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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Nathalie Guilbert (PSL, Université Paris-Dauphine, LEDa, UMR DIAL, IRD); Karine Marazyan (Université Paris 1 - IEDES- IRD UMR 201 Développement et Sociétés) |
| Abstract: | (english) In this paper, we are interested in the effect of birth status, being born out-of-wedlock or in wedlock, on survival chance before two years old of siblings of same gender in Senegal. The analysis is based on nationally representative data, those from the Demographic and health survey, collected in the country in 2010-2011. Data from the youngest cohort of mothers are exploited. On average, no significant effect is found. This masks significant variations between sub-groups of children. However, contrary to initial expectations, children born out-of-wedlock have similar mortality rate than their siblings born in wedlock, at worst. In some case, their mortality rate is lower. This suggests that resource-based mechanisms exist in Senegal that helps mothers, with an out-of-wedlock birth, to compensate and sometime over-compensate for lack of resource or for fragility. These mechanisms seem to vary between areas and ethnic groups depending on the gender of the child born out-ofwedlock. The only group of children with a higher risk of death is the group of girls born out-ofwedlock, whose mother was adolescent when giving birth to them, belonging to the Serere ethnic group. Informal, private compensatory mechanism does not seem to take place in this specific case. _________________________________ (français) Cet article s'intéresse aux conséquences du statut à la naissance, être né dans le cadre d'une union maritale ou non, sur les chances de survie au cours des deux premières années de vie d'enfants de même sexe et issus d'une même fratrie au Sénégal. L'analyse est réalisée à partir des données des enquêtes démographiques et de santé collectées dans le pays en 2010-2011 et représentatives au niveau national. L'échantillon utilisé pour l'analyse est celui des mères appartenant aux plus jeunes cohortes. En moyenne, nous n'observons pas d'impact significatif d'être né hors mariage sur la mortalité des enfants relativement à leurs frères et soeurs de même sexe nés dans le cadre d'un mariage. Cependant, ce résultat masque des différences importantes parmi plusieurs sous-groupes d'enfants. Contrairement aux attentes initiales, les enfants nés hors mariage ont des taux de mortalité similaires à leurs frères et soeurs nés dans le cadre d'un mariage et, dans certains cas, ils présentent même des taux de mortalité plus faibles. Ces résultats suggèrent l'existence de mécanismes de solidarité au Sénégal qui aident les mères ayant eu une naissance hors mariage à compenser et parfois même surcompenser un manque de ressources ou une plus forte vulnérabilité. Ces mécanismes semblent varier par zones géographiques et groupes ethniques en fonction du sexe de l'enfant né hors mariage. Seules les filles nées hors mariage appartenant au groupe ethnique des Sérères et dont la mère était adolescente à la naissance de son premier enfant, présentent un risque de mortalité plus élevé. Des mécanismes compensatoires privés informels ne semblent pas s'établir dans ce cas spécifique. |
| Keywords: | Premarital fecundity, marriage, children’s mortality, Senegal, Fécondité prémaritale, mariage, mortalité infantile, Sénégal. |
| JEL: | I2 J1 O1 |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt201307&r=dem |
| By: | Alan Fernihough (Queen's University Belfast); Cormac Ó Gráda (University College Dublin); Brendan M Walsh (University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the characteristics associated with marriages between Roman Catholics and members of other religious denominations (`mixed marriages') in 1911 Ireland. Using the recently-digitized returns of the 1911 census of population, we find that such marriages were relatively rare, varying from two to three percent of all mar- riages in Dublin to less than half a percent in Connacht. However, at the turn of the century in the Dublin area mixed marriages represented 12 per cent or more of mar- riages where at least one of the partners was a non-Catholic. When mixed marriages did occur the Catholic partner was more likely to be the wife. Using regression analysis we examine the individual characteristics of the partners to these marriages and find a number of characteristics significantly associated with them. However, the strength and even the direction of predictors like socioeconomic status vary substantially across regions, most notably between Ulster and the rest of Ireland. In Ulster mixed marriages tended to occur between partners in lower socioeconomic positions, whereas in the rest of Ireland the partners tended to be from higher social strata. Since the religion of the children born to mixed marriages was a contentious issue, we match our sample of partners of mixed religions to their children and find that the religion of the children was strongly influenced by the mothers religion. Couples of mixed religions had lower fertility than the general population, even when the influence of socioeconomic class and other potentially confounding variables is allowed for. This, as well as the evi- dence of higher infant-child mortality among families of mixed marriages, potentially indicates a lack of family and social support due to the general public disapproval of couples who married across the religious divide. |
| Keywords: | Mixed Marriage, Historical Population |
| JEL: | N83 J12 J13 |
| Date: | 2014–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201407&r=dem |
| By: | Stowasser, Till; Heiss, Florian; McFadden, Daniel; Winter, Joachim |
| Abstract: | Individuals’ socioeconomic status (SES) is positively correlated with their health status. While the existence of this gradient may be uncontroversial, the same cannot be said about its explanation. In this paper, we extend the approach of testing for the absence of causal channels developed by Adams et al. (2003), which in a Granger causality sense promises insights on the causal structure of the health-SES nexus. We introduce some methodological refinements and integrate retrospective survey data on early childhood circumstances into this framework. We confirm that childhood health has lasting predictive power for adult health. We also uncover strong gender differences in the intertemporal transmission of SES and health: While the link between SES and functional as well as mental health among men appears to be established rather late in life, the gradient among women seems to originate from childhood circumstances. |
