NEP: New Economics Papers Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty Issue date: 2011-12-19

http://universidad.academia.edu/MaximoRossi/Blog/54303/NEP-New-Economics-Papers-Unemployment-Inequality-and-Poverty-Issue-date-2011-12-19

NEP: New Economics Papers Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty Issue date: 2011-12-13

Edited by: Maximo Rossi
Universidad de la Republica

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In this issue we have:

Average and Marginal Returns to Upper Secondary Schooling in Indonesia
Carneiro, Pedro; Lokshin, Michael; Ridao-Cano, Cristobal; Umapathi, Nithin

The measurement of educational inequality: Achievement and opportunity
Francisco H. G. Ferreira; Jérémie Gignoux

Multidimensional Well-Being at the Top: Evidence for Germany
Peichl, Andreas; Pestel, Nico

Should Cash Transfers Be Confined to the Poor? Implications for Poverty and Inequality in Latin America
Acosta, Pablo A.; Leite, Phillippe; Rigolini, Jamele

Inequality and well-being in transition economies: A non-experimental test of inequality aversion
Alexandru Cojocaru

Unemployment Benefits and Immigration: Evidence from the EU
Giulietti, Corrado; Guzi, Martin; Kahanec, Martin; Zimmermann, Klaus F

The Effect of Education Policy on Crime: An Intergenerational Perspective
Meghir, Costas; Palme, Mårten; Schnabel, Marieke

Inequality of opportunity for young people in Italy: Understanding the role of circumstances
Gabriella Berloffa; Francesca Modena; Paola Villa

A vulnerability approach to the definition of the middle class
Lopez-Calva, Luis F.; Ortiz-Juarez, Eduardo

Disparities in Social Assistance Receipt between Immigrants and Natives in Sweden
Gustafsson, Björn

Contents.

Average and Marginal Returns to Upper Secondary Schooling in Indonesia
Date: 2011-11
By: Carneiro, Pedro (University College London)
Lokshin, Michael (World Bank)
Ridao-Cano, Cristobal (World Bank)
Umapathi, Nithin (World Bank)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6162&r=ltv
This paper estimates average and marginal returns to schooling in Indonesia using a non-parametric selection model. Identification of the model is given by exogenous geographic variation in access to upper secondary schools. We find that the return to upper secondary schooling varies widely across individuals: it can be as high as 50 percent per year of schooling for those very likely to enroll in upper secondary schooling, or as low as -10 percent for those very unlikely to do so. Average returns for the student at the margin are well below those for the average student attending upper secondary schooling.
Keywords: returns to schooling, marginal return, average return, marginal treatment effect
JEL: J31

The measurement of educational inequality: Achievement and opportunity
Date: 2011
By: Francisco H. G. Ferreira (The World Bank and IZA)
Jérémie Gignoux (Paris School of Economics)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2011-240&r=ltv
This paper proposes two related measures of educational inequality: one for educational achievement and another for educational opportunity. The former is the simple variance (or standard deviation) of test scores. Its selection is informed by consideration of two measurement issues that have typically been overlooked in the literature: the implications of the standardization of test scores for inequality indices, and the possible sample selection biases arising from the Program of International Student Assessment (PISA) sampling frame. The measure of inequality of educational opportunity is given by the share of the variance in test scores that is explained by pre-determined circumstances. Both measures are computed for the 57 countries in which PISA surveys were conducted in 2006. Inequality of opportunity accounts for up to 35 percent of all disparities in educational achievement. It is greater in (most of) continental Europe and Latin America than in Asia, Scandinavia, and North America. It is uncorrelated with average educational achievement and only weakly negatively correlated with per capita gross domestic product. It correlates negatively with the share of spending in primary schooling, and positively with tracking in secondary schools.
Keywords: Educational inequality, educational achievement, inequality of opportunity.
JEL: D39

Multidimensional Well-Being at the Top: Evidence for Germany
Date: 2011-11
By: Peichl, Andreas (IZA)
Pestel, Nico (IZA)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6170&r=ltv
This paper employs a multidimensional approach for the measurement of well-being at the top of the distribution using German SOEP micro data. Besides income as traditional indicator for material well-being, we include health as a proxy for nonmaterial quality of life as well as self-reported satisfaction with life as dimensions. We find that one third of the German population is well-off in at least one dimension but only one percent in all three dimensions simultaneously. While the distribution of income has become more concentrated at the top, the concentration at the top of the multidimensional well-being distribution has decreased over time. Moreover, health as well as life satisfaction contribute quite substantially to multidimensional wellbeing at the top which has important policy implications.
Keywords: multidimensional measurement, well-being, Germany
JEL: D31

Should Cash Transfers Be Confined to the Poor? Implications for Poverty and Inequality in Latin America
Date: 2011-11
By: Acosta, Pablo A. (World Bank)
Leite, Phillippe (World Bank)
Rigolini, Jamele (World Bank)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izapps:pp34&r=ltv
This paper compares for 13 Latin American countries the poverty and inequality impacts of cash transfer programs that are given to all children and the elderly (that is, “categorical” transfers), to programs of equal budget that are confined to the poor within each population group (that is, “poverty targeted” transfers). The analysis finds that both the incidence of poverty and the depth of the poverty gap are important factors affecting the relative effectiveness of categorical versus poverty targeted transfers. The comparison of transfers to children and the elderly also supports the view that choosing carefully categories of beneficiaries is almost as important as targeting the poor for achieving a high poverty and inequality impact. Overall, the findings suggest that although in the Latin American context poverty targeting tends to deliver higher poverty impacts, there are circumstances under which categorical targeting confined to geographical regions (sometimes called “geographic targeting”) may be a valid option to consider. This is particularly the case in low-income countries with widespread pockets of poverty.
Keywords: cash transfers, targeting, social assistance, poverty
JEL: D6

