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Using data from the 1991–2009 China Health and Nutrition Survey, this study investigates China’s income-health gradient by analysing the effect of both current and long-term household income on 22 ...

Despite empirical evidence that individuals form their fertility preferences by observing social norms and interactions in their environments, the exact impact of these peer effects remains unclear. We thus use data from the 2014 and 2016 China Labor-force Dynamics Survey to investigate the association between community-level peer effects and fertility preferences among Chinese women aged 18–49. Whereas our baseline results indicate that 11.96% of these women would prefer 1 or no children, 74.1% would like 2 children and 13.93% would prefer 3 or more children. A one unit increase in community-level peer fertility reduces the preference of wanting only one child by 14.3%, whereas it increases the probability of preferring three children by 9.3% and four or more children by 4.8%. Hence, overall, we find a relatively strong peer effect on individual fertility preferences in communities characterized by generally low fertility rates, which provide support for the role of social norms in the fertility choices of reproductive-aged Chinese women.

In this paper, we use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel to investigate the effect of macro-economic conditions (in the form of local unemployment rates) on smoking behavior. The results from our panel data models, several of which control for selection bias, indicate that the propensity to become a smoker increases significantly during an economic downturn, with an approximately 0.7 percentage point increase for each percentage point rise in the unemployment rate. Conversely, conditional on the individual being a smoker, cigarette consumption decreases with rising unemployment rates, with a one percentage point increase in the regional unemployment rate leading to a decrease in consumption up to 0.8 percent.

In this study we use household panel data collected in Marsabit district of Northern Kenya, to analyse the patterns of livelihood sources and poverty among pastoralists in that area. We estimate income poverty using imputed household income relative to the adjusted poverty line and asset poverty using a regression-based asset index and tropical livestock units (TLU) per capita. Our results indicate that keeping livestock is still the pastoralists’ main source of livelihood, although there is a notable trend of increasing livelihood diversification, especially among livestock-poor households. The majority of households (over 70%) are both income and livestock-poor with few having escaped poverty within the five-year study period. Disaggregating income and asset poverty also reveals an increasing trend of both structurally poor and stochastically nonpoor households. The findings show that the TLU-based asset poverty is a more appropriate measure of asset poverty in a pastoral setting.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to use data from the 1991 to 2009 China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) to analyze how income in China is related to calorie intake. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs a variety of parametric, nonparametric, and semiparametric methods for cross-sectional and panel data, and estimates calorie-income elasticities for adults aged 18-60. Findings – The calorie-income elasticities are generally small, ranging from −0.031 to 0.022. In addition, the results show no clear nonlinearity, regardless of whether parametric, nonparametric, or semiparametric approaches are used. Originality/value – Using a wealth of estimation techniques, including parametric, nonparametric, and semiparametric approaches, this paper addresses some of the main methodological challenges encountered in estimating calorie-income elasticities. The magnitudes of calorie-income elasticities have policy implications especially with regards to the effectiveness of income-mediated policies aimed at combating food insecurity in China.

Rapidly growing population and rising incomes are placing great pressures on food security in India. Rising food prices can further increase food insecurity. This paper uses National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data on household consumption expenditure covering the years 2009–2010 in order to analyse the effects that food price rises have on calorie and protein intake in India. The differences in food prices between rural and urban areas can be attributed to the Public Distribution Service (PDS) and price spread while price differences across income groups are due to quality and provide an opportunity for value-addition as incomes are growing. The consumption of reduced calories and proteins but greater amounts of fats by the majority of the population in urban regions calls for government intervention. Protein intake is more affected by price rise than calorie intake, which indicates that there may be a quality-quantity trade-off, especially in poorer households. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) shows that the negative impact of food price rises on consumption is greater on the more affluent as they have the capacity to cut calorie intake. The highly negative effects of higher prices for milk and pulses on calorie intake emphasise the need for their stability. Quantile regressions within income groups show high negative impacts of price increases in pulses on poorer urban households, but these decrease while moving from lower to higher quantiles: this observation calls for location specific inclusion of pulses in PDS. Milk prices show more or less the same impact across the quantiles for all income groups, except the Highest Income Group (HIG – highest quartile).

