POOR AND SICK: ESTIMATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HOUSEHOLD INCOME AND HEALTH

This study evaluates the effect of the individual's household income on their health at the later stages of working life. A structural equation model is utilized in order to derive a composite and continuous index of the latent health status from qualitative health status indicators. The endogenous relationship between health status and household income status is taken into account by using IV estimators. The findings reveal a significant effect of individual household income on health before and after endogeneity is taken into account as well as a host of other factors known to influence health, including hereditary factors and the individual's locus of control. Importantly, it is also shown that the childhood socioeconomic position of the individual has long lasting effects on health as it appears to play a significant role in determining health during the later stages of working life.     

中国农民市民化经济门槛与城市化关系研究:理论与实证

应用“门槛理论”分析了中国农民市民化的经济门槛,动力学模型的推导及其实证研究结果表明:农村居民可支配收入超过“梯级门槛”的农村居民的数量是影响我国城市化发展的速度、进程的关键变量。因此,降低农民市民化的经济门槛、增加农民收入、有效控制城乡居民收入差距扩大化趋势是实现农民市民化的前提条件,同时也是全面推进中国城市化发展必须解决的现实问题。     

中国贸易开放与通货膨胀持续性关系研究

本文分别利用修正的综合贸易强度公式和卡尔曼滤波方法估计了中国改革开放以来的贸易开放度和时变的通货膨胀持续性,并在此基础上对中国贸易开放与通货膨胀持续性关系进行了实证研究。结果表明:中国贸易开放度的变化表现出明显的阶段性特征;中国的通货膨胀持续性处于不断波动的过程中,从趋势来看,中国的通货膨胀持续性呈现出不断下降的趋势;贸易开放度的提高对中国的通货膨胀持续性具有显著的负向影响。     

EMPLOYMENT VERIFICATION MANDATES AND THE LABOR MARKET OUTCOMES OF LIKELY UNAUTHORIZED AND NATIVE WORKERS

As recent efforts to reform immigration policy at the federal level have failed, states have started to take immigration matters into their own hands and researchers have been paying closer attention to state dynamics surrounding immigration policy. Yet, to this date, there is not a clear understanding of the consequences of enforcing E‐Verify on likely unauthorized immigrants or on natives across the United States. This study aims to fill in that gap by analyzing the impact that the enactment of various types of E‐Verify mandates may have on the employment and wages of these groups. We find that the enactment of employment verification mandates reduces the employment likelihood of likely unauthorized workers. Additionally, it raises the hourly wages of likely unauthorized women. None of these impacts are observed among a similarly skilled sample of naturalized Hispanic immigrants. Finally, the enactment of E‐Verify mandates appears to raise the employment likelihood of alike non‐Hispanic natives, while raising the hourly wage of native‐born male employees, alluding to the potential substitutability of unauthorized immigrants and non‐Hispanic natives. (JEL J2, J3, J6)     

A DYNAMIC MODEL OF CLEANUP: ESTIMATING SUNK COSTS IN OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION

The environmental remediation required to permanently decommission most industrial projects is an expensive, irreversible investment. Real options literature shows that temporary closure has value under uncertainty. However, even if there is no intention to restart operations, there is an incentive to label a closure as “temporary” to avoid having to remediate ongoing or future environmental externalities. I estimate a dynamic discrete choice model of closure under price and quantity uncertainty to evaluate the likelihood of reactivation. The model reveals that the option to temporarily close is being widely used to avoid environmental remediation of oil and gas wells in Canada.     

我国粮食价格与CPI关系研究

本文利用1998年1月-2010年10月的月度CPI数据和粮食批发价格指数对粮食价格和CPI的关系进行了定性和定量分析。实证结果表明,两者之间存在长期和短期关系,从长期来看,粮食价格每上涨1%会使CPI上涨0.336%;从短期来看,粮价对CPI有滞后1期的影响,CPI对粮价有滞后3期的影响。综合考虑影响粮食价格的国际效应、供给效应、市场预期效应和政策效应,未来几个月我国粮价将有所上涨,但涨幅不会很大。     

THE GENDER WAGE GAP: WHAT HAS HAPPENED BETWEEN 1973 AND 1990 IN AUSTRALIA?*

The current study examines the change in the gender wage gap in Australia over the period 1973 to 1990. The Juhn, Murphy and Pierce (1991) decomposition is used in order to evaluate the role and relative contribution of changes in observed and unobserved skills and their prices. The sensitivity of conclusions to the measure of labour market experience and industry and occupation structure are also examined. The analysis concludes that gender-specific effects are dominant in male-female wage convergence although wage-structure effects also play a minor role.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONSUMPTION, INCOME AND WEALTH IN HONG KONG

Abstract. This paper estimates a consumption function for Hong Kong along the lines of the standard life‐cycle model. I find a stable relationship between consumption, labour income and wealth with plausible long‐run estimates of the implied marginal propensity to consume out of income and wealth. The marginal propensity to consume out of housing wealth is estimated to be lower than in other industrialized economies, which is consistent with a relatively uneven distribution of wealth in Hong Kong. Arithmetically, the decline in housing wealth in Hong Kong since 1997 can more than account for the weakness of consumption since then.     

ESTIMATING VALUE ADDED OF ILLEGAL PRODUCTION IN THE WESTERN BALKANS

Several economists continue to assert that the official national accounts of many countries do not cover a large “hidden” or “underground” economy. This article looks at one component of the underground economy, namely illegal activities. According to the UN System of National Accounts, production of goods and services that are illegal should be included in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) if both the producers and consumers are willing partners to the transactions involved. We examine the estimates of illegal production recently made by several countries in the Western Balkans and conclude that, if illegal activities were fully included in their official GDP estimates, they would increase by about 1 percent. Trade in narcotics and prostitution are the two most important kinds of illegal activities in most countries and we look in detail at how estimates for these activities were made by the Western Balkan countries.