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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Witte, Marc J. (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Roth, Johanna (Sciences Po); Hardy, Morgan (New York University, Abu Dhabi); Meyer, Christian Johannes (University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | We present findings from an at-scale randomized trial of a government program providing public employment services in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with up-to-date vacancy information. Before the program, women with relatively less education searched more narrowly with worse labor market outcomes than the rest of our representative sample of relevant job seekers. These women also have lower direct intervention take-up than the rest of the sample. However, only these women significantly increase applications, receive more offers, shift from household enterprise work to wage employment, and experience higher earnings in response to the intervention. These employment impacts are larger than can be explained by vacancies directly curated through the intervention. Instead, these women adjust search behavior, expectations, and employment aspirations more broadly. Notably, offers come through friends and family networks, their modal baseline search method, underscoring the potential role of social networks in disseminating employment information to the most marginalized job seekers. |
| Keywords: | marginalized job seekers, labor market frictions, public employment services, randomized controlled trial (RCT) |
| JEL: | J08 J16 J64 O15 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18005 |
| By: | Nielsen, Søren Albeck (Aarhus University); Rosholm, Michael (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the impact of caseworker beliefs on employment and health outcomes among long-term unemployed social assistance recipients in Denmark. Exploiting as-if random caseworker assignment, an instrumental variables approach, and a novel measure of "Caseworker Job Orientation", we estimate the effects of caseworkers’ job beliefs regarding their clients. Results indicate that clients assigned to caseworkers with stronger innate job beliefs experience substantial improvements in employment rates, earnings, and educational enrollment. Additionally, positive effects on health are observed, particularly among clients with pre-existing health conditions. These findings underscore the role of caseworker attitudes in shaping client trajectories, offering policy insights into enhancing labor market re-entry strategies. |
| Keywords: | health outcomes, employment outcomes, long-term unemployment, caseworker beliefs, social assistance |
| JEL: | J68 I38 J65 C26 C93 |
| Date: | 2025–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17970 |
| By: | Taiyo Fukai (Faculty of Economics, Gakushuin University); Keisuke Kawata (Institute of Social Sciences, University of Tokyo); Mizuki Komura (School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University); Takahiro Toriyabe (Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University) |
| Abstract: | Motivated by persistent labor shortages in developed economies, this study proposes a novel indicator of labor demand, the wage-mismatch index, which captures wage-related mismatches often overlooked by conventional metrics such as vacancy counts or labor market tightness. The index is defined as the share of job postings offering wages acceptable to job seekers. As a case application, we construct an index using administrative data from Japan's public employment service. We further decompose this into its underlying components to identify the sources of change over time. Finally, we demonstrate its empirical relevance by using aggregate data from Tokyo and Osaka, Japan's two largest metropolitan labor markets. |
| Keywords: | Job acceptance rate; Desired wage; Offered wage; Administrative data; Mismatch |
| JEL: | C81 J31 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kgu:wpaper:296 |
| By: | Annibali, Claudio (University of Groningen); Bergemann, Annette (University of Groningen); Alessie, Rob (University of Groningen) |
| Abstract: | To promote early detection of diabetes and ameliorate the negative consequences of diabetes, some governments provide diabetes screenings. This paper contributes to the literature by being the first to investigate whether an issued warning affects the individual’s employment status. Additionally, our analysis also explores health effects, stratified by gender, age, and education , in order to receive indications for potential pathways of the employment effects. By doing so, we present the first results in the literature for individuals under 40. Using a multidimensional regression discontinuity design, we investigate the short- and long-run effects of a diabetes risk warning issued by Lifelines, a Dutch cohort study. In particular, low-educated individuals below 40 increase their labour market activities after a warning, which is generally more pronounced and also persistent for women. Surprisingly, this is not matched by similar strong effects on health outcomes by either gender. Health effects are very heterogeneous by gender, age and educational group. Older, highly educated women seem to benefit particularly strongly from a warning, as a significant reduction in the 4-year mortality rate indicates. |
| Keywords: | undiagnosed diabetes, employment, diabetes screening, diabetes, multidimensional regression discontinuity design |
| JEL: | I12 J16 I10 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17999 |
| By: | Mahreen Khan; Atonu Rabbani; Christopher Woodruff |
