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Showing papers in "Journal of Human Resources in 1994"


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined gender differences in the allocation of household resources to child health and found that mothers allocate more resources to daughters while fathers channelled resources toward sons.
Abstract: Through use of child height as a proxy for general child health and nutritional status the hypothesis that there are gender differences in the allocation of household resources to child health was examined. Data were derived from household surveys conducted in the US Brazil and Ghana that included information on both child anthropometry and family socioeconomic attributes. In all three countries mothers were found to allocate more resources to daughters while fathers channelled resources toward sons. Maternal education was found to have a larger effect on the height of daughters than sons while sons benefit more than daughters as paternal education increases. In Brazil womens non-labor income was used to improve the health of daughters but not sons. In Ghana the education of a woman whose educational attainment surpasses that of her husband had a larger impact on the height of her daughter than that of her son. If relative education of parents and non-labor income are indicators of power in household allocation decisions these findings suggest that gender differentials in resource allocation reflect both technological differences in child rearing and gender-based differences in parental preferences.

675 citations


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: This article presented new evidence on the impact of school characteristics on student achievement using an unusually rich data set from Ghana, showing that repairing classrooms is a cost-effective investment in Ghana, relative to providing more instructional materials and improving teacher quality.
Abstract: In this paper we present new evidence on the impact of school characteristics on student achievement using an unusually rich data set from Ghana. We deal with two potentially important selectivity issues in the developing country context: the sorting of higher ability children into better schools, and the high incidence of both delayed school enrollment and early leaving. Our empirical results do not reveal any strong selectivity bias. We also highlight the indirect effects of improving school quality on student achievement through increased grade attainment. A cost-benefit analysis, taking into account these indirect effects, shows that repairing classrooms (a policy option ignored in most education production function studies) is a cost-effective investment in Ghana, relative to providing more instructional materials and improving teacher quality.

392 citations


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: The 1988 Malaysian Family Life Survey-2 includes data on the educational attainment of three generations of individuals in the same family enabling an analysis of the relative impacts of micro-and macro-level factors on schooling.
Abstract: The 1988 Malaysian Family Life Survey-2 includes data on the educational attainment of three generations of individuals in the same family enabling an analysis of the relative impacts of micro- and macro-level factors on schooling. Since independence in 1957 the Malaysian Government has pursued policies aimed at strengthening the educational system and ensuring access to the Malays the majority ethnic group. At the time of this survey educational attainment in Malaysia averaged 10 years and there were no significant gender or racial differentials. Used in this analysis was a sequential discrete-time hazard model that estimated equations for the schooling decisions (none elementary secondary and postsecondary) of all children within a family jointly and identified family-specific economic and demographic constraints present at the time schooling decisions were made. Of primary interest was the role of parental education in the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment. The models indicated that at least two-thirds of the impact of parental education was a direct consequence of parent schooling and the remaining one-third resulted from unmeasured factors that influence the educational attainment of parents and children. The direct effects of parental education primarily influence same-sex children and the effect of a mothers education on her daughters school attendance is slightly stronger than the effect of a fathers education on that of his son. The direct effect of fathers education appears to stem primarily from its impact on economic resources and location of the family while the direct effect of maternal education operates through the quality of time she spends with children.

281 citations


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present estimates of a simultaneousequations model of employment, hours of work and the provision of care to an older parent, finding no evidence of reduced propensity to be employed, or of reduced conditional hours of working, due to providing parent care.
Abstract: Married women, who have been shown in past research to exhibit relatively elastic labor supply, constitute a group of particular interest with respect to decisions concerning time spent in parental care and time spent in market work. This paper presents estimates of a simultaneousequations model of employment, hours of work and the provision of care to an older parent. The results provide no evidence of reduced propensities to be employed, or of reduced conditional hours of work, due to the provision of parent care. These findings are consistent with other research on women's allocation of time to competing productive uses.

249 citations


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: This paper used information on ability and achievement test scores of sibling children, many of whom had mothers who continued their schooling between births, to test the hypothesis that maternal schooling augments the production of children's human capital.
Abstract: Information on ability and achievement test scores of sibling children, many of whom had mothers who continued their schooling between births, is used to test the hypothesis that maternal schooling augments the production of children's human capital, that there are increasing returns to human capital. Estimates from models that take into account heterogeneity in maternal endowments could not reject this hypothesis and suggest benefits to postponed childbearing. In particular, they suggest that postponement of the initiation of childbearing by two years among women who are tenth-graders would result in a 5 percent increase in their children's achievement test scores.

