Showing papers in "B E Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy in 2009"
TL;DR: The authors found that depression is a significant predictor of lower GPA and higher probability of dropping out, particularly among students who also had a positive screen for an anxiety disorder, and symptoms of eating disorders are also associated with lower GPA.
Abstract: Mental health problems represent a potentially important but relatively unexplored factor in explaining human capital accumulation during college. We conduct the first study, to our knowledge, of how mental health predicts academic success during college in a random longitudinal sample of students. We find that depression is a significant predictor of lower GPA and higher probability of dropping out, particularly among students who also have a positive screen for an anxiety disorder. In within-person estimates using our longitudinal sample, we find again that co-occurring depression and anxiety are associated with lower GPA, and we find that symptoms of eating disorders are also associated with lower GPA. This descriptive study suggests potentially large economic returns from programs to prevent and treat mental health problems among college students, and highlights the policy relevance of evaluating the impact of such programs on academic outcomes using randomized trials.
506 citations
TL;DR: Pfaff et al. as mentioned in this paper investigated the relationship between park location and forest protection in Costa Rica and found that land characteristics cause differences in park impacts across Costa Rica, and that park location affects forest protection.
Abstract: Georgia State University, pferraro@gsu.eduRecommended CitationAlexander Pfaff, Juan Robalino, G. Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa, Kwaw S. Andam, and Paul J. Fer-raro (2009) “Park Location Affects Forest Protection: Land Characteristics Cause Differences inPark Impacts across Costa Rica,” The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy: Vol. 9: Iss. 2(Contributions), Article 5.Available at: http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol9/iss2/art5Copyright c 2009 The Berkeley Electronic Press. All rights reserved.
139 citations
TL;DR: This article used zip code level data to investigate the spatial distribution of two major "green" products, and found that green products cluster in environmentalist communities, and that hybrid vehicles cluster in green communities.
Abstract: This paper uses zip code level data to investigate the spatial distribution of two major "green" products. Using data from California, we document where hybrid vehicles cluster within the state. Using data for the entire nation, we study where LEED registered buildings cluster. By creating a novel measure of community environmentalism based on revealed preference political data, we document that green products cluster in environmentalist communities.
138 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the impact of two reforms (initiated in 1991) aimed at increasing product market competition in India, namely liberalization of foreign direct investment (FDI) and reduction in tariff rates, was studied.
Abstract: A number of economic theories suggest that barriers to competition lead to higher levels of inefficiency among incumbents. In this paper, we use a detailed plant-level dataset to study the impact on productivity of two reforms (initiated in 1991) aimed at increasing product market competition in India -- liberalization of foreign direct investment (FDI) and reduction in tariff rates. First, we examine the effect of the liberalization policies on mean plant-level productivity in the targeted industries. We find significant increases in productivity in the FDI and tariff-liberalized industries, particularly in the longer term (1993-94). We check and find our results robust to a range of robustness tests. Next, we examine the role of intensive (within-plant productivity growth) and extensive (reallocation from less to more productive plants) margins in the post-reform productivity improvement, and find a predominant role for the former. Finally, we assess potential channels for within-firm productivity improvement. Consistent with a role for price competition, we find evidence of greater declines in output prices as well as concentration measures in the liberalized sectors.
108 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used city level retail price data to directly estimate the average impact of core NTBs on prices of 47 consumer products, grouped into four separate sectors, for more than 60 countries in 2001.
Abstract: As multilateral negotiations focus more on reductions and removal of non-tariff barriers (NTBs), the importance of quantifying the impact of these barriers has increased. Recent studies have derived ad valorem equivalents for NTBs for a large number of countries and/or products, but the derivation has been indirect, due to either lack of price data or NTB incidence measures. This paper uses city level retail price data to directly estimate the average impact of core NTBs on prices of 47 consumer products, grouped into four separate sectors, for more than 60 countries in 2001. The analysis uses both government self-reported data and a new database of private sector complaint data to assess NTB incidence. A differentiated products model is used to capture imperfect substitutability between products. With city level price dataincluding both inter- and intra-country price differencesa more precise distinction can be made between the impact of NTBs and the impact of local distribution costs in raising price. The model is estimated using an instrumental variables approach to incorporate the endogeneity of NTBs. Results suggest that core NTBs are still highly restrictive in many countries and for many traded goods. While NTBs appear to be complements to tariffs, in some sectors the presence of a tariff reduces the price impact of the NTB. Results also suggest that in some sectors, the restrictiveness of NTBs is highly correlated with country income.