Inequality and well-being in transition economies: A non-experimental test of inequality aversion
Date: 2011
By: Alexandru Cojocaru (University of Maryland)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2011-238&r=ltv
This paper examines the link between inequality and individual well-being using household survey data from 27 Transition Economies, where income inequality increased considerably since 1989. A test of inequality aversion in individual preferences that draws on the Fehr and Schmidt (QJE, 1999) specification of inequality aversion is proposed, and the difficulties of implementing it in a non-experimental setting are discussed. Estimates based on this model confirm aversion to inequality both in the overall sample and in the regional sub-samples. The Gini index, on the other hand, is unable to capture this negative effect of inequality on well-being. Notably, inequality aversion is not intrinsic. Rather, it appears to be tied to a concern with the fairness of the institutions underlying the distribution of fortunes in society. The evidence is suggestive of inequality of opportunity driving attitudes toward overall inequality. Perceiving inequality to be unfair is also associated with calls for strong government involvement in redistributive policies.
Keywords: inequality aversion, relative deprivation, subjective well-being, transition economies.
JEL: D63

Unemployment Benefits and Immigration: Evidence from the EU
Date: 2011-11
By: Giulietti, Corrado
Guzi, Martin
Kahanec, Martin
Zimmermann, Klaus F
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8672&r=ltv
The paper studies the impact of unemployment benefits on immigration. A sample of 19 European countries observed over the period 1993 to 2008 is used to test the hypothesis that unemployment benefit spending (UBS) is correlated with immigration flows from EU and non-EU origins. While OLS estimates reveal the existence of a moderate correlation for non-EU immigrants only, IV and GMM techniques used to address endogeneity issues yield, respectively, a much smaller and an essentially zero causal impact of UBS on immigration. All estimates for immigrants from EU origins indicate that flows within the EU are not related to unemployment benefit generosity. This suggests that the so-called ‘welfare migration’ debate is misguided and not based on empirical evidence.
Keywords: European Union; immigration; unemployment benefit spending; welfare magnets
JEL: H53

The Effect of Education Policy on Crime: An Intergenerational Perspective
Date: 2011-11
By: Meghir, Costas (Yale University)
Palme, Mårten (Stockholm University)
Schnabel, Marieke (University College London)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6142&r=ltv
A number of studies have shown that education reforms extending compulsory schooling reduce criminal behavior of those affected by the reform. We consider the effects of a major Swedish educational reform on crime by exploiting its staggered implementation across Sweden. We first show that the reform reduced crime rates for the generation directly affected by the reform. We then show that the benefits extended to the next generation with large reductions in the crime rates of the children of those affected. The effect operates only through the father and points in the direction of improved parenting rather than resources.
Keywords: comprehensive school, economics of crime, returns to education, returns to human capital
JEL: I20

Inequality of opportunity for young people in Italy: Understanding the role of circumstances
Date: 2011
By: Gabriella Berloffa (Department of Economics, University of Trento)
Francesca Modena (Department of Economics, University of Trento and Euricse)
Paola Villa (Department of Economics, University of Trento)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2011-241&r=ltv
In this paper we analyze the way in which changes in macro-economic circumstances and labour market institutions, that occurred in Italy over the ‘90s, affected the set of opportunities for young generations, amplify or shrinking existing inequalities. In particular we investigate whether they have modified the importance of the family background to reach certain labour outcomes (in terms of more or less secure employment). Results suggest that the effect of the social network of the father on early occupational outcomes is more related to changes in the macroeconomic circumstances than to institutional changes, and that the one on transitions is larger, in relative terms, in the late ‘90s than in the early ‘80s.
Keywords: equality of opportunity, labour outcomes, precarious employment, Italy.
JEL: D6

A vulnerability approach to the definition of the middle class
Date: 2011-12-01
By: Lopez-Calva, Luis F.
Ortiz-Juarez, Eduardo
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5902&r=ltv
Measurement of the middle class has recently come to the center of policy debate in middle-income countries as they search for the potential engines of growth and good governance. This debate assumes, first, that there is a meaningful definition of class, and second, that thresholds that define relatively homogeneous groups in terms of pre-determined sociological characteristics can be found empirically. This paper aims at proposing a view of the middle class based on vulnerability to poverty. Following this approach the paper exploits panel data to determine the amount of comparable income — associated with a low probability of falling into poverty — which could define the lower bound of the middle class. The paper looks at absolute thresholds, challenging the view that people above the poverty line are actually part of the middle class. The estimated lower threshold is used in cross-section surveys to quantify the size and the evolution of middle classes in Chile, Mexico, and Peru over the past two decades. The first relevant feature relates to the fact that the proposed thresholds lie around the 60th percentile of the distribution. The evidence also shows that the middle class has increased significantly in all three countries, suggesting that a higher number of households face lower probabilities of falling into poverty than they did in the 1990s. There is an important group of people, however, which cannot be defined as middle class from this perspective, but are not eligible for poverty programs according to traditional definitions of poverty.
Keywords: Rural Poverty Reduction,Inequality,Regional Economic Development,Urban Partnerships&Poverty,Services&Transfers to Poor

Disparities in Social Assistance Receipt between Immigrants and Natives in Sweden
Date: 2011-11
By: Gustafsson, Björn (University of Gothenburg)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6129&r=ltv
Social assistance receipt among immigrants in relation to receipt among natives in Sweden is investigated. A background of how the system is constructed is provided, statistical information reported, the literature surveyed and key results interpreted. Most out-payment for social assistance in Sweden refers to foreign born persons although the category makes up 14 percent of the population. While some part of the high costs can be attributed to needs to maintaining recent refugees, this is not the entire story. Immigrants tend to assimilate out of social assistance receipt. However, receipt continues to be higher than among in several characteristics identical natives many years after immigration among immigrants from not rich countries. The elevated probabilities of social assistance receipt among immigrants from not rich countries are mainly due to failures of integrating into the labor market at the destination.
Keywords: social assistance, immigrants, Sweden
JEL: F22

This nep–ltv issue is ©2011 by Maximo Rossi. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, it must include this copyright notice. It may not be sold, or placed in something else for sale.
General information on the NEP project can be found at http://nep.repec.org/. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at .

