Conditional Cash Transfers, Schooling Decisions, and Labor-Market Conditions

Conditional Cash Transfers and Labor Market Conditions

This paper examines previous studies on the labor market, and reviews research issues concerning its spatial structure.In labor market studies, it has been recognized that the labor market is not a homogeneous structure but a segmented one, due to differences within the labor force in terms of wage disparity, labor movement, and so on. In recent years, much research indicates that the boundaries of the segmentation of the labor market are fluid and indistinct. Labor economists are not very interested in issues related to spatial relations.In Geography, labor market studies have changed in scope since the 1970s. In previous labor market research, there was a tendency to emphasize locational change of manufacturing industry and rural districts, using the local labor market as an approach in dealing with research issues in each field. As a result, these studies did not focus on the spatial structure of the labor market on a national or district scale.In order to further develop research methods in this field, several issues need to be resolved.Firstly, we must examine the spatial structure of the labor market on a national or district scale. It is necessary to regard the local labor market as a labor market area formed by the interaction of its supply and demand-side, and to examine its spatial structure. One of the most effective methods to understand its spatial structure is via cluster analysis which describes local labor markets on variables representing labor market conditions.Secondly, we must consider the mechanisms that operate the spatial structure of the labor market. Although the influence of the location of industrial job opportunities mainly affects the labor market, we need to consider other factors to explain its spatial structure. It is necessary to examine the labor supply structure in each local labor market, the distance from the central city, changes in industrial structures, locality, longstanding conventions, and so on. Since the 1970s, the major proportion of employees in the employment structure of Japan has shifted from the manufacturing to the service sector. Following the collapse of the bubble economy, the number of young people entering the labor market as non-regular workers has increased in metropolitan areas. When we analyze factors other than the core-periphery relationship, it is expected that the mechanisms causing regional differences in labor market conditions, such as unemployment and labor supply and demand, will become increasingly clear.

Long-term effects of labor market conditions on family formation for Japanese youth

Regularisation remains a strategic site for studying the political economy of migrant socio‐economic incorporation. Research suggests that immigrant regularisation policies improve labour market opportunities for undocumented migrant workers in host societies – particularly those engaged in the informal economy. However, research on regularisation remains focused on national‐level policy efforts, despite increased political activity by sub‐national levels of government on immigration issues across migrant‐receiving societies. This article identifies and examines local migrant labour market regularisations – a new political geography of labour market regulation – and explores the potential of these policies to influence labour market mobility and opportunity for irregular migrants in the US. Using data on 5,528 policy ordinances across 3,067 city, counties, and states, implementation trends across four local migrant labour market regularisation policy domains were analysed for the time period 2001–2014. Case studies of local‐level government activism within each policy domain are also presented. Findings indicate that the implementation of local migrant labour market regularisations in the US has become increasingly unfavourable towards migrant workers and that within these new political geographies, local governments are emerging as central actors in shaping migrant labour market opportunities. The article concludes by reflecting on the implications these new political geographies present for the economic incorporation of irregular migrants and their role in constructing a new scalar reality of migrant labour market regulation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We examine the impacts of an unconditional cash transfer in Lesotho using an experimental impact evaluation design. We find that the cash transfer led to different outcomes for girls and boys, overall favouring secondary school-aged girls. Girls in this age group were less likely to miss school, spent more time at school, and faced a reduced time burden in household chores. While the general results are maintained in households with a married couple present, in de jure female-headed households, outcomes improved among secondary school-aged boys relative to secondary school-aged girls. By contrast, having the mother as cash recipient was not unequivocally linked to better educational outcomes for children. This puts into question the existence of gender preferences in schooling in Lesotho and suggests that impacts on child welfare are influenced by time and labor constraints and by gender-based differences in opportunity costs of a child’s time.

