|
on Demographic Economics |
|
Issue of 2013‒05‒22
forty-nine papers chosen by Clarence Nkengne Tsimpo University of Montreal and World Bank Group |
| By: | Javier Olivera (UCD Geary Institute, University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | We model intergenerational old-age support within the context of a developing country that faces demographic transition: declining fertility and increasing life expectancy. We attempt to answer if agents will be able to support their parents during the next generations and under what conditions. For this purpose we use a three period overlapping generations model and a cultural transmission process, in which agents may be socialized to different cultural family models (old-age supporters and non-supporters). As life expectancy increases, we find conditions under which a reduced fertility rate is compatible with the expectation to be supported during old-age. This offers an additional explanation for the persistency of family old-age support in developing countries facing demographic transsition. |
| Keywords: | Cultural transmission, intergenerational transfers, fertility |
| JEL: | J13 D10 E24 |
| Date: | 2013–05–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:201307&r=dem |
| By: | Fernando Perera-Tallo (Universidad de La Laguna) |
| Abstract: | Over recent decades, most developed countries have experienced a fall in fertility and an increase in longevity which have led to a significant increase in the weight of elderly on the population and a decrease in the number of working-age people per elderly population. Economists and politicians are concerned about the aging population process and the need to introduce policy reforms such as fertility enhancing programs and delaying the legal retirement age. This paper introduces a model which determines the optimal retirement age and analyzes the effects of population aging on it. What is revealed is the different role that the drop in the fertility rate and the increase in longevity play in determining the optimal retirement age. While an increase in longevity always implies an increase in the optimal retirement age, a drop in the fertility rate does not. The reason is that a drop in fertility involves three offsetting mechanisms: first, it raises the weight of elders on population increasing the dependency ratio (defined as non working population, children and retirees, over working population), which involves a larger optimal retirement age. Second, it also diminishes the weight of children, and this reduces the dependency ratio, decreasing the optimal retirement age. Finally, a drop in fertility rate increases the weight of older workers in the labor force. If these are more productive than the average, then the drop in the fertility increases the productivity of the labor force and reduces the optimal retirement age. In spite of these counterweighing mechanisms, this paper provides a clear measure to determine the sign of the effect of a drop in the fertility rate over per capita labor and the optimal retirement age. Such measure may be easily obtained from the data an establishes a precise criterion for clarifying the aging population debate |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed012:728&r=dem |
| By: | Amparo Gordillo-Tobar |
| Keywords: | Early Child and Children's Health Health, Nutrition and Population - Adolescent Health Health Monitoring and Evaluation Health Systems Development and Reform Gender - Gender and Health Health Nutrition and Population |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:12418&r=dem |
| By: | Dokken, Therere (UMB School og Economics and Business) |
| Abstract: | This study finds that female-headed households have 23% smaller owned landholdings and 54% smaller operational landholdings. Differences in characteristics such as age, labor, oxen and previous divorce explain less than half the differences in landholding sizes, while the remaining can be attributed to differences in returns to these characteristics. This indicates that there is a gender bias in access to land, even after land reforms that intended to strengthen women’s rights. The main policy recommendation is to further gender-sensitize the land certification process, strengthen women’s opportunities to cultivate their land and continue the process of securing women’s tenure rights. |
| Keywords: | Ethiopia; property rights; discrimination; Oaxaca decomposition |
| JEL: | J16 Q15 |
| Date: | 2013–05–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nlsclt:2013_005&r=dem |
| By: | Estelle James; Alejandra Cox Edwards; Rebeca Wong |
| Keywords: | Gender - Gender and Development Gender - Gender and Law Health, Nutrition and Population - Population Policies Population and Development Education - Primary Education Health Nutrition and Population |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:13046&r=dem |
| By: | Docquier, Frédéric |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically studies emigration patterns of skilled males and females. In the most relevant model accounting for interdependencies between women and men’s decisions, we derive the gendered responses to traditional push factors. Females and males do not respond with the same intensity to the traditional determinants of labor mobility and gender-specific characteristics of the population at origin. In addition, female willingness to follow their spouse is more pronounced with respect to the male one, other things being equal. Once such interdependencies are accounted for, our analysis reveals that skilled women are not more internationally migratory than skilled men. We thus reject the existence of a genetic or social gender gap in international skilled migration. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:louvai:info:hdl:2078.1/118076&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank; UNICEF |
