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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Giuliano, Paola (University of California, Los Angeles) |
| Abstract: | Social attitudes toward women vary significantly across societies. This chapter reviews recent empirical research on various historical determinants of contemporary differences in gender roles and gender gaps across societies, and how these differences are transmitted from parents to children and therefore persist until today. We review work on the historical origin of differences in female labor-force participation, fertility, education, marriage arrangements, competitive attitudes, domestic violence, and other forms of difference in gender norms. Most of the research illustrates that differences in cultural norms regarding gender roles emerge in response to specific historical situations, but tend to persist even after the historical conditions have changed. We also discuss the conditions under which gender norms either tend to be stable or change more quickly. |
| Keywords: | gender, cultural transmission, historical persistence |
| JEL: | N0 Z1 J16 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10931&r=dem |
| By: | Fischer, Stefanie (California Polytechnic State University); Royer, Heather (University of California, Santa Barbara); White, Corey (California Polytechnic State University) |
| Abstract: | Between 2011 and 2014, Texas enacted three pieces of legislation that significantly reduced funding for family planning services and increased restrictions on abortion clinic operations. Together this legislation creates cross-county variation in access to abortion and family planning services, which we leverage to understand the impact of family planning and abortion clinic access on abortions, births, and contraceptive purchases. In-state abortions fell 20% and births rose 3% in counties that no longer had an abortion provider within 50 miles. Births increased 1% and contraceptive purchases rose 8% in counties without a publicly-funded family planning clinic within 25 miles. |
| Keywords: | family planning, abortion, birth, contraception, reproductive, health |
| JEL: | J13 I18 J08 J18 I38 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10920&r=dem |
| By: | Bengt Petersson; Rodrigo Mariscal; Kotaro Ishi |
| Abstract: | How important are female workers for economic growth? This paper presents empirical evidence that an increase in female labor force participation is positively associated with labor productivity growth. Using panel data for 10 Canadian provinces over 1990–2015, we found that a 1 percentage point increase in the labor force participation among women with high educational attainment would raise Canada’s overall labor productivity growth by 0.2 to 0.3 percentage point a year. This suggests that if the current gap of 7 percentage points between male and female labor force participation with high educational attainment were eliminated, the level of real GDP could be about 4 percent higher today. The government has appropriately stepped up its efforts to improve gender equality, as part of its growth strategy. In particular, the government’s plan to expand access to affordable child care is a positive step. However, we argue that to maximize the policy outcome given a budget constraint, provision of subsidized child care—including publicly funded child care spaces—should be better targeted to working parents. |
| Keywords: | Labor productivity;Taxation;Western Hemisphere;Canada;female participation, benefit system, Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies, Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure |
| Date: | 2017–07–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:17/166&r=dem |
| By: | Olga Lorenz (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union) |
| Abstract: | How and why commuting contributes to our well-being is of considerableimportance for transportation policy and planning. This paper analyses the relation between commuting and subjective well-being by considering several cognitive (e.g. satisfaction with family life, leisure, income, work, health) and affective (e.g., happiness, anger, worry, sadness) componentsof subjective well-being. Fixed-effects models are estimated with German Socio-Economic Panel data for the period 2007 – 2013. In contrast to previous papers in the literature, according to which commuting is bad for overall life satisfaction, we find no evidence that commuting in general is associated with a lower life satisfaction. Rather, it appears that longer commutes are only related to lower satisfaction with particular life domains, especially family life and leisure time. Time spent on housework, child care as well as physical and leisure activities mediate the association between commuting and well-being. |
| Keywords: | commuting distance, emotion, satisfaction, time use, well-being |
| JEL: | I10 I31 R40 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iaa:dpaper:201707&r=dem |