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on Microeconomic European Issues |
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Issue of 2022‒07‒18
29 papers chosen by Giuseppe Marotta Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia |
| By: | Antoine Bertheau; Edoardo Acabbi; Cristina Barceló; Andreas Gulyas; Stefano Lombardi; Raffaele Saggio |
| Abstract: | We document the consequences of losing a job across countries using a harmonized research design applied to seven matched employer-employee datasets. Workers in Denmark and Sweden experience the lowest earnings declines following job displacement, while workers in Italy, Spain, and Portugal experience losses three times as high. French and Austrian workers face earnings losses somewhere in between. Key to these differences is that Southern European workers are less likely to find employment following displacement. Loss of employer-specific wage premiums explains a substantial portion of wage losses in all countries. |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2022_351&r= |
| By: | Amir Maghssudipour; Annalisa Caloffi; Marco Bellandi; Letizia Donati |
| Abstract: | We investigate the relationship between language and international trade of place-sensitive products at a regional level. Focusing on ‘made in Italy’, we assess whether its trade is influenced by Italian migrants and organisations offering Italian language courses in the importing region. To analyse this relationship, we collected an original database of 147 regions, on which we estimated Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood regressions, also controlling for various country effects across trading regions. Results show that the trade of made-in-Italy goods is positively associated with the diffusion of the Italian language in the regions. This does not apply to goods produced in Italy that are not characteristic of ‘made in Italy’. |
| Keywords: | international trade, place-sensitive products, made in Italy, Italian migration, Italian language |
| JEL: | F14 R10 R23 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2022_09.rdf&r= |
| By: | Belardinelli, Paolo; Torbica, Aleksandra; Fattore, Giovanni |
| Abstract: | We investigate the association between socio-economic status and unhealthy behaviors among adolescents. By using different measures of socio-economic status, we capture both subjective aspects, as operationalized by perceived family affluence, and objective aspects, such as parents' educational levels and family affluence scale. We use data from a sample of 11,623 adolescents who participated in the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in 2007, 2010, and 2014 in the Lombardy region of Italy. Results show that all of our measures of socio-economic status are correlated with unhealthy behaviors among adolescents. In particular, perceiving a family affluence below average is significantly correlated with a higher probability of reporting all of the unhealthy behaviors included in our analysis. Having at least one parent with university education significantly decreases the odds of being obese or overweight, having an unbalance diet, being physically inactive, and reporting sedentary behaviors. However, adolescents with at least one university educated parent are more likely to make use of cannabis. When controlling for all of our SES measures simultaneously, we find that family affluence scale is no longer significant in determining adolescents' behaviors. Our findings suggest that, when focusing on health inequalities among adolescents, self-perceptions and non-material dimensions of SES have more explanatory power than its material dimensions. |
| Keywords: | adolescents; HBSC; health behavior; socio-economic status |
| JEL: | J1 |
| Date: | 2022–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:115273&r= |
| By: | Giammarco Alderotti (Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti", Università di Firenze); Raffaele Guetto (Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti", Università di Firenze); Paolo Barbieri (Università di Trento); Stefani Scherer (Università di Trento); Daniele Vignoli (Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti", Università di Firenze) |
| Abstract: | Labour market instability comes with consequences for fertility decisions. Especially in the southern European context insecure employment situations hamper the transition to parenthood. Most research so far has focused on first childbirth, ignoring potential ‘catching up’ effects and thus the more encompassing view on cohort fertility. This paper extends on this point analysing the consequences of employment insecurities on completed fertility for men and women in Italy. In a cohort perspective, we look at fertility outcomes at age 41 or more among those who experienced labour market deregulation (cohorts born 1966-1975) in comparison with the previous cohort (born 1951-1965), and relate the fertility outcome to the instability of their employment histories. Based on data from a large-scale, nationally representative retrospective survey administrated by the National Statistical Office, we find that fragmented employment careers and atypical employment periods come with lower likelihood to ever become a parent and lower number of children than continuous, stable careers. This paper suggests – for the first time – that the consequences of rising labour market instability for fertility is not only a timing but also a quantum issue, at least for Italy. This is true especially for men and for the younger cohorts. |
| JEL: | J13 J41 J64 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fir:econom:wp2022_03&r= |
| By: | Osea Giuntella; Lorenzo Rotunno; Luca Stella |
