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on Microeconomic European Issues |
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Issue of 2021‒09‒13
24 papers chosen by Giuseppe Marotta Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia |
| By: | Dodin, Majed; Findeisen, Sebastian; Henkel, Lukas; Sachs, Dominik; Schüle, Paul |
| Abstract: | We characterize intergenerational social mobility in Germany using census data on the educational attainment of 526,000 children and their parents' earnings. Our measure of educational attainment is the A-Level degree, a requirement for access to university and the most important qualification in the German education system. On average, a 10 percentile increase in the parental income rank is associated with a 5.2 percentage point increase in the probability to obtain an A-Level. This parental income gradient has not changed for the birth cohorts from 1980 to 1996, despite a large-scale policy of expanding upper secondary education in Germany. At the regional level, there exists substantial variation in mobility estimates. Place effects, rather than sorting of households into different regions, seem to account for most of these geographical differences. Mobile regions are, among other aspects, characterized by high school quality and enhanced possibilities to obtain an A-Level degree in vocational schools. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational Mobility,Educational Attainment,Local Labor Markets |
| JEL: | I24 J62 R23 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cexwps:04&r= |
| By: | Bruno Arpino (Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti", Università di Firenze); Jordi Gumà (Department of Political and Social Sciences, Pompeu Fabra University); Albert Julià (Department of Sociology, University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | Life course research emphasizes that health and wellbeing at older ages are influenced by experiences occurred in the previous stages of life. Several studies have focused on fertility and partnership histories and health at older ages, but fewer have examined subjective wellbeing (SWB), especially using a holistic approach. Another strand of the literature demonstrated that non-standard family behaviors negatively influence SWB. We contribute to these strands of the literature by examining the association between non-standardness of family histories and SWB at older ages. We argue that individuals who experienced non-standard trajectories have been exposed to social sanctions throughout their life course which could exert negative long-term influence on their SWB. We apply sequence analysis and optimal matching on retrospective data from the seventh wave of the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to calculate the degree of non-standardness of family histories between age 15 and 49. Subseuently, we estimate linear regression models to assess the association between non-standardness of family histories and older people's SWB. Our results show a negative association between non-standardness of family histories and SWB, which is stronger for lower educated individuals and in Southern European countries. |
| Keywords: | Fertility histories; Partnership histories; subjective wellbeing; older people; SHARE. |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fir:econom:wp2021_16&r= |
| By: | Simon Rabaté (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis); Externe auteur: Sara Rellstab (Universit a della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | Having children can result in large earnings penalties for mothers. Using extensive administrative data from the Netherlands, we assess the magnitude and drivers of the effects of first childbirth on parents' earnings trajectories in the Netherlands. We show that mothers' earnings are 46% lower compared to their pre-birth earnings trajectory, whereas fathers' earnings are unaffected by child birth. We examine the role of two potential determinants of the unequal distribution of parents' labour market costs by gender: childcare policies and gender norms. We find that while child care availability is correlated with lower child penalty, the immediate short-term causal effect of increasing child care availability on the earnings penalty of becoming a mother is small. By taking advantage of variation in gender norms in different population groups, we show that gender norms are strongly correlated with child penalty for mothers. Having children can result in large earnings penalties for mothers. Using extensive administrative data from the Netherlands, we assess the magnitude and drivers of the effects of first childbirth on parents' earnings trajectories in the Netherlands. We show that mothers' earnings are 46% lower compared to their pre-birth earnings trajectory, whereas fathers' earnings are unaffected by child birth. We examine the role of two potential determinants of the unequal distribution of parents' labour market costs by gender: childcare policies and gender norms. We find that while child care availability is correlated with lower child penalty, the immediate short-term causal effect of increasing child care availability on the earnings penalty of becoming a mother is small. By taking advantage of variation in gender norms in different population groups, we show that gender norms are strongly correlated with child penalty for mothers. |
| JEL: | I26 I32 J13 |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:424&r= |
| By: | Lüthi, Samuel (Swiss Co-ordination Center for Research in Education); Wolter, Stefan C. (University of Bern) |
