Pub Date : 2025-07-24DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102765
Marianna Kudlyak , Murat Tasci , Didem Tüzemen
We use a unique data set and a novel identification strategy to estimate the effect of minimum wage increases on vacancy postings. Utilizing occupation-specific county-level vacancy data from the Conference Board’s Help Wanted Online for 2005-18, we find that state-level minimum wage increases lead to substantial declines in existing and new vacancy postings in occupations with a larger share of workers earning close to the effective minimum wage. We estimate that a 10 percent increase in the state-level effective minimum wage reduces vacancies in these occupations relative to the rest by 2.4 percent in the same quarter, and the cumulative effect is as large as 4.5 percent a year later. Focusing on vacancies rather than employment allows us to highlight changes in firms’ hiring intentions in response to minimum wage increases. Coupled with the earlier U.S. evidence showing reductions in separations following minimum wage hikes, our finding of declining vacancies contributes to the broader empirical literature suggesting negligible effects of minimum wage increases on net employment.
{"title":"Minimum wage increases and vacancies","authors":"Marianna Kudlyak , Murat Tasci , Didem Tüzemen","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102765","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102765","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We use a unique data set and a novel identification strategy to estimate the effect of minimum wage increases on vacancy postings. Utilizing occupation-specific county-level vacancy data from the Conference Board’s Help Wanted Online for 2005-18, we find that state-level minimum wage increases lead to substantial declines in existing and new vacancy postings in occupations with a larger share of workers earning close to the effective minimum wage. We estimate that a 10 percent increase in the state-level effective minimum wage reduces vacancies in these occupations relative to the rest by 2.4 percent in the same quarter, and the cumulative effect is as large as 4.5 percent a year later. Focusing on vacancies rather than employment allows us to highlight changes in firms’ hiring intentions in response to minimum wage increases. Coupled with the earlier U.S. evidence showing reductions in separations following minimum wage hikes, our finding of declining vacancies contributes to the broader empirical literature suggesting negligible effects of minimum wage increases on net employment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 102765"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145005315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-22DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102764
Andreas Diemer
In analogy to the controversial ‘acting White’ narrative for racial achievement gaps among US children, I explore whether migrant background pupils in Europe are exposed to similar social pressure by their peers not to adopt behaviours perceived to be typical of the majority group, notably doing well in school. Leveraging comprehensive longitudinal data on classroom interactions and several proxies for academic achievement, including predetermined measures of ability, I find mixed and model-dependent evidence in support of this ‘acting native’ hypothesis in the European context.
{"title":"The ‘acting native’ hypothesis: Evidence from classrooms in four European countries","authors":"Andreas Diemer","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102764","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102764","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In analogy to the controversial ‘acting White’ narrative for racial achievement gaps among US children, I explore whether migrant background pupils in Europe are exposed to similar social pressure by their peers not to adopt behaviours perceived to be typical of the majority group, notably doing well in school. Leveraging comprehensive longitudinal data on classroom interactions and several proxies for academic achievement, including predetermined measures of ability, I find mixed and model-dependent evidence in support of this ‘acting native’ hypothesis in the European context.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102764"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144703435","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-15DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102756
Junjie Guo
This paper estimates the wage offer distribution using workers who received multiple offers in a short period of time, including both accepted and rejected offers. We show that, after accounting for worker heterogeneity and measurement error, each wage offer is a random draw from the same distribution, and a normal distribution with a standard deviation of 0.137 is consistent with data. The dispersion is smaller than most estimates in the literature, increasing in the unemployment rate for workers without a bachelor’s degree, but not significantly related to a worker’s age or employment status.
{"title":"Estimation of the wage offer distribution using both accepted and rejected offers","authors":"Junjie Guo","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102756","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102756","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper estimates the wage offer distribution using workers who received multiple offers in a short period of time, including both accepted and rejected offers. We show that, after accounting for worker heterogeneity and measurement error, each wage offer is a random draw from the same distribution, and a normal distribution with a standard deviation of 0.137 is consistent with data. The dispersion is smaller than most estimates in the literature, increasing in the unemployment rate for workers without a bachelor’s degree, but not significantly related to a worker’s age or employment status.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102756"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144634128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper provides a causal estimate of labour productivity in maternity wards. We consider an Italian law that defines the staffing requirements of hospital maternity units according to the annual number of births. We exploit the discontinuities in the availability of medical staff caused by thresholds in the law to define both instrumental variables and a regression discontinuity framework that allows us to estimate the causal effect of different teams of professionals on the mode of delivery and on the health status of newborns and mothers at delivery. The analysis is based on detailed patient-level data on births in an Italian region. We find that maternity units with annual births above the thresholds are more likely to have a 'full team' of professionals at delivery. We find that having a full team has no effect on the mode of delivery (caesarean section vs vaginal birth). However, the presence of a full team has a significant impact on health outcomes. We find an improvement in both neonatal and maternal outcomes associated with a more intensive use of medical interventions, suggesting that larger hospitals are better than smaller units at managing deliveries with appropriate treatments to avoid complications. In addition, we do not find substantial heterogeneous effects across days of the week, time of day, or nationality of mothers.
