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on Microeconomic European Issues |
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Issue of 2017‒05‒14
28 papers chosen by Giuseppe Marotta Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia |
| By: | Rosario Maria Ballatore (Bank of Italy); Adele Grompone (Bank of Italy); Lucia Lucci (Bank of Italy); Patrizia Passiglia (Bank of Italy); Andrea Sechi (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | The paper lays out a descriptive framework for the recent flows of asylum seekers into Italy and the European Union. After examining the dynamics of illegal entries and applications for international protection, we analyse the differences in how asylum policies are implemented at European level, with the greatest diversity found in the application acceptance rates, the type of protection granted and the speed with which requests are examined. We then take a look at the Italian reception system, discuss its main problems, such as the high degree of fragmentation of reception facilities, and analyse its operating costs. Finally, we discuss the employment performance of immigrants, distinguishing between refugees/asylum seekers and economic migrants, with the former showing a lower probability of employment and slower integration into the labor market. |
| Keywords: | asylum seekers, illegal entries, reception system |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J61 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_377_17&r=eur |
| By: | Piera Bello (Istituto di economia pubblica (IdeP), Facoltà di scienze economiche, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an empirical analysis of the effects of nominal exchange rate fluctuations on cross-border mobility and on retailer firms' sales. Exchange rate shocks may affect the labour supply decisions of cross-border workers and the propensity for consumers to shop across the border. By using hourly data on traffic flows in Ticino, the southernmost canton of Switzerland, and data on Italian supermarkets, I analyse the effects of the Swiss franc appreciation on cross-border travel by both Italian workers and Swiss consumers and on Italian retailers' sales. I find that a 10% appreciation of the Swiss franc increases the number of cars along the border by 1.5-3% more than in the rest of the canton. This effect is found only during specific time intervals, which differ according to the direction of the flow (the early morning from Italy to Switzerland, the afternoon from Switzerland to Italy and late morning for both directions). Moreover, I show that a stronger Swiss Franc positively affects supermarkets' sales in Italian provinces bordering Switzerland. Finally, I provide additional evidence for the labour supply hypothesis by using data on search volumes provided by Google Trends and official statistics on cross-border commuters in Switzerland. |
| Keywords: | Geographic labor mobility, Labor supply, Traffic flows |
| JEL: | J61 J22 R41 |
| Date: | 2017–05–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lug:wpidep:1701&r=eur |
| By: | Regina T. Riphahn; Rebecca Schrader |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether a cut in unemployment benefit payout periods affected older workers' labor market transitions. We apply rich administrative data and exploit a difference-in-differences approach. We compare the reference group of 40-44 year olds with constant benefit payout periods to older treatment groups with reduced payout durations. For the latter job exit rates declined, job finding rates increased, the propensity to remain employed increased, and the propensity to remain unemployed declined after the reform. These patterns suggest that the reform of unemployment benefits may be one of the reasons behind the recent incredible rise in old age employment in Germany. |
| Keywords: | labor force participation, employment, unemployment insurance, retirement |
| JEL: | J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bav:wpaper:169_riphahnschrader&r=eur |
| By: | Pastore, Francesco (University of Naples II) |
| Abstract: | This essay discusses the determinants of youth unemployment within the EU and then the alternative policy options currently at stake. We argue that youth unemployment regards especially some peripheral EU countries and is due to a mix of factors that should be addressed more vigorously, starting from expansionary fiscal and monetary policy. The guiding line should be to reform the Maastricht Treaty so as to allow each EU country to reach the Europe 2020 targets. Moreover, especially in the peripheral countries drastic reforms of the school-to-work transition regimes are needed, including not only the European Youth Guarantee, which is underfinanced, but also the introduction of better links between the education system and the labor market. The past emphasis on labor market reforms, instead, should be reconsidered. |
| Keywords: | youth unemployment, Maastricht Treaty, Europe2020, schoolto- work transition, dual education system, European Youth Guarantee, work related learning, EU |