| Keywords: | Early Child and Children's Health Health, Nutrition and Population - Population Policies Health Monitoring and Evaluation Health Systems Development and Reform Health, Nutrition and Population - Nutrition Health Nutrition and Population |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:13058&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. |
| Keywords: | population aging, human capital, welfare, pension reform, retirement age, open economy |
| JEL: | C68 E17 E25 J11 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–02–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kls:series:0059&r=dem |
| By: | Vandenberghe, Vincent |
| Abstract: | Are employers willing to employ more older individuals, in particular older women? Higher employment among the older segments of the population will only materialize if firms are willing to employ them. Although several economists have started considering the demand side of the labour market for older individuals, few have considered its gender dimension properly; despite evidence that lifting the overall senior employment rate in the EU requires significantly raising that of women older than 50. In this paper, we posit that labour demand and employability depend to a large extent on how the age/gender composition of the workforce affects firm's profits. Using unique firm-level panel data we produce robust evidence on the causal effect of age/gender on productivity (value added per worker), total labour costs and gross profits. We take advantage of the panel structure of data and resort to first differences to deal with a potential time-invariant heterogeneity bias. Moreover, inspired by recent developments in the production function estimation literature, we also address the risk of simultaneity bias (endogeneity of firm's age-gender mix choices in the short run) by combining first differences with i) the structural approach suggested by Ackerberg, Caves and Frazer (2006), ii) alongside more traditional IV-GMM methods (Blundell and Bond, 1998) where lagged values of labour inputs are used as instruments. Results suggest no negative impact of rising shares of older men on firm's gross profits, but a large negative effect of larger shares of older women. Another interesting result is that the vast and highly feminized services industry does not seem to offer working conditions that mitigate older women's productivity and employability disadvantage, on the contrary. This is not good news for older women's employability and calls for policy interventions in the Belgian private economy aimed at combating women's decline of productivity with age and/or better adapting labour costs to age-gender productivity profiles. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:louvai:info:hdl:2078.1/118119&r=dem |
| By: | CARE India |
| Keywords: | Early Child and Children's Health Health, Nutrition and Population - Population Policies Health Monitoring and Evaluation Governance - Parliamentary Government Health, Nutrition and Population - Nutrition Health Nutrition and Population |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:12660&r=dem |
| By: | D. Del Boca; C. Monfardini; C. Nicoletti |
| Abstract: | While a large literature has focused on the impact of parental investments on child cognitive development, very little is known about the role of child's own in- vestments. Information on how children invest their time separately from parents is probably little informative for babies and toddlers, but it becomes more and more important in later stages of life, such as adolescence, when children start to take decisions independently. By using the Child Development Supplement of the PSID (Panel Study of Income Dynamics), we model the production of cognitive ability of adolescents and extend the set of inputs to include the child's own time investments. Looking at investments during adolescence, we find that child's investments matter more than mother's investments. On the contrary, looking at investments during childhood, it is the mother's investments that are more important. Our results are obtained accounting for potential unobserved child's and family's endowments and are robust across several specifications and samples, e.g. considering and not considering father's investments and non-intact families. |
| Keywords: | time-use, cognitive ability, child development, adolescence |
| JEL: | J13 D1 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wchild:5&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Gender - Gender and Development Social Protections and Labor - Labor Markets Health, Nutrition and Population - Population Policies Social Protections and Labor - Labor Policies Education - Primary Education |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:12468&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: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wchild:10&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Early Child and Children's Health Health, Nutrition and Population - Population Policies Health, Nutrition and Population - Adolescent Health Health Monitoring and Evaluation Education - Primary Education |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:12260&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Gender - Gender and Development Roads and Highways Transport Economics Policy and Planning Rural Roads and Transport Gender - Gender and Transport Rural Development Transport |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:10065&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Health, Nutrition and Population - Adolescent Health Governance - Youth and Governance Health, Nutrition and Population - Population Policies Gender - Gender and Health Education - Primary Education |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:12460&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Education - Primary Education Education - Early Childhood Development Urban Development - Street Children Education - Educational Sciences Health, Nutrition and Population - Early Child and Children's Health |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:12122&r=dem |
| By: | Ylenia Brilli |
| Abstract: | This paper summarizes the most recent empirical research on parental and social investments in children, with a focus on policies providing non-parental child care. The empirical findings are conceptualized in a simple theoretical framework showing how parents' decisions and policy intervention interact in contributing to child's development. The results from these studies are presented taking into account the institutional context where the policy has been implemented and the timing of the intervention. The majority of large-scale policies providing non- parental child care have positive eects on children's cognitive outcomes, both in the short and in the medium run. Early childhood policies can have long-lasting effects on adult outcomes, also boosting the development of noncognitive skills, that are used and rewarded in labor market and social life. |
| Keywords: | child care, child development, review, public intervention |
| JEL: | J13 I24 I38 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wchild:6&r=dem |
| By: | Sebastian Schnettler (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Sebastian Klüsener (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | The economic stress hypothesis (ESH) suggests that economic decline leads to a decrease in the proportion of males born in a population. A multitude of additional influences on sex ratios that often cannot be accounted for empirically make assessing the validity of the ESH difficult. Thus, as a historical quasi-experiment, German reunification constitutes an interesting test case. The economy in East Germany, but not in West Germany, underwent a rapid decline in 1991. In the same year, the sex ratio decreased in East Germany, but not in West Germany. Catalano (2003) interpreted these developments as evidence in support of the ESH. Using more recent and detailed data, we re-examine this case to test an alternative explanation, the random variation hypothesis (RVH). Using aggregate data on sex ratios between 1946-2010 and individual-level data on over 13 million births from the German Birth Registry between 1991-2009, we find evidence supporting the RVH but not the ESH. First, the sex ratio in East Germany shows stronger deviations from the time trend in several years, and is seemingly unrelated to economic developments. The degree of variation is associated with the smaller and decreasing number of births in East Germany during the fertility decline following reunification. The individual-level analysis confirms that the 1991 decrease in the East German sex ratio could also be the result of random variation. A specificity of the East German transformation is the buffering of the consequences of economic decline through integration into the West German welfare state. Therefore, the ESH may be applicable in other transformation cases. |
| Keywords: | Germany, Germany (Alte Bundesländer), Germany (Neue Bundesländer), economic recession, sex ratio |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2013-005&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Gender - Gender and Development Rural Development Knowledge and Information Systems Health, Nutrition and Population - Population Policies Gender - Gender and Law Environmental Economics and Policies Rural Development Environment |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:11051&r=dem |
| By: | KATO Takao; KAWAGUCHI Daiji; OWAN Hideo |
| Abstract: | This paper provides new evidence on the nature and causes of the gender pay gap using confidential personnel records from a large Japanese chemical manufacturing firm. Controlling only for the human capital variables that are typically included in the standard wage function results in a substantial gender pay gap—16% for unmarried and 31% for married workers. However, additionally controlling for job level, skill grade, hours worked, and number of dependents almost eliminates the "unexplained" gender pay gap. We estimate various models of promotion rates and additionally find that (i) there is a statistically and economically significant correlation between hours worked and the odds of promotion for women but not for men; (ii) maternity carries a substantial career penalty (up to a 20-30 percentage-point fall in future earnings), especially for college graduate women; and (iii) the maternity penalty can be avoided by promptly returning from parental leave and not reducing work hours after returning. As such, our evidence points to the importance of women's ability to signal their commitment to work (or the level of family support they receive)—through working long hours and taking shorter parental leave—for their career advancement. |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:13038&r=dem |
