DeFina, Robert H. and Kishor, Thanawala. "International Evidence on the Impact of Transfers and Taxes on Alternative Poverty Indexes." No. 325. Abstract: Changes in the headcount rate are the standard metric for gauging how public transfers and taxes affect poverty. An alternative strategy, one theoretically more appealing and complete, is to rely on distribution-sensitive indexes [Sen (1976, 1981)]. How would policy's measured impacts change if such an approach were to be used? This study provides new empirical evidence based on Luxembourg Income Study data for seventeen countries covering various years between 1969 and 1997. Poverty is measured using three indexes from the class developed by Foster, Greer, and Thorbecke (1984), one of which is the headcount rate. Estimates of the policy impacts are obtained by computing index values with before- and after-policy income. Evidence is also provided on the determinants of cross-country differences in index values and policy effectiveness, and on the extent to which variations in the different indexes are correlated with those in the United Nations Human Development Index. http://www.lisproject.org/publications/wpapersg.htm
Feichtinger, Gustav, Alexia Prskawetz and Vladimir M. Veliov. "Age-structured optimal control in population economics." WP-2002-045. Abstract: This paper brings both intertemporal and age-dependent features to a theory of population policy at the macro-level. A Lotkatype renewal model of population dynamics is combined with a Solow/Ramsey economy. By using a new maximum principle for distributed parameter control we derive meaningful qualitative results for the optimal migration path and the optimal saving rate. http://www.demogr.mpg.de/?http://www.demogr.mpg.de/Publications/working.htm
Diekmann, A. and Henriette Engelhardt. "Alter der Kinder bei Ehescheidung der Eltern und soziale Vererbung des Scheidungsrisikos." WP-2002-044. English translation of title: Age of children at time of parental divorce and the the social inheritance of divorce risk. http://www.demogr.mpg.de/?http://www.demogr.mpg.de/Publications/working.htm
Vaupel, James W. "Post-Darwinian Longevity." WP-2002-043. http://www.demogr.mpg.de/?http://www.demogr.mpg.de/Publications/working.htm
Vaupel, James W. and Vladimir Canudas Romo. "Decomposing change in life expectancy: a bouquet of formulas in honour of Nathan Keyfitz´s 90th birthday." WP-2002-042. http://www.demogr.mpg.de/?http://www.demogr.mpg.de/Publications/working.htm
Klumb, Petra L. and Heiner Maier. "Daily activities and survival at older ages." WP-2002-041. Abstract: This study tested the hypothesis that time spent on regenerative (e.g., resting), productive (e.g., housework), and consumptive activities (e.g., meeting friends) is associated with survival in persons aged 70 and older. An observational study with semi-annual mortality follow-ups was carried out in the former West Berlin, Germany. The sample was stratified by age and sex and consisted of 473 persons aged 70 to 103 years. Study participants lived in the community as well as in institutions. Activity measures were assessed in 1990-1993 by structured interviews in the participants´ homes. Cox regression was used to model survival from time of interview. The main outcome measure was survival on 3 February 2000. Consumptive activities were related to survival (relative risk = 0.76, 95% confidence interval 0.58 to 1.00) after several confounding factors were controlled for. There were indications that the greatest survival benefit is achieved with a medium amount of time devoted to consumptive activities. Our results support the idea that daily activities are linked to survival via a psychosocial pathway, which might involve perceived quality of life. Consumptive activities (e.g., meeting friends, reading a novel) may contribute considerably to maintaining health and achieving longevity, because they are performed on a daily basis and their effects may accumulate over the life course. http://www.demogr.mpg.de/?http://www.demogr.mpg.de/Publications/working.htm
Sacerdote, Bruce. "Slavery and the Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital." NBER Working Paper No.w9227. Abstract: How much do sins visited upon one generation harm that generation's future sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters? I study this question by comparing outcomes for former slaves and their children and grandchildren to outcomes for free blacks (pre-1865), and their children and grandchildren. The outcome measures include literacy, whether a child attends school, whether a child lives in a female headed household, and two measures of adult occupation. Using a variety of different comparisons, (e.g. within versus across regions) I find that it took roughly two generations for the descendants of slaves to catch up' to the descendants of free black men and women. This finding is consistent with modern estimates and interpretations of father-son correlations in income and socioeconomic status. The data used are from the 1880 and 1920 1 percent (IPUMS) samples, a 100 percent sample of the 1880 Census and a smaller data set in which I link families in the 1920 IPUMS back to the father's family in a 100% sample of the 1880 Census. These latter data sets are derived from an electronic version of the 1880 Census recently compiled and released by the Mormon Church with assistance from the Minnesota Population Center. http://www.nber.org/new.html#latest
Gentry, William M. and R. Glenn Hubbard. "The Effects of Progressive Income Taxation on Job Turnover." Working Paper No.w9226. Abstract: We examine whether the level of the income tax rate and the convexity of the income tax schedule affect job mobility, as measured by moving to a better job. While the predicted effect of the level of the tax rate is ambiguous, we predict that an increase in the convexity of the tax schedule decreases job search activity by taxing away some of the benefits of a successful job search. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we estimate that both higher tax rates and increased tax rate progressivity decrease the probability that a head of household will move to a better job during the coming year. Our estimates imply that a five-percentage-point reduction in the marginal tax rate increases the average probability of moving to a better job by 0.79 percentage points (a 8.0 percent increase in the turnover propensity) and that a onestandard- deviation in our measure of tax progressivity would increase this probability by 0.86 percentage points (a 8.7 percent increase in the turnover propensity). http://www.nber.org/new.html#latest
Grossman, Michael, Robert Kaestner, and Sara Markowitz. "Get High and Get Stupid: The Effect of Alcohol and Marijuana Use on Teen Sexual Behavior." Working Paper No.w9216. Abstract: Numerous studies have documented a strong correlation between substance use and teen sexual behavior, and this empirical relationship has given rise to a widespread belief that substance use causes teens to engage in risky sex. This causal link is often used by advocates to justify policies targeted at reducing substance use. Here, we argue that previous research has not produced sufficient evidence to substantiate a causal relationship between substance use and teen sexual behavior. Accordingly, we attempt to estimate causal effects using two complementary research approaches. Our findings suggest that substance use is not causally related to teen sexual behavior, although we cannot definitively rule out that possibility. http://www.nber.org/new.html#latest
Case, Anne, Christina Paxson, and Joseph Ableidinger. "Orphans in Africa." Working Paper No.w9213. Abstract: We examine the impact of orphanage on the living arrangements and school enrollment of children in Sub-Saharan Africa, using data from 19 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted in 10 countries between 1992 and 2000. We find that orphans in Africa on average live in poorer households than non-orphans, and are significantly less likely than non-orphans to be enrolled in school. However, orphans' lower school enrollment is not explained by their poverty: orphans are equally less likely to be enrolled in school relative both to non-orphans as a group and to the non-orphans with whom they live. Consistent with the predictions of Hamilton's Rule, we find that outcomes for orphans depend largely on the degree of relatedness of the orphan to the household head. Children living in households headed by non-parental relatives fare systematically worse than those living with parental heads, and those living in households headed by nonrelatives fare worse still. Much of the gap between the schooling of orphans and non-orphans is explained by the greater tendency of orphans to live with more distant relatives or unrelated caregivers. http://www.nber.org/new.html#latest
Aizer, Anna and Janet Currie. "Networks or Neighborhoods? Correlations in the Use of Publicly-Funded Maternity Care in California." NBER Working Paper No.w9209. Abstract: This study focuses on network effects' in the utilization of publicly funded prenatal care using Vital Statistics data from California for 1989 to 2000. Networks are defined using 5-digit zipcodes and a woman's racial or ethnic group. Like others, we find evidence that the use of public programs is highly correlated within groups defined using race/ethnicity and neighborhoods. These correlations persist even when we control for many unobserved characteristics by including zipcode-year fixed effects, and when we focus on the interaction between own group behavior and measures of the potential for contacts with other members of the group ( contact availability'). However, the richness of our data allows us to go further and to conduct several tests of one hypothesis about networks: That the estimated effects represent information sharing within groups. The results cast doubt on the idea that the observed correlations can be interpreted as evidence of information sharing, and point instead to differences in the behavior of the institutions serving different groups of low-income women as the primary explanation for group-level differences in the take-up of this important public program. http://www.nber.org/new.html#latest
Dirk Krueger, Fabrizio Perri. "Does Income Inequality Lead to Consumption Inequality? Evidence and Theory." NBER Working Paper No.w9202. Abstract: This paper first documents the evolution of the cross-sectional income and consumption distribution in the US in the past 25 years. Using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey we find that a rising income inequality has not been accompanied by a corresponding rise in consumption inequality. Over the period from 1972 to 1998 the standard deviation of the log of after-tax labor income has increased by 20% while the standard deviation of log consumption has increased less than 2%. Furthermore income inequality has increased both between and within education groups while consumption inequality has increased between education groups but mildly declined within groups. We then argue that these empirical findings are consistent with the hypothesis that an increase in income volatility has been an important cause of the increase in income inequality, but at the same time has lead to an endogenous development of credit markets, allowing households to better smooth their consumption against idiosyncratic income fluctuations. We develop a consumption model in which the sharing of income risk is limited by imperfect enforcement of credit contracts and in which the development of financial markets depends on the volatility of the individual income process. This model is shown to be quantitatively consistent with the joint evolution of income and consumption inequality in US, while other commonly used consumption models are not. http://www.nber.org/new.html#latest