| JEL: | H52 I2 I24 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izapps:pp127&r=eur |
| By: | van den Berg, Gerard J. (University of Bristol); Uhlendorff, Arne (CREST); Wolff, Joachim (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg) |
| 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 the second sanction amplify this effect only for young men living in single households. |
| Keywords: | social assistance, unemployment, sanctions, youth unemployment, post unemployment outcomes |
| JEL: | J64 J65 C41 C21 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10730&r=eur |
| By: | Pilar García-Goméz (Erasmus University); Titus Galama (University of Southern California); Eddy van Doorslaer (Erasmus University); Ángel López-Nicholás (Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena) |
| Abstract: | We present a theory of the relation between health and retirement that generates testable predictions regarding the interaction of health, wealth and financial incentives in retirement decisions. The theory predicts (i) that wealthier individuals (compared to poorer individuals) are more likely to retire for health reasons (affordability proposition), and (ii) that health problems make older workers more responsive to nancial incentives encouraging retirement (reinforcement proposition). We test these predictions using administrative data on older employees in the Dutch healthcare sector for whom we link adverse health events, proxied by unanticipated hospitalizations, to information on retirement decisions and actual incentives from administrative records of the pension funds. Exploiting unexpected health shocks and quasi-exogenous variation in nancial incentives for retirement due to reforms, we account for the endogeneity of health and nancial incentives. Making use of the actual individual pension rights diminishes downward bias in estimates of the effect of pension incentives. We find support for our affordability and reinforcement propositions. Both propositions require the bene ts function to be convex, as in our data. Our theory and empirical findings highlight the importance of assessing nancial incentives for their potential reinforcement of health shocks and point to the possibility that di erences in responses to nancial incentives and health shocks across countries may relate to whether the benefit function is concave or convex. |
| Keywords: | pensions, Health, retirement, disability, health investment, lifecycle model, health capital, optimal control |
| JEL: | C33 D91 H55 I10 I12 J00 J24 J26 J45 |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2017-038&r=eur |
| By: | Boll, Christina; Jahn, Malte; Lagemann, Andreas |
| Abstract: | Research on the gender earnings divide so far mostly focuses on the gender gap in hourly wages which, due to its snapshot nature, is inappropriate to capture the biographical dimension of gendered pay. With the 'gender lifetime earnings gap' (GLEG), we introduce a new measure that meets this requirement. Based on a group of 93,511 German individuals born 1950-64 from the 'Sample of Integrated Labour Market Biographies' (SIAB 7510), we find that at the end of the employment career, women accumulated 49.8 % less earnings than men. Thus, the GLEG is more than twice as high as the current German gender pay gap. The GLEG is the largest (smallest) at the bottom (top) of the earnings distribution. It most prominently widens during the period of family formation (age 25-35). Relatedly, gender differences in endowments, mainly in terms of experience and hours, answer for three quarters of the GLEG. For younger cohorts, family breaks tend to lose importance whereas the role of work hours remains unchanged. Furthermore, the GLEG notably differs between occupational segments. |
| Keywords: | lifetime earnings,Blinder & Oaxaca decomposition,occupational segments,cohort analysis,gender,life course,wage distribution,wage gap |
| JEL: | D31 J31 J16 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hwwirp:179&r=eur |
| By: | Bertoni, Marco (University of Padova); Brunello, Giorgio (University of Padova) |
| Abstract: | Pension reforms that raise minimum retirement age increase the pool of senior individuals aged 50+ who are not eligible to retire from the labour market. Using data from Italian provinces and regions and an instrumental variable strategy, we estimate the effects of local changes in the supply of workers aged between 50 and minimum retirement age on youth, prime age and senior employment. Results based on provincial data from 2004 to 2015, a period characterized by declining real GDP, indicate that adding one thousand additional senior individuals to the local labour supply reduces employment in the age group 16-34 by 189 units. Estimates based on longer regional data covering the period 1996 to 2015, that includes also a period of growing real GDP, show smaller negative effects for young workers, suggesting that the employment costs of pension reforms may be lower when the economy is growing. |
