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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Chevalier, Arnaud (IZA); Marie, Olivier (Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | After the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany experienced an unprecedented temporary drop in fertility driven by economic uncertainty. Using various educational measures, we show that the children born during this nativity slump perform worse from an early age onwards. Consistent with negative selection, mothers who gave birth in that period had worse observed personal characteristics. These children are also less likely to have grown up within stable family environment. Investigating underlying mechanisms reveals that parental educational input and emotional attachment were also lower for these children. Finally, sibling analysis enables us to reject time of birth effects. |
| Keywords: | parental selection, fertility, economic uncertainty, education |
| JEL: | J13 I20 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9004&r=dem |
| By: | Deckers, Thomas (University of Bonn); Falk, Armin (University of Bonn); Kosse, Fabian (University of Bonn); Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah (University of Bonn) |
| Abstract: | We show that socio-economic status (SES) is a powerful predictor of many facets of a child's personality. The facets of personality we investigate encompass time preferences, risk preferences, and altruism, as well as crystallized and fluid IQ. We measure a family's SES by the mother's and father's average years of education and household income. Our results show that children from families with higher SES are more patient, tend to be more altruistic and less likely to be risk seeking, and score higher on IQ tests. We also discuss potential pathways through which SES could affect the formation of a child's personality by documenting that many dimensions of a child's environment differ systematically by SES: parenting style, quantity and quality of time parents spend with their children, the mother's IQ and economic preferences, a child's initial conditions at birth, and family structure. Finally, we use panel data to show that the relationship between SES and personality is fairly stable over time at age 7 to 10. Personality profiles that vary systematically with SES might offer an explanation for social immobility. |
| Keywords: | personality, human capital, risk preferences, time preferences, altruism, experiments with children, origins of preferences, social immobility, socio-economic status |
| JEL: | C90 D64 D90 D81 J13 J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8977&r=dem |
| By: | Sofia Amaral |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the staggered implementation of a legal change in inheritance law in India to estimate the effect of women's improved access to inheritance on both police-reported and self-reported violence against women. I find a decrease in reported violence and female unnatural deaths following the amendments. Further, women eligible for inheritance are 17 percent less likely to be victims of domestic violence. These findings are explained by an improvement in husbands' behaviour and via better marriage market negotiations. However, I find little evidence of changes in women's participation in decision-making. |
| Keywords: | Crime, Domestic Violence, Property Rights, Intra-household |
| JEL: | J12 J16 K42 O15 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bir:birmec:15-10&r=dem |
| By: | Carneiro, Pedro (University College London); Ginja, Rita (Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of permanent and transitory shocks to income on parental investments in children. We use panel data on family income, and an index of investments in children in time and goods, from the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Consistent with the literature focusing on non-durable expenditure, we find that there is only partial insurance of parental investments against permanent income shocks, but the magnitude of the estimated responses is small. We cannot reject the hypothesis full insurance against temporary shocks. Another interpretation of our findings is that there is very little insurance available, but the fact that skill is a non-separable function of parental investments over time results in small reactions of these investments to income shocks, especially at later ages. |
| Keywords: | insurance, human capital, consumption |
| JEL: | D12 D91 I30 J1 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8979&r=dem |
| By: | Maurizio Baussola; Jamie Jenkins; Chiara Mussida; Matthew Penfold (-) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the unemployment gender gap by using a three-state labour market model (Employment, Unemployment, Inactivity) which enables us to determine the equilibrium (steady-state) unemployment rate and the contribution that a single transition probability from each state makes to the unemployment differentials between males and females. This investigation falls within a comparative framework, in that we apply our methodology to the Italian and the UK labour markets. This comparison is relevant in that it considers two diversified institutional contexts, one typical of the so called Anglo-Saxon model, characterised by more flexible labour market legislations, and the continental model, which in contrast involves tighter legislative controls and more restrictive institutions. The analysis draws on the Italian and the UK Labour Force Surveys for the period 2006-2013. In addition, we propose an econometric model which enables us to estimate the determinants of the unemployment gender gaps, in order to pinpoint the relative role of individual characteristics (age, human capital) and other structural factors in determining such a gap. |
