|
on Labor Markets - Supply, Demand, and Wages |
| By: | Michael Rubens; Bernardo S. Silveira |
| Abstract: | In monopsony models, wage markdowns induce deadweight loss and are therefore inefficient. Yet markdowns also arise in models with backloaded efficiency pay, where they are designed to induce effort among early-career workers and are thus efficient. To reconcile—and empirically distinguish—these two mechanisms, we build a dynamic model incorporating labor market power and endogenous effort. Estimating a team production model on novel data on U.S. public accounting firms, we find evidence of both: markdowns for junior workers and markups for senior ones reflect incentive-providing backloading, while monopsony power induces a ‘lifetime’ wage markdown of 15%. |
| JEL: | J42 L84 M52 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35474 |
| By: | David Card; Ana Rute Cardoso; Pedro Luis Silva |
| Abstract: | In the depths of the 2010 financial crisis the Portuguese government enacted a series of reforms in its prescription drug reimbursement system. Over the next three years value added per pharmacist in retail pharmacies fell by a third, reflecting a rise in generic substitution and reductions in the markups allowed for prescription drugs. This massive shock led to pay cuts for incumbent pharmacists and the introduction of a two-tier pay system for new hires, with little or no reduction in the growth of employment. We use detailed longitudinal records from the Quadros de Pessoal data base, merged with information on collective bargaining settlements and firm financial records, to study the impacts of the reforms. We estimate that between 2009 and 2022 average wages of pharmacists fell by a third; most of this reduction was due to lower wages for newly entering cohorts. The implied responsiveness of wages to productivity is substantially above most estimates in the rent-sharing literature, arguably reflecting the strong attachment of workers to the sector and the steady inflow of newly graduating pharmacists. Stepping back, we then consider how wages of pharmacists have diverged relative to wages of other health care professionals in Portugal, and the decisions of recent college applicants to enter the profession. |
| Keywords: | collective bargaining, pharmacists, retail pharmacy, wages |
| JEL: | J52 J31 J24 J33 I26 J44 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1591 |
| By: | Shuaizhang Feng; Lars Lefgren; Jieyi Liu; Brennan Platt; Xiaoyu Xia |
| Abstract: | We study age discrimination in a labor market with a job ladder, where worker productivity is revealed over time. Using data from a large Chinese recruitment platform that links job postings, applications, and employer responses, we document sharp declines in applications and callbacks at posted age cutoffs. Discrimination operates in both directions: older applicants are disadvantaged in entry-level jobs, while younger applicants are less likely to be hired into managerial roles. A model of statistical discrimination with imperfect signal screening explains these patterns. Consistent with the model, older applicants to entry-level jobs are negatively selected relative to their peers. |
| JEL: | J71 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35709 |
| By: | Dupuy, Arnaud (University of Luxembourg); Raux, Morgan (Aix-Marseille School of Economics); Signorelli, Sara (CREST) |
| Abstract: | Technological change requires workers to reallocate across occupations, but it may also reshape how easily they can do so by changing occupational skill requirements. We exploit digitalization during the 2010s to study this mechanism. We measure occupational accessibility by comparing occupational skill requirements in job-posting data. Combining these measures with French matched employer–employee data, we find that occupations becoming more similar in their digital skill profiles experience greater worker mobility. Counterfactual simulations based on a structural two-sided matching model indicate that changes in occupational accessibility generate worker reallocation amounting to 21 percent of that generated by observed labor-demand shifts. |
| Keywords: | occupation mobility, technological change, matching |
| JEL: | J23 J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18881 |
| By: | Mello, Ursula (Insper, São Paulo); Melo, Ana Paula (Howard University); Santos, Alei (FGV EAESP) |
| Abstract: | Admission policies can reshape educational pathways before college entry by changing opportunities and incentives to invest. We study these responses using Brazil’s 2012 Federal Quota Law, which expanded reserved seats for underrepresented students in elite public universities. Exploiting variation induced by pre-existing quota policies, we implement matched difference-in-differences and follow students through college completion. We find that targeted students increase high-school completion, exam participation, and college enrollment. In contrast, non-targeted students substitute toward private institutions rather than leave higher education and become more likely to complete college. Together, these responses reveal anticipatory adjustments and system-wide reallocation across higher education institutions. |
| Keywords: | affirmative action, college admissions, human capital investment, educational attainment, displacement and reallocation |