| Keywords: | pension reforms, lump of labour, youth employment, local labour markets |
| JEL: | J26 H55 J21 J14 J11 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10733&r=eur |
| By: | Lewandowski, Piotr (Institute for Structural Research (IBS)); Keister, Roma (Institute for Structural Research (IBS)); Hardy, Wojciech (Institute for Structural Research (IBS)); Górka, Szymon (Institute for Structural Research (IBS)) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the age dimension of changes in the task composition of jobs in 12 European countries between 1998 and 2014. We use the approach proposed by Autor et al. (2003) and Acemoglu & Autor (2011), and combine O*NET occupation content data with EU-LFS individual data to construct five task content measures: non-routine cognitive analytical, non-routine cognitive interpersonal, routine cognitive, routine manual, and nonroutine manual physical. We estimate occupation-level and worker-level regressions and find that the shift away from routine work and toward non-routine work occurred much faster among workers born between 1970 and 1989 than among workers born between 1950 and 1969. In the majority of countries, the ageing of the workforce occurred more quickly in occupations that were initially more routine-intensive, as the share of young workers in these occupations was declining. Individuals in these occupations were increasingly likely to be unemployed, especially if they were between the ages of 15 and 34. |
| Keywords: | task content of jobs, routinisation, ageing, occupational change, O*NET |
| JEL: | J21 J23 J24 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10732&r=eur |
| By: | Bouyon, Sylvain; Musmeci, Roberto |
| Abstract: | The expansion of credit markets has fostered economic growth across the European Union, but it has also produced a sharp increase in the average level of household indebtedness. As a consequence of the financial crisis, the drop in households’ disposable income has undermined the ability of many EU households to honour their financial commitments. Against this background, this paper investigates the complexity of indebtedness and draws a distinction between its legal and economic dimensions in order to better understand the phenomenon. Despite efforts made by the European Commission, we found that the definition of indebtedness and over-indebtedness still lacks precision. Mirroring the interventions of national legislators in terms of consumer protection, over-indebtedness in the EU tends to be narrowly defined in terms of its relationship with insolvency. Therefore, further efforts need to be taken in designing the necessary measures to alleviate and prevent over-indebtedness. Accordingly, this study focuses on the role of financial education, analyses the impact of the relevant EU directives, collects important evidence in support of harmonising debt-advice services and explores the path towards a common methodology of early detection of vulnerable households. |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eps:ecriwp:11930&r=eur |
| By: | Dominique Lemmermann; Regina T. Riphahn |
| Abstract: | We investigate the causal effect of age at migration on subsequent educational attainment in the destination country. To identify the causal effect we compare the educational attainment of siblings at age 21, exploiting the fact that they typically migrate at different ages within a given family. We consider several education outcomes conditional on family fixed effects. We take advantage of long running and detailed data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, which entails an oversample of immigrants and provides information on language skills. We find significant effects of age at migration on educational attainment and a critical age of migration around age 6. The educational attainment of female immigrants responds more strongly to a high age at immigration than that of males. Also, language skills do not appear to be central for the causal connection between age at migration and educational attainment. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, education, integration, school attainment, Germany, causal estimation, family fixed effect |
| JEL: | I21 J61 C21 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp908&r=eur |
| By: | de Graaff, Thomas (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Arribas-Bel, Daniel (University of Liverpool); Ozgen, Ceren (University of Birmingham) |
