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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2024‒04‒08
seven papers chosen by |
| By: | John List |
| Abstract: | In 2019, I put together a summary of data from my field experiments website that pertained to natural field experiments (Harrison and List, 2024). Several people have asked me for updates. In this document I update all figures and numbers to show the details for 2023. I also include the description from the original paper below. |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feb:natura:00785&r=ltv |
| By: | Attanasio, Orazio P.; 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. |
| Keywords: | child development;inequalities;Latin America and the Caribbean |
| JEL: | I14 I24 I25 J13 J24 O54 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13316&r=ltv |
| By: | Laura Breitkopf; Shyamal Chowdhury; Shambhavi Priyam; Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch; Matthias Sutter |
| Abstract: | We use novel data on nearly 6, 000 children and adolescents aged 6 to 16 that combine incen-tivized measures of social, time, and risk preferences with rich information on child behavior and family environment to study whether children’s economic preferences predict their behavior. Re-sults from standard regression specifications demonstrate the predictive power of children’s pref-erences for their prosociality, educational achievement, risky behaviors, emotional health, and behavioral problems. In a second step, we add information on a family’s socio-economic status, family structure, religion, parental preferences and IQ, and parenting style to capture household environment. As a result, the predictive power of preferences for behavior attenuates. We discuss implications of our findings for research on the formation of children’s preferences and behavior. |
| Keywords: | social preferences, time preferences, risk preferences, experiments with children, origins of preferences, human capital, behavior |
| JEL: | C91 D01 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10988&r=ltv |
| By: | Cesarini, David (New York University); Lindqvist, Erik (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University); Östling, Robert (Stockholm School of Economics); Schroeder, Christofer (European Central Bank) |
| Abstract: | There is a well-established negative gradient between economic status and crime, but its underlying causal mechanisms are not well understood. We use data on four Swedish lotteries matched to data on criminal convictions to gauge the causal effect of financial windfalls on player`s own crime and their children`s delinquency. We estimate a positive but statistically insignificant effect of lottery wealth on players`own conviction risk. Our estimates allows us to rule out effects one fifth as large as the cross-sectional gradient between income and crime. We also estimate a less precise null effect of parental lottery wealth on child delinquency. |
| Keywords: | economics of crime; juvenile crime; income and wealth inequality |
| JEL: | J13 K42 |
| Date: | 2023–11–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2023_016&r=ltv |
| By: | Berniell, Inés; Fernández, Raquel; Krutikova, Sonya |
| Abstract: | This chapter examines gender inequality, focusing on two critical spheres in which gender inequality is generated: education and work. The objective is to provide a current snapshot of gender inequality across key indicators as well as a dynamic perspective that highlights successes and failures. Facilitating a cross-country comparison as well by grouping countries within Latin America by their level of economics development and drawing comparisons with countries outside the region. Finally, it reflect on differences in the ways that gender inequalities play out across different socio-economic groups, particularly those that highlight other sources of inequality. The second part of the chapter focuses on the worksphere. Here it document significant improvements in female labor force participation over the last 20 years, especially among the least-educated women (those with incomplete secondary education). However, progress has not been equal across all the countries in the region the pace of improvement in this dimension has been slowest in the least economically developed countries. These are also the countries where a significant proportion of the adult working population, especially among men, continue to hold highly conservative norms about women's participation in work. |
| Keywords: | Education and Inequality;Education and Economic Development;Economics of Gender;human capital;skills;Labor productivity |
| JEL: | I24 I25 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13286&r=ltv |
| By: | Charles Brown (Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan); John Bound (Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan); Chichun Fang (Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan) |
| Abstract: | We use data from the Health and Retirement Study to identify the effect of job demands on applications for Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income benefits and to assess whether these job demands have been changing among older (ages 51 to 61) workers. We find that workers in jobs with physical demands — physical effort, stooping, heavy lifting — are more likely to apply for disability benefits, controlling for workers’ age, education, marital status, and health. We find that other job characteristics that we can measure — requiring good eyesight, concentration, and dealing with people; and being stressful and becoming more difficult — have little effect on disability benefit applications. We do not find a reduction in the physical demands of jobs held by older workers over our 1992 to 2016 sample period. When we control for workers’ education, they have increased. More in line with expectations, we find older workers’ jobs increasingly require good eyesight, concentration, and dealing with people, and weaker trend increases in stressfulness or increasing difficulty of the job. Together, these findings suggest that changing job requirements are unlikely to be an important driver of changing disability benefits applications in the foreseeable future. |
| Date: | 2023–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp461&r=ltv |
| By: | Rickne, Johanna (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University); Folke, Olle (Department of Political Science, Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | We study appreciation of one’s work using nationally representative survey data from Sweden linked with employer–employee data. The level of appreciation from colleagues rises sharply with the share of women in the workplace. This strong pattern holds for women and men workers, as well as for subordinates and managers. More appreciation from colleagues is associated with higher levels of job satisfaction and other indicators of worker well-being. These results demonstrate the benefits of workplace gender diversity and inclusion, and suggest new directions for research on gender inequality in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | gender equality; appreciation at work; diversity; work conditions |
| JEL: | J16 J32 |
| Date: | 2023–11–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2023_005&r=ltv |