| Abstract: | The garment sector has contributed to an increase in women’s labor force participation in Bangladesh. But while women are now a majority of the sector’s 4.2 million workers, women’s representation in management roles remains low. We conduct an evaluation of an IFC program that successfully increased the share of female line supervisors in 50 participating factories from 10 percent to 18 percent. We find that sewing machine operators supervised by the women rate them more favorably than a matched sample of male supervisors. Moreover, while productivity on the lines the women manage is lower than the matched comparison lines in the first six months following the program, women catch up to the male-managed lines after that and, indeed, significantly outperform the male-supervised lines after two years of experience. |
| Keywords: | female management; Bangladeshi garment sector; export manufacturing |
| JEL: | J16 J71 M51 M54 O14 O15 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2025-07 |
| By: | El Haj, Morien (Ghent University); Dalle, Axana (Ghent University); Verhofstadt, Elsy (Ghent University); Van Ootegem, Luc (Ghent University); Baert, Stijn (Ghent University) |
| Abstract: | This letter contributes to the literature on gender disparities in professional life by exploring how men and women perceive the impact of parenthood on career outcomes. It does so through the lens of perceived employer-given opportunities (‘chances’) and perceived own career-related behaviour (‘choices’). We focus on how employees perceive this impact not only on their own careers but also on those of other parents. To this end, we survey a probability sample of 1, 060 employees in Belgium. We find that fathers perceive a less negative impact of parenthood on their own careers than mothers do, in terms of both chances and choices. Additionally, mothers perceive greater career penalties for other mothers than they report for themselves. These insights are valuable in understanding how self-fulfilling prophecies may shape parents’ careers. |
| Keywords: | discrimination, fatherhood, motherhood, career, survey |
| JEL: | C83 J13 J17 J71 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17995 |
| By: | Gibbs, Chloe (University of Notre Dame); Wikle, Jocelyn (Brigham Young University); Wilson, Riley (Brigham Young University) |
| Abstract: | We leverage pronounced changes in the availability of public schooling for young children---through duration expansions to the kindergarten day---to better understand how an implicit childcare subsidy affects mothers and families. Exploiting full-day kindergarten variation across place and time from 1992 through 2022 and novel data on state-level policy changes, combined with a comparison of children of typical kindergarten age to older children, we measure effects on parental labor supply and family childcare expenses. Results suggest that families are responsive to these shifts. Full-day kindergarten expansions were responsible for as much as 24 percent of the growth in employment of mothers with kindergarten-aged children in this time frame. |
| Keywords: | maternal labor supply, kindergarten, public schooling |
| JEL: | H75 I28 J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2025–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17969 |
| By: | Elisabeth Leduc (Erasmus University Rotterdam and Tinbergen Institute); Ilan Tojerow (Université Libre de Bruxelles) |
| Abstract: | We partner with a Public Employment Service to examine whether jobseekers can be encouraged to reskill for shortage occupations. In a large-scale field experiment involving 100, 000 recently unemployed individuals, we provide information on shortage occupations and related training opportunities. The intervention increased participation in transversal training courses by 6%, but did not boost enrolment in occupational training for shortage jobs. Jobseekers also shifted their search towards high-demand occupations, yet employment remained unchanged. These findings suggest that while low-cost informational interventions can influence job search and training behaviour, different approaches are likely needed to drive substantial reskilling among jobseekers. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, Job Search, RCT, Occupational Training, Labour Shortages |
| JEL: | J24 J68 |
| Date: | 2025–02–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20250014 |
| By: | Juif, Dacil Tania; Mühlhoff, Katharina |
| Abstract: | The economic history of mining has largely overlooked the role of women, reflecting both the male dominance of the sector and the invisibility of women’s labour in historical sources. This chapter explores women’s roles in mining over the past two centuries, focusing on the Global South -particularly Africa- and includes a case study of copper mining in Rio Tinto, Spain, using company records. While mineral extraction was reserved for men, women played key supporting roles, especially in the 20th-century Global South, though this rarely translated into improved conditions or career opportunities. Within Africa, regional differences were stark: for instance, Angolan diamond mines increased female employment in the 1950s, while women were absent from company payrolls in the Central African Copperbelt. In Rio Tinto, most employed women were widows in vulnerable positions, suggesting that their work served as a form of social insurance rather than a step toward economic inclusion. These patterns highlight the need for further research using company records to better understand the influence of policy, culture, and industry structure on women’s roles in mining. |
| Keywords: | Mining Work; Women; History; Global South; Africa; Rio Tinto |
| JEL: | J01 J16 J81 N30 |
| Date: | 2025–07–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:whrepe:47597 |
| By: | Hermansen, Are Skeie; Madsen, Aleksander Å. (University of Oslo) |
