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on Microeconomic European Issues |
| By: | Checchi, Daniele (University of Milan); Figari, Francesco (Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale); Fiorio, Carlo (Università degli Studi di Milano and Irvapp-FBK.) |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of salary caps for top public managers in Italy, focusing on the 2011 and 2014 reforms implemented during the post-crisis fiscal consolidation period. The first cap, set at e290, 000 and later reduced to e240, 000, imposed a 100% marginal tax rate above the threshold. Using linked employer–employee administrative data and an event-study difference-in-differences design, we estimate the causal impact on earnings and participation. The 2011 reform significantly compressed salaries at the top of the public-sector distribution and generated sizable fiscal savings. Intensive-margin responses are modest: the top-bracket elasticity of taxable net earnings is about 0.214, and the resulting efficiency loss for stayers is small, reflecting second-order Harberger-triangle distortions. In contrast, extensive responses are large: the reform significantly increased early retirement and switching to the private sector, with participation elasticities far exceeding the intensive elasticity. Welfare analysis shows that overall efficiency costs are driven primarily by these extensive margins. |
| Keywords: | salary cap, public administration, Italy |
| JEL: | H21 J38 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18450 |
| By: | Rodrigo Cuenca De Armas (Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Maria Teresa Balaguer-Coll (Department of Finance and Accounting, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Emili Tortosa-Ausina (IVIE, Valencia and IIDL and Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain) |
| Abstract: | This study explores the risk of financial development traps in European regions by analysing the performance of the financial sector in terms of productivity and its relationship with GDP per capita. Using data for 226 NUTS2 regions over the period 2000–2021, we construct two original indicators adapted from Diemer et al. (2022) to a sectoral framework, capturing respectively the cyclical and structural dimensions of decoupling between financial sector dynamics and regional economic performance. The analysis reveals that a non-negligible share of European regions show signs of entrapment, with considerable heterogeneity both between and within Eastern and Western Europe. Results also point to a reduction in the share of trapped regions between the crisis period (2008–2015) and the subsequent recovery phase (2016–2021), alongside a notable inversion in the relative exposure of Eastern and Western European regions. Our findings highlight the importance of assessing the functional orientation of the financial sector (rather than its mere size or depth) and suggest that institutional and sectoral factors play a critical role in shaping regional financial resilience beyond geographic location. |
| Keywords: | financial development, development traps, regional inequalities, productivity, employment, convergence |
| JEL: | R11 R58 O16 O18 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2026/06 |
| By: | Lionel Fontagné (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris); Cristina Mitaritonna (CEPII - Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales - Centre d'analyse stratégique); Gianluca Orefice (Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, CEPII - Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales - Centre d'analyse stratégique); Gianluca Santoni (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris) |
| Abstract: | The average energy efficiency of the aviation sector has increased by 2.7 percent per year since 2012, falling short of the 6 percent increase in demand. Optimizing routes by reducing the number of legs per flight is one way to complement technological advances in aircraft and fuels to reduce aviation's environmental footprint. The signature of Air Service Agreements (ASAs) allows airlines to reorganize their flight routes. They reshape the international route network in a more efficient way and ultimately reduce CO 2 emissions per passenger. On the other hand, ASAs increase the demand for international flights, which may offset the reduction in overall CO 2 emissions by airlines. Using unique data on airline tickets and ASAs in force during the period 2012-2019, we show that the considerable reduction in per-passenger CO 2 emissions due to the re-organization of international flight routes induced by ASAs is overcompensated by the additional demand for less time-consuming and, hence, more comfortable international flights. |
| Keywords: | Air Service Agreements, Air Transportation, Environment |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-05545525 |
