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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2024‒03‒11
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Benjamin Friedrich (Northwestern University); Lisa Laun (The Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU)); Costas Meghir (Yale University); Luigi Pistaferri (Stanford University) |
| Abstract: | We use matched employer-employee data from Sweden to study the role of the Þrm in affecting the stochastic properties of wages. Our model accounts for endogenous participation and mobility decisions. We find that firm-specific permanent productivity shocks transmit to individual wages, but the effect is mostly concentrated among the high- skilled workers. The pass-through of temporary shocks is smaller in magnitude and similar for high- and low-skilled workers. The updates to worker-Þrm specific match effects over the life of a Þrm-worker relationship are small. Substantial growth in earnings variance over the life cycle for high-skilled workers is driven by Þrms. In particular, cross-sectional wage variances by age 55 are roughly one- third higher relative to a scenario with no pass-through of Þrm shocks onto wages. |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2383&r=ltv |
| By: | David Autor |
| Abstract: | While the utopian vision of the current Information Age was that computerization would flatten economic hierarchies by democratizing information, the opposite has occurred. Information, it turns out, is merely an input into a more consequential economic function, decision-making, which is the province of elite experts. The unique opportunity that AI offers to the labor market is to extend the relevance, reach, and value of human expertise. Because of AI’s capacity to weave information and rules with acquired experience to support decision-making, it can be applied to enable a larger set of workers possessing complementary knowledge to perform some of the higher-stakes decision-making tasks that are currently arrogated to elite experts, e.g., medical care to doctors, document production to lawyers, software coding to computer engineers, and undergraduate education to professors. My thesis is not a forecast but an argument about what is possible: AI, if used well, can assist with restoring the middle-skill, middle-class heart of the US labor market that has been hollowed out by automation and globalization. |
| JEL: | J01 J2 N30 O14 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32140&r=ltv |
| By: | Inés Berniell; Raquel Fernández; Sonya Krutikova |
| Abstract: | This paper examines gender inequality focusing on two critical spheres in which gender inequality is generated: education and work. Our objective is to provide a current snapshot of gender inequality across key indicators as well as a dynamic perspective that highlights successes and failures. We facilitate a cross-country comparison as well by grouping countries within Latin America by their level of economics development and drawing comparisons with countries outside the region. Finally, we reflect on differences in the ways that gender inequalities play out across different socio-economic groups, particularly those that highlight other sources of inequality. |
| JEL: | J16 O10 Z13 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32104&r=ltv |
| By: | Flavia Coda Moscarola; Daniela Del Boca; Giovanna Paladino |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the intergenerational transmission of preferences between parents and their children, examining the transmission of patience, propensity to save, and conscientiousness. We explore the role of specific parental behaviours, such as sharing financial information, in this transmission process. Using data from a representative survey of Italian households (parents with children 14-20 years of age) our analysis reveals a significant and positive correspondence between parents’ and children’s preferences. The results indicate that sharing information strengthens the transmission of patience between parents and children, particularly among children under 18, households with a socioeconomic status (SES) above the median, and daughters. Conversely, sharing information does not impact significantly the transmission of the propensity to save or conscientiousness. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational transmission, patience, propensity to save, conscientiousness, parental behaviours |
| JEL: | D14 I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10902&r=ltv |
| By: | Fergusson, Leopoldo (Universidad de los Andes); Robinson, James (University of Chicago); Torres, Santiago (University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | We investigate how economic inequality can persist in Latin America in the context of radical falls in political inequality in the last decades. Using data from Colombia, we focus on a critical facet of democratization - the entry of new politicians. We show that initial levels of inequality play a significant role in determining the impact of political entry on local institutions, policy, and development outcomes, which can impact future inequality. A vicious circle emerges whereby policies that reduce inequality are less likely to be adopted and implemented in places with relatively high inequality. We present evidence that this is caused both by the capture of new politicians and barriers to institution and state capacity building, and also by the fact that politicians committed to redistribution are less likely to win in relatively unequal places. Our results, therefore, help to reconcile the persistence of economic inequality with the new political context. |
| Keywords: | inequality; political entry; public policy; development. |
| JEL: | D72 D78 H40 H50 P00 |
| Date: | 2024–02–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:021029&r=ltv |