{"title":"Understanding labour productivity in maternity wards","authors":"Marina Di Giacomo , Massimiliano Piacenza , Luca Salmasi , Gilberto Turati","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102760","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102760","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper provides a causal estimate of labour productivity in maternity wards. We consider an Italian law that defines the staffing requirements of hospital maternity units according to the annual number of births. We exploit the discontinuities in the availability of medical staff caused by thresholds in the law to define both instrumental variables and a regression discontinuity framework that allows us to estimate the causal effect of different teams of professionals on the mode of delivery and on the health status of newborns and mothers at delivery. The analysis is based on detailed patient-level data on births in an Italian region. We find that maternity units with annual births above the thresholds are more likely to have a 'full team' of professionals at delivery. We find that having a full team has no effect on the mode of delivery (caesarean section vs vaginal birth). However, the presence of a full team has a significant impact on health outcomes. We find an improvement in both neonatal and maternal outcomes associated with a more intensive use of medical interventions, suggesting that larger hospitals are better than smaller units at managing deliveries with appropriate treatments to avoid complications. In addition, we do not find substantial heterogeneous effects across days of the week, time of day, or nationality of mothers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102760"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144679829","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-08DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102757
Xiangbo Liu , Zhiying Sun , Daisheng Tang , Shuai Chu
Fertility restrictions are generally believed to have increased children’s educational attainment. However, knowledge of the effects of relaxing fertility restrictions on the gender gap in education is lacking. Using China’s 1.5-child policy as an example, we explore how relaxing fertility restrictions affects the gender gap in education. We first construct a simple model to analyze how different family planning policies influence the gender gap in education through their effects on sibling composition. Using data from the 2010 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we next empirically estimate the policy effects through a triple-difference (DDD) approach. We find that the 1.5-child policy significantly widened the gender gap in education, primarily through a relative decline in female educational attainment compared to males. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the eldest daughters, particularly those with younger brothers, experience a larger decline in educational attainment. We uncover two mechanisms limiting girls’ schooling: resource dilution through more siblings, and caregiving burdens as eldest sisters. We also find that supportive education policies can help narrow the gender gap in education by mitigating the negative impact on females’ educational attainment.
{"title":"Relaxation of fertility restrictions, sibling composition and gender gap in education: Evidence from China’s 1.5-child policy","authors":"Xiangbo Liu , Zhiying Sun , Daisheng Tang , Shuai Chu","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102757","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102757","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fertility restrictions are generally believed to have increased children’s educational attainment. However, knowledge of the effects of relaxing fertility restrictions on the gender gap in education is lacking. Using China’s 1.5-child policy as an example, we explore how relaxing fertility restrictions affects the gender gap in education. We first construct a simple model to analyze how different family planning policies influence the gender gap in education through their effects on sibling composition. Using data from the 2010 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we next empirically estimate the policy effects through a triple-difference (DDD) approach. We find that the 1.5-child policy significantly widened the gender gap in education, primarily through a relative decline in female educational attainment compared to males. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the eldest daughters, particularly those with younger brothers, experience a larger decline in educational attainment. We uncover two mechanisms limiting girls’ schooling: resource dilution through more siblings, and caregiving burdens as eldest sisters. We also find that supportive education policies can help narrow the gender gap in education by mitigating the negative impact on females’ educational attainment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102757"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144614706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-03DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102747
Mattis Beckmannshagen , Johannes Koenig
We propose a novel method to detect and disentangle moderate and severe health shocks in a general population survey based on a data-driven classification of sickness absences and hospitalizations. Both types of shocks are widespread with an annual incidence of about 1.7%, which rises steeply with age. We estimate the effects of both shocks on labor market outcomes and find that severe shocks have more persistent effects on employment (7.5 percentage point reduction), labor income, and household net income. Moderate shocks have transitory effects on employment (2 percentage point reduction), but more long-lasting effects on work hours.
