Does child gender affect marital status? Evidence from Australia

Pooling microdata from five Australian censuses, I explore the relationship between child gender and parents’ marital status. By contrast with the USA, I find no evidence that the gender of the first child has a significant impact on the decision to marry or divorce. However, among two-child families, parents with two children of the same sex are 1.7 percentage points less likely to be married than parents with a boy and a girl. This finding is unlikely to be consistent with theories of preference for sons over daughters, differential costs, role models, or complementary costs but is consistent with a theory of mixed-gender preference.

The determinants and consequences of child care subsidies for single mothers in the USA

This paper provides an analysis of child care subsidies under welfare reform in the USA. We used data from the 1999 National Survey of America's Families to analyze the determinants of receipt of a child care subsidy and the effects of subsidy receipt on employment, school attendance, unemployment, and welfare participation. Ordinary least-squares estimates that treat subsidy receipt as exogenous show an effect of subsidy receipt on employment of about 13 percentage points. Two-stage least-squares estimates that treat subsidy receipt as endogenous and use county dummies as identifying instruments show an effect of 33 percentage points on employment, 20 percentage points on unemployment, and no effects on schooling and welfare receipt.

Using Quality of Life Criteria to Define Urban Areas in Catalonia

The purpose of this paper is to develop the concept and definition of multidimensional urban areas, thereby providing insights into our understanding of the sub-regional structures of household spatial systems. Hence, we propose a framework for strategic planning that considers several areas of household needs. In order to achieve this goal, we develop a multicriteria methodology to define the territorialisation of the region of Catalonia (Spain). We first analyse the different methodologies used to define territorial areas based on economic criteria, for example, those used to construct travel-to-work areas (TTWA), among other methods. Thus, in practice several criteria and techniques are used to organize a territory, including administrative areas, commuting-based algorithms, and gravitational techniques. Finally, these points help us build a system of multicriteria urban areas that is consistent with the overall use of time by individuals.

A room of one’s own or room enough for two? Access to housing and new household formation in Sweden, 1968–1992

Familistic and individualistic theories both provide explanations for recent declines in family household formation. Securing access to housing plays a key role in new household formation for both these theories. Familistic theories hypothesize a positive relationship between access to housing and new family household formation. Individualistic theories hypothesize a positive relationship between access to housing and nonfamily household formation. Here I test these hypotheses in Sweden by modeling leaving home for family and nonfamily household formation using the Swedish Family Survey and supplemental housing data. I find significant support for the familistic notion that greater access to housing increases the likelihood of family household formation. I fail to find support for the individualistic theory.

Does single parenthood increase the probability of teenage promiscuity,substance use,and crime?

There is longstanding evidence that youths raised by single parents are more likely to perform poorly in school and partake in “deviant” behaviors such as smoking, sex, substance use, and crime. However, there is not widespread agreement as to whether the timing of the marital disruption differentially impacts youth outcomes. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and its Young Adult Supplement, we find that an additional 5 years with the biological father decreases the probability of smoking, drinking, engaging in sexual activity, marijuana use, and conviction by approximately 5.3, 1.2, 3.4, 2.2 and 0.3 percentage points, respectively.

The new economics of education: methods,evidence and policy

In this paper (my keynote talk from the 2006 ESPE conference), I discuss the recent upsurge in research on the economics of education that has occurred, especially in Europe. I discuss the reasons for the increased interest and present some examples from my recent research in the area. The paper concludes that the increased research interest seems likely to be sustained for some time to come.

Growing old and staying young: population policy in an ageing closed economy

This paper analyses the relation between public pensions, fertility and child care in a closed-economy overlapping generations model with endogenous fertility. It is shown that raising a child involves two social externalities and that it is optimal to introduce child allowances if the government redistributes income from the young to the old. The optimal child allowance rises when longevity increases. If the costs of raising children depend positively on the wage, a third externality arises and the returns to savings should be taxed.

Sibling similarities and economic inequality in the US

I use a new methodological approach and larger US samples than previous studies and estimate that the sibling correlation across a range of economic outcomes is around 0.5. This suggests that half of economic inequality in the US can be attributed to family and community influences. A comparison with noneconomic outcomes suggests that individual choices rather than a simple mechanical relationship governs the intergenerational transmission of income. A decomposition of the sibling correlation suggests that the acquisition of human capital is an important channel through which family background affects future success but that noncognitive factors also play a role.

Extracting the causal component from the intergenerational correlation in unemployment

This paper examines the intergenerational correlation in unemployment in Norway and discusses and estimates two approaches for extracting the causal component: sibling differences and the use of parental unemployment occurring after the child’s outcome as control for the unobserved family heterogeneity. Confirming existing evidence, I find a substantial intergenerational correlation in unemployment. Almost half of this is due to observed family heterogeneity. The causal effect is found to be statistically insignificant by both identification strategies, but while the estimated effect is negative on the sample made for the sibling-difference approach, this finding is not replicated on a less selective sample.

Avowed Happiness in Confucian Asia: Ascertaining its Distribution,Patterns, and Sources

This study reviewed three philosophical accounts of happiness, and then tested those accounts with the Asiabarometer surveys conducted in six Confucian societies during the summer of 2006. Statistical analyses of these surveys reveal that East Asians tend to experience happiness to a greater extent when they experience enjoyment together with achievement and/or satisfaction. The preponderance of such multi-dimensional conceptions in all those societies poses a direct challenge to a single dimensional account of happiness in the West. The analyses also reveal that positive assessments of interpersonal relationships matter more than the amount of knowledge or wealth in living a happy life in Confucian societies.

