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on Demographic Economics |
|
Issue of 2013‒04‒13
forty papers chosen by Clarence Nkengne Tsimpo University of Montreal and World Bank Group |
| By: | John Kennes (Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University); John Knowles (University of Southampton) |
| Abstract: | We develop a new directed-search model of fertility and marriage, and apply it to two empirical problems: the rise in unmarried women’s share of births since 1970, and the fact that black women have lower marriage rates and higher rates of unmarried births than white women. The premise is that weaker marriage-market prospects may be strong enough to explain higher unmarried birth rates. Relative to the existing literature, the essential contributions of the model are to allow for accumulation of children over the lifecycle and for the marriage of single mothers. We use the model, in conjunction with US survey data, to explore the impact of marital prospects on the fertility decisions of unmarried women. We find that the decline, from the 1970s to 1995, in marriage rates of unmarried women with no children, can account for the dramatic rise in unmarried women’s share of births over that period. Contrary to the “Wilson hypothesis”, we find that male scarcity cannot account for the black-white gap in marriage rates in the 1970s. |
| Keywords: | Two-Sided Search, Irreversible Investments, Divorce, Family, Family Economics, Household Formation, Marriage Rates, Premarital Sex, Single Mothers, Fertility |
| JEL: | D10 E13 J12 J22 O11 |
| Date: | 2013–04–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2013-06&r=dem |
| By: | John Kennes (Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University); John Knowles (University of Southampton) |
| Abstract: | By reducing the risk of unwanted parenthood, more effective contraception reduces the cost of sex outside of marriage, increasing the value of single life. Could this explain why marriage and birth rates declined in the U.S. after 1970?. We illustrate our hypothesis with a one-period example. We then extend the analysis to allow for repeated matching over many periods, modeling the shotgun-marriage, contraception- method and abortion margins. We use US survey data on contraception, sexual activity and family dynamics to calibrate the model for the 1970s, and then compute the effects of liberalizing access to contraception and abortion. The results suggest the hypothesis can explain 60% of the behavioral shifts associated with the sexual revolution. |
| Keywords: | Two-Sided Search, Family, Family Economics, Household Formation, Marriage, Marriage Rate, Premarital, Single Mother, Single Parent, Fertility |
| JEL: | D10 E13 J12 J22 O11 |
| Date: | 2013–04–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2013-07&r=dem |
| By: | Felfe, Christina; Lalive, Rafael |
| 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: | I21 I38 J13 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9274&r=dem |
| By: | Frank, Kristyn<br /> Hou, Feng |
| Abstract: | Canadian immigrants come from a range of source countries which vary considerably in gender roles. Examining gender roles is therefore valuable in determining whether cultural norms continue to influence labour activities after immigrants have been exposed to the new environment of their host country. This study focuses on the "portability" of gender roles for immigrant women; that is, it examines whether source-country gender roles continue to influence immigrant families' labour and housework activities after arrival in Canada. |
| Keywords: | Ethnic diversity and immigration, Education, training and learning, Society and community, Education, training and skills, Outcomes of education, Women and gender |
| Date: | 2013–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2013349e&r=dem |
| By: | John P. Conley; Ali Sina Onder; Benno Torgler |
| Abstract: | Using life cycle publication data of 9,368 economics PhD graduates from 127 U.S. institutions, we investigate how unemployment in the U.S. economy prior to starting graduate studies and at the time of entry into the academic job market affect economics PhD graduates’ research productivity. We analyze the period between 1987 and 1996 and find that favorable conditions at the time of academic job search have a positive effect on research productivity (measured in numbers of publications) for both male and female graduates. On the other hand, unfavorable employment conditions at the time of entry into graduate school affects female research productivity negatively, but male productivity positively. These findings are consistent with the notion that men and women differ in their perception of risk in high skill occupations. In the specific context of research-active occupations that require high skill and costly investment in human capital, an ex post poor return on undergraduate educational investment may cause women to opt for less risky and secure occupations while men seem more likely to “double down” on their investment in human capital. Further investigation, however, shows that additional factors may also be at work. |
| Keywords: | Research Productivity, Human Capital, Graduate Education, Gender Differences |
| JEL: | J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–03–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qut:qubewp:wp006&r=dem |
| By: | Artinger, Sabrina; Schade, Christian |
| Abstract: | We experimentally investigate gender- and occupation-specific differences in market entry behavior and test whether female entrepreneurs are more willing to take strategic risk and engage in competition than other women. To facilitate strategic thinking, we induce asymmetric gain and loss experiences. We find that female entrepreneurs react to own gains and losses like other women and to opponents’ experiences like male entrepreneurs. Overall entry of female entrepreneurs is much lower than that of male entrepreneurs and does not differ from other women indicating that also female entrepreneurs dislike strategic competition. Risk aversion does not to account for this finding. |