{"title":"Out for good: Transitory and persistent labor market effects of heterogeneous health shocks","authors":"Mattis Beckmannshagen , Johannes Koenig","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102747","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102747","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We propose a novel method to detect and disentangle moderate and severe health shocks in a general population survey based on a data-driven classification of sickness absences and hospitalizations. Both types of shocks are widespread with an annual incidence of about 1.7%, which rises steeply with age. We estimate the effects of both shocks on labor market outcomes and find that severe shocks have more persistent effects on employment (7.5 percentage point reduction), labor income, and household net income. Moderate shocks have transitory effects on employment (2 percentage point reduction), but more long-lasting effects on work hours.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102747"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144634134","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-29DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102749
Mery Ferrando , Véronique Gille
Can role models from the same group enhance educational outcomes of disadvantaged minority students? We analyze the election of Douglas Wilder in Virginia in 1989, who was the first Black American to serve as governor in the US. Results from a triple difference and an event-study approach demonstrate increased educational attainment among Black individuals in Virginia after the election. Using an original survey and secondary data, we provide suggestive evidence that a role model effect may be driving these results. Our findings thus suggest that increasing exposure to Black politicians in high-profile positions might contribute to narrowing the White-Black gap in education in the US.
{"title":"Does the identity of leaders matter for education? Evidence from the first black governor in the US","authors":"Mery Ferrando , Véronique Gille","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102749","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102749","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Can role models from the same group enhance educational outcomes of disadvantaged minority students? We analyze the election of Douglas Wilder in Virginia in 1989, who was the first Black American to serve as governor in the US. Results from a triple difference and an event-study approach demonstrate increased educational attainment among Black individuals in Virginia after the election. Using an original survey and secondary data, we provide suggestive evidence that a role model effect may be driving these results. Our findings thus suggest that increasing exposure to Black politicians in high-profile positions might contribute to narrowing the White-Black gap in education in the US.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102749"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144534974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-23DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102751
Pawel Adrjan , Gabriele Ciminelli , Alexandre Judes , Michael Koelle , Cyrille Schwellnus , Tara M. Sinclair
Remote work surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. To analyze its post-pandemic persistency, we construct an original dataset measuring remote and hybrid work (WFH) in 20 OECD countries and 55 occupations from January 2019 to December 2023, based on over 1 billion job postings from the global job site Indeed. The share of job postings advertising WFH more than quadrupled from about 2.5 % to around 11 % between January 2020 and January 2023 in the average country in our sample, continuing to grow even after pandemic-related restrictions were phased out. Exploiting changes in pandemic severity across countries and differences in the feasibility of remote work across occupations in a difference-in-differences design, we find that increases in pandemic severity substantially raised advertised WFH, but pandemic easing had no effect. We then use job search data to document persistently high interest in WFH from jobseekers and conclude that the post-pandemic persistency of WFH may partly be a response by employers to demand for flexibility from workers.
{"title":"Working from home after COVID-19: Evidence from job postings in 20 countries","authors":"Pawel Adrjan , Gabriele Ciminelli , Alexandre Judes , Michael Koelle , Cyrille Schwellnus , Tara M. Sinclair","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102751","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102751","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Remote work surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. To analyze its post-pandemic persistency, we construct an original dataset measuring remote and hybrid work (WFH) in 20 OECD countries and 55 occupations from January 2019 to December 2023, based on over 1 billion job postings from the global job site Indeed. The share of job postings advertising WFH more than quadrupled from about 2.5 % to around 11 % between January 2020 and January 2023 in the average country in our sample, continuing to grow even after pandemic-related restrictions were phased out. Exploiting changes in pandemic severity across countries and differences in the feasibility of remote work across occupations in a difference-in-differences design, we find that increases in pandemic severity substantially raised advertised WFH, but pandemic easing had no effect. We then use job search data to document persistently high interest in WFH from jobseekers and conclude that the post-pandemic persistency of WFH may partly be a response by employers to demand for flexibility from workers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102751"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144338876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-23DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102739
Tunga Kantarcı , Jim Been , Arthur van Soest , Daniël van Vuuren
We evaluate partial retirement options as an instrument to increase labor participation among older individuals. In a stated choice experiment, Dutch survey respondents were asked to choose among early, late and partial retirement scenarios purged from restrictions on part-time work and gradual retirement. Retirement scenario characteristics were randomized, generating rich variation in the choice options. The stated choices are validated using revealed preference data on (planned) retirement decisions. Using the stated choice data, we estimate a model that makes the trade-offs between leisure and income over the life cycle explicit, and use the estimated model for counterfactual policy simulations. We find that, as expected, higher (full) pension eligibility ages make actuarially fair (abrupt) early retirement more attractive and make late retirement less attractive, while about one in three respondents prefer partial retirement irrespective of the eligibility age. Early retirement becomes more attractive than late retirement when individuals do not have the partial retirement option. Moreover, the partial retirement decision is sensitive to financial incentives so that subsidizing partial retirement with higher wages or with more than actuarially fair pension increases for delaying retirement increases total labor supply. These findings demonstrate the potential of partial retirement as a policy instrument to stimulate labor participation, especially when pension eligibility is delayed.
