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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Sajons, Christoph |
| Abstract: | Do migrant parents change their labor market behavior when their children are born with the citizenship of the host country? In this study, I implement a difference-in-discontinuities approach to examine possible adjustments in employment and working hours following the introduction of birthright citizenship for immigrant children in Germany in 2000. In particular, I compare the changes in labor market outcomes between the parents of migrant children born before and after the enactment date with those of children of mixed couples (migrants and Germans) who were unaffected by the law change. The analysis of data from the Microcensus from 2001 to 2008 suggests that mothers and fathers react differently to having a German-citizen child: While fathers' labor force participation is unaffected, I find mothers to be more likely to stay at home. By contrast, there seems to be no effect on the number of hours in the job. |
| Keywords: | Birthright citizenship,Integration,Naturalization,Labor force participation |
| JEL: | J15 J22 J61 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:aluord:1607&r=dem |
| By: | Damian Clarke; Hanna Mühlrad |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of a large-scale, free, elective abortion program implemented in Mexico City in 2007. This reform resulted in a sharp increase in the request and use of early term elective abortions: approximately 90,000 abortions were administered by public health providers in the four years following the reform, versus only 62 in the five years preceding the reform. We document, firstly, that this localised reform resulted in a legislative backlash in 18 other Mexican states which constitutionally altered penal codes to increase sanctions on abortions. We take advantage of this dual policy environment to estimate the effect of progressive and regressive abortion reform on fertility and women’s empowerment. Using administrative birth data we find that progressive abortion laws reduce rates of child-bearing, particularly among young women. Additionally, the reform is found to increase women’s role in household decision making—an empowerment result in line with economic theory and empirical results from a developed-country setting. We however find little evidence to suggest that the resulting regressive changes to penal codes have had an inverse result over the time-period studied. In turning to mechanisms, evidence from a panel of women suggests that results are directly driven by increased access to abortion, rather than changes in sexual behaviour, contraceptive use or contraceptive knowledge. |
| Keywords: | Fertility; Female Empowerment; Abortion legalization; Mexico |
| JEL: | J13 I15 I18 O15 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2016-33&r=dem |
| By: | Alena Bicakova; Klara Kaliskova |
| Abstract: | The Czech Republic is a country with a strong attachment of women to the labor market, but with one of the longest paid family leaves, which is often followed by a spell of unemployment. Using a difference–in–differences methodology, we study the impact of two reforms of the duration of the parental allowance on the labor market status of mothers 2–7 years after childbirth. While the 1995 reform prolonged the allowance from 3 to 4 years, the 2008 reform allowed some parents to shorten the duration of the allowance to only 2 or 3 years with an equivalent total monetary amount. The impact of the reforms on the length of women’s career breaks following childbirth is substantial. |
| Keywords: | family leave; female labor supply; unemployment; policy evaluation; |
| JEL: | J13 J18 J22 |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cer:papers:wp568&r=dem |
| By: | Ludovica Gambaro; Jan Marcus; Frauke H. Peter |
| Abstract: | Most literature on the relationship between childcare availability and maternal labour force participation examines childcare for preschool aged children. Yet families must continue to arrange childcare once their children enter primary school, particularly in countries where the school day ends at lunchtime. In this paper we examine the case of Germany, a country that has moved from an exclusively half-day school system to one where formal afternoon care is increasingly available. We estimate the effect of afternoon care on maternal labour supply. To do so, we use a novel matching technique, entropy balancing, and draw on the rich and longitudinal data of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). We show that children’s afternoon care increases mothers’ employment rate and their working hours. To confirm the robustness of our results we conduct a series of sensitivity analysis and apply a newly proposed method to assess possible bias from omitted variables. Our findings highlight how childcare availability shapes maternal employment patterns well after school entry. |
| Keywords: | Afternoon care, Maternal labour supply, All-day schools, Entropy balancing |
| JEL: | J13 J63 J65 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1622&r=dem |
| By: | Lalive, Rafael (University of Lausanne); Parrotta, Pierpaolo (ICN Business School) |
| Abstract: | Many OECD countries are reforming their pension systems. We investigate how pension eligibility affects labor supply in couples. Inspired by a theoretical framework, we measure how the sharp change in the pension eligibility of both partners affects labor force participation. We find that both partners leave the labor force as they become eligible for a pension. The effect of their own pension eligibility is 12 percentage points for women and 28 percentage points for men. Women also reduce their labor force participation by 2 to 3 percentage points as their partner reaches pension eligibility. For men, the effect of their partner's eligibility is smaller and not significantly different from zero. For women and men with low education, the effect of their own eligibility is strong. Regardless of education level, the partner eligibility effect is strong in homogamous couples. Studying joint labor supply, we find that pension eligibility reduces labor supply in couples by 44 percentage points, approximately 4 percentage points more than in a model that ignores partner eligibility effects. |
| Keywords: | couple labor supply, pension eligibility, full retirement age, household decisions |
| JEL: | J26 J14 C40 D10 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10361&r=dem |
| By: | Tromp, Nikolas |
