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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2022‒11‒21
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Jorge Luis García; James J. Heckman |
| Abstract: | This paper compares early childhood enrichment programs that promote social mobility for disadvantaged children within and across generations. Instead of conducting a standard meta-analysis, we present a harmonized primary data analysis of programs that shape current policy. Our analysis is a template for rigorous syntheses and comparisons across programs. We analyze new long-run life-cycle data collected for iconic programs when participants are middle-aged and their children are in their twenties. The iconic programs are omnibus in nature and offer many services to children and their parents. We compare them with relatively low-cost more focused home-visiting programs. Successful interventions target both children and their caregivers. They engage caregivers and improve the home lives of children. They permanently boost cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Participants in programs that enrich home environments grow up with better skills, jobs, earnings, marital stability, and health, as well as reduced participation in crime. Long-run monetized gains are substantially greater than program costs for iconic programs. We investigate the mechanisms promoting successful family lives for participants and find intergenerational effects on their children. A study of focused home-visiting programs that target parents enables us to isolate a crucial component of successful programs: they activate and promote parenting skills of child caregivers. The home-visiting programs we analyze produce outcomes comparable to those of the iconic omnibus programs. National implementation of the programs with long-run follow up that we analyze would substantially shrink the overall US Black-White earnings gap. |
| JEL: | D13 J13 J18 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30610&r=ltv |
| By: | Ghazala Azmat (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEP - LSE - Centre for Economic Performance - LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science); Lena Hensvik (Uppsala University); Olof Rosenqvist (IFAU - The Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy) |
| Abstract: | Following the arrival of the first child, women's absence rates soar and become less predictable. This fall in workplace presenteeism harms women's wages, especially in jobs with low substitutability. Although both presenteeism and job uniqueness are rewarded, we document that women's likelihood of holding jobs with low substitutability decreases relative to men's after childbearing. This gap persists, with important long-run wage implications. We highlight that the parenthood wage penalty for women could be reduced by organizing work so that more employees have tasks that can be performed satisfactorily by other employees in the workplace. |
| Keywords: | Work absence,Job substitutability,Gender wage inequality |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpspec:hal-03812822&r=ltv |
| By: | Graber, Michael (SSB); Mogstad, Magne (University of Chicago); Torsvik, Gaute (Dept. of Economics, University of Oslo); Vestad, Ola (SSB) |
| Abstract: | In this report, we combine theory and empirical estimates for how labor earnings respond to changes in tax rates and non-earned income. We use lottery winnings to obtain variation in non-earned income and tax reforms to obtain variation in the net of tax rate. Combining this information with measures of extensive margin responses and the progressivity of the Norwegian income tax schedule, we are able to point identify uncompensated and compensated behavioral responses to income taxes and therefore to calculate efficiency losses and optimal income tax rates (for given welfare weights). |
| Keywords: | income effect; labor supply elasticities; lottery winnings; efficiency loss; optimal income taxation |
| JEL: | D15 H21 H31 H53 J22 |
| Date: | 2022–10–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:osloec:2022_004&r=ltv |
| By: | Aurélien Saussay (Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science and OFCE, Sciences Po); Misato Sato (Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science); Francesco Vona (University of Milan, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and OFCE, Sciences Po); Layla O’Kane (Lightcast) |
| Abstract: | As governments worldwide increase their commitments to tackling climate change, the number of low-carbon jobs are expected to grow rapidly. Here we provide evidence on the characteristics of low-carbon jobs in the US using comprehensive online job postings data between 2010-2019. By accurately identifying low-carbon jobs and comparing them to similar jobs in the same occupational group, we show that low-carbon jobs differ from high-carbon or generic jobs in a number of important ways. Low-carbon jobs have higher skill requirements across a broad range of skills, especially technical ones. However, the wage premium for low-carbon jobs has declined over time and the geographic overlap between low- and high-carbon jobs is limited. Overall, our findings suggest the low-carbon transition entails potentially high labour reallocation costs associated with re-skilling and earning losses, indicating public investments in skills is needed to deliver a smooth and rapid transition. |
| Keywords: | Low-carbon jobs, fossil-fuel jobs, skill gaps, job vacancy data, green wage premium, distributional effects, low-carbon transition |
| JEL: | J23 J24 J31 Q52 Q54 |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2022.31&r=ltv |
| By: | Boeri, Tito (Bocconi University); Cahuc, Pierre (Sciences Po, Paris) |
| Abstract: | The recovery from the Covid-19 crisis will force governments to accelerate transformation in their menu of labor market policy tools. The crisis was a stress test for unemployment insurance schemes as it involved a sudden and unexpected shutdown of a very large set of activities. This forced countries to introduce, often from scratch, income support schemes for workers under new forms of employment, and the self-employed. There was also a considerable expansion of short-time work schemes notably towards the small business. The challenge ahead of us is perhaps even harder as post-Covid19 labor markets are likely to be characterized by substantial labor reallocation. Major innovations in labor market policy are required to smooth consumption of workers involved in this reallocation. We survey the large body of research on schemes reducing the costs of reallocation complementary to unemployment insurance. Our attention is on short-time work (preventing layoffs by subsidizing hors reductions), partial unemployment insurance (enabling workers to combine unemployment benefits with low income jobs), and wage insurance (offering a temporary wage subsidy to workers changing jobs). The properties of these new schemes are first presented and compared to those of standard unemployment benefits. Next the main results of the empirical literature on the effects of wage insurance, partial unemployment insurance and short-time work are presented. A final section is devoted to discussing directions for further research. |
| Keywords: | partial unemployment insurance, wage insurance, short-time work, COVID-19 |
| JEL: | H5 J6 |
| Date: | 2022–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15601&r=ltv |