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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Diana Warren (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides new evidence of coordination of retirement by mature age couples in Australia. Two complementary estimation approaches are used to highlight the importance of taking the household decision-making context into account when modeling the retirement behaviour of partnered men and women. First, a single risk hazard model provides insights into the influences of a spouse’s characteristics on the retirement decision of the individual. Second, a competing-risks framework is used to examine the retirement behaviour of couples exiting from a situation in which both are in paid employment. There is strong evidence of coordination of retirement by mature age couples in Australia due to complementarities in leisure and, for women, because of caring responsibilities. In particular, the results suggest that women may delay their own retirement if their partner has a financial incentive to continue in the labour force; or retire early to care for a partner who is in poor health. |
| Keywords: | Retirement, older workers, households, leisure, complementarity |
| JEL: | D13 J26 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2013n41&r=dem |
| By: | Stacey H. Chen (Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan); Yen-Chien Chen (National Chi-Nan University); Jin-Tan Liu (National Taiwan University; NBER) |
| Abstract: | Parents preferring sons tend to go on to have more children until a boy is born, and to concentrate investment in boys for a given family size. Thus, having a brother (relative to a sister) may affect the human capital formation of a child in two ways: an indirect effect by decreasing family size, and a direct effect where family size remains constant. Conventional estimation of the di- rect effect requires observed family size to be fixed as sibling sex composition changes. But son-preferring fertility-stopping rules suggest that observed fam- ily size cannot be truly fixed, which leaves neither of the effects well defined. By allowing potential family size to change, we redefine and estimate the di- rect and indirect eects using 0.8 million Taiwanese first-borns. We find that neither effect is important in explaining first-born boys' education levels. In contrast, first-born girls receive a negative direct effect and a positive indirect effect, both being statistically signicant and cancelling each other out. This result offers new evidence of sibling rivalry and gender bias in family settings that has not been detected in the previous literature. |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sin:wpaper:13-a013&r=dem |
| By: | Charles L. Baum; Christopher J. Ruhm |
| Abstract: | Using data from the 1997 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY-97), we examine the effects of California’s first in the nation government-mandated paid family leave program (CA-PFL) on mothers’ and fathers’ use of leave during the period surrounding child birth, and on the timing of mothers’ return to work, the probability of eventually returning to pre-childbirth jobs, and subsequent labor market outcomes. Our results show that CA-PFL raised leave-taking by around 2.4 weeks for the average mother and just under one week for the average father. The timing of the increased leave use – immediately after birth for men and around the time that temporary disability insurance benefits are exhausted for women – is consistent with causal effects of CA-PFL. Rights to paid leave are also associated with higher work and employment probabilities for mothers nine to twelve months after birth, possibly because they increase job continuity among those with relatively weak labor force attachments. We also find positive effects of California’s program on hours and weeks of work during their child’s second year of life and possibly also on wages. |
| JEL: | J1 J18 J2 J3 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19741&r=dem |
| By: | Bhalotra, Sonia R. (University of Essex); Venkataramani, Atheendar (Massachusetts General Hospital) |
| Abstract: | We exploit exogenous variation in the risk of waterborne disease created by implementation of a major water reform in Mexico in 1991 to investigate impacts of infant exposure on indicators of cognitive development and academic achievement in late childhood. We estimate that a one standard deviation reduction in childhood diarrhea mortality rates results in about a 0.1 standard deviation increase in test scores, but only for girls. We show that a reason for the gender differentiated impacts is that the water reform induces parents to make complementary investments in education that favor girls, consistent with their comparative advantage in skilled occupations. The results provide novel evidence of the potential for clean water provision to narrow test score gaps across countries and, within countries, across gender. |
| Keywords: | water, diarrhea, cognitive development, test scores, early life health interventions, brain-brawn, gender, Mexico, dynamic complementarity |
| JEL: | I38 J16 I12 I14 I15 I24 I25 H51 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7833&r=dem |
| By: | Doreen Triebe |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the determinants of women’s labor supply in the household context. The main focus is on the effect of a change in male partner’s wages on women’s work hours. This is linked to the broader question of whether married and cohabiting women make different economic decisions and respond differently to changes in their partners’ wages. In addition, this study seeks to connect the working behavior of married and cohabiting individuals to the “tax-splitting” benefit for married couples. To provide a complete picture of working behavior within households, I analyze both women and men using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) from 1993 to 2010. The methodology for the main analysis relies on fixed effects regression. The main estimation results suggest that married women work less on the labor market and further, an increase in partner’s wages results in a negative and significant effect on married women’s work hours. The marital status of men, on the other hand, has no significant impact on their work hours. |
