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on Microeconomic European Issues |
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Issue of 2022‒12‒19
23 papers chosen by Giuseppe Marotta Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia |
| By: | Diego Daruich (University of Southern California (Marshall), United States of America); Sabrina Di Addario (Bank of Italy); Raffaele Saggio (University of British Columbia, Canada) |
| Abstract: | We combine matched employer-employee data with firms’ financial records to study a 2001 Italian reform that lifted constraints on the employment of temporary contract workers while maintaining rigid employment protection regulations for employees hired under permanent contracts. Exploiting the staggered implementation of the reform across different collective bargaining agreements, we find that this policy change led to an increase in the share of temporary contracts but failed to raise employment. The reform had both winners and losers. Firms are the main winners as the reform was successful in decreasing labor costs, leading to higher profits. By contrast, young workers are the main losers since their earnings were substantially depressed following the policy change. Rent-sharing estimates show that temporary workers receive only two-thirds of the rents shared by firms with permanent workers, helping explain most of the labor costs and earnings reductions caused by the reform. |
| Keywords: | reform evaluation, contracts, employment, wages, profits |
| JEL: | D22 J08 K41 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1390_22&r=eur |
| By: | Eve Caroli (LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, IZA - Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit - Institute of Labor Economics); Catherine Pollak (DREES - Centre de Recherche du DREES - Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité, LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Muriel Roger (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, LIEPP - Laboratoire interdisciplinaire d'évaluation des politiques publiques (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po) |
| Abstract: | Using the differentiated increase in retirement age across cohorts introduced by the 2010 French pension reform, we estimate the health-consumption effects of a 4-month increase in retirement age. We focus on individuals who were close to retirement age but not retired yet by the time the reform was passed. Using administrative data on individual sick-leave claims and nonhospital health-care expenses, we show that the probability of having at least one sickness absence increases for all treated groups, while the duration of sick leaves remains unchanged. Delaying retirement does not increase the probability of seeing a GP, except for men in the younger cohorts. In contrast, it raises the probability of having a visit with a specialist physician for all individuals, except men in the older cohorts. Delaying retirement also increases the probability of seeing a physiotherapist among women from the older cohorts. Overall, it increases health expense claims, in particular in the lower part of the expenditure distribution. |
| Keywords: | pension reform,retirement age,health,health-care consumption |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-03815505&r=eur |
| By: | Anna Maria Mayda; Gianluca Orefice; Gianluca Santoni |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the impact of skilled migrants on the innovation (patenting) activity of French firms between 1995 and 2010, and investigates the underlying mechanism. We present district-level and firm-level estimates and address endogeneity using a modified version of the shift-share instrument. Skilled migrants increase the number of patents at both the district and firm level. Large, high-productivity and capital-intensive firms benefit the most, in terms of innovation activity, from skilled immigrant workers. Importantly, we provide evidence that one channel through which the effect works is task specialization (as in Peri and Sparber, 2009). The arrival of skilled immigrants drives French skilled workers towards language-intensive, managerial tasks while foreign skilled workers specialize in technical, research-oriented tasks. This mechanism manifests itself in the estimated increase in the share of foreign inventors in patenting teams as a consequence of skilled migration. Through this channel, greater innovation is the result of productivity gains from specialization. |
| Keywords: | Skilled Immigration;Innovation;Patents |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2022-11&r=eur |
| By: | Merkl, Christian (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg); Sauerbier, Timo (FAU, Erlangen Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | Our paper analyzes the role of public employment agencies in job matching, in particular the effects of the restructuring of the Federal Employment Agency in Germany (Hartz III labor market reform) for aggregate matching and unemployment. Based on two microeconomic datasets, we show that the market share of the Federal Employment Agency as job intermediary declined after the Hartz-reforms. We propose a macroeconomic model of the labor market with a private and a public search channel and fit the model to various dimensions of the data. We show that direct intermediation activities of the Federal Employment Agency did not contribute to the decline of unemployment in Germany. By contrast, improved activation of unemployed workers reduced unemployed by 0.8 percentage points. Through the lens of an aggregate matching function, more activation is associated with a larger matching efficiency. |
| Keywords: | Hartz reforms, search and matching, reform of employment agency |
| JEL: | E24 E00 E60 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15714&r=eur |
| By: | Guzi, Martin; Kahanec, Martin; Mýtna Kureková, Lucia |
| Abstract: | Across European Union (EU) labor markets, immigrant and native populations exhibit disparate labor market outcomes, signifying widespread labor market hierarchies. While significant resources have been invested in migration and integration policies, it remains unclear whether these contribute to or mitigate labor market hierarchies between natives and immigrants. Using a longitudinal model based on individual-level EU LFS and country-level DEMIG POLICY and POLMIG databases, we explore variation in changes of immigration and integration policies across Western EU member states to study how they are associated with labor market hierarchies in terms of unemployment and employment quality gaps between immigrant and native populations. Our findings imply that designing less restrictive policies may help mitigate immigrant-native labor market hierarchies by reducing existing labor market disadvantages of immigrants and making the most of their potential. |
| Keywords: | decomposition,immigrant-native gaps,labor market,DEMIG POLICY database,immigrant integration,hierarchies |
| JEL: | J15 J18 J61 K37 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1198&r=eur |
| By: | Guccio, C.;; Pignataro, G.;; Romeo, D.;; Vidoli, F.; |
| Abstract: | In recent decades, austerity measures have been widely adopted in public healthcare systems, so as to cope with financial constraints. This paper assesses the impact of a specific policy implemented in some Italian regions since 2007 with the purpose of reducing their healthcare spending deficit, the so called Recovery Plans (Piani di rientro), on the technical efficiency of their hospitals. Using a unique sample of administrative data relative to a large panel of hospitals in the period 2003-2010, and employing, as identification strategy, the exogenous introduction of the austerity policy in some regions, we find that the policy had a detrimental effect on the efficiency of the hospitals operating in the regions subjected to the policy. The results show that the efficiency loss grows over time, suggesting the existence of negative cumulative effects of the austerity policy. |
| Keywords: | hospitals; recovery plans; technical efficiency; austerity; spending cuts; |
| JEL: | I10 I18 D24 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:22/28&r=eur |
| By: | Daniele Checchi (University of Milan and IZA); Cecilia García-Peñalosa (Aix Marseille University, CNRS, EHESS AMSE (Marseille, France), CEPR and CESifo); Lara Vivian (European Commission -Directorate-General for Economic and Financial A airs.) |
| Abstract: | The vast literature on earnings inequality has so far largely ignored the role played by hours of work. This paper argues that in order to understand earnings dispersion we need to consider not only the dispersion of hourly wages but also inequality in hours worked as well as the correlation between the two. We use data for the US, the UK, France, and Germany over the period 1991-2016 to examine the evolution of inequality in hours worked and of the correlation between individual hours and wages, assessing their contribution to recent trends in earnings inequality. We find that, other than in the US, hours inequality is an important force, and that it has increased over the period under analysis. The elasticity of hours with respect to wages has also played a key role, notably in the two continental economies. This elasticity used to be negative, thus tending to reduce inequality as those with lower hourly wages worked longer hours, but has increased over the past decades, becoming nil or positive, and hence eroding an important equalizing force. The paper examines which are the potential factors behind the change in the elasticity, notably the role of trade and labour market institutions |
| Keywords: | earnings inequality, working hours, hours elasticity |
| JEL: | D31 J22 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:2226&r=eur |
