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on Microeconomic European Issues |
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Issue of 2017‒02‒12
23 papers chosen by Giuseppe Marotta Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia |
| By: | Siflinger, Bettina; van den Berg, Gerard |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of a Swedish universal, public child care reform on child health outcomes. We draw on a unique set of merged population register data from the province of Skane, following over the period 1999-2008. It contains merged information at the individual level from the population register, the income tax register, the medical birth register and the inpatient and outpatient registers. The outpatient register contains all ambulatory care contacts including all contacts with physicians and therapists. Visits are recorded by day, and diagnoses are recorded for each visit. Our identification strategy relies on a sibling sample design that allows to compare the impact of the reform across siblings within households. Despite exploiting a rather general measure of the reform impact, we additionally make use of detailed information on household-specific monthly child care fee. Our results suggest that children being fully affected by the reform have better physical health at ages 4-5 and 6-7, are significantly better off in development and psychological conditions at age 6-7. These effects are particularly distinct for children from low income families, being in line with the literature on early child interventions. Changes in child care prices also predict better physical health for younger children. The results are mainly driven by two mechanisms, a crowding out effect of informal care and an income effect, and are strongly supported by the so called hygiene hypothesis. The findings suggest that the availability of affordable high quality and universal, public child care plays a crucial role for health development throughout childhood. An analysis of children's health costs moreover provides important implications for public health expenditures. |
| JEL: | I14 I10 I28 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145765&r=eur |
| By: | Lauber, Verena; Storck, Johanna |
| Abstract: | This paper provides novel evidence on the effect of family-friendly firm policies on satisfaction and working time of parents. The focus of this study is on two specific firm policies: Childcare support and flexible working schedules. We exploit the fact that since the mid 2000s an increasing share of employers react to their employees' needs by offering a family-friendly work environment. These changes over time allow us to identify causal effects of the two family-friendly policies. Identification is based on a difference-in-differences strategy in a panel dataset on families with young children in Germany (FiD). The model is combined with matching to decrease potential bias arising from observable factors correlated with the offer of family-friendly policies and the change in the considered outcomes. We find that for mothers, childcare support strongly increases satisfaction related to childcare and additionally raises life and job satisfaction. Particularly middle and lower educated mothers increase their working time when childcare support is offered. The effects are mainly driven by immediate use of childcare support. Flexible working schedules only affect mothers' job satisfaction, but do not seem to change family related satisfaction and working time. Fathers show nearly no reactions to either childcare support or flexible working schedules. Childcare support seems to be a truly family-friendly practice and valued by mothers, while this is not so clear for flexible working schedules. |
| JEL: | J28 J13 J21 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145667&r=eur |
| By: | Martinez, Isabel Z. |
| Abstract: | Tax competition raises the question to which extent taxpayers respond to differences in income tax rates by migrating to low-tax areas. This paper analyzes a large, two-step tax reform in the canton of Obwalden in central Switzerland in 2006 and 2008. The canton first introduced a regressive income tax scheme with the explicit purpose of attracting affluent taxpayers, followed by a change to a flat rate tax, thereby lowering taxes for all taxpayers. Using individual tax data from the cantonal tax administration, I apply a 2SLS approach to estimate how responsive migration was to the tax reduction. I estimate an elasticity of the stock of rich taxpayers in the canton with respect to the average net-of-tax rate of 2.4 in the first two years after the reform, increasing to 3.5 over the five post-reform years. The corresponding elsticities of the inflow of rich taxpayers are even larger. These estimates are larger than what the few studies on tax induced mobility elasticity have found so far. I can further rule out that these results are due to an exogenous positive income shock to top incomes. DiD estimations comparing the share of rich taxpayers and net income per taxpayer in Obwalden to two neighboring cantons confirm that the reform was successful in increasing the canton's tax base. The large elasticities can be explained by two aspects. First, by the sizable pool of intentionally treated and the prevailing residence-based taxation, as opposed to source-based taxation. Through relocating to Obwalden, any Swiss and European citizen could take advantage of this tax scheme. Second, by the initially low share of rich taxpayers in Obwalden and the small size of the canton. |
| JEL: | H71 H24 H31 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145643&r=eur |
| By: | Amjadi, Golnaz (CERE and the Department of Economics, Umeå University); Lundgren, Tommy (CERE and the Department of Economics, Umeå University); Persson, Lars (CERE and the Department of Economics, Umeå University); Zhang, Shanshan (CERE and the Department of Forest Economics, SLU) |
