The Role of Supplemental Disability Benefits in Income Security for Injured Workers

Using a stratified random sample from the Michigan Bureua of Workers' Disabilitys Compensation claims files, the author examined the distribution of disability benefits across injured workers to detemine which workers have access to disability benefits in addition to workers' compensation. Using a ligit model, the result indicate that low-income workers employed by smaller, less financially stable firms are more likely to depend exclusively on workers' compensation for income while disabled The policy implication is that the burden of the problems with workers' compensation is more likely to fall on those workers who are least able to bear it.     

Factors That Contribute to Becoming Unbanked

The proportion of US families that are unbanked (i.e., have no type of checking or savings account) has steadily declined for more than two decades. Nonetheless, more than nine million families still do not participate in the financial mainstream, and roughly half these unbanked families previously held a traditional bank account. This study uses the 2004 longitudinal Survey of Income Program Participation to examine the dynamic process within which changes in families' circumstances contribute to their becoming unbanked. Our findings suggest that families are significantly more likely to become unbanked when there is a decline in family income, loss of employment, or loss of health insurance coverage. Race and ethnicity, level of education or family income, and marital or housing status are also important determinants of whether families participate in the financial mainstream or not. To our knowledge, this is the first analysis of the dynamic process by which families change bank status.     

The Links between Early‐Life Cognition and Schooling and Late‐Life Financial Knowledge

Using the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, a sample of Wisconsin high school graduates from the class of 1957, we explore the relationship between late‐life financial knowledge and human capital formed in early life. Specifically, we examine the associations between early‐life cognition and schooling experiences—such as academic performance and coursework—and late‐life financial knowledge. Financial knowledge is measured as individuals' knowledge of their own financial situations, which we argue is a prerequisite for good financial behavior. We find that those with lower early‐life cognitive functioning, especially those without college degrees, have lower levels of financial knowledge in late life. We find more limited evidence for independent associations of academic performance and math course work with late‐life financial knowledge.     

PRODUCTIVE TIME OF HOUSEHOLD HEADS

This study is an analysis of the utility value of time. Time is viewed on a productivity continuum with activities that result in measurable products such as income or home sewing at one extreme of the continuum and activities such as sleep at the other extreme. The use of time by unemployed and employed heads of households was the basis for this analysis. Four measures of time were constructed to determine the amount of time spent in market, household, leisure and personal activities. Unemployed heads of households spent more time in household and leisure activities than employed heads. Assuming that household activities have productive value, time spent in child care, shopping, house cleaning, etc., were viewed as having utility value for the household. Thus, reallocated time had utility value for the household. In addition, it was found that a significant relationship existed between employment status and use of time, regardless of position on the productivity continuum. From this study comes a better understanding of how time is reallocated during unemployment so that the economic loss for the household as well as the economy can be minimized.     

FUEL CHOICE FOR MULTI-FUEL VEHICLES

Consequences of consuming petroleum in transportation—e.g., air pollution, global warming, energy insecurity—have stimulated interest in alternative automotive fuels and in vehicles that can use multiple fuels and combinations of fuels. Consumer behavior in choosing motor fuels for flexible- or dual-fuel vehicles will likely be a key factor in creating and maintaining stable markets for new fuels. This paper explores the implications of recent studies on the sensitivity of choice of gasoline grade to price. It analyzes natural gas vehicle owners' refueling behavior, based on a survey of natural gas vehicles in Canada. The paper uses statistical models to estimate the importance of performance, range, refueling convenience, and other factors in the fuel choice decision. Choice of gasoline grade is highly sensitive to fuel prices. The cost advantage of natural gas also is of paramount importance for natural gas users. However, refueling convenience is essential for overall satisfaction and is a major factor in the frequency of natural gas use. Alternative fuels not only must be cost competitive with gasoline but initially will require a cost advantage so as to overcome range limitations and refueling inconvenience.     

BUDGET BEHAVIOUR: VARIANCE OVER THE LIFE CYCLE OF LOW INCOME FAMILIES

Several circumstances contribute to the economic demands of low-income families. One of these is a family's stage of development. A family is most economically vulnerable during the expanding stage of development. The main objective of this study was to see if low-income families used budgeting to cope with the economic demands of the expanding stage. A sample of 199 randomly selected low-income families from Phoenix, Arizona, were surveyed to explore their use of budgeting, the style of budgeting used, their satisfaction with income and their attitudes toward money management practices. The results raised several questions about the emphasis that family economics and management professionals place upon budgeting.     

The Behavior of Eurocurrency Returns Across Different Holding Periods and Monetary Regimes

Recent empirical studies of the risk premium across foreign exchange and other asset markets such as equity and longer term bonds have found conflicting evidence about the latent variable model restrictions of the consumption-based intertemporal capital asset pricing model. While studies using data for holding periods of one month or less generally reject the model, evidence using three-month holding periods indicates that the model cannot be rejected when including the returns on long relative to short deposit rates. This paper investigates the sources of differences in results using returns on foreign exchange and Eurocurrency deposits at three different maturities.     

Organizational differences in recruiting older department store workers in the US

Department store retailers need a reliable and stable labour resource, particularly for entry-level positions. Older workers may be an alternative labour pool for these positions. The goal of this study is to learn whether department store attributes and recruitment representative characteristics affect the use of formal and informal recruiting strategies in developing an older applicant pool. The findings indicate that small sales volume stores used both formal and informal recruiting practices significantly less than medium or large stores. Further, younger respondents and human resource support staff relied upon informal methods more than formal ones. Finally, highly educated recruiting representatives used formal recruiting methods more than those with less education.