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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Wolfgang Frimmel; Martin Halla; Rudolf Winter-Ebmer |
| Abstract: | Numerous papers report a negative association between parental divorce and child outcomes. To provide evidence whether this correlation is driven by a causal effect, we exploit idiosyncratic variation in the extent of sexual integration in fathers' workplaces: Fathers who encounter more women in their relevant age-occupation-group on-the-job are more likely to divorce. This results holds also conditioning on the overall share of female co-workers in a firm. We find that parental divorce has persistent, and mostly negative, effects on children that differ significantly between boys and girls. Treated boys have lower levels of educational attainment, worse labor market outcomes, and are more likely to die early. Treated girls have also lower levels of educational attainment, but they are also more likely to become mother at an early age (especially during teenage years). Treated girls experience almost no negative employment effects. The latter effect could be a direct consequence from the teenage motherhood, which may initiate an early entry to the labor market. |
| Keywords: | divorce, children, human capital, fertility, sexual integrated work- places |
| JEL: | J12 D13 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2016-13&r=dem |
| By: | Luiza Antonie (School of Computer Science, University of Guelph); Miana Plesca (Department of Economics and Finance, University of Guelph); Jennifer Teng (Independent Researcher) |
| Abstract: | There is significant heterogeneity in the male-female wage gap depending on individuals’ education, income, and labour supply choices. Using data from the Canadian Census and from the Labour Force Survey, we document to what extent the gap in hourly wages gets compounded by a gender gap in hours worked, making the annual gender pay gap much larger. Within fulltime full-year, full-time part year, and part-time jobs, we find much smaller gaps than the overall one, even conditional on detailed occupations. This suggests a different selection by gender into full-time and part-time jobs, with women of higher earnings potential selecting into part-time work. We document that men are more likely to be promoted than women, regardless of marital status, while women are more likely to select into part-time jobs or be absent from work if they have children in their care. Furthermore, the wage gap is very small for younger people and it increases with age, even for single individuals, providing suggestive evidence for statistical discrimination. The male-female wage gap decreases with education, at all quantiles of the income distribution, except for a glass ceiling effect observable for the top 10% of the university wage distribution. We look more deeply at this glass ceiling effect by assigning gender to the individuals on Ontario’s Sunshine list of public salary disclosure for top earners. We document a gender imbalance on the list, with twice more men than women making the list, but no substantive gender wage gap. Given all these findings, we contend that wage equality in the labour market can only be achieved in conjunction with gender equality in the household, and that effective policies to target the remaining wage gap should address labour supply and child rearing channels. |
| Keywords: | Gender wage gap, Pay equity |
| JEL: | J31 J16 J38 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gue:guelph:2016-03&r=dem |
| By: | Sonia Bhalotra (University of Essex); Abhishek Chakravarty (University of Essex); Dilip Mookherjee (Boston University); Francisco J. Pino (University of Chile) |
| Abstract: | While land reforms are typically pursued in order to raise produc tivity and reduce inequality across households, an unintended consequence may be increased within-household gender inequality. We analyse a tenancy registration programme in West Bengal, and find that it increased child survival and reduced fertility. However, we also find that it intensified son preference in families without a first-born son to inherit the land title. These families exhibit no reduction in fertility, an increase in the probability that a subsequent birth is male, and a substantial increase in the survival advantage of subsequent sons over daughters. |
| Keywords: | Land reform, property rights, gender, infant mortality, sex ratio, fertility |
| JEL: | I14 I24 J71 O15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:iedwpr:dp-281&r=dem |
| By: | Moberg, Ylva (Uppsala university) |
| Abstract: | In this paper I compare the effect of entering parenthood on the spousal income gaps in lesbian and heterosexual couples using Swedish population wide register data. Comparing couples with similar pre-childbirth income gaps, a difference-in-differences strategy is used to estimate the impact of the gender composition of the couple on the spousal income gap after childbirth. The results indicate that the gender composition of the couple does matter for the division of labor after having children. Five years after childbirth the income gap is smaller in lesbian than in heterosexual couples also when comparing couples with the same pre-parenthood income gap. Heterosexual couples’ division of labor seems to be influenced by traditional gender norms, regardless of their pre-childbirth income gap. In lesbian couples the partners’ relative earnings before parenthood and a principle about fairness may be more important, as well as the partners’ preferences for giving birth as the birth giving partner typically spends more time on parental leave. |
| Keywords: | economics of gender; division of labor; labor supply; same-sex couples; transition to parenthood |
| JEL: | D13 J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2016–04–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2016_008&r=dem |
