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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Nassal, Lea Maria; Paul, Marie |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effects of long-distance moves of married couples on both spouses' earnings, employment and job characteristics based on a new administrative dataset from Germany. Employing difference-in-difference propensity score matching and accounting for spouses' premove employment biographies, we show that men's earnings increase significantly after the move, whereas women suffer large losses in the first years. Men's earnings increases are mainly driven by increasing wages and switches to slightly larger and better paying firms. Investigating effect heterogeneity with respect to pre-move relative earnings or for whose job opportunity couples move, confirms strong gender asymmetries in gains to moving. |
| Keywords: | Long-distance moves,labor market careers,gender gap |
| JEL: | J61 J16 R23 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:973&r=lab |
| By: | Todd, P.; Zhang, W. |
| Abstract: | This paper develops and estimates a spatial general equilibrium job search model to study the effects of local and universal (federal) minimum wage policies on employment, wages, job postings, vacancies, migration/commuting, and welfare. In the model, workers, who differ in terms of location and education levels, search for jobs locally and in a neighboring area. If they receive remote offers, they decide whether to migrate or commute. Firms post vacancies in multiple locations and make offers subject to minimum wage constraints. The model is estimated using multiple databases, including the American Community Survey (ACS) and Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI), and exploiting minimum wage variation across state borders as well as time series variation (2005-2015). Results show that local minimum wage increases lead firms to post fewer wage offers in both local and neighboring areas and lead lower education workers to reduce interstate commuting. An out-of-sample validation finds that model forecasts of commuting responses to city minimum wage hikes are similar to patterns in the data. A welfare analysis shows how minimum wage effects vary by worker type and with the minimum wage level. Low skill workers benefit from local wage increases up to $10.75/hour and high skill workers up to $12.25/hour. The greatest per capital welfare gain (including both workers and firms) is achieved by a universal minimum wage increase of $12.75/hour. |
| Keywords: | spatial equilibrium, minimum wage, labor relocation, commuting |
| JEL: | J61 J63 J64 J68 R12 R13 |
| Date: | 2022–11–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:2265&r=lab |
| By: | Martin Guzi; Martin Kahanec; Lucia Mýtna Kureková |
| Abstract: | Across European Union (EU) labor markets, immigrant and native populations exhibit disparate labor market outcomes, signifying widespread labor market hierarchies. While significant resources have been invested in migration and integration policies, it remains unclear whether these contribute to or mitigate labor market hierarchies between natives and immigrants. Using a longitudinal model based on individual-level EU LFS and country-level DEMIG POLICY and POLMIG databases, we explore variation in changes of immigration and integration policies across Western EU member states to study how they are associated with labor market hierarchies in terms of unemployment and employment quality gaps between immigrant and native populations. Our findings imply that designing less restrictive policies may help mitigate immigrant-native labor market hierarchies by reducing existing labor market disadvantages of immigrants and making the most of their potential. |
| Keywords: | decomposition, immigrant-native gaps, labor market, DEMIG POLICY database, immigrant integration, hierarchies |
| JEL: | J15 J18 J61 K37 |
| Date: | 2022–11–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cel:dpaper:62&r=lab |
| By: | Dodini, Samuel (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Løken, Katrine (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Willén, Alexander (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | This paper isolates the impact of labor market competition on firms, workers, and communities. A shock to labor mobility from Sweden to Norway caused a substantial increase in labor competition for Swedish firms on the border with Norway. Using unique register data linked across the two countries, we show that Swedish firms respond by raising wages and reducing their workforces. The retained workers are of lower quality, resulting in a drop in value added and an increasing probability of market exit. Communities experience population flight, declining business activity, increased inequality, and increased support for worker protection parties. Norwegian firms benefit through cheaper labor costs, and there is evidence of Norwegian workers being displaced. The communities see increased support for anti-integration parties. We conclude that shocks to labor market competition, while benefiting certain workers, may have detrimental effects on local communities due to adverse effects on firm survival and business activity. |
| Keywords: | Labor Market Competition; Outside Options; Labor Mobility; Inequality; Community Development |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J42 J61 J62 |
