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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Thomas Baudin (IESEG School of Management, Univ. Lille, CNRS UMR 9221 - LEM - Lille Economie Management, F-59000 Lille, France and IRES, UCLouvain, Belgium); David de la Croix (IRES/LIDAM, UCLouvain, Belgium and CEPR, Paris) |
| Abstract: | Reflect on the escape from a stagnant or Malthusian system. If this transformation is propelled by human capital, it should be spearheaded by individuals possessing elevated humancapital. To explore this hypothesis, we investigate the connection between family size and human capital among academics in Northern Europe in the two centuries leading up to the Industrial Revolution. We gauge scholars’ human capital using a novel approach based on their publications. We find that scholars with a high number of publications shifted from having more siblings to having fewer than others during the first half of the 18th century. This shift is consistent with an evolutionary growth model in which the initial Malthusian constraint leads the high human capital families to reproduce more, before being endogenously substituted by a Beckerian constraint with a child quality-quantity tradeoff. Our results support an extension of the Galor and Moav (2002)’s approach, in which the decline of Malthusian constraints is linked to human capital accumulation during the 18th century. |
| Keywords: | Universities, Academies, Fertility, Scholars, Human Capital |
| JEL: | N3 J1 O4 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ies:wpaper:e202408&r=dem |
| By: | Thomas Baudin (IÉSEG School of Management, Univ. Lille, CNRS, UMR 9221 - LEM - Lille Economie Management, F-59000 Lille, France and IRES, Université catholique de Louvain); Robert Stelter (University of Basel, Faculty of Business and Economics and Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research) |
| Abstract: | After coming to power in 1933, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party employed propaganda to reinforce the dominance of the Aryan Volk and swiftly implemented a series of economic and proactive family policies. Among these measures, the ’Law for the Encouragement of Marriage’ emerged as one of the most far-reaching and distortionary policies in the history of family policy. Its primary aim was to restrict women’s labor force participation in order to alleviate unemployment and promote the growth of the Aryan population. We evaluate the impact of National Socialism on marital fertility in (West) Germany by analyzing census data from 1933, 1939, and 1970. Our findings indicate that the first years of domination by the Nazis are associated with a transitory increase in fertility until 1938. Importantly, German women who were fully exposed to the Nazi family policies experienced a smaller rise in marital fertility as measured in 1938, compared to their compatriots who had only partial exposure. This relative decline can be attributed to the severe penalties imposed on childless, unmarried individuals, which incentivized Germans to enter into lower-quality and less fertile unions. The negative selection effect, depressing fertility, persisted until 1970, and represents the primary legacy of Nazism on the fertility of German women. |
| Keywords: | Third Reich, Fertility, Marriage, Divorce, Female labor force participation |
| JEL: | J1 D1 N3 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ies:wpaper:e202407&r=dem |
| By: | Chiara Malavasi; Han Ye |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effect of additional pension income on mortality outcomes by exploring the eligibility criteria of a German program subsidizing the pensions of low-wage workers. Using novel administrative data, we find that eligibility leads to a 2-month delay in age at death (censored at 75). Survey evidence suggests that additional pension income improves both mental and physical health. In addition, individuals feel less financially constrained and are more optimistic about their future. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the results are mainly driven by men. |
| Keywords: | Mortality, Health, Income, Pension subsidy, Retirement |
| JEL: | I10 I12 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2024_514v2&r=dem |
| By: | Alexander Berry; Elizabeth M. Maloney; David Neumark |
| Abstract: | Stronger enforcement of discrimination laws can help to reduce disparities in economic outcomes with respect to race, ethnicity, and gender in the United States. However, the data necessary to detect possible discrimination and to act to counter it is not publicly available – in particular, data on racial, ethnic, and gender disparities within specific companies. In this paper, we explore and develop methods to use information extracted from publicly available LinkedIn data to measure the racial, ethnic, and gender composition of company workforces. We use predictive tools based on both names and pictures to identify race, ethnicity, and gender. We show that one can use LinkedIn data to obtain reasonably reliable measures of workforce demographic composition by race, ethnicity, and gender, based on validation exercises comparing estimates from scraped LinkedIn data to two sources – ACS data, and company diversity or EEO-1 reports. Next, we apply our methods to study the race, ethnic, and gender composition of workers who were hired and those who experienced mass layoffs at two large companies. Finally, we explore using LinkedIn data to measure race, ethnic, and gender differences in promotion. |
| JEL: | J15 J16 J7 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32294&r=dem |