Socio‐demographic determinants of gambling participation and expenditures: evidence from Malaysia

This study examined the socio‐demographic determinants of participation and expenditure decisions on gambling among non‐Muslim households in Malaysia using data from the 2005–2006 Malaysian Household Expenditures Survey. Heckman's sample selection analysis was used to obtain consistent (unbiased) empirical estimates for the regression equation of gambling expenditures in the presence of censoring (observed zeros) in the dependent variable. Marginal effects were also calculated to further explore the effects of socio‐demographic variables on the probability and levels of gambling expenditures. The results indicated that non‐Muslim households in Malaysia who are more likely to participate and spend more in gambling include Chinese, affluent, male‐headed, younger and non‐white collar households. Specifically, households of Chinese descent have higher gambling probabilities and expenditures than Indians and those of other ethnic backgrounds. While education reduces and age increases the likelihood and expenditures of gambling among Chinese households, these effects are non‐extant for Indians and other ethnic groups. Higher income and male‐headed households were more likely to partake and have higher expenditures in gambling among all non‐Muslim ethnic groups. Finally, Chinese and Indian households headed by a white‐collar worker have lower gambling likelihoods and unconditional expenditures than their blue‐collar cohorts. Based on these results, several anti‐gambling policies were suggested to target those more likely to participate and spend more in gambling activities.     

Presence of children and household food expenditures at home and away from home

Households with children spend more on food at home than do households without children. On the other hand, compared with households without children, households with children who are at least 12 years of age are associated with higher expenditures on food away from home expenditures. Households with employed spouses are associated with lower expenditures on food at home. Other determinants of expenditures on food at home are seasonality, house ownership, region, household size, education, age and income. House ownership, region, household size, race, education and income also affect expenditures on food away from home.     

The Relationship between Retirement Wealth and Householders' Lifetime Personal Financial and Investing Behaviors

While previous research indicates wide wealth dispersion at retirement within households with similar lifetime incomes, there have been few attempts to identify personal financial behaviors associated with retirement wealth in households matched for lifetime income. Householders with similar demographics and lifetime income but differing markedly in net worth near retirement were surveyed in terms of personal financial behaviors undertaken during their lifetime. Results revealed key differences between householders with low and high retirement wealth in their financial behaviors and how these were acquired.     

Are Apparel Trade Restrictions Regressive?

Consumer welfare losses from apparel trade restrictions are estimated across different household income levels using Hicksian Equivalent Variations. The 1980–1992 Consumer Expenditure Survey, the 1980–1992 Consumer Price Index, and the 1990 ACCRA Cost of Living Index were used. For price differences under 45 percent, consumer welfare loss from higher apparel prices due to trade restrictions is greater as a percent of total expenditures for wealthy households than for poor households. Apparel trade restrictions, therefore, have a progressive effect.     

Household Economic Security and Public Policy

There are three challenges to household economic security: Slow income growth at the lower and middle parts of the income distribution, swings in households’ use of debt and leverage, and large numbers of households with low savings. Appropriate policy responses to these include increasing worker skills through greater opportunities for education and training, removing barriers to labor force participation, strengthening the safety net, improving access to credit while reducing exposure to harmful aspects of debt use, and making retirement savings easier and more automatic.     

Work after retirement: intentions,realities and implications

The economic security of families in retirement is a function of levels of inflation and how well families can adjust their retirement incomes to meet inflation. One way of buffering the effects of inflation is to work part-time after retirement from one's main job. Studies of retired people, however, have indicated that levels of post-retirement work are low. This study of a near-retirement aged cohort offered a special early retirement incentive indicates that intentions to work after retirement from their main job are consistent with previous retired cohorts' work levels. On average, respondents anticipated working less than 3·5 h per week or less than 10 weeks per year. Major factors affecting the hours or weeks of work desired were age, life expectancy, perceived retirement income adequacy, marital status, health, sex, area of residence and education.     

Distributional Effects of Public Investment when Wealth and Classes are Back

In developed economies, wealth inequality is high, while public capital is underprovided. Here, we study the impact of heterogeneity in saving behavior and income sources on the distributional effects of public investment. A capital tax is levied to finance productive public capital in an economy with two types of households: high income households who save dynastically and middle income households who save for retirement. We find that inequality is reduced the higher the capital tax rate is and that low tax rates are Pareto‐improving. There is no clear‐cut trade‐off between efficiency and equality: middle income households’ consumption is maximal at a capital tax rate that is higher than the rate which maximizes high income households’ consumption.     

Family Composition,Parental Time,and Market Goods: Life Cycle Trade-Offs

The present study supplements Canadian consumer expenditure survey data with unique time use data to analyze family life cycle decisions regarding allocation of full income to market purchased consumption goods, home production, and leisure time. Results confirm that young children's presence causes families to increase their shares of full income allocated to home production and to decrease the shares of full income allocated to leisure. As a share of full income, expenditures for market goods steadily increase while expenditures for women's home production diminish as children age.     