| By: | Pierre-Richard Agénor; Otaviano Canuto |
| Keywords: | Rural Development Knowledge and Information Systems Gender - Gender and Law Health Monitoring and Evaluation Gender - Gender and Health Economic Theory and Research Rural Development Health, Nutrition and Population Macroeconomics and Economic Growth |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:10037&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Health, Nutrition and Population - Adolescent Health Governance - Youth and Governance Health, Nutrition and Population - Population Policies Social Protections and Labor - Labor Markets Education - Primary Education Health, Nutrition and Population |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:11908&r=dem |
| By: | Pierre-André Chiappori; Sonia Oreffice; Climent Quintana-Domeque |
| Abstract: | We develop a matching model on the marriage market, where individuals have preferences over the smoking status of potential mates, and over their socioeconomic quality. Spousal smoking is bad for non-smokers, but it is neutral for smokers, while individuals always prefer high socioeconomic quality. Furthermore, there is a gender difference in smoking prevalence, there being more smoking men than smoking women for all education levels, so that smoking women and non-smoking men are in short supply. The model generates clear cut conditions regarding matching patterns. Using CPS data and its Tobacco Use Supplements for the years 1996 to 2007 and proxing socioeconomic status by educational attainment, we find that these conditions are satisfied. There are fewer “mixed” couples where the wife smokes than vice-versa, and matching is assortative on education among couples with identical smoking habits. Among non-smoking wives those with smoking husbands have on average 0.14 fewer years of completed education than those with non-smoking husbands. Finally, and somewhat counterintuitively, we find that among smoking husbands those who marry smoking wives have on average 0.16 more years of completed education than those with non-smoking wives. |
| Keywords: | smoking, education, matching, marriage market |
| JEL: | D1 J1 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wchild:8&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Gender - Gender and Development Culture and Development - Anthropology Rural Development Knowledge and Information Systems Gender - Gender and Law Gender - Gender and Health Rural Development |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:10062&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Gender - Gender and Development Health, Nutrition and Population - Population Policies Health Monitoring and Evaluation Finance and Financial Sector Development - Access to Finance Education - Primary Education |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:11923&r=dem |
| By: | Laun, Tobias (Uppsala Center for Fiscal Studies); Wallenius, Johanna (Department of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study the role of social insurance, namely old-age pensions, disability insurance and healthcare, in accounting for the differing labor supply patterns of older individuals across OECD countries. To this end, we develop a life cycle model of labor supply and health with heterogeneous agents. The key features of the framework are: (1) people choose when to stop working, and when/if to apply for disability and pension benefits, (2) the awarding of disability insurance benefits is imperfectly correlated with health, and (3) people can partially insure against health shocks by investing in health, the cost of which is dependent on health insurance coverage. We find that the incentives faced by older workers differ hugely across countries. In fact, based solely on differences in social insurance programs, the model predicts even more cross-country variation in the employment rates of people aged 55-64 than we observe in the data. |
| Keywords: | Life cycle; Retirement; Disability insurance; Health |
| JEL: | E24 J22 J26 |
| Date: | 2013–05–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uufswp:2013_006&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Gender - Gender and Development Agriculture - Agricultural Knowledge & Information Systems Health, Nutrition and Population - Population Policies Finance and Financial Sector Development - Access to Finance Environment - Environmental Economics & Policies Health, Nutrition and Population |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:2725&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Culture and Development - Anthropology Urban Development - Urban Housing Rural Development Knowledge and Information Systems Gender - Gender and Law Rural Development - Common Property Resource Development |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:10064&r=dem |
| By: | Maria Eugenia Bonilla Chacin |
| Keywords: | Health, Nutrition and Population - Adolescent Health Health, Nutrition and Population - Population Policies Health Monitoring and Evaluation Disease Control and Prevention Gender - Gender and Health Health Nutrition and Population |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:12417&r=dem |
| By: | R. Merkle; D. Meerbach; A. Akhmedova; M. Bagirzadeh; S. Dideron; L. Javazadeh; S. Rustamova |
| Keywords: | Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems Gender - Gender and Development Rural Development Knowledge and Information Systems Water Resources - Irrigation and Drainage Water Resources - Water Use Rural Development Agriculture |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:13235&r=dem |
