Income Diversification and Income Inequality: Household Responses to the 2013 Floods in Pakistan

In this paper we investigate the economic response of rural households to the 2013 floods in Pakistan. The case study illustrates the important roles of labor supply adjustments and income diversification in coping with climate-related risks. Using detailed household panel data that were collected before and after the 2013 floods, we find that the exposure to flood results in lower participation in farm activities. The overall effects are decreased diversification in the sources of income and ambiguous reduction in inequality which is associated with overall declines in incomes. These changes could be locked in if affected households do not have sufficient assets to resume farming. The results suggest intervention points for public policy, related to labor mobility and access to capital.

Gender attributes of the impact of informal savings and loans associations on food security in rural Zimbabwe

PurposeIn the absence of well-developed financial markets, Informal Savings and Loans Associations (ISLAs) provide rural households with an alternative consumption coping mechanisms when confronted by transitory and seasonal food insecurity. The purpose of this study is to investigate the household food consumption coping strategies and gendered importance of ISLAs in improving household food security in rural Zimbabwe.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses household panel data on rural livelihoods from the 2019 and 2020 household surveys conducted by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC). Employing propensity score matching approach to cater for the self-selection bias associated with household ISLA membership, the study estimates average treatment effect of household ISLA membership on food security and gendered importance of the propensity of the household to engage in consumption coping strategies.FindingsResults shows that the ISLA membership increases household food security and reduces the household propensity to apply non-ISLA consumption coping mechanisms. Female-headed households with ISLA members are more able to increase food security as well as reduce reliance on non-ISLA consumption coping mechanisms than their male counterparts with ISLA members.Research limitations/implicationsUse of household dietary diversity score and food consumption score as two proxies to measure household food security.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on food consumption coping strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa using recent household panel data.

Impact of Aging and Underemployment on Income Disparity between Agricultural and Non-Agricultural Households

This paper examines how aging and underemployment affect household income and household income disparity between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. Our study uses household panel data from South Korea for the period 2009–2016, which include, on average, 6721 representative households each year. A three-step regression analysis was conducted to estimate the aging and underemployment effects on household income and the income disparity between agricultural and non-agricultural households. First, we estimate aging and underemployment effects on household income from all households using a year fixed-effect longitudinal model. Second, our study investigates whether the marginal effect of aging and underemployment on household income differs between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. Finally, we simulate the estimated model to illustrate how government policies could help reduce the income disparity. Our results show that aging and underemployment affect household income negatively overall. The negative marginal effect of the two factors was greater in the agricultural sector than in the non-agricultural sector. Results from policy simulations suggest that the implementation of proper government policies to address aging and underemployment problems in agricultural households could significantly reduce the income disparity between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors.

Raising a Politically Engaged Generation: When Parental Influence Matters Most

At what ages are young people most open to political influence? We test the “formative years” model that underscores the importance of childhood experiences for political development against the “impressionable years” model that asserts the primacy of lessons learned during adolescence. To assess the relative merits of these competing models, we develop a new analytical strategy: the Retrospective Family Context approach. We estimate the political engagement levels of 18-year-olds as a function of annual measures of their parents’ political engagement levels over the course of the prior decade. German household panel data analysis shows that parental cues sink in quite effectively during late childhood, ages 9 to 11, and during the late teens. These results illuminate an essential dimension of political development, and they can inform efforts to encourage young people’s political participation.

Ageism Kills Brands

Market share growth requires building mental and physical availability among all category buyers. However, if younger category buyers are more likely to purchase new-to-market products, then perhaps younger buyers are, relatively speaking, more important for growth. This research investigates the relationship between category buyer age, brand buyer age, and brand failure. When sub-brand buyer age is younger than category buyer age, the sub-brand is likely to be (a) new-to-market or (b) growing in market share. Older-than-category sub-brand-buyer age is likely for sub-brands that are (a) declining or (b) dead. Results from 17 years (1998–2014) of U.K. household panel data, including 5,913 sub-brands from 101 categories, show that age skews were uncommon (only 18% of sub-brands), and second, that growing, stable and declining sub-brands appealed equally to all ages. Finally, we identified that new launches and dead brands tend to skew to younger consumers, suggesting that new launches need to appeal to all ages to avoid failure.

