RESUMEN
We address a question at the center of many policy debates: how effective is the US safety net? Many existing studies evaluate the effect of one program on economic hardship in isolation, though families typically participate in multiple programs. Using 1992-2011 data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, our analyses examine the simultaneous effect of participation in three programs, TANF, SNAP, or Medicaid/SCHIP, on a set of outcomes of intrinsic importance-measures of material hardship. We find that a 10 percentage point increase in participation in any of these three safety net programs by low-to-moderate income families with children reduces their average number of hardships by 0.11 (-0.41 elasticity), and the incidence of food insufficiency by 1.7 percentage points (-1.27 elasticity). This analysis suggests that hardship would be even more prevalent in the United States without the existence of the current safety net programs.
RESUMEN
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.
RESUMEN
In this paper, we use an employer-based survey of earnings and hours to set out the key patterns in UK earnings dynamics from 1975 to 2020, with a particular focus on the most recent recession. We demonstrate that (log) earnings changes exhibit strongly procyclical skewness and have become increasingly leptokurtic, and thus less well approximated by a log-normal distribution, over the period of study. This holds across genders and sectors. Exploiting the long duration of our panel, we then explore the responsiveness of earnings and hours to aggregate and firm-level shocks, finding ample heterogeneity in the exposure of different types of workers to aggregate shocks. Exposure is falling in age, firm size, skill level, and permanent earnings, and is lower for unionized and public sector workers. The qualitative patterns of earnings changes across workers observed in the Covid-19 recession of 2020 are broadly as predicted using the previously estimated exposures and size of the shock. Firm-specific shocks are important for wages given the variation in within-firm productivity and the patterns of heterogeneity are markedly different than for aggregate shocks.
RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: Inflammatory-Bowel-Disease (IBD) is a lifelong illness with significant impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The disease-burden causes work productivity impairment, such as sick-leave and restriction of leisure time activities. From a societal perspective, productivity loss often contributes significantly to the total costs. The aim of the study is to analyze the impact of disease-burden on work productivity, daily activities, and HRQoL. METHODS: We performed a survey among Austrian patients with IBD to assess general questions about demography and disease pattern, impaired work productivity and reduced daily activities using the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment questionnaire and HRQoL utilizing the Short Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (SIBDQ). Associations were assessed employing linear regressions. The questionnaire was circulated by the Austrian Crohn's Disease/Ulcerative Colitis Association. RESULTS: In total, 510 patients with median age of 40 years completed the questionnaire. Patients had a median disease-duration of 9 years, 46% were treated with biologics and 64% were employed. The median SIBDQ score was 45 (16-69). Patients in self-assessed remission (n = 319) and relapse (n = 96) differed by 18 points on the SIBDQ score (p value < 0.0001). Mean work productivity reduction amounted to 7 h 17 min (95% CI 6:05-8:29) during the last 7 days. Work absenteeism accounted for 4 h 28 min (95% CI 3:25-5:31) and reduced productivity at the workplace (presenteeism) for 2 h 49 min (95% CI 2:31-3:07). During a relapse, 12 h 9 min were lost (p value < 0.0001). Productivity reduction correlated with HRQoL (r = 0.3964). In total, 143 per patient per week (95% CI 119-167) were lost (7,411 per year). On average, patients lost 4 h (95% CI 3:44-4:16) of unpaid daily activities; 3 h 17 min the employed subgroup and 5 h 19 min the not employed. CONCLUSION: IBD leads to a substantial burden of disease, which is associated with indirect costs for society related to work ability reduction. HRQoL significantly influences loss of work productivity. Improving HRQoL should be a key factor to reduce disease burden and societal costs.