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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2023‒07‒24
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Celidoni, Martina (University of Padova); Costa-Font, Joan (London School of Economics); Salmasi, Luca (Catholic University - Rome) |
| Abstract: | Unexpected mobility disruptions during lockdown during the first wave of COVID-19 became 'tipping points' with the potential to alter pre-pandemic routines sensitive to socialisation. This paper investigates the impact of lockdown exposure on alcohol consumption. We document two findings using information from the Google Mobility Report and longitudinal data from the Understanding Society in the United Kingdom. First, we find a sharp reduction in both actual mobility and alcohol use (consistent with a "still and dry pandemic for the many" hypothesis). However, we document an increase in alcohol use among heavy drinkers, implying a split behavioural response to COVID-19 mobility restrictions based on alcohol use prior to the pandemic. Second, using the predictions of the prevalence-response elasticity theory, we find that the pandemic's reduction in social contacts is responsible for a 2.8 percentage point reduction in drinking among men. |
| Keywords: | health behaviours, lockdown, mobility restrictions, alcohol use, routines, mobility, difference in differences, COVID-19 |
| JEL: | I13 I18 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16251&r=ltv |
| By: | Sascha Becker (Monash University); Volker Lindenthal (LMU Munich); Sharun Mukand (University of Warwick); Fabian Waldinger (LMU Munich) |
| Abstract: | We study the role of professional networks in facilitating emigration of Jewish academics dismissed from their positions by the Nazi government. We use individual-level exogenous variation in the timing of dismissals to estimate causal eects. Academics with more ties to early émigrés (emigrated 1933-1934) were more likely to emigrate. Early émigrés functioned as “bridging nodes” that facilitated emigration to their own destination. We also provide evidence of decay in social ties over time and show that professional networks transmit information that is not publicly observable. Finally, we study the relative importance of three types (family, community, professional) of social networks. |
| Keywords: | professional networks; high-skilled emigration; Nazi Germany; Jewish academics; universities; |
| JEL: | I20 I23 I28 J15 J24 N30 N34 N40 N44 |
| Date: | 2023–06–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:403&r=ltv |
| By: | Markussen, Simen (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Røed, Knut (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | We use administrative data from Norway to examine recent trends in the association between parents' prime age earnings rank and offspring's educational performance rank by age 15/16. We show that the intergenerational correlation between these two ranks has increased over the past decades, and that offspring from economically disadvantaged families have fallen behind. This has happened despite public policies contributing to leveling the playing field. In particular, we show that the expansion of universal childcare and, more recently, the increased teacher-pupil ratio in compulsory school, have disproportionally benefited lower class offspring. The rising influence of parents' earnings rank can partly be explained by a strengthened intragenerational association between earnings rank and education among parents, as educational achievement has an inheritable component. Yet a considerable unexplained rise in the influence of family background remains, pointing towards an impending decline in intergenerational economic mobility. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational mobility, achievement gaps, parental influence, meritocracy, GPA |
| JEL: | I24 J62 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16223&r=ltv |
| By: | Gustafsson, Björn Anders (University of Gothenburg); Sai, Ding (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) |
| Abstract: | Using data from the China Household Income Project in 2013 and 2018, this paper studies relative poverty among rural hukou holders living in urban China and urban hukou holders. People living in households with an income below a fixed percent of the median per-capita income and wealth below the same fixed percent of the median per-capita wealth among urban residents are deemed as relative poor. Although migrants with rural hukou living in urban China were more prone to twice poverty than urban residents in 2013, this was not generally the case in 2018. A multivariate analysis shows several factors to be related to the probability of being twice relative poor. Even considering these factors, a rural hukou status increased the probability of being twice relative poor in 2013. In contrast, such an excess risk of being twice relative poor was much lesser outspoken in middle and low-ranking cities in 2018. However, rural to urban migrants living in high-ranking cities had a somewhat higher risk of being relative poor than urban residents with the same characteristics in 2018. |
| Keywords: | China, poverty, migrants, China Household Income Project |
| JEL: | I32 P36 R23 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16255&r=ltv |
| By: | Eric A. Hanushek; Yuan Wang; Lei Zhang |
| Abstract: | The dramatic expansion of the education system and the transformation of the economy in China provide an opportunity to investigate how the labor market rewards skills. Between 2007 and 2018, the overall return to cognitive skills is virtually constant at 10%, whereas the college premium drops steeply by more than 20 percentage points. But, the regional differences in returns are significant and highlight the importance of differential demand factors. College returns are higher in more developed regions, but the declining trend is more pronounced. Returns to cognitive skills increase in more developed regions and decrease in less developed regions. |
| JEL: | I26 J01 O10 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31367&r=ltv |