|
on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
|
Issue of 2022‒05‒23
eight papers chosen by |
| By: | Blanden, Jo (University of Surrey); Doepke, Matthias (Northwestern University); Stuhler, Jan (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) |
| Abstract: | This chapter provides new evidence on educational inequality and reviews the literature on the causes and consequences of unequal education. We document large achievement gaps between children from different socio-economic backgrounds, show how patterns of educational inequality vary across countries, time, and generations, and establish a link between educational inequality and social mobility. We interpret this evidence from the perspective of economic models of skill acquisition and investment in human capital. The models account for different channels underlying unequal education and highlight how endogenous responses in parents' and children's educational investments generate a close link between economic inequality and educational inequality. Given concerns over the extended school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic, we also summarize early evidence on the impact of the pandemic on children's education and on possible long-run repercussions for educational inequality. |
| Keywords: | educational inequality, education finance, social mobility |
| JEL: | I21 I24 J62 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15225&r= |
| By: | Jenkins, Stephen P. |
| Abstract: | UK official statistics on income distribution have incorporated top-income adjustments to household survey data since 1992. This article reviews the work undertaken by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Office for National Statistics, and the academic research that influenced them, and reflects on the lessons to learn from the UK experience. |
| Keywords: | inequality; income inequality; top incomes; tax return data; survey data; data combination; SPI adjustment; Springer deal |
| JEL: | D31 C81 |
| Date: | 2022–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:113790&r= |
| By: | Ferranna, Maddalena (Harvard School of Public Health); Sevilla, J.P. (Harvard School of Public Health); Zucker, Leo (Harvard School of Public Health); Bloom, David E. (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | We analyze time use studies to describe how people allocate their time as they age, especially among paid work, unpaid work, leisure, and personal care. We emphasize differences in time allocation between older (i.e., those aged 65+) and younger people; between developed and developing countries; and by other demographic characteristics such as gender, marital status, health status, and educational attainment. We summarize related economic literature and crystallize a framework for thinking about key conceptual issues involving time allocation over the life cycle. We conclude by assessing the adequacy of global data resources in this area and by discussing some promising opportunities to fill salient gaps in the literature. |
| Keywords: | time use, aging, demographics, paid work, unpaid work, leisure, personal care |
| JEL: | D13 D15 J14 J22 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15227&r= |
| By: | John T. Addison; Paulino Teixeira |
| Abstract: | Using the 2019 ECS, we investigate the relationship between union organization, workplace representation, industrial relations quality and strike incidence. We also consider some six issues behind the most recent instances of industrial action or threatened industrial action and their outcomes. Strike incidence is found to be elevated in establishments where union density is higher and where workers are covered by mixed-level collective agreements. Distrust and strained workplace relationships are associated with increased strike incidence, and the converse for an employee-focused business strategy and heightened employee motivation. In discussing the outcomes of different types of industrial action or threatened industrial action specific to the establishment, a distinction is drawn between worker wins, worker retractions/losses, and win-win outcomes, where the default is unresolved outcomes. Higher union density is associated with worker wins, collective bargaining with balanced agreements, and there is now some suggestion that works councils may play a moderating role. |
| Keywords: | strikes, areas and outcomes of conflict, union organization, worker representation, employee-focused strategies, trust, quality of industrial relations |
| JEL: | J51 J52 J53 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9685&r= |
| By: | Katrine M. Jakobsen (Department of Economics, University of Oxford); Thomas H. Jørgensen (CEBI, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen); Hamish Low (Department of Economics, University of Oxford and IFS) |
| Abstract: | We study the role of fertility adjustments for the labor market responsiveness of men and women. First, we use longitudinal Danish register data and tax reforms from 2009 to provide new empirical evidence on asymmetric fertility adjustments to tax changes of men and women. Second, we quantify the importance of these fertility adjustments for understanding the labor supply responsiveness of couples through a life-cycle model of family labor supply and fertility. Allowing fertility adjustments increases the labor supply responsiveness of women by 28%. These adjustments affect human capital accumulation and has permanent implications for the gender wage gap within couples. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, Labor supply, Human capital accumulation, Gender inequality, Tax reform, Life-Cycle |
| JEL: | J22 J13 D15 H24 |
| Date: | 2022–05–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kucebi:2204&r= |
| By: | Luca Coraggio (University of Naples Federico II); Marco Pagano (University of Naples Federico II and EIEF); Annalisa Scognamiglio (University of Naples Federico II); Joacim Tåg (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | Does the matching between workers and jobs help explain productivity differentials across firms? To address this question we develop a job-worker allocation quality measure (JAQ) by combining employer-employee administrative data with machine learning techniques. The proposed measure is positively and significantly associated with labor earnings over workers’ careers. At firm level, it features a robust positive correlation with firm productivity, and with managerial turnover leading to an improvement in the quality and experience of management. JAQ can be constructed for any employer-employee data including workers’ occupations, and used to explore the effect of corporate restructuring on workers’ allocation and careers. |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eie:wpaper:2205&r= |
| By: | Arnaud Chevalier; Olivier Marie |
| Abstract: | Following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the birth rate halved in East Germany. Despite their small sizes, the cohorts conceived during this period of socio-economic turmoil were, as they grew up in reunified Germany, markedly more likely to be arrested than cohorts conceived a few years earlier. This is consistent with negative parental selection during the period of turmoil. We highlight risk attitude as an important selection mechanism, beyond education and other observable characteristics, which explains: (i) why some women did not alter their fertility decisions during these uncertain economic times, (ii) that this risk preference was passed on to their children and (iii) that risk preference is correlated with criminal participation. Maternal selection along risk preference might thus be an important mechanism explaining the greater criminal activity of the children conceived after the fall of the Wall. |
| Keywords: | fertility, crime, parental selection, economic uncertainty, risk attitude |
| JEL: | J13 K42 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9683&r= |
| By: | Andreas Fagereng (BI Norwegian Business School); Luigi Guiso (EIEF); Luigi Pistaferri (Stanford University) |
| Abstract: | We use population data on capital income and wealth holdings for Norway to measure asset positions and wealth returns before individuals marry and after the household is formed. These data allow us to establish a number of novel facts. First, individuals sort on personal wealth rather than parents’ wealth. Assortative mating on own wealth dominates, and in fact renders assortative mating on parental wealth statistically insignificant. Second, people match also on their personal returns to wealth and assortative mating on returns is as strong as that on wealth. Third, post-marriage returns on family wealth are largely explained by the return of the spouse with the highest pre-marriage return. This suggests that family wealth is largely managed by the spouse with the highest potential to grow it. This is particularly true for households at the top of the wealth distribution at marriage. We use a simple analytical example to illustrate how assortative mating on wealth and returns and wealth management task allocation between spouses affect wealth inequality. |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eie:wpaper:2204&r= |