http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/2030 2012-02-11T11:25:20Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/169988 Effects of prison work programmes on the employability of ex-prisioners Alòs, Ramon; Esteban, Fernando Osvaldo; Jódar, Pere; Miguélez, Fausto This paper presents the main results of a study that relates information from the prison system with information for the Spanish Social Security in order to study the employability of the former inmates of prisons in Catalonia, Spain who obtained final release from 1/1/2004 to 31/12/2007. The results show that 43.6% of the ex-prisoners find a job after serving their sentences, but their integration in the labour market tends to be fragile, confirming that it is a very vulnerable group. It was also found that prison work has a favourable effect on employability and that vocational training could be useful for those who have not previously worked and have no education or job skills. 2011-07-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/152114 Political mobilisation and models of trade unionism : Southern Europe in comparative perspective Cebolla Boado, Héctor; Ortiz Gervasi, Luis The relationship between union membership and political mobilization has been studied under many perspectives, but quantitative cross-national analyses have been hampered by the absence of international comparable survey data until the first round of the European Social Survey (ESS-2002) was made available. Using different national samples from this survey in four moments of time (2002, 2004 and 2006), our paper provides evidence of cross-country divergence in the empirical association between political mobilisation and trade union membership. Cross-national differences in union members’ political mobilization, we argue, can be explained by the existence of models of unionism that in turn differ with respect to two decisive factors: the institutionalisation of trade union activity and the opportunities left-wing parties have available for gaining access to executive power. 2011-06-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/152113 Parental care time in four European countries: comparing types and contexts Gracia Molina, Pablo; Ghysels, Joris; Vercammen, Kim The intensity of parental investments in child care time is expected to vary across families with different norms and time-constraints. Additionally, it should also differ across countries, since the abilities of parents to harmonize family and work vary by national context. In our opinion, however, this question remains inconclusive for two main reasons: 1) only some countries have been studied from a comparative approach; 2) previous studies have not paid enough attention to the analysis of how the conditional effects of education and employment affect parental investments. In this paper we used nationally representative time-use data from Denmark, Flanders, Spain and the United Kingdom (N=4,031) to explore how employment and education predict variations in child care time. IN Britain and Spain employment has a strong negative effect on fathers’ child care, but a weaker one in Flanders and particularly in Denmark. In contrast, maternal employment has a strong negative impact in all four countries. Education increases child care time significantly only among Spanish mothers and fathers, as well as British mothers. Nonetheless, we find that college-educated mothers under similar time-constraints increase substantially their expected child care time in Britain, Flanders and Spain; for fathers we find a more mixed picture. Routine child care activities are more sensitive to both maternal and paternal employment than interactive child care activities. Finally, we observe that working a public sector job generally increases a total time allocated to parental care, controlling for several demographic and socioeconomic variables. 2011-06-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/152112 Deferred effects of nursery school on adolescents' school performance in Spain Sarasa Urdiola, Sebastià This research analysis the long-term effects of nursery school attendance before the age of three in Spain. The effects are measured when the individuals are adolescents and attend secondary school. The article deals with the controversy over the long-term effects of nursery school attendance and its potential effect on reducing inequalities and social exclusion. The results estimate a significant long-term effect of nursery school attendance on improving educational performance, although the beneficial effects are lower among adolescents residing in the lower status households. 2011-06-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/97263 Explaining parental dedication to child care in Spain Baizán, Pau; Domínguez Folgueras, Marta; González, María José The quality of the time dedicated to child care has potential positive effects on children’s life chances. However, the determinants of parental time allocation to child care remain largely unexplored, particularly in context undergoing rapid family change such as Spain. We assess two alternative explanations for differences between parents in the amount of time spent with children. The first, based in the relative resources hypothesis, links variation in time spent with children to the relative attributes (occupation, education or income) of one partner to the other. The second, derived from the social status hypothesis, suggests that variation in time spent with children is attributable to the relative social position of the pair (i.e. higher status couples spend more time with children regardless of within-couple difference). To investigate theses questions, we use a sample of adults (18-50) from the Spanish Time Use Survey (STUS) 2002-2003 (n=7,438). Limiting the analysis to adults who are married or in consensual unions, the STUS allows to assess both the quantity and quality of parental time spent with children. We find little support for the “relative resources hypothesis”. Instead, consistent with the “social status hypothesis”, we find that time spent on child care is attributable to the social position of the couple, regardless of between-parent differences in income of education. 