis of the civil war at sub-national levels in Cote d’Ivoire for the period from 1998 to 2006 using: (1) nationally representative household survey data, and (2) the ACLED conflict database that contains information on the date and geographical location of conflicts. We use both the department and the sub-prefecture levels as units of analysis, and find robust evidence that ethnic diversity is significantly associated with conflicts. We also find strong empirical evidence that the share of Ivoirites population and the share of Muslim population is a significant determinant of civil war at the sub-prefecture level. Furthermore, more populous areas are at high risk of civil war, but the outcome is statistically significant only at the department level. However, we do not find significant evidence that income inequality and land inequality have determined the level of civil conflict. Overall the findings suggest ethnicity and religious identities are the significant determinants of civil war in Cote d’Ivoire. |
| Keywords: | Civil war; Disaggregated data; Ethnicity; GIS; Cote d’Ivoire |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:118&r=dem |
| By: | Sabrina Bruyneel; Laurens Cherchye; Sam Cosaert; Bram De Rock; Siegfried Dewitte |
| Abstract: | We conducted an experiment to collect data on consumption decisions made by children of different age categories. In particular, our experiment involves unsophisticated discrete consumption choices,and we present a rationality test that is specially designed for the resulting choice data. Our firstconclusion is that, in general, the observed children's consumption behavior is largely irrational. Next, we also investigate the relationship between the degree of rationality and the children's characteristics.Specically, we use teacher based assessments on several personal characteristics to investigate whether and to what extent smart children tend to behave more rational. Here, our main conclusion is that it is important to recognize the multidimensional nature of intelligence to obtain a balanced insight into the effect of intelligence on rationality. |
| Keywords: | rationality; children; revealed-preference; intelligence |
| JEL: | C14 C91 D12 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/134951&r=dem |
| By: | Dominic Rohner (Department of Economics, University of Zurich); Mathias Thoenig (Department of Economics, University of Lausanne); Fabrizio Zilibotti (Department of Economics, University of Zurich, and Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of civil conflict on social capital, focusing on the experience of Uganda during the last decade. Using individual and county-level data, we document large causal effects on trust and ethnic identity of an exogenous outburst of ethnic conflicts in 2002-05. We exploit two waves of survey data from Afrobarometer 2000 and 2008, including information on socioeconomic characteristics at the individual level, and geo-referenced measures of fighting events from ACLED. Our identification strategy exploits variations in the intensity of fighting both in the spatial and cross-ethnic dimensions. We find that more intense fighting decreases generalized trust and increases ethnic identity. The effects are quantitatively large and robust to a number of control variables, alternative measures of violence, and different statistical techniques involving ethnic and spatial fixed effects and instrumental variables. We also document that the post-war effects of ethnic violence depend on the ethnic fractionalization. Fighting has a negative effect on the economic situation in highly fractionalized counties, but has no effect in less fractionalized counties. Our findings are consistent with the existence of a self-reinforcing process between conflicts and ethnic cleavages. |
| Keywords: | ethnicity, violence, fractionalization |
| JEL: | D74 |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:112&r=dem |