234 citations


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: The authors examined the effects of conviction on offenders' employment and income and found that first-time conviction reduces employment probabilities by 5 percentage points and has a significantly depressing effect on income (as much as -30 percent), especially for offenders whose pre-conviction jobs apparently require trust or who are sent to prison.
Abstract: Using panel data on federal offenders we examine the effects of conviction on offenders' employment and income. First-time conviction reduces employment probabilities by 5 percentage points and has a significantly depressing effect on income (as much as -30 percent), especially for offenders whose pre-conviction jobs apparently require trust or who are sent to prison. Significant conviction effects on income are large compared with state-imposed penalties.

233 citations


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: This article found that the employment rates and hourly wages of disabled men are slightly lower than those of nondisabled men but substantially higher than those for non-disabled men, while the employment rate for handicapped men also increased but the 1984 rate was still substantially lower than the rates for nondisables or disabled men.
Abstract: The 1984 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation is used to estimate the extent of labor market discrimination against men with disabilities. Men with disabilities are classified into a group with impairments that are subject to prejudice (handicapped) and a group with impairments that are less subject to prejudice (disabled). Very large differences in employment rates and hourly wages are found between handicapped and nondisabled men. The employment rates and hourly wages of disabled men are slightly lower than those of nondisabled men but substantially higher than those of handicapped men. Using data from the 1972 Social Security Survey of the Disabled as a benchmark, we find that wage differentials between nondisabled and both disabled and handicapped men increased between 1972 and 1984. The employment rate for handicapped men also increased but the 1984 rate was still substantially lower than the rates for nondisabled or disabled men.

218 citations


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: The authors examined the determinants of employment, actual work, and maternity leave for women in the year following childbirth and found that women with better market skills were more likely than other new mothers to have a job and to work.
Abstract: CPS data for 1979 to 1988 are used to examine the determinants of employment, actual work, and maternity leave for women in the year following childbirth Women with better market skills (higher expected wages, older, more education) are more likely than other new mothers to have a job and to work Among employed women, paid leave is also positively related to market skills Work responds to childbirth more than employment does, with the greatest differences in the first three months following childbirth Therefore, most women working when their child was one year old had returned to work within three months of childbirth

170 citations


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: The authors investigated the labor disincentive caused by inheritance and found that inheritances do not lead to large reductions in the labor supply of men and married women, but again the effect is small.
Abstract: Using data from the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics and from Federal Estate Tax returns, this paper investigates the labor disincentive caused by inheritance. The results are of interest for several reasons. Whether or not inheritances are a strong labor disincentive figures prominently in the controversy surrounding the relative importance of inheritances and life-cycle savings as sources of U.S. wealth. Also, the size of the disincentive is important in determining the relationship between inheritance and inequality. Our results indicate that inheritances do not lead to large reductions in the labor supply of men and married women. Family consumption increases after an inheritance, but again the effect is small.

163 citations


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: The existing literature on welfare effects on female headship in the United States shows significant positive correlations in cross-section, possibly increasing over time as mentioned in this paper, but when geographic, or area, effects are permitted in the estimation, these correlations either disappear or reverse in sign.
Abstract: The existing literature on welfare effects on female headship in the United States shows significant positive correlations in cross-section, possibly increasing over time. However, when geographic, or area, effects are permitted in the estimation, these correlations either disappear or reverse in sign. The results have implications for the study of welfare effects in other countries, including Canada, where benefits vary considerably across provinces and localities within them.