| Abstract: | In this study, we examine the influence of competitiveness on the stability of labour relations using the example of premature employment and training contract termination in the apprenticeship education sector. The paper extends the small but growing evidence on the external relevance of competitiveness by analysing gender differences in the correlation between competitiveness and labour market success and whether these effects depend on how the students' propensity to compete is measured. By matching a large experimental dataset with administrative data identifying contract terminations, we find that both gender and test specification matter. While competitive men assigned to a difficult competitiveness task are less likely to drop out of the contract than non competitive men, there is no such effect observable for those assigned to the easier task. On the other hand, competitive women are more likely to drop out than non competitive women, irrespective of how competitiveness is measured. |
| Keywords: | competitiveness, non-cognitive skills, gender, apprenticeship |
| JEL: | C9 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14675&r= |
| By: | Ernest Miguelez; Andrea Morrison; |
| Abstract: | How do regions enter new and distant technological fields? Who is triggering this process? This work addresses these compelling research questions by investigating the role of migrant inventors in the process of technological diversification. Immigrant inventors can indeed act as carriers of knowledge across borders and influence the direction of technological change. We test these latter propositions by using an original dataset of immigrant inventors in the context of European regions during the period 2003-2011. Our findings show that: immigrant inventors generate positive local knowledge spillovers; they help their host regions to develop new technological specialisations; they trigger a process of unrelated diversification. Their contribution comes via two main mechanisms: immigrant inventors use their own personal knowledge (knowledge creation); they import knowledge from their home country to the host region (knowledge transfer). Their impact is maximised when their knowledge is not recombined with the local one (in mixed teams of inventors), but it is reused (in teams made by only migrant inventors). Our work contributes to the existing literature of regional diversification by providing fresh evidence of unrelated diversification for European regions and by identifying important agents of structural change. It also contributes to the literature of migration and innovation by adding fresh evidence on European regions and by unveiling some of the mechanisms of immigrants’ knowledge transmission. |
| Keywords: | patents, migration, technological diversification, relatedness, Europe |
| JEL: | O30 F20 F60 |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2125&r= |
| By: | Signe Abrahamsen (University of Bergen); Rita Ginja (University of Bergen); Julie Riise (University of Bergen) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides new evidence that preventive health care services delivered at schools and provided at a relatively low cost have positive and lasting impacts. We use variation from a 1999-reform in Norway that induced substantial differences in the availability of health professionals across municipalities and cohorts. In municipalities with one fewer school nurse per 1,000 school-age children before the reform there was an increase in the availability of nurses of 35% from the pre- to the post-reform period, attributed to the policy change. The reform reduced teenage pregnancies and increased college attendance for girls. It also reduced the take-up of welfare benefits by ages 26 and 30 and increased the planned use of primary and specialist health care services at ages 25-35, without impacts on emergency room admissions. The reform also improved the health of newborns of affected new mothers and reduced the likelihood of miscarriages. |
| Keywords: | school health services, teenage pregnancy, welfare dependence, utilization of health services, health status |
| JEL: | H75 I10 I12 I28 I30 I38 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2021-044&r= |
| By: | Walter, Timo |
| Abstract: | From the early 1990s until 2005 the unemployment rate rose in Germany from 7.3% to 11.7%. While the unemployment rate reached its peak in 2005, it decreased steadily in the following years. On the one hand, the fourth stage of the German labor market reform (Hartz IV) was implemented in 2005 with the intent to cut the unemployment rate. On the other hand, the productivities in Germany and Eastern Europe grew strongly during the same period, enhancing the joint trade. The "rise of the East", in terms of rising trade, is likely to have had an ambiguous effect on the German labor market. This paper investigates the employment effects of the "Hartz IV-Reform". Further, it concentrates on the labor market effects of the German and Eastern European productivity shock. The focus lies on the national and county level (including 402 counties). As the effects on regional labor markets differ and take time, the paper builds on the dynamic and spatial trade model of Caliendo et al. (2019). I find that the "Hartz IV-Reform" and the German productivity contributes positively to the decline of unemployment, whereas the increase in Eastern European productivity is only responsible for a minor increase in unemployment. |
| Keywords: | Dynamic Trade Model,Labor Market Reform,Trade Liberalization,Productivity Shocks,Germany,Eastern Europe |
| JEL: | F14 F16 F17 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hohdps:052021&r= |
| By: | Fullard, Joshua |
| Abstract: | Using data from the Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE), we take advantage of the plausibly exogenous variation in the unemployment rate, by field of study, at time of graduation to investigate the impact of labour market condition on teacher supply, measured by enrolment onto an Initial Teacher Training Programme (TTP). We find that labour market conditions have no effect on the probability that a graduate will go into a TTP. However, heterogeneity analysis suggests that periods of high unemployment impact the composition of graduates who enrol with effects on diversity (more male graduates and more ethnic minority graduates), subject specific shortages (more Physics graduates) and quality (more graduates from Russell Group Universities). |
