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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Philipp Ager (University of Southern Denmark); Casper Worm Hansen (Aarhus University); Peter Sandholt Jensen (University of Southern Denmark) |
| Abstract: | We examine how the introduction of smallpox vaccination affected early-life mortality and fertility in Sweden during the first half of the 19th century. We demonstrate that parishes in counties with higher levels of smallpox mortality prior to the introduction of vaccination experienced a greater decline in infant mortality afterwards. Exploiting this finding in an instrumental-variable approach reveals that this decline had a negative effect on the birth rate, while the number of surviving children and population growth remained unaffected. These results suggest that the decline in early-life mortality cannot account for the onset of the fertility decline in Sweden. |
| Keywords: | Fertility transition, infant mortality, smallpox vaccine |
| JEL: | J10 J13 I15 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0058&r=dem |
| By: | Carro, Jesus; Machado, Matilde Pinto; Mora, Ricardo |
| Abstract: | Recently, economists have established that culture defined as a common set of preferences and beliefs—affects economic outcomes, including the levels of female labor force participation. Although this literature has argued that culture is transmitted from parents to children, it has also recognized the difficulty in empirically disentangling the parental transmission of preferences and/or beliefs from other confounding factors, such as technological change or investment in education. Using church registry data from the 18th and 19th centuries, our primary contribution is to interpret the effect of a mother’s labor participation status on that of her daughter as the mother-to-daughter transmission of preferences and/or beliefs that are isolated from confounding effects. Because our data are characterized by abundant non-ignorable missing information, we estimate the participation model and the missing process jointly by maximum likelihood. Our results reveal that the mother’s working status has a large and statistically significant positive effect on the daughter’s probability of working. These findings suggest that intergenerational family transmission of preferences and/or beliefs played a decisive role in the substantial increases in female labor force participation that occurred later. |
| Keywords: | church registry data; econometric methods for missing data; Female labor market participation; historical family data; intergenerational transmission of preferences and/or beliefs; non-ignorable missingness |
| JEL: | J12 J16 J22 J24 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10218&r=dem |
| By: | Gagliarducci, Stefano (University of Rome Tor Vergata); Paserman, M. Daniele (Boston University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we use a large linked employer-employee data set on German establishments between 1993 and 2012 to investigate how the gender composition of the top layer of management affects a variety of establishment and worker outcomes. We use two different measures to identify the gender composition of the top layer based on direct survey data: the fraction of women among top managers, and the fraction of women among working proprietors. We document the following facts: a) There is a strong negative association between the fraction of women in the top layer of management and several establishment outcomes, among them business volume, investment, total wage bill per worker, total employment, and turnover; b) Establishments with a high fraction of women in the top layer of management are more likely to implement female-friendly policies, such as providing childcare facilities or promoting and mentoring female junior staff; c) The fraction of women in the top layer of management is also negatively associated with employment and wages, both male and female, full-time and part-time. However, all of these associations vanish when we include establishment fixed effects and establishment-specific time trends. This reveals a substantial sorting of female managers across establishments: small and less productive establishments that invest less, pay their employees lower wages, but are more female-friendly are more likely to be led by women. |
| Keywords: | gender, firm performance, employer-employee data |
| JEL: | D22 J16 J70 M50 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8647&r=dem |
| By: | Geiler, P.H.M. (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research); Renneboog, L.D.R. (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Abstract: Are female top managers paid less than their male counterparts? Is the gender gap higher in male-dominated industries? What effect on pay do female non-executive directors and remuneration consultants exert? While we find no pay gap for the figure-head (CEO), there is strong pay discrimination at the level of the other top managers. These female executive directors earn over a five-year tenure period £1.3 million less than male directors, and this pay gap is visible for all components of pay. The pay gap is lower for executives in firms with one or more female non-executives. Female executives in ‘male’ industries receive less remuneration than male executives but the gender pay gap is smaller. The advice of top remuneration consultants does not reduce the pay gap. |
| Keywords: | executive compensation; gender pay gap; gender discrimination; pay-for-performance; glass ceiling; glass cliff |
| JEL: | J31 J33 M52 G30 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiucen:fcd642f1-0ea8-481d-b6d9-d47e3242f5d0&r=dem |
| By: | Kai Liu (Norwegian school of economics); Marc Chan (University of Technology Sydney) |
| Abstract: | In 1998, Norway implemented the cash-for-care reform ("kontant stoette"), which provided cash to families with young children who did not use government-subsidized child care facilities. The reform resulted in a sizable exogenous change in the relative price of child care facilities, which interacted with pre-existing regional variations in the child care system. Using administrative data from 1995 to 2010, we examine the effects of the reform by estimating a dynamic structural model of maternal employment, fertility, and child care use for multiple children. We investigate the effects of such behavioral changes on the long-run cognitive outcomes of children, by estimating a cognitive ability production function with data on national test scores. Numerical results from several counterfactual exercises, including budget analysis, are presented. In particular, we compare the effects of existing and alternative child care polices with the effects of the maternity leave system. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed014:593&r=dem |
