Klaus F. Zimmermann

A new GLO Discussion Paper finds for The Netherlands that retirement of partnered men positively affects mental health of both themselves and their partners, while single men experience a drop in mental health.

The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.

GLO Discussion Paper No. 426, 2019

The Mental Health Effects of Retirement –  Download PDF
by Picchio, Matteo & van Ours, Jan C.

GLO Fellows Matteo Picchio & Jan van Ours

Author Abstract: We study the retirement effects on mental health using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design based on the eligibility age to the state pension in the Netherlands. We find that the mental effects are heterogeneous by gender and marital status. Retirement of partnered men positively affects mental health of both themselves and their partners. Single men retiring experience a drop in mental health. Female retirement has hardly any effect on their own mental health or the mental health of their partners. Part of the effects seem to be driven by loneliness after retirement.

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS,  EconPapers). Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.

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An article in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economics reveals that former residents of the German Democratic Republic have a smaller present bias than former residents of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Read more in:

Time preferences and political regimes: evidence from reunified Germany
Tim Friehe & Markus Pannenberg

READ LINK: https://rdcu.be/bXokz

Journal of Population Economics 33 (2020), 349–387
GLO Discussion Paper No. 306, 2019.

GLO Fellow Markus Pannenberg

Author Abstract: We use the separation and later reunification of Germany after World War II to show that a political regime shapes time preferences of its residents. Using two identification strategies, we find that former residents of the German Democratic Republic exhibit a significantly less pronounced present bias when compared with former residents of the Federal Republic of Germany, whereas measures of patience are statistically indistinguishable. Interpreting the years spent under the regime as a proxy for treatment intensity yields consistent results. Moreover, we present evidence showing that present bias predicts choices in the domains of health, finance, and education, thereby illustrating lasting repercussions of a regime’s influence on time preferences.

Read also the Lead Article of issue 1 (2020):
Hate at first sight? Dynamic aspects of the electoral impact of migration: the case of Ukip
Eugenio Levi, Rama Dasi Mariani & Fabrizio Patriarca
FREE READ LINK: https://rdcu.be/bXnWI
Journal of Population Economics, Vol. 33 (2020), Issue 1 (January), pp. 1-32.
GLO Fellows Eugenio Levi, Rama Dasi Mariani & Fabrizio Patriarca
Complete issue 1, read access to all articles.

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An article published in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economics finds that assortative mating in education has become stronger in the United States, which has contributed to the observed rise in inequality.

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The role of evolving marital preferences in growing income inequality
Edoardo Ciscato & Simon Weber

READ LINK: https://rdcu.be/bXokl

Journal of Population Economics 33 (2020), 307–347

Author Abstract: In this paper, we describe mating patterns in the USA from 1964 to 2017 and measure the impact of changes in marital preferences on between-household income inequality. We rely on the recent literature on the econometrics of matching models to estimate complementarity parameters of the household production function. Our structural approach allows us to measure sorting along multiple dimensions and to effectively disentangle changes in marital preferences and in demographics, addressing concerns that affect results from existing literature. We answer the following questions: Has assortativeness increased over time? Along which dimensions? To what extent can the shifts in marital preferences explain inequality trends? We find that, after controlling for other observables, assortative mating in education has become stronger. Moreover, if mating patterns had not changed since 1971, the 2017 Gini coefficient between married households would be 6% lower. We conclude that about 25% of the increase in between-household inequality is due to changes in marital preferences. Increased assortativeness in education positively contributes to the rise in inequality, but only modestly.

Read also the Lead Article of issue 1 (2020):
Hate at first sight? Dynamic aspects of the electoral impact of migration: the case of Ukip
Eugenio Levi, Rama Dasi Mariani & Fabrizio Patriarca
FREE READ LINK: https://rdcu.be/bXnWI
Journal of Population Economics, Vol. 33 (2020), Issue 1 (January), pp. 1-32.
GLO Fellows Eugenio Levi, Rama Dasi Mariani & Fabrizio Patriarca
Complete issue 1, read access to all articles.

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Despite a measured strong cross-sectional relationship between income and health, a new article in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economics finds no necessary connection between changes in income inequality and changes in health inequality.