| Abstract: | Childhood immigrants face developmental constraints related to the acquisition of skills required to succeed in advanced economies. We study how age at arrival shapes earnings potential, worker productivity, and labor market sorting. Drawing on administrative data from Norway, we employ a sibling comparison design to identify the effects of age at arrival on a broad set of adult labor market outcomes. Our analysis shows that later arrival has progressively negative effects across the earnings distribution—although concentrated among low earners; increases sorting into physically demanding occupations with lower communicative, socioemotional, and math–logic skill requirements; reduces full-time work; and lowers access to high-paying employers. A formal decomposition indicates that differences in educational qualifications, work hours, and sorting into math–logic intensive occupations are key mediators of the age-at-arrival effect on earnings. Together, these findings document how immigration at later developmental stages has lasting consequences for skill specialization and economic assimilation. For childhood immigrants, even modest delays in country-specific human capital acquisition can lead to misalignment between their skills and the productivity demands and reward structures of knowledge-intensive labor markets. |
| Date: | 2025–07–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:mg8wu_v1 |
| By: | Jonathan Vogel; Andreas Kostøl; Sigurd Galaasen; Joan Monrà s |
| Abstract: | What is the effect of immigration on native labor-market outcomes? An extensive literature identifies the differential impact of immigration on natives employed in jobs that are more exposed to immigrant labor (supply exposure). But immigrants consume in addition to producing output. Despite this, no literature identifies the impact on natives employed in jobs that are more exposed to immigrant consumption (demand exposure). We study native labor-market effects of supply and demand exposures to immigration. Theoretically, we formalize both measures of exposure and solve for their effects on native wages. Empirically, we combine employer-employee data with a newly collected dataset covering electronic payments for the universe of residents in Norway to measure supply and demand exposures of all native workers to immigration induced by EU expansions in 2004 and 2007. We find large, positive, and persistent effects of demand exposure to EU expansion on native worker income. |
| Keywords: | immigration |
| JEL: | J2 J61 F22 |
| Date: | 2025–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1496 |
| By: | Francesca Barigozzi; Pietro Biroli; Chiara Monfardini; Natalia Montinari; Elena Pisanelli; Sveva Vitellozzi |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces a novel, scalable methodology to measure individual perceptions of gaps in mental load -- the cognitive and emotional burden associated with organizing household and childcare tasks -- within heterosexual couples. Using original data from the TIMES Observatory in Italy, the study combines time-use diaries with new survey indicators to quantify cognitive labor, emotional fatigue, and the spillover of mental load into the workplace. Results reveal systematic gender asymmetries: women are significantly more likely than men to bear organizational responsibility for domestic tasks, report lower satisfaction with this division, and experience higher emotional fatigue. These burdens are underestimated by their partners. The effects are particularly pronounced among college-educated and employed women, who also report greater spillovers of family responsibilities than men during paid work hours. The perceived responsibility for managing family activities is more strongly associated with within-couple gaps in time use than with the absolute time spent on their execution, underscoring the relational and conflictual nature of mental load. |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2505.11426 |
| By: | Eleonora Trappolini (Sapienza Università di Roma); Kim Wooseong (Karolinska Institute, Sweden); Giammarco Alderotti (Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti", Universita' di Firenze) |
| Abstract: | In the context of global population ageing, migrants are increasingly essential to sustaining labour forces across high-income countries. This study investigates the dynamics of overqualification (i.e., when workers have higher qualifications than their job requires) and job satisfaction among migrants, taking Italy - a country with one of the world's oldest populations and a highly segmented labour market - as a case study. We pursue three main goals: (1) to examine the risk of overqualification by migrant background, (2) to analyse how overqualification relates to job satisfaction by migrant status, and (3) to test whether the relationship between the two differs among older natives and migrants. We pay particular attention to migrants'age at arrival - a key factor that can profoundly shape labour market experiences through such mechanisms as educational pathways and integration trajectories. The results show that migrants, especially those who arrived in Italy as adults, face a significantly higher risk of overqualification than natives. However, the negative association between overqualification and job satisfaction is weaker among this group, and particularly among older adult migrants. These findings suggest the emergence of an 'overqualification/job satisfaction paradox', whereby those most exposed to job mismatch appear less affected by its negative consequences. This may be driven by psychological mechanisms- such as adaptation to lower expectations - as well as by selection processes, whereby migrants with more negative experiences may have already exited the host labour market. |
| Keywords: | overqualification; job satisfaction, migrants, Italy |
| JEL: | J15 J61 J28 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fir:econom:wp2025_07 |
