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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Gielen Anne C. (ROA rm) |
| Abstract: | Despite the fact that worker quits are often associated with wage gains and higheroverall job satisfaction, many workers quit once again within one or two years afterchanging jobs initially. Such repeated job quit behavior may arise as a steppingstone to better quality jobs (Burdett, 1978) or as a response to unexpectedly lowjob quality (Jovanovic, 1979).This paper tests the validity of both explanations using data from the UK labormarket in order to improve our understanding of job search behavior. Results frompanel estimations of job quits and job satisfaction illustrate that the labor market ischaracterized by elements of both explanations. More specifically, a variancedecomposition shows that the stepping stone model explains 80 percent ofrepeated job quit behavior; the remaining 20 percent is the result of learning aboutjob quality. Hence, workers appear to need several job quits to find their mostpreferred job and multiple job quits serve as a stepping stone to more satisfaction atwork. |
| Keywords: | education, training and the labour market; |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2008010&r=lab |
| By: | Robert Orlowski; Regina T. Riphahn |
| Abstract: | We extend the literature on transition economies¿ wage structures by investigating the returns to tenure and experience. This study applies recent panel data and estimation approaches that control for hitherto neglected biases. We compare the life cycle structure in East and West German wages for fulltime employed men in the private sector. The patterns in the returns to seniority are similar for the two regional labor markets. The returns to experience lag behind in the East German labor market, even almost 20 years after unification. The results are robust when only individuals are considered who started their labor market career in the market economy and they hold across skill groups. |
| Keywords: | wage structure, life cycle earnings, returns to tenure, returns to experience |
| JEL: | J31 J24 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp148&r=lab |
| By: | Katharine Bradbury; Jane Katz |
| Abstract: | One contributor to the twentieth century rise in married women's labor force participation was declining responsiveness to husbands’ wages and other family income. Now that the rapid rise in married women’s participation has slowed and even begun to reverse, this paper asks whether married women’s cross-wage elasticities have continued to fall. Using the outgoing rotation group of the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS) and estimating coefficients separately for each year from 1994 through 2006, we find that the decline in responsiveness to husbands’ wages has come to an end—at least for the time being—and even find evidence of rising responsiveness to husbands’ wages. This increase in the cross-wage elasticity of participation occurs largely between 1997 and 2002 and is concentrated among younger women and women with children. ; We also explore a number of possible explanations for this development. We conclude that declining divorce rates, rising child care costs, and the increasing prevalence of high work hours for high pay—all of which were more pronounced at the high end of the income distribution—along with rising income inequality may have played a role. Also possible is that some of the decline is an artifact of changes in the tax system and the way income is measured. In addition, we observe some backsliding in attitudes supportive of gender equality in the market and at home, and perhaps a change in lifecycle timing among Generation X women. |
| Keywords: | Wages - Women |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedbwp:08-7&r=lab |
| By: | Philip Jung; Keith Kuester |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a real business cycle model with labor market search and matching frictions, which endogenously links both the cyclical fluctuations and the mean level of unemployment to the aggregate business cycle risk. The key result of the paper is that business cycles are costly for all consumers, regardless of their wealth, yet that unemployment fluctuations themselves are not the source of these costs. Rather fluctuations over the cycle induce higher average unemployment rates as employment is non-linear in job-finding rates and past unemployment. The authors first show this result analytically in special cases. They then calibrate a general equilibrium model with risk-averse asset-holding and liquidity-constrained workers to US data. Also under these more general circumstances, business cycles mean higher unemployment for all workers. The ensuing costs of cycles rise further for liquidity-constrained agents when replacement rates are lower or when workers' skills depend on the length of (un)employment spells. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:08-31&r=lab |
| By: | Esfandiar Maasoumi; Daniel L. Millimet; Dipanwita Sarkar |
| Abstract: | The phenomenon that married men earn higher average wages than unmarried men, the so-called marriage premium, is well known. However, the robustness of the marriage premium across the wage distribution and the underlying causes of the marriage premium deserve closer scrutiny. Focusing on the entire wage distribution and employing recently developed semi-nonparametric tests for quantile treatment effects, our findings cast doubt on the robustness of the premium. We find that the premium is explained by selection above the median, whereas a positive premium is obtained only at very low wages. We argue that the causal effect at low wages is probably attributable to employer discrimination. |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emo:wp2003:0807&r=lab |
