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.

Veblen’s theory of the leisure class revisited: implications for optimal income taxation

Several previous studies have demonstrated the importance of relative consumption comparisons for public policy. Yet, almost all of them have ignored the role of leisure for status comparisons. Inspired by Veblen (The theory of the leisure class. Macmillan, New York, 1899), this paper assumes that people care about their relative consumption and that leisure has a displaying role in making relative consumption more visible, based on a two-type model of optimal income taxation. While increased importance of relative consumption typically implies higher marginal income tax rates, in line with previous research, the effect of leisure-induced consumption visibility is to make the income tax more regressive in terms of ability.     

Does Marriage Discourage Female Labor Force Participation? Empirical Evidence from Thailand

Abstract

In labor supply theory, marriage can be one of the obstacles making it less likely for a woman to participate in the labor market. However, the relationship between marriage and a female’s working outside the home can vary according to a country’s stage of economic development. This paper therefore aims to investigate the impact of marital status on labor force participation of women in developing countries by using Thailand as a case study. Using sex ratios at the provincial level as an instrumental variable for marital status gives different results from previous empirical research focusing on developed countries. Married women in a developing country like Thailand are more likely to participate in the labor market and work more hours than are unmarried women, especially those who are younger, less educated, not household heads, and with fewer family members to care for. Therefore, policy recommendations for developing countries should aim to support those young and less educated married (and poor) female workers by including extended maternity leave, flexibility of working hours, and establishment of childcare facilities in the workplace, including child allowances for married women who have children.     

Does having children affect women’s entrepreneurship decision? Evidence from Nigeria

Review of Economics of the Household - This paper investigates the impact of fertility on women’s entrepreneurship decision in Nigeria, using the 2008 and 2013 cross-sectional Demographic...     

The more attacks,the more retweets: Trump’s and Clinton’s agenda setting on Twitter

The present study aims to contribute to the agenda setting theory and political campaign literature by examining candidates’ tweets and their effects on voter reactions in the context of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Content analysis of Donald Trump’s and Hillary Clinton’s 3-month tweets (N = 1575) revealed that half of their tweets were attacks, and those attacks were effective in attracting favorites and retweets for both candidates. Their tweets reflected their issue agendas highlighted on campaign websites, and they mainly emphasized issues owned by their parties in both venues. Some of the issues Trump stressed in his tweets (i.e., media bias and Clinton’s alleged dishonesty) drew significantly more favorites and retweets, suggesting public agenda setting possibilities through Twitter. None of the issues Clinton emphasized were significant predictors of favorites and retweets. However, visual elements such as pictures and videos were effective in bringing voter reactions for Clinton. While Clinton sent twice as many tweets as Trump did during the three months, Trump’s tweet received in average three times as many favorites and retweets as Clinton’s. Overall, the results show that Trump was more successful than Clinton in drawing public attention to preferred issues through Twitter.     

Are Americans and Indians more altruistic than the Japanese and Chinese? Evidence from a new international survey of bequest plans

This paper discusses three alternative assumptions concerning household preferences (altruism, self-interest, and a desire for dynasty building) and shows that these assumptions have very different implications for bequest motives and bequest division. After reviewing some of the literature on actual bequests, bequest motives, and bequest division, the paper presents data on the strength of bequest motives, stated bequest motives, and bequest division plans from a new international survey conducted in China, India, Japan, and the United States. It finds striking inter-country differences in bequest plans, with the bequest plans of Americans and Indians appearing to be much more consistent with altruistic preferences than those of the Japanese and Chinese and the bequest plans of the Japanese and Chinese appearing to be much more consistent with selfish preferences than those of Americans and Indians. These findings have important implications for the efficacy and desirability of stimulative fiscal policies, public pensions, and inheritance taxes.     

Separating psychological momentum from strategic momentum: Evidence from men’s professional tennis

In dynamic contests, strategic momentum and psychological momentum potentially coexist, which makes it difficult to distinguish between the two. We employ the setting of professional tennis, which allows us to separate psychological from strategic momentum. In tennis, converting a break point potentially triggers both strategic momentum—due to a change in the relative position of the players—and psychological momentum—due to a change in the perception of the players. To distinguish between these two momentum types, we employ exogenously given interruptions. Interruptions are predicted to affect psychological momentum negatively, while leaving strategic momentum unaffected. Using 4930 game-by-game observations from 141 Grand Slam men’s single matches, we show that the breaking players’ probability of winning a game increases after converting a break point, which provides evidence for momentum. Moreover, we show that this momentum effect is negatively affected by an interruption. Thus, psychological momentum seems to be the main trigger leading to a performance increase after a converted break point.     

