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on Demographic Economics |
| By: | Francisco Azpitarte (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne and Brotherhood of St Laurence); Abraham Chigavazira (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne); Guyonne Kalb (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne and Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA)); Brad M. Farrant (Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia); Francisco Perales (Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland); Stephen R. Zubrick (Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia and Graduate School of Education, The University of Western Australia) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates patterns of childcare use and their influence on the cognitive development of Indigenous children. The influence of childcare on the cognitive outcomes of Indigenous children is less well understood than for non-Indigenous children due to a lack of appropriate data. This paper uses data from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children, a unique panel survey that tracks two cohorts of Indigenous children in Australia. This paper focusses on the younger cohort that has been followed from infancy and includes rich information on their childcare use and cognitive outcomes. We find that, compared to Indigenous children who never participated in childcare, Indigenous children who participated in childcare performed better on a range of cognitive outcomes measured across the preschool years. Using regression and propensity score matching techniques we show that this difference is entirely driven by selection into childcare, with children from more advantaged families being more likely to attend formal childcare than children from less advantaged families. However, results from the matching analysis suggest that relatively disadvantaged children might benefit more from attending childcare, as indicated by the positive potential effects found for those who never attended childcare (i.e. the estimated effects had they participated in childcare). |
| Keywords: | Childcare, child development, Indigenous population, LSIC data |
| JEL: | J13 J15 D19 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2016n36&r=dem |
| By: | Romiti, Agnese (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "Fertility and female labour force participation are no longer negatively correlated in developed countries. Recently, the role of immigration has been put forward as a driving factor among others. Increased immigration affects supply and prices of household services, which are relevant for fertility and employment decisions. This paper analyses the effect of immigration on labour supply and fertility of native women in the UK, with a focus on the role of immigration on household services. Adopting an instrumental variable approach based on the country-specific past distribution of immigrants at regional level, I find that immigration increases female labour supply, without affecting fertility. My results show that immigration increases the size of the childcare sector, and reduces its prices, suggesting that immigrants may ease the trade-off between working and child rearing among native women." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| JEL: | D10 F22 J13 J22 J61 |
| Date: | 2016–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201640&r=dem |
| By: | Jaime Alonso-Carrera; Jordi Caballé; Xavier Raurich |
| Abstract: | We analyze the determinants of occupational and educational decisions in a model of dynastic altruism where individuals invest in the education of their children. We show that the relevant wage gaps that drive these two decisions are associated with the expected skill premium and the expected premium that each skill class faces when choosing a more effort-demanding occupation. As the occupational and educational decisions determine the relative frequency of high wages, we analyze how these wage gaps affect the frequency of high wages within each skilled class. We show that the results from this analysis are consistent with empirical evidence based on cross-country data for several European economies. |
| Keywords: | wages; skills; occupational decision; education |
| JEL: | I24 J62 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:945&r=dem |
| By: | Kevin Milligan, Tammy Schirle (Wilfrid Laurier University) |
| Abstract: | We address the health capacity to work among Canadian older workers using two complementary methods, aggregate mortality risk and individual health indicators. We find that men in 2012 would need to work more than five additional years between ages 55-69 to keep pace with how much men in 1976 worked, holding health capacity constant. For working women, the comparable result is only two years more work. Most of these gaps arose before the mid-1990s, as employment advances have offset mortality improvements since then. Regionally, more than half the Ontario-Atlantic employment difference among older men is rooted in health differences. |
| Keywords: | Health, retirement, labour supply |
| JEL: | J14 J21 J26 |
| Date: | 2016–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wlu:lcerpa:0097&r=dem |
| By: | Dainn Wie (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies); Jong-Wha Lee (Korea University) |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes how changes in overall wage inequality and gender-specific factors affected the gender wage gap in Chinese and Indian urban labor markets in the 1990s and 2000s. Analysis of micro data present that contrasting evolutionary patterns in gender wage gap emerged over the period, showing a widened wage gap in China but a dramatically reduced gap in India. In both countries, female workers f increased skill levels contributed to reducing the gender wage gap. However, increases in observed prices of education and experience worked unfavorably for high-skilled women, counterbalancing their improvement in labor market qualifications. Decomposition analyses show that China fs widened gap was attributable to gender-specific factors such as deteriorated observable and unobservable labor market qualifications and increased discrimination, especially against low- and middle-skilled female workers. For India, gender-specific factors and relatively high wage gains of low- and middle-skilled workers reduced the male-female wage gap. |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ngi:dpaper:16-25&r=dem |
| By: | Glewwe, Paul; Huang, Qiuqiong; Park, Albert |
| Abstract: | Economists have long recognized the important role of formal schooling and cognitive skills on labor market participation and wages. More recently, increasing attention has turned to the role of personality traits, or noncognitive skills. This study is among the first to examine how both cognitive and noncognitive skills measured in childhood predict educational attainment and early labor market outcomes in a developing country setting. Analyzing longitudinal data on rural children from one of China's poorest provinces, we find that both cognitive and noncognitive skills, measured when children are 9-12, 13-16, and 17-21 years old, are important predictors of whether they remain in school or enter the work force at age 17-21. The predictive power of specific skill variables differ between boys and girls. Conditioning on years of schooling, there is no strong evidence that skills measured in childhood predict wages in the early years of labor market participation. |
