Consumption, savings, and insurance with incomplete markets

One way to react to missing insurance markets is to build up private savings. This way, households can use their financial wealth to partially compensate a drop in income, be it due to job loss, negative capital returns, or retirement. In chapter 2, I evaluate how efficient this type of self-insurance is in various settings. Chapter 3 looks at a specific government policy, namely an expansion of the social security system, and asks how much households value this form of mandatory insurance. Finally, in chapter 4, households have an additional insurance channel, in that they can default on their loans when they face hard times. All three chapters have in common that households face idiosyncratic, i.e. individual-specific, labor income risk, and that insurance markets against this risk are missing by assumption. Households can self-insure with a bond and have a finite lifetime. In addition, chapters 2 and 3 also feature aggregate , i.e. economy-wide, business-cycle risk. Markets for aggregate risk are incomplete, too, but now agents can self-insure by investing in stock in addition to bonds. Another difference to chapter 4 is that the model in these two chapters contains a production sector. In the remainder of this introduction, I discuss the three chapters and their findings in more detail

Recursive Preferences, the Value of Life, and Household Finance

We analyze lifecycle saving strategies using a recursive utility model calibrated to match empirical estimates for the value of a statistical life. We show that, with a positive value of life, risk aversion reduces savings and annuity purchase. Risk averse agents are willing to make an early death a not-so-adverse outcome by enjoying greater consumption when young and bequeathing wealth in case of death. We also find that greater risk aversion lowers stock market participation. We show that this model can rationalize low annuity demand while also matching empirically documented levels of wealth and private investments in stocks. Our findings stand in contrast to studies that implicitly assume a negative value of life

Recursive Preferences, the Value of Life, and Household Finance

We analyze lifecycle saving strategies using a recursive utility model calibrated to match empirical estimates of the value of a statistical life. The novelty of our approach is that we require preferences to be monotone with respect to first order stochastic dominance. The framework we use can disentangle risk aversion and the intertemporal elasticity and can feature a positive value of life without placing constraints on the value of the risk aversion parameter or the intertemporal elasticity of substitution. We show that, with a positive value of life, risk aversion reduces savings, decreases stock market participation and decreases annuity purchase. Risk averse agents are willing to make an early death a not-so-adverse outcome by enjoying greater consumption when young and bequeathing wealth in case of death. The model can rationalize low annuity demand while also matching empirically documented levels of wealth and private investments in stocks

Game Changers: A participatory action research project for/with students with disabilities in school sport settings

IntroductionAlthough school communities may be required to provide physical education opportunities for all students—including for those with disabilities—the same is not generally true with respect to school sport (i.e., participation in interscholastic or intramural sport programs). Hence, opportunities for inclusive school sport participation are consequently limited. Recognizing the need for continued attention and action in this area, we recently developed and piloted Game Changers—a participatory action research project. Together, 27 students with various cognitive and/or intellectual disabilities (i.e., student-participants), their schools’ six physical education teachers and learning support teachers (i.e., champion-participants), four university researchers (i.e., researcher-participants), and two community partners [i.e., Physical and Health Education (PHE) Canada, Special Olympics Nova Scotia] engaged in the Game Changers project with three idealized goals: (a) to bring to the fore para/adapted/inclusive sport opportunities for all students; (b) to provide an empowering opportunity for students with disabilities to participate, make choices, and act as leaders in the development of sport programming; and (c) to engage youth with disabilities in sport as participants, leaders, mentors, and role models.MethodsUtilizing a mixed-methods design, data were collected from a variety of sources before the implementation of the Game Changers program, during its implementation, and once it was complete. These four data sources included the following: pre- and post-program survey for student-participants, pre- and post-program focus group interviews for student-participants, pre- and post-program focus group interviews for champion-participants, and school/sport observations.ResultsThe first cycle of this participatory action research project has yielded positive and informative findings. Strictly positive findings, among others, relate to the following: improving upon students' perceived competence and autonomy, inviting student voice, identifying and responding to sport participation barriers, and creating genuine sport opportunities within school settings. More undesirable yet informative findings, among others, relate to the following: unachieved intrinsic motivation and belonging, (un)sustainability of sport programs without “interventions” like Game Changers, recreation/leisure as “substitutes” for sport, and a continued want for authentic leadership and mentorship opportunities.DiscussionWith these findings, we offer insights for future iterations of Game Changers (and programs like it) in similar school communities

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements