Durkheim and pierce on suicide and economic change

This paper is an attempt to build upon Pierce's important finding, a confirmation of Durkheim, that any form of economic disruption or change increases suicide. In this paper, certain aspects of Pierce's method are criticized. The analysis of an expanded and updated data set, using analytic techniques designed for time-series data, suggests that economic disruption per se is not as relevant to the suicide rate as are economic hardship and economic deterioration or improvement.     

The Importance of Spousal Education for the Self-Rated Health of Married Adults in the United States

Education’s benefits for individuals’ health are well documented, but it is unclear whether health benefits also accrue from the education of others in important social relationships. We assess the extent to which individuals’ own education combines with their spouse’s education to influence self-rated health among married persons aged 25 and older in the United States (N = 337,846) with pooled data from the 1997–2010 National Health Interview Survey. Results from age- and gender-specific models revealed that own education and spouse’s education each share an inverse association with fair/poor self-rated health among married men and women. Controlling for spousal education substantially attenuated the association between individuals’ own education and fair/poor self-rated health and the reduction in this association was greater for married women than married men. The results also suggest that husbands’ education is more important for wives’ self-rated health than vice versa. Spousal education particularly was important for married women aged 45–64. Overall, the results imply that individuals’ own education and spousal education combine to influence self-rated health within marriage. The results highlight the importance of shared resources in marriage for producing health.     

Hopes and Fears: the Conflicting Effects of Risk Ambiguity

The Ellsberg Paradox documented the aversion to ambiguity in the probability of winning a prize. Using an original sample of 266 business owners and managers facing risks from climate change, this paper documents the presence of departures from rationality in both directions. Both ambiguity-seeking behavior and ambiguity-averse behavior are evident. People exhibit fear effects of ambiguity for small probabilities of suffering a loss and hope effects for large probabilities. Estimates of the crossover point from ambiguity aversion (fear) to ambiguity seeking (hope) place this value between 0.3 and 0.7 for the risk per decade lotteries considered, with empirical estimates indicating a crossover mean risk of about 0.5. Attitudes toward the degree of ambiguity also reverse at the crossover point.     

Discount rates and risky sexual behaviors among teenagers and young adults

This article examines the relationship between personal discount rates and sexual behaviors in a sample of teenagers and young adults. We find that higher discount rates (an indication of less willingness to forego current consumption for future consumption) are significantly associated with a range of sexual behaviors, including ever having sex, having sex before age 16 years, and past or current pregnancy. These associations are consistent with previous studies showing a link between discounting and other, non-sexual health behaviors. JEL Classification D80 · D90 · I10     

Strategic and Sincere Voting in a One‐Sided Election: The Canadian Federal Election of 1997*

Objective. We are interested in whether and how voters make strategic decisions in a race that is, according to the polls, expected to be very one sided. Looking specifically at the choices available to ideologically right‐of‐center voters in the 1997 Canadian federal election, we argue that strategic considerations will be filtered by voters' assessments of the competitiveness of the race both locally and nationally. Methods. We estimate logistic regression models measuring support for the two right‐of‐center Canadian political parties. Our models focus on the relationship between assessments of district‐ and national‐level party prospects on voting for the Progressive Conservative Party. Results. We find that voters who consider the race competitive emphasize district‐level data in their strategic calculations. However, those who consider the election to be all but over look more closely at national‐level concerns when deciding which right‐wing party to support. Conclusions. We conclude that earlier understandings of tactical voting should be updated to take into consideration the circumstances under which voters will use national‐level evaluations of relative party viability in casting their ballots.     

Access to Healthcare Among Working‐Aged Hispanic Adults in the United States*

Objectives. The purpose of this research is to examine differences in access to and sources of healthcare for working‐aged adults among major Hispanic subpopulations of the United States. Nativity, duration in the United States, citizenship, and sociodemographic factors are considered as key predictors of access to and sources of care. Methods. Using pooled National Health Interview Surveys from 1999–2001, logistic and multinomial logistic regression models are estimated that compare Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and other Hispanics with non‐Hispanic blacks and non‐Hispanic whites. Results. Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and other Hispanics display significantly less access to care than non‐Hispanics whites, with immigrant status and socioeconomic status variables accounting for some, but not all, of the differences. For sources of care, Mexican‐American, Puerto Rican, and other Hispanic adults were all much more likely than non‐Hispanic whites to report clinics or emergency rooms as their source of regular care. Conclusions. There are wide differences in access to and sources of care across racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Mexican‐American adults, regardless if born in Mexico or the United States, appear to be most in need of access to regular and high‐quality care. Naturalization may be an especially important factor in greater access to regular and high‐quality care for Hispanic immigrants.     

Altruism,the free rider problem and group size

This paper is a survey of recent theoretical work on the influence of group size, perceived effectiveness or noticeability of one's behavior on a group member's altruistic responses. Experiments on this problem are analyzed and evaluated, and problems for future research are outlined.This paper is a revised version of a paper originally presented at the March 1973 meetings of the Public Choice Society. In preparing this paper I have benefited from criticisms and suggestions made by a number of people and I wish to take this opportunity to thank them. Among them are John Bonin, Barry Groffman, Bob O'Gorman, Don Moon, George Reynolds and Harrison Wagner.