Volume 22, Issue 2

According to standard measures of income inequality, the Nordic countries rank among the most equal economies in the world. This paper studies whether and how this picture changes when the focus is on inequality of income composition , meaning the heterogeneity in individuals’ factor income shares. We show that, for all countries, a shift in capital incomes toward the top since the early 1990s causes rising heterogeneity in individuals’ factor income shares. To explain this result, we highlight the role of dual taxation systems. For Denmark in 2009–2013, Finland (1990–2007), and Norway (1991–2005), rising capital shares contributed to changes in personal income inequality, while for Sweden our results lead to disregard the capital share as a determinant of increasing income inequality.

A uniform carbon tax and Citizen Carbon Fund are proposed as a zero-sum system of transfers that can increase equilibrium participation and result in a positive carbon check for each citizen covered by the agreement. The carbon tax results in efficient abatement, generates tax revenue and finances transfers that increase equilibrium participation in a climate agreement. A single carbon price is easier to negotiate than many different abatement requirements, but mirrors the results of a cap-and-trade agreement. An example using the four largest carbon emitters illustrates the set of stable agreements, the transfers required for stability and the resulting carbon checks.

We study the relationship between family financial socialization acquired during adolescence and a wide range of wealth decisions during adulthood, and compare the correlation of family financial socialization with that of financial literacy. Our findings highlight the importance of family financial socialization during young age on all the dimensions investigated, except for risky asset holding. The correlations between family financial socialization and wealth decisions are not different from those of financial literacy except for the size of financial assets, risky assets holding, and debt holding. While for males both financial literacy and financial socialization are correlated with wealth decisions, for females mainly family financial socialization seems to matter. Our findings underline the importance of acquiring financial education not only through proper educational programs, but also in the family environment during adolescence, where teens can learn positive attitudes towards money that are maintained throughout their life.

In this paper, we study the long-term impacts on parental health and behaviors of a low-fee universal childcare program for children aged zero to five years old. We follow families for more than 10 years after the reform. For families with preschool children, we show that the adverse effects documented in previous studies on maternal depression and parental behaviors persist over time. However, once children enter school, most negative effects of the program on parental mental health and behaviors fade away. Only the negative effect on positive interactions may have persisted over time.

We use longitudinal data from a representative sample of the UK and compare self-reported mental health, as measured by the GHQ-12 score, at three timepoints (2017–2019, April 2020 and March 2021), for the whole sample and by sex and ethnicity. Out of the 14,382 individuals interviewed in 2017–2019 and April 2020, 10,445 were interviewed again in March 2021. The mean GHQ-12 in April 2020 is 12.37 [95% CI: 12.22, 12.52] and in March 2021 is 12.36 [95% CI: 12.21, 12.51], above that of 2017–2019: 11.13 [95% CI: 10.99, 11.26]. We do not find evidence that the level of mental health goes back to pre-pandemic levels. In terms of inequalities, while the gender gap (mean difference between women and men) in mental health deterioration among White British is closing, there is no clear evidence that the ethnic gap (mean difference between ethnic minorities and White British) among men is changing.

Through a correspondence study, this paper investigates whether employers discriminate job applicants based on their living conditions. Exploiting the natural setting provided by a Rapid Re-housing Program, we sent 1347 job applications for low-qualified front-desk jobs in Brno, Czech Republic. The resumes exogenously differed in only one main aspect represented by the address of the applicants, signaling both the quality of the neighborhood and the quality of the housing conditions in which they were living. We found that while the higher quality of the district has a strong effect in increasing the hiring chances (+20%) the actual improvement of the living conditions standards, per se , does not generate any significant positive effect.

While social interaction is claimed to help reduce racial bias, the evidence is mixed. We argue that not only interaction, but familiarity among agents may help reduce race bias. We use new data from MasterChef, a nationally syndicated television competition that cover 10 years. We find that familiarity does not help reduce race bias. When judges are all Caucasian they appear to favor Caucasian contestants and set back minority contestants in the final placements. Interestingly, we find an analogous finding with minority judges. Female judges are the only ones who show no bias.

This article estimates the effect of school closures in the spring of 2020 on the math skills of primary school children in Italy, which was the first Western country hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, responding with a strict lockdown and total school closures through the end of the school year. Leveraging unique longitudinal data collected in the province of Torino, a large metropolitan area in northern Italy, we analyse the learning outcomes of two adjacent cohorts of pupils, the pre-Covid and the Covid cohort. The pandemic had a large mean negative impact on pupils’ performance in mathematics (−0.19 standard deviations). Learning loss was greater for girls and for high-achieving children of low-educated parents. Net of individual characteristics, the impact was harshest in schools with a disadvantaged social composition.