| Date: | 2022–11–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2022_017&r=lab |
| By: | Anna Matysiak (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences); Daniela Bellani (Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence); Honorata Bogusz (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences) |
| Abstract: | In this study we examine whether the long-term structural changes in the labour market, driven by automation, affect fertility. Adoption of industrial robots in the EU has tripled since the mid-1990s, tremendously changing the conditions of participating in the labour market. On the one hand, new jobs are created, benefitting largely the highly skilled workers. On the other hand, the growing turnover in the labour market and changing content of jobs induce fears of job displacement and make workers continuously adjust to new requirements (reskill, upskill, increase work efforts). The consequences of these changes are particularly strong for the employment and earning prospects of the low and middle educated workers. Our focus is on six European countries: Czechia, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom. We link regional data on fertility and employment structures by industry from Eurostat (NUTS-2) with data on robot adoption from the International Federation of Robotics. We estimate fixed effects linear models with instrumental variables in order to account for the external shocks which may affect fertility and robot adoption in parallel. Our findings suggest robots tend to exert a negative impact on fertility in highly industrialised regions, regions with relatively low educated populations and those which are technologically less advanced. At the same time, better educated and prospering regions may even experience fertility improvements as a result of the technological change. The family and labour market institutions of the country may further moderate these effects. |
| Keywords: | fertility, employment, industrial robots, technological change, Europe |
| JEL: | J11 J13 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2022-26&r=lab |
| By: | Ferrer, Ana M.; Pan, Annie; Schirle, Tammy |
| Abstract: | The behaviour of married immigrant women regarding fertility and labour markets is an essential piece to understand the economic and cultural integration of immigrant households. However, the contribution of married immigrant women to the Canadian labour market was - until recently - considered of secondary importance and their labour market choices studied within a framework of temporary attachment to the labor force. Recent research, however, finds that a significant fraction of married immigrant women make labor supply decisions (and face barriers) similar to those of native-born married women. We show that this is the case in Canada as well, by estimating the progress of immigrant women over the 2000s. We use traditional measures of labour market attachment, such as participation, employment and wages, but also novel measures of labour market dynamics, such as transitions across labour market states. Differences in transition rates can reveal higher fragility of work for immigrant women, or reveal the extent to which immigrant women respond to family income shocks - the added worker effect. Results show that immigrant women are less likely to transition into employment - more likely to transition out of employment to either unemployment or inactivity - and more likely to respond to income shocks than the Canadian born. There is evidence of a gradual convergence with years spent in Canada to the outcomes of the Canadian born, which is much slower for immigrant women than immigrant men. |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:clefwp:47&r=lab |
| By: | Gozde Corekcioglu; Marco Francesconi; Astrid Kunze |
| Abstract: | We examine the impact of government-funded universal paid parental leave extensions on the likelihood that mothers reach top-pay jobs and executive positions, using eight Norwegian reforms. Up to a quarter of a century after childbirth, such reforms neither helped nor hurt mothers’ chances to be at the top of their companies’ pay ranking or in leadership positions. We detect no differential effect across many characteristics, and no impact on other outcomes, such as hours worked and promotions. No reform affected fathers’ pay or the gender pay gaps between mothers and their male colleagues and between mothers and their partners. |
| Keywords: | gender inequality, within-firm pay ranking, glass ceiling, leadership, top executives |
| JEL: | H42 J13 J16 J18 M12 M14 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10028&r=lab |
