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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2023‒05‒08
seven papers chosen by |
| By: | Sarah Cattan (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Gabriella Conti (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Christine Farquharson (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Rita Ginja (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Maud Pecher (Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Date: | 2022–10–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:22/43&r=ltv |
| By: | Lei Wang (Shaanxi Normal University); Yiwei Qian (Stanford University); Nele Warrinnier (Queen Mary University of London and LICOS, KU Leuven); Orazio Attanasio (Yale University, the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS)); Scott Rozelle (Stanford University); Sean Sylvia (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) |
| Abstract: | We present evidence from a randomized experiment testing the impacts of a six-month early childhood home-visiting program on child outcomes at school entry. Two and a half years after completion of the program, we find persistent effects on child working memory - a key skill of executive functioning that plays a central role in children’s development of cognitive and socio-emotional skills. We also find that the program had persistent effects on parental time investments and preschool enrolment decisions. Children were enrolled earlier and in higher quality preschools, the latter reflecting a shift in preferences over preschool attributes toward quality. Our findings imply an important role for the availability of high-quality subsequent schooling in sustaining the impacts of early intervention programs. |
| Keywords: | Early Childhood Development, Parenting, China, Poverty |
| JEL: | J13 I21 I28 H11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qmw:qmwecw:931&r=ltv |
| By: | Richard Blundell (Institute for Fiscal Studies); James P. Ziliak (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Hugo Lopez (University of Chicago) |
| Date: | 2023–04–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:23/16&r=ltv |
| By: | Gustafsson, Björn Anders (University of Gothenburg); Österberg, Torun (University of Gothenburg) |
| Abstract: | Moves into and out of privileged neighborhoods as well as moves into and out of disadvantaged neighborhoods in metropolitan Sweden are studied using register data on all moves by adults that took place between 2004 and 2006. Based on estimated multivariate models, we find that, for all four types of moves, age, education, household income, household composition and its changes, as well as labor market status and its changes, matter. However, in addition, where the person was born can matter, as, with some exceptions, foreign-born people are less likely than natives with the same characteristics to move into a privileged neighborhood. Furthermore, foreign-born are typically less likely than natives with the same characteristics to move out of the metropolitan regions. However, considerable heterogeneity in probabilities to move between those born in different categories of countries is found. Adults born in high-income countries are, in many cases, moving similarly to natives with the same characteristics, while this is typically not found among people born in low-income countries. The latter might be due to fewer assets, lesser social capital, discrimination in the housing market or in housing finance, or by choice. |
| Keywords: | residental mobility, neighbourhoods, immigrants, Sweden |
| JEL: | J15 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16044&r=ltv |
| By: | Eshaghnia, Sadegh S. M. (University of Chicago); Heckman, James J. (University of Chicago); Landerso, Rasmus (Rockwool Foundation Research Unit) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a new approach to measuring the intergenerational transmission of well-being and a novel perspective on which measures and what age ranges to use to estimate intergenerational social mobility. We select the measures and the age ranges that best predict important human capital outcomes of children. The predictive power of parental resources varies among measures of parental resources as well as the age ranges used to measure them. Lifetime measures outperform traditional snapshot proxies for lifetime incomes based on income flows at certain age windows in predicting child outcomes, regardless of the ages when child outcomes are measured. The sensitivity of IGE estimates to the ages at which parental resources are measured is far smaller than their sensitivity to whether lifetime measures are used or whether snapshot measures are used. We also find that the financial resources of parents compensate in part for non-monetary inputs to child human capital such as the stability of the family and education of parents. We interpret our estimates using the technology of skill formation modified to account for the emergence of new skills in adolescence. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational elasticity of income, lifecycle measures, child development, timing of income, compensatory investments |
| JEL: | I24 D31 I30 |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16038&r=ltv |
| By: | Frank A Cowell (LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science); Emmanuel Flachaire (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | To compare income and wealth distributions and to assess the effects of policy that affect those distributions require reliable inequality-measurement tools. However, commonly used inequality measures such as the Gini coefficient have an apparently counter-intuitive property: income growth among the rich may actually reduce measured inequality. We show that there are just two inequality measures that both avoid this anomalous behavior and satisfy the principle of transfers. We further show that the recent increases in US income inequality are understated by the conventional Gini coefficient and explain why a simple alternative inequality measure should be preferred in practice. |
| Keywords: | Gini coefficient, inequality measures, median, Gini coefficient inequality measures median |
| Date: | 2023–03–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04064329&r=ltv |
| By: | Stefano Filauro (Bocconi University); Flaviana Palmisano (Sapienza University of Rome); Vito Peragine (University of Bari) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the effect of inherited individual circumstances such as gender, family background, birth location on individual earnings in Europe. By using three waves of the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (2005, 2011, 2019) we study the extent, the evolution, and the sources of inequality of opportunity in labour income in 27 European countries. We provide both country-specific estimates and a novel, pan-European analysis, in which the European Union is treated as a single entity and the country of birth is used as additional individual circumstance. The cross-country analysis reveals that on average about 40 per cent of earnings inequality is explained by pre-determined circumstances, although the data reveal some degree of heterogeneity, both in terms of levels and trends. Gender and parental education emerge as the most relevant circumstances in most countries. Pan-European inequality of opportunity, estimated through a multilevel model, appears much higher than any other country specific estimates: in the last wave about 60 per cent of total earnings inequality is explained by circumstances, although there has been a clear decreasing trend in the last 15 years, showing a sharp process of convergence within Europe. |
| Keywords: | inequality, equality of opportunity, earnings, labour market, Europe |
| JEL: | D31 D63 J31 O15 |
| Date: | 2023–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2023-644&r=ltv |