Differences In Employment Rates Research Articles

Health Capacity to Work among Older Adults in Viet Nam

In this paper, we estimated the additional health capacities to work of older Vietnamese adults by applying the Milligan–Wise and Cutler–Meara–Richards-Shubik methods with various nationally representative datasets. In following these methods, we postulated that older adults’ mortality rates, life expectancies, and health statuses were comparable to their younger counterparts. We found that there were significant differences in employment rates between various groups of older male and female adults, in which women generally had higher capacities to work than men if they both had similar mortality rates. Along with other sociodemographic and economic factors, health status is a significant factor in determining the probability of being employed for older adults. Based on these findings, we discuss needed policy options, with a focus on health-related issues, for Viet Nam to unleash the potential work capacities of older adults.

Employment among older men and women in Vietnam: How their health played a role?

Purpose This study aims to explore the situations and socio-economic and health-related factors associated with employment of older men and women in Vietnam. Design/methodology/approach This study used the nationally representative data in 2019 with a sample size of 3,049 older persons (those aged 60 and over). This study applied logistic regression analyses. Findings This study found that there were significant differences in employment rates between various groups of older men and women in terms of age group, residential place, marital status and educational level. Controlling for age, education, marital status, place of residence and (in) sufficient income for daily living, the results from logistic models indicated that health issues were strongly associated with lower probability to be employed for both genders. In all tests and regression models, that age and health condition were consistently related with lower employment probability of older persons implied an important consideration in raising normal retirement ages for both men and women. Research limitations/implications Due to limitation of the cross-sectional data, this research could not explore how health influences older people’s employment overtime. Practical implications Findings of this research provide important and adaptive policy insights for Vietnam to take advantage of older workers for economic growth under an aging population. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this has been among the first studies exploring the role of health, which was presented by different indicators, determining employment of older men and women in Vietnam.

Double Disadvantage in a Nordic Welfare State: A Demographic Analysis of the Single-Parent Employment Gap in Finland, 1987–2018

This study demonstrates how an evolving negative educational gradient of single parenthood can interact with changing labour market conditions to shape labour market inequalities between partnered and single parents. We analysed trends in employment rates among Finnish partnered and single mothers and fathers from 1987 to 2018. In the late 1980s’ Finland, single mothers’ employment was internationally high and on par with that of partnered mothers, and single fathers’ employment rate was just below that of partnered fathers. The gaps between single and partnered parents emerged and increased during the 1990s recession, and after the 2008 economic crisis, it widened further. In 2018, the employment rates of single parents were 11–12 percentage points lower than those of partnered parents. We ask how much of this single-parent employment gap could be explained by compositional factors, and the widening educational gradient of single parenthood in particular. We use Chevan and Sutherland’s decomposition technique on register data, which allows us to decompose the single-parent employment gap into the composition and rate effects by each category of the background variables. The findings point to an increasing double disadvantage of single parents: the gradually evolving disadvantage in educational backgrounds together with large differences in employment rates between single and partnered parents with low education explain large parts of the widening employment gap. Sociodemographic changes in interaction with changes in the labour market can produce inequalities by family structure in a Nordic society known for its extensive support for combining childcare and employment for all parents.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Clubhouse Employment Programs.

The Clubhouse model of psychosocial rehabilitation provides several employment opportunities to individuals who experience mental health concerns, including transitional, supported, and independent employment. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in Clubhouses having to adapt existing programs to online formats. Employment programs were further impacted, as many workplaces in the community closed or reduced capacity. The present study aimed to examine the rates of involvement in transitional, supported, and independent employment across six Clubhouses in Canada throughout the pandemic. 462 members completed surveys at five time points pertaining to participation in Clubhouse employment programs. The data was analyzed using Cochran's Q tests to determine differences in employment rates across time points. The results demonstrated an overall decrease in transitional and supported employment rates throughout the pandemic. Conversely, rates of independent employment were unchanged. It is evident that Clubhouse employment programs assist members in obtaining employment.The results suggest Clubhouses may benefit from exploring novel employment opportunities to support their members, such as remote work.

