Shoring up economic refugees: Venezuelan migrants in the Ecuadoran labor market

Ecuador became the third largest receiver of the 4.3 million Venezuelans who left their country in the last five years, hosting around 10 per cent of them. Little is known about the characteristics of these migrants and their labor market outcomes. This article fills this gap by analyzing a new large survey (EPEC). On average, Venezuelan workers are highly skilled and have high rates of employment, compared with Ecuadorans. However, their employment is of much lower quality, characterized by low wages, and high rates of informality and temporality. Venezuelans have experienced significant occupational downgrading, relative to their employment prior to emigration. As a result, despite their high educational attainment, Venezuelans primarily compete for jobs with the least skilled and more economically vulnerable Ecuadoran workers. Our simulations suggest that measures that allow Venezuelans to obtain employment that matches their skills, such as facilitating the conversion of education credentials, would increase Ecuador’s GDP between 1.6 and 1.9 per cent and alleviate the pressure on disadvantaged native workers. We also show that providing work permits to Venezuelan workers would substantially reduce their rates of informality and increase their average earnings.

Can Adolescents Acquire Cultural Capital Through Social Capital? The Impact of Ties to College-Educated Adults

Scholars debate whether cultural capital reproduces existing inequalities or provides a path to upward mobility. Most studies, however, focus only on cross-sectional associations and are unclear about how disadvantaged adolescents can increase their amounts of cultural capital. Adolescents may be able to increase cultural capital through ties to adults with high educational attainment. We investigate this topic using experimental longitudinal data on mentoring relationships. We find that mentors with a college degree or greater have positive effects on cultural capital, but primarily for adolescents with a parent with some college or greater. Thus, cultural capital may not be an engine of social mobility if adolescents from low-SES households cannot obtain or increase their cultural capital.

Education Moderates the Negative Effect of Apolipoprotein E ɛ4 on Response Inhibition in Older Adults

Background: Studies have reported that apolipoprotein E epsilon 4 (APOE ɛ4) has adverse effects on executive functions (EFs) in late adulthood. However, the results have been inconsistent. Insufficient measurements of executive functioning, uncontrolled clinical and demographic confounders, and moderation effects from other environmental factors are suspected to account for the inconsistency. Objective: This study used aggregate measures to examine the effects of APOE ɛ4 on four components of EFs, namely switching, working memory, inhibition, and reasoning. We further investigated whether high educational attainment, a proxy measure for cognitive reserve, moderates the adverse effects of ɛ4 on EFs. Methods: Cognitively unimpaired older participants were divided into groups based on APOE genotype and into subgroups based on educational attainment level. The demographic and clinical variables were matched between the groups. Four core components of the EFs were measured using a relatively comprehensive battery. Results: The results revealed that although no main effect of the APOE genotype was observed across the four EF components, the potentially adverse effects of ɛ4 on inhibition were alleviated by high educational attainment. A main effect of education on the reasoning component was also observed. The moderation analysis revealed that for older adults with 12 years of education or fewer, the relationship between the APOE ɛ4 genotype and inhibition performance became increasingly negative. Conclusion: This study highlights the distinctive role of response inhibition in the gene–environment interaction and underlines the importance of considering factors of both nature and nurture to understand the complex process of cognitive aging.

Financial inclusion, mobile banking, informal finance and financial exclusion: micro-level evidence from Morocco

