Household Debt and Marital Instability: Evidence from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study

Korean society has recently experienced rapid increases in household debt and divorce rates. This study investigates whether household debt and debt ratios lower marital stability and increase the probability of divorce among Korean families. Six-year panels from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) household surveys were used for analysis. The effect of household debt upon the probability of divorce was estimated through pooled and population-averaged Logit models. The results suggest that household financial strain measured by the amount of household debt and the debt-to-income ratios does not significantly affect the probability of divorce. This finding contradicts the widespread notion that households’ excessive borrowing has been partially responsible for the recent increase in divorce rates in Korea.

Consumer Debt Repayment Behavior as a Precursor to Bankruptcy

The passage of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) of 2005 culminated years of debate over the escalating number of bankruptcy filings and whether or not consumers were abusing the bankruptcy system. Our study focuses on the extent to which households seek bankruptcy protection without first attempting to restructure their debt or experiencing indicators of financial distress. Through multivariate regression analyses of longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we find a significant relationship between having prior financial problems and filing for bankruptcy. Our results also indicate that households that obtained consolidation loans were equally likely to file for bankruptcy as those that did not. We conclude that early interventions with financially distressed consumers may provide opportunities to reduce bankruptcy filings.

The scoring rules in an endogenous election

Plurality rule is mostly criticized from being capable of choosing an alternative considered as worst by a strict majority. This paper considers elections in which the agenda consists of potential candidates strategically choosing whether or not to enter the election. In this context, we examine the ability of scoring rules to fulfil the Condorcet criterion. We show for the case of three potential candidates that Plurality rule is the only scoring rule that satisfies a version of the Condorcet criterion in two cases: 1) when preferences are single-peaked and, 2) when preferences are single-dipped.

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Looking Beyond Retirement: Patterns and Predictors of Formal End-of-Life Planning Among Retirement Age Individuals

This study uses the 2004 wave of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study to examine the patterns and predictors of formal End-of-Life (EOL) planning strategies among retirement age individuals and whether EOL health and financial planning are highly correlated planning behaviors. Using logistic regressions and multinomial logistic regressions, findings show that EOL health plans appear to be done in combination with financial plans. Females, higher educated persons, and those with higher net worth are more likely to have integrated EOL plans containing both EOL health and EOL financial plans. It is suggested that policy makers, health and financial professionals, and educators concerned about the consequences of the absence of EOL health plans should facilitate the joint planning with finances, especially among those at higher risk of not having such plans (e.g., males, less educated persons, and those who have little net worth).

On the sustainability of bargaining solutions in family decision models

This paper analyses the sustainability of family bargaining agreements by developing a non-cooperative game between two spouses with symmetric preferences. To that end, we develop, by using a general utility function, a repeated non-cooperative game involving two players with symmetric preferences, where the characterization of a Nash sub-game perfect equilibrium allows us to demonstrate that the spouse with the greater bargaining power has a greater incentive to reach an agreement. This result is also reproduced by using a particular example of linear preferences in consumption. However, the influence of the bargaining power on the sustainability of a bargaining solution depends on the specification of the individual preferences, as well as the degree of altruism between the spouses.

Households’ precautionary behaviors—the effects of the introduction of National Health Insurance in Taiwan

By reducing risk of large out-of-pocket medical expenses, comprehensive social health insurance may reduce households’ motivation to engage in precautionary behaviors such as saving, procurement of private insurance, and spousal labor-force participation. We use the natural experiment provided by the 1995 introduction of National Health Insurance in Taiwan to examine these effects, using pre-existing differences in access to health insurance (tied to the household head’s and spouse’s joint employment status) to identify the effects of increasing insurance coverage. We find that comprehensive health insurance has a statistically significant and large effect on household savings, but no significant effects on purchase of private accident insurance and spousal employment.

“Family-Friendly” Fringe Benefits and the Gender Wage Gap

Evidence suggests a large portion of the gender wage gap is explained by gender occupational segregation. A common hypothesis is that gender differences in preferences or abilities explain this segregation; women may prefer jobs that provide more “family-friendly” fringe benefits. Much of the research provides no direct evidence on gender differences in access to fringe benefits, nor how provision affects wages. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we find that women are more likely to receive family-friendly benefits, but not other types of fringe benefits. We find no evidence that the differences in fringe benefits explain the gender wage gap.

The Impact of Age and Health on Vehicle Choices among Elders

We examine older Americans’ choice of vehicle types and the impact of age and health status on this choice. Using the 1998 and 2000 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the 2001 HRS Consumption and Activities Mail Survey (CAMS), we estimate a multinomial logit model of older Americans’ choice of vehicle types. We find that both age and health status influence the type of vehicle purchased or leased. Compared to Americans aged 50–59, those aged 70 or older prefer passenger cars to trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs). We also find that elders with health problems are more likely to prefer SUVs to passenger cars than those without health problems.

Do Forbearance Plans Help Mitigate Credit Card Losses?

In this paper, we examine how reinstated (i.e., re-aged) credit card accounts are likely to default again. Our sample data reveal that about 22% of the re-aged accounts default again, mostly in the first 24 months after reinstatement. We also find that a FICO score (public information) is a better predictor of a second default, while a payment behavioral score (private information) is a better predictor of a first default. Furthermore, the average FICO score of the 78% of the re-aged borrowers who did not default again rises about 20 points, an improvement in their relative risk profile overall. These findings suggest that the re-aging program provides a second chance for liquidity-constrained borrowers who would have otherwise defaulted on their debt.

Imagined interactions,family money management patterns and coalitions,and attitudes toward money and credit

This study explores the imagined interactions college students have with their parents about money and credit, their attitudes toward credit and money, the ways they say their parents deal with financial decisions, and the communication coalitions regarding finances they perceive existing within their family. Students’ imagined interaction pleasantness is greatest when parents jointly form a plan for paying off credit card debt and lowest when parents argue. When family coalitions exist, students report more frequent imagined interactions. Imagined interaction frequency and pleasantness are related to credit and money attitudes.

Does Consumer Sentiment Foretell Revolving Credit Use?

The rising level of consumer debt in the U.S. is well documented. Revolving credit (credit cards) has experienced this growth, with the level of outstanding revolving credit increasing by over 600% in inflation-adjusted dollars over the past three decades. The goal here is to gauge the extent to which consumer sentiment; namely, the University of Michigan Survey Research Center Index of Consumer Sentiment, has predictive power in explaining the aggregate use of revolving credit using time-series data. The results generally show that changes in the consumer sentiment measure are related to subsequent changes in revolving credit use.

Knowing Your Adversary: Israeli Structure of Political Opportunity and the Inception of the Palestinian Intifada

Social movement scholars have suggested that opportunity structures are not objective features of the world but must be constructed by social forces, including social movements. Here, we attempt to analyze how Palestinians living in the occupied territories constructed political opportunity during the run-up to the 1987 first Intifada. We analyze how the changing Israeli political opportunity structure affected Palestinians’ framing of the structural conditions they faced. In particular, we examine (1) how the consolidating Palestinian movement within the occupied territories built the capacity for a shared, collective framing of events, and (2) how the movement adapted a strategy based on its understanding of the opportunity presented by divisions in Israeli society concerning the occupation. Based on the analysis, we offer several insights into the Intifada's dynamics and trajectories.

The inverse plurality rule—an axiomatization

Under the ‘inverse plurality rule’, voters specify only their least preferred alternative. Our first result establishes that this rule is the only scoring rule that satisfies the minimal veto condition (MV). We then prove that the inverse plurality rule is characterized by MV and the four well known conditions that characterize scoring rules; namely, Anonymity (A), Neutrality (N), Reinforcement (RE) and Continuity (CO). Our new characterization result is related to the characterizations of approval voting and of the widely used plurality rule. We finally show how the axiomatization of the inverse plurality rule can be extended to the axiomatization of elementary scoring rules (vote for t-alternatives scoring rules). We are indebted to two anonymous referees for their most useful comments.

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Temporal Distributions of Crime and Disorder in Casino and Non-Casino Zones

Research on the relationship between casinos and crime has yielded mixed conclusions. Some authors argue that casinos are crime attractors and provide fertile grounds for disorder in the surrounding communities. Others claim that the impact of casinos on the crime problem has been over-stated and that casinos in themselves are not crime generators. Relying on calls for service and incidents known to the police, this research reveals the specific spatial and temporal characteristics of all criminal and disorderly behaviors around casino venues.

Camera-Related Behaviors during Video Recorded Medical Interactions

Video recording provides an objective record of the content of medical interactions. However, there is concern that cameras may be reactive measurement devices that alter what normally transpires during interactions. This study addressed potential reactivity of cameras in medical interactions. Interactions between 45 patients and 14 medical oncologists were video recorded and coded for camera-related behaviors. Eleven of 45 patients performed none of the behaviors. Among the other patients, camera-related behaviors were infrequent and, on average, constituted about 0.1% (one-tenth of one percent) of total interaction time. Behaviors occurred most often in very early stages of interactions, and when physicians were absent from the room. Seven physicians showed camera-related behaviors, comprising less than 0.1% of the time they were in the interaction. Results suggest video recording can provide nonreactive means of studying medical interactions.

Agreeing on more than chicken soup: Intra-household decision-making and treatment for child psychopathology

Using a large, U.S. dataset it is shown that children are more likely to receive needed mental health specialty treatment when women have greater decision-making power, as measured by an index of wife-favorable divorce laws and by the sex ratio at the time of marriage. Stratified analyses show that this effect is modified by the degree of marital conflict. Marriages characterized by high conflict conform more closely to the unified household model. The paper then presents a model of household decision-making consistent with these results that incorporates both objective determinants of bargaining power as well as the role of violent coercion in maintaining otherwise unsustainable equilibria. Implications for improving children’s access to mental health treatment are offered.

Changing College Students’ Financial Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior through Seminar Participation

This pilot study examined the influence of Credit Wise Cats, a financial education seminar presented by Students in Free Enterprise, on the attitudes, knowledge, and intentions toward financial responsibility of college students (N = 93). Findings suggest that the seminar effectively increased students’ financial knowledge, increased responsible attitudes toward credit and decreased avoidant attitudes towards credit from pre-test to post-test. At post-test, students reported intending to engage in significantly more effective financial behaviors and fewer risky financial behaviors. Finally, demographic factors (e.g., gender and employment status) predicted students’ financial knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. These results suggest that a seminar format may be useful in reaching a wider audience of college students and, thus, warrants future longitudinal evaluation.

Combining Stated and Revealed Preference Data to Construct an Empirical Examination of Intrahousehold Bargaining

Most analysis of intrahousehold decisions has been conducted using aggregate revealed preference data where preferences of individual agents are never observed, only the household consumption outcomes are observed. We examine household behavior in a bargaining framework by combining stated preference information from individual members of the household with revealed preference information on the household’s actual choices. The resulting model provides information on the degree to which the decision is the result of a bargaining process as well as information on the factors affecting bargaining power.

Alcohol-Influenced Nonverbal Behaviors During Discussions About a Relationship Problem

We examined the effect of alcohol intoxication on the display of nonverbal behaviors during discussions with dating partners about a relationship problem. Forty-four heterosexual dyads engaged in a 7-min conversation about a hypothetical infidelity. Males were randomly assigned to drinking condition (sober or .08 g/dl) and their behaviors were coded for behavioral expressivity, verbal expressivity, positive affect, and anxiety at 30 s and 3 min into the interaction. A series of 2 (drinking condition) × 2 (time) repeated measures analyses indicated that as time passed, drinkers nonverbally conveyed more agitation and less positivity, and consequently less pro-relational behavior. Further, drinkers showed more behavioral variability over time compared to their sober counterparts. The implications of these results for understanding alcohol-influenced communication in close relationships are discussed.

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.