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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Azmat, Ghazala; Ferrer, Rosa |
| Abstract: | This paper documents and studies the gender gap in performance among associate lawyers in the United States. Unlike other high-skilled professions, the legal profession assesses performance using transparent measures that are widely used and comparable across firms: the number of hours billed to clients and the amount of new client revenue generated. We find clear evidence of a gender gap in annual performance with respect to both measures. Male lawyers bill ten percent more hours and bring in more than twice the new client revenue than do female lawyers. We demonstrate that the differential impact across genders in the presence of young children and differences in aspirations to become a law firm partner account for a large share of the difference in performance. We also show that accounting for performance has important consequences for gender gaps in lawyers’ earnings and subsequent promotion. Whereas individual and firm characteristics explain up to 50 percent of the earnings gap, the inclusion of performance measures explains a substantial share of the remainder. Performance measures also explain a sizeable share of the gender gap in promotion. |
| Keywords: | gender gaps; high-skilled professionals; performance measures |
| JEL: | J16 J44 K40 M52 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10867&r=all |
| By: | Hideo Akabayashi (Faculty of Economics, Keio University); Ryosuke Nakamura (Faculty of Economics, Fukuoka University); Michio Naoi (Faculty of Economics, Keio University); Chizuru Shikishima (Department of Psychology, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Teikyo) |
| Abstract: | In past decades, income inequality has risen in most developed countries. There is growing interest among economists in international comparisons of economic and educational mobility. This is aided by the availability of internationally comparable, large-scale data. The present paper aims to make three contributions. First, we introduce the Japan Child Panel Survey (JCPS), the first longitudinal survey of school-age children that includes cognitive and non-cognitive measures, and rich household information. The JCPS was developed to measure dynamic inter-relationships between children's academic and social outcomes, their family background, and local policy and environment, in a way that allows comparison of the results with international data. Second, based on JCPS data, we present selected results of the dynamics of inequality in multiple indicators of children's educational and behavioral outcomes. We found that changes in cognitive achievement across parental income groups, the degree of mobility of cognitive test scores, and the correlation between the difficulty score and parental education in Japan are similar to other countries, such as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Germany. Finally we discuss issues underlying the globalization of education research based on our experiences with the JCPS. We discuss reasons and strategies for further globalization of education research in Japan, and propose suggestions as to how Japanese education research can move toward better international collaboration, particularly in research on economic and educational mobility. |
| Keywords: | Economic Inequality, Family Background, Educational Inequality and Mobility, Panel Data, Cognitive and Non-cognitive Abilities |
| JEL: | D31 I24 J13 |
| Date: | 2015–09–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:keo:dpaper:2015-010&r=all |
| By: | Michael P. Cameron (University of Waikato); Peggy Koopman-Boyden (University of Waikato); Matthew Roskruge (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | Along with many other countries, New Zealand is experiencing a rapid rise in the population of older people, both in absolute terms and also as a percentage of the overall population. Older people are increasingly likely to participate in formal employment beyond the age of pension eligibility (65 years in New Zealand). Earlier research has showed that working full-time reduces life satisfaction among New Zealanders 65 years and older, and that this relationship is robust to the inclusion of measures of job satisfaction or the desire to work more or fewer hours. In this paper we investigate the relationship between labour force participation and life satisfaction among older New Zealanders, with specific focus on the mediating role of human capital in the relationship. We utilise data from several waves of the New Zealand General Social Survey (n=5856), and account for the bias due to selection effects and endogeneity using instrumental variables analysis, and control for mental and physical health. Our identification strategy is to use gender, regional-level employment rates, and migration rates as instruments for labour force status. Our results suggest that, should improving wellbeing for older people become an explicit government priority, investing in reducing the push factors for older people to remain in the full-time employment may improve wellbeing. |
| Keywords: | labour force participation; retirement; subjective wellbeing; life satisfaction; human capital; New Zealand |
