A new GLO Discussion Paper finds that local politicians in India systematically misallocate resources based on party loyalty and successfully deliver votes to their national co-partisans.
Author Abstract: Local politicians can function as crucial intermediaries between voters and party bosses in a clientelistic network. We study their role by matching data on 300 million welfare payments in the Indian state of West Bengal to village-level election returns. Local politicians systematically misallocate resources based on party loyalty and successfully deliver votes to their national co-partisans. Politicians are compensated for successful mobilization through a performance bonus immediately after the national election. The (promise of) increased compensation from government funds induces opposition candidates to switch to the ruling party in strategically important local councils, bringing them under its control.
Laura V. Zimmermann has a joint appointment as Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and in theDepartment of International Affairs at the University of Georgia. She recently presented her research on gender bias and policy in India summarized in GLO Discussion Paper No. 888 at the Fourth IESR-GLO Conference. Video of presentation: LINK
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.
Author Abstract:This paper is the first to investigate the role of firm-level upstreamness (i.e. the number of steps before the production of a firm meets final demand) in explaining wage differences according to workers’ origin. Using unique linked employer-employee data relative to the Belgian manufacturing industry for the period 2002-2010, our estimates show that firms that are further up in the value chain pay significantly higher wages. However, the wage premium associated with upstreamness is also found to vary substantially depending on the origin of the workers. Unconditional quantile estimates suggest that those who benefit the most from being employed in more upstream firms are high-wage workers born in developed countries. In contrast, workers born in developing countries, irrespective of their earnings, appear to be unfairly rewarded. Quantile decompositions further show that, while differences in average values of upstreamness according to workers’ origin play a limited role, differences in wage premia associated with upstreamness account for a substantial part of the wage gap between workers born in developed and developing countries, especially at the top of the earnings distribution. These results are shown to be robust to a number of sensitivity tests, including broader or narrower definitions of workers’ wages and different firm environments in terms of technological and knowledge intensity.
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.
A new GLO Discussion Paper shows that studies cited by psychologists claiming there are no U-shapes are in error. The effects of the mid-life dip are comparable to major life events such as losing a spouse or becoming unemployed.
Author Abstract: A number of studies – including our own – find a mid-life dip in well-being. Yet several papers in the psychology literature claim that the evidence of a U-shape is “overblown” and if there is such a thing that any such decline is “trivial”. Others have claimed that the evidence of a U-shape “is not as robust and generalizable as is often assumed,” or simply “wrong.” We identify 424 studies, mostly published in peer reviewed journals that find U-shapes that these researchers apparently were unaware of. We use data for Europe from the Eurobarometer Surveys (EB), 1980-2019; the Gallup World Poll (GWP), 2005-2019 and the UK’s Annual Population Survey, 2016-2019 and the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey of August 2021, to examine U-shapes in age in well-being. We find remarkably strong and consistent evidence across countries of statistically significant and non-trivial U-shapes in age with and without socio-economic controls. We show that studies cited by psychologists claiming there are no U-shapes are in error; we reexamine their data and find differently. The effects of the mid-life dip we find are comparable to major life events such as losing a spouse or becoming unemployed. This decline is comparable to half of the unprecedented fall in well-being observed in the UK in 2020 and 2021, during the Covid19 pandemic and lockdown, which is hardly “inconsequential” as claimed.
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.
Global Labor Organization (GLO) invites interested young scholars to apply for participation in the 2021-22GLO Virtual Young Scholars Program (GLO VirtYS). This is the third cohort of the successful GLO venture to support career developments of young researchers. It also provides a unique opportunity to interact with the large and very active GLO global network.
Application deadlineEXTENDED: September 24, 2021, 5 pm GM.
A new GLO Discussion Paper finds that self-reported physical and mental health decreased in 2013 and in 2019 compared to 2009indicating the need for more inclusive health strategies.
