|
on Demographic Economics |
|
Issue of 2013‒08‒05
thirty-one papers chosen by Clarence Nkengne Tsimpo University of Montreal and World Bank Group |
| By: | Grace H.Y. Lee; Sing Ping Lee |
| Abstract: | This paper seeks to address the problems of childcare scarcity, declining fertility rates and work-family conflict faced by the growing female labor force in Japan. Japan’s total fertility rate has been declining since the 1970s and it fell below the replacement level of 1.3 in 2003. Since the 1990s, the Japanese government has implemented pro-natal policies such as childcare market deregulation, childcare centre expansion in the Angel Plan and New Angel Plan, and provision of childbirth grants. However, these policies have failed to encourage childbirth. With rising labor force participation among Japanese women, the insufficiency of existing childcare centre capacity to accommodate children of working mothers has resulted in the problem of wait-listed children. In addition, the failure of childcare centers to mitigate the conflict between women’s work and child raising duties has discouraged women from childbearing. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship and causality between childcare availability (CA), female labor force participation rate (LFPR) and fertility (TFR) in Japan for the period 1971-2009. A bounds test approach to cointegration establishes the existence of long-run equilibrium relations between CA, TFR and LFPR. Applying the Granger causality method, our results show the absence of Granger-causality running from childcare availability to fertility among females aged 30-39. In the long run, our results show that having more children at home does not discourage the female labour force participation. In addition, we find no evidence which suggests that working women tend to have fewer children. The findings indicate that fertility decision is strongly dependent on the availability of childcare. Overall, this study suggests the importance of the Japanese childcare system in supporting female employment and fertility. |
| Keywords: | Childcare availability, fertility, female labor force participation, bounds testing approach, Granger causality |
| JEL: | J1 J2 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2013-36&r=dem |
| By: | Kaushal, Kaushalendra Kumar; F Ram, Faujdar Ram; Abhishek, Abhishek Singh |
| Abstract: | The present study attempts to investigate the association between public spending on health and childhood mortality in India; using time-series cross-sectional data from various government sources for the period 1985-2009. Infant and child (age 1 to 4 years) mortality rates were used as the indicators for childhood mortality. Ordinary least squares, generalized least squares and fixed effects regression models were used to investigate the association between public spending on health and childhood mortality. The findings suggest insignificant association between public spending on health and childhood mortality both at the country level and for the EAG states. On the contrary, per capita state income and female literacy were significantly associated with improved childhood survival. Percentage of the population living below the poverty line was significantly associated with infant and child mortality only in the EAG states. The findings call for a number of other measures along with increased public spending on health to reduce infant and child mortality in India. |
| Keywords: | Public spending, fixed effect, India, childhood |
| JEL: | H51 I18 |
| Date: | 2013–01–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:48680&r=dem |
| By: | Martin Junge (DEA (Danish Business Research Academy)); Martin D. Munk (Aalborg University); Panu Poutvaara (University of Munich, Ifo Institute, CESifo and IZA, CReAM) |
| Abstract: | We present theory and evidence on international migration of couples. Our main question is how migration decisions depend on partners’ education and earnings, and the number of children. We use register data on full Danish population from 1982 to 2010, focusing on opposite-gender couples in which the female is aged 23 to 37, and the male 25 to 39. We find that power couples in which both are highly educated are most likely to emigrate, but also most likely to return. The probability of emigration is increasing in male earnings, but does not depend much on female earnings. |
| Keywords: | International migration, Family migration, Education |
| JEL: | F22 J12 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2013018&r=dem |
| By: | Anna Baranowska (Institute of Statistics and Demography, Warsaw School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The “natural experiments” related to human reproduction are an increasingly often applied strategy for assessment of the family size effects on female employment. The aim of this paper is to review theoretical concepts and the available empirical evidence on studies that implement this methodological approach. Most studies confirm that the number of children does have a negative effect on female employment, net of the impact of women’s preferences regarding involvement in home-based versus paid work. Research provides consistent evidence on the way in which the effect of the number of children depends on parity and weakens over time, as the child becomes older. There is no consensus on the way that individual resources and preferences moderate the effect of family size on employment, however. Surprisingly little attention has been paid so far to the variation in the magnitude of family size effect according to living arrangements and country-specific contexts. |