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NEP: New Economics Papers Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty Issue 2011-11-01

Edited by: Maximo Rossi
Universidad de la Republica

To sign off this list, go to http://lists.repec.org/mailman/options/nep-ltv

In this issue we have:

The French Unhappiness Puzzle: the Cultural Dimension of Happiness
Senik, Claudia

Lost in Transition? The returns to education acquired under communism 15 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall
Lorenzo Rocco; Giorgio Brunello; Elena Crivellaro

Teaching Practices and Social Capital
Algan, Yann; Cahuc, Pierre; Shleifer, Andrei

An International Comparison of Lifetime Inequality: How Continental Europe Resembles North America
Audra J. Bowlus; Jean-Marc Robin

A Multidimensional Approach to Measuring Child Poverty
Sharmila Kurukulasuriya; Solrun Engilbertsdottir

A New Episode of Increased Urban Income Inequality in China
Quheng Deng; Bjorn Gustafsson

Minimum Wage Increases Under Straightened Circumstances
Addison, John T.; Blackburn, McKinley L.; Cotti, Chad

Contents.

The French Unhappiness Puzzle: the Cultural Dimension of Happiness
Date: 2011-10
By: Senik, Claudia
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpm:docweb:1113&r=ltv
This article sheds light on the important differences in self-declared happiness across countries of equivalent affluence. It hinges on the different happiness statements of natives and immigrants in a set of European countries to disentangle the influence of objective circumstances versus psychological and cultural factors. The latter turns out to be of non- negligible importance in explaining international heterogeneity in happiness. In some countries, such as France, they are mainly responsible for the country’s unobserved idiosyncratic source of (un-)happiness.
Keywords: Happiness; Subjective Well-Being; International Comparisons; France; Immigration; European Social Survey
JEL: I31

Lost in Transition? The returns to education acquired under communism 15 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall
Date: 2011-09
By: Lorenzo Rocco (University of Padova)
Giorgio Brunello (University of Padova, Cesifo; IZA)
Elena Crivellaro (University of Padova and LSE)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:laa:wpaper:17&r=ltv
Using data for 23 economies in Eastern and Western Europe, we find evidence that having studied under communism is relatively penalized in the economies of the late 2000s. This evidence, however, is limited to males and to primary and secondary education, and holds for eight CEE economies but not for the East Germans who have studied in the former German Democratic Republic. We also find that post-secondary education acquired under communism yields higher, not lower, payoffs than similar education in Western Europe.

Teaching Practices and Social Capital
Date: 2011-10
By: Algan, Yann
Cahuc, Pierre
Shleifer, Andrei
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8625&r=ltv
We use several data sets to consider the effect of teaching practices on student beliefs, as well as on organization of firms and institutions. In cross-country data, we show that teaching practices (such as copying from the board versus working on projects together) are strongly related to various dimensions of social capital, from beliefs in cooperation to institutional outcomes. We then use micro-data to investigate the influence of teaching practices on student beliefs about cooperation and students’ involvement in civic life. A two-stage least square strategy provides evidence that teaching practices have an independent sizeable effect on student social capital. The relationship between teaching practices and student test performance is nonlinear. The evidence supports the idea that progressive education promotes social capital.
Keywords: Education; Social Capital; Teaching Practices
JEL: I2

An International Comparison of Lifetime Inequality: How Continental Europe Resembles North America
Date: 2011
By: Audra J. Bowlus (University of Western Ontario)
Jean-Marc Robin (Sciences Po, Paris and University College London)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwo:hcuwoc:20116&r=ltv
We compare earnings inequality and mobility across the U.S., Canada, France, Germany and the U.K. during the late 1990s. A flexible model of earnings dynamics that isolates positional mobility within a stable earnings distribution is estimated. Earnings trajectories are then simulated, and lifetime annuity value distributions are constructed. Earnings mobility and employment risk are found to be positively correlated with base-year inequality. Taken together they produce more equalization in countries with high cross-section inequality such that the countries in our sample have more similar lifetime inequality levels than crosssection measures suggest.

A Multidimensional Approach to Measuring Child Poverty
Date: 2011
By: Sharmila Kurukulasuriya
Solrun Engilbertsdottir (Division of Policy and Practice,UNICEF)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uce:wbrief:1101&r=ltv
There is a growing consensus that children experience poverty in ways that are different from adults; and looking at child poverty through an income-consumption lens only is inadequate. The 2005 State of the World’s Children presented the following definition of child poverty: “Children living in poverty experience deprivation of the material, spiritual and emotional resources needed to survive, develop and thrive, leaving them unable to enjoy their rights, achieve their full potential or participate as full and equal members of society”. Using evidence from UNICEF’s ongoing Global Study on Child Poverty in Disparities, this Brief illustrates the importance of looking beyond traditional methods of measuring poverty based on income or consumption levels, and emphasizes the importance of seeking out the multidimensional face of child poverty. This approach further recognizes that the method used in depicting child poverty is crucial to the policy design and implementation of interventions that address children’s needs, especially among the most deprived.
Keywords: child poverty, child disparities, policy design, measuring poverty, State of the World’s Children,Global Study on Child Poverty

A New Episode of Increased Urban Income Inequality in China
Date: 2011
By: Quheng Deng (Beijing Normal University)
Bjorn Gustafsson (University of Goteborg)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwo:hcuwoc:201116&r=ltv
Not available.
Minimum Wage Increases Under Straightened Circumstances
Date: 2011-10
By: Addison, John T. (University of South Carolina)
Blackburn, McKinley L. (University of South Carolina)
Cotti, Chad (University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6036&r=ltv
Do apparently large minimum wage increases in an environment of recession produce clearer evidence of disemployment effects than is typically observed in the new minimum wage literature? This paper augments the sparse literature on the most recent increases in the U.S. minimum wage, using three different data sets and the two main estimation strategies for handling geographically-disparate trends. The evidence is generally unsupportive of negative employment effects, still less of a ‘recessionary multiplier.’ Minimum wage workers seem to be concentrated in sectors of the economy for which the labor demand response to wage mandates is minimal.
Keywords: minimum wages, disemployment, earnings, low-wage sectors, geographically-disparate employment trends, recession
JEL: J2

This nep–ltv issue is ©2011 by Maximo Rossi. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, it must include this copyright notice. It may not be sold, or placed in something else for sale.
General information on the NEP project can be found at http://nep.repec.org/. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at .

