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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Jimenez-Martin, Sergi (Universitat Pompeu Fabra); Vall-Castello, Judit (Universitat Pompeu Fabra); del Rey, Elena (Universitat de Girona) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we explore the effects of a labor market reform that changed the statutory minimum working age in Spain in 1980. In particular, the reform raised the statutory minimum working age from 14 to 16 years old, while the minimum age for attaining compulsory education was kept at 14 until 1990. To study the effects of this change, we exploit the different incentives faced by individuals born at various times of the year before and after the reform. We show that, for individuals born at the beginning of the year, the probabilities of finishing both the compulsory and the post-compulsory education level increased after the reform. In addition, we find that the reform decreases mortality while young (16-25) for both genders while it increases mortality for middle age women (26-40). We provide evidence to proof that the latter increase is partly explained by the deterioration of the health habits of affected women. Together, these results help explain the closing age gap in life expectancy between women and men in Spain. |
| Keywords: | minimum working age, policy evaluation, education, mortality |
| JEL: | J01 I12 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9092&r=dem |
| By: | Bergemann, Annette (University of Bristol); Riphahn, Regina T. (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | We study the short, medium, and longer run employment effects of a substantial change in the parental leave benefit program in Germany. In 2007, a means-tested parental leave transfer program that had paid benefits for up to two years was replaced by an earnings related transfer which paid benefits for up to one year. The reform generated winners and losers with heterogeneous response incentives. We find that the reform speeds up the labor market return of both groups of mothers after benefit expiration. The overall time until an average mother with (without) prior claims to benefits returns to the labor force after a birth declined after the reform by 10 (8) months at the median. We show that likely pathways for this substantial reform effect are changes in social norms and mothers' preferences for economic independence. |
| Keywords: | female labor supply, maternal labor supply, parental leave, parental leave benefit, child-rearing benefit, parents' money |
| JEL: | J13 J21 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9073&r=dem |
| By: | Fassio, Claudio; Montobbio, Fabio; Venturini, Alessandra (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the French and the UK Labour Force Surveys and German Microcensus to estimate the effects of the different components of the labour force on innovation at the sectoral level between 1994 and 2005, focusing 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 for the 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 one of the educated natives. Moreover this positive effect seems to be confined to the high tech sectors and among highly educated migrants from other European countries. |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:201520&r=dem |
| By: | Vogel, Edgar; Ludwig, Alexander; Börsch-Supan, Axel (Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA)) |
| JEL: | C68 E17 E25 J11 J24 |
| Date: | 2015–03–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mea:meawpa:201206&r=dem |
| By: | Noemi Peter (University of Bern, Switzerland); Petter Lundborg (Lund University, Sweden); Dinand Webbink (Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands) |
| Abstract: | We examine how the gender of a sibling affects earnings, education and family formation. Identification is complicated by parental preferences: if parents prefer certain sex compositions over others, children’s gender affects not only the outcomes of other children but also the very existence of potential additional children. We address this problem by looking at dizygotic twins. In these cases, the two children are born at the same time, so parents cannot make decisions about one twin based on the gender of the other twin. We find that the gender of the sibling influences both men and women, but in a different way. Men with brothers earn more and are more likely to get married and have children than men with sisters. Women with sisters obtain lower education and give birth earlier than women with brothers. Our analysis shows that the family size channel cannot explain the findings. Instead, the most likely explanation is that siblings affect each other via various social mechanisms. |
| Keywords: | Sibling's gender; earnings; education; family formation |
| JEL: | J24 J12 |
| Date: | 2015–06–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20150073&r=dem |