| Keywords: | gender differences, entrepreneurship, occupational choice, gain and loss experiences, Labor and Human Capital, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, D03, L26, |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:huscpw:146511&r=dem |
| By: | Cervellati, Matteo; Sunde, Uwe |
| 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: | adult mortality; child mortality; comparative development; development traps; economic and demographic transition; heterogeneous human capital; quantitative analysis; unified growth model |
| JEL: | E10 J10 J13 N30 O10 O40 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9337&r=dem |
| By: | Fouarge D.; Künn-Nelen A.C.; Grip A. de (ROA) |
| Abstract: | This paper is the first that analyzes the relation between maternal work hours and the cognitive outcomes of young school-going children. When children attend school, the potential time working mothers miss out with their children, is smaller than when children do not yet attend school. At the same time, working might benefit children through, for example, greater family income. Our study is highly relevant for public policy as in most countries maternal employment rates rise when children enter school. We find no negative relation between maternal working hours and child outcomes as is often found for pre-school aged children. Instead, we find that children’s sorting test score is higher when their mothers work part-time (girls) or full-time (boys). Furthermore, we find that planned parent-child activities are positively related to children’s language test scores. Nevertheless, we do not find that a richer home environment in terms of the number of parent-child activities provided to the child explain the relation between maternal work hours and children’s test scores. |
| Keywords: | Household Behavior: General; |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2013007&r=dem |
| By: | Ciliberto, Federico; Miller, Amalia; Skyt Nielsen, Helena; Simonsen, Marianne |
| Abstract: | We study workplace peer effects in fertility decisions using a game theory model of strategic interactions among coworkers that allows for multiple equilibria. Using register-based data on fertile-aged women working in medium sized establishments in Denmark, we uncover negative average peer effects. Allowing for heterogeneous effects by worker type, we find that positive effects dominate across worker types defined by age or education. Negative effects dominate within age groups and among low-education types. Policy simulations show that these estimated effects make the distribution of where women work an important consideration, beyond simply if they work, in predicting population fertility. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, peer effects, career-family conflict, workplace interactions, multiple equilibria |
| JEL: | C3 J1 |
| Date: | 2013–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45914&r=dem |
| By: | Leombruni Roberto; Mosca Michele (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | In Italy large work career gender gaps currently ex ist, particularly regarding wages and activity rates. This paper investigates the issue looking at lifetime incomes, where from the one side all the career gaps are sum med up, from the other the redistribution acted by the pension system may mitigate the differences. Exploiting an original database on entire work careers, we document how the pay gap constantly widens with age and how women tend to cumulate a lower number of eligible working years. Both gaps have an impact on the pension calculation, so that at retirement gender differences are even higher. By means of a microsimulation model we show that the pension system partially countervails labour market outcomes, implying lower differences in lifetime in comes. However, due to the current transition to an actuarially neutral system, the effect will vanish, posing some concerns about the future prospects of gender income inequality |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:201302&r=dem |
| By: | Fouarge D.; Grip A. de; Montizaan R.M. (ROA) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the causal effects of the announcement of an increase in the statutory pension age on employee retirement expectations. In June 2010, the Dutch government signed a new pension agreement with the employer and employee organizations that entailed an increase in the statutory pension age from 65 currently to 66 in 2020 for all inhabitants born after 1954. Given the expected increase in average life expectancy, it was also decided that in 2025 the pension age would be further increased to 67 for those born after 1959. This new pension agreement received huge media coverage. Using representative matched administrative and survey data of public sector employees, we find that the proposed policy reform increased the expected retirement age by 3.6 months for employees born between 1954 and 1959 and by 10.8 months for those born after 1959. This increase is reflected in a clear shift in the retirement peak from age 65 to ages 66 and 67 for the respective treated cohorts. Men respond less strongly to the policy reform than women, but within couples we find no evidence that the retirement expectations of one spouse are affected by an increase in the statutory pension age of the other. Furthermore, we show that treatment effects are largely driven by highly educated individuals but are lower for employees whose job involves physically demanding tasks or managerial and supervisory tasks. |