| Keywords: | health; wealth; socio-economic gradient; causal inference; Granger causality; individual heterogeneity; childhood health; childhood circumstances |
| JEL: | C33 I0 I12 |
| Date: | 2014–05–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:muenec:20847&r=dem |
| By: | Dan Anderberg; Helmut Rainer; Jonathan Wadsworth; Tanya Wilson |
| Abstract: | Contrary to popular belief, the incidence of domestic violence in Britain does not seem to have risen during the recession. But according to research by Jonathan Wadsworth and colleagues, men and women have experienced different risks of unemployment - and these have had contrasting effects on the level of physical abuse. |
| Keywords: | domestic violence, unemployment |
| JEL: | J12 D19 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:411&r=dem |
| By: | Hélène Périvier-Timbeau (OFCE) |
| Abstract: | The current economic crisis has deeply affected European labour markets. Employment has dropped more or less in all countries. Female employment was less affected by the recession phase of the crisis than male employment. The second stage, characterised by the implementation of stimulus packages, should have been more favorable to male employment. The third stage, during which austerity plans have been introduced, might be particularly harsh for female employment. These gendered effects of the crisis are basically explained by sectoral segregation based on gender. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse the trend in employment for women and men during the different stages of current crisis in eight European countries. We break down the evolution of employment by sectors for men and women by using a shift-share analysis. In some countries, specifically in Spain, the impact of the crisis has led to a narrowing of the gender gap; this is mainly explained by gender sectoral segregation. In the UK and Denmark, women have been less protected by sectoral segregation, because they have experienced more job losses than they should have if their distribution across the different economic sectors had remained the same during the crisis. |
| Keywords: | Gender gaps; Economic cycles; Labour market |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/667s065gqe8qg8pre3e1kb7gb6&r=dem |
| By: | Chen, Jingnan (ICES, Department of Economics, George Mason University); Houser, Daniel (ICES, Department of Economics, George Mason University); Montinari, Natalia (Department of Economics, Lund University); Piovesan, Marco (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | The literature on pro-social behavior shows that older children are more generous than younger children; however, the level of individual generosity is heterogeneous even between children of the same age. This paper investigates whether a child’s popularity affects a child’s generosity. Our participants – 231 children, six to twelve years old – decide how many of their four colored wristbands they want to share with another anonymous child. We manipulate the visibility of this decision: in treatment Public, the decisions are revealed to the entire class at the end of the game, whereas in treatment Private children’s decisions remain secret. In addition, we elicited each child’s network of friends using an innovative “seating map” mechanism. Our results reveal that more popular children are more generous in Public than Private decision environments, while less popular children behave similarly in both cases. Moreover, older children in Public display greater generosity than (i) older children in Private and (ii) younger children in either Public or Private. Finally, in Public, older and more popular children share more than less popular older children, and more than younger children regardless of popularity; whereas, in Private there is no effect of popularity on children of any age. |
| Keywords: | popularity; children; field experiment; public decision making; pro-social behavior |
| JEL: | C93 J13 |
| Date: | 2014–05–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2014_018&r=dem |
| By: | Per Johansson; Lisa Laun; Mårten Palme |
| Abstract: | We study how economic incentives affect labor force exit through different income security programs, old-age pensions as well as income taxes in Sweden. We use the option value for staying in the labor force as a measure of economic incentives and estimate an econometric model for the choice of leaving the labor market. Besides old-age pension, we focus on the Disability Insurance (DI), which is the most important exit path before age 65. By simulating the effect of different probabilities to be admitted DI we show how changes in the stringency of DI admittance affects labor supply among older workers through economic incentives. |
| JEL: | J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20123&r=dem |
| By: | Feld, Jan (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Salamanca, Nicolás (Ph.D. candidate in economics, Maastricht University); Hamermesh, Daniel S. (Sue Killam Professor of Economics, University of Texas at Austin; prof in economics, Royal Holloway University of London; and research assoc, IZA and NBER) |
| Abstract: | The discrimination literature treats outcomes as relative. But does a differential arise because agents discriminate against others—exophobia—or because they favor their own kind—endophilia? Using a field experiment that assigned graders randomly to students' exams that did/ did not contain names, on average we find favoritism but no discrimination by nationality, and some evidence of favoritism for the opposite gender. We identify distributions of individuals' preferences for favoritism and discrimination. We show that a changing correlation between them generates perverse changes in market differentials and that their relative importance informs the choice of a base group in adjusting wage differentials. |
| Keywords: | favoritism; discrimination; field experiment; wage differentials; economics of education |
| JEL: | B40 I24 J71 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0593&r=dem |