Minorities Research (Ethnic, LGBTQ+, Disabilities) http://lists.repec.org/mailman/listinfo/nep-mid Minorities Research (Ethnic, LGBTQ+, Disabilities) 2026-03-02 Shielding Women from Violence: The Effects of Violence Prevention and Monitoring Centers on Intimate Partner Violence in Türkiye https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34886&r=&r=mid Intimate partner violence remains one of the most serious threats to women's safety worldwide, yet existing evidence on the effectiveness of large-scale institutional protection systems is limited and mixed. This paper evaluates the impact of Violence Prevention and Monitoring Centers on intimate partner violence (IPV) against women in Türkiye. Exploiting the staggered rollout of centers across provinces, we find that the opening of a center reduces female homicides, particularly those perpetrated by intimate partners, by approximately 20 percent. Complementary survey evidence shows that the opening of a center also reduces women's self-reported exposure to physical IPV by 20 percent, with larger effects among younger and less-educated women. Exploring potential mechanisms, we find that centers primarily reduce violence by lowering barriers to help-seeking and improving coordination across police, legal, and social services: following the opening of a center, women become more likely to seek support from women's organizations and social services, while direct applications to prosecutors decline. We find no evidence of effects on gender attitudes, labor market outcomes, relationship status, marriage market outcomes, or mental health, suggesting violence reductions operate through improved access to protection rather than changes in norms or economic independence. The estimated effects are stronger in provinces with more gender-progressive norms and stronger institutional capacity, highlighting the importance of complementary social and institutional environments. Gunes Asik Bilge Erten Erdal Tekin Semih Tumen Hakan Ulucan 2026-02 The Long Run Economic Effects of Medical Innovation and the Role of Opportunities https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12387&r=&r=mid We leverage the introduction of the first antibiotic therapies in 1937 to examine the long-run effects of early childhood pneumonia on adult educational attainment, employment, income, and work-related disability. Using census data, we document large average gains on all outcomes, alongside substantial heterogeneity by race and gender. On average, Black men exhibit smaller schooling gains than white men but larger employment and earnings gains. Among Black men (and women), we identify a pronounced gradient in gains linked to systemic racial discrimination in the pre–Civil Rights era: individuals born in more discriminatory Jim Crow states realized much smaller gains than those born in less discriminatory states. There is no similar gradient among white Americans. Women of both races exhibit smaller education and earnings gains than men on average, consistent with cultural and institutional barriers to women's work. Our findings highlight the role of opportunities in shaping the extent to which investments in early-life health translate into longer run economic gains. Sonia Bhalotra Damian Clarke Atheendar Venkataramani early childhood, medical innovation, race, human capital production, education, income, disability, systemic discrimination, institutions, infectious disease, pneumonia, antibiotics, sulfa drugs 2026 Can Wearable Exoskeletons Reduce Gender and Disability Gaps in the Construction Industry? https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2602.16631&r=&r=mid The share of construction trade jobs held by women and people with disabilities has remained stubbornly low in the face of chronic shortages of skilled labor. This study explores the potential of wearable assistive technologies to reduce these disparities. We use U.S. worker-level data to estimate employment and wage differences by gender and by mobility/strength impairments in construction and non-construction jobs. We also use occupational-level data to examine variations in workforce composition, physical skill requirements, and earnings across detailed construction occupations. Regression estimates indicate that being a woman and having strength and mobility impairments are associated with substantial employment and pay gaps in construction compared to non-construction jobs. Further analysis shows a high negative correlation between the representation of women and the ability levels required in those occupations. Finally, we discuss several wearable exoskeletons under development for people with upper-body and lower-body impairments, focusing on how these innovations could be integrated into construction jobs. These findings suggest that wearable exoskeletons that enhance manual dexterity, balance, and strength may improve the representation of women and people with disabilities in some of the higher-paying occupations in construction. Yana Rodgers Xiangmin Liu Jingang Yi Liang Zhang 2026-02 Threshold Disclosure in Collective Decisions https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34827&r=&r=mid Voting-based collective decisions are typically made either anonymously or publicly. Anonymous voting protects truthful expression but conceals individual