income and the use of prescription drugs by the elderly evidence from the notch cohorts we use exogenous variation in social security payments created by the social security benefits notch to estimate how retirees use of prescription medications responds to changes in their incomes using data from the 1993 wave of the ahead we obtain instrumental variables estimates of the income elasticity of prescription drug use that are uniformly above 1 00 with a middle estimate of 1 32 simulations based on our estimates suggest that reductions in social security benefits similar to those incorporated in recent reform proposals would significantly reduce prescription drug use among the elderly

household energy and climate mitigation policies investigating energy practices in the housing sector abstract one central aim of climate change mitigation in the european union is to reduce energy consumption in the housing sector in order to ensure effectiveness of policies targeting household energy conservation it is important to investigate existing energy practices of different social groups this article describes and explains energy practices in three leading states in environmental politics technological innovation and support for renewable energy production denmark austria and the united kingdom based on a longitudinal analysis of housing utility costs from the european community statistics on income and living conditions we show that income plays a central role in households energy practices while high income households have higher overall energy consumption low income groups spend a larger share of their income on utility costs the variation of energy consumption across income groups is related to household characteristics characteristics of the dwellings and cross national differences in the housing sector

enlistments in the all volunteer force a military personnel supply model and its forecasts one test of the validity of a scientific hypothesis is its forecasting accuracy thus one test of the hypothesis that the market can be used to allocate manpower to defense as to any other occupation is its ability to predict voluntary enlistments in our earlier paper a simple model of accessions and enlistments to the u s armed forces was estimated the conclusion being that the allvolunteer force a vf is an experiment in market economics which far from having failed has not yet been put to the test mcnown et al 1980 p 130 although one may not be particularly sanguine about the prospects for testing the market experiment itself one can at least expose the hypothesis to further scrutiny this paper reports the results of an accuracy analysis of forecasts generated by the model and since the results on the whole are encouraging and the topic remains of considerable interest to the public and to policymakers alike 1 also presents updated estimates of the personnel supply elasticities i a military personnel supply model

demand for home modifications a household production function approach coping with activity limitations that occur in old age is an important issue in the context of increasing life expectancy and the still inevitable onset of chronic conditions in old age elderly households can be viewed as coping with activity limitations by producing functionality with the use of direct inputs that include home modifications a model of the household production of functionality is developed within the general framework of household production function models of health hypotheses generated from this model are tested using a logit model for data from the survey of asset and health dynamics among the oldest old ahead the main findings of the empirical analysis are that the demand for home modifications is fairly income inelastic home modifications and personal care are substitutes to some degree the demand for home modifications increases with years of schooling and that particular health conditions and the use of other assistive devices are important determinants of the demand for

education and health in europe abstractthe productive and allocative theories predict that education has positive impact on health the more educated adopt healthier life styles and use more efficiently health inputs and this explains why they live longer we find partial support for these theories with an econometric analysis on a large sample of europeans aged above 50 documenting a significant and positive correlation among education years life styles health outputs and functionalities we however find confirmation for an anomaly already observed in the united states namely the more educated are more likely to contract cancer our results are robust when controlling for endogeneity and reverse causality in iv estimates with instrumental variables related to quarter of birth and neighbours cultural norms

the effect of physician advice on alcohol consumption count regression with an endogenous treatment effect although there are encouraging trends alcohol abuse continues to be a significant public health problem econometric studies of alcohol demand have yielded a great deal of information for alcohol abuse prevention policy these studies suggest that higher alcohol taxes and stricter drunk driving policies can reduce heavy drinking and drunk driving in this paper we explore the role physician advice plays in the campaign to prevent alcohol related problems compared to alcohol taxation physician advice is a more precisely targeted intervention that does not impose extra costs on responsible drinkers compared to the resource costs of arresting processing and punishing drunk drivers physician advice may be a lower cost intervention to provide a basis for alcohol policy analysis we use an alcohol demand framework to test whether physician provided information about the adverse consequences of alcohol abuse shifts demand to more moderate levels there are three aspects of our alcohol demand model that complicate the estimation 1 the dependent variable is non negative it is a count variable number of drinks consumed 2 a non trivial number of sample observations have zero values for the dependent variable and 3 because the data we use is non experimental the treatment variable indicating receipt of advice from a physician may be endogenous we implement an estimation method that is specifically designed to deal with these three complicating factors our results show that advice has a substantial and significant impact on alcohol consumption by males with hypertension and that failing to account for the endogeneity of advice masks this result copyright 2001 john wiley sons ltd

social indicators and comparisons of living standards abstract construction of an international index of standards of living incorporating social indicators and economic output typically involves scaling and weighting procedures that lack welfare economic foundations revealed preference axioms can be used to make quality of life comparisons if we can estimate the representative household s production technology for the social indicators this method is applied to comparisons of gross domestic product gdp and life expectancy for 58 countries neither gdp rankings nor the rankings of the human development index hdi are consistent with the partial ordering of revealed preference a method of constructing a utility consistent index incorporating both consumption and life expectancy is suggested

the structure of energy efficiency investment in the uk households and its average monetary and environmental savings abstract socioeconomic and behavioural variables that influence the household s adoption of energy efficiency measures such as cavity and loft insulation and upgrades to the boiler are identified contrary to previous literature by extending brechling and smith s 1994 and hassett and metcalf s 1995 models it is shown that the application of the energy act 2011 which contains provisions on the green deal the new energy company obligation eco and the private rented sector needs to follow a tailored strategy to reach the low adoption households identified by my model moreover for the current adopters of the analysed measures average monetary and environmental adoption benefits are estimated based on parti and parti s 1980 demand model these estimates are smaller than their expected values showing an important energy efficiency gap in the sector particularly low cost measures can bring important savings that can help to meet the pay as you save rule i e the golden rule of the new regulation my model also shows that a poor state of dwelling repair can reduce the adoption benefits increasing the need of subsidies that will be financed through consumer s energy bills however this can increase the number of households in fuel poverty

taking versus taxing an analysis of conscription in a private information economy most countries currently man their militaries through conscription i e a draft conventional wisdom suggests that by lowering the budgetary cost of the military a draft reduces distortionary taxation especially when military needs are large we find that this intuition is misguided when income taxes are set optimally voluntary enlistments lead to less distortionary taxation than a draft because the tax base left behind by a volunteer army tends to be more productive than that after a draft for reasonable parameter values drafts are more distortionary and less socially desirable when military needs are large

