Tax Structure and Female Labour Supply: Evidence from Ireland

How great an effect does the structure of income taxes have on female labour supply? This issue is investigated using a discrete‐choice static labour supply model for married couples in Ireland. The model incorporates fixed costs of working and simultaneously explains participation decisions and preferred hours of work. The model is estimated using data from the 1994 wave of the Living in Ireland Survey. Simulations examine the labour supply effects of introducing greater independence in the tax treatment of married couples, compared with an income‐splitting system, and alternative forms of tax cuts.     

The natural index and the divisia index on the straight line as well as the divisia index on the exponential line

In earlier papers the Divisia index on the straight line was called natural index. Representing the index problem in the 2n-dimensional quantity-price-space, it is now proposed to call natural index the limit of stepwise products of Laspeyres' , Paasche's or Edgeworth-Marshall s indices, if the steps approximate the straight line between the base point and the observed point. The numerical results of successive finer approximations of the natural index are illustrated by some examples. As expected these approximations converge to the value of the Divisia index on the straight line. The same approximation procedure is applied to the Divisia index on the exponential line.     

Minimum chi-square estimator and test for incomplete multidimensional contingency tables

A modified transformed chi-square statistic is defined for testing hypotheses of quasi-independence in the incomplete multi-dimensional contingency table and a simple method for determining degrees of freedom is given. A modified transformed chi-squareestimator of the expected cell frequencies is given in closed form for a general class of exact linear constraints. The co-variance matrix of estimated cell frequencies is derived under the assumption of a conditional Poisson distribution.     

On the distribution of products of independent beta variates

This paper concerns an inquiry into the problem of generating closed form expressions for the cumulative distribution and probability density functions of products of independent beta variates. Recursive analytical procedures for constructing the equational forms of these functions-from their Mellin inversion integral representations, via the Cauchy residue theorem-are described. A numerical example illustrating details of the construction of a computable form of the distribution function of the product of three independent beta variates is also included.     

Tests for the umbrella alternative under normality

Consider a one-way layout of the analysis of variance assuming independence, normality, and homogeneity of variance. Test the null hypothesis H_o that the means, j., of each of Amp; columns, i = 1,…, k are equal versus the alternative that they follow an umbrella pattern. That is, the alternative is H₁-H₀ where H₁: μ₁> μ₂>… > μk, and m is known. We derive a class of tests which are unbiased and lie in a nontrivial complete class. We recommend specific tests within the class. A simulation of the power functions of some tests is contrasted with the simulated power function of the likelihood ratio test.     

Compassionate Values and Presidential Politics: Mortality Salience, Compassionate Values, and Support for Barack Obama and John McCain in the 2008 Presidential Election

In line with terror management theory, this research demonstrates that mortality salience motivated increased support for John McCain in the absence of reminders of compassionate values. However, polls had indicated that Barack Obama was generally perceived as the more compassionate of the two candidates. Thus, when compassionate values were made salient, death reminders motivated participants to uphold these values by significantly increasing their support for the more compassionate Barack Obama instead. The implications of these findings for terror management theory, the 2008 presidential election, and political endorsements are discussed .     

Large-scale kernel methods for independence testing

Representations of probability measures in reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces provide a flexible framework for fully nonparametric hypothesis tests of independence, which can capture any type of departure from independence, including nonlinear associations and multivariate interactions. However, these approaches come with an at least quadratic computational cost in the number of observations, which can be prohibitive in many applications. Arguably, it is exactly in such large-scale datasets that capturing any type of dependence is of interest, so striking a favourable trade-off between computational efficiency and test performance for kernel independence tests would have a direct impact on their applicability in practice. In this contribution, we provide an extensive study of the use of large-scale kernel approximations in the context of independence testing, contrasting block-based, Nyström and random Fourier feature approaches. Through a variety of synthetic data experiments, it is demonstrated that our large-scale methods give comparable performance with existing methods while using significantly less computation time and memory.     

Discounting health and money: New evidence using a more robust method

This study compares discounting for money and health in a field study. We applied the direct method, which measures discounting independent of utility, in a representative French sample, interviewed at home by professional interviewers. We found more discounting for money than for health. The median discount rates (6.5% for money and 2.2% for health) were close to market interest rates, suggesting that at the aggregate level the direct method solves the puzzle of unrealistically high discount rates typically observed in applied economics. Constant discounting fitted the data better than the hyperbolic discounting models that we considered. The substantial individual heterogeneity in discounting was correlated with age and occupation.     

Combinatorially composing Chebyshev polynomials

We present a combinatorial proof of two fundamental composition identities associated with Chebyshev polynomials. Namely, for all m,n?0$m,n?0$, _Tm(_Tn(x))=_Tmn(x)$T_m(T_n(x))=T_{\mathit{mn}}(x)$ and _Um−1(_Tn(x))_Un−1(x)=_Umn−1(x).$U_{m-1}(T_n(x))U_{n-1}(x)=U_{\mathit{mn}-1}(x).$