The effect of household characteristics on living standards in South Africa 1993–1998: a quantile regression analysis with sample attrition

This paper examines whether the dismantling of apartheid has resulted in an improvement in the standard of living for the vast majority of South Africans. The study is based on a panel data set from the Kwazulu‐Natal province. We use weighted quantile regressions to examine the distribution of standards of living, which corrects for the potential bias arising from non‐random sample attrition. Our results show that there has been a significant increase in the spread of the distribution of household expenditure of the non‐white households residing in Kwazulu‐Natal province. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Testing for Son Preference in South Africa

Evidence from many developing countries suggests that parentshave a preference for sons over daughters. This has been referredto as son preference. This paper uses individual level unitrecord data to test the son preference hypothesis in South Africa.We use an accelerated hazard model to estimate the durationbetween successive births and our results indicate that sonpreference exists only for the Indian community in South Africa.Indian households are observed to have a higher duration betweenchildren following the birth of a son, irrespective of the numberof children they already have. For the rest of the population,there is very little evidence of son preference. Preferencefor sons could be the result of a combination of factors includingreligious beliefs and social customs such as the dowry system,lineage and familial and kinship ties.     

A quantitative analysis of employment guarantee programmes with an application to rural India

This paper examines the welfare effects of a workfare programme in an economy where agents face exogenous income shocks and are unable to insure themselves through private markets. A dynamic general equilibrium model is calibrated using data from two ICRISAT villages in the Indian state of Maharashtra, which had a functioning Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS), in the period 1979–84. The optimal wage and the welfare gains of the program depend on how productive the EGS is, relative to the private sector. When agents are paid the optimal wage rate, they do not hold the non-interest-bearing asset for precautionary savings and all insurance is provided by the EGS. There are significant welfare gains from paying the optimal wage rate as opposed to simply paying the marginal product of labour in the EGS.     

Health shocks and consumption smoothing in rural households: Does microcredit have a role to play?

This paper estimates, using a large panel data set from rural Bangladesh, the effects of health shocks on household consumption and how access to microcredit affects households’ response to such shocks. Households appear to be fairly well insured against health shocks. Our results suggest that households sell livestock in response to health shocks and short term insurance is therefore attained at a significant long term cost. However microcredit has a significant mitigating effect. Households that have access to microcredit do not need to sell livestock in order to insure consumption. Microcredit organizations and microcredit therefore have an insurance role to play, an aspect that has not been analyzed previously.     

FIRM COMPLIANCE WITH SOCIAL INSURANCE OBLIGATIONS WHERE THERE IS A WEAK SURVEILLANCE AND ENFORCEMENT MECHANISM: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM SHANGHAI*

Abstract. This article examines why firms in Shanghai comply or over‐comply with social insurance obligations in a regulatory environment where the expected punishment for non‐compliance is low. Our first finding is that firms found to be in non‐compliance in the first audit in 2001 were moved into a separate violation category and the probability of being reaudited in 2002 was significantly higher if the firm was in that category. Our second main result is that, across the board, firms which were reaudited continued to underpay in 2002 but the extent of underpayment was significantly reduced.     

Investigating the Portrait Values Questionnaire at two transitions in adulthood: Retirement and University

In this study, two issues regarding the use of the Portrait Value Questionnaire (PVQ; Schwartz et al.: J. Cross. Cult. Psychol. 32:519–542, 2001) with older adults were addressed: (1) whether the quasi-circumplex structure of values, developed on younger adult samples, also emerges among older adults; and (2) whether the PVQ demonstrates measurement invariance across age groups and equivalence over time. The 40-item version of the PVQ was completed by 433 retired adults and 173 university students in Montreal, Canada. In both retired and student samples, the quasi-circumplex structure of values emerged using exploratory techniques, but was not supported by constrained confirmatory factor analyses. A modified 26-item model was necessary to achieve adequate fit indices in both samples, suggesting problems of multi-collinearity and internal discriminant validity. However, using the revised 26-item model of the values, support was found for most types of measurement invariance across age groups and time. The PVQ should, therefore, be considered appropriate for use across the adult lifespan and in longitudinal research. Results are discussed with regard to the Schwartz (In: Zanna M (ed) Advances in experimental social psychology. New York: Academic Press, pp. 1–65, 1992) value theory and the conceptualizing of values across the lifespan.     

Intra‐household bargaining power and household expenditure allocation: Evidence from Iran

This article examines the role of intra‐household bargaining power on household expenditure patterns in Iran to see whether women’s empowerment can achieve similar results in Iran as we have seen it achieve in other countries of the world. This study is insightful because it tells us whether Iranian women, who have experienced both economic and noneconomic constraints over many years, can utilize increased power toward economic development. The bargaining power is measured by the sex ratio in the marriage market. Using the Household Income and Expenditure Survey in Iran, we find that greater bargaining power of women contributes significantly toward greater provision of education and health expenditure within the household, creating a potential for an increase in welfare for the next generation.     

A latent class model for obesity

We extend the discrete data latent class literature by explicitly defining a latent variable for class membership as a function of both observables and unobservables, thereby allowing the equations defining the class membership and observed outcomes to be correlated. The procedure is then applied to modelling observed obesity outcomes, based upon an underlying ordered probit equation.     

Allocating a Promotion Budget between Advertising and Sales Contest Prizes: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective

This paper develops and analyzes a normative model for allocating a fixed, short-term promotion budget between product advertising and prizes of a rank-order sales contest for a homogeneous sales force when sales are driven by both personal selling effort and advertising. The model provides insights into how the optimal budget allocations vary with the synergy between advertising and selling effort, sales force size, salesperson risk-tolerance, perceived cost of effort, selling effectiveness and sales response uncertainty. The analysis highlights the need for and value of close coordination between marketing and sales management in designing a promotion program involving both advertising and sales force incentives.     

Inertia,aspirations, and response to attainment discrepancy in design contests

The process of evaluating performance relative to aspirations is widely used by many studies of organizational and technological change. The standard performance feedback model argues that decision makers act in function of attainment discrepancy between performance and aspirations. The theory also states that response to attainment discrepancy is influenced by inertia. Organizational research suggests that there are two types of inertia that we identify in this paper as performance-based inertia, and nonperformance-based inertia. We examine the influence of these two types of inertia on the two types of attainment discrepancy as identified by standard performance feedback theory: attainment discrepancy that is based on historical aspirations and attainment discrepancy based on social aspirations. We examine mechanisms that account for the influence of both types of inertia, and derive hypotheses that predict their moderating effect on attainment discrepancy. We test these hypotheses using data on 112 teams that participated in ‘Robot Wars’, a tournament organized as a contest between teams that field machines specifically designed for the event. Our dependent variable is the magnitude of design change prior to participating in each tournament. Our results show, as predicted, that: performance-based inertia negatively moderates design change in response to attainment discrepancy that is based on social aspirations and; nonperformance-based inertia negatively moderates design change in response to attainment discrepancy that is based on social aspirations. However, contrary to our predictions, our results show no relationship between nonperformance-based inertia and design change in response to attainment discrepancy based on historical aspirations. We find a positive and significant result for the relationship between performance-based inertia and design change in response to attainment discrepancy based on historical aspirations. Our study contributes to research on the relationship between performance feedback and technological decision making in contexts where inertia can alter assessment of new product introduction risks.