| By: | Rocco Zizzamia |
| Abstract: | Searching for jobs often involves repeated rejection. If discouraged searchers reduce search effort in response, this decreases their probability of finding a (good) match, with negative implications for the individual searcher and for the efficiency with which talent is allocated to jobs in general. Using a lab-in-the-field experiment with young workers in South Africa, I examine whether experiencing repeated rejection discourages further search. Participants repeatedly choose between two tasks: a high-return task with frequent feedback containing rejection signals, and a low-return task without immediate rejection feedback. By experimentally varying monetary rewards and rejection exposure, while controlling for learning and risk preferences, I isolate the psychological cost of rejection as a driver of search behaviour. I find that subjects choose to reduce their expected earnings to avoid rejection signals. This behaviour suggests that rejection imposes a psychological cost that motivates active information avoidance and decreases job search. |
| JEL: | D91 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2025-06 |
| By: | Hirofumi Kurokawa (School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University); Hiroko Okudaira (Business School, Doshisha University); Yusuke Kinari (Hirao School of Management, Konan University); Fumio Ohtake (Center for Infectious Disease Education and Research, The University of Osaka) |
| Abstract: | Gender gaps in willingness to compete are widely recognized as a key factor contributing to disparities in labor market outcomes. While much attention has been paid to gender identity, individuals also belong to social groups that influence how they engage in competitive environments. The decision to compete often occurs within complex identity contexts, yet the combined effect of gender and group identity on competitive behavior remains less well understood. This study investigates how group identity shapes tournament entry decisions in mixed-gender environments. We conducted a laboratory experiment in which participants were randomly assigned to minimal groups and then paired with an opposite-gender partner. They were informed that their opponent was either from the same group (ingroup), a different group (outgroup), or received no group information (control). Participants completed a real-effort task and then chose between non-competitive and competitive payment schemes. The results showed that participants—particularly men—were less likely to choose the competitive option when facing an ingroup opponent. In contrast, women were slightly more likely to compete against outgroup opponents. While previous research has suggested that men may be more willing to compete to elevate their social status within a group, our findings reveal the opposite pattern when the ingroup opponent is female. These findings suggest that the interaction between gender and group identity can produce nuanced, non-additive effects on competitive behavior. |
| Keywords: | competitiveness, gender identity, group identity, multiple identities |
| JEL: | C91 C92 J16 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kgu:wpaper:295 |
| By: | Königs, Sebastian (OECD); Terrero-Dávila, Javier (OECD) |
| Abstract: | Income shocks and limited upward mobility can undermine people’s well-being and economic prospects. Most cross-country studies on income mobility over people’s lives rely on survey data, but small samples limit detailed analysis by socio-demographic group or segment of the distribution. This paper presents first results of an OECD initiative collecting and harmonising administrative microdata to study income dynamics across countries. Applying rank-rank methods, it measures relative mobility in disposable incomes over five years for working-age people in Austria, Belgium, Canada and Estonia. The paper shows that: i) income persistence is strongest at the bottom and top of the distribution; ii) young people experience larger shifts in income ranks, though not always greater upward mobility; iii) women experience weaker upward mobility than men, particularly in the bottom half of the distribution; and iv) people with tertiary education move up the income ladder, at the expense of those with lower education. |
| Keywords: | administrative microdata, income mobility, income distribution |
| JEL: | D31 I31 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17996 |
| By: | Antman, Francisca M. (University of Colorado, Boulder); Skoy, Evelyn (Hamilton College); Flores, Nicholas E. (University of Colorado, Boulder) |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the impacts of grades and information on gender gaps in college major and college dropout rates at a large public flagship university. Observational and experimental results suggest women are more responsive to introductory economics grades when deciding whether to major in economics while men are more responsive to introductory economics grades when deciding whether to drop out of college. Providing better information about grade distributions appears to only somewhat mitigate these impacts. These results suggest better information may blunt the impact of relative grade sensitivities on college gender gaps but may not fully outweigh the saliency of grades. Finally, we consider the extent to which aligning economics grading standards with those of competing disciplines would reduce the gender gap in economics graduates but find relatively limited impacts. |
| Keywords: | college dropout, college major, gender, higher education |
| JEL: | I23 I24 J16 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18001 |
