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Bulletin N°165

3 novembre 2008 - November 3, 2008

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PAUVRETE - POVERTY

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Anti-poverty transfers without riots in Tunisia, C. Muller,  Institut d'Economie publique, Marseille, Documents de travail, n° 68, 27 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Tunisie / Tunisia

. Are lone mothers responsive to policy changes ? The effects of a Norwegian workfare reform on earnings, education and poverty
, C. Pronzato and M. Mogstad,
Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics, Torino, Working paper, n° 14, 34 p., (2008).

Résumé - Summary : The generous Nordic model of welfare is commonly viewed as an exceptional success, in terms of both equality and economic growth. However, it recently became evident that subgroups of the population with weak labour market attachment and high welfare dependency, such as lone mothers, were vastly overrepresented among the poor. This prompted a workfare reform of the Norwegian welfare system for lone mothers. First, work and educational requirements were imposed, though only for lone mothers whose youngest child was at least three years old. Second, the upper age limit for the youngest child receiving benefit was reduced and time limits on welfare participation were introduced. Third, the maximum benefit amount was increased by 19 per cent. To evaluate the reform we introduce an estimator that accounts for the fact that policy changes are typically phased in gradually rather than coming into full effect immediately. In the case of transitional benefit reform, in fact, phase-in provisions were introduced so that lone mothers who had applied for and were entitled to benefits before 1998 could continue to receive them under the pre-reform rules for up to three years. The existence of such a phase-in period is not a feature specific to the policy evaluation carried out in this paper; indeed, a gradual phase-in of policy changes appears to be the rule rather than the exception in many OECD countries. The results were striking: the workfare reform has not only led to increased earnings and educational attainment – in the process lowering welfare caseloads and therefore easing the government’s financial burden – but also reduced poverty.

Zone géographique / Geographical area : Norvège / Norway

. Droit et pauvreté, P. du Cheyron et D. Gélot, Observatoire national de la Pauvreté et de l'Exclusion sociale, Paris, Contributions du séminaire ONPES, Drees-Mire 2007, 208 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : France

. The GDP cost of the lost earning potential of adults who grew up in poverty,
J. Blanden, K. Hansen and S. Machin, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, London, October, 27 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Royaume-Uni / United Kingdom

. The global joint distribution of income and health
, X. Wu,  A. Savvides and T. Stengos, The Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis, Rimini, Working paper, n° 25, March, 40 p., (2008).

Résumé - Summary :
We investigate the evolution of global welfare in two dimensions: income per capita and life expectancy. First, we estimate the marginal distributions of income and life expectancy separately. More importantly, in contrast to previous univariate approaches, we consider income and life expectancy jointly and estimate their bivariate global distribution for 137 countries during 1970 - 2000. We reach several conclusions : the global joint distribution has evolved from a bimodal into a unimodal one, the evolution of the health distribution has preceded that of income, global inequality and poverty has decreased over time and the evolution of the global distribution has been welfare improving. Our decomposition of overall welfare indicates that global inequality would be underestimated if within-country inequality is not taken into account. Moreover, global inequality and poverty would be substantially underestimated if the dependence between the income and health distributions is ignored.
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Données internationales / International data

. Pauvres parmi les pauvres ? Des femmes, J. Mossuz-Lavau, Fondation Jean-Jaurès, Paris, Essai, 20 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : France

. Poverty across Europe : The latest evidence using the EU-SILC survey,
O. Lelkes and E. Zolyomi, European Centre
for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Vienna, Policy brief, October, 8 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Europe

. The public service costs of child poverty,
G. Bramley and D. Watkins, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, London, October, 45 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Royaume-Uni / United Kingdom

. Social welfare, inequality and deprivation,
 B. Magdalou and P. Moyes, GREThA, Bordeaux, Cahiers du GREThA, n° 2008-23, 48 p., (2008).

Résumé :
Nous proposons une caractérisation du critère de satisfaction généralisée -- ou encore dans notre terminologie d'absence de privation -- introduit par S.R. Chakravarty (Keio Economic Studies 34 (1997), pour effectuer des comparaisons de bien-être. Nous montrons que le quasi-ordre de non-privation vérifie une version affaiblie du principe des transferts: le bien-être social augmente seulement suite à des combinaisons spécifiques de transferts progressifs, qui imposent aux individus contribuant au transfert d'être solidaires. Nous identifions la classe des fonctions de bien-être social de Gini généralisé qui obéissent à ce principe d'équité et nous montrons que l'unanimité des points de vue au sein de cette classe conduit au même classement des distributions que le quasi-ordre de non-privation. Nous étendons notre approche à la mesure de l'inégalité à partir des indices éthiques d'inégalité relatifs et absolus.

