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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2018‒04‒02
eight papers chosen by |
| By: | D'Ambrosio, Conchita (University of Luxembourg); Clark, Andrew E. (Paris School of Economics); Barazzetta, Marta (University of Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | We here consider the effect of the level of income that individuals consider to be fair for the job they do, which we take as measure of comparison income, on both subjective well-being and objective future job quitting. In six waves of German Socio-Economic Panel data, the extent to which own labour income is perceived to be unfair is significantly negatively correlated with subjective well-being, both in terms of cognitive evaluations (life and job satisfaction) and affect (the frequency of feeling happy, sad and angry). Perceived unfairness also translates into objective labour-market behaviour, with current unfair income predicting future job quits. |
| Keywords: | fair income, subjective well-being, quits, SOEP |
| JEL: | D63 J28 J31 |
| Date: | 2018–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11318&r=ltv |
| By: | Anna Lovasz (Institute of Economics Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences); Ewa Cukrowska-Torzewska (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences) |
| Abstract: | We use cross-national data on 26 EU countries to assess how much children and the responsibilities related to them contribute to the gender wage gap, and how institutional elements - especially family policies - affect this relationship. Our analysis is based on a decomposition that reveals what portion of the gender wage gap may be attributed to: (1) the motherhood wage penalty, (2) the fatherhood wage premium, and (3) the gender wage gap among childless individuals. Our findings suggest that the variability in the magnitude of the gaps is closely related to the institutional context, pointing to different reasons behind the gender wage gap and policy implications. Southern EU countries have low gender wage gaps and low motherhood penalties or even premiums. Short leaves, low childcare coverage, and traditional norms do not support maternal labor supply, but mothers who work do not face a wage penalty. Western EU countries with higher childcare coverage, moderate length leaves, supportive norms, and flexible jobs have relatively high maternal employment and mothers are not faced with significant wage penalties. The highest motherhood penalties are found in CEE countries, where long leaves, low childcare availability under age 3, and preferences for within-family care lead to long absences from the labor market. In all countries, irrespective of cultural norms and policies, we find high positive family gaps among men, which drive men’s average wages up, and lead to gender wage inequality. |
| Keywords: | Family Gap, Gender Wage Gap, Family Policies |
| JEL: | J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:bworkp:1715&r=ltv |
| By: | Vladisavljević, Marko; Perugini, Cristiano |
| Abstract: | Although women are paid less than men, face worse working conditions, lower promotion opportunities, and work-place discrimination, they typically report job satisfaction higher or similar to men's. Twenty years ago Clark (Clark, 1997) suggested that the reason behind women's higher job satisfaction are their lower expectations, driven by a number of factors related to current and past positions of women on the labour market. Although this hypothesis is one of the leading explanations of the gender differences in the job satisfaction, cross-country research investigating the relationship between the gender inequality and gender job satisfaction gap are rare and only descriptive. In this paper we use the data from EU-SILC module on subjective well being from 2013 to analyse adjusted gender job satisfaction gaps in 32 European countries and relate them to the country differences in gender inequalities. Results provide extensive and robust evidence of a relationship between exposure to more gender equal settings in the early stages of life and smaller gender gaps in job satisfaction, once all other possible drivers are controlled for. This suggests that women who experienced higher gender equality have expectations increasingly aligned to those of their male counterparts. Our results also show that this alignment is further favoured by being employed in typically male occupations, whereas higher levels of education do not play a similar effect. |
| Keywords: | Gender inequality, Job satisfaction, Europe |
| JEL: | J16 J28 O52 |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hitcei:2017-9&r=ltv |
| By: | Lant Pritchett (Center for Global Development) |
| Abstract: | Decades of programmatic experimentation by development NGOs combined with the latest empirical techniques for estimating program impact have shown that a well-designed, well-implemented, multi-faceted intervention can in fact have an apparently sustained impact on the incomes of the poor (Banerjee et al 2015). The magnitude of the income gains of the “best you can do” via direct interventions to raise the income of the poor in situ is about 40 times smaller than the income gain from allowing people from those same poor countries to work in a high productivity country like the USA. Simply allowing more labor mobility holds vastly more promise for reducing poverty than anything else on the development agenda. That said, the magnitude of the gains from large growth accelerations (and losses from large decelerations) are also many-fold larger than the potential gains from directed individual interventions and the poverty reduction gains from large, extended periods of rapid growth are larger than from targeted interventions and also hold promise (and have delivered) for reducing global poverty. |
