Do Household Wealth Shocks Affect Productivity? Evidence from Innovative Workers During the Great Recession

We investigate how the deterioration of household balance sheets affects worker productivity, and in turn economic downturns. Specifically, we compare the output of innovative workers who experienced differential declines in housing wealth during the financial crisis but were employed at the same firm and lived in the same metropolitan area. We find that, following a negative wealth shock, innovative workers become less productive and generate lower economic value for their firms. The reduction in innovative output is not driven by workers switching to less innovative firms or positions. These effects are more pronounced among workers at greater risk of financial distress.     

Determinants of Household Expenditure on Computer Hardware and Software

This study investigated households’ expenditure on computer hardware and software using the 2000 Consumer Expenditure Survey. Based on neoclassical consumer theory, a conceptual model of computer expenditure was developed that included economic resources and consumer tastes and preferences. A double‐hurdle model was conducted to estimate whether or not households spent on computer hardware and software and the amount spent on computer hardware and software. Implications are offered for consumers and policy makers.     

Household Savings Motives

This study proposed a hierarchy of savings motives and identified factors that influence the movement to higher levels of the hierarchy. Continuation ratio analysis utilizing data from the 2001 Survey of Consumer Finances shows the likelihood of advancing to higher levels of savings motives from the current level. Age, family size, and length of the planning horizon are important predictors for advancing from lower levels to higher levels in the proposed hierarchy. Implications are offered for public policy regarding education and programs.     

SAVING ENERGY THROUGH BETTER INFORMATION: A NEW ENERGY PARADIGM?

For the past 40 years, governments, utilities, and private companies have developed increasingly efficient appliances for household use and governments have initiated policies to encourage the deployment of these technologies. To the credit of these activities, we have improved the efficiency of electricity use in the United States, but it has not been enough to overcome the increasing demand from proliferation of electricity‐using devices. In addition, penetration rates for some types of efficient equipment have remained relatively low in certain regions. U.S. electricity demand thus continues to grow. In this paper, we argue that to achieve significantly greater efficiency improvements needed to meet future demand for energy services, we should provide more information to consumers about their energy use and give them more control over this use. While more studies are needed to assess just how far these types of measures can take us, there is enough evidence to show that with better information, consumers often make choices that reduce energy use.     

Differences in the use of bank and retail credit cards in the U.S.A.

Data from the 1989 Survey of Consumer Finances¹ were analysed to find factors related to credit card use in U.S. households. Factors associated with the probability of using only retail cards were being a female-headed household, being older and being in a blue collar occupation. The use of bank cards only was associated with male heads of households, renting and a negative attitude toward credit. The use of both retail and bank cards was associated with a positive attitude toward credit, being in a professional or managerial occupation and home ownership. The results provide insight into credit card use and should help target educational efforts to those most likely to experience debt problems related to extensive use of credit cards.     

Does Going Public Affect Innovation?

This paper investigates the effects of going public on innovation by comparing the innovation activity of firms that go public with firms that withdraw their initial public offering (IPO) filing and remain private. NASDAQ fluctuations during the book‐building phase are used as an instrument for IPO completion. Using patent‐based metrics, I find that the quality of internal innovation declines following the IPO, and firms experience both an exodus of skilled inventors and a decline in the productivity of the remaining inventors. However, public firms attract new human capital and acquire external innovation. The analysis reveals that going public changes firms' strategies in pursuing innovation.     

The Boys from Bothaville, or the Rise and Fall of King Maize: A South African Story

This paper tells the story, for the first time, of a maverick maize farmers' association in South Africa during the period of apartheid. NAMPO (National Maize Producers' Organization), that grew out of SAMPI (South African Maize Producers' Institute), ultimately achieved a unique, if short-lived, breach in the normal operations of 'organized agriculture': a set of relations and practices that bound together white farmers, the National Party and the state. The paper provides an account of SAMPI/NAMPO's project of 'King Maize' and an explanation of its fall after a brief period of victory from 1981 to 1985. This explanation draws on broader patterns of agrarian change in contemporary capitalism combined with the fracturing of the original agrarian bloc of apartheid in the 1980s, marking the end of a 'second moment' of South Africa's version of a Prussian path of capitalist development.