| Keywords: | family size, female labour supply, causality |
| JEL: | J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isd:wpaper:57&r=dem |
| By: | Cristina Borra; Libertad González; Almudena Sevilla-Sanz |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of the cancellation of a sizeable child benefit in Spain on birth timing and neonatal health. In May 2010, the government announced that a 2,500-euro universal “baby bonus†would stop being paid to babies born starting January 1, 2011. We use detailed micro data from birth certificates from 2000 to 2011, and find that more than 2,000 families were able to anticipate the date of birth of their babies from (early) January 2011 to (late) December 2010 (for a total of about 10,000 births a week nationally). This shifting took place in part via an increase as well as an anticipation of pre-programmed c-sections, seemingly mostly in private clinics. We find that this shifting of birthdates resulted in a significant increase in the number of borderline low birth weight babies, as well as a peak in neonatal mortality. The results suggest that announcement effects are important, and that families and health professionals may face effective trade-offs when deciding on the timing (and method) of birth. |
| Keywords: | timing of births, benefit elimination, announcement effects, infant health |
| JEL: | H31 J13 I10 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:707&r=dem |
| By: | John Hills |
| Abstract: | Cash transfers (benefits and tax credits) are crucial to the way that inequalities develop over time. This paper looks at how Labour's aims, policies and achievements on poverty and inequality related to its reforms of and spending on cash transfers. - Labour's aims for poverty and inequality were selective. 'Equality of opportunity' was the stated aim, rather than equality of outcome - with a focus on lifting the lowest incomes, not reducing the highest ones. - Labour gave priority to reducing child and pensioner poverty, addressing them through a series of reforms. It increased the share of national income provided through cash transfers to children and pensioners, and increased the value of their cash transfers relative to the poverty line. - By contrast, spending on other transfers to working-age adults fell as a share of national income from the level Labour inherited, while benefits for those without children fell further below the poverty line. - By the end of the period both child poverty and pensioner poverty had fallen considerably, in circumstances where child poverty would have risen without the reforms (and pensioner poverty would have fallen less far). However, poverty for working-age adults without children increased. - The risks of poverty converged between children, their parents, pensioners, and other working age adults. Being a child or a pensioner no longer carried a much greater risk of living in poverty than for other age groups. - Overall income inequality was broadly flat, comparing the start and end of Labour's term in office. But differences in net incomes between age groups were much lower. The smoothing of incomes that occurred across the life cycle could be seen as a striking, if unremarked, achievement. |
| Keywords: | social security, cash transfers, child poverty, pensioner poverty, New Labour, public spending, life cycle |
| JEL: | I38 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sticas:/175&r=dem |
| By: | Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina (San Diego State University, California); Sevilla-Sanz, Almudena (Queen Mary, University of London) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses several decades of US time-diary surveys to assess the impact of low-skilled immigration, through lower prices for commercial child care, on parental time investments. Using an instrumental variables approach that accounts for the endogenous location of immigrants, we find that low-skilled immigration to the United States has contributed to substantial reductions in the time allocated to basic child care by college-educated mothers of non-school age children. However, these mothers have not reduced the time allocated to more stimulating educational and recreational activities with their children. Understanding the factors driving parental time investments on children is crucial from a child development perspective. |
| Keywords: | migration, time use, mother |
| JEL: | J01 J13 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7501&r=dem |
| By: | Mathieu Lefebvre (Université de Liège - Université de Liège); Pierre Pestieau (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales [EHESS] - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech - Ecole normale supérieure de Paris - ENS Paris - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA), EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, CORE - Center of Operation Research and Econometrics [Louvain] - Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) - Belgique, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR); Grégory Ponthière (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales [EHESS] - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech - Ecole normale supérieure de Paris - ENS Paris - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA), EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | Income-differentiated mortality, by reducing the share of poor persons in the population, leads to what can be called the "Mortality Paradox": the worse the survival conditions of the poor are, the lower the measured poverty is. We show that the extent to which FGT measures (Foster Greer Thorbecke 1984) underestimate old-age poverty under income-differentiated mortality depends on whether the prematurely dead would have, in case of survival, suffered from a more severe poverty than the average surviving population. Taking adjusted FGT measures with extended lifetime income profiles as a benchmark, we identify conditions under which the selection bias induced by income-differentiated mortality is higher for distribution-sensitive measures than for headcount measures. Finally, we show, on the basis of data on poverty in 11 European economies, that the size of the selection bias varies across different subclasses of FGT measures and across countries. |
