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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Chu, Yu-Wei Luke; Cuffe, Harold E; Doan, Nguyen |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we employ twin birth as an instrument to estimate the effects of fertility on female employment using 72 censuses from 37 countries in 1990–2010. Next, we document a strong linear association between gender wage gap and the estimated motherhood employment penalty both across countries and within countries. Reductions in the gender wage gap are associated with decreases in motherhood employment penalty. Our estimates suggest that a reduction of one percentage-point in the gender wage gap is associated with a decrease of 0.4 percentage-points in the estimated motherhood employment penalty. Our finding supports the notion that job prospects and gender equality in the labor market play a direct role in a mother’s labor supply response to childbirth. |
| Keywords: | Child penalty, Motherhood penalty, Female labor supply, Gender wage gap, Twin birth, |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vuw:vuwecf:9446&r=all |
| By: | Karlsson, Tobias (Department of Economic History, Lund University); Kok, Joris (International Institute of Social History); Perrin, Faustine (Department of Economic History, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | Our knowledge of the long-run evolution of gender equality is limited. We currently lack quantitative indicators capable of capturing the variations on and changes in the individual dimensions of gender equality. This paper seeks to assess the long-run evolution of gender roles and relations in Sweden. To this end, we build a database with quantitative indicators of gender equality. These indicators allow us to construct a Historical Gender Gap Index (HGGI), which isused to describe and analyze the evolution of gender equality in Sweden during a phase characterized by industrialization, urbanization and demographic transition. We find that after a period of stagnation, Sweden from the 1940s onwards made significant progress in closing the gender gap to reach the high level of gender equality that it is now famous for. All counties have made substantial improvements in closing the gap over time, although some counties have been quicker than others. Our investigation reveals the existence of a convergence pattern between counties. |
| Keywords: | Gender Equality; Index; Development Process; Sweden |
| JEL: | J16 N33 O11 |
| Date: | 2021–02–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:luekhi:0217&r=all |
| By: | Fredriksson, Peter; Huttunen, Kristiina; Öckert, Björn |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the effects of maternal school starting age and maternal age-at-birth on children’s short and long-term outcomes using Finnish register data. We exploit a school-starting-age rule for identification. Mothers who are born after the school entry cut-off give birth at higher age, but total fertility and earnings are unaffected. Being born after the cut-off reduces gestation and, hence, child birth weight. The effects on birth weight and gestation are rather small, however, suggesting that the long-run impacts are limited. Accordingly, we find no impacts on longer-term child outcomes, such as educational attainment and adolescent crime rates. Overall, we interpret this evidence as saying that there are no favorable effects of maternal age at birth on child outcomes. |
| Keywords: | school starting age, fertility, maternal age, birth outcomes, education, crime, Local public finance and provision of public services, |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fer:wpaper:139&r=all |
| By: | Retirement Equity Lab (Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA)) |
| Abstract: | An examination of the state of the retirement system and savings in 2020 reveals, if we do nothing to fix our retirement system, 43 million people now in their fifties and early sixties will be poor or near-poor elders, owing to both the recession and to inadequate retirement plans.1 Widespread retirement insecurity weakens older workers’ bargaining power. Without a solid fallback plan, older workers must accept whatever wages are offered. This chartbook is a resource for workers, employers, media, policymakers, scholars, and the broader public, to answer questions about the state of older working America and retirement income security. |
| Keywords: | older workers, recession, COVID-19, downward mobility, poverty, unemployment, wages, savings, involuntary retirement, social security, retirement system, 401k |
| JEL: | E24 J30 J38 J60 J88 J58 |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epa:cepapb:2020-03&r=all |
| By: | Sascha O. Becker (SoDa Laboratories, Monash University); Volker Lindenthal (SoDa Laboratories, Monash University); Sharun Mukand (SoDa Laboratories, Monash University); Fabian Waldinger (SoDa Laboratories, Monash University) |
| Abstract: | We study the role of professional networks in facilitating the escape of persecuted academics from Nazi Germany. From 1933, the Nazi regime started to dismiss academics of Jewish origin from their positions. The timing of dismissals created individual-level exogenous variation in the timing of emigration from Nazi Germany, allowing us to estimate the causal effect of networks for emigration decisions. Academics with ties to more colleagues who had emigrated in 1933 or 1934 (early émigrés) were more likely to emigrate. The early émigrés functioned as "bridging nodes" that helped other academics cross over to their destination. Furthermore, we provide some of the first empirical evidence of decay in social ties over time. The strength of ties also decays across space, even within cities. Finally, for high-skilled migrants, professional networks are more important than community networks. |
| Keywords: | Nazi Germany, Networks, Antisemitism, Jewish academics, Emigration |
| JEL: | I20 I23 I28 J15 J24 N34 N44 |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajr:sodwps:2021-02&r=all |
| By: | Basco, Sergi; Domenech, Jordi; Roses, Joan R. |
| Abstract: | The outburst of deaths and cases of Covid-19 around the world has renewed the interest to understand the mortality effects of pandemics across regions, occupations, age and gender. The Spanish Flu is the closest pandemic to Covid-19. Mortality rates in Spain were among the largest in today’s developed countries. Our research documents a substantial heterogeneity on mortality rates across occupations. The highest mortality was on low-income workers. We also record a rural mortality penalty that reversed the historical urban penalty temporally. The higher capacity of certain social groups to isolate themselves from social contact could explain these mortality differentials. However, adjusting mortality evidence by these two factors, there were still large mortality inter-provincial differences for the same occupation and location, suggesting the existence of a regional component in rates of flu contagion possibly related to climatic differences. |
| Keywords: | pandemics; health inequality; socio-economic mortality differences; urban penalty |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:108853&r=all |