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.     

Advantages and disadvantages associated with the increased use of microwave energy in food preparation

This paper reviews some of the advantages and disadvantages associated with the increased use of microwave energy which have been revealed in recent investigations. In the U.K., there have been many changes in household structure and in eating patterns. Lifestyles have changed as a result of the complex interaction between social, nutritional and technical developments. There are now many new products and a different mode of cooking and eating is used in which convenience is an important feature. Comparisons between households with and without microwave cookers showed a fundamental difference between time and energy used in food preparation and also between the part played by different family members in meal production. The changing roles within households and the nature of family-eating patterns were evident. Experiments were carried out to quantify some of the observed differences between food cooked by conventional methods and by using microwave energy. The microwave cooker was found to be an important domestic cooking appliance with potential for improving energy efficiency during cooking and providing convenience and increased leisure time but it must be realised that there are problems relating to product design and safety.     

Food patterns of two-parent,two-child households of urban South Louisiana

Food patterns of 105 two-parent, two-child households in South Louisiana were studied. A survey questionnaire was used for data collection. Age of youngest child was a highly significant factor in determining nutritional adequacy of family dietaries as measured by servings from the basic four food groups. Families with young children prepared more fruit and vegetables. Educational level of the spouse was an important factor in breakfast patterns; those with partial college educations served more meat. Part-time employed homemakers served more breakfast meals and used more convience feeds.     

Economic Literacy and Inflation Expectations: Evidence from a Laboratory Experiment

We present experimental evidence of a link between economic literacy and inflation forecast accuracy. The experiment investigates two channels through which economic literacy may enable better forecasts: (i) choice of information and (ii) use of information. More literate subjects choose more relevant information and use the given information more effectively. Starting from a 10th percentile score, the boost in literacy from taking an economics course predicts a 0.64 standard deviation decline in mean absolute forecasting error. Our findings suggest that a significant portion of demographic heterogeneity in inflation expectations—observed in survey data—may be driven by heterogeneity in economic literacy.     

Downward Nominal Wage Rigidities Bend the Phillips Curve

We introduce a model of monetary policy with downward nominal wage rigidities and show that both the slope and curvature of the Phillips curve depend on the level of inflation and the extent of downward nominal wage rigidities. This is true for the both the long‐run and the short‐run Phillips curve. Comparing simulation results from the model with data on U.S. wage patterns, we show that downward nominal wage rigidities likely have played a role in shaping the dynamics of unemployment and wage growth during the last three recessions and subsequent recoveries.     

Marital happiness: implications for dual career couples

Two marital myths, a woman's place is in the home and the husband is the primary wage earner or provider, were investigated in relation to marital happiness. No significant relationships were found between the variables indicating that changing lifestyles and the employment of females outside the home may be resulting in a greater equality between spouses and that women's employment does not affect marital happiness, even though job responsibilities and pressure may at times create conflict between dual career couples.     

Human Capital and Black Women's Occupational Mobility

This paper measures the contribution of human capital to the dramatic cimprovements in black women's occupational status and relative earnings since 1940, exemplified by their shift from domestic to clerical work. Logit analysis using census data from 1940-80 and CPS data from 1988 shows that improvements in African American women's human capital explains just one-sixth of their entry into clerical work. Changing labor market structures, particularly during the 1960s, appear far more important.     

International Accounting Standards and Accounting Quality

We examine whether application of International Accounting Standards (IAS) is associated with higher accounting quality. The application of IAS reflects combined effects of features of the financial reporting system, including standards, their interpretation, enforcement, and litigation. We find that firms applying IAS from 21 countries generally evidence less earnings management, more timely loss recognition, and more value relevance of accounting amounts than do matched sample firms applying non‐U.S. domestic standards. Differences in accounting quality between the two groups of firms in the period before the IAS firms adopt IAS do not account for the postadoption differences. Firms applying IAS generally evidence an improvement in accounting quality between the pre‐ and postadoption periods. Although we cannot be sure our findings are attributable to the change in the financial reporting system rather than to changes in firms' incentives and the economic environment, we include research design features to mitigate effects of both.