| Abstract: | Energy efficiency improvement (EEI) benefits the climate and matters for energy security. The potential emission and energy savings due to EEI may however not fully materialize due to the rebound effect. In this study, we measure the size of rebound effect for the two energy types fuel and electricity within the four most energy intensive sectors in Sweden – pulp and paper, basic iron and steel, chemical, and mining. We use a detailed firm-level panel data set for the period 2000-2008 and apply Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) for measuring the rebound effect. We find that both fuel and electricity rebound effects do not fully offset the potential for energy and emission savings. Furthermore, we find 2 CO intensity and fuel and electricity share as the two main determinants of rebound effect in Swedish heavy industry. Our results seems to imply that it matters both to what extent and where to promote EEI, as the rebound effect varies between sectors as well as between firms within sectors. |
| Keywords: | Energy efficiency improvement; Rebound effect; Stochastic Frontier Analysis |
| JEL: | D22 Q40 |
| Date: | 2017–01–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:slucer:2017_001&r=eur |
| By: | Garloff, Alfred; Wapler, Rüdiger |
| Abstract: | Two stylised facts of the German labour market are that first, the demand for highskilled labour has been growing rapidly for a number of years and second, the Country is facing a particularly strong demographic change with the expected size of the Population decreasing rapidly and the average age of the labour force increasing sharply. This has led to a widely discussed fear of “labour shortages”. One of the reasons often stated in the public debate is that within a given time period many more old individuals are retiring than young individuals are entering the labour market. Although there is a certain logic in this argument, it is only prima facie convincing because firstly, a Change in labour demand could counteract this effect and secondly, it is unclear whether – given labour demand for the occupations people retire from – people retiring from the labour market are normally “replaced” by young cohorts entering the labour market. Thirdly, even if the size of a cohort differs between generations, it is by no means clear what the effects on labour supply are as, for example, the participation rates may also differ. We address these issues from a theoretical and empirical perspective. In the theoretical part we focus on the relationship between vacancies and unemployment (labour-market tightness) and show that it does not always increase with demographic change. In the empirical part, we analyse how employment is affected over time by different shares of different age cohorts. We find no evidence that a higher number of retirees in an occupation leads to a higher demand for younger workers. Instead, to a large extent, retirees seem to be “replaced”, if they are replaced at all, by middle-aged cohorts who change occupations. Thus, we conclude that the interaction between large retiring cohorts and small entering cohorts within occupations is less direct than is suggested in the public debate. |
| JEL: | J11 J21 J26 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145497&r=eur |
| By: | Zapf, Ines (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Weber, Enzo (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | Modern working societies face the challenge to combine the establishments' with the employees' needs for working-time flexibility. The authors investigate the determinants of overtime and different working hours' arrangements using the German Linked Employer-Employee Study of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP-LEE) and logistic regression models. The results show that employer and job characteristics are most important for determining overtime and the different working hours' arrangements, underlining the power of employers with regard to working-time flexibility. Employee characteristics play the least important role, although employees can flexibly organize their working times and can benefit from certain arrangements, such as self-determined working hours and flexitime within a working hours account. The study provides evidence that working-time flexibility in Germany is mainly employer-oriented. However, through demographic changes and a possible lack of qualified personnel, employee- friendly arrangements are likely to gain importance. |
| JEL: | J2 J81 |
| Date: | 2017–02–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201704&r=eur |
| By: | Wolff, Joachim; van den Berg , Gerard J.; Uhlendorff , Arne |
| Abstract: | With the introduction of a new welfare benefit system in 2005, Germany implemented quite strict benefit sanctions for welfare recipients aged younger than 25 years. For all types of non-compliance except for missing appointments, their basic cash benefit is withdrawn for three months. A second sanction of the same type within one year implies a complete benefit cut for three months. We analyze the impact of these sanctions on job search outcomes and on transitions out of the labor force. Our analysis is based on administrative data on a large inflow sample of young male jobseekers into welfare in West Germany. We estimate separate models for people living alone and people living with their family, as sanctioned welfare recipients living with other household members can partly rely on their support and might react less by increasing search intensity and lowering reservation wages. We estimate the parameters of multivariate duration models taking selection based on unobservables into account. Our results suggest that both the first and the second sanction increase the probability of finding a job, but that these jobs go along with lower earnings due to first but not the second sanction. Moreover, first sanctions significantly increase the transition rate out of the labor force of both groups of young men, while second sanctions amplify this effect only for young men living in single households. |