Expenditure patterns on food and non food items of Khayelitsha households,Western Cape,South Africa

Food insecurity or lack of access to adequate and nutritious food is a major determinant of under‐nutrition. Expenditure patterns accompanied by unemployment, low level of education, inflation and high food prices have a direct negative impact on food availability within households (Moller, 1997). Ghany and Schwenk (1993) found that as household income increases, the proportion of expenditures on food decreases, the proportion of expenditures on clothing, rent, fuel, and light stayed the same and that of sundries increased. The aim of this study was to investigate household expenditure patterns on food and non‐food items in Khayelitsha. A total of 20 households (10 from the formal and 10 from the informal settlements) were randomly selected from those willing to participate in the study. A questionnaire with open ended and closed questions was used to collect data. The questionnaire comprised four sections namely: biographical information, socio‐economic information which used wealth quintiles to assess households’ social economic status, total expenditure information and a food/hunger scale was used to assess households’ food availability. The findings revealed that households from informal settlements spent more money (62.2%) as a proportion of their income on food compared to households from the formal settlement (39%). There was higher unemployment rate (100%) at the informal settlement compared to the formal settlement (40%). Wealth quintiles scales did not reflect the social status of the households as equipment and assets owned by households were only used as fallback position during times of economic hardships. Households used different purchasing strategies; food and non‐food items were mainly purchased from outside the township (60%). Forty percent of the households bought their items from local shops and spazas because they allowed them to buy items whenever little money was available or to take items on credit. All the respondents preferred to buy bread and small items from spazas and local shops. Prices of items in the spazas and local shops were higher compared to prices of items in bigger shops outside the townships. The food/hunger scale and wealth quintiles showed that informal settlement households were more food insecure (as they were all unemployed and about 50% of the households ran out of food always) and had fewer assets compared to the formal settlement households. The implications of these findings underscore the need to improve socio‐economic conditions of low resource households through empowerment programs. These programs can be in the form of training in management/decision making, work related skills/literacy (to help them access formal employment), business management/income generation skills (to help them to be self‐employed), budgeting, and food gardening. This approach can help to increase the resource base and alleviate food insecurity in low resource households.     

The Economic Burden of Health Care,Funeral, and Burial Expenditures at the End of Life

Research suggests that widows and wodowers experience substantial economic vulnerability. Using nationally representative data from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys 1980–2000, we describe pre‐widowhood shifts in medical and funeral/burial expenditures and discuss how these changes may affect post‐widowhood economic well‐being. Our analyses suggest that funeral/burial and medical expenditures, when combined, typically constitute a 63.1% income share for recently widowed households. Discussion focuses on what role consumer educators can play in helping families better manage end‐of‐life expenditures.     

Einkommensschwache Personen: die jüngere Entwicklung in Deutschland

The article examines the structure and development of persons in low income households in Germany from 2011 to 2016. Low income is operationalised as a fixed percentage of median income of all households, similar to the EU’s risk of poverty definition. The low income population rose to 16 per cent in this period but this was the result of increasing average incomes. Above average levels of low income are seen in Eastern Germany and in the migrant population. Employed and retired persons are less affected than the unemployed or students. The increase in the numbers of low income households is mainly due to an increase in the number of migrants. The number of “poor” students has also increased.     

Determinants of retirement planning behaviour and differences by age

This paper presents the results of an investigation into the determinants of retirement planning behaviour and differences among three age groups: 21‐ to 39‐year‐olds, 40‐ to 59‐year‐olds and those aged 60 years and older. A national survey of 911 individuals from households with incomes of $75 000 or greater was conducted in the US. The significance of socio‐demographic variables, the ability to recover from loss, behavioural tendencies and perceived or actual personal control were investigated; together with their role in the prediction of maximization of retirement contributions and ownership in the personal individual retirement account (IRA) or Keogh accounts. The results identified several significant variables in the prediction of ownership in a personal IRA or Keogh, including age, sources of financial information, being an early investor and investor activity. The results also identified several significant variables in the prediction of the maximization of retirement contributions, including employment, income, savings activity, ex ante research, review of investment performance, early investor, investor activity, such as planning for financial future, setting up automatic deposits and reviewing financial information in the mail.     

Household expenditure on poultry and seafood in the U.S.A. - a cross-sectional analysis

This study investigates the determinants of household expenditures on poultry and seafood using the 1992 Consumer Expenditure Survey. Higher income and larger households with a better-educated and older household head spend more on poultry, especially during the fourth quarter of the year, than others. Higher income and north-eastern households with a non-white and better-educated household head spend more on seafood than others. Poultry expenditures are more sensitive to changes in household size than to changes in household income. In contrast, seafood expenditures are more sensitive to changes in household income than to changes in household size.     

