{"title":"Income Trajectories in Later Life: Longitudinal Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study","authors":"O. Mitchell, Robert L. Clark, A. Lusardi","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3889975","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3889975","url":null,"abstract":"We track low-income respondents in the longitudinal Health and Retirement Study for 23 years, to observe how their financial situations unfolded as they aged. We document that (a) real incomes remained relatively stable as individuals entered retirement and progressed through their later years; and (b) labor force participation declined and thus earnings became less important with age, while Social Security and retirement savings rose as a proportion of annual income. Low-income people near retirement also tended to fare poorly during retirement.","PeriodicalId":196465,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution (Topic)","volume":"71 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126505647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Saving the American Dream? Education Policies in Spatial General Equilibrium","authors":"Fabian Eckert, Tatjana Kleineberg","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3800943","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3800943","url":null,"abstract":"Children's education and economic opportunities differ substantially across US neighborhoods. This paper develops and estimates a spatial equilibrium model that links children's education outcomes to their childhood location. Two endogenous factors determine education choices in each location: local education quality and local labor market access. This paper estimates the model with US county-level data and studies the effects of a school funding equalization on education outcomes and social mobility. The reform's direct effects improve education outcomes among children from low-skill families. However, the effects are weaker in spatial general equilibrium because average returns to education decline and residential and educational choices of low-skill families shift them toward locations with lower education quality.","PeriodicalId":196465,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution (Topic)","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116494700","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Marital Sorting and Cross-Country Differences in Intergenerational Earnings Persistence","authors":"V. Tolstova","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3784117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3784117","url":null,"abstract":"In a real economy, decisions on investments in child human capital of children are made by families rather than by atomistic parents as is typically assumed in the literature. This paper incorporates family formation into an otherwise standard dynastic framework with human capital accumulation. The study finds that accounting for differences in taxation and education policies between the U.S. and 10 OECD countries is sufficient to replicate cross-country variations in the degree of assortative matching and its positive correlation with the persistence of intergenerational earnings. Positive assortative matching is crucial to a model’s ability to generate realistic levels of intergenerational earnings correlation observed in the data.","PeriodicalId":196465,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution (Topic)","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130562089","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Inequality in the Time of COVID-19: Evidence from Mortgage Delinquency and Forbearance","authors":"Xudong An, Larry Cordell, Liang Geng, Keyoung Lee","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3789349","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3789349","url":null,"abstract":"Using a novel database that combines mortgage servicing records, credit-bureau data and loan application information, we show that lower-income and minority borrowers have significantly higher nonpayment rates during the COVID-19 pandemic, even after controlling for conventional risk factors. A difference-in-differences analysis shows how much the pandemic has exacerbated income and racial inequalities. We then find that government and private-sector forbearance programs have mitigated these inequalities in the near term, as lower-income and minority borrowers have taken up the short-term debt relief at higher rates. Finally, we examine modification options for an estimated 2.8 million loans in forbearance, most with terms expiring by mid-year 2021.","PeriodicalId":196465,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution (Topic)","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115521191","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Wage Determination and the Bite of Collective Contracts in Italy and Spain: Evidence from the Metal Working Industry","authors":"Effrosyni Adamopoulou, Ernesto Villanueva","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3754331","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3754331","url":null,"abstract":"In several OECD countries employer federations and unions fix skill-specific wage floors for all workers in an industry. One view of those “explicit” contracts argues that the prevailing wage structure reflects the labor market conditions back at the time when those contracts were bargained, with little space for renegotiation. An alternative view stresses that only workers close to the minima are affected by wage floors and that the wage structure reacts to current labor market conditions. We disentangle both models using a novel data set that combines more tan 1,000 signature dates and 15,000 wage floors set in the metal working industry with labor market histories of metal workers drawn from Social Security records in Italy and Spain. An increase in the contemporaneous local unemployment rate of 1 p.p. diminished contemporaneous mean wages by about 0.45 p.p. between 2005 and 2013 in both countries. Instead, a 1 p.p. higher unemployment rate back at the time of contract renewal reduced wages by 0.7 p.p., an impact driven by wages close to the negotiated wage floors. Even though the evidence for earlier periods is mixed in Italy, the results do not support the view that the wage structure reflects labor market conditions at the time of bargaining. The results support the hypothesis that (most) wages respond to local current unemployment rate, although the estimated elasticity falls short of the prediction of an off-the-shelf bargaining model.","PeriodicalId":196465,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution (Topic)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129492045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Оценка нуждаемости при адресной социальной поддержке (An Improved Means-Testing Formula for Better Targeting)","authors":"E. Andreeva, Feoktistova Olesya","doi":"10.18288/1994-5124-2020-5-112-129","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18288/1994-5124-2020-5-112-129","url":null,"abstract":"<b>Russian abstract:</b> В России проверка нуждаемости используется для выявления домохозяйств с низкими доходами и измерения численности бедных, а также для определения права заявителей на получение адресной социальной помощи. Однако нынешняя формула проверки нуждаемости ограничивается сравнением дохода на душу населения со стоимостью так называемой минимальной потребительской корзины или стандартного прожиточного минимума.