| By: | Dadgar, Iman (Center for Education and Leadership Excellence); Nermo, Magnus (Department of Sociology, Stockholm University); Shahbazian, Roujman (Swedish Institute for Research (SOFI), Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how students’ relative academic rank in compulsory school affects entry into the teaching profession. Using population-wide Swedish administrative data, we link grade-9 GPA for cohorts attending grade 9 in 1990–1997 to detailed occupational outcomes observed at age 40. We measure relative position as within-school–cohort GPA rank and estimate rank effects by exploiting variation in ordinal position among students with similar absolute achievement. The empirical design includes school-by-cohort fixed effects and controls for absolute ability via national GPA-rank indicators interacted with grading-environment (school-type) measures, along with family background controls. We find that lower-ranked students are more likely to become teachers, but the pattern differs across teaching segments: low local rank predicts entry into compulsory and upper-secondary teaching, while very high local rank predicts university teaching; there is no clear relationship for pre-school teaching. Effects are concentrated among women and are strongest for women in high-achieving schools. Results are robust to alternative specifications. The findings highlight relative academic standing as an important, previously overlooked determinant of occupational choice into teaching. |
| Keywords: | Educational inequality; Teaching profession; Occupational choice; School position; Reference groups; Relative deprivation; Sweden |
| Date: | 2026–02–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhb:hastel:2026_001 |
| By: | Paul Bingley; Lorenzo Cappellari (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Konstantinos Tatsiramos |
| Abstract: | We develop a model that links education–outcome gradients to intergenerational transmission, distinguishing joint from parent-specific channels under assortative mating. Using Danish administrative data on family quartets, we estimate the own education–outcome gradient and, in addition, intergenerational gradients in long-run earnings, disposable income, assets, and wealth. Gradients differ sharply across domains: for earnings and income, joint transmission matters alongside individual-specific heterogeneity; for assets and especially wealth, gradients are dominated by parent-specific channels. Exploiting Danish schooling reforms, we show that the composition of financial gradients varies with access to schooling. |
| Keywords: | Assortative mating, Education gradients, Intergenerational mobility. |
| JEL: | J62 D31 J12 I24 E21 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie1:def152 |
| By: | Davide Gritti; Dina Maskileyson; Raffaele Grotti; Stefani Scherer |
| Abstract: | Prior research documents a robust wealth–health gradient, yet comparative evidence is largely confined to older adults and offers limited insight into how wealth–related health inequality is patterned across adulthood and institutional contexts. Drawing on life–course perspectives on age–graded stratification and a healthcare–system typology, we examine how the wealth–health gradient varies across age groups in seven OECD countries. Using harmonized microdata from the Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWS), we pool 30 repeated cross–sections from Australia, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States (2002–2022), yielding 450, 233 adults aged 25–80. Wealth is measured as gross non–financial and financial assets (ranked into within country–year quintiles), and health is measured with self–rated health. We assess wealth–health inequality by age using Wagstaff–normalized concentration indices and country–specific OLS models with wealth–by–age interactions and covariate adjustment. Across all countries and age groups, health is consistently concentrated among wealthier individuals. Inequality typically rises from ages 25–35 to a late–midlife peak (often 56–65) and attenuates at ages 66–80, with this rise–and–fall pattern most evident in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Cross–national differences broadly align with Reibling et al.’s OECD healthcare–system typology: private systems show the steepest gradients and regulation–oriented systems more compressed gradients, yet the United Kingdom is a notable outlier, and Italy and Spain show comparatively sustained gradients into older ages. Comparing wealth–health gradients across age groups reveals systematic age–graded patterns that are central to life–course perspectives on stratification. |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lis:lwswps:52 |
| By: | Juan S. Mora-Sanguinetti (BANQUE DE FRANCE AND BANCO DE ESPAÑA); Cristina Peñasco (BANQUE DE FRANCE AND UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE); Rok Spruk (UNIVERSITY OF LJUBLJANA) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the impact of “green regulations” - i.e. those aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change and environmental externalities - on innovation, using a novel regulatory database covering the period 008-2022 for Spain. The database identifies regulations at both the national and regional levels through textual analysis. Employing a panel data approach, we assess how different types of environmental regulations - particularly those related to renewable energy - affect firm-level innovation activities. Our findings indicate that national-level green regulations have a positive effect on innovation, whereas regional-level regulations show mixed or negligible impacts. Importantly, the interaction between national and regional regulations, measuring the simultaneous production of legal texts at both levels, can foster innovation but at a reduced pace with respect to the sole production of regulation at the national level. Given the results for regional-level regulation, our findings provide evidence in favour of the hypothesis that regulatory fragmentation due to unequal, overlapping, inconsistent or conflicting procedure across jurisdictions may diminish these benefits. |
