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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Jessamyn Schaller; Chase S. Eck |
| Abstract: | We use an event-study approach to examine changes in intergenerational financial transfers and informal care within families following wealth loss, job exit, widowhood, and health shocks. We find sharp reductions in parental giving to adult children following negative shocks to parents' wealth and earned income, particularly in low-wealth households. Parental giving also decreases with some health shocks and increases following spousal death. Meanwhile, children of low-wealth households increase financial transfers to their parents following adverse shocks and children in both high- and low-wealth households increase their provision of informal care to parents following a wide range of adverse shocks. |
| JEL: | D10 D14 D15 D64 I10 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28295&r=all |
| By: | Ogasawara, Kota; Komura, Mizuki |
| Abstract: | This study explores the effects of imbalances in the sex ratio, and their impact on intra-household bargaining, on both the quantity and the quality of children. We first present the theoretical model of intra-household bargaining in the presence of con icting family goals within a couple, and show that male scarcity (a decrease in the male to female sex ratio) induces an increase in the number of children, but a decrease in the quality of children. Second, using the impact of World War II on the sex ratio, as a quasi-natural experiment, we establish empirically that the decrease in the male to female sex ratio in World War II contributed to a lower decline in fertility and child mortality rates in postwar Japan. In particular, the fertility rate would have fallen by an additional 12% and the child mortality rate by an additional 13% between 1948 and 1970, in the absence of the decrease in the sex ratio. |
| Keywords: | quantity-quality trade-off of children,bargaining power,marriage mar- ket,sex ratio |
| JEL: | J11 J12 J13 J16 N15 N35 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:750&r=all |
| By: | Maria De Paola (Università della Calabria and IZA); Roberto Nisticò (Università di Napoli Federico II, CSEF and IZA); Vincenzo Scoppa (University of Calabria and IZA) |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of a reduction in employment protection on fertility decisions. Using data from the Italian Labor Force Survey for the years 2013-2018, we analyze how the propensity to have a child has been affected by the 2015 Labor Market Reform, the so-called “Jobs Act”, which has essentially reduced the employment protection for large-firm employees and leaved largely unchanged that for small-firm ones. We employ a Difference-in-Differences identification strategy and compare the change over time in fertility decisions of women employed in large firms with the change experienced by women employed in small firms. We find that women exposed to the reduction in employment protection have a 1.4 percentage points lower probability of having a child than unexposed women. A battery of robustness checks confirms this finding. We document large heterogeneous effects by age, marital status, parity, geographic areas as well as by the level of education and wage. Our findings help understand the potential unintended consequences that labor market reforms introducing greater flexibility have on fertility decisions by increasing insecurity on career prospects. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, Employment Protection Legislation, Labor Market Reform, Difference-in-Differences. |
| JEL: | J13 J65 J41 M51 C31 |
| Date: | 2021–01–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:596&r=all |
| By: | Maria De Paola (Università della Calabria and IZA); Roberto Nisticò (Università di Napoli Federico II, CSEF and IZA); Vincenzo Scoppa (University of Calabria and IZA) |
| Abstract: | We investigate how academic promotions affect the propensity of women to have a child. We use administrative data on the universe of female assistant professors employed in Italian universities from 2001 to 2018. We estimate a model with individual fixed effects and find that promotion to associate professor increases the probability of having a child by 0.6 percentage points, which translates into an increase by 12.5% of the mean. This result is robust to employing a Regression Discontinuity Design in which we exploit the eligibility requirements in terms of research productivity introduced since 2012 by the Italian National Scientific Qualification (NSQ) as an instrument for qualification (and therefore promotion) to associate professor. Our finding provides important policy implications in that reducing uncertainty on career prospects may lead to an increase in fertility. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, Promotion, Academic Career, Career uncertainty. |
| JEL: | J13 J65 J41 M51 C31 |
| Date: | 2021–01–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:595&r=all |
| By: | Anthony Edo; Jacques Melitz |
| Abstract: | The scale of the rise in personal wealth following the Black Death calls the life-cycle hypothesis of consumption into consideration. This paper shows for the first time that the wealth effect of the Black Death on the price level continued in England for generations, up to 1450. Indeed, in absence of consideration of the wealth effect, other influences on the price level do not even appear in the econometric analysis. The separate roles of coinage, population, trade, wages and annual number of days worked for wages all also receive attention and new results follow for adjustment in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | Black Death;Fourteenth-century England;Price Level;Great Famine |
| JEL: | N13 J11 F33 J46 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2020-14&r=all |
| By: | ; Rajashri Chakrabarti; Maxim L. Pinkovskiy |
| Abstract: | This is the fourth and final post in this series aimed at understanding the gap in COVID-19 intensity by race and by income. The previous three posts focused on the role of mediating variables—such as uninsurance rates, comorbidities, and health resource in the first post; public transportation, and home crowding in the second; and social distancing, pollution, and age composition in the third—in explaining the racial and income gap in the incidence of COVID-19. In this post, we now investigate the role of employment in essential services in explaining this gap. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19; race; heterogeneity; essential workers |
| JEL: | I14 |
| Date: | 2021–01–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednls:89426&r=all |
| By: | Rajashri Chakrabarti; Maxim L. Pinkovskiy |
| Abstract: | Our previous work documents that low-income and majority-minority areas were considerably more affected by COVID-19, as captured by markedly higher case and death rates. In a four-part series starting with this post, we seek to understand the reasons behind these income and racial disparities. Do disparities in health status translate into disparities in COVID-19 intensity? Does the health system play a role through health insurance and hospital capacity? Can disparities in COVID-19 intensity be explained by high-density, crowded environments? Does social distancing, pollution, or the age composition of the county matter? Does the prevalence of essential service jobs make a difference? This post will focus on the first two questions. The next three posts in this series will focus on the remaining questions. The posts will follow a similar structure. In each post, we will aim to understand whether the factors considered in that post affect overall COVID-19 intensity, whether the racial and income gaps can be further explained when we additionally include the factors in consideration in that post, and whether and to what extent the factors under consideration in that post independently affect racial and income gaps in COVID-19 intensity (without controlling for the factors considered in the other posts in this series). |
| Keywords: | COVID-19; race; income; health; insurance; comorbidity |
| JEL: | I14 J1 |
| Date: | 2021–01–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednls:89422&r=all |
| By: | Rajashri Chakrabarti; Lindsay Meyerson; Maxim L. Pinkovskiy |
| Abstract: | This is the third post in a series looking to explain the gap in COVID-19 intensity by race and by income. In the first two posts, we have investigated whether comorbidities, uninsurance, hospital resources, and home and transit crowding help explain the income and minority gaps. Here, we continue our investigation by looking at three additional potential channels: the fraction of elderly people, pollution, and social distancing at the beginning of the pandemic in the county. We aim to understand whether these three factors affect overall COVID-19 intensity, whether the income and racial gaps of COVID-19 can be further explained when we additionally include these factors, and whether and to what extent these factors independently account for income and racial gaps in COVID-19 intensity (without controlling for the factors considered in the other posts in this series). |
| Keywords: | COVID-19; hetergeneity; race; social distancing; pollution |
| JEL: | I14 |
| Date: | 2021–01–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednls:89425&r=all |