|
on Demographic Economics |
|
Issue of 2013‒03‒16
forty-nine papers chosen by Clarence Nkengne Tsimpo University of Montreal and World Bank Group |
| By: | He, Xiaobo; Zhu, Rong |
| Abstract: | Using population census data, this paper examines the causal effect of childbearing on married women's labor force participation in urban China. To ameliorate the endogeneity of fertility, we exploit twin births as the instrument for the number of children. While the ordinary least squares estimates indicate that having one more child reduces female labor force participation by 6.7% and 8.5% in 1990 and 2000 respectively, the instrumental variable estimates suggest very small and insignificant effects for both years. |
| Keywords: | Female labor force participation, Fertility, One-Child Policy |
| JEL: | J13 J21 |
| Date: | 2013–01–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44552&r=dem |
| By: | Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude (Dalhousie University); Khamis, Melanie (Wesleyan University); Yuksel, Mutlu (Dalhousie University) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides causal evidence on the long-term legacies of postwar reconstruction and mandatory employment on women's family formation outcomes such as marriage, age at first marriage and divorce. We exploit city-by-cohort variation in the intensity of World War II reconstruction in Germany which determined the mobilization of women in the postwar era. We find that participation in the postwar reconstruction efforts increased the female's probability of being currently and ever married and marrying at younger ages. We also find that postwar mandatory employment had no differential effect on the divorce rates among the affected cohorts of women. These results are robust to the potential changes in the population composition, household income and demand for female labor and state-specific policies in postwar Germany. |
| Keywords: | postwar reconstruction, mandatory employment, marriage research |
| JEL: | J12 J16 J21 J48 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7239&r=dem |
| By: | Marcén, Miriam; Bellido, Héctor |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of culture on the fertility decisions of adolescent women. To identify this effect, we use the epidemiological approach, exploiting the variations in fertility rates of teen women by ancestor’s home country. All women considered in our analysis were born in the US, and all have lived under US institutional and legal conditions. Then, differences in fertility rates of adolescent women by national origin can be considered as supporting evidence of the impact of culture. Our results show that culture has quantitatively significant impacts on the fertility decisions of adolescent women. This finding is robust to alternative specifications and to the introduction of several home country variables and individual characteristics measured when young women take the decision to have a child. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, Culture, Adolescent Women |
| JEL: | J13 Z13 |
| Date: | 2013–03–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44712&r=dem |
| By: | Timothy W. Guinnane (Department of Economics, Yale University); Sheilagh C. Ogilvie (Faculty of Economics, Cambridge University) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents first results from a project to reconstitute the demographic behavior of three villages in Württemberg (southern Germany) from the mid-sixteenth to the early twentieth century. Using high-quality registers of births, deaths, and marriages, and unusual ancillary sources, we improve on the family-reconstitution techniques pioneered by Louis Henry and applied to good effect by the Cambridge Group and other scholars. This paper focuses on simple, standard demographic measures, in order to provide a broad overview and support comparisons with other places. An extreme system of demographic regulation operated in these Württemberg communities until around 1870. This regulation created a two-tiered demographic system. A group of “insiders” were able to marry, and experienced both high marital fertility and high infant and child mortality. A second group, of “outsiders”, were prevented from marrying. Many, especially the males, left the community; those who stayed contributed to growing illegitimacy and associated levels of infant and child mortality that were even higher than for the offspring of “insiders”. |
| Keywords: | fertility, mortality, nuptiality, European marriage pattern, institutions, community, politische Ehekonsens, Germany, Württemberg, proto-industry |
| JEL: | N33 J12 J13 K0 O17 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egc:wpaper:1021&r=dem |
| 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:jku:nrnwps:2013_03&r=dem |
| By: | Maria del Carmen Huerta; Willem Adema; Jennifer Baxter; Wen-Jui Han; Mette Lausten; RaeHyuck Lee; Jane Waldfogel |
| Abstract: | Previous research has shown that fathers taking some time off work around childbirth, especially periods of leave of 2 or more weeks, are more likely to be involved in childcare related activities than fathers who do not do so. Furthermore, evidence suggests that children with fathers who are ‘more involved’ perform better during the early years than their peers with less involved fathers. This paper analyses data of four OECD countries — Australia; Denmark; United Kingdom; United States — to describe how leave policies may influence father’s behaviours when children are young and whether their involvement translates into positive child cognitive and behavioural outcomes. This analysis shows that fathers’ leave, father’s involvement and child development are related. Fathers who take leave, especially those taking two weeks or more, are more likely to carry out childcare related activities when children are young. This study finds some evidence that children with highly involved fathers tend to perform better in terms of cognitive test scores. Evidence on the association between fathers’ involvement and behavioural outcomes was however weak. When data on different types of childcare activities was available, results suggest that the kind of involvement matters. These results suggest that what matters is the quality and not the quantity of father-child interactions. |
| Keywords: | United Kingdom, Australia, United States, Denmark, cognitive development, birth cohort studies, parental leave, paternity leave, fathers’ involvement, behavioural problems |
| JEL: | D10 D60 J13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2013–01–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:140-en&r=dem |
| By: | Fanti, Luciano; Gori, Luca |
| Abstract: | We examine the effects of child policies on both transitional dynamics and long-term demo-economic outcomes in an overlapping-generations neoclassical growth model à la Chakraborty (2004) extended with endogenous fertility under the assumption of weak altruism towards children. The government invests in public health, and an individual’s survival probability at the end of youth depends on health expenditure. We show that multiple development regimes can exist. However, poverty or prosperity do not necessarily depend on the initial conditions, since they are the result of how child policy is designed. A child tax for example can be used effectively to enable those economies that were entrapped in poverty to prosper. There is also a long-term welfare-maximising level of the child tax. We show that, a child tax can be used to increase capital accumulation, escape from poverty and maximise long-term welfare also when (i) a public pay-as-you-go pension system is in place, (ii) the government issues an amount of public debt. Interestingly, there also exists a couple child tax-health tax that can be used to find the second-best optimum optimorum. In addition, we show that results are robust to the inclusion of decisions regarding the child quantity-quality trade off under the assumption of impure altruism. In particular, there exists a threshold value of the child tax below (resp. above) which child quality spending is unaffordable (resp. affordable) and different scenarios are in existence. |
