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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2024‒04‒22
three papers chosen by |
| By: | Thomas Epper; Julien Senn; Ernst Fehr |
| Abstract: | The empirical evidence on the existence of social preferences—or lack thereof—is predominantly based on student samples. Yet, knowledge about whether these findings can be extended to the general population is still scarce. In this paper, we compare the distribution of social preferences in a student and in a representative sample. Using descriptive analysis and a rigorous clustering approach, we show that the distribution of the general population’s social preferences fundamentally differs from the students’ distribution. In the general population, three types emerge: an inequality averse, an altruistic, and a selfish type. In contrast, only the altruistic and the selfish types emerge in the student population. The absence of an inequality averse type in the student population is particularly striking considering the fact that this type comprises about 50 percent of the individuals in the general population sample. Using structural estimation, we show that differences in age and education are likely to explain these results. Younger and more educated individuals—which typically characterize students— not only tend to have lower degrees of other-regardingness but this reduction in other-regardingness basically nullifies behindness aversion among students. Differences in income, however, do not seem to affect social preferences. These findings provide a new cautionary tale that insights from student populations might not extrapolate to the general population. |
| Keywords: | social preferences, altruism, inequality aversion, preference heterogeneity, subject pools, sample selection |
| JEL: | C80 C90 D30 D63 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11009&r=ltv |
| By: | Luis Laguinge (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP & CONICET); Leonardo Gasparini (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP & CONICET); Guido Neidhöfer (ZEW Mannheim & Turkish-German University) |
| Abstract: | Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) have become a key antipoverty policy in Latin America in the last 25 years. The ultimate goal of this kind of programs is to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty through the promotion of human capital accumulation of children in vulnerable households. In this paper, we explore this issue by estimating the long-run effects of the largest CCT in Latin America: the Brazilian Bolsa Familia. Through a combination of the two-stage-two-sample method and a difference-in-differences approach, we find evidence consistent with a positive long-run impact of Bolsa Familia among former beneficiaries. In particular, we find a significant positive effect on education and labor income, and a negative effect on the likelihood of being a current beneficiary of this social transfer. |
| JEL: | D04 I38 J24 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0328&r=ltv |
| By: | Judith K. Hellerstein; Sai Luo; Sergio S. Urzúa |
| Abstract: | Recent research concludes that wage returns to cognitive skills have declined in the U.S. We reassess this finding. Using decomposition methods, we document the pivotal role played by dynamic shifts in the distributions of pre-labor market cognitive skills. Our findings show these shifts explain the declining estimated returns to cognitive skills, especially for white men. We discard measurement error as a potential driver. Although often overlooked, grappling with changing pre-labor market skill distributions is necessary for capturing the evolution of labor market returns to cognitive skills. This may prove especially important in the future given continuing changes in skill development in recent youth cohorts. |
| JEL: | J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32229&r=ltv |