| Abstract: | Persistence of high youth unemployment and dismal labour market outcomes are imminent concerns for most European economies. The relationship between demographic ageing and employment outcomes is even more worrying once the relationship is scrutinized at the regional level. We focus on modelling regional heterogeneity. We argue that an average impact across regions is often not very useful, and that – conditional on the region's characteristics – impacts may differ significantly. We advocate the use of modelling varying level and slope effects, and specifically to cluster them by the use of latent class or finite mixture models (FMMs). Moreover, in order to fully exploit the output from the FMM, we adopt self-organizing maps to understand the composition of the resulting segmentation and as a way to depict the underlying regional similarities that would otherwise be missed if a standard approach was adopted. We apply our proposed method to a case-study of Germany where we show that the regional impact of young age cohorts on the labor market is indeed very heterogeneous across regions and our results are robust against potential endogeneity bias. |
| Keywords: | demographic aging, employment, finite mixture models, self-organizing maps, youth cohorts, immigrant workers |
| JEL: | J21 J61 J01 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10734&r=eur |
| By: | Busch-Heizmann, Anne (University of Duisburg-Essen); Holst, Elke (DIW Berlin) |
| Abstract: | Changing employment conditions lead to new chances, but also new risks for employees. In the literature, increasing permeability between occupational and private life is discussed as one special outcome of this development that employees must face, especially those in highly qualified positions. Drawing on existing research, we investigate in how far women and men in those positions differ in their perceived work-to-family conflicts (WFC), considering the mediating role of gender specific job opportunities. Referring conflicting theoretical arguments, we hypothesize that in Germany – as a conservative welfare state – women, especially those with family responsibilities, will perceive higher WFC than men in those positions. Our analysis is based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). Using the Siegrist instrument on effort-reward imbalance we find that women in highly qualified positions perceive higher WFC than men. This association is explained by women's lower willingness to take risks, and also party explained by lower job rewards women receive. It gets visible even more strongly if women's lower time-based burdens in the job are controlled for. Mixed results are observed concerning associations between family responsibilities and WFC, which is in line with ambivalent results in the literature. |
| Keywords: | work-to-family conflict, highly qualified positions, managers, gender, SOEP |
| JEL: | I3 B54 M1 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10716&r=eur |
| By: | Thomas Rothe (Institute for Employment Research (IAB)); Klaus Wälde (Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz) |
| Abstract: | The number of unemployed workers in Germany decreased dramatically from its peak in February 2005 at over 5.2 million to 3.6 million by 2008. At the same time, employment increased by 1.2 million. Most theoretical and empirical analyses of this episode assume that a worker leaving unemployment moves into full employment. We ask where the unemployed actually went. Using and merging two large micro data sets, we account for the decrease of unemployment by computing inows and outows between unemployment and 16 other labour market states. Direct ows between unemployment and full employment contributed for only less than 9% to the decline in unemployment. By contrast, more than 37% of the unemployed workers ended up in non-standard work. About 13% participated in labour market policy programmes and 28% retired. Following the unemployment cohort of February 2005 over time conrms the order of magnitude of our ndings. |
| Keywords: | non-standard work, empirical labour market ows with many states Germany, labour market reform, Hartz reforms |
| JEL: | J21 J62 J64 |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jgu:wpaper:1709&r=eur |
| By: | Ana Suarez Alvarez (University of Oviedo, Spain); Ana Jesus Lopez Menendez (University of Oviedo, Spain) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to shed some light on the behaviour of income inequality and Inequality of Opportunity over time for 26 European countries. The analysis is carried out using microdata collected by the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), which incorporate a wide variety of personal harmonised variables, allowing comparability between countries. The availability of this database for years 2004 and 2010 is particularly relevant to assess changes over time in the main inequality indices and the contribution of circumstances to inequality of opportunity. Furthermore, a bootstrap estimation is performed with the aim of testing if the differences between both years are statistically significant. |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2017-436&r=eur |
| By: | Pollitt, M. |
| Abstract: | In this paper we raise a number of issues that are important for the UK to consider in the light of its decision to leave the European Union (EU). The first of these is the nature of the EU Single Market in Electricity and Gas and the UK’s role within this. The second is the nature of UK energy policy in the light of Brexit, and the opportunities for changing this. And third, we consider some of the key issues to be addressed in a negotiating position with the EU. |