83 citations
TL;DR: This paper investigated whether students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have a higher rate of university dropout when compared to their wealthier counterparts, allowing for their differential prior achievement and found that there is indeed a sizeable and statistically significant gap in the rate of withdrawal after the first year of university between advantaged and disadvantaged English students.
Abstract: In many countries, including the U.S. and the U.K., there is ongoing concern about the extent to which young people from lower-income backgrounds can acquire a university degree. Recent evidence from the U.K. suggests that for a given level of prior achievement in secondary school a disadvantaged student has as much chance of enrolling in a university as a more advantaged student. However, simply participating in higher education is not sufficient—graduation is important. Therefore, this paper investigates whether students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have a higher rate of university dropout when compared to their wealthier counterparts, allowing for their differential prior achievement. Using a combination of school and university administrative data sets, we show that there is indeed a sizeable and statistically significant gap in the rate of withdrawal after the first year of university between advantaged and disadvantaged English students. This socioeconomic gap in university dropouts remains even after allowing for their personal characteristics, prior achievement in secondary school and university characteristics. In the English context, at least, this implies that retention in university of disadvantaged students is arguably a more important policy issue than barriers to entry for these students.
77 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the role of community socioeconomic characteristics at the time of siting in the location decisions of manufacturing plants while controlling for other location-relevant factors such as input costs was examined.
Abstract: Many environmental justice studies argue that firms choose to locate waste sites or polluting plants disproportionately in minority or poor communities. However, it is not uncommon for these studies to match site or plant location to contemporaneous socioeconomic characteristics instead of to characteristics at the time of siting. While this may provide important information on disproportionate impacts currently faced by these communities, it does not describe the relationship at the time of siting. Also, variables that are important to a plant's location decision i.e., production and transportation costs are often not included. Without controlling for such variables, it is difficult to evaluate the relative importance of socioeconomic characteristics in a firm's initial location decision. This paper examines the role of community socioeconomic characteristics at the time of siting in the location decisions of manufacturing plants while controlling for other location-relevant factors such as input costs.When plant location is matched to current socioeconomic characteristics, results are consistent with what the environmental justice literature predicts: race is significant and positively related to plant location, while income is significant and negatively related to plant location. When plant location is matched to socioeconomic characteristics at the time of siting, empirical results suggest that race is no longer significant, though income is still significant and negatively related to plant location. Poverty rates are sometimes significant but act as a deterrent to plant location. Variables traditionally considered in the firm location literature such as land and labor costs, the quality of labor, and distance to rail are significant. The presence of pre-existing TRI plants in a neighborhood and average plant size are also significant.
69 citations
TL;DR: This paper found that older students still have a sizable skill advantage in grade 10 across numeracy, reading, and writing tests, and the advantage is strongest for girls and low-income students.
Abstract: Single-date school entry systems create large age differences between children in the same grade. Older students have been shown in the literature to outperform younger students along many elementary school outcomes, and some post-schooling outcomes. Little evidence exists about the size of these advantages in high school. Data from British Columbia, Canada are used to estimate the effect of age on test scores in grades 4, 7, and 10. I estimate that older students still have a sizable skill advantage in grade 10 across numeracy, reading, and writing tests. The advantage is strongest for girls and low-income students. The results suggest a certain degree of permanence to age related skill differences, which may spill over and affect adult outcomes.
68 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a model of optimal education, migration and return by heterogeneous, forward-looking agents is developed to analyze the effects of immigration policies, identifying the brain-drain, brain-gain and brain-return effects when barriers to migration are reduced.
Abstract: This paper develops a novel model of optimal education, migration and return by heterogeneous, forward-looking agents. The model is parameterized and simulated to analyze the effects of immigration policies, identifying the brain-drain, brain-gain and brain-return effects when barriers to migration are reduced. We use parameters from the literature to inform our model and simulate migration and return from middle-income to industrialized countries. In particular, we apply the model to study migration and return between Eastern and Western Europe. We find that, for plausible degrees of openness, the possibility of return migration combined with the education incentive channel turns the brain drain into a brain gain for Eastern Europe.
66 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the effect of economic insecurity on the smoking behavior of a sample of male working-age smokers from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79).