the effects of price and smoking risk information on the demand for tobacco in taiwan an empirical study this study evaluates the effects of a cigarette price increase and smoking risk information on tobacco consumption in taiwan tobacco price expenditure and an index of smoking risk information for taiwan were introduced into a central bureau of statistics cbs demand model to estimate several cigarette demand elasticity coefficients according to this model increasing the cigarette price is a more effective means of reducing cigarette consumption than disseminating more risk information in addition we found that a price rise of nt 5 per cigarette pack would cause a reduction in the consumption of domestic and imported cigarettes of 3 23 and 4 86 packs per capita respectively total per capita consumption of cigarettes would be reduced annually by 8 09 packs 7 56 despite this reduction in cigarette consumption the increase in cigarette price would at the same time lead to a significant net increase in tax revenue to the taiwan government

the effect of female education on fertility and infant health evidence from school entry policies using exact date of birth this paper uses age at school entry policies to identify the effect of female education on fertility and infant health we focus on sharp contrasts in schooling fertility and infant health between women born just before and after the school entry date school entry policies affect female education and the quality of a woman s mate and have generally small but possibly heterogeneous effects on fertility and infant health we argue that school entry policies manipulate primarily the education of young women at risk of dropping out of school

socio economic status health and lifestyle abstract the role of lifestyle in mediating the relationship between socio economic characteristics and health has been discussed extensively in the epidemiological and economic literatures previous analyses have not considered a formal framework incorporating unobservable heterogeneity in this paper we develop a simple economic model in which health is determined partially by lifestyle which depends on preferences budget and time constraints and unobservable characteristics we estimate a recursive empirical specification consisting of a health production function and reduced forms for the lifestyle equations using maximum simulated likelihood msl for a multivariate probit mvp model with discrete indicators of lifestyle choices and self assessed health sah on british panel data from the 1984 and 1991 health and lifestyle survey hals we find that sleeping well exercising and not smoking in 1984 have dramatic positive effects on the probability of reporting excellent or good sah in 1991 and that these effects are much larger having accounted for endogeneity the failure of epidemiological analyses to account for unobserved heterogeneity can explain their low estimates of the relevance of lifestyle in the socio economic status health relationship indicators for prudent alcohol consumption and eating breakfast in 1984 are not found to be statistically significant determinants of sah in 1991

education and freedom of choice evidence from arranged marriages in vietnam abstractusing household data from vietnam we provide evidence on the effects of education on freedom of spouse choice we use war disruptions and spatial indicators of schooling supply as instruments the point estimates indicate that a year of additional schooling reduces the probability of an arranged marriage by about 14 percentage points for an individual with eight years of schooling we also estimate bounds on the effect of education on arranged marriage when exclusion restrictions are violated locally the lower bound is six to seven percentage points the impact of education is strong for women but significantly weaker for men

health behavior health knowledge and schooling the positive correlation between schooling and good health is well documented one explanation is that schooling helps people choose healthier life styles by improving their knowledge of the relationship between health behaviors and health outcomes that is schooling improves the household s allocative efficiency in producing health this empirical study uses direct measures of health knowledge to test this explanation part of the relationship between schooling and the consumption of cigarettes alcohol and exercise is explained by differences in health knowledge however most of schooling s effects on health behavior remain after differences in knowledge are controlled for

prices and health identifying the effects of nutrition exercise and medication choices on blood pressure biomedical studies suggest that a person s behavior matters to health but these studies usually treat human choice as exogenous this study shows that individual choices on nutrient intake exercise and use of medication are influenced by exogenous food prices wages and non labor income using these exogenous variables as instruments for endogenous behavior makes a big difference in the estimated impact of nutrient intake exercise and medication on blood pressure for example application of instrumental variables methods changes the impact of sodium on blood pressure from positive to negative and significant in his 1993 nobel prize speech economic historian robert fogel documented how dramatic improvements in human health and lifespan over the last century have increased labor productivity and economic growth these health improvements were largely ascribed to better nutrition and to an enhanced ability of consumers to transform nutrition information into desired health states at the same time fogel called for joint use of biomedical and economic techniques of analysis so that the consequences of better nutrition for human well being can be more deeply probed the combined techniques would yield insights otherwise unobtainable when relying on one of the disciplines alone fogel s plea for combined techniques rarely has been heeded either in the biomedicine or in the health economics literature biomedical studies adhere strictly to a mind body dualism

explaining the worldwide decline in the length of mandatory military service 1970 2010 compulsory military service has declined considerably since 1970 this explained by changes on both the extensive and intensive margins by governments while the decision to use conscription for military purposes has been studied extensively in this paper we examine empirically the factors underlying the decline in the duration of military service obligations employing data from the economic freedom of the world index observed at 5 year intervals from 1970 to 2010 we find that the probability of a shorter military service time is positively associated with smaller country populations smaller lagged army sizes increases in primary schooling among young males and having common law legal origins our empirical approach also highlights how the elderly population exhibits a nonlinear relationship with the length of conscriptees time in uniform

empowered examining self disconnection in a postal survey of electricity prepayment meter consumers in new zealand abstract prepayment metering is an electricity payment method often used by low income consumers fuel poverty is an important public health problem in new zealand and is likely to be a particular problem for those using prepayment metering this paper details a nationwide postal survey of consumers undertaken with the support of three major electricity retailers which investigated the advantages and disadvantages of using prepayment metering from a consumer perspective the study surveyed a total pool of 359 randomly selected consumers across the three companies a response rate of 48 the study found that while almost all respondents felt the benefits of using prepayment outweighed the risks of running out of credit or self disconnection 53 of respondents experienced self disconnection in the past year of concern over a third of respondents experiencing self disconnection were without electricity for more than 12 h the frequency of self disconnection was also high with 17 of those disconnecting reporting six or more events in the past year government intervention could reduce the risks and disadvantages involved with using prepayment metering which could then support initiatives aimed at reducing fuel poverty

consumer demand for nutrition versus taste in four major food categories this study addresses the trade off between nutrition and taste in expenditure on breakfast cereal milk bread and soft drinks within each category products have similar cost and convenience but have markedly different flavor and nutritional content using annual expenditure data for a large sample of households participating in the acnielsen homescan system we regress a measure of healthiness on household demographics and market prices and find that households with college educated heads and higher incomes made significantly healthier choices in all four categories these effects are puzzling in that the nutritional differences between products were well known to consumers and there are no cost or convenience differences between them the presence of children was associated with less healthy choices especially for cereal and bread while older households made healthier choices in all categories except milk

