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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Asiedu, Edward |
| Abstract: | Using a unique data on sub-Saharan Africa, we show that even though in absolute terms men pay more bribes, in relative terms, women are more likely to be involved in bribery or do favors that benefit the household. Additionally, running country specific regressions shows that for 65% of the countries gender differences when household needs are at stake disappear. These results underscore the importance of household needs to the woman, and that the effect of gender on corruption may well be context specific. |
| Keywords: | service delivery, gender, bribe-involvement, household needs, Africa, Consumer/Household Economics, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Public Economics, D1, J16, H10, K42, |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gagfdp:229587&r=dem |
| By: | Andrea Albanese (Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business, SHERPPA); Bart Cockx (Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business, SHERPPA, UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES), IZA and CESifo); Yannick Thuy (Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business, SHERPPA) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study the effects on the survival rate in employment of a scheme that facilitates gradual retirement through working time reductions. We use information on the entire labour market career and other observables to control for selection and take dynamic treatment assignment into account. We also estimate a competing risks model considering different (possibly selective) pathways to early retirement. We find that participation in the scheme initially prolongs employment, as participants keep accumulating full pension rights. However, as participants become eligible for early retirement subsequently, these larger financial incentives induce them to leave the labour force prematurely. These adverse incentives are stronger for individuals who reduce their working time most. After two (four) years for men (women), the positive effects reverse. The more favourable effect for women is likely a consequence of their lower opportunities to enter early retirement. The gradual retirement scheme fails the cost-benefit test. |
| Keywords: | Part-time work, older workers, Inverse Probability Weighting, dynamic selection into treatment, endogenous sampling |
| JEL: | J14 C22 J18 J22 |
| Date: | 2015–12–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2015024&r=dem |
| By: | Raquel Fonseca; Thepthida Sopraseuth |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a calibrated dynamic life-cycle model to quantify the long-run distributional impact of two opposite Social Security reforms: modifying the parameters of a defined benefit (DB) plan (such as in France with Ayrault’s reform) or switching to a notional defined contribution (NDC) plan (such as in Italy). Both reforms yield an inequal distribution of welfare losses. Low-skilled workers are the main losers of the reforms. This is so for different reasons in each reform. In the case of Ayrault’s reform, low-skilled individuals delay retirement by 2 years, up to age 62. In switching to a NDC scheme, low-skilled workers’pensions fall substantially. In NDC schemes, inequalities along the working-life are directly translated into inequalities in pension levels. The switch from a DB plan to the Italian reform yields substantial welfare losses, pensions drastically fall, and individuals save more. Since low-skilled workers do not save as much as middle or high-skilled workers, the switch to NDC schemes leads to a more unequal society in terms of asset distribution. |
| Keywords: | Pension reforms, life-cycle heterogeneous-agent model, distributional effects |
| JEL: | E24 H31 H55 J26 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:criacr:1515&r=dem |
| By: | José Alberto Molina (Faculty of Economics and Business Studies, Universidad de Zaragoza); Juan Carlos Campaña (Faculty of Economics and Business Studies, Universidad de Zaragoza); Raquel Ortega (Faculty of Economics and Business Studies, Universidad de Zaragoza) |
| Abstract: | We analyze differences between wage-earners and self-employees in the time spent on different cultural activities at home (reading, watching TV, and listening to the radio). To that end, we estimate a SUR model with data from the Spanish Time Use Survey for 2009-2010. Our results show that being self-employed has a negative and significant effect on the time dedicated to reading and to watching TV, older individuals spend more time reading, and being male influences the time spent watching TV and listening to the radio, in a statistically significant and positive way. Additionally, those with a higher level of education spend more time reading, while those with lower levels of education prefer to watch TV. Adults with better health spend less time on both reading and watching TV, and families with larger numbers of children up to age 5 tend to spend less time on all three of our at-home cultural activities. Finally, living in a larger city has a positive effect on the time dedicated to all three options. |
| Keywords: | Reading, Watching TV, Listening to radio, Wage-earners, Self-employees, Time uses, SUR model |
| JEL: | D12 D13 J22 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zar:wpaper:dt2016-01&r=dem |
| By: | Christina E. Bannier (Department of Corporate Finance, Johannes Gutenberg-Universitaet Mainz); Milena Neubert (Department of Corporate Finance, Johannes Gutenberg-Universitaet Mainz) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the role of actual and perceived ?nancial sophistication (i.e., ?nancial literacy and con?dence) for individuals’ wealth accumulation. Using survey data from the German SAVE initiative, we ?nd strong gender- and education-related di?erences in the distribution of the two variables and their e?ects on wealth: As ?nancial literacy rises in formal education, whereas con?dence increases in education for men but decreases for women, we observe that women become strongly undercon?dent with higher education, while men remain overcon?dent. Regarding wealth accumulation, we show that ?nancial literacy has a positive e?ect that is stronger for women than for men and is increasing (decreasing) in education for women (men). Con?dence, however, supports only highly-educated men’s wealth. When considering di?erent channels for wealth accumulation, we observe that ?nancial literacy is more important for current ?nancial market participation, whereas con?dence is more strongly associated with future-oriented ?nancial planning. Overall, we demonstrate that highly-educated men’s wealth levels bene?t from their overcon?dence via all ?nancial decisions considered, but highly-educated women’s ?nancial planning suffers from their undercon?dence. This may impair their wealth levels in old age. |
| Keywords: | Financial literacy, ?nancial sophistication, con?dence, wealth, household ?nance, behavioral ?nance, gender, formal education |
| JEL: | D91 G11 D83 J26 |
| Date: | 2016–01–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jgu:wpaper:1605&r=dem |
| By: | Valladares-Esteban, Arnau; Choi, Sekyu |
| Date: | 2016–01–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stn:sotoec:1509&r=dem |
| By: | Philipp Harms (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz); Daria Shuvalova (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we estimate the effect of “cultural distance” on bilateral trade in services. Our measure of cultural distance is based on the scores developed by the social psychologist Geert Hofstede, which reflect country averages of individuals’ attitude towards power, uncertainty, individualism etc. Controlling for other standard ingredients of gravity equations, we show that an aggregate measure of cultural distance has a significantly negative effect on total bilateral services trade. However, once we take a more disaggregate view, we find that the strength and sign of this effect differs across various aspects of culture and across various types of services. |
| Keywords: | Trade in services, cultural distance, Hofstede scores, gravity equation |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jgu:wpaper:1606&r=dem |