{"title":"Partial retirement opportunities and the labor supply of older individuals","authors":"Tunga Kantarcı , Jim Been , Arthur van Soest , Daniël van Vuuren","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102739","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102739","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We evaluate partial retirement options as an instrument to increase labor participation among older individuals. In a stated choice experiment, Dutch survey respondents were asked to choose among early, late and partial retirement scenarios purged from restrictions on part-time work and gradual retirement. Retirement scenario characteristics were randomized, generating rich variation in the choice options. The stated choices are validated using revealed preference data on (planned) retirement decisions. Using the stated choice data, we estimate a model that makes the trade-offs between leisure and income over the life cycle explicit, and use the estimated model for counterfactual policy simulations. We find that, as expected, higher (full) pension eligibility ages make actuarially fair (abrupt) early retirement more attractive and make late retirement less attractive, while about one in three respondents prefer partial retirement irrespective of the eligibility age. Early retirement becomes more attractive than late retirement when individuals do not have the partial retirement option. Moreover, the partial retirement decision is sensitive to financial incentives so that subsidizing partial retirement with higher wages or with more than actuarially fair pension increases for delaying retirement increases total labor supply. These findings demonstrate the potential of partial retirement as a policy instrument to stimulate labor participation, especially when pension eligibility is delayed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102739"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144523582","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-22DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102741
Erika Forsberg , Akib Khan , Olof Rosenqvist
Family background shapes individual outcomes across the life cycle. While research documents how family background importance varies across countries, less is known about heterogeneities across socioeconomic groups within countries. Using comprehensive Swedish register data, we compare sibling correlations—a more holistic measure of family influence than direct parent–child associations—in skills, schooling, and earnings across fine-grained groups defined by parental socioeconomic status (SES). We find that sibling correlations generally decline with parental SES. This pattern holds across cognitive skills, schooling, and earnings, and is robust to alternative definitions of parental SES. The decline is particularly pronounced when comparing the lowest decile to higher SES groups. For education and earnings, the decline in sibling correlations at higher SES levels is primarily driven by increased within-family variation, suggesting siblings in advantaged families develop more individualized paths. For skills, the decline reflects decreasing between-family variation. This result is consistent with theories on reinforcing parental investments, though other mechanisms, including complementarities between investments and abilities, credit constraints faced by low-SES families and broader poverty traps, may also contribute. Our results suggest that children from low-SES backgrounds not only have worse average outcomes than those from high-SES homes but also face constraints on individual development. This study provides insights into how equality of opportunity varies across the socioeconomic spectrum, revealing nuances in family influence that country-level averages may obscure.
{"title":"Do sibling correlations in skills, schooling, and earnings vary by socioeconomic background? Insights from Sweden","authors":"Erika Forsberg , Akib Khan , Olof Rosenqvist","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102741","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102741","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Family background shapes individual outcomes across the life cycle. While research documents how family background importance varies across countries, less is known about heterogeneities across socioeconomic groups within countries. Using comprehensive Swedish register data, we compare sibling correlations—a more holistic measure of family influence than direct parent–child associations—in skills, schooling, and earnings across fine-grained groups defined by parental socioeconomic status (SES). We find that sibling correlations generally decline with parental SES. This pattern holds across cognitive skills, schooling, and earnings, and is robust to alternative definitions of parental SES. The decline is particularly pronounced when comparing the lowest decile to higher SES groups. For education and earnings, the decline in sibling correlations at higher SES levels is primarily driven by increased within-family variation, suggesting siblings in advantaged families develop more individualized paths. For skills, the decline reflects decreasing between-family variation. This result is consistent with theories on reinforcing parental investments, though other mechanisms, including complementarities between investments and abilities, credit constraints faced by low-SES families and broader poverty traps, may also contribute. Our results suggest that children from low-SES backgrounds not only have worse average outcomes than those from high-SES homes but also face constraints on individual development. This study provides insights into how equality of opportunity varies across the socioeconomic spectrum, revealing nuances in family influence that country-level averages may obscure.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102741"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144514233","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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