Unexpected windfalls,education, and mental health: evidence from lottery winners in Germany

This paper investigates the causal impact of large unexpected windfalls on individual mental health, physical health, as well as health behaviors. I use a large individual-level panel data set of lottery winners from Germany between the years 2000 and 2011 and observe lottery winners before and after winning a large lottery prize. Mental health declines immediately after winning a large lottery prize for individuals with low education and low levels of financial literacy. While these individuals report being happier after winning the lottery, evidence from commonly used SF-12 measures of mental health indicates that winners with low education experience increased role limitations due to emotional problems, are more anxious, and have less energy after their win. The impact on various measures of mental health is highly robust, statistically significant, economically significant, and persists for up to two years after the win. Unexpected windfalls have no impact on the mental health of individuals with high education or high financial literacy. Winning the lottery has no impact on individuals’ health behaviors such as smoking or alcohol consumption, and it has no impact on doctor visits, hospital stays, or illness-related work absences regardless of education level.     

Testing the significance and the non-linearity of the Phillips trade-off in the Euro Area

This paper tests the significance and the non-linearity of the Phillips trade-off in the aggregate Euro Area, in an unobserved components model of stochastic NAIRU and trend output featuring the Phillips equation and the Okun law as main identifying equations, with quarterly data for 1970:I-2002:III. The Phillips curve turns out to be linear and its trade-off statistically significant, while non-linearity shows up in the Okun relation. The results prove to be robust to alternative lag length structures of the model, and to alternative non-linear functional forms. The trend-cycle decompositions estimated with the model capture the main features of the Euro Area’s recent macroeconomic record.First version received: 1 September 2003 / Final version received: June 2004CEMPRE - Centro de Estudos Macroeconómicos e Previsão - is supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, through the Programa Operacional Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (POCTI) of the Quadro Comunitário de Apoio III, which is financed by FEDER and Portuguese funds.We thank comments on earlier versions by Fabio Canova, Miguel St Aubyn, Alvaro Almeida, Pete Richardson, Kevin Ross, and two anonymous referees. We acknowledge James D. Hamilton’s help with the confidence bands. The usual disclaimer applies.     

试论新公司法与公司的社会责任

公司必须承担社会责任是我国新公司法的要求,在实践中如何理解这一责任,甚为重要,直接关系到公司的发展和新公司法的实施.立足于现阶段的社会实践,公司社会责任的基本内涵是要求公司在其经营活动中不得有损于社会和谐及社会发展并因此而承担相应的社会义务,这一义务以保障劳工权益、保护环境、珍惜资源为核心.这种对公司社会责任的理解极具现实意义.同时,探讨如何将新公司法这一倡导性规范的要求合理地付诸实践也是我们不可回避的问题.     

Comparing Environmental Policy Instruments in the Presence of Imperfect Compliance – A Case Study

In this paper, we aim to include rule making, implementation, monitoring and enforcement costs into the cost comparison of policy instruments. We use a simple partial equilibrium model and apply it to the textile industry. The model includes discrete abatement functions and costly monitoring and enforcement. The case study uses individual firm data to simulate the differences in abatement costs and compliance decisions between firms. We compare combinations of regulatory instruments (emission taxes, emission standards and technology standards) and enforcement instruments (criminal fines, civil fines and transaction offers). We show that the inclusion of information, monitoring and enforcement costs indeed alters the relative cost efficiency of the different instruments.     

法经济学及其在中国的应用

“法经济学”迄今并没有一个大家一致认可的、标准的定义。法经济学可从狭义和广义两个角度进行区分。广义地理解法经济学可以使我们的视野变得更为开阔，同时也拓展了法律与经济这个主题所涵盖的范围。法经济学在20世纪七八十年代得到了蓬勃发展，但进入90年代后则鲜有突破，所以，法经济学未来的发展方向已经成为当前法经济学面临的最主要的理论问题。最近几年来，越来越多的中国学者加入到法经济学的研究中来。法经济学在中国的兴起，与中国正在经历一个制度变迁的时代有关。     

高职院校大学生法律素质的培养途径

实行依法治国,关键在于提高公民的法律素质.大学生是未来法治社会的主体,培养大学生的法律素质是依法治国的必然要求.笔者阐述了培养大学生法律素质的意义,并从四个方面探索大学生法律素质的培养途径问题.     

正当怀疑和应有关注理念在审计师非审计服务中的运用

正当怀疑和应有关注是审计师在执业过程中应始终坚持的重要理念。随着非审计服务的不断拓展，强调正当怀疑和应有关注理念，无论对于保证审计师非审计服务的执业质量，还是维护审计师审慎的职业形象，都具有重大意义。审计师应在提供非审计服务时始终保持正当怀疑和应有关注理念，并将其灵活地运用于具体实务。     

由临街地价推算区片价的方法探讨

如何利用临街样点地价推算区片平均地价及基准地价始终是城镇基准地价评估的一个难点。文章利用赤峰市的实际调查数据,分别采用临街贡献率和面积加权两种方法推算区片平均地价,并采用回归分析方法探讨区片价与临街地价之间的关系,结果证明两种方法所推算的区片平均价是基本一致的,而且区片价与临街地价之间呈“反S”曲线关系。     

Dissertation abstract: “Essays in applied economics on the intervention of a third player in agency relationships”

Agency theory has established that appropriate incentives can reconcile the diverging interests of the principal and the agent. Focusing on three applications, this dissertation evaluates the empirical relevance of these results when a third party interacts with the primary contract. The analyses provided rely on either laboratory or natural experiments. First, corruption is analyzed as a two-contract situation: a delegation contract between a Principal and an Agent and a corruption pact concluded between this Agent and a third player, called Briber. A survey of the recent microeconomic literature on corruption first highlights how corruption behavior results from the properties of those two agreements. We thereafter show that the Agent faces a conflict in reciprocities due to those two conflicting agreements. The resulting delegation effect, supported by observed behavior in our three-player experimental game, could account for the deterrence effect of wages on corruption. Second, health care is governed by contradictory objectives: patients are mainly concerned with the health provided, whereas containing health care costs is the primary goal of health care administrators. We provide further insights into the ability of incentives to balance these two competing objectives. In this matter, our theoretical and econometric analysis evaluates how a new mixed compensation scheme, introduced in Quebec in 1999 as an alternative to fee-for-services, has affected physicians’ practice patterns. Free switching is shown to be an essential feature of the reform, since it implements screening between physicians. Finally, the demand for underground work departs from the traditional Beckerian approach to illegal behavior, due to the dependence of benefits from illegality on competitors’ behavior. We set up a theoretical model in which the demand for underground work from all producers competing on the same output market is analyzed simultaneously. We first show that competition drastically undermines the individual benefits of tax evasion. At equilibrium, each firm nonetheless chooses evasion with a positive probability, strictly lower than one. This Bertrand curse could then account for the “tax evasion puzzle” i.e. the overprediction of evasion in models that ignore market interactions. We thereafter show that allowing firms to denounce competitors’ evasion is not likely to solve this curse—by providing a credible threat against price cuts, it fosters illegal work. Empirical evidence from a laboratory experiment confirms these predictions. Without denunciation, experimental firms often choose evasion whereas evasion benefits are canceled out by competition. When introduced, denunciation is rarely used by firms, but the threat makes evasion profitable. JEL Classification K42, I18, D21, C25, C91     

论商法的私法本质

商法在本质上是私法,与民法一起构成完整的私法体承。笔者从公法、私法的区别入手,阐明商法的私法本质,并从商法的公法化趋势阐明,现代商法虽然具有了某些公法性质,但这并不改变商法的私法本质。