Must conditional cash transfer programs be conditioned to be effective? The impact of conditioning transfers on school enrollment in Mexico

This chapter focuses on Ronald L.Akers' social structure and social learning (SSSL) model of delinquency and addresses the gap by developing a more explicit conceptual and operational focus on labor market opportunity, adolescent violence, and potentially mediating social learning and family processes. It extends the literature by testing a social learning model of subcultural formation and violence among adolescents that has its roots in local labor market conditions and opportunity. The chapter reviews the key issues that have hindered subcultural perspectives and analyses, and describes the conceptual model that underlies the research. It tests SSSL model on a nationally representative sample of adolescents. The chapter discusses the potential effect of local labor market structure on social learning and, consequently, adolescent fighting—a clear-cut manifestation and indicator of violence. It concludes by discussing the implications of these results and SSSL model for the study of adolescent delinquency specifically, and for theories pertaining to structural opportunity, social learning processes, and violence generally.

Effectiveness of Active Labor Market Tools in Conditional Cash Transfers Programs: Evidence for Argentina

Labor Markets, Academic Performance and the Risk of School Dropout: Evidence for Spain

In the early 1970s the proportion of the nonagricultural labor force self-employed in the United States ceased its downward trend and has been rising ever since. This study provides an analysis of the causes of this change. A general-equilibrium model of self- employment and wage employment is analyzed, and aggregate U.S. time- series data are used to test predictions derived from the model. The empirical analysis indicates that changes in technology, industrial structure, tax rates, and social-security retirement benefits have contributed to the reversal of the previous downward trend, which had persisted for over a century. Copyright 1987 by University of Chicago Press.

What is the impact of the Olympic Games on an economy? Hosting an Olympic Games potentially offers benefits for the economy of the host city or region. The benefits include infrastructure construction related to the event, improved road or rail networks, consumption by tourists, and job creation. However, there are also potential drawbacks of hosting the event, such as high costs and underutilized facilities. Economists have studied the economic effects of the Olympic Games, but the existing empirical studies show mixed results. Miyoshi and Sasaki (2016) study the long-term effects of the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games on output and labor market outcomes in Nagano City and its neighboring areas. To estimate the impact of the Nagano Olympic Games on the local economy and labor markets, they compare the actual outcomes caused by the Olympic Games with a counterfactual outcome that would have been observed if the Olympic Game had not been held. The counterfactual outcome is constructed by using the synthetic control methodology developed by Abadie et al. (2010). Miyoshi and Sasaki find that the Nagano Olympic Games induced population inflows into Nagano Prefecture and had a positive impact on the local economy. They also find that the Nagano Olympic had no effect on the local labor market. Mega sports events, such as the Olympic Games and the World Cup, are expected to have not only short-run effects, but also long-run effects on the economy. Miyoshi and Sasaki (2016) place the long-run effects at center stage when they study the effect of Nagano Olympic Games on the local economy and labor market. This is a valuable paper for readers who are interested in economic effects of mega sports events. I have a few comments on the analysis presented in the paper. Miyoshi and Sasaki (2016) examine whether the Nagano Olympic Games has a positive effect on the local GDP by comparing the actual and estimated synthetic counterfactual trends in Nagano Prefecture's GDP. Their analysis shows that the Nagano Olympic Games had a positive impact on the local economy in the long run. However, their analysis did not measure the size of the impact. Since we are interested in knowing how much the event boosted the local economy, Miyoshi and Sasaki should measure the size of the impact of the Nagano Olympic Games on the local GDP. Miyoshi and Sasaki (2016) demonstrate that the Nagano Olympic Games had a significant positive impact on Nagano Prefecture's GDP and production in the real estate sector, but it did not have a significant impact on the local GDP per capita. A key to understanding these results is population dynamics. Miyoshi and Sasaki (2016) show that the Olympic Games induced population inflows into Nagano Prefecture, and argue that the increase in Nagano Prefecture's population increased production in the real estate sector, and Nagano Prefecture's GDP. The finding that the Olympic Games had a positive impact on the local population is of interest. I am wondering how the Olympic Games induced the population inflow in the long run. Miyoshi and Sasaki should provide some economic intuition for this result. To investigate the impact of the Nagano Olympic Games on the local labor market, Miyoshi and Sasaki (2016) use administrative data on job findings (Shokugyou Antei Gyoumu Tokei). As they mentioned, while this dataset comprehensively covers labor market conditions in local areas throughout Japan, it has a considerable drawback: sample selection bias. The dataset only captures job seekers and job vacancies registered at local employment service offices. Thus, unregistered job seekers and firms with vacancies are excluded from the dataset. According to the Labour Force Survey, less than half of the unemployed workers visit employment service offices as the primary way of searching for jobs. This implies that a large proportion of unemployed workers search for jobs without using the Employment Agency's services. Similarly, it is known that a large proportion of firms with vacancies search for workers without using the employment service offices (see e.g. Kodama et al., 2004). This leads to two questions: How serious is the sample selection bias? How does the sample selection bias affect the results of the paper? Sample selection bias may mitigate the positive effect of the Olympic Games on labor market outcomes. This implies that Miyoshi and Sasaki's conclusion may not be very accurate. I think that authors need to provide a better discussion of the problems caused by sample selection bias. I am also wondering how the Olympic Games affected wages, which are ignored in their analysis.

