The Impact of Financial Crises on Labor Markets, Household Incomes, and Poverty: A Review of Evidence

The 1990s have witnessed several financial crises, of whichthe East Asia and Mexico tequila crises are perhaps the mostwell known. What impact have these crises had on labor markets,household incomes, and poverty? Total employment fell by muchless than production declines and even increased in some cases.However, these aggregates mask considerable churning in employmentacross sectors, employment status, and location. Economies thatexperienced the sharpest currency depreciations suffered thedeepest cuts in real wages, though deeper cuts in real wagesrelative to GDP were associated with smaller rises in unemployment.To some extent, families smoothed their incomes through increasedlabor force participation and private transfers, though thelimited evidence available suggests that wealthier familieswere better able to smooth consumption. The initial impact ofthe crises was on the urban corporate sector, but rural householdswere affected as well and in some instances suffered deeperlosses than did urban families. School enrollment declined,especially among poorer families, as did use of health facilities,but he impact on children's nutrition levels appears to vary.Crises have typically proved short-lived, but whether householdsplunged into poverty during a crisis are able to recover asthe economy does remains an open question.      

Making wellness the focus: one employer's story

The rising cost of health care threatens the very fabric of American society. With Americans widely practicing unhealthy life habits, such as using tobacco, eating imprudently and leading a sedentary lifestyle, they are at risk for health conditions that threaten to make them long-term liabilities to their employer. This article tells how one U.S. employer chooses to focus its workforce on wellness.     

An algebraic theory of portfolio allocation

Summary. Using group and majorization theory, we explore what can be established about allocation of funds among assets when asymmetries in the returns vector are carefully controlled. The key insight is that preferences over allocations can be partially ordered via majorized convex hulls that have been generated by a permutation group. Group transitivity suffices to ensure complete portfolio diversification. Point-wise stabilizer subgroups admit sectoral separability in fund allocations. We also bound the admissible allocation vector by a set of linear constraints the coefficients of which are determined by group operations on location and scale asymmetries in the rate of returns vector. For a distribution that is symmetric under a reflection group, the linear constraints may be further strengthened whenever there exists an hyperplane that separates convex sets. Received: May 15, 2001; revised version: March 20, 2002 RID="*" ID="*" Journal paper No. J-19797 of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa. Project No. 3463, and supported by Hatch Act and State of Iowa funds. Correspondence to: D. A. Hennessy     

Prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is the most common internal cancer in American males. There are many variables that effect prognosis, with the Gleason scoring system being one of the most important factors. There is controversy regarding the ideal treatment in various subsets of prostate cancer patients. Posttreatment prostate specific antigen values have prognostic significance.     

A new century approach for alcohol screen in the insurance industry

Several recent studies point to the value of using combinations of biochemical markers for the identification of alcohol abuse. The Early Detection of Alcohol Consumption (EDAC) test uses a statistical method that combines the results of several routine laboratory tests to form a metabolic fingerprint for each subject. In this study, we evaluated the use of the EDAC test as a screening tool to assess heavy drinking in insurance applicants. The EDAC was calculated by linear discriminate function analysis using the results of 14 routine tests including liver enzymes, lipids, proteins, and blood sugars. We collected and analyzed 1680 random samples at Heritage Laboratories (Olathe, Kan). Alcohol Detection Services (Brookfield, Wis) and Millennium Strategies (Madison, Wis) collaborated in the data analysis and interpretation of laboratory tests results. Ninety-three percent of applicants showed a negative EDAC test. The 7% (n = 134) who screened positive for the EDAC test were then reflexed to carbohydrate deficient transferin (CDT) and whole blood associated acetaldehyde (WBAA). Sixteen percent (22/134) showed a positive confirmatory test. Among these 16% of subjects, 41% (9/22) showed no elevations in liver enzymes or HDL-C results. Four of these subjects were among the top one third with the highest elevations for the CDT test in the entire group and one of them was positive for both the CDT and WBAA tests. These results suggest that the EDAC screen may provide an efficient alternative screening tool for the identification of heavy alcohol consumption not HBA as it identifies applicants with both normal or abnormal liver enzymes and HDL-C.