Do other-regarding preferences change with age? Evidence from a gift exchange experiment

A series of laboratory experiments investigate potential differences in other-regarding behavior by age of participant. Specifically, a gift exchange experiment is conducted with eighth graders, high school seniors, undergraduates, and working adults, all with similar observable demographic characteristics. All groups exhibit significant levels of gift exchange. Eighth graders exhibit significantly less gift exchange than other groups whereas the responses of other groups do not appear to differ. The findings indicate that other-regarding behavior is present, but still developing in adolescents and undergraduate subjects in gift exchange experiments exhibit similar behavior to adults with similar observable characteristics.     

Does Facebook increase political participation? Evidence from a field experiment

During the last decade, much of political behaviour research has come to be concerned with the impact of the Internet, and more recently social networking sites such as Facebook, on political and civic participation. Although existing research generally finds a modestly positive relationship between social media use and offline and online participation, the majority of contributions rely on cross-sectional data, so the causal impact of social media use remains unclear. The present study examines how Facebook use influences reported political participation using an experiment. We recruited young Greek participants without a Facebook account and randomly assigned a subset to create and maintain a Facebook account for a year. In this paper we examine the effect of having a Facebook account on diverse modes of online and offline participation after six months. We find that maintaining a Facebook account had clearly negative consequences on reports of offline and online forms of political and civic participation.     

Who discriminates? Evidence from a trust game experiment across three societies

What personal characteristics are associated with the extent to which individuals discriminate against particular groups? We use an incentive-compatible measure of an individual’s tendency to discriminate on others’ different social identities that takes into account the costs of discrimination. In particular, we elicit participants’ willingness to discriminate (WTD) in their investments to make their decisions dependent on others’ social identities using a laboratory trust game experiment with 545 participants in three countries: Malaysia, China and the UK. Analysis of our WTD measure shows that discrimination differs depending on discriminators’ cultural group identity and political values. Demographic variables including age and gender are not significant. Overall our results support the psychological distinctiveness of WEIRD participants found in other studies.     

Do husbands and wives pool their incomes? A couple experiment

We propose a simple and direct test of in-couple income pooling and provide a typology of couples that pool resources and those who do not. For this purpose, we performed a five-round experiment with 95 established real-life couples in Germany. In each round, the couples received the same total amount of money, but the relative allocation to the spouses differed and they had to agree on an irreversible private goods consumption pattern. We find that for the majority of the sample, the consumption choices depend on the spouses’ relative resources. While this suggests a rejection of income pooling at the mean, a substantial share of the couples do indeed pool their resources. Pooling behavior is more common among couples in which the spouses’ socioeconomic characteristics are more similar. In particular, traditional couples with distinct work division between the spouses are significantly less likely to pool their individual resources and treat any spouse’s income symmetrically. Conventional variables used to approximate income pooling are only loosely related to the behavior observed in our experiment.     

Why do families actually pool their income? Evidence from Denmark

This paper analyzes income-pooling by using a unique Danish data set that includes questions on income pooling among 1,696 couples. The analyses show that most Danish households use some kind of income pooling and that the proportion of income pooled varies considerably according to individual characteristics (age, education, occupation, past partners, upbringing) and household characteristics (household income, duration of marriage, location of residence and the existence of public goods, including children). However, when all variables are evaluated in a common model, the duration of marriage and the existence of children predominantly affect the likelihood of income pooling.

Do minimum wage increases benefit worker health? Evidence from China

Review of Economics of the Household - This paper investigates whether minimum wage increases affect worker health in China. Using data on low-skilled workers from the 2014 and 2016 China...     

Do Market Returns Influence Risk Tolerance? Evidence from Panel Data

This study used the 1992?C2006 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to investigate changes in risk tolerance levels over time in response to stock market returns. Findings indicate that risk tolerance tends to increase when market returns increase and decrease when market returns decrease. Individuals who change their risk tolerance in this manner are likely to invest in stocks when prices are high and sell when prices are low. Researchers, employers, financial educators and practitioners should help investors overcome the bias of overweighting recent news of market performance.     

Do religious beliefs affect borrowing behavior? Evidence from Chinese households

This paper discusses the impact of religious culture on micro financial decisions. Data concerning the religious beliefs of Chinese respondents was collected in 2007. We analyzed the data for the potential influence of religious beliefs on household borrowing decisions. By applying the ordered logit regression methods and IV estimator, we found that respondents with a religious family background borrowed less when other conditions remained unchanged. It was also discovered that, compared with non-believers, Buddhists borrow less than adherents of other religions. No other religious beliefs had a statistically significant influence. That is to say, different religious denominations exert different influences on Chinese household borrowing decisions.     