| Keywords: | Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-labor Market Discrimination; |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2013006&r=dem |
| By: | Jaap Dronkers (University of Maastricht); Nils Kornder (University of Maastricht) |
| Abstract: | We try to explain the differences between the performance (in both reading and math) of 8430 15-year-old daughters and 8526 15-year-old sons in 17 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development destination countries across Europe and Oceania with the PISA 2009 data from 45 origin countries or regions. In addition to the level of societal gender equality of the origin and destination countries (the gender empowerment measure, or GEM) we use macro indicators of the educational systems, economic development, and religions of the countries of origin. We find that migrant daughters from countries with higher levels of gender equality have higher reading scores than comparable migrant sons (but this is not the case for math scores). In addition, the higher the level of gender equality in the destination countries, the lower the reading and math scores of both the male and female migrants’ children in their destination countries. Further analyses suggest that the difference between the levels of gender equality, rather than the levels themselves, of the origin and destination countries explains more of the educational performance of both female and male migrant pupils. Our results also show that the low level of gender equality in Islamic origin countries is a sufficient explanation of the low educational performance of Islam male and female migrants’ pupils. Finally, migrants’ daughters seem to perform slightly better educationally than comparable migrants’ sons. |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1307&r=dem |
| By: | Matthias Giesecke; Michael Kind |
| Abstract: | This study examines an increase in the early retirement age from 60 to 63 for the group of older unemployed men in Germany. As consequence of this policy reform, the time to retirement is increased from the perspective of recently unemployed individuals and therefore serves as a source of exogenous variation. We estimate continuous time hazard models for individuals at risk of leaving the state unemployment into employment or into early retirement due to exceptional rules. We find a positive impact of an increase in the early retirement age on the reemployment probability whereas the probability to retire early due to exceptional rules is not affected. |
| Keywords: | Labour supply; retirement behaviour; old age unemployment; duration analysis |
| JEL: | J14 J26 J64 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0410&r=dem |
| By: | Cervellati, Matteo; Sunde, Uwe |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the role of life expectancy for optimal schooling and lifetime labor supply. The results of a simple prototype Ben-Porath model with age-specific survival rates show that an increase in lifetime labor supply is not a necessary, nor a sufficient, condition for greater life expectancy to increase optimal schooling. The observed increase in survival rates during working ages that follows from the ``rectangularization'' of the survival function is crucial for schooling and labor supply. The empirical results suggest that the relative benefits of schooling have been increasing across cohorts of US man born 1840-1930. A simple quantitative analysis shows that a realistic shift in the survival function can lead to an increase in schooling and a reduction in lifetime labor hours. |
| Keywords: | Life Expectancy; Lifetime Labor Supply; Longevity; Rectangularization of the Survival Function; Schooling |
| JEL: | E20 J22 J24 J26 O11 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9399&r=dem |
| By: | Olivetti, Claudia; Paserman, M. Daniele |
| 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 socioeconomic 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. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational Mobility; Marriage |
| JEL: | J11 J62 N31 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9372&r=dem |
| By: | Edward C. Norton; Lauren Hersch Nicholas; Sean Sheng-Hsiu Huang |
| Abstract: | Informal care is the largest source of long-term care for elderly, surpassing home health care and nursing home care. By definition, informal care is unpaid. It remains a puzzle why so many adult children give freely of their time. Transfers of time to the older generation may be balanced by financial transfers going to the younger generation. This leads to the question of whether informal care and inter-vivos transfers are causally related. We analyze data from the 1999 and 2003 waves of National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women. We examine whether the elderly parents give more inter-vivos monetary transfers to adult children who provide informal care, by examining both the extensive and intensive margins of financial transfers and of informal care. We find statistically significant results that a child who provides informal care is more likely to receive inter-vivos transfers than a sibling who does not. If a child does provide care, there is no statistically significant effect on the amount of the transfer. |
| JEL: | I10 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18948&r=dem |
| By: | Bertocchi, Graziella; Bozzano, Monica |
| 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 upper-primary 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; family types.; Italian Unification; medieval commerce; political institutions |
| JEL: | E02 H75 I25 J16 N33 O15 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9359&r=dem |
| By: | Vincenzo Atella (University of Rome "Tor Vergata"); Partha Deb (Hunter College and the Graduate Center) |