| By: | García, Jorge Luis (Clemson University); Heckman, James J. (University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | This paper compares early childhood enrichment programs that promote social mobility for disadvantaged children within and across generations. Instead of conducting a standard meta-analysis, we present a harmonized primary data analysis of programs that shape current policy. Our analysis is a template for rigorous syntheses and comparisons across programs. We analyze new long-run life-cycle data collected for iconic programs when participants are middle-aged and their children are in their twenties. The iconic programs are omnibus in nature and offer many services to children and their parents. We compare them with relatively low-cost more focused home-visiting programs. Successful interventions target both children and their caregivers. They engage caregivers and improve the home lives of children. They permanently boost cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Participants in programs that enrich home environments grow up with better skills, jobs, earnings, marital stability, and health, as well as reduced participation in crime. Long-run monetized gains are substantially greater than program costs for iconic programs. We investigate the mechanisms promoting successful family lives for participants and find intergenerational effects on their children. A study of focused home-visiting programs that target parents enables us to isolate a crucial component of successful programs: they activate and promote parenting skills of child caregivers. The home-visiting programs we analyze produce outcomes comparable to those of the iconic omnibus programs. National implementation of the programs with long-run follow up that we analyze would substantially shrink the overall US Black-White earnings gap. |
| Keywords: | skills, social mobility, inequality, human development |
| JEL: | J18 J13 J24 J31 D13 |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15672&r=lab |
| By: | Cetrulo, Armanda; Cirillo, Valeria; Landini, Fabio |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of firm-level collective bargaining on firms' investment in intangible assets and, specifically R&D. While standard hold-up theories predict a negative effect of organized labour on intangible investments, the inclusion of pay-for-performance schemes in complementary negotiation can actually invert the prediction. Moreover, the industrial relation literature suggests that, in presence of asymmetric power relations, firm-level collective bargaining can allow workers to make their voice heard and induce management to invest in assets that drive competition away from wages, including R&D. We exploit a rich and representative survey on Italian non-agricultural companies conducted by the National Institute for the Analysis of Public Policies (INAPP) to test these predictions. Baseline estimates suggest that the presence of second-level collective bargaining is associated with higher investments in R&D and that power relation is the main mechanism driving this result. These findings are confirmed also in a robustness check where we exploit size contingent legislation governing the creation of employee representative bodies involved in firm-level bargaining in a regression discontinuity design (RDD) framework. The implications for the design of innovation policy are discussed. |
| Keywords: | R&D,Intangibles,Unions,Collective Bargaining,Complementary Negotiation |
| JEL: | J50 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1195&r=lab |
| By: | Carol H. Shiue; Wolfgang Keller |
| Abstract: | In the marriage market, families make investments on behalf of their young so that they are able to form a household with their preferred partner. We analyze marriage markets in a central region of China between about 1300 and 1850 through the lens of a model of marriage matching and intergenerational transmission of inequality. For both female and male children, marriage patterns are far from being random, instead, there is positive assortative matching. This is present for the entire income distribution, though at the highest levels matching on income is thirty times of what it is at low income levels. Over the sample period the degree of matching falls, and more so for young females, although from a lower level than young males. Lower marriage matching in the 18th and 19th centuries is accompanied by lower inequality across households, yielding a positive time series correlation between sorting and inequality. There are also intergenerational matching returns. Children of parents who are strongly matched tend to be able to marry into relatively high-income in-law families, conditional on the incomes in both the father's and the mother's families. Matching in the parent generation pays off more strongly for male than for female children. Second, marriage matching by the parents raises child income. Thus, parental marriage investments affect the income distribution from one generation to the next. Finally, we show that intergenerational matching returns have declined over the sample period, further strengthening evidence that incentives for parental marriage investments in China became weaker over time. |
| JEL: | J12 J16 N30 N45 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30625&r=lab |
| By: | Victor Hernandez Martinez; Hans Holter; Roberto Pinheiro |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of knowledge specialization on earnings losses following displacement. We develop a novel measure of the specialization of human capital, based on how concentrated the knowledge used in an occupation is. Combining our measure with individual labor histories from the NLSY 79-97 and Norway’s LEED, we show that workers with more specialized human capital suffer larger earnings losses following exogenous displacement. A one standard deviation increase in pre-displacement knowledge specialization increases the earnings losses post-displacement by 3 to 4 pp per year in the US, and by 1.5 to 2 pp per year in Norway. In the US, the negative effect of higher pre-displacement knowledge specialization on post-displacement earnings is driven by the negative impact of knowledge specialization on well-paid outside opportunities. By contrast, this association between outside opportunities and knowledge specialization plays no role in post-displacement earnings losses in Norway, where the negative effect of specialization is in part explained by its association with the routine content and the offshoring probability of the occupation. |