| Keywords: | Income-differentiated mortality ; FGT poverty measures |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-00845490&r=dem |
| By: | Myck, Michal (Centre for Economic Analysis, CenEA); Kurowska, Anna (Warsaw University); Kundera, Michał (Centre for Economic Analysis, CenEA) |
| Abstract: | Financial support for families with children implies inherent trade-offs some of which are less obvious than others. In the end these trade-offs determine the effectiveness of policy with respect to the material situation of families and employment of their parents. We analyse several kinds of trade-offs involved using a careful selection of potential changes to the system of financial support for families with children. We focus on: 1) the trade-off between redistribution of income to poorer households and improving work incentives, 2) the trade-off between improving work incentives for first and for second earners in couples, 3) the trade-off between improving work incentives for those facing strong and weak incentives in the baseline system. The exercise is conducted on data from Poland, a country characterized by high levels of child poverty, low female employment and one of the lowest fertility rates in Europe. We demonstrate the complexity of potential consequences of family support policy and stress the need for well-defined policy goals and careful analysis ahead of any reform. |
| Keywords: | labour supply, tax and benefit reforms, microsimulation, family policy |
| JEL: | J22 J13 J18 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7506&r=dem |
| By: | Fernández-Kranz, Daniel (IE Business School, Madrid); Rodríguez-Planas, Núria (IZA and IAE-CSIC) |
| Abstract: | Using a differences-in-differences approach and controlling for individual unobserved heterogeneity, we evaluate the impact of a 1999 law that granted all workers with children younger than 7 years old protection against a layoff if the worker had previously asked for a work-week reduction due to family responsibilities. As only mothers took advantage of these arrangements, we find that after the law, employers were: (i) more likely to let childbearing-aged working women "go" relative to their male counterparts; (ii) less likely to promote childbearing-aged women into good jobs; and (iii) less likely to hire childbearing-aged women. In addition, employers were able to pass at least part of the cost to childbearing-aged women through lower wages, and the amount passed to workers increased with the precariousness of the job. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the effect on employment transitions is mainly driven by low-skilled workers and those in blue-collar jobs, while the effect on wages holds across all groups. Evidence that the substitution away from (good) jobs widens over time suggests employer learning. These results are robust to the use of different specifications and placebo tests. |
| Keywords: | female employment transitions and wages, fixed-term and permanent contract |
| JEL: | C23 C25 C33 J16 J22 J62 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7509&r=dem |
| By: | Hannes Schwandt |
| Abstract: | A large literature in behavioral and social sciences has found that human wellbeing follows a U-shape over age. Some theories have assumed that the U-shape is caused by unmet expectations that are felt painfully in midlife but beneficially abandoned and experienced with less regret during old age. In a unique panel of 132,609 life satisfaction expectations matched to subsequent realizations, I find people to err systematically in predicting their life satisfaction over the life cycle. They expect -- incorrectly -- increases in young adulthood and decreases during old age. These errors are large, ranging from 9.8% at age 21 to -4.5% at age 68, they are stable over time and observed across socio-economic groups. These findings support theories that unmet expectations drive the age U-shape in wellbeing. |
| Keywords: | Life satisfaction, expectations, aging |
| JEL: | A12 I30 D84 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1229&r=dem |
| By: | Kerry Anne McGeary |
| Abstract: | Previous research studying the correlation in smoking behavior between spouses has discounted the role of bargaining or learning. Using the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), which contains information on smoking cessation and spouse’s preferences, this paper presents an essential investigation of the importance of spousal bargaining or learning on the decision to cease smoking. We find, regardless of gender, when one member of couple ceases smoking this induces the other member to cease smoking through bargaining. Further, we find females demonstrate either altruistic behavior toward a spouse, who has suffered a health shock, or learning from their spouse’s health shock. |
| JEL: | I12 I18 J12 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19274&r=dem |
| By: | Konsam Manitombi Devi |
