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on Demographic Economics |
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Issue of 2013‒03‒02
33 papers chosen by Clarence Nkengne Tsimpo University of Montreal and World Bank Group |
| By: | Martin Halla; Mario Lackner; Johann Scharler |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of the size of the welfare state on family outcomes in OECD member countries. Exploiting exogenous variation in public social spending, due to varying degrees of political fractionalization (i.e. the number of relevant parties involved in the legislative process), we show that an expansion in the welfare state increases the fertility, marriage, and divorce rates with a quantitatively stronger effect on the marriage rate. We conclude that the welfare state supports family formation. Nevertheless, we also find that the welfare state decouples marriage and fertility, and therefore, alters the organization of the family. |
| Keywords: | Marriage, divorce, fertility, welfare state, risk sharing |
| JEL: | J12 J13 J18 D1 D62 H31 H53 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2013-05&r=dem |
| By: | Buvinic, Mayra; Das Gupta, Monica; Casabonne, Ursula; Verwimp, Philip |
| 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. The authors 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. |
| Keywords: | Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Population Policies,Post Conflict Reconstruction,Gender and Development,Gender and Health |
| Date: | 2013–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6371&r=dem |
| By: | Niedergesäss, Markus |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the interrelated dynamics of employment, cohabitation and fertility for German women and men. Using a simultaneous hazards approach due to Lillard (1993), I estimate a five-equation model with unobserved heterogeneity. One of the contributions of this paper is to include the current employment and nonemployment hazard rates and the union formation and union dissolution hazard rates as regressors. My results suggest that being employed or nonemployed only has small effects on other transitions, but that employed women with a high hazard of becoming nonemployed are less likely to have children, while nonemployed men having a low hazard of finding a job are more likely to have children. Children reduce the hazard of taking up a job for women and reduce the hazard of becoming nonemployed for women and men. Children also increase the stability of unions. Having a partner strongly increases the likelihood for having children. Interestingly, unions with a high risk of splitting up are more likely to have children. Economically, this can be interpreted as an attempt to invest in partner-specification capital in order to reduce the likelihood of splitting up. -- |
| Keywords: | Employment,Fertility,Marriage,Family planning,Labor demand,Simultaneous hazards |
| JEL: | C33 C41 J64 J13 J23 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuewef:51&r=dem |
| By: | Gianna Claudia Giannelli (Department of Economics-University of Florence and IZA); Lucia Mangiavacchi (Universitat de les Illes Balears); Luca Piccoli (Universitat de les Illes Balears) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to investigate whether excessive parental alcohol consumption leads to a reduction of child welfare. To this end, we analyse whether alcohol consumption decreases time spent by parents looking after their children and working. Using the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, the study focuses on mono-nuclear families with children under fifteen years of age, for whom we estimate a model of intra-household allocation of time. We find that husbands' alcohol consumption has a negative impact on their weekly hours spent doing child care, while no significant effect is observed for mothers' alcohol consumption. We interpret these findings as evidence of a negative impact of fathers' alcohol consumption on child welfare. |
| Keywords: | Child care, Time allocation, Alcohol consumption, Labor supply, Russia. |
| JEL: | D1 I1 J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubi:deawps:55&r=dem |
| By: | Christina Felfe; Rafael Lalive |
| Abstract: | Many countries are currently expanding access to child care for young children. But are all children equally likely to benefit from such expansions? We address this question by adopting a marginal treatment effects framework. We study the West German setting where high quality center-based care is severely rationed and use within state differences in child care supply as exogenous variation in child care attendance. Data from the German Socio-Economic Panel provides comprehensive information on child development measures along with detailed information on child care, mother-child interactions, and maternal labor supply. Results indicate strong differences in the effects of child care with respect to observed characteristics (children’s age, birth weight and socio-economic background), but less so with respect to unobserved determinants of selection into child care. Underlying mechanisms are a substitution of maternal care with center-based care, an increase in average quality of maternal care, and an increase in maternal earnings. |
