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on Neuroeconomics |
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Issue of 2024‒07‒22
two papers chosen by |
| By: | Lin, Zhuoer (Yale University); Ye, Justin (Yale University); Allore, Heather (Yale University); Gill, Thomas M. (Yale University); Chen, Xi (Yale University) |
| Abstract: | Given the critical role of neurocognitive development in early life, this study assesses how racial differences in early-life circumstances are collectively and individually associated with racial disparities in late-life cognition. Leveraging uniquely rich information on life history from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study for non-Hispanic White (White) and non-Hispanic Black (Black) Americans 50 years or older, we employ the Blinder-Oaxaca method to decompose racial gaps in cognitive outcomes into early-life educational experiences, cohort, regional, financial, health, trauma, family relationship, demographic and genetic factors. Overall, differences in early-life circumstances are associated with 61.5% and 82.3% of the racial disparities in cognitive score and impairment, respectively. Early-life educational experience is associated with 35.2% of the disparities in cognitive score and 48.6% in cognitive impairment. Notably, school racial segregation (all segregated schooling before college) is associated with 28.8%-39.7% of the racial disparities in cognition. Policies that improve educational equity have the potential to reduce racial disparities in cognition into older ages. Clinicians may leverage early-life circumstances to promote the screening, prevention, and interventions of cognitive impairment more efficiently, thereby promoting health equity. |
| Keywords: | early life circumstances, life course, school segregation, quality of education, racial disparity, cognition |
| JEL: | J15 I14 J13 J14 I20 H75 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17040&r= |
| By: | John de New (Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, The University of Melbourne); Sonja C. de New (Centre for Health Economics, Monash University); Danusha Jayawardana (Centre for Health Economics, Monash University); Clement Wong (Deakin University) |
| Abstract: | This study examines how non-cognitive skills contribute to the limited mobility of occupational choice across generations within families. We explore this by investigating desired occupational choices of adolescents of an Australian nationally representative panel survey. The main contribution of this study is that we highlight the central role of the non-cognitive skill of ‘persistence’, linking childhood socioeconomic status (SES) inequalities to occupational ambitions. We identify that persistence is a crucial skill that develops in childhood, diverges by SES over time and is heavily rewarded in the labour market. It is also linked to occupational aspirations of children, potentially setting low and high SES children on different occupational paths for life. Our results show that children from high-SES backgrounds effectively pre-sort themselves into desired occupations requiring high levels of persistence. They do so by (a) preferring to have jobs later in life requiring high levels of persistence, regardless of their own level of persistence, and (b) actually acquiring higher levels of persistence throughout their childhood and adolescence, aligning with desired jobs based on both their own and required levels of persistence. There is a clear policy window at the age of 10/11, when high-SES and low-SES children start to systematically acquire different levels of persistence. |
| Keywords: | human capital, sills, occupational choice, labour productivity, education and inequality |
| JEL: | J24 I24 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2024n10&r= |