| JEL: | I23 I24 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18880 |
| By: | Brian Jabarian; Luca Henkel |
| Abstract: | We study AI agents as information-collection technologies: automated systems that elicit decision-relevant signals from humans through live interactions. We test how such AI automation impacts information collection and organizational outcomes using a natural field experiment with 70, 000 applicants applying for real jobs. Applicants were randomly assigned to be interviewed by either human recruiters or AI voice agents. Afterward, human recruiters evaluate the interviews and make hiring decisions. Applicants interviewed by AI agents are 12% more likely to receive job offers, and these gains translate into higher job starts and worker retention, with no decline in the productivity of hired workers. Analyzing interview transcripts reveals that AI voice agents achieve controlled variance: their interviews are more structured and consistent while remaining responsive to individual applicants, which is associated with more hiring-relevant information collected. Our results suggest that a key advantage of AI automation lies in environments where information collection is delegated across many human workers and repeated such that variance in task execution becomes noise in decision-relevant signals, which AI compresses through adaptive standardization. |
| Keywords: | artificial intelligence, interviews, hiring, organizational design, field experiment |
| JEL: | C93 J24 M15 M51 O33 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12984 |
| By: | Mukhopadhyay, Sankar (University of Nevada, Reno) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how reducing the risk of income-related Medicaid disenrollment affects labor supply. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020 conditioned enhanced federal Medicaid funding on states maintaining continuous coverage, prohibiting most disenrollments regardless of income changes during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Using PSID data, we estimate event-study models with individual fixed effects. Treatment status is held fixed throughout the panel to avoid conditioning on post-policy Medicaid enrollment. The baseline Medicaid group experienced a 4.6-hour (or about 14%) larger change in weekly hours worked than the comparison group (p = 0.006), robust across alternative specifications. Employment responses are concentrated among married spouses and partners (17.2 percentage points, p = 0.015), consistent with a household-level channel in which secondary-earner employment is discouraged under ordinary Medicaid rules because additional household earnings can trigger coverage loss. Among expansion-state enrollees, the probability of having taxable family income above 138 percent of the federal poverty threshold rises by 14.8 percentage points (p = 0.015), supporting the coverage-loss-risk interpretation. |
| Keywords: | Medicaid, continuous coverage, labor supply, income |
| JEL: | I13 I18 J22 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18887 |
| By: | David J. Deming; Katrine V. Løken; Alexander Willén; Yaling Xu |
| Abstract: | Why do we have so many meetings? Few workplace features are so scorned, yet seemingly so necessary. This paper provides the first large-scale economic evidence on workplace meetings using an original survey of more than 9, 000 workers linked to matched employer–employee administrative data from Norway. We show that meetings are both common and costly, consuming an average of 12 percent of work hours and 14 percent of firm wage bills. Planning, problem solving, information sharing, and project coordination account for the majority of meeting activity. High-paying and high-revenue firms devote more resources to meetings despite facing a substantially higher opportunity cost of employee time. Meeting frequency and intensity are positively related to worker wage growth. Workers in meeting-intensive firms report greater on-the-job learning, and interactions with more senior colleagues are associated with stronger wage growth, suggesting that knowledge transmission within firms is an important mechanism. Meetings are the broccoli of work – widely disliked, but probably good for us anyway. |
| JEL: | J24 M5 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35706 |
| By: | Michael Dalton; Lisa B. Kahn; Andreas I. Mueller |
| Abstract: | We ask whether online job postings capture U.S. job vacancies, matching near-universal Burning Glass (BG) postings to the representative Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). BG converged toward JOLTS over 2007–2022, and its representativeness varies across establishment characteristics. We reweight BG to align postings with JOLTS openings along observables, and assess impacts on prior BG findings. Because large establishments account for most openings and are well represented, the level and cyclicality of skill demand survive our adjustment. But BG overstates labor market concentration (the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index) nearly threefold, because small and mid-sized establishments post less online. |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J23 J42 J63 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35697 |
| By: | Yang, C.; Guo, N.; Zhang, W |
