THE EARLY CHILDHOOD DETERMINANTS OF TIME PREFERENCES

Research on time preference formation and socioeconomic differences in discounting has received little attention to date. This article examines the extent to which early childhood differences emerge in measures of hyperactivity, impulsivity and persistence, all of which are good psychometric analogues to how economists conceptualise discounting. We examine the distribution of these traits measured at age three across parental social class and analyse the extent to which different mechanism plausibly generate the observed social class distribution. In addition, we control for a wide ranging of potentially mediating factors including parental investment and proxies for maternal time preferences. Our results show substantial social class variations across all measures. We find only weak evidence that this relates to differential maternal time preferences (e.g. savings behaviour, abstaining from smoking) but relatively stronger evidence that these traits are transmitted through the parents own non-cognitive skill set (self-esteem, attachment etc.) and parental time investments (e.g. time spent reading to the child and teaching the child to write, sing etc.).

Heterogeneous interpretation of “household expenditure” in survey reports: Evidence and implications of bias

This paper addresses respondents’ interpretation of the term “household expenditure” when answering survey questions. A sizeable minority of respondents do not attempt to include all transactions made by every household member, interpreting the question as eliciting individual consumption. This biases estimates of expenditure downward. Furthermore, this bias is predicted by respondent characteristics.Household Expenditure, Survey Methods, Measurement Error

Social and Economic Value of Sport in Ireland

The purpose of this report is to enhance our knowledge of the social dimensions of sport in Ireland and highlight their significance for public policy.

Irish Public Service Broadcasting - A Contingent Valuation Analysis

Irish public service broadcasting faces enhanced domestic and international competition and increasingly the Irish public service broadcaster (RTÉ) is being called upon to justify the scale of the television licence fee, its major source of funding. This paper describes the first nationwide valuation of RTÉ’s services. In analysing the determinants of respondents’ willingness to pay for RTÉ’s services, the importance of domestic and international competing services and the relationships between willingness to pay for, usage of, and satisfaction with, RTÉ’s services are analysed. In addition, this paper highlights the importance of distinguishing between household, and individual, willingness to pay.

Individual, Household and Gender Preferences for Social Transfers

This paper reports the results of a nationally representative survey that assessed individual and household willingness to pay extra taxes for increased levels of social transfers in Ireland. Different respondents interpret willingness-to-pay questions as referring to individual or household budgets. This paper demonstrates that the most important variable explaining this is financial integration within the household and we argue that this is a potentially crucial source of differential item functioning in willingness-to-pay studies. Furthermore, individuals take intra-household bargaining considerations in to account when forming preferences for policies. Specifically, we find that gender differences emerge significantly for a specific fiscal policy when the policy alters the intra-household entitlement to income between the partners.Survey Methods, Household Economics

Preferences for Specific Social Welfare Expenditure in Ireland

Many papers examine general level preferences for redistribution. However, few papers examine preferences for specific forms of redistribution. This paper examines the decomposition of demand for three major categories of social welfare expenditure in Ireland: unemployment payments, old age pensions and child benefit. The determinants of preferences are found to be fairly consistent with a self-interested economics perspective with respect to the utilisation and financing of these three specific schemes. In addition, the split sampling procedure used in the nationwide survey indicated that the provision of information on the schemes’ costs did not have a significant effect on preferences.

Well-Being Under Conditions of Abundance: Ireland 1990-2007

This paper examines the health and well-being of the Irish population in the late 20th century, the period popularly referred to as the Celtic Tiger. This period saw unprecedented increases in economic activity in Ireland. Using statistical data from administrative and survey sources, I examine whether this period of growth improved well-being and welfare in Ireland. The paper draws from theories of the development of societies such as those of Fogel and Easterlin, as well as theories from behavioural economics and econometric techniques to examine this question. In particular, I examine the extent to which Ireland fits into a pattern of declining correlation between GDP and well-being at later stages of development, a phenomenon known as the Easterlin Paradox. I also examine the extent to which individual well-being is predicted by income as compared to other aspects of welfare such as health and employment status

Pension shake-up will leave some high and dry without proper guidance

First paragraph: The recent budget announcement providing freedom for retirees to decide how to allocate their own pension potswas a bold and surprising move. Read this article at The Conversation website: https://theconversation.com/pension-shake-up-will-leave-some-high-and-dry-without-proper-guidance-2486

Social Capital & Self-Rated Health in the Republic of Ireland. Evidence from the European Social Survey

This paper analyses the determinants of self-reported health in Ireland, conditioning selfreported health on a set of socio-economic, labour market and social capital variables. Ireland has the highest self-reported health rate in Europe. The results demonstrate statistically significant effects of income on self-reported health that are robust to different statistical specifications and statistically significant though modest effects of social capital variables such as associational membership and frequency of social meeting.

Decomposing Gender Differences in College Student Earnings Expectations

Despite the increasing coverage and prevalence of equality legislation and the general alignment of key determining characteristics such as educational attainment, gender differentials continue to persist in labour market outcomes, including earnings. Recently, evidence has been found supporting the role of typically unobserved non-cognitive factors in explaining these gender differentials. We contribute to this literature by testing whether gender gaps in the earnings expectations of a representative group of Irish university students are explained by simultaneously controlling for gender heterogeneity across a wide array of cognitive and noncognitive factors. Non-cognitive factors were found to play a significant role in explaining the gender gap, however, gender differentials persist even after controlling for an extensive range of cognitive and non-cognitive factors. Nearly three-quarters of the short run and two-thirds of the long run differential could not be explained.Gender, Education, Inequality, Discrimination, Earnings Expectations.