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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Baertsch, Laurenz (OECD); Sandner, Malte (Technische Hochschule Nürnberg) |
| Abstract: | Worldwide governments discuss how to increase maternal labor market participation and to reduce the child penalty, i.e. labor market earnings losses after child birth. This study analyses the long run effects of a German paid parental leave reform, which aims to increase maternal labour market participation and to reduce the child penalty by financially incentivizing maternal part-time work during the two years following child birth. Using German social security records, we exploit the fact that only mothers whose child is born in or after July 2015 are eligible for the new part-time PL option in a Difference-in-Differences strategy. We find that the policy increased the probability that high income mothers return to work during the first year after child birth by 2.1 - 2.8pp (≈ 15 - 20%). However, the policy does not impact maternal employment along the intensive margin (part-time or full-time work) in the long run, leaving maternal labor market participation and the child penalty unaffected. |
| Keywords: | paid parental leave, child penalty, part-time incentives, public child care |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J18 J22 J48 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17109 |
| By: | Mathias Jensen; Abigail Adams; Barbara Petrongolo |
| Abstract: | We use rich population-level administrative data from Denmark to develop new facts about the relationship between the timing and spacing of births and labor market outcomes. We show that there is substantial heterogeneity in the age at first birth across maternal skill levels. The spacing of pregnancies is also tighter on average for highly skilled mothers, resulting in them experiencing higher levels of fertility and time on parental leave in the years immediately after first birth. We estimate event studies by skill level and find that much of the child penalties in earnings and participation in the 5 years following first birth can be explained by incapacitation effects from parental leave around subsequent births, especially for the highly educated. |
| Date: | 2024–07–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:1048 |
| By: | Carla Rowold (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Even though Gender Pension Gaps (GPG) surpass gender wage gaps in most European countries, we know less about how they emerge and relate to gendered life-course inequalities. This study contributes by applying a life-course-sensitive decomposition to linked survey-register data for Germany (SHARE-RV), decomposing gender gaps in public and private pensions based on common work-family life courses. It considers the interdependencies of employment, family life, and earning positions over the life course, relevant due to pension privatization in Europe. GPGs occur because privileged life courses (stable civil servant careers for public and high-income employment for private pensions) yield high pensions but are almost exclusively accessible by fathers. Gender differences in access to high-income careers for parents drive the GPG in private pensions more than the gap in public pensions. The study underscores the future risk of high GPGs given the persistently high Gender Wage Gap and pension privatization in Germany. |
| Keywords: | Germany (Alte Bundesländer), employment, family life cycle, gender, income, life cycle, pension schemes, retirement pensions |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2024-015 |
| By: | Paul Bingley; Lorenzo Cappellari; Konstantinos Tatsiramos |
| Abstract: | Using Danish Twins Registry and population data, we link twins with their relatives to evaluate the controversial assumptions of the classic twin model and decompose socioeconomic inequality into genetic (heritability) and environmental factors. We reject the equal environments assumption, finding that the classic model overestimates heritability. Heritability explains 9% of variation in education and 14-16% in earnings, income, and wealth, helping to fill the ‘missing heritability’ gap between the classic twin model and Genome-Wide Association Studies. Shared environments account for 26-42% of these variances and 45-81% of intergenerational persistence. These findings reconcile estimates from twin and adoptee studies. |
| Keywords: | nature; nurture; family background; genes; environment inequality |
| JEL: | D31 D63 E21 E24 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2024-03 |
| By: | Erin Wolcott |
| Abstract: | Labor protection policies in the 1950s and 1960s helped many low- and middle-wage white workers in the United States achieve the American Dream. This coincided with historically low levels of inequality across income deciles. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964, policies that had previously helped build the white middle class reversed, especially in states with a larger Black population. Calibrating a labor search model to match minimum wages, unemployment benefits, and bargaining power before and after the Civil Rights Act, I find declining labor protections explain half of the rise in 90/10 wage inequality since the 1960s. |
| Keywords: | Minimum wage; Labor protections; Unemployment insurance; Wage inequality; Unions; Segregation; Worker bargaining power |
| JEL: | E24 J64 J30 J78 |
| Date: | 2024–05–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedmoi:98574 |
| By: | Guaitoli, Gabriele (University of Warwick); Pancrazi, Roberto (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | The widening income gap between older and younger individuals is a key topic in political and academic discussions. Research often focuses on labor earnings, neglecting other income sources and cross-country comparisons. This paper fills these gaps by analyzing disposable income trends in 2004-2018 across 32 countries using the Luxembourg Income Study Database. Key findings : (1) The age-income gap has increased in richer countries but decreased in poorer ones ; (2) Higher employment rates among older individuals drive this disparity in richer countries; (3) Increased female labor market participation mildly affected the employment margin, while rising education and later retirement did not. JEL Codes: E24, J31, O57 |
| Keywords: | Age group income ; growth decomposition ; income distribution ; cross-country comparison |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1504 |
| By: | Sarah Miller; Elizabeth Rhodes; Alexander W. Bartik; David E. Broockman; Patrick K. Krause; Eva Vivalt |
| Abstract: | This paper provides new evidence on the causal relationship between income and health by studying a randomized experiment in which 1, 000 low-income adults in the United States received $1, 000 per month for three years, with 2, 000 control participants receiving $50 over that same period. The cash transfer resulted in large but short-lived improvements in stress and food security, greater use of hospital and emergency department care, and increased medical spending of about $20 per month in the treatment relative to the control group. Our results also suggest that the use of other office-based care—particularly dental care—may have increased as a result of the transfer. However, we find no effect of the transfer across several measures of physical health as captured by multiple well-validated survey measures and biomarkers derived from blood draws. We can rule out even very small improvements in physical health and the effect that would be implied by the cross-sectional correlation between income and health lies well outside our confidence intervals. We also find that the transfer did not improve mental health after the first year and by year 2 we can again reject very small improvements. We also find precise null effects on self-reported access to health care, physical activity, sleep, and several other measures related to preventive care and health behaviors. Our results imply that more targeted interventions may be more effective at reducing health inequality between high- and low-income individuals, at least for the population and time frame that we study. |
| JEL: | I12 I14 I3 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32711 |