| Abstract: | I analyze the gender wage gap in South Korea across the wage distribution in 2003 vs. 2013. Gaps are decomposed into composition and structural effects using a semi-parametric framework. I find a "glass ceiling" effect in both years with larger wage gaps at the upper end of the wage distribution. Decompositions show that the structural effect decreases, and composition effect increases, in importance as we move up the distribution. Between 2003 and 2013, a fall in the composition effect drives the narrowing of the wage gap across the entire distribution. While a fall in the structural effect augments the narrowing at the lower end of the distribution, a rise in the structural effect curtails it at the upper end, maintaining the glass ceiling. Lastly, controlling for occupational choice causes minor increases in the composition effect at the lower end and structural effect at the upper end of the distribution. |
| Keywords: | Gender wage gaps, Decomposition methods, Wage Distributions |
| JEL: | C14 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2016–11–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75123&r=dem |
| By: | Gozde Corekcioglu (European University Institute) |
| Abstract: | Do religiously conservative governments enact policies that limit opportunities for women? This study addresses this general question in a specific context: whether pro-Islamist politicians’ preferences for traditional gender roles translate into discriminatory employment practices in Turkish municipalities. I combine data from 2009 municipal elections with a unique dataset of municipal personnel. Comparing close races for the mayor, who appoints municipal personnel, I find no evidence of gender bias with mayors from the pro-Islamist party. Conditioning on the type of incumbent, I find that the share of females among white-collars decreases in municipalities where a pro-Islamist mayor replaced a secular mayor. |
| Keywords: | Political Islam, Regression Discontinuity, Female Employment, Discrimination, Turkey. |
| JEL: | D72 H75 J71 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koc:wpaper:1613&r=dem |
| By: | Margherita Borella; Mariacristina De Nardi; Fang Yang |
| Abstract: | Wages and life expectancy, as well as labor market outcomes, savings, and consumption, differ by gender and marital status. In this paper we compare the aggregate implications of two dynamic structural models. The first model is a standard, quantitative, life-cycle economy, in which people are only heterogenous by age and realized earnings shocks, and is calibrated using data on men, as typically done. The second model is one in which people are also heterogeneous by gender, marital status, wages, and life expectancy, and is calibrated using data for married and single men and women. We show that the standard life-cycle economy misses important aspects of aggregate savings, labor supply, earnings, and consumption. In contrast, the model with richer heterogeneity by gender, marital status, wage, and life expectancy matches the observed data well. We also show that the effects of changing life expectancy and the gender wage gap depend on marital status and gender, and that it is essential to not only model couples, but also the labor supply response of both men and women in a couple. |
| JEL: | D1 E1 E21 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22817&r=dem |
| By: | Booth, Alison L. (Australian National University); Fan, Elliott (National Taiwan University); Meng, Xin (Australian National University); Zhang, Dandan (Peking University) |
| Abstract: | In the laboratory experiment reported in this paper we explore how evolving institutions and social norms, which we label 'culture', change individuals' preferences and behaviour in mainland China. From 1949 China experienced dramatic changes in its socio-economic institutions. These began with communist central planning and the establishment of new social norms, including the promotion of gender equality in place of the Confucian view of female 'inferiority'. Market-oriented reforms, begun in 1978, helped China achieve unprecedented economic growth and at the same time Marxist ideology was gradually replaced by the acceptance of individualistic free-market ideology. During this period, many old traditions crept back and as a consequence social norms gradually changed again. In our experiment we investigate gender differences in competitive choices across different birth cohorts of individuals who, during their crucial developmental-age, were exposed to one of the two regimes outlined above. In particular we investigate gender differences in competitive choices for different birth cohorts in Beijing using their counterparts in Taipei (subject to the same original Confucian traditions) to control for the general time trend. Our findings confirm: (i) that females in Beijing are significantly more likely to compete than females from Taipei; (ii) that Beijing females from the 1958 birth cohort are more competitive than their male counterparts as well as more competitive than later Beijing birth cohorts; and (iii) that for Taipei there are no statistically significant differences across cohort or gender in willingness to compete. In summary, our findings confirm that exposure to different institutions and social norms during the crucial developmental age changes individuals' behaviour. Our findings also provide further evidence that gender differences in economic preferences are not innately determined. |
| Keywords: | gender, competitive choices, culture, behavioural economics |
| JEL: | C9 C91 C92 J16 P3 P5 D03 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10364&r=dem |
| By: | DeVoretz, Don J. (Simon Fraser University) |
| Abstract: | The legal system has entered the immigration policy framework via class action suits which force immigrant receiving countries to address shortfalls in their immigration and citizenship ascension policies. This paper addresses the role of class action lawsuits in the Canadian context. |
| Keywords: | immigration policy, class action lawsuits, Canada |
| JEL: | K37 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10368&r=dem |
| By: | Ben Sand (York University); Chris Bidner (Simon Fraser University) |
| Abstract: | Are differences in the quality of workers' prospects outside of their current employment relationship influential in generating pay differentials? We consider the role of an economy's industrial structure in generating differences in outside prospects, and apply our analysis to the gender pay gap in the U.S. during the 1980-2010 period. We develop a formal search and matching model that connects outside prospects, industrial structure and wage gaps and use it to guide our subsequent empirical analysis of local labor markets. Our results suggest that an economy's within-industry gender pay gap-which also controls for human capital characteristics-is substantially influenced by gender differences in the quality of outside prospects generated by the economy's industrial structure. Our analysis reveals that the relatively sharp narrowing of the gender pay gap during the 1980s is accounted for by the relatively sharp decline in the outside prospects of men during this period. |
| Keywords: | Gender Pay Gap, Search Frictions, Industrial Structure |
| JEL: | J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2016–11–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sfu:sfudps:dp16-14&r=dem |