| Abstract: | Are entrepreneurs born or made? We study how genetic endowments shape entrepreneurship, intergenerational mobility, and wealth concentration by combining polygenic scores with a structural overlapping-generations model. Combining data from Understanding Society and the National Child Development Study, we show that genetic endowments related to educational attainment and risk tolerance predict entrepreneurial selection and entrepreneurial earnings. We develop and estimate a model in which genetic endowments affect pre-market skill formation, preferences, and occupation- specific returns, while parents influence children through genetic transmission, time investments, and cash transfers. We find that genetic heterogeneity accounts for a substantial share of intergenerational persistence (roughly 20–35 percent across earnings, consumption, and income ranks) and plays an important role in the formation of entrepreneurial dynasties. At the individual level, genetic endowments explain a modest but economically meaningful share of lifetime income variation, with effects that are twice as large among entrepreneurs as among wage workers. In counterfactual policy experiments, we compare financing wealth through credit expansion with financing talent through venture-capital intermediation. Holding fixed the amount of capital supplied, financing talent generates greater intergenerational mobility and higher aggregate output than financing wealth, but at the cost of higher inequality. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, Genetics, Intergenerational Mobility, Wealth Distribution |
| JEL: | D31 L26 J24 J62 E24 |
| Date: | 2026–08–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:2668 |
| By: | Nikolova, Milena; Angelini, Viola |
| Abstract: | As populations age, longer working careers become more essential, and technological advancements may prolong or shorten career spans. We examine how exposure to industrial robots, information and communication technology (ICT), and artificial intelligence (AI) relate to retirement expectations among workers in 20 European countries. To this end, we link individual-level data from the European Working Conditions Survey (2005-2024) with lagged technology-exposure measures. Technology exposure shows li[le systematic association with preferred retirement timing. Nevertheless, robots and especially AI are linked to the perception of being able to work until age 60. These associations vary across workers and tasks, suggesting that job design and worker adaptation determine whether technology supports longer working lives. |
| Keywords: | retirement, expectations, technological change, robots, ICT, AI |
| JEL: | I31 J26 O33 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1813 |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) impose substantial costs on economies by reducing workforce participation and productivity, increasing healthcare expenditure and affecting public finances. Quantifying these costs helps policymakers assess the potential economic and fiscal gains from public health policies that reduce the burden of NCDs. The OECD has developed a framework [O1.1] that combines its OECD SPHeP NCDs microsimulation model, which projects the effects of NCDs on population health, labour market outcomes and healthcare expenditure, with the OECD long-term growth model. Previously, the framework estimated the burden of NCDs on GDP through their effects on workforce participation and productivity. This paper extends the framework by adding healthcare expenditure as a second channel through which NCDs affect GDP, capturing how resources used to treat NCDs could otherwise support investment and capital accumulation in the economy. It also broadens the analysis to assess how NCDs affect public expenditure, including healthcare, pensions and other age-related spending. Applied to four major NCDs across 49 OECD, EU and G20 countries, the enhanced framework provides a more comprehensive assessment of their burden on GDP and public finances. |
| Keywords: | Economic growth, Fiscal sustainability, Health economics, Healthcare expenditure, Non communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases, Public expenditure, Public health |
| JEL: | E17 E23 H51 H55 I15 I18 J11 J21 J24 O40 |
| Date: | 2026–09–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaad:198-en |
| By: | Lundborg, Petter (Lund University); Nieto Castro, Adrian (Lund University) |
| Abstract: | We examine how early exposure to STEM professionals in the local neighborhood shapes children's long run educational and labor market outcomes. To identify causal effects, we use Swedish register data and several sources of variation in exposure to STEM qualified neighbors measured at the 100 by 100 meter grid. Exposure during compulsory education raises children's math performance, and evidence points to social ties as the main channel. It also increases the presence of boys and girls in science programs in high school and university, but mainly boys are more likely to complete a STEM bachelor degree. This gender gap persists into adulthood: STEM employment and earnings rise predominantly for boys. The results show that high skill professionals can serve as community based informal role models and that neighbors can shape long run educational and labor market trajectories. |