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NEP: New Economics Papers Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty Issue date:2011-10-22

Edited by:Maximo Rossi
Universidad de la Republica

To sign off this list, go to http://lists.repec.org/mailman/options/nep-ltv

In this issue we have:

Lifetime Earnings Inequality in Germany
Timm Bönke; Giacomo Corneo; Holger Lüthen

Occupational change and mobility among employed and unemployed job seekers
Longhi, Simonetta; Taylor, Mark P.

Pro-poor trade policy in Sub-Saharan Africa
Nicita, Alessandro; Olarreaga, Marcelo; Porto, Guido

The Disappearing Gender Gap: The Impact of Divorce, Wages, and Preferences on Education Choices and Women’s Work
Raquel Fernández; Joyce Cheng Wong

General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Life-Cycle
Eric A. Hanushek; Ludger Woessmann; Lei Zhang

Teaching Practices and Social Capital
Yann Algan; Pierre Cahuc; Andrei Shleifer

Contents.

Lifetime Earnings Inequality in Germany
Date:2011
By:Timm Bönke
Giacomo Corneo
Holger Lüthen
URL:http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1160&r=ltv
This paper documents the magnitude, pattern, and evolution of lifetime earnings inequality in Germany. Based on a large sample of earning biographies from social security records, we show that the intra-generational distribution of lifetime earnings of male workers has a Gini coefficient around .2 for cohorts born in the late 1930s and early 1940s; this amounts to about 2/3 of the value of the Gini coefficient of annual earnings. Within cohorts, mobility in the distribution of yearly earnings is substantial at the beginning of the lifecycle, decreases after-wards and virtually vanishes after age forty. Earnings data for thirty-one cohorts reveals striking evidence of a secular rise of intra-generational inequality in lifetime earnings: West-German men born in the early 1960s are likely to experience about 80 % more lifetime inequality than their fathers. In contrast, both short-term and long-term intra-generational mobility have been rather stable. Longer unemployment spells of workers at the bottom of the distribution of younger cohorts contribute to explain 30 to 40 % of the overall increase in life-time earnings inequality.
Keywords:Lifetime Earnings, Earnings Distribution, Inequality, Mobility, Germany
JEL:D31

Occupational change and mobility among employed and unemployed job seekers
Date:2011-10-10
By:Longhi, Simonetta
Taylor, Mark P.
URL:http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2011-25&r=ltv
We use data from the Labour Force Survey to show that employed and unemployed job seekers in Great Britain originate from different occupations and find jobs in different occupations. We find substantial differences in occupational mobility between job seekers: employed job seekers are most likely to move to occupations paying higher average wages relative to their previous occupation, while unemployed job seekers are most likely to move to lower paying occupations. Employed and unemployed job seekers exhibit different patterns of occupational mobility and, therefore, do not accept the same types of jobs.

Pro-poor trade policy in Sub-Saharan Africa
Date:2011-10
By:Nicita, Alessandro
Olarreaga, Marcelo
Porto, Guido
URL:http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8594&r=ltv
The objective of this paper is to estimate the potential pro-poor bias in the existing structure of protection in six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) (i.e., whether it redistributes income from rich to poor households). We also explore the extent to which the barriers faced by SSA exporters to the rest of the world are biased in favor of poor or rich households. To this end, we start with a simple agricultural household production model and propose an extension to include adjustments in labor income associated with changes in unskilled and skilled wages. We then build indicators that capture the differences in welfare changes across income levels associated with the elimination of SSA’s own trade protection, as well as trade protection on SSA’s export bundle by the rest of the world. Results suggest that SSA’s own trade policy is biased in favor of poor households. In contrast, the trade policies of SSA’s trading partners tend to be biased in favor of SSA’s rich households, especially when ad-valorem equivalents of non tariff measures (NTMs) are taken into account.
Keywords:Poverty; Sub-Saharan Africa; Trade policy; Wage elasticities
JEL:F13

The Disappearing Gender Gap: The Impact of Divorce, Wages, and Preferences on Education Choices and Women’s Work
Date:2011-10
By:Raquel Fernández
Joyce Cheng Wong
URL:http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17508&r=ltv
Women born in 1935 went to college significantly less than their male counterparts and married women’s labor force participation (LFP) averaged 40% between the ages of thirty and forty. The cohort born twenty years later behaved very differently. The education gender gap was eliminated and married women’s LFP averaged 70% over the same ages. In order to evaluate the quantitative contributions of the many significant changes in the economic environment, family structure, and social norms that occurred over this period, this paper develops a dynamic life-cycle model calibrated to data relevant to the 1935 cohort. We find that the higher probability of divorce and the changes in wage structure faced by the 1955 cohort are each able to explain, in isolation, a large proportion (about 60%) of the observed changes in female LFP. After combining all economic and family structure changes, we find that a simple change in preferences towards work can account for the remaining change in LFP. To eliminate the education gender gap requires, on the other hand, for the psychic cost of obtaining higher education to change asymmetrically for women versus men.
JEL:D91

General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Life-Cycle
Date:2011-10
By:Eric A. Hanushek
Ludger Woessmann
Lei Zhang
URL:http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17504&r=ltv
Policy debates about the balance of vocational and general education programs focus on the school-to-work transition. But with rapid technological change, gains in youth employment from vocational education may be offset by less adaptability and thus diminished employment later in life. To test our main hypothesis that any relative labor-market advantage of vocational education decreases with age, we employ a difference-in-differences approach that compares employment rates across different ages for people with general and vocational education. Using micro data for 18 countries from the International Adult Literacy Survey, we find strong support for the existence of such a trade-off, which is most pronounced in countries emphasizing apprenticeship programs. Results are robust to accounting for ability patterns and to propensity-score matching.
JEL:I20

