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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Jose Garcia-Louzao (Bank of Lithuania) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of severance pay generosity on workers' voluntary mobility decisions. The identification strategy exploits a major labor market reform in Spain in February 2012 together with the exposure of some workers to a layoff shock. I rely on rich administrative data to estimate a discrete time duration model with dynamic treatment effects. The results show that a decrease in mobility costs induced by a reduction in severance pay made workers who expected to be displaced in the near future more likely to voluntarily leave their employers. The results indicate that policies targeting employers may also affect workers' behavior. They further reveal the relevance of taking into account interactions between employment protection and unemployment insurance. |
| Keywords: | Employment protection, Severance Pay, Job mobility, Quits, Plant closures, Mass layoffs |
| JEL: | J62 J63 J65 |
| Date: | 2020–06–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lie:wpaper:76&r=all |
| By: | Naomi Friedman-Sokuler (Bar-Ilan University [Israël]); Claudia Senik (PSE - Paris School of Economics, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, USPC - Université Sorbonne Paris Cité) |
| Abstract: | The fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 led to a massive migration wave from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) to Israel. We document the persistence and transmission of the Soviet unconventional gender norms, both vertically across generations of immigrants, and horizontally through neighborhood and school peer effects. Tracking the educational and occupational choices of a cohort of young Israeli women, we identify the persistence of two important features of the Soviet culture: the prioritization of science and technology, and the strong female attachment to paid-work. Women born in the FSU, who immigrated in infancy, are significantly more likely than natives and other immigrants to major in STEM in high school. In tertiary education, they remain over-represented in STEM, but also differ significantly from other women by their specific avoidance of study fields leading to "pink collar" jobs, such as education and social work. They also display a specific choice of work-life balance reflecting a greater commitment to paid-work. Finally, the choice patterns of native women shift towards STEM and away from traditional female study fields as the share of FSU immigrants in their lower-secondary school increases. |
| Keywords: | culture,gender norms,education,STEM,occupational choice,immigration,Soviet Union,Israel |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-02872229&r=all |
| By: | Sonia Oreffice (University of Surrey); Climent Quintana-Domeque (University of Exeter) |
| Abstract: | We investigate gender differences across socioeconomic and wellbeing dimensions after three months of lockdown in the UK, using an online sample of approximately 1,500 respondents in Prolific, representative of the UK population with regards to age, sex and ethnicity. We find that women’s mental health is worse than men’s along the four metrics we collected data on, that women are more concerned about getting and spreading the virus, and that women perceive the virus as more prevalent and lethal than men do. Women are also more likely to expect a new lockdown or virus outbreak by the end of 2020, and are more pessimistic about the current and future state of the UK economy, as measured by their forecasted present and future unemployment rates. Consistent with their more pessimistic views about the economy, women choose to donate more to food banks. Women are more likely to have lost their job because of the pandemic, and working women are more likely to hold more coronavirus-risky jobs than men. We also find that between February and June 2020 women have decreased their work hours, but increased housework and childcare much more than men. These gender inequalities are not driven by differences in age, ethnicity, education, family structure, income in 2019, current employment status, place of residence or living in rural/urban areas. |
| Keywords: | coronavirus, sex, inequity, well-being, Health, employment, perceptions, donations |
| JEL: | J16 I14 J64 D19 |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2020-052&r=all |
| By: | Johnston, Andrew C. (University of California, Merced); Mas, Alexandre (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | We examine how a 16-week cut in potential unemployment insurance (UI) duration in Missouri affected search behavior of UI recipients and the aggregate labor market. Using a regression discontinuity design (RDD), we estimate a marginal effect of maximum duration on UI and nonemployment spells of approximately 0.45 and 0.25 respectively. We use the RDD estimates to simulate the unemployment rate assuming no market-level externalities. The simulated response, which implies almost a one percentage point decline in the unemployment rate, closely approximates the estimated change in the unemployment rate following the benefit cut. This finding suggests that, even in a period of high unemployment, the labor market absorbed this influx of workers without crowding-out other jobseekers. |