determinants of healthcare spending a state level analysis within the high and rising level of healthcare spending for the us as a whole is substantial variation in spending across states yet relatively little attention has been given to the empirical analysis of interstate differences in aggregate healthcare expenditures and therefore little empirical evidence exists at the state level to guide policymakers using data for all 50 states for the year 1998 we estimate an empirical model that includes structural and reduced form healthcare spending equations and a health production function to assess the significance size and relative importance of factors that prior research indicates may play an important role in explaining interstate variation in medical care expenditures and the main pathways through which they operate our results indicate higher levels of healthcare spending for state populations with higher income less education fewer uninsured residents less healthy lifestyles larger proportion of elderly residents greater availability of medical

estimating a health production function for the us some new evidence this study reports some new evidence on the impact of medical care socioeconomic lifestyle and environmental factors on the health status of the population of the usa the results show that additional medical care utilization is relatively ineffective in lowering mortality and increasing life expectancy the most important factors that influence death rates are related to socioeconomic status and lifestyle the results suggest that health care policy which focuses primarily on the provision of medical care services and ignores larger economic and social considerations may do little to benefit the nation s health

the distribution of health and income a theoretical framework a general framework is developed to analyse variations in the distribution of population health where individual health is modelled as a function of income conditional upon the level of another factor such as health related behaviour results are derived for the response of the level of average health in a population and the degree of health inequality to alternative health promotion policies and equiproportionate income growth qualitative results are shown to depend on characteristics of the individual health production functions and the frequency distribution of the other factor at each income level these results are independent of the distribution of income the discussion focuses on the implications of these results for contemporary research into inequalities in health and income

can premium tariffs for micro generation and small scale renewable heat help the fuel poor and if so how case studies of innovative finance for community energy schemes in the uk abstract in the uk the introduction of micro generation feed in tariffs fits and a proposed renewable heat incentive rhi for domestic and small scale schemes have re energised the market for investment in domestic scale renewable energy these incentives may provide financial opportunities for those with capital to spend but for the record numbers with low incomes in fuel poverty these benefits may seem out of reach this paper shows that with appropriate financial intermediaries it is possible for renewable energy incentives to be used to alleviate fuel poverty simple financial analysis demonstrates the theoretical potential of fits to help those in fuel poverty two case studies of renewable energy projects in low income areas investigate how the incentives may be used in practice what barriers exist and what success factors are evident the analysis shows that local energy organisations leos are key if the poor are to access benefits from premium tariff schemes low interest finance mechanisms good information sharing and community involvement are found as key success factors

the u s health care expenditure evidence from 2001 to 2009 abstractthis study utilizes state level data from 2001 to 2009 to estimate the impact of the 2007 financial crisis upon health care expenditures higher death rates are consistently found to have a positive and statistically significant impact on health expenditures while mental health and copd are not generally found to impact expenditures increases in the percentage of the population diagnosed with cholesterol and obesity tend to increase health expenditures increases in health expenditures slowed considerably after the financial crisis even though recessions high unemployment rates are generally found to have a positive impact on health expenditures the post financial crisis time period is estimated to have much lower health expenditures than in other time periods our results can be used to give insight into the conditions under which the slower rate of increase in health expenditures can be expected to increase more research will be needed to be able to more completely explore not only the re

investing in health the long term impact of head start on smoking i introduction there is a strong evidence that early childhood socioeconomic conditions have long term economic consequences reinforcing and sustaining disparities over the lifecourse 1 this observation provides a compelling rationale for public investments targeted toward disadvantaged children to expand opportunities and break the cycle of poverty head start is the principal federally funded program through which the united states invests directly in the human capital of disadvantaged preschool children since its inception in 1965 as part of president lyndon johnson s war on poverty head start has provided services to more than 23 million preschool children in 2005 there were more than 900 000 children enrolled in the program at a total cost of 6 8 billion office of head start 2006a to achieve its overall goal of increasing the school readiness of participants head start provides a comprehensive set of services including education health nutritional and social services to participants and their families research has shown that head start has positive impacts on participants human capital both in childhood and in adulthood 2 in recent years questions have arisen about the relative effectiveness of head start and whether it should be continued in its present form u s department of health and human services 2003 much of the debate has centered on the magnitude and persistence of the cognitive achievements of head start participants however given the link between education and health 3 and the comprehensive nature of head start with substantial health components one could reasonably expect it to have a favorable impact on participants health as well as education if significant health effects were found to persist into adulthood this in itself could alter the evaluation of head start and have important implications for the associated policy debate smoking is the leading preventable cause of mortality in the united states mokdad et al 2004 it is linked to an extensive list of diseases chaloupka and warner 2000 and imposes large economic costs on society centers for disease control and prevention 2002 tobacco use generally begins before individuals graduate high school and as an addictive behavior youth smoking is linked to adult smoking u s department of health and human services 1994 adolescents from low socioeconomic status households with low academic achievement are more likely to use tobacco products u s department of health and human services 1994 thus comprehensive development programs targeted toward disadvantaged youths that are designed to improve child outcomes have the potential to influence smoking improve health over the lifecourse and reduce the social costs from smoking suggestive evidence that head start might influence the smoking behavior of participants comes from evaluations of other preschool programs that targeted low income children participants in both the carolina abecedarian preschool program and the high scope perry preschool program were much less likely to smoke as adults barnett and masse 2007 belfield et al 2006 in this article we assess the impact of head start participation on adult smoking behavior using data from the panel study of income dynamics psid and its supplements on early childhood education and health we examine the cohort of adults above age 21 in 1999 whose age is low enough to have potentially participated in a head start program following currie and thomas 1995 and garces thomas and currie 2002 we employ a sibling based model to control for unobservable family characteristics that may affect smoking or the decision to participate in head start our results show that head start participation significantly influences smoking related behavior we estimate that if head start participants had not enrolled in the program these individuals would be approximately 20 percentage points more likely to smoke cigarettes beyond age 25