Author Abstract: In Greece, given the precarious nature of the sex work industry, sex workers health and wellbeing is of concern. However, relevant research remains limited. This study examined whether sex workers’ self-reported physical and mental health deteriorated across time points during the economic recession in Athens, Greece. The study focused on 13 areas where off-street and street-based sex work occured. Cross-sectional data was collected from the same areas in 2009 (i.e. before the economic recession began) and in 2013 and 2019 (i.e. at time points during the recession). Self-reported physical and mental health decreased in 2013 and in 2019 compared to 2009. A positive association was found between the country’s gross domestic product and sex workers’ self-reported physical and mental health. The opposite was found for annual aggregate unemployment. The determinants of better self-reported physical and mental health were sex workers’ economic condition, Greek nationality, off-street sex work, and registered sex work status. The opposite was found for more years’ involvement in sex work and drug consumption. Findings indicate the need for more inclusive health strategies, especially during periods of economic downturn when sex workers’ physical/mental health is likely to decline. This is the first study to investigate the association between economic recession and sex workers’ self-reported physical and 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.
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Presentations in this series are based on the projects that GLO-VirtYS program scholars completed as part of the their program participation. See for the details VirtYs program and the cohort 2021.
September 16th 2021 Program on 1 pm London/UK time.
Odmaa Narantungalag, Massey University and GLO Affiliate The Local Impacts of Natural Resource Extraction: Evidence from Mongolia (GLO VirtYS program advisor Professor Almas Heshmati)
Soumya Pal, Centre for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and GLO Affiliate Weather Shock, Agricultural Productivity, and Infant Health: A Tale of Environmental Justice (GLO VirtYS program advisor Professor Kompal Sinha)
Chaired by GLO VirtYS Program Director Olena Nizalova.
Odmaa Narantungalag is a Ph.D. student in economics at Massey University in New Zealand. Her research interests are in development economics, natural resource economics, and health economics. Odmaa holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from American University in Bulgaria and a Master of Public Administration from Tsinghua University, China. Prior to starting her doctoral studies, Odmaa worked as a national consultant at the Ministry of Economic Development and Ministry of Finance in Mongolia for various projects implemented by the World Bank and United Nations Development Programme.
GLO VirtYS project: The Local Impacts of Natural Resource Extraction: Evidence from Mongolia
This paper investigates the local economic impacts of a large-scale copper-gold mine in Mongolia. Employing household data from 2008 to 2016, I find positive economic effects of the mine. A ten percent increase in mining activities resulted in 2.2 and 2.3 percent increases in income and food consumption, respectively. Mining activities enabled households to increase their medical expenditures, while sickness did not increase significantly. In contrast, education expenditures dropped while educational attainments improved in mining areas. Both expenditure patterns indicate that large-scale extractive industries can positively benefit residents, and corporate social responsibility activities further enhance the mining sector’s traditional benefits.
Soumya Pal is PhD Candidate at the Centre for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. His research interests are broadly in the domain of Climate Change, Regulations, and Environmental Justice. His doctoral thesis focuses on Economics of Climate Change and Environmental Regulations. He completed his bachelor’s in Statistics, Master’s, and M.Phil. in Demography.
GLO VirtYS project: Weather Shock, Agricultural Productivity, and Infant Health: A Tale of Environmental Justice
We study how income shock due to extreme weather fluctuations causally impacts the birth outcomes. We selected households depended directly on agriculture due to their extreme vulnerability to temperature and rainfall shocks. We find large efficiency loss attributed to weather shock for major food crops to the extent of 20%. However, we find that access to technology provides resilience against weather shock, therefore, causing the heterogeneity in vulnerability across farming households. Based on it, we designed the agriculture-household model, which predicts that health outcomes of child are dependent on income shock due to abrupt change in weather conditions. We tested the hypothesis by introducing weather shock in the cropping season before the conception of child to eliminate the confounding effect of direct impact due to extreme weather conditions. We find that weather shocks in cropping season, increases the likelihood of child mortality, low birth weight, and birth size. We further find that access to technology, financial tools, and economic security net reduces the impact of income loss due to weather shock. Our results suggests that access to resilient capabilities leads to heterogeneous impact across farmer households causing environmental injustice. Further, our findings provide insights into the policy design for long term shift in weather patterns due to climate change and stresses on the inequality in resilience against extreme weather events.
A new GLO Discussion Paper finds that discretionary fiscal policy measures in Austria are key to counteracting the inequality- and poverty-enhancing effect of COVID-19.
