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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Mathias Huebener; Daniel Kuehnle; C. Katharina Spiess |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of a substantial change in publicly funded paid parental leave in Germany on child development and socio-economic development gaps. For children born before January 1, 2007, parental leave benefits were means-tested and paid for up to 24 months after childbirth. For children born thereafter, parental leave benefits were earnings-related and only paid for up to 14 months. Higher-income households benefited more from the reform than low-income households. We study the reform effects on children's language skills, motor skills, socio-emotional stability, and school readiness using administrative data from mandatory school entrance examinations at age six and a difference-in-differences design. We find no impact of the reform on child development and socio-economic development gaps. The effects are precisely estimated and robust to various model specifications and sample definitions. Our resultssuggest that such substantial changes in parental leave benefits are unlikely to impact children's development. These findings are consistent with recent studies showing that temporary unrestricted transfers and maternal part-time employment have a limited impact on parental investments in their children. |
| Keywords: | Parental leave benefit, child development, skill formation, parental investments, school readiness, motor skills, language skills, socio-emotional stability, socio-economic differences |
| JEL: | J13 J18 J22 J24 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1651&r=dem |
| By: | Annette Bergemann; Regina T. Riphahn |
| Abstract: | We study the short, medium, and longer run employment effects of a substantial change in the parental leave benefit program in Germany. In 2007, a means-tested parental leave transfer program that had paid benefits for up to two years was replaced by an earnings related transfer which paid benefits for up to one year. The reform generated winners and losers with heterogeneous response incentives. We find that the reform speeds up the labor market return of both groups of mothers after benefit expiration. The overall time until an average mother with (without) prior claims to benefits returns to the labor force after childbirth declined after the reform by 10 (8) months at the median. We show that likely pathways for this substantial reform effect are changes in social norms and mothers' preferences for economic independence. |
| Keywords: | female labor supply, maternal labor supply, parental leave, parental leave benefit, child-rearing benefit, parents' money |
| JEL: | J13 J21 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp900&r=dem |
| By: | Miguel Jaramillo-Baanante (Group for the Analysis of Development - GRADE) |
| Abstract: | As in other developing countries, Peru’s demographic transition is well underway. Concurrently, women’s labor market participation and employment rates have substantially increased. In this paper we estimate the causal effect that the reduction in fertility rates has on women’s employment using instrumental variables already tested in developed countries—twins in the first birth and the sex composition of the two oldest children. We also analyze the heterogeneity of the effects along three lines: marriage status of the mother, age of the first (second) child, and mother’s education. We find strong effects of fertility. According to our results, 29 percent of the total increase in women’s rate of employment between 1993 and 2007 can be attributed to the reduction in fertility rates. This is a considerable magnitude, more than four times as large as the estimate for US by Jacobsen et al. (1999). Effects are largest in women with children 2 years old or younger and decline inversely as the first child increases in age, but are still significant when she reaches 10. Effects also vary with the mother’s education level, tending to be stronger as women have more education. Finally, these effects are smaller for married women than for all women. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, labor market decisions, female labor, instrumental variables |
| JEL: | J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apc:wpaper:2017-090&r=dem |
| By: | Rasmus Landersø (Rockwool Foundation Research Unit, Denmark); Helena Skyt Nielsen (Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Denmark); Marianne Simonsen (Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Denmark) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates intra-family spillovers from the timing of school start on outcomes for the entire family. We document how the timing of a child’s school start affects the timing of all subsequent transitions between tiers in the educational system. Exploiting quasi-random variation in school starting age induced by date of birth, we find that the timing of transitions affect parental outcomes - including marriage and maternal employment - and older siblings’ academic performance. Our results indicate that families redistribute resources across the entire family in response to a single family member’s experiences as for example school start and graduation. |
| Keywords: | marital capital, marital dissolution, educational transition, regression discontinuity, spillover effects |
| JEL: | I21 J12 |
| Date: | 2017–02–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2017-01&r=dem |
| By: | Dessy, Sylvain; Pongou, Roland; Diarra, Setou |
| Abstract: | Public intervention addressing the issue of underage marriage emphasizes policies such as girls' education and enforcement of age-of-consent laws as promising avenues for ending this harmful practice. It has been argued, however, that such policies will work better in societies where they are supported by men. Yet, there is no study analyzing the role of males' characteristics in relation to early marriage. This paper examines the causal effect of a male's education on the likelihood that he marries an underage girl. Using micro-level data from Nigeria in combination with plausible instrumental variables that address potential endogeneity issues, we find that having more years of schooling significantly reduces the probability of marrying an underage girl. Importantly, we show that this negative relationship is not a mere mechanical effect reflecting the endogeneity between schooling and marriage-timing decisions. Moreover, we find that this relationship is weaker in communities where norms that cast women in submissive roles are stronger. We develop a model that explains this causal effect as resulting from the complementarity between father's and mother's education in the production of child quality. |
