健康对非农就业及其工资决定的影响

利用 1 993年中国营养调查数据 ,本文探讨了中国农村地区健康对非农就业及其工资决定的影响 ,并试图从微观层面揭示中国农村地区健康与收入之间的关系。本文的主要发现是 ,对于劳动参与及非农就业机会 ,健康状况都有显著的影响 ;然而在传统的种植业领域 ,健康并不是劳动参与的决定性因素 ;同时 ,在农村的非农就业者中 ,健康并不是劳动力市场表现的重要因素。尽管如此 ,由于非农就业机会对家庭收入的重要作用 ,我们仍不难发现健康在获取非农就业收入乃至增加家庭收入方面的作用     

健康变化对劳动供给和收入影响的实证分析

本文使用中国健康与营养调查(CHNS)数据检验了居民健康状况变化对居民劳动供给和家庭收入的影响。通过控制基期健康状况和一系列个人特征,本文重点检验了可以被视作外生冲击的健康变化对居民劳动供给和家庭收入的影响。考虑到城乡居民以及性别在劳动供给以及收入上的差异,本文还分别分城乡和性别进行了回归分析。研究发现,滞后期健康状况与当期劳动供给和家庭收入显著正相关;健康恶化显著降低劳动供给和家庭收入。此外,健康与劳动供给和家庭收入之间的关系在城乡居民和性别之间均存在差异,具体地,城市居民和男性更容易因健康恶化退出劳动供给,农村居民和女性则会因健康改善增加劳动供给。这表明在评估健康干预政策时要综合考虑健康变化对公民社会经济状况(SES)可能造成的影响,同时,对城市居民和农村居民以及对男性和女性要区别考虑。     

性别偏好与人口转型

人口转型是工业化发展过程中普遍发生的重要经济和社会现象。本文从性别偏好对生育决策的影响这个角度解释了为什么当经济发展到一定程度后,人口生育率会显著下降。本文通过动态一般均衡模型说明了资本积累和技术进步会缩小男女劳动力在生产效率上的差异,从而使男女工资的不平等减少。而性别偏好程度又取决于男女劳动回报的差异,因此经济发展会降低性别偏好的程度,提高女孩对于家庭效用的贡献,这将影响到家庭的生育决策。数值模拟的结果表明,性别偏好程度的下降对人口转型具有重要的影响,当性别偏好程度显著降低时,人口生育率会下降。     

Tests of Income Pooling in Household Decisions

Using the Progresa data from Mexico, we investigate intrahousehold decision making using a variety of outcomes. We exploit both the experimental nature and the (short) panel dimension of the data to measure the impact of exogenous changes in the intrahousehold distribution of resources on household decisions. We test for global pooling of resources within households, which would correspond to the unitary model of household decision making. We also exploit a set of questions about power and the decision making process in the household to investigate aspects of strategic interactions between household members. Our findings confirm previous rejections of income pooling. We also cannot reject that the wife's relative income share is a significant determinant of the wife's decision making power in the household, with a higher share of income associated with more decision making power. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: J12, D13, H31.     

Child labor and agricultural shocks

This paper examines the relationship between household income shocks and child labor. In particular, we investigate the extent to which transitory income shocks lead to increases in child labor and whether household asset holdings mitigate the effects of these shocks. Using data from a household panel survey in Tanzania, we find that both relationships are significant. We investigate mechanisms that could account for these results, including buffer stocks and borrowing.     

Fiscal policy in a small open economy with cross-border labor mobility

The large and stable inflow of workers’ remittances through formal financial channels to developing countries prompted authorities to harness fiscal resources from this flow. This paper develops a macro-dynamic model of a small open economy with cross-border labor mobility emphasizing fiscal policy. The flow of remittances is the result of a household’s optimizing decision to migrate. We examine the macroeconomic responses to fiscal policies. First, we show that an economy with international migration is more resilient to demand shocks resulting from fiscal contraction. Second, the short-run association between remittances and domestic output depends on the sources of the shocks. Third, our results indicate that the equilibrium impact of a tax on remittances can be expansionary and welfare-improving when an economy is initially close to full employment. The presence of utility-enhancing government expenditure and a potential negative externality from over-allocation of labor abroad (over migration) justify the presence of distortionary taxes.     

Migration,Transfers and Child Labor

We examine agricultural child labor in the context of emigration, transfers and the ability to hire outside labor. We start by developing a theoretical background and show how hiring labor from outside the household and transfers to the household might induce a reduction in children's working hours. Analysis using Living Standards Measurement Survey (LSMS) data on the Kagera region in Tanzania lend support to the hypothesis that both emigration and remittances reduce child labor.     

Human capital, market imperfections, and labor reallocation in transition

In this paper, we investigate the effects of human capital and factor market imperfections on household decisions regarding labor use and reallocation in transition countries. We develop a model that accounts explicitly for heterogeneity in the supply of labor and analyze its impact on the allocation of labor. Furthermore, the effects of imperfections in the capital and labor markets on the reallocation process are modeled. Using a dataset based on a countrywide representative survey of Hungarian rural households, we estimate the effects empirically and find them to be important. Journal of Comparative Economics 32 (4) (2004) 745–774.     

Spain is different: Falling trends of inequality

In this article we characterize the evolution of inequality in hourly wages, hours of work, labor earnings, household disposable income and household consumption for Spain between 1985 and 2000. We look at both the Encuesta Continua de Presupuestos Familiares and the European Household Community Panel. Our analysis shows that inequality in individual net labor earnings and household net disposable income has decreased substantially. The decreases in the tertiary education premium and in the unemployment rate have been key ingredients to understand this falling trend. Public transfers have played a crucial role in smoothing out the inequality arising in the labor market, but instead the Spanish family does not seem to have been an important insurance mechanism. Regarding household consumption, inequality has fallen much less than inequality in household net disposable income, with the decrease mostly concentrated in the second half of the eighties. This suggests that the reduction in income inequality has affected the sources of permanent differences between households only during the second half of the eighties. Our estimates of the earnings process for the period are consistent with this view.     

Household tax evasion

Household members share public goods and make intra-household transfers. We show how these features of the household interact with the tax evasion decision, and identify the dimensions in which household evasion differs from individual evasion. In the model we present two members of a household choose how much to contribute to a household public good and how much self-employment income to evade. We are interested in how different evasion possibilities interact with the contribution decisions to the household public good and the role of income transfers within the household. We show the household evasion decision differs from the individual decision because it affects the outcome of the household contribution game. When household members are taxed as individuals neutrality applies when choices are not constrained. If the evasion level of one household member is constrained then an income transfer can generate a Pareto improvement. When the household members are jointly taxed there is a couple constraint on strategies and corner solutions can emerge.     

A New Dynamic Trade Model of Increasing Returns and Monopolistic Competition

This paper formulates a two‐country by two‐factor by two‐good dynamic Chamberlin–Heckscher–Ohlin model of international trade with endogenous time preferences. After proving the existence, uniqueness and local saddle‐point stability of the steady state, we examine the relationship between initial factor endowment and trade patterns in the steady state. It will be shown that (i) given that the representative household in each country supplies an equal amount of labor, only intra‐industry trade occurs in the steady state and (ii) other things being equal, the country with higher labor efficiency becomes the net exporter of the labor‐intensive good.     

The impact of regional and sectoral labor market conditions on wages and labor supply — An empirical analysis for married women using West-German Panel data

In this paper we examine the effects of regional and industry specific labor market indicators on wages and labor supply of married females. Based on the standard life cycle labor supply theory we derive a two equation censored panel model and estimate it using the Minimum Distance Method.For our empirical analysis we use four waves (1984–1987) of West German Panel data merged with regional indicators and industry specific demand side indicators. We obtain the result that, unlike industry specific indicators, regional demand side conditions have virtually no significant effect on market wages but that a direct effect of regional labor market conditions on labour supply remains. We conclude that regional labor market conditions can directly constrain the individual labor supply decision.     

Shifting Taxes from Labor to Consumption: More Employment and more Inequality?

This paper investigates the effect of shifting taxes from labor income to consumption on labor supply and the distribution of income in Germany. We simulate stepwise increases in the value‐added tax (VAT) rate, which are compensated by revenue‐neutral reductions in income‐related taxes. We differentiate between the personal income tax (PIT) and social security contributions (SSC). Based on a dual data base and a microsimulation model of household labor supply behavior, we find a regressive impact of such a tax shift in the short run. When accounting for labor supply adjustments, the adverse distributional impact persists for PIT reductions, while the overall effects on inequality and progressivity become lower when payroll taxes are reduced. This is partly due to increases in aggregate labor supply, resulting from higher work incentives.     