Using five waves from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), we investigate the association between maternal employment and obesity in children aged 3–17 in both rural and urban China. Using body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) as measures for paediatric adiposity, we provide scant evidence for its relation to maternal employment. We also find no strong association between maternal employment and our measures for children’s diet and physical activity. Our study also suggests that grand-parenting could have beneficial effects on childhood obesity.

Using data from the 2015 International Social Survey Program (ISSP), this study conducts a multinational comparison of job satisfaction determinants and their drivers in 36 countries and regions, with particular attention to the reasons for relatively low job satisfaction among Chinese workers. Based on our results from a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analysis, we attribute a substantial portion of the job satisfaction differences between China and the other countries to different job attributes and expectations; in particular, to unmet job expectations for interesting work, high pay, and opportunities for advancement. We also note that, contrary to common belief, Chinese workers value similar attributes as Western workers but perceive their work conditions as very different from those in the West.

Ageing and Productivity: Introduction Population ageing will be the dominant feature of the world’s demographic landscape in the coming decades, raising concerns about labor productivity and about economic outcomes at both the individual, enterprise, and macro levels. The articles in this special issue of Labour Economics define and address key issues with respect to the interplay of ageing, workforce productivity, and economic performance. Taken as a whole, the articles dispel some of the concerns, sharpen our understanding of others, and highlight behavioural changes, business practice adaptations, and public policy reforms that can offset the economic effects of population ageing. JEL Classification: J11, J14, J18

This article analyses job mismatches in Switzerland based on a subjective measure of overqualification. According to job search and job matching theories, overqualification is a transitory problem. Other theories show that overqualification can also be of a permanent nature. We test the perpetuity of overeducation using panel data from the first eight waves of the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) covering the period 1999 to 2006. Our empirical analysis reveals little evidence for lasting rigidities that would cause permanent job mismatches. Rather, spells of overqualification are relatively short: about half of all individuals who were overqualified in a given year had an adequate job match 1 year later. While a short duration of overqualification would be consistent with job search and job matching theories, our observation that the probability of a job mismatch does not significantly decrease with experience is at odds with these theories. Our article provides an alternative explanation for this phenomenon: ...

Although time may indeed be the most important of economic resources, it was not until Gary Becker's (1964) seminal paper that a serious attempt was made to develop a theoretical framework that could analyse the way in which individuals allocate their time between various activities. This is not to say that traditional economic theory totally ignored this topic; rather, time took on a very secondary role. In subsequent decades, however, economic, psychological and sociological investigators have all devoted considerable energy to developing models and collecting data on time use. Nevertheless, despite the large body of time-use literature that has evolved over the past decades, one aspect has still received relatively little attention: the effect of changes in time-use behaviour in general and increased time pressure in particular (see, e.g., Linder 1970; Roxburgh 2002) has had on consumers and how consumer policy has reacted to these developments. Individual consumption and time use can be viewed from several perspectives: as the process of using—or enjoying or even dissipating—personal goods and services; as the effort to acquire personal wealth, which usually means engaging in paid work and balancing it with the needs of (unpaid) work in the informal sector (e.g., care giving, household work); and/or as the handling, disposing, and managing of the accumulated “stuff of life.” From all perspectives, consumption is deeply embedded in the context of social “time scapes” (Adam 1998) that, by defining its hours, rhythms, and temporalities, shape and restrict consumer decisions in myriad ways. Hence, recognition of the growing J Consum Policy (2010) 33:115–118 DOI 10.1007/s10603-010-9125-6

This study evaluates couples’ time use behaviour with regard to housework in Germany with data from the 2001/2002 and 1991/1992 German Time Use Survey. Despite the fact that women reduced their hours worked within the household context over the past decades, the unequal division of housework between men and women still persists. This study aims both at analysing the determinants of the allocation of time spent on housework, as well as why gender differences in household time use behaviour still exist. With the aid of structural equation modelling, it is shown that the decrease in time spent on housework by women can largely be explained by changes in the effects that wages, household goods consumption and the aspiration for market goods consumption have on time spent on housework. Men’s time allocation behaviour has remained remarkably constant. It is also observed that women’s time allocation behaviour with regard to household work is becoming more similar to that of men.

