Moonlighting Behavior: Theory and Evidence

Two labor supply issues that have received substantial attention are the responsiveness of labor supply to wage changes and the imposition of labor supply constraints. Adjusting hours worked on a second job may be the practical and perhaps only available response to either event yet, most labor supply studies only examine behavior on the primary job. Examining the motives for moonlighting provides evidence on both the wage-responsiveness of labor supply in general and the existence and consequences of labor supply constraints. If, for instance, workers moonlight only when constrained on their primary jobs, then moonlighting itself implies that labor supply constraints exist and so supports the previous literature that incorporates these constraints (e.g. Hamm 1982, 1986). Regardless of the motive for moonlighting, allowing for potential labor supply adjustments on more than one job may very will alter the much-accepted conclusion regarding the inelasticity f male labor supply (for surveys, see Killingsworth 1983 or Pencavel 1986). By ignoring moonlighting behavior, researchers may be eliminating the most significant avenue for short term labor supply adjustments. Our research substantially improves the manner in which moonlighting is examined, and in so doing sheds new light on male labor supply elasticities. Specifically, we devise a theoretical model that permits different reasons for moonlighting and considers moonlighting in tandem with labor supply behavior on the primary job. Estimating both primary and secondary job hours equations using panel data from the SIPP (Survey of Income and Program Participation ) for prime-aged men, we find evidence that the decision to moonlight is quite responsive to wage changes (on both jobs) and arises from at least two distinct motives. Furthermore, properly modeling primary job hours constraints and differences in moonlighting motives reveals that the desired labor supply of prime-aged males is much more wage-elastic than typically assumed. Why do some people choose to moonlight? The predominant view is that it results from a constraint on hours worked on the primary job (Shishko and Rostker (1976), O'Connell (1979) and Krishnan (1990)). Due to workweek restrictions, economic conditions or other institutional factors, the worker is unable to work (or earn) as much as he or she desires on the primary job (PJ), and may thus consider taking a second job. The decision to moonlight hinges on a comparison between the reservation wage and the wage earned on a second job (SJ). The reservation wage and, there fore, the decision to moonlight will depend in part on the number of hours worked on the primary job. A major shortcoming of the aforementioned studies is the inclusion of (exogenous) primary job hours in moonlighting equations estimated for all workers (even non-moonlighters), many of whom may be unconstrained on their primary jobs. Indeed, estimating hours worked on the PJ as a choice variable is the purpose of a great many labor supply studies. To treat is as fixed and exogenous for all workers in inconsistent with basic economic theory and will likely lead to biased parameter estimates. Our econometric model corrects this misspecification and predicts which workers are constrained on their primary jobs. Another explanation for moonlighting behavior is that labor supplied to different jobs may not be perfect substitutes or, put differently, the age paid and utility lost form the foregone leisure may not completely reflect the benefits and costs to working. For example, working on the primary job may provide the worker with the credentials to take on a higher paying second job, such as a university professor who engages in consulting. Or, working on the second job may provide some pleasure (or less displeasure) but pay less than the primary job, such as a musician who has a "regular" job by day and performs at night. In either example, the costs and benefits of both jobs are more complex than the monetary wages paid and the forgone value of leisure. When faced with such nonpecuniary benefits and costs, optimizing behavior may lead a worker to take two jobs. Whereas Shishko and Rostker (1976) and others acknowledge that such a motive may exist, only Lilja (1991) explores it theoretically and empirically. Using Finnish data, the author finds evidence that this second motive better explains male moonlighting behavior that the first, more popular view. We build on Lilja's work by constructing a more consistent theoretical model and by explicitly modeling the behavior on the first job. Our research examines moonlighting behavior recognizing that workers may moonlight because of constraints on their primary jobs or because the two jobs are heterogeneous. We make no a priori assumptions regarding the existence of PJ constraints. We choose the SIPP data for our empirical analysis because it has detailed information on the second job that is superior to that available in other surveys (namely the panel Study of Income Dynamics, National Longitudinal Survey, and Current Population Survey), and it has a short (four month) survey period that permits us to better observe worker movements into and out of jobs. Cross-sectional data likely understate the true degree of moonlighting. In sum, our results help answer the questions of who moonlights and why, as well as provide new evidence of the wage-responsiveness of labor supply on both jobs and the prevalence of labor supply constraints.moonlighting, second, jobs, labor, Conway, Kimmel

