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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Mörk, Eva (Department of Economics); Sjögren, Anna (IFAU); Svaleryd, Helena (Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We analyze to what extent health outcomes of Swedish children are worse among children whose parents become unemployed. To this end we combine Swedish hospitalization data for 1992-2007 for children 3-18 years of age with register data on parental unemployment. We find that children with unemployed parents are 17 percent more likely to be hospitalized than other children, but that most of the difference is driven by selection. A child fixed-effects approach suggests a small effect of parental unemployment on child health. |
| Keywords: | Parental unemployment; child Health; human capital |
| JEL: | I12 J13 |
| Date: | 2014–03–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2014_002&r=dem |
| By: | Inés Berniell; Dolores de la Mata; Matilde P. Machado |
| Abstract: | Abstract: Transfers to women may a?ect their bargaining power within the household and consequently their well-being. We analyze the e?ects of the 2004/2005 pension reform in Argentina, that resulted in an unexpected and substantial increase in permanent income for around 1.8 million women, on outcomes arguably related to women’s bargaining power within the household. We estimate the e?ects of the reform in the probability of divorce/separation, the distribution of household chores, and the probability of women being the head of the household, using a Di?erence-in-Di?erences approach. Our results show that despite the low divorce probability among seniors, transfers to senior women have substantial e?ects on their situation in the household. More speci?cally, we ?nd that the reform had statistically signi?cant e?ects on the probability of divorce/separation increasing it by 1.8 ? 2.7 percentage points implying an increase of around 18 ? 19% on the divorce/separation rate of 60 ? 65 year old women. Moreover, the probability of being the head of the household also increased by 2.8?3.3 percentage points representing an increase of 7?19% in the probability amongst women of 60 ? 65 years of age. In the case of married women, the probability of being the head of the household increased by 1.3 ? 1.5 percentage points, which represents an increase of 20 ? 22%. Results show that the distribution of household chores within the couples was also a?ected by the reform. More precisely, the probability that the wife is the only person in charge of the housework decreased by 5 percentage points, an 11% decrease. The participation of husbands in housework, however, did not change signi?cantly. |
| Keywords: | Intra-household bargaining power, marital disruption, divorce, non-contributorypensions, pensions, public transfers, intra-household decision allocation, household chores, collectivemodels, senior women |
| JEL: | J12 J16 J26 H55 |
| Date: | 2013–11–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:011037&r=dem |
| By: | Yunrong Li; Ricardo Mora |
| Abstract: | We study the effects on infant mortality of the introduction in 1995 of a non-contributoryuniversal pension scheme in Nepal known as the Old age Allowance Program. We use crosssectionaldata from the 1996 and 2001 Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys. Following astandard diff-in-diffs approach, we find positive and significant effects on survival rates for thepresence in the same household of a female beneficiary while negative and sometimes significanteffects for the presence of a male beneficiary. When we conduct pre-treatment common trendtests, we find that we cannot reject it for the case of the female beneficiaries but we stronglyreject it for the case of male beneficiaries. Following Mora and Reggio (2012), we then propose amore flexible model and identification strategy and find that there are no differences in the femaleand the male beneficiary effects. We interpret these results as suggestive that cross-sectionalanalysis may bias downwards the estimates of the effect of grandfathers because of genderdifferences in endogenous household formation. |
| Keywords: | Infant mortality, difference-in-differences, gender differences |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:we1406&r=dem |
| By: | Guyonne Kalb (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne); Trinh Le (The University of Waikato; and Motu Economic and Public Policy Research); Felix Leung (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | This study uses data from the LSAC and HILDA surveys to examine educational, labour market, health and partnership outcomes of young women who became a mother during their teenage years and compares them with outcomes of women who became a mother in their twenties and those who do not have children yet. We find that while teenage motherhood is strongly associated with poorer outcomes in the first years after birth, a large part of the observed associations is due to selection bias. However, although not all of the observed associations can be attributed to the causal impact of teenage motherhood, the indication is that some of the associations are causal, of nontrivial size, and significant. Propensity score matching analysis suggests that relative to childless women with similar characteristics, teenage mothers are 39 percentage points less likely to complete Year 12, 54 percentage points less likely to be employed and 34 percentage points more likely to be a smoker. Relative to childless women, teenage mothers have $100 less in weekly personal income and are 8 percentage points less likely to be in good health or better than good health. |
| Keywords: | Teenage mothers, educational outcomes, health outcomes, labour market |
| JEL: | J12 J13 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2014n06&r=dem |
| By: | Ghazala Azmat; Barbara Petrongolo |
| Abstract: | Lab experiments are an increasingly valuable tool for understanding differences in how men and women are treated in the labour market. Dr Ghazala Azmat and Professor Barbara Petrongolo explore what has been learned about the extent to which differences in men and women's pay and employment opportunities can be explained by discrimination or by differences in their preferences or productivity. |
| Keywords: | Gender, field experiments, lab experiments, discrimination, gender preferences |
| JEL: | J16 J24 J71 C91 C92 C93 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:425&r=dem |
| By: | Kunze, Astrid (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | This study reconsiders the empirical question of whether men’s earnings increase because of children. Large Norwegian register data are used for brother and twin pairs who are followed over their life cycle from their first entry into the labour market. The data permit family-fixed effects to be modeled in various ways, as well as observing earnings growth before and after having children. The simple conditional correlation between children and earnings is positive. When only variation from between-sibling differences is used, the earnings effect post entry into firstfatherhood declines. The effect becomes small and non-significant when we use twins. |
| Keywords: | Children; marriage; earnings; men; selection; siblings; twins; panel data. |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J22 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2014–04–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2014_011&r=dem |
| By: | Fahn, Matthias; Rees, Ray |
| Abstract: | This paper applies the theory of relational contracts to a model in which a couple decides whether to marry or cohabit, how many children to have and subsequently whether to stay together or separate. We make precise the idea that cooperation in a household can be supported by self interest. Since the costs of raising children are unequally distributed between partners and children are a household public good, there is a conflict between individually optimal and efficient, i.e. surplus maximising, decisions. Side-payments are used to support cooperation but are not legally enforceable and thus have to be part of an equilibrium. This requires a stable relationship and credible punishment threats. Within this framework, we analyze the effects of policy variables such as the costs of divorce and post-divorce income payments on the interrelationships among the decisions on marriage, fertility and divorce. |
| Keywords: | relational contracts; cohabitation; marriage; fertility; divorce |
| JEL: | C73 D13 J12 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:muenec:20834&r=dem |
| By: | Persson, Petra (Stanford University); Rossin-Slater, Maya (University of California at Santa Barbara) |
| Abstract: | The high and rapidly increasing prevalence of mental illnesses underscores the importance of understanding their causal origins. This paper analyzes one factor at a critical stage of human development: exposure to maternal stress from family ruptures during the fetal period. We find that in utero exposure to the death of a maternal close relative has lasting consequences on mental health in adulthood, as captured by 11 and 9 percent increases in the consumption of prescription drugs treating anxiety and depression, respectively, and a 23 percent increase in the average daily dose of medication for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).Further, children exposed prenatally to the death of a relative up to four generations apart are 20 percent more likely to be born low-birth-weight and 11 percent more likely to be hospitalized for conditions originating in the perinatal period in early childhood.Our results imply large welfare gains from preventing fetal exposure to severe stress; the decrease in consumption of prescription drugs treating depression alone can be valued at nearly $ 1 billion. More generally, our results point to in utero stress exposure as a potential cause of the rising incidence of several mental illnesses. |
