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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Nele E. Franz |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the wage development of mothers interrupting their careers, in comparison to the wages of men who do not face a parental interruption. We estimate OLS regression models for different subcategories defined by age and point in time. We use data from the German Socioeconomic Panel from 1984 to 2011, to show that wages and the financial penalty for maternity differ according to the duration of interruption. We find a lower wage penalty in the short run for women interrupting their careers who are legally protected, but merely delayed penalties for the same group in the long run. |
| Keywords: | Human capital, parental leave, wages, OLS |
| JEL: | C21 J13 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp722&r=dem |
| By: | Emilia Del Bono ; Marco Francesconi ; Yvonne Kelly ; Amanda Sacker |
| Abstract: | Using large longitudinal survey data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, this paper estimates the effec of maternal time inputs on early child development. We find that maternal time is a quantitatively important determinant of skill formation and that its effect declines with child age. There is evidence of a long shadow of the effect of early maternal time inputs on later outcomes, especially in the cas of cognitive skill develpment. In the case of non-cognitive develpment, this effect disappears when we account for skill persistance. |
| Date: | 2014–10–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esx:essedp:756&r=dem |
| By: | Namasaka, Martin |
| Abstract: | The demographic transition is perhaps the most important event to occur in human affairs during the last 250 years, since the time of the enlightenment. It started in the countries of north-western Europe, and it has gone on to affect the rest of the world (Dyson 2009). Signified by the sustained decline in mortality and subsequently fertility, it has major implications for women’s status within the family and in the society as women become less tied to concerns of the domestic domain. Consequently, the process of the transition, presents an interesting reduction in gender differentiation (Davis, Van den Oever, 1982) with women’s lives becoming more like those of men, rather than the reverse. This paper discusses the consequences the transition for women’s status in both high and low fertility populations by presenting evidence that women gain from the process, however this by no means the end of the story in improvements to issues such as gender equality. |
| Keywords: | Demographic Transition, Women's Status in Society |
| JEL: | I1 I14 I18 I2 I24 I25 J1 J12 J13 J16 J2 J21 |
| Date: | 2015–01–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:61296&r=dem |
| By: | Yanan Li (Cornell University ); Victoria Prowse (Cornell University ) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we explore and compare how older and younger couple house- holds use adjustments in the wife’s labor supply to mitigate the e?ects of negative shocks to the husband’s employment status. Using di?erence-in-di?erences match- ing methods, we document a substantial added worker e?ect for younger house- holds. However, the wives of older men do not increase employment in response to their husbands’ negative employment shocks. Instead, in older households, fe- male unemployment increases. These results are consistent with older women being constrained by the labor market in the extent to which they can adjust their labor supply to mitigate the e?ects of spousal employment shocks. Our ?ndings suggest that spousal labor supply is not an e?ective intra-household insurance device for older households. |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp309&r=dem |
| By: | Markus P. A. Schneider ; Daniele Tavani |
| Abstract: | Following a methodology proposed by Jantzen and Volpert (2012), we use IRS Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) data for the United States (1921-2012) to estimate two Gini-like indices representing inequality at the bottom and the top of the income distribution. We also calculate the overall Gini index as a function of the parameters underlying the two indices. Our findings can be summarized as follows. First, we find that the increase in the Gini index from the mid 1940s to the late 1970s seems to be mostly explained by an increase in inequality at the bottom of the income distribution, which more than offsets the decrease in inequality at the top. The implication is that middle incomes gained relative to high incomes, but especially relative to low incomes. Conversely, it is rising inequality at the top that appears to drive the rise in the Gini index since 1981. Second, inequality at the top of the income distribution follows a U-shaped trajectory over time, similar to the pattern of the share of top incomes documented by Piketty and Saez (2003, 2006) and Atkinson, Piketty, and Saez (2011). Third, the welfare effects of the different forces behind an increasing Gini index can be evaluated in light of the Lorenz-dominance criterion proposed by Atkinson (1970): both top-driven and bottom-driven increases in the index appear not to imply strict Lorenz dominance by previous income distributions, and therefore are not associated with lower welfare in an absolute sense. In a relative sense, however, once average growth rates over the two periods are taken into account, the top-driven increase in inequality since 1981 appears to have been welfare reducing. |
| Keywords: | Income Distribution; Inequality; Gini Index |
| JEL: | D3 D63 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_826&r=dem |
| By: | Chay, Kenneth Y. (Brown University ); Guryan, Jonathan (Northwestern University ); Mazumder, Bhashkar (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago ) |
| Keywords: | Education; racial inequality |
| JEL: | I12 I14 J13 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2014–11–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-2014-28&r=dem |
| By: | John S. Heywood ; Uwe Jirjahn |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the German labor market for older workers. It does so in comparison with other countries and with a unique focus on the role of employer incentives for retaining and hiring older workers. It argues that while employment of older German workers has improved due to changes in government policy, the labor market for older workers remains characterized by far less mobility and opportunity. While we recognize the potential explanations of reduced productivity and age discrimination, we review evidence pointing to the importance of life-cycle contracts (Hutchens 1986, Lazear 1979). These contracts can be efficient but typically imply that older workers will have difficulty being re-hired into career jobs after separation. We suggest that attempts to reduce or eliminate such life-cycle contracts are likely to be counter-productive but suggest how other countries, particularly Japan, have dealt with this issue. |
| Keywords: | Older workers, deferred compensation, productivity, discrimination, labor market institutions |
| JEL: | J14 J33 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trr:wpaper:201502&r=dem |
| By: | Taryn Dinkelman ; Sam Schulhofer-Wohl |
| Abstract: | The direct benefits of infrastructure in developing countries can be large, but if new infrastructure induces in-migration, congestion of other local publicly provided goods may offset the direct benefits. Using the example of rural household electrification in South Africa, we demonstrate the importance of accounting for migration when evaluating welfare gains of spatial programs. We also provide a practical approach to computing welfare gains that does not rely on land prices. We develop a location choice model that incorporates missing land markets and allows for congestion in local land. Using this model, we construct welfare bounds as a function of the income and population effects of the new electricity infrastructure. A novel prediction from the model is that migration elasticities and congestion effects are especially large when land markets are missing. We empirically estimate these welfare bounds for rural electrification in South Africa, and show that congestion externalities from program-induced migration reduced local welfare gains by about 40%. |
| JEL: | H23 H43 H54 O15 O18 R13 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20842&r=dem |