health and wealth of elderly couples causality tests using dynamic panel data models a positive relationship between socio economic status ses and health the health wealth gradient is repeatedly found in many industrialized countries this study analyzes competing explanations for this gradient causal effects from health to wealth health causation and causal effects from wealth to health wealth or social causation using six biennial waves of couples aged 51 61 in 1992 from the us health and retirement study we test for causality in panel data models incorporating unobserved heterogeneity and a lag structure supported by specification tests in contrast to tests relying on models with only first order lags or without unobserved heterogeneity these tests provide no evidence of causal wealth health effects on the other hand we find strong evidence of causal effects from both spouses health on household wealth we also find an effect of the husband s health on the wife s mental health but no other effects from one spouse s health to health of the other spouse

the relationship between education and adult mortality in the united states prior research has uncovered a large and positive correlation between education and health this paper examines whether education has a causal impact on health i follow synthetic cohorts using successive u s censuses to estimate the impact of educational attainment on mortality rates i use compulsory education laws from 1915 to 1939 as instruments for education the results suggest that education has a causal impact on mortality and that this effect is perhaps larger than has been previously estimated in the literature copyright 2005 wiley blackwell

the determinants of mortality mortality rates have fallen dramatically over time starting in a few countries in the 18th century and continuing to fall today in just the past century life expectancy has increased by over 30 years at the same time mortality rates remain much higher in poor countries with a difference in life expectancy between rich and poor countries of also about 30 years this difference persists despite the remarkable progress in health improvement in the last half century at least until the hiv aids pandemic in both the time series and the cross section data there is a strong correlation between income per capita and mortality rates a correlation that also exists within countries where richer better educated people live longer we review the determinants of these patterns over history over countries and across groups within countries while there is no consensus about the causal mechanisms we tentatively identify the application of scientific advance and technical progress some of which is induced by income and facilitated by education as the ultimate determinant of health such an explanation allows a consistent interpretation of the historical cross country and within country evidence we downplay direct causal mechanisms running from income to health

the fiscal role of conscription in the u s world war ii effort an often overlooked role of conscription is as a method of lump sum taxation in times of war conscription of military personnel allows the fiscal authority to minimize wartime government expenditure and hence minimize tax distortions associated with war finance this paper presents a simple dynamic general equilibrium model to articulate this view and calibrates the model to the u s world war ii experience analysis of the calibrated model indicates that the welfare value of conscription as a fiscal policy tool is quantitatively large despite the fact that the american involvement lasted only four years conscription is worth approximately 2 of annual aggregate consumption in perpetuity

new estimates of the optimal tax on alcohol in this paper i use a new data set to estimate the optimal alcohol tax rate as a benchmark the empirical results imply that the optimal tax rate is over 100 percent of the net of tax price however alcohol taxation is a second best solution to the problems associated with alcohol abuse i conclude that the optimal alcohol tax rate would be much lower if punishment for drunk driving were more certain and severe government provision of information about the health consequences of heavy drinking would also remove part of the efficiency rationale for alcohol taxes

the production of functionality by the elderly a household production function approach this paper extends becker s model of the household production function of human capital to the production of elderly functionality in this model elderly functionality is produced with the direct inputs of assistive devices personal assistance and nutritional intake education endowment variables like genetic endowment and sex and health conditions like stroke determine the production function environment data from the survey of asset and health dynamics among the oldest old ahead are used to estimate a production function of bathing functionality using a two stage estimation procedure in the first stage input demands for the endogenous functionality inputs are estimated recognizing health heterogeneity the results suggest that reverses in functionality caused by age and health conditions can be partially compensated for by the use of assistive devices like grab bars and bathing equipment secure nutritional intake and moderate alcohol consumption however non inputs like chronic healt

revisiting feed in tariffs in australia a review globally solar photovoltaic pv is rapidly becoming a key source of energy incentivised through the use of feed in tariffs fits solar pv is enjoying a similarly swift adoption in australia encouraged through fits this review builds on earlier work compiling and comparing fits in australia across its states and territories for residential small scale photovoltaic installations the purpose of this review is three fold 1 to synthesise a set of data on fit policy which can be used to inform future australia wide policy analysis 2 to understand the coevolution of policies to subsidise solar panel installation installation costs and installation numbers and 3 to employ this set of data on fit policy to examine whether fit policy corresponds with unintended adverse energy justice outcomes i e electricity disconnections from the grid the analysis presented in this review indicates that fit policies correspond to a greater number of electricity disconnections from the grid these findings are discussed in the context of broader debates

an econometric analysis of smoking prevalence among lone mothers this paper uses panel data to examine the determinants of smoking among lone mothers over the period 1991 1996 consideration is given to the initial conditions problem encountered when modelling dynamic panel probit models and a recently suggested approach is applied to address this problem

on the marginal welfare cost of taxation this paper develops a rigorous partial equilibrium analysis of the determinants of margin al welfare cost mwc of taxes on labor earnings it shows that four key parameters interact to determine the magnitude of mwc using aggregate data and plausible ranges of values for the parameters mwc can vary from under 10 percent to more than 300 percent of marginal tax revenue intermediate parameter values sugge st mwc is in the 25 50 percent range however the more extreme estimates cannot be ruled out on the basis of available evidence suggesting that mwc cannot yet be copyright 1987 by american economic association

the relationship between smoking quitting smoking and obesity in australia a seemingly unrelated probit approach smoking and obesity are two leading causes of preventable death further understanding of the relationship between these two risk factors can assist in reducing avoidable morbidity and mortality this study investigates the empirical association between obesity and the propensity to smoke and to quit smoking using a seemingly unrelated sur probit approach that takes into consideration the potential for reverse causality and unobserved heterogeneity using australian health survey data this article demonstrates the usefulness of the sur probit approach in generating information on the relationship between unobserved factors influencing both smoking behaviour and obesity and in providing estimates of the conditional probabilities of each risk factor results suggest the two risk factors are not independent the presence size and direction of correlation between the unobserved factors are found to vary by smoking behaviour and by gender estimates of conditional probabilities demonstrate smokers have a

