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Using a parameterized difference-in-differences approach, we study the impact of the 2021 expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) in the USA, which provided monthly cash payments to families with children for 6 months. We examine the effects of the CTC on the economic wellbeing (material hardship, ability to meet needs/money on hand, hardship avoidance techniques, and employment) of families with very low incomes. This population is especially important to study as these families disproportionately benefited from the 2021 CTC expansion. We find that the 2021 monthly CTC reduced the number of hardships families experienced, especially food insecurity. We find weak evidence that the credit reduced medical hardships and reliance on friends and family for food and that it had no impact on labor supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population ageing undermines traditional social security pension systems that combine pay-as-you-go and defined benefits (DB). Indeed, demographic risk, if guaranteed benefits remain unaltered, will be borne entirely by workers through increases in the contribution rate. To avoid a substantial increase of the contributions and in order to maintain simultaneously the financial sustainability and the social adequacy of the public pension system, risk sharing and automatic balancing mechanisms need to be put in place. We present a two-step convex family of risk-sharing mechanisms. The first shares the risk between contributors and retirees through adjustments in the contribution rate, used to calculate the global covered wage bill, and the benefit ratio that represents the relationship between average pensions and wages. The second step studies how the retirees' risk should be shared between the different retirees' generations through adjustments in the replacement rate and a sustainability factor that affects pension indexation during retirement. We perform a detailed study of the effect of social planner's targets and solidarity weight between various generations in a deterministic and stochastic environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While previous studies have analyzed the impact of earthquakes on domestic violence, less is known about its effects on other crimes against women. Administrative records on criminal incidence from Mexico enable this study on different crimes against women following two major earthquakes that struck Mexico in September 2017. The article estimates causal effects using a difference-in-differences strategy and shows that following the earthquakes femicides decreased by 2 percent, sexual abuse rose by 11 percent, and rape climbed by 12 percent. An exhaustive examination of potential mechanisms using survey data yields suggestive evidence that gangs play an important role in the escalation of sexual abuse. Data on school damages further shows that disruptions to middle- and high-schools could have plausibly facilitated students’ gang membership.HIGHLIGHTSIn Mexico, one of the impacts of earthquakes is on crimes against women.Following earthquakes, sexual abuse increased by 11 percent and rape by 12 percent.Gangs play an important role in the escalation of sexual abuse.In Mexico, one of the impacts of earthquakes is on crimes against women.Following earthquakes, sexual abuse increased by 11 percent and rape by 12 percent.Gangs play an important role in the escalation of sexual abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the effect of the anti-contagious policy on labor market outcomes in China. To measure the Zero-Covid Policy Interventions (ZPIs) implemented during 2020, we exploit the randomly emerged new cases of COVID-19 in a 14-day observation window and construct a conditionally exogenous measurement for cumulative duration of anti-contagious policy. Using a generalized difference-in-differences approach, we find that a 10% increase in the ZPIs heightened the probability of unemployment by around 0.1 percentage points. In contrast to most large economies that suffered a severe health shock from the COVID-19 pandemic, China effectively contained the scale and the spread of the initial outbreak in 2020 to the minimum level and avoided an overwhelmed and overloaded health system, which provides a unique empirical setting to examine the policy effect of anti-contagious policies. We show that the disruption in the labor market majorly results from the zero-Covid containment policy. Moreover, for employed individuals, the zero-Covid policy decreases working hours but not for the labor income, and the policy effect is heterogeneous by gender, age, education, and having a young child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Merkley et al. (2023) examine how cryptocurrency influencers recommend digital coins on Twitter (X) and the associated price effects. They report that influencers may exploit market investors via potential pump and dump schemes. While plausible, researchers may develop a broader understanding of influencers' incentives and their influence by considering how investors engage these markets for social identity needs that enhance utility. Social-psychological research indicates that someone's social identity strongly influences their behavior, even making the behavior maladaptive. This paper discusses how crypto influencers create social identity resonance. It then discusses how influencers can leverage this resonance for potentially lucrative financial opportunities, which might manifest in different expected crypto price patterns. The paper concludes by recommending more research on influencers' experience, networks, and communication choices; the effects of video relative to text communication; and implications of social identity cohorts that influence prices and undermine regulatory trust in traditional markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prosocial is an activity that is carried out consciously to provide benefits to others without expecting a specific reward. Prossociative behavior will increase social finance in society. The purpose of this study is to analyze prosocial behavior and religious behavior on happiness and the impact of happiness on productivity. This study uses primary data from 1121 respondents of independent workers who live in provinces that are included in the average level of happiness based on the 2021 Central Bureau of Statistics Indonesia or Badan Pusat Statistik Indonesia (BPS) survey. Data analysis uses Structure Equation Modeling (SEM) with the Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach. The results of this study show that prosocial behaviors such as philanthropy, voluntary activities, and religious behaviors such as friendship, gratitude, and tadabbur have a significant positive effect on happiness both in the happiness index with Islamic value and the BPS happiness index. Another important finding of this study is the impact of happiness with both indices on productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurial ecosystems create a conductive environment for innovation and advancing sustainable development. They stimulate national innovation and economic development; however, empirical examination, especially in emerging economies, remains limited. Using longitudinal data on 89 countries for 2018–2021, this study empirically tests three pillars of entrepreneurial ecosystems—resource supply, resource demand, and allocation and accumulation—through a gendered lens to explore their effect on national innovation and entrepreneurship. We estimate regional effects with a three-dimensional fixed effects regression model. Our results suggest that knowledge capital of female researchers and domestic economy size are the central drivers of national innovation and entrepreneurship, respectively. Furthermore, this effect is more critical for emerging economies and disappears as countries develop. We present a gendered empirical examination of Audretsch et al.’s (2022) framework and elucidate the contributions of women in driving national innovation through ecosystems in emerging economies.