| Abstract: | The paper is focused on the women’s living in HIV/AIDS affected in India. Women are already economically, culturally and social disadvantage lockage access to treatment, financial support and education. The paper is attempting to explore the situation they have been facing from various quarters. Stigma and discrimination is the only way through which they suffer unbearable mental stress in life. This paper integrates about the reasons of women’s suffering from this dangerous disease and what is our government doing to stop this disease? How it remains successful to help the women’s in facing the real world. Key words: HIV/AIDS, Sexual, Violence, Women |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vor:issues:2013-6-4&r=dem |
| By: | Yannai A. Gonczarowski |
| Abstract: | Gale and Sotomayor (1985) have noted that if women can benefit from manipulating the men-proposing Gale-Shapley matching algorithm (1962), then they can optimally do so by truncating their preference lists. (I.e. by blacklisting a possibly-long suffix of their preference lists and leaving the prefix as is.) As Gusfield and Irving have already noted in 1989, there are no systematic results regarding the possibility of women manipulating the algorithm in any other manner, e.g. by permuting their preference lists. In this paper, we address Gusfield and Irving's open question by providing tight upper bounds on the amount and combined size of the blacklists required by the women if they wish to force a matching as the M-optimal stable matching, or, more generally, as the single stable matching. Our results show that the coalition of all women may strategically force any matching as the unique stable matching, using preference lists in which at most half of the women have nonempty blacklists, and in which the average blacklist size is less than 1, allowing them to manipulate the market in a manner that is far more inconspicuous, in a sense, than previously realized (and even more so in implementations that require the specification of preference lists of at most a certain length). When there are less women than men, we show that in the absence of blacklists for men, the women can force any matching as the unique stable matching without blacklisting anyone, while when there are more women than men, each to-be-unmatched woman may have to blacklist as many as all men. Together, these results shed light on the question of how much, if at all, do given preferences for one side a priori impose limitations on the set of stable matchings under various conditions. All the results in this paper are constructive, providing efficient algorithms for calculating the desired strategies. |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:huj:dispap:dp643&r=dem |
| By: | Uschi Backes-Gellner (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich); Stephan Veen (Disney Research Zurich) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how age diversity within a companyÕs workforce affects company productivity. It introduces a theoretical framework that helps to integrate results from a broad disciplinary spectrum of ageing and diversity research to derive empirically testable hypotheses on the effects of age diversity on company productivity. It argues that first the balance between costs and benefits of diversity determines the effect of age diversity on company productivity and that second the type of task performed acts as a moderator. To test these hypotheses, it uses a large-scale employer-employee panel data set (the LIAB.) Results show that increasing age diversity has a positive effect on company productivity if and only if a company engages in creative rather than routine tasks. |
| Keywords: | Age Diversity, Company Performance, Productivity in Innovative Industries, Aging Societies |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0093&r=dem |
| By: | Daldy, Bridget (University of Waikato); Poot, Jacques (University of Waikato); Roskruge, Matthew (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | Despite considerable research on differences in labour market outcomes between native born New Zealanders and immigrants, the extent of discrimination experienced by the foreign born in the workplace remains relatively unexplored. We use micro data from the Confidentialised Unit Record File of the 2008 New Zealand General Social Survey (n = 8,721) to examine the determinants of self-reported discrimination in the workplace. We find that immigrants are significantly more likely than New Zealand-born employees to report that they experience discrimination in the workplace. There are noticeable gender differences in determinants of perceived discrimination, which interact with birthplace. The highest likelihood of self-reported workplace discrimination is found amongst migrants from Asia and the Pacific Islands. Discrimination is more likely to be reported by those with higher education and those who are mid-career. We test and correct for selection bias in measuring the impact of factors influencing perceived discrimination and find such bias to be present for men but not for women. |
| Keywords: | immigration, workplace discrimination, New Zealand, sample selection bias |
| JEL: | F22 J01 J71 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7504&r=dem |
| By: | Alicia Munnell; April Yanyuan Wu; Nadia Karamcheva; Patrick Purcell |