| By: | Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio (University of Zaragoza); Molina, José Alberto (University of Zaragoza); Zhu, Yu (University of Dundee) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the relationship between parents' time devoted to housework and the time devoted to housework by their children. Using data from the Multinational Time Use Study for the UK, we find positive intergenerational correlations in housework for both parents, indicating that the more time parents devote to housework, the more time their children will devote to housework. However, when endogeneity of the uses of time are considered using the British Household Panel Survey, we find that only fathers' housework time appears to have a statistically significant effect. The IV estimates fully support the FE estimates and suggest that father's housework induced by his partner's non-traditional gender role attitudes towards domestic division of labour and her actual labour supply in the previous wave, has a large and significant effect on children's housework time. Our results contribute to the field of intergenerational mobility of behaviors. |
| Keywords: | housework, household, intergenerational transfers, Multinational Time Use Study, British Household Panel Survey |
| JEL: | J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8674&r=dem |
| By: | Facchini, Giovanni; Patacchini, Eleonora; Steinhardt, Max |
| Abstract: | In this paper we contribute to the analysis of the assimilation process of migrants by analyzing the extent to which friendship with natives can be seen as a measure of cultural assimilation and investigating the formation of social ties in the host country. Using novel information from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we find that migrants with a German friend are more similar to natives than those without a local companion along several important dimensions, including concerns about the economy, interest in politics and broad policy issues like the environment, crime, and xenophobia. When looking at the determinants of friendship acquisition, we find that becoming employed is a significant driver of social network variation. Other factors affecting ties with the native population include the number of years the migrant has spent in the country, the birth of a child, residential mobility and additional education in the host country. |
| Keywords: | Culture; Ethnic minorities; Friendship Formation; Migration |
| JEL: | A14 J15 J61 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10032&r=dem |
| By: | Halldén, Karin (SOFI, Stockholm University); Stenberg, Anders (SOFI, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | In 2007, a tax discount reform in Sweden reduced prices of outsourced domestic services (ODS) by 50 percent. Unlike most previous studies, population register data enable us to directly link a proxy for relaxed time constraints, annual changes in households' tax discounts, to changes in earnings. We find that 60 percent of married women's freed hours are applied to labor market work, which tapers off when ODS corresponds to approximately three weeks of full time work. This is substantially higher than previously reported estimates. A causal interpretation is supported by "placebo tests", and we carefully outline the assumptions required. |
| Keywords: | household work, outsourcing, female labor supply |
| JEL: | H2 J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8675&r=dem |
| By: | Junjian Yi (The University of Chicago); James J. Heckman (The University of Chicago); Junsen Zhang (Chinese University of Hong Kong); Gabriella Conti (University College London) |
| Abstract: | An open question in the literature is whether families compensate or reinforce the impact of child health shocks. Discussions usually focus on one dimension of child investment. This paper examines multiple dimensions using household survey data on Chinese child twins whose average age is 11. We find that, compared with a twin sibling who did not suffer from negative early health shocks at ages 0-3, the other twin sibling who did suffer negative health shocks received RMB 305 more in terms of health investments, but received RMB 182 less in terms of educational investments in the 12 months prior to the survey. In terms of financial transfers over all dimensions of investment, the family acts as a net equalizer in response to early health shocks for children. We estimate a human capital production function and establish that, for this sample, early health shocks negatively affect child human capital, including health, education, and socioemotional skills. Compensating investments in health as measured by BMI reduce the adverse effects of health shocks by 50%, but exacerbate the adverse impact of shocks on educational attainment by 30%. |
| Keywords: | early health shocks, intrahousehold resource allocation, human capital formation |
| JEL: | C23 D13 I12 J13 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2014-022&r=dem |
| By: | Clark, Damon (University of California, Irvine); Del Bono, Emilia (ISER, University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the impact of elite school attendance on long-run outcomes including completed education, income and fertility. Our data consists of individuals born in the 1950s and educated in a UK district that assigned students to either elite or non-elite secondary schools. Using instrumental variables methods that exploit the school assignment formula, we find that elite school attendance had large impacts on completed education. For women, we find that elite school attendance generated positive effects on labor market outcomes and significant decreases in fertility; for men, we find no elite school impacts on any of these later-life outcomes. |
| Keywords: | education, school quality, instrumental variables |
| JEL: | I2 J24 C31 C36 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8617&r=dem |