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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Bönke, Timm; Neidhöfer, Guido |
| Abstract: | We investigate the hypothesis of failed integration and low social mobility of immigrants. An intergenerational assimilation model is tested empirically on household survey data and validated against administrative data provided us by the Italian Embassy in Germany. Although we confirm substantial inequality of educational achievements between immigrants and natives, we find that the children of Italian immigrants exhibit high intergenerational mobility and no less opportunities than natives to achieve high schooling degrees. These findings suggest a rejection of the failed assimilation hypothesis. Additionally, we evaluate different patterns by time of arrival, Italian region of origin and language spoken at home. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational Mobility; Education; Integration and Assimilation of Immigrants. |
| JEL: | I24 J15 J62 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trf:wpaper:502&r=dem |
| By: | Jessica Standish-White (Graduate student at the University of Oxford); Arden Finn (Doctoral student and researcher at the Southern Africa Labour and Development Unit, University of Cape Town) |
| Abstract: | We use longitudinal data from three waves of South Africa's National Income Dynamics Study to estimate the effect of pension receipt in the household on children's educational outcomes in South Africa. We find that children who co-reside with a pensioner achieve better educational outcomes than those who do not, while controlling for a wide number of individual and household characteristics. In particular, we find that the sex of the pension recipient matters - the positive impact on a child's progression through school is greater if a female, rather than a male, receives the pension.We explore some of the possible mechanisms behind this, including differential school absenteeism rates and differential spending on non-fee schooling expenses. |
| Keywords: | Social grants, education, South Africa |
| JEL: | H55 I38 D13 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ldr:wpaper:147&r=dem |
| By: | Fassio, Claudio (Lund University); Montobbio, Fabio (University of Turin); Venturini, Alessandra (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the French and the UK Labour Force Surveys and the German Microcensus to estimate the effects of different components of the labour force on innovation at the sectoral level between 1994 and 2005. The authors focus, in particular, on the contribution of migrant workers. We adopt a production function approach in which we control for the usual determinants of innovation, such as R&D investments, stock of patents and openness to trade. To address possible endogeneity of migrants we implement instrumental variable strategies using both two-stage least squares with external instruments and GMM-SYS with internal ones. In addition we also account for the possible endogeneity of native workers and instrument them accordingly. Our results show that highly-educated migrants have a positive effect on innovation even if the effect is smaller relative to the positive effect of educated natives. Moreover, this positive effect seems to be confined to the high-tech sectors and among highly-educated migrants from other European countries. |
| Keywords: | innovation, migration, skills, human capital |
| JEL: | O31 O33 F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9062&r=dem |
| By: | Ali,Daniel Ayalew; Bowen,Frederick H.; Deininger,Klaus W.; Duponchel,Marguerite Felicienne |
| Abstract: | Women comprise 50 percent of the agricultural labor force in Sub-Saharan Africa, but manage plots that are reportedly on average 20 to 30 percent less productive. As a source of income inequality and aggregate productivity loss, the country-specific magnitude and drivers of this gender gap are of great interest. Using national data from the Uganda National Panel Survey for 2009/10 and 2010/11, the gap before controlling for endowments was estimated to be 17.5 percent. Panel data methods were combined with an Oaxaca decomposition to investigate the gender differences in resource endowment and return to endowment driving this gap. Although men have greater access to inputs, input use is so low and inverse returns to plot size so strong in Uganda that smaller female-managed plots have a net endowment advantage of 12 percent, revealing a larger unexplained gap of 29.5 percent. Two-fifths of this unexplained gap is attributed to differential returns to the child dependency ratio and one-fifth to differential returns to transport access, implying that greater child care responsibilities and difficulty accessing input and output markets from areas without transport are the largest drivers of the gap. Smaller and less robust drivers include differential uptake of cash crops, and differential uptake and return to improved seeds and pesticides. |
| Keywords: | Regional Economic Development,Housing&Human Habitats,Labor Policies,Crops and Crop Management Systems,Rural Development Knowledge&Information Systems |
| Date: | 2015–05–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7262&r=dem |
| By: | Marcin Bielecki (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw); Joanna Tyrowicz (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw; National Bank of Poland); Krzysztof Makarski (National Bank of Poland; Warsaw School of Economics); Marcin Waniek (University of Warsaw) |
| Abstract: | While the inequalities of endowments are widely recognized as areas of policy intervention, the dispersion in preferences may also imply inequalities of outcomes. In this paper, we analyze the inequalities in an OLG model with obligatory pension systems. We model both policy relevant pension systems (a defined benefit system -- DB -- and a transition from a DB to a defined contribution system, DC). We introduce within cohort heterogeneity of endowments (individual productivities) and heterogeneity of preferences (preference for leisure and time preference). We introduce two policy instruments, which are widely used: a contribution cap and a minimum pension. In theory these instruments affect both the incentives to work and the incentives to save for the retirement with different strength and via different channels, but the actual effect attributable to these policy instruments cannot be judged in an environment with a single representative agent. We show four main results. First, longevity increases aggregate consumption inequalities substantially in both pension systems, whereas the effect of a pension system reform works to reinforce the consumption inequalities and reduce the wealth inequalities. Second, the contribution cap has negligible effect on inequalities, but the role for minimum pension benefit guarantee is more pronounced. Third, the reduction in inequalities due to minimum pension benefit guarantee is achieved with virtually no effect on capital accumulation. Finally, the minimum pension benefit guarantee addresses mostly the inequalities which stem from differentiated endowments and not those that stem from differentiated preferences. |
| Keywords: | inequality, longevity, defined contribution, defined benefit, Gini |
| JEL: | C68 E17 E21 J11 J26 H55 D63 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2015-16&r=dem |
| By: | Fulford, Scott L. (Boston College); Petkov, Ivan (Boston College); Schiantarelli, Fabio (Boston College) |
| Abstract: | The United States provides a unique laboratory for understanding how the cultural, institutional, and human capital endowments of immigrant groups shape economic outcomes. In this paper, we use census micro-sample information to reconstruct the country-of-ancestry distribution for US counties from 1850 to 2010. We also develop a county-level measure of GDP per capita over the same period. Using this novel panel data set, we investigate whether changes in the ancestry composition of a county matter for local economic development and the channels through which the cultural, institutional, and educational legacy of the country of origin affects economic outcomes in the US. Our results show that the evolution of the country-of-origin composition of a county matters. Moreover, the culture, institutions, and human capital that the immigrant groups brought with them and pass on to their children are positively associated with local development in the US. Among these factors, measures of culture that capture attitudes towards cooperation play the most important and robust role. Finally, our results suggest that while fractionalization of ancestry groups is positively related with county GDP, fractionalization in attributes such as trust, is negatively related to local economic performance. |
| Keywords: | immigration, ethnicity, ancestry, economic development, culture, institutions, human capital |
| JEL: | J15 N31 N32 O10 Z10 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9060&r=dem |