| Keywords: | unemployment insurance, benefits, labor supply, employment, unemployment |
| JEL: | J64 J65 D91 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13331&r=all |
| By: | Carrillo-Tudela, Carlos (University of Essex); Visschers, Ludo (University of Edinburgh) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the extent to which the cyclicality of gross and net occupational mobility shapes that of aggregate unemployment and its duration distribution. Using the SIPP, we document the relation between workers' (gross and net) occupational mobility and unemployment duration over the long run and business cycle. To interpret this evidence, we develop an analytically and computationally tractable stochastic equilibrium model with heterogenous agents and occupations as well as aggregate uncertainty. The model is quantitatively consistent with several important features of the US labor market: procyclical gross and countercyclical net occupational mobility, the large volatility of unemployment and the cyclical properties of the unemployment duration distribution, among others. Our analysis shows that "excess" occupational mobility due to workers' changing career prospects interacts with aggregate conditions to drive fluctuations of aggregate unemployment and its duration distribution. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, business cycle, rest, search, occupational mobility |
| JEL: | E24 E30 J62 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13307&r=all |
| By: | Pronkina, Elizaveta; Perez Izquierdo, Telmo Juan |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how living under the USSR affected the life decisions of East European individuals. We use the retrospective SHARELIFE data to analyze respondents' choices from 1950 to 1990. In particular, we compare the reported choices of individuals in Lithuania (former-USSR) and Poland (former-Soviet Bloc), exploiting the common history of both countries until the end of the Second World War. We find that Lithuanian women increased educational attainments and accumulated 2 plus years of working experience by age 50 relative to Polish women. Moreover, we describe the indirect effect that improved working opportunities have on female education. We can identify this effect by looking at differential outcomes for men and women in the two countries. Similar findings hold once we compare all Baltic countries (former-USSR) toall Soviet Bloc countries and East to West Germany. Finally, we also observe a higher number of marriages during life and selective abortion based on the future child's gender under the USSR. These findings suggest that policies implemented in Socialist countries varied, and regimes affected individuals differently. |
| Keywords: | Female Employment; Education; Central And Eastern Europe; Socialism; USSR |
| JEL: | P36 J24 J21 J16 J13 N34 I2 |
| Date: | 2020–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:30663&r=all |
| By: | William D. Larson (Federal Housing Finance Agency); Tara M. Sinclair (The George Washington University) |
| Abstract: | Near term forecasts, also called nowcasts, are most challenging but also most important when the economy experiences an abrupt change. In this paper, we explore the performance of models with different information sets and data structures in order to best nowcast US initial unemployment claims in spring of 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. We show that the best model, particularly near the structural break in claims, is a state-level panel model that includes dummy variables to capture the variation in timing of state-ofemergency declarations. Autoregressive models perform poorly at first but catch up relatively quickly. Models including Google Trends are outperformed by alternative models in nearly all periods. Our results suggest that in times of structural change there may be simple approaches to exploit relevant information in the cross sectional dimension to improve forecasts |
| Keywords: | panel forecasting, time series forecasting, forecast evaluation, structural breaks, Google Trends |
| JEL: | C53 E24 E27 J64 R23 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwc:wpaper:2020-004&r=all |
| By: | Buchmann, Manuel (University of Basel) |
