4,558 research outputs found
Portfolio Allocation in the Face of a Means-Tested Public Pension
Is there evidence that households adjust their asset portfolios just prior to retirement in response to a means-tested public pension? We address this question by estimating a system of asset equations constrained to add up to net worth. We find little evidence that in 2006 healthy households or couples responded to the incentives embedded in the means test determining pension eligibility by reallocating their assets. While there are some significant differences in asset portfolios associated with being near the income threshold, being of pensionable age, and being in poor health these differences are often only marginally significant, are not robust across time, and are not clearly consistent with the incentives inherent in the pension eligibility rules. In 2006, any behavioral response to the means test seems to occur among single pensioners in poor health. Comparison with 2002 results suggests the incentives to reallocate assets may have weakened over time.asset portfolios; means testing; public pension; household wealth
The Wealth of Mexican Americans
This paper analyzes the sources of disparities in the relative wealth position of Mexican Americans. Results reveal that wealth gaps are in large part not the result of differences in conditional expected wealth functions. Similarly, income differentials are important, but do not play the primary role in explaining the gap in median net worth. As much or more of Mexican Americans' wealth disadvantage is attributable to the fact that these families have more young children and heads who are younger. Furthermore, Mexican Americans' low educational attainment has a direct effect in producing a wealth gap relative to other ethnic groups (even after differences in income are taken into account) though education does not significantly affect the nativity wealth gap. Finally, geographic concentration is generally unimportant, but does contribute to narrowing the wealth gap between wealthy Mexican Americans and their white and black counterparts.wealth; Mexican American
The Asset Portfolios of Native-Born and Foreign-Born Households
This paper analyses the net worth and asset portfolios of native- and foreign-born Australian families using HILDA (wave 2) data. Specifically, we estimate a system of asset equations with an adding-up constraint imposed to control for variation in households’ total net worth. Our results indicate that after accounting for differences in human capital and income levels, single immigrants have a wealth advantage of almost 150,000 less wealth on average than native-born couples. Relative to equally wealthy native-born couples, immigrant-only couples hold substantially more of their wealth in their homes and less in the form of vehicles and financial assets. Mixed couples, on the other hand, allocate their wealth across assets in the same way as native-born couples.wealth, immigrants, housing
The Portfolio Choices of Hispanic Couples
This paper analyzes the portfolio allocations of couple-headed, Hispanic families using Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) data. Our results reveal that Hispanic couples as a group are less wealthy than otherwise similar white couples, although there is substantial variation across Hispanic-origin groups. Much of the disparity in portfolio choices of Hispanic relative to whites appears to stem from these lower wealth levels. Accounting for these wealth disparities, Hispanic couples hold less financial wealth, but more real estate and business equity than do white couples.portfolio choices; Hispanic
Portfolio Allocation in the Face of a Means-Tested Public Pension
Is there evidence that households adjust their asset portfolios just prior to retirement in response to a means-tested public pension? We address this question by estimating a system of asset equations constrained to add up to net worth. We find little evidence that in 2006 healthy households or couples responded to the incentives embedded in the means test determining pension eligibility by reallocating their assets. While there are some significant differences in asset portfolios associated with being near the income threshold, being of pensionable age, and being in poor health these differences are often only marginally significant, are not robust across time, and are not clearly consistent with the incentives inherent in the pension eligibility rules. In 2006, any behavioral response to the means test seems to occur among single pensioners in poor health. Comparison with 2002 results suggests the incentives to reallocate assets may have weakened over time.asset portfolios, means testing, public pension, household wealth
The Asset Portfolios of Native-born and Foreign-born Households
This paper analyses the net worth and asset portfolios of native- and foreign-born Australian families using HILDA (wave 2) data. Specifically, we estimate a system of asset equations with an adding-up constraint imposed to control for variation in households’ total net worth. Our results indicate that after accounting for differences in human capital and income levels, single immigrants have a wealth advantage of almost 150,000 less wealth on average than native-born couples. Relative to equally wealthy native-born couples, immigrant-only couples hold substantially more of their wealth in their homes and less in the form of vehicles and financial assets. mixed couples, on the other hand, allocate their wealth across assets in the same way as nativeborn couples.Wealth, immigrants, housing
