Child support and non-resident fathers’ contact with their children

The paper presents a model of a non-resident father’s child support and contact with his child, which combines the public good treatment of “child quality” with “trade” in father–child contact time in a setting of non-cooperative interaction. It predicts that father’s income and mother’s non-labour income should have exactly the same effect on the frequency of father–child contact if he chooses to make lump sum payments to the mother. If he does not or there is a binding child support payment order, they have effects opposite in direction. A higher binding support order reduces father–child contact but may well raise “child quality”.

Does parents’ valuation of children’s health mimic their valuation of own health?

A single latent variable model of health status and therapeutic health care utilization is estimated for parents and own children of 6,557 US households. The equation system that identifies latent health status simultaneously determines a number of indicators of general health, including presence of morbidity symptoms, mobility limitations, medication needs, and utilization of therapeutic health care services. The main goal of the paper was to obtain an unbiased estimate of parents’ marginal substitution rate between own and child health. Results indicate that parents’ valuation of their children’s health exceeds their valuation of own health by almost twofold on average.

A longitudinal analysis of the impact of health shocks on the wealth of elders

We investigate the impact of health shocks on wealth, using all four waves of the Health and Retirement Study, and estimate not only the short-term effect but also the long-term effect of health shocks on wealth of the elderly. We find that new health events lower wealth in elders during the period in which such health shocks occur, but the impact tends to disappear over time. We also find that health shocks result in greater wealth depletion when they occur later in life. Together with existing health problems, the overall impact of health problems on wealth increases over time.

Nonmarket networks among migrants: evidence from metropolitan Bangkok,Thailand

This paper examines the nonmarket interactions among migrants in the urban labor market of Bangkok, Thailand. We test whether the population size and the labor-market performance of previous migrants have externalities to new migrants who have moved from the same province of origin. Our empirical results, which control origin fixed effects, time fixed effects, and origin- and year-specific correlated shocks, show that (1) the relative population size of previous migrants in the market decreases the employment probability of new migrants (substitution effect), (2) the employment probability of previous migrants increases that of new migrants (positive externalities), and (3) when the employment probability of previous migrants is high, however, the scale effect becomes positive, which demonstrates a threshold in the informational scale economies. The results imply that positive informational scale effect dominates negative substitution effect when the efficiency of previous migrants is sufficiently high in the destination labor market.

Age at marriage and marital instability: revisiting the Becker–Landes–Michael hypothesis

An early age at first marriage is known to be associated with a high risk of divorce. Yet, it has been suggested that beyond a certain point, the relationship between age at marriage and marital instability may become positive because as unmarried women begin to hear their biological clock tick, they may settle for matches far from the optimal. Analyses based on cycles 5 and 6 of the National Surveys of Family Growth show that the relationship between age at marriage and marital instability is strongly negative up to the late 20s, with a flattening of the curve thereafter.

The importance of being mature: the effect of demographic maturation on global per capita GDP

Given that savings behaviour and worker productivity have strong life-cycle components and given that demographic profiles vary across countries, population age structure should be linked to differences in levels of economic development. In this paper, we measure the economic importance of age structure variation for the global economy. We find that demographic maturation has been associated with nearly half of the evolution of global per capita GDP since 1960. We also find that age structure differences can account for just over half of the variation in worldwide per capita GDP (i.e. the lack of sigma convergence) observed since 1960.

Immigration: Not a Solution to Problems of Population Decline and Aging

Population and Environment - This article is a synopsis of a UN study, with emphasis on Italy and the United States. In March, 2000, the United Nations Population Division published a 143-page...     

Education and survival: Birth cohort,period, and age effects

Previous studies have found that educational differences in mortality are weaker among the elderly. In this study I examine whether either cohort or period effects may have influenced the interpretation of age effects. Six 10-year birth cohorts are followed over 30 years through decennial censuses. Differential survival is inferred from changes in the relative proportions of a cohort in each education category as the cohort ages. In cross-section, younger persons generally show stronger education effects on survival, although this pattern is clearer for women than for men. There is evidence of period effects. Within cohorts, relative survival tends to increase with age.     

A Warning Zone Method for the Multiperiod Cost Variance Investigation Problem

This paper develops a warning zone approach to make variance investigation decisions for a multiperiod process. The assumed cost generation process varies between an in-control and out-of-control state. These states cannot be directly observed, but must be inferred from the reported cost variances. Using the warning zone method of inference, the manager investigates the process whenever an upper threshold is exceeded or a lower threshold is exceeded for two consecutive periods. A four-state Markov chain models the resulting decision process. Steady state probabilities are derived for this chain and are used to obtain explicit formulas for the effectiveness and efficiency of the decision process. These formulas permit computation of the cost savings attainable by the warning zone method. Compared to other decision rules, the warning zone method is much simpler than the theoretically optimal Bayesian revision method, but uses more information than the Markovian control limit method. Numerical comparison of results shows that the warning zone method usually captures most of the available cost savings, even in cases where the Markovian control limit method does not perform well.