military conscription and the socially optimal number of boots on the ground author affiliation peter berck pberck berkeley edujonathan lipow jlipow nps edu acknowledgment the authors would like to thank claude berrebi martin feldstein kenneth kuttner francois melese jay simon ellis tallman john warner and seminar participants at the 2007 assa meetings and the 2008 nber economics of national security winter workshop as well as three anonymous referees for their invaluable comments and corrections all remaining errors are our own 1 introductionmilitary conscription has existed since ancient times and it remains remarkably popular today mulligan and schlieffer 2004 found that 95 of the 164 countries that they examined continue to rely upon conscription to man their armies 1 the continued popularity of conscription however stands in stark contrast to the unpopularity of forced military labor among economists to illustrate this point lee and mckenzie 1992 examined 12 textbooks in basic economics and found that all 12 were in agreement that an all volunteer military force avf was inherently more efficient than resorting to conscription this seemingly wall to wall consensus has its origins in a number of highly influential articles including those of friedman 1967 hansen and weisbord 1967 and oi 1967 summarizing the arguments articulated in these articles first the draft imposes a discriminatory tax on recruits equal to the difference between their market wages and the below market military wage second below market pricing of personnel under the draft leads to a military with too many recruits third the all volunteer approach attracts those recruits with the lower opportunity costs and hence secures a given number of recruits at less cost 2not all of these objections are given equal weight the argument that the all volunteer army is cheaper than the draft because the former is far better at discriminating between low and high opportunity cost recruits lies at the heart of the opposition to the draft amongst economists 3in recent years a number of articles have challenged this perspective the reasoning underpinning these articles is that conscription should not be compared to a volunteer army but rather to the taxes required to finance a volunteer army when viewed that way conscription could be a desirable form of taxation if the deadweight welfare losses associated with conscription are lower than those associated with other taxes 4 prominent among these articles are those of garfinkel 1990 lee and mckenzie 1992 ross 1994 warner and asch 1996 and warner and negrusa 2005 5in this article we extend and develop the ideas featured in the literature on military manpower mobilization cited above in particular we widen the discussion to consider i the optimal size of the military and how that size is influenced by manpower mobilization choices ii mixed systems that combine volunteers and draftees iii initiatives that may reduce the inefficiencies inherent in both avf and conscript based systems and iv how changes in the relationship between the civilian and military marginal product of recruits alter the efficacy of alternative manpower mobilization systems our analysis indicates that an avf will generally tend to be too small when compared to a first best social optimum forces that rely on conscription however will tend to exploit high value civilian manpower for low value military activities just as predicted by friedman 1967 and oi 1967 and ironically they too will generally tend to be too small relative to the first best we also find that under conditions in which recruits civilian and military marginal products are similar the manpower misallocation costs associated with conscription decline and may even disappear our analysis of methods available to reduce the inefficiencies associated with military manpower mobilization indicates that avf militaries would probably lower the social cost of recruitment by offering college benefits to new recruits while conscript based armies would probably lower the social cost of the draft by excusing or deferring the college bound from service

changes in compulsory schooling and the causal effect of education on health evidence from germany in this paper we investigate the causal effect of years of schooling on health and health related behavior in west germany we apply an instrumental variables approach using as natural experiments several changes in compulsory schooling laws between 1949 and 1969 these law changes generate exogenous variation in years of schooling both across states and over time we find evidence for a strong and significant causal effect of years of schooling on long term illness for men but not for women moreover we provide somewhat weaker evidence of a causal effect of education on the likelihood of having weight problems for both sexes on the other hand we find little evidence for a causal effect of education on smoking behavior overall our estimates suggest significant non monetary returns to education with respect to health outcomes and not necessarily with respect to health related behavior

densification what does it mean for fuel poverty and energy justice an empirical analysis energy is increasingly at the forefront of the global political agenda while there is a longstanding literature relating to fuel poverty and increasingly energy justice there remains little evidence which explores its link with the urban form specifically the purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between the urban consolidation hypothesis and the cultivation of energy justice in australia this study uses data from the household income and labour dynamics in australia hilda survey years 2007 2014 a national probability sample and indefinite life panel the substantive findings of this study demonstrate that for low income and renting households greater urban density corresponds to a higher likelihood of experiencing fuel poverty further for households with a dwelling type described as an apartment two or three storeys there is a separate and quite generalisable indication that this type of dwelling is associated with a lower likelihood of experiencing fuel poverty this study connects the debate regarding urban consolidation and energy consumption to the fuel poverty and energy justice literature alongside this contribution this study also provides policymakers and planners with new evidence to inform remediation policies that are directed at supporting the fuel poor

low income and poor health choices the example of smoking people with low incomes tend to make less healthy consumption choices than do high income people in the case of food agricultural economists have investigated whether this is due to the cost of a healthy diet studies of various aspects of the nutrition income nexus have generally been inconclusive we investigate a different possibility motivated by the fact that low income individuals are most likely to be smokers which cannot be due to limited budgets drawing on a body of related literature we develop a model in which income serves not only as a budget constraint but also as a source of future utility we test the model by estimating logistic models of beginning and quitting smoking we find support for the idea that low income consumers make less healthy choices because they face lower costs in terms of foregone future utility

the demand for preventive medical care the idea that people invest in health capital is an essential part of models of the demand for health but the investment motives behind health decision are often obscured by other factors this empirical paper investigates the demand for adult preventive medical care where the investment motives are relatively clear cut several important results demonstrate the usefulness of the approach first the analysis finds that annual use of two preventive services decreases with age although not the only plausible explanation the results are consistent with individuals shortens over the lifecycle second schooling is found to be an important determinant of demand with the more educated much more likely to use the services neither lifecycle nor schooling effects are consistently found in studies of the demand for culture care finally the empirical analysis also provides additional evidence on the responsiveness of the demand for preventive care to change in insurance coverage an important issue for heal

the cost per life saved cutoff for safety enhancing regulations this article develops a model of the conditions under which risk regulations that are too expensive have net adverse health effects two principal components of this relationship are the implicit value of life and the income elasticity of risky behaviors using new empirical estimates for the income elasticity of many of the most consequential risk related behaviors our results imply that a 15 million decrease in income is associated with the loss of an additional statistical life regulations that cost more than 15 million per expected life saved will have counterproductive effects on individual mortality jel lsi 112 j17

what lies behind socio economic inequalities in obesity in spain a decomposition approach the expansion of obesity stands as a major food related health concern arguably driven by a socio economic vector however alongside its prevalence still scant evidence has examined on the underlying factors that explain the emergence socio economic inequalities in obesity this paper makes use of evidence form spain to empirically address the hypothesis of the existence of income related inequalities in the probability of suffering obesity in spain using data from 2003 besides quantifying inequalities we take advantage of a concentration index methodology that allows a decomposition of the cross section explanatory factors our findings provide suggestive evidence of significant socio economic inequalities in the probability of being obese in spain however in decomposing such inequalities we find that education attainment and other demographic covariates appear to have a prominent influence hence rather than the so called pure income effect we conclude that socio economic inequalities in obesity result from the additional influence of other confounding observed and unobserved effects