Picking Winners? Evidence on NATO’s Enlargement Strategy

The effectiveness of NATO conditionality for institutional reforms is highly controversial. Some papers argue that any effect this conditionality might have had may be due to endogeneity effects, i.e. NATO may have picked the winners. We argue that this is not the case. First, NATO-Mazedonia relations provide a case in point. Macedonia was granted entry into the Membership Action Plan (MAP) in 1999 due to country’s strategic importance. Only after the Ohrid agreement, effective conditionality set in and marked a switch in NATO strategy from security only towards institution building. Second, this is supported by econometric evidence based on panel data. An event study reveals that entry into NATO’s accession process was mainly driven by neighbourhood and good relations with the West. We conclude that empirical evidence clearly supports a stronger role of NATO’s political agenda, i.e., low entry barriers but strict accession conditionality.     

Family Structure and Children’s Education Outcome: Evidence from Uruguay

As the developed world has experienced a shift away from the traditional two-biological parent family, scholars have sought to understand how children are faring in non-traditional homes. Debate has arisen over assertions that children from non-traditional families do less well in school. Concerns about selection issues as well as a paucity of cross-cultural evidence, have led some scholars to question the influence of family structure on educational attainment. Using data from the 2006 Uruguayan household survey, we evaluated the relationship of family structure with children’s education using two different methods to deal with selection problems, an instrumental variables approach and propensity score matching. Both approaches yield evidence that growing up in non-traditional family structures seems to be negative related with the schooling of Uruguayan boys, with more muted results for girls. Interestingly, Uruguay is a developing country with two peculiarities, that is, a culture that experienced fairly rapid modernization in terms of institutions—including family transition—especially compared with other South American nations, and meanwhile an intriguingly high level of school drop-out, unusually high for Uruguay’s overall level of development.     

Who should be considered ‘Indigenous’? A survey of ethnic groups in northern Thailand

On 22 May 2014, the Thai military conducted a coup d’état and discarded the previous constitution. In April 2015, a new draft constitution was prepared. Although eventually rejected by the military, it represented an exciting moment for activists, as it recognized the existence of ‘indigenous peoples’ (referred to as chon pheun muang in the draft). This prompted us to conduct interviews in 2015–2016 with people belonging to four different ethnic groups and living mainly in Chiang Mai province, northern Thailand: the Lua, Khon Muang, Hmong, and Lisu, in order to determine their understandings of who should be considered ‘indigenous peoples’, and what rights should they have. The findings indicate that there is considerable variation amongst people regarding the meaning of the term ‘indigenous peoples’; who should be considered indigenous; and what rights those defined as being indigenous should be entitled to.     

The Relationship Between Wife’s Education and Husband’s Earnings: Evidence from 1960 to 2000

Previous research finds a positive relationship between a wife’s education and her husband’s earnings using data from the 1960s. Earlier theories suggest that benefits accrue from informational sharing between partners in a marriage. This paper tests the hypothesis that a wife’s education is positively associated with her husband’s earnings, using data from the 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000 Censuses. Between 1960 and 2000, the educational attainment and labor-force participation of married women has increased dramatically. As women have embarked upon their own careers, has their education continued to be positively associated with their husbands’ earnings? Yes. The coefficient of the wife’s education remains positive and significant for all the years under study. The size of the coefficient decreases, however, from 1960 to 2000.     

‘If I were given the chance’: understanding the use of leisure time by adults with learning disabilities

Despite UK government policy emphasising the rights and choices of people with learning disabilities, opportunities to choose fulfilling leisure activities remain severely constrained. Following a brief literature review we present a co-inquiry study developing a deeper understanding of the persistent space between actual and desired use of leisure time. We explore the potential of the capability approach to aid understanding of learning disabled people’s constrained choices of leisure activities, and constrained roles as researchers, as matters of human rights and social justice.     

Is the basic life-cycle theory of consumption becoming more relevant? Evidence from Portugal

Review of Economics of the Household - In this paper we report and discuss estimates of life-cycle consumption profiles obtained using microdata for Portuguese households. The estimated profiles...     