| Keywords: | Child policy; Endogenous fertility; Health; Life expectancy; OLG model |
| JEL: | I1 J13 O4 |
| Date: | 2013–03–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44898&r=dem |
| By: | Shin, Inyong |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine the demographic transition and its effect on economic growth using a cross-country data. We use a threshold regression model to verify the transition and to confirm whether the demographic transitions are compressed or not in developing countries. We found out that in general, the demographic transitions, including the decreasing birth and death rate, in developing countries start in an earlier development stage compared to the demographic transitions in developed countries. These results suggest that the aging population and the decreasing working-age fraction in developing countries can also start in an earlier development stage than the experiences of developed countries and that the demographic gift in developing countries can also be lost in an early stage. |
| Keywords: | economic growth; compressed demographic transition; latecomer's advantage; aging population; threshold model. |
| JEL: | J11 J13 O11 |
| Date: | 2013–03–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45003&r=dem |
| By: | Olivier Thévenon; Anne Solaz |
| Abstract: | This paper considers how entitlements to paid leave after the birth of children affect female labour market outcomes across countries. Such entitlements are granted for various lengths of time and paid at different rates, reflecting the influence of different objectives including: enhancing children’s wellbeing, promoting labour supply, furthering gender equality in labour market outcomes, as well as budget constraints. Although parental care is beneficial for children, there are concerns about the consequences of prolonged periods of leave for labour market outcomes and gender equality. This paper therefore looks at the long-run consequences of extended paid leave on female, male, and gender differences in prime-age (25-54) employment rates, average working hours, and earnings in 30 OECD countries from 1970 to 2010.<P> It finds that extensions of paid leave lengths have a positive, albeit small, influence on female employment rates and on the gender ratio of employment, as long as the total period of paid leave is no longer than approximately two years. Additional weeks of leave, however, exert a negative effect on female employment and the gender employment gap. This paper also finds that weeks of paid leave positively affect the average number of hours worked by women relative to men, though on condition – once again – that the total duration of leave does not exceed certain limits. By contrast, the provision of paid leave widens the earnings gender gap among full-time employees. |
| JEL: | E24 J16 J38 |
| Date: | 2013–01–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:141-en&r=dem |
| By: | Vivien Procher; Colin Vance |
| Abstract: | The labor force participation rate of women and men is converging in industrialized countries, but disparities nevertheless remain with respect to unpaid activities. Shopping for household maintenance, in particular, is a time-consuming, out-of-home activity that continues to be undertaken primarily by women, irrespective of their employment status. The present study employs panel methods to analyze, descriptively and econometrically, gender disparities in shopping behavior among couples using data from the German Mobility Panel (MOP) for 1996 to 2009. While women still shop more than men, we find evidence that the differential has narrowed in recent years, particularly among couples with children. Several individual and household characteristics are found to be significant determinants of shopping behavior, whereby employment status and children emerge as the most important single factors. In addition, the possession of a driver’s license coupled with unrestricted car availability increase each partner’s time in shopping. |
| Keywords: | Shopping; Time-use; gender differences |
| JEL: | D13 J16 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0393&r=dem |
| By: | Jonathan Cribb (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Carl Emmerson (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Gemma Tetlow (Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Abstract: | In 1995, the UK government legislated to increase the earliest age at which women could claim a state pension from 60 to 65 between April 2010 and March 2020. This paper uses data from the first two years of this change coming into effect to estimate the impact of increasing the state pension age from 60 to 61 on the employment of women and their partners using a difference-in-differences methodology. Our methodology controls in a flexible way for underlying differences between cohorts born at different times. We find that women's employment rates at age 60 increased by 7.3 percentage points when the state pension age was increased to 61 and their probability of unemployment increased by 1.3 percentage points. The employment rates of the male partners also increased by 4.2 percentage points. The magnitude of these effects, and the results from subgroup analysis, suggest they are more likely explained by the increase in the state pension age being a shock or through it having a signalling effect rather than them being due to either credit constraints or the effect of individuals responding to changes in their financial incentives to work. Taken together, our results suggest that the fiscal strengthening arising from a one-year increase in the female state pension age is 10% higher than a costing based on no behavioural change, due to additional direct and indirect tax revenues arising from increased earnings. |
| Keywords: | Early retirement age; labour supply; policy reform; retirement |
| JEL: | H55 J21 J26 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:13/03&r=dem |
| By: | Lisa Schulkind (Department of Economics, Trinity College) |
| Abstract: | Teenage mothers tend to have poor economic outcomes later in life. However, the girls who become teenage mothers come from less advantaged backgrounds than those who delay childbearing until later in life, making causality difficult to establish. This paper examines the effect of having a child during high school versus becoming a young mother, but one who has already finished high school. I compare the outcomes of girls who have a child in the end of their senior year of high school to a control group comprised of girls who give birth a few months later. I find that girls who give birth during the school year are 9 percentage points less likely to graduate from high school; however, this has little effect on their eventual labor market outcomes. Despite being much more likely to obtain a High School degree, the control group does not enjoy higher earnings later in life, and is not any more likely to be working. |
| Keywords: | Teenage Childbearing, Signaling Value, High School Degree |
| JEL: | J13 I20 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tri:wpaper:1304&r=dem |
| By: | Bredtmann, Julia; Otten, Sebastian |