| Keywords: | Brexit, Energy Policy |
| JEL: | L94 |
| Date: | 2017–01–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:1706&r=eur |
| By: | Jacek Liwinski (University of Warsaw) |
| Abstract: | Although it has been over 40 years since labour economists started testing human capital vs. signalling explanation of the wage premium from education, the debate is still going on and authors keep on proposing new methods of testing. The human capital theory postulates that investment in education enhances the productive capacity of individuals, while according to the signalling hypothesis the value of a graduation diploma follows from the fact that it signals innate abilities of its holder. We apply the approach proposed by Wiles to test for the signalling hypothesis and, in particular, to find out if there is a positive relation between education and productivity. For this purpose, we construct a job match index based on information if school provided knowledge and skills are useful at work and the job performed is relevant to the field of study. Then we check if the quality of job matching is related to wages of graduates in Poland. To answer this question, a wage equation was estimated using OLS on the basis of data from a representative, nationwide tracer survey of Poles who left secondary schools or graduated from higher education institutions over the period of 1998-2005. We find out that knowledge and skills acquired in the course of formal education bring wage benefits only to university graduates. Besides, this group receives a wage premium, which may be attributed to their high innate abilities. In sum, the outcomes are consistent with the weak signalling hypothesis, since they show that tertiary education signals a high level of innate abilities and at the same time it provides knowledge and skills which enhance individual productivity at work. Besides, we find evidence of the strong signalling hypothesis with regard to the secondary vocational schools leavers. |
| Keywords: | education, human capital, signalling, job matching, wage equation |
| JEL: | J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iefpro:4507121&r=eur |
| By: | Durufle, Gilles; Hellmann, Thomas F; Wilson, Karen |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the challenge of entrepreneurial companies to go beyond the start-up phase and grow into large successful companies. We examine the long-term financing of these so-called scale-up companies, focusing on the US, Europe and Canada. The paper first provides a conceptual framework for understanding the challenges of financing scale-ups. It then shows some data about the various aspects of financing scale-ups in the US, Europe and Canada. Finally the paper raises the question of long-term public policies for supporting the creation of a better scale-up environment. |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12004&r=eur |
| By: | Himmel, Konrad; Schneider, Udo |
| Abstract: | The ambulatory physician payment system in the German Social Health Insurance (SHI) offers incentives to reduce practice activity at the end of a billing period. Most services within a period are reimbursed at full cost only up to a certain threshold. Furthermore, capitated payments make follow-up treatments within a billing period less profitable. Using claims data from Germany's largest sickness fund with about nine million members, we find a decrease of all services limited by a threshold at the end of a billing period and an immediate increase at the beginning of the following period. For services that are not limited, we do not find an effect. An increase of ambulatory emergencies at the end of a billing period suggests a negative welfare effect for patients. |
| Keywords: | ambulatory care,expenditure targets,global budget,physician payment,health care utilization |
| JEL: | I11 H51 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hcherp:201714&r=eur |
| By: | Gabriel Jiménez; Steven Ongena; José-Luis Peydró; Jesús Saurina |
| Abstract: | We analyze the impact of balance-sheet strength on credit availability. Bank balance sheets are weak in crisis times, but so are those of firms, and credit demand is then also weak. For identification, we exploit an administrative dataset of loan applications matched with bank and firm variables covering Spain from 2002 to 2010. Bank balance-sheet strength determines the granting of loan applications only in crisis times, while firm balance-sheet strength – notably leverage – determines strongly this granting in both good and crisis times. Our findings underscore the importance of the strength of corporate balance sheets over credit supply for credit availability. |
| Keywords: | firm balance-sheet channel, credit demand, bank lending channel, credit supply, business cycle, credit crunch, leverage. |
| JEL: | E44 G01 G21 G28 G32 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1567&r=eur |
