IMPACT OF INCOME AND WIFE'S EDUCATION ON FAMILY CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES

Data from the 1972–73 Consumer Expenditure Surveys were used to investigate whether wife's education influences family expenditure once the effects of income and other factors are taken into account. The double-log function was used in the multiple regression analysis of fifteen consumption expenditure categories. Education and income elasticities were also compared. Wife's education was influential in determining family consumption expenditures even after taking family income and other factors into account.     

Impact of wife's employment on service expenditures

Data from the 1986 Consumer Expenditure Survey were used to examine the relationship between wife's employment and spending on services that are expected to be sensitive to the value of time. Tobit regression analysis indicated that wife's employment status was influential in explaining expenditure on food away from home, child care and total services only. Other independent variables, such as income, education and age. were more influential in explaining expenditure than was wife's employment status.     

The Impact of the Employment of the Wife on the Achievement of Home Ownership

A logistic regression analysis is used to assess the impact of the wife's income, wage rate, and hours worked on changing from rental tenure to home ownership among a subsample of husband-wife house-holds from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Age of the wife, education of the wife, family size, and residence in the Northeast are significant predictors of change in tenure status between 1979 and 1983; of the wife's employment variables tested, only the number of hours worked (a proxy for labor force commitment) is a significant predictor of the probability of changing from rental tenure to home ownership.     

ENTENSITY OF FAMILY DISAGREEMENT OVER FINANCES AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS*

Results from survey research using regression techniques indicate that disagreement over family finances for men was a function of management practices (negative), years married (negative), and wife's employment, with those who had part-time employed wives reporting more disagreement than those with non-employed wives. Disagreement over family finances for women was a function of frequency of communication (negative), perceived future financial security (negative), and wife's employment, with full-time employed wives reporting less disagreement over finances than non-employed wives. Since the stress and reduced maximization of resources implied by the high percentage of families reporting intense disagreement over finances ultimately affect their well-being, it is imperative that the skills of financial management and communication be developed through counselling and education.     

Wife's employment and family expenditures

Data from the 1980–81 Consumer Expenditure Survey were used to examine the influence of wife's employment on spending on non-durable goods and time-saving services. Multiple regression analysis indicated that, except for personal care services, expenditure levels differed between working-wife and non-working-wife families. Other independent variables, however, were more influential in determining expenditure than was wife's employment status.     

WIFE'S EMPLOYMENT—ITS INFLUENCE ON MAJOR FAMILY EXPENDITURES

This study was undertaken to examine the influence of wife's employment on major family expenditures. Tobit analysis of data from the 1972–73 Consumer Expenditure Surveys found no relationship between wife's employment and outlays on twelve categories of expenditures. Family income had the greatest overall influence on the expenditure categories examined. Therefore, it appears that the absolute amount of income was more important than its sources in determining expenditures.     

Timestyles: Role factor influences on the convergence and divergence of couples' complementary and substitute activity patterns

Using a role theory framework, this research focuses on convergence and divergence in complementary and substitute activities for husbands and wives. Hypotheses on the effects of children and wife's employment were assessed for a national sample of married men reporting on their and their wives' activities for a typical weekday and Saturday. Role factors are shown to have a significant impact on timestyles and the specific activities emerging as substitutes and complements.     

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.     

Sources of family income and expenditure on children's private,after‐school education in Korea

This paper examines the relationship between sources of family income and household expenditure on private, after‐school education for children in secondary schools in Korea in the context of educational ‘credentialism’, which values evidence of college education highly. Data from a survey of 514 parents of secondary school students are used. Estimated ordinary least squares coefficients indicate that the wife's income, but not the husband's, was positively associated with the amount of spending on children's education at private, after‐school programmes. This finding suggests that some married women with children in Korea seek employment in order to earn the money needed for their children's private, after‐school education.     

Satisfaction with household production: the effect of time spent in household production by husbands and wives

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between the extent of household production and satisfaction with household production. Data were obtained from 400 married couples who responded to a postal questionnaire. The dependent variable was an index of satisfaction incorporating two aspects of household production, quality and quantity. Regression analysis indicated that of the three variables representing the extent of household production in the model — hours spent by each spouse in household production and an activity index to measure the number of household production activities — only husband's hours spent in household production demonstrated a significant, independent effect. Other significant variables included husband's hours of market work, household net worth, age of respondent and gender of respondent. Two significant interactions indicated that (i) the relationship between wife's hours of household production and satisfaction with household production differed according to the gender of the respondent, and (ii) the relationship of husband's hours of market work and satisfaction differed according to the age of the respondent.     