<br><br><b>English abstract:</b> In Russia, means testing is used to identify low-income households and measure poverty headcount as well as to establish the eligibility of the applicants to targeted social assistance. The current means-testing formula, however, is restricted to comparing the per capita income with the cost of the so-called minimum consumer basket or the standard subsistence income.","PeriodicalId":196465,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution (Topic)","volume":"100 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116243587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Downward Rigidity in the Wage for New Hires","authors":"J. Hazell, Bledi Taska","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3728939","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3728939","url":null,"abstract":"Downward wage rigidity is central to many explanations of unemployment fluctuations. In benchmark models, the wage for new hires is key, but there is limited evidence of downward rigidity on this margin. We introduce a dataset that tracks the wage for new hires at the job level — across successive vacancies posted by the same job title and establishment. We show that the wage for new hires is rigid downward but flexible upward, in two steps. First, the nominal wage rarely changes at the job level. When wages do change, they fall infrequently. Second, when unemployment rises, wages do not fall — but wages do rise strongly as unemployment falls. We show prior strategies cannot detect downward rigidity due to job composition. Then with a standard model, we argue downward wage rigidity at the job level is key for unemployment fluctuations. Unemployment responds four times more to negative than to positive labor demand shocks.","PeriodicalId":196465,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution (Topic)","volume":"118 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121392838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Quality of Statistical Match Used in the Estimation of the Levy Institute Measure of Time and Income Poverty (LIMTIP) for Italy 2008 and 2014 and Preliminary Results","authors":"Erica Aloè","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3689150","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3689150","url":null,"abstract":"This paper assesses the quality of the statistical matching used in the LIMTIP estimates for Italy for 2008 and 2014. The match combines the 2008–9 and 2013–14 Italian Time Use Survey (IT-TUS) with the Italian data collected for the European Survey on Income and Living Conditions (IT-SILC) in 2009 and 2015. After the matching, the analysis of the joint distributions of the variables shows that the quality is good.<br> <br>The preliminary results of the LIMTIP estimates in Italy display widespread time poverty, which translates into significant hidden poverty. The LIMTIP also reveals that the increase in the poverty rate between 2008 and 2014 was even higher that what standard poverty measures report.","PeriodicalId":196465,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution (Topic)","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114179569","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Labor Market Effects of Open Borders: Lessons from EU Enlargement","authors":"I. Kuosmanen, Jaakko Meriläinen","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3676510","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3676510","url":null,"abstract":"We exploit the expansion of the European Union as a natural experiment to study the labor market consequences of open borders. The eastern enlargement of the EU differentially exposed workers in different regions and occupations in Finland to foreign workforce. Using a triple-differences strategy and detailed individual-level administrative data, we provide robust evidence that the entry of new EU countries decreased the annual earnings of vulnerable workers persistently relative to less vulnerable workers in the construction sector. This decrease was about 1,700 euros per year, on average, which corresponds roughly to a month's salary. The vulnerable workers were not able to close the wage gap even ten years after the EU enlargement. Most estimates suggest that the workforce nearly doubled in size after the EU enlargement, which would imply an elasticity close to zero. We also find a small increase in unemployment. The effect on earnings is predominantly driven by workers below 30 years old, who became more likely to switch to other sectors of employment or establishments of work, and workers over 50 years old, who became more likely to retire.","PeriodicalId":196465,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution (Topic)","volume":"390 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114049839","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nominal Wage Adjustments and the Composition of Pay: New Evidence from Payroll Data","authors":"Daniel Schaefer, Carl Singleton","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3636754","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3636754","url":null,"abstract":"We use representative payroll data from Great Britain to document novel facts about nominal wage adjustments, focusing on workers who stayed in the same firm and job from one year to the next. The richness of these data allows us to analyse basic pay and the other components of earnings, such as overtime and incentive pay, while accounting for hours worked. Weekly and hourly basic pay show signs of downward nominal rigidity, but non-basic pay components adjust more commonly. Unusually, these payroll-based data also report the wage rates of hourly-paid employees. A quarter of these workers typically see no change in their wage rates from one year to the next in the same job, and very few experience wage cuts. We exploit the employer-employee link in the data and find evidence of state-dependent pay setting, depending on the business cycle and whether firms are shrinking or expanding. Finally, we show that the basic and non-basic wages of new hires and existing employees are similarly flexible.","PeriodicalId":196465,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution (Topic)","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131678614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}