| Keywords: | Women’s work hours, division of labor, cohabitation vs. marriage |
| JEL: | D13 J12 J22 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp614&r=dem |
| By: | Emla Fitzsimons (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Marcos Vera-Hernandez (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London) |
| Abstract: | We show that children who are born at the weekend or just before are less likely to be breastfed, owing to poorer breastfeeding support services at weekends. We use this variation to estimate the effect of breastfeeding on children's development for a sample of uncomplicated births from low educated mothers. We find that breastfeeding has large effects on children's cognitive development, but not on non-cognitive development or health. Regarding mechanisms, we estimate how breastfeeding affects parental investments in the child and the quality of the mother-child relationship. |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:13/31&r=dem |
| By: | Edo, Anthony; Jacquemet, Nicolas; Yannelis, Constantine |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the importance of ethnic homophily in the hiring discrimination process, and provides a novel test for statistical discrimination. Our evidence comes from a correspondence test performed in France, in which we use three different kinds of ethnic identification: French sounding names, North African sounding names, and “foreign” sounding names with no clear ethnic association. Within both male and female groups, we show that all non-French applicants are equally discriminated against when compared to French applicants. This indicates that racial discrimination in employment is directed against members of non-majority ethnic groups, and highlights the importance of favoritism for in-group members. Moreover we find direct evidence of homophily: recruiters with European names are more likely to call back French named applicants and female recruiters are more likely to call back women. The paper also directly tests for statistical discrimination by adding a signal related to language skill ability in all resumes sent to half the job offers. Although the signal inclusion significantly impacts the discrimination experienced by non-French females, it is much weaker for male minorities. |
| Keywords: | correspondence testing; gender discrimination; racial discrimination; ethnic homophily; language skills |
| JEL: | J15 J64 J71 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpm:docweb:1313&r=dem |
| By: | Emiko Higami (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University); Kenichi Tomobe (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University); Makoto Hanashima (Institute of areal Studies, Foundation) |
| Abstract: | The average infant mortality rate (IMR) was 155.4 in rural areas in Japan, and IMR in Osaka city was 231.6 during 1906 to 1910. The outstanding level of IMR in Osaka city might have been influenced by somewhat negative urban factors, which we can call the gurban penalty.h Dr. Hiroshi Maruyama discovered the ƒ¿-index in 1938. The ƒ¿-index represents infant mortality number divided by neonatal mortality number. After all, Maruyama set one month after birth as a boundary to divide endogenous and exogenous. The ƒ¿-index shows a qualitative measure of infant mortality. Post neonatal mortality was increased due to acquired diseases such as diarrhea, pneumonia and beriberi. This shows that the effect of the urban penalty was raising the ƒ¿-index. The ƒ¿-index of the industrial zones shows that bad maternal conditions affected endogenous factors. Most mothers suffered from a deficiency of breast-feeding capability. The first reason was anemia. The second reason was mothersf ignorance about breast-feeding. The third reason was motherfs illnesses. They had to rely on bottle-feeding without any knowledge to handle artificial milk. Those babies often died from diarrhea or pneumonia. |
| Keywords: | Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Breast-feeding, ƒ¿-index, diarrhea, visiting nurses |
| JEL: | J13 N35 R23 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:1330&r=dem |
| By: | Timo Hener; Helmut Rainer; Thomas Siedler |
| Abstract: | Over the last several decades, there has been a widespread decrease in civic engagement coinciding with a breakdown in traditional family structures in many countries throughout the developed world. According to Putnam in Bowling alone (2000), however, none of the major declines in civic engagement can be accounted for by the decline in traditional family structures. In this paper, we seek to contribute a robust picture of how adult civic engagement is affected by growing up in a non-intact family. Using 26 waves of annual longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we construct various measures of family structure during childhood, and perform both cross-sectional and sibling difference analyses for different indicators of young adults’ civic engagement. Both exercises reveal a significant negative relationship between growing up in a non-intact family and children’s civic, social and political engagement as adults. We argue that this finding is consistent with causation rather than selection as the explanation for the negative relationship, and provide several robustness checks to support this claim. |
| Keywords: | Childhood family structure, civic engagement, social capital |
| JEL: | J12 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp612&r=dem |
| By: | Gabin Langevin (Université de Rennes 1, CREM CNRS UMR 6211, France); Pascaline Vincent (Université de Rennes 1, CREM CNRS UMR 6211, France) |