| By: | Andrea Cintolesi (Bank of Italy); Andrea Riganti (University of Milan) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of legal restrictions pertaining to pharmacy licences on hospitalizations. We use a reform approved in 2012 in Italy that increased the number of pharmacies allowed to operate in the national territory by 8%. We set up a regression discontinuity design exploiting monthly data on hospitalizations within Italian provinces. We find that an 8% increase in the number of pharmacies decreased medical hospitalizations by 1.1% and related expenditures by 1.3%. This drop is mainly driven by short hospitalizations of children and elderly individuals. On average, every new pharmacy prevents 17 medical hospitalizations every year. We do not find an impact on a control group of surgical hospitalizations, and we validate the results with a battery of placebo tests. Pharmacies appear to reduce hospitalizations by giving information to people who would otherwise be admitted to a hospital, and other mechanisms are not supported by the data. |
| Keywords: | regulation, pharmacies, license, healthcare expenditures, hospitalizations |
| JEL: | D45 H51 I10 K20 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1388_22&r=eur |
| By: | Nicolò Gatti (Istituto di Economia Politica (IdEP), Facoltà di Scienze Economiche, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Svizzera); Fabrizio Mazzonna (Istituto di Economia Politica (IdEP), Facoltà di Scienze Economiche, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Svizzera); Raphaël Parchet (Istituto di Economia Politica (IdEP), Facoltà di Scienze Economiche, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Svizzera); Giovanni Pica (Istituto di Economia Politica (IdEP), Facoltà di Scienze Economiche, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Svizzera) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of opening the labor market to qualified immigrants who hold fully equivalent diplomas as natives and share the same mother tongue. Leveraging the 2002 opening of the Swiss labor market to qualified workers from the European Union, we show that the policy led to a large inflow of young immigrants with highly heterogeneous effects on the wages and employment status of qualified natives. While incumbent natives experiences a wage gain and a decrease in the likelihood of becoming inactive, the opposite happened for young natives entering the labor market after the policy change. |
| Keywords: | iqualified immigration, wage effects, worker substitutability, experience |
| JEL: | F22 J08 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lug:wpidep:2201&r=eur |
| By: | Keloharju, Matti (Aalto University); Knüpfer, Samuli (Aalto U(niversity School of Business); Müller, Dagmar (Swedish Public Employment Service); Tåg, Joacim (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | We study the mental health of PhD students in Sweden using comprehensive administrative data on prescriptions, specialist care visits, hospitalizations, and causes of death. We find about 7% (5%) of PhD students receive medication or diagnosis for depression (anxiety) in a given year. These prevalence rates are less than one-third of the corresponding survey-based prevalence rates reported in the literature, and even after adjusting for difference in methodology, 44% (72%) of the prevalence rates reported in the literature. We also document PhD students’ mental health significantly worsens relative to their peers after they have entered the program. This deterioration is consistent with doctoral studies having a negative causal effect on mental health. |
| Keywords: | Doctoral studies; Mental Health; Depression; Anxiety; Suicide |
| JEL: | A23 I10 I23 I29 I31 |
| Date: | 2022–08–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1435&r=eur |
| By: | Umut Unal (Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs (RILSA)); Bernd Hayo (Philipps-Universitaet Marburg); Isil Erol (Ozyegin University) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an analysis of the convergence pattern of German housing prices and rents employing a new dataset that covers all the country’s administrative districts. In addition to conventional tests for 𠛽-convergence and 𠜎-convergence, we apply Phillips and Sul's (2007) approach so as to allow for the various heterogeneity and transitional dynamics across districts. Our results reveal no evidence of convergence across Germany or within states; rather, we discover widespread evidence of divergence, as well as evidence of inter-state convergence and support for the existence of convergence clubs. At the federal level, we identify club numbers ranging from 11 (for existing flat prices) to 5 (for new flat rents). At the state level, the estimated number of clubs is generally lower, ranging from 0 to 6. |
| Keywords: | Convergence; Germany; Housing prices; district-level data; convergence clubs |
| JEL: | R10 R30 R31 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:202244&r=eur |
| By: | Brimblecombe, Nicola; Cartagena Farias, Javiera |