| Date: | 2018–03–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:479&r=ltv |
| By: | Mark L. Bryan (Department of Economics, University of Sheffield); Alita Nandi (Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | Following theories of social and economic identity, we use representative data containing measures of personal identity to investigate the interplay of work identity and hours of work in determining subjective wellbeing (job satisfaction, job-related anxiety and depression, and life satisfaction). We find that work identity helps to explain wellbeing in two ways. First, for a given level of hours, having a stronger work identity is associated with higher wellbeing on most measures. Second, a strong work identity reduces the adverse effects of long hours working on some measures, notably job satisfaction and anxiety (for women) and on life satisfaction (for men). The associations of working hours and wellbeing confirm that work is a source of disutility, but these relationships are generally strengthened when controlling for identity – implying that individuals sort into jobs with work hours that match their identities. The effects of both work hours and identity are substantial relative to benchmark effects of health on wellbeing. Our work helps to rationalise recent findings in the literature on the effects of work hours and work hour preferences on wellbeing. |
| Keywords: | identity, wellbeing, working hours, job satisfaction, anxiety, depression |
| JEL: | J22 J28 J29 I31 |
| Date: | 2018–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shf:wpaper:2018002&r=ltv |
| By: | Julie Beugnot Marie Claire Villeval; Bernard Fortin; Guy Lacroix; Marie Claire Villeval |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether peer effects at work differ by gender and whether gender differences in peer effects -if any- depend on work organization. We develop a social network model with gender heterogeneity that we test in a real-effort laboratory experiment. We compare sequential networks in which information flows from peers to the worker and simultaneous networks where it disseminates bi-directionally. We identify strong gender differences as females disregard their peers’ performance in simultaneous networks, while males are influenced by peers in both networks. Females may perceive the environment in simultaneous networks as being more competitive than in sequential networks. |
| Keywords: | Gender, Peer effects, Social Networks, Work effort, Experiments |
| JEL: | C91 J16 J24 J31 M52 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:crrecr:1803&r=ltv |
| By: | Naci H. Mocan; Samantha Bielen; Wim Marneffe |
| Abstract: | We investigate the extent to which the quality of judicial institutions has an impact on individuals’ propensity for criminal and dishonest behavior and on their views regarding the acceptability of dishonesty and law-breaking. We use micro data on residents of 25 European countries and employ alternative measures of judicial quality. Acknowledging that the quality of judicial institutions is endogenous, we employ as an instrument the procedures with which prosecutors and judges are appointed to their posts in each country. The results reveal that an increase in the quality of judicial institutions, such as an improvement in judicial independence or the impartiality of the courts, has a deterrent effect on dishonest and criminal acts. A higher quality judicial system makes individuals less likely to find acceptable a variety dishonest and illicit behaviors, suggesting that institutions help shape the beliefs of the society. |
| JEL: | H0 J0 K4 K42 P48 Z1 |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24396&r=ltv |
| By: | Daniela Del Boca; Enrica Maria Martino; Chiara Pronzato |
| Abstract: | In this study, we analyze the impact of attendance of formal early childcare on a number of non- cognitive child outcomes, conditional on several socio-demographic characteristics of the household and the child. While several studies have explored the determinants of cognitive outcomes, in our analysis we focus on non-cognitive skills that were found to be important determinants of cognitive skills and of later life outcomes. Using a newly available data-set for Northern Italy on child care and child outcomes1, we consider the impact of attendance of formal childcare on non-cognitive outcomes, such as attitudes to schooling and social behavior, identified among children born in 2006 at the end of the first year of primary school. Using innovative empirical strategies to deal with endogeneity and imperfect measurement of non-cognitive outcomes, we show that attending an infant toddler center significantly improves school readiness and social interactions a few years later. Coherently with previous literature, these results are more significant for boys and for children of lower educated mothers. |
| Keywords: | non-cognitive ability, child development, childcare. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wchild:58&r=ltv |