nep-dem New Economics Papers
on Demographic Economics
Issue of 2021‒05‒03
six papers chosen by
Héctor Pifarré i Arolas
Universitat Pompeu Fabra

  1. Older mothers' employment and marriage stability when the nest is empty By Hippolyte d'Albis; Karina Doorley; Elena Stancanelli
  2. On the Quantity and Quality of Girls : Fertility, Parental Investments, and Mortality By Anukriti, S; Bhalotra, Sonia; Tam, Eddy H. F.
  3. Aging, Proximity to Death, and Religiousness By Lechler, Marie; Sunde, Uwe
  4. Infant Health, Cognitive Performance and Earnings : Evidence from Inception of the Welfare State in Sweden By Bhalotra, Sonia; Martin Karlsson; Therese Nilsson; Schwarz, Nina
  5. Longevity and Patience By Falk, Armin; Hermle, Johannes; Sunde, Uwe
  6. How has COVID-19 affected the intention to migrate via the backway to Europe and to a neighboring African country? Survey evidence and a salience experiment in The Gambia By Tijan L. Bah; Catia Batista; Flore Gubert; David McKenzie

  1. By: Hippolyte d'Albis (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Karina Doorley (ESRI Dublin); Elena Stancanelli (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)
    Abstract: A significant literature in the social sciences addresses the impact of child-bearing and rearing on marital stability and on mothers' labour market outcomes. Much less is known about older mothers' employment and marriage patterns when the adult children leave the parental nest. This study aims to shed light on these issues using longitudinal labour force data for France. Exploiting retirement laws for identification purposes, and taking a regression discontinuity approach, we find that older women's retirement probability is positively associated with an empty nest. We also conclude that an empty nest is negatively associated with older mothers' marriage probability. There is scope for better targeting of both family and retirement policies for older mothers during those critical years when adult children leave the parental nest.
    Keywords: Ageing,Retirement,Divorce
    Date: 2021–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-03203063&r=
  2. By: Anukriti, S (Development Research Group, The World Bank); Bhalotra, Sonia (University of Warwick); Tam, Eddy H. F. (University of Oxford)
    Abstract: Access to prenatal sex-detection technology in India has led to a phenomenal increase in abortion of girls. We find that it has also narrowed the gender gap in under-5 mortality, consistent with surviving girls being more wanted than aborted girls. For every three aborted girls, one additional girl survived to age five. Mechanisms include moderation of son-biased fertility stopping and narrowing of gender gaps in parental investments. However, surviving girls are more likely to be born in lower status families. Our findings have implications not only for counts of missing girls but also for the later life outcomes of girls.
    Keywords: abortion ; child mortality ; fertility ; gender ; health ; India ; missing girls ; parental investments ; prenatal sex detection ; sex-selection ; ultrasound JEL Classification: I15 ; J13 ; J16
    Date: 2021
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1346&r=
  3. By: Lechler, Marie (LMU Munich); Sunde, Uwe (LMU Munich)
    Abstract: Considerable evidence has documented that the elderly are more religious and that religiousness is associated with better health and lower mortality. Yet, little is known about the reverse role of life expectancy or proximity to death, as opposed to age, for religiousness. This paper provides evidence for the distinct role of expected remaining life years for the importance of religion in individuals’ lives. We combine individual survey response data for more than 311,000 individuals from 95 countries over the period 1994-2014 with information from period life tables. Contrary to wide-held beliefs, religiousness decreases with greater expected proximity to death. The findings have important implications regarding the consequences of population aging for religiousness and associated outcomes.
    Keywords: Religiousness; demographics; proximity of death; remaining life years;
    JEL: J10 N30 Z12
    Date: 2020–05–29
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:245&r=
  4. By: Bhalotra, Sonia (University of Essex & University of Warwick); Martin Karlsson (CINCH, University of Duisburg-Essen); Therese Nilsson (Lund University, Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Schwarz, Nina (University of Duisburg-Essen)
    Abstract: We identify earnings impacts of exposure to an infant health intervention in Sweden, using individual linked administrative data to trace potential mechanisms. Leveraging quasi-random variation in eligibility, we estimate that exposure was associated with higher test scores in primary school for boys and girls. However only girls were more likely to score in the top quintile. Subsequent gains, in secondary schooling, employment, and earnings, are restricted to girls. We show that the differential gains for women accrued from both skills and opportunities, expansion of the welfare state having created unprecedented employment opportunities for women.
    Keywords: Infant health ; early life interventions ; cognitive skills ; education ; earnings ; occupational choice ; programme evaluation ; Sweden ; gender JEL Classification: I15 ; I18 ; H41
    Date: 2021
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1345&r=
  5. By: Falk, Armin (University of Bonn); Hermle, Johannes (UC Berkley); Sunde, Uwe (LMU Munich)
    Abstract: Why does patience vary across individuals and countries? We provide evidence on a widely-hypothesized mechanism, namely that higher longevity fosters patience. Using data on patience for 80,000 individuals in 76 countries, this paper relates exogenous variation in longevity across gender-age-country cells to variation in patience. We find that a ten-year increase in life expectancy implies a 5-percentage point higher discount factor. This relationship emerges for various sub-samples and is unaffected by other determinants including lifetime experiences regarding economic development, institutional quality, or violence. We provide a model to discuss the implications for the emergence of poverty traps.
    Keywords: time preferences; mortality; poverty traps;
    JEL: D10 J10 O10
    Date: 2019–11–22
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:201&r=
  6. By: Tijan L. Bah (Navarra Center for International Development, University of Navarra and Novafrica, Nova SBE); Catia Batista (Nova School of Business and Economics); Flore Gubert (IRD, UMR LEDa-DIAL, PSL, U. Paris-Dauphine, CNRS, and Paris School of Economics); David McKenzie (Development Research Group, the World Bank)
    Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in border closures in many countries and a sharp reduction in overall international mobility. However, this disruption of legal pathways to migration has raised concerns that potential migrants may turn to irregular migration routes as a substitute. We examine how the pandemic has changed intentions to migrate from The Gambia, the country with the highest pre-pandemic per-capita irregular migration rates in Africa. We use a large-scale panel survey conducted in 2019 and 2020 to compare changes in intentions to migrate to Europe and to neighboring Senegal. We find the pandemic has reduced the intention to migrate to both destinations, with approximately one-third of young males expressing less intention to migrate. The largest reductions in migration intentions are for individuals who were unsure of their intent pre-pandemic, and for poorer individuals who are no longer able to afford the costs of migrating at a time when these costs have increased and their remittance income has fallen. We also introduce the methodology of priming experiments to the study of migration intentions, by randomly varying the salience of the COVID-19 pandemic before eliciting intentions to migrate. We find no impact of this added salience, which appears to be because knowledge of the virus, while imperfect, was already enough to inform migration decisions. Nevertheless, despite these decreases in intentions, the overall desire to migrate the backway to Europe remains high, highlighting the need for legal migration pathways to support migrants and divert them from the risks of backway migration.
    Keywords: Migration intentions, COVID-19 Pandemic, Priming and Salience Experiments, Backway migration, The Gambia
    JEL: F22 O15 J61 C93
    Date: 2021–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:2115&r=

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