| JEL: | J64 C41 C21 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145630&r=eur |
| By: | Gianni Guastella (Università Cattolica and Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei); Stefano Pareglio (Università Cattolica and Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei); Paolo Sckokai (Università Cattolica) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the relationship between urban spatial expansion and its socio-economic determinants in Lombardy, the most urbanised region of Italy (and one of the most urbanized of the European Union), at the municipality level. Test results suggest that this relationship varies significantly among municipalities of different size and findings support the hypothesis that larger ones are more efficient in managing land take. In particular, we find that the marginal land consumption per new household is inversely related to the size of the municipality and we link this evidence to the fact that, since more space is often available, small municipalities pay less institutional attention to the issue of land take and consequently internalise less the environmental externalities. This evidence calls for a reflection on the role of planning policies and the effectiveness of undifferentiated measures to contain land take, especially in the case of Italy, where the municipalities, more than 99% of which have less than 50,000 inhabitants, decide on land use transformations. |
| Keywords: | Land Take, City Size, Threshold Regression, Spatial Econometrics |
| JEL: | O18 Q15 R14 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2017.03&r=eur |
| By: | Herz, Benedikt; Varela-Irimia, Xosé-Luís |
| Abstract: | This paper documents border effects in public procurement in the European Union Single Market. We use a data set of 2.3 million European public procurement contracts awarded between 2010 and 2014 to estimate a gravity model of bilateral procurement flows between European NUTS3 region pairs. Controlling for numerous variables, we find border effects on both the intra- and international level. Cross-national border effects are especially sizeable: firms located in the home region of the tendering authority are about 1300 times more likely to be awarded a contract than foreign firms. Our results hold for goods, services, and construction works procurement and cannot be explained by common currency, same language, and variables capturing cultural distance. |
| Keywords: | public procurement, public contract, border effect, home bias, cross-border, gravity model, European Union, Single Market |
| JEL: | F14 F15 H57 |
| Date: | 2016–11–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:76401&r=eur |
| By: | Gerster, Andreas |
| Abstract: | In many countries, the transition process towards a low-carbon economy has been associated with increasing electricity prices. Microeconometric evaluations of the causal impact of electricity price changes on plant-level outcomes are rare, though. By exploiting local randomization induced by thresholds in exemption rules, we estimate the local average treatment effects of electricity levy exemptions using a fuzzy regression discontinuity (RD) design. The results indicate that exempted German manufacturing plants increase electricity use substantially and substitute it for fossil fuels, while we do not find evidence for short-run effects on gross output, exports and employment. |
| Keywords: | environmental taxation,electricity prices,manufacturing,regression discontinuity design |
| JEL: | D22 H23 L60 Q41 Q48 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:672&r=eur |
| By: | Antonelli, Cristiano; Crespi, Francesco; Mongeau, Christian; Scellato, Giuseppe (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the role of the composition of the regional stock of knowledge in explaining innovation performance. The paper provides three main contributions. First, it investigates the relevance of Jacobs knowledge externalities in characterizing the technological capabilities at the regional level. Second, it applies the Hidalgo-Hausmann (HH) methodology to analyze knowledge composition by looking at patent data of 214 regions, located in 27 state members of the European Union (EU) during the years 1994- 2008. Third, it econometrically assesses the role of knowledge base composition in a knowledge generation function. The results of the empirical analysis confirm that the characterization of regional knowledge base through the HH indicators provides interesting information to understanding its composition and to qualify it as a provider of the Jacobs knowledge externalities that account for the dynamics of regional innovative performance. |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201607&r=eur |
| By: | Vincenzo Atella (CEIS,University of Rome "Tor Vergata"); Federico Belotti (CEIS,University of Rome "Tor Vergata"); Claudio Cricelli (SIMG); Desislava Dankova (CEIS, University of Rome Tor Vergata); Joanna Kopinska (CEIS, University of Rome "Tor Vergata"); Alessandro Palma (CEIS, University of Rome Tor Vergata); Andrea Piano Mortari (CEIS, University of Rome "Tor Vergata") |
