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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2016‒05‒08
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Leonardo Gasparini (CEDLAS - UNLP y CONICET); Guillermo Cruces (CEDLAS - UNLP y CONICET); Leopoldo Tornarolli (CEDLAS - UNLP y CONICET) |
| Abstract: | After a decade of strong progress toward the goal of reducing the high levels of income disparities, there are clear signs of a deceleration in the pace of inequality reduction in Latin America. This paper argues that the deceleration is the result of two set of reasons. First, several of the driving factors of the fall in inequality in the 2000s have lost strength, due to “natural” motives; and second, the external conditions faced by the Latin American economies have worsened in the early 2010s, making further reductions in inequality more difficult. |
| JEL: | D63 I31 J11 J21 J31 J82 N36 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0198&r=ltv |
| By: | Bubonya, Melisa (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research); Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. (University of Sydney); Wooden, Mark (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research) |
| Abstract: | Much of the economic cost of mental illness stems from workers' reduced productivity. We analyze the links between mental health and two alternative workplace productivity measures – absenteeism and presenteeism (i.e., lower productivity while attending work) – explicitly allowing these relationships to be moderated by the nature of the job itself. We find that absence rates are approximately five percent higher among workers who report being in poor mental health. Moreover, job conditions are related to both presenteeism and absenteeism even after accounting for workers' self-reported mental health status. Job conditions are relatively more important in understanding diminished productivity at work if workers are in good rather than poor mental health. The effects of job complexity and stress on absenteeism do not depend on workers' mental health, while job security and control moderate the effect of mental illness on absence days. |
| Keywords: | mental health, presenteeism, absenteeism, work productivity |
| JEL: | I12 J22 J24 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9879&r=ltv |
| By: | Lekfuangfu, Warn N.; Powdthavee, Nattavudh; Clark, Andrew E.; Ward, George |
| Abstract: | We analyse the relationship between early maternal employment and child emotional and behavioural outcomes in early childhood and adolescence. Using rich data from a cohort of children born in the UK in the early 1990s, we find little evidence of a strong statistical relationship between early maternal employment and any of the emotional outcomes. However, there is some evidence that children whose mother is in full-time employment at the 18th month have worse behavioural outcomes at ages 4, 7, and 12. We suggest that these largely insignificant results may in part be explained by mothers who return to full-time work earlier being able to compensate their children: we highlight the role of fathers’ time investment and alternative childcare arrangements in this respect. |
| Keywords: | child outcomes; maternal employment; well-being; conduct; ALSPAC |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpm:docweb:1601&r=ltv |
| By: | Lorenzo Cappellari; Stephen P. Jenkins |
| Abstract: | We contribute new evidence about earnings and labour market volatility in Britain over the period 1992–2008, for women as well as men, and provide transatlantic comparisons (Most research about volatility refers to earnings volatility for US men.). Earnings volatility declined slightly for both men and women over the period but the changes are not statistically significant. When we look at labour market volatility, i.e. also including individuals with zero earnings in the calculations, there is a statistically significant decline in volatility for both women and men, with the fall greater for men. Using variance decompositions, we demonstrate that the fall in labour market volatility is largely accounted for by changes in employment attachment rates. We show that volatility trends in Britain, and what contributes to them, differ from their US counterparts in several respects. |
| Keywords: | Earnings instability; Earnings volatility; Labour market volatility |
| JEL: | C46 J41 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:56667&r=ltv |
| By: | Castaneda Aguilar,Raul Andres; Gasparini,Leonardo Carlos; Garriga,Santiago; Lucchetti,Leonardo Ramiro; Valderrama Gonzalez,Daniel |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the methodological literature on the estimation of poverty lines for country poverty comparisons in Latin America and the Caribbean. The paper exploits a unique, comprehensive data set of 86 up-to-date urban official extreme and moderate poverty lines across 18 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the recent values of the national purchasing power parity conversion factors from the 2011 International Comparison Program and a set of harmonized household surveys that are part of the Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean project. Because of the dispersion of country-specific poverty lines, the paper concludes that the value of a regional poverty line largely depends on the selected aggregation method, which ends up having a direct impact on the estimation of regional extreme and moderate poverty headcounts. |
| Keywords: | Regional Economic Development,ICT Applications,Pro-Poor Growth,Rural Poverty Reduction |
| Date: | 2016–04–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7621&r=ltv |