| Abstract: | The ongoing demographic change is expected to negatively affect the effective labor supply of various developed countries. In order to counteract these developments, many suggested policy measures target the participation rate of women and old workers. In this paper, I develop a multi-sectoral CGE-OLG model where workers of different ages and skills are assumed to be imperfect substitutes and calibrate it to the Swiss economy. I use this model to evaluate the effects of the demographic change on the Swiss labor market and the potential of reforms targeting different participation rates. I find that a yearly decrease of old workers' preference towards leisure by 2% between 2022 and 2030 yields macroeconomic results that are comparable to an increase in the statutory retirement age by 2 years. While the increase of the retirement age succeeds in increasing net income by more than both participation rate increases, it also leads to an increase in wage levels and thereby labor shortages. This result highlights the importance of reducing scarcity on the labor markets for macroeconomic performance and shows the potential of reforms targeting labor market participation. |
| Keywords: | overlapping generations, demographic change, participation rates, switzerland |
| JEL: | D58 E24 E66 J11 J21 J26 |
| Date: | 2020–06–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bsl:wpaper:2020/10&r=all |
| By: | Michaelides, Marios; Mueser, Peter R. (University of Missouri, Columbia); Smith, Jeffrey A. (University of Wisconsin-Madison) |
| Abstract: | We present experimental evidence on the effects of four U.S. reemployment programs for youth Unemployment Insurance (UI) recipients during the Great Recession. The three programs that emphasized monitoring and service referrals reduced UI receipt but had minimal effects on employment and earnings; these programs mainly induced the early exit of participants. The fourth program, which combined mandatory job counseling with monitoring, caused the largest reductions in UI receipt and clearly increased employment and earnings. Both early participant exits and effective job counseling underlie these impacts. We conclude that policymakers should require job counseling for youth UI recipients during recessions. |
| Keywords: | youth, Great Recession, REA, WPRS, job counseling, active labor market policies, unemployment, Unemployment Insurance, program evaluation |
| JEL: | J6 H4 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13324&r=all |
| By: | Hie Joo Ahn; James D. Hamilton |
| Abstract: | The underlying data from which the U.S. unemployment rate, labor-force participation rate, and duration of unemployment are calculated contain numerous internal contradictions. This paper catalogs these inconsistencies and proposes a unified reconciliation. We find that the usual statistics understate the unemployment rate and the labor-force participation rate by about two percentage points on average and that the bias in the latter has increased over time. The BLS estimate of the average duration of unemployment substantially overstates the true duration of uninterrupted spells of unemployment and misrepresents what happened to average durations during the Great Recession and its recovery. |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J01 J64 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27394&r=all |
| By: | Jones, Melanie K. (Cardiff University); Kaya, Ezgi (Cardiff University) |
| Abstract: | Northern Ireland forms an important outlier to the established international pattern of a pronounced gender pay gap in favour of men. Using contemporary data from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey we provide a comprehensive analysis of the gender pay gap in Northern Ireland and make comparisons to the rest of the UK. Despite the relatively common institutional and policy context, the gender pay gap in Northern Ireland is found to be far smaller than in the rest of the UK. This can largely be attributed to the superior productivity-related characteristics of women relative to men in Northern Ireland, which partially offset the influence of gender differences in the returns to these characteristics. Our analysis highlights the importance of occupation – both in terms of occupational allocation and the returns to occupations – in explaining the cross-country differential. This is reinforced by the impact of lower earnings inequality in Northern Ireland. |
| Keywords: | Labour Force Survey, decomposition analysis, pay discrimination, gender pay gap, Northern Ireland |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J24 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13318&r=all |
| By: | Michael König; Zheng Michael Song; Kjetil Storesletten; Fabrizio Zilibotti |
| Abstract: | We construct a model of firm dynamics with heterogeneous productivity and distortions. The productivity distribution evolves endogenously as the result of the decisions of firms seeking to upgrade their productivity over time. Firms can adopt two strategies toward that end: imitation and innovation. The theory bears predictions about the evolution of the productivity distribution. We structurally estimate the stationary state of the dynamic model targeting moments of the empirical distribution of R&D and TFP growth in China during the period 2007--2012. The estimated model fits the Chinese data well. We compare the estimates with those obtained using data for Taiwan and find the results to be robust. We perform counterfactuals to study the effect of alternative policies. We find large effects of R&D misallocation on long-run growth. |