PurposeThis study has a dual purpose. The first is constructing a financial inclusion index to investigate if the reforms implemented during the last decades at the macroeconomic and sectoral levels have contributed to increase the financial inclusion level in Morocco. The second is to deepen the investigation to explore the impact of these reforms at the microeconomic level, by focusing on six major issues: determinants of financial inclusion, links between individual characteristics and barriers to financial inclusion, determinants of mobile banking use, motivations for saving, credit objectives and determinants of resorting to informal finance.Design/methodology/approachFirst, the principal component analysis methodology is mobilized to construct a financial inclusion index for Morocco. Second, the probit model methodology on a micro-level database of 5,110 Moroccan adults is used.FindingsFirst, the financial inclusion index shows that financial inclusion in Morocco over the last two decades has followed different trends. The first period (1999–2004) was characterized by a slight upswing in the level of financial inclusion. In the second period (2004–2012), the level of financial inclusion increased significantly. During the third period (2012–2019), the financial inclusion maintained almost the same level. Second, empirical results showed that the determinants of formal finance and mobile banking are different from those of informal finance. Having a high educational attainment and being a participant in the labor market fosters financial inclusion. Concerning financial exclusion determinants, the results emphasized that a high educational attainment reduces the barriers leading to voluntary exclusion. As income level increases, barriers of involuntary exclusion such as “lack of money” become surmountable. Although "remoteness" and "high cost" are the major barriers to financial inclusion of all Moroccan social classes, the development of mobile banking allows to eliminate, smoothen and/or loosen all barriers sources of involuntary exclusion. As for the barriers causing voluntary exclusion, the Islamic finance model constitutes a lever for the inclusion of population segments excluded for religious reasons. As for the determinants of the recourse to informal finance, being a woman, an older person and having a low educational level (no more than secondary education) increase the probability to turn to informal finance.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of this study is the non-availability of data on the two dimensions (quality and welfare) of financial inclusion. The composite index is constructed on the basis of two dimensions (access and use) for which data are available.Practical implicationsThis study has three main implications. In practice, with the launching of the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion, this work provides empirical grounded evidence that contributes to design financial inclusion policies in Morocco. In research, while the debate on financial inclusion, mobile banking and informal finance has been raging in recent years, Morocco, like many other African countries, has not received coverage on these topics at the household level.Social implicationsFor society, this study provides considerable insight about the segments of population that are financially excluded and the main reasons for their exclusion.Originality/valueThis study enriches the existing literature with four essential contributions. First, it analyzes the evolution of the level of financial inclusion in the Moroccan economy through the development of a synthetic index. Second, it is the first to study the Moroccan population's financial behavior on the basis of micro-level data, which will help understand more precisely their financial behavior and the main obstacles to their inclusion. Third, this study explores the determinants of the use of mobile banking. Fourth, it sheds some light on the main determinants of the recourse to informal finance.

A national survey assessing public readiness for digital health strategies against COVID-19 within the United Kingdom

There is concern that digital public health initiatives used in the management of COVID-19 may marginalise certain population groups. There is an overlap between the demographics of groups at risk of digital exclusion (older, lower social grade, low educational attainment and ethnic minorities) and those who are vulnerable to poorer health outcomes from SARS-CoV-2. In this national survey study (n = 2040), we assessed how the UK population; particularly these overlapping groups, reported their preparedness for digital health strategies. We report, with respect to using digital information to make health decisions, that those over 60 are less comfortable (net comfort: 57%) than those between 18 and 39 (net comfort: 78%) and lower social grades are less comfortable (net comfort: 63%) than higher social grades (net comfort: 75%). With respect to a preference for digital over non-digital sources in seeking COVID-19 health information, those over 60 (net preference: 21%) are less inclined than those between 18 and 39 (net preference: 60%) and those of low educational attainment (net preference: 30%) are less inclined than those of high educational attainment (net preference: 52%). Lastly, with respect to distinguishing reliable digital COVID-19 information, lower social grades (net confidence: 55%) are less confident than higher social grades (net confidence: 68%) and those of low educational attainment (net confidence: 51%) are less confident than those of high educational attainment (net confidence: 71%). All reported differences are statistically significant (p < 0.01) following multivariate regression modelling. This study suggests that digital public health approaches to COVID-19 have the potential to marginalise groups who are concurrently at risk of digital exclusion and poor health outcomes from SARS-CoV-2.

Who Calls the Shots? The Insiders and Outsiders of (Un)just Participation in Slovenian Elementary Schools

The article deals with inequalities in exercising the right to participate in elementary schools in Slovenia. We chiefly focus on the participation of children in various participatory practices such as class communities represented by class representatives, school communities in some cases represented by school representatives, the Children’s Parliament etc. Our findings (based on thematic analysis of 15 focus groups with 157 children) show that class representatives and forum participants are most often selected based on their personality traits (eloquent children actively involved in class and outside school activities, children with exemplary behaviour who are driven, independent, reliable, trusted and popular among classmates and teachers) and/or their high educational attainment. They are perceived to have better opportunities and talents than other children and, in principle, come from families which are not socio-economically deprived. On the contrary, pupils from disadvantaged socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, children with behavioural, emotional and learning difficulties do not receive the opportunity to actively participate and are (at best) merely represented. Using both the Rawlsian approach to the conceptualisation of justice (1971, 1999) and the recognition approach (Fraser, 2001), we assess whether the arrangement and practice of child participation in schools in Slovenia may be considered just. We argue that, according to the first approach, the arrangement of child participation in elementary schools in Slovenia can be considered just under certain conditions whereas, according to the second approach, less so. Child participation lacks substantive equality in participation outcomes even though in principle all children have the same right to participate.

