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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Boye, Katarina (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | A number of studies have shown that women’s and men’s wages relate to parenthood in general and to parental leave in particular, but we know little about the possible wage impact of leave to care for sick children, which is a part of the Swedish parental leave system. On the one hand, care leave may influence human capital and real or perceived work capacity similarly to parental leave and send the employer the same signals about work commitment and responsibilities outside of work. On the other hand, important differences, including timing, frequency and predictability, between care leave and parental leave influence paid work. This study uses Swedish register data to analyse the association between care leave and wages among mothers and fathers who had their first child in 1994. The results show that care leave is associated with a lower wage, particularly among men, up to 13 years after the birth of the first child. One reason for the gender difference in the association between care leave and wage may be that men’s care leave has a stronger signalling effect compared with women’s care leave. |
| Keywords: | Care leave; parental leave; wages; gender equality; family; labour market |
| JEL: | J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2015–09–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2015_018&r=all |
| By: | Connelly, Rachel (Bowdoin College); Maurer-Fazio, Margaret (Bates College) |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the work to "retirement" transitions of the rural elders in China who reside in seven regions with substantial minority populations. The data employed, those of the China Household Ethnicity Survey, are ideal for examining the effect of cultural differences on this key lifecycle event, the reduction of market-oriented work with age. Membership in particular ethnic minority groups is used to proxy the potential differences in the culture of aging and caregiving. We find that beyond education, the strongest predictors of labor force participation for China's rural elders are age, disability, widowhood, and ethnic minority status. The effects of ethnic minority group status on labor force participation are robust and the differences in participation among ethnic groups are sometimes large. It is thus misleading, in the analysis of the labor force participation of China's rural elders, to simply dichotomize ethnic minority and majority (Han) group membership. Further careful research is needed to help understand the differences in perceptions of aging among China's rural ethnic minority groups. |
| Keywords: | ethnicity, retirement, labor force participation, elders, aging, China Household Ethnicity Survey |
| JEL: | J14 J15 J16 J26 D13 O53 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9343&r=all |
| By: | Li, Hongbin (Tsinghua University); Yi, Junjian (National University of Singapore); Zhang, Junsen (Chinese University of Hong Kong) |
| Abstract: | This paper tests the effects of fertility on household structure and parental labor supply in rural China. To solve the endogeneity problem, we use a unique survey on households with twin children and a comparison group of non-twin households. The ordinary least squares estimates show a negative correlation between fertility and parental labor supply. Using twinning as a natural experiment, we do not find evidence on the negative effects of fertility on parental labor supply. By contrast, we find that the twinning-induced increase in fertility enhances significantly the coresidence of grandparents. The results remain robust when we use the Chinese 1990 population census. We suggest that the negative effects of fertility on parental labor supply are mitigated by the childcare provided by grandparents. Our results have important implications for population and public childcare policies. |
| Keywords: | fertility, parental labor supply, household structure |
| JEL: | J13 J18 J22 O10 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9342&r=all |
| By: | Verdier, Thierry; Zenou, Yves |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the population dynamics of preference traits in a model of intergenerational cultural transmission with cultural leaders who compete for oblique socialization. We show that by adding this new channel in the transmission of preferences, i.e. cultural leaders, in steady-state, there cannot be an equilibrium with total assimilation or total integration of the population. |
| Keywords: | assimilation; cultural leaders; integration; Socialization |
| JEL: | J13 J15 Z10 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10832&r=all |
| By: | Chatterjee,Urmila; Murgai,Rinku; Rama,Martin G. |
| Abstract: | The recent decline in India?s rural female labor force participation is generally attributed to higher rural incomes in a patriarchal society. Together with the growing share of the urban population, where female participation rates are lower, this alleged income effect does not bode well for the empowerment of women as India develops. This paper argues that a traditional supply-side interpretation is insufficient to account for the decline in female participation rates, and the transformation of the demand for labor at local levels needs to be taken into account as well. A salient trait of this period is the collapse in the number of farming jobs without a parallel emergence of other employment opportunities considered suitable for women. The paper develops a novel approach to capture the structure of employment at the village or town level, and allow for differences along six ranks in the rural-urban gradation. It also considers the possible misclassification of urban areas as rural, as a result of household surveys lagging behind India?s rapid urbanization process. The results show that the place of residence along the rural-urban gradation loses relevance as an explanation of female labor force participation once local job opportunities are taken into account. Robustness checks confirm that the main findings hold even when taking into account the possibility of spurious correlation and endogeneity. They also hold under alternative definitions of labor force participation and when sub-samples of women are considered. Simulations suggest that for India to reverse the decline in female labor force participation rates it needs to boost job creation. |
| Keywords: | Labor Markets,Housing&Human Habitats,Population Policies,Educational Policy and Planning,Labor Policies |
| Date: | 2015–09–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7412&r=all |
| By: | Petersen, Trond; Penner, Andrew M; Høgsnes, Geir |
| Abstract: | Given the key role that processes occurring in the family play in cre- ating gender inequality, the family is a central focus of policies aimed at creating greater gender equality. We examine how family status affects the gender wage gap using longitudinal matched employer- employee data from Norway, 1979 – 96, a period with extensive expan- sion of family policies. The motherhood penalty dropped dramatically from 1979 to 1996. Among men the premia for marriage and father- hood remained constant. In 1979, the gender wage gap was primarily due to the motherhood penalty, but by 1996 husband premia were more important than motherhood penalties. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences |
| Date: | 2014–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:indrel:qt2hk409sk&r=all |
| By: | Jamal BOUOIYOUR; Amal MIFTAH |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we empirically investigate the relationship between international migration and education attainment levels. We ask whether rural children who live in households that experience migration or/and receiving remittances are more likely to complete school at a given age than children who live in non-migrant households. Higher secondary and higher education levels are examined separately. Our results clearly show that children in remittance-receiving households complete significantly more years of schooling. In particular, remittances increase the probability of a male child completing high school. However, the evidence suggests that the international migration lowers deeply the chances of children completing higher education. Evidence also indicates the utmost importance of households' socio-economic status in determining to what extent the household mitigates the possible detrimental effects of migration on their children's educational outcomes. |
| Keywords: | International migration; Education; Remittances; Morocco |
| JEL: | F24 I22 O15 O55 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tac:wpaper:2015-2016_3&r=all |
| By: | Maëlan Le Goff; Sara Salomone |
| Abstract: | Migrants’ remittances to developing countries have significantly increased and turn out to be the second largest source of finance for developing countries after foreign direct investment. Besides, the composition of international migration flows has also changed being characterized by a growing feminization and brain drain. In reviewing the literature on remittances, this survey shows that to fully estimate the role of remittances as a lifeline for developing countries the two above recent phenomena cannot be ignored. Indeed, using an original dataset on bilateral remittances and estimating a gravity model in which the gender and the skill dimensions of the migrants are taken into account, we find that both are positively associated with annual remittances received by origin countries. In particular, the main effect seems to be driven by skilled female migrants which presumably represent an important loss in terms of human capital in the perspective of a developing country. |
| Keywords: | International migration;Remittances;Brain Drain |
| JEL: | J16 F22 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2015-15&r=all |
| By: | Simone Moriconi (Università Cattolica di Milano and CREA, University of Luxembourg); Giovanni Peri (University of California, Davis) |
| Abstract: | European countries exhibit significant differences in employment rates of adult males. Differences in labor-leisure preferences, partly determined by cultural values that vary across countries, can be responsible for part of these differences. However, differences in labor market institutions, productivity, and skills of the labor force are also crucial factors and likely correlated with preferences. In this paper we use variation among first- and second-generation cross-country European migrants to isolate the effect of culturally transmitted labor-leisure preferences on individual employment rates. If migrants maintain some of their country of origin labor-leisure preferences as they move to different labor market conditions, we can separate the impact of preferences from the effect of other factors. We find country-specific labor-leisure preferences explain about 24% of the top-bottom variation in employment rates across European countries. |
| Keywords: | Labor-Leisure Preferences, Cultural Transmission, Employment, Europe, Migrants |
| JEL: | J22 J61 Z10 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:15-11&r=all |
| By: | Daniel Houser (Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science and Department of Economics, George Mason University); John List (Department of Economics, University of Chicago); Marco Piovesan (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen); Anya Samek (Center for Economic and Social Research, University of Southern California); Joachim Winter (Department of Economics, University of Munich) |
| Abstract: | Acts of dishonesty permeate life. Understanding their origins, and what mechanisms help to attenuate such acts is an underexplored area of research. This study takes an economics approach to explore the propensity of individuals to act dishonestly across different contexts. We conduct an experiment that includes both parents and their young children as subjects, exploring the roles of moral cost and scrutiny on dishonest behavior. We find that the highest level of dishonesty occurs in settings where the parent acts alone and the dishonest act benefits the child. In this spirit, there is also an interesting, quite different, effect of children on parents’ behavior: parents act more honestly under the scrutiny of daughters than under the scrutiny of sons. This finding sheds new light on the origins of the widely documented gender differences in cheating behavior observed among adults, where a typical result is that females are more honest than males. Length: 48 |
| Keywords: | cheating, dishonesty, ethical judgment, social utility, field experiment |
| JEL: | C91 D63 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gms:wpaper:1054&r=all |
| By: | Yi Xue (University of International Business and Economics); Xiaochuan Xing (Tsinghua University); Alexander Karaivanov (Simon Fraser University) |
| Abstract: | Survey data from CFPAM, the leading joint-liability microfinance lender in China, indicate that nearly 70% of all borrower groups in the sample are `bogus' -- that is, one person uses all loans given to group members in a single investment project while all other group members act as unproductive cosigners. This practice not only violates CFPAM rules but is also inconsistent with the majority of the theoretical literature on group lending, a basic tenet of which is that each borrower uses their own loan to implement their own investment project (what we call `standard' group). We therefore extend the classic model of group lending under joint liability by explicitly allowing for both standard and bogus groups in a setting with the possibility of strategic default due to limited enforcement. The optimal choice between standard and bogus groups is endogenous and depends on the borrowers' characteristics (project productivity and probability of success). We analyze the optimal group loan contract (or menu of contracts) and show that bogus groups optimally arise when either the productivity differential between the projects in a group is high (in heterogeneous groups), or when the absolute level of project productivity is high (in homogeneous groups). Explicitly allowing for the possibility of bogus groups not only helps the lender avoid losses which would occur if their presence is ignored, but also enhances productive efficiency and borrower welfare in the economy. We test the model predictions with data from rural China and evaluate the welfare gains from implementing the optimal contract (or menu) relative to the benchmarks of: (a) lenders operating unaware of bogus groups or (b) lenders using a contract that endogenously rules out bogus group formation. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed015:728&r=all |