|
on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Kazuya Masuda (Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University); Chikako Yamauchi (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan) |
| Abstract: | Early pregnancy poses serious medical risk and economic burden to mother and neonatal children. While Economics literature generally explains negative relationship between female schooling and early fertility, it remains unclear whether this reflects a causal relationship. To fill in such a gap in literature, this paper examines the impact of female education on adolescent fertility, health investment behavior and the health status of their children in Uganda, focusing on the fully treated cohorts whose fees were abolished by Universal Primary Education policy (UPE) just before they entered schools. Education is instrumented by the interaction between across-cohorts differences in exposure to UPE and the differences in its effective benefits across districts with varying pre-program rates of completing primary education. We show that attending an additional year of schooling reduces the probability of marriage and that of giving birth before age 18 by 7.0-7.2 percentage points. Among those who become mothers, educated women use maternal care and infant immunization more often, and had lower probability that their child dies before 12 months after the birth. These results indicate that promoting the access to primary education among girls is an effective program to reduce adolescent pregnancy. It also shows the important role of maternal education in breaking the cycle of intergenerational transmission of the poor health in least developing countries by reducing child mortality. This in turn underscores the importance of considering the widespread benefits of female education in shaping the policy and institution influencing educational attainment. |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ngi:dpaper:17-01&r=dem |
| By: | Nollenberger, Natalia (IE University); Rodríguez-Planas, Núria (Queens College, CUNY) |
| Abstract: | Using PISA test scores from 11,527 second-generation immigrants coming from 35 different countries of ancestry and living in 9 host countries, we find that the positive effects of country-of-ancestry gender social norms on girls' math test scores relative to those of boys: (1) expand to other subjects (namely reading and science); (2) are shaped by beliefs on women's political empowerment and economic opportunity; and (3) are driven by parents' influencing their children's (especially their girls') preferences. Our evidence further suggest that these findings are driven by cognitive skills, suggesting that social gender norms affect parent's expectations on girls' academic knowledge relative to that of boys, but not on other attributes for success--such as non-cognitive skills. Taken together, our results highlight the relevance of general (as opposed to math-specific) gender stereotypes on the math gender gap, and suggest that parents' gender social norms shape youth's test scores by transmitting preferences for cognitive skills. |
| Keywords: | gender gap in math, reading and science, immigrants, beliefs and preferences, cognitive and non-cognitive skills, culture and institutions |
| JEL: | I21 I24 J16 Z13 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10625&r=dem |
| By: | Esteban Aucejo (Department of Economics, Arizona State University); Jonathan James (Department of Economics, California Polytechnic State University) |
| Abstract: | Black females are 17 percentage points more likely to attend college than black males, making the gender gap among black youth larger than the black-white racial gap in college enrollment (14.7 pp). We estimate a sequential model of schooling and arrests to assess the major contributing factors to the gender imbalance in educational attainment within racial groups. First, we find that di erences between males and females in measures of early behavior account for the majority of the gender gap for each racial group. Second, despite the fact that 50% of black males were arrested at least once before age 25, we find little evidence that arrest outcomes in uence educational attainment, and that the negative correlation of educational attainment and arrests is entirely attributable to the same behavioral factors that explain the gender gap in education. Finally, we find that black males have the largest response to improvements in family background characteristics, such that equalizing the distribution of family background characteristics for black and white youths reduces the gender gap in college enrollment among black youth by 50% and completely eliminates the black-white racial gap in college enrollment. |
| Keywords: | Gender Gap, Educational Attainment, Behavior, Factors, Race |
| JEL: | I2 J15 J16 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpl:wpaper:1701&r=dem |
| By: | Bhalotra, Sonia R. (University of Essex); Diaz-Cayeros, Alberto (Stanford University); Miller, Grant (Stanford University); Miranda, Alfonso (CIDE, Mexico City); Venkataramani, Atheendar (Massachusetts General Hospital) |
| Abstract: | Historically, improvements in the quality of municipal drinking water made important contributions to mortality decline in wealthy countries. However, water disinfection often does not produce equivalent benefits in developing countries today. We investigate this puzzle by analyzing an abrupt, large-scale municipal water disinfection program in Mexico in 1991 that increased the share of Mexico's population receiving chlorinated water from 55% to 85% within six months. We find that on average, the program was associated with a 37 to 48% decline in diarrheal disease deaths among children (over 23,000 averted deaths per year) and was highly cost-effective (about $1,310 per life year saved). However, we also find evidence that age (degradation) of water pipes and lack of complementary sanitation infrastructure play important roles in attenuating these benefits. Countervailing behavioral responses, although present, appear to be less important. |
| Keywords: | clean water, chlorination, child mortality, infectious disease, diarrhea, Mexico, cost-effectiveness, sanitation, behavioral responses |
| JEL: | I18 H41 J11 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10618&r=dem |
| By: | Melisa Bubonya (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, the University of Melbourne); Deborah A. Cobb-Clark (School of Economics, The University of Sydney; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA); and ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course); David C. Ribar (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA); and ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the bilateral relationship between depressive symptoms and employment status. We find that severe depressive symptoms are partially a consequence of economic inactivity. The incidence of depressive symptoms is higher if individuals have been out of a job for an extended period. Men’s mental health falls as they exit the labor force, while women’s worsens only after they have been out of the labor force for a period of time. Entering unemployment is also associated with a substantial deterioration in mental health, particularly for men. We also find that severe depressive symptoms, in turn, lead to economic inactivity. Individuals are less likely to be labor force participants or employed if they experience severe depressive symptoms. Men’s probability of being unemployed rises dramatically with the onset of depressive symptoms; women’s unemployment is increased by protracted depressive symptoms. |
