We evaluate the short- and long-term effects for women of access to legal, subsidized abortion, by exploiting the Spanish legalization of abortion in 1985. We find robust evidence that the legalization led to an immediate decrease in the number of births, more pronounced for women aged 21 and younger. This effect was driven by provinces with a higher supply of abortion services. We also find that the affected cohorts of women were more likely to graduate from high school, less likely to marry young, less likely to divorce in the long-term, and reported higher life satisfaction as adults. We do not find significant effects on long-term labor market participation, employment, or earnings.We evaluate the short- and long-term effects for women of access to legal, subsidized abortion, by exploiting the Spanish legalization of abortion in 1985. We find robust evidence that the legalization led to an immediate decrease in the number of births, more pronounced for women aged 21 and younger. This effect was driven by provinces with a higher supply of abortion services. We also find that the affected cohorts of women were more likely to graduate from high school, less likely to marry young, less likely to divorce in the long-term, and reported higher life satisfaction as adults. We do not find significant effects on long-term labor market participation, employment, or earnings.
Veranstaltungsformat: Präsenz
Zwischen Autonomie und Heteronomie. Die Arbeitslosen der Aktivierungsgesellschaft
Im Vortrag werden die Effekte und Aneignungsformen aktivierender Sozialpolitik am Beispiel der Bedarfsorientierten Mindestsicherung in Österreich diskutiert. Grundlage hierfür ist eine umfassende qualitative Studie auf Basis der Rekonstruktion rechtlicher und politischer Programme sowie narrativer Interviews mit Mindestsicherungsempfänger_innen und Berater_innen in Österreich, die zwischen 2013 und 2018 durchgeführt wurde. „Aktivierung“ wird dabei als normative Vorgabe und zugleich institutionalisierte Strategie verstanden, die mit Hilfe unterschiedlicher Interventionen und Programme auf die Formierung von Einstellungen und Verhaltensmustern zur Herstellung marktgängiger Subjekte und ihrer „employability“ zielt. Die Frage, ob sich Subjekte gemäß dem sozialpolitischen Ziel der „employability“ aktivieren lassen, wird mit einer Typologie von Handlungsaktivierungen beantwortet, die zeigt, dass die untersuchten Subjekte sich zwar in den meisten Fällen „aktiv“ präsentieren, aber nicht durch die aktivierungspolitischen Maßnahmen im Sinne der „employability“ aktiviert werden. Die Überlegungen stehen im Spannungsfeld zwischen Armuts- und Arbeitslosigkeitsforschung, Subjektivierungs- und Gouvernementalitäts-Forschung.
The Effect of Pension Subsidies on Retirement Timing of Older Women: Evidence from a Kink Design in Germany
This paper provides a clear and transparent setting to study the effect of additional pension benefits on women’s retirement decision. Using administrative pension insurance records from Germany, I examine the impact of a pension subsidy program to low pay workers, implemented in 1992. The subsidies have a kinked relationship with the recipients’ average pension contribution, which led to sharply different slope of benefits for similar women to the left and to the right of the kink point. Using a regression kink design, I find that 100 euros additional monthly pension benefits induce female recipients to claim pension earlier by about 10 months. back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests the ratio of behavioral cost to mechanical cost of this subsidy program is 0.3, which is smaller than other anti-poverty programs such as extending unemployment benefits and progressive taxation. I find that the phasing out of this subsidy program can account for one third of the increase in women’s age of claiming pension
over the past decade.