Gender differences in multiple-choice questions and the risk of losing points

I study the gender differences in performance in multiple-choice questions in a setting where wrong answers are penalized and the objective is to score as high points as possible. I exploit data from an undergraduate level microeconomics course at a Finnish university across a six-year period of 2010 and 2012-2016. The course consists of two equally weighted exams that include both multiple-choice and open-ended questions. The results show that, when controlling for the performance in the first exam, women omit more multiple-choice question items (MCQ) in the second exam than men which, in turn, translates to fewer points. Women do not do worse in open-ended questions that are similar to the MCQ, neither is the probability of them answering incorrectly to the MCQ higher. Hence, gender differences in test results might reflect differences in behavior in a very particular test setting rather than genuine differences in skills

Childhood shocks and fertilit: Evidence from parental job loss

Do economic shocks experienced in childhood carry on to the fertility outcomes in adulthood and if they do, how? Using plant closures from the years 1991-1993 in Finland, I find that maternal and paternal job loss have asymmetric effects on children's fertility outcomes. Maternal job loss increases the probability of a son becoming a parent, while paternal job loss decreases it. For paternal job loss, I find negative effects on son's other outcomes, such as having a spouse, earnings, and employment which might drive the effects on their fertility outcomes. Instead, maternal job loss has no effect on son's other outcomes. Hence, fertility might be affected through other channels such as changes in parent-child relationship quality. For daughters, I find effects on timing; they have children earlier due to maternal job loss and later due to paternal job loss. There are no effects on daughters' other outcomes suggesting that the effects on fertility outcomes might work through other channels. The results might be best interpreted in terms of spousal roles; mothers might shift more energy towards their role as a caregiver, while paternal job loss can be more stressful if the father fails to fulfill his role as a breadwinner

Financial development and volatility of growth rates: Cross-country evidence on the link between insurance market activity and the volatility of GDP per capita growth rate

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between insurance market activity and the volatility of the GDP per capita growth rate. We investigate whether insurance market activity has an effect on the volatility of GDP per capita growth rate and whether the effect of insurance market development on economic growth volatility follows a hump-shaped pattern, i.e. a shape of an inverse parabola. The role of the insurance sector has grown in importance. In addition to becoming quantitatively more important as a part of the general development of financial institutions, insurance has also become qualitatively more important due to the increase of risks and uncertainties in most societies. While there have been studies conducted on the financial development and macroeconomic volatility, the insurance sector has not received much attention in this respect. We fill this gap by reviewing theory and empirical evidence and suggest channels of influence. DATA We use measures of insurance penetration, i.e. insurance premiums in relation to GDP, as proxies for insurance market development for a set of 74 countries over the period from 1980 to 2007. We will control for variables, e.g. the country size in terms of population, the inflation and exchange rate volatility and government consumption. RESULTS Findings of the study show a negative and significant relationship between insurance market activity and GDP per capita growth volatility suggesting that the proxies used for insurance market activity have a causal effect on economic growth volatility. We find no evidence suggesting that the relationship would be hump-shaped. Moreover, the results for the non-linear effect suggest that the effect of insurance market activity is negative in all cases, i.e. total, non-life and life insurance. According to our study, it might be beneficial for governments and economies to encourage the use of insurance policies and help households and companies in risk management