| By: | J. David Brown; Julie L. Hotchkiss; Myriam Quispe-Agnoli |
| Abstract: | Do firms employing undocumented workers have a competitive advantage? Using administrative data from the state of Georgia, this paper investigates the incidence of undocumented worker employment across firms and how it affects firm survival. Firms are found to engage in herding behavior, being more likely to employ undocumented workers if competitors do. Rivals' undocumented employment harms firms' ability to survive while firms' own undocumented employment strongly enhances their survival prospects. This finding suggests that firms enjoy cost savings from employing lower-paid undocumented at workers wages less than their marginal revenue product. The herding behavior and competitive effects are found to be much weaker in geographically broad product markets, where firms have the option to shift labor-intensive production out of state or abroad. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedawp:2008-28&r=lab |
| By: | Magali Recoules (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the interaction between gender discrimination and household decisions. It develops a general equilibrium model with endogenous fertility, endogenous labor supply and endogenous size of government spending. Family policies are assumed to decrease the time that parents spend on their children. The model shows that gender discrimination may explain differences in household decisions between countries. The solution shows a U-shaped relationship between fertility and gender discrimination. An increase in the discrimination level implies a related decrease in fertility, women's participation in the labor force and in family-friendly policies. |
| Keywords: | Discrimination, gender, fertility, labor supply, public policies. |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00348904_v1&r=lab |
| By: | John Schmitt |
| Abstract: | This report uses national data from 2004 to 2007 to show that unionization raises the wages of the typical Latino worker by 17.6 percent compared to their non-union peers. The study goes on to show that unionization also increases the likelihood that a Latino worker will have health insurance and a pension. |
| Keywords: | unions, women, wages, benefits, pension |
| JEL: | J J1 J3 J31 J32 J41 J5 J58 J6 J68 J88 |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epo:papers:2008-27&r=lab |
| By: | Zheng Liu; Louis Phaneuf |
| Abstract: | A commonly held view is that nominal rigidities are important for the transmission of monetary policy shocks. We argue that they are also important for understanding the dynamic effects of technology shocks, especially on labor hours, wages, and prices. Based on a dynamic general equilibrium framework, our closed-form solutions reveal that a pure sticky-price model predicts correctly that hours decline following a positive technology shock, but fails to generate the observed gradual rise in the real wage and the near-constance of the nominal wage; a pure sticky-wage model does well in generating slow adjustments in the nominal wage, but it does not generate plausible dynamics of hours and the real wage. A model with both types of nominal rigidities is more successful in replicating the empirical evidence about hours, wages and prices. This finding is robust for a wide range of parameter values, including a relatively small Frisch elasticity of hours and a relatively high frequency of price reoptimization that are consistent with microeconomic evidence. |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emo:wp2003:0812&r=lab |
| By: | Damiaan Persyn |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the wage demands of a sector-level monopoly union facing internationally mobile firms. A simple two-country economic geography model is used to describe how firms relocate in function of international dierences in production costs and market size. The union sets wages in function of the firm level labour demand elasticity and the responsiveness of firms to relocate internationally. If countries are suffciently symmetric lower foreign wages and lower trade costs necessarily lead to lower union wage demands. With asymmetric countries these intuitive properties do not always hold. But even for symmetric countries it holds that small increases in market size or trade costs makes union wages more sensitive to the foreign wage level. |
| Keywords: | Unions, globalisation, economic geography |
| JEL: | J50 J31 F16 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:vivwps:3&r=lab |
| By: | Neri, Marcelo |
| Abstract: | The recently released "Educational PAC" attempts to place basic education at the center of the social debate. We have subsidized this debate, offering a diagnosis of how different education levels can impact individuals' lives through broad and easily interpreted indicators. Initially, we analyze how much each educational level reaches the poorest population. For example, how are those in the bottom strata of income distribution benefited by childcare centers, private secondary education, public university or adult education. The next step is to quantify the return of educational actions, such as their effects on employability and an individual's wages, and even health as perceived by the individual, be that individual poor, middle class or elite. The next part of the research presents evidence of how the main characters in education, aka mothers, fathers and children, regard education. The site available with the research presents a broad, user-friendly database, which will allow