| Keywords: | Mental health; Stress; Parental death; In utero; Depression; ADHD |
| JEL: | I12 I14 I18 I31 J12 J13 |
| Date: | 2014–05–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1022&r=dem |
| By: | Maiga, Eugenie W.H. |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of foreign aid on gender equality in education outcomes in developing countries. Heterogeneity effects by type of aid received and by type of recipients are investigated using system GMM methods. The results indicate that ag |
| Keywords: | education, foreign aid, gender |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2014-048&r=dem |
| By: | Sylvia Frühwirth-Schnatter; Martin Halla; Alexandra Posekany; Gerald J. Pruckner; Thomas Schober |
| Abstract: | Prior empirical research on the theoretically proposed interaction between the quantity and the quality of children builds on exogenous variation in family size due to twin births and focuses on human capital outcomes. The typical finding can be described as a statistically nonsignificant two-stage least squares (2SLS) esti- mate, with substantial standard errors. We regard these conclusions of no empirical support for the quantity-quality trade-off as premature and, therefore, extend the empirical approach in two ways. First, we add health as an additional outcome di- mension. Second, we apply a semi-parametric Bayesian IV approach for econometric inference. Our estimation results substantiate the finding of a zero effect: we provide estimates with an increased precision by a factor of approximately twenty-three, for a broader set of outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Quantity-quality model of fertility, family size, human capital, health,semi-parametric Bayesian IV approach |
| JEL: | J13 C26 C11 I20 J20 I10 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:nrnwps:2014_02&r=dem |
| By: | Bacci, Silvia; Bartolucci, Francesco; Chiavarini, Manuela; Minelli, Liliana; Pieroni, Luca |
| Abstract: | Objectives We investigate about the differences in birthweight between firstand second-borns, evaluating the impact of changes in pregnancy (e.g., gestational age), demographic (e.g., age), and social (e.g., education level, marital status) maternal characteristics. Data and Methods All analyses are performed on data collected in Umbria (Italy) taking into account a set of 792 women who delivered twice from 2005 to 2008. Firstly, we use a univariate paired t-test for the comparison between weights of first- and second-borns. Secondly, we use linear and nonlinear regression approaches in order to: (i) evaluate the effect of demographic and social maternal characteristics and (ii) predict the odds-ratio of low and high birthweight infants, respectively. Results We find that the birthweight of second-borns is significantly higher than that of first-borns. Statistically significant effects are related with a longer gestational age, an increased number of visits during the pregnancy, and the gender of infants. On the other hand, we do not observe any significant effect related with mother’s age and with other characteristics of interest. |
| Keywords: | Birthweight; Maternal characteristics; Standard Certificate of Live Birth |
| JEL: | I00 |
| Date: | 2014–05–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:55789&r=dem |
| By: | Sylvia Frühwirth-Schnatter; Martin Halla; Alexandra Posekany; Gerald J. Pruckner; Thomas Schober |
| Abstract: | Prior empirical research on the theoretically proposed interaction between the quantity and the quality of children builds on exogenous variation in family size due to twin births and focuses on human capital outcomes. The typical finding can be described as a statistically nonsignificant two-stage least squares (2SLS) esti- mate, with substantial standard errors. We regard these conclusions of no empirical support for the quantity-quality trade-off as premature and, therefore, extend the empirical approach in two ways. First, we add health as an additional outcome di- mension. Second, we apply a semi-parametric Bayesian IV approach for econometric inference. Our estimation results substantiate the finding of a zero effect: we provide estimates with an increased precision by a factor of approximately twenty-three, for a broader set of outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Quantity-quality model of fertility, family size, human capital, health,semi-parametric Bayesian IV approach |
| JEL: | J13 C26 C11 I20 J20 I10 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2014_03&r=dem |
