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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
| By: | Richard Blundell (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Monica Costa Dias (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Graham Mazeine (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Costas Meghir (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Tom Waters (Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Date: | 2026–10–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:26/58 |
| By: | Aghion, Philippe; Bergeaud, Antonin; Blundell, Richard; Griffith, Rachel |
| Abstract: | We use matched employee–employer data from the UK to investigate the importance of social skills – in particular, teamwork and communication with co-workers – as a driver of wage growth for workers with lower formal education. We find that in social skill tasks, a significant fraction of less educated workers enjoy wage progression with tenure, and higher returns in firms with more educated co-workers. We rationalise these dynamics through a model in which social skills – initially opaque to both employee and employer – are learned about over time through complementarity with co-workers. |
| Keywords: | firm pay premium;social skills;teamwork;tenure-wage profiles;wage growth |
| JEL: | J31 J24 L25 |
| Date: | 2026–09–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:141241 |
| By: | Bedük, Selçuk (University of Oxford); Benassi, Enrico (University of Oxford); Lersch, Philipp M. (German Institute for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Homeownership is declining among younger generations across Europe. A common assumption is that this decline has been increasingly stratified by parental homeownership, due to rising house prices and the growing importance of parental financial support. We show that this assumption does not hold for the average European (and for most countries). Using data from EU-SILC 2011 and 2019 covering 24 European countries, we examine trends in relative and absolute mobility of homeownership for birth cohorts 1951 to 1984. On average, relative mobility remained largely stable across cohorts, while absolute mobility increased. The apparent stability of relative mobility masks a deeper structural cohort shift: downward mobility increased from 14 per cent to 38 per cent, while upward mobility declined from 23 per cent to 8 per cent between cohorts born in the early 1950s and early 1980s. Therefore, homeownership has declined significantly for both children of homeowners and renters. We also compare absolute and relative mobility trends across countries and show that they often diverge for two reasons. First, a mechanical effect of the origin distribution: in countries with widespread parental homeownership, relative mobility largely reflects changes in upward mobility. Second, the source of mobility: using two novel counterfactual simulations, we show that observed absolute mobility changes mainly stem from structural shifts in homeownership chances, rather than strengthening parent-child associations. |
| Date: | 2026–10–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:s8azp_v1 |
| By: | John List |
| Abstract: | The Perry Preschool Project was an experiment conducted from 1962 to 1967 to test how high-quality early childhood education could affect the IQ of at-risk African American children from low-income families in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Graduation, earnings, and crime all moved. Rates of return of 7–10% reshaped policy. But Perry was a product of its era: one treatment, one site, a small sample, and 40 years of waiting before the evidence crystallized. It could tell us that early investment works. It could not tell us why it works, which components matter, or how to deliver them at scale. To fill this gap, Professor List and his team began their own study in 2008, randomizing children in Chicago Heights, Illinois, into a series of interventions and applying a battery of assessments aimed at understanding the mechanisms through which early childhood education affects human capital formation over the life cycle. In these slides, we go through the results of this experiment and put into perspective the lessons learned from this modern Perry Preschool Project. |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feb:framed:00840 |
| By: | Joan Costa-Font; Sergi Jiménez-Martín; Cristina Vilaplana-Prieto |
| Abstract: | We estimate the health and wellbeing effects of subsidized access to long-term care (LTC). Our analysis exploits the staggered implementation of Spain’s 2007 System of Autonomy and Care for Dependent People (SAAD), which expanded publicly funded and universal LTC subsidies and supports, as well as its subsequent reform. Using two decades worth of administrative and survey data and leveraging exogenous regional and individual-level variation in program exposure, we find that access to SAAD benefits reduces the care receiver’s depressive symptoms by about 1 percentage point, increases its survival probability by 2.6–3 percentage points, and raises its life satisfaction by 0.24–0.50 scale points. Cost-effectiveness estimates indicate that the implied cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained lies below commonly accepted efficiency thresholds for public health spending in Europe. These findings document sizeable health returns and efficiency gains from publicly subsidized LTC provision. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaeee:eee2026-30 |
| By: | Pedro Carneiro (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Yyannú Cruz-Aguayo (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Francesca Salvati (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Norbert Schady (Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Date: | 2026–10–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:26/60 |
| By: | Orazio Attanasio; Raquel Bernal; Michele Giannola; Milagros Nores |
| Abstract: | Using child development data collected during the evaluation of an early childhood education program, this paper estimates a dynamic model of human development from ages 1 to 6. We model three latent factors—health, cognitive skills, and socio-emotional skills—and allow them to interact with each other and with multiple inputs to shape subsequent development. The richness and high-frequency nature of the data permit a flexible specification that (i) allows for complex dynamics, (ii) lets each factor con- tribute to the production of the others, (iii) permits age-varying production technologies, and (iv) treats parental investment as endogenous. We use the estimated model to identify “windows of opportunity” in which parental interventions, or programs that increase investment, are especially effective. Results indicate that developmental dynamics are richer than typically assumed, with important implications for persistence: the impact of inputs can decay or endure in ways that vary across domains and over age. Accounting for endogenous investment is consequential for inference. |
| JEL: | I15 I25 I32 J13 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35818 |
| By: | Ellora Derenoncourt (Princeton University and NBER); Francois Gerard (University College London); Lorenzo Lagos (Brown University); Claire Montialoux (Sciences Po) |
| Abstract: | How do minimum wages affect informality? We study the near-doubling of the real minimum wage from 2000 to 2009 in Brazil, where 46% of the workforce is informal. Using labor force surveys covering the informal sector, we show the minimum wage exhibits near full passthrough to informal employees working in formal firms, about half of all informal employees. The formal-to-informal reallocation elasticity with respect to the formal-wage is small: -0.28. Our findings illustrate how minimum wages can positively affect living standards for workers thought beyond the reach of labor law, a sizable share of the workforce in developing economies. |
| Keywords: | Brazil |
| JEL: | J23 J46 J88 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cepsud:351 |