| Keywords: | Earnings Loss; Knowledge Specialization; Unemployment; Human Capital |
| JEL: | J31 J62 J63 |
| Date: | 2022–11–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedcwq:95007&r=lab |
| By: | Anna Kurowska (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Political Sciences and International Relations; LabFam - Interdisciplinary Centre for Labour Market and Family Dynamics); Anna Matysiak (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences; LabFam - Interdisciplinary Centre for Labour Market and Family Dynamics); Beata Osiewalska (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences; LabFam - Interdisciplinary Centre for Labour Market and Family Dynamics; Cracow University of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The Covid-19 pandemic and related massive spread of home based work led to substantial changes in the conditions for combining work and childbearing. On the one hand, working from home helped parents to accommodate increased childcare needs. On the other, it led to blurred boundaries between work and family life during lockdowns. We investigate how working from home was related to change in fertility intentions of mothers and fathers during the pandemic and discuss the complex mechanisms behind these relationships. With the use of unique Familydemic Survey data for Poland, we estimate multinomial logit regressions and consider a set of potential moderators. We find evidence for an overall negative relationship between home based work and fertility intentions for mothers and fathers, but we also uncover some positive moderating effects. In particular, we shed light on the unexpected moderating role of gendered division of unpaid labor from before the pandemic. |
| Keywords: | fertility intentions, childbearing decisions, Covid-19 pandemic, coronavirus pandemic, working from home, telecommuting, telework, home based work, work-family reconciliation, work-family conflict, parents, gender relations, division of unpaid work |
| JEL: | J13 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2022-22&r=lab |
| By: | Ferey, Antoine (LMU Munich) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the interactions between redistribution and unemployment insurance policies and their implications for the optimal design of tax-benefit systems. In a setting where individuals with different earnings abilities are exposed to unemployment risk on the labor market, I characterize the optimal income tax schedule and the optimal unemployment benefit schedule in terms of empirically estimable sufficient statistics. I provide a Pareto-efficiency condition for tax-benefit systems that implies a tight link between optimal redistribution and optimal unemployment insurance: the steeper the profile of income taxes is, the flatter the profile of unemployment benefits should be, and vice versa. Optimal replacement rates are therefore monotonically decreasing with earnings, from 1 at the bottom of the earnings distribution to 0 at the top, and redistribution through unemployment benefits is efficient. Empirical applications show that these interactions between redistribution and unemployment insurance have important quantitative implications. |
| Date: | 2022–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:345&r=lab |
| By: | Olivier BARGAIN; Maria C. LO BUE; Flaviana PALMISANO |
| Abstract: | We suggest a simple and fexible criterion to assess relative inter-generational mobility. It accommodates different types of outcomes, such as (continuous) earnings or (discrete and ordinal) education levels, and captures dynastic improvements of such outcomes at different points of the initial distribution. We provide dominance characterizations - for instance on the relative progress made by women vs. men - that are consistent with social preferences upon desirable patterns of mobility. We suggest an application on Indonesia. Using the IFLS data, we match parents observed in 1993 to their children in 2014, providing one of the rare intergenerational mobility analyses based on a long panel in the context of a developing country. Results indicate that mobility in terms of education and potential earnings was markedly at the advantage of women. The bulk of the population came out of illiteracy, possibly due to largescale education reforms, but the relative educational mobility was regressive, which considerably reduced the progressivity of mobility in terms of potential earnings. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational mobility, education, earnings, social welfare, gender |
| JEL: | J6 J62 O12 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:bdxewp:2022-21&r=lab |
| By: | Brea-Martinez, Gabriel; Pujadas-Mora, Joana-Maria |
