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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Chan, Marc K. (University of Technology, Sydney); Liu, Kai (University of Cambridge) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the importance of various mechanisms by which child care policies can affect life-cycle patterns of employment and fertility among women, as well as long-run cognitive outcomes among children. A structural life-cycle model of employment, fertility, and child care use is estimated using Norwegian administrative data. The estimation exploits a large-scale child care reform, which provided generous cash transfers to mothers who did not use formal child care facilities. Combining with administrative data on national test scores, we examine the effects of mother's behavior on long-run cognitive outcomes of children, via estimating a cognitive ability production function that corrects for the endogeneity of inputs. We find that the child care reform generates sizable changes in employment and fertility decisions, especially among low-education women. This leads to lower reading scores among children, primarily as a result of mothers shifting away from formal care and becoming employed. Simulation results suggest that a partial reform, in which workers are ineligible for cash transfers, can generate a more balanced impact on the population. The implications of tax policy and maternity leave are also investigated. |
| Keywords: | child care, maternal employment, cognitive production function |
| JEL: | D91 J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9377&r=all |
| By: | Larsen, Mona (Danish National Centre for Social Research (SFI)); Pedersen, Peder J. (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | In most OECD member countries labor force attachment has increased in recent years in the 60+ group. Focus in the paper is on the development in this area in Denmark, Norway and Sweden since the 1990s. The development in the same period in the German labor market is included as a frame of reference. Main emphasis is given to the development in two distinct age groups, i.e. people in the first half of the 60s of which many are eligible for early retirement programs and people older than 65 mostly eligible for social security retirement programs. For these two age groups the actual development in labor force participation is described based on register data and on labor force surveys along with indicators of cohort relevant changes in education and health. Focus in the paper includes also the gender aspect to accommodate stronger cohort effects for women than for men. The impact on labor force participation from individual education and from self-assessed health is analyzed based on available micro data. Policy reforms and changes in the retirement area have been enacted since the mid-1990s in the included countries and more sweeping reforms are enacted or under review for the years ahead. We include a brief survey of policy changes in the Scandinavian countries and Germany as other determinants of labor force participation in the 60 and older group. |
| Keywords: | employment, older workers, health, education, program changes |
| JEL: | I15 I25 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9393&r=all |
| By: | Igei, Kengo; Yuki, Takako |
| Abstract: | Parental perceptions have been considered important for the primary school enrollment of girls, particularly in countries where female activities are constrained by social norms and values. In Yemen, primary school enrollment steadily improved throughout the 2000s, but the gender gap still remains. We conducted a comprehensive survey of households and schools in rural Yemen, in which fathers and mothers were separately asked about their educational aspirations for girls and their general attitudes toward girls’ education, the marriage age for girls, and their attitudes toward women in the workforce. This paper describes the perceptions of fathers and mothers, and empirically examines their relationship to primary school enrollment for girls aged 6-9 years and 10-14 years, controlling for both demand- and supply-side factors. As a result, we observe a certain degree of variation in paternal and maternal perceptions among households and son preference in both the paternal and maternal aspirations. The regression analyses reveal that both the paternal and the maternal aspirations, and the son preference in their aspirations are strongly related to the enrollment of older girls. Additionally, the analyses show that other paternal perceptions of girls’ education, the desirable marriage age, and women in the workforce are statistically significant for older girls. We also found that paternal perceptions are more highly correlated to the enrollment of both younger and older girls than maternal perceptions, and that the supply-side factors such as the qualification of teachers and the presence of female teachers are also significant to the enrollment of girls. |
| Keywords: | access , primary education , gender , Yemen |
| Date: | 2015–08–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jic:wpaper:107&r=all |
| By: | Francesca Carta (Bank of Italy); Lucia Rizzica (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | We theoretically show that when mothers need to buy childcare services not only if they work but also if they want to search actively for a job, a reduction in the price of childcare will increase their likelihood of searching but may decrease their willingness to accept a job offer and therefore lower employment. We test these predictions empirically by means of a Regression Discontinuity design and find that the introduction in Italy of pre-kindergarten, a much cheaper alternative to day care for 2-year-old children, increased both participation in the labour market and employment of mothers of eligible children. This effect was driven largely by a significant decrease in the stated reservation wage. |