| Keywords: | child care, child development, marginal treatment effects |
| JEL: | J13 I21 I38 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp536&r=dem |
| By: | Stephan Klasen (Georg-August-University Göttingen); Sebastian Vollmer (Georg-August-University Göttingen) |
| Abstract: | In a recent paper in the Review of Economic Studies, Siwan Anderson and Debraj Ray (Anderson and Ray, 2010) develop and apply a new ‘flow’ measure of ‘missing women’ to estimate the extent of gender bias in mortality in developing countries. Contrary to the existing literature, they find that the problem of gender bias in mortality is as severe among adults as it is among children in India, that gender bias in mortality is larger in Sub‐Saharan Africa than in China and India, and that there was substantial evidence of gender bias in mortality in the US around 1900. These latter results are driven largely by the finding of substantial gender bias among adults. We show first that the data for Sub‐Saharan Africa used in the paper are generated by simulations in ways that deliver their findings on Africa (and the US in 1900) by construction. Second, we show that the analysis is entirely dependent on a highly implausible reference standard that is inappropriately applied to settings where the overall disease and mortality environment differ greatly; the attempt to control for the disease environment by the authors is not able to address these issues. When a more appropriate reference standard is used, most of the new findings of Anderson and Ray disappear. Instead, the findings from the existing literature relying on stock measures of missing women are confirmed. The one finding that remains and deserves further attention is some evidence of gender bias in mortality among young adults in Africa (though of much lower magnitude than suggested by Anderson and Ray). |
| Keywords: | Missing women; gender bias; mortality; disease; age; Sub‐Saharan Africa; China; India |
| JEL: | J16 D63 I10 |
| Date: | 2013–02–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:gotcrc:133&r=dem |
| By: | Rahman, Aminur |
| Abstract: | Using calories in a unitary framework, previous literature has claimed lack of gender inequality in intrahousehold food distribution. This paper finds that while there is lack of gender disparity in the calorie adequacy ratio, the disparity is prominent among children, adolescents, and adults for a number of critical nutrients. Pregnant and lactating women also receive much less of most of these nutrients compared with their requirements. A wife's bargaining power (proxied by assets at marriage), as opposed to her husband's, significantly and positively affects the nutrient allocations of children and adolescents and of adult females. The bargaining effects remain significant after controlling for unobserved household characteristics and the potential nutrition-health-labor market linkage. The findings, which have important policy implications for the growing problem of micronutrient malnutrition in the developing world, also imply that perhaps the nutrition-health-labor market linkage as a key explanation for intrahousehold food distribution has been overemphasized in the previous literature. |
| Keywords: | Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Nutrition,Population Policies,Housing&Human Habitats,Gender and Health |
| Date: | 2013–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6363&r=dem |
| By: | Marie-Thérèse Letablier (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne, INED - Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques); Anne Salles (INED - Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques, Université Paris-Sorbonne - UFR Langues Etrangères Appliquées - LEA) |
| Abstract: | This contribution to the Gusto research project for the European 7th framework programme (Work Package 3 : individual pathways to Flexibility and Sustainability) examines how employment uncertainty during the transition into the labour force differently impacts family formation in Germany and France. Based on a qualitative survey with young men and women in age of being parents, the paper explores how the individuals manage with uncertainty and economic insecurity to finalize their reproduction projects. The paper therefore contributes to an understanding of the contrasted fertility patterns in the two countries. It highlights variations in the perception of insecurity related in particular to differences in gender conventions and their related incidence on family patterns in the two countries. The paper also highlights the contrasted impact of trust in family policies, especially in their ability to secure individuals transitions. |
| Keywords: | Family formation; fertility decisions; economic insecurity; labour market uncertainty; precariousness |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00786291&r=dem |
