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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
| By: | Costi, Chiara (University of Luxembourg); Clark, Andrew E. (Paris School of Economics); D'Ambrosio, Conchita (University of Luxembourg); Lepinteur, Anthony (University of Luxembourg); Menta, Giorgia (LISER) |
| Abstract: | We here exploit an exogenous shift in working conditions for public-sector workers in Italy to establish the causal effect of a return-to-office (RTO) mandate on worker health and well-being. In nine waves of quarterly panel data we first find a significant fall in teleworking for those affected by the RTO mandate, who also spend more time outdoors, work fewer hours, and interact less with relatives and friends. The net effect of these lifestyle changes on a battery of health and well-being measures following the return to office work is insignificant. The place of work post-pandemic has neither positive nor negative health implications. |
| Keywords: | return to office, working from home, health, well-being |
| JEL: | I18 I31 J88 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17355 |
| By: | Blouin, Arthur (University of Toronto); Mani, Anandi (University of Oxford); Mukand, Sharun W. (University of Warwick); Sgroi, Daniel (University of Warwick & IZA) |
| Abstract: | Can inequality in rewards result in an erosion in broad-based support for meritocratic norms? We hypothesize that unequal rewards between the successful and the rest, drives a cognitive gap in their meritocratic beliefs, and hence their social preferences for redistribution. Two separate experiments (one in the UK and the other in the USA) show that the elite develop and maintain “meritocratic bias†in the redistributive taxes they propose, even when not applied to their own income: lower taxes on the rich and fewer transfers to the poor, including those who failed despite high effort. These social preferences at least partially reflect a self-serving meritocratic illusion that their own high income was deserved. A Wason Card task confirms that individuals maintain their illusion of being meritocratic, by not expending cognitive effort to process information that may undermine their self-image even when incentivized to do otherwise. |
| Keywords: | Inequality; Meritocracy; Redistribution; Populism; Motivated Reasoning; Social Preferences JEL Classification: |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:717 |
| By: | Breitkopf, Laura (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods); Chowdhury, Shyamal (University of Sydney); Priyam, Shambhavi (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods); Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods); Sutter, Matthias (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods) |
| Abstract: | We study the relationship between parenting style and a broad range of children's skills and outcomes. Based on survey and experimental data from 5, 580 children and their parents, we find that children exposed to positive parenting have higher IQs, are more altruistic, open to new experiences, conscientious, and agreeable, have a higher locus of control, self-control, and self-esteem, perform better in scholarly achievement tests, behave more prosocially in everyday life, and are more satisfied with their life. Positive parenting is negatively associated with children's neuroticism, patience, engagement in risky behaviors, and their emotional and behavioral problems. |
| Keywords: | parenting style, child outcomes, economic preferences, personality traits, IQ |
| JEL: | C91 D01 D10 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17336 |
| By: | Inés Berniell (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP); Raquel Fernández (NYU); Sonya Krutikova (IFS) |
| 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 snapshot of gender inequality across key indicators as well as a dynamic perspective that highlights successes and failures. We also facilitate a cross-country comparison by grouping countries within Latin America by their level of economic 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: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0338 |
| By: | Guerreiro, Joao (UCLA); Hazell, Jonathon (London School of Economics); Lian, Chen (UC Berkeley); Patterson, Christina (University of Chicago Booth School of Business) |
| Abstract: | How costly is inflation to workers? Answers to this question have focused on the path of real wages during inflationary periods. We argue that workers must take costly actions ("conflict") to have nominal wages catch up with inflation, meaning there are welfare costs even if real wages do not fall as inflation rises. We study a menu-cost style model, where workers choose whether to engage in conflict with employers to secure a wage increase. We show that, following a rise in inflation, wage catch-up resulting from more frequent conflict does not raise welfare. Instead, the impact of inflation on worker welfare is determined by what we term "wage erosion"—how inflation would lower real wages if workers' conflict decisions did not respond to inflation. As a result, measuring welfare using observed wage growth understates the costs of inflation. We conduct a survey showing that workers are willing to sacrifice 1.75% of their wages to avoid conflict. Calibrating the model to the survey data, the aggregate costs of inflation incorporating conflict more than double the costs of inflation via falling real wages alone. |
| Keywords: | inflation, wages, conflict |
| JEL: | E31 J52 J31 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17339 |
| By: | Draca, Mirko (University of Warwick, CAGE Research Centre and CEP); Nathan, Max (University College London, CEP); Nguyen-Tien, Viet (CEP, IGC, London School of Economics); Oliveira-Cunha, Juliana (CEP, University College London); Rosso, Anna (CEP, University of Insubria); Valero, Anna (CEP, POID, London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Which types of human capital influence the adoption of advanced technologies? We study the skill-biased adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) across two waves in the UK. Specifically, we compare the ‘new wave’ of cloud and machine learning / AI technologies during the 2010s - pre-LLM - with the previous wave of personal computer adoption in the 1990s and early 2000s. At the area-level we see the emergence of a distinct STEM-biased adoption effect for the second wave of cloud and machine learning / AI technologies (ML/AI), alongside a general skill-biased effect. A one-standard deviation increase in the baseline share of STEM workers in areas is associated with around 0.3 of a standard deviation higher adoption of cloud and ML/AI. We find similar effects at the firm level where we are able to test for the influence of a wide range of skills. In turn, this STEM-biased adoption pattern has encouraged the concentration of these technologies, leading to more acute differences between high-tech and low-tech areas and firms. In contrast with classical technology diffusion, recent cloud and ML/AI adoption in the UK seems more likely to widen inequalities than reduce them. |
| Keywords: | Technology Diffusion, ICT, Human Capital, STEM JEL Classification: D22, J24, O33, R11 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:726 |