Decriminalization of marijuana and the demand for alcohol, marijuana and cocaine

This study examines whether the decriminalization of marijuana in eleven states has affected self-reported usage of drugs. Generally, decriminalization is not found to significantly impact drug use. An implication is that the demand for drugs is highly inelastic with respect to incremental changes in the legal sanctions for possession of small amounts of marijuana.     

Excluded losses and the demand for insurance

The demand for insurance is examined when the insured asset can incur losses that are excluded from insurance coverage. These losses are negatively correlated with covered losses and hence cannot be treated as background risk. Excluded losses have strikingly different effects on the demand for insurance than does background risk and lead to a modification of many standard insurance demand results. A number of new theorems concerning the effects of excluded losses are also presented. Risk-averse and prudent decision makers reduce their demand for insurance when excluded losses increase in size or riskiness. Excluded losses are a possible explanation for why many decision makers fail to take up insurance when it is offered.     

Uncertain indemnity and the demand for insurance

This paper considers the demand for insurance in a model with uncertain indemnity. Uncertain indemnity tends to increase the demand for insurance for precautionary reasons, but it also tends to decrease the demand due to the risk created by indemnity uncertainty. When the coefficient of relative prudence is not too large, uncertain indemnity reduces the demand for insurance and partial coverage is optimal even at actuarially fair premiums. In addition, insurance may be an inferior good or a normal good, depending on the behavior of absolute risk aversion and the magnitude of the coefficient of relative risk aversion.     

Ambiguous life expectancy and the demand for annuities

In this paper, ambiguity aversion to uncertain survival probabilities is introduced in a static life-cycle model with a bequest motive to study the optimal demand for annuities. Provided that annuities’ return is sufficiently large, and notably when it is fair, positive annuitization is known to be the optimal strategy of ambiguity neutral individuals. Conversely, we show that the demand for annuities decreases with ambiguity aversion and that there exists a finite degree of aversion above which the demand is non-positive: the optimal strategy is then to either sell annuities short or to hold zero annuities if the former option is not available. To conclude, ambiguity aversion appears to be a relevant candidate for explaining the annuity puzzle.     

The choice axiom,revealed preference,and the theory of demand

The paper relates the classical economic theory of consumer demand to Luce's well-known general theory of choice behaviour. After discussing some fundamental similarities between the two theories, a simplified variant of Luce's probabilistic theory is used as an aid to construct, by analogy, a generalization of the classical theory of demand. In the light of Luce's theory it is then examined in what sense the representative demand of the uncertain consumer will coincide with the demand that maximizes utility, and in what sense it will coincide with classical demand.     

A Diamond-Stiglitz approach to the demand for self-protection

The existing research concerning the relationship between risk aversion and prudence and the demand for self-protection assumes that the loss variable follows a Bernoulli distribution, and that changes in the level of self-protection are mean preserving. The analysis here replaces these two very strong conditions with ones which are more general. When doing this, the method of analysis is also significantly modified. This modification includes representing a change in the level of self-protection using the procedure developed by Diamond and Stiglitz (Journal of Economic Theory 8:337-360, 1974) for representing a change in risk. This alternate representation allows the existing findings to be generalized considerably, and also simplifies the analysis.     

On risk aversion,classical demand theory,and KM preferences

Building on Kihlstrom and Mirman (Journal of Economic Theory, 8(3), 361–388, 1974)’s formulation of risk aversion in the case of multidimensional utility functions, we study the effect of risk aversion on optimal behavior in a general consumer’s maximization problem under uncertainty. We completely characterize the relationship between changes in risk aversion and classical demand theory. We show that the effect of risk aversion on optimal behavior depends on the income and substitution effects. Moreover, the effect of risk aversion is determined not by the riskiness of the risky good, but rather the riskiness of the utility gamble associated with each decision.     

Oil prices,stock market returns and volatility spillovers: Evidence from Turkey

This paper examines the relationship between crude oil prices and stock market returns in Turkey taking into account volatility spillovers that are exemplified by second moment effects. Using weekly data from 1990 to 2017 and time varying causality-in-mean and causality-in-variance tests and taking into account structural breaks, we model each series as an EGARCH process in order to capture any leverage effects in the volatility of returns. Empirical results suggest crude oil prices as measured by Brent benchmark have significant effects on stock market returns in Turkey. While we fail to document significant spillover effects stemming from oil prices in the entire sample, there are significant spillover effects from crude oil price changes to stock market returns in 1993 and 2008–09. These results suggest that government policies must take into account risk spillover effects between markets and that investors are better off monitoring crude oil markets in portfolio allocation decisions.     

The volatility of the socially optimal level of investment

In this paper, an annual series for the socially optimal level of investment from 1960–1961 to 1993–1994 for Australia is derived from a vintage production function and compared to the actual series for investment over the same period. The vintage production function can be expected to yield a smoother socially optimal investment series than that derived from a nonvintage, homogenous capital production function. Even so, the resulting series for socially optimal investment is much more volatile than the series for actual investment. Several alternative assumptions are tried in an attempt to further smooth the socially optimal investment series. These include smoothing the assumed values of the exogenous variables, modelling adjustment costs and delivery lags, and changing the form of the production function. While these approaches do succeed in smoothing the investment series, in order for the socially optimal investment series to be as smooth as the actual series the assumed values of the parameters must be quite unrealistic. In the conclusion, we suggest that, in the future research on the socially optimal level of investment, the role of liquidity constraints and of irreversible investment should be investigated.     