| Abstract: | Using data from the European Social Survey 2002-2011 covering immigrants in 26 European countries, this paper analyzes the impact of source- and host-country characteristics on female immigrant labor supply. We find that immigrant women’s labor supply in their host country is positively associated with the labor force participation rate in their source country, which serves as a proxy for the country’s preferences and beliefs regarding women’s roles. The effect of this cultural proxy on the labor supply of immigrant women is robust to controlling for spousal, parental, and a variety of source-country characteristics. This result suggests that the culture and norms of their source country play an important role for immigrant women’s labor supply. Moreover, we find evidence for a strong positive correlation between the host-country female labor force participation rate and female immigrant labor supply, suggesting that immigrant women assimilate to the work behavior of natives. |
| Keywords: | female labor force participation, immigration, cultural transmission |
| JEL: | J16 J22 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–01–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44544&r=dem |
| By: | René Böheim; Mario Lackner |
| Abstract: | We analyze if female athletes differ from male athletes in their competitive behavior, using data from high jump and pole vault competitions. We estimate if female athletes use risky strategies as often as male athletes and whether or nor their returns to risky strategies differ. Returns to risky strategies are identified via an instrumental variable approach where we use other athletes' declarations as instruments for individual risk taking. We find that women use risky strategies less often than men, although their returns are significantly greater than men's. We also find that women's returns to risky strategies do not differ between relatively low and relatively high risk situations, whereas male athletes' returns decrease in the level of risk. Our results show considerable differences between male and female professional athletes which are likely to be a lower bound of overall gender differences in risk-taking behavior. |
| Keywords: | Competition, gender differences, risk preferences |
| JEL: | J16 D81 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2013_05&r=dem |
| By: | Mahapatro, Sandhya Rani |
| Abstract: | The recent evidence from NSS reveals a decline in female labour force participation in India. The decline is difficult to explain in terms of economic variable as country is experiencing rapid economic changes. Perhaps age and cohort factors meaning that educational and time period advantages might be leading to postponement of labour market participation. The objective of the study is to investigate the declining trends in female labour force participation by sorting out the trends into age, period and cohort effect. To study this OLS regression model is used and the data for the study drawn from NSSO rounds. The findings suggest that age and period changes can account for a substantial decline in labour force participation though the importance of cohort is not undermined. Provision of higher education and creation of employment opportunities to younger cohorts of women will increase the labour force participation rate in near future. |
| Keywords: | Age, Period, Cohort, Labour, Female |
| JEL: | J1 |
| Date: | 2013–02–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44373&r=dem |
| By: | Booth, Alison L. (Australian National University); Cardona Sosa, Lina (University of Essex); Nolen, Patrick J. (University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of single-sex classes on the pass rates, grades, and course choices of students in a coeducational university. We randomly assign students to all-female, all-male, and coed classes and, therefore, get around the selection issues present in other studies on single-sex education. We find that one hour a week of single-sex education benefits females: females are 7% more likely to pass their first year courses and score 10% higher in their required second year classes than their peers attending coeducational classes. We find no effect of single-sex education on the probability that a female will take technical classes and there is no effect of single-sex education for males. Furthermore we are able to examine potential mechanisms driving the single-sex effect for females. We find that the results are consistent with a reduction in stereotype threat for females and are not due to a potential tracking effect. |
| Keywords: | single-sex, education, gender, experiment |
| JEL: | C91 C92 J16 J33 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7207&r=dem |
| By: | Blomeyer, Dorothea (ZI Mannheim); Coneus, Katja (ZEW Mannheim); Laucht, Manfred (ZI Mannheim); Pfeiffer, Friedhelm (ZEW Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the role of early life adversity and home resources in terms of competence formation and school achievement based on data from an epidemiological cohort study following 364 children from birth to adolescence. Results indicate that organic and psychosocial risks present in early life as well as the socio-emotional home environment are significant predictors for the formation of competencies. Competencies acquired at preschool age predict achievement at school age. A counterfactual analysis is performed to assess trade-offs in the timing of interventions in the early life cycle. |
| Keywords: | initial risk matrix, socio-emotional and economic home resources, intelligence, persistence, peer relationship, school achievement |
| JEL: | D87 I12 I21 J13 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7216&r=dem |
| By: | Edgar Vogel; Alexander Ludwig; Axel Börsch-Supan |
| Abstract: | Projected demographic changes in industrialized and developing countries vary in extent and timing but will reduce the share of the population in working age everywhere. Conventional wisdom suggests that this will increase capital intensity with falling rates of return to capital and increasing wages. This decreases welfare for middle aged agents with assets accumulated for retirement. This paper addresses three important adjustments channels to dampen these detrimental effects of ageing: investing abroad, endogenous human capital formation and increasing the retirement age. Although non of these suggestions is new in itself, we examine their effects jointly in one coherent model. Our quantitative finding is that openness has a relatively mild effect. In contrast, endogenous human capital formation in combination with an increase in the retirement age has strong effects. Under these adjustments maximum welfare losses of demographic change for households alive in 2010 are reduced by about 3 percentage points. |
| JEL: | C68 E17 E25 J11 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18856&r=dem |
| By: | Andrew Beath (Office of the Chief Economist for East Asia and the Pacific, World Bank); Fotini Christia (Department of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Ruben Enikolopov (Institute for Advanced Study and New Economic School) |
| Abstract: | In societies with widespread gender discrimination, development programs with gender quotas are considered a way to improve women’s economic, political, and social status. Using a randomized field experiment across 500 Afghan villages, we examine the effects of a development program that mandates women’s community participation. We find that even in a highly conservative context like Afghanistan, such initiatives improve female participation in some economic, social, and political activities, including increased mobility and income generation. They, however, produce no change in more entrenched female roles linked to family decision-making or in attitudes towards the general role of women in society. |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfr:cefirw:w0191&r=dem |