| JEL: | I31 J14 J21 J24 |
| Date: | 2015–09–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:15/07&r=all |
| By: | Julian Hopwood |
| Abstract: | Women are often understood to be highly marginalised in typical African customary land regimes. The research presented in this article found that in the Acholi region of northern Uganda this is not the case. The crisis of land conflict that followed the twenty-year lra insurgency and mass rural displacement has seemingly passed, notwithstanding a minimal contribution from the formal justice, law and order sector: local state actors as well as clan elders are mediating and adjudicating disputes on the basis of custom. However some social institutions, in particular traditional marriage, have been deeply affected by displacement and the consequent poverty. In this context, custom appears to be becoming more responsive to the needs of women, including those who are divorced or separated. While women’s customary land claims are often challenged, they appear to be generally respected and supported by communities and those with responsibilities for settling disputes. |
| Keywords: | customary land; land conflict; women; Uganda; Acholi |
| JEL: | Q15 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:63902&r=all |
| By: | Tatiana Damjanovic; Geethanjali Selvaretnam |
| Abstract: | We put forward a theoretical growth model where the degree of gender equality evolves towards the value maximising social output. It follows that a womans bargaining power positively depends on her relative productivity. When an economy is less developed, physical strength is quite important for production and therefore the total output is bigger when the man has larger share of the reward. As society develops and accumulates physical and human capital, the woman becomes more productive, which drives social norms towards gender equality. By endogenising gender balance of power we can explain why it di¤ers across societies and how it evolves over the time. |
| Keywords: | gender inequality, economic growth, female bargaining power, human capital, natural resources |
| JEL: | C72 C73 D13 J16 O41 O43 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gla:glaewp:2015_20&r=all |
| By: | Vierth , Inge (VTI); Schleussner , Heike (VTI); Mandell , Svante (KTH/VTI) |
| Abstract: | We compare policy implications from time-based charges on road freight transports, represented by the case of Sweden, to those from distance-based charges, represented by the case of Germany. The analyses based on official statistics from 2005-2014 indicate that the German road freight policy has resulted in substantially larger revenues and a cleaner truck fleet and mileage. Some support is found for that the German policy causes spill-overs to the neighbouring countries. It can be shown that the Swedish hauliers use cleaner trucks for international than for national transports. In general, the firms have incentives to use the cleanest trucks in the countries that have introduced distance-based tolls. As an estimate of the consequences of this in Sweden, the difference in environmental impact is estimated between the case with the actual composition of trucks using the Swedish network and the hypothetical case where the composition is the same as on the German toll roads. The socio-economic costs are estimated to be around € 16 million per year. This puts pressure on countries as Sweden to implement stronger policies to counter the spill-over effect. The time based charges, e.g., the Eurovignette, seem to be outdated. |
| Keywords: | Road freight transport; Road charges; Policy comparison |
| JEL: | R40 |
| Date: | 2015–10–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2015_016&r=all |
| By: | Guccio, C.;; Lisi, D.; |
| Abstract: | Empirical evidence supports the conjecture that social interactions among agents can produce both positive and negative effects. We build on this literature by exploring the role of social interactions in the hospital sector using the large incidence of cesarean sections, usually considered an inappropriate outcome in the childbirth service. In doing so, we lay out a simple model of hospitals’ behavior where the effect of peers’ behavior emerges simply by sharing the same institutional authority responsible for auditing inappropriate behavior. In this setting, enforcement congestion induces a peer effect among hospitals that could make inappropriate behaviors more likely. Then, using the risk-adjusted cesarean section rate of a large panel of Italian hospitals, we empirically investigate whether the behavior of each hospital is affected by the behavior of hospitals withinthe same region, after controlling for demand, supply, and financial factors. In particular, our empirical test employs both peer effects estimate and the spatial econometric approach, exploiting the panel dimension of our data. Both estimates show a significant and strong presence of peer effects among hospitals. We interpret this evidence as a presence of constraint interactions within the hospital sector, which has important implications for healthcare policies against inappropriateness. |
| Keywords: | social interactions; peer effects; cesarean section; spatial econometrics; |
| JEL: | I11 C31 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:15/17&r=all |