| Date: | 2021–09–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2021-06&r= |
| By: | Sebastian Will; Timon Renz |
| Abstract: | The present study analyses the relationship between home tenure status and life satisfaction applying fixed-effects regressions. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel from 1984 to 2018, we first find that compared to renting a home, owning one has an overall significant positive effect on life satisfaction. Hereby, we confirm results of already existing studies. Secondly, by examining homeowners and their different financing conditions more closely, we show that having a real estate loan impacts homeowners’ life satisfaction negatively by 0,048 points on a 10-point Likert scale. Taken together, these two antagonistic effects sum up to a null effect, which opposes most of the conclusions of related literature. By choosing to compare indebted homeowner, and not homeowners in general, to renters, we intend to contribute to a more thorough understanding of the effects of tenure status on life satisfaction. Additionally, we examine the temporal effects five years before and after the change in tenure status. As we obtain mixed results, the effects of anticipation and adaptation of life satisfaction remain to be further investigated. |
| Keywords: | financing conditions; Homeownership; Life Satisfaction |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2021–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2021_89&r= |
| By: | Daniel Auer (University of Mannheim); Johannes S. Kunz (Monash University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the intergenerational effect of communication barriers on child health at birth using a natural experiment in Switzerland. We leverage the fact that refugees arriving in Switzerland originate from places that have large shares of French (or Italian) speakers for historical reasons and upon arrival are by law randomly allocated across states that are dominated by different languages but subject to the same jurisdiction. Our findings based on administrative records of all refugee arrivals and birth events between 2010 and 2017 show that children born to mothers who were exogenously allocated to an environment that matched their linguistic heritage are on average 72 gram heavier (or 2.2%) than those that were allocated to an unfamiliar language environment. The differences are driven by growth rather than gestation and manifest in a 2.9 percentage point difference in low birth weight incidence. We find substantial dose-response relationships in terms of language exposure in both, the origin country and the destination region. Moreover, French (Italian) exposed refugees only benefit from French-(Italian-) speaking destinations, but not vice versa. Contrasting the language match with co-ethnic networks, we find that high quality networks are acting as a substitute rather than a complement. |
| Keywords: | Infant health, language proficiency, refugee allocation , networks |
| JEL: | F22 I12 J13 J24 J61 J62 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mhe:chemon:2021-05&r= |
| By: | Federico Revelli; Tsung-Sheng Tsai; Roberto Zotti |
| Abstract: | This paper exploits the multi-tiered structure of personal income taxation in Italy to investigate within-tier (horizontal) and between-tiers (vertical and diagonal) fiscal externalities. Estimation of an unrestricted income tax reaction function on municipalities located at internal regional borders using o¤-border Wald-type grouping variables as well as the staggered schedule of mayoral elections as instruments for endogenous spatial lags reveals strong positive spatial dependence in municipal tax rates. On the other hand, there is no evidence of a response of municipal tax rates to regional tax policies, suggesting that border discontinuity estimators that rely on consolidated spatial specifications (lower-plus-upper-tier tax rates) impose restrictions on the parameters of the reaction function that are unwarranted in these circumstances. |
| Keywords: | fiscal externalities; income taxation; grouping instrumental variable; border discontinuity estimator |
| JEL: | H24 H71 H73 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9276&r= |
| By: | Ugo Colombino; Nizamul Islam |
| Abstract: | As a response to a changing labour market scenario and to the concerns for increasing costs and bad incentives of traditional income support policies, the last decades have witnessed, in many countries, reforms introducing more sophisticated designs of means-testing, eligibility and tagging. In this paper, we consider an alternative direction of reform that points towards universality, unconditionality and simplicity. Our main research question is whether tax-transfer rules designed according to these alternative criteria might be superior to the current one and could therefore be proposed as a policy reform. We adopt a computational approach to the design of optimal tax-transfer rules, within a flexible class. The exercise is applied to France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and the United Kingdom. The results suggest some common features in all the countries. The optimal tax-transfer rules feature a universal unconditional basic income or, equivalently, a negative income tax with a guaranteed minimum income. The tax profiles are much flatter than the current ones. For most social welfare criteria, and most countries, the simulated tax-transfer rules are superior to the current ones. These results confirm that policy reforms inspired by the principle of Universal Basic Income and Flat Tax might have good chances to dominate the current tax-transfer rules. |