interested parties to answer their own questions relative to why people do not attend school, the time spent in the educational system and returns to education, which can all be cross-sectioned with a wide array of socio-demographic attributes (gender, income, etc.) and school characteristics (is it public, are school meals offered, etc.) to find answers to: why do young adults of a certain age not attend school? Why do they miss classes? How long is the school day? Aside from the whys and hows of teaching, the research calculates the amount of time spent in school, resulting from a combination between absence rates, evasion raters and length of the school day. The study presents ranks of indicators referring to objective and subjective aspects of education, such as the discussion of the advantages and care in establishing performance based incentives that aim at guiding the states in the race for better educational indicators. |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fgv:epgewp:684&r=lab |
| By: | Jason M. Fletcher; David Frisvold |
| Abstract: | While it is well-known that individuals with higher levels of education consume more preventive medical care, there are several potential explanations for this stylized fact. These explanations include causal and non-causal mechanisms, and distinguishing among explanations is relevant for accessing the importance of educational spillovers on lifetime health outcomes as well as uncovering the determinants of preventive care. In this paper, we use regression analysis, sibling fixed effects, and matching estimators to attempt to distinguish between causal and non-causal explanations of the impact of education on preventive care. In particular, we use a cohort of 10,000 Wisconsin high school graduates that has been followed for nearly 50 years and find evidence that attending college increases the likelihood of using several types of preventive care by approximately five to fifteen percent for college attendees in the early 1960s. This effect of greater education operates partly through occupational channels and access to care. These findings suggest that increases in education have the potential to spillover on long-term health choices. |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emo:wp2003:0813&r=lab |
| By: | Natalia Karelaia; Robin Hogarth |
| Abstract: | In most naturally occurring situations, success depends on both skill and chance. We compare experimental market entry decisions where payoffs depend on skill alone and combinations of skill and luck. We find more risk taking with skill and luck as opposed to skill alone, particularly for males, and little overconfidence. Our data support an explanation based on differential attitudes toward luck by those whose self-assessed skills are low and high. Making luck more important induces greater optimism for the former, while the latter maintain a belief that high levels of skill are sufficient to overcome the vagaries of chance. |
| Keywords: | Skill, luck, overconfidence, optimism, competition, gender differences, risk taking |
| JEL: | C91 D81 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1131&r=lab |
| By: | Mary A. Burke; Frank Heiland |
| Abstract: | Obesity is significantly more prevalent among non-Hispanic African-American (henceforth “black”) women than among non-Hispanic white American (henceforth “white”) women. These differences have persisted without much alteration since the early 1970s, despite substantial increases in the rates of obesity among both groups. Over the same time period, however, we observe little to no significant differences in the prevalence of obesity between black men and white men. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) pertaining to the past two decades, we evaluate an extensive list of potential explanations for these patterns, including race and gender differences in economic incentives, in body size ideals, and in biological factors. We find that the gaps in mean BMI and in obesity prevalence between black women and white women do not narrow substantially after controlling for educational attainment, household income, occupation, location, and marital status—nor do such controls eliminate the gender-specificity of racial differences in obesity. Following these results, we narrow down the list of explanations to two in particular, both of which are based on the idea that black women (but not also black men) face weaker incentives than white women to avoid becoming obese; one explanation involves health-related incentives, the other, sociocultural incentives. While the data show qualified support for both explanations, we find that the sociocultural incentives hypothesis has the potential to reconcile a greater number of stylized facts. |
| Keywords: | Obesity |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedbwp:08-8&r=lab |
| By: | Kevin Milligan; Mark Stabile |
