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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
| By: | Orazio Attanasio; Gabriella Conti; Pamela Jervis; Costas Meghir; Aysu Okbay |
| Abstract: | We evaluate impacts heterogeneity of an Early Childhood Intervention, 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: | GxE interactions, early childhood development, stimulationprograms |
| JEL: | C21 J13 I24 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11869 |
| By: | Costa-Font, Joan; Nicińska, Anna; Rosello-Roig, Melcior |
| Abstract: | Past trauma resulting from personal life shocks, especially during periods of particular volatility such as regime transition (or regime change), can give rise to significant long-lasting effects on people’s health and well-being. We study this question by drawing on longitudinal and retrospective data to examine the effect of past exposure to major individual-level shocks (specifically hunger, persecution, dispossession, and exceptional stress) on current measures of an individual’s health and mental well-being. We examine the effect of the timing of the personal shocks, alongside the additional effect of ‘institutional uncertainty’ resulting from regime change in post-communist European countries. Our findings are as follows. First, we document evidence of the detrimental effects of shocks on a series of relevant health and well-being outcomes. Second, we show evidence of more pronounced detrimental consequences of such personal shocks experienced by individuals living in formerly communist countries (which accrue to about 8% and 10% in the case of persecution and hunger, respectively) than in non-communist countries. The effects are robust and take place in addition to the direct effects of regime change and exposure to personal shocks. |
| Keywords: | later life health; health care system; transition shocks; Soviet communism |
| JEL: | I18 H75 H79 |
| Date: | 2025–07–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:127573 |
| By: | Gonzalez Alvaredo, Facundo; De Rosa, Mauricio; Flores, Ignacio; Morgan, Marc |
| Abstract: | Large gaps exist between income estimates from inequality studies and macroeconomic statistics, questioning our representation of flows and the relevance of economic growth. We take stock of these gaps by confronting multiple datasets in Latin America, finding that surveys account for around half of macroeconomic income over the past twenty years. Less than half of this gap is due to conceptual differences, the remainder coming from growing measurement issues, which mainly concern capital incomes. Top tails in administrative data and surveys present diverging averages, especially for non-wage incomes, and different shapes. We discuss implications for both inequality levels and trends. |
| Keywords: | surveys; national accounts; administrative data; data gaps; income distribution; Latin America |
| JEL: | D30 E01 N36 O54 |
| Date: | 2025–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:128509 |
| By: | Ashraf, Nava (London School of Economics); Bandiera, Oriana (London School of Economics); Minni, Virginia (University of Chicago Booth School of Business); Zingales, Luigi (University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate a firm’s unusual, worker-centered, solution to the agency problem: enabling employees to reduce the cost of effort rather than pushing them with performance rewards. We randomize the roll-out of the firm’s “Discover Your Purpose” intervention among 2, 976 white-collar employees and evaluate their outcomes over two years. We find that performance increases because the low performers either leave the firm or improve in their current jobs. The trade-off between meaning and pay flattens as those with low meaning and high pay leave the firm. Treatment also reshapes stated priorities and reduces gender gaps in preferences and behaviors, including uptake of parental leave. A cost-benefit analysis reveals high returns that are shared between the firm and the employees through higher bonuses. Finally, we show that observational data obscure these gains, causing firms to underestimate the intervention’s true value. |
| Keywords: | meaning-making, worker performance, worker motivation, incentives |
| JEL: | J2 J3 M5 C93 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17904 |