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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2024‒02‒05
eight papers chosen by |
| By: | Costi, Chiara (University of Luxembourg); Clark, Andrew E. (Paris School of Economics); Lepinteur, Anthony (University of Luxembourg); D'Ambrosio, Conchita (University of Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the life satisfaction of healthcare workers, as compared to the wider workforce, in five European countries. In ten waves of quarterly panel data, the life satisfaction of healthcare workers is always higher than that of other essential workers and non-essential workers. Life satisfaction follows a double humped pattern over time for all workers, which is largely explained by the COVID-19 death rate and policy stringency. The spread of the pandemic in terms of the death rate has twice as large an effect on healthcare workers' life satisfaction; on the contrary, the latter are the only workers whose satisfaction was not affected by the stringency of lockdown policies. |
| Keywords: | healthcare workers, life satisfaction, COVID-19, policy stringency |
| JEL: | H51 I18 I31 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16680&r=ltv |
| By: | McGee, Andrew (University of Alberta, Department of Economics); McGee, Peter (University of Arkansas) |
| Abstract: | Women report setting lower reservation wages than men in survey data. We show that women set reservation wages that are 14 to 18 percent lower than men’s in laboratory search experiments that control for factors not fully observed in surveys such as offer distributions and outside options. This gender gap — which exists even controlling for overconfidence, preferences, personality, and intelligence — leads women to spend less time searching than men while accepting lower wages. Women — but not men — set reservation wages that are too low relative to theoretically optimal values given their risk preferences early in search, reducing their earnings. |
| Keywords: | reservation wages; gender wage gaps; search experiments |
| JEL: | C91 J16 J64 |
| Date: | 2023–12–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:albaec:2023_011&r=ltv |
| By: | Paul Bingley; Lorenzo Cappellari; Marco Ovidi |
| 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: | D10 J13 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2023-12&r=ltv |
| By: | George J. Borjas; Daniel S. Hamermesh |
| Abstract: | Comparing measures of work time in the recall CPS-ASEC data with contemporaneous measures reveals many logical inconsistencies and probable errors. About 8 percent of ASEC respondents report weeks worked last year that contradict their current work histories in the Basic monthly interviews; the error rate is over 50 percent among workers who move in and out of the workforce. Over 20 percent give contradictory information about whether they usually work a full-time weekly schedule. Part of the inconsistency arises because an increasing fraction of ASEC respondents (over 20 percent by 2018) consists of people whose record was fully imputed. The levels and trends of the errors differ by gender and race, and they affect measured wage differentials between 1978 to 2018. Adjusting for the errors and imputations, gender wage gaps among all workers narrowed by 4 log points more than is commonly reported, and residual wage inequality decreased by 6 log points more. In a very carefully defined sample of full-time year-round workers, gender and racial wage differentials narrowed slightly less than previously estimated using ASEC data, but much more than indicated by commonly used estimates from CPS Outgoing Rotation Groups. |
| JEL: | D63 J22 J71 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32025&r=ltv |
| By: | Costa-Font, Joan; Fleche, Sarah; Pagan, Ricardo |
| Abstract: | Daylight Saving Time (DST) is a widely adopted practice implemented by over seventy countries to align sunlight with day-to-day activities and reduce energy demands. However, we do not have a clear knowledge of how it affects individuals’ welfare. Using a regression discontinuity design combined with a differences-indifferences approach, we find that the Spring DST transition causes a significant decline in life satisfaction. By inducing a reallocation of time, the transition into DST deteriorates sleep and increases time stress, which in turn affects physical and emotional health. Using an event-study approach, we find that the effects persist for about six days after the DST transition. By contrast, we provide evidence that the Fall DST transition is associated with a significant increase in life satisfaction. We end the paper by a simple cost-benefit analysis and discuss the potential benefits of ending DST. |
| Keywords: | daylight saving time; wellbeing; health; sleep; time; stress; Wiley deal |
| JEL: | I18 K20 I31 |
| Date: | 2024–01–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:120819&r=ltv |
| By: | Lawrence M. Berger; Lidia Panico; Alexandra Sheridan; Olivier Thévenon |
| Abstract: | Parental emotional support, alongside material and temporal support, is an important determinant of children's subjective well-being and academic success. However, not all children benefit from the same level of parental support, and there are major differences depending on families' socio-economic status and child gender. Using the PISA 2018 surveys, this paper examines differences in parental support reported by 15-year-olds both within countries according to social status and between girls and boys, and between countries. We show that differences in parental emotional support by parents' education level and child gender are substantial. Some of these differences are (largely) explained by other characteristics such as family wealth, country of origin, and school urbanicity and private/public status. Greater parental emotional support is also found to be associated with higher PISA test scores and greater subjective wellbeing, with little variation by parental education. On the whole, our findings suggest that a significant enhancement in parental support and related child outcomes, especially in countries with lower average levels of parental emotional support, can be attained through a combined effort on several fronts: by addressing monetary and material poverty within families, by facilitating parents in balancing work and taking care of their children, by promoting greater parental involvement in their children's school life, and by offering appropriate services to assist families with special needs and facing greater challenges. |
| Keywords: | child well-being, children, parental emotional support, parenting |
| JEL: | I31 I32 J13 |
| Date: | 2024–01–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:wiseaa:20-en&r=ltv |
| By: | Dodini, Samuel (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Willén, Alexander (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Zhu, Julia Li (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | We examine if unions narrow or widen labor market gaps between natives and immigrants. We do so by combining rich Norwegian employer-employee matched register data with exogenous variation in union membership obtained through national government policies that differentially shifted the cost to workers to join a union. While union membership significantly improves the wages of natives, its positive effects diminish substantially for Western immigrants and disappear almost entirely for non-Western immigrants. The effect of unions on native wages, and the role of unions in augmenting the native-immigrant wage gap, is nonexistent in competitive labor markets while it is substantial in markets characterized by a high degree of labor concentration. This implies that unions act as a countervailing force to employer power in imperfect markets and can ameliorate the negative labor market effects of labor market concentration, but only for natives. Using unions as a means to empower workers and solve market failures caused by imperfect competition in the labor market, therefore, is likely to lead to a significant increase in societal inequality. |
| Keywords: | Unions; Migration; Inequality |
| JEL: | J10 J50 J60 |
| Date: | 2023–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2023_024&r=ltv |
| By: | David E. Bloom (Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health); Klaus Prettner (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business); Jamel Saadaoui (University of Strasbourg); Mario Veruete (Quantum DataLab) |
| Abstract: | What will likely be the effect of the emergence of ChatGPT and other forms of artificial intelligence (AI) on the skill premium? To address this question, we develop a nested constant elasticity of substitution production function that distinguishes between industrial robots and AI. Industrial robots predominantly substitute for low-skill workers, whereas AI mainly helps to perform the tasks of high-skill workers. We show that AI reduces the skill premium as long as it is more substitutable for high-skill workers than low-skill workers are for high-skill workers. |
| Keywords: | Automation, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Skill Premium, Wages, Productivity |
| JEL: | J30 O14 O15 O33 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp353&r=ltv |