Guns, Drugs and Juvenile Crime: Evidence from a Panel of Siblings and Twins

Using a nationally-representative panel data set of U.S. high school students (AddHealth data) that contains a relatively large sample of siblings and twins, the paper investigates the impacts of gun availability at home and individual drug use on robbery, burglary, theft and damaging property for juveniles. Using a variety of fixed-effects models that exploit variations over time, the results show that gun availability at home increases the propensity to committing robbery, burglary and theft by about two percentage points for juveniles but has no impact on damaging property. It is unlikely that gun availability is merely a measure of the unobserved home environment because gun availability does not influence other risky or bad behaviors of juveniles. The results show that having access to guns increases the probability of being cut or stabbed by someone and of someone pulling a knife or gun on the juvenile. Estimates obtained from models that exploit variations over time and between siblings and twins indicate that the median impact of cocaine use on the propensity to commit various types of crimes is 23 percentage points. The impact of using inhalants or other drugs is an increase in the propensity to commit crime by 14 and 18 percentage points, respectively.

Nonprofit Sector and Part-Time Work: An Analysis of Employer-Employee Matched Data of Child Care Workers

This paper uses a rich employer-employee matched data set to investigate the existence and the extent of nonprofit and part-time wage and compensation differentials in child care. The empirical strategy adjusts for workers' self-selection into the for-profit or nonprofit sectors, into full-time or part-time work, as well as unobserved worker heterogeneity using a discrete factor model. We find differences between the regimes (full-time for-profit, full-time nonprofit, part-time for-profit, part-time nonprofit) in the way in which human capital of the workers are rewarded. There is substantial variation in wages as a function of employee characteristics, and there is variation in wages within sectors. The results indicate that part-time jobs are good' jobs in center-based child care. Furthermore, despite the evidence supporting the labor donation hypothesis, our results indicate the existence of nonprofit wage and compensation premiums, which support the property rights hypothesis.

Catholic Schools and Bad Behavior: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis

Although there is a sizeable literature on the effect of private school attendance on academic student outcomes, the number of studies that investigate the impact of school sector on non-academic outcomes is limited. Using a rich data set, we analyze the impact of Catholic school attendance on the likelihood that teenagers use or sell drugs, commit property crime, have sex, join gangs, attempt suicide, and run away from home. We employ propensity score matching methods to control for the endogeneity of school choice. Catholic school attendance reduces the propensity to use cocaine and to have sex for female students. However, it increases the propensity to use and sell drugs for male students.

The Demand for Medical Care in Urban China

This is the first paper to investigate the determinants of the demand for medical care in the People's Republic of China. It uses a data set that consists of detailed characteristics of 6407 urban households, a continuous measure of health care spending, and price. A two-part model and a discrete factor model are used in the estimation. Household characteristics and work conditions impact the demand for medical care. Income elasticity is around 0.3, indicating medical care is a necessity. Medical care demand is price inelastic, and price elasticity is larger in absolute value for poorer households.

Non-linear finite element analysis of light gage steel shear diaphragms

SUMMARY Shear diaphragm action of properly designed light gage steel panels used for floors, roofs, and walls in steel buildings increase the stiffness and strength of such buildings. Considerable savings in weight and cost can be realized if full account of this action is taken in design. To make good use of the diaphragm action, detailed knowledge on diaphragm response to loading is essential. An efficient computer program has been prepared to analyze light gage steel shear diaphragm behavior in the linear and nonlinear ranges of response, up to collapse. The program uses figinite element concepts for analysis, and has routines to deal with the beams, purlins, panels, and connections. Beams and purlins are modeled by conventional flexural elements with three degrees of freedom at each node. Panels are represented by rectangular orthotropic plane-stress plate elements. Two different models for corrugated panels are proposed. One model makes use of an average effective shear modulus along the entire panel length, while in the other two different shear moduli are attributed to the end and central regions of the panel. The connections are modeled by spring elements, and, according to location, several different models utilizing these spring elements are used. The non-linear analysis is based on experimental evidence that, in general, the connections are the only important source of non-linearity up to collapse. For this reason, only the connection behavior is represented by a non-linear function. All other components of the diaphragm assembly are assumed to remain elastic throughout the loading range. The connectors can be either welds, used for heavily-stressed shear diaphragms, or screw fasteners, used for more lightly loaded installations. In both cases, the non-linear force-displacement relation used for the connection is a multi-linear approximation of the load-displacement curve obtained from a shear test of the connection and the small region around it. The program uses a frontal routine for the solution of the stiffness equations. The non-linear analysis is done by the residual force method, which utilizes the original elastic stiffnexx matrix at every stage of the analysis, and which arrives at the correct solution for each load increment through an iterative procedure. A modified Aitken accelerator is used to speed the convergence. In order to reduce the task of preparing input data, a mesh generator has been written. This mesh generator requires only simple basic data for the generation of the complete finite element mesh, for most practical diaphragms. The computer program has been employed to analyze diaphragms for which test results are available. Both linear analyses up to the elastic limit, and non-linear analyses up to and beyond the elastic limit have been conducted. For three of the four diaphragms analyzed, very good agreement between numerical and experimental results have been obtained. For a standard corrugated diaphragm, numerical results in the non-linear range show a more flexible behavior than in test. Detailed analysis indicates that this is most probably due to unavailability of correct connection test data for use in analysis. The force distribution in the diaphragms, overall diaphragm deflections, and seam slips are found at different ranges of response. As a result of the analyses, it is confirmed that connection non-linearity is the most important factor in the nonlinear range of diaphragm response, differences in shear modulus being only of secondary importance. It is concluded that the computer program developed is an efficient and dependable tool for research and design

Obesity, Self-esteem and Wages

Obesity is associated with serious health problems, and it can generate adverse economic outcomes. We analyze a nationally-representative sample of young American adults to investigate the interplay between obesity, wages and self-esteem. Wages can be impacted directly by obesity, and they can be influenced by obesity indirectly through the channel of obesity to self-esteem to wages. We find that female wages are directly influenced by body weight, and self-esteem has an impact on wages in case of whites. Being overweight or obese has a negative impact on the self-esteem of females and of black males. The results suggest that obesity has the most significant impact on white women’s wages.

Economic growth and electricity consumption in Turkey: a bound test approach

Bu çalışmada, Türkiye'de ekonomik büyüme ile elektrik tüketimi ilişkisi 1974-2004 dönemi için incelenmiştir. Ekonomik büyüme ve elektrik tüketimi serileri farklı derecelerden durağan (I(0) ve I(1)) oldukları için aralarındaki ilişki Sınır Testi yaklaşımı ile araştırılmıştır. Bu yaklaşıma göre, seriler arasında eşbütünleşme ilişkisi tespit edilmiş ve kısa dönemde değişkenler arasında pozitif bir ilişki ortaya çıkarken uzun dönemde bu ilişki negatif çıkmıştır.This paper investigates relationship between economic growth and electricity consumption for Turkey over the period 1974-2004. As economic growth and electricity consumption variables used in empirical analysis was different order of integration ( I(0) and I(1) ) we employed bound test approach. We found cointegration relationship between the variables and in short run there is positive relationship between the variables however in long run there is negative relationship