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Pauvreté, Egalité, Mortalité: mortality (in)equality in France and the United States
Janet Currie, Hannes Schwandt & Josselin Thuilliez

READ LINK: https://rdcu.be/bXojg

Journal of Population Economics 33 (2020), 197–231

GLO Fellow Hannes Schwandt

Author Abstract: We develop a method for comparing levels and trends in inequality in mortality in the United States and France between 1990 and 2010 in a similar framework. The comparison shows that while income inequality has increased in both the United States and France, inequality in mortality in France remained remarkably low and stable. In the United States, inequality in mortality increased for older groups (especially women) while it decreased for children and young adults. These patterns highlight the fact that despite the strong cross-sectional relationship between income and health, there is no necessary connection between changes in income inequality and changes in health inequality.

Read also the Lead Article of issue 1 (2020):
Hate at first sight? Dynamic aspects of the electoral impact of migration: the case of Ukip
Eugenio Levi, Rama Dasi Mariani & Fabrizio Patriarca
FREE READ LINK: https://rdcu.be/bXnWI
Journal of Population Economics, Vol. 33 (2020), Issue 1 (January), pp. 1-32.
GLO Fellows Eugenio Levi, Rama Dasi Mariani & Fabrizio Patriarca
Complete issue 1, read access to all articles.

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The number of deaths from the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to fall. This is particularly true in Africa with a striking example in South Africa, where new infections and deaths have both been reduced by 40 percent since 2010. However, the problem is still worrisome in the South of the USA and in Eastern Europe. (See the three figures below.)

The Journal of Population Economics has published a number of economic research articles on the disease and the societal consequences. The 2019 Kuznets Prize of the Journal was devoted to a recent article:

Yoo-Mi Chin & Nicholas Wilson, Disease risk and fertility: evidence from the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Journal of Population Economics, 31 (2018), 429–451.
The article shows that a fall in the disease risk decreases the total fertility rate in Africa, and hence contributes to the needed slowdown of population growth on the continent. Read the article for free read & share: LINK
Further articles free to read & share see below.

ECONOMIC RESEARCH ON HIV/AIDS

• Demographic consequences of HIV Read & share: LINK
  Martin Karlsson, Stefan Pichler in Journal of Population Economics (2015)
• Perception of HIV risk and the quantity and quality of children: the case of rural Malawi Read & share: LINK
  Ruben Castro, Jere R. Behrman, Hans-Peter Kohler in Journal of Population Economics (2015)
• Childhood disease and the precautionary demand for children
  Read & share: LINK
  Anna-Maria Aksan, Shankha Chakraborty in Journal of Population Economics (2013)
• HIV and fertility in Africa: first evidence from population-based surveys
  Read & share: LINK
  Chinhui Juhn, Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan, Belgi Turan in Journal of Population Economics (2013)
• Left behind: intergenerational transmission of human capital in the midst of HIV/AIDS Read & share: LINK
  Mevlude Akbulut-Yuksel, Belgi Turan in Journal of Population Economics (2013)
• AIDS, “reversal” of the demographic transition and economic development: evidence from Africa Read & share: LINK
  Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan in Journal of Population Economics (2012)
• Uncovering the impact of the HIV epidemic on fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa: the case of Malawi Read & share: LINK
  Dick Durevall, Annika Lindskog in Journal of Population Economics (2011)
• Changes in HIV/AIDS knowledge and testing behavior in Africa: how much and for whom? Read & share: LINK
  Peter Glick, David E. Sahn in Journal of Population Economics (2007)

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A new article in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economics suggests that migrant social networks in host cities mitigate adverse mental health challenges of Chinese rural-urban migrant workers.

Read more in:

Social networks and mental health outcomes: Chinese rural–urban migrant experience
Xin Meng & Sen Xue

READ LINK: https://rdcu.be/bXoi1

Journal of Population Economics 33 (2020), 155–195
GLO Discussion Paper No. 370, 2019.