| By: | Katsushi S. Imai (Economics, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester (UK) and RIEB, Kobe University (Japan)); Takahiro Sato (Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration (RIEB), Kobe University, Japan) |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically investigates the determinants of fertility and their changes in recent years drawing upon large household data sets in India, namely National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data over the period 1992-2006. It is found that there is a negative and significant association between the number of children and parental education when we apply OLS, ordered logit and pseudo panel models, while in case of IV model only mother's literacy is negatively associated with the number of children. It is implied by the results of OLS and ordered logit models that households belonging to Scheduled Castes (SCs) tend to have more children than the rest. Our results suggest that policies of national and state governments to support social infrastructure, such as school at various levels and to promote both male and female education, particularly for households belonging to SCs, would be very important to reduce fertility and to speed down the population growth. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, Parental Education, Scheduled Caste, Social Backwardness, NFHS (National Family Health Survey), India, Asia |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2013-05&r=dem |
| By: | Ana Maria Osorio (Department of Econometrics, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. Department of Economics, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Cali, Colombi); Catalina Bolancé (Department of Econometrics, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.); Nyovane Madise (Division of Social Statistics and Centre for Global Health, Population, Poverty, and Policy, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom.); Katharina Rathmann (Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences (BGSS), Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.) |
| Abstract: | Contextual effects on child health have been investigated extensively in previous research. However, few studies have considered the interplay between community characteristics and individual-level variables. This study examines the influence of community education and family socioeconomic characteristics on child health (as measured by height and weight-for-age Z-scores), as well as their interactions. We adapted the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) framework to the context of child health. Using data from the 2010 Colombian Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), weighted multilevel models are fitted since the data are not self-weighting. The results show a positive impact of the level of education of other women in the community on child health, even after controlling for individual and family socioeconomic characteristics. Different pathways through which community education can substitute for the effect of family characteristics on child nutrition are found. The interaction terms highlight the importance of community education as a moderator of the impact of the mother’s own education and autonomy, on child health. In addition, the results reveal differences between height and weight-for-age indicators in their responsiveness to individual and contextual factors. Our findings suggest that community intervention programmes may have differential effects on child health. Therefore, their identification can contribute to a better targeting of child care policies. |
| Keywords: | Child health, community education, maternal education, cross-level interactions, Colombia |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xrp:wpaper:xreap2013-02&r=dem |
| By: | Bénédicte Apouey (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech - Ecole normale supérieure de Paris - ENS Paris - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA)); Pierre-Yves Geoffard (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech - Ecole normale supérieure de Paris - ENS Paris - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA)) |
| Abstract: | Recent studies examining the relationship between family income and child health in the UK have produced mixed findings. We re-examine the income gradient in child general health and its evolution with child age in this country, using a very large sample of British children. We find that there is no correlation between income and child general health at ages 0-1, that the gradient emerges around age 2 and is constant from age 2 to age 17. In addition, we show that the gradient remains large and significant when we try to address the endogeneity of income. Furthermore, our results indicate that the gradient in general health reflects a greater prevalence of chronic conditions among lowincome children and a greater severity of these conditions. Taken together, these findings suggest that income does matter for child health in the UK and may play a role in the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status. |
| Keywords: | Child health ; Family income ; Gradient |
| Date: | 2013–02–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-00794729&r=dem |
| By: | Kalle Hirvonen (Department of Economics, University of Sussex) |
| Abstract: | Chronic malnutrition during early childhood hinders growth and causes children to fall into a lower growth trajectory. In order to recover, children need to experience growth rates that are above the expected rate for their age. Several studies have analysed the extent of such catch-up growth by regressing adult height on early childhood height. In this paper, I show that these studies confuse catch-up growth with within-population convergence and are further plagued by a well-known statistical fallacy of regression-to-the-mean. This calls for a re-evaluation of the existing evidence. In the empirical part of the paper, I use data from the Philippines and the Kagera region in Tanzania to study catch-up growth. I find limited recovery in the Philippines cohort. In Kagera, almost 75 per cent of the children experience catch-up growth. The mean height-for-age z-score improves from -1.87 in early childhood to -1.20 by adulthood. Graphical analysis reveals that this catch-up growth takes place in puberty. |
| Keywords: | height, undernutrition, catch-up growth, children, African height puzzle |
| JEL: | I10 I12 J13 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sus:susewp:5913&r=dem |
| By: | Stijn BAERT (Ghent University); Bart COCKX (Ghent University, Université Catholique de Louvain (IRES), CESIfo and IZA) |
| Abstract: | This article decomposes the observed gaps in educational attainment and school-to-work transitions between grandchildren of natives and immigrants in Belgium into (i) differences in observed family endowments and (ii) a residual “pure ethnic gap”. It innovates by explicitly taking delays in educational attainment into account, by identifying the moments at which the pure ethnic gaps arise, by disentangling the decision to continue schooling at the end of a school year from the achievement within a particular grade, and by integrating the language spoken at home among observed family endowments. The pure ethnic gap in educational attainment is found to be small if delays are neglected, but substantial if not and for school-to-work transitions. It is shown that more than 20% of the pure ethnic gap in graduating from secondary school without delay originates in tenth grade. Language usage explains only part of the gap in school-to-work transitions for low educated. |