| Abstract: | The Social Security Trustees Report states that replacement rates for the medium earner rose from about 30 percent in the 1970s to 40 percent in the 1980s, where they remain today. However, the focus on individual earners is often misleading as many people work and retire as part of a married couple, making the household a more appropriate unit of analysis. And replacement rates for households depend on more than Social Security provisions; they also depend on the labor force activity of each spouse. These dimensions have been changing dramatically with the increased labor force participation of women. This brief reports on a recent study that explores how the changing lives of women affect Social Security replacement rates for households across seven cohorts: Depression Era 1 (born 1931-35), Depression Era 2 (1936-41), War Baby (1942-47), Early Baby Boomers (1948-53), Middle Baby Boomers (1954-59), Late Baby Boomers (1960-65), and Generation Xers (1966-75). The analysis uses Modeling Income in the Near Term (MINT), a microsimulation model developed by the Social Security Administration (SSA). The discussion proceeds as follows. The first section describes how Social Security benefits and replacement rates are determined. The second section highlights the changing work force activity of women. The third section summarizes the trends in replacement rates across cohorts, focusing on married households. The fourth section decomposes the decline in replacement rates over the seven cohorts to compare the changing role of women with other factors, such as claiming behavior. The final section concludes that the changing role of women has led to a marked decline in replacement rates that will continue for future retirees. |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:issbrf:ib2013-10&r=dem |
| By: | Viola Angelini (University of Groeningen); Laura Casi (Bocconi University); Luca Corazzini (University of Padova) |
| Abstract: | We empirically assess the relationship between cultural assimilation and subjective well-being of immigrants by using the German Socio-Economic Panel, a longitudinal dataset including information on both the economic and non economic conditions of the respondents. We find that the more immigrants identify with the German culture and fluently speak the national language, the more they report to be satisfied with their lives. This result is robust to several potential confounding factors, including a large number of individual variables (demographic, educational, social, economic and health), labour market outcomes and the external social conditions of the immigrant. |
| Keywords: | assimilation, identity, life-satisfaction, immigration. JEL: J15, I31, Z10, F22. |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pad:wpaper:0168&r=dem |
| By: | Verena Dill |
| Abstract: | Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and administrative data from 1996 to 2009, I investigate the question whether or not right-wing extremism of German residents is affected by the ethnic concentration of foreigners living in the same residential area. My results show a positive but insignificant relationship between ethnic concentration at county level and the probability of extreme right-wing voting behavior for West Germany. However, due to potential endogeneity issues, I additionally instrument the share of foreigners in a county with the share of foreigners in each federal state (following an approach of Dustmann/Preston 2001). I find evidence for the interethnic contact theory, predicting a negative relationship between foreigners’ share and right-wing voting. Moreover, I analyze the moderating role of education and the influence of cultural traits on this relationship. |
| Keywords: | Ethnic concentration, extreme right-wing voting, group threat, interethnic contact |
| JEL: | D72 R23 J15 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp565&r=dem |
| By: | Dan Anderberg; Helmut Rainer; Jonathan Wadsworth; Tanya Wilson |
| Abstract: | Is unemployment the overwhelming determinant of domestic violence that many commentators expect it to be? The contribution of this paper is to examine, theoretically and empirically, how changes in unemployment affect the incidence of domestic abuse. The key theoretical prediction is that male and female unemployment have opposite-signed effects on domestic abuse: an increase in male unemployment decreases the incidence of intimate partner violence, while an increase in female unemployment increases domestic abuse. Combining data on intimate partner violence from the British Crime Survey with locally disaggregated labor market data from the UK's Annual Population Survey, we find strong evidence in support of the theoretical prediction. |
| Keywords: | domestic violence, unemployment |
| JEL: | J12 D19 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1230&r=dem |
| By: | Otobe, Naoko |
| Keywords: | equal employment opportunity, gender, promotion of employment, employment policy, women workers, men workers, globalization, Sri Lanka, égalité des chances dans l'emploi, genre, promotion de l'emploi, politique de l'emploi, travailleuses, travailleurs masculins, mondialisation, Sri Lanka, igualdad de oportunidades en el empleo, género, fomento del empleo, política de empleo, trabajadoras, trabajadores masculinos, globalización, Sri Lanka |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:ilowps:479441&r=dem |
| By: | Ritter, Joseph A. |
| Abstract: | Previous research has found that, after controlling for test scores, measured black-white wage gaps are small but unemployment gaps remain large. This paper complements this previous research by examining the incidence of employer-provided benefits from the same premarket perspective. However, marriage rates differ substantially by race, and the possibility of health-insurance coverage through a spouse’s employer therefore distorts how the distribution of benefits available in the market to an individual is expressed in the distribution of benefits received. Two imputation strategies are used to address this complication. The evidence suggests that benefit availability gaps are small. |