| Abstract: | A vast literature has examined the impact of family income on the health and development outcomes of children. One channel through which increased income may operate is an improvement in a family's ability to provide food, shelter, clothing, books, and other expenditure-related inputs to a child’s development. In addition to this channel, many scholars have investigated the relationship between income and the psychological wellbeing of the family. By reducing stress and conflict, more income helps to foster an environment more conducive to healthy child development. In this paper, we exploit changes in child benefits in Canada to study these questions. Importantly, our approach allows us to make stronger causal inferences than has been possible with the existing, mostly correlational, evidence. Using variation in child benefits across province, time, and family type, we study outcomes spanning test scores, mental health, physical health, and deprivation measures. The findings suggest that child benefit programs in Canada had significant positive effects on test scores, as has been featured in the existing literature. However, we also find that several measures of both child and maternal mental health and well-being show marked improvement with higher child benefits. We find strong and interesting differences in the effects of benefits by sex of the child: benefits have stronger effects on educational outcomes and physical health for boys, and on mental health outcomes for girls. Our findings also provide some support for the hypothesis that income transfers operate through measures of family emotional well-being. |
| JEL: | I1 I2 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14624&r=lab |
| By: | Katherine Meckel |
| Abstract: | I analyze remittance behavior among new legal immigrants in the US using a nationally representative survey of immigrants admitted to legal permanent residency in 2003. I find that the distribution of remittances is skewed to the right, with a small number of immigrants sending very large amounts. I find evidence against the pure altruism model and find that remittances may be used for investments in the home country. Using longitudinal data from the NIS, I construct a measure of permanent income and estimate remittance-income elasticities. I find that large country differentials in remittance behavior are only partially explained by observable characteristics of the donor, recipient and origin country. Future work will incorporate later waves of the 2003 NIS in order to observe return migration (and its relationship to remittance and home country investment decisions) and life cycle income-remittance movements. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-08-19&r=lab |
| By: | Stepan Jurajda; Daniel Munich |
| Abstract: | Do women perform worse than equally able men in stressful competitive settings? We ask this question for competitions with a high payoff---admissions to tuition-free selective universities. With data on an entire cohort of Czech students graduating from secondary schools and applying to universities, we show that, compared to men of similar general skills and subject-of-study preferences, women do not shy away from applying to more competitive programs and perform similarly well when competition is less intense, but perform substantially worse (are less likely to be admitted) when applying to very selective universities. This comparison holds even when controlling for unobservable skills |
| Keywords: | Gender Gap in Performance, Test Anxiety, Competition, Admissions. |
| JEL: | J16 I29 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cer:papers:wp371&r=lab |
| By: | Michael Elsby; Bart Hobijn; Aysegul Sahin |
| Abstract: | We provide a set of comparable estimates for the rates of inflow to and outflow from unemployment for fourteen OECD economies using publicly available data. We then devise a method to decompose changes in unemployment into contributions accounted for by changes in inflow and outflow rates for cases where unemployment deviates from its flow steady state, as it does in many countries. Our decomposition reveals that fluctuations in both inflow and outflow rates contribute substantially to unemployment variation within countries. For Anglo-Saxon economies we find approximately a 20:80 inflow/outflow split to unemployment variation, while for Continental European countries, we observe much closer to a 50:50 split. Using the estimated flow rates we compute gross worker flows into and out of unemployment. In all economies we observe that increases in inflows lead increases in unemployment, whereas outflows lag a ramp up in unemployment. |
| JEL: | E24 J6 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14617&r=lab |
| By: | Behrman, Jere R.; Hoddinott, John; Maluccio, John A.; Soler-Hampejsek, Erica; Behrman, Emily L.; Martorell, Reynaldo; Ramírez-Zea, Manuel; Stein, Aryeh D. |
| Abstract: | "Most investigations into the importance and determinants of adult cognitive skills assume that (1) they are produced primarily by schooling, and (2) schooling is statistically predetermined or exogenous. This study uses longitudinal data collected in Guatemala over 35 years to investigate production functions for adult cognitive skills—that is, reading-comprehension skills and nonverbal cognitive skills—as being dependent on behaviorally determined preschooling, schooling, and post-schooling experiences. We use an indicator of whether the child was stunted (child height-for-age Z-score < –2) as our representation of preschooling experiences, and we use tenure in skilled occupations as our representation of post-schooling experiences. The results indicate that assumptions (1) and (2) lead to a substantial overemphasis on schooling and an underemphasis on pre- and post-schooling experiences. The magnitudes of the effects of these pre- and post-schooling experiences are large. For example, the impact on reading-comprehension scores of not being stunted at age 6 is equivalent to the impact of four grades of schooling. These findings also have other important implications. For example, they (1) reinforce the importance of early life investments; (2) point to limitations in using adult schooling to represent human capital in the cross-country growth literature; (3) support the importance of childhood nutrition and work complexity in explaining the “Flynn effect,” or the substantial increases in measured cognitive skills over time; and (4) lead to doubts about the interpretations of studies that report productivity impacts of cognitive skills without controlling for skill endogeneity." from authors' abstract |