| Keywords: | dynamic discrete choice, dynamic selection bias, educational attainment, school-to-work transitions, ethnic minorities, discrimination |
| JEL: | C35 J15 J70 |
| Date: | 2013–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2013005&r=dem |
| By: | Freire, Tiago |
| Abstract: | In 1978, Singapore was the first country to introduce legislation allowing foreign domestic workers (e.g. maids) to work in the country with special visas. Singapore, with its liberal wage policy (no minimum wage), is also the best quasi-natural experiment in determining how a reduction in the cost of domestic work increases the supply of highly skilled female workers. Though Singapore is often cited in the literature as a success story, there are no studies that try to quantify the impact of this legislation. In this paper, we use data from the census conducted between 1957 and 1990, and Singapore's Yearbook of Manpower Statistics between 1974 and 1985, to evaluate the impact of the 1978 legislation in terms of increasing the labour supply of Singaporean women. We compare the female labour supply before and after 1978, for young and older women, high and low-skilled women, and Singaporean-Malay versus Singaporean-Chinese women. We find that the labour supply of women affected by this policy increased by between 2.7% and 12.7%, consistent with previous findings. |
| Keywords: | Gender; Labour Supply; Quasi-Natural Experiment; Singapore |
| JEL: | J16 J21 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–02–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44448&r=dem |
| By: | Mary Elisabeth Cox (St.Antony’s College, University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | At the beginning of the First World War, the British imposed a blockade against Germany intending to prevent all imports from entering the country. Germans began to call the British naval action the Hungerblockade, claiming that it seriously damaged the well-being of those on the home front, namely women and children, through lack of adequate nutrition. These German claims that Britain used hunger as a weapon of war against civilians have sometimes been dismissed as propaganda. However, newly discovered anthropometric measurements made of German school children during the war gives credence to German contentions that the blockade inflicted severe deprivation on children and other non-combatants. Further, these data show that the blockade exacerbated existing nutritional inequalities between children of different social classes; working class children suffered the most profound effects of nutritional deprivation during the war. Once the blockade ended however, working class children were the quickest to recover, regaining their pre-War standards in weight by 1921. They surpassed their own pre-War height standards by 1923, and approximated the weight of middle class children by 1924. This recovery of working class children is likely due to the outpouring of international aid targeted at poor German children. These data also indicate significant gender inequalities starting at age fourteen in nutritional status, with male adolescents suffering far greater deprivation from 1914-1924. |
| Date: | 2013–02–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nuf:esohwp:_110&r=dem |
| By: | Franz Westermaier; Brant Morefield; Andrea M. Mühlenweg |
| Abstract: | We examine how parental health shocks affect children’s non-cognitive skills. Based on a German mother-and-child data base, we draw on significant changes in self-reported parental health as an exogenous source of health variation to identify effects on outcomes for children at ages of three and six years. At the age of six, we observe that maternal health shocks in the previous three years have significant negative effects on children’s behavioral outcomes. The most serious of these maternal health shocks decrease the observed non-cognitive skills up to half a standard deviation. Paternal health does not robustly affect non-cognitive outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Human capital, health, non-cognitive skills |
| JEL: | I00 J24 I10 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp542&r=dem |
| By: | Rania Antonopoulos |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses social protection initiatives in the context of developing countries and explores the opportunities they present for promoting a gender-equality agenda and women's empowerment. The paper begins with a brief introduction on the emergence of social protection (SP) and how it is linked to economic and social policy. Next, it reviews the context, concepts, and definitions relevant to SP policies and identifies gender-specific social and economic risks and corresponding SP instruments, drawing on country-level experiences. The thrust of the paper is to explore how SP instruments can help or hinder the process of altering rigid gendered roles, and offers a critical evaluation of SP interventions from the standpoint of women’s inclusion in economic life. Conditional cash transfers and employment guarantee programs are discussed in detail. An extensive annotated bibliography accompanies this paper as a resource for researchers and practitioners. |
| Keywords: | Social Protection; Social Assistance; Gender; Women; Public Works Programs; Conditional Cash Transfers; Development; Employment Guarantee Programs; Social Protection Floor Initiative; Developing Countries |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J18 O1 O11 O15 O19 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_757&r=dem |
| By: | Nicole Bosch; Miriam Gielen; Egbert Jongen; Mauro Mastrogiacomo (DNB; CPB) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the labour supply elasticity for a large number of groups on the Dutch labour market. We exploit a large administrative household panel data set for the period 1999-2005. The idenfication of the parameters benefits from the large 2001 Dutch tax reform that led to substantial exogenous variation in household budget constraints. Read also the accompanying attachment below, with supplementary material. For couples we find that men have much smaller elasticities than women, in particular when children are present. Furthermore, cross elasticities of men's wages on women's labour supply in couples are non-negligible. When they are single, men and women have similar labour supply elasticities. The elasticity is relatively high for single parents with small children, but much lower for single parents with children in secondary school. Low skilled singles and single parents have much higher labour supply elasticities than their high skilled counterparts. Differences by skill are less pronounced for couples. For all groups, the decision whether to participate or not is much more responsive to nancial incentives than the hours per week decision. |
| JEL: | C25 C52 H31 J22 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:235&r=dem |
| By: | Kosse, Fabian (University of Bonn); Pfeiffer, Friedhelm (ZEW Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | This study explores the intergenerational transmission of time preferences and focuses on the question which specific aspects of mother's time preference are related to her preschool child's ability to delay gratification. We provide a new procedure for assessing the parameters of a "quasi-hyperbolic" discount function (Laibson, 1997) using two trade-off experiments. We apply the procedure to a sample of 213 mother-child pairs and show that especially mother's beta parameter is related to her preschool child's ability to delay gratification. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational transmission, time preference, quasi-hyperbolic discounting, preschool children |
