Heterogeneous Convergence

We use U.S. county-level data containing 3,058 cross-sectional observations and 41 conditioning variables to study economic growth and explore possible heterogeneity in growth determination across 32 individual states. Using a 3SLS-IV estimation method, we find that all statistically significant convergence rates (for 32 individual states) are above 2 percent, with an average of 8.1 percent. For 7 states the convergence rate can be rejected as identical to at least one other state’s convergence rate with 95 percent confidence. Convergence rates are negatively correlated with initial income. The size of government at all levels of decentralization is either unproductive or negatively correlated with growth. Educational attainment has a non-linear relationship with growth. The size of the finance, insurance and real estate, and entertainment industries are positively correlated with growth, while the size of the education industry is negatively correlated with growth. Heterogeneity in the effects of balanced growth path determinants across individual states is harder to detect than in convergence rates.Economic Growth, Conditional Convergence, County Level Data

Sigma Convergence Versus Beta Convergence: Evidence from U.S. County-Level Data

This note outlines (i) why σ-convergence may not accompany β-convergence; (ii) cites evidence of β-convergence in the U.S.; (iii) demonstrates that σ-convergence does not hold across the U.S., or within most U.S. states; and (iv) demonstrates the robustness of this finding to increases in mean income. The distributions of shocks appear important towards accounting for income disparity.σ-convergence, β-convergence, Solow growth model, speed of convergence

Heterogeneity in Convergence Rates and Income Determination across U.S. States: Evidence from County-Level Data

We utilize county-level data to explore growth determination in the U.S. and possible heterogeneity in growth determination across individual states. The data includes over 3,000 cross-sectional observations and 39 demographic control variables. We use a consistent two stage least squares estimation procedure. (We report OLS estimates as well.) The estimated convergence rate across the U.S. is about 7 percent per year – higher than the 2 percent normally found with OLS in cross-country, U.S. state, and European region samples. Estimated convergence rates for 32 individual states are above 2 percent with an average of 8.1 percent. For 29 states the convergence rate is above 2 percent with 95 percent confidence. For seven states the convergence rate can be rejected as identical to at least one other state’s convergence rate with 95 percent confidence. In examining the determinants of balanced growth path heights, we find that government at all levels of decentralization is negatively correlated with economic growth. Educational attainment of a population has a non-linear relationship with economic growth according to our estimates: growth is positively related to high-school degree attainment, seemingly unrelated to obtaining some college education, and then positively related to four-year degree or more attainment. Also, finance, insurance and real estate industry and entertainment industry are positively correlated with growth, while education industry is negatively correlated with growth. Heterogeneity in the effects of balanced growth path determinants across individual states is much harder to detect (or dismiss) than in convergence rates.Economic Growth, Income Convergence, Solow Growth Model, Balanced Growth Path, Heterogeneity in Convergence, Education and Growth, Size of Government and Growth, Consistent Estimation, County-Level Data

Price Points and Price Rigidity

We study the link between price points and price rigidity, using two datasets: weekly scanner data, and Internet data. We find that: “9” is the most frequent ending for the penny, dime, dollar and ten-dollar digits; the most common price changes are those that keep the price endings at “9”; 9-ending prices are less likely to change than non-9-ending prices; and the average size of price change is larger for 9-ending than non-9-ending prices. We conclude that 9-ending contributes to price rigidity from penny to dollar digits, and across a wide range of product categories, retail formats and retailers.Price Point, 9-Ending Price, Price Rigidity

Price Points and Price Rigidity

We offer new evidence on the link between price points and price rigidity using two datasets. One is a large weekly transaction price dataset, covering 29 product categories over an eight-year period from a large U.S. supermarket chain. The other is from the Internet, and includes daily prices over a two-year period for 474 consumer electronic goods covering ten product categories, from 293 different Internet retailers. Across the two datasets, we find that (i) 9 is the most frequently used price-ending for the penny, dime, dollar and the ten-dollar digits, (ii) the most common price changes are in multiples of dimes, dollars, and ten-dollars, (iii) 9-ending prices are at least 24% (and as much as 73%) less likely to change in comparison to prices ending with other digits, and (iv) the average size of the price change is higher if the price ends with 9 in comparison to non-9-ending prices. This link between price points and price rigidity is robust across a wide range of prices, products, product categories, and retail formats. We offer a behavioral explanation for the findings.

Genome-wide association study of electrocardiographic and heart rate variability traits: the Framingham Heart Study

BACKGROUND: Heritable electrocardiographic (ECG) and heart rate variability (HRV) measures, reflecting pacemaking, conduction, repolarization and autonomic function in the heart have been associated with risks for cardiac arrhythmias. Whereas several rare monogenic conditions with extreme phenotypes have been noted, few common genetic factors contributing to interindividual variability in ECG and HRV measures have been identified. We report the results of a community-based genomewide association study of six ECG and HRV intermediate traits. METHODS: Genotyping using Affymetrix 100K GeneChip was conducted on 1345 related Framingham Heart Study Original and Offspring cohort participants. We analyzed 1175 Original and Offspring participants with ECG data (mean age 52 years, 52% women) and 548 Offspring participants with HRV data (mean age 48 years, 51% women), in relation to 70,987 SNPs with minor allele frequency ≥ 0.10, call rate ≥ 80%, Hardy-Weinberg p-value ≥ 0.001. We used generalized estimating equations to test association of SNP alleles with multivariable-adjusted residuals for QT, RR, and PR intervals, the ratio of low frequency to high frequency power (LF/HFP), total power (TP) and the standard deviation of normal RR intervals (SDNN). RESULTS: Associations at p < 10-3 were found for 117 (QT), 105 (RR), 111 (PR), 102 (LF/HF), 121 (TP), and 102 (SDNN) SNPs. Several common variants in NOS1AP (4 SNPs with p-values < 10-3; lowest p-value, rs6683968, p = 1 × 10-4) were associated with adjusted QT residuals, consistent with our previously reported finding for NOS1AP in an unrelated sample of FHS Offspring and other cohorts. All results are publicly available at NCBI's dbGaP at. CONCLUSION: In the community-based Framingham Heart Study none of the ECG and HRV results individually attained genomewide significance. However, the presence of bona fide QT-associated SNPs among the top 117 results for QT duration supports the importance of efforts to validate top results from the reported scans. Finding genetic variants associated with ECG and HRV quantitative traits may identify novel genes and pathways implicated in arrhythmogenesis and allow for improved recognition of individuals at high risk for arrhythmias in the general population.National Institutes of Health (K23 N01-HC25195); Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scientist Developement Award; Pfizer; National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources Shared Instrumentation grant (1S10RR163736-01A1