| Keywords: | Mental health, unemployment, labor market status, HILDA survey, depressive symptoms, depression |
| JEL: | J01 J64 I14 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2017n10&r=dem |
| By: | Maryia Akulava |
| Abstract: | The issue of gender equality in Belarus labor market is still unclear. On the one hand the rate of female participation is high. At the same time there is evidence of the rising gender pay gap that grew from 16.5% in 2005 to 24% in 2014. The decomposition of the wage gap during 2005- 2014 time period using Oaxaca-Blinder, Juhn-Murphy-Pierce and Machado-Mata techniques revealed that differences in income function (the difference in a way efforts of men and women are remunerated) are the main factors affecting the growth of gender inequality, while the personal characteristics are losing the influencing power. The role of the factors differs depending on the quantile of income distribution. I also find no association between wages and marriage for females, while there is a 10.5% wage premium in case of married males. The parenthood wage penalty is attributed to women and equals approximately 14.4%. Moreover, children from 0 to 6 provide the most severe drop in wages. In addition, the paper reveals that educated women are suffering the most and face 20.4% decline in wages, while penalty for women with the secondary school or lower amounts to just 8%. |
| Keywords: | Gender wage gap, marriage premium, maternity penalty |
| JEL: | J31 J12 J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bel:wpaper:38&r=dem |
| By: | Olivier Bargain; Prudence Kwenda; Miracle Ntuli |
| Abstract: | This paper applies recent developments in collective model estimation to elicit the household resource sharing rule, i.e. the amount of household resources accruing to fathers, mothers, and their children among African families in South Africa. We use the 2010/11 South African Income and Expenditure Survey as it contains exclusive goods, i.e. goods consumed by specific household members, to be used for identification. We rely on a collective model of household consumption that accounts for (potentially unequal) resource sharing and jointness in consumption (generating economies of scale). Results indicate that men tend to receive more than women (even if imprecise estimates make the difference statistically insignificant) and there is a sharp gender differential in terms of poverty. Ignoring economies of scale leads to an overestimation of poverty among adult men and women living with others. Children’s resource shares are in line with international standards but household resources are relatively low among African families so that ignoring intrahousehold allocation leads to an underestimation of child poverty. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2017-71&r=dem |
| By: | Francesca Cornaglia (Queen Mary University of London); Naomi E. Feldman (Federal Reserve Board) |
| Abstract: | The effect of marriage on productivity and wages has been long debated. A difficulty in estimating the effect of marriage on productivity is the lack of data that contain measures of both marital status and exogenous productivity. We fill this gap by using a sample of professional athletes from 1975 - 2007. Our results show that there is little correlation between individual measures of productivity and marriage, yet, wages are up to 15 percent higher for some married players. We find that married players exhibit more stable performance and teams with higher fractions of married players are more successful. |
| Keywords: | Productivity, Wage gap, Marriage |
| JEL: | J31 J44 J70 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qmw:qmwecw:wp818&r=dem |
| By: | Giannelli, Gianna Claudia (University of Florence); Rapallini, Chiara (University of Florence) |
| Abstract: | In this study, we provide evidence that parents' beliefs about the value of math, in terms of successful employment, have a positive impact on children's math scores. This result is robust to the reverse causality issue that characterizes the relationship between parental attitude and children's performance. We adopt an identification strategy that relies on two pillars. First, using PISA 2012, we estimate this relationship on a sample of immigrants that includes second-generation students and first-generation students who migrated before starting primary education. Second, we instrument the parental attitude with the country of origin math performance, under the assumption that country of origin math performance affects children's performance only through parents. We find that one additional score point in the origin country performance in math increases student performance by 21 percent of one standard deviation of the student math score. For an indirect transmission mechanism through parents math culture, this can be considered a quite substantial effect. Disentangling the effect of one of the factors that shape the family background, we contribute to the empirical literature on the explanations of individual educational achievements. |
| Keywords: | parental beliefs, math performance, immigrant students |
| JEL: | I21 J13 O15 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10622&r=dem |
| By: | Huber, Martin (University of Fribourg); Steinmayr, Andreas (University of Munich) |
| Abstract: | This paper suggests a causal framework for disentangling individual level treatment effects and interference effects, i.e., general equilibrium, spillover, or interaction effects related to treatment distribution. Thus, the framework allows for a relaxation of the Stable Unit Treatment Value Assumption (SUTVA), which assumes away any form of treatment-dependent interference between study participants. Instead, we permit interference effects within aggregate units, for example, regions or local labor markets, but need to rule out interference effects between these aggregate units. Borrowing notation from the causal mediation literature, we define a range of policy-relevant effects and formally discuss identification based on randomization, selection on observables, and difference-in-differences. We also present an application to a policy intervention extending unemployment benefit durations in selected regions of Austria that arguably affected ineligibles in treated regions through general equilibrium effects in local labor markets. |
| Keywords: | treatment effect, general equilibrium effects, spillover effects, interaction effects, interference effects, inverse probability weighting, propensity score, mediation analysis, difference-in-differences |
| JEL: | C21 C31 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10648&r=dem |