Structural change in OECD countries, emphasizing knowledge-based sectors, has led to an increasing demand for highly skilled labour. One means of meeting this demand has been to implement a selective immigration policy. Such policies, however, have been criticized for channelling labour into low-producing sectors and occupations, hampering structural change. Proponents of such criticism point to Switzerland's former policy of channelling immigrants into so-called seasonal sectors, a practice abandoned in the early 1990s, as having contributed to Switzerland's low growth rates. To assess this, we here analyse the amended migration policy's effects on skill structure and sectoral distribution of immigration flows using data from the Swiss Census of 1990 and 2000 to determine whether the new policy has led to an immigrant inflow more adapted to the processes of structural change. We find that the share of highly skilled immigrants has increased notably under the new migration policy. Our analysis also shows an important change in the sectoral focus of the new arrival inflow. Not only have fewer immigrants been entering declining sectors, but the majority of migrants arriving under the new policy regime have been absorbed into growing and knowledge-based sectors, meaning they are employed primarily in service and knowledge-intensive sectors. Overall, the analysis provides ample evidence that the current admission policy as ositively contributed to tructural change in Switzerland.

This paper analyzes the effect of job satisfaction on labor turnover by gender using data from the first two waves of the Swiss Household Panel (1999 and 2000). The results confirm that job satisfaction is a very good predictor of future quits and, more important, reveal that job satisfaction does not influence the inclination to become non-employed; that is, neither men nor women self-select out of the labor force due to dissatisfaction. This result clearly refutes the claim that the gender/job satisfaction paradox (i.e., the fact that women tend to be more satisfied at work than men) is being driven by self-selection. This paper also shows that, based on job satisfaction information and quitting behavior, there is no apparent difference in firm attachment between men and women.

We investigate the relationship between income tax rate variation and internal migration for the unique case of Switzerland, whose system of determining tax rates primarily at the community level results in enough variation to permit analysis of their influence on migration. Specifically, using Swiss census data, we analyze migratory responses to tax rate variations for various groups defined by age, education, and nationality/residence permit. The results suggest that young Swiss college graduates are most sensitive to tax rate differences, but the estimated effects are not large enough to offset the revenue-increasing effect of a rise in tax rate. The migratory responses of foreigners and other age-education groups are even smaller, and reverse causation seems negligible.

Empirical studies on the impact of taxation on migration have been limited by a lack of comparable data in an international context and a lack of variation in tax burdens within countries. A notable exception to the latter is Switzerland. Prior empirical studies on tax competition in Switzerland have had to rely on aggregated data. In general, these studies have been supportive of the notion of tax competition, i.e., high earners tend to relocate to low-tax regions. The authors use an alternative panel approach based on micro-data from the first three waves of the newly established Swiss Household Panel. Despite active community tax policies aimed at attracting new residents and a significant increase in tax-burden dispersion among communities in the past decade, no tax-induced migration is observed. Migration decisions are found to be strongly influenced by accommodation-related factors that point to important housing-market effects.

In most European countries, there is some evidence that jobs became, and to an even greater extent were perceived to have become, increasingly insecure in the 1990s. In Switzerland, where unemployment has long been far lower than the European average, unemployment increased in the same period. Yet in general, job stability has remained remarkably constant in the past decade, and instability far below the European average. Only with regard to voluntary job-to-job mobility can a significant increase in the second half of the 1990s be observed; involuntary turnover has actually decreased. As Switzerland is a small, open economy with weak union power and employment protection legislation, this article casts doubts on the extent to which exposure to globalization can influence job instability. Instead, consensus- and stability-oriented industrial relations and management practices, as well as the state of the external labour market, appear to shape both job stability and security.

In this paper, three common empirical methods encountered in the segmentation literature are used in order to establish whether or not the Swiss labor market is segmented: (i) a hierarchical cluster analysis; (ii) a switching model with unknown regime; and (iii) an analysis of low-wage mobility with a bivariate probit model with endogenous selection. According to method (i), segmentation can hardly be observed. Method (ii) shows that the Swiss labor market is dualistic in nature. Method (iii) reveals that a certain degree of persistence exists in low-wage jobs. Whether or not the Swiss labor market is segmented thus depends on the choice of method, i.e. on the definition and understanding of segments. In any case, none of the methods used in this study point to the existence of a large and well-defined secondary segment.

