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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
| By: | Zvi Eckstein; Michael P. Keane; Osnat Lifshitz |
| Abstract: | In the 1960 cohort, American men and women graduated from college at similar rates, and this was true for Whites, Blacks and Hispanics. But in more recent cohorts, women graduate at much higher rates than men. Gaps between race/ethnic groups have also widened. To understand these patterns, we develop a model of individual and family decision-making where education, labor supply, marriage and fertility are all endogenous. Assuming stable preferences, our model explains changes in education for the ‘60-‘80 cohorts based on three exogenous factors: family background, labor market and marriage market constraints. We find changes in parental background account for 1/4 of the growth in women’s college graduation from the ’60 to ’80 cohort. The marriage market accounts for 1/5 and the labor market explains the rest. Thus, parent education plays an important role in generating social mobility, enabling us to predict future evolution of college graduation rates due to this factor. We predict White women’s graduation rate will plateau, while that of Hispanic and Black women will grow rapidly. But the aggregate graduation rate will grow very slowly due to the increasing Hispanic share of the population. |
| JEL: | D15 J11 J13 J15 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33869 |
| By: | Attanasio, Orazio (Yale University); Conti, Gabriella (University College London); Jervis, Pamela (Universidad de Chile); Meghir, Costas (Yale University); Okbay, Aysu (Amsterdam University of Applied Science) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate impacts heterogeneity of an Early Childhood Intervention in Colombia, with respect to the Educational Attainment Polygenic Score (EA4 PGS) constructed from DNA data based on GWAS weights from a European population. We find that the EA4 PGS is predictive of several measures of child development, mother’s IQ and, to some extent, educational attainment. We also show that the impacts of the intervention are significantly greater in children with low PGS, to the point that the intervention eliminates the initial genetic disadvantage. Lastly, we find that children with high PGS attract more parental stimulation; however, the latter increases more strongly in children with low PGS. |
| Keywords: | stimulation programs, early childhood development, GxE interactions |
| JEL: | C21 J13 I24 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17897 |
| By: | Costa-Font, Joan (London School of Economics); Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina (Universidad de Murcia) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of the Brexit referendum on the quality of employment and working conditions of workers in the National Health Service (NHS). Using a difference-in-differences (DiD) design and propensity score matching to compare NHS employees with a control group referring to occupations less exposed to employees from the European Union (EU) before Brexit. We document that Brexit led to the average reduction of job satisfaction by 1.39% - largest for physicians (2.6%) and nurses (2.4%) - and an increase of both paid (1.75 hours/week) and unpaid working hours (8.3 hours/week). Nonetheless, the effect was heterogeneous despite the general rise in working time. Indeed, job satisfaction fell by 2.6% among British workers but increased by 3% among overseas workers. These changes were accompanied by a comparable reduction in leisure time and a higher likelihood of workers intending to leave their jobs, suggesting broader behavioural effects that may undermine NHS productivity. |
| Keywords: | workforce composition, health care workforce, Brexit, workforce motivation, job satisfaction, leisure satisfaction, NHS. |
| JEL: | I12 J22 J45 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17895 |
| By: | Priyaranjan Jha; Jyotsana Kala; David Neumark; Antonio Rodriguez-Lopez |
| Abstract: | We assess how minimum wage effects on restaurant employment in the U.S. vary with labor market size and monopsony power. Using city-level data, we construct monopsony proxies based on labor flows and concentration. Minimum wages bind less in larger cities, consistent with the urban wage premium, and omitting this relationship overstates how labor market power reduces adverse employment effects of minimum wages. Nonetheless, accounting for city size, lower job market fluidity is linked to weaker negative employment effects, consistent with search models. By contrast, traditional concentration measures do not consistently predict variation in the effects of minimum wages. |
| JEL: | J38 J42 R23 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33862 |