| Abstract: | This article examines the long term physical and mental health effects of internal migration. We use data from Italy that allows us to study a relatively unique migration experience from Southern and Northeastern regions of Italy to Northwestern ones and to the region around Rome concentrated over a relatively short period from 1950-1970. We distinguish between impacts on women and men and between "early" and "late" migrants. We use finite mixture models to account for heterogeneity in the effects of migration and find that there is a statistically significant and substantial improvement in physical and mental health for rural migrant females. In addition, for these women the effect can be attributed to better living conditions at the destination and not due to selection. Even with the finite mixture models, we find no evidence of migration-health effects for the later cohort, nor for males in the early cohort. Finally, we do not find evidence of selection effect. |
| Keywords: | Health status, Migration decisions, Finite Mixture models, Italy. |
| JEL: | C23 I11 L23 |
| Date: | 2013–03–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:269&r=dem |
| By: | Cecilia García-Peñalosa (Aix Marseille University (Aix Marseille School of Economics), Cnrs and Ehess); Maty Konte (Aix Marseille University (Aix Marseille School of Economics), Cnrs and Ehess) |
| Abstract: | A substantial literature has examined the determinants of support for democracy and although existing work has found a gender gap in democratic attitudes, there have been no attempts to explain it. In this paper we try to understand why females are less supportive of democracy than males in a number of countries. Using data for 20 Sub-Saharan African countries, we test whether the gap is due to individual differences in policy priorities or to country-wide characteristics. We find that controlling for individual policy priorities does not offset the gender gap, but those women who are interested in politics are more democratic than men. Furthermore, our results indicate that the gap disappears in countries with high levels of human development and political rights. |
| Keywords: | Support for democracy, gender gap, policy priorities, institutions |
| JEL: | D01 J16 O38 O55 |
| Date: | 2013–03–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:1319&r=dem |
| By: | Ismael Rodriguez-Lara (ERICES, Universidad de Valencia) |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that women are more likely than men to employ the fair allocation that most benefits their financial payoff. The experimental evidence is gleaned from a dictator game with production, in which subjects first solve a quiz to accumulate earnings and then divide the surplus by choosing one over five different allocations, some of which represent a fairness ideal. The data also suggest that women are more sensitive to the context as their allocation choices depend on whether they have accumulated more or less money than their counterparts. This is not the case for men’s allocation choices |
| Keywords: | gender differences, distributive justice, fairness ideals, self-serving choices, experimental economics, dictator game with production |
| JEL: | C91 D30 D64 J16 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbe:wpaper:0213&r=dem |
| By: | Eckstein, Zvi; Lifshitz, Osnat |
| Abstract: | Changing social norms, as reflected in the interactions between spouses, are hypothesized to affect the employment rates of married women. A model is built in order to estimate this effect, in which the employment of married men and women is the outcome of an internal household game. The type of the household game is exogenously determined as either Classical or Modern. In the former type of household, the spouses play a Stackelberg leader game in which the wife’s labor supply decision is based on her husband’s employment outcome while the latter type of household is characterized by a symmetric and simultaneous game that determines the spouses’ joint labor supply as Nash equilibrium. Females in Modern households are predicted to have higher employment rates than women in Classical households if they have narrower labor market opportunities and/or higher relative risk aversion. The household type is exogenously determined when the couple gets married and is treated as unobserved heterogeneity. The model is estimated using the Simulated Moments Method (SMM) and data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) survey for the years 1983-93. The estimated model provides a good fit to the trends in employment rates and wages. We estimate that 38 percent of households are Modern and that the participation rate of women in those households is almost 80 percent, which is about 10 higher than in Classical households. Meanwhile, the employment rate among men is almost identical in the two types of household. |
| Keywords: | dynamic discrete choice; household game; household labor supply |
| JEL: | E24 J2 J3 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9258&r=dem |
| By: | Barasinska, Nataliya; Schäfer, Dorothea |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether the willingness to take investment risk is a sex-linked trait and link the results to the country's gender equality regime. Our empirical analysis involves household data on financial asset holdings as well as on self-reported risk tolerance for Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. Of those countries, Italy is by far the country with the greatest degree of gender inequality according to the 2009 Global Gender Gap Report. Two stages of building a portfolio of financial assets are analyzed. For the first-stage decision of whether to invest in risky assets in the first place, gender is found to have no effect in Austria, the Netherlands and Spain but does have an impact in Italy. However, even for Italy, it seems to be irrelevant in the second-stage decision about the share of wealth invested in the risky assets. We infer from these findings that, for countries with a high degree of gender equality, it is inappropriate to base financial advice primarily on gender. -- |
