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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Elizabeth U. Cascio; Paul Cornell; Ethan G. Lewis |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effects of permanent legal status on the health of children born to immigrants in the United States using variation from the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA). Our empirical approach compares trends in birth outcomes for foreign-born Mexican mothers across counties with different application rates under IRCA’s large-scale legalization programs. Maternal legalization raised birthweight. Effects arose immediately after the application process began – five years before affected women became Medicaid-eligible – suggesting causal mechanisms besides improved access to early prenatal care. Changes in the composition of births, stemming from changes in fertility and family reunification, contribute to but far from fully explain the birthweight impacts. The more likely mechanisms were instead the increases in family income and reductions in stress that came from gaining legal status. |
| JEL: | I13 I14 I18 J15 J61 K37 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32635 |
| By: | Sundberg, Anton (IFAU and Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of parenthood on labor market outcomes for both men and women using population-wide annual income data from 1960 to 2021 in Sweden. First, I document the contemporary child penalties across several labor market outcomes. Second, I show that while the motherhood penalty in earnings declined significantly during the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s, the rate of decline slowed from the late 1980s onwards. Third, I identify a fatherhood penalty emerging since the 1980s, particularly pronounced among men in more gender-egalitarian households (proxied by the father’s share of parental leave) and among fathers who have sons relative to daughters. |
| Keywords: | Parenthood; child penalties; gender earnings gap |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J22 J31 |
| Date: | 2024–07–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2024_012 |
| By: | Bo Cowgill; Amanda Y. Agan; Laura K. Gee |
| Abstract: | This study investigates whether the success of salary history bans could be limited by job-seekers volunteering their salaries unprompted. We survey American workers in 2019 and 2021 about their recent job searches, distinguishing when candidates were asked about salary history from when they were not. Historically well-paid workers may have an incentive to disclose, and employers who are aware of this could infer that non-disclosing workers are concealing low salaries. Through this mechanism, all workers could face pressure to avoid the stigma of silence. Our data shows a large percentage of workers (28%) volunteer salary history, even when a ban prevents employers from asking. An additional 47% will disclose if enough other job candidates disclose. Men are more likely than women to disclose their salaries unprompted, especially if they believe other candidates are disclosing. Over our 1.5-year sample covering jurisdictions with (and without) bans, unprompted volunteering of salary histories increased by about 6-8 percentage points. |
| Keywords: | voluntary disclosure, information economics, organizations, hiring, compensation, inequality, salary history bans, statistical discrimination |
| JEL: | D80 M51 J71 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11168 |
| By: | Clifton-Sprigg, Joanna (University of Bath); Fichera, Eleonora (University of Bath); Kaya, Ezgi (Cardiff University); Jones, Melanie K. (Cardiff University) |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of the introduction in 2015 of UK Shared Parental Leave policy on the up-take and the length of leave taken by fathers. Using the UK Household Longitudinal Study and Regression Discontinuity in Time, we show that the reform has not affected uptake or length of parental leave reinforcing questions as to its effectiveness. |
| Keywords: | parental leave reform, Regression Discontinuity in Time, UK Household Longitudinal Study |
| JEL: | D13 J08 J13 J18 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17076 |
| By: | Amer, Abdelrahman (University of Toronto); Craig, Ashley C (University of Michigan); Van Effenterre, Clémentine (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | Subjective performance evaluation is an important part of hiring and promotion decisions. We combine experiments with administrative data to understand what drives gender bias in such evaluations in the technology industry. Our results highlight the role of personal interaction. Leveraging 60, 000 mock video interviews on a platform for software engineers, we find that average ratings for code quality and problem solving are 12 percent of a standard deviation lower for women than men. Half of these gaps remain unexplained when we control for automated measures of coding performance. To test for statistical and taste-based bias, we analyze two field experiments. Our first experiment shows that providing evaluators with automated performance measures does not reduce the gender gap. Our second experiment removed video interaction, and compared blind to non-blind evaluations. No gender gap is present in either case. These results rule out traditional economic models of discrimination. Instead, we show that gender gaps widen with extended personal interaction, and are larger for evaluators educated in regions where implicit association test scores are higher. |
| Keywords: | discrimination, gender, coding, experiment, information |
| JEL: | C93 D83 J16 J71 M51 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17077 |
| By: | Zhiyang Jia; Thor O. Thoresen; Trine E. Vattø; Thor Olav Thoresen |
| Abstract: | While the consensus in the literature is that the labor supply of married women is more responsive than that of married men, there are indications that this gap is narrowing. Our estimations of a structural discrete choice labor supply model using repeated cross-sectional data confirms this trend for Norway – the gross wage elasticity for married women decreased from approximately 0.7 in 1997 to under 0.3 in 2019. We further demonstrate how a simulation procedure based on the labor supply model offers insights into the factors driving this decline. We identify four categories of explanations: changes in the sociodemographic composition of the population, changes in preferences and labor market options, wage changes, and tax scheme changes. Our analysis suggests that general wage growth over the period is the primary reason for the decline in responsiveness among married women. |
| Keywords: | female labor supply responsiveness, discrete choice labor supply model, microsimulation |
| JEL: | C35 C51 H24 H31 J22 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11176 |
| By: | Renaud Bourlès (Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France); Santiago López-Cantor (Aix-Marseille Univ., CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France.) |
| Abstract: | Public pension schemes serve as mechanisms for inter-temporal income smoothing and within-cohort redistribution. This paper examines the influence of income and lifespan inequalities on the structure of a democratically chosen tier-pension scheme. We use a probabilistic voting model where agents vote on the size and the degree of redistribution (i.e. the Beveridgean factor) of the pension scheme and can supplement it with voluntary contributions. Our analysis reveals that when all agents can supplement the public scheme with private contributions, their voting behavior depends solely on the share of total income redistributed through the pension system, referred to as the redistributive power of the pension. Income inequality positively correlates with the equilibrium redistributive power, while lifespan inequality exhibits the opposite effect, leading to a resource-time trade-off; particularly when both inequality measures are correlated. In scenarios where low earners are hand-to-mouth and unable to make voluntary contributions, the effects on pension size (through mandatory contributions) and degree of redistribution become disentangled. Income inequality diminishes pension size while augmenting redistribution, whereas lifespan inequality increases pension size while reducing redistribution. We provide empirical evidence from OECD countries supporting these theoretical findings and calibrate the model on French data to quantify the effects. |
| Keywords: | Tier pensions, Inequality, income, lifespan, intra-generational redistribution. |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:2420 |
| By: | Christopher S. Carpenter; Brandyn F. Churchill |
| Abstract: | We provide novel evidence on the role of social comparisons in shaping adolescent body misperception. Using an instrumental variables approach leveraging variation in relative age generated by school entry cutoff months and data from the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children study, we show that relatively older students are more likely to misperceive their weight harshly relative to their BMIs compared to their same-age counterparts who are relatively younger within their classrooms. Meanwhile, relatively younger students are more likely to misperceive their weight leniently relative to their BMIs. We then show that relatively older students are less likely to be overweight or obese, consume more low-calorie foods, and report higher levels of physical activity. Overall, our results suggest that relatively older students base their weight-related expectations and behaviors on their younger peers, while relatively younger students compare themselves to their older peers. |
| JEL: | I1 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32629 |