| Abstract: | Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we analyze the effects of exposure to globalization on the fertility and marital behavior in Germany, until recently a lowest-low fertility setting. We find that exposure to greater import competition from Eastern Europe led to worse labor market outcomes and lower fertility rates. In contrast, workers in industries that benefited from increased exports had better employment prospects and higher fertility. These effects are driven by low-educated, married men, and full-time workers and reflect changes in the likelihood of having any child (extensive margin). While there is evidence of some fertility postponement, we find significant effects on completed fertility. There is instead little evidence of any significant impact on marital behavior. |
| JEL: | F1 F16 J1 J13 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30119&r= |
| By: | Tania Burchardt; Eleni Karagiannaki |
| Abstract: | Evidence from the 2014 EU-SILC indicates that a non-negligible proportion of children in Europe live in multi-family households. Leaving aside more complex household types, around 4% of children live with their grandparents and a further 7% with their adult siblings. In this paper we investigate the extent to which living in these two types of households protects children against material deprivation and we provide direct tests of the relationship between the distribution of bargaining power within households and children's deprivation outcomes. |
| Keywords: | material deprivation, children, living standards, poverty, intra-household inequality, bargaining power, Europe |
| JEL: | D13 D31 I31 I32 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sticas:/227&r= |
| By: | Albanese, Andrea (LISER); Nieto, Adrián (University of Nottingham); Tatsiramos, Konstantinos (University of Luxembourg, LISER) |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of childbirth on local and non-local employment dynamics for both men and women using Belgian social security and geo-location data. Applying an event-study design that accounts for treatment effect heterogeneity, we show that 75 percent of the effect of the birth of a first child on the overall gender gap in employment is accounted for by gender disparities in non-local employment, with mothers being more likely to give up non-local employment compared to fathers. This gender specialisation is mostly driven by opposing job location responses of men and women to individual, household and regional factors. On the one hand, men do not give up non-local employment after childbirth when they are employed in a high-paid job, have a partner who is not participating in the labour market or experience adverse local labour market conditions, suggesting that fathers trade off better employment opportunities with longer commutes. On the other hand, women give up non-local jobs regardless of their earnings level, their partner's labour market status and local economic conditions, which is consistent with mothers specialising in childcare provision compared to fathers. |
| Keywords: | gender gap, childbirth, job location, cross-border employment, specialisation |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J61 C21 C23 J22 R23 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15353&r= |
| By: | Ernest Miguelez (BSE - Bordeaux Sciences Economiques - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Andrea Morrison |
| Abstract: | How do regions enter new and distant technological fields? Who is triggering this process? This work addresses these compelling research questions by investigating the role of migrant inventors in the process of technological diversification. Immigrant inventors can indeed act as carriers of knowledge across borders and influence the direction of technological change. We test these latter propositions by using an original dataset of immigrant inventors in the context of European regions during the period 2003–201. Our findings show that: immigrant inventors generate positive local knowledge spillovers; they help their host regions to develop new technological specialisations; they trigger a process of unrelated diversification. Their contribution comes via two main mechanisms: immigrant inventors use their own personal knowledge (knowledge creation); they import knowledge from their home country to the host region (knowledge transfer). Their impact is maximised when their knowledge is not recombined with the local one (in mixed teams of inventors), but it is reused (in teams made by only migrant inventors). Our work contributes to the existing literature of regional diversification by providing fresh evidence of unrelated diversification for European regions and by identifying important agents of structural change. It also contributes to the literature of migration and innovation by adding fresh evidence on European regions and by unveiling some of the mechanisms of immigrants' knowledge transmission. |
| Keywords: | Patents,Migration,Technological diversification,Relatedness,Europe |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03683496&r= |
| By: | Lindsey Macmillan (UCL Centre for Education Policy & Equalising Opportunities); Abigail McKnight (Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents new estimates of recent social mobility in the UK by gender, education and ethnicity, and their intersections. We measure absolute social class mobility using data from the Labour Force Survey 2014-2018. Overall, little change in social mobility occurred over this short period but sub-group analysis using a pooled sample reveals some important new findings. Education is associated with greater chances for upward mobility and lower risk of downward mobility, particularly for men. There are also stark ethnic differences in social mobility prospects in the UK. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational mobility; gender; ethnicity; education |