Abstract: Emerging evidence from neuroscience and clinical research suggests a novel hypothesis about tobacco use: consumers may choose to smoke, in part, as a "self-medicating" response to the presence of economic insecurity. To test this hypothesis, we examine the effect of economic insecurity (roughly, the risk of catastrophic income loss) on the smoking behavior of a sample of male working-age smokers from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79). Using instrumental variables to control for unobserved heterogeneity, we find that economic insecurity has a large and statistically significant positive effect on the decision to continue or resume smoking. Our results indicate, for example, that a 1 percent increase in the probability of becoming unemployed causes an individual to be 2.4 percent more likely to continue smoking. We find that the explanatory power of economic insecurity in predicting tobacco use is comparable to (but distinct from) household income, a more commonly used metric.
57 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a series of user-cost models are presented which imply that interest rate fluctuations must figure prominently in any explanation of movements in price/rent ratios, and policy prescriptions addressing rapid price declines and elevated interest-rate spreads are presented.
Abstract: This paper argues that the U.S. mortgage debacle must be analyzed in the broader setting of global real estate markets. Recent U.S. home price growth closely tracked increases in other developed economies. The analysis distinguishes among market regions in terms of supply elasticity and localized transactions-costs. A series of user-cost models are presented which imply that interest rate fluctuations must figure prominently in any explanation of movements in price/rent ratios. National factors such as the expansion of subprime credit must also be accounted for. The paper concludes with policy prescriptions addressing rapid price declines and elevated interest-rate spreads. We argue that the federal government should play a leading role in helping to reduce interest rates on new mortgages and cushion against underwriting losses on the existing balance sheets of lenders.
TL;DR: In this article, the impact of the subprime crisis on urban neighborhoods in Massachusetts is analyzed using a dataset that matches race and income information from HMDA with property level transaction data from Massachusetts registry of deeds offices.
Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of the subprime crisis on urban neighborhoods in Massachusetts. The topic is explored using a dataset that matches race and income information from HMDA with property‐level, transaction data from Massachusetts registry of deeds offices. With these data, we show that much of the subprime lending in the state was concentrated in urban neighborhoods and that minority homeownerships created with subprime mortgages have proven exceptionally unstable in the face of rapid price declines. The evidence from Massachusetts suggests that subprime lending did not, as is commonly believed, lead to a substantial increase in homeownership by minorities, but instead generated turnove r in properties owned by minority residents. Furthermore, we argue that the particularly dire foreclosure situation in urban neighborhoods actually makes it somewhat easier for policymakers to provide remedies.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine African livestock management across Agro-Ecological Zones (AEZs) to learn how they would adapt to climate change in the coming century, and analyze farm level decisions to own livestock and to choose a primary livestock species using logit models with and without country fixed effects or AEZ fixed effects.
Abstract: This paper examines African livestock management across Agro-Ecological Zones (AEZs) to learn how they would adapt to climate change in the coming century. We analyze farm level decisions to own livestock and to choose a primary livestock species using logit models with and without country fixed effects or AEZ fixed effects. With a hot dry scenario, the results indicate that livestock ownership will increase slightly across all of Africa, but especially in West Africa and high elevation AEZs. Dairy cattle will decrease in semi-arid regions, sheep will increase in lowlands, and rearing chickens will increase at high elevations. On the other hand, if climate becomes wetter, livestock ownership will fall dramatically in lowlands and high elevation moist AEZs. Beef cattle will increase and sheep will fall in dry AEZs, dairy cattle will fall precipitously and goats will rise in moist AEZs, and chickens will increase at high elevations but fall at mid elevations. Therefore, adaptation measures should be tailored to a specific AEZ.
TL;DR: This paper found that the distribution of citations across articles within a journal is seriously skewed and the skewness differs across journals, and the appropriate measure of central tendency is the median rather than the mean.
Abstract: Nearly all journal rankings in economics use some weighted average of citations to calculate a journal's impact. These rankings are often used, formally or informally, to help assess the publication success of individual economists or institutions. Although ranking methods and opinions are legion, scant attention has been paid to the usefulness of any ranking as representative of the many articles published in a journal. First, because the distributions of citations across articles within a journal are seriously skewed, and the skewness differs across journals, the appropriate measure of central tendency is the median rather than the mean. Second, large shares of articles in the highest-ranked journals are cited less frequently than typical articles in much-lower-ranked journals.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the relationship between pro-social norms and its implications for improved environmentsl outcomes and provide empirical evidence to demonstrate a small but significant positive impact between perceived environmental cooperation (reduced public littering) and increased voluntary environmental morale.