| By: | Stojetz, Wolfgang (ISDC - International Security and Development Center); Azzarri, Carlo (International Food Policy Research Institute); Mane, Erdgin (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations); Brück, Tilman (IGZ, HU Berlin & ISDC) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides evidence on the impacts of armed conflict and climate change on individual labor intensity. Based on pooled labor force survey, climate, and conflict event data from 21 African countries, we document that climate change and armed conflict can create a polycrisis: the negative impacts of extreme climate events on labor intensity in and outside of agriculture are more severe in conflict environments. This interaction effect, driven by heat waves and floods, is concentrated among young people, and it is the result of violent conflict presence before a climate event occurs, not of conflict events that occur at the same time as the climate event. In addition, our results suggest that conflict contributes to gender-specific shifts in labor allocation in response to climate events exacerbating women’s work burden. Our findings emphasize the importance of concerted, evidence-based policies to tackle climate-conflict polycrises, taking into account the specific vulnerabilities shaped by individuals’ gender and age. |
| Keywords: | gender, employment, conflict, climate, agrifood systems, agriculture, Africa, polycrisis, youth |
| JEL: | D74 J16 J22 O12 Q10 Q54 |
| Date: | 2025–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17968 |
| By: | Louisa Roos (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how women and men’s labour respond differently to monetary policy changes, particularly exchange rate policy. The study leverages the unexpected unpegging of the Swiss franc from the Euro in 2015, which led to a significant appreciation of the Swiss franc. This currency appreciation increased women’s work volume relative to men’s. The effect is especially pronounced among the least educated women, who act as a labour buffer and are most responsive to macroeconomic fluctuations, underscoring the nuanced gender effects of monetary policy. |
| Keywords: | monetary policy, exchange rate, gender, labour |
| JEL: | E52 J16 B54 J21 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep0725 |
| By: | BRYSON, Alex; KAMBAYASHI, Ryo; KUWAHARA, Susumu; NAKAMURA, Akie; WELS, Jacques |
| Abstract: | Official government estimates show a gradual decline in union density in Japan over several decades akin to that in other countries with decentralized bargaining structures. However, new evidence from various social surveys indicates that union density has been rising in Japan. Using one of these social surveys – the Survey on the Work and Life of Workers (SWLW) – we show union density has risen by 7.3 percentage points to 29.1% in the Japanese private sector between 2011/13 and 2020/24. We decompose the growth in union density since 2011/13 to establish how much of it is attributable to changes in workforce composition. Conditioning on union presence at the workplace, compositional change accounts for 47% of the increase in union density. The remaining 53% is due to within-group change with unions increasing membership across all types of worker including some with traditionally low rates of unionization. However, establishing a union at the workplace remains key since virtually all the growth in union membership (97%) is in unionized workplaces. |
| Keywords: | union membership, union density, union presence, Japan, decomposition |
| JEL: | J51 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hituec:770 |
| By: | Bekkers, Eddy; Jhunjhunwala, Kirti; Metivier, Jeanne; Stolzenburg, Victor; Yilmaz, Ayse Nihal |
| Abstract: | On average, wages of female workers are lower than wages of male workers. In this paper, we explore to what extent a gender bias in trade costs explains this gender wage gap and how different policy reforms could lower it. First, we analyse the relation between various types of trade costs and female labour intensity across sectors. We find that more female labour intensive sectors face both higher tariffs and non-tariff barriers when exporting to other regions and when importing inputs. Second, we explore different trade policy reforms with regards to goods and services trade, and find that services trade policy reform has a more meaningful impact. Third, we simulate trade cost reductions caused by a reduced requirement for face-to-face interaction in services jobs, a phenomenon driven by digitalisation. This change would generate a much larger reduction of the gender wage gap than trade policy reforms. |
| Keywords: | Trade Policy, Gender wage gap, Labour market discrimination |
| JEL: | F16 F17 J16 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wtowps:321864 |
| By: | Margherita Borella; Mariacristina De Nardi; Johanna P. Torres Chain; Fang Yang |
| Abstract: | This paper develops and estimates a dynamic life-cycle model to quantify why households save and work. The model incorporates multiple sources of risk—health, marital status, wages, medical expenses and mortality—as well as endogenous labor supply and human capital accumulation, retirement, and bequest motives at the death of the first and last household member. We estimate it using PSID and HRS data for the 1941–1945 cohort via the Method of Simulated Moments. Eliminating bequest motives reduces aggregate wealth by 23.8% and labor earnings by 1.2%; removing medical expenses lowers them by 13.1% and 0.7%. Wage risk is crucial for early-life saving: its removal reduces wealth by 10.4% but raises earnings by 2.3%. Eliminating marriage and divorce dynamics leads couples—numerous and wealthier—to save and work slightly less, and singles—fewer and poorer—to save and work considerably more. These effects largely offset in the aggregate. Removing all saving motives beyond retirement needs and lifespan uncertainty lowers wealth by 56.9% and earnings by 2.7%. These findings show that capturing multiple risks and behavioral margins jointly is essential to understanding household saving and labor supply. |
