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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2012‒07‒23
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Stéphane Bonhomme (CEMFI, Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros); Laura Hospido (Banco de España) |
| Abstract: | We use detailed information on labor earnings and employment from social security records to document the evolution of earnings inequality in Spain from 1988 to 2010. Male earnings inequality was strongly countercyclical: it increased around the 1993 recession, showed a substantial decrease during the 1997-2007 expansion, and then a sharp increase during the recent recession. This evolution was partly driven by the cyclicality of employment and earnings in the lower-middle part of the distribution. We emphasize the importance of the housing boom and subsequent housing bust, and show that demand shocks in the construction sector had large effects on aggregate labor market outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Earnings Inequality, Social Security data, Unemployment, Business cycle. |
| JEL: | D31 J21 J31 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cmf:wpaper:wp2012_1209&r=ltv |
| By: | Sevilla-Sanz, Almudena (Queen Mary, University of London); Gimenez, Jose Ignacio (University of Zaragoza); Gershuny, Jonathan I. (University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | This paper exploits the complex sequential structure of the diary data in the American Heritage Time Use Study (AHTUS) and constructs three classes of indicators that capture the quality of leisure ('pure leisure', 'co-present leisure' and 'leisure fragmentation') to show that the relative growth in leisure time enjoyed by less-educated individuals documented in previous studies has been accompanied by a relative decrease in the quality of that leisure time. These results are not driven by any single leisure activity, such as time watching television. Our findings may offer a more comprehensive picture of inequality in the US and provide a basis for weighing the relative decline in earnings and consumption for the less educated against the simultaneous relative growth of leisure. |
| Keywords: | leisure, inequality, income, wages, consumption, time-use, happiness |
| JEL: | C13 C23 D13 J12 J16 Z13 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6708&r=ltv |
| By: | Jason M. Fletcher |
| Abstract: | This paper uses recently released data from a national longitudinal sample to present new evidence of the longer term effects of adolescent depression on labor market outcomes. Results suggest reductions in labor force attachment of approximately 5 percentage points and earnings reductions of approximately 20% for individuals with depressive symptoms as an adolescent. These effects are only partially reduced when controlling for channels operating through educational attainment, adult depressive symptoms, or co-occurring illnesses. Further, the unique structure of the data allows for high-school fixed effects as well as suggestive evidence using sibling comparisons, which allows controls for potentially important unobserved heterogeneity. Overall, the results suggest that the links between adolescent depression and labor market outcomes are quite robust and important in magnitude, suggesting that there may be substantial labor market returns to further investments in treatment opportunities during adolescence. |
| JEL: | I1 I12 J22 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18216&r=ltv |
| By: | Ferreira, Francisco H.G. (World Bank); Lugo, Maria Ana (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | Widespread agreement that poverty is a multifaceted phenomenon, encompassing deprivations along multiple dimensions, clashes with often vociferous disagreement about how best to measure these deprivations. Drawing on the recent literature, this short note proposes three methodological alternatives to the false dichotomy between scalar indices of multidimensional poverty, on the one hand, and a “dashboard” approach that looks only at marginal distributions, on the other. These alternatives include simple Venn diagrams of the overlap of deprivations across dimensions, multivariate stochastic dominance analysis, and the analysis of copula functions, which capture the extent of interdependency across dimensions. Examples from the literature on both developing and developed countries are provided. |
| Keywords: | multidimensional poverty, dependency structure, copulas |
| JEL: | I32 O15 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izapps:pp45&r=ltv |
| By: | Juan-Camilo Cárdenas; Anna Drebber; Emma von Essen; Eva Ranehill |
| Abstract: | This paper compares cooperation among Columbian and Swedish children aged 9-12. We illustrate the dynamics of the prisoner’s dilemma in a new task that is easily understood by children and performed during a physical education class. We find some evidence that children cooperate more in Sweden than in Colombia. Girls in Colombia are less cooperative than boys, whereas our results indicate the opposite gender gap in Sweden. On average, children are more cooperative with boys than with girls. |
| Date: | 2012–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:009800&r=ltv |