| Keywords: | STEM, science, neighbors, role model, human capital, labor trajectory |
| JEL: | I2 J2 J3 O3 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18889 |
| By: | Hanika, Sebastian; Focacci, Chiara Natalie |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how occupational restructuring within local labour markets shapes the employment opportunities of older workers. Using longitudinal Swedish register data covering workers across 69 functional local labour markets between 2017 and 2023, we show that greater occupational restructuring is associated with greater occupational narrowing among older workers. This relationship is moderated by local labour market characteristics. Thicker and more dynamic labour markets, with greater occupational diversity and job churning, provide broader opportunities for occupational adjustment. The findings highlight the importance of regional opportunity structures for old-age employment in ageing economies. |
| Date: | 2026–09–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:ws57n_v1 |
| By: | Pietro Biroli (University of Zurich); Nicolau Martin-Bassols (University of Bologna); Andries Marees (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Hans van Kippersluis (Erasmus University); Cornelius Rietveld (Erasmus University); Pia Arce (University of Zurich); Kevin Thom (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee); Stephanie von Hinke (University of Bristol, Erasmus University, and Institute for Fiscal Studies); Jeremy Vollen (University of Zurich); Titus Galama (University of Southern California) |
| Abstract: | The start of a human’s life can be characterized by two lotteries: that of your genes (nature) and the family you were born into (nurture). These set in motion a trajectory, from birth onward, in health and human capital. Leveraging three longitudinal socialscience data sets, we systematically analyze the relationship between an individual’s genotype, the socioeconomic status (SES) of the families they grew up in, and their realized traits in adulthood. We proxy an individual’s genetic predisposition by polygenic indexes (PGIs) and family SES by a latent factor of parental education and father’s (former) occupational status. We then investigate how PGIs, parental SES, and their interaction contribute to later-life outcomes across a range of forty-five socioeconomic, anthropometric, health, behavioral, and personality traits. We find strong genetic and socioeconomic associations with these phenotypes, but no evidence of sizable gene-environment interactions. |
| Keywords: | gene-by-environment interplay, genoeconomics, polygenic indices, social sciences genetics, ESSGN |
| JEL: | I14 I00 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2026-007 |
| By: | Mahreen Khan; Iman Sen |
| Abstract: | Soft skills are widely believed to matter for labor market success, but two questions remain central to their use in active labor-market policy: are they malleable beyond childhood, and can training in these skills improve employment outcomes? To address these, we evaluate CareerX, a one-month soft-skills and career-readiness program for university students in Bangladesh. Across 15 cohorts, 1, 794 applicants were randomly assigned to an offer of training or a control group. One to two months after, training improves employment and paid employment by 7.3% and 6.7% in the treatment group. One year later, the estimated effect is similar in magnitude but less precisely estimated. An index of self-reported soft skills is 0.10 SD higher shortly after the program and remains higher, by 0.13 SD, one year later with larger gains in intrapersonal than interpersonal skills. Other measures such as CV quality, professional references and job-search planning and effort do not change detectably, a pattern consistent with improvements in soft skills contributing to the observed employment effects. The program is delivered at low marginal cost through group sessions and hybrid instruction at approximately USD 117 per additional attendee employed. Our results indicate that soft skills remain malleable at the point of labor market entry and that short programs can shift early employment outcomes at a cost well below comparable interventions. |
| Keywords: | youth employment, labor market entry, soft skills, RCT |
| JEL: | J24 M53 O15 I26 J08 C93 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2026-05 |
| By: | Valeria Lermana; Oren Rigbi; Yaniv Dover |
| Abstract: | The rapid adoption of large language models (LLMs) creates new opportunities for strategic content generation on online platforms, including potentially harmful forms of manipulation that may undermine platform effectiveness and reshape platform dynamics. However, measuring such activity is difficult because AI-generated content is rarely directly observable. We introduce an empirical approach that leverages discrete LLM supply shocks - abrupt changes in model prices and capabilities, and contrasts verified with non-verified reviews to identify changes in platform activity associated with generative AI supply improvements. We apply this approach to more than 13 million reviews from Trustpilot, one of the leading online platforms for business reviews. A robust finding is that following LLM supply shocks, unverified reviews shift toward greater negativity: more 1-stars, fewer 5-stars, and lower ratings, with effects driven primarily by new model releases and concentrated among firms with the lowest and highest review volumes, suggesting that strategic AI use may reshape platform competition dynamics. We further find that LLM supply shocks trigger short, concentrated bursts of review activity. Together, these findings suggest that generative AI is already reshaping how reputation and competition operate on online platforms. |
