Did State Children’s Health Insurance Program Affect Married Women’s Labor Supply?

While the relationships between health insurance and the labor supply of women have been explored in the literature, little is known about the effects of offering public health insurance on the labor supply decisions of married women. This paper examines how the enactment of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) affected the labor supply decisions of married women. Our empirical analysis showed that certain groups of married women reduced their number of hours worked upon SCHIP implementation. The results imply it is possible that some wives decreased their labor supply in order to make their children eligible for public health insurance.

Does globalization benefit developing countries? Effects of FDI on local wages

Two different reactions to globalization (either supporting or opposing globalization) are observed throughout the world. Focusing on the effects on the labor market, we examine whether foreign direct investment benefits workers employed by local establishments in a host developing country. The analysis shows that they received wages above the market-based wage that would otherwise prevail in the absence of foreign establishments. Although concerns exist that growing multinational business might have negative impacts on local workers, this paper suggests that those fears might be unwarranted.     

Intraspecies competition in a field population ofGregopimpla himalayensis (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) parasitic onMalacosoma neustria testacea (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae)

Summary Intraspecies competition in a field population ofGregopimpla himalayensis (Hym.: Ichneumonidae) parasitic on the prepupae ofMalacosoma neustria testacea (Lep.: Lasiocampidae) was investigated. The parasite oviposits the sufficient number of progeny (5 individuals/0.1 g dry weight of host) to exhaust a single host in a single attack. However, at the intensity less than 22–26 individuals/0.1 g d.w. of host, all individuals can emerge, i.e. density-dependent mortality does not occur. Within this range of intensity, survival of parasite larvae is guaranteed by diminution in body size and decreasing sex ratio. In contrast, total biomass of parasites showed a peak at 5 individuals/0.1 g d.w. of host at which a single host is exhausted. Above the intensity of 22–26, extraordinary minute individuals appeared and they died before maturation. If intraspecies competition play a role in regulation ofG. himalayensis population in the field, the process is usually not through density-dependent mortality but through decreasing reproductive rate caused by decrease in the sex ratio, adult longevity and fecundity. Contribution Ser. 2, No. 275. Entomological Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University.     

What are Relevant Work Incentive Models? Shirking Model, Gift Exchange Model, or Reciprocity Model

This empirical study examines the relevance of different work incentive models by distinguishing reciprocity induced by pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors. Although the literature does not present an examination of different models all together but rather specifically examines each model mainly through experimental laboratory games, we study which models are suitable to explain work incentives in real labor markets. Our analyses reveal that overall reciprocity induced by non-pecuniary factors motivates employees well. The shirking model induces effort only if employees face a high level of vulnerability to firing. However, the high level of vulnerability to dismissal invalidates the gift exchange and reciprocity models. These results can complement controlled laboratory experiments, whose results are often restricted in applying to the reality.     

Sparse discriminant analysis based on estimation of posterior probabilities

ABSTRACT

Fisher's linear discriminant analysis (FLDA) is known as a method to find a discriminative feature space for multi-class classification. As a theory of extending FLDA to an ultimate nonlinear form, optimal nonlinear discriminant analysis (ONDA) has been proposed. ONDA indicates that the best theoretical nonlinear map for maximizing the Fisher's discriminant criterion is formulated by using the Bayesian a posterior probabilities. In addition, the theory proves that FLDA is equivalent to ONDA when the Bayesian a posterior probabilities are approximated by linear regression (LR). Due to some limitations of the linear model, there is room to modify FLDA by using stronger approximation/estimation methods. For the purpose of probability estimation, multi-nominal logistic regression (MLR) is more suitable than LR. Along this line, in this paper, we develop a nonlinear discriminant analysis (NDA) in which the posterior probabilities in ONDA are estimated by MLR. In addition, in this paper, we develop a way to introduce sparseness into discriminant analysis. By applying L1 or L2 regularization to LR or MLR, we can incorporate sparseness in FLDA and our NDA to increase generalization performance. The performance of these methods is evaluated by benchmark experiments using last_exam17 standard datasets and a face classification experiment.     

The State Children's Health Insurance Program: Participation and Substitution

We examine the effects of SCHIP enactment by focusing on two policy concerns: take-up and crowd-out. The literature has examined how income eligibility expansions affect the type of children's insurance coverage. However, states jointly implemented various policy instruments. The results in previous works do not control for this variety. We analyze how changes in several SCHIP factors affected decisions regarding health insurance coverage. Our analysis indicates that the estimates in the literature may have combined the effects of various policy factors. In distinguishing individual policy factors, our results provide useful information for designing effective public health insurance programs.