| Keywords: | gender,risk aversion,financial behavior |
| JEL: | G11 J16 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:bubdps:052013&r=dem |
| By: | Ribar, David C. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Nest-leaving—the transition of young adults from their parents’ homes to other living arrangements—is a major life-course milestone. Although the causes of nest-leaving have been extensively researched, only a few studies have examined the changes in young adults’ own assessments of their well-being that immediately precede and follow these transitions. This study uses the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey to document the trajectories of financial hardships, food consumption, and other well-being outcomes among Australians who left their parents’ homes between the ages of 18 and 25 years. The study estimates multivariate fixed-effects models that compare outcomes before and after nest-leaving transitions to mitigate the effects of confounding characteristics. Men and women report increased financial hardships in the years that they leave home and in the first few years that follow. In particular, men and women both report more frequently going without meals and needing to ask friends and family for financial help. Women additionally report more frequently missing utility and housing payments. |
| Keywords: | Youths; Nest-leaving; Financial Hardships; Nutrition |
| JEL: | J12 J13 |
| Date: | 2013–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2013_003&r=dem |
| By: | Colombino Ugo; Narazani Edlira (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | We use a microeconometric model of household labour supply in order to evaluate, with Italian data, the behavioural and welfare effects of gender based taxation (GBT) as compared to other policies based on different optimal taxation princi ples. The comparison is interesting because GBT, although technically correct, might face implementation difficulties not shared by other policies that in turn might produce comparable bene fits. The simulation procedure accounts for the constraints implied by fiscal neutrality and market equilibrium. Our results support to some extent the expectations of GBT’s proponents. Howeve r it is not an unquestionable success. GBT induces a modest increase of women’s employment, bu t similar effects can be attained by universal subsidies on low wages. When the policies are evaluated in terms of welfare, GBT ranks first among single women but for the whole population the best policies are subsidies on low wages, unconditional transfers or a combination of the two |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:201212&r=dem |
| By: | Marco Castillo (Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science and Department of Economics, George Mason University); Gregory Leo (Department of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara); Ragan Petrie (Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science and Department of Economics, George Mason University) |
| Abstract: | We present clean evidence of a direct social context effect on behavior in a laboratory experiment: the gender composition of the room significantly alters the risk decisions of subjects even when the actions or presence of others are neither payoff nor information relevant. Our design is such that subjects do not know the decisions of others, nor can they be inferred. We find that women become more risk taking as the proportion of men in the group increases. This is most consistent with women imitating the expected behavior of others in the session. Our results imply that aggregate behavior is not a simple extrapolation of individual preferences. Groups might have more extreme behavior than the average individual. Length: 27 |
| Keywords: | gender, context effect, risk aversion, experiment |
| JEL: | C91 D81 J16 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gms:wpaper:1040&r=dem |
| By: | Kandpal, Eeshani; Baylis, Kathy; Arends-Kuenning, Mary |
| Abstract: | This paper uses primary data from rural north India to show that participation in a community-level female empowerment program significantly increases access to employment, physical mobility, and political participation. The program provides support groups, literacy camps, adult education classes, and vocational training for rural women in several states of India; the data are from Uttarakhand. The paper uses instrumental variables and truncation-corrected matching on primary data to disentangle the program's mechanisms, separately considering its effect on women who work, and those who do not work but whose reservation wage is increased by participation. The analysis also finds significant spillover effects on non-participants relative to women in untreated districts. It finds consistent estimates for average treatment and intent to treat effects |
| Keywords: | Gender and Law,Population Policies,Primary Education,Social Accountability,Anthropology |
| Date: | 2013–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6399&r=dem |
| By: | Williamson, Jeffrey G |