| By: | Stefano DellaVigna; John List; Ulrike Malmendier; Gautam Rao |
| Abstract: | Do men and women have different social preferences? Previous findings are contradictory. We provide a potential explanation using evidence from a field experiment. In a door-to-door solicitation, men and women are equally generous, but women become less generous when it becomes easy to avoid the solicitor. Our structural estimates of the social preference parameters suggest an explanation: women are more likely to be on the margin of giving, partly because of a less dispersed distribution of altruism. We find similar results for the willingness to complete an unpaid survey: women are more likely to be on the margin of participation. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feb:natura:00380&r=dem |
| By: | Cervellati, Matteo (University of Bologna); Sunde, Uwe (University of Munich) |
| Abstract: | We propose a unified growth theory to investigate the mechanics generating the economic and demographic transition, and the role of mortality differences for comparative development. The framework can replicate the quantitative patterns in historical time series data and in contemporaneous cross-country panel data, including the bi-modal distribution of the endogenous variables across countries. The results suggest that differences in extrinsic mortality might explain a substantial part of the observed differences in the timing of the take-off across countries and the worldwide density distribution of the main variables of interest. |
| Keywords: | economic and demographic transition, adult mortality, child mortality, quantitative analysis, unified growth model, heterogeneous human capital, comparative development, development traps |
| JEL: | E10 J10 J13 N30 O10 O40 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7199&r=dem |
| By: | von Essen, Emma (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm University); Karlsson, Jonas Karlsson (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University.) |
| Abstract: | This study shows that transient anonymity affects buyer discrimination based on seller’s gender and foreignness in online auctions. Sellers’ names are categorized by gender and foreignness. Half of the sellers’ disclose their names in the usernames and the other half employ anonymous usernames, concealing gender and foreignness. After the price is set and the auction ends, the seller’s name is always disclosed to the buyer by eBay. We explore buyers’ discrimination in willingness to pay, measured as price. Furthermore, we study how buyers’ discrimination in providing feedback is affected by sellers having an anonymous username or not (measured after seller name is known to the buyer). Our results indicate only some evidence of buyer discrimination in willingness to pay. However, interestingly we find that anonymity matters for discrimination; among sellers employing anonymous usernames male sellers with foreign-sounding names receive fewer pieces of feedback than non-foreign female sellers. This is not found among groups of sellers whose names were revealed in the usernames. This discrimination is only present among female and not among male buyers. |
| Keywords: | transient anonymity; discrimination; gender; foreignness; online auctions |
| JEL: | C93 D12 J15 J16 |
| Date: | 2013–02–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2013_0006&r=dem |
| By: | Nicoletta Balbo; Nicola Barban; Melinda Mills |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to investigate whether friends’ and peers’ behavior influence and individual’s entry into marriage and parenthood during the transition to adulthood of young, U.S. adults. After first studying entry into marriage and parenthood as two independent events, we then examine them as interrelated processes, thereby considering them as two joint outcomes of an individual’s unique, underlying family-formation strategy. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we engage in a series of discrete time event history models to test whether the larger the number of friends and peers who get married (or have a child), the sooner the individual gets married (or has a child). Results show strong cross-friend effects on entry into parenthood, whereas entry into marriage is only affected by peer effects. Estimates of a multiprocess model show that cross-friend effects on entry into parenthood remain strongly significant even when we control for cross-process unobserved heterogeneity. |
| Keywords: | Social interactions, peer effects, fertility, marriage, multiprocess, event history analysis |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:don:donwpa:056&r=dem |
| By: | Seo-Young Cho (DIW, Berlin / Germany) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether male soccer tradition can predict the success of female soccer. Different from the existing literature, this paper utilizes panel data covering 175 countries during the 1991-2011 period, capturing country heterogeneity effects and time trends. An instrumental variable approach is further employed in order to identify causal relation. My findings do not support the widespread perception that male tradition determines female soccer attainments. On the other hand, my results indicate that women’s empowerment can be a driving force for the success of female soccer. |
