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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Amanda Gosling; Maria D. C. Garcia-Alonso |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a model of parental decision making where parents care about consumption and the human capital of the children. Preferences over these goods can differ within households. Parents will agree to cooperate (stay married) if the utility they get from coordinating time inputs (ie child care or paid employment) is greater than they would get if they acted independently. The gain to cooperation arises because parental time inputs are not perfect substitutes in the production of the child's human capital, the cost is that when preferences differ, the chosen time allocations under cooperation may be very different to those chosen independently. Our model predicts that the human capital of children can both increase and fall after divorce. Divorce, if it occurs, will be instigated by the parent who cares most about the child, the parent that cares least about the child will never opt for divorce. This can explain the apparent contradiction that mothers are more likely than fathers to initiate divorce beyond infant age even though the traditional household literature presents women as home makers and ever devoted to household production. |
| Keywords: | collective model; human capital; divorce |
| JEL: | C79 D19 J12 J22 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:1521&r=dem |
| By: | Deger Eryar (Department of Economics, Izmir University of Economics); Hasan Tekguc (Department of Economics, Mardin Artuklu University) |
| Abstract: | The focus of this paper is to examine the impact of having a working mother on their daughter’s labor force participation rate for the first time in Turkey by using a representative sample from the third largest city Ýzmir.Our findings indicate that the gender role attitude is one of the most important determinants of women’s initial entry into the labor force, especially for those women with lower education levels. However, the same effect loses its significance as a factor in women’s decision to remain in the labor force. This result suggests that although the gender role attitude can induce low-educated women to participate in the labor market initially, the lack of adequate work-family reconciliation policies in Turkey seem to adversely affect their decision to stay in the labor force as wives and mothers. |
| Keywords: | Female labor force participation rate, work-family reconciliation, labor force attachment, gender role attitude, Turkey |
| JEL: | J16 J21 Z13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:izm:wpaper:1501&r=dem |
| By: | Norén, Anna (Department of Economics, Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | Despite several policies aimed at increasing fathers’ participation in the caring of children, Swedish mothers still use the bulk of the paid parental leave which may have several negative consequences for the family e.g. in terms of weaker labor market attachment for the mother. Division of parental leave is likely affected by how parents value the costs associated with parental leave. I investigate whether a reduction in the care burden, or a decreased non-monetary cost, of parental leave through the availability of childcare for older siblings affects how the leave is divided. The effect of access to childcare is evaluated by utilizing the regional heterogeneity of the implementation of a childcare reform in Sweden in 2002 that gave children of parents on parental leave with a younger sibling the right to stay in childcare. Results suggest that availability of childcare for an older sibling during parental leave does not impact the division of parental leave between mothers and fathers. |
| Keywords: | Childcare; Parental leave; Gender equality |
| JEL: | H31 J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2015–11–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2015_024&r=dem |
| By: | Aoki, Yu (University of Aberdeen); Santiago, Lualhati (Office for National Statistics, UK) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to identify the causal effect of English language skills on education, health and fertility outcomes of immigrants in England and Wales. We construct an instrument for language skills using age at arrival in the United Kingdom, exploiting the fact that young children learn languages more easily than older children and adults. Using a unique individual-level dataset that links 2011 census data to life event records for the population living in England and Wales, we find that better English language skills significantly lower the probability of having no qualifications and raise that of obtaining academic degrees, but do not affect child health and self-reported adult health. The impact of language on fertility outcomes is also considerable: Better English skills significantly delay the age at which a woman has her first child, lower the likelihood of becoming a teenage mother, and decrease fertility. |
| Keywords: | language skills, education, health, fertility |
| JEL: | I10 I20 J13 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9498&r=dem |
| By: | Deshpande, Ashwini (Delhi School of Economics); Goel, Deepti (Delhi School of Economics); Khanna, Shantanu (University of Delhi) |