| Abstract: | This paper revisits demographic dividend issues after almost two decades of debate. In 1998, David Bloom and Jeffrey Williamson used a convergence model to estimate the impact of demographic-transition-driven age structure effects and calculated what the literature has come to call the demographic dividend. How do estimates based on these naïve convergence models compare with subsequent and competing OLG models? How much of the (first) demographic dividend is simply a labor participation rate effect, and how much a true growth effect? If there are growth effects, how much of this is based on accelerating human capital accumulation induced by demand side quality-quantity Becker trade-offs versus a co-movement between demographic transitions and exogenous schooling supply side revolutions? Emigration has passed through life cycles much like the demographic transition, and with similar (but lagged) timing. Has emigration actually been driven in part by demography? Has emigration wasted some of the demographic dividend by brain drain? Have within-country rural-urban migrations been driven in part by demographic transitions with different spatial timing? Finally, what has been the lifetime – not just annual -- income inequality impact of demographic transitions? |
| Keywords: | Asia.; demographic dividends; Demographic transitions; growth; inequality |
| JEL: | J10 O11 O15 O40 O53 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9390&r=dem |
| By: | Aaron George Grech |
| Abstract: | Though the main benchmark used to assess pension reforms continues to be the expected resulting fall in future government spending, the impact of policy changes on pension adequacy is increasingly coming to the fore. As yet, there does not seem to be a broad consensus in policymaking circles and academic literature on what constitutes the best measure of pension adequacy. While various indicators have been developed and utilised, no single measure appears to offer a clear indication of the extent to which reforms will impact on the achievement of pension system goals. Many indicators appear ill-suited to study the effective impact of reforms, particularly those that change the nature of the pension system from defined benefit to defined contribution. Existing measures are frequently hard to interpret as they do not have an underlying benchmark which allows their current or projected value to be assessed as adequate or inadequate. Currently used pension adequacy indicators tend to be point-in-time measures which ignore the impact of benefit indexation rules. They also are unaffected by very important factors, such as changes in the pension age and in life expectancy. This tends to make existing indicators minimise the impact of systemic reforms on the poverty alleviation and income replacement functions of pension systems. The emphasis on assumptions which are very unrepresentative of real-life labour market conditions also makes current indicators deceptive, particularly in relation to outcomes for women and those on low incomes. This paper posits that these defects can be remedied by using adequacy indicators based on estimates of pension wealth (i.e. the total projected flow of pension benefits through retirement) calculated using more realistic labour market assumptions. These measures are used to give a better indication of the effective impact of pension reforms enacted since the 1990s in ten major European countries. They suggest that these reforms have decreased generosity significantly, but that the poverty alleviation function remains strong in those countries where minimum pensions were improved. However, moves to link benefits to contributions have raised clear adequacy concerns for women and for those on low incomes which policymakers should consider and tackle. |
| Keywords: | Social Security and Public Pensions, Retirement, Poverty, Retirement Policies |
| JEL: | H55 I38 J26 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sticas:case172&r=dem |
| By: | Hervé Boulhol; Patrizio Sicari |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the age structure of employment rates across OECD countries with a focus on France. The statistical contribution of each age group to total unemployment-rate differentials is also computed. An estimate of the sensitivity of age-specific unemployment rates to the economic cycle is provided for OECD countries. France is one of the OECD countries having the highest dispersion of employment rates across age groups. The “within” component of the 15-29 age group accounts for over half of France’s total unemployment rate differential with best-performing countries. Youth unemployment rate is especially sensitive to cyclical fluctuations in Spain, Belgium and France.<P>Performances du marché du travail par groupes d'âge : La France en point de mire<BR>Cette étude propose une analyse comparée entre pays de l’OCDE de la structure par âge des taux d’emplois. La contribution statistique de chaque groupe d’âge aux écarts totaux de taux de chômage est également calculée. La sensibilité au cycle économique des taux de chômage par classe d’âge est estimée pour les pays de l’OCDE. La France est un des pays de l’OCDE ayant la plus grande dispersion des taux d’emplois par âge. La composante « within » du groupe des 15-29 ans contribue à plus de la moitié de l’écart de taux de chômage total avec les pays les plus performants. Le taux de chômage des jeunes est particulièrement sensible aux variations cycliques en Espagne, en Belgique et en France. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, France, employment, age, youth, Okun’s Law, chômage, France, emploi, âge, jeunes, loi d’Okun |
| JEL: | J21 J22 J64 |
| Date: | 2013–02–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1027-en&r=dem |