Food expenditure patterns of working-wife families: Meals prepared away from home versus convenience foods

This paper investigates food expenditure patterns of working-wife families, focusing on the allocation of food dollars between two major time-saving options: meals prepared away from home and convenience foods. Data are drawn from the U.S. 1983 Consumer Expenditure Survey. Analysis of variance and regression techniques are used to compare expenditure patterns of families grouped by the wife's hours worked and her earnings. The findings suggest that working-wife families prefer the purchasing of meals prepared away from home to that of convenience foods. In particular, families with high-earning, full-time working wives buy the most meals prepared away from home, while the greatest expenditures on convenience foods are observed for families with moderate-earning working wives.     

Family characteristics and convenience food expenditure in urban Korea

This study uses a sample of 39 025 urban families from the 1996 Korean Family Income and Expenditures Survey to examine the relationship between family characteristics and expenditure on convenience foods. Results indicate that age and education of the family's head, number of children, presence of children under the age of six, the wife's labour force participation, and area of residence were significant in predicting the level of expenditure on convenience foods. The present study points to and gives a rationale to differences in some of the effects as compared with those found in Western countries.     

The Determinants of Being Unbanked for U.S. Immigrants

Random‐effects binary choice models are estimated to identify the attributes that influence the likelihood that immigrants are unbanked. This study finds that the likelihood to be unbanked is higher for immigrants with less education, poverty‐level income, or a larger family but lower for immigrants with greater net worth or higher income. Among immigrant groups, Mexican and other Latin American immigrants have the highest rates of being unbanked. Programs aimed at helping immigrants move into the financial mainstream may benefit from taking into account the differences in socioeconomic attributes and migration experiences of specific populations.     

Flexibility,Skill and Technical Change in UK Retailing

This article examines employment patterns in British retailing during the 1980s. It focuses on two debates central to contemporary economic sociology: the flexibility thesis and theories of skill and technical change. The data derive fiom the ESRC's Social Change and Economic Life Initiative and represent a sample of 72 retailing establishments fiom six localities in Britain. The article reveals that technological change had not produced much in the way of deskilling: rather, it had enskilled the work of already qualified and trained employees. Whilst part-time employment had increased in many stores, there was little evidence of any significant growth of other kinds of peripheral labour.     

Effects of family livelihoods on household resource allocation in highly industrialized society

This contribution attempts to identify effects of the type of livelihood of rural family households on their economic behaviour. Economic behaviour is understood to be reflected in the total spectrum of income and allocation of household resources. A holistic approach must go beyond activity in the labour and consumer markets and include non-market (‘informal’) activities of household members, taking into account domestic production of goods and services, interaction within social networks, the use of public and commercial infrastructure, etc. Our study of resource income and allocation as a function of the household's livelihood undertook a comprehensive investigation of both market and non-market resources of the sample households. Results for full- and part-time farming family households, as well as for employee and self-employed households in the non-farm sector were compared. All survey households were comprised of four persons with an ‘intermediate’ level of family income living in disadvantaged rural areas. Apparent, but yet unquantified differences between these socio-professional groups, e.g. with regard to time-inputs into gainful activity, to regularity of income, and to joint accounting of the family and the firm/holding in self-employed households, had lent support to the hypothesis that there are marked differences in resource income and allocation strategies between these socio-professional groups. Survey results revealed, in quantitative terms, large workloads involved with self-employment, fringe benefits from dependent employment and, on the other hand, side-benefits from self-employment, such as the use of business stocks for private consumption. Compensatory effects of the disposition and use of non-market resources with regard to lower incomes was observed, as well as considerable differences between the socio-professional subsamples in strategies for and amounts of capital formation and social security. Furthermore, productive roles within the household, and the household's interaction with its social networks and other public and semi-public entities differed strongly between the socio-professional groups. Variance analysis disclosed that the findings on the above described differences in resource income and allocation between the socio-professional subsamples were statistically highly significant.     

Family resources related to wife's time inputs to housework

This study investigates the relationship of family resources to the wife's time spent in housework. Safilios-Rothschild's inventory of resources was used as a guide in selecting variables to understand utility maximization in time use. Results indicate that the number of hours the wife spent in housework increased as the number of hours spent working outside the home decreased, family size increased and her perception that income was adequate decreased. More time also was spent if she had a chronic health condition which worried her. Implications discussed included those for further research to investigate the relationship of sex roles to housework attitudes and behaviours.     

Household savings and present bias among Chinese couples: A household bargaining approach

Family savings is crucial to long-term wellbeing for all members in a household, particularly in a Chinese context where costs of living increasingly shift from government to individuals. Savings are typically examined as a balance of financial behaviors and spending preferences; however, this study highlights how savings in a family context is also a function of relationship status. Drawing on intra-household bargaining models, we analyze data from the 2014 China Family Panel Studies to examine the extent to which men's and women's relative power in the household explain variation in savings levels across families. Our findings indicate that women's greater bargaining positions (e.g., income and assets) correspond with greater savings for the family. However, such bargaining power constitutes a net negative for family savings when women have both greater relational power and higher spending preferences. We suggest that family savings can and should be understood as an outcome of dynamic bargaining conditions in addition to income factors.     