| JEL: | D90 D10 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7221&r=dem |
| By: | Kumo, Kazuhiro |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hituec:42&r=dem |
| By: | Kilic, Talip; Palacios-Lopez, Amparo; Goldstein, Markus |
| Abstract: | In targeting poverty gains, sub-Saharan African governments have emphasized the alleviation of gender differences in agricultural productivity. The empirical studies on the gender gap, however, have frequently used data that were limited regarding geographic and topical coverage, and/or details on intra-household dynamics. The study provides a nationally-representative analysis of the gender gap in Malawi, and decomposes it, for the first time, at the mean and at selected points of the agricultural productivity distribution into (i) a portion driven by gender differences in levels of observable attributes (the endowment effect), and (ii) a portion driven by gender differences in returns to the same set of observables (the structure effect). Sequentially, the authors unpack the relative contributions of different factors towards the gender gap, and suggest future research priorities to inform policy interventions. The authors find that while female-managed plots are, on average, 25 percent less productive, 82 percent of this differential is explained by differences in endowments, mainly due to high-value crop cultivation and levels of household adult male labor inputs. The factors driving the structure effect include child dependency ratio and effectiveness of household adult male labor and inorganic fertilizer. The gender gap increases across the productivity distribution, ranging from 22 percent at the 10th percentile to 37 percent at the 90th percentile. While it is explained predominantly by the endowment effect in the first half of the distribution, the contribution of the structure effect towards the gender gap increases steadily above the median, standing at 34 percent at the 90th percentile. |
| Keywords: | Gender and Development,Housing&Human Habitats,Gender and Health,Rural Development Knowledge&Information Systems,Gender and Law |
| Date: | 2013–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6381&r=dem |
| By: | Yukinobu Kitamura |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the human growth (height and weight) pattern of babies born in January and July 2001, using the longitudinal survey of babies in 21st century conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The human growth is regressed on initial conditions (i.e. height and weight at the birth), economic conditions (i.e. amount of child care expenditure) and individual differences (male, female, and the date of birth). Panel analysis indicates that the fixed effect estimator is selected as the most appropriate descriptions of the data. This implies that the human growth is affected not only by initial and economic conditions but also by other individual specific elements such as parent's gene. We also identify the growth rate of height and weight per day is higher for those who were born smaller, i.e. human growth pattern follows a catch up mechanism. |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:ghsdps:gd12-278&r=dem |
| By: | Graziella Bertocchi; Monica Bozzano |
| Abstract: | We investigate the historical determinants of the education gender gap in Italy in the late nineteenth century, immediately following the country’s Unification. We use a comprehensive newly-assembled database including 69 provinces over twenty-year sub-samples covering the 1861-1901 period. We find robust evidence that female primary school attainment, relative to that of males, is positively associated with the medieval pattern of commerce, along the routes that connected Italian cities among themselves and with the rest of the world. The effect of medieval commerce is particularly strong at the non-compulsory upperprimary level and persists even after controlling for alternative long-term determinants reflecting the geographic, economic, political, and cultural differentiation of medieval Italy. The long-term influence of medieval commerce quickly dissipates after national compulsory primary schooling is imposed at Unification, suggesting that the channel of transmission was the larger provision of education for girls in commercial centers. |
| Keywords: | education gender gap, medieval commerce, Italian Unification, political institutions, family types; |
| JEL: | E02 H75 I25 J16 N33 O15 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:recent:088&r=dem |
| By: | Claudia Olivetti; M. Daniele Paserman |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a new perspective on intergenerational mobility in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. We devise an empirical strategy that allows to calculate intergenerational elasticities between fathers and children of both sexes. The key insight of our approach is that the information about socio-economic status conveyed by first names can be used to create a pseudo-link not only between fathers and sons, but also between fathers and daughters. The latter is typically not possible with historical data. We find that the father-son elasticity in economic status grows throughout the sample period. Intergenerational elasticities for daughters follow a broadly similar trend, but with some differences in timing. We argue that most of the increase in the intergenerational elasticity estimate in the early part of the 20th Century can be accounted for by the vast regional disparities in economic development, with increasing returns to human capital contributing to explain the residual. Other mechanisms such as changes in fertility, migration, and investment in public schooling, appear to have had only a minor role in explaining the trends. |
| JEL: | J11 J62 N31 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18822&r=dem |
| By: | David N. Figlio; Jonathan Guryan; Krzysztof Karbownik; Jeffrey Roth |
| Abstract: | We make use of a new data resource, merged birth and school records for all children born in Florida from 1992 to 2002, to study the effects of birth weight on cognitive development from kindergarten through schooling. Using twin fixed effects models, we find that the effects of birth weight on cognitive development are essentially constant through the school career; that these effects are very similar across a wide range of family backgrounds; and that they are invariant to measures of school quality. We conclude that the effects of poor neonatal health on adult outcomes are therefore set very early. |
| JEL: | I14 I20 I24 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18846&r=dem |
| By: | Josep-Oriol Escardíbul (University of Barcelona & IEB); Toni Mora (Universitat Internacional de Catalunya & IEB) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the impact of teacher gender towards students’ test results in a blinded Math test administered to students in Catalonia (Spain). The data for this analysis are drawn from a sample of secondary school students who participated in an international blind-test known as the “Mathematical Kangaroo” in 2008. The estimation considers a two-stage procedure since participation on the test leads to the presence of sample selection. Results show a correlation between female teacher gender and student results. Moreover, students with female teachers have a higher probability of participating in the “Kangaroo” test (in this case, the effect being more marked among male students). |
| Keywords: | Grading, teacher gender, two-stage procedure, gender stereotypes |
| JEL: | I28 J16 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:2013/6/doc2013-7&r=dem |