| Keywords: | green regulation, innovation, Porter hypothesis, renewable energy, business |
| JEL: | K32 Q5 O44 O13 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:2611 |
| By: | Braunschweig, Luisa (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, Germany); Bruckmeier, Kerstin (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, Germany); Buhmann, Mara (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, Germany); Hohmeyer, Katrin (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, Germany); Roth, Duncan (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, Germany) |
| Abstract: | "This report examines the sustainability of transitions from SGB II benefit receipt to employment subject to social security contributions using data from the Sample of Integrated Welfare Benefit Biographies (SIG). It pays particular attention to the occupations that are taken up. In 2018 we observe approximately 890, 000 transitions of unemployed benefit recipients into employment. One third of these recipients left the benefit system for at least six months after taking up employment. Approximately 55 percent of the jobs taken up in 2018 lasted for at least six months, while 41 percent of all employment relationships lasted at least one year. Almost 70 percent of job starts are accounted for by ten main occupational groups. The most common occupations were transport and logistics (17 percent). Cleaning and sales occupations followed in second and third place (9 percent each). The duration of employment varies greatly between occupations. Employment in educational, social, domestic, and theological occupations is the most stable, with a median of just under 20 months (590 days). This is followed by occupations in business management and organization (approximately 14 months) and driving vehicles and transport equipment (approximately 8 months). The shortest duration is in transport and logistics occupations at 129 days, but the employment duration is also relatively short in cleaning occupations (210 days) and sales occupations (240 days). Occupations in which the duration of employment tends to be shorter account for a larger share of employment transitions than occupations with longer durations. Previous work experience in the occupation taken up is associated with an increased probability of a longer employment duration. If two people with otherwise identical personal and job characteristics are compared, one of whom has one more year of work experience in the chosen occupation than the other, the expected probability of at least two years of employment is approximately 1.7 percentage points higher. This corresponds to an increase in the probability of being employed for at least two years of almost 6 percent. However, the positive correlation between professional work experience and employment duration weakens with increasing work experience." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Stichprobe der Integrierten Grundsicherungsbiografien |
| Date: | 2026–03–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabfob:202604 |
| By: | Lodefalk, Magnus (Örebro University School of Business); Löthman, Lydia (Örebro University School of Business); Koch, Michael (Aarhus University); Engberg, Erik (Örebro University School of Business) |
| Abstract: | We show that the age composition of employment within Swedish employers shifts after the arrival of generative AI, with no corresponding reduction in aggregate labour demand. Using 4.6 million job advertisements from Sweden’s largest recruitment platform, we find that the broad decline in postings since 2022 aligns with monetary tightening rather than AI, exploiting Sweden’s seven-month gap between the Riksbank’s first rate hike and the launch of ChatGPT as a timing test. We then use full-population employer– employee register data and an employer-level difference-in-differences design to estimate how AI exposure affects employment composition across six age groups. An event study documents an accelerating decline in employment of 22–25-year-olds in high-AI-exposure occupations, reaching 5.5 per cent by early 2025 relative to less exposed occupations within the same employers, while employment of workers over 50 rose by 1.3 per cent. The widening age gradient suggests that generative AI reshapes hiring composition rather than aggregate demand, with the adjustment burden falling disproportionately on entry-level workers. |
| Keywords: | Generative artificial intelligence; Job postings; Labour demand; Employment composition; Monetary policy |
| JEL: | J23 J24 O33 |
| Date: | 2026–03–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:oruesi:2026_002 |
| By: | Phoebe Koundouri; Maria Chourdaki; Konstantinos Dellis; Kit England |