Marriage and Masculinity: Male-Breadwinner Culture, Unemployment, and Separation Risk in 29 Countries

Scholars argue that gender culture, understood as a set of beliefs, norms, and social expectations defining masculinities and femininities, plays an important role in shaping when romantic relationships end. However, the relevance of gender culture is often underappreciated, in part because its empirical identification remains elusive. This study leverages cross-country variation in gender norms to test the hypothesis that gender culture conditions which heterosexual romantic relationships end and when. We analyze the extent to which male-breadwinning norms determine the association between men’s unemployment and couple separation. Using harmonized household panel data for married and cohabiting heterosexual couples in 29 countries from 2004 to 2014, our results provide robust evidence that male-breadwinner norms are a key driver of the association between men’s unemployment and the risk of separation. The magnitude of this mechanism is sizeable; an increase of one standard deviation in male-breadwinner norms increases the odds of separation associated with men’s unemployment by 32 percent. Analyses also show that the importance of male-breadwinner norms is strongest among couples for whom the male-breadwinner identity is most salient, namely married couples. By directly measuring and leveraging variation in the key explanatory of interest, gender culture, our study offers novel and robust evidence reinforcing the importance of gender norms to understand when romantic relationships end.

Challenging Climate Strikers' Youthfulness: The Evolution of the Generational Gap in Environmental Attitudes Since 1999

In 2019, youth took to the street to express their fears and ambitions in relation to climate change. Alongside, many adult and senior citizens expressed their solidarity. While the media present environmental issues as being generationally dividing, we know little about potential differences between generations in terms of environmental attitudes. In this paper, we analyze data collected in the framework of street demonstrations in Switzerland and longitudinal data collected in the Swiss population. Our analyses of survey data on climate strike demonstrators in Switzerland show that while the early demonstrations attracted mostly youth, the age composition of climate strike demonstrators became more diverse over time increasingly including members of different generations. Furthermore, we explore how age differences evolved over the last 20 years using the Swiss Household Panel data. Our analyses show that the share of individuals who favor the environment over the economy is greater among younger generations and that the climate strike generation stands out with the largest share of pro-environmental attitudes. However, all generations have moved in parallel over the last twenty years following a non-linear but generally upward trend illustrating that the political context affects all generations. Overall, our analyses contribute to understanding incremental changes in public attitudes in the environmental area and the role played by generational renewal in these regards.

Comparative Panel File: Household Panel Surveys from Seven Countries. Manual for CPF v.1.0 CPF

The Comparative Panel File (CPF) harmonises the world's largest and longest-running household panel surveys from seven countries: Australia (HILDA), Germany (SOEP), Great Britain (BHPS and UKHLS), South Korea (KLIPS), Russia (RLMS), Switzerland (SHP), and the United States (PSID). The project aims to support the social science community in the analysis of comparative life course data. The CPF is not a data product but an open-source code that integrates individual and household panel data from all seven surveys into a harmonised three-level data structure. In this manual, we present the design and content of the CPF, explain the logic of the project, workflow and technical details. We also describe the CPF's open-science platform. More at: www.cpfdata.com

Changing Attitudes Towards Gender Equality in Switzerland (2000–2017): Period, Cohort and Life-Course Effects

This paper investigates trends in Swiss women’s and men’s gender attitudes in the period 2000–2017 using the Swiss Household Panel data. Based on pooled OLS and fixed-effects models, we establish the following for women and men: (1) over this time period, attitudes towards gender roles become more egalitarian, while attitudes towards gender equality achievement remain stable; (2) the youngest cohort unexpectedly holds more traditional attitudes; and (3) individual attitudes change over the life course based on life events and the attitudes of one’s partner.