| By: | Luisa Fuster (IMDEA); Gueorgui Kambourov (University of Toronto); Andres Erosa (IMDEA) |
| Abstract: | There is a negative mean-dispersion relationship between the log of mean annual hours in an occupation and the standard deviation of log annual hours in that occupation. We document this pattern using data from the 1976-2011 Current Population Survey (CPS) and various Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) waves from 1984 till 2004. This pattern holds over time and across age, education, and gender groups and is observed both at the intensive (weekly hours) and extensive (number of weeks) margins. Occupations have hardly changed their position in the mean-dispersion space over the 1976-2011 time period. However, the fraction of those working in the high mean-low dispersion occupations has increased substantially, mostly due to a change in the fraction of women across these sectors. We provide a simple model which illustrates the relative importance of three mechanisms in understanding these facts and individuals' decisions to sort into different sectors (occupations) in the economy - differences in occupation-specific fixed costs of work, in the individuals' sectoral comparative advantage, and in the utility of leisure. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed012:710&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Health, Nutrition and Population - Population Policies Health Monitoring and Evaluation Poverty Reduction - Rural Poverty Reduction Economic Theory and Research Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Regional Economic Development Health, Nutrition and Population |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:11906&r=dem |
| By: | Stephan Humpert (Institute of Economics, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany) |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with the effects of social participation activities on life satisfaction. Using the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) for 2010, I present gender specific differences for several social activities, such as club memberships of political, welfare, health or more leisure time orientated groups. These activities have different impacts on male or female satisfaction. While sports and civic engagements improve only female life satisfaction, men are more affected by charity organizations or leisure time activities, such as hobbies. It is an interesting result that political activities and trade unions have no, or even negative effects on life satisfaction. |
| Keywords: | Subjective Well-Being, Social Participation, German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) |
| JEL: | D60 I31 O52 Z13 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lue:wpaper:276&r=dem |
| By: | L. Rachel Ngai; Barbara Petrongolo |
| Abstract: | This paper explains the narrowing of gender gaps in wages and market hours in recent decades by the growth of the service economy. We propose a model with three sectors: goods, services and home production. Women have a comparative advantage in the production of services in the market and at home. The growth of the services sector, in turn driven by structural transformation and marketization of home services, acts as a gender-biased demand shift and leads to a rise in women's wages and market hours relative to men. Quantitatively, the model accounts for an important share of the observed rise in women's relative wage and market hours and the fall in men's market hours. |
| Keywords: | gender gaps, structural transformation, marketization |
| JEL: | E24 J22 J16 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1204&r=dem |
| By: | Joseph J. Capuno (School of Economics, University of the Philippines Diliman); Xylee Javier (School of Economics, University of the Philippines Diliman) |
| Abstract: | While education is universally held to enhance a child human development, policies must still contend with parental biases. Here, we investigate if school attendance of young household members aged 6-12 years old varies with their kinship ties to the household heads in the Philippines. Applying probit regression techniques on a dataset culled from the five rounds of the Annual Poverty Indicators Survey, we find that the probability of attending school of the head’s own child is about 2.9-percentage points greater that that other relatives in the same age group, controlling for income and other factors. However, there are no differences in the likelihood of school attendance between the head’s own grandchildren and other relatives. Thus, policies should target children under kinship care since household heads are unlikely to treat them like their own, even if they can afford to send these children to school. |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phs:dpaper:201206&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Law and Development - Health Law Governance - Youth and Governance Services and Transfers to Poor Health Monitoring and Evaluation Health Systems Development and Reform Health, Nutrition and Population Poverty Reduction |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:10414&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Gender - Gender and Development Agricultural Knowledge & Information Systems Rural Development Knowledge & Information Systems Health, Nutrition and Population - Population Policies Economic Theory and Research Rural Development Health, Nutrition and Population Macroeconomics and Economic Growth Agriculture |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:11914&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Energy - Renewable Energy Rural Development Knowledge and Information Systems Health, Nutrition and Population - Population Policies Energy Conservation and Efficiency Energy - Energy Production and Transportation Rural Development |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:10066&r=dem |