| Keywords: | generative AI, large language models, online reviews, digital platforms, user-generated content |
| JEL: | L86 O33 L15 M31 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12960 |
| By: | Evelina Björkegren; Aline Bütikofer; Gabriella Conti; Marten Palme; Kjell G. Salvanes; Mårten, Palme; Daniel Björkegren |
| Abstract: | This study examines the long-term consequences of neonatal health using three birth anthropometric measures — weight, length, and head circumference — and analyzes their differential associations with outcomes across the life course. Using linked Swedish and Norwegian population registers with follow-up into adulthood, we compare birth measures of singletons and twins and further estimate within-twin-pair fixed-effects models that control for shared genetic and family environmental factors. Our samples comprise up to approximately 679, 000 singletons and 10, 400 twins in Sweden, and 347, 841 singletons and 6, 762 twins in Norway, followed into adulthood. We find that different birth measures capture distinct aspects of fetal development with varying predictive validity across outcome domains. Birth length emerges as the strongest predictor of health outcomes (infant mortality, adult height), consistent with its role as a cumulative indicator of skeletal growth throughout gestation. Birth weight retains stronger associations with cognitive and educational outcomes (grade point average [GPA], years of schooling) in conditional models. Head circumference shows weak and inconsistent associations across specifications. Using within-pair head circumference differences to classify twins as symmetrically versus asymmetrically growth restricted, we find that symmetric intrauterine growth restriction is associated with substantially worse long-term outcomes than asymmetric restriction. In Norwegian twin pairs, growth restriction is associated with lower general cognitive ability (measured at military enlistment) relative to the unaffected co-twin; this within-pair deficit is more than twice as large for symmetric as for asymmetric restriction. We also document significant intergenerational transmission of birth anthropometrics, suggesting both environmental and genetic contributions. Finally, our register-based design with near-complete population coverage minimizes selection bias and attrition while providing statistical power for within-pair analyses across multiple outcomes. Exclusive reliance on birth weight may obscure important information about early-gestation developmental insults. |
| Keywords: | birth weight, birth length, head circumference, twin studies, fetal origins, intrauterine growth restriction, linkage to administrative data |
| JEL: | I14 I12 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12958 |
| By: | Canavire Bacarreza, Gustavo (World Bank); Tejada, Mauricio (Universidad Diego Portales) |
| Abstract: | Workers in developing economies spend much of their careers self-employed, yet its consequences are rarely studied over the full career. We ask whether self-employment leads to wage work, how much reflects search frictions rather than preference, and what its removal would mean for employment and inequality. Using an on-the-job search model with endogenous participation, short panels and repeated cross-sections from Ecuador, where half of employment is self-employment, we simulate 50-year careers. Self-employed workers receive wage offers as often as the unemployed, while starting a career in self-employment delays wage employment for years without reducing lifetime income. Yet 79 percent of self-employment time is spent in activities workers would leave for a wage job paying their group’s average wage. Eliminating self-employment triples unemployment, raises non-participation among unskilled women from 42 to 63 percent, and reduces lifetime income by 17 percent overall and 46 percent for unskilled women. Inequality falls among workers but rises 14 percent when the jobless are included and 23 percent over full careers. |
| Keywords: | self-employment, labor-market search, lifetime income inequality |
| JEL: | J46 J64 D31 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18882 |
| By: | Christina Felfe; Lukas Kagerbauer; Max Müller; Christoph Sajons; Judith Saurer; Thomas Zwick |
| Abstract: | Do refugees face systematic disadvantages in the apprenticeship market and what measures can mitigate them? We address these questions using a combination of discrete choice experiments and information treatments involving 800 firms in Ger many. Our findings show that refugees are much less likely to be accepted for ap prenticeships than their native counterparts, unless they are substantially better qualified in terms of formal education. However, this gap can be significantly re duced through two key mechanisms: signaling soft skills such as discipline, moti vation, and reliability, and implementing public policy programs that enhance job specific language proficiency and job readiness. |
