EXPONENTIAL‐GROWTH BIAS AND LIFECYCLE CONSUMPTION

Exponential‐growth bias (EGB) is the tendency for individuals to partially neglect compounding of exponential growth. We develop a model wherein biased agents misperceive the intertemporal budget constraint, and derive conditions for overconsumption and dynamic inconsistency. We construct an incentivized measure of EGB in a US‐representative population and find substantial bias, with approximately one third of subjects estimated as the fully biased type. The magnitude of the bias is negatively associated with asset accumulation, and does not respond to a simple graphical intervention.     

Identifying Treatment Effects Under Data Combination

We consider the identification of counterfactual distributions and treatment effects when the outcome variables and conditioning covariates are observed in separate data sets. Under the standard selection on observables assumption, the counterfactual distributions and treatment effect parameters are no longer point identified. However, applying the classical monotone rearrangement inequality, we derive sharp bounds on the counterfactual distributions and policy parameters of interest.     

Determining person–organization fit for healthcare CEOs: How executive equity sensitivity relates to nonprofit and for‐profit sector selection

This article empirically examines the relationship between the trait of equity sensitivity and employment sector (for‐profit, public, and nonprofit) for senior executives. By controlling for industry (healthcare), we show a relationship between this trait and employment sector in both a single‐state survey and a multistate survey. Findings indicate that benevolents have a propensity to pursue nonprofit positions whereas entitleds are likely to gravitate toward for‐profit positions. Implications for job seekers, employers, and academics are provided.     

Lost in transition: Illicit substance use and services receipt among at-risk youth in the child welfare system

This study examined the use of mental health and substance abuse services among adolescents in the child welfare system (CWS) who reported use of illicit substances. 1004 adolescents age 11–15 years at baseline were followed for 5–7 years, over five waves of data collection. Shortly after the investigation for maltreatment (baseline), 69.1% of youths using illicit substances received mental health and/or substance abuse outpatient specialty services. By the last follow-up, during the transition to adulthood, only 21.5% of young adults using illicit substances received outpatient specialty services. Youth who used illicit substances were more likely to receive outpatient and inpatient specialty services than non-users at the time of contact with the CWS (mostly baseline), but this difference faded over the follow-up period. By 5–7 years follow-up, there was no significant difference in specialty services receipt for illicit substances users versus non-users. Predictors of outpatient service use at most waves were having Medicaid, mental health needs, and having recently seen a school counselor or primary care physician. Among illicit substance users transitioning to adulthood, African American youths were less likely to receive outpatient specialty services than White youths. These findings reveal a need for more attention to illicit substances use among youth in the CWS, better cross agency integration, and special attention to the needs of transition-age youth to better connect them with services as they age out of the CWS.     

Job demands and work ability at older ages

Workers' ability to delay retirement depends partly on the demands of their jobs. Matching occupational characteristics from the Occupational Information Network to Current Population Survey respondents, this study finds that 7% of American workers held highly physically demanding jobs in 2006 and 35% held highly cognitively demanding jobs. The share of the workforce in physically demanding jobs fell by about one-sixth between 1971 and 2006, while the share in cognitively demanding jobs increased by more than one-third. The decline in physically demanding occupations will likely improve employment prospects for older adults, but the growth in cognitive demands may limit options for some older workers.     

Pediatric vaccine procurement policy: The monopsonist's problem

Vaccination against infectious disease is an extremely important public health endeavor. Yet, in the past 40 years, the manufacture of pediatric vaccines has become less profitable due to rising costs and limited demand, inducing many pharmaceutical companies to leave the market. To ensure the safe, secure, and reliable provision of vaccines, the economic interests of the vaccine industry must be considered by public health policy makers. The monopsonistic market power of the federal government uniquely positions it to significantly influence the pediatric vaccine market by negotiating contractual agreements that increase the vaccine manufacturers’ financial incentives to remain in the market. The Monopsonist Vaccine Formulary Pricing and Purchasing Problem (MVF3P) is introduced, which seeks pediatric vaccine prices and purchase quantities that ensure a birth cohort is fully immunized according to the recommended childhood immunization schedule at an overall minimum system cost while also ensuring that vaccine manufacturers each attain a reservation profit level. The practical value of MVF3P is demonstrated by analyzing and assessing pricing and purchasing policies that the Centers for Disease Control could adopt in attempting to actively manage the long-term provision of pediatric vaccines.     

On the parameterized complexity of the Multi-MCT and Multi-MCST problems

The comparison of tree structured data is widespread since trees can be used to represent wide varieties of data, such as XML data, evolutionary histories, or carbohydrate structures. Two graph-theoretical problems used in the comparison of such data are the problems of finding the maximum common subtree (MCT) and the minimum common supertree (MCST) of two trees. These problems generalize to the problem of finding the MCT and MCST of multiple trees (Multi-MCT and Multi-MCST, respectively). In this paper, we prove parameterized complexity hardness results for the different parameterized versions of the Multi-MCT and Multi-MCST problem under isomorphic embeddings.     

The U.S. Forest Service and Its Responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act: A Work Design Problem

The U.S. Forest Service’s responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act entail a wide range of activities including scoping, scientific analysis, social and economic analysis, managing public input and involvement, media relations, regulatory analysis, and litigation. These myriad duties raise several important organizational and management questions. First, is the U.S. Forest Service capable of discharging these widely varying tasks with high levels of effectiveness and efficiency? To what extent should these activities be outsourced to private contractors or other providers? For those responsibilities retained in-house, what organizational structure best supports their effective and efficient execution? To address these questions, this article draws on concepts from new institutional economics and insights from the privatization and strategic organizational design literatures.