Correlates of male and female juvenile offender abuse experiences

This paper reports the results of developing and evaluating a classification of 315 arrested youth processed at the Hillsborough County Juvenile Assessment Center from September 1, 1994 to January 31, 1998. Youth were characterized as physically or sexually abused if they reported abuse or if they had been referred to juvenile court for abuse. Stepwise logistic regression analysis revealed that family problems, friends' substance use, and delinquency involvement (marginally significantly related) were associated with both physical abuse and sexual victimization. In addition, physical abuse was associated with psychological problems and sexual victimization with being female, being older, and own substance use. The research implications of these results are discussed.     

Hold or sell? How capital gains taxation affects holding decisions

Investments with exit flexibility require decisions regarding both the investment and holding period. Because selling an investment often leads to taxable capital gains, which crucially depend on the duration of an investment, we investigate the impact of capital gains taxation on exit timing under different tax systems. We observed that capital gains taxation delays exit decisions but loses its decision relevance for very long holdings. Often the optimal exit time, which indicates the maximal present value of future cashflows, cannot be determined analytically. However, we identify the breakeven exit time that guarantees present values exceeding those of an immediate sale. While, after-taxes, an immediate sale is often optimal, long holding periods might also be attractive for investors depending on the degree of income and corporate tax integration. A classic corporate tax system often indicates holdings over more than 100 periods. By contrast, a shareholder relief system indicates the earliest breakeven exit time and thus the highest level of exit timing flexibility. Surprisingly, high retention rates are likely to accelerate sales under a classic corporate system. Additionally, the worst exit time, which should be avoided by investors, differs tremendously across tax systems. For an integrated tax system with full imputation, the worst time is reached earlier than under partial or non-integrated systems. These results could help to predict investors’ behavior regarding changes in capital gains taxation and thus are of interest for both investors and tax policymakers. Furthermore, the results emphasize the need to control for the underlying tax system in cross-country empirical studies.     

When it is better to give than to receive: Children's giving and happiness

Humans experience emotional benefits from engaging in prosocial behavior. The current work investigates factors that influence the experience of happiness from giving to others in early childhood. In three studies with 5-year-olds (N = 144), we find that young children are happier from giving resources to others than from receiving resources for themselves (Study 1) and investigate when children are most happy from giving. In Study 2, children were happier when they could see the beneficiary's positive reaction, suggesting that empathizing with the beneficiary's positive emotion contributes to happiness (consistent with the concept of vicarious-joy). In Study 3, children were happier after they gave resources than when they watched someone else give resources, indicating that being responsible for prosocial action contributes to children's happiness (consistent with the concept of warm-glow). These results provide a critical step toward understanding when children experience happiness from giving and a foundation for investigating happiness as a mechanism supporting early prosociality.