The Impact of Information on Migration Outcomes

This paper presents a model of migration in which migration decisions are made with incomplete information on the labor market conditions at destination. It provides an explanation for how differences in the level of information about the destination can bring about differences in economic outcomes related to migration, such as the migration propensity and the return to migration. The implications of the model show the conditions under which information positively and negatively affects these outcomes. Thus, the model can be used to explain a wide set of empirical findings regarding the relationship between information and migration outcomes. 2005 CPS data are used to estimate the econometric model. The estimation results suggest that increased access to information regarding destination labor markets increases one's likelihood to migrate to another state. Furthermore, the findings suggest that people who have more information regarding the destination at the time of their migration decision on average experience higher returns to migration

Occupational Self-Selection in a Labor Market with Moral Hazard

This paper presents a model of occupational choice in a labor market characterized by moral hazard. The model demonstrates that in such a labor market, workers' occupational choices are determined by not only their comparative advantage but also their effort decisions in each occupation. The estimation results, based on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, suggest that workers' self-selection into white collar and blue collar occupations leads to higher wages and lower dismissal rates in both occupations. Furthermore, analysis results reveal that these effects of self-selection diminish as the labor market becomes increasingly characterized by moral hazard

Occupational Self-Selection in a Labor Market with Moral Hazard

This paper presents a model of occupational choice in a labor market characterized by moral hazard. The model demonstrates that in such a labor market, workers' occupational choices are determined by not only their comparative advantage but also their effort decisions in each occupation. The estimation results, based on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, suggest that workers' self-selection into white collar and blue collar occupations leads to higher wages and lower dismissal rates in both occupations. Furthermore, analysis results reveal that these effects of self-selection diminish as the labor market becomes increasingly characterized by moral hazard

Social Security Literacy and Retirement Well-Being

We build upon the growing literature on financial literacy, which studies the prevalence of lack of knowledge about various financial issues, and analyze how much people know about the Social Security rules using a small pilot survey conducted in 2007, and a follow-up and extended survey funded by MRRC conducted in December of 2008. We then assess the consequences of the apparent prevalence of lack of information by individuals about the rules governing the Social Security system using a realistic and empirically-based life-cycle model of retirement behavior under uncertainty. We investigate the individual’s retirement and savings decisions under incomplete information and unawareness, in which a portion of the population does not know some or all of the rules of the system. We compare the outcomes in these cases to the outcome under full information, computing the welfare gain resulting from the acquisition of information regarding the Social Security system. Our analysis can illuminate the need for policies that foster knowledge of the system, which can improve welfare, and can result in better policy outcomes.Social Security Administrationhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64464/1/wp210.pd

Occupational self-selection in a labor market with moral hazard

This paper studies the determinants and implications of self-selection when firms imperfectly observe worker effort. The effects of the resulting moral hazard problem on the self-selection mechanism are analyzed in a model in which workers simultaneously choose an employment sector and an effort level. The implications of the model reveal that in the presence of moral hazard, workers' effort decisions become an additional mechanism determining the pattern of selection into sectors. Workers' sector-specific endowments impact sectoral allocation through their effect on workers' comparative advantage as well as their effect on workers' shirking propensity. The model is then used in an empirical application that analyzes workers' self-selection into white collar and blue collar occupations. The estimation results, based on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, suggest that workers' occupational self-selection leads to higher wages and lower dismissal rates in both occupations, compared to an economy in which workers are randomly assigned to each occupation. The difference in dismissal rates between the two occupations is driven by the higher expected productivity in the white collar sector. The positive effects of occupational sorting diminish as the labor market becomes increasingly characterized by moral hazard. Results also suggest that human capital investments in skills that are most relevant to blue collar jobs may generate higher wages and lower dismissal rates in both white collar and blue collar occupations.Occupational choice Moral hazard Self-selection Dismissals

Wealth, Industry and the Transition to Entrepreneurship

Although the debate about the effect of wealth on entrepreneurship is now almost two decades old, there is little consensus among researchers about the significance of wealth as a determinant for self-employment. We re-visit the relationship between wealth and entrepreneurship using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Like Hurst and Lusardi (2004), our results suggest the relationship between wealth and the probability of entering entrepreneurship is nonlinear. However, unlike Hurst and Lusardi, we find the probability of entrepreneurship increases at an increasing rate with wealth, starting at lower quantiles of the wealth distribution. We also observe that the aggregate relationship masks differences among entrepreneurs with respect to their industry. While high capital requirement industries and professional services display a convex relationship between wealth and the probability of self-employment, low capital requirement industries display a concave relationship. Since we find a positive relationship between wealth and the probability of entering entrepreneurship at lower quantiles of the wealth distribution, it is critical to check whether this relationship is caused by wealth endogeneity. In order to account for the possible endogeneity of wealth we instrument for wealth using changes in housing equity and the value of unexpected inheritances. The results of instrumental variable estimation reveal that there is no significant relationship between wealth and entering entrepreneurship for the full sample as well as for each of the three industries.Entrepreneur, wealth, industry, liquidity constraints

Assessing the Utilization of Total Ankle Replacement in the US

Category: Ankle Arthritis Introduction/Purpose: While total ankle arthroplasty has been shown to be a cost-effective procedure relative to conservative management and ankle arthrodesis, implant costs and complications have the potential to increase the overall financial burden of performing TAR. The purpose of this investigation is to analyze the overall cost and utilization of total ankle arthroplasty. Methods: Our analytical sample consisted of Inpatient Prospective Payment System hospitals from 2011 and 2012 Medicare claims data and the 2011-2012 Medicare Inpatient Limited Data Sets. Outcome variables of interest were the likelihood of a hospital performing TAR and the volume of TAR cases, conditional on a hospital having performed at least 1 TAR in a year. Data from the 2010 Cost Report and from Medicare inpatient claims were utilized to compute average margins for TAR cases and overall hospital margins. TAR cost was calculated based upon the all payer cost-to-charge ratio for each hospital provided by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. The FY2015 Impact File was used to gather data on hospital-level characteristics, such as bed size, census region, teaching status, and urban/rural location. Hospital ownership data were obtained from the CMS Hospital Compare Database. Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) data was used to generate descriptive statistics on all TAR patients. Results: Medicare participants accounted for 47.5% of the overall population of patients. Orthopaedic specialty hospitals are four times more likely to perform TAR than a non-orthopedic specialty hospital. Average implant cost was $13,034, which accounted for approximately 70$18,331 and $19,303 respectively. Compared to nonprofitable hospitals, profitable hospitals performing TAR in 2011 had lower total costs ($14,425 vs. $19,884) and higher payments ($19,631 vs. $13,640), leading to a difference in profit of approximately$11,000 from TAR surgeries between profitable and nonprofitable hospitals. Approximately, one-third of hospitals were profitable with respect to TAR. No difference was noted with respect to length of stay or number of cases performed between profitable and nonprofitable hospitals. Conclusion: There is an overall significant financial burden associated with performing total ankle replacement with many health systems failing to demonstrate profitability despite its increased utilization. Profitable hospitals are more likely to have lower cost per day and prosthesis costs and higher payments compared to nonprofitable hospitals. While additional factors such as improved patient outcomes are driving utilization of TAR, financial barriers exist that can affect utilization of TAR across health systems