| Keywords: | savings; labor supply; couples; singles; precautionary savings; bequest motives; medical expenses |
| JEL: | E20 I1 J0 |
| Date: | 2025–07–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:feddwp:101316 |
| By: | Sua Kang; Wookun Kim; Kanghyock Koh |
| Abstract: | We study the impacts of childbirth on maternal mental health, the role of pro-natalist cash transfers, and the fertility consequences of maternal mental health. Using claims-level data from South Korea's universal healthcare system, we find that mental health diagnoses rise by 34.8% (198.7%) after the first (second) birth. We find little evidence that cash transfers mitigate these effects. As potential mechanisms, we examine liquidity constraints, labor market changes, time use, and social stigma. Lastly, we document that poor mental health after childbirth is negatively associated with the likelihood of having another child. |
| Keywords: | mental health, pro-natalist cash transfers, fertility |
| JEL: | J13 I10 H75 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11986 |
| By: | Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela; Claudia Hupkau; Lídia Farré; Libertad González |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of paternity leave on early child development. We collect survey data on 5, 000 children under age six in Spain, and exploit several extensions of paternity leave that took place between 2017 and 2021. We follow a differences-in-discontinuities research design, based on the date of birth of each child and using cohorts born in non-reform years as controls. We show that the extensions led to significant increases in the length of leave taken by fathers, without affecting that of mothers, thus increasing parental time at home in the first year after birth. Eligibility for four additional weeks of paternity leave led to a significant 12 percentage-point increase in the fraction of children with developmental delays. We provide evidence for two potential mechanisms. First, children exposed to longer paternity leave spend less time alone with their mother, and more time with their father, during their first year of life. Second, treated children use less formal childcare. Our results suggest that paternity leave replaces higher-quality modes of early care. We conclude that the effects of parental leave policies on children depend crucially on the quality of parental versus counterfactual modes of childcare. |
| Keywords: | child development, childcare, fathers, parental leave |
| JEL: | J13 H31 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1487 |
| By: | Federico Barbiellini Amidei (Bank of Italy); Matteo Gomellini (Bank of Italy); Lorenzo Incoronato (CSEF, University of Naples Federico II, CESifo, CReAM and Rockwool Foundation Berlin); Paolo Piselli (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the relationship between demographic change and entrepreneurship and highlights its spatial dimension. We digitize historical censuses to reconstruct entrepreneurship rates and the age structure of Italian provinces since1960. We develop an estimation framework that relates entrepreneurship to granular age cohorts of the local population, leveraging instrumental variables to address endogeneity issues. Our results uncover stark regional heterogeneity. In Northern Italy, we find a hump-shaped age-entrepreneurship profile peaking at cohorts aged 30-40. In the South, entrepreneurship increases with age. Regional differences in the local business environment partly account for different estimated profiles. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, demographic change, regional differences, long run |
| JEL: | J11 L26 R11 |
| Date: | 2025–06–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:752 |
| By: | Lena Morgon Banks (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine); Shanquan Chen (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine); Calum Davey (National Institute of Teaching); Kiza Eliza Islam (BRAC International); Elijah Kipchumba (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin); Hannah Kuper (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine); Munshi Sulaiman (BRAC Institute of Governance and Development) |
| Abstract: | We study whether a disability-inclusive, ultra-poor graduation programme (DIG) improves the well-being of ultra-poor households with people with disabilities. We randomly allocate ultra-poor households across four districts of northern Uganda to either the DIG program or the control condition. DIG households received short-term cash transfers, a productive asset, training, and mentorship on using the asset for income generation, as well as access to village loan and savings groups, and necessary healthcare and assistive devices. We estimate the program's impacts three months after completion using survey data that cover households with at least one person with a disability. We find that the DIG program more than doubles household assets and increases annual household incomes and expenditures by about 19\%. Moreover, these impacts are similar, or in some cases slightly higher, when the main project participant is a person with a disability compared to other household members. We conjecture that designating a person with a disability as the main project participant increases disability salience, which in turn crowds in external support and induces positive behavioural adjustments within the household. |
| Keywords: | Disability; Disability Inclusive Graduation; Ultra-poor Graduation Program; Financial Well-being; Household |
| JEL: | I32 I38 J14 O12 C93 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep0625 |