Club convergence and drivers of house prices across Turkish cities

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the convergence pattern of residential house prices in a panel of 55 major cities in Turkey over the period between 2010 and 2018 and to investigate the determinants of convergence club formations.Design/methodology/approachThe authors applied the log t-test to identify the convergence clubs and estimated ordered logit model to determine the key drivers.FindingsThe results suggest that there are five convergence clubs and confirm the heterogeneity of the Turkish housing market. Istanbul, the commercial capital, and Mugla, an attractive tourist destination, are at the top of the housing market and followed by the cities located in the western part, particularly along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts of Turkey. Moreover, the ordered logit model results point out that the differences in employment rate, climate, population density and having a metropolitan municipality play a significant role in determining convergence club membership.Practical implicationsLarge-scale policy measures aiming to increase employment opportunities in rural cities of central and eastern provinces and providing lower land prices and property taxes in the metropolitan cities of Turkey can help mitigate some of the divergence in the house prices across cities.Originality/valueThe novelty of this study lies in employing a new data set at the city level containing 55 cities in Turkey, which is by far the largest in terms of city coverage among emerging market economies to implement the log t-test. It also contributes to the literature on city-specific determinants of convergence club formation in the case of an emerging economy.

Pensionable age vs cross-country diversity of economic activity of the near-elderly

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine whether cross-country differences in pensionable age explain such differences in economic activity of people at near-retirement age.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical study uses regression models for macro-panel encompassing 21 European countries in the period 2008–2014.FindingsEmpirical results indicate that pensionable age is a determinant of cross-country differences in employment rate in the near-retirement age group, and less a factor differentiating average effective retirement age. It turns out that other factors matter, including salaries and wages as percentage of GDP (treated as a proxy for the occupational composition of populations across the countries studied), self-employment, participation in education and training, or self-perceived health.Social implicationsThe problem of economic activity at the near-retirement age is complex and cannot be limited to legal regulations concerning pensionable age. The policy aiming at stimulating the economic activity of the near-elderly should include actions on many sides including labour market, pension system, education, training, or health care.Originality/valueThe results complement studies based on the single-country approach and demonstrate that pensionable age does not account for cross-country differences in terms of average effective age of retirement when controlling for other factors. Moreover, factors differentiating effective retirement age and employments rates across countries studied are not similar.

Employment effects of on-the-job human capital acquisition

This paper quantifies the combined effect on-the-job training and workers’ on-the-job learning decisions have on aggregate employment. Initially, we present an index of on-the-job human capital acquisition (OJHCA) based on data from the OECD program for international assessment of adult competencies. The data shows a positive relationship between the on-the-job training and on-the-job learning indexes and a strong positive correlation between the human capital index and employment rates across OECD economies. Next, we build a search and matching model that hinges on the training provided by firms as well as workers’ learning. The model also includes education along with taxes that increase and decrease human capital investments. We calibrate the model to the United Kingdom and analyze the role of taxes and education to explain the variation in human capital acquired on-the-job, employment and productivity across countries. We also obtain the marginal costs in every country that reproduce the levels of on-the-job human capital as observed in the data. The model is almost able to reproduce the observed differences in employment rates between the groups of countries in the highest and lowest tertiles of the OJHCA distribution, and OJHCA accounts for forty percent of the simulated employment differences. Finally, we analyze subsidies to training costs and conclude that a 10% reduction in marginal training cost increases long-term employment by almost 0.5 percentage points.

Contract work at older ages

AbstractThe share of workers who are self-employed rises markedly with age. Given policy concerns about inadequate retirement savings, especially among those with lower education, and the resulting interest in encouraging employment at older ages, it is important to understand the role that self-employment arrangements play in facilitating work among seniors. New data from a survey module fielded on a Gallup telephone survey distinguish independent contractor work from other self-employment and provide information on informal and online platform work. The Gallup data show that, especially after accounting for individuals who are miscoded as employees, self-employment is even more prevalent at older ages than suggested by existing data. Work as an independent contractor is the most common type of self-employment. Roughly one-quarter of independent contractors aged 50 and older work for a former employer. At older ages, self-employment generally – and work as an independent contractor specifically – is more common among the highly educated, accounting for much of the difference in employment rates across education groups. We provide suggestive evidence that differences in opportunities for independent contractor work play an important role in the lower employment rates of less-educated older adults.

