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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2022‒07‒25
eight papers chosen by |
| By: | Kaiser, Caspar; Oparina, Ekaterina; Gentile, Niccolò; Tkatchenko, Alexandre; Clark, Andrew E.; De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel; D’Ambrosio, Conchita |
| Abstract: | There is a vast literature on the determinants of subjective wellbeing. Yet, standard regression models explain little variation in wellbeing. We here use data from Germany, the UK, and the US to assess the potential of Machine Learning (ML) to help us better understand wellbeing. Compared to traditional models, ML approaches provide moderate improvements in predictive performance. Drastically expanding the set of explanatory variables doubles our predictive ability across approaches on unseen data. The variables identified as important by ML – material conditions, health, social relations – are similar to those previously identified. Our data-driven ML results therefore validate previous conventional approaches. |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amz:wpaper:2022-11&r= |
| By: | Nestor Gandelman (Universidad ORT Uruguay. Facultad de Administración y Ciencias Sociales. Departamento de Economía); Rodrigo Lluberas (Universidad ORT Uruguay. Facultad de Administración y Ciencias Sociales. Departamento de Economía) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents harmonized indicators for household wealth, its components, and its determinants (including intergenerational mobility) in four Latin American countries (Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay), using Spain as a comparison benchmark. It is based on recently available microdata from financial surveys. The paper analyzes the relationship between wealth indicators and sociodemographic characteristics of household heads (age, education, gender, marital status). |
| Keywords: | wealth, income, distribution, Latin America |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:avs:wpaper:133&r= |
| By: | John List |
| Abstract: | These are the slides from John A. List's keynote at the 2022 AFE conference. |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feb:artefa:00755&r= |
| By: | Theresa Neef (Freie Universität Berlin, WIL - World Inequality Lab , EU Tax - EU Tax Observatory); Anne-Sophie Robilliard (IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, WIL - World Inequality Lab) |
| Abstract: | Gender remains one of the key characteristics along which inequalities take shape within countries and across the globe. In this paper, we analyze gender inequality from the perspective of labor income and explore the following questions: Which share of labor income do women earn in a country, a world region, and globally? How has this share evolved since 1990? Labor income includes wages and salaries as well as the labor share of self-employment income. Our inequality indicator, the female labor income share, considers gender differentials in earnings as well as labor force participation. Combining employment and labor income data from the International Labour Organization, the Luxembourg Income Study, and the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, we find that women earned about 30% of global labor income in the early 1990s and 35% today. The female labor income share varies across countries with some distinctive regional patterns. One factor for a low female labor income share is the under-representation of women in top-paying jobs. Based on administrative data, we show the evolution over time of women's share among top wage earners for Brazil, Costa Rica, France, Spain, and the U.S. |
| Keywords: | Labor Income,Gender,Inequality |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-03693182&r= |
| By: | Pablo Brañas-Garza (Universidad de Loyola Andalucia); Lorenzo Ductor (Department of Economic Theory and Economic History, University of Granada.); Jaromir Kovarik (‡Universidad del País Vasco UPV/EHU and University of West Bohemia) |
| Abstract: | Inbreeding homophily is a prevalent feature of human social networks with important individual and group-level social, economic, and health consequences. The literature has proposed an overwhelming number of dimensions along which human relationships might sort, without proposing a unified empirically-grounded framework for their categorization. We exploit rich data on a sample of University freshmen with very similar characteristic - age, race and education- and contrast the relative importance of observable vs. unobservables characteristics in their friendship formation. We employ Bayesian Model Averaging, a methodology explicitly designed to target model uncertainty and to assess the robustness of each candidate attribute while predicting friendships. We show that, while observable features such as assignment of students to sections, gender, and smoking are robust key determinants of whether two individuals befriend each other, unobservable attributes, such as personality, cognitive abilities, economic preferences, or socio-economic aspects, are largely sensible to the model specification, and are not important predictors of friendships. |
| Keywords: | editorial boards, journals, concentration, power, busyness, innovation, impact |
| JEL: | D8 D85 J7 J16 O30 |
| Date: | 2022–07–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gra:wpaper:22/08&r= |
| By: | Luis Guillermo Woo-Mora (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses skin tone and income information for over a hundred thousand individuals across 31 Latin American countries to study racial inequalities during the last decade. First, I estimate the welfare consequences of racial inequality. Subnational regions with higher income inequality between racial groups have worse economic development. Next, I provide evidence of a skin tone income premium. In an eleven-color palette, each darker shade in skin tone on average leads to a 3% decrease in income, with heterogeneity across countries. My analysis suggests racial discrimination is the main mechanism behind this income premium. |
| Keywords: | Race,Inequality,Economic Development,Discrimination |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wilwps:halshs-03693205&r= |
| By: | John Chalmers (University of Oregon); Olivia S. Mitchell (University of Pennsylvania); Jonathan Reuter (Boston College); Mingli Zhong (Urban Institute) |
| Abstract: | Oregon recently launched an automatic-enrollment retirement savings program for private sector workers lacking access to other workplace retirement plans. We analyze participation choices, account balances, and inflow/outflow data using administrative records between August 2018 and April 2020. Within the small- to mid-sized firms served by OregonSaves, estimated average after-tax earnings are low ($2,365 per month) and turnover rates are high (38.2% per year). Younger employees and employees in larger firms have been less likely to opt out of the OregonSaves program, but participation rates fall over time. The most common reason given for opting out is \ldblquote I can\rquote t afford to save at this time,\rdblquote but the second most common is \ldblquote I have my own retirement plan.\rdblquote As of April 2020, 67,731 accounts had positive account balances, holding $51.1 million in total assets. The average balance was $754, but with considerable dispersion; younger workers accumulated the fewest assets due to higher job turnover. Overall, we conclude that OregonSaves has meaningfully increased employee savings by reducing search costs. The 34.3% of workers with positive account balances in April 2020 is comparable to the marginal increase in participation at larger firms in the private sector. Employees opting out of OregonSaves are often doing so for rational reasons. |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp425&r= |
| By: | Joan Costa-i-Font; Martin Knapp; Cristina Vilaplana-Prieto |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic and its mobility restrictions have been an external shock, influencing wellbeing. However, does risk exposure affect the welfare effect of lockdowns? This paper examines the ‘welcomed lockdown’ hypothesis, namely the extent to which there is a level of risk where mobility restrictions are not a hindrance to wellbeing. We exploit the differential timing of the effect of the pandemic across European countries, and the different stringency of lockdown to examine the effects on two mental health conditions, namely anxiety and depression. We examine whether differences in symptoms of anxiety and depression are explained by mortality and stringency of lockdown measures using ad event study that draws on Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM), Difference-in-Difference (DiD) and Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD). Our estimates suggest an average increase in depression (3.95%) and anxiety (10%) symptoms relative to the mean level on the day that the lockdown took effect. However, such effects are wiped out when a country exhibits high mortality (‘pandemic category 5’). Hence, we conclude that in an environment of high mortality, lockdowns no longer give rise to a reduction in well-being consistent with the ‘welcome lockdown’ hypothesis. |
| Keywords: | anxiety, depression, Covid-19, pandemic, lockdown |
| JEL: | I18 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9796&r= |