Black/White Differences in Health Status and Mortality Among the Elderly

Grade of membership (GOM) representations are used to characterize and compare the health status of a very heterogeneous sample of blacks and whites in an elderly cohort of 2,806 noninstitutionalized men and women living in New Haven, Connecticut. They were interviewed in 1982 as part of the Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly (EPESE). Ideal profiles based on functional disabilities, chronic diseases, and selected biomedical and behavioral risk factors are constructed empirically. Each individual in the sample is represented by a set of GOM scores, interpreted as degrees of similarity of his or her health record to each of the profiles. Four profiles emerge from GOM analyses: healthy elderly, elderly with cognitive impairment, elderly with impairment in mobility function and physical performance and with selected chronic conditions, and elderly with major limitations in activities of daily living and multiple chronic conditions. Although elderly blacks and whites generally have similar configurations of profiles, there are important differences, especially when chronic conditions are related to specific types of functional impairments. Questions about and claims for black/white mortality crossovers at older ages, usually addressed with aggregate data, are examined conditional on GOM scores that correspond to diverse combinations of disabilities (or lack thereof) together with housing characteristics of cohort members (e.g., whether they live in public housing for the elderly or in owned or rented housing in the community).     

Shorter hours wanted? A systematic review of working-time preferences and outcomes

Changes in working time have important economic, social and environmental implications. However, research on workers' preferences is highly fragmented across disciplines and journals. To overcome this, the present article provides a systematic review of the literature, analysing 173 studies. The study shows that working-time outcomes and mismatches are mostly studied in a small group of OECD countries, using survey data and statistical methods. The most clear and consistent results are about gender, care responsibilities and current working hours. Among professions, only the medical workforce receives substantial attention. Norms and preference formation are poorly understood, and more qualitative research is essential to understand how working-time reductions could spread.     

Advance Directives Among Korean American Older Adults: Knowledge,Attitudes, and Behavior

The study objective was to explore knowledge, attitudes, and behavior about advance directives and how cultural values influence these beliefs. Three focus groups with 23 Korean American older adults were conducted. Advance directives were seen as helpful for ensuring that preferences for unwanted end-of-life treatment are honored and for relieving the decision-making burden on family members. However, some viewed completing advance directives as contrary to focusing on living. Culturally competent education about advance directives for Korean American older adults is necessary to help them make informed decisions about end-of-life care and informing family and health care providers of these preferences.     

Dynamic effects of financial intermediation over the business cycle

This paper provides a empirical evidence that the financial intermediation disturbances can generate business cycles. We examine three countries whose financial sectors are fully developed but quite distinct in their institutional and regulatory circumstances; thus, we can infer whether financial intermediation disturbances differ across dissimilar financial environments. We find that the dynamic responses of output to financial intermediation shocks exhibit similar patterns in all cases studied. However, the various institutional and regulatory circumstances have generated different propagation mechanisms transmitting the financial disturbance to output in ways that lead the magnitudes of the responses to deviate across economies.     

Mortality and physical functioning in epidemiologic studies of three older populations

Mortality experienced in the first three years of follow-up for three Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (EPESE) is examined in relation to the participants' self-reported functional ability. In East Boston, Massachusetts (N = 3,812), Iowa and Washington Counties, Iowa (N = 3,673), and New Haven, Connecticut (N = 2,812), noninstitutionalized persons aged 65 and older were asked a series of questions to determine their functional status. These measures, used in logistic regression analyses of the mortality data, showed that an increased number of reported disabilities significantly increased the risk of mortality over and above the effects of the age and sex of the participant, or the methodological differences among the sites. Disabilities in gross mobility (e.g., ability to walk a half mile, climb stairs, or perform heavy work around the house) were more strongly related to mortality than were measures of activities of daily living.     

Where is the market failure? A review of OSHA’s economic analysis for its proposed ergonomics standard

conclusion OSHA justifies its proposed regulation on the basis of “market failures in employ-ment and insurance markets. However, the Administration's own analysis demonstrates that about half of the benefits of the proposed regulation accrue directly to industry. It appears that the marginal social costs and marginal private benefits of achieving OSHA's desired level of workplace safety are approximately equal, implying no need for further government intervention. Our analysis demonstrates the following points: • When the total costs and benefits of OSHA's proposed standard are com-pared across all industries, no significant market failure is evident — the benefits to industry are approximately equal to the costs — indicating that government intervention is unnecessary. The authors thank Michael Liu and Alison Pan for their excellent research assistance on this project.