Summary In the context of an emerging focus on highly skilled migration throughout the OECD area, the question under which circumstances migrants can be expected to be relatively skilled is of particular importance. Borjas has analysed the relation between the income distribution and the skills of migrants. His self-selection model predicts that immigrants from countries with a higher income inequality tend to be negatively selected (i.e., less skilled than the average worker in both host and source countries). According to other models based on the human capital theory of migration, however, migrants can be expected to be relatively skilled. Empirical tests of Borjas' much-disputed negative self-selection hypothesis generally rely on immigration data, particularly to the US, and may therefore be biased due to host-country specifics such as network migration and the impact of migration policy. This paper analyses the relationship between country-specific emigration propensities and each country's score on various indices of income inequality with a rich international microdata set. The main result is that highly-skilled persons are more inclined to migrate, though a higher income inequality attenuates the positive selectivity.

Extracts of this paper were presented at the conference "Work Beyond 60: Preparing for the Demographic Shock", 6–7 March 2003 in Vienna organized by The Geneva Association, The Club of Rome, and The Risk Institute. Parts were also presented at the Bertelsmann Foundation conference "Strategien gegen den Fachkraftemangel" in Berlin, 2 July 2002 and at the Bertelsmann Foundation conference "Reformen zur Steigerung der Beschaftigungsfahigkeit alterer Arbeitskrafte" in Berlin, 26 October 2001. The authors would like to thank the participants as well as Jaap van Dam, Thomas Liebig, Fred Henneberger, and Genevieve Reday-Mulvey for their valuable comments and discussions. Alfonso Sousa-Poza would like to thank the Swiss National Science Foundation for financial assistance. The usual disclaimer applies.

The aim of this paper is to analyze working-hour constraints in an international setting. We use data from the latest Work Orientations data set of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). The survey was conducted in 1997 and, in this paper, data for twenty-one countries are used. Our main results are: (1) In most countries the majority of workers do not face hours constraints; (2) Of the workers that are constrained, the largest portion is underemployed. Only in Denmark, Norway, and Switzerland is this not the case; (3) Workers in the five Eastern European countries considered here are among the most constrained; (4) A comparison with the 1989 ISSP data set reveals that hours constraints have increased in Israel, the United States, and West Germany and decreased in Great Britain and Norway in the 1990s; (5) GDP per capita and unemployment levels are correlated with hours constraints; (6) A multivariate analysis shows that certain socio-demographic characteristics and work conditions influence hour...

In this article, we use 12 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) to examine the relationship between job insecurity, employability and health-related well-being. Our results indicate that being unemployed has a strong negative effect on life satisfaction and health. They also, however, highlight the fact that this effect is most prominent among individuals over the age of 40. A second observation is that job insecurity is also associated with lower levels of life satisfaction and health, and this association is quite strong. This negative effect of job insecurity is, in many cases, exacerbated by poor employability.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the levels and determinants of job satisfaction in a cross-national setting. This aim is accomplished using the latest Work Orientations data set from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). The survey was conducted in 1997 and, in this paper, data for 21 countries are used. The main results are: (i) workers in all countries are quite satisfied; this result also applies to the five Eastern European countries analyzed here. (ii) Denmark is the country with the highest job-satisfaction level. The United States is ranked seventh, Great Britain fifteenth, Japan nineteenth, and Russia twentieth. (iii) A comparison with the 1989 ISSP data set reveals that job satisfaction has declined in Germany and the United States in the 1990s. (iv) Using a bottom-up psychological model, in which we compare work-role inputs (e.g., effort) with work-role outputs (e.g., pay), we try to explain cross-national differences. Countries with high work-role outputs, in general, have a high job-satisfaction ranking, and vice versa. (v) Having an interesting job and having good relations with management are the two most important work-role outputs, and having an exhausting job is the most important work-role input. (vi) Workers in Eastern European countries tend to value high income.