---

Public transfers and marital dissolution

In this paper, we analyze determinants of marital dissolution, focusing on the alleged influences from public transfers, child allowance, and child support awards. We use a Norwegian panel of 2,806 couples with information on public and private transfers in cases of divorce. The sample was observed over a 5-year period, with the purpose of registering marital dissolution. We find that the level of transfers has a significantly positive effect on divorce probability and that the distribution of transfers in favor of the wife increases this probability. Our findings are consistent with noncooperative family models allowing for inefficient outcomes.

Resource management and fertility in Mexico’s Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Campos</Emphasis>, cash,and contraception in the lobster-fishing village of Punta Allen

This case study examines the link between marine resource management, and the universal contraceptive use among married couples in the lobster-fishing village of Punta Allen, located in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Several reasons appear to contribute to small desired and actual family sizes. Some of these include a medical clinic staff effective in promoting family planning, cooperative and private resource ownership, changing cultural attitudes, geographical limitations to population and economic growth, and a desire to conserve the environment for aesthetic and economic motives. Lastly, families desired to preserve a sustained balance between benefiting from lobster harvests today and safeguarding this marine resource for their children in the future.

The earned income tax credit and fertility

Government programs designed to provide income safety nets often restrict eligibility to families with children, creating an unintended fertility incentive. This paper considers whether dramatically changing incentives in the earned income tax credit affect fertility rates in the USA. We use birth certificate data spanning the period 1990 to 1999 to test whether expansions in the credit influenced birthrate among targeted families. While economic theory would predict a positive fertility effect of the program for many eligible women, our results indicate that expanding the credit produced only extremely small reductions in higher order fertility among white women.

How important is homeland education for refugees’ economic position in The Netherlands?

We use data on refugees admitted to The Netherlands that include registration of education in their homeland by immigration officers. Such data are seldom available. We investigate the quality and reliability of the registrations and then use them to assess effects on refugees’ economic position during the first 5 years after arrival. The most remarkable finding is the absence of returns to higher education.

Ceilings or floors? Gender wage gaps by education in Spain

This paper analyzes the gender gap throughout the wage distribution in Spain using data from the European Community Household Panel. Quantile regression and panel data techniques are used to estimate wage regressions. In contrast with the steep increasing pattern found in other countries, the flatter evolution of the Spanish gender gap hides an intriguing composition effect. For highly educated workers, in line with the conventional glass ceiling hypothesis, the gap increases as we move up the distribution. However, for less-educated workers the gap decreases. We label this novel fact as a floor pattern and argue that it can be explained by statistical discrimination exerted by employers in countries where less-educated women have low participation rates.

Labor market transitions of immigrants with emphasis on marginalization and self-employment

In developed countries, immigrants are more likely to be nonemployed and self-employed compared to natives. Based on register data of male immigrants in Denmark, we performed a detailed investigation of the immigrant–native difference in transition patterns across labor market states. We find that a high proportion of immigrants from non-Western countries tend to be marginalized relative to natives, and they tend to use self-employment to escape marginalization.

Understanding sibling differences in child labor

This study considers sibling differences in child labor in Nepal. The data are consistent with a model where parents care equally for all children but siblings differ in comparative advantage in household production, although parental preferences and credit constraints could also be important. Girls, especially older girls, tend to work more than their brothers. This extra work increases with the number of younger siblings and the spacing between siblings. The extra work performed by girls is such that, at modal birth spacing, the younger girl actually spends significantly more time working than her older brother.

Land use and first birth timing in an agricultural setting

The dramatic changes in the earth’s landscape have prompted increased interest in the links between population, land use, and land cover. Previous research emphasized the notion of population pressure (population pressure increases demands on natural resources causing changes in land use), overlooking the potentially important effects of changes in land use on humans. Using multiple data sets from the Chitwan Valley Family Study in Nepal, we test competing hypotheses about the impact of land use on first birth timing. We argue that while agricultural land should encourage early childbearing, land area devoted to public infrastructure should discourage it. The results show that individuals from neighborhoods with larger proportions of land under agriculture experienced first birth at rates higher than those from neighborhoods with smaller proportions. On the other hand, individuals from neighborhoods with larger proportions of land under public infrastructure experienced first birth at rates lower than those from neighborhoods with smaller proportions. However, the effects of public infrastructure are not as strong as the land area devoted to agriculture.

Household skills and low wages

Household skills provide job skills when tasks in jobs and household production are similar and jobs produce substitutes for home-made services. Opportunity costs of higher education are foregone earnings during schooling and foregone household production while studying and later in life. I show that individuals in jobs requiring household skills accept lower wage rates than traditional human capital theory predicts, and that individuals with low household skills tend to enter higher education. According to these results, declining household skills may have contributed to the observed increasing demand for higher education by women.

Socioeconomic Indicators for Analyzing Convergence: The Case of Greece: 1960–2004

The purpose of this paper is to use socioeconomic indicators for analyzing convergence within Greece at regional (NUTS II) and prefecture levels (NUTS III) since 1960. We use two alternative approaches. The first one is based on the coefficient of variation and the second one on quality of life rankings. We confirm the decline of regional inequalities in Greece, with the exclusion of the 1980s. Regions with increased tourist and trade activity are also regions with high quality of life. Border regions are usually the laggards of social and economic development.