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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Jakobsen, Vibeke (Danish National Centre for Social Research (SFI)); Pedersen, Peder J. (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | Focus in the paper is on poverty among immigrants and refugees 50 years and older coming to Denmark from countries outside the OECD, with main emphasis on immigrants coming as guest workers before 1974, as refugees and as family members and marriage partners – tied movers – relative to individuals coming as guest workers and as refugees. A major share of people in this group were fairly young at arrival to Denmark. Those arriving back in the 1970s and 1980s are now either close to or above the age of 60, with conditional eligibility to a labor market related early retirement program or the age 65 where you become eligible for State pension. Poverty rates by national background are described using alternative household concepts. Next, a number of background factors of relevance for poverty are summarized. We focus on age, gender, marital status, occupational status at age 55 and duration of residence. We find major differences between migrant groups and between migrants and natives regarding how income is composed at different ages on market income, pensions and benefits. Next, we present a number of regressions aiming at explaining differences in the poverty risk with differences in a number of background factors. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, old age poverty, family structure |
| JEL: | F22 H55 I32 J14 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9944&r=dem |
| By: | Janet Currie; Hannes Schwandt |
| Abstract: | In this essay, we ask whether the distributions of life expectancy and mortality have become generally more unequal, as many seem to believe, and we report some good news. Focusing on groups of counties ranked by their poverty rates, we show that gains in life expectancy at birth have actually been relatively equally distributed between rich and poor areas. Analysts who have concluded that inequality in life expectancy is increasing have generally focused on life expectancy at age 40 to 50. This observation suggests that it is important to examine trends in mortality for younger and older ages separately. Turning to an analysis of age-specific mortality rates, we show that among adults age 50 and over, mortality has declined more quickly in richer areas than in poorer ones, resulting in increased inequality in mortality. This finding is consistent with previous research on the subject. However, among children, mortality has been falling more quickly in poorer areas with the result that inequality in mortality has fallen substantially over time. We also show that there have been stunning declines in mortality rates for African Americans between 1990 and 2010, especially for black men. Finally we offer some hypotheses about causes for the results we see, including a discussion of differential smoking patterns by age and socioeconomic status. |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:66524&r=dem |
| By: | Jinyoung Kim; Jong-Wha Lee; Kwanho Shin |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces a model of gender inequality and economic growth that focuses on the determination of women's time allocation among market production, home production, child rearing, and child education. The theoretical model is based on Agenor (2016), but differs in several important dimensions. The model is calibrated using microlevel data of Asian economies, and numerous policy experiments are conducted to investigate how various aspects of gender inequality are related to the growth performance of the economy. The analysis shows that improving gender equality can contribute significantly to economic growth by changing females' time allocation and promoting accumulation of human capital. We find that if gender inequality is completely removed, aggregate income will be about 6.6% and 14.5% higher than the benchmark economy after one and two generations respectively, while corresponding per capita income will be higher by 30.6% and 71.1% in the hypothetical gender-equality economy. This is because fertility and population decrease as women participate more in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | gender inequality, economic growth, overlapping generations model, labor market, human capital accumulation |
| JEL: | E24 E60 J13 J71 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:camaaa:2016-29&r=dem |
| By: | Walsh, Amanda |
| Abstract: | Existing research on the economic impact of dengue among households focuses on individuals with clinically confirmed disease and their families. However, caregiving activities, avoidance behaviors, and changes in labor demand may cause the potential labor market impacts of an epidemic to extend beyond households that directly experience illness. I exploit exogenous fluctuations in the timing and scale of dengue epidemics in the Amazonian city of Iquitos, Peru from July 2005 to June 2010 to isolate changes in the work hours of all primary male and female residents in the region. I find that dengue epidemics are associated with large, statistically significant decreases in work hours for those who work positive hours. In aggregate, females reduce work hours more than males, both in levels of the point estimates and relative to mean hours. Furthermore, the decrease in female work hours during epidemics extends beyond households experiencing illness. This research contributes to the infectious disease literature by assessing the impact of epidemics on the labor market outcomes of all households in an affected region and by assessing the differential impacts on the outcomes of male and female residents. |
| Keywords: | dengue, household labor, global health, development, vector-borne disease, Consumer/Household Economics, Health Economics and Policy, International Development, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235346&r=dem |
| By: | Romain Aeberhardt (Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique (CREST)); Elise Coudin (Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique (CREST)); Roland Rathelot (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the heterogeneity of ethnic employment gaps using a new single-index based approach. Instead of stratifying our sample by age or education, we study ethnic employment gaps along a continuous measure of employability, the employment probability minority workers would have if their characteristics were priced as in the majority group. We apply this method to French males, comparing those whose parents are North African immigrants and those with native parents. We find that both the raw and the unexplained ethnic employment differentials are larger for low-employability workers than for high-employability ones. We show in a theoretical framework that this heterogeneity can be accounted for by homogeneous underlying mechanisms and is not evidence for, say, heterogeneous discrimination. Finally, we discuss our main empirical findings in the light of simple taste-based vs. statistical discrimination models. |
| Keywords: | discrimination, employment differentials, decomposition |
| JEL: | C14 C25 J70 J71 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1610&r=dem |
| By: | Zhang, Yu; Kibriya, Shahriar |
| Abstract: | Slave trade affects regional economic development, degree of trust among individuals, community cohesion, and ethnic identity, which in turn have a bearing on the spatial distribution of civil conflict in Africa. Hence, ethnic homelands that have more slaves exported are expected to be more prone to conflict. By using a subnational dataset in Sub Sahara Africa (SSA) between 1997 and 2014, we find that slave trade in the colonial period significantly causes higher risks of civil conflict in the present. In order to reduce the concern of endogeneity, we employ the historical slave trade distances as instruments, which do not affect conflict except through their influence on slave trade. |
| Keywords: | civil conflict, slave trade, sub Saharan Africa, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Development, |
| Date: | 2016–08–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236202&r=dem |
| By: | Thomas Leopold |
| Abstract: | This study examined gender differences in the consequences of divorce for multiple measures of psychological, economic, and domestic well-being. I used household panel data from the German SOEP, retaining the link between initially married couples (N = 755) to compare both spouses over a period of up to four years before and after divorce. Findings showed that men were more vulnerable to short-term declines in subjective measures of well-being, whereas women experienced longer-term disadvantages in objective economic status. Taken together, these results suggest that women’s disproportionate income strain is chronic, whereas men’s disproportionate psychological and domestic strain is not. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp841&r=dem |