GLO Fellows Xin Meng & Sen Xue

Author Abstract: Over the past two decades, more than 160 million Chinese rural workers have migrated to cities to work. They are separated from their familiar rural networks to work in an unfamiliar, and often hostile, environment. Many of them thus face significant mental health challenges. This paper is the first to investigate the extent to which migrant social networks in host cities can mitigate these adverse mental health effects. Using unique longitudinal survey data from Rural-to-Urban Migration in China (RUMiC), we find that network size matters significantly for migrant workers. Our preferred instrumental variable estimates suggest that a one standard deviation increase in migrant city networks, on average, reduces the measure of mental health problems by 0.47 to 0.66 of a standard deviation. Similar effects are found among the less educated, those working longer hours, and those without access to social insurance. The main channel of the network effect is through boosting migrants’ confidence and reducing their anxiety.

Read also the Lead Article of issue 1 (2020):
Hate at first sight? Dynamic aspects of the electoral impact of migration: the case of Ukip
Eugenio Levi, Rama Dasi Mariani & Fabrizio Patriarca
FREE READ LINK: https://rdcu.be/bXnWI
Journal of Population Economics, Vol. 33 (2020), Issue 1 (January), pp. 1-32.
GLO Fellows Eugenio Levi, Rama Dasi Mariani & Fabrizio Patriarca
Complete issue 1, read access to all articles.

Ends;

A new article in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economics suggests that intergenerational altruism explains between 24% and 42% of the African American Great Migration.

Read more in:

Intergenerational altruism in the migration decision calculus: evidence from the African American Great Migration
John Gardner

READ LINK: https://rdcu.be/bXohN

Journal of Population Economics 33 (2020), 115–154

GLO Fellow John Gardner

Author Abstract: It is widely believed that many migrations are undertaken at least in part for the benefit of future generations. To provide evidence on the effect of intergenerational altruism on migration, I estimate a dynamic residential location choice model of the African American Great Migration in which individuals take the welfare of future generations into account when deciding to remain in the Southern USA or migrate to the North. I measure the influence of altruism on the migration decision as the implied difference between the migration probabilities of altruistic individuals and myopic ones who consider only current-generation utility when making their location decisions. My preferred estimates suggest that intergenerational altruism explains between 24 and 42% of the Northward migration that took place during the period that I study, depending on the generation.

Read also the Lead Article of issue 1 (2020):
Hate at first sight? Dynamic aspects of the electoral impact of migration: the case of Ukip
Eugenio Levi, Rama Dasi Mariani & Fabrizio Patriarca
FREE READ LINK: https://rdcu.be/bXnWI
Journal of Population Economics, Vol. 33 (2020), Issue 1 (January), pp. 1-32.
GLO Fellows Eugenio Levi, Rama Dasi Mariani & Fabrizio Patriarca
Complete issue 1, read access to all articles.

Ends;

A new article in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economics suggests that foreign aid may reduce asylum inflows from poor countries in the short run, but inflows from less poor economies show a positive but weak relation with aid. Aid is not an effective instrument to avoid migration flows.

Read more in:

Foreign aid, bilateral asylum immigration and development
Marina Murat

READ LINK: https://rdcu.be/bXofD

Journal of Population Economics 33 (2020), 79–114
GLO Discussion Paper No. 378, 2019.

GLO Fellow Marina Murat

Author Abstract: This paper measures the links between aid from 14 rich to 113 developing economies and bilateral asylum applications during the years 1993 to 2013. Results show that asylum applications are related to aid in a U-shaped fashion with respect to the level of development of origin countries, although only the downward segment proves to be robust to all specifications. Asylum inflows from poor countries are significantly and negatively associated with aid in the short run, with mixed evidence of more lasting effects, while inflows from less poor economies show a positive but non-robust relationship to aid. Moreover, aid leads to negative cross-donor spillovers. Applications linearly decrease with humanitarian aid. Voluntary immigration is not related to aid. Overall, the reduction in asylum inflows is stronger when aid disbursements are conditional on economic, institutional and political improvements in the recipient economy.

Read also the Lead Article of issue 1 (2020):
Hate at first sight? Dynamic aspects of the electoral impact of migration: the case of Ukip
Eugenio Levi, Rama Dasi Mariani & Fabrizio Patriarca
FREE READ LINK: https://rdcu.be/bXnWI
Journal of Population Economics, Vol. 33 (2020), Issue 1 (January), pp. 1-32.
GLO Fellows Eugenio Levi, Rama Dasi Mariani & Fabrizio Patriarca
Complete issue 1, read access to all articles.

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