| Abstract: | Providing higher-intensity unpaid care (higher care hours or care within the household) is associated with negative impacts on people's paid employment, mental health and well-being. The evidence of effects on physical health is mixed and carer's social and financial outcomes have been under-researched. The biggest evidence gap, however, is on how outcomes vary by factors other than type or level of care provision, in particular socio-demographic factors. Our study used two waves of data (2017/19 and 2018/2020) from the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study for people aged 16 and older. We investigated the effects of providing care for 10 or more hours a week or within the household in interaction with people's socio-demographic characteristics. Outcomes included mental and physical health, social isolation, employment status and earnings. We found that caring responsibilities interacted with gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status (as measured by highest educational qualification), or age to affect carers differentially in a number of areas of their lives leading to, and exacerbating, key disadvantages and inequalities. |
| Keywords: | employment and earnings; health; inequalities; social isolation; unpaid/informal care; R-PRU-1217-21101; Wiley deal |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2022–11–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:117262&r=eur |
| By: | Stefania Fontana; Giorgio D'Agostino |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to evaluate the impact of the anti-mafia dismissal policy in municipal councils for mafia infiltration on the share of public goods in Italy. The implementation of policies aimed at reducing the mafia’s influence on local political bodies can improve the level of essential public goods that are relevant for social inclusion and regional development. The results suggest that during the years after a dismissal, municipalities devote more resources to public goods, with an estimated increase of approximately 5.3 pp. Notably, the effect seems to be driven by an increase in investment of approximately 5.4 pp, whereas the effect on consumption is uncertain. We therefore conclude that policies targeting the problem of criminal infiltration in local governments can improve socioeconomic conditions by enhancing the level of economically and socially relevant local public goods. |
| Keywords: | anti-mafia policies, mafia infiltration, public goods, local governments |
| JEL: | K42 H41 H75 D04 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtr:wpaper:272&r=eur |
| By: | Aparicio Fenoll, Ainoa (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | The "healthy immigrant effect" refers to the well-documented fact that immigrants are healthier than natives upon arrival, but their health level converges to that of natives over time. Unfortunately, little is known about whether environmental, institutional, or selective return migration mechanisms are behind the convergence. In this paper, I test whether immigrants' naturalization influences health convergence speed. Using restricted-access Spanish health data from the National and European Health Surveys, I estimate the impact of naturalization on health by exploiting that naturalization is possible after two years of residence for Latinoamerican immigrants and after ten years for all other immigrants. I find that naturalization worsens immigrants' health and thus accelerates the speed of convergence to natives' health. In particular, naturalization increases the propensity to suffer from varicose veins, cervical problems, lower back pain, constipation, depression, and anxiety. Changes in dietary habits and increases in employment are potential mechanisms behind these effects. |
| Keywords: | naturalization, immigrants' health, healthy immigrant effect |
| JEL: | J15 J61 I14 |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15659&r=eur |
| By: | Mathias Fjaellegaard Jensen; Alan Manning |
| Abstract: | On average, children born in Denmark with immigrant parents (first-generation locals) have lower earnings, higher unemployment, less education, more welfare transfers, and more criminal convictions than children with local-born parents. This is different from the US where first-generation locals often have better unconditional outcomes. However, like the US, when we condition on parental socio-economic characteristics, first-generation locals generally perform as well or better than the children of locals. There is little distinctive about being a child of immigrants, other than the fact that they are more likely to come from deprived backgrounds. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Denmark, first-generation, deprived background |
| Date: | 2022–10–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1880&r=eur |
