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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2005‒04‒16
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Anna Maria Mayda (Georgetown University) (Department of Economics, Georgetown University) |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically analyzes both economic and non-economic determinants of attitudes towards immigrants, within nd across countries. The two individual-level survey data sets used, covering a wide range of developed and developing countries, make it possible to test for interactive effects between individual characteristics and country-level attributes. In particular, trade and labor-economics theories of labor markets predict that the correlation between proimmigration attitudes and individual skill should be related to the skill composition of natives relative to immigrants in the destination country. Skilled individuals should favor immigration in countries where natives are more skilled than immigrants and oppose it in the other countries. Results based on both direct and indirect measures of the relative skill composition of natives to immigrants are consistent with these predictions. Individual skill and pro-immigration attitudes are positively correlated in countries where the skill composition of natives relative to immigrants is high. Individuals with higher levels of skill are more likely to be pro-immigration in high per capita GDP countries and less likely in low per capita GDP countries. Non-economic variables also appear to be correlated with immigration attitudes but they don’t seem to alter significantly the results on the economic explanations. Classification-JEL Codes: F22, F1, J61 |
| Keywords: | Immigration Attitudes, International Migration, Political Economy |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:geo:guwopa:gueconwpa~05-05-10&r=ltv |
| By: | Brekke, Kjell Arne (The Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Nyborg, Karine (The Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Morally motivated individuals behave more cooperatively than predicted by standard theory. Hence,if a firm can attract workers who are strongly motivated by ethical concerns, moral hazard problems like shirking can be reduced. We show that employers may be able to use the firm’s corporate social responsibility profile as a screening device to attract more productive workers. Both pooling and separating equilibria are possible. Even when a substantial share of the workers have no moral motivation whatsoever, such screening may in fact drive every firm with a low social responsibility profile out of business. |
| Keywords: | Self-image; teamwork; shirking; voluntary abatement |
| JEL: | D21 D62 D64 J31 Q50 Z13 |
| Date: | 2005–04–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:osloec:2004_025&r=ltv |
| By: | Vincent Hildebrand; Philippe Van Kerm |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of income inequality on individual self-rated health status in a pooled sample of 10 member states of the European Union using longitudinal data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) survey. Taking advantage of the longitudinal and cross-national nature of our data, and carefully modelling the self-reported health information, we avoid several of the pitfalls suffered by earlier studies on this topic. We calculate income inequality indices measured at two standard levels of geography (NUTS-0 and NUTS-1) and find consistent evidence that income inequality is negatively related to self-rate health status in the European Union for both men and women. However, despite its statistical significance, the magnitude of the impact on inequality on health is small. |
| Keywords: | self-rated health; income inequality; European Union; panel data |
| JEL: | D63 I12 I18 |
| Date: | 2005–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:sedapp:127&r=ltv |
| By: | Federico Echenique; Roland G. Fryer, Jr. |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a measure of segregation based on two premises: (1) a measure of segregation should disaggregate to the level of individuals, and (2) an individual is more segregated the more segregated are the agents with whom she interacts. Developing three desirable axioms that any segregation measure should satisfy, we prove that one and only one segregation index satisfies our three axioms, and the two aims mentioned above; which we coin the Spectral Segregation Index. We apply the index to two well-studied social phenomena: residential and school segregation. We calculate the extent of residential segregation across major US cities using data from the 2000 US Census. The correlation between the Spectral index and the commonly-used dissimilarity index is .42. Using detailed data on friendship networks, available in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we calculate the prevalence of within-school racial segregation. The results suggests that the percent of minority students within a school, commonly used as a substitute for a measure of in-school segregation, is a poor proxy for social interactions. |
| JEL: | Z13 C0 |
| Date: | 2005–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11258&r=ltv |
| By: | James J. Heckman; Edward Vytlacil |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the marginal treatment effect (MTE) to unify the nonparametric literature on treatment effects with the econometric literature on structural estimation using a nonparametric analog of a policy invariant parameter; to generate a variety of treatment effects from a common semiparametric functional form; to organize the literature on alternative estimators; and to explore what policy questions commonly used estimators in the treatment effect literature answer. A fundamental asymmetry intrinsic to the method of instrumental variables is noted. Recent advances in IV estimation allow for heterogeneity in responses but not in choices, and the method breaks down when both choice and response equations are heterogeneous in a general way. |
| JEL: | C1 |
| Date: | 2005–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11259&r=ltv |