Evans, William N. and Julie H. Topoleski. "The Social and Economic Impact of Native American Casinos." NBER Working Paper No.w9198. Abstract: In the late 1980s, a series of legal rulings favorable to tribes and the subsequent passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 legalized gaming operations on reservations in many states. Today, there are over 310 gaming operations run by more than 200 of the nations' 556 federally-recognized tribes. Of these operations, about 220 are Las Vegas' style casinos with slot machines and/or table games. We use a simple difference-in-difference framework where we compare economic outcomes before and after tribes open casinos to outcomes over the same period for tribes that do not adopt or are prohibited from adopting gaming. Four years after tribes open casinos, employment has increased by 26 percent, and tribal population has increased by about 12 percent, resulting in an increase in employment to population ratios of five percentage points or about 12 percent. The fraction of adults who work but are poor has declined by 14 percent. Tribal gaming operations seem to have both positive and negative spillovers in the surrounding communities. In counties where an Indian-owned casino opens, we find that jobs per adult increase by about five percent of the median value. Given the size of tribes relative to their counties, most of this growth in employment is due to growth in non-Native American employment. The increase in economic activity appears to have some health benefits in that four or more years after a casino opens, mortality has fallen by 2 percent in a county with a casino and an amount half that in counties near a casino. Casinos do, however, come at some cost. Four years after a casino opens, bankruptcy rates, violent crime, and auto thefts and larceny are up 10 percent in counties with a casino. http://www.nber.org/new.html#latest
Snyder, Stephen E. and William N. Evans. "The Impact of Income on Mortality: Evidence from the Social Security Notch." NBER Working Paper No.w9197. Abstract: There is widespread and longstanding agreement that life expectancy and income are positively correlated. However, it has proven much more difficult to establish a causal relationship since income and health are jointly determined. We use a major change in the Social Security law as exogenous variation in income to examine the impact of income on mortality in an elderly population. The legislation created a notch' in Social Security benefits based upon date of birth; those born before January 1, 1917 generally receive higher benefits than those born afterwards. We compare mortality rates after age 65 for males born in the second half of 1916 and the first half of 1917. Data from restricted-use versions of the National Mortality Detail File combined with Census data allows us to count all deaths among elderly Americans between 1979 and 1993. We find that the higher income group has a statistically significantly higher mortality rate, contradicting the previous literature. We also find that the younger cohort responded to lower incomes by increasing post-retirement work effort. These results suggest that moderate employment has beneficial health effects for the elderly. http://www.nber.org/new.html#latest
Charles, Kerwin Kofi and Melvin Stephens Jr. "Abortion Legalization and Adolescent Substance Use." NBER Working Paper No.w9193. Abstract: We assess whether in utero exposure to legalized abortion in the early 1970's affected individuals' propensities to use controlled substances as adolescents. We exploit the fact that some states legalized abortion before national legalization in 1973 to compare differences in substance use for adolescents across birth cohorts in different states. We find that persons exposed to early legalization were, on average, much less likely to use controlled substances. We also assess how substance use varies with state level birth rates and abortion ratios. Overall, our results suggest that legalization lowered substance use because of the selective use of abortion by relatively disadvantaged women. http://www.nber.org/new.html#latest
Lleras-Muney, Adriana and Frank R. Lichtenberg. "The Effect of Education on Medical Technology Adoption: Are the More Educated More Likely to Use New Drugs." NBER Working Paper No.w9193. Abstract: There is a large body of work that documents a strong, positive correlation between education and measures of health, but little is known about the mechanisms by which education might affect health. One possibility is that more educated individuals are more likely to adopt new medical technologies. We investigate this theory by asking whether more educated people are more likely to use newer drugs, while controlling for other individual characteristics, such as income and insurance status. Using the 1997 MEPS, we find that more highly educated people are more likely to use drugs more recently approved by the FDA. We find that education only matters for individuals who repeatedly purchase drugs for a given condition, suggesting that the more educated are better able to learn from experience. http://www.nber.org/new.html#latest
Abrego, Lisandro and John Whalley. "Decomposing Wage Inequality Change Using General Equilibrium Models." NBER Working Paper No.w9184. Abstract: This paper presents ex post decomposition analysis of wage inequality change using multi-sector general equilibrium models. The analytical structure used is a specific- factors model of trade, which we calibrate to UK data for the two years 1979 and 1975. We first calibrate our general equilibrium trade model to observations on wage inequality, trade, production and consumption spanning these years, capturing the separate influences of trade, technology and demographics on inequality. Between these years wage inequality changed, but multiple changes in exogenous variables occurred (world prices, technology, endowments). We use calibration techniques to determine parameter values consistent with both the equilibria and the changes in exogenous variables contributing to the wage inequality change being decomposed. We then compute counterfactual equilibria in which only some of the changes in exogenous variables are present to allow us to assess what portion of the observed change is attributable to the various contributing factors. Our findings are that the roles of trade and factor-biased technological change are relatively larger than in earlier literature. We also find that changes in factor endowments to offset increased inequality generated by trade and skilled-biased technological changes, a feature that seems to have gone relatively unnoticed in earlier literature. http://www.nber.org/new.html#latest
Mocan, H. Naci, Benjamin Scafidi, and Erdal Tekin. "Catholic Schools and Bad Behavior." NBER Working Paper No.w9172. Abstract: Although there is a sizeable literature of the effect of private school attendance on academic student outcomes, there is a dearth of studies of the impact of school sector on non-academic outcomes. Using a rich data set, we analyze the impact of Catholic school attendance on the likelihood that teens use or sell drugs, commit property crime, have sex, join gangs, attempt suicide, and run away from home. Controlling for a host of personal and family background characteristics and adjusting for the endogeneity of sector choice, we cannot find evidence that Catholic schooling leads to a lower incidence of these risky behaviors among teenagers. http://www.nber.org/new.html#latest
Glaeser, Edward L. "The Political Economy of Hatred." NBER Working Paper No.w9171. Abstract: What determines the intensity and objects of hatred? Hatred forms when people believe that out-groups are responsible for past and future crimes, but the reality of past crimes has little to do with the level of hatred. Instead, hatred is the result of an equilibrium where politicians supply stories of past atrocities in order to discredit the opposition and consumers listen to them. The supply of hatred is a function of the degree to which minorities gain or lose from particular party platforms, and as such, groups that are particularly poor or rich are likely to be hated. Strong constitutions that limit the policy space and ban specific anti-minority policies will limit hate. The demand for hatred falls if consumers interact regularly with the hated group, unless their interactions are primarily abusive. The power of hatred is so strong that opponents of hatred motivate their supporters by hating the haters. http://www.nber.org/new.html#latest
Yamada, Atsuhiro. "The Evolving Retirement Income Package: Trends in Adequacy and Equality in Nine OECD Countries." Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Paper No. 63. Abstract: This paper explores various questions related to the income situation of persons at retirement-age It is based on the most comprehensive data available for the nine participating countries (including, for the first time, Japanese data) in a consistent and comparative way. Recently developed techniques were employed to examine the interactions between the evolution of the retirement income package, and trends in income adequacy and equality. There are four main findings: first, persons at retirement age have similar income levels relative to the working-age population despite large differences in the composition of income packages across countries. Second, the income of persons at retirement age tends to be more equally distributed than that of the working-age population. Third, retirement income packages are diversified in terms of income source only among middle and upper-income groups. The composition of retirement income packages in the low-income groups has not changed much during recent decades. Fourth, the evolution of retirement income packages and changes of household structure, i.e. size and work attachment, have ambiguous effects on income inequality. Changing the shares of capital or income from work in the package can affect inequality in different ways. http://www.oecd.org/EN/documents/0,,EN-documents-0-nodirectorate-no-10-no-0,00.html
Tienda, Marta. "Demography and the Social Contract." Working Paper No.2002-04. Abstract: As the most demographically complex nation in the world, the United States faces ever more formidable challenges to fulfill its commitment to the democratic values of equity and inclusion as the foreign-born share of the population increases. Immigration, the major source of contemporary population diversification, provides several lessons about how to prepare for that future within a framework of social justice and how to realign recent demographic trends with cherished democratic principles. A review of historical and contemporary controversies about representation of the foreign born and alien suffrage both illustrates the re-emergence of ascriptive civic hierarchies and highlights some potentially deleterious social and civic consequences of recent demographic trends. http://opr.princeton.edu/papers/
Goldman, Noreen, I-fen Lin, Maxine Weinstein, and Yu-Hsuan Lin. "Evaluating the Quality of Self-Reports of Hypertension and Diabetes." Working paper No.2002-03. http://opr.princeton.edu/papers/
Cornman, Jennifer C., Noreen Goldman, Dana Glei, Maxine Weinstein, Ming-Cheng Chang. "Social Ties and Perceived Support: Two Dimensions of Social Relationships and Health Among the Elderly in Taiwan." Working paper No.2002-02. Abstract: Objectives: Assess the effects of social relationships on physical and mental health among the elderly in Taiwan. Methods: Using four waves of a survey of the elderly, we examine the relationship between social ties and perceived support and four health outcomes -- mortality, functional status, self-assessed health and depression. Results: Perceived support and social ties are related to health, but many of the apparent effects are attenuated in the presence of controls for prior health. However, positive perceptions about support are protective of mental (but not physical) health. Discussion: If baseline health is ignored, estimates of the effects of social relationships on health at a given stage of life are likely to be inflated by reverse causality or by effects occurring prior to baseline. Inclusion of controls for initial health reveals that, in general, the relationship between social support and health at the older ages in Taiwan is relatively modest. http://opr.princeton.edu/papers/
