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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2024‒08‒12
eight papers chosen by |
| By: | Cahuc, Pierre (Sciences Po, Paris) |
| Abstract: | This article provides an overview of the economic literature on short-time work. It presents the main characteristics of short-time work since its emergence in Germany in the 1930s. It analyzes its effectiveness as a job preservation mechanism, drawing on theoretical models and empirical studies. It concludes by highlighting the areas that future research could explore to address the most significant gaps in our understanding of short-time work. |
| Keywords: | short-time work, furlough, employment, working hours |
| JEL: | J23 J41 J63 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17111 |
| By: | Elena Pirani (Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti", Università di Firenze); Maria Veronica Dorgali (Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti", Università di Firenze); Valentina Tocchioni (Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti", Università di Firenze); Alessandra Petrucci (Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti", Università di Firenze) |
| Abstract: | In this study, we contribute to the growing, albeit still limited, body of research on the importance of the living environment for individual well-being, focusing on the population aged 65 and over in Italy. We explore life satisfaction, a cognitive component of an individual’s well-being that may help evaluate individuals’ ability to adapt to life changes and challenges of ageing. We investigate various aspects of the living environment, both the indoor characteristics of the housing – its quality and adequacy – and the outdoor features of the immediate neighbourhood environment – its liveability and accessibility. The study provides robust evidence that adequate housing conditions might positively influence the life satisfaction of Italian older adults. Besides, we found that aspects relative to the living environment – namely area friendliness, its maintenance and (absence of) pollution, and the ease of access to shops and services are valuable for a satisfying life. Importantly, whether an inevitable overlap between these characteristics may exist, both housing and neighbourhood living conditions, in their various facets, exert a separate, specific, and substantial role in life satisfaction. Our results might inform city planning interventions about the advantages of creating friendly communities and well-designed urban spaces to support active ageing. |
| Keywords: | living environment, well-being, older adults, composite indicators, Italy |
| JEL: | I31 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fir:econom:wp2024_06 |
| By: | Celhay, Pablo (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile); Gallegos, Sebastian (Universidad Adolfo Ibañez) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents new evidence on schooling mobility across three generations in six Latin American countries. By combining survey information with national census data, we have constructed a novel dataset that includes 50, 000 triads of grandparents, parents, and children born between 1890 and 1990. We estimate five intergenerational mobility (IGM) measures, finding that (i) the empirical multigenerational persistence in our six countries is twice as high as in developed countries, and 77% higher than what the theoretical model by Becker & Tomes (1986) predicts; (ii) Clark's (2014) theory of high and sticky persistence provides a better approximation for describing mobility across multiple generations in our sample; (iii) Even with high persistence, we uncover significant mobility improvements at the bottom of the distribution by estimating measures of absolute upward mobility (Chetty et al., 2014) and bottom-half mobility (Asher et al., 2022) over three generations. This novel evidence deepens our understanding of long-term mobility, and we expect future research to replicate it as more multigenerational data becomes available in different contexts. |
| Keywords: | developing countries, Latin America, intergenerational mobility, educational policy, multiple generations, compulsory schooling |
| JEL: | J62 N36 I24 I25 I28 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17072 |
| By: | Eric A. Hanushek; Andrew J. Morgan; Steven G. Rivkin; Jeffrey C. Schiman; Ayman Shakeel; Lauren Sartain |
| Abstract: | Using rich Texas administrative data, we estimate the impact of middle school principals on post-secondary schooling, employment, and criminal justice outcomes. The results highlight the importance of school leadership, though striking differences emerge in the relative importance of different skill dimensions to different outcomes. The estimates reveal large and highly significant effects of principal value-added to cognitive skills on the productive activities of schooling and work but much weaker effects of value-added to noncognitive skills on these outcomes. In contrast, there is little or no evidence that middle school principals affect the probability a male is arrested and has a guilty disposition by raising cognitive skills but strong evidence that they affect these outcomes through their impacts on noncognitive skills, especially those related to the probability of an out-of-school suspension. In addition, the principal effects on the probability of engagement in the criminal justice system are much larger for Black than for nonBlack males, corresponding to race differences in engagement with the criminal justice system. |
| JEL: | I20 J45 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32642 |
| By: | Pierre-André Chiappori; Costas Meghir; Yoko Okuyama |
| Abstract: | In this paper we develop a novel approach to measuring individual welfare within households, recognizing that individuals may have both different preferences (particularly regarding public consumption) and differential access to resources. We construct a money metric measure of welfare that accounts for public goods (by using personalized prices) and the allocation of time. We then use our conceptual framework to analyse intrahousehold inequality in Japan, allowing for the presence of two public goods: expenditures on children and other public goods including housing. We show empirically that women have much stronger preferences for both public goods and this has critical implications for the distribution of welfare in the household. |
| JEL: | H31 H41 J12 J13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32645 |
| By: | Madeline Duhon; Lia Fernald; Joan Hamory; Edward Miguel; Eric Ochieng; Michael W. Walker |
| Abstract: | This study exploits experimental variation in parent human capital (early-life school-based deworming) and a shock to schooling (extended Covid closures) to estimate how these factors interact in the production of child human capital within a sample of 3, 500 Kenyan 3-8 year olds. Parents with additional exposure to childhood deworming have children with improved human capital, including in health, non-cognitive development, and cognition; cognitive scores are +0.26 standard deviation units higher among treated parents' school-age children, only prior to school closures. Findings are interpreted through a model where home-based and school inputs are complements in the production of child cognition. |
| JEL: | I00 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32617 |
| By: | Amer, Abdelrahman (University of Toronto); Craig, Ashley C (University of Michigan); Van Effenterre, Clémentine (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | Subjective performance evaluation is an important part of hiring and promotion decisions. We combine experiments with administrative data to understand what drives gender bias in such evaluations in the technology industry. Our results highlight the role of personal interaction. Leveraging 60, 000 mock video interviews on a platform for software engineers, we find that average ratings for code quality and problem solving are 12 percent of a standard deviation lower for women than men. Half of these gaps remain unexplained when we control for automated measures of coding performance. To test for statistical and taste-based bias, we analyze two field experiments. Our first experiment shows that providing evaluators with automated performance measures does not reduce the gender gap. Our second experiment removed video interaction, and compared blind to non-blind evaluations. No gender gap is present in either case. These results rule out traditional economic models of discrimination. Instead, we show that gender gaps widen with extended personal interaction, and are larger for evaluators educated in regions where implicit association test scores are higher. |
| Keywords: | discrimination, gender, coding, experiment, information |
| JEL: | C93 D83 J16 J71 M51 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17077 |
| By: | John H.Y. Edwards (Tulane University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of education quality on income inequality among men and on female labor force participation. I introduce a new dataset on local education expenditures for a 64-year period. By matching education spending to the time and place where each person went to school, the data allow for a much more granular measurement of human capital differences than measures like level of schooling or years of school attainment. They also permit measurement of human capital differences and evolution over a much longer time period than the data that are typically available. I show that differences in the quality of education received during childhood become significant determinants of income differences among fully employed adult men. In a finding that is new to the literature, I report that school quality differentials are significant determinants of how adult women allocate their time between domestic labor and formal wage work. |
| Keywords: | Female Labor Force Participation, Women and Economic Development, Brazil, Education Quality, Income Distribution, Education |
| JEL: | I24 I25 O15 J24 J16 D31 D63 H75 N16 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:2409 |