Abstract: The paper investigates the relationship between pro-social norms and its implications for improved environmentsl outcomes. This is an area, which has been neglected in the environmental economic literature. We provide empirical evidence to demonstrate a small but significant positive impact between perceived environmental cooperation (reduced public littering) and increased voluntary environmental morale. For this purpose we use European Value Survey (EVS) data for 30 European countries. We also demonstrate that Western European countries are more sensitive to perceived environmental cooperation than the public in Eastern Europe. Interestingly, the results also demonstrate that environmental morale is strongly correlated with several socio-economic and environmental variables. Several robustness tests are conducted to check the validity of the results.
TL;DR: In this paper, the intergenerational mobility of economic status in Japan from the perspective of international comparison is estimated using microdata from the 1993-2004 rounds of the Japanese Panel Survey of Consumers.
Abstract: This study estimates the intergenerational mobility of economic status in Japan from the perspective of international comparison. The intergenerational elasticity of earnings and income of offspring with respect to parental income is estimated using microdata from the 1993—2004 rounds of the Japanese Panel Survey of Consumers .T he result of instrumental variables estimation suggests intergenerational elasticity of 0.4 or less for married sons, and around 0.3 for daughters. A downward time trend of elasticity is also found. Quantile regression does not suggest a relation between elasticity and the earnings achievement of offspring conditioned on parental income. Nonlinear analysis of the relation between parental log income and log earnings of offspring suggests an Sshaped relation for married sons and single daughters and suggests a linear relation for married daughters.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how econometric estimation can feed computable general equilibrium (CGE) modeling to estimate health-related ecosystem values and evaluate contemporary policies on climate change mitigation.
Abstract: Ecosystem services are public goods that frequently constitute the only source of capital for the poor, who lack political voice. As a result, provision of ecosystem services is sub-optimal and estimation of their values is complicated. We examine how econometric estimation can feed computable general equilibrium (CGE) modeling to estimate health-related ecosystem values. Against a back drop of climate change, we analyze the Brazilian policy to expand National Forests (FLONAS) by 50 million hectares. Because these major environmental changes can generate spillovers in other sectors, we develop and use a CGE model that focuses on land and labor markets. Compared to climate change and deforestation in the baseline, the FLONAS scenario suggests relatively small declines in GDP, output (including agriculture) and other macro indicators. Urban households will experience declines in their welfare because they own most of the capital and land, which allows them to capture most of the deforestation benefits. In contrast, even though rural households have fewer opportunities for subsistence agriculture and face additional competition with other rural agricultural workers for more limited employment, their welfare improves due to health benefits from conservation of nearby forests. The efficiency vs. equity tradeoffs implied by the FLONAS scenario suggests that health-related ecosystem services will be underprovided if the rural poor are politically weaker than the urban rich. In conclusion, we briefly discuss the pros and cons of the CGE strategy for valuing ecosystem-mediated health benefits and evaluating contemporary policies on climate change mitigation.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide a theoretical model of a team sports leagues and study the welfare effect of salary caps and show that a salary cap that binds only for large market clubs will increase social welfare if fans prefer aggregate talent despite the fact that the salary cap will result in lower aggregate talent.
Abstract: Increasing financial disparity and spiralling wages in European football have triggered a debate about the introduction of salary caps. This paper provides a theoretical model of a team sports leagues and studies the welfare effect of salary caps. It shows that salary caps will increase competitive balance and decrease overall salary payments within the league. The resulting effect on social welfare is counter-intuitive and depends on the preference of fans for aggregate talent and for competitive balance. A salary cap that binds only for large market clubs will increase social welfare if fans prefer aggregate talent despite the fact that the salary cap will result in lower aggregate talent. If fans prefer competitive balance, on the other hand, any binding salary cap will reduce social welfare.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors conducted a test of their hypotheses on how return policy and endowment effect influence purchasing tendency and return rate and found that lenient return policies significantly increased initial purchasing tendency but did not increase return rate.