Teaching Practices and Social Capital
Date:2011-10
By:Yann Algan
Pierre Cahuc
Andrei Shleifer
URL:http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17527&r=ltv
We use several data sets to consider the effect of teaching practices on student beliefs, as well as on organization of firms and institutions. In cross-country data, we show that teaching practices (such as copying from the board versus working on projects together) are strongly related to various dimensions of social capital, from beliefs in cooperation to institutional outcomes. We then use micro-data to investigate the influence of teaching practices on student beliefs about cooperation both with each other and with teachers, and students’ involvement in civic life. A two-stage least square strategy provides evidence that teaching practices have an independent sizeable effect on student social capital. The relationship between teaching practices and student test performance is nonlinear. The evidence supports the idea that progressive education promotes social capital.
JEL:I2

This nep–ltv issue is ©2011 by Maximo Rossi. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, it must include this copyright notice. It may not be sold, or placed in something else for sale.

General information on the NEP project can be found at http://nep.repec.org/. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novareseat .

_______________________________________________
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.

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Violence Vanquished

We believe our world is riddled with terror and war, but we may be living in the most peaceable era in human existence. Steven Pinker on why brutality is declining and empathy is on the rise. Adapted from The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.

Enlace: online.wsj.com

***************************************************************************************      Who is the typical client for a witch?

Freakonomics » The Folly of Prediction: Full Transcript

www.freakonomics.com

 ***************************************************************************************

I Know I love my wife

Freakonomics » How I Know I Love My Wife

www.freakonomics.com

*****************************************************************************************

Economists in Love: Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers

http://www.spousonomics.com/2343/2011/03/economists-in-love-betsey-stevenson-and-justin-wolfers/

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NEP: New Economics Papers Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty Issue date: 2011-09-22

Edited by: Maximo Rossi

Universidad de la Republica

To sign off this list, go to http://lists.repec.org/mailman/options/nep-ltv

In this issue we have:

Measuring Poverty Without The Mortality Paradox
Mathieu Lefebvre; Pierre Pestieau; Grégory Ponthière

Happiness, Habits and High Rank: Comparisons in Economic and Social Life
Clark, Andrew E.

Women’s Age at First Marriage and Marital Instability: Evidence from the 2006-2008 National Survey of Family Growth
Lehrer, Evelyn L.; Chen, Yu

Accounting for changes in the Spanish wage distribution: the role of employment Composition effects
Raquel Carrasco; Juan F. Jimeno; A. Carolina Ortega

Religiosity as a determinant of happiness
Erich Gundlach; Matthias Opfinger

Polarization and the Middle Class
Fernando Borraz; Nicolás Gonzalez Pampillón; Máximo Rossi

Contents.

Measuring Poverty Without The Mortality Paradox
Date: 2011-09
By: Mathieu Lefebvre (CREPP – Center of Research in Public Economics and Population Economics – Université de Liège)
Pierre Pestieau (CREPP – Center of Research in Public Economics and Population Economics – Université de Liège, PSE – Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques – CNRS : UMR8545 – Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) – Ecole des Ponts ParisTech – Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris – ENS Paris – INRA, EEP-PSE – Ecole d’Économie de Paris – Paris School of Economics – Ecole d’Économie de Paris, CORE – Center of Operation Research and Econometrics [Louvain] – Université Catholique de Louvain, CEPR – Center for Economic Policy Research – CEPR)
Grégory Ponthière (PSE – Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques – CNRS : UMR8545 – Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) – Ecole des Ponts ParisTech – Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris – ENS Paris – INRA, EEP-PSE – Ecole d’Économie de Paris – Paris School of Economics – Ecole d’Économie de Paris)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-00622325&r=ltv
Under income-differentiated mortality, poverty measures reflect not only the “true” poverty, but, also, the interferences or noise caused by the survival process at work. Such interferences lead to the Mortality Paradox: the worse the survival conditions of the poor are, the lower the measured poverty is. We examine several solutions to avoid that paradox. We identify conditions under which the extension, by means of a fictitious income, of lifetime income profiles of the prematurely dead neutralizes the noise due to differential mortality. Then, to account not only for the “missing” poor, but, also, for the “hidden” poverty (premature death), we use, as a fictitious income, the welfare-neutral income, making indifferent between life continuation and death. The robustness of poverty measures to the extension technique is illustrated with regional Belgian data.
Keywords: premature mortality ; income-differentiated mortality ; poverty measurement ; censored income profile

Happiness, Habits and High Rank: Comparisons in Economic and Social Life
Date: 2011-09
By: Clark, Andrew E. (Paris School of Economics)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5966&r=ltv
The role of money in producing sustained subjective well-being seems to be seriously compromised by social comparisons and habituation. But does that necessarily mean that we would be better off doing something else instead? This paper suggests that the phenomena of comparison and habituation are actually found in a considerable variety of economic and social activities, rendering conclusions regarding well-being policy less straightforward.
Keywords: comparison, habituation, income, unemployment, marriage, divorce, health, religion, policy
JEL: D01

Women’s Age at First Marriage and Marital Instability: Evidence from the 2006-2008 National Survey of Family Growth
Date: 2011-09
By: Lehrer, Evelyn L. (University of Illinois at Chicago)
Chen, Yu (University of Illinois at Chicago)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5954&r=ltv
One of the most salient demographic trends in the U.S. landscape in recent decades has been the pronounced increase in age at first marriage. This paper examines the implications of women’s delayed entry to marriage for marital stability using data from the 2006-2008 National Survey of Family Growth. The main finding is that the association between age at marriage and marital instability without holding constant the couple’s characteristics at marriage is negative up to the late twenties, with the curve leveling off thereafter. Women who marry in the late twenties and thirties generally enter unconventional matches (e.g., the husband is more likely to have been married before, and to be younger than the wife by three years or more), suggestive of a “poor match” emerging as the biological clock begins to tick. However, the flattening out of the curve beyond the late twenties suggests that the stabilizing influence associated with greater maturity at older ages is strong enough to cancel out the poor match effect.
Keywords: divorce, marriage dissolution, marital instability, marriage
JEL: J12

