Towards a Feminist Economics of Welfare

This paper discusses two fundamental methodological differences between feminist economics and neoclassical welfare economics.First, the notion of preference change is central to feminist economics, but on the margins of neoclassical welfare economics. Second, the identification of choice with well-being, which is the basis for much of neoclassical welfare analysis is deeply problematic for many feminists. Finally, the paper discusses ways in which feminist economists can go about evaluating economic policies.Cet article discute de deux différences de méthodologie fondamentales entre l'économie féministe et l'économie néoclassique du bien- être social. Premièrement la notion de préférence de changement est centrale à l'économie féministe, mais en marge de l'économie néoclassique du bien-être social. Deuxièmement, l'identification de choix avec le bien-être, ce qui est la base d'une grande partie de l’analyse néoclassique du bien-être social, est extrêmement problématique pour un grand nombre de féministes. Finalement l'article discute des moyens par lesquels les économistes féministes peuvent s'y prendre pour évaluer les politiques économiques

SEXUAL IDENTITY AND THE MARRIAGE PREMIUM

We use the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) to explore the effects of marriage and cohabitation on gay, lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual individuals’ hours worked and full-time earnings. The CCHS is one of the largest national-level data sets containing both income and sexual orientation information (Carpenter, 2008). Partnered gay and bisexual men spend more hours in paid employment than their unattached counterparts. However, for those working more than 30 hours per week, the earnings advantage of partnered gay and bisexual men relative to the unattached is insignificant. The hours worked of partnered and unattached lesbians are indistinguishable, however partnered lesbians earn about ten percent more than the unattached. Bisexual men and women experience some of the worst labor market outcomes of any group. These findings suggest that caution should be employed when generalizing results based on studies of cohabiting gay and lesbian couples to the entire non-heterosexual population.Marriage Premium, Earnings, Hours worked

The Evolution of Male-Female Wages Differentials in Canadian Universities: 1970-2001

In this paper, we use a unique data set containing detailed information on all full-time teachers at Canadian universities over the period 1970 through 2001. The individual level data are collected by Statistics Canada from all universities in Canada and are used to analyze the evolution of male-female wage differentials of professors in Canadian universities. The long time series aspect of this data source along with the detailed administrative information allow us to provide a more complete and more accurate portrait of the wage gap than is available in most other studies. The results of a cohort-based analysis indicate that the male salary advantage among university faculty has declined for more recent birth cohorts. This has been driven not so much by an increase in the real salaries of female professors but from a cross cohort decline in the earnings of male professors and the fact that female professors have not experienced a similar cross cohort decline. Also important to note is the fact that the differences across cohorts appear to be permanent. There is no clear pattern of changes in these cohort differences with age.gender, earnings, Canada, professors, faculty

Economic models of family decision-making, with applications to intergenerational justice.

The thesis considers economic models of family decision-making, and their application to intergenerational justice. The predictions of several previous "cooperative" models of family decision-making depend crucially on the outcome of failure of spouses to cooperate. The first part of the thesis develops a model which predicts behaviour of caring spouses who fail to cooperate. The model has three distinctive features. First, caring between spouses is modelled using sympathy preferences. Second, transfers between spouses are made in income. Third, the interdependence between family members is resolved in two ways; first, assuming that family members have Cournot-Nash conjectures, that is, they maximize their own well-being taking the other family member's behaviour as given and, second, assuming that family members have rational conjectures. The model predicts how the division of income between spouses influences the outcome of family decision-making. When each spouse has enough income to pay for his or her personal expenditures, expenditures are determined by the interaction of both spouses' preferences. When one spouse is poor enough that she receives an income transfer from the other spouse, expenditures reflect the preferences of the wealthier spouse. The second part of the thesis uses the model to analyze the tax treatment of the family. When spouses' incomes are comparatively equal, or when one spouse is dependent on the other, small government imposed transfers are irrelevant. However, if one spouse earns just enough to pay for her private consumption, income transfers between spouses have effects on social welfare. The final part of the thesis considers intergenerational altruism in the "original position" described in Rawls' Theory of Justice. Intergenerational altruism is crucial to Rawls' account of justice between generations. It is argued that, given the nature of the choice problem, and concern for descendants strong enough to generate positive bequests, Rawls' intuition that intergenerational altruism guarantees intergenerational justice is correct. However, if each child has two concerned parents, and the conditions for intergenerational justice to hold are satisfied, small redistributions of income are irrelevant. This result leads to a re-examination of the intergenerational justice conditions and the background institutions for distributive justice

Educational weight loss interventions in obese and overweight adults with type 2 diabetes : a systematic review and meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials

Aim The worldwide prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus is increasing, with most individuals with the disease being overweight or obese. Weight loss can reduce disease‐related morbidity and mortality and weight losses of 10–15 kg have been shown to reverse type 2 diabetes. This review aimed to determine the effectiveness of community‐based educational interventions for weight loss in type 2 diabetes. Methods This is a systematic review and meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCT) in obese or overweight adults, aged 18–75 years, with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Primary outcomes were weight and/or BMI. CINAHL, MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) were searched from inception to June 2019. Trials were classified into specified a priori comparisons according to intervention type. A pooled standardized mean difference (SMD) (from baseline to follow‐up) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) between trial groups (difference‐in‐difference) were estimated through random‐effects meta‐analyses using the inverse variance method. Heterogeneity was quantified using I2 and publication bias was explored visually using funnel plots. Results Some 7383 records were screened; 228 full‐text articles were assessed and 49 RCTs (n = 12 461 participants) were included in this review, with 44 being suitable for inclusion into the meta‐analysis. Pooled estimates of education combined with low‐calorie, low‐carbohydrate meal replacements (SMD = –2.48, 95% CI –3.59, –1.49, I2 = 98%) or diets (SMD = –1.25, 95% CI –2.11, –0.39, I2 = 95%) or low‐fat meal replacements (SMD = –1.15, 95%CI –2.05, –1.09, I2 = 85%) appeared most effective. Conclusion Low‐calorie, low‐carbohydrate meal replacements or diets combined with education appear the most promising interventions to achieve the largest weight and BMI reductions in people with type 2 diabetes

Why Public Goods Are a Pedagogical Bad

The concept of “public goods” is confusing because it confounds three analytically distinct concepts: excludability, rivalry, and public finance. Pure public goods are of limited relevance as an explanation of government spending. To make matters worse, the broader policy community uses the term in ways that invoke different means of both “public” and “good” than economists favour. For example, “global public goods” describe everything from the global environment, international financial stability and market efficiency, to health, knowledge, peace and security and humanitarian rights. In this essay, I argue for radically reducing the emphasis placed on public goods in the standard undergraduate public finance curriculum, and instead emphasizing the fundamental underlying issues of exclusion, rivalry, and public finance/provision. The ultimate aim of an undergraduate course in public expenditures should, I argue, be to explain government spending

Sexual Identity and the Marriage Premium

We use the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) to explore the effects of marriage and cohabitation on gay, lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual individuals' hours worked and full-time earnings. The CCHS is one of the largest national-level data sets containing both income and sexual orientation information (Carpenter, 2008). Partnered gay and bisexual men spend more hours in paid employment than their unattached counterparts. However, for those working more than 30 hours per week, the earnings advantage of partnered gay and bisexual men relative to the unattached is insignificant. The hours worked of partnered and unattached lesbians are indistinguishable, however partnered lesbians earn about ten percent more than the unattached. Bisexual men and women experience some of the worst labor market outcomes of any group. These findings suggest that caution should be employed when generalizing results based on studies of cohabiting gay and lesbian couples to the entire non-heterosexual population

Geology, geochemistry and geochronology of the Songwe Hill carbonatite, Malawi

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.Songwe Hill, Malawi, is one of the least studied carbonatites but has now become particularly important as it hosts a relatively large rare earth deposit. The results of new mapping, petrography, geochemistry and geochronology indicate that the 0.8 km diameter Songwe Hill is distinct from the other Chilwa Alkaline Province carbonatites in that it intruded the side of the much larger (4 x 6 km) and slightly older (134.6 ± 4.4 Ma) Mauze nepheline syenite and then evolved through three different carbonatite compositions (C1–C3). Early C1 carbonatite is scarce and is composed of medium–coarse-grained calcite carbonatite containing zircons with a U–Pb age of 132.9 ± 6.7 Ma. It is similar to magmatic carbonatite in other carbonatite complexes at Chilwa Island and Tundulu in the Chilwa Alkaline Province and others worldwide. The fine-grained calcite carbonatite (C2) is the most abundant stage at Songwe Hill, followed by a more REE- and Sr-rich ferroan calcite carbonatite (C3). Both stages C2 and C3 display evidence of extensive (carbo)-hydrothermal overprinting that has produced apatite enriched in HREE (<2000 ppm Y) and, in C3, synchysite-(Ce). The final stages comprise HREE-rich apatite fluorite veins and Mn-Fe-rich veins. Widespread brecciation and incorporation of fenite into carbonatite, brittle fracturing, rounded clasts and a fenite carapace at the top of the hill indicate a shallow level of emplacement into the crust. This shallow intrusion level acted as a reservoir for multiple stages of carbonatite-derived fluid and HREE-enriched apatite mineralisation as well as LREE-enriched synchysite-(Ce). The close proximity and similar age of the large Mauze nepheline syenite suggests it may have acted as a heat source driving a hydrothermal system that has differentiated Songwe Hill from other Chilwa carbonatites.Thanks are due to A. Lemon, A. Zabula, C. Mcheka, I. Nkukumila (Mkango Resources Ltd.), É. Deady (BGS) and P. Armitage (Paul Armitage Consulting Ltd.) for logistical support and enthusiastic discussions in the field. This contribution benefitted from reviews by Jindřich Kynický and Ray Macdonald, as well as anonymous reviewers, who we thank for their time and insightful comments. This work was funded by a NERC BGS studentship to SBF (NEE/J50318/1; S208), the NERC SoS RARE consortium (NE/M011429/1) and by Mkango Resources Ltd. AGG publishes with the permission of the Executive Director of the British Geological Survey (NERC)