Financial Stress and Asymmetric Financial Decisions

Building wealth requires saving, borrowing, and investing. These decisions may depend on stress due to the lack of financial security (low financial assets). Stress should influence personal responses – emotional, behavioral, and cognitive – that in turn could determine financial decisions. The link between stress and financial decisions could be asymmetric, so that fewer financial assets result in larger absolute financial decisions than more assets. We first divide households between stressed (financially insecure) and not stressed (financially secure) ones, using a threshold regression. Comparatively little assets divide stressed and not stressed households. We then show that low levels of financial assets have a larger adverse effect on personal responses among stressed households than among not stressed ones. Personal responses, though, systematically determine financial decisions, such that more stress and lower personal responses lead to a more short-term focus in financial decisions. These linkages between stress, personal responses, and financial decisions indeed give rise to an asymmetric effect. The absolute effect of a stock price decrease of 30%, for instance, is 28% larger than the effect of a 30% stock price increase. Exogenous asset shocks could result in a reduced focus on long-term wealth building among households, because of the asymmetric effect of financial stress.Financial stress, financial security, financial decisions, savings, borrowing, investing

Public Policy Options to Build Wealth for America’s Middle Class

The financial crisis of 2007 and thereafter has taken a toll on family wealth. About $15 trillion (in 2008 dollars) --22.8%--were lost in the first 18 months of the financial crisis which started in the spring of 2007. The loss of household wealth deserves public policy attention. Wealth serves critical economic security functions in an economy that relies heavily on individual initiative, such as the United States. It is a store of future income, in the case of retirement, unemployment, illness or injury which allows families to smooth consumption over their lifetime. Families with sufficient wealth also need not worry about the basic necessities of life and may focus on longer term economic opportunity. Christian Weller and Amy Helburn describe three goals for public policy to help families build stable and sustainable wealth: greater savings rates, lower costs of building wealth, and less risk exposure. In Working Paper, they highlight a few policy examples in each of these categories.

To complete or not complete : Student persistence in post-secondary education online courses

Many factors influence learners\u27 decisions to complete or drop out of online learning courses in higher education where learners\u27 persistence is considered critical to the success of the higher education institutions. This review examines recent literature on the relationship between learners\u27 perceived Sense of Community (SOC), Social Presence, Satisfaction, and Participation and Interactions in distance education courses and learner persistence. Over 30 peer-reviewed studies published in academic journals within the past ten years were selected for critical analysis. Results are mixed and while many studies imply relationships between various learner and institution characteristics and student persistence, significant correlations are often lacking. Given the increasing popularity of on line education in higher education, identifying the characteristics of both successful students and of successful online learning environments warrants further investigation

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF MARRIAGE PENALTY RELIEF: THE EFFECT ON THE MARRIED COUPLE\u27S CHOICE OF FILING STATUS

PANEL II: ASSESSING PROPOSED SOLUTIONS FORUM ON MARRIED WOMEN AND THE INCOME TAX: MARRIAGE PENALTIES AND MARRIAGE BONUSES OF THE 105 H CONGRES

A comparison of the effects of aerobic and intense exercise on the type 2 diabetes mellitus risk marker adipokines, adiponectin and retinol binding protein-4

With a more sedentary population comes growing rates of obesity and increased type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) risk. Exercise generally induces positive changes in traditional T2DM risk markers such as lipids, glucose tolerance, and insulin sensitivity; however alterations in concentrations of many circulating cytokines and their respective receptors are also becoming apparent. These cytokines may be early-response health risk factors otherwise overlooked in traditional T2DM risk marker analysis. Plasma levels of two adipocyte-originating cytokines, adiponectin and retinol binding protein 4 (RBP-4), alter following exercise. Adiponectin has anti-inflammatory, anti-atherosclerotic, and anti-insulin resistance roles and its secretion increases with physical activity, whilst elevated RBP-4 leads to increased insulin resistance, and secretion decreases with increasing physical activity; thus these plasma adipokine levels alter favourably following exercise. Although current data are limited, they do suggest that the more intense the exercise, the greater the positive effect on plasma RBP-4 levels, whilst lower intensity aerobic exercise may positively improve adiponectin concentrations. Therefore short-duration, high intensity training may provide a time-efficient alternative to the recommended 150 min moderate aerobic exercise per week in providing positive changes in RBP-4 and other traditional T2DM risk markers and due to increased compliance give greater health benefits over the longer term

Determination of the Boltzmann constant by laser spectroscopy as a basis for future measurements of the thermodynamic temperature

In this paper, we present the latest results on the measurement of the Boltzmann constant kB, by laser spectroscopy of ammonia at 10 ?m. The Doppler absorption profile of a ro-vibrational line of an NH3 gas sample at thermal and pressure equilibrium is measured as accurately as possible. The absorption cell is placed inside a large 1m3 thermostat filled with an ice-water mixture, which sets the temperature very close to 273.15 K. Analysing this profile, which is related to the Maxwell-Boltzmann molecular speed distribution, leads to a determination of the Boltzmann constant via a measurement of the Doppler width (proportional tosqrt(kBT)). A spectroscopic determination of the Boltzmann constant with an uncertainty as low as 37 ppm is obtained. Recent improvements with a new passive thermostat lead to a temperature accuracy, stability and homogeneity of the absorption cell better than 1 ppm over a day

Two-Way Optical Frequency Comparisons Over 100km Telecommunication Network Fibers

By using two-way frequency transfer, we demonstrate ultra-high resolution comparison of optical frequencies over a telecommunication fiber link of 100 km operating simultaneously digital data transfer. We first propose and experiment a bi-directional scheme using a single fiber. We show that the relative stability at 1 s integration time is 7 10^18 and scales down to 5 10^21. The same level of performance is reached when an optical link is implemented with an active compensation of the fiber noise. We also implement a real-time two-way frequency comparison over a uni-directional telecommunication network using a pair of parallel fibers. The relative frequency stability is 10^15 at 1 s integration time and reaches 2 10^17 at 40 000 s. The fractional uncertainty of the frequency comparisons was evaluated for the best case to 2 10^20. These results open the way to accurate and high resolution frequency comparison of optical clocks over intercontinental fiber networks