2010-12-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/93886 Why do workers leave unions? - group differences in a Spanish Union Federation Jódar Martínez, Pere; Alós, Ramon; Vidal, Sergi This study analyses the characteristics of members leaving a Spanish union federation – Catalonia branch of Workers’ Commissions (CCOO-Catalonia), together with their reasons for leaving using a variety of data sources. Our findings indicate that higher union attrition among members in instable employment (i.e. casual employment and low seniority). In general, union leavers confirm that their job situation is an important reason for leaving the union. We therefore conclude that efforts made by the union to retain members in vulnerable labor market positions are important in reducing high rates of union attrition in Spain. 2010-11-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/86913 Claves para el trabajo con la muestra continua de vidas laborales Lapuerta, Irene Desde el año 2005 la comunidad científica cuenta con una nueva fuente de información anual para el estudio de las dinámicas del mercado de trabajo y del sistema de previsión social de carácter contributivo en España. Sus microdatos, que reciben el nombre de Muestra Continua de Vidas Laborales (MCVL), proceden de tres registros administrativos: la Seguridad Social, el Padrón Continuo Municipal y la Agencia Tributaria. En este trabajo se exponen sus características fundamentales, al tiempo que se plantean algunas pautas básicas para afrontar las dificultades en el manejo de sus datos. Entre ellas destacan las peculiaridades de su estructura panel; el tratamiento del pluriempleo y las situaciones simultáneas; el modo en que se computa una relación laboral; y los problemas para la identificación de la estructura familiar. 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/51323 The Role of social institutions in inter-generational mobility Nolan, Brian, 1953-; Esping-Andersen, Gøsta; Whelan, Christopher T. In this study we examine the role of institutions in shaping inter-generational mobility behavior. Research has traditionally emphasized the role of educational systems but cummulative evidence suggests that variations in their design offer only a very limited explanation for observed mobility differences. We examine the impact of welfare states and, in particular, how early childhood and family policies may influence the impact of economic and cultural characteristics of origin families on child outcomes. 2010-03-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/51308 The Sociology of educational mismatch Kucel, Aleksander This paper studies the theoretical relationships between core research lines of sociology such as intergenerational mobility, class structure, cultural capital and educational mismatches. By educational mismatch we mean two things. Firstly an individual can be horizontally mismatched whereby their field of study is inadequate for the job. Another direction of educational mismatch is the so called vertical mismatch where worker possesses more/less education than the job requires resulting in over-/under-education. While analyzing the educational mismatches I keep present the conclusions of Rational Action Theory on individuals’ rational choices in their educational careers. I arrive to conclusions where the influences between educational mismatches and social classes are bidirectional and one can establish fairly clear theoretical links between class of origins and likelihood of being educationally mismatched. 2010-03-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/51307 Is there a wage penalty for horizontal and vertical mismatch? Kucel, Aleksander; Vilalta-Bufí, Montserrat This paper studies how the horizontal and vertical mismatches in the labor market affect wage. We do so by taking into account that by choosing a job, wage and mismatches are simultaneously determined. The Seemingly Unrelated Equations model also allows us to control for any omitted variable that could cause biased estimators. We use REFLEX data for Spain. Results reveal that in most cases being horizontally matched has a wage premium and being over-educated does not affect wage. Results suggest that the modeling strategy successfully accounts for some omitted variable that affects simultaneously the probability of being horizontally matched and the wage. This could explain the existence of a wage penalty for over-educated workers when the omitted variable issue is not dealt with. 2010-03-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/43768 Overeducation among European university graduates : a comparative analysis ot its incidence and the importance of higher education differentiation Barone, Carlo; Ortíz Gervasi, Luis The incidence of over-education is here assessed by applying