| By: | Elisabetta Addis (Università di Sassari e L.U.I.S.S. Guido Carli, Roma); Majlinda Joxhe (CREA Center for Research in Economic Analysis University of Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we show that social capital accumulation along the life cycle is different for men and women. We discuss the concept of social capital and some problems connected to its definition and measurement. We survey the literature on gender and social capital and use the Italian data of the “Multiscopo” Survey to assess differences in life cycle accumulation of social capital by sex and age. The lifecycle profile of social capital accumulation is gendered, with men accumulating more social capital at all ages, with a different peak and overall profile. We also show that, over 15 years, the gap in social capital by sex narrowed. Finally, we introduce a model of social capital structure compatible with the empirical evidence and with notions of gender as defined in feminist literature. |
| Keywords: | Social Capital, Gender, Network formation, Relations, Life cycle, Italy. |
| JEL: | Z13 J16 D85 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:saq:wpaper:2/16&r=dem |
| By: | Heidrich, Stefanie (Department of Economics, Umeå University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper I study the long-term effects of inter-municipal moving during childhood on income using Swedish register data. Due to the richness of the data I am able to control for important sources of selection into moving, such as parent separation, parents’ unemployment, education, long run income, and immigration background. I find that children’s long run incomes are significantly negatively affected by moving during childhood, and the effect is larger for those who move more often. For children who move once, I also estimate the effect of the timing and the quality of the move. I measure the quality of each neighborhood based on the adult outcomes for individuals who never move; the quality of a move follows as the difference in quality between the origin and the destination. Given that a family moves, I find that the negative effect of childhood moving on adult income is increasing in age at move. Children benefit economically from the quality of the region they move to only if they move before age 12 (sons) and age 16 (daughters). |
| Keywords: | long-term effects of moving; disruption costs; neighborhood effects; human capital; child development |
| JEL: | D31 J17 J24 J62 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–05–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:umnees:0929&r=dem |
| By: | Antecol, Heather (Claremont McKenna College); Bedard, Kelly (University of California, Santa Barbara); Stearns, Jenna (University of California, Santa Barbara) |
| Abstract: | Many skilled professional occupations are characterized by an early period of intensive skill accumulation and career establishment. Examples include law firm associates, surgical residents, and untenured faculty at research-intensive universities. High female exit rates are sometimes blamed on the inability of new mothers to survive the sustained negative productivity shock associated with childbearing and early childrearing in these environments. Gender-neutral family policies have been adopted in some professions in an attempt to "level the playing field." The gender-neutral tenure clock stopping policies adopted by the majority of research-intensive universities in the United States in recent decades are an excellent example. But to date, there is no empirical evidence showing that these policies help women. Using a unique data set on the universe of assistant professor hires at top-50 economics departments from 1985-2004, we show that the adoption of gender-neutral tenure clock stopping policies substantially reduced female tenure rates while substantially increasing male tenure rates. |
| Keywords: | gender-neutral family policies, gender gap in labor market outcomes, childcare and fertility, tenure rates |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9904&r=dem |
| By: | Krishna Pendakur (Simon Fraser University); Ravi Pendakur (University of Ottawa) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate how visible minority and immigrant earnings gaps in Canada evolved over 1991 to 2006. Immigrant disparity changes with the duration of residence in Canada, so we evaluate disparity at 5 years in Canada, that is for relatively recent immigrants. We find that, overall, visible minority-and immigrant-based earnings disparity increased substantially over the 15 year period. This pattern is observed broadly for both men and women, in Canada as a whole and in each of its three largest CMAs, for most white and visible minority immigrant groups, and for most Canadian-born visible minority ethnic groups. The decline in relative earnings is large: it is on the order of 20 percentage points for both white and visible minority immigrants and on the order of 10 percentage points for Canadian-born visible minority workers. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sfu:sfudps:dp15-13&r=dem |
| By: | Stephen Machin; Sandra McNally; Martina Viarengo |
| Abstract: | Significant numbers of people have very low levels of literacy in many OECD countries and, because of this, face significant labour market penalties. Despite this, it remains unclear what teaching strategies are most useful for actually rectifying literacy deficiencies. The subject remains hugely controversial amongst educationalists and has seldom been studied by economists. Research evidence from part of Scotland prompted a national change in the policy guidance given to schools in England in the mid-2000s about how children are taught to read. We conceptualise this as a shock to the education production function that affects the technology of teaching. In particular, there was phasing in of intensive support to some schools across Local Authorities: teachers were trained to use a new phonics approach. We use this staggered introduction of intensive support to estimate the effect of the new ‘teaching technology’ on children’s educational attainment. We find there to be effects of the teaching technology (‘synthetic phonics’) at age 5 and 7. However, by the age of 11, other children have caught up and there are no average effects. There are long-term effects only for those children with a higher initial propensity to struggle with reading. |
| Keywords: | literacy; phonics |
| JEL: | I21 I23 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:66443&r=dem |