Did the legalization of abortion increase women’s household bargaining power? Evidence from labor supply

I estimate the impact of abortion legalization on spouses’ labor supplies to test whether legalization increased women’s household bargaining power, in a collective household behavior framework. Based on CPS data, I find that wives’ labor supply decreased and their husbands’ increased, which is consistent with the bargaining hypothesis. This contrasts with most studies of abortion and birth control technologies, which predict a labor supply effect only for women, and of opposite sign. Also consistent with the bargaining interpretation, I estimate no significant impact on anti-abortion religious couples or on those who regularly used contraceptives. PSID data yield supportive evidence.

Parental Health Outcomes of Children’s Migration: Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia

This study uses experimental data from the United States Diversity-Visa (DV) lottery to explore the impact of migration of children on the sending parents’ health, helping to overcome the selection bias issue that plagues similar studies. Based on the inverted U-shaped relationship between BMI and longevity, the study finds that the health prospects of senders with BMIs under 25 increase weakly with migration, decreasing for those in the overweight category. In families with more educated fathers, migration improves the health status of the senders in all weight groups. Overall, it affects the emotional health of the senders adversely, but not in families which gain access to improved sanitation facilities due to migration. The most plausible explanations for this finding are that migration inflicts emotional costs on the senders due to separation from a family member, and that it potentially changes the senders’ perception of what constitutes good health.     

Children’s and parents’ time use: empirical evidence on investment in human capital in France,Germany and Italy

We model time allocation choices by youngsters into activities related to the acquisition of human capital: study time, but also socialization, which can enhance personal interaction skills. Using multi-member household time use micro data, we run fractional regression and double hurdle models, providing new empirical evidence for France, Germany and Italy on the link between time allocation by parents and by youngsters, a channel disregarded in the literature on parental investment in children. Our results on the association between parents’ and children’s time use are consistent with different mechanisms: parental role model, intergenerational transmission of preferences, or network effects.     

Women’s employment and the decline of home cooking: Evidence from France, 1985–2010

We here investigate the extent to which labour-market changes explain the decline in the time spent home cooking by married women in France between 1985 and 2010. Using time use data and Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions, we find that rising women’s employment and observed wages together account for about 60% of the fall in the time married women spent cooking. We then use a semi-parametric matching technique to construct an implicit wage rate, which better reflects the change in labour-market incentives that individuals face. The rise in women’s implicit wages explains no more than 20% of the decline in their cooking time, while the wage of their partner has no effect. Changing labour-market incentives are thus far from being the main driver of the decline in home-cooking. We also find evidence that home cooking continues to be structured by the gendered social norm of the “proper family meal”.     

Are social networking sites a source of online harassment for teens? Evidence from survey data

Media reports on incidences of abuse on the internet, particularly among teenagers, are growing at an alarming rate causing much concern among parents of teenagers and prompting legislations aimed at regulating internet use among teenagers. Social networking sites (SNS) have been criticized for serving as a breeding ground for cyber-bullying and harassment by strangers. However, there is a lack of serious research studies that explicitly identify factors that make teenagers prone to internet abuse, and study whether it is SNS that is causing this recent rise in online abuse or is it something else. This study attempts to identify the key factors associated with cyber-bullying and online harassment of teenagers in the United States using the 2006 round of Pew Internet™ American Life Survey that is uniquely suited for this study. Results fail to corroborate the claim that having social networking site memberships is a strong predictor of online abuse of teenagers. Instead this study finds that demographic and behavioral characteristics of teenagers are stronger predictors of online abuse.     

Does child care availability play a role in maternal employment and children’s development? Evidence from Italy

This paper investigates the effects of public child care availability in Italy in mothers’ working status and children’s scholastic achievements. We use a newly available dataset containing individual standardized test scores of pupils attending the second grade of primary school in 2009–2010 in conjunction with data on public child care availability. Our estimates indicate a positive and significant effects of child care availability on both mothers’ working status and children’s Language test scores. We find that a percentage change in public child care coverage increases mothers’ probability to work by 1.3 percentage points and children’s Language test scores by 0.85 percent of one standard deviation; we do not find any effect on Math test scores. Moreover, the impact of a percentage change in public child care on mothers’ employment and children’s Language test scores is greater in provinces where child care availability is more limited.