| Keywords: | childcare, female labour supply, public services |
| JEL: | J13 J16 H41 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1030_15&r=all |
| By: | Herrera, Catalina (Northeastern University); Sahn, David E. (Cornell University) |
| Abstract: | Female secondary school attendance has recently increased in Sub-Saharan Africa and so has the risk of becoming pregnant while attending school. Using panel data in Madagascar, we analyze the impact of teenage pregnancy on young women's human capital. We instrument early pregnancy with the young woman's community-level access, and exposure to condoms since age 15. We control for an extensive set of community social and economic infrastructure characteristics to deal with the endogeneity of program placement and conduct several robustness checks to validate our instruments. Early childbearing increases the likelihood of dropping out of school by 42 % and decreases the chances of completing secondary school by 44%. This school-pregnancy related dropout is associated with a reduction of 1.1 standard deviations in Math and French test scores. Delaying the first birth by a year increases the probability of current enrollment by 5% and the test scores by 0.2 standard deviations. |
| Keywords: | fertility, female education, cognitive skills, instrumental variables, Madagascar |
| JEL: | I25 J13 O15 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9362&r=all |
| By: | Javdani, Mohsen (University of British Columbia, Okanagan); McGee, Andrew (Simon Fraser University) |
| Abstract: | We estimate gender differences in internal promotion experiences for a representative sample of Canadian workers using linked employer-employee data. We find that women in Canada are 3 percentage points less likely to be promoted and have received fewer promotions than similar men, but these differences stem almost entirely from gender differences in industry and occupation. By contrast, women experience an estimated 2.9 percent less wage growth in the year of a promotion than similar men even after controlling for industry, occupation, and firm effects – though a significant "family gap" exists among women as single women and women without children experience essentially the same wage returns to promotion as men. |
| Keywords: | promotions, gender wage gap |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J62 J71 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9380&r=all |
| By: | Kato, Takao (Colgate University); Kodama, Naomi (Hitotsubashi University) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses unique firm-level panel data from Japan and provides new evidence on the possible impact on gender equality in the workplace of human resources management (HRM) practices. Specifically we consider a number of work-life balance (WLB) practices that are developed in part to enhance gender equality as well as performance-related pay (PRP) that is one of the most often discussed changes in the Japanese HRM system in recent years. Our fixed effect estimates indicate that daycare service assistance (onsite daycare services and daycare service allowances) has a gradual yet significant positive effect on the share of women in the firm's core labor force and the proportion of female directors. However, transition period part-time work is found to result in a decrease in the proportion of female directors (or exacerbating gender inequality in management). Turning to PRP, the fixed effect estimates suggest that a switch from the traditional wage system that rewards workers for their long-term skill development through on-the-job training within the firm to PRP that makes pay more sensitive to shorter-term performance will result in a fall in the proportion of female directors. We also find that the adverse effect on gender equality of PRP is fully mediated by having a more objective performance evaluation system; a more transparent decision making process; and a more systematic, explicit and formal training program. This finding can be interpreted as evidence pointing to gender discrimination in the workplace. In designing, developing and revising public policy instruments to achieve Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ambitious policy goal of "increasing the share of women in leadership positions to at least 30% by 2020 in all fields in society," policy makers may need to pay particular attention to heterogeneous efficacy of specific WLB practices and the adverse effect of PRP as well as the mediating role played by management by objectives (MBO), information sharing, and systematic training program. |
| Keywords: | work-life balance, performance-related pay, pay for performance, HRM practices, gender equality, gender diversity, Japan |
| JEL: | M5 J16 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9379&r=all |
| By: | Linda N. Edwards (Ph.D. Program in Economics, Graduate Center, CUNY); Takuya Hasebe (Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan); Tadashi Sakai (Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan) |
| Abstract: | Prompted by concordant upward trends in both the university advancement rate and the unmarried rate for Japanese women, this paper investigates whether the Equal Employment Opportunity Act (EEOA), which was passed in 1985, affected women•s marriage decisions either directly or via their decisions to pursue university education. To this end, we estimate a model that treats education and marriage decisions as jointly determined using longitudinal data for Japanese women. We find little evidence that the passage of EEOA increased the proportion of women who advance to university, but strong support for the proposition that it increased the deterrent effect of university education on marriage. |
| Keywords: | Equal Employment Opportunity Act, marriage, university education |
| JEL: | J12 J24 I21 K31 |
| Date: | 2015–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgc:wpaper:007&r=all |