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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Kai-Uwe Müller; Katharina Wrohlich |
| Abstract: | We apply a structural model of mothers' labor supply and child care choices to evaluate the effects of two childcare reforms in Germany that were introduced simultaneously in August 2013. First, a legal claim to subsidized child care became effective for all children aged one year or older. Second, a new benefit called 'Betreuungsgeld' came into effect that is granted to families who do not use public or publicly subsidized child care. Both reforms target children of the same age group and are unconditional on the parents' income or employment status, yet affect mothers' incentives for labor supply and child care choices in opposite directions. Our model facilitates estimating the joint reform impact as well as disentangling the individual effects of both policies. A comprehensive data set with information on labor supply, the use of and potential access restrictions to various child care arrangements provides the basis for the empirical analysis. We find the overall effect of both reforms to be small but positive as far as mother's labor supply and the use of formal care is concerned. The legal claim's positive impact on mothers' labor supply and the use of formal child care is largely offset by the negative effect on both outcomes resulting from the introduction of the 'Betreuungsgeld'. |
| Keywords: | Family policy, labor supply, child care, policy evaluation, structural model |
| JEL: | J22 J18 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp684&r=dem |
| By: | Enkelejda Havari (University of Venice "Cà Foscari"); Franco Peracchi (University of Rome "Tor Vergata" and EIEF) |
| Abstract: | We study the long-term consequences of war on health and human capital of Europeans born during the first half of the twentieth century, a period that has been termed the "era of two world wars". This period includes not only WW1 and WW2, but also the Spanish Flu and a long series of armed con icts which foreshadowed or followed the two world wars. Using a variety of data, at both the macro- and the micro-level, we address the following questions: What are the patterns of mortality and survival among people born during this era? What are the consequences of early-life shocks on the health and human capital of the survivors some 50 years later? Do these consequences differ by gender, socio-economic status in childhood, and age when the shocks occurred? We find that mortality is much higher in war- than in non-war countries during WW1 and WW2, but not during the Spanish Flu. We also find important differences between WW1 and WW2 in the mortality patterns by gender and age. As for the long-term consequences of mortality shocks on the survivors, we find little evidence of increased adult mortality for people born during WW1 and WW2, but some evidence for people born during the Spanish Flu, especially, in England and Wales, France and Italy. On the other hand, war-related hardship episodes in childhood or adolescence (in particular exposure to war events and hunger) are strong predictors of physical and mental health, education, cognitive ability and wellbeing past age 50. The magnitude of the estimated effects differs by socio-economic status in childhood and gender, with exposure to war events having a larger impact on females and exposure to hunger having a larger impact on males. We also find that exposure to hunger matters more in childhood, while exposure to war events matters more in adolescence. Finally, we find that hardship episodes have stronger consequences if they last longer. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eie:wpaper:1405&r=dem |
| By: | Verme, Paolo; Barry, Abdoul Gadiry; Guennouni, Jamal |
| Abstract: | Female labor participation in the Arab world is low compared with the level of economic development of Arab countries. Beyond anecdotal evidence and cross-country studies, there is little evidence on what could explain this phenomenon. This paper uses the richest set of panel data available for any Arab country to date to model female labor participation in Morocco. The paper finds marriage, household inactivity rates, secondary education, and gross domestic product per capita to lower female labor participation rates. It also finds that the category urban educated women with secondary education explains better than others the low level of female labor participation. These surprising findings are robust to different estimators, endogeneity tests, different specifications of the female labor participation equations, and different sources of data. The findings are also consistent with previous studies on the Middle East and North Africa region and on Morocco. The explanation seems to reside in the nature of economic growth and gender norms. Economic growth has not been labor intensive, has generated few jobs, and has not been in female-friendly sectors, resulting in weak demand for women, especially urban educated women with secondary education. And when men and women compete for scarce jobs, men may have priority access because of employers'and households'preferences. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Primary Education,Housing&Human Habitats,Labor Markets,Teaching and Learning |
| Date: | 2014–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7031&r=dem |
| By: | Letizia Mencarini; Silvia Pasqua; Agnese Romiti |
| Abstract: | A wide range of sociological and psychological studies have shown that children have different cognitive and behavioural outcomes depending on whether they grow up in intact or non-intact families. These gaps may be attributable to differences in the amounts of time and money parents invest in their children, which can in turn result in differences in the amount of time children invest in educational activities. In this paper, we investigate whether children who live with a single parent devote more or less time to reading and studying at home than children who live with both parents. We use data from the Italian Time Use Survey, which contains a detailed time diary for all of the family members in each surveyed household above the age of three. Focusing on children between five and 18 years old, and controlling for the endogeneity of the family structure, our analysis shows that living in a single-parent household reduces the amount of time children devote to reading and studying. This effect turns out to be driven by single parents—mainly single mothers—who are poor and less educated. In addition, the negative effect of living with a single parent is driven by male children, and is greater for children without siblings. |
| Keywords: | children investments, children outcomes, time-use, single-parent household |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wchild:27&r=dem |
| By: | Giulia La Mattina (Department of Economics, University of South Florida) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the long-term impact of civil conflict on intimate partner violence and women's decision-making power using post-genocide data from Rwanda. Household survey data collected 11 years after the genocide indicate that women who became married after the genocide experience significantly increase intimate partner violence and decreased decision-making power relative to women who became married before. The effect was greater for women in localities with high genocide intensity. I find that variation in the marriage market ratio across localities and over time explain part of the effect of the genocide on intimate partner violence. |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usf:wpaper:0114&r=dem |