Ravazzini, Laura

2021, Tomas Eggimann, Livia Charlotte, Ravazzini, Laura, Suzanne Meeks

This paper assesses the challenges and the benefits of 2 methodological approaches for improving the study of transnational mobilities of older adults: mixed methods and inclusiveness. The first approach refers to a mixed-methods research design based on surveys and qualitative interviews. We share our experience of conducting a “fully mixed-concurrent-equal-status-design” research project, for which we collected data through quantitative surveys on transnational practices of people aged 55+. Furthermore, we conducted semistructured interviews with adults aged 64+ living or who have lived in Switzerland and spend part of the year in Spain. The second approach relates to the use of an inclusive sample diversified in terms of nationality and migration backgrounds. The inclusive design affects the formulation of questions asked to all participants (and the response options provided in the survey), as well as decisions related to language choices and translations. These elements have to be considered to ensure that older adults from different backgrounds feel included. In a research project on transnational mobility of older adults, conducting an inclusive plus mixed-methods research project pushes researchers to find strategies to balance research objectives with available resources. Maximizing the research team’s methodological background appears to be a suitable approach to address different population groups while working within a budget.

2019-2-15, Ravazzini, Laura, Kuhn, Ursina, Brulé, Gaël, Suter, Christian

Beyond income, wealth is one of most relevant components among national and international indicators of household finances. Three surveys that include Switzerland have recently integrated questions about wealth and its components. These surveys are the Swiss Household Panel -SHP- (2016), the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions -CH-SILC- (2015), and the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe -SHARE- (2015). Following three important criteria suggested by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), namely relevance, coherence and accuracy, this study systematically compares data on housing and financial wealth. The analysis addresses question wording, the comparison with national accounts and accuracy. Results suggest that SHARE is the most relevant survey in terms of financial wealth and total net worth. CH-SILC is a coherent survey that allows for additional analysis on subjective living conditions, while the SHP is an ecological survey in terms of the number of questions on wealth.

2018-1-1, Ravazzini, Laura

Fuelled by federal stimuli of 440 million Swiss francs, the staggered expansion of childcare in many cantons allows the evaluation of this family policy on female labour supply. With new cantonal data, this study analyses both the decision to participate in the labour market and the intensity of participation. Empirical results of difference-indifferences regressions show that mothers who live in cantons that have expanded their childcare services more than the national average work at higher percentage rates. The reform stimulated part-time employment of between 20 and 36 hours per week by 2 percentage points. The expansion of childcare particularly affected women with two children and upper-secondary education, who are married or cohabit with their partner.

2017-3-1, Kuhn, Ursina, Ravazzini, Laura

This paper investigates whether an increase in female labour force participation comes at the price of higher household income inequality. Using data from the Household Panel, we decompose household income, distinguishing between part-time and full-time work. We find that female labour force participation has slightly attenuated household income inequality in Switzerland. Women’s entry into the labour market, increasing work-percentages and the very weak correlation in partner’s earnings mainly contributed to this effect. Full-time work, however, will not reduce inequality further in the future.

2020-11-24, Brulé, Gaël, Ravazzini, Laura, Suter, Christian

Cars represent a valuable real asset that most individuals use on a daily basis. Although cars are a form of material prosperity like income and other forms of wealth, the link between cars and subjective well-being (SWB) is barely covered in the existing literature. Furthermore, few existing contributions are scattered across specific cultural contexts. Here, we analyze the relationship between cars and the SWB of seniors in different European countries using the SHARE dataset. We construct multilevel and fixed-effect models to explore the extent of economic, infrastructural, and cultural factors and how they can explain this relationship. The results show that the value of the car is, among all wealth components (houses, bank account, bonds, stocks, mutual funds, debts and mortgages), the form of wealth most related to life satisfaction. In addition, cars matter less (a) in affluent societies, (b) where rail infrastructure is more developed, and (c) where people hold fewer materialistic values. We discuss these results in the framework of the functional and positional value of cars, i.e., respectively, the value derived from it regardless of others and the value derived from it vis-à-vis others.

2018-6-1, Simona, Jehane, Ravazzini, Laura

At the beginning of the 2000s, Switzerland went through two global recessions: the Dot-com crisis and the Great Recession. Even though it experienced milder effects compared to its European neighbours, Swiss unemployment increased considerably compared to its status quo. This paper aims to explore the resilience of vulnerable groups to these economic downturns using both objective (income poverty and material deprivation) and subjective (wellbeing and satisfaction with the financial situation) indicators of quality of life. To analyse how quality of life evolved since the early 2000s, we use a longitudinal database: the Swiss Household Panel. When both objective and subjective indicators were used, our results suggest that the dot-com crisis had a stronger negative effect on vulnerable groups. This was particularly true with regards to single parents and large families who experienced a marked decline when assessed using objective indicators. Disadvantaged groups during the first crisis reacted in different ways during the second crisis. Some groups (the unemployed, the low-educated and the solo self-employed) experienced some scarring effects; others were resilient and continued with their normal trends (migrants and the young) or registered an improvement in their conditions (single parents and large families). Single parents are the group that performed better during and after the Great Recession according to both objective and subjective indicators.

2017-12-11, Ravazzini, Laura, Kuhn, Ursina, Suter, Christian

This paper addresses homogamy and assortative mating in Switzerland. The empirical analysis monitors trends for education and hourly wages using the Swiss Labour Force Survey and the Swiss Household Panel. The analysis disentangles the effects of educational expansion from mating patterns and incorporates not only couples, but also singles. Results show an increasing level of assortative mating both for education and for wages. For wage homogamy, selection is more important than adaptation.

2019-10-29, Brulé, Gaël, Ravazzini, Laura, Suter, Christian

2018-6-1, Ravazzini, Laura, Chesters, Jenny

Although the gender gap in incomes has been extensively researched, scant attention has been paid the gender wealth gap. This paper compares the gender wealth gap in Australia with that of Switzerland. Using data from the 2010 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) and the 2012 Swiss Household Panel (SHP), we find that the gender wealth gap can be attributed to differences in permanent income and education. Furthermore, the gender wealth gap is much larger in Switzerland than in Australia. We link this finding to the type of wealth held by individuals in these two countries. Differences in wealth accumulation among women in Switzerland and Australia are likely to be linked to the housing market and to family policies for (single) mothers.

2017-3-21, Ravazzini, Laura, Chávez-Juárez, Florian

This paper aims at establishing a clear link between different types of inequality and life satisfaction in Europe. We analyse the relationship between life satisfaction and both income inequality and inequality of opportunity using seven waves of the European Social Survey (ESS). The results show that in Europe both income inequality and inequality of opportunity reduce people’s life satisfaction. Our main results suggest that all socio-economic groups are dissatisfied with income inequality, whereas primarily low socio-economic individuals worry about inequality of opportunity. We find that expected mobility is very important in explaining the link between inequality and life satisfaction for all socio-economic groups in Europe. We advance the hypothesis that life satisfaction is conditioned by a mix of normative arguments against inequality and by the fear/possibility to lose/gain a good social position. This result complements findings on the mediating role of social mobility in the relationship with subjective well-being (SWB).