In recent years, considerable progress has been made in improving the data infrastructure for fertility and morality researchers in Germany. Several large scale data sets have been made available through the research data centers: the micro-censuses of the 1970s and 1980s, the censuses of the GDR and FRG, the micro-census panel, data from the pension registers, individual level data from the vital statistics, and the central foreigner registers have become available for scientific usage. Vital statistics have been reformed, and the micro-census now includes information on number of children ever born. Despite these improvements, there are still some “weak spots” in Germany’s data infrastructure. Germany is lacking official counts of reconstituted families. We know little about the mortality risks of immigrants. In addition, the data infrastructure for studying the socio-economic differences in mortality risks could be improved, thus enabling Germany to catch up with international developments in this area. This paper concludes by making some suggestions for improving the data available.
{"title":"Fertility and Mortality Data for Germany - Recent Progress and Future Challenges","authors":"M. Kreyenfeld, R. Scholz","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1452757","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1452757","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, considerable progress has been made in improving the data infrastructure for fertility and morality researchers in Germany. Several large scale data sets have been made available through the research data centers: the micro-censuses of the 1970s and 1980s, the censuses of the GDR and FRG, the micro-census panel, data from the pension registers, individual level data from the vital statistics, and the central foreigner registers have become available for scientific usage. Vital statistics have been reformed, and the micro-census now includes information on number of children ever born. Despite these improvements, there are still some “weak spots” in Germany’s data infrastructure. Germany is lacking official counts of reconstituted families. We know little about the mortality risks of immigrants. In addition, the data infrastructure for studying the socio-economic differences in mortality risks could be improved, thus enabling Germany to catch up with international developments in this area. This paper concludes by making some suggestions for improving the data available.","PeriodicalId":106212,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Demographics & Economics of the Family","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126156749","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In Bangladesh, children are accustomed to working in industrial and manufacturing plants, small scale factories, metal works, construction, as well as in many informal sector activities. Based on a survey conducted in Sylhet city, this study found that child workers are suffering from different physical and psychological problems and that more than half of them receive their medical assistance from local health care providers who have no recognized qualifications. The study maintains that working from an early age impedes the children’s physical growth and intellectual and psychological development, which then also has negative effects on their long-term health and earning potential.
{"title":"Physical and Psychological Implications of Risky Child Labor: A Study in Sylhet City, Bangladesh","authors":"Mohammad Nashir Uddin, M. Hamiduzzaman, B. Gunter","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.1428206","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.1428206","url":null,"abstract":"In Bangladesh, children are accustomed to working in industrial and manufacturing plants, small scale factories, metal works, construction, as well as in many informal sector activities. Based on a survey conducted in Sylhet city, this study found that child workers are suffering from different physical and psychological problems and that more than half of them receive their medical assistance from local health care providers who have no recognized qualifications. The study maintains that working from an early age impedes the children’s physical growth and intellectual and psychological development, which then also has negative effects on their long-term health and earning potential.","PeriodicalId":106212,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Demographics & Economics of the Family","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127737508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
L. Becchetti, Elena Giachin Ricca, Alessandra Pelloni
The nexus between social leisure and life satisfaction is riddled with endogeneity problems. In investigating the causal relationship going from the first to the second variable we start from considering that retirement is an event after which the time investable in (the outside job) relational life increases. We instrument social leisure with the probability of retirement of the three and four years younger cohorts. With such approach we document that social leisure has a positive and significant effect on life satisfaction. Our findings shed some light on the age-happiness pattern. Policy implications are also discussed.