behavior; public voting provides information about individual votes, but, when one option is socially stigmatized, it can distort participation and choices. We introduce threshold majority voting, in which voters choose a disclosure threshold determining whether and when their votes are revealed. In an experiment at UC Berkeley on the participation of transgender women in women’s sports, public voting nearly doubles abstention and reduces support for the stigmatized option. Threshold voting eliminates these distortions while revealing one-third of individual votes. Luca Braghieri Leonardo Bursztyn Jan Fasnacht 2026-02 Work from Home and Job Satisfaction: Differences by Disability Status among Healthcare Workers https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2602.17790&r=&r=mid Background: Many workers with disabilities face negative stereotypical attitudes, pay gaps, and a lack of respect in the workplace, contributing to substantially lower job satisfaction compared to people without disabilities. Work from home may help to increase job satisfaction for people with disabilities. Objective: This study analyzes how different measures of job satisfaction vary between people with and without disabilities, and the extent to which working from home moderates the relationship between disability and job satisfaction. Methods: We use multivariable regression analysis to examine if the ability to work from home moderates the relationship between disability and indicators related to job satisfaction. The dataset draws on a novel survey of healthcare professionals. Results: Results show that people with disabilities have relatively greater turnover intentions, lower sense of organizational commitment and support, weaker perceptions of openness and inclusion in the workplace, and worse relations with management and coworkers. Regressions indicate that working from home helps to improve most perceptions of work experiences but does so more for people without disabilities than for people with disabilities. Conclusions: The findings suggest that (a) some accommodations typically viewed as exceptions to meet the needs of people with disabilities have even greater benefits for the workforce at large and (b) because workers with and without disabilities benefit from remote work, we cannot expect those accommodations to close the gaps caused by inequities. Yana Rodgers Lisa Schur Flora Hammond Renee Edwards Jennifer Cohen Douglas Kruse 2026-02 Selective sanitation and racial health inequality https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers391&r=&r=mid We study how selective sanitation investments reshaped racial health inequality in one twentieth-century South African town. Combining a complete transcription of geo-linked death notices and intercensal birth imputation, we construct annual race- and cause-infant mortality rates and track the rollout of a municipal storm-water drainage scheme. Importantly, drainage was targeted and had distributional consequences: large, persistent reductions in white infant mortality from sanitation-sensitive disease on treated streets, but little improvement (and sometimes worsening outcomes) for coloured infants. Triple-difference estimates, event-study evidence, and cause-of-death patterns thus reveal a ‘reversal-of-fortunes’ effect: turning high-risk streets safe and concentrating preventable mortality among coloured households. Johan Fourie Kelsey Lemon Jan-Hendrik Pretorius infant mortality, health inequality, sanitation, South Africa 2026 Austerity and gender-based violence: insights from England and Wales https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahy:wpaper:wp78&r=&r=mid Weinvestigate the relationship between austerity-driven welfare cuts and gender based violence in England and Wales from 2006-2019. Using difference-in-differences andeventstudymethods, weexploitgeographicandtemporalvariationinexposureto the austerity welfare reform and construct a novel exposure measure from actual gov ernmentexpendituredata. Increasedexposuretowelfarecutsincreasedgender-based violence reporting, with effects emerging 2 years post-implementation and growing over time. Effects were nearly twice as large outside London (16.2% vs. 9.5%) and twice as large in deprived communities. Complementary analysis using victimisation data shows no corresponding increase in violence prevalence, indicating that higher reporting reflects changes in victims’ help-seeking behaviour rather than rising inci dence. As welfare support diminished, victims increasingly turned to police as their primary remaining avenue for assistance. The results underscore the importance of considering gendered effects in austerity and welfare policy reforms. María Camila Jiménez Amaya Daria Denti Alessandra Faggian gender-based violence, women, austerity, welfare cut 2026-02 The Silk Road of Ashes: Exposure to NAFTA and Adult Mortality https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34840&r=&r=mid The implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994 resulted in a great restructuring in industry composition in the US, with substantial heterogeneity across local areas. In this paper, we investigate the effects of NAFTA on the mortality rates of the working-age population. We implement event studies and difference-in-difference analyses to examine dynamic changes in mortality rates in different years relative to NAFTA and in areas with differential exposure to NAFTA. Comparing areas with high versus low trade exposure measures, we find a 2.1 percent rise in the mortality rate of those aged 25-55. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests a 7.3 percent rise in mortality for the treated population, who lost their job due to NAFTA. Further analyses using a wide range of alternative data sources suggest that reductions in income-employment, reductions in wealth, increases in disability, decreases in health insurance coverage, decreases in private health insurance, and a higher likelihood of reliance on presumably lower quality public insurance as candidate mechanisms. Hamid Noghanibehambari Jason Fletcher 2026-02 God, Guilt, and Giving: Public Good Contribution Among Catholics and Protestants https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12414&r=&r=mid This paper examines how religious ethic influences contributions to public goods. We develop a theoretical model distinguishing individualistic motivations - where people seek to meet individual moral standards - from collectivistic motivations - where behavior is guided by others' expectations. We argue that the Protestant ethic emphasizes individual responsibility, while the Catholic ethic places greater weight on social expectations. The model predicts that the Protestant contribution share increases with income, whereas the Catholic contribution share is non-monotonic. Moreover, Catholics' overall contribution is relatively higher at lower-middle incomes and lower at higher-middle incomes, while there is no denominational difference in the decision whether to contribute at all. The model also implies that only Catholics' contributions are sensitive to the religious composition of their environment. We test these predictions using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, exploiting variation within individuals. Consistent with the theoretical model, we find (i) no denominational differences at the extensive margin; (ii) at the intensive margin, donations increase with income among Protestants and remain flat among Catholics. These results hold when using the denomination of the parents, suggesting intergenerational transmission of religious ethics. Our findings highlight the role of religious moral structures in shaping cooperative behavior and public-good provision. Francesco Cinnirella Sebastiano Della Lena Elena Manzoni Fabrizio Panebianco public good, religion, individualism, collectivism, guilt aversion 2026 Residential Segregation and Unequal Access to Local Public Services in India: Evidence from 1.5m Neighborhoods https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12466&r=&r=mid We study residential segregation and access to public services across 1.5 million urban and rural neighborhoods in India. Muslim and Scheduled Caste segregation in India is high by global standards, and only slightly lower than Black-White segregation in the U.S. Within cities, public facilities and infrastructure are systematically less available in Muslim and Scheduled Caste neighborhoods. Nearly all regressive allocation is across neighborhoods within cities at the most informal and least studied form of government. These inequalities are not visible in the aggregate data typically used for research and policy. Sam Asher Kritarth Jha Paul Novosad Anjali Adukia Brandon Tan segregation, neighborhoods, place-based policies, marginalized groups, infrastructure, access to public services, electricity, schools, sanitation, India, Muslims, Scheduled Castes 2026 Disability, Rehabilitation, and Multidimensionally Poor Households: What Attention Does ATENSI Provide? https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lpe:wpaper:202583&r=&r=mid Development studies start to pay more attention to marginalized society along with the enforcement of UN SDGs, including PWDs and the affected households. Using the basis of capability approach, this study seeks to identify how disability affect households’ multidimensional poverty status and deprivation intensity in Susenas 2022. Additionally, the impact of ATENSI, a community-based rehabilitation program by Indonesian government, on MPI is also studied using PSM. A general result of the national MPI shows that household with any disabled member are multidimensionally poorer in terms of poverty headcount and deprivation intensity. This study found that families with any disabled member have increased probability of being multidimensionally poor by 45.3 percent using odds ratio, while also increasing the deprivation intensity by 2.8 percent. The PSM result reveals that ATENSI does not help in poverty alleviation, more so increasing the deprivation intensity of the receiver although the coefficient is not statistically significant. Several studies highlight constraints and problems with ATENSI’s execution include inadequate budget, workers, assessment, and monitoring. In the presence of limited resources, policymaker should prioritize PWDs that are multidimensionally poorer to receive ATENSI, since the program aims to ease the capability constraint to reach functionings. Muhammad Jamie Rofie Q capability approach — community-based rehabilitation — development — disability — multidimensional poverty inde 2025