some standard subjective and objective indicators and a new skill-based indicator of over-education to the national samples of eight European countries in the REFLEX survey. With the exception of Spain, the results reveal that over-education is a minor risk amongst European tertiary graduates. Yet, the contrast between the standard indicators and the skill-based indicator reveals the existence of an over-education of a moderate kind in countries with high tertiary attainment rates (Norway, Finland and Netherlands). Such a type of over-education does not come to the surface when applying the standard indicators. Our results also reveal the importance of higher education differentiation (i.e. field of study and branch of higher education) for understanding the risk of over-education. Graduates from humanistic fields, bachelor courses and vocational colleges are more exposed to over-education, though their disadvantage varies across-nationally to a significant extent. 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/41843 Upgrading or polarization? occupational change in Britain, Germany, Spain and Switzerland, 1990-2008 Oesch, Daniel; Rodríguez Menes, Jorge This paper analyzes the pattern of occupational change in four Western European countries over the last two decades: what kind of jobs have been expanding -- high-paid jobs, low-paid jobs or both? By addressing this issue, we also examine what theoretical account is consistent with the observed pattern of change: skill-biased technical change, skill supply evolution or wage-setting institutions? Our empirical findings show a picture of massive occupational upgrading that closely matches educational expansion. In all four countries, by far the strongest employment growth occurred at the top of the occupational hierarchy, among managers and professionals. Yet in parallel, in Britain and Switzerland, as well as in Germany and Spain after 1996 and 2002 respectively, relative employment declined more strongly in the middling occupations (among clerks and production workers) than at the bottom (among interpersonal service workers). This slightly polarized pattern of occupational upgrading is consistent with the "routinization" hypothesis that technology is a better substitute for average-paid jobs in production and the office that for low-paid jobs in interpersonal services. However, we find large cross-country differences in the employment evolution at the bottom of the occupational hierarchy, among low-paid services workers: sizeable growth in Britain and Spain, but stagnation in Germany and Switzerland. This results points towards the possibility that wage-setting institutions filter the pattern of occupational change. 2009-06-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/41842 Regional child care availability and fertility decisions in Spain Baizán, Pau In this paper I explore two hypotheses: (1) Formal child care availability for children under three has a positive effect across contexts, according to the degree of adaptation of social institutions to changes in gender roles. Event history models with regional fixed effects are applied to data from the European Community Household Panel (1994-2001). The results show a significant and positive effect of regional day care availability on both, first and higher order births, while results are consistent with the second hypothesis only for second or higher order births. 2009-05-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/41841 What made him change? an individual and national analysis of men's participation in housework in 26 countries González, María José; Jurado Guerrero, Teresa; Naldini, Manuela We offer new evidence on multi-level determinants of the gender division of housework. Using data from the 2004 European Social Survey (ESS) for 26 European, we study the micro and macro-level factors which increase the likelihood of men doing an equal or greater share of housework than their female partners. A sample of 11,915 young men and women is analysed with a multi-level logistic regression in order to test at individual level the classic relative-income, time-availability and gender-role values, and a new couple conflict hypothesis. At individual level we find significant relationships between relative resources, values, couple's disagreement, and the division of housework which support more economic dependency than "doing gender" perspectives. At the macro-level, we find important composition effects and also support for gender empowerment, family model and social stratification explanations of cross-country differences. 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/41822 Productivities, preferences, and parental child care Bonke, Jens; Esping-Andersen, Gøsta We study the interplay of preferences and market productivities on parenting, and show the preferences, when identified, provide a better explanation of caring decisions than has, so far, been demonstrated in the literature. We qualify the standard finding the parental education in a key determinant of care by showing important interaction effects with marital homogamy. We find that homogamy has opposite effects on child care and couple specialization for high and low educated parents. Identification has been made possible by a unique couple-based time diary study for Denmark 2008-11-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/12476 Union activism in an inclusive model of industrial relations : evidence from an Spanish case Jódar Martínez, Pere; Vidal, Sergi; Alòs, Ramon In this article we analyze the reasons, within the context of Spanish industrial relations, for trade union members’ active participation in their regional union. The case of Spain is particularly interesting as the unions’ main activity, collective bargaining, is a public good. The text, based on research involving a representative survey of members of a regional branch of the “Workers” Commissions” (Comisiones Obreras) trade union, provides empirical evidence that the union presence in the workplace has a significant influence on members’ propensity for activism. By contrast, the alternative hypothesis based on instrumental reasons appears of little relevance in the Spanish industrial relations context. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/10685 Personal and household care giving for adult children to parents and social stratification Sarasa Urdiola, Sebastià; Billingsley, Sunnee Using SHARE database the paper explores the factors conditioning personal care giving from adult children to their parents. Frequency and intensity of personal care is contrasted with the reciprocal expectations that children have about wealth inheritance from their parents and with the opportunity costs of helping, as well as with the capacity of parents of getting help from other sources of personal care. The results may help to understand how inequalities in accessing to formal services relate with intergenerational solidarity. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/10684 Who benefits from parental leave in Spain? : a life course analysis Lapuerta, Irene; González, María José; Baizán, Pau This paper analyses the extent to which individual and workplace characteristics and regional policies influence the use and duration of parental leave in Spain. The research is based on a sample of 125,165 people, and 6,959 parental leaves stemming from the ‘Sample of Working Life Histories’ (SWLH), 2006. The SWLH consists of administrative register data which include information from three different sources: Social Security, Municipality and Income Tax Registers. We adopt a simultaneous equations approach to analyse the use (logistic regression) and duration (event history analysis) of parental leave, which allows us to control for endogeneity and censored observations. We argue that the Spanish parental leave scheme increases gender and social inequalities insofar as reinforces gender role specialization, and only encourages the reconciling of work and family life among workers with a good position in the labour market (educated employees with high and stable working status). 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/10683 The Risk of divorce and household saving behavior González, Libertad; Ozcan, Berkay We address the impact of an increase in the risk of divorce on the saving behavior of married couples. From a theoretical perspective, the expected sign of the effect is ambiguous. We take advantage of the legalization of divorce in Ireland in 1996 as an exogenous increase in the likelihood of divorce. We analyze the saving behavior over time of couples who were married before the law was passed. We propose a difference-in-differences approach where we use as control groups either married couples in other European countries (not affected by the law change) , or Irish families who did not experience a significant increase in the expected risk of divorce (such as very religious families). Our results suggest that the increase in the risk of divorce brought about by the law was followed by an increase in the propensity to save of married couples, consistent with a rise in precautionary savings interpretation. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/10681 The Generational contract in the family : explaining regime differences in financial transfers from parents to children in Europe Kohli, Martin; Albertini, Marco The exchange of social and economic support between the generations is one of the main pillars of both family life and welfare systems. The debate on how to reform the generational contract is still truncated, however, by focusing on its public dimension only, especially on pensions and health care provisions. For a full account, the transfer of resources between adult generations in the family needs to be included as well. In our previous research we have shown that intergenerational exchange is more likely to take place but less intense in the Nordic welfare regime than in the Continental and Southern ones. In the present paper we analyze the social mechanisms that create and explain this nexus between patterns of intergenerational transfers and welfare regimes. The notion that Southern European family support networks are stronger and more effective than those of Continental and Northern European countries is only partially confirmed. In Southern (and partly in Continental) countries, children are mostly supported by means of co-residence with their parents till their complete economic independence. However, once they have left the parental home there are fewer transfers; support tends to be restricted to children who have special needs (such as for the formation of their own family), and depends more on their parents’ resources. In the Nordic countries, in contrast, transfers are less driven by children’s needs and parental resources. 