| By: | Mattia Filomena (Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Marche Polytechnic University); Matteo Picchio (Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Marche Polytechnic University) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the impact of temperatures on work related accident rates in Italy by using daily data on weather conditions matched to administrative daily data on work related accidents. The identification strategy of the causal effect relies on the plausible exogeneity of short-term daily temperature variations in a given spatial unit. We find that both high and cold temperatures impair occupational health by increasing workplace injury rates. The positive effect of warmer weather conditions on work related accident rates is larger for men, in manufacturing and service sectors, and for workplace injuries. Colder temperatures are particularly harmful for commuting accidents and in rainy days. |
| Keywords: | Climate change; temperatures; weather conditions; work related accidents; safety. |
| JEL: | J28 J81 Q52 Q54 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wpaper:472&r=eur |
| By: | Kärnä, Anders (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Öhberg, Patrik (University of Gothenburg) |
| Abstract: | Normative theories of representative democracy imply that politicians should be better informed of the consequences of a policy than ordinary voters. However, in real life, politicians can have strong convictions that risk blinding them to arguments against their positions. Policy engagement can lead politicians into motivated reasoning whereby they dismiss voters’ preferences and resist information counter to their own policy position. In this paper, we argue that Sweden’s generous migration policy is an example of a case where politicians’ policy engagement led them to motivated reasoning and to a rather optimistic view of the implications of welcoming a large influx of refugees. We show that Swedish politicians favoured a much more generous policy towards accepting refugees than their own voters. Despite limited evidence that a generous refugee policy is economically favourable in the long run, politicians on average held that belief. |
| Keywords: | Political Misrepresentation; Immigration Policy; Moral Psychology; Political Failure |
| JEL: | O15 P16 P35 |
| Date: | 2022–11–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1445&r=eur |
| By: | Claudia Senik (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, SU - Sorbonne Université); Andrew E. Clark (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Conchita d'Ambrosio (Uni.lu - Université du Luxembourg); Anthony Lepinteur (Uni.lu - Université du Luxembourg); Carsten Schröder (DIW Berlin - Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung) |
| Abstract: | We carry out a difference-indifferences analysis of a representative real-time survey conducted as part of the German SocioEconomic Panel (SOEP) study and show that teleworking had a negative average effect on life satisfaction over the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. This average effect hides considerable heterogeneity reflecting genderrole asymmetry: lower life satisfaction is only found for unmarried men and women with school-age children. The negative effect for women with school-age children disappears in 2021, suggesting adaptation to new constraints and/or the adoption of coping strategies. |
| Keywords: | Life Satisfaction,Teleworking,Work from Home,Gender,Childcare,COVID-19,SOEP |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-03855653&r=eur |
| By: | Krekó, Judit (Central European University); Telegdy, Álmos (Corvinus University of Budapest) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the effects of the Hungarian disability employment quota, which requires firms over a certain size to employ people with disabilities or pay a noncompliance tax. We employ a regression discontinuity design on firm-level data to estimate the effect on the quota on the employment of persons with disabilities, when the tax increased from very low levels to 170 percent of the lowest wage cost required to meet the quota. We estimate a lower bound of the effect that takes into account the bias resulting from bunching of firms below the threshold. Firms hire 0.24–0.29 additional disabled workers on average when the tax increased, with a lower bound of 0.16. When the threshold is raised from 20 to 25 employees, bunching of firms and the estimated effect disappears around the old threshold. The policy effect is weaker in regions with few disabled individuals, implying that the policy outcomes are hampered by low labor supply, materializing in high fixed costs of hiring, as predicted by our model. |
| Keywords: | disability employment quota, labor demand, regression discontinuity, Hungary |
| JEL: | J14 H32 J23 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15726&r=eur |
| By: | Gruber, Jonathan; Huttunen, Kristiina; Kosonen, Tuomas |
