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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2024‒05‒27
four papers chosen by |
| By: | Baten, Jörg; Batinti, Alberto; Costa-Font, Joan; Radatz, Laura |
| Abstract: | Health insurance expansions can improve health outcomes by increasing access to healthcare. This is especially true among the poorer segments of the population, who may not be able to afford the cost of healthcare, or might lack the information about where to seek proper medical care. In this paper we examine whether increased access to health insurance has historically reduced height inequality by promoting body growth, particularly among poorer individuals, and so enhanced their height, a widely used and well-established anthropometric health and well-being indicator. We draw on evidence from a panel of countries for which we could measure height inequality. Our evidence document clear evidence that indeed within-country differences in height inequality decreased following health insurance expansions towards near-universal coverage. |
| Keywords: | health insurance expansions; heights; health inequality; inequality; economic development |
| JEL: | N34 I10 J15 |
| Date: | 2024–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:122716&r=ltv |
| By: | Costa-Font, Joan; D'Amico, Francesco; Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of long-term care subsidies and supports on the well-being of unpaid caregivers. We draw on evidence from a policy intervention, which universalized previously means-tested caregiving supports in Scotland, known as free personal care (FPC). We document causal evidence of an increase in the well-being (happiness) of unpaid carers after the introduction of FPC. Our estimates suggest economically relevant improvements in happiness (12 percentage point increase in subjective well-being) among caregivers exposed to FPC and who provide at least 35 hours of care per week. Consistently, these results are larger among women and non-actively employed caregivers (17 percentage point increase in happiness). Estimates are not driven by selection into caregiving; they are explained by income effects of FPC among caregivers. |
| Keywords: | caregiving; long-term care subsidies; Scotland; caregiver’s well-being; subjective well-being |
| JEL: | I18 J22 |
| Date: | 2023–10–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:116940&r=ltv |
| By: | Gornick, Janet C.; Brady, David; Marx, Ive; Parolin, Zachary (Columbia University) |
| Abstract: | Income supports in the U.S. rely heavily on targeting based on means testing, categorical eligibility, or both. One result is that some groups are relatively underserved, often because they fall between the cracks of existing categories. One such group in the U.S. is non-elderly, nondisabled, childless adults. We assess poverty rates and poverty reduction—the extent to which taxes and transfers reduce market-generated poverty—in the U.S. compared to six other high-income countries: Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Each of these countries reduces poverty more than does the U.S. and/or achieves lower post-tax-post-transfer poverty rates. Based on our cross-national comparative assessment—drawing on both microdata and country-level indicators—we offer some lessons for the U.S. First, the U.S. workforce is notable for its large share of low-wage workers. The U.S. could lower the incidence of low-paid work, and thus reduce poverty among the employed, by increasing the minimum wage at the federal and/or state and local levels, and by expanding the share of the workforce covered by collective agreements. Second, both income taxes and social contributions are pushing childless adults into poverty—more so in the U.S. than elsewhere. The U.S. could mitigate poverty among childless adults via any of a number of tax-related reforms. Third, our results indicate that U.S. income transfers, for this group, stand out in how meager they are. The U.S. could ameliorate poverty in this often-overlooked group by providing more-extensive income transfers, to those both in and out of work. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper) |
| Date: | 2024–04–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:ja6em&r=ltv |
| By: | Biewen, Martin (University of Tuebingen); Erhardt, Pascal (University of Tübingen) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the distributional effects of a minimum wage introduction based on a data set with a moderate sample size but a large number of potential covariates. Therefore, the selection of relevant control variables at each distributional threshold is crucial to test hypotheses about the impact of the treatment. To this end, we use the post-double selection logistic distribution regression approach proposed by Belloni et al. (2018a), which allows for uniformly valid inference about the target coefficients of our low-dimensional treatment variables across the entire outcome distribution. Our empirical results show that the minimum wage crowded out hourly wages below the minimum threshold, benefitted monthly wages in the lower middle but not the lowest part of the distribution, and did not significantly affect the distribution of hours worked. |
| Keywords: | wage structure, automatic specification search, double machine learning |
| JEL: | J31 C3 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16894&r=ltv |