2007-01-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/10410 Occupational sex-composition and earnings : individual and social effects Polavieja, Javier G. This paper investigates the micro and macro-level factors affecting the empirical association between occupational sex-composition and individual earnings. This is done in two analytical steps using data from the second round of the European Social Survey. In a first step, country-fixed-effects regressions are used to test the extent to which job-specialization, gender attitudes and the relative supply of domestic work can account for the impact of occupational sex-composition on earnings. In accordance with previous research, it is found that all these micro-level variables have a significant effect on the analyzed association, yet only job-specialization can explain it away by itself. In a second analytical step, macro-level interactions are tested under the hypothesis that defamilialization policies reduce the pay-offs of sphere specialization by sex, generating incentives for all types of women to invest in the labor market. Empirical results suggest that gender attitudes and the relative supply of housework are much more loosely associated to earning in social-democratic and former communist societies than in conservative or liberal regimes. This finding is interpreted as consistent with the defamilialization hypothesis. 2007-01-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/10409 Not the right job but a secure one : over-education and temporary employment in France, Italy and Spain Ortiz Gervasi, Luis Resorting to four waves of the European Community Household Panel, this research explores the association between temporary employment and the likelihood of being over-educated. Such an association has been largely ignored by the literature explaining over-education, more inclined to attribute such a mismatch to the system of education. Selecting three similarly standarised and stratified systems of education (France, Italy and Spain) and controlling for many other variables likely to affect over-education, like gender, age, tenure, job change, firm size or sector, the paper demonstrates that such an association between temporary employment and over-education exists. Being a stepping stone towards a more stable and adjusted position in the labour market, holding a temporary employment may be associated to a higher likelihood of being over-educated. Such an association is more likely in Italy and France. Yet, the opposite sign prevails where permanent employment becomes such a valuable asset as to make individuals trade human capital by employment security. This is the case of Spain. 2007-01-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/4279 Immigrants in Denmark: an analysis of access to employment, class attainment and earnings in a high-skilled economy Brodmann, Stefanie; Polavieja, Javier G. 2007-07-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/4102 Parental investments in children: how bargaining and educational homogamy affect time allocation Esping-Andersen, Gøsta; Bonke, Jens This study examines parental time investment in their children, distinguishing between developmental and non-developmental care. Our analyses centre on three influential determinants: educational background, marital homogamy, and spouses' relative bargaining power. We find that the emphasis on quality care time is correlated with parents' education, and that marital homogamy reduces couple specialization, but only among the highly educated. In line with earlier research, we identify gendered parental behaviour. The presence of boys is an important condition for fathers' time dedication, but primarly among lower educated fathers. To the extent that parental stimulation is decisive for child outcomes, our findings suggest the persistence of important inequalities. This emerges through our special attention to behavioural differences across the educational distribution among households. 2007-05-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/4101 Women's work histories in Italy: education as investment in reconciliation and legitimacy? Solera, Cristina; Bettio, Francesca Within pre-enlargement Europe, Italy records one of the widest employment rate gaps between highly and poorly educated women, as well one of the largest differences in the share, among working women, of public sector employment. Building on these stylized facts and using the Longitudinal Survey of Italian Households (ILFI), we investigate the working trajectories of three cohorts of Italian women born between 1935 and 1964 and observed from their first job until they are in their forties. We use mainly, but not exclusively, event history analysis in order to identify the main factors that influence entry into and exit from paid work over the life course. Our results suggest that in the Italian context, where employment protection policies have also been used as surrogate measures to favour reconciliation between family and work, and where traditional gender norms still persist, education is so important for women's employment decisions because it represents an investment in 'reconciliation' and 'work legitimacy' over and above investment in human capital. 