Food Banking and Food Insecurity in High-Income Countries

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Food banks are a particular type of voluntary sector organization that bridges the government sector, private sector, and...     

Effect of Financial Inclusion on Poverty and Vulnerability to Poverty: Evidence Using a Multidimensional Measure of Financial Inclusion

This study examines the effect of financial inclusion on poverty and vulnerability to poverty of Ghanaian households. Using data extracted from the seventh round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey in 2016/17, a multiple correspondence analysis is employed to generate a financial inclusion index, and three-stage feasible least squares is used to estimate households’ vulnerability to poverty. Endogeneity associated with financial inclusion is resolved using distance to the nearest bank as an instrument in an instrumental variables probit technique. Results showed that while 23.4% of Ghanaians are considered poor, about 51% are vulnerable to poverty. We found that an increase in financial inclusion has two effects on household poverty. First, it is associated with a decline in a household’s likelihood of being poor by 27%. Second, it prevents a household’s exposure to future poverty by 28%. Female-headed households have a greater chance of experiencing a larger reduction in poverty and vulnerability to poverty through enhanced financial inclusion than do male-headed households. Furthermore, financial inclusion reduces poverty and vulnerability to poverty more in rural than in urban areas. Governments are encouraged to design or enhance policies that provide an enabling environment for the private sector to innovate and expand financial services to more distant places. Government investment in, and regulation of, the mobile money industry will be a necessary step to enhancing financial inclusion in developing countries.

     

Trichotomic discounted utility

Theory and Decision - Recent evidence on intertemporal choice suggests that decision-makers may exhibit both increasing and decreasing impatience simultaneously, called inverse-S discounting. This...     

Delayed probabilistic risk attitude: a parametric approach

Theory and Decision - Experimental studies suggest that individuals exhibit more risk aversion in choices among prospects when the payment and resolution of uncertainty are immediate relative to...     

Toward a Fuller Understanding of Nonresident Father Involvement: An Examination of Child Support,In-Kind Support,and Visitation

The majority of studies of nonresident father involvement focus on either child support payments or visitation. However, nearly 60% of custodial parents receive in-kind (i.e., noncash) support of some form. Using data from a nationally representative sample of children with nonresident fathers (the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics), we simultaneously investigate via a trivariate probit model the relationships among three aspects of father involvement: child support, in-kind support, and visitation. We find that these dimensions of involvement are positively related and highly intertwined with the strongest positive relationship being between in-kind support and visitation. Additionally, these aspects of involvement have different sets of determinants. Economic characteristics of the resident household are more frequently associated with the receipt of child support, while demographic characteristics of the child, mother, father and resident household are related to all three aspects of nonresident father involvement. Generally speaking, when differences in impacts of determinants vary for lower and higher income resident families, the differences are related to the receipt of child support. Fewer differences are observed with regard to in-kind support receipt or with visitation. Our model also measures how unobserved factors are related to these facets of involvement. Most notable across income groups is that unobserved factors are positively related for child support and in-kind support receipt for higher income resident households. This relationship is insignificant for lower income resident households.     

Improving flight condition situational awareness through Human Centered Design

In aviation, there is currently a lack of accurate and timely situational information, specifically weather data, which is essential when dealing with the unpredictable complexities that can arise while flying. For example, weather conditions that require immediate evasive action by the flight crew, such as isolated heavy rain, micro bursts, and atmospheric turbulence, require that the flight crew receive near real-time and precise information about the type, position, and intensity of those conditions. Human factors issues arise in considering how to display the various sources of weather information to the users of that information and how to integrate this display into the existing environment. In designing weather information display systems, it is necessary to meet the demands of different users, which requires an examination of the way in which the users process and use weather information. Using Human Centered Design methodologies and concepts will result in a safer, more efficient and more intuitive solution. Specific goals of this approach include 1) Enabling better fuel planning; 2) Allowing better divert strategies; 3) Ensuring pilots, navigators, dispatchers and mission planners are referencing weather from the same sources; 4) Improving aircrew awareness of aviation hazards such as turbulence, icing, hail and convective activity; 5) Addressing inconsistent availability of hazard forecasts outside the United States Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ); and 6) Promoting goal driven approaches versus event driven (prediction).     

Weekend Work and Leisure Time With Family and Friends: Who Misses Out?

The authors explored links between weekend work and leisure time shared with partners, children, other resident/nonresident family, and friends, using the Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey 2006. Drawing a sample of employed persons (n = 3,903), they tested associations between weekend work and shared leisure time on the day of work and to see whether shared leisure time is made up on other days over the following week. Analyses were stratified by three family types: (a) couples without children, (b) couples with children, and (c) singles without children. For all groups, weekend work was associated with significantly less shared leisure time on days worked. Some weekend workers (e.g., part‐time employees, men) recouped some shared leisure time (notably with friends) over the following week, but most did not. Indeed, for some forms of shared leisure—most importantly, with partners and children—there were further negative associations on weekdays.