Essays on Family Economics and Human Capital Development

This dissertation consists of three essays on family economics and human capital development.  In the first essay, I estimate the effect of screening for gestational diabetes on birth outcomes using a regression discontinuity design and exploiting exogenous variation in screening at the overweight threshold of the body mass index. I do not find an impact of screening for gestational diabetes on birth outcomes, i.e. birth weight and cesarean section related outcomes. An additional analysis using a differences-in-differences framework and the introduction of the policy provides suggesting evidence that expanding the screening to overweight mothers (otherwise not prone to developing gestational diabetes) did not have an effect on birth outcomes. The second essay, which is joint-work with Kristiina Huttunen studies the impact of parental job loss on children's schooling choices. We use administrative data from Finland that allows us to follow all family members for over 20 years. Our results show that father's job loss decreases the likelihood that a child chooses the same study choice as the parent. Children of displaced fathers are also more likely to choose a "safer" field in terms of employment prospects. We find no impact on children's outcomes measured before schooling choices are made, such as crime and school grades. The results suggest that children's schooling decisions are an important mechanism through which childhood shocks can affect later life outcomes. In the third essay, I study the effect of the Finnish child home care allowance, for which parents with children aged 1-to-3-years are eligible, on marital stability. I use variation across regions and over time in the allowance created by the municipal supplement to identify the causal effect. I find that child home care allowance has a modest positive effect on marital stability in the long-run. A 100 euros increase in the supplement increases the probability that the mother has the same spouse ten years later by 0.8 %. Further analysis shows that the mechanism varies depending on how the mother would have behaved in the absence of the municipal supplement. For those who are more likely to stay at home even in the absence of the municipal supplement, the supplement has no effect on the employment or take-up in the short-run, but has instead, a positive effect on income. For this group, I find a positive effect on marital stability both in the short-run (4.6 %) and in the long-run (4.3 %). For those who are possibly pushed into taking home care allowance by the municipal supplement, I find a long-lasting decrease in employment, and a modest positive effect on marital stability that shows up later (0.5 %)

The Costs of Job Loss and Task Usage

This study examines the degree to which the effects of job loss depend on task usage and task distance to other jobs. We use linked employer-employee data and representative survey data on task usage and plant closures to identify individuals who have lost their jobs involuntarily. We find that the heterogeneity in the cost of job loss is linked to task usage. Workers in origin jobs with high levels of social tasks have smaller employment and earnings losses, whereas workers in routine jobs face larger wage losses. Instead, the distance in task usage between the origin job and other jobs does not matter when the usage of manual, abstract, routine and social tasks is taken into account

The Effect of Access to Post-Compulsory Education: Evidence from Structural Breaks in School Supply

We study how reducing the regional supply of post-compulsory education affects schooling choices and educational attainment in Finland. We exploit variation across municipalities and over time in the availability of three secondary education tracks: general education, and the vocational fields of technology and services. According to our results, access to general education mainly affects decisions regarding what to study, whereas reducing the regional availability of vocational education also postpones studies and may even decrease the educational attainment of local youth. Our results also suggest that school consolidations may have a substantial impact on labor market trajectories. We find that the initial enrollment choices of men are more sensitive to supply reductions than those of women, and that the field of technology is particularly important for individuals with less-educated mothers

Parental Job Loss and Children's Careers

We study the effect of parental job loss on children's outcomes using administrative data from Finland. We focus on two channels through which parental job loss can affect children's careers: 1) by affecting the child's field of study choices and 2) by weakening social ties to the labor market. We find evidence supporting both mechanisms: a father's job loss decreases the likelihood of the child choosing the father's field of study or finding employment in the father's plant. Children of displaced fathers have lower earnings; however, we find no effects on the outcomes measured before the study choices are made

The impact of an early career shock on intergenerational mobility

No abstract available

Heterogeneous Impacts of the Decentralization of Collective Bargaining

This paper analyses the heterogeneous effects of the decentralization of collective bargaining on the incidence of wage increases and wage dispersion in Finland. We use linked employer-employee panel data for the 2005-2013 period, which includes major changes in bargain-ing systems and economic conditions. Our regression results from models with high-dimensional individual and firm fixed effects show that decentralized bargaining leads to very different outcomes for blue- and white-collar employees. Decentralized bargaining decreases wage dispersion among blue-collar employees and slightly increases it among white-collar employees. Decentralization also affects the incidence of wage in-creases differently for blue- and white-collar employees. We argue that these differences reflect the different preferences of the employee groups. We also show that the fallback option in local negotiations affects the decentralization outcomes

Heterogeneous Impacts of the Decentralization of Collective Bargaining

This paper analyses the heterogeneous effects of the decentralization of collective bargaining on the incidence of wage increases and wage dispersion in Finland. We use linked employer-employee panel data for the 2005-2013 period, which includes major changes in bargaining systems and economic conditions. Our regression results from models with high-dimensional individual and firm fixed effects show that decentralized bargaining leads to very different outcomes for blue- and white-collar employees. Decentralized bargaining decreases wage dispersion among blue-collar employees and slightly increases it among white-collar employees. Decentralization also affects the incidence of wage increases differently for blue- and white-collar employees. We argue that these differences reflect the different preferences of the employee groups. We also show that the fallback option in local negotiations affects the decentralization outcomes