| By: | Geijtenbeek, Lydia (University of Amsterdam); Plug, Erik (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | We study the earnings of transsexuals using Dutch administrative labor force data. First, we compare transsexuals to other women and men, and find that transsexuals earn more than women and less than men. Second, we compare transsexuals before and after transition using worker fixed effects models, and find a fall in earnings for men who become women and a smaller rise (if any) in earnings for women who become men. These earnings patterns, which hold for annual as well as hourly earnings, are consistent with a labor market model in which workers are discriminated for being female and transsexual. |
| Keywords: | transsexuals, gender, labor market outcomes, discrimination |
| JEL: | J16 J24 J71 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9077&r=dem |
| By: | Cristina Bellés-Obrero; Sergi Jiménez-Martín; Judit Vall-Castello |
| Abstract: | We use an exogenous variation in the Spanish legal working age to investigate the effect of education on fertility and infant health. The reform introduced in 1980 raised the minimum legal age to work from 14 to 16 years old. We show that the reform increased educational attainment, which led to 1786 more women remaining childless and 3307 less children being born in the 10 generations after the reform. These negative effects operate through a postponement of first births until an age where the catching up effect cannot take place. We show that woman’s marriage market is one channel through which education impacts fertility, delaying the age at which women marry for the first time and reducing the likelihood that a woman marries. Even more importantly, this postponement in fertility seems to be also detrimental for the health of their offspring at the moment of delivery. The reform caused 2,789 more children to be born with less than 37 weeks of gestation, 268 died during the first 24 hours of life and 4,352 were born with low birth weight. We are able to document two channels that contribute to the negative effects on infant health: the postponement in age of delivery as well as a higher employment probability of more educated women, which enhances unhealthier behaviors (smoking and drinking). |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1484&r=dem |
| By: | Leonardo Gasparini (CEDLAS - UNLP); Mariana Marchionni (CEDLAS - UNLP) |
| Abstract: | This book contributes to the understanding of female labor force participation in Latin America by documenting the changes that took place over the last two decades, exploring their determinants, analyzing their consequences on labor and social outcomes, and discussing implications for public policy. The book highlights a potentially worrisome finding: after around half a century of sustained growth, there are signs of a widespread and significant deceleration in the entry of women into the Latin American labor markets. A version of this paper will be published as Chapter 1 of Gasparini and Marchionni (eds.) (2015). Bridging gender gaps? The rise and deceleration of female labor force participation in Latin America. |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0185&r=dem |
| By: | Giesecke, Matthias; Okoampah, Sarah |
| Abstract: | We quantify differences in the retirement age between manual and non-manual workers and evaluate these differences in the context of the literature on equality of opportunity. The focus is on the question how individual background during childhood transmits through physical demands of occupations on retirement ages. Individual retrospective data from the German Socio-Economic Panel are used to analyse labour force dynamics over the years 1984 to 2011. Discrete time duration models suggest that retirement ages differ substantially between manual and non-manual workers. To elaborate how such differences are explained by individual background characteristics on the one hand and effort and luck on the other hand, we make use of tests for stochastic dominance and a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition. The result is that individual background characteristics explain a share of about one third of inequality in retirement ages as transmitted through physical demands of occupations. |
| Abstract: | Wir quantifizieren die Differenz im Renteneintrittsalter zwischen Individuen, die sich hinsichtlich des Grades der physischen Arbeitsbelastung in ihrem Beruf unterscheiden. Diskrete Verweildauermodelle deuten auf substantielle Unterschiede im Renteneintrittsalter zwischen diesen Gruppen hin. Wir evaluieren die Differenz hinsichtlich der Frage, inwiefern prädeterminierte Umstände in der Kindheit über den Kanal der Selektion in physisch anspruchsvolle Berufe auf das Renteneintrittsalter wirken. Um Unterschiede zu separieren, die durch prädeterminierte Umstände auf der einen Seite und durch individuelle Entscheidungen oder Zufall auf der anderen Seite hervorgerufen wurden, testen wir auf stochastische Dominanz für ausgewählte prädeterminierte Kriterien und führen eine Blinder-Oaxaca-Zerlegung durch. Die Ergebnisse implizieren, dass prädeterminierte individuelle Charakteristika etwa ein Drittel der Differenz im Renteneintrittsalter erklären, welche über den Kanal des physischen Anspruchs der Beschäftigung transportiert wird. |
| Keywords: | retirement age,inequality of opportunity,physical job demands,blinder-oaxaca-decomposition |
| JEL: | D63 J26 J62 C14 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:492&r=dem |