Do Rural Students Really Perform Worse than Urban Students Do? Empirical Evidence from a University Entrance Program in Taiwan

Despite a major expansion in the number of students in higher education, students from rural areas continue to be underrepresented at selective universities. To reduce the urban‐rural imbalance of entry to selective universities, institutions in many countries of the world have implemented admission policies favoring rural students. Previous evidence has shown that rural students have lower academic performance than their urban peers, which leads to concern that rural students will reduce the academic excellence of selective universities. Using the introduction of a university admission policy favoring rural students in Taiwan and a unique administrative data set of students' academic records, we compare the academic performance of students from rural areas with that of their urban counterparts during their college years. The results show that rural students have consistently outperformed urban students in semester grade point averages and class rank percentile across time; however, the differences in academic performance are mainly attributed to the rural students' initial outperformance in the first semester of the freshman year.     

Why do children transfer to their parents? Evidence from South Korea

I examine motives behind interhousehold upstream transfers using a sample of child-parent pairs in South Korea. The estimation results indicate that upstream transfers in Korea cannot be explained by just one motive. I find evidence that altruism is the dominant motive at the margin if parental income is low, but not so if parental income is high. I also find that upstream transfers are given, at least in part, in exchange for child care service and in lieu of personal visits. There is little evidence that upstream transfers are used by children to win parental favor for future gains such as an inheritance or to repay implicit parental loans used for education. Additional evidence is provided from the analysis of the frequency of personal visits and semiparametric regressions. Determinants of downstream transfer amounts are also examined.     

Do Absentee Voters Differ from Polling Place Voters?: New Evidence from California

In the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election 2,775,785absentee ballots were cast, representing about 30 percent ofall voters statewide. Given the number of absentee ballots andthe increasing propensity for voters in California and elsewhereto choose this voting method, we some basic questions: Who areabsentee voters, and are they different from polling place voters?To answer these questions, we fielded a statewide survey ofabsentee voters in the days before the October 7 recall election,asking respondents why they voted absentee, their partisan andideological preferences, demographic characteristics, and otherrelevant questions. We find that absentee voters do not differsignificantly from the overall state electorate in terms oftheir vote preferences, despite being older and better educated.For example, 56 percent of absentee voters in our survey voted"yes" on the recall, compared with 55 percent for the entirestate, according to official returns. Further, absentee votersfavored Arnold Schwarzenegger over Cruz Bustamante by a considerablemargin, similar to the overall election results. We found partyregistration among absentee voters to be nearly identical tostatewide partisan registration.     

How Satisfied are Spouses with their Leisure Time? Evidence from Europe

This paper first identifies the determinants of spouses’ satisfaction levels within the household with respect to their leisure time and, secondly, characterizes whether their preferences have some degree of altruistic or egoistic character in regard to this particular satisfaction. To that end, it formulates a theoretical framework from the collective family model whose stochastic formulations are estimated for 14 EU countries. The general empirical results first reveal that the presence of children has a significantly negative impact on the leisure satisfaction of both spouses. Then, increases in individual incomes lead to lower own leisure satisfaction levels. Both husbands and wives show egoistic behavior with respect to the labor and non-labor incomes (wage rate) of their respective spouses’ satisfaction levels.

Do Immigrants Catch‐up with the Natives in Terms of Earnings? Evidence from Individual Level Data of Canada

This article analyses differences in dynamic transitions into and out of any of the five hourly wage quintiles and quintile zero (unemployed and non‐employed people) between immigrants and natives for the period 1993‐2004. Using Longitudinal Level data from Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) for men aged 25 to 55, we investigate how unobserved heterogeneity factors and initial conditions may affect individuals’ propensity to stay in or leave any of the wage quintiles. We also consider a dynamic multinomial logit model with the random effects approach. Empirical results show that state dependence exists in all hourly wage quintiles. Moreover, education, experience, marital status, immigrant minority status, and age at immigration are significant factors determining hourly wage differentials between immigrants and natives.     

Who performs better under time pressure? Results from a field experiment

We investigate whether and how time pressure affects performance. We conducted a field experiment in which students from an Italian University are proposed to choose between two exam schemes: a standard scheme without time pressure and an alternative scheme consisting of two written intermediate tests, one of which to be taken under time pressure. Students deciding to sustain the alternative exam are randomly assigned to a “time pressure” and a “no time pressure” group. Students performing under time pressure at the first test perform in absence of time pressure at the second test and vice versa. We find that being exposed to time pressure exerts a negative and statistically significant impact on students’ performance. The effect is driven by a strong negative impact on females’ performance, while there is no statistically significant effect on males. Both the quantity and quality of females’ work is hampered by time pressure. Using data on students’ expectations, we also find that the effect produced by time pressure on performance was correctly perceived by students. Female students expect a lower grade when working under time pressure, while males do not. These findings contribute to explain why women tend to shy away from jobs and careers involving time pressure.     