| Abstract: | The gains in life expectancy (LE) experienced over the last decades have been accompanied by the increases in the number of years lived in bad health, lending support to the “expansion of morbidity” hypothesis. In this paper we revise this theory and propose the “Double Expansion of Morbidity” (DEM) hypothesis, arguing that not only have life expectancy gains been transformed into years lived in bad health, but also, due to anticipated onset of chronic diseases, the number of years spent in “good health” is actually reducing. Limited to the Italian case, we present and discuss a set of empirical evidence confirming the DEM hypothesis. In particular, we find that from 2000 to 2014 the average number of years spent with chronic conditions in Italy has increased by 6.4 years, of which 3.4 years due to the increase in LE and 3 years due to the reduction in the onset age of chronic conditions. Compared to the year 2000, in 2014 this phenomenon has generated an extra public health expenditure of 8.7 billion euros. We discuss the policy implications of these findings. |
| Keywords: | Life expectancy,Double expansion hypothesis,Health expenditure,Italy. |
| JEL: | I10 I11 H51 |
| Date: | 2017–02–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:396&r=eur |
| By: | Kerri Agnew (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin); Ronan Lyons (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | Access to employment is one of the most valuable amenities offered by cities. In urban economics, this is the principal driver of the bid-rent gradient and is a key determinant of housing prices and land values. However, little is known about the causal effect of employment on housing prices, due to the problem of identification. This study presents the first causal estimates of employment changes on housing prices, both sales and rental. It does this by using a purpose-built spatially granular dataset of 1.4 million housing prices and FDI employment, covering Ireland 2007-2013. Identification rests on a combination of rich spatio-temporal variation due to the abundance of FDI in Ireland, a rich set of location controls and an inelastic housing supply in the period covered. The main results show that 1-2 years after 1,000 extra jobs have been created, monthly rents in nearby properties will be between 0.5% and 1% higher. The effect on prices is at least 2% but less consistent across specifications. On average, net job creation in export-oriented FDI firms 2009-2013 added roughly Û48 million to the stock of wealth of owner occupied real estate and Û8 million to the stock of wealth of the rental sector. We also estimate that the aggregate effect of the stock of FDI jobs in 2013 on Irish housing prices is Û440 million, or just over 1%. |
| Keywords: | Housing Prices, Employment, Foreign Direct Investment, Ireland, Hedonic Regression |
| JEL: | R10 R21 F23 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep0417&r=eur |
| By: | Piva, Mariacristina (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Vivarelli, Marco (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, the economic insights about the employment impact of technological change are disentangled starting from the classical economists to nowadays theoretical and empirical analyses. On the other hand, an empirical test is provided; in particular, longitudinal data – covering manufacturing and service sectors over the 1998-2011 period for 11 European countries – are used to run GMM-SYS and LSDVC estimates. Two are the main results: 1) a significant labour-friendly impact of R&D expenditures (mainly related to product innovation) is found; yet, this positive employment effect appears to be entirely due to the medium-and high-tech sectors, while no effect can be detected in the low-tech industries; 2) capital formation is found to be negatively related to employment; this outcome points to a possible labour-saving effect due to the embodied technological change incorporated in gross investment (mainly related to process innovation). |
| Keywords: | technological change, employment, sectoral analysis, EU |
| JEL: | O33 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10471&r=eur |
| By: | Altmann, Steffen; Falk, Armin; Jäger, Simon; Zimmermann, Florian |
| Abstract: | We conduct a large-scale field experiment in the German labor market to investigate how information provision affects job seekers' employment prospects and labor market outcomes. Individuals assigned to the treatment group of our experiment received a brochure that informed them about job search strategies and the consequences of unemployment, and motivated them to actively look for new employment. We study the causal impact of the brochure by comparing labor market outcomes of treated and untreated job seekers in administrative data containing comprehensive information on individuals' employment status and earnings. While our treatment yields overall positive effects, these tend to be concentrated among job seekers who are at risk of being unemployed for an extended period of time. Specifically, the treatment effects in our overall sample are moderately positive but insignificant. At the same time, we do observe pronounced and statistically significant effects for individuals who exhibit an increased risk of long-term unemployment. For this group, the brochure increases employment and earnings in the year after the intervention by roughly 4%. Given the low cost of the intervention, our findings indicate that targeted information provision can be a highly effective policy tool in the labor market. |
| JEL: | C93 D03 J64 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145877&r=eur |
| By: | Jansen, Marcel; García-Pérez, J. Ignacio; Bentolila, Samuel |