| Keywords: | Labor shortages, Vocational training, Refugees, Soft skills, Integration policies |
| JEL: | J15 J24 J61 J68 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2025_778 |
| By: | Pedro S. Martins (Nova School of Business and Economics, Portugal & IZA@LISER.); Pedro Luis Silva (Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain & CIPES & IZA@LISER); Madalena Temudo (Nova School of Business and Economics, Portugal); Ana Pinho (Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES), Portugal) |
| Abstract: | Vocational education and training (VET) may accelerate employment transitions at the cost of reducing further education participation. We quantify this trade-off in a school-based VET system, drawing on linked administrative and survey data in Portugal. We use the share of lower-secondary classmates who subsequently choose upper-secondary VET as an instrument for individual VET enrollment. We find a pronounced trade-off in early post-school transitions: vocational enrollment increases employment by 26-34 percentage points and improves several job quality indicators; however, VET reduces further education participation by 30-40 percentage points and is associated with higher unemployment. |
| Keywords: | school-based vocational education, peer choices, school-to-work transition, NEET, job quality. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uab:wprdea:wpdea2608 |
| By: | Blake Jackson; Ilya A. Strebulaev |
| Abstract: | We study human capital in venture capital (VC) using a new dataset covering over 100, 000 professionals affiliated with U.S. VC firms. Investment success is extremely concentrated: fewer than 40% of VCs with any investments are ever credited with a successful investment, and 90% of investment profits are generated by 5% of VCs. Differences in education, prior work experience, and demographics predict career progression and investment outcomes, consistent with persistent investor-specific skills. Quasi-experimental variation from marginal inclusions on the Forbes Midas List shows that achieving superstar status increases access to highly-valued startups, complementing other human capital and contributing to concentration. |
| JEL: | G2 G23 G24 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35501 |
| By: | Thomas Buser (University of Amsterdam); Alexander Cappelen (NHH Norwegian School of Economics); Uri Gneezy (University of California, San Diego); Bertil Tungodden (Norwegian School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We provide globally representative evidence on two attitudes toward competition: individuals’ willingness to compete and the importance they attach to boys and girls being willing to compete, using a novel survey module that we fielded as part of the 2022 Gallup World Poll. The data cover more than 66, 000 individuals across 62 countries. Men are more willing to compete than women in all but two countries, and willingness to compete is higher among younger, more educated, and higher-income individuals. Attitudes toward children’s willingness to compete vary substantially across countries, with competitiveness valued more for boys in some countries and for girls in others. Both attitudes are systematically related to the economic and social environment. Individuals exposed to greater inequality or faster population growth during their formative years are more willing to compete and place greater importance on children being willing to compete. Greater exposure to gender equality during formative years is associated with smaller gender gaps in both adults’ willingness to compete and attitudes toward the competitiveness of boys and girls. Our findings reveal striking global regularities while highlighting the role of the social environment in shaping attitudes toward competition. |
| Keywords: | willingness to compete, gender, global, representative sample, socialization |
| JEL: | D91 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2026-011 |
| By: | Cholli, Neil (Cornell University); Wu, Derek (University of Virginia) |
| Abstract: | Governments increasingly digitize access to public programs, but it remains unclear who benefits. Using administrative microdata from Virginia, we study the impact of an online portal that streamlined SNAP, Medicaid, and TANF applications. Among children and non-elderly adults, the portal raised enrollment by 1.7–2.0% for every ten miles between their residence and local program office. Yet it had no detectable effect on the elderly, despite their lower participation and comparable enrollment barriers. Predicted digital access accounts for 84% of the variation in effects across these groups, showing that digitization can expand access while excluding vulnerable groups like the elderly. |
| Keywords: | digital government, welfare programs, take-up, administrative burdens, elderly |
| JEL: | I38 H53 O33 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18873 |
| By: | Jacklyn Makaaru Arinaitwe; George Bogere; Anna Fiore; Sylvan Herskowitz; Megan Lang; Francis Mwesigye; Tracy Nalumansi |