{"title":"The 60s Turnaround as a Test on the Causal Relationship between Sociability and Happiness","authors":"L. Becchetti, Elena Giachin Ricca, Alessandra Pelloni","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1441901","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1441901","url":null,"abstract":"The nexus between social leisure and life satisfaction is riddled with endogeneity problems. In investigating the causal relationship going from the first to the second variable we start from considering that retirement is an event after which the time investable in (the outside job) relational life increases. We instrument social leisure with the probability of retirement of the three and four years younger cohorts. With such approach we document that social leisure has a positive and significant effect on life satisfaction. Our findings shed some light on the age-happiness pattern. Policy implications are also discussed.","PeriodicalId":106212,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Demographics & Economics of the Family","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125502922","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper examines the impact of demographic, socioeconomic and risk aversion factors on diversification in Australian household asset portfolios using Wave 6 of the HILDA Survey. Household assets are categorised as home and other property, superannuation, equity and cash investment, business assets, bank accounts, life insurance, trust funds and collectibles. The characteristics examined include family structure and composition, the source and level of income, age, gender and attitudes towards financial risk taking. The diversification measures comprise a naive index, a Hirschman-Herfindahl concentration index, a Shannon entropy index, absolute and relative benchmark indexes and a market asset share index. Tobit models are used to identify the source and magnitude of the factors associated with diversification. The results indicate that Australian household portfolios have very low levels of asset diversification and that the factors analysed exert a major impact. Importantly, the behaviour observed in household portfolios appears to bear little relation to the central predictions of classic portfolio theory.
{"title":"Household Asset Portfolio Diversification: Evidence from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (Hilda) Survey","authors":"A. Worthington","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1421567","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1421567","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the impact of demographic, socioeconomic and risk aversion factors on diversification in Australian household asset portfolios using Wave 6 of the HILDA Survey. Household assets are categorised as home and other property, superannuation, equity and cash investment, business assets, bank accounts, life insurance, trust funds and collectibles. The characteristics examined include family structure and composition, the source and level of income, age, gender and attitudes towards financial risk taking. The diversification measures comprise a naive index, a Hirschman-Herfindahl concentration index, a Shannon entropy index, absolute and relative benchmark indexes and a market asset share index. Tobit models are used to identify the source and magnitude of the factors associated with diversification. The results indicate that Australian household portfolios have very low levels of asset diversification and that the factors analysed exert a major impact. Importantly, the behaviour observed in household portfolios appears to bear little relation to the central predictions of classic portfolio theory.","PeriodicalId":106212,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Demographics & Economics of the Family","volume":"59 7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116434926","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
To most economists, personal grooming is a non-market activity. The standard view is that time spent in non-market activities is counterproductive as it reduces work effort and job commitment (Becker, 1985). But grooming may be different. Grooming provides an important source of communication about workers, their values, social identities and personalities. There is reason to believe that certain productive personality traits may be inferred on the basis of personal grooming. In this paper, we use data from the American Time Use Survey's (2009) pooled cross-section 2003-2007 to investigate the effect of additional time spent grooming on earnings. The results show that the effect of grooming on earnings differs significantly by gender and race. These results cannot easily be reconciled with any one particular theory, but imply a complex interaction between several possible effects.
{"title":"Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: The Effect of Time Spent Grooming on Earnings","authors":"Jayoti Das, Stephen B. DeLoach","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1013649","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1013649","url":null,"abstract":"To most economists, personal grooming is a non-market activity. The standard view is that time spent in non-market activities is counterproductive as it reduces work effort and job commitment (Becker, 1985). But grooming may be different. Grooming provides an important source of communication about workers, their values, social identities and personalities. There is reason to believe that certain productive personality traits may be inferred on the basis of personal grooming. In this paper, we use data from the American Time Use Survey's (2009) pooled cross-section 2003-2007 to investigate the effect of additional time spent grooming on earnings. The results show that the effect of grooming on earnings differs significantly by gender and race. These results cannot easily be reconciled with any one particular theory, but imply a complex interaction between several possible effects.","PeriodicalId":106212,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Demographics & Economics of the Family","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126101913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper considers the impact of adverse health shocks that hit an individual’s partner on subjective well-being. Using data on couples from the German Socio-Economic Panel for the years 1984 to 2006, I compare the losses in well-being caused by own and spousal disability using panel-regressions. I find that women and to a lesser extent men are harmed by spousal disability which is consistent with the existence of other-regarding preferences within couples. The magnitude of effects suggests that spousal disability is about one quarter to one half as harmful as individual disability with larger effects being found for women.