| Abstract: | Long-term unemployment reached unprecedented levels in Spain in the wake of the Great Recession and it still affects around 57% of the unemployed. We document the sources that contributed to the rise in long-term unemployment and analyze its persistence using state-ofthe- art duration models. We find pervasive evidence of negative duration dependence, while personal characteristics such as mature age, lack of experience, and entitlement to unemployment benefits are key to understand the cross-sectional differences in the incidence of long-term unemployment. The negative impact of low levels of skills and education is muted by the large share of temporary contracts, but once we restrict attention to employment spells lasting at least one month these factors also contribute to a higher risk of long-term unemployment. Surprisingly, workers from the construction sector do not fare worse than similar workers from other sectors. Finally, self-reported reservation wages are found to respond strongly to the cycle, but much less to individual unemployment duration. In view of these findings, we argue that active labour market policies should play a more prominent role in the fight against long-term unemployment while early activation should be used to curb inflows. |
| Keywords: | Spain; survival probability; duration model; great recession; Long-term unemployment |
| JEL: | C41 J65 J64 J63 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:24122&r=eur |
| By: | Gianluca Misuraca (European Commission – JRC); Csaba Kucsera (European Commission – JRC); Giulio Pasi (European Commission – JRC); Dimitri Gagliardi (University of Manchester); Fabienne Abadie (European Commission – JRC) |
| Abstract: | This report presents the results of the analysis of the consolidated mapping of ICT-enabled social innovation initiatives promoting social investment gathered as part of the research project entitled 'ICT-Enabled Social Innovation to support the Implementation of the Social Investment Package' (IESI). The dataset includes 613 initiatives inventoried over the course of the research, out of which 300 have been mapped and are part of the IESI Knowledge Map 2016. The results of the analysis of the IESI mapping is meant to help policymakers and practitioners to use ICT-enabled social innovation to modernise EU welfare states, providing better and more efficient social services and increasing the skills, wellbeing and resilience of EU citizens. In this perspective, the documented research design, its proposed terminology, theoretical framework and findings contribute to the growing scientific interest and debate about ICT-enabled social innovations in the field of social services innovation and social policy redesign within the scope of the emerging discussion on the European Pillar of Social Rights and the future of welfare systems. |
| Keywords: | Social policy, innovation, ICT, social investment, social policy innovation, SIP, Social Investment Package, social economy, social enterprise, ICT enabled social innovation, ICT, services, social protection, welfare, mapping, welfare reforms, wellbeing, resilience |
| JEL: | I31 I38 O35 O33 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc105556&r=eur |
| By: | Inmaculada García-Mainar (University of Zaragoza); Víctor M. Montuenga-Gómez (University of Zaragoza) |
| Abstract: | Over-education may arise from the voluntary decisions of individuals to acquire more qualifications than those required in the workplace. In these cases, the mismatch may have a signalling role that allows workers to compensate for the lack of certain other skills, or to gain access to the labour market. The aim of this paper is to analyse the signalling role of over-education in Spain, a country characterised by a strongly-segmented labour market with high unemployment levels, and a large number of over-educated individuals. Using micro data for a representative sample of Spanish workers, we use three different methods to test the signalling value of over-education. The results obtained provide evidence that educational mismatch plays a clear signalling role. |
| Keywords: | human capital, educational mismatch, rate of return, signalling |
| JEL: | D82 I26 J24 J28 J62 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zar:wpaper:dt2017-03&r=eur |
| By: | Möller, Joachim; Eppelsheimer, Johann |
| Abstract: | Since the study by Moretti (2004) for the US, it is widely accepted that the spatial distribution of human capital plays an increasing role for regional labor market outcomes. Like in the pioneer approach we assume that workers' productivity at the firm level depend on the regional share of the high skilled. We extent the theoretical framework, however, by decomposing the change in the regional share of high-skilled workers into brain drain, brain gain as well as into labor market entry and exit effects. This allows us to investigate hypotheses about the extent and nature of knowledge spillovers in more detail. For the empirical part we analyze a large administrative panel data set. Including a series of controls as well as fixed effects for the worker, occupation, industry, region and year we find a significant negative relationship between brain drain and the regional wage level of low- and high skilled workers and a positive one for brain gain. These results are robust across different specifications and hold for Germany as a whole and West Germany alone. If estimated separately, we find much weaker and partly statistically not significant knowledge spillovers for East German regions. In general, brain drain and brain gain effects are of similar order of magnitude, whereas the effect of labor market exits of high-skilled workers exceeds that of labor market entries in absolute value. Using instrumental variable methods we show that the basic results are not driven by endogeneity bias. |
| JEL: | J24 J31 O15 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145506&r=eur |