Exploring the application of IVR: lessons from retail banking

In today's increasingly competitive retail banking environment, banks are faced with the challenge of building and maintaining relationships with profitable customers while at the same time embracing technological change. So, while on the one hand increasing the role of technology in a services organisation can serve to reduce costs and often improve service reliability; on the other hand, organisations are acutely aware of the important role for personalised relationships in the delivery of their service proposition. This article reports on a qualitative research study into the perceptions of customers and staff of a large retail bank regarding the piloting of an interactive voice recognition (IVR) system. This system is regarded as a way for the case bank to benefit from technological advances, while still retaining its relationships with more profitable customers. To this end, the system was hoped to encourage lower net worth customers to increase their use of the bank's telephone banking facility, and allow branch staff, who would be freed from dealing with routine telephone enquiries, to deliver a better personalised service to high net worth customers. However, despite this rationale, the article reports the paradoxical situation that the system has been effectively rejected by customers and staff alike. The key objection is that relating to the perceived service discrimination between high and low net worth customers, the very rationale for which the IVR was introduced.     

Asymmetric information and corporate derivatives use

We investigate the relationship between derivatives use and the extent of asymmetric information faced by the firm. Using alternative analyst forecast proxies for asymmetric information, we find evidence that both the use of derivatives and the extent of derivatives usage is associated with lower asymmetric information. Specifically, for firms using derivatives (notably currency derivatives) we find that analysts' earnings forecasts have significantly greater accuracy and lower dispersion. These findings support the conjectures of DeMarzo and Duffie (1995) and Breeden and Viswanathan (1998) who argue that hedging reduces noise related to exogenous factors and hence decreases the level of asymmetric information regarding a firm's earnings. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 22: 241–267, 2002     

On the survival prospects of men's and women's new business ventures

In this study, we examine the relationship between owner and business characteristics and business survival. Our findings are based upon analyses of the Census Bureau's 1982 and 1987 Characteristics of Business Owners (CBO) survey data on a sample of white male and female sole proprietors. Two aspects of this study distinguish it from any related studies to date. First, we separately examine issues affecting the survival prospects of female-owned businesses, whereas previous studies have focussed solely on businesses owned by men. Second, we use data on cohorts of businesses started or acquired in two different time periods, namely 1980–1982 and 1985–1987. Overall, the mean survival rates of male-owned businesses in these two cohorts are 4- to 6% higher, respectively, that those of businesses owned by women.We hypothesize that wage employment provides opportunities for men and women to acquire the financial and human capital necessary for success in business ownership. In fact, most male and female business owners had some prior spell of employment in the wage sector. But there are gender differences in the status of wage workers that, we further hypothesize, could differentially impact the survival prospects of men's and women's new business ventures. First, women's lower average wage earnings may imply more binding financial constraints on the initial scale of women's businesses relative to men's. Second, we find that female owners in both cohorts are less likely than their male counterparts to have had any prior managerial experience or to have 10 or more years of general, prior paid employment experience, which may imply that female entrepreneurs are more constrained in the amount and quality of human capital that they acquire during wage employment. Female entrepreneurs' access to debt and equity capital has not been overlooked by policy makers. What has been largely overlooked are possible gender differences in the amount and quality of human capital of new entrepreneurs. Women's fewer years of general work experience and lesser exposure to managerial occupations may indicate a role for remedial education or mentoring of would-be female entrepreneurs.Women in both cohorts tended to use less financial capital to start or acquire their businesses than men did, and for the 1982 cohort, business survival is found to be positively related to the amount of start-up capital, other factors held constant. The survival prospects of both male- and female-owned businesses are greater for owners with 10 or more years of prior work experience and/or 4 or more years of college. So at least in terms of education and quantity of work experience, female entrepreneurs are at something of a disadvantage relative to their male counterparts. We find that prior managerial experience has no systematic positive or negative effects on the survival prospects of either men's or women's new business ventures, however.Finally, our research indicates that issues concerning business formation and survival must be considered within the context of prevailing macroeconomic conditions. For example, we find that the survival rates of both male- and female-owned businesses started in the 1985–1987 time period were considerably higher than those of businesses started in 1980–1982. Moreover, we uncover systematic differences in owner and business characteristics between our 1982 and 1987 cohorts, as well as differences in how these characteristics influence business survival. Specifically, both male and female owners in our 1982 cohort were better educated, were more likely to have had prior, paid managerial experience, and had more years of prior, paid employment experience, in general. Researchers interested in assessing the survival prospects of businesses over a given time period must consider changes in both product and labor markets over that period. Strength of demand in product markets will have an obvious, direct effect on business viability. The tightening and loosening of labor markets imply changes in potential wage earnings (an opportunity cost of being self-employed) and in this way can affect business dissolution.