| JEL: | I24 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucl:cepeow:22-07&r= |
| By: | Baranowska-Rataj, Anna; Barclay, Kieron; Costa-Font, Joan; Myrskylä, Mikko; Özcan, Berkay |
| Abstract: | Although preterm births are the leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality in advanced economies, evidence about the consequences of such births later in life is limited. Using Swedish register data on cohorts born 1982-1994 (N=1,087,750), we examine the effects of preterm births on school grades measured at age 16 using sibling fixed-effect models. We further examine how preterm births are affected by the degree of prematurity and the compensating role of family socioeconomic resources and characteristics of school districts. Our results show that the negative effects of preterm births are confined to children born extremely preterm ( |
| Keywords: | premature births; school districts; educational disadvantage; parental effects |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2022–06–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:113330&r= |
| By: | Cristina Belles; Sergi Jiménez; Han Ye |
| Abstract: | This paper sheds new light on the mortality effect of delaying retirement by investigating the Spanish 1967 pension reform that exogenously changed the early retirement age depending on the date individuals started contributing to the social security system. Those that contributed before January 1st, 1967, maintained the right to voluntarily retire early at age 60, while individuals who started contributing after could not voluntarily claim pension until age 65. Using the Spanish administrative social security data, we find that the reform delayed labor market exit by around half a year and increased the probability that individuals take up disability pensions, partial pensions, and no pensions. We show evidence that delaying existing employment increases the harzard of dying between ages 60 and 69. Heterogeneous analysis indicates that the negative impact is driven by those employed in low-skill, physically and psychosocially demanding jobs. Moreover, we show that allowing for flexible retirement schemes, such as partial retirement, mitigates the negative effect of delaying retirement on mortality. |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2022-06&r= |
| By: | Giovanni Immordino (Università di Napoli Federico II and CSEF); Tullio Jappelli (Università di Napoli Federico II, CSEF, CFS, CEPR and Netspar); Tommaso Oliviero (Università di Napoli Federico II and CSEF) |
| Abstract: | Using a survey of Italian households administered in November 2021, we study the effect of microeconomic and macroeconomic expectations (about the health crisis and fear of contagion among others) on consumption expectations in 2022. The survey elicits individual-level indicators of income and consumption expectations, distinguishing between consumption at home, away from home, online and total. We find that expected household income and expected aggregate GDP growth are strongly related to consumption expectations; income risk is positively associated with expected consumption growth for richer households, confirming the presence of a precautionary saving motive. |
| Keywords: | Consumption Expectations; Income Expectations; Covid-19 Crisis. |
| JEL: | D14 D15 |
| Date: | 2022–06–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:647&r= |
| By: | Lorey, Thierry; Mughal, Mazhar; Javed, Rashid |
| Abstract: | In this study, we use comprehensive French consumer data from the Nielsen ScanTrack retailer panel to analyse the progression of purchasing trends of French households during the coronavirus outbreak. Our results are threefold: First, we observe three temporal phases, namely the normal (pre-Covid-19) period, the anticipation period, and the lockdown period. During the three weeks of anticipation (24 February – 15 March), sales of basic and cleaning products increased by 17%. The first week of the preventive lockdown saw panic buying with sales jumping by 30%, followed by a more subdued growth during the subsequent weeks of the lockdown. We found these time trends to be similar to those observed in Italy and Spain. Second, sales of the hypermarkets fell by 6% during the lockdown, while those of supermarkets and convenience stores rose by 13% and 28% respectively. Online sales through drive stores (80%) and home delivery (93%) showed the highest growth. Covid-19 appears to have accentuated the joint evolution of two major phenomena: strong development of E-commerce, and the desire of the households to visit small shops close to their homes. Third, in terms of product categories, we observe an increase in basic, easy-to-store food products, an increasing consumption of fresh, local & organic products, a significant increase in the purchase of basic hygiene products, and a decline in the purchase of cosmetics. In the latter case, Covid-19 seems to have accentuated a fundamental trend in household purchases in France: "eat local". |
| Keywords: | Covid-19,lockdown,purchasing behaviour,France,Italy,Spain |
| JEL: | D14 E00 G51 I10 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:260541&r= |
| By: | Pierre Cahuc (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Francis Kramarz (ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique); Sandra Nevoux (Banque de France - Banque de France - Banque de France) |
| Abstract: | To understand which firms take-up short-time work and which workers they enroll in this program, we provide a model which shows that short-time work may save jobs in firms hit by strong negative revenue shocks, but not in less severely-hit firms, where hours worked are reduced, without saving jobs. Using detailed data on the administration of the program covering the universe of French establishments in the 2008-2009 Great Recession, we find that short-time work did indeed save jobs and increase hours of work in firms faced with large negative shocks. These firms have been able to recover rapidly in the aftermath of the Recession thanks to short-time work. We also provide evidence of large windfall effects which significantly increased the cost of the policy per job saved; yet we also find that short-time work remains more cost-efficient at saving jobs than wage subsidies. |
| Keywords: | Short-time Work,Unemployement,Hours of work |
| Date: | 2021–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpspec:hal-03602410&r= |
| By: | Casabianca, Elizabeth (European Commission); Kovacic, Matija (European Commission) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the direct causal effect of loneliness on a variety of health outcomes using a sample of second-generation immigrants among older adults drawn from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. In an effort to account for the endogeneity of self-declared loneliness, we explore the link between loneliness and a specific trait of maternal cultural background strongly associated with quality of relations and use the latter as an instrument for loneliness. We thus also assess the importance of cultural heritage in shaping individuals' perceptions of loneliness. Additionally, we investigate one pathway by which some specific ancestral factors may influence the formation of cultural traits in the modern era. Our results suggest that loneliness has a significant impact on health, both mental and physical. Notably, our identification strategy allows us to uncover a larger effect of loneliness on health than that found in an OLS setting. These findings are robust to a battery of sensitivity checks. |
| Keywords: | Loneliness, relationship quality, culture, mental health, physical health |
| JEL: | I12 I14 J14 D91 Z13 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrs:wpaper:202205&r= |
| By: | Engerstam, Sviatlana (Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, Royal Institute of Technology); Warsame, Abukar (Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, Royal Institute of Technology); Wilhelmsson, Mats (Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, Royal Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | Since the size of the homeownership ratio differs significantly between countries, it is important to understand the mechanisms that lie behind decrease or growth of certain sectors of the housing market like rentals and housing cooperatives. The aim of this study is to analyze the long-term dynamics of the new residential supply in Sweden’s three largest cities for the period of 1990-2020 and estimate in what way market fundamentals affect it through new construction and housing conversions. We apply panel data methodology and, in distinction to previous research, consider the development of the housing market (urban growth) as physical volume. The results demonstrate that structural changes are driven mainly by fundamental demand factors and that the displacement effect occurs primarily in the market’s rental sector and not in the owner-occupied segment. The apartment price per square meter, together with mortgage interest rates, are the major driving factors in the process of converting dwellings into housing cooperatives. Fundamental variables that affect new construction in both the rental and housing cooperative sectors are population and income growth. In the presence of a rent control environment, the rent or price level does not contribute to adding new units to the total housing stock. |
| Keywords: | Housing supply; Swedish apartment market; Panel data analysis |
| JEL: | C33 R15 R31 R52 |
| Date: | 2022–06–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:kthrec:2022_005&r= |
| By: | Karamik, Yasemin; von Graevenitz, Kathrine |
| Abstract: | Recent evidence suggests a positive impact of air pollution on crime in large cities. We provide first evidence on the potential effect of air pollution on criminal activity using a broader set of geographical regions with lower air pollution levels. We use a unique combination of daily crime data with weather and emission records for the states of Baden-Wuerttemberg (BW) and Rhineland-Palatinate (RLP) in Germany from 2015 until 2017. We exploit the variation in air pollution which is attributable to changes in daily wind direction. We find that an increase of one standard deviation of PM10 leads to an increase in crime of 4.6%. |
| Keywords: | Air Pollution,Crime |
| JEL: | K42 Q53 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:22013&r= |
| By: | Bruno Arpino (Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti", Università di Firenze); Valeria Bordone (University of Vienna); Giorgio Di Gessa (University College London) |