| JEL: | L16 O31 O47 O53 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27404&r=all |
| By: | Clara Berestycki; Antoine Dechezleprêtre |
| Abstract: | Ambitious environmental policies are necessary to enable the transition to a greener economy. However, these policies could impose economic burdens on firms through different channels. They may increase barriers to entry and distort competition. They may also impose transaction and administrative costs related to permitting and licensing. If stringent environmental policies can be designed in a way that minimises such economic burdens, they can facilitate the achievement of economic and environmental goals and a cleaner growth model. |
| Keywords: | administrative burdens, barriers to entry, competition, environmental policies, environmental regulation, public policy evaluation |
| JEL: | Q58 L50 L59 |
| Date: | 2020–07–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1611-en&r=all |
| By: | Kenneth A. Couch; Robert W. Fairlie; Huanan Xu |
| Abstract: | COVID-19 abruptly impacted the labor market with the unemployment rate jumping to 14.7 percent less than two months after state governments began adopting social distancing measures. Unemployment of this magnitude has not been seen since the Great Depression. This paper provides the first study of how the pandemic impacted minority unemployment using CPS microdata through April 2020. African-Americans experienced an increase in unemployment to 16.6 percent, less than anticipated based on previous recessions. In contrast, Latinx, with an unemployment rate of 18.2 percent, were disproportionately hard hit by COVID-19. Adjusting for concerns of the BLS regarding misclassification of unemployment, we create an upper-bound measure of the national unemployment rate of 26.5 percent, which is higher than the peak observed in the Great Depression. The April 2020 upper-bound unemployment rates are an alarming 31.8 percent for blacks and 31.4 percent for Latinx. Difference-in-difference estimates suggest that blacks were, at most, only slightly disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Non-linear decomposition estimates indicate that a slightly favorable industry distribution partly protected them being hit harder by COVID-19. The most impacted group are Latinx. Difference-in-difference estimates unequivocally indicate that Latinx were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. An unfavorable occupational distribution and lower skills contributed to why Latinx experienced much higher unemployment rates than whites. These findings of early impacts of COVID-19 on unemployment raise important concerns about long-term economic effects for minorities. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, inequality, labor, race, minorities, COVID-19, coronavirus, shelter-in-place, social distancing |
| JEL: | J60 J70 J15 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8327&r=all |
| By: | Alexander Ahammer; Analisa Packham (Economics Department at Vanderbilt University) |
| Abstract: | Using administrative data for Upper Austrian workers from 2003–2013, we show that an extension in unemployment insurance (UI) duration increases unemployment length and impacts worker physical and mental health. These effects vary by gender. Specifically, we find that women eligible for an additional 9 weeks of UI benefits fill fewer opioid and antidepressant prescriptions and experience a lower likelihood of filing a disability claim, as compared to non-eligible unemployed women. Moreover, estimates indicate within-household spillovers for young children. For men, we find that extending UI benefit duration increases the likelihood of a cardiac event and eventual disability retirement filing. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment insurance, health, disability, opioids |
| JEL: | I38 I18 J18 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2020-09&r=all |
| By: | Francesca Barigozzi; Cesare Di Timoteo; Chiara Monfardini |
| Abstract: | We provide novel estimates of gender differences in the allocation of time by Italian adults and document their trends over the span 2002-2014, pooling three time-use surveys run by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). The positive gap (females-males) in time devoted to Household work and the negative gap in Market work and Leisure are found to have narrowed over the observed period, mainly due to changes in women’s time allocation, while the positive gap in time devoted to Child care remained substantially constant. In 2014, the sharing of family duties appears still heavily unbalanced even when we look at the subsample of full-time working parents. Full-time working mothers devote to Market work about 4 hours per week less than their partners, but they devote 14 hours per week more to Household work and 3 hours and a half more to Basic child care. This translates in 13 hours per week more total (paid and unpaid) work and 11 hours per week less Leisure. On the positive side, the gender gap in time devoted to Quality child care exhibits a reversed sign in 2014. The change is driven by weekend days, when partners of full-time working mothers become the main provider of this type of care. |