The Intergenerational Transmission of Education: A Case Study from Iceland

We estimate the relation between parents’ education and the education of their children, using survey data from Iceland. We find a positive correlation between the education of parents and their children, as well as a positive correlation between parents’ emphasis on the importance of education and their children’s education. Parents with strong educational emphasis do not necessarily need to have high educational attainment in our sample. The mother’s education appears to matter somewhat more than that of the father. In a multiple regression analysis, we find a positive and statistically significant effect of both the mother and the father’s education on the educational attainment of children as well as an effect of the mother and the father’s emphasis of the importance of education, while controlling for gender, age and residence. The results show that parents’ emphasis on education has almost the same effect on children as the parents’ education level. We attempt to make a comparison between the correlation in Iceland and in other countries, in particular the four Nordic countries that have a weaker transmission between generations than most other nations. We find that it is lower in Iceland than the Nordic average. Finally, we find that the influence of parents has not changed much over time by omitting the youngest cohort between the ages of 24 and 35.

Abstract 16035: Socioeconomic Status and 1-year Mortality Among Patients With Heart Failure in China: Findings From the China-PEACE Prospective Heart Failure Study

Introduction: Socioeconomic status (SES) has been shown to affect the survival of patients with heart failure (HF) in the developed countries. However, the association between SES with mortality has been scarcely investigated in China. Methods: We studied a national sample of 4717 patients admitted to 52 hospitals for HF who had SES record and were discharged alive from the China PEACE-Prospective Heart Failure Study. SES were obtained through questionnaires during hospitalization, and were measured by self-reported employment status (employed, retired, never work), education level (low educational attainment defined as primary school or below; intermediate educational attainment defined as junior high school; high educational attainment defined as senior high school or above) and partner status (having a partner, no partner). We assessed the association between SES and 1-year all-cause mortality using Cox models. Results: The median age of study population was 67 (57,76) years, 37.6% were women.17.6% of patients had a job, 72.5% retired and 9.9% never worked. The proportions of patients who had low, intermediate and high educational attainment were 43.0%, 29.0% and 28.0%,respectively. Additionally, 80.8% of patients had a partner. In unadjusted analysis, compared with patients who had a job, who had high educational attainment and who had a partner, respectively, currently no work status (retired group: HR 2.08, 95%CI 1.64 to 2.63; never work group: HR 2.23, 95%CI 1.78 to 3.22), low educational attainment (HR 1.52, 95%CI 1.28 to 1.81) and no partner (HR 1.31, 95%CI 1.12 to 1.54) were all associated to higher mortality. After adjusting for patient characteristics, medication use at discharge and mutually adjusting for socioeconomic status, education level and partner status were not associated with mortality, However, patients without work currently (retired group: adjusted HR 1.52, 95%CI 1.17 to 1.97; never work group: adjusted HR 1.60, 95%CI 1.15 to 2.22) were still more likely to die within 1 year. Conclusions: In a national Chinese cohort of patients hospitalized for HF, currently no work status was associated with higher 1-year mortality risk, while the education level and partner status were not correlated with mortality.

Fairness and annuity divisors for notional defined contribution pension schemes

The use of a gender-neutral annuity divisor introduces an intra-generational redistribution from short-lived towards long-lived individuals; this entails a transfer of wealth from males to females and from low socioeconomic groups to high socioeconomic groups. With some subpopulations consisting of females from low socioeconomic groups (or males from high groups), the net effect of the redistribution is unclear. The study aims to quantify the lifetime income redistribution of a generic NDC system using two types of divisor – the demographic and the economic – to compute the amount of an initial pension. With this in mind, the redistribution (actuarial fairness) among subpopulations is assessed through the ratio between the present value of expected pensions received and contributions paid. We find that all subgroups of women and men with high educational attainment benefit from the use of the unisex demographic divisor. This paper also shows that the value of the economic divisor depends markedly on population composition. When mortality differentials by gender and level of education are considered, economic divisors are mostly driven by the longevity effect corresponding to gender.