| Abstract: | Europe, as the fastest warming continent, faces elevated climate risks coupled with a climate adaptation finance gap, defined as the difference between the costs of achieving an adaptation target and the amount of finance available for adaptation (UNEP, 2024). The EU needs to invest almost EUR 70 billion per year in climate adaptation up to 2050 (Monteleone et al., 2026). However, current funding relies heavily on public sources, highlighting the urgent need for private sector involvement (CPI, 2023). Regions and cities in the EU face barriers in their effort to muster financial resources to translate adaptation strategies into tangible projects to promote climate and socioeconomic resilience. The Adaptation Investment Cycle (AIC), developed in the HEU Pathways2Resilience project, is a six-step process designed to help regions overcome barriers to financing climate adaptation by offering a step-by-step approach that builds local capacity and bridges gaps between planning and implementation. This paper maps the steps of the AIC to common adaptation finance barriers -economic, financial, awareness, behavioral, and institutional-, highlights their impact on raising and leveraging capital to strengthen regional resilience and assesses innovative financial sources and instruments tailored to regional needs. Finally, we emphasize concise frameworks for sub-national adaptation finance and contribute to the literature on regional resilience. |
| Keywords: | climate finance, climate adaptation, adaptation finance barriers, Adaptation Investment Cycle (AIC), public sector, investors |
| Date: | 2026–03–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aue:wpaper:2608 |
| By: | Andrea Gasparroni (Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (UNIVPM)) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how different sources of income inequality shape individual preferences for redistribution across European regions. Using EU-SILC microdata and the intergenerational transmission of disadvantages modules (2005, 2011, and 2019), we construct regional measures of income inequality of opportunity across 132 European regions. These indicators are combined with individual-level data from the European Social Survey to examine how regional opportunity structures and individual exposure to disadvantaged circumstances affect redistributive preferences. Our results show that inequality of opportunity is a strong and robust predictor of support for redistribution, while overall income inequality and inequality of effort display weak or insignificant effects. Individuals living in regions with higher inequality of opportunity are significantly more likely to support redistributive policies. In addition, we construct an individual-level opportunity disadvantage index capturing the probability of having experienced limited opportunities during income formation. This measure is also strongly associated with redistributive preferences, suggesting that both contextual and personal exposure to unfair inequality shape attitudes toward redistribution. |
| Keywords: | Inequality, Preferences for Redistribution, Inequality of Opportunity, Intergenerational Mobility. |
| JEL: | D63 D31 D10 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wpaper:506 |
| By: | Clara Schäper |
| Abstract: | Does increased legal infrastructure empower victims to leave abusive relationships? Structural barriers often prevent victims of intimate partner violence from seeking help, with two-thirds of female victims in Europe neither reporting incidents nor accessing support. I study Germany’s 2002 Act on Protection against Violence, which introduced residence bans in shared households and temporarily awarded victims sole use of the dwelling, summarized as “the aggressor goes, the victim stays”. Using divorce records (1998–2005), linked on the county-level to a hand-collected database of women’s shelter and counselling center openings (1970–2023), I estimate how divorce numbers changed in the period after the reform relative to the period before. I show that divorces rise markedly in the three years following the reform and decrease in the fourth. Trends are driven by female-initiated filings and are concentrated in West Germany, with increases appearing more persistent among non-German filers over time. To assess whether effects vary with support availability, I classify counties by pre-reform infrastructure of women’s shelters and counselling centers. Changes are muted where services already existed and strongest in areas lacking support infrastructure at the time of the legal change. These patterns are consistent with a two-stage model in which pre-existing support had already led abusive marriages to dissolve and/or deterred their formation, leaving a smaller stock of detectable abusive unions. |
| Keywords: | Domestic violence, gender, violence against women and girls (VAW) |
| JEL: | J12 J16 J18 K36 K42 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp2159 |
| By: | Ilona Dielen (Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, GREDEG, France; Université Paris-Est Créteil, ERUDITE, France); Patrice Bougette (Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, GREDEG, France); Christophe Charlier (Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, GREDEG, France) |
