Does Maternal Age Affect Children's Test Scores?

We estimate the relationship between maternal age and child outcomes, using indices aimed at measuring overall outcomes, learning outcomes and social outcomes. In all cases, we find evidence that children of older mothers have better outcomes. Not only do children born to mothers in their twenties do better than children born to teen mothers, but children born to mothers in their thirties do better than children born to mothers in their twenties. However, when we control for other socioeconomic characteristics, such as family income, parental education and single parenthood, the coefficients on maternal age become small and statistically insignificant. The only exception is an index of social outcomes, which is positively associated with maternal age, even controlling for socioeconomic factors. For cognitive outcomes, young motherhood appears to be a marker, not a cause, of poor child outcomes.     

A Two-stage Cournot Duopoly with Inventory Costs

This paper analyses the Cournot duopoly model which has two production periods before the market clears. As shown by Saloner (1987), if inventory costs are zero, many outcomes including both Cournot and Stackelberg outcomes are subgame perfect equilibrium outcomes. However, if small inventory costs are introduced, the Cournot outcome is no longer found in equilibrium and the equilibrium outcomes are only of Stackelberg-type. This suggests that more attention should be paid to the Stackelberg model than to the Cournot model.     

How do dimensions of proximity relate to the outcomes of collaboration? A survey of knowledge-intensive networks in the Dutch water sector

There is a growing body of literature on the importance of proximity for innovation and other knowledge-related outcomes. We examine the impact of geographical, social, organisational, and cognitive proximity for a heterogeneous population, including people from academia, knowledge institutes, industry, and government. We analyse data on 1020 ego–alter relationships, derived from a survey among water professionals in the Netherlands. The use of survey data allows for more refined indicators of proximity and more diverse collaboration outcomes than those common in the literature. Social and cognitive proximity have a positive effect for all outcomes examined. Geographical and organisational proximity have a negative effect on hard (tangible) outcomes yet a weak positive (if any) effect on soft (intangible) outcomes. We do not find evidence for the suggestions in the conceptual literature that proximity follows an inverted U-curve where most outcomes are achieved in relations with some but not too much proximity.     

Elections and unemployment benefits for families: Did the Family Benefit Dispute affect election outcomes in Germany?

Underlying reasons for certain voting outcomes are subject to a vivid debate – especially in times of landslide changes in voting outcomes of long-established parties in many European countries including Germany. The linkages between these voting outcomes and economic indicators are rather elusive since many confounding and unobservable aspects determine voting decisions. Exploiting a quasi-natural experiment resulting from a legislation change in the German state of Bavaria that effectively increased family benefits for unemployment benefit recipients in certain districts, we try to identify the effect of this legislation on voting outcomes in the Bavarian state election of 2018. While we do not find a significant effect on general election outcomes in the affected districts, our results imply that the general debate seems to have affected the voting behavior of families with unemployment benefits and children under the age of three.     

Beyond baseline and follow-up: The case for more T in experiments

The vast majority of randomized experiments in economics rely on a single baseline and single follow-up survey. While such a design is suitable for study of highly autocorrelated and relatively precisely measured outcomes in the health and education domains, it is unlikely to be optimal for measuring noisy and relatively less autocorrelated outcomes such as business profits, and household incomes and expenditures. Taking multiple measurements of such outcomes at relatively short intervals allows one to average out noise, increasing power. When the outcomes have low autocorrelation and budget is limited, it can make sense to do no baseline at all. Moreover, I show how for such outcomes, more power can be achieved with multiple follow-ups than allocating the same total sample size over a single follow-up and baseline. I also highlight the large gains in power from ANCOVA analysis rather than difference-in-differences analysis when autocorrelations are low.     

The effect of telehealth insurance mandates on health-care utilization and outcomes

This paper uses panel data techniques to investigate the impact of state mandates to cover telehealth services on private insurance premiums and enrollment, health-care utilization, and health outcomes. There is evidence that telehealth insurance mandates are associated with an increase in primary care, but no significant changes in overall health outcomes. However, there is evidence of a reduction of secondary care and improvement in health outcomes in non-metropolitan areas. The results provide useful information regarding the potential of telehealth to reduce health-care costs as well as to reduce disparities in access to health care and in health outcomes.     