大学生诚信缺失的原因与对策

大学生诚信缺失表现在思想、学习、生活等方面,不仅反映了当前大学生令人担忧的思想道德状况,同时折射出高校思想道德教育的不足。导致大学生诚信缺失的主要原因有社会消极因素的影响、学校教育的失误、制度建设的缺失等。在分析当前大学生诚信缺失的表现和原因的基础上,提出要重建大学生诚信道德,必须从以下几个方面着手:营造良好的社会信用环境,加强大学生诚信道德教育,发挥教师的诚信典范作用,建立大学生个人信用档案,从而将诚信道德教育和建设真正落到实处,切实提高当代大学生的诚信道德品质。     

The distinctive features of women in the Australian bankruptcy system: An empirical study

According to data published by Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA), Australian women and men offer strikingly similar reasons for their entry into bankruptcy. Yet a more detailed analysis of AFSA's data indicates that women and men often go bankrupt in very different social and economic circumstances. This empirical study draws upon a unique dataset, obtained from AFSA, containing the de‐identified records of more than 28,000 individuals. It also draws upon a series of focus groups with the staff of three nonprofit organisations, including financial counsellors and consumer solicitors. It finds that, in general, women in bankruptcy are likely to be economically disadvantaged, relative to men, as measured by income, access to wages, reliance on government benefits, real estate ownership and utilities debt. It also finds that women in bankruptcy are much more likely than men to be single with dependants and that these women experience a greater degree of gendered disadvantage than other women in the bankruptcy system.     

Estimating the demand for risky assets via the indirect expected utility function

This article obtains demand functions for risky assets without making a priori assumptions about the form of the utility function. In a simple portfolio model, the envelope theorem is applied to the indirect expected utility function to derive estimating equations. Tests for the existence of constant absolute or constant relative risk aversion are also developed. Empirical estimation of the demand for financial assets held by U.S. households for the period 1946–1985 indicates that aggregate household behavior is consistent with the existence of constant relative risk aversion, with the coefficient of risk aversion having a value of approximately 1.3.The authors gratefully acknowledge helpful comments from the editor and an anonymous referee.     

Political demand and policy advice: a framework for analysis

ABSTRACT

In the policy advice literature, there has been two main “waves” of research focus. In the first wave, the focus of scholarly attention tended to focus on single policy advice actors. A key innovation was offered by Halligan, who sought to frame policy advice within a policy advisory system, with a focus on government control and location. In later research, Craft and Wilder called for a “second wave” of research which also sought to integrate factors such as policy content, context, ideational compatibility but also reflect the increasingly polycentric advice landscape. This article contributes to the second wave drawing attention to a key element of the institutional dynamics of policy advice systems, namely the issue of political “demand”. A core argument offered in this article is that the dynamics of demand need to be interrogated more fully, and be given greater prominence in current understandings of PAS dynamics. The net effect of marginalizing “demand” factors is that it can de-politicize the extent and nature of advice-giving, and reduce it to a seeming technocratic exchange. To expand our understanding of demand, this paper offers a framework for understanding the dynamics of demand within policy advice systems.     

Loss and Recovery

Relationships whose loss triggers grief are termed "relationships of attachment." These relationships are pair-bond relationships, parental attachments to children, transference relationships to helpers, and persisting childlike attachments to parents. Because these relationships share significant characteristics, it is proposed that they are developments of a single socio-emotional system—the attachment system of children. This point of view permits a unified treatment of a number of topics, including the threats that elicit attachment emotions and behaviors, the impact of loss, the nature and course of recovery from loss, impediments to recovery, and the forms taken by failures to recover.     

Inflation and aggregate demand shocks

This paper derives and estimates a small general equilibrium model under the assumptions of imperfect competition and translog technology to simulate the impact of shifts in aggregate demand on prices. The simulations suggest that demand expansions are deflationary. This result challenges the common perception that the dynamic aggregate supply schedule is upward sloping.     

Metagovernance,political demand and policy advice: a case from Brazil

ABSTRACT

There has been a call for a “second wave” of scholarship on policy advice to expand our understanding of the relational dynamics within a policy advisory system (PAS). In this article, we use a case from Brazil to address two key gaps in the PAS literature – the lack of attention to systems of network governance and the current predominance of “Westminster” empirical cases. To better understand the impact of policy advice within a system of networked governance, we apply the frame of “metagovernance” – the steering of governance networks. We then introduce and employ the concepts of funnelling, political brokering and gate-keeping to better understand how policy advice is shaped, modified and then either rejected or accepted. The contribution of the article is that, while much of the existing PAS literature describes the contours and key actors within an advisory system, we develop new conceptual scaffolding to better understand the trajectories and impact of policy advice, and the interplay between actors and agents, within a broader system of metagovernance.     

Democratic demand for a social Europe? Preferences of the European citizenry

Within the literature on European integration there is a widespread assumption that Europe is in need of intensified and more effective supranational social policy cooperation. However, on the political level it is doubtful whether such measures are welcomed by the national electorates. This article addresses this issue empirically by asking whether there is public demand for promoting greater European welfare policy cooperation and what are the determinants of such a demand. The data source used is the Eurobarometer survey 2000. A number of hypotheses dealing with socio-structural differences, the effects of welfare regime types, the subjective evaluation of the integration process and the role of identity will be scrutinised. Overall, the results indicate that at the attitudinal 'grass root' level there is no unequivocal support for a European welfare responsibility and that some fundamental cleavages are present. It is the regional and cultural aspects, especially, which turn out to be having an effect and to be influencing future political conflicts. A common European welfare arrangement, therefore, cannot be regarded as a solution to the problems the European Union is facing; rather it will raise new and severe problems of finding social and political support.