Accounting for changes in the Spanish wage distribution: the role of employment Composition effects
Date: 2011-09
By: Raquel Carrasco (Universidad Carlos III)
Juan F. Jimeno (Banco de España)
A. Carolina Ortega (Universidad Nacional de Tucumán)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:1120&r=ltv
Despite a rapid decrease in unemployment and strong GDP and employment growth, real wages barely increased in Spain over the period 1995-2006. An explanation of this lack of growth may rely on employment composition effects derived from structural changes, such as the rise in the weights of employment in the construction and services sectors, the increase in female employment participation, and the arrival of large immigration inflows. Using data from three waves of the Structure of Earnings Survey, we break down observed wage changes into those due to varying worker and job characteristics and variations of the returns to those characteristics. Quantile regressions are used to estimate wage equations at different percentiles and to construct the counterfactual wage distributions that would have been observed had individual and job characteristics remain constant over time. Our main finding is that the lack of growth of Spanish real wages over the period 1995-2006 is mainly due to the decrease of returns to characteristics, specially education and labour market experience, which is more noticeable at the upper deciles of the wage distribution, and not to changes in employment composition, which when taken over a wide set of worker and job characteristics, had positive effects on wages.
Keywords: keyword, Wage structure, quantile regressions, composition effects
JEL: J31

Religiosity as a determinant of happiness
Date: 2011-04
By: Erich Gundlach
Matthias Opfinger
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gig:wpaper:163&r=ltv
We find a U-shaped relation between happiness and religiosity in cross-country panel data after controlling for income levels. At a given level of income, the same level of happiness can be reached with high and low levels of religiosity, but not with intermediate levels. A rise in income causes an increase in happiness along with a decline of religiosity. Our interpretation of the empirical results is that the indifference curves for religiosity and other commodities of the utility function are hump-shaped.
Keywords: Happiness, religiosity, utility function, long-run development

Polarization and the Middle Class
Date: 2011-08
By: Fernando Borraz (Banco Central del Uruguay y Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República)
Nicolás Gonzalez Pampillón (Universidad de Montevideo)
Máximo Rossi (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:2011&r=ltv
There is an increasing literature that discusses how to measure the middle class. Some approaches are based on an arbitrary deÖnition such as income quartiles or the poverty line. Recently, Foster and Wolfson developed a methodology which lacks of arbitrariness that enables us to compare the middle class of two di§erent income distributions. We apply this new tool jointly with a complementary method ñrelative distribution approach- to household income data in 1994-2004 and 2004-2010, to analyze the evolution of the middle class and polarization in Uruguay. During the Örst period, which is characterized by an increasing income inequality, we Önd that the middle class declined and income polarization increased. In the second one, where the Uruguayan economy experienced a recovery from the downturn su§ered in 2002, we Önd that the middle class rose and polarization decreased. However, this last result is attenuated when we do not consider the household income imputation because of the new health system implemented in 2008.
Keywords: income polarization, middle class, inequality, social policies, bipolarization
JEL: D3

This nep–ltv issue is ©2011 by Maximo Rossi. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, it must include this copyright notice. It may not be sold, or placed in something else for sale.

General information on the NEP project can be found at http://nep.repec.org/. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at .

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Teachers’ Salaries in Latin America: How Much Are They (Under or Over) Paid?

By: Mizala, Alejandra (University of Chile) and Nopo, Hugo (Inter-American Development Bank)

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5947&r=ltv

This paper documents the extent to which teachers are underpaid vis-à-vis workers in other professional and technical occupations in Latin America circa 2007. These labor earnings differences, attributed to observable socio-demographic and job characteristics, are assessed using a matching methodology (Ñopo, 2008). Teachers’ underpayment is found to be stronger than what has been previously reported in the literature, especially among pre-school and primary teachers. Nonetheless, behind the region averages there is an important cross-country heterogeneity. Teachers’ underpayment is more pronounced among males, older workers, household heads, part-timers, formal workers, those who work in the private sector, and (mostly) among those with complete tertiary education. Two amenities of the teaching profession, namely the longer job tenure and the flexible job schedules within the year, are also explored. Even after accounting for the possible compensating differentials of these two amenities, teachers’ underpayment vis-à-vis that of other professional and technicians prevail.

Keywords: wage differentials, professional labor markets, Latin America

JEL: J31

NEP: New Economics Papers Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty Issue date: 2011-08-29

Edited by: Maximo Rossi

Universidad de la Republica

To sign off this list, go to http://lists.repec.org/mailman/options/nep-ltv

In this issue we have:

Finance and Income Inequality: What Do the Data Tell Us?
George R. G. Clarke; Lixin Colin Xu; Heng-fu Zou

Can Compulsory Military Service Raise Civilian Wages? Evidence from the Peacetime Draft in Portugal
Card, David; Cardoso, Ana Rute

Inequality and poverty under Latin America’s new left regimes
Darryl McLeod; Nora Lustig

An integrated approach for the measurement of inequality, poverty, and richness
Nuno Crespo; Sandrina Berthault Moreira; Nádia Simões

Multidimensional indices of achievements and poverty: What do we gain and what do we lose?
Nora Lustig

The decline in inequality in Latin America: How much, since when and why
Nora Lustig; Luis Felipe Lopez-Calva; Eduardo Ortiz-Juarez

Commitment to Equity Assessment (CEQ). A diagnostic framework to assess governments’ fiscal policies. Handbook
Nora Lustig

The rise and fall of income inequality in Latin America
Leonardo Gasparini; Nora Lustig

Are Conditional Cash Transfers Effective in Urban Areas? Evidence from Mexico
Jere R. Behrman; Jorge Gallardo-Garcia; Susan W. Parker; Petra E. Todd; Viviana Velez-Grajales

Explaining Charter School Effectiveness
Joshua D. Angrist; Parag A. Pathak; Christopher R. Walters

“Beauty Is the Promise of Happiness”?
Daniel S. Hamermesh; Jason Abrevaya

Contents.