过程、结果维度的环境治理与企业财务绩效

目前国内外对于环境治理与企业财务绩效之间关系的研究,结论不一致且不能有效比较,可能是由于没有区分环境治理的不同维度,而高成本的环境治理过程与环境治理结果之间的关系尚不明确。本文基于2009—2017年A股公司年报手工搜集企业环境治理数据,基于权衡理论、自然资源理论和TLGT效应等,检验了环境治理过程和结果与企业财务绩效之间的非线性关系。结果发现:环境治理过程正向影响环境治理结果,而环境治理过程和结果两个维度都与企业财务绩效呈U型关系,较差的环境治理过程和结果均负向影响财务绩效,而较好的环境治理过程和结果均正向影响财务绩效,并且环境治理结果在环境治理过程和企业财务绩效之间发挥非线性中介作用。进一步检验发现,过程维度的环境治理仅通过成本效应路径影响财务绩效,而结果维度的环境治理同时通过成本效应路径和差异化效应路径影响财务绩效。本文基于中国的制度背景将环境治理划分为治理过程和治理结果两个维度,为企业环境治理与财务绩效之间的关系提供了经验证据,并对促进中国企业环境治理提供了一定启示。     

Mathematical structure of voting paradoxes

Summary. A theory is developed to explain all positional voting outcomes that can result from a single but arbitrarily chosen profile. This includes all outcomes, paradoxes, and disagreements among positional procedure outcomes as well as all discrepancies in rankings as candidates are dropped or added. The theory explains why each outcome occurs while identifying all illustrating profiles. It is shown how to use this approach to derive properties of methods based on pairwise and positional voting outcomes. Pairwise voting is addressed in the preceding companion paper [15]; the theory for positional methods is developed here.     

Prenatal care and birthweight in Mexico

We estimate the marginal impact of prenatal care (PNC) on birth outcomes in Mexico using nationally representative data on about 14 million births from 2009 to 2014. Given the possible self-selection into PNC, we attempt to identify the causal impact of PNC on birth outcomes by estimating an instrumental variable model. We find positive impacts of increased prenatal visits on birthweight (BW), length and apgar score of the newborn. Moreover, the impacts of PNC on birth outcomes differ by mother’s education, development level of the municipality where the mother resides and BW distribution. We also find suggestive evidence that PNC visits affect birth outcomes through the reduction in pre-term births.     

Asset booms and fat tails in East Asia: Symmetric or asymmetric risks?

Do housing and equity booms significantly raise the probability at the margin of the realization of extreme outcomes in output and prices, and are the worst outcomes just as likely to occur as the good ones? This study addresses these questions for a group of eight East Asian countries. The risk of extreme outcomes occurring is measured by the probability of being in the tails of a distribution. The distributions of real output-and price level-gaps exhibit fat tails, in which the probability and size of the worst possible outcomes are higher than if the distribution were normal. Expected real output- and price level-losses from asset booms would therefore be larger than suggested by the normal distribution if asset price booms significantly raise the risk of extreme outcomes occurring. The main findings are that (i) asset price booms in housing and equity markets, but especially in housing, significantly raise the probability at the margin that real output- and price level-gaps will be in the tails of worst outcomes of their respective distributions and (ii) the risks arising from asset booms are not symmetric-only particularly bad outcomes are more likely. The implication for monetary policy is that an approach that is ex-ante more compatible with risk management may be appropriate.     

The Long‐Term Impacts of the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games on Economic and Labor Market Outcomes

This paper aims to assess the long‐term effects of the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games on various economic and labor market outcomes in Nagano Prefecture. One‐shot and large‐size events, such as the Olympic Games, are expected to boost the local economy and create jobs, thus leading to lower unemployment. In addition, the tightening of the local labor market eventually raises wages. Using the synthetic control methodology, we build counterfactual dynamics of various economic and labor market outcomes for Nagano Prefecture, and then compare these outcomes with the actual data for these variables. This allows us to determine how the local economic and labor market outcomes in Nagano Prefecture would have been different had the 1998 Olympic Games not been held there.     

Lessons from My School

This article presents analyses of the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) data and data on other indicators that are made available through the My School website. There are large differences across states and types of schools (independent, Catholic and government) in the Year 3 NAPLAN outcomes, though the differences across states tend to diminish as outcomes for later years of study are examined. Some schools are shown to consistently have academic outcomes better than their characteristics would otherwise indicate; conversely, other schools are shown to consistently have academic outcomes below the levels their characteristics would otherwise indicate. Few of these differences are statistically significant.     

Non-cognitive child outcomes and universal high quality child care

Exploiting a rich panel data child survey merged with administrative records along with a pseudo-experiment generating variation in the take-up of preschool across municipalities, we provide evidence of the effects on non-cognitive child outcomes of participating in large scale publicly provided universal preschool programs and family day care vis-à-vis home care. We find that, compared to home care, being enrolled in preschool at age three does not lead to significant differences in child outcomes at age seven no matter the gender or the mother's level of education. Family day care, on the other hand, seems to significantly deteriorate outcomes for boys whose mothers have a lower level of education. Finally, longer hours in non-parental care lead to poorer child outcomes.     

