Are Minimum Wage Effects Greater in Low‐Wage Areas?

Empirical work on the minimum wage typically estimates effects averaged across high‐ and low‐wage areas. Low‐wage labor markets could potentially be less able to absorb minimum wage increases, in turn leading to more negative employment effects. In this article, we examine minimum wage effects in low‐wage counties, where relative minimum wage ratios reach as high as 0.82, well beyond the state‐based ratios in extant studies. Using data from the American Community Survey, the Quarterly Workforce Indicators, and the Quarterly Census on Employment and Wages, we implement event study and difference‐in‐differences methods, estimating average causal effects for all events in our sample and separately for areas with lower and higher impacts. We find positive wage effects, especially in high‐impact counties, but do not detect adverse effects on employment, weekly hours, or annual weeks worked. We do not find negative employment effects among women, Blacks, and/or Hispanics. In high‐impact counties, we find substantial declines in household and child poverty. These results inform policy debates about providing exemptions to a $15 federal minimum wage in low‐wage areas.     

Evaluating rater training with double-pretest one-posttest designs: an analysis of testing effects and the moderating role of rater self-efficacy

Abstract

Previous research on performance appraisal in Human Resource Management has found that frame-of-reference (FOR) training can improve rating accuracy. However, both the time-consuming development of training materials and the almost exclusive use of experimental evaluation designs limit the dissemination of FOR training as well as a better understanding of how and when it works. Therefore, unlike past research, the present studies used more general rater training materials and examined improvements in rater accuracy by means of a double-pretest one-posttest design. Study 1, using a student sample (the majority being part-time employees; N = 58), demonstrated the effectiveness of the rater training over and above a testing effect. Study 2 with participants from the workforce population (N = 45) replicated these results. In addition, in Study 2, pre-training rater self-efficacy moderated rater training effectiveness such that the rating accuracy of trainees with low self-efficacy improved more than did accuracy scores of trainees high in rater self-efficacy. We conclude that an effective FOR training can be conducted with less organization-specific materials, though both testing effects must be controlled for and individual differences (i.e. rater self-efficacy) between trainees have to be taken into account.     

Berlin’s electricity distribution grid: an urban energy transition in a national regulatory context

Germany has set ambitious targets to transform its energy system from being based on fossil fuels and nuclear to renewable energies, requiring electricity grids to be upgraded. As a result there is significant public pressure in some German cities to exert greater local control over electricity distribution infrastructure. A case study approach was used to investigate contestations around ownership and governance of Berlin’s electricity distribution grid. Actors at the local level perceive the national institutional framework supporting liberalised energy markets as not designed to adapt electricity distribution grids to the challenges of the Energiewende (energy turn) and to be instead hampering investment, innovation and the involvement of local actors. By analysing politics of grid ownership and governance, and emerging tensions between a national regulatory framework and more locally bounded energy system visions, our study contributes to the emerging academic debate on urban energy transitions.     

Das Betreuungsgeld — eine kritische ökonomische Analyse

Für die Einführung des Betreuungsgeldes sprechen aus Sicht der Befürworter viele Argumente: mehr Wahlfreiheit, Anerkennung der Betreuungsleistung von Eltern, Ausgleich für die Nichtinanspruchnahme von Leistungen und eine Verbesserung des Kindeswohls. Die Autorinnen unterziehen die verschiedenen Argumente einer kritischen Analyse und kommen zu dem Ergebnis, dass aus ?konomischer Perspektive keines stichhaltig ist. Zudem würde das Betreuungsgeld nachteilige Effekte wie eine Verfestigung der Lohnunterschiede zwischen den Geschlechtern erzeugen.     

Do we know how much poverty there is?

This paper tests the sensitivity of poverty indexes to the choice of adult equivalence scales, assumptions about the existence of economies of scale in consumption, methods for treating missing and zero incomes, and different adjustments to handle income misreporting. The sensitivity analysis is applied to household survey data from 17 Latin American countries, which include 92% of the population in the region. By varying these parameters within reasonable boundaries we found that the proportion of poor could be said to be either 20% or 66%. Furthermore, the ranking of countries with respect to poverty is highly sensitive to the underlying choices for poverty measurement. We also perform sensitivity analysis to the use of different poverty lines and poverty indexes, which are issues that have been explored much more in the literature. Even after considering these elements, the most sensitive choice appears to be the method used to adjust for misreporting. These findings point, first, to the need to be explicit about the underlying assumptions behind poverty statistics, second, to the need to perform sensitivity analysis when estimating levels and trends in poverty, and third, to the importance of establishing a set of conventions that would be accepted as “best practices” in estimating poverty indexes.     

Leveraging the Existing US Healthcare Structure for Consumer Financial Well-Being: Barriers,Opportunities, and a Framework toward Future Research

Healthcare exchange often contains peril for consumers because of numerous barriers to financial well-being (FWB). Rather than ruing specific agendas of healthcare policy, we embrace a neutral and immediately actionable approach. The authors promote gains in healthcare's current composition by empowering consumers to be proactive, where possible, in reducing power inequities and improving their own FWB. As such, the authors identify primary barriers to the FWB of healthcare consumers and propose individual opportunities within the existing healthcare structure that are likely to improve fiscal outcomes. Moreover, the current research demonstrates collaborative paths wherein power-holders (i.e., practitioner, researcher, consumer, government) can collaborate toward and/or contribute to the same financial health. A proposed theoretical framework, with foundations of power-responsibility equilibrium and transformative service research, gives rise to future research directions. This research is intended to provide a foundation for healthcare and FWB thought/action, and to guide coming scholarly offerings.     

Continuous prophylaxis with recombinant factor IX Fc fusion protein and conventional recombinant factor IX products: comparisons of efficacy and weekly factor consumption

Background: Continuous prophylaxis for patients with hemophilia B requires frequent injections that are burdensome and that may lead to suboptimal adherence and outcomes. Hence, therapies requiring less-frequent injections are needed. In the absence of head-to-head comparisons, this study compared the first extended-half-life-recombinant factor IX (rFIX) product—recombinant factor IX Fc fusion protein (rFIXFc)—with conventional rFIX products based on annualized bleed rates (ABRs) and factor consumption reported in studies of continuous prophylaxis.

Methods: This study compared ABRs and weekly factor consumption rates in clinical studies of continuous prophylaxis treatment with rFIXFc and conventional rFIX products (identified by systematic literature review) in previously-treated adolescents and adults with moderate-to-severe hemophilia B. Meta-analysis was used to pool ABRs reported for conventional rFIX products for comparison. Comparisons of weekly factor consumption were based on the mean, reported or estimated from the mean dose per injection.

Results: Five conventional rFIX studies (injections 1 to >3 times/week) met the criteria for comparison with once-weekly rFIXFc reported by the B-LONG study. The pooled mean ABR for conventional rFIX was slightly higher than but comparable to rFIXFc (difference=0.71; p?=?0.210). Weekly factor consumption was significantly lower with rFIXFc than in conventional rFIX studies (difference in means?=?42.8–74.5?IU/kg/week [93–161%], p?Conclusion: Comparisons of clinical study results suggest weekly injections with rFIXFc result in similar bleeding rates and significantly lower weekly factor consumption compared with more-frequently-injected conventional rFIX products. The real-world effectiveness of rFIXFc may be higher based on results from a model of the impact of simulated differences in adherence.     

Adaptive grids for the estimation of dynamic models

Quantitative Marketing and Economics - This paper develops a method to flexibly adapt interpolation grids of value function approximations in the estimation of dynamic models using either NFXP...