Finance and Income Inequality: What Do the Data Tell Us?
Date: 2011
By: George R. G. Clarke (Research Department, World Bank)
Lixin Colin Xu (Research Department, World Bank)
Heng-fu Zou (Research Department, World Bank)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cuf:wpaper:489&r=ltv
Although there are distinct conjectures about the relationship between finance and income inequality, little empirical research compares their explanatory power. We examine the relationship between finance and income inequality for 83 countries between 1960 and 1995. Because financial development might be endogenous, we use instruments from the literature on law, finance, and growth to control for this. Our results suggest that, in the long run, inequality is less when financial development is greater, consistent with Galor and Zeira (1993) and Banerjee and Newman (1993). Although the results also suggest that inequality might increase as financial sector development increases at very low levels of financial sector development, as suggested by Greenwood and Jovanovic (1990), this result is not robust. We reject the hypothesis that financial development benefits only the rich. Our results thus suggest that in addition to improving growth, financial development also reduces inequality.
JEL: D3

Can Compulsory Military Service Raise Civilian Wages? Evidence from the Peacetime Draft in Portugal
Date: 2011-08
By: Card, David (University of California, Berkeley)
Cardoso, Ana Rute (IAE Barcelona (CSIC))
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5915&r=ltv
Although the practice of military conscription was widespread during most of the past century, credible evidence on the effects of mandatory service is limited. Angrist (1990) showed that the Vietnam-era draft in the U.S. lowered the early-career wages of conscripts, a finding he attributed to the low value of military experience. More recent studies have found a mixed pattern of effects, with both negative (the Netherlands) and positive (in Sweden) earnings impacts. Even among Vietnam era draftees, Angrist and Chen (2011) find that the net effect on earnings by age 50 is close to zero. We provide new evidence on the long-term impacts of peacetime conscription in a “low education” labor market, using longitudinal data for Portuguese men born in 1967. These men were inducted at a relatively late age (21), allowing us to use pre- conscription wages as a control for potential ability differences between conscripts and non- conscripts. Our estimates of the average impact of military service for men who had entered the labor market by age 21 are slightly positive (1-2 percent) but not significantly different from zero throughout the period from 2 to 20 years after their service. These small average effects arise from a significantly positive later-life impact for men with only primary education, coupled with a zero-effect for men with higher education. The positive impacts for less-educated men suggest that mandatory service can be a valuable experience for poorly-educated men who might otherwise spend their careers in low-level jobs.
Keywords: military conscription, longitudinal earnings, quasi-differences, sensitivity analysis
JEL: J31

Inequality and poverty under Latin America’s new left regimes
Date: 2011
By: Darryl McLeod (Fordham University)
Nora Lustig (Tulane University and Center for Global Development)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2011-208&r=ltv
Inequality and poverty fell sharply in many Latin American countries during a decade in which voters in ten countries chose left-leaning leaders. Are these developments related? Using data for 18 Latin American countries, this paper presents econometric evidence that social democratic regimes in Brazil and Chile were more successful at reducing inequality and poverty than the so-called populist regimes of Argentina, Bolivia, and Venezuela. Both groups implemented policies to redistribute income, but the social democratic regimes’ efforts were more effective. The left populists regimes such as Argentina and Venezuela started the 1990-2008 sample window with lower levels of inequality, so to some extent recent reductions in inequality are a return to “normal” levels (as estimated by fixed effects). Conversely, inequality and poverty in Brazil and Chile fell to historic lows. Moreover, overall terms of trade shocks were more favorable to Argentina and Venezuela, so part of the drop in inequality can be attributed to commodity price booms.
Keywords: inequality, poverty, social policy, new left, Latin America.
JEL: D31

An integrated approach for the measurement of inequality, poverty, and richness
Date: 2011
By: Nuno Crespo (Lisbon University Institute and UNIDE – Economics Research Center)
Sandrina Berthault Moreira (Polytechnic Institute of Setubal and UNIDE – Economics Research Center)
Nádia Simões (Lisbon University Institute and UNIDE – Economics Research Center)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2011-205&r=ltv
We propose a new and integrated approach to the measurement of inequality in income distribution, poverty, and richness. The proposed broad set of indicators is neutral and easy to calculate. The method allows a specific interpretation of the results, a decomposition according to households’ characteristics, and an immediate comparison of the results between different countries and time periods. We illustrate the application of the proposed measures and their decomposition based on evidence from Portugal. In addition, we characterize households in accordance with their position in the income distribution.
Keywords: income inequality, poverty, richness, measurement.
JEL: D30

Multidimensional indices of achievements and poverty: What do we gain and what do we lose?
Date: 2011
By: Nora Lustig (Tulane University and Center for Global Development)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2011-210&r=ltv
Poverty and wellbeing are multi-dimensional. Nobody questions that deprivations and achievements go beyond income. There is, however, sharp disagreement on whether the various dimensions of poverty and wellbeing can be aggregated into a single, multi-dimensional index in a meaningful way. Is aggregating dimensions of poverty and wellbeing useful? Is it sensible? Here I summarize and contrast three key papers that respond these questions in strikingly different ways. The papers are: The HDI 2010: New Controversies, Old Critiques by Jeni Klugman, Francisco Rodríguez and Hyung-Jin Choi; Understandings and Misunderstandings of Multidimensional Poverty Measurement by Sabina Alkire and James Foster; and, On Multidimensional Indices of Poverty by Martin Ravallion.
Keywords: poverty measurement, multidimensional poverty, deprivation, axioms, Human Development Index, capabilities, substitutability, trade-offs, welfare, country classifications
JEL: D63