Who Moonlights and Why?: Evidence from the SIPP

Multiple job-holding is a significant characteristic of the labor market, with approximately 6 percent of all employed males reporting a second job in 1993 (Mishel and Bernstein, 1995, p. 226). Moonlighting reflects growing financial stress arising from declining earnings, as well as an increased need for flexibility to combine work and family. Approximately 40 percent of moonlighters report taking the second job due to economic hardship. Additionally, moonlighting is a reflection of the worker's choice to pursue entrepreneurial activities while maintaining the financial stability offered by the primary job. To restate in economic terminology, moonlighting arises from at least two distinct reasons. First, many individuals hold multiple jobs due to some sort of constraint on the primary job that limits that job's earnings capacity. Second, moonlighting may arise because the labor supplied to the two jobs are not perfect substitutes. That is, the wage paid and utility lost from the forgone leisure may not completely reflect the benefits and costs to working. For example, working on the primary job may provide the worker with the credentials to acquire a higher paying second job, such as a university psychologist testifying in a jury trial. Or, working on the second job may provide some satisfaction not received in the same amount or manner from the primary job, such as a comedian who has a "regular" job by day and performs at night. In either example, the costs and benefits of both jobs are more complex than the monetary wages paid and the forgone value of leisure. When faced with such nonpecuniary benefits and costs, optimizing behavior may lead a worker to take two jobs. In contrast to workers who moonlight because they are constrained on their primary jobs (PJ), we expect these kinds of moonlighters to moonlight for longer periods of time because optimizing behavior leads them to supply labor to more than one job, even in the long run. We might also expect to see smaller wage differences between jobs for such workers and the second job (SJ) wage could even be higher than the primary job wage in some situations. Previous research on moonlighting, including Shishko and Rostker (1976), O'Connell (1979) and Krishnan (1990), acknowledges that multiple motives may exist but focuses only on the constraint motive. In related studies, Paxson and Sicherman (1994) explore moonlighting as an alternative avenue for adjusting short-run labor supply, and Abdukadir (1992) examines the possibility that moonlighting is caused by short-term liquidity constraints. Another possible motivation for moonlighting is that certain types of job situations present greater opportunities for tax evasion. Plewes and Stinson (1991) provide survey evidence from the 1989 Current Population Survey of the many distinct reasons for moonlighting reported by workers. The only research in the moonlighting literature that models the joint motives for moonlighting correctly while controlling for the endogeneity of primary job hours are Lilja (1991) and Conway and Kimmel (1994). The latter improves upon Lilja (1991) by specifying a more plausible utility maximizing model and developing a superior instrument for PJ hours. This research examines the characteristics of moonlighters and the length of their moonlighting episodes with the goal of understanding who moonlights and why. The data are for prime-aged men and are drawn from the 1984 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) panel. The primary advantages of the SIPP are the detailed information provided on up to two jobs (including job start and end dates) and the relatively short length of time (four months) covered by each interview of the survey. Both of these qualities make it possible to identify brief (as well as long) periods of moonlighting, movements into and out of jobs, and the characteristics associated with each job. Because moonlighting may be motivated by short-term financial needs, being able to observe short moonlighting durations is important. We begin by studying the personal and job-related characteristics of moonlighters and how the length of the moonlighting episode varies with these characteristics. We then estimate a duration model with unobserved heterogeneity to identify formally the determinants of moonlighting behavior when multiple motives may exist. Our expectation is that individuals who moonlight because they are constrained on their primary jobs might do so for shorter periods than those who are "job-packaging." Therefore, the hazard rate for workers who moonlight because of primary job constraints should be greater than for those with alternative motives, ceteris paribus. The mixed hazard function will vary as the composition of the sample changes with the duration of the moonlighting episode. By exploring the importance of heterogeneity and the direction of duration dependence of the mixed and structural hazard functions, we gain new insights into the determinants of moonlighting behavior. The descriptive analyses reveal that most moonlighters in our sample work full-time on their primary jobs and 15 to 20 hours a week on lower paying second jobs, and, in spite of those long hours, tend to be poorer than the average worker. Yet, a significant minority earns a higher wage on their second job. Our duration model results suggest that the structural hazard increases over time and there is significant unobserved heterogeneity. Taken together, these results are consistent with the presence of multiple motives for moonlighting, with the constraint motive being the most common.moonlighting, jobs, Kimmel, Conway