141 citations


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined whether the probability that a woman is currently married and the number of children she has borne, as reported in the 1980 U.S. Census, are related to two identifiable factors: the variation in welfare programs across states (specifically, AFDC and Medicaid benefits and AFDC-UP expenditures) or variation in the market wage opportunities available to women and to their potential husbands.
Abstract: The incidence of marriage and the proportion of childbearing that occurs within marriage have decreased sharply in the United States in the last several decades. This paper examines whether the probability that a woman is currently married and the number of children she has borne, as reported in the 1980 U.S. Census, are related to two identifiable factors: the variation in welfare programs across states (specifically, AFDC and Medicaid benefits and AFDC-UP expenditures) or the variation in the market wage opportunities available to women and to their potential husbands. AFDC and Medicaid benefit levels are associated with fewer women being currently married. Medicaid benefits are related to lower fertility levels for both black and white women, whereas AFDC benefits in cash and food are associated with lower fertility among white women ages 15-24. Those states that extend AFDC benefits to families with unemployed parents (in other words, fathers in intact poor families) do not have significantly more women married or higher fertility rates, contrary to what might be expected from economic incentives. Men's market wages are associated with more frequent marriage and higher fertility, whereas higher market wage opportunities for women have substantial effects in the opposite direction, all of which are consistent with standard models of gender specialization and the demand for marriage and fertility.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: This paper applied single and simultaneous equation fixed-effects (FE) and random effects (RE) panel data estimation techniques to obtain male and female earnings function parameters, and found that earnings appreciation with experience and depreciation with labor market intermittency are comparable for men and women.
Abstract: This paper applies single and simultaneous equation fixed-effects (FE) and random-effects (RE) panel data estimation techniques to obtain male and female earnings function parameters. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), the paperfinds that earnings appreciation with experience and depreciation with labor market intermittency are comparable for men and women. Further, skill atrophy rates increase not decrease once one controls for heterogeneity and endogeneity. Finally the unexplained male-female wage differential declines from 40 percent to 20 percent when one adjusts for heterogeneity. Adjusting for endogeneity depends very much on the choice of instruments. However, when adjusting for endogeneity the gender earnings gap falls and approaches zero percent. These results hold for two separate subsamples so that the estimates appear robust independent of sample selectivity.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: The impact of unionization on male-female earnings differences in Canada was analyzed using data spanning 1981 to 1988, a period in which the male female unionization gap narrowed considerably.
Abstract: The impact of unionization on male-female earnings differences in Canada is analyzed using data spanning 1981 to 1988, a period in which the male-female unionization gap narrowed considerably Gender differences in union density, union wages, and nonunion wages are decomposed into characteristics-related and discriminatory components We find that the drop in the gender unionization gap prevented an increase of 7 percent in the overall wage differential between men and women Also, male-female earnings differences in the nonunion sector make a substantially larger contribution to the gender earnings gap than do those in the union sector

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated 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.
Abstract: 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.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this article, a new way is proposed to distinguish between the human capital and the signaling theories of the value of education, and the conclusion that human capital rather than signaling is the predominant explanation of schooling's value.
Abstract: A new way is proposed to distinguish between the human capital and the signaling theories of the value of education. If education is a signal, then the essence of the signal should be distilled in the position of an individual in the distribution of education for his cohort. Estimating earnings equations that include both absolute (years) and relative (percentile) measures of education provides a test of the two competing theories. Analyzing two separate panel data sources under a range of alternative specifications, we find that the years measure of schooling has a consistently significant positive effect on earnings, but that the rank measure rarely does. This evidence supports the conclusion that human capital rather than signaling is the predominant explanation of schooling's value.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed and applied a method for estimating workers' marginal willingess to pay for job attributes when workers' job choices are characterized by imperfect information and labor market search.
Abstract: This paper develops and applies a method for estimating workers' marginal willingess to pay for job attributes when workers' job choices are characterized by imperfect information and labor market search. As an application, this paper analyzes the job durations of white males using data from the National Longitudinal Survey, Youth Cohort and the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. Estimates of workers' willingness to pay derived from the job duration model are compared with those derived from an hedonic wage model.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: This paper examined the post-birth work experience of these women up through 1987 as well as their employment and earnings in 1987 in relation to their employment activity in the period immediately surrounding the first birth.
Abstract: Focusing on a group of women from the National Longitudinal Surveys who had a first birth between 1968 and 1973, this paper examines the post-birth work experience of these women up through 1987 as well as their employment and earnings in 1987 in relation to their employment activity in the period immediately surrounding the first birth. Early employment behavior is a significant independent predictor of lifetime work experience. Differences in work behavior according to first-birth employment are still evident 14-19 years after the first birth, particularly for women who returned to work within six months following the birth. The corresponding differences in lifetime work experience result in higher wages.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: The authors found that no work search treatment significantly increased UI receipt, relative to the standard work-search approach, by 3.3 weeks and $265 per claimant, and that the treatment with the most intensive requirements reduced UI payments by one-half of a week or $70 per claimant.
Abstract: This paper describes findings from an experimental evaluation of alternative work-search policies in the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program. We find that the no work-search treatment significantly increased UI receipt, relative to the standard work-search approach, by 3.3 weeks and $265 per claimant, and that the treatment with the most intensive requirements reduced UI payments by one-half of a week or $70 per claimant. The results suggest that work-search requirements reduce UI spells by increasing the nonmonetary costs of remaining on UI, rather than enhancing job search abilities. We also find little treatment effects for wages, earnings, or total income, suggesting that an increase in the nonmonetary costs of continued UI receipt are associated with more intensive job search, rather than a reduction in the reservation wage.