| Abstract: | Preindustrial social mobility is still primarily understudied in present times, and most early-industrial social mobility research has focused strictly on occupational mobility, not fully capturing the substantial socioeconomic disparities within occupational groups that presumably always existed. In this study, we contribute to the literature by estimating long-term trends in intergenerational social mobility in Barcelona and its hinterland. Using the Barcelona Historical Marriage Database, we assess disparities between socially and non-socially mobile individuals within occupational groups through unique data covering occupational prestige and economic information. We use data from genealogic reconstitutions done with probabilistic record linkage. We find that using a combined SES approach (occupational prestige and economic capacity) can capture both class differences and within-occupation disparities. Accordingly, socioeconomic mobility increased since the beginning of the 18th, during the Catalan protoindustrialization, but with significant class disparities. SES persistence would have increased for Non-Manuals' children, stagnated for Artisans' children, and declined for Farmers'. Moreover, within-occupational groups, we find that upward-mobile individuals would have always been disadvantaged in socioeconomic terms compared to immobile, a constant characteristic from the preindustrial periods until the end of the 19th century. These results suggest that socially immobile (intergenerationally) would perform better than mobile, independent of the period, which seems to recall the sociological concept of class ceiling. |
| Date: | 2022–11–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:74qr9&r=lab |
| By: | Michèle Tertilt; Matthias Doepke; Anne Hannusch; Laura Montenbruck |
| Abstract: | Two centuries ago, in most countries around the world, women were unable to vote, had no say over their own children or property, and could not obtain a divorce. Women have gradually gained rights in many areas of life, and this legal expansion has been closely intertwined with economic development. We aim to understand the drivers behind these reforms. To this end, we distinguish between four types of women’s rights—economic, political, labor, and body—and document their evolution over the past 50 years across countries. We summarize the political-economy mechanisms that link economic development to changes in women's rights and show empirically that these mechanisms account for a large share of the variation in women's rights across countries and over time. |
| JEL: | D13 D72 J12 J16 N3 N40 O10 P0 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30617&r=lab |
| By: | Abraham, David; Barkai, Simcha |
| Abstract: | Statements by high-profile political figures and supporting academic research have led to a common perception of worsening job prospects for low-wage workers in the US. In this paper, we show that since the early 1980s there has been a decline in the share of workers earning low wages. This holds across sub-populations and across thresholds for determining what constitutes a low wage. Much of the decline occurs over two periods: the late 1990s and the late 2010s. The decline is greater and steadier for women than for men. We further show that the worker-level persistence of low wages has not increased, and has likely decreased, over time. |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cbscwp:322&r=lab |
| By: | Clark, Andrew E. (Paris School of Economics); D'Ambrosio, Conchita (University of Luxembourg); Lepinteur, Anthony (University of Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | Job insecurity is one of the risks that workers face on the labour market. As with any risk, individuals can choose to insure against it, and we here consider marriage as one potential source of this insurance. The 1999 rise in the French Delalande tax, paid by larger private firms when they laid off workers aged 50 or over, led to an exogenous rise in job insecurity for the uncovered (younger workers) in these larger firms. A difference-in-differences analysis using French panel data reveals that this greater job insecurity for the under-50s led to a significant rise in their probability of marriage, and especially when the partner had greater job security, consistent with marriage providing insurance against labour-market risk. |
| Keywords: | marriage, insurance, employment protection, difference-in-differences |
| JEL: | I38 J13 J18 |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15654&r=lab |
| By: | Olivier BARGAIN; Maria C. LO BUE |
| Abstract: | The present paper sheds new light on the growth implications of gender inequalities in the Moroccan labour market. We confront two different approaches. The first one is based on firm data to estimate gender complementarity in production and uses this information for simulations based on a simple macroeconomic model. The second relies on country panel variation to relate growth to the relative employment of women and, also, suggest simulations for Morocco. Both approaches lead to similar conclusions regarding the potential economic gains from increased female participation in this country. This paper is one of the rare attempts to elicit the growth potential of a reduction in the employment gap in a low-income country. |
| Keywords: | Morocco, female labour force participation, gender employment gap,growth, aggregate production function, constant elasticity of substitution, firm data |
