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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2018‒12‒03
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Ferreira, Pedro Cavalcanti; Parente, Rafael Machado |
| Abstract: | We study, in a life-cycle economy with three sectors - formal, informal and public – and endogenous retirement, the macroeconomic and occupational impacts of social security reforms in an economy with multiple pension systems. In a model calibrated to Brazil, we simulate and assess the long-run impact of reforms being discussed and/or implemented in different economies. Among them, the unification of pension systems and the increase of minimum retirement age. These reforms are found to affect the decision to apply to a public job, savings and skill composition across sectors. They also lead to higher output, less informality and welfare gains. |
| Date: | 2018–11–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fgv:epgewp:803&r=ltv |
| By: | Rune V. Lesner (Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Denmark); Anna Piil Damm (Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Denmark); Preben Bertelsen (Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences,, Aarhus University, Denmark); Mads Uffe Pedersen (Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research, Aarhus University, Denmark) |
| Abstract: | We set up an on-the-job learning model to explain how spare-time on-the-job training affects life skills formation of adolescents. We obtain causal estimates by exploiting variation between employed twins and estimation of a value-added model using full population Danish administrative data. We find that spare-time work experience has no effect on school absenteeism, reduces crime, increases school grades and the speed of enrollment into upper secondary education. We interpret our findings as evidence that the positive effect from on-the-job learning in spare-time jobs on life skill formation more than outweigh the potential negative consumption and time-use externalities of spare-time work. |
| Keywords: | Student employment, Spare-time jobs, Teenagers, Youth, Character skills, Life skills, Human capital, Crime, Juvenile Delinquency, Risky behavior, Educational attainment |
| JEL: | J24 J22 I21 |
| Date: | 2018–11–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2018-09&r=ltv |
| By: | Stefan Jestl (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Sebastian Leitner (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Sandra M. Leitner (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the contribution of immigration, trade and FDI to wage inequality of native workers in a sample of old and new EU Member States between 2008 and 2013. Methodologically, we use the regression-based Shapley value decomposition approach of Shorrocks (2013) to filter out their relative importance. We find that globalisation has very mixed effects and generally contributes little to wage inequality. Regarding their relative contributions, immigration and FDI are key contributors to wage inequality in old EU Member States, while trade is the key source of wage inequality in new EU Member States. For immigration, the associated increase in wage inequality is strongest and most consistent among Southern EU Member States. We also show that immigration, trade and FDI have different effects across the wage distribution that are however strongest at its centre. For trade and FDI, we also find sporadic inequality-reducing effects that are strongest at the top of the wage distribution. |
| Keywords: | wage inequality, trade, FDI, immigration, Shapley value decomposition |
| JEL: | J31 O15 F16 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:wpaper:154&r=ltv |
| By: | Haixiao Wu (George Washington University) |
| Abstract: | Many papers have found a positive relation between income inequality and city size in the US and other countries. This literature has assumed that the relation is linear. Tests performed here find that it is concave, resembling the classic Kuznets curve. A theoretical model based on the Income Elasticity Hypothesis (IEH), explains that inequality is a concave function of housing prices that tend to increase with city size. Further tests confirm the concavity of the relation between Gini and housing costs that is predicted by the IEH. Although for most cities, inequality still rises with housing costs, if housing costs continue to grow in large cities, inequality should eventually fall, resembling the Kuznets Curve at the country level. |
| JEL: | R12 R23 D3 O15 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2018-09&r=ltv |
| By: | Alberto Alesina (Department of Economics, Harvard University, IGIER Bocconi, NBER and CEPR); Michela Carlana (Harvard Kennedy School and IZA); Eliana La Ferrara (Department of Economics, IGIER and LEAP, Bocconi University); Paolo Pinotti (Department of Social and Political Sciences at Bocconi University, DONDENA, and Fondazione Rodolfo Debenedetti) |
| Abstract: | If individuals become aware of their stereotypes, do they change their behavior? We study this question in the context of teachers' bias in grading immigrants and native children in middle schools. Teachers give lower grades to immigrant students compared to natives who have the same performance on standardized, blindly-graded tests. We then relate differences in grading to teachers' stereotypes, elicited through an Implicit Association Test (IAT). We find that math teachers with stronger stereotypes give lower grades to immigrants compared to natives with the same performance. Literature teachers do not differentially grade immigrants based on their own stereotypes. Finally, we share teachers' own IAT score with them, randomizing the timing of disclosure around the date on which they assign term grades. All teachers informed of their stereotypes before term grading increase grades assigned to immigrants. Revealing stereotypes may be a powerful intervention to decrease discrimination, but it may also induce a reaction from individuals who were not acting in a biased way. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, teachers, implicit stereotypes, IAT, bias in grading |
| JEL: | I24 J15 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1817&r=ltv |