Family‐responsive benefits have important consequences for workers balancing work–family demands. Previous research on the distribution of family‐responsive benefits has focused on intra‐organizational determinants or general labour market characteristics, at the expense of local labour market factors. We address this deficiency by analysing a unique random sample of US work establishments nested in their local labour markets. Specifically, we ask whether, net of establishment and local labour market characteristics, women's local labour market standing influences the prevalence of family‐responsive benefits. The results indicate that women's labour market status, measured with a composite of occupational gender integration, aggregate educational attainment and percentage of women in managerial roles, has a strong positive net effect on the prevalence of family‐responsive workplace benefits. However, no significant interaction between women's status and establishment‐level characteristics was found. Our findings highlight the importance of local labour markets in the distribution of family‐responsive benefits across organizations.

This paper documents several facts about internal migrants in the US that underlie substantial areas of economic research and policy making, but are rarely directly published. Using a large-sample, 23-year panel, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York/Equifax Consumer Credit Panel, I estimate the distribution of changes in local labor market conditions experienced by people who move to a different labor market. Net migration favors local labor markets with lower unemployment and faster job growth, but gross flows toward weaker labor markets are almost as large as the flows toward stronger labor markets. During recessions, net flows temporarily favor weaker labor markets. Migrants frequently choose destinations with similar labor market conditions rather than moving to the markets with the highest growth or lowest unemployment at the time of their move. A hypothesis that personal financial health improves for people moving to tight local labor markets (or deteriorates for migrants to slack labor markets) is only partially supported in the data. Migrants to low-unemployment and high-employment growth regions have higher homeownership rates after they move. However, there are not clear advantages or disadvantages for migrants to strong or weak labor market regions as measured by credit scores, consumption, bankruptcy, or foreclosure.

School attendance and the perceived value of formal education: Evidence from Tanzania

Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs function in countries around the world and usually transfer cash to the mothers of the beneficiary children in order to facilitate women's '~development' and '~empowerment.' In most cases, the World Bank and the governments of the respective countries jointly operate these CCT programs. Since 1992, in Bangladesh, CCT programs operate via two broad education-based programs: the Female Secondary School Assistance Project (FSSAP) and the Primary Education Development Program (PEDP). Mainstream development thinkers and World Bank experts claim the exemplary nature of these programs in achieving their objectives including: delaying the marriage age for girls, increasing school enrollment, enabling employability, and enhancing empowerment within the household. However, critical development thinkers have found sufficient evidence that, instead of developing and empowering women, CCT programs are using women as '~conduits of policy' or as '~workhorses' in the name of gender-based development. Based on fieldwork done in northern Bangladesh in 2014, guided by feminist qualitative methodology, and through the analysis of testmonios of 13 mothers of the beneficiary children and girls, the present study found no corresponding empirical evidence to suggest any improvement in the wellbeing of women. On the contrary, women recounted concerns with the low quality of their children's education, and experiences when the stipend money adversely affected them. This study concludes that CCT programs are at best ineffective in meeting the stated goals, and at worst, aggravating structural violence against women in Bangladesh. --Leaf ii.