Recent research consistently reports that persistent poverty has more detrimental effects on IQ, school achievement, and socioemotional functioning than transitory poverty, with children experiencing both types of poverty generally doing less well than never-poor children. Higher rates of perinatal complications, reduced access to resources that buffer the negative effects of perinatal complications, increased exposure to lead, and less home-based cognitive stimulation partly account for diminished cognitive functioning in poor children. These factors, along with lower teacher expectancies and poorer academic-readiness skills, also appear to contribute to lower levels of school achievement among poor children. The link between socioeconomic disadvantage and children's socioemotional functioning appears to be mediated partly by harsh, inconsistent parenting and elevated exposure to acute and chronic stressors. The implications of research findings for practice and policy are considered.

Socioeconomic disadvantage and child development

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a survey on female labor supply. The chapter surveys theoretical and empirical work on the labor supply of women, with special reference to women in Western economies, primarily the United States, in modern times. The behavior of female labor supply has important implications for many other phenomena, including marriage, fertility, divorce, the distribution of family earnings and male-female wage differentials. The labor supply of women is also of interest, because of the technical questions it poses. For example, because many women do not work, corner solutions are at least potentially a very important issue in both the theoretical and empirical analysis of female labor supply, even though in other contexts (for example, studies of consumer demand) corner solutions are often ignored. The chapter presents some “stylized facts” about female labor supply, and then discusses a number of theoretical models of special interest for understanding female labor supply. After considering empirical studies of the labor supply of women, the chapter concludes with some suggestions for future research. The chapter discusses major trends and cyclical patterns in time-series data, and then examines cross-sectional phenomena.

Chapter 2 Female labor supply: A survey

This study presents estimates of the effect of parental income on children's cognitive, social, and emotional development. The effect of current income is small, especially when income is treated as endogenous. The effect of “permanent” income is substantially larger, but relatively small when compared to the magnitude of recent policy-induced changes in income. Family background characteristics play a more important role than income in determining child outcomes. Policies that affect family income will have little direct impact on child development unless they result in very large and permanent changes in income.

The Effect of Income on Child Development

We examine the social pension in South Africa, where large cash sums-about twice the median per capita income of African households-are paid to people qualified by age but irrespective of previous contributions. We present the history of the scheme and use a 1993 nationally representative survey to investigate the redistributive consequences of the transfers, documenting who receive the pensions, their levels of living, and those of their families. We also look at behavioural effects, particularly the effects of the cash receipts on the allocation of income to food, schooling, transfers, and savings. In South Africa, a large 'social pension'-about twice the median per capita income of African households-is paid in cash to people qualified by age irrespective of previous contributions. We present the history of the scheme and explain how such large transfers could come about in an economy in which the recipients were not only politically weak, but without any political representation whatsoever. We then use a 1993 nationally representative survey to investigate the redistributive consequences of the transfers, documenting who receive the pensions, their levels of living, and those of their families. We also look at behavioural effects, particularly the effects of the cash receipts on the allocation of income to food, schooling, transfers, and savings. The pressing policy issue for South Africans is whether it makes sense to target seven billion rand (nearly $2 billion) of social expenditure through the current pension schemes. Our analysis contributes to the discussion by documenting the redistributive and behavioural effects of the transfers. We find that, at least as far as immediate incidence is concerned, and without allowance for behavioural effects, the social pension is an effective tool of redistribution, and that the households it reaches are predominantly poor. Because so many of the elderly among South Africa's African population live with children, the social pension is also effective in putting money into house

/pdf/large-cash-transfers-to-the-elderly-in-south-africa-vzla350spp.pdf

Large Cash Transfers to the Elderly in South Africa

The analysis uses new data matching parents and their young adult children to study the impact of family background on young people's educational attainments. The data is derived from the first seven years (1991-97) of the British Household Panel Study. Parents' educational attainments are found to be very strongly associated with their children's educational attainments, and for an important part of the population these associations can be given a causal interpretation. In addition, young adults who experience single parenthood as children and those who come from families in the bottom income quartile have significantly lower educational attainments.

Family Matters: Impacts of Family Background on Educational Attainments

This paper investigates the factors underlying cognitive achievement among young children using a Becker-Tomes model of intergenerational transmission adapted to incorporate transmission of a family's cultural orientation toward achievement. The model relates a child's achievement to parental income and cognitive skills as well as to grandparent's income and education. Using data on PPVT scores for children born to women in the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth, we find large and significant positive effects of the mother's AFQT score, her schooling, and the grandparents' schooling. We also find that increases in the mother's hours at work bear significant negative effects on her child's achievement. This effect is only partially compensated for by higher money income among these young children. A mother's welfare dependence is associated with a reduction in her child's PPVT score, an effect that is not explained by poverty persistence. Evidence that welfare participation signals transmission of low achievement orientation while variables such as maternal education signal positive values is reinforced through the use of a mediating variable measuring the time a mother spends reading to her children.

Family Endowments and the Achievement of Young Children with Special Reference to the Underclass.

This paper extends previous work on labor supply in Japan by treating the simultaneous labor force participation and hours of work decisions for Japanese wives, both employees and family workers. It estimates a trichotomous participation model for a sample from the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, and then estimates hours and wage equations, and aggregate labor supply elasticities. The empirical results generally confirm the economic model's theoretical predictions. Although the estimated aggregate wage and income elasticities for employees are somewhat higher than previous estimates for the U.S., they are of the same order of magnitude. However, the level of the husband's income has an unexpected positive effect on the annual hours that employees work and the elasticities estimated for family workers are usually large.

Female Labor Supply in Japan: Implications of the Informal Sector for Labor Force Participation and Hours of Work.

/pdf/gaining-ground-measuring-the-impact-of-welfare-reform-on-2mk18eozh4.pdf

Gaining Ground? Measuring the Impact of Welfare Reform on Welfare and Work. Civic Report.

This paper extends previous work on labor supply in Japan by treating the simultaneous labor force participation and hours of work decisions for Japanese wives, both employees and family workers It estimates a trichotomous participation model for a 

M. Anne Hill

Papers

Family Endowments and the Achievement of Young Children with Special Reference to the Underclass.

Female Labor Supply in Japan: Implications of the Informal Sector for Labor Force Participation and Hours of Work.

Gaining Ground? Measuring the Impact of Welfare Reform on Welfare and Work. Civic Report.

Female Labor Force Participation in Japan: An Aggregate Model