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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | E. Jason Baron; Joseph J. Doyle Jr.; Natalia Emanuel; Peter Hull; Joseph P. Ryan |
| Abstract: | Studies of racial discrimination often condition on endogenous measures of race or on earlier decisions that might themselves be affected by discrimination. We develop quasi-experimental tools for estimating the impact of racial misclassification on measures of unwarranted disparity, and for designing policy responses to unwarranted disparity that account for discrimination in earlier decisions. We apply these tools to the setting of child protective services (CPS), where previous work in our context has found that Black children are placed into foster care at higher rates than white children with identical potential for future maltreatment. CPS investigators misclassify 8–9% of Black and white children relative to their self-reported race, and this misclassification obscures around 24% of unwarranted disparity in foster care placement decisions. Policies that use algorithmic recommendations to eliminate total unwarranted disparity in placement rates are also meaningfully affected by earlier discrimination in CPS call screening. |
| JEL: | C26 I31 J13 J15 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33104 |
| By: | Huebener, Mathias (Bundesinstitut für Bevölkerungsforschung (BiB)); Mahlbacher, Malin K. (University of Mainz); Schmitz, Sophia (Federal Institute for Population Research) |
| Abstract: | Increasing fathers' involvement in childcare is seen as an important strategy to reduce women's child penalties in the labour market. However, very little is known about the extent to which family policies can enhance fathers' engagement in domestic work. This paper examines the impact of the combined availability of universal childcare and paternity leave on fathers' involvement. We exploit quasi-experimental variation in the regional availability of childcare for children under three, resulting from the introduction of a universal childcare entitlement in Germany. We estimate generalised difference-in-differences models and confirm that children enter childcare significantly earlier. Fathers become more likely to take paternity leave with the expectation of mothers entering the labour market sooner. Yet, this leave is mainly taken for the minimum period, together with the mother, and towards the end of the first year. Fathers' subsequent roles as caregivers, as well as their labour market outcomes, remain largely unaffected. Overall, increased childcare availability primarily substitutes maternal care; significant family policy efforts could not immediately alter fathers' caregiving responsibilities within the family. |
| Keywords: | public childcare, family policies, parental leave, paternal involvement |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J18 J22 D13 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17422 |
| By: | Sebastian T. Braun; Jan Stuhler |
| Abstract: | Despite millions of war widows worldwide, little is known about the economic consequences of being widowed by war. We use life history data from West Germany to show that war widowhood increased women's employment immediately after World War II but led to lower employment rates later in life. War widows, therefore, carried a double burden of employment and childcare while their children were young but left the workforce when their children reached adulthood. We show that the design of compensation policies likely explains this counterintuitive life-cycle pattern and examine potential spillovers to the next generation. |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2410.15439 |