Isolation in the Dramas of T.S. Eliot

T.S. Eliot is a monumental figure in literature. He distinguished himself as a poet in his youth, as a critic in his middle age, and as a dramatist in his later years. Because of the vitality of Eliot’s early literary works, his dramas are frequently bypassed by critics when discussing the major themes that interested him as an artist. The purpose this study is to examine thoroughly Eliot’s position on isolation and alienation as revealed in his seven plays: Sweeney Agonistes (1926), The Rock (1934), Murder in the Cathedral (1935), The Family Reunion (1939), The Cocktail Party (1949), The Confidential Clerk (1954), The Elder Statesman (1959). Only by a consideration of the whole of his dramatic writings can it be seen that the theme of total isolation and alienation which the early plays have in common with his poetry moves through intermediate solutions in the middle plays to be finally abandoned for an affirmation of human relationships in the later plays. This thesis will attempt to reveal the full pattern of the isolation motif, as well as to explore secondary elements in the dramas that directly relate to it

Who Moonlights and Why? Evidence from the SIPP

Multiple job-holding is a significant characteristic of the labor market, with approximately 6 percent of all employed males reporting a second job in 1993 (Mishel and Bernstein, 1995, p. 226). Moonlighting reflects growing financial stress arising from declining earnings, as well as an increased need for flexibility to combine work and family. Approximately 40 percent of moonlighters report taking the second job due to economic hardship. Additionally, moonlighting is a reflection of the worker\u27s choice to pursue entrepreneurial activities while maintaining the financial stability offered by the primary job. To restate in economic terminology, moonlighting arises from at least two distinct reasons. First, many individuals hold multiple jobs due to some sort of constraint on the primary job that limits that job\u27s earnings capacity. Second, moonlighting may arise because the labor supplied to the two jobs are not perfect substitutes. That is, the wage paid and utility lost from the forgone leisure may not completely reflect the benefits and costs to working. For example, working on the primary job may provide the worker with the credentials to acquire a higher paying second job, such as a university psychologist testifying in a jury trial. Or, working on the second job may provide some satisfaction not received in the same amount or manner from the primary job, such as a comedian who has a regular job by day and performs at night. In either example, the costs and benefits of both jobs are more complex than the monetary wages paid and the forgone value of leisure. When faced with such nonpecuniary benefits and costs, optimizing behavior may lead a worker to take two jobs. In contrast to workers who moonlight because they are constrained on their primary jobs (PJ), we expect these kinds of moonlighters to moonlight for longer periods of time because optimizing behavior leads them to supply labor to more than one job, even in the long run. We might also expect to see smaller wage differences between jobs for such workers and the second job (SJ) wage could even be higher than the primary job wage in some situations

Moonlighting Behavior: Theory and Evidence

Two labor supply issues that have received substantial attention are the responsiveness of labor supply to wage changes and the imposition of labor supply constraints. Adjusting hours worked on a second job may be the practical and perhaps only available response to either event yet, most labor supply studies only examine behavior on the primary job. Examining the motives for moonlighting provides evidence on both the wage-responsiveness of labor supply in general and the existence and consequences of labor supply constraints