| Abstract: | Childcare burdens limit productivity among women in the informal sector, but we know little about the optimal design of childcare support. We randomize 883 women market vendors in Kampala, Uganda to receive free workplace- or community-based childcare. Free childcare redistributes caregiving away from household members, raises women’s hourly earnings, and improves child development and women’s well-being. Community centers achieve higher utilization and larger gains in development and well-being, while workplace centers generate larger economic impacts. Both models have a high marginal value of public funds. Community centers currently dominate, but workplace-based centers could prove superior if operated at scale. |
| Keywords: | labor, childcare, gender, time use, early child development |
| JEL: | O12 O18 J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12969 |
| By: | Kanato Nakakuni |
| Abstract: | Empirical studies suggest that income uncertainty depresses fertility, yet its policy im plications remain underexplored. This paper shows that income-tested education subsidies provide insurance against income risk for households with children, mitigating the negative effects of income uncertainty on fertility. I build and calibrate an incomplete-market general equilibrium lifecycle model with fertility and college enrollment choices, in which altruistic parents make asset transfers to support their children’s college education. Having more children increases the risk that parents may be unable to finance their children’s education after bad income shocks or, if they do finance it, must endure substantially lower lifetime consumption. This mechanism discourages fertility under income uncertainty and generates the observed negative relationship between income risk and fertility. Counterfactual exper iments show that income-tested college subsidies insure households against these risks by reducing education costs contingent on bad income shocks. The resulting fertility responses amplify the aggregate effects of the subsidy, including increases in educational attainment and intergenerational mobility. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, incomplete markets, college subsidy, income risk |
| JEL: | C68 I28 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2025_780 |
| By: | Lea-Karla Matic; Johanna Luise Reuter |
| Abstract: | Part-time work is a policy margin through which governments seek to reconcile employment and family responsibilities, yet its broader effects remain poorly understood. We estimate the effects of Austria’s 2004 introduction of a legal right to parental part-time work for mothers in firms with more than 20 employees. Using administrative data and a triple-differencein-differences design, we find large, persistent increases in part-time employment but only modest, short-lived gains in labor market attachment. Adjustment instead occurs through greater retention with the pre-birth employer and higher subsequent fertility, alongside persistent earnings losses and adverse short-run effects on maternal mental health. |
| Keywords: | Parental part-time, part-time trap, greedy jobs, child penalty |
| JEL: | D1 D63 J13 I10 J12 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2026-06 |
| By: | Daniela Del Boca (University of Turin and Collegio Carlo Alberto); Luca Favero (University of St. Andrews); Chiara Pronzato (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | Many advanced economies face persistently low fertility alongside rapid population ageing, raising concerns about economic sustainability and demographic balance. Addressing these challenges requires both sustained labor market participation among the working-age population and conditions that support childbearing. These objectives place women, and particularly mothers, at the center of the demographic debate, as motherhood remains a key turning point in employment trajectories and family formation. Using experimental evidence from an intervention targeting mothers who curtailed employment due to childcare responsibilities, the paper finds that improving work–family reconciliation can support mothers’ labor market reintegration, promote investments in existing children, and, under conditions of greater stability, strengthen fertility desires. |
| Keywords: | work, motherhood, family-friendly policies, desired fertility |
| JEL: | J13 J18 J21 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2026-006 |
| By: | Sascha O. Becker; Ana Fernandes; Nurlan Lalayev; Doris Weichselbaumer; Ana Margarida Fernandes |
| Abstract: | We study gender differences in employers' responses to commuting distance using data from a large-scale correspondence test in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. A 10 km increase in driving distance reduces women’s probability of receiving an interview invitation by 1.8 percentage points, around 9 percent of the mean female invitation rate, while commuting distance has no corresponding effect for men. The gender difference is statistically significant and robust to alternative distance measures and thresholds, firms’ rural or urban location, and local labor-market tightness. The female distance penalty does not vary detectably with applicants' reported marital status or the presence of children, providing no support for screening based on these observed indicators of household responsibilities. |
| Keywords: | gender discrimination, commuting, labor market, field experiment, Germany, Switzerland, Austria |
| JEL: | C93 J16 J61 J71 R41 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12989 |