DISCOUNTING,COGNITION, AND FINANCIAL AWARENESS: NEW EVIDENCE FROM A CHANGE IN THE MILITARY RETIREMENT SYSTEM

The choice given military personnel between an immediate cash payment of $30,000 or a more generous retirement pension permits us to estimate individuals' personal discount rates (PDRs). The resulting PDRs, about 7% for enlisted personnel and 2%–4.3% for officers, are precise and are correlated with a variety of other financial behaviors. The PDR is negatively related to educational attainment and the Armed Forces Qualification Test, but cognition seems to operate through channels other than being better informed; better‐informed individuals were not always measured to be more patient. (JEL D91, D14)     

Synergistic effect of social support and self-efficacy on physical exercise in older adults

The purpose of the current study was to examine whether the effects of social support on physical exercise in older adults depend on individual perceptions of self-efficacy. Three hundred nine older German adults (age 65-85) were assessed at 3 points in time (3 months apart). In hierarchical-regression analyses, support received from friends and exercise self-efficacy were specified as predictors of exercise frequency while baseline exercise, sex, age, and physical functioning were controlled for. Besides main effects of self-efficacy and social support, an interaction between social support and self-efficacy emerged. People with low self-efficacy were less likely to be active in spite of having social support. People with low support were less likely to be active even if they were high in self-efficacy. This points to the importance of both social support and self-efficacy and implies that these resources could be targets of interventions to increase older adults' exercise.     

Market-based Governance and the Challenge for Rural Governments: US Trends

Privatization and decentralization represent market‐based approaches to government. Designed to increase efficiency and responsiveness of government, these approaches also limit the potential for redistribution. A key question is: how will rural governments compete in such a market‐based system? Will they be favoured, as their reliance on market provision for public goods is higher due to the smaller number of services provided by government? Or will they be less able to compete due to the costs of sparsity, which may make them less attractive to market suppliers? Data from the United States covering the period 1992–2002, show that rural areas are not favoured by either of these trends – privatization or decentralization. Managerial weakness does not explain the shortfall. Rural areas are not as attractive to market suppliers and thus are disadvantaged under market‐based service delivery approaches. Although national policy continues to advance a privatization agenda, policy‐makers should be concerned about the uneven impacts of such market‐based approaches.     

The Consequences of Implementing a Child Care Voucher Scheme: Evidence from Australia,the Netherlands and the USA

In the Netherlands, the USA and Australia, public funding has promoted parental choice by introducing a voucher scheme for child care, where parents are free to choose the provider. The policy experiments and the outcomes in these three countries provide useful information about the consequences of introducing a voucher scheme in the child care market. We show the voucher system can be effective in increasing demand, but there can be uneven supply responses. The structure of the voucher income scheme and quality controls affect the nature of the supply response. We argue that voucher schemes must take into account the complex nature of the child care market and the substitutability among free public care, private market care and unpaid household care. To secure quality and access, government also must play a coordinating role that vouchers alone cannot supply.     

论高校办学自主权的实施及其监督和约束机制

研究高校办学自主权,首先要研究高校如何实施办学自主权,否则,办学自主权也会演化为毫无约束的＂自由权＂而滥用,反而影响和阻碍高校健康发展。在我国现阶段,高校实施办学自主权必须坚持有效性和有利于学校发展这个原则。一要大力提高高校自身的独立生存能力和自主办学水平,二要继续坚持政府对高校的宏观指导和监督,三要促使高校建立自我约束机制。特别是在各高校盲目攀比、求大求全,以致很多高校出现趋同化的现阶段,自我约束机制的建立显得更加急迫。