the mediating role of social workers in the implementation of regional policies targeting energy poverty abstract this paper aims to provide a socio political reflection of the role played by social workers in regional policies and of the real needs of households affected by energy poverty the paper also examines the impact of technical specialised training on the ability of social workers to prevent and mitigate conditions of household energy poverty in europe the adoption of a research action participation methodological framework and a training research approach has permitted the opinions of social workers to be collected through surveys and their central role in implementing regional policies to be highlighted the conclusions obtained have made possible the construction of a self diagnosis and data collection tool which increases the ability of social workers to mediate and implement urgent mitigation measures for energy poverty finally regional policies which aim to mitigate household energy poverty are examined from the professional perspective of social workers

energy poor or fuel poor what are the differences abstract energy poverty and fuel poverty are descriptors of problems of households energy consumption they are both distinct problems and have been addressed by many researchers organizations and governments cross use of the terms of energy poverty and fuel poverty in published papers is common as an accurate descriptor is the presupposition of research and policy development especially for those who just started to pay attention to this issue this paper compares the definitions research priorities status quo and problems of these two concepts and summarizes the relationship between them the paper suggests that only when the research targets are households who are living in a cold climate and have difficulty in getting access to electricity or modern cooking facilities and in supplying indoor heating with appropriate cost the concepts of energy poverty and fuel poverty have the chance to be broadened and mutually integrated

analysis of energy poverty intensity from the perspective of the regional administration empirical evidence from households in southern europe abstract the current economic situation has increased the number of households in europe experiencing restrictions and or limitations of affordability of energy services demonstrating the urgent need to intervene in those extreme cases in which households suffer the daily consequences of what is internationally defined as energy poverty in such a context this paper presents the results obtained in a case study characterising a sample of 615 households with demonstrated energy poverty in the region of aragon spain in parallel the intensity of energy poverty in the studied cases is examined by measuring the percentage of energy expenditures with respect to income in the households that suffer it and a descriptive analysis of the main determinants of energy poverty in the homes studied is presented as well as the policy implication at regional level

facade insulation retrofitting policy implementation process and its effects on health equity determinants a realist review abstract fuel poverty and cold housing constitute a significant public health problem energy efficiency interventions such as facade retrofitting address the problem from a structural and long term perspective despite evidence of the health benefits of insulation little is known about the political and social contexts that contribute to social inequalities in receiving and experiencing health benefits from these interventions we used a realist review methodology to better understand the mechanisms that explain how and why variations across different social groups appear in receiving energy efficiency facade retrofitting interventions and in their impact on health determinants we considered the four stages of the policy implementation framework public policy approach policy receiving intervention and impact on health determinants we found strong evidence that certain social groups low income renters elderly suffering most from fuel poverty experience more barriers for undertaking a building retrofitting due to factors such as upfront costs presentism thinking split incentives disruption and lack of control and that some public policies on housing energy efficiency may exacerbate these inequalities this can be avoided if such policies specifically aim at tackling fuel poverty or social inequities are completely free to users target the most affected groups and are adapted to their needs

a double hurdle model of cigarette consumption this paper shows the importance of the double hurdle approach for modelling individuals cigarette consumption using data from the uk general household survey and argues that participation and consumption should be treated as separate individual choices the likelihood function for the full double hurdle is derived and it is shown how restrictions on the stochastic specification of the model and auxillary information which identifies ex smokers allow it to be decomposed the empirical results highlight the value of the sample separation information and the need to model starting and quitting as separate decisions

information endogeneity and consumer health behaviour application to dietary intakes due to heightened public health interest a growing number of consumer health behaviour studies are focusing on the effect of health information on the demand for health inputs and outcomes many of these studies however have overlooked the potential endogeneity of information variables stemming from unobserved individual heterogeneity due to simultaneity bias ignoring endogeneity may lead to inaccurate estimates of informational effects on health behaviour using dietary intake data for fat saturated fat cholesterol and fibre this paper illustrates the pitfalls of treating health information related to these nutrients as exogenous variables in their demand equations in most of the estimated models the exogeneity of information is statistically rejected when the information variables are treated as exogenous variables their effects on dietary intakes are underestimated the estimated effects of key intake determinants such as income education ethnicity and race are also different in such a

estimating a household production function heterogeneity the demand for health inputs and their effects on birth weight the household production literature emphasizes that technical or biological processes condition input selection by households in their production activities along with prices and income exogenous variations in health to the extent that they are perceived by individuals heterogeneity lead to correlations between inputs and health outcomes that cannot be used to derive causal conclusions therefore estimates of health technology must be obtained from a behavioral model in which health inputs are themselves choices consistent estimates are reported of the effect of endogenous inputs such as medical care smoking and fertility on birth weight and fetal growth in the presence of health heterogeneity

endogenous discounting via wealth twin peaks and the role of technology we endogenize the discount rate via wealth and provide evidence that wealth affects the discount rate negatively we give a necessary and sufficient condition for endogenous discounting to lead to the twin peaks of economic growth and show that improvements in technology help avoid them

determinants of out of pocket pharmaceutical expenditure and access to drugs in catalonia this article examines the determinants of the demand for pharmaceuticals in catalonia using the latest available official survey data having accounted for the individual differences in cost sharing among consumers as well as the influence of self medication the article builds a model of the household determinants of pharmaceutical expenditure and consumption the econometric application deals with the infrequency of purchases and the nondistinction between out of pocket spending and drug cost sharing our results suggest that income and the variables accounting for the effect of cost sharing were significantly associated with drug use but not drug expenditure furthermore gender health status and having health insurance appear to be significant predictors access to pharmacies increases both drug use and expenditure self medication also increases drug expenditure out of pocket these results are relevant for the entire spanish case where current reform proposals have recommended the introduction o