| By: | John V.C. Nye (Department of Economics, George Mason University and Laboratory for Institutional Analysis of Economic Reforms, Higher School of Economics, Moscow); Grigory Androuschak (Laboratory for Institutional Analysis of Economic Reforms, Higher School of Economics, Moscow); Desirée Desierto (School of Economics, University of the Philippines Diliman); Garett Jones (Department of Economics, George Mason University); Maria Yudkevich (Laboratory for Institutional Analysis of Economic Reforms, Higher School of Economics, Moscow) |
| Abstract: | Exposure to prenatal androgens affects both future behavior and life choices. However, there is still relatively limited evidence on its effects on academic performance. Moreover, the predicted effect of exposure to prenatal testosterone (T) - which is inversely correlated with the relative length of the second to fourth finger lengths (2D:4D) - would seem to have ambiguous effects on academic achievement since traits like confidence, aggressiveness, or risk-taking are not uniformly positive for success in school. We provide the first evidence of a non-linear relationship between 2D:4D and academic achievement using samples from Moscow and Manila. We find that there is a quadratic relationship between high T exposure and markers of achievement such as grades or test scores and that the optimum digit ratio for women in our sample is lower (indicating higher prenatal T) than the average. The results for men are generally insignificant for Moscow but significant for Manila showing similar non-linear effects. Our work is thus unusual in that it draws from a large sample of nearly a thousand university students in Moscow and over a hundred from Manila for whom we also have extensive information on high school test scores, family background and other potential correlates of achievement. Our work is also the first to have a large cross country comparison that includes two groups with very different ethnic compositions. |
| Keywords: | academic performance, female achievement, 2D4D ratio |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phs:dpaper:201203&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Health, Nutrition and Population - Population Policies Roads and Highways Rural Transport Transport Economics Policy and Planning Rural Roads and Transport Rural Development Transport |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:10063&r=dem |
| By: | Tara Vishwanath |
| Keywords: | Gender - Gender and Development Rural Development Knowledge and Information Systems Gender - Gender and Law Education - Primary Education Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Regional Economic Development Rural Development |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:10844&r=dem |
| By: | Vandenberghe, Vincent |
| Abstract: | The Belgian population is ageing due to demographic changes, so does the workforce of firms active in the country. Such a trend is likely to remain for the foreseeable future. And it will be reinforced by the willingness of public authorities to expand employment among individuals aged 50 or more. But are older workers employable? The answer depends to a large extent on the gap between older workers’ productivity and their cost to employers. To address this question we use a production function that is modified to reflect the heterogeneity of labour with workers of different age potentially diverging in terms of marginal products. Using unique firm-level panel data we produce robust evidence on the causal effect of ageing on productivity (value added) and labour costs. We take advantage of the panel structure of data and resort to first-differences to deal with a potential time-invariant heterogeneity bias. Moreover, inspired by recent developments in the production function estimation literature, we also address the risk of simultaneity bias (endogeneity of firm’s age-mix choices in the short run) using (1) the structural approach suggested by Ackerberg et al. Structural identification of production functions. Department of Economics, UCLA, (2006), (2) alongside more traditional system-GMM methods (Blundell and Bond in J Econom 87:115–143, 1998) where lagged values of labour inputs are used as instruments. Our results indicate a negative impact of larger shares of older workers on productivity that is not compensated by lower labour costs, resulting in a lower productivity-labour costs gap. An increment of 10 %-points of their share causes a 1.3–2.8 % contraction of this gap. We conduct several robustness checks that largely confirm this result. This is not good news for older individuals’ employability and calls for interventions in the Belgian private economy aimed at combating the decline of productivity with age and/or better adapting labour costs to age-productivity profiles. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:louvai:info:hdl:2078.1/118112&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Health, Nutrition and Population - Population Policies Social Protections and Labor - Labor Markets Social Protections and Labor - Labor Policies Health Monitoring and Evaluation Finance and Financial Sector Development - Access to Finance |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:12285&r=dem |