| Keywords: | empirical optimal taxation; microsimulation; microeconometrics; social welfare evaluation of tax-transfer rules |
| JEL: | C60 H20 H30 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2021-06&r= |
| By: | Gijón, Covadonga; Albarrán Lozano, Irene; Molina, José Manuel |
| Abstract: | The present paper analyses the perception of innovation of individuals in Spain and the factors associated with it. Data from 2015 and 2018 about individuals from the Spanish surveys are used. The data include several measures of innovation perception, gender, age, educational level, and other socioeconomic and technical variables. The aim of this paper is to determine the perception of innovation, in its different aspects, of Spanish people. To this end, several ordered logit models have been developed to determine how much the socio-demographic characteristics and other aspects of innovation affect the perception of innovation. Results indicate that people have a better perception of innovation if they are training in innovation or have good Information and Communication Technology skills. Among the main results, there is evidence of a gender gap in the perception of innovation, as well as differences according to digital skills. |
| Keywords: | perception,innovation,survey data,ordered logit |
| JEL: | C21 C25 D12 D83 J24 L63 L86 L96 M15 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:itsb21:238024&r= |
| By: | Pilar Beneito (University of Valencia and ERI-CES); María E. Rochina Barrachina (University of Valencia and ERI-CES); Amparo Sanchis (University of Valencia and ERI-CES) |
| Abstract: | Innovative firms use patents to signal the quality of their R&D teams in evaluation processes affected by asymmetric information. Examples of these processes occur when applying for finance from external sources or when searching for collaboration partners for innovation projects. In this paper we provide evidence that, in these cases, firms' external agents undervalue patents of female R&D teams as compared to patents of male R&D teams. We investigate this issue using data of Spanish innovating firms from PITEC, spanning 2005-2014, a panel database that follows the structure of the European Community Innovation Surveys (CIS). We interpret our results as consistent with an evaluation bias against female researchers, making them to be subject to a greater scrutiny as compared to their male counterparts, and thereby suggesting the existence of gender discrimination in R&D. |
| Keywords: | female R&D teams, patents, asymmetric information, quality signals |
| JEL: | O30 O34 C20 J16 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eec:wpaper:2110&r= |
| By: | Mendolia, Silvia (University of Wollongong); Suziedelyte, Agne (University of London); Zhu, Anna (RMIT University) |
| Abstract: | Using data from the UK, we show that girls have been affected more than boys by the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of their mental wellbeing. These gender differences are more pronounced in lower-income families. Our results are consistent with previous findings of larger pandemic effects on mental health of women. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, pandemic, mental health, children |
| JEL: | I10 I31 J13 |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14665&r= |
| By: | Faria, João Ricardo; Goel, Rajeev K.; Göktepe-Hultén, Devrim |
| Abstract: | Considering the sequential nature of nascent entrepreneurship and business ownership, this paper examines the propensities of academic entrepreneurs to be business owners. A theoretical model sets up the empirical analysis based on survey data from a large German public research institute. Traditionally, scientists and entrepreneurs have been seen to occupy opposite ends of a spectrum in terms of their role in innovation. In academic entrepreneurship the two combine on a number of activities. In order to understand the ways in which academic inventors move from pure patenting to nascent entrepreneurship to business ownership and connect seemingly divergent activities. We model their behavior by looking at various factors among German scientists. Academic inventors present a critical case since science and entrepreneurship are often seen as radically different, not the least in terms of knowledge production. By bringing the analysis from the level of social behavior and roles to the level of knowledge production, we can better address questions such as: How is knowledge in the interfaces of epistemic communities produced? How can such knowledge be organized and sustained? and How can relations between individuals on 'opposing sides' be constructively managed? The empirical results show that scientists' positive attitudes towards commercialization of results consistently contribute to tendencies towards academic entrepreneurship; however, the academic discipline and risk aversion did not have a statistically significant impact. Having a doctoral degree lowered the propensities toward nascent entrepreneurship, but had the opposite effect on business ownership. Finally, age and experience made business ownership more likely. The results of this study would contribute to a more general theory of how scientists can combine their commercial and scientific activities in spite of an alleged divergence. |
| Keywords: | academic entrepreneurship,invention,spinoffs,business entrepreneurs,nascent entrepreneurs,commercialization costs,Germany |
| JEL: | O33 O52 L26 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:2197&r= |
| By: | Carbonnier, Clément (Sciences Po, Paris); Malgouyres, Clément (Paris School of Economics); Py, Loriane (Banque de France); Urvoy, Camille (Sciences Po, Paris) |
