Cristina Borra - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Cristina Borra

To study the impact of non-contributory pensions on mobility decisions of working-age individuals... more To study the impact of non-contributory pensions on mobility decisions of working-age individuals we gather data from a variety of sources. The individual level data come from the 2nd quarters of the Spanish Labor Force Survey (Encuesta de Poblaciόn Activa, EPA, Spanish Statistical Institute, 2017a), which provides labor market status and province of residence at the time of the survey, t+1, as well as one year before, at time t. Information on migratory flows between provinces is gathered from the Residential Variations Statistics (Estadistica de Variaciones Residenciales, EVR, Spanish Statistical Institute 2017b). As noted earlier, we use the 1988 flows to weigh average provincial traits based on the relevance of the alternative locations, which include all other provinces, in that base year. Our key regressor is the share of the province's population that are old-age non-contributory pensioners, which we gather from the Labor Statistics Yearbook of the Employment and Social S...

CINCH working paper series, Sep 30, 2021

We study the effects of maternal age on infant health. Age at birth has been increasing for the p... more We study the effects of maternal age on infant health. Age at birth has been increasing for the past several decades in many countries, and correlations show that health at birth is worse for children born to older mothers. In order to identify causal effects, we exploit school entry cutoffs and the empirical finding that women who are older for their cohort in school tend to give birth later. In Spain, children born in December start school a year earlier than those born the following January, despite being essentially the same age. We show that as a result, January‐born women finish school later and are (several months) older when they marry and when they have their first child. We find no effect on educational attainment. We then compare the health at birth of the children of women born in January versus the previous December, using administrative, population‐level data, and following a regression discontinuity design. We find small and insignificant effects on average weight at ...

Supplemental material, ELRR31-3_Education_inequality_DCPs_-_European_case_-_Online_Appendices for... more Supplemental material, ELRR31-3_Education_inequality_DCPs_-_European_case_-_Online_Appendices for Education, inequality and use of digital collaborative platforms: The European case by Jesús M Artero, Cristina Borra and Rosario Gómez-Alvarez in The Economic and Labour Relations Review

The Spanish welfare state was practically inexistent in the 1980s. It expanded throughout the 199... more The Spanish welfare state was practically inexistent in the 1980s. It expanded throughout the 1990s and became fully in place by the 2000s. At the same time, internal migration rates dropped to less than 0.3 percent â€“among the lowest in the world. In a country with large labor market imbalances, internal mobility can prove crucial to economic growth. We look at the role that non-contributory pensions might have played on inter-provincial mobility over the past two decades. We find that the expansion of the welfare state has curtailed the mobility of young working-age individuals, especially less educated women. The effects are unique to non-contributory pensions, and are not restricted to cohabitating family members or tied to the care for disabled relatives, signaling the need for policy measures that facilitate the mobility of the young from lower income households.

Union Europea, Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad y el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional ... more Union Europea, Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad y el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional DER2015-63701-C3-1-R

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2014

The Impact of Eliminating a Child Benefit on Birth Timing and Infant Health We study the effects ... more The Impact of Eliminating a Child Benefit on Birth Timing and Infant Health We study the effects of the cancellation of a sizeable child benefit in Spain on birth timing and neonatal health. In May 2010, the government announced that a 2,500-euro universal "baby bonus" would stop being paid to babies born on or after January 1st, 2011. We use detailed micro data from birth certificates from 2000 to 2011, and find that more than 2,000 families were able to anticipate the date of birth of their babies from (early) January 2011 to (late) December 2010 (for a total of about 9,000 births a week nationally). This shifting of deliveries led to a significant increase in the number of low birth weight babies, as well as a peak in neonatal mortality. These results suggest that announcement effects are important in shaping economic decisions and outcomes. They also provide new, credible evidence highlighting the negative health consequences of scheduling births for non-medical reasons.

The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 2020

This study examines the causal relationship between education and the use of digital collaborativ... more This study examines the causal relationship between education and the use of digital collaborative platforms as a first step in exploring the potential impact of the new digital labour markets on inequality. From the viewpoint of transaction costs theory, the less educated could benefit significantly from the digital collaborative economy due to the reduction in information costs made possible by this new form of exchange. Conversely, a positive relationship between educational level and platform use may be expected following neoclassical and institutionalist economic theories. Using microdata from the 2016 Eurobarometer survey, together with an instrumental variables strategy and conventional ordinary least squares models, hypothesis testing reveals that education has a clear positive effect on digital collaborative platform use. As a result, the less educated are less likely to access the job opportunities offered by digital labour markets. Understanding the relationship between e...

Economics & Human Biology, 2021

To contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries around the globe have adopted soci... more To contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries around the globe have adopted social distancing measures. Yet, establishing the causal effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) is difficult because they do not occur arbitrarily. We exploit a quasi-random source of variation for identification purposes-namely, regional differences in the placement on the pandemic curve following an unexpected and nationwide lockdown. Our results reveal that regions where the outbreak had just started when the lockdown was implemented had 1.62 fewer daily deaths per 100,000 inhabitants when compared to regions for which the lockdown arrived 10+ days after the pandemic's outbreak. As a result, a total of 4,642 total deaths (232 deaths/daily) could have been avoided by the end of our period of study-a figure representing 23% of registered deaths in Spain at the time. We rule out differential preÀCOVID mortality trends and self-distancing behaviors across the compared regions prior to the swift lockdown, which was also uniformly observed nationwide. In addition, we provide supporting evidence for contagion deceleration as the main mechanism behind the effectiveness of the early adoption of NPIs in lowering the death rate, rather than an increased healthcare capacity.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2020

Any opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research pu... more Any opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but IZA takes no institutional policy positions. The IZA research network is committed to the IZA Guiding Principles of Research Integrity. The IZA Institute of Labor Economics is an independent economic research institute that conducts research in labor economics and offers evidence-based policy advice on labor market issues. Supported by the Deutsche Post Foundation, IZA runs the world's largest network of economists, whose research aims to provide answers to the global labor market challenges of our time. Our key objective is to build bridges between academic research, policymakers and society. IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author.

Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, 2012

We evaluate the effectiveness of a programme aimed at a group of unemployed in the capital of the... more We evaluate the effectiveness of a programme aimed at a group of unemployed in the capital of the South of Spain, within the framework of Active Labour Market Policies (almps). We use high quality administrative data which justifies

Economic Inquiry, 2019

Across the industrialized world college-educated parents invest more time in their children relat... more Across the industrialized world college-educated parents invest more time in their children relative to non-college educated parents. Yet, the reason for the education gradient in parental time investments is not well understood. Using 24-hour diary surveys since the 1970s we document an inverse U-shape in the education gradient in the UK. Theories unfolding gradually and monotonically cannot easily explain this pattern. Using an exogenous increase in the number of students going onto university in the 1980s, we show that an alternative explanation based on competition for university places can explain the temporal and spatial variation in the education gradient. (J13, J24.

Revista de Economía Laboral, 2007

Tras estimar un logit ordenado se obtiene la conclusión que en la evaluación que realizan los enc... more Tras estimar un logit ordenado se obtiene la conclusión que en la evaluación que realizan los encuestados sobre su grado de satisfacción en el trabajo actual los individuos valoran recompensas tanto monetarias o extrínsecas (salario) como no monetarias o intrínsecas (poder realizarse en el trabajo, posibilidad de conciliación trabajo/familia).

Temas Actuales De Economia, 2009

La Familia Ante El Derecho Tributario Xiii Congreso Internacional De Derecho De Familia 2005 Isbn 84 9836 013 7 Pags 139 157, 2005

Xvi Encuentro De Economia Publica 5 Y 6 De Febrero De 2009 Palacio De Congresos De Granada 2009 Isbn 978 84 691 8950 4, 2009

In Spain, female labour force participation is among the lowest in Europe. This paper analyzes th... more In Spain, female labour force participation is among the lowest in Europe. This paper analyzes the extent to which female labour force participation is affected by the cost of formal childcare. Both decisions, labour force participation and formal childcare use, are jointly considered by means of a bi-variate probit model. Based on data from the Spanish Time Use Survey, our study indicates that Spanish mothers' labour force participation is very elastic to changes in childcare costs.

Journal of Happiness Studies, 2015

Economists have long been interested in the possibility that individuals' wellbeing depends on th... more Economists have long been interested in the possibility that individuals' wellbeing depends on their relative position. The recent recession has generated a tremendous increase in unemployment rates in Spain. In this paper we use a very rich repeated cross-section dataset on workers' job conditions, together with regional unemployment information, to investigate whether peers' unemployment affects individuals' job satisfaction. We try to distinguish both the negative effect that others' unemployment might inflict on individual on-the-job wellbeing via increased job insecurity and the positive effect, sometimes called social norm of unemployment, whereby individuals' wellbeing increases when they feel relatively better than their peers. We find that peers' unemployment shows both a negative and a positive effect in Spain. In fact, once perceived job insecurity is controlled for, a clear positive effect emerges, larger and more precisely estimated for men and private-sector workers. This result is robust to using different unemployment rate measures and, interestingly, to controlling for workforce selection. Our findings constitute a microeconometric foundation of the countercyclical pattern of productivity in Spain.

Maternal and Child Health Journal, 2014

This study aimed to identify the causal effect of breastfeeding on postpartum depression (PPD), u... more This study aimed to identify the causal effect of breastfeeding on postpartum depression (PPD), using data on mothers from a British survey, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Multivariate linear and logistic regressions were performed to investigate the effects of breastfeeding on mothers' mental health measured at 8 weeks, 8, 21 and 32 months postpartum. The estimated effect of breastfeeding on PPD differed according to whether women had planned to breastfeed their babies, and by whether they had shown signs of depression during pregnancy. For mothers who were not depressed during pregnancy, the lowest risk of PPD was found among women who had planned to breastfeed, and who had actually breastfed their babies, while the highest risk was found among women who had planned to breastfeed and had not gone on to breastfeed. We conclude that the effect of breastfeeding on maternal depression is extremely heterogeneous, being mediated both by breastfeeding intentions during pregnancy and by mothers' mental health during pregnancy. Our results underline the importance of providing expert breastfeeding support to women who want to breastfeed; but also, of providing compassionate support for women who had intended to breastfeed, but who find themselves unable to. Keywords Breastfeeding Á Mental health Á Edinburgh postnatal depression scale Á Child development Á ALSPAC

In Spain, female labour force participation is among the lowest in Europe. This paper analyzes th... more In Spain, female labour force participation is among the lowest in Europe. This paper analyzes the extent to which female labour force participation is affected by the cost of formal childcare. Both decisions, labour force participation and formal childcare use, are jointly considered by means of a bi-variate probit model that accounts for the sample selection. Based on data from

Despite the widely recognized significance of freight transport for a region’s economy, the field... more Despite the widely recognized significance of freight transport for a region’s economy, the field of transportation science has focused traditionally on the analytical modeling of passenger systems, relegating the analysis of freight transportation. This paper reviews the methodological framework underlying freight transportation demand analysis, from the microeconomic perspective. Particularly, it presents the main characteristics of this approach, the different types