A model for testing the relationship of nursing care and patient outcomes

Studying patient outcomes alone may not provide enough information to determine the associated factors that must be improved when the desired patient outcomes are not achieved. The purpose of this correlational study was to investigate the effects of perceived quality of nursing care and coordination of care on patients' comfort, satisfaction, and length of hospital stay. The overall model-data fit was good according to four indices: the chi-square value, goodness of fit index, adjusted goodness of fit index, and the Steigers root square error of approximation. The proposed model, effects of care quality on patient outcomes, was tested. The relationship between quality of nursing care and the proposed outcomes was tested. The results provide important information to the nursing profession and policymakers in meeting patient care needs.     

Divisionalisation and Cournot Competition Yield Bertrand Outcomes

Bertrand and Cournot model are the main frameworks in the analysis of oligopolistic competition. The outcomes from them are however different. Using a simultaneous-move two-stage game, this article shows that, in a homogeneous product market with fairly general demand, the Bertrand outcomes can be achieved by a combination of divisionalisation and ensuing Cournot competition. This finding can be viewed as an extension to or complements of Kreps and Scheinkman (1983), who show that Cournot outcomes can be achieved by quantity precommitment and Bertrand competition.     

The effect of randomized school admissions on voter participation

There is little causal evidence on the effect of economic and policy outcomes on voting behavior. This paper uses randomized outcomes from a school choice lottery to examine if lottery outcomes affect voting behavior in a school board election. We show that losing the lottery has no significant impact on overall voting behavior; however, among white families, those with above median income and prior voting history, lottery losers were significantly more likely to vote than lottery winners. Using propensity score methods, we compare the voting of lottery participants to similar families who did not participate in the lottery. We find that losing the school choice lottery caused an increase in voter turnout among whites, while winning the lottery had no effect relative to non-participants. Overall, our empirical results lend support to models of expressive and retrospective voting, where likely voters are motivated to vote by past negative policy outcomes.     

Variable factors and eficiency in the US seel idustry: a Production Frontier Analysis

In an efficient NFL beting market, point spreads incorporate all relevant information contained in past game outcomes. Efficiency implies that trading rules based on past game outcomes should not be able to produce a consistent pattern of winners over losers. This study identifies 15 trading rules based on historical game outcomes and, using simulated gambling, tests them over the 1984–1986 NFL seasons. The study's main finding indicates that the NFL betting market is efficient, but does identify a small set of profitable trading rules over this time period.     

Purification of incentive compatible allocations

In implementation theory it is common to consider social choice functions that map to lotteries over outcomes. For example, virtual implementation has been used widely with social choice functions that involve randomization. This paper investigates (in incomplete information environments) the possibility of purification of such social choice functions, where purification means that the “replacement” social choice function maps to outcomes rather than distributions over outcomes, is incentive compatible and generates the same distribution over payoffs and outcomes as the original social choice function. Received: July 31, 2000; revised version: December 2, 2002 RID="*" ID="*" Thanks are due to Ole Nielsen, Terence Tao and Lin Zhou for helpful conversations. Thanks are also due to an anonymous referee for detailed comments.     

ARE COMPUTERS AT HOME A FORM OF CONSUMPTION OR AN INVESTMENT? A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS FOR JAPAN*

This study examines the effect on labour market outcomes, of computer possession at home using longitudinal data collected in Japan. There are positive correlations between computer possession and women's full‐time employment and the salaries of both men and women. In a fixed effects analysis, however, no temporal, causal effects of computer possession on labour market outcomes were found. Overall, the results suggest that the positive correlation between computer possession and better labour market outcomes does not imply causality among workers strongly attached to the labour market.     

Do natural resources help or hinder development? Resource abundance,dependence, and the role of institutions

The resource curse literature presents conflicting evidence on the relationship between natural resources and development. We evaluate the direct effect of resources on developmental outcomes vis-à-vis their indirect effect through the weakening of political institutions using a 3SLS instrumental variable setup that simultaneously estimates development outcomes and institutions. We find that resource abundance and resource dependence affect development outcomes through different channels. While resource abundance generally has a direct positive effect on developmental outcomes, resource dependence has a stronger negative indirect effect that operates through its negative impact on institutional quality. The results also depend on the type of development outcome considered, with more consistent positive direct effects found for physical capital measures and stronger negative indirect effects for human capital development. The use of a simultaneous framework and dual measures of resources reconciles seemingly contradictory findings in earlier work.