| Abstract: | We use nationally representative data from the Employment-Unemployment Surveys in 1999-2000 and 2009-10 to explore gender wage gaps among Regular Wage/Salaried (RWS) workers in India, both at the mean, as well as along the entire wage distribution to see "what happens where". The gender log wage gap at the mean is 55 percent in 1999-2000 and 49 percent in 2009-10, but this change is not statistically significant. The Blinder-Oaxaca and the Machado-Mata-Melly decompositions indicate that, in both years, the bulk of the gender wage gap is unexplained, i.e. possibly discriminatory. They also reveal that over the decade, while the wage-earning characteristics of women improved relative to men, the discriminatory component of the gender wage gap also increased. In fact, in 2009-10, if women were 'paid like men', they would have earned more than men on account of their characteristics. In both years, we see the existence of the "sticky floor", in that gender wage gaps are higher at lower ends of the wage distribution and steadily decline thereafter. Over the ten-year period, we find that the sticky floor became stickier for RWS women. Machado-Mata-Melly decompositions reveal that, in both years, women at the lower end of the wage distribution face higher discriminatory gaps compared to women at the upper end. |
| Keywords: | gender discrimination, wage differentials, gender, India |
| JEL: | J31 J71 O53 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9485&r=dem |
| By: | Bénédicte H. Apouey (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics); Pierre-Yves Geoffard (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the relationship between parental education and offspring body weight in France. Using two large datasets spanning the 1991-2010 period, we examine the existence of inequalities in maternal and paternal education and child reported body weight measures, as well as their evolution across childhood. Our empirical specification is flexible and allows this evolution to be non-monotonic. Significant inequalities are observed for both parents’ education – maternal (respectively paternal) high education is associated with a 7.20 (resp. 7.10) percentage points decrease in the probability that the child is reported to be overweight or obese, on average for children of all ages. The gradient with respect to parents’ education follows an inverted U-shape across childhood, meaning that the association between parental education and child body weight widens from birth to age 8, and narrows afterward. Specifically, maternal high education is correlated with a 5.30 percentage points decrease in the probability that the child is reported to be overweight or obese at age 2, but a 9.62 percentage points decrease at age 8, and a 1.25 percentage point decrease at age 17. The figures for paternal high education are respectively 5.87, 9.11, and 4.52. This pattern seems robust, since it is found in the two datasets, when alternative variables for parental education and reported child body weight are employed, and when controls for potential confounding factors are included. The findings for the trajectory of the income gradient corroborate those of the education gradient. The results may be explained by an equalization in actual body weight across socioeconomic groups during youth, or by changes in reporting styles of height and weight. |
| Keywords: | Socioeconomic Status,Body Weight,Overweight,Children,BMI-for-age z-score,Education |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-01223321&r=dem |
| By: | Andersson Joona, Pernilla (SOFI, Stockholm University); Lanninger, Alma W. (SOFI, Stockholm University); Sundström, Marianne (SOFI, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | This paper is an early evaluation of the Swedish Establishment Reform which was enacted in 2010 with the goal of facilitating and speeding up the integration of refugees and their family into the labor market and the society. From December 1, 2010 the reform transferred the responsibility for the integration of newly-arrived refugees from the municipalities to the government funded Public Employment Service through which those eligible would get an establishment plan and a coach. The reform was motived by concern over the low employment level and slow integration of refugees. Our approach is to compare the outcomes of the treatment group, which took part in establishment activities and arrived between December 1, 2010 and December 31, 2011, to those of the comparison group, which arrived in the eleven months preceding the Reform and participated in municipal introduction programs, controlling for a rich set of observables, including country of birth and date of residence permit. Outcomes are measured in terms of employment and earnings in 2012 for the treatment group and in 2011 for the comparison group. Our data comes from registers held by Statistics Sweden and the Public Employment Service and covers all immigrants. Although there are good reasons to expect positive effects of the Reform we find no significant difference in employment or earnings between the treatment group and the comparison group. |
| Keywords: | integration, refugees, labor market policy, treatment effect, employment, earnings, caseworkers |
| JEL: | J15 J61 J68 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9496&r=dem |
| By: | Picchio, Matteo (Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona); van Ours, Jan C. (Tilburg University) |
| Abstract: | Using employees' longitudinal data, we study the effect of working hours on the propensity of firms to sponsor training of their employees. We show that, whereas male part-time workers are less likely to receive training than male full-timers, part-time working women are as likely to receive training as full-time working women. Although we cannot rule out gender-working time specific monopsony power, we speculate that the gender-specific effect of working hours on training has to do with gender-specific stereotyping. In the Netherlands, for women it is common to work part-time. More than half of the prime age female employees work part-time. Therefore, because of social norms, men working part-time could send a different signal to their employer than women working part-time. This might generate a different propensity of firms to sponsor training of male part-timers than female part-timers. |
| Keywords: | part-time employment, working hours, firm-sponsored training, gender, human capital |
| JEL: | C33 C35 J24 M51 M53 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9470&r=dem |