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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2024‒03‒04
five papers chosen by |
| By: | John List |
| Abstract: | In 2019 I put together a summary of data from my field experiments website that pertained to framed field experiments (see List 2024). Several people have asked me if I have an update. In this document I update all figures and numbers to show the details for 2023. I also include the description from the 2019 paper below. |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feb:framed:00784&r=ltv |
| By: | Brunori, Paolo; Ferreira, Francisco H. G.; Neidhöfer, Guido |
| Abstract: | How strong is the transmission of socio-economic status across generations in Latin America? To answer this question, we first review the empirical literature on intergenerational mobility and inequality of opportunity for the region, summarizing results for both income and educational outcomes. We find that, whereas the income mobility literature is hampered by a paucity of representative datasets containing linked information on parents and children, the inequality of opportunity approach – which relies on other inherited and pre-determined circumstance variables – has suffered from arbitrariness in the choice of population partitions. Two new data-driven approaches – one aligned with the ex-ante and the other with the ex-post conception of inequality of opportunity – are introduced to address this shortcoming. They yield a set of new inequality of opportunity estimates for twenty-seven surveys covering nine Latin American countries over various years between 2000 and 2015. In most cases, more than half of the current generation’s inequality is inherited from the past – with a range between 44% and 63%. We argue that on balance, given the parsimony of the population partitions, these are still likely to be underestimates. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper) |
| Date: | 2024–01–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:qwb6k&r=ltv |
| By: | Brunori, Paolo; Ferreira, Francisco H. G.; Salas-Rojo, Pedro |
| Abstract: | Scholars have sought to quantify the extent of inequality which is inherited from past generations in many different ways, including a large body of work on intergenerational mobility and inequality of opportunity. This paper makes three contributions to that broad literature. First, we show that many of the most prominent approaches to measuring mobility or inequality of opportunity fit within a general framework which involves, as a first step, a calculation of the extent to which inherited circumstances can predict current incomes. The importance of prediction has led to recent applications of machine learning tools to solve the model selection challenge in the presence of competing upward and downward biases. Our second contribution is to apply transformation trees to the computation of inequality of opportunity. Because the algorithm is built on a likelihood maximization that involves splitting the sample into groups with the most salient differences between their conditional cumulative distributions, it is particularly well-suited to measuring ex-post inequality of opportunity, following Roemer (1998). Our third contribution is to apply the method to data from South Africa, arguably the world’s most unequal country, and find that almost three-quarters of its current inequality is inherited from predetermined circumstances, with race playing the largest role, but parental background also making an important contribution. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper) |
| Date: | 2024–01–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:rgq7t&r=ltv |
| By: | Costi, Chiara (University of Luxembourg); Migali, Giuseppe (Lancaster University); Zucchelli, Eugenio (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) |
| Abstract: | The identification of factors affecting birth weight is a key issue in human development due to its established associations with long-term health, educational and labour-market outcomes. This paper exploits intergenerational information on three generations (grandparents-parents-children) to explore the effects of parental education and different parental smoking behaviours on birth weight. We use the intergenerational association between grandparents' education and smoking behaviour and the corresponding parental variables to aid the identification of parents' education and smoking on birth weight. We employ rich intergenerational data drawn from the US National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and a flexible two-stage residual inclusion approach. We find that there is a strong intergenerational persistence of education levels and smoking behaviours across generations. Higher parental education reduces the likelihood of children's low birth weight, although the effect appears to be mainly driven by fathers. While maternal smoking during pregnancy increases the occurrence of low birth weight, especially among non-white parents, parental regular smoking (of either mothers or fathers) does not seem to greatly affect birth weight. Results are confirmed by robustness checks excluding direct effects of grandparents' smoking while in utero and using an instrumental variable for parental education. |
| Keywords: | parental education, prenatal smoking, birth weight, intergenerational persistence, Add Health |
| JEL: | I00 I12 I29 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16775&r=ltv |
| By: | Friedman-Sokuler, Naomi; Justman, Moshe |
| Abstract: | Even the most egalitarian education systems employ high-stakes tests to regulate the transition from universal secondary education to selective academic programs that open doors to skilled, well-paid professions. This gives parents a strong incentive to invest substantial resources in improving their children's' achievement on these tests, thus reinforcing dynastic socioeconomic advantage through "test-score transmission". Using longitudinal administrative data to follow Israeli students in Hebrew-language schools from eighth grade to age 29, we provide evidence that despite Israeli schools being publicly financed and tuition-free, test-score transmission is very much prevalent. Second-generation (SG) students with more educated and affluent parents do much better on the screening tests that regulate access to the most selective tertiary academic programs than first-generation (FG) students with similar eighth-grade test score ranks. Yet this advantage does not manifest itself in earnings differentials at age 29, controlling for eighth grade achievement, which are statistically insignificant or even reversed. This is consistent with eighth-grade test scores reflecting individual human capital; SG parents investing in their children's test-taking abilities and improving their access to selective tertiary programs; and employers not valuing these skills and compensating employees according to their observed productivity. Both men and women exhibit these patterns. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational mobility, test-score transmission, human capital, parental education |
| JEL: | I24 I26 J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1388&r=ltv |