| JEL: | E23 J16 J24 O41 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:bdxewp:2022-22&r=lab |
| By: | Ruggeri, Giuseppe |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a consistent methodology to estimate average weekly hours of work in the United States in 1950 and 2019. It also reviews a number of studies that cover parts of the same period. Making adjustments where possible to reduce methodological differences, this review identifies three sub-periods: 1950 to 1980, when working hours declined; 1980 to 1990, when working hours rose; and 1990 to 2019, when working hours remained constant. It also briefly discusses the importance of a variety of factors affecting the different response by working hours to the growth of real GDP and labor productivity during the first and last sub-periods. |
| Keywords: | work in america |
| JEL: | J01 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:266339&r=lab |
| By: | Beata Osiewalska (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences; LabFam - Interdisciplinary Centre for Labour Market and Family Dynamics; Cracow University of Economics); Anna Matysiak (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences; LabFam - Interdisciplinary Centre for Labour Market and Family Dynamics); Anna Kurowska (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Political Sciences and International Relations; LabFam - Interdisciplinary Centre for Labour Market and Family Dynamics) |
| Abstract: | We examine the timely yet severely under-researched interplay between the opportunity to work from home and childbearing. According to previous research, home-based work (HBW) may both facilitate and jeopardise work-family balance, depending on family and work circumstances. Following this research, we develop a theoretical framework on whether and under which conditions HBW may facilitate fertility. We perform random-effect logistic regression on UK Household Longitudinal Survey 2009-2019 data and consider a set of potential moderators related to woman’s family and work context. Our findings suggest that HBW can indeed help certain women have children, but only those who live far from their offices or want to combine paid work and care but receive little support from their partners. This is not the case for other women, likely because HBW entails higher expectations toward workers to perform more housework, leads to more multitasking and may have negative consequences for women’s work careers. |
| Keywords: | fertility, childbearing, home-based work, remote work, work flexibility |
| JEL: | J13 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2022-13&r=lab |
| By: | David R. Agrawal; Aline Bütikofer |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 crisis poses new policy challenges and has spurred new research agendas in public economics. In this article, we selectively reflect on how the field of public economics has been shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss several areas where more research is necessary. We highlight major changes and inequalities in the labor market and K-12 education, in addition to discussing how technological change creates new challenges for the taxation of income and consumption. We discuss various policy responses to these challenges and the role of fiscal federalism in the context of worldwide crises. Finally, we summarize the key issues discussed at the 2021 International Institute of Public Finance Congress and the papers published in this special issue. |
| Keywords: | public economics, labor economics, education, tax, expenditure, Covid-19, inequality, fiscal federalism |
| JEL: | H00 J00 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10005&r=lab |
| By: | Miriam Hortas-Rico; Vicente Rios |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the endogenous relationship between women's political empowerment and income inequality in a sample of 142 countries between 1990 and 2019. To identify causal effects, we rely on the use of Random Forests techniques and a set of exogenous variables on ancestral and traditional cultural norms of gender roles. These tree-based machine learning statistical techniques help us to predict current women's political empowerment with high accuracy solely using ancestral societal traits. This predicted variable is then used in the second stage of the IV estimation of a panel data specification of income inequality. Our panel-IV regressions show that women's political empowerment reduces income inequality, measured as the Gini index of disposable income. This finding is robust to the presence of spatial interdependence and time persistence in inequality outcomes, as well as to the potential bias due to the omission of unobservable variables, the presence of outliers and inuential observations, and an alternative de_nition of income inequality. |
| Keywords: | women's political empowerment, income inequality, machine learning, instrumental variables. |
| JEL: | C23 C26 C53 D31 D63 I31 J16 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gov:wpaper:2206&r=lab |
| By: | Kai Gehring; Joop Adema; Panu Poutvaara; Joop Age Harm Adema |