Previous studies have examined how cash transfers affect children’s education and health regardless of sibship size. I examine the long-run consequences of a Dutch reform that gradually curtailed child-benefit payments for larger families. Based on administrative data and a regression discontinuity design, I find little evidence of average reform effects on children’s education and mental health. However, children in less well-off households exposed to the reform experience long-lasting educational penalties. Analyses of survey and admin data suggest that, if not for the reform, households would have relied more on centre-based care as opposed to maternal care. Lower parental investments in child-related goods and a more stressful environment accompanied heightened poverty risks after the reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much less is known about the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the provision of early childhood preschool services relative to research on school closures. We conducted surveys of more than 5000 early childhood service providers and leverage temporal and spatial variation in India’s intensity of lockdowns to quantify disruptions to preschool services under the world’s largest early childhood development program between areas with different strictness of lockdown measures. We document a 23 percentage point reduction in the provision of preschool services in red zone lockdown areas (strictest measures) relative to green zone lockdown areas (least strict measures). We find that pre-COVID measures of high worker locus of control and public service motivation offset the reduction in differential preschool service provision by 27–37%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children represent the largest indirect beneficiaries of the U.S. social welfare system. Yet, many questions remain about the direct benefits of cash aid to children. The current understanding of the impacts of cash aid in the U.S. is drawn primarily from studies of in-kind benefits, tax credits, and conditional cash aid programs. A corresponding economics literature focuses on the role of income and the labor supply responses of parents, parenting skills, and early education as family investment mechanisms that reduce socioeconomic inequality in children's well-being. In contrast to the U.S., dozens of low- to middle-income nations use direct cash aid—conditional or unconditional—as a central policy strategy, with demonstrated positive effects across a host of economic and health measures and selected aspects of children's health and schooling. This paper reviews the economic research on U.S. safety net programs and cash aid to families with children and discusses what existing studies reveal about the impacts of cash aid on family investment mechanisms and children's outcomes. We specifically highlight gaps in understanding the impacts of unconditional cash aid on children. We then review nine contemporary unconditional cash transfer programs and discuss their promise and limitations in filling the U.S.-based economic evidence gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the effect of inconsistent time preferences on actual and planned retirement timing decisions in two independent data sets. Theory predicts that hyperbolic time preferences can lead to dynamically inconsistent retirement timing. In an online experiment with more than 2,000 participants, we find that time-inconsistent participants retire on average 1.75 years earlier than time-consistent participants do. The planned retirement age of nonretired participants decreases with age. This negative age effect is about twice as strong among time-inconsistent participants. The temptation of early retirement seems to rise in the final years of approaching retirement. Consequently, time-inconsistent participants have a higher probability of regretting their retirement decision. We find similar results for a representative household survey (German SAVE panel). Using smoking behavior and overdraft usage as time preference proxies, we confirm that time-inconsistent participants retire earlier and that nonretirees reduce their planned retirement age within the panel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current scientometrics and indices are a way to map and evaluate key research topics and researchers' performance, which facilitate networking and innovations. However, several studies have raised concerns regarding the impact of scientometrics on the development of emerging and interdisciplinary fields. Algorithms and scientometrics help develop and understand scientific networks, but they would become roadblocks for the participation of early career researchers or scientists working in geographic or epistemological peripheries, like Latin American countries and emerging fields like Science and Religion. Scientometrics would accelerate collaborations or increase the risk of epistemic bubbles where relevant ideas and results are left out. This study presents an analysis of the role of scientometrics in developing scientific networks within the context of interdisciplinary social research and their limitations for social research evaluation. Focused on the Latin American scientific networks in an emerging field, we propose and test an alternative framework and methodology: the Field Networking Index (FNI). The FNI considers the semantic relationships of published work within an interdisciplinary domain of knowledge and the scholars' citations and co-authorships, facilitating the identification and mapping of the field's most relevant research topics and agents. It allows the classification of authors and network hubs based on the importance of their contribution to the study of the field's critical issues. This study's contribution will help develop scientific metrics for funders, policymakers, researchers and universities (especially those