| By: | Joseph J. Capuno (School of Economics, University of the Philippines Diliman); Carlos Antonio R. Tan, Jr. (School of Economics, University of the Philippines Diliman) |
| Abstract: | In 2010, the Philippines appeared to be on track to attain by 2015 its target for Millennium Development Goals 4 (Reduce child mortality), but less so for Goal 7 (Ensure environmental sustainability). In pursuit of the latter, the government expands its provision of water and services to more households. Applying propensity score matching technique on the data from the four rounds of a nationwide survey, such interventions are found to reduce the incidence of child diarrhea, a persistent top cause of child mortality, though not always. The impact of improved sources of drinking water is 1.3% to 2.6% in 1993 and 2.9% to 4.6% in 2003, but none is found in 1998 and 2008. The impact of improved sanitation is 1.2% to 2.1% in 1993 and 3.1% to 4.7% in 2008; but none is found in 1998 and 2003. In addition to health interventions, the regular monitoring of the quality of water and sanitation at the household level is suggested to achieve Goal 4. |
| Keywords: | Water and sanitation, child health, MDGs, Philippines |
| JEL: | I12 I18 O53 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phs:dpaper:201209&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Health, Nutrition and Population - Population Policies Housing & Human Habitats Poverty Reduction - Rural Poverty Reduction Transport Economics Policy & Planning Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Regional Economic Development Communities and Human Settlements Health Nutrition and Population Transport |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:11869&r=dem |
| By: | J.M. Ian Salas (Department of Economics, University of California, Irvine) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents new evidence on the role of subsidized contraceptives in influencing fertility behavior. It draws on two types of disruptions that affected the public supply of free contraceptives in the Philippines : a sharp reduction induced by the phase out of contraceptive donations to the country from an external donor coupled with a government policy that shirked public funding to fill the supply shortfall, and substantial fluctuations in the shipment of free contraceptives to the country’s provinces that was brought about by supply chain issues. It finds that birth rates were responsive to both broad and transitory changes in public contraceptive supply : provinces which experienced big declines in the supply of free contraceptives also had big increases (or small decreases) in birth rates, while temporary supply drops (increases) were followed by rising (falling) birth rates. It also identifies poor, less educated, and rural women as the groups which were least able to cope with short-term gaps in public contraceptive supply. |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phs:dpaper:201220&r=dem |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Governance - Youth and Governance Urban Development - Street Children Education - Education For All Education - Early Childhood Development Education - Primary Education |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:10415&r=dem |
| By: | Elizabeth Ananat; Shihe Fu; Stephen L. Ross |
| Abstract: | We demonstrate a striking but previously unnoticed relationship between city size and the black-white wage gap, with the gap increasing by 2.5% for every million-person increase in urban population. We then look within cities and document that wages of blacks rise less with agglomeration in the workplace location, measured as employment density per square kilometer, than do white wages. This pattern holds even though our method allows for non-parametric controls for the effects of age, education, and other demographics on wages, for unobserved worker skill as proxied by residential location, and for the return to agglomeration to vary across those demographics, industry, occupation and metropolitan areas. We find that an individual’s wage return to employment density rises with the share of workers in their work location who are of their own race. We observe similar patterns for human capital externalities as measured by share workers with a college education. We also find parallel results for firm productivity by employment density and share college-educated using firm racial composition in a sample of manufacturing firms. These findings are consistent with the possibility that blacks, and black- majority firms, receive lower returns to agglomeration because such returns operate within race, and blacks have fewer same-race peers and fewer highly-educated same-race peers at work from whom to enjoy spillovers than do whites. Data on self-reported social networks in the General Social Survey provide further evidence consistent with this mechanism, showing that blacks feel less close to whites than do whites, even when they work exclusively with whites. We conclude that social distance between blacks and whites preventing shared benefits from agglomeration isa significant contributor to overall black-white wage disparities. |
| Keywords: | Black White Wage Gap, Agglomeration Economies, Human Capital Externalities,Information Networks, Total Factor Productivity |
| JEL: | J15 J24 J31 R23 R32 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:13-24&r=dem |