{"title":"Other-Regarding Preferences, Spousal Disability and Happiness: Evidence from German Couples","authors":"N. Braakmann","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1415924","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1415924","url":null,"abstract":"This paper considers the impact of adverse health shocks that hit an individual’s partner on subjective well-being. Using data on couples from the German Socio-Economic Panel for the years 1984 to 2006, I compare the losses in well-being caused by own and spousal disability using panel-regressions. I find that women and to a lesser extent men are harmed by spousal disability which is consistent with the existence of other-regarding preferences within couples. The magnitude of effects suggests that spousal disability is about one quarter to one half as harmful as individual disability with larger effects being found for women.","PeriodicalId":106212,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Demographics & Economics of the Family","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128521719","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Edlund and Korn [2002] (EK) proposed that prostitutes are well paid and that the wage premium reflects foregone marriage market opportunities. However, studies of street prostitution in the U.S. have revealed only modest wages and considerable risks of disease and violence, casting doubt on EK’s premise of an unexplained wage premium. In this paper, we present evidence from high-end prostitution, the so called escort market, a market that is, if not entirely safe, notably safer than street prostitution. Analyzing wage information on more than 40,000 escorts in the U.S. and Canada collected from a web site, we find strong support for EK. First, escorts in the sample earn high wages, on average $280/hour. Second, while looks decline monotonically with age, wages follow a hump-shaped pattern, with a peak in the 26-30 age bracket, which coincides with the most intensive marriage ages for women in the U.S. Third, the age-wage profile is significantly flatter, and prices are lower (5%), despite slightly better escort characteristics, in cities that rank high in terms of conferences, suggesting that servicing men in transit is associated with less stigma. Fourth, this hump in the age-wage profile is absent among escorts for whom the marriage market penalty is lower or absent: escorts who do not provide sex and transsexuals.
{"title":"The Wages of Sin","authors":"L. Edlund, Joseph Engelberg, Christopher Parsons","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1413899","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1413899","url":null,"abstract":"Edlund and Korn [2002] (EK) proposed that prostitutes are well paid and that the wage premium reflects foregone marriage market opportunities. However, studies of street prostitution in the U.S. have revealed only modest wages and considerable risks of disease and violence, casting doubt on EK’s premise of an unexplained wage premium. In this paper, we present evidence from high-end prostitution, the so called escort market, a market that is, if not entirely safe, notably safer than street prostitution. Analyzing wage information on more than 40,000 escorts in the U.S. and Canada collected from a web site, we find strong support for EK. First, escorts in the sample earn high wages, on average $280/hour. Second, while looks decline monotonically with age, wages follow a hump-shaped pattern, with a peak in the 26-30 age bracket, which coincides with the most intensive marriage ages for women in the U.S. Third, the age-wage profile is significantly flatter, and prices are lower (5%), despite slightly better escort characteristics, in cities that rank high in terms of conferences, suggesting that servicing men in transit is associated with less stigma. Fourth, this hump in the age-wage profile is absent among escorts for whom the marriage market penalty is lower or absent: escorts who do not provide sex and transsexuals.","PeriodicalId":106212,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Demographics & Economics of the Family","volume":"73 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122446815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
World life expectancy has risen by around 20 years in the last 50 years. This period has also witnessed rising happiness levels around the world suggesting that happiness might be one of the causes behind the decline in mortality. We investigate the relationship between happiness and mortality using the German Socio-Economic Panel. We consider doctor visits, self-reported health, and presence of chronic illness as health measures. After controlling for initial health conditions, we find that happiness extends life expectancy. 10 percent increase in happiness decreases probability of death by four percent, and this effect is more pronounced for men and younger people. Happiness plays a more important role for chronically ill people in decreasing mortality than for those who are not chronically ill. The positive influence of happiness on mortality can offset the negative impact of chronic illness. Marriage decreases mortality and this effect appears to work through increased happiness.