| Abstract: | Immigration is one of the most divisive political issues in many countries today. Competing narratives, circulated via the media, are crucial in shaping how immigrants’ role in society is perceived. We propose a new method combining advanced natural language processing tools with dictionaries to identify sentences containing one or more of seven immigrant narrative themes and assign a sentiment to each of these. Our narrative dataset covers 107,428 newspaper articles from 70 German newspapers over the 2000 to 2019 period. Using 16 human coders to evaluate our method, we find that it clearly outperforms simple word-matching methods and sentiment dictionaries. Empirically, culture narratives are more common than economy-related narratives. Narratives related to work and entrepreneurship are particularly positive, while foreign religion and welfare narratives tend to be negative. We use three distinct events to show how different types of shocks influence narratives, decomposing sentiment shifts into theme-composition and within-theme changes. |
| Keywords: | narrative economics, immigration, media, newspapers, voting |
| JEL: | F22 J15 C81 Z13 D72 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10026&r=lab |
| By: | Gaurav Dhamija (Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad); Gitanjali Sen (Department Of Economics, Shiv Nadar University) |
| Abstract: | Background: Changes in climatic conditions have increased the variability in rainfall patterns worldwide. A negative rainfall shock faced by children in the initial 1000 days of life and the resulting malnutrition can harm the likelihood of children’s survival, overall growth, development of the brain, motor skills, and cognitive abilities, leading to poor performance in education and labor market. While the existing findings about the long-run outcomes are mixed, it is essential to understand the nuances in such an estimation. Methods: Using the exogenous variation in rainfall in India, we estimate the impact of adverse shocks at birth on the cognitive abilities of children at ages 5, 8, 12, and 15, on educational attainments, and the likelihood of studying STEM at higher secondary school. Results: The Young Lives Survey data from Andhra Pradesh, India, presents evidence of the negative impact of rainfall shocks at birth on cognitive abilities from age 5 to 8, attenuating at age 12. Using nationally representative data, while we investigate the impact of adverse rainfall shocks at birth on academic performance measured by the high school grades and STEM choice at higher secondary school, we do not find a persistent impact. Conclusion: We unfold the impact of rainfall shocks on a chain of outcomes connected to long-run educational pursuits, as it helps to identify the most crucial stage for policymaking. Since STEM subjects are strongly associated with the labor market, connecting the association with early life shocks seems to be an essential addition to the literature. While we find evidence of reduced cognitive abilities in the early years, those do not seem to persist in the long run. The potential sample selection or attrition biases and the estimates of those biases can explain the nuances of estimating the long-run impact of adverse shocks at birth. |
| Keywords: | Rainfall shocks, Education, STEM, Cognitive Development, Young Lives, India. |
| JEL: | I1 I3 I25 I28 J1 O2 |
| Date: | 2022–10–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:alr:wpaper:2022-05&r=lab |
| By: | Elizabeth U. Cascio; Ethan G. Lewis |
| Abstract: | In the late 1930s, the NAACP launched a campaign to equalize Black and white teacher salaries in the de jure segregated schools of the American South. Using newly collected county panel data spanning three decades, this paper first documents heterogeneous within-state impacts of the campaign on teacher salaries. In states that reinforced successful NAACP litigation by introducing universal minimum salary schedules based on objective criteria, the relatively large wage penalty historically suffered by Black teachers in districts with higher Black enrollment shares disappeared by the mid-1950s. In states that resisted by adopting salary schedules using the National Teacher Examination as a measure of teaching efficacy, that penalty remained. In the second part of the paper, we estimate the effect of teacher pay on educational attainment exploiting variation in Black salary gains over time across counties with different Black enrollment shares, and across states by whether subsequent state policy reinforced or resisted court rulings favorable to the NAACP. We find that Black teacher salary gains contributed to the large reductions in racial inequality in school enrollment and grade progression in the South at mid-century. |
| JEL: | H7 I2 J15 N32 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30631&r=lab |
| By: | Simon Jäger; Jörg Heining |
| Abstract: | We estimate how exogenous worker exits affect firms’ demand for incumbent workers and new hires. Drawing on administrative data from Germany, we analyze 34,000 unexpected worker deaths, which, on average, raise the remaining workers’ wages and retention probabilities. The average effect masks substantial heterogeneity: Coworkers in the same occupation as the deceased see positive wage effects; coworkers in other occupations experience wage decreases when a high-skilled or specialized worker dies. Our findings imply substantial replacement costs, which are larger in thin markets and when skills are specialized. |
| JEL: | J0 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30629&r=lab |