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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Creina Day (Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University); Ross S. Guest (Griffith University - School of Accounting and Finance - Gold Coast Campus) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an intertemporal model of household choice where endogenous increases in house prices play an important role in the effect of rising female relative wages on fertility. Households save for a deposit in young age, rear children and repay mortgages in middle age and sell housing in retirement. House prices are determined by a market for housing. The outcome from this model is that fertility: i. increases as female wages rise relative to male wages provided the price elasticity in housing supply is sufficiently high; ii. declines as female relative wages rise if housing supply is fixed; iii. declines as the working age to old age population ratio increases provided the housing supply price elasticity is less than the inverse of elasticity of house prices with respect to the support ratio. These results reconcile recent observations that fertility rebounds with rising house prices and female relative wages in several high income economies, but continues to decline in others and provide a novel mechanism whereby past demographic change impacts current fertility through house prices. |
| JEL: | J13 J16 R21 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:crwfrp:1401&r=dem |
| By: | Colombino, Ugo; Narazani, Edlira (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | TGender based taxation (GBT) has been recently proposed as a promising policy in order to close the gender gap, i.e. promote gender equality and improve women’s status in the labour market and within the family. We use a microeconometric model of household labour supply in order to evaluate, with Italian data, the behavioural and welfare effects of GBT as compared to other policies based on different optimal taxation principles. The comparison is interesting because GBT, although technically correct, might face implementation difficulties not shared by other policies that in turn might produce comparable benefits. Our results support to some extent the expectations of GBT’s proponents. However, it is not an unquestionable success. GBT induces a modest increase of women’s employment, but similar effects can be attained by universal subsidies on low wages. When the policies are evaluated in terms of welfare, GBT ranks first among single women but among couples and in the whole population the best policies are unconditional transfers and/or subsidies on low wages. |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:201412&r=dem |
| By: | L. Rachel Ngai (London School of Economics (LSE), Centre for Economic Performance (CEP); Centre for Macroeconomics (CFM)); Barbara Petrongolo (Queen Mary, School of Economics and Finance; London School of Economics (LSE), Centre for Economic Performance (CEP)) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the role of the rise of services in the narrowing of gender gaps in hours and wages in recent decades. We document the between-industry component of the rise in female work for the U.S., and propose a model economy with goods, services and home production, in which women have a comparative advantage in producing market and home services. The rise of services, driven by structural transformation and marketization of home production, acts as a gender-biased demand shift raising women?s relative wages and market hours. Quantitatively, the model accounts for an important share of the observed trends. |
| Keywords: | gender gaps, structural transformation, marketization |
| JEL: | E24 J22 J16 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfm:wpaper:1404&r=dem |
| By: | Chia-Lin Chang; Wei-Chen Chen; Michael McAleer (University of Canterbury) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the determinants of very low birth weight infant (or neonatal) mortality using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research database from 1997 to 2009. After infants are discharged from hospital, it is not possible to track their mortality, so the Cox proportional hazard model is used to analyze the very low birth weight infant mortality rate. In order to clarify treatment responsibility and to avoid selective referral effects, we use the number of infants treated in the preceding five years to observe the effect of a physician’s and hospital’s medical experience on the mortality rate of hospitalized minimal birth weight infants. The empirical results show that, given disease control variables, a higher infant weight, higher quality hospitals, increased hospital medical experience, and higher investment in pediatrics can reduce the mortality rate significantly. However, an increased physician’s medical experience does not seem to influence significantly the very low birth weight infant mortality rate. |
| Keywords: | Very low birth weight, Neonatal mortality, Physician’s infant experience, Hospital infant experience, Statistical analysis, Cox proportional hazard model, Selective referral, Taiwan National Health Insurance Scheme |
| JEL: | C41 I10 I13 I18 |
| Date: | 2014–06–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbt:econwp:14/15&r=dem |
| By: | Cygan-Rehm, Kamila; Riphahn, Regina |
| Abstract: | We study the development of teenage fertility in East and West Germany using data from the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP) and from the German Mikrozensus. Following the international literature we derive hypotheses on the patterns of teenage fertility and test whether they are relevant in the German case. We find that teenage fertility is associated with teenage age and education, with the income of the teenager's family, with migration status, residence in East Germany, and aggregate unemployment. Our evidence supports countercyclical teenage fertility. -- |
| Keywords: | teenage fertility,abortion,unemployment,East and West Germany,population economics |
| JEL: | J13 Z18 I00 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwqwdp:052014&r=dem |
| By: | Matthias Doepke (Northwestern University); Fabrizio Zilibotti (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | We develop a theory of intergenerational preference transmission that rationalizes the choice between parenting styles. Parents maximize an objective function that combines Beckerian altruism and paternalism towards children. They can affect their children's choices via two channels: either by influencing children's preferences or by imposing direct restrictions on their choice sets. Different parenting styles (authoritarian, authoritative, permissive) emerge as equilibrium outcomes, and are affected both by parental preferences and by the socioeconomic environment. The theory is consistent with the decline of authoritarian parenting in industrialized countries, and with the greater prevalence of permissive parenting in countries characterized by low inequality. |
| Keywords: | Parenting Style, Intergenerational Preference Transmission, Paternalism, Occupational Choice |
| JEL: | D10 J10 O10 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2014-013&r=dem |