Dynamic models of the labor force behavior of married women which can be estimated using limited amounts of past information

This paper examines the extent of the inadequacy of standard cross-sectional models of US labor force behavior and considers the abilities of alternative models to capture the observed continuity in the hours of work and earnings of individuals as well as in their employment histories. Both of the alternatives to the standard cross-sectional model considered in this study incorporate limited amounts of information about past work behavior that could easily be collected as part of a national population census. Using a population of 21 to 64 year old married working women taken from a 1969 through 1978 Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the variables included in the Z vector age: 1) age of the wife; 2) education of the wife; 3) state average hourly wage in manufacturing measured in 1967 dollars; and 4) unemployment rate for the state in which the wife lives. Results show that by using information about a women's hours of work and wage rate in the previous year, it may be feasible to improve on forecasts of a woman's employment and earnings behavior. For each model a separate estimate is made for wives aged 21 through 46, and for those aged 47 through 64. The dummy and difference models perform much better than the standard model, with the dummy model having the higher pseudo-chi-square statistic. These models show that systematic errors made in determining which individuals work, what they earn per hour, or how many hours they work, should result in prediction errors of the same sort year after year in the computation of annual earnings. These findings with respect to years of work and nonwork, years of part time versus full time work, and cumulative earnings over a 10 year period, confirm and extend Heckman's findings; thus, forecasting models of the work behavior of individuals should not be estimated using pure cross-sectional data. It would be important if researchers could identify what observable factors, if any, increase the likelihood that wives will alter their work behavior from what it has been in the immediate past, even if they are not able to fully understand or explain this previous work behavior.     

On the performance of tests by Wu and by Hausman for detecting the ordinary least squares bias problem

We first consider the performance of the Wu (1973) - Hausman (1978) (W-H) specification error test as a test for the existence of ordinary least squares (OLS) bias. We discuss power properties of the test under alternative null hypotheses, one of which has not previously been considered. We next consider how the W-H test performs as an indicator of the extent (rather than the existence) of an OLS bias problem, since this usage of the test seems common in applied studies. Finally Monte Carlo methods are used to evaluate Wu's two-step estimation procedure involving the W-H test as a pretest.     

Do TV-aided model lessons in class improve student performance? Evidence from public primary schools in Papua New Guinea

Lack of access to high-quality education remains a serious concern in many developing countries. This is especially the case for rural areas, including islands suffering from a shortage of skilled teachers and sufficient educational equipment. We examine the impact of introducing TV-aided model lessons in class to enhance the quality of teaching (the EQUITV project) on the national examination test scores of Mathematics and “Combined Subject” (a comprehensive subject comprising 30% science and 70% social studies and other topics) as well as English in the final year of primary education in Papua New Guinea. We employ a panel event study to capture the different timings of the intervention across schools over multiple time periods. We find that the project significantly and robustly improved test scores for girls only in English 3 years after the introduction of the project, but no improvement was seen for boys.     

Dynamic Investment Strategies to Reaction–Diffusion Systems Based upon Stochastic Differential Utilities

We study the dynamic investment strategies in continuous-time settings based upon stochastic differential utilities of Duffie and Epstein (Econometrica 60:353–394, 1992). We assume that the asset prices follow interacting Itô-Poisson processes, which are known to be the so-called reaction–diffusion systems. Stochastic maximum principle for stochastic control problems described by some backward-stochastic differential equations that are driven by Poisson jump processes allows us to derive the optimal investment strategies as well as optimal consumption. We shall furthermore propose a numerical procedure for solving the associated nested quasi-linear partial differential equations.     

Corrigendum to “Stable matchings and preferences of couples” [J. Econ. Theory 121 (1) (2005) 75–106]

We correct an omission in the definition of the domain of weakly responsive preferences introduced in [B. Klaus, F. Klijn, Stable matchings and preferences of couples, J. Econ. Theory 121 (2005) 75–106] or KK05 for short. The proof of the existence of stable matchings [KK05, Theorem 3.3] and a maximal domain result [KK05, Theorem 3.5] are adjusted accordingly.