A primitive fish from the Cambrian of North America

Knowledge of the early evolution of fish largely depends on soft-bodied material from the Lower (Series 2) Cambrian period of South China. Owing to the rarity of some of these forms and a general lack of comparative material from other deposits, interpretations of various features remain controversial, as do their wider relationships amongst post-Cambrian early un-skeletonized jawless vertebrates. Here we redescribe Metaspriggina on the basis of new material from the Burgess Shale and exceptionally preserved material collected near Marble Canyon, British Columbia, and three other Cambrian Burgess Shale-type deposits from Laurentia. This primitive fish displays unambiguous vertebrate features: a notochord, a pair of prominent camera-type eyes, paired nasal sacs, possible cranium and arcualia, W-shaped myomeres, and a post-anal tail. A striking feature is the branchial area with an array of bipartite bars. Apart from the anterior-most bar, which appears to be slightly thicker, each is associated with externally located gills, possibly housed in pouches. Phylogenetic analysis places Metaspriggina as a basal vertebrate, apparently close to the Chengjiang taxa Haikouichthys and Myllokunmingia, demonstrating also that this primitive group of fish was cosmopolitan during Lower–Middle Cambrian times (Series 2–3). However, the arrangement of the branchial region in Metaspriggina has wider implications for reconstructing the morphology of the primitive vertebrate. Each bipartite bar is identified as being respectively equivalent to an epibranchial and ceratobranchial. This configuration suggests that a bipartite arrangement is primitive and reinforces the view that the branchial basket of lampreys is probably derived. Other features of Metaspriggina, including the external position of the gills and possible absence of a gill opposite the more robust anterior-most bar, are characteristic of gnathostomes and so may be primitive within vertebrates

COLORING IN THE LINES: USING COLOR TO CHANGE THE PERCEPTION OF QUALITY IN E-COMMERCE SITES

E-commerce sites, like their brick-and-mortar cousins, are designed to draw in potential customers and encourage purchases and brand loyalty. Currently, E-commerce website designs are often rejected by their user community, which costs money through wasted development and lost customers. User acceptance is the goal of every design choice – and yet little work has extrapolated from the known affective responses users have to color to website design. We posit that a better understanding of user reactions to color will increase user perceptions of quality. We hypothesize that color saturation and brightness cause an affective reaction in the user, which can change the user\u27s trust in the site, and through this their perception of a site\u27s quality. In an experimental lab study, we find support for our hypotheses, providing suggestions for future website design to improve customer acceptance

Weak Disorder in Fibonacci Sequences

We study how weak disorder affects the growth of the Fibonacci series. We introduce a family of stochastic sequences that grow by the normal Fibonacci recursion with probability 1-epsilon, but follow a different recursion rule with a small probability epsilon. We focus on the weak disorder limit and obtain the Lyapunov exponent, that characterizes the typical growth of the sequence elements, using perturbation theory. The limiting distribution for the ratio of consecutive sequence elements is obtained as well. A number of variations to the basic Fibonacci recursion including shift, doubling, and copying are considered.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Cambrian suspension-feeding tubicolous hemichordates

The combination of a meager fossil record of vermiform enteropneusts and their disparity with the tubicolous pterobranchs renders early hemichordate evolution conjectural. The middle Cambrian Oesia disjuncta from the Burgess Shale has been compared to annelids, tunicates and chaetognaths, but on the basis of abundant new material is now identified as a primitive hemichordate

A key-formula to compute the gravitational potential of inhomogeneous discs in cylindrical coordinates

We have established the exact expression for the gravitational potential of a homogeneous polar cell - an elementary pattern used in hydrodynamical simulations of gravitating discs. This formula, which is a closed-form, works for any opening angle and radial extension of the cell. It is valid at any point in space, i.e. in the plane of the distribution (inside and outside) as well as off-plane, thereby generalizing the results reported by Durand (1953) for the circular disc. The three components of the gravitational acceleration are given. The mathematical demonstration proceeds from the "incomplete version of Durand's formula" for the potential (based on complete elliptic integrals). We determine first the potential due to the circular sector (i.e. a pie-slice sheet), and then deduce that of the polar cell (from convenient radial scaling and subtraction). As a by-product, we generate an integral theorem stating that "the angular average of the potential of any circular sector along its tangent circle is 2/PI times the value at the corner". A few examples are presented. For numerical resolutions and cell shapes commonly used in disc simulations, we quantify the importance of curvature effects by performing a direct comparison between the potential of the polar cell and that of the Cartesian (i.e. rectangular) cell having the same mass. Edge values are found to deviate roughly like 2E-3 x N/256 in relative (N is the number of grid points in the radial direction), while the agreement is typically four orders of magnitude better for values at the cell's center. We also produce a reliable approximation for the potential, valid in the cell's plane, inside and close to the cell. Its remarkable accuracy, about 5E-4 x N/256 in relative, is sufficient to estimate the cell's self-acceleration.Comment: Accepted for publication in Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronom