THE PROTESTANT FISCAL ETHIC: RELIGIOUS CONFESSION AND EURO SKEPTICISM IN GERMANY

During the European sovereign debt crisis, most countries that ran into fiscal trouble had Catholic majorities, whereas countries with Protestant majorities were able to avoid fiscal problems. We find that Christian‐conservative members of the German parliament from constituencies with higher shares of Protestants were more likely to vote against a third bailout for Greece. Survey data show that views on the euro differ between German Protestants and non‐Protestants at the individual level, too. Among Protestants, concerns about the euro have, compared to non‐Protestants, increased during the crisis. We show that this increase in concern is linked to a reduction of Protestants' subjective well‐being. We use the timing of survey interviews and news events in 2011 to account for the endogeneity of euro concerns. Emphasis on moral hazard concerns in Protestant theology may, thus, still shape economic preferences. (JEL D72, E00, I31, Z12)     

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AND RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES: EXAMINING THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS TRADITION AND PARTICIPATION

Typically the relationship between civic engagement and religion has been investigated using only basic measures of religious attendance or denomination. We utilize more detailed indicators of various types of religious participation and a more valid concept of religious traditions to examine the influence on civic engagement, finding that typical measures of religious attendance or denomination camouflage much of religion's influence. We show that while several religious traditions are positively related to civic engagement, being an Evangelical Protestant or Black Protestant is negatively related. The results also indicate that religious attendance reduces overall civic engagement, while other types of religious participation increase civic engagement. At the specific levels of civic engagement such as belong, contribute, volunteer, and lead, we find similar variations in religious traditions and types of religious participation. Our findings suggest that scholars often overlooked the importance of religious participation beyond religious attendance and reached conclusions regarding civic engagement that do not accurately describe religion's effects. Thus, we contend that attendance and religious tradition, while they may be important and should be included in analysis, should not be the sole, or even primary, focus.     

ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION AND WOMEN'S STATUS IN THE LABOR MARKET:

This study examines the effects of economic globalization on occupational sex segregation and occupational inequality. A theory of global economic restructuring and its impact on the quality of women's work suggests that national integration into the world economy significantly expands opportunities for women in the workplace but does not remove barriers to women's advancement or ameliorate the predominance of low-paying, menial jobs held by women. Two measures of gender occupational differentiation are employed as dependent variables in cross-sectional OLS regression analyses of fifty-six countries using data from 1970–1990. Results indicate that global economic forces reduce occupational sex segregation and inequality. However, these effects are determined by a country's world system position and region. The analyses illustrate that global economic restructuring is a gendered process that transforms and builds upon existing gender inequalities. Therefore, the inclusion of global structural characteristics into comparative research on occupational sex differentiation is essential.     

PRICE MATCHING AND THE DOMINO EFFECT IN A RETAIL GASOLINE MARKET

Using gasoline station price data collected eight times per day for 103 d for 27 stations in Guelph, Ontario, it is found that, consistent with an informal theory of competitive gasoline pricing, stations set prices to match a small number of other stations. However, these matched stations are not necessarily the closest. While retailers frequently respond to price changes within 2 h, many take considerably longer. Finally, while price decreases do ripple across the market like falling dominos, increases propagate across the city based more on geographic location and source of price control than on proximity to leaders of these increases. ( JEL L13, L40, L81)     

CONSTRAINED BY HOURS AND RESTRICTED IN WAGES: THE QUALITY OF MATCHES IN THE LABOR MARKET

This paper examines the explicit loss born by workers who face constraints in their working hours by analyzing differences in actual and desired hours and wages. Men tend to be underemployed while women are evenly split between over- and underemployment. Losses in surplus are generally small, but 10% of underemployed men and women experience losses of more than 34% or 50% of surplus, respectively. The loss measure is also an important determinant in predicting labor market transitions, meaning increases in surplus losses generate a higher probability of changing from workers' present jobs or changing the number of hours. ( JEL J22, J41)     

THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF RELIGIOUS INTEGRATION AND SUICIDE:

Recent research suggests that Durkheimian ideas on the impact of religious affiliation on suicide need to be updated and tailored to the modern cultural landscape of the United States. Following up on the importance of how historical context has shifted the integrative power of denominational networks, this article pursues the potential utility of a networks, perspective by suggesting that a significant contextual element has been neglected to date: Geographical context, both regional and rural-urban dimensions, also delimits the differential ability of religions to form a "community' of social support capable of integrating individuals. If the network approach provides a useful direction, the effects of religious affiliation across geographical areas should vary in a manner consistent with notions of how social structural opportunity and tradition (of lack thereof) affect religious network strength. Analyses of detailed suicide, religion, and sociodemographic data by region and population density in U.S. county groups do, in fact, indicate that for many major religious groups the effects of religious affiliation on suicide vary across geographical areas, consistent with network theory. For example, while Judaism's protective effect is small overall, it is large in the Northeast and reversed in the South. The protective strength also is reversed for Catholicism in the South and many Evangelical Protestant groups in the Northeast. Overall, the results suggest that region exerts a greater impact on religious affiliation effects than does population density, though the latter does impact on Catholic and Jewish effects.     

THE HAYEK HYPOTHESIS IN EXPERIMENTAL AUCTIONS: INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTS AND MARKET POWER

We report twelve market experiments utilizing a "seller market power" supply and demand structure where two of five sellers can unilaterally increase their profit by withholding supply. The data indicate that both the double auction and posted offer institutions result in traders extracting the bulk of the potential gains from exchange in the market; however, prices generally occur above the competitive equilibrium prediction. Market power in the form of strategic supply withholding does not appear to be responsible for the supra-competitive prices.     

RATIONALITY AND THE "RELIGIOUS MIND"

The social-scientific study of religion has long presumed that religious thought is "primitive," non-rational, incompatible with science, and (thus) doomed to decline. Contemporary evidence, however, suggests that religious involvement correlates with good mental health, responds to perceived costs and benefits, and persists in the face advanced education and scientific training. Although professors, scientists, and other highly educated Americans are less religious than the general population, the magnitude of this effect is similar to those associated with gender, race, and other demographic traits. Moreover, "hard" science faculty are more often religious than faculty in the humanities or social sciences. ( JEL Z10)     

SUPERSTITION IN THE HOUSING MARKET

We provide the first solid evidence that Chinese superstitious beliefs can have significant effects on house prices in a North American market with a large immigrant population. Using real estate data on close to 117,000 house sales, we find that houses with address number ending in “4” are sold at a 2.2% discount and those ending in “8” are sold at a 2.5% premium in comparison to houses with other addresses. These price effects are found either in neighborhoods with a higher than average percentage of Chinese residents, consistent with cultural preferences, or in repeated transactions, consistent with speculative behavior. (JEL D03, R2, Z1)     

AN EXAMINATION OF THE MARKET FOR FAVORS AND VOTES IN CONGRESS

This paper examines the strategies that "horse traders" and "power brokers" adopt in trading favors to pass legislation. Although the favors that they trade are generally impossible to observe, the paper develops a model that allows tests of favor trading. With data from the Senate vote on the Byrd Amendment to the 1990 Clean Air Act I conduct such a test. The test provides evidence that on this vote (i) favor trading occurred, (ii) the coalition leaders practiced price discrimination, and (iii) the coalition leaders did not collude with each another.     

THE DEMAND TO REGULATE FRANCHISE MONOPOLY: EVIDENCE FROM CATV RATE DEREGULATION IN CALIFORNIA

The motivation to price control a franchise monopoly is examined in the context of three distinct economic views of regulatory behavior. These views are tested against data from the California cable television market, over the years 1980–85, during which a subset of monopoly firms converted from regulated to unregulated pricing for basic cable service. As the price constraints of regulation appear to be insignificant in a welfare analysis, the demand for such controls by municipalities is derived from their utility in enforcing vote-maximizing transfer schemes–a Peltzmanian political outcome with a Stiglerian economic welfare result.     

THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF RELIGIOUS RESOURCES IN THE PREDICTION OF MATTERING TO OTHERS: AFRICAN AMERICAN AND WHITE CONTRASTS

The perception of mattering, defined as one's perceived significance to others, is likely influenced by the interpersonal and intrapersonal dimensions of religious faith. Using data from a community study conducted in Miami-Dade County, this study examines whether private and public aspects of religiosity are independently as well as mutually associated with perceptions of mattering, net of secular social resources. We also consider whether the availability of religious and secular resources varies by race/ethnicity, and whether such differences account for race/ethnic differences in perceptions of mattering. Findings demonstrate that private religiosity and membership in a religious organization, in addition to secular social support and integration, are independently associated with perceptions of mattering. Findings also reveal that, compared to Whites, the higher levels of mattering reported by African Americans are largely explained by their higher levels of private religiosity and greater likelihood of belonging to religious organizations and attending religious services.     

PRODUCTIVITY PERFORMANCE OF U.S. TRUNK AND LOCAL SERVCE AIRLINES IN THE ERA OF DEREGULATION

The transition to deregulation of the U.S. air transport industry began in 1976. In this paper we measure total factor productivity growth of the airlines for the first five years of the transition (1976–1980) and compare the performance with that of the preceding years. We find that productivity growth accelerated from 2.8% per year to 5.1% per year. An analysis of covariance model with individual airlines as observations leads to the conclusion that for the trunk airlines nearly all of the acceleration can be explained by increases in output and load factor and decreases in the growth of capacity. For the local service airlines, however, less than half of the acceleration may be so-explained.     

THE PHYSICIAN LABOR MARKET IN A MANAGED CARE-DOMINATED ENVIRONMENT

The belief that doctors respond to declining demand by treating patients more aggressively has created skepticism about relying on market forces to restructure physician supply. We argue that even if the physician labor market is dysfunctional under fee-for-service incentives, it can perform better as managed care becomes dominant. Our model implies a nonlinear effect of managed care penetration on incomes. Physicians can offset most or all of initial declines in demand, but cannot insulate themselves indefinitely. This may explain the observation that, until recently, the growth of managed care has not been accompanied by large physician income changes. ( JEL III, J31)     

THE RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE OF RAMADAN AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR

We investigate experimentally the impact on prosocial behavior of the religious observance of Ramadan. Our sample consists of male factory workers in a manufacturing facility in a Muslim country. In our between‐subjects' design, each worker is asked to allocate an amount of money between himself and a stranger. Specifically, we examine behavior of observants and nonobservants before and after the daily break of the Ramadan fast. We also examine behavior outside of Ramadan, where we treat alimentary abstention as akin to a long fasting period. We hypothesize and confirm that outside Ramadan, decision makers who abstain from any alimentary intake transfer less money to recipients relative to decision makers who do not abstain. Strikingly, this effect is reversed during the month of Ramadan. Specifically, observant workers who are in the midst of their Ramadan fast are far more generous to recipients than workers who have had their evening meal. Interestingly, observant and nonobservant workers after the daily break of the Ramadan fast and workers outside Ramadan that consumed aliments make statistically similar transfers. Our findings suggest that it is the interaction between alimentary abstention and religious observance that amplifies prosocial behavior during Ramadan, where fasting is part of the ritual. (JEL C91, C93, C72)     

THE ROLE OF HOSPITAL COMPETITION ON TREATMENT EXPENDITURE AND OUTCOME: EVIDENCE FROM STROKE AND CARDIAC TREATMENT IN TAIWAN

This article examines whether market competition affects treatment expenditure and health outcomes of stroke and cardiac treatment in Taiwan. Our measure of treatment expenditure is the hospital expenditure paid at the index admission (short term) and the sum of inpatient and outpatient expenditures paid in the subsequent year (long term). Our measure of health outcome is the probability of death in 1 and 12 months after the hospital's discharge. Our measure of competition follows the method developed by Kessler and McClellan that calculates the Herfindal index based on the predicted patient flows using exogenous variables (e.g., traveling distance to hospitals). Using data of patients hospitalized for new stroke and cardiac treatment between 1997 and 2001 in Taiwan, we find that an increase of market competition results in an insignificant impact on a patient's mortality. In terms of treatment expenditure, our results indicate that hospitals facing more competition incur higher expenditures, either the short‐ or long‐term expenditure. Finally, we find evidence showing that an increase of treatment expenditure at admission is due to a raise of length of stay and treatment intensity per day as well as the usage of expensive equipment. (JEL I11, L13, L41)     

GENDER AND PROSOCIAL VALUES DURING ADOLESCENCE: A Research Note

To date, relatively little is known about the prosocial values of adolescents. Research has shown that females attach more importance to certain prosocial values than males do in late adolescence but has not considered whether this gender difference is evident across stages of adolescence and whether it varies by race. We examine values that focus on doing things for others, using data from a nationwide survey of 12- to 17-year-olds. We find that girls place more importance on these prosocial values than boys at younger ages. However, we also find important patterns in this gender difference across racial groups as well as across age. White boys appear to attach less importance to prosocial values than other race and gender groups. Furthermore, the gender gap in prosocial values is larger at older ages, with older adolescent boys placing less importance on prosocial values than younger ones.