| By: | Valentina Meliciani (University Luiss Guido Carli, Rome, Italy); Grzegorz Tchorek (Narodowy Bank Polski and University of Warsaw) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the determinants of companies’ performance during the crisis based on their short-term (sales changes) and medium-term (exit) reaction, using firms’ data from the EFIGE survey and combining them with balance-sheet statistics. The results show that vulnerability to the crisis depended on a company’s position within a GVC and modes of international operation. While exporters were more affected than nonexporters during the first crisis, their survival rates were not lower five years later. Moreover, more sophisticated internationalization modes increased firms’ resilience in the first and second waves of the crisis. The paper also investigates the mediating role of intangible assets and financial constraints in the relationship between internationalization and companies’ response to the crisis. While intangible assets were very important for preventing a drop in sales for internationalized firms immediately after 2008, they amplified the probability of firms’ exit five years after the crisis in weaker European countries (Spain and Italy). At the same time, financial constraints increased companies’ probability of exit. Innovation prevented a drop in firms’ sales and firms’ exit. |
| Keywords: | global value chains, crisis, intangible assets, financial constraints |
| JEL: | O3 E22 G01 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbp:nbpmis:259&r=eur |
| By: | Emmanuel Vazquez (CEDLAS-FCE-UNLP); Hernan Winkler (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper exploits variations in the timing of telecommunications reforms across Europe to analyze the relationship between the rise of alternative work arrangements and the emergence of the Internet. The paper evaluates whether sectors that are technologically more dependent on information and communications technologies experienced disproportionately larger changes in their employment outcomes after telecommunications reforms were introduced. The main results point to a disproportionate increase in total employment, parttime work, and home-based work among information and communications technologies–intensive sectors after the implementation of telecommunications reforms. The analysis does not find a link between the incidence of temporary employment, selfemployment, second job holding, and telecommunications reforms. The main results are robust to several specifications. |
| JEL: | J20 J23 O33 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0210&r=eur |
| By: | Elena Bárcena-Martín (University of Malaga, Spain); M. Carmen Blanco-Arana (University of Malaga, Spain); Salvador Pérez-Moreno (University of Malaga, Spain) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to analyse to what extent the previous status of children in poverty affects current child poverty, even when we control for observed and unobserved individual heterogeneity and treat the initial condition problem. On the basis of Wooldridge’s (2005) methodology, we estimate a dynamic random effects probit model considering three levels due to the hierarchical structure of our data: observations for each year (level 1) of the children (level 2) nested into countries (level 3). We corroborate the relevance of lagged status in poverty and assess the role of context variables in explaining differences across countries in child poverty dynamics. In particular, we highlight the significance of family benefits in reducing child poverty and assess which features of these benefits are more effective to reduce child poverty: means tested vs. non-means tested benefits. This way, some key insights are provided to design more effective public policies to alleviate child poverty. |
| Keywords: | child poverty persistence, state dependence, initial conditions, social transfers, family benefits |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2017-437&r=eur |
| By: | Rijpma, Auke; Moatsos, Michail; Badir, Martijn; Stegeman, Hans |
| Abstract: | Since the modern conceptualization of GDP (Kuznets, 1934), serious concerns have been raised to point out that it cannot properly represent wellbeing of a society. Despite the recent reaffirmations of these concerns (Stiglitz et al., 2009; OECD, 2011), GDP is still the dominant indicator. While dashboard approaches have their merits, we pursue to advance a composite wellbeing index as an alternative to GDP in measuring the progress of society. This approach here is documented for the Netherlands, though it can be applied to any advanced economy. Care has been taken to address methodological problems that arise from the index compilation exercise by using appropriate international goalposts from the Netherlands’ peer countries. To avoid making subjective choices in choosing the relative weights of various indicators we utilize the weights reported by the users of the OECD’s Better Life initiative from the Netherlands. With respect to the results of the indicator, it turns out that the recent financial crisis took a couple of years more to gradually hit the Netherlands from the various wellbeing angles, compared to GDP per capita. At the same time, in terms of our wellbeing measure, the Netherlands lost over a decade, as in 2015 the wellbeing index remains lower than in 2006. |
