How do marital status,work effort,and wage rates interact?

How marital status interacts with men's earnings is an important analytic and policy issue, especially in the context of debates in the United States over programs that encourage healthy marriage. This paper generates new findings about the earnings-marriage relationship by estimating the linkages among flows into and out of marriage, work effort, and wage rates. The estimates are based on National Longitudinal Survey of Youth panel data, covering 23 years of marital and labor market outcomes, and control for unobserved heterogeneity. We estimate marriage effects on hours worked (our proxy for work effort) and on wage rates for all men and for black and low-skilled men separately. The estimates reveal that entering marriage raises hours worked quickly and substantially but that marriage's effect on wage rates takes place more slowly while men continue in marriage. Together; the stimulus to hours worked and wage rates generates an 18%-19% increase in earnings, with about one-third to one-half of the marriage earnings premium attributable to higher work effort. At the same time, higher wage rates and hours worked encourage men to marry and to stay married. Thus, being married and having high earnings reinforce each other over time.     

Was there compression of disability for older Americans from 1992 to 2003?

Medical advances and the growth of the elderly population have focused interest on trends in the health of the elderly. Three theories have been advanced to describe these trends: compression of morbidity, expansion of morbidity, and dynamic equilibrium. We applied multistate life table methods to the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey to estimate active and disabled life expectancy from 1992 to 2003, defining disability as having difficulty with instrumental activities of daily living or activities of daily living. We found increases in active life expectancy past age 65 and decreases in life expectancy with severe disability. These trends are consistent with elements of both the theory of compression of morbidity and the theory of dynamic equilibrium.     

ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE EURO: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY BASED ON THE GERMAN SOCIO-ECONOMIC PANEL (SOEP)

This paper investigates changing attitudes towards the euro over time in Germany using longitudinal micro-data from the German Socio Economic Panel Study. We observe that a large part of the German population was worried about the new currency both before and after its introduction. Social psychological theories provide insight into these attitudes. Concerns regarding the euro are apparently connected with problems in handling the new currency and with the press coverage of price rises. For these reasons, future EMU member states should prepare their populations better for these challenges.     

Homogamy by education and migration status in Monterrey,Mexico: changes and continuities over time

This paper reviews changes in homogamy by migration status and educational level in Monterrey, Mexico, through the analysis of marriage patterns for two cohorts of men born in 1905–1934 and 1940–1969. Results show a significant increase in educational homogamy, as well as in homogamy by rural origins. The changes suggest that education has played an increasingly important role in the process of mate selection, although certain particularistic characteristics, such as being a rural immigrant, are still important in marriage formation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for the relationship between homogamy and social stratification.

Measuring longevity achievements under welfare interdependencies: a case for joint life expectancy indicators

Whereas period life expectancy constitutes an intuitive indicator of the survival conditions prevailing at a particular period, this paper argues that, given the existence of welfare interdependencies, that widespread indicator is nonetheless an incomplete measure of the longevity achievements relevant for human well-being. The central importance of coexistence for human-beings implies that usual life expectancy measures should be complemented by joint life expectancy indicators, which measure the average coexistence time under particular survival conditions. After a study of the theoretical foundations of ‘single’ and ‘joint’ life expectancy indicators, it is shown that joint life expectancy measures tend to enrich significantly the comparison of longevity achievements across countries and periods. Moreover, the introduction of joint life expectancy indicators—as a complement to conventional life expectancy measures—into multi-variable indexes such as the United Nations’ HDI is also shown to affect international rankings of standards of living to a non negligible extent.

Are there gender and country of origin differences in immigrant labor market outcomes across European destinations?

The 1994–2000 waves of the European Community Household Panel are used to study the earnings of immigrants as compared to native workers in 15 European countries. At the time of arrival, there is a significant negative partial effect of foreign birth on individual earnings compared to the native born in the destination of around 40%. These differences vary across origins and destinations and by gender. Immigrant earnings catch-up to those of the native born after around 18 years in the destination. Schooling matters more for earnings for women, whereas, language skills are relatively more important for men.

