Suchergebnisse

SUMMARYThis study uses the entry‐level wage of Taiwanese female college graduates to ensure a clear causality between the wage and physical appearance. It is found that height raises the entry wage, and that there exists an optimal BMI. Graduates who are satisfied with their looks earn 3.4% more than the average. The wage premiums for a good college grade and for all advantageous physical characteristics are significantly lower than that for admission to a selective college. Graduates who are satisfied with their looks are more likely to become full‐time workers and are less likely to be unemployed shortly after graduation.

SummaryA gender gap has been found in mathematics (boys outperform girls) that has prevailed across countries for many decades. Whether this gap results from nature or nurture has been hotly debated. Using the evidence of PISA 2003 and the gender equality index of 2003, some researchers have argued that an improvement in gender equality reduces the gender gap in mathematics. This study used five waves of country-level PISA data and, controlling for country fixed effects, found no evidence to support this argument. Furthermore, individual data for PISA 2012 and the multilevel data model were used. The conclusion drawn also does not support the argument. In fact, the relationship between gender equality and the gender gap in mathematics vanished after PISA 2003.

SummaryUsing Taiwanese data, this study finds that tall males are more successful in mate selection and reproduction, but the results are weakly significant. Height is not helpful for females' reproductive success. Specifically, tall males are more likely to have a partner at present or in the past, have at least one child, have more children, have a shorter period of celibacy and have a longer time duration of living with a partner in their lifetime. Using mediation analysis, the study shows that tall males' reproductive success is not due to their achievements in the labour market (earnings), but is simply due to their heightper se. Finally, a college student data set is used to explore the relation between height and dating hours. Tall male students have more dating hours, but no relation is found between females' height and dating hours.

AbstractTaiwan's National Pension Insurance (NPI) is a compulsory defined benefit pension insurance scheme. However, paying the NPI premium is not mandatory. We use the NPI administrative data of more than 489 million observations to investigate the NPI's sustainability and inequalities for various groups. We find that NPI participants pay their premiums either consistently or not at all. Although the overall willingness to pay the premiums has been declining, one group of the insured persons consistently pays, thereby maintaining the sustainability of the NPI. Intergenerational and intragenerational inequalities are both found in the NPI; however, the government's premium subsidy reduces intragenerational inequality, except for young adult males who need the NPI and regularly pay premiums. Our empirical results suggest that subsidising these young male citizens strengthens the NPI's sustainability and mitigates the intergenerational and intragenerational inequalities of the NPI.