| Abstract: | This study examines how the cartel of European truck manufacturers coordinated the timing of compliance with emission standards, generating additional air pollution without violating environmental regulations. Although firms formally complied with environmental law, collusion restricted competition over cleaner technologies, highlighting that anticompetitive agreements can have significant environmental and health consequences. First, we quantify the volume of particulate emissions attributable to cartel behavior by constructing two plausible counterfactual scenarios for truck fleet composition, identifying substantial excess emissions of approximately 119 thousand tonnes of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Second, we estimate the health impact of traffic-related PM2.5 emissions on infant respiratory outcomes using a panel of 199 European subregions observed over an 18-year period. To address endogeneity concerns, we exploit exogenous variation in EURO emission standards through a shift-share instrumental-variable strategy. The resulting elasticity allows us to compute the number of infant respiratory hospital admissions attributable to the cartel under counterfactual competitive conditions. We estimate that earlier, competition-driven adoption of cleaner technologies could have reduced average yearly infant hospital admissions by 12–18 cases per 1, 000 births at the NUTS 2 level. |
| Keywords: | Air pollution; Truck cartel; Anticompetitive agreement; Environmental damage; EURO standards; European Commission |
| JEL: | I18 K21 L41 Q51 Q52 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2026-06 |
| By: | Lünich, Marco; Keller, Birte; Marcinkowski, Frank |
| Abstract: | This brief report presents the key findings of a segmentation study conducted in June 2025 as part of the Opinion Monitor Artificial Intelligence 3.0 (MeMo:KI 3.0) project. It analyzes the frequency of artificial intelligence (AI) use among 1, 987 working people in Germany and its association with occupational classes, sociodemographic characteristics, and work-related attitudes. The results show clear differences between occupational classes based on the Oesch classification. Higher-skilled groups with technical or sociocultural work logic report regular AI use significantly more often. Lower usage rates, on the other hand, are found in occupational classes with lower formal qualifications or more standardized job profiles, such as skilled workers, skilled workers in the service sector, or employees in the commercial sector. Overall, it appears that a significant proportion of the working population has rarely or never worked with AI. More frequent AI use is associated with higher subjective AI competence and more positive affective attitudes toward AI in the workplace. Frequent users also rate the expected impact of AI on working conditions much more positively and report fewer negative affective and behavioral reactions to the introduction of AI in the workplace. Overall, the findings point to a digital divide in AI use along lines of age, education, and professional position. |
| Date: | 2026–03–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:7fkvq_v1 |
| By: | Elena Sanjuan (CEMFI, Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how parental consent requirements and access frictions jointly shape teenage reproductive decisions. Exploiting the Spanish 2015 reform that mandated parental consent for 16–17-year-olds, together with Spanish administrative microdata on all registered abortions and births, I find that the reform led to declines in both abortions and pregnancies among affected teenagers. Consistent with a two-stage decision framework, most of the reduction in abortions operates through a decrease in pregnancies, indicating behavioral responses before pregnancy. A simple model of teenage abortion decisions is used to interpret these findings and to clarify how legal and access barriers interact. Using data on proximity to abortion centers and local religiosity, I show how these access frictions operate in the context of parental consent requirements. Where travel costs are high, parental involvement is effectively required even in the absence of formal consent laws, limiting the impact of the reform. When parental consent does bind, local norms shape the margin of adjustment: in more traditional municipalities, the reform primarily affects abortion decisions conditional on pregnancy. |
| Keywords: | Parental consent, abortion decision, access frictions, distance, religiosity. |
| JEL: | J13 I12 I18 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cmf:wpaper:wp2026_2602 |
| By: | Costanza Bosone; Leonardo Gambacorta; Paolo Giudici; Enisse Kharroubi; Ulf Lewrick |
| Abstract: | We study how robot adoption and investment in information and communication technologies (ICT) jointly shape sectoral employment across 20 European Union (EU) countries over the period 1995-2020. Using a cross-sectional regression design that interacts changes in robot adoption with ICT investment, we find that increases in robot adoption are associated with higher employment in sectors that either entered the period without robots or invested little in ICT. By contrast, robot adoption is associated with lower employment in sectors that initially had some robots and high ICT investment. These findings highlight the importance of both initial conditions and complementary technology investment in shaping labour-market outcomes, suggesting that the employment effects of technology are highly context-dependent. |
| Keywords: | ICT capital, employment, labour market, technology adoption, European Union |
| JEL: | E23 O33 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:1334 |
| By: | Océane Vernerey (LEDi - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dijon [Dijon] - UBE - Université Bourgogne Europe); Jimmy Lopez (UBE - Université Bourgogne Europe) |
