Welfare effects of fixed and percentage-expressed child support awards

Over the last decade a large number of states have significantly altered their legal statutes concerning the disposition of divorce cases involving children. In particular, many states have increasingly employed percentage-expressed orders in which child support obligations in a given period are determined as a proportion of the contemporaneous income of the noncustodial parent. In contrast to more traditional systems in which obligations were set in fixed nominal terms at the time of the divorce settlement and were infrequently (or never) updated, the dynamic system has the advantages of allowing children (and the custodial parent) an opportunity to share in the general income gains experienced by the noncustodial parent over the life cycle and of possibly alleviating some noncompliance problems. In this paper we conduct a rather extensive theory-based empirical investigation of the effects of these systems on the income process for divorced fathers and the child support transfer decision. We estimate a flexible statistical model for the income- generation process for divorced fathers which encompasses the period both before and after the divorce. We interpret the estimates from this model to indicate small behavioral effects of the type of order on postdivorce income, but nonrandom assignment (in terms of the means and variances of predivorce income) into the percentage-expressed-order state. Our analysis of the effects of the order type on child support transfers is divided into two parts. In the first, a "reduced form" analysis, we investigate whether or not the divorced father's regime defined as the order type and withholding status can be considered exogenous vis-a-vis the transfer decision, and examine the relative effects of the various regimes on the transfer rate. We further attempt to investigate order-type effects on compliance in the context of a structural model of the compliance decision. The results of the two analyses are for the most part consistent. Percentage orders are generally associated with lower compliance rates, though withholding tends to alleviate the problem. The highest compliance rates are associated with fixed orders coupled with withholding.

Paul Cuff. Abel Gance and the End of Silent Cinema: Sounding Out Utopia. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

Review of Paul Cuff. Abel Gance and the End of Silent Cinema: Sounding Out Utopia. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. xxxii + 241 pp

Interpreting Minimum Wage Effects on Wage Distributions: A Cautionary Tale

It is often tempting to attempt to infer the welfare effects of minimum wage changes from empirical observations on pre- and post-change employment and unemployment levels and wage or earnings distributions. Using a simple model of search, matching, and bargaining, we characterize the relationship between minimum wage levels, labor market outcomes, and the welfare of labor market participants. Using observations on wage distributions before and after changes in the nominal minimum wage, we determine what can and cannot be learned about welfare impacts from changes in various features of theses distributions. Our results are illustrated using simulation exercises and a small empirical example. Using U.S. data for young labor market participants in March 1997 and March 1998, we conclude that the increase in the minimum wage which occurred in September 1997 may have been welfare-enhacing, though various implications of the model are not consistent with the data. This analysis illustrates the fact that well-specified behavioral models are required to evaluate the impact of changes in institutional constraints on the walfare of labor market participants.MINIMUM WAGES; POLICY EVALUATION; BARGAINING MODELS; WAGE DISTRIBUTIONS

Interpreting Minimum Wage Effects on Wage Distributions: A Cautionary Tale

It is tempting to try to infer the welfare effects of minimum wage changes from empirical observations on pre- and post change employment and unemployment levels and wage or earnings distributions. Using a simple model of search, matching, and bargaining, I characterize the relationship between minimum wage levels, labor market outcomes, and the welfare of labor market participants. Using observations on wage distributions before and after changes in the nominal minimum wage, I determine what can and cannot be learned about welfare impacts from changes in various features of these distributions. Results are illustrated using simulation exercises and a small empirical example. Using U.S. data for young labor market participants in March 1997 and March 1998, this study concludes that the increase in the minimum wage which occurred in September 1997 may have been welfare-enhancing, though various implications of the model are not consistent with the data. This analysis illustrates the fact that well-specified behavioral models are required to evaluate the impact of changes in institutional constraints on the welfare of labor market participants.

Personality Traits, Job Search and the Gender Wage Gap

This paper introduces the Big Five personality traits along with other covariates in a job search, matching and bargaining model and investigates how education and personality traits affect job search behavior and labor market outcomes. It develops and e

Detection, analysis, and interpretation of teleseismic signals: 1. Compressional Phases from the Salmon Event

The travel times and amplitude spectrums of first- and later-arrival P phases from the Salmon event are computed on the basis of polarization filter outputs. The interpretation of the P wave radiation field is made in terms of crust and mantle structure using the first- and later-arrival P phases and their amplitude spectrums. The observed seismic field corresponds with that expected from a symmetric, purely compressive source. The essential features of the observed travel times and amplitudes are explained in terms of regional mantle structures. These structures provide first-order fits to the observed data and are characterized by low-velocity zones which terminate with rapid and continuous increases in velocity near depths of 130 km. The velocity structures also show a strong velocity gradient near 330 km. The regional models differ most strongly in the relative extent and magnitude of the velocity decrease in the Iow-velocity zone

Fine structure of the upper mantle

The spectral amplitudes and travel times of seismic body waves are used to determine mantle velocity structures appropriate to distinct structural provinces within the western continental United States. In addition to basic amplitude and time data, travel-time delays and Pn velocity data from other studies are used as constraints in the systematic inversion of the data for mantle structure. The regional structures for the upper mantle determined in this manner show collectively rather sharp zones of transition (high velocity gradients) near 150, 400, 650 km and possibly near 1000 km. Comparatively, the regional structures indicate strong lateral variations in the upper mantle structure down to 150 km and possibly as deep as 200 km. The structures appropriate to the Rocky Mountain and Colorado plateau physiographic provinces show low-velocity zones capped by high-velocity lid zones, with variability in both the lid and the low-velocity zone properties from province to province and within these provinces to a much lesser degree. The mantle properties obtained for the Basin and Range contrast sharply with the plateau and mountain structures, with the lid zone being very thin or absent and abnormally low velocities extending from, or very near, the base of a thin crust to 150 km. The velocity determinations are coupled with estimates of the variation of the intrinsic dissipation function (Q) as a function of depth and frequency. These results show a pronounced low-Q zone corresponding to the average low-velocity zone depth range for the velocity models. The data suggest a frequency-dependent Q, with Q increasing with frequency. In total the results of the study strongly suggest phase transitions in the mantle, including a partially melted region corresponding to the low-velocity zone, the latter being highly variable in its properties over the region studied and strongly correlated with tectonic activity