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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Simona, Comi; Mara, Grasseni; Federica, Origo; Laura, Pagani; |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of corporate board gender quotas on firm performance in Belgium, France, Italy and Spain. The empirical analysis is based on accounting panel data from Bureau Van Dijk’s Amadeus. Our identification strategy relies on both double and triple difference estimators with ex-ante matching. We find that gender quotas had either a negative or an insignificant effect on firm performance in the countries considered with the exception of Italy, where we find a positive impact on productivity. We then focus on Italy and offer possible explanations for the positive effect of gender quotas using detailed information on board members’ characteristics. |
| Keywords: | Gender quotas, corporate governance, firm performance, productivity |
| JEL: | G30 G38 J3 |
| Date: | 2017–07–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mib:wpaper:367&r=dem |
| By: | Orazio Attanasio (University College of London); Costas Meghir (Yale University); Emily Nix (UCL and USC FBE Marshall) |
| Abstract: | We estimate production functions for cognition and health for children aged 1-12 in India, where over 70 million children aged 0-5 are at risk of developmental deficits.The inputs into the production functions include parental background, prior child cognition and health, and child investments. We use income and local prices to control for the endogeneity of investments. We find that cognition is sensitive to investments throughout the age range we consider, while health is mainly affected by early investments. We also find that inputs are complementary, and crucially that health is very important in determining cognition. Our paper contributes in understanding how investments and early health outcomes are important in child development. Classification-I14,I15,I25,I32,J13,J24,O 15 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egc:wpaper:1058&r=dem |
| By: | Andrew E. Clark (Paris School of Economics); SeEun Jung (Department of Economics, Inha University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of the 1972 British education reform on life satisfaction using 1996-2008 British Household Panel Survey data. The education reform increased compulsory education by one year for those who were born after the 1st of September 1957, yielding an exogenous change in education for the treated group. Contrary to other work, we find no evidence that a one-year rise in compulsory education increased life satisfaction, even though it is often estimated to increase income. Many of our estimates suggest a negative relationship: the positive life-satisfaction effect found in research using earlier data does not then seem to have endured. |
| Keywords: | Life Satisfaction, Education Reform, Compulsory Schooling, RDD, BHPS |
| JEL: | C21 C82 I28 I31 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inh:wpaper:2017-6&r=dem |
| By: | Andreas Beerli (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Giovanni Peri |
| Abstract: | Between 1999 and 2004 Switzerland fully opened its border region (BR) to cross-border workers (CBW), who are foreign residents commuting to Switzerland for work. In this paper, we exploit the timing of implementation and the fact that CBW commute almost exclusively to municipalities close to the border to estimate the effect of this policy on foreign labor supply and on native labor market outcomes, using a difference-in-difference approach. We find that opening the border to CBW increased their employment within 10 minutes of commuting time from the border by 4 to 5 percentage points. The increased inflow was mainly constituted of highly-educated workers and it was associated with an increase of wages of highly-educated Swiss workers and no significant changes of wages of other workers. We also find weak evidence that employment and hours worked by less educated native workers increased. Native highly-educated workers became more likely to fill top managerial positions after the liberalization and they became more likely to stay in border regions. Occupation upgrading and complementarity with highly-educated natives, particularly strong in highskilled manufacturing and knowledge-intensive services, contribute to explaining these effects of CBW on natives. |
| Keywords: | border region, free labor mobility, policy change, cross-border workers, labor markets |
| JEL: | F22 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:17-431&r=dem |