Colourism and African–american wealth: evidence from the nineteenth-century south

Black is not always black. Subtle distinctions in skin tone translate into significant differences in outcomes. Data on more than 15,000 households interviewed during the 1860 US federal census exhibit sharp differences in wealth holdings between white, mulatto, and black households in the urban South. We document these differences, investigate relationships between wealth and recorded household characteristics, and decompose the wealth gaps to examine the returns to racial characteristics. The analysis reveals a distinct racial hierarchy. Black wealth was only 20% of white wealth, but mulattoes held nearly 50% of whites’ wealth. This advantage is consistent with colourism, the favouritism shown to those of lighter complexion.

Can formula apportionment really prevent multinational enterprises from profit shifting? The role of asset valuation,intragroup debt,and leases

The European Commission has been supporting a transition from a system of separate accounting to formula apportionment. After its 2011 draft directive was rejected by the Council, the Commission presented two new draft directives in October 2016, one stipulating rules for a common tax base and another the terms for consolidation and apportionment. The aspired system of unitary taxation is considered more resistant to profit shifting and assumed to reduce compliance costs. However, there are also doubts about the extent, to which such a system will eradicate tax-planning activities of MNEs. Other concerns have arisen about the practical issue of enforcing uniform rules for asset valuation throughout the member states. We use a dynamic model of tax accounting based on neoclassical investment theory and effective tax rates to determine to what extent formula apportionment mitigates the efficiency of typical profit-shifting strategies. We focus on the roles of transfer pricing and intragroup debt financing (through loans and leases) under both separate accounting and formula apportionment. We also take into account a possible leeway for inconsistent valuation. Our results show that instead of eliminating tax planning strategies, the proposed system might simply induce a shift from manipulating reported profits to influencing the apportionment key. Inside the European Union, the CCCTB may be able to render thin capitalisation rules and transfer pricing documentation redundant. However, formula apportionment invites for new forms of tax planning. It is therefore essential to give credit to these new kinds of tax incentives when implementing a system of unitary taxation.     

CCR or BCC: what if we are in the wrong model?

The CCR model by Charnes et al. (Eur J Oper Res 2:429–444, 1978) together with the BCC model by Banker et al. (Manag Sci 30:1078–1091, 1984) are the most popular approaches of measuring efficiency among a group of decision making units, DMUs, in data envelopment analysis, DEA. The right choice of a DEA model—CCR or BCC—often, if not always, is a difficult decision. To evaluate a DMU’s efficiency for both models might be helpful, but it does not always capture the essential issues at stake. In this paper we propose a comparative analysis of both concepts: How does activity scaling under constant BCC-efficiency influence CCR-efficiency. And inversely, how does BCC-efficiency behave when activity scaling under constant CCR-efficiency is applied. Such findings of mutual effects improve a DMU’s ability to reassess upsizing and downsizing of activities. Moreover, it allows for exact calculations of the resulting economic effects, and these effects give new insights beyond classical DEA. Finally, scale efficiency turns out to be the ideal concept to control these activity changes, rather than just CCR- or BCC-efficiency. We use a little numerical example to emphasize advantages of the new concept and sketch the new findings for a theater scenery.     

Betting is Loving and Bettors are Predators: A Conceptual Metaphor Approach to Online Sports Betting Advertising

The legalisation of online gambling in multiple territories has caused a growth in the exposure of consumers to online sports betting (OSB) advertising. While some efforts have been made to understand the visible structure of betting promotional messages, little is known about the latent components of OSB advertisements. The present study sought to address this issue by examining the metaphorical conceptualisation of OSB advertising. A sample of Spanish and British television OSB advertisements from 2014 to 2016 was analysed (N = 133). Following Lakoff and Johnson’s conceptual metaphor theory, four main structural metaphors that shaped how OSB advertising can be understood were identified: betting as (1) an act of love, (2) a market, (3) a sport, and (4) a natural environment. In general, these metaphors, which were found widely across 29 different betting brands, facilitated the perception of bettors as active players, with an executive role in the sport events bet upon, and greater control over bet outcomes.