| Abstract: | The family plays a central role in shaping health behaviors of its members through social control and support mechanisms. We investigate whether and to what extent close kin (i.e., partner and children) have mattered for older people in taking on precautionary behaviors (e.g., physical distancing) and vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe. Drawing on data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we combine its Corona Surveys (June-August 2020 and June-August 2021) with pre-COVID information (October 2019-March2020). We find that having close kin (especially a partner) is associated with a higher probability of both adopting precautionary behaviors and accepting a COVID-19 vaccine. Results are robust to controlling for other potential drivers of precautionary behaviors and vaccine acceptance, as well as to accounting for co-residence with kin. Our findings suggest that policy makers and practitioners may differently address kinless individuals when promoting public policy measures. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19; Coronavirus; Parenthood; Partnership; Precautionary behaviors; SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fir:econom:wp2022_02&r= |
| By: | Erdmann, Melinda; Pietrzyk, Irena Magdalena; Schneider, Juliana; Helbig, Marcel; Jacob, Marita; Allmendinger, Jutta |
| Abstract: | The German education system is characterized by strong social inequalities in university access. These may be reduced by offering individual counseling sessions to students in their final two years of high school. The study "Zukunftsund Berufspläne nach dem Abitur" (ZuBAb)1 examines how such intensive and individual guidance counseling affects participants' educational trajectories using an experimental design that allows for making internally valid inferences regarding the program's causal effects. Based on data (N = 1,064) collected about 1.5 years after participants earned their university entrance diploma (Abitur), we looked at whether the program promotes university enrollment among persons of low educational origin, whether it reduces educational inequalities at the transition from school to higher education, and how educational trajectories change in the period between 0.5 years and 1.5 years after graduation, depending on whether students received counseling or not. The results show a strong program effect of 8 percentage points on university enrollment rates among persons of low educational origin and a strong inequality-reducing effect of the counseling program (15 percentage points or 71 percent in relative terms). The program's positive impact stems from the fact that participation tends to improve fit between a student's academic performance and the educational pathway chosen after graduation. Moreover, the results show that positive program effects begin to emerge only after 1.5 years post-graduation (whereas no positive effect was found 0.5 years after graduation) because persons who start a gap year experience (e.g., voluntary community service year) right after earning their Abitur are especially likely to benefit from program participation. Additionally, a detailed breakdown of educational trajectories over time shows that the program not only promotes university enrollment among persons of low educational origin and enrollment in vocational training schemes among persons of high educational origin but also, in descriptive terms, helps graduates start any kind of post-school educational pathway. The findings make clear that studies designed to make comprehensive inferences about the effects of educational programs should also consider persons of high educational origin and should look not only at university enrollment but also at the smooth transition to any kind of postsecondary educational pathway. They also show that researchers and practitioners need to be patient because there may be some delay until measurable positive effects of individual counseling sessions begin to unfold. |
| Keywords: | educational inequality,university enrollment,intervention |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbpre:p2022003&r= |
| By: | Westlund, Hans (Royal Institute of Technology); Wilhelmsson, Mats (Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, Royal Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | Local negative externalities of an establishment of wind turbines have been documented in research; often with the help of the hedonic methodology and property values. We use mixed methods including hedonic methodology, propensity score matching, and the difference-in-difference approach to estimate causal effects, using almost 600,000 real estate transactions in Sweden from 2005 to 2018. The results indicate that we can reject the hypothesis that proximity to wind turbines does not impact property values, and this impact is relatively strong and varies over time and geographic region. Difference-in-difference with matching confirms estimates in the hedonic price equation studies. Furthermore, there is no indication of pre-event differences in house price outcomes based on distance from new wind turbines. Depending on the region, the total negative capitalisation amounts to between 10 and 25 percent within 0–2 kilometres from the wind power plant. We apply these estimates to the total housing stock in three different potential future development areas. Although effects per property are relatively marginal, the total effects of a wind farm establishment will be significant if they are located in densely populated areas. |
| Keywords: | wind turbine; capitalisation effect; regional; difference-in-difference; matching; property values |
| JEL: | C21 Q51 R30 |
| Date: | 2022–06–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:kthrec:2022_006&r= |
| By: | Jaanika Merikyll; Alari Paulus |
