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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2022‒06‒27
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Andrew E. Clark; Conchita D'Ambrosio; Anthony Lepinteur |
| Abstract: | Job insecurity is one of the risks that workers face on the labour market. As with any risk, individuals can choose to insure against it. We here consider marriage as a way of insuring against labour-market risk. The 1999 rise in the French Delalande tax, paid by large private firms when they laid off workers aged 50 or over, led to an exogenous rise in job insecurity for the uncovered (younger workers) in the affected firms. A difference-in-differences analysis using French panel data reveals that this greater job insecurity for the under-50s led to a significant rise in their probability of marriage, and especially when the partner had greater job security, consistent with marriage providing insurance against labour-market risk. |
| Keywords: | marriage, insurance, employment protection, perceived job security, difference-in-differences |
| Date: | 2021–06–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1778&r= |
| By: | Hamermesh, Daniel S. (University of Texas at Austin); Biddle, Jeff E. (Michigan State University) |
| Abstract: | We examine work patterns in the U.S. from 1973-2018, with the novel focus on days per week, using intermittent CPS samples and one ATUS sample. Among full-time workers the incidence of four-day work tripled, with 8 million additional four-day workers. Similar growth occurred in the Netherlands, Germany, and South Korea. The rise was not due to changes in demographics or industrial structure. Such schedules are more common among less educated, younger, and white non-Hispanic workers, men, natives, and people with young children; police and firefighters, health-care, and restaurant workers. Based on an equilibrium model, we show that they result more from workers’ preferences and/or daily fixed costs of working than production costs. We verify the implication that the wage penalty for four-day work is greater where such work is more prevalent, and we show that the penalty has diminished over time. |
| Keywords: | days/week, decomposition, labor supply, wage penalties |
| JEL: | J11 J22 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15325&r= |
| By: | Gary Charness; Giovanni Di Bartolomeo; Stefano Papa |
| Abstract: | Social identity and communication are topics of increasing interest in management science. One's social identity tends to lead one to favor those belonging to one's group; this in-group bias may lead to problematic relationships. At the same time, communication has been found to have beneficial social consequences in controlled laboratory experiments. An important question is whether communication, by signaling a meeting of the minds, can improve trust and therefore outcomes between out-group members. We construct a simple weak mechanism of group favoritism that does in fact show in-group favoritism. When both paired individuals, one of whom will become the dictator, promise to make the pro-social dictator choice if they become dictator, favorable behavior is much more likely in all cases. But there is an intriguing pattern across group membership concerning the degree of improvement: Without mutual promises, people make more favorable choices for in-group members. Interestingly, this gap is eliminated by such promises. In this sense, strangers become partners. |
| Keywords: | Social identity; In-group bias; Communication; Exogenous variation |
| JEL: | A13 C91 D03 D64 D90 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sap:wpaper:wp221&r= |
| By: | Bengtsson, Mats (Swedish Social Insurance Inspectorate (ISF)); König, Stefanie (University of Gothenburg); Schönbeck, Simon (University of Gothenburg); Wadensjö, Eskil (Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | It is a challenge for politics that an aging population leads to demands that the retirement age is increasing while not everyone is able to work to such a higher age. Sweden, like other countries, has several options for early exit from the labour market. However, the regulations have become more restrictive in the last decade and early retirement usually leads to a lower pension. In this article, we map options for early retirement in other countries. We have found five main types that all have both advantages and disadvantages. There are also problems with integrating them into the Swedish pension system. |
| Keywords: | retirement, employment, pensions, early exit |
| JEL: | H55 J11 J14 J21 J26 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15327&r= |
| By: | Costa-Font, Joan (London School of Economics); Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina (Universidad de Murcia) |
| Abstract: | Balancing caregiving duties and work can be both financially and emotionally burdensome, especially when care is provided to a spouse at home. This paper documents that financial respite for caregivers can influence individuals' early retirement decisions. We examine the effect of a reform extending long-term care (LTC) benefits (in the form of subsidies and supports) in Spain after 2007 on caregiving spouse's early retirement intention. We subsequently examine the effect of austerity spending cuts in 2012 reducing such publicly funded benefits, and we subsequent compare the estimates to the effects of an early retirement reform among private sector workers in 2013. We document evidence of a 10pp reduction in the early retirement intentions after the LTC reform even though the effect is heterogeneous by type of benefit. Consistently, austerity spending cuts in benefits are found to weaken retirement intentions. Our estimates suggest that cuts in caregiving subsidies exert a much stronger effect on early retirement intentions than actual early retirement reforms. |
| Keywords: | informal care, retirement, employment, long-term care, caregiving subsidies, home care |
| JEL: | I18 J14 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15339&r= |