Behavioral Interventions to Increase Tax‐Time Saving: Evidence from a National Randomized Trial

We provide new large‐scale experimental evidence on policies that aim to boost household saving out of income tax refunds. Households that filed income tax returns with an online tax preparer and chose to receive their refund electronically were randomized into eight treatment groups, which received different combinations of motivational saving prompts and suggested shares of the refund to save—25% and 75%—and a control group, which received neither. In treatment conditions where they were presented, motivational prompts focused on various savings goals: general, retirement, or emergency. Analysis reveals that higher suggested that allocations generated increased allocations of the refund to savings but that prompts for different reasons to save did not. These interventions, which draw on lessons from behavioral economics, represent potentially low‐cost, scalable tools for policy makers interested in helping low‐ and moderate‐income households build savings.     

Impact of Married Women's Employment on Individual Household Member Expenditures for Clothing

Family member and per capita clothing expenditures are estimated via tobit, using 1980–1981 Consumer Expenditure Survey data. Occupation categories are developed and implicit wage rates imputed for each wife in the sample. Employed-wife households have higher expenditures for clothing than do nonemployed-wife households and wife's occupation differentially affects family member expenditures. Wife's implicit wage is not significant, while wife's unearned income has a positive impact on all categories of expenditures except for infants. These results indicate that it is not possible to generalize across family members about the influence of income and socio-demographic variables on clothing expenditures.     

收入水平和收入风险对养老投资行为的影响——基于武汉市中心城区的调查数据

引导居民进行养老投资是缓解养老经济压力的重要途径之一,而影响养老投资的因素有很多。运用武汉市7个中心主城区753个居民的调查数据,以收入为切入点,从收入水平和收入风险两个角度考察其对居民养老投资行为的影响。研究结果显示,收入水平越高、收入风险越大,居民参与养老投资的可能性越大;收入水平与收入风险的边际效应呈倒U型,其中收入水平在6~10万的居民,养老投资的边际效应最大;异质性分析显示,女性、受教育程度较高、健康状况较差以及年龄较大的居民,收入水平和收入风险对养老投资的促进作用更大。通过用家庭收入水平代替个人收入水平、考虑风险态度与金融能力因素对养老投资的影响等方法进行稳健性检验,都证明了上述结果的可靠性。该结果不仅可以解释武汉市城镇居民养老投资的现状,而且对促进养老金融市场的发展与相关政策的制定也具有一定的启发和现实指导意义。     

The Impact of Selected Mail Response Enhancement Techniques on Surveys of the Mature Market

A study of 658 retired persons provided information on the characteristics most desired in retirement centers. Their current leisure time activities were also asked. The study was conducted for the management of a retirement center. This article focuses on the effectiveness of three treatments designed to enhance the response rate to the mailed questionnaire. The combination of the three factors produced response rates from 18% to 47%. The most effective approach focused on the lack of an offer of results, using an altruistic appeal and not encouraging persons to complete the demographics section.     

The increasing financial obligations burden of US households: who is affected?

The purpose of this paper is to examine factors associated with changes in the proportion of households with high financial obligations ratios in the United States. The proportion of households paying more than 40% of income for debt, rent, vehicle leases, property taxes and homeowners’ insurance, which we refer to as having a heavy burden, increased from 18% in 1992 to 27% in 2007. Multivariate analysis of a combination of six Survey of Consumer Finances data sets indicates that the likelihood of having a heavy burden was positively associated with homeownership, self‐employment and retirement status. Those with an optimistic 5‐year expectation of the economy were more likely to be in a household with a heavy burden. Education was positively related to having a heavy burden, suggesting that having a heavy burden is not simply a cognitive error.     

Book Reviews

This study examines whether the restaurant food expenditure patterns of two-earner Canadian households are consistent with a hypothesis that restaurant meals are convenience rather than luxury items. Results of the study indicate a positive relationship between the proportion of total food expenditures allocated to discretionary restaurant meals and the wage rates (value of time) of both the household head und spouse and a negative relationship between proportionate restaurant food expenditures and unearned income. Both results support the hypothesis. The study also examines relationships between proportionate restaurant food expenditures and a set of household characteristics variables.     

Social class: a multivariate analysis of its effect on expenditures for household services

Multivariate statistical techniques were used to explore two major conceptual issues in consumer behaviour research involving social class: (1) the importance of income, as compared to social class, in determining household behaviour, and (2) the effect of the status of wives on the behaviour of their households. A subsample of expenditure data, collected from 5,994 husband-wife families, as part of the 1973 Consumer Expenditure Survey, was used in the analysis. The dependent variable was expenditures for household services. The independent variables included total consumption expenditures (a proxy for income), the status of the wife, the status of the husband, family type, location, and characteristics of the dwelling. The results of an Ordinary Least Squares regression procedure demonstrated that total consumption expenditures were the most important variable in determining expenditures for household services. The size of the effect of the status of the wife was comparable to that of the status of the husband. In both cases, the effect was significant but small.