Report•DOI•
TL;DR: This article used data on sisters to jointly address heterogeneity bias and endogeneity bias in estimates of wage equations for women, and found evidence of biases in OLS estimates for white and black women, some of which are detected only when the two sources of bias are simultaneously.
Abstract: We use data on sisters to jointly address heterogeneity bias and endogeneity bias in estimates of wage equations for women. This analysis yields evidence of biases in OLS estimates of wage equations for white and black women, some of which are detected only when the two sources of bias are addressed simultaneously. For both white and black women there is evidence of upward bias in the estimated returns to schooling. Bias-corrected estimates of the effect of marriage on wages, for white women, suggest a positive marriage premium. We also use the sibling data to identify our models, and test a number of other commonly-used identifying assumptions as overidentifying restrictions.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this paper, the effect on fertility of personal tax exemption for children, child tax credit, family allowances, and maternity leave benefits in Canada using time-series data from 1921 to 1988 was investigated.
Abstract: This paper estimates the effect on fertility of the personal tax exemption for children, child tax credit, family allowances, and maternity leave benefits in Canada using time-series data from 1921 to 1988. It is found that the exemption, child tax credit, and family allowances all have significant and positive effects on fertility; the results are robust to a variety of specifications including first-differencing. While the three tax-transfer programs seem to be very distinct, the null hypothesis that they have no differential effects on fertility can hardly be rejected. All the results also hold for the cumulative effect of the three tax-transfer programs. The estimates predict that a large increase in the value of the tax-transfer programs would be needed to increase fertility to the replacement level.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus upon intergenerational transfers overlapping generation models generational accounting and life cycle saving while assuming golden rule steady states and stable age profiles of transfers and economic activity, and explore how resource allocation over the life cycle generates real wealth and transfer wealth through the family public sector and financial markets.
Abstract: This paper focuses upon intergenerational transfers overlapping generation models generational accounting and life cycle saving while assuming golden rule steady states and stable age profiles of transfers and economic activity. Using 1987 US data synthetic cohort methods were employed to explore how resource allocation over the life cycle generates real wealth and transfer wealth through the family public sector and financial markets. While data problems assumption violations and accounting framework shortcomings would not permit firm conclusions transfer wealth in the US nonetheless seems to be about 2/3 greater than real wealth. Social Security wealth Medicare wealth and government debt are the main positive forms of wealth and together have greater value than real wealth. Transfer wealth must therefore displace holdings of physical capital and lead to lower labor productivity and higher interest rates.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this article, the empirical associations between female labor supply and child status and marital status using 1970 and 1980 U.S. census data and 1971 and 1981 Canadian census data were examined.
Abstract: This study examines the empirical associations between female labor supply and child status and marital status using 1970 and 1980 U.S. census data and 1971 and 1981 Canadian census data. When the data are used in a purely cross-sectional manner, without controlling for previous labor supply, we find, as others have, that female labor supply is negatively related to the number of children a woman has had. However, this relationship changes when we condition on weeks of work in the previous year. This study makes use of longitudinal information in the Canadian and U.S. census data that has been largely ignored. The paper also explores certain econometric issues raised by the nature of the empirical results.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: This paper found that the effect offather-in-law's schooling is larger than offather's schooling in Brazil, while the opposite is observed in the United States, with differences in assortative mating and female labor market activity explaining the differences in the apparent effect of fathers and fathers-inlaw in the two countries.
Abstract: We use comparable surveys from Brazil and the United States to examine "vertical" and "horizontal" connections between families. Motivated by a model of assortative mating and intergenerational transmission of schooling and earnings, we include the schooling of relatives in male wage equations. We find that the effect offather-in-law's schooling is larger than the effect offather's schooling in Brazil, while the opposite is observed in the United States. We interpret these effects as indicators of unobservable worker characteristics, with differences in assortative mating and female labor market activity explaining the differences in the apparent effect of fathers and fathers-in-law in the two countries.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this paper, a model of the relationships among functional impairments, work disability, employment participation, and wage offers was developed separately for males and females with data from the 1984 Survey of Income and Program Participation.
Abstract: This article develops a model of the relationships among functional impairments, work disability, employment participation, and wage offers. The model is estimated separately for males and females with data from the 1984 Survey of Income and Program Participation. Using estimates of disability and wage equations, we rank 25 functional impairments by severity of disability, and estimate the wage penalty associated with each impairment. The results show that limitations to mobility and strength are relatively more disabling for males than for females, while the opposite is true for limitations to sensory capacities and appearance.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: This article used PSID data from 1967 to 1987 to examine changes in persistence over time, finding that there is little change in persistence because as women entered the labor force in greater numbers they tended to become continuous workers, replacing continuous nonworkers.