| Abstract: | We investigate both the innovation and labor market effects of network sector regulation in a consistent framework. The estimated impact of regulation on the innovation process is based on the Community Innovation Survey and a system of equations modelling the firm's choice of R&D expenditure, propensity to innovate, and performance. We then examine the regulation and innovation impact on the labor market using the European Union Labor Force Survey. From a sample of 330, 604 firms and 8, 594, 055 individuals over the period 1998-2016 and five countries that have undergone important reforms (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain), we find a strong negative effect of network regulation on firms' performance and individuals' employment probability. According to our estimates, the overall impact of the reforms implemented would be an average increase in the employment probability of 12.8%, almost entirely explained by an increase in firms' performance. |
| Keywords: | Employment, Innovation, Regulation |
| Date: | 2026–01–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05536453 |
| By: | Khaliliaraghi, Negar (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Lundborg, Petter (Lund University); Vikström, johan (IFAU and Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | Gender gaps in earnings persist even among high-skilled workers, in part because men and women often perform different tasks within and across jobs. We study a rare setting in which high-skilled men and women perform the same tasks under comparable conditions, allowing us to assess gender differences in productivity and pay without confounding from task or client allocation. Using administrative data from the Swedish Public Employment Service between 2003 and 2014, we exploit a rotation scheme that quasirandomly assigns job seekers to employment caseworkers. We find that productivity differences are small: job seekers assigned to female and male caseworkers exit unemployment at similar rates, and hourly wages—conditional on productivity—are nearly identical across genders, leaving little scope for wage differences driven by discrimination or bargaining in this setting. Despite this, female caseworkers earn about 8 percent less per year, entirely due to differences in contracted and actual hours worked. We also find suggestive evidence that male caseworkers are more likely to be promoted than equally productive female colleagues. Taken together, the results show that when tasks are standardized and performance is measured objectively, gender differences in productivity and hourly pay are minimal, while gaps in annual earnings and career progression persist. |
| Keywords: | Gender Gaps; Productivity; Wages; Task Allocation |
| JEL: | D84 I12 J12 J21 |
| Date: | 2026–03–17 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2026_007 |
| By: | Pestieau, Pierre (Université catholique de Louvain, LIDAM/CORE, Belgium); Racionero, Maria |
| Abstract: | We consider a society where social mobility is influenced by parental wealth transfers and education investments. Specifically, the educational investments capture the time parents devote to the education of their children. We show that, in the absence of government intervention, the market equilibrium results in a level of upward social mobility lower than that in an ideal first-best scenario. Given the challenge of observing individual characteristics, we characterize the second-best solution achievable through the implementation of non-linear taxation. We consider two alternative government objectives: a weighted utilitarian criterion and a Rawlsian criterion. Additionally, we explore the implications of two alternative informational assumptions: whether educational investments are observable or non-observable. |
| Keywords: | Social mobility ; non-linear taxation ; inheritance taxation |
| JEL: | H21 H31 H52 |
| Date: | 2025–06–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cor:louvco:2025013 |
| By: | Andersson, Linus (Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University); Dadgar, Iman (Center for Education and Leadership Excellence); Shahbazian, Roujman (Center for Education and Leadership Excellence) |
| Abstract: | Educational attainment is strongly associated with fertility and family formation, yet less is known about whether students’ relative standing within schools is linked to later demographic outcomes. This study examines whether 9th-grade rank within the school GPA distribution predicts completed fertility, marriage, and divorce by age 40. Using Swedish population-wide register data (N ≈ 726, 000), we compare students with similar national GPA but different relative school rank, applying school-by-cohort fixed effects to reduce selection bias. Results show that relative academic position is associated with demographic behavior net of absolute performance. Lower relative rank is linked to higher childlessness and fewer children for both women and men, and to lower marriage and higher divorce risks among men. Higher rank is primarily associated with delayed motherhood. The findings suggest that institutionalized social comparisons in compulsory schooling are linked to long-term family outcomes, consistent with reference group mechanisms. |
| Keywords: | Fertility; Marriage; Divorce; School position; Reference groups; Register Data |
| Date: | 2026–03–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhb:hastel:2026_003 |