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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Raquel Fonseca Benito; Arie Kapteyn; Jinkook Lee; Gema Zamarro |
| Abstract: | Continued improvements in life expectancy and fiscal insolvency of public pensions have led to an increase in pension entitlement ages in several countries, but its consequences for subjective well-being are largely unknown. Financial consequences of retirement complicate the estimation of effects of retirement on subjective well-being as financial circumstances may influence subjective well-being, and therefore, the effects of retirement are likely to be confounded by the change in income. At the same time, unobservable determinants of income are probably related with unobservable determinants of subjective wellbeing, making income possibly endogenous if used as control in subjective wellbeing regressions. To address these issues, we estimate a simultaneous model of retirement, income, and subjective well-being while accounting for time effects and unobserved individual effects. Public pension arrangements (replacement rates, eligibility rules for early and full retirement) serve as instrumental variables. We use data from HRS and SHARE for the period 2004-2010. We find that depressive symptoms are negatively related to retirement while life satisfaction is positively related. Remarkably, income does not seem to have a significant effect on depression or life satisfaction. This is in contrast with the correlations in the raw data that show significant relations between income and depression and life satisfaction. This suggests that accounting for the endogeneity of income in equations explaining depression or life satisfaction is important. |
| Keywords: | Well-being, Retirement, Institutions, Simultaneous Equation Approach, |
| JEL: | I3 J26 |
| Date: | 2015–02–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2015s-07&r=dem |
| By: | Hielke Buddelmeyer (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne; and Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)); Daniel S. Hamermesh (Department of Economics and CentER, Tilburg University; Department of Economics, The University of Melbourne; CESifo (Munich); Centre for Economic Policy Research (London); and Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)); Mark Wooden (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne; and Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)) |
| Abstract: | We use longitudinal data describing couples in Australia from 2001-12 and Germany from 2002-12 to examine how demographic events affect perceived time and financial stress. Consistent with the view of measures of stress as proxies for the Lagrangean multipliers in models of household production, we show that births increase time stress, especially among mothers, and that the effects last at least several years. Births generally also raise financial stress slightly. The monetary equivalent of the costs of the extra time stress is very large. While the departure of a child from the home reduces parents’ time stress, its negative impacts on the tightness of the time constraints are much smaller than the positive impacts of a birth. |
| Keywords: | Births, children, financial stress, GSOEP, HILDA Survey, time stress |
| JEL: | J12 J13 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2015n01&r=dem |
| By: | Daniela Del Boca |
| Abstract: | In this paper we review recent literature on the link between child care and women’s labor supply. The growing labor market participation of women has raised many concerns since it implies less time spent with the children and greater reliance on external forms of care. Focusing on studies examining the US, Canada and several European countries, we compare and discuss their methodologies and empirical results as well as their implications for child care policies. Most of the results suggest that the impact of child care availability and costs are stronger for mothers' labor supply among more disadvantaged backgrounds. Child care programs aimed at lower income and less educated families have important implications for EU targets on child poverty and mothers’ employment. |
| Keywords: | child care, household choices, mothers’ labor supply |
| JEL: | J13 I2 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hdl:improv:1504&r=dem |
| By: | Stefania Albanesi (Federal Reserve Bank of New York); Claudia Olivetti (Boston University and NBER) |
| Abstract: | Maternal mortality was the second largest cause of death for women in childbearing years up until the mid-1930s in the United States. For each death, twenty times as many mothers were estimated to suffer pregnancy related conditions, often leading to severe and prolonged disablement. Poor maternal health made it particularly hard for mothers to engage in market work. Between 1930 and 1960 there was a remarkable reduction in maternal mortality and morbidity. We argue that these medical advances, by enabling women to reconcile work and motherhood, were essential for the joint rise in married women's labor force participation and fertility over this period. We also show that the diffusion of infant formula played an important auxiliary role. |
| Keywords: | maternal mortality, female labor force participation, fertility, baby boom, human capital |
| JEL: | I15 J13 J22 N30 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2015-002&r=dem |
| By: | Adrian Chadi (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the EU, University of Trier); Clemens Hetschko (School of Business and Economics, Freie Universitaet Berlin) |
| Abstract: | For representative German panel data, we document that voluntary job switching is associated with higher levels of life satisfaction, though only for some time, whereas forced job changes do not affect life satisfaction clearly. Using plant closures as an exogenous trigger of switching to a new employer, we find that job mobility turns out to be harmful for satisfaction with family life. By investigating people’s lives beyond their workplaces, our study complements research on the well-being impact of labour mobility, suggesting some positive welfare effects of flexible labour markets, but also a previously undocumented potential for negative implications. |
| Keywords: | life satisfaction, satisfaction with family life, job changes, honeymoon-hangover effect, employment protection legislation |
| JEL: | I31 J28 J61 J63 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iaa:dpaper:201502&r=dem |
| By: | Floriza Gennari; Anne-Marie Urban; Jennifer McCleary-Sills; Diana Arango; Sveinung Kiplesund |
| Keywords: | Social Protections and Labor - Disability Health, Nutrition and Population - Adolescent Health Education - Education For All Education - Primary Education Gender - Gender and Development |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:21088&r=dem |
| By: | Romina Boarini; Marcos Díaz |
| Abstract: | Recent research suggests that younger generations are less likely to be engaged in formal political participation than older ones. However, there is little evidence on the trends for non-formal participation (e.g. signing petitions, demonstrations, etc.) This paper tries to fill a gap in this field by looking at the evolution of extra-parliamentary participation in politics through various measures of civic and political engagement, based on data from six waves of the European Social Survey. The paper confirms that younger generations in European countries participate less in politics through formal activities. A similar trend is observed for extra-parliamentary participation, although this trend is less clear-cut. The results also show that the financial crisis of 2007-2009 witnessed a halt in the downward trend of period effects in the various forms of political participation, followed by the increase of period effects on both formal and extra-parliamentary political participation in the subsequent years (2011-2012.) |
| Date: | 2015–02–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stdaaa:2015/2-en&r=dem |
| By: | Jonathan Wadsworth |
| Abstract: | During periods of strong economic growth, migration is and has always been important for filling gaps in the labour market. Perceptions do not seem to line up with the existing academic evidence. On balance, the evidence for the UK labour market suggests that fears about adverse consequences of rising immigration in general and EU immigration in particular have still not, on average, materialised. It is hard to find evidence of much displacement of UK workers or lower wages, on average. Immigrants, especially in recent years, tend to be younger and better educated than the UK-born and less likely to be unemployed. Future migration trends will, as ever, depend on relative economic performance and opportunity. But we still need to know more about the effects of rising immigration beyond the labour market in such areas as prices, health, crime and welfare. |
| Keywords: | immigration, European Union, UK, government policy, education, labour market, jobs, wages |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepeap:019&r=dem |
| By: | Margolis, David N.; Miotti, Luis; Mouhoud, El Mouhoub; Oudinet, Joël |
| Abstract: | In this paper, using an original survey, we analyze the distributional impact of international migration across two regions of Algeria. A semi-parametric descriptive analysis is comple- mented with a parametric model. Remittances do not significantly change the Gini coefficient in nearly any of the counterfactual scenarios. However, migration reduced poverty by 40 per- cent, with different effects across regions for extreme poverty. Foreign transfers, especially foreign pensions, have a strong positive impact on very poor families in one region. Poor families in the other region suffer from a “double loss”: their migrants do not provide local income and they do not send much money home. |
| Keywords: | Inequality; migration; pensions; poverty; remittances; |
| JEL: | F24 O15 O55 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dau:papers:123456789/14683&r=dem |