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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2012‒02‒27
eight papers chosen by |
| By: | Ritzen, Jo (IZA and Maastricht University); Zimmermann, Klaus F. (IZA and University of Bonn) |
| Abstract: | A substantial literature claims that the strong increase in inequality over the last decade in countries such as the US would lead to a collapse of society. Fading hopes in the population seem to confirm this. The paper rejects this interpretation since the decline in hopes cannot be traced back to rising inequality. |
| Keywords: | confidence, ethnicity, hope, human capital, income inequality |
| JEL: | D31 J15 |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6340&r=ltv |
| By: | Giovanni Andrea Cornia (Università degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche) |
| Abstract: | The paper reviews the steady and widespread decline in income inequality which has taken place in most of Latin America over 2002-10 and which––if continued for another 2-3 years––would reduce the average regional income inequality to pre-liberalization levels. The paper then focuses on the factors, which may explain such inequality decline. A review of the literature and an econometric test indicate that a few complementary factors played an important role in this regard, including a drop in the skill premium following a rapid expansion of secondary education, and the adoption of a new development model by a growing number of left-of-centre governments which emphasizes fiscally-prudent but more equitable macroeconomic, tax, social expenditure and labour policies. For the region as a whole, improvements in terms of trade, migrant remittances, FDI and world growth played a less important role than expected although their impact was perceptible in countries where such transactions were sizeable. |
| Keywords: | income inequality, human capital inequality, policy regimes, external conditions, Latin America |
| JEL: | D31 E6 H53 I28 I38 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2012_02.rdf&r=ltv |
| By: | Richard Layard |
| Abstract: | Richard Layard outlines the development of CEP research on what makes people happy and how society might best be organised to promote happiness. |
| Keywords: | Wellbeing, happiness, public policy |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:355&r=ltv |
| By: | López Bóo, Florencia (Inter-American Development Bank); Rossi, Martín A. (Universidad de San Andrés); Urzua, Sergio (University of Maryland) |
| Abstract: | We provide new evidence on the link between beauty and hiring practices in the labor market. Specifically, we study if people with less attractive faces are less likely to be contacted after submitting a resume. Our empirical strategy is based on an experimental approach. We sent fictitious resumes with pictures of attractive and unattractive faces to real job openings in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We find that attractive people receive 36 percent more responses (callbacks) than unattractive people. Given the experimental design, this difference can be attributed to the exogenous manipulation of facial attractiveness of our fake job applicants. |
| Keywords: | facial attractiveness, callback rates, labor market discrimination |
| JEL: | J71 J78 |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6356&r=ltv |
| By: | González de San Román, Ainara (University of the Basque Country); de la Rica, Sara (University of the Basque Country) |
| Abstract: | The existence of gender gaps in test scores has been documented in the relevant literature for a wide range of countries. In particular, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) conducted by the OECD over the past ten years reveals that on average female students underperform (outperform) males in maths (reading) test scores in most of the countries that take part in the evaluation programme. We find that differences in culture and social norms across countries and across regions within the same country are crucial determinants in understanding gender differences in PISA 2009 test scores: girls perform relatively better in both maths and reading in societies where gender equality is enhanced, and the effect varies over the distribution of scores. In addition, we find substantial evidence for the intergenerational transmission of gender role attitudes, especially from mothers to daughters, as the performance of girls – not that of boys, is better in families where the mother works outside home. |
| Keywords: | PISA, test scores, achievement, gender differences, culture, role attitudes, intergenerational transmission |
| JEL: | C14 C33 I21 I24 J16 |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6338&r=ltv |
| By: | Berthoud, Richard |
| Abstract: | How should relative poverty be defined and measured in a European Union where there are substantial variations in income between countries, as well as within countries? This paper uses objective and subjective deprivation indicators to assess the appropriate balance between national and Europe-wide relativities in explaining social exclusion. The analysis suggests that Europe-wide comparisons are more important to the perception of poverty than the convention of national relative poverty lines would have led us to expect. Even relative poverty is more prevalent in the new low-income (eastern) countries than in the old high-income (western) countries. But this is as much a political as an empirical issue. |
| Date: | 2012–01–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2012-02&r=ltv |
| By: | Akay, Alpaslan (IZA); Martinsson, Peter (University of Gothenburg) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses both subjective well-being and survey experimental data to analyze how people's positional concerns regarding income and goods vary with age. The subjective well-being approach is mainly based on German panel data for the period 1984-2009 (German Socio-Economic Panel), while the survey experimental approach is based on a tailor-made experimental design conducted among Swedish adults. Our analysis suggests that the degree of positional concerns is not homogenous across the life cycle. Our different analytical approaches show a robust life cycle pattern of positional concerns: young people experience no or a low degree of positional concerns, yet the level of concerns for income increases gradually and significantly with age. The results also differ across goods: while car consumption is similar to income, the positional concern for leisure time decreases through the life cycle. |
| Keywords: | positional concerns, life cycle, subjective well-being, survey experiment |
| JEL: | C90 D63 |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6342&r=ltv |
| By: | Pedro Carneiro (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London); Rita Ginja |
| Abstract: | <p>This paper provides new estimates of the medium and long-term impacts of Head Start on the health and behavioral problems of its participants. We identify these impacts using discontinuities in the probability of participation induced by program eligibility rules. Our strategy allows us to identify the effect of Head Start for the set of individuals in the neighborhoods of multiple discontinuities, which vary with family size, state and year (as opposed to a smaller set of individuals neighboring a single discontinuity). Participation in the program reduces the incidence of behavioral problems, serious health problems and obesity of male children at ages 12 and 13. It also lowers depression and obesity among adolescents, and reduces engagement in criminal activities for young adults. </p> |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:cemmap:01/12&r=ltv |