| By: | Youyou BAENDE BOFOTA (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an empirical analysis of the relationship between social capital and children’ educational outcomes in Tanzania, using panel data from the Kagera Health and Development Survey (KHDS). By exploiting the panel structure of the data, we use several econometric techniques - fixed effect, first difference and 2SLS - to address social capital endogeneity issue and omitted variable bias. We find evidence that social capital available in the family affects significantly student attainment and that the magnitudes are large enough to explain a substantial proportion of variation in children schooling in Tanzania in the short term. More importantly, this positive impact lasts over the long term. |
| Keywords: | Social capital, Education, Developing countries, Tanzania |
| Date: | 2013–02–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2013003&r=dem |
| By: | Björn Alecke; Claudia Burgard; Timo Mitze |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effects of tuition fees on the university enrollment and location decision of high school graduates in Germany. After a Federal Constitutional Court decision in 2005, 7 out of 16 German federal states introduced tuition fees for higher education. In the empirical analysis, we use the variation over time and across regions in this institutional change in order to isolate the causal effect of tuition fees on student enrollment and migration. Controlling for a range of regional- and university-specific effects, our results from Difference-in-Differences estimations show that there is generally no effect of tuition fees on internal enrollment rates. However, we find a redirecting effect on first-year students‘ migratory behavior as indicated by a signicant drop in the gross in-migration rates in fee-charging states. Further, our results point at a stronger migration response of male students, which, however, can mainly be attributed to a “border effect”. That is, interregional migration flows of male students are redirected from fee-charging universities to those universities that are geographically close by while being located in a non-charging neighboring state. Controlling for these border effects, the relocating trend in long-distance migration of university freshmen does not show any particular gender differences. |
| Keywords: | Tuition fees; gender differences; higher education; student migration; policy evaluation; Difference-in-Differences |
| JEL: | D04 I23 J16 R23 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0404&r=dem |
| By: | Gerke, Oke (Department of Business and Economics); Lauridsen, Jørgen T. (Department of Business and Economics) |
| Abstract: | This study aimed at determining the factors of early retirement in Denmark by making use of longitudinal panel data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). The outcome variable of interest was the self-assessed employment situation at the time of the interview. The binary outcome retired/not retired was regressed on covariate data from the preceding wave, thereby modeling potential factors contributing to a later decision to retire. There were 651 eligible observations, of which 160 (24.6%) participants took early retirement. The strongest factors encouraging early retirement were unemployment, inadequate support in difficult work situations, the use of drugs the week before the interview (for high cholesterol, high blood pressure and other medical conditions), and the existence of grandchildren, whereas greater reluctance to retire early was found in participants who had a chronic illness or disability, a feeling of sadness or depression during the month before the interview, at least one natural parent still alive, higher expectations of the government raising the retirement age, and better grip strength. |
| Keywords: | Denmark; early retirement; working conditions; health; social networks; pensions |
| JEL: | C20 C23 J20 J21 J22 J26 J28 |
| Date: | 2013–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sdueko:2013_004&r=dem |
| By: | Pfeiffer, Friedhelm (ZEW Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | Manifold childhood impressions result from the interactions with adult caregivers and the environment. These impressions, be they beneficial or detrimental, shape individual skill formation and achievement over the life cycle. The novelty of the paper is that it bonds two different, hitherto separated, research lines, one from economics, one from psychology, to discuss the relationship between childhood impressions and later achievement. First, selected recent findings on early life adversity and skill formation are presented. Second, a tool for improving self-regulation, called implementations intentions, is introduced, which may have the power to counteract negative childhood impressions later in live. The attempt to integrate the two approaches results in a discussion of unsettled questions and an outlook for future research. |
| Keywords: | early life adversity, implementation intentions, life cycle, skill formation |
| JEL: | D87 I12 I21 J13 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7217&r=dem |
| By: | Bruce D. Meyer; Wallace K.C. Mok |
| Abstract: | Using longitudinal data for 1968-2009 for male household heads, we determine the prevalence of pre- retirement age disability and its association with a wide range of outcomes, including earnings, income, and consumption. We then employ some of these quantities in the optimal social insurance framework of Chetty (2006) to study current compensation for the disabled. Six of our findings stand out. First, disability rates are high. We divide the disabled along two dimensions based on the persistence and severity of their work-limiting condition. We estimate that a person reaching age 50 has a 36 percent chance of having been disabled at least temporarily once during his working years, and a 9 percent chance that he has begun a chronic and severe disability. Second, the economic consequences of disability are frequently profound. Ten years after disability onset, a person with a chronic and severe disability on average experiences a 79 percent decline in earnings, a 35 percent decline in after-tax income, a 24 percent decline in food and housing consumption and a 22 percent decline in food consumption. Third, economic circumstances differ sharply across disability groups. The outcome decline for the chronically and severely disabled is often more than twice as large as that for the average disabled head. Fourth, our findings show the partial and incomplete roles that individual savings, family support and social insurance play in reducing the consumption drop that follows disability. Fifth, time use and detailed consumption data further indicate that disability is associated with a decline in well-being. Sixth, using the quantities we have estimated, we provide the range of behavioral elasticities and preference parameters consistent with current disability compensation being optimal within the Chetty framework. |
| JEL: | H53 H55 I3 J22 J26 J68 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18869&r=dem |
| By: | Ana Rute Cardoso; Paulo Guimarães; Pedro Portugal |