The Gendered Division of Paid and Domestic Work Under Lockdown

COVID-19 has uprooted many aspects of parents' daily routines, from their jobs to their childcare arrangements. In this paper, we provide a novel description of how parents in England living in two-parent opposite-gender families are spending their time under lockdown. We find that mothers' paid work has taken a larger hit than that of fathers', on both the extensive and intensive margins. We find that mothers are spending substantially longer in childcare and housework than their partners and that they are spending a larger fraction of their paid work hours having to juggle work and childcare. Gender differences in the allocation of domestic work cannot be straightforwardly explained by gender differences in employment rates or earnings. Very large gender asymmetries emerge when one partner has stopped working for pay during the crisis: mothers who have stopped working for pay do far more domestic work than fathers in the equivalent situation do.

Contract Work at Older Ages

The share of workers who are self-employed rises markedly with age. Given policy concerns about inadequate retirement savings, especially among those with lower education, and the resulting interest in encouraging employment at older ages, it is important to understand the role that self-employment arrangements play in facilitating work among seniors. New data from a survey module fielded on a Gallup telephone survey distinguish independent contractor work from other self-employment and provide information on informal and online platform work. The Gallup data show that, especially after accounting for individuals who are miscoded as employees, self-employment is even more prevalent at older ages than suggested by existing data. Work as an independent contractor is the most common type of self-employment. Roughly one-quarter of independent contractors age 50 and older work for a former employer. At older ages, self-employment generally—and work as an independent contractor specifically—is more common among the highly educated, accounting for much of the difference in employment rates across education groups. We provide suggestive evidence that differences in opportunities for independent contractor work play an important role in the lower employment rates of less-educated older adults. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

Labor market impacts of employment quotas for the disabled in Brazil

The occupational achievements of people with disabilities and those with less severe functional limitations are analyzed before and after the implementation of employment quotas. The differentials are decomposed into (i) productive or socioeconomic factors; and (ii) unobservable factors such as discrimination and other social constraints. The unobservable difficulties, which play an important role in determining differences in employment rates, reduced substantially, especially for people with more severe limitations. However, while these workers continue to obtain low paid jobs, those most qualified with less severe limitations attained better occupational positions, and hence, higher wages.

Gender Equality and Taxation Policies in the EU

The persisting gender differences in employment rates and patterns and gender gaps in unpaid care work, employment rates, income, old age security, poverty and wealth are all closely linked to the allocative and distributional outcome of tax regulations.

Country-specific preferences and employment rates in Europe

European countries exhibit significant differences in employment rates of adult males. Differences in average labor-leisure preferences, determined by cultural values that vary across countries, can be responsible for part of these differences. However, differences in labor market institutions, productivity, and skills of the labor force are also crucial factors and likely correlated with preferences. In this paper we use variation among first- and second-generation European migrants to isolate the effect of culturally determined labor-leisure preferences on individual employment rates. If migrants maintain some of their country of origin labor-leisure preferences as they move to different labor market conditions, we can separate the impact of these culturally determined preferences from the effect of other factors. We find that country-specific labor-leisure preferences explain about 24% of the top-bottom variation in employment rates across European countries.

Employment-based health insurance and aggregate labor supply

We study the impact of the U.S. employment-based health insurance system on the employment rate, the shares of full-time/part-time workers, and aggregate hours worked in a general equilibrium life cycle model with incomplete markets and idiosyncratic risks in both income and medical expenses. In contrast to most Europeans, who get universal health insurance from the government, most working-age Americans get health insurance through their employers. We find that the employment-based health insurance system provides Americans with an extra incentive to work and work full-time. In a calibrated version of the model, we assess the extent to which the different health insurance systems account for the differences in employment rate and full-time/part-time shares of workers between the U.S. and European countries. Our quantitative results suggest that the different health insurance systems can account for a significant fraction of the differences in employment rate and full-time/part-time shares of workers between the two regions. In addition, we find that the employment-based health insurance system is one of the reasons why many Americans work more than Europeans.