| Abstract: | Economic recessions can boost the productivity-enhancing reallocation of jobs, yet the Covid-19 crisis has provided limited and mixed evidence of that. The paper studies the link between productivity and reallocation and investigates the role of job retention schemes in it, using a rich administrative dataset for Estonia that covers the whole population of firms from 2004 to 2020. We find persistent evidence for the reallocation of jobs towards more productive sectors and firms. However, the within-sector reallocation was surprisingly unresponsive to productivity in the Covid-19 crisis, in sharp contrast to the experience in the previous major crisis, the Great Recession. We show that a generous job retention scheme supressed the acceleration of within-industry reallocation towards more productive firms, which had negative consequences for aggregate productivity during Covid-19. These estimates appear sufficiently large to imply that there are negative overall welfare effects that offset the positive employment effect. |
| Keywords: | job reallocation, productivity, Covid-19, cleansing effect, firm exit and entry, job retention scheme |
| JEL: | J62 D24 J68 D61 |
| Date: | 2022–06–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2022-5&r= |
| By: | Chiappori, Pierre-Andre (Columbia University); Fioro, Carlo (Universita degli Studi di Milano); Galichon, Alfred (New York University); Verzillo, Stefano (European Commission) |
| Abstract: | We analyze marital matching on income using an extremely rich Dutch data set containing all income tax files over four years. We develop a novel methodology that directly extends previous contributions to allow for highly flexible matching patterns. Investigating all marriages that took place between 2011 and 2014, we find that marital patterns remain remarkably stable over the period. While a majority of couples match assortatively, a small but significant minority display negative assortative matching. We also show that standard approaches, which consider all married couples using current incomes, may generate misleading conclusions. Finally, we find that, in contrast with recent results, whether his income exceeds her does not seem to play any significant role. |
| Keywords: | marriage; the Netherlands; income disparities in marriage |
| JEL: | J12 H24 C78 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrs:wpaper:202207&r= |
| By: | Esteban M. Aucejo; Claudia Hupkau; Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela |
| Abstract: | Enrolling in vocational education and training programs constitutes a natural response to the current dynamics of the labour market, which is being reshaped by routinisation, automation, and outsourcing. We estimate the value-added of colleges providing vocational education and training to young and adult learners in England, and the returns to different fields of study taught at these colleges. Using a unique panel dataset that includes multiple measures of students' prior ability and background characteristics, we are able to comprehensibly account for usual threats to identification. We find moderate heterogeneity in college value-added for outcomes such as daily earnings and employment probabilities. Dispersion in value-added for academic outcomes is more pronounced. Earnings returns vary substantially across fields of study, are higher for young than for adult learners and tend to be larger for females than for males. |
| Keywords: | Value-added, returns to education, returns to college, field of study, further education, vocational education and training |
| JEL: | I21 J24 J45 |
| Date: | 2020–06–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cverdp:030&r= |
| By: | Delaney, Judith (University of Bath); Devereux, Paul J. (University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | Much attention is focused on finding ways to encourage females to study STEM in school and college but what actually happens once women complete a STEM degree? We use the UK Quarterly Labour Force Survey to trace out gender differences in STEM persistence over the career. We find a continuous process whereby women are more likely to exit STEM than men. Among holders of STEM undergraduate degrees, women are more likely to obtain a non- STEM master's degree. Then, after entering the labour market, there is a gradual outflow of females during the first 15 years post-graduation so that females are about 20 percentage points less likely to work in STEM compared to their male counterparts. Conditional on leaving STEM, we find that females are more likely to enter the education and health sectors while males are more likely to enter the more lucrative business sector and that this can partly explain the gender pay gap for STEM graduates. Overall, our results suggest that policies that aim to increase the proportion of females studying STEM in school and college may have less effect than expected due to the lower attachment of females to STEM after graduation. Such policies may need to be augmented with efforts to tackle the greater propensity of females to exit STEM throughout the career. |
| Keywords: | STEM, gender, STEM gender gap, labour market, gender pay gap |
| JEL: | I23 I26 J16 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15352&r= |
| By: | Nicolas Moreau (CEMOI - Centre d'Économie et de Management de l'Océan Indien - UR - Université de La Réunion) |
| Abstract: | The present paper investigates the correlation between the French tax rebate triggered by the birth of a child and the probability to bring forward childbirth from late December to early January. Using administrative tax data from 2010 to 2016, I precisely simulate the corresponding tax rebate for households in which a child was born from December 24 to January 7. Contrary to prior research, I do not find clear evidence of a significant link between the tax rebate brought about by a supplementary dependent child on the tax return and the probability of a late December birth. Either the amount of the incentive may not be large enough or households may not correctly anticipate the corresponding tax rebate. Nevertheless, a small learning effect is present. According to my results, a significant correlation between the tax rebate and the probability of having a child in December is observed among the wealthiest half of households with at least two children already claimed that also benefit from a relatively large tax rebate. However, this seems to be due to a spurious correlation. Instead, the results could reflect the willingness of parents to avoid childbirth on a public holiday. |