| Abstract: | Do workers gain from lower business taxes, and why? We estimate how a large corporate income tax credit in France is passed on to wages and explore the firm- and employee-level underlying mechanisms. The amount of tax credit firms get depends on their payroll share of workers paid less than a wage threshold. Exposure to the policy thus varies both across workers depending on their wage and across firms depending on their wage structure. Using exhaustive employer-employee data, we find that half of the surplus generated by the reform falls onto workers. Wage gains load on incumbents in high-skill occupations. The wage earnings of low-skill workers—nearly all individually eligible—do not change. This heterogeneous wage incidence is unlikely to be driven by scale effects or skill complementarities. We find that the groups of workers benefiting from wage gains are also more likely to continue working for the same firm. Further, we show that firms do not change their wage-setting behavior in response to the individual eligibility status of workers. Overall, our results suggest that the wage incidence of the tax credit operated collectively through rent-sharing and benefited workers most costly to replace. |
| Keywords: | business taxation, tax incentives, wage incidence, rent sharing |
| JEL: | D22 H25 H32 |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14683&r= |
| By: | Drydakis, Nick (Anglia Ruskin University) |
| Abstract: | The study replicates the first European field experiment on gay men's labor market prospects in Greece. Utilizing the same protocol as the original study in 2006-2007, two follow-up field experiments took place in 2013-2014 and 2018-2019. The study estimated that gay men experienced occupational access constraints and wage sorting in vacancies offering lower remuneration. It was found that in 2013-2014 and 2018-2019, gay men experienced increasingly biased treatment compared to 2006-2007. Moreover, the results suggested that unemployment bore an association with occupational access constraints and wage sorting in vacancies offering lower remuneration for gay men. In each of the three experiments, this study captured recruiters' attitudes toward gay men. A one standard deviation increase in taste-discrimination attitudes against gay men decreased their access to occupations by 9.6%. Furthermore, a one standard deviation increase in statistical-discrimination attitudes against gay men decreased their access to occupations by 8.1%. According to the findings, in 2013-2014 and 2018-2019, firms excluding gay applicants expressed a higher level of taste- and statistical-discrimination attitudes compared to 2006-2007. A gay rights backlash due to the LGBTIQ+ group's attempt to advance its agenda, rising far-right rhetoric, and prejudice associated with economic downturns experienced in Greece might correspond with increasing biases against gay men. |
| Keywords: | field experiment, sexual orientation, hiring discrimination, wage sorting, replication, backlash, unemployment, economic recession |
| JEL: | C93 J7 J16 J31 J42 J64 J71 J83 |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14671&r= |
| By: | Hermes, Henning (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Lergetporer, Philipp (Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Management & ifo Institute Munich); Peter, Frauke (German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW) & DIW Berlin); Wiederhold, Simon (KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Ingolstadt School of Management & ifo Institute Munich) |
| Abstract: | Children with lower socioeconomic status (SES) tend to benefit more from early child care, but are substantially less likely to be enrolled. We study whether reducing behavioral barriers in the application process increases enrollment in child care for lower-SES children. In our RCT in Germany with highly subsidized child care (n > 600), treated families receive application information and personal assistance for applications. For lower-SES families, the treatment increases child care application rates by 21 pp and enrollment rates by 16 pp. Higher-SES families are not affected by the treatment. Thus, alleviating behavioral barriers closes half of the SES gap in early child care enrollment. |
| Keywords: | child care; early childhood; behavioral barriers; information; educational inequality; randomized controlled trial |
| JEL: | C93 I21 J13 J18 J24 |
| Date: | 2021–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2021_016&r= |
| By: | Löwe, Monique (University of Hagen); Rinne, Ulf (IZA); Sonnabend, Hendrik (Fern Universität Hagen) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the link between the subject choices of German students in upper secondary school and teacher gender when these choices are taken. Our results corroborate the hypothesis that teacher gender matters in this regard, and they indicate that girls respond more strongly than boys to same-sex role models. While the probability to choose German as an advanced course in upper secondary school increases to a rather similar (i.e., symmetric) extent for both girls and boys when having a same-sex teacher in this subject in grade 10, teacher gender matters only for girls with respect to choosing math on the advanced level. |
| Keywords: | gender, education, STEM, subject choices |
| JEL: | I21 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14666&r= |
| By: | Parra-Mujica, F.; Robson, M.; Cookson, R. |
