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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2006‒05‒20
three papers chosen by |
| By: | Kliebenstein, James; Hurley, Terence; Orazem, Peter; Miller, D; May, S. |
| Keywords: | Work, Job, Employees |
| Date: | 2006–05–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12614&r=ltv |
| By: | Lutz C. Kaiser (IZA Bonn, DIW Berlin and EPAG) |
| Abstract: | Using micro panel data, labor market transitions are analyzed for the EU-member states by cumulative year-by-year transition probabilities. As female (non-)employment patterns changed more dramatically than male employment in past decades, the analyses mainly refer to female labor supply. In search for important determinants of these transitions, six EUcountries with different labor market-regimes are selected as examples (Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Ireland, UK). Within these countries, women’s determinants of labor market transitions are compared by means of pooled multinominal logit-regressions. The outcomes hint at both, the importance of socio-economic determinants, like the life cycle or human capital, but also address gender related differences in the paths of labor market transitions. Clearly, the observed cross-national differences are driven by specific national institutional settings. Among others, one of the most crucial features is the day-care infrastructure concerning children, which either fosters or restricts a sustainable risk management between family and work in the respective countries. |
| Keywords: | labor supply, labor market transitions, socio-economic determinants, institutional settings, risk management, cross-national comparison |
| JEL: | J21 J22 J78 |
| Date: | 2006–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2115&r=ltv |
| By: | Carlos Gradín (Universidade de Vigo (Spain)); Olga Cantó (Universidade de Vigo (Spain)); Coral del Río (Universidade de Vigo (Spain)) |
| Abstract: | The functioning of the labor market often has been stressed as a clear determinant in explaining poverty trends in developed countries. In this paper, we analyze the role of gender wage discrimination on household poverty rates in several EU countries, linking two related phenomena that rarely are analyzed together. In order to quantify the impact of discrimination on poverty, we propose the construction of a counterfactual distribution of wages where discrimination against women has been removed. Using this new wage distribution, we compute total household income and compare poverty rates in the absence of discrimination to those actually observed. Our results show that, in general, it is true that discrimination against women plays a determinant role in the current levels of poverty, even if we discover that results for each country present a different pattern and intensity. Further, we find that the effect of discrimination on poverty risk dramatically increases for individuals in households who largely depend on working female earnings, especially in the case of single mothers. |
| Keywords: | poverty, inequality, income distribution, gender, wage discrimination, labor participation. |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2006-40&r=ltv |