The Economic Impact of AIDS Treatment: Labor Supply in Western Kenya

Using longitudinal survey data collected in collaboration with a treatment program, this paper estimates the economic impacts of antiretroviral treatment. The responses in two outcomes are studied: (1) labor supply of treated adult AIDS patients; and (2) labor supply of individuals in patients' households. Within six months after treatment initiation, there is a 20 percent increase in the likelihood of the patient participating in the labor force and a 35 percent increase in weekly hours worked. Young boys in treated patients' households work significantly less after treatment initiation, while girls and adult household members do not change their labor supply.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Von Bloggern und Beamern</Emphasis>

Zusammenfasung  Neue Medien in der Pflege — Unsere Pflegeausbildung hat die Chance, multimedial zu werden. Und wir selbst k?nnen unsere pers?nlichen Erlebnisse, unseren Frust und unsere Ideen in Internetforen austauschen oder als Blogger und Bloggerin loswerden. Zwei Pflege-Azubis schreiben über ihre Erfahrungen.     

Keeping Up With the Joneses: Analyzing the Effect of Income Inequality on Consumer Borrowing

Household debt relative to disposable income increased from 60% in 1980 to 104% at the end of 2003. ‘Buying on credit’ has become so popular that an increasing number of firms generate more profit from financing than from selling their products. In this paper, we show that rising income inequality has substantially contributed to increased consumer borrowing. Income inequality affects all components of total household debt, but the impact is strongest on non-revolving debt (installment loans), which is used to finance the purchase of consumer durables. We argue and provide evidence that the income inequality effect on consumer borrowing is a result of conspicuous consumption. Rising income inequality has forced households with smaller income gains to use debt to keep up their consumption level relative to households with larger income gains.JEL Classification: D12, G29, J31, M30     

Optimal Self-Reporting Schemes with Multiple Stages and Option Values

We consider a model of optimal law enforcement where sanctions can be reduced for self-reporting individuals. We distinguish between a first self-reporting stage before the case is investigated and a second one where the criminal is detected, but not yet convicted. Since we assume that violators have private information in both stages, fine reductions for self-reporting individuals lead ceteris paribus to a higher violation frequency. Nevertheless, we show that fine reductions should be granted in both stages. We characterize the connection between the two fine reductions in the optimal policy and relate our results to self-reporting schemes observed in reality.     

Integrating benefits decision making

Integrated employee benefit decision making helps employees use their benefits more wisely and identify opportunities to balance their immediate benefits needs (such as health care) and future benefits needs (such as retirement). This article discusses how employers can overcome employees' behavioral barriers to making integrated employee benefit decisions by changing the ways benefits are communicated and employees are presented with action decisions. Undertaking these steps allows employers to not only improve their employees' overall financial perspectives, but also furthers plan sponsors' goals of actively promoting personal responsibility with respect to retirement funding and changing employee behavior with respect to controlling health care costs.     

Time-Varying Betas of German Stock Returns

The market model assumes stock returns to be a linear function of the market return. However, there is considerable evidence that the beta stability assumption commonly used when estimating the market model is invalid. In this paper we account for beta instability in German stock returns by allowing the coefficients to vary over time in estimation. For time-varying beta estimation we rely on the Flexible Least Squares approach, the Random Walk Model and Moving Window Least Squares. Due to our results time-varying estimation fits the data considerably better than time-invariant estimation and, hence, increases the efficiency of beta based risk measurement.Acknowledgements: The authors thank Stefan Mittnik, Christian Pigorsch, an anonymous referee and the editor for constructive comments.     

REFERENCE NORMS,STAGGERED WAGES,AND WAGE LEADERSHIP: THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS AND EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE*

This article presents an extension of the Taylor model with staggered wages in which wage setting is also influenced by reference norms. We show that reference norms can considerably increase the persistence of inflation but that the size of this effect depends on the exact definition (e.g., external vs. internal, symmetric vs. asymmetric norms). Using data on collectively bargained wages in Austria from 1980 to 2006 we show that wage setting is strongly influenced by reference norms, that external norms seem to matter more than internal norms, and that there is a clear indication for the existence of wage leadership (asymmetric norms).