| Abstract: | Research on socioeconomic health inequalities has primarily relied on univariate markers of socioeconomic status (SES), measured at one point in time. Using data from the UKHLS dataset (2009{2020), we build an age-conditional multidimensional SES index for the adult population in the UK. By using a "within-between" model we disentangle the relationship between health outcomes and: i) between-individual differences in SES, and ii) within-individual variations of SES across time. Results show that both are positive and highly significant predictors of physical and mental health. However, we find that these relationships are not linear and that within and between effects interact. While higher levels of SES are always associated with an increase in physical health, for mental health, after some point (SES = 0.613), higher average SES is associated with a score decrease. For an individual with the lowest average SES rank we observe a large and significant effect of a within-individual increase in SES on mental health (8.91) and physical health (1.82), however, this within-effect diminishes for those individuals with higher average SES. Individuals with high expected mobility are also found to have significantly better health scores, particularly for mental health. |
| Keywords: | health inequality; socioeconomic status; social gradient; Mundlak; |
| JEL: | I14 C23 D63 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:21/15&r= |
| By: | Kruse, Herman; Myhre, Andreas |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the economic effects on re-employment and program substitution behavior among elderly displaced workers who exogenously lose eligibility for their early retirement option. We use detailed Norwegian matched employer-employee data containing information on bankruptcy dates and individual-level wealth, income, pensions and social security benefits. Our empirical strategy employs a regression discontinuity design, as job displacement before a certain age cut-off results in losing eligibility for early retirement benefits between ages 62–67 years in Norway. We find that reemployment rates are indistinguishable between workers who just retain eligibility for early retirement benefits and those who just do not. Meanwhile, those who lose eligibility offset 69% of their lost benefits through take-up of other social security benefits, where 51% comes from disability insurance and 13% from unemployment insurance. Our findings are particularly policy relevant as tightening of age-limits for old-age pensions is on the agenda in several OECD countries, while current economic hardship throughout the region may lead to increased job displacement for elderly workers. |
| Keywords: | early retirement, job displacement, labor supply, benefit substitution, social security |
| JEL: | H55 I38 J14 J26 J65 |
| Date: | 2021–06–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:109431&r= |
| By: | Hübler, Olaf (Leibniz University of Hannover) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the regional differences in the spread of COVID-19 infections in Germany. A machine learning selection procedure is used to reduce variables from a pool of potential influencing variables. The empirical analysis shows that both regional structural variables and regionally aggregated personality traits are significant for the different corona spread. The latter characteristics express differences in mentality between the federal states. The north-east of the country shows a lower degree of affectedness. Regions with a high proportion of migrants show a higher incidence than others. If personality traits are neglected, the migrants' influence is overestimated. With school education and the risk of poverty, two further important regional characteristics are identified. Federal states that have a disproportionately high share of the population with low school education tend to have fewer COVID-19 cases. With regard to poverty, no clear statement can be made. The more the population tends to be responsible towards fellow human beings, the higher is the risk of a more pronounced spread. Where there is a tendency towards altruism, which consists of helping other people, a higher level of COVID-19 infections is revealed. A significant positive correlation between infections and testing is shown by the estimates. The link between vaccinations and the number of infections is less clear. Across the three corona waves,significant changes emerge. This relates in particular to the proportion of migrants and the proportion of families at risk of poverty. The effects decrease over the course of the pandemic. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, states, regional characteristics, personality traits, vaccinations, testing, machine learning, cluster-robust estimation, unobserved characteristics, heterogeneity, corona waves, structural break |
| JEL: | C21 C23 I12 R12 |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14669&r= |
| By: | Marielle Non (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis); Milena Dinkova; Ben Dahmen |
| Abstract: | People with low digital skills relatively often do not have a paid job, and if they do, they earn a relatively low hourly wage. Those are the most important findings of CPB research based on a newly constructed dataset combining digital skills with labor market outcomes. About a quarter of Dutch people aged between 16 and 65 does not reach a basic digital skills level. This implies that people find it hard to use email or internet and to process digital information. Based on our analysis, people who do not reach this basic digital skills level have a significantly lower hourly wage than people with good digital skills, even if we correct for background characteristics such as age, gender, educational level, literacy and numeracy. We also find that people with low digital skills relatively often do not have a paid job making them financially dependent on state benefits or a partner with a paid job. In general, people with low digital skills are older, more often female and have a low education level. Relatively often, those people are not born in the Netherlands, and they have low literacy and numeracy skills. Want to know more about people with low digital skills? Then read this ESB article (in Dutch) in which we further discuss the findings of this research. |
| JEL: | J24 J31 C21 C83 |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:419&r= |