Glei, Dana, Noreen Goldman, and Germán Rodríguez. "Utilization of Care During Pregnancy in Rural Guatemala: Does Obstetrical Need Matters?" Working paper No.2002-01. Abstract: This study examines factors associated with the use of biomedical care during pregnancy in Guatemala, focusing on the extent to which complications in an ongoing or previous pregnancy affect a woman’s decisions to seek care. The findings, based on multilevel models, suggest that obstetrical need as well as demographic, social, and cultural factors are important predictors of pregnancy care. In contrast, measures of availability and access to health services have modest effects. The results also suggest the importance of unobserved variables – such as quality of care – in explaining women’s decisions about pregnancy care. http://opr.princeton.edu/papers/
Beckett, Megan and Anne R. Pebley. "Ethnicity, Language, and Economic Well-Being in Rural Guatemala." 02-05. Abstract: The authors examine ethnic differences in objective and perceived economic well-being in rural Guatemala. The evidence shows that long-standing ethnic differentials in objective indicators of household economic well-being actually widened between 1988 and 1995, a period characterized by rapid economic growth rates. The authors examine the effects of a major determinant of household economic well-being in rural Guatemala, educational attainment, in accounting for ethnic and language differentials in household consumption. The results show that returns to education appears to be substantially lower for indigenious households, especially indigenous households where the head of household does not speak Spanish. Ethnic differentials in perceived economic well-being do not strictly parallel differences in objective indicators of well-being. Indigenous women with any education are more likely to report relative economic deprivation than are non-indigenous women, or ladinas, controlling for objective measures of household wealth. http://www.rand.org/labor/dru.html
Sastry, Narayan and Sarah Burgard. "Diarrheal Disease and Its Treatment Among Brazilian Children: Stagnation and Progress over a Ten-Year Period." 02-04. Abstract: In this paper, the authors examine trends and differentials in diarrhea prevalence and treatment in Brazil between 1986 and 1996. The results indicate that there was a very modest decline in diarrrhea prevalence in Brazil over this ten year period. However, treatment with oral rehydration therapy (ORT) increased greatly. The rise in ORT use clearly did not reduce the prevalence of diarrhea. It suggests, however, that the focus on therapeutic care may have occurred at the cost of preventive care. Although deaths due to diarrhea were reduced, high disease rates continue to place a large number of children at risk of adverse nutritional and developmental outcomes. There were dramatic differences in diarrhea prevalence across socioeconomic groups and regions that persisted over time, although the large regional differential in ORT treatment that was present in 1986 had disappeared by 1996. The persistence of high rates of diarrhea indicates that reducing the prevalence of the disease continues to be a major public health priority. The large differential means that interventions to prevent the disease should be targeted towards the most disadvantaged segments in Brazil, which also face the highest child mortality rates. http://www.rand.org/labor/dru.html
Chernick, Howard and Cordelia Reimers. "Welfare Reform and New York City's Low-Income Population." DP 1256-02. Abstract: To evaluate the initial effects of welfare reform and changes in New York City policies and administrative procedures, we use the Current Population Survey (CPS) to compare receipt of public benefit programs, earnings, and income among vulnerable households, defined as those households with low education or single mothers in 1994–95 and 1997–99. Over this period, the CPS shows a drop in the proportion of New York City households receiving public assistance, from 11.3 percent to 7.9 percent. The proportion getting at least one benefit (public assistance, Food Stamps, Medicaid, or SSI) stayed about the same over the period, mainly because most households losing public assistance retained their Medicaid coverage. The decline in public assistance receipt was significantly greater among Hispanic households than among blacks. Among Hispanics, the greatest rate of decline was among Puerto Ricans. The proportion of the at-risk population with earnings increased from 62 percent to 70 percent, but the proportion combining public assistance and earnings increased very little. However, among those who remained on the public assistance rolls in 1997–99, the increase was more substantial, with the proportion also receiving earnings going up from 27 to 43 percent. The proportion of at-risk households with earnings rose more for Hispanics (by 12.1 percentage points) than blacks (6.4 percentage points). Among the entire at-risk group, there were significant increases in household earnings, money income, and "comprehensive" income (including the money value of in-kind benefits) for Hispanics (38 percent, 27 percent, and 18 percent, respectively), but none for blacks or non-Hispanic whites and others. Differences between Hispanics and blacks can be described as "gap-closing," in that Hispanic rates of welfare receipt, earnings, and income converged on those of blacks. The "pull" of a tighter labor market, together with improvements in Hispanics' education levels and shifts in family structure (i.e., marriage and doubling up of single mothers), can explain part of this convergence; but the high overall rates of decline in public assistance and the sharp differences between different ethnic groups suggest that administrative "push" has also been an important factor. http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/irp/dp/dpabs02.htm#DP1256-02
