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.

2018-6-1, 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.

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.

2019, Brulé, Gaël, Ravazzini, Laura, Suter, Christian, Brulé, Gaël, Suter, Christian

2018, Ravazzini, Laura, Kuhn, Ursina, Tillman, Robin, Voorpostel, Marieke, Farago, Peter

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

2018-11-29, Ravazzini, Laura, Suter, Christian

Currently, the debate of national statistical offices and scholars working on poverty is on how to include wealth in the classical measure of income poverty. Holding the income-poverty threshold fixed, some studies show that wealth-corrected poverty rates of the elderly are much more affected than those of the rest of the population. In addition, the decline in poverty rates for the elderly is higher when the value of the household’s main residence is included than when only non-housing wealth is taken into account. However, as the main residence is difficult to sell to foster consumption, it remains questionable whether this component should be added in the measurement of the risk of poverty. Difficult choices that remain to be made in the creation of a composite measure of poverty based on income and wealth are not only which components and which poverty threshold should be used, but also which methodology to aggregate income and wealth and which equivalence scale to adjust for different household members should be applied. This contribution focuses specifically on this last issue of equivalence scales highlighting how this methodological choice changes the risk of poverty among the elderly. The analysis is run with CH-SILC 2015 and on its specific module on wealth. Results show how methodological choices change the risk of poverty for different age groups in a significant way.

2018, Ravazzini, Laura, Suter, Christian, Jann, Ben, Lalive, Raphaël, Vandecasteele, Leen

Cette thèse intitulée « La participation des femmes au marché du travail et les dynamiques des inégalités de revenus en Suisse entre 1992 et 2014 » explore les facteurs qui influencent la participation des femmes au marché du travail et analyse les conséquences de la croissance de cette participation en termes d’inégalités de revenu au niveau des ménages. Cette étude combine deux importants indicateurs au niveau macro, la participation des femmes au marché du travail et l’inégalité de revenu, et examine leurs dynamiques dans le contexte suisse entre 1992 et 2014. Dans la première partie de la thèse, l’attention est portée sur les déterminants de la participation des femmes au marché du travail aux niveaux macro et micro. Au niveau macro, les variables contextuelles sont soit inclues pour identifier le contexte socio-politique dans lequel les femmes vivent soit examinées plus en détail pour déterminer leur influence sur le nombre d’heures de travail effectué par les femmes. Au niveau micro, les revenus des femmes et de leurs partenaires sont étudiés comme déterminants pour le nombre d’heures de travail effectué par les femmes. Ces déterminants classiques sont appariés avec des données relatives aux idéologies socialement construites concernant les attitudes au travail ou à la famille. Le premier article de cette thèse examine les effets de l’expansion de la garde extrafamiliale au niveau cantonal sur le nombre d’heures travaillé par les mères et les pères. Le deuxième article de cette thèse inclut les impôts et les avantages fiscaux, les coûts de garde et la culture des parents comme variables de contexte dans un model commun d’offre de travail basé sur les femmes et leurs partenaires. Dans la deuxième partie de la thèse l’emphase se déplace sur l’inégalité de revenu au niveau des ménages. Le troisième et dernier article de cette thèse interroge sur l’influence éventuelle d’une augmentation de la participation des femmes au marché du travail sur l’inégalité de revenu en Suisse. L’analyse fait la distinction entre différentes sources de revenu et types de ménages, incluant les couples et les célibataires. Tous les articles se focalisent non seulement sur la participation extensive des femmes au marché du travail, mais aussi sur la proportion de contrat à temps partiel. Les principales bases de données utilisées dans cette thèse sont l’Enquête Suisse la Participation Active (ESPA 1992-2014) et le Panel Suisse de Ménages (PSM 2000-2014). Chaque article se base sur une méthodologie spécifique. Le premier article identifie l’effet des reformes de la politique familiale qui ont été introduites au début des années 2000 en employant une estimation de la différence des différences. Le deuxième article explore l’impact des dotations économiques et attitudinales des femmes et de leurs partenaires sur les heures travaillées par les femmes à travers d’un model commun d’offre de travail. Le troisième article s’interroge sur les conséquences de l’expansion de la participation des femmes au marché du travail pour l’inégalité de revenu au niveau des ménages employant des décompositions d’indices et des analyses contrefactuelles. Les résultats mettent en avant un impact faible mais significatif de l’expansion de l’offre de garde formelle extrafamiliale sur le temps de travail partiel entre les mères. Ces réformes n’ont pas eu un effet sur le travail des hommes. Les hommes jouent néanmoins un rôle important pour le travail des femmes car les partenaires influencent les décisions des femmes avec leurs ressources économiques et leurs attitudes. L’effet du revenu des partenaires est particulièrement pertinent pour les femmes orientées vers les tâches ménagères qui ressentent des fortes pressions morales pour rester à la maison et s’occuper des enfants. En Suisse, l’augmentation de la participation des femmes au marché du travail a contribué à maintenir une basse inégalité de revenu. Cet effet a été produit par la réduction de la variabilité des salaires des femmes., This thesis explores drivers of female labour force participation and analyses the consequences of an increase in female labour force participation for income inequality at the household level. This study combines these two important macro indicators, namely female labour force participation and income inequality, and investigates their dynamics in the Swiss context from 1992 to 2014. In the first part of the thesis, particular attention is placed on the determinants of female labour force participation at the macro and micro level. At the macro level, contextual variables are either included in the background to identify the socio-political context in which women live or examined more in detail to determine their influence on women’s labour supply. At the micro level, wages and income of women and their partners are studied as main determinants of women’s labour supply. These classical determinants are paired with socially constructed ideologies identified through gender role attitudes towards work and family. The first article of this thesis examines the effects of the expansion of childcare provision at the cantonal level with respect to maternal and paternal labour supply, while the second article of this thesis includes taxes and benefits, childcare costs, and culture as contextual variables in a joint labour supply model of women and their partners. In the second part of the thesis, the focus shifts towards household income inequality. The third and last article of this thesis investigates how the increase in female labour force participation affects household income inequality in Switzerland. The analysis distinguishes between different income sources and household types, including both couples and singles. All articles focus not only on the extensive participation of women on the labour market, but also on the intensity of this participation in terms of part-time rates. The main databases used in this thesis are the Swiss Labour Force Survey (1992-2014) and the Swiss Household Panel (2000-2014). Each article is built on a specific methodology. The first article identifies the effect of family policy reforms that were introduced at the beginning of the 2000s and uses a difference-in-differences estimation. The second article explores the impact of economic and attitudinal endowments of women and their partners with respect to women’s labour supply through a discrete labour supply model. The third article investigates the consequences of the expansion in female labour force participation for household income inequality through index decompositions and counterfactual analyses. Results identify a small but significant impact of the expansion of childcare provision on mothers’ high part-time rates. No effects are found for paternal employment. Men play an important role for women’s labour supply as partners influence women’s decisions both through their economic and their attitudinal endowments. This income effect is particularly relevant for home-oriented women who feel strong moral pressures to stay home and perform childcare. In Switzerland, the total increase of female labour force participation contributed to keep household income inequality low. This effect was mainly due to the reduced variability in women’s wages.