| Keywords: | wellbeing index, gdp alternative, composite indicator, Netherlands |
| JEL: | C43 I31 |
| Date: | 2017–05–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:78934&r=eur |
| By: | Alessandro Fedele (Free University of Bolzano‐Bozen, Faculty of Economics and Management); Raffaele Miniaci (University of Brescia, Department of Economics and Management) |
| Abstract: | Nonprofit enterprises differ from for-profit firms at least along two dimensions: the stakeholder-oriented governance system and the nondistribution-of-profit constraint. In turn, these two dimensions can affect the firms' choice of capital structure. On these grounds, the paper investigates the role played by stakeholder orientation and nondistribution constraint in shaping capital structure differences between for-profits and nonprofits. We show that the stakeholder orientation positively affects firms' leverage, while the nondistribution constraint has a negative impact. We empirically investigate which effect dominates by studying the Italian social care sector, where for-profit and profit enterprises coexist and have similar market shares. The estimates of a partial adjustment dynamic model show that, ceteris paribus, the leverage of mature nonprofit enterprises is 8% to 14% lower than that of mature for-profit companies. |
| Keywords: | capital structure, for-profit firms, non-profit enterprises, stakeholder orientation, nondistribution constraint, social care sector |
| JEL: | G32 D21 D22 L33 |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bzn:wpaper:bemps40&r=eur |
| By: | Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) |
| Abstract: | This study provides a general insight into the effect of different profit shifting strategies on effective tax rates for cross-border investments between the 28 EU member states and the US. In particular, this study enhances the baseline findings of ongoing research conducted by ZEW on behalf of the European Commission. Specifically, this report presents the cost of capital (CoC) and the effective average tax rates (EATR) for cross-border investments between the 28 EU member states and the US distinguishing between scenarios that involve seven different tax planning strategies. |
| Keywords: | corporate taxation, effective tax rates, cross-border investment, profit shifting, tax planning |
| JEL: | H21 H26 E43 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tax:taxpap:0064&r=eur |
| By: | Emanuele Bracco (Lancaster University Management School); Federico Revelli (Università di Torino) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the effects of holding concurrent elections in multi-tiered govern- ment structures on turnout decision and voting behaviour, based on municipal and provincial electoral data from Italy during the 2000s. When the less-salient provincial elections are held concurrently with the highly salient municipal elections, we observe three main effects: (1) turnout increases significantly by almost ten percentage points; (2) issues that are specific of the more salient (mayoral) contest affect the less salient (provincial) contest, with mayors' fiscal decisions impacting on the vote share of provin- cial incumbents; (3) issues that are specific to the less salient (provincial) contest stop affecting provincial elections outcomes. These findings shed light on how voters acquire information on incumbent politicians, and proves that the effectiveness of an election as an accountability tool may be hindered by the concurrence with higher-stakes elections. |
| Keywords: | concurrent elections, turnout, political accountability, local elections, coat- tails |
| JEL: | D70 H70 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipu:wpaper:56&r=eur |
| By: | Christian Holzner (University of Munich, Germany); Makoto Watanabe (VU Amsterdam, The Netherlands) |
| Abstract: | In many countries Public Employment Agencies (PEA) offer intermediation services to help as many people as possible to find work by bringing together supply and demand. Using a unique vacancy-level data-set on the number of applicants, we find positive effects of the intermediation services on mitigating search frictions. In particular, we show that applications coming via the PEA are more evenly distributed across vacancies than the applications coming via other search channels. This holds for the total number of applicants as well as the suitable number of applicants. Our results suggest that the market operated by the PEA attains more coordinated job applications compared to other search channels. |
| Keywords: | Intermediation; Public Employment Agency |
| JEL: | J6 |
| Date: | 2017–04–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20170042&r=eur |