Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research - Research Publications

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    Essential work and emergency childcare: identifying gender differences in COVID-19 effects on labour demand and supply
    Meekes, J ; Hassink, WHJ ; Kalb, G (Oxford University Press (OUP), 2023-03-15)
    We examine whether the COVID-19 crisis affects women and men differently in terms of employment, working hours, and hourly wages, and whether the effects are demand or supply driven. COVID-19 impacts are studied using administrative data on all Dutch employees up to December 2020, focussing on the national lockdowns and emergency childcare for essential workers in the Netherlands. First, the impact of COVID-19 is much larger for non-essential workers than for essential workers. Although female non-essential workers are more affected than male non-essential workers, on average, women and men are equally affected, because more women than men are essential workers. Second, the impact for partnered essential workers with young children, both men and women, is not larger than for others. Third, single-parent essential workers respond with relatively large reductions in labour supply, suggesting emergency childcare was insufficient for them. Overall, labour demand effects appear larger than labour supply effects.
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    Essential work and emergency childcare: identifying gender differences in COVID-19 effects on labour demand and supply
    Meekes, J ; Hassink, WHJ ; Kalb, G (Oxford University Press (OUP), 2022)
    We examine whether the COVID-19 crisis affects women and men differently in terms of employment, working hours, and hourly wages, and whether the effects are demand or supply driven. COVID-19 impacts are studied using administrative data on all Dutch employees up to December 2020, focussing on the national lockdowns and emergency childcare for essential workers in the Netherlands. First, the impact of COVID-19 is much larger for non-essential workers than for essential workers. Although female non-essential workers are more affected than male non-essential workers, on average, women and men are equally affected, because more women than men are essential workers. Second, the impact for partnered essential workers with young children, both men and women, is not larger than for others. Third, single-parent essential workers respond with relatively large reductions in labour supply, suggesting emergency childcare was insufficient for them. Overall, labour demand effects appear larger than labour supply effects.
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    Future Directions: Study Protocol for an Effectiveness-Implementation Hybrid Evaluation of a State-based Social Housing Strategy and Three Social Housing Programs
    Cameron, LA ; Etuk, L ; Hateley-Browne, J ; Kalb, G ; Parker, B ; Rose, V ; Botha, F ; Contreras Suarez, D ; Herault, N ; Meekes, J ; Moschion, J ; Scutella, R ; Tseng, Y-P ; Creet, E ; Koop, D (Edinburgh University Library, 2021)
    Background: In the Australian state of New South Wales nearly 60,000 approved applicants are waiting for social housing. Future Directions for Social Housing is a response to this challenge. This collection of housing programs aims to provide more social housing, support and incentives for leaving social housing and a better social housing experience. This document presents the protocol of the evaluation of these programs and the overarching Future Directions Strategy. Methods/Design: The evaluation will use a Type 1 effectiveness-implementation hybrid design, with an integrated, dual focus on assessing the effectiveness of Future Directions and better understanding the context for reform implementation. Program effectiveness will be examined using quasi-experimental techniques applied to linked administrative data. The implementation context will be examined via program level data, qualitative interviews and focus groups with stakeholders and tenants. Some quantitative survey and administrative data will also be used. Findings from the implementation evaluation will be used to inform and interpret the effectiveness evaluation. Economic evaluations will also be conducted. Discussion: This methodology will produce a high-quality evaluation of a large, complex government program which aims to facilitate rapid translational gains, real-time adoption of effective implementation strategies and generate actionable insights for policymaker
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    Wage Growth Distribution and Decline among Individuals: 2001-2017
    Kalb, G ; Meekes, J (Reserve Bank of Australia, 2019)
    We examine how wage growth is distributed across the Australian population over the period 2001 to 2017. We explore to what extent wage growth is explained by individual characteristics and job characteristics, while controlling for changes in aggregate factors. We also examine the link between low wage growth and financial well-being. The results show that post 2008, and particularly from 2013 onwards, wage growth had significantly slowed down. This result remains, even after controlling for a broad range of individual, household and job characteristics (and for time-invariant unobserved characteristics). Our results also show that the employee’s age, education, occupation and industry explain a large share of differences in wage growth. Conversely, the employee’s gender and employment contract seem less important. Overall, about half of the wage growth is explained by individual and job characteristics. Finally, we show that wage growth has a significant positive, but small, correlation with financial well-being indicators.