| Keywords: | female and male soccer, women’s empowerment, panel analysis |
| JEL: | C33 J16 Z10 |
| Date: | 2013–02–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:iaidps:223&r=dem |
| By: | Elena Gross (Georg-August-University Göttingen); Isabel Günther (ETH Zürich); Youdi Schipper (VU University Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Public funding of water supply infrastructure in developing countries is often justified by the expectation that the time spent on water collection significantly decreases, leading to increased labor force participation of women. In this study we empirically test this hypothesis by applying a difference-in-difference analysis to a sample of 2000 households in rural Benin where improved water supply was phased in over time. Time savings per day are rather modest at 35 minutes: even though walking distances are considerably reduced, women still spend a lot of time waiting at the water source. Moreover, a reduction in time to collect one water container induces women to collect a higher number of containers per day. Our results indicate that time savings are rarely followed by increased labor supply of women: men are the first to be freed from water fetching activities. |
| Keywords: | Water Supply; Behavioral Change; Time Savings; Labor Supply; Gender Bias |
| JEL: | I38 J22 J16 |
| Date: | 2013–02–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:gotcrc:134&r=dem |
| By: | Boll, Christina; Leppin, Julian Sebastian |
| Abstract: | Germany's occupational and sectoral change towards a knowledge-based economy calls for high returns on education. Nevertheless, female graduates are paid much less than their male counterparts. We find an overall unadjusted gender pay gap among German graduates of 27 %. This corresponds to an approximate wage gap of 32.5 % thereof 20,3 % account for different endowments and 12,2 % for different remunerations of characteristics. Suboptimal job matches of females tied in family and partner contexts are supposed to account for at least part of the gendered wage drift. But overeducation does not matter in this regard. Instead, females earn 4 % less because they work on jobs with fewer years of required education. Furthermore, solely males are granted breadwinner wage premiums and only men successfully avoid wage cuts when reducing working hours. We conclude that the price effect of the gap reflects employers' attributions of gender stereotypes, gendered work attitudes as well as noticeable unobserved heterogeneity within and between sexes. -- |
| JEL: | J31 C33 J71 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hwwirp:138&r=dem |
| By: | Sanjaya DeSilva |
| Abstract: | Utilizing a nationally representative sample of households from Sri Lanka, this study examines gender differences in the long-term impact of temporary labor migration. We use a propensity score matching (PSM) framework to compare households with return migrants, households with current migrants, and equivalent nonmigrant households in terms of a variety of outcomes. Our results show that households that send women abroad are relatively poor and utilize migration to catch up with the average household, whereas sending a man abroad allows an already advantaged household to further strengthen their economic position. We also find that remittances from females emphasize investment in home improvements and acquisition of farm land and nonfarm assets, whereas remittances of men are channeled more toward housing assets and business ventures. |
| Keywords: | Migration; Remittances; Gender; Sri Lanka |
| JEL: | F22 F24 J61 O15 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_756&r=dem |
| By: | Markus M. Grabka; Jan Marcus; Eva Sierminska |
| Abstract: | While most studies on wealth inequality focus on the inequality between households, this paper examines the distribution of wealth within couples. For this purpose, we make use of unique individual level micro data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). In married and cohabiting couples, men have, on average, 33,000 Euro more net worth than women. We look at five different sets of factors (demographics, income, labor market, inheritances, financial decision making in the partnership) that might explain this wealth gap. We find that all factors contribute to the explanation of the wealth gap within partnerships, with inheritances and income being particularly relevant. Furthermore, we find that specific characteristics (e.g. self-employment, no migration background, inheritances, high income) that decrease the wealth gap for women increase it for men. For men the respective coefficients are even stronger in absolute terms. When examining intra-partnership financial decision making, we find the gap to be significantly smaller when the female manages the money and larger if the male partner has the last word in financial decisions. |
| Keywords: | Wealth gap, Wealth inequality, Intra-household allocation, Gender, Financial decision making, SOEP |
| JEL: | J2 D13 D31 D69 I31 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp540&r=dem |
| By: | Ted Aranki; Corrado Macchiarelli |
| Abstract: | The decision to cease working is traditionally influenced by a wide set of socio-economic and environmental variables. In this paper, we study transitions out of work for 26 EU countries over the period 2004-2009 in order to investigate the determinants of retirement based on the Eurostat Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). Applying standard survivor analysis tools to describe exits into retirement, we do not find any significant differences in the patterns into retirement between the average euro area and EU non-euro area countries. Moreover, we find that shifts into retirement have increased during the onset of the 2009 economic and financial crisis. Income, together with flexible working arrangements, is found to be important as regards early retirement decisions, compared to retiring beyond the legal retirement age. Finally, we show that institutional measures (such as, state/health benefits, minimum retirement age) could not be sufficient alone if individuals withdraw earlier from the labour market due to a weakening of their health. Especially, these latter results are of importance for structural and macroeconomic policy, for instance, in increasing the employment of both people and hours worked against the background of population ageing. |
| Keywords: | Retirement, ageing population, hazard model, duration analysis, EU countries |
| JEL: | J14 J26 C41 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eiq:eileqs:58&r=dem |
| By: | Fuchs, Johann (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Weber, Enzo (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | Using German data this study applies an unobserved-components approach to disentangle the unemployment rate into a (stochastic) trend and a cyclical part and to estimate the influence of these components on labor participation. The persistent trend component of unemployment, which triggers permanent reactions of the workers, is likely connected to a structural discouragement effect. The cyclical component, which reflects more fluctuant changes, can be linked to a shorter-term added worker effect. By splitting up the participation effect of changes in the unemployment rate our analysis differs profoundly from previous studies that present the net of both or only a single effect. For the total working population both a discouragement and an added worker effect were identified. In detailed analyses we find that the former was relevant for older workers, whereas the latter especially concerns prime aged and younger females. As many OECD countries are facing an ageing population as well as rising importance of women in the labor market, these age- and gender-specific results might be of particular interest. |
| Keywords: | Arbeitslosenquote, Konjunkturzyklus, Erwerbsbeteiligung, Erwerbsverhalten, Beschäftigungseffekte, Persistenz, stille Reserve, Erwerbsquote, Erwerbsbevölkerung, geschlechtsspezifische Faktoren, altersspezifische Faktoren |
| JEL: | C32 E24 J21 |
| Date: | 2013–02–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201301&r=dem |
| By: | Bloom, David E. (Harvard University); Sousa-Poza, Alfonso (University of Hohenheim) |
| Abstract: | Population ageing will be the dominant feature of the world's demographic landscape in the coming decades, raising concerns about labor productivity and about economic outcomes at both the individual, enterprise, and macro levels. The articles in this special issue of Labour Economics define and address key issues with respect to the interplay of ageing, workforce productivity, and economic performance. Taken as a whole, the articles dispel some of the concerns, sharpen our understanding of others, and highlight behavioural changes, business practice adaptations, and public policy reforms that can offset the economic effects of population ageing. |
| Keywords: | ageing, productivity |
| JEL: | J11 J14 J18 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7205&r=dem |
| By: | Bandiera, Oriana; Natraj, Ashwini |
| Abstract: | Does the existing evidence support policies that foster growth by reducing gender inequality? The authors argue that the evidence based on differences across countries is of limited use for policy design because it does not identify the causal link from inequality to growth. This, however does not imply that inequality-reducing policies are ineffective. In other words, the lack of evidence of a causal link is not in itself evidence that the causal link does not exist. Detailed micro studies that shed light on the mechanisms through which gender inequality affects development and growth are needed to inform the design of effective policies. |
| Keywords: | Gender and Development,Population Policies,Gender and Law,Gender and Health,Achieving Shared Growth |
| Date: | 2013–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6369&r=dem |