| By: | Hippolyte d'Albis (Paris School of Economics); Paula E. Gobbi (Université Catholique de Louvain); Angela Greulich (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne and INED) |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that differences in fertility across European countries mainly emerge due to fewer women having two children in low fertility countries. It further suggests that childcare services are an important determinant for the transition to a second child to occur. The theoretical framework we propose suggests that: (i) in countries where childcare coverage is low, there is a U-shaped relationship between a couple's probability of having a second child and the woman's potential wage while (ii) in countries with easy access to childcare, this probability is positively related with the woman's potential wage. Data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) confirm these implications when estimating a woman's probability of having a second child as a function of education. This implies that middle income women are the most affected ones by the lack of access to formal and subsidized childcare |
| Keywords: | Childcare; Education; Fertility; Female Employment |
| JEL: | J11 J13 J16 O11 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:17009&r=eur |
| By: | Findeisen, Sebastian; Dauth, Wolfgang; Lee, Tim |
| Abstract: | We study and compare the importance of human capital acquired at different stages of the life-cycle. We exploit Germany’s unique reunification episode and the sudden restructuring of East Germany’s labor market institutions and education system. We show graphical evidence that earnings, employment and wages for each East German birth cohort—scaled by the same outcomes for West German cohorts—change linearly with age at reunification. These linear exposure effects display structural breaks, i.e., changes in slope, around the ages 18 and 30 at reunification for both genders, and age 35 for females: there are significant gender differences. Exposure effects are by far the strongest for males between ages 20 and 30, where relative earnings decline at a rate of 2% per year for older cohorts. Around 40% of this effect is explained by higher college graduation rates for younger cohorts, while the remaining 60% underscores the impor- tance and long lasting impact of early career effects. For females, earnings differences are almost completely explained by employment. We document reverse exposure effects for East German women between age 5 and 30 at reunification: employment and labor force participation rates increase linearly with each additional year spent in the socialist East. This trend is reversed after age 30, with older cohort’s earnings and employment declining with each additional year spent in the East. |
| JEL: | J30 J40 J24 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145887&r=eur |
| By: | Andrea Salustri (Free University of Bozen); Federica Viganò (Free University of Bozen) |
| Abstract: | The paper develops a multi-stakeholder wellbeing analysis based on BES data (Benessere Equo e Sostenibile, namely “Equitable and Sustainable Wellbeing”) on Health in South Tyrol, in order to highlight convergences and divergences among four selected classes of agents (citizens, local stakeholders, central administrations and for profit institutions). The statistical analysis is based on data of territorial accounting, the URBES report on the city of Bozen and data collected from the local statistical office (ASTAT) through citizens’ satisfaction surveys. Specifically, we read the available data both in absolute and comparative terms, we analyze an ad hoc selection of subjective indicators on health, and we show the interdependencies among data on well-being and economic development. As a result, we obtain a logical framework that narrows the existing gap between an objective approach – mostly based on institutional indicators – and a subjective approach – based on satisfaction surveys. Furthermore, we propose a dashboard approach that pragmatically lead to a rich and extensive interpretation of the available data on well-being. Finally, we single out the most critical issues regarding the improvement of health conditions in South Tyrol, and we provide ad hoc policy recommendations for each class of decision makers. Due to the high level of standardization, we believe that the exercise developed might be easily replicated for other BES domains and other territories, contributing to move forward the research frontier on well-being in Italy (BES project and related analyses). |
| Keywords: | Equitable and Sustainable Well-being (BES), Quality of Life, Social Indicators, Beyond GDP, Public Policy |
| JEL: | I31 R5 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bzn:wpaper:bemps39&r=eur |
| By: | Theodosios Dimopoulos (University of Lausanne, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, and Swiss Finance Institute); Hannes F. Wagner (Bocconi University) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a cross-country analysis to determine whether CEO turnover is a credible disciplining device for managers, whether it is effective in delivering performance improvements, and whether better governance improves the credibility and effectiveness of CEO turnover. The analysis is based on a detailed panel of 5,300 CEO years and spans two distinctly different financial systems- the U.K. and Germany-over the period 1995-2005. We find that CEOs face a credible threat of being removed for underperformance and that the hiring of new CEOs is effective in realizing large profitability improvements in the following years. We also find both relations to be virtually identical in both countries, despite large structural governance differences. Further, we consider a large number of firm-specific governance mechanisms previously proposed as indicators of better governance and find no evidence that any of them improves the observed relations between firm performance and CEO turnover. Taken together, our results suggest that replacing the CEO is an important component of successful turnarounds in underperforming firms and that this economic mechanism appears to work in nearly identical ways across very different financial markets, and across firms with very different quality of governance. |
| Keywords: | CEO, board, turnover, performance, restructuring |
| JEL: | G30 G34 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp1216&r=eur |