| Abstract: | Determination and changes of immigrants' identity resulting from intercultural contacts impact their socio-economic integration. To precisely assess individuals’ identity, we propose a continuous index which aims to overcome interpretation troubles faced by usual measures of ethnic identity. Then, we investigate the determinants of immigrants' ethnic identity in France. We compare our composite and continuous index exhibiting individuals' assimilation with a usual measure of ethnic identity – the national identity ("I feel French" dummy). We underline the importance of some sociodemographic characteristics in ethnic identity formation and detail immigrants' assimilation in France. We are thus able to show that cultural assimilation and national identity do not always coincide. It seems that the further the origin (in cultural terms), the higher the national identity, but the lower the assimilation. We also present evidence of second generations' identity convergence to natives’ one, either in terms of national identity (almost total commitment) or assimilation. |
| Keywords: | ethnicity, ethnic identity, first and second generation immigrants, integration, assimilation |
| JEL: | J15 D63 Z13 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tut:cremwp:201341&r=dem |
| By: | Johanna Catherine Maclean; Douglas Webber; Jody L. Sindelar |
| Abstract: | In this study we examine the importance of assimilation and ethnic enclave residence for smoking outcomes among United States immigrants. We draw data on over 140,000 immigrants from the Current Population Survey Tobacco Use Supplements between 1995 and 2011. Several patterns emerge from our analysis. First we replicate findings from previous studies that show that longer residence in the U.S is associated with improved employment outcomes while ethnic enclave residence may hinder these outcomes. Second, we find that assimilation similarly extends to coverage of employment-based anti-smoking policies such as worksite smoking bans and smoking cessation programs while enclave residence does not substantially influence these outcomes. Third, we document complex relationships between assimilation, enclave residence, and smoking outcomes. Lastly, we find no strong evidence that immigrants reduce their smoking when faced with more restrictive state anti-smoking policies and find counter-intuitive impacts of tobacco taxes. These findings have important policy implications. |
| JEL: | I1 I18 J18 J48 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19753&r=dem |
| By: | Sergi Jiménez-Martín; Cristina Vilaplana Prieto |
| Abstract: | In a world in which the welfare state is under pressure, understanding the dynamic effects of money transfers from parents to adult children and their relationship with informal care can be relevant for policy purposes. We use the first two waves of the Survey of Health and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to estimate a double-hurdle model for a parental decision to provide financial support for adult children and the amount involved, taking into account the potential endogeneity of informal caregiving. We find that informal caregivers receive less frequent transfers and less generous amounts than non-caregivers. This offers support for the idea of a form of sophisticated altruistic behavior, according to which caregiving costs are outweighed by the parent’s benefits. Regarding public policies, we find that while increased unemployment benefits would not generate any crowding-out effect in parental transfers, a reduction in long-term public care benefits has a negative multiplier effect on parental transfers. |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2013-25&r=dem |
| By: | Jeremy Greenwood (University of Pennsylvania); Nezih Guner (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona); Georgi Kocharkov (University of Konstanz); Cezar Santos (University of Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | Has there been an increase in positive assortative mating? Does assortative mating contribute to household income inequality? Data from the United States Census Bureau suggests there has been a rise in assortative mating. Additionally, assortative mating affects household income inequality. In particular, if matching in 2005 between husbands and wives had been random, instead of the pattern observed in the data, then the Gini coefficient would have fallen from the observed 0.43 to 0.34, so that income inequality would be smaller. Thus, assortative mating is important for income inequality. The high level of married female labor-force participation in 2005 is important for this result. |
| Keywords: | Assortative mating, contingency table, Gini coefficient, income inequality, Lorenz curve, married female labor-force participation |
| JEL: | D31 J11 J12 J22 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eag:rereps:23&r=dem |
| By: | Qing Li (McMaster University); Arthur Sweetman (McMaster University) |
| Abstract: | International test scores are used to proxy the quality of source country educational outcomes and explain differences in the rate of return to schooling among immigrants in Canada. The average quality of educational outcomes in an immigrant’s source country and the rate of return to schooling in the host country labour market are found to have a strong and positive association. However, in contrast to those who completed their education pre-immigration, immigrants who arrived at a young age are not influenced by this educational quality measure. Also, the results are not much affected when the source country’s GDP per capita and other nation-level characteristics are used as control variables. Together, these observations reinforce the argument that the quality of educational outcomes has explanatory power for labour market outcomes. The effects are strongest for males and for females without children. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Quality of Education, Earnings |
| JEL: | I21 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1332&r=dem |