| By: | Chetty, Raj (Harvard University); Friedman, John N. (Harvard University); Leth-Peterson, Soren (University of Copenhagen); Nielsen, Torben Heien (Danish National Centre for Social Research); Olsen, Tore (University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | Do retirement savings policies--such as tax subsidies or employer-provided pension plans--increase total saving for retirement or simply induce shifting across accounts? We revisit this classic question using 45 million observations on wealth for the population of Denmark. We find that a policy's impact on wealth accumulation depends on whether it changes savings rates by active or passive choice. Tax subsidies, which rely upon individuals to take an action to raise savings, have small impacts on total wealth. We estimate that each $1 of tax expenditure on subsidies increases total saving by 1 cent. In contrast, policies that raise retirement contributions if individuals take no action--such as automatic employer contributions to retirement accounts--increase wealth accumulation substantially. Price subsidies only affect the behavior of active savers who respond to incentives, whereas automatic contributions increase the savings of passive individuals who do not reoptimize. We estimate that approximately 85% of individuals are passive savers. The 15% of active savers who respond to price subsidies do so primarily by shifting assets across accounts rather than reducing consumption. These individuals are also more likely to offset changes in automatic contributions and have higher wealth-income ratios. We conclude that automatic contributions are more effective at increasing savings rates than price subsidies for three reasons: (1) subsidies induce relatively few individuals to respond, (2) they generate substantial crowd-out conditional on response, and (3) they do not influence the savings behavior of passive individuals, who are least prepared for retirement. |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp13-002&r=dem |
| By: | de Walque, Damien; Gertler, Paul J; Bautista-Arredondo, Sergio; Kwan, Ada; Vermeersch, Christel; de Dieu Bizimana, Jean; Binagwaho, Agnes; Condo, Jeanine |
| Abstract: | Paying for performance provides financial rewards to medical care providers for improvements in performance measured by specific utilization and quality of care indicators. In 2006, Rwanda began a paying for performance scheme to improve health services delivery, including HIV/AIDS services. This study examines the scheme's impact on individual and couples HIV testing and counseling and using data from a prospective quasi-experimental design. The study finds a positive impact of paying for performance with an increase of 6.1 percentage points in the probability of individuals having ever been tested. This positive impact is stronger for married individuals: 10.2 percentage points. The results also indicate larger impacts of paying for performance on the likelihood that the respondent reports both partners have ever been tested, especially among discordant couples (14.7 percentage point increase) in which only one of the partners is HIV positive. |
| Keywords: | Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Disease Control&Prevention,Population Policies,Health Systems Development&Reform,HIV AIDS |
| Date: | 2013–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6364&r=dem |
| By: | Silvie Colman; Thomas S. Dee; Theodore J. Joyce |
| Abstract: | Parental involvement (PI) laws require that physicians notify or obtain consent from a parent(s) of a minor seeking an abortion before performing the procedure. Several studies suggest that PI laws curb risky sexual behavior because teens realize that they would be compelled to discuss a subsequent pregnancy with a parent. We show that prior evidence based on gonorrhea rates overlooked the frequent under-reporting of gonorrhea by race and ethnicity, and present new evidence on the effects of PI laws using more current data on the prevalence of gonorrhea and data that are novel to this literature (i.e., chlamydia rates and data disaggregated by year of age). We improve the credibility of our estimates over those in the existing literature using an event-study design in addition to standard difference-in-difference-in-differences (DDD) models. Our findings consistently suggest no association between PI laws and rates of sexually transmitted infections or measures of sexual behavior. |
| JEL: | I18 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18810&r=dem |
| By: | Alfonso Miranda; Yu Zhu |
| Abstract: | Using the first wave of the UK Household Longitudinal Survey, we investigate the extent to which deficiency at English as measured by English as Additional Language (EAL), contribute to the immigrant-native wage gap for female employees in the UK, after controlling for age, region of residence, educational attainment and ethnicity. We allow for endogeneity of EAL and correct for bias arising from self-selection into employment using a 3-step estimation procedure. We find very strong evidence of negative selection of EAL into employment. Moreover, we also present evidence of self-selection bias on the wage equation, which if uncorrected, would result in significant underestimation of the causal effect of EAL on the immigrant-native wage gap for women. |