| By: | Maertens, Miet; Verhofstadt, Ellen |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyse the indirect effects of the boom in horticultural exports in Senegal on child schooling. The export boom has caused a dramatic increase in female off-farm wage employment, which led to increased female bargaining power in the household. We investigate the causal effect of female wage income on primary school enrolment. We develop a collective household model with endogenous bargaining power to show that, if women have higher preferences for schooling than men, the impact of female wage income on school enrolment will be the result of a positive income effect, a negative labour substitution effect and a positive empowerment effect. We address the question empirically using original household survey data from Senegal. We use different econometric techniques and show that female off-farm wage income has a positive effect on primary school enrolment, and that the effect is equally large for girls and boys. Our results imply that the horticultural export boom in Senegal has indirectly contributed to the second and third Millennium Development Goals of universal primary education and elimination of gender disparities in primary education. |
| Keywords: | globalisation, female labour market participation, female empowerment, collective household model, primary school enrolment, gender disparity in schooling, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:kucawp:146519&r=dem |
| By: | Ludovica Gambaro; Kitty Stewart; Jane Waldfogel |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how the quality of formal early childhood education and care is associated with children's background. By using different indicators of quality, the research also explored how the relationship varies depending on the way quality is measured. The analysis combines information from three administrative datasets - the Early Years Census, the Schools Census and the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) dataset on inspections (2010-11). The results suggest that children from disadvantaged background have access to better qualified staff. However, services catering for more disadvantaged children are more segregated and receive poorer quality ratings from Ofsted, the national inspectorate. |
| Keywords: | Early childhood, Pre-school, Child care, Quality, Disadvantaged families |
| JEL: | I24 I38 J13 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sticas:case171&r=dem |
| By: | Magnus Rodin (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University and Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies (SULCIS)); Gulay Ozcan (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University and Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies (SULCIS)) |
| Abstract: | Using a unique laboratory experiment where subjects are asked to guess the test performance of candidates presented by facial portraits and voice messages, this paper explores the following questions: Are beliefs about performance affected by if a candidate is perceived to have looks that are non-stereotypical for the dominant population and do these beliefs change if the candidate has native-like versus accented speech? The experiment is conducted in Sweden and the results show that candidates not perceived as stereotypically Swedish are considered to be worse performers. These beliefs are found in within-gender but not in cross-gender evaluations and are not eliminated when additional performance-related information about the candidates is provided. When candidates are presented by both looks and speech,differential evaluations based on looks disappear. Instead, we ?nd strong negative beliefs about performance for candidates that speak Swedish with a foreign accent implying that ethnic stereotypes associated with speech override stereotypes associated with appearance. The negative beliefs associated with foreign-accented speech are not supported by corresponding mean differences in the candidates’ actual test performance. |
| Keywords: | Experiment, Appearance, Speech, Beliefs, Performance, Stereotypes |
| JEL: | J71 J15 D03 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bae:wpaper:009&r=dem |
| By: | Brouwers, R. |
| Abstract: | In contrast to the concrete problems women face worldwide, of discrimination in family and society, of violence and disrespect, of poverty and lack of rights, the policy of international development organisations to defeat these impediments has been abstract. Wrapped in the mystifying language of ‘gender mainstreaming’, development agencies pursue a strategy which itself has consumed all attention at the cost of tangible action to solve real problems. By going back to the time that the policy became solidly rooted, the mid 1990s, I document and compare evaluation studies and reviews of bilateral and multilateral donors, in particular those conducted since the turn of the century. Not one study reports positively about the gender mainstreaming policy. The essentials of the discourse of gender and development are not reflected inpractice, the policy has not moved beyond the stage of a theory. Evaluation studies have been pre-occupied with the strategy of mainstreaming itself, failing to address the results thereof for women and gender equality. This paper aims to support the discretely emerging voices to move away from the illusion of gender mainstreaming and to develop a policy that is oriented towards concrete issues and contains direct efforts to make gender equality happen. |
| Keywords: | gender;gender equality;evaluation;international development;gender mainstreaming;policy review;women in development |
| Date: | 2013–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:euriss:556&r=dem |
| By: | Strulik, Holger; Werner, Katharina |
| Abstract: | Workers in the US and other developed countries retire no later than a century ago and spend a significantly longer part of their life in school, implying that they stay less years in the work force. The facts of longer schooling and simultaneously shorter working life are seemingly hard to square with the rationality of the standard economic life cycle model. In this paper we propose a novel theory, based on health and aging, that explains these long-run trends. Workers optimally respond to a longer stay in a healthy state of high productivity by obtaining more education and supplying less labor. Better health increases productivity and amplifies the return on education. The health accelerator allows workers to finance educational efforts with less forgone labor supply than in the previous state of shorter healthy life expectancy. When both life-span and healthy life expectancy increase, the health effect is dominating and the working life gets shorter if the preference for leisure is sufficiently strong or the return on education is sufficiently large. We calibrate an extended version of the model and show that it is capable to predict the historical trends of schooling and retirement. -- |