Labour-market conditions are, in general, less favourable for women than for men. It is therefore paradoxical that several studies reveal that women are more satisfied at work than men. We analyse this paradox with microdata from 21 countries. It is shown that this paradox does not exist in most of the countries analysed here, and, in most cases, can be explained by the different endowments of work-role inputs (e.g., work time) and outputs (e.g., pay) between genders. In Great Britain, the United States, and Switzerland, however, this paradoxical situation remains even after controlling for differences in work-role inputs and outputs. Copyright 2000 by WWZ and Helbing & Lichtenhahn Verlag AG

The data from the Swiss Labour Force Survey (SAKE) have been widely used to estimate wage functions, which in turn have been applied for the determination of wage discrimination between genders. One serious problem with the SAKE data is that about 17 per cent of employed individuals did not report wages. Those studies which use the SAKE data to estimate wage functions simply ignore these non‐respondents. Such an approach could lead to a serious selectivity bias if the response decision is not purely random. In this study this issue is analysed in a double‐selectivity framework, in which both this response decision and the usual market‐participation decision are modelled. Although the response decision can be partially explained by certain socio‐economic variables, a large degree of randomness/unexplained variation exists. The authors therefore conclude that, in the absence of a better model, the standard approach at estimating wage functions (i.e. only correcting for the selectivity bias arising from women’s participation decision) is the most appropriate one.

Population ageing will be the dominant feature of the world's demographic landscape in the coming decades, raising concerns about labor productivity and about economic outcomes at both the individual, enterprise, and macro levels. The articles in this special issue of Labour Economics define and address key issues with respect to the interplay of ageing, workforce productivity, and economic performance. Taken as a whole, the articles dispel some of the concerns, sharpen our understanding of others, and highlight behavioural changes, business practice adaptations, and public policy reforms that can offset the economic effects of population ageing.

Recent literature makes a distinction between 'voluntary' and 'involuntary' early retirement, where 'involuntary' early retirement results from employment constraints rather than from a preference for leisure relative to work. This paper analyzes 'voluntary' and 'involuntary' early retirement based on international microdata covering 19 industrialized countries. The results show that 'involuntary' early retirement is particularly widespread in Continental Europe. Countries facing economic recessions and having strict employment protection legislation have higher shares of 'involuntary' retirements among early retirees. Generous early retirement provisions of the social security system do not only make 'voluntary' early retirement more attractive for individuals, but also induce firms to push more employees into early retirement.

Low fertility rates combined with increases in early retirement pose a serious challenge to the sustainability of social security systems in most industrialized countries. Therefore, it is important for policy makers to understand the determinants of early retirement and especially the role that institutional factors play in the retirement decision. However, analyzing such factors ideally requires international microdata, which have in the past been largely unavailable. To fill this void, this paper investigates early retirement determinants across several European countries using the rich 2005 SHARE (Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe) microdataset, which produces more precise estimates of the effects of institutional and economic factors like pension systems, unemployment, and employment protection legislation. The analysis shows that pension systems offering generous early retirement options encourage early departure from the labor market. In addition, pension wealth accrual rate exerts a greater influence on early retirement decisions than does the average replacement rate, while stricter employment protection legislation has no significant impact.

We look at the relation between democracy and perceived subjective well-being, taking also into account the impact of income and culture. After briefly reviewing the empirical results for Switzerland, we re-estimate this relationship allowing for the relative income position of individuals and also using a new more recent data from the Swiss Household Panel. No robust relationship between the extent of (direct) democracy and happiness can be observed. In a second step, we conduct a crossnational analysis, covering 28 countries with data from the 1998 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). There we observe a robust positive and significant relationship between democracy and happiness.

We look at the relation between democracy and perceived subjective well-being, taking also into account the impact of income and culture. After briefly reviewing the empirical results for Switzerland, we re-estimate this relationship allowing for the relative income position of individuals and also using a new more recent data from the Swiss Household Panel. No robust relationship between the extent of (direct) democracy and happiness can be observed. In a second step, we conduct a cross-national analysis, covering 28 countries with data from the 1998 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). There we observe a robust positive and significant relationship between democracy and happiness.

In this paper, data from the 1997 Swiss Labour Force Survey are used to analyse the allocation and value of time assigned to housework and child-care. It is shown that men’s allocation of time to housework and childcare is largely invariant to changes in socio-economic factors. Women’s allocation of time to housework and child-care, on the other hand, is shown to depend on several social, economic, and demographic factors. The value of time assigned to housework and child-care is calculated with two market replacement cost methods and three opportunity cost methods. The results show that the value of time assigned to housework and child-care ranges from 27% to 39% and from 5% to 8% ofGDP(in 1997), respectively. The value of time assigned to housework and child-care is also calculated for different household structures.