| JEL: | J13 J22 H31 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp1149&r=all |
| By: | Gordon John Anderson |
| Abstract: | The stock of human resources available to a society is integral to its economic growth and development. Unfortunately, as a composite of levels of embodied human capital and accumulated experience, its measurement and comparison across societies is hampered by its inherently latent nature. Usually, for the purpose of analysis, some form of Cantril scale is arbitrarily attached to the ordered categorical variable proxies of educational status and age group, but this is problematic since results can be ambiguous when using scale dependent summary statistics for comparison purposes. Here, new scale independent techniques for making inferences about the respective levels of, and differences between, human resource stocks across groups are proposed that are not subject to such concerns. Their effectiveness is exemplified in an application comparing Canadian Provincial Human Resource Stocks in the 21st century. |
| Keywords: | Human Resource Measurement, Ordered Categorical Data, Stochastic Dominance |
| JEL: | O15 I00 J01 C14 |
| Date: | 2020–06–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-669&r=all |
| By: | Jake Anders (Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities, UCL Institute of Education, University College London); Andy Dickerson (Department of Economics, University of Sheffield); Paul Gregg (Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath); Lindsey Macmillan (Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities, UCL Institute of Education, University College London) |
| Abstract: | While recent forecasts have pointed to an employment shock of a similar magnitude to that seen in the previous Great Recession, many of the circumstances this time round suggest we may be facing a more severe experience. This is likely to disproportionately affect young people, those from deprived families both in adulthood and in childhood, ethnic minorities, and those with low levels of education. Evidence shows that there are long-term costs to spells out of work, including reduced employment opportunities and wages, alongside lower job satisfaction, health and happiness. A combined response of macro-level interventions, alongside individually-targeted education, skills and active labour market policy responses are required. Targeted cuts to National Insurance, changing the incentives of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), increasing access courses to higher education, funding further education routes, and combined interventions including targeted job support schemes and high quality work placements are all policies that can aid recovery and minimise the costs of scarring. |
| Keywords: | unemployment, COVID-19, scarring, ALMP, education policy |
| JEL: | E24 I28 J68 |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucl:cepeow:20-12&r=all |
| By: | Gálvez Iniesta, Ismael |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the total number of irregular immigrants residing in Spain from 2002 to2019 and studies their nationality, sex, gender and sectoral composition. Using the residualmethod and combining microdata sources from the Spanish Labour Force Survey and SocialSecurity registers I find that by the end of 2019 there was around 390,000-470,000 irregularimmigrants in Spain, which account for 11-13% of the total non-EU immigrants. Irregularimmigrants are younger than the regular ones, they are predominantly from South and CentralAmerica and they are concentrated in the accommodation and food activities and the activitieshousehold sector. Using the most updated wave of the EU-SILC data for Spain, I find a positivedirect fiscal impact of the non-EU immigration. This impact is 75% higher than for the natives'households, mainly explained by their younger age structure. Once education and health publicsystems are taken into account, the fiscal impact gap between the two type of householdsvanishes. I also find large fiscal costs associated to maintaining the irregularity status. Last,my estimates suggest that the potential positive gains from legalising the current status of theirregular immigrants are around 3,300 euros yearly by regularized worker. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal; Irregular Immigrants; Immigration |
| JEL: | E62 J61 J32 |
| Date: | 2020–07–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:30643&r=all |
| By: | Ken-ichi Hashimoto; Yoshiyasu Ono; Matthias Schlegl |