| Keywords: | Underage Marriage; Male Education; Nigeria; Patriarchal Norms. |
| JEL: | J12 J13 O12 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:77526&r=dem |
| By: | Dessy, Sylvain; Diarra, Setou; Pongou, Roland |
| Abstract: | Public intervention addressing the issue of underage marriage emphasizes policies such as girls' education and enforcement of age-of-consent laws as promising avenues for ending this harmful practice. It has been argued, however, that such policies will work better in societies where there are supported by men. Yet, there is no study analyzing the role of males' characteristics in relation to early marriage. This paper examines the causal effect of a male's education on the likelihood that he marries an underage girl. Using micro-level data from Nigeria in combination with plausible instrumental variables that address potential endogeneity issues, we find that having more years of schooling significantly reduces the probability of marrying an underage girl. Importantly, we show that this negative relationship is not a mere mechanical effect reflecting the endogeneity between schooling and marriage-timing decisions. Moreover, we find that this relationship is weaker in communities where norms that cast women in submissive roles are stronger. We develop a model that explains this causal effect as resulting from the complementarity between father's and mother's education in the production of child quality. |
| Keywords: | Underage Marriage; Male Education; Nigeria; Patriarchal Norms. |
| JEL: | J12 J13 O12 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:77326&r=dem |
| By: | Figari, Francesco; Narazani, Edlira |
| Abstract: | It is widely recognized that childcare has important pedagogical, economic and social effects on both children and parents. This paper is the first attempt to estimate a joint structural model of female labour supply and childcare behaviour applied to Italy in order to analyse the effects of relaxing the existing constraints in terms of childcare availability and costs by considering public, private and informal childcare. Results suggest that Italian households might alter their childcare and labour supply behaviours substantially if the coverage rate of formal childcare increases to reach the European targets. Overall, increasing child care coverage is estimated to be more effective in enhancing labour incentives than decreasing existing child care costs, at the same budgetary cost. |
| Date: | 2017–03–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:emodwp:em2-17&r=dem |
| By: | Geyer, Johannes; Engels, Barbara; Haan, Peter |
| Abstract: | In this paper we exploit a cohort specific pension reform to estimate the causal employment effect of changes in the financial incentives to retire. In particular we analyze the effect of the introduction of pension deductions for early retirement on female employment. For the empirical analysis we use high-quality administrative data from the German Federal Pension Insurance (VSKT) and find positive and significant effects of the reform on employment. |
| JEL: | J18 J26 J14 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145737&r=dem |
| By: | Elin Halvorsen; Axel West Pedersen (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we use an advanced micro-simulation model to study the distributional effects of the reformed Norwegian pension system with a particular focus on gender equality. The reformed Norwegian system is based on the NDC-formula with fixed contribution/accrual rates over the active life-phase and with accumulated pension wealth being transformed into an annuity upon retirement. A number of redistributive components are built into the system that makes it deviate from complete actuarial fairness: a unisex annuity divisor, a ceiling on annual earnings, generous child credits, a possibility for widows/widowers to inherit pension rights from a deceased spouse, a targeted guarantee pensions with higher benefit rates to single pensioners compared to married/cohabitating pensioners, and finally the tax system that is particularly progressive in its treatment of pensioners and pension income. Taking complete actuarial fairness as the point of departure, we conduct a stepwise analysis to investigate how these different components of the National Insurance pension system impact on the gender gap in pensions and on inequality in the distribution of pension income within a cohort of pensioners. |
| Keywords: | Pensions; Gender gap; Inequality; Micro simulation |
| JEL: | D31 E47 H55 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:855&r=dem |
| By: | Hadi Esfahani (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); Roksana Bahramitash; Bin Lin |
| Abstract: | There is enormous variation in the patterns of labor allocation, especially among women, across countries and over time, with significant consequences for the performance of the economy. The existing studies of this phenomenon often focus on binary choices and specific factors behind them, without taking account of the multiplicity of alternatives and the interactions among their determinants. Also, most studies rely on aggregate outcomes without taking into account the micro structures behind them. This paper takes a step to fill these gaps by employing a large, micro-level, cross-country dataset that allows us to identify the impact of country characteristics and policies on labor allocation probabilities, while allowing for nine different alternatives and controlling for individual gender, age, and education characteristics. Among many other results, the analysis suggests that effective government is one of the most important factors associated with female labor force participation (LFP) and employment. Also, in contrast to studies that suggest that natural resource rents reduce female LFP, we find that the opposite is true. Prevalence of Islamic culture proves to be a predictor of low female LFP, but we trace most of this effect to the traditions that are not necessarily Islamic. We also examine the role of business environment and labor protection policies. We find that some labor protection policies tend to be more beneficial for women’s labor market activity than for men’s. Such policies may be helping better employment matches to form. |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:998&r=dem |