Male kinship caregivers: Do they differ from their female counterparts?

Few studies have been conducted about male caregivers in general and even fewer about male caregivers who provide care for their relative's child when the child is in the custody of the child welfare or child- and family-serving systems. This exploratory study examined the motivations, parenting capacity, readiness, stress and strain, family support, and perceptions of child well-being of male caregivers and compared their experiences with those of their female counterparts. The study also compared the experiences of caregivers in different family roles (i.e., adult siblings, grandparents, aunts/uncles) to determine if gender differences exist. Results show a high level of capacity and ability of male caregivers and a relatively low level of stress and strain. Significant differences were not gender-defined; instead, as it pertains to caregiver capacity, stress and strain, and perceptions of child well-being, differences were distinguishable by such sociodemographic characteristics as marital status, educational attainment, number of children being cared for, ethnicity, and income. Practice, policy and research recommendations are offered.     

Why do People Disclose their HIV Status? Qualitative Evidence from a Group of Activist Women in Khayelitsha

Abstract

This study explores the bio-psychosocial context of HIV/AIDS in which eleven HIV-positive activist women from Khayelitsha negotiated the process of disclosing their HIV-positive status to significant others, specifically biological household members. The study is based on the narratives of a group of HIV-positive peer-educators in Cape Town, South Africa. The results suggest that community perceptions of HIV/AIDS are shaped by a wide variety of factors particular to the socio-cultural and political context of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The process and outcomes of disclosure to others occurs within this shifting web of meanings, and in turn, reshapes them as people respond to the person who has just disclosed. Eight out of the eleven women disclosed to a close biological household member as these significant-others provided, or had the potential to provide, the appropriate support. Six of the eleven participants disclosed during the symptomatic phases of HIV/AIDS, while five were asymptomatic at the time. Four of the five who disclosed when asymptomatic were diagnosed while pregnant and had never experienced severe opportunistic infections. Additionally, these same four disclosed some time after diagnosis (nine months > t < two years). Of the six who disclosed in a state of ill-health, five disclosed immediately after diagnosis in order to access health-related social support. At this time, concerns regarding health and mortality superseded fears of rejection and discrimination due to AIDS-related stigma. The perceived potential benefits (social and health-related support) outweighed the perceived risks (stigmatisation and discrimination). When participants had never experienced serious illness, they disclosed in order to educate loved-ones, gain emotional support or challenge false popular perceptions of HIV/AIDS.     

Do private and public transfers received affect life satisfaction? Evidence from Romania

This paper uses Romanian survey data to investigate the determinants of individual life and financial satisfaction, with an emphasis on the role of public and private transfers received. A possible concern is that these transfers are unlikely to be exogenous to satisfaction. We use recursive simultaneous equations models to account both for this potential problem and for the fact that public transfers are themselves endogenous in the private transfer equation. We find that public transfers received have a positive influence on both life and financial satisfaction, while private transfers do not matter. People receive private transfers irrespective of their economic and demographic characteristics in Romania, which could be explained by some social norm motives.     

Do Donors Care? Some Australian Evidence

It is commonly believed that individuals would donate more to charity if they were assured that the funds would not be wasted. This is a common answer to survey type investigations into charitable giving. In this paper we adopt a law and finance approach to investigate the validity of this contention in the Australian context. We develop an Accountability Rights variable and relate that variable to charitable donations. The relationship between the two is statistically weak and not robust.     

Can Child Development Accounts be inclusive? Early evidence from a statewide experiment

A key objective of Child Development Accounts (CDAs) is to increase college completion rates among disadvantaged youth by helping families accumulate assets for college and by encouraging youth to see themselves as college bound. While the major asset-building programs in the United States almost exclusively benefit socioeconomically advantaged individuals, CDAs explicitly aim to facilitate account holding and asset accumulation by disadvantaged families. But can CDAs meet the goal of being inclusive? This research uses data from a large CDA experiment with probability sampling and random assignment to examine early savings outcomes. Findings indicate that CDAs improve outcomes for diverse demographic groups and sometimes have greater impacts on disadvantaged children than advantaged children. Features like automatic account opening and automatic initial deposits, which are uncommon in other asset-building programs, extend the opportunities and benefits of asset accumulation to disadvantaged families.