| Keywords: | Labor and Human Capital, Public Economics, |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:umaemp:152497&r=dem |
| By: | Salamanca Acosta N.; Hamermesh D.; Feld J.F. (ROA) |
| Abstract: | The immense literature on discrimination treats outcomes as relative One group suffers compared to another. But does a difference arise because agents discriminate against othersare exophobicor because they favor their own kindare endophilic This difference matters, as the relative importance of the types of discrimination and their inter-relation affect market outcomes. Using a field experiment in which graders at one university were randomly assigned students exams that did or did not contain the students names, on average we find favoritism but no discrimination by nationality, and neither favoritism nor discrimination by gender, findings that are robust to a wide variety of potential concerns. We observe heterogeneity in both discrimination and favoritism by nationality and by gender in the distributions of graders preferences. We show that a changing correlation between endophilia and exophobia can generate perverse predictions for observed market discrimination. |
| Keywords: | Economic Methodology: General; Education and Inequality; Labor Discrimination; |
| JEL: | J71 I24 B40 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2013008&r=dem |
| By: | Tobias Stoehr |
| Abstract: | In many poor countries with high emigration rates elderly people are left behind without care when their children migrate. Without a functioning market in private care migrants face a difficult trade-off between working their way out of poverty and providing informal care once their parents become frail or sick. I develop a non-cooperative model of siblings' interactions that explains how chain migration can lead to a breakdown of traditional caregiving structures while an opposing endogenous effect increases family members' incentives to specialize as caregiver. The model's predictions are tested using novel data from Moldova and found to perform better than predictions of some established migration models. The empirical analysis suggests that migration and staying in order to provide care are strategic complements for children of elderly parents in most families. This is evidence of a promising resilience of families' informal security arrangements to large-scale migration |
| Keywords: | migration, elderly care, remittances, intra-family allocation,informal security networks |
| JEL: | F22 J14 I19 D10 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1858&r=dem |
| By: | Nguyen, Cuong; Nguyen, Hoa |
| Abstract: | Using data from Vietnam Household and Living Standard Surveys in 2006 and 2008, the paper estimates the effect of the receipt of international remittances and internal remittances on education, labor and healthcare utilization of children in Vietnam. It shows that there are no statistically significant effects of receipt of remittances on school enrolment of children as well as child labor. However, receiving international remittances helps children increase the number of completed grades by around 2 percent of the average completed grade for children. Both international and internal remittances are positively associated with the number of outpatient health care contacts. |
| Keywords: | Remittances, children, education, child labor, healthcare, Vietnam. |
| JEL: | I23 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2013–05–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:48672&r=dem |
| By: | Cécile Dubois-Bourreau; Bruno Jeandidier |
| Abstract: | La mise en place d’une règle de calcul pour déterminer les montants de pensions alimentaires des enfants lors d’un divorce (ou d’une séparation de parents non mariés) constitue pour les économistes une forme d’intervention publique susceptible d’avoir des effets interprétables en termes d’équité et d’efficacité, que ce soit à l’échelle individuelle, d’un couple ou de la collectivité. Ce sont ces différents effets qui sont l’objet de cette contribution de synthèse. L’examen ici mené des conséquences de la mise en place d’un barème de pension alimentaire repose notamment sur les enseignements tirés d’une revue de littérature portant sur les questions économiques soulevées par la fixation de pensions alimentaires. La littérature étudiée a pour spécificité d’être principalement américaine. En effet les questions relatives aux pensions alimentaires ont beaucoup mobilisé les chercheurs aux USA depuis la mise en place de ce qu’ils appellent la Child Support Policy, politique qui a notamment consisté en la mise en place d’un barème de pension alimentaire dans tous les états américains à la fin des années 1980. Seront également mobilisés les quelques travaux portant sur la France, qui s’est dotée, depuis 2010, d’un barème indicatif de pension alimentaire. On commencera par regarder la question de l’efficacité (1) puis on passera à celle de l’équité (2), et on montrera que les deux questions sont très liées dans la mesure où l’efficacité et l’équité d’un barème peuvent modifier les comportements des parties (3). |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2013-10&r=dem |
| By: | John Schmitt; Janelle Jones |