Author Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on household income in Austria, using detailed administrative labor market data, in combination with micro-simulation techniques, that enable specific labor market transitions to be modeled. We find that discretionary fiscal policy measures in Austria are key to counteracting the inequality- and poverty-enhancing effect of COVID-19. Additionally, we find that females tend to experience a greater loss in terms of market income. The Austrian tax-benefit system, however, reduces this gender differences. Disposable income has dropped by around 1% for both males and females. By comparison, males profit mainly from short-time work scheme, while females profit especially from other discretionary policy measures, such as the one-off payment for children.
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.
The WIDER Development Conference 2021 took place online on September 6-8, 2021 organized by UNU-WIDER, Helsinki. On September 8, UNU-MERIT, Maastricht, contributed a Panel Session on The Future of Work chaired by UNU-MERIT Professorial FellowKlaus F. Zimmermann. Under his guidance, a prominent group of speakers from academia and practice discussed the perspectives for future work in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. UNU-WIDER will soon publish the video of the session.
The Panel
Nobuya Haraguchi (UNIDO) Heads the Research and Industrial Policy Advice Division of UNIDO, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, in Vienna
Sangeeta Khorana (Bournemouth University) Professor of Economics at Bournemouth University
Francois Lafond (University of Oxford) Deputy Director of the Complexity Economics Programme and Lead Researcher at the Institute for New Economic Thinking
Aurelio Parisotto (ILO) Senior Economist at the Policy Integration Department
Panel with Chair and WIDER technical support
Session abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic impacted upon the way that production is organised and the way in which consumption takes place. There has been a much greater reliance on remote work and an increased use of automation technologies in many sectors, allowing firms to maintain and increase production levels in the face of social distancing and strict lockdowns. On the consumption side, there has been an increased use of e-commerce. To a large extent, such changes were underway prior to the pandemic with the pandemic increasing the speed of change rather than the direction. With vaccines being rolled out – albeit unevenly – and the direct effects of the pandemic beginning to subside in many parts of the world, it is an opportune time to consider the longer-term impacts of the pandemic on the future of work and production. It appears clear that the pandemic will lead to longer-term disruptions to labour markets, with an increased need for reskilling and an increased number of employees switching occupations. In this session, academics and practitioners will debate the longer-run implications of the pandemic on work in the developed and developing world, further considering and identifying what the appropriate policy responses are.
A new paper published ONLINE FIRST with free readlink in the Journal of Population Economics finds that left-behind parents experience lower utility when their adult children migrate.
Published ONLINE FIRST 2021: Journal of Population Economics READLINK: https://rdcu.be/cxiiq
Shu Cai
Author Abstract: This paper examines the impact of children’s migration on the well-being of left-behind parents using panel data on experienced utility measured by the Day Reconstruction Method. Exploiting exogenous variation in exposure to employment shocks at migration destinations for identification, we find that left-behind parents experience lower utility when their adult children migrate. This is partly due to increased working time and less time spent in social activities, and partly due to reduced utility within activity type. The latter effect is consistent with the finding of less physical care and psychological support from children who have migrated. These negative effects dominate the possible benefits of greater income associated with children’s migration.
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.
Author Abstract: The study replicates the first European field experiment on gay men’s labor market prospects in Greece. Utilizing the same protocol as the original study in 2006-2007, two follow-up field experiments took place in 2013-2014 and 2018-2019. The study estimated that gay men experienced occupational access constraints and wage sorting in vacancies offering lower remuneration. It was found that in 2013-2014 and 2018-2019, gay men experienced increasingly biased treatment compared to 2006-2007. Moreover, the results suggested that unemployment bore an association with occupational access constraints and wage sorting in vacancies offering lower remuneration for gay men. In each of the three experiments, this study captured recruiters’ attitudes toward gay men. A one standard deviation increase in taste-discrimination attitudes against gay men decreased their access to occupations by 9.6%. Furthermore, a one standard deviation increase in statistical-discrimination attitudes against gay men decreased their access to occupations by 8.1%. According to the findings, in 2013-2014 and 2018-2019, firms excluding gay applicants expressed a higher level of taste- and statistical-discrimination attitudes compared to 2006-2007. A gay rights backlash due to the LGBTIQ+ group’s attempt to advance its agenda, rising far-right rhetoric, and prejudice associated with economic downturns experienced in Greece might correspond with increasing biases against gay men.
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.
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