| Abstract: | We study the impacts of a policy designed to reward mothers who stay at home rather than join the labor force when their children are under age three. We use regional and over time variation in child home care allowance to show that home care allowance decreases maternal employment in both the short and long term, with almost three-quarters of the supplement amount offset by lost labor income. The effects are large enough for the existence of home care benefit system to explain the higher child penalty in Finland than comparable nations. Home care benefits also negatively affect the early childhood cognitive test results of children at the age of five, increase the likelihood of choosing vocational rather than academic secondary education track, and increase youth crimes. We confirm that the mechanism of action is changing work/home care arrangements by studying a a day care fee (DCF) reform had the opposite effect of raising incentives to work. We find that this policy increased the labor force participation of mothers and participation of children to day care, and improved child early test and schooling outcomes. This parallel set of findings suggests that on average in Finland, shifting child care from the home to the market increases labor force participation and improves child outcomes. |
| Keywords: | home care allowance, employment, child development, schooling, Social security, taxation and inequality, J13, J21, J38, fi=Koulutus|sv=Utbildning|en=Education|, fi=Sosiaaliturva|sv=Social trygghet|en=Social security|, fi=Työmarkkinat|sv=Arbetsmarknad|en=Labour markets|, |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fer:wpaper:151&r=eur |
| By: | Stefania Albanesi; Claudia Olivetti; Barbara Petrongolo |
| Abstract: | Using comparable data for 24 countries since the 1970s, we document gender convergence in schooling, employment and earnings, marriage delay and the accompanying decline in fertility, and the large remaining gaps in labor market outcomes, especially among parents. A model of time allocation illustrates how the specialization of spouses in home or market production responds to preferences, comparative advantages and public policies. We draw lessons from existing evidence on the impacts of family policies on women's careers and children's wellbeing. There is to date little or no evidence of beneficial effects of longer parental leave (or fathers' quotas) on maternal participation and earnings. In most cases longer leave delays mothers' return to work, without long-lasting consequences on their careers. More generous childcare funding instead encourages female participation whenever subsidized childcare replaces maternal childcare. Impacts on child development depend on counterfactual childcare arrangements and tend to be more beneficial for disadvantaged households. In-work benefits targeted to low-earners have clear positive impacts on lone mothers' employment and negligible impacts on other groups. While most of this literature takes policy as exogenous, political economy aspects of policy adoption help understand the interplay between societal changes, family policies and gender equality. |
| Keywords: | gender gaps, spousal specialisation, family policies |
| Date: | 2022–11–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1887&r=eur |
| By: | Haus-Reve, Silje; Fitjar, Rune Dahl; Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés |
| Abstract: | Implicitly or explicitly, much innovation policy treats investments in research and development (R&D) as the main input to innovation. A large body of literature in innovation studies has challenged this, highlighting the role of external sources of innovation and of innovation based on learning by doing, using and interacting (DUI). Nonetheless, there has been limited empirical research on how firm-internal activities to promote DUI affect innovation, and on how important such activities are relative to internal R&D and to external sources of knowledge. We also know little about how internal DUI activities interact with internal R&D and with external knowledge sourcing. We address these gaps using Norwegian Community Innovation Survey data from 2010. We find that internal DUI is an important driver of new-to-market product innovation. Further, the results show partial substitution effects between internal DUI and internal R&D, as well as between internal DUI and external DUI. |
| Keywords: | DUI; experience-based knowledge; firms; innovation; STI |
| JEL: | J50 |
| Date: | 2022–10–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:117424&r=eur |
| By: | Palffy, Patricia (University of Zurich); Lehnert, Patrick (University of Zurich); Backes-Gellner, Uschi (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the relationship between social gender norms and adolescents' occupational choices by combining regional votes on constitutional amendments on gender equality with job application data from a large job board for apprenticeships. Results show that adolescent males in regions with stronger traditional social gender norms are more likely to apply for typically male occupations. This finding does not hold for females, suggesting that incentivizing men to break the norms and choose gender-atypical occupations (e.g., in healthcare) can be even more effective in accelerating advancement toward gender equality in the labor market than incentivizing women to choose STEM occupations. |
| Keywords: | occupational gender segregation, social norms, occupational choice |
| JEL: | J24 J16 I24 M59 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15704&r=eur |