The impact of welfare reform in London - using benefits data to track the effect of government policies on employment outcomes

BackgroundThe last three parliamentary terms have marked a period of unprecedented change for the UK welfare system. Alongside reducing public spending, boosting behavioural incentives has represented the overarching drive behind the majority of reforms introduced.
 ObjectivesPolicy in Practice has pooled benefits data across nineteen of thirty-two London boroughs to track changes in living standards and the impact of welfare reforms on low-income Londoners over a period of two years. This paper models and assesses the impact of two flagship welfare reforms on households’ behavioural responses. The policies analysed are the benefit cap and the impact of Universal Credit on selfemployed households.
 MethodsThe project has gathered a sample of over 570,000 real households. Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support data has been collected from participating local authorities on a monthly basis for two years. The study combines complex policy modelling to forecast the future impact of Universal Credit on the living standards of self-employed households, with a Difference-in-Difference regression to understand the impact of the benefit cap on the employment outcomes of households affected.
 FindingsThe findings of the analysis indicate a positive impact of the benefit cap on employment outcomes, with a difference in employment rates of 3.5 percentage points in favour of households affected by the cap, compared to the control group. At the same time, the model forecasts significant income losses for self-employed households as the result of the application of a Minimum Income Floor under Universal Credit, with an average income reduction of £341 p/m.
 ConclusionThe research highlights the potential of locally held administrative data in systematically tracking the impact of policies and the effectiveness of government interventions. This work fits within the broader mission of Policy in Practice to promote an outcome-based approach to the design and delivery of social policy.

Employment Rates in Flexible Assertive Community Treatment Teams in The Netherlands: An Observational Study.

We determined the proportions of clients treated in Flexible Assertive Community Treatment teams who were unemployed and gained employment and who were employed and lost employment. Secondly, we explored the demographical and clinical factors associated with employment. Data were collected during routine outcome monitoring. We calculated differences in employment rates over a year and explored differences in demographic characteristics at baseline between patient groups. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the role of clinical predictor variables on employment status. Over time, 10% remained employed, 5% lost their employment, 3% gained employment and 82% remained unemployed. Clients who found employment were younger, more often male, and had significantly fewer psychosocial problems and a higher subjective quality of life during follow-up than those who remained unemployed. Problems with motivation for treatment at baseline were related to losing employment or remaining unemployed. Better implementation of vocational services is very important for increasing the number of clients gaining employment.

Employment Effects of On-the-Job Human Capital Acquisition

This paper quantifies the joint effect of on-the-job training and workers' on-the-job learning decisions on aggregate employment. We present an Index of On-the-job Human Capital Acquisition (OJHCA), based on data from the OECD Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies. The objective of the index is to capture both formal and informal learning in the workplace. We document a strong positive association between the two components of our index, i.e., on-the-job training and on-the-job learning. We also show that the index is positively correlated with employment across OECD economies. To explain these stylized facts, we build a search and matching model with on-the-job human capital acquisition that depends on both on-the-job training provided by firms and on the workers' level of on-the-job learning. We calibrate the model to the Canadian economy and adjust the learning and training marginal costs to match cross-country levels in the human capital index. We compare the model's predictions with the data and we conclude that differences in marginal costs are necessary to match the differences observed in employment rates across countries. We also extend the model including payroll taxes and education. The model is able to reproduce the observed differences in employment rates between countries with the highest and the lowest level of OJHCA.

Effect of incident nocturnal home hemodialysis versus incident continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis on employment rate, clinical, and laboratory outcomes: A 1-year retrospective observation study.

