|
on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
| By: | David G. Blanchflower; Alex Bryson |
| Abstract: | Between the early 1990s and 2015 the relationship between mental despair and age was hump-shaped in the United States: it rose to middle-age, then declined later in life. That relationship has now changed: mental despair declines monotonically with age due to a rise in despair among the young. However, the relationship between age and mental despair differs by labor market status. The hump-shape in age still exists for those who are unable to work and the unemployed. The relation between mental despair and age is broadly flat, and has remained so, for homemakers, students and the retired. The change in the age-despair profile over time is due to increasing despair among young workers. Whilst the relationship between mental despair and age has always been downward sloping among workers, this relationship has become more pronounced due to a rise in mental despair among young workers. We find broad-based evidence for this finding in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) of 1993-2023, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 2008-2023, and in surveys by Pew, the Conference Board and Johns Hopkins University. |
| JEL: | I31 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34071 |
| By: | Manuel Arellano (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Richard Blundell (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Stéphane Bonhomme (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Martín Almuzara (Federal Reserve Bank of New York) |
| Date: | 2025–08–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:cwp17/25 |
| By: | James J. Heckman; Colleen P. Loughlin; Haihan Tian |
| Abstract: | This paper uses longitudinal data to study the benefits of participation in scholastic athletics starting with high school participation and continuing with college athletics, including the benefits of intramural athletics. We study the impact of participation on a number of important life outcomes, including graduation from high school and college and wages after schooling is completed. Controlling for rich measures of cognitive and personality skills and social background, we find substantial benefits at all levels. Participation in athletics promotes social mobility for disadvantaged and minority students. |
| JEL: | I31 Z2 Z22 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34046 |
| By: | Bedük, Selçuk (University of Oxford); Benassi, Enrico (University of Oxford); Lersch, Philipp M. (German Institute for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Homeownership has declined among younger generations in most European countries. A common assumption is that this trend is increasingly stratified by parental homeownership, due to worsening affordability and the growing importance of parental financial support. In this study, we show that this assumption does not hold for the average European. Using data from EU-SILC 2011 and 2019 across 27 European countries, we examine trends in both relative and absolute mobility of homeownership for cohorts born between 1950 and 1984. We find that individuals with homeowner parents are more likely to own a home than those with renter parents, but this difference remains stable across cohorts. This stability in relative mobility masks important and counteracting trends in absolute mobility: downward mobility increased from 16% to 36%, while upward mobility declined from 25% to 9% between those born in the 1950s and 1980s. While the absolute decline in upward mobility is smaller, its impact on relative mobility is greater due to the high and growing share of individuals with homeowner parents. The importance of the underlying distribution of parental homeownership is also evident in cross-national comparisons. While absolute mobility follows similar trends across countries, relative mobility has increased in some and declined in others. Country case studies suggest that differences in the prevalence of parental homeownership drive these divergent patterns. Our findings highlight the importance of complementing relative with absolute mobility measures, especially when analysing binary outcomes with skewed group distributions. |
| Date: | 2025–07–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:zdu2n_v1 |
| By: | Benassi, Enrico (University of Oxford); Bedük, Selçuk (University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | Young people’s declining access to homeownership is a growing concern across Europe. Yet it remains unclear whether this trend reflects a temporary delay or a more persistent exclusion from homeownership. In this research note, we examine the decline in homeownership from early to mid-adulthood across European birth cohorts born between 1940 and 2000. Using EU-SILC data from 2005–2020, we first document age-homeownership curves, showing that most transitions into ownership occur by age 40. We then show substantial cohort declines in homeownership, especially between ages 25 and 35, but also from 40 to 50. Early-adulthood declines are more pronounced among advantaged groups, likely reflecting delayed transitions to adulthood, while later-life declines are concentrated among disadvantaged groups and avoided only by high earners, suggesting limited access for younger generations. Decomposition analysis reveals that differences in work and family characteristics explain only a small part of the declines at ages 30, 35, and 40. Most of the trend remains unexplained, pointing to a broad deterioration in homeownership access, likely driven by rising house prices. If these trends persist, today’s younger cohorts may increasingly remain excluded from homeownership over their life course. |
| Date: | 2025–07–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:rfpum_v1 |
| By: | Bagues, Manuel (University of Warwick, CEPR and IZA); Zinovyeva, Natalia (University of Warwick, IZA and CAGE) |
| Abstract: | Gender segregation in higher education persists across developed countries and is paradoxically stronger in wealthier, more gender-equal societies. Using data from over 500, 000 children across 37 Western countries, we show that this segregation has roots in childhood. We document a strong correlation at the country level between segregation in higher education and in child- hood friendships. Longitudinal data from 10, 000 British households further shows that children with fewer opposite-sex friends at age 7 are significantly more likely to select gender-dominated educational subjects a decade later. The stronger segregation observed in richer countries seems to reflect economic prosperity rather than backlash against gender equality: while children from wealthier households report fewer cross-gender friendships, those whose parents hold more gender-egalitarian views have more opposite-sex friends. We identify two mechanisms ex- plaining this income gradient: affluent families’ structured activities that emphasize children’s self-expression foster gender-segregated environments, and higher-income children’s personality traits reduce demand for cross-gender friendships. |
| Keywords: | cross-gender friendships, gender equality paradox, women in STEM JEL Classification: J16, I21, Z13 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:761 |
| By: | Robert J. Barro; Edgard Dewitte; Laurence Iannaccone |
| Abstract: | The attendance rate at religious services is an important variable for the sociology and economics of religion, but long-term and global data are scarce. Retrospective questions from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) allow the construction of rates of religious-service attendance back as far as the 1920s in 66 countries, half from the “Global South.” A number of checks support the reliability of the retrospective information. One exercise demonstrates the consistency between retrospective and contemporaneous survey data when the two overlap. Another procedure shows that the retrospective values are similar when generated from individual ISSP surveys for 1991, 1998, 2008, and 2018; that is, there is no clear dependence of memory on the number of years of recall. The new data document a century-long “Great Religious Divergence” between North and South. We use the data to carry out event studies for effects on religious-service attendance of two major events. Vatican II, in 1962-1965, triggered a decline in worldwide Catholic attendance relative to that in other denominations. In contrast, the endings of Communism in the early 1990s did not systematically affect religious-service attendance. Finally, in a large sample, religious-service attendance responds positively to wars and depressions. |
| JEL: | N30 Z12 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34060 |