Krecker, Margaret L., Patricia Brown, Marygold S. Melli, and Lynn Wimer. "Children's Living Arrangements in Divorced Wisconsin Families with Shared Placement." Special Report no. 83. Abstract: In their 1992 book Dividing the Child, Maccoby and Mnookin found that divorce settlements involving joint physical custody tended to be very fluid; the authors questioned whether a shared placement order by the court is really in the child’s best interests over the long term. Answering this question has become more important as shared parenting has become common nationwide. This report sheds new light on the stability of shared physical placement for children after a divorce and provides useful evidence on the issues raised by Maccoby and Mnookin. The report examines evidence concerning shared physical custody for families who were awarded divorces in 21 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties between 1996 and 1998. We found that if families’ practices are assessed against the standards of the legal record and the administrative code, shared placement families revise placement orders at a higher rate and return to court more often than sole-mother families. And although the proportion of shared placement families with living arrangements consistent with the legal record is remarkably high (over 60 percent), a much larger proportion of sole-custody families adhere to the broad guidelines set by the court. The living arrangements of children in the sole physical custody of the mother are indeed more "stable" in terms of children’s formal physical placement. But children in over one-third of these families have no contact with their fathers, and those who do face significantly greater risk that this contact will diminish over time. In contrast, children in over 99 percent of shared placement families have contact with their fathers, and 75 percent of them stay with those fathers at least 31 percent of the time. In terms of the well-being of children and families, it appears, the most legally "stable" arrangements do not necessarily make for the most enduring relationships between children and both their parents. http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/irp/sr/srlist.htm
Gustafsson-Wright, Emily and Hnin Hnin Pyne. "Gender Dimensions of Child Labor and Street Children in Brazil." Working Paper No. 2897. Abstract: Gustafsson-Wright and Pyne review child labor and the situation of street children in Brazil from a gender perspective. Relying primarily on Brazil’s national household survey for 1996, the authors examine various dimensions of child labor by gender, including participation, intensity, and type of activities; the relationship between child labor, education, and future earnings; and the risks of child labor to health and well-being. They also summarize approaches to prevent and eliminate child labor and street children in Brazil. The authors find that more boys than girls work in Brazil especially in rural areas where boys are concentrated in the agricultural sector, that many children both work and attend school, and that girls attain higher levels of education than boys on average, even when considering number of hours worked. The exception is the 11–14 category. They also find that an individual’s earnings are correlated with age of entry into the labor market. The earlier a child begins to work, the lower his or her earnings. And girls are more adversely affected by early labor force entry than boys, with the gender differential increasing the earlier a child begins to work. Taking poverty as the primary contributor to child labor, government programs to combat child labor are well designed in that they compensate families for a child’s foregone earnings and address family factors that lead to poverty. However, programs could be improved by explicitly considering the gender dimensions of child labor. The authors point to the need for analysis of the impact of child labor on health, and specifically to the gender and sex-differentiated impacts. They suggest the need to address gender in intervention strategies for street children, as well as research on child labor in domestic service where girls are overrepresented. This paper—a product of the Gender Sector Unit, Latin America and the Caribbean Region—is part of a larger effort in the region to identify and address gender issues relevant to development. http://econ.worldbank.org/resource.php?type=5
Gallup, John Luke. "The Wage Labor Market and Inequality in
Vietnam in the 1990s." Working Paper No. 2896. Abstract:
Has the expansion of wage employment in Vietnam exacerbated social inequalities,
despite its contribution to income growth? Gallup uses the two rounds of the
Vietnamese Living Standards Survey (VLSS) to evaluate the contribution of wage
employment to inequality and income growth over the period of rapid economic
growth in the 1990s following market reforms. If Vietnam sustains its economic
development in the future, wage employment will become an ever more important
source of household income as family farms and self-employed household
enterprises become less prevalent. Observing the recent evolution of wage
employment compared with farm and nonfarm self-employment provides clues as to
how economic development will change Vietnamese society, in particular its
impact on income inequality within and between communities.