While studies demonstrated favorable outcomes of nocturnal home hemodialysis (NHHD), direct comparison on employment rate, clinical and laboratory outcomes between the NHHD and continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) had not been previously performed. A 1-year retrospective observation study was performed in 20 incidents alternate night NHHD and 81 incident CAPD patients of Chinese ethnicity, who were sex, diabetic status, and Charlson comorbidity index matched, but not age due to our center's age limit for NHHD enrollment. The primary outcome was the difference in employment rate at 1 year. Secondary outcomes included differences in clinical parameters (weight, blood pressure, number of antihypertensive medication, dosage of phosphate binders, and erythropoietin stimulating agent) and laboratory parameters (residual renal function, mineral metabolic markers, hemoglobin). NHHD subjects were 5 years younger than CAPD patients, and they had higher employment rate (80% vs. 33.3%, P < 0.01) at 1 year, with age-adjusted odds ratio for employment was 6.10 (95% confidence interval 1.77-20.99, P = 0.04). They consumed less aluminum-based phosphate binder (0 vs. 1800 mg, P < 0.01), but showed no significant disparities in other clinical parameters. Residual renal function in both groups declined comparably, nonetheless NHHD group had lower serum phosphate (1.37 vs. 1.71 mmol/L, P = 0.01) and calcium phosphate product (3.13 vs. 4.12 mmol2 /L2 , P < 0.01), with similar hemoglobin levels. NHHD appeared to offer higher employment rate, lower dosage of aluminum-based phosphate binder and mineral metabolic markers at 1 year compared with CAPD in Hong Kong.

Cost-Effectiveness of Bariatric Surgery Compared to Conventional Treatment From A Societal Perspective In Germany, France, Italy And The UK

Obesity and diabetes are growing epidemics in European countries. Bariatric surgery is recommended for the treatment of patients with moderate or morbid obesity, particularly in patients who also have type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The objective was to investigate the cost-effectiveness of bariatric surgery in patients with morbid obesity or moderate obesity with obesity-related comorbidities; T2DM patients with BMI≥35; T2DM patients with BMI≥30,<35; and all patients with mild obesity, from the societal perspective in Germany, France, Italy and the UK. A Markov model with a cohort of 1,000 patients was used to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of bariatric surgery compared to conventional treatment (CT) over a 20-year time horizon. Model inputs from the literature informed the complex nature of obesity and its associated comorbidities, including T2DM, stroke, myocardial infarction, cancer, knee pain and obstructive sleep apnoea. Up-to-date healthcare costs from the four countries were applied. Productivity loss calculations were included to account for differences in employment rates and overall work impairment between bariatric surgery and CT. In the T2DM population with BMI≥35, 47%/14% of patients were in T2DM remission at year 10/20 following bariatric surgery, compared to 10%/4% of patients treated with CT. In the morbidly obese population, the cumulative number of patient-years with T2DM was 46-57% lower and there were 32-42% fewer new T2DM cases with bariatric surgery compared to CT over 20 years. Bariatric surgery dominated CT from the societal perspective in all countries and populations, except in the UK T2DM population with BMI≥30,<35, where the ICER was £559/QALY. Probabilistic sensitivity analyses showed the model results to be robust to uncertainty. Bariatric surgery is highly cost-effective in Germany, France, Italy and the UK. Full implementation of existing clinical guidelines would reduce the burden of obesity and T2DM and generate economic benefits for society.

Employment Rates for 11 Country of Origin Groups in Scandinavia

Employment rates for 11 country of origin groups living in the three Scandinavian countries are presented. Analysis of variance showed that differences in employment rates are highly predictable (adjusted multiple R = .93). This predictability was mostly due to origin countries (eta = .89), not sex (eta = .25) and host country (eta = .20). Furthermore, national IQs of the origin countries predicted employment rates well across all host countries (r’s = 0.74 [95%CI: 0.30, 0.92], 0.75 [0.30, 0.92], 0.66 [0.14, 0.89] for Denmark, Norway and Sweden, respectively), and so did Muslim % of the origin countries (r’s = -0.80 [-0.94, -0.43], -0.78 [-0.94, -0.37], -0.58 [-0.87, -0.01]).