The decline in inequality in Latin America: How much, since when and why
Date: 2011
By: Nora Lustig (Tulane University and Center for Global Development)
Luis Felipe Lopez-Calva (World Bank)
Eduardo Ortiz-Juarez (RBLAC-UNDP)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2011-211&r=ltv
Between 2000 and 2009, the Gini coefficient declined in 13 of 17 Latin American countries for which comparable data exist. The decline was statistically significant and robust to changes in the time interval, inequality measures and data sources. In depth country studies for Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Peru suggest that there are two phenomena which underlie this trend: (i) a fall in the premium to skilled labor (as measured by returns to education); and (ii) higher and more progressive government transfers. The fall in the premium to skills results from a combination of supply and demand factors and, in Argentina—and to a lesser extent in Brazil–, from more active labor market policies as well.
Keywords: Income inequality, wage gap, government transfers, Latin America.
JEL: D31

Commitment to Equity Assessment (CEQ). A diagnostic framework to assess governments’ fiscal policies. Handbook
Date: 2011
By: Nora Lustig (Tulane University and Center for Global Development)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2011-212&r=ltv
Fiscal policy can change poverty and inequality substantially or slightly depending on the government’s redistributive effort. We develop a diagnostic framework to assess how aligned fiscal policies are with supporting a minimum living standard and human capital accumulation, as well as with reducing inequality. The Commitment to Equity Assessment (CEQ) evaluates efforts based on whether governments: i. collect and allocate enough resources to support a minimum living standard for all; ii. collect and distribute resources equitably; iii. ensure that spending is fiscally sustainable and that programs are of good quality and incentive compatible; iv. collect and publish relevant information, as well as are subject to independent evaluations. CEQ relies on inequality, poverty and tax and benefit incidence analyses.
Keywords: poverty, inequality, fiscal incidence, social policy, Latin America.
JEL: D31

The rise and fall of income inequality in Latin America
Date: 2011
By: Leonardo Gasparini (CEDLAS, Universidad de La Plata)
Nora Lustig (Tulane University and Center for Global Development)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2011-213&r=ltv
JEL: D31

Are Conditional Cash Transfers Effective in Urban Areas? Evidence from Mexico
Date: 2011-08-01
By: Jere R. Behrman (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania)
Jorge Gallardo-Garcia (Bates White Consulting, Wash DC)
Susan W. Parker (División de Economía, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas – CIDE)
Petra E. Todd (Department of Economics. University of Pennsylvania)
Viviana Velez-Grajales (Inter-American Development Bank, IDB Headquarters, Wash DC)
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pen:papers:11-024&r=ltv
Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs have spread worldwide as a new form of social assistance for the poor. Previous evaluations of CCT programs focus mainly on rural settings, and little is known about their effects in urban areas. This paper studies the short-term (one and two-year) effects of the Mexican Oportunidades CCT program on urban children/youth. The program provides financial incentives for children/youth to attend school and for family members to visit health clinics. To participate, families had to sign up for the program and be deemed eligible. Difference-in-difference propensity score matching estimates indicate that the program is successful in increasing school enrollment, schooling attainment and time devoted to homework and in decreasing working rates of boys.
Keywords: conditional cash transfer programs, matching estimators, program evaluation
JEL: I21

Explaining Charter School Effectiveness
Date: 2011-08
By: Joshua D. Angrist
Parag A. Pathak
Christopher R. Walters
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17332&r=ltv
Estimates using admissions lotteries suggest that urban charter schools boost student achievement, while charter schools in other settings do not. We explore student-level and school-level explanations for these differences using a large sample of Massachusetts charter schools. Our results show that urban charter schools boost achievement well beyond ambient non-charter levels (that is, the average achievement level for urban non-charter students), and beyond non-urban achievement in math. Student demographics explain some of these gains since urban charters are most effective for non-whites and low-baseline achievers. At the same time, non-urban charter schools are uniformly ineffective. Our estimates also reveal important school-level heterogeneity in the urban charter sample. A non-lottery analysis suggests that urban schools with binding, well-documented admissions lotteries generate larger score gains than under-subscribed urban charter schools with poor lottery records. We link the magnitude of charter impacts to distinctive pedagogical features of urban charters such as the length of the school day and school philosophy. The relative effectiveness of urban lottery-sample charters is accounted for by over-subscribed urban schools’ embrace of the No Excuses approach to education.
JEL: H75

“Beauty Is the Promise of Happiness”?
Date: 2011-08
By: Daniel S. Hamermesh
Jason Abrevaya
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17327&r=ltv
We measure the impact of individuals’ looks on life satisfaction/happiness. Using five data sets, from the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Germany, we construct beauty measures in different ways that allow placing lower bounds on the effects of beauty. Beauty raises happiness: A one standard-deviation change in beauty generates about 0.10 standard deviations of additional satisfaction/happiness among men, 0.12 among women. Accounting for a wide variety of covariates, particularly effects in the labor and marriage markets, including those that might be affected by differences in beauty, the impact among men is more than halved, among women slightly less than halved.
JEL: C20
This nep–ltv issue is ©2011 by Maximo Rossi. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, it must include this copyright notice. It may not be sold, or placed in something else for sale.
General information on the NEP project can be found at http://nep.repec.org/. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at < director @ nep point repec point org >.

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Cafe Montevideo

Supply, Demand and Marriage By Robert H. Frank
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/business/economy/marriage-and-the-law-of-supply-and-demand.html?ref=economy Shang-Jin Wei & Xiaobo Zhang, 2011. "Sex Ratios, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Growth in the People’s Republic of China," NBER Working Papers 16800, National Bureau of Economic Research.

The Economist´s Guide to Parenting
By Stephen J. Dubner

http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/06/16/freakonomics-radio-hour-long-episode-2-%E2%80%9Cthe-economists-guide-to-parenting%E2%80%9D/

Don´t Shoot the Messenger

http://lisa92859.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/dont-shoot-the-messenger/

dECON: Boletin No. 16 Agosto 2011

http://www.fcs.edu.uy/archivos/boletin16_Agosto_dECON.pdf