Summary : We provide a characterization of the generalised satisfaction -- in our terminology non-deprivation -- quasi-ordering introduced by S.R. Chakravarty (Keio Economic Studies 34 (1997), for making welfare comparisons based on the absence of deprivation. We show that the non-deprivation quasi-ordering obeys a weaker version of the principle of transfers: welfare improves only for specific combinations of progressive transfers which require that the same amount be taken from richer individuals and allocated to one arbitrary poorer individual. We identify the subclass of extended Gini social welfare functions that are consistent with this principle and we show that the unanimity of value judgements among this class is identical to the ranking of distributions implied by the non-deprivation quasi-ordering. We extend the approach to the measurement of inequality by considering the corresponding relative and absolute ethical inequality indices.
Zone géographique / Geographical area : None

EMPLOI - EMPLOYMENT

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25 ans de politique d’insertion des jeunes : quel bilan ?, C. Dumont, Conseil économique, social et environnemental, Paris, Avis et rapports, octobre, 124 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : France

.
Are over-educated people insiders or outsiders ? A case of job search methods and over-education in UK, A. Kucel and D. Byrne, Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin, Working paper, n° 258, September, 25 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Royaume-Uni / United Kingdom

. Les effets incitatifs de la prime pour l'emploi : une évaluation difficile, M. Cochard et alii, Insee, Paris, économie et statistique, n° 412, octobre, 24 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : France

 . Flux d'emploi et de main-d'œuvre en France : un réexamen, C. Picart, Insee, Paris, économie et statistique, n° 412, octobre, 30 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : France

. Nearly 2% of EU-27 GDP spent on labour market policies in 2006, S. Gagel, Eurostat, Luxembourg, Statistics in focus,  population and social conditions, n° 94/2008, 8 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Europe

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Quando la flessibilità diviene precarietà: una stima sezionale e longitudinale, E. Mandrone,
ISFOL, Roma, Studi, n° 6, ottobre, 33 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Italie / Italy

. La relation entre le niveau du salaire perçu et les transitions d'emploi à emploi en France : une remise en cause des modèles de recherche d'emploi ?, A. Chéron et G. Ding, Insee, Paris, économie et statistique, n° 412, octobre,  20 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : France

. Systems for anticipation of skill needs in the EU member states, Cedefop, Thessaloniki, Cedefop working paper, n° 1, October, 40 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Europe
                              
.
Teoria e prassi nell’attivazione dei disoccupati: il Patto di servizio, M. Marocco, Fondazione Universitaria Marco Biagi, Modena, Working paper, n° 64, 19 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Italie / Italy

.
Un modello di Osservatorio per il governo del sistema delle professioni sociali e lo sviluppo dei servizi alla persona,  L. Fabrizi, P. Raciti e C. Ranieri, ISFOL, Roma, Studi, n° 4, maggio, 23 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Italie / Italy

. Y a-t-il un avenir professionnel après 45 ans ? Rapport sur les causes et remèdes au chômage des seniors, J. Kossowski, 30 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : France

REVENU - INCOME

. Gender pay gap lower in large cities than in rural areas,
A. Busch and E. Holst, DIW, Berlin, Weekly report, vol. 4, n° 6, October, 6 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Allemagne / Germany

. Highlights of women's earnings in 2007, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, Report, n° 1008, October, 91 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Etats-Unis / United States

. Living wage laws : How much do (can) they matter ?,
H. J. Holzer, Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn, IZA discussion paper, n° 3781, October, 40 p., (2008).

Résumé - Summary : In this paper I review what we have learned about living wage laws and their impacts on the wages, employment and poverty rates of low-wage workers. I review the characteristics of these laws and where they have been implemented to date, and what economic theory tells us about their likely effects in more and less competitive labor markets. I then review two bodies of empirical evidence: 1) Studies across cities or metropolitan areas that have and have not implemented these laws, using data from the Current Population Survey pooled over many years; and 2) Studies within particular cities, based on comparisons of covered and uncovered workers before and after the laws are passed. I conclude that living wage laws have modestly raised wage levels of low wage workers and have reduced their employment at covered firms, but that the magnitudes of both effects are likely quite small, given how few workers are usually covered by these ordinances.
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Etats-Unis / United States

. Minimum wages and poverty : Will the Obama proposal help the working poor ?, J. Sabia and R. V. Burkhauser, Employment Policies Institute, Washington, September, 28 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Etats-Unis / United States

. On-the-job search, minimum wages and labor market outcomes in an equilibrium bargaining framework
C. Flinn and J. Mabli,
Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics, Torino, Working paper, n° 16, April, 53 p., (2008).

Résumé - Summary :
We look at the impact of a binding minimum wage on labor market outcomes and welfare distributions in a partial equilibrium model of matching and bargaining in the presence of on-the-job search. We use two different specifications of the Nash bargaining problem. In one, firms engage in a Bertrand competition for the services of an individual, as in Postel-Vinay and Robin (2002). In the other, firms do not engage in such competitions, and the outside option used in bargaining is always the value of unemployed search. We estimate both bargaining specifications using a Method of Simulated Moments estimator applied to data from a recent wave of the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Even though individuals will be paid the minimum wage for a small proportion of their labor market careers, we find significant effects of the minimum wage on the ex ante value of labor market careers, particularly in the case of Bertrand competition between firms. An important futures goal of this research agenda is to develop tests capable of determining which bargaining framework is more consistent with observed patterns of turnover and wage change at the individual level.
Zone géographique / Geographical area : none

AUTRES DONNEES SOCIALES - OTHER SOCIAL ISSUES

. Le Japon face au déclin annoncé de sa population, J. Véron, Ined, Paris, Population et sociétés, n° 449, octobre, 4 p.,  (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Japon

. La situation économique et sociale en Allemagne un an avant les élections. Bilan et perspectives,
M. Weinachter, Ifri, Paris, Note du Cerfa, n° 56, octobre, 20 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Allemagne / Germany

. Tarki European social report,
Edited by I. György Tóth, Tarki, Budapest, 131 p., (2008).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Europe