| Keywords: | healthy life expectancy,longevity,education,retirement,labor supply,compression of morbidity |
| JEL: | E20 I25 J22 O10 O40 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cegedp:152&r=dem |
| By: | Fred Carstensen; Jill Coghlan |
| Abstract: | This Connecticut Poverty Report describes the change in the number and proportion of Connecticut residents living in poverty, and the increase in both number and percent between 1990 and 2010, based on Census Bureau reports. Demographic measures of age, race, family structure, education and job categories are tested statistically, for their alignment with poverty's growth over the twenty-year period. Policy recommendations acknowledge the current state administration's efforts to increase employment, and suggest ways to improve existing state programs. |
| Keywords: | Connecticut Poverty Report, Poverty, unemployment, low-income jobs |
| JEL: | E61 I24 I32 I38 R13 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:cceast:2013-jan-01&r=dem |
| By: | Stevenson, Betsey; Wolfers, Justin |
| Abstract: | Progress in closing differences in many objective outcomes for blacks relative to whites has slowed, and even worsened, over the past three decades. However, over this period the racial gap in well-being has shrunk. In the early 1970s data revealed much lower levels of subjective well-being among blacks relative to whites. Investigating various measures of well-being, we find that the well-being of blacks has increased both absolutely and relative to that of whites. While a racial gap in well-being remains, two-fifths of the gap has closed and these gains have occurred despite little progress in closing other racial gaps such as those in income, employment, and education. Much of the current racial gap in well-being can be explained by differences in the objective conditions of the lives of black and white Americans. Thus making further progress will likely require progress in closing racial gaps in objective circumstances. |
| Keywords: | happiness; life satisfaction; race; Subjective well-being |
| JEL: | D6 I32 J1 J7 K1 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9408&r=dem |
| By: | Gertler, Paul; Heckman, James; Pinto, Rodrigo; Zanolini, Arianna; Vermeerch, Christel; Walker, Susan; Chang, Susan M.; Grantham-McGregor, Sally |
| Keywords: | Sociology, Early Childhood Development, Stunting, Randomized Trial |
| Date: | 2013–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:indrel:qt8sz5p9vd&r=dem |
| By: | Michael Insler (United States Naval Academy) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of retirement on individuals' health. Declines in health commonly compel workers to retire, so the challenge is to disentangle the simultaneous causal effects. The estimation strategy employs an instrumental variables specification. The instrument is based on workers' self-reported probabilities of working past ages 62 and 65, taken from the first period in which they are observed. Results indicate that the retirement effect on health is beneficial and significant. Investigation into behavioral data, such as smoking and exercise, suggests that retirement may affect health through such channels; with additional leisure time, many retirees practice healthier habits. |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usn:usnawp:43&r=dem |
| By: | Dominik Noe (Georg-August-University Göttingen); Johannes Rieckmann (Georg-August-University Göttingen) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyse the impact of civil conflict on domestic violence in Colombia and find that higher conflict intensity increases the likelihood of women to become a victim of domestic violence. The idea behind this is that the experience of conflict changes behaviour, attitude and culture. As an observable outcome of this change in behaviour we look at domestic violence. Taking advantage of the uneven spatial distribution of the conflict we assess its impact, using micro data from Colombia. |
| Keywords: | Domestic violence; conflict; Colombia; crime; spatial identification |
| Date: | 2013–03–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:gotcrc:136&r=dem |
| By: | Eryar, Değer; Tekgüç, Hasan |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the importance of gender on different job mobility patterns using an extensive household survey data from İzmir, third largest city in Turkey. The determinants of job-to-job and job-to-non-employment transitions are analyzed with the help of a multinomial logit estimation method. The results indicate that there is a distinction regarding the probability of job mobility patterns based on gender. It is more likely for women to be engaged in job-to-non-employment transition, whereas men tend to switch jobs more often. Although gender plays a significant role regarding job mobility patterns, traditionally imposed social constraints associated with childcare and household duties provide us with mixed results considering the behavior of women in the job market. On the other hand, having high-paid and secure jobs decreases the probability of both patterns of job mobility. |
| Keywords: | Turkey, job mobility, gender effect |
| JEL: | J16 J60 J62 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:46006&r=dem |