| By: | Aase, Knut K. (Dept. of Business and Management Science, Norwegian School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | For the conventional model with additive and separable expected utility, risk aversion and intertemporal elasticity of substitution in consumption sometimes play conflicting roles, in particular in life insurance and pensions. We propose to use recursive utility in the life cycle model, where we use the stochastic maximum principle to find the optimal solutions. This is a robust method which, among other things, do not require the Markov property. Optimal pension and life insurance contracts with these preferences involve consumption smoothing, not present in similar contracts using the conventional model. The model explains why aggregate consumption in society can be as smooth as implied by data, and at the same time be consistent with the relatively large, observed growth rate. Our analysis can also explain the prevalence of the two most common pension plans, defined benefit and defined contribution. |
| Keywords: | The life cycle model; recursive utility; optimal pension insurance; optimal life insurance; defined benefit; defined contribution; equity premium puzzle; the stochastic maximum principle |
| JEL: | D91 |
| Date: | 2014–05–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhhfms:2014_019&r=dem |
| By: | Daron Acemoglu; Simon Johnson |
| Abstract: | Bloom, Canning, and Fink (2014) argue that the results in Acemoglu and Johnson (2006, 2007) are not robust because initial level of life expectancy (in 1940) should be included in our regressions of changes in GDP per capita on changes in life expectancy. We assess their claims controlling for potential lagged effects of initial life expectancy using data from 1900, employing a nonlinear estimator suggested by their framework, and using information from microeconomic estimates on the effects of improving health. There is no evidence for a positive effect of life expectancy on GDP per capita in this important historical episode. |
| JEL: | I15 N40 O15 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20064&r=dem |
| By: | Mariacristina De Nardi; Fang Yang |
| Abstract: | Households hold vastly heterogenous amounts of wealth when they reach retirement, and differences in lifetime earnings explain only part of this variation. This paper studies the role of intergenerational transmission of ability, voluntary bequest motives, and the recipiency of accidental and intended bequests (both in terms of timing and size), in generating wealth dispersion at retirement, in the context of a rich quantitative model. Modeling voluntary bequests, and realistically calibrating them, not only generates more wealth dispersion at retirement and reduces the correlation between retirement wealth and lifetime income, but also generates a skewed bequest distribution that is close to the one in the observed data. |
| JEL: | E21 J14 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20058&r=dem |
| By: | Renee Luthra; Lucinda Platt & Justyna Salamonska |
| Abstract: | The expansion of the European Union eastwards in 2004, with an ensuing massive increase in East-West migration from the accession countries has been represented as a new migration system of a kind unique in recent migration history, with its specific features of rights of movement and low mobility and information costs accompanying persistent East-West wage differentials. In principle, it provides an ideal context in which to develop understandings of the ‘new migration’ reflecting complex motivations and migration trajectories as well as chain migration and transnational lives. Despite a rapid expansion of research in this area, new insights into the complexities of mixed migration motivations and migrant heterogeneity have tended to be focused on country-specific qualitative studies.In this paper we utilise a unique, four-country data source covering over 3,500 Poles migrating to Germany, the Netherlands, London and Dublin in 2009-2010, to enable the quantitative characterization of the new migration. Exploiting information on pre-migration experience as well as expressed migration motivations and post-migration structural, subjective and social measures of integration in the receiving country, we conduct a three-stage analysis. First we employ latent class analysis to allocate the migrants to six migrant types. Second, we link these migrant types to pre-migration characteristics and estimate multinomial logit models for class membership. Third, controlling for these pre-migration characteristics we are able to explore how the migrant types are associated with measures of integration.We reveal substantial heterogeneity among migrants and some evolving ‘new’ migrant types alongside more traditional labour migrants. We show how these types are associated with differences in pre-migration human capital, region of origin and employment experience and with post-migration social and subjective integration in receiving societies. |
| Date: | 2014–05–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erp:leqsxx:p0074&r=dem |
| By: | Konte, Maty |
| Abstract: | Little investigation has been made to explain why women are less likely than are men to support democracy in sub-Saharan Africa. This gender difference in politics has been found in numerous studies and may hinder the much needed legitimation of democracy |
| Keywords: | support for democracy, gender difference, social institutions |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2014-044&r=dem |