interested in emerging fields) to identify, map, and evaluate researchers working in an interdisciplinary field, their interests and theoretical contribution to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the heterogeneity in life expectancy by socioeconomic status increases, many pension systems imply a wealth transfer from short- to long-lived individuals. Various pension reforms aim to reduce inequalities that are caused by ex-ante differences in life expectancy. However, these pension reforms may induce redistribution effects. We introduce a dynamic general equilibrium-overlapping generations model with heterogeneous individuals that differ in their education, labor supply, lifetime income, and life expectancy. Within this framework we study six different pension reforms that foster the sustainability of the pension system and aim to account for heterogeneous life expectancy. Our results highlight that pension reforms have to be evaluated at various dimensions. Reforms that may increase the sustainability of the pension system are not necessarily conducive to reduce the redistributive wealth transfers from short- to long-lived individuals. Our paper emphasizes the need for studying pension reforms in models with behavioral feedback and heterogeneous socioeconomic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractWe simulate the impact of an increase in immigration into the Atlantic Provinces based on the FOCUS macro-econometric model at the University of Toronto. That national model was adapted to reflect the regional dimensions of the Atlantic Provinces. We find robust evidence of positive outcomes for the Atlantic region so long as it is part of a broader increase in immigration for the country as a whole. The positive outcome encompasses higher GDP and GDP per capita, higher consumption, and improved government fiscal balances at both the federal and provincial levels that could in turn be used for tax reductions or the enhancement of government services. These benefits could be enhanced further by carefully targeting new immigrants for needed skills and for their likelihood of remaining in the Atlantic region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the long-run mortality effects of in utero and early-life economic conditions. We examine how local economic conditions experienced during the Great Depression, proxied by county-level banking deposits during in utero and first years of life, influences old-age longevity. We find that a one-standard-deviation rise in per capita bank deposits is associated with an approximately 1.7 month increase in males’ longevity at old age. Additional analyses comparing state-level versus county-level economic measures provide insight on the importance of controlling for local-level confounders and exploiting more granular measures when exploring the relationship between early-life conditions and later-life mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the effect of a 12-week maternity leave extension in Chile on the health of infants between 6 and 12 months old. Using unique administrative sick leave data for working women enrolled in the private health insurance system who gave birth between 2011 and 2013, we estimate the effect of this extension on the number of paid sick days taken by the mother due to her child being ill. We find that extending maternity leave improved infant health and decreased the number of sick days by 6.43 (0.18 SD) days on average. Additionally, we show that mothers with extended maternity leave take their infant to the pediatrician less often than mothers without the extended leave. Our results are consistent with a decrease in daycare attendance, which decreases exposure to communicable diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We estimate the effect of state-level policies enacting universal free full-day kindergarten on mothers' labor supply using a life-cycle analysis. Similar to previous research on childcare and labor supply, we find that free full-day kindergarten increases labor force participation rates for mothers whose youngest child is kindergarten-aged by 4.3 to 7.1 percentage points. We find that for mothers whose youngest child is an infant, labor force participation increases by 7.2 to 9.8 percentage points, and for women whose youngest child is 3 to 4 years old labor force participation increases by 5.9 to 7.9 percentage points. The fact that the policies impact the labor supply for mothers of younger-than-kindergarten-age children by even more than for mothers of kindergarten-aged children is important for understanding the full effect of subsidized childcare. This is consistent with a life-cycle model of labor supply where wages and prices in future periods impact mothers' labor force attachment., Competing Interests: Additional Declarations: No competing interests reported.

This paper studies the long-term effects of in-utero and early-life exposure to pesticide use on adulthood and old-age longevity. We use the cyclical emergence of cicadas in the eastern half of the United States as a shock that raises the pesticide use among tree crop growing farmlands. We implement a difference-in-difference framework and employ Social Security Administration death records over the years 1975-2005 linked to the complete count 1940 census. We find that males born in top-quartile tree-crop counties and exposed to a cicada event during fetal development and early-life live roughly 2.2 months shorted lives; those with direct farm exposure face a reduction of nearly a year. We provide empirical evidence to examine mortality selection before adulthood, endogenous fertility, and differential data linkage rates. Additional analyses suggests that reductions in education and income during adulthood are potential mechanisms of impact. Our findings add to our understanding of the relevance of early-life insults for old-age health and mortality.