nep-ltv New Economics Papers
on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty
Issue of 2018‒12‒17
four papers chosen by



  1. Occupational Match Quality and Gender over Two Cohorts By John T. Addison; Liwen Chen; Orgul D. Ozturk
  2. Educational Upgrading and Returns to Skills in Latin America: Evidence from a Supply-Demand Framework, 1990-2010 By Leonardo Gasparini; Sebastián Galiani; Guillermo Cruces; Pablo Acosta
  3. Investigating the U-Shaped Charitable Giving Profile Using Register-Based Data By Benediktson, Mathias Nylandsted
  4. The Effect of Initial Inequality on Meritocracy: a Voting Experiment on Tax Redistribution By Natalia Jimenez; Elena Molis-Bañales; Angel Solano-Garcia

  1. By: John T. Addison; Liwen Chen; Orgul D. Ozturk
    Abstract: Using a multi-dimensional measure of occupational mismatch, we report distinct gender differences in match quality and changes in match quality over the course of careers. A substantial portion of the gender wage gap stems from match quality differences among more educated individuals. College-educated females are significantly more mismatched than males. Individuals with children and in more flexible occupations also tend to be more mismatched. Again, this is especially true of women. Cohort effects are also discernible: college-educated males of the younger cohort have lower match quality than the older cohort, even as the new generation of women is doing better.
    Keywords: multidimensional skills, occupational mismatch, match quality, wages, gender wage gap, fertility, fertility timing
    JEL: J13 J16 J22 J23 J24 J31 J33 J38
    Date: 2018
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7350&r=ltv
  2. By: Leonardo Gasparini (CEDLAS-FCE-UNLP & CONICET); Sebastián Galiani (University of Maryland); Guillermo Cruces (CEDLAS-FCE-UNLP & CONICET & IZA); Pablo Acosta (World Bank)
    Abstract: This paper documents the evolution of wage differentials and the supply of workers by educational level for sixteen Latin American countries over the period 1991- 2013. We find a pattern of rather constant rise in the relative supply of skilled and semiskilled workers over the period. Whereas the returns to secondary education fell over time, in contrast, the returns to tertiary education display a remarkable changing pattern common to almost all economies: significant increase in the 1990s, strong fall in the 2000s and a deceleration of that fall in the 2010s. We conclude that supply-side factors seem to have limited explanatory power relative to demand-side factors in accounting for changes in the wage gap between workers with tertiary education and the rest.
    Date: 2018–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0239&r=ltv
  3. By: Benediktson, Mathias Nylandsted (University of Southern Denmark, COHERE - Centre of Health Economics Research)
    Abstract: The present paper investigates the relationship between income and the proportion of income donated by use of register-based data merged with individual data on charitable giving, in a European setting. This paper contributes to the very scarce European literature concerning the U-shaped charitable giving profile. We find a strong, negative relationship between income and the proportion of income donated for the total donor population as well as for specific income groups. This contradicts some of the previous literature on the subject. With information on actual donations, we find evidence of a ‘standard of giving’ that is very likely to be an important explanation to the higher proportion of income donated amongst low-income individuals. Our findings suggest that researchers and policy makers should be careful when drawing conclusions regarding charitable giving from US-based studies to Europe and vice versa.
    Keywords: Philanthropy; charitable giving; nonprofit; register data
    JEL: D12 D31 D64 I30
    Date: 2018–01–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sduhec:2018_001&r=ltv
  4. By: Natalia Jimenez (Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide & Middlesex University); Elena Molis-Bañales (Departamento de Teoria e Historia Economica, University of Granada & Globe); Angel Solano-Garcia (Departamento de Teoria e Historia Economica, University of Granada & Globe)
    Abstract: According to Alesina and Angeletos (2005), societies are less redistributive but more efficient when the median voter believes that effort and talent are much more important than luck to determine income. We test these results through a lab experiment in which participants vote over the tax rate and their pre-tax income is determined according to their performance in a real effort task with leisure time. Subjects receive either a high or a low wage and this condition is either obtained through their talent in a tournament or randomly assigned. We compare subjects' decisions in these two different scenarios considering different levels of wage inequality. In our framework, this initial income inequality turns out to be crucial to support the theoretical hypothesis of Alesina and Angeletos (2005). Overall, we find that, only if the wage inequality is high, subjects choose a lower level of income redistribution and they provide a higher effort level in the scenario in which high-wage subjects are selected based on their talent through a tournament (than when it is randomly). Thus, we confirm almost all theoretical results in Alesina and Angeletos (2005) when the wage inequality is high enough. The big exception is for efficiency (measured as the sum of total payoffs), since theoretical results only hold for the scenario in which wage inequality is low.
    Keywords: income redistribution, voting, taxation, real-effort task, leisure.
    JEL: C92 D72 H30 J41
    Date: 2018–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pab:wpaper:18.13&r=ltv

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