| Keywords: | fertility,income taxation,birth |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03157256&r= |
| By: | Charles Boissel; Adrien Matray |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the 2013 three-fold increase in the French dividend tax rate. Using administrative data covering the universe of firms from 2008-2017 and a quasi-experimental setting, we find that firms swiftly cut dividend payments and used this tax-induced increase in liquidity to invest more. Heterogeneity analyses show that firms with high demand and returns on capital responded most while no group of firms cut their investment. Our results reject models in which higher dividend taxes increase the cost of capital and show that the tax-induced increase in liquidity relaxes credit constraints, which can reduce capital misallocation. |
| JEL: | G32 H2 H25 H32 O16 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30099&r= |
| By: | Berlingieri, Francesco (European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC)); Gathmann, Christina (LISER); Quinckhardt, Matthias (Heidelberg University) |
| Abstract: | We study how the presence of a college affects the local economy using administrative data. Our analysis exploits the opening of new institutions of tertiary education across Germany in the 1980s and 1990s. The new college substantially increased the student population and share of high-skilled workers in the region. Yet, we find no effect on regional wages or employment indicating that the local economies did not experience additional growth through skill-biased technological change, for instance. Instead, there is sizable heterogeneity in the local gains: high-tech firms in manufacturing absorb most of the new college graduates, esp. in engineering professions. We find little impact on the low- or high-skilled service sector or employment in managerial professions. Finally, we show that local labor market conditions prior to the opening matter: in regions with a more dynamic labor market, the opening encourages firm creation and a permanent upskilling of the workforce. Areas with a less dynamic labor market experience little sustained growth in high-skilled workers who are absorbed by incumbent firms. |
| Keywords: | colleges, local labor markets, human capital, substitutability |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J61 I23 I25 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15364&r= |
| By: | Lars J. Kirkebøen |
| Abstract: | Several recent studies find that interventions in schools can have important lasting consequences for students, and that schools differ in their contribution to students’ learning. However, there is less research investigating how these differences between schools influence longer-term outcomes, especially outside the US. In this paper I study the value-added (VA) of Norwegian schools, where between-school differences are smaller than in the US. I find that VA indicators are able to predict in-school performance without bias. Furthermore, VA is strongly related to long-term outcomes, and differences between schools in VA correspond to meaningful differences in long-term outcomes. For example, a one standard deviation higher VA corresponds to 1.9 percent higher earnings at around age 32. Three quasi-experiments using variation from student mobility and changes in neighborhoods’ assignment to schools indicate that the differences captured by the VA indicators do indeed reflect differences in school quality, rather than unobserved student characteristics. Analyses of teacher grades and exam scores suggest that the former are heavily influenced by relative grading, and that the effect of exam score VA on long-term outcomes reflects the effects of competencies and skills acquired in school. In addition to shedding light on the differences in and mechanisms of school quality, the findings help connect learning outcomes with later labor market outcomes, e.g. for cost-benefit analysis of interventions in schools. |
| Keywords: | climate economics, international environmental agreements, coalition formation, heterogeneous countries, integrated assessment models |
| JEL: | Q54 D70 D50 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9769&r= |
| By: | Georgellis, Yannis (University of Kent); Clark, Andrew E. (Paris School of Economics); Apergis, Emmanuel (University of Huddersfield); Robinson, Catherine (University of Kent) |
| Abstract: | We use British panel data to explore the link between occupational status and life satisfaction. We find puzzling evidence, for men, of a U-shaped relationship in cross-section data: employees in medium-status occupations report lower life satisfaction scores than that of employees in either low- or high-status occupations. This puzzle disappears in panel data: the satisfaction of any man rises as he moves up the status ladder. The culprit seems to be immobility: the miserable middle is caused by men who (in our data) have always been in medium-status occupations. There is overall little evidence of a link between occupational status and life satisfaction for women. |
| Keywords: | occupational status, life satisfaction, occupational mobility |
| JEL: | I31 J24 Z13 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15360&r= |