A confirmatory factor analysis of the performance enhancement attitude scale for adult and adolescent athletes

Objectives: The Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale (PEAS; Petróczi & Aidman, 2009) is an extensively used questionnaire to assess doping attitudes among adult and adolescent athletes. To date, however, there is limited evidence to support the structure of the PEAS with either adult or adolescent athletes. The aim of this paper was to assess the factor structure of the PEAS with adult and adolescent athletes. Design: Cross-sectional. Methods: One thousand, one-hundred and fifty-four athletes, who were aged between 12 and 68 years (M age = 21.76 years, SD = 7.68) completed the PEAS in the presence of a research assistant. We subjected the data to Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Results: The original 17-item PEAS displayed a poor model among the overall sample, and with the sub-samples of adult and adolescent athletes. The 11-item, 8-item, and 6-item versions of the PEAS, which were used in previous studies, provided a better fit than the original 17-item PEAS. The 8-item version of the PEAS demonstrated the best fit for adults, but no model exhibited a good fit with adolescent athletes. Conclusions: Scholars could consider using the 8-item version of the PEAS with adults. Our data, however, infers that researchers should use the PEAS with caution to assess doping attitudes among adolescent athletes, due to the poor model fit of all versions tested. The accurate assessment of attitudes towards doping among adolescent athletes requires questionnaires specifically designed for this population, and grounded in an appropriate theoretical framework

Life After Prison: A Different Kind of Sentence?, a Forum at the Boston Center for the Arts

In September 2012, the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) hosted a forum on life after prison as part of its series, Dialogue: Social Issues Examined Through the Playwright’s Pen. The forum coincided with performances at the Boston Center for the Arts of The MotherF**ker with the Hat, a play by Stephen Andy Guirgis about prisoner reentry. Andrea J. Cabral, then sheriff of Suffolk County and secretary of public safety in Massachusetts, moderated the forum in BCA’s Calderwood Pavilion, the same theater where SpeakEasy Stage Company was putting on the play. The four panelists work for nonprofit organizations primarily involved in assisting ex-offenders in making the transition back into society: Daniel Cordon, director of transitional employment at the Haley House in Roxbury and an ex-offender; Lyn Levy, founder and executive director of Span, Inc. in Boston; Gary Little, mentor coordinator at Span and an ex-offender; and Janet Rodriguez, founding president and CEO of SoHarlem in New York, which trains women given alternative sentences for nonviolent offenses to produce functional and wearable art. What follows is an edited and abridged transcript of their discussion of “Life After Prison: A Different Kind of Sentence?” and is based on the Boston Center for the Arts recording of this segment of Dialogue, which examines social issues through an artistic lens. A discussion period with the audience is summarized because the questions are not clearly audible and not all questioners stated their names and identities

Plasma Leptin Levels and Incidence of Heart Failure, Cardiovascular Disease, and Total Mortality in Elderly Individuals

OBJECTIVE: Obesity predisposes individuals to congestive heart failure (CHF) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Leptin regulates energy homeostasis, is elevated in obesity, and influences ventricular and vascular remodeling. We tested the hypothesis that leptin levels are associated with greater risk of CHF, CVD, and mortality in elderly individuals. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We evaluated 818 elderly (mean age 79 years, 62% women) Framingham Study participants attending a routine examination at which plasma leptin was assayed. RESULTS: Leptin levels were higher in women and strongly correlated with BMI (P < 0.0001). On follow-up (mean 8.0 years), 129 (of 775 free of CHF) participants developed CHF, 187 (of 532 free of CVD) experienced a first CVD event, and 391 individuals died. In multivariable Cox regression models adjusting for established risk factors, log-leptin was positively associated with incidence of CHF and CVD (hazard ratio [HR] per SD increment 1.26 [95% CI 1.03–1.55] and 1.28 [1.09–1.50], respectively). Additional adjustment for BMI nullified the association with CHF (0.97 [0.75–1.24]) but only modestly attenuated the relation to CVD incidence (1.23 [1.00–1.51], P = 0.052). We observed a nonlinear, U-shaped relation between log-leptin and mortality (P = 0.005 for quadratic term) with greater risk of death evident at both low and high leptin levels. CONCLUSIONS: In our moderate-sized community-based elderly sample, higher circulating leptin levels were associated with a greater risk of CHF and CVD, but leptin did not provide incremental prognostic information beyond BMI. Additional investigations are warranted to elucidate the U-shaped relation of leptin to mortality.National Institutes of Health's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (N01-HC25195, N01-HV28178, K24-HL04334, R01-DK080739