| Keywords: | Human capital, cognitive skills, Stunting, work experience, Development, Education, Gender, Health and nutrition, |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:826&r=lab |
| By: | Gueorgui I. Kolev; Robin Hogarth |
| Abstract: | Illusory correlation refers to the use of information in decisions that is uncorrelated with the relevant criterion. We document illusory correlation in CEO compensation decisions by demonstrating that information, that is uncorrelated with corporate performance, is related to CEO compensation. We use publicly available data from the USA for the years 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004 to examine the relations between golf handicaps of CEOs and corporate performance, on the one hand, and CEO compensation and golf handicaps, on the other hand. Although we find no relation between handicap and corporate performance, we do find a relation between handicap and CEO compensation. In short, golfers earn more than non-golfers and pay increases with golfing ability. We relate these findings to the difficulties of judging compensation for CEOs. To overcome this – and possibly other illusory correlations – in these kinds of decisions, we recommend the use of explicit, mechanical decision rules. |
| Keywords: | Illusory correlation; executive compensation; golf handicaps; decision rules |
| JEL: | D81 J33 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1132&r=lab |
| By: | Naqvi, Nadeem |
| Abstract: | Agency-based explanations of the great deprivation, contrasted with structure-based explanations, suffer not merely from the criticism of relying on irrational and irresponsible behavior of millions, including that of the most astute financial experts, but are also at a loss to explain why such problems did not arise earlier when the same motivations and behavioral patterns were exhibited, thereby rendering such theories incomplete. Alternatively, if it is argued that such problems did not appear earlier because the economic structure was different then, then again attention must return to an examination of structure, not exclusively place blame on agency failures. (98 words) |
| Keywords: | structure; agency; great deprivation; financial crisis; fiscal policy; monetary policy; skilled labor markets; American economy; involuntary unemployment; voluntary unemployment; education; training; skill acquisition; income distribution; China; India; Germany; Japan |
| JEL: | F16 E32 E66 F01 E44 F21 |
| Date: | 2009–01–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:12473&r=lab |
| By: | Naqvi, Nadeem |
| Abstract: | Agency-based explanations of the great deprivation, contrasted with structure-based explanations, suffer not merely from the criticism of relying on irrational and irresponsible behavior of millions, including that of the most astute financial experts, but are also at a loss to explain why such problems did not arise earlier when the same motivations and behavioral patterns were exhibited, thereby rendering such theories incomplete. Alternatively, if it is argued that such problems did not appear earlier because the economic structure was different then, then again attention must return to an examination of structure, not exclusively place blame on agency failures. (98 words) |
| Keywords: | structure; agency; great deprivation; financial crisis; fiscal policy; monetary policy; skilled labor markets; American economy; involuntary unemployment; voluntary unemployment; education; training; skill acquisition; income distribution; China; India; Germany; Japan |
| JEL: | F16 E32 E66 F01 E44 F21 |
| Date: | 2009–01–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:12497&r=lab |
| By: | Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris); Mouez Fodha (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the environmental tax policy issues within an overlapping generations models framework. The objective is to analyze whether an environmental tax policy can respect the two equity principles simultaneously, the vertical as well the horizontal one. We characterize the necessary conditions for the obtaining of a Pareto improving shift when the revenue of the pollution tax is recycled by a change in the labor tax rate or by a change in the distributive properties of the labor tax. We show that, depending on the production function elasticities and on the heterogeneity characteristics of labor supply, an appropriate policy mix could be designed in order to leave each workers' class unharmed by the environmental tax reform. It will consist in an increase of the progressivity of the labor tax together with a decrease of the minimal wage tax rate. |
| Keywords: | Environmental tax, double dividend, tax progressivity, overlapping generations model. |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00348891_v1&r=lab |
| By: | Yamauchi, Futoshi; Ueyama, Mika |
| Abstract: | "This paper examines social learning regarding HIV infection, using HIV test results and sibling death data from Malawi. In the analysis, we compare hypotheses on social learning, selection. and common factors. Empirical results show that young women are less likely to be HIV-infected if they observed prime-age deaths among their siblings, whereas HIV infection is found to be positively related to prime-age sibling deaths among older women. This supports the social-learning hypothesis. Notably, schooling reinforces the social-learning effect of sibling deaths on HIV infection in women regardless of age. The above findings are robust to age (cohort) effects and unobserved location factors." from authors' abstract |
| Keywords: | Social learning, HIV infection, AIDS (Disease) Africa, Sub-Saharan, siblings, |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:817&r=lab |
| By: | Kenneth Y. Chay; Jonathan Guryan; Bhashkar Mazumder |
| Abstract: | A large literature documents the significant gap in average test scores between blacks and whites, while a related literature finds a substantial narrowing of the gap during the 1980’s, and a stagnation in convergence during the 1990’s. We use two data sources the Long Term Trends NAEP and AFQT scores for the universe of applicants to the U.S. military between 1976 and 1991 to show that most of the racial convergence in the 1980’s is explained by relative improvements across successive cohorts of blacks born between 1963 and the early 1970’s and not by a secular narrowing in the gap over time. Furthermore, these across-cohort test score gains occurred almost exclusively among blacks in the South. We then examine the potential causes of these large composition effects in the test score gap and their significant variation across U.S. states. We demonstrate that the timing of the cohort-based AFQT convergence closely tracks the convergence in measures of black and white infant health for those cohorts. For example, the cohort- specific AFQT gaps (adjusted for age and year effects and selection into test taking) and the racial gaps in post- neonatal mortality rates deaths between one month and one year of birth exhibit very similar patterns across states and birth cohorts. We show that the black-white convergence in AFQT scores appears to have been more closely linked with post- neonatal mortality rates than with earlier health measures such as neonatal mortality (deaths within one month of birth) and low birthweight. We also find little evidence that other potential confounders (e.g., schooling desegregation, family background) can explain these patterns in AFQT scores. Investments in health at very early ages after birth appear to have large, long-term effects on human capital accumulation. We also discuss preliminary evidence that the staggered timing of hospital integration across the South is consistent with the patterns of gains in black test scores 17 to 18 years after birth more so than other hypotheses for progress in black infant health (e.g., Food Stamps, AFDC, Medicaid). |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-08-20&r=lab |
| By: | Cynthia B. Lloyd |
| Abstract: | Recent DHS data is used to document trends in schooling and adolescent reproductive behaviors among adolescents and then to explore the potential implications of rising school attendance rates for adolescent reproductive health. This exploratory analysis includes (1) comparisons of various aspects of adolescent reproductive behavior between students and the non-enrolled, (2) a review of the evidence on the links between school exit and marriage timing and (3) an assessment of the relative contribution of school girl pregnancy to overall pregnancy rates and non-enrolled among adolescents. [Paper presented at the Forum 9 conference]. |
| Keywords: | schooling, girls, women, boys, adolescents, non-enrolled, reproductive behaviors, pregnancy, pregnant, adult, school, marriage |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:1365&r=lab |
| By: | Brezis, Elise S. |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between privatization in higher education and the quality of universities. An interesting fact is that of the top 10 universities in the US, nine are private. Previous studies have claimed that there is a relationship between the privatization of universities and their quality, since countries with a high proportion of private resources have superior universities. The purpose of this paper is to analyze if indeed this supposed relationship is due to empirical regularities between quality and ownership, or whether the two are unrelated. The analysis presented herein is based on data collected on 508 universities in 40 countries. I show that flexibility is the important element affecting quality, and not ownership per se. |
| Keywords: | Higher Education; quality; privatization; ranking |
| JEL: | I23 I28 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:12485&r=lab |
| By: | Rebecca Ray; Janet C. Gornick; John Schmitt |
| Abstract: | This report examines the parental leave policies in 21 high-income nations and identifies five "best practices" for parental leave policies. The study shows that the U.S. has the least generous leave policies of the 21 countries examined in the report. The states exhibiting the five best practices include Finland, France, Greece, Norway, Spain, and Sweden. |
| Keywords: | parental leave |
| JEL: | J J1 J16 J18 J8 J88 J3 J33 J38 |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epo:papers:2008-23&r=lab |
| By: | Nina Srivastava |
| Abstract: | The study tries to focus on the violation of human rights that occur in prostitution. It holds that it is the responsibility of the state to protect these human rights and address the fundamental structural causes of this trade. The study also looked into the complementary role of NGOs, civil society, family. Interviews with 55 female sex-workers in the Chaturbhuj Sthan area of Muzaffarpur (one of the biggest red light area of Bihar), has been done. [Paper presented at the Forum 9 conference]. |
| Keywords: | ethnographic study, HIV/AIDS, health care, prostitution, Bihar, India, NGOs, human rights, civil society, family, female, prostitution, sex-workers, red light area, trade, interviews |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:1699&r=lab |
| By: | PLoS Medicine |
| Abstract: | Commenting on recent research articles which look at the potential health benefits of behaviour change, the PLoS Medicine Editors say that publication of the findings of such research is only one part of the behaviour-change process. |
| Keywords: | outcomes, theory, UK, United Kingdom, media, observational studies, public health, government, obesity, United States, US, women, HIV, cancer, life style, research articles, health benefits, behaviour, |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:1366&r=lab |
| By: | Wouterse, Fleur S. |
| Abstract: | "This paper uses data envelopment analysis and new data from Burkina Faso to test the impact of intercontinental and continental migration on technical efficiency in the production of two cereals—millet and sorghum—by rural households. Econometric evidence supports our theoretical expectation that the impact of emigration varies by migrant destination. I find evidence of a positive relation between continental migration and technical efficiency and a negative relation between intercontinental migration and technical efficiency. In an imperfect market environment, continental migration is associated with greater efficiency because it removes a male labor surplus; explanations for the negative relationship between intercontinental migration and technical efficiency should be sought in a surplus of female labor supply. Overall, findings suggest that migration does not lead to a transformation of cereal production from traditional to modern, because in an imperfect market environment, liquidity received in the form of remittances cannot compensate for labor shortfalls." from authors' abstract |
| Keywords: | Migration, Rural households, Data envelopment analysis, Science and technology, Agricultural innovation, Cereal production, Institutional change, Innovation systems, |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:815&r=lab |
| By: | Lino, Mark |
| Abstract: | This publication is updated annually by the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. |
| Keywords: | expenditures on children, cost of children, Consumer Expenditure, Consumer/Household Economics, Labor and Human Capital, Public Economics, |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:usacnr:45852&r=lab |
| By: | B.Venkatesh Kumar |
| Abstract: | Higher education in the ountry is ripe for radical reforms. The Sixth Pay Review Committee for colleges and universities is set to make widenranging recommendations going beyond pay revisions. But how is their acceptance by state state governments which administer higher education, to be ensured? |
| Keywords: | education. higher education, colleges, university, Fifth Pay Commission |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:1639&r=lab |
| By: | Ulimwengu, John M. |
| Abstract: | "A simple dynamic panel model is used to capture persistence in poverty. This simple model allows a more accurate derivation of the permanent level of the measure of well-being from which persistent poverty is defined. Using a longitudinal dataset from the United States of America, the results show that the variability of the measure of welfare (logarithm of income-to-needs ratio) is mainly driven by transitory shocks through unobservable individual and time-specific characteristics. Consequently, means-tested schemes such as food stamps or the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant program can easily miss genuinely eligible welfare clients. The results also suggest that the probability of exiting persistent poverty is much higher for job participants than welfare programs participants. However, compared to their employed counterparts, unemployed individuals have little or no chance of escaping persistent poverty unless they choose to participate in welfare programs." from authors' abstract |
| Keywords: | Welfare economics, Poverty dynamics, Poverty reduction, |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:818&r=lab |
| By: | Mariacristina De Nardi; Eric French; John Bailey Jones |
| Abstract: | Rich people, women, and healthy people live longer. We document that this heterogeneity in life expectancy is large. We use an estimated structural model to assess the impact of life expectancy variation on the elderly’s savings. We find that the differences in life expectancy related to observable factors such as health, gender, and income have large effects on savings, and that these factors contribute by simi- lar amounts. We also show that the risk of outliving one’s expected lifespan has a large effect on the elderly’s saving behavior. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-08-18&r=lab |
| By: | Francisco González Gómez (Departmento de Economía Aplicada, Universidad de Granada.); Andrés J. Picazo Tadeo (Departmento de Economía Aplicada II, Universidad de Valencia.) |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the sporting performance of Spanish professional football teams at competition level, namely, League, King’s Cup and European competitions (Champions League and UEFA Cup). Then, the gap between the result obtained by a team in a given competition and that expected according to its potential is used as a proxy of the degree of satisfaction that fans should feel: the narrower the gap the greater the level of satisfaction. Regarding methodology, Data Envelopment Analysis techniques and directional distance functions are used. Results reveal that most teams perform rather differently across competitions, the lower average performance corresponding to the King’s Cup |
| Keywords: | Spanish football League; specific-competition performance; Data Envelopment Analysis. |
| JEL: | L83 C61 |
| Date: | 2008–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gra:wpaper:08/11&r=lab |