| Keywords: | unemployment gender gap, differentials, multinomial models, transition probability matrix. |
| JEL: | C21 C41 J16 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2015–03–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crj:dpaper:5_2015&r=dem |
| By: | Bryan, Mark L. (University of Essex); Bryson, Alex (National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR)) |
| Abstract: | Using data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) we show performance pay (PP) increased earnings dispersion among men and women, and to a lesser extent among full-time working women, in the decade of economic growth which ended with the recession of 2008. PP was also associated with some compression in the lower half of the wage distribution for women. The effects were predominantly associated with a broad measure of PP that included bonuses. However, these effects were modest and there is no indication that PP became increasingly prevalent, as some had predicted, over the decade prior to recession. |
| Keywords: | wages, wage inequality, performance pay, bonuses |
| JEL: | J31 J33 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8995&r=dem |
| By: | Cabane, Charlotte (University of St. Gallen); Hille, Adrian (DIW Berlin); Lechner, Michael (University of St. Gallen) |
| Abstract: | Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, this paper analyses the effects of spending part of adolescents' leisure time on playing music or doing sports, or both. We find that while playing music fosters educational outcomes compared to doing sports, particularly so for girls and children from more highly educated families, doing sports improves subjective health. For educational outcomes, doing both activities appeared to be most successful. The results are subjected to an extensive robustness analysis including instrumental variable estimation and a formal sensitivity analysis of the identifying assumptions, which does not reveal any serious problems. |
| Keywords: | child development, leisure time activities, matching estimation, SOEP |
| JEL: | I12 I18 J24 L83 C21 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8987&r=dem |
| By: | Broadway, Barbara (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research); Kalb, Guyonne (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research); Kuehnle, Daniel (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg); Maeder, Miriam (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | Providing mothers with access to paid parental leave may be an important public policy to improve child and maternal health. Using extensive information from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Children (LSAC), we contribute to the literature by estimating the effect of paid parental leave entitlements on child health up to age seven. Exploiting detailed information on children's health, family background, mothers' pre-birth work histories and mothers' health behaviours during pregnancy within a propensity score matching framework, we show that paid parental leave entitlements reduce the probability of a child having multiple ongoing health conditions, but do not significantly affect any single condition. We find that the effect on multiple conditions is strongest for children from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Our study implies that the provision of paid parental leave, even for short periods (as usually available in Australia), will benefit children's health. |
| Keywords: | child health, parental leave, Australia, LSAC |
| JEL: | I1 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8978&r=dem |
| By: | Tansel, Aysit (Middle East Technical University) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates inequality of opportunity in educational achievements in Turkey over time. For this purpose we use test scores of PISA in mathematics, science and reading achievement of 15-year-olds over the period 2003-2012. Since the different waves of the samples cover only a fraction of the cohorts of 15-year olds we take into account the inequality of opportunity in access to the PISA test as well as the inequality of opportunity of the academic achievement in the PISA test. This procedure enables proper over time comparisons. We estimate the effect of circumstances children are born into on their academic achievement as evidenced in their PISA test scores. The main findings are as follows. First, confirming the previous studies we find that inequality of opportunity is a large part of the inequality of educational achievement in Turkey. Second, the inequality of opportunity in educational achievement shows a slightly decreasing trend over time in Turkey. Third, the inequality of opportunity figures based on the mathematics, science and reading achievements exhibited the similar trend over time. Forth, the family background variables are the most important determinants of the inequality in educational achievement which is a consistent pattern over time. However, there is also evidence of slight weakening of these factors over time. Policies are necessary to improve equality of opportunity in education in Turkey. |
| Keywords: | inequality of opportunity, education, Turkey |
| JEL: | I24 D63 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9005&r=dem |