| Keywords: | English as Additional Language (EAL); immigrant-native wage gap; selectivity bias |
| JEL: | J15 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:1301&r=dem |
| By: | Adam Dunn; Leslie Foster |
| Keywords: | Health-e-App Public Access , Children's Health Care Coverage , California , Health |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2013–02–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:7672&r=dem |
| By: | Lanjouw, Peter; Marra, Marleen; Nguyen, Cuong |
| Abstract: | This paper uses small area estimation techniques to update Vietnam's province and district-level poverty map to 2009. It finds that poverty rates continue to be highest in the northern and central mountainous regions, where ethnic minorities make up a large fraction of the population. Poverty has fallen in most provinces and districts over this decade, but the pace of poverty reduction has been least pronounced in those localities with high initial poverty or inequality levels. As a result, poverty rates have become more spatially concentrated over time, which is consistent with widely observed growth processes linked to agglomeration. The authors hypothesize that this makes geographic targeting of the poor more relevant as a means to re-balance growing welfare disparities between geographic areas. Simulations indicate that in both 1999 and 2009, geographic targeting for poverty alleviation improves upon a uniform lump-sum transfer and this becomes more evident the more spatially disaggregated the target populations. The analysis further indicates that the gains from geographic targeting have become more pronounced over time in Vietnam. Although poverty reduction in Vietnam has been impressive, further progress may thus warrant increased attention to geographic targeting. |
| Keywords: | Rural Poverty Reduction,Regional Economic Development,Subnational Economic Development,Achieving Shared Growth |
| Date: | 2013–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6355&r=dem |
| By: | Dahlberg, Matz (Department of Economics); Edmark, Karin (IFN); Lundqvist, Heléne (Stockholm university) |
| Abstract: | In a comment to Dahlberg, Edmark and Lundqvist (2012), Nekby and Pettersson-Lidbom (2012) argue (i) that the refugee placement program should be measured with contracted rather than actually placed refugees, and claim that the correlation between the two measures is insignifficant and close to zero; (ii) that instead of using the rotating individual panel, we should have used the full cross-sections in combination with municipality fixed effects; and (iii) that immigrants should be defined based on country of birth rather than citizenship. In this response, we discuss why we (i) do not agree that contracted refugees is the preferred measure, and we show that the correlation be- tween the two measures is highly significant and large; (ii) do not agree that the full cross-sections can be used; and (iii) do agree that defining immigrants according to country of birth is preferred. In a re-analysis, the conclusion from Dahlberg, Edmark and Lundqvist (2012) that ethnic diversity has a statistically and economically significant negative effect on preferences for redistribution is only marginally affected. |
| Keywords: | Income redistribution; ethnic heterogeneity; immigration |
| JEL: | D31 D64 Z13 |
| Date: | 2013–02–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2013_004&r=dem |
| By: | Paul Dolan; Grace Lordan |
| Abstract: | Many people remain in the same income group as their parents and this is a cause of much discussion and some concern. In this work, we examine how intergenerational mobility affects subjective wellbeing (SWB) using the British Cohort Study. Our SWB measures encapsulate life satisfaction and mental health. We find that relative income mobility is a significant predictor of life satisfaction and mental health whether people move upward or downward. For absolute income, mobility is only a predictor of SWB and mental health outcomes if the person moves downward. We also explore pathways through which income mobility can impact on these outcomes. In particular, we present evidence that suggests much of the effect of income mobility on SWB is due to changes in the perception of financial security. But those who slide down are still less satisfied with their lives over and above any effect of financial insecurity. Overall, there is an asymmetric effect of income mobility: the losses of sliding on down are larger than the gains of moving up. |
| Keywords: | income mobility, social mobility, inter-generational, life satisfaction, SWB, subjective wellbeing, mental health |
| JEL: | D31 D63 I1 I14 J60 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1190&r=dem |
| By: | Peter Arcidiacono; Esteban M. Aucejo; V. Joseph Hotz |