Abstract: The impact of retail return policy on consumer behavior has not drawn enough attention from researchers. Lenient return policies insure consumers against having regret after purchasing, so they may increase consumers' likelihood of purchasing. The behavioral theory of endowment effect suggests that consumers may then have a harder time returning purchased goods because people value objects more highly once they own them. We conducted a test of our hypotheses on how return policy and endowment effect influence purchasing tendency and return rate. This experiment proved that endowment effect did affect the returning behavior of consumers. It showed that lenient return policies significantly increased initial purchasing tendency but did not increase return rate. This suggests a potential to increase consumption by adopting lenient return policies.
TL;DR: The authors examined the return to English knowledge of Russian immigrants and native Israelis, and found that the return of knowledge of the host-country language (Hebrew) is not significantly biased by unmeasured English knowledge.
Abstract: Using a unique sample of Russian immigrants and native Israelis, we examine the return to English knowledge. Panel and cross-section estimates of the return to English are substantial for highly educated immigrants and natives. Hebrew and English language acquisition contribute to immigrant/native earnings convergence, but most convergence is explained by other factors. While immigrants with low levels of education do not benefit from knowing English, native Israelis may. Conditional on occupation, English and Hebrew acquisition are largely orthogonal. Therefore earlier work on the importance of knowledge of the host-country language (Hebrew) is not significantly biased by unmeasured English knowledge.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how exercise responds to plausibly exogenous "price shocks," in the form of weather conditions, and find that within cold temperature ranges, a decrease in past-month temperature causes a significant decrease in exercise, and this effect is generally larger for lower education and income groups.
Abstract: This study examines how exercise responds to plausibly exogenous "price shocks," in the form of weather conditions. Most notably, we find that within cold temperature ranges, a decrease in past-month temperature causes a significant decrease in past-month exercise, and this effect is generally larger for lower education and income groups. In large part this differential by socioeconomic group appears to be due to smaller increases in indoor activity during cold weather. These results suggest that interventions and policies aiming to increase exercise participation, particularly among lower socioeconomic populations, could do so in part by increasing the availability and attractiveness of indoor facilities and activities. Furthermore, to the extent that the higher elasticity of behavior for lower socioeconomic groups reflects a more general sensitivity to external factors, these results highlight the promise of interventions that address such factors more broadly.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze the problem faced by impatient researchers attempting to balance the considerations of journal quality, submission lags, and acceptance probabilities in choosing appropriate outlets for their work, and show that authors can find the optimal submission path through the use of journal'scores' based only on the journals' characteristics and the author's degree of impatience.
Abstract: In this paper, we analyze the problem faced by impatient researchers attempting to balance the considerations of journal quality, submission lags, and acceptance probabilities in choosing appropriate outlets for their work. We first study the case in which probabilities of submission outcomes are exogenous parameters and show that authors can find the optimal submission path through the use of journal 'scores' based only on the journals' characteristics and the author's degree of impatience. Then, we analyze a more realistic framework in which acceptance probability is determined by the quality of the manuscript, in which the reviewing process may be imperfect, and in which authors may not be certain of the manuscript's quality. Throughout, we illustrate our analysis with data on actual economics journals. We also consider the problem of journals facing a large number of submissions, limited space, and limited resources to review papers and, in particular, we examine the relative effectiveness of using submission fees and reviewing lags to ration article submissions.
TL;DR: This article examined the characteristics and recent economic performance of the green industry, using establishment-level data on environmental products manufacturers (EPMs) from the 1995 Survey of Environmental Products and Services, together with data from the Annual Survey of Manufacture and the Census of Manufactures.
Abstract: The green industry is often noted in discussions of the costs and benefits of environmental policy, and it has been characterized as a unique industry with substantial potential for employment growth, well-paying green jobs, and export opportunities. In this paper, we examine the characteristics and recent economic performance of the green industry, using establishment-level data on environmental products manufacturers (EPMs) from the 1995 Survey of Environmental Products and Services, together with data from the Annual Survey of Manufactures and the Census of Manufactures. Results suggest that there are some differences between EPMs and their non-EPM counterparts in the same industry, in terms of employment, employee compensation, exports, and productivity. However, we do not find any evidence that EPMs performed any better than otherwise similar plants, in terms of survival, employment growth, wage growth, and export growth. We suggest that the green industry (as defined here) may not be as exceptional as is sometimes maintained.