| Abstract: | Over the past three decades, the “human capital” of the employed black workforce has increased enormously. In 1979, only one-in-ten (10.4 percent) black workers had a four-year college degree or more. By 2011, more than one in four (26.2 percent) had a college education or more. Over the same period, the share of black workers with less than a high school degree fell from almost one-third (31.6 percent) to only about one in 20 (5.3 percent). The black workforce has also grown considerably older. In 1979, the median employed black worker was 33 years old; today, the median is 39. Economists expect that increases in education and work experience will increase workers' productivity and translate into higher compensation. But, the share of black workers in a “good job” – one that pays at least $19 per hour (in inflation-adjusted 2011 dollars), has employer-provided health insurance, and an employer-sponsored retirement plan – has actually declined. This paper looks at this trend and policies that would have a large, positive impact on the quality of jobs for black workers. |
| Keywords: | black workers, good jobs, retirement, pensions, health insurance, wages, labor, education, bad jobs, gender, pay equity |
| JEL: | J J3 J31 J32 J38 J5 J1 J11 J15 I I2 I24 I25 |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epo:papers:2013-11&r=dem |
| By: | Ghani, Ejaz; Kanbur, Ravi; O'Connell, Stephen D. |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an exploration at the intersection of four important themes in the current development discourse: urbanization, agglomeration benefits, gender and informality. Focusing on the important policy objective of new enterprise creation in the informal sector, it asks and answers four specific questions on the impact of urbanization and gender. It finds that (i) the effect of market access to inputs, on creation of new enterprises in the informal sector, is greater in more urbanized areas; (ii) This"urbanization gradient"also exists separately for the creation of female owned enterprises and male owned enterprises; (iii) there is a differential impact of female specific market access compared to male specific market access, on female owned enterprise creation in the informal sector ; and (iv) gender specific market access to inputs matters equally in more or less urbanized areas. Among the policy implications of these findings are that (i) new enterprise creation by females can be encouraged by urbanization, but (ii) the effect can be stronger by improving female specific market access, especially to inputs. The analysis in this paper opens up a rich research agenda, including further investigation of the nature of input based versus output based perspectives on agglomeration benefits, and exploration of policy instruments that can improve female specific market access, which is shown to increase female owned enterprise creation. |
| Keywords: | Markets and Market Access,Housing&Human Habitats,Microfinance,Gender and Health,Debt Markets |
| Date: | 2013–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6553&r=dem |
| By: | Joanne W. Hsu; Robert J. Willis |
| Abstract: | The knowledge and reasoning ability needed to manage one's finances is a form of human capital. Alzheimer's disease and other dementias cause progressive declines in cognition that lead to a complete loss of functional capacities. In this paper we analyze the impact of information about cognitive decline on the choice of household financial decision-maker. Using longitudinal data on older married couples, we find that as the financial decision maker's cognition declines, the management of finances is eventually turned over to his cognitively intact spouse, often well after difficulties handling money have already emerged. However, a memory disease diagnosis increases the hazard of switching the financial respondent by over 200% for couples who control their retirement accounts (like 401ks) relative to those who passively receive retirement income. This is consistent with a model of the value of information: households with the most to gain financially from preparation are most responsive to information about cognitive decline. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2013-45&r=dem |
| By: | Lenoir, A-S.I.; Puntoni, S.; Reed II, A.; Verlegh, P.W.J. |
| Abstract: | In today’s multicultural societies, ethnic targeting is increasingly important for marketing. Two main approaches to target ethnic minorities have emerged: messaging consumers when their ethnic identity is most salient, and featuring spokespeople who have the same heritage as the target. We conduct replications of two articles representative of these research streams: Forehand and Deshpandé (2001) and Deshpandé and Stayman (1994). Our findings identify generational status as an important boundary condition for these ethnic targeting strategies. |
| Keywords: | advertising;ethnicity;identity;minority targeting |
| Date: | 2013–07–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:eureri:1765040663&r=dem |
| By: | Author-Name: Jakob B Madsen; James B. Ang |
| Abstract: | The spectacular growth rates in the Asian miracle economies (AMEs) are often attributed to factor accumulation whilst ignoring the forces that have been responsible for it. Using data for six AMEs over the period from 1953 to 2009, this paper extends the conventional growth accounting exercise by allowing for the population growth drag and endogeneity of capital deepening, savings, labor force participation and schooling. It is shown that growth has been predominantly a result of the demographic transition and productivity growth, where the latter has been driven by R&D, knowledge spillovers through imports and R&D absorptive capacity. |
| Keywords: | Asian growth miracle; endogenous factor accumulation. |
| JEL: | O30 O40 O53 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2013-23&r=dem |