户籍特征对城市劳动力市场状态的影响——以北京市为例

中国城市劳动力市场存在四种不同户籍特征的劳动力群体——本地非农业户籍、本地农业户籍、外地非农业户籍和外地农业户籍劳动力。根据对北京市2005年1%人口抽样调查数据的分析,发现在上述四种户籍特征的劳动适龄人口中,劳动参与率和就业率逐次上升,而失业率则逐次下降。进一步的经济计量分析发现,户籍特征对劳动适龄人口的市场状态具有显著影响,与本市非农业户籍相比,包括本市农业户籍、外地农业户籍、外地非农业户籍等在内的其他各种户籍特征都不易于使劳动适龄人口处于失业和退出劳动力市场状态,户籍身份的差异确实对劳动适龄人口的劳动力市场状态产生了显著影响。     

Relative Affluence and Child Labor—Explaining a Paradox

Some micro level empirical studies found child labor incidence increasing even with improvement in the economic conditions of the poor. This paper provides a possible explanation as to why increase in absolute income may not be sufficient to solve the problem of child labor. We argue that people in general are not just concerned about their own consumption; they are very much affected by the consumption of their peers. While taking decisions regarding the time allocation of their children between work and leisure, parents do keep an eye on their relative position in the society. We develop a theoretical model of household decision making to show that child labor supply from a poor family can increase even with improvements in its economic conditions, if the family's relative position in the society deteriorates and if the relative status effect is sufficiently strong.     

户籍制度改革对农村劳动力流动影响模拟研究?--基于新经济地理学视角

文章基于新经济地理学中间投入品模型,将户籍制度、土地产权制度和不同劳动力流动模式等因素纳入研究框架中,构建了中国户籍制度演变模型,并通过数值计算模拟了户籍制度和土地产权制度改革对农村劳动力流动的影响。研究结果表明：(1)不同户籍制度的改革路径极大地影响了农村劳动力转移和经济发展,如果降低户籍制度对劳动力流动的束缚,经济系统会释放巨大的改革红利,而维持当前户籍制度不变将遭受较大损失;(2)不同土地产权制度的改革路径影响了户籍制度的改革效果,如果农民工“带着土地”进行转移将会放大户籍制度改革所释放的红利。这表明户籍制度改革和土地产权制度改革要协同进行,不仅要减少户籍制度对农民工迁移的束缚,还应保留其农用地承包权和宅基地使用权。文章的研究不仅丰富和完善了现有劳动力迁移理论,也为地方政府相关决策提供了新的思路。     

CAN INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS BE PROBLEMATIC? HONDURAN REMITTANCES AND LABOR SUPPLY DECISIONS

Declining work force participation rates are a potentially important public policy issue for governments in countries with large capital inflows. Here we consider remittances as both a household and individual characteristic to estimate the impact of this nonwage transfer on labor supply decisions in Honduras. Although an initial view suggests moderate reductions across the working‐age population, we find evidence of increased participation through a reallocation of labor time across work categories. Our inclusion of the individual nature of remittance reception suggests less emphasis on the unified household perspective is warranted. (JEL O15, O12, J29)     

Why is child labor illegal?

We present a theory of the emergence of laws restricting child labor or imposing mandatory education that is consistent with the fact that poor parents tend to oppose such laws. We find that if altruistic parents are unable to commit to educating their children, child-labor laws can increase the welfare of higher-income parents in an ex ante sense. On the basis of an empirical analysis of Latin-American household surveys, we demonstrate that per capita income in the country of residence has the predicted effect on child labor supply, even after controlling for other household characteristics.     

Remittances and household expenditure behaviour: Evidence from Senegal1

We use different econometric techniques, from propensity score matching to multinomial treatment methods, to assess the impact of internal and external remittances on several household budget shares in Senegal. When only considering the average impact of remittances on the household expenditure behaviour, we find an overall productive use of remittances. However, the impact of remittances disappears when the marginal spending behaviour is considered, i.e., households do not show a different consumption pattern with respect to their remittance status. The marginal spending behaviour therefore suggests that, in the decision on how to allocate expenditure, remittances are treated just as any other source of income.     

Impact of remittances on male and female labor force participation patterns in Africa: Quasi‐experimental evidence from Ghana

In this paper, we examine how remittances, an outcome of labor mobility, affect labor market activities in Ghana using detailed household and individual‐level data. This is important, considering the extensive literature that has documented the remittance–poverty reduction nexus. First, we find a strong negative association between household remittance‐receiving status and individual labor supply decisions using instrumental variable estimation techniques. Second, we find the depressing effect of remittances on labor supply decisions to be much stronger in rural areas. Rural women who reside in remittance‐receiving households are less likely to be in the labor force compared with those who do not reside in such households. Remittances have very little impact on labor supply decisions in urban areas. Our findings support that remittances can exacerbate long‐term poverty reduction in rural areas through lower labor force participation, and as such rural‐based and gender‐based interventions may be needed to help redirect remittance income.