{"title":"Why is the World Getting Older? The Influence of Happiness on Mortality","authors":"Cahit Guven, Rudolph Saloumidis","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1422489","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1422489","url":null,"abstract":"World life expectancy has risen by around 20 years in the last 50 years. This period has also witnessed rising happiness levels around the world suggesting that happiness might be one of the causes behind the decline in mortality. We investigate the relationship between happiness and mortality using the German Socio-Economic Panel. We consider doctor visits, self-reported health, and presence of chronic illness as health measures. After controlling for initial health conditions, we find that happiness extends life expectancy. 10 percent increase in happiness decreases probability of death by four percent, and this effect is more pronounced for men and younger people. Happiness plays a more important role for chronically ill people in decreasing mortality than for those who are not chronically ill. The positive influence of happiness on mortality can offset the negative impact of chronic illness. Marriage decreases mortality and this effect appears to work through increased happiness.","PeriodicalId":106212,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Demographics & Economics of the Family","volume":"87 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126321179","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
type="main"> The literature on mother's education and child health casually observes some nonlinearities and also a threshold in the relationship. Even though this nonlinearity or threshold has significant bearing on policy matters such as quality of education, any rigorous attempt to address this issue is missing in the literature. With height for age z-score as a proxy for long-run child health capital, regression results reveal that there are significant effects of mother's education on child health if mothers do not continue past primary school. Rather, poor quality of education at the primary level, especially literacy, is argued to have given rise to this threshold. It indicates that greater public investment in improving quality of education at the primary level is essential for maximizing the nonmarket outcomes of girls’ education in developing countries.
{"title":"Is There Any Threshold in the Relationship between Mother's Education and Child Health? Evidence from Nigeria","authors":"Kazi Iqbal, Meherun Ahmed","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1424783","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1424783","url":null,"abstract":"type=\"main\"> The literature on mother's education and child health casually observes some nonlinearities and also a threshold in the relationship. Even though this nonlinearity or threshold has significant bearing on policy matters such as quality of education, any rigorous attempt to address this issue is missing in the literature. With height for age z-score as a proxy for long-run child health capital, regression results reveal that there are significant effects of mother's education on child health if mothers do not continue past primary school. Rather, poor quality of education at the primary level, especially literacy, is argued to have given rise to this threshold. It indicates that greater public investment in improving quality of education at the primary level is essential for maximizing the nonmarket outcomes of girls’ education in developing countries.","PeriodicalId":106212,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Demographics & Economics of the Family","volume":"342 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124231032","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2009-05-12DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4991.2009.00323.x
E. Kalugina, Natalia Radtchenko, C. Sofer
The paper applies the collective model to the analysis of intra-household inequality using self-reported income scales. Starting from a collective model including household production, our key assumption is that the income level that household members report corresponds to their true income sharing. Using Russian data (Rounds V to VIII of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey), we apply the results for couples who report the same level of income to identify the sharing rule for the whole sample. This method allows us to obtain not only the derivatives, but also the sharing rule itself. From simulations for an average couple with one child living in the Urals, we find that a full income share of 45% is allocated to the wife.
{"title":"How Do Spouses Share Their Full Income? Identification of the Sharing Rule Using Self-Reported Income","authors":"E. Kalugina, Natalia Radtchenko, C. Sofer","doi":"10.1111/j.1475-4991.2009.00323.x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4991.2009.00323.x","url":null,"abstract":"The paper applies the collective model to the analysis of intra-household inequality using self-reported income scales. Starting from a collective model including household production, our key assumption is that the income level that household members report corresponds to their true income sharing. Using Russian data (Rounds V to VIII of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey), we apply the results for couples who report the same level of income to identify the sharing rule for the whole sample. This method allows us to obtain not only the derivatives, but also the sharing rule itself. From simulations for an average couple with one child living in the Urals, we find that a full income share of 45% is allocated to the wife.","PeriodicalId":106212,"journal":{"name":"Labor: Demographics & Economics of the Family","volume":"128 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123561005","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}