the causes of childhood obesity a survey childhood obesity rates are rapidly rising in many countries since it is highly likely that obesity will persist into adulthood current rates undermine the health and future of people in developed as well as developing countries this public health epidemic carries significant economic social as well as individual level consequences and has become a research topic of significant interest for various disciplines including economics we survey the literature in economics and related disciplines associated with the causes of childhood obesity and synthesize the results to provide a better understanding of the explanations for the rising childhood obesity rates this is an important step in crafting effective policies to combat global childhood obesity trends

more information is not always better the case of voluntary provision of environmental quality this paper adds to the literature on the voluntary provision of public goods by showing that the warm glow that individuals gain depends on the perceived relative effectiveness of contributions we use a new survey on pro environment behaviors attitudes and knowledge and find that individuals act in accordance with their beliefs regardless of whether or not these beliefs are accurate and engage more frequently in activities that have a higher perceived impact on environmental quality we find that low provision of the public good is greater among people who believe they cannot do much for the environment and do not consider themselves environmentalists

a causal interpretation of extensive and intensive margin effects in generalized tobit models the usual decomposition of effects in corner solution models into extensive and intensive margins is generally incompatible with a causal interpretation this paper proposes a decomposition based on the joint distribution of potential outcomes which is meaningful in a causal sense the difference between decompositions can be substantial and yield diametrically opposed results as shown in a standard tobit model example in a generalized tobit application exploring the effect of reducing firm entry regulation on bilateral trade flows between countries estimates suggest that using the usual decomposition would overstate the contribution of the extensive margin by around 15

green returns to education does schooling contribute to pro environmental behaviours evidence from thailand we investigate whether there are green returns to education where formal education encourages pro environmental behaviours using nationally representative surveys on environmental issues in thailand to establish the causal relationship between education and green behaviours we exploit the instrumental variables strategy using the supply of state primary schooling i e the corresponding number of teachers per 1000 children which varies over time and across regions as the instrument while controlling for regional cohort and income effects we find that more years of schooling lead to a greater probability of taking knowledge based environmentally friendly actions a great deal but not cost saving pro environmental actions in addition the paper finds no significant impact of formal education on concern about global warming nor the willingness to pay for environmental tax

an integrated economic and distributional analysis of energy policies most public policies particularly those in the energy sphere have not only efficiency but also distributional effects however there is a trade off between modelling approaches suitable for calculating those impacts on the economy for the former most of the studies have been conducted with general equilibrium models whereas partial equilibrium models represent the main approach for distributional analysis this paper proposes a methodology to simultaneously carry out an analysis of the distributional and efficiency consequences of changes in energy taxation in order to do so we have integrated a microeconomic household demand model and a computable general equilibrium model for the spanish economy we illustrate the advantages of this approach by simulating a revenue neutral reform in spanish indirect taxation with a large increase of energy taxes that serve an environmental purpose the results show that the reforms bring about significant efficiency and distributional effects in some cases counterintuitive and demonstrate the academic and social utility of this approximation

job displacement disability and divorce earnings shocks should affect divorce probability by changing a couple s expected gains from marriage we find that the divorce hazard rises after a spouse s job displacement but does not change after a spousal disability this difference casts doubt on a purely pecuniary motivation for divorce following earnings shocks since both types of shocks exhibit similar long run economic consequences furthermore the increase in divorce is found only for layoffs and not for plant closings suggesting that information conveyed about a partner s noneconomic suitability as a mate due to a job loss may be more important than financial losses in precipitating divorce

the role of the military draft in optimal fiscal policy recent contributions to the theory of optimal taxation have simultaneously contributed to the theory of optimal public debt in particular barro 2 who effectively interprets the government s optimal taxation problem as a dynamic control problem demonstrates that optimal debt creation serves to smooth out the distortions associated with income taxes over time in his analysis the value of outstanding debt is determined uniquely by the theory of optimal taxation which roughly dictates constant tax rates over time

reexamination of the relative efficiency of the draft and the all volunteer army economists are in almost universal agreement that the all volunteer approach to recruiting military personnel is more efficient than the draft several related considerations form the basis for this agreement first the draft imposes a discriminatory tax on recruits equal to the difference between their market wages and the below market military wage plus a compensating differential for serving in the military second below market pricing of personnel under the draft leads to a military with too many recruits third the all volunteer approach attracts those recruits with the lowest opportunity costs and hence secures a given number of recruits at less cost these standard economic arguments for the all volunteer approach over the draft have been heavily influenced by hansen and weisbrod 7 and oi 10 the purpose of this paper is to argue that under certain conditions the above considerations fail to make a compelling case for the all volunteer approach over the draft the conventional economic case for the all volunteer approach fails to recognize that the relative difference between the cost of the all volunteer approach and the draft depends on the percentage of the eligible population recruited into the military and the dead weight loss associated with conventional taxation as the number of recruits increases relative to the eligible population the advantage of being able to discriminate between high and low opportunity cost recruits diminishes also the larger

public financing of health expenditures insurance and health outcomes the effects of public financing of health expenditures insurance coverage and other factors on health outcomes are examined within health production models estimated using 1960 1992 data across 20 oecd countries mortality rates are found to depend on the mix of health care expenditures and the type of health insurance coverage increases in the publicly financed share of health expenditures are associated with increases in mortality rates increases in inpatient and ambulatory insurance coverage are associated with reduced mortality the effects of gdp health expenditures and age structure on mortality are similar to those in previous studies tobacco use alcohol use fat consumption female labour force participation and education levels are also significantly related to overall mortality rates increases in income inequality are associated with lower mortality rates suggesting that the negative relationship between inequality and health outcomes suggested by some previous studies does not remain w

mortality lifestyle and socio economic status this paper uses the british health and lifestyle survey 1984 1985 data and the longitudinal follow up of may 2003 to investigate the determinants of premature mortality in great britain and the contribution of lifestyle choices to socio economic inequality in mortality a behavioural model which relates premature mortality to a set of observable and unobservable factors is considered a maximum simulated likelihood msl approach for a multivariate probit mvp is used to estimate a recursive system of equations for mortality morbidity and lifestyles health inequality is explored using the gini coefficient and a decomposition technique the decomposition analysis for predicted mortality shows that after allowing for endogeneity lifestyles contribute strongly to inequality in mortality reducing the direct role of socio economic status this contradicts the view which is widely held in epidemiology that lifestyles make a relatively minor contribution to observed socio economic gradients in health

