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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2024‒02‒19
seven papers chosen by |
| By: | Bassier, Ihsaan; Manning, Alan; Petrongolo, Barbara |
| Abstract: | We estimate the elasticity of vacancy duration with respect to posted wages, using data from the near-universe of online job adverts in the United Kingdom. Our research design identifies duration elasticities by leveraging firm-level wage policies that are plausibly exogenous to hiring difficulties on specific job vacancies, and control for job and market-level fixed-effects. Wage policies are defined based on external information on pay settlements, or on sharp, internally-defined, firm-level changes. In our preferred specifications, we estimate duration elasticities in the range -3 to -5, which are substantially larger than the few existing estimates. |
| Keywords: | vacancy duration; wages; monopsony; Grant LPIGMANN Number 834455 |
| JEL: | J63 J42 |
| Date: | 2023–08–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:121287&r=ltv |
| By: | Nora Lustig (Tulane University); Valentina Martinez Pabon (Yale University); Carola Pessino (IDB) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses standard fiscal incidence analysis to study how much income redistribution and poverty reduction are accomplished through the fiscal system in eighteen Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. We show there is considerable heterogeneity in the income inequality and poverty-reducing power of LAC fiscal systems. While all LAC fiscal systems reduce income inequality, fiscal systems in nine LAC countries are poverty-increasing, and this startling characteristic has not improved over time. When analyzing specific fiscal elements, we find that direct taxes, direct transfers, and in-kind transfers are all equalizing, and spending on education and health is often pro-poor. Moreover, contrary to expectations, indirect taxes and subsidies are more frequently equalizing than unequalizing. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal policy, inequality, poverty, Latin America |
| JEL: | D31 D6 E62 H22 I32 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:2402&r=ltv |
| By: | Clark, Andrew Eric; Cotofan, Maria Alexandra |
| Abstract: | It is well-known that the wealthier are more likely to have Right-leaning political preferences. We here in addition consider the role of the individual's starting position, and in particular their upward social mobility relative to their parents. In 18 waves of UK panel data, both own and parental social status are independently positively associated with Right-leaning voting and political preferences: given their own social status, the upwardly-mobile are therefore more Left-wing. We investigate a number of potential mediators: these results do not reflect the relationship between well-being and own and parents' social status but are rather linked to the individual's beliefs about how fair society is. |
| Keywords: | social mobility; voting; redistribution; satisfaction; fairness |
| JEL: | A14 C25 D31 D63 J28 J62 |
| Date: | 2023–07–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:121296&r=ltv |
| By: | Clark, Andrew E. (Paris School of Economics); Zhu, Rong (Flinders University) |
| Abstract: | We use nationally representative panel data from Australia to consider the impact of retirement on individual locus of control, a socio-emotional skill that has substantial explanatory power for a broad range of life outcomes. We establish causality via cohort-specific eligibility age for the Australian Age Pension. We show that retirement leads to increased internal locus of control. This greater sense of internal control can explain around one-third and one-fifth of the positive effects of retirement on health and subjective well-being, respectively. The impact of retirement on control beliefs varies along the distribution of locus of control, with the positive influence being most pronounced for men with a relatively high sense of internal control and for women with a relatively high sense of external control. Last, we provide evidence that locus of control is much more malleable at retirement than the other socio-emotional skills of the Big-Five personality traits, risk and time preferences, and trust. |
| Keywords: | retirement, locus of control, socio-emotional skills, public pension |
| JEL: | H55 J24 J26 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16704&r=ltv |
| By: | Attanasio, Orazio; Lopez-Boo, Florencia; Perez-Lopez, Diana; Reynolds, Sarah Anne |
| Abstract: | Gaps in child development by socioeconomic status (SES) start early in life, are large and can increase inequalities later in life. We use recent national-level, cross-sectional and longitudinal data to examine inequalities in child development (namely, language, cognition, and socio-emotional skills) of children 0-5 in five Latin American countries (Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay). In the cross-section analysis, we find statistically significant gaps with inequality patterns that widely differ across countries. For instance, gaps in language and cognition for Uruguay and Chile are much smaller than those for Colombia and Peru. When turning to the longitudinal data, average SES gaps are similar to those of the cross-section in language but differ substantially in cognition, mainly in Uruguay where they emerge as more unequal when cohort effects do not operate. Importantly, we also find that the ECD gaps found at early ages (0-5), still manifest 6-12 years later in almost all locations and realms in which we have measures of early child development, but they do not increase with age. Results are robust to using different measures of inequality (income and maternal education). Gaps are smaller but generally remain when adjusting for possible explanatory factors (e.g., family structure, parental education, geographic fixed effects). To reduce ECD inequality and promote equality in later life outcomes, policymakers should look to implementing evidence-based interventions at scale to improve developmental outcomes of the most disadvantaged children in society. |
| JEL: | I00 |
| Date: | 2024–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:121590&r=ltv |
| By: | Aljosha Henkel; Ernst Fehr; Julien Senn; Thomas Epper |
| Abstract: | Do beliefs about inequality depend on distributive preferences? What is the joint role of preferences and beliefs about inequality for support for redistribution? We study these questions in a staggered experiment with a representative sample of the Swiss population conducted in the context of a vote on a highly redistributive policy proposal. Our sample comprises a majority of inequality averse subjects, a sizeable group of altruistic subjects, and a minority of predominantly selfish subjects. Irrespective of preference types, individuals vastly overestimate the extent of income inequality. An information intervention successfully corrects these large misperceptions for all types, but essentially does not affect aggregate support for redistribution. These results hide, however, important heterogeneity because the effects of beliefs about inequality for demand for redistribution are preference-dependent: only affluent inequality averse individuals, but not the selfish and altruistic ones, significantly reduce their support for redistribution. These findings cast a new light on the seemingly puzzling result that, in the aggregate, large changes in beliefs about inequality often do not translate into changes in demand for redistribution. |
| Keywords: | Social preferences, beliefs about inequality, preferences for redistribution, information, inequality aversion |
| JEL: | D31 D72 H23 H24 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:econwp:442&r=ltv |
| By: | Chen, Le Yu; Oparina, Ekaterina; Powdthavee, Nattavudh; Srisuma, Sorawoot |
| Abstract: | Ordered probit and logit models have been frequently used to estimate the mean ranking of happiness outcomes (and other ordinal data) across groups. However, it has been recently highlighted that such ranking may not be identified in most happiness applications. We suggest researchers focus on median comparison instead of the mean. This is because the median rank can be identified even if the mean rank is not. Furthermore, median ranks in probit and logit models can be readily estimated using standard statistical softwares. The median ranking, as well as ranking for other quantiles, can also be estimated semiparametrically and we provide a new constrained mixed integer optimization procedure for implementation. We apply it to estimate a happiness equation using General Social Survey data of the US. |
| Keywords: | median regression; mixed integer optimization; ordered-response model; quantile regression; subjective well-being |
| JEL: | C25 C61 I31 |
| Date: | 2022–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:115556&r=ltv |