Gender Regimes and Welfare States in France: A historical perspective
This paper has a twofold aim. First, we will analyze the system of family benefits in relation with the income tax system in France through the adoption of a historical and gender perspective. While typologies of welfare states frequently neglect taxation, in our view, one must take family taxation into account because it provides incentives and disincentives for paid income. Moreover, in the case of France, a close relationship exists between family benefits and taxation on income, one that stems from certain discussions—discussions led to the birth of the French system.Second, we will demonstrate how and to what extent France has moved away from the male-breadwinner model. However, any decline of the malebreadwinner model does not, in turn, indicate a corresponding shift toward a dual caregiver model. Indeed, the current French model has ambiguous effects on gender relations.
Warm Hands in Cold Age – On the Need of a New World Order of Care
The world is aging as fertility and mortality are both decreasing. This article focuses on practical care work for the elderly. Such work is done primarily by women even though a larger portion than previously is paid rather than unpaid. All over the world, most elderly care work is organized within the family, most often unpaid. Men receive more care from partners than women, while women receive more care from female relatives. When care work is paid, the payment is generally low. A comparison between Germany, Spain, and Sweden demonstrates similar gender patterns, even though the role of the state in supporting care differs considerably as do care workers' conditions. The sustainability of today's distribution and organization of care work is questioned as the need for care increases, and the possibility of more equal sharing of care work between women and men is explored.
Speci fi cation Test for Panel Data Models with Interactive Fixed E ff ects ∗
In this paper, we propose a consistent nonparametric test for linearity in a large dimensional panel data model with interactive fixed effects. Both lagged dependent variables and conditional heteroskedasticity of unknown form are allowed in the model. We estimate the model under the null hypothesis of linearity to obtain the restricted residuals which are then used to construct the test statistic. We show that after being appropriately centered and standardized, the test statistic is asymptotically normally distributed under both the null hypothesis and a sequence of Pitman local alternatives by using the concept of conditional strong mixing that was recently introduced by Prakasa Rao (2009). To improve the finite sample performance, we propose a bootstrap procedure to obtain the bootstrap -value. A small set of Monte Carlo simulations illustrates that our test performs well in finite samples. An application to an economic growth panel dataset indicates significant nonlinear relationships between economic growth, initial income level and capital accumulation.