economics food choices and nutrition abstract our goal in this paper is to examine the role and influence of economic factors defined rather broadly on consumer food choices and hence nutritional outcomes we attempt to do this in a non technical fashion we examine the role of prices especially as they relate to the affordability of food in the united states and as a policy lever income is analyzed as a driving force behind changes in eating habits in particular increasing the demand for convenience the role of time constraints as well as time preference are examined as links to healthy eating habits and as forces behind current trends in eating patterns information and knowledge are given prominent play as counter balances to economic forces driving eating habits we conclude with and examination into maternal nutrition knowledge and children s dietary quality

energy equity and the future of the fuel poor abstract a warm and adequately lit home is considered a basic need together with access to energy consuming appliances ranging from a fridge to a tv an underlying tenet of sustainable energy is that such basic needs should be affordably met yet low incomes energy inefficient housing and appliances and high energy costs mean that roughly 10 per cent of uk households many of them elderly or with young children fail to attain this basic standard these households which would need to spend more than 10 per cent of their income to attain adequate energy services are officially defined as fuel poor their cold poorly equipped homes lead to chronic cold related health conditions exacerbate social isolation and may undermine educational achievement in addition rural areas have a disproportionately high incidence of fuel poverty this review examines the current distribution of energy consumption its social impacts and the opportunities to address fuel poverty through improvements to the housing stock it will then consider potential future developments

measurement of spatial socioeconomic impact of energy poverty abstract this article presents a spatial analysis of the evolution of energy poverty in spanish households and aims to measure the socioeconomic impact of energy poverty the economic financial measurement of palliative measures implemented and social perceptions of energy poverty are also dimensioned in order to analyse holistically the economic financial and social impact of energy poverty at a territorial level a statistical analysis of the financial aids has been conducted and the perception of technicians employed by both the public and the private sectors who work with affected households has been compiled in addition this paper explores the relationship between media coverage and the economic financial impact at territorial level to this goal 259 newspaper articles about energy poverty were classified and analysed to examine the socio genesis of the problem of energy poverty the measurement of the socio economics impact of energy poverty in households in a territory represents the spatial dimension of the problem for the definition of local energy policies taking into consideration the evolution of different measures implemented over time their limitations scope and flexibility

fuel poverty as injustice integrating distribution recognition and procedure in the struggle for affordable warmth bringing attention to fuel poverty as a distinct manifestation of social inequality has asserted the place of affordable warmth in the profile of contemporary rights and entitlements as such fuel poverty can be understood as an expression of injustice involving the compromised ability to access energy services and thereby to secure a healthful living environment in this paper we consider how fuel poverty may be aligned to various alternative concepts of social and environmental justice whilst recognising that fuel poverty is fundamentally a complex problem of distributive injustice we argue that other understandings of injustice are also implicated and play important roles in producing and sustaining inequalities in access to affordable warmth addressing fuel poverty has to involve seeking justice in terms of the cultural and political recognition of vulnerable and marginalised social groups and pursuing procedural justice through opening up involvement and influence in decision making processes we make this argument both in theoretical terms and through considering the experience of fuel poverty advocacy and policy development in the uk opportunities for future action may be illuminated through such interconnected justice framings as wider awareness of energy climate and poverty issues emerge

schooling health knowledge and obesity the connection between schooling and health is well documented an important empirical issue that needs to be examined however is whether schooling s effects are due to individual health knowledge differences this empirical study examines this issue with an increasingly important health indicator obesity since provision of health knowledge is a major tool of public agencies promoting health this empirical study uses a new direct measure of health knowledge to test this hypothesis the results show that knowledge is inversely related to the probability that an individual is obese schooling s effects on relative weight and the probability of being obese are explained by differences in knowledge this result may imply that schooling s effect on the allocative efficiency of the household production of health is the main reason schooling is linked to health behaviour the result also may imply that the most effective method of health education is to highlight the disease element of poor dietary habits a

priceless the nonpecuniary benefits of schooling copyright 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 by the american economic association permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of american economic association publications for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not distributed for profit or direct commercial advantage and that copies show this notice on the first page or initial screen of a display along with the full citation including the name of the author copyrights for components of this work owned by others than aea must be honored abstracting with credit is permitted the author has the right to republish post on servers redistribute to lists and use any component of this work in other works for others to do so requires prior specific permission and or a fee permissions may be requested from the american economic association administrative office by going to the contact us form and choosing copyright permissions request from the menu copyright 2016 aea

an exogeneity test for a simultaneous equation tobit model with an application to labor supply a test of weak exogeneity in the simultaneous equation tobit model is proposed and illustrated using a female labour supply model estimated using cross section data the test statistic can be simply output from any standard tobit maximum likelihood package and is asymptotically efficient the procedure provides consistent estimators for the simultaneous tobit model whose asymptotic covariance matrix is a simple extension of the usual tobit formula we also provide the lagrange multiplier test of weak exogeneity this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

fuel poverty and energy efficiency obligations a critical assessment of the supplier obligation in the uk energy efficiency obligations or white certificates are increasingly used to reduce carbon emissions while the energy efficiency obligations were originally intended as carbon reduction and not fuel poverty policies due to recognition of the potential for regressive outcomes they often include provisions for vulnerable and low income customers intuitively reducing carbon emissions and alleviating fuel poverty seem to be two sides of the same coin there are however considerable tensions between the two when addressed through energy efficiency obligations particularly arising from the potentially regressive impacts of rising energy prices resulting from such obligations but also the complexity of targeting fuel poor households and the implications for deliverability despite those tensions the uk government decided to use energy efficiency obligations the supplier obligation as the main policy for reducing fuel poverty in light of the proposals this paper provides an analysis of the main tensions between carbon reduction and fuel poverty alleviation within energy efficiency obligations outlines the fuel poverty provisions of the british supplier obligation assesses its rules for identifying the fuel poor and provides a critical analysis of the planned policy changes based on this analysis alternative approaches to targeting fuel poverty within future supplier obligations are proposed

basic needs government debt and economic growth this paper investigates the relationships between basic needs and economic growth where the interactions between output health nutrition and education are explicitly simultaneous we find a unidirectional relationship that improving basic welfare contributes strongly to labour productivity change but a clear reverse causation only from growth to nutrition there are substantial differences in the patterns of simultaneous interactions at different income and welfare levels there are strong self reinforcing effects of literacy and debt service on poverty making it difficult for poor countries to rectify their situation channelling resources towards improving health education and nutrition could bring dramatic economic returns