Does rapid economic growth improve the human lot? Some empirical evidence

Politicians and decision-makers in both developed and developing countries have sought to maximize economic growth on the basis of the belief that this leads to advances in the quality of life. This paper seeks to test whether this belief is well-founded. An application of the Diffusion Index to time-series data collected from a rapidly growing, low income country demonstrates that while higher national income makes for greater welfare the rate of welfare enhancement is almost independent of the rate of national income growth. On the basis of these findings, it is argued that the Gross National Product by itself may not be used as a reliable measure of human welfare. Finally, this paper suggests that in order to provide the maximum quality of life for the members of a given society, its national policy should be based on a much broader conception of welfare than is currently implied by the idea of GNP growthmanship.     

Stationary bootstrapping for panel cointegration tests under cross-sectional dependence

Stationary bootstrapping is applied to panel cointegration tests which are based on the ordinary least-squares estimator and the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) estimator of the residual unit root. Large sample validity of stationary bootstrapping is established. A finite sample experiment reveals that size performances of the bootstrap tests are much less sensitive to cross-sectional correlation than those of existing tests and a test based on the SUR estimator has substantially better power than existing tests.     

Self-perception of aging and health among older adults in Korea

The way that each individual perceives his or her own aging and health may be a key indicator of adaptation and well-being in old age. This study explored the determinants of self-perception of aging and health using 291 community-dwelling older adults in Korea (mean AGE=69.9). Older individuals with lower levels of education and economic status and various types of health problems (more chronic conditions, greater disability, poorer vision, and greater numbers of sick days) were found to have more negative self-perception of aging and health. In addition, a significant role of psychological factors was observed. For self-perception of health, sense of mastery was found to be a significant factor, and for self-perception of aging, neuroticism was observed to be significant along with sense of mastery. The mediating role of self-perception of health was supported that positive perception of health intervened the adverse effects of health problems on self-perception of aging. The findings demonstrate the important roles of psychological resources and subjective perceptions and suggest a need to consider them when planning interventions.     

Social Policy in South Korea: Cultural and Structural Factors in the Emergence of Welfare

There are a number of features that make South Korea an interesting place to study social policy. First, it has experienced rapid economic development with the associated changes in urbanization and demography. This change has created social problems, which the state has had to address. Second, the country retains a strong cultural tradition and repeated affirmation of the values and practices of Confucianism. In this paper, these two features are considered in relation to the way social policy has been addressed. The thrust of the paper will be on the policy responses to perceived social problems and the way in which other social problems are individualized within families. These policies are informed and shaped by Korean politics and culture.     

Kullback–Leibler information of a censored variable and its applications

In this paper, we study the Kullback–Leibler (KL) information of a censored variable, which we will simply call it censored KL information. The censored KL information is shown to have the necessary monotonicity property in addition to inherent properties of nonnegativity and characterization. We also present a representation of the censored KL information in terms of the relative risk and study its relation with the Fisher information in censored data. Finally, we evaluate the estimated censored KL information as a goodness-of-fit test statistic.     

DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR DESPERATE MEASURES: GOVERNMENT SPENDING MULTIPLIERS IN HARD TIMES

We investigate state-dependent effects of fiscal multipliers and allow for endogenous sample splitting to determine whether the U.S. economy is in a slack state. When the endogenized slack state is estimated as the period of the unemployment rate higher than about 12%, the estimated cumulative multipliers are significantly larger during slack periods than nonslack periods and are above unity. We also examine the possibility of time-varying regimes of slackness and find that our empirical results are robust under a more flexible framework. Our estimation results point out the importance of the heterogenous effects of fiscal policy and shed light on the prospect of fiscal policy in response to economic shocks from the current COVID-19 pandemic. (JEL C32, E62, H20, H62)     

Red states,blue states: How well do the recent national election labels capture state political and policy differences?

The alleged polarization between the so-called red (Republican) and blue (Democratic) states during the presidential elections has been examined using only voter surveys. Focusing on the recent thirteen national elections from 1964 to 2012, we examine social, political, institutional, and policy indicators of the 50 American states to (1) gauge the extent to which national election results reflect significant policy and political differences between the red and blue states and (2) to assess the explanatory power of the dichotomous red–blue label relative to a continuous variable of “redness” or “blueness” by the percentage of votes received. We find substantial political and some moderate social differences between red and blue states but fewer institutional and policy differences than one would expect if there were actually deep divisions between the states. We find that the red–blue state distinction performs well when compared to the explanatory power of the more precise redness or blueness of a state.     

Optimal consumption and portfolio selection with negative wealth constraints,subsistence consumption constraints,and CARA utility

We consider the optimal consumption and portfolio selection problem with constant absolute risk aversion (CARA) utility. The economic agent in this model receives constant labor income, and her economic behavior is restricted on consumption and wealth, which are called the subsistence consumption constraint and the negative wealth constraint. We use the convex duality method to derive the value function and the optimal policies in closed-form solutions. Also we illustrate some numerical examples.     

Cross‐Cultural Comparison of the Effects of Optimism,Intrinsic Motivation,and Family Relations on Vocational Identity

This study explored the effects of optimism, intrinsic motivation, and family relations on vocational identity in college students in the United States and South Korea. The results yielded support for the hypothesized multivariate model. Across both cultures, optimism was an important contributing factor to vocational identity, and intrinsic motivation partially mediated the link from optimism to vocational identity. In addition, family relations moderated the mediation effect of intrinsic motivation with American students but not Korean students. With Korean students, family relations moderated the direct link from optimism to vocational identity. These results have significant implications for counseling to promote vocational identity development for diverse college students.