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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
| By: | Uta Bolt (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Eric French (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Jamie Hentall-MacCuish (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Cormac O'Dea (Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Date: | 2025–07–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:25/23 |
| By: | Huang, Haifang (University of Alberta, Department of Economics); Helliwell, John (University of British Columbia); Norton, Max (University of British Columbia) |
| Abstract: | Using multiple Canadian and U.S. surveys over the past two decades, we find large and comparable declines in life satisfaction and other measures of subjective well-being among young Canadians and young Americans, specifically those below the age of 35. The timing of the decline is consistent, too, with the downward trend starting well before COVID-19, and picking up speed around the mid-2010s. The declines are the most dramatic for Gen Z. But Gen Y follows not far behind. There is no large gender difference, likely reflecting differing equally important challenges. We find substantial declines in all population segments when we divide the survey samples by household income, having a university degree or not, and geographic regions. One notable finding is that in the U.S. those with household income between $35k and $75k a year reported a greater decline than, and has become indistinguishable from, those of lower incomes in terms of life satisfaction and self-assessed mental problems. Canadian in the middle income category, between $40k and $100k, retain a noticeable advantage in life satisfaction over those with lower incomes. Another is that regions that started with a higher level of life satisfaction, such as the Atlantic and Prairie regions in Canada, the Mountain and West North Central census division in the U.S., fell harder than those in initially worse positions. A Canadian exception is Quebec, which started high and experienced the least, though still substantial, decline. |
| Keywords: | subjective well-being; generation; demographics |
| JEL: | E24 H23 J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2025–07–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:albaec:2025_005 |
| By: | Laura Breitkopf (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn); Shyamal Chowdhury (Australian National University); Daniel A. Kamhöfer (University of Kaiserslautern-Landau); Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch (Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn); Matthias Sutter (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Identifying sensitive periods in which the returns to investments into skills are especially high is challenging, but crucial for an effective and efficient timing of parental or public investments aimed at fostering children’s skills. We can detect sensitive periods with a novel design by implementing the same investment in different school grades and examining grade-specific treatment effects. Based on a randomized controlled trial with more than 3, 200 Bangladeshi children in grades 2 to 5, we find sensitive periods in the formation of self-control and patience in grade 2 (age 7–8), while prosociality remains similarly malleable throughout grades 2 to 5 (age 7–11). |
| Keywords: | Sensitive periods, skill formation, randomized controlled trial, self-control, patience, prosociality, social and emotional learning program, experiments with children, Bangladesh |
| JEL: | C93 D01 D64 J13 |
| Date: | 2025–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2025_09 |
| By: | Grönqvist, Erik (Department of Medical Sciences, Health Economics, Centre for Health Economic Research (HEFUU) and Uppsala Center for Labor Studies (UCLS), Uppsala University.); Okuyama, Yoko (Department of Economics, UCLS, and Uppsala Center for Fiscal Studies (UCFS), Uppsala University); Hensvik, Lena (Department of Economics and UCLS, Uppsala University); Thoresson, Anna (Reykjavik University, Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU) and UCLS, Uppsala University.) |
| Abstract: | We study how changes in couples’ relative wages affect the division of childcare. Using a nationwide wage reform that raised pay in the female-dominated teaching profession, we find that closing 25% of the earnings gap between female teachers and their male spouses led to a 12% reduction in the childcare time gap. This result holds when we extend the analysis to major pay raises for women at the population level. Data support the mechanism that women reduce their childcare time when the spouse can step in by working more from home. Policies that address female pay can foster household equality if men have access to flexible work arrangements. |
| Keywords: | Household behavior; Childcare responsibility; Gender gaps; Working from home |
| JEL: | D13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2025–06–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2025_011 |