Food Access,Program Participation,and Health: Research Using FoodAPS

This piece is an introduction to the symposium on Food Access, Program Participation, and Health: Research using FoodAPS. The symposium includes articles presented at the National Bureau of Economic Research Conference on Food Security on December 7 and 8, 2017. The research herein was supported by the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, grant number 59‐5000‐5‐0115. The grant included funding to study the effects of various food assistance programs on outcomes, using data from the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS). We describe the programs and the FoodAPS data, and point out highlights from the articles.     

Impact of Immigration on Inhabitants' Educational Investments

We examine whether immigration into the labour market of the building and construction (BaC) industry affects enrolment in vocational programmes that teach the skills required in this industry. Results suggest that a higher supply of immigrant labour is associated with lower enrolment into programmes teaching BaC skills. The strength of this relationship increases according to the grades that the students achieved in lower secondary school. This finding indicates that the negative effect of immigration on educational recruitment is mainly caused by students who turn away from these programmes, rather than a reduction in apprenticeship positions offered by employers.     

Spacing identity: Unfolding social and spatial-material entanglements of identity performance

In this paper, we analyze how architectural design, and the spatial and material changes this involves, contributes to the continuous shaping of identities in an organization. Based upon a case study of organizational and architectural change in a municipal administration at a time of major public sector reforms, we examine how design interventions were used to (re)form work and professional relationships. The paper examines how engagements with spatial arrangements and material artifacts affected people’s sense of both occupational and organizational identity. Taking a relational approach to sociomateriality, the paper contributes to the further theorizing of space in organization studies by proposing the concept of spacing identity to capture the fluidity of identity performance.     

Endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms

Endovascular abdominal aortic repair (EVAR) offers a less invasive approach to treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) compared to traditional open repair. EVAR is illustrated with before and post-repair CT angiographic images. Procedure indications, usage and available outcomes data are summarized; however, the long-term outcome of current endografts is not known.     

Examining world-wide purchasing power parity

We examine long-run PPP between Germany, Great Britain, Japan and the United States over the period 1930–1996 using multivariate cointegration techniques. Bilateral PPP between the four countries is examined in one system (as opposed to e.g. series of trivariate systems). In all of the statistical analysis, asymptotic tests are augmented by parametric bootstrap analogues, whereby we reduce, if not eliminate, the size distortion typically present in small-sample studies. The cointegration analysis provides support for the necessary conditions for PPP (i.e. cointegrating relations are found) but not for the sufficient conditions (i.e., the coefficients in the cointegrating relations are far from what PPP predicts). These results are at odds with results from other studies that also analyze long-horizon data sets.First version received: November 2000/Final version received: February 2003Comments by Stefan Norrbin, Lee Ohanian, Anders Vredin, seminar-participants at Sveriges Riksbank (the central bank of Sweden) and at the Econometric Society European Meeting in Santiago de Compostela are gratefully acknowledged.     

Why An International Code of Business Ethics Would Be Good for Business

Many international business training programs present a viewpoint of cultural relativism that encourages business people to adapt to the host country's culture. This paper presents an argument that cultural relativism is not always appropriate for business ethics; rather, a code of conduct must be adapted which presents guidelines for core ethical business conduct across cultures. Both moral and economic evidence is provided to support the argument for a universal code of ethics. Also, four steps are presented that will help ensure that company ethical standards are followed internationally.     

Fathers' whereabouts and children's welfare in Malawi

Children's welfare may be affected by the absence of a parent – be it due to migration, divorce or death. These reasons for absence have largely been addressed separately in the literature; we present a unified framework. Using Demographic and Health Survey data from Malawi, we compare welfare indicators for four categories of children: those who live with both parents, and those who live with their mother but whose father is absent due to migration, divorce, or death. We find a clear pattern of welfare differences: children whose father is either present or a migrant are better off, and children whose father is deceased or whose parents are divorced are worse off. Our findings indicate that concern about the welfare of migrants' children might be exaggerated. By contrast, vulnerable children of divorcees are at risk of being overlooked in a policy environment that focuses on orphans.     

International risk‐sharing in the short run and in the long run

Abstract International risk‐sharing has far‐reaching implications both for economic policy and for basic research in economics. When countries do not share consumption risk, individuals experience consumption fluctuations that are undesirable and possibly unnecessary. We investigate bilateral risk‐sharing at short vs. long horizons. We find substantial cross‐country consumption correlations at trend and business‐cycle frequencies. Correlations are particularly high within Europe. Prior research focused on first‐difference correlations, which are typically quite low. We argue that this reflects measurement error. At all horizons, we find that consumption correlations are not significantly different from output correlations, implying a lack of deliberate consumption risk‐sharing.