GLO Virtual Young Scholar (VirtYS) program session: Part II of the 2023-24 Cohort final presentations on January 23, 2025, 1-2 pm London/UK time
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Program
Chair: Klaus F. Zimmermann
Each paper 15 min presentation and 5 min Q&A.
- Vincent Jerald Ramos (University of Southampton & GLO): Too Little, Too Weak? Paid Parental Leaves and Workers’ Bargaining Response
Cluster lead & VirtYS Advisor: Prof. Uwe Jirjahn (Labor-management relations and quality of work)
- Xinyan Liu (University of Tokyo & GLO): Institution Matters: University Establishments and Childhood Maltreatment
Cluster lead: Prof. Niaz Assadullah (South-east Asia); VirtYS Advisor: Prof. Astghik Mavisakalyan
- Robina Kouser (National University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan, & GLO): A New Insight into The Measurement of Household Well-Being for Vulnerable Economies: Evidence Using Pakistan’s Labor and Diet Data
Cluster lead: Kompal Sinha (Development, Health, Inequality and Behavior); VirtYS Advisor: Suresh Chandra Babu
Note: Featured image Unsplash
Background information
Vincent Jerald Ramos
He is a Research Fellow at the University of Southampton, working on the demographic consequences of employment uncertainty. Concurrently, he is leading projects on concentration, representation, and bargaining in Philippine labor markets and the consequences of restrictive covenants in employment contracts. His work has been published in Work, Employment and Society, European Journal of Population, and Industrial Relations Journal, among others. He holds a PhD (summa cum laude) from the Hertie School Berlin and his current areas of interests are labor and economic demography and labor market institutions
Personal website: https://vincentrramos.github.io/
Presentation title: Too Little, Too Weak? Paid Parental Leaves and Workers’ Bargaining Response
Abstract: When statutory work and family entitlements are deemed insufficient, how do workers respond and compensate? Looking at some advanced economies points us to an idea – unionization may secure better conditions and higher benefit entitlements than what is statutorily guaranteed. However, the universality of this “success story” is far from established, particularly in contexts where unions play a less salient role and parental leave laws are perceived as weakly enforced, as is the case in many developing countries. In this paper, we construct a novel dataset of all private sector collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) in the Philippines from 2016-2021 to: (i) descriptively show the prevalence of paid parental leaves (PPLs) in CBAs; (ii) assess whether wage increase provisions crowd-out PPLs in CBAs; and (iii) analyze the causal effect of a 2019 maternity leave reform, which increased leave entitlement from 8 to 15 weeks, on the inclusion of PPLs in CBAs using two quasi-experimental identification strategies. Results suggest that around 65% of CBAs contain reinforcing provisions that merely restate statutory leave entitlements, while only 5% contain augmenting provisions that secure more leaves. Meanwhile, we find no evidence that either the inclusion of wage increase provisions or the 2019 reform has crowded out PPL provisions. On the contrary, we find a crowding-in pattern – wage increase provisions at the extensive and intensive margin are associated with a higher probability of PPL inclusion. Unpacking potential mechanisms, semi-structured interviews with union leaders and negotiators lend support to a bounded augmentation hypothesis such that where compliance and enforcement of family policy laws are perceived as weak, redundancy is as much of an objective as augmentation is in collective bargaining.
Xinyan Liu
She is a research associate at the University of Tokyo. She is a GLO Virtual Young Scholar in the 2023-24 cohort. She obtained her Ph.D. degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2024.
Her research interests span the fields of labor economics, education economics and crime economics. In particular, she focuses on three key areas: the influence of governmental policies on labor markets, education, and crime outcomes; the long-term effects of early childhood development; and the impact of policies on gender violence and its consequences.
Personal website: https://sites.google.com/view/liuxinyan/home
Presentation title: Institution Matters: University Establishments and Childhood Maltreatment
Abstract: The prevalence of violence against children is a global concern, and addressing this urgent issue requires serious consideration. Based on the evidence from child trafficking, which is recognized as one of the most severe forms of childhood maltreatment, this paper proposes that the establishment of nearby educational institutions could have a substantial impact on reducing violence against children. Exploiting a quasi-experiment in China that exogenously led to the establishment of more campuses in 1999, this study investigates that the university establishments can lead to a decrease in the number of missing children. Our mechanism demonstrates that the university’s establishment leads to improved economic development, increased public safety, and changes in family behavior, resulting in a reduction in criminal activities. Our findings reveal the unintended effects on children following the implementation of social facilities, which can serve as a hidden means to combat violence against them.
Robina Kouser
She is a PhD scholar at the National University of Sciences and Technology. She is a GLO Virtual Young Scholar in the 2022-23 cohort. She is entitled to an AAEA Uma LELE mentor fellowship in 2023. Recently, she has been visiting Texas A&M University USA, as a visiting research fellow. She is working on food insecurity and the labor market in the context of households with persons with disability (PWD). Her areas of interest are the economics of inequality, labor market, and development economics.
Presentation Title: A New Insight into the Measurement of Household Well-Being for Vulnerable Economies: Evidence Using Pakistan’s Labor and Diet Data.
Abstract: Well-being is a multidimensional concept that includes various aspects of life, such as physical, emotional, and social well-being. Indexes like the Human Development Index and the Multidimensional Poverty Index are popular global measures of well-being that use indicators like education, health, and living standards. Food insecurity and lack of decent work are two key factors that significantly contribute to the deprivation of household well-being. Lack of decent work leads to low wages, long working hours, unsafe work environments, and other factors that can negatively impact the workers’ physical and mental health. Similarly, food insecurity is associated with malnutrition, poor health outcomes, and a reduced quality of life. We construct a novel index to incorporate the dimensions of labor and diets. Using the nationally representative PSLM/HIES (2018–19) data, we build a multi-dimensional well-being index (MWBI) for different occupational groups in Pakistan. We use the Alkire and Foster methodology to find the deprivation of well-being across regions, provinces, sectors, PSCO-major classes, skill levels, and industries. Our findings reveal that 26 percent of the households perform poorly on multi-dimensional well-being. Rural areas are twice as deprived as urban areas. KPK province is the most deprived, while Punjab is the least. Female-headed households are worse off than male-headed households. Household heads employed in the agriculture sector, working in PSCO-class ‘elementary occupations,’ possessing skill level 1, or in the arts, entertainment, and recreation industry are the worst performers. Household heads employed in the non-agriculture sector (0.23), PSCO major group of clerical support workers (0.08), possessing skill level 4 (0.11), or in the industry of real estate are the least deprived. Our policy recommendations are to ensure wages exceed the minimum wage and promote skilled work. Focusing on the interplay of labor and diet is pivotal to promoting well-being in vulnerable economies.