TL;DR: Malul and Luski as discussed by the authors presented an optimal policy combination of the minimum wage and the EITC for the first time in 2009, which they called the Optimal Policy Combination of the Minimum Wage and the EARTC.
Abstract: Ben Gurion University, luski@bgu.ac.ilRecommended CitationMiki Malul and Israel Luski (2009) “The Optimal Policy Combination of the Minimum Wage andthe Earned Income Tax Credit,” The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy: Vol. 9: Iss. 1(Contributions), Article 51.Available at: http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol9/iss1/art51Copyright c 2009 The Berkeley Electronic Press. All rights reserved.
TL;DR: In this article, a combination of market-based and regulatory innovations are proposed to deal with the 2006-2008 meltdown in mortgage markets to falling asset prices, excessive psychological reaction to the burst bubble, and new mortgage vehicles incapable of accommodating sudden changes in asset values.
Abstract: This paper relates the 2006-2008 meltdown in mortgage markets to falling asset prices, excessive psychological reaction to the burst bubble, and new mortgage vehicles incapable of accommodating sudden changes in asset values. A combination of market-based and regulatory innovations are proposed. The paper suggests placing greater reliance on innovative futures markets in real estate, inducing the flow of capital to vehicles having self-regulatory features and cultivating resiliency in the market. The bankruptcy law also might come to include circuit breaker" delays in finalizing settlements during turbulent market settings. Some of the fundamental premises underlying mortgage finance should also be reconsidered. Stakes in individual residences could be combined with stakes in regional property portfolios. Finally, the paper promotes a system of continuous workout mortgages" regularly readjusting loan balances to reflect economic conditions. These contracts could provide needed flexibility; they also offer systematic advantages over the various sector-based bailout strategies inherent in current loan-modification proposals.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors extend consumer theory to account for endogenous moral motivation and show how moral values are affected by changes in prices and income, based on cognitive dissonance theory.
Abstract: This paper extends standard consumer theory to account for endogenous moral motivation. Building on cognitive dissonance theory, I show how moral values are affected by changes in prices and income. The key insight is that changes in prices and income that lead to higher consumption of an immoral good also affect the moral values held by the consumer so that the good is considered less immoral. A preliminary empirical analysis based on the World Values Survey is consistent with the model's predictions with respect to income.
TL;DR: This paper presented revised data on global economic activity, the G-Econ database, which measures economic activity for the entire globe, measured at a 1° latitude by 1° longitude scale.
Abstract: Past studies of the relationships between economic activity and geography have been hampered by limited spatial data on economic activity. This study presents revised data on global economic activity, the G-Econ database, which measures economic activity for the entire globe, measured at a 1° latitude by 1° longitude scale. The methodologies for the study are described. We show several graphical applications, including an "output globe." The study shows the location of economic deserts. The study indicates the importance of geophysical variables for Africa and questions whether the importance of latitude in economic-growth studies in fact reflects geophysical variables.
TL;DR: This article found that having a class in first period reduces grades in that course and has little effect on long-term grades or grades in related subjects, and moderately sized negative effects on test scores in that subject and in related classes, particularly for math classes.
Abstract: Absences in Chicago Public High Schools are 3-7 days per year higher in first period than at other times of the day. This study exploits this empirical regularity and the essentially random variation between students in the ordering of classes over the day to measure how the returns to classroom learning vary by course subject, and how much attendance in one class spills over into learning in other subjects. We find that having a class in first period reduces grades in that course and has little effect on long-term grades or grades in related subjects. We also find moderately-sized negative effects of having a class in first period on test scores in that subject and in related subjects, particularly for math classes.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used an instrumental variables/fixed effects approach to examine whether there is evidence that an individual's mental health status spills over on his or her spouse's health status.
Abstract: It is well documented that mental health outcomes are correlated between spouses. There are several alternative hypotheses for this correlation, including both causal and non-causal pathways. In this paper, I use an instrumental variables/fixed effects approach to examine whether there is evidence that an individual's mental health status spills over on his or her spouse's mental health status. Results from the IV-FE specifications that use spousal job problems as an instrument are large in magnitude. In particular, spousal mental health status is estimated to have a greater influence on an individual's mental health status than his or her own mental health endowment and is similar in magnitude with his or her own physical health status. Although not conclusive, these findings suggest that within-family spillovers of mental illness could be economically important and that policies that reduce mental health problems for individuals likely have unmeasured benefits for their family members.