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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2007‒01‒06
six papers chosen by |
| By: | Nanak Kakwani; Marcelo Neri; Hyun H. Son |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fgv:epgewp:634&r=ltv |
| By: | Maarten Lindeboom (Free University Amsterdam, Tinbergen Institute, HEB, Netspar and IZA Bonn); Ana Llena-Nozal (Free University Amsterdam and Tinbergen Institute); Bas van der Klaauw (Free University Amsterdam, Tinbergen Institute, CEPR and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of parental education on child health outcomes. To identify the causal effect we explore exogenous variation in parental education induced by a schooling reform in 1947, which raised the minimum school leaving age in the UK. Findings based on data from the National Child Development Study suggest that postponing the school leaving age by one year had little effect on the health of their offspring. Schooling did however improve economic opportunities by reducing financial difficulties among households. We conclude from this that the effects of parental income on child health are at most modest. |
| Keywords: | returns to education, intergenerational mobility, health, regression-discontinuity |
| JEL: | I12 I28 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2516&r=ltv |
| By: | Peter A. Riach (IZA Bonn (Research Fellow)); Judith Rich (University of Portsmouth and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | In a field experiment of age discrimination, pairs of men aged twenty-seven and forty-seven, inquired, by email, about employment as waiters in twenty four French towns. The rate of net discrimination found against the older French waiter, corresponds to the highest rates ever recorded anywhere, by written tests, for racial discrimination. Discrimination was higher in Paris than in the rest of France. |
| Keywords: | age, discrimination, employment, field experiment, hiring |
| JEL: | J71 C93 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2522&r=ltv |
| By: | Andrew E. Clark (PSE and IZA Bonn); Ed Diener (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Gallup Organization); Yannis Georgellis (Brunel University); Richard E. Lucas (Michigan State University) |
| Abstract: | We look for evidence of habituation in twenty waves of German panel data: do individuals, after life and labour market events, tend to return to some baseline level of wellbeing? Although the strongest life satisfaction effect is often at the time of the event, we find significant lag and lead effects. We conclude that there is complete adaptation to divorce, widowhood, birth of first child, and layoff. However, adaptation to marriage is only incomplete, and there is no adaptation to unemployment for men. In general, men are more affected by labour market events (unemployment and layoffs) than are women. Last, we find no consistent evidence that happiness provides insurance against hard knocks: those with high and low baseline satisfaction levels are broadly equally affected by labour market and life events. |
| Keywords: | life satisfaction, anticipation, habituation, baseline satisfaction, labour market and life events |
| JEL: | I31 J12 J13 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2526&r=ltv |
| By: | Wim Groot (University of Maastricht and SCHOLAR, University of Amsterdam); Henriette Maassen van den Brink (SCHOLAR, University of Amsterdam); Bernard van Praag (SCHOLAR, University of Amsterdam, DIW Berlin, CESifo and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | There is a small but growing literature on the determinants of social capital. Most of these studies use a measure of trust to define social capital empirically. In this paper we use three different measures of social capital: the size of the individual´s social network, the extent of their social safety net and membership of unions or associations. A second contribution to the literature is that we analyze what social capital contributes to our well-being. Based on this, we calculate the compensating income variation of social capital. We find differences in social capital when we differentiate according to individual characteristics such as education, age, place of residence, household composition and health. Household income generally has a statistically significant effect. We find a significant effect of social capital on life satisfaction. Consequently, the compensating income variation of social capital is substantial. |
| Keywords: | life satisfaction, social capital |
| JEL: | D1 D6 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2529&r=ltv |
| By: | Laura Zimmermann (University of Oxford and IZA); Klaus F. Zimmermann (IZA, Bonn University and DIW Berlin); Amelie Constant (IZA, Georgetown University and DIW DC) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the concept of ethnic self-identification of immigrants in a two-dimensional framework. It acknowledges the fact that attachments to the home and the host country are not necessarily mutually exclusive. There are three possible paths of adjustment from separation at entry, namely the transitions to assimilation, integration and marginalization. We analyze the determinants of ethnic self-identification in this process using samples of first-generation immigrants for males and females separately, and controlling for pre- and post-migration characteristics. We find strong gender differences and the unimportance of a wide range of pre-migration characteristics like religion and education at home. |
| Keywords: | ethnic self-identification, first-generation immigrants, gender, ethnicity |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J16 Z10 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2535&r=ltv |