| Keywords: | China; cognitive; noncognitive; schooling; skills |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11705&r=dem |
| By: | Deniz Karaoğlan (Department of Economics, Bahçeşehir University); Dürdane Şirin Saracoğlu (Department of Economics, METU) |
| Abstract: | In this study we examine the association between parents’ socioeconomic status (SES) and childhood health in Turkey, a middle income, developing country using the 2013 round of Demographic Health Survey (DHS) data set. In our investigation, we focus on children from 7 to 59 months old and as a measure of health status, we use the height-for-age z-score, which is the measure of stunting and wasting. In order to overcome the biases with respect to age and gender, we calculate the child’s standardized height measure. Using classical regression techniques, after controlling for the child’s birth order, birth weight, mother’s height, mother’s breastfeeding, nutrition status and pre-school attendance, the impact of parent’s SES on child’s health measures is assessed, and parents’ SES indicators include region of residence, number of household members, father’s presence, parents’ education and work status, and household wealth index based on the household’s asset holdings. Our results indicate that while mother’s education and occupation type are among the leading factors that affect the child’s health status, urban residence appears to be the dominant factor which positively affects child’s health: SES of families proxied by living conditions and infrastructure factors such as sanitation, access to clean water, availability of electricity, which are under the control of local governments, as well as access to health care services must be improved for better child health. |
| Keywords: | Health, children, z-score, household socioeconomic status, Turkey |
| JEL: | C20 I15 J13 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:met:wpaper:1614&r=dem |
| By: | Marcén, Miriam; Molina, Jose Alberto; Morales, Marina |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether culture plays a role in the number of children born. To explore this issue, we use data on immigrant women who arrived in the United States under 6 years old. Since all these women are resident in the same country from their early lives, and grew up under the same laws, institutions, and economic conditions, then the differences between them by country of origin may be due to cultural differences, as the epidemiological approach suggests. Following that approach, we identify the cultural effect, exploiting variations in the mean number of children born by country of origin, using data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series International that allows us to measure more precisely the cultural proxy by age, education level, and employment status. Results show that the home-country mean number of children born has a positive and statistically significant relationship to the number of children born of immigrants living in the US, suggesting that culture is important. Our findings are robust to the introduction of several home country variables, and to the use of different subsamples. Our results are maintained when we control for unobservable characteristics by country of origin. Additionally, we extend this work to an analysis of both the decision to have children and the number of children born, finding again that culture appears to play a significant role. |
| Keywords: | Culture, Immigrants, Number of children born |
| JEL: | J13 Z13 |
| Date: | 2016–12–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75511&r=dem |
| By: | Michael McGann (School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne); Rachel Ong (Bankwest Curtin Economic Centre, Curtin University); Dina Bowman (Research and Policy Centre, Brotherhood of St Laurence); Alan Duncan (Bankwest Curtin Economic Centre, Curtin University); Helen Kimberley (Research and Policy Centre, Brotherhood of St Laurence); Simon Biggs (School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how age and gender interact to shape older jobseekers’ experiences of age discrimination within a mixed methods framework. The analysis reveals that there has been a considerable decline in levels of perceived ageism among older men nationally relative to older women. These findings suggest that the nature of ageism experienced by older women is qualitatively different from men. Hence, policy responses to ageism need to be far more tailored in their approach because present, one-size-fits all, business case approaches rely on an overly narrow concept that obscures the gender and occupational dimensions of ageism. |
| Keywords: | Age discrimination, ageism, gender, older workers |
| JEL: | J01 J16 J71 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ozl:bcecwp:wp1601&r=dem |
| By: | Roberto Basile (Seconda Università di Napoli); Alessandro Girardi (ISTAT, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica); Marianna Mantuano (ISTAT, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica); Giuseppe Russo (Università di Salerno and CSEF) |
| Abstract: | The role of labour mobility on regional disparities is at the core of a heated debate: while standard competitive models posit that mobility works as an equilibrating device and reduces the unemployment, models featuring externalities lead to opposite conclusions. Against this backdrop, we present a simple two-region model adapted to the main features of the Italian North-South dualism that illustrates the effects of labour mobility with and without human capital externalities. We show that, when externalities are introduced, regional mobility may exacerbate regional unemployment disparities. Using longitudinal data over the years 2002- 2011 for 103 NUTS-3 Italian regions, we document that net outflows of human capital from the South to the North have increased the unemployment rate in the South and decreased the unemployment rate in the North. Our conclusions support the literature that finds an important role of regional externalities, and suggest that reducing human capital flight from Southern regions should be a priority. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, Migration, Human capital, Externalities, Italian regions |
| JEL: | C23 R23 J61 |
| Date: | 2016–12–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:460&r=dem |
| By: | Bailey, Roy E; Hatton, Timothy J.; Inwood, Kris |
| Abstract: | Atmospheric pollution was an important side effect of coal-fired industrialisation in the nineteenth century. In Britain emissions of black smoke were on the order of fifty times as high as they were a century later. In this paper we examine the effects of these emissions on child development by analysing the heights on enlistment during the First World War of men born in England and Wales in the 1890s. We use the occupational structure to measure the coal intensity of the districts in which these men were observed as children in the 1901 census. We find strong negative effects of coal intensity on height, which amounts to a difference of almost an inch between the most and least polluted localities. These results are robust to a variety of specification tests and they are consistent with the notion that the key channel of influence on height was via respiratory infection. The subsequent reduction of emissions from coal combustion is one factor contributing to the improvement in health (and the increase in height) during the twentieth century. |
| Keywords: | atmospheric pollution; health and height |
| JEL: | I15 N13 Q53 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11702&r=dem |