| Abstract: | We introduce a preference for wealth into the standard search and matching model to analyze the labor market when there is persistent demand shortage. We show that, under some conditions, a secular stagnation steady state exists in which the economy permanently operates below capacity due to both structural unemployment and underemployment. The latter is a direct consequence of the lack of aggregate demand. Our findings are as follows. In the absence of demand shortage, the preference for wealth creates a new transmission channel for shocks and policy measures due to induced changes in the real interest rate, in addition to the job creation channel of the standard matching model. Turning to the stagnation equilibrium, the effects of demand and supply shocks are opposite to those of the standard case and result in a co-movement of unemployment and underemployment. In contrast, the effects of wage and cost shocks depend on the degree of aggregate demand shortage, but they can explain movements of unemployment and underemployment in opposite directions. Finally, we show that fluctuations in the total employment gap under stagnation are primarily driven by fluctuations in underemployment instead of structural unemployment. Our analysis helps to understand why the unemployment rate in Japan has been surprisingly low during its lost decades and highlights the need for further policy interventions in support of aggregate demand despite a seemingly decent employment record. |
| Keywords: | demand shortage, unemployment, underemployment, labor market frictions, secular stagnation |
| JEL: | E24 E31 E44 J20 J64 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8318&r=all |
| By: | Deschênes, Sarah (Paris School of Economics; Institut national d'études démographiques (INED)); Dumas, Christelle; Lambert, Sylvie (Paris School of Economics and INRAE) |
| Abstract: | The question of diverging interests and preferences within couples over the use of household resources and the consequences of these conflictual views has been present for a long time in the development literature, albeit in a somewhat scattered way. This paper selectively reviews the abundant literature that offers insights into the intrahousehold decision-making process, the strategies put in place by individuals to secure their access to private resources, and the role of the changing economic environment in altering these mechanisms. This paper bridges different strands of the social sciences and exemplifies the complementarities among them. The main features of household organization are described to set the scene for the individual strategies introduced to bypass intrahousehold negotiations and secure access to private resources. These strategies include efforts to maintain access to income-earning opportunities and secrecy about income and savings. This paper also discusses attempts to maintain or tilt the balance of power within the household through the use of violence, on the one hand, and marital and fertility choices on the other hand. Finally, this paper describes directions for future research aimed at improving the understanding of household behaviour and responses to economic stimuli. |
| Keywords: | Intrahousehold allocation; Noncooperative behaviour; Family; Africa and Asia |
| JEL: | D13 O12 O15 J16 |
| Date: | 2020–07–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fri:fribow:fribow00517&r=all |
| By: | Juliana Yael Milovich; Elena Villar |
| Abstract: | The highest rates of child undernutrition in Guatemala are found in Western regions, where more than half of the children under five are stunted and almost 20% underweight. However, despite the large incidence of undernutrition in the country, there is no robust evidence of its determinants, effects and possible solutions. Our study analyses the impact of a program implemented by the Foundation FUNDAP in West Guatemala, Volunteers in Health, on the nutritional health of children under five years of age. We provide new evidence on how training women at the community level to provide information on infants' nutrition to mothers, together with the monitoring of children's growth and the supply of food supplements, contributes to significantly reduce the probability of children being underweight in West Guatemala. |
| Keywords: | Child Undernutrition, Women's Training, Health Programs, Impact Evaluation |
| JEL: | I38 J1 I18 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2020-14&r=all |
| By: | Richard V. Burkhauser; Nicolas Hérault; Stephen P. Jenkins; Roger Wilkins |
| Abstract: | The share of women in the top 1% of the UK’s income distribution has been growing over the last two decades (as in several other countries). Our first contribution is to account for this secular change using regressions of the probability of being in the top 1%, fitted separately for men and women, in order to contrast between the sexes the role of changes in characteristics and changes in returns to characteristics. We show that the rise of women in the top 1% is primarily accounted for by their greater increases (relative to men) in the number of years spent in full-time education. Although most top income analysis uses tax return data, we derive our findings taking advantage of the much more extensive information about personal characteristics that is available in survey data. Our use of survey data requires justification given survey under-coverage of top incomes. Providing this justification is our second contribution. |
| JEL: | C81 D31 J16 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27397&r=all |