Gallup shows that standard methods for calculating income inequality can be
severely biased due to measurement error when decomposing the contribution of
different sectors, regions, or groups to overall inequality. A new method for
consistent decomposition of inequality by income source shows that despite the
rapid growth of wages in the 1990s, wage inequality fell modestly. Contrary to
the results of uncorrected methods, wage employment contributes a roughly
similar amount to overall income inequality as other nonagricultural employment
(household enterprise and remittances, mainly). Agricultural income actually
reduces overall income inequality because inequality between agricultural
households is much lower than inequality between nonagricultural households, and
agricultural income has a lower correlation with other income sources. Wage
employment has not been the locus of growing disparity between the haves and the
have-nots in Vietnam. A declining share of agriculture as the economy
grows in Vietnam means that income inequality will rise, assuming that
within-sector inequality does not change. This rising inequality, due to the
shrinking share of agriculture, will be difficult to avoid without giving up
economic growth and rapid poverty reduction in Vietnam. Historically, the
process of economic development has always brought about a transition out of
small farms and household enterprises into wage employment as worker
productivity increases and non-household enterprises dominate the economy.
This paper—a product of Macroeconomics and Growth, Development Research
Group—is part of a larger effort in the group to study household welfare and
poverty reduction in Vietnam. http://econ.worldbank.org/resource.php?type=5
Nguyen, Nga Nguyet. "Trends in the Education Sector from 1993–98." Working Paper No. 2891. Abstract: Vietnam has achieved remarkably high rates of school enrollment and has maintained good social indicators (infant and under-five mortality rates, life expectancy, fertility rate, child nutrition, and access to basic services) compared to other countries with similar low income per capita. Nga documents and analyzes changes in enrollment and education finance in Vietnam from 1993–98. Enrollment rates increased substantially, but the increases were not equally spread across different income groups, regions, gender, and ethnic groups. The higher the level of education, the larger the gap in school enrollment among different socioeconomic groups. Although school fees were no longer compulsory at the primary level, households paid for many other school-related items, such as books, uniforms, private tutors, lunch, and transportation. These costs are a significant financial burden on the poor. On the other hand, there is considerable variation in public spending per student across regions that, when coupled with variation in enrollment rates across regions, resulted in a not pro-poor public spending pattern, although public spending on primary education was neutral in 1998. Finally, Nguyen investigates whether rates of return to education in the private wage sector changed in the 1990s. She concludes that returns to schooling increased substantially between 1992–93 and 1997–98, especially at the upper secondary education and university levels. This paper—a product of Macroeconomics and Growth, Development Research Group—is part of a larger effort in the group to study household welfare and poverty reduction in Vietnam. http://econ.worldbank.org/resource.php?type=5
Essama-Nssah, B., Issouf Samaké, and Luiz A. Pereira da Silva.
"A Poverty Analysis Macroeconomic Simulator (PAMS) Linking Household
Surveys with Macro-Models." Working Paper No. 2888. Abstract:
The Poverty Analysis Macroeconomic Simulator (PAMS) is a model that links
standard household surveys with macro frameworks. It allows users to assess the
effect of macroeconomic policies—in particular, those associated with Poverty
Reduction Strategies papers—on sectoral employment and income, the incidence
of poverty, and income distribution.
PAMS (in Excel) has three interconnected components:
• A standard aggregate macro-framework that can be taken from any
macro-consistency model (for example, RMSM-X, 123) to project GDP, national
accounts, the national budget, the BoP, price levels, and so on, in aggregate
consistent accounts.
• A labor market model breaking down labor categories by skill level and
economic sectors whose production total is consistent with that of the macro
framework. Individuals from the household surveys are grouped in representative
groups of households defined by the labor category of the head of the household.
For each labor category, labor demand depends on sectoral output and real wages.
Wage income levels by economic sector and labor category can thus be determined.
In addition, different income tax rates and different levels of budgetary
transfers across labor categories can be added to wage income.
• A model that uses the labor model results for each labor category to
simulate the income growth for each individual inside its own group, assumed to
be the average of its group. After projecting individual incomes, PAMS
calculates the incidence of poverty and the inter-group inequality.
PAMS can produce historical or counterfactual simulations of:
• Alternative growth scenarios with different assumptions for inflation,
fiscal, and current account balances. These simulations allow test tradeoffs
within a macro stabilization program.
• Different combinations of sectoral growth (agricultural or industrial,
tradable or nontradable goods sectors), within a given aggregate GDP growth
rate.
• Tax and budgetary transfer policies.