| Abstract: | Earlier literature on the gender pay gap has taught us that occupations matter and so do firms. However, the role of the firm has received little scrutiny; occupations have most often been coded in a rather aggregate way, lumping together different jobs; and the use of samples of workers prevents any reliable determination of either the extent of segregation or the relative importance of access to firms versus occupations. Our contribution is twofold. We provide a clear measure of the impact of the allocation of workers to firms and to job titles shaping the gender pay gap. We also provide a methodological contribution that combines the estimation of sets of high-dimensional fixed effects and Gelbach's (2009) unambiguous decomposition of the conditional gap. We find that one fifth of the gender pay gap results from segregation of workers across firms and one fifth from job segregation. We also show that the widely documented glass ceiling effect operates mainly through worker allocation to firms rather than occupations. |
| JEL: | J31 J16 J24 J71 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ptu:wpaper:w201302&r=dem |
| By: | Elena Bárcena-Martín (Dpto. Estadística y Econometría, University of Málaga.); Ana I. Moro Egido (Department of Economic Theory and Economic History, University of Granada.) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates to what extent differences in population and structural characteristics between countries can explain country differences with respect to the gender effect on poverty. Our study aims to advance research on the structural dimension in the predominantly individually-oriented study field of poverty. To facilitate an approach that integrates individual and structural context dimensions we take advantage of multilevel techniques to test differences among a large number of countries regarding the effect of the gender gap on the risk of being poor, entering into poverty, and exiting from poverty. We use the European Union Survey on Income and Living Conditions for the years 2007-2008. From our analyses, we conclude that structural effects seem to be more relevant than individual effects in explaining country differences with regard to the gender poverty gap. |
| Keywords: | Student Satisfaction, College Graduates, Higher Education, Part-time Student, Employment Status |
| JEL: | E62 H26 |
| Date: | 2013–01–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gra:wpaper:13/02&r=dem |
| By: | Peter Jarnebrant (ESMT European School of Management and Technology); Kristian Ove R. Myrseth (ESMT European School of Management and Technology) |
| Abstract: | We explore mortality beliefs by eliciting individual-level belief distributions for participants’ remaining lifespan. Across two independent samples, from Germany and the USA, we find that individuals—while accurately forecasting their life expectancy—substantially overestimate the likelihood of dying young (<50 years) and overestimate the likelihood of reaching very old age (>100 years). In other words, the modes of the belief distributions are relatively accurate, but the tails of the belief distributions are significantly ‘fatter’ than the corresponding tails of distributions obtained from demographic data. Our results are robust to variations in belief elicitation techniques, and to assumptions underlying normative longevity forecasts. The results have implications for a range of questions of economic behavior—including intertemporal choice, consumption smoothing, saving, and risk management. |
| Keywords: | mortality, beliefs, risk perception, judgment |
| Date: | 2013–02–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esm:wpaper:esmt-13-03&r=dem |
| By: | Claudio Lucifora (DISCE, Università Cattolica) |
| Abstract: | Il ruolo dei valori familiari nel determinare gli esiti economici e sociali è molto dibattuta all’interno delle scienze sociali. Un filone della letteratura individua nei legami familiari un freno allo sviluppo economico e alla diffusione di valori civici all’interno dei membri di una società (il cosiddetto “familismo amorale”). Una visione alternativa individua nei legami familiari un fattore importante per la formazione del “capitale sociale” su cui le società fondano i valori civici e le istituzioni politiche. In questo contesto, i legami familiari e l’appartenenza degli individui ad una rete di relazioni di parentela con altri componenti del clan familiare, rafforzando la creazione di valori sociali e culturali, favoriscono il funzionamento economico e scoraggiano comportamenti opportunistici o di free riding rispetto al bene pubblico. Questo lavoro rivisita la letteratura teorica ed empirica sul ruolo della famiglia e dei legami familiari nel contesto economico. |
| Keywords: | famiglia, welfare, dottrina sociale della Chiesa |
| JEL: | J12 J13 I31 I38 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie3:ief0107&r=dem |
| By: | Afridi, Farzana (Indian Statistical Institute); Iversen, Vegard (University of Manchester); Sharan, M.R. (Jameel Poverty Action Lab (JPAL)) |
| Abstract: | We use the nation-wide policy of randomly allocating village council headships to women to identify the impact of female political leadership on the governance of projects implemented under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in India. Using primary survey data, we find more program inefficiencies and leakages in village councils reserved for women heads: political and administrative inexperience make such councils more vulnerable to bureaucratic capture. When using a panel of audit reports, governance improves as female leaders accumulate experience. These results suggest that female political leadership may generate gains in governance but only after the initial, gendered disadvantages recede. Our findings highlight capacity building as necessary for bolstering the effectiveness of political quotas for women. |
| Keywords: | political reservations, gender, NREGA, India |
| JEL: | P26 I38 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7212&r=dem |
| By: | Christophe Muller (AMSE - Aix-Marseille School of Economics - Aix-Marseille Univ. - Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole Centrale Marseille (ECM)); Marc Vothknecht (DIW Berlin - German Institute for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of violent conflict on social capital, as measured by citizen participation in community groups, defined by four activity types: governance, social service, infrastructure development and risk-sharing. Combining household panel data from Indonesia with conflict event information, we find an overall decrease in citizen contributions in districts affected by group violence in the early post-Suharto transition period. However, participation in communities with a high degree of ethnic polarization is less affected, and is even stimulated for local governance and risk-sharing activities. Moreover, individual engagement appears to depend on the involvement of other members from the same ethnic group, which points toward building of intra-ethnic social networks in the presence of violence. Finally, our results show the danger of generalization when dealing with citizen participation in community activities. We find a large variety of responses depending on the activity and its economic and social functions. We also find large observed and unobserved individual heterogeneities of the effect of violence on participation. Once an appropriate nomenclature of activities is used and controls for heterogeneity are applied, we find that the ethnic and social configuration of society is central in understanding citizen participation. |
| Keywords: | Violent Conflict; Citizen Participation; Local Public Goods |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00796194&r=dem |
| By: | Dahlberg, Matz (Uppsala University); Edmark, Karin (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Lundqvist, Helene (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 insignificant 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 between 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 I30 Z13 |
| Date: | 2013–02–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0955&r=dem |