2007-04-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/4100 The Effect of occupational sex-composition on earnings: job-specialisation, sex-role attitudes and the division of domestic-labour in Spain Polavieja, Javier G. Important theoretical controversies remain unresolved in the literatire on occupational sex-segregation and the gender wage-gap. A useful way of summarising these controversies is viewing them as a debate between - cultural -socialisation. The paper discusses these theories in detail and carries out a preliminary test of the relative explanatory performance of some of their most consequential predictions. This is done by drawing on the Spanish sample of the second wave of the European Social Survey, ESS. The empirical analysis of ESS data illustrates the notable analytical pay-offs that can stem from using rich individual-level indicators, but also exemplifies the statistical llimitations generated by small sample size and high rates of non-response. Empirical results should, therefore, be taken as preliminary. They seem to suggest that the effect of occupational sex-segregation on wages could be explicable by workers' sex-role attitutes, their relative input in domestic production and the job-specific human capital requirements of their jobs. Of these three factors, job-specialisation seeems clearly the most important one. 2006-12-01T00:00:00Z http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/3534 Government and the distribution of skills Esping-Andersen, Gøsta Individuals' life chances in the future will very much depend on how we invest in our children now. An optimal human capital model would combine a high mean with minimal variance of skills. It is well-established that early childhood learning is key to adult success. The impact of social origins on child outcomes remains strong, and the new role of women poses additional challenges to our conventional nurturing approach to child development. This paper focuses on skill development in the early years, examining how we might best combine family inputs and public policy to invest optimally in our future human capital. I emphasize three issues: one, the uneven capacity of parents to invest in children; two, the impact of mothers' employment on child outcomes; and three, the potential benefits of early pre-school programmes. I conclude that mothers' intra-family bargaining power is decisive for family investments and that universal child care is key if our goal is to arrive at a strong mean with minimal variance. http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/2051 The concentration of foreigners in French schools: interaction effects in place? Cebolla Boado, Héctor This paper explores the existence of negative peer-group pressures derived from the concentration of foreigners in French lower secondary schools. Using different dependent variables (number of years spent in lower secondary education, grades in 4th ‘and 3rd year and track election in upper secondary schooling) the analyses indicate that the much disputed existence of significant and negative effects of the concentration of foreign students in schools depends on the method used for the estimation. If we assume that the concentration of foreigners is a random and exogenous process, then the multivariate analyses confirm negative interactions. If, on the contrary, we question the assumption that this contextual information is not end the result of prior sorting mechanisms of individuals across social spaces, the concentration of foreigners has no statistical impact on attainment. http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/2050 Do welfare benefits affect womens' choices of adult care giving? Sarasa Urdiola, Sebastià The efficacy of social care, publicly and universally provided, has been contested from two different points of view. First, advocates of targeting social policy criticized the Matthew’s effect of universal provision and; second, theories arguing in favour of heterogeneous rationalities between men and women and, even different preferences among women, predict that universal provision of services is limiting women’s choices more than home allowances. The author tests both hypotheses and concludes that, at least in the case of adult care, women’s choices are significantly affected by women’s social positions and by the availability of public services. Furthermore, targeting through means-test eligibility criteria has no significant effect on inequality but, confirming the redistributive paradox, reduces women’s options. http://www.recercat.cat:80/handle/2072/2049 Finding a suitable job: the effect of the institutional context on self-perceived over-education Ortiz Gervasi, Luis The current research compares the perception of over-education in four different European countries, resorting to European Household Panel Data. The results confirm that the type of educational system accounts for some of the cross-national differences in self-perceived over-education. In qualificational spaces, like Denmark, where vocational training receives more importance, self-perceived over-education is not associated as much with educational attainment as in the so-called’ organisational spaces’, like Spain, France and Italy. Yet, the results confirm that, controlling for the system of education, the traits and regulation of the labour market also have an effect on over-education. Thus, in Spain, where temporary employment has soared in recent decades, this type of contract is clearly associated with the perception of over-education, to a much higher extent than in Italy or France. Temporary contracts in Spain may not work as a steppig stone for attaining a job suitable to the training received by the individual, as they may in the case of France or Italy. In sum, not only institutions offering skills and human capital, but labour market regulation as well, have a clear impact on the incidence of over-education.