For example, PAMS will simulate a baseline macro-scenario for Burkina Faso
corresponding to an existing IMF/World Bank-supported program and introduce
changes in tax, fiscal, and sectoral growth policies to reduce poverty and
inequality more effectively than the base scenario. So, the authors argue that
there are several possible “equilibria” in terms of poverty and inequality
within the same macro framework. This paper—a joint product of the
Office of the Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, Development Economics,
and the Poverty Reduction Group, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management
Network—is part of a larger effort in the Bank to provide better tools to
evaluate the poverty impact of economic policies. http://econ.worldbank.org/resource.php?type=5
Ainsworth, Martha and Deon Filmer. "Poverty, AIDS, and Children’s Schooling: A Targeting Dilemma." Working Paper No. 2885. Abstract: Ainsworth and Filmer analyze the relationship between orphan status, household wealth, and child school enrollment using data collected in the 1990s from 28 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and one country in Southeast Asia. The findings point to considerable diversity—so much so that generalizations are not possible. While there are some examples of large differentials in enrollment by orphan status, in the majority of cases the orphan enrollment gap is dwarfed by the gap between children from richer and poorer households. In some cases, even non-orphaned children from the top of the wealth distribution have low enrollments, pointing to fundamental issues in the supply or demand for schooling that are a constraint to higher enrollments of all children. The gap in enrollment between female and male orphans is not much different than the gap between girls and boys with living parents, suggesting that female orphans are not disproportionately affected in terms of their enrollment in most countries. These diverse findings demonstrate that the extent to which orphans are under-enrolled relative to other children is country-specific, at least in part because the correlation between orphan status and poverty is not consistent across countries. Social protection and schooling policies need to assess the specific country situation before considering mitigation measures. This paper—a product of the Development Research Group, sponsored in part by the Education and Social Protection Teams of the Human Development Network—is part of a larger effort in the Bank to assess the impact of the AIDS epidemic on human development outcomes and poverty reduction policies. http://econ.worldbank.org/resource.php?type=5
Chong, Alberto and Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes. "Privatization and Labor Force Restructuring around the World." Working Paper No. 2884. Abstract: Some critics of privatization argue that poor labor force restructuring is a key concern and that governments should establish better retrenchment programs. Using new data from a sample of 400 companies in the world, Chong and López-de-Silanes test competing theories about the wisdom of retrenchment programs and their effect on prices paid by buyers, and rehiring policies by private owners after privatization. The results show that adverse selection plagues retrenchment programs carried out by governments before privatization. Controlling for endogeneity, several labor retrenchment policies yield a negative impact on net privatization prices. In confirmation of the adverse selection argument, various types of voluntary downsizing lead to a higher frequency of rehiring of the same workers by the new private owners. Compulsory skill-based programs are the only type of program that is marginally associated with higher prices and lower rehiring rates after privatization, but the political and economic costs of this policy may make it somewhat impractical. While a qualified non-intervention policy appears to be the safest bet in labor retrenchment before privatization, another one might be to set up a social safety net or labor reallocation program before privatization, and then let the new private owners decide who is redundant and who is not. Setting up the program before privatization may help with the political viability of the process and letting the new owners manage the retrenchment may help avoid adverse selection. This paper—a product of Public Services, Development Research Group—is part of a larger effort in the group to understand the labor implications of public sector reform. The study was funded by the Bank’s Research Support Budget under the research project “Public Sector Downsizing” (RPO 683-69). http://econ.worldbank.org/resource.php?type=5
Essama-Nssah, B. "Assessing the Distributional Impact of Public Policy." Working Paper No. 2883. Abstract: Economic development necessarily changes the welfare of socioeconomic groups to various degrees, depending on differences in their social arrangements. The challenge for policymakers is to select the changes that will be most socially desirable. Essama-Nssah demonstrates the usefulness of distributional analysis for social evaluation and, more specifically, for welfare evaluation, using data from the 1994 Integrated Household Survey in Guinea. Because the international community has declared poverty eradication a fundamental objective of development, the author uses a poverty-focused approach to social evaluation based on the maximin principle. This principle offers a unifying framework for analyzing the socioeconomic impact of public policy by using a wide variety of evaluation functions, inequality indicators (like the extended Gini coefficient), and poverty indices (such as Sen’s index and the members of the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke family). The author also examines, within the context of commodity taxation, how to identify socially desirable policy options using both the dominance criterion and abbreviated social welfare functions. He includes computer routines for calculating various welfare indices and for plotting the relevant concentration curves. This paper—a product of the Poverty Reduction Group, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network—is part of a larger effort in the network to understand the poverty and social impact of public policy. http://econ.worldbank.org/resource.php?type=5
Compiled by: Felix Bunke - Library Assistant
Center for Demography
and Ecology Information Services
Rm. 4471 Social Science Building
1180
Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1393 USA
Email: jbunke@ssc.wisc.edu