Suchergebnisse

The UK government has decided to implement lockdown measures at the end of March 2020 as a response to the outbreak and spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. As a consequence, households have experienced job losses and a significant drop in their finances. During these unprecedented and difficult times, people provide financial assistance to those who are in need and have to cope with falls in their living standards. In this study we are interested to investigate the subjective well-being, which is expressed by mental health and components of general happiness, of the givers rather than of receivers. We apply a difference-in-differences framework to investigate the impact of altruism on the givers' SWB in the UK. Altruism is denoted by transfers made to adult children, parents, siblings, and friends. Using the DiD estimator and the estimated coefficient of the household income we calculate the implicit willingness-to-pay (WTP) for altruism. We perform various regressions by gender and racial-ethnic background using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS). The analysis shows that altruistic behaviours impact different domains of SWB between men and women, as well as, among people with different racial-ethnic background.

Long-standing challenges concerning unemployment and the role of government have been the dominant underlying themes in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Effective State-Business Relations (SBRs) comprise a set of highly responsive and public interactions between the state and the business sector. The aim of this study is to explore the dynamics of net job creation rates in Egypt and Turkey, and the role of the SBRs, including various firm characteristics. The analysis relies on firm-level data derived from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys over the period 2008-2013. We implement the weighted ordinary least squares (OLS). Furthermore, we apply an Instrumental Variables (IV) Approach and the Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) method for robustness check, to deal with the potential endogeneity issues coming from the self-reported statements and the possible degree of reverse causality between SBRs and the main outcomes of interest. Our findings suggest four major obstacles to SBRs, with constraints of access to finance and credit and political instability being the common major obstacles in the two countries explored. Corruption and lack of proper infrastructure in electricity in Egypt are found to be the next two main obstacles in SBRs, while tax rates and competition from the informal sector are identified as the other two main obstacles in Turkey. The results show that obstacles in SBRs contribute negatively to the net job creation. According to these findings, policy implications include the need to make SBRs operate more efficiently, investments on proper infrastructure and policies that minimize corruption and political instability. ; Economic Research Forum (ERF) ; The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Economic Research Forum (ERF) and the grant received under the Structural Change, Resource Misallocation and Growth Dynamics in the MENA Region program call. An earlier version of this study is published as a working paper under the funding agreement with the Economic Research Forum (ERF) available at https://erf.org.eg/publications/state-business-relations-and-the-dynamics-of-job-flows-in-egypt-and-turkey/.

The first aim of this study is to investigate the role of the EU Blue Card programme implemented in 2012 in Germany. In particular, we aim to explore the impact on the participation in cultural activities of first-generation non-European Union (EU) and non-European Economic Area (EEA) migrants, such as attendance to cinema, concerts and theatre. The second aim is to examine the impact of cultural activities on subjective well-being (SWB), measured by life satisfaction. We compare the cultural participation and life satisfaction between the treatment group that is the non-EU/EEA first-generation immigrants and the control group that consists, not only of natives and second-generation immigrants but also composes of EU/EEA first-generation immigrants who are not eligible to the programme. We will apply a sharp and a fuzzy regression discontinuity design (RDD) within a seemingly unrelated regression equations (SURE) system using the Ordered Probit method. The empirical analysis relies on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) survey over the period 2015-2018. The results show that the treated subjects experience an increase in cultural participation activities and an improvement in their SWB, as a result of the EU Blue Card programme, compared to the control group. Participation in classical music performance, opera or theatre influences more the SWB compared to other cultural activities. Policies that promote labour market integration and participation in cultural activities will enable immigrants to integrate into the social norms of the host societies and improve their SWB. ; TUBITAKTurkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [119C017]; Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK)Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) ; Initials of the authors who received each award E.G. S.H.A. Grant numbers awarded to each author Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action 2236 CoFunded Brain Circulation Scheme2 (CoCirculation2) of TUBITAK (Project No: 119C017) which has been funded under the FP7-PEOPLE-2011-COFUND call of the 7th Framework Programme. The full name of each funder Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK.) URL of each funder website https://www.tubitak.gov.tr/en.The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publishD, or preparation of the manuscript.

Active labour market policies (ALMPs), such as subsidies for wages, social security contributions (SSCs) and employment, are one of the most important tools of countries' efforts to tackle unemployment. The Turkish government launched the employment subsidy programme in 2008, aiming to decrease unemployment and to encourage formal employment by subsidizing the SSCs for relatively disadvantaged groups. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of the 2008 policy on various labour outcomes. The entire analysis relies on micro-level panel data derived by the Survey of Income and Living Conditions over the period of 2008-2011. Young men aged between 18 and 29 years are eligible to the programme. To infer causality, we apply a regression discontinuity design analysis using as the cut-off point those who are aged 30 years. The findings show that the policy of 2008 had a positive impact on employment and the probability of being employed in the formal sector and working full time. ; Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK)Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [3501, 217K059]; TUBITAKTurkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) ; This research was supported and funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) under the Career Development Program 3501 with Project No. 217K059. The financial support received from TUBITAK does not mean that the context of the paper is approved in a scientific sense by TUBITAK. The authors are grateful for the financial support received. This work is based on the data derived from the panel Income and Living Conditions Survey (ILCS) 2007-2015 provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT)