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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2023‒09‒11
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Bennhoff, Frederik H. (University of Zurich); García, Jorge Luis (Clemson University); Leaf, Duncan Ermini (University of Southern California) |
| Abstract: | We demonstrate the social efficiency of investing in high-quality early childhood education using newly collected data from the HighScope Perry Preschool Project. The data analyzed are the longest follow-up of any randomized early childhood education program. Annual observations of participant outcomes up to midlife allow us to provide a cost-benefit analysis without relying on forecasts. Adult outcomes on the participants' children and siblings allow us to quantify spillover benefits. The program generates a benefit-cost ratio of 6.0 (p-value = 0.03). Spillover benefits increase this ratio to 7.5 (p-value = 0.00). |
| Keywords: | cost-benefit analysis, early childhood education, intergenerational mobility, intergenerational program evaluation, life-cycle benefits, spillover effects |
| JEL: | J13 I28 C93 H43 |
| Date: | 2023–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16370&r=ltv |
| By: | Bingley, Paul (VIVE - The Danish Centre for Applied Social Science); Cappellari, Lorenzo (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Ovidi, Marco (Catholic University Milan) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the stages of childhood at which parental job loss is most consequential for their child's education. Using Danish administrative data linking parents experiencing plant closures to their children, we compare end-of-school outcomes to matched peers and to closures hitting after school completion age. Parental job loss disproportionally reduces test taking, scores, and high school enrolment among children exposed during infancy (age 0-1). Effects are largest for low-income families and low-achieving children. The causal chain from job loss to education likely works through reduced family income. Maternal time investment partially offsets the effect of reduced income. |
| Keywords: | parental labor market shocks, intergenerational mobility, child development |
| JEL: | J13 D10 I24 |
| Date: | 2023–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16367&r=ltv |
| By: | Sanna Kailaheimo-Lönnqvist; Marika Jalovaara; Mikko Myrskylä (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Objective and background: The association between parental separation and children’s education has been widely studied, but mostly at a single time point, for one educational outcome at a time and for marital dissolution only. We examine whether the (generally negative) association has changed across cohorts for several educational outcomes and whether the association differs by parental union type (marriage, cohabitation) and family background (parental education). Due to high rates of separation, the association with children’s education could have weakened over time. Methods: We use Finnish total population register data. We focus on child cohorts born between 1987 and 2003 (N=1, 004, 823) and analyse grade point averages, secondary education and tertiary education using linear probability models with standard errors clustered within families. Results and conclusion: The association between parental separation and educational achievement is negative and has remained similar across the birth cohorts. Differences according to parental union type and socioeconomic family background are small and do not exhibit changes over time. The stability of the association over time suggests that the consequences of parental separation on children’s education have not changed, even though attitudes towards separation may have changed. Keywords: parental separation, parental divorce, children’s education, cohort differences |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2023-036&r=ltv |
| By: | Belloc, Filippo (University of Siena); Burdin, Gabriel (Leeds University Business School); Dughera, Stefano (University Paris Ouest-Nanterre); Landini, Fabio (University of Parma) |
| Abstract: | Advances in artificial intelligence and data analytics have notably expanded employers' monitoring and surveillance capabilities, facilitating the accurate observability of work effort. There is an ongoing debate among academics and policymakers about the productivity and broader welfare implications of digital monitoring (DM) technologies. In this context, many countries confer information, consultation and codetermination rights to employee representation (ER) bodies on matters related to the workplace governance of these technologies. Using a cross-sectional sample of more than 21000 European establishments, we document a positive association between ER and the utilization of DM technologies. We also find a positive effect of ER on DM utilization in the context of a local-randomization regression discontinuity analysis that exploits size-contingent policy rules governing the operation of ER bodies in Europe. Finally, in an exploratory analysis, we find a positive association between DM and process innovations, particularly in establishments where ER bodies are present and a large fraction of workers perform jobs that require finding solutions to unfamiliar problems. We interpret these findings through the lens of a labor discipline model in which the presence of ER bodies affect employer's decision to invest in DM technologies. |
| Keywords: | digital-based monitoring, algorithmic management, HR analytics, transparency, innovation, worker voice, employee representation |
| JEL: | M5 J50 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2023–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16362&r=ltv |
| By: | Simplice A. Asongu (Oxford, UK); Sara le Roux (Oxford, UK) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the role of mobile money innovations in the incidence of income inequality on poverty and severity of poverty in 42 sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1980 to 2019. Mobile money innovations are understood as the mobile used to send money and the mobile used to pay bills online while income inequality is measured with the Gini index. Poverty is measured as the poverty headcount ratio while the severity of poverty is generated as the squared of the poverty gap index. The empirical evidence is based on interactive Quantile regressions. The following main findings are established. (i) Income inequality unconditionally reduces poverty and the severity of poverty though the significance is not throughout the conditional distributions of poverty and the severity of poverty. (ii) Mobile money innovations significantly moderate the positive incidence of income inequality on poverty and the severity of poverty in some quantiles. (iii) Positive net effects are apparent exclusively in the poverty regressions. (iv) Given the negative conditional effects, policy thresholds or minimum mobile money innovation levels needed to completely nullify the positive incidence of income inequality on poverty are provided: 27.666 (% age 15+) and 24.000 (% age 15+) of the mobile used to send money in the 50th and 75th quantiles, respectively and 16.272 (% age 15+) and 13.666 (% age 15+) of the mobile used to pay bills online in the 10th and 50th quantiles, respectively. Policy implications are discussed with respect of SDG1 on poverty reduction and SDG10 on inequality mitigation. |
| Keywords: | Mobile phones; financial inclusion; poverty; inequality; Africa |
| JEL: | G20 O40 I10 I20 I32 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:exs:wpaper:23/046&r=ltv |