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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2024‒04‒29
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Epper, Thomas (CNRS); Senn, Julien (University of Zurich); Fehr, Ernst (University of Zurich) |
| 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: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16865&r=ltv |
| By: | Heikkuri, Suvi (Unit for Economic History, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | This paper documents the evolution of wage differentials between skilled and unskilled workers in Sweden throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Using newly digitized data on income taxes, this paper demonstrates that the skill premium decreased throughout 1900–1950, and most rapidly from 1930 onward. This is similar to the fall in skill premium documented by Goldin and Katz for the United States. However, unlike in the United States, the fall in skill premia in Sweden cannot be attributed to a supply shock of high school graduates. Rather, this paper shows that incomes of the low- and unskilled increased faster than those for more-skilled. Despite of similar technological change and rapid economic development, Sweden did not exhibit a comparable rise in high school education as the United States. The paper suggests other mechanisms for the falling skill premium in Sweden, such as informal schooling, emigration, and trade union activity. |
| Keywords: | Skill premium; industrialization; Sweden; income inequality |
| JEL: | J24 J30 N34 |
| Date: | 2024–04–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunhis:0040&r=ltv |
| By: | Lehner, Lukas (University of Oxford); Parolin, Zachary (Bocconi University); Wilmers, Nathan (MIT) |
| Abstract: | From 2010 to 2019, personal earnings inequality declined in the United States (U.S.) for the first time in decades, yet household income inequality continued to increase. Discordance between trends in personal earnings inequality and household income inequality was greater than in any other decade in recent U.S. history. We introduce a framework to decompose differences in inequality trends. We find that 46% of the 2010-2019 discordance is due to the changing household composition of workers. Specifically, a larger share of young workers are living with their parents, thus combining low personal earnings with high household incomes. The remaining 54% of discordance stems from inequality-increasing shifts in non-labor income (private income, taxes, and transfers). Despite the rare decline in U.S. earnings inequality, household income inequality increased due to changes in workers' household composition, increases in private income among higher-earning households, and the declining redistributive effect of government income transfers. |
| Keywords: | earnings inequality, income inequality, household composition, secondary earners, government transfers |
| JEL: | D31 E01 H24 I38 J31 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16874&r=ltv |
| By: | Brambilla, Irene; César, Andrés; Falcone, Guillermo; Gasparini, Leonardo |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effects of automation of production on labor market outcomes, and whether there is an effect of automation on functional and personal inequality in Latin America. The paper combines several data sources and empirical strategies in order to approach the issues from different perspectives and to cover different dimensions of labor markets. The main issues that we focus on are: i) the hypothesis that industries with a higher share of workers performing routine tasks are more likely to be affected by automation, using indexes of task routinization by occupation; and ii) the effects of automation on industry and local labor share, employment, wages, personal inequality and poverty. We focus on seven Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru, during the period 1992-2015. |
| Keywords: | Automation;labor share;Labor markets;functional inequality;personal inequality;Latin America |
| JEL: | J21 J24 O33 |
| Date: | 2023–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13120&r=ltv |
| By: | Tom Coupé (University of Canterbury); Maksym Obrizan |
| Abstract: | In this chapter, we summarize the literature on the relationship between war and happiness, highlighting the heterogeneity in both estimates and study designs, and the challenges to estimating the causal impact of war on happiness. |
| Keywords: | War, Happiness, Subjective Well-Being (SWB), Causality, Heterogeneity |
| JEL: | I31 D74 C90 O15 |
| Date: | 2024–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbt:econwp:24/06&r=ltv |