Substellar Objects in Nearby Young Clusters VII: The substellar mass function revisited
The abundance of brown dwarfs (BDs) in young clusters is a diagnostic of star
formation theory. Here we revisit the issue of determining the substellar
initial mass function (IMF), based on a comparison between NGC1333 and IC348,
two clusters in the Perseus star-forming region. We derive their mass
distributions for a range of model isochrones, varying distances, extinction
laws and ages, with comprehensive assessments of the uncertainties. We find
that the choice of isochrone and other parameters have significant effects on
the results, thus we caution against comparing IMFs obtained using different
approaches. For NGC1333, we find that the star/BD ratio R is between 1.9 and
2.4, for all plausible scenarios, consistent with our previous work. For IC348,
R is between 2.9 and 4.0, suggesting that previous studies have overestimated
this value. Thus, the star forming process generates about 2.5-5 substellar
objects per 10 stars. The derived star/BD ratios correspond to a slope of the
power-law mass function of alpha=0.7-1.0 for the 0.03-1.0Msol mass range. The
median mass in these clusters - the typical stellar mass - is between
0.13-0.30Msol. Assuming that NGC1333 is at a shorter distance than IC348, we
find a significant difference in the cumulative distribution of masses between
the two clusters, resulting from an overabundance of very low mass objects in
NGC1333. Gaia astrometry will constrain the cluster distances better and will
lead to a more definitive conclusion. Furthermore, ratio R is somewhat larger
in IC348 compared with NGC1333, although this difference is still within the
margins of error. Our results indicate that environments with higher object
density may produce a larger fraction of very low mass objects, in line with
predictions for brown dwarf formation through gravitational fragmentation of
filaments falling into a cluster potential.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Money in the Fiction of Willa Cather
The subject of money is important in the fiction of Willa Cather. She discusses it frequently and often at great length. In some works it is a major theme.
Despite its importance, a number of Willa Cather\u27s critics have ignored the subject or have given it only cursory mention. Several ·writers, however, have discussed the subject at length. John H. Randall, III, in particular, analyzes it in great detail.· His analysis, however, goes astray at several key points.
This thesis shows that Willa Cather\u27s attitudes toward money were balanced, humane, and consistent. These attitudes can be summarized as follows: (a) Money is important. It can buy comfort and pleasure, which are necessary for a satisfying life. (b) Large quantities of money are not, however, essential for happiness. (c) As a matter of fact, wrong attitudes toward money--miserliness, greed, covetousness-- can warp character and destroy happiness. (d) Honest business is honorable and praiseworthy. Consequently, honest, intelligent, sensitive business people are admirable, especially if they are successful. These ideas are developed in a series of phases, in each of which the works deal with similar problems and have similar emphases. Between the phases there are abrupt changes in tone. Two of these changes result largely from Willa Cather\u27s perception of the dominant attitudes toward money in America and her reaction to them.
This thesis examines the subject of money in the fiction of Willa Cather by studying these phases, with primary emphasis upon the fiction itself, but also with consideration of pertinent biographical and historical material to understand the -social and intellectual environment in which she lived
Controlling the Precision-Recall Tradeoff in Differential Dependency Network Analysis
Graphical models have gained a lot of attention recently as a tool for
learning and representing dependencies among variables in multivariate data.
Often, domain scientists are looking specifically for differences among the
dependency networks of different conditions or populations (e.g. differences
between regulatory networks of different species, or differences between
dependency networks of diseased versus healthy populations). The standard
method for finding these differences is to learn the dependency networks for
each condition independently and compare them. We show that this approach is
prone to high false discovery rates (low precision) that can render the
analysis useless. We then show that by imposing a bias towards learning similar
dependency networks for each condition the false discovery rates can be reduced
to acceptable levels, at the cost of finding a reduced number of differences.
Algorithms developed in the transfer learning literature can be used to vary
the strength of the imposed similarity bias and provide a natural mechanism to
smoothly adjust this differential precision-recall tradeoff to cater to the
requirements of the analysis conducted. We present real case studies
(oncological and neurological) where domain experts use the proposed technique
to extract useful differential networks that shed light on the biological
processes involved in cancer and brain function
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