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    Wage Growth Distribution and Changes over Time: 2001-2018
    Kalb, G ; Meekes, J (Wiley, 2021-03-01)
    We explore how much wage growth varies among Australian employees and how it has changed over the 2001– 2018 period. The results show that, after increasing between 2002 and 2007, wage growth significantly slowed post 2008, and particularly from 2013 onwards, returning to early 2000s levels. Employee age, education, employment contract, occupation and industry explain a large share of differences in wage growth between individuals. Employee occupation is more important post-2008 than pre-2008, whereas education is more important pre-2008. Finally, casual employees receive a wage growth premium during periods of economic up-turn and a penalty during downturn.
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    Regional Coronavirus Hotspots During the COVID-19 Outbreak in the Netherlands
    Hassink, WHJ ; Kalb, G ; Meekes, J (SPRINGER, 2021-05)
    We explore the impact of COVID-19 hotspots and regional lockdowns on the Dutch labour market during the outbreak of COVID-19. Using weekly administrative panel microdata for 50 per cent of Dutch employees until the end of March 2020, we study whether individual labour market outcomes, as measured by employment, working hours and hourly wages, were more strongly affected in provinces where COVID-19 confirmed cases, hospitalizations and mortality were relatively high. The evidence suggests that labour market outcomes were negatively affected in all regions and local higher virus case numbers did not reinforce this decline. This suggests that preventive health measures should be at the regional level, isolating hotspots from low-risk areas.
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    The Dutch labour market early on in the COVID-19 outbreak: Regional coronavirus hotspots and the national lockdown
    Hassink, WHJ ; Kalb, G ; Meekes, J (Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, 2020-09-01)
    We explore the impact of COVID-19 hotspots and regional lockdowns on the Dutch labour market. Using weekly administrative panel microdata for 50 per cent of Dutch employees until the end of March 2020, we study whether individual labour market outcomes, as measured by employment, working hours and hourly wages, were more strongly affected in provinces where COVID-19 confirmed cases, hospitalizations and mortality were relatively high. We do not observe a region-specific impact of COVID-19 on labour market outcomes. The results suggest individual characteristics are more important, including the employee’s age, type of contract and type of job. The evidence suggests that the decline of the labour market was all due to the impacts from the government-enforced lockdown and higher virus case numbers did not reinforce this decline. This suggests that preventive health measures should be at the regional level, isolating hotspots from low-risk areas.
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    Essential work and emergency childcare: Identifying gender differences in COVID-19 effects on labour demand and supply
    Meekes, J ; Hassink, WHJ ; Kalb, G (Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, 2020)
    We examine whether the COVID-19 crisis affects women and men differently in terms of employment, working hours and hourly wages outcomes, and whether the effects are demand or supply driven. COVID-19 impacts are studied using administrative data on all Dutch employees up to 30 June 2020, focusing on the national lockdown and the emergency childcare for essential workers in the Netherlands. First, we find that the impact of COVID-19 is much larger for non-essential workers than for essential workers. Although, on average, women and men are equally affected, female non-essential workers are more affected than male non-essential workers. Second, partnered individuals with young children are equally affected by the crisis as others, irrespective of gender and spousal employment. Third, singleparent essential workers experience relatively large negative labour supply effects, suggesting emergency childcare was not sufficient for this group. However, overall, labour demand effects appear more important than labour supply effects.
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    The Ups and Downs of the COVID-19 Crisis: A Gender Divide?
    Kalb, G ; Guillou, M ; Meekes, J (Melbourne Institue: Applied Economic & Social Research, 2020-12-01)
    The first few months of the COVID-19 crisis have seen ups and downs in the labour market, with different trends observed in the various states, and some groups more affected than others. This Research Insight highlights who, where and when people in Australia were most affected, and what the current situation looks like.