Abstract: Previous research has shown that female hours of work are very persistent over women's lifetimes-that women tend to be either workers or nonworkers. This paper uses PSID data from 1967 to 1987 to examine changes in persistence over time. The overall finding is that there is little change in persistence because as women entered the labor force in greater numbers they tended to become continuous workers, replacing continuous nonworkers. Among older women, spells of reduced hours are now less prolonged (holding constant a fixed effect). Among young women, the persistence of hours has increased slightly over time, and patterns of employment now appear to develop prior to marriage and continue into the married years.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this article, the benefits and costs of training and subsidized employment provided to welfare recipients in demonstration programs in seven states were examined and a classical experimental design was used to estimate the effect of these demonstrations on earnings and welfare benefits over 33 months following program entry.
Abstract: This paper examines the benefits and costs of training and subsidized employment provided to welfare recipients in demonstration programs in seven states. A classical experimental design is used to estimate the effect of these demonstrations on earnings and welfare benefits over 33 months following program entry. Both effects are substantial and, in some cases, long-lived. When combined with data on program costs, these findings indicate that, while not always cost effective for taxpayers, subsidized employment for welfare recipients does convey positive net benefits to participants and to society as a whole.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed the turnover and promotion of male and female lawyers, using data on two cohorts of lawyers; one which entered law firms between 1969 and 1973, and the other entering between 1980 and 1983.
Abstract: This paper analyzes the turnover and promotion of male and female lawyers, using data on two cohorts of lawyers; one which entered law firms between 1969 and 1973, and the other entering between 1980 and 1983. This study considers whether law firm promotion decisions have differed for women, and if so, whether these differences have declined over time. A competing risks duration model is employed to capture the link between the lawyer's decision to stay or leave and the firm's decision to grant or deny promotion. We find that over the entire sample period, women are considerably less likely to be promoted and slightly more likely to leave the firm without being promoted. However, we also find that the parametric differential between men and women in partnership hazards has been reduced substantially, and in the most general of our specifications, eliminated across the two cohorts. In contrast, the gap between male and female job turnover rates does not appear to change over time. We find that the gap between males and females in the cumulative partnership rate at seven years of experience falls from 32 to 14 percent. The turnover gap increases about 0.2 percent, with females slightly more likely to exit from the firm in the later period.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: The causes of gender differences in pensions are examined for retirees and employees using the 1982 Newly Entitled Beneficiary Survey, and the 1979 and 1988 May Current Population Surveys as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The causes of gender differences in pensions are examined for retirees and employees using the 1982 Newly Entitled Beneficiary Survey, and the 1979 and 1988 May Current Population Surveys. For both retirees and the employed population, much of the gender gap in coverage is accounted for by gender differences in labor market characteristics. While children and marriage have a negative effect on female coverage among retirees even after controlling for labor market characteristics, the negative effect is not observed among more recent groups of female employees. Finally, recent convergence of male and female labor market characteristics contributed to a decline in the coverage gap during the 1980s.

Report•DOI•
TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of illicit drug use on the labor supply of a sample of young adults using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) were analyzed.
Abstract: This paper analyzes the effects of illicit drug use on the labor supply of a sample of young adults using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The paper investigates whether the frequency and timing of marijuana and cocaine use are systematically related to labor supply, and presents both cross-sectional and panel data estimates. The cross-sectional results are consistent with those of previous researchers, and suggest that illicit drug use has large, negative effects on labor supply. The longitudinal results, however, suggest that illicit drug use does not have a significant adverse impact on labor supply.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this paper, a self-selection/job matching model is proposed for the transition from technical to managerial jobs, where both technical and managerial ability are assumed to be positively but not perfectly correlated.
Abstract: The authors present and empirically test a self-selection/job matching model of a common transition in the careers of scientists and engineers-the move from technical to managerial jobs. Technical and managerial ability are assumed to be positively but not perfectly correlated, so that technical job performance provides information about both technical and managerial ability upon which to base the decision to become a manager. NSF panel data provides evidence that managerial and technical productivity are positively correlated, and that information received while on the job does influence the worker's selection of a managerial or a technical career path.