| Abstract: | The low number of college graduates with science degrees -- particularly among under-represented minorities -- is of growing concern. We examine differences across universities in graduating students in different fields. Using student-level data on the University of California system during a period in which racial preferences were in place, we show significant sorting into majors based on academic preparation, with science majors at each campus having on average stronger credentials than their non-science counterparts. Students with relatively weaker academic preparation are significantly more likely to leave the sciences and take longer to graduate at each campus. We show the vast majority of minority students would be more likely to graduate with a science degree and graduate in less time had they attended a lower ranked university. Similar results do not apply for non-minority students. |
| JEL: | I23 J15 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18799&r=dem |
| By: | Mebratie, A.D.; Van de Poel, E.; Debebe, Z.Y.; Abebaw, D.; Alemu, G.; Bedi, A.S. |
| Abstract: | Between 2000 and 2011, Ethiopia rapidly expanded its health-care infrastructure recording an 18-fold increase in the number of health posts and a 7-fold increase in the number of health centers. However, annual per capita outpatient utilization has increased only marginally. The extent to which individuals forego necessary health care, especially why and who foregoes care are issues that have received little attention in the context of low-income countries. This paper uses five clinical vignettes covering a range of context-specific child and adult-related diseases to explore the health-seeking behavior of rural Ethiopian households. We find almost universal preference for modern care. There is a systematic relationship between socioeconomic status and choice of providers mainly for adult-related conditions with households in higher consumption quintiles more likely to seek care in health centers, private/NGO clinics as opposed to health posts. Similarly, delays in care-seeking behavior are apparent mainly for adult-related conditions. The differences in care seeking behavior between adult and child related conditions may be attributed to the recent spread of health posts which have focused on raising awareness of maternal and child health. Overall, the analysis suggests that the lack of health-care utilization is not driven by the inability to recognize health problems or due to a low perceived need for modern care but due to other factors. |
| Keywords: | Ethiopia;clinical vignettes;foregone care;health care seeking behavior |
| Date: | 2013–02–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:euriss:551&r=dem |
| By: | Lisa D. Cook; Trevon D. Logan; John M. Parman |
| Abstract: | We document the existence of a distinctive national naming pattern for African Americans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We use census records to identify a set of high-frequency names among African Americans that were unlikely to be held by whites. We confirm the distinctiveness of the names using over five million death certificates from Alabama, Illinois and North Carolina from the early twentieth century. The names we identify in the census records are similarly distinctive in these three independent data sources. Surprisingly, approximately the same percentage of African Americans had "black names" historically as they do today. No name that we identify as a historical black name, however, is a contemporary black name. The literature has assumed that black names are a product of the Civil Rights Movement, yet our results suggest that they are a long-standing cultural norm among African Americans. This is the first evidence that distinctively racialized names existed long before the Civil Rights Era, establishing a new fact in the historical literature. |
| JEL: | J1 N3 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18802&r=dem |
| By: | Maria Belén Zinni (University of Rome "Tor Vergata") |
| Abstract: | Household financial assets and liabilities display considerable variation across countries and over time. This article investigates empirically the role of some of the key Life Cycle Model variables and other relevant factors behind household financial wealth disparities using data from 40 countries over the period 1995-2009. To the author's knowledge, it uses the largest macroeconomic dataset on household financial assets and liabilities assembled to date. The results are in line with the aggregative implications of the Life Cycle Model in that the wealth-to-income ratio decreases with income per capita growth and increases with the expected length of retirement. The study also presents empirical evidence for the role of financial and demographic developments on the accumulation of financial assets and liabilities by the household sector. |
| Keywords: | Household sector balance sheets, financial wealth, household assets, household liabilities,financial development |
| JEL: | E01 E21 |
| Date: | 2013–02–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:264&r=dem |