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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Breen, Casey |
| Abstract: | The Black-White mortality crossover is well-studied demographic paradox. Black Americans experience higher age-specific mortality rates than White Americans throughout most of the life course, but this puzzlingly reverses at advanced ages. The leading explanation for the Black-White mortality crossover centers around selective mortality over the life course. Black Americans who survived higher age-specific mortality risk throughout their life course are highly selected on robustness, and have lower mortality than White Americans in late life. However, skeptics argue the Black-White mortality crossover is simply a data artifact from age misreporting or related data quality issues. We use large-scale linked administrative data (N = 2.3 million) to document the BlackWhite mortality crossover for cohorts born in the early 20 th century. We find evidence the crossover is not a data artifact and cannot be uncrossed using sociodemographic characteristics alone. |
| Date: | 2024–08–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:ax9u3 |
| By: | Pia Heckl; Elisabeth Wurm |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of workplace breastfeeding laws on the labor supply of mothers. We exploit a unique setting, when throughout 1998-2009 states in the US introduced laws requiring employers to provide break time and a private room for women to express milk or breastfeed. Our results show an increase in breastfeeding initiation and the probability that a child was breastfed at three and six months after birth. We find that workplace breastfeeding significantly increase maternal employment by 4% when children are in breastfeeding age. |
| Keywords: | female labor supply, breastfeeding, workplace policies |
| JEL: | J08 J13 J16 J18 J22 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11248 |
| By: | Sylvain Dessy; Francesca Marchetta; Roland Pongou; Luca Tiberti |
| Abstract: | The unified growth theory (Galor and Weil, 1996) suggests that a high gender gap in earning power increases fertility rates. This paper presents the first microfounded test of this hypothesis, focusing on the critical age interval where this theory binds. Using household data from rural Madagascar—where restrictive gender norms and reliance on rainfed agriculture are prevalent—we exploit temporal and spatial variations in rainfall deficits at the grid-cell level during the growing season to measure women’s relative economic opportunities. Our analysis, controlling for grid-cell and year-of-birth fixed effects and accounting for the spatial correlation of drought episodes, reveals that drought significantly increases completed fertility only when experienced during adolescence. We show that school dropout among adolescent girls and the widening gender gap in economic opportunities drive this increase. Moreover, drought exposure raises adolescent girls’ marriage hazards and the likelihood of having multiple sex partners, triggering early childbearing, especially in agricultural households without irrigation. This study supports the unified growth theory by linking negative climate shocks to women’s relative earning power and fertility decisions, highlighting the need for policies addressing gender disparities and environmental vulnerabilities. |
| Keywords: | Drought; rainfed Agriculture; Women’s earning power; Completed fertility. |
| JEL: | C12 C13 C14 J12 J13 J16 O12 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2024_14.rdf |
| By: | Barschkett, M.;; Bosque-Mercader, L.; |
| Abstract: | Family dynamics and institutions play significant roles in shaping individuals’ health. We evaluate the short- and long-term effects of (1) motherhood and (2) public early childcare on maternal health. Our results align with an intra-household disease spread from children to mothers in the first years after childbirth, which is further amplified by childcare availability. Additionally, mothers exhibit deteriorated mental health from the medium run, particularly concerning depression diagnoses, due to the psychological demands of motherhood. In contrast, our findings reveal long-term improvements for most health conditions after childbirth, which is supported by childcare provision. Specifically, childcare availability leads to persistent reductions in non-communicable diseases such as obesity, back pain, and hypertension, and, for multiparous and older mothers, in mental health. |
| Keywords: | maternal health; motherhood; early childcare; administrative health data; |
| JEL: | I10 I12 J13 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:24/08 |
| By: | Mabel Andalón; Catherine de Fontenay; Donna K. Ginther; Kwanghui Lim |
| Abstract: | Teamwork has become more important in recent decades. We show that larger teams generate an unintended side effect: individuals who finish their PhD when the average team in their field is larger have worse career prospects. Our analysis combines data on career outcomes from the Survey of Doctorate Recipients with publication data that measures team size from ISI Web of Science. As average team size in a field increased over time, junior academic scientists became less likely to secure research funding or obtain tenure and were more likely to leave academia relative to their older counterparts. The team size effect can fully account for the observed decline in tenure prospects in academic science. The rise in team size was not associated with the end of mandatory retirement. However, the doubling of the NIH budget was associated with a significant increase in team size. Our results demonstrate that academic science has not adjusted its reward structure, which is largely individual, in response to team science. Failing to address these concerns means a significant loss as junior scientists exit after a costly and specialized education in science. |
| JEL: | I23 J24 J4 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32827 |